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Earthquake centered near New York City rattles much of the Northeast
An earthquake shook the densely populated New York City metropolitan area Friday morning, the U.S. Geological Survey said, with residents across the Northeast reporting rumbling in a region where people are unaccustomed to feeling the ground move.
The agency reported a quake at 10:23 a.m. with a preliminary magnitude of 4.8, centered near Lebanon, New Jersey, or about 45 miles west of New York City and 50 miles north of Philadelphia. U.S.G.S. figures indicated that the quake might have been felt by more than 42 million people.
New York City’s emergency notification system said in a social media post more than 30 minutes after the quake that it had no reports of damage or injuries in the city. Mayor Eric Adams had been briefed on the quake, his spokesperson Fabien Levy said, adding, “While we do not have any reports of major impacts at this time, we’re still assessing the impact.”
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In midtown Manhattan, the usual cacophony of traffic grew louder as motorists blared their horns on momentarily shuddering streets. Some Brooklyn residents heard a booming sound and their building shaking. In an apartment house in Manhattan’s East Village, a resident from more earthquake-prone California calmed nervous neighbors.
People in Baltimore, Philadelphia, Connecticut and other areas of the Northeast reported shaking. Tremors lasting for several seconds were felt over 200 miles away near the Massachusetts-New Hampshire border.
In New York City’s Astoria neighborhood, Cassondra Kurtz was giving her 14-year-old Chihuahua, Chiki, a cocoa-butter rubdown for her dry skin. Kurtz was recording the moment on video, as an everyday memory of the dog’s older years, when her apartment started shaking hard enough that a 9-foot (2.7-meter-tall) mirror banged audibly against a wall.
Kurtz assumed at first it was a big truck going by.
“I’m from Jersey, so I’m not used to earthquakes,” she explained later.
The video captured her looking around, perplexed. Chiki, however, “was completely unbothered.”
At a coffee shop in lower Manhattan, customers buzzed over the unexpected earthquake, which rattled dishware and shook the concrete counter. “I noticed the door trembling on its frame,” said India Hays, a barista. “I thought surely there couldn’t be an earthquake here.”
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Solomon Byron was sitting on a park bench in Manhattan’s East Village when he felt an unfamiliar rumble. “I felt this vibration, and I was just like, where is that vibration coming from,” Byron said. “There’s no trains nowhere close by here or anything like that.” Byron said he didn’t realize there had been an earthquake until he got the alert on his cellphone.
The White House said in a statement that President Joe Biden had been briefed on the earthquake and was “in touch with federal, state, and local officials as we learn more.”
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul posted on X that the quake was felt throughout the state. “My team is assessing impacts and any damage that may have occurred, and we will update the public throughout the day,” Hochul said.
Philadelphia police asked people not to call 911 about seismic activity unless they were reporting an emergency. Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro said state officials were monitoring the situation. A spokesperson for Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont was unaware of any reports of damage in that state.
The shaking stirred memories of the Aug. 23, 2011, earthquake that jolted tens of millions of people from Georgia to Canada. Registering magnitude 5.8, it was the strongest quake to hit the East Coast since World War II. The epicenter was in Virginia.
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That earthquake left cracks in the Washington Monument, spurred the evacuation of the White House and Capitol and rattled New Yorkers three weeks before the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terror attacks.
What’s it like to survive a bridge collapse?
You’re driving along, and without warning, the roadway drops from beneath you.
There are a few seconds of falling, with thoughts possibly racing about family or loved ones, followed by a jarring impact, and most likely injury.
Tuesday’s collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore following a ship strike brought back jarring memories of their own ordeals to people who survived previous bridge collapses.
‘THERE WAS DEFINITELY SOMETHING WRONG’
Linda Paul, 72, survived a bridge collapse in Minneapolis on Aug. 1, 2007. The Interstate 35W bridge collapsed without warning into the Mississippi River in downtown Minneapolis during the evening rush hour.
Paul was 55 then, working as a shop-at-home designer for a local company and driving home in a minivan that doubled as a “store on wheels,” loaded with fabrics and sample books. Traffic was at a total standstill, leaving her stuck on the bridge around 6 p.m.
“I remember looking around and thinking that there was definitely something wrong,” Paul said. “I looked ahead and realized that the center section of the bridge was going down, and knew at that point that there was a good chance I would go down with it. And that is exactly what happened.”
