Disaster

For the third time in roughly seven weeks, Houthi rebels have fired a ballistic missile into Saudi Arabia, according to a spokesperson. The Volcano 2-H missile launched by the Yemeni rebels was reportedly shot down by Saudi air defenses just seconds before striking the al-Yamama royal palace, according to the Sun, which cited local TV news station Al-Arabiya. Houthi-controlled television has claimed that the missile targeted a meeting of Saudi leaders in a palace.

A day after a power failure at Atlanta's Hartsfield Jackson Airport - the busiest terminal in the world - left thousands of passengers stranded with flights only just beginning to resume, America's crumbling infrastructure was on display yet again on Monday, but this time, the failure looks much more severe.

To wit, Amtrak train 501 derailed in Pierce County, about 40 miles south of Seattle, according to media reports and images showing the train tumbling off the tracks and on to the freeway below. The derailment happened at around 8 am local time - or 11 am Eastern.

Now the third-largest wildfire in California history, the Thomas Fire has blazed through Ventura and Santa Barbara counties since it exploded into existence two weeks ago under mysterious circumstances.

"Recovery" is a funny word that seems to mean very different things to different people...

Industrial Production rose just 0.2% in November (below the 0.3% rise expected) but October was revised higher from 0.9% to 1.2% amid storm reconstruction.

And so while The Dow Jones Industrial Average has 'recovered' its way to new record highs way beyond Dec 2014 levels, actual Industrial Production continues to lag...

Despite earlier hope amid Tillerson's comments on diplomacy with North Korea, a new batch of satellite images suggests that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is ignoring warnings from Chinese (as well as American and South Korean) scientists and instead pressing ahead with the country’s nuclear testing regimen at Punggye-ri, a facility situated in the country’s mountainous northeast.