Midday Roundup: 'Aiding the enemy' charge against Manning stands

Supporting evidence. A U.S. Army judge refused this morning to dismiss the most serious charge against Pfc. Bradley Manning, the former intelligence officer who has admitted leaking thousands of classified documents to the website WikiLeaks. If he is convicted of aiding the enemy, Manning could spend the rest of his life in prison, without parole. The judge in Manning’s court martial, Col. Denise Lind, ruled the prosecution presented enough evidence to support the charge. Among the evidence: Proof that former al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden obtained digital copies of some of the documents WikiLeaks posted online. Manning, 25, already pleaded guilty to some charges and faces up to 20 years in prison for those offenses.

Bad PR. Rolling Stone’s latest marketing ploy might just backfire. Although Friday’s edition of the magazine, which features a flattering cover photo of suspected Boston bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, has undoubtedly generated the most attention of any in recent memory, much of the response has been negative. That’s especially true in Boston, where residents took to social media to lambast the editors for giving Tsarnaev the rock star treatment. Boston Mayor Thomas Menino even wrote to the publisher to say the cover supports the “terrible message that destruction gains fame for killers and their ‘causes.’” But perhaps most importantly for the publisher, some stores have said they will refuse to sell the magazine, which comes out tomorrow. Walgreens, the CVS pharmacy chain, Roche Bros. groceries, Cumberland Farms convenience stores, and Massachusetts-based Tedeschi convenience stores all said they would not put the Tsarnaev cover on their shelves.

Contaminated lunches. Parents in India are mourning the deaths of 25 children who ate poisoned school lunches. The children, who range in age from 4 to 12, participated in a free meal program for poor families. Doctors suspect the food was contaminated with insecticide, which the school cook says might have come from cooking oil. Residents of Mashrakh village in the district of Chapra, where the school was located, rioted after news of the deaths emerged. They blame the government for being too slow to provide treatment for the sick children. Another 23 remain hospitalized, some in critical condition.

Inescapable. In a sad reminder that the consequences of a father’s actions are vested on their children for generations, Jerry Sandusky’s adopted son Matt has petitioned a court to have his last name changed. His wife and four children also will take whatever name he chooses. Matt Sandusky, who was not officially adopted until he was an adult, claims the former Penn State University football coach molested him as well as the children he was convicted of attacking. Sandusky is just one of many descendants who suffer from the lifelong association a name carries with it. At the end of the Kermit Gosnell murder trial, the Philadelphia abortionist’s wife said one of her husband’s worst sins was saddling his children with a name that will forever be associated with horror and death.