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Trump's Picks Expected for Interior, Economic Council

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Donald Trump has offered Goldman Sachs executive Gary Cohn the directorship of the National Economic Council and assistant to the president for economic policy, sources close to Cohn told NBC News.

Trump is also expected to pick Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers as Interior secretary, a senior Trump transition official confirmed to CNBC on Friday.

Meanwhile, Trump's transition team announced Thursday that former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani removed his name from consideration for a position in the new administration during a meeting held on Nov.29. Giuliani will remain on Trump's transition team as a vice chairman.

"Rudy Giuliani is an extraordinarily talented and patriotic American. I will always be appreciative of his 24/7 dedication to our campaign after I won the primaries and for his extremely wise counsel," Trump said in a statement, adding that he can see an important place for him in the administration at a later date."

It is unclear if Cohn, 54, will accept the post, but he reportedly had discussions late last month about leaving Goldman where he is president and chief operating officer.

McMorris Rodgers is the highest-ranking Republican woman in the U.S. House of Representatives. She serves as chair of the House Republican Conference and earlier this month was appointed to serve as a vice chair of Trump's transition team. 



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Secret Santa Pays Off 50K in Wal-Mart Layaways

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Christmas arrived early this year for shoppers at a western Pennsylvania Wal-Mart when a "Secret Santa" paid off 194 layaway accounts worth more than $46,000.

The discount chain said a woman walked into the store in Everett, Bedford County, on behalf of a "Secret Santa" with a check to pay off the accounts, NBC affiliate WJAC reported. Everett is about 100 miles southeast of Pittsburgh.

“When customers quietly pay off others’ layaway items, we’re reminded how good people can be," a company spokesman said in a statement Friday. "The joy that comes from these transactions extends well beyond dollars and cents."

Wal-Mart said it's "honored to be a small part of these random acts of kindness."

Layaway is a popular way for financially strapped shoppers to put a deposit on their merchandise, and pay off the balance over a period of time. It's used at retailers including Wal-Mart and Kmart.

Pamela Foor said she was one of the shoppers employees called with the good news.

"Some people really needed that this Christmas and I'm just grateful and thankful that they can do that," Foor said.

Sandy Terry told CNBC her account was also paid off by the anonymous donor. Terry, who recently quit her job due to surgery complications, had put an Xbox on layaway for her 6-year-old grandson and had a $75 balance on her account. She says she was worried about not being able to pay off the balance. 

"I'm just so thankful that he's going to get it this year," she said. "Thank you so much to [the person who] paid it off for me."



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Trump Says Blacks Who Didn't Vote 'Felt Good About Me'

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Donald Trump at a rally on Friday said African-American voters who didn't show up to the polls "felt good about me."

"The African-American community was great to us," Trump said. "They came through big league."

"If they had any doubt, they didn't vote," Trump added. "And that was almost as good. Because a lot of people didn't show up, because they felt good about me."

Trump made the comments at the fourth stop on his "Thank You" tour, meant ostensibly to thank the millions of voters that delivered him a resounding White House win last month.



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Top News: South Korea Impeachment Vote, Tibet and More

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View daily updates on the best photos in domestic and foreign news.

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Dog Says Goodbye to Dying Owner in Heartbreaking Video

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The family of a California man who lay dying in a hospital wanted to make sure his beloved dog had one last chance to say goodbye.

Ryan Jessen, 33, had suffered a ventricular brain hemorrhage and was on a ventilator at Rideout Memorial Hospital in Marysville when his family brought his dog of six years, Mollie, to see him shortly before his death on Nov. 30, the "Today" show reported.

Michelle Jessen caught the heartbreaking moment on video and posted it on Facebook for friends and family. It has been viewed over 13 million times.

"The hospital did the sweetest thing for us and allowed us to bring my brother's dog in to "say goodbye" so she'd know why her human never came home. If you knew my brother, he really loved his sweet dog," Jessen's sister, Michelle, wrote on Facebook.



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Missing Muslim Teen Harassed on Subway Found: Police

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A New York teenager who went missing after she said she was harassed on a train last week has been found. 

Yasmin Seweid, 18, was found in the early hours of Saturday morning, officials from the Nassau County Police Department's Missing Persons Squad said. The teen was seen being taken from her Long Island home on a stretcher Saturday afternoon.

The Nassau County Police Department put out an alert on Friday saying Seweid had been missing since Wednesday. 

Last Thursday, Seweid spoke out after she said she was harassed and intimidated by three men who tried to rip her hijab - a religious head scarf - off.

Police said they were searching for those men, who allegedly targeted Seweid on the 23rd Street subway station serving the 6 line at about 10 p.m. on Dec. 1.

