The two B-52 warplanes flew a routine training mission over disputed island chain claimed by both Japan and China. Colonel Steve Warren, a Pentagon spokesman said the mission was planned before China declared the new zone. He said the American pilots followed what he called normal procedures. They did not file flight plans, radio ahead or register their frequencies. Warren said there was no Chinese response. The Chinese government announced a new defense zone last weekend and said it has the right to identify, monitor and possibly take military action against aircraft entering the area. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel called the move a destabilising attempt to alter the status quo in the region.  Tom Bowman, NPR News, Washington.

 

Supreme Court’s agreeing to weigh in the contentious debate over a sensitive aspect to President Obama’s new health care law, namely whether businesses can cite religious objections as an excuse for not in hearing to a requirement that help plans cover birth control for employees. Justice is announcing today that they would take up the issue that has divided lower courts with only in 40 lawsuits. One involves the company Hobby Lobby, an Oklahoma based arts and crafts chain with 13,000 employees. The other is Conestoga Wood Specialties, a Pennsylvania cabinet maker that employs 950 people. 

 

The sentencing of a Somali American man convicted of trying to bomb a holiday tree-lighting  in 2010 is on hold. NPR’s Carrie Johnson reports the Justice Department recently notified the man he’d been picked up on secret surveillance. 

 

The judge says Sulaiman Abu Ghaith made to FBI agents during a long flight to New York are fair game. Authorities in Jordan intercepted, Abu Ghaith, then al-Qaeda spokesman during a stopover early this year. They extradited him to the U.S. to face conspiracy and other charges. The decision by U.S. District Judge Louis Kaplan paves a way for a trial next year for Abu Ghaith who’s married to one of Osama Bin Laden’s daughters. He appeared in al-Qaeda propaganda after 9/11. Carrie Johnson, NPR News, Washington.

 

U.S. home builders last month who planed to build new single family homes and apartments at the fastest pace in five years. Commerce Department says permits for construction rose by 6.2% from the previous month to an annual rate of just over 1 million units. Nearly all the increase was for multifamily homes, a permit shut up by double digit a month. Government did not say how many of those projects actually were started though, since that information was delayed by last month partial government shutdown. 

 

Stocks continued to upward momentum today, propelled higher by better earnings from luxury retailer Tiffany and a rising home building stocks. The Dow gained a fraction of a point, to close at 16,072; the NASDAQ closed above 4,000 for the first time since 2000, rising 23 points.

 

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CBS 60 Minutes correspondent Lara Logan and her producer have been ordered by the network to take a leave of absence. That’s on the hills that investigation into October story on the attack on a U.S. diplomatic facility in Benghazi, Libya. Internal review of the coverage is critical of network’s handling of the October story on the raid. Show during its coverage of the story relied on an interview with the security contractor, who claimed he was at the U.S. mission the night, Libya, it was an attack, but whose story later came into question. CBS Chairman Jeff Fager, also the executive producer of “60 Minutes” ordered Logan to take the leave of absence. 

 

Labor activists say they win a close vote to establish a $15 an hour minimum wage in and around Seattle International Airport. NPR’s Martin Kaste has more.

 

The minimum wage was on the ballot in the small suburb of SeaTac, home to the airport of the same name. Election day was three weeks ago, but ballot count has been closed. At one point, the two sides were just 19 votes apart. Now the gap has widened to a little more than 1%. And at a press conference in the airport, Labor Leader David Rolf declared victory. 

 

The voters have spoken, they said that the people who put fuel in these jets ought to be able some day afford to buy a ticket on one of them. 

 

But opponents say they will pay for a recount and they’ve sued to block the $15 wage which they say violates state and federal laws. Martin Kaste, NPR News, Seattle. 

 

Motorola says it will begin selling its new lower cost smartphone in the U.S., roughly a month earlier than planned. The company announcing today, because it was able to produce its Moto G phones faster than expected. They will go on sale Tuesday. New cheaper phones will sell for $179 without a contract that compares with more than $600 or more people typically pay for high-end phones without a traditional two-year agreement.