Police later told her that she plunged down a 50-foot (15-meter) slope as the concrete deck of the bridge collapsed. She was still inside the minivan as it fell onto wreckage on the riverbank.
Chunks of concrete hit her, fracturing five of her vertebrae and crushing her left cheekbone, as the collapse killed 13 people and injured 145.
‘IT WAS KIND OF, LIKE, JOLTY’
Jessie Shelton, now a 35-year-old Broadway actor and voiceover artist in New York, was 18 when she survived the Minnesota bridge collapse. She had been driving from work to a production she was part of at Children’s Theater in Minneapolis.
“I started to slide backwards. And it was kind of, like, jolty,” she said. “I felt like I was on some sort of amusement park ride. And I remember thinking at 18 years of age, ‘Well, we’ll see what happens.’”
Then she was knocked unconscious, suffering a concussion and injuries that broke her back in four spots.
“I just remember that sort of final moment before I got a concussion,” Shelton said. “I don’t recall what came after. I woke up at North Memorial Hospital with either my mom or my best friend standing over me.”
“I had a big cement block in the backseat of my car,” she recalled. “It narrowly missed me. It came off of one of the signs, I think, up above. So it really was pretty miraculous that I made it because I couldn’t have navigated out of that situation, because I was out cold.”
ESCAPED THROUGH A HAND-CRANKED WINDOW
Gustavo Morales Jr. was driving a truck over the Queen Isabella Causeway in Port Isabel, Texas and fell into an abyss after a tugboat struck a pillar, sending part of the bridge into the water on Sept. 15, 2001.
Morales was on his way home from a late night managing a restaurant on South Padre Island at the time. He remembers it feeling like a rumble or explosion — and then his pickup truck flew over the collapsed roadway for a few seconds before crashing into the water. Thoughts of his wife, who was expecting their third child, flooded his mind. “Everything comes into your mind a thousand miles an hour,” he said. “It was my wife, my girls, my son who was on his way.”
Morales believes wearing his seatbelt and being able to manually roll down the window helped him stay conscious and escape the truck. He spent about ten minutes in the water before some young men nearby who witnessed the tugboat hit the pier helped him and others safely out. Eight people died that day. Morales was among three survivors.
MULTIPLE SURGERIES AND TRAUMA
Garrett Ebling, another survivor of the 2007 Minnesota bridge collapse, was numb when he learned that six people who were on the bridge in Baltimore remained missing and were presumed dead.
“As Minneapolis bridge collapse survivors, one of the things we hold onto is that we went through this in the hopes that people wouldn’t have to go through something like this in the future,” Ebling said.
Ebling, 49, of New Ulm, Minnesota, endured multiple surgeries, including facial reconstruction, as well as emotional trauma.
“We don’t know what happened in Baltimore,” Ebling said. “But I don’t want to see somebody have to go through that, especially unnecessarily. If it ends up being a preventable accident then I really feel bad. In my estimation, what happened in Minneapolis was a preventable bridge collapse. And if that also happened in Baltimore, then I think that makes it even more disappointing.”
At collapsed Baltimore bridge, focus shifts to the weighty job of removing the massive structure
Teams of engineers are now focused on the formidable job of hauling the shattered remains of the Francis Scott Key Bridge out of Maryland’s Patapsco River, the first step toward reopening the Port of Baltimore and recovering the bodies of four workers who are still missing and presumed dead.
A massive cargo go ship felled the span Tuesday after striking one of its main supports. Experts are trying to figure out how to “break that bridge up into the right-sized pieces that we can lift,” U.S. Coast Guard Rear Adm. Shannon Gilreath said Friday at a news conference.
The tools that are needed have been coming into place. They include seven floating cranes — one of which is one of the largest on the Eastern Seaboard, capable of lifting 1,000 tons — 10 tugboats, nine barges, eight salvage vessels and five Coast Guard boats.
“To go out there and see it up close, you realize just how daunting a task this is,” Gov. Wes Moore said Friday afternoon as the massive crane loomed behind him.
“With a salvage operation this complex — and frankly with a salvation operation this unprecedented — you need to plan for every single moment,” Moore added.
Moore surveyed the scene and saw shipping containers ripped apart “like papier-mache.” The broken pieces of the bridge, including its steel trusses, weigh as much as 4,000 tons.
