Cheat Sheet

“Not exactly closure, but it is resolution,” is how Mark Kelly described his wife Gabby Giffords’ feelings about the sentencing of her shooter, Jared Lee Loughner, Thursday. In an interview with Diane Sawyer, the former congresswoman’s husband said Giffords stared into Loughner’s eyes as Kelly spoke to the court and noticed “[He was] a little defiant in the way looking at us and looking at Gabby. I got the sense he was trying to intimidate us, especially my wife.” Loughner was given seven life sentences without parole for the shooting that killed six and injured 13, including Giffords. Kelly spoke on his wife’s behalf at the trial and told Loughner she is “done thinking about you.”

Read it at ABC News

November 9, 2012 11:49 AM

Former U.S. representative Gabrielle Giffords and her husband, astronaut Mark Kelly, came face-to-face on Thursday with Jared Lee Loughner, the man who shot her in the head during a deadly rampage that killed six and wounded a dozen others. Loughner received a sentence of seven life terms in prison. Kelly addressed the court on Giffords's behalf. “You tried to create a world as dark and evil as your own,” Kelly said. “Remember this: you failed.” Loughner pleaded guilty to the attack, sparing himself the death penalty. In the race for Giffords’s former House seat, her hand-picked successor trailed his Republican challenger by several hundred votes on Wednesday, although a final result had not yet been announced.

Read it at USA Today

November 9, 2012 10:55 AM

No rest for the weary. President Obama will replace at least three high-level Cabinet members after his reelection, with some sources saying that U.N. envoy Susan Rice is one of the top contenders to replace Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Rice is believed to be the president’s top choice despite her recent remarks on the attack on the U.S. Consulate in Libya. The other top contenders include Sen. John Kerry, who heads the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and National Security Adviser Tom Donilon. But Former White House chief of staff Bill Daley said on Wednesday that the president’s first order of business will be replacing Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner.

Read it at Bloomberg News

November 9, 2012 10:53 AM

A federal judge in Michigan has put a temporary block on the portion of the health-care law that stipulates employers provide insurance with free birth-control coverage. In a preliminary injunction last week, Robert H. Cleland ruled the requirement could prevent the "sincere exercise of religious beliefs" by the owner of a local business. The case was brought by a local business owner who is Roman Catholic and claims the law infringes on his religious beliefs and has created his own health-care plan that he says falls in line with them.

Read it at The New York Times

November 7, 2012 10:54 AM

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association will honor Jodie Foster with the Cecil B. DeMille Award. Foster, whose acting career has spanned four decades, will receive the award at the Golden Globes’ 70th ceremony on Jan. 13. Best known for her role as Clarice Starling in The Silence of the Lambs, Foster is being recognized for her contributions to the entertainment industry. Kristen Stewart and Simon Baker made the announcement on Thursday.

Read it at The Hollywood Reporter

November 2, 2012 10:18 AM

And the Republican Party was so close to Election Day without anymore candidates making comments on rape. Washington state congressional candidate John Koster gave his two cents on the "rape thing" in comments captured on tape over the weekend and released Wednesday. "On the rape thing, it's like, how does putting more violence onto a woman's body and taking the life of an innocent child that's the consequence of this crime, how does that make it better?" Koster said at a fundraiser. His opponent, Democrat Suzan Kay DelBene, said "dismissing" rape as a "thing" is an "awfully casual way for him to talk about it, and I think it highlights how little he understands the ramifications and seriousness of the issue."

Read it at Talking Points Memo

November 2, 2012 10:15 AM

Her first concern was family—her own, that is. Alleged killer nanny Yoselyn Ortega, accused of killing two children in her care before stabbing herself in the neck in what may have been a suicide bid, woke up in the hospital Sunday and asked about her family, a source told the New York Post. Ortega is “talking a little,” the source said. The 50-year-old nanny lives in Harlem with her sister, 17-year-old son, and niece. Lucia and Leo Krim were found dead in their family’s Upper West Side apartment Thursday.

Read it at The New York Post

October 31, 2012 11:24 AM

Don’t take friend requests from strangers. Girls in Indonesia have been kidnapped, raped, and forced into prostitution by sexual predators who lurk on Facebook and lure them in after online flirtations. According to Indonesia’s National Commission for Child Protection, 27 of 129 children kidnapped this year are thought to have been taken after meeting abductors on Facebook. Fifty million people in the country use the social network, and the capital city of Jakarta hosts some of the world’s most active Twitter users. Eighteen abduction cases thought to be Facebook-related were reported in 2011.

