Nightly Brief

Your Wednesday night briefing from the staff of Courthouse News

Top CNS stories for today including federal employees and contractors are starting to feel the impact of the partial government shutdown as the workforce heads into 2019; President Donald Trump said he is still confident in his treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin, as the American stock market struggled through what was termed the “worst Christmas ever”; GoFundMe said it has refunded the $400,000 contributed to the New Jersey trio who are charged now with concocting a bogus story of a homeless good Samaritan, and more.

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National

The sun rises behind the White House in Washington on Dec. 22, 2018. Hundreds of thousands of federal workers faced a partial government shutdown early Saturday after Democrats refused to meet President Donald Trump's demands for $5 billion to start erecting a border wall with Mexico. Overall, more than 800,000 federal employees would see their jobs disrupted, including more than half who would be forced to continue working without pay. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

1.) With no movement on President Donald Trump’s $5 billion demand for border-wall funding, federal employees, and even more federal contractors, are starting to feel the impact of the partial government shutdown as the workforce heads into 2019.

Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin talks with reporters about trade negotiations with China, at the White House, Monday, Dec. 3, 2018, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

2.) As the American stock market struggled through what was termed the “worst Christmas ever,” economically speaking, President Trump said he is still confident in his treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin.

FILE - In this Jan. 25, 2017, file photo, an agent from the border patrol, observes near the Mexico-US border fence, on the Mexican side, separating the towns of Anapra, Mexico and Sunland Park, N.M. An 8-year-old boy from Guatemala died in government custody early Tuesday, Dec. 25, 2018, U.S. immigration authorities said. (AP Photo/Christian Torres, File)

3.) Following the second death of an immigrant child in federal custody, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol said it will begin conducting additional medical checks on children and review its policies on the care and custody of young children.

4.) Two days after President Trump put his signature on bipartisan criminal-justice reform, one notable federal prisoner quickly sought to benefit from the new law: former Bernie Madoff secretary Annette Bongiorno.

Regional

Johnny Bobbitt Jr., left; Kate McClure, right; and McClure's boyfriend, Mark D'Amico, pose at a Citgo station in Philadelphia on Nov. 17, 2017. Bobbitt, a homeless man whose selfless act of using his last $20 to fill the gas tank of a stranded motorist in Philadelphia drew worldwide attention, filed suit against D'Amico and McClure, the couple who led a $400,000 GoFundMe fundraising campaign to help him, contending the couple mismanaged donations and committed fraud by taking contributed money for themselves. (Elizabeth Robertson/The Philadelphia Inquirer via AP, File)

5.) In a somber endnote to the Christmas season, GoFundMe said it has refunded the $400,000 contributed to the New Jersey trio who are charged now with concocting a bogus story of a homeless good Samaritan.

6.) A federal judge has ordered Virginia to reinstate the licenses of drivers whom the state sought to punish for unpaid court fines.

International

A Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF) rebel walks by the the site of an April 6 plane crash that killed Rwanda's President Juvenal Habyarimana in this May 23, 1994, file photo in Kigali. French authorities have dropped a sensitive, long-running investigation into the plane crash that sparked Rwanda's 1994 genocide, citing lack of sufficient evidence. Several people close to Rwanda's current president, Paul Kagame, had been under investigation in the case. The cause of the crash has been a contentious issue. The plane had a French crew, and Rwanda has long accused France of complicity in the genocide, which France denies. (AP Photo/Jean Marc Bouju)

7.) French authorities have dropped a sensitive investigation into the plane crash that sparked Rwanda’s 1994 genocide, citing lack of sufficient evidence.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, and Chief of General Staff of Russia Valery Gerasimov oversee the test launch of the Avangard hypersonic glide vehicle from the Defense Ministry's control room in Moscow, Russia, on Dec. 26, 2018. In the test, the Avangard was launched from the Dombarovskiy missile base in the southern Ural Mountains. The Kremlin says it successfully hit a designated practice target on the Kura shooting range on Kamchatka, 3,700 miles away. (Mikhail Klimentyev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

8.) Russian President Vladimir Putin oversaw a test Wednesday of a new hypersonic glide vehicle, declaring that the weapon is impossible to intercept and will ensure Russia’s security for decades to come.

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