A class-action lawsuit challenging a once-secret government program that delayed immigration and citizenship applications by Muslims can move forward, a federal judge has ruled. U.S. District Judge Richard Jones in Seattle on Wednesday denied the Justice Department’s request to dismiss the lawsuit, which was filed in February by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project. The lawsuit claims the government since 2008 has used the Controlled Application Review and Resolution Program to blacklist thousands of applications for asylum, legal permanent residency or citizenship as national security concerns. The program imposes criteria on the applications that go far beyond what Congress has authorized, including holding up some applications if the app...
Owners of FF175BP or FF175BG models should contact company after one was identified as cause of tower block blaze Hotpoint has urged owners of its fridge-freezers to check their model numbers for safety reasons after one was identified as the initial cause of the Grenfell Tower fire. A spokesman said Hotpoint was working with the authorities after its FF175BP model was found to have started the devastating blaze last week. He urged consumers who believe they own that model or the FF175BG to contact the company on a freephone hotline or visit the website to register their details. “Words cannot express our sorrow at this terrible tragedy,” the spokesman said. “We offer our most profound condolences to the victims, those who have lost loved ones, homes, and possessi...
As the 2017 New York State legislative season came to a close, leaders of Agudath Israel’s Government Affairs team visited the capitol to thank lawmakers for their efforts. This season saw significant accomplishments in aid to yeshivas and other nonpublic schools, as well as in other areas of importance to the broader Orthodox Jewish community. The delegation was comprised of Rabbi Shmuel Lefkowitz, Agudath Israel's Vice President for Community Affairs, who has spent decades advocating in Albany; Leon Goldenberg, member of Agudath Israel's Board of Trustees and host of the popular radio show Community Matters; together with the newest member of the team, Rabbi Yeruchim Silber, who joined the Agudah earlier this year as Director of New York Government Relations. Rabbi Silbe...
North Korea on Friday called itself the “biggest victim” in the death of an American student who was detained for more than a year and died days after being released in a coma. The North’s official Korean Central News Agency denied that North Korea cruelly treated or tortured Otto Warmbier and accused the United States and South Korea of a smear campaign that insulted what it called its “humanitarian” treatment of him. The comments published by KCNA were North Korea’s first reaction to Otto Warmbier’s death in a U.S. hospital Monday after it released him for what it called humanitarian reasons. Doctors at the hospital said Warmbier had suffered a severe neurological injury from an unknown cause. Relatives say they were told the 22-year-old Unive...
Preet Bharara, the former U.S. Attorney fired earlier this year by President Donald Trump, has a book deal. Alfred A. Knopf announced Thursday that Bharara was working on a book about the “search for justice” that would come out early in 2019. Bharara was U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York for 7 1/2 years. His prominent cases included the conviction of Sheldon Silver, former Speaker of the New York State Assembly. Bharara was fired abruptly by Trump in March and has since said the president tried to cultivate a relationship with him, potentially compromising his independence. He has called the conversations “weird and peculiar.” Bharara expects to “address the circumstances that led to his firing,” Knopf spokesman Paul Bogaards said Th...
Baltimore, MD – June 22, 2017 – It is with deep regret that BJL informs the community of the petira of Jerry Barson, a'h, (Yonah ben Raymond), father of Moshe Cohen. The levayah will take place at 1:00 PM on June 23, 2017 at Star of David in Ft. Lauderdale, FL. Moshe may be contacted at 443-676-9414 / martinelicohen@gmail.com Bila HaMaves LaNetzach…  
Baltimore City's new speed cameras go live Monday, but won't start issuing tickets right away. The seven cameras will issue just warnings for the first 30 days. Drivers who go more than 12 mph over the speed limit will get notices in the mail. After that, $40 citations will be sent to the registered owner of each offending vehicle. The violations don't affect driver's licenses, no points are assessed, and insurance won't be impacted. All seven enforcement locations are in school zones, per state law, and signs will be placed at all locations. This is Baltimore's second try at implementing speed cameras. The first attempt was halted in 2013 after an audit revealed a number of violations were issued in error. The portable cameras will be placed at the follow...
The U.S. European Command has released dramatic photos of a Russian jet coming within a few feet of a U.S. Air Force reconnaissance jet over the Baltic Sea in a maneuver that has been criticized as unsafe. The photographs released Friday show the Russian SU-27 coming so close to the wing of the U.S. RC-135U that the Russian pilot can be seen in the cockpit in some images. Intercepts are common and are usually considered routine, but EUCOM said in this case on June 19 “due to the high rate of closure speed and poor control of the aircraft during the intercept, this interaction was determined to be unsafe.” Two days later, Sweden summoned Russia’s ambassador after another SU-27 jet flew close to a Swedish Gulfstream reconnaissance plane over the Baltic.
Dozens of businesses damaged in the riots of April 2015 are suing Baltimore City and city officials. The complaint alleged that the city wasn't fully prepared for the violence, despite the warning signs, and that officials didn't do enough to stop the rioters once they started. The complaint is 700 pages long with 60 plaintiffs, who are all business owners in Baltimore who suffered damage during the riots. The defendants are the city of Baltimore, the mayor and City Council, the Baltimore Police Department, former Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, former Police Commissioner Anthony Batts and the state of Maryland. The lawyer for the plaintiffs wrote, "The city and other defendants failed them when they adopted a policy of restraint and issued stand-down orders, caring ...
