The Port Authority Bus Terminal – one block from Times Square – was evacuated New Year’s Eve after multiple people were stabbing only hours before midnight.
The busy transit hub plunged into chaos Tuesday night just before 9pm after four people were stabbed and the assailant fled on foot.
Early reports said one of the four victims is fighting for his life, a police source was unable to confirm that to MailOnline. the other three are expected to make a full recovery.
Mass evacuation: The Port Authority Bus Terminal is only one block from Times Square
NYPD officers and Army Reservists guarding the bus terminal chased down and tackled a Latino male suspect wearing Army fatigues, the source told MailOnline.
Conflicting eyewitness accounts say the stabbing suspect eluded authorities.
An eyewitness told MailOnline the evacuation was mostly calm and orderly. An announcement came over the bus terminal’s public address system and people filed out as instructed.
‘[It was] seemingly quick and well orchestrated, led by posted troops,’ said Michael Gasiorek. ‘[The] only concern was crowd buildup outside.’
That calmness evaporated once outside, as officers were caught off-guard with the evacuation order, Mr Gasiorek explained.
‘We just evacuated, is there a plan?’ He said he asked police.
‘Plan? Get away from the building,’ the officer responded.
The Port Authority Bus Terminal is on 42nd Street at Eighth Avenue, one block from Times Square and across the street from police checkpoints regulating the flow of revelers into and out of the ball drop zone.
More than 225,000 people course in and out of its doors everyday.
As a part of their Best Of 2013, The Price Is Right merged Big Money Week and Dream Car Week to offer one lucky contestant an Audi R8 Spyder sports car.
Despite near-global adulation signaled by his recognition as Time person of the year for 2013, not everyone is in raptures over Pope Francis’ attempts to rebrand the Catholic Church.
Home Depot founder Kenneth Langone, who is estimated to be worth $2.1 billion, has baulked at what he sees as hyper-critical comments aimed at the rich by the pontiff in his first published exhortation Evangelii Gaudium – fearing that he does not comprehend rich Americans.
Langone, 78, who is a devout Catholic has called the statements attributed to the pope on capitalism as ‘exclusionary’ and pointedly said that one wealthy anonymous benefactor he knows is reconsidering the seven-figure donation he wants to make to the restoration of Manhattan’s St. Patrick’s Cathedral on Fifth Avenue.
In an interview with CNBC, Langone said that the donor, who he would not name, was becoming concerned at the message the Argentinian pope was espousing – in which he urges the rich to give more to the poor and attacks a ‘culture of prosperity’ that causes some to become ‘incapable of feeling compassion for the poor’.
Langone told the network that he has personally raised his worries with Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the archbishop of New York.
‘I’ve told the cardinal, ‘Your Eminence, this is one more hurdle I hope we don’t have to deal with,’ said Langone.
‘You want to be careful about generalities. Rich people in one country don’t act the same as rich people in another country.’
Worried that the Pope does not understand wealthy American’s, Langone, who prays every morning, said that he has told Cardinal Dolan that ‘you got more with honey than vinegar’ and that he wants the archbishop to make it clear to the pope that wealthy Americans are the largest givers to charity in the world.
‘There is no nation on earth that is so forthcoming, so giving,’ he said to CNBC, adding that he hopes the pope can ‘celebrate a positive point of view rather than focusing on the negative.’
As the year ends, Gallup reports that public approval of Congress averaged 14 percent during 2013. This, the polling firm points out, is “the lowest annual average in Gallup’s history.”
The pollsters added: “2013 is the only year in Gallup’s history in which all monthly readings were below 20 percent.”
Yet this is “the new normal,” according to Gallup, because in each of the last four years the congressional approval rating for the year has been below 20 percent.
It was such a bad year for Congress that Gallup predicts the 2014 midterm elections will not, fundamentally, be a fight over which party controls the House and Senate.
Instead, the campaign could hinge on the overwhelmingly negative view of Congress and the sense “that more Americans feel that problems are with the institution itself rather than with the particular party or people who control it.”
This brings us to the quote of the year about political life on Capitol Hill. It came from Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), defending the Republican-led House.
“We should not be judged on how many new laws we create,” he told CBS in July. “We ought to be judged on how many laws we repeal.”
This Republican strategy is at the heart of why Congress is so unpopular. They will not work on the big issues, beginning with their failure to deal with the number one public priority: creating jobs and boosting the economy.
Instead, the GOP’s congressional focus, according to the influential Republican Study Committee, is on extracting what they term “reforms” — really, they’re talking about budget cuts — in “mandatory spending” programs including food stamps, Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. There is practically no desire for those cuts reflected in any polling.
