Millions of T-Mobile customers exposed in Experian breach

(Reuters) - Experian Plc , the world's biggest consumer credit monitoring firm, on Thursday disclosed a massive data breach that exposed sensitive personal data of some 15 million people who applied for service with T-Mobile US Inc .

Connecticut's attorney general said he will launch an investigation into the breach.

Experian said it discovered the theft of the T-Mobile customer data from one of its servers on Sept. 15. The computer stored information about some 15 million people who had applied for service with telecoms carrier T-Mobile during the prior two years, Experian said.

T-Mobile Chief Executive John Legere said the data included names, addresses, birth dates, Social Security numbers, drivers license numbers and passport numbers. Such information is coveted by criminals for use in identity theft and other types of fraud.

"Obviously I am incredibly angry about this data breach and we will institute a thorough review of our relationship with Experian," T-Mobile Chief Executive John Legere said in a note to customers posted on the company's website. "But right now my top concern and first focus is assisting any and all consumers affected." (http://t-mo.co/1M4FSSd)

The Experian breach is the latest in a string of massive hacks that have each claimed millions - and sometimes tens of millions - of customer records, including the theft of personnel records from the U.S. government this year, a 2014 breach on JPMorgan Chase and a 2013 attack on Target Corp's cash register systems.

It is also the second massive breach linked to Experian. An attack on an Experian subsidiary that began before Experian purchased it in 2012 exposed the Social Security numbers of 200 million Americans and prompted an investigation by at least four states, including Connecticut.

Experian on Thursday said it had launched an investigation into the new breach and consulted with law enforcement.

The company offered two years of credit monitoring to all affected individuals. People, however, said that they did not want credit protection from a company that had been breached.

Legere responded by promising to seek alternatives.

"I hear you," he said on Twitter. "I am moving as fast as possible to get an alternate option in place by tomorrow."

Experian said the breach did not affect its vast consumer credit database.

Legere said no payment card or banking information was taken.

T-Mobile had nearly 59 million customers as of June 30. A representative for the carrier said that not all 15 million of the affected applicants had opened accounts with T-Mobile.

The telecom carrier's shares were down 1.3 percent in extended trading after closing little changed at $40.13 on the New York Stock Exchange.

In the earlier data breach affecting Experian, a Vietnamese national confessed in U.S. court last year to using a false identity to opening an account with the unit, known as Court Ventures, sometime before Experian purchased it in 2012.

A spokeswoman for Connecticut Attorney General George Jepsen said on Thursday that it would investigate the latest attack.

The spokeswoman, Jaclyn Falkowski, declined to elaborate on the T-Mobile incident, but said the investigations of the Court Ventures matter "is active and ongoing."

(In 7th and 16th paragraphs, this version of the story corrects to show that the previous Experian data breach began before Experian purchased the company in 2012, not that it occurred in 2014.)

(Reporting by Jim Finkle; Additional reporting by Karen Friefeld and Arathy Nair; Editing by Leslie Adler)

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Gunman opens fire at Oregon college; at least 9 killed

ROSEBURG, Ore. (AP) — A gunman opened fire at a rural Oregon community college Thursday, killing at least nine people before dying in a shootout with police, authorities said. One survivor said he demanded his victims state their religion before he started shooting.

The killer, identified only as a 20-year-old man, invaded a classroom at Umpqua Community College in the small timber town of Roseburg, about 180 miles south of Portland. Authorities shed no light on his motive and said they were investigating.

Douglas County Sheriff John Hanlin said 10 people were dead and seven wounded after the attack. He did not clarify whether the number of dead included the gunman.

Earlier, Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum said 13 people were killed. It was unclear what led to the discrepancy.

"It's been a terrible day," a grim-faced Hanlin said. "Certainly this is a huge shock to our community."

Hours after the attack, a visibly angry President Barack Obama spoke to reporters at the White House, saying the U.S. is becoming numb to mass shootings and that the shooters have "sickness" in their minds.

Repeating his support for tighter gun-control measures, the president said thoughts and prayers are no longer enough in such situations because they do nothing to stop similar attacks from happening a few weeks or months later. He challenged voters wanting to confront the problem to vote for elected officials who will act.

Police began receiving calls about a campus shooting at 10:38 a.m. The school has a single unarmed security guard.

Kortney Moore, 18, said she was in a freshman writing class when a shot came through the window and hit the teacher in the head.

The gunman then entered the Snyder Hall classroom and told people to get on the floor, she told the Roseburg News-Review newspaper. He told people to stand up and state their religion before opening fire.

Next door, students heard a loud thud and then a volley of gunfire, Brady Winder, 23, told the newspaper.

Students scrambled "like ants, people screaming, 'Get out!'" Winder said. He said one woman swam across a creek to get away.

The sheriff said officers had a shootout with the gunman, but it was not clear if he was killed by authorities or whether he took his own life.

The gunfire sparked panic as students ran for safety and police and ambulances rushed to the scene.

Lorie Andrews, who lives across the street from the campus, heard what sounded like fireworks and then saw police cruisers streaming in. She spoke with students as they left.

"One girl came out wrapped in a blanket with blood on her," she said.

Some students were in tears as they left. Police lined up students in a parking lot with their hands over their heads and searched them before they were bused with faculty to the nearby county fairgrounds, where counselors were available and some parents waited for their children.

Jessica Chandler of Myrtle Creek, south of Roseburg, was at the fairgrounds desperately seeking information about her 18-year-old daughter, Rebecka Carnes.

"I don't know where she is. I don't know if she's wounded. I have no idea where she's at," Chandler said.

Carnes' best friend told Chandler that her daughter had been flown by helicopter to a hospital, but she had not been able to find her at area medical centers.

Interim college President Rita Cavin said it was awful to watch families waiting for the last bus of survivors and their loved ones were not on it.

"This is a tragedy and an anomaly," she said. "We have a wonderful, warm, loving and friendly campus."

Officials at Mercy Medical Center in Roseburg, Oregon, said four of the wounded were hospitalized there and were expected to survive. Three other patients were transferred to a hospital in Springfield.

The sheriff described the town of 22,000 as a peaceful community that has crime like any other. In fact, it's no stranger to school gun violence. A freshman at the local high school shot and wounded a fellow student in 2006.

The sheriff has been vocal in opposing state and federal gun-control legislation. Earlier this year, he testified against a bill to require background checks on private, person-to-person gun sales and told a legislative committee in March that a background-check mandate would not prevent criminals from getting firearms.

