|
January 17, 2019 at 7:49 pm
Chaos briefly broke out on the floor of the House Thursday as Republicans accused Democrats of trying to pull a fast one with a hasty vote to end the partial shutdown.
The drama began in the afternoon when the Democratic-controlled House held a voice vote on an interim spending bill to re-open the government through February 28.
Customarily, after a voice vote is held, the opposition party will demand a recorded roll call vote. But when no one was heard, North Carolina Rep. G.K. Butterfield, who was presiding over the House, did not hold a roll call vote and instead announced that the measure was approved.
“The ayes have it!” Butterfield announced. “The Joint Resolution is agreed to!”
This led to a tense exchange on the floor between Hou...
|
January 17, 2019 at 6:21 pm
Sen. Lindsey Graham criticized President Trump on Thursday for canceling House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s overseas visit to troops in Afghanistan, calling the move “inappropriate.”
Graham also criticized Pelosi for “playing politics with the State of the Union.” Pelosi on Wednesday sent a letter to Trump requesting that he agree to postpone the Jan. 29 address or deliver it in writing if the partial government shutdown has not ended.
Trump in a letter to Pelosi on Thursday wrote that he was canceling a trip she and other lawmakers were set to take to Brussels, Egypt and Afghanistan. Trump wrote that Pelosi should remain in Washington to negotiate with him on the shutdown, which is now in its 27th day.
The letter was Trump’s first response to Pelosi’...
|
January 17, 2019 at 6:20 pm
Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul says that Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has to be willing to compromise on border wall funding.
|
January 17, 2019 at 6:00 pm
In what some are celebrating as a victory for yeshivos, a federal judge dismissed on Wednesday a lawsuit filed by YAFFED, which attempted to overturn the Felder Amendment to Education Law Section 3204. The court threw out the case because YAFFED had no standing, meaning YAFFED could not challenge the Felder Amendment because it was not legally impacted by it. The recent Felder Amendment established core math, English, science, and social studies requirements that every private school must adhere to, but allows Judaic studies to be taken into account for satisfaction of the critical thinking component. The court extensively cited the brief jointly submitted by Agudath Israel of America, PEARLS, Torah Umesorah, National Society for Hebrew Day Schools, and UJO.
As the court put it, &l...
|
January 17, 2019 at 5:52 pm
The State Department on Thursday ordered employees and U.S. diplomats abroad to return to work, saying it would make additional funds available to pay most employee salaries for two weeks.
The State Department has been among a number of federal agencies affected by the shutdown that started Dec. 22. Roughly 23 percent of the State Department’s direct hire employees overseas and 40 percent of those operating domestically have been furloughed, meaning they are not being paid and aren’t ordered to come to work.
The State Department “expects to be able to resume most personnel operations and fund most salaries,” Todd said, while offering no specific details on where the money would come from.
“As a national security agency, it is imperative that the Department ...
|
January 17, 2019 at 5:50 pm
A 14-year-old Jewish boy is in serious condition after being hurt by a falling stone at the kever of Shmuel Hanovi.
The boy was transported to the hospital. There is some concern that he may lose his leg.
The boy is said to be from outside of Eretz Yisroel.
|
January 17, 2019 at 5:47 pm
Beirut - Lebanon’s army intelligence have detained a man on suspicion that he crossed into Lebanon from Israel, a military official said Thursday. The country’s state news agency said the detainee is a U.S. citizen.
Lebanon and Israel are in a state of war and each bans its citizens from visiting the other country. There are no border crossings at the tightly-controlled frontier.
The military official, who spoke Thursday on condition of anonymity in line with regulations, gave no further details saying the man is being questioned and once they have information the army will release a statement.
State-run National News Agency said the man who was detained is a U.S. citizen adding that he was detained in the southern port-city of Tyre where he had been staying since Tuesday. I...
|
January 17, 2019 at 5:47 pm
Jerusalem - Israel condemned on Thursday Malaysia’s ban on Israeli participation in international sporting events it hosts and said the decision was inspired by Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad’s “rabid anti-Semitism”.