As Campaign 2014 gets underway, Republicans are threatening another government shutdown tied to refusal to approve a debt-ceiling hike to pay bills. Their demand is for President Obama to make major cuts to programs such as Social Security.
The reduced-government, reduced-spending, reduced-federal-power strategy extends to the Senate where Republicans have used an historic number of filibusters and threats to block nominees to Obama administration posts and judicial seats. That led Senate Democrats to the “nuclear option,” opening the door to simple majority votes on most nominees.
Samsung promised at CES last January that it would deliver a 110-inch UHDTV this year, and with just a couple of days left to spare here it is. Apparently rolling out in China, the Middle East and a few European countries first, there’s no word on price (the 85-inch version that launched earlier this year had a $40K pricetag attached when it launched), but can you really put a price on a TV that’s bigger than a king-size bed? That’s right, at 2.6-meters by 1.8-meters there’s more than enough room for well-heeled VIPs or employees of large companies and government agencies (the target market for the S9110) to catch some z’s on it — and bring a few friends. It’s available for custom orders just before we see the new generation of Ultra HD (including a 105-inch curved model) at CES 2014 next week, although most of us will be looking for TVs that actually fit inside our living room.
Update: Even though the set is custom order only, an Associated Press report puts the price at about $150,000 — anyone want to get a group order going?.
A Pittsburgh-area mohel is being accused of accidentally severing an infant’s penis during a botched circumcision.
The lawsuit against Rabbi Mordechai Rosenberg alleges that he performed a bris at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Squirrel Hill, during which a baby’s private parts were cut off and had to be surgically reattached.
KDKA reports that doctors performed emergency microsurgery on the child for six hours following the April 28 incident. Six blood transfusions, leech therapy, and a two month hospital stay were required before the child was sent back home.
The surgery was declared a success, though KDKA’s sources say it is too early to know if the child will make a full recovery.
Two suicide bombings on consecutive days killed at least 31 people in southern Russia city, highlighting the terror threat Russia faces as it prepares to host the Winter Games in six weeks.
A suicide bomber on a bus early Monday in Volgograd killed at least 14 people and left nearly 30 wounded, Russian officials said, a day after another suicide bombing killed at least 17 at a railway station in the city.
Vladimir Markin, the spokesman for Russia’s main investigative agency, said Monday’s blast involved a bomb similar to the one used in Sunday’s bombing at the city’s train station.
“That confirms the investigators’ version that the two terror attacks were linked,” Markin said in a statement. “They could have been prepared in one place.”
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks, but they came several months after Chechen rebel leader Doku Umarov called for attacks against civilian targets in Russia. Umarov, leader of a terrorist group that calls itself the Caucasus Emirate, has called on Muslims to disrupt the Olympics, which will be held in Sochi in February.
“If you are a terrorist group in the Caucasus, the Sochi Olympics are going to be a very inviting target,” said Steven Pifer of the Brookings Institution’s Arms Control and Non-Proliferation Initiative.
Some Muslim terrorists view the Olympics as a provocation, says Jeffrey Mankoff of the Center for Strategic and International Studies’ Russia and Eurasia Program. Sochi was conquered in the 19th century. “They view it as a provocation on territory they consider stolen from Muslims,” he said.
It seems to be the season of making predictions for the next year, and I certainly don’t want to be the only self-appointed chronicler of the age to miss that boat, so herewith is my take on what we can expect for 2014.
The year will be unpredictable. A bold assertion, I know, but look at where we were a year ago. Obama had just been resoundingly reelected and the right was on the run. They gave in on taxes and spending and agreed to extend unemployment benefits for another year. They were talking about immigration reform and a bargain on spending. It seemed that the left had the right ideas and, led by the president, it would be a year of progress.
How did that work out? We know. Immigration passed the Senate. Sequestration clawed its way through all of the doomsday scenarios and became the budget template for the year. The House became the place where all good ideas went to die. The website was doomed to failure because nobody thought or had the money to test it. The right shut down the government. Unemployment payments have not been renewed. Our privacy either being stolen from Target or abused by the NSA.
So why am I so optimistic about the upcoming year? Because there are some terrific trends in American life that are trending in the right direction. Marriage equality is close to becoming the law of all the land. The Supreme Court will probably slow it down and rule at some point that states do have the power to prohibit it through their constitutions, but that will just be a temporary delay. State barriers to marriage, and by extension to rights for all LGBTIH and GSD and other capital letters, is in our near future. This is a profound change and one that we need to be thankful, thoughtful and diligent about enforcing.
