allworldsnews

Category: National

  • First lady returns to White House after kidney treatment

    Melania Trump is back at the White House after an extended hospitalization for a kidney procedure.

    WASHINGTON (AP) — Melania Trump is back at the White House after an extended hospitalization for a kidney procedure.

    The White House says the first lady returned to the White House on Saturday morning. She had been at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center near Washington since having an embolization procedure Monday for an unspecified kidney condition that the White House said was benign.

    President Donald Trump visited his 48-year-old wife during several of the evenings that she was in the hospital.

    The first lady said Wednesday on Twitter that she was “feeling great.” She thanked the Walter Reed staff and her well-wishers, and added that she was looking forward to going home.

  • Latest lava flow destroys 4 homes, sparks evacuation prep

    Lava creeping across roadways destroyed four homes and left dozens of others in the shadow of Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano isolated Saturday, forcing more residents to plan for a possible evacuation.

    PAHOA, Hawaii (AP) — Lava creeping across roadways destroyed four homes and left dozens of others in the shadow of Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano isolated Saturday, forcing more residents to plan for a possible evacuation.

    Hawaii County Civil Defense said a fissure near the neighborhood of Lanipuna Gardens has been continuously erupting, releasing a slow-moving lava flow. If that lava threatens a nearby highway, more people will be told to prepare for voluntary evacuation.

    On Friday, fast-moving lava crossed a road and isolated about 40 homes in a rural subdivision, forcing at least four people to be evacuated by county and National Guard helicopters.

    Police, firefighters and National Guard troops were securing the area of the Big Island and stopping people from entering, Hawaii County Civil Defense reported. The homes were isolated in the area east of Lanipuna Gardens and Leilani Estates. Both neighborhoods had 40 structures, including 26 homes, decimated by lava over the past two weeks.

    Officials said three people were still in that area but not in imminent danger. They were advised to shelter in place and await rescue by helicopter first thing Saturday.

    County officials have been encouraging residents in the district to prepare for potential evacuations.

    Edwin Montoya, who lives with his daughter on her farm near the site where lava crossed the road and cut off access, said he was at the property earlier in the day to get valuables.

    “I think I’m lucky because we went there this morning and we got all the batteries out, and all the solar panels out, about $4,000 worth of equipment,” he said. “They have to evacuate the people that are trapped up there right now in the same place that we were taking pictures this morning.”

    He said no one was on his property, but his neighbor had someone on his land.

    “I know that the farm right next to my farm . he’s got somebody there taking care of the premises, I know he’s trapped,” Montoya said.

    Montoya said the fissure that poured lava across the road opened and grew quickly.

    “It was just a little crack in the ground, with a little lava coming out,” he said. “Now it’s a big crater that opened up where the small little crack in the ground was.”

    Experts are uncertain about when the volcano will calm down.

    The Big Island volcano released a small explosion at its summit just before midnight Saturday, sending an ash cloud 10,000 feet (3,048 meters) into the sky. The U.S. Geological Survey’s Hawaiian Volcano Observatory said eruptions that create even minor amounts of ashfall could occur at any time.

    This follows the more explosive eruption Thursday, which emitted ash and rocks thousands of feet into the sky. No one was injured and there were no reports of damaged property.

    Scientists said the eruption was the most powerful in recent days, though it probably lasted only a few minutes.

    It came two weeks after the volcano began sending lava flows into neighborhoods 25 miles (40 kilometers) to the east of the summit.

    A new lava vent – the 22nd such fissure – was reported Friday by county civil defense officials.

    Several open fissure vents are still producing lava splatter and flow in evacuated areas. Gas is also pouring from the vents, cloaking homes and trees in smoke.

    The fresher, hotter magma will allow faster lava flows that can potentially cover more area, said Janet Babb, a geologist with the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory.

    Much of the lava that has emerged so far may have been underground for decades, perhaps since a 1955 eruption.

    Meanwhile, more explosive eruptions from the summit are possible.

    “We have no way of knowing whether this is really the beginning or toward the end of this eruption,” said Tom Shea, a volcanologist at the University of Hawaii. “We’re kind of all right now in this world of uncertainty.”

    It’s nearly impossible to determine when a volcano will stop erupting, “because the processes driving that fall below the surface and we can’t see them.” said volcanologist Janine Krippner of Concord University in West Virginia.

    U.S. government scientists, however, are trying to pin down those signals “so we have a little better warning,” said Wendy Stovall, a volcanologist with the observatory.