He said the state should combat gun violence by cracking down on convicted criminals found with guns, and by addressing people with unmanaged mental health problems.

In 2013, Hanlin also sent a letter to Vice President Joe Biden after the shooting at a Newtown, Connecticut, elementary school, declaring that he and his deputies would refuse to enforce new gun-control restrictions "offending the constitutional rights of my citizens."

Before the shooting, a posting on the message-board site 4chan included a photo of a crudely drawn frog used regularly in Internet memes with a gun and warned other users not to go to school Thursday in the Northwest. The messages that followed spoke of mass shootings, with some egging on and even offering tips to the original poster. It's unclear if the messages are tied to the shooting because of the largely anonymous nature of the site.

The community along Interstate 5 west of the Cascade Mountains is in an area where the timber industry has struggled. In recent years, officials have tried to promote the region as a tourist destination for vineyards and outdoor activities.

Many of the students in local school district go on to attend the college of 3,000 students.

"We are a small, tight community, and there is no doubt that we will have staff and students that have family and friends impacted by this event," Roseburg Public Schools Superintendent Gerry Washburn said.

Former UCC President Joe Olson, who retired in June after four years, said the school had no formal security staff, just one officer on a shift.

One of the biggest debates on campus last year was whether to post armed security officers on campus to respond to a shooting.

"I suspect this is going to start a discussion across the country about how community colleges prepare themselves for events like this," he said.

There were no immediate plans to upgrade security on the campus in light of the shooting, Cavin said.

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5 fired at Miami-Dade lockup where teen died in beat-down

BY CAROL MARBIN MILLER

At a since-shuttered juvenile corrections center in Pahokee, staff members used Snickers bars to get kids to beat each other up. In Broward County’s juvenile lockup, free iced tea has purportedly been similarly employed.

Department of Juvenile Justice administrators won’t say if they think that’s what happened to Elord Revolte, the 17-year-old who died last month after a vicious attack by more than a dozen detainees at the Miami-Dade juvenile lockup.

But they did say this late Wednesday evening: Five staffers at the lockup, including three supervisors, have been fired for infractions that include failing to oversee detained children and falsifying official reports. And a special team will be dispatched from the agency’s Inspector General’s Office on Thursday to initiate an investigation into allegations that “honey buns” have been used as bounties for beat-downs.

Elord was booked into the Miami lockup on Aug. 27 on charges of armed robbery. He left on a stretcher four days later after being jumped by as many as 20 other detainees, authorities said. It is not yet clear what led to the melee in which the teen was injured. But in the wake of Elord’s death, lawyers for delinquent children, as well as Elord’s former foster mother, have told the Miami Herald that it has been common practice for officers to use treats as an inducement for detainees to punish other kids.

In Elord’s case, kids in his module “complained about him to the guards,” Chief Assistant Miami-Dade Public Defender Marie Osborne said. “One guard’s response was, ‘You gotta do what you gotta do.’ The kids understood they had a green light.”

Both the Miami-Dade Police and the state Department of Juvenile Justice are investigating Elord’s death. Heather M. DiGiacomo, a DJJ spokeswoman, would not provide any details of what the agency’s “preliminary” investigation has found.

Elord, who was not sent to the hospital until a day after his beating, was the second youth to die in a state lockup after waiting a prolonged period for medical care. In February, 14-year-old Andre Sheffield died at DJJ’s Brevard County lockup of bacterial meningitis, an inflammation of the protective membranes of the brain. Andre had complained of a headache and stomach pain, soiled himself, limped and fell over in the hours before he died, and six DJJ staff members were disciplined for their role in his death.

The Herald first learned of the alleged connection between honey buns and beatings the day after Elord died, when his short-term foster mother described the practice in detail to a reporter, who then asked the public defenders in Miami-Dade and Broward counties if they were aware of it.

The next day, an assistant public defender told Osborne, his boss, that detainees at the Miami lockup — most of whom are represented by their office — had disclosed being offered honey buns by guards looking for someone to hurt another detainee.

“When I asked [the lawyer], ‘Why honey buns?’ he stated these kids are incarcerated, so they don’t get anything like that in here. In here, a honey bun is like a million dollars,” Osborne told the Herald.

The kids who accept the bounties, Osborne said, serve an important purpose: “Guards can get around Abuse Hotline charges in an unorthodox way and maintain order and control in a situation where they are seriously outnumbered.”

Osborne was so concerned by the lawyer’s report that she called a staff meeting. She asked all the assistant public defenders who represent kids in the lockup to ask their clients what, if anything, they knew about the allegation. Within two weeks, she said, she had received reports from her staff involving 15 youths who separately confirmed the use of contraband food as rewards for beat-downs.

“I will put a honey bun on your head if you don’t do what I say,” one detainee quoted a guard to his lawyer.

“Sometimes it’s Skittles,” Osborne said. “It’s not always honey buns. Sometimes it’s Snickers. If they really want a child hurt, and they really want to ensure a kid will do it, the big treat is any kind of fast food, like a cheeseburger.”

The allegations were relayed by a reporter to DiGiacomo, who hours later said agency administrators “had had exactly no idea about [them]. They are appalling. When these things are reported to this agency, we take them seriously and investigate them.”

“When a tragedy like this happens, it rocks the entire agency,” DiGiacomo said of Elord’s death. “It is always heartbreaking when there is a death of a child. Their safety is our top priority.”

Osborne is not the only lawyer who has heard about the purported treats for beat-downs.

“I’ve heard that at almost every program I’ve visited where I’ve talked with children,” said Gordon H. Weekes Jr., Broward’s chief assistant public defender, who has headed the office’s Juvenile Court staff for a decade. “It seems like the staff uses children to enforce their vendettas rather than putting their own hands on a kid. They’ll say, ‘Take care of that kid for [iced] tea or a honey bun.’ I’ve heard that a number of times. I’ve reported it to DJJ a number of times.”

Clients of the Broward Public Defender’s Office have told their lawyers that officers will order a pizza or Chinese food and offer leftovers to kids “who are willing to do their bidding.”

Part of the problem, Weekes said, is that the teenagers in DJJ custody seldom are given enough food to gain the caloric intake their bodies require. “These are teens, and all they want to do is eat and eat and eat and eat, because they’re growing,” Weekes said, adding that he had encouraged state juvenile justice authorities to allow detainees to get “seconds” in the chow line.

Honey bun bounties apparently are well known even outside the state’s lockups.

