9 At Your Desk: Friday, Dec. 21

LAWSUIT: Attorneys for 30,000 residents who live in the Avalon Park area of Orange County filed a class-action lawsuit Thursday, alleging the Orlando Utilities Commission polluted their neighborhood with cancerous toxins from a nearby power plant. Read more here.

TRAVEL TIPS: Orlando International Airport is set to be among the busiest airports in the country during the Christmas and New Year's travel season. Airport officials said more than 2.7 million passengers are expected to fly in and out of Orlando during the busy travel stretch. That amounts to a 6 percent increase over last year. Officials say the busiest days are still to come. Read their tips to make traveling as smooth as possible.

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CRASH: Officials said a car crashed into a fire engine as firefighters were assisting in another crash on SR-408. The driver of the car was taken to Orlando Regional Medical Center as a trauma alert, officials said. The firefighters sustained non-life-threatening injuries. Find out the latest here.

SHUTDOWN OR NO SHUTDOWN: That is the question. Senate Republicans are set to meet with President Donald Trump on Friday morning as a potential government shutdown looms. Check out live updates here.

UH OH: Thursday proved to be a rough day for many Central Florida drivers who were stuck in a torrential downpour. One woman had to be rescued from the hood of her car, Maitland Fire Rescue said. Watch video of the rescue here.

WANTED: Detectives on Thursday continued their search for a trio in connection with the armed carjacking of a 19-year-old Deltona woman, the Volusia County Sheriff's Office said. Shortly before midnight Dec. 5, one of the men asked the woman to jumpstart his car as she arrived at her Sanborn Lane home, investigators said. Click here for more info.

CENTRAL FLORIDA TEMPERATURES: 5-Day Forecast 

UNEMPLOYMENT: Florida's unemployment rate dropped to 3.3 percent in November, the lowest level it's been in 12 years. The state released employment figures on Friday. The unemployment rate was down from 3.4 percent in October. Florida remains below the national unemployment rate of 3.7 percent. Click for the full story.

GIVING BACK: More than 800 Central Floridians in need will enjoy ready-to-cook holiday meals this Christmas courtesy of the Orlando Police Department. Officers set up Friday to hand out more than 800 ready-to-cook turkey dinners to residents in need as part of its fourth annual Christmas Dinner From a Cop program. Read more.

WHEN YOU GET HOME: New analysis from Echelon Insights lists Seminole County as the seventh most representative county of the U.S. as a whole, tops in the state. This means that the makeup of the county is most like the rest of the U.S. 9 Investigates what this means for elections and what it is about this one county in Central Florida that makes it such a barometer of the nation. Florida is already a competitive state, but can we learn more about the state and nation in this one place? Watch Eyewitness News starting at 5 p.m. for the full report.

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