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June 20, 2018 at 10:54 am
Tehran - Iran’s leader criticized the U.S. administration’s separation of immigrant parents and children at the U.S.-Mexico border in comments published on his official website Wednesday.
“Seeing the images of the crime of separating thousands of children from their mothers in America makes a person exasperated,” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said, according to his website. “But the Americans separate the children from the immigrant parents with complete maliciousness.”
Khamenei regularly denounces U.S. government actions and has stepped up criticism after U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew from an agreement last month that gave Iran some relief from international sanctions in exchange for curbs on its nuclear program.
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June 20, 2018 at 10:53 am
Washington - About a dozen protesters heckled Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen about the Trump administration’s immigration policy as she ate dinner at a Mexican restaurant in Washington.
The protesters entered MXDC Cocina Mexicana Tuesday and chanted “Shame!” and “End family separation!”
In a video posted on Facebook by Metro D.C. Democratic Socialists of America, the protesters yelled, “if kids don’t eat in peace, you don’t eat in peace.”
Nielsen paid her bill and left after about 10 or 15 minutes.
A department spokesman tweeted that during a work dinner, the secretary and her staff heard from a small group of protesters who “share her concern with our current immigration laws.”
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June 20, 2018 at 10:52 am
Kibbutz Nir Am - After years of rocket attacks and militant infiltrations from Gaza, residents of southern Israel are now coping with a new kind of threat: incendiary kites and balloons that have damaged farmlands and nature reserves.
The crude devices launched by Palestinians inside the blockaded territory have not been lethal. But they have sparked fires that have damaged agriculture, killed wildlife and whipped up considerable indignation.
“It’s caused significant economic damage but more than that it is emotional,” said Itzik Ebbo, 78, a member of Kibbutz Nir Am, a collective farming community. “These are crops we poured our hearts into. These are fields we hiked with our children and grandchildren.”
Sullen locals have become a fixture on Israeli ...
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June 20, 2018 at 10:52 am
Baltimore County police are asking for the public's help to find a missing boy.
Malik Zacharia Christian, 10, of Pikesville, was last seen Tuesday wearing a black polo shirt and blue jeans.
Malik is 4 feet 11 inches tall, weighs 79 pounds and has a scar near his left eye.
No further information was immediately released.
Anyone with information is asked to call 911.
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June 19, 2018 at 11:11 pm
Baltimore, MD - June 19, 2018 - The spring of 1968 was a notorious one for Baltimore. The death of Martin Luther King Jr. precipitated race riots for 8 days in the city of Baltimore, causing rioting, burning and looting of business etc. But that spring, another momentous event occurred and that was the graduation of 22 young women from Bais Yaakov High School. Rabbi Mordechai Shapiro, ZTL, Rov of Machzikei Hadas in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and the brother-in-law of Rabbi Binyomin Steinberg, ZTL, spoke at the graduation. In his speech he said of this special class, “mum ain boch” boch being the Gematria of the number 22.
This Sunday June 24th the class of 1968 will be celebrating their 50th high school reunion at the home of Mrs. Feigi (Siegel) Ober...
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June 19, 2018 at 10:24 pm
13 Hamas rockets were launched to Israel on Tuesday night both north and south to the Gaza Strip, out of these four were intercepted by Iron dome reported IDF spokesperson. Red Siren alerts were sounded in Gaza border communities and Hof Ashkelon Regional Council during the night, non of the rockets were able to cause any damages within Israel.
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June 19, 2018 at 8:18 pm
New York - If meat is grown in a lab without slaughtering animals, what should it be called?
That question has yet to be decided by regulators, but for the moment it’s pitting animal rights advocates and others against cattle ranchers in a war of words.
Supporters of the science are embracing “clean meat” to describe meat grown by replicating animal cells. Many in the conventional meat industry are irritated by the term and want to stamp it out before it takes hold.
“It implies that traditional beef is dirty,” says Danielle Beck, director of government affairs for the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association.
The spat shows the power of language as a new industry attempts to reshape eating habits. It’s why the $49.5 billion U.S. beef, poultry, por...