    Thus far, Krippner noted, authorities have been able to forecast volcanic activity early enough to usher people to safety.

    The greatest ongoing hazard stems from the lava flows and the hot, toxic gases spewing from open fissure vents close to homes and critical infrastructure, said Charles Mandeville of the U.S. Geological Survey’s volcano hazards program.

    Authorities have been measuring gases, including sulfur dioxide, rising in little puffs from open vents.

    The area affected by lava and ash is small compared to the Big Island, which is about 4,000 square miles. Most of the island and the rest of the Hawaiian chain is unaffected by the volcanic activity on Kilauea.

    State and local officials have been reminding tourists that flights in and out of the entire state, including the Big Island, have not been impacted. Even on the Big Island, most tourist activities are still available and businesses are open.

    ___

    Associated Press journalists Jae Hong and Marco Garcia in Pahoa, Sophia Yan, Jennifer Kelleher and Audrey McAvoy in Honolulu, Becky Bohrer in Juneau, Alaska, Seth Borenstein in Washington, D.C., and Alina Hartounian in Phoenix contributed to this report.

  • After Texas shooting, Ted Nugent wants armed security ‘at every entrance of every school in America’

    National Rifle Association board member Ted Nugent endorsed stationing armed security at “every entrance of every school in America” after 10 people were shot dead Friday at Santa Fe High School near

    National Rifle Association board member Ted Nugent endorsed stationing armed security at “every entrance of every school in America” after 10 people were shot dead Friday at Santa Fe High School near Houston, Texas.

    The rock guitarist and adamant Second Amendment defender called for arming school personnel across the country during an interview with right-wing media personality Alex Jones conducted following Friday’s mass shooting in Galveston County.

    “If we want to stop the slaughter of innocents, one armed security guard for 1,400 students will not cut it,” said Mr. Nugent, an NRA board of directors member since 1995. “You’ve got to have armed security at our schools like we do banks and the airports and at sporting events and racetracks. We have to have an armed, prepared, trained security individual, preferably undercover without a uniform on, at every entrance of every school in America.”

    SEE ALSO: At least 10 killed in Texas school shooting; gunman in custody

    Vetted school officials could easily double as armed security personnel, added Mr. Nugent, 69.

    “I know there are parents and teachers and administrators and janitors and coaches out there that not only are ready, willing and able to be armed to stop evil perpetrators,” Mr. Nugent continued, “but they already have concealed weapons permits, but they’re invalid in those arenas where they’re the most desperately needed.”

    “It’s not like we’re pulling this out of our ass. The evidence is irrefutable. If you are unarmed and helpless, you are unarmed and helpless,” said Mr. Nugent. “What a tragic, irresponsible, embarrassing condition to allow yourself to become.”

    Ten people were killed and another ten injured after a gunman opened fire at the high school Friday morning, according to authorities.

    Police have arrested the suspected shooter, Santa Fe student Dimitrios Pagourtzis, 17, and charged him late Friday with capital murder of multiple persons and aggravated assault against a public servant. Dimitrios confessed to the shootings, according to authorities, and is being held without bond.

    Dimitrios opened fire armed with a shotgun and a .38-caliber owned by his father, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said at a news conference.

    According to Mr. Nugent, however, the specific weaponry involved wasn’t a factor in Friday’s massacre.

    “Once again, this is not about hardware — it’s about heart-ware; it’s about spirit,” Mr. Nugent told Mr. Jones. “This is a manifestation of a cultural deprivation of the abandonment of accountability and discipline in our world.”

    “This is an issue of sick, twisted freaks,” reacted Mr. Jones.

  • DHS vows caravan will be arrested, prosecuted if it enters U.S.

    Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen on Monday promised members of the illegal immigrant caravan making its way to the U.S. border that they could face criminal charges if they jump the border

    Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen on Monday promised members of the migrant caravan making its way toward the U.S. that they could face criminal charges if they jump the border despite all the warnings.

    The migrants insist they are refugees seeking asylum from specific oppression at home, not rank-and-file illegal immigrants trying to reunite with family or get a better life in the U.S. They said they will make their case.

    Ms. Nielsen said if they are seeking a safe place from their Central American homes, then they should stop in Mexico, where they currently are traveling and where authorities are able to provide asylum.

    “If you enter the United States illegally, let me be clear: You have broken the law. And we will enforce the law through prosecution of illegal border crossers,” she said.

    She made the announcement hours after President Trump said he had ordered her to refuse entry to the caravan.

    “It is a disgrace. We are the only Country in the World so naive!” Mr. Trump said on Twitter.

