News roundup

--> Obama news: President Barack Obama will answer questions about issues in the Hispanic community during an online roundtable this morning.

The event will be moderated by Jose Siade, Yahoo's editor-in-chief for U.S. Hispanic and Latin America. Obama will respond to questions submitted by readers of Yahoo, MSN Latino, and AOL Latino/Huffington Post Latino Voice on issues that affect the Latino community.

The president is expected to address the economy, education, health care and immigration.

The event called "Open for Questions With President Obama" or "El Presidente Obama Te Responde" will be streamed live on the White House website.

The event comes a week after the Democratic National Committee said it is reaching out to Spanish-language voters as part of its push to sell Obama's new jobs plan. (Via CNN)

--> Election 2012: Florida is now expected to hold its presidential primary on the last day in January 2012, a move likely to throw the carefully arranged Republican nominating calendar into disarray and jumpstart the nominating process a month earlier than party leaders had hoped.

If that happens, it would almost certainly force the traditional early states of Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada to leapfrog Florida and move their primaries and caucuses into early- to mid-January.

A nine-member commission is expected to meet on Friday to choose Florida's primary date. (Via CNN)

--> Environmental news: The Philippines began cleaning up and tallying the damage today from powerful Typhoon Nesat, which killed at least 20 people and left behind flooded towns, overflowing dams and damage to rice crops across northern island of Luzon.

Emergency services in the capital Manila began restoring electricity after the powerful storm unleashed fierce wind and sent huge waves crashing over seawalls.

Most deaths occurred in and around metropolitan Manila, which already was soaked by heavy monsoon rains ahead of the arrival yesterday of Nesat, which brought more downpours and wind gusts of up to 93 miles per hour. (Via MSNBC)

--> Cosmic news: After days of seeming uncertainty, NASA said that the dead 20-year-old Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite broke up over the South Pacific. The U.S. Air Force calculated its entry into Earth's atmosphere generally above American Samoa at midnight ET Friday.

Pieces of it started hitting the water another 300 miles (480 kilometers) to the northeast, southwest of Christmas Island, NASA said.

"It's a relatively uninhabited portion of the world, very remote," NASA orbital debris scientist Mark Matney said. "This is certainly a good spot in terms of risk." (Via MSNBC)