The bombings in Sri Lanka are unfortunate reminders that from a security standpoint, houses of worship are soft targets. They welcome the young and old as places refuge and faith.
But, the rise in dangerous and lethal attacks is forcing them to become more secure fortresses.
In just the last two years alone, there have been 16 violent attacks on places of worship. Since 2000, there have been 3,195 violent attacks on houses of worship, hitting a peak in 2014.
The High Holy days, for every faith, put police on particularly high alert, because terrorists know they can inflict optimum damage and loss of life.
At St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City, uniformed officers and automatic rifles greet worshippers. And, following the Sri Lanka Easter bombing, Gov. Andrew Cuomo, D-N.Y., announced an effort to step up security.
"During these troubling times, we will not be intimidated by cowardly acts of violence and will continue to do everything in our power to ensure the safety of all New Yorkers," Cuomo said.
Congress wasted no time reacting, either.
"These terrorist attacks are a stark reminder that Christians remain the most persecuted and targeted religious group in the world," said Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, "and that we must redouble our efforts to combat religious persecution."
Across the country, though, many houses of worship lack resources and knowledge about security. Many are unaware that there are millions of dollars in homeland security grant money that can help fund protection efforts like personnel training, security cameras and metal detectors.
FEMA has a one-stop-shopping website to give religious leaders information on how to make their buildings and worshippers more secure.
One security expert said while prevention may be difficult, steps can be taken to minimize the risk of attack. For instance, the members themselves could be an extra layer of security.
Steve Padin of Watchmen's Academy said: "Part of that line of defense are the ushers and the greeters. They can come in and they can always welcome people with a smile and with the handshake and just had that welcoming environment right there. But also their job is to just watch things that seem a little bit off."
Alert parishioners may have thwarted a worse scenario in San Diego over the weekend when they spotted what appeared to be an emotionally disturbed woman who walked into the church toting an unloaded gun and carrying a baby.
The other line of defense is to try to prevent an attack from happening in the first place.
"I tell houses of worship that the outside of the facility needs to be monitored either through camera or else by actual people out there," Padin said, "because they can usually spot incidents right from the exterior and prevent something from that to escalate."
The security threat for High Holy days is not over. The Jewish Passover continues through sundown Saturday. And millions of Orthodox Christians throughout the world and here in the United States, are just beginning their Holy Week and will celebrate Easter this coming Sunday.
Dragging on the investigations about President Donald Trump and the Department of Justice probe that cleared him of conspiring with the Russians is a bad idea, Attorney Alan Dershowitz told Newsmax TV.
Dershowitz was on Monday's "Newsmax Now" to discuss the news that special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation concluded Trump did not work with Russia to win the 2016 election.
"I don't approve of the effort to try to retaliate against bad investigations with more bad investigations," Dershowitz said. "I think we should have mutual disarmament. Put the investigations behind us. Let the government govern, let the legislature legislate, let the president act presidential.
"I think enough investigations. I'm not in favor of continued investigations on either side."
Democrats have vowed to continue digging into Trump's past despite Mueller clearing him of conspiracy. Mueller, a former FBI director, could not definitively rule whether Trump obstructed justice by firing James Comey as FBI director nearly two years ago.
Some Republicans now want to probe the Russia probe to determine whether the FISA Court warrants obtained by the Department of Justice under former President Barack Obama were justified.
Dershowitz said he thinks there should be an investigation related to the FISA warrants.
"The one area where I think investigation may be warranted is whether or not Justice Department officials misled the FISA Court by submitting the dossier without fully alerting them to the sources of the dossier and the lack of credibility of the person who wrote it," he said.
"And the FISA Court might consider having contempt of court proceedings to determine whether or not they were deliberately misled because misleading a court, particularly a court like the FISA Court, is really very dangerous to democracy."
Later during the interview, Dershowitz declared Trump "completely vindicated and exonerated."
"The only question is obstruction of justice, we have to wait and see what the evidence is," he said. "I suspect I know what it is, and it will be bogus. You can't indict a president or charge a president for firing somebody. That's within his constitutional authority."
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An armed father shot a carjacker in Florida after his vehicle was stolen with his six-year-old boy inside.
The incident began at a home in West Palm Beach on Saturday, when the car thief happened upon a car with the engine on.
The father says he’d turned on the vehicle and went inside to say bye to friends.
The armed dad pursued the thief, Lamar Thurman, 29, in another vehicle and was able to catch up to him after he crashed.
But Thurman again attempted to take off when the dad tried to rescue the boy.
That’s when the dad opened fire “in an attempt to stop him from fleeing further with his child in the car,” according to Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Teri Barbera.
