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Postal worker killed in 1 of 2 shootings on major highway in Illinois

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A U.S. postal worker was shot and killed while driving on a major highway in Illinois on Monday night, authorities said.

Tamara Clayton, a 55-year-old mail handler at the Chicago International Military Service Center facility, was on her way to work when she was shot on Interstate 57 just after 10 p.m. local time. She lost control of her vehicle and crashed into the center median. She was pronounced dead at the scene, according to the Illinois State Police.

Clayton, a resident of Country Club Hills, Illinois, had worked for the United States Postal Service since 1993.

"The Postal Service is deeply saddened on hearing of this tragedy and share our thoughts and prayers with the family," a USPS spokesperson said in a statement to ABC News.

WLS

Clayton's 24-year-old daughter, Jayla Shelton, said she wants justice for her mother.

"I wanted her to retire, I wanted her to see me get married, I wanted her to see me start a family," Shelton told ABC Chicago station WLS in a recent interview. "She is my absolute best friend, and I lost that because someone just decided to just take it away from me."

WLS

Clayton was killed about six hours after another shooting on the same expressway wounded a man and two children. A 38-year-old man was taken to a local hospital in critical condition, while a 15-year-old boy and a 12-year-old boy were hospitalized in stable condition. An 8-year-old girl also inside that vehicle was not shot, according to the Illinois State Police.

Sgt. Jacqueline Cepeda of the Illinois State Police told ABC News the two shootings are currently being investigated as separate incidents.

ABC News' Rachel Katz and Darren Reynolds contributed to this report.

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Postal worker killed in 1 of 2 shootings on major highway

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A U.S. postal worker was shot and killed while driving on a major highway in Illinois on Monday night, authorities said. Tamara Clayton, a 55-year-old mail handler at the Chicago International Military Service Center facility, was on her way to work when she was shot on Interstate 57 just after 10 p.m.

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lots of Dems support abortion and conservatives aren't happy about it

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Fox News Channel host Sean Hannity was fired up Wednesday after Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam made controversial comments regarding third-trimester abortions on a radio show.

"This Democratic Party has become so radical, so extreme, so rigid," Hannity said on the debut of his new Fox Nation show, "Hannity On Air."

"I don't really talk about abortion a lot. To me this is not about abortion," Hannity said.

Northam appeared on WTOP radio Wednesday to discuss his state's controversial abortion bill ,which seeks to repeal a ban on third-trimester abortions.

"So in this particular example, if a mother is in labor, I can tell you exactly what would happen, the infant would be delivered. The infant would be kept comfortable. The infant would be resuscitated if that's what the mother and the family desired, and then a discussion would ensue between the physicians and the mother," Northam said on the show.

Conservatives were outraged by the comments and Hannity was shocked.
VIRGINIA GOVERNOR FACES BACKLASH OVER THIRD-TRIMESTER ABORTION COMMENTS
"Honest people can disagree on the controversial topic of abortion," Hannity told his audience. "When it gets to the point that the baby can live on its own ... that defines innocence. This defines us as a country, in my opinion."

"Attempts to extrapolate these comments otherwise is in bad faith and underscores exactly why the governor believes physicians and women, not legislators, should make these difficult and deeply personal medical decisions," Northam's communication director, Ofirah Yheskel, said.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
Hannity continued to take on Governor Northam and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who recently supported loosening abortion restrictions.

"How as a country do we reconcile what is now infanticide and a party in America making it a top priority?" Hannity asked.

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Sean Hannity: Too many Dems support 'infanticide' in abortion debate

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Fox News Channel host Sean Hannity was fired up Wednesday after Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam made controversial comments regarding third-trimester abortions on a radio show. "This Democratic Party has become so radical, so extreme, so rigid," Hannity said on the debut of his new Fox Nation show, "Hannity On Air."

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A cop was shot after playing Russian Roulette and drinking on duty. The officer is set on $50,000-$100,000 bail. It is against Saint Louis police policy to drink on duty. Only one was drunk.

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St. Louis -- In an internal police misconduct report obtained by CBS St. Louis affilitate KMOV-TV, a police lieutenant alleges both Officer Nathaniel Hendren and his partner "consumed alcoholic beverages" while on duty the night Officer Katlyn Alix was shot and killed by Hendren during a game of Russian roulette.

Lieutenant William Brown filed the complaint at 1:30 a.m. on January 24, alleging "Conduct Unbecoming an Officer," and suggesting both men also violated a regulation that says, "No employee shall report for duty or remain on duty with an alcohol concentration of 0.04 or greater. Moreover, no employee shall consume alcohol while on duty and/or engaged in City business."

In a news conference Thursday, Police Chief John Hayden said, "The circumstances around the shooting were much more reckless and dangerous than what I had originally understood."

Hendren's partner's lawyer says his client had a few sips of beer at Hendren's home but poured out the rest down the sink.

Police say Alix, Hendren and his partner met at Hendren's apartment while Hendren and his partner were on-duty and Alix was off-duty.

The apartment is three miles outside the district to which Hendren and his partner were assigned.

Hendren reportedly produced a revolver, emptied the cylinder and then put one bullet cartridge back in the cylinder.

Hendren then spun the cylinder, pointed the gun away and pulled the trigger but it didn't fire.

Alix then took the gun and pointed it at Hendren and pulled the trigger but the gun again didn't fire.

Hendren then took the gun back from Alix and pulled the trigger, shooting Alix in the chest, police say. She later died at a hospital.

Hendren, charged with manslaughter, made bail Thursday after a judge raised his bond from $50,000 to $100,000. Only 10 percent of that amount was needed to make bail.

Hendren is under house arrest and can't have access to firearms but it was unclear if he's confined to his home, with nearby relatives or somewhere else.

Hayden said effective immediately, supervisors and commanders will be present at all roll calls to reinforce with officers that they must stay in their assigned districts.

Watch commanders will also confirm the location of their officers every hour using radios and GPS tracking information.

