Resigned

Andy Savage resigned from his position at Highpoint Church in Memphis, Tenn., on March 20, after an incident of sexual misconduct became public. Twenty years ago Savage was a college student serving as a youth pastor in Houston, Texas, when he initiated a sexual encounter with Jules Woodson, a 17-year-old girl under his spiritual care. Woodson told church leaders at the time, and they asked her to remain silent. Woodson brought the matter to public attention in January. Savage had been serving as a teaching pastor at Highpoint Church. Highpoint leaders told the media they did not find any further instances of abuse but supported Savage’s resignation.

Killed

Sacramento police shot and killed a man found holding a cell phone in his grandmother’s yard. Police said they had thought the cell phone was a gun. They tracked down Stephon Clark, who is black, after reports that a man fitting Clark’s description had been breaking car windows with a toolbar. Police body camera footage shows the officers telling him to stop and show his hands. Clark fled to the backyard, and two police officers followed him. According to the police, it was then that he stopped and started toward them holding what looked like a gun. They fired 20 shots, hitting him multiple times. He was pronounced dead at the scene. Investigators told the media that nothing was found on Clark except the cell phone lying next to his body. The two officers are on leave pending an investigation.

Accused

Several women have accused Bill Hybels, founding pastor of Willow Creek Community Church in Chicago, of inappropriate behavior spanning the past two decades. They say the behavior included inappropriately long hugs, invitations to his hotel rooms, sexual comments, an instance of crude humor, an instance of unwanted touching, and an unwanted kiss. The church had investigated some of the accusations and reportedly cleared Hybels, but the Chicago Tribune made them public on March 22. Hybels told the Tribune the accusations were all false and the result of collusion against him: “I’m so exhausted of hearing so many lies that I’ve stopped playing detective.”

Nominated

A Holocaust denier is the official Republican nominee in a Chicago-area House race. Arthur Jones ran unopposed in the primary and received the nomination despite the Illinois Republican Party’s denunciation of his campaign. “We strongly oppose his racist views and his candidacy for any public office,” Republican Party chairman Tim Schneider said in a statement. Jones has been involved with anti-Semitic and racist groups since the 1970s. His campaign website includes articles calling the Holocaust a lie and “good business for the Jews and their bandit state Israel.” Jones will face the Democratic nominee in November.

Bombed

Mark Anthony Conditt, the suspected bomber who terrorized Austin, Texas, for three weeks, blew himself up on March 21 after leaving a recorded confession. His first three bombs were in packages delivered to households on the east side of the city. A 75-year-old woman was severely injured. Anthony House, a 39-year-old father, and Draylen Mason, a high-school student, were both killed. A fourth bomb, attached to a trip wire, wounded two men on a street in the more affluent southwest Austin. Then a fifth package exploded in a FedEx van en route to the city. Local and federal authorities tracked Conditt, 23, to a hotel but were unable to capture him alive.