Is Newtown tipping point for change?

By Piers Morgan, CNN

December 20, 2012 -- Updated 1627 GMT (0027 HKT)

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Piers Morgan: Past gun-related tragedies haven't led to any action


• He says that must change, and he hosted a debate on the issue


• Morgan: Laws must be changed to limit weapons, ammunition and enforce background checks


• Rights of Americans who use guns for hunting and sport must be respected, he says

(CNN) -- On Wednesday night, I hosted a town hall-style debate on guns in America, talking to lawmakers, mass shooting survivors, lawyers, gun lobbyists -- anyone, basically, who has a strong opinion about what I consider to be the single biggest issue facing America today.

Since I joined CNN two years ago, there have been a series of gun-related tragedies, including the attack on U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and the Aurora, Colorado, movie theater massacre.

Each sparked a short-term debate about guns. Yet each debate fizzled out with zero action being taken to try and curb the use of deadly weapons on the streets of America.

Piers Morgan

Now, following the grotesque slaughter of 20 innocent young children at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, I sense that the mood has changed.

We have reached a crucial moment in this debate, and I intend to use my platform to continue this conversation on Wednesday night and going forward. The media have previously been quick to move on to other stories after these tragic acts of gun violence. That must change.

Opinion: Don't let this moment pass without acting on gun control

I've made my own views clear on my show -- the senseless killing has to stop. High-powered assault rifles of the type used at Aurora and Newtown belong in the military and police, not in civilian hands. High-capacity magazines, too, should be banned. And background checks on anyone buying guns in America should be comprehensive and stringently enforced.

As President Barack Obama said, doing nothing is no longer an option.

But, at the same time, law-abiding Americans who want to protect themselves under the Second Amendment right to bear arms must be respected. As should the rights of Americans to use guns for hunting and sport.

This is a vital debate for the country. Some 12,000 people are murdered in the United States with guns every year, compared with just 35 in Britain, where there are strong gun laws.

Analysis: Guns and the law

Sandy Hook should, and must, be a tipping point for real action to bring this number down.

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The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Piers Morgan.

Watch Piers Morgan Tonight weeknights 9 p.m. ET. For the latest from Piers Morgan click here.

Part of complete coverage on

December 20, 2012 -- Updated 1441 GMT (2241 HKT)

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December 19, 2012 -- Updated 2057 GMT (0457 HKT)

LZ Granderson says allowing concealed weapons in places like schools and churches would just result in more tragedy, not less.

December 19, 2012 -- Updated 2054 GMT (0454 HKT)

William Bennett says having armed and trained people could help protect schools and other vulnerable places from gun violence

Get the latest opinion and analysis from CNN's columnists and contributors.

December 19, 2012 -- Updated 1544 GMT (2344 HKT)

Rebecca Buckwalter-Poza says the vice president, who shepherded the 1994 Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act through the Senate, is the right man to lead new gun control efforts.

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December 19, 2012 -- Updated 1438 GMT (2238 HKT)

Lori Haas says our elected leaders have abandoned all sense of right and wrong despite epidemic deaths from guns.

December 18, 2012 -- Updated 1635 GMT (0035 HKT)

Edward Mulvey says we cannot tell which one of the thousands and thousands of young men who are quiet or withdrawn will be a killer.

December 18, 2012 -- Updated 1757 GMT (0157 HKT)

Deepak Chopra says if we stay glued to the media and relive Newtown over and over in our minds, we work against the healing process.

December 19, 2012 -- Updated 1423 GMT (2223 HKT)

Peter Bergen says gun violence claims proportionately more civilian lives in some U.S. cities than the civilian toll of the Afghan war.

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Russia's Putin denies propping up Assad

MOSCOW: Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday denied propping up Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and stressed that Moscow was only seeking to avert a perpetual civil war.

"We are not concerned about (Bashar Assad's fate. We understand that the family has been in power for 40 years and there is a need for change," Putin told a major Moscow press briefing.

But he made no call on Assad to step down and said it remained up to the Syrian people themselves to decide their future through peaceful talks.

"What is our position? Not to leave Assad's regime in power at any price, but to first (let the Syrians) agree among themselves how they should live next," Putin said.

"Only then should we start looking at ways to change the existing order."

Russia has remained Syria's main major ally throughout 21 months of violence that an opposition monitoring group said on Thursday has killed 44,000 people.