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Cop who shot fellow officer dead was drinking on duty, internal report alleges

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St. Louis -- In an internal police misconduct report obtained by CBS St. Louis affilitate KMOV-TV, a police lieutenant alleges both Officer Nathaniel Hendren and his partner "consumed alcoholic beverages" while on duty the night Officer Katlyn Alix was shot and killed by Hendren during a game of Russian roulette.

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Where is Baghdadi? Inside the hunt for the elusive ISIS leader, the world’s most wanted man.

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Rumors ran rampant this past week - starting in Syria and spreading across social media in a matter of minutes - that notorious ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi may have been seized by the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) as they ran the brutal insurgency from its final pockets of territorial control.

Only it would prove to be yet another false alarm.

"These reports are baseless, with no evidence," Kino Gabriel, the SDF spokesperson and General Command of the Syriac Military Council, told Fox News. "He has not been captured."

An arrest was made, a U.S.-based counter-terrorism analyst said, but it was "someone with the same last name."

Baghdadi - whose real name is Ibrahim Awwad Ibrahim al-Badri - remains the world's most wanted man, with the United States continuing to offer up to $25 million for information leading to his location. He is widely believed to be alive, and still very much in the sights of U.S., SDF and Iraq elite forces.

"Iraqi intelligence is following Baghdadi and we believe he never stays in one place for more than one day," Abu Ali al-Basri, director general of Iraq's intelligence office at the Ministry of Interior, told Fox News. "We have information he still moved from towns in Syria and entered the Iraq border through Anbar (province) with movement to bordering Salahuddin (province)."
WHY I LEFT ISIS: FORMER BAGHDADI 'FRIEND' AND AIDE, OTHERS SPEAK OUT
While ISIS was declared officially defeated in Iraq in late 2017, sleeper cells remain scattered, especially in the western areas.

Basri said the most recent assessment this year had Baghdadi specifically pinned to the eastern Syrian border towns, mostly moving between the Syrian places of Hajin and Dashisha in Al Hasaka. It is believed that the shadowy ruler has long donned different "disguises," most often sporting non-traditional, regular clothing to stay under-the-radar.

Multiple sources told Fox News that he maneuvers without convoys or any attention-drawing security figures, and is instead only flanked by a couple of trusted loyalists - and neither he nor his associates have mobile phones or detectable devices.

"We think Baghdadi is in the Syrian desert at-large," Fadhel Abu Rageef, a Baghdad-based political and security analyst, said. "Wearing modern clothes, no mobiles, a simple car, and just a driver. Anyone around him is dressed in modern clothes."

"We think Baghdadi is in the Syrian desert at-large. Wearing modern clothes, no mobiles, a simple car, and just a driver. Anyone around him is dressed in modern clothes."
- Fadhel Abu Rageef, a Baghdad-based political and security analyst

Basri claimed that two of the last people to meet with him were Ismail al Essawai, an ISIS member of the Education Committee, and Jamal Khalil al Mashadani, the ISIS leader in Kirkuk.

The alleged meeting took place in November near the Syrian town of Dashisha, which was formerly under ISIS control. Ten days later, the high-ranking Mashadani was apprehended by Iraq's National Intelligence Service.

Intelligence says military raids are underway in the areas, and there is no intention of halting operations until he is found. Nonetheless, precautions are being taken under the assumption that Baghdadi will not risk being captured and would likely have mechanisms in place for some form of self-explosion.

ISIS RECRUITMENT DRIVE IN SOMALIA COULD PROVE 'MASSIVE THREAT TO THE US PRESENCE' IN THE REGION
Hisham al-Hishami, a member of the National Reconciliation Commission and researcher in extremism and terrorism affairs in Iraq, who advises both the Baghdad and several foreign governments on terrorist activity, agreed that the notorious leader is indeed a master of disguises.

He believes the shadowy leader is in the remaining Syrian ISIS bastion but said he had no evidence of him having crossed into Iraq since the summer of 2017 as the "caliphate" there was crumbling. ISIS has been reduced to just two small villages in Syria's border region with Iraq, with U.S. officials assessing that it all should be cleared "within weeks."

A spokesperson for Operation Inherent Resolve, the name given the U.S.-led mission to defeat ISIS in Iraq and Syria, told Fox News they "have seen no indications of him or his whereabouts at this time."

And while multiple sources inside the US intelligence and defense communities told Fox News that the issue of Baghdadi's whereabouts has gone quiet in recent months, the push to find him has not fallen by the wayside.

Some experts predict that with the passage of time and the more ISIS loses its territory and power, its only inevitable Baghdadi's cover will be blown.

"Baghdadi is probably moving around a lot to avoid detection but it will just be a matter of time before he is found," noted Jeffrey Simon, a terrorism expert and founder of the national security consultancy firm Political Risk Assessment Inc. "I believe that he is still alive. News of his death would have been hard to keep secret for very long."

Based on multiple interviews with detained ISIS members in Iraq since 2014, Baghdadi remained - even at high echelons - something of a mythical figure and the message portrayed to members was that seeing him in the flesh "would be dangerous." Nobody really knew him, how he operated or much about his demeanor.

Baghdadi - who was first flagged by the U.S. with a reward bounty in 2011 before becoming the self-declared ISIS "caliph" in 2014 - has, according to Simon, been able to evade detection for so long for the same reasons Usama bin Laden was able to do so after September 11.

"Each terrorist leader had a fanatical, loyal and powerful inner-circle that could not be bribed or influenced to turn in their leader and a large support base among the rank-and-file terrorists," he explained. "As time went on, bin Laden lost some of that influence as the younger generation of Al Qaeda fighters vied for power. It took almost ten years to locate and kill him, it most likely won't take that long in Baghdadi's case."

Some intelligence figures have also pointed in recent weeks to the lawless regions of Afghanistan's Nuristan province, its mountainous range providing a cover next to impossible to be reached by much of the outside world. One well-placed Raqqa activist said the last indications they had of Baghdadi was pegged to the border terrain between Iran and Iraq, but also concurred that Afghanistan would be a relatively easy passage to get to and remain undetected.

