Among the six US troops killed in Afghanistan this week was Air Force major Adrianna Vorderbruggen. NPR's Quil Lawrence reports she is thought to the first openly gay woman killed in action. Major Vorderbruggen was the only woman of the six airmen killed on Monday when their patrol was attacked by a suicide bomber north of the Afghan capital. She was a native of Minnesota, assigned with a special investigation squad in and out of Eglin air base in Florida. A group that supports gay, lesbian,bisexual and transgender troops and families released a statement mourning Vorderbruggen and extending condolences to her wife and four-year son. It's been five years since the military ended the ban on homosexual troops serving openly. Before that, same sex partners were not formally notified if their husband or wife died in action, nor were they allowed to officially received their loved one's casket when it arrived an the air force base. Quil Lawrence, NPR news.

 

 

Former Federal Reserve board chair Ben Bernanke in interview with the NPR today will not comment about the recent decision by the Fed's interests rates setting arm to move on the interests rates for the first time in 7 years. But he did say at the time the Fed was ratcheting rates down in response to a major recession, the body had no idea how long the rates would remain low. Bernanke says the US economy is clearly in better shape now. I think the US economy, the domestic economy anyway is pretty solid. We've got households and good financial shape. Jobs are being created. The housing sector is doing pretty well. So there is a lot to be happy about in terms of the full momentum of the US economy here at home. Bernanke says for overseas economies, the picture is less bright. The former Fed former chairman measured China as well as big industrial powers including Europe and Japan which he says are lagging the US.

 

 

Sales of new single family homes took a bump-up in November after somewhat a weak October. The Commerce Department reporting today new home sales in November rose 4.3 percent. It was seasonly adjusted rate to 497,000.  

 

 

On Wall Street, the Dow was up 185 points. The NASDAQ rose 44 points today. You're listening to NPR.

 

 

The woman facing charges in connection with the death of one person and the injuries of dozens of others made her first appearance in court today. 24-year-old Lakeisha Holloway is accused of intentionally driving a car up on to the sidewalk of the crowed Las Vagus strip last Sunday night. Holloway, who stood in shackles did not enter a plea and said little during today's brief hearing when she was arraigned on charges of murder, hit and run and child endangerment. Hearing is scheduled for next month. 

 

 

The best selling band of all time is finally making its music available to legally stream on demand after years of holding out. As NPR's NW reports the Beatles catalogue will be playable online on services of Spotify and Apple Music starting on Christmas Eve. Happy Crimble for download on this website Wednesday was a medley of its greatest hits. The Beatles and the Universal Misic Group have ignored the digital era for as long as they possibly could. The group was famously late selling songs online. It was impossible to buy a Beatles single on i Tunes until just five years ago. And the band waited until revenues from streaming started to compete with buying songs digitally. As a group that sold more than 1 billion records, the Beatles can afford to slowly release its music in new and remastered formats. But while streaming is an ever popular way of listening to music, its top sellers are generally much younger artists.NW, NPR news.

 

 

Crude oil prices posted a third straight say of gains. The price of oil was up a dollar and 36 cents a barrel to end the session at 37.50 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. I'm Jack Speer, NPR news in Washington.