Human Race

Prayed

Due to have their first child in December, NFL free agent Evan Rodriguez and wife Olivia rejected abortion after finding out their daughter has anencephaly. Layla Sky will likely be born without portions of her brain, a birth defect that often limits life to days. The couple told WFTS Tampa Bay they pray every morning together. “We felt like who are we to determine a baby’s life,” Evan said. “We are going to leave it in God’s hands.” The couple is now seeking to raise awareness about anencephaly.

Died

Amelia Boynton Robinson, whose picture of her unconscious body in Selma’s 1965 “Bloody Sunday” traveled across the world, died Aug. 26. She was 104. Called the matriarch of the voting rights movement, Robinson helped organize the Alabama marches from Selma to Montgomery. She long fought Jim Crow voting tests, registering to vote herself in the early 1930s. In a wheelchair in March, she held hands with President Barack Obama for Bloody Sunday’s 50th anniversary on Selma’s Edmund Pettus Bridge.

Objected

Brian Grasso, a Duke University freshman, sparked nationwide debate in August after refusing to read required summer texts. Citing his Christian beliefs on a Duke Facebook page, Grasso objected to the LGBT graphic novel Fun Home, which contains explicit sexual content. The story went viral when returning students publicized it, prompting both support and allegations of being closed-minded. In a Washington Post op-ed about the incident, Grasso wrote about the sacredness of sex and his hope for an education that’s not sexually explicit.

Died

IndyCar driver Justin Wilson died Aug. 24 after a freak accident the previous day at Pocono Raceway. Flying debris from a crash ricocheted off his head, leaving the 37-year-old married father of two briefly in a coma before his death. A beloved driver in the series for his character and sportsmanship, Wilson is IndyCar’s second fatality in four years. He won seven times over 12 seasons in open-wheel racing, an event facing new questions over its cars with open cockpits. An organ donor, Wilson reportedly saved six lives in his death.

Suspended

ESPN suspended former pitcher Curt Schilling after an Aug. 25 tweet comparing radical Muslims to Nazis. The meme, superimposed with a red-tinted photo of Hitler, read, “Only 5-10% of Muslims are extremists. In 1940, only 7% of Germans were Nazis. How’d that go?” ESPN didn’t dispute Schilling’s statistics but called the tweet “completely unacceptable,” postponing Schilling’s commentary duties at the network. Schilling later apologized, calling the tweet “a bad decision.”

Rejected

Asking for “asylum for her conscience,” a Kentucky county clerk appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court Aug. 28 and lost. Rowan County’s Kim Davis has refused to issue any marriage license since the Supreme Court imposed same-sex marriage on the states. Four couples sued her, and she lost in each court. Without staying its ruling, the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld an order to issue licenses Aug. 26. Davis could face fines and jail time.

Murdered

In a shooting filmed on live television Aug. 26, Vester Flanagan shot and killed reporter Alison Parker and cameraman Adam Ward. Flanagan, an African-American and a gay man, was a disgruntled former employee of WDBJ in Roanoke, Va., and known for angry outbursts and accusations of racism. Parker, 24, and Ward, 27, were interviewing Smith Mountain Lake Regional Chamber of Commerce executive Vicki Gardner when Flanagan attacked. Called a “professional victim” by his former boss, Flanagan videoed the shooting and posted it to social media before killing himself while fleeing from police. Gardner survived.

Admitted

Former Subway spokesman Jared Fogle pleaded guilty Aug. 19 to allegations he paid for sex with minors and received child pornography. As part of his plea deal, Fogle will pay $1.4 million in restitution to 14 minor victims. The father of two was the public face of Subway for 15 years, helping it grow into the world’s largest restaurant chain. Prosecutors agreed not to seek more than 12.5 years in prison, but a judge in November could more than double that.

Suspended

Ligonier Ministries suspended teaching fellow R.C. Sproul Jr. until 2016 in the wake of the Ashley Madison data breach. Sproul, whose wife died of cancer in 2011, said he visited the site in “a moment of weakness, pain, and from an unhealthy curiosity.” Ashley Madison parent company CEO Noel Biderman resigned Aug. 28 after touting himself as “the king of infidelity” and running the $115 million site for would-be adulterers. Hackers breached Toronto-based Avid Life Media Inc. in July and released to the public user data including information on celebrities and Christian reality show figure Josh Duggar, who admitted to adultery and checked into rehab. Canadian officials have reported extortion attempts and possible suicides as a result of the data breach.

By the numbers

6.9 million | Americans with student loans who, as of July, had not sent a payment on their loans in the previous 360 days, according to the Department of Education.

141 | counties in the United States with more registered voters than living persons within the county, according to data compiled by the Public Interest Legal Foundation.

1,000 | estimated killed in dozens of attacks by Boko Haram terrorists since Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari took office on May 29.

104 | reported homicides in Milwaukee this year, a 76 percent increase from the same period in 2014. Cities across the United States have seen a sharp increase in murders this year.