Raphael Gluck, founding partner of The JOS Project - a jihadist monitoring service online - pointed out that pro-Iran, pro-Syrian government media is infamously behind a lot of the murmurs about him being either killed or wounded.

"They seem to be playing some kind of mind game," he said. "Either to demoralize ISIS, or it is an attempt to bait them into a response, which they would help them pinpoint where he is."
IRAN ALLOWS AL QAEDA OPERATION WITHIN ITS BORDERS, SAYS REPORT
On several occasions, Baghdadi has been reported to have been killed or gravely injured, only to later emerge in an audio recording to offer a proof-of-life and convey authority to his dwindling team of foot soldiers and ideological followers.

In August, ISIS released a purported 55-minute voice message from its leader confessing that while the group was losing ground, it was merely a test from Allah and that "glad tidings" will be given to those who "patiently persevere."

The speaker, assumed to be Baghdadi, made reference to several recent events including then-escalating tensions between the U.S and Turkey and the newly-installed sanctions imposed by the U.S. It marked the first time he had been heard from in almost a year. In September 2017, Baghdadi urged his backers in an audio clip to wage attacks against the West and continue fighting in Iraq and Syria.

Baghdadi has only been seen in public once. In July 2014, he appeared in West Mosul's historic al-Nuri Mosque to declare himself "the caliph." ISIS itself bombed the mosque in the summer of 2017 before the area was retaken by Iraqi security forces in a bitter battle.

"There are three scenarios for what happens to ISIS after al-Baghdadi. The first is that they just collapse, the second is that they re-arrange again and chose another leader and the third is that they go back to joining Al Qaeda," Hashimi said.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
ISIS itself emerged from Al Qaeda in Iraq during the U.S invasion, over battles of ideology and governance, and took a foothold in neighboring Syria in the early years of the country's civil war, which was ignited in 2011.

"ISIS is still a dangerous organization," Hashimi cautioned.

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Where is Baghdadi? Inside the hunt for the elusive ISIS leader, the world's most wanted man

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Rumors ran rampant this past week - starting in Syria and spreading across social media in a matter of minutes - that notorious ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi may have been seized by the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) as they ran the brutal insurgency from its final pockets of territorial control.

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Senator Cory Booker, a New Jersey Democrat who rose to prominence as Newark's charismatic and ambitious mayor, announced Friday that he is running for president.

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cory booker announces he is running for president - cnnpolitics

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Cory Booker announces he is running for president

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Sen. Cory Booker, a New Jersey Democrat who rose to prominence as Newark's charismatic and ambitious mayor, announced Friday that he is running for president.

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Father charged with rape after missing Tennessee girl is found in Wisconsin

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Tennessee girl missing for more than 2 weeks found, father charged with rape

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A 14-year-old girl, who disappeared from Tennessee more than two weeks ago, has been found alive in a residence in Wisconsin, authorities said Thursday.

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New York dietitian, 27, hangs herself after posting suicide note; 'I'm really sorry mama'

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A young Manhattan dietitian hanged herself in her West Village apartment after posting a suicide note online in which she apologized to her mom and said she "felt absolutely nothing during what should have been the happiest and darkest times in my life," police sources said Thursday.

San Francisco native Tara Condell, 27, was found dead with a cloth around her neck inside the bedroom of her home on West 10th Street around 4:30 p.m. Wednesday after police were called to the residence for a wellness check, sources said.
MAN AND WOMAN IN DOUBLE SUICIDE AT NEW YORK HOTEL LEFT TIP FOR HOUSEKEEPER WHO DISCOVERED BODIES
Worried co-workers called the cops after Condell did not show up for work at the Midtown office of Top Balance Nutrition on Wednesday - and saw that Condell posted the note to her website, according to sources.

One of Condell's co-workers was waiting outside the woman's home by the time cops arrived.

In addition to the note left on her website, Condell left another suicide note in a folder in her living room, sources said.

Condell - who, according to her website, is a registered dietitian nutritionist specializing in general nutrition, weight management, gastrointestinal disease and diabetes care - apologized to her mother at the end of the note posted to her site, saying, "I'm really sorry mama."

The young woman began the note - which was titled, "I Hate The Word 'Bye,' But See You Later Maybe?" - writing, "I have written this note several times in my head for over a decade, and this one finally feels right. No edits, no overthinking. I have accepted hope is nothing more than delayed disappointment, and I am just plain old-fashioned tired of feeling tired."

"I realize I am undeserving of thinking this way because I truly have a great life on paper. I'm fortunate to eat meals most only imagine. I often travel freely without restriction. I live alone in the second greatest American city (San Francisco, you'll always have my heart). However, all these facets seem trivial to me," Condell wrote.

She continued: "It's the ultimate first world problem, I get it. I often felt detached while in a room full of my favorite people; I also felt absolutely nothing during what should have been the happiest and darkest times in my life. No single conversation or situation has led me to make this decision, so at what point do you metaphorically pull the trigger?"
CLICK HERE TO CONTINUE READING ON NY POST

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New York dietitian, 27, hangs herself after posting suicide note; 'I'm really sorry mama'

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A young Manhattan dietitian hanged herself in her West Village apartment after posting a suicide note online in which she apologized to her mom and said she "felt absolutely nothing during what should have been the happiest and darkest times in my life," police sources said Thursday.

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Jussie Smollet, star of the show Empire, was attacked on Wednesday. It was a homophobic attack by "MAGA" supporters. The attack is still under investigation, but it has been discovered that days before the attack an envelope with white powder was sent to Smollet.

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About a dozen Chicago police detectives have been sifting through footage from nearly every surveillance camera in Streeterville these last few days, piecing together "a digital puzzle'' they hope will solve what happened outside the apartment building of "Empire" actor Jussie Smollett.

So far they've been able to track stretches of Smollett's walk from a Subway shop to his apartment in the 300 block of East North Water Street early Tuesday, according to Chicago police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi.

Somewhere along the way, Smollett said, two men walked up, yelled racial and homophobic slurs, hit him and wrapped a rope around his neck. None of that has been caught by any of the cameras detectives have checked. They did spot two people walking near the area around the time of the incident, but the images are dark and the faces are not clear.

