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May 23, 2016 at 2:52 pm
Commissioner Kevin Davis released the following statement regarding the Nero Trial verdict:Our American criminal justice system has spoken today. Respect and reverence for Judge Williams’ verdict must now prevail throughout our great City. As the eyes of the nation are upon us, I have no doubt we will all exhibit behaviors that represent the very best of Baltimore.The Baltimore Police Department is committed to a relationship with our community built on trust and respect. We will continue this journey together as we strive for safer neighborhoods and policing practices consistent with the expectations of our residents.So many Baltimoreans have worked over the last year to ensure our diverse opinions and perspectives can exist in spaces that are constructive and serve to compel progre...
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May 23, 2016 at 2:42 pm
Area politicians, civic leaders and others weigh in on the not guilty verdict handed down Monday morning in the case against Officer Edward Nero, who had been charged in connection with the death of Freddie Gray.
Mayor Stephanie Rawlings Blake: "Today Judge Barry G. Williams found Officer Edward Nero not guilty of all criminal charges. This is our American system of justice and police officers must be afforded the same justice system as every other citizen in this city, state, and country. Now that the criminal
case has come to an end, Officer Nero will face an administrative review by the Police Department. We once again ask the citizens to be patient and to allow the entire process to come to a conclusion. In the case of any disturbance in the city, we are prepared to respond. W...
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May 23, 2016 at 12:04 pm
Cairo - Teams searching for the black box flight recorders of a missing EgyptAir jet that crashed with 66 people aboard face technical constraints that aviation experts increasingly blame on a slow regulatory response to earlier disasters.
As a three-year deep-sea search for Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 draws toward a close in the Indian Ocean without finding the airplane, another is starting in the Mediterranean Sea where the lessons of previous crashes have yet to be applied.
Rescuers have barely 30 days until the batteries die on two underwater beacons designed to guide them to the black box flight recorders as they scour 17,000 square kilometers of sea north of the Egyptian port city of Alexandria.
After previous crashes at sea, regulators agreed to increase the transmis...
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May 23, 2016 at 12:03 pm
Jerusalem - Right-wing activist Yehuda Glick ascended the Temple Mount on Monday for the last time before his swearing-in as the newest MK in Likud.
The long-time advocate for equal rights for Jews and Muslims on the Temple Mount will not be able to visit the holy site anymore because the prime minister has banned MKs from doing so.
Glick was born in the US, and his family moved to Israel when he was eight years old and currently lives in Otniel. He is the father of eight, two of whom he fostered after their parents were killed in a terrorist attack.
Glick, a rabbi, said he is praying to God to guide him and support him as he faces upcoming challenges.
“I don’t have plans to change the world. My main dream is to add a little good to the world, to promote unity among...
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May 23, 2016 at 11:35 am
Gaza - Israel resumed cement shipments to the Gaza Strip on Monday, ending a 45-day-old ban it imposed after it accused the Palestinian enclave’s Hamas rulers of seizing some of the stock meant for rebuilding homes destroyed in a 2014 war.
Hamas has denied Israeli charges that it siphons off cement imports to fortify attack tunnels.
Nickolay Mladenov, the U.N. Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, welcomed the resumption of the shipments, saying in a statement that “all sides need to ensure that cement deliveries reach their intended beneficiaries and are used solely for civilian purposes.”
The first of some 90 truckloads of cement entered the Gaza Strip through an Israeli-controlled border crossing on Monday and Palestinian officials said they...
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May 23, 2016 at 11:23 am
Baltimore, MD - A Baltimore officer was acquitted Monday of assault and other charges in the arrest of Freddie Gray, dealing prosecutors a significant blow in their attempt to hold police accountable for the young black man’s death from injuries he suffered in the back of a police van.
A judge also found Officer Edward Nero not guilty of reckless endangerment and misconduct in office. The assault charge carried a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and reckless endangerment carried a punishment of up to five years.
Gray died April 19, 2015, a week after his neck was broken in the back of a police transport van while he was handcuffed and shackled but left unrestrained by a seat belt.
