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June 27, 2016 at 4:35 pm
Washington - A Donald Trump ally is suggesting that Elizabeth Warren take a DNA test to clear up controversy over her heritage.
Former Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown, who lost his Senate race to Warren in 2012, on Monday attacked Warren’s past claim of having Native American heritage. He made the comment during a Monday afternoon conference call hosted by the Republican National Committee, responding to Warren’s appearance with Democrat Hillary Clinton earlier in the day.
Republicans claim that Warren fabricated her ethnic background to gain an employment advantage. Warren denies that. She says she heard about her heritage from family stories.
Trump regularly mocks Warren as, “Pocahontas.”
Brown, a vocal Trump supporter, said Clinton “is considering ...
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June 27, 2016 at 4:33 pm
New York - The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday threw out Republican former Virginia Governor Robert McDonnell’s corruption convictions in a ruling that could aid two former NY leaders as they appeal their federal corruption convictions.
The court ruled 8-0 in overturning McDonnell’s conviction for accepting $177,000 in luxury gifts and sweetheart loans for him and his wife from a wealthy Richmond businessman seeking to promote a dietary supplement. The court found that McDonnell’s conduct did not constitute a criminal act under federal bribery law.
McDonnell’s lawyers had contended his conduct did not constitute “official action” in exchange for a thing of value, as required for conviction under federal bribery law. Prosecutors argued that McDonn...
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June 27, 2016 at 4:30 pm
New York - Traffic came to a near halt on a bridge connecting Staten Island and New Jersey as a man on horseback wearing a cowboy hat led another horse behind him cross the span.
It happened on the Outerbridge Crossing around 11:15 a.m. Monday.
A spokesman for the Port Authority police tells the Staten Island Advance that a police car escorted the man over the bridge as cars trailed behind.
A video sent to the Advance showed the rider sporting a brown vest and red kerchief galloping toward Staten Island. New Jersey-bound traffic slowed as motorists stopped to watch.
The rider held the reins of the second horse laden down with bags.
The paper says it’s believed the man is Doc Mishler, a cancer survivor, raising money for childhood hunger.
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Information from: State...
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June 27, 2016 at 3:35 pm
Moscow - Turkey’s president has apologized to Moscow for the downing of a Russian military jet at the Syrian border, Russian and Turkish officials said Monday, a move that could open the way for easing a bitter strain in Russia-Turkey ties.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s move comes seven months after the incident, which has drawn a slew of Russian sanctions that have dealt a severe blow to the Turkish economy. The formal apology, which the Kremlin had requested, would likely allow relations to improve.
Erdogan, in his message, expressed “sympathy and deep condolences” to the family of the killed pilot and apologized, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
Erdogan spokesman, Ibrahim Kalin, said, according to Turkey’s...
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June 27, 2016 at 3:04 pm
The Novominsker Rebbe, Rav Yaakov Perlow, issued a call for action in response to the festering scourge of child abuse and molestation. As a result of his seminal address at the recent Torah Umesorah convention, several groundbreaking initiatives have been launched to ensure that our children are safe at all times, Yated reports.
Torah Umesorah is preparing to train hundreds of principals, rabbeim and mechanchos across the country. This training will provide them with tools not only to prevent instances of child abuse and molestation from occurring within their schools, but also to recognize symptoms among students indicating that they may have been molested outside the school setting. (Statistics show that perpetrators are rarely strangers; generally, they are people the child ...
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June 27, 2016 at 2:56 pm
It is with great sadness that we report the petira of Rabbi Avraham Yaakov Finkel, z”l. He was 90 years old.
Born in 1926 in Basel, Switzerland, to his parents, Rabbi and Mrs. Yehoshua Matisyahu Finkel, he lived in The Hague, Netherlands, until 1942, when he was deported to Bergen-Belsen by the Nazis. He survived the Holocaust and the horrors of the concentration camps, ultimately immigrating to the United States, where he rebuilt his life. He resided in Brooklyn, New York.
Recently, Rabbi Finkel suffered from serious illness and was hospitalized at Jersey Shore Medical Center in Neptune, NJ. He passed away this morning.
Rabbi Finkel was a noted author of English Judaica literature. A master of his craft, his skills and talent in writing, editing and translating were rema...
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June 27, 2016 at 2:51 pm
Today, the Supreme Court struck down a set of Texas restrictions that shuttered half the state’s abortion providers, and Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg used her concurring opinion to blast a key argument for the state’s tighter regulations — that terminating a pregnancy in a clinic is dangerous.
