Day of the Dead: One elderly man is dead after a tornado ripped through a mobile home park in Shawnee, OK. A large storm front swept through yesterday bringing at least one tornado a half-mile wide. More tornadoes could hit today.

• Two FBI agents who were members of the special hostage rescue team died in a training accident off the coast of Virginia Beach, VA. The FBI said the deaths did not involve gunfire, but gave no further details. The training for the unit is described as “aggressive”.
• Car bombs in Baghdad and southern Iraq killed 48 people and injured 170. Two bombs went off in Basra and seven in Baghdad.
• Two tourists died and 20 others were injured in Turkey in the collision of two hot air balloons. About 100 balloons took off all at once.

Deeefense: One of the President’s close aides made the rounds of the Sunday talk shows calling recent attacks on the President “offensive” and “absurd”. White House aide Dan Pfeiffer said opponents are trying to cripple the President with investigations about the IRS, Benghazi and the justice department’s subpoena of Associated Press phone records.

And for those wondering why Congress is not tending to the nation’s urgent economic business: The deficit is falling dramatically, projected to be less than half what it was in 2009 and cut in half again by 2015. Congress feels little urgency to make a deal on spending and tax reform.

National: The board of Yahoo has approved the $1.1 billion purchase of the blogging site Tumblr, according to the Wall Street Journal. This is a big leap for Yahoo’s new CEO Marissa Mayer, who caused a stir when she ended “telecommuting” and ordered Yahoo employees to work at the office.

Other big Yahoo buys in the past, like Flickr, have been dead weights.

Travel delays continued this morning as crews continued to remove the wreckage from last week’s collision along the New Haven Railroad line. Commuters are forced to take shuttle buses from New Haven to Bridgeport to get around the mess. It could take all week to get the line up and running on time.

World: Syrian troops have taken a rebel stronghold near the Lebanese border. Reports say 52 rebels died and about 40,000 civilians are now trapped in the embattled city of Qusayr.

At the Box: The Trekkie sequel “Star Trek Into the Darkness” won the weekend with $70.6 million. “Trek” knocked “Iron Man 3” into second place after two weekends as No. 1. “Iron Man” has made $1.1 billion around the globe

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