Midday Roundup: California legalizes physician-assisted suicide

Deadly decision. California Gov. Jerry Brown announced yesterday he had signed the assisted-suicide law passed by the state legislature last month. The law requires patients be able to take a suicide pill on their own, with the approval of two doctors. It also requires several written requests for the medication and the presence of two witnesses. Opponents say the bill will make it harder for the disabled and people with terminal conditions to get proper treatment. “The governor’s decision is based on his background as someone with access to doctors and quality healthcare,” Tim Rosales, a spokesman for Californians Against Assisted Suicide, told The Orange County Register. “Things are different for other families that will potentially be hurt by the signing of this bill.”

Bad intel? Gen. John F. Campbell, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, told lawmakers this morning the weekend attack on a Doctors Without Borders hospital in Kunduz was a mistake. U.S. officials initially said Taliban fighters had taken shelter in the facility and were firing on American and Afghan forces. Campbell admitted yesterday that wasn’t true. Afghan ground units requested the air strike, but it’s not yet clear why they targeted the hospital. The bombing left at least 22 people dead—12 were healthcare workers. The international medical charity said it had previously given U.S. and Afghan forces the coordinates of the facility to avoid accidental attacks. But the plane that conducted Saturday’s bombing relies on directions given by troops on the ground, rather than map coordinates. Doctors Without Borders pulled all its personnel out of Kunduz after the attack.

Total saturation. After a week of driving rain, showers have tapered off in South Carolina. But Gov. Nikki Haley insists the danger has not passed. She urged people living in the flood-ravaged region to stay home. Officials blamed at least 13 weather-related deaths in two states on the vast rainstorm that started last week. Haley warned those in low-lying coastal areas they may still see rising water and should be prepared for more evacuations. The flooding has buckled roads, washed out bridges, and topped at least nine dams since Saturday. Widespread power outages remain, and as of yesterday, more than 40,000 people were still without water. Some residents who have been able to return home found looters got there first, making off with anything not destroyed by water.

Angry and unhappy. In a manifesto he left behind, the man who killed nine people at Oregon’s Umpqua Community College last week ranted about not having a girlfriend. Christopher Harper-Mercer, 26, also struggled with mental health issues, his mother reportedly told investigators. In several online postings, Laurel Harper, 64, described her son as having Asperger’s syndrome, a condition on the autism-disorder spectrum. But she boasted about his knowledge of and proficiency with firearms, a fascination she evidently shared. In one online forum, she talked about the number of guns she owned and trips to a shooting range with her son. Gun control advocates have used the shooting to call for more restrictions on firearms, but it’s not clear how any of the proposals would have prevented Mercer from obtaining the weapons he used.

No one to blame. A rock slide may have thrown an Amtrak train off its tracks in central Vermont yesterday. Investigators have found no evidence thus far of wrongdoing or negligence on anyone’s part. Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin told reporters the recently rebuilt track was state-of-the-art. Four people were hospitalized after several cars derailed and two went over an embankment about 20 miles southwest of Montpelier. None of those injuries were life-threatening. The 600-mile route between central Vermont and Washington, D.C., winds through Massachusetts and New York and is popular with tourists enjoying New England’s autumn leaves. No word yet on when the route will reopen.

WORLD Radio’s Mary Reichard contributed to this report.