Celebrities and politicians have condemned the attack and voiced their support for Smollett, who is black and openly gay and an activist for LGBTQ rights.

Detectives are seeking to identify and interview the two people in the picture above to determine whether they may have had any involvement in or witnessed the reported incident.

Detectives are seeking to identify and interview the two people in the picture above to determine whether they may have had any involvement in or witnessed the reported incident. (Chicago Police)

Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Ill., has called on the FBI to investigate the attack as a hate crime. President Donald Trump, asked about it at a news conference, said, "It's horrible. Doesn't get worse."

Taraji P. Henson, who plays Smollett's character's mother on the show, tweeted: "I wish what happened to my baby was just one big bad joke but it wasn't and we all feel his pain right now. @jussiesmollett is pure love to the bone."

But the lack of progress in the case has fueled some harsh skepticism on social media. Smollett's family acknowledged that in releasing its first public statement about the incident Thursday.

"We want to be clear, this was a racial and homophobic hate crime," the statement said. "Jussie has told the police everything from the very beginning. His story has never changed, and we are hopeful they will find these men and bring them to justice. Our family thanks everyone for their prayers and the huge amount of love he has received."

For now, the only lead police appear to have are pictures from a surveillance camera on New Street near Illinois Street, taken between 1:30 a.m. and 1:45 a.m. Smollett, who plays Jamal Lyon on Fox's "Empire," said he was attacked about 15 to 30 minutes later around the corner.

"They are outside on a street walking," Guglielmi said. "They are in the area that we have determined it could have taken place ... in the time and the area. It certainly leads us to have questions for them.''

Smollett told police he had just left a Subway when two men in dark clothes approached and yelled the slurs. Smollett told police he was hit and a chemical - maybe bleach - was poured on him. They put a rope around his neck and yelled, "This is MAGA country,'' he told detectives. The initials stand for Make America Great Again, a Trump campaign slogan.

Police were called just after 2:30 a.m. A friend of the actor told responding officers that "a noose was placed over the friend's neck."

So far, police detectives have used at least three surveillance cameras to piece together what Guglielmi called "a digital puzzle,'' tracking the movements of both Smollett and the two people of interest. Smollett is seen walking in one direction on a street and the two other people are walking the other way.

"One was going north and one going south,'' Guglielmi said. There are times when Smollett and the two people are out of range.

"They kind of all go off camera and reappear in different cameras," he said. "You almost have to watch them at the same time'' because each camera shows the same time stamp but from different angles.

There is no footage so far of any attack, he said.

Guglielmi said footage from the apartment building is sharp and shows Smollett walking in with a white rope around his neck. "We can confirm that, yeah, it was a rope, tied as a noose. It was tied that way,'' he said. "You can tell it's a rope tied as a noose.''

Forty minutes later, as officers responded with their body cameras turned on, Smollett still had the rope around his neck, but it was untied.

"It was draped around his neck still, but it's not fashioned as a noose," Guglielmi said. "It was loosely dangling rope." Officers took the rope and some of Smollett's clothing as evidence.

Smollett went on his own to Northwestern Memorial Hospital nearby and was treated for cuts to his face, according to Guglielmi.

The actor told police he was on the phone with his manager during the attack, but both of them have refused to turn over their phone records, Guglielmi said.

"Both the victim and his manager have made statements to detectives that they were on the phone with each other," the police spokesman said in an email. "We were not able to independently verify that because they did not turn over cellphone records to police when asked.

"That being said, we have no reason to doubt the statements given, and the reason that detectives requested cellphone records is because the manager and the victim have a financial relationship with each other," he added. "Because of that, independent verification was needed for the investigation."

Brandon Z. Moore, Smollett's music manager, declined to comment to the Tribune. "Nothing I can tell you," he said by phone.

Guglielmi said detectives "still have a lot more cameras to look at. But now that we've got potential persons of interest, the focus will be following their paths. Where did they come from and where did they go?

"We've got a dozen detectives out there looking for leads, so anything can happen,'' he said.

A week before Smollett reported the attack, a letter containing white powder and making racial and homophobic threats was mailed to the actor at Cinespace Chicago Film Studios, where "Empire" is filmed, according to police. The letter triggered a hazardous materials call, but fire crews determined the powder was not dangerous.

The FBI has since taken over the investigation into the letter while Chicago police continue to look into Tuesday's incident, authorities said.

"Empire," which premiered on the Fox network in 2015, is a musical drama that films in Chicago for most of the year. Smollett plays a gay musician.

Production on "Empire" resumed Thursday after Chicago's subzero temperatures shut down filming of TV shows across the city Wednesday. "Empire" filmed scenes at Cinespace, a source told the Tribune.

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Detectives piecing together 'digital puzzle' as they investigate report of attack on 'Empire' actor Jussie Smollett

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About a dozen Chicago police detectives have been sifting through footage from nearly every surveillance camera in Streeterville these last few days, piecing together "a digital puzzle'' they hope will solve what happened outside the apartment building of "Empire" actor Jussie Smollett.

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The Nintendo Switch wasn't as amazing as Nintendo hoped.

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nintendo switch sales warning sends stock plummeting - cnn

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Nintendo's Switch magic may be wearing off

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When it was first released, Nintendo's Switch console was so popular that the company struggled to ship enough devices to meet the huge demand.

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This Duo are the first ever male cheerleaders to ever preform in a super bowl

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Duo set to make history as first male cheerleaders to perform at a Super Bowl

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'It feels more accepted' - pair who broke the gender barrier into cheerleading world are both professional dancers

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Elizabeth Warren is expected to officially announce her presidential campaign for the 2020 election.

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Elizabeth Warren is expected to officially announce her candidacy for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination on Feb. 9.

The Massachusetts senator is telling supporters she'll make a "BIG announcement" that day.

Warren opened her presidential exploratory committee exactly one month ago, a move that made her the first prominent sitting Democrat to enter the Democratic primary race.

Warren has since been joined in the presidential mix by two fellow Democratic senators - Kirsten Gillibrand of New York and Kamala Harris of California.

