Denver - After months of delays, the U.S. Air Force is about to launch the first of a new generation of GPS satellites, designed to be more accurate, secure and versatile. But some of their most highly touted features will not be fully available until 2022 or later because of problems in a companion program to develop a new ground control system for the satellites, government auditors said. The satellite is scheduled to lift off Tuesday from Cape Canaveral, Florida, aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. It’s the first of 32 planned GPS III satellites that will replace older ones now in orbit. Lockheed Martin is building the new satellites outside Denver. GPS is best-known for its widespread civilian applications, from navigation to time-stamping bank transactions. The Air Force estimat...
Baltimore, MD – Dec. 11, 2018 - It is with sadness that BaltimoreJewishLife.com informs the community of the petirah of Reb Dovid Ely, Z’L, husband of Mrs. Sima Ely, father of Rabbi Hillel Ely, Mrs. Michal Katz, Mrs. Ahuva Samber, Mrs. Tanya Cohen, Mrs. Tova Friedman, brother of  Hilda Gershbaum, and Reb Shachne Ely. Shiva will be observed at 3829 Menlo Drive, Baltimore, MD,  21215Please note: Mrs. Michal Katz will be sitting in Baltimore from Friday thru Tuesday. Rabbi Hillel Ely will be sitting in Baltimore from Friday thru Monday Shacharis and in Brooklyn at 215 Ave I from Monday 1PM until Tuesday morning when he gets up after Shacharis. NY minyan times are: Shacharis 8:00 and Mincha 3:55.The family respectfully requests no visitors in Baltimore: 1230pm-200pm ...
Wow! Research concerning how we should take care of our health and well-being has really evolved.  I have to admit that some of advice that health professionals such as myself were giving out a decade or two ago was faulty.  Research is ever evolving and some of what we have discovered in the last few years really sheds new light on what is good for us and what isn’t. I honestly think that given some recent research and discoveries we have every reason to be optimistic about the future of health care and how we, as individuals, can really take care of ourselves and prevent and even reverse disease.  What I am talking about is related to what is known as our microbiome or gut bacteria.  It really controls much of what goes on in our bodies.  And now that we ar...
WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House on Sunday pushed the federal government closer to the brink of a partial shutdown later this week, digging in on its demand for $5 billion to build a border wall as congressional Democrats stood firm against it. “We will do whatever is necessary to build the border wall to stop this ongoing crisis of immigration,” said White House senior adviser Stephen Miller. Asked if that meant having a government shutdown, he said: “If it comes to it, absolutely.” Trump said last week he would be “proud” to have a shutdown to get Congress to approve a $5 billion down payment to fulfill his campaign promise to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border. But the president doesn’t have the votes from the Republican-controlled...
Washington - Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer says it’s up to President Donald Trump whether the federal government partially shuts down at midnight Friday over his border wall. Trump has said he’d be “proud” to have a shutdown over the $5 billion he wants for the wall on the U.S.-Mexico border. Asked Sunday if there was room for compromise, Schumer told NBC: “He’s not going to get the wall in any form.” Schumer and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi have proposed no more than $1.6 billion. The money would not go for the wall but for fencing upgrades and other border security. Democrats also offered to keep funding at its current level, $1.3 billion. Schumer says Trump doesn’t have the votes from the Republican-controlled Congress to ...
Manama - The foreign minister of U.S. ally Bahrain has defended Australia’s formal recognition of West Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, saying the move would not affect a future Palestinian state with east Jerusalem as its capital. Australia’s government announced the decision on Saturday, reversing decades of Middle East policy, but said it would not immediately move its embassy there. The United States in May opened its embassy in Jerusalem. The Arab League had issued a statement criticizing the Australian decision as “blatantly biased towards the positions and policies of the Israeli occupation”. But Bahraini minister Sheikh Khalid bin Ahmed al-Khalifa described the statement as “mere rhetoric and irresponsible”. “Australia’s stan...
