Top Eight

Top eight stories for today including the Supreme Court called it premature to rule on an executive order that directs census officials to exclude undocumented immigrants in the count to apportion congressional seats; California’s unemployment rate dropped again to 8.2%, marking sixth straight months of improvement; The World Health Organization warned that difficult months lie ahead in the pandemic despite the distribution of vaccines, and more.

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National

1.) Throwing out a challenge from New York state, the Supreme Court called it premature Friday to rule on an executive order that directs census officials to exclude undocumented immigrants as part of the count to apportion seats in Congress.

A briefcase of a census taker is seen as she knocks on the door of a residence Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2020, in Winter Park, Fla. A half-million census takers head out en mass this week to knock on the doors of households that haven't yet responded to the 2020 census. (AP Photo/John Raoux)

2.) “Victory is life” not for Star Trek, but for Dr. Seuss, whose publisher emerged victorious Friday in a copyright fight at the Ninth Circuit over the children’s classic “Oh, the Places You’ll Go.”

An excerpt from the ComicMix book "Oh, the Places You'll Boldly Go," a parody of the Dr. Seuss classic "Oh, the Places You'll Go."

3.) Two years to the day after Amber Heard published an editorial describing the backlash she faced as a domestic abuse survivor, a Virginia judge ordered the actress to produce her arrest record as part of discovery in a defamation case brought by her ex-husband Johnny Depp.

Actors Johnny Depp and Amber Heard arrive for the London premiere of their film “The Rum Diary” in November 2011. (AP Photo/Joel Ryan)

4.) Vice President Mike Pence, his wife and the surgeon general were televised Friday morning as they received the vaccine against the novel coronavirus.

This screenshot from a livestreamed event shows Vice President Mike Pence receiving the Covid-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer BioNTech at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on Friday at the White House. His wife Karen Pence and U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams also participated. (Image via Courthouse News)

Regional

5.) California’s unemployment rate dropped again in November to 8.2%, marking sixth straight months of improvement as the state added more jobs last month than anywhere else but Texas.

FILE - In this Jan. 30, 2018 file photo, a job applicant talks with company representatives at a JobNewsUSA job fair in Miami Lakes, Fla. Jobs report on Friday, Dec. 7, for November is expected to point to a solid economy for most Americans, with steady hiring, a low unemployment rate and faster wage gains. If so, it would provide a dose of welcome news after this week’s frantic financial market gyrations, which have been driven by concerns that the U.S.-China trade war could escalate and weaken a U.S. economy already facing higher interest rates and slowing global growth. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky, File)

6.) Suspending the merit-based screening system that for years has guided admissions to New York City’s most selective middle schools, Mayor Bill de Blasio framed the move as a long-needed step toward desegregation.

Screenshot from New York City press conference on Friday, Dec. 18, 2020, showing Mayor Bill de Blasio about school-desegregation efforts. (Image via Courthouse News)

International

7.) With the number of Covid-19 deaths and infections continuing to climb and mark new grim records, the World Health Organization on Friday warned that difficult months lie ahead despite the distribution of vaccines.

A man on a bike crosses the almost deserted market square with the historic Knochenhaueramtshaus, right in Hildeheim, Germany, Friday, Dec. 18, 2020. Germany has entered a lockdown, closing shops and schools in an effort to bring down stubbornly high new cases of the coronavirus. ( Julian Stratenschulte/dpa via AP)

8.) The United Nations’ high court held Friday it has jurisdiction to hear a South American border dispute dating back to the 1800s.

The Peace Palace in The Hague, in the Netherlands, is home to both the International Court of Justice and the Permanent Court of Arbitration. (Peter Dejong/AP)

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