Nation in brief: Chelsea Clinton gets engaged

NEW YORK – Former first daughter Chelsea Clinton, 29, and Marc Mezvinsky, 31, whose parents both served in Congress, have ended months of speculation by announcing their engagement.

Mezvinsky, an investment banker, is the son of Edward M. Mezvinsky, a former Iowa congressman and Pennsylvania Democratic Party chair, and Marjorie Margolies-Mezvinsky, who represented Pennsylvania’s Montgomery County in Congress in the early 1990s.

The couple sent an e-mail to friends Friday announcing the news, saying they were looking at next summer for the wedding. Matt McKenna, a spokesman for the former president, confirmed the engagement Monday.

Flu activity down for a fourth week

WASHINGTON – The level of flu activity across the nation has dropped for the fourth week in a row, federal health officials reported Monday, indicating that the second wave of the swine flu pandemic in the United States has peaked.

While officials warned that the number of people getting infected with the H1N1 virus remains high, and cases could surge again, the extended period of falling activity suggests that the intensity of the outbreak has reached a high.

“We’re certainly on the downward slope of the curve,” said Thomas Skinner, spokesman for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.

The CDC noted, however, that 27 deaths from swine flu among people younger than 18 had been confirmed in the most recent week – the largest one-week tally of pediatric deaths since the pandemic started – bringing the total to at least 198.