    Ms. Nielsen didn’t say she would stop the caravan. She did say her department will use the tools it is allowed under U.S. law, such as detaining people while their asylum claims are pending, to try to ensure people aren’t taking advantage of the system.

    She also said the Justice Department is sending personnel to the border so that those who attempt to claim asylum can have quick hearings and be deported if they don’t qualify.

    Asylum has turned into an Achilles’ heel of the immigration system, with many migrants having learned how to game the system and lodging claims when they are caught at the border. The claims alone often buy them years of tentative legal status in the U.S. while they await court hearings.

    The caravan of Central Americans — mostly Hondurans — has been snaking toward the U.S. for nearly a month. Perhaps 1,500 people mustered at the southern border of Mexico before Easter.

    Hundreds who originally were part of the caravan have dropped out after asking to stay in Mexico or being deported.

    The remainder — organizers claim some 600 are still part of the caravan — say they are determined to make it to the U.S.

    “People have a legal right, under U.S. law and international agreements signed by the U.S., to seek asylum in the U.S.A.,” said Pueblo Sin Fronteras, the group behind the caravan.

    “Trump has railed against the caravan, but migrants have the right to request asylum in the U.S. and should not be turned away by border officials unless they fail to pass initial security screenings,” the group said.

    U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which will process the applications, is woefully behind on its statistics, but as of seven months ago nearly 300,000 people were waiting for asylum decisions. That backlog grew by nearly 100,000 cases over the previous year.

    Analysts said more migrants learned the “magic words” they would need to say to get on the asylum track.

    Ms. Nielsen, in a statement Monday, demanded that Congress change laws to close “loopholes.”

    Immigrant rights advocates bristle at the term loophole. They say the law is in place for humanitarian protection reasons and that rotten conditions in countries such as Honduras are creating legitimate refugees.

    Asylum is supposed to require proof of persecution because of membership in a particular class, such as race, sex or religion. Analysts say those definitions have been stretched so far that women who have suffered from abusive spouses can sometimes be deemed to have been persecuted. Gang violence endemic to the region also has been used to justify asylum claims, creating a massive pool of potential claimants.

    Indeed, a report by a Jesuit organization working in Honduras this month found that nearly half of those surveyed said they or someone they know is considering emigrating and that the overwhelming reason was to escape the dreariness of their home or to reunite with family.

    Fewer than 1 in 5 say they would be fleeing violence. Indeed, the total saying violence is pushing them out of their home country has dropped 33 percent over the past few years.

  • Justice Department awards $1M grant to Parkland first responders

    The Department of Justice said Monday it will award a $1 million grant to defray some of the overtime costs racked up by local law enforcement officials in response to the shooting deaths of 17 people

    The Department of Justice said Monday it will award a $1 million grant to defray some of the overtime costs racked up by local law enforcement officials in response to the shooting deaths of 17 people at a Parkland, Florida, high school in February

    Attorney General Jeff Sessions said the grant demonstrates the department’s commitment to helping first responders.

    “The school shooting in Parkland shocked and horrified the nation, but the community and law enforcement at all levels have shown resilience and determination,” Mr. Sessions said. “As I told our state and local partners back in February, the Department of Justice stands ready to help them in any way we can. Today we offer $1 million to support the police who have been working overtime in the aftermath of this tragedy. They can be sure about this: we have their backs.”

    The Bureau of Justice Assistance, a Justice Department arm that provides funds to improve safety across the country, will award the grant. It will be distributed to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, which coordinates police and other agencies throughout the state.

    More than 18 local, state and federal law enforcement agencies responded to the Feb. 14 shooting at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School, the Justice Department said. Local, state and county agencies incurred several million dollars in costs, including securing crime scenes and operating command centers.

    Last month, the Department of Education awarded Broward County Public Schools, where Marjory Stonemason Douglas High School is located, a $1 million grant to help students recover from trauma resulting from the shooting.

  • Sex Ed Sit Out draws parents alarmed by pro-choice, pro-gay teachings

    Parents participate Monday in the Sex Ed Sit Out, an international demonstration to protest what rally organizers say is a campaign by pro-choice and gay rights organizations to force their ideologies

    “Mom, you won’t believe what my teacher’s talking about right now.”

    That is the text message Regina Young, a parent in North Carolina’s Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, said she received from her seventh-grade daughter one day.

    “Before I could even respond to her text,” Ms. Young said, “she told me how uncomfortable she was to hear her teacher tell stories about her transgender home.”

