During a routine physical, 22-year-old ROTC midshipman Mike Vika learned he had hole in his heart. Using cutting edge technology and experience gained as an Army combat surgeon, Temple's T. Sloane Guy manned a robot and went inside to repair Vika's heart through a series of small holes. The procedure was actually "started with a military trauma research project, funded by the military and by NASA," Guy said. The hope is that the repair will not only save Vika's life but also his dream of becoming a Navy pilot.

In a class action civil rights trial, elected Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio and his office are accused of engaging in a pattern of discriminatory policing. As their first witness, the plaintiffs' lawyers called Ralph Taylor, a criminal justice professor at Temple. He had been asked to investigate whether people with Hispanic names were more likely to be stopped in traffic by Arpaio's deputies. During four hours of testimony, Taylor concluded that they were, and that stops involving people with Hispanic names lasted, on average, two minutes longer than stops of others.

Of the many questions left in the wake of Friday's shooting rampage in Colorado during a Batman movie premiere, one stands out: Why did the presumed perpetrator choose not to take his own life? "You have to wonder, was it redemption? Or 11th-hour remorse? Or does he need a platform to espouse some kind of manifesto?” said Frank Farley, a faculty member at Temple’s College of Education.

There's a long list of closed state-run psychiatric hospitals in the region. The goal was to get people out of institutions, and to provide treatment in their communities. But a new report claims the closings have left many mentally ill people without treatment options. "So deinstitutionalization was happening, and absolutely policymakers saw a cost-saving opportunity, (and they) they didn't fully invest all funds back into the community mental health services," Mark Salzer, who chairs rehabilitation sciences at Temple.