The news at a glance...United States

last updated 8 January 2015

Las Vegas

Adelson’s millions: Conservative billionaire and casino mogul Sheldon Adelson, who all but single-handedly financed Newt Gingrich’s presidential bid, said last week that he was giving $10 million to the Super PAC supporting the GOP nominee, Mitt Romney, and would donate at least $100 million to conservative causes and candidates in the upcoming election. With his eight-figure check to the pro-Romney Restore Our Future, Adelson, 78, jumped to the top of the list of mega-donors to the Super PAC, which had raised $56.5 million through the end of April. The move prompted Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) to point out that Adelson’s wealth flows from casino profits in Macau; his donations thus usher “foreign money” into an American political campaign. Adelson, a staunch supporter of Israel who has donated hundreds of millions of dollars to Jewish causes, has called President Obama a socialist, but has made more money during this administration “than just about any other American,” according to Forbes.

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Webcam spy freed: The Rutgers University student convicted of illegally filming his gay roommate on a webcam was released from prison 10 days early this week for good behavior. Dharun Ravi, 20, served 20 days of a 30-day sentence in a case that arose after his roommate, Tyler Clementi, learned about the webcam and committed suicide by jumping off the George Washington Bridge. Amid a national debate over cyberbullying, Ravi was found guilty on 15 charges, including bias intimidation. Steven Goldstein, head of a local gay civil-rights group, said Ravi’s early release amounted to “a fleeting and repugnant non-lesson for a young man who passed up nearly every occasion to show remorse.” Authorities said Ravi would not be deported to India, but he still has to pay $11,000 in fines and complete 300 hours of community service.

New York City

Shackle-sneaker flap: After a public outcry in which the Rev. Jesse Jackson called the shoes “offensive, appalling, and insensitive,” Adidas canceled the release of an athletic shoe featuring orange shackles and chains. The company’s purple-and-gray JS Roundhouse Mids had been promoted for release this summer, but a storm of angry comments erupted on the company’s Facebook page, including some accusing Adidas of unwitting racism. Jackson decried the company’s attempt to commercialize “200 years of human degradation, where blacks were considered three-fifths human by our Constitution.” Though Adidas dismissed the criticism by defending sneaker designer Jeremy Scott’s “outrageous and unique take on fashion,” the company nonetheless said that it had canceled the shoe’s release. “We apologize if people are offended by the design, and we are withdrawing our plans to make them available in the marketplace.”

Washington, D.C.

Clemens acquitted: Amid cheers from his die-hard fans, Roger Clemens, a seven-time Cy Young Award winner and one of the greatest pitchers in baseball history, was acquitted this week of all charges that he lied to Congress in 2008, when he insisted he’d never used steroids or human growth hormone. The verdict—a second failed attempt to convict the pitcher known as “the Rocket,” for his fastball—dealt the government a significant blow in its near-decade-long pursuit of athletes accused of using performance-enhancing drugs. Last year, a costly, seven-year federal investigation of San Francisco Giants slugger Barry Bonds resulted in a single charge of obstructing justice, which is under appeal. “The government came after our two biggest stars and they got nothing,” said L.A. Angels outfielder Torii Hunter. “It was a witch hunt. They got nothing on this sport. So leave us alone, please.”

Miami

Speargun miracle: In what has been called a medical miracle, 16-year-old Yasser Lopez spoke lucidly to shocked doctors as they set about trying to dislodge a 3-foot-long spear that pierced his skull from front to back. In a freak fishing accident, a spear gun discharged accidentally and shot the teen about an inch above his right eye, leaving him with 3 feet of stainless steel protruding from his forehead. Against overwhelming odds, Lopez survived the impalement, doctors said, because the spear missed the major blood vessels and penetrated the right side of his brain, avoiding speech and cognitive areas. The spear was successfully removed in the trauma center at Jackson Memorial Hospital during a three-hour surgery. Dr. Ross Bullock, a trauma neurosurgeon at the hospital, estimated that Lopez may require two or three months in rehab, but “we are very upbeat about his potential for recovery.”

New Orleans

Baptists elect black leader: In a historic election that seeks to sweep away its racist past, the 16-million-strong Southern Baptist Convention voted this week to elect its first African-American president. The Rev. Fred Luter Jr. ran unopposed in his campaign to lead the nation’s largest Protestant denomination, and was cheered to victory by enthusiastic delegates just weeks after church officials conceded that race relations in the 167-year-old convention have suffered after a church leader’s remarks about the Trayvon Martin case. Luter was part of the convention’s committee that in 1995 issued a resolution that apologized to African-Americans for condoning slavery and racism. “That’s when I think the wheels started turning” for the Baptists to become more inclusive, Luter said before his election. “They’ve been turning slow, but they’ve been turning.”

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