Holiday travelers to top 100 million
AAA projects the number of yearend holiday travelers will top 100 million for the fifirst time on record.
Nearly 1 in 3 Americans will journey 50 miles or more between Wednesday, Dec. 23, and Sunday, Jan. 3. This represents a 1.4 percent increase over last year and the seventh consecutive year of travel growth for this holiday period.
“The increase in holiday travel this year is driven by continued improvement in the labor market, rising incomes and low gas prices, which remain well below last year’s Read Palm Beach County’s new pot possession law,
Commission delays vote on public comments at workshops,
and east of U.S. 1, according to North Palm Beach police.
He smashed a bathroom window with a tire iron and made his way to the prayer room where he broke all of the windows and threw around furniture, police say. Twelve windows were broken and the shutters were torn off, according to the report.
Blood was found throughout the center after Killets, who spent 40 minutes inside, injured himself smashing out the windows.
A tipster told police Killets was in West Palm Beach and had been bragging about the incident.
Killets was arrested Dec. 5 and released on $1,500 bond Dec. 8, according to Palm Beach County Jail records.
As of Tuesday evening, the windows of the center remained boarded up.
Sharif Elhosseiny, the president of the Islamic Center, said he was happy with the state attorney’s decision and praised law enforcement for conducting a thorough investigation.
“This is not about wanting him to be punished, we have forgiven him,” Elhosseiny said. “But there’s a responsibility that comes with (these) actions.”
Elhosseiny said Saturday’s public outreach event will allow the center to explain “the true message of Islam, what it is and what it is not.”
“We’re here to help clear the smoke,” he said.
Hava L. Holzhauer, the regional director of the Anti-Defamation League, said it also is pleased with the decision to file hate crime charges.
“(The charges) recognize the crimes were committed with a hateful ideology,” Holzhauer said. “Whether it’s the way they look or the way they pray.”
Holzhauer said after the attacks on Paris and in San Bernadino, Calif., the country as a whole has seen an increase in these type of hate crimes, including some recent ones Florida:
■ In Cooper City, graffiti was found outside of an Islamic school that read “(Expletive) Muslims.”
■ In the Tampa area, death threats were sent to a mosque.
■ Shots were fired at a Muslim’s home in the Orlando area, according to the ADL.
In April, a Hispanic man was beaten to death by at least three men in Jupiter, according to town police. The State Attorney’s Office charged those involved with a hate crime because one of the men arrested told police he followed the victim to his house “to rob Guatemalans,” according to an arrest report.
While Elhosseiny and others always suspected the crime was driven by hate, it wasn’t until they looked at Killets’ Facebook page did they feel certain: Photos and videos expressed anger at Syrian refugees and Muslims.
In one photo from April, Killets is holding an assault rifle with a caption that reads, “That AR-15 will put down any radical Islamic!! I wish they would!!”
Since Killets was released from jail, his personal page has been removed from the social media website.