Author: Fox News

A street that honored a leader of the Ku Klux Klan in New York has a new name after a yearslong campaign led by high school students.

The village board of Malverne, on Long Island, voted last year to rename Lindner Place, named after Paul Lindner, a banker who helped develop the village more than a century ago and also served as great titan of the New York State Klan.

The change became official last week when Lindner Place became Acorn Way.

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“The true meaning of justice is righting the wrongs that came before you,” Malverne High School sophomore Olivia Brown told WCBS.

Brown was part of a group of students who began researching Lindner in 2020 and learned he was a Klan leader.

A New York street named after a Ku Klux Klan member was renamed after a multi-year campaign led by a high school student.

Students pressed for the street name to be changed in school forums and with the village board, which voted to change the name in September 2022.

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They cheered as the new Acorn Way signs were unveiled Jan. 26.

Malverne High School senior Jamila Smith told WCBS, “This whole initiative showed me I do want to step up and be a leader.”

Lorna Lewis, Malverne’s schools superintendent, told the Long Island Herald, “I believe you’ve just witnessed the power of the Maverick public education and what our students can do when supported in their pursuit of civic engagement.”

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Many Americans associate the Ku Klux Klan with the South, but the group’s rallies and cross burnings drew large crowds in New York in the 1920s. The Klan of that era targeted Catholic and Jewish communities, as well as Black people.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer recently told the press that, “We’ll win,” the debt ceiling fight. “We’ll” meaning Democrats, of course. A “win” for him is to increase the nation’s debt, increase the prices you pay and increase mortgage rates you pay. So, his “win” is a loss for you. 

Here’s why: When Schumer was elected to Congress 43 years ago, in 1980, the federal debt was $914 billion and America’s debt to GDP ratio was 32%. Since then, the federal debt has grown by more than 3,000% and now sits at $31.38 TRILLION. Today, our debt to GDP has skyrocketed to nearly 125% – higher than at any time in our nation’s history. Along the way, career politicians like Chuck Schumer and their friends on Wall Street have profited from America’s fiscal decline. 

Schumer’s track record of fiscal stewardship for America’s taxpayer dollars is gross negligence and utter failure from someone that has spent their career saying we can’t run government like a business. How would he know that?

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Unlike any career politician here in Washington, I was governor of a large state and led it out of an economic recession. And I did it by using my decades of business experience to guide my decisions. In the four years before I took office, Florida had lost more than 800,000 jobs, taxes had increased by more than $2 billion and the economy was in complete freefall. 

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., has been part of government increasing the national debt enormously since he was first elected to Congress in 1980.
(Screenshot/Twitter)

In January 2011, we went to work. From day one, we scrutinized how every taxpayer dollar was spent, made cuts where the spending didn’t make sense and wasn’t providing a return for Florida families, and pushed more money into the things that people truly cared about. We increased funding for K-12 education by more than $4.5 billion, invested $85 billion in Florida infrastructure like roads, bridges, airports and seaports, grew the budget for Florida’s Department of Environmental Protection to a record $1.78 billion and put more than $2 billion into Everglades restoration. 

We did all of that while cutting taxes 100 times to save Florida families and businesses $10 billion. We slashed nearly 5,400 burdensome regulations to get government out of the way and make it easier to start a business and create jobs in the Sunshine State and we paid down more than $10 billion in state debt and for the first time in state history achieved an AAA rating for all three major ratings agencies. 

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At the end of my second term, the results of our work couldn’t have been more clear. Over my eight-year administration, Florida businesses created nearly 1.7 million new private sector jobs, driving the unemployment rate from 10.8% in 2010 to just 3.3% in 2018. Because we focused on growing our economy, the state’s GDP reached $1 trillion for the first time in our history, our state annual general revenue grew by nearly 50% and our reserves jumped 71%. And again, we did it while cutting taxes and paying down the debt. 

This wasn’t rocket science, but it does require something that is hard to find in Washington – courage. You have to be willing to get a ton of bad press and have the Democrats scream like stuck pigs. They’ll say the world is ending and that America is doomed. All lies that they’ve been trying to sell for years to protect that reckless spending and massive debt that keeps them and their friends on Wall Street happy and rich. 

