Spaceweather.com - A coronal mass ejection (CME) hit Earth's magnetic field at approximately 12:15 UT on Sept. 26th. The impact caused significant ground currents in Norway. Also, the Goddard Space Weather Lab reports a "strong compression of Earth's magnetosphere. Simulations indicate that solar wind plasma [has penetrated] close to geosynchronous orbit starting at 13:00UT." Geosynchronous satellites could therefore be directly exposed to solar wind plasma and magnetic fields. Stay tuned for updates.
STRONG SOLAR ACTIVITY: Having already unleashed two X-flares since Sept. 22nd, sunspot AR1302 appears ready for more. The active region has a complex "beta-gamma-delta" magnetic field that harbors energy for strong M- and X-class eruptions. Flares from AR1302 will become increasingly geoeffective as the sunspot turns toward Earth in the days ahead.

CHARLOTTE COUNTY - A fifth-grade teacher lost her job this month when school administrators and parents were anonymously sent images of her engaged in sex acts and apparently smoking marijuana.
HERE IS THE REST OF THE STORY

SPACE.com - A huge, dead satellite tumbling to Earth is falling slower than expected, and may now plummet down somewhere over the United States tonight or early Saturday, despite forecasts that it would miss North America entirely, NASA officials now say. The 6 1/2-ton Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS) was expected to fall to Earth sometime this afternoon (Sept. 23), but changes in the school bus-size satellite's motion may push it to early Saturday, according to NASA's latest observations of the spacecraft. "The satellite's orientation or configuration apparently has changed, and that is now slowing its descent," NASA officials wrote in a morning status update today. "There is a low probability any debris that survives re-entry will land in the United States, but the possibility cannot be discounted because of this changing rate of descent."

Thursday, 22 Sep 2011 | 12:16 PM ET - CNBC Executive News Editor - With no solution in sight for Europe and new fears of a global recession, investors dumped stocks and commodities and ran to the safety of U.S. Treasurys. Treasury yields [cnbc explains] , as a result, slipped to historic lows with the 10-year yielding 1.75 percent and the 30-year at 2.86 percent. The dollar was also a beneficiary of a massive fear trade that sent U.S. stocks sharply lower, on the heels of steep sell-offs in equities markets around the globe. The worst performing stock market sectors mirrored the sell-off in global commodities markets, with materials down 4.6 percent and energy stocks down 4.1 percent. Copper, hit by concerns of a Chinese slowdown, tumbled 7 percent to a 1-year low. Gold, usually a safety play, was sold into the maelstrom as investors raised cash. The euro [EUR=X 1.3485 -0.0092 (-0.68%) ], broke below 1.35, a recent bottom of its range. It was trading in the 1.346 area, an eight-month low against the dollar. The dollar index [.DXY 78.38 1.03 (+1.34%) ] was 1.4 percent higher."People are finding it really isn't gold. It isn't precious metals. It's not currencies. U.S. Treasurys are where people are flocking to at a time of extreme concern about risk, and we continue to see Treasurys continue to get bid up," said Zane Brown, fixed income strategist at Lord Abbett.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/44626413

UARS, a NASA satellite the size of a small bus, will re-enter the atmosphere later this week. Best estimates place the re-entry time during the late hours of Sept. 23rd over a still-unknown region of Earth. "It is still too early to predict the time and location of re-entry," says NASA. "Predictions will become more refined over the next two days." The disintegration of UARS is expected to produce a fireball that could be visible even in broad daylight. Not all of the spacecraft will burn up in the atmosphere, however; according to a NASA risk assessment, as many as 26 potentially hazardous pieces of debris could be scattered along a ground track some 500 miles long. The same report puts the odds of a human casualty at 1 in 3200.
Photo caption: On Sept. 15th, astrophotographer Theirry Legault video-recorded the doomed satellite during one of its last passes over France:

