Ebola scare hits Dallas, Cleveland and Atlanta
DALLAS — Several schools were closed and six airline crew members placed on leave Thursday following news a nurse with Ebola had taken a commercial flight, heightening anxiety over the spread of the virus and how authorities were handling the health emergency.In Washington, federal health officials will be questioned by lawmakers at...Accused White House fence jumper faces more charges
WASHINGTON — An Iraq war veteran accused of running inside the White House armed with a knife faces more charges under a federal grand jury indictment returned on Thursday.Omar Gonzalez, 42, is alleged to have climbed over the White House fence on Sept. 29, burst through the front door and made it to the executive mansion's East Room...Tennessee man jailed after beheading threats, ISIS membership claim
NASHVILLE — A Tennessee man was in custody on Thursday and facing criminal charges after claiming to be a member of ISIS and threatening to behead his neighbors and burn down their homes, police said.Tullahoma Police Chief Paul Blackwell said the man - Terry Wayne McCullough, 59 - is a known troublemaker but that the threats had to be...
Ebola patient dies in Texas; five U.S. airports to screen for fever
October 10th, 20140 DALLAS — The first person diagnosed with Ebola in the United States died on Wednesday, underscoring questions about the quality of care he received, and the government ordered five airports to start screening passengers from West Africa for fever.Liberian national Thomas Eric Duncan died in an isolation ward of a Dallas hospital, 11...Chicago-area man charged in attempt to join “Islamic State” in Syria
CHICAGO — A Chicago-area man was charged on Monday with attempting to support a foreign terrorist organization after he was arrested on Saturday at O'Hare International Airport on allegations he was on his way to Syria to join the militant group "Islamic State."Mohammed Hamzah Khan, 19, of the Chicago suburb of Bolingbrook, appeared...Ebola hits the U.S., Texas man becomes first diagnosed resident
The ambulance which carried Thomas Eric Duncan, who suffered from Ebola.DALLAS — Two days after he was sent home from a Dallas hospital, the man who is the first person to be diagnosed with Ebola in the United States was seen vomiting on the ground outside an apartment complex as he was bundled into an ambulance.The hospital cited the...Secret Service director resigns under fire
WASHINGTON — U.S. Secret Service Director Julia Pierson resigned under fire on Wednesday after a series of security lapses came to light that exposed gaping holes in the protective cocoon around President Obama.Pierson, in her position for just 18 months, faced mounting calls from lawmakers to step down in the fallout from a...
Muslim Scholars release open letter to IS, blasting ideology
September 26th, 20140 Nihad Awad, center, executive director of the Council of American-Islamic Relations, and more than 10 Muslim-American leaders endorse a letter written by more than 100 Islamic scholars that denounces ISIS.WASHINGTON — More than 120 Muslim scholars from around the world joined an open letter to the “fighters and followers” of the...U.S. Attorney General Holder to step down
United States Attorney General Eric Holder holds a news conference announcing updates in the Justice Department's investigation of the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, in Washington September 4.WASHINGTON — U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, an unapologetic liberal voice and one of President Obama's closest allies,...
In U.N. speech, Obama appeals for broadcoalition against “Islamic State”
September 26th, 20140 UNITED NATIONS — President Obama made his case to the United Nations on Wednesday for a more forceful, coordinated global response against Islamic militants in the Middle East that would seek to dismantle their "network of death."In a speech to the U.N. General Assembly in New York, Obama used graphic language to condemn the methods of...New York man charged with trying to help “Islamic State”
NEW YORK — A Rochester, New York, man has been indicted on charges of trying to provide material support to the "Islamic State" militant group and attempting to murder U.S. soldiers, the U.S. Justice Department said on Tuesday.A federal grand jury in Rochester handed down a seven-count indictment against Mufid Elfgeeh, 30, following...U.S. to help train people to spot potential violent extremists
WASHINGTON — The U.S. government launched a program on Monday to reach out to key members of communities across the country to try to stop radicalized young people joining "Islamic State "and other extremist groups fighting in Syria and Iraq."Today, few threats are more urgent than the threat posed by violent extremism," Attorney...Children’s respiratory illness spreads to a dozen U.S. states: CDC
WASHINGTON — A serious respiratory illness sickening U.S. children has spread to 12 states, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Tuesday, as it predicted that more states will report cases in coming weeks.The growing list of states with confirmed cases now includes Alabama, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas,...“Islamic State” attracts several female jihadis from Minneapolis
MINNEAPOLIS — U.S. law enforcement is investigating a new phenomenon of women from the American heartland joining Islamic State as President Obama vows to cut off the militants' recruiting at home.At least three Somali families in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area have female relatives who have gone missing in the past six weeks and may...U.S. Army soldier accused of smuggling immigrants
TEXAS — A U.S. Army soldier has been accused of smuggling two undocumented immigrants across the Texas-Mexico border while in uniform, according to a federal criminal complaint.Eric Alexander Rodriguez, 20, a private in the Army, was charged with felony "bringing in and harboring certain aliens" on Friday in United States District......
