In Other News: Bill Gates played secret Santa for a lucky person on the internet; Missouri woman’s plan to pay property taxes in nickels foiled

Published 12:53 pm Thursday, December 26, 2019

Editor’s note: “In Other News” is a list of state, national and global headlines compiled by the Daily Citizen-News staff. Click on the headlines below to read the full stories. To suggest a story, email the appropriate link to inothernews@dailycitizen.news. 

Bill Gates played secret Santa for a lucky person on the internet — here’s everything she got in her 81-pound package

A Reddit user from Michigan was the lucky recipient of a massive holiday package from Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates. A Detroit-area woman named Shelby signed up for a gift exchange organized by r/SecretSanta and Redditgifts.com and received an 81-pound box from a user named “thisisbillgates” on Dec. 18, along with a donation to the American Heart Association to honor her late mother. Shelby has participated in 95 gift exchanges on RedditGifts, and told MarketWatch she’d always thought it would be interesting to be matched with Gates. The billionaire philanthropist has been participating in Reddit secret Santa exchanges for more than five years and makes a point to find personal gifts for each recipient based on the gift questionnaire they fill out at the start of the exchange. — Business Insider

Missouri woman’s plan to pay property taxes in nickels foiled

A Missouri woman wanted to protest the increase in her property taxes and hatched a plan to pay her bill in nickels. However, the plan went up in smoke this week when local officials said they wouldn’t accept the 1,419 rolls of nickels, weighing 625 pounds. Cynthia Lockett told WDAF last month that her 2019 assessment increased her land value by 135%, and her overall market value 45%. Multiple phone calls to appeal the assessment went unanswered, so she hatched her plan. — Fox News

Eating in a 6-hour window and fasting for 18 hours might help you live longer

Abstaining from food for 16 to 18 hours a day could be key to treating a variety of health conditions — even if you’ve got to train yourself to push past the hunger. A review of past animal and human studies in The New England Journal of Medicine suggests that intermittent fasting can reduce blood pressure, aid in weight loss and improve longevity. The report functions as a road map of sorts for physicians to prescribe fasting as a method of prevention or treatment for obesity, cancer, diabetes and heart disease. — CNN

Ex-Christian publication editor who quit says he had ‘no other choice’ after pro-Trump editorial

A former editor for The Christian Post said Thursday he had “no other choice” but to resign from his job after the Christian news website issued a strong editorial supporting President Donald Trump. “When I was told this would be the position of the paper, of the news site, I said that’s not something I can support,” Napp Nazworth, who announced on Monday that he had resigned from The Christian Post, told CNN’s Alisyn Camerota on “New Day.” Nazworth’s resignation came amid a heated debate among evangelicals about Trump, who enjoys overwhelming support from the community despite his controversial public behavior and comments. — CNN