Schumer’s track record of fiscal stewardship for America’s taxpayer dollars is gross negligence and utter failure from someone that has spent their career saying we can’t run government like a business. How would he know that?

Today, the U.S. federal government is bringing in record revenues. Over the last four years, federal revenues have grown by 40%, from $3.4 trillion to $4.8 trillion, and yet we continue to run trillion-dollar-plus deficits and dig ourselves deeper into unsustainable debt. That doesn’t make sense to me or any person in the real world outside of Washington. 

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The dirty little secret in Washington is this – we can grow our way out of debt, and we can protect Social Security and Medicare at the same time. But there are literally thousands of things we need to stop wasting money on, starting with paying the salaries of 87,000 new IRS agents. 

Anyone who says that America is best served by changing nothing and raising the debt ceiling with zero reform to how Congress is recklessly spending taxpayer money is too incompetent to serve in elected office. As long as Democrats treat this like a game they can win, you lose. 

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A priest in Indiana says he was cured of a brain tumor after he made a pilgrimage to Lourdes, France, in June 2022. 

“I just wanted to make a video really quickly to let everybody know that I actually was healed of my brain tumor in Lourdes,” Fr. John Hollowell said in a video he posted on his YouTube channel on Monday, Jan. 30. 

Lourdes is a popular pilgrimage site for many believers. While the Catholic Church has recognized 70 healings from Lourdes as miraculous, thousands of other people have reported inexplicable cures of their ailments, the Lourdes shrine’s website notes.

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Hollowell, a priest in the Archdiocese of Indianapolis, was diagnosed with a brain tumor in Feb. 2020, he shared in his video.

 He underwent surgery, chemotherapy and radiation to treat the tumor.

Tumor ‘starting to grow back’

Despite the extensive treatments, Hollowell said that things were trending downward for him before he made his trip to France. 

Fr. John Hollowell of Indianapolis, Indiana, announced his recovery from a brain tumor in a YouTube video. 
(Fr. John Hollowell)

“I had a pretty negative MRI about two-and-a-half months before I left for Lourdes,” he said in the video (SEE his YouTube video, just below). 

“The MRI showed that [the tumor] was starting to grow back … The MRI that I had also had found a tumor on my pituitary gland, as well,” he said. 

Hollowell first announced that he had been healed in a homily he delivered to his parish following his trip to Lourdes.

“Like Naaman the Syrian in our first reading, who washed and was cleansed from leprosy in the Jordan, I washed in the river at Lourdes and was cured,” said Hollowell in an Oct. 28, 2022 homily that was published on his blog. 

“And like the leper who returns to give thanks, I want to publicly thank Jesus for healing me,” he wrote.

Hollowell told Fox News Digital that he first began noticing physical changes immediately upon his return from France.

“I felt a lot stronger when I got back from Lourdes,” he said via email. “Friends, family and parishioners told me that I looked a lot healthier.” 

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Additionally, his cognitive ability improved, he said.

“When I got back from Lourdes, I could preach without a prepared text again,” he continued, sharing that he had needed written texts before his trip to France.

A statue of the Virgin Mary stands in the niche where Catholics believe she appeared to St. Bernadette Soubirous in 1858. Fr. John Hollowell of Indiana believes he was healed of his brain tumor after he visited Lourdes.
(Christine Rousselle/Fox News Digital)

Following an MRI on Nov. 3, 2022, Hollowell said he was told that his tumor “may never grow back” and that “all that is showing up on the MRI is scar tissue from your initial brain surgery.”  

‘Some cross I could carry’

At the time of his diagnosis, Hollowell made news for proclaiming that he would be offering up the pain he endured during his treatment as a form of redemptive suffering for victims of clerical sexual abuse. 

“I want to thank Jesus for the gift not just of my healing but also the gift of the tumor surgeries, radiation and chemo as well.”

“When the scandals of 2018 broke out, most of you know that they have affected me deeply, as they have most of the church,” Hollowell wrote in a blog posted on Feb. 16, 2020, in which he announced his diagnosis. 

“I prayed in 2018 that if there was some suffering I could undertake on behalf of all the victims, some cross I could carry, I would welcome that. I feel like this is that cross, and I embrace it willingly,” he said in the blog. 

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Hollowell requested that survivors of priestly abuse contact him so that he could pray for them by name during his recovery process. 

