Christmas brings Northeast blizzard, cold in Midwest

Christmas brings Northeast blizzard, cold in Midwest

CHICAGO

The good news for many in the Northeast and Midwest was that it was a white Christmas. The bad news was that a blizzard swept into parts of New England and bitter cold enveloped much of the Midwest.

Even the usually rainy Pacific Northwest got the white stuff. The National Weather Service says it’s only the sixth time since 1884 that downtown Portland had measurable snow – only an inch or two – on a Dec. 25.

A blizzard warning was issued Monday for portions of Maine and New Hampshire, with forecasters saying snow of up to 10 inches and wind gusts up to 50 mph could make travel “dangerous to impossible.”

Russian officials bar Navalny from running for president

MOSCOW

Russian election officials Monday formally barred Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny from running for president, prompting calls from him for a boycott of next year’s vote.

The Central Election Commission decided unanimously that the anti-corruption crusader isn’t eligible to run.

Navalny is implicitly barred from running for office because of a conviction in a fraud case that has been viewed as political retribution. He could have run if he was given a special dispensation or if his conviction was canceled.

US says it has negotiated $285M cut in UN budget

The U.S. government says it has negotiated a significant cut in the United Nations budget.

The U.S. Mission to the United Nations said Sunday that the U.N.’s 2018-19 budget would be slashed by over $285 million. The mission said reductions would also be made to the U.N.’s management and support functions.

The announcement didn’t make clear the entire amount of the budget or specify what effect the cut would have on the U.S. contribution.

U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley said that the “inefficiency and overspending” of the organization is well-known, and she would not let “the generosity of the American people be taken advantage of.”

She also said that while the mission was pleased with the results of budget negotiations, it would continue to “look at ways to increase the U.N.’s efficiency while protecting our interests.”

Package drop at Ohio prison not from Santa

MANSFIELD

A man bearing gifts visited an Ohio prison on Christmas Eve, but it wasn’t Santa Claus.

The Ohio State Highway Patrol reported that someone approached the Richland Correctional Institution on Sunday and tried to throw four packages containing tobacco, cellphones and marijuana over the fence.

WEWS-TV in Cleveland reports troopers caught up with the man a short time later.

They arrested 21-year-old Avery Ingram, whose home city was not identified.

Ingram faces charges of illegal conveyance of drugs onto the grounds of an institution, illegal conveyance of electronics onto the grounds of an institution and criminal trespassing.

Associated Press