The news at a glance...United States

last updated 8 January 2015

Santa Barbara, Calif.

Spring break riot: More than 100 people were arrested and dozens—including six police officers—injured last week when a large spring break party near the University of California, Santa Barbara, deteriorated into a riot. An estimated 15,000 people were at the all-day annual “Deltopia” party at the beach community of Isla Vista, near the Santa Barbara campus. Fighting broke out when a partygoer was arrested for hitting a university officer in the face with a backpack containing large bottles of alcohol, and the disturbance went on for several hours, with police eventually using tear gas and foam projectiles to disperse the crowd, which was throwing rocks, bottles, and bricks. Street signs were ripped down and sheriff’s department vehicles were damaged in the violence. “Our community is in shock today over what happened last night,” said a spokeswoman for the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department.

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Mob beating: A teenager and two men were charged this week in connection with the brutal mob beating of a Detroit motorist who stopped to help a boy he had accidentally struck with his car. Steven Utash, 54, was repeatedly punched and kicked by up to a dozen bystanders, and remained in a medically induced coma this week; the 10-year-old boy, who had stepped off the curb into traffic, was treated in a hospital for a leg injury and released the next day. Bruce Wimbush, 17, James Davis, 24, and Wonzey Saffold, 30, have been charged with assault with intent to murder, and Detroit investigators are now examining whether the attack should be treated as a racially motivated hate crime against the white motorist. Utash would have been killed if a 56-year-old nurse hadn’t intervened by covering him with her own body, said police Sgt. Michael Woody. “She essentially saved this guy’s life. They wouldn’t have stopped.”

New York City

FBI ‘rat’: The Rev. Al Sharpton acted as an FBI informant in the 1980s, secretly recording conversations with the mob using a bugged briefcase, according to a report published by TheSmokingGun.com this week. Known as “Confidential Informant No. 7,” Sharpton helped develop cases against the New York–based Genovese crime family, including Vincent “The Chin” Gigante—also known as the “Odd Father” because of his penchant for walking around in his pajamas. Sharpton admitted to cooperating with the FBI, but said he didn’t consider himself an informant, saying that he only went after the Mafia after they threatened to kill him because of his outspoken campaign to get black concert promoters into the music industry. “I was not and am not a rat, because I wasn’t with the rats,” said Sharpton. “I’m a cat. I chased rats.”

Murrysville, Pa.

Students stabbed: A student described as “really shy” went on a stabbing rampage at a Pittsburgh-area high school this week, injuring 20 students. Four of the victims were flown by helicopter to nearby hospitals, and some of the students’ injuries were considered “clearly life-threatening,” hospital officials said. Seven teens were being treated for stab wounds to the torso, abdomen, chest, and back. The stabbings occurred in the classrooms and hallways of Franklin Regional Senior High School, about 15 miles east of downtown Pittsburgh. “I was walking into the school, and a stampede of people were running after me,” said student Kari Lee. “They were screaming, ‘Go to your cars! Go to your cars! Someone is stabbing people!’” The 16-year-old suspect was apprehended when he was confronted by the school’s assistant principal and a security officer, who handcuffed him.

Washington, D.C.

Gender pay: President Obama delivered a sharp rebuke to Republicans this week as he signed two executive measures intended to help close the long-standing pay gap between men and women. The president called on GOP lawmakers to stop “gumming up the works” on the issue of pay equity, and instead get behind his proposed Paycheck Fairness Act. Blocked this week by a GOP filibuster in the Senate, the legislation would face an even tougher challenge in the Republican-controlled House. “This is about Republicans seemingly opposing any efforts to even the playing field for working families,” said Obama. Republicans called his remarks “a desperate political ploy,” pointing out that women at the White House earn, on average, 88 cents for every dollar that men do. “The difference isn’t because of their genders,” said a statement issued by the GOP, “it’s because of their jobs. The Paycheck Fairness Act wouldn’t change that.”

Monroe, La.

Infidelity scandal: A married Republican congressman who campaigned last year on a platform of “faith, family, and hard work” has apologized after being caught on video passionately kissing a member of his staff. Footage of the incident was apparently taken by a security camera at Rep. Vance McAllister’s Monroe, La., office, and published on a local newspaper website this week. It appears to show the married father of five embracing and kissing aide Melissa Hixon Peacock, also married. “There’s no doubt I’ve fallen short,” McAllister said, “and I’m asking for forgiveness from God, my wife, my kids, my staff, and my constituents.” McAllister, who is up for re-election in November, was previously best known for his friendship with the socially conservative stars of A&E’s Duck Dynasty. Peacock has resigned from McAllister’s office, and her husband says they are now “headed for divorce.”