Jerusalem, Israel - Dec. 16, 2018 - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Wednesday evening, December 12, made the following remarks at the annual Government Press Office civil New Year reception with the foreign media: "Our hearts are with Shira and Amichai over the passing of their four day old son who did not even have a name. The murderers are abhorrent, the most deviant criminals on earth. The security forces are pursuing them and I hope that there will be news soon on this matter. We will not slacken until we find them and deal with them to the fullest extent of the law." Over 300 international journalists and diplomats attended the annual event which was held for the first time at the Shalva National Center in Bayit Vegan.  Shalva, the Israel Association for Care and In...
New York - With a number of probes moving closer to the Oval Office, President Donald Trump and his attorney unleashed a fresh series of attacks Sunday on the investigators, questioning their integrity while categorically ruling out the possibility of a presidential interview with the special counsel. Trump and Rudy Giuliani used Twitter and television interviews to deliver a series of broadsides against special counsel Robert Mueller and federal prosecutors in New York. Giuliani said he was “disgusted” by the tactics used by Mueller in his probe into Russian election interference, including in securing guilty pleas from the president’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn on a charge of lying to federal investigators. Trump, Giuliani said, would not submit to...
Jerusalem - Amichai Ishran, the father of the the infant who died following the terror attack outside Ofra, said his son managed to unite the Jewish people during the three days he was alive. During an emotional press conference held in Shaarei Tzedek Hospital by Amichai and his wife Shira who were both shot and wounded last Sunday, the two bereaved parents gave heartfelt thanks to the outpouring of love they said they have felt following the terror attack which they said had given them physical and psychological strength. “Our baby, Amiad Israel, managed to unite the Jewish people in the three days he was alive, something most people never manage to do during their entire lives,” said Amichai. “Everyone wanted to come and help us and wish us well, secular, religious, ...
Prime Minister Netanyahu’s son Yair suggested on Facebook that there could never be peace in Israel until its Arab citizens move of the country. “There will not be peace here until: 1. All the Jews leave the land of Israel.2. All the Muslims leave the land of Israel. I hope it’s the second,” wrote Yair on Facebook. Later, Yair wrote that “do you know where there are no terror attacks? In Iceland and Japan. Coincidentally there’s also no Muslim population there”. Read more at Arutz Sheva.
In roughly its first year and a half, special counsel Robert Mueller III’s investigation cost the government a little more than $25 million, according to expenditure data released Friday. Mueller’s total tab increased about $8.4 million from April 1 through Sept. 30 – bringing his total to about $25.1 million, the data shows. That figure includes both what Mueller’s office itself spent, and what Justice Department components spent on things attributable to his investigation. President Donald Trump has periodically complained about the cost of Mueller’s probe to taxpayers. In a tweet late last week that seemed to exaggerate the publicly known price tag, the president claimed the investigation came with “a cost of over $30,000,000,” and had found, ...
It is with great sadness that Matzav.com reports the passing of Rav Chanina Herzberg zt”l, who served as the menahel of Yeshiva Toras Chaim of South Shore for nearly 40 years. Rav Hertzberg grew up in the East New York section of Brooklyn, attending Yeshiva Toras Chaim under Rav Isaac Schmidman. He then attended Mesivta Yeshiva Rabbeinu Chaim Berlin, where he became a talmid of Rav Yitzchok Hutner zt”l. When Rav Shlomo Freifeld zt”l founded Yeshivas Sh’or Yoshuv in Far Rockaway, Rav Herzberg was among the early talmidim, drawing close to Rav Shlomo. Rav Herzberg subsequently became a rebbi and a s’gan menahel at Yeshiva Tiferes Moshe. Rav Binyomin Kamenetzky zt”l...
Jerusalem - The Israeli military says it has exposed a fourth Hezbollah attack tunnel dug from Lebanon. The military said Sunday that it has placed explosives in the tunnel as part of an open-ended operation to identify and destroy the cross-border passageways. Israel says the tunnels were built by Hezbollah militants to carry out attacks against Israelis. Hezbollah, which used such tunnels inside Lebanon in the 2006 war, has yet to comment on the operation, which began two weeks ago. Israel has called on the international community to impose new sanctions on the Iranian-backed Hezbollah, a heavily-armed mini-army with an arsenal of some 150,000 rockets that can reach nearly every part of Israel.
