California man facing terrorism charges denied house arrest
SAN FRANCISCO — A California man charged with attempting to travel to Syria to fight alongside an al Qaeda splinter group was denied a request to be put under house arrest while he awaits trial, a federal judge in California ruled on Tuesday.Nicholas Teausant, a 20-year-old American citizen, was arrested on terrorism charges in March...Ford recalls over 750,000 vehicles for software, door-handle faults
DETROIT — Ford Motor Co is recalling more than 750,000 vehicles, most of them Escape sport utility vehicles, in North America to address possible software and door-handle problems.The No. 2 U.S. automaker is recalling 692,487 Escape SUVs and C-Max hybrids from model years 2013 and 2014 for a potential software problem that could delay...U.S. court denies anti-Islamic trademark
WASHINGTON — A U.S. appeals court this week upheld a decision to refuse to allow the owners of a website titled "Stop! Islamization of America" to trademark the site's name, in a case that legal experts think has implications for the long-running fight over the name of the Washington Redskins NFL team.Tuesday's case had its origin in...
NYPD has been recruiting Muslim informants
May 16th, 20140 NEW YORK — New York City police have been recruiting immigrants, most of them Muslims, in the years following the attacks of September 11, 2001, to act as informants eavesdropping in cafes, restaurants and mosques, The New York Times reported this week.Citing documents it had obtained and interviews with former and senior police...‘Miracle baby’ survives 11-story fall from Minneapolis apartment
MINNEAPOLIS — A 15-month-old boy described by doctors as a "miracle baby" was in critical condition at a Minneapolis hospital on Wednesday after surviving an 11-story fall from the balcony of an apartment building.Musa Dayib slipped through slits in the balcony railing and landed on a patch of mulch on Sunday, his family told...Amid boycott of Beverly Hills Hotel, city confronts Brunei over sharia law
BEVERLY HILLS — The City of Beverly Hills voted unanimously on Tuesday to pressure the government of Brunei to divest the Beverly Hills Hotel, the pink-hued haunt of the Hollywood set, after the small country's enactment of sharia law prompted protests.Comedians Ellen DeGeneres, Jay Leno and British entrepreneur Richard Branson have...Boy sneaks onto wheel well of airplane, survives trip to Hawaii
NEW YORK — A 15-year-old Somali boy who survived a nearly six-hour trip from California to Hawaii stowed away in the wheel well of an airplane has left protective custody in Hawaii, officials said this week.The teenager was "no longer in Hawaii" according to a brief statement from Hawaii's Department of Human Services. Officials would...U.S. proposes immigration rules to help skilled workers
WASHINGTON — Newly proposed rules for highly skilled immigrants to the United States, including a provision to allow their spouses to work, are aimed at making it easier to keep those talented science, technology and engineering workers in the country, officials said this week."These individuals are American families in waiting,"...Study: Professors more likely to reply to white males than women and minorities
Philadelphia — If you're a woman or minority student looking for a mentor, don't hold your breath.New research has found that university professors exhibit a bias in favor of their white male students, information that, while perhaps not unexpected, is seriously bad news for the nation's aspiring academics.According to a segment...Kerry must forge ahead, undeterred
The controversy over U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry’s apartheid remark about Israel has become the latest distraction from a just settlement in the Middle East. "If there’s no two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict soon, Israel risks becoming an ... apartheid state,"Ω Kerry is reported to...U.S. justices weigh limits to police cellphone searches
WASHINGTON - U.S. Supreme Court justices on Tuesday appeared to seek a compromise over whether police officers need warrants to search cellphones when a suspect is arrested.In two hours of oral arguments, the justices appeared sympathetic to the need of police officers to quickly search phones but also were wary of privacy concerns...Muslims, Sikhs object to headscarf ban at California go-kart parks
SAN FRANCISCO — Three Muslim families have filed complaints against an amusement park chain in California that they say barred them from riding go karts wearing headscarves, family advocates said Tuesday.The families claim that Boomers! Parks in two locations in the state violated their civil rights with an unfair safety policy that...Florida legislators seek to give anti Muslim parents say on school textbooks
ORLANDO — The Florida Legislature is likely to pass a bill this week giving parents more influence over school textbook choices, in a move that opponents say is rooted in anti-Muslim bias.The bill followed organized protests by parents and conservative political groups in November over a world history textbook in Volusia County on...Divestment resolution passes at U of New Mexico
NEW MEXICO - The Graduate and Professional Student Association passed a resolution calling for the University of New Mexico to divest from companies associated with human rights violations in Palestine.The resolution, which passed during a GPSA meeting last Saturday, was endorsed by members of Students for Justice in Palestine,...Two U.S. soldiers lose bid to dress according to religious custom
WASHINGTON - The U.S. Army has denied requests by two soldiers to dress and groom themselves according to their religious beliefs under a revised Pentagon policy, a spokesman said on Monday.The policy approved earlier this year was mainly expected to affect Sikhs, Muslims, Jews and other groups that wear beards, long hair or articles......
