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March 22, 2018 at 10:18 am
BOSTON (AP) — Longtime Boston television personality and entertainer Frank Avruch, who was the star of the popular children's TV program "Bozo the Clown," has died. He was 89.
Avruch died Tuesday at his Boston home from heart disease, his family said in a statement to WCVB-TV .
Avruch played Bozo the Clown from 1959 to 1970, a clown character particularly popular in the U.S. in the 1960s because of widespread franchising in television. Avruch became the first nationally-syndicated Bozo the Clown.
"He had a heart of gold," manager Stuart Hersh told The Associated Press on Wednesday, "He brought the Bozo the Clown character to life better than anyone else's portrayal of Bozo the Clown."
Avruch also was a contributor to WCVB-TV for more than 40 years as a host of...
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March 22, 2018 at 10:13 am
Silence is a source of great strength
- Lao Tzu
The speaking voice always betrays itself. By which I mean, the person talking always “gives himself away.” Let the speaker be glib, complimentary, diplomatic. The more he speaks, the more the truth will out. He will be unmasked. This is even more true of the one who is harsh, crass, speaks in curses and blasphemes. The voice, the speaking, is our vulnerability.
Silence is a difficult argument to counter.
* * *
We learn that silence is a great virtue save on one night of the year; on that night we are to speak – and to speak at length! “You shall tell your child on that day…” On Pesach night, we are to tell the great story of our redemption. “...
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March 22, 2018 at 10:11 am
NEW YORK (AP) — Breaking five days of silence, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg apologized for a "major breach of trust," admitted mistakes and outlined steps to protect user data in light of a privacy scandal involving a Trump-connected data-mining firm.
"I am really sorry that happened," Zuckerberg said of the scandal involving data mining firm Cambridge Analytica. Facebook has a "responsibility" to protect its users' data, he said in a Wednesday interview on CNN. If it fails, he said, "we don't deserve to have the opportunity to serve people."
His mea culpa on cable television came a few hours after he acknowledged his company's mistakes in a Facebook post , but without saying he was sorry.
Zuckerberg and Facebook's No. 2 executive, Sheryl Sandberg, ha...
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March 22, 2018 at 10:07 am
GREAT MILLS, Md. (AP) — A teenager used his father's legally-owned handgun in an attack inside his high school in Maryland, police said Wednesday.
Austin Rollins, 17, was killed Tuesday morning at Great Mills High School when a school resource officer fired off a shot at the attacker. It was not yet clear whether Rollins took his own life with his father's semi-automatic Glock handgun or was killed by the officer's bullet.
Investigators with the St. Mary's County sheriff's office said Rollins shot a 16-year-old girl in a hallway within minutes of entering the high school. Rollins and the girl had recently ended a relationship.
"All indications suggest the shooting was not a random act of violence," police said in a statement.
A 14-year-old boy who was sho...
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March 22, 2018 at 10:02 am
PFLUGERVILLE, Texas (AP) — A 25-minute cellphone video left behind by the bomber whose deadly explosives terrorized Austin for weeks details the differences among the weapons he built and amounts to a confession, police said. But his motive remains a mystery.
Mark Anthony Conditt, an unemployed college dropout who bought bomb-making materials at Home Depot, recorded the video hours before he died after detonating one of his own devices as SWAT teams closed in. It seemed to indicate the 23-year-old knew he was about to be caught, said Austin Police Chief Brian Manley.
"It is the outcry of a very challenged young man talking about challenges in his own life," Manley said of the recording, which authorities declined to release amid the ongoing investigation.
Conditt was tracked down ...
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March 22, 2018 at 10:00 am
Congressional leaders reached a tentative $1.3 trillion spending deal Wednesday to keep government agencies operating through September, unveiling legislation that would make good on President Trump’s promises to increase military funding while blocking much of his immigration agenda.
The release of the 2,000-plus-page bill Wednesday evening, after a two-day delay, touched off a legislative sprint as lawmakers try to pass it before Friday night, the deadline to avoid a government shutdown. And with a key senator unwilling to say whether he would agree to accelerate the deal’s consideration, it remained uncertain whether they would be able to meet the challenge.
There were other plot twists as the deal came together: As aides hashed out its final details on Wednesday afternoon...
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March 22, 2018 at 9:59 am
Congress dealt a blow to Education Secretary Betsy DeVos’ school choice agenda in a tentative spending bill released late Wednesday, rejecting her attempt to spend more than $1 billion promoting choice-friendly policies and private school vouchers.
DeVos had sought to cut Education Department funding by $3.6 billion – about 5 percent. Among other cuts, she wanted to eliminate funding for after-school programs for needy youth and ax a grant program that helps low-income students go to college in favor of spending more than $1 billion to promote charter schools, magnet schools and private school vouchers. Her proposal also outlined cuts to the Office for Civil Rights because the office had grown more efficient, she said, a move that outraged Democrats and civil rights groups.
H...
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March 22, 2018 at 9:57 am
The House approved “right-to-try” legislation on Wednesday that would bypass drug regulators and give critically ill patients access to experimental treatments, a victory for Republicans after the same bill got sidetracked last week.
Debate over the bill, which passed the House 267 to 149, pitted Republican lawmakers, President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence against Democrats, patient groups and four former commissioners of the Food and Drug Administration.
Supporters described the measure as a compassionate effort to provide access to treatments that could extend the lives of the terminally ill. Opponents argued the bill would allow bad actors to exploit vulnerable patients using treatments with largely unknown effectiveness and side effects.
(c) 2018, The Washi...
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March 22, 2018 at 9:55 am
Congress is poised to give the Pentagon flexibility on when and how it can spend the cash windfall it is set to get in a massive government spending bill unveiled Wednesday.
Under the bill, known as the omnibus, the Pentagon would be allowed to spend up to 25 percent of its operations and maintenance funds in the last two months of the fiscal year. It would also have more flexibility to reprogram funding.
The omnibus would provide $700 billion for defense spending in fiscal year 2018, an $80 billion increase over caps that were lifted as part of a budget deal. That number covers the Pentagon, as well as non-Pentagon defense programs such as the Department of Energy’s nuclear weapons program.
Read more at The Hill.
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March 22, 2018 at 9:53 am
Why was the Obama campaign’s use of Facebook data with voters considered genius while the Trump campaign’s methods are ‘scandalous’?
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March 22, 2018 at 9:51 am
President Trump late Wednesday night tweeted about the new budget being negotiated in Congress.
“Got $1.6 Billion to start Wall on Southern Border, rest will be forthcoming. Most importantly, got $700 Billion to rebuild our Military, $716 Billion next year…most ever. Had to waste money on Dem giveaways in order to take care of military pay increase and new equipment.”
“Democrats refused to take care of DACA. Would have been so easy, but they just didn’t care. I had to fight for Military and start of Wall. (sic)”
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March 22, 2018 at 9:49 am
Former FBI profiler James Fitzgerald is a pioneer in the science of profiling criminals and tracking down perpetrators. He shares insight about the Austin bombing case on ‘The Story.’
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March 22, 2018 at 9:47 am
Attorney Reuven Ladianski of Tel Aviv’s Let Live party blasted Chabad shluchim after one of them offered him a chance to put on tefillin in the city hall.
“Missionaries in the corridors of the Tel Aviv municipality!” he wrote on Facebook. “The man in the photo is a Chabad chossid who was wandering about on the 11th floor of the building and accosted me on my way to my office and offered me without hesitation and shame to put on tefillin.”
“I told him that city hall is not a place for missionaries and that he must leave the building,” Ladianski wrote, saying he would struggle against such religious coercion.
Responses flooded in, many of them blasting Ladianski.
Right-wing activist Yoav Aliasi posted: “Th...
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March 22, 2018 at 9:46 am
Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz sides with President Trump over Mueller’s Russia investigation, shares his insight on ‘Hannity.’
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March 22, 2018 at 9:44 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — With the 2018 elections already underway, senators chided the current and former secretaries of Homeland Security on Wednesday for not more strongly warning the American public about past Russian intrusions in state election systems and for a lack of urgency to protect balloting this year.
