A poignant holiday read  Merry Christmas from your friends at Muck Rack! For many of us, this story is particularly relevant on Christmas Day: Chinese Restaurants Are Closing. That’s a Good Thing, the Owners Say. As Amelia Nierenberg and Quoctrung Bui explain at The New York Times, Chinese-American restaurants aren’t closing because of lack of demand or the notoriously tough restaurant business. “Instead, a big reason seems to be the economic mobility of the second generation.”
The story seems to have struck a chord with a lot of readers. Johanna Barr highlights, “‘These people came to cook so their children wouldn’t have to, and now their children don’t have to.’ Such a great and interesting read.” Adds Dana Goldstein, “poignant holiday read -- especially for me, the great-granddaughter of a NYC short-order cook.” And Adrian Carrasquillo says, “Maybe it’s the time of year but I found this to be really touching.” Justin Green calls it “The classic American story: kids of immigrants want more from their lives than the thing their parents did to make it in America. Their parents agree.” About this next one, Lynda Robinson shares, “This is the fourth time @JohnWoodrowCox has written an A1 @washingtonpost story for Christmas. And it’s so worth your time.” John Woodrow Cox’s latest for The Washington Post tells the story of a 70-year-old homeless man named Robert Fox. Don’t miss A homeless man longs to see his daughter on Christmas. Can he find $27 for a bus ticket? On Twitter, Cox shares, “And yes, we are working on a follow-up.” Meanwhile, “More of this, please,” tweets Brooke Binkowski, who links to the story by Colleen Shalby of the Los Angeles Times about the “astounding Christmas gift” by an Eagle Rock church, Christian Assembly Church, which is wiping out $5.3 million in medical debt for thousands of low-income Los Angeles area residents. Crimes and Christmas 
A 54-year-old man accused of spiriting away gifts was captured thanks to a Tampa police helicopter. And then, Kirby Wilson explains, “I made a crime brief into a Christmas poem and the @TB_Times published it somehow* * @jthalji may have been involved.” Head over to the Tampa Bay Times for An alleged porch pirate. A Tampa police helicopter. And a Christmas poem. As Jamal Thalji says, “'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the newsroom Not a creature was stirring ... except the night cops reporter. @TB_Times poet @KirbyWTweets tells how an alleged porch pirate was captured as only he can: #NightEditorProblems.” Meanwhile in Colorado, a man robbed a bank, ran outside and then immediately threw cash in the air yelling ‘Merry Christmas,’ as Brooke Seipel writes at The Hill, and like Dylan Matthews, we have “No choice but to stan.” As Lindsey Grewe reports for KKTV-11, the suspect was identified as 65-year-old David Wayne Oliver. Bystanders scooped the money up and gave it back to the teller. Christen McCurdy “Was not thrilled about yet another gritty reboot but this Miracle on 34th Street remake honestly looks pretty great.” Politics, if you must 
In what Chris Lehmann calls “A savvy flourish of vertical integration from the stop-and-frisk candidate,” Mike Bloomberg Exploited Prison Labor to Make 2020 Presidential Campaign Phone Calls. That’s the scoop from John Washington of The Intercept, and “I wish this was surprising,” says Marc Lamont Hill. Also, for the record, “Second place was a set of steak shivs,” notes Nick Gillespie. At The Washington Post, Annie Linskey and Michelle Ye Hee Lee reveal how Elizabeth Warren embraced the high-dollar fundraiser circuit for years — until just before her presidential campaign. As Eli Lake explains, “Elizabeth Warren was raising money in bank vaults and wineries. But not wine caves.” The U.S. recalled its ambassador to Zambia yesterday after he criticized the government for sending a gay couple to prison and accused officials of stealing millions of dollars of public funds. As Ruth Maclean reports at The New York Times, speaking out on gay rights and corruption cost Daniel Foote his job. Oh my heavens! Lisa Murkowski is ‘disturbed’ by McConnell’s vow for ‘total coordination’ with the White House for the impeachment trial. That’s from the Alaska senator’s interview with Sean Maguire of KTUU. Almost certainly in bed 
