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Pennsylvania Attorney General Linda Kelly just announced that former Penn State President Graham Spanier has been charged in connection with the child sex abuse scandal that has rocked the university.

According to Onward State, an online news outlet covering Penn State, Spanier is facing eight charges ranging from perjury to endangering welfare of children to conspiracy.

NPR's librarians are helping us keep track of two sobering statistics about Superstorm Sandy:

As of 6 p.m. ET:

-- According to NPR's count, the death toll remains at 91. The AP count has now moved up to 90.

New York City alone is reporting 37 deaths. New Jersey reported 12 and Maryland 11.

By at least one measure, in October consumers were the most confident they've been since February 2008, the private Conference Board reports.

Three closely watched employment indicators are out this morning:

-- Unemployment Benefits. There were 363,000 first-time claims for jobless benefits last week, down from 372,000 the week before, the Employment and Training Administration says. So, as they have all year, claims remain in a range between 350,000 and 400,000.

Good morning, here are our early stories:

Slowly, Surely, New York And New Jersey Start To Recover From Sandy.

For Obama And Romney, It's Back To The Campaign Trail After Sandy.

And here are more early headlines:

Public health officials are warning that people in areas devastated by Superstorm Sandy face many risks in the aftermath and are urging people to protect themselves from health threats in the water, air and even their refrigerators.

As millions of people try to put their lives back together, the most obvious threat is the floodwaters themselves. In many places, the water could be a toxic stew.

ABC News and the New York Daily News are reporting that cells, tissues, mice and rats used for medical research may have been lost as New York University Hospital approaches its third day without power. The losses could set researchers back years.

Hurricane Sandy only sideswiped Haiti during its early days. But reports so far suggest that even this indirect hit led to nearly as many deaths there as in the U.S. after the storm made landfall on the Mid-Atlantic coast.

As of Wednesday, Haiti had documented 54 deaths caused by Sandy — most in the nation's southern peninsula, which points toward Jamaica. Another 21 Haitians were still counted as missing, and many fear the death toll will rise as officials reach affected areas isolated by impassable roads and ruined bridges.

Yesterday, we brought you a voice from Breezy Point, N.Y., the Queens neighborhood ravaged by fire.

Today, our Newscast unit spoke to Doug Doyle, the news director of NPR member station WGBO. Doug was making his way back to his apartment in Union Beach, N.J.

Except whole sections of shore city were destroyed by the storm surge. Doug was escorted to his apartment by emergency crews and he was fully expecting to find everything in tatters.

A thick and creamy shake sounds deliciously satisfying, and adding that kind of "mouth feel" to low-fat foods has become a multi-billion-dollar business. But are we really fooled?