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April 27, 2017 at 8:40 pm
Some 400 demonstrators came out to protest Israeli Ambassador to the UK Mark Regev’s appearance at a prominent London university on Thursday, with one protester recorded saying that the Jews murdered in the Holocaust were “cowards.”
According to footage posted on social media, the demonstrators filled the campus of the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), waving Palestinian flags and “bloodied” Israeli flags, blaring music and chanting the popular call for the destruction of the Jewish state, “From the River to the Sea, Palestine Will Be Free.”
There were about 100 pro-Israel counter-demonstrators, according to eyewitnesses, some of whom attempted to converse with the other side, but rep...
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April 27, 2017 at 8:38 pm
President Donald Trump is once again taking aim at a federal appeals court district that covers Western states, saying he is considering breaking up a circuit that is a longtime target of Republicans and is where his first travel ban was halted.
Yet it would take congressional action to break up the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Republicans have introduced bills this year to do just that.
Asked Wednesday during a White House interview by the Washington Examiner if he’d thought about proposals to break up the court, Trump replied, “Absolutely, I have.”
“There are many people that want to break up the 9th Circuit. It’s outrageous,” he told the Examiner. He accused critics of appealing to the 9th “because they know that’s like, semi-auto...
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April 27, 2017 at 8:37 pm
Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today announced an enforcement and public education campaign aimed at motorists who pass stopped school buses. State and local law enforcement agencies from across the state will participate in “Operation Safe Stop” on Thursday, April 27, 2017, and drivers passing school buses that are stopped and flashing their red lights will be ticketed. The Governor’s Traffic Safety Committee and the New York Association for Pupil Transportation have collaborated on the enforcement and education initiative since October 2003.
“Operation Safe Stop has played a critical role in raising awareness and urging motorists to pay attention to the road and abide by the law,” Governor Cuomo said. “With this campaign, we can help protect the safety of o...
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April 27, 2017 at 7:47 pm
MK (Machane Tzioni) Shelly Yacimovich is running for the leadership of the Histadrut National Labor Federation. Yacimovich enjoys the backing of the Shas party in her bid for the top labor spot, and this allegedly is resulting in the labor union retaliating against Shas.
During her address before the Chareidi Institute for Policy Studies, Yacimovich spoke of the “Attempts to de-legitimize my candidacy for the chairmanship of the Histadrut are surprising me every time, and there is a perception that the Histadrut chairman’s role goes from man to man and that a woman can only deal with the leadership of Na’amat. For 97 years, there has not been a woman heading by the Histadrut, which suffers from extreme under-representation of women in senior positions.
“97...
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April 27, 2017 at 7:40 pm
This week’s parsha discusses tzaraas, a spiritually-caused physical affliction that was primarily the result of Loshon Hara, gossiping or speaking negatively about another (Arachin 15b). When one was afflicted with tzaraas, he was required to go to the Kohen who would verify the tzaraas and pronounce him impure. Interestingly, the severe status of impurity did not begin at the time that tzaraas appeared on the body. Rather, even if many kohanim and experts verified that one had tzaraas for a long period of time, the impurity only began once the Kohen VERBALIZED that he is impure (Negaim 3:1). His impurity relied so greatly on the Kohen’s verbalization, in fact, that if the Kohen recognized tzaraas but delayed his verbal declaration, out of respect for a sheva brachos (one'...
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April 27, 2017 at 6:59 pm
The Senate on Thursday confirmed Alex Acosta as secretary of labor, filling out President Donald Trump's cabinet as he approaches his 100th day in office.
The 60-38 vote confirms Acosta to the post. Once sworn as the nation's 27th secretary of labor, the son of Cuban immigrants will lead an a sprawling agency that enforces more than 180 federal laws covering about 10 million employers and 125 million workers.
Acosta has been a federal prosecutor, a civil rights chief at the Justice Department and a member of the National Labor Relations Board. He will arrive at the top post with relatively little clear record on some of the top issues facing the administration over key pocketbook issues, such as whether to expand the pool of American workers eligible for overtime pay....
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April 27, 2017 at 6:56 pm
Washington - A congressional committee on Thursday asked the Justice Department to consider criminally prosecuting a technology services company that was involved in maintaining a private email server for Hillary Clinton.