Approximately 170 survivors of Catholic clergy sexual abuse reached out to him, he told Fox News Digital.

Fr. Hollowell remembered victims of clergy abuse by name as he went into his brain surgery, he said.
(istock)

“I was able to take all the names in with me to that surgery,” he continued. 

“So I made the video mostly for the victim survivors of Catholic clergy sexual abuse, just to let them know that I had been healed.”

Hollowell said that his brain tumor “was one of the best things that could have ever happened to me.” 

He said in an October blog post, “I want to thank Jesus for the gift not just of my healing but also the gift of the tumor surgeries, radiation and chemo as well.”

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“Almost nothing in my life is the same since my surgeries, radiation and chemo,” he also wrote, “and I have realized that all those differences in my life since the surgeries, radiation and chemo have been blessings.”

“I was OK if I died – I was willing to make the sacrifice for victims of Catholic clergy abuse.”

And while Hollowell was offering up his suffering during treatment for the victims of Catholic clerical sexual abuse, he “realized that the number-one person God used my suffering to help has been me.” 

Meaningful date of diagnosis

Hollowell admitted he “didn’t have much devotion to” Our Lady of Lourdes before his diagnosis — but the two would become linked throughout his cancer journey. 

He was diagnosed on Feb. 11, 2020. That’s the anniversary of the first apparition of Our Lady of Lourdes to St. Bernadette Soubirous. 

In 1858, the Virgin Mary is said to have appeared multiple times before a 14-year-old girl, St. Bernadette Soubirous, at the Massabielle grotto on the left bank of a steam, according to Britannica. 

Pope Pius IX in 1862 declared the vision authentic.

“I felt a lot stronger when I got back from Lourdes,” Fr. Hollowell of Indianapolis said. “Friends, family and parishioners told me that I looked a lot healthier.” 
(Fr. Hollowell/iStock)

The evening of his diagnosis, Hollowell told Fox News Digital that he “was able to have Mass up at the Mayo Clinic in the Chapel of Our Lady of Lourdes.”

‘I was there, and I was healed’

Ahead of his trip to Lourdes, Hollowell did not necessarily expect to be healed in the physical sense. Yet he hoped that his suffering would be able to do some spiritual good. 

“I was OK if I died — I was willing to make the sacrifice for victims of Catholic clergy abuse. But I thought, ‘Well, if I go to Lourdes, and I’m healed there, then that might have an impact on some of my fallen-away family and friends,'” he said in the January video. 

Pilgrims in Lourdes, France, are shown lining up at the grotto where the Virgin Mary is said to have appeared to St. Bernadette Soubirous in 1858.
(Christine Rousselle/Fox News Digital)

“I went there, and I was healed — and yes, just thanks be to God,” Hollowell continued in the video.

Medical insights

One New York-based doctor offered his professional medical opinion — and his belief in the power of prayer.

“I believe in the power of prayer, and I believe in miracle cures and I believe in Lourdes,” Dr. Marc Siegel, a Fox News contributor and a professor of medicine at NYU Langone Medical Center, told Fox News Digital.

“Great surgery, great chemo — and the power of prayer.”

“But [with] this particular tumor, there is about a 74% five-year survival rate, depending on what grade it is,” Dr. Siegel added. 

“And Hollowell] had surgery and chemotherapy, so it’s not surprising to me that [the tumor] is gone.”

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Noting that the type of tumor Hollowell had is not “the most severe of all brain tumors,” Siegel also said that it “can be cured.”

X-ray or MRI brain scan (unrelated to Fr. Hollowell’s case) with glitch effect shown above. The type of tumor that Hollowell was diagnosed with “can be cured,” said Dr. Marc Siegel, a Fox News medical contributor.  
(iStock)

“If you ask me if being someone [whom] God smiles on plays a role in recovery — it does,” he also said.

However, added Dr. Siegel, who did not treat Fr. Hollowell, “I don’t think it’s all Lourdes in this case. But I do think doctors have the hands of God — that’s a well-known saying. Great surgery, great chemo — and the power of prayer.”

Faith voices weigh in

Other faith leaders shared their thoughts on the possibility of a miraculous healing from God.

“Jesus’ healing of our physical bodies is rooted in his crucifixion.”