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Warren likely to announce 2020 presidential run on Feb. 9

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Elizabeth Warren is expected to officially announce her candidacy for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination on Feb. 9. The Massachusetts senator is telling supporters she'll make a "BIG announcement" that day. Warren opened her presidential exploratory committee exactly one month...

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New Jersey man caught on camera faking slip and fall before filing false insurance claim, authorities say

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The camera doesn't lie.

A New Jersey man was arrested in mid-January and charged with insurance fraud after he was caught on surveillance video tossing ice on the floor and allegedly faking a slip and fall, authorities said Thursday.

Alexander Goldinsky, a 57-year-old independent contractor, was working for a company in Woodbridge, New Jersey, about 30 miles northwest of Newark, when he allegedly orchestrated the scam, according to the Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office.

The office released surveillance video Thursday from the company's empty break room, showing Goldinsky throwing the ice and strategically sprawling himself across the floor.

Middlesex County Prosecutors Office

Goldinsky allegedly filed a false insurance claim between Sept. 1, 2018 and Nov. 1, 2018, for ambulance services and the treatment he received for injuries he said he sustained during the fall, Middlesex County Prosecutor Andrew Carey said in a statement.

"The investigation revealed that Goldinsky purposely threw the ice on the floor in the cafeteria at his workplace, placed himself on the ground, and waited until he was discovered," the office said in a statement. "Fraudulent claims cost everyone and we will aggressively prosecute those who illegally manipulate the system."

Middlesex County Prosecutors Office

Middlesex County Prosecutors Office

Goldinsky was arrested on Jan. 15, and charged with one count of insurance fraud in the third degree and one count of theft by deception in the third degree for fraudulently filing an insurance claim, according to Carey.

He was released on a summons and is scheduled for an initial court appearance on Feb. 7. It's unclear if he has obtained an attorney.

"The prosecution of insurance fraud is part of the Attorney General's statewide insurance fraud crackdown through its County Prosecutor Insurance Fraud Reimbursement Program," the statement said. "The investigation is active and continuing."

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Man caught on camera faking slip and fall: Prosecutor

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The camera doesn't lie. A New Jersey man was arrested in mid-January and charged with insurance fraud after he was caught on surveillance video tossing ice on the floor and allegedly faking a slip and fall, authorities said Thursday.

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Body shamers are out to get everyone... even musical legends. It doesn't matter who you are, someone is going to have something to say. Both ends of the spectrum are being shamed even today, with such diversity everywhere. Here's how Céline Dion chooses to respond.

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céline dion on criticism she's too thin: 'leave me alone'  - cnn

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Céline Dion on criticism she's too thin: 'Leave me alone'

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Céline Dion doesn't much care if you think she's lost too much weight.

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On the coldest day in two decades on his fifth-generation dairy farm, Chris Pollack grabbed a thick, black hose from the barn and ventured into the subzero cold, where his beef cattle were chomping cud and waiting for water.

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RIPON, Wis. - On the coldest day in two decades on his fifth-generation dairy farm, Chris Pollack grabbed a thick, black hose from the barn and ventured into the subzero cold, where his beef cattle were chomping cud and waiting for water.

The power had briefly gone out the previous morning, long enough to freeze the line that automatically fills the animals' heated water trough. Pollack was here to replace it.

"Are you serious?" Pollack said, peering inside the hose. "There's water frozen in the end already."

He lifted it up to a small space heater and waited for it to thaw.

Such is life in the Deep Freeze of 2019.
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The past 48 hours in the American Midwest have been about endurance, as a breathtaking cold settled in over a massive stretch of the country. The record-setting frigid temperatures - some of the coldest on the planet Thursday - have frozen the Great Lakes, taxed electrical and natural gas infrastructure, endangered livestock and tested the mettle of millions who are used to the cold but had never experienced anything like this.

In some areas Thursday, temperatures dropped below minus-50 degrees, and the extreme weather was blamed for several deaths across the region, including people who appear to have frozen to death in Milwaukee , Detroit and Rochester, Minn .

From Minnesota to New York, the polar vortex again prompted school closures, mail service interruptions and thousands of flight cancellations, many of them in and out of Chicago, which appeared otherworldly in a coating of frost and ice. Eighteen factories run by General Motors, Fiat Chrysler and Ford shut down Thursday because of the brutal weather and a fire at a natural gas compressor station.

Slideshow by Reuters
Governors declared statewide emergencies and government offices temporarily shuttered.

More than 680 temperature records were broken or tied this week, according to the Midwestern Regional Climate Center.

In Mount Carroll, Ill., a trained weather observer reported that temperatures plunged to minus-38 degrees Thursday morning, according to the National Weather Service. If certified, it would be the state's lowest temperature on record, supplanting a minus-36 degree day in Congerville on Jan. 5, 1999. In northeast Minnesota, the unincorporated community of Cotton sank to minus-56 degrees - four degrees shy of that state's coldest temperature.

Wednesday was the second-coldest day in Chicago's history. The maximum temperature, minus-10, was set just after midnight, and then the mercury dropped to minus-24 later in the morning. The combination of those extremes resulted in a daily average of minus-17, just short of Dec. 24, 1983, when the average temperature was minus-18 in the Windy City.

Tom Skilling, a longtime meteorologist at Chicago's WGN-TV, said that describing the weather as brutal is an understatement.

"Lake Michigan took on the appearance of a boiling cauldron as air of minus-20 degrees and colder made contact with water sitting just above the freezing level," Skilling said in his report. "I've lived here 40 years and never until today have ever seen a more spectacular display of 'sea smoke.'"

The widely received message, clear to anyone with a thermometer, was to stay home and hunker down. But certain jobs, like Pollack's, don't have that option.

Police officers and firefighters have to reach emergencies. Heaters and stoves need to function. And the cows need water.

Throughout the Midwest, farmers have are waking up up in the middle of the night to check on their livestock and fashioned makeshift shelters to keep their animals safe as temperatures fell to 20 below zero, and then 30 below zero.

Tommy Enright, a small farmer in Amherst, Wis., houses his rabbits in a carport. But the animals aren't particularly resilient in the extreme cold, so to trap in the heat he draped an additional tarp across their individual cages.

It's not pretty, he said, but it gets the job done.

"It's been brutal out here," Enright said. "Yesterday neither of our vehicles would start, so it's been pretty interesting."

In Indiana, cattle farmer Matt Schafer said one of his greatest challenges has been keeping the animals dry and the water thawed. Water for their older cows comes from a ditch creek behind the farm. Usually, there's enough water movement to keep the creek from freezing. Not this week.

Schafer instead has had to chop a hole in the ice and suck out the water with a pump warmed with a propane heater. Everyday chores like this that usually take 45 minutes are now occupying up to two and a half hours of Schafer's day.

"You just got to allow yourself more time to do everything," Schafer said, "because everything seems to take a little longer."

The cows, though, are tough. They keep a body temperature of 101 degrees and develop a thick coat in the harsh winters. Calves born this time of year arrive with fuller fur.

Carl Schindler, who runs a dairy and beef cattle operation in rural Red Lake County, Minn., said earlier this week that his animals weren't particularly bothered by the cold. "This is nothing too crazy," he said.

In Schindler's dairy barn, the air hung thick with steam from the animals' bodies, keeping the temperature in the unheated structure about 60 degrees warmer than the air outside, where beef cows fed on hay and silage, their backs coated in a layer of frost.

"They get acclimated to the weather," he said, noting that the cows typically do better under the extreme conditions than at temperatures right at freezing, as there is little danger of the animals getting wet. "You get that 20 below, even 30 below with no wind, they actually do pretty well."

Janet Clark and her husband, Travis, help her family maintain a dairy cow and calving operation in Eldorado, Wis. Their water troughs are rigged with heat lamps to keep the liquid from freezing, and they purchased thick, vertical plastic sheets from a freezer company to help keep the heat in and the cold out.

Despite the heated floors in their milking operation, thick frost has invaded the interior of its windows and door frames. And the extreme temperatures have made their equipment sluggish, threatening the farm's milk yield.

In an unfortunate twist, a compressor that cools the cows' milk from body temperature to 40 degrees - at which point companies can pick it up and use it to make cheese - was frozen and sluggish. On a normal day, the cooling process takes minutes. In the extreme cold, it takes the better part of an hour.

"If it doesn't cool down, they can't pick up our milk," Janet Clark said.

Concerned for the safety of their animals, the Clarks haven't left the cows alone for longer than a few hours. They leave the farm each night around 8 p.m., and Travis returns around midnight to check on them. Another employee comes in at 3:30 a.m. to begin the morning milking rotation.

With temperatures expected to begin rising Friday and into the weekend, farmers are concerned that the dramatic temperature shift could cause secondary challenges, such as livestock illnesses.

So far, Pollack said his farm has been able to prevent sickness. The cows seem happy, even though their whiskers Thursday had become clumped with frost and snow.

"A lot of these cold snaps like this, how you survive it is a lot in the preparation," Pollack said. But there's only so much you can do. When it's this cold, he said, "everything freezes."
Wootson and Fritz reported from Washington. Michael Brice-Saddler in Washington contributed to this report.

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Record-shattering Arctic blast keeps the Midwest in a deep freeze

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RIPON, Wis. - On the coldest day in two decades on his fifth-generation dairy farm, Chris Pollack grabbed a thick, black hose from the barn and ventured into the subzero cold, where his beef cattle were chomping cud and waiting for water.

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Alleged school strip searches 4 girls ,all 12 years old. Parents outraged and promted a police investigation

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State police in New York will investigate accusations that four black girls, all 12 years old, were strip-searched as part of a drug search in a Binghamton middle school last month, reports said.

The parents of the four East Middle School students said the girls were told to remove their clothes in front of a school nurse and assistant principal on Jan. 15. The parents said they were not informed of the alleged incident.

One parent said her daughter was detained for more than an hour, according to a report. On Tuesday, more than 100 people demonstrated outside the school to pressure the local school district to look into the matter.

On Wednesday, Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo called for the state Education Department and state police to investigate.

"Asking a child to remove her clothing - and then commenting on her body - is shaming, humiliating, traumatic sexual harassment," Cuomo said.
FORMER MARINE FILES $1M SUIT OVER STRIP SEARCH, CALLS IT 'DEMEANING,' 'DEGRADING,' VIOLATION OF HER RIGHTS
"Given the severity of the allegations and the unrest they are causing in the community, state police will thoroughly investigate this incident, in consultation with local authorities," acting state police Superintendent Keith M. Corlett said in a statement released Thursday.

The Binghamton City School District said last week that the girls were evaluated but not strip-searched.

"There has been a lot of misinformation being spread through social media from third parties," the district said in a statement Thursday.

The allegations have rallied community members, who attended a Jan. 22 school board meeting to demand answers and disciplinary action. The district hired a third-party firm to conduct a "full and objective assessment," the Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin reported.

"The children were instructed to remove their clothing, and felt ashamed, humiliated and traumatized by the experience," said a statement distributed at the board meeting by community group Progressive Leaders of Tomorrow.
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The president of a local NAACP chapter has demanded the school board remove the principal, assistant principal and nurse involved in the alleged searches.

"This is outrageous that these girls got strip-searched and nobody got suspended," Barreiro said Thursday before the district denied there was a strip search. "School rules say parents have to be informed before anything like this happens."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Alleged school strip searches of 4 girls, all 12, draw parents' outrage, prompt police investigation

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State police in New York will investigate accusations that four black girls, all 12 years old, were strip-searched as part of a drug search in a Binghamton middle school last month, reports said. The parents of the four East Middle School students said the girls were told to remove their clothes in front of a school nurse and assistant principal on Jan.

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A very rare half male, half female cardinal was spotted in Pennsylvania on Thursday.

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A rare half-male, half-female cardinal was first spotted in Pennsylvania a few weeks ago, a report said Thursday.

