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Senators rally for changes in military justice system to curb sexual assaults
• WASHINGTON (AP) -- Senators rallied behind significant changes in military law to curb rape and sexual assault within the ranks, approving steps to protect the victims and barring the "good soldier defense" to ensure evidence alone determines a defendant's fate.
• With the women of the Senate leading the fight, lawmakers voted 97-0 Monday for legislation that would force a half-dozen major changes on a military struggling with a pervasive problem that Pentagon leaders concede could cost the services the trust and respect of the public and make it harder to attract men and women to serve in the all-volunteer force.
• The measure, which now heads to the House, comes on top of more than 30 changes that Congress approved and President Barack Obama signed into law as part of a defense policy bill just four months ago.
• "Unanimous agreement in the U.S. Senate is pretty rare -- but rarer still is the kind of sweeping, historic change we've achieved over the past year in the military justice system," said Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., who joined with two Republican women -- Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire and Deb Fischer of Nebraska -- in writing the legislation.
• Still, that unanimous support was in sharp contrast to last week, when military leaders vigorously opposed a measure by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., that would have stripped commanders of their authority to prosecute cases and given that power to military lawyers outside the chain of command. The Senate voted 55-45 for that farther-reaching bill, but that was five votes short of the necessary 60.
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Once America's most dangerous dog, pit bulls benefit from softening attitudes, advocacy groups
• KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) -- For much of the past three decades, pit bulls have been widely regarded as America's most dangerous dog -- the favorite breed of thugs, drug dealers and dog-fighting rings, with a fearsome reputation for unprovoked, sometimes deadly attacks.
• Hostility toward "pits" grew so intense that some cities began treating them as the canine equivalent of assault rifles and prohibited residents from owning them.
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