Late last week a familiar national tragedy played out in Santa Fe, Texas, where a teenager, Dimitrios Pagourtzis, went to his high school armed with a shotgun and a pistol and killed ten people, many of them fellow students. Pagourtzis was taken into custody and charged with ten counts of murder and various other offenses. Most of the details will sound numbingly familiar: Pagourtzis kept to himself; his father owned the weapons legally; the school was prepared; Democrats called for gun control; Republicans called for more effective security measures and mental health services; American students are afraid to go to school. Keep reading for more news.
Christopher Tyner
News Roundup
Michigan State University reached a $500 million settlement this week with the hundreds of women that Larry Nassar sexually abused under the guide of medical treatment while working in the gymnastics community. The New York Times says that the settlement is the largest ever in a sexual abuse case involving an American university. Lawsuits against U.S.A. Gymnastics, the U.S. Olympic Committee, and other organizations still are pending. Nassar worked at Michigan State for 20 years, and some of his victims have said that the university ignored complaints about his behavior dating back to at least the late 90’s. Keep reading for more news.
News Roundup
On Monday, the New Yorker reported that four women have accused New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman of inflicting physical violence and other abuse upon them in the context of romantic relationships. The allegations have received significant national attention, in part because Schneiderman has presented himself publicly as a staunch supporter of the #MeToo movement against sexual harassment and abuse. Schneiderman issued a statement contesting the allegations, but resigned from office within hours of the story’s publication; he is now under criminal investigation. Keep reading for more news.
News Roundup
Late last week a Pennsylvania jury convicted Bill Cosby of three counts of sexually assaulting Andrea Constand in 2004. A prior trial involving the same offenses ended in a deadlocked jury mistrial. Cosby faces up to 30 years in prison, but news reports suggest that he is unlikely to receive the maximum sentence. Cosby has faced years of accusations that he had a regular practice of drugging and sexually assaulting women. Keep reading for more news.
News Roundup
Two incidents of mass murder made national headlines this week, one occurred in Nashville, Tennessee, and the other in Toronto, Canada. Early Sunday morning, Travis Reinking killed four people and wounded two others with an AR-15 style rifle at a Waffle House in Nashville. After being disarmed by a customer, Reinking fled the scene, sparking a 34-hour manhunt that ended when he was discovered in a wooded area a few miles from the Waffle House. On Monday, Alek Minassian killed ten people and wounded many others by intentionally driving a moving van into pedestrians on a sidewalk in Toronto. Keep reading for more news.
News Roundup
Seven inmates were killed and many others were wounded during a prison riot in South Carolina on Sunday night. Columbia newspaper The State reports that a disagreement over gang territory and contraband erupted into a massive and violent fight that spanned three dormitories at Lee Correctional Institution, a maximum-security facility located between Columbia and Florence. The report from The State paints a bleak picture of Lee Correctional and other South Carolina prisons, saying that the state’s prisons as a whole “are rife with violence, illegal weapons, and gangs.” The incident is the nation’s deadliest prison riot in 25 years. Keep reading for more news.
News Roundup
On Monday morning, the FBI executed a series of search warrants at the home, office, and hotel room of Michael Cohen, a personal attorney for President Donald Trump and a former executive at the Trump Organization. News reports say that the warrants were sought by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York based on a referral by the Office of Special Counsel, Robert Mueller, and that Cohen is under investigation for bank fraud, wire fraud, and campaign finance violations. Keep reading for more news.
News Roundup
Wednesday was the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., and the country has celebrated his legacy this week while also reflecting on our national obligation to continue to work towards a society of equal justice. The Associated Press has republished selections of its contemporaneous coverage of King’s assassination, and the News Hour aired a segment discussing King’s enduring influence on campaigns for civil rights. Keep reading for more news.
News Roundup
The hunt for a serial bomber in Austin, Texas, who killed two people and injured several others with homemade package bombs was this week’s leading national criminal law news story. After a weeks-long investigation involving state and federal law enforcement agencies, authorities came to suspect that 23-year-old Mark Conditt was the bomber. As officers closed in on Conditt, he killed himself by detonating a bomb inside his vehicle. The New York Times has an article describing the meticulous police work that cracked the case, and the Austin Statesman has full coverage of the terrifying bombing spree. Keep reading for more news.
News Roundup
Students across the country walked out of class for 17 minutes at 10:00 a.m. Wednesday morning in a mass protest against gun violence in the wake of the school shooting in Florida last month. The demonstration came exactly one month after the shooting and the 17-minute duration represents the 17 people who were killed. At Columbine High School in Colorado, students added 13 minutes to their protest to represent the victims of the 1999 shooting at that school. Keep reading for more news.