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Father chokes coyote to death after it attacks young child in New Hampshire

Tue, 21 Jan 2020 06:59:26 -0500

A New Hampshire man fought off and killed a coyote on Monday after the animal attacked his young child, according to authorities.

The father was walking with his wife and three kids around 11 a.m. on a trail in Kensington, located about 30 miles east of Manchester, when the coyote suddenly charged the family and attacked the child, the Kensington Police Department said.

The 2-year-old child’s father, identified as Ian O’Reilly, “went into protection mode and suffocated the coyote until it succumbed,” police said.

“There was no interest in it going away. (I) ultimately had to make the decision to become the aggressor and jumped on it, attacked it and (got) it to the ground," O’Reilly told Boston 25 News.

“When I was able to get on top of it, I put my hand on its snout so it wasn’t able to attack me. There was quite a bit of snow on the ground, so I shoved the face into the snow and then eventually was able (to) put my hand on its snout and expire it through suffocation.”

O’Reilly was bitten in the arm and chest by the coyote. The young child was also bitten, though the animal did not break his skin due to a snowsuit he was wearing at the time, according to Boston 25 News.

Earlier that morning, police said they received reports of the coyote also attacking a vehicle and biting a 62-year-old woman and her two dogs.

The New Hampshire Fish and Game was testing the animal’s body for rabies, police said.

O’Reilly, as well as the 62-year-old woman, were given a rabies booster shot as a precaution, authorities said.

This story was reported from Cincinnati.

Trump says Iran appears to be 'standing down,' missile strikes caused no US casualties

Wed, 08 Jan 2020 08:58:22 -0500

During an address to the nation Wednesday, President Donald Trump indicated he would not respond militarily after no one was harmed in Iran's ballistic missile strike on two Iraqi bases housing U.S. troops.

“As long as I am President of the United States, Iran will never be allowed to have a nuclear weapon,” Trump stated at the beginning of his address, adding that Iran appears to be “standing down.”

Speaking from the foyer of the White House, Trump seemed intent on deescalating the crisis, which reached a new height after he authorized the targeted killing last week of Gen. Qassem Soleimani, the head of Iran’s elite Quds Force.

Iran retaliated overnight with its most direct assault on America since the 1979 seizing of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, firing more than a dozen missiles from its territory at the U.S. installations.

Trump called for new nuclear negotiations to replace the 2015 nuclear deal from which he withdrew the U.S. He also announced he would ask NATO to become "much more involved in the Middle East process.”

Trump credited an early warning system “that worked very well" for the fact that no Americans or Iraqis were killed. He added that Americans should be “extremely grateful and happy” with the outcome.

Trump, facing one of the greatest tests of his presidency, said Wednesday that the U.S. response would be to put in place new economic sanctions “until Iran changes its behavior."

The strikes had pushed Tehran and Washington dangerously close to all-out conflict and put the world's attention on Trump as he weighed whether to respond with more military force. The Republican president delivered his remarks surrounded by his national security advisers in the foyer of the White House.

It came after a late-night tweet in which he insisted “All is well!” after the strikes.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, speaking on Wednesday, said the strike was not necessarily the totality of Iran's response.

“Last night they received a slap,” Khamenei said. “These military actions are not sufficient (for revenge). What is important is that the corrupt presence of America in this region comes to an end.”

Iran, for days, had promised to respond forcefully to Soleimani's killing, but its limited strike on two bases — one in the northern Iraqi city in Irbil and the other at Ain al-Asad in western Iraq — appeared to signal that it was also uninterested in a wider clash with the U.S. Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif tweeted that the country had “concluded proportionate measures in self-defense."

Speaking Wednesday, Trump said the United States is “ready to embrace peace with all who seek it.”

Soleimani's death last week in an American drone strike in Baghdad prompted angry calls for vengeance and drew massive crowds of Iranians to the streets to mourn him. Khamenei himself wept at the funeral in a sign of his bond with the commander.

The Iranians fired a total of 15 missiles in the latest strikes, two U.S. officials said. Ten hit the Ain al-Asad air base in Iraq’s western Anbar province and one targeted a base in Irbil in Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish region. Four failed, said the officials, who were not authorized to speak publicly about a military operation.

Trump, who is seeking reelection at the end of the year, campaigned for president on a promise to keep the United States from engaging in “endless war.”

Adding to the chaos, a Ukrainian airplane with 176 people crashed after takeoff just outside Tehran on Wednesday morning, killing all on board, Iranian state TV and Ukrainian officials said. Mechanical issues were suspected.

The Boeing 737-800 had taken off from Imam Khomeini International Airport, bound for the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv. The plane carried 167 passengers and nine crew members. Ukraine's foreign minister, Vadym Prystaiko, said there were 82 Iranians, 63 Canadians and 11 Ukrainians on board — the Ukrainian nationals included two passengers and the nine crew.

The rest were Swedish, Afghan, German and British nationals.

The U.S. Federation Aviation Administration earlier warned of a "potential for miscalculation or mis-identification" for civilian aircraft in the Persian Gulf. The agency barred U.S. pilots and carriers from flying over areas of Iraqi, Iranian and some Persian Gulf airspace.