Natural News - Forget about the 2012 Mayan calendar, comet Elenin or the Rapture. The real threat to human civilization is far more mundane, and it's right in front of our noses. If Fukushima has taught us anything, it's that just one runaway meltdown of fissionable nuclear material can have wide-ranging and potentially devastating consequences for life on Earth. To date, Fukushima has already released 168 times the total radiation released from the Hiroshima nuclear bomb detonated in 1945, and the Fukushima catastrophe is now undeniably the worst nuclear disaster in the history of human civilization. But what if human civilization faced a far greater threat than a single tsunami destroying a nuclear power facility? What if a global tidal wave could destroy the power generating capacities of all the world's power plants, all at once? Such a scenario is not merely possible, but factually inevitable. And the global tidal wave threatening all the nuclear power plants of the world isn't made of water but solar emissions.

http://au.ibtimes.com/articles/213249/20110914/solar-flare-could-unleash-nuclear-holocaust-across-planet-earth-forcing-hundreds-of-nuclear-power-pl.htm

TOKYO (AP) — A powerful typhoon slammed into Japan on Wednesday, leaving six people dead or missing in south-central regions and halting trains in Tokyo before grazing a crippled nuclear plant in the tsunami-ravaged northeast.

Officials at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant, where engineers are still struggling with small radiation leaks due to tsunami damage, expressed relief that Typhoon Roke's driving winds and rains caused no immediate problems there other than a broken security camera.

"The worst seems to be over," said Takeo Iwamoto, spokesman for plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co., after the storm passed just west of the plant and then headed north.

More than 200,000 households in central Japan were without electricity late Wednesday. Police and local media reported that at least six people were dead or missing in southern and central regions, many of them believed swept away by rivers swollen with rains.

The storm, packing sustained winds of up to 100 mph (162 kph), made landfall in the early afternoon near the city of Hamamatsu, about 125 miles (200 kilometers) west of Tokyo. The fast-moving storm went past the capital in the evening and then headed into the Tohoku region, which was devastated by the March 11 tsunami.

In Tokyo, where many rush hour commuter trains were suspended, thousands of commuters trying to rush home were stuck at stations across the sprawling city.

"The hotels in the vicinity are all booked up, so I'm waiting for the bullet train to restart," Hiromu Harada, a 60-year-old businessman, said dejectedly at Tokyo Station.

Fire department officials reported three people injured in Tokyo. In the trendy shopping district of Shibuya, winds knocked a tree onto a sidewalk, but no one was hurt. Pedestrians struggled to walk straight in powerful winds that made umbrellas useless.

At the Fukushima plant, engineers are still working to stabilize the reactors six months after three of them melted down when the tsunami disabled the plant's power and back-up generators.

Iwamoto said the storm passed without damaging the reactors' cooling systems, which are crucial to keeping them under control. However, a closed-circuit camera that shows exteriors of the reactor buildings abruptly stopped, and plant workers were investigating, he said.

Workers were trying to prevent pools of contaminated water from flooding and leaking outside the complex, said Junichi Matsumoto, another power company spokesman.

"The contaminated water levels have been rising, and we are watching the situation very closely to make sure it stays there," Matsumoto told reporters.

As the storm headed further into the north, it triggered landslides in parts of Miyagi state that already were hit by the March disasters. Dozens of schools canceled classes.

The disaster-struck region had a chilling reminder of its earlier disasters when a magnitude-5.3 earthquake struck late Wednesday just south of Fukushima in the Ibaraki state. Officials said the temblor posed no danger to the plant, and that it did not cause any damage or injuries in the region.

Heavy rains prompted floods and caused road damage earlier in dozens of locations in Nagoya and several other cities, the Aichi prefectural (state) government said.

Parts of Japan's central city of Nagoya, about 170 miles (270 kilometers) west of Tokyo, were flooded near swollen rivers where rescue workers helped residents evacuate in rubber boats.

Police in nearby Gifu prefecture said a 9-year-old boy and an 84-year-old man were missing after apparently falling into swollen rivers.