She alluded to a criminal named 10 times in Monday’s court opinions: Kermit Gosnell, the Philadelphia physician who was convicted of first-degree murder five years ago for killing three infants who were born alive during attempted abortions. He was also found guilty for the wrongful death of a patient.
Texas attorneys had pointed to Gosnell in their oral arguments before the Court. But in her concurring opinion, Ginsburg wrote that it’s when regulations r...
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June 27, 2016 at 2:40 pm
Oslo - Former U.S. spy contractor Edward Snowden has failed in a legal bid to win guarantees from Norway that it would not extradite him to the United States if he went there to receive a free speech award, a Norwegian court said on Monday.
Snowden’s law firm said in April he would take the state to court to secure free passage to the Nordic country. The United States has filed espionage charges against him for leaking details of extensive U.S. surveillance programs.
“Oslo District Court has decided that the lawsuit from Edward Snowden against the State regarding extradition, should be dismissed,” the court said in a statement.
Snowden was granted asylum in Russia, which borders Norway, in 2013. He had been invited to Norway to receive a freedom of speech awar...
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June 27, 2016 at 2:38 pm
Baltimore, MD - June 26, 2016 - Please be advised that Nature’s Sunshine Pau D’Arco (Stock # 504-2 with a Hebrew label) bears an unauthorized Star-K symbol. It is a gelatin capsule product and is not kosher. The product was distributed in Israel. Corrective action is being taken.
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June 27, 2016 at 1:32 pm
Jerusalem - Israel and Turkey’s agreement to normalize ties will boost the Israeli economy, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday, while Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan cast it as a step towards improving humanitarian conditions in Gaza.
The once-firm allies reached the agreement on Sunday after a six-year rift over the Israeli navy’s killing of 10 Turkish pro-Palestinian activists who tried to sail to the blockaded Gaza Strip in 2010.
The rare rapprochement in the Middle East, bitterly divided over Syria’s civil war, has been largely driven by increasing security risks with the rise of Islamic State, and as both countries seek new alliances amid a polarized region.
Speaking after meeting U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry in Rome, Netanyahu said th...
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June 27, 2016 at 1:27 pm
Singapore - Singapore Airlines said Monday there were no injuries when a jetliner caught fire after returning to Changi Airport because of an engine warning.
The Boeing 777-300ER was on its way to Milan when it turned back “following an engine oil warning message,” the company said.
It said the aircraft’s right engine caught fire after Flight SQ368 touched down more than four hours after taking off.
“The fire was put out by airport emergency services and there were no injuries to the 222 passengers and 19 crew on board,” Singapore Airlines said in a statement.
The passengers were transferred to another aircraft, it said.
This image provided by Lee Bee Yee shows the aftermath of an engine fire on a Singapore Airlines flight, at Changi Inter...
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June 27, 2016 at 1:19 pm
Germany - A German court says a 94-year-old former SS sergeant who served as an Auschwitz guard is appealing his conviction on 170,000 counts of accessory to murder.
The Detmold state court said in a statement Monday that Reinhold Hanning’s attorneys had both filed appeals of the June 17 verdict, as had lawyers representing nine Auschwitz survivors or their families as co-plaintiffs at the trial.
Further details were not immediately announced.
Hanning was found guilty of helping the death camp function in his service as a guard there from 1942 to 1944 and sentenced to five years in prison.
He’ll remain free, however, until the appeals process is complete.
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June 27, 2016 at 1:17 pm
London - Last Sunday I was honored to attend the annual Iftar at Finchley Reform Synagogue, one of a number where I have been welcomed in my first Ramadan as mayor of London.
During my time there, it was inspiring to hear that the synagogue has been hosting local Somali Bravanese worshipers since their community center was burned down in an arson attack three years ago. Many of these individuals had never set foot in a synagogue before, but now friendships have developed over shared meals, and the two communities held an Interfaith Succot Festival at a local shopping mall last year.
This is just one example I’ve witnessed through my attendance at a wide variety of Iftars this Ramadan, of faith groups coming together. It has been humbling to see people from many backgrounds...
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June 27, 2016 at 1:14 pm
Ansted, VA - Two men who were presumed dead when a camper was swept away in rushing waters during the West Virginia floods have been found alive, officials said Monday as the rain-soaked state braced for another round of heavy rains.