Kirstjen Nielsen, President Donald Trump's secretary of Homeland Security, testified alongside Jeh Johnson, secretary under former President Barack Obama, as the Senate intelligence committee launched an effort to protect the country's election security after Russian agents targeted election systems in 21 states ahead of the 2016 general election. There's no evidence that any hack in the November 2016 election affected election results, but the attempts rattled sta...
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March 22, 2018 at 9:43 am
PRISTINA, Kosovo (AP) — Lawmakers in Kosovo approved a contentious and long-pending border demarcation deal with Montenegro Wednesday despite the opposition's use of tear gas to prevent a vote.
The 120-seat parliament voted 80-11 to endorse the deal, ensuring its passage with the minimum two-thirds support required.
The European Union has set the border agreement as a precondition for Kosovo's citizens to travel without visas in Europe's the Schengen travel zone
Kosovo Assembly Speaker Kadri Veseli said he was hopeful the EU would follow through and let Kosovars enjoy visa-free, as citizens of other Balkan region countries already do.
The opposition Self-Determination party says Kosovo loses 8,200 hectares (20,000 acres) of its territory under the agreement, which ...
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March 22, 2018 at 5:47 am
BJL Weather Information Notification System
Community Schedule Changes for Schools, Organizations & Businesses
Mar 22, 2018 / 6 Nisan, 5778
@8:46 PM BALTIMORE COUNTY PUBLIC SCHOOLS Closed
@9:42 PM BNOS YISROEL Bnos Yisroel Staff: 10 Am Opening, (Update At 9AM) All Girls In Grades 3-12 Should Daven At Home.
@11:01 PM CHEDER CHABAD Open 10 AM - Davening For All Including Boys Grades 5-8 In Cheder
@9:07 PM JCC - PARK HEIGHTS Open 8:30 AM
@5:25 AM MONTESSORI AT NER TAMID Open 10 AM
@8:38 PM OHR CHADASH ACADEMY Due To The Icy Conditions, We Will Begin Drop Off At 10:00 With Classes Beginning At 10:15. Students Should Daven At Home
@5:44 AM TALMUDICAL ACADEMY Lower ...
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March 21, 2018 at 11:26 pm
THE FOLLOWING IS VIA YWN
Former Shas party leader Eli Yishai, who was a member of the Security Cabinet in 2007, speaks about events following the revelation of details surrounding Israel’s attack against the Syrian nuclear facility.
“I left the meeting and headed directly to Rav Ovadia to consult with him. He understood and gave his bracha for the mission and the soldiers involved”, stated Yishai.
He explains that on that dramatic day, and after many discussions by the forum of seven (political-security cabinet), regarding the attack on the reactor and its destruction, the cabinet convened to approve the operation. Yishai said that he told Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and then Defense Minister Ehud Barak that if he wants his consent, he must go to Rabbi Ovadia Yosef...
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March 21, 2018 at 11:00 pm
President visits homes of Adiel Kolman, Lt. Ziv Daus and Sgt. Netanel Kahalani, all of whom were murdered in terror attacks in past 7 days; 'Our children grow up and are tasked with our defense. When such a calamity befalls us, we look up to you,' president tells Daus's family, later asking Kolman's widow to 'lend me your strength.'
President Reuven Rivlin paid his respects Wednesday to the family of Adiel Kolman, who was murdered in a Jerusalem stabbing attack this week, and the families of Lieutenant Ziv Daus and Sergeant Netanel Kahalani, murdered in the ramming attack near Mevo Dotan this past weekend.
Visiting the Daus residence, the president listened to stories about Ziv and his family. His father, Ronen, told Rivlin...
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March 21, 2018 at 10:08 pm
DAPCHI, Nigeria (AP) — Boko Haram Islamic extremists brought back nearly all of the 110 girls they had kidnapped from a boarding school last month, dropping them off in the middle of the night Wednesday with a warning: "Don't ever put your daughters in school again."
Several of the girls interviewed by The Associated Press said they had been traveling for days before the convoy of vehicles arrived in the center of the town of Dapchi around 2 a.m. Residents who had fled upon hearing that Boko Haram was headed their way watched from hiding as dozens of girls descended from the vehicles apparently unharmed.
"We were freed because we are Muslim girls and they didn't want us to suffer. That is why they released us," said Khadija Grema, one of the freed girls who said a Christi...