Kerry says Israel could become “apartheid state,” backs off
May 2nd, 20140 WASHINGTON - The U.S. secretary of state, John Kerry, has come under a barrage of criticism for warning that Israel risked becoming an "apartheid state" if it did not reach a peace deal with the Palestinians.In a statement, Kerry hit back at what he described as "partisan political" attacks against him, while stating that in...Barbara Boxer, AIPAC seek to codify Israel’s right to discriminate against Americans
In order for the US to permit citizens of a foreign country to enter the US without a visa, that country must agree to certain conditions. Chief among them is reciprocity: that country must allow Americans to enter without a visa as well. There are 37 countries which have been permitted entrance into America's "visa waiver"......
NYPD Twitter campaign backfires, thousands of negative tweets
NEW YORK— A New York Police Department campaign to burnish its image via social media instead produced a flood of pictures of police brutality and tweets critical of the force being shared at a rate of thousands an hour.The department on Tuesday afternoon invited Twitter users to submit pictures of themselves with NYPD cops using the...Court deals blow to US administration on drone attacks
WASHINGTON — The US government must make public secret papers justifying drone attacks against suspected terrorists, including American citizens, a New York federal appeals court ordered Monday.The case was brought by The New York Times and two of its journalists in a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) case supported by the American...Lawsuit says FBI uses no-fly list in bid to recruit Muslim informants
NEW YORK CITY — Awais Sajjad, a lawful permanent U.S. resident living in the New York area, learned he was on the no-fly list in September 2012 after he tried to board a flight to Pakistan at John F. Kennedy International Airport and was turned away.At the airport, FBI agents questioned Sajjad, a Muslim, before releasing him. But they...Bridgegate’ scandal threatens next World Trade Center tower
NEW YORK — The "Bridgegate" scandal that rocked New Jersey Governor Chris Christie's administration earlier this year is threatening a deal that would allow developer Larry Silverstein to finish building the next World Trade Center skyscraper.Silverstein needs a guarantee from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to secure a......
NYPD ends Muslim surveillance program
April 18th, 20140 NYPD spokesman Stephen Davis confirmed that detectives assigned to the unit had been transferred to other duties within the department's Intelligence Division.An ongoing review of the division by new Police Commissioner William Bratton found that the same information collected by the unit could be better collected through direct...Dutch girl arrested after tweeting terror threat to American Airlines
NEW YORK — A 14-year-old Dutch girl who threatened a terrorist attack in a tweet to American Airlines was arrested in Rotterdam on Monday — but that didn't stop a copycat from tweeting a similar threat to another airline.A Twitter user named "Sarah" wrote on Twitter over the weekend that she was a member of Al Qaeda and that she......
Utah woman charged for killing six infants
UTAH — A judge set bail at $6 million on Monday for a Utah woman suspected of killing six infants after giving birth to them, then stuffing their bodies into cardboard boxes which were found at a house where she used to live.Police said Megan Huntsman, 39, admitted under questioning that she strangled or suffocated the babies...Asian Americans challenge Philadelphia’s refusal to provide language access to voters
PHILADELPHIA — On Wednesday, the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF) filed a complaint against the Philadelphia City Commissioners for refusing to provide language assistance to Asian American voters, in violation of the Philadelphia Fair Practices Ordinance (FPO).Jerry Vattamala, Staff Attorney in AALDEF's......