Washington - The Democratic chairmen of two House committees pledged Friday to investigate a report that President Donald Trump directed his personal attorney to lie to Congress about negotiations over a real estate project in Moscow during the 2016 election. House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said “we will do what’s necessary to find out if it’s true.” He said the allegation that Trump directed Michael Cohen to lie in his 2017 testimony to Congress “in an effort to curtail the investigation and cover up his business dealings with Russia is among the most serious to date.” The chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Rep. Jerrold Nadler of New York, said directing a subordinate to lie to Congress is a federal crime. “...
Boston - The Sackler name is emblazoned on the walls at some of the world’s great museums and universities, including the Smithsonian, the Guggenheim and Harvard. But now the family’s ties to OxyContin and the painkiller’s role in the deadly opioid crisis are bringing the Sacklers a new and unwanted kind of attention and complicating their philanthropic legacy. The Sackler family owns Purdue Pharma, the privately held drug company that has made billions from OxyContin, and Sacklers hold most of the seats on the board. Members of the family have been accused in a case brought by the state of Massachusetts of deceiving patients and doctors about the drug’s risks as deaths mounted. And documents recently released in the case shine new light on former Purdue Pharma Pr...
[Ed. Note] Out of the respect and recognition of the impact made by longtime BJL friend and contributor, Reb Shaya Gross, z’l, we will maintain a living memoriam to Shaya through the sweet words and thoughtful insights of  his Divrei Torah. BJL readers will remember his weekly column on the Parsha and on various Torah ideas and concepts. These meaningful words will help us remember this special young man who will be sorely missed and for those who did not merit to know him, this will be the most appropriate way for them to become familiar with who he was. In the beginning of this week's parshah, Parshas Beshalach, the Pasuk says that when Bnei Yisroel left Egypt they were 'vichamushim.' There are a number of explanations for what 'vichamushim&...
West Bank - On a cold winter’s night earlier this month, a convoy of 10 Israeli armored jeeps drove into the heart of the West Bank city of Ramallah and parked in front of the Palestinian police headquarters. Soldiers fanned out, searching nearby shops for security cameras after a pair of recent shooting attacks against Israelis in the occupied territory. The raid attracted dozens of stone-throwing Palestinians, and the Israelis responded with tear gas and rubber bullets. It was the latest in a series of Israeli raids into urban areas that the Palestinians say undermine their own U.S.-trained security forces. Those forces have been coordinating operations with Israel in the West Bank for years but ties have frayed as the peace process ground to a halt. “This humiliates the P...
IAMI A large knife emblazoned with a Nazi emblem. A giant flag with the logo of the dreaded SS stormtroopers. A mug featuring Hitler wearing a Santa Christmas cap. Those were among the items of disturbing Nazi memorabilia found inside the home of Walter Stolper, the elderly man who prosecutors say tried to burn down a Miami Beach condo in July 2018 in an effort to kill Jews. The police photos of the items in Stolper's home, as well as surveillance video of him wheeling gas in a shopping cart, will be key evidence against the defendant during a hearing next month. At a bond hearing on Feb. 7, the Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office will ask a judge to keep Stolper behind bars before his trial for attempted murder, arson and possession of a destructive device. Because they believ...
Chesed Chesed
Baltimore, MD – Jan. 17, 2019 - It is with sadness that BaltimoreJewishLife.com informs the community of the petirah of Mr. Jerry Saunders, Z’L, father of Yehudis (Yosef) Furman, Yisroel (Leah) Saunders, Dovid (Chayeh) Saunders, Toby Saunders, Rachel Saunders, Jeffrey (Gideon) Saunders, and Aryeh Saunders. The levayah will take place Friday, Jan. 18, 9:00 AM at Woodside Synagogue, 9001 Georgia Ave, Silver Spring, MD 20910,  Kevurah at Chevra Ahavas Chesed Cemetery 9780 Liberty Road, Randallstown, MD 21133. Shiva will be observed at the Saunders home, 1525 Dale Dr., Silver Spring, MD 20910, beginning Motzei Shabbos 7pm through Thursday morning Shacharis.  Minyanim: Shacharis Sunday morning: 8am Shacharis Monday and Thursday: 6:50 am Shacharis Tuesday and Wednesd...
Cape Canaveral, FL - Here comes a total lunar eclipse and supermoon, all wrapped into one. The moon, Earth and sun will line up this weekend for the only total lunar eclipse this year and next. At the same time, the moon will be ever so closer to Earth and appear slightly bigger and brighter than usual — a supermoon. “This one is particularly good,” said Rice University astrophysicist Patrick Hartigan. “It not only is a supermoon and it’s a total eclipse, but the total eclipse also lasts pretty long. It’s about an hour.” The whole eclipse starts Sunday night or early Monday, depending on location , and will take about three hours. It begins with the partial phase around 10:34 p.m. EST Sunday. That’s when Earth’s shadow will begin to...
Miami - Royal Caribbean International says it’s issued a lifetime ban for a Canadian man who jumped off a cruise ship in the Bahamas. The Sun Sentinel reports that Nick Naydev posted the video on Instagram  last week showing him standing on the balcony of the Symphony of the Seas and jumping off. In the comments section, the Vancouver, British Columbia, man estimated that he jumped from the 11th-story deck, more than 100 feet (30 meters) above the water’s surface. Naydev says he and his friends were kicked off the ship and had to fly back to Miami. He says he was sore for several days after the jump but didn’t report any serious injuries. A Royal Caribbean spokesman called the incident extremely dangerous and confirmed the lifetime ban. The company says ...
Miami, FL - Jurors say a Florida hotel dishwasher should get $21.5 million after her employer failed to honor her religious beliefs by repeatedly scheduling her to work on Sundays and eventually firing her. The Sun Sentinel reports a federal jury in Miami found for 60-year-old Marie Jean Pierre on Tuesday. Her attorney says she will likely get about $500,000 because punitive damages are capped in federal court. The former Conrad Miami hotel worker had sued in 2017 for violations of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Pierre is a member of a Catholic missionary group. The lawsuit says she told her managers she needed Sundays off when she was hired in 2006. She was fired in 2016 for missing work. The hotel issued a statement saying it plans to appeal.
Amtrak is canceling and rescheduling some service Saturday and Sunday in preparation of inclement weather. On Sunday, Acela Express trains 2250, 2254, 2249, 2251 and 2253 will not run between New York and Boston. Train 2290 is canceled. Northeast Regional trains 160, 164, 88, 161, 135 and 167 will also not run between New York and Boston. Passengers connecting to Keystone Service trains 663, 664, 672, 661, 667 and 671 should know those trains are canceled, as are Pennsylvanian trains 42 and 43. Vermonter trains 54 and 57 will not operate between St. Albans, Vermont and New Haven, Connecticut. Otherwise, Northeast Corridor service between Baltimore and New York will operate as scheduled.
Pacific storms will bring moisture into the cold air on the East Coast, producing wintry weather this week.Thursday started off dry, but snow showers will break out in the evening and continue overnight. A winter weather advisory is in effect until 4 a.m. Friday for much of central and western Maryland. This is a fairly weak system, but some accumulating snow is likely. It should begin Thursday evening as a pure light snow across the Baltimore metro. By just after midnight, some warmer air will work in and change it to light rain south and east of Interstate 95. In Baltimore's typically colder northern suburbs, the forecast calls for 1 to 2 inches of snow. Then more wintry weather is in the forecast over the weekend. It should start as a mix of rain, snow and ice late Saturday. If ...
Washington - President Donald Trump has canceled the U.S. delegation’s trip later this month to an economic forum in Davos, Switzerland. It was the latest development in Thursday’s back-and-forth over whether lawmakers and Trump administration officials should travel during the partial government shutdown. Earlier, Trump postponed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s trip to Afghanistan. That was in response to Pelosi asking Trump to postpone his State of the Union address to the nation — set for Jan. 29 — until the government reopens. White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement that out of consideration for the 800,000 federal workers not getting paid, the president has nixed his delegation’s trip to the World Economic Forum. Trump...
Houston - A federal attorney in South Texas said in court this week that during the ongoing partial government shutdown, he only has been allowed to work on cases related to President Donald Trump’s proposed border wall. The Texas Civil Rights Project on Thursday released a transcript of a Tuesday hearing in a case where the U.S. government has sued a local landowner for her property along the U.S.-Mexico border. Many other civil cases have been delayed during the shutdown, which was triggered by Trump’s demand for $5.7 billion to build a wall. According to the transcript, U.S. District Judge Micaela Alvarez noted that government attorneys working on border wall cases have not been furloughed despite the shutdown. The prosecutor, Eric Paxton Warner, responded, “This is...
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...
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’...
Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul says that Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has to be willing to compromise on border wall funding.
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...
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 ...
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.
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