NATION
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — One man was killed and three women were wounded in an on-campus shooting stemming from a fight over a dice game on the campus of Tennessee State University, police said today.
The 19-year-old who died in the Thursday night shooting was not enrolled at the school, police spokesman Don Aaron said. It wasn't known whether the shooter, who fled the scene, was a student.
The shooting occurred in a courtyard around 10:50 p.m. Witnesses said an argument over the dice game boiled over into a fistfight when “suddenly shots were fired,” Aaron said.
Three female students whom Aaron described as “innocent passers-by” were struck during the shooting. One was grazed and didn't require medical attention, while two others were taken to Vanderbilt University Medical Center with injuries. One had been released by Friday morning, while the other was in stable condition and was expected to make a full recovery, Aaron said.
“This was an isolated shooting incident in a courtyard,” Aaron said. “There were never, we believe, any other students in danger in dormitories or elsewhere on campus.”
Several students used their phones to record the fight.
Police have obtained some video, but encouraged other students who scattered when the shooting began to come forward with further recordings and information.
House Democrats are signaling they may quit a Republican-led committee investigating the 2012 Benghazi attacks after Hillary Rodham Clinton endured a grueling interrogation by GOP lawmakers at a marathon congressional hearing.“We have learned absolutely nothing,” Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., a member of the panel, said of Thursday's contentious 11-hour hearing and the 17-month investigation.Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, the committee's top Democrat, said no decision has been made on whether Democrats boycott investigation.Clinton had confrontational exchanges with several GOP lawmakers, but also heard supportive statements from Democrats. The questioning was, by turns, harsh and sympathetic, depending on who was asking.Clinton firmly defended her record while steadfastly dodging any misstatement or display of anger that might damage her White House prospects. The most combative moments zeroed in on the Obama administration's shifting initial accounts of the September 2012 attack that cost the lives of Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans. But there were few specific questions about what transpired that day.Democrats noted that the probe has now cost taxpayers more than $4.5 million and has lasted longer than the 1970s Watergate era investigation.
WASHINGTON — Rep. Paul Ryan, on his way to becoming speaker of the House and second in line to the presidency, says Congress must change its ways. “We are not solving the country's problems; we are only adding to them,” he said.The 45-year-old House Ways and Means Committee chairman pledges to change that dynamic if selected speaker in elections next week. He is a lock for the job now that he's secured support from all factions of the House GOP, including the hardline Freedom Caucus.“We have an opportunity to turn the page, to start with a clean slate, and to rebuild what has been lost,” Ryan, the 2012 Republican vice presidential nominee, said in a letter to fellow Republicans late Thursday that formally announced his candidacy. “We can make the House a more open and inclusive body — one where every member can contribute to the legislative process.”Awaiting him will be a mess of trouble: a Nov. 3 deadline to raise the federal borrowing limit or face an unprecedented default, and a Dec. 11 deadline to act on must-pass spending legislation or court a government shutdown.