A magnitude 4.9 earthquake also hit Iran early Wednesday in the southwestern part of the country near the Bushehr nuclear plant, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

The Associated Press contributed to this report. It was reported from Cincinnati.

'Teacher of the Year' kneels during anthem at college football championship: 'A very respectful protest'

Fri, 17 Jan 2020 06:46:44 -0500

Minnesota's top teacher who knelt during Monday night's college football championship game said it felt right "to have a very respectful protest."

Kelly Holstine, who won Minnesota's 2019 "Teacher of the Year" award, knelt in protest while being honored along with other teachers at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans.

Among those standing were President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump.

"I just decided that it felt like the right thing to do, to have a very respectful protest," Holstine told The Hill on Wednesday.

Holstine said she was motivated to kneel during the anthem for communities that are supposedly oppressed under the Trump administration.

"I think the current environment that is being created and has been created in his tenure definitely adds to my feelings of wanting to support individuals who are not being supported," she said, adding: "I really feel like our country is not serving the needs of all its inhabitants ... so many humans right now that are not being given the respect and the rights that they deserve."

In a tweet recounting the event, Holstine quoted Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., writing: "No one is free until we are all free."

Holstine said she had consulted with other teachers beforehand and decided that it was not enough to simply not place her hand on her heart during the National Anthem.

She said that others who realized what she was doing were "very supportive."

"Not everybody is given the opportunity to have a voice, and I can take a small moment, a respectful moment of protest, and exercise my First Amendment rights, and stand up for my students and for vulnerable adults and for people who are not treated in the way that they should be," she said. "It feels like my responsibility to do that.“

Former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick sparked protests in 2016 by kneeling during the national anthem to protest police brutality and racial injustice. Trump called on NFL owners to fire any player who failed to stand during the national anthem.

Holstine was an English teacher at a Shakopee alternative high school when she was named Minnesota's Teacher of the Year for 2018-19. She is no longer a public school teacher.

Last year, she and another award-winning teacher, Jessica Duenas of Kentucky, skipped a White House ceremony for the national teacher of the year to protest the Trump administration's education policies.

Get updates to this story on FOXNews com.

Family: 'Dean of the civil rights movement' Rev. Joseph E. Lowery passes away

Fri, 27 Mar 2020 23:43:29 -0400

According to family members, one of Atlanta’s most revered civil rights icons and a lightning rod for community activism has died at the age of 98.

The family of Dr. Joseph E. Lowery sent FOX 5 Atlanta the following statement late Friday evening:

"Reverend Joseph Echols Lowery transitioned peacefully in his home surrounded by his family late Friday night. His family is requesting respect for their privacy during their time of grief. Reverend Lowery's daughters want the community to rest assured their father passed away from natural causes, not from COVID-19. Rev. Lowery was 98 years old."

Born on Oct. 6, 1921, in Huntsville Alabama, the Rev. Dr. Joseph Lowery spent parts of childhood and teenage years in Alabama and Chicago before earning a bachelor’s degree at Paine College in Augusta, Georgia.

It was after graduation that Lowery said he had an epiphany – that the "ministry was his true calling."

Lowery would eventually pastor three churches, Warren Street United Methodist Church in Mobile, Alabama and Central United Methodist Church in Atlanta.

The reverend was known for his sense of humor, captivating delivery, and his fiery skill with words – all at play in his closing prayer at President Barack Obama's inauguration.

“We ask you to help us work for that day when black will not be asked to get in, back when brown can stick around, when yellow will be mellow, when the red man can get ahead, man; and when white will embrace what is right,” Lowery said to laughter from the audience on the National Mall.

Early on, it was Lowery's passion in the pulpit that launched him into the spotlight.

By 1950, he was fully involved in the brewing civil rights movement. His new bride, Evelyn Gibson, was by his side.

After Rosa Parks was arrested in 1955, Lowery helped lead the Montgomery Bus Boycott with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Two years later, Lowery and King founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, an organization devoted to human rights. He served as its president for 20 years.

"He was always in the line of danger, always on the battlefield," Ambassador Andrew Young said at a 2017 gala honoring the reverend. "But he never got that bitter. He never got that angry.”

It was at King's request that Lowery led the Selma to Montgomery March in 1965.

Lowery made it his mission to help carry the torch of the civil rights movement wherever it took him.

He co-founded the Black Leadership Forum that played a key role in protesting apartheid in South Africa.

In 1997, the NAACP christened him the "dean of the civil rights movement." When he was 69 years old, Ebony magazine named him "one of the 15 greatest preachers," with one expert saying he was “the consummate voice of Biblical-social relevancy, a focused prophetic voice – speaking truth to power.”

Over the years, there was a lifetime achievement award and several honorary doctorates from schools including Emory University and Morehouse College.

Lowery would say one of the most prestigious and humbling moments of his life came in July 2009 when he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Obama.

But he would say, equally humbling was the day a little street just west of downtown Atlanta, a place he called home for more than 50 years, was named in his honor.

The family is planning a private service aligning with the CDC's coronavirus guidelines. A public memorial will be held in late summer or early fall.

In lieu of flowers or cards, the family is asking for a donation to the Joseph & Evelyn Lowery Institute for Justice & Human Rights to promote nonviolent advocacy.