Mark Memmott

Our day began with talk of "hell in the review mirror" when a reporter from The Gazette in Colorado Springs fled his home earlier this week as the Waldo Canyon wildfire approached.

But the newspaper now reports that:

Now that we're past the day's big news about health care, we just want to take a moment to note the death of actor Don Grady. He died Wednesday after a battle with cancer.

The Supreme Court ruled today that the 2010 Affordable Care Act is constitutional — giving the Obama administration a big election year win over conservative critics who argue that the health care overhaul is a step on the way toward socialized medicine.

This comes from National Geographic, not The National Enquirer:

"Nearly two-thirds (65 percent) of Americans think [President] Barack Obama would be better suited than fellow presidential candidate Mitt Romney to handle an alien invasion."

Two fresh bits of economic data, neither of which change the picture much if at all:

-- The Employment and Training Administration says there were 386,000 first-time claims for unemployment insurance last week, down 6,000 from the week before. But it also revised up that previous week's estimate, from the initial report of 387,000.

Saying that the move will create two companies, one a "world-class" publisher and the other an "unmatched global media and entertainment" giant, Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. just confirmed it is planning to separate into two distinct units.

Murdoch, a legend in the news and entertainment businesses whose TV ventures include Fox News Channel, will "serve as chairman of both companies and CEO of the media and entertainment company," the company added.

First it was $2 billion.

Then "as high as $4 billion."

Now there's word from The New York Times that:

Update at 2:30 p.m. ET. Our Latest Headline:

Good News: 'Great Progress' Reported In Fighting Colorado Springs Fire.

Our original post:

The biggest surprise Thursday morning at the Supreme Court will be if the justices do not issue their most-anticipated decision of the year — on the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act; the health care overhaul enacted in 2010.

From The Associated Press:

"The U.N.'s deputy envoy for Syria, Jean-Marie Guehenno, [has] told the U.N. Human Rights Council that the violence in Syria has 'reached or even surpassed' levels seen before the April 12 ceasefire agreement and that a six-point peace plan forged by his boss, U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan, 'is clearly not being implemented.' "

"Pending home sales bounced back in May, matching the highest level in the past two years, and are well above year-ago levels," the National Association of Realtors reports. The association says that:

Stockton, Calif., is on the verge of becoming the largest city in the nation to declare bankruptcy after its city council voted 6-1 Tuesday night to approve a spending plan that's essentially "a day-to-day survival budget," as the Los Angeles Times puts it.

There was a 1.1 percent increase in new orders for so-called durable goods in May from April, the Census Bureau says. That's more than economists had forecast, Bloomberg News reports. According to Reuters, economists thought Census would say orders went up about 0.4 percent.

Something that was "unimaginable a couple of decades ago" happened today in Belfast, Northern Ireland, when Queen Elizabeth II shook the hand of former Irish Republican Army commander Martin McGuinness, NPR's Philip Reeves tells our Newscast Desk.

As Philip adds:

"McGuinness used to be a senior member of the IRA, the group that killed the queen's cousin, Lord Louis Mountbatten in 1979. ... The handshake signals times have greatly changed since the end of the conflict, which claimed more than 3,500 lives, though some tensions remain."

Two high-profile, veteran lawmakers — one from the left side of the aisle and the other from the right — overcame primary challengers Tuesday. One had a much easier time than the other.