Dr. Zuhdi Jasser, president of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy, warned of growing extreme sentiment on the left, as evidenced by what “Life, Liberty & Levin” host Mark Levin described as the “Marxism” of Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and the physical and political “embrace” by President Biden of Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich. – the latter a member of the far-left “Squad.”
HARRISBURG – Vice President Kamala Harris will travel to Pittsburgh on Monday with Labor Secretary Marty Walsh, Harris’ office said.
The visit to the presidential battleground state comes as President Joe Biden’s administration pushes a massive infrastructure plan in Congress. Walsh visited eastern Pennsylvania earlier in June to tout Biden’s infrastructure plan.
Biden originally went to Pittsburgh on March 31 to unveil a $2.3 trillion plan in what he billed as “a once-in-a-generation investment in America” that would also undo tax cuts for corporations under Biden’s predecessor, Republican Donald Trump.
Biden in late April went to Philadelphia’s William H. Gray III 30th Street Station to celebrate Amtrak’s 50th anniversary and his plan’s aid for rail service.
Biden is hoping for a deal with Republicans who are resisting his big ideas and trimming the potential spending, but he also is trying to assure Democrats that he will not leave behind their priorities.
Pennsylvania’s Democratic U.S. Sen. Bob Casey has backed Biden’s plans, while Republican U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey countered with a smaller plan that he said is more narrowly tailored to infrastructure and does not include what he called social welfare programs.
Casey called that plan a “slap in the face” because it left out funding for home and community-based services for the elderly and disabled.
“The Capitol Attack is likely the most complex investigation ever prosecuted by the Department of Justice,” the government said in a court filing.
Of the more than 480 defendants who have been arrested in connection with the riots, CBS News has reviewed court documents for 463 defendants’ cases that have been unsealed. Of those, at least 187 defendants were also indicted by grand juries.
So far, four defendants have pleaded guilty, including an Oath Keepers member who agreed to cooperate with the government and a man who took a selfie in the Senate chamber. For others, plea negotiations have been complicated by the vast amounts of evidence involved in the investigation.
FLINT, MI — A 19-year-old woman shot by police Saturday during a Juneteenth celebration parade in Flint has died of her injuries, according to the Michigan State Police.
The woman, from Flint, was shot by a Flint police officer after she allegedly drove up to the officer and fired at him at about 2:14 p.m., police say.
The officer, who was not injured, then shot the suspect. The incident took place on Saginaw Street near Leith Street.
The woman was taken to the hospital for treatment, where she died of her injuries, police said.
No bystanders were injured during the incident. It took place during the city’s Champions Parade, which honors the city’s athletic greats and community leaders. June 19 also marks Juneteenth, a holiday that commemorates the end of slavery in the United States.
The Champions Parade began at noon in front of Flint City Hall and was to proceed north on Saginaw Street to Berston Field House, the historic hub for the city’s African American community.
The Flint police officer who shot the woman was working a “traffic point” at the time to the incident, according to police.MSP is investigating the shooting at the request of the Flint Police Department.
Four people were shot, one fatally, in the vicinity of Lake Merritt in Oakland, California, where a Juneteenth celebration was scheduled Saturday, police said.
“One of the victims was pronounced deceased at the hospital,” the Oakland Police Department tweeted.
Oakland Police are investigating a shooting, 2200 block of Lakeshore Avenue. 4 victims sustained gunshot wounds. One of the victims was pronounced deceased at the hospital. This investigation is still active. If you have information call OPD (510)238-3821 pic.twitter.com/aqRwUE0oDi
— Oakland Police Dept. (@oaklandpoliceca) June 20, 2021
Emergency operators fielded calls about shots fired along the northeast shore of Lake Merritt about 6:22 p.m., according to NBC Bay Area.
A Juneteenth celebration was scheduled nearby at the Lake Merritt Amphitheater, featuring DJ D Sharp of the Golden State Warriors. Police made no connection between the events.
Press secretary Jen Psaki, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, national security adviser Jake Sullivan, senior adviser Anita Dunn, White House counselor Steve Richetti, deputy chief of staff Bruce Reed and presidential personnel office director Cathy Russell each have at least one direct family member working for the Biden administration.
