Econ 101: Inflation hit a 40-year high last month, a stunning increase in the price of living. The Labor Department reported that the inflation rate, the rise in prices for everything from gas to groceries, was 9.1 percent for the 12 months …

The Great Game: Hillary Clinton has been declared the Democratic winner of the Iowa caucuses by a margin barely visible to the human eye. Clinton, 49.9 percent, Bernie Sanders, 49.6. Some districts were decided by the toss of a coin. …

Ferguson: St. Louis County’s executive declared a state of emergency yesterday after street violence returned to Ferguson, Mo. with protests over police shootings. A reporter was beaten and robbed, a police officer was injured, and two teenagers wounded in a …

Touchdown in Boston: A jury in Fall River, Mass. has found former New England Patriot tight end Aaron Hernandez guilty of 1st degree murder in the killing of his friend Odin Lloyd in 2013. Lloyd was last seen with Hernandez …

National Football Day: It’s Thanksgiving. President Obama pardoned two turkeys named Mac and Cheese. On the East Coast travellers drove and slogged through a mixture of rain, sleet, and snow to get to their Thanksgiving dinners. In New England thousands …

Easing Off: The Federal Reserve today is expected to announce the end of “quantitative easing,” the purchasing of bonds that stimulated the economy all through the Great Recession. The Fed has bought $3.5 trillion worth of securities in the last …

The Big Melt: An enormous portion of the West Antarctic ice sheet is melting and it may be irreversible, according to scientific reports released yesterday. Eric Rignot, a glaciologist at the University of California, Irvine said, “It has passed the …

The Ring: The Boston Red Sox won the World Series last night beating St. Louis 6-1 at Fenway. Relief pitcher Koji Uehara threw the last strike and the park erupted. The Sox went from last place in their division in …

National: Rep. Paul Ryan unveiled a Republican budget plan that would slash taxes on the rich from 39% to 25% while eliminating President Obama’s health care reform, Wall Street regulations and plans for high-speed rail. Medicare would be mostly privatized. …