February 14, 2018

Arabic-speaking passenger kicked off plane in 2016 sues Southwest Airlines, alleging racial bias

A man who was removed from a 2016 Southwest Airlines flight after another passenger complained he made “potentially threatening” comments in Arabic filed a federal racial-discrimination lawsuit against the carrier Tuesday.

Khairuldeen Makhzoomi — then a student at the University of California, Berkeley — was sitting on an April 6, 2016, flight from Los Angeles to Oakland, talking to his uncle by cellphone before the plane departed.

“Shortly after taking his seat, Mr. Makhzoomi was approached by a Southwest Airlines official and local law enforcement officers, removed from the plane, interrogated, searched, publicly humiliated and denied further travel on the airline,” the lawsuit alleges.

At the time of the incident, Southwest said the passenger who reported Makhzoomi to the flight crew also spoke Arabic and raised concerns because of the contents of Makhzoomi’s conversation, not the language he spoke.

Read more: https://www.dallasnews.com/business/southwest-airlines/2018/02/13/arabic-speaking-passenger-kicked-plane-2016-sues-southwest-airlines-racial-bias

February 14, 2018

Plano parents whose sons joined ISIS are sentenced to prison for lying to federal agents

PLANO — A Plano couple whose adult sons traveled to Syria to fight with ISIS are headed to federal prison after lying to the FBI about the activities of their children.

Sumaiya Ali was sentenced to 30 months in prison, while her husband, Mohommad Hasnain Ali, was sentenced to 12 months plus one day. Both paid a $5,000 fine and will serve three years of supervised release after prison.

The couple were sentenced during back-to-back hearings in U.S. District Court in Plano on Tuesday. They had pleaded guilty last year to making false statements regarding international terrorism.

"I apologize for my actions and thank the court for considering the plea deal," Sumaiya Ali, 49, said before District Judge Marcia A. Crone pronounced her sentence.

Mohommad Hasnain Ali, 58, issued a similar apology moments later.

Read more: https://www.dallasnews.com/news/crime/2018/02/13/plano-couple-headed-prison-after-lying-federal-agents-sons-joined-isis-fight

February 14, 2018

SMU fraternity ordered to cease all activities during hazing investigation

DALLAS -- A Southern Methodist University fraternity chapter being investigated for possible hazing has been ordered to cease all activities.

The university received information last week that the Pi Kappa Alpha chapter may have violated the school's policy against hazing, an SMU spokesman said. The chapter was ordered Friday to cease activities while the incident is investigated.

The university's code of conduct says hazing, being hazed or failing to report incidents of hazing could subject students to disciplinary action.

"SMU will not tolerate hazing in any form," university spokesman Kent Best said in an email.

Read more: https://www.dallasnews.com/news/higher-education/2018/02/13/smu-fraternity-ordered-cease-activities-hazing-investigation

February 14, 2018

Court in desegregation case blocks Alabama school split

MONTGOMERY — A mostly white Alabama city can’t break away from a heavily black county school system to form its own educational district, a federal appeals ruled Tuesday in a desegregation case dating to 1965.

A three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said a judge was wrong to let the Birmingham suburb of Gardendale secede from the Jefferson County school system. The city is more than 80 percent white, while the court decision says the county system is heavily black.

U.S. District Court Judge Madeline Haikala ruled last year that Gardendale was discriminatory when it tried to form its own school system, but she decided to let a split go ahead anyway over a three-year period with certain conditions.

The appeals court agreed that a split would be discriminatory, but it said that means the city can’t break away. Haikala abused her discretion in coming up with her own remedy rather than just denying the split based on her ruling that it was racially biased, the panel said.

Read more: http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/news/20180213/court-in-desegregation-case-blocks-alabama-school-split

February 14, 2018

House approves teacher pay raise

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Teachers and school employees could get a 2.5 percent pay raise later this year, under legislation approved Tuesday by Alabama House of Representatives.

Representatives, who face party primaries in June, unanimously approved the proposed raise. It now moves to the Alabama Senate.

Democrats spent much of the debate arguing that teachers and education employees should get a higher raise, with several suggesting an amount of 5 percent.

Rep. Craig Ford, D-Gadsden, said educators have had to pay more out of pocket for their health insurance which offset other raises given by the state in the past. "If you lower the morale of the educator, it can't help but to impact the classroom instructional setting," Ford said.

Read more: http://www.timesdaily.com/news/state/house-approves-teacher-pay-raise/article_d47a166b-7e2e-52ff-90da-1eeaa2f9e225.html

February 14, 2018

California teacher defends anti-military comment

PICO RIVERA, Calif. (AP) — City Council members in a Los Angeles suburb passed a resolution Tuesday night condemning and asking for the resignation of one of their colleagues who in his work as a school teacher called members of the U.S. military "the lowest of our low."

"God bless America!" one Pico Rivera councilman shouted as the vote passed.

