CNN accepted the resignations Monday of three journalists involved in a retracted story about a supposed investigation into a pre-inaugural meeting between an associate of President Donald Trump and the head of a Russian investment fund. The story was posted on the network’s website on Thursday and was removed, with all links disabled, Friday night. CNN immediately apologized to Anthony Scaramucci, the Trump transition team member who was reported to be involved in the meeting. The story’s author, Thomas Frank, was among those who resigned, according to a network executive who requested anonymity because the person was not authorized to discuss personnel issues. Also losing their jobs were Eric Lichtblau, an assistant managing editor in CNN’s Washington bureau, and Lex ...
Baltimore, MD - June 27, 2017 - In many ways, Rabbi Meir Zlotowitz changed my life. Over 15 years ago, I submitted a choppy, half-baked book sample to ArtScroll, containing only 10 stories. I had no idea what went into writing a book. I imagine that ArtScroll was very surprised when they received it; it was incredibly raw, completely unedited, and downright embarrassing. However, Reb Meir and his partner, Rabbi Nosson Scherman, another mentor of mine, accepted it. When I asked how they could take a book without seeing all of the stories, the response was straightforward: "Chiely, we believe in you." I owe so much to Reb Meir. Not only did he believe in me, but he envisioned for me that which I never dreamed of becoming. He saw in me abilities that I never knew I had. And I was just one ...
Breaking with recent White House tradition, President Donald Trump has opted not to host an event marking Islam’s holy month of Ramadan. Past presidents have welcomed Muslim Americans for a traditional iftar, a meal that follows daily fasting from dawn to sunset. Ramadan ends with the Islamic holiday of Eid al-Fitr, which was celebrated Sunday in most Muslim countries. Trump issued a statement Saturday, saying that he and wife Melania “send our warm greetings to Muslims as they celebrate Eid al-Fitr.” The White House said there were no plans for an event. Asked Monday why Trump was not hosting an event, White House spokesman Sean Spicer said he did not know. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson also declined to hold an iftar, in departure from the practice of previous secr...
The Flint, Michigan, airport officer stabbed in the neck during what authorities are investigating as a terrorist act has been discharged from a hospital. A spokeswoman for Hurley Medical Center says Lt. Jeff Neville was released Monday. Neville was stabbed Wednesday at Bishop International Airport in Flint, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) northwest of Detroit. Authorities have said 49-year-old Amor Ftouhi stabbed Neville with a large knife after saying something similar to “you have killed people in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, and we are all going to die.” Ftouhi, a Canadian from Tunisia, was immediately taken into custody and was charged in a criminal complaint with committing violence at an airport. Doctors have said Neville’s 12-inch wound caused significant bleed...
For President Donald Trump and the Republican Party, it’s still complicated. That political reality has come into sharper focus in recent days as Republicans strain to pass high-stakes legislation revamping the nation’s health care law. While the president and the GOP are ostensibly on the same side — each has promised to overhaul the current health care law — their tactics have at times been strikingly at odds. Faced with possible defections from a small group of senators, including Nevada’s Dean Heller, GOP leaders have been quietly working behind the scenes to tweak the legislation to meet their demands. Trump allies have taken a more heavy-handed approach: A pro-Trump group announced plans to run digital and television ads against Heller, an eyebrow-rais...
The top diplomats of Russia and the United States have focused on the Syrian crisis in a phone call. The Russian Foreign Ministry says Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson talked Monday about the need to secure a cease-fire in Syria, fight extremist groups and to prevent the use of chemical weapons. It added that Lavrov “urged Washington to take steps to prevent provocations against Syrian government forces battling terrorists.” Moscow reacted angrily when the U.S. downed a Syrian jet last week after it dropped bombs near the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces conducting operations against the Islamic State group. Russia warned its military would track aircraft from the U.S.-led coalition as potential targets over Syria and suspended a ...