It scuttled three rounds of UN Security Council sanctions against Assad for his crackdown and condemned Washington for recognising the Syrian opposition as the legitimate voice of the country's citizens.

That position has frustrated Western attempts to end the bloodshed by forcing Assad from power. It has also condemned Moscow's continued military ties with Damascus.

Putin on Thursday argued that Russia's call for dialogue was meant to avert "an endless civil war" between the armed rebels and government forces who still control most of the capital Damascus.

"We want to avoid (Syrian) disintegration," said Putin.

Putin's comments came less than a week after Russia's chief Middle East envoy said it appeared that Assad would not be able to fend off the rebels much longer.

The foreign ministry later denied an official shift in Russia's position and noted that Moscow still recognised the Assad regime.

- AFP/fa

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Blizzard blasts upper Midwest

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• NEW: A 30-car pileup in Iowa is blamed on blowing snow; one person is dead


• Heavy snow and high winds stretch from Iowa to Wisconsin in the season's first blizzard


• Tens of thousands are without power in Nebraska and Iowa


• The storm is forecast to crawl from the Midwest to New England by Friday

Is the storm hitting near you? Share your photos and videos on CNN iReport.

(CNN) -- Does the end of the world start with a snowstorm?

Probably not, but a blizzard in the upper Midwest is proving potent enough to cut power to tens of thousands of homes and force schools to call it quits from Nebraska to southern Wisconsin Thursday -- one day ahead of the official arrival of winter and, as it happens, the predicted Mayan apocalypse.

Blinding snow also is blamed for a 30-car pileup on Interstate 35 near Fort Dodge, Iowa, in which one person died, Sgt. Scott Bright of the Iowa State Patrol said Wednesday.

As much as another foot of wet, heavy snow is expected in places, accompanied by winds gusting to 50 mph and blowing snow that could reduce visibility to just about zero, forecasters warn.

In Omaha, Nebraska, utility crews struggled overnight -- sometimes in near whiteout conditions -- to restore power to 38,000 customers left in the dark by the storm, according to the Omaha Public Power District. The utility urged customers to brace for slow going.

In neighboring Iowa, more than 30,000 customers were without power, most of them in the Des Moines area, according to MidAmerican Energy.

The storm -- the first blizzard of the season -- made travel treacherous throughout the region. Nebraska authorities closed much of snow-packed Interstate 80 through the state Thursday morning as blowing snow dangerously reduced visibility.

I-80 also was closed around Des Moines, Iowa, Bright said.

"When the winds start to blow you can see about 5 feet in front of your vehicle" he said. "We've had major issues all over the place. We got around 10 to 12 inches throughout the state and it's a wet snow. We have around an inch of ice on our roadways."

He warned that even though conditions might not seem so bad around people's homes, they should not take that as a signal that the storm is over.

"It seems people are seeing the sun and venturing out, but it's not going to get hot enough to melt the ice from the roadways," he said. Department of Transportation workers are "out and they're plowing the roadways, but we're having 50 mph wind gusts that just blows the snow right back."

Close to 100 accidents had been reported in Iowa by late Wednesday morning, Bright said, "and we have a lot of jackknifed semis, which shut the roadway down."

Thick snow also blanketed the roads and swirled in the frigid air as CNN iReporter Kevin Cavallin drove through Ames, Iowa, late Wednesday night.

Occasional flashes of lightning illuminated the snow-covered scene, punctuated by windy gusts of up to 40 miles per hour, as Iowa shivered under its first significant snowfall of the year.

Fellow CNN iReporter Clarence Smith in Des Moines said it was the most snow he'd seen since 2009 -- and he warns its wet, heavy consistency was going to add to the challenges for motorists.

"I was just cleaning off my car and it is so wet, it is like plaster. It doesn't come off easily," he said. "At one point I was hitting it with a snow scraper, you can say chiseling, basically."

And while many Iowans may be cursing the weather Thursday as they slip and slide around, Smith points out that the state has enjoyed a record period without snow.

For CNN iReporter David Bell and three of his friends, the conditions were just too bad to continue driving home to Lincoln, Nebraska.

They holed up in a hotel overnight on their way back from a ski trip in Colorado after seeing several accidents on the interstate and highways.

"We knew the roads were icy, so we were driving slow," he said. "We could see about 100 yards, sometimes less. When the winds would gust the visibility would drop to 50 feet. There was a lot of snow, and we were driving east and the wind was blowing from the north, and it didn't help at all."

