5 Things to Know This Morning

Brandyn Benning punches up a Powerball lottery ticket at the Hy-Vee grocery store in Omaha Neb., Nov. 27, 2012. (Kent Sievers/The Omaha World-Herald/AP Photo)

Your look at the five biggest and most buzz-worthy stories of the morning.

1. String of Storms Pounding Northern Calif. The second of a string of storms is pounding northern California and will move into the San Francisco area this morning. Winds of up to 80 miles per hour have been reported in the northern California area where up to 4 inches of rain fell on Thursday. The next major storm will move in Saturday night.

2. Missouri Lotto Winners to be Announced The Missouri Lottery will hold a news conference this afternoon to announce the Missouri winners from the record $587.5 million Powerball jackpot. The winners will split the prize with a ticketholder in Arizona.

Kent Sievers/The Omaha World-Herald/AP Photo

Brandyn Benning punches up a Powerball... View Full Size

Kent Sievers/The Omaha World-Herald/AP Photo

Brandyn Benning punches up a Powerball lottery ticket at the Hy-Vee grocery store in Omaha Neb., Nov. 27, 2012.

3. Power Outage Affects Cambridge, Mass. Officials say power is back on in Cambridge, just outside of Boston, after a two-hour long outage on Thursday delayed commuters and affected events on the MIT and Harvard University campuses. About 17,000 customers in the area were without power due to an issue with a transmission line.

4. U.S. Birth Rate Plunges to Record Low The U.S. birth rate plunged to a record low last year, according to a study released Thursday by the Pew Research Center. The overall birth rate declined by 8 percent between 2007 and 2010, with the decline being led by immigrant women reeling from the recession.

5. Mo. Secret Santa Giving Out $100K to Sandy Victims A Missouri man posing as Secret Santa is giving away $100,000 this holiday season. A Kansas City businessman spent a day in New Jersey and New York giving money to people robbed of their homes or personal belongings by Superstorm Sandy.