TWTR: Shares of Twitter opened this morning at $45.10, nearly $20 higher than the offering price of $26, or $18.1 billion for the entire company. The 140-character message service has become a player in personal relationships, politics, even war. But, like Facebook, how the money-losing company will make a profit remains unknown.

National: The economy grew at 2.8% in the third quarter, better than economists expected. But Washington is still blamed for putting a “fiscal drag” on the economy.

• The FDA has proposed a near elimination of trans fats, the artificial oils blamed for clogging arteries. The FDA says this could stop 20,000 heart attacks and 7,000 deaths a year. Some fast food chains including McDonalds have already found substitutes.
• Three people were killed and eight wounded in a Detroit shooting yesterday. The bankrupt city is suffering its highest murder rate in 20 years.
• The NFL appointed a New York lawyer as special counsel to investigate the Miami Dolphins hazing scandal. One player is suspended and another left the team saying he felt threatened.

Sacrifice Fly: The first to fall in the dysfunctional Obamacare rollout is an unknown bureaucrat. Tony Trenkle, the chief information officer for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, who was in charge of developing the Heathcare.Gov website, has announced his retirement.

Round Trip Ticket: Former Black Panther, William Potts, who hijacked a Piedmont Airlines plane to Havana in 1984 and stayed in Cuba ever since, returned to Miami yesterday. Potts thought he would be a hero in Cuba, but instead spent 13 years in prison for the hijacking. He went on to get married and father two daughters who now live in the US. Potts was arrested by the FBI after landing, but said he hopes the US will consider his time served in Cuba.

But Come to the Olympics: Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, the imprisoned member of the Pussy Riot women’s band, has been transferred to a camp in Siberia 4,500 miles and four time zones from Moscow, her husband says. Tolokonnikova had complained about prison conditions and went on a hunger strike. She demanded a transfer, and apparently got it.

Nuked:  The late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat may have been poisoned with radioactive polonium, according to a Swiss report obtained by the Al Jazeera network. Biological samples from Arafat’s body revealed 18 times the normal amount of polonium. In 2004 doctors thought Arafat had the flu when he suddenly developed vomiting and stomach pain, which are also symptoms of polonium poisoning. He died in less than a month. Russian defector Victor Litvenko was killed with polonium in 2006 in what may have been the first publicly known use of the isotope as a means of assassination.

DVDone: Blockbuster, once the go-to place to rent a movie, announced that it is closing its 300 remaining stores and ending its DVD by mail business. DISH Network, which bought Blockbuster in a bankruptcy auction, said the company is responding to the demand for digital distribution of movies and television programs. Technology has passed them by.

Alcohol, Beverage Control: ABC News has confirmed that 20/20 anchor Elizabeth Vargas is in treatment for alcoholism. She is expected to return to the airwaves in several weeks.

All Thumbs: Facebook announced a re-design of its iconic thumbs-up “Like” button. The new button is a darker blue and features the Facebook small “f” logo. Like. Comment.

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