In Wisconsin, Gov. Scott Walker declared a state of emergency, put the National Guard and state patrol on standby and closed state offices to the public in 20 counties most likely to be affected by the storm. Employees were still expected to report for work.

As much as 7 inches was already on the ground Thursday morning in parts of southern Wisconsin, with as much as another foot on the way during the storm's predicted Thursday afternoon peak.

The Wisconsin State Patrol and National Weather Service urged people to avoid traveling.

Blizzard warnings were up Thursday for portions of Nebraska, Missouri, Minnesota, Illinois and Wisconsin and virtually all of Iowa. Winter storm warnings extended further into Missouri, Illinois and Wisconsin, as well as into Michigan and Indiana.

Most airports were operating normally, the Federal Aviation Administration reported. One major exception was O'Hare International Airport in Chicago, where incoming flights were running nearly two hours behind because of high winds, the FAA said.

The storm is expected to slide over New England by Friday.

CNN's Jim Kavanagh, Jareen Imam, Laura Smith-Spark, Carma Hassan and Joe Sutton contributed to this report.

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New York Stock Exchange to be sold

NEW YORK The New York Stock Exchange (NYX) is being sold to a rival exchange for about $8 billion, ending more than two centuries of independence for the iconic Big Board.

The buyer, IntercontinentalExchange Inc. (ICE), an upstart exchange based in Atlanta, made clear Thursday that little would change for the iconic trading floor in Manhattan's financial district if regulators approve the deal.

There will be dual headquarters in New York and Atlanta and ICE will open an office in Manhattan. NYSE CEO Duncan Niederauer will become president of the combined company and CEO of NYSE Group.

ICE said that the tie-up will create a top exchange operator covering a diverse lineup of markets and boosting efficiency.

"We believe the combined company will be better positioned to compete and serve customers across a broad range of asset classes by uniting our global brands, expertise and infrastructure," said IntercontinentalExchange Chairman and CEO Jeffrey Sprecher. "With a track record of growth and returns, clearing and M&A integration, we are well positioned to transform our combined companies into a premier global exchange operator that remains a leader in market evolution."

Sprecher will keep his positions. Four members of the NYSE board will be added to IntercontinentalExchange's board, expanding it to 15 members.

NYSE Euronext Inc. shareholders can chose to receive either $33.12 in cash, .2581 IntercontinentalExchange Inc. shares, or a combination of $11.27 in cash plus .1703 shares of stock.

IntercontinentalExchange plans to fund the cash portion of the acquisition with a combination of cash and existing debt. It added that the addition of NYSE will help it cut costs and should boost its earnings by more than 15 percent in the first year after the deal closes.

The deal has been approved by the boards of both companies, but still needs the approvals by regulators and the shareholders of both companies. It's expected to close in the second half of next year.

Exchanges have repeatedly attempted to merge recently as competition intensifies and commissions decline.

Last year, IntercontinentalExchange and Nasdaq OMX Group Inc. made a failed $11 billion bid to buy NYSE Euronext.

Earlier this year, European regulators blocked Deutsche Boerse AG from buying NYSE Euronext.

Shares of NYSE jumped 40 percent in premarket trading to $33.75 and are headed for a new high for the year. Shares if ICE rose 5 percent, to $134.98.

Shares of both companies had been halted in premarket trading earlier Thursday.

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Winter Weather Threatens Christmas Travel

A pre-Christmas blizzard that is battering at least eight states in the middle of the nation could trip up travelers headed home for Christmas in the coming days.

Nearly 20 inches of snow have been reported in Colorado just west of Denver. Nebraska has reported 6-to-10 inches so far. Between 3 and 8 inches have accumulated in Iowa already and more is possible. Snow is falling 2 inches per hour in Wisconsin.

No planes were able to land at Iowa's Des Moines International airport. All flights were cancelled until at least 11:45 a.m.

But it's Chicago that will prove most problematic for travelers. Rain has cancelled 300 flights into and out of Chicago O'Hare today so far, according to data from FlightAware. Snow and wind that are expected tonight will further complicate travel and likely cancel more flights.

Several airlines have already issued flexible travel policies, allowing travelers with flights into, out of and through affected areas to change their plans without penalty. For example, travelers headed to O'Hare today on American Airlines can change their flight to any day Dec. 21 to Dec. 25. Delta, United and others have similar policies.

