Track...

As holiday deliveries and package thefts  hit a peak, some cities are turning to decoys to try to catch suspected thieves.

Police in Jersey City, New Jersey  are trapping would-be burglars with fake Amazon boxes equipped with surveillance cameras and GPS units. 

"We had a box out on the street for three minutes before it was taken," Capt. James Crecco, who is overseeing the initiative. "We thought it was a mistake at first."

Using a GPS locator in the box, police apprehended a suspect Tuesday, Crecco said.

Police also will be able to use the surveillance photos to identify suspects.

The plan has been reviewed and approved by a municipal prosecutor, adding that the city hopes to expand the program with help from Amazon.

The police can track your packages now.  Just a thought.

Con...

A federal jud doge ordered adult film actress Stormy Daniels to pay President Trump hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees for her failed defamation lawsuit against him. 

Judge James Otero, who threw out Daniels' suit against the president in October, instructed her to pay Mr. Trump $293,052.33 in attorney fees. "Based on the unique nature of this litigation and the Court's familiarity with the fees charged in this jurisdiction, the Court concludes that Defendant's rate requests are reasonable. 

Daniels alleges she had an affair with Mr. Trump in 2006. She
sued the president in April after Mr. Trump said on Twitter that a composite sketch of a man she said threatened her in 2011 to keep quiet about an alleged affair with the commander-in-chief was a "con job."  

Avenatti is representing Daniels in another lawsuit against Mr. Trump and his former attorney Michael Cohen. Through litigation, the adult film actress is seeking to void a nondisclosure agreement (NDA) about her alleged 2006 affair with the president. 

Strasbourg...

A shooting in the French city of Strasbourg killed four people and wounded at least 11 others near a world-famous Christmas market. The suspect, a 29-year-old Chérif Chekatt resident of Strasbourg. 

The city is home to the European Parliament, which was locked down after the shooting.

Local authorities tweeted for the public to "avoid the area. Strasbourg's well-known market is set up around the city's cathedral during the Christmas period and becomes a major gathering place.

France has been hit by several extremist attacks, including the 2015 Paris shootings, which killed 130 people and wounded hundreds, and a truck attack in Nice that killed dozens in 2016.

The French needs additional measures to protect their own citizens.

Sided...

The Supreme Court announced that it would not hear two cases brought by states seeking to bar Planned Parenthood from receiving Medicaid funding, as Republican-appointed justices John Roberts and Brett Kavanaugh sided with their liberal colleagues.

Four justices must agree to take up a case in order for the court to hear it. The court would have taken up the case had either Kavanaugh or Roberts, the chief justice, wanted to do so.

Kavanaugh's decision is particularly notable. Anti-abortion groups celebrated his confirmation in October and many assumed his ascension to the bench would solidify a conservative majority that would take on abortion rights.

The cases the court declined to hear Monday did not directly concern the legality of abortion, though Planned Parenthood is a frequent target of lawmakers who oppose it.

Cause...

I'm not sure if someone is most qualified, but during Obama/Biden/ Hillary time, we started additional wars one in Libya, in Syria, and in Yemen. The outcome against minorities was huge, against majority population unimaginable.

Experience...

Survivor...

Tony Evers , a cancer survivor, has defeated Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R), depriving him of a third term and delivering a long-awaited victory for the state’s Democrats, who unsuccessfully tried to recall the controversial incumbent in 2012.

The state superintendent of public instruction, Evers was seen as a safe but unexciting candidate whose resume would be just enough to oust the incumbent based on both his and the president’s dwindling popularity. Trump narrowly won the state by less than one percentage point in 2016.

Walker was hammered for his budget cuts, his opposition to unions and an economy that Democrats said lagged behind the rest of the nation.  

Republican Gov. Scott Walker became a conservative icon by breaking the teachers union in Wisconsin. Seven years later, he faced the political fight of his life against the state schools superintendent.   

Straight...

Yemen's warring parties met Sunday for the fourth day of U.N.-sponsored peace talks in Sweden to try to hammer out details of a prisoner exchange.

Speaking later at the venue, a castle north of Stockholm, the head of the Houthi delegation said a committee was discussing the swap and that the rebels were ready for the exchange.

The war has killed tens of thousands and made Yemen the world's worst humanitarian crisis, with 22 of its 29 million people in need of aid, according to the U.N. The airport in rebel-held capital, Sanaa, has been closed since August 2016 by order of the Saudi-led coalition, leaving the rebel-held north of Yemen heavily relying on the Red Sea port of Hodeida, which is controlled by the Houthis, for delivery of much-needed humanitarian aid and fuel supplies.

Yemen's conflict pits the Iran-backed Shiite rebels, known as Houthis, against the internationally recognized government supported by a U.S.-sponsored Saudi-led coalition.

Apparently, the support for the Yemeni-Gov. and the Saudi coalition over four years has taken the country no where but straight to misery.

Trust...

Leaders who’ve gotten carried away with their power drive often sound narcissistic when they speak. Specifically, they use the words “I,” “me” and “my” a lot. They might say things like: “I believe in this strategy.”  “This is my team.”

Power-hungry leaders believe that Bad news will damage their reputation; so it gets suppressed or denied. And their employees, having received this message loud-and-clear, stop bringing bad news to the power-hungry boss.

We’ve all had moments of irritation watching a colleague mangle a presentation. Or mismanage a meeting. We’ve all thought to ourselves ‘I would have done this so much better.’ As long as we’re capable of keeping those thoughts private, and we’re able to silently endure the meeting, we’re okay. It’s when we can’t control our emotions, when irritation turns to Anger, that we’ve got a problem.

A clear sign that you’ve gotten too power-hungry is when you Distrust your employees to complete their work properly, or you’re wary of how they’ll represent you in a meeting. This paranoia comes from focusing so intensely on gaining your own power that you see the world as zero-sum and become suspicious of those around you.

Power is not inherently bad and wanting power does not make you evil. It’s only when we get carried away.  [Mark Murphy is a NY Times bestselling author.]

Point...