    Ms. Young was just one parent who participated Monday in the Sex Ed Sit Out, an international demonstration to protest what rally organizers say is a campaign by pro-choice and gay rights organizations to force their ideologies on children through public education.

    The movement began among parents in Charlotte, North Carolina, but spread to 16 cities in four countries in the months leading up to the event. According to the Sit Out’s website, rallies were also held in Calgary, Alberta; Mulgrave, Australia; Bloomington, Indiana; and London.

    For the Sit Out, parents were asked to pull their children out of school for the day, accompanied by a note to the principal explaining the absence as a protest against “pornographic” sex education.

    It’s the latest culture war to be fought on the grounds of America’s public schools, closely following national walkouts against guns and abortion.

    On Monday, parents picked out two organizations for particular scorn: Planned Parenthood and the Human Rights Campaign.

    The nation’s largest abortion provider and America’s leading LGBT rights advocacy group, respectively, have written sex education curricula that public and private schools across the nation have adopted.

    Welcoming Schools, the pamphlet written by the Human Rights Campaign, is marketed to elementary school educators as a guide to prevent “bias-based bullying.”

    Ms. Young said forcing radical sex education on children is a “form of bullying” itself.

    “This is not about bullying,” she said. “We already have a policy against bullying. Why can a school teach and promote a sexual agenda to our children and violate our parental rights, giving permission to more of what’s happening and what happened to my daughter? It is not acceptable.”

    At the demonstration in Charlotte, Tami Fitzgerald, executive director of the NC Values Coalition, said the rhetoric about bullying is a “Trojan horse” to give the gay rights movement “complete access to our kids in public schools.”

    She said Ms. Young’s story is representative of what hundreds of other parents have told her.

    “About a year ago this time, we began receiving phone calls from parents, teachers and counselors in CMS, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools,” Ms. Fitzgerald said. “They were saying, ‘Please help us. You cannot believe what they are teaching our children in public schools.’”

    Welcoming Schools includes a list of children’s books that promote gay and transgender rights. Two of the books on the list, “Red: A Crayon’s Story,” about a blue crayon that identifies as a red crayon, and “Jacob’s New Dress,” about a boy who wants to wear a dress to school, were read to kindergarten students in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, Ms. Fitzgerald said.

    Protesters held up signs that read: “Let kids be kids,” “My child my choice” and “How dare you take funding to destroy my child’s innocence!”

    Caryl Ayala, a former public school teacher, said about 15 people participated in the protest she organized in Austin, Texas.

    “We are uniting with parents across the globe to demand that our rights as parents be respected regarding the teaching of sexuality and sexual orientation,” Ms. Ayala said.

    Laura-Lynn Thompson attended a demonstration outside of the Parliament building in Victoria, British Columbia. She estimated the attendance at 100 to 150.

    “We have had enough, and we’re not going to take it anymore,” Ms. Thompson said. “Canada is a nation that has a Charter of Rights, which include freedom of religion and freedom of conscience. Our rights have been trampled by the sex-ed curriculum in our schools.”

    Heidi Pezdek, a member of Indiana’s Salt & Light chapter, helped organize the rally in Bloomington and estimated the number of participants at 40 to 50. She said walking into schools these days is like “walking into Sodom and Gomorrah. It’s all about sex.”

    Leading social conservatives also backed the demonstrations.

    The Rev. Franklin Graham said parents need to be aware of what public schools are teaching their children.

    “Your children are in danger of being exposed to ‘Pornography 101’ under the guise of sex education in many schools,” Mr. Graham wrote in Facebook. “Today some parents across the country are pulling their students out in protest of the sexualized school curriculum being promoted by the progressive agenda. Know what is being taught in your child’s school and be prepared to walk out. I encourage you to be involved, know what’s going on, and let your voice be heard.”

  • Former North Carolina cop indicted for beating female suspect

    A federal grand jury has indicted a former Hickory, North Carolina, police officer accused of beating a female suspect and falsifying reports to cover it up, the Justice Department said Monday.

    A federal grand jury has indicted a former Hickory, North Carolina, police officer accused of beating a female suspect and falsifying reports to cover it up, the Justice Department said Monday.

    Robert George, 45, of Hickory was indicted on charges of use of excessive force and obstruction of justice, prosecutors said.

    On Nov. 11, 2013, Mr. George “slammed [female suspect] face first to the ground” while she was handcuffed, then falsified police reports about the incident, saying the woman fell, prosecutors said in court filings.

    Mr. George was terminated from the Hickory Police Department in 2014 after an internal investigation found departmental policies were violated, court documents disclosed.