“As we read through the gospels, we find that every place that Jesus went, he did three things,” Ohio-based Rabbi Kirt Schneider, author of “Messianic Prophecy Today” and host of the television program, “Discovering the Jewish Jesus,” told Fox News Digital via email.

“He preached the gospel, he healed the sick and he cast out tormenting spirits,” Rabbi Schneider added.

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“Matthew 8:17 says that Jesus healed them to fulfill the book of Isaiah 53:4, which is about Yeshua’s crucifixion,” he also said.  

“In other words, Jesus’ healing of our physical bodies is rooted in his crucifixion, which provides a solution for both our sin and our sickness.”

“I rejoice that God is manifesting his supernatural power in ways that are, quite simply, undeniable,” said Alex McFarland of Alex McFarland Ministries in Greensboro, North Carolina.
(iStock)

Alex McFarland, leader of Alex McFarland Ministries in Greensboro, North Carolina, also shared a faith perspective. 

“Fr. John Hollowell reports that God has miraculously healed him from a brain tumor — this is cause for rejoicing and should be a source of hope for all people,” McFarland told Fox News Digital via email.

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“I believe the American church must get reacquainted with the supernatural power of God,” he added. 

“The God of Christianity is the God who can heal. Our God is the source of life, and also the one to whom we turn for physical and spiritual healing.”

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McFarland also said, “At a time when skepticism and atheism are reported to be growing, I rejoice that God is manifesting his supernatural power in ways that are, quite simply, undeniable.”

Tarek El Moussa and Heather Rae Young welcomed their first child together this week.

The couple made the announcement on Thursday, sharing a photo on Instagram of them holding their newborn.

“Our baby boy is here,” El Moussa wrote in the caption, adding that he was born on Tuesday. “Mama & baby are happy, healthy, tired but doing well. Our hearts are so happy.”

The “Flip or Flop” and “Selling Sunset” stars received plenty of well-wishes over the announcement, including HGTV’s account, which commented: “Welcome to the HGTV family little one!”

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Tarek El Moussa and Heather Rae Young announced their pregnancy last summer.
(Axelle/Bauer-Griffin / FilmMagic / File)

The El Moussas, who were married in 2021, announced their pregnancy last summer. El Moussa already shares Taylor, 12, and Brayden, 7, with ex-wife Christina Hall. 

The couple told People magazine they were happily surprised last year when they conceived naturally while in the middle of IVF treatments. 

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“It was a huge shock,” Young told the magazine. “We just weren’t expecting this. We had just gone through IVF. We had embryos on ice. We had a plan. I think when you least expect it and there’s no stress in your life, the world just brought us what was meant to be. I’m so excited that it happened like this.”

Young calls herself a “bonus mom” to her stepchildren.

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“I’m just obsessed with my kids,” El Moussa told People last year. “They’re my everything, so having another one is just icing on the cake. I’m so excited.”

People with domestic violence restraining orders have a constitutional right to own firearms, a federal appeals court ruled Thursday. 

The three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of appeals ruled Thursday that banning people under domestic violence restraining orders from owning firearms “embodies salutary policy goals meant to protect vulnerable people in our society.” 

FILE: Then-Rep. Cory Wilson, R-Madison, discusses a transportation issue during a House Transportation Committee meeting at the Capitol in Jackson, Miss. 
(AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis, File)

Police in Texas found a rifle and a pistol at the home of a man who was the subject of a civil protective order that banned him from harassing, stalking or threatening his ex-girlfriend and their child. The order also banned him from having guns.

A federal grand jury indicted the man, who pled guilty. He later challenged his indictment, arguing the law that prevented him from owning a gun was unconstitutional. At first, a federal appeals court ruled against him, saying that it was more important for society to keep guns out of the hands of people accused of domestic violence than it was to protect a person’s individual right to own a gun.

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But then last year, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a new ruling in a case known as New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, set new standards for interpreting the Second Amendment by saying the government had to justify gun control laws by showing they are “consistent with the Nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation.”

The appeals court withdrew its original decision and on Thursday decided to vacate the man’s conviction and ruled the federal law banning people subject to domestic violence restraining orders from owning guns was unconstitutional.

