By Steve Neavling

Claims by Iraq’s prime minister that ISIS militants have been planning to attack U.S. subways prompted officials in New York to increase surveillance and bag inspections at subways, the Associated Press reports.

But Mayor Bill de Blasio and Gov. Andrew Cuomo emphasized that the threats are not verified. To show they are not afraid, they both rode trains Thursday.

“We have received information which, in the eyes of the United States government and the NYPD, is not verified. So what we’re doing is taking precautions until we have more information,” de Blasio said at a news conference after riding a subway under Manhattan.

Added Cuomo: “New York is more prepared than it has ever been.”

Iraq Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi told journalists Thursday that militants planned to attack subways in New York and Paris.

By Steve Neavling

The masked executioner shown on video beheading two American journalists and a British aid worker has been identified by the FBI, the New York Daily News reports.

“I believe we have identified him,” Director James Comey said Thursday.

The FBI didn’t disclose the name of the militant, who has a British accent.

Jihadi John – as he’s been nicknamed – have been identified in some media outlets as a 23-year-old rapper named Abdel-Majed Abdel Bary.

His father, Adel Abdel Bary, was pleaded guilty last week of conspiring to kill Americans.

By Steve Neavling

Whoever is going to succeed Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. is likely to face a contentious Senate, the Washington Post reports.

Some Republicans even called for a delay because of the potential of midterm elections swinging in favor of the GOP in November.

“Allowing Democratic senators, many of whom will likely have just been defeated at the polls, to confirm Holder’s successor would be an abuse of power that should not be countenanced,” Sen. Ted Cruz said.

Democrats urged Republicans to let Obama make his selection without the drama.

“This is going to be the first real test, whether it’s in the lame-duck or early in the new year, whether our Republican colleagues are going to continue to obstruct,” Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Thursday in an interview. “Every president deserves to have his attorney general.”

Obama has yet to indicate when he will replace Holder.

By Steve Neavling

A Border Patrol agent has been charged with assaulting a 14-year-old immigrant for having a cellphone in detention, the Los Angeles Times reports.

Aldo Francisco Arteaga of Tucson was arrested Thursday on felony charges of assaulting a minor.

CBP officials said Arteaga surrendered Thursday after Jan. 3o video showed him assaulting the boy.

“The officer … sees the juvenile with a phone, a prohibited item, takes the phone from the juvenile and proceeds to punch him in the stomach,” Silva told the Los Angeles Times.

Arteaga couldn’t be reached for comment.

By Jamelle Bouie
Slate

On Thursday the families of Michael Brown and Eric Garner joined with the NAACP, the National Urban League, the National Action Network, the National Bar Association, and the Black Women’s Roundtable to call for a full federal investigation in the police killings of the two young men.

The Rev. Al Sharpton was part of the event, and he was about to take questions from those assembled when the news broke that Attorney General Eric Holder intended to resign from the administration. Naturally, Sharpton had a few words for the occasion.

“There is no attorney general who has shown a commitment to civil rights like Eric Holder,” said Sharpton, “If he is resigning, the civil rights community is losing the most effective civil rights attorney general in American history.”

That is high praise, but it’s hard to say it’s unreasonable or unjustified. When President Obama entered office, the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department was in shambles, neglected by President Bush and staffed with a coterie of partisan operatives. Long-serving lawyers left the office, case files were closed with little explanation, political appointees sought to block liberals from career positions, and anti-discrimination efforts were few and far between.

At his confirmation hearing at the beginning of Obama’s term, Holder made the Civil Rights Division his priority.

To that end, Holder took aggressive steps to repair the damage of the previous administration and restore the traditional priorities of the Civil Rights Division. On voting rights, Holder was a strong advocate against voter identification laws, attacking the 2012 Texas law as a “political pretext to disenfranchise American citizens of their most precious right” and comparing some practices to Jim Crow laws. “Many of those without IDs would have to travel great distances to get them—and some would struggle to pay for the documents they might need to obtain them. We call those poll taxes,” he said.

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