In Northern Iraq, Kurdish forces are pressing forward with an offensive against IS. NPR's EF reports they are being slowed down by land mines. The advance began with 20 airstrikes by the US-led coalition, followed by a push by serval different armed Kurdish groups to take the highway west of the city of Mosul and the town of Sinjar. Commanders say part of the road is taken but progress into Sinjar itself is slow. IS seized the area 15 months ago, killing and kidnapping thousands of Yazidi minority. Eyewitnesses report exiled Yazidi are heading back to the area, preparing to fight and celebrate. EF, NPR news.

In a statement being circulated online, the IS is claiming responsibility for a rush hour double suicide bombing attack on a busy street in southern Beirut. At least 37 people are killed. At least 180 were hurt.

Two men accused of trying to buy weapons for use in a white supremacist plot were in court in Virginia today for a preliminary hearing. Details from ML of member station WBTF. Authorities says the FBI foiled a plan that began with robbing a jewelry store and ended with shooting or bombing black churches and Jewish Synagogues. Robert Doyle and Ronald Chaney III came on the FBI's radar after an informant took them off. That the two are part of a group that might be planning violence. The FBI posed agents as arm dealers and Doyle and Chaney allegedly tried to buy explosives and automatic weapons and a pistol with a silencer. The two are charged with gun conspiracy. The judge denied bond, saying they posed a threat to the community if released. ML, NPR news, In.

A down day on Wall Street. The Dow off 221. This is NPR.

The 200,000 member American Postal Workers Union has endorsed the candidacy of Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders. The union said the senator from Vermont had long been a champion of keeping postal facilities open especially in rural areas. A new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the number of babies being born with syphilis is going up. The CDC says that reverses a decades-long trend toward fewer cases of the congenital syphilis. NPR's AC reports infants affected by this disease are at special risk. Syphilis is a relatively uncommon sexually transmitted infection in the US. But when a pregnant mother passes the infection on to a fetus, it is especially damaging. Between 2012 and 2014, the number of infants born with syphilis has gone up 38 percent. Last year alone, 33 infants died from the disease. Virginia Bone is with the CDC. 'We are seeing syphilis going up everywhere and we don't good answers for why.' Bone says early treatment can lead to the delivery of a healthy baby if the infection is caught early enough. AC, NPR news.

The University of Missouri board is naming senior black administrator Michael Middleton the system's interim president. Middleton is deputy chancellor Emeritus of Missouri University. The university system's president and chancellor of the Columbia  campus resigned amid student protests about the school's handling of complaints of racism. I'm LS, NPR news, Washington.