The decision came from a three-judge panel consisting of Judges Cory Wilson, James Ho and Edith Jones. Wilson and Ho were nominated by former Republican President Donald Trump, while Jones was nominated by former Republican President Ronald Reagan.

A customer holds a Glock 17 pistol for sale at Redstone Firearms, in Burbank, California, US, on Friday, Sept. 16, 2022. 
(Kyle Grillot/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Following the decision, Attorney General Merrick Garland said the Justice Department “will seek further review of the Fifth Circuit’s contrary decision.”

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Among those critical of the judges was California’s Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, who suggested the judge’s ruling gives “domestic abusers the right to carry firearms. 

“Will they be allowing guns in their courtrooms too?” Newsom tweeted. “This deranged vision of guns for all is a direct threat to safety – and it will only accelerate.” 

The ruling has prompted California lawmakers to overhaul their law regarding permits to carry concealed weapons.

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On Wednesday, Newsom endorsed a bill in the state Legislature that would ban people from carrying concealed guns in nearly all public places, with an exception for churches and businesses who put up a sign saying guns are OK.

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

More than a dozen Chinese military aircraft and four naval vessels were detected around Taiwan on Friday morning, defense officials said. 

The incursions by Chinese warplanes have become almost a daily occurrence in recent months, but Friday’s show of aggression comes ahead of a visit by Secretary of State Antony Blinken. 

FILE PHOTO: Chinese military helicopters fly past Pingtan island, one of mainland China’s closest point from Taiwan, in Fujian province.
(HECTOR RETAMAL/AFP via Getty Images)

A high-altitude Chinese surveillance balloon was also spotted in the skies above Montana on Thursday, prompting some senators to call on Blinken to cancel his trip. 

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Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., requested a full security briefing from Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin about the balloon, saying that Malmstrom Air Force Base (AFB) and the United States’ intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) fields could be the targets of the intelligence operation. 

A balloon flies in the sky over Billings, Montana, U.S. February 1, 2023, in this picture obtained from social media. 
(Chase Doak/via REUTERS )

Austin, who was visiting Camp Navarro in the Philippines when the news broke, convened a meeting with senior Department of Defense leaders and decided not to take military action due to “the risk to safety and security of people on the ground from the possible debris field,” according to a senior defense official. 

Taiwan’s military, meanwhile, activated aircraft, naval vessels, and land-based missile systems on Friday morning to monitor China’s incursion. 

FILE PHOTO: Taiwan military forces conduct anti-landing drills during the annual Han Kuang military exercises near New Taipei City in Taiwan on Wednesday, July 27, 2022. 
(Taiwan Ministry of National Defense via AP, File)

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Bi-khim Hsiao, Taiwan’s envoy to the U.S., said last month that the island has learned important lessons from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. 

“Everything we’re doing now is to prevent the pain and suffering of the tragedy of Ukraine from being repeated in our scenario in Taiwan,” she told the Associated Press. “So ultimately, we seek to deter the use of military force. But in a worst-case scenario, we understand that we have to be better prepared.” 

Fox News’ Adam Sabes contributed to this report. 

A shot downstairs led to some pushing and shoving between the Memphis Grizzlies and Cleveland Cavaliers on Thursday night.

Dillon Brooks appeared to strike Donovan Mitchell below the belt, leading the Cavs guard to launch the basketball at him from point-blank range.

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Donovan Mitchell #45 of the Cleveland Cavaliers looks to pass the ball during the game against the Memphis Grizzlies on February 2, 2023 at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in Cleveland, Ohio.
(David Liam Kyle/NBAE via Getty Images)

It’s unclear if punches were thrown, but the two wrestled each other to the floor, however not before fellow players and coaches tried to separate the two.

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Both players were ejected from the game.

The game had been physical all night, and words were exchanged again a few minutes later. But Cavs head coach J.B. Bickerstaff said he didn’t want to get involved in the Grizzlies’ “games.”

“The Dillon Brooks play is what it is. Guys have to stand up for themselves,” Bickerstaff told the TNT broadcast after the third quarter. “We have to make sure we keep our composure and keep fighting through it.”

Thursday marked the second meeting between the two teams – the Grizzlies won back on Jan. 18, 115-114.

