10 things you need to know today: February 13, 2015

1. Senate confirms Ashton Carter as defense secretary

The Senate on Thursday voted 93-5 to confirm Ashton Carter as defense secretary. He will replace the outgoing Chuck Hagel. Carter, who has served as the Pentagon's No. 2 civilian, will oversee the fight against the Islamic State with a tightening defense budget. Carter was the first Cabinet member approved by the now GOP-run Senate. Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain said Carter was a good choice. "America needs a strong secretary of defense now more than ever," McCain said.

The Washington Times

2. Judge orders Alabama County to issue marriage licenses to gay couples

Federal Judge Callie V.S. Granade on Thursday ordered the Mobile County, Alabama, probate judge to start issuing same-sex couples marriage licenses. The office opened late to enable waiting couples to obtain licenses. The Supreme Court this week cleared the way for same-sex marriage to begin in the state, but most counties refused to comply because State Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore ordered them not to. Same-sex couples sued, and Granade ruled local probate judges had no grounds to deny the licenses.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

The New York Times

3. New York Times columnist David Carr dies at 58

New York Times media columnist David Carr collapsed at his office and died Thursday night. He was 58. Carr joined the Times in 2002, working first as a business reporter and most recently writing the Media Equation column. Carr wrote a deeply personal 2008 memoir, The Night of the Gun, that explored his past drug addiction and recovery by fact-checking his own past.

The New York Times

4. FBI chief addresses "hard truths" about race and policing

FBI Director James B. Comey on Thursday made an unusually frank speech, saying that one of the "hard truths" was that officers in neighborhoods with high rates of crimes committed by blacks become cynical about race. Comey said Americans can choose to live their lives hoping racial tensions will somehow disappear, or they can "have an open and honest discussion" about race relations. "We are at a crossroads," Comey said.

The Washington Post

5. Obama executive order to push public-private cooperation on cybersecurity

President Obama is expected to announced Friday that he is issuing an executive order to push information sharing between the government and businesses. The news came as Obama continues a push on cybersecurity with a summit at Stanford University on Friday. The conference will explore how to better protect consumers, the government, and companies. White House Cybersecurity Coordinator Michael Daniel told reporters that thwarting cyberattacks is "one of the defining challenges of the 21st century for us."

NBC News

6. Thousands mourn Muslim students killed in North Carolina

Thousands of people gathered in Raleigh, North Carolina, on Thursday to mourn three young Muslim students shot to death in Chapel Hill. Police say that the deaths of Deah Shaddy Barakat, 23, his wife Yusor Mohammad Abu-Salha, 21, and her sister Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha, 19, were the result of an ongoing parking dispute with a neighbor. The sisters' father and many others call the attack a hate crime. The alleged killer, Craig Stephen Hicks, had posted anti-Christian and anti-Muslim messages on Facebook.

USA

7. Fellow Democrats urge Gov. John Kitzhaber to step down

Top Oregon Democrats met with Gov. John Kitzhaber on Thursday and pressured him to resign as his fiancee, Cylvia Hayes, faces two investigations into allegations that she used her political influence for personal financial gain. According to several reports, Kitzhaber had decided to step down, summoning Oregon Secretary of State Kate Brown, who would succeed him, back from a trip. Then he changed his mind. In the meeting with fellow Democratic leaders, Kitzhaber reportedly was defiant.

The Christian Science Monitor

8. Eight million tons of plastic wind up in oceans yearly

People are dumping about eight million tons of plastic trash into the world's oceans every year, according to a study released Thursday in Science. The numbers came out of the first attempt to tally up all of the plastic thrown into oceans, not just floating debris in "garbage patches." The total was far more than the 245,000 or so tons of floating trash that has been found, and the figures are expected to increase ten-fold without improvements in how garbage is collected.

National Geographic Science

9. 22 Marines injured by fire extinguisher during training

On Thursday, 22 U.S. Marines were injured during a training exercise in Twentynine Palms, California, after being exposed to a fire retardant. A defense official said that the Marines were inside an amphibious assault vehicle at the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center when a fire extinguisher malfunctioned. The Marines suffered from inhalation injuries and are being treated at the Robert E. Bush Naval Hospital.

ABC 7 NBC News

10. Emile Hirsch charged with assaulting a Paramount executive at Sundance

Actor Emile Hirsch has been charged with felony aggravated assault for allegedly attacking Paramount executive Daniele Bernfeld in a chokehold at a Park City, Utah, nightclub during the Sundance Film Festival. Hirsch was at Sundance for the premiere of his movie Ten Thousand Saints, which also stars Ethan Hawke. He allegedly approached Bernfeld, calling her a "rich kid," then returned and put her into a chokehold, causing her to black out.

CNN