New York, NY - Aides to Mayor Bill de Blasio have been subpoenaed by state and federal prosecutors amid investigations into his campaign fundraising operation, his administration said Wednesday. City Hall received subpoenas from the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan and from the Manhattan district attorney’s office, mayoral counsel Maya Wiley said. A statement issued by Wiley said de Blasio had not been “personally served,” but it didn’t reveal the subject or recipients of the subpoenas. Follow-up inquiries to the mayor’s office went unanswered Wednesday night. De Blasio, a Democrat serving his first term as mayor, has not been accused of any wrongdoing and has said he and his team did not violate any campaign finance laws. The mayor and hi...
Berlin - The Bavarian parliament was debating Thursday whether an annotated version of Adolf Hitler’s opus Mein Kampf should be authorized for educational use in schools and other establishments. The 2,000-page version of the text, which climbed to the top spot on Der Spiegel’s nonfiction bestseller list this month, includes 3,700 annotations that attempt to provide context to Hitler’s anti-Semitic rhetoric and lay bare his Nazi propaganda. It was first released in January after the copyright handed over to a Bavarian ministry by the Allies after World War II expired. The ministry had refrained from republishing the text for seven decades for fear of stoking anti-Semitism. Opposition parties in Bavaria, including the Social Democrats, the Greens and the Free V...
London -  Britain’s main opposition Labour Party has suspended former London Mayor Ken Livingstone over comments about anti-Semitism. Livingstone, who sits on Labour’s National Executive Council, said in a radio interview that he had never heard any anti-Semitic views expressed by Labour members, and claimed Adolf Hitler had supported Zionism before the Holocaust. He was defending lawmaker Naz Shah, who was suspended Wednesday over anti-Israel social media posts she made before she was elected. The party said in a statement Thursday that Livingstone had been suspended “pending an investigation, for bringing the party into disrepute.” Jewish groups and some Labour members accuse party leader Jeremy Corbyn of not clamping down on anti-Semitism in the ...
It is with great sadness that Matzav reports the passing of R’ Yechiel Mechel (Michael) Karfunkel, z”l. He was 72 years old. Mr. Karfunkel was born during World War II and grew up as a poor Jewish boy in Sighet, Hungary, managing to survive the Holocaust only to be swept up in a bitter revolt against the Soviet government. He ultimately managed to leave the bloodshed behind and immigrate to New York. With remarkable Hashgachah Elyonah, Mr. Karufunkel managed to rebuild his life, as he, like his younger brother George, became noted on Wall Street and in the real estate and the insurance industries, while maintaining tremendous anivus and an aversion to publicity. Mr. Karfunkel, a resident of Boro Park, Brooklyn, was the founder of National General Holdings Corp. and c...
Indiana - Democratic presidential candidate BernieSanders offered a list of reasons why Republican candidate Donald Trump will not become the next President of the United States ranging from his views on climate change to his views on a host of Americans. “The American people are not going to vote for Donald Trump for President because he thinks that climate change is a hoax,” Sanders told supporters in Indiana. “He thinks it is a hoax created by the Chinese, which was very confusing to me because I would have thought he would have thought it was a hoax created by Muslims or Mexicans,” Sanders said. He also said the American people would not vote for a candidate for President who insults Mexicans and Latinos, Muslims, women,vetera...
Baltimore, MD - Apr. 28, 2016  20 Nissan 5776  - Daily Dvar Halacha - Eruv Tavshilin?
Baltimore, MD - Apr. 27, 2016  Nissan 5776  - Daily Dvar Halacha - Is The End Of Pesach Different Than The End Of Sukkos? 
The U.S. Department of Defense has nominated U.S. Air Force Gen. David Goldfein to succeed retiring Gen. Mark Welsh as U.S. Air Force chief of staff on July 1. If confirmed by the U.S. Senate, the 56-year-old current vice chief of staff will be the second Jew in the position after Norton Schwartz, who filled the role between 2008 and 2012. Goldfein served in the Gulf War, the War in Afghanistan, and in NATO’s 1999 air campaign on what was then Yugoslavia. Air Force Times described him a “battle-tested” pilot. “I’m extremely humbled by the nomination to serve as the Air Force’s 21st chief of staff. If confirmed, I pledge to serve our Airmen and their families unwaveringly and honor our remarkable heritage and legacy of integrity, service,&...
Washington - Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump waded into politically risky territory this week when he accused Democrat Hillary Clinton of exploiting her gender to win votes and said she would have little support if she were not a woman. As Trump and Clinton, fresh off big wins in Northeastern state primaries on Tuesday, circle each other for a potential matchup in the Nov. 8 U.S. presidential election, his comments portended what could be a nasty campaign. Trump’s remarks, while appearing to break a taboo against gender stereotypes, energized Democrats. “Keep talking, Donald Trump, keep talking,” Democratic Committee National Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz told CNN. “Every single day when Donald Trump opens his mouth, he does more t...
 Donald Trump's Complete Speech on Foreign Policy in Washington, DC
More Orthodox Jews have been moving to Jersey City to take advantage of the real estate market there. But not everyone is happy with the new members of the community.
