Barack Obama Gives Farewell Address

On Tuesday night, President Obama attempted to revive the spirit and idealism of his 2008 campaign in a nostalgic, sometimes emotional final address to the nation from his hometown of Chicago, 10 days before he cedes power to Donald Trump. A farewell address is a speech given by an individual leaving a position or place. As many presidents do when giving their farewell address, he touched on things he hopes will help establish his legacy. In his words, "If I had told you eight years ago that America would reverse a great recession, reboot our auto industry, and unleash the longest stretch of job creation in our history...If I had told you that we would open up a new chapter with the Cuban people, shut down Iran's nuclear weapons program without firing a shot, and take out the mastermind of 9/11...If I had told you that we would win marriage equality, and secure the right to health insurance for another 20 million of our fellow citizens -- you might have said our sights were set a little too high. But that's what we did.” In 1796, George Washington set the precedent for a peaceful, democratic transfer of power and also set a precedent by penning a farewell address to the American people. And over the 220 years since, it has been customary for future president’s to follow his lead.

In Other News Classified documents presented last week to President Obama and President-elect Trump included allegations that Russian operatives claim to have compromising personal and financial information about Donald Trump. One reason the nation's intelligence chiefs took the extraordinary step of including the synopsis in the briefing documents was to make the President-elect aware that such allegations involving him are circulating among intelligence agencies, senior members of Congress and other government officials in Washington. These senior intelligence officials also included the synopsis to demonstrate that Russia had compiled information potentially harmful to both political parties, but only released information damaging to Hillary Clinton and Democrats. This synopsis was not an official part of the report from the intelligence community case about Russian hacks, but some officials said it augmented the evidence that Moscow intended to harm Clinton's candidacy and help Trump's. The two-page synopsis also included allegations that there was a continuing exchange of information during the campaign between Trump representatives and intermediaries for the Russian government. The Trump transition team declined repeated requests for comment. An Illinois high school has canceled classes for a second day due to a stomach virus affecting nearly a third of its 2,500 students. About 800 students at St. Charles East High School were ill with norovirus-like symptoms. The CDC (Centers for Disease Control and and Prevention) recommends that people with norovirus be symptom free for 48 hours before returning to normal activities. Norovirus causes around 20 million cases of gastrointestinal illness in the United States each year, according to the CDC, and it spreads easily in any area of close contact. The virus causes inflammation in the stomach and intestines, leading to stomach pain, nausea and diarrhea. These symptoms typically last one to three days. Other symptoms include a fever, headache and body aches.