Congress Passes a Bill!!!!!: Working instead of attending Christmas parties, the Senate last night passed a $1.1 trillion spending bill that will keep the government running.

Some Republicans were angry with their own Ted Cruz from Texas whose procedural maneuver intended to block President Obama’s immigration reform forced the Senate to work through the weekend. Cruz’s move left a window open for the Democrats to vote through 20 presidential appointments that had been stalled, including a new surgeon general.

March in December: Thousands of people marched down Pennsylvania Avenue toward the Capital yesterday in protest of the killing of unarmed black men by police officers. Lesley McSpadden, the mother of Michael Brown who was killed in Ferguson, marveled at the gatherings saying, “What a sea of people. If they don’t see this and make a change, then I don’t know what we got to do. ” As many as 25,000 people also marched in chilly weather in New York chanting “I can’t breathe,” the last words of Eric Garner who died at the hands of the police.

Climate Deal: The climate summit in Lima, Peru worked overtime to reach a landmark agreement that would commit 196 countries to cutting its emissions of greenhouse gases. The deal still needs to be signed by world leaders in Paris next year. The agreement requires all the participating countries to create an emissions reduction plan within six months. It’s a step forward from the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which did not include heavily polluting developing countries.

World: Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe appears to have won a large majority in parliamentary elections. Abe called a snap election to bolster support for his economic reforms. Japan slipped back into recession this year.

>Turkish police have raided a newspaper and television station linked to the Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen in the US. Twenty-three people, many of them reporters, producers, and editors, were arrested. Gulen was a former ally of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan but became a rival. Erdogan is arresting his critics.

The Sports Page: The Naval Academy football team beat Army for the 13^th straight time yesterday, 17-10. For those who care about this 115-year-old inter service rivalry, Navy leads 59-49-7.

Unscripted: The Sony Corp. is still reeling from a computer hack that stole unreleased movies and revealed thousands of internal emails, many of them embarrassing to Sony Pictures chief Amy Pascal. The hackers, believed to be working for the North Korean government, have promised a Christmas surprise.

But already revealed to the public are the suckups, back stabbers, and double-dealers of Hollywood. The emails reveal that Oscar-winner Jennifer Lawrence was paid less than her male co-stars. Pascal and producer Scott Rudin made racial jokes about President Obama and Rudin called actress Angelina Jolie “a minimally talented spoiled brat.” One executive called actor Kevin Hart “a whore” for asking for more money to promote a movie on social media.

On the other side, Pascal cooed soothingly in messages to George Clooney in advance of his dud picture, The Monuments Men. The incident has revealed to the world what everyone in Hollywood already knows; horrible people run the movie business.

Royal Shrooms: Gardeners at Buckingham Palace preparing for the taping of a television show discovered hallucinogenic fungi known as “magic mushrooms” growing on the grounds. Ahh, so that’s why the queen is dressed in canary yellow.

-30-