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Anchored by Jake Tapper, The Lead airs at 4 p.m. ET on CNN.
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national lead
'Boredom' shooting: Was race a factor?
Australian Ambassador to the United States Kim Beazley said Aussies’ “hearts bleed” following the murder of baseball player Chris Lane.
Lane, an Australian, was gunned down in Duncan, Oklahoma while he was out jogging. Police say he was killed by three teens who said they have nothing better to do.
Beazley called the tragedy “sheer, unmitigated horror," appearing on the Situation Room in an interview with CNN Anchor Jake Tapper.
Police have charged Edwards and Chancey Luna, 16, as adults with first degree felony murder. Michael Jones, their alleged 17-year-old driver, faces two charges: use of a vehicle in the discharge of a weapon and accessory after the fact to murder in the first degree.
Reports of racially-charged tweets by the suspects have bought to light another component in the murder – was race a factor?
FULL POST
national lead
Witness opens up about Bradley Manning’s personal struggles
Bradley Manning, the Army private sentenced to 35 years in federal prison for leaking classified documents, wants to live the rest of his life as woman.
“I am Chelsea Manning,” the former intelligence analyst said in a statement read on NBC’s “Today” show. Manning’s lawyer said he plans to fight for the prison to provide hormone therapy.
A friend and defense witness during his court-martial, Lauren McNamara, said Manning’s actions were “absolutely related to her state of mind at the time and the decisions she made.”
“It came out in the sentencing phase of the trial when various people she had talked to in the military, psychologists and counselors, that there had been many previous instances that it had been obvious that she was in need of imminent treatments and yet this was often pushed to the side because the unit was under powered and they could not afford to lose any analysts.”
FULL POST
politics lead
Gore: Climate change ‘deniers’ like 'an alcoholic father’
Former Vice President Al Gore is optimistic that climate change deniers are falling by the wayside, but the environmental crusader’s recent comments have sparked controversy.
In a wide-ranging interview, Gore told the Washington Post that Republicans are growing weary of those who reject the notion of climate change, likening them to “an alcoholic father who flies into a rage every time a subject is mentioned so everyone avoids the elephant in the room to keep the peace.”
What impact is Gore’s heated rhetoric having on the climate change debate?
Carly Fiorina, former chairman and chief executive of HP, said Gore’s name calling is hurting the environmental cause.
“I think he is becoming such a polarizing figure. I think there are many people who suspect this is more about Al Gore than it is about global warming,” she said.
FULL POST
national lead
A school bookkeeper's compassion leads to gunman surrendering
You can only hope every school in the United States employs someone as fearless and heroic as Antoinette Tuff. Tuff is the school bookkeeper from Georgia who disarmed a man with an AK-47 who had slipped through the doors of DeKalb elementary school on Tuesday ready to die.
Tuff's only weapon was human compassion and sympathy for a very sick young man.
In her 9-1-1 call you can hear her comfort the suspect, Michael Brandon Hill, with her own life experiences.
“I tried to commit suicide last year after my husband left me, but look at me now, I’m still working and everything is okay,” Tuff told Hill. “We all go through something in life…you’re going to be okay.”
The 9-1-1 call lasted for almost 25 minutes, and true to her words - the suspect, was taken into custody unharmed.
Miraculously, every student - and everyone at Ronald E. McNair Discovery Learning Academy, including Tuff, came out similarly unscathed.
“I first engaged Mrs. Tuff sitting there on the sidewalk, on the curb, after the alleged shooter had been apprehended,” said Michael Thurmond, Interim Superintendent of DeKalb County Schools. “Tears were streaming down her face, but at that point you knew you were in the presence of a hero. She literally placed her life on line to save the lives of hundreds of children and employees.”
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