The discovery of the men lowers the death toll to 23, officials said. That number includes 20 bodies found and three people who are missing and presumed dead.
The men were either camping or getting ready to set up camp when the rains started last Thursday, said Timothy Rock, spokesman for West Virginia Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management.
The left all of their gear and their truck at the camp site in the Blue Bend area of the Monongahela National Forest in Greenbrier County, the hardest-hit area, and perhaps got a ride out, Rock ...
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June 27, 2016 at 1:12 pm
Washington - Democrats on the House Benghazi panel said in a report Monday that security at the Libya facility the night of Sept. 11, 2012 was “woefully inadequate,” but former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton never personally denied any requests from diplomats for additional protection.
The panel’s five Democrats said after a two-year investigation that the military could not have done anything differently on the night of the attacks to save the lives of four Americans killed in Libya. U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens died in one of the two assaults that night at the U.S. outpost and CIA annex.
Democrats’ release of their own report heightened the partisanship of the inquiry, which has been marked by accusations of Obama administration stonewalling and f...
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June 27, 2016 at 12:54 pm
Ezra Wohlgelernter, a leader in the Jewish community over the past 30 years and a co-founding partner of Feldman Shepherd Wohlgelernter Tanner Weinstock & Dodig LLP, was installed as president of the Philadelphia Trial Lawyers Association. After previously serving as association vice president and president-elect, Wohlgelernter will serve a one-year term as president.
With 34 years of professional experience and service as the vice chair of the Senior Law Center, Wohlgelernter will spearhead the PTLA’s mission to be an active professional organization dedicated to preserving the rights of injured individuals in the legal system.
Delaware Valley philanthropist, business and community leader Ernie Scheller received an honorary doctoral degree from Be...
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June 27, 2016 at 12:51 pm
Washington - The billionaire running for president now seeks to convince millions of Americans to give him money.
With the simple tap of the “send” button one day last week, Donald Trump collected $3 million in campaign contributions as much as he did in the entire month of May. He had asked for donations of $10 or more, with the promise of chipping in $2 million of his own money to match those that arrived.
That one-day haul from Trump’s first fundraising appeal is early evidence of the digital magic it takes to fill campaign coffers Bernie Sanders-style â millions of people, each giving a few bucks.
Yet that was just one email. Success demands repetition.
The presumptive Republican nominee must now make the case that he needs money, after months ...
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June 27, 2016 at 11:42 am
Washington - The Supreme Court struck down Texas’ widely replicated regulation of abortion clinics Monday in the court’s biggest abortion case in nearly a quarter century.
The justices voted 5-3 in favor of Texas clinics that had argued the regulations were a thinly veiled attempt to make it harder for women to get an abortion in the nation’s second-most populous state.
Justice Stephen Breyer’s majority opinion for the court held that the regulations are medically unnecessary and unconstitutionally limit a woman’s right to an abortion.
Texas had argued that its 2013 law and subsequent regulations were needed to protect women’s health. The rules required doctors who perform abortions to have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals and forced ...
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June 27, 2016 at 11:25 am
New York - U.S. stocks fell sharply in early trading Monday following another slide in European markets as investors grappled with the fallout of Britain’s vote to leave the European Union.
The British pound, which last week plunged to its lowest level since 1985, continued to fall as traders expected the British economy would take a hit.
The Dow Jones industrial average lost 234 points, or 1.4 percent, to 17,165 as of 10:05 a.m. Eastern Time. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index slid 29 points, or 1.5 percent, to 2,007. The Nasdaq composite fell 76 points, or 1.6 percent, to 4,631.
The latest decline followed the market’s plunge on Friday, when the Dow and S&P 500 clocked their biggest losses since August, and the Nasdaq notched its worst day since August ...
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June 27, 2016 at 11:24 am
Washington - A unanimous Supreme Court on Monday overturned the bribery conviction of former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell in a ruling that could make it harder for prosecutors to bring corruption cases against elected officials.
McDonnell had been found guilty in 2014 of accepting more than $165,000 in gifts and loans from a wealthy businessman in exchange for promoting a dietary supplement. He was sentenced to two years in prison, but was allowed to remain free while the justices weighed his appeal.
The justices voted to narrow the scope of a law that bars public officials from taking gifts in exchange for “official action,” saying it does not cover routine courtesies like setting up meetings or hosting events for constituents.
The high court took no position on whe...