Nero was one of six officers charged in the case. He waived his right to a jury trial,...
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May 23, 2016 at 11:09 am
BALTIMORE (WJZ) — Freddie Gray arresting officer Edward Nero has been found not guilty on all counts by Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Barry Williams.
Nero faced second-degree assault,reckless endangerment and two counts of misconduct in office.
Nero waived his right to a trial by jury. His bench trial began May 12 and final arguments were heard Thursday.
Gray, a 25-year-old black man from the Sandtown area of Baltimore, died on April 19, 2015 of a spinal cord injury he sustained while in police custody.
His death set off more than a week of protests followed by looting, rioting and arson that prompted a citywide curfew.
Nero is one of six officers charged in relation to Gray’s death, and the second to be tried. Officer William Porter’s trial ended in ...
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May 23, 2016 at 11:00 am
Baltimore, MD - May 23, 2016 - Baltimore City Police Officer Nero has been found NOT GUILTY by Baltimore Circuit Judge Barry Williams.
More to follow...
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May 23, 2016 at 10:53 am
Baltimore, MD – May 23, 2016 - Memorial Day, Monday, May 30, 2016, is a City holiday. Department of Public Works offices and yards will be CLOSED.
Regular trash, recycling and bulk collections are NOT scheduled for that day.
Citizen drop-off centers will be CLOSED (all yards, including Quarantine Road Landfill, the Northwest Transfer Station and the Eastern, Western and Northwest Collections Facilities).
Mechanical street sweeping will NOT take place, and street sweeping parking restrictions will NOT be in effect.
Parking meters WILL be in effect.
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May 23, 2016 at 8:18 am
New York - Mosab Hassan Yousef – the “Green Prince” – who worked as an Israeli spy, said “the Jewish nation is dear to me and when I see nations fighting against the Jewish people it hurts me.”
Speaking at The Jerusalem Post’s annual conference in New York on Sunday, Yousef noted that at one point he was working for and being paid by Israel, the US, the PA and Hamas, all at the same time.
Yousef, the son of West Bank Hamas leader Sheikh Hassan Yousef, helped the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) thwart attacks from 1997 to 2007. He later went on to write an autobiography published in 2010 titled Son of Hamas.
He converted to Christianity and fled to the US where he was granted political asylum.
Yousef mentioned that he first became acqua...
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May 23, 2016 at 8:13 am
New York - Barack Obama is one of five presidents in modern history who has made a “conscious decision to try to distance [himself and his administration] from Israel,” his former aide, Dennis Ross, said on Sunday.
Addressing The Jerusalem Post’s annual conference in New York, Ross, a veteran diplomat who has worked on peace negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians under the Reagan, H. W. Bush, Clinton and Obama administrations, said the White House has worked under the assumption that “Israel is more of a problem than it is a partner.”
“If you distance yourself from Israel, you’ll gain with the Arabs,” Ross said, summing up the premise of the Obama administration’s policy on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
But...
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May 23, 2016 at 8:09 am
Auburn, MA - The suspect in the fatal shooting of a Massachusetts police officer died after an exchange of gunfire Sunday as authorities closed in on him at a small town residence, police said.
The man, identified as 35-year-old Jorge Zambrano, burst out of a closet and opened fire on the officers as they approached him inside a duplex apartment in Oxford, Worcester County District Attorney Joseph Early Jr. said at a news conference. Zambrano, who authorities said had a criminal history, was taken to a hospital, where he died.
A Massachusetts State trooper, also wounded, was scheduled to undergo surgery late Sunday night. He suffered a gunshot wound to his left shoulder during the shootout, authorities said. The name of the 18-year veteran and former U.S. Navy Seal wasn’t ...
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May 23, 2016 at 8:02 am
Israeli prime minister rejects French initiative in meeting with French counterpart Manuel Valls; calls for direct negotiations.
Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu rejected a multilateral French "peace initiative" as he met his French counterpart on Monday, offering instead to hold direct talks with Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas in Paris.
French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said he would speak to President Francois Hollande about Netanyahu's proposal.