“I’m sorry, I know some folks don’t like hearing any criticism of him. But this royally sucks. I’m disgusted,” Shaub wrote in a Twitter thread Friday, reacting to an article about the family ties of Biden officials.
“A lot of us worked hard to tee him up to restore ethics to government and believed the promises,” Shaub added, calling the string of family-related hires “a real ‘f*** you’ to us—and government ethics.”
In an NBC News worldwide exclusive, senior international correspondent Keir Simmons sits down with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow for a one-on-one interview, just days ahead of a critical summit with President Biden. » Subscribe to NBC News: http://nbcnews.to/SubscribeToNBC » Watch more NBC video: http://bit.ly/MoreNBCNews
In response to a motion filed by NPR and other media organizations, the Justice Department released new videos which prosecutors say show the U.S. Capitol riot on Jan. 6.
The Justice Department has released a trove of videos, including police body-worn camera footage, allegedly showing assaults against police officers defending the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.
The videos, made available after NPR and other media organizations filed a legal motion for their release, are cited as evidence in the assault cases against Thomas Webster and Scott Fairlamb.
(CNN)About 50 officers assigned to the Portland police department’s crowd control team resigned one day after one of the team’s officers was indicted for allegedly using his department-issued baton to assault a protester last summer.
The wholesale resignation of the police department’s Rapid Response Team (RRT) took place after a Multnomah County grand jury handed down an indictment Wednesday charging Officer Corey Budworth with fourth-degree battery. All the officers who resigned their positions on the team returned to their regular assignments
Alex Harvill was at the Moses Lake Airshow in Washington, where spectators were recording his practice jumps ahead of the world record attempt
In the video, which was shot from a distance away, Harvill can be seen riding his bike through a field before launching off a ramp
Harvill came up short of his destination and crashed into a dirt mound
The Grant County Coroner said that Harvill, 28, was attempting a practice jump when the crash occurred, with the injuries ultimately resulting in his death
Harvill was reportedly taken to Samaritan Hospital in Moses Lake after first responders tried to treat him at the scene
An autopsy is scheduled to be performed on Friday to determine cause of death
Harvill is the Guinness World Record holder for dirt-to-dirt distance jump
He also set a world record for ramp-to-dirt distance jump in 2012
Just a month ago, Harvill took to Instagram to share the birth of his second baby
Former White House physician explains why the president needs a cognitive test on ‘Hannity’
Dr. Ronny Jackson, the former White House physician, called on President Biden to immediately undergo a cognitive test so the commander-in-chief can prove to the American public sound mental capabilities.
“We can’t sit on this any longer,” Jackson told “Hannity” Thursday night, citing Biden’s “embarrassing” performance overseas this week with world leaders.
“He’s not physically or cognitively fit to be our president right now,” Jackson added.
The freshman Texas congressman and 13 of his GOP colleagues sent a letter to Biden Thursday expressing “concern” with his cognitive state and cited several examples of potential memory lapses, including apparently forgetting the name of his Defense Secretary, telling an Amtrak story with a timeline that didn’t add up and seemingly blanking on the often-quoted first line of the Declaration of Independence.
More than 460 companies are observing Juneteenth at this point, with many offering a paid day off or holiday pay. Here are some companies continuing PTO this year.
Amid the wave of discussions about racial injustice that began to gain momentum last summer, companies such as Allstate, Google and Nike have announced over the past year that they will recognize Juneteenth as a paid holiday for their employees.
The day celebrates the delayed news that President Abraham Lincoln had signed the Emancipation Proclamation on Jan. 1, 1863, freeing “all persons held as slaves” in the United States. However, it wasn’t until June 19, 1865 – referred to more informally as Juneteenth – that enslaved people in Galveston, Texas, learned of their freedom when Union soldiers arrived.
The Supreme Court dismissed a challenge to the Affordable Care Act on Thursday in a decision that will leave the law intact and save health care coverage for millions of Americans. The justices turned away a challenge from Republican-led states and the former Trump administration, which urged the justices to block the entire law.