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June 19, 2018 at 8:08 pm
Washington - Ted Cruz has staged a dramatic about-face on the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” immigration policies, laying bare how politically damaging the issue of separating children from parents accused of crossing the border illegally is becoming for Republicans facing voters this fall.
The Texas senator, who has become a frequent ally of President Donald Trump, initially blasted criticism of the White House crackdown.
“When you see Democrats saying, ‘Don’t separate kids from their parents,’ what they’re really saying is don’t arrest illegal aliens,” he said last week
But he’s softened substantially, telling reporters in Washington on Tuesday, “All of us are horrified at the images we’re seeing.&r...
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June 19, 2018 at 7:49 pm
Canada has passed a landmark law that legalises the recreational use of marijuana nationwide.
The Cannabis Act passed its final hurdle on Tuesday in a 52-29 vote in the Senate. The bill controls and regulates how the drug can be grown, distributed, and sold.
Canadians will be able to buy and consume the drug legally as early as this September.
The country is the first in the G7 to legalise the drug's recreational use.
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June 19, 2018 at 7:40 pm
New York - General Electric will be dropped from the Dow Jones industrial average next week, ending the industrial conglomerate’s more than 100-year run in the 30-company blue chip index.
S&P Dow Jones Indices said Tuesday that GE will be removed from index before the open of trading next Tuesday. Its slot will go to drugstore chain Walgreens Boots Alliance.
Boston-based GE was an original member of the Dow Jones industrials dating back to 1896. It had been a continuous member of the Dow since 1907.
GE has been struggling in recent years, shrinking dramatically since it became entangled in the financial crisis a decade ago.
The company is under investigation related to a $15 billion hit it took to cover miscalculations at an insurance unit.
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June 19, 2018 at 7:35 pm
McLean, TX - Homeland Security officials say there have been 148 cases where someone fraudulently posed as a family member of children at the U.S. border from October to April.
According to figures released Tuesday, the cases involved 301 people. Officials did not say how many were children.
Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen has said there was a 314 percent increase in adults showing up with kids who are not family members. She says they are traffickers and smugglers.
More than 2,300 minors have been separated from their families crossing the border to the U.S. under a zero-tolerance policy where everyone caught crossing illegally is prosecuted.
Nielsen says those legitimately seeking asylum should go to official border crossings with their families and they will not b...
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June 19, 2018 at 5:41 pm
WASHINGTON (AP) — An FBI agent removed from special counsel Robert Mueller's team because of anti-Donald Trump text messages has been escorted out of the FBI building "as part of the ongoing internal proceedings," his attorney said Tuesday.
Peter Strzok "remains a proud FBI agent" who wants to serve his country but has been the "target of unfounded personal attacks, political games and inappropriate information leaks," according to a statement from lawyer Aitan Goelman.
Goelman said that "despite being put through a highly questionable process, Pete has complied with every FBI procedure, including being escorted from the building as part of the ongoing internal proceedings."
Strzok, a seasoned counterintelligence agent, was a lead agent on the investigation into whether Hilla...
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June 19, 2018 at 5:33 pm
New York - Donald Trump Jr. has canceled plans to raise money for the eldest son of former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.
Trump Jr. decided to withdraw from a fundraiser for Texas land commissioner George P. Bush in New York City next week. That was after Jeb Bush criticized President Donald Trump for separating immigrant children from their families at the border.
That’s according to two people with direct knowledge of the situation who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations.
Jeb Bush tweeted Monday that “Children shouldn’t be used as a negotiating tool.”
That was too much for 40-year-old Donald Trump Jr., who had been supportive of 42-year-old George P. Bush’s political aspirations. Trump Jr. had warned the son to get his father to ...
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June 19, 2018 at 5:30 pm
Washington - The White House aide who led the planning for President Donald Trump’s meeting last week with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un has decided to leave the Trump administration to return to the private sector.
Joe Hagin, the White House deputy chief of staff for operations, has served in every Republican White House since the Reagan administration. He held the same title in George W. Bush’s White House.
