AP News Digest 3:15 a.m.

Virus Outbreak Congress (Copyright 2020 Jacquelyn Martin. All rights reserved.)

Here are the AP’s latest coverage plans, top stories and promotable content. All Times EST. For up-to-the minute information on AP’s coverage, visit Coverage Plan at https://newsroom ap.org.

______________

TOP STORIES

_____________

VIRUS OUTBREAK-CONGRESS -- Congress passed a $900 billion pandemic relief package Monday night that would finally deliver long-sought cash to businesses and individuals and resources to vaccinate a nation confronting a frightening surge in COVID-19 cases and deaths. With a $1.4 trillion catchall spending bill tacked on, the massive bundle of bipartisan legislation goes to President Donald Trump for his signature. By Andrew Taylor. SENT: 1,250 words photos. WITH: VIRUS OUTBREAK-CONGRESS-HIGHLIGHTS.

VIRUS OUTBREAK-EUROPE — Many countries on Monday imposed stringent travel restrictions over concerns about a new strain of the coronavirus in Britain that authorities say may spread more easily. However, health experts have urged caution, saying it’s not clear if the new strain is more lethal. By Pan Pylas. SENT: 1,007 words, photos. WITH VIRUS OUTBREAK-TRAVEL-RESTRICTIONS More and more countries around the world are restricting travel from Britain and elsewhere amid concerns about new strains of the coronavirus. SENT: 687 words, photos.

VIRUS OUTBREAK-PUBLIC SCHOOL ENROLLMENT — Data from 33 U.S. states shows that K-12 public school enrollment has dropped across those states by more than 500,000 students, or 2%, since the same time last year. That is a significant shift considering that enrollment overall in those states has typically gone up by about half a percent in recent years. The data obtained by Chalkbeat and The Associated Press offers the clearest picture yet of the pandemic’s devastating toll on public school enrollment. The decline could eventually have dire consequences for already stressed school budgets that are based on headcounts. Even more alarming, educators say, is that some of the students who left may not be in school at all. By Kalyn Belsha and Gabrielle LaMarr Lemee of Chalkbeat, and Leah Willingham and Larry Fenn of The Associated Press. SENT: 1,200 words, photos.

_______________________________

WHAT WE’RE TALKING ABOUT

_______________________________

MILWAULKEE POLICE CHIEF — Talks to determine the future of Milwaukee’s former police chief after a judge ruled he was improperly demoted have ended without a resolution. SENT: 460 words, photo.

TEXAS-SMALL PLANE CRASH — Authorities say two people were killed when a small plane crashed along a highway service road in North Texas shortly after taking off Monday afternoon. SENT: words, photos.

________________________________

MORE ON THE VIRUS OUTBREAK

_________________________________

VIRUS OUTBREAK-VACCINE INJURY CLAIMS — Lost in the U.S. launch of the coronavirus vaccine is a fact most don’t know when they roll up their sleeves: In rare cases of serious illness from the shots, the injured are blocked from suing and steered instead to an obscure federal bureaucracy with a record of seldom paying claims. SENT: 1,250 words, photos.

VIRUS OUTBREAK-ASIA — South Korea will prohibit private social gatherings of five or more people and shut down ski resorts and major tourist spots nationwide starting from Christmas Eve as it contends with surging coronavirus infections. The restrictions widen similar plans announced by authorities in the Seoul metropolitan area to a national level. SENT: 510 words, photos.

VIRUS OUTBREAK CALIFORNIA - California has recorded a half-million coronavirus cases in the last two weeks, overwhelming hospitals in urban centers and rural areas. A medical center in Imperial County along the Mexican border warned Monday that it is fast running out of patient beds. SENT: 880 words, photos.

Find more coverage on the Virus Outbreak on the featured topic page in AP Newsroom.

________________________

WASHINGTON/POLITICS

________________________

SURPRISE MEDICAL BILLS -- People with private health insurance will see the nasty shock of “surprise” medical bills virtually gone, thanks to the coronavirus compromise reached in Congress. The charges that can run from hundreds to tens of thousands of dollars come from doctors and hospitals that are outside the network of a patient’s health insurance plan. By Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar. SENT: 760 words, photos.

CONGRESS-CLIMATE CHANGE -- The huge pandemic relief and spending bill includes billions of dollars to promote clean energy such as wind and solar power while phasing out use of potent coolants in air conditioners and refrigerators that are considered a major driver of global warming. By Matthew Daly. SENT: 700 words, photos.

VIRUS OUTBREAK-CONGRESS-EDUCATION -- The year-end spending bill before Congress would restore prisoners’ eligibility for federal Pell grants for college, simplify the form used to apply for student aid and erase more than $1 billion in federal debt for historically black colleges, among an array of other education initiatives tucked into the legislation. By Education Writer Collin Binkley. SENT: 600 words, photos.

CONGRESS-TOO BIG TO READ — The $900 billion pandemic relief package being rushed through Congress has created a familiar year-end conundrum for lawmakers: It’s a bill that’s too big to fail, and also too big to read. Delivering virus aid to the country will require a leap of faith for lawmakers as they cast votes, practically sight unseen, for a sprawling bill with hundreds of legislative items negotiated by leadership. Some frustrated members are refusing to go along. By Mary Clare Jalonick. SENT: 920 words, photos.

_________________

INTERNATIONAL

________________

SOUTH AFRICA-CHILD KILLING — Official crime figures show around 1,000 children are murdered every year in South Africa, nearly three a day. But that horrific statistic may be an undercount. Child welfare experts say many more children are victims of homicides that are not investigated properly, not prosecuted or are completely missed by authorities. SENT: 950 words, photos.

