A New Jersey Starbucks employee has been accused of spitting in the coffee of police officers. Kevin Trejo, a 21-year-old from Westwood, faces a number of charges, including subjecting a law enforcement officer to contact with a bodily fluid, creating a hazardous or physically dangerous condition and knowingly tampering with a cup of coffee knowing it was ordered by a law enforcement officer. It’s unclear how many officers may have had their drinks tampered with, but police said it “appears to be an isolated incident with this sole individual” at a Starbucks in Park Ridge. “We believe it happened more than once, but we can prove it happened at least once on May 25,” Park Ridge Police Capt. Joseph Rampolla told NBC News.

California’s confirmed coronavirus cases have topped 409,000, surpassing New York for most in the nation, according to data from John’s Hopkins University showing Wednesday that California now has about 1,200 more cases than New York. However, New York’s 32,520 deaths are by far the highest total in the country and four times more than California’s tally, and its rate of confirmed infections of about 2,100 per 100,000 people is twice California’s rate. California is by far the most populous U.S. state, with nearly 40 million people, while New York has about 19.5 million. U.S. government data published Tuesday found that reported and confirmed coronavirus cases vastly underestimate the true number of infections, echoing results from a smaller study last month. The U.S.

Police in riot gear moved in early Wednesday to clear a month-long encampment of protesters and homeless people from a park near New York’s City Hall. A line of officers with helmets and shields entered City Hall Park shortly before 4 a.m. and forced the remaining people who were camped there out. At least seven people were arrested, officials said. Officers moved through the camp taking down tents and other temporary structures and tossing them into garbage trucks to be hauled away. Cleaning crews arrived later to scrub graffiti from buildings in the area. The encampment in City Hall Park started in late June following weeks of protests sparked by the May death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police.

On Tuesday July 21, 2020, the Sullivan County Sheriff’s Office responded to an ATV accident on State Route 17B, just west of Kaufman Road in the Town of Thompson. At the location deputies found that a 2012 Yamaha 250 had been traveling westbound when the driver lost control and crossed into the eastbound lane, striking a 2018 Hyundai Santa Fe SUV. The ATV operator was ejected and suffered fatal injuries. The operator was identified as Jeffery Savage, age 29, of East Stroudsburg, PA. He was pronounced dead at the scene by Sullivan County Coroner Alan Kesten. The investigation by Sheriff’s detectives revealed that Savage had left his home in East Stroudsburg early in the morning on Tuesday and drove 66 miles on his ATV to Monticello to pick up a car part that he needed.

Police are searching for the man who attacked a bus driver in Manhattan after the driver refused to let him on the bus because he wasn’t wearing a mask. The attack happened around 2:30 a.m. Monday near Madison Avenue and East 29th Street. The suspect, who is seen on surveillance video, punched the 62-year-old driver in the face and ran away. The driver is expected to be okay. Masks are mandatory on MTA buses. Police are trying to track down the suspect. (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

Interior Minister Aryeh Deri and Health Minister Yuli Edelstein announced on Wednesday that foreign students will be permitted to enter Israel despite the current ban on non-Israeli citizens, the Chaim V’Chessed organization reported. “The announcement comes after weeks of intensive work by the recently formed Yeshiva & Seminary Coalition for Bnei Chul, headed by Rabbi Nechemya Malinowitz,” Chaim V’Chessed stated. “The Coalition is comprised of more than 100 institutions catering to foreign students, from across the spectrum of Orthodoxy, serving a total of 15,000 students.” “The efforts received strong support from MK Rabbi Yitzchak Pindrus (UTJ).

Republican Chris Jacobs of western New York became the newest House member on Tuesday, taking the oath of office to fill the unexpired term of a lawmaker who left Congress after pleading guilty to federal insider trading charges. Jacobs, who has been a state senator, had the support of President Donald Trump as he won a special election last month against Democrat Nate McMurray. He wore a face mask — unlike some Republicans — as he took the oath on the House floor from Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. In brief remarks, Jacobs said he planned to “help our state at a time when they are clearly in need in a fiscal crisis,” an apparent reference to the blows the coronavirus pandemic has dealt to New York and the entire country.

Yesterday the United States Department of Justice authorized the filing of a lawsuit against the Village of Airmont for actions that “unreasonably limits the practice of religion by the village’s Orthodox Jewish Community.” In a letter to the Village, Acting US Attorney for the Southern District of New York Audrey Strauss writes, “we have determined that Airmont’s zoning practices…impose a ‘substantial burden’ on the Orthodox Jewish community’s religious exercise…discriminate against the Orthodox Jewish community ‘on the basis of religion or religious denomination’…and ‘unreasonably limits religious assemblies, institutions, or structures’.” The letter further explains that, while the U.S.

President Donald Trump’s threat to send federal law enforcers to patrol the city is likely not serious but if he did follow through, New York City would take legal action, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Tuesday. “I have to start by saying this president blusters and bluffs and says he’s going to do things and they never materialize on a regular basis,” de Blasio said. State and local authorities in Oregon have charged in a lawsuit that masked federal officers have arrested people in Portland with no probable cause and whisked them away in unmarked cars. Trump defended the actions of the federal officers in Portland on Monday and said he would send officers to other cities including New York as well.

President Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer sued Attorney General William Barr and the Bureau of Prisons director Monday, saying he’s being unjustly held behind bars to stop him from finishing a book that criticizes Trump. The lawsuit on behalf of Michael Cohen was filed late Monday in Manhattan federal court, alleging his First Amendment rights were violated when he was returned to the Federal Correctional Institution in Otisville, New York, on July 9. A message for comment was left with the Justice Department. Cohen, 53, had been furloughed in May as part of an attempt to slow the spread of the virus in federal prisons. He had served only a year of his three-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to campaign finance charges and lying to Congress, among other crimes.