Portal:Current events/United States

• A Nebraska Wesleyan University fraternity house caught on fire early this morning, killing 1 and critically injuring 3 others.
• The son of Texan oil billionaire T. Boone Pickens has pleaded guilty to charges of securities fraud. Michael O. Pickens apologized for his actions, in a federal courthouse in Manhattan. (Reuters)
• Four firefighters are killed and one is critically injured as they tried to control the Esperanza Fire that drove hundreds from their homes near Palm Springs, California, United States. An arsonist started the fire. (CNN) (CBS)
• The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Food and Drug Administration searches two spinach packaging companies in the Salinas Valley in California for evidence related to an outbreak of E. coli in the United States that made 200 people sick. (San Francisco Chronicle)
• The United States National Labor Relations Board determines that workers normally assigned as shift supervisors should not be covered by a federal law ensuring a right to union membership. (AP via Houston Chronicle)
• United States scientists John C. Mather and George Smoot win the Nobel Prize in physics for research into cosmic microwave background radiation that helps explain the origins of galaxies and stars. (Bloomberg)
• At least five pupils, a teacher's aide, and a gunman are dead after an Amish school shooting in Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania, United States. Some reports have the number of dead at six. (The Guardian) (ABC) (CNN) (BBC)
• Two schools in Las Vegas, Nevada are locked down, after a former student reportedly brought an AK-47 or other automatic weapons to school. (Wikinews)
• Casino company Harrah's Entertainment receives an $81-per-share cash offer from private-equity firms Apollo Management and Texas Pacific Group. (Associated Press via Examiner.com)
• Former U.S. Rep. Mark Foley, under FBI investigation for e-mail exchanges with teenage congressional pages, has checked himself into rehabilitation facility for alcoholism treatment. (Associated Press via Examiner.com)

[edit] October

• 9: Columbus Day