1. The Atlanta lawyer quarantined with a rare strain of tuberculosis is said to be doing well at a Denver hospital. The attending physician says Andrew Speaker has a very low level of contagion. Meantime friends of Speaker's are coming to his defense.

2. Jack Kevorkian, the man known as "Dr. Death" is once again a free man. Kevorkian was released from prison this morning after serving eight years for second-degree murder in connection with the death of a man with Lou Gehrig's disease. Kevorkian says he will no longer help in another suicide.

3. A new report says the number of people sickened by peanut butter tainted with salmonella has grown from 425 to 628. The outbreak was first reported in February and now includes cases in 47 states. The new report is the first update on cases since ConAgra recalled all of its peanut butter from a plant in Sylvester, Georgia.

4. Now that he has become the National Spelling Bee champ, Evan O'Dorney is admitting to an even bigger interest in math. The 13-year-old eighth-grader says he just likes how the numbers all fit together.

WORDS IN THE NEWS

1. contagion: n-uncount
Contagion is the spreading of a particular disease by someone touching another person who is already affected by the disease.

2. update: n-count
An update is a news item containing the latest information about a particular situation.