10 things you need to know today: October 25, 2014

(Image credit: (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren))

Jump to category:

1. Two dead, including gunman, in Seattle-area high school shooting
2. Dallas nurse diagnosed with Ebola declared 'virus free'
3. Iran executes woman who allegedly killed her attempted rapist
4. Police arrest suspect in shooting of three California deputies
5. Surgeons perform first successful 'dead heart' transplant
6. Amazon writes off $170 million on underselling Fire Phone
7. DHS reportedly relying on expired Ebola prevention materials
8. Stock market closes out best week in nearly two years
9. Kansas City Royals win Game 3, take 2-1 World Series lead
10. Queen Elizabeth sends her first tweet

last updated 13 January 2015

1. Two dead, including gunman, in Seattle-area high school shooting

A student shot five people, killing one of them, at Marysville Pilchuck High School on Friday morning. Police confirmed that the gunman, identified as Jaylen Fryberg, also died of a self-inflicted gunshot. Several students told media affiliates that the shooting began in the high school's cafeteria. Three of the shooting victims are reportedly in critical condition, while a fourth has non-life-threatening injuries.

Nina Pham, one of two Dallas nurses who contracted the Ebola virus while caring for Liberian national Thomas Eric Duncan, was declared "virus free" by officials at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, on Friday. Later in the day, Pham met and hugged President Barack Obama at the White House. "I feel fortunate and blessed to be standing here today," Pham said in a statement. A second nurse, Amber Vinson, is still being held at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, where officials say she is "making good progress."

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Iran executed Reyhaneh Jabbari, 26, on Saturday. Jabbari was sentenced to death in 2007 following a "flawed investigation and unfair trial," according to Amnesty International. Morteza Abdolali Sarbandi, a former employee of Iran's Ministry of Intelligence and Security, allegedly hired Jabbari for an interior design project, but Jabbari told officials that Sarbandi tried to sexually assault her while she was in the home, at which point she stabbed him. Amnesty International says Jabbari was subsequently placed in solitary confinement for two months, during which time she was tortured and denied access to an attorney.

Police arrested a suspected gunman who shot and killed two California sheriff's deputies, and wounded one more deputy along with a civilian motorist, during a shooting spree on Friday in Sacramento. Marcelo Marquez allegedly first shot and killed Sacramento Deputy Danny Oliver when he approached the car Marquez and a female companion were in on Friday morning. The suspects then fled, carjacking at least two vehicles, shooting the driver of one who refused to give up his keys, and also shooting two Placer County sheriff's deputies who joined the search for the pair. One, Homicide Detective Michael David Davis Jr., died later Friday from his injuries.

A team at St. Vincent's hospital in Sydney, Australia, announced on Friday that they had successfully transplanted hearts which had stopped beating for 20 minutes into three patients. Two of the patients have reportedly recovered well, while a third is still in intensive care. The procedure was made possible thanks to the development of a solution that keeps the submerged hearts preserved, and a circuit that attaches to the organs to keep them beating and warm. The procedure could save the lives of 30 percent more heart transplant patients.

While Amazon did not include its Fire Phone's writedown in its third-quarter earnings statement, chief financial officer Tom Szkutak said in a Thursday earnings call that the "consolidated segment operating loss includes charges of approximately $170 million, primarily related to the Fire Phone inventory evaluation and supplier commitment cost." Amazon launched the device as a competitor to the iPhone and other high-end smartphones in June, but poor user reviews hampered the Fire Phone's success. The company may have as many as 300,000 unsold Fire Phone units in its warehouses.

The Department of Homeland Security promised that it is "satisfied" with its store of Ebola prevention materials on Friday, but testimony from Inspector General John Roth suggests otherwise. Roth appeared at a House oversight hearing on Ebola, and he said, "much of (the DHS') material has a 'finite shelf life' — including thousands of bottles of hand sanitizer, some up to four years expired, and 200,000 respirators that are beyond their five-year usability guarantee." DHS has spent millions of dollars in recent years on pandemic protective equipment and antiviral drugs for emergency workers.

Boosted by strong quarterly earnings from large U.S. companies such as Microsoft, the stock market closed out on Friday with its best week since January 2013, as the S&P 500 rose 4.1 percent. Companies are also reporting their quarterly results right now, which means Wall Street is able to focus on "earnings expectations and corporate fundamentals," Michael Arone, chief investment strategist at State Street Global Advisors, said.

Queen Elizabeth had never sent a tweet from the royal family's official Twitter account — until Friday. Up popped a tweet reading, "It is a pleasure to open the Information Age exhibition today at the @ScienceMuseum and I hope people will enjoy visiting. Elizabeth R." The account sent a followup message confirming that Queen Elizabeth had indeed typed the lines, and it even added a hashtag for other users to pick up: #TheQueenTweets.

Explore More

Sarah Eberspacher is an associate editor at TheWeek.com. She has previously worked as a sports reporter at The Livingston County Daily Press & Argus and The Arizona Republic. She graduated from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism.