ALBANY — The nation's top court will not hear former Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver's corruption case, clearing the way for him to be retried on the charges. The U.S. Supreme Court denied Silver’s appeal for a review, which he filed over the summer after a mid-level federal court ordered a retrial. Silver was convicted on corruption charges in 2015 related to his job as one of the state’s most powerful elected officials. Prior to that Silver had resigned as speaker and had faded back into the Assembly’s rank and file. In July, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals overturned Silver’s conviction and sent the case back to a lower court for retrial. Appellate judges ruled that under a retooled definition of bribery, the jury i...
Baltimore, MD - Jan. 15, 2018 - Tuesday is Erev Rosh Chodesh Shevat. Traditionally this is known as Yom Kippur Katan, where traditionally pious people fast and add special tefillos. This particular Tuesday, Jan. 16, we plan to hold a special Yom Kippur Katan Mincha minyan in our shul, in the auxiliary Bais HaMedrash, at 4:30 pm. We are doing this because our morning Gemara shiur is beginning Maseches Moed Katan, and there is a tradition to fast before studying that volume, as the last part of it deals with the Halachos of Aveilus (mourning), an area we approach with trepidation. Many of the participants in the morning shiur will be fasting and joining the minyan. We welcome one and all - shiur participants and others - to join us. ### Other Yom Kippr Katan Minyanim are held at the Ag...
The influenza virus that’s sickened millions of Americans this season is already the most widespread outbreak since public health authorities began keeping track more than a dozen years ago. Now, with the threat of more strains emerging, it might get even worse. “Flu is everywhere in the U.S. right now,” said Dan Jernigan, director of the influenza division at the national Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases. “This is the first year we have had the entire continental U.S. be the same color on the graph, meaning there is widespread activity in all of the continental U.S. at this point.” The most optimistic assumption among government experts is that the season peaked a few weeks ago, marking the apex of what was already an early and severe o...
Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen confirmed Tuesday that her department has asked federal prosecutors to see if they can lodge criminal charges against sanctuary cities that refuse to cooperate with federal deportation efforts. “The Department of Justice is reviewing what avenues may be available,” Ms. Nielsen told the Senate Judiciary Committee. Her confirmation came after California’s new sanctuary law went into effect Jan. 1, severely restricting cooperation the state or any of its localities could offer. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Tom Homan says those policies put his officers and local communities at more risk because they have to arrest illegal immigrants out in the community. Mr. Homan told The Washington Times last J...
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the agency, which supports much of the population in the Gaza Strip, needs to be fundamentally reevaluated “in the way it operates and the way it is funded.”
Former White House strategist Steve Bannon has been subpoenaed by Special Counsel Robert Mueller as part of his ongoing probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election, according to the New York Times. The Times, citing a person with direct knowledge of the matter, reports that Bannon was issued a subpoena last week to testify before the grand jury. It adds that Mueller could potentially allow Bannon to avoid a grand jury appearance if he agrees to answering questions by investigators at the special counsel's office.  Bannon would be the most recent Trump associate to be subpoenaed as part of the ongoing grand jury investigation, following that of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and Manafort's business associate Rick Gates. Both pleaded not guil...
Health and Wellness Coach-Personal Trainer Alan Freishtat will be in the Baltimore-Washington area January 24th-26th. To schedule a personal consultation or a group seminar during this time, please contact us: call 516-568-5027 or email alan@alanfitness.com  Last week, Yitzchak walked into my office with a half-smile on his face. When I asked him how his week went with his eating and exercise, he gave me a very positive report.  I asked him if he thought his weight went down and he replied that based on the way his clothes feel, he’s sure of it.  Then he got on the scale and that half-smile disappeared.  He actually gained 200 grams?  What?  He was pulling his belt tighter!  A day later Esther came in for her weekly visit and weigh-in.  She ...
The United Arab Emirates claimed Qatari fighter jets intercepted two of its commercial airliners in international airspace on the way to Bahrain, allegations denied by Qatar. The claims Monday could further escalate tensions between Qatar and the four Arab nations that have been boycotting it for months, among them the UAE, home to the world's busiest international airport. They also could affect long-haul airline travel, as the region's carriers are a crucial link between the East and West. It follows two complaints by Qatar to the United Nations about Emirati military aircraft allegedly violating its international airspace amid the diplomatic crisis. The UAE denies the allegations. The UAE's state-run WAM news agency made the claim about the Qatari j...
In his 21-year battle for redress from the U.S. Army, David Tenenbaum has enlisted some powerful new advocates. Missouri’s U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, and Michigan’s Democrat Sen. Gary Peters, a committee member, have sent a letter to Defense Secretary James Mattis, urging him to provide closure and relief for the 60-year-old Tenenbaum, a resident Southfield, Mich. A response is expected soon from the Department of Defense. For the past 33 years, Tenenbaum has worked as a civilian engineer at the U.S. Army Tank-automotive and Armaments Command (TACOM). During a significant part of that time, Tenenbaum says he was subjected to vile anti-Semitism from co-workers and from the Army itself....
After an all-night meeting, the Israeli cabinet on Friday approved the country’s state budget for 2019. The budget totals about $117 billion, including allocations of $18 billion for education, $11 billion for health care, $19 billion for defense and security, $3.8 billion for welfare spending (such as benefits for Holocaust survivors), and $600 million for stipends for people with disabilities. “The cabinet has approved an excellent budget that expresses its consistent, responsible policy,” said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “The budget preserves growth and economic strength, and also takes care of social needs. Our government will continue to work for the good of the state of Israel for a long time.” Israel is projected to have a budget defic...