Jack Shafer urges, “Read everything @drewharwell writes. Here he is today on the surveillance state that is the modern university.” In his new piece for The Washington Post, Drew Harwell reports that colleges are turning students’ phones into surveillance machines, tracking the locations of hundreds of thousands of students more precisely than ever before. Madhulika Sikka says it’s “One of the more astonishing stories you'll read today,” while Karen Weintraub points out, “I don’t need high-tech tracking to figure out where my students are when they miss our 8 a.m. class. Almost certainly in bed. Not sure that tracking students' whereabouts will help improve their performance, but the story's interesting.” The horror of Uttar Pradesh’s violent CAA crackdown Aman Sethi links to his exclusive for HuffPost India, CAA: UP Police Tortured Children Swept Up In Citizenship Law Protests, which takes us “inside the horror of Uttar Pradesh’s violent CAA crackdown: Five children share detailed accounts of 48 hrs of torture.” From Shoaib Daniyal of the Scroll.in, Shock in Varanasi as 56 social activists charged with violent rioting – after a peaceful protest. Their families and friends are now scared of speaking to journalists. Tweets Ramachandra Guha, “The savage state repression in Uttar Pradesh has not even spared the holy city of Varanasi, incidentally also the constituency of the Prime Minister.” And another story at Scroll.in, this one by Executive Editor Supriya Sharma, He stepped out for a smoke. A bullet killed him. Now, UP police has named him as a rioter in Meerut. “Such is the fear in the Meerut neighbourhood where five Muslim men were killed on Friday that only two people were willing to speak to me on camera. One of them is Kallo Baaji, a 60-year-old. Listen to her,” tweets Sharma. Hong Kong crackdown The Washington Post obtained the Hong Kong police’s use-of-force guidelines and gave them to multiple international experts. As Shibani Mahtani, Timothy McLaughlin, Tiffany Liang and Ryan Ho Kilpatrick report, the experts concluded that police repeatedly broke their own rules in the Hong Kong crackdown — and faced no consequences. On Twitter, McLaughlin explains, “A few months ago @washingtonpost began receiving docs from concerned Hong Kong police officers. The more than 100 pages detail guidelines for use of force and training, but have been repeatedly broken/ignored by officers during months of protests.” Farewells ESPN shares the incredibly sad news that college football reporter Edward Aschoff died yesterday, on his 34th birthday. Andrea Adelson and Chris Low have the obit for Aschoff, who was getting married in April. “Just the saddest. If you were lucky enough to meet Ed, you know how easy he was to love. What heartbreaking news,” tweets Dave Wilson. You’ll want to spend some time with The New York Times Magazine’s 2019 edition of The Lives They Lived, remembering some of the artists, innovators and thinkers we lost in the past year. Fran Lebowitz on Toni Morrison. Susan Dominus on Judith Krantz. David Marchese on David Berman. Michael Paterniti on Leah Chase. Taffy Brodesser-Akner on Luke Perry. And more. And one more poignant story. “Star Wars” fan Riley Howell, who died saving his classmates in the UNC Charlotte shooting, is being honored as a Jedi Master in a new book about the Star Wars universe. Julia Reinstein has that story at BuzzFeed News. Let it go, really 
Finally today, this might be useful, especially if you’re one of the 1 in 7 people who said they were unhappy with the gifts they received for Christmas. Gabrielle S. Adams and Michael Norton of The Wall Street Journal offer up The Case for Regifting. The good news: ‘“Guilty, lazy, thoughtless, disrespectful’ - are these your feelings about regifting? Researchers think different feelings dominate,” tweets Demetria Gallegos. As Cristina Lourosa says, “The general attitude of the original givers: ‘It’s your gift, do what you want with it.’” | 
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