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July 23, 2016 at 11:24 pm
Cairo - Evidence gathered in an investigation into the crash of EgyptAir Flight 804 in the Mediterranean Sea in May shows the plane likely broke up in midair after a fire near or inside the cockpit that quickly overwhelmed the crew, according to Egyptian officials involved in the inquiry, the New York Times reported on Friday.
But the officials could not determine whether the fire thought to have caused the crash had been set off by a mechanical malfunction or by a malicious act, the report said.
The findings are based on information from the Airbus A320’s flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder along with an analysis of the condition and distribution of recovered debris, including human remains, according to forensic and aviation officials in Cairo, the report sai...
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July 23, 2016 at 11:13 pm
Three Baltimore police officers cleared of criminal charges in the death of Freddie Gray now face internal administrative reviews.
The Baltimore Sun reports that Montgomery County police are leading investigations to determine whether Lt. Brian Rice and Officers Caesar Goodson Jr. and Edward Nero broke department rules when they arrested Gray and transported him in a police van last year.
Montgomery County officers are being assisted by Howard County police with the reviews. Internal investigations into the conduct of the other officers will begin after their trials conclude.
Baltimore police commissioner Kevin Davis will decide whether to discipline the officers based on what the outside agencies conclude.
So far, trials for four of the six officers charged in Fred...
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July 23, 2016 at 11:07 pm
New York - During the primaries, Donald Trump threw red-meat rhetoric to supporters, pledging to build a wall on the Mexico border and to ban Muslim immigrants. He even told at least one crowd that he wanted to punch a demonstrator who disrupted an event.
Now that he’s the GOP presidential nominee, who needs to appeal to the whole country, some observers say he’s turning to tried-and-true code words to gin up racial animosity and fear among America’s white voters.
Trump “didn’t get on stage and issue a bunch of racial epithets,” said Emory University political scientist Andra Gillespie, who watched his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention. “We didn’t hear the N-word, and we didn’t hear other words that may ...
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July 23, 2016 at 11:02 pm
Cleveland - Donald Trump followed the script in his big speech to the Republican National Convention. Less than 12 hours later, he was free-form again, Trump being Trump, resurrecting a conspiracy theory linking the father of his chief rival from the primaries to John F. Kennedy’s assassination.
Trump’s plunge into a lengthy litigation of past spats with Ted Cruz — even bringing up his retweet of an unflattering photo of Cruz’s wife, Heidi — did nothing to assuage Republican fears about their standard bearer after a national convention complicated by unforced errors.
The episode raised questions, too, about how he might govern inside the White House, having so far led a scattershot campaign marked by a short temper and a seemingly improvised approac...
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July 23, 2016 at 11:01 pm
Jersey, NJ - Officials say 17 passengers suffered mostly minor injuries when a privately-operated ferry struck a dock in New Jersey across from Manhattan.
Jersey City spokeswoman Jennifer Morrill says the NY Waterway ferry made a hard landing and hit a pier just before 7:30 p.m. Saturday.
Injured passengers were taken to local hospitals. Morrill says most injuries appear minor although three people were removed on stretchers.
Coast Guard Petty Officer Steve Strohmaier says about 40 were aboard the Peter R. Weiss ferry when the collision happened. He says Coast Guard response teams will seek to determine the accident cause and whether any pollution was released.
The private ferries transport passengers to various locations, many along the Hudson River in New York and New Jersey.
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July 23, 2016 at 10:27 pm
Democrats are touting Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA), Hillary Clinton’s new running mate, as a pro-Israel voice in Congress. The left-wing Forward ran a tribute exulting: “5 Reasons Tim Kaine Will Be the Jewiest Vice President Pick for Hillary Clinton.”
Yet Kaine joined anti-Israel radicals in Congress in boycotting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech in March 2015 — the last plea of a beleaguered nation against an agreement that Iran is already violating with ballistic missile tests.
At the time, Kaine dismissed Netanyahu’s speech as purely an attempt to influence the upcoming Israel elections — on which the speech had virtually no effect — and complained that Republicans were trying to make support for Isra...
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July 23, 2016 at 10:21 pm
This past Thursday, 15 Tammuz, was the yahrzeit of my wife's grandmother, Mrs. Shirley Yeres, Chaya Sheindel bas Alexander.
The previous day was the yahrzeit of R' Yaakov Yitzchack Ruderman, zt"l, the first Rosh HaYeshivah of Yeshivas Ner Yisroel.