The wreckage has blocked ships from entering or leaving the vital port and also stymied the search for the missing workers.
“We have to bring a sense of closure to these families,” Moore said.
Moore also spoke of the disaster's severe economic impact, saying, “What we’re talking about today is not just about Maryland’s economy; this is about the nation’s economy. The port handles more cars and more farm equipment than any other port in this country.”
Maryland’s Department of Transportation is already planning for rebuilding of the span and “considering innovative design, engineering and building methods so that we can quickly deliver this project,” Secretary Paul J. Wiedefeld said.
Adam Ortiz, the Environmental Protection Agency’s mid-Atlantic Regional Administrator, said there was no indication in the water of active releases from the ship or materials hazardous to human health.
Col. Roland L. Butler Jr., superintendent of the Maryland State Police, said the Federal Aviation Administration has been asked to establish a flight restriction area that would begin 3 nautical miles in every direction from the bridge's center span and extend upward to 1,500 feet.
Butler advised people to keep drones away and said law enforcement is poised to act on any violations of that airspace.
The victims, members of a crew fixing potholes on the span when it was destroyed, were from Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, officials said. At least eight people initially went into the water when the ship struck the bridge column, and two of them were rescued.
Divers then recovered the bodies of two men from a pickup truck in the river, but the nature and placement of the debris has complicated efforts to find the other four workers, as have the murky water conditions.
“The divers can put their hands on that faceplate, and they can’t even see their hands,” said Donald Gibbons, an instructor with Eastern Atlantic States Carpenters Technical Centers. “So we say zero visibility. It’s very similar to locking yourself in a dark closet on a dark night and really not being able to see anything.”
Baltimoreans made morning stops at vantage points Friday to watch for the cranes. Among them was Ronald Hawkins, 71, who used to be able to see the bridge from his home and recalled watching its construction in the 1970s.
“I’m going to come up here every day, because I want to see the bridge coming up out of the water,” Hawkins said. “It’s a hurtin’ thing.”
President Joe Biden’s administration has approved $60 million in immediate aid, and Biden has said the federal government will pay the full cost of rebuilding the bridge, which was completed in 1977 and carried Interstate 695.
Ship traffic at the Port of Baltimore remains suspended, but the Maryland Port Administration said in a statement Friday that trucks were still being processed at marine terminals.
Federal and state officials have said the collision and collapse appeared to be an accident that came after the ship lost power. Investigators are still trying to determine why.
The crash caused the bridge to break and fall into the water within seconds. Authorities had just enough time to stop vehicle traffic but were unable to alert the construction crew.
The cargo ship Dali, which is managed by Synergy Marine Group, had been headed from Baltimore to Sri Lanka. It is owned by Grace Ocean Private Ltd. and was chartered by Danish shipping giant Maersk.
The loss of a road that carried 30,000 vehicles a day and the port disruption will affect not only thousands of dockworkers and commuters, but also U.S. consumers, who are likely to feel the impact of shipping delays.
Scott Cowan, president of the International Longshoremen’s Association Local 333, said the union was scrambling to help its roughly 2,400 members whose jobs are at risk of drying up.
“If there’s no ships, there’s no work,” he said. “We’re doing everything we can.”
Hijab-wearing players in US college basketball hope to inspire others
N.C. State’s Jannah Eissa and UC Irvine’s Diaba Konate are bringing visibility and inspiration to some Muslim women by wearing hjiabs while they play basketball.
They aren’t the first women to do it in NCAA Tournament play, but with record viewership and attendance they are certainly getting noticed.
“Representation really matters,” said Konate, whose team lost in the first round of the tournament to Gonzaga. “Just having people, young Muslim women wearing the hijab, we’re not there yet. Just seeing us play, I think it makes me really happy because I used to have people that I was looking up to. Now having people that look up to me makes me happy.”
Konate admires Bilqis Abdul-Qaadir, who made NCAA history by being the first to wear a hijab in college basketball when she played for Memphis a decade ago. Abdul-Qaadir was instrumental in getting FIBA, the International Basketball Federation, to overturn its own ban on headgear in 2017.
Former UConn player Batouly Camara, who was one of the first to wear a hijab in Spain’s LF1 league, has enjoyed seeing Eissa and Konate represent their religion.
