Month: January 2025

President Biden announced Thursday that the Presidential Citizens Medal will be awarded to Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), and former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), the lawmakers who led the House select committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol.

Cheney and Thompson served as chair and vice chair of the now-defunct House Jan. 6 committee. The White House said of the honorees: “The Presidential Citizens Medal is awarded to citizens of the United States of America who have performed exemplary deeds of service for their country or their fellow citizens. President Biden believes these Americans are bonded by their common decency and commitment to serving others. The country is better because of their dedication and sacrifice.”

Biden will also award medals to former Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn.; former Sen. Ted Kaufman, D-Del.; former Sen. Nancy Kassebaum, R-Kan.; former Sen. Bill Bradley, D-N.J., and former Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, D-N.Y. Additionally, Mary Bonauto (who argued for same-sex marriage in front of the U.S. Supreme Court in the Obergefell case); and former Army nurse Diane Carlson Evans will be awarded medals.

Others recipients include medical war innovator Frank Butler, Jr.; war photographer Bobb Sager, woman’s rights advocate Eleanor Smeal, Vietnam veteran Thomas Vallely, National Breast Cancer Coalition President Frances Visco, educator Paula Wallace, and marriage equality advocate Evan Wolfson.

Posthumous recipients include Mitsuye Endo Tsutsumi, who was an internment camp detainee during World War II; war reporter Joseph Galloway, civil rights advocate Louis Lorenzo Redding, and Delaware Judge Collins J. Seitz.

The Presidential Citizens Medal was established in 1969 and is recognized as the second-highest civilian award from the U.S. government (behind only the Presidential Medal of Freedom). It recognizes individuals who perform exemplary deeds of service for their country or fellow citizens.

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The FBI have identified the suspect in the New Year’s Day New Orleans terrorist attack that killed 15 people and injured nearly 40 more early on Wednesday morning. The victims were taken to five different hospitals for treatment.

The FBI said in a statement that the suspect has been identified as 42-year-old Shamsud-Din Jabbar, an American residing Texas, who was driving a rented pickup truck loaded with weapons when he slammed the pickup truck into pedestrians at the crowded and iconic French Quarter.

The FBI said: “he [suspect] was driving a Ford pickup truck, which appears to have been rented, and we are working to confirm how the subject came into possession of the vehicle.” Police said Jabbar drove around established barricades and drove at a high rate of speed into the heart of the French Quarter at Bourbon and Canal streets; he was shot dead after he exited his vehicle and opened fire at police; two NOPD officers were struck and injured in the exchange, both of whom were transported via ambulance o a local hospital and were listed in stable condition.

The FBI said that the flag of the Islamic State terror organization was located in the vehicle and that it is “working to determine the subject’s potential associations and affiliations with terrorist organizations” and that aside from the flag, weapons and “a potential IED” were located in the subject’s vehicle. Other potential IEDs were also located in the French Quarter: “the FBI’s special agent bomb technicians are working with our law enforcement partners to determine if any of these devices are viable, and they will work to render those devices safe.”

Althea Duncan, assistant special agent in charge of FBI New Orleans field office, later said on Wednesday during a press conference that investigators do not believe Jabbar acted alone: “We do not believe that Jabbar was solely responsible. We are aggressively running down every lead, including those of his known associated. That’s why we need the public’s help. We are asking if anybody had any interaction with Shamsud-Din Jabbar in the last 72 hours that you contact us.” 

New Orleans police have reviewed surveillance video that appears to show several people planting potential explosive devices in advance of the vehicle attack, which led them to believe he was not “solely responsible.” Investigators are urgently working to identify the individuals who were seen on camera and take them into custody.

The White House said President Joe Biden called New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell Wednesday morning “to offer full federal support,” and “has been briefed on the latest developments by senior FBI and [Department of Homeland Security] leadership and his homeland security team, and he will continue to be briefed on this incident throughout the day.”

Biden said a separate statement: “I am grateful for the brave and swift response of local law enforcement in preventing even greater death and injury. I have directed my team to ensure every resource is available as federal, state, and local law enforcement work assiduously to get to the bottom of what happened as quickly as possible and to ensure that there is no remaining threat of any kind.”

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A 23-year-old man faces attempted murder and assault charges after he allegedly pushed another man onto New York City subway tracks. Emergency crews responded to the scene after the 45-year-old victim (who has not been publicly identified) was shoved off the platform at about 1:30 p.m., EST at the 18th Street station in Chelsea, Manhattan.  He was stabilized before pulling him from between the train, placing him on a stretcher and transporting him to the Bellevue Hospital in NYC.  The victim suffered a head injury and broken rib, and remains in critical but stable condition.

The New York Police Department told CNN that transit police captured the suspect, identified as Kamel Hawkins, 23, of Brooklyn, a short time later, with authorities charging him with attempted murder and felony assault. According to The New York Times, Hawkins had a record of past arrests, including assault, harassment, and weapons possession. It is unclear what the attacker’s motive was or if there is any relationship between the suspect and the victim, police say.

The incident is just the latest in a string of dangerous incidents on New York City subways. Nearly two weeks ago, a woman sleeping on a stationary subway train car was intentionally set on fire and died. A suspect, a Guatemalan national in the country undocumented, was captured and charged in the incident.

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