New York City
Doping scandal: Alex Rodriguez is suing Major League Baseball in federal court after the organization this week hit him with a 162-game doping suspension, the longest in baseball history. The New York Yankees slugger claims he is the victim of a “carefully orchestrated smear campaign,” but a 34-page report released by MLB this week exhaustively outlines Rodriguez’s alleged doping regimen and his collusion with Anthony P. Bosch, the Florida businessman who reportedly provided him with drugs. According to the report—and to Bosch, who was interviewed on CBS’s 60 Minutes—Rodriguez regularly took a combination of performance-enhancing cocktails, testosterone creams, and even pregame testosterone lozenges, which he and Bosch secretly referred to as “gummies.” Because Rodriguez was scared of needles, said Bosch, he took on the task of personally injecting the Yankees star.
Charleston, W.Va.
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Chemical spill: The company responsible for a chemical leak that poisoned the tap water of some 300,000 West Virginians could face a criminal investigation over its delay in reporting the spill. Residents near the Elk River first reported a licorice-like odor from the water at 8:15 a.m. on the morning of last week’s leak, but it wasn’t until 12:05 p.m. that Freedom Industries reported that one of its tanks had ruptured, spilling at least 7,500 gallons of a coal-cleaning agent, 4-methylcyclohexane methanol, into the river. The spill forced a tap water ban across nine counties, leaving residents to rely on bottled water. The restrictions were lifted for at least half the people affected by the spill this week. The storage facility is located just a mile and a half upstream from the public drinking supply’s intake pipes, yet has been subject to almost no state and local monitoring.
Washington, D.C.
IRS scandal: The FBI this week said it didn’t plan to file criminal charges over the Internal Revenue Service’s targeting of conservative groups, finding no evidence of “enemy hunting” at the agency. The move is likely to anger Republican lawmakers who asked the Justice Department to pursue a criminal investigation after a report last year concluded that IRS staff had heavily scrutinized groups with “Tea Party,” “Patriots,” or “9/12” in their names. Only last week, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) and Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) sent a letter to the department demanding that the prosecutor overseeing the case be removed because she had donated to President Obama’s campaign. IRS documents show that the agency gave the same scrutiny to liberal groups with “Occupy” or “Progressive” in their names.
Washington, D.C.
Abortion ruling delayed: The Supreme Court this week declined to take up Arizona’s restriction on abortions after 20 weeks, postponing a major ruling on the subject until next year at the earliest. The decision marked the third time this term that justices declined to address abortion, suggesting that the narrowly split court is wary of wading into the current divide between red and blue states. Under Roe v. Wade, abortions are allowed in pregnancies of up to 24 weeks, but since 2010, at least 13 states have passed laws similar to Arizona’s that more tightly restrict terminations. Last year, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals struck down Arizona’s 20-week limit as unconstitutional—a ruling that stands after the Supreme Court’s refusal this week to hear the case—but ongoing legal appeals against similar state restrictions make an eventual Supreme Court decision likely.
Washington, D.C.
Spending bill: House Republicans and Democrats this week passed a $1.1 trillion spending bill, breaking with years of forced budget cuts and congressional funding fights. The bipartisan bill approves discretionary spending through September, funding everything from the TSA to foreign refugee assistance. In the compromise deal, Head Start funding will increase by $1 billion and federal workers and military personnel will see a 1 percent pay raise, but the IRS budget will be held at 2009 levels and overall federal spending will be lower than in previous years. The bill, which the House approved 359–67, also protects disabled veterans from a 2015 pension cut, and halts a plan to replace incandescent lightbulbs across America. The Senate was expected to vote on the bill later in the week.
Tampa
Cinema shooting: A retired Tampa police officer who shot and killed a fellow moviegoer because he wouldn’t stop texting during the previews was charged this week with second-degree murder. Chad Oulson, 43, was texting his 3-year-old daughter’s day care from the cinema when Curtis Reeves, 71, demanded he stop. “Additional words were exchanged,” according to the police report. Oulson then allegedly threw a bag of popcorn at Reeves, who then shot him with a .380 caliber handgun, claiming he was “in fear of being attacked.” Reeves’s attorney hinted that his client might use Florida’s controversial Stand Your Ground law as a defense. “The alleged victim attacked him,” said Richard Escobar. “At that point in time he has every right to defend himself.” Prosecutors said that Reeves had intimidated another texting moviegoer just weeks before.
