THE FIRST FELON:  Donald Trump officially became a convicted felon yesterday after sentencing on his conviction for falsifying business records to pay off porn star Stormy Daniels for her silence about their little fling. On January 20th he will be the first convicted felon to enter the White House as President.

  Judge Juan Merchan meted out no penalty, giving Trump what’s called an unconditional discharge. The judge said he let Trump go unpunished out of deference to the office of President, not the man.

  Merchan said that he chose “the only lawful sentence that permits entry of judgment of conviction without encroaching on the highest office of the land.” 

  Attending the hearing remotely from Florida while sitting in front of two American flags, Trump said, “This has been a very terrible experience” and that “The fact is, I’m totally innocent.”

THE FIRE LINE: Despite diminishing winds, the enormous Palisades fire in the Los Angeles area continuing to move and grow overnight, forcing new rounds evacuation orders and frustrating efforts by firefighters to bring it under control. More than 100,000 people are under evacuation orders.

  The winds are expected to pick up again today, making the situation worse in what has become the most destructive set of wildfires in Los Angeles history. Billions of dollars’ worth of homes and real estate have burned and 11 people are confirmed dead.

 The latest evacuation orders cover parts of tony Brentwood off Sunset Boulevard and Encino in the San Fernando Valley as well as the area around the Getty Center, a major cultural attraction.

  Firefighters are also lagging in controlling major burns in Altadena and Pasadena to the east.

  California Gov. Gavin Newsom said he will order an investigation into why the fire hydrants ran dry in the first hours of the Palisades fire several days ago. In the midst of the literal heat, Newsom has come under attack by President-to-be Donald Trump, who in a social media post accused the governor of  “gross incompetence” and called for him to resign. “This is all his fault!!!” he wrote. 

  Newsom retorted: “People are literally fleeing. People have lost their lives. Kids have lost their schools. Families completely torn asunder. Churches burned down. This guy wanted to politicize it. I have a lot of thoughts, and I know what I want to say — and I won’t.”

DANCING JUSTICES: The Supreme Court hearing arguments yesterday seemed to indicate that they will uphold the congressional ban on the Chinese-owned social media app TikTok. 

  Congress voted last year to ban TikTok or force its sale as a matter of national security because they believe the app is used to gather intelligence about American citizens and influence online information and opinions.

  Justice Brett Kavanaugh said younger users in particular are targeted and that the information collected could be used “over time to develop spies, to turn people, to blackmail people, people who a generation from now will be working in the FBI or the CIA or in the State Department.”

  TikTok has a reported 170 million American users, many of whom use it to make their living. Lawyers for TikTok are defending it on the grounds of 1^st Amendment free speech rights. But it’s not what users say that concerns the government, it’s what TikTok’s owners can learn about what the users think, what they say, and who they know.

  Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar argued that China “has a voracious appetite to get its hands on as much information about Americans as possible, and that creates a potent weapon here.”   

  Liberal justice Elena Kagan said that if the Chinese company ByteDance sells TikTok, the American company that remains is free to host anything users want to post. 

THE SPORTING NEWS: Ohio State Beat Texas in the Cotton Bowl last night picking up a quarterback fumble for a touchdown with 2:29 left on the clock. The score was 21-14 with Texas at 4^th down and goal when quarterback Quinn Ewers dropped back for a pass and was knocked down for a fumble. 

  Ohio ran it all the way to the other end zone for a final score of 28-14.This sets up a college football championship between Ohio and Notre Dame January 20^th in Atlanta.

THE OBIT PAGE: Sam Moore, the tenor half of the soul duo Sam & Dave known for their hits “Soul Man,” “Hold On, I’m Comin,’” and “I Thank You,” died yesterday in Coral Gables, Florida at age 89.

  His partner, Dave Prater, died in 1988.

  Sam & Dave hit their peak when “Soul Man” went to the top of the R&B charts and No. 2 on the pop charts in 1967. Both men had been church singers, inspiring their gospel sound.

  When he was still in high school Moore was shot in the leg by the husband of a. woman he was seeing and he later did time for hiring prostitutes.

  Sam and Dave were reportedly never close. They broke up and got back together several times. Moore and Prater sang together for the last time on New Year’s Eve 1981 in San Francisco. They never spoke to each other again. 

THE SPIN RACK: Actor Timothée Chalamet, who portrayed Bob Dylan in the movie “A Complete Unknown” and performed the songs, will be both the host and musical guest on the January 25th episode of “Saturday Night Live,” NBC announced. — The two New York Yankees fans who snatched a ball from the glove of Los Angeles Dodgers right fielder Mookie Betts during Game 4 of the World Series, have been banned indefinitely from attending any Major League Baseball game

BELOW THE FOLD: Three-times married Cristina Hall, the star of “Flip or Flop” and bathroom remodeling ads, told Us Weekly that next time around she will have to be engaged for a “minimum” of five years before getting married again. The 41-year-old didn’t give her minimum time for being married before once again filing for divorce.

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