Defending liberty with care

December 16, 2014 - Daily News Briefing

Democracies always struggle with how to protect themselves without sacrificing their values.

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Philippine government prosecutors charged a US Marine with murder Monday in the killing of a Filipino, saying the suspect acknowledged attacking the victim after he found out she was a transgender. Prosecutor Emilie de los Santos said there was "probable cause" that Marine Pfc. Joseph Scott Pemberton, who has been detained since shortly after the October incident, killed Jennifer Laude, whose former name was Jeffrey, in the motel room where the victim's body was found in Olongapo city, northwest of Manila.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday that weekend raids on media outlets close to a US-based Muslim cleric were part of a necessary response to "dirty operations" by political enemies, and dismissed European Union criticism of the moves. The raids on the Zaman daily and Samanyolu television mark an escalation in Erdogan's battle with former ally Fetullah Gulen, with whom he has been in open conflict since a graft investigation targeting his inner circle emerged a year ago. Erdogan accuses Gulen of establishing a 'parallel' structure in the state through his supporters in the judiciary, police and other institutions, while wielding influence through the media. The cleric denies any ambition to overthrow Erdogan.

Two women have pleaded guilty in connection with a series of attacks on African-Americans in Mississippi that included running over and killing a man with a Ford F250 truck. The Clarion-Ledger reports that Shelbie Brooke Richards and Sarah Adelia Graves each pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring to violate the federal hate crime law. Richards also pleaded guilty to concealing from investigators information about James Craig Anderson's killing. Anderson's death outside a Jackson hotel in 2011 sparked a broader investigation into reports that young white men and women were driving from mostly white Rankin County into majority-black Jackson to assault African-Americans. Six others also have pleaded guilty.

The families of nine of the 26 people killed and a teacher injured two years ago at the Sandy Hook Elementary School filed a lawsuit against the manufacturer, distributor and seller of the rifle used in the shooting. The negligence and wrongful death lawsuit, filed Monday in Bridgeport Superior Court, asserts that the Bushmaster AR-15 rifle should not have been made publicly available because it is a military weapon unsuited for hunting or home defense.

A northern white rhinoceros that zoo officials said was only one of six left in the world died Sunday at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park. Angalifu, who was about 44 years old, apparently died of old age. His death leaves only one northern white rhino at the zoo – a female named Nola – one at a zoo in the Czech Republic, and three in a preserve in Kenya. Rhino horns are valued as dagger handles and are mistakenly seen as an aphrodisiac. As a result, poaching has pushed the critically endangered rhinos to the brink of extinction.

Fourteen cities ranging from Long Beach, California, to Jerusalem are getting up to $3 million from former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's foundation to create "innovation teams" to jump-start new approaches to poverty, public safety, job growth and other issues, the foundation announced Monday. The Bloomberg Philanthropies grants range from $400,000 to $1 million annually for three years, expanding and internationalizing awards to five US cities in 2011. The teams are styled as in-house innovation consultants who work on a series of mayoral priorities.

“The object of the Monitor is to injure no man, but to bless all mankind.” – Mary Baker Eddy

The Daily News Briefing is published Monday through Friday by The Christian Science Publishing Society in Boston, Massachusetts.

“The object of the Monitor is to injure no man, but to bless all mankind.” – Mary Baker Eddy

The Daily News Briefing is published Monday through Friday by The Christian Science Publishing Society in Boston, Massachusetts.

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