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February 22, 2017 at 12:00 pm
Communities downstream from a Northern California reservoir gushing water for the first time in 20 years braced for flash floods and evacuations after authorities warned them to prepare for rising rivers and creeks.
Northern California is forecast to get a brief break from persistent downpours Wednesday but the surge of water released from Don Pedro Dam into the Tuolumne River in the foothills east of Modesto is expected to reach overtopped levees later in the day.
Katie Whitley, who manages the Driftwood Mobile Home Park in Modesto, said residents nearest the river have been moving their trailers out since the start of the weekend.
“We’re just holding our own,” Whitley told the Los Angeles Times. “That’s what we have to do. You just have to hope for the be...
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February 22, 2017 at 12:00 pm
A suicide bomber who attacked a military base in Iraq this week was a former Guantanamo Bay detainee freed in 2004 after Britain lobbied for his release, raising questions about the ability of security services to track the whereabouts of potential terrorists.
The Islamic State group identified the bomber as Abu Zakariya al-Britani, and two British security officials also confirmed the man was a 50-year-old Briton formerly known as Ronald Fiddler and as Jamal al-Harith.
He was one of 16 men paid a total of 10 million pounds (now worth $12.4 million) in compensation in 2010, when the British government settled a lawsuit alleging its intelligence agencies were complicit in the torture of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, according to the officials.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity...
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February 22, 2017 at 11:57 am
Donald Trump the presidential candidate made no secret of his desire to crack down on illegal immigration, but once elected, he repeatedly offered varying interpretations of just how tough he would be in the White House.
Now a pair of enforcement memos from Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly lay bare exactly what the Trump administration plans to do and how many of the estimated 11 million immigrants living in the United States illegally will be targeted for deportation. The short answer: a lot.
A look at some of what the policy memos say the government will do.
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SEND IMMIGRANTS WHO HAVE CROSSED THE BORDER ILLEGALLY TO MEXICO – EVEN IF THEY’RE NOT MEXICAN
A border security memo calls for the use of a long-standing but obscure U.S. law to send some immigrants who...
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February 22, 2017 at 11:51 am
Republican U.S. Rep. David Brat, who rode voter anger to a historic political upset nearly three years ago, was on the receiving end of constituent angst about the Trump administration as he held a town hall in Virginia.
Protesters and supporters crowded a restaurant conference room in Blackstone where Brat fielded questions for about hour Tuesday. He was loudly heckled and booed when he defended President Donald Trump and his policies on health care and immigration, with the occasional cheer from supporters of his positions on gun rights and fewer regulations.
The former economics professor said he enjoyed the feisty give and take.
“People are very nervous and anxious after the Trump win. So my goal tonight is to help allay some of those anxieties,” said Brat, who defeated ...
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February 22, 2017 at 11:49 am
The two women suspected of fatally poisoning a scion of North Korea’s ruling family were trained to coat their hands with toxic chemicals and then wipe them on his face, police in Malaysia said Wednesday, announcing they were seeking a North Korean diplomat in connection with the attack.
But the North Korean Embassy ridiculed the police account of Kim Jong Nam’s death at a Malaysian airport, demanding the immediate release of the two “innocent women.”
If the toxins had been on their hands “then how is it possible that these female suspects could still be alive?” demanded a statement from North Korea’s embassy in Kuala Lumpur. Police say the women – one of them Indonesian, the other Vietnamese – washed their hands soon after poisoning ...
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February 22, 2017 at 11:47 am
Protesters broke windows, assaulted police
A total of 214 people have been indicted so far on felony rioting charges in connection with the Inauguration Day protests in downtown Washington.
On the morning of January 20, protests over Donald Trump's inauguration turned violent when black-clad "anti-fascist" protesters smashed storefronts and bus stops, hammered out the windows of a limousine and eventually launched rocks at a phalanx of police.