Jolie Bogorad, who cared briefly for Elord and has had several other delinquent teens stay as foster children in her Miami Beach home, told the Herald that “it is a common occurence” for Miami-Dade detention officers to offer youths a honey bun to do their dirty work. “They give them a honey bun to beat the hell out of another kid,” Bogorad said. “Not one boy told me this. Everybody who came here from detention told me that.”

Complaints about food bounties go back nearly two decades at DJJ. During a hearing involving conditions at the now-shuttered Pahokee Youth Development Center in November 1997, one detainee testified about the use of Snickers bars as bribes for beatings. At that hearing, Osborne, who has supervised the juvenile attorneys in Miami for 20 years, questioned some of the kids who lived there.

Detainees testified that they had been taunted by guards, had been confined in isolation for hours on end, were forced to eat food with bugs in it, were hogtied, given advice on how to commit suicide and encouraged to fight with other kids — for the amusement and “excitement” of staff members, a hearing transcript says.

The use of rewards for kids who fought with each other sticks with Osborne to this day. “I’ve never forgotten that moment,” she said. When she asked one youth why kids would so readily beat up other kids, his answer haunted her.

“You don’t know,” the youth replied. “You’d do a lot for a Snickers.”

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Principal Wounded in South Dakota High School Shooting

A student shot and injured the principal of a South Dakota high school on Wednesday morning, shortly before the unnamed suspect was tackled to the ground by the assistant principal and athletic coach, according to local reports.

The school's superintendent, James Holbeck, said in a statement that no students were hurt in the shooting, according to the Associated Press.

Sioux Falls Police said the school's assistant principal Ryan Rollinger, who is the assistant football coach at Harrisburg High School, ran to the scene after hearing a gunshot. Together with athletic director Joey Struwe, the men tackled the student, who has since been taken into custody.

The school, located about 10 miles south of Sioux Falls, remains in lockdown as officers from the Harrisburg Police Department and the Lincoln County Sheriff's Department investigate at the scene.

The shooting victim, Kevin Lein, is reportedly in stable condition, Lincoln County State's Attorney Tom Wollman told the Argus Leader.

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US Defense Official: Russia Launchs Airstrikes in Syria

A U.S. defense official tells The Associated Press that Russia has launched airstrikes in Syria.
The move follows a unanimous vote by Russian lawmakers to allow President Vladimir Putin to order airstrikes in Syria, where Russia has deployed fighter jets and other weapons in recent weeks. The Kremlin sought to play down the decision, saying it will only use its air force in the Mideast country, not ground troops.

UPDATEDMom Threw Newborn Out 7th-Floor Window to Death: Police
The U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to discuss the airstrikes publicly, said they were launched Wednesday near Homs.
In a statement Wednesday, the office of Syrian President Bashar Assad said Russia's decision to send troops to Syria came at the request of Damascus.

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The United Nations has a radical, dangerous vision for the future of the Web

It may not have intended to, precisely, but the United Nations just took sides in the Internet’s most brutal culture war.

On Thursday, the organization’s Broadband Commission for Digital Development released a damning “world-wide wake-up call” on what it calls “cyber VAWG,” or violence against women and girls. The report concludes that online harassment is “a problem of pandemic proportion” — which, nbd, we’ve all heard before.

But the United Nations then goes on to propose radical, proactive policy changes for both governments and social networks, effectively projecting a whole new vision for how the Internet could work.

Under U.S. law — the law that, not coincidentally, governs most of the world’s largest online platforms — intermediaries such as Twitter and Facebook generally can’t be held responsible for what people do on them. But the United Nations proposes both that social networks proactively police every profile and post, and that government agencies only “license” those who agree to do so.

“The respect for and security of girls and women must at all times be front and center,” the report reads, not only for those “producing and providing the content,” but also everyone with any role in shaping the “technical backbone and enabling environment of our digital society.”

How that would actually work, we don’t know; the report is light on concrete, actionable policy. But it repeatedly suggests both that social networks need to opt-in to stronger anti-harassment regimes and that governments need to enforce them proactively.

At one point toward the end of the paper, the U.N. panel concludes that “political and governmental bodies need to use their licensing prerogative” to better protect human and women’s rights, only granting licenses to “those Telecoms and search engines” that “supervise content and its dissemination.”


In other words, the United Nations believes that online platforms should be (a) generally responsible for the actions of their users and (b) specifically responsible for making sure those people aren’t harassers.

Regardless of whether you think those are worthwhile ends, the implications are huge: It’s an attempt to transform the Web from a libertarian free-for-all to some kind of enforced social commons.

This question, of course, mirrors other, larger debates playing out across the culture, including tiffs over academic “trigger warnings” and debates about Reddit’s foggy future. Writing at Breitbart several weeks ago, the conservative columnist Allum Bokhari described a growing social movement that he dubs “cultural libertarianism”: the rejection of any and all limitations on absolute free expression.


It’s no coincidence that the “cultural libertarians” Bokhari cites are all leading figures in Gamergate, just as it’s no coincidence that the U.N. report references Zoe Quinn, the first victim of that movement. Well over a year after Quinn’s harassment became international news, we still haven’t answered these fundamental questions about what values the Internet should protect and who is responsible for it.

This U.N. report gets us no closer, alas: all but its most modest proposals are unfeasible. We can educate people about gender violence or teach “digital citizenship” in schools, but persuading social networks to police everything their users post is next to impossible. And even if it weren’t, there are serious implications for innovation and speech: According to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, CDA 230 — the law that exempts online intermediaries from this kind of policing — is basically what allowed modern social networks (and blogs, and comments, and forums, etc.) to come into being.

As reports like this are making increasingly clear, however, these platforms were developed by people who never imagined the struggles that women face online. We’re using tools that weren’t designed for us; they had other people and values and priorities in mind.


Is a reckoning — or at least rebalancing — imminent? The United Nations suggests it has to be. But it certainly won’t look like the model dreamt up in this report. For better or worse, that’s several steps too revolutionary.
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$600K Settlement for NYPD Officer Who Made Quota Tapes

An NYPD officer who claimed he was handcuffed and hauled off to a psych ward after he blew the whistle on supervisors faking crime statistics to make the stats look better reached a $600,000 settlement with the city on Tuesday.

It was Halloween night in 2009 when Adrian Schoolcraft said his fellow officers burst into his Queens home, declared him an emotionally disturbed person and brought him to a psychiatric facility.

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The officer, who worked in Brooklyn, had made hundreds of hours of secret tapes while on duty that chronicled everything from roll calls to locker room chatter to bosses yelling at him. He also claimed supervisors forged crime statistics to make the stats look better than they were.

