Over 1,000 flights to and from Chicago have been canceled after a winter storm began pounding the Midwest on Monday night and continued to dump snow on the city. The storm is expected to continue moving through the Appalachian Mountains for the rest of the week. On Monday, blizzard warnings were in effect in parts of Montana and North Dakota. Snowfall is expected to fall up to one inch per hour in some areas, and up to six inches is expected to fall in Chicago by Tuesday morning. At least 270 flights were canceled by Monday night, and 100 flights were already canceled out of O’Hare for Tuesday. The storm will move east on Wednesday, hitting the District and the Baltimore area. At least it will give the area something to think about other than the sequester.

Kenyans eager to vote in the nation’s general election endured more than six hours in line in some areas on Monday—and kept voting stations open past the official closing time. Counting got under way Monday night, and an elections official estimated a 70 percent turnout of the country’s 14 million registered voters. The manpower of 99,000 police officers kept Kenya from seeing the extreme violence of the 2007 election; still, at least 19 people were violently killed right as polls opened this morning in the coastal city of Mombasa.

Talk about a bad weekend. After failing to reach a deal to prevent the sequester cuts on Friday, President Obama’s job approval rating tumbled over the weekend to 46 percent, hitting the lowest point since he started his second term. His disapproval rating bumped up to 46 percent, while just a week earlier it was at 40 percent and approval was 53 percent. The $85 million in automatic cuts have already begun, though a CBS poll found most Americans blame the GOP, not the president, for failing to avert them.

This is terrifying. A second sinkhole appeared on Monday in Seffner, Florida—just one mile from where Jeffrey Bush became trapped last week. Crews at the scene said the 10-foot-deep sinkhole opened up behind a house, but luckily there was no structural damage and no one was injured. Bush, 37, became trapped Thursday night when a sinkhole opened underneath his house. Five people escaped. Officials called off the search for Bush on Sunday while demolishing what was left of the house on Sunday and Monday.

At least she 'fessed up. One of the escorts who claimed in a video that New Jersey Democrat Robert Menendez paid her for sex during a visit to the Dominican Republic has told police that it was all a lie. She said she was paid by a lawyer (whom she identified) and that she has never actually met or seen the senator before. That lawyer then identified another lawyer who provided a script and paid him to find women willing to lie on tape. Menendez, meanwhile, has denied the prostitution claims, calling them "smears" used by his enemies to sabotage his recent reelection campaign and his selection as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

By the reaction to it, you’d think someone spotted Bigfoot or a leprechaun. But the media mayhem was instead focused on Casey Anthony, who seen out in public Monday for the first time since being cleared of murdering her daughter two years ago. Though there have been reports of several sightings, Anthony has largely remained in hiding since being acquitted. She traveled to a Florida courthouse Monday to attend a bankruptcy hearing. The 26-year-old filed for bankruptcy in January, claiming debts of $792,000 and assets of just $1,000. Anthony is currently unemployed, and the expected lucrative paydays for books and tell-alls never materialized.

Is the world really that peaceful? A whopping 259 nominees—a record—for this year’s Nobel Peace Prize were announced Monday. Included among the candidates: Malala Yousafzai, the 15-year-old Pakistani activist who was shot in the head by the Taliban, and Bradley Manning, the U.S. soldier who admitted to sending Wikileaks classified material. The previous record number of nominees was 241 in 2011. The winner will be announced in October, and presented the honor on December 10.

Turns out the voice of the people isn’t gauging opinions as well as you might think. Twitter is decidedly partisan, skewing more liberal or more conservative than true public opinion. Analysis of reactions of the social media site for major events such as President Obama’s reelection showed they were much more positive than nationwide conversation. And when Twitter users reacted unfavorably to Obama’s State of the Union address, the public viewed it more positively. The two events that Twitter and public opinion aligned? Mitt Romney picking Paul Ryan as a running mate, and the Supreme Court’s health-care ruling.

There are apparently people whose hearts are not melted by the Girl Scout song lyrics “a circle is round, it has no end, that’s how long I want to be your friend.” Three Girl Scout–cookie sellers have been hit by robberies in the past week, with the latest incident taking place Sunday in California. A suspect on a skateboard allegedly approached a Girl Scout–cookie stand outside a grocery store and grabbed $500 from the cash box and ran off. In Tucson, Arizona, thieves robbed two separate Girl Scout–cookie tables, netting $400 from one and $200 from the other. The robberies come after a break-in at a South Carolina cookie warehouse, where 450 cases of cookies worth an estimated $19,500 were taken.

