What to know now:
1. Clemson players suspended: Only days before the semifinal game in the college football championship playoff, No. 1-ranked Clemson has suspended three players from the team. According to reports, Deon Cain, Ammon Lakip and Jay Jay McCullough have been suspended for failing drug tests. The three have been sent home, according to a person who spoke to USA Today on the condition of anonymity.
2. Couch, mom back to US: Ethan Couch, the Texas teen who fled to Mexico with his mother, is expected to be back in the United States Wednesday. Couch went to Mexico after a video surfaced that showed the 18-year-old at a party where alcohol was being served, thus violating the terms of his probation for a DUI car crash that killed four people in 2013.
3. Spotify sued: The music streaming service Spotify is being sued for $150 million in royalties by musicians and copyright owners. A federal lawsuit filed Monday claims Spotify "knowingly, willingly, and unlawfully reproduces and distributes copyrighted" music. The suit was filed by guitarist and vocalist David Lowery of alternative rock band Cracker.
4. Floods threaten Missouri: Missouri could have "major to historic river flooding" through early next week, according to the National Weather Service as the Mississippi River continues to rise. Record rainfall in the region has pushed the river over banks and is threatening to breach 19 levees in the state.
5. Iran tests rockets: Iranian naval vessels conducted rocket tests last week that came close to U.S. warships, the Pentagon announced Wednesday. The tests, which took place near commercial traffic moving in the Strait of Hormuz Saturday, comes months after a landmark nuclear weapons deal between the U.S. and Iran.
And one more
Former New York Gov. George Pataki announced Tuesday that he would end his bid for the Republican nomination for president. Pataki announced he was leaving the race on social media and in a two-minute video on NBC stations in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina.
In case you missed it
That moment when the Air Force couple came home unannounced to surprise his mother with a newly adopted baby.
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