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May 24, 2018 at 5:19 pm
GOSHEN - The swastikas and words spray-painted at the Beth Shalom Cemetery were more than vandalism, they were a sacrilege committed against hallowed ground and an act of hate, members of the Jewish community said Wednesday in Orange County Court.
They spoke at the sentencing of Eric Carbonaro, 19, of Warwick, before the judge sentenced him to jail plus probation. Carbonaro pleaded guilty in February to two felonies in connection with the vandalism committed between Oct. 8-9, 2016 at Beth Shalom Cemetery in the Town of Warwick: tampering with physical evidence, and fifth-degree conspiracy as to commit criminal mischief as a hate crime.
At his February guilty plea, Carbonaro admitted that in September and October 2016 he discussed spray-painting graffiti at the Jewish cemetery, and to def...
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May 24, 2018 at 5:12 pm
HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. (AP) — In a forceful rebuke to President Donald Trump and other Washington Republicans, former Vice President Joe Biden told fellow Democrats in New York on Thursday that the GOP has abandoned traditional American values in the name of "phony populism" and "fake nationalism."
Speaking at the party's New York state convention on Long Island, Biden urged his party to stand for tolerance and efforts to expand education and economic opportunity.
"This is not your father's Republican Party," Biden told the audience. "They are not who we are. They are not who America is. What they are doing is sending a vision of America around the world that is distorted. That is damaging. That is hurting us... this phony population, this fake nationalism.... It's time to ...
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May 24, 2018 at 5:00 pm
New York - A day after a resolution was passed by the Democratic convention symbolically removing him from the party, Senator Simcha Felder has vowed to continue doing what he was elected to do: representing the interests of the residents of the 17th Senate District.
In a telephone interview with VIN News this afternoon, Felder admitted to being upset by the resolution and said that he was disappointed that partisanship appeared to be a higher priority than coming to the aid of New Yorkers who are struggling with massive financial burdens and other important issues.
“It is disheartening to see so many Democratic party operatives focused on throwing me out,” Felder told VIN News. “What is more important to me is serving my constituents.”
Still, Felder said i...
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May 24, 2018 at 4:19 pm
Scientists have developed a swallowed capsule packed with tiny electronics and millions of genetically engineered living cells that might someday be used to spot health problems from inside the gut.
The capsule was tested in pigs and correctly detected signs of bleeding, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology reported Thursday in the journal Science . At more than an inch long, it will have to be made smaller for testing in people. But the results suggest the capsule could eventually be used in people to find signs of ulcers, inflammatory bowel disease or even colon cancer, the researchers said.
It's the latest advance in a growing field of sensors that can be swallowed or worn to monitor our health. Pills equipped with cameras, thermometers and acidity g...
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May 24, 2018 at 3:54 pm
ATLANTA (AP) — The Rev. Martin Luther King's daughter blasted Steve Bannon's assertion that her father would be proud of President Donald Trump.
In an interview with BBC's "Newsnight," Bannon said King would be proud of Trump for "what he's done for the black and Hispanic community for jobs." He noted that the unemployment rates for black and Hispanic workers are at historic lows and credited the president's crackdown on illegal immigration.
In a series of tweets beginning just before midnight Wednesday, the Rev. Bernice King said the former White House chief strategist "dangerously and erroneously co-opted" her father's work and words.
She wrote that Bannon's claim that her dad would be proud of Trump "wholly ignores Daddy's commi...
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May 24, 2018 at 3:49 pm
WASHINGTON (AP) — The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said Thursday that President Donald Trump's budget plan won't curb the spiraling deficit as it claims.
Trump's budget, released in February and mostly ignored since, promises spending cuts and economic growth that would cut the deficit to $363 billion in 10 years. CBO said it would instead hit almost $1.1 trillion if all of the president's policies were followed.
All told, CBO said Trump's budget would produce deficits of $9.5 trillion over the coming decade instead of the $7.2 trillion promised by the White House.
CBO took a more cautious approach to estimating tax revenues and economic growth. It rejected Trump administration claims that last year's $2 trillion-plus tax cut measure will p...
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May 24, 2018 at 3:47 pm
BERLIN (AP) — Iran appears to be complying with a 2015 deal with major powers that was meant to stop it from developing nuclear weapons in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions, the United Nations nuclear watchdog said Thursday.
The United States pulled out of the pact earlier this month, and wants to impose tough sanctions on Iran, while European powers and Tehran say they are committed to keep working together to save the deal.
The International Atomic Energy Agency said in Vienna, in its first report since the U.S. withdrawal, that Iran continues to stay below the maximum level to which it can enrich uranium and appears to be fulfilling other obligations.
However, the agency criticizes in the report that Iran is slow when it comes to "complementary access" inspections,...
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May 24, 2018 at 3:44 pm
BEIRUT (AP) — Airstrikes overnight in eastern Syria killed at least 12 pro-government fighters, all reportedly foreign nationals, a war-monitoring group said Thursday. The Syrian government-run media blamed the strikes on the U.S.-led coalition fighting the Islamic State group.
In Damascus, the SANA news agency said coalition aircraft struck military positions between the towns of Boukamal and Hmeimeh in Deir el-Zour province. It did not report any casualties.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which tracks the war through a network of activists on the ground, said the fatalities were not Syrian nationals but foreign fighters. It said the coalition was likely behind the strikes.
The Pentagon said it had "no information" to substantiate reports the coalition was...
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May 24, 2018 at 3:43 pm
BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian TV reports that a military base in central Syria has come under attack from "enemy" fire.
It says Syrian air defenses confronted the missile attack.
It did not give more details.
State- run news agency SANA reported minutes earlier loud explosions at the Dabaa airbase in Homs province.
The report Thursday night came after SANA news agency said U.S.-led coalition aircraft struck military positions in eastern Syria, a report the Pentagon denied.
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6:20 p.m.
Syria's Ministry of Transport says Syria's flagship airline is resuming flights between the coastal city of Latakia and the United Arab Emirates city of Sharjah.
Ali Hamoud says Syrian Air will operate one round-trip service weekly between the two cities, starting Thursday.
Hamoud says the s...
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May 24, 2018 at 1:27 pm
New York - A team of leading international jurists, including Harvard Prof. Alan Dershowitz, plan to petition the international Court of Arbitration for Sport against the exclusion of Israel’s flag and anthem at sporting events in Arab countries.
“It starts with sports, but it won’t end there,” Dershowitz warned. “We won’t allow the Jewish state to be treated like it’s a second-class country.”
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Yesh Atid MK Yoel Razbozov, a former Israeli judo champion who launched the initiative, said: “When I saw Israeli athletes having to compete in Arab countries without an Israeli flag, without the anthem and without any Israeli symbol, as a former Olympic athlete and a member of Knesset, it drove me crazy.
“This...
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May 24, 2018 at 1:23 pm
HOLMDEL, N.J. (AP) — Authorities say about two dozen passengers safely evacuated a bus after it burst into flames while traveling on the Garden State Parkway.
The fire occurred around 9:30 a.m. Thursday near milepost 116.7 in Holmdel, New Jersey. The driver pulled onto the shoulder when he noticed smoke coming from the bus, and the more than 20 passengers aboard the vehicle got out without incident.
The fire destroyed the bus. It also forced the brief closure of the local southbound lanes, but the highway's express lanes remained open.
State police say the bus was registered to Island Charter of Staten Island, New York. But it wasn't immediately known where the bus was headed to when the fire occurred.
The cause of the fire remains under investigation.
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May 24, 2018 at 1:18 pm
PARAMUS, N.J. (AP) — Authorities have charged the driver of a school bus that collided with a dump truck in New Jersey, killing a student and a teacher earlier this month.
They say 77-year-old Hudy Muldrow Sr. has been charged with death by auto.
Investigators say he tried to merge onto Interstate 80 in Mount Olive and then turned sharply toward a U-turn area on May 17. The bus and a dump truck then collided, killing 10-year-old fifth-grader Miranda Vargas and 51-year-old Jennifer Williamson.
More than 40 others were injured in the accident.
State police say a Muldrow would be taken into custody Thursday. A detention hearing is scheduled for Friday.
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May 24, 2018 at 1:15 pm
RIO BRAVO, Texas (AP) — The U.S. Border Patrol says an agent was trying to detain some people whom he suspected had entered the country illegally when they attacked him and he shot and killed one of them.
Border Patrol says the unidentified agent was investigating a report of illegal activity Wednesday in Rio Bravo, just south of Laredo, when he came across the group.
The agency said in a statement Thursday that the agent was trying to take them into custody when some attacked him "using blunt objects." The agent fired at least once, striking one of his assailants. Three others who fled were apprehended by responding agents.
The FBI and Texas Rangers are investigating the shooting.
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May 24, 2018 at 12:41 pm
Why is it that in these somewhat advanced and contemporary times we allow the idea of seeking matrimonial matches for our children — shidduchim — to be equated with pleas for recovery from an illness, improved health, and the ability to earn an income?
Everything in our lives emanates, in one form or another, from the One Above. At the same time, as created beings, we have been invested with something extraordinarily unique — the ability to make free and independent decisions — as a gift from G-d. According to our sages, it is the will of Hashem that we use our Divine wisdom to channel our energies in good, right, and productive directions.
The odd thing about shidduchim is that in this generation — let us say over the last two deca...
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May 24, 2018 at 12:34 pm
CLEVELAND, Tenn. (AP) — The Drug Enforcement Administration has acknowledged to a Tennessee family that agents raided their house by mistake.
News outlets report DEA agents and the Bradley County Sheriff's Office served a federal search warrant at the wrong home Tuesday in a raid that's now under review by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation. Bureau spokesman Josh DeVine said the investigation is ongoing but it appears "deputies appear to have initially entered the wrong home."
A DEA statement says authorities were looking for 27-year-old Monte Lamar Brewer Jr., a suspect in the 2017 death of a pregnant woman and a target in an ongoing heroin investigation. Instead, they raided Spencer Renck's household.
The father of four says a team busted through the front door...
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May 24, 2018 at 12:32 pm
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump has signed into law a measure loosening key restraints for banks that came in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis and Great Recession.
Trump savored the legislative triumph Thursday.
The Republican-led legislation cleared Congress on Tuesday with the help of some Democrats' votes and allowed Trump to realize his campaign pledge of dismantling the landmark Dodd-Frank law. The 2010 law was enacted by President Barack Obama and Democrats in Congress in response to the crisis that brought millions of lost jobs and foreclosed homes.
Trump notched the win on banking rules as reaction swirled over his abrupt diplomatic turn earlier Thursday in canceling next month's summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
Trump says, "This is tru...
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May 24, 2018 at 12:27 pm
BEIJING (AP) — No explanation has yet been found for a U.S. government employee's report of abnormal sensations of sound and pressure, China said Thursday, as the incident in southern Guangzhou city recalled the experiences of illness-stricken American diplomats in Cuba.
"China is already conducting a careful investigation, and we have already given the U.S. preliminary feedback," Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang said during a regular news briefing.
"At this point, we have not yet found any reason or clue leading to the situation described by the U.S.," Lu said, adding that China adheres to the Vienna Convention on protecting foreign diplomats.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Thursday that when the U.S. ...
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May 24, 2018 at 12:23 pm
Mahmoud Abbas says Israeli housing construction in town east of Jerusalem is 'illegal', violates international law.
Israel’s plans to approve construction of hundreds of new housing units in the Samaria city of Ma’aleh Adumim was strongly condemned Thursday by Palestinian Authority spokesman Nabil Abu Rudaina.
Abu Rudaina decried the plans calling the city of roughly 40,000, located just to the east of Jerusalem, "illegal".
“The entire settlement is illegal and stands in opposition to all legitimate international resolutions and [the new housing] will be removed sooner or later.”
According to the PA spokesman, the continuation of construction in Judea and Samaria, along with statements made by the US ambassador supporting such construction and what A...
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May 24, 2018 at 12:20 pm
MIAMI (AP) — U.S. government forecasters said Thursday that they were expecting an active Atlantic hurricane season.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration forecast calls for 10 to 16 named storms, with five to nine hurricanes. One to four hurricanes could be "major" with sustained winds of at least 111 mph (178 kph).
If that forecast holds, it would make for a near-normal or above-normal season. An average hurricane season produces 12 named storms, of which six become hurricanes, including three major hurricanes.
"There are no strong climate signals saying it's going to be extremely active, like last year, or extremely weak," said Gerry Bell, the lead hurricane forecaster at NOAA's Climate Prediction Center.
In the short term, forecasters say chances are i...