Hagin’s departure comes as the Trump administration continues to set records for staff turnover. More than 60 percent of those who served in senior positions at the beginning of the administration have exited.
No successor has yet been identified.
A White House official said that after departing Singapore last week, Trump made a rare appearance in the staff cab...
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June 19, 2018 at 5:26 pm
New York - Lighting up a joint in the Big Apple could lighten some wallets, but won’t lead to handcuffs in most cases once New York City’s revamped marijuana enforcement policy goes into effect on Labor Day weekend.
Mayor Bill de Blasio said Tuesday police officers will shift to issuing criminal summonses for public marijuana smoking starting Sept. 1 — a move he estimates will eliminate at least 10,000 arrests a year. The Democrat ordered the overhaul last month after a report showed persistent racial gaps in marijuana arrests.
“Nobody’s destiny should hinge on a minor non-violent offense,” said de Blasio.
Officers will still arrest suspected smokers if they are on parole or probation, have an open warrant, a violent criminal history or fail to show i...
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June 19, 2018 at 5:24 pm
WASHINGTON (AP) — Ambassador Nikki Haley says the United States is withdrawing from the U.N. Human Rights Council, calling it "an organization that is not worthy of its name."
Haley is President Donald Trump's envoy to the United Nations. She says a year ago she made clear the U.S. would stay in the council only if "essential reforms were achieved." She says it's clear those calls for change were not heeded.
Haley is decrying the membership of countries like China, Cuba and Venezuela that are themselves accused of rights violations. She says the council also has a "chronic bias against Israel."
But Haley says that if the council does reform, the United States "would be happy to rejoin."
Haley is announcing the withdrawal at the State Department alongside Secretary of St...
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June 19, 2018 at 5:02 pm
NEW YORK (AP) — Smoking in the U.S. has hit another all-time low.
About 14 percent of U.S adults were smokers last year, down from about 16 percent the year before, government figures show.
There hadn't been much change the previous two years, but it's been clear there's been a general decline and the new figures show it's continuing, said K. Michael Cummings of the tobacco research program at Medical University of South Carolina.
"Everything is pointed in the right direction," including falling cigarette sales and other indicators, Cummings said.
The new figures released Tuesday mean there are still more than 30 million adult smokers in the U.S., he added.
Teens are also shunning cigarettes. Survey results out last week showed smoking among high school stude...
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June 19, 2018 at 4:58 pm
Baltimore, MD - June 19, 2018 - Parah Adumah is the quintessential chok, a law which is impossible for us to understand. It is atonement for the chet ha'egel-the mother cow is coming to 'clean up' the mess of her child. This is the opposite of Kibbud Av V'em, a mitzvah that is easily understood, and one in which the child is doing for the parents. For the nations of the world, it is very easy to honor one’s parent, as the honor of Hashem does not come into the equation. However, as Bnei Yisroel, we must keep all mitzvos whether we understand them or not, and our ability to honor our parents can be limited because of our necessary deference to Hashem.
To listen click here
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June 19, 2018 at 4:54 pm
The NY Daily News reports that Nassau County investigators are frustrated that bigwigs at a German-based carmaker are giving them a hard time in trying to determine the exact speed of a 2010 BMW 550i GT that caused the crash that claimed the lives of chosson and kallah Yisroel Levin and Elisheva Kaplan.
In April, manslaughter charges were levied against one of the drivers involved in the crash, 35-year-old Rahmel Watkins, who was previously charged with a DWI and was on parole for a felony assault. In the April 4th incident, police said that Watkins was driving dangerously fast and seemed to have been racing another car.
Five cars, with nine total occupants, were involved in the crash at about 1:40 a.m. on Chol Hamoed Pesach on the Nassau Expr...
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June 19, 2018 at 4:50 pm
Overall enrollment in the country’s food stamp program has dropped to its lowest level in more than eight years as the economy continues to improve and the Trump administration attempts to tackle fraud in the program, Fox News reports.
According to the latest statistics from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which administers the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), enrollment in the program dropped in March to 40,083,954. The last time food stamp participation dipped this low was in February 2010, when 39,588,993 people were enrolled in the program.
