Dropped

U.S. life expectancy in 2016 dropped for the second straight year. An average U.S. adult can now expect to live 78.6 years, with a five-year gap between the lifespans of men and women: 76.1 years to 81.1 years. This multi-year drop in life expectancy is the first since 1962 and 1963. Bob Anderson of the National Center for Health Statistics told reporters he cannot say whether a trend is developing, but he is worried about the steady mortality rate among opioid addicts. If 2017 had another increase in such deaths, it could signal a third straight drop in life-expectancy data for the first time since the Spanish flu epidemic 100 years ago.

Vindicated

A federal district court ruled on Dec. 20 that the city of Atlanta can no longer force its employees to submit all after-hours speeches and writing for city approval. Fire Chief Kelvin Cochran had lost his job after he wrote a devotional in his free time that included his views on Christian marriage and sex. Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed suspended him for 30 days without pay, put him through sensitivity training, and then fired him, even though a city investigation determined Cochran had not discriminated against anyone. The Alliance Defending Freedom brought Cochran’s case to federal court, where the judge overturned the Atlanta policy, saying the policy could permit an unconstitutional restriction of free speech.

Awakened

Alyson Davis, a teenager in Alabama, started the “oPIN your eyes” project in March 2017 after reading an article in WORLD comparing abortion and the Holocaust. The article noted that Americans have pictures of the aborted babies and still allow them to be killed. Thinking about the power of visuals, Alyson remembered visiting a Holocaust memorial in Tennessee, a railroad car used to bring victims to the killing camps. The car held 6 million paper clips, representing the murdered. She began collecting safety pins from churches for a similar display for the victims of abortion, each safety pin representing 200 murdered babies. Nine months later, the collection of 328,528 pins is complete and ready for a display planned for Sanctity of Human Life Sunday at Eastside Baptist Church in Winfield, Ala.

Announced

U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, announced on Jan. 2 that he will not seek an eighth term in November. “I was an amateur boxer in my youth, and I’ve brought that fighting spirit with me to Washington,” said Hatch, the longest-serving Republican in Senate history. “But every good fighter knows when to hang up the gloves. And for me, that time is soon approaching.” Political analysts expect 2012 GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney to run for the open Senate seat.

Denied

Aaron and Melissa Klein, Oregon bakers who refused to make a cake for a same-sex wedding, lost their appeal to an Oregon appeals court on Dec. 28. The Kleins told the same-sex couple they couldn’t make the cake because of their Christian beliefs, and the couple sued, arguing the Kleins had violated an Oregon law preventing sexual discrimination in places that serve the public. An administrative law judge agreed, fining the Kleins $135,000. The Kleins appealed, claiming the Oregon Equality Act should protect their religious beliefs. They also argued that baking was a form of expression protected under the First Amendment. The judge denied them on all counts.