Jobless claims are now at their highest level since the September 11th attacks.  Newly released data from the Labor Department shows the number of workers filing new claims for jobless benefits rose to 516-thousand.  Analysts had forecast a rise in claims to 484-thousand.  In a separate report from the Commerce Department, U.S. imports fell by a record five-point-six-percent during September, marking their steepest decline since that same month in 2001.

Millions of people in Southern California will be participating today in the Great Southern California ShakeOut.  The week-long exercise is aimed at preparing the state for a catastrophic earthquake. 

The 34th straight month of rising foreclosure activity around the country has been logged by RealtyTrac.  The worst statistics were posted in Nevada, Arizona and Florida.  Foreclosures fell 18-percent in October in California from the previous month.  However, RealtyTrac's CEO says the recent move to restrain banks from foreclosing wasn't tied to any efforts to renegotiate shaky mortgages. 

A 15-year-old girl has been arrested in connection with the shooting death yesterday in a Fort Lauderdale, Florida high school of a 10th grade student.  The body of Amanda Collette was found outside the school's computer lab.  Officials believe the shooting was an isolated incident between the two students.

The lawyer for a University of Tennessee student accused of hacking Alaska Governor Sarah Palin's e-mail wants charges against his client reduced from a felony to a misdemeanor.  David Kernell was indicted last month for allegedly using information off Wikipedia and Google to guess his way into the former Republican VP candidate's Yahoo! mail account using the program's password recovery tool.

President-elect Barack Obama may have some relatives he never knew about.  An entire Bedouin tribe in northern Israel claims to be related to Obama, with one link through his Kenyan grandmother