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October 19, 2018 at 10:08 am
Facebook has removed a video posted on Louis Farrakhan’s account that compared Jews to termites.
The social media network said that the video was taken down due to Facebook’s policies regarding hate speech, according to The Wrap.com.
In the video, Farrakhan responds to critics who call him an anti-Semite by explaining that he, instead, is “anti-termite.”
Read more at NY POST.
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October 19, 2018 at 10:08 am
In the first Pasuk of this week’s Parsha, we have an unusual pair of Rashi’s. First, on the words “Lech Licha”, Rashi immediately tells us that this means “for your good and for your benefit”. (Rashi, Lech Licha 12:1) Rashi however is not content to leave his comment on Lech Licha there, instead he goes on and tells us almost exactly what the words are from the next pasuk. “I will make you into a great nation, I will grant you children and your reputation will be known throughout the world.” (Rashi, Lech Licha 12:1) Why did Rashi feel compelled to tell us what are basically the words from the 2nd pasuk at this time?
When we read the 2nd pasuk our question becomes even more perplexing. The pasuk says &ldquo...
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October 19, 2018 at 5:27 am
Baltimore, MD - Oct. 18, 2018 - The 5th grade of Yeshivas Kochav Yitzchok / Torah Institute of Baltimore celebrated a beautiful milestone on Sunday, 5 Cheshvon/October 14: they began learning Gemara.
The YKY/TI bais medresh was full as fathers and grandfathers joined on this momentous occasion. The crowd listened eagerly as Rabbi Eliezer Eisgrau, the Cheder’s former Menahel, addressed the talmidim. Rabbi Eisgrau warmly shared how each child is part of a vibrant mesorah of Torah She'ba'al Peh. He also recounted a special story about Rav Shmuel Birnbaum zt”l, rosh Yeshiva of the Brooklyn Mir Yeshiva, that took place on a Chemdas trip. During the visit, Rav Shmuel passionately told the boys that if they put in the effort, then learning gemara will taste sweeter then ea...
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October 18, 2018 at 10:18 pm
Mayor Catherine Pugh said she is still on pace to pick Baltimore's next police commissioner by month's end.
She said she has known what she's wanted in a police commissioner since she made her last permanent choice, Darryl De Sousa. She credited a drop in violence earlier in the year to De Sousa's deep understanding of the city.
De Sousa resigned less than three months after his confirmation by the City Council, after he was charged in federal court with willfully failing to file his federal tax returns for three separate years.
Several dozen people have applied for the job. Earlier this month, Interim Commissioner Gary Tuggle withdrew his application, saying the job would require a "long-term commitment" that for unspecified reasons he was unable to p...
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October 18, 2018 at 10:12 pm
Seattle, WA - Prior to his death on Monday, billionaire Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen invested large sums in technology ventures, research projects and philanthropy, some of it eclectic and highly speculative. What happens to those commitments now?
Outside of bland assurances from his investment company, no one seems quite sure.
Allen died in Seattle from complications of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, according to his company Vulcan Inc. He was 65. He never married and had no children, and details of his estate aren’t known.
Forbes recently estimated Allen’s net worth at $20.3 billion. He used much of the money he made from Microsoft — whose Windows operating system is found on most of the world’s desktop computers — for a “second act” as a sp...
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October 18, 2018 at 9:58 pm
Hamas’s military wing released a new video threatening Israel amid a recent escalation between the Jewish State and the Gaza-based terror group.
During the short 26-second clip published by the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas terrorists can be seen readying missiles for launch amid ominous music in the background. The video warns Israel in both Hebrew and Arabic that “we recommend that you read us correctly- mistakes will not make things better”.
The video comes amid a renewed round of saber-rattling between Israel and Hamas after two rockets destroyed a house in Beer Sheva on Tuesday evening.
Read more at Arutz Sheva.
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October 18, 2018 at 9:55 pm
New York - Winter looks wet and especially mild for much of the country, thanks to a weak El Nino brewing, U.S. meteorologists said.
The National Weather Service on Thursday predicted a warmer than normal winter for the northern and western three-quarters of the nation. The greatest chance for warmer than normal winter weather is in Alaska, the Pacific Northwest, Montana, northern Wyoming and western North Dakota.
No place in the United States is expected to be colder than normal, said Mike Halpert, deputy director of the government’s Climate Prediction Center.
The Southeast, Ohio Valley and mid-Atlantic can go any which way on temperature, Halpert said.
Overall the winter looks a lot like the last few, Halpert said.
“The country as a whole has been quite mild since 2014-2...
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October 18, 2018 at 9:54 pm
Washington - Federal safety investigators have been unable to conduct a full examination of the limousine involved in a crash that killed 20 people nearly two weeks ago in upstate New York because of a criminal case against the limo company’s operator.
While the National Transportation Safety Board says it is working cooperatively with local officials, people familiar with the matter told The Associated Press on Thursday that investigators have expressed frustration over their inability to fully examine the limousine.
They spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity in order to discuss sensitive conversations.
The limo remains in the possession of New York State Police after the limousine company’s operator was charged with criminally negligent homicide.
The NTS...
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October 18, 2018 at 9:54 pm
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — A high-level meeting to lay out security plans for Afghanistan’s upcoming parliamentary elections had just concluded when an elite Afghan guard turned his gun Thursday on the departing delegation in an attack that killed the powerful Kandahar police chief but missed the top U.S. commander in the country, Gen. Scott Miller.
The audacious assassination strike, which killed at least one other senior Afghan official and was claimed by the Taliban, underscored the harrowing lack of security in Afghanistan just two days before national elections and more than 17 years after the militant group was driven from power. A Taliban spokesman said Miller was the intended target.
However, Army Col. David Butler, who attended the Kandahar meeting with Miller, said t...
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October 18, 2018 at 9:03 pm
THE FOLLOWING IS VIA YWN
Jerry Wolkowitz, a longtime EMT, photojournalist and son of Jewish Holocaust survivors who was the victim of a vicious racially-motivated attack, has died at age 56 after nearly six months on life support.
On May 1, 2018, 25-year-old Jamil Hubbard allegedly approached Wolkowitz from behind and punched him in the head and face. He then allegedly pulled Wolkowitz’s body into the parking lot of his Freehold, New Jersey apartment building and ran him over with his car, leaving him for dead.
Hubbard then allegedly stole the car and abandoned it near his home in Sayreville, New Jersey.
Wolkowitz was found later that day and taken to the hospital in critical condition, with numerous injuries including broken ribs, crushed pelvis and a broken shoul...
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October 18, 2018 at 8:23 pm
Agudath Israel of America expressed optimism in light of Tuesday's Michigan Court of Appeals’ ruling ordering the Court of Claims to revisit its decision on the state’s nonpublic school reimbursement program.
In her original decision, Court of Claims Judge Cynthia Diane Stephens said the program violates the state constitution’s “Blaine amendment” language prohibiting direct or indirect aid to nonpublic schools. The $2.5 million program to reimburse nonpublic schools for state mandates that pertain to the health, safety, and welfare of their students has been included in state budget bills since 2016. The multi-year effort was led by the Michigan Catholic Conference and the Michigan Association of Non-Public Schools, who were joined by Agudath ...
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October 18, 2018 at 8:21 pm
Lot exhibits extreme devotion to the mission of Avraham and Sarah. He too, loyally forsakes the comforts of his homestead in the pursuit of a nobler life under the inspired direction of Avraham. He continues to follow Avraham’s lead in going down to Egypt during the famine. There, we are taught, he exhibited extraordinary faithfulness in not divulging to the lecherous Egyptians, Sarah’s true identity as Avraham’s wife, lest he endanger Avraham.
Yet, as soon as a spat develops between the shepherds of Avraham and those of Lot over insufficient pasture land, Avraham rather than attempting to convince them to live together in harmony, seemingly readily gives up and suggests to Lot to seek greener pastures in order to avoid further conflict. The otherwise steadfast Lot, sudd...
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October 18, 2018 at 8:05 pm
Jerusalem - As a member of the largest Jewish religious community in Jerusalem, Yossi Daitsh should have a big lead in the holy city’s mayoral election race.
But Daitsh, an ultra-Orthodox Jew and Jerusalem’s deputy mayor, is trailing three more liberal candidates ahead of the Oct. 30 ballot, when municipal polls are held nationally.
