News Daypop Archives

Starbucks Corporation’s Chief Executive Kevin Johnson hopes to meet with the two black men arrested at one of its Philadelphia cafes last week to apologize for the incident, which has sparked accusations of racial profiling at the coffee chain. “The circumstances surrounding the incident and the outcome in our store on Thursday were reprehensible … they were wrong,” Johnson said on Monday, amid protests and calls for a boycott on social media. The 2 men had not made a purchase, but were handcuffed and arrested for trespassing on Thursday after a store manager called 911 and reported them for refusing to leave. Witnesses said the men were calmly sitting in the cafe and in a widely viewed video, some patrons asked police whether they were targeted because they are black. Police released the men, who were not charged. The female manager who reported the men to police has left the company, a Starbucks representative said.... [Read Full Story]

U.S. President Donald Trump’s longtime personal lawyer Michael Cohen revealed in court that Fox News host Sean Hannity was one of his clients, this after a federal judge overruled his effort to withhold the client’s identity. Cohen was in court on Monday to ask a judge to limit the ability of federal prosecutors to review documents seized from him last week through a warrant as part of a criminal investigation. Cohen argued that some of the seized documents are protected by attorney-client privilege or otherwise unconnected to the investigation. “I understand if he doesn’t want his name out there, but that’s not enough under the law,” Wood said, before ordering a lawyer for Cohen to disclose the name. Sean Hannity is a conservative television host known for advocating for Trump on his Fox News show.... [Read Full Story]

Former First Lady Barbara Bush is in failing health and will not seek additional medical care after a series of recent hospitalizations, a spokesman for the Bush family said on Sunday. Bush, 92, will “instead focus on comfort care” for unspecified health complications, according to a statement. Mrs. Bush is the wife of former President George H.W. Bush, the 41st president of the United States who is now 93, and mother of 43rd President George W. Bush. “It will not surprise those who know her that Barbara Bush has been a rock in the face of her failing health, worrying not for herself — thanks to her abiding faith — but for others,” a statement from the office of George H.W. Bush said Sunday. “She is surrounded by a family she adores, and appreciates the many kind messages and especially the prayers she is receiving.”... [Read Full Story]

Nikki Haley, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said this weekend that “the United States is locked and loaded” to strike Syria again if the country’s regime continues to use chemical weapons. Haley relayed the message from President Trump at an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council hours after a U.S.-led bombardment targeted Syrian chemical weapons facilities. Haley also accused Russia of defending Syrian President Bashar Assad and failing to ensure that the war-torn country’s cache of poison gas was destroyed. “When our President draws a red line, our President enforces the red,” she said. “The United States of America will not allow the Assad regime to continue using chemical weapons.”... [Read Full Story]

President Donald Trump said he has “full confidence” in White House lawyer Ty Cobb, who has urged Trump to cooperate with Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe.  In a tweet on Thursday, Mr. Trump said “I have agreed with the historically cooperative, disciplined approach that we have engaged in with Robert Mueller (Unlike the Clintons!) He continued, “I have full confidence in Ty Cobb, my Special Counsel, and have been fully advised throughout each phase of this process.” Some of Trump’s strongest supporters have been urging the president to take a more aggressive position toward Mueller’s investigation, in particular after FBI agents descended on the office and home of Trump lawyer Michael Cohen. Trump has called the FBI raid an “attack on our country.”  However in a separate Twitter post Thursday, Mr. Trump denied reports that he had tried to dismiss Mueller last year. “If I wanted to fire Robert Mueller in December, as reported by the Failing New York Times, I would have fired him,” Trump said.  Meanwhile, a bipartisan group of U.S. senators introduced legislation to protect the special counsel from being fired without cause.... [Read Full Story]

Puerto Rico was hit with a massive power outage Thursday after a tree fell on a power line, according to Puerto Rico’s Electric Power Authority.  San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz said at least 700,000 people are without power and it could take eight to 16 hours for electricity to be restored. Major blackouts were reported from the northern town of Manatí to Yabucoa, roughly 50 miles southeast. The blackout also includes the capital of San Juan, the most populated area of the island. Hurricane Maria damaged much of the island’s infrastructure and its electrical grid when it made landfall in Puerto Rico in late September. Nearly seven months later, more than 100,000 Puerto Ricans still have no power.... [Read Full Story]

