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July 28, 2016 at 3:14 pm
Waukesha, WI - The Washington Post says one of its reporters was barred from entering a campaign rally for Republican vice presidential nominee Mike Pence near Milwaukee.
The newspaper says Post reporter Jose DelReal was turned down for a credential before the rally and tried to enter through general admission. The Post reports DelReal was stopped by private security who said he couldn’t enter with his laptop and cellphone. The Post says the Waukesha County Sheriff’s Department verified DelReal had no phone after patting him down, but DelReal still was denied entry.
Trump banned the Post from being credentialed for campaign events last month.
Post executive editor Martin Baron says DelReal was subjected to “bullying treatment that no ordinary citizen has to endu...
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July 28, 2016 at 3:11 pm
Cairo - French officials on Thursday identified the second man who attacked a Normandy church during morning Mass, saying he’s a 19-year-old from eastern France who was spotted last month in Turkey as he supposedly headed to Syria — but who returned to France instead.
The prosecutor’s office identified him as Abdel-Malik Nabil Petitjean following DNA tests on his corpse. A security official confirmed that he was the unidentified man pictured on a photo distributed to French police on July 22 with a warning that he could be planning an attack.
Four days later, Petitjean and another 19-year-old local man, Adel Kermiche, stormed the church in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray during Mass on Tuesday. They held five people hostage — the priest, two nuns and an elderly ...
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July 28, 2016 at 3:10 pm
Pawtucket, RI - A Rhode Island congressman says he’s asking President Barack Obama to withhold classified materials and briefings from Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump in the interest of national security.
U.S. Rep. David Cicilline (sihs-ihl-EE’-nee), a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, sent a letter to Obama on Wednesday.
At a news conference hours earlier, Trump said he hoped that Russia would find emails deleted by Hillary Clinton from her time as secretary of state. He said: “Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing.”
Cicilline says Trump’s “call for hostile foreign action” goes beyond partisan politics and “represents a threat to the republi...
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July 28, 2016 at 3:07 pm
Philadelphia - The wealthy Democratic donors, many of whom run complex businesses, know firsthand how revealing tax returns can be. Perhaps that’s why they can’t stop talking about Republican nominee Donald Trump’s refusal to release his.
From their suites at the Ritz-Carlton hotel, the finance hub at this week’s Democratic convention, and at the event’s auxiliary swanky parties, supporters of Hillary Clinton are sounding the alarm about Trump’s break with decades of presidential campaign tradition.
Clinton put out eight years of recent tax filings last summer, and her backers lament that voters don’t seem to understand why Trump’s refusal to do the same matters.
Democratic talk of the taxes spilled onto the convention stage Wedne...
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July 28, 2016 at 3:06 pm
Raleigh, NC - North Carolina Republicans have apologized to Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Kaine for mistakenly critiquing him for wearing a foreign flag during his acceptance speech.
The state GOP sent out a tweet Wednesday night saying it was “shameful” for Kaine to wear the flag of Honduras during his speech at the Democratic National Convention.
Kaine spent a year in Honduras as a missionary. But Ben Amey, a reporter for WNYT-TV in Albany, New York, pointed out on Twitter that Kaine’s pin was actually the symbol for families with a member serving in the military.
Kaine’s son, a Marine, is currently deployed.
Amey posted a screen grab of the party’s original tweet, which the GOP has since deleted. Also on Twitter, the party thanked Ame...
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July 28, 2016 at 3:04 pm
Washington - The United States is deeply concerned about Israel’s reported plans to build an additional 323 units in settlements in East Jerusalem on top of 770 units previously announced in the settlement of Gilo, the U.S. State Department said.
Such action by Israel “continues this pattern of provocative and counterproductive action,” State Department spokesman John Kirby said in a statement on Wednesday.
Kirby called the settlement activity “corrosive to the cause of peace.”
In addition to the plans for East Jerusalem and Gilo, Kirby cited plans for other units, including 531 in Ma’ale Adumim, 19 in Har Homa, 120 in Ramot, and 30 in Pisgat Ze’ev. He also noted a plan to legalize an outpost near Ramallah; and tenders for 42 units in Ki...
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July 28, 2016 at 3:02 pm
Moscow - Russia told the United States on Thursday to get to the bottom of a hacking scandal involving Democratic Party emails itself and rejected what Donald Trump said was a sarcastic suggestion that Moscow should dig up Hillary Clinton’s “missing” emails.
Trump, the Republican Party’s presidential candidate, angered Democratic circles on Wednesday by inviting Russia to unearth tens of thousands of emails from rival Clinton’s tenure as U.S. Secretary of State.