The House Science, Space, and Technology Committee accused Colorado-based Platte River Networks and its chief executive, Treve Suazo, of withholding documents demanded under subpoena and obstructing the committee’s investigation “at every turn.”
The allegations were made in a referral to Attorney General Jeff Sessions that was obtained by The Associated Press. A lawyer for the company did not immediately comment.
A referral for prosecution from Congress has no practical impact on the Justice Department, which decides on its own whether evidence exists...
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April 27, 2017 at 6:52 pm
Milwaukee - A Wisconsin man was removed from a Delta Air Lines flight after using the bathroom against crew instructions shortly before takeoff.
Kima Hamilton says he urgently needed to use the bathroom April 18 while on a Milwaukee-bound plane in Atlanta. He says takeoff was delayed and the flight wasn’t moving, so he decided to go.
Cellphone video shows Delta agents asked Hamilton to de-board after he got back to his seat, but he refused. The crew emptied the aircraft and allowed everyone but Hamilton back on.
Delta says it’s imperative passengers comply with crew instructions, especially at critical points of takeoff and landing.
Hamilton says FBI agents met him at the gate but didn’t arrest him. He got a partial refund but says it wasn’t enough to cover anot...
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April 27, 2017 at 6:48 pm
Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O) on Thursday said revenue from its cloud business, advertising and subscription services rose in the first quarter, helping it beat profit expectations and sending its shares to an all-time high in extended trading.
The world's largest online retailer said net income rose 41 percent to $724 million, or $1.48 per share, marking the eighth straight quarter that Amazon - known among investors for heavy spending and roller-coaster results - posted a net profit. Analysts on average were expecting $1.12 per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Amazon's revenue has soared in recent years, as shopping has shifted online and businesses have moved their IT to the cloud where Amazon Web Services (AWS) is the biggest player.
Some investors had questioned if ...
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April 27, 2017 at 6:43 pm
West Bank - Palestinians across the West Bank are observing a general strike in support of hundreds of hunger-striking prisoners held by Israel.
Palestinians say between 1,300 and 1,500 prisoners have been on a hunger strike for 11 days, demanding better conditions and more contact with relatives. Israel puts the number at about 1,100.
The widely observed strike in the West Bank and east Jerusalem reflects the Palestinian consensus on prisoners. In 50 years of Israeli rule, hundreds of thousands have been jailed by Israel at some point, affecting virtually all Palestinian families.
Qadoura Fares, who runs the Prisoners’ Club advocacy group, said Thursday’s strike “reflects the large public concern” for the prisoners.
In Ramallah, shops closed and public transpor...
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April 27, 2017 at 6:41 pm
Washington - President Donald Trump on Thursday unleashed a tweetstorm of criticism of Democrats involved in tense negotiations on a spending bill to keep the government open, accusing them of trying to close national parks and jeopardize the safety of U.S. troops over demands to provide Americans with health care.
The talks involving congressional Republicans and Democrats had progressed relatively smoothly after the White House had backed off a threat to withhold payments that help lower-income Americans pay their medical bills and Trump dropped a demand for money for the border wall.
A temporary funding bill expires Friday at midnight, and GOP leaders late Wednesday came out with a short-term spending bill through May 5 to prevent a government shutdown this weekend.
The House and Sen...
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April 27, 2017 at 6:36 pm
Toms River, NJ - A badly decomposed whale has been hauled off a New Jersey beach.
The Brigantine-based Marine Mammal Stranding Center says the 43-foot whale may have been a Sei whale, but the poor condition of the carcass makes a firm identification difficult.
The condition also makes it difficult to determine how the whale died.
The carcass had been floating offshore for at least three days before washing ashore Wednesday morning in the beach town of Toms River.
Authorities roped the animal off with crime scene tape to keep a crowd of onlookers at a distance.
Technicians from the stranding center used giant knives atop 6-foot-long wooden poles to slice the whale into smaller pieces. Public works crews then used front-end loaders to drag and carry the pieces away.
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April 27, 2017 at 6:36 pm
Beirut - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said in a Venezuelan television interview broadcast on Thursday that Israeli military strikes on his army showed Israel was “supporting terrorists” in Syria, state-run Syrian media reported.
