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March 15, 2018 at 4:31 pm
Pushing back harder on Russia, the Trump administration accused Moscow on Thursday of a concerted hacking operation targeting the U.S. energy grid, aviation systems and other infrastructure, and also imposed sanctions on Russians for alleged interference in the 2016 election.
It was the strongest action to date against Russia by the administration, which has long been accused of being too soft on the Kremlin, and the first punishments for election meddling since President Donald Trump took office. The sanctions list included the 13 Russians indicted last month by special counsel Robert Mueller, whose Russia investigation the president has repeatedly sought to discredit.
U.S. national security officials said the FBI, Department of Homeland Security and intelligence agencies had dete...
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March 15, 2018 at 4:25 pm
The Dow snapped a three-day losing streak Thursday, although the blue-chip index pared its gains after a report of new subpoenas in the Russia investigation.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rallied 115.54 points, or 0.47%, to 24,873.66. The S&P 500 slipped 2.15 points, or 0.08%, to 2,747.33. The Nasdaq Composite was down 15.07 points, or 0.2%, at 7,481.74.
The New York Times reported that Robert Mueller, special counsel in charge of the investigation into alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 election, has subpoenaed the Trump Organization for documents related to Russia. After initially falling sharply on the report, the Dow climbed back after the Trump Organization dismissed it as old news, saying the company has cooperated with the investigation.
Investor sentiment was buoye...
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March 15, 2018 at 4:20 pm
A U.S. Navy fighter jet crashed Wednesday off the coast of Key West, Florida, killing its two crew members.
The F/A-18 Super Hornet was on approach to land at the naval air station around 4:30 p.m. EDT, and crashed into the water about a mile east of the runway.
The pilot and weapons system officer ejected and were recovered, but U.S. Naval Air Forces reported late Wednesday night that both had died. Their names are being withheld pending notification of next of kin. The cause of the crash is also under investigation.
The aircraft crew is based out of Naval Air Station Oceana, in Virginia Beach, Virginia. The Super Hornet is a twin-engine fighter jet that is larger than the single-seat F/A-18 Hornet.
President Donald Trump has tweeted his condolences.
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March 15, 2018 at 4:09 pm
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's company says it has been turning over documents for months in response to requests from federal investigators looking into Russian election interference and possible coordination with Trump associates.
An attorney for The Trump Organization says in a statement to The Associated Press that the company has been cooperating with special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation since July 2017. The company has been in routine contact with the prosecutors, turning over documents and regularly discussing the scope of requests.
The company's cooperative posture mirrors that of the White House and the Trump campaign. Combined, they have provided more than a million pages of documents to investigators.
The Trump Organization is an umb...
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March 15, 2018 at 4:06 pm
Long-term U.S. mortgage rates fell this week for the first time this year as the spring home buying season begins. The decline comes after nine straight weeks of increases that pushed borrowing costs higher.
Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday the average rate on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages slipped to 4.44 percent from 4.46 percent last week. The new average rate remains at a high level, however, raising concern that home sales could be dampened. The benchmark rate averaged 4.30 percent a year ago.
The average rate on 15-year, fixed-rate loans declined to 3.90 percent from 3.94 percent last week.
Mortgage rates rose steadily in January, February and early March, as interest rates generally increased in response to higher levels of government debt and expectations of rising i...
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March 15, 2018 at 4:01 pm
The likely liquidation of Toys R Us, the nation’s largest independent toy seller, could add stress for the companies that make toys and games, and mean changes for the owners of the strip malls where most of its stores are.
Not to mention its impact on more than Toys R Us’s 30,000 U.S. workers
Here’s a look.
WHAT HAPPENS TO TOY MAKERS?
Toy companies, both big and small, will lose a place to test new toys. Toys R Us was a launchpad for emerging trends and toys, such as ZhuZhu Pets, which were the must-have holiday toy in 2008.
“Toys R Us was known as an incubator,” said Jim Silver, editor-in-chief of toy review site TTPM.com.
The toy makers will also have to find new places to sell their goods. The bigger toy makers — Hasbro and Mattel —...
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March 15, 2018 at 4:01 pm
MIAMI (AP) — A new pedestrian bridge collapsed onto a highway at a Miami-area college Thursday, crushing at least five vehicles under massive slabs and killing several people, authorities said.
Several people were seen being loaded into ambulances and authorities launched search and rescue missions. Florida Highway Patrol Lt. Alejandro Camacho told CBS News that there were "several fatalities."
Miami-Dade Fire Rescue tweeted that "multiple" people were injured when the Florida International University bridge collapsed. Authorities said they were working on confirming the numbers. The bridge was still under construction and expected to open to foot traffic next year.
"We are shocked and saddened about the tragic events unfolding at the FIU-Sweetwater pedestrian ...
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March 15, 2018 at 2:30 pm
The FIU pedestrian bridge across Southwest Eighth Street collapsed Thursday afternoon, trapping an unknown number of people and cars underneath.
The bridge was installed at Southwest 109th Avenue Saturday morning, intended eventually to provide pedestrian access across Tamiami Trail from FIU’s main campus to Sweetwater, where thousands of students live in off-campus housing or in FIU’s newer dorms.
Before Saturday’s installation, FIU said the method of overall installation significantly reduced the risk to workers, walkers, drivers and minimized traffic disruptions for construction.
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March 15, 2018 at 2:30 pm
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — The sister of the man sentenced to die for killing nine people at a South Carolina church in 2015 has been arrested at her school and charged with bringing pepper spray, a knife and marijuana onto the campus.
Morgan Roof, 18, was arrested Wednesday at A.C. Flora High School after a school administrator contacted the school resource officer, Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott said in a news release.
She is charged with two counts of carrying a weapon on school grounds and one count of simple possession of marijuana.
No one was hurt.
A judge set her bond at $5,000 and said she could not return to the school. She was screened for a public defender. It was not known if she has an attorney yet.
Investigators say Roof also posted a Snapchat about the National Scho...
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March 15, 2018 at 1:36 pm
You have been at your job for three months and you’re confused. During the interview, when your prospective manager asked how you would solve various workplace problems, she loved your solutions!
Now, with some time under your belt, you are eager to make the changes your prospective boss seemed so excited about.
Yet all you are getting is resistance. How can you help improve the operation without sound like a negative troublemaker?
The good news is you were probably hired because of your ideas. Your hiring manager might have thought, “Now that’s the kind of creative thinking I’m looking for. It’s going to be great to have some new blood in here.” You picked up on your manager’s excitement and can’t be faulted for assuming...
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March 15, 2018 at 1:07 pm
THE FOLLOWING IS VIA YWN
Preparations for many mispallalim expected to visit Har HaZeisim today, Thursday, Yom Kippur Koton have been completed as the minhag is not to visit kevarim during Nissan, as many who have yahrzeit arriving today, as tomorrow is erev Shabbos.
Rabbi Hillel Horowitz, Director-General of the Council of Jerusalem Cemeteries is ready, as is the new Egged 84 line which runs directly to the cemetery. The new line leaves from the Ammunition Hill light rail depot on Sunday through Thursday, running between 8:30AM and 7:00PM, every 45 minutes.
Officials add that Baruch Hashem, the security situation on Har HaZeisim has improved significantly over the years due to herculean efforts and of course the new security reality that exists in the area, including a police sta...
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March 15, 2018 at 1:04 pm
BOSTON (AP) — Civil rights and indigent defense groups asked Massachusetts' highest court Thursday to stop federal agents from arresting immigrants targeted for deportation at courthouses, saying the practice is scaring victims, witnesses and others away from halls of justice.
The petition filed in the Supreme Judicial Court cites immigrants — including a woman who wants to renew a restraining order against her abusive ex-husband — who are too afraid to enter state and local courthouses out of fear of deportation.
The challenge, believed to be the first of its kind in the country, comes as advocates, attorneys and judges have complained about courtroom arrests under President Donald Trump. Courtroom arrests happened under President Barack Obama's administratio...
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March 15, 2018 at 1:01 pm
NEW YORK (AP) - David S. Wyman, a leading scholar of the U.S. response to the Holocaust whose "The Abandonment of the Jews" was a provocative, best-selling critique of everyone from religious leaders to President Franklin Roosevelt, died Wednesday at age 89
The David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies announced that Wyman died at his home in Amherst, Massachusetts, after a lengthy illness. Wyman was a professor emeritus at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
The grandson of Protestant ministers, Wyman was in graduate school when he began a long-term quest to learn what was done on behalf of the millions of Jews rounded up and murdered by the Nazis and their collaborators during World War II.
