Trump plots big TV ad blitz that could change campaign landscape  —  When Donald Trump and his team were planning his presidential campaign, they drew up a budget of $25 million for television advertising in the third quarter of this year.  —  They wound up spending zero for the rest of 2015.

Clinton Most Admired Woman for Record 20th Time  —  PRINCETON, N.J. — Americans again name Hillary Clinton and President Barack Obama the woman and man living anywhere in the world they admire most.  Both win by wide margins over the next-closest finishers, Malala Yousafzai for women and Pope Francis and Donald Trump for men.

No charges for Cleveland police officers in shooting death of 12-year-old Tamir Rice  —  After more than a year of investigation, a Cleveland grand jury declined to bring charges against either of the two police officers involved in the November 2014 shooting of Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old boy who was playing with a toy weapon in a park.

‘Awards Chatter’ Podcast — Samuel L. Jackson ('The Hateful Eight')  —  The 67-year-old, whose films have grossed more than any other actor's in history, opens up about reuniting with Quentin Tarantino and Spike Lee, Oscars “bulls**t,” his stutter, the N-word, cops and the “hate” of his golfing buddy Donald Trump.

Ben Carson on the brink: ‘A process like this is pretty brutal’  —  Two days before Christmas, with his presidential campaign fading fast, Ben Carson sought to take control at his manse in the countryside west of Baltimore.  —  A video crew was in the front living room preparing to film a campaign ad.

Obama's Economic Performance Is Even Better Than It Looks  —  Paul Krugman presents us today with an updated version of his chart showing private employment gains during the Obama administration compared to the Bush administration:  —  But Obama's performance is even better than it looks.

Sixty thousand New Yorkers sign up for ‘tiny house’ development: 265 square foot apartments with retractable beds attract huge wave of interest... but would you pay up to $3,000 a month for this?  —  More than 60,000 people have applied to live in new apartments the size of garages in Manhattan.

Creature from the deep surfaces in Japanese harbor  —  Tokyo (CNN)It isn't every day that a mystery from the deep swims into plain sight.  But on Christmas Eve, spectators on a pier in Toyama Bay in central Japan were treated to a rare sighting of a giant squid.

Meadowlark Lemon, Harlem Globetrotters' Dazzling Court Jester, Dies at 83  —  Meadowlark Lemon, whose halfcourt hook shots, no-look behind-the-back passes and vivid clowning were marquee features of the feel-good traveling basketball show known as the Harlem Globetrotters for nearly a quarter-century …

State Dept. counts ‘bringing peace’ to Syria as a 2015 win  —  The State Department is counting “bringing peace” to Syria as one of its wins in 2015.  —  A boastful recap of the State Department's accomplishments, written by spokesman John Kirby, includes the bold subheadline of “Bringing Peace …

Trump: Union Leader publisher a ‘lowlife’  —  Donald Trump took aim at his latest target in the media world — this time, Joe McQuaid, publisher of the New Hampshire Union Leader.  —  “He's a real lowlife, there's no question about it,” Trump said on New Hampshire television station WMUR …

Public document complicates Christie's pro-life conversion story  —  The story of how Gov. Chris Christie converted from being pro-choice to pro-life 20 years ago is touching and deeply personal, and he tells it frequently at town hall meetings.  —  It goes like this: In 1995 …

191 million voters' personal info exposed by misconfigured database  —  A misconfigured database leaking the personal information of over 191 million voters was reported to DataBreaches.net by researcher Chris Vickery.  This report includes some of the results of an investigation by Vickery …

EXCLUSIVE: Queens student claims cops wrongfully arrested, beat him for walking dog without leash  —  A 25-year-old college student says he was wrongfully arrested and beaten by Queens cops for walking his puppy outside his home without a leash.  —  Nicholson Gregoire stepped outside …

Huckabee: I Never Defended Or Supported Josh Duggar  —  Huckabee in May: “Josh's actions when he was an underage teen are as he described them himself, ‘inexcusable,’ but that doesn't mean ‘unforgivable.’”  —  Republican presidential candidate and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee …

Lawn signs can swing an election, study finds  —  All those political yard signs littering neighborhoods at election time may not be accomplishing that much, a new study found — though perhaps enough to swing a close election.  —  Four randomized field experiments in a study …

The terrorists and demagogues want us to be scared.  We mustn't give in  —  It's not easy to resist the threats and the hysteria that surround us, but we must do, as fear is the greatest danger to open society  —  pen societies are always endangered.  This is especially true of America …