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August 23, 2016 at 10:05 pm
Jerusalem - Israeli police are on high alert ahead of a match between Celtic and Hapoel Beer Sheva after fans of the Scottish champions waved Palestinian flags at their last meeting.
Spokesman Micky Rosenfeld says hundreds of police will be deployed in and around the stadium for the Champions League playoff match to “ensure that it is a sport event and not a political event,” and that flags will be removed if necessary.
Political banners and protests are banned at matches organized by UEFA, European football’s governing body.
On Monday, UEFA charged Celtic over fans displaying Palestinian flags at the first leg of the playoff against the Israeli team last week. Celtic fans often wave Palestinian flags at matches but many more were seen during that match.
A gro...
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August 23, 2016 at 10:05 pm
New York - The New York Police Department has skirted rules governing how it does surveillance by letting investigations continue past court-mandated deadlines and not spelling out how it uses undercover officers and informants, the city’s independent police monitor said in a report released Tuesday.
NYPD officials immediately responded by characterizing the criticisms contained in the report by Inspector General Philip Eure as more technical than substantive. They also said the department had implemented a new electronic tracking system that will notify them when authorization for surveillance has expired.
“We believe we’ve adhered to the spirit and the letter of the law in each instance,” the NYPD’s top attorney, Lawrence Byrne, said at a ne...
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August 23, 2016 at 10:05 pm
Washington - For more than three years, lobbyist Jim Slattery worked in Washington to secure the release in Ukraine of the imprisoned political rival of the country’s then-president. He said the work was sometimes harder than expected.
“I had a sense that there were people working on the other side,” he said, “but they were doing it pretty secretively.”
Slattery’s hunch was right. His unknown opponent: The consulting firm run by Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, and his deputy Rick Gates, now the campaign’s liaison to the Republican National Committee.
Manafort resigned last week, shortly after disclosures by The Associated Press about his firm’s covert lobbying on behalf of Ukraine’s pro-Russian g...
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August 23, 2016 at 10:04 pm
Washington - For more than a decade, lawmakers have been pointing at their counterparts to take the blame for what just about everyone agrees is a broken immigration system.
Republicans say President Barack Obama’s immigration enforcement policies encourage more people to sneak into the country. Democrats blame Republicans for blocking legislation that would allow people already here to gain legal status and create a path for future, legal immigration.
But whatever specific policies are being fought over now, immigration experts say the problem took root at least 30 years ago, when President Ronald Reagan signed a 1986 immigration law that has become known as the “Reagan Amnesty” and allowed roughly 3 million people in the country illegally to gain legal statu...
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August 23, 2016 at 10:04 pm
Albany, NY - New York state has added machetes to a list of “dangerous or deadly” weapons that also includes daggers, razors and stilettos.
The new rules signed into law this month by Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo stop short of banning the long, bladed instruments, often used by gardeners, farmers and hikers to clear undergrowth.
Instead, the new law makes it a separate misdemeanor to possess a machete with the intent of using it unlawfully against another person.
If convicted of unlawful possession of a machete, a person can face up to a year in jail as well as fines.
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August 23, 2016 at 10:04 pm
Baton Rough, LA - President Barack Obama met Tuesday with the family of Alton Sterling, the black man in Louisiana whose death last month in a police shooting sparked protests and mass arrests.
Obama consoled the relatives during a brief meeting on the sidelines of his trip to Baton Rouge to tour flood damage and meet with affected residents. The White House said Obama also met with the families of officers killed or injured nearly two weeks later by a gunman, apparently in response to Sterling’s killing.
The president spent roughly 25 minutes with the families at the airport before boarding his flight back to Washington.
Obama was criticized for not visiting Baton Rouge after those two shootings. He did speak about the issues of policing, race and violence during a visit ...
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August 23, 2016 at 10:04 pm
Orlando, FL - A South Florida boy has survived a rare brain-eating amoeba that kills most people, aided in part because a hard-to-get drug to fight the bacteria is made by a company in Orlando where he was hospitalized, doctors said Tuesday.
Sebastian DeLeon came to the hospital two weeks ago with sensitivity to light and a headache so severe the 16-year-old couldn’t tolerate anyone touching him, doctors at Florida Hospital for Children said at a news conference.
Hospital staffers had been trained to look for the amoeba, which often is contracted through the nose when swimming in freshwater lakes or rivers. The infection has a fatality rate of 97 percent and another boy died from it at the same hospital two years ago.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says on...