Direct negotiations with the Palestinian Authority are "the only way to proceed to peace," Netanyahu said. He offered "a different French initiative" of face-to-face talks with Abbas in Paris.
Valls is visiting Israel and the Palestinian Authority to advance his country's plan to restart Israeli-Pales...
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May 23, 2016 at 8:01 am
New York - The US is looking forward to working with the next Israeli defense minister, a senior White House official said Sunday.
His words and those of the State Department last week doused speculation that the presumptive appointment of Yisrael Beytenu head Avigdor Liberman to the post would harm Israel’s relations with the US.
Among the issues that would fall on Liberman’s plate is the continued negotiations to replace and upgrade the Memorandum of Understanding, under which Israel is guaranteed to receive $3 billion annually from the US.
The Obama administration does not anticipate negotiations over a decade-long US defense package to Israel will be altered by the appointment of a new Israeli defense minister.
“We look forward to working on this issue, am...
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May 23, 2016 at 7:51 am
When it comes to criminal prosecutions, the end never justifies the means.
Prosecutors who take shortcuts in winning convictions or lengthy sentences are not only violating the rights of the accused, they’re also undermining our entire system of justice.
That’s worth remembering when considering the ongoing legal battle over the 27-year prison sentence handed down to Sholom Rubashkin, the former head of Postiville’s Agriprocessors slaughterhouse.
In 2009, Rubashkin was convicted of bank fraud and money laundering. On its face, the lengthy prison sentence seems entirely justified. Rubashkin not only hired hundreds of illegal immigrants, he helped provide them with phony identification documents. He also defrauded his lenders, in part by laundering money throu...
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May 23, 2016 at 7:38 am
The verdict is being handed down this morning in the trial of Officer Edward Nero, one of the six Baltimore City Police officers charged in the death of Freddie Gray.
Nero was the second accused officer to go on trial, but since he chose to have the judge, and not a jury decide his case, he will be the first officer to get a verdict in his case.
The trial of the first officer, William Porter, ended in December with a hung jury.
Nero is one of the three officers who participated in Gray's arrest on April 12, of last year.
In this trial, Judge Barry Williams must consider if Freddie Gray’s arrest was legal, and if it is whether Nero’s physical contact with Gray amounts to assault and misconduct.
The second charge, reckless endangerment, &...
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May 23, 2016 at 7:37 am
Female terrorist attempts to stab Border Police at checkpoint.
An Arab terrorist attempted to stab Israeli Border Police officers at a checkpoint north of Jerusalem Monday afternoon.
The female terrorist was shot and "neutralized" before she was able to harm anyone, according to police.
Updates to follow.
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May 23, 2016 at 7:24 am
Baltimore, MD Daily Dvar Halacha - May 23, 2016 / 15 Iyar 5776 - Hold Besamin During Havdalah?
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May 23, 2016 at 7:21 am
It is after Pesach. All of the things that you have been putting off until “after the holidays” are now staring you square in the face. And for many of you, taking positive steps towards better health is probably on the list as it should be! And as Pesach was just over, weight loss may be at the forefront of your goals to achieve better health. Yom Tov is over, but it is still the Chodesh HaGeula and it is the ideal time to shed whatever Avdus (enslavement) we may still have and redeem ourselves by focusing on what steps we can take right now to improve our health and well-being.
What have we hopefully left behind? Overeating and inactiviey. Although the incentive might be there to start taking better care of our health and to lose wei...
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May 23, 2016 at 5:10 am
President Obama lifted the 41-year-old U.S. arms embargo against Vietnam Monday in an apparent effort to shore up the communist country's defenses against an increasingly aggressive China.
Obama announced the full removal of the embargo at a news conference in Hanoi alongside Vietnamese President Tran Dai Quang. The American president said the move was intended as a step toward normalizing relations with the former enemy and to eliminate a "lingering vestige of the Cold War."
Obama added that every U.S. arms sale would be reviewed on a case-by-case basis.
U.S. lawmakers and activists had urged Obama to press for greater human rights freedoms in the one-party state before lifting the embargo. Vietnam holds about 100 political prisoners and there have been more de...
