Marvel Comics to debut new Arab American superhero from Dearborn in March
December 31st, 20190 DEARBORN — A new Arab American superhero named Amulet (AKA Fadi Fadlallah) is expected to debut in March, bringing diversity and intrigue to the country's most famous line of comics. The character, who is set to make his debut in the 13th issue of Magnificent Ms. Marvel is the creation of the book's current author Saladin Ahmed and...
Year in review 2019: National controversies involving Trump, the BDS movement and Tlaib take center stage
December 31st, 20190 It's been a eventful 2019 in regards to national stories involving or affecting the Arab American community, with President Trump, U.S. Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D-Detroit) and Ilhan Omar (D-MN) among those making headlines along with a series of controversies involving the BDS movement, Israel's occupation of Palestine and more. The...
Ann Arbor city officials and anti-Israeli protesters sued in federal court
December 30th, 20190 ANN ARBOR — A civil suit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan on December 20 names as defendants members of the Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends as well as several Ann Arbor city officials. The plaintiff in the case, Marvin Gerber, is an Ann Arbor resident and a long time member of the Beth...
U.S. Postal Service to Issue new priority mail and priority mail express stamps
December 26th, 20190 WASHINGTON, D.C — The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) has revealed two additions to the 2020 Stamp Program: Big Bend and Grand Island Ice Caves. Both stamps will be released on Saturday, Jan. 18. There will be no national first-day-of-issue ceremony for these stamps. Details on obtaining first-day-of-issue cancellations will be announced in...
Trump manipulates civil rights protections to crack down on BDS on college campuses
December 26th, 20190 WASHINGTON, D.C – In an extraordinary move that flies in the face of civil rights protections, President Trump signed an executive order on Wednesday to interpret Judaism as a nationality. The order expands Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 protections against discrimination to prosecute cases of perceived anti-Semitism on...
DACA beneficiaries could stay in the U.S. for years
December 26th, 20191 LOS ANGELES — While hundreds of thousands of immigrants with Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) permits await the decision of the Supreme Court on the future of the program, lawyers and immigrant advocates argue that the vast majority of them have sufficient legal rights to remain in this country for several years and maybe...
United States government sues CVS for fraudulently billing Medicare and Medicaid
December 24th, 20190 NEW YORK — The CVS Health Corporation and its Omnicare unit were sued on Tuesday of last week by the U.S. government, which accused them of violating the federal False Claims Act. The allegations state that CVS illegally dispensed drugs to tens of thousands of patients in assisted living facilities, group homes for people with...
What happens next? President Trump impeached on abuse of power and obstruction of congress charges
December 24th, 20190 WASHINGTON, D.C. — The 45th president of the United States of America, Donald J. Trump, was officially impeached by the House of Representatives this past Wednesday for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, making him the third president in history to face the possibility of removal by the Senate. The other two presidents...
Former Moroccan ambassador to the U.S., two others charged with visa fraud
December 24th, 20190 NEW YORK — Former Moroccan ambassador to the United States Abdeslam Jaidi, his ex-wife Maria Luisa Estrella and her brother Ramon Singson have been charged by prosecutors in New York with visa fraud, a report from Voice of America said. The defendants have accused of bringing of bringing workers to the United States using fake...
Reuters/Ipsos poll: Less than half of Americans want Trump ousted post-impeachment
December 21st, 20190 NEW YORK — Less than half of Americans polled say President Trump should be removed from office following his impeachment by the U.S. House of Representatives, according to a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll released on Thursday, presenting a challenge for Democrats who will seek his ouster in a U.S. Senate trial. The poll was conducted...
House passes resolution supporting a two-state solution to Israel-Palestinian conflict
December 13th, 20190 WASHINGTON, D.C — Congress approved a resolution supporting a two-state solution for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict last Friday, December 6. The vote was 226-188. The resolution, “H.Res.326 — Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives regarding United States efforts to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through...
Local physician disgusted by president’s attacks on healthcare
December 12th, 20190 By Dr. Maissa Hider As a physician who has dedicated her career to helping the sick and those in need, I’m disgusted by Donald Trump’s attacks on healthcare and his failure to take action on prescription drug prices. While this president promised healthcare for all and lower prescription drug prices, the only thing we’ve...
