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January 10, 2019 at 8:02 pm
Mcallen, TX - Taking the shutdown fight to the Mexican border, President Donald Trump edged closer Thursday to declaring a national emergency in an extraordinary end run around Congress to fund his long-promised border wall. Pressure was mounting to find an escape hatch from the three-week impasse that has closed parts of the government, cutting scattered services and leaving hundreds of thousands of workers without pay.
Trump, visiting McAllen, Texas, and the Rio Grande to highlight what he says is a crisis of drugs and crime, said that “if for any reason we don’t get this going”—an agreement with House Democrats who have refused to approve the $5.7 billion he demands for the wall — “I will declare a national emergency.”
Some 800,000 workers, mo...
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January 10, 2019 at 8:00 pm
Washington - Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said Thursday that the central bank has the ability to be “patient” in determining when to hike interest rates.
Speaking to an audience in Washington, Powell delivered the same reassuring message of restraint and flexibility that bolstered markets last Friday.
Before those comments, investors had been sending stocks lower out of fears that the Fed would make a mistake and tighten credit too much, possibly sending the economy into a recession.
In his remarks before the Economic Club of Washington, Powell described the economy as strong at the end of last year, with the lowest unemployment levels in a half-century and solid gains in wages.
At the same time, Powell said there are concerns in financial markets about slowing gl...
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January 10, 2019 at 8:00 pm
Baltimore, MD - Jan. 7, 2019 - In the first aliyah (section) of Parshas Bo, Hashem tells Moshe that He hardened Pharaoh's heart. The Seforno explains that Hashem took away Pharaoh's ability to succumb to the physical pressures of the makkos, but left him with the possibility of recognizing Hashem's greatness and doing real teshuva (repentance). This significant feature is indicative of the way that we must relate to Hashem-learning from experiences and really transforming, rather than simply responding to pressure.
Click here to listen
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January 10, 2019 at 7:59 pm
Washington - Hundreds of furloughed federal employees chanting “We want our pay!” marched on the White House on Thursday, the 20th day of a partial government shutdown over U.S. President Donald Trump’s demand for border wall funding.
“Stop the shutdown!” protesters shouted in the bitter cold at the union-organized demonstration that started at the AFL-CIO headquarters and ended in front of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, where they hoisted signs reading “Trump: End the Shutdown” and “Not a strike - we want to work.”
Some 800,000 federal government employees have been ordered to stay home or work without pay during the shutdown brought on by a standoff between Trump and Democrats in Congress over Trump’s demand for $5.7 billion to bui...
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January 10, 2019 at 7:56 pm
A Borough Park couple is accusing Spirit Airlines of turning a trip to Florida into an anti-Semitic “nightmare” from start to finish — calling them “retarded” as the plane took off, harassing them throughout the flight, and having cops escort them off the plane after landing.
Chana and Yisroel Beck arrived at Newark Airport on Tuesday along with their 6-week-old, 2-year-old and 3-year-old daughters, eager to embark on their weeklong trip to Fort Lauderdale.
“It was our first family trip, a nice, beautiful vacation that turned into a traumatic experience — a nightmare from the way we were treated and how we were escorted off without being told what we did wrong,” Chana, 25, told The Post on Thursday.
She said a gate agent allowed them to ta...
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January 10, 2019 at 5:53 pm
Swedish furniture giant IKEA will open a new limited-stock store in Tel Aviv, the Globes business publication reported Thursday.
The report cited unnamed sources as saying that the store, which will be located at the Port of Tel Aviv in the city’s north, will sell kitchens and accessories but not the full range of the company’s famous self-assemble furnishings.
The Tel Aviv store will be the sixth IKEA in Israel, with branches in Netanya, Rishon LeZion, Kiryat Ata, and Beersheba, and another near the city of Bet Shemesh outside of Jerusalem currently under construction.
Read more at i24NEWS.