Juneteenth celebrates June 19, 1865, when a Union Army general arrived in Galveston, Texas, and informed enslaved African Americans that the Civil War had ended and they were free.
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden signed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act into law Thursday, officially making June 19 a federal holiday and giving national recognition to a day commemorating emancipation.
“Juneteenth marks both a long, hard night of slavery and subjugation and the promise of a brighter morning to come,” Biden said during a signing ceremony at the White House. “This is a day, in my view, of profound weight and profound power. A day in which we remember the moral stain, terrible toll that slavery took on the country and continues to take.”
Vice President Kamala Harris, the first woman and Black vice president, said that designating a federal holiday “makes an important statement.”
“These are days when we as a nation have decided to stop and take stock. And often to acknowledge our history,” Harris said, urging people to be clear-eyed about the realities of slavery and the long fight for freedom.
President Joe Biden hands a pen to Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., after signing the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act, in the East Room of the White House on June 17, 2021.Evan Vucci / AP
Since June 19 falls on a Saturday this year, most federal employees will observe the holiday on Friday, June 18, the U.S. Office of Personnel Management tweeted.
The House voted overwhelmingly Wednesday, 415-14, to make Juneteenth a national federal holiday, a day after the Senate cleared the bill without debate. The only votes against the bill came from Republicans.
Juneteenth — also known as Emancipation Day, Black Independence Day and Jubilee Day — is the 11th federal holiday and the first new federal holiday since Martin Luther King Jr. Day was created in 1983.
Juneteenth celebrates the end of slavery and commemorates June 19, 1865, when Union Gen. Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas, and informed enslaved African Americans that the Civil War had ended and they were free. Granger’s message came more than two years after President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation.
Hundreds of Southwest Airlines flights were delayed or canceled again on Wednesday as the company sought to resolve disruptions from earlier in the week amid a pickup in summer travel.
The headaches for Southwest, which is widely credited for pioneering the low-fare airline business model, began on Monday night, when a problem with a weather data supplier prevented the airline from safely flying planes. The issue was resolved within hours, but on Tuesday the airline suffered its own technological problems, resulting in half of its flights that day being delayed and many being canceled, according to FlightAware, a flight tracking service.
Spillover from that episode caused Wednesday’s problems, the airline said. About 10 percent of Southwest’s flights were canceled and another 19 percent were delayed by midafternoon, according to FlightAware.
“While our technology issues from Tuesday have been resolved, we are still experiencing a small number of cancellations and delays across our network as we continue working to resume normal operations,” Dan Landson, a Southwest spokesman, said in a statement.
(CNN)The visuals, the body language and the setting all converged to help President Joe Biden achieve what he wanted — not only from his much-hyped summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin — but from a week of pivotal meetings with US allies.
Frida Ghitis
From the start of the Geneva summit, Biden looked confident and relaxed. In contrast, Putin, who has made an art of appearing smug and almost bored, looked tense and on his guard. Then Biden took the initiative, extending his hand first to Putin, who walked over to grasp it.
The summit mattered, of course, but it was in the dueling press conferences where Putin helped Biden achieve his objectives. That’s because Biden’s meeting with Putin had two goals. One was about managing US relations with Russia. The other was the overarching theme of his European trip and, in fact, of Biden’s presidency: strengthening democracy by drawing a sharp distinction between it and authoritarianism, all the while persuading the world that democracy is the superior model.
After bonding with his well-mannered counterparts at the G7 Summit, President Biden is set to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Geneva, Switzerland, a man he called a “killer.” Biden’s aim at the G7 was to smooth over international relations that had become frosty under Donald Trump, a goal his European allies shared. They emerged chanting gauzy slogans, seeking to “Build Back Better” after the ruination wrought by the pandemic.
Biden will similarly try to improve the relationship with his Russian counterpart. But unlike the Europeans, Putin has something very different in mind. He, too, has goals for the meeting but they involve self-aggrandizement and using the masquerade of cooperation to allow him to continue to harm America, as the Soviets before him did under détente.
As usual, the Americans are offering Russia a reset button. And as usual, Russia will contemptuously cast it aside.
