* "They leave behind increasingly empty neighborhoods—from the Damascus suburbs to the northern city of Aleppo—that testify to the scale of their exodus." * EU struggles to get member nations to accept refugees, as Hungary imposes new laws to deter migrants from staying put. * Today's Syrian
* Dept. of Energy suffered over 150 successful cyber-attacks between 2010 and 2014; 19 targeted nuclear weapons. * Reminder: US government information systems are routinely hacked. * MIT researchers: Government networks are antiquated, vulnerable because of a lack of research funding. * Richard Glossip scheduled for lethal injection this week; however, Oklahoma'
* Chicago police are focusing more on seizing firearms than arresting low-level drug offenders. * Chicago's South Side, where much of the city's violence takes place, to get long-overdue Level 1 trauma center. * US officials block documents detailing the Gitmo torture of Abu Zubaydah, who lost
* Oregon may be the driest state in the country, with 70% of the state in extreme drought. * California is currently experiencing its largest forest fire, which has burned through 160 square miles of the San Joaquin Valley. * Six brush fires alone were sparked by lightning in LA County yesterday. * EU
* Freddie Gray's family to receive a $6.4 million wrongful-death settlement from the city of Baltimore. * The Freddie Gray settlement is more than the $5.7 million Baltimore paid in total from 2011 to 2014 in police brutality lawsuits. * Some experts believe taking misconduct settlements out of
* Following the entry of 20,000 migrants into Germany, Merkel implores EU to accept its fair share of asylum seekers. * The child of a "guest worker" in Germany in the '90s knows how short-lived the goodwill can be. * As Europe struggles with one of its largest
* Families are stranded in a Budapest train station as Europe and Hungary accuse each other of a humanitarian crisis. * The dangerous symbiosis between smugglers, migrants, and saviors plays out in the drama of a rescue on the Mediterranean. * Hungary: This is "not a European problem. This is a German
* Barbara Mikulski's support pushed Obama's Iran deal over the top, the culminating step in a well-laid plan. * Republicans are eyeing how to delay implementation of the Iran Deal, or use it as a wedge issue against Democrats in 2016. * China celebrates Japan's WWII
* Dennis Hale from "The Gales of November" died today—nearly 49 years after surviving the next-to-last Great Lakes shipwreck. * The migrant crisis: Germany welcomes with water and documentation; Budapest overwhelmed, closes train station. * Which European nations are letting in refugees. * Unpaid political ads—e.g., Trump&
* To catch up to Russia in the Arctic, Obama proposes Coast Guard icebreakers to operate year-round. * An interview with Goosebumps creator RL Stine. * After years of decline, murders are up in US cities; cited reasons include rivalries, more guns, and unaggressive policing. * Doctors rebuke police after patient is shot
