This is AP News Minute.

A Republican plan to avoid the fiscal cliff came to an abrupt end. Plan B as it was called, would have kept tax rates down for most Americans, but would not have addressed the spending cuts that take effect January 1st.

One of the two bank robbers who escaped from a prison in Chicago has been caught. The FBI says it found Joseph Banks is still in the Windy City. Banks and Kenneth Conley broke a huge hole in the jail wall and lowered themselves 20 stories with the bedsheet rope. Conley remains at large.

Airlines are expecting travel to get back to normal Friday after a big winter-like storm canceled more than 1,000 flights Thursday. The storm dropped more than a foot of snow on some midwestern states.

And Guatemala marked the end of the Mayan calendar cycle with a ceremony in front of a Mayan pyramid. The calendar's end had prompted speculation about the impending end of the world.

Carlotta Bradley, the Associated Press with AP News Minute.

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