Shabbos, 17 Tammuz, is the yahrzeit of R' Shmuel Yaakov Weinberg, zt"l, Rosh HaYeshiva of Ner Yisroel.
The shtikle is dedicated le'iluy nishmasam.
When inquired as to the identity of his visitors, Bilam responds (22:10) "Balak ben Tzipor, the king of Moav sent them to me." Rashi delves into the motivation behind Bilam's statement. His intent was, "even though I am not dignified in Your eyes, I am dignified in the eyes of kings." R' Ruderman, zt"l, points out...
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July 23, 2016 at 10:14 pm
Los Angeles - The Nielsen company says an estimated 32.2 million people watched Donald Trump deliver his GOP nomination acceptance speech.
Thursday’s audience topped the 30.3 million who watched nominee Mitt Romney’s 2012 speech but fell well short of John McCain’s audience of 38.9 million at the 2008 Republican convention.
This year’s tally reflects viewership across 10 commercial networks, Nielsen said Friday, topped by Fox News Channel with 9.4 million viewers.
The channel’s triumph came the same day that its founder and chief, Roger Ailes, resigned amid a former anchorwoman’s claims of workplace misconduct.
For the closing hour of the four-day convention, CNN drew 5.5 million viewers; NBC 4.6 million; ABC 3.9 million; CBS 3.8 milli...
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July 23, 2016 at 10:08 pm
Munich - The gunman whose rampage at a Munich mall left nine people dead was a depression-plagued teenager who avidly read books and articles about mass killings and apparently tried to lure young victims to their deaths through a faked Facebook posting, authorities said Saturday.
Information from witnesses indicated that his hatred of foreigners might have played a role in the mass shooting, even though he himself was the German-born son of Iranian asylum-seekers.
Most of the dead were youths and all were Munich residents of varied ethnic backgrounds. Hueseyin Bayri, who witnessed one boy’s death, told The Associated Press the shooter screamed a profanity about foreigners and said “I will kill you all” as he pulled the trigger. A video shot of the perpetrat...
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July 23, 2016 at 10:00 pm
In advance of Democratic National Convention, Hillary Clinton announces Virginia Senator Tim Kaine as her pick for Vice President.
Presumptive Democratic Presidential nominee Hillary Clinton has revealed that Virginia Senator Tim Kaine will be her running mate in the upcoming election campaign.
Clinton is expected to be formally nominated as the Party's nominee at the Democratic National Convention (DNC) starting this Monday in Philadelphia.
Senator Kaine has a reputation as a moderate Democrat, leaning more towards the political center. The move is intended to please "swing-voters", people who can vote Republican or Democrat, by moving the Democratic ticket more to the moderate side. However, Kaine's nomination may alienate the more extreme left-leaning supporters of...
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July 22, 2016 at 6:17 pm
Washington - U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, commenting on the shooting attack in Munich in which at least eight people were killed on Friday, said the United States should do all in its power to keep out terrorism.
“This cannot continue. The rise of terrorism threatens the way of life for all civilized people, and we must do everything in our power to keep it from our shores,” Trump said on Facebook.
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July 22, 2016 at 6:15 pm
Miami, FL - A police SWAT team commander in Florida has been placed on leave without pay after one of his officers wounded an unarmed black man seen on cellphone video with his hands in the air, North Miami’s city manager said on Friday.
Commander Emile Hollant made conflicting statements about the incident, which is now under investigation, City Manager Larry Spring said during a news conference.
The officer who fired the shots, identified by Spring as Jonathan Aledda, is on leave with pay.
“This will not be tolerated,” Spring said of Aledda’s actions.
Behavioral therapist Charles Kinsey was shot in the leg on Monday as he tried to get an autistic man back to a nearby group home from which he had wandered. Video that shows Kinsey prone on the ground with...
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July 22, 2016 at 5:41 pm
New York - Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has pulled nearly even with Democratic rival Hillary Clinton for the first time since May, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll taken over the course of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland this week.
The July 18-22 national online poll found that 41 percent of likely voters supported Clinton, while 38 percent supported Trump. Given the poll’s credibility interval of about 4 percentage points, Trump and Clinton should be considered to be about even in the race.
Just before Republicans opened the convention on Monday, Trump had trailed Clinton by nearly 10 percentage points in the poll.
The New York businessman-turned-politician formally accepted the Republican nomination for the Nov. 8 presidential electi...