Councilman Gregory Salcido, who has been on leave from El Rancho High School in Pico Rivera, is seen on a video scolding a 17-year-old student wearing a U.S. Marine Corps sweatshirt and urging him not to join the military.

"They're not like high-level thinkers, they're not academic people, they're not intellectual people; they're the frickin' lowest of our low," Salcido said on a recording made by a student. "I don't understand why we let the military guys come over here and recruit you at school. We don't let pimps come in the school."

-snip-

President Donald Trump's Chief of Staff John Kelly said last month in a radio interview that Salcido "ought to go to hell" for his remarks.

Read more: http://www.decaturdaily.com/news/other_news/national/california-teacher-defends-anti-military-comments/article_26b7aaf7-c26e-56d4-b2d3-995816293e1d.html

February 14, 2018

Bomber gets life in prison for New York, New Jersey attacks

NEW YORK (AP) — A New Jersey man who set off small bombs in two states, including a pressure cooker device that blasted shrapnel across a New York City block, was sentenced Tuesday to multiple terms of life in prison by a judge who repeatedly called it a miracle nobody was killed.

Ahmad Khan Rahimi, a naturalized U.S. citizen born in Afghanistan, was criticized by a prosecutor for failing to show remorse and was scolded by a victim for not apologizing to the 30 people he injured.

U.S. District Judge Richard M. Berman in Manhattan said it was hard to reconcile the "reasonable enough" man he saw in court with the terrorist who tried to kill as many people as he could when he left his home early the morning of Sept. 17, 2016, with two pressure-cooker explosives and a bag full of smaller bombs.

"You sound like most people and yet your actions are totally at odds with your voice," Berman said.

"We saw videos," he said, referencing multiple videos at his fall trial that showed Rahimi dragging bombs in two suitcases and a backpack through Manhattan streets, setting one down a half hour before it exploded in the upscale Chelsea neighborhood and another a few blocks away that was discovered and disabled before it could explode.

Read more: http://www.decaturdaily.com/news/other_news/national/bomber-gets-life-in-prison-for-new-york-new-jersey/article_c5a771cf-0273-5334-8b41-57a0a0332360.html

February 14, 2018

Lonely frog seeks mate on Match.com

(CNN/MATCH.COM) – This Valentine's Day, there’s an unusual suitor on Match.com: a frog named "Romeo."

The 11-year-old Bolivian water frog is on a mission to save his species.

Match.com is teaming up with Global Wildlife Conservation and the Bolivian Amphibian Initiative in a fundraising campaign to help Romeo find his Juliet.

The online dating giant will match each donation made through Valentine's Day.

The goal is to raise $15,000 before Valentine's Day for 10 expeditions to places where Romeo’s species was once common.

Read more: http://www.cullmantimes.com/cnhi_network/lonely-frog-seeks-mate-on-match-com/article_33c8847d-7124-5299-b190-5edd6baec7bf.html

February 14, 2018

A federal judge wants to know why 131 inmates with mental illnesses remain in solitary confinement

A federal judge has ordered the Alabama Department of Corrections to provide an update on why 131 prisoners with serious mental illnesses remain in solitary confinement even after a court order last year ordered the prison system to move them out of segregation when possible.

The request for information from Federal District Judge Myron Thompson on the 131 inmates comes after Thompson last week ordered the Department of Corrections to act on 21 other inmates who were being kept in solitary confinement for a significant amount of time. Thompson ordered ADOC to either take the inmates out of confinement or provide an update by last week.

ADOC complied with that order.

Last summer, Thompson ruled that Alabama prison mental health care was “horrendously” and constitutionally “inadequate.” One portion of his 300-page opinion found that ADOC kept inmates with serious mental illnesses in solitary confinement for far too long. Confinement has been shown to worsen mental illness and safety.

He found that they were left in segregation for weeks, often without even being able to see corrections officers for sometimes days. Without any contact, they received inadequate treatment.

Read more: http://www.alreporter.com/2018/02/13/federal-judge-wants-know-131-inmates-mental-illnesses-remain-solitary-confinement/

February 14, 2018

Stage Set for June Primary Elections

Alabama political parties closed out qualifying for the 2018 elections on Friday, and there were several notable last-minute entries.

On the Democratic side, Joseph Siegelman filed paperwork to run for attorney general as a Democrat. Siegelman is the son of former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman. Jefferson County Circuit Judge Bob Vance announced a run for chief justice. Vance also ran for that post in 2012, but lost to Republican Roy Moore.

On the Republican side, the already crowded GOP field for governor grew by one more name: State Senator Slade Blackwell of Mountain Brook will be joining the fray.

Statewide offices, including governor, attorney general, lieutenant governor and chief justice, as well as legislative and congressional seats, are among the offices up for grabs this year.

Read more: http://apr.org/post/stage-set-june-primary-elections