Political Hacks: In what may have been the last press conference of his presidency, President Obama said he personally told Russian President Vladimir Putin to stop Russian hacking into political campaign computers, and warned that there would be consequences.

Obama defended his decision to take no action against the Russians while the political campaign was on. “We were playing this thing straight. We weren’t trying to advantage one side or the other,” he said, adding, “Imagine if we had done the opposite. It would have become one more political scrum.”

Speaking to a group of her campaign donors Thursday, defeated Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton said, “Putin publicly blamed me for the outpouring of outrage by his own people, and that is the direct line between what he said back then and what he did in this election.” Mrs. Clinton said.

Someone who attended the speech leaked an audio recording of Clinton’s remarks. “This is not just an attack on me and my campaign, although that may have added fuel to it,” Clinton said. ‘This is an attack against our country. We are well beyond normal political concerns here. This is about the integrity of our democracy and the security of our nation.”

In Transition: Donald Trump’s appointment of bankruptcy lawyer David M. Friedman to be ambassador to Israel has the potential to stir trouble in the Middle East. Friedman worked on Trump’s bankruptcies.

Friedman is a hardliner who opposes the “two state” solution for peace between Israel and the Palestinians, and he’s an advocate of moving the US Embassy to Jerusalem. He was quoted in a transition team statement saying, he looked forward to working “from the U.S. embassy in Israel’s eternal capital, Jerusalem.”

That’s a hot button because both Israel and the Palestinians claim Jerusalem as their capital. The US has stayed neutral on that, keeping the embassy in Tel Aviv.

Friedman is also an advocate of building Israeli settlements in Palestinian areas, which the US has always viewed as worsening the situation.

China Syndrome: Chinese sailors snatched an American underwater drone in the South China Sea and the US is demanding to have it back. The USNS Bowditch, an oceanographic survey ship, had deployed two underwater drones and was preparing to recover them. A Chinese warship shadowing the operation quickly launched a small boat that grabbed one of the drones.

It’s all part of escalating tensions over China’s expanding territorial claims in the South China Sea.

The Sports Page: The University of Minnesota football team has gone on strike, demanding the return of 10 players suspended in the investigation of a sexual assault on a female student. They could end up sitting out the Holiday Bowl, scheduled for December 27^th.

A criminal investigation resulted in no charges against the players, but a Title IX investigation by the school resulted in their suspension. Five of the players admitted having sex with the woman who complained, but they said it was consensual. The university does not have to meet the same standard of proof as the criminal justice system to mete out punishment.

The Obit Page: Larry Colburn, the last living member of a three-man helicopter crew that put a stop to the infamous My Lai massacre in Vietnam, has died at 67. Colburn was just 18 when he and his crew mates saw American soldiers killing civilians. They landed and stopped it.

>Rose Evansky, the British hairdresser who invented blow-dry styling in London in the 1960s has died at age 94. Before Evansky, women sat in a chair under a domed hair dryer that looked like the nose of a rocket.

Firing Blanks: Just two months after the Navy’s stealth destroyer Zumwalt joined the fleet, it’s got a big problem. No ammo for its fearsome 155 mm guns.

The Zumwalt and its two sister ships, which cost a total of $22 billion, fire a rocket-boosted, GPS-guided shell with a range of 80 miles. But the Navy can’t afford them. Each shell costs $1 million. Outfitting each ship with 300 shells and a supply of backups would cost $2 billion.

The Navy is considering a cheaper shell with a range of just 40 miles. They’ll get a better price after Christmas.

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