1. According to The Hill, Ohio Republican John Boehner beat back a conservative rebellion on the House floor Tuesday, winning a third and possibly final term as Speaker of the House of Representatives. But on the opening day of the new Republican-controlled Congress, a bloc of Tea Party insurgents fired off a warning shot to GOP leadership. In a public roll call, 25 House Republicans defected from Boehner in the Speaker vote, double the dozen who launched a failed coup attempt against him exactly two years ago. Boehner needed a simple majority of the 408 lawmakers present to secure another two years in the top job; he won 216.
2. According to The New York Times, New York City detectives investigating the shooting of two plainclothes police officers in the Bronx late Monday have taken three men into custody, officials said on Tuesday. One suspect arrived at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital in Upper Manhattan soon after the shooting and had sustained a gunshot wound to his back, officials said. Two other men — the suspected gunman and a man standing with him — were taken into custody around noon on Tuesday after investigators tracked them to Tremont Avenue in the Bronx, where they were found on the street, not far from the scene of the shooting. All three were being questioned by detectives; no charges had yet to be filed as of early Tuesday afternoon.
3. According to WVEC-TV, Former Virginia governor Bob McDonnell won’t spend 10 years in federal prison as his sentence for public corruption convictions. McDonnell was found guilty Sept. 4. on 11 of 13 federal charges filed against him, trading access to the power of the governor’s office for more than $165,000 in loans and high-end gifts. Judge James R. Spencer, who presided over the six-week trial, received almost 450 letters attesting to McDonnell’s integrity and asking for mercy before sentencing. After former Gov. McDonnell was sentenced to two years in prison for corruption, he apologized for his mistakes but says he didn’t violate his oath of office and will continue to fight to prove his innocence. McDonnell is to report to prison by Feb. 9. His wife, who was convicted on eight counts of corruption, will be sentenced Feb. 20.
4. According to the New York Post, Now that two slain cops have been buried, the Rev. Al Sharpton plans to resume kicking dirt on the NYPD. The head of the Staten Island chapter of Sharpton’s National Action Network said anti-cop protesters would return to the borough’s state courthouse on Tuesday. Cynthia Davis said NAN suspended its twice-weekly demonstrations out of respect to slain cops Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu and their families. She said the courthouse protests would continue “until we feel like we have gotten justice” in the Garner case, in which a grand jury declined to indict cop Daniel Pantaleo.
5. According to BBC News, Thirteen Coptic Christian workers from Egypt have been freed after being seized in Libya, an official said. On Saturday, eyewitnesses in the northern city of Sirte said gunmen took the Christian men in the middle of the night from a residential compound. But a tribal leader insisted on Monday that they had been detained by people smugglers, not kidnapped. The incident was the latest in a series of recent attacks on Egyptian Christians working in Libya. Local residents said the masked gunmen had separated the Christians from the Muslims before handcuffing them and taking them away in cars.
6. According to VOA News, Egyptian security officials say gunmen have killed two policemen who were guarding a Coptic Christian church south of Cairo. The attack happened Tuesday in Minya, a city on the Nile River about 250 kilometers from the capital. On Wednesday, the Coptic Christians celebrate Christmas, a holiday that brings increased security at churches. Egyptian police and soldiers have faced regular attacks from militants since Morsi was pushed from power.
7. According to the Associated Press, The Albuquerque police chief says the man suspected of shooting and wounding a police officer during a weekend traffic stop was homeless and driving a stolen SUV when he was pulled over. Chief Gordon Eden says the manhunt for 36-year-old Christopher Cook proved to be difficult because he had been moving around and acquaintances had severed ties with him. Bernalillo County sheriff’s deputies took Cook into custody without incident around 4 a.m. Tuesday after spotting him staggering along a road. Cook will face state and federal charges.
8. According to Reuters, The FBI said on Tuesday it arrested a man suspected of threatening on social media to kill police officers in Mount Vernon, New York. The suspect was identified as 24-year-old Jeremy Mott of Mount Vernon, the FBI said on Twitter. Mott posted messages on Facebook and Instagram in December threatening to injure and kill police in Mount Vernon, a suburb north of New York City, according to a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court. New York City Police Commissioner William Bratton said last week that there had been more than 80 such threats against police on social media in the previous week that had led to at least 15 arrests.
9. According to Reuters, Prominent U.S. criminal defense lawyer Alan Dershowitz has filed a sworn statement denying he had sex with an underage girl on financier Jeffrey Epstein’s private plane and island. Dershowitz filed the statement in Florida federal court on Monday night, along with a motion to join in a lawsuit brought against the U.S. government by Dershowitz’s accuser and other women who say Epstein sexually abused them. The women say the government’s 2008 plea deal with Epstein, which allowed him to serve jail time on state charges but avoid federal prosecution, violated their rights. Dershowitz represented Epstein in negotiating that plea.
10. According to the New York Post, Rape charges were dropped Monday against Al Sharpton crony Sanford Rubenstein for lack of evidence — but he was instantly slapped with a lawsuit by the alleged victim. Manhattan prosecutors say they let the cop-bashing civil-rights lawyer off the hook because they found that the sex-assault claims by accuser Iasha Rivers were “not credible” and couldn’t even be put before a grand jury. A lawyer for Rubenstein celebrated the decision, saying “there was no rape.”
As you go throughout this day, keep this word in mind: 1 Peter 1:13 says, “Therefore, with minds that are alert and fully sober, set your hope on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed at his coming.”
God loves you. He always has and He always will. He loves you so much that the Bible says in John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” If you don’t know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Saviour, why don’t you get to know Him today. Just believe in your heart that Jesus Christ died, was buried, and rose by the power of God for you. Pray and ask Him to come into your heart today, and He will. Romans 10:13 says, “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
Thanks so much for listening. May God bless your day.
