The week at a glance...United States

Salt Lake City

An end to sex ed? Utah public schools may soon be able to stop teaching sex-education classes and prohibit instruction in the use of contraception, under a new law passed this week. The bill, which also prohibits teaching about homosexuality, has been sent to Gov. Gary Herbert, who has not taken a public stance on the issue. Under the new law, Utah would be the only state to prohibit discussion of all birth-control methods except abstinence. Conservative lawmakers feel the bill did not go far enough and should have outlawed sex education completely. “To replace the parent in the school setting,” said Sen. Stuart Reid (R-Ogden), “is wrongheaded.” Speaking of sex-ed teachers, Reid added, “We have no idea what their morals are, we have no ideas what their values are, yet we turn our children over to them to instruct them in the most sensitive sexual activities in their lives.”

Houston

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Voter ID blocked: The U.S. Justice Department this week blocked Texas from enforcing a law that would require voters to show state-issued photo identification at the polls, claiming that it would disproportionately affect minorities. The agency’s move, the second in three months against a state looking to tighten its voting laws, is likely to fan the flames around this controversial election-year issue. Republicans have argued that photo IDs are not a burden and help to combat voter fraud; Democrats claim that fraud is virtually nonexistent and the ID measures are, in the words of Attorney General Eric Holder, a “solution in search of a problem.” Dane County Circuit Judge Richard Niess ruled that Texas’s law violated the state’s constitution and questioned the effort to prevent voter fraud with voter-ID laws. Voter “fraud is no more poisonous to our democracy than voter suppression,” he wrote. “Indeed, they are two heads on the same monster.”

Lafayette Parish, La.

Flash floods: Record floodwaters swamped southern Louisiana this week, after torrential rainstorms caused flash flooding; emergency workers scurried to rescue hundreds of stranded victims. More than 14 inches of rain drenched the area as a series of thunderstorms moved through low-lying south-central Louisiana. Gov. Bobby Jindal declared a state of emergency in Lafayette, Acadia, St. Landry, and St. Martin parishes, after estimates by the National Weather Service put total rainfall at 12 to 18 inches across the region, with 20 or more inches falling in some areas. “We had up to 7 feet of water on some streets,” said Capt. Kip Judice, spokesman for the Lafayette Parish Sheriff’s Office. “We had no deaths or injuries but a lot of near calls.” Search-and-rescue teams responded to about 150 calls for help, either from homes or vehicles, said Judice.

Chicago

Holder defends drone attacks: Declaring that “we are a nation at war,” U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder last week defended the government’s targeted killings of terrorists abroad, including U.S. citizens. In a speech at Northwestern University, Holder laid out the legal justification for the government’s recent drone attacks, including one last September that killed Anwar al-Awlaki, an American-born al Qaida leader. Holder said the Constitution grants the president authority to strike suspected terrorists anywhere in the world, if he believes that they represent an “imminent threat” to national security, that capture “is not feasible,” and that the target has military value. Other factors, he added, were what he called the “window of opportunity to act,” the possible harm to civilians of not acting, and “the likelihood of heading off future disastrous attacks” against the U.S.

Boston

‘Tide’ crime wave: Massachusetts police reported this week that thieves are targeting Tide laundry detergent, joining a national crime wave that has baffled investigators and forced supermarkets to lock down their supplies. Thieves in Massachusetts, Minnesota, Kentucky, and several other states are shoplifting the detergent in bulk quantities and selling it on the black market, at up to half its $20 retail value. In the Massachusetts towns of Dartmouth, Fairhaven, and New Bedford, thieves in search of high-resale items have staged lightning raids on supermarkets, grabbing large jugs of Tide and dashing from the store. “We have been dealing with it periodically for almost two years now,” said Detective Robert Levinson of the Dartmouth Police Department. “It’s a widespread problem.” Levinson said thieves sell the Tide for $10 in bars and cafés. “The flavor of the day is Tide,” said Capt. Steven Vicente of New Bedford’s Major Crimes Unit. “Before that it was baby formula.”

Trenton, N.J.

Toilet paper flap: The city’s toilet paper crisis came to an end this week, as necessity overcame bureaucratic bickering about the price of paper goods for public buildings. After weeks of empty bathroom dispensers in police headquarters, senior centers, and other buildings, Trenton was facing state intervention, officials said, an action that could have included closing some buildings for health violations. “I’m embarrassed,” said City Council President Kathy McBride, after the incident sparked media attention. “We are the laughingstock not only of this nation but of the world.” McBride called upon her council colleagues, who have twice rejected a $42,000 contract for a year’s supply of paper products, to act quickly. While the council debate continues, the mayor’s office rushed through a $16,000 emergency order for toilet paper, paper towels, and toilet-seat covers, ending the tale of Trenton’s TP woes, which briefly held the title as the most-read story on BBC.com.