Both presidents have acknowledged that U.S.-Russia relations are at their lowest point since the end of the Cold War. Putin has threatened that the global security system is degrading and “the potential for conflict is growing.” TASS, the official Russian government “news” agency, compared the upcoming meeting between Biden and Putin to the June 4, 1961, meeting in Vienna between John F. Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev, who was known for banging shoes on desks at the United Nations. Putin has laid the groundwork for doing so, inflicting what were undoubtedly state-sponsored cyber attacks on the United States — the employment of criminal groups to achieve the Russian state’s strategic goals is a common Kremlin tactic — and seeking to unbalance Biden by praising Donald Trump as an “extraordinary” and “talented individual,” while insulting Biden as a lifelong politician and “career man.”
A video emerged on social media on Monday that showed a man on a bicycle fill up a garbage bag with items inside a San Francisco Walgreens and leave the store without being stopped.
Lyanne Melendez, a reporter for KGO-TV in the city, posted the video on Twitter.
“This just happened at the @Walgreens on Gough & Fell Streets in San Francisco. #NoConsequences.” She tagged Chesa Boudin, the city’s district attorney.
Commenters said the apparent theft is an example of the city’s lawlessness. Walgreens did not immediately respond to an email from Fox News.
The San Francisco Chronicle reported that Walgreens closed 17 stores in the city in the last five years.
The paper, citing a regional vice president from May, reported that Walgreens spends 35 times more on security guards at stores in the city than in other U.S. locations, and theft at these locations is four times higher than in other stores.
The legislation has gained momentum since the massive Black Lives Matter protests sparked by the police killing of George Floyd last year and the Democrats’ takeover of the White House and Congress.
But Wisconsin Republican Sen. Ron Johnson blocked the bill in 2020, saying that the day off for federal employees would cost US taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars. Johnson dropped his objection this week despite his concerns, paving the way for the bill’s passage in the Senate.
“Although I strongly support celebrating Emancipation, I objected to the cost and lack of debate,” said Johnson in a statement. “While it still seems strange that having taxpayers provide federal employees paid time off is now required to celebrate the end of slavery, it is clear that there is no appetite in Congress to further discuss the matter.”
The measure needs to pass the House and be signed by President Joe Biden to become law.
On June 19, 1865, Major General Gordon Granger announced in Galveston, Texas, the end of slavery in accordance with President Abraham Lincoln’s 1863 Emancipation Proclamation.
In 1980, Juneteenth became a Texas state holiday. In the decades since, every state but South Dakota came to officially commemorate Juneteenth, but only a handful of states observe it as a paid holiday.
Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Ed Markey, Texas Republican Sen. John Cornyn and Texas Democratic Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee are among the members of Congress who led the effort to to make Juneteenth the 12th federal holiday.
On this day in 1963, Soviet cosmonaut Valentina V. Tereshkova became the first woman to travel in space, having been launched into orbit aboard the spacecraft Vostok 6, which completed 48 orbits in 71 hours.
After a day of rising tensions, which saw a far-right march in Jerusalem and incendiary balloons launched from Gaza, Israel’s new coalition government ordered airstrikes against Hamas.
EXCLUSIVE: NBC has opted not to renew missing-plane drama series Manifest for a fourth season. The decision came down Monday night, just hours before the options on the cast were to expire Tuesday and amid a strong showing of Manifest on Netflix, where it has been No. 1 in the U.S. for the past three days.
Manifest, from Warner Bros. TV and Universal TV, was the highest-rated on linear among NBC’s four bubble shows by a wide margin, especially in total viewers. Of the four, three — Debris, Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist and now Manifest, have been canceled. The remaining series, Good Girls, is looking good for renewal.
Manifest was conceived by creator Jeff Rake and was sold to NBC with a six-season plan that has been mapped out. That plan — and fans’ three years of devoted following — will fall through unless another network/platform steps in to pick up the series following its NBC cancellation.
Southwest Airlines grounded flights across the country Tuesday for the second time in less than 24 hours, amid reports of nationwide computer issues.
Air travelers took to Twitter by the thousands with reports of what airline staff reportedly told them was a computer system outage — hours after “intermittent performance issues” with a third-party weather app forced a similar group stop Monday night.
“We are aware of system issues and are working quickly to resolve. We will share more info soon,” Southwest posted on its official Twitter account at 2 p.m. Tuesday.
Airline operations resumed shortly before 4 p.m., Southwest said in a statement.
The carrier attributed Tuesday’s meltdown to “intermittent performance issues with… network connectivity,” and said it had “proactively canceled” about 500 flights because of the disruption.
“We’re working with those Customers to get them to their destinations as quickly as possible,” said spokesman Chris Mainz.
A head-turning cartoon in the Raleigh News & Observer pictures President Biden in the Oval Office with a big inbox marked “Voter Rights, Immigration and Broadband Expansion.” Next to it is a sign that says: “The Bucks Stops with Kamala.”
Only a short while earlier, there was Washington buzz of an “invisible” vice president. Some Republicans and right-wing cable bloviators were in a tizzy because she hadn’t visited the U.S.-Mexican border.
Any future political success for the California Democrat depends chiefly on the success of the Biden administration. Whether in 2024 or 2028 she can ride a wave of success, or — if the administration is seen as failing — it’ll drag her down. It further depends on her ability to grow, both in policy and political ways.
As captivating as the Kevin Siers cartoon may be, more important than any designated assignments is filling the “Mondale model” for the vice presidency. Crafted by the late Walter Mondale, vice president to Jimmy Carter, this entails a genuine partnership between the president and his number two. This is why we see Harris involved in every major decision and in the room for every important meeting.
Even given the inevitable spin, it appears the Biden-Harris relationship is going well in the first 20 weeks. With the COVID-19 travel limitations, they’ve probably spent more time together than usual. Her staff, headed by a veteran operative and Clintonite, Tina Flournoy, is said to be in sync with the president’s. Any residual resentments from a 2019 debate clash they had over school busing has been smoothed over. She’s cautious, giving interviews mainly to friendly journalists.
In voting rights and migration on the southern border, Harris has two exceedingly difficult charges. They are so big that — whatever role Harris plays — ultimately the buck will stop with Biden.
At least four major U.S. cities were reeling from an onslaught of mass shootings over the weekend that left at least 39 people wounded, five dead and police officials alarmed that the surge in gun violence is a prelude to a bloody summer as the nation emerges from the pandemic.
Police in Austin, Cleveland, Chicago and Savannah were all investigating on Sunday mass shootings that erupted over a six-hour streak that began around 9 p.m. on Friday and spilled over into Saturday morning.
“It’s very disturbing what we’re seeing across the country and the level of gun violence that we’re seeing across the country. It’s disturbing and it’s senseless,” Savannah Police Chief Roy Minter, Jr. said at a weekend news conference after one person was killed and eight others, including an 18-month-old baby and two teenagers, were wounded.
On Sunday morning, Savannah police were working to identify the suspect or suspects who rolled up in a dark-colored sedan and unleashed a barrage of gunfire around 9 p.m. Friday on a group of people standing in front of a home in a residential neighborhood of east Savannah. Minter identified a 20-year-old man killed in the ambush as Arthur Milton of Savannah.
He said two of the adults hit in the shooting were in critical condition. The baby and the two teenagers, ages 15 and 16, suffered non-life-threatening wounds.
Minton said investigators collected 60 shell casings from the shooting scene and added that three houses and several cars were damaged by gunfire.
The chief said the targeted home is the same one someone sprayed with bullets on Tuesday, a shooting that left no one injured.
“We don’t think it was a coincidence,” Minter said.
Roughly four hours after the Savannah shooting, gunfire erupted on a street in Austin’s downtown entertainment district, leaving 14 people wounded, two critically, police said.
One suspect was arrested and a second is being sought, said interim Police Chief Joseph Chacon.
Thanks to 28-year-old Shannon Rona, of McCandless, the Steel City now has a black-and-gold hero to call its own: the Pittsburgh Iron Man.
Press secretary Jen Psaki, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, national security adviser Jake Sullivan, senior adviser Anita Dunn, White House counselor Steve Richetti, deputy chief of staff Bruce Reed and presidential personnel office director Cathy Russell each have at least one direct family member working for the Biden administration.
