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Group continues fight for public hospital in Dayton

Group continues fight for public hospital in Dayton

Yahoo15-07-2025
DAYTON, Ohio (WDTN) — A local group is one step closer to getting a levy to fund a new public hospital in West Dayton.
The Clergy Community Coalition has collected enough signatures for the Dayton City Commission to consider the petition. The group says the project is now more possible than ever.
Community brings West Dayton hospital petition to commissioners
CCC organizers say they have already proven that citizens want the project to happen, but a statement from the city says at this point, it is not clear if city commissioners will vote to approve the ordinance.
'It's not an unrealistic goal. It's a very realistic goal. It's a very achievable goal, and it just requires cooperation,' said Bishop Richard Cox, CCC president.
Cox says if citizens and leaders work together, he believes plans for a public hospital in Dayton could be successful.
The CCC says several state officials and other private donors have pledged financial donations toward the hospital being build and the cost of its maintenance. But without full support from city officials, these conversations are being put on hold until they know what the next steps will be.
Dayton City Commission is set to review the group's petition for an ordinance that would generate more than $20 million over ten years.
The CCC says they have adequate financial backing for the public hospital to be built, and if the levy passes, they say it could be at least a year until groundbreaking on the facility.
City leaders say the commission must still vote on the issue before voters will have the chance to decide.
In a statement to 2 NEWS, Deputy Director John Musto for the Dayton Law Department said, in part, 'This agreement does not mean that the City Commission will vote to approve the ordinance to be placed on the ballot this fall. Pursuant to Dayton Charter Section 26, the Commission may accept, reject, or fail to take action on the ordinance.'
Dayton City Commission is scheduled to meet on July 23 to vote on this citizen-initiated ballot issue. If they deny it, the group can still collect more signatures for the issue to be presented to voters in November.
The group says they will continue working toward their mission, no matter what.
'If they turn it down, then we're determined to go out and get 2,500 votes and put it on the ballot and go around the city commission,' said Cox. 'That's not going to deter all these people that worked so many years to make this a reality.'
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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Muslim leaders increase security after vandalism reports at Texas and California mosques
Muslim leaders increase security after vandalism reports at Texas and California mosques

Associated Press

time12 minutes ago

  • Associated Press

Muslim leaders increase security after vandalism reports at Texas and California mosques

