DRONE ON: Federal authorities have now been given as many as 5,000 tips about nighttime sightings of unidentified drones in six East Coast states, causing politicians to swarm toward the television cameras. 

  New Jersey Rep. Chris Smith said, “For weeks we’ve asked for the truth and action to mitigate any and all threats to people and property. Now, we are demanding it.”

  So. Far, the drones … if that’s what they are … have posed no threat.

  In Monmouth County, New Jersey, the sheriff’s office produced a heat-signature map to track drones and the sheriff said, “This is a national public safety and security issue. If they are foreign drones, then it is a state public safety issue.”

  No one knows whether this is a growing phenomenon or a spreading hysteria. The drones could be filming TikTok dance videos. And by the time anyone makes a decision to start shooting them down, they’ll be shooting down Santa.

  The departments of Justice and Homeland Security issued a statement saying. “We have no evidence that the drone sightings pose a national security or public safety threat.” They say some of the sightings are drones but most are regular aircraft.

  Nevertheless, New York Sen. Chuck Schumer  joined the call for the federal government to get to the bottom … or rather get to the top of this. He said, “If the technology exists for a drone to make it up into the sky, there certainly is the technology that can track the craft with precision and determine what the heck it is going on.”

ABSENCE OF MALICE: It would seem impossible to say something defamatory about President-elect Donald Trump, but ABC News found a way. ABC agreed to pay $16 million and issue an apology to settle the defamation lawsuit Donald Trump brought against the network and morning host George Stephanopoulos.

    Trump sued ABC in Florida federal court arguing that Stephanopoulos and ABC News defamed him when the anchor said 10 times during an on-air interview with South Carolina Republican Rep. Nancy Mace that a jury had found Trump  “raped” writer E. Jean Carroll. The jury in fact found that Trump had committed sexual assault on Carroll, although the judge in the case later said the incident amounted to rape. Ironically, Carroll won nearly $90 million in judgements against Trump, which he has yet to pay.

  The NY Times reports that there’s talk in Trump world that the outcome of this lawsuit will encourage legal counter-attacks on the press. Elizabeth McNamara, a lawyer who represented ABC, told the Times, “There’s been a pattern and practice for the past couple of years of using defamation litigation as a tactic to harass or test the boundary of case law.”

  Journalists reporting about public figures are generally covered by the Supreme Court precedent, NY Times v. Sullivan, in which the Court ruled that not only must a news report be defamatory, but that it was also done with “actual malice.”  

  In the ABC agreed to pay $1 million for Trump’s legal fees and $15 million to a “presidential foundation and museum.” 

THE WAR ROOM: The death toll from Israel’s 14-month assault on Gaza and its Hamas militant organization has surpassed 45,000, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health.  They do not distinguish between civilians and combatants.

  Israel says it has lost 384 soldiers in Gaza fighting.

  Following the fall of the al-Assad regime in Syria, Israel has attacked and destroyed much of the regime’s military capability and the US has been attacking Islamic State targets, also in Syria, to prevent them from moving into the power vacuum. 

THE SPORTING NEWS: Olympic gold medalist Lindsey Vonn returned to the World Cup circuit in Colorado over the weekend at age 40 after six years of retirement and having a partial knee replacement. She has said she’d like to qualify for the 2026 Olympics in Cortina.

  The University of Colorado’s Travis Hunter, who played both offense and defense, was named the 90^th winner of the Heisman Trophy, college football’s MVP award. Hunter caught 92 passes this season for a gain of 1,152 yards and scored 15 touchdowns. On defense, he had four interceptions and broke up 11 passes

THE SPIN RACK: Daniel Penny, who was found not guilty last week of any crime after choking to death a threatening homeless man on a New York subway, was welcomed as a hero to watch the Army-Navy football game with President-elect Trump and JD Vance. —  Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is now reported to have broken a hip when she fell going down some stairs at the Grand Ducal Palace in Luxembourg. She was flown to a US military hospital in Germany where she had a hip replacement. — Disneyland has agreed to pay $233 million to employees who sued five years ago charging that the “Happiest Place on Earth” had stolen wages from them. They had charged that Disney ignored the city of Anaheim’s minimum wage law. — A Senate Labor Committee found that Amazon kept production rates high even though company executives knew that resulted in more injuries for workers. Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders said in a statement, “The shockingly dangerous working conditions at Amazon’s warehouses revealed in this 160-page report are beyond unacceptable.” 

BELOW THE FOLD: The Miss Netherlands pageant has been cancelled to be replaced by a new event because the organizers believe a beauty pageant is outdated. The director of Miss Netherlands told CNN that,  “Women are insecure due to, among other things, the rise of social media and its unreal images of beauty.” 

  The organization’s statement said the event will be re-named, “Niet Meer Van Deze Tijd”, which translates to “No Longer of This Time”. They describe it as “A platform that revolves around mental health, social media, diversity, self-expression and much more. No more crowns, but stories that connect. No dresses, but dreams that come to life.”

  Oh, fascinating. Let’s see what’s on another channel.

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