Permawar: OK, sorry. It’s back to reality. While billions of people celebrated Christmas around the world, some definitely did not. The leader and several of his lieutenants commanding one of Syria’s most powerful rebel groups were killed in a rocket …

—From Amarillo, Texas Baltimore: Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake yesterday asked the Justice Department to investigate her own police department to determine whether it has been guilty of excessive force, discriminatory harassment, and illegal stops and arrests. “I’m willing to do what …

National: In a White House shakeup UN Ambassador Susan Rice is replacing Tom Donilon as national security advisor. It’s bound to irritate Republicans who blocked Rice from becoming Secretary of State. Organizers of several Tea Party and conservative groups testified …

National: Search and rescue crews say everyone seems to be accounted for in the aftermath of the giant Oklahoma tornado. The toll: 24 dead, 240 injured. About 100 were rescued from the rubble. One elementary school was flattened, whole suburban …

Day of the Dead: One elderly man is dead after a tornado ripped through a mobile home park in Shawnee, OK. A large storm front swept through yesterday bringing at least one tornado a half-mile wide. More tornadoes could hit …

 National: Shortly after submitting his budget plan, President Obama signed an order imposing $91 billion in automatic cuts for 2014 if Congress doesn’t make a deal. So far Congress has done nothing to avert the $89 billion in cuts already …

National: Former Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel said this morning in confirmation hearings to become Secretary of Defense that the US must lead other nations in confronting threats and “maintain the strongest military in the world.” The organization that controls New …