New York – Opponents of New York City’s emergency declaration ordering everyone in a heavily Orthodox Jewish neighborhood to be vaccinated for measles will file a lawsuit this week, a lawyer working with the group said Wednesday. Civil rights attorney Michael Sussman called the order threatening to fine residents of four ZIP codes in the [...]

Dallas – An American Airlines flight attendant says she was mortified when a passenger accidentally bumped her and she dropped a tray of drinks on her boss — CEO Doug Parker. Maddie Peters says she’d never spilled a drink on a passenger during her four years with Fort Worth-based American. That changed on a recent [...]

Washington – The risk of being kidnapped or taken hostage is being added to the travel advisories issued by the State Department. State Department advisories have until now included warnings about such things as crime, civil unrest or the potential for terrorism. The new “K” indicator for the potential to be kidnapped is being issued [...]

Harrisburg, PA – Pennsylvania lawmakers solemnly remembered Wednesday the 11 worshippers killed in an anti-Semitic attack on a Pittsburgh synagogue last fall, expressing horror at what one speaker called “unimaginable evil,” and two rabbis recited prayers in English and Hebrew. The rare joint session in the chambers of the state’s House of Representatives was attended [...]

New York – Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar said Wednesday that Fox News Channel host Brian Kilmeade is guilty of a “dangerous incitement” for questioning her loyalty to the United States, since she’s been the subject of death threats in the past. Kilmeade said on a “Fox & Friends” segment about the freshman Democrat that “you [...]

Washington – In a White House where no secret is safe for long, one development has remained stubbornly confidential – the contents of a Middle East peace plan authored by President Donald Trump’s advisers Jared Kushner and Jason Greenblatt. With Trump having delighted Israelis and angered Palestinians by recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in 2017 [...]

West Bank – Airbnb’s decision not to go ahead with excluding Jewish settlements in the West Bank from its accommodation listings Palestinian condemnation on Wednesday and accusations that it was helping to perpetuate Israeli occupation. Heeding calls from Palestinians who want the West Bank for a future state, Airbnb had said in November it would [...]

Washington – The head of the IRS, overseeing the most sweeping overhaul of the U.S. tax code in three decades, says the average refund in this year’s tax-filing season, $2,833, worked out to be close to last year’s. Taxes and returns for 2018 are due on Monday. Internal Revenue Service Commissioner Charles Rettig told Congress [...]