Ted Cruz gets booed off stage at Middle East Christian event
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) was booed off the stage at an event hosted by a Christian organization in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday night.The conservative firebrand delivered the keynote address at an event hosted by In Defense of Christians (IDC), an organization that raises awareness of persecuted Christian and minority communities in...New York man pleads guilty to trying to join al Qaeda
NEW YORK — A New York man pleaded guilty on Tuesday to attempting to join the militant group al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, considered to be one of the most active wings of the network, prosecutors said.Marcos Alonso Zea, 26, was arrested last October at his Long Island home in a joint investigation by local and federal......
U.S. to alert retailers to bomb materials to counter home-grown threat
WASHINGTON — The government plans to give U.S. retailers a list of materials that can be used in explosives and ask them to look out for suspicious behavior as a way to combat domestic terrorism, the homeland security secretary said on Wednesday.On the eve of the 13th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, Jeh Johnson said the...
Obama’s anti- “Islamic State” strategy met with skepticism
September 12th, 20140 WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama’s new strategy to "degrade, and ultimately destroy" the Islamic State is being met with widespread skepticism among both hawks and doves, as well as regional specialists.While Congress is expected to acquiesce, if not formally authorize, the plans he outlined in his nationally televised...Obama, victims’ families pause to remember those lost on 9/11
NEW YORK — Politicians, dignitaries and victims' relatives gathered in New York City, at the Pentagon and in rural Pennsylvania on Thursday to remember the nearly 3,000 people killed in al Qaeda's attack on the United States 13 years ago on Sept. 11.President Obama spoke at the Pentagon during a private ceremony for relatives of the...Number of Americans paying student loans soars
BOSTON — The rising cost of higher education is dogging Americans into retirement, with people aged 65 and older still carrying some $18.2 billion in unpaid student loans, according to a federal report released on Wednesday.While the Government Accountability Office report noted that relatively few U.S. households headed by......
Obesity rates reach historic highs in more U.S. states
WASHINGTON — Rates of adult obesity increased in six U.S. states and fell in none last year, and in more states than ever - 20 - at least 30 percent of adults are obese, according to an analysis released on Thursday.The conclusions were reported by the Trust for America's Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and were based...U.S. fast-food workers arrested in protests for wage hike
NEW YORK — U.S. fast-food workers staged protests in some 150 cities on Thursday in a fight for higher pay, and organizers said dozens were arrested from Manhattan's Times Square to Las Vegas to Detroit.About 400 protesters clogged Times Square during morning rush hour in the latest of ongoing actions aimed at raising their wage to......
California high school drops offensive ‘Arab’ mascot
The Coachella Valley Unified School District confirmed Friday that it has retired the school’s controversial Arab mascot that prompted objections from The American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee last year.The Arab mascot costume was a cartoonish, headscarf-wearing man with a hooked nose, a thick beard and a devilish mustache. He...
Sotloff family mourns beheaded son as gentle soul
September 5th, 20140 A video purportedly showing U.S. journalist Steven Sotloff kneeling next to a masked Islamic State fighter holding a knife in an unknown location.WASHINGTON — The family of Steven Sotloff, the second American journalist beheaded by Islamic State militants, said on Wednesday he was no hero and no war junkie but "a mere man who tried to......