Mitchell was a conference rival of Memphis when he was a member of the Utah Jazz, and he has certainly had the Grizzlies’ number – Mitchell is 10-4 against Memphis in his career, and 8-2 in games where Brooks has played.

Cleveland Cavaliers guard Donovan Mitchell, right, shoots against Memphis Grizzlies forward Dillon Brooks during the first half of an NBA basketball game, Thursday, Feb. 2, 2023, in Cleveland. 
(AP Photo/Ron Schwane)

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Brooks had nine points, two rebounds, and an assist before getting ejected, while Mitchell had six points, four boards, and three assists.

Susan Lucci became emotional over the prospect of finding new love following the death of her husband Helmut Huber in March 2022.

The 76-year-old actress teared up during an interview with “Good Day New York” Thursday after being asked if she was ready to “get back out there” and start dating again.

“No, I’m not ready,” the “All My Children” alum said.

“It’s just ten months. And anyway, whatever the time was, I’m not ready, you know?” Lucci added, wiping away a tear. 

‘ALL MY CHILDREN’ STAR SUSAN LUCCI HONORS LATE HUSBAND HELMUT HUBER AT DAYTIME EMMY AWARDS

Susan Lucci teared up over the prospect of finding new love following the death of her husband Helmut Huber in March 2022.
(Robin Platzer/FilmMagic)

“And everybody’s different, you know. But, no. I just miss him. And he’s worth missing. He was really, really the love of my life. A very special, big presence, very take charge in a good way. He was caring, he’s a caregiver and funny, smart, all those good things.”

“Handsome,” added host Rosanna Scotto.

“Not to mention, very handsome and that cute accent,” Lucci agreed.

Huber died March 28, 2022, on Long Island, New York, at the age of 84. The Austrian-born TV producer and Lucci were married for 52 years and share daughter Liza, 47, and son Andreas, 34.

The pair met in 1969 when they were both working at Long Island’s Garden City Hotel, where he was the executive chef and Lucci was an employee while on summer vacation from college. The two tied the knot after three weeks of dating in September of that year.

Scotto asked the “Dancing With the Stars” alum if her friends had been asking about setting her up on dates.

“Yes, even strangers,” Lucci said. “I was in Palm Beach in Saks and a woman was saying, ‘Oh, I have just the man for you.’

“And thank you, but I’m not … I can’t even imagine it at this point.”

Following Huber’s death, Lucci’s representative told Fox News Digital, “Helmut’s passing is a tremendous loss for all who knew and loved him. He was an extraordinary husband, father, grandfather and friend. The family kindly asks for privacy during this incredibly difficult time.”

A spokesperson for the Lucci family told People magazine he passed peacefully, adding, “A family man, he was a loyal friend and loved them deeply.

“With a roaring sense of humor, larger-than-life personality and a practical problem solver, he lived his life to the fullest. Mr. Huber, who formerly raced motorcycles in Austria, was a first-rate skier and avid golfer, belonging to the Garden City Golf Club and Westhampton Country Club.”

The 76-year-old actress teared up during an interview with “Good Day New York” Thursday after being asked if she was ready to “get back out there” and start dating again.
(Robin Platzer/FilmMagic)

The outlet noted that Huber, born in October 1937, became a U.S. citizen in January 1994. In his lifetime, he was asked to join the Austrian Ski Team. However, he completed his chef’s apprenticeship at the Hotel Maria Theresia. Huber later studied at L’Ecole Hoteliere in Lausanne, Switzerland, and graduated at the top of his class.

He arrived in North America at age 21 and embarked on his career in Canada before heading to New York at 23. The outlet shared that Huber improved his English by watching John Wayne and Humphrey Bogart films. He later became Lucci’s manager and the CEO of Pine Valley Productions.

In 2020, Lucci told Fox News Digital Huber never left her side.

“I got really lucky because I married somebody who is smart and handsome, and he’s very confident, and he has a great sense of humor,” she said at the time. “And, fortunately, he’s not only been supportive, which is a lovely word. He’s been with me, really with me hands-on and right there. He’s really been a rock, and I got lucky because how could I know all that going in? I was 22.”

During her appearance on “Good Day New York,” the Daytime Emmy winner discussed her new heart jewelry collection she recently launched in support of the American Heart Association.