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Airlines for America, an airline industry trade group, estimates that 42 million passengers will fly on U.S. airlines for the 21-day holiday travel period from Dec 17 to Jan 6. Daily passenger volumes are expected to range from 1.5 million to 2.3 million.

The busiest days of the Christmas travel season are expected to be Dec. 21, 22, 23 and 26; and Jan 2. Foul weather in major hub cities, particularly on these days, will most certainly cause travel headaches on the roads and in the skies.

When bad weather grounds flights at major airports, delays pile up around the nation, stranding travelers even in places where the weather is good. And because planes fly so full around the holidays, it's difficult for the airlines to find empty seats to accommodate fliers whose flights have been cancelled.

Passengers are also entitled to a refund if their flight is cancelled.

Travelers should confirm their flight is taking off as planned on their carrier's website before leaving their homes. If you are at the airport by the time you find out, use every avenue available to get re-accommodated. While you stand online to talk to a customer service agent, also call your carrier and use Twitter to get in touch with your airline. Many airlines are faster to respond on Twitter than on the phone. Delta Airlines and JetBlue are particularly active.

A few Twitter handles to know:
@JetBlue
@DeltaAssist
@AmericanAir
@United
@SouthwestAir
@FlyFrontier
@USAirways.

Travelers who find themselves stranded and in need of a hotel room should use apps such as HotelTonight, Travelocity's LastMinute.com Hotel Booking App and the Priceline app to find deals on last-minute hotel stays.

RELATED: The Best Last-Minute Hotel Booking App

The Midwest storm moves east tonight, spreading rain into the Northeast with some areas from Washington, D.C., to Boston getting up to 2 inches. Behind the storm, cold air comes in and changes rain to snow in Western Pennsylvania, Maryland, New York and West Virginia, where 3 to 14 inches (in the highest elevations) could accumulate.

ABC News' Max Golembo and Ginger Zee contributed to this report.

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Arming teachers would halt massacres

William Bennett argues that schools would be safer with at least one armed person there who is well-trained in firearms use.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• William Bennett: Arming, training one person in a school could help prevent shootings


• He says armed people have stopped instances of mass killing


• Killers may target places where they know they can't be shot down, Bennett says


• Bennett: Guns help prevent crime and improve public safety

Editor's note: William J. Bennett, a CNN contributor, is the author of "The Book of Man: Readings on the Path to Manhood." He was U.S. secretary of education from 1985 to 1988 and director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy under President George H.W. Bush.

(CNN) -- On NBC's "Meet the Press" this past Sunday, I was asked how we can make our schools safer and prevent another massacre like Sandy Hook from happening again. I suggested that if one person in the school had been armed and trained to handle a firearm, it might have prevented or minimized the massacre.

"And I'm not so sure -- and I'm sure I'll get mail for this -- I'm not so sure I wouldn't want one person in a school armed, ready for this kind of thing," I said. "The principal lunged at this guy. The school psychologist lunged at the guy. Has to be someone who's trained. Has to be someone who's responsible."

William Bennett

Well, I sure did get mail. Many people agreed with me and sent me examples of their son or daughter's school that had armed security guards, police officers or school employees on the premises. Many others vehemently disagreed with me, and one dissenter even wrote that the blood of the Connecticut victims was ultimately on the hands of pro-gun rights advocates.

To that person I would ask: Suppose the principal at Sandy Hook Elementary who was killed lunging at the gunman was instead holding a firearm and was well trained to use it. Would the result have been different? Or suppose you had been in that school when the killer entered, would you have preferred to be armed?

Evidence and common sense suggest yes.

In 2007, a gunman entered New Life Church in Colorado Springs and shot and killed two girls. Jeanne Assam, a former police officer stationed as a volunteer security guard at the church, drew her firearm, shot and wounded the gunman before he could kill anyone else. The gunman then killed himself.

In 1997, high school student Luke Woodham stabbed his mother to death and then drove to Pearl High School in Pearl, Mississippi, and shot and killed two people. He then got back in his car to drive to Pearl Junior High to continue his killings, but Joel Myrick, the assistant principal, ran to his truck and grabbed his pistol, aimed it at Woodham and made him surrender.

These are but a few of many examples that the best deterrent of crime when it is occurring is effective self-defense. And the best self-defense against a gunman has proved to be a firearm.

