1. Florida's largest utility says today's widespread power outages were caused when it shut down a nuclear reactor south of Miami. The outages have affected more than three million people across the southern end of the state. Authorities did not specify the cause of the shutdown but they did say there were no safety concerns.

2. Senate Republicans have agreed to advance a bill that would cut off money for Iraq. They say it will let them tout progress in the war. The Senate voted 70-24 to begin debating in the bill. A final vote is expected later this week or next week.

3. Mark Lunsford, the father of a nine-year-old girl killed by a convicted sex offender, says he's suing a sheriff’s office. He says the office bungled the investigation into his daughter's disappearance.

4. It's one of a kind experience for two. These two business partners from Idaho cut the tips off snowboards and then bolted them together to create the two-man board. The pairs are already in the Guinness Book of World Records for most consecutive turns on a two-man board.

WORDS IN THE NEWS
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English Online
Merriam-Webster Online

1. tout: verb.

to praise something or someone in order to persuade people that they are important or worth a lot