President Trump’s childhood home in Queens was sold for $2.14 million — more than double the average value of comparable homes in the area. The property was auctioned off by an investor. “This property is so much more than just real estate; it’s the childhood home of the 45th President of the United States, and it’s a part of history,” said Misha Haghani, principal of auction house ParamountRealty USA. The deal on the first property connected to Republican President-elect Donald Trump closed March 23. The 1940 Tudor-style house, in a leafy part of Queens, was offered to bidders last fall, but that auction was canceled after publicity sparked a burst of last-minute interest. Before the most recent sale, city records show an investor ultimately bought ...
Speaker Paul Ryan said Tuesday he’s going to give battered House Republicans another crack at a health care overhaul. But he offered no timeline, and leaders haven’t resolved how to overcome the deep GOP divisions that crumpled their legislation last week in a humiliating retreat for themselves and President Donald Trump. “We are all going to work together and listen together until we get this right,” Ryan told reporters after House Republicans met for the first time since he averted a Friday vote on a GOP health care bill that faced certain defeat. “It is just too important.” The doomed GOP bill would have eliminated former President Barack Obama’s mandate for people to carry insurance or face fines and would have shrunk a Medicaid expansion. It...
President Donald Trump has signed an executive order that will roll back many of former President Barack Obama’s efforts to curb global warming. The order is aimed at helping spur American energy jobs. The president signed the order at the headquarters of the Environmental Protection Agency. Trump says this is “the start of a new era” in energy production. The order will mandate a review of the Clean Power Plan, which restricts greenhouse gas emissions at coal-fired power plants. It will also lift a 14-month-old moratorium on new coal leases on federal lands. Trump has called global warming a “hoax,” and has repeatedly criticized Obama’s efforts as an attack on American workers and the struggling U.S. coal industry.
U.S. home prices jumped in January from a year earlier at the fastest pace in nearly 2 years, as a tight supply of houses for sale spurred bidding wars in many cities. The Standard & Poor’s CoreLogic Case-Shiller 20-city home price index, released Tuesday , increased 5.7 percent in January, the most since July 2014. Americans stepped up home buying in January, even as mortgage rates rose. Many buyers likely sought to close their deals before rates increased further. The Federal Reserve implemented its third rate hike in two years March 15, but economists at S&P Dow Jones Indices say higher rates won’t slow sales until later this year. The biggest price gains were in Seattle, Portland and Denver, which have topped the other cities in the index for months. Mark Flemin...
A senior Russian general on Tuesday criticized the U.S.-led coalition fighting Islamic State militants for allegedly targeting Syria’s infrastructure — including a key dam — in territory held by the Sunni extremist group. Col. Gen. Sergei Rudskoi of the military’s General Staff accused the coalition of trying to “completely destroy critical infrastructure in Syria and complicate post-war reconstruction as much as possible.” However, the U.S.-backed Syrian opposition force has insisted it is taking care to preserve vital infrastructure as it steps up military operations in northern Syria ahead of a push on Raqqa, the city that is the Islamic State’s group main stronghold and de facto capital. Rudskoi further claimed that coalition jets had destro...
Aiming to prove their commitment to Israel, senior U.S. lawmakers are backing bipartisan legislation that would slap Iran with new sanctions while maintaining rigorous enforcement of the landmark nuclear deal. The measures, unveiled ahead of the opening of the annual American Israel Public Affairs Committee conference, seek to build consensus among Republicans and Democrats who are so often bitterly at odds on domestic issues. “The United States will stand with Israel,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said at the conference Tuesday. But the Kentucky Republican criticized the nuclear agreement as a “windfall” for Tehran that prevented the U.S. from taking more aggressive steps against Iran. “But today we can take a different approach,” McConnell...
President Donald Trump is expected to sign an executive order Tuesday aimed at moving forward on his campaign pledge to unravel former President Barack Obama’s plan to curb global warming. The order will suspend, rescind or flag for review more than a half-dozen measures in an effort to boost domestic energy production in the form of fossil fuels. As part of the roll-back, Trump will initiate a review of the Clean Power Plan, which restricts greenhouse gas emissions at coal-fired power plants. The regulation, which was the former president’s signature effort to curb carbon emissions, has been the subject of long-running legal challenges by Republican-led states and those who profit from burning oil, coal and gas. Trump, who has called global warming a “hoax” inve...