Among other things, Schoolcraft alleged that officers were being told to hand out more summonses and make more arrests while others were downgrading crimes on purpose to make their precinct's numbers appear better. Schoolcraft claimed that officers who didn't were told they would be transferred or given undesirable schedules.

In October 2009, officers from the department's emergency service unit went with a police chief to Schoolcraft's home in Queens and forced him into an ambulance, he alleged. Schoolcraft was suspended from the force after his involuntary hospital stay and went into self-exile in upstate New York as his lawyer filed a $50 million civil rights lawsuit against the city.

On Tuesday, he reached a settlement with New York City and several former superiors. The settlement, which awards him $600,000, also includes back pay and benefits beginning in December 2009. The case had been set to go to trial in October.

"We are pleased that we were able to reach a just and fair resolution of this dispute with Adrian Schoolcraft," Nick Paolucci, a spokesman for the city's Corporation Counsel, said Tuesday. Paolucci said the settlement was not an admission of wrongdoing, but was "in the best interest of the city."
The only officer who was not represented by the city in the case, Insp. Steven Mauriello, said in a statement through his union Tuesday that he was disappointed with the settlement.

"Inspector Mauriello is disappointed this case settled," his union president Roy Richter said. "Although he was fully indemnified by the City, the Inspector was anticipating a trial decision that would provide a truthful account in a court of law."
Schoolcraft's attorney, Nathaniel Smith, did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment.

Associated Press writer Colleen Long contributed to this report.

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Tropical Storm Joaquin Strengthens East of Bahamas; East Coast Landfall Potential Still Very Uncertain

Tropical Storm Joaquin underwent a period of noticeable strengthening Tuesday afternoon over the western Atlantic Ocean, and it appears likely to become a hurricane just east of the Bahamas before a complicated atmospheric pattern makes its future track – including any potential landfall on the U.S. East Coast – extremely difficult to forecast.

Residents along the East Coast of the U.S. should pay close attention to the forecast now through this weekend. It's a particularly difficult forecast that hinges on the behavior of several different atmospheric features over North America and the North Atlantic Ocean.

Computer forecast models (see graphic below) – and the meteorologists who rely on them for guidance – are grappling with a complex interaction between Joaquin, a cold front near the East Coast, the remnants of Tropical Storm Ida, a strong bubble of high pressure aloft over the North Atlantic Ocean, and a potentially strong area of low pressure aloft digging into the southeastern U.S. later this week.

(MORE: Expert Analysis | Hurricane Central)

Joaquin's future depends critically on the position and relative strength of those players – not to mention its own strength. Strong wind shear had kept most of Joaquin's thunderstorm activity (convection) south of its center of circulation, but that changed Tuesday afternoon as thunderstorms developed over the circulation center.

Air Force reconnaissance aircraft flew into the storm as that happened. The crew reported a central barometric pressure of 990 millibars – considerably lower than most forecast models had expected this early in Joaquin's evolution – signaling a robust tropical cyclone gaining strength. (Lower central pressure generally corresponds to higher wind speeds in tropical cyclones.)

Regardless of the ultimate outcome of Joaquin's path, portions of the East Coast will still see multiple impacts from the evolving large-scale weather pattern, including flooding rainfall, gusty winds, high surf, beach erosion and some coastal flooding. Click the link below for more information on that story.


In addition, Joaquin could move far enough southwest to bring rain and wind impacts to the northeast Bahamas during the latter half of the week. Interests there should follow the progess of Joaquin very closely.

Here's what we know about Joaquin:

Tropical Storm Joaquin's center is located about 405 miles east of the northwestern Bahamas as of 5 p.m. EDT Tuesday.

Maximum sustained winds jumped to 65 mph Tuesday afternoon.
As wind shear over the storm lessens, Joaquin should strengthen further and may become a hurricane Tuesday night or Wednesday.

This system is moving slowly to the west-southwest and this is expected to continue over the next day or so, before turning north Friday into Saturday.

Watches or warnings may be issued Tuesday evening for parts of the Bahamas, which could see rain and wind impacts from Joaquin depending on how far southwest the storm moves.

While the official National Hurricane Center five-day forecast track no longer includes the U.S. East Coast, Joaquin may directly or indirectly affect the East Coast late this weekend or early next week, and a landfall cannot be ruled out beyond the five-day forecast window.

Moisture and/or energy associated with Joaquin could enhance rainfall along the cold front in the Northeast late this week. Regardless, the East Coast will see significant impacts from the larger scale weather pattern taking shape.

Tropical Depression Eleven strengthened into Tropical Storm Joaquin Monday night after forming Sunday evening.

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Strong Solar Flare Captured in NASA Image; Some Radio Communication Impacted

A moderate solar flare was unleashed by the sun Monday, and NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) captured an image of the stunning event.

Classified as a mid-level solar flare, it peaked at 10:58 a.m. EDT on Monday morning, according to NASA. It was an M7.6 flare, which is more than seven times as strong as an M1 flare. M-class flares are only 10 percent as strong as X-class flares, NASA said, but they still rank on the higher end of moderate flares.

"The moderate eruption is unlikely to cause space weather strong enough to affect Earth, but scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Space Weather Prediction Center will nonetheless monitor the after-effects of the flare," said UPI.com in its report.

(MORE: Cold 'Blob' a Reason for Concern)

Scientists do not believe this solar flare is strong enough to turn loose a coronal mass ejection, where gas violently erupts from the sun and eventually hits Earth, according to Space.com. The flare did, however, lead to interference with low-frequency radio communications in South America and over the Atlantic Ocean, and there's a possibility of additional flares in the coming days, the report added.

While a solar flare cannot harm humans on Earth, the larger ones are capable of wreaking havoc on forms of technology and communication. An intense flare could affect the power grid as well as satellite communications, GPS or otherwise, UPI.com added.

The SDO is a relatively young branch of NASA; it was opened in 2010 to help scientists closer study the sun's electromagnetic patterns and how these flares affect us, UPI.com also said.


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Nearly 20 Million People Were Displaced Last Year Because of Extreme Weather

Extreme natural disasters like floods, storms and earthquakes displaced nearly 20 million people in 2014, a new report by the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) has found.

Since 2008, an average of 26 million people have been forced to flee their homes every year, due to disasters brought on by natural hazards. That's equivalent to one person being displaced every second, the report said.

However, Mother Nature isn't the only factor to be blamed for the severity of the crisis. Often, the weather or earthquake isn't dangerous in and of itself, but when coupled with poor housing and or infrastructure in densely populated areas, can cause immense damage to life and property.

