RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — A truck pulling a float for a holiday parade in North Carolina crashed Saturday, striking and killing a girl participating in the event, news outlets reported.

The driver who lost control of the vehicle and struck the child was arrested and charged with reckless driving and other offenses, the Raleigh Police Department said in a news release. Police identified the driver as Landen Christopher Glass, 20.

Witnesses told WTVD-TV that people attending the Raleigh Christmas Parade heard the pickup truck’s driver screaming that he had lost control of the vehicle and couldn’t stop it before the crash.

The girl struck by the truck was part of a dance troupe participating in the holiday parade, The News & Observer reported.

Olivia Bruce, a 14-year-old member of the dance troupe, told the newspaper that the truck almost hit her, too.

“We started dancing in the parade, and then all of a sudden, we just heard a lot of honking. And when we turned back, we saw the truck almost on our backs, so we turned away,” Bruce said.

An eyewitness, Christine Barnes, told WRAL-TV that girls in the dance troupe couldn’t hear the driver honking the truck’s horn over the music playing. Adults were scrambling to get the children out of the truck’s path, she added.

“The girls were just hysterical,” Barnes said. “It was really traumatizing.”

Barnes said the truck came within inches of hitting several other girls.

“The truck wasn’t going that fast, but because the girls had no idea it was coming, they just couldn’t get out of the way.” she said.

Nobody else at the parade was injured in the collision.

The parade was cancelled after the crash. Police advised drivers and pedestrians to avoid the area.

Glass was one of three people in the vehicle towing the float at a low rate of speed, police said.

Investigators interviewed Glass, who was charged with misdemeanor death by motor vehicle, careless and reckless driving, using improper equipment, unsafe movement, and carrying a firearm in a parade.

The names and age of the girl wasn’t immediately released.

“Our hearts go out to the family of the victim and those who witnessed this tragic incident,” police said.

Raleigh Mayor Mary-Ann Baldwin expressed her condolences for the girl’s family and friends.

“Today started off with such joy.,” the mayor tweeted. “My heart was so full. And now it aches for the young girl hit in a tragic accident on the parade route.”

© Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved.

(New York Jewish Week) — Two men were arrested on Saturday at Pennsylvania Station in Manhattan for what the New York Police Department called “a developing threat to the Jewish community.”

One of the men had traveled to New York City after posting on social media that he might “shoot up a synagogue and die,” law enforcement sources told local and national media organizations. He carried weapons, including an illegal firearm and a large hunting knife; ammunition; and a Nazi armband, according to the reports.

NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell announced the arrests in a statement, in which she said the police department was strategically deploying resources to “sensitive locations” throughout the city due to the threat.

She said a joint task force of the NYPD and the FBI worked together to swiftly “gather information and identify those behind it and operationally neutralize their ability to do harm.”

The NYPD had alerted officers late Friday to be on the lookout for Christopher Brown, 22, noting that he had a history of mental illness, had made threats to synagogues and that “should be considered armed and dangerous.”

The alert said that Brown had indicated online that he was interested in traveling from his home in Aquebogue, Long Island, to New York City in order to purchase a weapon.

Sewell said that officers patrolling Penn Station noticed Brown early on Saturday and arrested him, along with a second man, Matthew Mahler of Manhattan.

“Today, we’re extremely grateful to NYPD investigators and our law enforcement partners who uncovered and stopped a threat to our Jewish community,” Sewell tweeted. “This morning’s arrests in Penn Station and weapon seizures are proof of their vigilance & collaboration that keeps New Yorkers safe.”

The arrests come just weeks after the FBI warned synagogues in New Jersey about a “broad threat” made to them; the NYPD heightened security at city synagogues as a precaution. The FBI later announced that a 19-year-old man who said he had sworn allegiance to ISIS had been arrested for making the threat.

The Community Security Service, a Jewish security nonprofit organization, released a statement late Saturday saying that it had been in contact with federal and local law enforcement agencies over the past day.

“As always, we ask the community to remain vigilant, but no further immediate community actions are needed at this time,” the statement said.

This article originally appeared on JTA.org.

The post ‘Developing threat’ to NYC Jewish community averted as 2 arrested at Penn Station appeared first on The Forward.

Things have gone from bad to worse for the wicked witch of the west. That would be Kari Lake. Lake has refused to concede, perhaps deciding that throwing temper tantrums would be a better course of action for her.

So, in the spirit of her lord and master, Donald Trump, the Lake has been flooded with shit as Kari has been flooding Twitter with insane messages insisting the election was stolen from her.

Normally, I wouldn’t even bother to write about Lake. Her show is over, and I somehow doubt there will be a second act. But one of her tantrums caught the eyes of some pretty important people, and that is worth writing about.

On Thursday, Lake, showing her willingness to break the law, posted a new deranged video for all of Twitter to see. And playing on this video was Tom Petty’s “I won’t back down.” Uh-oh. Naturally, the estate of Tom Petty heard about this. And BEING the estate of Tom petty, they were not happy about it.

Faster than one could say copyright, they posted this: “The Tom Petty estate and our partners were shocked to find out that Tom’s song “I won’t back down” was stolen and used without permission or a license to promote Kari Lake’s failed campaign.”

“This is illegal. We are exploring all our legal options to stop this unauthorized use and to prohibit future misappropriations of Tom’s beloved anthem.”

Well, well, well. So crazy Kari tried to steal the work of one of the greatest rock-n-rollers ever. Why is this no surprise? And she should have known better. So now we can add stealing Tom Petty music to the grievous list of Lake’s ongoing sins as her free-falling continues. Like her benefactor, Trump, she doesn’t learn.

The post Kari Lake just got another comeuppance appeared first on Palmer Report.

Snowfall of more than 6 feet in western New York state prompted local officials on Saturday to further restrict road travel and forced airlines to cancel flights in the Buffalo area, just ahead of the busy Thanksgiving holiday week.

New York Governor Kathy Hochul called in the National Guard, deploying about 150 members to help with snow removal and resident needs in the hardest-hit parts of Erie County.

At a press conference Saturday afternoon, Hochul said she would sign a request for a federal emergency declaration to seek reimbursements for expenses on storm response.

Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz said most residents heeded driving bans and stayed home, which he believes averted tragedies.

“We’ve avoided a lot of the incidents and accidents that unfortunately have taken lives in the past,” he said at the news event in Hamburg, N.Y., one of the areas hardest hit by snow. “I believe lives have been saved.”

Erie County, which has felt the brunt of the snowfall, recorded totals of 77 inches in Orchard Park, New York, the site of the NFL’s Buffalo Bills home field.

Squalls began blowing in from Lake Erie and Lake Ontario on Thursday to produce the region’s first major snowstorm of the season, more than a month before the start of winter.

According to the National Weather Service, conditions could persist through Monday morning.

Nearly 90 crashes have been reported and almost 290 people were rescued from roads, Hochul said.

“We do have some passenger vehicles that have been abandoned,” she said. “They’re being dealt with, but the scale is nowhere near what we’ve seen with storms from the past.”

The roof of a long-time bowling alley in Hamburg collapsed under the weight of the snow, she added.

State police issued more than 390 tickets, many of which went to tractor trailer drivers, for travel ban violations, Hochul said.

Nearly three feet of snow had fallen at Buffalo Niagara International Airport, where many flights were canceled on Saturday. Buffalo, the second-largest city in New York, was placed back under a travel ban on Saturday morning.

“This has been a very unpredictable storm with the snow bands moving, back and forth, north to south,” Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown told CNN. “The snow has come down very fast, very wet, very heavy.”

Buffalo saw daily record snowfall of more than 16 inches, topping the one-day record of 7.6 inches recorded in 2014, the National Weather Service said on Saturday.

At least two deaths were reported on Friday. Poloncarz said in a tweet that two residents died of apparent heart attacks while shoveling snow.

County officials warned people to stay off roads to keep clear for snow removal crews. Poloncarz said some communities could see driving bans lifted later by Saturday evening.

Illustrating the highly localized nature of lake-effect snow, accumulation levels varied widely across the region. Still, 11 counties remained under an emergency declaration issued on Thursday by Hochul.

The U.S. National Weather Service forecasts lake-effect snow will dump up to 14 inches in the counties of Chautaqua and Cattaraugus Saturday night through Sunday. Snow bands are forecast to bring up to 2 feet of snow in Oswego and Lewis counties beginning Sunday morning.

