MINNESOTA FREEZEOUT: The Trump administration announced that it is cutting off $185 million in childcare payments to Minnesota in the midst of a burgeoning corruption scandal rooted in the Somali immigrant community of that state. This comes just days after a …

THE WAR ROOM: The Russians say they are going to get tougher with Ukraine after an attempted drone attack on one of Vladimir Putin’s residences, which the Ukrainians deny. Ukraine accused Russia of inventing a pretext to avoid reaching a peace …

THE WAR ROOM: President Trump came away from a meeting in Florida yesterday with Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky reporting progress on a peace deal for the Ukraine war but admitting that “thorny issues” remain. He even said he would be willing to …

CHRISTMAS GIFTS: We are back:    President Trump went to war in Nigeria on Christmas day, sending US forces to bomb Islamic state targets to defend Christians he claims have been getting slaughtered by the Islamic militants. Trump posted on his Truth …

MERRY CHRISTMAS: It’s Christmas week and we’re off celebrating at least until Friday. Here’s a brief review for this morning. THE NEWSROOM: Some of the staff at CBS News’ “60 Minutes” is in an uproar after the networks new editorial boss yesterday …

THE EPSTEIN FILES: The Justice Department released 13,000 sometimes heavily-redacted pages of documents from the investigation into the late sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, some completely black to hide their contents. Some pages, for instance, appeared to list names of “masseuses,” entirely …

THE LAUGHTER DIES: Beloved Hollywood actor-director Rob Reiner and his wife Michele were found yesterday afternoon stabbed to death in their Brentwood, California home. He was 78, she was 68.   No suspect has been named but the Los Angeles Times reports …

THE UNIVERSITY MURDERS: Investigators announced yesterday that they had identified the suspect in the classroom murders of two Brown University students and linked him to the killing of an MIT professor before finding him dead of a self-inflicted gunshot in a …

LIKE NOBODY’S SEEN: President Trump went on live television last night and shouted for 18 minutes about what a great president he’s been for the last 11 months. He claimed that he’s lowered prices, settled eight wars, stopped immigration over the …

SIGNIFICANT CONTEXT: The White House is in defense mode after Chief of Staff Suzy Wiles was quoted in Vanity Fair magazine saying President Trump has “an alcoholic’s personality” and other unflattering things about the President’s inner circle, including that Vice President …