In the News

Here is some stuff in the news today...

[Content Note: Guns; violence] A US marine has been taken into custody after fatally shooting a fellow servicemember while standing guard at the main gate of Camp Lejeune in Jacksonville, North Carolina. No motive has been released, but it sounds like maybe it was an accident by way of miscalculation, as camp spokesman Nat Fahy noted that "people are at a state of heightened sensitivity, given what happened over at Fort Hood." Terrible.

[CN: Misogyny] Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell says that Democrats trying to close the pay gap is equivalent to "blow[ing] a few kisses to their powerful pals on the left." It continues to be a real mystery while Republicans aren't winning over a majority of female voters.

[CN: War on agency] A new Guttmacher analysis of the first quarter of 2014 finds that: "The 2014 legislative session got off to a fast start, with legislators introducing a combined 733 provisions related to sexual and reproductive health and rights in nearly all the states that have legislative sessions this year (legislatures in Montana, Nevada, North Dakota and Texas will not meet in 2014). ...Significantly, legislators quickly showed a clear interest in protecting or expanding access to sexual and reproductive health care. Some 64 provisions have been introduced so far this year to expand or protect access to abortion, more than had been introduced in any year in the last quarter century. ...As in recent years, however, state legislatures continued to take aim at abortion rights. Legislators in 38 states introduced 303 provisions seeking to limit [people]'s access to care. By March 31, three new abortion restrictions had been enacted, and 36 had passed one legislative chamber."

What you need to know about the "Heartbleed" bug that is compromising websites: "Security researchers have uncovered a fatal flaw in a key safety feature for surfing the Web—the one that keeps your email, banking, shopping, passwords and communications private. ...The bug allows potential hackers to take advantage of a feature that computers use to see if they're still online, known as a 'heartbeat extension.' But a malicious heartbeat signal could force a computer to divulge secret information stored in its memory, including keys to an encryption tool that turns your credit card information and passwords into indecipherable code."

What you need to know about what to do: "For users, the simplest thing to do may be to refrain from engaging in sensitive activities on the internet for a few days. Typical responses to security breaches, such as changing passwords, may even serve to exacerbate the problem."

Heads-up, Toyota owners: "Toyota said Wednesday it is recalling 6.76 million vehicles globally for a variety of problems with 27 Toyota models in Japan, the United States and Europe. ...The recall includes vehicles for 27 Toyota models, the Subaru Trezi and two models Toyota produced for General Motors and Fuji Heavy Industries from April 2004 through August 2013."

[CN: Guns; death; descriptions of violence] The Pistorius trial continues, and prosecutors are not having it with Oscar Pistorius' careful and often conflicting answers about what happened on the night he shot and killed Reeva Steenkamp.

Hillary Clinton gives insight into why she might not run in 2016: "I would be the first to say we're having a political period of, frankly, dysfunction. I saw it from afar as secretary and it was disheartening and even embarrassing to see people arguing about letting us default on our debt."

[CN: Wrongful conviction] "I've waited for this day to come 24 and a half years, for this nightmare to be over. This day is finally here—I thought about this many nights. I'm finally a free man... I'm going to go eat dinner with my mother and my family, and I'm going to live the rest of my life."—Jonathan Fleming, 51, whose conviction was vacated after he spent more than 24 years in prison for a murder he could not possibly have committed. The murder took place while Fleming "was on vacation at Disney World. While Fleming presented photos and videos of his trip to Orlando, prosecutors claimed during his trial that he could have flown from Florida to New York, shot his friend Darryl 'Black' Rush, and traveled back to Florida. Recently prosecutors reviewing the case found a receipt from a Quality Inn in Florida dated just five hours before the murder occurred, which was in his case file but was never turned over to defense attorneys. 'It could not have possibly been a mistake,' said Taylor Koss, one of Fleming's lawyers." Also in the case file? A Florida police report with witnesses who saw Fleming in Florida that day. Police and prosecutors stole a quarter century of his life, and I hope he gets a ginormous settlement.