10 things you need to know today: November 20, 2013

(Image credit: (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images))

last updated 8 January 2015

1. JPMorgan finalizes $13 billion settlement

JPMorgan Chase finalized a record $13 billion settlement with the Justice Department on Tuesday to end investigations into the bank's toxic mortgage investments blamed for helping to trigger the 2008 financial crisis. Under the agreement, JPMorgan admitted it knew it shouldn't have been selling residential mortgage-backed securities it was peddling to pension funds and other investors. [New York Times]

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

A sharply divided Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled that Texas can keep enforcing a controversial anti-abortion law requiring abortion doctors to have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital. The measure has caused a dozen clinics to stop performing abortions. Dissenters said there was no medical justification for the restriction. Justice Antonin Scalia, writing for the 5-4 conservative majority, said it was the state's call. [Reuters]

Virginia state Sen. R. Creigh Deeds, who was the Democratic nominee for governor in 2009, was hospitalized with multiple stab wounds Tuesday after a fight with his son, who apparently shot and killed himself after the altercation. Deeds' son Austin, or "Gus," had an emergency mental health evaluation on Monday, but was released. Police said they believe Gus Deeds attacked his father, then committed suicide. [Washington Times]

Federal auto safety regulators have launched an investigation into Tesla Motors' luxury Model S sedan after three of the electric cars caught fire in six weeks. The news sent Tesla shares tumbling. The company said it was raising the vehicle's ground clearance, as the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration began looking into whether highway debris striking the underbody could make the 2013 Model S catch fire. [Reuters]

Rep. Trey Radel (R-Fla.), a Tea Party freshman, is due to appear in court on Wednesday after being arrested on October 29 for cocaine possession. Radel faces up to 180 days in jail and a fine of up to $1,000. Radel, 37, said he made "an extremely irresponsible choice" due to alcoholism. "I'm profoundly sorry to let down my family, particularly my wife and son, and the people of Southwest Florida," he said in a statement. [Miami Herald]

The U.S. and Afghanistan reportedly were getting close to a deal late Tuesday on security arrangements after foreign troops leave the country next year. The progress came after President Obama agreed to write a letter, requested by Afghan President Hamid Karzai, acknowledging that the U.S. had made mistakes in the war. In exchange, Karzai agreed to ease his opposition to letting American forces raid Afghan homes in life-threatening cases. [Wall Street Journal]

World powers on Wednesday are resuming talks with Iran aiming to curb the country's controversial nuclear program. The U.S., Russia, China, France, Britain, and Germany got close to winning concessions in exchange for sanctions relief in two earlier meetings. Skeptical conservative senators have called for new sanctions to keep the pressure on Tehran, but, at President Obama's urging, appear likely to hold off while the talks continue. [Reuters, Washington Post]

A federal appeals court early Wednesday lifted a stay of execution for Joseph Paul Franklin, a white supremacist blamed for 22 killings and the shooting of Hustler publisher Larry Flynt. He's on Missouri's death row for a 1977 murder outside a St. Louis synagogue. His lawyers say the state's use of pentobarbital in lethal injections causes unnecessary pain. Unless the Supreme Court steps in, Franklin could be executed within 24 hours. [CNN]

Canada's Sun News Network announced Tuesday that it was canceling Toronto Mayor Rob Ford's reality TV show, Ford Nation, after just one episode. The show aired hours after the Toronto City Council revoked most of Ford's powers, and two weeks after he admitted to smoking crack cocaine in one of his "drunken stupors." Ford Nation's debut "beat our record of 100,000 viewers," a network executive said, but took too much time to produce. [UPI]

Today's children can't run as fast or as far as their parents could when they were kids, according to a report released by the American Heart Association on Tuesday. Researchers looked at studies on children around the world and found it took them 90 seconds longer to run a mile, on average, than it took kids 30 years ago. "It makes sense," a heart association spokesman said. "We have kids that are less active than before." [Associated Press]

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.

Subscribe to The Week

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox