ECM WORLD WATCH: NATIONAL AND GLOBAL NEWS

September 18, 2013 (San Diego's East County) --ECM World Watch helps you be an informed citizen about important issues globally and nationally. As part of our commitment to reflect all voices and views, we include links to a wide variety of news sources representing a broad spectrum of political, religious, and social views. Top world and U.S. headlines include:

U.S.

• Obamacare, spending showdown heats up in house (CNN)
• Gunman opens fire at Washington D.C. naval yard; 13 dead (Reuters)
• U.S. oil group says FBI warns fuel storage operators to be on alert (Reuters)
• Time Magazine's "America's Weak and Waffling" Cover Not Featured in America (Reason)
• Better pay for home health care workers under U.S. Labor rule, CA Bill (Sacramento Bee)
• How Detroit went broke: The answers may surprise you - and don't blame Coleman Young  (Detroit Free Press)

WORLD

• ‘War crime’: UN finds sarin gas used in Syria chemical attack (CNN)
• Report: Syria is transferring chemical weapons to Hezbollah to avoid international inspection (JPost)-
• 34 dead as big storms hit Mexico on opposite coasts (KUSI)
• Deadly Mexico storms kill 42, floods strand thousands (Reuters)

For excerpts and links to full stories, click “read more” and scroll down.

U.S.

Obamacare, spending showdown heats up in house (CNN)

House Republican leaders are considering a vote this week on a short-term spending bill to keep the government running and defund Obamacare, according to senior House GOP aides, a move that increases the possibility of a government shutdown.

Gunman opens fire at Washington D.C. naval yard; 13 dead (Reuters)

A U.S. military veteran opened fire at the Washington Navy Yard on Monday in a burst of violence that killed 13 people, including the gunman, and set off waves of panic at the military installation just miles from the White House and U.S. Capitol.

U.S. oil group says FBI warns fuel storage operators to be on alert (Reuters)

 U.S. officials have warned energy companies to be on the alert for "potential terrorist activities" at fuel storage plants but there were no immediate threats, an oil industry group told members on Friday.

Time Magazine's "America's Weak and Waffling" Cover Not Featured in America (Reason)

Time magazine featured a critique of the United States' foreign policy and an image of Russian President Vladimir Putin on the cover of its September 16th edition. American readers did not see the critique, which ran throughout the rest of the world. The U.S. edition focused instead on college football.  The international edition, which is divided into three regions (Europe, the Middle East, and Africa; Asia; and the South Pacific) all declare “America's weak and waffling, Russia's rich and resurgent.” In the U.S, Time's cover states, “It's Time To Pay College Athletes.” The Putin story is tucked in the corner and neutrally retitled, “What Putin Wants.”

Better pay for home health care workers under U.S. Labor rule, CA Bill (Sacramento Bee)

The U.S. Department of Labor announced Tuesday that federal minimum wage and overtime requirements will be extended to home health aides, certified nursing assistants and other workers who provide home care to the elderly, injured and disabled.

How Detroit went broke: The answers may surprise you - and don't blame Coleman Young  (Detroit Free Press)

Detroit is broke, but it didn’t have to be. An in-depth Free Press analysis of the city’s financial history back to the 1950s shows that its elected officials and others charged with managing its finances repeatedly failed — or refused — to make the tough economic and political decisions that might have saved the city from financial ruin.

WORLD

‘War crime’: UN finds sarin gas used in Syria chemical attack (CNN)

U.N. weapons inspectors returned "overwhelming and indisputable" evidence of the use of nerve gas in Syria, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Monday, calling the findings "beyond doubt and beyond the pale."

Report: Syria is transferring chemical weapons to Hezbollah to avoid international inspection (JPost)- Some chemical arms smuggled onto Russian warships.

34 dead as big storms hit Mexico on opposite coasts (KUSI)

The remnants of Hurricane Ingrid and Tropical Storm Manuel drenched northeastern and southwestern Mexico with torrential rains Monday, flooding towns and cities, cutting highways and setting off landslides in a national emergency that federal authorities said had caused at least 34 deaths.

Deadly Mexico storms kill 42, floods strand thousands (Reuters)

 Two powerful storms pummeled Mexico as they converged from the Pacific and the Gulf on Monday, killing at least 42 people and stranding some 40,000 tourists in the Pacific resort of Acapulco amid some of the worst flooding in decades....  Interior Minister Miguel Osorio Chong called the flooding "historic" and said the city of Acapulco had sustained major damage....  "The storms have affected two-thirds of the entire national territory," Chong said.