Jerusalem - Israel signalled displeasure on Sunday with Australia’s recognition of West Jerusalem as its capital, with a confidant of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying it was a mistake to gainsay Israeli control over the whole city. The premier, for his part, stayed silent on Canberra’s move at a weekly Israeli cabinet meeting that is usually his opportunity to hold forth in public on major diplomatic developments. Israel captured Arab East Jerusalem in a 1967 war and annexed it as its capital in a moved not recognised internationally. Palestinians want East Jerusalem as capital of the state they hope to found in the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip. A year ago, U.S. President Donald Trump outraged Palestinians by recognising Jerusalem as the Israeli capital, a d...
New York - With the specter of the latest education guidelines that are attempting to dictate secular curricula in all private schools statewide looming large, Moetzes Gedolei Hatorah of America has issued a public call for a day of prayer to take place next week.  The statement from the Moetzes asks the community, including elementary schools and institutions of higher learning, to recite Tehillim during the Mincha services on Tuesday, which coincides with the fast of Asara B’Teves.  It decries the new guidelines, issued by Commissioner MaryEllen Elia of the New York State Department of Education as a “clear and present danger that affects us and our children” which will have “a terrible negative impact, quantitatively and qualitatively, on the chinuch ...
Pyongyang - North Korea on Sunday condemned the U.S. administration for stepping up sanctions and pressure on the nuclear-armed country, warning of a return to “exchanges of fire” and that disarming Pyongyang could be blocked forever. The North’s stinging response came after the United States said on Monday it had introduced sanctions on three North Korean officials, including a top aide to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, for alleged human rights abuses. Denuclearizing North Korea has made little progress since Kim Jong Un and U.S. President Donald Trump met in Singapore in June in a historic summit. The two sides have yet to reschedule working-level talks between U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and senior North Korean official Kim Yong Chol, which were canceled ab...
East Rutherford, NJ - Nearly $300,000 remains missing a day after two bags of money fell out the back of an armored truck and set off a mad scramble by motorists to grab some of the fluttering bills, police in New Jersey said. More than a half-million dollars spilled Thursday from a Brink’s truck near MetLife Stadium, the home of the NFL’s Jets and Giants. East Rutherford police said in a statement that two bags of cash fell. One of the plastic bags had $140,000, and the other held $370,000. Police say the bags fell from an open rear door that had a mechanical issue. Authorities said the bags opened when they hit the roadway, becoming airborne because of the wind and vehicle traffic. The swirling cash led drivers to stop their vehicles and hop out on the highway to gather t...
Indianapolis - The spray-painting of a swastika outside a suburban Indianapolis synagogue this summer was the final straw for Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb, who quickly called for Indiana to join the 45 states that have hate crime laws. “It’s not only the right thing to do, it’s long overdue,” Holcomb said Friday during an interview with The Associated Press. “I’m convinced the overwhelming majority of Hoosiers feel the same way.” As the annual legislative session draws near, though, some warn that such a proposal could spark a bitter cultural debate that would bring unwanted attention to the deeply conservative state, much like the 2015 religious objections law that critics widely panned as a sanctioning of discrimination against the LGBT communi...
Ft Lauderdale, FL - Spirit Airlines tops the latest ratings for on-time flights, a big turnaround for a discount carrier that consistently ranked as the tardiest airline in America three years ago. Spirit also has the second-lowest rate of canceled flights in the latest government report. It still has a high rate of passenger complaints, and some travelers avoid it and other budget airlines because of their reputation for poor service. If travelers come to see them as reliable, however, discount airlines could pose a greater threat to bigger competitors. The Transportation Department said Friday that 89 percent of Spirit’s flights in October arrived on time, putting it just ahead of frequent winner Hawaiian Airlines and Delta Air Lines. It’s the first time the Miramar, Flor...
Boston - The Federal Air Marshal Service says it’s curtailing a domestic surveillance program that’s been accused of spying on thousands of unwitting passengers who are not suspected of a crime or appear on a terror watch list. The agency’s new director, David Kohl, tells the Boston Globe  that air marshals are “no longer capturing” any “routine passenger behaviors on a plane that would be seen as normal behavior.” The changes follow a series of reports by the newspaper that found thousands of ordinary citizens had been swept up in “The Quiet Skies” program and watched by armed, undercover agents through airports and on flights. Agency officials say marshals no longer document travelers’ minor movements and behav...
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