Black Friday spending and number of shoppers hit record highs – Retailers’ decision to open stores earlier for the Black Friday rush attracted a record 247 million shoppers — a 9-percent increase from 2011 — in stores and online throughout the post-Thanksgiving Black Friday weekend. Total spending over the four-day period rose 13 percent from 2011 to $59.1 billion. CNN

Isotope Analysis Provides Clues in a Florida Cold Case – The body of the woman known as “Little Miss Lake Panasoffkee,” who was found floating in the southern end of Lake Panasoffkee in February 1971, has been reexamined. A University of Florida researcher on the team reevaluating the body said the woman was likely a recent immigrant from Greece at the time of her death. The New York Times

Flurry of new bills filed in Tallahassee – While Florida’s lawmakers touted the most salient issues of 2012 as unemployment, healthcare and foreclosures, none of the new bills filed last week address these concerns. The new proposals include a ban on texting while driving, a requirement that parasailing operators carry insurance and a “foreign law” bill criticized as anti-Islamic. “ The Miami Herald

Casey Anthony investigation missed ‘fool-proof’ suffocation clue, office confirms – Orange County officials that investigated the death of Casey Anthony’s 2-year-old daughter overlooked suspicious searches — including a search for “fool-proof” suffocation methods — from the Mozilla Firefox browser when prosecuting Anthony in 2011. Investigators used 17 vague entries from the Internet Explorer browser during the trial. Associated Press