Sued

The parents of two Americans killed in the 2012 terror attack in Benghazi, Libya, sued former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Aug. 8. Pat Smith and Charles Woods hold Clinton responsible for the deaths of their sons, U.S. foreign service member Sean Smith and former Navy SEAL Tyrone Woods, respectively. The lawsuit claims someone hacked Clinton’s illegal email server, gaining information used to plan the attacks. The plaintiffs also accuse Clinton of defamation. Clinton told the parents at their sons’ funerals that the attack was a riot caused by a YouTube video. When investigators revealed the lie, Clinton implied the parents lied about what she told them. Smith told WORLD she cares less about compensation than she does about getting an explanation from Clinton.

Rebuked

A three-judge panel called Internal Revenue Service arguments “absurd” while reinstating the lawsuits of two conservative groups on Aug. 5. The ruling adds a new chapter to the IRS targeting scandal after a district court threw out lawsuits by True the Vote, Inc. and Linchpins of Liberty in 2014—in part because the IRS claimed it had stopped its targeting. But with the two groups still awaiting tax-exempt status, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals challenged IRS claims and said the agency needs to prove it is no longer targeting certain groups for extra scrutiny.

Awarded

Students at five Christian colleges/universities are among those who won awards competing against counterparts at secular institutions during the 2015-2016 academic year:

Cedarville University students claimed third place at the national Model Design Competition for robotics this June. Teams designed and built autonomous robots to complete a series of tasks at break-neck speed around a track. Cedarville had won the event for the last three years.

John Brown University students won two first-place prizes at a February regional competition for construction designs. Construction professionals gave students 16 hours to produce proposals for a $20 million energy-efficient school and a $17 million alteration of a water plant.

Liberty University sophomore Ednah Kurgat earned All-America honors in the women’s 5K at the 2016 NCAA Division I Track and Field Championships this June. Liberty’s Cyber Defense Club won third place in last fall’s most difficult National Cyber League bracket. Some 128 teams from schools including Texas A&M and Penn State worked under deadline to solve situations resembling real-world crises—such as another country hacking into American corporate accounts.

Patrick Henry College won an international moot court competition this summer involving 24 teams from law schools worldwide. Yale Law School and Patrick Henry were the only American teams to qualify.

William Jessup University’s Emma Farrell won a Kennedy Center for Performing Arts’ Meritorious Achievement Award for her stage management last December of Jessup’s production of The Crucible.