Human Race

Protested

The traffic outside Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan is becoming a real problem, according to New York Mayor Bill de Blasio. A week after the election, Donald Trump was in his penthouse 58 stories up, putting together his future presidential staff, and local security was hopping: Police were checking and rechecking pedestrians and shoppers entering the tower, and had even brought in bomb-sniffing dogs. Protesters were also out in force, carrying signs and making obscene gestures. Armored police remained on hand to keep order, but with traffic snarled, tourists and ordinary New Yorkers could hardly go about their business.

Awarded

President Barack Obama named 21 winners this year of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the civilian equivalent of the Medal of Honor. The 2016 recipients included basketball star Michael Jordan, singer Bruce Springsteen, veteran sportscaster Vin Scully, and other philanthropic, cultural, and athletic stars. Ellen DeGeneres, Tom Hanks, Bill Gates, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar also made the cut. Obama told the media the honorees represent the ability of any American “to change this country for the better.”

Imprisoned

U.S. District Judge Michael Davis passed sentences in mid-November on nine Minnesotans convicted of plotting to join the Islamic State. The defendants, most in their early 20s, were part of Minnesota’s large Somali community, and officials say the nine inspired one another in attempting to join the terrorist group. Davis gave most of the men up to 15 years in prison, in addition to 20 years of supervised release. Three defendants, who had fought their charges of conspiracy to commit murder outside of the United States, received the harshest penalties: Davis sentenced two of them to 30 years in prison, and the third, 22-year-old ringleader Guled Omar, to 35 years.

Foiled

Police in Kosovo claim to have thwarted an Islamic State terror plot against the Israeli soccer team. Authorities said two Albanian members of the Islamic State (ISIS) coordinated an attack meant to target the Israelis as they visited Albania for their World Cup qualifier. Police in Kosovo and neighboring countries arrested 25 suspects in connection with the scheme, saying ISIS planned to attack the soccer match in Albania and an additional target in Kosovo. Raids of suspects’ homes and premises turned up explosives, weapons, and ISIS pamphlets. Officials shifted the Nov. 12 soccer match to a different city. (Israel won, 3-0.)

Died

Cliff Barrows, a song leader and longtime ministry partner to evangelist Billy Graham, died Nov. 15 after a short illness. He was 93. Barrows directed musical, television, and radio programming for Billy Graham’s evangelistic crusades after the two met in 1945. For more than 60 years Barrows hosted the weekly Hour of Decision program, heard around the world, and became one of Graham’s closest friends. For his contributions to gospel music, Barrows was inducted into the Nashville Gospel Music Hall of Fame in 1988.