10 things you need to know today: April 10, 2014

(Image credit: (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar))

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1. Pennsylvania student charged with high school stabbings
2. Judge shields ex-Christie aides from Bridgegate subpoenas
3. Russia didn't tell the U.S. about Tsarnaev's talk of jihad
4. Search chief says Malaysia Airlines plane will be found soon
5. GOP senators reject equal pay bill
6. Car crashes into Florida day-care center
7. Alleged cartel enforcer reportedly confesses to 40 killings
8. Embarrassed congressman decides not to ask who leaked damning video
9. George H.W. Bush greets the Obamas in Houston
10. UMass guard Derrick Gordon becomes first openly gay Division I player

last updated 27 January 2015

1. Pennsylvania student charged with high school stabbings

A 16-year-old boy was accused of stabbing at least 21 people in a rampage at a Murrysville, Penn. high school on Wednesday. Four were in critical condition. Witnesses said the student, Alex Hribal, moved through the hallways with two kitchen knives before being tackled by a security officer and a vice principal. Another student, Nate Scimio, was praised as a hero for sending people fleeing by pulling a fire alarm, and defending a girl before being slashed.

A New Jersey judge ruled Wednesday that two former aides to New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie do not have to comply with subpoenas for records related to the Bridgegate scandal. Some state officials have complied and provided documents, but Christie's former deputy chief of staff, Bridget Anne Kelly, and his former campaign manager, Bill Stepien, were fighting a demand to turn over information on the allegedly politically motivated bridge-lane closures.

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The Russian government knew that one of the Boston Marathon bombing suspects, the late Tamerlan Tsarnaev, had discussed Islamic jihad in a phone call with his mother, but didn't tell the FBI until after last year's deadly attack. Russia had the information, which should have prompted heightened scrutiny of Tsarnaev, for two years before sharing it. Before the deadly bombing, all Russia had told the FBI was that Tsarnaev believed in radical Islam.

Australian authorities shrank the area where crews are looking for Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 on Wednesday after the detection of fresh pings believed to have come from the plane's black-box recorders. "I'm now optimistic that we will find the aircraft... in the not too distant future," said Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston, who's coordinating the search. The area in the southern Indian Ocean is still as big as South Carolina.

Republican Senators blocked a Democratic bill on pay equality on Wednesday, unanimously backing a filibuster to prevent the opening of debate. The bill sought to narrow the pay gap between men and women by making it illegal for employers to retaliate against workers who ask about or disclose their wages. Democrats said the bill would increase fairness. Republicans said it would only increase lawsuits.

One girl was killed and 14 other children were injured on Wednesday when a car crashed into a central Florida day-care center. Authorities were searching for a man, Robert Corchado, whose SUV they believe sent another vehicle slamming into the building. Police said Corchado fled the horrific scene. "It was just kids on the ground and there was teachers giving CPR," one witness said. "It was horrible."

A man accused of nine contract killings in Central California has confessed to killing 40 people over several decades as a drug-cartel hitman, police said Wednesday. Jose Manuel Martinez, 51, was arrested last year after entering Arizona from Mexico, and allegedly told investigators about the murders while in custody. Martinez faces a June trial in Alabama, but says he is innocent of the charge there, a defense attorney said.

Rep. Vance McAllister (R-La.) reportedly has decided not to ask the FBI to look into who leaked a surveillance video showing him kissing a staff member in his district office. McAllister, a first-term representative who ran as a devout family values Baptist, has apologized for his actions. The woman's husband has called McAllister, saying he and his wife, who quit her job after a local paper posted the video online, are heading for divorce.

Former president George H.W. Bush went to Houston's Bush Intercontinental Airport on Wednesday to greet President Obama and first lady Michelle Obama. "When the president comes to your home town," Bush said, "you show up to meet him." After a brief visit with the Republican former president, Obama headed to a meeting with 30 members of the Democratic National Committee and a Democratic fundraiser.

University of Massachusetts basketball player Derrick Gordon announced to ESPN and Outsports that he was gay, becoming the first openly gay player in Division I men's college basketball. Gordon, a starting sophomore shooting guard, said he told his parents, coaches, and teammates, then decided to make a public announcement because he didn't want to hide. He said he had been waiting for a player to come out. "Finally I just said, 'Why not me?'"

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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.