Midday Roundup: Tornadoes pound Midwest

Storm surge. Rural communities in Illinois are surveying the damage today after a fast-moving storm wiped out neighborhoods with multiple tornadoes Sunday. “All of a sudden I could see daylight up the stairway and my house was gone,” said Michael Perdun of Washington, Ill., one of the hardest-hit communities. Perdun and his daughter took cover in the basement as a tornado destroyed his neighborhood in a matter of minutes. So far, eight deaths and dozens of storm-related injuries have been reported. The storm swept through parts of Wisconsin, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, and Kentucky as it made its way east into the Mid-Atlantic states Sunday night. Tornadoes, large hail, and damaging winds tore through several communities, leaving thousands without power as emergency crews tried to clear roads. High winds and rain from the storm slammed Chicago, where officials temporarily evacuated players and fans at Soldier Field during the Sunday afternoon NFL game between the Bears and the Baltimore Ravens.

Dr. Evil? A USA Today investigation has exposed a Houston physician who for years has sold a homegrown, unproven cancer treatment to desperate patients for tens and sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars. Some patients claim Stanislaw Burzynski’s “antineoplastons” cured their untreatable cancer. But the National Cancer Institute and fellow physicians say Burzynski’s cure is ineffective at best and at worst harms and exploits vulnerable patients. After years of complacency with Burzynski’s practices, the Food and Drug Administration began limiting his treatment of patients after a 6-year-old boy in his care died in 2012.

Wall Street high. Stock market indexes floated higher than ever his morning. The Dow Jones industrial average topped 16,000 for the first time ever and the Standard & Poor’s 500 index rose past 1,800, with both drifting back down shortly thereafter. Stocks have climbed steadily this year as confidence in the U.S. economy has improved. The S&P 500 has risen for six weeks straight and is up 26 percent this year, its biggest climb since 2003.

Caught on camera. TV stations in Russia are airing video of a deadly plane crash in the city of Kazan last night. The footage shows a Boeing 737 diving to the ground and exploding on the tarmac in a giant fireball. The plane, owned by Tatarstan Airlines, was making its second landing attempt. The cause of the crash is unknown, but investigators are considering pilot error and equipment failure as possibilities. All 50 people aboard the 23-year-old plane died.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.