APARTMENT RUINS in Gaza (Wikipedia).

All the Palestinians in Gaza should leave and relocate to other places, President Donald Trump said Tuesday in a news conference in Washington.

According to The New York Times, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – who joined Trump at the event, said the United States might, as an alternative, “take over the Gaza Strip.” Trump agreed.

Before the press conference, Trump suggested that Jordan and Egypt offer a home to the Palestinians.

“They have no alternative now,” said Trump. “What do they have? It’s a big pile of rubble right now.”

There are about 2 million Palestinians native to Gaza.

Hamas, the group that has held power in Gaza in recent years immediately rejected the proposals.

An end to the Education Department?

When he ran for president, Donald Trump vowed to dismantle the federal Department of Education.

According to United Press International, he is poised to do that.

Trump is reportedly drafting an executive order to eliminate the department.

“We will drain the government education swamp and stop the abuse of your taxpayer dollars to indoctrinate America’s youth with all sorts of things that you don’t want to have our youth hearing,” Trump said while campaigning for a second term.

The department was created by Congress in 1979 and could not be ended by executive order, but he could call on Congress to eliminate it and start placing Education staff members on paid leave.

All bodies in DC crash recovered

The bodies of all 67 people who died in the collision of an Army helicopter and a civilian jetliner near Washington. D.C. have been recovered.

USA Today is reporting that 66 of the 67 have been identified and salvage of pieces of the wreckage – which fell into the Potomac River – are being retrieved, although high wind gusts are slowing the process.

Data collected by the National Traffic Safety Board indicate that the Blackhawk helicopter was flying above its 200-foot maxim ceiling at the time of the collision, but that nothing can be confirmed until the aircraft is recovered from the river and investigated.

Weather: Showers on the way

Forecasts for our West Orange County cities call for a strong chance of rain showers toward the rest of the workweek and into the weekend. Wednesday’s daytime high is predicted to be 65 with an overnight low of 56 with a chance of showers. Thursday will be similar but cooler at 61 (56). The chance of rain goes up to 25 percent on Friday with temps of 65 (50) and to 39 percent on Saturday and 63 (50) on the thermometer.

Great Thoughts

“Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature. Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.”
–– Helen Keller, writer