Seweid posted on Facebook saying the men called her a terrorist, grabbed her bag and broke the strap of it and told her to "take that rag off your head". She said Trump's name was repeated during the alleged attack. 

She called the incident "traumatizing" and spoke with multiple news organizations about it.



Photo Credit: Photo courtesy of the NYPD

Obama Gives Federal Workers Larger-Than-Expected Raise

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Many federal employees will get a small Christmas gift from President Barack Obama.

Obama authorized a 2.1 percent pay raise for civilian agency employees so their raise will match that of Defense Department employees. Obama said in August that these workers would get a 1.6 percent raise but opted on Thursday to boost the amount by 0.5 percent.

The president said he reconsidered the raise — which follows a three-year pay freeze — in part due to "current and projected economic conditions."

"In light of the decision of Congress to provide a 2.1 percent pay increase for military personnel in 2017 and reconsideration of current and projected economic conditions, I have concluded it would be appropriate to revise my original alternative plan," he wrote in a letter submitted to the House and Senate and published by Federal News Radio.

An employee making $75,000 will see a $1,575 boost before taxes.

The nation's largest federal employee union, the American Federation of Government Employees, applauded Obama's decision.

“Federal employees certainly deserve this modest boost in their pay, following years of pay freezes and miniscule increases that have left them worse off today than they were at the start of the decade,” union president J. David Cox Sr. said in a statement. “This pay adjustment will help employees pay their bills, reduce their debts, and cover the everyday costs facing working-class Americans.”

The raise will take effect in January.



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Inmates Film 'Mannequin Challenge'

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Officials at a prison in San Diego County are investigating a video that has gone viral: A group of inmates – some holding cellphones – filmed their own version of the “Mannequin Challenge."

On Nov. 13, a YouTube user dubbed “tben916” posted a video on YouTube titled “Mannequin Challenge: Prison,” which shows inmates at the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility (RJDCF) in Otay Mesa, California, taking part in the viral video trend where people hold still – as if they were frozen in time – while a moving camera films the scene.

The one-minute clip starts with inmates holding still in the bathroom, including one sitting on the toilet. It is unclear who is recording, but the camera then moves into what appears to be living quarters, showing an inmate holding a cellphone, a fake fight scene and an inmate reading. The video ends with another inmate in his bunk, also holding a cellphone.

On Thursday night, Terry Thornton with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, confirmed that the footage had been shot inside the RJDCF. She said officials at the prison are still investigating the incident, including how inmates obtained cellphones, which are not allowed in prison.

The RJDCF is located at 480 Alta Rd. The Warden is Daniel Palermo, who has worked there since 2006.



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International College Students Leery of Trump Could Cost US

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After the November election of Donald Trump to the U.S. presidency, some students from overseas are reconsidering attending American college and universities, NBC News reports.

Saudi high school student Talal Al-Johani, 17, has been working for two years on his application materials to land at a leading American institution. But he’s having second thoughts since the Trump election, he says.

Leery of unclear policies and a potentially hostile social environment under a Trump presidency, international students may now be reconsidering higher education in the U.S., and that potential “brain drain” could take a hefty financial toll on America’s education economy, international education experts say.



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Nearly 1,000 Chicago Flights Cancelled as Winter Blast Rolls East

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Nearly 1,000 flights were canceled at Chicago's O'Hare airport Sunday as a winter storm swept through the Midwest on its way east, threatening to bring more snow to parts of Ohio.

The Chicago Department of Aviation said on its website just after midnight Sunday that 955 flights were canceled — about half arrivals and half departures.

The smaller Midway airport announced earlier Saturday afternoon that all Southwest flights would be canceled into Sunday morning due to the winter storm.

Chicago could see a total of 7 to 12 inches of snow, the National Weather Service said. The region was under a winter storm warning through Sunday night.



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Chelsea Manning Petition Reaches 100K Signatures

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A petition to commute the sentence of Chelsea Manning, a U.S. soldier serving 37 years for leaking classified government documents, surpassed the 100,000-signature mark late Saturday, a benchmark that should force the White House to respond, NBC News reported.

"We did it! Thank you so much for your love and support. =)," Manning said in a post to her official Twitter account on Saturday.

Manning was arrested in 2010 for leaking more than 700,000 military and State Department documents to Wikileaks and sentenced to 35 years in 2013 in military court. At the time she was known as Bradley Manning and has been held in a men's prison facility.



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Photog Catches Proposal on Camera

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A photographer doing a shoot in downtown Chicago over the weekend happened to catch a proposal in the midst of a winter wonderland in the city. He then set out on a social media mission to find the mystery couple and share the image of their exciting moment.