  • Eric Holder: Starbucks should have used ‘common sense’ in arrest of black men

    Former Attorney General Eric Holder is questioning the recent arrest of two black men in a Philadelphia Starbucks.

    PHILADELPHIA — Former Attorney General Eric Holder is questioning the recent arrest of two black men in a Philadelphia Starbucks.

    During remarks at the National Constitution Center Monday night, Holder said common sense should have been used in the situation and that the manager should have thought twice about calling police.

    Rashon Nelson and Donte Robinson were handcuffed and arrested on April 12 after a Starbucks employee called police because they hadn’t bought anything in the store. The two men told The Associated Press that they were waiting for a business contact to arrive.

    The former Obama administration official is helping create a training curriculum for Starbucks along with other civil rights experts that will address racial bias. The chain will close 8,000 stores on May 29 to undergo the training.

  • Mass. Senate candidate fights city order to remove anti-Warren ‘fake Indian’ signs

    A Massachusetts Senate candidate is fighting an effort by city officials in Cambridge, home of Sen. Elizabeth Warren, to take down prominent anti-Warren campaign signs calling the Democrat a “fake Ind

    A Massachusetts Senate candidate is fighting an effort by city officials in Cambridge, home of Sen. Elizabeth Warren, to take down prominent anti-Warren campaign signs calling the Democrat a “fake Indian.”

    Shiva Ayyadurai, an independent challenging Ms. Warren’s 2018 re-election bid, filed a federal lawsuit Sunday accusing the city of free-speech violations after he was told to remove two identical signs showing the Democrat in an Indian headdress with the slogan “Only a real Indian can defeat the fake Indian.”

    “This is a political vendetta by City officials who are supporters of Elizabeth Warren,” said Mr. Ayyadurai, who was born in Bombay, India.

    Cambridge communications director Lee Gianetti said officials had not yet been served with the lawsuit, adding that “it is not the City’s practice to comment on ongoing litigation.”

    In an April 5 letter, Cambridge building inspector Branden Vigneault said his department had received “a series of anonymous complaints” about the large signs, which are posted on either side of a school bus parked in front of an office building owned by Mr. Ayyadurai.

    Mr. Vigneault said an inspection had determined that the signs, each of which takes up almost the entire side of the bus, were posted “without approvals and permits,” and violated the city zoning ordinance.

    “These signs must be removed immediately,” Mr. Vigneault said in a letter released by the Ayyadurai campaign. “Failure to do so, may result in fines up to $300.00 dollars per day and legal action.”

    Cambridge officials did not respond immediately Monday to a request for comment, but Mr. Ayyadurai argued that the signs are not subject to the city’s building code because they are posted on a bus in his parking lot, not a building.

    “We will not remove the slogan from our bus,” Mr. Ayyadurai said. “We will defend the First Amendment, and we will fight this egregious attack on the First Amendment, at any cost.”

    He said this is the first time the city has complained about the bus signage even though he has displayed messages previously in the same manner for more than a year.

    In March 2017, he posted a banner on the side of the bus with the message “Shiva 4 Senate/Be the Light,” which he later replaced with “Shiva U.S. Senate/Fight for America.”

    The “fake Indian” sign has been on display in the parking lot since March 17, Mr. Ayyadurai said, adding that Ms. Warren lives about a mile away.

    “They didn’t say anything when we had the first sign,” he said. “It was only when we put, ‘Only a real Indian can defeat the fake Indian,’ so it’s clearly trying to censor speech.”

    Before she was elected to the Senate in 2012, Ms. Warren claimed Cherokee ancestry as a professor at Harvard Law School, citing family lore, even though she is not an enrolled member of any tribe.

    Ms. Warren has insisted that she never benefited professionally from her claim of Native American heritage, although critics have accused her of gaming the system to advance her career.

  • George H.W. Bush in intensive care after Barbara Bush’s death

    Former President George H.W. Bush is in the hospital in intensive care Monday evening.

    Former President George H.W. Bush is in the hospital in intensive care, his office told reporters Monday evening.

    The 93-year-old Mr. Bush was taken to Houston Methodist Hospital early Sunday, just hours after the funeral for former first lady Barbara Bush.

    The former president suffers from an infection that has become a blood sepsis.

    “He is responding to treatment and appears to be recovering,” his office said in a Monday evening statement.

    Despite longtime health problems and frequent hospitalizations, Mr. Bush insisted on attending his wife’s funeral Saturday and taking greetings from a lengthy line of mourners.