|
October 18, 2018 at 6:22 pm
Border Patrol officials in South Texas expressed “growing concerns” as the flow of migrant families and unaccompanied minors hit “unprecedented” levels in 2018.
“As the Rio Grande Valley Sector continues to experience an unprecedented flow of family units and unaccompanied children, the increase in identified fraud cases is extremely concerning,” Rio Grande Valley Sector Chief Patrol Agent Manuel Padilla, Jr. said in a written statement.
“The trend in these fraud cases is an effort by smugglers to exploit ongoing U.S. immigration policies and procedures. Agents have already discovered over 60 fraudulent cases in the first two weeks of the new fiscal year.”
Read more at BREITBART.
|
October 18, 2018 at 4:42 pm
Thirty six of the Democrats running for the US House of Representatives in November are Jewish, JTA reported. 18 are incumbents and an equal number are challengers.
Three Jewish Democrats are leaving the House: Sandy Levin of Michigan is retiring, Jacky Rosen of Nevada is running for the Senate and Jared Polis of Colorado is a candidate for governor.
Read more at Times of Israel.
|
October 18, 2018 at 4:36 pm
New York - Another building is stripping Trump off its entrance.
The New York Times reported Wednesday that residents of Trump Place on the Upper West Side of Manhattan have joined three other buildings in the neighborhood in stripping the president’s brassy five-letter name from their 46-story building in another sign that the brand is losing some of its appeal.
The move follows reports of losses at some of President Donald Trump’s golf courses, and decisions by several hotels that had licensed the president’s name to drop it.
After more than a quarter century, Trump Plaza will now be known only by its address, 200 Riverside Boulevard.
The name had become controversial among the building’s residents during Trump’s campaign and presidency. Owners in the 37...
|
October 18, 2018 at 4:33 pm
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — President Donald Trump is calling Democratic Senate hopeful Beto O'Rourke names ahead of a trip to Texas to stump for O'Rourke's Republican opponent, incumbent Ted Cruz.
Trump tweeted Wednesday "Beto is a flake" and that Cruz "has done so much for Texas," including creating jobs and cutting taxes, but that "O'Rourke would blow it."
That follows O'Rourke borrowing a Trump nickname for Cruz from when the two were 2016 Republican presidential rivals, calling the senator "Lyin' Ted" during a debate Tuesday night in San Antonio.
Trump is traveling to Houston on Monday to rally for Cruz as O'Rourke has kept the race reasonably close, even in deeply conservative Texas.
O'Rourke sharply criticized Cruz during the deba...
|
October 18, 2018 at 4:33 pm
WASHINGTON (AP) — Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said he told President Donald Trump on Thursday that Saudi Arabia should be given a few more days to complete its investigation into the disappearance of journalist Jamal Khashoggi before the U.S. decides “how, or if” to respond.
Pompeo, who spoke with reporters on the White House driveway after briefing Trump on his talks with leaders in Saudi Arabia and Turkey, said Turkey also promised to share the results of its own investigation with the Saudis.
Pompeo said he believes those combined efforts will produce “a complete picture” of what happened to Khashoggi, a Saudi journalist living in the U.S. who had been critical of the kingdom. Khashoggi has not been seen since he entered the Saudi consult in Istanbul m...
|
October 18, 2018 at 4:32 pm
Cairo - A team of Egyptian mediators on Thursday shuttled between Israel and the Gaza Strip’s Hamas rulers in a stepped-up effort to forge a cease-fire between the two enemies.
The series of meetings came a day after Gaza militants fired a rocket that struck a home in southern Israel, triggering a series of Israeli airstrikes. It was the heaviest day of fighting in several months.
The four Egyptian intelligence officials entered Gaza from Israel on Thursday afternoon, and then returned to Israel after meeting with Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas’ top leader.
Khalil al-Haya, a top Hamas official, said the Egyptians had discussed cease-fire efforts, as well as on-and-off attempts at reconciliation with the rival Palestinian Authority. The talks were ongoing.
The Islamic militant Hamas ...
|
October 18, 2018 at 4:31 pm
Jerusalem - President Donald Trump’s pro-Israel positions have not garnered him support from American Jewish voters, according to a new survey.
The poll found that 74 percent of Jews planned to vote for Democratic candidates in November’s midterm elections. The figure corresponds with similar voting patterns in past elections.
Overall, 75 percent of American Jews disapproved of the president’s policies, particularly on domestic issues such as immigration, taxes and health care.
