Nelson Mandela: Former South African President Nelson Mandela is being mourned not only as a great leader and peacemaker for South Africa, but for the world.  Mandela died at age 95 after months of illness.

  He spent 27 years in prison under the all-white apartheid government, then negotiated an end to white rule. He could have taken revenge on his white oppressors, but chose reconciliation. For that, he shared the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize with President F.W. De Klerk.

 Mandela led his banned African National Congress to become his country’s first black president. He served only one term but is the icon of a free South Africa, and the effort to free the world of racial divisions. While world leaders grasped for superlatives, South African President Jacob Zuma gracefully said, “Our nation has lost its greatest son. Our people have lost a father.”

Econ 101: The economy added 203,000 jobs in November and unemployment fell to a five-year low of 7%. Stocks are up on the news.

Stormy Weather: High winds and tidal surges have killed at least seven people in northern Europe. Parts of Hamburg are flooded and power is out. Many flights have been cancelled while rail and ferry services are also limited in Germany and Scandinavia.

  Here in the US, a winter storm stretches from central Texas all the way to southern Vermont and western Massachusetts.

National: Florida wildlife officials are not hopeful for a pod of 41 whales trapped in shallow water off the Everglades. Ten of the pilot whales have died and the rest are 20 miles from deep water, making their survival doubtful.

America’s Cop: Former Boston, New York, and Los Angeles police chief William Bratton has been named to run the NYPD a second time. Bratton’s challenge will be to maintain an historic drop in crime achieved by his predecessor, Raymond Kelly. He will also have to please a public irritated by the city’s “stop and frisk” policing.  Bratton was a noted proponent of the “broken windows” theory of enforcement, getting tough on small crimes like subway fare jumping to prevent petty criminals from progressing to bigger things. He also established a data-driven approach to crime fighting that maps where crimes are committed. Murder dropped by half the first time Bratton was New York’s chief.

Russia, With Love: Nearly 50 past and present Russian diplomats and their wives submitted $1.5 million in fraudulent claims to Medicaid, according to an FBI investigation. Of 63 births to Russian diplomatic families between 2004 and 2013, 92% were paid for by Medicaid because the Russians understated their income to get US benefits. It begs the question … why didn’t Russian healthcare cover it? Going for the memorable soundbite, US Attorney Preet Bharara said, “Diplomacy should be about extending hands, not picking pockets in the host country.”

Easy A: The most common grade given to Harvard students is an A, and the median is A minus, according to a report in the Harvard Crimson. The information came from the Dean of Undergraduate Education in a faculty meeting when a professor raised the subject of grade inflation. The room of faculty was described as stunned when they heard the news. Government professor Harvey C. Mansfield wrote to the Crimson saying, “The present grading practice is indefensible.” But what is more of a wonder is why Harvard had a cheating scandal in 2012. They needed an A plus?

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