Malaysia, a majority-Muslim country that does not maintain diplomatic relations with Israel, announced it would bar Israelis from any event in the Southeast Asia nation after banning Israeli athletes from the World Para Swimming championships this coming July.
In a statement, Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon called on the International Paralympic Committee, which is organizing the competition, to change the venue if it cannot persuade Malaysia to lift the edict.
“This is shameful and totally opposes the Olympic spirit,&rdquo...
|
January 17, 2019 at 5:44 pm
New York - The makers of Budweiser, Coors and other large-scale brewers are placing their bets on cannabis as a way to fight saturated markets and shifting consumer trends.
For years, the industry’s largest players have struggled with stagnating markets and shifting consumer tastes. Anheuser-Busch InBev, Molson Coors and Corona brewer Constellation Brands have responded by buying up fast-growing craft brews. Anheuser-Busch’s 2011 purchase of Chicago’s Goose Island is one of the most emblematic examples of this strategy, which has helped big brewers maintain revenue and profit steady. But concerns over growth continue to hang over the industry.
The craft beer segment of the industry has slowed considerably since 2016, however, according to trade association The Beer Inst...
|
January 17, 2019 at 5:40 pm
Washington - The chairman of the House intelligence committee says that President Donald Trump’s decision to reveal House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s trip to Brussels and Afghanistan is “completely and utterly irresponsible in every way.”
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff says he won’t comment on whether the trip is still on. Trump announced Thursday afternoon that he was denying Pelosi an aircraft to visit troops abroad and reassure NATO allies. That move came after Pelosi suggested delaying his State of the Union address.
Schiff says Trump is acting “like he’s in the fifth grade.” The California Democrat said that “we’re determined our oversight will continue no matter what the president’s action are.”
...
|
January 17, 2019 at 4:12 pm
New York - U.S. stocks are turning higher Thursday afternoon after the Wall Street Journal reported that U.S. officials are considering reducing the new tariffs on Chinese imports as part of trade negotiations between the two companies. Technology, industrial and health care companies are making the largest gains.
KEEPING SCORE: The S&P 500 index rose 16 points, or 0.6 percent, to 2,632 as of 3 p.m. Eastern time. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 127 points, or 0.5 percent, to 24,335 points to 24,214. It was nearly flat before the Journal report came out and spiked 267 points shortly afterward. The Nasdaq composite gained 39 points, or 0.6 percent, to 7,074. The Russell 2000 index of smaller-company stocks climbed 10 points, or 0.7 percent, to 1,465.
US-CHINA TENSIONS: The trade...
|
January 17, 2019 at 4:12 pm
National Security Adviser (NSA) Meir Ben-Shabbat, last Tuesday night (15 January 2019), returned from a visit from India during which he met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. During the visit, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke by telephone with his Indian counterpart.
NSA Ben-Shabbat flew to India on an Air India flight that passed through Saudi Arabian airspace. This air route had been agreed to by prime ministers Netanyahu and Modi.
NSA Ben-Shabbat was the guest of Indian National Security Adviser Adjit Doval and also held a series of meetings with senior Indian Defence Ministry, Foreign Ministry and security organization officials. Among the topics discussed were issues related to bilateral relations including the advancing of security deals. Additional measures were agr...
|
January 17, 2019 at 3:20 pm
Stevenson, MD - Jan. 17, 2019 - Stevenson University President Elliot Hirshman and Rabbi Sheftel Neuberger, President of Ner Israel Rabinical College, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding that will create a degree pathway for Ner Israel students seeking graduate education in medicine and related health fields.
Stevenson University President Elliot Hirshman and Rabbi Sheftel Neuberger, President of Ner Israel Rabinical College, signing the Memorandum of Understanding
Stevenson will create a two-year program—designed specifically for Ner Israel students—that will allow them to complete a Bachelor of Science in Interdisciplinary Studies with a Pre-Med Focus and minor in Medical Humanities while accommodating their studies at Ner Israel. The signing ceremony was held...
|
January 17, 2019 at 3:04 pm
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Latest on the partial government shutdown (all times local):
2:30 p.m.
