National: Newtown school shooter Adam Lanza fired 154 rounds in five minutes, killing 20 children and six adults last December, Connecticut officials say. Lanza used 30-round magazines for his assault rifle and a stockpile of 1600 rounds was found in the Lanza home. Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy said in a statement, “This is exactly why we need to ban high capacity magazines.”

• The elite Smith College for women in Massachusetts has rejected a transgender Connecticut high school student because the applicant is listed as male on federal student aid documents. Smith won’t even read the application. The student, Calliope Wong, 17, says he/she was born male but has identified as female most of his/her life. Smith has a GLBT (“T” is for transsexual) resource center, and scholarships, but actual transsexuals appear to leave Smith sexually confused.

World: North Korea put its missile defenses on alert after the US flew two B-2 stealth bombers over South Korea in response to recent military smack talk from the North. But as a true gauge of the temperature over there, North and South Korea are still doing business with each other.

• Amputee sprinter and accused murderer Oscar Pistorius succeeded in getting a modification of his bail conditions. He will be allowed to leave South Africa to compete and he can return to live in the house where he shot and killed 29-year-old Reeva Steenkamp.
• Former South African president Nelson Mandela is back in the hospital fighting a persistent lung infection.

Corn, Inc.: Food activists are angry with President Obama for signing into law a provision that protects makers of genetically modified seeds from lawsuits in the event their products are harmful to humans. Critics call it the “Monsanto Protection Act” after the genetically modified food giant that also makes linoleum floors. The problem for Obama, the clause was attached as a rider to the continuing resolution that kept the government from shutting down.

If Your Mother Says She Loves You: “Check it out”, as the saying goes in journalism. Fox television in San Diego aired an unverified news segment reporting that killer dolphins armed with guns and knives had escaped their Ukrainian military trainers. One picture showed a dolphin with a combat knife attached to his head. Another showed a dolphin leaping with its flippers wrapped around a missile. But the anchor who read the segment was a hot Fox News babe, so it’s OK.

-30-