The week at a glance...United States

El Reno, Okla.

Deadly twister: A top-of-the-scale EF5 tornado claimed 19 lives in the Oklahoma City area last week, less than two weeks after another massive twister killed 24 people in the nearby town of Moore. The victims of the tornado—the widest ever recorded, measuring 2.6 miles across—included six children and three tornado researchers from the Discovery Channel show Storm Chasers, who were killed in El Reno as the tornado suddenly turned on them, crushing their white truck like a tin can. The two deadly twisters, which came in unusually quick succession, have raised criticism over the fact that only around 20 percent of Oklahoma homes have safe rooms and many schools lack adequate shelters. Gov. Mary Fallin has refused to consider a state mandate for school shelters, arguing that putting one in every public school would cost an estimated $2 billion—almost a third of the state budget.

New Boston, Texas

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Ricin plot: The FBI has questioned a Texas man in connection with several ricin-laced letters that were sent to President Obama, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and the office of Bloomberg’s Washington-based Mayors Against Illegal Guns group. The letters, postmarked last month in Shreveport, La., contained the same messages—“You will have to kill me and my family before you get my guns” and “Anyone [who] wants to come to my house will get shot in the face”—as well as an oily pinkish-orange substance. Local press have named the FBI’s “person of interest” as Nathan Richardson, an Army veteran from New Boston. He was apparently turned in by his wife, a former beauty queen and actress who played a zombie in The Walking Dead, after she found a suspicious substance in their refrigerator. Richardson has accused her of trying to frame him.

Washington, D.C.

Rice appointed: President Obama named U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice this week as his National Security Adviser after Tom Donilon announced he was resigning from the post. Her appointment to one of the few senior roles that doesn’t require Senate confirmation angered Republicans, who have sharply criticized Rice’s handling of the Benghazi attack in September 2012. Days after the terrorist attack killed four Americans, Rice made five Sunday talk-show appearances in which she linked the events to an anti-Islamic film produced in the U.S. She later withdrew her name from consideration as secretary of state amid the controversy. Former Obama aide Samantha Power is expected to replace Rice as U.N. ambassador—a position that will require Senate confirmation.

Washington, D.C.

Military sexual assault: Senior military leaders were grilled by the Senate Armed Services Committee this week over an epidemic of sexual assault in the ranks, after a recent report estimated that 26,000 military members were sexually assaulted last year, up from 19,000 cases in 2010. More than 40 senators have sponsored or co-sponsored provisions to strip commanders of their traditional authority to decide whether to level charges in their units. The chiefs of every military branch told the Senate committee that they opposed letting prosecutors handle sexual-assault cases. “I believe maintaining the central role of commander in our military justice system is absolutely critical to any solution,’’ Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ray Odierno said. Senators, especially the panel’s seven female members, were undeterred by their testimony. “It sounds like you all are very bullish on the status quo,” said Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo). “The status quo is unacceptable.”

Forte Meade, Md.

WikiLeaks trial: Prosecutors this week opened the Army’s court-martial of Pfc. Bradley E. Manning, accusing the 25-year-old intelligence analyst of having deliberately “harvested” a massive trove of classified information that he knew America’s enemies would use to cause harm. Manning already faces 20 years in prison after pleading guilty to giving 700,000 classified documents to the controversial Internet site WikiLeaks. But prosecutors have also accused him of espionage and aiding the enemy, charges that carry a life sentence without parole. The government is expected to introduce evidence suggesting that al Qaida leader Osama bin Laden requested and reviewed the WikiLeaks files. Manning’s attorney portrayed his client as a naïve and traumatized young man who believed he was “lifting the fog” of war. “He was hoping to make the world a better place,” said lawyer David Coombs.

Boston

Dzhokhar donations: Surviving Boston-bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has received substantial donations from supporters, he told his mother in a recorded phone call from prison. The 19-year-old, who has recovered enough from his standoff with police to walk and talk, said that at least “a thousand” dollars had been put in a bank account opened by a supporter, and his mother said the family received another $8,000 from well-wishers. Dzhokhar was charged with using a weapon of mass destruction after he and older brother Tamerlan, who died during the standoff, allegedly placed two bombs near the finish line of April’s Boston Marathon, killing three. Dzhokhar allegedly confessed in a note scrawled on the boat where he was hiding from police. His mother, Zubeidat Tsarnaeva, said that he now denies planting the bombs and insisted that her sons were set up. “I know that my kids did not do it,” she said.