Erik Ortiz

PATERSON, N.J. — A week into the war between Israel and Hamas, Raed Odeh said his barber shop, Palestine Hair Salon, received a menacing phone call from an unknown number. “‘We’re going to come burn you. We’re going to burn your family,’” Odeh, a married father of five, said the caller threatened. His business — on a thriving strip in Paterson, New Jersey, renamed Palestine Way and bursting with halal meat markets and shawarma shops — has been a magnet for harassing voicemails. But the message u…

A man accused of fatally shooting Judge Andrew Wilkinson in the driveway of his Maryland home was found dead Thursday, ending a weeklong manhunt, officials said. The suspect, Pedro Argote, 49, had been on the run since the Oct. 19 shooting of Wilkinson, a circuit court judge in Washington County who hours earlier had ruled against Argote in a child custody dispute involving his estranged wife. At 11 a.m. Thursday, a search in Williamsport led to the discovery of a deceased person who was positi…

The raging war between Israel and the militant group Hamas is reigniting debate on America’s college campuses, where emotions are running high and officials are feeling the pressure not to stay silent. And for some students, speaking out has proven to be problematic, underscoring the real-world consequences for young people who choose to exercise their free speech rights or showcase their identities amid such a divisive dispute. Follow live updates on the Israel-Hamas conflict “Never in my life…

The debate over immigration at the southern border is raging once again, dominating the discussion at the GOP debates, sparking criticism of the White House’s policies among a growing number of Democrats, and fueling renewed media coverage and protests in cities inundated with an influx of migrants. While it remains to be seen whether immigration will be at the forefront in the 2024 presidential election, as it was in 2020, the momentum has been building in recent weeks and recharged with a toug…

The death of Tupac Shakur after a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas remained a high-profile cold case for almost 30 years, stoking rap rivalry conspiracies and media coverage around who would want the influential hip-hop star and actor dead. Then, a breakthrough: Las Vegas police announced Friday the arrest of a suspect, Duane Keith Davis, one of four people thought to have been in the white Cadillac that pursued Shakur on Sept. 7, 1996. A grand jury indicted Davis, 60, on a murder charge — an outc…

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While government subsidies allowed Jordyn Rossignol to keep her child care center in northern Maine afloat during the pandemic, she finally made the wrenching decision in August to shutter because of rising operational costs. That federal aid, which may not have fixed the industry but served as a critical lifeline, is set to expire at the end of this month, putting other day care providers across the U.S. in jeopardy in what industry advocates are calling a “child care cliff.” Rossignol, 35, en…

Military investigators are facing a slew of questions about why an F-35 stealth fighter jet went missing for more than 24 hours before its wreckage was found in rural South Carolina. As scrutiny mounts of the sophisticated warplane, which also saw a pilot eject last year during a failed landing in Texas, investigators are expected to take months piecing together a timeline of events that began Sunday afternoon to determine why the pilot ejected and why the jet appeared to have continued flying u…

The powerful earthquake that struck Morocco late Friday, killing and injuring thousands, caused widespread damage in the popular tourist city of Marrakech and surrounding villages. The United Nations estimates 300,000 people in the region were affected, with many sleeping outside amid concerns over aftershocks. Now, international aid groups are raising money to help those in need as the desperate search continues for survivors of Morocco’s deadliest earthquake in more than six decades. Here’s ho…

The white gunman who killed three Black people at a Dollar General store in Jacksonville, Florida, over the weekend wore a Rhodesian army patch on his tactical vest, law enforcement sources say, a reference that has been used before during white supremacist attacks. The patch — representing Rhodesia, a former white minority-ruled territory in southern Africa in the 1960s and ’70s that would become Zimbabwe — is yet another symbol of how the shooter, Ryan Palmeter, was racist and was influenced b…