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

(Image credit: (AP Photo/David Cheskin))

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1. House backs Obama's proposal to arm rebels to fight ISIS
2. Scotland independence voting begins
3. Australian police thwart an alleged ISIS plot to stage random public beheadings
4. Odile's rains threaten the Southwest with flooding
5. Biden stokes 2016 talk by visiting Iowa just after Hillary Clinton
6. Toronto Mayor Rob Ford beginning treatment for rare cancer
7. Texas woman executed for the 2004 killing of girlfriend's son
8. Mourners honor slain state trooper as police hunt suspected killer
9. Fed sticks to plan for slowly ending stimulus despite recovery signs
10. Seminoles' Jameis Winston to be briefly benched over offensive remark

last updated 13 January 2015

1. House backs Obama's proposal to arm rebels to fight ISIS

The House on Wednesday voted in favor of authorizing President Obama's plan to arm and train Syrian rebels under an expanded effort to defeat the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. Some lawmakers expressed reservations, but a bipartisan, 273-156 majority backed the plan. Supporters said ISIS poses too great a threat to ignore. Most Democrats backed Obama but said they would not support sending combat troops, something Obama has vowed to avoid. Obama praised the House and urged the Senate to pass the bill.

Voters in Scotland headed to the polls on Thursday to vote in a referendum to determine whether to declare independence from the United Kingdom. Both sides campaigned furiously on Wednesday in a last ditch attempt to tip the historic ballot. Five late surveys put those favoring independence behind those looking to stay in the 307-year union, 48 percent to 52 percent, but 600,000 voters remained undecided, enough to turn the vote in a country of 5.3 million.

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More than 800 Australian police staged two dozen synchronized pre-dawn raids on Thursday to foil an alleged plot by Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) supporters to terrorize the public by beheading random victims and posting videos of the murders online. "This is not just a suspicion, this is intent," said Prime Minister Tony Abbott. Fifteen people were detained in the raids, which targeted 15 homes and 10 cars in Sydney and Brisbane, and came two days after Australia raised its terrorism threat level to "high" for the first time.

Tropical Storm Odile drenched the U.S. Southwest with torrential rains on Wednesday, two days after slamming into Mexico's Pacific coast as a then-powerful hurricane. Odile dumped more than three inches of rain in 24 hours on parts of Arizona. The downpour was expected to cause major floods in the desert of the Southwest. Authorities in Tucson made 300,000 sandbags to help people prepare for up to five inches of rain. Southern Nevada and northern New Mexico could also see flooding.

Vice President Joe Biden made a visit to the early primary-season prize of Iowa on Wednesday, just days after Hillary Clinton traveled to the state hinting at a possible 2016 White House bid. The official reason for Biden's trip was a kickoff for a "We the people, We the Voters" tour by the Nuns on the Bus, a Catholic activist group. But, like Clinton's attendance at retiring Demoractic Sen. Tom Harkin's annual "Steak Fry" fundraiser, Biden's visit stoked fresh speculation about his 2016 plans.

A biopsy has confirmed a cancer diagnosis for scandal-plagued Toronto Mayor Rob Ford. Ford's renowned colorectal surgeon, Dr. Zane Cohen, said Wednesday that Ford would begin chemotherapy in an aggressive effort to treat his rare malignant liposarcoma, which appeared to have developed untreated for two or three years. Cohen said he was "optimistic" about the treatment, and that the next step would depend on how Ford, who ended his reelection campaign on Friday, responds to treatment.

After the Supreme Court denied a last-minute appeal, Texas on Wednesday executed Lisa Coleman, 38, for starving and torturing her girlfriend's 9-year-old son to death in 2004. The boy weighed 36 pounds when he died — half the weight of a typical child his age. He had bruises and cigarette burns all over his body. Coleman was the second women put to death by lethal injection in Texas this year, and the 15th in the nation since capital punishment was reinstated in 1976.

Hundreds of police officers and civilians gathered in Scranton, Pennsylvania, on Thursday for the funeral of Cpl. Bryon Dickson, a state trooper who was shot and killed outside his barracks by a sniper. Another trooper was critically wounded. The barracks in Blooming Grove are surrounded by state game land in the Pocono Mountains. Police are searching for a suspect, Eric Matthew Frein, whom authorities described as an anti-government survivalist.

Federal Reserve policy makers concluded a meeting Wednesday saying they would continue with their plan to slowly end their easy-lending stimulus program and raise interest rates, rejecting calls to speed things up due to signs of a strengthening economic recovery. "There are still too many people who want jobs but cannot find them," Fed Chairwoman Janet Yellen said. The Fed said, as expected, that it will end its most recent bond-buying campaign after purchasing $15 billion in mortgage-backed securities in October.

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Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.