At least 100 people were inside the house for that celebration. When the attacker walked in, the rabbi was actually in the middle of lighting the menorah. The attacker, grafton thomas, is alleged to have stabbed five people with a large machete type knife. One of the victims, actually, is the rabbis son. All of the victims are recovering at the hospitals. One of the guests, joseph gluck, is being called a hero because he threw a coffee table at the attacker and actually wrote down the license plate number of the car he was driving before he left the house. Thats a good thing because he was spotted driving across the George Washington bridge. His license plate number was picked up by technology there at the gwb. He was ultimately arrested in harlem with blood all over him, and then he was transported here to upstate new york where he was arraigned on 5 million bond on five charges. Keep in mind this is a tightknit hasidic Orthodox Jewish community. 90,000 people make up brocklin county and onethird of them are jewish. I spoke with one Orthodox Jewish representative for the community. He said this is the 13th antisemitic event to happen in new york state, and he says, unfortunately we are living in a time where if you are jewish, you need to look over your shoulder. Martin . Allison kosik on the scene for us. With me is head of the Jewish Community. Thank you for joining me. Thank you. You have heard this called domestic terrorism in this latest action. What action do you want to protect the Jewish Community . I think despite the good will of all our political lireaders, and they are all longtime friends of the Jewish Community in new york, more has to be done. Were witnessing antisemitic attacks, including one attack on each of the days of hanukkah, either in new york city or rockland counties that you just reported. What we need is a steppedup policy that includes zero tolerance, a get tough message and a unity of all of new york citizens that say this is not just about the jews or the Hasidic Community in rockland county, this is about all of us and the way we choose to live. We want to affirm our inclusion, not our exclusion. Our unity, not our separation. As was noted here, the stabbing attack comes after at least, i believe, 13 attacks this month on jewish people in new york, and im wondering, what is the mood of the Jewish Community in new york and across the country . How are people coping with a string of hate and violence . I think for many its come as a complete shock. American jews felt over the years they had become fully integrated into america, and in so many ways, we have. And yet when we took a survey by the American JewishCommittee Earlier this year, after the pittsburgh and paway tragedies, 30 said they hide their jewish in public, 40 said they hide for fear of attack. Its coming from somewhere. Its coming from various sources, not just one source. Multiple sources. And were calling on local, state and federal leaders to address this phenomenon, because again, it is today an epidemic. New yorks mayor, the states governor have condemned the attack. Theyve all called for action to prevent further violence. But the president thus far has been silent on this tragedy. Hes tweeted on nancy pelosi, impeachment, but no comments about this mass stabbing. Should the president be taking a more active role in addressing this issue . I think the issue of antisemitism in America Today is serious enough that it should catch the attention of the administration, of all members of congress, and the political leaders of both parties. Unfortunately, until now, some have chosen to weaponize antisemitism. In other words, if theyre on the left, they point to the right, if theyre on the right, they point to the left. As a result, this is no longer about weaponizing or politicizing antisemitism, but coming together as a nation and understanding that a threat to any jew or any american citizen is a threat to all of us. We must stand united against this threat. Do you have an explanation as for why now are we seeing this . Its not just new york, of course, its not just the United States. Were seeing this in many places around the world, this rise of antisemitism. Why now . I dont think there is one answer, but for us there are several possibilities. The first is the legacy of the holocaust is kind of fading. Survivors like my own mother and father are no longer here, so the impact of what antisemitism can become is largely unknown to many younger people. Secondly, social media has become a launching pad for every kind of conspiracy theory, every kind of antisemitic trope. Thirdly, there is a growing confidence in democracy. Rather than coming together, were balkanizing. And fourth, i fear that unless authorities come down hard, the message is, you can do this and there is a good chance you can get away with it. This is one of the issues weve been pointing to in europe for a number of years where there was a very slow, almost lax response to antisemitism. Weve seen what happened there. We dont want what happened there to happen here. No, we dont. David harris, we appreciate you coming on the program today. Thank you. Thank you. Were following another breaking story this hour. Bloodshed at another place of worship today. Three people are now in Critical Condition after a shooting at a church in white settlement, texas. Were told the shooter is among the injured. This