Officers responded by launching smoke and flash-bang devices into the street to disperse the crowds. Six police officers were injured and 230 protesters were arrested that day.
On Tuesday, a grand jury in DC charged five individuals. This was in addition to the 209 other defendants who've been indicted on rioting charges earlier t...
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February 22, 2017 at 11:18 am
The Jewish Community Center in Baltimore's Park Heights neighborhood was the subject of phoned-in bomb threats twice in January, which turned out to be hoaxes.
The president of The Associated Marc Terrill confirmed with WBAL-TV 11 News those hoaxes originated from the same robocall that threatened roughly 60 JCCs nationwide since the start of the New Year.
"I think our resilience is rather strong," Terrill said. "Nobody's been hurt physically, but emotionally it's so unfortunate that this is where we are in the history of our country."
About a dozen bomb threats were reported at separate JCCs across the country on Monday. On Tuesday morning, President Donald Trump addressed the situation.
"The anti-Semitic threats targeting our Jewish community and community centers are ...
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February 22, 2017 at 11:13 am
Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull offered a staunch defense of Israel on Wednesday, criticizing the United Nations and vowing never to support "one-sided resolutions" calling for an end to Israeli settlement building on occupied land.
Turnbull welcomed Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday as the first Israeli prime minister to visit Australia and reiterated Australia's support for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian crisis.
However, he also made it clear Australia would not support any resolutions such as the one approved by the United Nations Security Council in December calling for an end to Israeli settlement building on land occupied by Palestinians.
"My government will not support one-sided resolutions criticizing Israel of the kind recently adopted by the U.N ...
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February 22, 2017 at 11:11 am
Jerusalem Councilman Rabbi Eliezer Reichenberg told Kol Berama Radio on Wednesday 26 Shevat that Kiryat Yovel community council official Yechiel Levy must be ousted from his post following his interview on Galei Tzahal (Army Radio) on Tuesday.
During the interview, Levy explained his systematic plan to embitter the lives of chareidim in Kiryat Yovel towards getting them to leave. Reichenberg explains no apology can be accepted and he must be removed from his post.
The councilman’s words are in line with statements heard a day earlier from Minister Aryeh Deri and Yaakov Litzman, as well as Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat.
Chareidi party heads sent a letter to Mr. Aviad Friedman, who heads the community councils. Both Yahadut Hatorah and Shas officials in the city government si...
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February 22, 2017 at 11:11 am
Has anti-Semitism accompanied Donald Trump’s rise to power? Some organizations that monitor hate groups and hate crimes believe so, noting a rash of recent incidents. But data is elusive, and the president’s supporters note his family connection – a Jewish daughter, son-in-law and grandchildren – and his comments this week condemning hate and prejudice.
Here’s a look at recent incidents targeting Jewish sites and anti-Semitism in the U.S.:
ARE HATE CRIMES TARGETING JEWS INCREASING?
Human rights activists and organizations are convinced that Trump’s popularity and electoral victory created an acceptance into the mainstream of the “alt-right,” an offshoot of conservatism mixing racism, white nationalism and populism, and along with it, anti-...
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February 22, 2017 at 11:03 am
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called on the Palestinians to pursue another intifada against Israel while claiming the Israeli government is a “cancerous tumor” that should be confronted.
“The people of Palestine have no option other than keeping the flames of fighting alight by relying on Allah the Exalted and by relying on their innate capabilities, as they have genuinely done so until today,” Khamenei said, according to a translation of a speech on his website.
"... by Allah’s permission, we will see that this intifada will begin a very important chapter in the history of fighting and that it will inflict another defeat on that usurping regime," Khamenei said Tuesday, Reuters reported.
Khamenei made the comments during a two-da...
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February 22, 2017 at 11:03 am
The IDF has yet to confirm or deny the reports
The Israel Air Force (IAF) overnight Wednesday allegedly attacked a weapons shipment to Lebanese-based militant group Hezbollah, north of Damascus on the Syria-Lebanon border, according to reports.