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July 22, 2016 at 5:20 pm
Louisiana - Former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke, an avowed white supremacist, officially signed up Friday to run for U.S. Senate in Louisiana.
“I’m proud to announce my candidacy for the United States Senate,” Duke said in a video before he signed qualifying papers. “I believe in equal rights for all and respect for all Americans. However, what makes me different is I also demand respect for the rights and heritage of European Americans.”
Duke’s candidacy comes as the state is grappling with deep racial tensions after the shooting death of a black man by white police officers and the killing of three law enforcement officers by a black man. It also comes one day after Donald Trump accepted the GOP nomination for president.
Duke said i...
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July 22, 2016 at 4:24 pm
Baton Rouge, LA - Baton Rouge Police Officer Matthew Gerald was remembered as a hero Friday by the city’s mayor, who called for respecting the police and avoiding the kind of “us vs. them” mentality that can encourage violence.
More than 2,000 people packed the church where Mayor Kip Holden and other leaders eulogized Gerald, the first of three officers slain by a lone gunman to be laid to rest. More funerals follow Saturday and Monday.
“The men and women who put on those uniforms, they respect you. Respect them,” the mayor said.
Baton Rouge Police Chief Carl Dabadie Jr.‘s voice cracked as he strayed from his prepared remarks to respond to the criticism police across the country have received over a steady stream of videotaped killings of bla...
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July 22, 2016 at 4:07 pm
Berlin - Munich police spokesman Peter Beck tells The Associated Press that six people are dead and several are wounded in a shooting attack outside a McDonald’s restaurant in Munich.
Munich police spokesman Marcus Martins tells AP they are aware of reports that a man has killed himself while he was being arrested, but said there is no confirmation of this yet. He says up to three suspects armed with rifles are still at large and being hunted by police.
Munich police are calling the Friday afternoon attack “suspected terrorism.” They have urged residents to remain indoors while the police operation is going down.
They also are urging social media users to refrain from speculating about the attack on Twitter.
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July 22, 2016 at 3:59 pm
New York - New Jersey’s two top Democratic leaders said on Friday that they reached an agreement on raising the state gasoline tax to pay for road, bridge and mass transit projects.
Senate President Stephen Sweeney and Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto, who previously clashed over what other taxes to cut to make the increase palatable, said their plan would reduce five kinds of taxes while raising the gasoline tax to 37.5 cents a gallon from 23 cents.
Sweeney said he would seek next week to amend existing legislation to incorporate the new plan. New Jersey’s gas tax has not risen since the late 1980s.
Governor Chris Christie backed Prieto’s proposal, which slashed the state sales tax. Sweeney’s previous plan targeted cuts to the state tax on wealthy ...
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July 22, 2016 at 3:59 pm
Albany, NY - Drivers in New York now have to slow down and move over for volunteer firefighters and ambulance workers as well as police and maintenance vehicles along roadsides.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed legislation expanding the state’s “Move-Over” law on Thursday.
Previously, the law only applied to drivers approaching stopped police, emergency, maintenance or towing vehicles with flashing red and white or amber lights. The new law applies also to vehicles with flashing blue or green lights that are operated by volunteer fire or ambulance workers involved in a roadside emergency.
The law requires highway drivers to slow down and move from the lane immediately adjacent to an emergency vehicle on the shoulder, unless traffic or other hazards prevent doing so saf...
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July 22, 2016 at 3:49 pm
Baltimore, MD – July 22, 2016 – Anyone in the area of the Greenspring Shopping Center has undoubtedly seen and heard the massive Police response to the most recent bank robbery in the center at the Wells Fargo bank.
With the Baltimore County Police Chopper up in the sky the chase is on for the suspect.
Our community is fortunate and thanks the dedicated members of both Baltimore City and Baltimore County Police departments who work so diligently on our behalf.
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July 22, 2016 at 3:41 pm
New York Magazine told The Algemeiner on Thursday that it “does not support a boycott of Israel,” despite its designation of Sabra, a popular brand of hummus and other spreads, as problematic.
The attack on Sabra appeared in the cover story of the magazine’s July 11 issue in an article entitled “The Neurotic Eater’s Grocery List,” which featured a list of products the magazine considers “morally squishy.” Among these was Sabra hummus, which it called “politicized” because its parent company, Strauss, provides financial support to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). The magazine also directed readers to an alternative, locally sourced hummus brand should Sabra’s support for the ID...