Assad did not directly refer to the Israeli air strikes near Damascus airport early on Thursday and Syria’s official SANA news agency, which carried quotes from the interview with Venezuela’s Telesur channel, did not say when it was recorded.
President Bashar al-Assad is backed in Syria’s six-year-old civil war by Russia, Iran and regional Shi’ite Muslim militias. These include Hezbollah, a close ally of Tehran and enemy of Israel, which describes the group as the biggest threat it faces on its borders. The two fought a mon...
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April 27, 2017 at 6:32 pm
New York - Traveling through the nation’s busiest transit hub, New York’s Pennsylvania Station, will become even more cumbersome as Amtrak takes some tracks out of service for repairs after recent derailments disrupted travel for hundreds of thousands of commuters in recent weeks.
The construction will create further headaches for passengers, but Wick Moorman, Chief Executive Officer of the national passenger rail company, said in a call with reporters on Thursday that replacing some of the infrastructure is “critical.”
“We all clearly understand there has been a sense of frustration,” Moorman said. “It is our goal to cause the least amount of disruption.”
The bulk of work should be finished by the end of summer 2017, but some weekend work...
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April 27, 2017 at 6:32 pm
Bethpage, NY - Thousands of mourners gathered at the Long Island funeral of William Tolley (TUH’-lee), a New York City firefighter who fell to his death last week while battling a fire a Queens.
Tolley’s casket was carried into St. Martin of Tours Roman Catholic Church in Bethpage Thursday morning to the sound of bagpipes as firefighters, some from as far as Chicago, Detroit and Louisiana, stood at attention.
In their eulogies, Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro (NY’-groh) commended the 42-year-old Tolley for being “truly something special” and Mayor Bill de Blasio praised him for living “the way we should all live.”
Tolley was on the roof of an apartment building when he fell five stories. Investigators still don’t know what caused him to fal...
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April 27, 2017 at 6:31 pm
Jerusalem - Israeli Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon said on Thursday he would work to reduce regulations that prevent Israeli institutions investing in technology companies.
Hampered by regulatory constraints, as well as being harmed by the bursting of a tech bubble in 2000, Israeli pension funds and insurance companies have stayed away from high-tech, while billions of dollars have been generated from high-profile takeovers or flotations.
With the public missing out and leaving most funding coming from abroad, Kahlon is under pressure from the tech sector to make it easier for institutions to invest.
After a meeting with representatives from institutions and technology, Kahlon said: “I believe in a free economy and minimal government intervention. But unfortunately, there are place...
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April 27, 2017 at 6:06 pm
Detroit - Old cars can learn new tricks.
For a few hundred dollars, drivers can add new safety technology — like forward collision warning systems or backup cameras — to older cars.
Cars are lasting longer than ever thanks to improving quality. The average U.S. vehicle is now 11.6 years old, according to the consulting firm IHS Markit.
But that means millions of car owners are missing out on technology that could potentially save their lives. Forward collision warning systems, for example, can reduce the risk of a crash by 27 percent, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.
Consumers have to do the math to decide whether it’s better to add aftermarket systems to an older car or save up for a new one. Balance the cost of new safety — which can be...
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April 27, 2017 at 6:05 pm
IDF tank fire late Thursday morning 1 Iyar targeted a Hamas position in southern Gaza. The attack was in retaliation for gunfire directed at IDF personnel along the border from that area earlier in the day. The Arab media reports a motorized two-wheeled vehicle was hit by the tank fire.
B’chasdei Hashem no one was injured or killed in the Hamas attack into southern Israel.
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April 27, 2017 at 6:03 pm
President Donald Trump’s team boasted Wednesday that its tax-cut plan would lighten Americans’ financial burdens, ignite economic growth and vastly simplify tax filing.
Yet the proposal so far remains short of vital details, including how it would be paid for. And based on the few specifics spelled out so far, most experts suggest that it would add little to growth while swelling the budget deficit and potentially handing large windfalls to wealthier taxpayers.
Trump’s plan would replace the current seven income tax brackets with three, and the top bracket would drop from 39.6 percent to 35 percent. It would also slash the corporate rate from 35 percent all the way to 15 percent, a boon to most companies even though many don’t pay the full tax now. With tax credit...
