The Nation’s unemployment rate fell last month. The Labor Department says the rate in November was 7%. NPR’s Yuki Noguchi reports the last time it was at that level was five years ago.

 

There were 203,000 net new jobs added at the economy last month. Government workers going back to work after the shutdown and stronger than expected business hiring helped push the unemployment rate down 0.3%, a relatively big monthly jump. The data showed workers both worked more in an average week and made more per hour and the hiring came across many sectors including healthcare, transportation and warehousing, manufacturing and business in professional services. The jobs report bolster the argument the labor market is steady and that kills speculation that the Federal Reserve may unwind its bond buying stimulus program sooner rather than later, if bet needs later this month. Yuki Noguchi, NPR News, Washington.

 

The second night in a row, California residents who will be feeling some of the pain that other parts of the country are experiencing being blasted with frigid air. NPR’s Karen Grigsby Bates reports the weather could result in snow and road closures. 

 

Four weather related deaths were reported in California this morning and residents are buckling down for another night of temperatures hovering between 30 to 40 degrees with gusty winds that make it feel even colder. Lower elevations around 3,000 feet could get up to three inches of snow. Twice that much may fall higher up at 4,500 feet. Anticipating that, officials have already announced they’ll close off parts of Angeles National Forest Highway, a major road that winds through the San Gabriel Mountains. The rapidly moving cold front is expected to give the LA Basin with rain and high winds in the next 24 hours. Seasonal temperatures are expected to return until Wednesday. Karen Grigsby Bates, NPR News.

 

Tears are being shed around the world today as South Africa mourns the death of Nelson Mandela. But there’s also a celebration of his life and legacy as people pay their respects outside his Johannesburg home. Mandela, who died yesterday at the age of 95, has been praised by leaders around the world to memorise the man who ended apartheid. During a church service in Cape Town, retired Archbishop Desmond Tutu said Mandela helped lead the country to reconciliation as he dismantled white minority rule. Mandela became the country’s first black president in 1994 after spending nearly three decades in prison.

 

Stocks ended the week on an up note, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 198 points to close at 16,020; the NASDAQ was up 29 points; the Standard & Poor’s 500 gained 20 points.

 

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In Yemen, officials now say they believe a dozen militants, most Saudi nationals, behind a brazen attack on the Defense Ministry in the Capital Saudi yesterday that left 56 people dead. In a report out today by Yemen Chiefs of Staff, officials described the assault as a two-stage operation, which attackers disguised in military uniforms drove a car parked with explosives into the complex, blew it up, then split in groups. One group attacked a military hospital while the second attacked a laboratory.

 

President Obama spoke at the 91st annual Christmas Tree Lighting near the White House today. As NPR’s Ari Shapiro reports the stars came out to the president linked a story of Jesus to that of Nelson Mandela. 

 

One singer after another, bravely endured the steady rain, 91st, Aretha Franklin, Janelle Monae and Mariah Carey. President Obama struck a more serious tone, saying the stories of Jesus and of Nelson Mandela both speak to the power of an individual to alter the course of the world. 

 

It’s a message both timeless and universal. No matter what God you pray to, or if you pray to none at all, we all have a responsibility to ourselves and to each other to make a difference that is real and lasting. 

 

The first family lit the National Christmas Tree after an abbreviated countdown. Obama said, we are going to start at five, since it’s a little wet, we shouldn’t start at ten. Ari Shapiro, NPR News, the White House.

 

The company, 23andMe now says it will stop selling a genetic testing kit it was offering. The Mountain View California-based company announcing it’s compiling with Food and Drug Administration directive. It stops selling the kits pending a regulatory review.  Company marketed the kits as a way for users to predict the risk of developing various diseases. However, the FDA says companies failed to show how the technology is supported by science.