President Donald Trump is postponing what he’s calling House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s “seven-day excursion” to Egypt, Afghanistan and Brussels in apparent payback for asking him to reschedule his State of the Union speech because of the partial government shutdown.
Trump wrote a letter to Pelosi on Thursday informing her that her trip had been postponed and would be rescheduled after the shutdown.
He called Pelosi’s trip a “public relations event.”
He says she should stay in Washington to negotiate ways to end the shutdown, which is at a stalemate over federal funding for his desired border wall. Trump says that if she wants to make her trip by fly...
|
January 17, 2019 at 12:30 pm
(Thursday, 17 January 2019) – The inaugural ‘Global Impact Awards’ were presented at a gala event in Tel Aviv, in the presence of the President Reuven Rivlin, to humanitarians who have excelled in making a positive impact in the developing world.
Among the winners are six Israeli ventures, non-profits, and individuals and two non-Israeli citizens who have contributed meaningfully towards global volunteering, international development, and humanitarian aid while forging partnerships between Israel and global Jewry.
The Global Impact Awards winners with President Reuven Rivlin (Photo Credit: Benny Lapid)
The unprecedented awards are a joint initiative of the Society for International Development (SID) Israel, Walla! News and OLAM, an organization designed ...
|
January 17, 2019 at 12:15 pm
A refusal to vaccinate ranks alongside air pollution and climate change as a top global threat.
THE WORLD HEALTH Organization is calling out the anti-vaccine movement as one of the top global health threats this year.
WHO named vaccine hesitancy, the reluctance or refusal to vaccinate despite available vaccines, among its recently released list of 10 global health threats for 2019. It joins air pollution and climate change, the worldwide influenza pandemic, weak primary health care and HIV in the listing, among others. WHO pledged to make them priorities for the organization and its partners throughout the year.
Vaccine hesitancy "threatens to reverse progress made in tackling vaccine-preventable diseases," WHO said.
The organization added that vaccination is "one...
|
January 17, 2019 at 12:14 pm
IT company Hewlett-Packard (HP) says it won’t allow users of its 3-D printers to produce guns unless those users are firearms manufacturers and the weapons that are created can be detected by airport security.
“HP is against ‘ghost guns’ being produced on our 3-D printers,” HP chief executive Dion Weisler wrote in the November letter, obtained by the Oregonian/OregonLive.
HP did not say how it would stop people from using its products to make ghost guns — weapons that are untraceable and unregulated — and it was unclear how the policy would limit their production.
Read more at NY POST.
|
January 17, 2019 at 11:07 am
London - Facebook said Thursday it removed hundreds of Russia-linked pages, groups and accounts that it says were part of two big disinformation operations, in its latest effort to fight fake news.
The social media company said it took action after finding two networks “that engaged in coordinated inauthentic behavior” on its Facebook and Instagram platforms.
Facebook’s head of cybersecurity policy, Nathaniel Gleicher, said in a blog post that one network operated in countries in Central and Eastern Europe, the Baltics, Central Asia and the Caucasus. The other focused on Ukraine.
The people running the accounts represented themselves as independent news sources and posted on topics like anti-NATO sentiment and protest movements.
“We didn’t find any links b...
|
January 17, 2019 at 11:02 am
Connecticut smokers are coughing up $2,854,614 on their cigarette habits over their lifetimes, according to WalletHub’s “The Real Cost of Smoking by State Report” released on Wednesday.
New York, the District of Columbia, Massachusetts and Rhode Island round out the top five most expensive states to light up in, with annual costs topping $50,000, and lifetime costs of more than $2 million. Plus, the estimated 37.8 million Americans who smoke are also costing the US more than $300 billion a year in medical care and lost productivity, according to the CDC.
WalletHub’s report calculated these potential losses by factoring in the annual cost of a cigarette pack per day in each state, as well as the health care expenditures, income losses from lowered productivity and ...
