Dec. 9: Biden says Congress should ‘step up’ after UNLV shooting. Michigan school shooter gets life without parole

Good morning! It’s Saturday, Dec. 9, 2023. Here’s a look at your news across the nation:

1️. Biden: ‘We need Congress to step up’ after UNLV shooting

President Joe Biden speaks at the Carpenters International Training Center on Friday, Dec. 8, 2023, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Lucas Peltier)

2. Michigan school shooter gets life without parole

Ethan Crumbley sits in court listening to victim impact statements, Friday, Dec. 8, 2023, in Pontiac, Mich. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio, Pool)

3. Lahaina residents struggle with return of tourism in West Maui

LAHAINA, HAWAII – OCTOBER 09: In an aerial view, a recovery vehicle drives past burned structures and cars two months after a devastating wildfire on October 09, 2023 in Lahaina, Hawaii. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)

4. FDA approves first gene therapies for sickle cell disease

FILE - This microscope photo provided on Oct. 25, 2023, by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows crescent-shaped red blood cells from a sickle cell disease patient in 1972. Britain's medicines regulator has authorized the world's first gene therapy treatment for sickle cell disease, in a move that could offer relief to thousands of people with the crippling disease in the U.K. In a statement on Thursday, Nov. 16, 2023, the Medicines and Healthcare Regulatory Agency said it approved Casgevy, the first medicine licensed using the gene editing tool CRISPR, which won its makers a Nobel prize in 2020. (Dr. F. Gilbert/CDC via AP, File ) — FILE – This microscope photo provided on Oct. 25, 2023, by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows crescent-shaped red blood cells from a sickle cell disease patient in 1972. (Dr. F. Gilbert/CDC via AP, File )

📱 [Trending] this morning

ONE OF THE SKY’S BRIGHTEST STARS WILL TEMPORARILY DISAPPEAR

One of the brightest stars in the night sky will disappear from view temporarily on Dec. 12 as an asteroid passes in front of it, causing a rare eclipse.

This image made with the Hubble Space Telescope and released by NASA on Aug. 10, 2020 shows the star Alpha Orionis, or Betelgeuse, a red supergiant. The star, one of the biggest and brightest in the night sky, will momentarily vanish as an asteroid passes in front of it late Monday, Dec. 11, 2023, into early Tuesday. The event should be visible to millions of people along a narrow corridor stretching from central Asia’s Tajikistan and Armenia, across Turkey, Greece, Italy and Spain, all the way to Miami and the Florida Keys, and, finally, Mexico. (Andrea Dupree (Harvard-Smithsonian CfA), Ronald Gilliland (STScI), NASA and ESA via AP)

📅 What we’re watching

🔴 Ron DeSantis, Nikki Haley and Vivek Ramaswamy are among the candidates appearing at “Faith and Family with the Feenstras,” a GOP primary event in Sioux Center, Iowa.

🔴 Houston voters are set to pick a new mayor Saturday in a runoff between U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee and state Sen. John Whitmire, two Democrats who breezed past a wide field of candidates in November.

💻📲 We’ll bring you 🔴 LIVE news updates throughout the day on the NewsNation app and NewsNationNow.com.