The week at glance...United States

Sacramento

Court orders inmate release: The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that overcrowding in California’s prison system is causing “needless suffering and death” and gave the state two years to thin its 143,335 inmate population by 33,000. In announcing the decision, Justice Anthony M. Kennedy said that many of California’s prisoners were being housed in “telephone-booth-sized cages without toilets.” Antonin Scalia, one of the conservative justices opposing the ruling, called it “perhaps the most radical injunction issued by a court in our nation’s history,” and warned that a prisoner release could have “terrible” consequences. Gov. Jerry Brown has announced a plan to comply with the order by shifting low-level offenders to county jails. “Our goal is not to release inmates at all,” said Matthew Cate, the state’s secretary of corrections. But legal experts say that the state’s strained budget and tough minimum-sentencing laws could make complying with the ruling difficult.

Austin

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Lance Armstrong’s alleged doping: A longtime teammate detailed new charges that Lance Armstrong systematically used banned drugs to become the world’s most successful professional cyclist. Tyler Hamilton told CBS’s 60 Minutes that Armstrong took banned performance-enhancing drugs for three years beginning in 1999, when he won the first of his seven consecutive Tour de France titles. “He took. We all took,” Hamilton said. He said that the team’s management encouraged the use of the banned blood-booster EPO, and claimed that Armstrong personally squirted liquid testosterone into his mouth. Armstrong issued a furious denial of Hamilton’s charges from his home in Texas, pointing to his nearly 500 clean tests and accusing CBS of relying on “dubious sources.” Floyd Landis, another former teammate, alleged last May that Armstrong had used illegal drugs between 2002 and 2004. The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency is reviewing Hamilton’s claims, and federal prosecutors are also reportedly investigating Armstrong.

Joplin, Mo.

Devastating tornado: At least 125 people were killed and 750 injured this week when a large tornado cut a six-mile-long, half-mile-wide path through the heart of Joplin. The 200-mph twister, the deadliest to hit the U.S. in 60 years, destroyed 8,000 buildings and obliterated entire neighborhoods. “I’ve lived here my whole life,” said Misty Kelso as she surveyed the wreckage, “and I no longer recognize where I am.” Emergency workers and volunteers searched for survivors despite the danger posed by downed power lines and leaking gas mains. Other tornadoes in Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Kansas killed at least 14 people. President Obama commended the emergency workers’ “heroic” efforts in Joplin and said he would visit the ravaged city next week.

Chapel Hill, N.C.

Edwards to be indicted: The Justice Department is preparing to indict John Edwards for violating campaign-finance laws during his 2008 presidential run, sources tell several news organizations. The former North Carolina senator is accused of spending more than $1 million in campaign contributions on covering up his extramarital affair with Rielle Hunter, a campaign videographer with whom he secretly fathered a child. The Justice Department investigation centers on two wealthy donors, Rachel “Bunny” Mellon and Fred Baron, who allegedly channeled funds to Hunter via a nonprofit that supported Edwards’s campaign. The government will argue that these donations were intended to conceal the affair and allow Edwards to continue his pursuit of the Democratic nomination for president. The allegations first surfaced last year in a tell-all book written by former Edwards aide Andrew Young, who testified before a grand jury in 2009. Edwards’s lawyers were trying to negotiate a plea deal to avoid a costly and potentially humiliating trial.

Beckley, W.Va.

Mine blast report: A 13-month investigation into the explosion that killed 29 men in the Upper Big Branch coal mine last year has placed the blame squarely on the mine’s “profoundly reckless” owners and management. The report by J. Davitt McAteer, a former top federal mine regulator, found that Massey Energy had failed to maintain the mine’s ventilation system, allowing highly combustible methane and coal dust to build up underground. A spark from a cutting machine ignited that deadly mix, triggering a series of earth-shaking blasts. “The disaster at Upper Big Branch was man-made,” the study concluded, “and could have been prevented had Massey Energy followed basic, well-tested, and historically proven safety procedures.” Massey disputes the findings, and says the explosion was caused by an uncontrollable inundation of natural gas.

New York City

DSK out on bail: Crowds of spectators and armed security guards surrounded a lower Manhattan apartment building this week where accused rapist Dominique Strauss-Kahn was being held on house arrest. Strauss-Kahn, the former head of the International Monetary Fund, was accused last week of sexually assaulting and attempting to rape a hotel maid, and spent four days in jail. The court freed the French national, 62, after he and his wife put up $1 million in cash, but ordered him to wear an electronic ankle monitor, remain under 24-hour home detention, and pay for his own guards. He resigned as head of the IMF. Press reports said the police investigation has identified Strauss-Kahn’s DNA on the maid’s clothing. His lawyers have indicated they will argue that the two engaged in consensual sex. The maid has told police Strauss-Kahn tackled her when she arrived to clean his room, tried to rape her, and then forced her to perform oral sex.