LZ Granderson: Teachers with guns is a crazy idea

And yet, there is a near impenetrable belief among anti-gun activists that guns are the cause of violence and crime. Like Frodo's ring in "The Lord of The Rings," they believe that guns are agencies of corruption and corrupt the souls of whoever touches them. Therefore, more guns must lead to more crime.

But the evidence simply doesn't support that. Take the controversial concealed-carry permit issue, for example.

In a recent article for The Atlantic magazine, Jeffrey Goldberg, by no means an avowed gun-rights advocate, declared, "There is no proof to support the idea that concealed-carry permit holders create more violence in society than would otherwise occur; they may, in fact, reduce it."

Goldberg cites evidence from Adam Winkler, a law professor at UCLA, that concealed-carry permit holders actually commit crimes at a lower rate than the general population.

The General Accountability Office recently found that the number of concealed weapon permits in America has surged to approximately 8 million.

According to anti-gun advocates, such an increase in guns would cause a cause a corresponding increase in gun-related violence or crime. In fact, the opposite is true. The FBI reported this year that violent crime rates in the U.S. are reaching historic lows.

This comes in spite of the fact that the federal assault weapons ban expired in 2004. Supporters of the ban (not including anti-gun groups who thought it didn't go far enough in the first place) claimed that gun crime would skyrocket when the ban was lifted. That wasn't true at all.

In fact, after the expiration of the ban, The New York Times, whose editorial pages are now awash with calls for more gun restrictions, wrote in early 2005, "Despite dire predictions that America's streets would be awash in military-style guns, the expiration of the decade-long assault weapons ban in September has not set off a sustained surge in the weapons' sales, gun makers and sellers say. It also has not caused any noticeable increase in gun crime in the past seven months, according to several city police departments."

But let's take the issue one step further and examine places where all guns, regardless of make or type, are outlawed: gun-free zones. Are gun-free zones truly safe from guns?

John Lott, economist and gun-rights advocate, has extensively studied mass shootings and reports that, with just one exception, the attack on U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in Tucson, Arizona, in 2011, every public shooting since 1950 in the U.S. in which more than three people have been killed has taken place where citizens are not allowed to carry guns. The massacres at Sandy Hook Elementary, Columbine, Virginia Tech and the Century 16 movie theater in Aurora, Colorado, all took place in gun-free zones.

Do you own a gun that fell under the now-expired federal weapons ban?

These murderers, while deranged and deeply disturbed, are not dumb. They shoot up schools, universities, malls and public places where their victims cannot shoot back. Perhaps "gun-free zones" would be better named "defenseless victim zones."

To illustrate the absurdity of gun-free zones, Goldberg dug up the advice that gun-free universities offer to its students should a gunman open fire on campus. West Virginia University tells students to "act with physical aggression and throw items at the active shooter." These items could include "student desks, keys, shoes, belts, books, cell phones, iPods, book bags, laptops, pens, pencils, etc." Such "higher education" would be laughable if it weren't true and funded by taxpayer dollars.

Eliminating or restricting firearms for public self-defense doesn't make our citizens safer; it makes them targets. If we're going to have a national debate about guns, it should be acknowledged that guns, in the hands of qualified and trained individuals subject to background checks, prevent crime and improve public safety.

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The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of William J. Bennett.

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Football: Wilshere, four others sign new Arsenal deals

LONDON: Arsenal were given a major fillip on Wednesday when they announced that English midfielder Jack Wilshere and four other players have agreed new long-term contracts with the club.

Wilshere joins fellow England internationals Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Kieran Gibbs and Carl Jenkinson and Welsh midfielder Aaron Ramsey in committing his future to the Emirates Stadium.

"We are delighted that these five young players have all signed new long-term contracts," manager Arsene Wenger said.

"The plan is to build a team around a strong basis of young players, in order to get them to develop their talent at the club.

"Jack is certainly the best known, the leader of this group -- but the other four players are exceptional footballers, and we're very happy that we could conclude their new deals at the same time.

"Gibbs, Jenkinson, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Ramsey and Wilshere represent a core of the squad and it's an extension for a long period for all of them.

"I'm a strong believer in stability and I believe when you have a core of British players, it's always easier to keep them together and that's what we'll try to achieve going forward."

Arsenal did not reveal details of the lengths of the five players' new contracts.

Wenger will now hope to persuade another England international, winger Theo Walcott, to commit himself to the club, with talks over a new contract for the former Southampton player currently at an impasse.

The 23-year-old, whose contract expires at the end of the current season, reportedly wants a higher salary and assurances that he will be given more opportunities to play as a striker.