"A flood is not in itself a disaster, the catastrophic consequences happen when people are neither prepared nor protected when it hits," Jan Egeland, Secretary General of NRC, said in a statement. The NRC is an independent foundation focusing on protecting the rights of refugees and internally displaced people through aid distribution and advocacy.

People around the world are now sixty percent more likely to be displaced by a natural disaster than four decades ago. The reasons vary, but the authors said rapid urbanization and population growth in hazard-prone areas were the key drivers behind increased vulnerability

"The urban population in developing countries has increased by 326 percent since 1970," lead author Michelle Yonetani wrote in the report. "This rapid growth has for the most part been unplanned and poorly governed, leading to high exposure and vulnerability."

Yonetani and her co-authors compiled data from a wide range of sources, including governments, the United Nations, nonprofit organizations, and media reports.

Weather-related disasters, floods in particular, had the largest impact — displacing 17.5 million last year, while geophysical hazards such as earthquakes made 1.7 million people homeless.

According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), increasing levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere will lead to higher global temperatures, raising the risk of more intense droughts and storms, including tropical cyclones with higher wind speeds, a wetter Asian monsoon, and, possibly, more violent mid-latitude storms.

The NRC report says 1998 was the peak year for displacement — a year that coincides with the strongest recorded El Niño — a warming of the central and eastern tropical Pacific Ocean.

El Niños formations are a natural phenomenon that usually occur every two to seven years and can drastically change weather patterns across the globe. El Niño conditions currently exist in the Pacific and many scientists project this year's could be one of the strongest ever. It has already been identified as a major contributing factor in the recent wildfires stretching from California to Alaska and the heavy rainfalls in California.

Kristie Ebi, a professor at University of Washington's global health department, studies the impacts climate change, including extreme events, and how nations might better prepare for them.

"There has been big shift over the last few years in disaster risk management and adaptation to climate change; they have been running along parallel tracks," Ebi told VICE News. "We are now looking at how climate change is affecting how many disasters there could be and how intense they could be."

Related: 'Seek Higher Ground Immediately': Sifting Through the Wreckage of Texas' Deadly Floods

The IPCC in its 2001 report had stated that global warming could cause sea levels to rise 0.11 to 0.77 meters (0.36 to 2.5 feet) by 2100. This alone can lead to massive flooding and can submerge entire coastal cities. Many coastal towns and cities have their hospitals and other disaster relief infrastructure situated near the coast, Ebi said. "In many Pacific islands, the hospitals are in coastal region… If you look at long term projections for sea levels rise and much larger storm surges, you need to move those structures."

The NRC concurs with Ebi that smart infrastructure investment is crucial. The authors found that in Chile, which had one of the largest displacements of 2014, owing to an 8.2 magnitude offshore earthquake, investing in disaster prevention and preparedness paid off brilliantly. Around 970,000 people had to flee low-lying coastal areas in response to a tsunami warning following the tremor, but most were able to return home the following day.

Asia is home to 60 per cent of the world's population, but accounted for 87 percent of the world's displaced people in 2014. China, India, and the Philippines experienced the highest levels of displacement in absolute terms, both in 2014 and for the period from 2008-2014.

At the same time, Europe experienced double its average level of displacement for the past seven years, with 190,000 people displaced, mostly due to the flooding in the Balkans.

The link between extreme weather events and climate change also has some unforeseen consequences. Daniel Chapman, a graduate student at University of Massachusetts Amherst's

Psychological and Brain Sciences Department, has found that linking the two when making appeals for humanitarian relief can make some people, particularly climate change skeptics, view a disaster event and its victims unfavorably.

"While it is true that there is increasing scientific research on the link between disaster trends and climatic changes, in the aftermath of any single disaster it is difficult, if not impossible, to make this connection reliably."


Therefore, he added, "if the purpose of a group's message is to increase humanitarian relief, connecting a disaster with climate change may not be a good option."

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Retired Firefighter Breaches Security at JFK to 'Give Pope His Business Card': Complaint

A former New York City firefighter carrying five bullets and marijuana breached security at JFK Airport and drove onto the tarmac in order to give Pope Francis his business card, according to a criminal complaint filed against him.

Chris Cannella, 39, followed a United Nations motorcade into JFK around 6 p.m. Saturday and flashed his retired FDNY badge at a security check to get onto the tarmac, the document says.
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Cannella was driving a black Chevy Tahoe similar to the SUVs used by the NYPD and the United Nations, authorities said.

The retired firefighter was stopped by detectives as he sat outside a second checkpoint; they asked why he was following the motorcade. Cannella allegedly said he wanted to give the pope his business card and that he wanted to meet with world leaders to affect change.

Cannella also allegedly later tore apart a chair in an interrogation room and threatened an officer with the broken pieces.

He is charged with criminal impersonation, criminal mischief, unauthorized possession of a pistol and/or revolver/ammunition, firearms ammunition feeding device, criminal trespass and unlawful possession of marijuana. It was unclear if he had an attorney.

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'Swatting' plagues New Jersey

" It is called swatting... Fake calls that send police to an unsuspecting home... And it is a growing problem."

NEW YORK (FOX 5 NEWS) - Police across New Jersey have responded to dozens of phony 911 calls in recent months. The prank is known as "swatting" and investigators say it's often difficult to catch those responsible.

Robert Ianuale has been swatted multiple times. The first time was in April. He happened to be live streaming on his webcam when officers burst into his Keyport, New Jersey, apartment and the camera continued to roll. "Out of nowhere I hear in the back 'Police!' I'm just like what? I turn around and I see police officers coming through the door and three or four with automatic rifles and bullet proof vests," said Ianuale.

Ianuale said the officers told him they had received reports he shot his girlfriend and was holding hostages.

Swatting is officially defined as calling in a fake threat and triggering a deployment of a SWAT team and it has become an epidemic in New Jersey this year.

"I don't think there is a single county that hasn't been hit by swatting incidents," said Richard Frankel, the Special Agent in Charge of the Newark Bureau of the FBI. Swatting initially gained popularity among online gamers who would call police on an opponent in an act of revenge or as an attempt at distraction but Frankel says it's no longer exclusive to that community. "Everyone is making these calls now," Frankel said. The targets range from individuals like Ianuale, to schools, to mosques and even a Pizza Hut.

