The week at a glance...United States

last updated 8 January 2015

Nathrop, Colo.

Deadly rockslide: A cascade of boulders crashed onto a popular hiking trail this week, killing five family members and injuring a 13-year-old girl who was saved when her father covered her with his body. Dwayne and Dawna Johnson were killed along with their daughter Kiowa-Rain, 18, and two nephews, Baigen Walker, 10, and Paris Walkup, 22, when boulders—some of them the size of cars—fell on the Agnes Vaille Falls trail. The Johnsons’ younger daughter, Gracie—uncovered after rescuers heard her screams—said her father had jumped on top of her and shielded her from the falling rocks. She suffered a broken leg. Authorities believe the recent heavy rains in the area could have played a role in destabilizing the ridge above the trail, which thousands of people hike every year. “Nobody has said anything looked out of place,” said Chaffee County Undersheriff John Spezze. “It’s just, unfortunately, bad timing—and nature.”

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Elderly killers arrested: A husband and wife in their 70s were charged this week with murdering their previous spouses and two children more than 30 years ago. They then married each other and moved 1,100 miles away. Prosecutors allege that Alice Uden, 74, killed her husband, Ronald Holtz, in late 1974 or early 1975, and that five years later Gerald Uden, 71, shot dead his ex-wife, Virginia, and two adopted sons, ages 10 and 12, on a bird-hunting trip and then hid the bodies. The arrests came after police found Holtz’s body in an abandoned mine in Wyoming, where the Udens lived before relocating to Missouri. Much about the case remains murky, including whether the two knew about each other’s alleged crimes when they got together. A neighbor said that the couple had lived on about 60 acres near Missouri’s Mark Twain National Forest for at least 15 years, with “several of their adult children.”

Voting law challenged: The Justice Department announced this week that it is suing North Carolina over its tough new voter ID law, claiming it is racially discriminatory. Attorney General Eric Holder said the measure was an intentional attempt to “curtail the voting rights of African-Americans,” in violation of the Voting Rights Act. The law, passed earlier this year by the state’s Republican-controlled legislature, curtails early voting, ends same-day voter registration, and mandates that specific government-issued ID be shown at the polls. A recent state survey found that thousands of black, poor, and elderly voters do not have the ID now required. The federal government seeks to block the law and require North Carolina to submit changes to its voting procedures for federal “preclearance.” North Carolina’s Republican Gov. Pat McCrory said the suit is “an overreach and without merit.”

Phone diplomacy: The U.S. and Iran took a step toward ending more than three decades of hostility last week with a 15-minute phone call between President Obama and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, the first direct conversation between leaders of the two countries since 1979. During the conversation, both presidents expressed confidence that they could reach a peaceful settlement to the standoff over Iran’s nuclear program, which Tehran insists is for peaceful purposes but which many in the West believe is directed toward building a nuclear bomb. While “success is by no means guaranteed, I believe we can reach a comprehensive solution,” Obama told reporters. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this week warned the U.S. not to be tricked by Tehran’s diplomatic outreach, telling world leaders at the United Nations General Assembly that Rouhani is a “wolf in sheep’s clothing.”

Road rage: A group of about 30 bikers this week committed a shocking incident of road rage, raw footage of which went viral on the Internet. Alexian Lien, 33, was taking a Sunday morning drive with his wife and infant daughter when his Range Rover was surrounded by a swarm of bikers who apparently wanted the road to themselves to do stunts. Lien stopped after hitting a biker who had slowed down right in front of his vehicle, but when the bikers started pounding on the SUV and slashing its tires, he took off again in a panic, plowing over at least one biker. That led to a high-speed chase that ended when bikers smashed into the SUV, dragged Lien out, and beat him while his horrified wife looked on. Lien was treated for facial lacerations. One of the bikers he hit, Edwin Mieses, is in a coma and apparently paralyzed; another was arrested and charged with reckless endangerment.

Clinton movies nixed: Two proposed television projects about Hillary Clinton that outraged Republicans were canceled this week, with one filmmaker claiming the Clintons had frozen him out. CNN pulled the plug on a planned documentary about the putative front-runner for the 2016 Democratic ticket, while NBC said it would not go ahead with a separate, biographical miniseries. The Republican National Committee had vowed to ban both networks from hosting presidential debates in 2016 if they made the films, accusing them of “clear favoritism” toward Clinton. Charles Ferguson, the filmmaker behind the canceled CNN documentary, said he had been “interrogated” by Clinton aides about the movie and was denied access to anyone in her circle. “Neither political party wanted the film made,” he said.

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