Category : World

The Supreme Court late Wednesday temporarily blocked Gov. Andrew Cuomo from setting capacity limits at houses of worship in certain state-designated coronavirus hot spots. In a 5-4 decision, the nation’s highest court sided with the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn and Orthodox Jewish synagogues that sued the governor over the state-imposed caps in areas declared red and orange zones. “Even in a pandemic, the Constitution cannot be put away and forgotten,” the unsigned opinion said. “The restrictions at issue here, by effectively barring many from attending religious services, strike at the very heart of the First Amendment’s guarantee Read More

A Civil War memorial toppled by Black Lives Matter protesters in Colorado over the summer will be replaced by a sculpture of a Native American woman in mourning. The new statue, approved by Denver representatives on Friday, will commemorate the 1864 Sand Creek massacre, where US Army soldiers attacked and destroyed a village of Cheyenne and Arapaho people in southeastern Colorado, CPR News reported. The Capitol Building Advisory Committee voted 7-2 to approve the replacement monument after hearing from descendants of some of the hundreds of people, mostly women and children, killed at Sand Creek. “They were wiped out,” Otto Braided Read More

The city opened 25 extra COVID-19 testing sites on Wednesday to help shrink hours-long lines ahead of Thanksgiving, officials said. “New York City: we heard you! More test sites, shorter lines,” Jackie Bray, a member of the city’s COVID-19 response team, tweeted. “We’ve got 25 new test sites open today.” A flier posted along with Bray’s announcement promised, “More testing!” and “Shorter lines!” The extra NYC Health + Hospitals-run locations were set up in all five boroughs, including at the Manhattan Center for Science and Mathematics, Long Island City High School and Sunset Park High School. Although New Yorkers are Read More

Thailand authorities claimed to have made the “largest ketamine bust” in the country’s history earlier this month — only the “drugs” turned out to be a common cleaning solvent. Justice Minister Somsak Thepsuthin said Tuesday that a “technical error” during field testing had led to the original false claim, the Bangkok Post reported. “This was a misunderstanding that our agency must accept,” he told reporters. The nation’s anti-narcotics agency on Nov. 12 had proudly announced the seizure of 11.5 tons of ketamine, a sedative used as a party drug, from a warehouse in the Chachoengsao province, close to Bangkok. But lab Read More

More than a half million diesel pickup truck owners have installed illegal devices that disable their cars’ emissions control functions, causing a pollution amount equal to 9 million extra trucks on the road, an Environmental Protection Agency probe found. The investigation, detailed in a report by the EPA’s Office of Civil Enforcement, focused on illegal “diesel tuners,” which are added to trucks to soup up their power performance and towing abilities, among other reasons. But the devices also allow for excess emissions and trick computers into thinking everything is factory-grade when the trucks undergo state-required inspections. “A global respiratory pandemic Read More

Three New Jersey legends have a message for all New Jerseyans: Just “Wear a friggin’ mask!’ New Jersey First Lady Tammy Murphy tweeted Wednesday a photo of a billboard featuring rock stars Jon Bon Jovi, Bruce Springsteen and comedian Jon Stewart donning face masks for the #MaskUpNJ campaign. “As we enter the holiday season, it’s important to stay vigilant about #COVID19,” Murphy wrote Wednesday. The men teamed up with the New Jersey Pandemic Relief Fund for the cause. “Teamed up with some fellow New Jerseyans to encourage everyone this holiday season to wear a friggin’ mask,” Springsteen tweeted. “Let’Read More

Progressives and activists are ratcheting up their pressure campaigns against President-elect Biden as the incoming commander-in-chief builds out his administration. Immigrant advocacy groups, while happy that President Trump was defeated, do not plan to give his successor an easy time. “Hell yeah, I’m optimistic. I don’t know what the hell we were going to do if Trump won again. But then the other side of me is like, ‘I know how this works,'” Marisa Franco, executive director of grassroots advocacy group Mijente told Politico. “Nothing is going to be enough that [Biden] does and that’s the same Read More

Penguin Random House Canada’s decision to publish a new book by controversial Canadian psychologist Jordan Peterson — who has called white privilege a “Marxist lie” — caused employees to break down in tears during a company-wide meeting, according to a new report. Several workers, who didn’t want to be identified, vented to Vice News about the decision that Peterson’s book “Beyond Order: 12 More Rules for Life” would be published by the subsidiary of Penguin Random House and released in March 2021. The announcement was the focus of an emotional town hall with staffers Monday. “People were crying in the meeting Read More

Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin is facing some liberal pushback in his effort to be the next leading Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee. Durbin (D-Ill.) is the second highest-ranking Democrat on the influential panel. No. 3 in command is Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), who is also interested in running Judiciary for his party. “In the wake of Ranking Member Feinstein’s announcement, I look forward to the question of succession on the Senate Judiciary Committee being decided by the caucus. I will abide by the caucus’s decision,” Whitehouse said in a statement after Ranking Member Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said Read More

An Arkansas man says he put up a black Santa on his lawn for Christmas to spread joy in his neighborhood — only to be left “extremely angry” after receiving a racist letter in which an anonymous person ordered him to remove the decoration. Chris Kennedy said he has been putting up the 8-foot-tall inflatable outside his home in North Little Rock for three years, news station Fox16 reported. “I’ve done this every year and haven’t had any issues,” Kennedy said. But on Tuesday, he received a disturbing letter claiming that his decoration was making him the “laughing stock” Read More