The week at a glance...United States

last updated 8 January 2015

Bonne Terre, Mo.

White supremacist executed: Notorious serial killer Joseph Paul Franklin was executed at a state prison this week by lethal injection. The white supremacist, who targeted blacks and Jews in a cross-country killing spree from 1977 to 1980, was convicted of eight murders, and is believed to be responsible for a total of 22. In addition to the killings, Franklin shot civil rights leader Vernon Jordan and Hustler magazine publisher Larry Flynt, who was left paralyzed from the waist down. His death sentence was handed down for the killing of Gerald Gordon in a sniper shooting at a synagogue near St. Louis in 1977. Earlier this week, a district court judge granted Franklin a temporary reprieve to determine whether Missouri’s first-time use of the lethal drug pentobarbital carried a “high risk of contamination and prolonged, unnecessary pain”; the Supreme Court overturned the decision, and Franklin was executed hours later.

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Deadly tornadoes: At least 76 rare late-season tornadoes tore through the Midwest, killing eight people this week and flattening whole neighborhoods. Two of them were the most powerful November twisters to hit Illinois in more than a century, one cutting an eighth-of-a-mile-wide path through Washington, Ill., with wind speeds of 200 mph, and another killing two in Nashville, Ill. “Devastation. Sadness. People that lost everything,” said Washington Mayor Gary Manier, describing the storm’s aftermath. One town resident, Curt Zehr, said his wife texted him shortly after the tornado hit to tell him, “‘The house is gone.’ I said, ‘Whose house?’” said Zehr. “She said, ‘Our house.’” There were 358 reports of damaging wind and 40 reports of large hail across 12 states, and 570,000 people in Illinois, Indiana, and Michigan were without power this week.

Princeton, N.J.

Campus outbreak: Princeton University officials this week responded to an on-campus outbreak of meningitis by announcing that they would provide a vaccine that has yet to be approved in the U.S. Since March, six students and one visitor have been diagnosed with the bacterial infection, which causes swelling of the membranes covering the brain and spinal cord. Sufferers can die within several days, and survivors can suffer paralysis, hearing loss, and mental disabilities. None of the Princeton cases have been fatal, but the outbreak is the first in the world since a vaccine against the type B meningococcal bacterium was approved in Europe and Australia last year. The non-mandatory vaccination will be available to undergraduates and graduates who live in dorms, as well as to employees with underlying medical conditions.

Washington, D.C.

Nominee blocked: Senate Republicans this week blocked another key Obama judicial nominee, setting up a likely fight over nomination rules. U.S. District Judge Robert Wilkins, a nominee for the influential U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, received just 53 votes in the Senate—seven shy of the 60 required to advance his nomination to a straight majority vote. It was the third such obstruction since October of a nominee to the D.C. appeals court, which frequently rules on the constitutionality of new laws and regulations and often serves as a way station for future Supreme Court nominees. Republicans argue that the Obama administration is trying to pack the court with liberal judges, while President Obama said the obstruction was “completely unprecedented.”

Washington, D.C.

Congressman busted: Self-proclaimed “hip-hop conservative” Rep. Trey Radel (R-Fla.) pleaded guilty this week to cocaine possession. The Tea Party–backed congressman, an outspoken fan of rap group N.W.A, tweeted at the end of October that he “had some fun in the past few wks.” That same day, he purchased cocaine from a Washington drug dealer who was cooperating with federal agents as part of an undercover sting operation, prompting authorities to visit his home that evening to tell him that he had been implicated. “I’m profoundly sorry to let down my family, particularly my wife and son,” said Radel. “I struggle with the disease of alcoholism, and this led to an extremely irresponsible choice.” Radel said he intended to serve out his term in Congress and enter a rehab program. He was sentenced to one year of supervised probation.

Sanford, Fla.

Zimmerman charged: George Zimmerman was charged with aggravated assault and domestic violence this week after allegedly threatening his girlfriend with a shotgun. Samantha Scheibe, 27, said the incident occurred when she threatened to call the police during a spat. Zimmerman then allegedly took out his gun, pointed it at her face, and “asked her if she really wanted to do that.” She alleged that after smashing her glass-top coffee table with the gun, he then locked her out of her own house. Zimmerman was released on $9,000 bail. Since being acquitted in July in the 2012 shooting death of Trayvon Martin, the neighborhood watchman has been stopped for speeding twice, and has been accused by his estranged wife of threatening her and leaving her a bullet-riddled bull’s-eye as a warning. This week, a judge barred him from having guns or leaving the state.

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