Bilateral gynandromorph is the name of the anomaly, according to National Geographic.

"This remarkable bird is a genuine male/female chimera," said Daniel Hooper, a postdoctoral fellow at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, in an email to the outlet.
NEW YORK'S CENTRAL PARK IS NOW HOME TO A RARE AND COLORFUL MANDARIN DUCK
The half-vermillion, half-taupe bird that was seen in Erie has its colors split down the middle, according to the report.
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Jeffrey and Shirley Caldwell, who have been attracting birds for 25 years with backyard feeders, saw the rare cardinal in the dawn redwood tree 10 yards from their home, the report said.

"Who knows, maybe we will be lucky enough to see a family in summer!" Shirley told the Geographic.
Click here for more from the National Geographic.

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Rare half-male, half-female cardinal spotted in Pennsylvania: report

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A rare half-male, half-female cardinal was first spotted in Pennsylvania a few weeks ago, a report said Thursday. Bilateral gynandromorph is the name of the anomaly, according to National Geographic. "This remarkable bird is a genuine male/female chimera," said Daniel Hooper, a postdoctoral fellow at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, in an email to the outlet.

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New York dietitian, 27, hangs herself after posting suicide note; 'I'm really sorry mama'

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A young Manhattan dietitian hanged herself in her West Village apartment after posting a suicide note online in which she apologized to her mom and said she "felt absolutely nothing during what should have been the happiest and darkest times in my life," police sources said Thursday.

San Francisco native Tara Condell, 27, was found dead with a cloth around her neck inside the bedroom of her home on West 10th Street around 4:30 p.m. Wednesday after police were called to the residence for a wellness check, sources said.
MAN AND WOMAN IN DOUBLE SUICIDE AT NEW YORK HOTEL LEFT TIP FOR HOUSEKEEPER WHO DISCOVERED BODIES
Worried co-workers called the cops after Condell did not show up for work at the Midtown office of Top Balance Nutrition on Wednesday - and saw that Condell posted the note to her website, according to sources.

One of Condell's co-workers was waiting outside the woman's home by the time cops arrived.

In addition to the note left on her website, Condell left another suicide note in a folder in her living room, sources said.

Condell - who, according to her website, is a registered dietitian nutritionist specializing in general nutrition, weight management, gastrointestinal disease and diabetes care - apologized to her mother at the end of the note posted to her site, saying, "I'm really sorry mama."

The young woman began the note - which was titled, "I Hate The Word 'Bye,' But See You Later Maybe?" - writing, "I have written this note several times in my head for over a decade, and this one finally feels right. No edits, no overthinking. I have accepted hope is nothing more than delayed disappointment, and I am just plain old-fashioned tired of feeling tired."

"I realize I am undeserving of thinking this way because I truly have a great life on paper. I'm fortunate to eat meals most only imagine. I often travel freely without restriction. I live alone in the second greatest American city (San Francisco, you'll always have my heart). However, all these facets seem trivial to me," Condell wrote.

She continued: "It's the ultimate first world problem, I get it. I often felt detached while in a room full of my favorite people; I also felt absolutely nothing during what should have been the happiest and darkest times in my life. No single conversation or situation has led me to make this decision, so at what point do you metaphorically pull the trigger?"
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New York dietitian, 27, hangs herself after posting suicide note; 'I'm really sorry mama'

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A young Manhattan dietitian hanged herself in her West Village apartment after posting a suicide note online in which she apologized to her mom and said she "felt absolutely nothing during what should have been the happiest and darkest times in my life," police sources said Thursday.

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A New Jersey senator, Cory Booker is running for president. He announces a theme of unity and togetherness with a call for collective action.

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Sen. Cory Booker officially joined the crowded field of Democratic presidential primary hopefuls Friday morning, the latest step in a near-decade-long journey toward an anticipated campaign to be the second African-American U.S. president.

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Booker's announcement arrived in a video outlining a theme of unity and togetherness, describing an optimistic vision of what could be accomplished through "courage" and "collective action."

"I believe that we can build a country where no one is forgotten, no one is left behind; where parents can put food on the table; where there are good-paying jobs with good benefits in every neighborhood; where our criminal justice system keeps us safe, instead of shuffling more children into cages and coffins; where we see the faces of our leaders on television and feel pride, not shame," said Booker, after describing his upbringing.

"It is not a matter of 'can we,' it's a matter of 'do we have' the collective will, the American will? I believe we do," he said. "Together, we will channel our common pain back into our common purpose. Together, America, we will rise."

I'm running for president. Join me on this journey. https://t.co/fEDqOVIfwh pic.twitter.com/h1FTPUYRzo
- Cory Booker (@CoryBooker) February 1, 2019

The launch of Booker's campaign on Feb. 1, the first day of Black History Month, appears not to be a coincidence, particularly after Sen. Kamala Harris' similar commencement of her presidential run on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. In addition to Harris, D-Calif., Booker joins Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y. -- with whom Booker is close personal friends -- as members of the Senate seeking the Democratic nomination. At least five other Democrats have also declared.

Though he has visited several early-voting states in recent months, including a trip less than two weeks ago to South Carolina for Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Booker continued to publicly downplay the assumption he'd arrived at a final decision.

During a trip to Georgia in January, former President Jimmy Carter told Booker he hoped he runs for president, a moment captured by the senator on his Instagram story, in which he thanked Carter and said, "You encouraging me means more to me than you can imagine."

Booker's announcement comes after more than five years in the Senate, which followed seven as mayor of Newark, New Jersey, where he first vaulted to national attention for his youth and hands-on approach in attempting to turn around the crime- and poverty-plagued city.

Prior to Barack Obama's election in 2008, some in the Garden State familiar with the ambitious mayor's work, which included frequent ride-alongs with the city's law enforcement and, later, a high-profile education partnership with Facebook, openly mused about Booker's becoming the country's first black president.

Paul Sancya/AP

Since arriving in Washington, Booker has attracted attention for his leadership during the bipartisan effort to pass criminal justice reform and for his pointed questioning during Senate Judiciary Committee hearings. That includes what he described as his "Spartacus moment" during Brett Kavanaugh's Supreme Court confirmation hearings last fall. Later mocked by Republicans for grandstanding, the senator exposed himself to punishment by releasing confidential documents.