The involvement of external powers in the Syrian war continued to accelerate Tuesday as President Bashar Assad’s government and Russia dismissed White House allegations that it was preparing a new chemical weapons attack. Hours later activists reported an airstrike on an Islamic State-run jail in eastern Syria that they said killed more than 40 prisoners and was carried out by the U.S.-led coalition. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 15 militants were also killed in the airstrike that happened on Monday in the Deir El-Zour province. The activist-run Deir Ezzor 24 media outlet said at least 60 civilians were killed. Russia and Syria also carry out airstrikes in Deir el-Zour, and it was not clear how the activists identified the aircraft responsible...
At least 6 people were killed on Tuesday afternoon in a horrific crash on Route 60 in the Shomron, south of Yishuv Ofra in the direction of Givat Assaf in the Binyamin Regional Council. MDA reports that the accident involved an armor-plated bullet resistant bus and a PA (Palestinian Authority) taxi van. The fatalities appear to have been occupants of the PA taxi, which was clearly crushed by the weight of the bus. MDA paramedic Betzalel Ben-Hamu and EMT Shalom Tzubari told the media in statements: When we arrived we saw a shocking scene and a great deal of chaos. We saw a taxi van that had been crushed, a private vehicle involved and a bus. There were dead and wounded around the scene. The preliminary survey of the area revealed a 17-year-old male who was unconscious with head injuri...
Rockland County, NY - A 62 year old Spring Valley man is under arrest after striking four members of the same family with his car as they walked on Route 59 at Robert Pitt Drive near the Monsey-Spring Valley border. Sergeant Brian Corbett of the Ramapo Police Department said that 62 year old Albert Gomez was heading westbound on Route 59 in a 1999 Toyota Corolla when he struck the pedestrians who were walking on the westbound shoulder of the road just before 3 PM this afternoon. There are no sidewalks on that section of Route 59, which is dotted with numerous stores, leaving walkers no choice but to walk on the shoulder, as previously reported on  VIN News (http://bit.ly/2tPIvqa ) A 38 year old woman, walking with her 13 and 9 year old daughters and pushing her three month old...
The White House issued a stern warning to Syrian President Bashar Assad on Monday night as it claimed “potential” evidence that Syria was preparing for another chemical weapons attack. In an ominous statement issued with no supporting evidence or further explanation, Press Secretary Sean Spicer said the U.S. “has identified potential preparations for another chemical weapons attack by the Assad regime that would likely result in the mass murder of civilians, including innocent children.” He said the activities were similar to preparations taken before an April 2017 attack that killed dozens of men, women and children, and warned that if “Mr. Assad conducts another mass murder attack using chemical weapons, he and his military will pay a heavy price.&rd...
The Israel Air Force during the night targeted two Hamas targets; in Rafiach and Gaza City. The attacks took place early Tuesday, 3 Tammuz in retaliation for a rocket attack in the Shar HaNegev Regional Council on Monday night. B’chasdei Hashem, the rocket landed in an open area and therefore, there were no fatalities, injuries or damage. A siren was not heard prior to impact. Hamas claims there was no rocket attack, accusing Israel of fabricating the attack to permit attacking Hamas in Gaza.
The deaths of 79 people in a London apartment tower have triggered emergency inspections, evacuations and soul searching among British officials who failed to prevent the tragedy. But fire-safety experts say governments and builders around the world should take notice, because the fire at Grenfell Tower is just the latest in a string of deadly blazes that demonstrate how building regulations have failed to keep up with changing materials and cuts in inspections and oversight mean problems aren’t spotted until it is too late. The Ghost Ship fire in Oakland, California, made headlines in December, when 36 people were killed in a warehouse that had been illegally converted into living spaces and a music venue. In September, 33 people died in a fire at a packaging plant in Bangla...
President Donald Trump unleashed a series of tweets Monday in which he tried to place the blame for Russian meddling in U.S. politics on former President Barack Obama and deflect charges of obstruction and collusion onto his predecessor. Trump wrote that Obama did “NOTHING about Russia after being notified by the CIA of meddling” because he expected Hillary Clinton to win. Trump added that Obama “didn’t ‘choke,’ he colluded or obstructed.” Trump, who has a long history of deflecting criticism from himself to others, seemed to be trying to redefine what it means to collude or obstruct as he pushed back against an investigation into whether Trump’s own team colluded with Russian officials during the campaign and transition. Trump appea...