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January 10, 2019 at 5:53 pm
The House minority leader Kevin McCarthy calls out Democratic leadership for mischaracterizing the president’s behavior in the White house meeting.
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January 10, 2019 at 5:53 pm
Transcript of a hesped for Rabbi Chaim Yoel Feldman, Z'L, written by his daughter, Mrs. Aviva Orlian - read by her son, Shalom Orlian, at Rabbi Feldman’s levayah on 4 Teves, 5779.
During these past 2½ years since my father’s tragic fall and resultant brain injury I did a lot of gazing at the tall, strong and handsome man who gave me life. I gazed at the tall and strong father who enveloped me with love, guidance and Torah values for as long as I can recall… eich naflu giborim?!
I tried to see beyond the tubes, beneath the lack of cognitive skills, beyond the blank stares and instead focus on the man whose entire essence embodied kol haboreach min hakavod, hakavod rodeif acharav. Despite his tall physical stature, his stately and rega...
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January 10, 2019 at 5:43 pm
New York City Council approved a measure Wednesday to install GPS systems on school buses that will allow parents to use an app for tracking their children.
This comes after the sudden snowstorm in November left buses stranded in traffic for hours, and parents couldn’t reach their kids.
The legislation was named STOP, which stands for the Student Transportation Oversight Package. Along with the installation of two-way radio devices and GPS systems on school buses, the city will now be mandated to report bus times, delays and complaints.
All 10,000 city school buses are now required to install these systems by September. As of now, 6,000 are already equipped with this technology.
Read more at ABC News.
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January 10, 2019 at 4:23 pm
OGDEN, Utah (AP) — Payday will come Friday without any checks for about 800,000 federal employees affected by the government shutdown, forcing workers to scale back spending, cancel trips, apply for unemployment benefits and take out loans to stay afloat.
IRS employee Krystle Kirkpatrick and her family, including her two children, ages 6 and 12, aren’t eating out, buying brand-name foods or getting drinks at the gas station. Her husband is working overtime in his job as a machinist to try to make up for her lost paycheck.
Her mortgage company informed her it won’t let her skip a payment, and she still has to pay daycare even though her children aren’t going or she will lose their spot to another family on the waiting list. She has applied for unemployment but does...
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January 10, 2019 at 4:23 pm
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's former lawyer, Michael Cohen, will testify publicly before Congress next month.
Cohen's testimony before the House Oversight and Reform Committee will be the first major public hearing for Democrats, who have promised greater scrutiny of Trump.
Cohen is a pivotal figure in investigations by special counsel Robert Mueller into potential coordination between Russia and the Trump campaign, and by federal prosecutors in New York into campaign finance violations related to hush-money payments to two women who say they had sex with Trump. Trump has denied it.
Cohen has pleaded guilty in both investigations and was sentenced last month to three years in prison.
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January 10, 2019 at 4:23 pm
Washington - Sen. Bernie Sanders is apologizing to women who’ve shared experiences of harassment by male supervisors while working on his 2016 presidential campaign.
The Vermont independent says alleged misconduct by male aides “was absolutely unacceptable and certainly not what a progressive campaign or any campaign should be about.”
He says rhetoric about “ending sexism and ending all forms of discrimination ... cannot just be words.”
Sanders’ comments follow a Politico report that a former Sanders adviser, Robert Becker, had assaulted a female subordinate. Becker denies the allegation. The New York Times also has detailed allegations of unwanted sexual advances and pay inequity on Sanders’ 2016 campaign.
Sanders says he was unaware of Becker...
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January 10, 2019 at 4:23 pm
Berlin - German media report that Jakiw Palij, a former Nazi concentration camp guard who spent decades leading an unassuming life in New York City until his past was revealed, has died.
The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and Westfaelische Nachrichten newspapers quoted German officials on Thursday confirming that Palij, who was deported to Germany in August, died in a care home in the town of Ahlen. He was 95.
U.S. Ambassador Richard Grenell, who lobbied for Germany to take Palij, said he’d been informed.
Grenell credited U.S. President Donald Trump with seeing through a deportation that was stalled for a quarter-century.
Palij, an ethnic Ukrainian born in a part of Poland that is now Ukraine, entered the U.S. in 1949 under the Displaced Persons Act, a law meant to help refugees ...
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January 10, 2019 at 4:22 pm
Seattle - A Seattle TV station has fired an editor after airing video footage of President Donald Trump’s Oval Office address on immigration that appears to be altered.
The Seattle Times reports that FOX affiliate Q13 broadcasted video from the Tuesday night speech that showed a more orange-toned Trump with his tongue hanging out languidly of his mouth after making a statement.
The video’s filtered colors look more saturated and the tongue appears doctored.
Q13 news director Erica Hill said: “This does not meet our editorial standards and we regret if it is seen as portraying the president in a negative light.”
Hill also confirmed on Thursday that the station investigated the incident and fired the editor involved.
Trump in his televised address had urged for b...
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January 10, 2019 at 3:27 pm
U.S. Special Representative for International Negotiations Jason Greenblatt slammed the Palestinian Authority on Tuesday, saying it has not come to terms with reality.
“PA officials criticize…@AmbJohnBolton and @USAmbIsrael visit to historic Jewish areas of Jerusalem. Will these officials ever realize that peace can only be built on truth and reality?” Greenblatt tweeted.
U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton and U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman were given a guided tour of the Western Wall and the adjacent tunnels earlier this week, drawing condemnation from P.A. officials who said this was in contravention of international law.
“You cannot wipe away truth or history. Time to get serious!” Greenblatt continued in his tweet.
In December 2017, ...
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January 10, 2019 at 3:27 pm
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife Sara reportedly received $300,000 in funding for their legal criminal defense from a wealthy American businessman despite the permits committee’s rejection of their request.
The Netanyahus’ lawyer submitted a request last month to receive financing from Netanyahu’s cousin Nathan Milikowsky and US tycoon Spencer Partrich, but was rejected by the State Comptroller’s Office’s permissions committee, which is charged with vetting conflicts of interest for cabinet minister in deciding whether certain activity is permissible.
This week Netanyahu re-submitted the request — this time for a reported $2 million according to Guy Peleg of the Israel Television News Company — which disclosed that he had al...
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January 10, 2019 at 3:27 pm
The military police arrested an Israeli platoon commander and four combat soldiers Wednesday under suspicion of beating two Palestinian detainees whom they had caught.
One of the detainees was so badly pummeled that he could not be interrogated, and needed medical care.
The military police is checking whether the soldiers were motivated by revenge following the shooting attack in Givat Assaf, where two soldiers from their battalion were killed.
Read more at Ha’Aretz.
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January 10, 2019 at 3:23 pm
Yair Netanyahu, son of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, compared the ongoing prime minister’s corruption investigations to the 2016 Turkish coup attempt, Hadashot News reported.
“Does someone still not understand that there is a legal putsch taking place here? In Turkey they are taking tanks out into the streets, here they have no need because they control the police and the prosecutor’s office,” the social media post, which has since been deleted, reportedly read.
In early December, Israel Police recommended indicting Netanyahu and his wife, Sara, on bribery, fraud and breach of public trust charges in the corruption investigation known as Case 4000.
Read more at JPOST.
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January 10, 2019 at 3:19 pm
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un pledged during his two-day visit to Beijing to achieve “results” that would be welcomed by the international community after his potential next summit with President Trump, China’s state-run media said Thursday.
In a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday, Kim also repeated that North Korea will stick to its goal of denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula, according to the reports.
For his part, Xi told Kim he hopes North Korea and the United States can meet each other halfway, Xinhua said. The remark hinted at the depth of the differences that remain between Pyongyang and Washington.
“The political settlement of the peninsula issue faces a rare historic opportunity,” Xinhua News Agency quoted Xi as saying. Beijing ...
