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WASHINGTON (AP) — The jobless rate is up a tick -- to 4.7 percent -- but for an encouraging reason: More people are looking for work. The government says employers added 156,000 jobs in December, as the job market remains durable. For all of 2016, job growth averaged 180,000 a month. That's down from 229,000 in 2015, but enough to lower unemployment over time. One private economist says the slowdown in job growth is probably due to a shortage of qualified workers. On Wall Street, stocks have opened mostly lower, led by declines in high-dividend stocks like phone companies and utilities.
WASHINGTON (AP) — His aides are working with congressional Republicans on a plan to make sure money is available to build a wall on the border with Mexico -- but Donald Trump is still insisting that Mexico will pay for it eventually. He tweeted today that any money spent by the United States on the wall will be for "the sake of speed," and that Mexico will reimburse the U.S. government.
UNDATED (AP) — Schools, government offices and businesses are closed throughout much of Arkansas and Oklahoma as a winter storm delivers snow to the Southern Plains. In the Texas Panhandle, 5 to 7 inches of snow is in the forecast through this afternoon. The wintry precipitation is part of a larger storm system that is expected to intensify as it makes its way east. Winter storm warnings are in effect for several Southeastern states.
CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — More emotional testimony is expected today from family members of some of the people killed in the June 2015 slaughter at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina. Prosecutors say they could wrap up their case Monday in the penalty phase of Dylann Roof's trial. The federal government is seeking the death penalty for Roof, convicted last month in the nine shooting deaths. Roof has put up no case arguing he should get life in prison, cross-examining no witnesses and saying he plans to call none of his own.
NEW YORK (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump is taunting Arnold Schwarzenegger for bringing in low ratings in a spinoff of Trump's old reality television show, "Celebrity Apprentice." In a tweet early today, Trump refers to himself as a "ratings machine" and says Schwarzenegger "got 'swamped'" by comparison. Trump added: "But who cares, he supported Kasich & Hillary." Schwarzenegger is a moderate Republican who said in October that he wouldn't vote for Trump, calling it a choice of "your country over your party." He's hosting "The New Celebrity Apprentice," in which Trump retains a producing stake.
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