Month: October 2023

Cornell University in Ithaca, New York sent campus police to its Jewish center after antisemitic “threats of violence” appeared online over the weekend. The threats come at a time of heightened tensions on college campuses across the U.S. over the Israel-Hamas war.

Cornell President Martha E. Pollack said in a statement: “Earlier today, a series of horrendous, antisemitic messages threatening violence to our Jewish community and specifically naming 104 West — the home of the Center for Jewish Living — was posted on a website unaffiliated with CornellWe will not tolerate antisemitism at Cornell,” Pollack said, warning those who commit such threats will be “punished to the full extent of the law.”

University police did not provide details of the nature of the threats, however, they issued a community crime alert Sunday night saying the department is “investigating posts located on a website that contain threats of violence directed at religious groups across the campus … Evidence suggests the targeted locations were intentionally selected because of the perpetrator’s bias.”

New York Gov. K athy Hochul said in a series of posts on X that she condemned the “disgusting & hateful posts on a message board about Jewish @Cornell students” and said the New York State Police is involved. Hochul added that she spoke to leaders from public and private universities across the state Sunday night to stress that state police and government will “support their efforts to keep their students and campus communities safe,” and met with students at Cornell on Monday in which she said students “are showing incredible strength and unity in response to vile antisemitic threats.”

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On Monday, President Biden on Monday signed an executive order seeking to reduce the risks that artificial intelligence (AI) poses to consumers, workers, minority groups and national security. The White House said this move will safeguard Americans’ information, promote innovation and competition, and advance U.S. leadership in the industry and said the new EO as building on prior voluntary commitments from some of the leading tech companies on the safe and secure development of AI.

The EO requires developers of AI systems that pose risks to U.S. national security, the economy, public health or safety to share the results of safety tests with the U.S. government, in line with the Defense Production Act, before they are released to the public.

The president said in remarks on Monday that his executive order “the most significant action any government anywhere in the world has ever taken on AI safety, security and trust. We’re going to see more technological change in the next 10, maybe the next five years, than we’ve seen in the last 50 years And that’s a fact. And the most consequential technology of our time, artificial intelligence, is accelerating that change. It’s going to accelerate it at warp speed. AI is all around us … One thing is clear — to realize the promise of AI and avoid the risk, we need to govern this technology. There’s no other way around it, in my view. It must be governed.”

A senior administration official told reporters that the executive order “has the force of law” and they’ll be using executive powers “pretty fulsomely,” but the president will still pursue various bipartisan legislation with Congress.

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At least 15 people fell victim, two critically, to a mass shooting during a Halloween celebration in Chicago as a gunman opened fire on the city’s West Side. The victims were comprised of 6 women and 9 men ranging in age from 26 to 53 years old; two were rushed to the hospital in critical condition.

Partygoers told the outlet that a fight broke out in the backyard and one of the individuals involved was asked to leave; after refusing to leave, the man allegedly began shooting. ABC News reported that police who responded to the shooting saw a male suspect firing rounds into the crowd before fleeing on foot. The suspect, who has not been identified, was later arrested, and a firearm was recovered by officers.

10th District CPD Commander William Betancourt said: “Victims relate that the suspect was ejected from the party, and came back a few minutes later and began to shoot.” Alderwoman Monique Scott, who represents the 24th Ward, also spoke at Sunday afternoon’s press conference: “I don’t know whether to scream or to cry. We shouldn’t be out here on a Sunday because somebody couldn’t get into a party.”

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22-year-old Tyrell Steven Phillips has been charged with second degree murder with a firearm for his role in the deadly Florida shooting that left two people dead and 16 injured early on Sunday morning. Tampa police credit tips they received from the community for the quick arrest.

Official said the shooting in Ybor City began as an isolated altercation between two people escalated to gunfire in the 1600 block of E. 7th Ave around 2:47 a.m. According to police, a 14-year-old black male and a 20-year-old white man were killed. Officials say there were 16 additional victims who were taken to the hospital, 15 of those victims had gunshot wounds. The majority of victims, ranging from 18 to 27 years old, have been released from the hospital. The five victims who are still in the hospital have non-life threatening injuries, according to Tampa Police.

Tampa Mayor Jane Castor shared: “It’s just unfortunate that these late night, early morning incidents are occurring where you have disputes that in the past may have been settled in a verbal argument and at the very worst, a physical fight.”

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The manhunt continues for the suspect in the mass shootings that killed 18 people and injured 13 in Lewiston, Maine, on Wednesday. Maine Public Safety Commissioner Mike Sauschuck told reporters during a news conference that authorities are attempting to locate 40-year-old Robert Card. Police said he should be considered armed and dangerous. Hundreds of police and about 80 FBI agents, as well as federal marshals and other agencies, are involved in the search. Officials are still urging residents of Lewiston, Maine’s second-largest city about 30 miles north of Portland, as well as nearby Auburn to continue to shelter in place. Many local schools and businesses will also remain closed.

Heavily armed law enforcement officers were seen surrounding a house in the nearby town of Bowdoin, where Card is from. According to the Maine Department of Public Safety: “Law enforcement is at a home in Bowdoin as part of the investigation into the Lewiston shootings and the search for Robert Card”. but officers completed their search and cleared the scene without locating the suspect.

State police Col. William Ross said during the news conference that the deadly rampage began a little before 7 p.m. Wednesday evening at Sparetime Recreation, a bowling alley in Lewiston, where seven people were killed; six males and one female died of apparent gunshot wounds. At Schemengees Bar and Grille about 4 miles away, seven males inside the establishment and one outside were apparently shot to death, Ross said. Three other people died at area hospitals.

The suspect was enlisted in the U.S. Army Reserve and was believed to be stationed out of Saco, Maine. He recently reported mental health issues, including hearing voices, and had also threatened to shoot up the National Guard base in Saco, the bulletin said, and he was reported to have been committed to a mental health facility for two weeks this summer. In July, while training at the U.S. Military Academy in New York, leaders of the Army Reserve’s 3rd Battalion, 304th Infantry Regiment told garrison staff that the suspect was “behaving erratically.”

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Police in North Carolina are opening a homicie investigation after five people were found fatally shot at a southeast North Carolina home early Thursday.

Sampson County Sheriff Jimmy Thornton said deputies received a 911 call from a person who knew the homeowners, saying he had spoken to one of the victims at around 11 p.m. and stopped by the residence at around 11:41 p.m. where they discovered the bodies before calling 911. Authorities later arrived at the home of Garland Highway outside Clinton shortly before 1 a.m. to find four men and a woman dead in the home from gunshot wounds. The victims ranged in age from 30s to 80s.

Capt. Eric Pope said in a news conference: “This is not normal for our community, it’s not normal for any community, and it should shock the conscious and we hope that somebody already knows something and will at least call us and give us the information that we need so that we can bring these person or persons to justice.”  He added that they also were of “various racial and ethnic backgrounds — White, Black and Hispanic.” Investigators don’t have any information about a suspect and don’t know how the people who were killed knew each other.

The sheriff’s office did not respond with additional information, including if the homicides are being investigated as a mass killing, which the FBI defines as the shooting death of four or more people, excluding any shooters, within 24 hours. The North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation was reportedly assisting with the investigation.

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