She also opened up about coming close to having a fatal heart attack in 2018 when she discovered she had two blocked cardiac arteries after experiencing chest discomfort.

Huber died March 28, 2022, in Long Island, N.Y., at the age of 85.
(David Livingston/Getty Images)

“Like most women, I felt my symptoms would go away,” Lucci recalled. “Oh, it’ll go away, it’ll go away. Then, the third time it came to me, I couldn’t ignore it. I had a very big pressure on my chest, like an elephant person pressing on my chest.

“I had heard an interview with a woman a long time ago. I don’t even know why I remembered. I had no reason to. But I remember she said that women’s symptoms for a heart attack are often different than a man’s. And she herself had experienced an elephant pressing on the chest. And so there was no ignoring at that point. And I got so lucky.

“I had a guardian angel on each shoulder. I was out at a boutique, and the woman who was the manager also had a degree in nursing. Talk about good luck. And she said, ‘I will drive you. My car’s right there. I’ll drive you to St Francis,’ which is one of the premiere heart hospitals in the country.”

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Lucci recounted how cardiologist Richard Shlofmitz discovered she had a 90% blockage in her main artery and a 75% blockage in the adjacent artery. She immediately underwent an emergency procedure during which two arterial stents were placed in her heart.

“I went home the next day,” she said. “I was told that, had I not come in, I would have had the widowmaker. Ninety-nine percent, I wouldn’t have made the night.

“And it was such a wake-up call to me,” Lucci added. “I knew how good my luck had been. And from the car ride home, I called my publicist, Jessica, and said, ‘Jessica, I cannot keep my good luck for myself. I feel like a magnet is pulling me to tell this story.’ So maybe, like, I heard that woman’s interview right, someone will hear this now, and it will help them do something to help themselves.”

During her appearance on “Good Day New York,” the Daytime Emmy winner discussed her new heart jewelry collection she recently launched in support of the American Heart Association.
(Astrid Stawiarz/Getty Images for The American Heart Association)

Lucci stressed the importance of prioritizing one’s health, noting that many women like her tend to focus on the health and needs of others and loved ones but neglect their own.

The actress revealed she experienced another cardiac scare last year but initially hesitated to tell Huber for about 30 minutes after she began experiencing symptoms.

“I reverted right back to all the things I’d been telling women for three years at that point. ‘Put yourself on your to-do list. Take action. Listen to your symptoms. Go to the doctor.’ I was avoiding. I went right back to the same. It’s our DNA.”

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Lucci added that she also had a sharp pain in her jaw, which she explained was another symptom experienced by women ahead of a heart attack.

She said a large percentage of the sales of her new jewelry collection will be donated to the American Heart Association.

“That’s what I wanted to do to say thank you because they gave me the opportunity to get my story out,” she noted. “And they continue to. And I just hope it saves even one woman’s life.”

Fox News Digital’s Stephanie Nolasco contributed to this report.

Judge Clifton Newman sent the jury from the courtroom for a long break for a hearing to determine how much of Alex Murdaugh’s alleged financial crimes will be admitted at the trial.

Lead prosecutor Creighton Waters questioned Jeanne Seckinger, CFO of the Parker Law Group, about confronting Alex the day of the double murder.

After a discrepancy arose over $792,000 in missing settlement funds, Seckinger confronted Alex in his office June 7, 2021. She had already asked him about these funds several times.

“[Alex] was leaning on a file cabinet outside his office, and he turned to look at me as I came up and said, ‘What do you need now?’ and gave me a very dirty look,” recalled Seckinger, who had known Alex for 40 years. “We went in the office and closed the door, and I told him I had reason to believe he received the funds himself and that I needed proof that he had not.”

He assured her that the money was there, and he would get her documentation. The conversation was interrupted when Alex received a phone call that his father, Randolph Murdaugh III, was in the hospital and dying.

That afternoon, he called Seckinger again to ask how much money was in his 401k account. “He stated that he was working on some financials for the boat accident hearing later in the week,” she said.

That night, Seckinger heard that Alex’s son, Paul Murdaugh, and wife, Maggie Murdaugh, were brutally shot to death at Moselle.

The double murder halted the firm’s inquires into Alex’s finances and the boat wreck hearing scheduled later that week was canceled.