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August 23, 2016 at 10:03 pm
Newark, NJ - A New Jersey waterpark visitor who was partially paralyzed in a 2010 accident while on a ride that simulates surfing can proceed with a lawsuit, the state Supreme Court ruled Tuesday.
Roy Steinberg and his wife claim employees at Sahara Sam’s Oasis Water Park in West Berlin, about 20 miles southwest of Philadelphia, didn’t properly instruct him about safety on the FlowRider, a ride that simulates surfing by having a sheet of water flow toward the rider.
Steinberg said he wasn’t told that as a novice he should lie on the board instead of standing, and that he shouldn’t use both hands to hold onto a rope held by a park employee.
According to the lawsuit, Steinberg fell off the surfboard shortly after the ride began and hit his head, causing a c...
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August 23, 2016 at 10:03 pm
Las Vegas - A Hawaiian woman has won more than $10 million playing the penny slots in Las Vegas.
The Wynn Las Vegas said the unidentified woman from Oahu won a total payout of $10,777,270.51 after betting $3 on a penny slot machine.
The jackpot happened about 9 p.m. Sunday at the Strip casino on an IGT Megabucks Wynn Wheel slots machine.
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August 23, 2016 at 10:03 pm
Philadelphia - GOP vice presidential candidate Mike Pence got a haircut at a black-owned barbershop on Tuesday between campaign stops in the Philadelphia area.
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has made overtures to black voters in recent days, asking them, “What do you have to lose?” by supporting him.
The owner, Henry Jones, says he had no idea who his lone customer for the day was when he arrived. The two discussed their families and sports while Pence sat for his $20 trim.
When the haircut ended, Jones asked Pence his name. When Pence identified himself as Indiana governor and GOP vice presidential candidate, Jones said, “Vice president?” and added, “This is history.”
Jones says Pence didn’t ask for his vote, and he is un...
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August 23, 2016 at 10:02 pm
Washington - For years, Wanda Witter has lived on the streets in Washington, D.C., trying to persuade officials that Social Security owes her more than $100,000. For years, the 80-year-old woman says people dismissed her as crazy.
But finally someone listened—and now, her attorney says she’s about to get a $99,999 payout.
Witter moved to the District of Columbia in 1999 to seek work after losing her job as a machinist in New York years earlier, according to The Washington Post (http://wapo.st/2bJAgEr ).
But even though Witter had earned a paralegal certificate to prepare for a new career, she remained jobless. In 2006 she decided to draw Social Security benefits. However, the monthly checks varied wildly, from $900 to $300. Believing the checks were wrong, Witter did...
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August 23, 2016 at 10:02 pm
Detroit - Tesla Motors says a new version of the Model S electric car is the quickest production car in the world from zero to 60 miles per hour.
The company says the Model S P100D sedan can go from stopped to 60 in 2.5 seconds.
The LaFerrari and the Porsche 918 Spyder with gas engines were faster, but they were million-dollar specialty cars that can no longer be bought new, CEO Elon Musk said Tuesday.
The new P100D has a new 100 kilowatt-hour battery pack that extends the car’s range to about 315 miles. The top range of the previous Model S was 294 miles. The new battery also is available on the Model X SUV.
Musk says the battery cell chemistry is the same but Tesla had to reconfigure the battery pack to store more energy in the same space and handle increased cooling re...
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August 23, 2016 at 10:02 pm
Baton Rouge, LA - Standing amid piles of waterlogged debris, President Barack Obama on Tuesday promised a sustained national effort to rebuild flood-ravaged southern Louisiana “even after the TV cameras leave” on a visit aimed in part at stemming campaign-season criticism that he’s been slow to respond to the disaster.
As he toured a battered neighborhood and spoke to reporters, Obama reassured residents that the federal response would be robust and he tried to buck up beleaguered residents of the water-soaked region, many of whom have said they feel their plight has been ignored by national officials and the media.
“This is not a one-off, this is not a photo-op issue,” the president said in a statement to reporters. “I need all Americans to s...
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August 23, 2016 at 5:54 pm
Baltimore, MD - Aug. 23, 2016 - On Motzei Shabbos Nachamu, a group from the 8:45 Minyan at Shomrei Emunah and friends from around the community gathered together with Rabbi Binyamin Marwick for an uplifting and heartfelt kumzitz.