Julio Salazar of JCphotography said he was doing a photoshoot with a client around 4:15 p.m. Saturday near the city’s iconic Bean when he noticed a proposal was happening right next to him.

He quickly turned and captured the moment – a man with a ring in his hand and a shocked woman in awe, her hands covering her face.

“I captured the moment without them knowing and wanted to get a print to them,” Salazar wrote in a Facebook post Sunday hoping to find the newly engaged couple. “If anyone knows who these people are please tag them or send me their Facebook.”

The photo was shared more than 800 times in less than 5 hours.

In less than a day, after the photo made local headlines and was shared more than 1,000 times, Salazar said he was able to find the mystery couple through a mutual friend. 

Salazar said he plans to give the couple the image of their unforgettable moment. He said he was overwhelmed by the response to his post. 



Photo Credit: JCphotography/Julio Salazar
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Trump Once (Wrongly) Criticized Obama for Not Reading Intel

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President-elect Donald Trump has said it’s no big deal that he’s only attended a handful of intelligence briefings in the past month, NBC News reported. However, Trump once criticized President Obama — incorrectly — for doing the same.

In a tweet from September 2014, Trump said Obama “does not read his intelligence briefings” and surmised the president was “Too busy I guess!”

Not only was this claim without merit, it was based on a dubious report from the conservative Government Accountability Institute — which was co-founded by future White House Chief Strategist Steven Bannon.



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Northeast Braces for Storm That Pummeled Plains and Midwest

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Millions across the Northeast were bracing Monday for the snowstorm churning east from the Plains and Great Lakes that canceled more than 1,400 flights in Chicago and sent a plane sliding off an icy Detroit runway.

The storm’s nearly week-long cross-country push is likely to end Monday and could dump 3 inches to a foot of snow across large swaths of the Northeast, NBC News reported.

The worst is expected to remain north of Interstate 80, according to The Weather Channel, with parts of New York State, New Hampshire, Vermont and much of Maine forecast to be hardest-hit.



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US Agency Finishes at CA Warehouse

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Federal investigators from the Department of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms announced Sunday they have completed their work at the so-called Ghost Ship warehouse in Oakland, where 36 people died in a fire Dec. 2.

The ATF left the scene of the country's deadliest building fire in more than 13 years, but the agency made a point of saying its investigation is far from over.

Officials will hold a news conference Tuesday to provide updates.

As Oakland police were removing barriers from the site, people continued gathering to mourn.

One group of family and friends moved in to get a closer look, and many who converged along 31st Avenue helped move flowers and candles from a massive makeshift memorial and placed them in front of a fence that surrounds what’s left of the burned building.

Across the bay, at the Mezzanine in San Francisco, family and friends of victims, along with many in the arts communities in Oakland and San Francisco, attended the Oakland Fire Relief benefit concert featuring Moby.

Those in attendance said they're trying to makie it to as many victims' benefits as possible. Tayler Williams, who works in music, came early to line up for the show.

"A lot people foster their creativity in this community so it's definitely really important for us to show our support," Williams said.

The parents of victim Joseph Matlock, who goes by Joey Casio, said he had a love of music and a kind heart. He was an electronic musician who was scheduled to perform that night. They remember a song called "Share the Cup."

"This was Joey, that he would share anything and he looked out for others. First others, then himself," John Matlock said about his son. "Spare the sword. Joey was a peacemaker. He would look for consideration instead of hostility in every environment he was in, and that song to us really epitomizes the personality of the son we have left."

The Matlocks hail from Washington state. They said they’re happy to discover a whole new community of people, fabulous artists, who loved their son.



Photo Credit: NBc Bay Area

Deep River Potato Chips Recalled Over Salmonella Concerns

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Deep River Snacks is recalling some of its potato chips over concern an ingredient used in the seasoning may contain traces of salmonella.

The company said it is recalling three lots of Sour Cream & Onion Kettle Chips out of an abundance of caution after being told by a supplier that buttermilk powder used in the flavoring of the popular snacks may have been contaminated. 

Deep River says no pathogenic bacteria has been found in any of its ingredients or snack products and no adverse health effects stemming from the possible salmonella contamination have been reported. 

The affected products were distributed nationally through retail and food service outlets and include only the sour cream and onion chips, 2 oz and 5 oz, with UPC and best by dates, respectively, of 850668000498 (11/9/16-6/2/17), 850668000993 (11/9/16-6/1/17) and 850668000993 (11/5/16-4/13/17).