After a northward shift that will impact the Niagara County, the Buffalo area should brace for more snowfall late Saturday, according to Erie County Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Services Commissioner Daniel Neaverth.

“It’s going to eventually swing back down through the county sweeping all the way back through,” he said.

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KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) -Malaysia was facing a hung parliament for the first time in its history as support for a conservative Islamic alliance prevented major coalitions from winning a simple majority in a general election.

Without a clear winner, political uncertainty could persist as Malaysia faces slowing economic growth and rising inflation. It has had three prime ministers in as many years.

Failure by the main parties to win a majority means a combination of them would have to build a majority alliance to form a government. Malaysia’s constitutional monarch may also get involved, as he has the power to appoint as Prime Minister a lawmaker whom he believes can command a majority.

Longtime opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim’s coalition won the most seats in Saturday’s general election, results from the Election Commission showed.

The biggest surprise came from former premier Muhyiddin Yassin who led his Perikatan Nasional bloc to a strong showing, pulling support from the incumbent government’s traditional strongholds.

Muhyiddin’s alliance includes a Malay-centric conservative party and an Islamist party that has touted shariah or Islamic law. Race and religion are divisive issues in Malaysia, where the Muslim ethnic-Malay population make up the majority and ethnic Chinese and Indians the minorities.

Both Anwar and Muhyiddin claimed to have the support to form government, though they did not disclose which parties they had allied with.

Muhyiddin said he hoped to finish discussions by Sunday afternoon. His alliance is a junior partner in incumbent Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob’s ruling coalition and could work with them again.

Anwar said he would submit a letter to Malaysia’s King Al-Sultan Abdullah detailing his support.

If Anwar clinches the top job, it would cap a remarkable journey for a politician who, in 25 years, went from heir apparent, to the premiership, to a prisoner convicted of sodomy to the country’s leading opposition figure.

Malaysia has 222 parliamentary seats but polls were held only for 220 on Saturday.

The Election Commission said Anwar’s multi-ethnic Pakatan Harapan coalition won a total of 82 seats, while Muhyiddin’s Perikatan Nasional alliance won 73 seats. Ismail’s Barisan coalition got 30. One seat was unannounced as of 2100 GMT.

“The key takeaway from this election is that Perikatan has successfully disrupted the two party system,” said Adib Zalkapli, a director with political consultancy Bower Group Asia.

Barisan and Pakatan have long been Malaysia’s main blocs.

Barisan said it accepted the people’s decision, but stopped short of conceding defeat. The coalition said in a statement it remains committed to forming a stable government.

Veteran leader Mahathir Mohamad meanwhile was dealt his first election defeat in 53 years in a blow that could mark the end of a seven-decade political career, losing his seat to Muhyiddin’s alliance.

A record number of Malaysians voted on Saturday, hoping to end a spate of political uncertainty that has resulted in three prime ministers amidst uncertain economic times and the COVID-19 pandemic.

The political landscape has been rocky since Barisan lost the 2018 election after governing for 60 years from independence.

Anwar was released from prison in 2018 after joining with old foe Mahathir and Muhyiddin to defeat Barisan for the first time in Malaysia’s history, amid public anger at the government over the multibillion-dollar 1MDB scandal.

That coalition collapsed after 22 months in power due to infighting over a promise by Mahathir to hand the premiership to Anwar. Muhyiddin briefly became premier, but his administration collapsed last year, paving the way for Barisan’s return to power with Ismail at the helm.

Around 60 Russian soldiers were killed in a long-range Ukrainian artillery attack this week, Kyiv said on Saturday, the second time in four days that Ukraine claimed to have inflicted major casualties in a single incident.

In a Facebook post, the armed forces general staff said Russia suffered the losses on Thursday when Ukrainian forces shelled the town of Mykhailkva, 40 km (25 miles) to the south of Kherson. Russian forces abandoned the city earlier this month.

It gave no further detail. The Russian defence ministry did not immediately reply to a request for comment, and Reuters was unable to independently verify the Ukrainian military’s account.

The United States has provided Ukraine with advanced rocket systems capable of hitting targets up to 80 km away.

Ukraine said on Wednesday that around 50 Russian soldiers were killed or wounded on Tuesday in a shelling attack on the village of Denezhnykove, 70 km behind front lines in the eastern province of Luhansk.