Gunfire rang out before the start of Monday’s West Indian Parade in New York City, leaving a member of Governor Cuomo’s staff critically wounded and fighting for his life.
Carey Gabay, 43, is a deputy counsel for Empire State Development. He was in the Crown Heights area during early morning preparations for the parade when he was caught in crossfire between two rival gangs.
Officials at Kings County Hospital say he was shot in the head and that his condition is “grave.”
“I’m the governor of the state of New York, and there’s not a thing I can do,” Cuomo told reporters after he visited Gabay’s family at the hospital. “There’s not a thing I can say, and there’s nothing I can do. And sometimes it just hurts.”
Cuomo also released a statement before his visit.
“Carey is an outstanding public servant who joined our administration in 2011. He is a Harvard-educated lawyer who works for the state because he wants to give back to others and make a difference. He is just 43 years old and is a kind-hearted man.”
The parade has been the target of violence the last three years. Last year, a man opened fire during the parade killing one and wounding several others. The prior year, a 1-year-old boy in his stroller was killed by a bullet someone intended for his father.
A factory for drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) was suddenly shut down Tuesday after the discovery of the deadly bacteria that causes Legionnaires’ Disease.
The plant in Zebulon, North Carolina manufactures inhaled medications and employs around 850 people. The bacteria was discovered in one of the plant’s cooling towers leading to the factory’s immediate closure.
“We are trying to gather information on what the situation is,” GSK spokeswoman Jenni Brewer Ligday said in statement to the Associated Press. GSK is also working to gather “more details on whether product has been impacted and, if they have, what is our procedure in place to handle that.”
“The cooling tower is a standalone structure, which does not come into contact with product manufactured at the facility,” added GSK spokesman Marti Jordan.
GSK officials said that the plant remains shut down but the campus of the company remains open and there is no threat to the general public.
The plant focuses on production of drugs for asthma patients such as Advair.
GSK said the plant is tested every three months for potentially hazardous bacteria like Legionnaires’.
The news of the closure comes on the heels of New York City dealing with the worst outbreak of Legionnaires’ in the city’s history, leaving 12 people dead and over 110 sickened.
A 21-year-old New York City man is jailed after attempting to stab an FBI agent during a terrorist investigation raid.
Fareed Mumuni is accused of being a supporter of ISIS. The FBI raided his home in Staten Island Wednesday and during the raid he tried multiple times to stab an FBI agent.
“As the officers attempted to restrain (him), Mumuni repeatedly attempted to plunge the knife into the torso of an FBI special agent and reached out with his hand in the vicinity of a rifle used by another member of law enforcement,” read the criminal complaint.
The agent with the Joint Terrorism Task Force wasn’t injured as the knife was never able to penetrate his body armor.
Mumuni is believed to have been working with two other men to place pressure cooker bombs similar to those used in the Boston Marathon attacks around New York City.
Mumuni has confessed to discussing how to build a pressure cooker bomb with one of the other suspected terrorists and that he planned to join ISIS in the Middle East. He is being held without bail.
His relatives insist that Mumuni is innocent.
“It’s not true he pulled a knife on cops,” uncle Mohammed Alfonga said. “You think he’d be alive if he did that? They would have shot him in the living room.”
“He may have been caught with the wrong crowd,” Alfonga added. “The other guys said he’s involved, they have to arrest him. But they took everything, his computers. They didn’t find anything.”
There have been arrests of suspected ISIS sympathizers in 19 states in the last two years.
After almost 200 years in the Big Apple, the American Bible Society is moving to the city of Brotherly Love.
The ABS sold their New York headquarters for $300 million dollars and announced a move to the history center of Philadelphia, an area called “the most historic square mile in America.”
“We are thrilled that we will be starting a third century of service headquartered here in Philadelphia,” said American Bible Society President and CEO Roy Peterson. “Home to America’s first hopes as a new nation, Philadelphia is now home to a very bright future for American Bible Society.”
The group said the sale of the New York building was intended to provide funding for further ministry outreach.
“The 1865 Broadway property has served us well for nearly 50 years. The decision to sell the property was made to unlock the value of the site to further the mission of American Bible Society,” ministry’s Board Chairman Pieter Dearolf said earlier. “As we approach a third century of mission, we are laying the groundwork for the next 100 years of inviting people to experience the life-changing message of the Bible.”
The first president of the ABS, Elias Boudinot, was a Philadelphia native.
“Philadelphia is a place where businesses and nonprofits receive a warm reception,” Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter was quoted as saying. “On behalf of the City of Philadelphia, we’re honored to welcome American Bible Society to its new home.”
