Body Found Under Explosion

JJ's Restaurant, in Kansas City, exploded February 19th around 6:00 p.m. because of natural gases and fire, causing 15 people to be injured and possibly some dead. Firefighters found a body of a women in the ruins of the restaurant Wednesday morning, the day after the explosion. Kansas City's mayor said "We can't be 100 percent sure we can account for every single person who might have been at JJ's last night," The explosion was so powerful that it busted out windows of neighboring buildings and could be sensed for over 100 meters away.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/02/20/us-usa-blast-kansascity-idUSBRE91J03020130220

More benefits for military partners

Even though housing for same-sex partners in the military will still not be offered, more benefits will be. The Pentagon got rid of the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" law about 17 months ago. Now, the spouses of openly gay military fighters are allowed to visit the fighters in the hospital, get military I.D. cards, and more, but the U.S. Law is limiting rights. It will take time, but eventually, same-sex partners will have the same benefits as all other military fighters. Officials think this will be August of this year. President Obama is very happy about this announcement because he wants progress on LGTB rights.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/02/11/us-usa-military-gays-idUSBRE91A0XZ20130211

Play-Doh Becoming Gluten-Free

More and more young children are becoming gluten-free or are allergic to gluten and schools are working on getting more gluten-free lunch and snack options. Parents are becoming concerned with Play-Doh because it's not gluten-free kids are having allergic reactions to it. One of the main ingredients in Play-Doh is wheat however, but companies are working to find other ingredients for it. Preschools are buying gluten-free dough for children to plat with and sales have increased 67% and last year, over 50,000 containers were sold. Kids get rashes as well as bloodshot eyes when playing with gluten Play-Doh, so this new dough will be much better for them.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/even-toys-are-going-gluten-free-2013-02-05?link=MW_latest_news

Economy Going Back Down?

"Think of it as a giant hand holding down the economy," chief economist Tim Hopper at TIAA-CREF says about the economy in the late months of 2012. Since October, the economy's drive has basically stopped improving. The G.D.P. has gone down to 0.1% which is the worst it has been in almost four years. Lawmakers were trying to deside on tax increases and the Government had to limit their spending. The economy is expected to go back up in 2013 because the Congress and White House agreed on taxes and spending for the Government.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324156204578273611039517142.html

House Prices Decreasing

December brought worries to the National Association of Realtors because there was an unusually low amount of houses sold in that month in 2012, even though the year as a whole brought 4.65 million homes sold. For the last five years, realitors were having a hard time selling homes, so with 2012's large amount sold, that will hopefully bring the market back up. There has been low morgage rates and low amounts of supplies to build houses due to expences. Houses already built and on the market keep decreasing in price which makes people buy faster.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-01-22/sales-of-u-s-existing-homes-drop-on-lowest-supply-in-a-decade.html

Syria explosion

In Aleppo, Syria, two explosions went off in a university while students were taking finals. The blasts blew out windows, blew down walls, and set fire to cars all over Aleppo University. 82 people died from the explosions with many more injured. The University was open even though there were battles between the rebels and the government. There are no leads about how the explosions happened but the rebels are blaming the government and the government is blaming the rebels.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/middleeast/la-fg-syria-university-20130116,0,7552746.story

Worst flu outbreak since swine flu

Boston has declared this flu season a public health emergency and is trying to give as many free flu vaccines as they can to people who haven't had them yet. They have had at least 700 cases of the flu compared to last year's which was only about 70. Hospitals have actually been limiting visiters and trying to get them out of the waiting rooms as soon as possible. Even nursing homes are requesting no visiters so they senior citizens don't have the risk of getting the flu. They have higher risks of getting pneumonia and staff don't want to risk it. almost anywhere you go now there is hand sanitizer and disinfectant wipes because of the outbreaks.
http://www.boston.com/dailydose/2013/01/09/boston-hospitals-and-nursing-homes-implement-stricter-measures-against-the-flu/RK4iOR0EWN84klun02uc7H/story.html