7. A fire in Jackson County could have multiple fatalities

• Nine people are unaccounted for after a massive overnight fire at Jackson County Park in Scottsboro destroyed 35 boats and sent seven others to the hospital.
• It is unclear if those seven unaccounted for were on the boats at the time of the fire that started at 12:40 a.m. on Monday and was still being fought in the early morning. Officials said the fire started close to shore, which made it difficult to fight.

6. Kobe Bryant dead at 41

• In a helicopter crash in Calabasas, California, retired NBA star Kobe Bryant and his 13-year-old daughter Gianna, and seven other people, were killed.
• Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva said that confirmation of the victims’ identities wouldn’t be released until after the coroner’s report was finished. The helicopter was reportedly heading to a youth basketball game at the time of the crash.

5. Warren trying to get support from women in Alabama

• As she craters in the polls, U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) sent a video to the Alabama Democratic Women’s conference in Hoover where she said, “This is the most important election of our lifetime and we need to win the White House.”
• According to Alabama Democratic Women’s spokesperson, all of the presidential candidates were invited to submit a video, but Warren was the only one who did. She continues in the video to say that Democrats need to “take back the Senate, including my good friend Doug Jones, and win up and down the ballot.”

4. Birmingham officer in ICU after shooting

• While working at Church of the Highlands in Woodlawn on Sunday morning, narcotics Det. John Finke confronted two robbery suspects and then was shot twice in the abdomen.
• Finke was rushed to UAB Hospital’s Trauma Center where he was out of his first surgery by 1:15 p.m. He remains in critical condition in the ICU. Two suspects are in custody, a 25-year-old and 16-year-old. The 16-year-old is believed to be the shooter.

3. Record unemployment continues in Alabama

• The Department of Labor has released the data for the end of 2019’s unemployment rates, and Alabama continued its record low of 2.7%, a huge contrast to 2018’s 3.8%.
• Governor Kay Ivey said in a news release, “I’m so proud to be able to close out this decade with record-breaking economic measures. All year long, we’ve had good news to share, and to be able to end the year, and the decade, on such a positive note is wonderful.”

2. Jones wants more witnesses

• In a video posted to Twitter, U.S. Senator Doug Jones (D-AL) said that there needs to be testimony from key witnesses heard in the impeachment trial in the Senate. He added that this “is about giving the American public the truth about what happened with the withholding of the aid and on the White House meeting.”
• Jones has called for the testimony of former National Security Advisor John Bolton and White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, saying in the video that if President Donald Trump “really wants the American people to know the truth behind all this” he should let people testify.

1. Bolton describes what was going on with Ukraine

• The New York Times got its hands on a transcript of former National Security Advisor John Bolton’s coming book where he describes the efforts to withhold aid to Ukraine until they were willing to announce and conduct an investigation of former Vice President Joe Biden’s son and an energy company that paid him.
• President Donald Trump denies these allegations, and there doesn’t really seem to be anything new here at all. This is the story we have been hearing for months. This will lead to calls for witnesses, which was happening anyway.