The week at a glance...United States

Los Angeles

Pay of ‘pigs’: Officials of Bell, Calif., crowed about their large salaries in e-mails, according to documents aired this week at a court hearing. Randy Adams, who was about to sign on as the city’s police chief, wrote city official Angela Spaccia that he was looking forward to “taking all of Bell’s money.” Spaccia replied, “You can take your share of the pie—just like us,” and reminded him that “pigs get fat, hogs get slaughtered.” The hearing in a Los Angeles courtroom will determine whether prosecutors have enough evidence to charge Spaccia and seven other former officials with misappropriating more than $5.5 million from the cash-strapped city. All have pleaded not guilty; Adams has not been charged.

Houston

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Giffords speaks: Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords has begun to recover the power of speech. A recent request for toast with breakfast were the first words she had spoken since being shot through the head during a Jan. 8 constituent meeting in Tucson. Giffords, undergoing aggressive rehab in Houston, is now speaking “more and more,” said her spokesman, C.J. Karamargin. She held a brief telephone conversation this week with her brother-in-law, Scott Kelly, an astronaut aboard the International Space Station. Giffords’s words raised hopes that she would regain higher cognitive functions. Six people were killed in the Tucson shooting; 13, including Giffords, were injured. The accused shooter, Jared Loughner, has pleaded not guilty to federal charges of attempted murder.

Palm Coast, Fla.

Tibetan activist killed: The nephew of the Dalai Lama, Tibet’s supreme spiritual leader, was killed this week as he walked along an unlit stretch of a Florida highway to promote Tibetan independence. Jigme Norbu, 45, the son of the Dalai Lama’s brother, was walking along State Road A1A when an SUV struck him from behind. He was nearing the end of the opening leg of a 300-mile walk to promote independence for Tibet, which has been under Chinese occupation since 1951. In recent years Norbu had logged more than 7,800 miles on foot and bicycle in the U.S. and overseas to raise awareness of his cause. The driver of the SUV does not face charges.

Washington, D.C.

Sherrod sues: Former Agriculture Department official Shirley Sherrod has sued conservative activist Andrew Breitbart for libel and slander, saying he deliberately edited a video to make her look like a racist. Sherrod, who is black, worked for the federal Agriculture Department in Georgia until last July, when Breitbart posted an edited video from an NAACP meeting in which she appeared to boast of refusing to help a white farmer because of his race. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack immediately fired her. After seeing a complete video of her comments, in which Sherrod tells of overcoming her initial prejudice and helping the farmer, Vilsack offered to rehire Sherrod, but she declined. Breitbart called the suit a “transparent effort to chill his constitutionally protected free speech.”

Philadelphia

Clergy charged in scandal: A grand jury last week issued criminal charges in a long-running sexual-abuse case against the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia. Two priests and a parochial-school teacher face rape and assault charges for abusing two boys, one of whom was allegedly “passed around” among the three beginning in 1998, when he was a 10-year-old altar boy. A third priest was charged with raping a 14-year-old boy. In addition, Monsignor William Lynn, who had overseen priest assignments in the diocese, was charged with endangering children by moving known abusers from parish to parish. Lynn, who figured prominently in a 2005 grand jury report that found church officials had disregarded credible accounts of abuse by 63 priests, is thought to be the first high-ranking American diocesan official to face criminal charges linked to clerical sexual abuse.

Madison, Wis.

Governor challenges unions: Scott Walker, the freshman Republican governor of Wisconsin, has proposed stripping state employees of most of their collective-bargaining rights, saying the state is broke and struggling to close a $137 million budget gap. His proposal, likely to win approval in the state’s Republican-controlled legislature, would allow most unionized state employees to negotiate pay only, and would hike employees’ contributions toward pensions and health care. In response, teachers in Madison called in sick en masse, closing schools for a day. Scott has placed the National Guard on alert in case state services are disrupted, and exempted police and firefighters from his proposal.