After a spate of vandalism reports involving graffiti at a few mosques in Texas and California, Muslim leaders there have stepped up existing efforts to keep their sacred spaces and community members safe. The incidents and subsequent hypervigilance add to what many American Muslims say has already been a charged climate amid the fallout in the U.S. from the Israel-Hamas war that has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians and devastated Gaza. The war started in October 2023 with a deadly attack by Hamas on Israel. 'The past two years have been extremely difficult for American Muslims,' said Edward Ahmed Mitchell, national deputy director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization. A constant stream of images showing the death, destruction and ongoing starvation in Gaza has taken a toll, said Mitchell, as has a rise in anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian bigotry in the U.S. He pointed to one of the most egregious examples of that bigotry: After the war started, an Illinois man killed a 6-year-old Palestinian American Muslim boy and wounded his mother in a hate-crime attack. Worry and frustration The recent vandalism reports have left some worried and frustrated — but not entirely surprised. 'Since October 2023, we've definitely seen rise in Islamophobia,' said Rawand Abdelghani, who is on the board of directors of Nueces Mosque, one of the affected mosques in Austin, Texas. 'Anti-Palestinian, anti-immigrant, all of that rhetoric that's being said … it has contributed to things like this happening.' Nueces security footage showed someone, their face partially covered, spray-painting what appears to be Star of David symbols at the property. CAIR Austin said similar incidents were reported at two other Austin mosques. They all seemingly happened on the same night in May, in what the group described as part of 'a disturbing pattern of hate-motivated incidents.' It called for increased security patrols and protective measures. Shaimaa Zayan, CAIR Austin operations manager, called them an intimidation attempt. Less than two weeks earlier, someone had spray-painted graffiti at the Islamic Center of Southern California, including the Star of David on an outer wall there, center spokesperson Omar Ricci said. 'In light of what's going on within Palestine and the genocide in Gaza, it felt like an attack,' said Ricci, who's also a reserve Los Angeles Police Department officer. Some specifics remained unresolved. The LAPD said it opened a vandalism/hate crime investigation and added extra patrols, but added it has neither a suspect nor a motive and noted that nonreligious spaces were also targeted. The Austin Police Department did not respond to Associated Press inquiries. Nueces had already increased its security camera use following three incidents last year, including someone throwing rocks at the mosque, Abdelghani said. After the May vandalism, it also added overnight security, she added. Nueces serves many university students and is considered a 'home away from home,' Abdelghani said. It's where they learn about their faith, meet other Muslims and find refuge, including during tense times, like when some students got arrested amid campus protests last year, she added. CAIR says that in 2024, its offices nationwide received 8,658 complaints, the highest number it has recorded since its first civil rights report in 1996. It listed employment discrimination as the most common in 2024. The group says last year, U.S. Muslims, along with others of different backgrounds, 'were targeted due to their anti-genocide … viewpoints.' 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More recently, leaders of U.S. Jewish institutions have called for more help with security after a firebomb attack in Colorado on demonstrators showing support for Israeli hostages in Gaza that left one person killed and others injured, as well as a fatal shooting of two Israeli Embassy staffers outside a Jewish museum in Washington, D.C. Politically, the conflict loomed over last year's presidential election, leaving many pro-Palestinian U.S. voters feeling ignored by their own government's support for Israel. It has roiled campuses and sparked debates over free speech and where political rhetoric crosses into harassment and discrimination. There've been bitter disagreements, including among some Jewish Americans, about exactly what the definition of antisemitism should cover, and whether certain criticism of Israeli policies and Zionism should be included. That debate further intensified as President Donald Trump's administration sought to deport some foreign-born pro-Palestinian campus activists. The Islamic Center of Southern California has been targeted before, including vandalism in 2023 and separate threats that authorities said in 2016 were made by a man who was found with multiple weapons in his home. Incidents like the latest one cause concern, Ricci said. 'People see that it's not going to take very much to spark something in the city,' he said. 'There's a lot of emotion. There's a lot of passion' on both the pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli sides. Salam Al-Marayati, president of the Muslim Public Affairs Council, said 'if people think they can get away with graffiti, then the next step is to firebomb a mosque or even go attack worshippers.' Opening doors and receiving support Al-Marayati and others praised how many have shown support for the affected Muslim communities. 'The best preparation is what we did in Los Angeles and that's to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with our allies and be there for one another,' he said. In Texas, a gathering at Nueces brought together neighbors and others, including Christians and Jews, to paint over the vandalism, clean up the property and garden, Zayan said. 'It was beautiful,' she said. 'It's really important to open your doors and open your heart and invite people and to rebuild this trust and connection,' she said. 'For non-Muslims, it was a great opportunity for them to show their love and support. They really wanted to do something.' ___ Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP's collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