The next year will also see health care for all. Think about that one and smile. Health care for all. The United States will join the rest of the industrialized world, and some of the less industrialized, in making sure that sickness or injury doesn’t mean bankruptcy or worse. There will be more bumps next year related to insurance company payments and recalcitrant GOP obstruction, but this law is here to stay. And the better part is that the law will be strengthened in the next few years. It has problems that need attention and we are looking at the possibility that more employers will begin moving employees to the exchanges rather than covering them through company plans. As one of my conservative friends says, if you thought the fuss over six million people being told their insurance didn’t measure up to the ACA and had their coverage canceled, wait until sixty million people who have insurance through work lose it. This is your only warning.
There are other hopeful trends to watch in 2014. The move towards a livable minimum wage is not going away and will probably gather steam next year. The criminal justice system is recognizing that mandatory sentences were a fevered reaction to inner city crime related to drugs and has done more to create a new economy based on prisons, especially in rural areas. President Obama’s sentence commutations are a first step towards making sentencing more flexible without going back to the instability of the 1960s and 70s. The Dodd-Frank bill will force financial institutions to curb or make transparent some of the practices that led to the financial crisis. Wall Street will kick and scream, but they will need to abide by the new rules.
And immigration reform will, I think find some success in the coming year. The Senate bill will not be passed by the House, and a path to citizenship might not survive the political process, but this is an idea whose time has come. It might take four or six more years before it comes to fruition, but it will.
The House will stay Republican in November and the Senate will stay Democratic, if only by 51-49 or by a Vice-President Biden Tie-Breaking Constitution Special 50-50. Someone you never considered will announce, by year’s end, that they will be a candidate for president in 2016. Someone you thought was a no-brainer will say that they will not run.
And no, it will not snow on Super Bowl Sunday.
Have a very Happy New Year and continue to work to make the United States, and the world, a better, more humane, just place to hang out in.
In a post, the popular co-host of Good Morning America, wrote, “I am grateful for my entire family, my long time girlfriend, Amber, and friends as we prepare to celebrate a glorious new year together.”posted on December 29, 2013 at 5:32pm EST
Robin Roberts, who has long shielded her romantic life from the public, came out on Facebook on Sunday.
The popular co-host from ABC’s Good Morning America, who has been a key part of the show’s ascent to No. 1 in the morning television wars, posted a picture of her dog, KJ, along with this message.
Flashback 12/29/12….Hard to believe this was 1 year ago today..when I reached a critical milestone of 100 days post transplant…and KJ was finally allowed to come back home.
Reading this comforts me and I hope the same for you: “If you are depressed, you are living in the past. If you are anxious, you are living in the future. If you are at peace, you are living in the present.”
At this moment I am at peace and filled with joy and gratitude.
I am grateful to God, my doctors and nurses for my restored good health.
I am grateful for my sister, Sally-Ann, for being my donor and giving me the gift of life.
I am grateful for my entire family, my long time girlfriend, Amber, and friends as we prepare to celebrate a glorious new year together.
I am grateful for the many prayers and well wishes for my recovery. I return every one of them to you 100 fold.
On this last Sunday of 2013 I encourage you to reflect on what you are grateful for too.
Wishing you a Healthy and Happy New Year.
Peace, love, and blessings to all..XO
Though she had been shy about her dating life until now, Roberts has famously shared her health struggles with the public. She was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2007 and underwent treatment to cure it. In June 2012, at age 51, she announced that she had been diagnosed with myelodysplastic syndrome, a blood and bone marrow disease. She had contracted MDS, she said, from her treatments for breast cancer. Roberts’ sister was a bone marrow match for her.
The month before, Roberts had scored a huge interview for ABC: President Obama announcing his reversal on same-sex marriage. Roberts’ popularity and charm surely contributed to Obama’s advisors choosing her for the interview. But was her sexuality, an open secret, also a factor? The media, which still does not know how to write about such questions, did not speculate.
ABC News issued a statement of support: “We love Robin and Amber, who we adore and have all known for a long time. We were so touched by Robin’s Facebook message today and so thankful for all the loving support she has in her life.”
The Amber of Roberts’ post, by the way, appears to be Amber Laign; her Twitter avatar looks to be KJ the dog!
Her wish was to dance with Beyonce and the supertar made it happened earlier this month in one of her concerts. The video below was uploaded on Beyonce’s YouTube page, and it showed part of the Taylon Davis’ story.
Taylon, who has an inoperable brain tumor, told her wish to the good folks at The Make-A-Wish Foundation. After some quick maneuvering by the Foundation, Taylon was invited to the Beyonce concert in Las Vegas where her dream to dance with the star came through.
“I am having so much fun,” Taylon told the camera, as she danced with the superstar in her wheelchair.
Beyonce and Taylon sang “Love on Top” and Destiny’s Child “Survivor” together.
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