Asa Hutchinson wants an armed guard in every school. That could be good news for his former lobbying clients at Securitas Inc.

At a no-questions press conference in late December following the tragic shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., National Rifle Association executive vice president Wayne LaPierre announced a bold new multi-billion-dollar proposal to end school shootings: Put an armed security guard or police officer in every school in the country. LaPierre commissioned a special task force to develop the plan, and deputized Asa Hutchinson, a former Republican congressman from Arkansas and director of the Drug Enforcement Agency under President George W. Bush, to head the effort.

But there's something the LaPierre didn't mention: Hutchinson sits on the board of directors of Pinkerton Government Services, a subsidiary of one of the nation's largest private security contractors, Securitas. And if the NRA's—and Hutchinson's—proposals a ... Read more »

Two storied college football programs. Two rape scandals. Only one national outcry. How do we begin to explain the exponentially different levels of attention paid to crimes of violence and power at Penn State and Notre Dame?

At Penn State, revered assistant coach Jerry Sandusky was raping young boys while being shielded by a conspiracy of silence of those in power at the football powerhouse. At Notre Dame, it’s not young boys being raped by an assistant coach. It’s women being threatened, assaulted, and raped by players on the school’s unbeaten football team. Yet sports media that are overwhelmingly male and ineffably giddy about Fighting Irish football’s return to prominence have enacted their own conspiracy of silence.

As unbeaten Notre Dame prepares to play in tonight’s national championship game against Alabama, the sports media have chosen not to discuss the fact that this football team has two players on its roster suspected of sexual assault and rape; ... Read more »

(Reuters) - The drought-drained Mississippi River will stay open for commerce as workers make progress clearing rock from a critical stretch of the nation's busiest waterway, U.S. Senator Dick Durbin said on Monday after touring the river on a boat.

The White House has said "any option is on the table" to keep the river open to commerce if water levels drop too low, Durbin said in a phone interview.

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