Thurman crashed the vehicle a second time about 200 yards away, police say, and needed to be hospitalized in critical condition.
CONCORD, N.H. – The Granite State may have been Bernie Sanders country in the 2016 Democratic primary, but Sen. Kamala Harris says she won’t follow in the independent senator from Vermont’s footsteps.
Asked by Fox News correspondent Peter Doocy if she would have to run as a democratic socialist – which is how Sanders often describes himself, the Democrat from California quickly and bluntly answered that “I am not a democratic socialist.”
Harris spoke on Monday as she took questions from reporters during her in the first-in-the-nation primary state of New Hampshire for the first time since launching her presidential campaign four weeks ago.
Sanders, a progressive populist who put up a serious fight against eventual nominee Hillary Clinton in the 2016 primary, is likely to launch before the end of the month a second straight bid for the Democratic presidential nomination.
In recent weeks some Democrats have questioned whether Harris was a “progressive prosecutor” during her years as San Francisco district attorney and later as California attorney general.
Harris also vowed to spend “a lot of time” in New Hampshire.
“I’m here because I believe that this is a very important state and intend to spend a lot of time here, and I intend to compete for the votes here and I’m going to put a lot of effort into doing that,” Harris highlighted after being asked by Fox News if the state was a lower priority than the other early-voting states in the primary and caucus calendar.
“It’s an important state. It is a state of people who have a lot of needs and need to be seen and heard,” she spotlighted.
Harris is the daughter of parents from Jamaica and India and would be the first woman and second African-American to win the White House if she ultimately succeeds.
Even before her formal launch, the candidate headed to South Carolina, the first southern state to hold a primary. And she headed to Iowa – which votes first – a few days later.
Iowa and South Carolina -- a state where black voters make up a majority of the Democratic primary electorate -- are likely to figure heavily into Harris’ prospects. Harris campaigned in support of fellow Democrats in South Carolina in last year’s midterm elections.
Harris vowed at the beginning of an event at Gibson’s Bookstore in Concord to spend lots of time campaigning in the Granite State. She repeated that pledge at a large event later Monday in Portsmouth.
Preston Talbot was arrested Thursday for possessing an illegal license plate flipper. Cops say the device enabled Talbot to avoid paying nearly $5,500 in tolls on Houston roads. (Harris County Precinct 4 Constable's Office )
Houston cops have arrested a man they say avoided paying nearly $5,500 in tolls on Houston roads with an illegal “license plate flipper.”
Preston Talbot, 27, of Houston, was stopped Thursday for avoiding a toll on the Sam Houston Expressway and charged with a misdemeanor, police said.
“He would activate this device, putting a flipper down in front of his license plate, so the cameras at toll plazas couldn’t read his plate,” Harris County Constable Mark Herman told KHOU-TV Friday.
The device Talbot is accused of installing in his car worked with the touch of a button, the station reported.
U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., on Tuesday introduced a bill to allow Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients obtain paid employment and internships in Congress. (Associated Press)
The American Dream Employment Act would amend a provision added into annual appropriations bills that bars most noncitizens -- including Dreamers -- from working in the federal government, CQ Roll Call reported.
“The giant sign outside my office says ‘DREAMers Welcome Here’ because we know and value the contributions that these young people have made to their communities,” Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., one of the bill’s sponsors, said in a news release. “But right now, those same young people are banned from giving back to their country by working for Congress. That has to change. Government works best when it reflects the people it represents. Our nation’s DREAMers are some of our best and brightest, and it’s time they had the opportunity to get a job or paid internship on Capitol Hill.”
The legislation was first introduced earlier this year in the House by Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick, D-Ariz. It has the support of several immigrant-rights groups and 57 bi-partisan co-sponsors, the release said.
Past versions of the American Dream Employment Act in 2016 and 2017 have been unsuccessful. Some Republicans opposed to DACA say it condones illegal immigration.
"Illegal immigrants have continued bringing children into the country since 2012," U.S. Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., wrote in January. "In fact, the number of children being sent or brought illegally into the country has increased."
President Trump opposes DACA as well, saying former President Barack Obama overstepped his authority when his administration created the program through an executive order. DACA aims to protect around 700,000 young adults who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children.
Angel Silva, who came to the U.S. from Mexico when he was 1 year old, interviewed with a Democratic senator’s office for a full-time position after completing a 2017 internship in the House of Representatives through the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute, Roll Call reported.
Internships funded through a third party are legal, but extremely competitive.
“After my interview, they were supposed to call me at the end of the day about next steps. I got the call and thought, ‘Oh great, I’ll learn what my next steps are.’ That’s when a staffer said there is this prohibition that bars DACA recipients from working at the federal level. I couldn’t even work for [the Federal Housing Authority] or the Forest Service,” Silva told the politics website.
Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., who introduced the DREAM Act in 2001 with former Utah Republican Sen. Orin Hatch, said the ban deprives Congress of a talented pool of potential employees.
“I’ve been proud to have several Dreamers work in my office as volunteer interns and have seen firsthand how the people of Illinois would benefit if Dreamers could serve as paid employees in my office," he said.
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A man looks out at a flooded residential area in Gatineau, Quebec, Canada, April 24, 2019. REUTERS/Chris Wattie
April 26, 2019
MONTREAL/OTTAWA (Reuters) – Rising waters were prompting further evacuations in central Canada on Thursday, with the mayor of the country’s capital, Ottawa, declaring a state of emergency and Quebec authorities warning that a hydroelectric dam was at risk of breaking.
Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson declared the emergency in response to rising water levels along the Ottawa River and weather forecasts that called for significant rainfall on Friday.
In a statement on Twitter, Watson asked for help from the Ontario provincial government and the country’s military.
He warned that “flood levels are currently forecasted to exceed the levels that caused significant damage to numerous properties in the city of Ottawa in 2017.”
Spring flooding had killed one person and forced more than 900 people from their homes in Canada’s Quebec province as of 1 p.m. on Thursday, according to a government website.
Ottawa has received 80 requests for service related to potential flooding such as sandbagging, a city spokeswoman said.
The prospect of more rain over the next 24 to 48 hours triggered concerns on Thursday that the hydroelectric dam at Bell Falls in the western part of Quebec could be at risk of failing because of rising water levels.
Quebec’s provincial police said 250 people were protectively removed from homes in the area as of late afternoon in case the dam on the Rouge River breaks.
The dam is now at its full flow capacity of 980 cubic meters per second of water, said Francis Labbé, a spokesman for the province’s state-owned utility, Hydro Quebec. He said Hydro Quebec expected the flow could rise to 1,200 cubic meters per second of water over the next two days.
“We have to take the worst-case scenario into consideration, since we`re already at the maximum capacity,” Labbé said by phone.
The dam is part of a power station that no longer produces electricity, but is regularly inspected by Hydro Quebec, he said.
(Reporting by Allison Lampert in Montreal and David Ljunggren and Julie Gordon in Ottawa; Editing by James Dalgleish and Peter Cooney)
FILE PHOTO: Pallbearers carry the coffin of journalist Lyra McKee at her funeral at St. Anne’s Cathedral in Belfast, Northern Ireland, April 24, 2019. REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne/File Photo
April 26, 2019
BELFAST (Reuters) – Detectives investigating the murder of journalist Lyra McKee in Northern Ireland last week suspect the gunman who shot her dead is in his late teens as they made a further appeal to the local community who they believe know his identity.
McKee’s killing by an Irish nationalist militant during a riot in Londonderry has sparked outrage in the province where a 1998 peace deal mostly ended three decades of sectarian violence that cost the lives of some 3,600 people.
The New IRA, one of a small number of groups that oppose the peace accord, has said one of its members shot the 29-year-old reporter dead in the Creggan area of the city on Thursday when opening fire on police during a riot McKee was watching.
The killing, which followed a large car bomb in Londonderry in January that police also blamed on the New IRA, has raised fears that small marginalized militant groups are exploiting a political vacuum in the province and tensions caused by Britain’s decision to leave the European Union.
Police released footage on Friday of immediately before and after the shooting showing three men who were involved in the rioting and identified one as the gunman who they believe is in his late teens.
“I believe that the information that can help us to bring those responsible for her murder to justice lies within the community. I need the public to tell me who he is,” Detective Superintendent Jason Murphy told reporters.
Murphy said those involved in the disorder on the night were teenagers or in their early 20s, and that about 100 people were on the ground watching the trouble as it unfolded.
He added that police believed the gun used in the attack was of a similar caliber to those used before in paramilitary type attacks in Creggan.
“I recognize that people living in Creagan may find it’s difficult to come forward to speak to police. Today, I want to provide a personal reassurance that we are able to deal with those issues sensitively,” Murphy said, echoing similar appeals in recent days.
(Reporting by Amanda Ferguson, editing by Padraic Halpin and Toby Chopra)
FILE PHOTO: Traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., April 24, 2019. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
April 26, 2019
By Sruthi Shankar and Amy Caren Daniel
(Reuters) – U.S. stock index futures were flat on Friday, as investors paused ahead of GDP data, which is expected to show the world’s largest economy maintained a moderate pace of growth in the first quarter.
Gross domestic product probably increased at a 2% annualized rate in the quarter as a burst in exports, strong inventory stockpiling and government investment in public construction projects offset a slowdown in consumer and business spending, according to a Reuters survey of economists.