“It’s truly inspiring to witness these two Muslim athletes competing at the highest level. This tournament serves as a significant moment, shining a spotlight on the best teams simultaneously with their faith,” said Camara, who founded the non-profit organization Women And Kids Empowerment (WAKE) in 2017. “It sends a powerful message to girls worldwide, affirming that they belong on the sports field, regardless of economic class, race, culture and more.”
Konate started 31 of 32 games for UC Irvine, averaging 7.5 points and nearly four assists. She moved to the U.S. from France after receiving a scholarship from Idaho State. She transferred to UC Irvine as a junior.
She’d like a chance to play in a hijab at home in France, where she won two medals playing on their youth teams. But currently, the French Federation of Basketball prohibits the wearing of “any equipment with a religious or political connotation.”
“Being French and hosting the Olympics, it really hurts to not be able to be ourselves,” said Konate, who first started wearing the hijab in 2020. “Hopefully, it changes.”
Eissa and Konate have never met, but are aware of each other.
“I just know there’s another woman wearing a hijab,” Eissa said. “I just saw a post about two days ago. I was so happy there are other people.”
Eissa, who turned 18 in February, was a walk-on at N.C. State. She joined the team after trying out in September. She didn’t play much this season — appearing in 11 games and hitting one 3-pointer.
Earlier this season, a group of young Muslim girls came to her game. They also showed up a few more times to support her.
“I’d love to say I was a role model to them. Never thought I could be a role model for someone I didn’t know,” said Eissa, who grew up in Cairo before coming to N.C. State. “Never knew one person could make such an impact. They were so young girls and girls my age looking up to me and I was so happy.”
Eissa chose N.C. State because her father got his PhD there and her two older sisters attend the university.
She said when having a bad day or an off day, she’d remember her young fans and it would bring a smile.
“If they see someone giving them hope, I’m happy that I’m the person to give it to them,” Eissa said. “I want to make it as far as I can for the image of women in hijabs.”
Trump selling Bibles for $59.99 as he faces mounting legal bills
Former President Donald Trump is now selling Bibles as he runs to return to the White House.
Trump, who became the presumptive Republican nominee earlier this month, released a video on his Truth Social platform on Tuesday urging his supporters to buy the “God Bless the USA Bible,” which is inspired by country singer Lee Greenwood’s patriotic ballad. Trump takes the stage to the song at each of his rallies and has appeared with Greenwood at events.
“Happy Holy Week! Let’s Make America Pray Again. As we lead into Good Friday and Easter, I encourage you to get a copy of the God Bless the USA Bible,” Trump wrote, directing his supporters to a website selling the book for $59.99.
The effort comes as Trump has faced a serious money crunch amid mounting legal bills while he fights four criminal indictments along with a series of civil charges. Trump was given a reprieve Monday when a New York appeals court agreed to hold off on collecting the more than $454 million he owes following a civil fraud judgment if he puts up $175 million within 10 days. Trump has already posted a $92 million bond in connection with defamation cases brought by the writer E. Jean Carroll, who accused Trump of sexual assault.
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“All Americans need a Bible in their home, and I have many. It’s my favorite book,” Trump said in the video posted on Truth Social. “I’m proud to endorse and encourage you to get this Bible. We must make America pray again.”
Billing itself as “the only Bible endorsed by President Trump!” the new venture’s website calls it “Easy-to-read” with “large print” and a “slim design” that “invites you to explore God’s Word anywhere, any time.”
Besides a King James Version translation, it includes copies of the U.S. Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the Declaration of Independence and the Pledge of Allegiance, as well as a handwritten chorus of the famous Greenwood song.
The Bible is just the latest commercial venture that Trump has pursued while campaigning.
Last month, he debuted a new line of Trump-branded sneakers, including $399 gold “Never Surrender High-Tops,” at Sneaker Con in Philadelphia. The venture behind the shoes, 45Footwear, also sells other Trump-branded footwear, cologne and perfume.
Trump has also dabbled in NFTs, or nonfungible tokens, and last year reported earning between $100,000 and $1 million from a series of digital trading cards that portrayed him in cartoon-like images, including as an astronaut, a cowboy and a superhero.
He has also released books featuring photos of his time in office and letters written to him through the years.
The Bible’s website states the product “is not political and has nothing to do with any political campaign.”
