and in time, all of our prayers were answered, and my mom pulled through. to this day, that remains our miracle. and each christmas we put up that artificial tree because to us, it s a symbol of that enduring hope, of the love and the faith of the guardian angels around us, of the love and faith that family and chosen family extend toward one another, especially during this season, and also of answered prayers for her. although finding just the right balance between his catholic and jewish heritage was a struggle during childhood, december s. but the rivera family eventually decided on a christmas cut compromise chrismukkah.
we saw significant revisions over the previous two months. january s numbers were revised up from 129,000 to 144,000. and february was revised up from 175,000 to 197,000. that makes the last few months look a little better. and it starts to make december s and january s numbers look a little bit more like an outlier. still, this is the acceleration that a lot of economists thought could kick in as for this economic recovery. as for business and professional services, up 57,000. food services up 30,000. both construction and health care sectors added 19,000 jobs each. and once again, it s the government, mostly state and local, that lost jobs, 9,000 this month. one final note. according to the labor department, the private sector has now recovered all of the 8.8 million jobs that were lost during the recession. but, of course, we have the population adds, and that s why we re still a little bit behind
still being held hostage with a man in some sort of testimony difficulty. swat negotiators are on the line trying to talk this man down. we have continuing coverage and live reports from the scene through the this newscast. word came of a deal to expand background checks for gun buyers. it is a pivotal move one day before the senate prepares to debate gun control. the news broke this morning with two senators. one republican and one democrat announcing they had an agreement. the compromise calls for running background checks for all commercial sales. even those at gun shows and online. but private one-on-one transactions would be exempt. if you pass a criminal background check, you get to buy a gun. no problem. it s the people who fail, a criminal or a mental health background check that we don t want having guns. today is just the start of a healthy debate that must end with the senate and house, hopefully passing these common sense measures and the president signing it into law.