Arsenal have endured an arduous season, notably being eliminated from the League Cup by fourth-tier Bradford City last week.

However, their 5-2 victory at Reading on Monday took them up to fifth place in the Premier League and they are also in the hat for Thursday's Champions League last 16 draw.

- AFP/de

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Ex-judge Robert Bork dies

By Bill Mears, CNN Supreme Court Producer

updated 12:08 PM EST, Wed December 19, 2012

Robert Bork, ex-federal judge

Robert Bork, ex-federal judge

Robert Bork, ex-federal judge

Robert Bork, ex-federal judge

Robert Bork, ex-federal judge

Robert Bork, ex-federal judge

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Conservative judge Robert Bork died Wednesday


• He was best known for contentious confirmation battle over his Supreme Court nomination


• Bork was a staunch advocate for 'originalism'


• He was 85

Washington (CNN) -- Former federal judge and conservative legal scholar Robert Bork died early Wednesday at his home in Virginia, his family confirmed to CNN.

Bork, who was 85, was best known for being nominated to the Supreme Court by President Ronald Reagan in 1987, only to be rejected for the post after a contentious confirmation battle led by left-leaning groups who opposed his conservative judicial philosophies.

Bork had recently served as a senior legal adviser to Republican Mitt Romney's presidential campaign. He was a solicitor general during the Nixon administration and first gained notoriety for acceding to the president's order to fire the special prosecutor investigating the Watergate scandal in 1973, an episode known as the "Saturday Night Massacre."

But it was the Senate's rejection of his high court nomination that earned the conservative Bork a political legacy -- symbolic of the contentious, partisan nature of congressional confirmations.

In recent years, Bork was a well-regarded conservative voice on legal and constitutional matters, author of several books and frequent commentator.

He told CNN in 2005 that he had to endure his failed nomination as a metaphor. To "Bork" someone has entered the popular lexicon as attacking a public figure in the media for partisan gain.

"My name became a verb," he said. "And I regard that as one form of immortality."

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Jeffrey Toobin, CNN's senior legal analyst, called Bork "an epic figure in American law."

Bork was also known as a staunch advocate for "originalism," a principle that defends the original intent of the Constitution.

Toobin said Supreme Court Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas followed Bork's example on this principle.

It made Bork "one of the intellectual godfathers of the conservative movement in this country," Toobin said.

This fall, he was tapped to co-chair Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney's justice advisory committee.

Bork suffered in past years with heart disease. Before his death, he was a distinguished fellow at the Hudson Institute, which researches and analyzes issues involving defense policy, international relations, health care, technology culture and law.

The foundation's president and CEO, Kenneth Weinstein, said Bork will be missed.

"Robert Bork was a giant, a brilliant and fearless legal scholar, and a gentleman whose incredible wit and erudition made him a wonderful Hudson colleague," Weinstein said in a statement on the organization's website.

People we've lost in 2012: The lives they lived

CNN's Ashley Killough contributed to this report

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State Dept. official resigns following Benghazi report

Eric Boswell, the head of diplomatic security at the State Department, has resigned, CBS News confirmed, following the release of a harsh report detailing State Department missteps that led to the attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi.

Boswell's resignation from his post as assistant secretary of state for diplomatic security is effective immediately. Sources say he will stay on as director of the Office of Foreign Missions for a short, indefinite time.

The report, released today by an independent board led by retired Ambassador Thomas Pickering and former Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen, did not single out any individuals for culpability. It did, however, blame failures within two bureaus at the State Department for the missteps that eventually lead to the deaths of Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three additional American personnel in Libya. The two bureaus cited -- Near Eastern Affairs and Diplomatic Security -- were criticized for a security posture that was "grossly inadequate to deal with the attack," and for failing to coordinate with other agencies to better secure the consulate.

Members of the House Foreign Affairs and Senate Foreign Relations Committees were briefed this morning on the report. "I think the conclusion was very stark, very candid, very honest," Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said after the briefing. "And [the report] told us the following: Mistakes were made, lives were lost, lessons need to be learned."

Durbin said the review board's conclusions were: "Our intelligence fell short, our security personnel were inexperienced and unprepared, our security systems failed, our host nation was lacking in protection for our own people, and senior State Department officials unfortunately showed a lack of leadership and management ability."

He added, "That is a challenge to all of us, it is a challenge for us to assess this in an honest fashion and to change policy to put resources in place that will make a difference."

Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., said after the briefing that there were "no doubt a numbers of problems" that led to the Sept. 11 attack.

"There is no question there were people within the State Department that were remiss and did not execute in an appropriate way," Corker told reporters. "There are also some cultural issues."

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was scheduled to testify before Congress on Thursday in two hearings reviewing the Benghazi attack. However, after falling ill and suffering from a concussion, she's no longer scheduled to appear at the hearings. Clinton sent a letter to Congress, indicating she accepts the Benghazi report's 29 recommendations for strengthening security at diplomatic posts and recognizes the the need to address the "systemic challenges" at the State Department.

Still, members of Congress today said it was imperative for Clinton to testify on the issue.

"I think that is very important to her, I think it is very important for our country, and I think it is very important to really understand the inner workings of the State Department itself," Corker said.

House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., said Clinton will need to "personally address" issues he feels were not addressed entirely in the report.

"While I appreciate the board's hard work, I am deeply concerned that the unclassified report omits important information the public has a right to know," Issa said in a statement. "This includes details about the perpetrators of the attack in Libya as well as the less-than-noble reasons contributing to State Department decisions to deny security resources. Relevant details that would not harm national security have been withheld and the classified report suffers from an enormous over-classification problem."

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Inside One School's Extraordinary Security Measures

While schools across America reassess their security measures in the wake of the tragic shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., one school outside of Chicago takes safety to a whole new level.

The security measures at Middleton Elementary School start the moment you set foot on campus, with a camera-equipped doorbell. When you ring the doorbell, school employees inside are immediately able to see you, both through a window and on a security camera.

“They can assess your demeanor,” Kate Donegan, the superintendent of Skokie School District 73 ½, said in an interview with ABC News.

Once the employees let you through the first set of doors, you are only able to go as far as a vestibule. There you hand over your ID so the school can run a quick background check using a visitor management system devised by Raptor Technologies. According to the company’s CEO, Jim Vesterman, only 8,000 schools in the country are using that system, while more than 100,000 continue to use the old-fashioned pen-and-paper system, which do not do as much to drive away unwanted intruders.

“Each element that you add is a deterrent,” Vesterman said.

In the wake of the Newtown shooting, Vesterman told ABC News his company has been “flooded” with calls to put in place the new system. Back at Middleton, if you pass the background check, you are given a new photo ID — attached to a bright orange lanyard — to wear the entire time you are inside the school. Even parents who come to the school on a daily basis still have to wear the lanyard.

“The rules apply to everyone,” Donegan said.

The security measures don’t end there. Once you don your lanyard and pass through a second set of locked doors, you enter the school’s main hallway, while security cameras continue to feed live video back into the front office.

It all comes at a cost. Donegan’s school district — with the help of security consultant Paul Timm of RETA Security — has spent more than $175,000 on the system in the last two years. For a district of only three schools and 1100 students, that is a lot of money, but it is all worth it, she said.

“I don’t know that there’s too big a pricetag to put on kids being as safe as they can be,” Donegan said.

“So often we hear we can’t afford it, but what we can’t afford is another terrible incident,” Timm said.

Classroom doors open inward — not outward — and lock from the inside, providing teachers and students security if an intruder is in the hallway. Some employees carry digital two-way radios, enabling them to communicate at all times with the push of a button. Administrators such as Donegan are able to watch the school’s security video on their mobile devices. Barricades line the edge of the school’s parking lot, keeping cars from pulling up close to the entrance.

Teachers say all the security makes them feel safe inside the school.

“I think the most important thing is just keeping the kids safe,” fourth-grade teacher Dara Sacher said.

Parents like Charlene Abraham, whose son Matthew attends Middleton, say they feel better about dropping off their kids knowing the school has such substantial security measures in place.

“We’re sending our kids to school to learn, not to worry about whether they’re going to come home or not,” she said.

In the wake of the horrific shooting at Sandy Hook last Friday, Donegan’s district is now even looking into installing bullet-resistant glass for the school building. While Middleton’s security measures continue to put administrators, teachers, parents and students at ease, Sacher said she thinks that more extreme measures — such as arming teachers, an idea pushed by Oregon state Rep. Dennis Richardson — are a step too far.

“I wouldn’t feel comfortable being armed,” Sacher said. “Even if you trained people, I think it’d be better to keep the guns out of school rather than arm teachers.”

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