El Nino Finally Here; but This 1 Is Weak, Weird and Late

A long anticipated El Nino has finally arrived. But for drought-struck California, it’s too little, too late, meteorologists say.

The National Weather Service on Thursday proclaimed the phenomenon is now in place. It’s a warming of a certain patch of the central Pacific that changes weather patterns worldwide, associated with flooding in some places, droughts elsewhere, a generally warmer globe, and fewer Atlantic hurricanes. El Ninos are usually so important that economists even track them because of how they affect commodities.

But this is a weak, weird and late version of El Nino, so don’t expect too many places to feel its effects, said Mike Halpert, deputy director of the weather service’s Climate Prediction Center. He said there may be a slight decrease in the number of Atlantic hurricanes this summer, but he also points out that 1992’s devastating Hurricane Andrew occurred during an El Nino summer, so coastal residents shouldn’t let their guard down.

Ever since March 2014, the weather service has been saying an El Nino was just around the corner. But it didn’t quite show up until now. Meteorologists said the key patch of the Pacific was warming but they didn’t see the second technical part of its definition — certain changes in the atmosphere. Halpert said he didn’t know why this El Nino didn’t form as forecast, saying “something just didn’t click this year.”

“What we’ve learned from this event is that our definition is very confusing and we need to work on it,” Halpert said.

Last year, some experts were hoping that El Nino would help the southwestern droughts because moderate-to-strong events bring more winter rain and snow to California — even flooding and mudslides during 1998’s strong El Nino. But this El Nino arrives at the end of California’s rainy season and is quite weak, Halpert said.

“This is not the answer for California,” Halpert said.

The U.S. Southeast may see some above average rainfall, which is typical for an El Nino, Halpert said.

This is the first El Nino since spring of 2010.

Allan Clarke, a physical oceanography professor at Florida State University, said as far he’s concerned, El Nino has been around awhile and the weather service didn’t acknowledge it. But he agrees that this doesn’t look like a strong one.

That fits with the pattern the last 10 years, when El Nino’s flip side, a cooling of the central Pacific called La Nina, has been more common. From 2005 to 2014, there have been twice as many months with a La Nina than with El Nino, weather records show. More than half of the time, the world has been in neither.

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Online:

Climate Prediction Center’s El Nino page: http://1.usa.gov/1jSaUB3

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Seth Borenstein can be followed at http://twitter.com/borenbears

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El Nino Finally Here; but This 1 Is Weak, Weird and Late

Target Plans $2b in Cost-Cutting Moves

Target Corp. is cutting several thousand jobs as part of a plan to eliminate $2 billion in costs over the next two years.

The goal: to make the Minneapolis-based discounter more agile to compete in an increasingly competitive landscape and appeal to shoppers who are buying and researching on their mobile devices.

As part of the restructuring plans, Target will eliminate positions primarily at its corporate headquarters — which employs 13,000 workers — and establish centralized teams based on specialized expertise.

Target also plans to invest between $2 billion and $2.2 billion in capital expenditures for the current fiscal year. That’s in line with what it spent a few years ago, but this year, about half, or $1 billion, will be spent on technology. That’s a big shift from past years when most was spent on new stores and renovations of its fleet of about 1,800 stores.

The new focus will help spur Target’s online sales growth of 40 percent as well as help fuel a total projected sales growth of 2 to 3 percent this year.

“We have to be more nimble, more agile. We have to create a more innovative culture,” Brian Cornell, Target’s CEO told analysts Tuesday at a meeting in New York to outline growth plans.

Cornell took over the helm last August and is charged with reclaiming the retailer’s image as a purveyor of cheap chic fashion merchandise. He replaced Gregg Steinhafel, who resigned last May amid a massive data breach that hurt sales and profits. Even before Cornell took the helm, Target had begun to reassess its operations, sprucing up its baby departments and adding mannequins to its fashion areas. Cornell wants to double down on a handful of areas like fashion, children’s products and home furnishings. It is also reimagining its grocery area and wants to focus on organic, natural and gluten-free and locally produced food.

The moves come after Target lost its way during the Great Recession when it aggressively expanded into basic groceries. That helped drive traffic but diluted its cheap chic image. The company was also dragged down by its botched foray into Canada two years ago. And Target was behind other rivals in e-commerce services.

In January, Cornell made the decision to shutter the Canadian business in order to focus on revving up sales in the U.S. And the company is expanding its services like shipping goods from store to speed up deliveries. It also permanently cut in half its minimum online purchase to qualify for free shipping, to $25. Target said shoppers responded to its no-minimum free-shipping offer during the holidays.

