Despite the lack of scientific studies linking vaccines and autism, the government has agreed to a settlement in the case of Hannah Poling, whose parents had sued believing that vaccines administered to Hannah caused her autism. Advocates are jumping all over the ruling, claiming it to be the proof they previously lacked. Government officials, however, are cautioning parents from jumping to conclusions:

“Let me be very clear that the government has made absolutely no statement indicating that vaccines are a cause of autism,” Dr. Julie L. Gerberding, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Thursday. “That is a complete mischaracterization of the findings of the case and a complete mischaracterization of any of the science that we have at our disposal today.”

Given that the details of the case have been sealed by court order, what is certain is that there are still a lot of unanswered questions.

Hannah’s father, Dr. Jon Poling, was a neurology resident at Johns Hopkins Hospital at the time, and she underwent an intensive series of tests that found a disorder in her mitochondria, the energy factories of the cells.

Such disorders are uncommon, their effects can be significant but varied, and the problems associated with them can show up immediately or lie dormant for years.

There are two theories about what happened to Hannah, said her mother, Terry Poling. The first is that she had an underlying mitochondrial disorder that vaccinations aggravated. The second is that vaccinations caused this disorder.

“The government chose to believe the first theory,” Ms. Poling said, but added, “We don’t know that she had an underlying disorder.”

Police have formally charged Jessie Dotson, a brother of one of the victims of the brutal Memphis murders from last weekend, where police found 4 adults and 2 children dead in their home. Dotson also left three other critically injured children in the house for dead.

“[Dotson] tried to kill everyone in the house. He thought everyone in the house was dead,” police Lt. Joe Scott said.

Dotson was charged with six counts of first-degree murder and three counts of attempted first-degree murder, police said. Among those killed was Dotson’s brother, Cecil, 30, who was the father of all the children, ages 9 to 2 months.

Also killed were Hollis Seals, 33, Shindri Roberson, 25, and Marissa Rene Williams, 26, the mother of four of Cecil Dotson’s children. Police identified the dead children as Cemario Dotson, 4, and Cecil Dotson, 2.

The surviving children remain under police custody at a children’s hospital, but police declined to reveal their identities or their conditions.

One of the children “implicated Jessie Dotson as the person responsible,” an arrest warrant affidavit said.

Firefighters in Kansas City, Kansas were called Saturday morning to a fire and made a surprising discovery — a 2-year-old girl was alone in the burning house. Fortunately they were able to rescue her. The toddler suffered from smoke inhalation and is in serious condition, but family members say she is recovering. The twist to this story, though, is that it wasn’t an unfortunate coincident that was the result of poor judgment leaving a child by herself — investigators are saying that the fire was intentionally set:

Neighbors said the child lived at the house with her mother. However, the child’s mother did not show up at the house until firefighters were about to leave the scene about an hour after finding the girl.

Police took the 27-year-old woman into custody for investigation of endangering the welfare of a child, Snapp said, although she had not been charged Saturday.

Police believe the mother left the child unattended for 2 1/2 hours.

Fire investigators ruled that the fire was intentionally set, Vitale said.

He said the fire department had closed its investigation, but details regarding how the blaze was ignited were not released Saturday.

Saturday evening, detectives had not said who they believed was responsible.