National: The Defense Department will spend $1 billion to beef up west coast missile defenses in response to threats from North Korea and Iran. Fourteen missile interceptors will be added to 30 already in place in California and Alaska, but not until September 2017. At the moment, neither North Korea nor Iran has a missile capable of hitting the US.

• The President and Congressional Republicans continue to butt heads on a budget deal, with Republicans focused on cutting spending and refusing new revenue. The NY Times reports that in a meeting yesterday the President said, “Our biggest problems in the next 10 years are not deficits.”
• Only a week after Arkansas passed the country’s most restrictive abortion law, the North Dakota legislature approved a law banning abortion as soon as a fetal heartbeat is detectable, which could be as early as six weeks into the pregnancy. Dakota’s Republican governor has not said whether he will sign the law.

World: A 39-year-old Swiss woman on a bicycle tour of India with her husband was gang raped by eight men, police reported. The woman and her husband were camping in a forest when they were attacked, beaten, and she was raped. Thirteen men are being questioned.  India’s problem with gang rape has been a focus since December’s fatal rape of a woman on a bus in New Delhi.

Death Takes a Holiday: The Maryland legislature has voted to end the death penalty. The governor, who has long opposed execution, is expected to sign the bill. This makes Maryland the 18^th state to end its death penalty. They have executed only five people since 1976.

Black Death: London railway workers discovered 13 skeletons believed to be victims of the 14^th Century bubonic plague known as “The Black Death”. Archaeologists believe the site might be where 50,000 victims are buried. Starting in 1348, the plague killed half the population of London and a third of Europe. Scientists hope the skeletons will reveal medical information.

A Violin to Remember: The violin played by the bandleader as the Titanic sank has been identified by a London Auction House. It was found strapped to Wallace Hartley’s floating body and bears the inscription from his fiancée, “For Wallace, on the occasion of our engagement. From Maria.” The violin was returned to the fiancée, Maria Robinson, and changed hands several times before ending up in an attic. Hartley was famously reported to have led the band playing “Nearer My God to Thee” as the ship went down.

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