Where oil's fall might first be felt

December 11, 2014 - Daily News Briefing

Venezuelan socialism is funded by oil revenue. As prices collapse, political change could follow.

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Time running short, Republicans and Democrats agreed Tuesday on a $1.1 trillion spending bill to avoid a government shutdown and delay a politically-charged struggle over President Obama's new immigration policy until the new year. In an unexpected move, lawmakers also agreed on legislation expected to be incorporated into the spending measure that will permit a reduction in benefits for current retirees at economically distressed multiemployer pension plans. Supporters said it was part of an effort to prevent a slow-motion collapse of a system that provides retirement income to millions, but critics objected vehemently.

A sailor who was missing at sea for about 12 days has been found uninjured about 65 miles south of Honolulu. The Coast Guard says Ron Ingraham was weak, hungry and dehydrated when a Navy ship reached him Tuesday morning. The Coast Guard had been searching for him since receiving his mayday call on Thanksgiving reporting flooding in his small sail boat about 50 miles west of Kailua-Kona, Hawaii. In an audio clip of the call provided by the Coast Guard, he's heard saying he was in danger of sinking.

Oscar Pistorius again faces the possibility of a murder conviction after a South African judge ruled Wednesday that prosecutors can appeal against the double-amputee Olympian's conviction on the lesser charge of culpable homicide. The sensational case will go to the Supreme Court of Appeal, which will review the murder trial of Pistorius, who fatally shot girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp through the closed door of a toilet cubicle on Valentine's Day last year. Judge Thokozile Masipa, who convicted Pistorius and sentenced him to five years in jail, acknowledged that chief prosecutor Gerrie Nel had raised legitimate "questions of law" that should be studied by the appeals court.

Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev called on Wednesday for a US-Russia summit to be convened to prevent a deep freeze in Moscow's relations with the West over the Ukraine crisis. Gorbachev, whose policy of "perestroika" (restructuring) played a role in ending the Cold War, warned of potentially dire consequences if tensions were not reduced. "This is extremely dangerous, with tensions as high as they are now. We may not live through these days: someone could lose their nerve," he wrote in a commentary entitled "To unfreeze relations" for the government daily Rossiyskaya Gazeta.

Authorities in Northern California arrested at least 19 people as protesters angered by the killings of unarmed black men by white police officers rallied for a fourth night. Protesters stopped at Berkeley City Hall, where a city councilman addressed the crowd and said he will ask for an investigation into police response to the protests over the weekend, when the latest wave of protests started.

Jon Lester agreed to a $155 million, six-year contract with the Chicago Cubs late Tuesday, the first big deal of the Major League Baseball offseason involving a top-level starting pitcher. Lester's contract, agreed to on the second day of MLB's winter meetings, contains an option for 2021 that, if it becomes guaranteed, would make the deal worth $170 million over seven seasons. The average annual value of $25.8 million is the second-highest for a pitcher behind Clayton Kershaw's $30.7 million as part of a $215 million, seven-year deal with the Los Angeles Dodgers that began this year.

“The object of the Monitor is to injure no man, but to bless all mankind.” – Mary Baker Eddy

The Daily News Briefing is published Monday through Friday by The Christian Science Publishing Society in Boston, Massachusetts.

“The object of the Monitor is to injure no man, but to bless all mankind.” – Mary Baker Eddy

The Daily News Briefing is published Monday through Friday by The Christian Science Publishing Society in Boston, Massachusetts.

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