NATIONAL
Dow Jones hits 13,000 mark
The Dow Jones Industrial Average pierced the 13,000 level before noon on Tuesday, Feb. 21 for the first time since the financial crisis began.
Dow Jones is a stock market index, and one of several indexes created by Wall Street Journal editor and Dow Jones & Company co-founder Charles Dow in 1986 (dowjones.com).
However, it was down 17 points in late afternoon trading. The Dow last traded at the 13,000 level on May 20, 2008. The last time the Dow closed above that level was May 19, 2008. Back then, the index was on the way down from its historic high of 14,198 in Oct. 2007 (online.wsj.com).
INTERNATIONAL
Man survives two months in snowdrift
A Swedish man survived being trapped in his car in a giant snowdrift for two months.
The 44-year-old survived by eating handfuls of snow in temperatures as low as –30 degrees Celcius. All he had were cigarettes, comics and a sleeping bag. Experts believe the cold slowed down his metabolism, like an animal in hibernation.
He was rescued when snowmobile riders spotted movement from the car on a forest track at Umea. Police said: “He was in a very poor state and could only speak broken sentences. He managed to say he hadn’t eaten since December.”
The “igloo effect” of warm air trapped inside his car helped him survive (web.orange.co.uk).
NATIONAL
Mother’s goth website ended Girl Scout troop leadership position
A Wisconsin mom says she was booted from her position as a Girl Scout troop leader because she and her husband run a goth website.
Stacy Hintz helps her husband Charlie run his website, Wisconsin Sickness. Last week, Charlie wrote that his wife’s co-leader in the Girl Scout troop had discovered their website and asked her to resign. The co-leader cited the website’s section on serial killer Ed Hein (inspiration for “The Silence of the Lambs”) and a mention of Wisconsin porn stores as evidence that the Hintzes were steeped in sin. When Stacy refused to resign, Mary Black, Chief Program Officer of Girl Scouts of Wisconsin Southeast, sent her an email officially dismissing her (jezebel.com).