The Bomb: Senate Democrats voted “the nuclear option” yesterday, lowering the number of votes to end a filibuster from 60 to 51. It prevents Republican senators from blocking President Obama’s judicial and executive nominees. “They will pay a very, very heavy price for it,” said Sen. John McCain (R-AZ).

  The Senate acted out of frustration with Republicans blocking nominees, in particular to the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, considered the second most important panel beneath the Supreme Court. Half of all the filibusters in the history of the senate have occurred during the Obama years.

The Constitution says the House and Senate can set their own rules and change them with a 51% vote, and the Democrats have 55 senators. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) explained the vote saying, “For too long Washington has been in gridlock, gridlock, gridlock. The American people are sick of it. We’re sick of it.” With the ability to seat judges, President Obama’s influence will extend for many years beyond his presidency.

Free Man: Kennedy nephew Michael Skakel, went free on $1.2 million bail yesterday after spending 11 years in prison for the 1975 murder of his 15-year-old neighbor Martha Moxley in Greenwich, Conn. A judge threw out the 53-year-old Skakel’s conviction last month after concluding he had inadequate representation. Moxley was bludgeoned to death with a golf club that came from the Skakel home.

World: At least 45 people died yesterday when the roof of a grocery store collapsed in the Latvian capital of Riga. Three rescuers also were killed when another portion of the roof fell. The store was building a garden on its roof and had loaded tons of dirt and building material up there. Recent heavy rain may have contributed to the disaster.

• A man and woman were arrested in London on suspicion of keeping three women prisoner for 30 years. The women, ages 69, 57, and 30, escaped Oct. 25^th. Police say the youngest spent her entire life in captivity and may even have been born on the property where she lived.

A Little Late: After 82 years the Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles granted full pardons to three of the nine black teenagers known as The Scottsboro Boys who were falsely convicted of raping two white women on a train in 1931. It was one of the most famous cases of racial injustice in US history. The three pardoned yesterday were the last to have their records cleared.

Fail: Former Atlanta teacher Lisa Terry pleaded guilty and admit that she encouraged students to change wrong answers on standardized tests. She is the first of 35 teachers indicted to admit guilt. “The truth is finally out,” Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard said in a statement. “There was, in fact, cheating going on in the Atlanta Public School system.”

Check: Norwegian chess prodigy Magnus Carlsen, 22, became the world champion yesterday in India. He’s the second youngest champion ever, behind Anatoly Karpov. In the game of geeks, Carlsen is a change of image. He’s a part-time model who’s been on the cover of GQ.

50: President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas 50 years ago today. For people who were alive at the time, it feels like yesterday.

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