A fifth Democrat has entered the race for governor next year. Attorney Jim Shea has never held elected office, but notes that his business experience and experience overseeing various state commissions gives him an advantage in what will be a crowded race. "I know how to get things done," Shea told Maryland's News This Week, in an interview that was recorded Wednesday, before Shea formally announced his candidacy. Shea is the former Chair of Venable LLP, the largest law firm in the state of Maryland. He is also the former Chair of the Board of Regents of the University System of Maryland, the Empower Baltimore Management Corporation, the Central Maryland Transportation Alliance and the Downtown Partnership of Baltimore. He has also served on the boards of the Greater Baltimore Comm...
MK Hazan begins explaining “I am sitting in the dark exactly like hundreds, thousands or perhaps millions of you in Gaza are sitting without electricity”. He continues explaining that they are sitting in the dark because no one is paying for electricity and not because Israel despises them or is wicked in any way. “Electricity costs money”. He adds just 12 years ago there were thousands of Jews living in a beautiful Gaza, in the light, because they paid for electricity. “And they use the electricity to build rockets against us and to incite hate against us, but now, the State of Israel has ceased being a sucker…” “Listen very clearly in Gaza – if you do not begin paying for electricity, you will be sitting in the dark”.
A civil suit has been filed in a Dutch court against former IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz and Air Force Commander Amir Eshel. Haaretz reported that the suit was filed by a Palestinian citizen of the Netherlands named Ismail Ziada, claiming that the two were responsible for the killing of his first-degree family – Ziyada’s 70-year-old mother, three of his brothers – Jamil, And their 12-year-old son, Shaaban, who were killed in the bombing of their home in the El Bureij refugee camp in Gaza on July 20, 2014, during Operation Protective Edge. A notice regarding the submission of the claim was sent by email to the Ministry of Defense in Tel Aviv and by proxy to the Israeli Embassy in The Hague, the capital of the Netherlands. The plaintiff’s attorney demands that Ga...
The national homeland security initiative of The Jewish Federations of North America is asking people to be on the lookout for an individual named James (Yoon) Shin, a California man driving a car covered with politically charged writing and images who was arrested for a cross-country mission to “desecrate” synagogues. Shin has made threats against the Jewish community and traveled across the country last summer threatening and harassing Jewish institutions across the Midwest and Philadelphia region. Shin also referred to Jews as “Zionist Jewish EXPLETIVE Pigs” in a video he shot stalking a Jewish institution. Mr. Shin was arrested 11 August 2016 during last summer’s Maccabi games in Stamford, Connecticut, after he was spotted ab...
Following the request of Rishon L’Tzion Rabbi Yitzchak Yosef Shlita, and rabbinical court representatives and officials in the Ministry of Religious Services in the area of ​​internet surfing, the batei din are moving to a “kosher “environment, kosher surfing with the Rimon Company for an evaluation period. In accordance with this requirement, the Information Systems Department of the Rabbinical Courts began a pilot project in cooperation with the Government’s e-Government Unit for the use of Internet services through Rimon Internet. The Rabbinical Courts were chosen as the first government unit to conduct a pilot on the subject. The Information Systems Division carried out an activity to connect the computer network of the Rabbinical Courts via Rimon Internet...
A former CIA officer serving prison time for leaking government secrets to a reporter lost a bid to clear his name on Thursday. A three-judge panel of the 4th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed all but one of Jeffrey Sterling’s convictions and said there was no need for him to be resentenced. He was sentenced to 3 1/2 years after he was convicted under the Espionage Act in 2015 on charges that he divulged details of a CIA mission aimed at stalling Iranian ambitions to build a nuclear weapon. Sterling maintains he was not a source for a book by New York Times journalist James Risen. The operation, described in Risen’s 2006 book “State of War,” involved using a CIA agent nicknamed “Merlin” to deliver flawed nuclear blueprints to Iran in the hopes th...
“Gentlemen! Start your engines!” Or, maybe better, “In this corner, heavyweight champion! …” Neither phrase was actually blasted from a loudspeaker on either June 8, when ex-FBI director James Comey testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee, or Wednesday, the 13th, when it was Attorney General Jeff Session’s turn to answer questions. But, predictably, the reactions to the two men’s sworn responses to committee members’ questions came flying as fast and furious as any race car or boxer’s hook. Mr. Comey, who served in the Department of Justice before being appointed to head the FBI in 2013, has the distinction of having drawn harsh criticism over the past year from both sides of the political aisle.    ...
Rockland County NY - A Facebook post allegedly written by a Nyack Hospital nurse at blasting Chasidic women for their lifestyle choices has sparked outrage in Rockland County’s Jewish community, many of whom patronize the nearby medical facility. According to a News 12 report (http://bit.ly/2rXQO6g), Deborah Rosario wrote the post on Wednesday complaining that Chasidic women stay home to raise their large families while she and others have to work two jobs to make ends meet. “They hide behind their religion!” posted Rosario.  “I’m tired of my tax dollars paying for their 13 children!!!!  I’m working 2 jobs while these pregnant beauties are shopping at lord and Taylor!!!  When will it end?” Rosario, who began the post on her person...
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) - The Nebraska Democratic Party removed a party official from his post Thursday after he was recorded saying he was glad U.S. Rep. Steve Scalise got shot and that he wished the Louisiana Republican had died. Phil Montag was ousted as the volunteer co-chairman of the party's technology committee, said party chairwoman Jane Kleeb. In the recording, Montag used a series of obscenities to describe Scalise and said he hated the congressman whose job was to "convince Republicans to (expletive) kick people off (expletive) health care." The recording was posted on YouTube and published on political blogs. Scalise suffered life-threatening injuries after he was shot June 14 along with four other people at a Republican congressional baseball practice in Alexandria, Virgini...
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