Happy holidays Great Falls! Enjoy the season.

Here’s this week’s reading list.

The Washington Post: Congress averts government shutdown as Senate passes funding bill

The Washington Post: The U.S. seized a Russian yacht. Now you’re paying for it.

The Economist: Why Congress is so dysfunctional

The Washington Post: Trump’s claims of a mandate run into reality of narrow majorities

The Washington Post: Assad’s grip on power was more tenuous than it appeared. How rebels overcame years of bloody stalemate to topple his regime.

The Economist: What to make of 2024

KFF Health News: Native American patients are sent to collections for debts the government owes

Reuters: Seeing low-income consumers squeezed, retailers target $10 and under gifts

The New Yorker: How the far right reports on the border

CNBC: Malls are using new restaurants to draw consumers as shopping centers reinvent themselves

FERN and Switchyard Magazine: What Ohio’s data-center boom is doing to the state’s rural communities

The New York Times: Education Dept. reverses itself and reopens two Loan repayment plans

The Washington Post: Student sues school after graduating without learning to read or write

KFF Health News: How are states spending opioid settlement cash? We built a database of answers

KFF Health News: How America lost control of the bird flu, setting the stage for another pandemic

The Boston Globe: Mass. is the only state in the nation to significantly cut food waste. How did we do it?

Birmingham Business Journal: A grocery store will open in this local middle school

Associated Press: Amazon workers strike at multiple facilities as Teamsters seek labor contract

NPR: Is anyone actually happy with the business of health?

Vox: The science of “ultra-processed” foods is misleading

The Economist: Which countries have the most-educated politicians?

NPR: Supreme Court takes up S.C.’s effort to defund Planned Parenthood

Associated Press: Group says New Jersey toxic waste dumping caused $1B in harm, calls settlement inadequate.

Pew Research Center: How do Americans view climate change today?

Route Fifty: Rhode Island looks to help older adults navigate a digital world

Route Fifty: Missouri city turns to tech to improve snow removal

The Economist: A journalist retraces humanity’s journey out of Africa—on foot

Tampa Bay Times: Pinellas County approves bonds to pay for new Rays stadium

FERN and Fast Company: The strange future of lab-grown meat

The New Yorker: Why you can’t get a restaurant reservation