Some political analysts see that as a sign the ultra-Orthodox - known in Hebrew as “haredim”, or piously “awe-struck” - feel freer to vote according to personal preference and independent of their rabbis’ rulings.
If so, the Jerusalem mayoral race could be a bellwether of ultra-Orthodox integration in wider Israeli society, where welfare benefits and military draft exemptions for the community have long been resented...
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October 18, 2018 at 8:05 pm
San Francisco - StarKist Co. agreed to plead guilty to a felony price fixing charge as part of a broad collusion investigation of the canned tuna industry, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Thursday.
The DOJ said StarKist faces up to a $100 million fine when it is sentenced. Prosecutors allege that the industry’s top three companies conspired between 2010 and 2013 to keep prices artificially high.
“We have cooperated with the DOJ during the course of its investigation and accept responsibility,” said StarKist chief executive Andrew Choe. “We will continue to conduct our business with the utmost transparency and integrity.”
The scheme came to light when Thai Union Group’s Chicken of the Sea attempt to buy San Diego-based Bumble Bee failed in 201...
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October 18, 2018 at 6:30 pm
Rockland County, NY - Hoping to contain the spread of the measles in the Monsey area after 11 cases of the disease were officially confirmed, the Rockland County Department of Health sent a letter today to schools attended by the infected children informing them that unvaccinated students must remain at home until the danger of potential exposure has passed.
Rockland County health commissioner Dr. Patricia Schnabel Ruppert was authorized by the state health commissioner Wednesday night to institute measures to protect county schoolchildren.
In order to prevent any additional potential exposure in schools, all children who are not immune to the measles, even those who religious or medical exemptions on file, will not be allowed to attend school throughout the three week long incubation pe...
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October 18, 2018 at 6:28 pm
Washington - Two of President Donald Trump’s top advisers got into a heated exchange outside the Oval Office on Thursday as passions boiled over about how to handle illegal immigration, two sources familiar with the incident said.
The two advisers were White House Chief of Staff John Kelly, who is a former secretary for Homeland Security, and Trump’s national security adviser, John Bolton, the sources said.
One source described the argument as a “tense exchange” but said that it had blown over. Another source said it was “not a big deal.”
Trump, asked about the incident, told reporters: “That I have not heard about.”
Trump threatened on Thursday to deploy the military and close the southern U.S. border as Hondurans and Salvadorans joined ...
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October 18, 2018 at 6:27 pm
Washington - President Donald Trump said Thursday it “certainly looks” as though Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi is dead, and he threatened “very severe” consequences if the Saudis are found to have murdered him.
As the U.S. toughened its response to Khashoggi’s disappearance, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin pulled out of a major Saudi investment conference Thursday amid global pressure. However, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also said the kingdom should be given more time to investigate before the U.S. lays any blame or considers action.
Trump, who has insisted that more facts must be known before making assumptions about Khashoggi, did not say on what he based his statement on the writer’s demise two weeks ago. He commented as he left Joint Base ...
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October 18, 2018 at 6:23 pm
When a Banksy painting “self-destructed” after selling at auction for £1.04 million ($1.4 million) last week, it looked like the perfect stunt — one that caught onlookers and the art world by surprise.
But the anonymous artist has now suggested that things didn’t go quite to plan. A new video, posted on Banksy’s website Wednesday, implies that the 2006 painting “Girl with Balloon” was supposed to be entirely destroyed. It shows footage of an identical-looking artwork being shredded from top to bottom, with strips of canvas falling from the frame.
The clip is accompanied by the message, “In rehearsals it worked every time…”
Read more at CNN.
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October 18, 2018 at 6:22 pm
Rep. Chris Collins received a total of $80 in contributions from donors within his district after he was indicted in August on insider trading charges.
Documents filed with the Federal Election Commission show that Collins reported close to $33,000 in campaign contributions in the third quarter of 2018, down more than $70,000 from the previous quarter.
Of his third quarter haul, most came from political action committees. After he was charged on Aug. 8, just three people from New York’s 27th Congressional District contributed to his campaign for a total of $80.
Collins, 68, was charged with with securities fraud and lying to the FBI.
Read more at The Hill.