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“GodBlessTheUSABible.com is not owned, managed or controlled by Donald J. Trump, The Trump Organization, CIC Ventures LLC or any of their respective principals or affiliates,” it says.
Instead, it says, “GodBlessTheUSABible.com uses Donald J. Trump’s name, likeness and image under paid license from CIC Ventures LLC, which license may be terminated or revoked according to its terms.”
CIC Ventures LLC, a company that Trump reported owning in his 2023 financial disclosure, has a similar arrangement with 45Footwear, which also says it uses Trump’s “name, likeness and image under paid license from CIC Ventures LLC, which license may be terminated or revoked according to its terms.”
A Trump spokesperson and God Bless the USA Bible did not immediately respond to questions about how much Trump was paid for the licensing deal or stands to make from each book sale.
Trump remains deeply popular with white evangelical Christians, who are among his most ardent supporters, even though the thrice-married former reality TV star has a long history of behavior that often seemed at odds with teachings espoused by Christ in the Gospels.
When he was running in 2016, Trump raised eyebrows when he cited “Two Corinthians” at Liberty University, instead of the standard “Second Corinthians.”
When asked to share his favorite Bible verse in an interview with Bloomberg Politics in 2015, he demurred.
“I wouldn’t want to get into it. Because to me, that’s very personal,” he said. “The Bible means a lot to me, but I don’t want to get into specifics.”
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When he was president, law enforcement officers aggressively removed racial justice protesters from a park near the White House, allowing Trump to walk to nearby St. John’s Church, where he stood alone and raised a Bible. The scene was condemned at the time by the bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington.
Before he ran for office, Trump famously hawked everything from frozen steaks to vodka to a venture named Trump University, which was later sued for fraud.
Baltimore bridge collapse: ‘Heroes’ scrambled to stop traffic; construction crew feared dead
It was the middle of the night when a dispatcher’s 12-second warning crackled over the radio: A massive cargo ship had lost its steering capabilities and was heading toward the Francis Scott Key Bridge.
Within about 90 seconds, police officers responded that they had managed to stop vehicle traffic over the bridge in both directions. One said he was about to drive onto the bridge to alert a construction crew.
But it was too late. Lifeless and laden with huge containers, the vessel smashed into a support pillar.
“The whole bridge just fell down,” a frantic officer said. “Start, start whoever, everybody ... the whole bridge just collapsed.”
When the shipping vessel Dali slammed into the pillar around 1:30 a.m. Tuesday, it caused a long span of the bridge, a key cog in the region’s transportation infrastructure, to crumple into the Patapsco River. Six people are presumed dead, and the loss of the bridge is expected to snarl commuter traffic and disrupt a vital shipping port.
Baltimore bridge collapses after powerless cargo ship rams into support column; 6 presumed dead
At least eight people went into the water. Two survived but the other six, all identified as part of a construction crew that had been filling potholes on the bridge, were missing. A search for their bodies was to resume Wednesday morning.
Among the missing were people from Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico, according to diplomats from those countries. The Honduran man was identified as Maynor Yassir Suazo Sandova.
Federal and state officials said the incident appeared to be an accident. The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating, and ship traffic entering and leaving the Port of Baltimore was suspended indefinitely.
Capt. Michael Burns Jr. of the Maritime Center for Responsible Energy said bringing a ship into or out of ports in restricted waters with limited room to maneuver is “one of the most technically challenging and demanding things that we do.”
“So there really is few things that are scarier than a loss of power in restricted waters,” he said. And when a ship loses propulsion and steering, “then it’s really at the mercy of the wind and the current.”
Video showed the ship moving at what Gov. Wes Moore said was about 9 mph (15 kph) toward the 1.6-mile (2.6-kilometer) bridge. There still was traffic moving across the span, and some vehicles appeared to escape with only seconds to spare. The collision caused the span to break and fall into the water within seconds, and jagged remnants could be seen jutting up from the water later in the day.
Police said there is no evidence that anyone went into the water other than the workers, though they had not discounted the possibility.
A senior executive at the company that employed the crew, Brawner Builders, said they were working in the middle of the bridge when it came down.
“This was so completely unforeseen,” said Jeffrey Pritzker, the company's executive vice president. “We don’t know what else to say. We take such great pride in safety, and we have cones and signs and lights and barriers and flaggers.”
