Top 5 Live-WURD Friday April 3
1. Iran Reaches Framework Agreement With World Powers On Nuclear Program
After years of multilateral negotiations, President Obama said that Iran and six world powers had come to a preliminary understanding about Iran’s nuclear program.
Obama, whose administration began secret negotiations with Iran years ago, said that if fully implemented, the deal outlined today would prevent Iran “from obtaining a nuclear weapon.”
It’s no secret, Obama said, that the United States and Israel disagree on this deal, but Obama said a diplomatic solution like the one reached today is “the best option.”
“A diplomatic solution is the best way to get this done and offers a more comprehensive and lasting solution,” Obama said.
2. Teen surrenders, is charged in attack on SEPTA rider
The 16-year-old wanted for knocking out a 60-year-old SEPTA rider on the 15th Street Market-Frankford El platform on Monday surrendered to police and was charged in the attack Thursday afternoon, officials said.
The teen turned himself in to police at the 9th District around 2:30 p.m., according to SEPTA spokesman Andrew Busch.
The teen has been charged with aggravated assault, simple assault and reckless endangerment, Busch said.
SEPTA officials announced late Wednesday that SEPTA police were working out the arrangements with the 16-year-old’s attorney.
SEPTA police chief Thomas Nestel said Tuesday that the incident started inside an El train car headed to Center City and escalated into the attack, which was caught on video at 3:15 p.m.
3. Ku Klux Klan Members Arrested in Florida Murder Plot
Florida authorities arrested three alleged members of the Ku Klux Klan on Thursday in a plot to kill a black prison inmate after his release.
Two of the suspects — Thomas Jordan Driver, 25, and David Elliot Moran, 47 — are officers at the Florida Department of Corrections’ Reception and Medical Center in Lake Butler. The third, 42-year-old Charles Townsend Newcomb, is a former officer there, officials said.
All three men are members of the Traditionalist American Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, according to Attorney General Pam Bondi, who announced the arrests.
Bondi said the men plotted the inmate’s murder after he got into a fight with Driver.
Driver, Moran and Newcomb were each charged with one count of conspiracy to commit murder.
4. Two NYC women arrested in charges they plotted to build bomb
Two women were arrested Thursday on charges they plotted to wage violent jihad by building a homemade bomb and using it for a Boston Marathon-type attack.
One of the women, Noelle Velentzas, had been “obsessed with pressure cookers since the Boston Marathon attacks in 2013″ and made jokes alluding to explosives after receiving one as a gift, according to a criminal complaint. And it says in a conversation with an undercover investigator about the women’s willingness to fight, she pulled a knife and asked, “Why can’t we be bad b—–s?”
The complaint unsealed in federal court in Brooklyn names Velentzas and her former roommate, Asia Siddiqui, as the targets of an undercover investigation into the thwarted homegrown terror plot.
5. NCAA: It’s not our job to ensure educational quality
After years of saying that educating athletes is paramount, the NCAA now says it has no legal responsibility to make sure education is actually delivered.
On its website, the NCAA prominently states, “in the collegiate model of sports, the young men and women competing on the field or court are students first, athletes second.”
But the NCAA is taking a very different position in response to a lawsuit filed by former University of North Carolina athletes. The lawsuit claimed the students didn’t get an education because they were caught up in the largest known academic fraud scandal in NCAA history.
In its response, the NCAA says it has no legal responsibility “to ensure the academic integrity of the courses offered to student-athletes at its member institutions.”
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Solomon Jones is an Essence bestselling author and award-winning columnist. He is the creator and editor of Solomonjones.com and morning host on 900 am WURD radio. Click here to learn more about Solomon