A Transportation Security Administration employee at a Florida airport has been fired after police said surveillance video showed him stealing cash. The Orlando Sentinel reports 22-year-old Alexander Shae Johnson was arrested Thursday. Court records show he faces a third-degree felony grand theft charge. An Orlando police report says a passenger selected for a pat-down search while going through security at Orlando International Airport saw Johnson standing near her bag. The report says she went through her bag afterward and realized cash was missing before noticing a bulge in Johnson’s shirt pocket that turned out to be money. Johnson said the cash was his but the video showed otherwise. In a statement, TSA said it has “zero tolerance” for misconduct. Johnson w...
An AirAsia flight from Perth, Australia to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia with hundreds of passengers onboard was forced to return to the airport after a technical issue caused it to shake violently. Passengers recorded cellphone video showing the entire cabin of the Airbus shaking violently from side to side. Many passengers described the plane’s shuddering like a washing machine. There were 359 passengers onboard the Airbus A330 en route to Malaysia’s capital, for what was supposed to be a nearly six-hour flight. The shaking began around 90 minutes into the trip, after a loud bang was heard throughout the aircraft. The captain of the plane issued a dire warning: “Also please, listen to everything. Our survival depends on your cooperating. Hopefully, everything will tu...
With U.S. exports of oil and natural gas surging, President Donald Trump says the U.S. is on the brink of becoming a net exporter of oil, gas and other resources. The White House is launching its “energy week” with a series of events focused on jobs and boosting U.S. global influence. The events follow similar policy-themed weeks on infrastructure and jobs. The previous weeks were largely overshadowed by ongoing probes into whether Trump campaign officials colluded with Russia to influence the 2016 election, as well as scrutiny over Trump’s firing of James Comey as FBI director. Drawing fresh attention now is the Republican bid to scuttle the health care law despite a rebellion within Senate GOP ranks. Energy Secretary Rick Perry said Monday the Trump administrat...
A federal judge on Monday temporarily suspended the deportation of 1,400 Iraqi nationals in the U.S. while he determines whether his court is the proper place to consider their fears of physical harm if they’re kicked out of the country. U.S. District Judge Mark Goldsmith took a decision from last week, affecting 114 mostly Iraqi Christians rounded up in the Detroit area, and stretched it across the U.S. for the next 14 days. “The substantiated allegations made here are that detainees face extraordinarily grave consequences: death, persecution, and torture. … Such harm far outweighs any interest the government may have in proceeding with the removals immediately,” Goldsmith said. The U.S. government said 1,400 Iraqis are under deportation orders nationwide...
Rockland County, NY - A mother and her three children were seriously injured in a car crash that will leave a main Monsey thoroughfare closed to thru traffic till approximately 9 PM. The accident took place near the intersection of Route 59 and Robert Pitt Drive across from the Town Square shopping center. Sergeant Brian Corbett of the Ramapo Police Department said that the crash took place at approximately 3 PM when a silver Toyota Corolla traveling westbound on Route 59 hit the 36 year old woman, her two daughters, ages thirteen and eight, and her three month old baby boy, who was in a stroller.  The male driver of the Toyota, the only occupant of the car, was uninjured. Corbett said that the family was walking along the side of the state roadway, which has no sidewalks in that ...
The Congressional Budget Office forecasts 22 million more Americans would be uninsured by 2026 under the Senate’s health bill, compared to leaving the Affordable Care Act unchanged. That’s a minor improvement from the 23 million Americans who would be uninsured under the health bill passed by House Republicans, but it’s still a serious hurdle for the GOP. Republican leaders added a penalty for people who’ve let their insurance lapse Monday as party leaders prepared to begin pushing their health care measure through the Senate, despite a rebellion within GOP ranks. Under the new provision, people who’ve had at least a 63-day gap in coverage during the past year and then buy a policy would face a six-month delay before it takes effect. Until now, the measure t...
B’chasdei Hashem, there were no injuries when a bus burst into flames on Route 866 between Meron and Sheva Junction. The road was closed in both directions as a result of the fire. It appears the fire was the result of a mechanical failure.
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