A Pittsburgh cab passenger shoots a Muslim driver in the back. A bullet-pocked copy of the Quran is left outside a Muslim shop.  A man draws a knife on an Islamic woman at a car wash. These are just a few of the incidents tripling the number of hate crimes against Muslims since the attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, according to a new report by the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at Cal State University in San Bernardino, the site of the recent shooting.

Congress handily passed the omnibus spending legislation and headed out for holiday recess. Both sides declared victory. The final package left out House-passed restrictions on the refugee resettlement program, while including stricter security checks for the visa waiver program, used by millions who enter the U.S. on an expedited basis from a select group of countries.

Civil libertarians continued to voice concern about a measure bolstering information-sharing between tech companies and national security agencies as a means of policing cyberattacks. Ted Cruz drew fire for his support of Edward Snowden-driven reforms of the NSA at a time when many Republican rivals (with the notable exception of Rand Paul) were advocating restoring and expanding government surveillance powers in light of the attacks.

The Department of Homeland Security released a fact sheet publicizing details of the K1 visa program and how it works.

President Obama held his final news conference of the year, and was in an upbeat mood.

A key detail reported about the San Bernardino—that they had been openly discussing jihadi plans on social media—was walked back, as the New York Times, correcting its initial account, indicated the exchanges happened on private channels, not public ones.  

The Democratic presidential contenders prepared to square off in a debate Saturday night, as the party dealt with controversies of their own. Some commentators have faulted party leaders for limiting the number of debates and burying them on the weekend (this is the second straight contest being held on a Saturday night) as a means of protecting frontrunner Hillary Clinton.   

On Friday, Bernie Sanders’ campaign brought legal action against the DNC, which suspended the Sanders camp’s access to party voter data after a software glitch allowed  the Vermont senator’s staff to view and save Clinton campaign information they should never have been able to see. The Center for Democracy and Technology, a grantee, was quoted in accounts about the challenges involved in maintaining voter data safety.

Among other grantee activities:

--Human Rights First was one of many grantees seizing the occasion of International Migrants’ Day to call on the U.S. government to protect migrants against human rights abuses.  

--Muslim Advocates promoted a speech by Justice Department Civil Rights Division chief Vanita Gupta, launching a new community initiative entitled “Know Your Neighbor” in defense of religious pluralism.

--America’s Voice called out Trump supporters who shouted “Go back to Mexico” at Latinos attending a rally.  

--MoveOn.org approached its goal in a petition drive to support a professor at Wheaton College, a Christian college, who was suspended for wearing a head scarf in solidarity with Muslim women facing hate speech and hate crimes this season. The drive is headed by grantee Linda Sarsour of MPower of Change.

--The ACLU mounted a campaign to harness opposition to Congress’ language on government surveillance and the visa waiver program.