Group Re-Introduces Bill to Help Teachers, First Responders Buy Homes

A bipartisan group will try again to pass a bill to help teachers and first-responders buy homes in the communities they serve.

U.S. Sens. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga.; Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio; and Marco Rubio, R-Fla., reintroduced the Homes for Every Local Protector Educator and Responder (HELPER) Act. The bill would create a first-time homebuyer loan program under the Federal Housing Administration for teachers and first responders who have served at least four years.

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‘Condition Omega!’ Once-Secret New York Police Department 9/11 Report Recounts Horror, Heroism 20 Years Later

Across the water from NYC, with a first responder statue

Now relegated to the history files of the New York’s police department, a September 2001 after-action report prepared by then-NYPD Commissioner Bernard Kerik for then-Mayor Rudolph Giuliani provides a stunning account of what happened on the deadliest day in American history as four hijacked planes pierced the sunny, blue morning skies 20 years ago.

Nineteen terrorists — working under the command of Osama bin Laden (since executed by the U.S. military) and his chief planner Khalid Sheikh Mohammad (since captured and on trial now at Guantanamo Bay) — exacted unspeakable carnage on an unsuspecting country that was forever changed.

The report, provided by Kerik to Just the News as part of its “9/11: Never Forget” podcast special, details how the NYPD executed “Condition Omega,” an emergency plan that achieved an unprecedented sealing of the Big Apple, an historic evacuation of hundreds of thousands from the city’s financial district and a grim, gruesome recovery of more than 2,500 bodies, including hundreds of police officers and firefighters who rushed into the burning Twin Towers of the World Trade Center and its adjoining command center.

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With Bells Tolling and Names Never Forgotten, America Commemorates 20th Anniversary of 9/11

Cityscape of NYC with lights shining where Twin Towers used to be.

Americans commemorated the 20th anniversary of the world’s deadliest terror attacks, ringing bells, singing hymns and solemnly reading the names of the nearly 3,000 who perished and are never to be forgotten.

With skies blue and sunny just like that fateful day two decades ago, presidents past and present joined the memorials at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and Shanksville, Pa., as Americans marked their first 9/11 anniversary without U.S. troops engaged in battle in Afghanistan.

President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden joined the crowd at the Ground Zero site where the former World Trade Center once stood.

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Ohio Republicans Want $1000 Bonuses for Police, EMT, Firefighters

Ohio House Republicans have proposed $1000 bonus checks for first responders who worked throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Using federal relief money from the American Rescue Plan, the last economic stimulus law, firefighters, emergency medical technicians (EMT), and police officers would receive the bonus, which is expected to cost around $83 million.

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Ohio’s Dayton Police Called Heroes – Responded within a Minute to Mass Shooting at Historic Oregon District

DAYTON, Ohio — The beautiful tree-lined, brick-paved streets of the Historic Oregon District were eerily quiet Sunday following a mass shooting outside Ned Peppers Bar on East 5th Street earlier that morning. Nine victims have been confirmed dead thus far and more than two dozen injured. Police, who were on the scene within one minute, shot and killed the suspect. Praise for their fast response is coming in from all around the city, and state including from the Oregon District itself.

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Ohio House Approves PTSD, Citizenship Question in Workers’ Compensation Budget Bill

  The Ohio House passed a $645 million Bureau of Workers’ Compensation budget Wednesday, including new coverage for post-traumatic stress disorder for first responders and a citizenship question for claimants. The two-year budget passed by a vote of 56 to 38, after adding an amendment to require citizenship information on the…

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Bill Would Change Ohio Workers’ Compensation for First Responders with PTSD

by Todd DeFeo   Emergency personnel in Ohio who suffer work-related post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) could soon be eligible to file a workers’ compensation claim even if they do not experience an accompanying physical injury. Current law prohibits workers’ compensation claims for psychological conditions without an underlying physical condition. However,…

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