Human Race

Resigned

Josh Duggar, 27, the oldest child of the Arkansas family that stars in the television reality show 19 Kids and Counting, resigned from his job at the Family Research Council May 21 after the tabloid In Touch Weekly publicized abuse accusations from 12 years ago. Duggar released a statement admitting to misconduct when he was 14. A police report alleges he fondled five minor girls in 2002 and 2003. Parents Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar disciplined him, sent him to live and work with a family friend, but did not formally contact the police. The 2006 police investigation occurred after a media leak, and the statute of limitations had expired. Josh Duggar’s wife, Anna, expecting their fourth child, said Josh was open about the misconduct with both her and her parents years before their engagement. TLC on May 22 indefinitely postponed all airings of 19 Kids and Counting.

Died

John M. Templeton Jr., chairman and president of the John Templeton Foundation, died May 16. He was 75. A distinguished Philadelphia pediatrician, Templeton retired in 1995 to run his late father’s foundation, which has given away nearly $1 billion. To honor his father, Templeton followed his father’s strict guidelines for the foundation’s grants, despite the evangelical son’s differences with his quasi-pantheistic father. He reserved personal giving for his own views, and he gave to youth and women’s crisis programs and to support California’s 2008 traditional marriage referendum.

Diagnosed

InterVarsity Christian Fellowship President Alec Hill is battling bone marrow cancer, the ministry announced May 14. Already planning to retire later this year, Hill will step down to begin “rigorous” treatment June 10, after the ministry selects an interim president. Hill, who has led the student ministry since 2001, oversaw a 10 percent increase in membership. Ron Williams, InterVarsity’s board chair, thanked Hill for “encouraging and shepherding us.”

Charged

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and all 50 states filed a lawsuit against James T. Reynolds Sr., and his family’s four cancer charities: the Children’s Cancer Fund of America, the Breast Cancer Society, the Cancer Fund of America, and Cancer Support Services. The family members through telemarketing allegedly received $187 million in donations they spent mostly on themselves, with nearly 85 percent of donations never reaching cancer patients. In a settlement with three executives—including Reynolds’ son—and two of the charities, the charities will recompense $137 million for donations between 2008-2012, and then dissolve. Reynolds and two of the charities, the Cancer Fund of America and Cancer Support Services, face prosecution.

Died

Extreme sportsman Dean Potter and a friend died at dusk May 16 while BASE jumping in Yosemite National Park. Using wingsuits from 7,500-foot Taft Point, Potter, 43, and Graham Hunt, 29, misjudged their pathway between cliffs. BASE jumping, where people jump from cliffs or structures, is illegal in national parks. But the activist of sorts often skirted the rules and gained tens of thousands of worldwide fans. Park officials are using Potter’s video camera, which captured the accident, to analyze what went wrong.

Quit

Charlie Hebdo columnist Renald Luzier, 43, announced May 18 he is quitting the magazine following January’s Paris massacre. Luzier drew the satirical magazine’s first cover after the Islamist massacre and manhunt took 17 lives, including 12 employees. Though he has been at the magazine since 1992, he described the absence of his colleagues and assuming their workloads as “too much to bear.” Last month, he told reporters that he would no longer draw Muhammad because “he no longer interests me.”

Vaulted

Senior pole vaulter Charlotte Brown—who is blind—won third place May 16 at the Texas state high-school championships. Her vision began deteriorating when she was 11, but she’s learned when to plant the pole and push up with a beeper on the mat. This was her third year at the state championships. Determined to finally reach the podium, she cleared 11 feet 6 inches. Her guide dog, Vador, joined her on the podium.

Tried

The barons and bishops who forced King John to sign the Magna Carta in 1215 face treason charges 800 years later. The mock trial in London July 31 will commemorate the document, which laid the foundation for modern constitutional government. Two high court Commonwealth judges and the U.S. Supreme Court’s Stephen Breyer will preside, as actors and modern magnates bring the 13th and 21st centuries together. The prosecution and defense will debate whether barons and bishops committed treason in the way they refused to surrender to John and forced him to sign the Magna Carta, though the pope annulled it.

Threatened

Qin Yi, a Chinese schoolteacher who had gained permission to have a child, found herself facing an ordered abortion on May 12. China has regularly denied that forced abortions happen, but the Associated Press confirmed Qin’s ultimatum with government officials themselves. Both Qin and her husband have daughters with previous spouses, and the province where she teaches orders remarried couples with two children to abort. The couple was to abort the five-month pregnancy by May’s end or forfeit her job. An international outcry led provincial officials to reverse the abortion order on May 20.

Killed

A day before new mom Kerrie Orozco, 29, was to bring home her premature daughter Olivia Ruth from the hospital, the Omaha, Neb., cop died in a gunfight. Olivia Ruth had been hospitalized since her February birth, and Orozco had postponed her maternity leave. Orozco was part of a task force May 20 searching for Marcus Wheeler, 26, when he opened fire. The “convicted felon and known gang member,” police said, also died from his wounds.

By the numbers

$25 million | The amount in speaking fees Bill and Hillary Clinton have received since 2014, according to a May financial disclosure report to the Federal Election Commission.

$250,000 | The amount of a proposed $1 million salary turned down by incoming University of Texas at Austin President Gregory Fenves. The new UT president accepted a lower salary of $750,000 due to “many issues and concerns about administrative costs, affordability and tuition.”