Americans have lost trust in government
June 7th, 20240 Americans are more dissatisfied with their government than the citizens of any other major democracy, according to an analysis by the Washington Post. And we seem to be growing more skeptical of government every year. In 1964, when I was first elected to Congress, nearly 80 percent of Americans trusted government to do the right thing...
Reuters: NAACP asks Biden to halt weapons to Israel as he seeks to shore up Black voter support
June 7th, 20240 On Thursday, the NAACP urged President Biden to "indefinitely" halt all weapons deliveries to Israel and pressure the U.S. ally to end its war in the Gaza Strip, sending a reminder that his support for Israel could hurt him among Black voters in November's election. The NAACP's call was a rare instance of the influential civil rights...
Muslim nurse in New York fired after calling Israel’s war in Gaza a “genocide”
May 31st, 20240 A New York City hospital fired a Palestinian American Muslim nurse after she called Israel's war in Gaza a "genocide" during an acceptance speech for an award for her work with bereaved mothers who lost their children during pregnancy and childbirth. A spokesperson for the hospital, NYU Langone Health, said on Thursday that labor and...
Trump is a convicted felon. Now what?
May 31st, 20240 Donald Trump became the first U.S. president to be convicted of a crime on Thursday when a New York jury found him guilty of falsifying documents to cover up a payment to silence a porn star ahead of the 2016 election. After two days of deliberation, the 12-member jury pronounced Trump guilty on all 34 felony counts he...
Veteran State Department official resigns: The Biden administration “twisting the facts” on Gaza
May 31st, 20240 A career State Department official has resigned from her post under the Biden administration on Tuesday after disagreeing with a U.S. report that concluded Israel was not impeding on aid flow into Gaza. Stacy Gilbert, who served as the senior civilian-military advisor to the State Department's Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration...
Poll: Biden’s support continues to plummet among Arab Americans amid Gaza war
May 31st, 20240 Forty percent of Arab Americans in key U.S. swing states, including Michigan, say they are "not enthusiastic at all" about November’s election. WASHINGTON, D.C. – President Biden’s support among Arab American voters in critical swing states has plummeted during the war in Gaza, a new poll found, in the latest sign that the United...
The U.S. is no longer the dominant superpower
May 24th, 20240 It was an article of faith, through most of my life, that the United States was the world’s dominant power. We had the most powerful military, the biggest and most vibrant economy and the most influential culture. For better or worse, we were the envy of the world. If we’re honest, we have to admit that’s no longer the case....
U.S. House votes to force weapons shipments to Israel, rebuking Biden
May 18th, 20240 WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Republican-led U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill on Thursday that would force President Biden to send weapons to Israel, seeking to rebuke the Democrat for delaying bomb shipments as he urges Israel to do more to protect civilians during its war with Hamas. The Israel Security Assistance Support Act...
U.S. unveils proposal to ease restrictions on marijuana
May 18th, 20240 On Thursday, the U.S. Justice Department unveiled a historic proposal to ease restrictions on marijuana, a rule that if enacted would also enable more research on its medicinal benefits. The proposal, first announced in April, would reclassify cannabis from a so-called schedule one drug to schedule three. Schedule one drugs, such as...
Dartmouth College students speak out about their pro-Palestinian protests; city of Hanover passes ceasefire resolution
May 17th, 20240 Several protests on Dartmouth College's campus have sparked, with a more recent one leading to 90 arrests, including students, faculty and community members. The university, located in Hanover, New Hampshire, has seen student protesters' presence grow on campus to voice their support for the Palestinians and call for...
A West Bloomfield doctor is stuck in Gaza after completion of medical mission
May 17th, 20240 A doctor from West Bloomfield is trapped in Gaza after completing a medical mission at the European Hospital in Al-Fakhari, about seven miles from Rafah. Dr. Ammar Ghanem, a critical care and pulmonary physician and father of three, is currently stuck in a region destroyed by war. Trapped among desolation, he and an international team...
Universities should protect student rights, promote safety and champion open discourse
May 10th, 20240 By Jamal I. Bittar In the past few weeks, over 2,600 students have been arrested across the U.S. as universities and colleges, traditionally seen as bastions of free expression, now grapple with clashes between students and overly aggressive law enforcement. The reliance on police enforcement and punitive measures to suppress protests...