Parker Law Group was formerly called Peters, Murdaugh, Parker, Eltzroth & Detrick law firm, which was founded by Alex Murdaugh’s great grandfather. The firm was renamed after Alex’s alleged crimes tarnished the Murdaugh name.

Israel’s West Bank settler population now makes up more than half a million people, a pro-settler group said Thursday, crossing a major threshold. Settler leaders predicted even faster population growth under Israel’s new ultranationalist government.

The report, by WestBankJewishPopulationStats.com and based on official figures, showed the settler population grew to 502,991 as of Jan. 1, rising more than 2.5% in 12 months and nearly 16% over the last five years.

“We’ve reached a huge hallmark,” said Baruch Gordon, the director of the group and a resident of the Beit El settlement. “We’re here to stay.”

The milestone comes as Israel’s new government, made up of ultranationalist parties who oppose Palestinian statehood, has placed expanding settlements at the top of its priority list. Already the government has pledged to legalize wildcat outposts that have long enjoyed tacit government support and to ramp up approval and construction of settler homes around the West Bank.

“I think that in the coming years of this government there will be more building than there has been in the last 20 years of governments,” Gordon said.

Settlements have flourished under every Israeli government, including at the height of the peace process in the 1990s. Even Israel’s short-lived previous government, which included parties supporting Palestinian statehood along with those opposing it, continued to build settlements.

PALESTINIANS IN UPROAR AFTER ISRAELI ARMY KILL MILITANTS, ELDERLY WOMAN IN WEST BANK

The report also comes as a new spasm of violence is shaking the region and days after a visit by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who pledged support for an independent Palestinian state. The settler population has continued to grow under the Biden administration, despite renewed American appeals to rein in construction following years of President Donald Trump’s hands-off approach.

The settler population report does not include annexed east Jerusalem, home to more than 200,000 settlers. The West Bank and east Jerusalem are together home to some 3 million Palestinians.

Israel captured the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians seek those territories for an independent state.

Although Israel withdrew troops and several thousand settlers from Gaza in 2005, it has charged ahead with settlement building in the West Bank and east Jerusalem. Dozens of settlements dot the territory, some as small as a few mobile homes and others sprawling cities, with malls and public transport of their own.

A view of the West Bank settlement of Efrat is shown on Jan. 30, 2023. Israel’s West Bank settler population now makes up more than 500,000 people, according to a pro-settler group.
(AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)

Much of the international community views the settlements as illegitimate and an obstacle to peace. The Palestinians see them as a land grab that undermines their chances to establish a viable, contiguous state.

“All settlements are illegal. There is no legitimacy for settlements or the presence of settlers in the Palestinian territories,” said Nabil Abu Rudeineh, a spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. “The increase in the number of settlers is the result of Israeli government policies that do not believe in the two-state solution,” which would create an independent Palestinian state next to Israel.

2 PALESTINIANS KILLED IN SEPARATE VIOLENT CONFRONTATIONS WITH ISRAELIS IN THE WEST BANK

Israel claims the West Bank is disputed territory, rather than occupied, saying that terminology denies the Jewish people’s historical presence in the land. It argues that the fate of settlements should be part of negotiations to bring about an end to the conflict.

Peace efforts have been moribund for nearly 15 years, while Israel continued to establish facts on the ground with more settlement construction and a Palestinian political rivalry complicated peacemaking.

The settlers and their many supporters in government view the West Bank as the biblical and historical heartland of the Jewish people and are opposed to any partition.

Palestinians and Israelis in the West Bank live under a two-tiered legal system that grants settlers special status and applies much of Israeli law to them including the right to vote in Israeli elections and the ability to access certain public services. Palestinians live under Israeli military rule and they do not enjoy the legal rights and protections afforded to settlers.

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The open-ended military occupation has led three well-known human rights groups to conclude that Israel is committing the international crime of apartheid by systematically denying Palestinians equal rights. Israel rejects those accusations as an attack on its very existence as a Jewish-majority state and points to the achievements of its citizens of Palestinian origin to counter the argument.

The increasingly authoritarian and unpopular Palestinian Authority, established through agreements with Israel in the 1990s, administers parts of the West Bank, while the Islamic militant group Hamas controls Gaza, which is under an Israeli-Egyptian blockade.