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Washington Post reporter Darran Simon was found dead Thursday in his apartment, according to a memo sent to staffers. The cause of death has not been announced. Simon covered government and politics at WaPo, according to a Jan. 30 announcement from WaPo. Simon previously worked as a senior news writer at CNN, the announcement noted. “We are deeply saddened to report that yesterday, Darran Simon was found dead in his apartment,” the memo from Tracy Grant, WaPo’s managing editor for staff development and standards, reads according to the Washingtonian. “Our sympathy goes out to Darran’s family; we will share information...

The GHS Index is the first comprehensive assessment of global health security capabilities in 195 countries. Read more about the Index and the international panel that helped develop it, download the report and data model, and watch our introductory video. The average overall GHS Index score is 40.2 out of a possible 100. While high-income countries report an average score of 51.9, the Index shows that collectively, international preparedness for epidemics and pandemics remains very weak. The GHS Index assesses countries’ health security and capabilities across six categories, 34 indicators, and 85 sub-indicators. The findings are drawn from open source...

You know the one, with all of the stylishly dressed young women killing it in the workplace, telling you that they’ve “armored up” against an unplanned pregnancy? It’s clever enough, as the Nexplanon implant goes into one’s arm. Unfortunately, Merck (the makers of Nexplanon) may have to come up with another clever slogan for their device, as reports have surfaced that the matchstick-sized implant has a nasty habit of migrating elsewhere in a woman’s body, instead of staying put in her arm. Like other methods of long-acting reversible contraception (or, “LARCs”), the Nexplanon implant is increasingly favored by patients and...

With the awful reality of a new and frightening type of terror attack being perpetrated in the streets of our country, my mind returns to the recent memory of a more peaceful day. On that evening, the gentle breezes rustling through the palm trees was matched in melodious beauty by the crash of the waves against the shore. As if in a symphony, the voices of some 50 worshippers rose in praise to our awesome God as we sang of His goodness at the outdoor service on Little Gasparilla Island. Erica Emmanuel, the pastor’s wife, led us in Hillsong’s “Oceans”:...

It’s been a time of calamities: Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, flooding in South Asia and Africa and a massive earthquake in Mexico have led to widespread devastation around the globe.Some people seem to think this is divine retribution for the sins of humanity: Kirk Cameron, former child actor, said in a video on Facebook that Hurricane Harvey and Irma were “a spectacular display of God’s immense power” and were sent so human beings could repent. Earlier, after seeing the devastation of Hurricane Harvey, conservative Christian pastor John McTernan had noted that “God is systematically destroying America” out of anger over...

President Donald Trump discusses the short-term (relief) and long-term (recovery) efforts for Puerto Rico. As everyone is aware, even before the storm the island territory was under financial collapse as a result of Democrat mismanagement and generational political agendas’ creating a culture of dependency. Hurricane Maria has exacerbated Puerto Rico’s problems and is showcasing a governmental structure incapable of governing during crisis. The media hypes the suffering, yet omits the Island’s inept systems of governance and the culture of dependency. The only way the U.S. federal government can assist effectively is by taking over almost every aspect of state and...

On Friday morning, with Hurricane Irma having wrecked the islands of Saint Martin and Barbuda, CNBC published a story cheerily laying out the silver lining embedded in the tropical disasters: Hurricanes Harvey and Irma actually will lead to increased economic activity over the long run, New York Fed President William Dudley said in an interview.Speaking just as Irma is about to start battering Florida as a Category 4 storm, Dudley said the initial impact in both human and economic costs will be harmful. But in the long run, economies tend to snap back from such major events."Those effects tend...

Louisiana began evacuations for Hurricane Harvey this week, on the twelfth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. The hurricane has dumped a record 51 inches of rain as of Wednesday morning, the equivalent of four typical hurricanes.Why has God allowed such devastation? Here are the logical options as I see them.One: We didn't pray enough.Scripture teaches that "you do not have, because you do not ask" (James 4:2). Did this storm strike because we did not pray enough for God to stop it?If so, what about those who prayed fervently but still lost their homes to this storm? Is a lack of intercession to...

Explaining disasters While the loss of life stemming from tragedies is heartbreaking, we can’t fully understand God’s plan Msgr. Charles Pope May 29, 2016 Question: Given God’s mercy, how do we explain devastating earthquakes and other natural disasters? It certainly tests our faith!— Gerald Olesen, Fortuna, California Answer: Part of the answer we must accept is that we cannot really know the full answer since there is so much we don’t see or understand. This was the basic answer God gave Job, who asked the meaning of suffering in his own life. In effect, God challenged Job to explain...