Jesus Campos, who has worked on the bridge for Brawner Builders and knows members of the crew, said he was told they were on a break and some were sitting in their trucks.
“I know that a month ago, I was there, and I know what it feels like when the trailers pass,” Campos said. “Imagine knowing that is falling. It is so hard. One would not know what to do.”
Father Ako Walker, a Roman Catholic priest at Sacred Heart of Jesus, said outside a vigil that he spent time with the families of the missing workers as they waited for news of their loved ones.
“You can see the pain etched on their faces,” Walker said.
Rescuers pulled two people out of the water. One person was treated at a hospital and discharged hours later.
The crash happened long before the busy morning commute on the bridge, which was used by 12 million vehicles last year.
From 1960 to 2015, there were 35 major bridge collapses worldwide due to ship or barge collisions, according to the World Association for Waterborne Transport Infrastructure.
Tuesday's collapse is sure to create a logistical headache along the East Coast for months, if not longer, shutting down shipping traffic at the Port of Baltimore, a major hub.
Paul Wiedefeld, the state’s transportation secretary, said vessel traffic in and out of the port would be suspended until further notice, though the facility was still open to trucks.
“Losing this bridge will devastate the entire area, as well as the entire East Coast,” state Sen. Johnny Ray Salling said.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said it was too soon to give a time frame for clearing the channel, which is about 50 feet (15 meters) deep, while President Joe Biden said he planned to travel to Baltimore soon and expects the federal government to pay the entire cost of rebuilding.
Synergy Marine Group, which manages the ship, said the impact happened while it was under the control of one or more pilots, who are local specialists who help guide vessels safely in and out of ports. Synergy said everyone on board was accounted for, with no reports of injuries.
The ship is owned by Grace Ocean Private Ltd., and Danish shipping giant Maersk said it had chartered the vessel.
The 985-foot-long (300-meter-long) Dali was headed from Baltimore to Colombo, Sri Lanka, and flying under a Singapore flag, according to data from Marine Traffic.
Inspectors found a problem with the ship's machinery in June, but a more recent examination did not identify any deficiencies, according to the shipping information system Equasis.
Donald Heinbuch, a retired chief with Baltimore’s fire department, said he was startled awake by a deep rumbling that shook his house for several seconds and “felt like an earthquake.”
He drove to the river and couldn’t believe what he saw: “The ship was there, and the bridge was in the water, like it was blown up.”
Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott called the incident “an unthinkable tragedy.” Gov. Moore said that “all of our hearts are broken for the victims and their families,” and he also hailed first responders for their quick response.
“Literally by being able to stop cars from coming over the bridge, these people are heroes,” Moore said. “They saved lives last night.”
Memorial marks 210th anniversary of crucial battle between Native Americans and United States
Prayers and songs of remembrance carried across the grassy field where 800 Muscogee warriors, women and children perished in 1814 while defending their homeland from United States forces.
Members of the Muscogee Creek Nation returned to Alabama this weekend for a memorial service on the 210th anniversary of Horseshoe Bend. The battle was the single bloodiest day of conflict for Native Americans with U.S. troops and paved the way for white settler expansion in the Southeast and the tribe's eventual forced removal from the region.
“We don’t come here to celebrate. We come here to commemorate, to remember the lives and stories of those who fought and honor their sacrifice,” David Hill, principal chief of the Muscogee Creek Nation, said at the Saturday ceremony.
One thousand warriors, along with women and children from six tribal towns, had taken refuge on the site, named for the sharp bend of the Tallapoosa River. They were attacked on March 27, 1814, by a force of 3,000 led by future U.S. President Andrew Jackson.
“They were going to fight to the end. The warriors were going to do what they could do to protect the women and children, protect themselves, protect our freedom, what we had here,” Hill said.
Leaders of the Muscogee Nation on Saturday placed a wreath on the battle site. The wreath was red, in honor of the warriors who were known as Red Sticks. It was decorated with six eagle feathers in recognition of the six tribal towns that had taken refuge there.
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Despite signing a treaty with the United States, the Muscogee were eventually forcibly removed from the Southeast to Oklahoma on the Trail of Tears. Some of their descendants made the journey back to the land their ancestors called home to attend the remembrance ceremony.
“Hearing the wind and the trees and imagining those that came before us, they heard those same things. It wakes something up in your DNA,” Dode Barnett, a member of the Muscogee Nation Tribal Council, said. Barnett said their story is one of survival.
