Beyond fear and violence

December 04, 2015 - Daily News Briefing

The toughest problems of our times might be helped by new laws and policies. But there's more we can do.

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After three years of study and debate, Defense Secretary Ash Carter ordered the military Thursday to open all military jobs to women, removing the final barriers that kept women from serving in combat, including the most dangerous and grueling commando posts. His landmark decision rebuffed requests by the Marine Corps to exclude women from certain infantry and combat jobs and signaled a formal recognition that thousands of women served, and many were wounded or killed, in the last 14 years of war in Iraq and Afghanistan.

A South African appeals court on Thursday convicted Oscar Pistorius of murder, overturning a lower court's conviction of the double-amputee Olympian on the lesser charge of manslaughter for shooting girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp to death in 2013. Justice Lorimer Eric Leach of the Supreme Court of Appeal delivered the ruling by the five-judge tribunal in Bloemfontein and directed the trial court, the North Gauteng High Court, to impose sentence. He did not specify when that should happen. The former track star is currently under house arrest at his uncle’s mansion in Pretoria.

The United States and Britain this week said they would escalate military interventions against the Islamic State militant group, adding to a round of new actions from world superpowers against the militant group. The US said it would send 100 ground troops to Iraq and Britain announced it would increase the number of airstrikes in the territory currently controlled by Islamic State forces, even as US Secretary of State John Kerry said a more ubiquitous effort would be needed. Several world leaders have called for a more concerted military campaign, including more ground troops and military strikes and support for roughly 70,000 opposition fighters in Syria.

A new report released on Thursday by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform cast the Secret Service as an “agency in crisis,” and exposed more than 143 security breaches at facilities supervised by the agency. The report outlines several key areas where the integrity of the agency has been compromised and where targeted reforms could lead to improvements, from understaffing and underfunding to insufficient screening of applicants and contractors.

Jurors returned a guilty verdict on Thursday for the former chief executive of Massey Energy who was found to have intentionally breached safety standards in a West Virginia coal mine, where 29 people were killed in a 2010 explosion. A federal jury found Don Blankenship guilty on the misdemeanor charge of conspiring to willfully violate mine safety standards, though he was cleared of additional charges of making a false statement and a more serious conspiracy charge that could have sent him to jail for up to five years. The conviction carries a maximum fine of $250,000 and up to one year in prison. The sentencing hearing is scheduled for March 23.

A technology company that processes online giving says donations on Giving Tuesday exceeded last year's day of generosity by more than $10 million. Blackbaud, Inc. recorded $39.6 million in online donations Tuesday and gave only a bit of the credit to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg's big philanthropic announcement on Tuesday that he and his wife would be donating 99 percent of their Facebook shares to charity. Steve MacLaughlin, director of analytics for the Charleston, South Carolina, company that makes software for nonprofit companies, said the online donations Blackbaud noted Tuesday continues a trend of increased online giving that they have seen throughout 2015.

The European Union is investigating allegations that fast food giant McDonald's received a sweet tax deal from Luxembourg, at a time when the bloc is trying to crack down on preferential treatment for multinationals. EU antitrust Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said Thursday that the Luxembourg deal may have breached state aid rules, which seek to keep a level playing field for businesses across the 28 member states. The EU says that since 2009, McDonald's Europe Franchising paid no corporate tax in Luxembourg despite large profits. It said the profits were more than €250 million ($265 million) in 2013.

Considered to be one of the top gifts in the 2015 holiday season, British officials are warning consumers about a number of "hoverboards" that are inexpensive yet dangerous. Officers have examined more than 17,000 self-balancing scooters since Oct. 15 at a number of British ports, and more than 15,000 of these (or 88 percent) are deemed dangerous to users, Engadget reports. There have been several fire-related incidents, after the hoverboards' battery cutoff function failed, causing the product to overheat. Consumers should stay especially vigilant during the holidays, experts warn.

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