WHAT'S BREWING
POLICE INVESTIGATE BURNING OF BLM SIGNS AS HATE CRIMES Police are investigating as possible hate crimes the destruction of Black Lives Matter signs at churches in Washington during violent pro-Trump demonstrations over the weekend. Someone tore down banners supporting the anti-racism movement from at least three churches Saturday night as thousands of maskless “Stop the Steal” protesters marched through the nation’s capital. Four people were critically injured in stabbings during the demonstrations. [HuffPost]
CLEVELAND BASEBALL TEAM DROPPING RACIST MONIKER Cleveland’s Major League Baseball franchise will reportedly drop its name, the latest team to heed fans’ and tribal communities’ request to leave behind a term considered racist. The team could keep the Indians name on uniforms for the 2021 season as the franchise figures out the massive logistical challenge to convert more than a century of iconography into a new era. [HuffPost]
TRUMP NIXES PLAN FOR VACCINE LINE-BUTT AT WHITE HOUSE Trump said he was reversing an administration directive to vaccinate top government officials against COVID-19, while public distribution of the shot is limited to front-line health workers, and people in nursing homes and long-term care facilities. Trump made the announcement hours after his administration confirmed that senior U.S. officials would be offered vaccines as soon as this week. [AP]
UK HEALTH OFFICIALS APOLOGIZE FOR MAKING SANTA SICK Officials from the U.K.’s National Health Service have apologized for a controversial ad featuring Santa Claus desperately sick with COVID-19 that angered some parents. The public service announcement, which was yanked from YouTube, featured a gravely ill man with a white beard being rushed into the emergency room of a hospital. He’s clearly in distress and cared for by a crew of caring professionals. [HuffPost]
HUNDREDS OF NIGERIAN KIDS MISSING AFTER ATTACK ON SCHOOL Hundreds of Nigerian students are missing after gunmen attacked a secondary school in the country’s northwestern Katsina state, police said, while the president said the military was in gunfights with bandits in a forest as it tried to find the students. The Government Science Secondary School in Kankara was attacked Friday night by a large group of bandits who shot “with AK-47 rifles,” a police spokesperson said. [AP]
MILLIONS IN FEDERAL AID WENT TO ANTI-GAY GROUPS Millions of dollars in taxpayer funds in the federal coronavirus Payroll Protection Program went to anti-gay businesses, schools and organizations. The taxpayer loans can be forgiven and many likely will be, which would transform them into subsidies that will never be paid back. The funds were paid to groups and businesses with either a history of anti-LGBTQ advocacy or “policies that explicitly discriminate” against the community. [HuffPost] | 