President Donald Trump, in an early morning tweet, told Russia to prepare for “nice and new and ‘smart!'” missile attacks in Syria. This comes after an alleged gas attack in the country. The President’s tweet came after the Russian ambassador to Lebanon said in an interview on Tuesday that “if there is a US missile attack, we – in line with both Putin and Russia’s chief of staff’s remarks – will shoot down US rockets and even the sources that launched the missiles”. Trump also attacked Russia for its support of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Wednesday’s tweet, saying it “shouldn’t be partners with a Gas Killing Animal who kills his people and enjoys it!” The warnings come as the United States and several European countries threatened to use military action against the Syrian government and its main ally, Russia, in response to a suspected chemical weapons attack on the rebel-held town of Douma. ... [Read Full Story]

Speaker Paul D. Ryan announced Wednesday that he will not seek re-election in November. Mr. Ryan said he will serve until the end of this Congress in January, which will mark 20 years in Congress. He insisted he will be “leaving this majority in good hands with what I believe is a very bright future.”  Mr. Ryan’s decision caught many in the party by surprise, as he had just hosted a donor retreat last week in Texas and most believed he would not leave until after November. However when explaining his decision Wednesday morning at a meeting in the Capitol, Mr. Ryan said he wanted to spend more time with his children, who live in the same town where he grew up.... [Read Full Story]

Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s chief executive,, began the first of two marathon hearings in Washington on Tuesday afternoon, answering tough questions on the company’s mishandling of data. This was Mr. Zuckerberg’s first appearance before Congress, which was prompted by the revelation that Cambridge Analytica, a political consulting firm linked to the Trump campaign, harvested the data of an estimated 87 million Facebook users to psychologically profile voters during the 2016 election. Mr. Zuckerberg faced hours of questioning from lawmakers, who pressed him to account for how third-party partners could data without users’ knowledge. Lawmakers grilled the 33-year-old executive on the proliferation of so-called fake news on Facebook, Russian interference during the 2016 presidential election and censorship of conservative media.... [Read Full Story]

President Donald Trump canceled a foreign trip to Latin America as Trump administration officials consulted with global allies Tuesday on a possible joint military response to Syria’s alleged poison gas attack. Trump spoke with other world leaders and officials said the U.S., France and Britain were in extensive consultations about launching a military strike as early as the end of this week. None of the three countries’ leaders had made a firm decision, according to the officials, who were not authorized to discuss military planning by name. A joint military operation, possibly with France in the lead, could send a message of international unity about enforcing the prohibitions on chemical weapons and counter Syria’s political and military support from Russia and Iran.... [Read Full Story]

President Donald Trump promised quick action on Monday in response to a “barbaric” suspected chemical weapons attack in Syria and made clear that all options, including military action, were on the table. Trump, who was speaking at a Cabinet meeting, said he was meeting with military and other advisers and a decision would be made within 48 hours and might come as soon as the end of the day. “Nothing is off the table,” he said when asked if U.S. military action was a possibility. The suspected chemical weapons attack late Saturday night killed at least 60 people and injured more than 1,000 in several sites in Douma, a city near the capital city of Damascus, according to a Syrian aid organization.... [Read Full Story]

The FBI has raided the office of Michael Cohen, Donald Trump’s personal attorney, seizing materials and documents from his office including content related to his payments to porn actress Stormy Daniels (also known as Stephanie Clifford). Law enforcement agents conducted searches Monday at Mr. Cohen’s New York office and New York residence. A court warrant authorizing the raid was obtained. It is unclear what investigation the raid stems from. Cohen has admitted paying Clifford $130,000 after she said she had an affair with President Trump over a decade ago. Cohen has cooperated with authorities and turned over documents to congressional investigators looking into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.... [Read Full Story]

