Citizen Cartwright

Strongest link yet of weather event, climate change

Australia's heat waves last year were almost certainly a direct consequence of greenhouse gases emissions as a result of human activity, five groups of researchers said on Monday.

"It is perhaps the most definitive statement climate scientists have made tying a specific weather event to global warming," says The New York Times.

“When we look at the heat across the whole of Australia and the whole 12 months of 2013, we can say that this was virtually impossible without climate change,” says David Karoly, a climate scientist at the University of Melbourne who led some of the research.

Scientists, responding to demand, are trying to speed up their analyses of extreme weather events and the role of greenhouse gases, says the Times.

Grilling expected as Secret Service chief faces lawmakers

Republicans and Democrats alike say they want Secret Service Director Julia Pierson to explain at a hearing Tuesday by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee how she plans to improve the agency's culture and procedures.

The Washington Post reported on Monday that White House intruder Omar Gonzalez, a 42-year-old Iraq war veteran, on Sept. 19 ran much farther into the building than previously was known.

FDA criticized for lax oversight of medical implant devices

Every day, people get medical implants — including artificial valves, hip replacements and surgical mesh — that may not have been rigorously tested before or after their approval by the Food and  Drug Administration, according to two studies published online Monday in JAMA Internal Medicine.

Manufacturers didn't submit any scientific evidence on the safety or effectiveness of 42 out of a sample of 50 new implants in their applications to the FDA, according to a review by the nonprofit National Center for Health Research.

Yet the FDA cleared the implants for use in humans.

And the FDA doesn't appear to rigorously pursue companies on required postmarket studies to verify the safety of medical implants after their approval, says a study by the Pew Charitable Trusts.

The FDA says in response that its "approach has served the American public well by balancing the need for robust evidence to assure safety while expeditiously bringing new technologies to the patients who need them."

Also in the news

Opposition in Syria is skeptical of U.S. airstrikes on Islamic State

Obama seeks India’s Prime Minister Modi as ally on Asia policy amid China’s growing clout

Africa's best-governed nations are Mauritius and Botswana in annual ranking

Supreme Court blocks appeals court order to restore 7 days of voting in Ohio

Amid fracking frenzy, terminal built to import gas may end up exporting it

The number of wild animals on Earth has dropped by half in the past 40 years, analysis finds

The high-speed hype cycle of Ello, the 'anti-Facebook' social network

Consumer Reports: Warning signs that your doctor may be an overprescriber of meds

Antibiotics in infancy may be linked to childhood obesity, researchers say

Obama: U.S. underestimated rise of Islamic State

And America overestimated the Iraqi Army's willingness to fight, the president said Sunday on "60 Minutes."

Obama also acknowledged that the U.S.-led military campaign against the Islamic State and an al Qaeda affiliate in Syria is helping Syrian dictator Assad.

On Friday, Britain, Belgium and Denmark agreed to join the United States in its fight against the Islamic State in Iraq — but not, for now, in Syria.

The challenge to cut greenhouse gas emissions

Three days after President Obama told the U.N. climate summit of American progress in reducing its emissions, Energy Department data showed U.S. factories and power plants emitting more carbon dioxide during the first six months of 2014 than during the same period in each of the past two years.

Wall Street top regulator too 'deferential' to banks

That was the conclusion of an internal report of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York after the 2008 financial crisis.

So the bank started hiring specialized examiners to work inside too-big-to fail banks and ask the tough questions.

One of them, Carmen Segarra, was fired after just seven months working at Goldman Sachs.

Segarra secretly recorded about 46 hours of meetings and conversations with her colleagues that "portray a New York Fed that is at times reluctant to push hard against Goldman," says ProPublica.

"The New York Fed categorically rejects the allegations being made about the integrity of its supervision of financial institutions," the agency says in a statement in response to questions from ProPublica.

Also in the news

'Historic, anxious' handover as Afghanistan swears in new president

Hong Kong protesters stand firm in one of biggest challenges to Beijing since Tiananmen Square

After China gives police new guns, suspicious shootings have followed

U.S. considers no-fly zone to protect civilians from airstrikes by Syria

Islamic State lieutenant emerges from Australian red-light district

White House plans to require federal agencies to provide details about their drone use

EPA asbestos experiment threatened public health, the agency's inspector general says

'Bond King' Bill Gross leaves $222 billion bond fund to run $13 million Janus fund

Saving steadily seen as more key to building wealth than high earnings, investment wizardry

Scientists identify a sign of early development of pancreatic cancer

Expert advice to young athletes on avoiding sports injuries

Ban electronics from kids' bedrooms, expert recommends

Note to readers

Five years ago this week, I launched Citizen Cartwright and invited you, fellow citizen, to join me in trying to make sense of our world and in sharing a laugh along the way.

It's been such a pleasure being with you.

The challenge to understand what's shaping our lives is possibly greater now than it was then. And so is the challenge to put it all in some kind of panic-attack-precluding perspective.

So I'm game to keep going, if you are.

Are terrorists planning subway attacks?

Iraqi Prime Minister Abadi said on Thursday that captured Islamic State militants have told Iraqi intelligence agents of an alleged plot to attack subways in the United States and Paris.

But U.S. and French officials say they have no such information.