SAC Frankel estimated there have been around 80 incidents so far this year across New Jersey. Some towns like Freehold, Holmdel and Princeton have been hit especially hard. Local municipalities tell Fox 5 each swatting call can cost up to tens of thousands of dollars in resources. And then there's the issue of safety, explains Frankel.

"You'll have a SWAT team come in there thinking there is an active shooter based on what happened in the past-what's truly happened at schools, at institutions, at campuses," he said, adding "I'm surprised there hasn't been something of the equivalent of a friendly fire at this point." But despite the often massive law enforcement response when the calls come in, arrests are rare. It's not for lack of trying. The problem is technology is making it easier than ever to make web-based blocked calls. Easily accessible apps can spoof numbers to look like they're coming from a different caller.

"The technology exists where 911 is not just a phone call anymore," explains Mark Fletcher, an emergency number professional and the Chief Architect for Public Safety solutions at Avaya Telecommunications.


Fletcher explains many swatters don't actually call in their threats to 911 phone lines. Instead they call non-emergency lines via the web or send in their threats using internet text services designed for the hearing or speech impaired, tactics that make it easier to block the call's origins. Swatting has become so widespread the Federal Communications Commission stepped in and issued an order that would block non-verified 911 calls to IP relay services.

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Putin Rules Out Russian Troops Fighting in Syria After Meeting With Obama

Hours after President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin exchanged barbs during the UN General Assembly on Monday, the two leaders met for 90 minutes inside the UN Security Council.

The bilateral meeting, held in the company of ministers and advisers, including Secretary of State John Kerry, was perhaps the most eagerly anticipated conclave during this year's General Debate, which began earlier in the day. The topic of discussion was largely expected to be Syria's civil war, where Russia has recently increased its military presence, sending personnel, planes, and vehicles.

Related: Why the Hell Did Russia Intervene in Syria?

The Obama administration has insisted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad must not remain part of any political transition, while Putin says Assad should be offered support as part of efforts to dismantle the so-called Islamic State (IS). That discrepancy was on full display during the speeches the two leaders delivered earlier in the day.

After leaving the Council chambers, Putin bypassed an expectant group of international reporters and gave a press conference exclusively for Russian media, which was broadcast and translated live by RT, the Kremlin's English language media outlet.

According to the translation, Putin called the meeting "very constructive, practical and surprisingly frank."

"We've found a lot of common ground, but there are differences as well," he said.

Putin did not rule out the use of warplanes in Syria, but he did say, however, that Russian troops would not be deployed in fighting, saying "ground operations, involving Russian units, Russian troops — this is out of the question."

Another expected topic of discussion, which American officials insisted earlier in the week would be raised, is the conflict in Ukraine. Moscow annexed the country's Crimea region last year, and Russian soldiers have been documented inside separatist-controlled territory in eastern Ukraine. The Kremlin has insisted that its forces are not in the country.

There was no immediate word from American officials on the content of the discussion on Monday night.

Related: Obama and Putin Talk Trash and Clink Glasses at UN Ahead of Private Meeting

The hour and a half encounter was the second of the day for Obama and Putin. Earlier, the two men sat at the same table during a luncheon hosted by UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon. The two men clinked glasses during a toast but did not appear to speak to each other.

Asked about the incident, Putin said "this was just a protocol event nothing more."

"You journalists, you really surprise… you are very interesting people," he added.

Follow Samuel Oakford on Twitter: @samueloakford

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NASA Confirms Signs of Water Flowing on Mars, Possible Niches for Life

Scientists have for the first time confirmed liquid water flowing on the surface of present-day Mars, a finding that will add to speculation that life, if it ever arose there, could persist now.

“This is tremendously exciting,” James L. Green, the director of NASA’s planetary science division, said during a news conference on Monday. “We haven’t been able to answer the question, ‘Does life exist beyond Earth?’ But following the water is a critical element of that. We now have, I think, great opportunities in the right locations on Mars to thoroughly investigate that.”

That marks a shift in tone for NASA, where officials have repeatedly played down the notion that the dusty and desolate landscape of Mars could be inhabited today.

But now, John M. Grunsfeld, NASA’s associate administrator for science, talked of sending a spacecraft in the 2020s to one of these regions, perhaps with experiments to directly look for life.

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“I can’t imagine that it won’t be a high priority with the scientific community,” he said.

Although Mars had rivers, lakes and maybe even an ocean a few billion years ago, the modern moisture is modest — small patches of damp soil, not pools of standing water.

In a paper published in the journal Nature Geoscience, scientists identified waterlogged molecules — salts of a type known as perchlorates — on the surface in readings from orbit.

“That’s a direct detection of water in the form of hydration of salts,” said Alfred S. McEwen, a professor of planetary geology at the University of Arizona, the principal investigator of images from a high-resolution camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and one of the authors of the new paper. “There pretty much has to have been liquid water recently present to produce the hydrated salt.”

By “recently,” Dr. McEwen said he meant “days, something of that order.”

Scientists have long known that large amounts of water remain — but frozen solid in the polar ice caps. There have been fleeting hints of recent liquid water, like fresh-looking gullies, but none have proved convincing.

In 2011, Dr. McEwen and colleagues discovered in photographs from the orbiter dark streaks descending along slopes of craters, canyons and mountains. The streaks lengthened during summer, faded as temperatures cooled, then reappeared the next year.

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They named the streaks recurring slope lineae, or R.S.L.s, and many thousands of them have now been spotted. “It’s really surprisingly extensive,” Dr. McEwen said.

Scientists suspected that water played a critical role in the phenomenon, perhaps similar to the way concrete darkens when wet and returns to its original color when dry.

But that was just an educated guess.

Lujendra Ojha, a graduate student at the Georgia Institute of Technology, turned to an instrument on the orbiter that identifies types of molecules by which colors of light they absorb. But this instrument, a spectrometer, is not as sharp as the camera, making it hard to zoom in on readings from the narrow streaks, a few yards across at most.


“We had to come up with new techniques and novel ways to do analysis of the chemical signature,” said Mr. Ojha, the lead author of the Nature Geoscience article.

The researchers were able to identify the telltale sign of a hydrated salt at four locations. In addition, the signs of the salt disappeared when the streaks faded. “It’s very definitive there is some sort of liquid water,” Mr. Ojha said.

The perchlorate salts lower the freezing temperature, and the water remains liquid. The average temperature of Mars is about minus 70 degrees Fahrenheit, but summer days near the Equator can reach an almost balmy 70.

Many mysteries remain. For one, scientists do not know where the water is coming from.

