Melania Trump underwent kidney surgery on Monday (White House Press Release)
According to an official news release from the White House, the issues that first lady Melania Trump had with one of her kidneys was “benign.” She underwent a successful embolization procedure, and will remain in the hospital “for the duration of the week.”
Harry Reid also underwent surgery on Monday (The Washington Times)
The former Nevada senator had surgery to remove a tumor from his pancreas. Doctors say that he is recovering and his prognosis is good. Reid had been a prominent Democrat in the Senate for decades, but decided not to run for re-election in 2016.
An Australian man won the lottery twice in a week (New York Post)
Why can't we all be this lucky? A man in Sydney, Australia, won a total of $1,871,348 in two separate lottery drawings. “I’m quite stoked. Twice in a week. I just thought this is too good to be true,” the man said, according to New South Wales lottery.
Illinois may reinstate the death penalty in specific instances (Fox News)
Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner (R) has proposed reinstating the death penalty in his state. If his proposal becomes law, it will only apply to convicts “guilty beyond any doubt” of committing multiple murders or of killing a police officer. Rauner said that the proposal “shows we have no tolerance for such atrocities in our state.”
Scientists are one step closer to curing the common cold (The Guardian)
Scientist think that they may be close to figuring out how to successfully defeat the virus responsible for the common cold. The new method attacks a specific enzyme that the virus uses to replicate. While defeating the common cold may seem mundane, the virus can prove fatal to people with certain diseases.
Anti-American cleric gains ground in Iraqi elections (The Washington Post)
Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr might not be running for office himself, but candidates he backed seem poised for a victory in Iraq's elections. Sadr is in charge of a militia that fought against U.S. troops. According to one of the candidates he backed, Sadr “was clear in his messages to the Americans: We are against the existence of U.S. forces in Iraq because they have described themselves as occupiers.” Thanks to this election, Sadr could be in a position to use his influence to gain more control in the government, or even to choose the next Iraqi prime minister.
The Supreme Court ruled that New Jersey could legalize sports gambling (TheBlaze)
And other states could soon follow. The 6-3 decision stated that a decades-old federal law prohibiting states from legalizing sports gambling violated the Constitution. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg disagreed, accusing her peers of using an ax instead of a "scalpel to trim the statute."