was at the west Freeway Church of christ. Its located just miles away from ft. Worth. Joining us now is former law official cedric grammer. Cedric, its good to see you again, but not under these circumstances. What can you make of what happened here . Unfortunately, as you can see, this is just another tragic event among many tragic events surrounding innocent people getting hurt in public places, such as churches and malls. And of course what we saw most recently in monsey, new york. It should make all of us pause and have great concern about how were going to address the violence in this country. I was listening to your last guest there for a moment, and he was right on so many different levels. There is not one particular place that we know this may be coming from. In new york state or any state across this country, we are certainly seeing a rise in Violence Toward those in the Jewish Community. We see that also in our gay and lesbian and transgender communities, and we see it in our communities of color, and we see it across all spectrums, all demographic groups. So there is something that is going on in our environment that may be creating this type of violence. But i think the most important thing we can do as a nation, all of us collectively no matter who we are, is that Must Stand Firm and verbalize against these types of Violent Attacks toward any particular group. I dont care who they are, white, black, jewish, christian. This is not acceptable and america is not accepting it in our society. And i tell you, as someone who has been a veteran in the Law Enforcement community for many, many years and still in my retired life spend time making sure that we try to keep our community safe, this is going to be a nationwide effort, what happened today in texas, what happened last night in monsey, new york. We as a nation must stand against it and make it clear, make it perfectly clear, those who are in leadership positions this is unacceptable and will not be tolerated. The governor has proposed, of new york, perhaps a new law, new legislation. Are new laws needed, tougher laws needed . Will that deal with this problem, do you believe . What we dont need is more laws. What we need is enforcement of the current laws that are on the books. There are laws that are wrapped from state to state in new york, across this nation, and theres federal laws that hate crimes will not be tolerated, and those that are involved will be be dealt with. We have the laws, we need to enforce them. But again, our leadership, and as you see, our state Governor Cuomo is doing a terrific job and he got on this right away last night. He dispatched his hate Crime Task Force investigators to that scene to begin that investigation. What we see going on this morning in texas, youre going to see Law EnforcementWork Together collaboratively but there is a Community Component that has to be met. And that component is that all of us across this nation have to verbalize and make it perfectly clear to anyone who is thinking about doing harm to someone because of their race,ot where were not going to tolerate it. Cedric grammer, thank you for joining me today. Thank you, sir. Stomp mo more breaking news in a busy newsroom. Iraq and syria have conducted airstrikes against an iranbacked militia. Well have details. Theyre targeting personnel on the ground, correct . Right, and this has been going on for several weeks. The u. S. Has iranianbacked Militia Group in iraq and syria is responsible for a bunch of rocket and mortar attacks against u. S. Troops that are in iraq. And actually on friday under these attacks it resulted in the death of a u. S. Contractor. The u. S. Has been looking for a long time on what their response should be and what they want to do. This morning washington time, 7 00 in the evening on the ground in iraq, u. S. S15s conducted strikes against five facilities in iraq and syria operated by this militia that says u. S. Was responsible for attacks. What they were going after, really, was the capability for any additional strikes by this Militia Group to happen. They did report there were a number of secondary explosions at these ammo sites, so they do believe for the moment in which they got to this, you know, if one is practical minded, it doesnt ever really go away, but theyre hoping theyve at least pushed back the capability of this group and to answer the obvious question, will the u. S. Conduct more strikes . Officials tell us its hard to say. They want to see what the iranian response is to all of this and whether this group really pulls back or not. But President Trump has made it clear that he will not tolerate attacks against u. S. Forces, so the u. S. Swinging into action with these strikes in the last several hours. Martin . Stay wurith us, barbara. Let me bring in jeremy diamond. Putin reportedly spoke on the phone about mutual interest in counterterrorism. Do we know anything more about this conversation . Reporter we dont know whether the president actually discussed this particular set of strikes with the russian president. We do know that according to the russian readout of that call that it was, at least in part, about a u. S. Intelligence that helped foil a terrorist plot in st. Petersburg in russia. But what we do know about these strikes today, martin, is that a took place at 11 00 a. M. Eastern time while the president was actually at his golf course. We