/News in Brief- Issue 12

News in Brief- Issue 12

The 2016 presidential nomination elections continued with primaries or caucuses in five states on “Super Saturday.” NBC News reports that on the Republican side, Ted Cruz claimed victories in Kansas and Maine while Donald Trump won in the Louisiana primary and Kentucky caucus. In the Democratic race, Bernie Sanders beat Hillary Clinton as he won caucuses in Kansas and Nebraska while Hillary Clinton pulled ahead in the Louisiana primary.

Alabama state representative Steve Hurst is proposing a bill requiring convicted sex offenders to be surgically castrated. According to AL.com, the bill targets sex offenders over the age of 21 who have committed sex offenses against children 12 years of age and under. Hurst has introduced the bill before, but it has been met with mixed reactions. While some citizens are for it, others have told him that physically mutilating the offenders is inhumane and qualifies as cruel and unusual punishment. Hurst counters by saying that sexually abusing a child is the truly inhumane act.

Joey Feek of the husband-and wife-country duo Joey + Rory died last Friday after battling cervical cancer for two years. Fox News says the couple attracted attention in the past few months through husband Rory’s blog posts chronicling his wife’s treatment and their faith through all of it. He revealed in a post just a few days earlier that she had been asleep for days and that her body was shutting down. On the day of her passing he wrote, “My wife’s greatest dream came true today. She is in Heaven.” She was 40.

The Alabama Supreme Court has dismissed all petitions to prohibit same sex marriage in the state. According to AL.com, the petitions came from the Alabama Policy Institute, the Alabama Citizens Action Program and Elmore’s County probate judge. They had hoped to get a ruling from the Alabama Supreme Court maintaining their previous order that told probate judges not to issue the licenses. This would eventually lead to an appeal to the US Supreme Court, but as of right now same sex marriage is still intact in Alabama.

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