10 things you need to know today: December 10, 2015
Robert L. Dear Jr., the suspect in last month's deadly shooting at a Colorado Planned Parenthood clinic yelled that he was "a warrior for the babies" in open court Wednesday as he was charged with first-degree murder and a host of other charges. "I'm guilty," Dear, 57, shouted during the proceedings. "There's no trial." It was Dear's first appearance in court since the attack, which left three people dead and nine wounded. He was arrested Nov. 27 after a tense, televised stand-off with police.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday heard arguments for a second time on a challenge to a race-based admissions policy at the University of Texas. Members of the court's conservative wing indicated they do not believe affirmative action is necessary — or constitutional, with Justice Antonin Scalia saying it would benefit black college students to attend "a slower-track school where they do well." Liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor, the court's first Latina, said she feared the court was on the verge of throwing out affirmative action at state universities.
The husband and wife blamed for killing 14 people in San Bernardino last week had discussed committing terror attacks at least two years before the California massacre, FBI Director James B. Comey told a Senate committee Tuesday. The alleged attackers — county health inspector Syed Rizwan Farook, 28, and his Pakistani wife, Tashfeen Malik, 29 — had talked online about "jihad and martyrdom" before they were married and Malik came with Farook to the U.S., Comey said. Investigators say Farook and a neighbor, Enrique Marquez, discussed a 2012 attack but backed out. Marquez bought the guns used in San Bernardino and is being questioned.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said Thursday his country had developed a hydrogen bomb, and would use it to "defend its sovereignty and the dignity of the nation." If true, it would mark a major step up from less powerful atomic bombs, which the isolated communist nation tested in 2006, 2009, and 2013. South Korean intelligence specialists dismissed the claim, however. "We do not believe that North Korea, which has not succeeded in miniaturizing nuclear bombs, has the technology to produce an H-bomb," Yonhap News Agency quoted an unnamed intelligence official as saying.
Sixty-five percent of likely Republican primary voters support GOP frontrunner Donald Trump's call for barring Muslims from entering the U.S., according to a Bloomberg Politics poll released Wednesday. More than a third said the controversial proposal "makes them more likely to vote for him," Bloomberg reports. Trump's rhetoric did not go over so well with the general public, however, with 37 percent of likely voters overall saying they favored Trump's idea, while 50 percent oppose it. Seventy-five percent of Democrats said they were opposed.
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Wednesday apologized for the fatal shooting of Laquan McDonald, a black teenager, by a white police officer last year, telling aldermen it "happened on my watch." The officer, Jason Van Dyke, has been charged with murder. Emanuel said his apology is the first step in the healing process. "If we're going to fix it, I want you to understand it's my responsibility with you," Emanuel said in a rare speech to the full Chicago City Council. Hundreds protested outside City Hall demanding Emanuel's resignation.
The House of Representatives has scheduled a Friday vote on a stop-gap spending measure to keep the federal government from shutting down this weekend. Lawmakers are negotiating a $1.15 trillion bill that would fund government operations through September. House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) said Congress needs to extend the temporary spending bill that expires Friday, before breaking for the holidays to provide enough time to iron out disagreements on "riders" attached to the bill. "We need to get it right," Ryan said.
Defense Secretary Ash Carter told the Senate Armed Forces Committee on Wednesday that the U.S. is prepared to send advisers and attack helicopters to help Iraqi forces finish retaking Ramadi from the Islamic State, if asked. The remarks were the latest sign that the U.S. is preparing to step up its military campaign against the Islamist extremist group, which has seized large expanses of territory in Iraq and Syria and staged terror attacks abroad.
French authorities on Wednesday identified the third man who attacked the Bataclan theater during the November terrorist attacks in Paris. The name of the man, French national Foued Mohamed-Aggad, was discovered after his mother told investigators she had received a text from Syria, where he had traveled, informing her of his death. His DNA was matched to hers. Two of the three Islamist gunmen who killed 90 people at the Bataclan killed themselves by detonating explosive vests, and the third was killed by police in a shootout.
A federal judge said Wednesday that a settlement had been reached in a documentary filmmaker's class lawsuit trying to end copyright protection for the lyrics to "Happy Birthday to You" and make the song part of the public domain. A judge in September ruled that the copyright claim of Warner/Chappell Music was not valid. The company collected royalties on the song for years when it was used in movies, TV shows, and other productions. Details of the agreement were not immediately available.
