10 things you need to know today: October 18, 2014

1. President Obama names Ron Klain 'Ebola czar'

President Barack Obama appointed Ron Klain the administration's "Ebola czar" on Friday. Klain will be responsible for ensuring the government response to any threat of a U.S.-based Ebola outbreak is handled correctly. Formerly chief of staff to Vice President Joe Biden, Klain also helped Obama prepare for presidential debates. He is president of Case Holdings and general counsel for Revolution, an investment firm.

CNN

2. Supreme Court rules that Texas can enforce voter ID law

The Supreme Court ruled early Saturday morning that Texas can go ahead with S.B. 14, its voter ID law that has been called one of the toughest in the United States. A federal judge had found the law to be unconstitutional, but a lower appeals court put that ruling on hold. Echoing three other voter ID cases (Ohio, North Carolina, Wisconsin) on which it has ruled in past months, the Supreme Court did not offer a reasoning behind the ruling. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg dissented, along with Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan.

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The Washington Post

3. Nigeria brokers ceasefire with Boko Haram extremists

A top Nigerian military official announced on Friday that the government had reached a ceasefire with Boko Haram's Islamic extremists, to begin immediately. Air Marshall Alex Badeh, Nigeria's chief of defense staff, said the ceasefire would "end five years of insurgency that has killed thousands and left hundreds of thousands homeless." Another government official said the hope was that negotiations for the release of 219 schoolgirls who were kidnapped in April and still being held by Boko Haram could begin this week.

The Associated Press

4. Federal judge strikes down Arizona's ban on gay marriage

A federal judge ruled on Friday that Arizona's ban on same-sex unions is unconstitutional. U.S. District Court Judge John Sedwick wrote in his brief explaining the decision that a recent appeals court ruled "that substantially identical provisions of Nevada and Idaho law that prohibit same-sex marriages are invalid," and Arizona would thus follow suit.

The Arizona Republic

5. Michael Dunn, the 'loud music killer,' sentenced to life in prison

Michael Dunn, who was found guilty of killing unarmed black teenager Jordan Davis in November 2012, was sentenced to life in prison without parole — life plus 105 years — on Friday. Dunn shot Davis, who was 17 at the time, at a Jacksonville, Florida, gas station following an argument about the volume of music emanating from an SUV in which Davis and his friends were sitting.

First Coast News

6. NASA discovers one of the farthest galaxies away ever seen

NASA announced on Thursday that it had discovered "one of the faintest galaxies ever seen," as part of its three-year program to investigate the universe's formative years. The faint galaxy is about 13 billion light-years away, and it is five hundred times small than the Milky Way, and still evolving. NASA scientists said the discovery was important because it would help inform how galaxies and the universe have evolved over time.

NASA

7. Two tourists allegedly snuck onto White House grounds in 2008

In the midst of a deluge of poor publicity for the Secret Service, a new report claims that in the summer of 2008, a pair of German tourists entered the White House grounds after peeling off from a legitimate tour group, only being noticed and then apprehended when they began using unauthorized cameras to take pictures near the White House's North Portico. The Secret Service subsequently installed "a serpentine bike rack to make it more difficult to enter the White House grounds."

The Washington Examiner

8. Israel has begun construction on vertical cemeteries

Israel has given cemeteries the go-ahead to build vertical burial grounds, even getting approval from rabbis who declared the practice kosher and "effective…in an era when most of the cemeteries in major population centers are packed full." Yarkon Cemetery, outside Tel Aviv, has begun construction of the vertical plots; now cemeteries in other high-population countries such as Brazil and Japan are following suit.

The Associated Press

9. Study: Exercising three times a week lowers risk of depression

A new study published this week in JAMA Psychiatry shows that research subjects who exercised three times per week reduced their risk of depression by 19 percent. And, each additional workout session on top of the base three further reduced the subjects' depression risk by another six percent. "Importantly, this effect was seen across the whole population, and not just in those at high risk of clinical depression," Christine Power, a senior author on the study and professor of epidemiology and public health at the Institute of Child Health at UCL, said.

Medical News Today

10. Bono reveals the reason for his sunglasses is he has glaucoma

U2 frontman Bono is rarely seen without his signature shades, but he revealed during a taping of BBC One's Graham Norton Show that the reason for his sunglasses is not fashion-based, but medically necessitated. "I've had glaucoma for the last 20 years," Bono said. "I have good treatments and am going to be fine." Those who suffer from glaucoma are often sensitive to light, and they wear dark glasses to alleviate the pain.

The Telegraph