Rebbetzin Tzipi Lau, Wife of Israel’s Chief Rabbi, Delivers Message of Strength and Encouragement to Women in Bat Melech’s Shelters In an emotional visit to a shelter for battered women run by Bat Melech, Rebbetzin Tzipi Lau, wife of Israel’s Chief Rabbi David Lau, delivered a powerful and uplifting message of strength and encouragement in advance of the upcoming Pesach holiday. Bat Melech runs the only shelters in Israel for religious victims of domestic violence. “On the eve of Pesach, women who have suffered from abuse identify with the Festival of Freedom in a powerful and symbolic way,” said Noach Korman, Bat Melech Founder and Director. “Each woman is going through a process of freedom from the enslavement of abuse and domestic violence. We are v...
A vandal attacks Chabad at Flamingo synagogue in Thornhill, Ont. on March 21, 2018 (Photo Credit: Rabbi Mendel Kaplan Facebook) THORNHILL, Ont. – B'nai Brith Canada is appalled after learning Wednesday morning that a synagogue in Thornhill, Ont. has been targeted by antisemitic vandalism. On Wednesday at about 9:40 a.m., a vandal smashed the glass doors of Chabad at Flamingo with a rock, according to Chabad Rabbi Mendel Kaplan. York Regional Police have been contacted and are on the scene. At 11 a.m., Rabbi Kaplan shared information about the incident to his Facebook page. “ANTISEMITIC ATTACK IN THORNHILL!!!” he wrote. “Our cameras show a man walking by our shul... stopping multiple times looking for rocks — and then running back TWICE ...
WASHINGTON (AP) — The tempest over President Donald Trump's congratulatory phone call to Vladimir Putin quickly grew on Wednesday into an uproar over White House leaks, sparking an internal investigation and speculation over who might be the next person Trump forces out of the West Wing. The White House, which has suffered frequent leaks — at times of notable severity — said in a statement it would be a "fireable offense and likely illegal" to leak Trump's briefing papers to the press, after word emerged that the president had been warned in briefing materials not to congratulate the Russian president on his re-election. Trump did so anyway, and on Wednesday he defended the call, saying George W. Bush did not have the "smarts" to work with Putin, and that Bara...
ROUND ROCK, Texas (AP) — The Latest on the Austin bombings (all times local): 3:35 p.m. The chairman of the U.S. House Homeland Security committee says authorities seem to think the Austin bombing suspect had "above average intelligence." Republican Congressman Michael McCaul told The Associated Press on Wednesday that the suspect matched the FBI's initial profile suspicion that the bomber was likely a white male. But he says a psychological profile probably won't be known until investigators go through Mark Conditt's writings and social media postings. Authorities say Conditt blew himself up overnight in his vehicle in a hotel parking lot in another suburb as a SWAT team closed in on him. McCaul says the suspect bought nails and other bomb-making equipment at a H...
WASHINGTON (AP) — Housing Secretary Ben Carson, under fire after his office ordered a $31,000 dining set, told a House panel Tuesday that he left furniture purchasing decisions to his wife. Carson said that he was unaware of the purchase, and canceled it as soon as he learned about it in news reports. But emails released by an accountability organization last week suggest that Carson and his wife, Candy Carson, both played a role in selecting the furniture. On Wednesday, Carson told a House Appropriations subcommittee that he and his wife looked at furniture catalogues together. But "the prices were beyond what I wanted to pay," he said. Carson added, "I made it clear that didn't seem right to me." Carson said he then put his wife in charge of furniture selection. "I left it...
NEW YORK (AP) — Breaking more than four days of silence, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg admitted mistakes and outlined steps to protect user data in light of a privacy scandal involving a Trump-connected data-mining firm. Zuckerberg said Wednesday that Facebook has a "responsibility" to protect its users' data and if it fails, "we don't deserve to serve you." Zuckerberg and Facebook's No. 2 executive, Sheryl Sandberg, have been quiet since news broke Friday that Cambridge Analytica may have used data improperly obtained from roughly 50 million Facebook users to try to sway elections. Facebook has already taken the most important steps to prevent such a situation from happening again, Zuckerberg said. For example, in 2014, it reduced access outside apps had to user dat...
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions will be in his home state of Alabama this week to address a black law enforcement group that is sometimes at odds with the Trump administration. The U.S. attorney's office in Birmingham says Sessions will speak to the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives on Friday. The group has been critical of President Donald Trump for his disparaging comments about immigrants from Africa and Haiti. It has also criticized Trump's move to let police agencies obtain surplus military equipment. The organization opposed Trump's pardon of Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio (ahr-PY'-oh) and noted Sessions' past opposition to clemency. Sessions will speak at a meeting that includes numerous large-city po...
Stocks fell Wednesday after the Federal Reserve added a third rate hike to its 2019 plans, reflecting views that inflation is beginning to pick up. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 44.96 points, 0.18%, to 24,682 in recent trading. The S&P 500 fell 5.01 points to 2,711.93. The Nasdaq Composite was down 19.02 points at 7,345.29. The Federal Reserve raised its benchmark interest rate and maintained its stance for three rate hikes in 2018, partly easing concerns that the central bank would tighten policy at a faster pace than expected. The Fed said it is looking for three more rate hikes in 2019, up from its previous plan to raise rates two times. “We suspect the Fed is leaning on the mixed inflation data in wages along with the escalating risks of a trade war to buy some ...
The man suspected of planting four bombs in the Texas capital this month that killed two people and injured four others was an unemployed college dropout who doesn't appear to have left much of a trail online aside from some 2012 blog posts about gay marriage and other topics. Authorities say Mark Anthony Conditt blew himself up in a motel parking lot overnight as a SWAT team approached his SUV. Police haven't publicly released Conditt's name, but a law enforcement official who had been briefed on the investigation identified Conditt as the suspect on the condition of anonymity because the official hadn't been authorized to discuss the case publicly. Conditt grew up in Pflugerville, a suburb just northeast of Austin where he was still living after moving out of his pa...
Baltimore, MD – Mar. 21, 2018 – Due to the inclement weather, Seven Mile Market will close this evening, Wednesday, Mar. 21, at 6:00 PM. 
Baltimore, MD - Mar. 20, 2018 - On Wednesday evening, March 7, Bais Yaakov of Baltimore hosted their 76th Anniversary Banquet, celebrating “An Education for Eternity.” Divrei brachah were delivered by Harav Aharon Feldman, shlita, Rosh Yeshivah of Yeshivas Ner Yisroel, who praised the school as a premier makom of chinuch habanos. “This Bais Yaakov is a model for the rest of the country,” the Rosh Yeshivah asserted. “In the past 75 years, it was mechanech thousands of mothers and wives. May Hakadosh Baruch Hu bentch everyone who has a share in this remarkable school, which should continue to flourish and educate future wives and mothers.” The evening was opened by Dr. Shmuel Markovitz, president, who discussed the school’s significant growth, ...
WASHINGTON (AP) — As hundreds of people stood in line for food and many went hungry during the days and weeks after Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico, Walmart Inc. and local supermarkets threw out tons of spoiled meat, dairy and produce. Emails and text messages made public Tuesday in a letter sent by the top Democrat on the House oversight committee describe frantic efforts by officials at Walmart and the Puerto Rican government to get fuel for generators to prevent food from going bad. From the Federal Emergency Management Agency came only silence. Within a three-hour time span, Walmart officials were able to connect, through email and text messages, with a congressman's office and local Puerto Rican government officials. They passed on their urgent request for help, just two...
BOSTON (AP) — The top prosecutors in Massachusetts and New York have sent a letter to Facebook demanding the social media giant protect its users' private information. Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey and New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman launched a joint investigation Saturday after reports that British data analysis firm Cambridge Analytica captured information from 50 million Facebook users without their consent. The firm is tied to President Donald Trump's 2016 campaign. Healey says residents in her state "deserve answers immediately," from Facebook and Cambridge Analytica about what data was shared and how it was allowed to happen. Her office says it has been in touch with Facebook about the investigation. Schneiderman says that if the company v...
Palestinian teen provocateur Ahed Tamimi was sentenced to eight months in prison Wednesday for an incident in which she slapped an IDF soldier and accosted him and a comrade.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal health officials are taking a closer look at flavors in tobacco products that appeal to young people, particularly menthol-flavored cigarettes, which have escaped regulation despite nearly a decade of government scrutiny. The Food and Drug Administration issued a call Tuesday for more information about flavored cigars and electronic cigarettes, which currently have no flavor restrictions. Extra attention will fall on menthol, the only cigarette flavor permitted by Congress under the 2009 law that brought tobacco under FDA regulation. The FDA's past efforts to begin regulating the ingredient have been stalled by industry. Studies have shown the minty flavor appeals more to younger smokers. More than 50 percent of underage smokers reported smoking menth...
BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union says international donors have raised 456 million euros ($560 million) to build a desalination plant in the Gaza Strip to provide around 2 million people with safe drinking water. At a pledging conference in Brussels on Tuesday, the EU offered more than 77 million euros, which combined with other donations will meet around 80 percent of the plant's costs. People in the impoverished coastal strip rely on an underground aquifer for their water. But quality is poor and Gazans are drawing off around four times what the aquifer can sustain each year. The Palestinians say water shortages are creating health problems and exacerbating political tensions. The EU says that funding the plant is part of its efforts to help build a Palestinian state.
ROUND ROCK, Texas (AP) — The Latest on the Austin bombings (all times local): 10:35 a.m. A neighbor who watched the Austin bombing suspect grow up says he "always seemed like he was smart" and "polite." Jeff Reeb said Wednesday that he's lived next to the parents of Mark Anthony Conditt for about 17 years and that they are good neighbors. Reeb says Mark Conditt and his grandson played together into middle school and that Conditt visited his parents regularly. The parents live a few miles from the Pflugerville home where Mark Conditt lived with roommates. Reeb says Conditt was in the process of gutting the house and remodeling it, which meant a lot of hammers and nails around frequently. He says police had an unmarked car parked near Conditt's parents' house overn...
ATLANTA (AP) — Prosecutors in west Georgia focused on the race of black potential jurors as they purposely and systematically excluded them from the trials of black men facing the death penalty four decades ago, lawyers for one of the men said in a court filing this week. An all-white jury in 1977 convicted Johnny Gates of raping and murdering a white woman and sentenced him to die. His lawyers have asked a judge for a new trial and argued in a court filing Monday that newly disclosed prosecution trial notes from a string of capital cases tried in Muscogee County in the late 1970s, combined with the consistent striking of black prospective jurors, demonstrate systematic race discrimination in jury selection. "When you have this kind of race discrimination infecting a trial from the...
NEW YORK (AP) — Google Inc. has finalized the $2.4 billion purchase of New York City's Chelsea Market building. The management company Jamestown Properties announced the sale of the former Nabisco factory on Tuesday. The building is directly opposite Google's New York City headquarters in Manhattan's Chelsea neighborhood. Google has about 7,000 employees in New York, the most of any location outside of its Silicon Valley headquarters. Google vice president for real estate David Radcliffe says the Chelsea Market purchase "further solidifies" the company's commitment to New York. Google and Jamestown say they'll work together to ensure a smooth transition with minimal impact to tenants. The building's office tenants include Major League Baseball and ...
GREAT MILLS, Md. (AP) — The Latest on Tuesday's school shooting in Maryland (all times local): 11:30 a.m. The two students wounded during a shooting at their Maryland high school are still recovering in hospitals. A spokeswoman for MedStar St. Mary's Hospital said Wednesday that the 14-year-old male victim of Tuesday's shooting at Great Mills High School remains in good condition. Authorities have not released his name. A spokeswoman for the University of Maryland Prince George's Hospital Center says the 16-year-old female victim remains in critical condition. The girl's family has identified her as Jaelynn Willey. Authorities have said Jaelynn and the teen identified as the shooter, 17-year-old Austin Rollins, had previously had a relationship. They hav...
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