Set against the beautiful and fitting backdrop of the Jerusalem stone in the Shomrei ‘Shevatim Gallery’, the kumzitz featured music led initially by Eli Cohen, Yitzi Kaplowitz, Eli Frenkel on guitars, and Yoni Spigelman on percussions. The enthusiasm and singing increased as the band was joined by renowned guitarist and composer Avraham Rosenblum on guitar, and Eliezer Appel on clarinet. Inspiring divrei torah were shared by Rabbi Marwick and Dr. Ronnie Samet, and in a particularly moving moment, Yitzy Kaplowitz played his new compos...
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August 23, 2016 at 5:53 pm
Dear Baltimore Friends, amush
I know I speak for hundreds if not thousands.
We love our friends, neighbors, and families. We want to be at their simchos. But we hate driving three hours each way to Lakewood to get to the simchos.
More and more of us are choosing to make Baltimore simchos in Lakewood.
Why?
I am told it is based on cost. What wedding halls in Lakewood offer cannot be matched by halls in Baltimore. Apparently, the halls offer amazing packages for everything: hall, food, band, video, photographer, etc.-all in one great deal.
Here’s the question.
We have many great caterers in Baltimore and many great people who provide all services for weddings.
Can someone in this mix figure things out so that Lakewood will stop being a place for Baltimore simchos?
...
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August 23, 2016 at 4:37 pm
Controversy has erupted in Hungary over the government’s decision to give a prestigious award to a journalist known for making antisemitic and racist comments, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday.
Journalist Zsolt Bayer, whom the Bloomberg report called a “close ally” of right-wing Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, received the Order of Merit of the Knight’s Cross – Hungary’s second highest honor — last week.
In protest, more than 50 past recipients of the honor have returned their awards.
According to the Bloomberg report, Bayer has been fined multiple times by Hungary’s media regulator for antisemitic and racist comments. His targets have included Jews, refugees, and the Roma. In one example of antisemitis...
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August 23, 2016 at 4:26 pm
Baltimore, MD - Aug. 16, 2016 - Portland, Oregon and Richmond, Virginia, were just two of the locales that participants traveled from to attend STAR-K Kosher Certification’s back-to-back seminars in its Baltimore offices. The 13th Annual STAR-K Kashrus Training Program was held August 1-4, followed by the Food Service Kashrus Training Seminar, August 8-10. Both certificate programs featured a Q & A session with STAR-K Rabbinic Administrator Rav Moshe Heinemann, as well as a variety of lectures by STAR-K Kashrus Administrators, tours of STAR-K-certified establishments, and hands-on vegetable checking practicums. The first seminar even included a live nikkur demonstration of a calf.
Rabbi Yitzy Mandel and Rabbi Simcha Snaid, kollel yungerleit of Yeshiva Chofetz Chaim in Queens, Ne...
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August 23, 2016 at 4:19 pm
For many young Americans, Jews and non-Jews alike, the Holocaust is becoming increasingly irrelevant, a Harvard law student and granddaughter of a survivor told The Algemeiner on Tuesday.
Jennie Shulkin, 23, warned that the Holocaust was “fading into the background” among her age cohort.
Shulkin, whose 93-year-old grandfather fled Nazi Germany, said, “There are even many Jews who are so liberal that they focus on other genocides. Obviously, current genocides need exposure and help is necessary from people all over the world, but I think that those sort of then step in front of Holocaust remembrance.”
On Sunday, in an op-ed in the Huffington Post, Shulkin highlighted the role she believes that she and other third-generation su...
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August 23, 2016 at 4:19 pm
Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi claimed in an interview on Sunday that Russian President Vladimir Putin is ready and willing to host direct peace negotiations in Moscow between Israeli and Palestinian leaders.
“Unfortunately, the case is like stagnant water and requires international will and effort,” the Daily News Egypt quoted El-Sisi as saying in an interview held with editors of Egyptian newspapers. “There is more and more conviction on behalf of the Israelis of the importance of the peace process, which is a positive indication.”
El-Sisi, who supports the recent French initiative for peace talks, also said that the internal fighting between Hamas leaders in Gaza and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah faction cont...
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August 23, 2016 at 3:55 pm
Washington - More than half the people outside the government who met with Hillary Clinton while she was secretary of state gave money — either personally or through companies or groups — to the Clinton Foundation. It’s an extraordinary proportion indicating her possible ethics challenges if elected president.
At least 85 of 154 people from private interests who met or had phone conversations scheduled with Clinton while she led the State Department donated to her family charity or pledged commitments to its international programs, according to a review of State Department calendars released so far to The Associated Press. Combined, the 85 donors contributed as much as $156 million. At least 40 donated more than $100,000 each, and 20 gave more than $1 million.
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