STATE
Ohio shoots down conservative “heartbeat bill”
On Nov. 27, House Bill 125, otherwise known as Ohio’s “heartbeat bill,” was dropped after a decision was made by Republican Senate President Tom Niehaus to keep the bill from going to a vote on the floor of the Ohio State Senate.
The bill proposed to ban abortions after the fetus has its first heartbeat, which typically occurs around six to eight weeks into pregnancy. Had the bill passed, it would have made Ohio’s abortion laws the most conservative in the country. According to Democratic Senator Nina Turner, the “heartbeat bill” would have “essentially made abortions illegal in the state of Ohio.”
Source: miamistudent.net
NATIONAL
Suspected serial killer commits suicide in custody
Israel Keyes, a man arrested and charged in the murder of an Alaskan barista, killed himself while in custody. Authorities say that Keyes had also confessed to at least seven other killings, not knowing his victims but looking for them in abandoned and secluded places. Keyes’ killings stretched across the country, including two in Vermont, four in Washington state and one somewhere on the East Coast. He was finally charged with the killing of Samantha Koenig, and had he been convicted, he could have faced the death penalty.
INTERNATIONAL
Clashes outside Egypt presidential palace in Cairo
Protesters clashed with police outside of President Mohammed Morsi’s house over a rushed drafting of a new constitution and Morsi’s recent extension of his powers. Many of the protestors chanted phrases similar to those directed against former president Hosni Mubarak during the February 2011 uprising. Tear gas was fired by police after the protesters managed to breach a barbed wire fence surrounding the palace, but the police retreated, allowing the protestors to get closer to the walls. Eighteen people were injured, though none seriously, in the brief bout of violence. Sizeable crowds of protestors have also turned out in Alexandria.