The Commerce Department report will be published at 8:30 a.m. ET.
The GDP data comes as investors look for fresh catalysts to push the markets higher. The S&P 500 index is about 0.5% below its record high hit in late September, after surging nearly 17% this year.
First-quarter earnings have been largely upbeat, with nearly 78% of the 178 companies that have reported so far surpassing earnings estimates, according to Refinitiv data.
Wall Street now expects S&P 500 earnings to be in line with the year-ago quarter, a sharp improvement from the 2.3% fall expected at the start of April.
Amazon.com Inc rose 0.9% in premarket trading after the e-commerce giant reported quarterly profit that doubled and beat estimates on soaring demand for its cloud and ad services.
Ford Motor Co shares surged 8.5% after the automaker posted better-than-expected first-quarter earnings largely due to strong pickup truck sales in its core U.S. market.
Mattel Inc jumped 8% after the toymaker beat analysts’ estimates for quarterly revenue, as a more diverse range of Barbie dolls powered sales in the United States.
At 6:52 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were down 35 points, or 0.13%. S&P 500 e-minis were down 1.5 points, or 0.05% and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were up 10.75 points, or 0.14%.
Among decliners, Intel Corp slumped 7.7% after it cut its full-year revenue forecast and missed quarterly sales estimate for its key data center business.
Rival Advanced Micro Devices declined 0.8%.
Oil majors Exxon Mobil Corp and Chevron Corp are expected to report results later in the day.
(Reporting by Sruthi Shankar and Amy Caren Daniel in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D’Silva)
General view of a destroyed building during World War II is pictured in Warsaw, Poland April 26, 2019. REUTERS/Kacper Pempel
April 26, 2019
By Joanna Plucinska
WARSAW (Reuters) – Germany could owe Poland more than $850 billion in reparations for damages it incurred during World War Two and the brutal Nazi occupation, a senior ruling party lawmaker said.
Some six million Poles, including three million Polish Jews, were killed during the war and Warsaw was razed to the ground following a 1944 uprising in which about 200,000 civilians died.
Germany, one of Poland’s biggest trade partners and a fellow member of the European Union and NATO, says all financial claims linked to World War Two have been settled.
The right-wing Law and Justice (PiS) has revived calls for compensation since it took power in 2015 and has made the promotion of Poland’s wartime victimhood a central plank of its appeal to nationalism.
PiS has yet to make an official demand for reparations but its combative stance towards Germany has strained relations.
“Poland lost not only millions of its citizens but it was also destroyed in an unusually brutal way,” Arkadiusz Mularczyk, who heads the Polish parliamentary committee on reparations, told Reuters in an interview.
“Many (victims) are still alive and feel deeply wronged.”
His comments come a month before European Parliament elections in which populist and nationalist parties are expected to do well. Poland will also hold national elections later this year, with PiS still well ahead of its rivals in opinion polls.
EU LARGESSE
Mularczyk said the reparations figure could amount to more than 10 times the estimated 100 billion euros ($111 billion) that Poland has received so far in European Union funds since it joined the bloc in 2004.
Germany is the biggest net donor to the EU budget and some Germans regard its contributions as generous compensation to recipient countries like Poland which suffered under Nazi rule.
In 1953 Poland’s then-communist rulers relinquished all claims to war reparations under pressure from the Soviet Union, which wanted to free East Germany, also a Soviet satellite, from any liabilities. PiS says that agreement is invalid because Poland was unable to negotiate fair compensation.
Mularczyk said his committee hoped to complete its report on the reparations issue by Sept. 1, the 80th anniversary of Hitler’s invasion.
Accusing Berlin of playing “diplomatic games” over the issue, he said: “The matter is being swept under the rug (by Germany) … until it’ll be wiped from the memory, from people’s awareness.”
His comments come after the Greek parliament voted this month to seek billions of euros in German reparations for the Nazi occupation of their country.
(Additional reporting by Anna Wlodarczak-Semczuk, Editing by Justyna Pawlak and Gareth Jones)
FILE PHOTO – Otto Frederick Warmbier (C), a University of Virginia student who was detained in North Korea since early January, is taken to North Korea’s top court in Pyongyang, North Korea, in this photo released by Kyodo March 16, 2016. Mandatory credit REUTERS/Kyodo/File Photo
April 26, 2019
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday said the United States did not pay any money to North Korea as it sought the release of comatose American student Otto Warmbier.
The Washington Post reported on Thursday that Trump had approved payment of a $2 million bill from North Korea to cover its care of the college student, who died shortly after he was returned to the United States after 17 months in a North Korean prison.
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