Ten years ago, for the 40th anniversary of the Dec. 14, 1963 Baldwin Hills Dam collapse, Los Angeles Times staff writer Bob Pool reported: The Baldwin Hills Dam collapsed with the fury of a thousand cloudbursts, sending a 50-foot wall of water down Cloverdale Avenue and slamming into homes and cars on Dec. 14, 1963. Five people were killed. Sixty-five hillside houses were ripped apart, and 210 homes and apartments were damaged. The flood swept northward in a V-shaped path roughly bounded by La Brea Avenue and Jefferson and La Cienega boulevards. The earthen dam that created a 19-acre reservoir...

Warning: readers are advised to hide the sharp objects before viewing the clip of Morning Joe's review of the Middle East today. The picture painted is one of the utter failure of US foreign policy, leaving a devastated, deadly region in its woeful wake. We open with President Obama's "mission accomplished" moment from last year in which he called US policy in Yemen "successful." Cut to Jim Miklaszewski saying that the White House had to order US special forces out of the country, leaving us with absolutely no leverage. Then to Iraq, where two experts say Iraq as a country...

On the fourth anniversary of the tsunami that resulted in the meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi Reactors we pause to take stock of the ruins and mark how the Earth reclaims the remains. Before the tsumani on March 11, 2011, this land was farmland. After three years of pumping, this lake was drained, but it is unlikely to ever be fertile again because of the brackish water. While the tsunami was caused by seismic activity, rising global sea levels will make future disasters like tsumanis and hurricanes all the more dangerous.

Below, we demonstrate that the U.S. keeps “losing” war after war. There are 3 potential reasons this might be happening: •Is this chaos an intentional way to implement regime change and grab resources? •Or is this a sign of the decline of the American empire … and we just can’t win a war anymore? •Or do those in charge just not really give a damn about winning … and are they just focusing on one short-term goal after another?

President Obama is doing his victory dance, telling us how his health care plan has become a success because his more than his targeted number (8 million) clicked their desire to have health insurance on a website. We will soon see how many are real policyholders, and later we will see their real costs as everything shakes out with co-pays and renewals next year. What we do know is that Medicaid is a pending disaster waiting to happen. When the Obamacare registration period started we were regularly hearing about all those new Medicaid sign-ups. Then we did not hear about...

All of a sudden, the Ring of Fire is starting to tremble violently. Last month, we had a whole bunch of major earthquakes along the Ring of Fire, and this month volcanoes all over the Ring of Fire are erupting. Of course, there has always been seismic activity within this giant band that stretches around the Pacific Ocean. After all, approximately 75 percent of all volcanoes are located in the Ring of Fire and approximately 90 percent of all global earthquakes occur along the Ring of Fire. But what is alarming is that the level of activity appears to be...

Swiss Re, a global reinsurance company, has analyzed the disaster potential for 616 of the world’s largest cities (PDF). Each city is ranked according to its potential for earthquakes, storms, storm surges, tsunamis, and river floods. For each type of disaster, Swiss Re devised an extreme weather scenario in which defenses fail and the human and economic toll can be enormous. Further, each city was ranked based on the effect each scenario would have on its residents by combining population-distribution data and vulnerability estimates for each disaster. The scenarios consider fatalities, injuries, evacuations, those whose homes would be damaged or destroyed, and those who...

Everyone is focusing on Obamacare because it is such an obvious disaster, but in fact, it is but a microcosm of Barack Obama's entire presidency. Obamacare is Obama unmasked. Aren't some of you tired of making lame excuses for him that only serve to make things worse? He has made a mess of nearly everything his policies have touched, and he's mostly avoided the blame; but he owns Obamacare, and he has nowhere to hide. When someone with the influence Obama enjoyed upon first taking office sets out to fundamentally transform the nation -- and he has the unqualified support...

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One of the largest concerns during a disaster situation is when to leave. Hurricanes, floods, chemical leaks, societal breakdowns and terrorist attacks – all cause major evacuation disruptions in urban areas when too many people are trying to flee at the same time. We have seen this with such disasters as 9-1-1, Hurricane Katrina, and evacuations from mass wildfires. While it is important to listen and keep up to date on the current status of a disaster, as a societal whole, we have placed far too much emphasis on the government telling us when the appropriate time to evacuate is....

In an emergency evacuation, there will always be people who stay behind to protect their personal belongings. People who ignored evacuation warnings had to be rescued and some lost their lives in one of the worst storms in the history of natural disasters in the United States.The biggest challenges were hunger and cold because of electrical outages. More than 8.1 million homes and businesses lost power.In the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy, city leaders across the country are asking how their city would respond to a similar disaster and examining their preparedness and self-reliance needs. Sandy would have resulted in much...