Salmonella can cause diarrhea, fever and abdominal cramps. Most individuals recover without treatment, though in some cases, diarrhea can be so severe a patient needs to be hospitalized. The elderly, infants, and those with impaired immune systems are more likely to have a severe reaction.

"The health and safety of our consumers is always our top priority,” Jim Goldberg, Deep River Snacks’ founder and CEO, said in a statement. “Although we haven’t found any contaminants in either our seasonings or our finished products, we are taking great precautions to protect our customers.”

Consumers who purchased the recalled products are advised to stop using them and contact the company at 860-434-7347 or the U.S. Food and Drug Administration at 1-888-723-3366.



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Breach of NJ Clinical Lab Co. Exposes Health Info of 34K

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Clinical laboratory services company Quest Diagnostics announced Monday that it is investigating a third-party hack into an internet application on its network. 

The Madison, New Jersey-based Fortune 500 healthcare company said in a press release that on Nov. 26, an unauthorized third party accessed the MyQuest by Care 360 internet application and obtained health information of about 34,000 patients.

In its statement, the company said the data accessed by the third party "included names, dates of birth, lab results and, in some instances, phone numbers."

None of the compromised information included Social Security numbers, credit card, insurance or other financial information, Quest says. The company says it immediately addressed the hack when it was discovered and has notified all affected individuals.

There is an investigation underway, and the company says it is working with a cybersecurity firm to determine the source and cause of the breach.

Anyone with questions on the incident can call Quest Diagnostics at (888) 320-9970 Monday through Friday between 9 a.m. and 7 p.m. Eastern Time.

Mac and Cheese Products Recalled for Possible Health Risk

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Illinois-based packaged foods distributor TreeHouse Foods recalled certain macaroni and cheese cup products containing cheddar cheese seasoning that may be contaminated with salmonella. 

The products were sold in many stores across the U.S., according to the recall announced Sunday. 

TreeHouse foods, based in Oak Brook, said the recall was issued after receiving a notification from its supplier that alerted the company of milk powder used in the seasoning that has the potential for salmonella contamination. Salmonella is a bacteria that can cause diarrhea, fever, and abdominal cramps. 

No illnesses have yet been reported, the company said. 

The following products were affected by the recall:

  • Great Value Macaroni & Cheese Original Cups 
    • UPC # 007874208249
  • Big Win Original Macaroni & Cheese Dinner 
    • UPC #00118225840
  • Cheese Club Express Mac Macaroni & Cheese Dinner 
    • UPC #004149817167

Consumers who have purchased the above products are urged to dispose of or return them to the place of purchase for a full refund. Consumers with any questions may call (800) 756-5781.



Photo Credit: TreeHouse Foods

Trump Postpones Announcement on Business Plans

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President-elect Donald Trump is postponing until next month a planned announcement on the future of his business empire.

Trump had said on Twitter that he would discuss his business Thursday. But Trump spokesman Sean Spicer and spokeswoman Hope Hicks said in emails Monday that the event has been rescheduled for January. They did not provide details.

Trump briefly addressed business conflicts in an interview that aired Sunday on Fox News. He said he would not manage the Trump Organization but left open retaining his ownership stake. He said his children and company executives would run the international business while he is in the White House.

Trump is set to be sworn in as president on Jan. 20.



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Texas Pastor Goes to Mall, Tells Kids Santa Isn't Real

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A widely-shared video posted to YouTube Saturday appears to show a pastor, who's well known for previous public protests, telling kids waiting in line at an Amarillo mall that Santa isn't real. 

In the video, a man identifying himself as David Grisham of "Last Frontier Evangelism" said, "We're going to tell the children here today the truth that there is no Santa Claus and that Christmas is about Jesus Christ."

Grisham has previously gained notoriety in 2010 for attempting to burn a copy of the Quran in an Amarillo park, NBC News reported. He was thwarted by a 23-year-old skateboarder who grabbed the Muslim holy book from Grisham.

In Saturday's video, Grisham walked up to a line of parents and kids waiting to see Santa and yelled, "There is no such thing as Santa Claus. Santa Claus does not exist."

The video ends with several parents confronting Grisham and asking him to leave. 

"Shut up," one parent says.

Another asks Grisham to "quit talking this mess." 

"There is a Santa," someone shouts. 

One Facebook page for Last Frontier Evangelism appeared to be unavailable Monday morning, but another page for the group had shared the video with the comment: "Mark Zuckerberg and his band of GESTAPO censors at Facebook took down the original of this post."

While not mentioned in Saturday's video, Grisham is also the director of "Repent Amarillo," according to the Amarillo Globe-News. That organization has been categorized as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.



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