1. President Obama defended some of the last acts of his presidency on Wednesday in his final White House news conference. Obama dismissed criticism that he was sending the wrong message by commuting the 35-year prison sentence of Chelsea Manning, an Army private convicted of giving a mountain of secret documents to WikiLeaks, saying it was the right thing to do because Manning had already served a "tough prison sentence." Obama, the nation's first black president, also disputed critics who say race relations worsened during his presidency, and called claims of voter fraud "fake news," a jab at Republicans who have cited it as justification for voter ID laws that critics say have disproportionately hampered low-income and minority voters.