NBC News

Three people were arrested for allegedly assaulting a New York City restaurant hostess on Thursday after she asked a group of diners visiting from Texas to show proof they had been vaccinated before seating them.

Cellphone footage obtained by NBC New York shows a brawl involving several people outside Carmine’s Italian restaurant on the Upper West Side. Staff and bystanders intervened to break up the melee after it broke out around 5 p.m. ET, the station added. Continue reading “Carmine’s hostess attacked after asking diners for proof of vaccination”

CNN

One of Charlton Heston’s greatest performances came not in a Hollywood film but on a convention stage where he electrified a crowd of gun-rights enthusiasts.

Heston was president of the National Rifle Association in May 2000 when he spoke at the group’s national gathering in Charlotte. The actor described gun owners as patriots and said owning a gun was “something that gives the most common man the most uncommon of freedoms.” Continue reading “The Second Amendment is not about guns — it’s about anti-Blackness, a new book argues”

CNN

People with a “significant history of allergic reactions” should not be given the Pfizer/BioNTech coronavirus vaccine, UK health authorities said Wednesday, after two health care workers experienced symptoms after receiving a shot the day before.

The precautionary advice was given after the pair “responded adversely” following their shots on the first day of the mass vaccination rollout in the UK, National Health Service England said Wednesday. Continue reading “Allergy warning for Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine after UK health workers with allergy history suffer reaction”

CNN

Former Presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton are volunteering to get their Covid-19 vaccines on camera to promote public confidence in the vaccine’s safety once the US Food and Drug Administration authorizes one.

The three most recent former presidents hope an awareness campaign to promote confidence in its safety and effectiveness would be a powerful message as American public health officials try to convince the public to take the vaccine. Continue reading “Former Presidents Obama, Bush and Clinton volunteer to get coronavirus vaccine publicly to prove it’s safe”

NBC News

JORDAN VALLEY, West Bank — Israel has demolished most of a Bedouin village in the occupied West Bank, displacing 73 Palestinians — including 41 children — in the largest such demolition in years, residents and a United Nations official said.

Tented homes, animal shelters, latrines and solar panels were among the structures destroyed in the village of Khirbet Humsah on Tuesday, according to the U.N. official. Continue reading “Israel razes most of Palestinian Bedouin village in largest demolition in years”

NBC Philadelphia

An investigation is underway after Philadelphia police found an abandoned van with propane tanks and torches inside on the Ben Franklin Parkway in Center City late Wednesday night.

The van was recovered on the Parkway near 19th Street — that’s near Logan Circle — around 10 p.m. The ATF and the Bomb Squad were both called to the scene to investigate. Continue reading “Abandoned Van With Propane Tanks and Torches Inside Found in Center City”

CNN

Kevin Mathewson founded his militia, the Kenosha Guard, in June, as massive demonstrations against police brutality grew across the country, bringing with them spurts of violence.

A former alderman who’s raising two children in the lakeside Wisconsin city, Mathewson said in an interview that he wanted to “start a spark that let people know there are others out here that want to defend ourselves, our lives, our neighborhoods.” Continue reading “Vigilante group activity on the rise, worrying law enforcement and watchdog groups”

NBC

Police in New Jersey are trying to identify at least 30 adults who attended a front yard Pink Floyd cover concert and violated the rules of social distancing amid the coronavirus outbreak. Continue reading “NJ Man Charged After Over 30 Adults Gathered for Pink Floyd Cover Performance”

The Philadelphia Inquirer

The coronavirus pandemic has led to a rush to purchase firearms and ammunition in the Philadelphia region and across Pennsylvania, leading to long lines at some gun shops.

But the Philadelphia Police Department has shut down its gun-permits unit. Firearm owners without a license-to-carry permit will, in almost all circumstances, not be able to carry the weapons without risking arrest.

Continue reading “Police in Philly and other Pa. counties stop issuing license-to-carry permits to gun owners amid coronavirus outbreak”

ABC 27

HARRISBURG, Pa. (WHTM) — Gov. Tom Wolf is no longer just recommending ‘nonessential businesses’ to close, he’s telling them to.

Wolf ordered that all ‘non-life sustaining businesses’ in Pennsylvania close their physical locations at 8 p.m. Thursday, March 19 or risk law enforcement action.  Continue reading “Gov. Wolf officially orders the closure of ‘non-life sustaining businesses’ statewide”

NBC 10

Drastic measures are being taken to curtail the spread of the new coronavirus in Montgomery County after it became the epicenter for COVID-19 cases in Pennsylvania.

All schools, universities, gyms, entertainment venues and community centers in the populous county just outside Philadelphia must close for two weeks starting Friday, Gov. Tom Wolf ordered.  Continue reading “Montgomery County Pennsylvania on Lockdown: Governor Closes Schools, Gyms, Daycares”

NBC Philadelphia – by Rudy Chinchilla

A man armed with a shotgun was apparently killed by police after opening fire and forcing officers to hide behind walls, cruisers and nearby cars Thursday afternoon in Northeast Philadelphia.

The man barricaded himself inside a row home on the 4600 block of Hawthorne Street, in the city’s Frankford section, just after 1 p.m., Philadelphia police said. The man was armed with a shotgun, but no officers immediately reported being struck.  Continue reading “Gunman Killed After Firing at Officers in Northeast Philadelphia”

CNN

Paris (CNN)French police have launched an investigation after Nazi swastikas and anti-Semitic graffiti were spray-painted on 107 graves in a Jewish cemetery near Strasbourg.

French Interior Minister Christophe Castaner, who visited the cemetery in Westhoffen, eastern France, on Wednesday morning, described the incident as a “heinous act of anti-Semitism.”  Continue reading “Swastikas sprayed on more than 100 graves in Jewish cemetery in France”

CNN

ISIS confirmed the death of former leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and named his replacement in an audio message on Thursday.

In the recording, published on the terrorist group’s media wing al-Furqan, ISIS announced its new leader as Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurashi.  Continue reading “ISIS names new leader as it confirms Baghdadi’s death”

CNN

Talking about guns can be difficult, even for physicians.

That’s according to a new study published Monday in JAMA Pediatrics. The study found that pediatricians and pediatric residents were less likely to ask their patients about gun storage safety than smoke alarm safety — indicating an overall hesitation in bringing up gun safety with their patients.  Continue reading “Pediatricians are more likely to ask families about smoke alarm safety than gun safety, study says”