actually spotted him a couple hours later on the golf course golfing. We dont know whether, at that time when the strikes were taking place, whether the president was perhaps in a secure facility at the golf club, or if he was indeed on the golf course while those strikes were indeed taking place. But we are also now expecting the president to meet later today with his top Foreign Policy and defense officials. The secretary of state mike pompeo, mike esper, as well as the joint chiefs of staff mike nillie, they are there today to discuss these strikes on iraq and syria, and an official that spoke with me and my colleague barbara starr. This is something the president is still monitoring, something that is still a developing situation, and it does appear the Tipping Point for these strikes was, indeed, this attack that took place on friday where you saw one u. S. Defense contractor who was killed, four u. S. Troops who were wounded in attacks carried out by iranian proxies in iran. Following that, you saw statements from republican senator tomte, who called for retaliation in the United States against iran. It is interesting, of course, that the president s course of retaliation here was focused on attacking these iranian proxies and not on iran itself. Of course, those iranian proxies is the one the u. S. Says were responsible for a lot of those bases where the u. S. Was housed. Again, as he sits down today with his top military and Foreign Policy officials, that is certainly something we expect the president will be discussing. Martin . Martin, they said officials had a plan and brought it to him saturday for approval, so this is not just a spur of the moment target kind of thing. Thats right, martin, it wasnt, because over the last several weeks there have been repeated attacks against these sites in iraq where u. S. Troops are located, and intelligence officials, when they looked at the kind of ordinance that were being fired, weapons that were being used, they said they believed it was this iranianaffiliated Group Operating inside iraq. They warned them, dont do this. The message had been very clear. So the military doesnt wait to be asked, they always have a plan for everything, right . So clearly they had a plan, they knew where these sites were, and the they were ready to go when it became a president that the decision made. But i think jeremy is right. It was the depth the death of the u. S. Contractor on friday and the number of u. S. Wounded. Until that moment, we had no significant injuries in the previous attacks. But now with so many wounded, it seemed to all change and it became necessary to take it to the president and say, this is what we want to do, get his okay and then move very quickly today on these strikes. All right. Barbara starr and jeremy diamond, thank you both for joining me. We appreciate the updates. Thank you. Coming up, hear what israels Prime Minister is saying about that horrific hanukkah attack. Well go live to jerusalem next. We are solving problems that improve lives. Can you tell me the story again . Every family has their own unique story. Give your family the chance to discover theirs this holiday season, with ancestry. This holiday season, up here at the dewars distillery, all our whiskies are aged, blended and aged again. Its the reason our whisky is so extraordinarily smooth. Dewars. Double aged for extra smoothness. When it comes to using data, which is why Xfinity Mobile is a different kind of Wireless Network that lets you design your own data. Choose unlimited, shared data, or mix lines of each and switch any line, anytime. Giving you more choice and control compared to other top wireless carriers. Save up to 400 a year when you switch. Plus, unwrap 250 off a new samsung phone. Click, call or visit a store today. President trump is now condemning the antisemitic attack last night. He said, the antisemitic attack in monsey, new york, on the 7th night of hanukkah last night is who rifrk. We must all come together to fight, confront and eradicate the evil scourge of antisemiti antisemitism. Melania and i wish the victims a quick and full recovery. Were in i see skprsrael and je with more reaction from this. What is the reaction from this . We are seeing more reactions. After the pittsburgh shooting and the san diego shooting, this is after the sabbath. President netanyahu directed the attack after his weekly cabinet meeting. Reporter israel strongly condemns the latest attack on antisemitism and the brutal attack on the holiday at the rabbis house in monsey, new york. We send our wishes of recovery to the wounded. Reporter netanyahu went beyond sending well wishes. He additionally offered any help they could offer. That gets to an important point here. Its not simply a new york problem, its not a u. S. Problem, it is well beyond that, a problem the u. S. Is trying to address and other countries as well. To that end weve seen the jewish chairman say these issues of antisemitic attacks always start with the jews but they never end with the jews. That sets the stage for a wider tolerance. The museum will host a conference on antisemitism that coincides with the seventh anniversary of auschwitz, the concentration camp in poland. They hope to combat it broadly and widely. At least part of the solution for them is the matter of education on antisemitism but also on the holocaust where leaders will be here, other