Muhammad makes the list of top 10 U.S. baby names for first time ever
December 9th, 20190 SAN FRANCISCO — The name Muhammad has become one of the top 10 most popular baby names for boys in the United States this year, surging to the number 10 spot after coming in 14th in 2018. The name has been steadily climbing up the charts according to the San Francisco-based parenting website BabyCenter, which compiled the data. It...
Dems push hard for impeachment, saying Trump left them with “no choice”
December 5th, 20190 WASHINGTON — Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced Thursday that House Democrats must move swiftly to draw up formal articles of impeachment against President Trump. Democrats seem poised to push House votes as early as Christmas. Pelosi warned that Trump would continue to corrupt the democratic process if left in power and that his...
More Americans are dying young, Journal of the American Medical Association report finds
December 5th, 20190 CHICAGO —The highest relative jump in death rates from 2010 to 2017, 29 percent, has been recorded among people ages 25 to 34, a new report published in the Journal of the American Medical Association has found. Overall life expectancy in the United States has also dropped for three consecutive years according to the study, which......
Levin, more than 100 Democrats send letter to Pompeo expressing “strong disagreement” with Israeli settlement policy reversal
November 29th, 20190 WASHINGTON, D.C. — Led by U.S. Rep. Andy Levin (D-Bloomfield Township), more than 100 Democratic members of Congress have signed a letter expressing “strong disagreement” with the Trump administration's decision to no longer classify Israeli settlements in the West Bank of Palestine as illegal under international law. The...
Paralyzed man walks again thanks to Arab American doctor’s innovative procedure
November 29th, 20190 Rochester, Minnesota — A historic medical trial lead by Dr. Mohamad Bydon, a neurosurgeon and spine specialist at the Mayo Clinic, has yielded miraculous results for a patient who was paralyzed from the neck down due to a spinal cord injury. Chris Barr told ABC’s Good Morning America that he had given up hope after the prognosis...
Yemeni nationals in U.S. backed into a deadly corner by uncertain TPS policies
November 26th, 20190 By Mark Hedin WASHINGTON, D.C.— "If I go back to Yemen, I have only one option: To die." So said a Brooklyn shopkeeper as he movingly described how a lifeline provided him by the United States has allowed him to thrive despite the horrors of the war afflicting his native country. The Department of Homeland Security could end that...
Report warns of technology-based threats from WhatsApp, other apps prior to 2020 election
November 26th, 20190 NEW YORK CITY —A major New York-based university is warning of potential technology-based threats that could compromise the 2020 presidential election, the website Tech Times reported. In a report released this September by the New York University Stern Center for Business and Human Rights, the organization said that bad actors......
Ban on flavored vapes could lead to loss of 150,000 jobs, $8.4 billion sales hit
November 23rd, 20190 NEW YORK — A potential U.S. ban on e-cigarette flavors could result in a loss of more than 150,000 jobs and a direct sales hit of $8.4 billion, according to a report released on Friday by a vaping industry trade group. Two months ago President Trump’s administration announced a sweeping plan to ban all e-cigarette and vaping...
U.S. vaping-related deaths rise to 47, cases of illness to 2,290
November 23rd, 20190 WASHINGTON, D.C. — On Thursday, U.S. health officials reported 2,290 confirmed and probable cases and 5 more deaths from a mysterious respiratory illness tied to vaping, taking the total death toll to 47 so far this year. Last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recorded 2,172 cases and 42 deaths from the......
Arab Americans helped turn Virginia blue
November 20th, 20191 Many Virginians recently celebrated as both houses of the Virginia legislature came under Democratic Party control. In the past 30 years, the state has shifted from being a conservative Republican state to a liberal Democratic stronghold exemplified by the recent elections. Political analysts attribute this profound change to demographic...
Coalition of churches applauds EU’s decision to accurately label Israeli products
November 20th, 20190 WASHINGTON, D.C. — Churches for Middle East Peace (CMEP), a coalition of 29 church communions and organizations, applauded this week the European Union’s Court of Justice November 12 decision that products made in Israeli settlements could no longer be labeled as though they were made in Israel. Since 1984, CMEP has worked to......
