The 7 Major News Stories You May Have Missed This Weekend

Impact

Let's run through the top weekend stories.

1. There Was a Fatal Shooting in Kansas, and It May Have Been a Hate Crime

A man in his 70s killed three people on Sunday when he opened fire on a Jewish community center and nearby retirement community in Overland Park, Kan. The gunman reportedly opened fire around 1 p.m. at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Kansas City, killing one male and critically injuring another who died at the hospital. He then fled the scene and ran to the nearby Village Shalom retirement center, killing one woman. He was arrested soon after at a nearby elementary school at 2:45 p.m. at which point he was reportedly "smiling."

At this time, little hard information is known about the situation. Police think the shooter did not know the victims.

"We know it was a vicious act of violence, and we know obviously it was at two Jewish facilities. One might make that assumption," Overland Park Police Chief John Douglass said at a press conference Sunday afternoon. "We are investigating it as a hate crime."

Investigations will continue in the coming days to further clarify the gunman's motives and to determine whether this was a hate crime.

2. A Joke Tweet Gone Horribly Wrong

Everyone knows that no matter how funny you think you are, you just shouldn't joke about being a terrorist wanting to bomb a plane ... well, almost everyone. 

A twitter user with the handle @queendemetriax dropped this little gem, which was followed by a quick response from American Airlines.

AA's tweet was soon after deleted because, as Gawker points out, they probably "do not have either her IP address or 'details,' as those are details that only law enforcement can request." Of course, that didn't stop @queendemetriax_'s follow-up tweets:

She then very quickly tried to sell out her friend:

She then changed her tune a little bit:

And actually got a little bonus out of this whole thing:

And besides, who cares about American Airlines or the U.S. Government? There's really only one person who can't see this:

Then she just retweeted a bunch of Vines of Justin Bieber. Ah, to be young again.

3. The DOJ Completed Its Investigation Into the Albuquerque PD, and It's Not Good

On Saturday, residents of Albuquerque, N.M., marched on their police department after a damning report was published by the Department of Justice following their investigation into one of the country's most dangerous and violent police forces.

The report, released Thursday, found three specific patterns of excessive force: 

1. APD officers too frequently use deadly force against people who pose a minimal threat and in situations where the conduct of the officers heightens the danger and contributes to the need to use force;

2. APD officers use less lethal force, including electronic controlled weapons, on people who are passively resisting, non-threatening, observably unable to comply with orders or pose only a minimal threat to the officers; and

3. Encounters between APD officers and persons with mental illness and in crisis too frequently result in a use of force or a higher level of force than necessary.

The report also found that these patterns can be mostly traced back to systematic deficiencies include deficient policies, failed accountability systems, inadequate training and inadequate supervision. Overall, the report has been summed up by documenting the APD's "execution" of citizens. 

On Saturday, groups of citizens demonstrated their intense displeasure with their city.

4. The Turkish PM Still Hates Twitter

In March, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan tried to "eradicate" what he calls "the worst menace to society" by shutting down Twitter, though it didn't really work.

Now it seems like Erdogan wants to "go after" Twitter again, this time claiming issues of "tax-evasion."

"Twitter, YouTube and Facebook are international companies established for profit and making money," Erdogan said. "Twitter is at the same time a tax evader. We will go after it. These companies, like every international company, will abide by my country's constitution, laws and tax rules."

Erdogan has been unhappy with Twitter ever since sensitive and damning information implicating several of his advisers in corruption. It's unclear whether the PM has any actual evidence to show or real case to prove, but the smart money says this is all just more bluster. 

5. The Bible May Become One State's Official Book

A Louisiana state representative wants to make the Bible his state's official book, but is claiming that this should not necessarily be considered an endorsement of Christianity or a specific religion. That could be tough.

"It's not to the exclusion of anyone else's sacred literature," State Representative Thomas Carmody (R) told the Louisiana House municipal committee this week. "This is not about establishing an official religion of the state of Louisiana."

The Louisiana House committee voted 8-5 in favor of the bill, which will now go to the full House for debate. But, already there's some pretty strong backlash.

"I think we're going to open ourselves up to a lawsuit," said State Rep. Wesley Bishop (D), who opposes the bill. "You can't adopt the Bible and not adopt Christianity."

It does seem like a nearly impossible jump from endorsing the Bible to not endorsing Christianity. So what about just including "all books of faith," a compromise that would hopefully be agreeable to everyone (except perhaps the 8% of Louisiana that are non-religious). But Carmody wasn't excited about that idea, saying "I would certainly be against that amendment."

Clearly, Carmody, despite his arguing otherwise, does want to establish a state religion, which flies directly in the face of the First Amendment's very clear ruling: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof ..."

6. A Totally Backwards Case of Bully Retaliation

It should be no secret that bullying is a serious problem in America, but some cases are just so outrageous and bizarre, they seem stranger than fiction.

One Pennsylvania 15-year-old, who had been previously diagnosed with comprehension delay disorder, ADHD and an anxiety disorder, had been the longtime target of school bullies. To prove to everyone what was really going on, the boy decided to use his school-issued iPad to record his tormentors behavior. 

The boy showed the footage to his school, but they decided the best course of action was to delete the footage and pretend like nothing happened.

The boy's mother was shown the footage before it was deleted, and managed to transcribe the audio from the video.

As the Inquisitr reports, it's bad:

The teacher in the classroom is heard attempting to help the boy with a math problem and one of the bullies is heard saying, "You should pull his pants down!" Another bully replies, "No, man. Imagine how bad that (c**t) smells! No one wants to smell that (t**t)." The teacher attempts to get the other students to settle down but then a loud sound is heard, which the boy claimed was the sound of a book being slammed down after one bully mimed hitting him in the head with it. As the boys laugh, the teacher yells at them and the guilty bully responds, "What? I was just trying to scare him!"

Not only is the teacher at the time totally useless to help the bullied student, but even when there was concrete video evidence of the other students' reprehensible behavior, the school not only did nothing (that would have been better), they purposefully deleted the evidence. 

But it gets even worse. The administrators of South Fayette High School decided that the boys' actions of recording his bullies were illegal and called the local police to have him charged with felony wiretapping. The boy's charges were later dropped to disorderly conduct, but he was still found guilty. 

Oh yeah, and the bullies were never punished. 

7. The Netherlands Is Getting Glow-in-the-Dark Roads

A project two years in the making, the Netherlands has just installed its first stretch of road with light-absorbing glow-in-the-dark road markings replacing streetlights. The stretch only covers about .3 miles, but it will hopefully be successful enough to warrant installation on more roads.

Studio Roosegaarde promised the design back in 2012, when Daan Roosegaarde, the studio's founder and lead designer, explained: "One day I was sitting in my car in the Netherlands, and I was amazed by these roads we spend millions on but no one seems to care what they look like and how they behave. I started imagining this Route 66 of the future where technology jumps out of the computer screen and becomes part of us."

The lighting luminescence has been turned up to 11, giving off what's been described as a "radioactive" look.