RaeLynn Butler, the Muscogee Nation’s secretary of culture and humanities, has visited the site multiple times but said it is emotional each time.
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“When you hear the language and you hear the songs, it's a feeling that is just overwhelming. Painful. Even though it's hard to be here, it's important that we share this history,” Butler said.
The Muscogee Nation has announced plans to try to place a permanent memorial at the site.
Toddler left home alone dies while mother took a 10-day vacation
In a harrowing case that has gripped the United States, a Cleveland, Ohio, court has handed down a life sentence to Kristel Candelario for the death of her 16-month-old daughter, Jailyn, after leaving the toddler alone for 10 days to vacation in Puerto Rico and Detroit.
The sheer neglect came to a tragic end when Jailyn's desperate cries for help, captured by a neighbor's doorbell camera, ceased in a quiet Cleveland home.
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Forensic pathologist Elizabeth Mooney painted a grim picture of Jailyn's final days, marked by "unimaginable suffering" due to starvation and dehydration.
Authorities described a heart-wrenching scene at the Candelario residence, finding Jailyn in a state of severe emaciation and squalor. The prosecution laid bare the grim details, including security footage of Candelario's departure and return, juxtaposed with a 911 call where she falsely claimed to discover her daughter in distress.
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In a macabre attempt to deceive, Candelario had changed Jailyn into clean clothes before the arrival of emergency services.
Amidst pleas for leniency from Candelario's parents, who cited mental health issues, and Candelario's own tearful expressions of remorse and appeals for divine and maternal forgiveness, Judge Brendan Sheehan delivered a scathing rebuke. He condemned the unfathomable breach of the maternal bond, underscoring the stark juxtaposition of Candelario's leisurely escapades against her daughter's agonizing demise.
In a poignant closing statement, Judge Sheehan declared, “Just as you didn’t let Jailyn out of her confinement until she died, so too you should spend the rest of your life in a cell without freedom. The only difference is that prison will at least feed you,” encapsulating the grim justice meted out for an act of unimaginable cruelty.
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Trump says Jews who vote for Democrats 'hate Israel' and their religion
Former President Donald Trump on Monday charged that Jews who vote for Democrats “hate Israel" and hate “their religion,” igniting a firestorm of criticism from the White House and Jewish leaders.
Trump, in an interview, had been asked about Democrats' growing criticism of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over his handling of the war in Gaza as the civilian death toll continues to mount.
“I actually think they hate Israel,” Trump responded to his former aide, Sebastian Gorka. “I think they hate Israel. And the Democrat party hates Israel.”
Trump, who last week became the Republican Party's presumptive nominee, went on to charge: “Any Jewish person that votes for Democrats hates their religion. They hate everything about Israel and they should be ashamed of themselves because Israel will be destroyed.”
The comments sparked immediate backlash from the White House, President Joe Biden's campaign and Jewish leaders. The vast majority of Jewish Americans identify as Democrats, but Trump has often accused them of disloyalty, perpetuating what critics say is an antisemitic trope.
At the White House, spokesperson Andrew Bates cast the comments as “vile and unhinged Antisemitic rhetoric" without mentioning Trump by name.
“As Antisemitic crimes and acts of hate have increased across the world — among them the deadliest attack committed against the Jewish people since the Holocaust — leaders have an obligation to call hate what it is and bring Americans together against it,” he said. “There is no justification for spreading toxic, false stereotypes that threaten fellow citizens. None.”
Biden’s campaign said, “The only person who should be ashamed here is Donald Trump.”
“Trump is going to lose again this November because Americans are sick of his hateful resentment, personal attacks, and extreme agenda," said spokesman James Singer.
Jonathan Greenblatt, who heads the Anti-Defamation League, said, “Accusing Jews of hating their religion because they might vote for a particular party is defamatory & patently false."
“Serious leaders who care about the historic US-Israel alliance should focus on strengthening, rather than unraveling, bipartisan support for the State of Israel,” he wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Trump's comments come as Biden has been facing mounting pressure from the progressive wing of his party over his administration’s support for Israel in its retaliatory offensive in Gaza. More than 30,000 Palestinians have been killed since Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, according to the Health Ministry in the Hamas-ruled territory.