Our recent trip to Israel and New York City with Rabbi Jonathan Cahn to visit the Harbinger sites was truly one of the highlights of my life and a high point in the life of this ministry. Rabbi Cahn presented some amazing teaching in the Holy Land as well as undeniable facts about the history of our nation, how it was birthed, and now, sadly, its inevitable decline. Continue reading →
The new beacon of freedom on the New York City skyline is infested with rats.
Staff members with Conde Nast publishing…who produce upscale magazines such as Vogue and Vanity Fair…say the rat infestation has reached the point that it’s almost impossible for to continue working in the building.
“A bunch ate through the ceiling of a sports editor’s office and crawled all over his desk and left poops on his keyboard,” said a staff member. “They ate through his rug to fit under his door.”
Staffers have been prohibited from bringing food into their offices.
The problem has been getting worse since November when the company began moving into 1 World Trade Center.
“The famed accessories closet, which was being put together with the designer wares from the old office, was taking shape when the rats got into it,” a source told Gawker. “There were droppings all over the floor, and some of the shoe boxes had been chewed into.”
Sources say that the rats began their assault through the ventilation system.
“The rats appear to have gotten in via the venting, which was being worked on even as staffers were moving in,” the source said. “Walls were being moved to accommodate last-minute design changes by Anna and Condé Nast, and it’s assumed this is how the rats got in.”
New York City’s Bowery Mission spent their 135th straight Thanksgiving providing thousands of meals to the homeless of the city.
“More than 600 volunteers will prepare these meals and serve guests in the mission’s century-old chapel, with music and festive decorations for the holiday,” James Winans, chief development officer at the Bowery Mission, told The Christian Post.
The mission serves meals in two hour shifts throughout the day. The meals are traditional Thanksgiving meals with turkey, potatoes, stuffing, green beans, gravy and all the fixings.
“Pie for dessert,” Winans added with a smile.
Winans said that mission doesn’t bother with seeking someone’s “eligibility for services” or other qualifying standards for government shelters.
“We simply seek to meet their specific need, no questions asked,” he said.
The Bowery Mission was founded in 1879 and has given out almost 400,000 meals to the homeless this year.
A New York doctor who had been treating Ebola patients in Guinea has been confirmed to have contracted the virus.
Dr. Craig Spencer was rushed to isolation after reporting to the hospital with a fever on Thursday.
New York health officials are trying to calm the public after news that Dr. Spencer was seen out on the town with friends the night before the reported to the hospital, had taken a cab, visited a bowling alley and rode two subway lines.
“He did not have a stage of disease that creates a risk of contagiousness on the subway,” Dr. Mary Bassett, the city health commissioner, said. “We consider it extremely unlikely, the probability being close to nil, that there will be any problem related to his taking the subway system.”
The concern is that doctors can not say for sure that Dr. Spencer did not have a fever when he was out on the town, and if he had the fever then he could have been infectious with the virus.
At least three people have been placed into isolation because of close contact with Dr. Spencer. The subway he rode, the cab and the bowling alley are all undergoing intense sanitization.
A New York City church is offering to pay for the flights to have Meriam Ibrahim and her family leave Sudan along with providing them food and shelter.
Pastor William Devlin of Manhattan Bible Church traveled to Sudan and met with the Foreign Minister. The pastor says that he asked the Minister to intervene to allow the family to leave the country with him.
“The Devlin family has offered to bring this family back to the USA from Khartoum and have them live with us. I have been interviewed by the U.S. State Department in Washington D.C. and I have also met for three hours with the U.S. Ambassador to Sudan here in Khartoum – and his senior staff,” Devlin said in an email to The Christian Post on Sunday. “I, along with another brother in the Lord, were able to go to the Safe House where this persecuted family is currently living in Khartoum and minister to them for over an hour.”
The family is reportedly in good health despite the Sudanese government’s continued actions in keeping Ibrahim from leaving the country. The family is still waiting for the results of an ultrasound to see if newborn Maya will be able to walk after complications with her birth.
A researcher with the Family Research Council says that euthanasia is going to be an issue that the pro-life movement in the United States needs to be prepared to fight.
Arina Grossu of the FRC’s Center for Human Diginity told the Christian Post that euthanasia both at home and around the world is something that is a matter of life and that it should get more attention.
“In the pro-life movement, we’re for all human life from conception to natural death. And so we need to cover that, and especially because I think it is an up-and-coming fight for us,” Grossu said. “I think that as more cases come out where parents are trying to kill their children, or the elderly or the disabled, and we see the shortage in federal funds for healthcare, we are going to see the effect of this. And we’re going to step in. But I am hoping that people will take a proactive stance instead of a defensive stance on the issue.”
Grossu noted that in Oregon, their report for assisted suicides each year cannot guarantee that all of the assisted suicide deaths were voluntary.
She also noted that around the world, euthanasia is increasing. In February, Belgium passed a law that allows the assisted suicides of terminally ill children.