Read it at The Associated Press

October 31, 2012 11:20 AM

The men not only raped the 16-year-old girl for three hours, they took videos of it. The horrifying story of the sexual abuse of a low-caste girl in an Indian village has brought new attention to the problem of rape in the country, where assaults on women in the rigidified society tend to be swept under the rug. Rapes have increased 25 percent over the past six years, fueled by a surplus of young men, unemployment, drugs, and alcohol. Gang rapes, once uncommon, now regularly grab headlines. But some Indians are saying they’ve had enough.

Read it at The New York Times

October 29, 2012 9:52 AM

How could she? That’s what the sister of alleged killer and Upper West Side nanny Yoselyn Ortega said in a new interview from her home in the Dominican Republic. Mylades Ortega said she didn’t understand how her sister could have done what cops allege: that she stabbed two children in her care to death before attempting to end her own life. “This isn’t the Yoselyn we know,” the nanny’s sister said. “She loved these children like her own.” Leo and Lucia Krim were found dead in their family’s West 75th Street apartment Thursday.

Read it at The New York Daily News

October 29, 2012 9:48 AM

Amherst College has vowed to change its policy toward sexual assaults after the campus newspaper printed a disturbing account of the way the school reacted to her rape case. “Eventually, I reached a dangerously low point, and in my dependency, began going to the campus’s sexual-assault counselor,” writes Angie Epifano in The Amherst Student. She writes that she felt the school asked her “are you sure it was rape?” The response on campus was immediate, and within hours, other Amherst students, both past and present, told their own stories of sexual assault at the school—and called on the school to change its policy. The school’s president, Carolyn Martin, released an impassioned statement declaring things “must change, and change immediately.”

Read it at The New York Times

October 29, 2012 9:45 AM

Malala Yousafzai, the 14-year-old Pakistani girl shot in the head by the Taliban, is recovering well in Britain, her father said on Friday. Reunited with her family at a hospital in Birmingham, Ziauddin Yousafzai, cried when he first laid eyes on her. Talking to a room full of reporters Friday, he called his daughter’s prognosis a “miracle” and said that she will “rise again.” Malala was attacked after writing about the need to improve girls’ education in Pakistan, which inspired an international crusade in her defense.

Read it at BBC

October 29, 2012 9:44 AM

Two days after the horrifying murder of two Upper West Side kids by their nanny, distressing details about the mental state of Yoselyn Ortega have begun to emerge. Living in a tiny apartment that she shared with her teenage son, sister, and niece, Ortega was low on money—and patience. Juan Pozo, a car-service driver who used to rent a room in her apartment, said the Dominican native “felt like she was losing her mind.” Pozo also confirmed that the Krim family—whose 6-year-old and 2-year-old were fatally stabbed in the incident—had taken her to see a psychologist.

Read it at The New York Times

October 29, 2012 9:41 AM

Count the president among those who have just about enough of the controversies surrounding Republicans’ comments about rape. President Obama urged politicians to stay out of women’s health issues during an interview Thursday night that aired on NBC’s Rock Center with Brian Williams. “These attempts to redefine rape in some way make no sense to me, and I don’t think they make sense to the majority of women across the country,” he said, directly referring to Richard Mourdock’s recent comments about rape. Voters, he said, don’t want “politicians, the majority of them male, making a series of decisions about women’s-health-care issues.”

Read it at Politico

October 29, 2012 9:36 AM

The world nearly lost one of its most important activists when four armed men attempted to assassinate Dr. Denis Mukwege in the Democratic Republic of Congo Thursday night, killing his security guard instead. Mukwege is known worldwide as an advocate women’s rights and survivors of sexual abuse in his country, and narrowly escaped the assassination by throwing himself on the ground to avoid gunfire. Dr. Mukwege is a recipient of numerous international awards including the U.N. Human Rights Prize, African of the Year, the Olof Palme Prize and the Clinton Global Citizen Award. He has been nominated several times for the Nobel Peace Prize. The identity of the armed men and their whereabouts are unknown.

Read it at My News Desk

October 26, 2012 10:26 AM

Pakistan has announced that they’ve arrested six men suspected of being involved with the almost-fatal shooting of 15-year-old activist Malala Yousafzai. The main suspect, Atta Ullah Khan—who’s a 23-year-old chemistry student—remains at large, though police have detained his mother, brother, and fiancée. Yousafzai, an outspoken Taliban critic, remains in stable condition and is making progress in a hospital in England after being shot twice at close range. The Taliban has taken responsibility for the attack and have sworn to kill her if she recovers.

Read it at CNN

October 25, 2012 12:43 PM

Indiana Republican Senate candidate Richard Mourdock publicly apologized—sort of—Wednesday for comments during a debate implying that pregnancy caused by rape may be “intended” by God. “I did not intend to suggest that God wants rape,” Mourdock said during the presser, clarifying that he’s not apologizing for what he said but for how it was interpreted. “I spoke from my heart.” The Romney campaign has distanced itself from Mourdock's comments, but says they will continue backing the candidate. "We disagree on the policy regarding exceptions for rape and incest but still support him," the campaign said in a statement.

