NEWS OF THE DAY
From Across the Nation
1 Holiday wishes: President Trump opened his first Christmas Eve in office by offering season’s greetings to U.S. troops stationed around the world and chatting up children who called into a Defense Department program that tracks Santa Claus’ flight path. “Today and every day, we’re incredibly thankful for you and for your families,” Trump told the troops via video hook-up from his Palm Beach, Fla., estate, where he is spending the holidays with his family. Trump briefly addressed members of the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps and Coast Guard stationed in Qatar, Kuwait and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and patrolling the Strait of Hormuz in the Middle East.
2 Plane crash: A small plane headed to Key West for the Christmas holiday crashed Sunday at the end of a runway at a Bartow, Fla., airport, killing five people, authorities said. The twinengine Cessna 340 crashed shortly after takeoff at Bartow Municipal Airport, immediately killing the 70-yearold pilot and his four adult passengers, according to a statement from the Polk County Sheriff ’s Office. It wasn’t immediately clear what caused the crash. The sheriff ’s office identified the pilot as Lakeland attorney John Shannon. He had filed a flight plan to fly Sunday from Bartow to Key West. Shannon’s passengers included his two daughters, his son-in-law and a family friend.
3 Rape kits suit: A woman who waited five years for charges to be filed against a man accused of raping her is suing the city of Houston, saying authorities showed deliberate indifference by allowing a backlog of untested rape kits. Beverly Flores joined a lawsuit filed this year by DeJenay Beckwith alleging Houston officials failed to properly investigate their 2011 attacks.
4 Foul gift: Authorities say a gift-wrapped box of horse manure addressed to U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin was found near his home in Los Angeles. The package was found Saturday night in the tony Bel Air neighborhood after it was dropped off at a neighbor’s house. The Los Angeles Police Department’s bomb squad was called to the home and officers opened the box, finding a pile of horse manure inside. Police said the package had been gift wrapped and was marked as being from “the American people.”
5 Vote of confidence: President Trump has full confidence in his new FBI director despite a series of attacks on the impartiality of his soon-to-retire deputy, a presidential adviser said Sunday. Trump is “very pleased” with Director Chris Wray and “the changes that are taking place,” White House legislative affairs director Marc Short told “Fox News Sunday” as Trump continued to assail Deputy Director Andrew McCabe. McCabe’s supervision of the FBI’s investigation into Hillary Clinton’s email practices came under scrutiny because his wife’s Senate campaign received contributions from Clinton ally Terry McAuliffe’s political action committee. The president and congressional Republicans have seized on that as a sign of anti-Trump bias in FBI leadership.