Gunman kills five in ‘new normal’ shootings in California
September 14th, 20180 BAKERSFIELD, Cal. — An unidentified gunman killed his wife and four other people in a series of shootings on Wednesday in Southern California before taking his own life, police said. The man went with his wife to a trucking company in Bakersfield, where he shot and killed a man and then turned his gun on his spouse, killing her,...
Contemporary Arab Cinema series premiers at Jacob Burns Film Center
September 10th, 20180 PLEASANTVILLE, NY — The Jacob Burns Film Center is premiering its Contemporary Arab Cinema series, in partnership with the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) Sept. 20-27. This year’s selections reflect the diversity of the multifaceted situations and feelings Arab directors have within their cultural and political environments,...
Arab American Portland Festival aims to shatter stereotypes, promotes culture
September 7th, 20180 PORTLAND, Oregon — From Algeria to Yemen to Portland, Oregon, it takes a big, big tent at the festival to welcome everyone who's a part of the Arabic culture. Expats, immigrants and tabbouleh lovers from all over gathered for the Arab Mahrajan Festival on Saturday, Sept. 1 from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. at Oaks Amusement Park in Southeast...
Lana Del Ray cancels Israel festival appearance
September 5th, 20180 Pop singer and songwriter Lana Del Rey has canceled her September 7 appearance at Israel’s Meteor Festival. Del Rey (real name Elizabeth Woolridge Grant) had pulled out of an earlier engagement in 2014. According to Variety Magazine, the entertainment trade paper, “the organizers are said to be livid”, especially since Grant...
Kaepernick ad spurs Nike boycott campaign
September 4th, 20180 Protesters on social media called for people to burn their Nike sneakers and boycott the sporting goods maker after it chose former San Francisco quarterback Colin Kaepernick, the first NFL player to kneel during the national anthem as a protest against racism, to participate in a new ad campaign. Shares in the Beaverton, Oregon-based...Check with voter registrar — Are you still on the rolls?
You think you're a registered voter and intend to vote on November 6? U.S. citizens across the country soon will vote on all 435 seats in the House of Representatives, for 35 U.S. senators and three dozen governorships. The House of Representatives and possibly the Senate are up for grabs. Given the high stakes, voters would do...
Florida video game contest shooting reignites gun rights debate
August 28th, 20180 JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The slaying of two competitors at a Jacksonville video game tournament on Sunday has stirred the long-simmering gun rights debate in Florida on the eve of its hotly contested state and federal primary elections. With Florida voters scheduled to pick candidates for governor and Congress on Tuesday, some...
VIDEO: Portland woman goes on racist rant against Arab American man
August 27th, 20180 PORTLAND, Oregon - A white woman in Portland unleashed a torrent of racist abuse against an American man of Lebanese descent after allegedly sideswiping his car. Video of the confrontation was captured by the man and is being widely shared on social media. The footage begins with 23-year-old Portland State University student Bassel...
Four dead, dozen wounded in shooting at video game tournament in Florida
August 26th, 20180 JACKSONVILLE, Fl. - A shooter killed four people and wounded dozen on Sunday at a video game tournament that was being streamed online from a restaurant in Jacksonville, Florida, local media said citing police sources. The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office said a suspect was dead at the scene. “Searches are being conducted,” it...
Study: Young Americans are learning Islamophobia from their textbooks
August 24th, 20181 Donald Trump’s travel ban, recently upheld by the Supreme Court, is wreaking havoc on Muslim families, forcing some Americans to leave the United States for countries in the midst of devastating wars in order to reunite with loved ones. The resilience ― and, among some Americans, popularity ― of the travel ban is emblematic of...
Georgia Police taser an 87-year-old Syrian grandmother with dementia
August 20th, 20181 CHATSWORTH, Ga. — CNN reported that the incident took place Aug. 10. in a wooded area in Chatsworth, Ga., where Martha Al-Bishara — a Syrian and who doesn't speak English — was looking for dandelions in a wooded area, which she uses to make a salad for her husband. Police were alerted after an employee of a Boys and Girls Club...
Should banks be raising the citizenship question?