Arab media reported that the IAF attacked a military outpost in El Ktaife, a suburb of Damascus, in an airstrike executed from Lebanese airspace.
According to Syrian media, the Israeli aircraft targeted a convoy belonging to the Syrian army that was carrying weapons to the Hezbollah.
The pro-governmental Masdar news service said that the aircraft flew first through Lebanon and then into Syria.
There were no injuries reported.
On Monday, the Lebanon-based Hezbollah militant group Hassan Nasrallah, warned that it would not keep any "...
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February 22, 2017 at 10:57 am
New York - An 82 year old Jewish man who died Saturday night after he left a Nassau County synagogue is the second synagogue member to be struck by a car on the same roadway.
Sion Bakhshi was leaving Torah Ohr in Roslyn Heights at 7:22 PM when he was hit by a car as he crossed Mineola Avenue near Hillside Avenue. Nassau County Police said that Bakhshi was struck by a northbound GMC Acadia and was pronounced dead at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset 30 minutes later.
Rabbi Doron Baalhaness, rabbi of the largely Persian synagogue, said that Bakhshi had been coming to service daily to say Kaddish for his son David, who died three months ago.
“He was a very quiet man , a very nice man,” Rabbi Baalhaness told VIN News. “Even though he had just suffere...
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February 21, 2017 at 11:29 pm
Millions of people living in the United States illegally could be targeted for deportation – including people simply arrested for traffic violations – under a sweeping rewrite of immigration enforcement policies announced Tuesday by the Trump administration.
Any immigrant who is in the country illegally and is charged or convicted of any offense, or even suspected of a crime, will now be an enforcement priority, according to Homeland Security Department memos signed by Secretary John Kelly. That could include people arrested for shoplifting or minor offenses – or simply having crossed the border illegally.
The Trump administration memos replace more narrow guidance focusing on immigrants who have been convicted of serious crimes, are considered threats to national secur...
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February 21, 2017 at 11:17 pm
A Jewish Cemetery in St. Louis was desecrated on the heels of bomb threats and hate crimes against dozens of Jewish community center’s across the United States.The vandalism happened this past weekend when over 100 headstones were damaged. Muslim Americans decided to stand in solidarity with the Jewish-American community to condemn this horrific act of desecration against the Chesed Shel Emes Cemetery and extended their deepest condolences to all those who were affected and to the Jewish community at large.
Two members of the Muslim community started a campaign to help repair the vandalized headstones and raised close to $30,000 in only a few hours.
“Through this campaign, we hope to send a united message from the Jewish and Muslim communities that there is no place for this ...
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February 21, 2017 at 11:01 pm
United Parcel Service Inc. sees a day when your latest purchase may be dropped off not by a brown-clad delivery driver, but by an octocopter drone.
The world’s largest courier took a step closer to that future on Monday, launching an unmanned aerial vehicle from the roof of a UPS truck about a quarter-mile to a blueberry farm outside Tampa, Florida. The drone dropped off a package at a home on the property, and returned to the truck, which had moved about 2,000 feet.
The test shows how UPS is looking to drones as a way to cut costs and ease delivery in hard-to-reach places. Deploying the aircraft in rural areas — where the distance between stops drives up fuel and labor costs — is one of the more promising applications.
“Drones won’t replace our uniformed s...
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February 21, 2017 at 10:58 pm
Today, the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, issued the following statement after President Donald Trump’s remarks this morning.
Mr. Mark Bane, president of the Orthodox Union, stated: ”Over the past several weeks, the American Jewish community has been subjected to scores of bomb threats, acts of vandalism and other anti Semitic incidents. We welcome today’s statement by President Donald Trump, delivered at the National Museum of African American History and Culture, that “the anti-Semitic threats targeting our Jewish community, and community centers, are horrible and painful.”
We appreciate that President Trump spoke directly to this matter. The words of a President of the United States carry great weight and it is important that...