House intelligence chairman Devin Nunes faced growing calls Tuesday to step away from the panel’s Russia investigation as revelations about a secret source meeting on White House grounds raised questions about his and the panel’s independence. Nunes acknowledged Monday that he reviewed intelligence reports at the White House complex and met a secret source behind his statement that communications involving associates of President Donald Trump were caught up in “incidental” surveillance. The Republican congressman’s disclosure prompted the top Democrat on the committee, Rep. Adam Schiff, as well as the Democratic leaders in the House and Senate, to call on Nunes to recuse himself from the committee’s Russia probe. Schiff said Nunes’ connections t...
Yesh Atid party leader MK Yair Lapid met with dati leumi rabbonim accompanied by party colleague MK Elazar Stern, a former IDF major-general and head of Human Resources in the IDF. They met with some of the rabbonim who signed the letter addressing mixed gender units in the military. Lapid explained that with all due respect, IDF policy would be set by commanders and not rabbonim. The rabbonim explained the difficulties with the mixed units to Lapid, adding following their meeting last week with IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-General Gadi Eizenkott, they are conducting meaningful talks with IDF representatives. Among the rabbonim present were Rabbi David Stav (Tzohar), Rabbi Rafi Feuerstein (Tzohar), Rabbi Ohad Tahar Lev (Midreshet Lindenbaum), and Rabbi Amichai Gordon (from Yeshivat Har Etzion)...
The Boyaner Rebbe Shlita is working to expand assistance given to chassidim ahead of Pesach. A project has been launched to subsidize basic items for larger families, including bread and milk. Under the banner “לחם לפי הטף”, larger low income families in the chassidus will be entitled to assistance which entails receiving a sum of money weekly to assist in buying basic food items from their homes. This will apply in families which do not earn more than NIS 1,000 a person monthly. The prominent philanthropists in the chassidus are undertaking 50% of the cost of buying the staple food items to lessen the load on these families. No indication is given as to how many families will be eligible for the assistance program.
Florida officials say they’re continuing aggressive efforts to stop the spread of the Zika virus. Gov. Rick Scott met Monday with Miami-Dade County officials to discuss Zika preparedness ahead of Florida’s rainy season, when mosquitoes are most prevalent. Officials said fewer travel-related cases are being reported in Florida so far this year, compared with last spring. Officials also said state labs and Miami-Dade mosquito control operations added staff since last year’s Zika outbreak. Counseling also is available for families affected by the virus that can cause severe brain-related birth defects. Florida has reported two locally acquired Zika infections in 2017. Health officials said both patients likely contracted the virus last year in Miami-Dade County.
Thirty-four firemen in Israel have just completed an EMT (Emergency Medical Technician) course given by Magen David Adom and they will now join the Ne’emanei Chaim program of first responders. Among the training the firemen undergo, the decision was made to add a MDA EMT course, which was given by MDA personnel to train firemen, who are often first on the scene of an incident, fire or car accident, equipping with them with the skills to address medical emergencies.
Canadians should be able to smoke marijuana legally by July 1, 2018, a senior government official said Monday. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government will introduce legislation to legalize recreational marijuana the week of April 10th and it should become law by July next year, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to lack of authorization to discuss the upcoming legislation. Trudeau has long promised to legalize recreational pot use and sales. Canada would be the largest developed country to end a nationwide prohibition of recreational marijuana. In the U.S, voters in California, Massachusetts, Maine and Nevada voted last year to approve the use of recreational marijuana, joining Colorado, Washington, Oregon and Alaska. Uruguay in South America is ...
Last week, a special delegation from Christians United for Israel (CUFI) visited the headquarters of United Hatzalah (UH) in Jerusalem to learn about Hatzalah’s all-volunteer, emergency medical services (EMS) model, and to see firsthand how the Hatzalah model is uniting the peoples of Israel in the joint cause of saving lives. Randy Neal, the Western Regional Coordinator for CUFI, spoke about why this visit was important to the group. “We have a number of pastors here from different states and different denominations. A lot of them are not familiar with Israel and most of them have never been to Israel before. I have had the occasion and privilege to learn about United Hatzalah and I believe that the organization encapsulates the heart of Israel. I really believe that that the...
