Connect the Dots: The number of cases of measles in the US has reached a peak of 288 since the disease was declared eliminated in the US 14 years ago. Measles has been reported in 18 states with the biggest concentration, 138 cases, in Ohio where it has struck the unvaccinated Amish community.

The Centers for Disease control says 97 percent of the infections were brought into the US by travelers, may of them from the Philippines where there have been 32,000 cases and 41 deaths.

Measles is a respiratory disease that includes a high fever and a distinctive spotted rash.

Nation: White House Press Secretary Jay Carney resigned yesterday, only hours after the resignation of Veterans Affairs Secy. Eric Shinseki. Carney gave no specific reason for leaving and didn’t say what he planned to do next. “I haven’t made any decisions yet,” he said. “I’m excited by some of the possibilities. Deputy Press Secy. Josh Earnest takes over.

Money Men: The NY Times reports that federal investigators are examining whether billionaire Carl Icahn may have shared inside information on stock trades made by pro-golfer Phil Mickelson and professional gambler William Walters. The two made conveniently timed trades in Clorox just as Icahn was making a bid for the company.

Three Pointer: Among reports that he’s become mentally unstable, LA Clippers owner Donald Sterling filed a $1 billion lawsuit against the NBA yesterday. Sterling was banned for life from the NBA and the league moved to force him to sell his team after the release of a recording on which he made racist comments.

Sterling’s suit says, “The punishment is capricious, arbitrary, unreasonable, and grossly discriminatory compared with similar ‘speech’ offenses.” It goes on to say, “Sterling’s punishment is far and away the most severe ever imposed by an NBA commissioner for any conduct.”

Word of Donald Sterling’s lawsuit came just minutes before the NBA endorsed the deal made by Sterling’s estranged wife Shelley to sell the team to Microsoft billionaire Steve Ballmer.

World: An American man has been identified as a suicide bomber who blew himself up in an attack in Syria last Sunday. Authorities say Moner Mohammad Abusalha, who was in his 20s and grew up in Florida, went by the nom de guerre Abu Huraira al-Amriki. A picture posted on the Internet, purported to be him, shows Abusalha cuddling a kitten.

>A cloud of ash from an Indonesian volcano has forced the closure of the airport in Darwin on the north coast of Australia. As the cloud drifts south, it could affect other airports, and the volcano is still erupting.

Space Taxi: Billionaire investor/inventor Elon Musk this week unveiled his new space taxi, a nose cone designed to shuttle astronauts to and from the International Space Station. Several companies are competing to create a re-usable capsule because the mothballing of the space shuttle fleet has left the US dependent upon Russia to put astronauts in space.

Musk said, “You can just reload, propel it and fly again. This is extremely important for revolutionizing access to space because as long as we continue to throw away rockets and spacecrafts, we will never truly have access to space. It’ll always be incredibly expensive.”

The capsule unveiling was hosted by a pretty Asian woman in a form-fitting dress and red spike heels. Presumably she won’t be making the trip.

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