So far, the early efforts are paying off. The discount retailer recorded stronger-than-expected sales during the holiday season as shoppers bought more clothing and other items.

As for its store expansion, the company is taking a measured approach even with its smaller stores. Target will open just eight TargetExpress locations across the country this year. It will also test new layouts in its general merchandise stores.

In extended after-hours trading, shares of Target added 13 cents to $78.13.

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Follow Anne D’Innocenzio at — https://twitter.com/adinnocenzio

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Target Plans $2b in Cost-Cutting Moves

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“id”:14042539,”title”:”Officer’s Failed Search Caught on Tape “,”duration”:”3:00″,”description”:”Nancy Garrido videotapes a parole officer as he conducts a surprise search.”,”section”:”2020″,”mediaType”:”Default”

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'Just So Tragic': Mom of Slain Hostage Pities 'Jihadi John'

The parents of an American journalist beheaded by terrorists on video expressed pity for the “tragic” choices by their son’s apparent killer, “Jihadi John,” but said ISIS must be destroyed.

Hours after the masked man’s identity was revealed Thursday by The Washington Post and confirmed by government officials, slain journalist James Foley’s mother Diane told ABC News that she was surprised to learn alleged ISIS “executioner” Mohammed Emwazi came from a “well-to-do” family in London.

“He had a privileged background, if you will,” Foley said, referring to Emwazi’s purportedly middle class background and college degree in computer science from the University of Westminster. “So, to me, it’s just tragic that he would, such a talented young man would lose his way and become part of such a brutal network as ISIS.”

“It’s not all about him. It’s about, you know, this whole culture of hate and brutality and all that ISIS is. I mean, if it hadn’t been this young man, it would have been another one. This young man is one of the very saddest,” she said.

Nicole Tung/AP Photo

PHOTO: In this Nov. 2012, file photo, posted on the website freejamesfoley.org, shows missing journalist James Foley while covering the civil war in Aleppo, Syria.

But that’s as much as Foley said she’s willing to think about Emwazi.

Asked how she reacted as a mom to the public disclosure of the name of the man who drew a knife across her son’s neck on video, she replied, “We would like, you know — ISIS needs to be stopped.”

James’s father, John Foley, agreed that Emwazi is only one of the terrorists who must face justice for brutally slaying their son and so many others. If ever captured alive, he might not attend his trial.

“I doubt it. I really doubt it. I mean I’m not interested in who he is or what he’s done. I’m done with the guy,” he told ABC News in Tucson.

Obtained by ABC News

PHOTO: A masked man, who describes himself as a member of ISIS, appears to behead Western hostages in online videos.

The Foleys spoke to University of Arizona journalism students on Wednesday on a visit to the desert southwest state and said they may visit the family of another American killed while in ISIS hands, Kayla Mueller of Prescott.

Before Foley’s death, his family was able to assemble a team of hostage negotiators to hunt for their son.

When some Spanish and French hostages were ransomed in March and April last year, the team debriefed them and learned that all the Westerners, including James and Kayla, were held captive together as a group at sites near Raqqa, Syria — intelligence they feel the U.S. government didn’t act on fast enough.

“Obviously, at that point we wanted as much as possible to be done to secure his release and that obviously didn’t happen,” John Foley said on Wednesday in the interview.

A raid by an entire squadron of America’s elite Delta Force hit an aging oil refinery site on July 3. But President Obama recently told BuzzFeed News that they missed the hostages being moved by “one or two days.”

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"Just So Tragic": Mom of Slain Hostage Pities "Jihadi John"

DHS Dodges Partial Shutdown With 1-Week Extension

Lawmakers narrowly avoided a partial shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security and furloughing thousands of employees Friday when they reached a last-minute deal to approve a one-week funding measure for the department.

Just two hours before the midnight deadline, the House voted 357 to 60 to fund the department for one week. The Senate passed the measure earlier in the evening by a voice vote.

Less than one hour before the vote, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi sent her Democratic colleagues a letter urging them to advance the seven-day measure.

Though the department will be funded, the one-week measure will set up a new round of fighting for lawmakers on Capitol Hill. The dysfunction that has become all too familiar on Capitol Hill was on full display today as the House earlier failed to secure enough votes to pass a short-term funding bill that would have kept the department open for three weeks.

That last-minute strategy proposed by House Republicans failed with a vote of 203 to 224. Fifty-two Republicans opposed the measure while 12 Democrats supported it.

President Obama held a meeting in the Oval Office late Friday with DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson and OMB Director Shaun Donovan to discuss the potential shutdown, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said. The president personally phoned House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid to receive an update on the situation.

The evening’s drama rounds out months of fighting between Democrats and Republicans over the funding. Republicans have wanted to link any funding for the department to immigration. Earlier this month, the House passed a bill that would fund the department through the end of the fiscal year while also blocking President Obama’s recent executive actions on immigration.

But Democrats opposed that plan, instead pushing for a clean funding bill. Earlier in the day, the Senate passed a clean funding measure with a vote of 68 to 31 to fund the Department of Homeland Security through Sept. 30.

“We passed a full-year funding for the Department of Homeland Security,” Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., said. “It means we did our job so that those men and women working in every agency can do their job to protect America. The Senate has done its job. Now, the House has to do its job.”

Lawmakers will now have one week to hammer out their differences on the funding and immigration. If not, the Department of Homeland Security will have to furlough approximately 40,000 workers. But 80 percent of its 240,000-person workforce would be required to work without pay. This figure includes 40,000 Customs and Border Protection officers, 5,000 Transportation Security Administration security screeners, and 13,000 Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.

ABC News’ John Parkinson contributed to this report.

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DHS Dodges Partial Shutdown With 1-Week Extension

Full Episode: Nightline 02/26/15: Aaron Hernandez Murder Trial: Explosive New Evidence

Insta-ly Famous: Models Discovered Through Instagram; ‘How To Get Away With Murder’ Shocking Season Finale



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Full Episode: Nightline 02/26/15: Aaron Hernandez Murder Trial: Explosive New Evidence

N. Korea Demands Higher Wages for Workers Employed by South

Officials say North Korea has told rival South Korea that it plans to raise the minimum wage for North Koreans employed by southern companies at a jointly run industrial park.

An official from Seoul’s Unification Ministry said Thursday that the South rejected the North’s decision because it wasn’t a mutual agreement. The official said the South offered to meet next month to discuss the wages of workers at the Kaesong industrial park in North Korea, but the North refused to consider the offer.

Analysts in Seoul say North Korea has been trying to gain the upper hand over South Korea in decision-making at the park, which has been a significant source of income for the North since it opened in 2004.

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N. Korea Demands Higher Wages for Workers Employed by South

Prince William Starts First Japan Visit _ With Green Tea

Britain’s Prince William is having afternoon tea on his first visit to Japan on Thursday, but it’s green and served by a master in the Japanese ceremonial art in a traditional tea house.

The Duke of Cambridge began his four-day stay with the tea ceremony, an almost sacred dance-like ritual, at Hama Rikyu Gardens in Tokyo. Tea is made from a bitter powder, hand-stirred into a foam with a tiny whisk of wood, preferably gulped down in about three takes.

His wife Kate, pregnant with the royal couple’s second child expected in April, stayed home.

The Edo-era style garden, which once belonged to a feudal shogun, is filled with sculpted pine trees and blossoming plum trees. Wooden bridges run over several lakes, where water birds float. Gardeners have been hard at work for days, clipping the trees and setting up lights, preparing for the visit.

After landing at Haneda airport, William boarded a boat with Tokyo Gov. Yoichi Masuzoe, waving and smiling to cameras waiting on a separate boat, and then zipped across the site of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Among the other highlights of William’s trip, through Sunday, when he travels to China, is a visit to a school in the northeastern region of Fukushima, where some areas have been closed off around a nuclear power plant that went into multiple meltdowns four years ago.

William, 32, will also visit other areas devastated by the March 2011 tsunami to show support for the survivors and pay respects to those who died, according to the British Embassy in Tokyo.

The tsunami and the quake that set it off killed about 19,000 people, and displaced tens of thousands, including those whose homes were intact but contaminated by the radiation spewed from the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant.

Japan and Britain have enjoyed friendly relations for decades, and the Japanese public is generally enamored of British royalty, having followed William since a child.

His mother Diana was so popular with the public in Japan, it set off a frenzy called “Diana fever.”

When Diana visited Japan in 1986, 1990 and in 1995, William’s father Prince Charles was almost an afterthought.

During his visit, William will be attending various dinners, including one at a “ryokan,” or traditional inn, where he will take a hot spring bath and dine with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, wearing a “yukata” or kimono-style pajamas, according to the communications office for the royal family.

He will also visit a TV broadcaster and meet actors in a hit show dressed up as samurai and geisha, and go to a bookstore where Aston Martin cars will be on display, it said.

While in Tokyo, William will have lunch with Japanese Emperor Akihito and then tea, presumably black tea, with Crown Prince Naruhito at the Imperial Palace later in the week.

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Follow Yuri Kageyama on Twitter at twitter.com/yurikageyama

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Prince William Starts First Japan Visit _ With Green Tea

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