He spoke out after U.S. President Barack Obama said it was possible Russia might try to influence the Nov. 8 U.S. presidential election after a leak of Democratic National Committee emails that experts blamed on Russian hackers.
Suggestions of Russian involvement have riled the Kremli...
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July 28, 2016 at 3:00 pm
Sydney - Australian officials confirmed on Thursday that data recovered from a home flight simulator owned by the captain of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 showed that someone had used the device to plot a course to the southern Indian Ocean, where the missing jet is believed to have crashed.
There has been confusion over exactly what was found on Capt. Zaharie Ahmad Shah’s flight simulator since New York Magazine reported last week that an FBI analysis of the device showed Zaharie had conducted a simulated flight to the southern Indian Ocean less than a month before the plane vanished along a similar route. The magazine cited the discovery as strong evidence that the disappearance was a premeditated act of mass murder-suicide at the hands of the captain.
Australia’s ...
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July 28, 2016 at 2:57 pm
Connecticut, PA - A Connecticut man already in custody after large quantities of firearms and ammunition were seized from his home was indicted on charges he made online threats to kill or injure people, including Jews, the U.S. Department of Justice said on Thursday.
Kendall Sullivan, 50, of Stamford, was charged on Wednesday by a federal grand jury in Bridgeport, Connecticut, with three counts of making threatening communications online, each punishable by up to five years in prison.
A lawyer for Sullivan could not immediately be identified.
Authorities said Sullivan posted his threats on the internet forum Metalthrone.net three times between May 29 and July 5.
The indictment alleged that Sullivan wrote that he had “a few ‘Houses of Satan’ in my Town,” ...
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July 28, 2016 at 2:53 pm
Chicago, IL - Boeing Co could end production of its iconic 747 aircraft, as the world’s biggest plane maker faces falling orders and pricing pressure, according to a regulatory filing.
“If we are unable to obtain sufficient orders and/or market, production and other risks cannot be mitigated, we could record additional losses that may be material, and it is reasonably possible that we could decide to end production of the 747,” Boeing said on Wednesday. (http://bit.ly/2as8Z9k)
Boeing said it had canceled plans to increase production of the 747 to one plane per month from 2019, and stuck to its plan of halving the production rate in September.
“On the 747 program, we decided to reduce future production expectations and revenue assumptions to account for c...
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July 28, 2016 at 2:50 pm
This week’s Torah portion discusses the mitzva of inheritance (see (Bamidbar 27:8)
Rabbi Yitzchak Zilberstein related the following fascinating story that pertains to the mitzva of inheritance.
A certain wealthy congregation began a construction project to improve the appearance of its shul. The congregation decided that while they were fixing the appearance of the shul they should also repair their Sifrei Torah, Torah Scrolls. The president of the shul asked a team of two sofrim (scribes) to inspect the Sifrei Torah. The sofrim inspected the Torah scrolls and saw that they needed a lot of repairs. They gave an estimate to the president that all of the work would cost $6000. The president, who wanted to get a bargain said, "We are only willing to spend $1000 towards this proj...
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July 28, 2016 at 12:05 pm
Philadelphia - Text of President Barack Obama’s speech Wednesday at the Democratic National Convention, as provided by the White House.
___
Hello, America.
Twelve years ago tonight, I addressed this convention for the very first time.
You met my two little girls, Malia and Sasha - now two amazing young women who just fill me with pride. You fell for my brilliant wife and partner Michelle, who’s made me a better father and a better man; who’s gone on to inspire our nation as First Lady; and who somehow hasn’t aged a day.
I know the same can’t be said for me. My girls remind me all the time. Wow, you’ve changed so much, daddy.
And it’s true - I was so young that first time in Boston. Maybe a little nervous addressing such a big crowd. But...
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July 28, 2016 at 11:54 am
Baltimore, MD - July 28, 2016 - “Hadran Alach Seder Taharos, Tanach, Shisha Sedarim V’Shas Bavli v’Hadrach Alan.” So began Reb Nosson Horowitz as he, on behalf of the entire Baltimore community, recited the Hadran on Kol HaTorah Kulah – all of Tanach, Mishnayos and Gemara Bavli.
Learning began in earnest last summer for this 25th cycle of Baltimore’s Siyum HaTorah, as community members joined together to do what no one person could do by himself. Rabbi Zvi Teichman began the 26th cycle with the first Mishna in Brachos. Congregants of Rabbi Teichman’s shul, Ohel Moshe, joined in this year’s Siyum by completing four of the Sedarim of Mishnayos and hope to complete all six Sedarim for the coming cycle.
Masterfully MC�...
