Biggest news you missed this MLK weekend
Martin Luther King holiday highlights transition from Obama to Trump
As Americans celebrate the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr., civil rights leaders and activists are trying to reconcile the transition from the nation’s first black president to a president-elect still struggling to connect with most non-white voters. King’s daughter on Monday encouraged Americans to fight for the slain civil rights leader’s vision of love and justice “no matter who is in the White House.” Donald Trump will mark the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday by meeting with the civil rights icon's son, Martin Luther King III, to discuss his legacy. On Sunday, Attorney General Loretta Lynch told Paste BN that the explosions of violence that have marked a broken trust between U.S. law enforcement and communities of color across the country echo the painful clashes that marked the early struggles of the American civil rights movement. Read the full story here.
Trump's busy holiday weekend
Let's just lay it out like this:
· Amid allegations of plagiarism, Monica Crowley — Donald Trump's pick for the top communications job with the National Security Council — is withdrawing from the job. CNN and Politico reported several instances of Crowley lifting passages from other writers.
· In a Twitter outburst Saturday over Rep. John Lewis's comment that he does not see Trump as a legitimate president, Trump said the Georgia congressman should spend more time trying to fix his "horrible" and "crime-infested" district than complaining about the election results.
· Incoming Trump White House officials downplayed reports Sunday that the nascent Trump administration is planning to move reporters out of the White House, saying the issue is where to hold news conferences and briefings at the start of the new presidency.
· Alec Baldwin revived his Trump impression on Saturday Night Live to re-enact the president-elect’s news conference from earlier this week, his first in six months. The majority of Baldwin’s imagined event was dedicated to the salacious claims from the recently leaked intelligence memo on Trump's ties to Russia, as one journalist after the next asks the president-elect about his “big Russian pee-pee party.”
Gene Cernan, last man to walk on moon, dies
NASA announced that Eugene "Gene" Cernan died Monday surrounded by his family. Cernan, a retired Navy captain, was one of 14 astronauts that NASA chose in October 1963. His cause of death was not immediately known. Cernan piloted the Gemini 9 mission alongside command pilot Tom Stafford, and was the second American to walk in space. He was one of only two astronauts to fly to the moon on two occasions, the second time as commander of Apollo 17, the last mission to the moon. In total, Cernan spent more than 73 hours on the surface of the moon.
Wife of Pulse nightclub mass killer arrested
The wife of Omar Mateen, the man who killed 49 people in a shooting rampage at an Orlando nightclub last June, was arrested Monday on a charge of obstructing justice. Noor Salman was taken into custody by the FBI at her Northern California home. Salman will likely face her first court appearance Tuesday.
Hot teams now one step away from Super Bowl LI
After four blowouts made for a ho-hum wild-card round one week ago, the NFL playoffs presented an all-time classic Sunday in the Green Bay Packers' 34-31 win over the Dallas Cowboys. The Packers now head to the NFC Championship Game to meet the Atlanta Falcons, who had little trouble handling the Seattle Seahawks in a 36-20 win Saturday. Tom Brady, meanwhile, has the New England Patriots in the AFC title game for the 11th time in his career after a 34-16 rout of the Houston Texans. The Pittsburgh Steelers clinched the other spot in the AFC after staving off the Kansas City Chiefs for a 18-16 victory.
Ringling Bros. circus closing after 146 years
The "Greatest Show on Earth" is getting its curtain call. Feld Entertainment, owner of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, said in a statement Saturday that the show will end its 146-year run in May. The iconic circus declined in recent years due to high operating costs and long, costly legal battles with animal rights groups, such as the one to eliminate elephant acts. Ticket sales had already fallen, but they dropped more significantly than anticipated after the elephants were retired last May, according to the statement.
Reports: Suspect caught in Istanbul nightclub attack
A suspect has been caught in the New Year's Eve nightclub attack in Istanbul, Turkey, that left 39 people dead, the AA.com news website, al Jazeera and CNN Turkey reported. The attack on the club jammed with holiday revelers also left 69 people with injuries. A police officer and a number of foreign nationals were among those killed in the Reina nightclub attack.
Deadly ice storm, tornadoes lash central U.S.
The slow-moving ice storm that killed at least six people across the central U.S. over the weekend, leaving tens of thousands powerless and causing scores of car accidents, continued across portions of the region on Monday. Meanwhile, severe storms and a few tornadoes pounded Texas late Sunday and early Monday. The ice storm will slowly peter out by Tuesday, though some light icing and a few inches of snow should coat northern New York State and New England, AccuWeather said.
Contributing: Associated Press