While Biden continues to back Israel’s right to defend itself, he has increasingly criticized Netanyahu. After his State of the Union speech, he said he needed to have a “come to Jesus” conversation with the
Israeli leader. He has also accused Netanyahu of “hurting Israel more than helping Israel," saying, “he must pay more attention to the innocent lives being lost as a consequence of the actions taken.”
Trump took particular issue with recent comments from Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, the country's highest-ranking Jewish official. In a speech last week, Schumer sharply criticized Netanyahu’s handling of the war in Gaza, warning that the civilian toll was damaging Israel’s standing around the world. He also called for Israel to hold new elections.
While the White House formally distanced itself from Schumer’s comments, the Democratic leader and key ally was voicing an opinion increasingly held across Biden’s administration.
Schumer — whom Trump accused of being “very anti-Israel now” — responded by accusing Trump of “making highly partisan and hateful rants.”
“To make Israel a partisan issue only hurts Israel and the US-Israeli relationship,” he wrote on X.
The Pew Research Center reported in 2021 that Jews are “among the most consistently liberal and Democratic groups in the U.S.,” with 7 in 10 Jewish adults identifying with or leaning toward the Democratic Party. In 2020, it found that nearly three-quarters of American Jews disapproved of Trump’s performance as president, with just 27% rating him positively.
Americans have also increasingly soured on Israel’s military operation in Gaza, according to surveys from The Associated Press and the NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. In January, 50% of U.S. adults said the military response from Israel in the Gaza Strip had gone too far, up from 40% in November.
That number was higher among Democrats, 6 in 10 of whom said the same thing in both surveys.
Mike Pence says he won’t be backing Trump in 2024 election
Former Vice President Mike Pence says he will not be backing Donald Trump in the 2024 election.
“It should come as no surprise that I will not be endorsing Donald Trump this year," Pence said in an interview with Fox News Channel Friday, weighing in for the first time since the former president became the presumptive GOP nominee. Pence ran against Trump for their party's nomination but dropped his bid before voting began last year.
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The decision makes Pence the latest in a series of senior Trump administration officials who have declined to endorse their former boss's bid to return to the Oval Office. While Republican members of Congress and other GOP officials have largely rallied behind Trump, a vocal minority has continued to oppose his bid.
It also marks the end of a metamorphosis for Pence, who had long been seen as one of Trump's most loyal defenders but broke with his two-time running mate by refusing to go along with Trump's unconstitutional scheme to try to remain in power after losing the 2020 election. When Trump's supporters stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, trying to disrupt the certification of Joe Biden's win, Pence was forced to flee to a Senate loading dock as rioters chanted, “Hang Mike Pence!” outside.
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In order to participate in the Republican primary debates, Pence was required to sign a pledge saying that he would support the party’s eventual nominee. And during the first debate in Milwaukee, Pence was among the candidates who raised their hands when asked whether they would support Trump even if he were convicted in one of his four criminal indictments.
But Pence had made clear he had come to harbor serious reservations about Trump's actions and his policy stances.
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“I believe anyone that puts themselves over the Constitution should never be president of the United States and anyone who asks someone else to put them over the Constitution should never be president of the United States again,” he said during his campaign launch speech.
As the campaign progressed, he raised alarms about the party's resistance to sending aid to Ukraine and called on his fellow Republicans to reject what he called the “siren song of populism” espoused by Trump and his followers.
In the interview on Fox's "The Story with Martha MacCallum," Pence said he was “incredibly proud” of his and Trump's record in office, but said, “During my presidential campaign I made it clear that there were profound differences between me and President Trump on a range of issues, and not just our difference on my Constitutional duties that I exercised on January the 6th."
“I mean, as I have watched his candidacy unfold, I've seen him walking away from our commitment to confronting the national debt. I've seen him starting to shy away from a commitment to the sanctity of human life,” he went on, also referencing what he called Trump's “reversal on getting tough on China and supporting our administration's effort to force” the sale of the popular TikTok app.
“In each of these cases, Donald Trump is pursuing and articulating an agenda that is at odds with the conservative agenda that we governed on during our four years. And that's why I cannot in conscience endorse Donald Trump in this campaign," he said.
Pence declined to say whom he would be voting for — “I'm going to keep my vote to myself,” he said — but made clear it wouldn't be Biden.
“I would never vote for Joe Biden," he said. “I'm a Republican.”
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