Fifty Senate lawmakers have endorsed a legislative measure to override the Federal Communications Commission’s recent decision to deregulate the broadband industry, top Democrats said Monday. The tally leaves supporters just one vote shy of the 51 required to pass a Senate resolution of disapproval, in a legislative gambit aimed at restoring the agency’s net neutrality rules. Those rules, which banned Internet providers from blocking or slowing down websites, were swept away in a December vote led by Republican FCC Chairman Ajit Pai. Republicans had argued the rules were too restrictive for the industry, while Democrats said they provided a vital consumer protection. The resolution aims to overturn the FCC’s decision and prohibit the agency from passing similar measure...
An article clearly biased against the Jewish rite of circumcision published in the Forward on Monday (Circumcision Rates Are Slipping — Even In Israel), willfully misrepresents the obvious adherence of the vast majority of Israeli parents—secular and religious alike—to this tradition. “In the United States, activists […] have been working for at least 30 years to lower circumcision rates and raise consciousness about the ritual,” writes former NPR News correspondent in Jerusalem Linda Gradstein, concluding victoriously: “Now even Jews in the Jewish state are starting to share such sentiments.” Of course, throughout history, there have been Jews who refused to circumcise their sons, and Israel over the past century and a half has seen ...
London (AP) -- The new U.S. Embassy in London, criticized last week by President Donald Trump as too expensive and poorly located, opened its doors to the public Tuesday for the first time. The gleaming embassy, in the formerly industrial Nine Elms neighborhood in south London, replaces the embassy in Grosvenor Square that had for decades been associated with the U.S. presence in the United Kingdom. That building has been sold to a Qatari government investment fund planning to turn it into a luxury hotel. U.S. officials say it would have cost hundreds of millions of dollars to upgrade security at the older building and bring it up to modern safety standards. Trump tweeted last week that he would not come to London to open the embassy because the new embassy represented a poor investment...
An executive representing Swiss bank UBS said Monday that President Trump’s economic achievements warrant “high marks.” UBS Wealth Management America’s chief investment strategist, Mike Ryan’s praise comes weeks after Republicans in Congress passed a sweeping tax overhaul, delivering on Trump’s key promise of reforming the tax code during his first year in office. The banking executive also described the U.S. tax code prior to the bill passed in December as “very inefficient,” CNBC reported. Read more at The Hill.
Former Gov. Jeb Bush on Monday threw his support behind former GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney, who is reportedly weighing a Senate run in Utah. Romney, a former governor of Massachusetts, has vocally criticized Trump on numerous occasions. Other Republicans have also voiced their support of Romney, hoping he will take over the Utah seat when Sen. Orrin Hatch retires at the end of his current term. Read more at The Hill.
iven the turbulent political climate, one wonders whether Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has any regrets and, if so, if he would gladly roll back time a decade. In 2008, the PA boss was firmly entrenched in Ramallah despite a year earlier having been unceremoniously—that is, violently—ejected by Hamas from Gaza in an internecine war. Nevertheless, the world was seemingly at Abbas' doorstep, his Muqata compound the address where kings, heads of state and a never-ending parade of diplomats flocked to with a view to solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, considered at the time by many as the central malaise plaguing the Middle East.It was within this context that then-Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert offered Abbas a fully comprehensive peace deal that woul...
WASHINGTON (AP) – The House Intelligence Committee is poised to question Steve Bannon, President Donald Trump’s onetime confidant, following his spectacular fall from power after accusing the president’s son and others of “treasonous” behavior for taking a meeting with Russians during the 2016 campaign. Bannon is scheduled to testify on Tuesday, according to a person familiar with the committee’s plans. The person was not authorized to discuss private committee deliberations and spoke on condition of anonymity. The testimony comes just one week after a very public excommunication from Trump’s closest confines following the publication of Michael Wolff’s “Fire and Fury.” In the book, Bannon accuses Trump’s eldest son, son-...
The Dow Jones Industrial Average crossed 26000 for the first time Tuesday, just seven trading sessions after closing above its last 1000-point milestone. The blue-chip index gained 273 points, or 1.1%, to 26076 shortly after the opening bell. If the Dow industrials close above 26000, the jump from 25000 would be the fastest 1000-point leap in its 120-year history. Tuesday’s historic rise builds on the Dow’s 25% gain last year and its seemingly unstoppable climb to start 2018. The rally began in late 2016 as a bet on infrastructure spending, deregulation and tax cuts, but spent 2017 rising on the back of strong corporate earnings growth. Read more at WSJ
Former Auschwitz guard Oskar Groening launches bid for clemency in a final bid to avoid serving his sentence as an accessory to murder. Oskar Groening, a former Auschwitz death camp guard who is known as the “Bookkeeper of Auschwitz”, has launched a bid for clemency in a final bid to avoid serving his sentence as an accessory to murder, German authorities said Monday, according to The Associated Press. Attorneys for 96-year-old Groening filed the appeal with prosecutors in Lueneburg, where he was convicted in 2015 as an accessory to the murder of 300,000 Jews. Groening was sentenced to four years in prison, but has not yet spent any time behind bars because of the appeals process. In November, a court ruled that he was fit to serve his four-y...
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