The news at a glance...United States

last updated 8 January 2015

Fresno, Calif.

Crippling drought: President Obama traveled to California’s parched farmland last week to pledge $183 million in federal aid amid one of the most severe droughts in the state’s history. “What happens here matters to every working American, right down to the cost of food you put on the table,” said Obama after touring farms in the Central Valley. Half of the country’s fruit, nuts, and vegetables are produced in California, but the crippling drought has forced farmers to idle thousands of acres of cropland. Meanwhile, ranchers have been left struggling to feed their livestock, and more than a dozen communities remain at risk of running out of water in the next few months. Obama tied the drought directly to climate change, warning that the situation was likely “to get a lot worse.”

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Gun ruling: A divided federal court last week struck down San Diego County’s requirement that residents show “good cause” to carry a concealed firearm, ruling that it violated the Second Amendment right to bear arms. In a 2–1 decision, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said that the requirement—coupled with a state law practically banning the open carrying of firearms in public—effectively prevented citizens from carrying a gun altogether. “In California, the only way that the typical, responsible, law-abiding citizen can carry a weapon” is with a concealed-carry permit, said Justice Diarmuid O’Scannlain in the majority opinion. In San Diego County, where applicants were required to demonstrate a specific risk to qualify for such a permit, “that option has been taken off the table,” he said. The ruling contradicted three other federal appeals court decisions upholding similar permit rules, setting up the possibility of a Supreme Court ruling on the matter.

Midair shake-up: Five people were injured this week when a plane en route from Denver to Billings experienced severe turbulence, hurling passengers from their seats and causing one woman to hit the ceiling so hard that she cracked the panel. United Airlines Flight 1676 was coming in to land when the Boeing 737 suddenly took a hard right and started to plunge, shaking violently for about 25 seconds. “It almost felt like an impact from below the plane,” said Laurel Linde, one of the 114 passengers on board, who described how a passenger a few rows ahead “flew up out of his seat, hit the roof of the plane, and ended up on the other side of the aisle on top of a woman.” Three crew members and two passengers were taken to local hospitals after the plane landed. A United Airlines flight safety team will review the incident.

Casket photo: A Wisconsin National Guard soldier was suspended this week for posting a photo online of a group of soldiers in combat uniforms clowning around and striking poses next to a flag-draped casket. “We put the FUN in funeral,” reads the caption to Spc. Terry Harrison’s photo. The snapshot of the group gathered around an empty casket was taken at a National Guard training center in Arkansas and uploaded by Harrison to social media site Instagram, where it sparked immediate outrage. “It was like somebody slapped me in the face,” said Judy Vincent, whose son died in Iraq in 2004. “I’ve never in my life seen such disrespect for the fallen or the families.” Harrison has been indefinitely removed from her duties, pending an investigation.

Nun sentenced: An 84-year-old Catholic nun was sentenced this week to 35 months in prison for breaking into one of the government’s most secure nuclear facilities and defacing it with human blood. Sister Megan Rice was one of three anti-nuclear protesters who cut through a chain-link fence surrounding the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn., in July 2012. The trio then breached the uranium processing and storage facility and spent the next few hours hoisting banners, spray-painting peace slogans, and smearing the building with blood. Rice’s fellow protesters, Michael Walli, 64, and Greg Boertje-Obed, 58, were given longer sentences of 62 months, despite Rice pleading with the judge this week against granting her leniency. “To remain in prison for the rest of my life would be the greatest honor you could give me,” she said.

Bullying scandal: A newly released NFL report alleges that at least three Miami Dolphins players repeatedly bullied former teammate Jonathan Martin, taunting him with homophobic and racist insults and making graphic sexual suggestions about his sister. Martin, an offensive lineman, left the football team in October, citing “emotional issues.” Days later, fellow lineman Richie Incognito was suspended amid reports he had left Martin an abusive voicemail calling him a “half-nigger piece of s---.” The league’s 144-page report found that Incognito and two others engaged in a “classic case of bullying” against Martin, regularly simulating having sex with his sister during training and threatening to “bang the s--- out of her.” They also allegedly hurled racial and homophobic slurs at another unnamed player and an assistant coach. Incognito said that his comments were just “banter.” The report could lead to disciplinary action.

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