He was best known for "The Abandonment of the Jews: America and the Holocaust 1941-4...
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March 15, 2018 at 12:42 pm
Deputy Min. Oren tells Arutz Sheva state overlooking Israeli lone soldiers, particularly haredim, calls to form new agency to address issue.
On Wednesday, State Comptroller Yosef Shapira released a report criticizing Israel’s treatment of demobilized lone soldiers. Shapira found that while the IDF is generally responsive to the needs of the estimated 6,000 soldiers who do not live with their parents, there were severe shortcomings with assisting lone soldiers upon their discharge.
“There does not exist a comprehensive, inter-agency program that defines the goals of the country regarding the integration of veteran lone soldiers, without family support, in Israeli society,” read the report. “After their release from the military service, Israeli society faces...
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March 15, 2018 at 12:36 pm
'If Iran builds atomic bomb, we will too,' says kingdom's Crown Prince, raising prospect of nuclear arms race in the Middle East.
Saudi Arabia vowed Thursday to pursue nuclear weapons if Iran is able to build an atomic bomb, raising the specter of a nuclear arms race in the Middle East.
The kingdom’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman spoke with CBS Thursday, comparing the Tehran regime to Nazi Germany, and warning that Iran’s supreme leader, Grand Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, threatens the entire Middle East.
“Because he wants to expand,” said the Crown Prince. “He wants to create his own project in the Middle East very much like Hitler who wanted to expand at the time. Many countries around the world and in Europe did not realize how...
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March 15, 2018 at 12:35 pm
President Trump could be making more changes to his Cabinet this week in the wake of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s firing, multiple sources told Fox News on Wednesday evening.
The potential changes include the departure of National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster and his replacement by John Bolton, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.
Other departures from the administration would include Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin and Chief of Staff John Kelly.
The sources have cautioned that Trump will make the ultimate decision about all staff changes. However, the departure of McMaster has been described by multiple sources as “imminent.”
Kelly would be replaced as chief of staff by Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulv...
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March 15, 2018 at 12:33 pm
A professor of Moscow State University chased out film student Leo Boroda when he refused to remove his yarmulka before a geography exam, Moscow’s anti-racism Sova Center reported. The student was forced to look for another proctor to supervise his writing of the test.
The student told Sova that on an earlier occasion, a teacher advised him to baptize when he asked permission to skip physical education classes on Yom Kippur.
The deputy dean of the university’s film department, Natalia Trushakova, said the incident was unrelated to the faculty’s policies.
But Sergei Dobrolyubov, dean of the geography department, said the professor was following the rules and that he also ordered female Muslim students to remove headscarves before exams.
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March 15, 2018 at 12:12 pm
The United States and two major European allies formally backed Britain’s claims of likely Russian links to a chemical toxin attack against a former spy, calling it the “first offensive use of a nerve agent” in Europe since World War II.
The joint statement from the leaders of France, Germany, the United States and Britain signaled another step in mounting international pressure on Russia over apparent ties to the assault.
The statement said the nations shared the view of British investigators of Russian ties to last week’s attack against a former double agent and his daughter
There was no “plausible alternative explanation,” the statement added, noting that Russia’s “failure to address the legitimate request by the U.K. government further...
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March 15, 2018 at 12:10 pm
President Trump reportedly said late Wednesday that Democratic congressional candidate Conor Lamb performed well in a deep-red Pennsylvania district because he is “like Trump.”
Trump told GOP donors at a private fundraiser that Lamb ran “a pretty smart race, actually” against Republican state Rep. Rick Saccone, The Atlantic reported.
“The young man last night that ran, he said, ‘Oh, I’m like Trump. Second Amendment, everything. I love the tax cuts, everything.’ He ran on that basis,” the president said of Lamb, according to the news outlet. “He ran on a campaign that said very nice things about me. I said, ‘Is he a Republican? He sounds like a Republican to me.’”
Read more at The Hill.
