Illinois village attains welcoming status
May 1st, 20170 SUMMIT, IL- The Village of Summit, in Illinois attained welcoming community status following a unanimous vote at a village hall meeting. The meeting, taking place at Monday night at 7 p.m. central time, passed an ordinance that would restrict local police cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials with...
More Americans say race relations deteriorating
April 28th, 20170 WASHINGTON- Tiffany Cartagena said she was eating with her mixed-race girlfriend at a restaurant in Ohio last month when she heard nearby diners remark about the "monkey" at the next table. Denver resident Gwendolyn Mami, an African-American, was on a January flight when another passenger proclaimed President Donald Trump's proposed...
‘I had no choice:’ Odeh accepts plea deal, resists admission of guilt
April 27th, 20170 DETROIT— Hours before Rasmea Odeh entered her plea in court on Tuesday, dozens of supporters, ranging from organizers and Chicago-based defense team members, rallied outside the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan in opposition to the parameters set around her conviction. Groups in attendance included the U.S....
Top Navy commander: U.S. may need stronger defense against North Korea missiles
April 26th, 20170 WASHINGTON ― The United States may need to strengthen its missile defenses, particularly in Hawaii, given the advancing threat from North Korea's missile and nuclear weapons programs, the top U.S. commander in the Pacific told Congress on Wednesday. Just hours before the entire U.S. Senate was due to receive a top-level briefing on...
Federal judge blocks Trump order to restrict funding for ‘sanctuary cities’
April 25th, 20170 SAN FRANCISCO ― A federal judge on Tuesday blocked President Trump's executive order that sought to withhold federal funds from so-called sanctuary cities, dealing another legal blow to the administration's efforts to toughen immigration enforcement. The ruling from U.S. District Judge William Orrick III in San Francisco said...
Officer says ‘minimal but necessary force’ used on United passenger
April 25th, 20170 One of the police officers who forcibly removed a United Airlines customer in an incident that became a public relations disaster for the carrier said "minimal but necessary force" was used after the passenger acted aggressively, according to an incident report. Video recorded by other passengers showed David Dao, a 69-year-old...
BREAKING: Federal government drop charges against AMP staffers
April 24th, 20170 WASHINGTON, D.C.- Federal authorities have dropped charges against AMP (American Muslims for Palestine) staffers Taher Herzallah and Kareem El-Hosseiny. The two men, both employees for the group, faced charges for disrupting David Freidman's Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing, vocalizing opposition to the U.S. Ambassador to...
U.S. sanctions hundreds of Syrian research center employees
April 24th, 20170 WASHINGTON ― The Treasury Department sanctioned 271 employees of Syria's Scientific Studies and Research Center (SSRC), an agency that Washington says develops chemical weapons for the government of Bashar al-Assad, the Treasury said in a statement. Some of the people blacklisted had worked on Syria's chemical weapons program for...
Literary journal ‘Mizna’ proves Arab art is timely and alive
April 21st, 20170 TWIN CITIES, MN — Since its inception in 1999, the literary journal Mizna has been a platform for the arts and free expression of a multitude of writers and artists from an Arab and Arab American nexus. The journal, published by Mizna.org, a non-profit arts organization that promotes contemporary expressions of Arab American...
Trump signs executive order scrutinizing skilled immigrant visas
April 19th, 20170 President Donald Trump will be ordering a thorough review of the country's high-skilled immigration visa program Thursday after having signed an executive order Tuesday targeting the H-1B program. The move signals a further attempt at Trump to target foreign companies that typically hire foreign workers over Americans. In the...
Fox News drops Bill O’Reilly over sexual assault scandal
April 19th, 20170 NEW YORK ― Fox News has decided to part ways with star host Bill O'Reilly following allegations of sexual harassment, New York magazine reported on Wednesday, citing anonymous sources briefed on the discussions. O'Reilly said in an April 1 statement that he had been unfairly targeted because of his public prominence. Marc Kasowitz,...
FBI busts mass shooting plot by Texas right-wing extremist
April 18th, 20170 The Federal Bureau of Investigation busted a planned mass attack by Steven Boehle, 50, on Tuesday. A complaint obtained Monday that had been filed in a federal court said that a search warrant was carried out at Boehle's home, where 1,000 rounds of ammo were discovered. The complaint added that Boehle displayed "sovereign...
Three killed in Fresno, California, shooting spree, suspect arrested
April 18th, 20170 A gunman with an apparent dislike of white people and government killed three people in downtown Fresno, California, on Tuesday, before he was taken into custody while shouting "Allahu Akhbar," police said. The suspect, identified as 39-year-old Kori Ali Muhammad, was also wanted in connection with the fatal shooting last week of an...