important dignitaries will be here to try to find some kind of answers, which as we look around, both in jerusalem and new york are both difficult to come by. Yep, they are. Oren liebermann reporting from jerusalem. Up next, more on an antisemitic shooting in texas. Well be right back. The Doctors Office might mejust for a shot. O but why go back there when you can stay home with neulasta® onpro . Strong chemo can put you at risk of serious infection. In a key study neulasta® reduced the risk of infection from 17 to 1 a 94 decrease. Neulasta® onpro is designed to deliver neulasta® the day after chemo and is used by most patients today. Neulasta® is for certain Cancer Patients receiving strong chemotherapy. Do not take neulasta® if youre allergic to it or Neupogen Filgrastim . An incomplete dose could increase infection risk. Ruptured spleen, sometimes fatal as well as serious lung problems allergic reactions, kidney injuries and capillary leak syndrome have occurred. Report abdominal or shoulder tip pain, trouble breathing or allergic reactions to your doctor right away. In patients with sickle cell disorders, serious, sometimes fatal crises can occur. The most common side effect is bone and muscle ache. If youd rather be home ask your doctor about neulasta® onpro. Pay no more than 5 per dose with copay card. We are following another breaking story, bloodshed at another place of worship today. Three people were in Critical Condition. That was the initial report after a shooting at a church in white settlement, texas. Were continuing to await word on further updates of their condition. Were told the shooter was among those who was transported to the hospital. This was at the west Freeway Church of christ located just miles away from ft. Worth. Cnn field producer Ashley Kellogg joins me now. Shes on the scene. Ashley, tell me whats going on there right now. Reporter yes, martin, the church is located just off the highway in ft. Worth, and what youre seeing is what you would imagine. There is heavy police presence, dozens of police and Law Enforcement vehicles here, many with their lights on. The church is cordoned off with caution tape all around it. Many of the roads leading up to the church are also blocked off. So far weve seen people walking in and out of the church. A lot of cars are still in the parking lot. They look untouched. Law enforcement did just do a press conference here a few minutes ago in which the ft. Worth police sorry, ft. Worth Fire Department spoke about a very tragic day. People there, what are they saying or are they telling you anything more about what may have happened or how this all began . Reporter sure. We have not seen a large presence of people outside of the church, weve seen just a handful of people, some are wearing blankets, waiting to r hear more about whats going on. I did speak to people at a gas station located directly across from the church. He is also here on sunday mornings, but he said it seems like there is less of a presence at the church this morning, perhaps due to the holidays. He says the parking lot is normally more full than this. He was here this morning when the shooting allegedly happened at 9 00 central time. He said he did not hear any shots but he did start noticing Police Vehicles pull up. He also said he didnt see a lot of people leaving the church or fleeing. He said he didnt see anything like that, and i did speak with another woman who has come here to the church, and she said that there is someone who shes very close to who she believes is still inside the church, and she is waiting to find out more information. All right. Ashl ashley killough, thank you for staying in touch. Well follow you with more developments at a church just outside ft. Worth, texas. Still ahead, conflict among two key republicans aon what a senate trial would look like. Well discuss what the white house strategy will be with our legal counsel, next. The iowa caucus is just 36 days away now, and many democratic president ial hopefuls focusing on that key state within the next five weeks. Mayor Pete Buttigieg, who continues a threeday iowa swing and is scheduled to make a slew of town halls across the state. Meanwhile, former Vice President joe biden is clearing up whether or not he would obey a subpoena to testify at President Trumps Senate Impeachment trial. First of all, i would obey any subpoena that was sent to me. But the point i was making as it relates to me is the only rational reason, and you would know this of your papers youve written, that i possibly would be called at an impeachment trial is can i shed any light on whether or not he committed the crime hes accused of. And there is no reason to believe i would have any notion about whether he committed that crime. Every single solitary person who has investigated whats happened in ukraine, including all the people who are under oath in his administration said biden is as clean as a whistle. Biden did his job. Joining me now is brittany shepherd, who is the National Politics reporter for washington news. Welcome. Thanks for having me. Lets talk about the way joe biden is sort of navigating all these questions on the impeachment trial while he is still focusing, of course, campaigning in these critical weeks. Its a delicate balance. For sure, and you can hear in his voice in that clip that hes really frustrated at litigating something that he and his team believes