Disaster

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.

In an unexpected run of good fortune, a shift in the powerful winds that have fanned the SoCal wildfires over the past week and a half has pushed the Thomas Fire – the largest of the six uncontained blazes – away from nearby communities while also clearing the air of smoke, improving visibility for the beleaguered firefighters working tirelessly to suppress the flames. Meanwhile, further south, firefighters have managed to achieve upwards of 90% containment for the Rye, Lilac and Creek Fires: