House Speaker Announces He Will Resign

Speaker of the House John A. Boehner, an Ohio Congressman, said Friday he would relinquish his title and resign from Congress, undone by the very Republicans who swept him into power. He struggled almost from the moment he became speaker in 2011 to manage the challenges of a divided government and an increasingly conservative and divided Republican party in the House of Representatives. Boehner, 65, made the announcement in Washington D. C. during an emotional meeting with his fellow Republicans on Friday morning. He said he would leave at the end of October.

In Other News Pope Francis has returned to Rome after having a very successful visit to the United States, in particular Philadelphia. The Dalai Lama is at Minnesota's Mayo Clinic for medical evaluation. Insiders have declined to talk about why he was there or for how long. His office announced last week that the Dalai Lama had canceled a series of October appearances in the United States on the advice of his U.S. doctors. The Dalai Lama, 80, was told to rest for several weeks after a routine checkup. The spiritual leader of the people of Tibet had been scheduled to speak at events in Colorado, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Utah beginning on October 17.