Americans Missing, Muslim Watch
Thursday, March 24, 2016
Vol. 5, No. 834
Brussels Attack: At least four Americans have been missing since the Brussels bombings. A young Nashville couple, Justin and Stephanie Shults, have not been heard from since the moment of the bombing. And the family of siblings Alexander and Sascha Pinczowski say the two were on the phone from the Brussels airport when the line went dead.
Authorities are hunting one more man associated with the Brussels terror attack, a man seen in video wearing light clothing and a dark hat. They now say suspected bomb maker Najim Laachraou may have been one of three who set off suicide bombs.
Investigators found two unexploded bombs at the airport and as much as 30 pounds of the powerful explosive in a residence in Brussels, indicating the terrorist cell had major ambitions.
Neighborhood Watch: Presidential candidate Ted Cruz is defending his statement that the cops should watch Muslim neighborhoods in America. After the Brussels bombings Cruz said, “We need to empower law enforcement to patrol and secure Muslim neighborhoods before they become radicalized.”
President Obama, visiting in Argentina, said, ” I just left a country that engages in that kind of neighborhood surveillance, which by the way, the father of Sen. Cruz escaped for America, the land of the free.”
The Supremes: The Court heard a challenge yesterday to the Obamacare requirement that employee health plans must include birth control. Religiously based employers say it’s an infringement on their freedom of religion.
The case was brought by an order of Catholic nuns called Little Sisters of the Poor. The Obama administration had offered an accommodation to let the sisters keep their religious principles by having the federal government deal with their insurance company regarding birth control, but they declined.
The eight-member court appeared divided. A 4-4 decision would set no precedent.
Nation: The North Carolina legislature has passed a law barring transgender people from using bathrooms and locker rooms labeled for a sex that does not match their birth certificate. One of the legislators who sponsored the bill said, “What we are doing is preserving a sense of privacy people have long expected.” We assume this also bars women from ducking into the men’s room at the concert hall because there are never enough women’s bathrooms.
The Obit Page: Former baseball catcher Joe Garagiola, who parlayed a mediocre nine-season career and a .257 batting average into an entertaining second life as a broadcaster, has died at age 90.
The pinnacle of his career was his first season with the St. Louis Cardinals in 1946 when he batted .316 in their seven-game World Series win over the Boston Red Sox.
Garagiola was a smart man with a self-deprecating sense of humor. He had a way with words. He once said, “Each year I don’t play, I get better. The first year on the banquet trail, I was a former ballplayer, the second year I was great, the third year one of baseball’s stars, and just last year I was introduced as one of baseball’s immortals. The older I get, the more I realize that the worst break I had was playing.”
>Ken Howard, a successful television actor known for the 1970s television series, “The White Shadow,” and the current president of the performers’ union SAG-AFTRA, has died at age 71. The Union had recently denied Howard was ill.
Howard was instrumental in the merger of the two acting unions: the Screen Actors Guild, and the American Federation of Television and Radio Announcers. SAG members, who were traditionally movie actors, looked down upon the AFTRA people who were in television and radio. But union leaders eventually convinced the members that a single union was better to deal with entertainment conglomerates.
Small Screen: People Magazine reports that former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has agreed to act as a judge in a new reality show that would air in 2017. Palin has never been a judge and is not even a lawyer but she’s very judgmental.
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