AFGHANISTAN-ATTACK — Afghan police say a roadside bomb has torn through a vehicle in the capital of Kabul, killing at least five people, four of them doctors. The doctors worked at the Puli Charkhi prison, Kabul’s main penitentiary, and were killed as they were on the way to their office. SENT: 300 words.

ISRAEL-POLITICS — Israel appears headed to its fourth election in two years after a last-ditch effort to keep the government afloat and push off the automatic dissolution of parliament failed. SENT: 330 words, photo.

YE EUROPE PHOTOS — In the year 2020, as COVID-19′s full power to kill and disrupt invaded the consciousness of hundreds of millions of Europeans, many lives were cut short but all were turned topsy-turvy. The year also unleashed a wave of protest and societal scrutiny in Europe following the police killing of a Black man in the U.S. Britain officially demolished its political ties with the continent by leaving the EU in January after nearly half a century, while on Europe’s easternmost fringes, war in the mountains of Nagorno-Karabakh killed thousands. SENT: 460 words, photos.

NEW ZEALAND-BRITISH TOURIST-MURDERER — A New Zealand man who murdered a British tourist two years ago has been identified as the attacker in assaults on two other women. SENT: 330 words, photos.

_____________

NATIONAL

____________

AIRFORCE-RACIAL DISPARITY — A new report on racial disparities in the Air Force concludes that Black service members in the service are far more likely to be investigated, arrested, face disciplinary actions, and be discharged for misconduct. SENT: 710 words, photos.

CALIFORNIA COLD CASE — California authorities say they have charged a convicted killer with the 1988 kidnapping and slaying of a 9-year-old girl. Michaela Joy Garecht disappeared from a market in the San Francisco Bay Area after riding her scooter there with a friend. Her body has never been found. SENT: 490 words, photos.

MEDIA ELECTION — Two election technology companies whose names have come up in the Trump campaign’s false charges of widespread voter fraud in the presidential election are fighting back — and that has prompted unusual public statements from Fox News and Newsmax. SENT: 750 words, photos.

VIRUS OUTBREAK-FLORIDA SEARCH WARRANT — A former Florida Department of Health employee is suing the state over a search warrant executed on her house. The search came after investigators said they identified a message sent from a computer at the address to health department employees. SENT: 350 words.

POLICE SEARCH-WRONG HOME — Chicago police officers who wrongly raided the home of a Black woman who wasn’t allowed to get dressed before being handcuffed have been placed on desk duty. Mayor Lori Lightfoot made the announcement Monday a day after Chicago’s top lawyer resigned in the fallout of the February 2019 incident where officers executed a search warrant on the home of social worker Anjanette Young. SENT: 580 words, photos.

MEDIA-NEWSPAPER APOLOGY — The Kansas City Star investigated — and apologized for — its mistreatment of Black citizens for much of a history that dates back to the newspaper’s founding in 1880. Until things began to change in the 1960s, Black Kansas City residents were rarely mentioned in the newspaper unless it concerned a crime. SENT: 650 words, photos.

OBIT-KT OSLIN — Country singer K.T. Oslin, who hit it big with the 1987 hit “80′s Ladies” and won three Grammy awards, has died. She was 78. SENT: 500 words, photos.

WEST POINT-CHEATING — More than 70 West Point cadets have been accused of cheating on a math exam taken online when they were studying remotely because of the coronavirus pandemic. A spokesman at the U.S. Military Academy says 55 cadets admitted cheating on the calculus exam in May. SENT: 320 words, photos.

OBIT-SPECIAL OLYMPIAN — Michael “Moose” Cusack, a Chicago-area man who helped inspire the Special Olympics movement and who won multiple medals at the athletic event over years, has died. He was 64. SENT: 410 words, photos.

___________

BUSINESS

___________

AUSTRALIA-GOOGLE-FITBIT — Australia’s competition regulator has delayed for three months its decision on Google’s plan to buy fitness gadget maker Fitbit for $2.1 billion despite the European Union giving conditional approval. SENT: 350 words, photos.

FINANCIAL MARKETS: Shares have retreated in Asia after the U.S. included dozens more Chinese companies in a Commerce Department blacklist in another blow to markets already wracked with uncertainty over the pandemic. The Shanghai Composite index dropped nearly 2% on Tuesday and other regional markets also were mostly lower. By Elaine Kurtenbach. SENT: 530 words, photos.

___________

SPORTS

___________

BENGALS-BIG UPSET — Bengals safety Vonn Bell made a beeline for JuJu Smith-Schuster and delivered a devastating hit, forcing a fumble while sending the Steelers’ receiver flying backward. After dancing on Cincinnati’s midfield logo before the game, Smith-Schuster got planted in the turf — and the underdog Bengals were no pussycats at all in a 27-17 upset. SENT: 600 words, photos.

WOMEN’S BKB POLL — Oregon State’s four-year run in the Top 25 is over as the Beavers fell out of The Associated Press women’s basketball poll for the first time since 2016. SENT: 525 words.

___________________

HOW TO REACH US

___________________

At the Nerve Center, Shameka Dudley-Lowe can be reached at 800-845-8450 (ext. 1600). For photos, (ext. 1900). For graphics and interactives, (ext. 7636). Expanded AP content can be obtained from http://newsroom.ap.org. For access to AP Newsroom and other technical issues, contact apcustomersupport(at)ap.org or call 877-836-9477.