It doesn't sound like President Obama will not be giving Kim Jong-un a call any time soon. On Monday, press secretary Jay Carney denounced former NBA player Dennis Rodman's bizarre trip to North Korea last week to dine and watch basketball with the Hermit Kingdom's leader—a man Rodman later professed to loving. “Instead of spending money on celebrity sporting events to entertain the elites of that country, the North Korean regime should focus on the well-being of its own people, who have been starved, imprisoned, and denied their human rights,” Carney said. The State Department has declined to debrief Rodman, and struck a similar tone in comments a few days ago. So much for basketball diplomacy.

Movie-sequel-snatcher and left-earring-enthusiast Harrison Ford has signed on for a role in the sequel to the 2004 comedy Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy. Ford will play a Tom Brokaw-esque newscaster in Anchorman 2 alongside Ferrell, Steve Carell, Paul Rudd, Christina Applegate, David Koechner, and Kristen Wiig. Ford has news experience aplenty to draw on, too—he played a grouchy anchor in the 2010 comedy Morning Glory.

Tinseltown’s latest young power couple? According to Us Weekly, it’s Jaden Smith and Kylie Jenner. The 14-year-old Karate Kid actor (and son of Will and Jada) and the 15-year-old reality starlet (and Kardashian clan member) were reportedly spotted out on a date in London over the weekend, where Smith was in town to help celebrate his pal Justin Bieber’s birthday. (Spoiler: The party didn’t go so well.)

Be it the influence of rapper friend Lil Twist, or just raging teenage hormones, Justin Bieber needs a reality check. The once-lovable singer is dealing with a serious chip on his shoulder—first it was his Grammy snub, now it’s his terrible, horrible, no good, very bad 19th birthday. The Biebs blasted the “dummies” at London’s Cirque du Soir nightclub for shuttering his party because they thought underage people were at the club. On Instagram he christened it his “worst bday.” For what it’s worth, it was a circus-themed party. So that’s pretty cool.

The country's next budget chief might come from the nonprofit sector. According to a White House official, President Obama is planning to nominate Walmart Foundation President Sylvia Mathews Burwell. She would be the second woman to hold the role at a time when $85 billion in across-the-board spending reductions are being implemented. Burwell would replace Jacob Lew, who was recently confirmed as Treasury secretary.

Despite its seemingly impressive $26 million weekend, Jack the Giant Slayer isn’t quite meeting its larger-than-life expectations yet. The big-budget epic starring Nicholas Hoult and Ewan McGregor cost around $200 million to make. The flick took the weekend’s top box office spot, but has a long way to go. “The male audience has kind of checked out so far this year, and Jack the Giant Slayer was really relying on that male audience to come out and support the movie,” as Paul Dergarabedian, box office analyst for Hollywood.com, told USA Today.

The judging panel for America's Got Talent is shaping up to be quite a motley crew. Heidi Klum is reportedly joining Howard Stern, Howie Mandel, and Mel B of the Spice Girls as a fourth judge on the summer reality-competition series, which begins taping Monday in New Orleans. The supermodel and former Project Runway host certainly has the credentials for the gig, including an Emmy nomination in 2008 for Project Runway, several turns as host of the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show, a megawatt smile, and just the right amount of ’tude.

Demolition crews could get a clearer look at the gaping sinkhole that swallowed a Florida man whole last week as they continue to raze his home Monday. Workers salvaged pictures and other keepsakes for the family of Jeff Bush, 35, who died Thursday night when the earth opened up beneath him in his home. A closer look at the sinkhole will give emergency officials and engineers a better idea of how to fill it and deal with the surrounding land, including the two homes on either side of Bush’s house.

Everyone's favorite rabble-rouser is apparently hoping for a spot back at his old network stomping grounds: ESPN. President of the network, John Skipper, says Keith Olbermann reached out and the two had dinner in New York. “Clearly he was looking to see if there was an entry point to come back,” Skipper said. Olbermann worked at ESPN from 1992 to 1997, showing himself as a prodigal talent, albeit difficult to work with. “I had the privilege to spend some time with John Skipper,” he told The New York Times. “His vision and charm were readily apparent, and judging by his leadership, his family name was prophetic.” The journalist is currently in the midst of a $70 million lawsuit he filed against his latest employer, Current TV. 

The baby that was delivered after his parents were killed in a car crash on the way to the hospital has died, a family friend says. New York police are searching for the driver and passenger of a BMW that rammed into a livery cab Saturday. The 21-year-old Orthodox Jews were on their way to the hospital when the accident happened in Williamsburg. The details are horrific: the cab’s engine was pushed into the backseat; the pregnant women was ejected and found under a parked trailer; the husband was pinned in the car. The baby was initially saved in an emergency C-section.