“There are two basic origins for the water: from above or from below,” Dr. McEwen said. The perchlorates could be acting like a sponge, absorbing moisture out of the air, but measurements indicate very low humidity on Mars — only enough for 10 microns, or about 1/2,500th of an inch, of rain across the planet if all of the wetness were wrung out of the air.

That idea cannot be ruled out if the lower part of the atmosphere turns out more humid than currently thought.

“We have very poor measurements of relative humidity near the surface,” Dr. McEwen said.

The other possibility is underground aquifers, frozen during winter, melting during summer and seeping to the surface.

Liquid water is considered one of the essential ingredients for life, and its presence raises the question of whether Mars, which appears so dry and barren, could possess niches of habitability for microbial Martians.

Christopher P. McKay, an astrobiologist at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Mountain View, Calif., does not think the recurring slope lineae are a promising place to look. For the water to be liquid, it must be so salty that nothing could live there, he said. “The short answer for habitability is it means nothing,” he said.

He pointed to Don Juan Pond in Antarctica, which remains liquid year round in subzero temperatures because of high concentrations of calcium chloride salt. “You fly over it, and it looks like a beautiful swimming pool,” Dr. McKay said. “But the water has got nothing.

Others are not so certain. David E. Stillman, a scientist at the Southwest Research Institute’s space studies department in Boulder, Colo., said water for the streaks might be different in different regions. In some, they form only during the warmest times, suggesting that those waters might not be too salty for microbes.

Even though recurring slope lineae appear to be some of the most intriguing features on Mars, NASA has no plans to get a close-up look anytime soon.

They are treated as special regions that NASA’s current robotic explorers are barred from because the rovers were not thoroughly sterilized, and NASA worries that they might be carrying microbial hitchhikers from Earth that could contaminate Mars.

Of the spacecraft NASA has sent to Mars, only the two Viking landers in 1976 were baked to temperatures hot enough to kill Earth microbes. NASA’s next Mars rover, scheduled to launch in 2020, will be no cleaner. Sterilizing spacecraft, which requires electronics and systems that can withstand the heat of baking, adds to the cost and complicates the design.

In selecting the landing site for the 2020 rover, the space agency is ruling out places that might be habitable, including those with recurring slope lineae.

That prohibition may continue even though two candidate streaks have been identified on the mountain in Gale Crater that NASA’s Curiosity rover is now exploring, a mile or two from its planned path.

NASA and the Curiosity team could decide to approach the streaks without driving onto them, or to simply observe from a distance. The rover is still probably a couple of years away.

In an interview after the news conference, Dr. Green of NASA said that if the streaks in Gale Crater turned out to be recurring slope lineae, the space agency would consider how great a contamination threat Curiosity, irradiated by ultraviolet light for several years, might pose to a potential Martian habitat.


“If we can go within 20 meters, we can zap it with a laser,” Dr. Green said, referring to an instrument that identifies material inside a rock by the colors of light it emits as it is vaporized. “Then we can learn much more about the details what’s in those R.S.L.s. If we can get closer and actually scoop it up, that would be even better.”

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When It Goes Down, Facebook Loses $24,420 Per Minute

At 6:52 p.m. Eastern, Facebook went down. (It began working again at 7:27 p.m.) This is the third such outage in the last several months, and it happens to coincide with the company’s announcement of impressive summer earnings.

The close proximity of outage and earnings makes some uncomfortable math possible.

In the third quarter, Facebook posted revenue of $3.2 billion. The third quarter lasts 91 days, from July 1 to September 30. This amounts to:

$35,164,835 per day
$1,465,201 per hour
$24,420 per minute

If we consider “revenue per minute” as a benchmark for potential losses, Facebook took a bit of a hit this evening. Their last outage, back in August, lasted for 19 minutes and lost them $426,607 (based on second-quarter revenue.) Using the same hypothetical math, this outage cost them a bit more—their third quarter was much more profitable, after all. Though it was down for just 35 minutes, Facebook lost $854,700 in revenue.

Of course, their third-quarter revenue included that August outage, so our loose math may not even be loose enough. And Facebook doesn’t actually have to fork over any cash to advertisers when they experience an outage—they just stop making it.


Regardless, it certainly seems like Facebook can take the hit.

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Tropical storm system Juaqun could bring torrential rain flood to NY, NJ and CT

 NEW YORK – A strong onshore flow and an approaching cold front will bring the return of showers across the region for the next few days. On top of this, a tropical system which could become Joaquin by Monday night, and will drift northwest before getting caught with the cold front on Thursday.

The moist flow off the ocean could bring some drizzle and fog Monday night. Temperatures will be in the mid to upper 60s.

On Tuesday, the morning fog will eventually burn off by midday. The cold front will start to make its way east reaching the Appalachians by the afternoon. That could bring a few scattered showers late in the day. Ahead of the front, expect it to be warm and humid with highs at around the 80-degree mark.
Eventually the front approaches and rain will become steady Tuesday night into Wednesday. The front will be enhanced by deep tropical moisture so the rain will be heavy at times dumping anywhere from 1-3”. Rainfall rates are also expected to be high at times, so flash flooding will be a concern across the region.

Further down the road, we are watching a tropical system in the Atlantic Ocean. Tropical Depression 11 formed late on Sunday and is expected to become Tropical Storm Joaquin by Monday night. Current forecasts show the storm drifting northwest maintaining status as a tropical storm through Thursday.

The cold front that will pass through our region on Wednesday will “catch” the storm and drive it quickly up north on Friday as an “extratropical” low.  That is just a fancy name stating that the storm loses its tropical characteristics. Regardless of this fact, this storm could bring another round of drenching rains from late Friday into part of the weekend.


There is a lot of uncertainty this far out on what this storm will do to our area. We do not know the extent of the rain across the region. On top of that, coastal and river flooding will be questionable.  The exact details will have to be worked out for the next few days. We’ll keep you up to date as we get closer.

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Vladimir Putin Doesn’t Think Obama Is Weak [VIDEO]

Vladimir Putin told Charlie Rose in an interview airing Sunday on “60 Minutes” that he doesn’t think President Obama is weak and that in America, “foreign political factors are used for domestic political battles.” (RELATED: Trump Says He Would ‘Enjoy’ Meeting With Putin)

Putin, a former KGB agent, dodged Rose’s question about his own opinion of Obama, suggesting, “I don’t think I’m entitled to give any views regarding the president. That’s up to the American people.”