As YWN had reported, dozens of car windows were being randomly smashed in far Rockaway over the past few days. RNSP units geared up and went on special patrol to try to catch the perpetrator responsible for smashing more then 30 windows over the last 3 nights. At around 2:15Am, an RNSP unit witnessed the suspect smash a window of a vehicle and quickly hide in a driveway. RNSP units maintained a constant visual of the perpetrator until the NYPD arrived and arrested him. The perpetrator was armed with a firearm. The community thanks the outstanding work by the hardworking and dedicated volunteers of the RNSP and of course the men and women in blue, many of whom took special overtime shifts to try to put an end to this matter. RNSP thanked the Commanding Officer of the 101 Precinct, D.I. J...
 The davening experience during chol hamoed of Pesach is significantly different from that of Sukkos. For one, we arrive with much less baggage and there is no hoshanos following mussaf. The laining for each day is also more diverse on Pesach. But one of the most significant differences is that we do not recite the full hallel once the initial days of yom tov are complete. There are numerous reasons given for this. The gemara (Erchin 10b) explains that each day of Sukkos is considered a separate special day in its own right since the korbanos change for each day. Since every day of Pesach requires the exact same lineup of korbanos, each new day is not significant enough to warrant sayin...
U.S. economic growth braked sharply to its slowest pace in two years as consumer spending softened and a strong dollar continued to undercut exports, but a pick-up in activity is anticipated given a buoyant labor market. Gross domestic product increased at a 0.5 percent annual rate, the slowest since the first quarter of 2014, the Labor Department said on Thursday in its advance estimate, also as businesses doubled down on efforts to reduce unwanted merchandise clogging up warehouses. The economy was also blindsided by cheap oil, which has hurt the profits of oil field companies like Schlumberger and Halliburton, resulting in business spending contracting at its fastest pace since the second quarter of 2009, when the recession was ending. Economists polled by Reuters had foreca...
Baltimore, MD - Apr. 28, 2016 - It was a day of reflection throughout Baltimore on Wednesday as many looked back on the one-year anniversary of the city's violence and unrest.The violence occurred in the wake of the police in-custody death of Freddie Gray. Gray was arrested in west Baltimore on April 12, 2015. While in police custody, he suffered life-threatening injuries while being transported in a police van. Seven days later, Gray died at Shock Trauma. After Gray's funeral on April 27, 2015, a crowd of young people gathered near Mondawmin Mall to protest his death. The protest lasted for 3 1/2 hours, spreading east and west in the city, and became known as the "unrest." One year later, many people feel not much has changed. They gathered outside the CVS and Pennsy...
New York - Doctors Without Borders protested the price of pneumonia vaccines Wednesday by leading a march through midtown Manhattan and delivering a crib filled with flowers to a pharmaceutical company. About 70 people walked silently and in single file to Pfizer’s headquarters, where they placed 2,500 flowers in a crib as though laying tribute on a coffin. The flowers represented the number of children who die from pneumonia every day. The crib was inscribed with the names of more than 370,000 people from 170 countries who had signed a petition for Pfizer Inc. and GlaxoSmithKline PLC, the two companies with pneumonia vaccine patents, to reduce the price of a round of vaccination from $10 per child to $5. Organizers then hauled the crib over to Pfizer representatives inste...
Iran’s Supreme Leader accused the United States on Wednesday of scaring businesses away from Tehran and undermining a deal to lift international sanctions. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told hundreds of workers that a global deal, signed between Iran and world powers, had lifted financial sanctions, but U.S. obstruction was stopping Iran getting the full economic fruits of the agreement. Read full story at Reuters.
 New York - A commercial pilot was under the influence of alcohol while flying a JetBlue airliner carrying 151 passengers last year from Orlando to New York City, federal prosecutors said Wednesday. A criminal complaint says Dennis Murphy Jr. was selected for a random alcohol test after Flight 584 landed at Kennedy Airport on April 21, 2015. The court papers allege that the test found that his blood-alcohol level was 0.11, exceeding the .04 legal limit for pilots. A co-pilot later told investigators he saw Murphy “drinking an unknown beverage from a cup before and during” Flight 584 and another flight earlier in the day from New York to Orlando, the complaint says. Murphy was to be arraigned later Wednesday in federal court in Brooklyn. The name of his attorney w...
Bronx, NY - Hours after scores of arrests in a gang crackdown aimed at dismantling two rival groups that had terrorized housing projects in the Bronx, a federal prosecutor said his office is investigating whether the city’s 400,000 public housing residents are living in “decent, safe, sanitary” conditions. U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara told a news conference that nearly 700 New York Police Department officers and federal agents accompanied by helicopters and armored trucks executed pre-dawn raids, taking down the rival drug gangs from top to bottom. By afternoon, 85 individuals were in custody and more were sought in the biggest gang takedown in New York City history. The arrests stemmed from charges brought against 120 gang members. “We bring these charge...
Washington - Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders said on Wednesday he is planning to lay off hundreds of campaign workers nationwide and focus on winning in California, the New York Times reported on Wednesday. Sanders, a U.S. senator from Vermont, told the Times in an interview he planned to remain in the race despite losing four of five states in primary voting on Tuesday, putting him further behind rival Hillary Clinton. (http://nyti.ms/1N0tb1O) “We want to win as many delegates as we can, so we do not need workers now in states around the country,” the newspaper quoted Sanders as saying.
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