Human Race

Hired

The Family Research Council has hired former NFL star and sportscaster Craig James as an assistant to the president. James, 53, is in the midst of a legal battle against Fox Sports Southwest, which last year fired him days into a contract because of his views on same-sex marriage. In 2012, when James was running unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate, he expressed support for the biblical definition of marriage. The Texas Workforce Commission in March issued a charge of discrimination against Fox Sports Southwest.

Died

Actor Mickey Rooney, whose career spanned nine decades, died April 6 at age 93. Born Joseph Yule Jr., Rooney starred in film, on television, and on Broadway, ranging from National Velvet (1944) to The Twilight Zone (1963) and Night at the Museum (2006). He received four Oscar nominations and won two Emmy Awards but had to rebuild his career multiple times. Turmoil marked much of Rooney’s life: He married eight times (and had nine children), filed for bankruptcy, struggled with gambling and alcohol abuse, and in 2011 testified to Congress that he was the victim of elder abuse.

Named

CBS on April 10 announced comedian Stephen Colbert will take over the Late Show for the outgoing David Letterman. Colbert, 49, hosts Comedy Central’s popular The Colbert Report, a news parody program. In a statement, Colbert, who grew up as the youngest of 11 in a Catholic family, said he “never dreamed” he would follow in Letterman’s footsteps. Letterman, 66, began hosting the Late Show in 1993 and will retire at the end of this year.

Filed

A transgendered student at a Christian university in Oregon has filed a complaint against the institution over a housing dispute. The student, named Jayce M. in legal documents, entered George Fox University as a female but then began the process of changing her identity—both physically and legally. George Fox has single-sex housing and proposed Jayce live alone on campus next year, but she wants to live in male housing. Jayce’s attorney told WORLD his client is a Christian and does not see a gender change as incompatible with the Bible.

Kidnapped

Terrified parents told the BBC that gunmen abducted at least 200 teenage girls from a boarding school on April 14 in Nigeria’s Borno state. The parents said militants arrived at the school late in the night and ordered the girls into trucks. A student who escaped the attack confirmed the details to the BBC. Suspicion fell on Boko Haram—the Islamist group waging a brutal campaign of terror to force an Islamic state in the north.

Arrested

Authorities arrested a 39-year-old Utah woman on April 11 after finding seven dead babies in her former residence. Megan Huntsman’s ex-husband found a dead baby while cleaning out the home where Huntsman lived until 2011 and alerted police, who found six more bodies in cardboard boxes in the garage. Investigators believe Huntsman gave birth to 10 children: the three she kept and the seven who died between 1996 and 2006.