The survey was conducted by the Mellman Group, a U.S. polling agency, for the nonpartisan Jewish Electorate Institute. It surveyed 800 American Jewish voters from a variety of backgrounds and geographic areas and had a margin of error of 3.5 percentage points.
Trump’s foreign policy fared...
|
October 18, 2018 at 4:07 pm
Agudath Israel of America urged the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) last week to revise proposed regulations that could undermine school choice programs in many states and jeopardize the scholarships of thousands of students. This would include the approximately 6500 students currently using tax credit scholarships to attend Jewish schools.
Scholarship tax credit programs, which at present operate in eighteen states, offer taxpayers a state tax credit, generally ranging from 50-100%, in return for a donation to a scholarship granting organization. The scholarship organization then distributes those funds to eligible, mostly low-income, students to attend the private school of their choice. Agudath Israel has played a key role in advocacy and...
|
October 18, 2018 at 3:18 pm
DETROIT (AP) — U.S. officials are reminding travelers that it remains illegal to bring marijuana into the United States at border crossings despite the legalization of the drug in Canada.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection representative Christopher Perry says the implementation of the new Canadian law on Wednesday thus far has had little effect on the flow of traffic along the border.
Perry, CBP's director of field operations in Michigan, talked to reporters at the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel, which connects Detroit with Windsor, Ontario.
According to Perry, U.S. border agents are asking the same kinds of questions of travelers that they did prior to the change in Canadian law, adding that agents generally will not ask routine questions about marijuana use.
On Wednesda...
|
October 18, 2018 at 3:18 pm
WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal Reserve officials last month debated how high they should raise interest rates to achieve their economic goals, with some arguing that they might need to lift rates to a level that would modestly restrain growth.
In the end, the Fed modestly raised its key short-term rate and predicted that it would continue to gradually tighten credit to manage growth and inflation amid a steadily healthy job market and economy.
The discussion, revealed Wednesday in minutes of the Fed's Sept. 25-26 policy meeting, showed that a few participants thought the Fed's key rate would need to "become modestly restrictive for a time" to prevent inflation from climbing too high. Other officials said they would oppose a restrictive rate policy without clear signs of an ove...
|
October 18, 2018 at 3:17 pm
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Washington Post has published a new column by missing Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi in which he warns that governments in the Middle East "have been given free rein to continue silencing the media at an increasing rate."
The Post published the column Wednesday, more than two weeks after Khashoggi was last seen entering the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul and only hours after a gruesome account in Turkey's Yeni Safak newspaper alleged that Saudi officials cut off Khashoggi's fingers and then decapitated him inside the consulate while his fiancée waited outside. The Saudi government, including Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, has denied any involvement.
In a note affixed to the top of the column, Post Global Opinions editor Karen Attiah sa...
|
October 18, 2018 at 3:07 pm
Panama City, FL - Their home full of soggy furniture and mosquitoes, Wilmer Capps was desperate to find shelter for his wife and their son Luke, born just three days after Hurricane Michael ravaged the Florida Panhandle.
So Capps, his wife Lorrainda Smith and little Luke settled in for the longest of nights in the best spot they could find: The parking lot of a Walmart store shut down by the storm.
On a starry night, mother sat in the bed of the family’s pickup truck; her child sat in a car seat beside her. Dad sat in the dark and pondered how it could be that his son’s first night out of a hospital could be spent outside a big-box retailer because of a lack of help.
“It really upset me, man, because I’ve always been the type of person who would help anyone...
|
October 18, 2018 at 3:07 pm
Washington - The White House says the attorney representing President Donald Trump in the Russia investigation is shifting roles and taking on duties as counsel to the president.
Press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders says Thursday that Emmet Flood will temporarily serve as White House counsel. That’s until another attorney, Pat Cipollone, officially comes on board in that role.
At that time, Sanders says Flood will return to his role as special counsel representing Trump in the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
Sanders says Trump has “a great deal of respect” for both attorneys and is glad to have them on his team.
Cipollone will succeed Don McGahn, whose final day as White House counsel was Wednesday.
Cipollone is awaiting c...
|
October 18, 2018 at 3:06 pm
THE FOLLOWING IS VIA YWN
An Orthodox Jewish School has taken a hard stance against the anti-vaxxers who refuse to vaccinate their children.
YWN has confirmed that the Visnitz Monsey Girls School made the bold announcement on Thursday afternoon. The decision was made after 2 childen were confirmed to have Measles. One child is in preschool and one in elementary school.