What we know about the Epstein files
What we know about the Epstein files

Yahoo

time28 minutes ago

  • Yahoo

What we know about the Epstein files

Federal prosecutors amassed millions of records during the sex trafficking investigation and prosecution of Jeffrey Epstein and his accomplice and former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell. The question of what is actually in those pages — and whether the public will ever see them — has become central to a growing public relations crisis for President Donald Trump and his aides. Having said it would release case documents, now the Justice Department is trying to staunch the public outcry from some of Trump's ardent supporters along with some Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill who believe the administration has fallen short of its transparency pledge. It's unclear what new information, if any, is stuffed in the boxes of evidence within the Justice Department or what Maxwell would say publicly about Epstein and anyone else's connections to him. For months, Justice Department and FBI officials have wrestled with the fact much of the material they have requires redaction to protect the identities of victims and witnesses, and people who haven't been charged with crimes, according to people briefed on the matter. That raised the prospect that releasing thousands of pages covered with black ink for the redactions would only inflame people who believe the government is hiding evidence of additional criminal activity. The Epstein files are made of over 300 gigabytes of data, paper, video, photographs, and audio that live within the FBI's main electronic case management system, 'Sentinel.' These records would include investigative reports and records from the FBI Miami field division's original Epstein investigation. The bulk of the records would come from the second investigation carried out by the FBI's New York Office, including memorandums about the investigation and potential targets, locations to be searched, records to be subpoenaed, and hundreds of pages of '302s' which are the forms that FBI agents use to memorialize what witnesses, victims and suspects said in interviews by investigators. A large cache of records has already been made public through unsealing civil court cases, Maxwell's criminal trial, and news reports. Politicians, including Trump, and celebrities have been publicly linked to Epstein for years — sometimes by appearing in flight logs or at events — and all have denied any wrongdoing. Epstein's death by suicide before trial launched conspiracy theories and deprived many of his accusers a public airing of his conduct. Maxwell was convicted of sex trafficking minors following a four-week trial in 2021. She is appealing. The Justice Department asked federal judges to unseal grand jury transcripts from the Epstein and Maxwell cases. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche met Thursday with Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year prison sentence, in Tallahassee, Fla. 'If Ghislane Maxwell has information about anyone who has committed crimes against victims, the FBI and the DOJ will hear what she has to say,' Blanche said in a post on X. Blanche's post stands in contrast with the July 8 memo that was intended to close the books on the Epstein matter. In that memo, the Justice Department and FBI declared that they had done an exhaustive review and had determined that 'we did not uncover evidence that could predicate an investigation against uncharged third parties.' Here's what we do and don't know about the Epstein records: Grand jury The Justice Department has asked two federal judges in New York to unseal grand jury transcripts from Epstein and Maxwell's criminal cases. Former federal prosecutors say the transcripts likely contain a miniscule amount of evidence from the investigations. Federal prosecutors in New York generally call law enforcement agents to testify before the grand jury to present just enough evidence they need to support an indictment. Other witnesses, including accusers, are rarely called in to testify before federal grand juries in New York. The judges overseeing the two cases in New York asked DOJ for more legal argument for why they should unseal grand jury material, which is rarely done, and set deadlines that extend to August 5. Already one effort has failed. A federal judge in Florida denied DOJ's request to unseal grand jury transcripts from its 2005 and 2007 investigations into Epstein, stating the department didn't meet the legal hurdle to do so under the rules governing the circuit. The DOJ request is narrow: It isn't seeking to unseal all information that was derived from the grand jury proceedings, which if sought, could include information from financial institutions, emails or text messages, and returns from any other person or institution that was subpoenaed by the grand jury. Search warrants Federal prosecutors and the FBI obtained a trove of information during the searches of Epstein's homes in Florida, New York and Little Saint James, Epstein's private Caribbean island. That information is under the control of DOJ and is not blocked from public release by secrecy rules. FBI officials recovered thousands of nude and seminude photographs of young females, including at least of one minor, in a search of his Manhattan mansion in the days following his arrest. Binders of CDs containing the photos were seized. Agents used a saw to open a safe that had more than $70,000 in cash, 48 loose diamond stones, one as large as 2.38 carats, and a large diamond ring. They also collected documents from the New York home, including notes, messages with names and contact information for certain victims, and phone records. A search of Epstein's private island was conducted days after he was found dead in a jail cell about one month after his arrest. By then the investigation had shifted its focus to any co-conspirators of Epstein. In February the Justice Department provided an index of evidence it has. The index includes over two dozen computers, numerous hard drives, at least two cell phones, and four iPads. The index says there are boat trip logs potentially of who traveled to his private island — that information has not been made public. The Justice Department does not release child pornography so those records would not be expected to be made public under any circumstance. Florida DOJ case file Federal prosecutors in New York obtained the investigative record from the earlier investigations into Epstein conducted by their counterparts in Florida in 2007 and 2009. Any of those records that were not covered by grand jury secrecy rules could be released. Civil lawsuits Much of the public record relating to Epstein has derived from civil lawsuits brought by accusers, some filed under their own names and others using Jane Doe pseudonyms. Judges have ordered the release of thousands of pages of documents, including depositions taken under oath. Among the famous names referenced in those documents are Trump, former President Bill Clinton, Britain's Prince Andrew, former New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, French modeling scout Jean-Luc Brunel, American investor Glenn Dubin, and Leslie Wexner, the CEO of L Brands. Not all of them were accused of wrongdoing, and all of them have denied any wrongdoing. Maxwell trial Maxwell's four-week criminal trial was a public airing of her close relationship to Epstein and her role recruiting, grooming and at times participating in the sexual abuse of minors with Epstein. Four women testified about being sexually assaulted when they were minors. Epstein's former pilot testified and identified people he saw on Epstein's plane, including Trump, Senators John Glenn and George Mitchell, Prince Andrew, actor Kevin Spacey, and violinist Itzhak Perlman. The pilot said he never saw any wrongdoing. Gawker first published a copy in 2015 of Epstein's so-called 'black book' with names and phone numbers of his contacts. The Justice Department released a redacted version of it earlier this year as well as copies of the flight logs that were made public during Maxwell's criminal trial. The release was criticized by some of Trump's supporters because the information was already public — and did nothing to answer lingering questions. CNN's John Miller contributed to this report.

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