Wednesday's Headlines: Trump briefed on claims Russia has compromising information on him

Vaccine skeptic Robert Kennedy Jr. says Trump named him to lead 'vaccine safety' group; Sessions pledges to put the law before his political views; Republicans scramble to ease concerns about what replaces Obamacare; Obama in farewell: 'Yes, we can. Yes, we did.'; Obama's farewell speech was a remarkable pep talk on democracy; Dylann Roof sentenced to death for Charleston church slayings;   The morning's most important stories, selected by Post editors   Top Stories Trump briefed on claims Russia has compromising information on him U.S. intelligence agencies have not corroborated the allegations about the president-elect's personal life and finances, which were gathered by an outside entity engaged in political consulting work. But they believed that the sources were credible enough to include them in the highly classified report Donald Trump and President Obama received last week, officials said. Trump replied Tuesday night with a Tweet declaring: "FAKE NEWS - A TOTAL POLITICAL WITCH HUNT!" By Greg Miller, Rosalind Helderman,Tom Hamburger and Steven Mufson  •  Read more » Vaccine skeptic Robert Kennedy Jr. says Trump named him to lead 'vaccine safety' group The announcement from Kennedy comes after the president-elect — who has long been critical of vaccines — met at Trump Tower with the advocate who has spearheaded efforts to roll back child vaccination laws. By Abby Phillip, Lena H. Sun and Lenny Bernstein  •  Read more »   Sessions pledges to put the law before his political views At the confirmation hearing for attorney general, Sessions said that although his politics might indicate otherwise, he would abide by the Supreme Court decision underpinning abortion and the ruling that legalized same-sex marriage. By Matt Zapotosky, Sari Horwitz and Ellen Nakashima  •  Read more »   Republicans scramble to ease concerns about what replaces Obamacare While there is consensus in the party about doing away with the law, there is less agreement about what a substitute should look like — or even how quickly one needs to be in place. By Kelsey Snell, Sean Sullivan and Amy Goldstein  •  Read more »   ADVERTISEMENT   Obama in farewell: 'Yes, we can. Yes, we did.' The president used his farewell speech in his home town of Chicago to defend his imperiled legacy and press a broad, optimistic vision for the country that seems more divided than ever. By Juliet Eilperin and Greg Jaffe  •  Read more »   Obama's farewell speech was a remarkable pep talk on democracy Time and again, Obama seemed to take on the role of reassurer-in-chief, insisting that history rarely moves in a straight line forward, and that while the election of Donald Trump might seem anomalous, it was really just a part of the broader march of progress. By Chris Cillizza  •  Read more »   Dylann Roof sentenced to death for Charleston church slayings The 22-year-old was convicted last month of 33 counts of federal hate crimes for killing nine black parishioners during a massacre inside a Charleston church. The same jury that found him guilty deliberated for just under three hours before deciding his sentence. By Kevin Sullivan  •  Read more »   Opinions   BuzzFeed’s ridiculous rationale for publishing the Trump-Russia dossier By Erik Wemple  •  Read more »   Tillerson to testify Russia must be held to account for its actions By Josh Rogin  •  Read more »   Jeff Sessions shed his offensive past in his confirmation hearing. Was it an act? By Dana Milbank  •  Read more »   Dylann Roof's last words By Kathleen Parker  •  Read more »   Face it, Southerners are nicer people By Garrison Keillor  •  Read more »   Republicans want to fight climate change, but fossil-fuel bullies won't let them By Sheldon Whitehouse  •  Read more » ADVERTISEMENT   More News   Survey reveals disconnect between police and public attitudes over violent clashes Officers say controversial deaths in police encounters are isolated incidents. In a separate poll, 60 percent of Americans said the deaths represent broader problems between police and black citizens. By Scott Clement and Wesley Lowery  •  Read more » U.S. seeks two-year prison sentence in classified leak case James E. "Hoss" Cartwright, the former vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI in a probe about the Stuxnet computer worm and a covert U.S.-Israeli cyberattack on Iran's nuclear program. By Spencer S. Hsu  •  Read more » This new poll has all kinds of bad news for Donald Trump The honeymoon is over for the man voted in as the most unpopular president-elect in modern history. Trump's numbers have dropped across the board since the election. By Aaron Blake  •  Read more » Seth Meyers grills Kellyanne Conway about claims that Russia has compromising information on Donald Trump The senior adviser to the president-elect told the "Late Night" host that "nothing's been confirmed." He continued to press her for answers. By Bethonie Butler  •  Read more » Hillary Clinton makes a low-key return to Washington Clinton appeared alongside fellow former secretaries of state for the ceremonial opening of a museum area at the State Department that will be partly named for her. By Anne Gearan  •  Read more » Clemson’s huge win was a massive loss for Las Vegas bookmakers Betting on the college football championship game came in heavily in favor of the underdog Tigers, leading to "as bad as a result as humanly possible" for Vegas, according to a director of trading. By Des Bieler  •  Read more » It's more expensive than ever to raise a child in the U.S. Families will shell out an average of $233,610 from birth through age 17 — or about $13,000 a year — according to new figures from the government. By Abha Bhattarai  •  Read more »         Share Today's Headlines:       Twitter      Facebook Trouble reading? Click here to view in your browser. You received this email because you are signed up for Headlines. 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