is kind of an already one and done case. He believes his son is innocent, hes frustrated he has to basically keep assuming his innocence, but he has been asked if he would come back to washington and testify if hes called, but i would like to throw down a flag and say its very unlikely that the senate would call joe or even his son hunter biden up to the hill. Biden, of course, says theres no legal basis for a subpoena, and hes got no more real knowledge about trumps dealings there. If he isnt called to testify, how do you see this playing out, then . I think there was a notion when impeachment proceedings began that even just bringing up the biden family would lower his polling numbers and kind of make it difficult for him to campaign. Certainly its frustrating. When you look at the average of all the polling from a year ago today and today, biden hasnt even moved down a percentage point. Hes hovering around the same 25, 26 . So it seems to, even though maybe has been an annoyance on the road, it hasnt broken his me say vssage of coalition buil. Although it has given other candidates maybe a chance to campaign against him to say, look, my candidate and my family isnt here being scrubbed up in trumps head, so other candidates could use it as a position point, but i dont think its really moving folks on joe biden at all. Okay. Le lets talk about Pete Buttigiegs speech today where he defended his Fundraising Efforts kprarg thcomparing them president obama. This has dogged him for a while. Do you think that will continue . As long as Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren is in the race, those who have kind of disavowed millionaire money, buttigieg will have to face his fur fundraising. He does make a good point that money is taken from any kind of donor. Theyre not in a position to shoo away any cash. He still seems to be doing well in early states like iowa and New Hampshire despite all the criticism. And let me ask you about iowa. First of all, are there still undecided voters there, and if so, what are they saying . Reporter absolutely. I definitely think iowa is not a foregone conclusion. Were seeing they are really liking joe biden, they are really liking Pete Buttigieg and Elizabeth Warren. I do think we should keep our eye on Bernie Sanders, too. Hes been quietly in second and third place in many of these early states, especially in iowa. But i really want to focus on the next six weeks, on the potential impeachment trial. That would take about five senators running for president off the campaign trail that only have one day out of the week to virtually campaign in iowa, and that could be a real hurt for them, the cory bookers of the world who need to score high in these early states to seem viable up until super tuesday and beyond. Thats why the scheduling of all this impeachment trial is so important here. Brittany shepherd, thank you very much. Good talking to you. Thank you for having me. Stomp lets discuss what is ahead for the president. Ross garber is a legal analyst and teaches at a law school. What do you make of the senator openly speaking with the white house. Hes talked about this for a while. And given theyre from the same party isnt shocking, but the level of openness is actually the surprising thing, sort of the brazenness of the coordination, and i think that there are probably a few reasons for that. One is i think he does want to show the president that he is on the president s team. A second is i think he wants to send a message to the public that he doesnt believe he, senator mcconnell, doesnt believe theres much to this impeachment stuff and that the charges will be disposed of quick quickly. Do you think hes sort of reading the polling there that suggest there may be im sort of summarizing a kind of fatigue to all of this and that the president may have the upper hand . Yeah. He wouldnt be doing this, i think, unless he thought that his constituents and ultimately his caucus was sort of behind that approach. Now, we did see the senator from alaska, senator murkowski, raise some issues with this approach, and fundamentally there could be some blowback, because ultimately the notion is there will be a trial. People think a trial is going to be a fair proceeding, and the notion of the fact finders, you know, coordinating with one side or the other, you know, does look sort of unappealing. But i do think senator mcconnell believes that his caucus, and ultimately his constituents, will back that sort of approach. And that theyll prevail in the overall process. The strategy in the house, of course, on the part of the president is blocking with his testimony. How intent going to translate into a senate trial . We dont even know if there are going to be witnesses. No, and senator kennedy for louisiana talked with our jake tapper today and laid out what he thought would be a way to try the case, which is pretty much the way the Clinton Senate trial went, which was several days of presentations by lawyers for both sides, and then questions and answers from the senators through the chief justice to those lawyers, written questions from the senators passed up to the chief justice and then asked by the chief justice for the lawyers. Then only after that process, then the senate would consider whether actual witness testimony is necessary. Thats how it went in the clinton trial. Thats what senator mcconnell is proposing for this