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is helping ease dry conditions in Iowa but hasn't done much to relax the overall grip of the worst U.S. drought in decades.
• The weekly U.S. Drought Monitor report released Thursday shows that roughly 62 percent of the continental U.S. remains in some form of drought, unchanged from

the previous week. That number has been above 60 percent largely since July.
• Nearly 22 percent of the lower 48 states are in extreme or exceptional drought, the two worst categories. That also is unchanged from the previous week.
• All of Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma and South Dakota are in drought. But thanks to last week's snow, the amount of Iowa in extreme or exceptional drought fell 9 percentage points to 32 percent.
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• Your daily look at late-breaking news, upcoming events and stories that will be talked about Friday:
• 1. WILL ANYONE BUDGE
• Top congressional leaders will meet with President Barack Obama at the White House in a last-ditch effort to bridge the fiscal divide, but there's no sign a deal is taking shape.
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• 2. WHAT'S IN A NICKNAME
• To many, retired Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf will always be "Stormin' Norman," the no-nonsense Desert Storm commander. But the general who died Thursday preferred a lighter sobriquet: "The Bear."
•
• 3. WHO SHOULD HAVE GUNS IN SCHOOLS
• The NRA envisions armed volunteers to protect schools from attacks like the one in Newtown, Conn. School safety experts say trained police are needed.
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• 4. TRYING TO KEEP A LID ON THE INTERNET
• China passes rules aimed at tightening controls on Internet, following online postings about graft and abuses that rattled the ruling party.
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• 5. CLOSING THE DOOR ON ADOPTIONS
• Russia's President Vladimir Putin signs a bill banning Americans from adopting Russian children.

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