Human Race

Accused

The NCAA on Oct. 17 charged staff members of the University of Louisville, including coach Rick Pitino, with rule violations in connection with a recently uncovered sex scandal. The NCAA says a university employee, Andre McGee, provided players and recruits of the men’s basketball program with prostitutes. Pitino, one of college basketball’s most successful coaches, was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2013. He claims he knew nothing about McGee’s actions, but the NCAA charged him with failure to monitor, a charge that could lead to his suspension. The NCAA has not yet punished the university.

Recorded

The United States this year has seen its highest recorded levels of sexually transmitted diseases per capita, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Since 2014, the last record year, the United States has had a 6 percent increase of chlamydia and a 19 percent increase of syphilis. Gay and bisexual men represented the majority of cases of gonorrhea and syphilis.

Honored

The organization Human Rights First gave Iraqi lawyer Khaleel Aldakhi and his wife Ameena Saeed Hasan the 2016 Human Rights First Award on Oct. 19 for their rescue of 170 Yazidi girls from ISIS. The Islamic State has held thousands of Yazidi girls and women since their advances in Iraq in 2014. Aldakhi and Hasan first rescued Maha, the 17-year-old daughter of a couple they met at a refugee camp. Word of Maha’s rescue spread and others soon swamped the Iraqi couple with pleas for help. They answered, building an underground network to smuggle girls to safety.

Detected

A new study from the Concussion Legacy Foundation has identified diagnoses of CTE, a degenerative brain disease caused by brain trauma, in former players from more than 100 college football programs. Almost two-thirds of the group studied went on to play professionally, but the foundation says the study demonstrates the prevalence of brain trauma even in amateur football. The data for the study go back to at least 1969 and include former Texas Longhorns defensive lineman Greg Ploetz, who died last year with complications from dementia at age 66.

Revealed

Recent James O’Keefe videos suggest Democrats have used dirty tactics to promote Hillary Clinton’s campaign, including plans to bus illegal immigrants to the voting booths. The videos, from O’Keefe’s Project Veritas Action, also suggest Democratic officials pushed a Trump Chicago rally to violence and sent homeless and mentally ill people to frighten Republicans. In the wake of the videos Democratic political operatives Scott Foval and Robert Creamer left their jobs, even as some Democrats suggested the videos took their comments out of context. Foval had worked for Americans United for Change, while Creamer had worked for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.