Sept. 11 (ZFJ) — The 1,648th and 1,649th victims from the World Trade Center attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, have been identified, announced the New York City Office of Chief Medical Examiner on Friday, Sept. 8.
These two victims are the first new identifications of 9/11 victims since September 2021. About 1,104 victims, or 40% of the 2,753 who died, remain unidentified.
This year, the OCME also identified 60 human remains connected to previously identified individuals.
Sept. 10 (ZFJ) — Cecilia Xie Birge was appointed principal of Princeton High School on Thursday, Aug. 31.
The Princeton Board of Education voted unanimously for her at a special meeting. Board member Michele Tuck-Ponder was not present.
“With Cecilia’s appointment tonight, we are turning a page and we are looking with excitement to the future,” said Dafna Kendal, president of the school board.
Birge thanked the board and search committee for entrusting her with the position and recognized the school staff’s work for Princeton High.
EDISON, N.J., Aug. 30 (ZFJ) — Edison middle school teacher Julius Coaccioli, 55, was arrested and charged with third-degree possession of child pornography on Wednesday, Aug. 30, announced Middlesex County Prosecutor Yolanda Ciccone and Woodbridge Police Department Director Robert Hubner.
Coaccioli taught science at Woodrow Wilson Middle School at the time of his arrest. According to public payroll records, he has worked for the Edison Board of Education since September 1992.
Aug. 23 (ZFJ) — AI art generated “absent human involvement” is not eligible for copyright, ruled U.S. District Judge Beryl A. Howell on Aug. 18, Friday.
In her ruling for the federal district court in Washington, D.C., Howell upheld the U.S. Copyright Office’s denial of registration to computer scientist Stephen Thaler for the work he calls A Recent Entrance to Paradise.
BACKGROUND
Thaler, the plaintiff, owns an AI called the “Creativity Machine” that can generate visual works of art.
Aug. 7 (ZFJ) — Robert Bowers, 50, was sentenced to death by U.S. District Judge Robert J. Colville on Thursday, Aug. 3, for killing 11 congregants, wounding two others, and injuring five police officers at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh.
“I have nothing specific that I care to say to Mr. Bowers,” Colville said, according to The Associated Press. “I am however convinced there is nothing I could say to him that might be meaningful.
Aug. 3 (ZFJ) — Rafaela Vasquez, 49, pled guilty to endangerment on Friday, July 28, for failing to stop a fully self-driving car from hitting and killing a 49-year-old woman.
Maricopa County Superior Court Judge David W. Garbarino sentenced her to three years of supervised probation. Her charge will be designated a misdemeanor once she completes her sentence.
On March 18, 2018, Vasquez was the backup driver for a test vehicle belonging to Uber’s Advanced Technologies Group (ATG).
EDISON, N.J., July 29 (ZFJ) — Dr. Edward Aldarelli was appointed superintendent of Edison Township Public Schools on Thursday, July 27.
The Edison Board of Education voted unanimously for him after four hours of candidate interviewing at a special meeting.
“Definitely, no doubt, absolutely yes,” said Board President Shannon Peng, topping off board member Mohin Patel’s “absolutely yes” and Jerry Shi’s “absolutely, absolutely yes.”
Aldarelli was “overwhelmed” that the board chose him to lead the district, which has over 16,000 students.
July 16 (ZFJ) – A Middlesex County man admitted to threatening to attack a synagogue and Jewish people via the internet.
19-year-old Omar Alkattoul pleaded guilty to one count of transmitting a threat in interstate and foreign commerce on Wednesday, July 12, regarding a crime committed around November 1, 2021.
Alkattoul used social media to share a link of his manifesto titled “When Swords Collide.” The document detailed his plans to attack a synagogue.
July 10 (ZFJ) — The last possessor state, America, announced that it finished destroying its declared chemical weapons stockpile on Friday, July 7, marking the first time an international body verified the destruction of an entire category of declared weapons of mass destruction.
The stockpile was declared to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, the international body responsible for implementing the Chemical Weapons Convention. The 1997 arms control treaty prohibits its 193 members from developing or stockpiling chemical weapons.
July 3 (ZFJ) — Affirmative action in college admissions violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, ruled the Supreme Court in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard (20-1199) and SFFA v. University of North Carolina (21-707) on Thursday, June 29. The EPC prohibits racial discrimination by the government.
Reversing the lower courts’ decisions, the Court struck down the admissions programs used by Harvard and UNC by a 6-2 and 6-3 vote, respectively.