Educate, don’t intimidate: Reimagining campus responses to protests
May 10th, 20240 By Morhaf Al Achkar, MD, PhD* In recent weeks, university campuses across the United States have transformed into epicenters of political activism. Sparked by the ongoing conflict in Gaza, students have established pro-Palestine encampments, seeking to express solidarity and raise awareness. Rather than engaging with these peaceful...
Who are Israel’s main weapons suppliers and who have halted exports?
May 10th, 20240 The United States has suspended a shipment of weapons to Israel, including heavy, bunker-busting bombs Israeli forces have used in their war against Hamas militants in Gaza that have killed nearly 35,000 Palestinians in seven months. President Biden acted in the face of Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's decision to pursue a...
Biden says U.S. won’t supply weapons for Israel to attack Rafah
May 10th, 20240 President Biden said that he would not supply offensive weapons that Israel could use to launch an all-out assault on Rafah over concern for the well-being of the more than 1 million civilians sheltering there. On Wednesday Biden said in an interview with CNN that the U.S. was still committed to Israel’s defense and would supply......
Nearly 2,200 people have been arrested during pro-Palestinian protests on U.S. college campuses
May 8th, 20240 Police have arrested nearly 2,200 people during pro-Palestinian protests at college campuses across the United States in recent weeks, sometimes using riot gear, tactical vehicles and flash-bang devices to clear tent encampments and occupied buildings. One officer accidentally discharged his gun inside a Columbia University...
Major events in Pro-Palestinian protests at U.S. universities
May 8th, 20240 Pro-Palestinian protests demanding a ceasefire in Gaza and divestment from companies linked to Israel have spread across U.S. universities in the two weeks since Columbia University administrators called in police to dismantle an encampment on their New York City campus. Below is a timeline of significant events in the biggest wave of......
“Our anger is righteous”: Hear students at U of M’s Gaza solidarity encampment in their own words
May 8th, 20241 By Andrew Mullen For months, student activists at the University of Michigan have called for their school to cut financial ties to the state of Israel, only to be met with rejection from university officials. However, the students refuse to be ignored. Following the lead of activists at Columbia University and other schools across the...
Biden plans to visit Detroit on May 19 to address NAACP dinner
May 6th, 20240 President Biden will return to Michigan this month to speak at the NAACP Detroit Branch's 69th annual Fight for Freedom Fund Dinner, his campaign confirmed Wednesday. The announcement came ahead of a planned Wednesday night campaign rally in Freeland, about 14 miles northwest of Saginaw, by former President Trump, the presumptive...
American Intifada for Gaza: What should we expect?
May 6th, 20240 The mass protests at dozens of U.S. universities cannot be reduced to a stifling and misleading conversation about anti-Semitism. Thousands of American students across the country are not protesting, risking their own futures and very safety, because of some pathological hate for the Jewish people. They are doing so in a complete...
Three Arab American candidates challenge pro-Israel Democrats in Michigan’s primary
May 4th, 20240 Three vocal Arab Americans against the Israeli genocide in Gaza who have been demanding a ceasefire in the war against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip have filed petitions to challenge two Democratic members of Congress and a pro-Israel Democratic U.S. Senate candidate in Michigan. The candidates cited frustration over their......
Pro-Palestinian protests and encampments sweep campuses of major universities across the nation
April 26th, 20240 INTIFADA ON CAMPUSES College campuses have become breeding grounds for pro-Palestine protests. Student protesters have continued to set up encampments at their universities and display their support for Palestinians and against Israeli aggressions. Students are also demanding that their universities divest from companies that...
Michigan implementing “kinship care” rule; feds say it’s first in the country to do so
April 19th, 20240 Michigan has become the first state to be approved to implement separate licensing standards for kin caregivers — extended family members like grandparents, aunts and uncles serving as foster care providers. Advocates said goal of kinship care is to keep families together, increase equity in the child welfare system and allow......
USC cancels graduation speech by valedictorian who has supported Palestinians
April 19th, 20240 The University of Southern California canceled the graduation speech from this year's valedictorian, Asna Tabassum, a biomedical engineering major and first-generation American of South Asian descent. According to reports, the school said this decision was made due to security concerns because of warnings of a plan to disrupt the...
U.S. vetoes widely supported resolution backing full U.N. membership for Palestine
April 19th, 20240 NEW YORK – The United States vetoed a widely backed U.N. resolution Thursday that would have paved the way for full United Nations membership for Palestine, a goal the Palestinians have long sought and Israel has worked to prevent. The vote in the 15-member Security Council was 12 in favor, the United States opposed and two......