Read it at The Huffington Post

October 25, 2012 12:42 PM

Richard Mourdock recently had an epiphany. During a debate Tuesday, the Indiana Republican running for Senate explained, “I came to realize life is that gift from God. And I think even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape, that is something that God intended to happen.” Naturally this didn’t sit well with everyone, and Mitt Romney, who’s trying to win a presidential election for God’s sake, was quick to disassociate himself from his fellow Republican, his campaign issuing a statement confirming that the former Massachusetts governor “disagrees with Richard Mourdock’s comments, and they do not reflect his views.” Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, however, is more focused on a GOP takeover of the Senate and was happy to jump to Mourdock’s defense. “To try and construe his words as anything other than a restatement of that belief [that life is a gift from God] is irresponsible and ridiculous,” Cornyn said.

Read it at The Washington Post

October 25, 2012 12:39 PM

A federal appeals court ruled Tuesday that Indiana can’t cut off funding for Planned Parenthood just because the organization provides abortions—contrary to a 2011 law signed by Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels. That law was the first time a state denied Planned Parenthood Medicaid funds for general health services, including cancer screenings.

Read it at The Associated Press

October 24, 2012 2:20 PM

A 20-year-old Louisiana woman is in critical condition Tuesday after three men allegedly set her on fire in what the FBI is investigating as a hate crime. Sharmeka Moffit, who is black, was found on Sunday night by officers with burns over half her body and the letters KKK and a racial slur written on her car. On the 911 call, Moffit said her attackers were three men wearing white hoods or hats, and they doused her in flammable liquid and then set her on fire at a park at Winnsboro, in Franklin Parish. The park has no surveillance cameras, and no arrests have been made yet.

Read it at USA Today

October 24, 2012 2:19 PM

The BBC director-general will face questioning by Parliament on Tuesday for his handling of an alleged sex scandal involving the late Jimmy Savile, who has been accused of abusing hundreds of underage girls. George Entwistle will face questions by Parliament’s Culture, Media, and Sport committee—the same committee that has been investigating the hacking scandal at Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. On Monday, Newsnight editor Peter Rippon resigned amid questions of a piece about the Savile sex scandal that Rippon allegedly pulled. A BBC Panorama program aired Monday night addressed why the Newsnight documentary was dropped, although questions still remain about why the broadcaster did not address the allegations against Savile.

Read it at The Telegraph

October 24, 2012 2:18 PM

The Pussy Riot saga is taking another troubling turn, as two members of the protestor group have been sent to penal colonies to serve out their two-year jail sentences. The women were arrested in February after performing a song that satirized Russian President Vladimir Putin at a Moscow cathedral. Group member Nadya Tolokonnikova is being sent to Mordovia and Maria Alyokhina to Perm, prison camps that are described as “the harshest camps of all the possible choices.” Both women had petitioned to serve their jail time in Moscow, as they have small children.

Read it at The New York Times

October 24, 2012 2:16 PM

Doctors in the British hospital where young Pakistani activist Malala Yousafzai is being treated for gunshot wounds said on Friday that she is steadily recovering. Having come out of a medically induced coma, she is now able to write and stand up on her own and has indicated that she has retained her full memory. However, Yousafzai is "still very ill," according to the hospital, and doctors warn that due to swelling, her brain injury has not been fully evaluated. Yousafzai was shot in the head by the Taliban last week, targeted for her efforts to improve girls’ education.

Read it at The New York Times

October 22, 2012 9:26 AM

Illinois Congressman Joe Walsh went head to head with Democratic challenger Tammy Duckworth over Medicare and abortion during a local half-hour news program Thursday night. In addition to promising to end Medicare "as we know it" if it remains unchanged, Walsh revealed just how anti-abortion he really is, claiming that exemptions to abortion laws in cases where a mother's life in danger are obsolete. "With modern technology and science, you can't find one instance," Walsh said. "There is no exception as life of the mother, as far as health of the mother, same thing."

Read it at The Chicago Tribune

October 22, 2012 9:24 AM

Malala Yousafzai, the 14-year-old Pakistani girl who was shot in the head by the Taliban last week, is no longer in a coma,  New York Times  reporter Adam Ellick  said on Facebook on Wednesday. According to Ellick, Yousafzai is responding well to treatment and has a good chance of fully recovering, although she is not fully conscious yet. Yousafzai is being treated in a Birmingham combat hospital that has treated every single British casualty of both of the wars of the past decade. Yousafzai was shot by the Taliban in Pakistan’s Swat Valley after she called for more education for girls on her BBC blog.

Read it at The Atlantic Wire

October 17, 2012 4:59 PM