syrian refugee cartoons

Ohio State police officer hailed hero for quick reaction to campus attacker

Officer Alan Horujko

An Ohio State police officer was being hailed a hero for his quick reaction after killing a man a minute after he drove his car into a crowd and then stabbed multiple people Monday.
Officer Alan Horujko, who had only joined the department in January 2015, was responding to reports of a nearby gas leak when the suspect jumped a curb on campus at around 9:52 a.m.

Ohio State police officer Alan Horujko. (Ohio State University Police via AP)

Horujko ordered the attacker, later identified as Abdul Razak Ali Artan, to drop the butcher’s knife and then shot him when he didn’t obey the command, university president Michael Drake said.
"The officer encountered the individual by 9:53 — the subject was neutralized by 9:53," Drake said, underscoring how quickly events unfolded.
Director of Ohio State’s Department of Public Safety Monica Moll echoed Drake’s sentiments, saying Horujko is owed a debt of gratitude.
"He did a fabulous job today," she said.
University police Chief Craig Stone said it was fortunate Horujko had gone to investigate the gas leak at the same time the attack was unfolding. It helped him respond quickly to the attacker.
Artan, 18, plowed a small gray Honda into the crowd outside Watts Hall, an engineering classroom building. Two law enforcement sources told Fox News that Artan came into the United States as a Somali refugee, and was granted status as a legal permanent resident.
The motive behind the attack is still unclear, but law enforcement sources told Fox News the FBI was examining a Facebook post that may have been written by Artan earlier Monday. The post appeared to condemn U.S. military action in Muslim countries.

More on this...

• Somali student behind car, knife attack at Ohio State University that injured 11

• How Ohio State University harnessed tech to alert students of campus attack

• Ohio State attack latest stain on Somali community of Columbus

Mayor Andrew Ginther called Horujko an “outstanding young law enforcement officer.
“There has never been a more dangerous or complicated and challenging time to be a police officer, and we had a dynamic well-trained professional today save the lives of many of our residents and students," Ginther added.
Horujko, 28, was placed on administrative leave Monday and the investigation turned over to Columbus police, consistent with protocol for police shootings. Horujko appears to be an avid runner, with several half-marathons under his belt, according to online race results.
Gov. John Kasich praised the speed with which Horujko and other officers acted.
Kasich, a Republican, described the response as "an unbelievable, amazing and outstanding and heroic performance on the part of our first responders."
The university police department is accredited by the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies. It has officers on the main campus in Columbus and on regional campuses in Lima, Mansfield, Marion, Newark and Wooster.

Trump wins Michigan's 16 electoral votes, state board says

President-elect Trump mocks efforts to recount the ballots

President-elect Donald Trump has won Michigan's 16 electoral votes.
The Board of State Canvassers certified Trump's 10,704-vote victory on Monday, nearly three weeks after the election. The two-tenths of a percentage point margin out of nearly 4.8 million votes is the closest presidential race in Michigan in more than 75 years.
Trump's win in Michigan gives the Republican 306 electoral votes to Democrat Hillary Clinton's 232.
Trump is the first Republican presidential nominee to win Michigan since 1988.
Green Party candidate Jill Stein is expected to ask for a recount. She has until Wednesday. Trump would have seven days to file objections to her request.

Trump to nominate Rep. Tom Price for HHS secretary, sources say

President-elect Donald Trump will nominate Rep. Tom Price, R-Ga., to head the Department of Health and Human Services, two sources close to the transition told Fox News late Monday.
Trump was expected to formally announce Price's nomination Tuesday morning.
If confirmed by the Senate, Price will play a central role in Republican efforts to repeal and replace ObamaCare. Trump has pledged to move quickly on overhauling his predecessor's signature measure, but has been vague about what he hopes to see in a replacement bill.
The president-elect has said he favors keeping provisions that allow young people to stay on their parents' health insurance and that prevent insurance companies from denying coverage to those with pre-existing conditions.
Price, a 62-year-old six-term congressman and orthopedic surgeon, has chaired the House Budget Committee for the past two years. A bookish conservative from the Atlanta suburbs, Price has worked closely with House Speaker Paul Ryan to assemble GOP budgets aimed at reducing the annual deficit.
Last week, Price said whatever Republicans do to replace Obama's health care law will bear a "significant resemblance" to a 2015 measure that was vetoed by the president. That bill would have gutted some of the health care law's main features: Medicaid expansion, subsidies to help middle-class Americans buy private policies, the tax penalties for individuals who refused to get coverage and several taxes to support coverage expansion. The bill would have delayed implementation for two years.
Price insisted that Republicans can keep the protections for those with existing medical conditions without mandating that all individuals carry coverage or pay a penalty to support an expanded insurance pool. Price said Republicans want to address "the real cost drivers" of health care price spikes, which he said were not necessarily sicker patients, but a heavy regulatory burden, taxes and lawsuits against medical professionals.

Plane crash in Colombia carrying members of Brazilian soccer team leaves at least 76 dead

At least 76 people died in a plane crash in Colombia and there were five survivors, police said Tuesday.
The chartered aircraft was carrying 81 people, including members of first division Chapecoense soccer team which was on its way to Colombia for a regional tournament final, crashed on its way to Medellin's international airport.
Gen. Jose Acevedo, head of police in the area surrounding Medellin, provided the information.
La Ceja Mayor Elkin Ospina, where the plane had crashed, confirmed at least three of the passengers were found alive. The British Aerospace 146 short-haul plane, operated by the charter airline LaMia, declared an emergency at 10 p.m. Monday because of an electrical failure.
"It's a tragedy of huge proportions," Medellin Mayor Federico Gutierrez told Blu Radio.
Authorities and rescuers were immediately activated but an air force helicopter had to turn back because of low visibility. Heavy rainfall is complicating the nighttime search and authorities urged journalists to stay off the roads to facilitate the entry of ambulances and rescuers.
Images broadcast on local television showed three male passengers arriving to a local hospital in ambulances on stretchers and covered in blankets connected to an IV. All were apparently alive and one of them was reportedly a Chapecoense defender named Alan Ruschel.
A video published on the team's Facebook page showed the team readying for the flight earlier Monday in Sao Paulo's Guarulhos international airport.
The team, from the small city of Chapeco, was in the middle of a fairy tale season. It joined Brazil's first division in 2014 for the first time since the 1970s and made it last week to the Copa Sudamericana finals -- the equivalent of the UEFA Europa League tournament -- after defeating two of Argentina's fiercest squads, San Lorenzo and Independiente, as well as Colombia's Junior.
The team is so modest that its 22,000-seat arena was ruled by tournament organizers too small to host the final match, which was instead moved to a stadium 300 miles (480 kilometers) to the north in the city of Curitiba.
"Chapecoense was the biggest source of happiness in the town," the club's vice-president, Ivan Tozzo, told Brazil's SporTV. "Many in the town are crying."