Twister: At least three people are dead and more than a dozen were injured by tornadoes that struck Louisiana yesterday. Dark and ominous looking video shows a large gray funnel over New Orleans and power transformers exploding at dusk.

  As many as 5,000 buildings were likely damaged when a tornado struck the town of Gretna, across the Mississippi River from New Orleans. Houses were ripped apart and cars were spun and tumbled. In some towns, entire neighborhoods were blown away.

  At least 49 tornado were reported across Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas, Alabama, and Florida Tuesday and yesterday. One man told CBS News, I’ve never been inside a tornado before,” Willis said. “I’m looking at wood, buildings, all in the same spin, like it’s spinning with me and then it just slung me out.”

  Today, more than 15 million people could experience severe weather in parts of Florida, Georgia, and the Carolinas.

At the Border: A crisis is brewing at the southern border as thousands of migrants are crossing into the country and more are likely to come with the expiration of Title 42.

  Title 42 is an order issued by the Centers for Disease Control during the pandemic authorizing the expelling of migrants to prevent the spread of Covid-19. The order expires on December 21^st.  

Last weekend alone, as many as 5,000 migrants came over the border at El Paso, Texas. As many as 50,000 arrived in October. 

The War Zone: Ukraine says it shot down 13 Russian drones aimed at the capital Kyiv and the surrounding region early yesterday. President Volodomyr Zelensky said in his nightly address, “We are constantly strengthening our air defense and anti-drone defense. And we are doing everything to get more modern and more powerful systems for Ukraine.”

Tweet This: In the few weeks since Elon Musk has taken over Twitter, he’s opened the floodgates of hate speech and QAnon conspiracy theories, even endorsing some of them himself. 

  One of the claims circulating among QAnon Republicans is that the NIH’s Dr. Anthony Fauci approved funding of so called “gain of function research,” genetic tinkering that led to the creation and leak of the Cov-19 virus at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China.

  Fauci says there’s no truth to it, but Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, for instance, tweeted, “Fauci lied and people died. Fauci belongs in jail.” In a combined swipe at gender fluidity and Fauci, Musk himself tweeted, “My pronouns are Prosecute/Fauci.”

  Also spreading on the new Twitter are references to gay people as “groomers” of children and claims that parents are forcing transgender children to have genital-altering surgery. There’s more, but you get the idea.

  Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a likely candidate for president tweeted about vaccination conspiracy theories:

  “Florida will hold the medical establishment accountable by:

 • Creating a grand jury to investigate mRNA shots & Big Pharma

 • Investigating cardiac-related deaths tied to the mRNA vaccine”

  Columnist Michael Hiltzik writes in the LA Times that, “If Musk continues down this road, Twitter won’t be a beacon of free speech, but a miasmic, malodorous swamp. There’s no point trying to ignore his influence because Twitter is all him. His promotion of lies and attacks on innocent people won’t be good for Twitter or anyone who truly values free speech.”

Lack of Evidence: A massive New York City police evidence warehouse is still smoldering after being gutted by a fire that started Tuesday. What burned was evidence in thousands of criminal cases needed for both convictions and appeals.

  Hundreds of motor vehicles burned as well as material and DNA evidence from decades-old murders and cold cases.

  The Erie Basin warehouse was previously hit by disaster when it was flooded by Hurricane Sandy in 2012 and within weeks, prosecutors were going to trial empty-handed. 

On the Pitch: France ended Morocco’s World Cup dream, winning yesterday’s match 2-0. The French go on now to face Argentina on Sunday and attempt to be the first to win consecutive World Cups.

The Obit Page: Stephen Boss, the personable hip-hop dancer and television personality known as tWitch who rose to fame on the reality show “So You Think You Can Dance” before becoming a regular on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” and eventually its executive producer, committed suicide Tuesday  in a Los Angeles motel room. He was 40.

  Boss was nicknamed Twitch as a child because he never stopped moving. He spent nine years with the DeGeneres show, developing into her on-air sidekick before taking on the executive role as well.

  tWitch met his wife, Allison Holker, when she danced on the show. They were described as immediately inseparable.

  Friends, colleagues, and family said they did not see signs that Boss was suicidal. “Stephen lit up every room he stepped into,” his wife said in a statement. “He valued family, friends and community above all else, and leading with love and light was everything to him.”

The Spin Rack:  The Federal Reserve, as expected, raised interest rates another half percent to stall inflation. — In the latest installment of the “Harry & Meghan” documentary, the couple says the royal palace planted unflattering stories about them because their popularity was overshadowing the rest of the royal family. — Makers of electric cars are beginning to eliminate AM radio from the sound system because electric cars create more electromagnetic interference with reception.

Below the Fold: As winter sets in, one of the latest fads to sweep the snowy parts of the country is snowplow naming. Cities and towns have been holding naming contests.

  Some samples: Buzz Iceclear,  Clearopathra, Snowbi Wan Kenobi,  Darth Blader, Scoopy Doo, Jon Bon Snowi, Snow-be-gone Kenobi, and Frost Responder.

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