10 things you need to know today: October 17, 2012

Candy Crowley pointed out that President Obama had in fact called the Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, an &quot;act of terror&quot; the day after the siege.

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last updated 8 January 2015

1. OBAMA COMES OUT SWINGING AT SECOND DEBATE

The gloves came off at the second, high-stakes presidential debate at Hofstra University in New York on Tuesday night. A more aggressive President Obama attacked Mitt Romney for lacking specifics as the two traded blows on immigration, taxes, abortion, and violence in Libya. It was a sharp turnaround from Obama's first debate performance, for which he was criticized for being listless and unfavorably professorial. This time around, Obama defended his record and painted his GOP rival as having extreme plans and being out of touch with ordinary Americans. Romney continually argued that Obama is just peddling more of the same. [Washington Post]

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Federal agents on Tuesday raided the Massachusetts pharmacy linked to a nation-wide meningitis outbreak that has killed 16 people and sickened more than 200. The New England Compounding Center has voluntarily recalled batches of a tainted steroid tied to the outbreak and has since shut down. The raid comes as critics call for an investigation into whether the pharmacy broke federal laws dealing with controlled substances. [Reuters]

A 4.6-magnitude earthquake rattled Portland, Maine, on Tuesday evening, with tremors being felt all across New England. According to WCSH-TV in Portland, Maine, there was minor damage — like food falling off of store shelves — near the epicenter of the quake. Some cell phone service outages were also reported. Residents in New Hampshire, Vermont, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Connecticut said they felt the rare quake. [NBC News]

A U.S. federal court overturned a terrorism conviction of Osama bin Laden's former bodyguard and driver on Tuesday, ruling he was illegally prosecuted before a military tribunal for a war crime that did not exist at the time he was accused of committing it. The court ruled 3-0 that material support for terrorism was not a crime under international law when Salim Hamdan worked for the Sept. 11 mastermind. [Los Angeles Times]

Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney inadvertently created a new viral meme, "binders full of women," during a debate discussion about gender equality in the workplace. The GOPer made the odd remark while describing how, as Massachusetts governor, he made a big effort to recruit women, even receiving "binders full of women" qualified to serve on his team. The phrase immediately went viral on Twitter, Facebook, and Tumblr. [Politico]

In a key moment during Tuesday night's presidential debate, President Obama brought up the secret video of Romney dismissing 47 percent of Americans as government moochers, something Obama failed to bring up during the first face-off. "Keep in mind who he was talking about," said Obama at the end of the debate, pointing to Americans on Social Security, veterans, students, and soldiers. "I want to fight for them," Obama declared. Romney, speaking before Obama, seemed to preemptively refer to the video, saying, "I care about 100 percent of the American people." [The Hill]

Another big moment in the presidential debate: CNN moderator Candy Crowley fact-checked Mitt Romney on Libya. The Republican presidential nominee insisted that President Obama failed for two weeks to call the Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi an "act of terror." Obama insisted that he called it an "act of terror" the very next day, telling Romney to check the transcript. When the governor repeated his charge, Crowley jumped in, saying Obama "did in fact," on Sept. 12, use those words to describe the siege. [Politico]

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