More than 200 domestic flights were canceled and some bullet train services were suspended.

Toyota Motor Corp., Japan's No. 1 automaker, shut down its plants as a precaution.

Machinery maker Mitsubishi Heavy Industries told workers at its five plants to stay home, company spokesman Hideo Ikuno said.

Nissan Motor Co. spokesman Chris Keeffe said workers at its Yokohama headquarters and nearby technical facilities were being told to go home early for safety reasons, and that two plants were not operating.

A typhoon that slammed Japan earlier this month left about 90 people dead or missing.

___

AP writer Mari Yamaguchi contributed to this report.

SPACE.com Sept. 19 - A dead climate satellite that has been circling Earth for 20 years will make a fiery death plunge this week, with some pieces of the 6 1/2 ton spacecraft expected to reach the surface of the planet, NASA officials say. The bus-size Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite, or UARS, will likely plummet down to Earth sometime around Friday (Sept. 23), according to NASA's latest projections. There is a 1-in-3,200 chance that UARS debris could hit a person, though NASA considers that scenario extremely remote. "Re-entry is expected Sept. 23, plus or minus a day," NASA officials wrote in an update posted Sunday (Sept. 18). That means that by Saturday (Sept. 24), the UARS satellite should slam into Earth's atmosphere and break apart.

2011 September 15 19:30:59 UTC
120 km (74 miles) SSW of Ndoi Island, Fiji
425 km (264 miles) W of NUKU`ALOFA, Tonga
453 km (281 miles) SSE of SUVA, Viti Levu, Fiji

BASED ON ALL AVAILABLE DATA A DESTRUCTIVE PACIFIC-WIDE TSUNAMI IS
NOT EXPECTED AND THERE IS NO TSUNAMI THREAT TO HAWAII. REPEAT. A
DESTRUCTIVE PACIFIC-WIDE TSUNAMI IS NOT EXPECTED AND THERE IS NO
TSUNAMI THREAT TO HAWAII.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Consumers paid more for a range of goods and services last month, pushing up inflation and squeezing Americans' purchasing power. The Consumer Price Index rose 0.4 percent in August after jumping 0.5 percent in July. The core index, which excludes volatile food and energy prices, rose 0.2 percent. For the 12 months that ended in August, the core index surged 2 percent, the biggest year-over-year increase in nearly three years. That's at the high end of the Federal Reserve's informal inflation target. It could limit the central bank's ability to take further steps to try to revive the economy. The Labor Department said food prices rose 0.5 percent, the biggest increase since March. That was due to higher prices for cereals and dairy products. Energy prices increased 1.2 percent.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Consumers-paid-more-on-wide-apf-87741826.html?x=0&.v=2

"Debbie Does End of Days”? San Fernando Valley porn purveyors Pink Visual may be the only adult film company equipped to release such a title, as they are planning on “riding out the 2012 apocalypse in style” by building an “enormous underground bunker” in anticipation of the December 21, 2012 apocalypse. “Our goal is nothing less than to survive the apocalypse to come in comfort and luxury,” Pink Visual spokesman Quentin Boyer told CBS’ Los Angeles affiliate. “Whether that catastrophe takes the form of fireballs flung earthward by an all-seeing deity, extended torrential rainfall, Biblical rapture, an earthquake-driven mega-tsunami, radioactive flesh-eating zombies, or some combination of the above.” With nothing to lose on that fateful night, Boyer suggests that those invited to the bunker may participate in an end of the world orgy. “Inevitably, I suppose, that will happen,” he muses. “It’s hard to say how people would respond to an actual apocalypse.”

http://entertainment.blogs.foxnews.com/2011/09/15/porn-company-builds-porn-bunker-to-ride-out-forecasted-apocalypse/?test=latestnews

The Associated Press 09/15/2011 5:54 AM - LOS ANGELES - A brilliant bright light seen streaking in the night sky over the Southwest was most likely a fireball , a fragment of an asteroid that entered Earth's atmosphere, a NASA scientist said. Residents from Phoenix to Las Vegas to Southern California's coastal areas reported to local authorities and media outlets Wednesday that they saw the light move quickly from west to east at around 7:45 p.m. PDT. Many reported the light as bluish-green and others as yellow and orange. Some captured video of the object. "We can't say 100 percent," said Don Yeomans, manager of NASA's Near-Earth Object Program, "but it's almost certain that the object was a fireball" or very bright meteor, "the size of a basketball or baseball that likely disintegrated before it hit the ground." The bluish-green color suggests the object had some magnesium or nickel in it, Yeomans said. Orange is usually an indication it's entering earth's atmosphere at several miles per second, a moderate rate of speed.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) - Amid a still struggling economy, more people in America fell below the poverty line last year, according to new census data released Tuesday. The nation's poverty rate rose to 15.1% in 2010, its highest level since 1993. In 2009, 14.3% of people in America were living in poverty. About 46.2 million people are now considered in need. The government defines the poverty line as income of $22,314 a year for a family of four and $11,139 for an individual. The Office of Management and Budget updates the poverty line each year to account for inflation.

http://www.wfmz.com/business/Poverty-rate-rises-in-America/-/121698/1379204/-/urwxcvz/-/index.html

September 7, 2011 - Heads up! That's the word from NASA today (Sept. 7) given the impending re-entry of a 6.5-ton satellite through Earth's atmosphere. The huge Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS) is expected to re-enter Earth's atmosphere in an uncontrolled fall in late September or early October. Much of the spacecraft is expected to burn up during re-entry, but some pieces are expected to make it intact to the ground, NASA officials said. The U.S. space agency will be taking measures to inform the public about the pieces of the spacecraft that are expected to survive re-entry.

This morning at 0150 UT, sunspot 1283 produced an M5.3-class solar flare. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory recorded the flash of extreme ultraviolet radiation:

Because of the sunspot's central location on the solar disk, the eruption was Earth-directed--but is a CME heading our way? Around the time of the explosion, a number of plasma clouds were already billowing away from the sun, adding an element of confusion to the analysis. Tentatively, we expect Earth's magnetic field to receive a glancing blow from a CME on Sept. 8th or 9th. Stay tuned for updates.

NEW YORK (AP) – Stocks tumbled Thursday after a dismal report on the job market renewed fears of another recession. The Dow Jones industrial average was off 253.31 points at the close, a decline of 2.2%, while the Nasdaq and S&P 500 slid 2.6% and 2.5%, respectively. No new jobs were created in the U.S. last month, the government said early Friday. It was the worst report in 11 months. The unemployment rate held steady at 9.1%. It has been above 9% in all but two months since May 2009.

http://www.usatoday.com/money/markets/story/2011-09-02/Dow-slides-about-250-points-on-recession-talk/50242234/1

A major earthquake measuring a preliminary magnitude of 7.1 has rocked remote portions of Alaska, the U.S. Geological Survey reports. The USGS issued, then canceled, a tsunami warning for Alaska's Aleutian Islands. It also lowered the magnitude to 6.8. Updated at 11:22 a.m. ET: Alaska Native News has weighed in on the quake, noting that the area "is frequented by earthquakes every day, although a majority of them have a magnitude less than this."

WASHINGTON - The U.S. State Department on Friday issued a worldwide travel alert ahead of the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, calling on Americans living and travelling abroad to remain vigilant. The department said it had not identified any "specific threats" about possible attacks but that al-Qaida and its affiliates had "demonstrated the intent and capability to carry out attacks" against the U.S. and U.S. interests."In the past, terrorist organizations have on occasion planned their attacks to coincide with significant dates on the calendar," the State Department said. The alert expires on January 2, 2012, it said.

http://www.canada.com/issues+worldwide+travel+alert+Americans/5345801/story.html