10 things you need to know today: January 22, 2015

(Image credit: Anti-abortion advocates stage a "die-in" in front of the White House. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais))

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1. Federal investigators recommend no civil rights charges against Ferguson officer
2. GOP leaders drop House vote on controversial abortion bill
3. Obama visits the heartland to push his plan to help middle-class Americans
4. Yemen's president and rebels agree to end standoff
5. Boehner challenges Obama by inviting Netanyahu to discuss Iran with Congress
6. Sandy Hook killer's house to be torn down
7. Corruption charges expected against longtime New York Assembly speaker
8. Nine die in shelling at bus stop in eastern Ukraine
9. Bakery investigated after refusing to put anti-gay message on cake
10. Hope Solo faces one-month suspension from U.S. women's soccer team

By Harold Maass, The Week US

published 22 January 2015

Justice Department lawyers won't recommend civil rights against Darren Wilson, the white former Ferguson, Missouri, police officer who shot and killed unarmed black teenager Michael Brown last year, law enforcement officials said Wednesday. An F.B.I. investigation found no evidence to support any charges, although the final decision lies with Attorney General Eric Holder and his top civil rights deputy, Vanita Gupta. Brown family lawyer Benjamin Crump said the family had no response.

House Republican leaders on Wednesday called off plans to debate a proposal to criminalize late-term abortions, after female GOP lawmakers objected. The bill included exemptions only for rapes reported to police, which Rep. Renee Ellmers (R-N.C.) said would amount to "questioning the woman's word" when she is afraid or ashamed to file a report. The vote was to coincide with the annual March for Life marking the anniversary of the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion.

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President Obama on Wednesday began a two-day trip to Idaho and Kansas to promote his proposals for helping the middle class. The tour began the day after he said in his State of the Union address that such policies had helped lift the economy out of crisis. GOP leaders said their victory in last November's midterms, in which Republicans regained control of the House, showed that Americans did not think that Obama's proposals, which now include free community college and higher taxes on the rich, were the answer.

Yemeni President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi said late Wednesday that he had reached a deal with Shiite Houthi rebels. Under the agreement, rebels would leave the president's residence, ending an armed standoff there, and release a top presidential aide they captured. Hadi promised the rebels greater influence in the government in return. Critics said the deal would result in a Houthi takeover, with Hadi, a key U.S. counterterrorism ally, serving as a figurehead.

House Speaker John Boehner on Wednesday invited Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to address Congress on Iran. Boehner did not consult with President Obama first, which the White House said appeared to be a breach of protocol. The move came after Obama, in his State of the Union address Tuesday, repeated his call for Congress to "hold off" on imposing new sanctions against Iran because that could hamper negotiations on curtailing Tehran's nuclear program. Netanyahu wants a more hawkish stand.

The Newtown Legislative Council voted 10-0 on Wednesday night to demolish the house where Sandy Hook Elementary School killer Adam Lanza lived before the 2012 massacre. The Connecticut house has been empty since Lanza killed his mother there before he massacred 20 first-graders and six adults at the nearby school. The town acquired the property from a bank at no cost. Victims' families and neighbors want the house gone, saying it is "a constant reminder of the evil that resided there."

New York State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver faces arrest on federal corruption charges Thursday, according to a New York Times report. Details on the alleged charges were not available, but they involve payments Silver — a powerful Democrat who has served as speaker for two decades — received from a law firm specializing in getting New York City real estate taxes reduced. The investigation began after Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) shut down an anticorruption commission in a deal with Silver and other Democrats.

At least nine people were killed Thursday when a bus stop was hit with mortar fire in rebel-held Donetsk in eastern Ukraine. Some of the victims were inside the bus during the shelling. At least one victim was in a nearby car. More than 4,800 people have died and 1.2 million have been driven from their homes since fighting broke out between pro-Russian rebels and government troops in April. The violence has intensified in Donetsk as the two sides have battled over control of the city's airport.

Last year, an Oregon bakery faced a backlash after refusing to make a wedding cake for a lesbian couple. Now Marjorie Silva, the owner of Azucar Bakery in Denver, is under investigation for religious discrimination because she refused to put an anti-gay message — "God hates gays" — on a cake shaped like a Bible for Bill Jack, the founder of a non-denominational Christian group called Worldview Academy. Silva said she tried to accommodate the customer but refused to write words she found "very discriminatory and hateful."

Goalkeeper Hope Solo has been suspended from U.S. women's national soccer team for 30 days, U.S. Soccer announced Wednesday night. The organization did not explain what the punishment was for, but the decision came after Solo's husband, former Seattle Seahawks player Jerramy Stevens, was arrested under suspicion of drunken driving. Solo was in the car, and both were allegedly belligerent toward police. Head coach Jill Ellis said only that Solo had "made a poor decision" that had a "negative impact" on the team.

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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.