Batman is real?! Sort of. A man dressed in a Batman costume is actually fighting crime in Bradford, England. The real-life caped crusader—who doesn’t exactly have Christian Bale’s Bruce Wayne physique—dropped off a fugitive wanted for burglary at a local police station and then disappeared into the night after he was certain that the suspected criminal was properly in custody. The ordeal was captured on the police station’s security camera and confirmed by authorities: “The person who brought the wanted man into the station was dressed in a full Batman outfit. His identity, however, remains unknown.”

This is a big one. Doctors said that they had successfully cured a baby with HIV for the first time. The Mississippi baby was blasted with antiretroviral drugs 30 hours after birth—usually a newborn with the virus is given one or two drugs to fend off the disease. This time, instead of waiting to confirm infection, doctors essentially nuked the disease, lowering virus levels immediately and seemingly eradicating the illness. There are approximately 330,000 babies who were born with HIV in 2011. If confirmed, this is the second documented case of a cure, the first being the “Berlin patient” who was given a bone-marrow transplant. The only remaining question about this baby: whether the child was actually infected with HIV.

Classes at Oberlin College were canceled after a person seemingly wearing a KKK hood was spotted near the Afrikan Hertiage House. The Ohio college had planned activities to celebrate tolerance and solidarity Monday. There has been a recent uptick in “hate-related incidents on campus” (as the school calls them)—just last week a swastika was drawn in the Conservatory of Music, and last month racially charged graffiti were found on campus. Campus police are investigating.

In what could be a major turning point in the two-year-old Syrian conflict, rebel fighters seized the city of Raqqa, a pivotal provincial capital, activist groups reported Monday. Videos show the fighters smashing statues of President Bashar al-Assad’s father and even occupying the governor’s palace. It’s the first complete takeover of a provincial capital by rebel forces, signifying a definitive shift in power and hinting that Assad’s forces have lost the ability to retake a large portion of north and eastern Syria.

This year's rampant stomach bug has left many victims bedridden for days, but not the queen. The 86-year-old monarch was discharged from King Edward VII hospital in London on Monday after being admitted Sunday with a bout of gastroenteritis, most likely caused by the wretched norovirus. A spokesman for the queen said she was “in good spirits” and had been admitted only as “a precautionary measure.” It’s not clear whether a planned two-day trip to Rome, which the palace canceled earlier due to the queen’s condition, will be rescheduled.

The race to replace Pope Benedict XVI has begun. Four days after the 85-year-old officially took off his papal robes, more than 100 cardinals from around the world gathered inside the Vatican Monday for the first round of meetings before the conclave to elect the next pope. Greeted by a swarm of hungry reporters, the cardinals seemed excited about Benedict’s replacement. “A Latin-American pope is possible, everything is possible!” a Portuguese cardinal told TV crews. Preparations for the conclave will include closing the Sistine Chapel and making sure the Vatican hotel is debugged.

Does this mean hipsters' favorite notebooks will now be totally uncool? Moleskine, the Italian brand of notebooks with Ernest Hemingway's seal of approval, is seeking 350 million euros (about $455 million) in an initial public offering announced today, two people "with knowledge of the matter" told Bloomberg. The company is seeking a valuation of about 700 million euros. Appunti Sarl and Pentavest Sarl are selling a 50 percent stake of the company in the IPO, though Syntegra Capital (which currently owns about 68 percent of Moleskine) will retain a significant share. 

As the horrific death of a young Brooklyn couple and their premature infant son continues to be splashed across headlines, police are on the hunt for the man suspected of driving the BMW that plowed into their taxi while they were on the way to a hospital Sunday morning. Nachman and Raizel Glauber, both 21, were killed in the crash; their son was delivered prematurely, but pronounced dead early Monday. Police suspect that Julio Acevedo, 44, was the driver of the BMW. Acevedo’s rap sheet includes a drunk-driving charge this past February and an arrest for manslaughter.

This'll make up for that whole sequester thing...right? The House Appropriations Committee introduced a $982 billion spending bill on Monday that would prevent a government shutdown after March 27 and fund the government through the end of the fiscal year. The bill also includes a $10.4 billion shift into the Pentagon's operations and maintenance account, in order to give the Defense Department more flexibility with the readiness and training programs that were threatened by a full-year continuing resolution. The bill comes to the House floor on Thursday.

More than a dozen people were killed in a predawn attack in Kenya as voters lined up to cast their ballots in a crucial presidential election. Reuters reports that nine police officers in Kenya’s restive coastal region were hacked to death by machete-wielding gangs, while six attackers were also killed. Kenya’s top politicians are urging millions of voters to avoid mayhem similar to that between the tribal loyalists and rival candidates during the country's 2008 elections.