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July 28, 2016 at 11:40 am
Washington - Some U.S. intelligence officials suspect that Russian hackers who broke into Democratic Party computers may have deliberately left digital fingerprints to show Moscow is a “cyberpower” that Washington should respect.
Three officials, all speaking on condition of anonymity, said the breaches of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) were less sophisticated than other cyber intrusions that have been traced to Russian intelligence agencies or criminals.
For example, said one official, the hackers used some Cyrillic characters, worked during Russian government business hours but not on Russian religious or political holidays.“Either these guys were incredibly sloppy, in which case it’s not clear that they could have gotten as far as they...
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July 28, 2016 at 11:27 am
Poland - Two Holocaust survivors took to a stage at the site of the former Warsaw Ghetto this week to perform lively prewar tunes - the 91-year-old played drums and the 88-year-old was on accordion, keyboard and vocals. In the audience several elderly Christian Poles who saved Jews during the Holocaust swayed and tapped their feet to songs in Yiddish, Hebrew and Polish.
Poland, a deeply Catholic nation, has a complex relationship with the Jews who flourished for centuries in the Eastern European land before perishing in the Holocaust. It is a deeply emotional story of both betrayal and salvation that Pope Francis will encounter during a somber visit Friday to the former Nazi German death camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau, where some 1.1 million people were murdered, most of them Jews.
...
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July 28, 2016 at 11:03 am
Gaza - Hamas is digging 10 kilometers (six miles) of tunnel each month toward Israel, a senior security official told Channel 2 on Wednesday. Construction continues despite several tunnel collapses in recent months.
A senior diplomatic source went on to say that Israel has no perfect solution to the tunnel problem, and neither does any other country.
The news comes amid controversy regarding Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s readiness to combat the tunnel issue. Netanyahu pushed back on Monday against claims that his government was unprepared for the threat of cross-border tunnel raids from Gaza in the lead-up to the 2014 war, saying that they are “the opposite of the truth.”
The discovery in April of a tunnel leading from southern Gaza into Israel, and ..re...
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July 28, 2016 at 10:57 am
Philadelphia - A Hillary Clinton campaign pin written in Hebrew was spotted on the lapel of former president of the United States Bill Clinton during the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia Wednesday evening.
The pin, according to online publication Tablet Magazine, was presumably a gift from either one of two representatives from the National Jewish Democratic Council who were in attendance at the DNC.
“I was at a Clinton/Gore campaign alumni event this afternoon at the Jewish Historical Museum in Philadelphia and gave my old boss the pin,” Steve Rabinowitz, a former Clinton White House staffer and NJDC official, told Tablet’s Yair Rosenberg.
“He said he’d wear it but I didn’t know whether or not to believe him and certainly didn...
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July 28, 2016 at 10:22 am
Berlin - Chancellor Angela Merkel pledged Thursday to do “everything humanly possible” to keep Germany safe following a string of attacks — including two carried out by asylum-seekers and claimed by the Islamic State group that she said mocked the country that took in the assailants.
The attacks brought Merkel fresh criticism for her decision last year to welcome refugees. More than 1 million asylum-seekers were registered in Germany in 2015, although the influx has since slowed dramatically.
Merkel said at a news conference that Germany will “stick to our principles” and give shelter to those who deserve it.
“We will manage this,” she said, repeating a mantra she coined last August.
Merkel called for a better “early warning system&...
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July 28, 2016 at 10:17 am
Washington - Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on Thursday tried to quell the furor over his call to Russia to find Hillary Clinton’s deleted emails by saying he was being sarcastic.
The New York businessman on Wednesday invited Russia to dig up tens of thousands of “missing” emails from Clinton’s time at the U.S. State Department, prompting Democrats to accuse him of urging foreigners to spy on Americans.
“Of course I’m being sarcastic,” Trump said in an interview broadcast Thursday on Fox News.
“But you have 33,000 emails (by Clinon) deleted, and the real problem is what was said on those emails from the Democratic National Committee,” he said, referring to hacked emails released last weekend by WikiLeaks...
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July 28, 2016 at 9:24 am
Jerusalem - For years, Dani Dayan was the West Bank settler movement’s face to the outside world. Next week, he’ll become the face of Israel to much of North America.
Dayan takes office Aug. 1 as Israel’s new consul general in New York, overseeing his country’s biggest diplomatic mission and serving as its representative to the world’s financial and cultural capital.
He will also be in charge of outreach to the largest Jewish community outside Israel at a time of disagreements over Mideast peace and Jewish pluralism.
Dayan’s appointment reflects the settler movement’s strong influence in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government. It’s also a personal victory for Dayan, whose previous appointment as ambassador to Brazil ...
