Dispatches

Feb. 25

Authorities say a restraining order from a former girlfriend may have prompted Cedric Ford, 38, of Newton, Kan., to go on a shooting rampage that killed three and injured 14 before a police officer shot and killed Ford. The shootings occurred in Newton and in Hesston, Kan.—a small town of less than 4,000 near Newton—in and near Excel Industries, the lawn-care equipment manufacturer for which Ford worked. Authorities had served Ford with the temporary protection order at his workplace 90 minutes before he began the shootings, and they say he was angry about the order but not violent at the time.

Ford had a long criminal record, including a conviction for burglary in Miami, Fla., in 2000, and was legally barred from obtaining firearms. The day after the shooting police charged Ford’s friend Sarah Hopkins with knowingly transferring a firearm to a convicted felon.

Apple vs. FBI

Feb. 23

The FBI and technology company Apple faced off in courts of law and public opinion in a dispute over a terrorist’s locked iPhone. A California magistrate judge ordered Apple to help the FBI access the contents of an iPhone that belonged to Syed Farook. Last December Farook and his wife carried out a workplace massacre in San Bernardino, Calif., and subsequently died in a shootout with police. FBI officials say data on the iPhone—protected by a passcode and impenetrable encryption technology—might reveal whether Farook had outside help in planning the attack. They have asked Apple to create a tool to disable iPhone features that prevent computer-aided passcode hacking. But Apple CEO Tim Cook is fighting the request: In an open letter, he said such a tool would amount to a “back door” that could be used in subsequent cases or exploited by hackers. The dispute reflects a larger debate over the extent to which technology companies should be free to shield customer data from government investigators.