• The stock markets have been a big lump of coal for many stockholders or those with 401k retirement plans this Christmas.
• The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 653 points Monday, a total of 2.9 percent. The S&P 500 lost 2.7 percent and the Nasdaq fell 2.2 percent.
• Most markets are closed for Christmas today, but the Japanese Nikkei is open and has fallen by 5.1 percent. Tokyo and other major Asian markets are on track to end 2018 down at least 10 percent.
• What’s going on? The global economy is showing signs of slowing after a long period of fast growth, there’s uncertainty from the ongoing tariff battle between the US and China, and the Federal Reserve has been hiking interest rates.
• Also, President Trump’s tweets aren’t helping. 
• Wall Street indexes were already shaky Monday, but fell a full 2 percent after Trump tweeted taunts at the Federal Reserve. Efforts by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to calm investor fears only seemed to make matters worse.
• Trump says the Fed is the only problem facing the U.S. economy because it has raised its key short-term rate four times this year.
• The president is tweeting that Fed officials "don't have a feel for the Market, they don't understand necessary Trade Wars or Strong Dollars or even Democrat Shutdowns over Borders."
• Full story HERE.

• Alabama prison officials contend they are making "substantial progress" in increasing mental health staff and have asked a federal judge to not find the state in contempt of court.
• U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson has scheduled a Jan. 7 hearing on whether the Alabama Department of Corrections should be found in contempt of a court order to increase mental health staffing numbers to minimum levels.
• The department acknowledged in a court filing that Wexford Health Sources, the contractor hired to provide health care, had not been able to meet staffing targets but said "both are making all efforts to increase staffing as quickly as possible."
• "In sum, the state is not contending that it has fulfilled every requirement of the staffing remedial order. But it has made in good faith all reasonable efforts to do so, and those efforts have resulted in substantial progress," the filing stated.
• Full story HERE.

• Some members of Alabama's Congressional Delegation are offering special Christmas messages this year.
• In her latest column, Rep. Martha Roby asks that we remember the less fortunate amid the hustle and bustle of the holidays...

• Rep. Bradley Byrne is sharing some of his favorite Christmas memories and traditions, many decidedly coastal. But it's the new traditions that have him reflecting on the true meaning of Christmas...

• And Rep. Robert Aderholt shared a special video of Christmas Eve 1968, when Apollo 8 orbited the moon and read passages from Book of Genesis live on TV.

• Both sides in the fight over President Donald Trump's border wall with Mexico have given a little on the money. What they can't seem to agree on is what it should be spent on.
• And until Trump, who wants a wall, and Democrats, who oppose it, can come to an agreement, portions of the U.S. government will stay closed.
• Christmas marked the fourth day of the partial U.S. government shutdown with no end in sight.
• Most lawmakers fled the capital over the weekend to be with their families. Trump remained at the White House after scrapping plans to spend Christmas at his Florida estate.
• "Nothing new. Nothing new on the shutdown. Nothing new, except we need border security," he told reporters Monday at the White House while participating in the annual tradition of answering telephone calls from children anxious to know when Santa will get to their homes.
• Full story HERE.

• Authorities say 28-year-old Jerika Manuel was shot to death on Christmas Eve inside the Piggly Wiggly north of downtown Birmingham where she worked.
• Birmingham Police said the woman had an ongoing problem with the person who shot her but they aren't sure what led to the shooting.
• Police are still looking for the shooter and no charges have been filed.
• Read more from Carol Robinson HERE.

• Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is up and working as she recuperates from cancer surgery.
• A spokeswoman for the court, Kathy Arberg, also says that Ginsburg remained in New York at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center on Sunday. No information has been released on when Ginsburg might return home.
• Ginsburg underwent surgery Friday to remove two malignant growths in her left lung. Doctors say there is no evidence of any remaining disease.
• Now 85, the justice has been treated for cancer two other times. Last month she cracked three ribs in a fall at the court.
• The court next meets on Jan. 7. Despite her health problems, Ginsburg has never missed arguments.