The week at a glance...United States

last updated 8 January 2015

Los Angeles

Thieves target tubas: High schools across southeast Los Angeles are reporting a string of unsolved tuba thefts. One school in Compton recently lost eight sousaphones—marching band tubas—to burglars; this week, another school lost its last tuba. Ruben Gonzalez Jr., a music teacher at South Gate High School, recently arrived at work to find his music room torn apart by thieves. “All they took were tubas,” he said. Teachers believe the area’s banda music craze—a dance music with brass and woodwinds and anchored by the tuba—may be behind the disappearances. Banda tuba musicians can make more than $100 an hour, and the tubas themselves can fetch as much as $2,000 apiece on the black market. The loss of the expensive instruments could be catastrophic for cash-strapped school music programs. “We have more players than instruments,” Gonzalez says. “We’re going to have to find a way.”

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Paul surges: In a shift that could reshape the race for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination, a new Iowa poll this week showed Ron Paul closing in on front-runner Newt Gingrich. The former House speaker had enjoyed a 9-point lead in the run-up to the state’s crucial Jan. 3 caucuses. But according to Public Policy Polling, Gingrich is now clinging to a narrow lead—22 percent to 21 percent —over the libertarian Paul, with Mitt Romney in third place with 16 percent. Paul recently ramped up his campaign presence in the Hawkeye State, and launched a series of TV and Internet attack ads that depict Gingrich as the consummate Washington insider who doesn’t believe the conservative principles he’s espousing. “With the spotlight Gingrich has had on himself in recent weeks, it seems he’s taken a hit, especially with Tea Party voters,” said Dustin Ingalls, assistant director of Public Policy Polling.

Bellefonte, Pa.

Sandusky waives hearing: Former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky shocked a packed courtroom this week by waiving his right to a preliminary hearing in a case in which he faces more than 50 counts of child sexual abuse. Sandusky’s last-minute move halted a full-scale media circus in this small Pennsylvania town, and spared anxious victims from confronting him in public twice, said E. Marc Costanzo, a deputy attorney general. Now the victims will recount their stories on the witness stand only at trial, if the case is not settled. “We’re going to stay the course and fight for four quarters,” Sandusky said, suggesting that he would contest the charges. Sandusky also waived an arraignment set for Jan. 11, but remains under house arrest. “I can’t believe they put us through this,” said one victim who was ready to testify, according to his attorney.

Philadelphia

Off death row: Convicted cop-killer Mumia Abu-Jamal will not face the executioner. Abu-Jamal was resentenced to life without parole this week in the highly charged murder case that had kept him on death row for nearly 30 years. Abu-Jamal, 58, a former Black Panther, was convicted and sentenced to death for gunning down white city police Officer Daniel Faulkner in 1982. Abu-Jamal’s murder conviction has been upheld through years of appeals, despite the efforts of a core group of activists who maintain that he was railroaded by law enforcement. Seth Williams, the Philadelphia district attorney, said he withdrew the death penalty because several witnesses had died or were unavailable to testify as sentencing appeals continue. “There’s never been any doubt in my mind that Mumia Abu-Jamal shot and killed Officer Faulkner,” said Williams, the city’s first black district attorney. “I believe that the appropriate sentence was handed down by a jury of his peers in 1982.”

Washington, D.C.

Cellphone ban for drivers: Citing evidence that a growing number of gruesome crashes have been caused by distracted drivers using cellphones and electronic devices, the National Transportation Safety Board voted this week to recommend a ban on the use of all mobile devices. The independent federal agency’s advisory, which is not legally binding, includes hands-free devices, a recommendation that goes further than any state law has to date. “Lives are being lost in the blink of an eye,” said Deborah Hersman, chairwoman of the NTSB. “You can’t take it back, you can’t have a do-over, and you can’t rewind.” Nine states already ban the use of handheld phones, and 35 states ban texting by drivers, according to the Governors Highway Safety Association. The NTSB’s complete ban would “take some heavy lifting,” said AAA spokesman Brian Newbacher. “Support by legislators and our members just isn’t there yet.”

Tallahassee

Hazing arrests at Florida A&M: Three weeks after the hazing-related death of drum major Robert Champion, three students at the school have been arrested in connection with the beating of a woman during brutal hazing rituals. The ritual beating, by three men using their fists and a metal ruler, became so severe that the woman’s thighbone was broken and blood clots formed in her legs, the Tallahassee police said. Sean Hobson, 23, and Aaron Golson, 19, were charged this week with hazing and battery, and James Harris, 22, was charged with hazing. All three were members of Florida A&M’s marching band, as was Champion. No arrests have been made in Champion’s death, though police have said that a hazing ritual was involved. University President James Ammons has vowed to break what he calls a “code of silence” about the school’s hazing rituals.