Minneapolis Muslims protest ‘sharia’ fanatic
April 18th, 20170 A Georgian man has been reported imposing what he calls "the civil part of the sharia law" in the Minneapolis neighborhood of Cedar-Riverside by dictating to others how they should dress, what or what not to eat or drink, not to use drugs, or even interact with the opposite sex. The man, who has been attempting to recruit others...
United Air removes couple traveling to wedding from plane
April 18th, 20170 An engaged couple were removed from a United Airlines flight to Costa Rica on Saturday, as the airline remained under scrutiny following outrage caused by a video last week of a passenger being forcibly removed from a flight. According to the couple, who said they were en route to get married, a federal marshal had escorted them from......
Two Illinois men charged with conspiring to aid ISIS
April 16th, 20170 CHICAGO — Two Illinois men were arrested on Wednesday on charges they conspired to help ISIS, with one suspect saying he wanted to see the jihadist group's flag over the White House, the Justice Department said. Joseph Jones and Edward Schimenti, both 35 and from Zion, Illinois, appeared before a federal magistrate in Chicago and...
Protesters to take to streets to demand Trump release tax returns
April 15th, 20170 NEW YORK- Tens of thousands of people are expected to take to the streets across the United States and beyond on Saturday to press President Donald Trump to release his tax returns and to dispute his claim that the public does not care about the issue. The demonstrations, organized by a loose coalition of labor and left-leaning groups......
Senate passes anti-hate crime resolution drafted by Muslim group
April 14th, 20173 On Thursday, April 6, the U.S. Senate unanimously passed a resolution condemning hate crimes against ethnic and religious groups, and vowed to push for establishing appropriate measures for the reporting and prosecuting of violence against minorities. Amid rising attacks on individuals and places of worship in Muslim, Sikh, Jewish,...
NAACP issues statement against discriminatory Texas voter ID law
April 13th, 20170 Baltimore– In response to a controversial voter ID law struck down by a Texas judge for being discriminatory, NAACP President and CEO Cornell William Brooks issued statement supporting Judge Nelva Gonzalez Ramos’ ruling that SB 14 intentionally discriminates against African-American and Latinos. The statement held that the law, SB...
First woman Muslim U.S. Judge found dead in New York’s Hudson River
April 12th, 20170 NEW YORK - A judge, who became the first Muslim woman in US history to serve on the bench, was found dead Wednesday — washed up on the Manhattan side of the Hudson River, sources said. Sheila Abdus-Salaam, 65, was discovered floating in the water near 132nd Street and Hudson Parkway at around 1:45 p.m., according to police...Battered passenger sues United over forceful removal
April 12th, 20170 NEW YORK - Lawyers for the passenger dragged from a United Airlines plane in Chicago filed an emergency request with an Illinois state court on Wednesday to require the carrier to preserve video recordings and other evidence related to the incident. Citing the risk of "serious prejudice" to their client, Dr. David Dao, the lawyers......
Spicer says he let Trump down with comments comparing Assad and Hitler
April 12th, 20170 WASHINGTON-White House spokesman Sean Spicer said on Wednesday he had let down President Donald Trump with his "inexcusable and reprehensible" comments comparing Syria's president's alleged use of poison gas to Adolf Hitler's atrocities. "I made a mistake. There's no other way to say it. I got into a topic that I shouldn't have and I...
SCAM ALERTS: The FTC won’t offer to fix your computer
April 11th, 20170 WASHINGTON, DC - Some cons send pop-up computer warnings to pitch unnecessary – and sometimes harmful – tech support services. Some make phone calls. Others – like one scammer the FTC just sued – send spam emails that falsely claim the FTC hired them to help remove problem software. In this case, announced today, the court......
California gunman kills wife, self as she teaches class; student also dead
April 10th, 20170 SAN BERNARDINO- A special education teacher and one of her students were fatally shot by her estranged husband when he opened fire with a high-caliber revolver before killing himself in her classroom at a San Bernardino, California, elementary school, police said. A second student was badly wounded by the gunman, who authorities said...
Video captures forced removal of United Airlines customer from overbooked flight
April 10th, 20171 CHICAGO ― An overbooked flight from Chicago to Louisville, KY ended in a bloodied uprooting of a customer from his seat and dragged down the aisle towards the entrance of the aircraft. After passengers were seated on the Sunday flight with no seats to spare for a few staff members, the airline announced that it needed to take......