August 20th, 20180 Why are banks asking about your citizenship? Candidate Donald Trump rode his anti-immigrant rhetoric straight to the White House. Since then, he’s banned people from heavily Muslim-populated countries, taken children from their parents upon arrival at the Mexico border, is attempting to make citizenship status a question on the...
More sales tax coming to Michigan from online retailers
August 19th, 20180 LANSING — State Treasurer Nick Khouri said the state’s sales tax administration will now require many mail order and online retailers located outside of Michigan to pay the 6 percent sales tax on taxable sales into the state. This change comes on the heels of a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision. “This is an important step...
Census citizenship question slammed by scientists, civil rights groups
August 19th, 20180 WASHINGTON, D.C. – As the U.S. government closed a public comment period on Wednesday on its plans for the 2020 Census, scientists, philanthropists and civil rights groups used the occasion to again criticize plans to include a question about U.S. citizenship. The comment period gave any member of the public a chance to comment on...
Study ranks Michigan schools at 31st place in the U.S.
August 19th, 20180 WASHINGTON, D.C. — According to a new study by WalletHub, which ranks state with the best and worst school systems, Michigan ranked at number 31 in the United States. This puts more than half of the states in the county at higher rankings. WalletHub, a Washington, D.C.-based personal finance website, compared public school systems......
New Mexico judge gets death threats after granting bail to Muslim compound members
August 17th, 20180 TAOS, N.M. — A New Mexico judge received death threats and Islamophobic abuse on Tuesday, a day after she granted bail to five Muslims charged with child abuse and who are accused of training children at their compound to carry out attacks, court officials said. Police raided the compound in Taos County on Aug. 3, following a tip...
Charlottesville confronts identity one year after clashes
August 10th, 20180 CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — For many residents of Charlottesville, Virginia, last year’s White nationalist rally shattered the city’s carefully curated reputation as a progressive, idyllic place to live. But for Nikuyah Walker, an activist who was elected mayor just three months later, the violent clashes only underscored deep racial...
No arrests after 66 shot, 12 killed, in weekend Chicago gun violence
August 8th, 20180 Chicago police have made no arrests tied to the shootings of 66 people over the weekend, 12 of them fatal, but dozens were taken into custody on gun charges, the city’s police chief said on Monday. Police Superintendent Eddie T. Johnson said additional officers had been deployed to prevent retaliatory shootings, leading to the...
Car dealer deceived consumers and falsified information
August 6th, 20180 Shopping for a car can be exciting. But wading through ads and promotions from car dealers, and deciding how to pay, can make it stressful. If you decide to finance the car, you have two options: Get a loan from a bank, credit union or finance company, or get dealership financing. Either way, the financing application requires an......
Teen creates website to help children of deportees
August 5th, 20180 HARTFORD, Conn. — A 16-year old high school student designed a website with resource intended to help immigrant children and teenagers understand and prepare for the possible deportations of their parents or guardians. Jody Bell said she came up with the idea after hearing some of her own close friends’ concerns about...
Head of Revolutionary Guards says Iranian president will never meet Trump
July 31st, 20180 TEHRAN - The head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards on Tuesday dismissed President Trump’s tentative offer of talks with Tehran, saying the Islamic Republic was not North Korea. Trump said on Monday he would be willing to meet Iran’s leader without preconditions to discuss how to improve ties after he pulled the United States out......
Report: FBI vastly undercounts hate crimes targeting Arab Americans
July 30th, 20180 WASHINGTON, D.C. — There were nearly twice as many hate crimes against Arab Americans in 2015 and 2016 than were reported by the FBI, underscoring the shortcomings of official statistics at a time of rising hate crime in the country, according to a comprehensive report on hate crime by the Arab American Institute in Washington. Using...
Soleimani warns Trump: ‘If you begin the war, we will end it’
July 29th, 20181 Major-General Qassem Soleimani, a powerful commander of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards, said on Thursday, July 26, that Donald Trump should address any threats against Tehran directly to him, and mocked the U.S. president as using the language of “night clubs and gambling halls.” The comments by Soleimani, who heads the Quds......