Any child who is not immunized, can’t return to school for 21 days. No “religious exemption” is accepted. A religious exemption does not work when there is a measles outbreak.
If the school identifies another measles case, the 21 days will start over.
On Wednesday, YWN published a story about a measles outbreak in New York, with 6 residents of Williamsburg and seven residents of Rockland Count...
|
October 18, 2018 at 1:13 pm
Central Valley, NY - A Chasidic family of nine living in a Woodbury housing development near Kiryas Joel may be rendered homeless pending the outcome of a lawsuit filed in New York State Supreme Court.
Hershel Markovitz, his wife and his seven children moved into a Southfield Falls home in the Woodbury Junction development in June 2017. The house was bought for the Markovitzes by a relative for $420,000 from a previous owner and was located in an area of the still-under-construction-development that was designated as senior housing, as reported by the Times Herald Record (http://bit.ly/2yIevQz).
A gated community with approvals for 450 four to five bedroom homes, Woodbury Junction is divided into two separate sections, with 320 homes designated for multi-generational use and 130 homes si...
|
October 18, 2018 at 1:12 pm
Chelsea Clinton is urging her fellow Democrats to condemn Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan after he delivered yet another controversial speech about the Jewish community.
“To members of the Jewish community who don’t like me, thank you very much, for putting my name all over the planet because of your fear of what we represent,” Farrakhan said. “I can go anywhere in the world and they’ve heard of Farrakhan. Thank you very much.”
He continued: “They call me an anti-Semite. Stop it. I’m anti-Termite. I don’t know about hating somebody because of their religious preference.”
Clinton responded on Twitter by calling on people to condemn Farrakhan and his inflammatory words.
“Comparing Jews to termites is anti-Semitic, w...
|
October 18, 2018 at 1:12 pm
The Yerushalayim branch of HaBayit Yehudi party announced that it would support Moshe Lion in the capital’s mayoral race, defying party leader Naftali Bennett who has endorsed Yerushalayim Affairs Minister MK Zeev Elkin (Likud) for the job.
Moshe Lion has been trailing fellow challengers Elkin and Ofer Berkovitch in Yerushalayim’s mayoral race. Candidate Yossi Deitch and little-known Avi Salman are also contending for the capital’s top job.
HaBayit Yehudi Of Yerushalayim has had an increasingly rocky relationship with its national leadership. In August, Bennett threatened to stop funding the local Yerushalayim branch after it ran an anti-charedi campaign.
Read more at Arutz Sheva.
|
October 18, 2018 at 1:11 pm
Pasadena, CA - Automated alerts from the fledgling West Coast earthquake early warning system are ready to be used broadly by businesses, utilities, schools and other entities but not for mass public notification, officials said Wednesday.
“We’re making a large change from a production prototype in pilot mode to an open-for-business operational mode,” Doug Given, earthquake early warning coordinator for the U.S. Geological Survey, told a press conference at the California Institute of Technology.
The system being built for California, Oregon and Washington detects that an earthquake is occurring, quickly analyzes the data and sends out alerts that may give warnings of several seconds to a minute before strong shaking arrives at locations away from the epicenter.
That c...
|
October 18, 2018 at 1:08 pm
Washington - The U.S. Congress could request President Donald Trump’s tax returns under a seldom-used 1924 law, which Democrats say they plan to invoke promptly if they win control of the House of Representatives or the Senate in the Nov. 6 elections.
In a move that would set up a battle over one of Trump’s most closely guarded secrets, the newly installed Democratic chairs of any of three congressional tax committees could ask Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to hand over the returns.
The law says the Treasury secretary must comply, but it does not say how quickly that must happen, leaving open the possibility of delays that could force Democrats to seek a court order.
“It needs to be done immediately,” said Representative Bill Pascrell, a Democrat who sits on ...
|
October 18, 2018 at 1:07 pm
Istanbul - A man who previously traveled with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s entourage to the United States entered the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul just before writer Jamal Khashoggi vanished there, according to images published Thursday by a pro-government Turkish newspaper.
The Sabah newspaper’s report showed the man also later outside the Saudi consul general’s home, checking out of a Turkish hotel as a large suitcase stood by his side, and leaving Turkey on Oct. 2.
The report came as Turkish crime-scene investigators finished an overnight search of both the consul general’s residence and a second search of the consulate itself amid Ankara’s fears that Saudi authorities had Khashoggi killed and dismembered inside the diplomatic mission in Istanb...
