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

The Buddhist leader of South Asia says a prayer at the spot where Freddie Gray was arrested.

(Image credit: (Alex Wong/Getty Images))

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1. Grand jury indicts six Baltimore officers for Freddie Gray's death
2. Boy Scouts president calls for ending blanket ban on gay leaders
3. Obama's fast-track trade bill clears a Senate filibuster
4. Suspect in Washington, D.C., quadruple murder arrested
5. Josh Duggar apologizes after molestation accusations surface
6. Ireland holds referendum on gay marriage
7. At least 53 sickened by salmonella tentatively blamed on tuna sushi
8. Judge again rules against Alabama gay marriage ban
9. ISIS drives Syrian forces out of last Iraq border crossing
10. Judge drops domestic assault charge against Ray Rice

last updated 22 May 2015

1. Grand jury indicts six Baltimore officers for Freddie Gray's death

A grand jury has indicted six Baltimore police officers for the death of Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old black man who died after being injured while in police custody in April, State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby announced Thursday. The indictments were similar to the charges Mosby filed earlier this month. The driver of the police van in which Gray was injured faced the most serious charge, the equivalent of second-degree murder. Gray's death touched off both peaceful protests and riots. The officers are free on bail and will be arraigned July 2.

Boy Scouts of America President Robert Gates on Thursday urged the organization to end its blanket ban on openly gay leaders. Gates, a former defense secretary, oversaw the end of the U.S. military's ban on openly gay members of the armed services. He said at the Boy Scouts' national annual meeting that the courts would likely force the organization to change the longstanding blanket ban if the group does not do it first. "We must deal with the world as it is, not as we might wish it would be," Gates said.

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The Senate on Thursday cleared a procedural hurdle on a proposal to grant President Obama "fast track" authority to push through a massive trade bill. Senators voted 62-38 to break a filibuster and end debate on the measure. Earlier this month, Democrats blocked the bill, demanding greater protections for U.S. workers. After voting on amendments, the Senate could pass the final bill as early as Friday. The legislation would let Obama send Congress a trade deal with 11 Pacific nations for an up or down vote with no amendments.

Police on Thursday arrested a Maryland man, Daron Dylon Wint, for a quadruple murder in a Washington, D.C., mansion. Businessman Savvas Savopoulos, 46, his wife, Amy, 47, their son, Phillip, 10, and housekeeper Veralicia Figueroa, 57, were found dead in the multi-million dollar house — in a neighborhood near Vice President Joe Biden's official residence — after a fire police called "very suspicious." Wint, 34, was identified as a suspect after his DNA was found on the crust of a Domino's pizza delivered to the house.

Reality TV star Josh Duggar, 27, resigned Thursday from the Family Research Council, a Christian lobbying group, after reports surfaced that he had been investigated for allegedly inappropriately touching young girls when he was 14. Duggar, the eldest son on TLC’s 19 Kids and Counting, issued a statement apologizing. "Twelve years ago, as a young teenager, I acted inexcusably for which I am extremely sorry and deeply regret..." he said. "I sought forgiveness from those I had wronged."

Polls opened in Ireland on Friday in a potentially historic referendum on whether to allow gay marriage. The Catholic country was among the last countries in Europe to decriminalize homosexuality. A "yes" vote — though not assured — would make it the first country in the world to legalize same-sex marriage by a popular vote. Voters in Slovenia and Croatia recently rejected similar proposals. Dozens of U.S. states and other countries, including Brazil, France, and Britain, recognize same-sex marriages, but those countries did not do so based on referendums.

A salmonella outbreak possibly linked to raw tuna in sushi has sickened at least 53 people in the U.S., the Food and Drug Administration said Thursday. Thirty-one of the patients have been in California. Ten were in Arizona and six in New Mexico. So far, 10 people have been hospitalized in the outbreak, but no one has died. The FDA offered no specific steps for consumers to take to protect themselves, but said that in general pregnant women and young children should not eat raw or partially cooked fish.

A federal judge in Alabama ruled on Thursday that same-sex couples have the right to marry everywhere in the state, but she stayed enforcement of her ruling until the U.S. Supreme Court issues a decision on gay marriage. The judge, Callie V.S. Granade, ruled the ban unconstitutional in January, and same-sex couples were able to get married for three weeks until the state Supreme Court ordered local probate judges to stop issuing licenses. Granade's latest ruling came after same-sex couples filed a class-action lawsuit.

Islamic State fighters have seized the last government-controlled border crossing from Syria into Iraq, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said Thursday. The border crossing — known as al-Waleed in Iraq and al-Tanf in Syria — is in Homs province, where the Islamist militants on Wednesday drove government forces out of the historic city of Palmyra. ISIS has declared a caliphate in territory it holds in Iraq and Syria, where it now controls half of the country.

A judge on Thursday dismissed a domestic-violence charge against former Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell suspended Rice after a video surfaced showing Rice knocking out his wife Janay — then his fiancee — in an elevator last year. He was reinstated after an arbitrator ruled the punishment "arbitrary." Judge Michael Donio in Atlantic City dismissed the charge after Rice completed a pretrial intervention program requiring him to undergo anger-management counseling.

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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.