Charlie Rose: Let me ask you this, what do you think of President Obama? What’s your evaluation of him? Vladimir Putin: I don’t think I’m entitled to give any views regarding the president. That’s up to the American people. Rose: Do you think his activities in foreign affairs reflect a weakness? Putin: I don’t think so at all. You see, here’s the thing, in any country– and in the United States, I believe this happens even more often than in any other country– foreign political factors are used for domestic political battles.

There is a presidential campaign coming up, so they’re playing either the Russian card or some other. Rose: Okay, but let me ask you this, do you think he listens to you? Putin: Well, I think we listen to each other in a way, especially when it comes to something that doesn’t go counter to our own ideas about what we should and should not do. Rose: Do you think he considers Russia, you said you’re not a superpower,  he considers Russia an equal and considers you an equal, which is the way you want to be treated? Putin: (laughs) Well, you ask him. He’s your president. How could I know what he thinks?

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Facebook will help the UN bring internet access to refugee camps

Refugees already have a hard life, but that's made worse by the typical lack of internet access at refugee camps -- unless you resettle, you may never get online. Facebook isn't content with this state of affairs, however, and is promising to help the United Nations bring internet access to those camps. Company chief Mark Zuckerberg (who revealed the plans at a luncheon) didn't explain how and where this would take place, but it won't be shocking if Facebook relies on its upcoming internet drones to connect these sometimes remote places.

As with efforts from Google and Microsoft, this gesture isn't strictly about kindness. Facebook knows that more internet access means more potential users. As Mark Zuckerberg explains, though, this is an instance where everyone could benefit. Facebook gets more ad views, while refugees can communicate with the rest of the world and (hopefully) get closer to finding permanent homes.


Good news, Engadget peoples! We’re creating a single login system for both our product database and comments. The first part of that transition is a new commenting system, launching on September 29th. You’ll get to keep your current user name (as long as it doesn’t contain invalid characters, in which case you’ll have to go through a few extra steps to make the transfer), and all your old comments will eventually (not immediately) migrate with you.

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How to Backup your Facebook Account?

Downloading Your Info | Facebook Help Center | Facebook show much racial and   

You can download your information from your settings. To download your information:

1. Click  at the top right of any Facebook page and select Settings
2. Click Download a copy of your Facebook data below your General Account Settings
3. Click Start My Archive

Because this download contains your profile information, you should keep it secure and be careful when storing, sending or uploading it to any other services.

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I'ts not just you, Facebook is Down! 9 28 2015

FaceBook Status Site




Facebook seem to be UP now!
Approximate down time 42 minutes!

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Boehner: GOP ‘false prophets’ are making unrealistic promises

BY LAURIE KELLMAN, ASSOCIATED PRESS  September 27, 2015 at 3:35 PM EDT

WASHINGTON — House Speaker John Boehner warned Sunday against “false prophets” in his own party making unrealistic promises, saying his resignation had averted a government shutdown this week but not the GOP’s broader battle over how to wield power.

Speaking on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” Boehner unloaded against conservatives long outraged that even with control of both houses of Congress, Republicans have not succeeded on key agenda items, such as repealing President Barack Obama’s health care law and striking taxpayer funding from Planned Parenthood. He refused to back down from calling one of the tea party-styled leaders and presidential candidate, Sen. Ted Cruz, a “jackass.”

“Absolutely they’re unrealistic,” Boehner said. “The Bible says, `Beware of false prophets.’ And there are people out there spreading noise about how much can get done.”

Boehner’s resignation announcement Friday stunned Washington but was long in the making after years of turmoil with the same House conservatives who propelled the GOP into the House majority on a tea party-style, cut-it-or-shut it platform. Without Boehner, the job of leading divided congressional Republicans falls more heavily on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell – who declared nearly a year ago that the GOP’s prospects of reclaiming the White House depends substantially on showing the party can govern.

The development rippled through the slate of 2016 presidential candidates competing for support among the GOP’s core Republicans. As Boehner announced his resignation to House Republicans Friday morning, Republican presidential hopeful Sen. Marco Rubio related the news to a conference of conservatives – who erupted in triumphant hoots. Rubio, retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson and former Hewlett Packard CEO Carly Fiorina were among the GOP candidates who said Boehner’s departure showed it was time for the party to move on.

Fiorina suggested that McConnell’s leadership, too, has been unsatisfactory.

“I hope now that we will move on and have leadership in both the House and the Senate that will produce results,” Fiorina said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

But former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush called Boehner, “a great public servant.”

“I think people are going to miss him in the long run, because he’s a person that is focused on solving problems,” Bush said on “Fox News Sunday.”

Boehner’s resignation announcement came as congressional Republicans faced a familiar standoff in their own ranks over whether to insist on their demands in exchange for passage of a federal budget – the same dynamic that led to the partial government shutdown of 2013. For nearly a year, McConnell, now the Senate’s Republican majority leader, has insisted there would be no repeat, even as conservatives dug in.

“We told people to give us the Senate and things would be different. We told them back in 2010, give us the House and things will be different,” said Rep. Mick Mulvaney, R-N.C., on “Fox News Sunday.” `’Things are not that different.”

Retorted Boehner on CBS:

“We have got groups here in town, members of the House and Senate here in town, who whip people into a frenzy believing they can accomplish things that they know – they know – are never going to happen.”

With government funding set to run out at midnight Wednesday, and conservatives insisting that Planned Parenthood be defunded in exchange for legislation keeping the government open, the GOP-controlled Congress seemed on-track for another costly standoff.

Until, that is, Boehner met Pope Francis.

The Roman-Catholic Ohio congressman described spending the day with his spiritual leader as deeply moving and a factor in the timing of his resignation announcement. Boehner said he had originally planned on revealing his plan to leave Congress in November. Away from the cameras, Francis floored Boehner by asking the speaker to pray for him – “I did,” Boehner said. “Well, you can imagine, I was a mess.” The pope blessed Boehner’s newest grandchild and spoke to Congress about resisting forces that divide people. And by the end of the day, Boehner said, “it was pretty obvious to me that, hey, I think it’s time to do this.”

“I think it helped clear the picture,” an emotional Boehner said of the experience.

He said he did not know what lies ahead for him, except a continuation of his yoga practice because, “It’s great for my back.”

But even as he looked forward, Boehner had terse words for the faction that he ultimately could not control. He harked back to 2013 and what he called the conservatives’ “fool’s errand” of insisting on the repeal of the health care law in exchange for passing a budget.

“Our founders didn’t want some parliamentary system where, if you won the majority, you got to do whatever you wanted. They wanted this long, slow process” he said. “And so change comes slowly, and obviously too slowly, for some.”

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