time around also. Of course, all of that hinges on when the house or when the House Speaker passes along the articles of impeachment. That hasnt happened yet. Theres no clear indication of exactly when that might happen. That wasnt something that went on in the clinton era, and it really impacts not only a political schedule but Campaign Schedules as well, as weve heard. Yeah, which is why i dont think this will take that long. Congress is on recess right now. There is nothing going on. There would be nothing that would actually happen if the articles had been transmitted immediately. I dont think there is going to be a long delay. As youve noted, martin, the democratic primaries and caucuses start in just a few weeksment they start in february. I dont think its going to be in anyones interest and certainly not in the democrats interest to have the country focused on impeachment issues while the democrats will want them focused on democratic fundamental issues, health care, immigration, education and the like. Couldnt republicans also have a hand in the scheduling era and they would very much like to see that happen. Perhaps. I have a feeling the republicans and particularly the Senate Republicans wont want to have this drag on for longer than it has to. There is really not much return in it for the Senate Republicans. Theyre not going to be wanting to be sitting there and listening to arguments for longer than they have to. Theyre not going to want to be talking about these issues on news shows for longer than they have to. I have a feeling it will be in everybodys interest to get this done quickly. There is a question about whether there is witness testimony, but i think what is likely to happen is there wont be additional witness testimony. The republicans are going to want to get this done quickly, most likely in january. Ross garber, always good to get your insights. Thank you very much. Thanks, martin. Still ahead, plenty of criminal cases rock the news in 2019 from the amber guyger trial to the controversy surrounding jessie sma je jesse smallett. At tmobile, were lighting up 5g, and when you buy a samsung note 10 5g, you get one free. Plus you can experience it on the nations largest 5g network. So do this. On that. With us. Buy a samsung note 10 5g and get one free when you add a line. Us. Its what this country is made of. But right now, our bond is fraying. How do we get back to us . The y fills the gaps. And bridges our divides. Donate to your local y today. Because where theres a y, theres an us. When it comes to using data, which is why Xfinity Mobile is a different kind of Wireless Network that lets you design your own data. Choose unlimited, shared data, or mix lines of each and switch any line, anytime. Giving you more choice and control compared to other top wireless carriers. Save up to 400 a year when you switch. Plus, unwrap 250 off a new samsung phone. Click, call or visit a store today. makeawish volunteer ok, hes coming,y cmon cmon. Ing here we go. little santa somali. Alika . little santa wheres kiara . little santa i got this for you. vo when you grant a childs wish, you change lives. vo you can choose makeawish to get two hundred and fifty dollars from subaru when you get a new subaru. vo 2 get 0. 9 during the subaru share the love event. While political headlines dominated much of the news, there was also gun violence and turmoil. Cnn looks at the nine biggest crime stories of the year. A celebrity hoax, a multimillionaire suicide, a College Admission scandal and more gun violence, all part of the top nine crime misconduct stories of 2019. Number 9. In the early hours of january 29th, empire star Jussie Smollett said he was called an antisemitic slur and the n word and two men put a noose around his neck. I saw the attacker masked, and he said, this maggot country punches me right in the face. Law enforcement determined it was a hoax. Why would somebody, especially an africanamerican man, use the symbolism of a noose to make false accusations. He was charged with false Disorderly Conduct in making a fake assault. In another twist, attorney kim foxx dropped all charges against the abctor. Number 8. An ambush attack by gunmen fired at the caravan, killing three men and six children. Devon langford walked more than 14 miles to get help, telling abc news it felt real scary and it felt like a lot of bullets. His father says his surviving children are living miracles. Number 7. A former Dallas Police officer on trial for murder tearily testified she thought she was in her own apartment when she shot and killed her neighbor. I thought he was going to hurt me. That neighbor, a young black man named botham jean. Jean was sitting on his couch when guyger shot and killed him, after mistakenly entering his apartment. The jury didnt buy it. We have breaking news out of dallas, texas right now. A jury has just found a former Dallas Police officer guilty on murder charges. Can i give her a hug, please . But jeans brother showed the world strength and grace as he hugged guyger during sentencing. She was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Number 6. A 13yearold girl in rural wisconsin kidnapped by a man who had been stalking her for weeks. The assailant snatched jamie klaas from her home in the middle of the night after murdering her parents. The suspect had specific intentions to kidnap jamie. 