Support among the Israeli Jewish public for a withdrawal from the West Bank and the establishment of a Palestinian state is decreasing, a new poll published on Monday revealed. The poll — conducted by Mina Tzemach on behalf of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs (JCPA) think tank — found that only 36 percent of Israeli Jews back a pullout from the West Bank as part of a peace agreement with the Palestinians, compared to 60% in 2005. Also, support for the “Clinton Parameters” — described by the JCPA as a “demilitarized Palestinian state without settlement blocs, full Palestinian security control of the West Bank, Jerusalem divided and the capital of both states, the Temple Mount in the hands of the Palestinians, while Israel receives ...
A new high-speed rail line connecting Israel’s holy city to its leading metropolis—Jerusalem to Tel Aviv—is set to revolutionize transportation in the Jewish state when it becomes operational at the beginning of 2018.  The bridge over the Valley of Ayalon, a recognizable landmark of the Tel Aviv-Jerusalem high-speed rail project that is set for completion in 2018. Credit: Wikimedia Commons. The ambitious 10-year effort to construct a high-speed rail link between the two cities is the largest project undertaken by Israel Railways in the past decade, and is also one of the largest infrastructure projects ever undertaken in Israel’s history.  Shahar Wiesman, head of communications for Israel Railways, said that “ev...
Israel, not Iran, is to blame for instability across the Middle East, a Tehran regime official claimed on Tuesday. Responding to US Vice President Mike Pence’s Sunday address at AIPAC’s annual policy conference in Washington, DC — in which Pence said the Islamic Republic was destabilizing the Middle East and jeopardizing Israel’s security — Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qassemi stated, “Unfortunately, the United States’ polices in support of the Zionist regime’s aggressive measures against the people of the region and also daily crimes committed by America’s partners against the defenseless people of Yemen have worsened insecurity in the Middle East.” The Foreign Ministry spokesman also vowed that Iran woul...
The Palestinian terror organization Hamas has developed a new high-powered rocket similar to those utilized by the Lebanese terror group Hezbollah, Israel’s Army Radio reported. Hamas Qassam rocket launchers in the Gaza Strip. Credit: Wikimedia Commons. The report described the new Hamas rocket as being “completely different than any weaponry we know from the direction of the [Gaza] Strip—as concerns the weight of the explosive carried in the head of the rocket.” In response to the IDF-affiliated radio network’s report, Ashkelon Coast Regional Council head Yair Farjoun, whose home city shares a border with Gaza, stated, “We are prepared for every scenario and if we need to evacuate, we will evacuate. Civil...
Lawmaker and Temple Mount activist Yehuda Glick petitions supreme court to lift ban immediately Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will gradually lift a ban which forbids Israeli ministers and lawmakers from visiting the flashpoint Temple Mount site in Jerusalem, the country's Channel 2 broadcaster reported Monday. The report stated that Netanyahu made the decision to reverse the nearly 18-month old ban in a meeting on Monday with Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan, confidante Yitzhak Molcho, and members of Israel's internal security services and police forces. Channel 2 said that lawmakers will be able to resume visits to the holy site in three months time, after sensitive dates have passed, including the Jewish celebration of Passover in April, the ...
Leader of anti-Zionist Chassidic sect condemns road-blockings by Yerushalmi Faction against draft of yeshiva students. The leader of the world’s largest anti-Zionist hassidic sect surprised followers on Monday when he condemned protests being held by anti-draft activists in Israel. Rabbi Aaron Teitelbaum, one of two Satmar Rebbes who lay claim to the hassidic dynasty, blasted recent protests by the extremist Yerushalmi Faction against the draft of yeshiva students. The comments were made during an address to followers in Kiryas Joel, New York on Monday. “They are not [righteous] zealots,” said Rabbi Teitelbaum, “they are newcomers with no tradition of how to protest.” The Rebbe condemned the methods used by demonstrators, arguing their tactics –...
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