The world at a glance . . . United States

Las Vegas

Deadly shootout: A disgruntled retiree opened fire at a federal courthouse this week, killing one law-enforcement officer and wounding another, before being shot dead by authorities. Johnny Lee Wicks, 66, was angry that the Social Security Administration had reduced his benefits, and had filed a lawsuit accusing the agency of persecuting him because he was black. On Monday morning, after setting fire to his condo, Wicks walked to the federal courthouse in downtown Las Vegas to confront a Social Security worker with whom he’d had a dispute. Wicks used a shotgun to kill a court security officer and wound a U.S. marshal; several marshals chased him from the building and killed him with a shot to the head.

Mesa, Ariz.

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Teen kills brother: A game of “chicken” turned deadly last week when a young driver killed her brother with her car. Nicole Brock, 16, had dropped her 17-year-old brother, Dwight, off at a local shopping mall when he began repeatedly jumping in front of the vehicle, with Nicole responding by applying the brakes. But eventually she was unable to stop in time and ran Dwight over; he died at a nearby hospital. Mesa police speculate that Nicole, who had been driving for only four months, may have confused the accelerator with the brake. No charges are expected. “Driving is not the time to horseplay,” said Sgt. Ed Wessing, “whether it’s hood surfing or doing this type of thing.”

Helena, Mont.

Assisted suicide legalized: By order of its highest court, Montana has become the third state to permit doctor-assisted suicide, after Washington and Oregon. “We find nothing in Montana Supreme Court precedent or Montana statutes indicating that physician aid in dying is against public policy,” wrote Justice William Leaphart. The 4–3 ruling upheld a lower court decision in favor of Billings truck driver Robert Baxter, a terminal leukemia sufferer who had asked his doctor for a lethal dose of medication. The court did not say whether assisted suicide is guaranteed under the state constitution, effectively relegating the issue to the state legislature. Anti-euthanasia groups say they will now try to get the state legislature to overturn the ruling.

Plains, Ga.

Obama in effigy: The Secret Service is trying to determine who hung an effigy of President Obama from a building in the hometown of President Jimmy Carter. The large black doll, affixed with a sign reading “Obama,” was found dangling from a noose on Main Street, in front of a red, white, and blue sign that advertised Carter’s birthplace; the effigy was quickly removed by the Plains Volunteer Fire Department. “It’s not the kind of publicity the town likes,” said Jan Williams, who manages a hotel close to where the effigy was discovered. After a spike in death threats against Obama following his inauguration, the number of threats he receives is now comparable to those against other recent presidents, the Secret Service said.

Cape Cod, Mass.

Wind farm conflict: Cape Wind, the nation’s first planned offshore wind farm, suffered a setback this week when the National Park Service ruled that the proposed site, Nantucket Sound, was eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. The designation is being sought by the Mashpee Wampanoag and Aquinnah Wampanoag Indian tribes of Massachusetts, which say the 130-turbine project would disturb ancestral burial grounds and obstruct their ritual viewings of the sunrise. Although the listing wouldn’t necessarily kill the project, it would create new bureaucratic obstacles; Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said he would meet with tribal representatives and Cape Wind’s managers to try to reach an accommodation. Since Cape Wind was first proposed in 2001, opponents have delayed its development by raising environmental and aesthetic concerns.

Washington, D.C.

Senate shake-up: The Democrats’ fragile, filibuster-proof 60-vote majority in the Senate was looking even more precarious this week when two of the party’s most prominent senators said they would not run in this November’s midterm elections. The announcements by Christopher Dodd of Connecticut and Byron Dorgan of North Dakota come amid a growing tide of anti-incumbent voter sentiment; both candidates faced potentially tough races against Republican opponents. Democratic leaders have for some time worried that Dodd, who has been the recent focus of ethics inquiries, could not win a sixth term. Democrats now have four open Senate seats to defend, since incumbents in Illinois and Delaware also are not running. Republicans are defending six seats—in Kentucky, Kansas, Florida, Missouri, New Hampshire, and Ohio.