Fox News Channel host Laura Ingraham is expected back at work Monday. She was on a one-week vacation that served as a cooling-off period. She has faced backlash by advertisers upset over her tweet mocking a Parkland, Florida, school shooting survivor. many companies say they’ll no longer advertise with Ingraham. Ingraham picked up a strong statement of support from her boss. She also got unexpected backing from liberal talk show host Bill Maher late Friday. Ingraham has apologized for a tweet in which she said 17-year-old high school student David Hogg whined about being rejected by some colleges.... [Read Full Story]

Three people are dead and 20 were injured after a van plowed into a group of people in the German city of Münster Saturday. The driver of the van shot himself after the incident and was included in the casualty count. While officials have not announced the van driver’s identity or motive, but multiple German outlets reported that the suspect was a 48-year-old German man named Jens R. One German news agency said the suspect had connections to the right-wing extremist scene, though there is no current indication that the suspect himself was an extremist. German authorities are treating the incident as a deliberate attack.... [Read Full Story]

Police announced on Thursday that the body of Timothy Cunningham, a missing employee who worked as an epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, was found this week in a river nearly two months after his “unusual” disappearance prompted a nationwide search. His body was found in Chattahoochee River in northwest Atlanta late Tuesday when fishermen in the area spotted the body. “We have no indications to this point that were was any foul play,” Atlanta Police Department Major Michael O’Connor said in a Thursday news conference. An official cause of death has yet to be released, but a preliminary autopsy suggested the 35-year-old drowned, the medical examiner said at the Thursday news conference.  There are still several unanswered questions surrounding Cunningham’s disappearance. His parents said earlier this week their son sent a “disturbing” text to them 24 hours before he vanished. However, they would not elaborate on the text. A $15,000 reward is being offered for more information.... [Read Full Story]

A 5.3 magnitude earthquake has hit 35 miles southwest of Channel Islands, Beach, Calif., according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The USGS says the quake occurred at 12:29 p.m. about 38 miles (61 kilometers) southwest of the mainland city of Ventura. The quake affected parts of South California including the Los Angeles area. Many people who felt the quake reacted to the sudden movement on Twitter, though no immediate damage or injuries were reported.  ... [Read Full Story]

President Donald Trump and border-state governors are working to deploy the National Guard to the U.S.-Mexico border to fight illegal immigration, with some troops potentially arriving later Wednesday, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said. “The threat is real,” Nielsen said at an afternoon briefing, adding that Trump was signing a proclamation to put the deployment into effect. “It’s time to act.” The announcement came hours after Trump pledged “strong action today” on immigration and a day after he said he wants to use the military to secure the southern border until his “big, beautiful wall” is erected. ... [Read Full Story]

Facebook Inc said on Wednesday that the personal information of up to 87 million users may have been improperly shared with political consultancy Cambridge Analytica, up from a previous news media estimate of more than 50 million. Most of the 87 million people whose data was shared with Cambridge Analytica were in the United States, Facebook Chief Technology Officer Mike Schroepfer wrote in a blog post.  Last month, Facebook acknowledged that personal information about millions of users wrongly ended up in the hands of Cambridge Analytica, which worked on U.S. President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign. Schroepfer did not provide details of how Facebook came to determine its higher estimate, but he said Facebook would tell people if their information may have been improperly shared with Cambridge Analytica.... [Read Full Story]

A 39-year-old woman who alleged that YouTube “discriminated and filtered” her videos has been identified as as Nasim Najafi Aghdam of San Diego. Aghdam opened fire Tuesday at the company’s California headquarters, injuring three people before turning the gun on herself.  Aghdam, a resident of Southern California, appears to have a prolific presence on YouTube. In a harrowing video posted in January 2017, she claims YouTube “discriminated and filtered” her videos. Aghdam’s video links to a website, Nasimesabz.com, on which she railed against YouTube for restricting her videos. “Youtube filtered my channels to keep them from getting views!” one post on the website reads. Multiple YouTube channels that belonged to Aghdam, where she frequently posted about animal rights and veganism, were terminated Tuesday night after she was named as the shooter. ... [Read Full Story]

Dutch attorney Alex van der Zwaan, who lied to U.S. federal agents investigating former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, was sentenced Tuesday to 30 days in prison in the first punishment handed down in special counsel’s Russia investigation. He was also ordered to pay a $20,000 US fine. Van der Zwaan’s sentence could set a guidepost for what other defendants charged with lying in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation may receive when their cases are resolved. Among them are a former White House national security adviser and a Trump campaign foreign policy aide. Van der Zwaan had faced zero to six months in prison under federal sentencing guidelines, and his attorneys had pushed for him to pay a fine and leave the country. But U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson, citing the need to deter others from lying in an investigation of international importance, said incarceration was necessary. ... [Read Full Story]

A third woman has come forward with a lawsuit seeking to invalidate a nondisclosure agreement (“NDA”) related to President Donald Trump. Jessica Denson, a former Trump campaign staffer, signed an NDA as a condition of her employment with the campaign. Denson, who says she joined the Trump campaign in August 2016 as a national phone bank administrator, says that her employment was contingent on signing the NDA, which covers anything related to Mr. Trump, his family, his personal life or his business affairs. In November 2017, she sued the campaign for employment discrimination and defamation. Denson claims she was discriminated against, harassed, and subject to a hostile work environment at the Trump campaign. Denson claimed the campaign accused her of illegally leaking portions of Mr. Trump’s taxes. Denson is representing herself in both the original lawsuit and the lawsuit to invalidate the NDA. The current lawsuit was filed on March 26 in federal court in New York.... [Read Full Story]

Nelson Mandela’s ex-wife Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, an anti-apartheid activist in her own right, has died. She was 81. Madikizela-Mandela will be honored by a state funeral on April 14, preceded by an official memorial service on April 11, said President Cyril Ramaphosa after visiting her home in Johannesburg’s Soweto township Monday evening. Many South Africans described Madikizela-Mandela as the “Mother of the Nation” and a champion of the black majority.  She died “surrounded by her family and loved ones,” according to a statement released by Madikizela-Mandela’s family. Madikizela-Mandela was the second of Nelson Mandela’s three wives, and was married to him from 1958 to 1996.... [Read Full Story]

Tens of thousands of public school teachers in Kentucky and Oklahoma plan to attend rallies on Monday at their state capitols in what they hope will be the latest display of muscle by the nation’s educators demanding higher wages and better classroom resources. The demonstrations come less than a month after West Virginia teachers went on a nine-day strike that ended with the governor there signing legislation giving them a 5 percent pay hike — their first raise in four years. The planned rallies also come on the heels of one on Wednesday in which 2,500 teachers in Arizona — who are demanding a 20 percent raise — demonstrated at the state’s capitol in Phoenix. ... [Read Full Story]

President Donald Trump said on Sunday that there will be no deal to legalize the status of young adult immigrants called Dreamers and he said the U.S.-Mexico border is becoming more dangerous. After tweeting a “Happy Easter” message on Twitter, he said: “Border Patrol Agents are not allowed to properly do their job at the Border because of ridiculous liberal (Democrat) laws like Catch & Release. Getting more dangerous. DACA, or Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, is a program created in 2012 under Democratic former President Barack Obama that Trump sought to rescind last autumn.... [Read Full Story]

Uber has settled with the family of a pedestrian who was killed when one of the company’s self-driving cars hit her while she crossed a road in Tempe, Ariz. earlier this month. Details of the settlement have not been released.  The deceased victim, Elaine Herzberg, was struck by one of Uber’s autonomous vehicles on the night of March 18 as she crossed a busy street while pushing her bicycle. After the accident, Uber paused all of its self-driving vehicle tests, including in California, where the online ride-hailing company is based. Although a human driver was inside the self-driving car as a precautionary measure during this incident, a video of the accident shows the driver looking down until seconds before Herzberg appeared in front of the car. The car was operating in autonomous mode when the accident occurred.... [Read Full Story]

Back in 2014, a picture of a Devonte Hart, tears streaming down his face and gripping a white police officer in an embrace during Ferguson-related protests, went viral.  But now Devonte is missing and feared dead after his parents and three of his siblings were killed in a car crash.  On Monday, a passerby spotted the family’s vehicle flipped onto its roof in the Pacific Ocean at the bottom of a 100-foot cliff in a rural part of California’s Mendocino County, according to officials. Devonte’s parents Jennifer and Sarah Hart, both 38, were both found dead inside the S.U.V., rocked by waves washing in and out, say police. Three of their children: Markis, 19, Jeremiah, 14, and Abigail, 14 were recovered outside the vehicle. However Devonte, now 15, and his two sisters Hannah, 16, and Sierra, 12, remain missing, say police.  Mendocino County Sheriff Tom Allman said at a press conference Wednesday that while police cannot say with certainty that Devonte, Hannah and Sierra had been in the vehicle, “We have every indication to believe that all six children were in there.” Police are seeking the public’s to help in piecing together the family’s final 24 hours before the crash. The Harts are from Woodland, Wash.... [Read Full Story]

71-year-old Richard Phillips, a Detroit-area man whose murder conviction was thrown out after he spent 45 years in prison, was exonerated Wednesday and won’t face a second trial.  A judge granted a request to permanently drop the case against Phillips, whose conviction was erased last year. Wayne County prosecutor Kym Worthy said a new investigation by her office backed his claim that he had no role in a 1971 fatal shooting. She said a key witness lied at his 1972 trial. The case was reopened at the urging of the Innocence Clinic at University of Michigan law school after a co-defendant at the ’72 trial told the state parole board that Phillips wasn’t involved in the slaying of Gregory Harris. Phillips had been free on bond since December. He likely will be eligible for more than $2 million under Michigan’s wrongful conviction law. Phillips told reporters when asked about his decades in prison that “I’ve never carried bitterness around, so I’m not a bitter man.”... [Read Full Story]

The attorney for former adult star Stormy Daniels filed a motion Wednesday in federal court seeking to depose both President Trump and his attorney Michael Cohen over a $130,000 payment made to Daniels days before the 2016 presidential election. Daniels attorney, Michael Avenatti, filed the documents in U.S. District Court in California. Daniels has publicly claimed she had a 2006 sexual encounter with Trump, and also said Cohen orchestrated a payment to keep her quiet during the election. The White House has denied her claims. At issue is whether the non-disclosure agreement that was signed by Daniels – but not by Trump – is valid. If successful, it would be the first deposition of a sitting president since President Bill Clinton in 1998 had to answer questions about his encounter with Paula Jones.... [Read Full Story]

Larry Nassar’s former boss at Michigan State has been arrested, and charged with sex crimes. Dr. William Strampel, 70, is facing criminal charges for allegedly inappropriately touching a student and storing nude photos of female students on his work computer. Strampel also has been accused of failing to monitor Nassar and enforce guidelines put into place after Nassar was investigated in 2014 for sexual harassment. The former dean of the Michigan State’s College of Osteopathic Medicine was charged Tuesday with a felony, a high court misdemeanor and two misdemeanors and is due to be arraigned Tuesday afternoon. Michigan State confirmed Strampel’s arrest, but didn’t provide any other details at the time. Nassar is in prison for possessing child pornography, has been sentenced to 40 to 175 years for sexually assaulting girls and women across multiple sports at Michigan State and with the national gymnastics program, including U.S. Olympic teams. ... [Read Full Story]

Linda Brown Thompson, who as a young girl was the student at the center of the landmark Supreme Court case “Brown v. Board of Education” that declared school segregation unconstitutional, has died in Topeka, Kansas. She was 76. Born in 1943, Brown was in third grade in 1950 when she was denied admission to an all-white elementary school in her hometown of Topeka. She lived 20 blocks from her segregated school, but just five blocks from the all-white school. Kansas schools at the time were segregated by state law. Brown’s father, Rev. Oliver Brown, sued the school district in 1951. The NAACP took up the case, with future Supreme Court justice Thurgood Marshall as the lead attorney for the NAACP. In a unanimous ruling in 1954, the court declared school segregation an unconstitutional violation of the 14th Amendment’s guarantee of equal protection under the law. ... [Read Full Story]