Booker's campaign officially will begin next weekend with stops in Iowa Feb. 8-9, followed by a visit to South Carolina on Feb. 10-11 and a trip to New Hampshire over President's Day weekend, according to a campaign aide.

Booker will reject donations from corporate political action committees, his campaign said, similar to Gillibrand, Harris, Warren, former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro, Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii, and former Rep. John Delaney.

After a number of radio interviews Friday morning, Booker is slated to appear on "The View" at 11 a.m. EST in his first television interview following his announcement.

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Cory Booker is running for president, announces bid with call for collective action

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Sen. Cory Booker officially joined the crowded field of Democratic presidential primary hopefuls Friday morning, the latest step in a near-decade-long journey toward an anticipated campaign to be the second African-American U.S. president. Add 2020 Elections as an interest to stay up to date on the latest 2020 Elections news, video, and analysis from ABC News.

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I woman ordered a dish for her cat got an unexpected package when it arrived.

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A Canadian woman who ordered a dish for her cat through Amazon received a stun gun and pepper spray instead.

Jacynthe Cardin, of Montreal, received the package on Wednesday, CTV News reported. She said she opened the box, and "was so surprised."
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"I just took another look at the box to be sure it's my package, but it's my name on it and my address," Cardin told the news station.

She explained that she and her husband don't have children, but if they "had one and he found the package, he would have taken it and tried it."

Cardin said she turned the items over to police, as both items are reportedly illegal in Canada.

An Amazon spokesperson told Fox News that the situation "was an unfortunate incident."
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"We are taking this matter very seriously to ensure it doesn't happen again," the spokesperson said. "We've worked directly with the customer to resolve this incident."

The company reportedly told Cardin that the error happened in a U.S. warehouse when an employee placed a wrong label on a box after a bar code error -- and added that her cat dish is on its way.

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Amazon delivers woman stun gun, pepper spray instead of cat dish she ordered

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A Canadian woman who ordered a dish for her cat through Amazon received a stun gun and pepper spray instead. Jacynthe Cardin, of Montreal, received the package on Wednesday, CTV News reported. She said she opened the box, and "was so surprised."

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Father charged with rape after missing Tennessee girl is found in Wisconsin

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Tennessee girl missing for more than 2 weeks found, father charged with rape

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A 14-year-old girl, who disappeared from Tennessee more than two weeks ago, has been found alive in a residence in Wisconsin, authorities said Thursday.

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Texas man pleads guilty to killing his wife by tying a slab of concrete to her neck and throwing her into a lake.

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A Texas man on Wednesday pleaded guilty to murdering his estranged wife in 2016 after the woman was found with a rope tied around her neck attached to a 119-pound concrete slab, a report said.

Rodolfo Montes Arellano, 36, faced the death penalty but will serve a life sentence with no possibility of parole, The Dallas Morning News reported.

Authorities initially believed that his estranged wife-Elizabeth Arellano, 28-died from suicide, but it was discovered that she drowned. Remnants from the block were found inside his vehicle, Newsweek reported. One witness reported hearing screams from the Interstate 820 bridge on April 16, 2016.

She reportedly planned to divorce him.

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Texas man gets life after killing wife who was thrown into lake tied to concrete

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A Texas man on Wednesday pleaded guilty to murdering his estranged wife in 2016 after the woman was found with a rope tied around her neck attached to a 119-pound concrete slab, a report said. Rodolfo Montes Arellano, 36, faced the death penalty but will serve a life sentence with no possibility of parole, The Dallas Morning News reported.

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President Trump says he might just build the wall anyway.

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trump signals wall or nothing approach to shutdown negotiations - cnnpolitics

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Trump signals wall or nothing approach to shutdown negotiations

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President Donald Trump probably won't be satisfied with any deal Capitol Hill negotiators come up with he admitted Thursday, even in the long-shot event lawmakers agree on a solution to defuse the immigration standoff that shut down the government.

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Apple CEO Tim Cook advocates for further online privacy.

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Apple CEO Tim Cook advocated for an increase in privacy regulations in the U.S., including requiring the Federal Trade Commission to allow individuals to track -- and delete -- their own personal data.

"We believe the Federal Trade Commission should establish a data-broker clearinghouse, requiring all data brokers to register, enabling consumers to track the transactions that have bundled and sold their data from place to place, and giving users the power to delete their data on demand, freely, easily and online, once and for all," Cook wrote in an op-ed he penned for Time magazine.

He also called on Congress to pass comprehensive federal privacy legislation, a package of reforms that he said should "protect and empower" the consumer by including four principles.

That includes the right to have personal data minimized (companies should try to strip identifying information from customer data); the right to knowledge -- like knowing what type of your data is being collected, and why; the right to access; and the right to data security.

"One of the biggest challenges in protecting privacy is that many of the violations are invisible," Cook said, adding, "The trail disappears before you even know there is a trail. Right now, all of these secondary markets for your information exist in a shadow economy that's largely unchecked-out of sight of consumers, regulators and lawmakers."

Although he said some states are investigating passing laws that would protect consumers' privacy, he urged the federal government to take a stance to what he called a solvable problem.

It's not the first time that Cook has pushed for stricter regulation surrounding personal data. In October, while speaking at a conference in Brussels on data privacy, he lauded countries such as those in the European Union for implementing stricter privacy regulation throughout recent years, but criticized the U.S. for not doing enough. ( The E.U. has a law, known as the General Data Protection Regulation, that gives individuals control over their own personal data).
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"We shouldn't sugarcoat the consequences. This is surveillance," he said at the time. "This should make us very uncomfortable. It should unsettle us."

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Apple CEO Tim Cook pushes for increased privacy oversight by Congress

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Apple CEO Tim Cook advocated for an increase in privacy regulations in the U.S., including requiring the Federal Trade Commission to allow individuals to track -- and delete -- their own personal data.