88 days later, on january 10th, jamie escaped wearing only pajamas and her captors shoes. She approached a neighbor walking her dog. When she told me who she was, i figured she must have left in a hurry. The community rejoiced. Jamie was alive. Jake patterson was convicted and sentenced to two life terms for the murder of jamies parents and 40 years for her kidnapping. Number 5. R b artist r. Kellys world came tumbling down this year as criminal charges piled up. He is facing indictments in new york and minnesota accused of selling women for sex and pictures showing him having sex with underage girls. R. Kelly proclaimed his innocence to cbs gayle king. I did not do this stuff. This is not me. Im fighting for my life. Reporter kellys trials in chicago and new york are set for next year. Number 4. From new york to california, hate crimes sit a 16year high according to the fbi. We are following breaking news. Reports of a shooting in a synagogue north of san diego, california. And its being felt in communities like poway where a synagogue was targeted by a white teenaged gunman on the final day of passover. More shots came running right at me. Reporcongregation, lost her life saving others. In november a milwaukee man was charged with a hate crime after allegedly throwing acid on a hispanic man following a traffic altercation. This is burning us really bad. He suffered burns and scarring. The suspect, clifton ell, is facing 35 years in prison. He is accused of telling a u. S. Citizen born in peru to go back to his country. Number 3. Power, money, sex and potentially dozens of underage victims. Federal prosecutors say behind the scenes, multimillionaire Jeffrey Epstein ran a sex trafficking enterprise, paying underage girls to have sex with him and other powerful men. The alleged behavior shocks the conscience. Reporter after cutting a generous deal with federal prosecutors back in 2008, the Investment Bankers luck ran out in july. Arrested on federal charges, epstein was held without bail. I brought in up to 75 girls from eighth grade to ninth grade at just school parties. However, there would be no trial. Just weeks later, epstein was found hanging in his jail cell. The medical examiner ruled it a suicide. A judge gave victims a chance to speak at a hearing after epsteins death. He continued to rape me. I cried myself to sleep that night. Number 2. A scam involving some of the countrys most prestigious universities exploded into a National Scandal after federal prosecutors filed fraud and Money Laundering charges against 50 people, including actresses felicity huffman, lori laughlyo and her husband. The mastermind . William singer, ceo of a college prep company. He coordinated with parents to either rig standardized test scores or bribe College Coaches to accept their children as elite athletes, even if they hadnt played that sport. Between roughly 2011 and 2018, parents played singer 225 million in total. Huffman served 11 days in prison, but others like Lori Loughlin continue to fight the charges. And the number one crime of misconduct story in 2019. Unprecedented gun violence. We begin with two American Cities reeling today and a nation devastated. A pair of mass shootings. From el paso, texas to dayton, ohio the horrific bloodshed taking place in a span of just over 13 hours. As he wiel pass o pasos m filled with shooters, he said he was targeting mexicans. He shot eight more bullets. I counted them because i said one of these is going to be mine. 22 people were killed. And hours later, in dayton, ohio, another mass shooting. Shots fired, shots fired crowds of people run from the shots. Police respond within seconds. He was wearing body armor and used a. 223caliber high capacity magazine. Police said the gunman, who later died, was stopped. Despite their quick action, he was able to kill nine people. In the end, 31 dead. Up next, we have new details about that tourist Helicopter Crash in hawaii. Were related to them . Were portuguese . I thought we were hungarian. Can you tell me that story again . Behind every question is a story waiting to be discovered. This holiday, start the journey with a dna kit from ancestry. This holiday, start the journey with a dna kit up here at the dewars distillery, all our whiskies are aged, blended and aged again. Its the reason our whisky is so extraordinarily smooth. Dewars. Double aged for extra smoothness. And you know what they isay about curiosity. Itll ruin your house. So get allstate and be better protected from mayhem, like meow. Were learning new details about a tourist Helicopter Crash in kauai. That was thursday. Police believe all seven passengers were killed, including the pilot. A 13yearold and her mother from wisconsin were among them. The other victims are believed to be members of a family from switzerland. Right now the cause of that crash still unknown. However, the faa and the ntsb are investigating. We have much more just ahead of the newsroom and it all starts right now. Hello there. Thanks for joining me. Im Martin Savage in for fredricka whitfield. Were beginning with breaking news. Whats being called a tragic day for worshippers across the country regardless of religion. First in new york, a crowded hanukkah celebration turns into a violent stabbing spree after five people were wounded inside a rabbis house. To now a Church Shooting near ft. Worth, texas. One person is dead and another is in Critical Condition. Were told that the