Two more members of the University of Maryland Medical System board of directors have resigned, while four others who have financial relationships with the system have been asked to immediately take a voluntary leave of absence. The news is part of the fallout of controversy over Mayor Catherine Pugh's since-disclosed book deal with the medical system. Pugh had sat on the board since 2001. She resigned that unpaid position on Monday, days after it came to light she and other board members benefited from contracts with the private health system. "Addressing this issue is of the highest priority for me and the organization," board Chairman Stephen A. Burch said in a statement. "There is nothing more important than the trust of those who depend on our leadership." John W. Dillon of Du...
As the Lion Air crew fought to control their diving Boeing 737 Max 8, they got help from an unexpected source: an off-duty pilot who happened to be riding in the cockpit. That extra pilot, who was seated in the cockpit jumpseat, correctly diagnosed the problem and told the crew how to disable a malfunctioning flight-control system and save the plane, according to two people familiar with Indonesia’s investigation. The next day, under command of a different crew facing what investigators said was an identical malfunction, the jetliner crashed into the Java Sea killing all 189 aboard. The previously undisclosed detail on the earlier Lion Air flight represents a new clue in the mystery of how some 737 Max pilots faced with the malfunction have been able to avert disaster while the ot...
As the New Zealand gunman live-streamed the massacre onto Facebook, fewer than 200 people watched. The social network said its moderators removed it sometime after a user first reported it as troubling, 29 minutes after the stream began. But on the anonymous message board 8chan, where the gunman had announced his “attack against the invaders” with a link to the live footage, a nameless group had already been racing to save, preserve and reupload the video in corners of the web where it’d be harder to take down. It worked: Within 24 hours, the video of a mass terror attack that killed 50 people at two mosques had been uploaded onto Facebook more than 1.5 million times. New numbers released by social media companies confirm what has been apparent since the Friday killing...
A Lebanese-Canadian has been arrested on suspicion of spying for Israel, Lebanese intelligence announced on Tuesday. The 40-year-old man apparently confessed to being recruited in 2013 by a Lebanese fugitive, which Lebanese intelligence says belongs to an Israeli spying network described as “unit 504”. Lebanon and Israel remain technically in a state of war, and tensions between Israel and Hezbollah remain high with regular threats issued at one another. Between April 2009 and 2014, Lebanese authorities detained more than 100 people accused of spying for Israel, most of them members of the military or telecom employees. Read more at i24NEWS.
The Purim Story Created & Produced by 6th Grade Boys of Cheder Chabad
A spokesman for Iran’s Foreign Ministry denied that the Iranian regime hacked Israeli officials’ cellular phones, Iran’s IRNA news agency reported. IRNA quoted Bahram Qasemi as saying that the “Zionist officials” are “playing the blame game and promoting hype…out of hostility, malice and to promote Iranophobia, the Zionist regime of Israel and the US officials are after imposing most pressures against Iran by raising such claims.” The site also quoted Qasemi as calling Israel’s election candidates “unprofessional” and claiming that they are “taking advantage of advertising tools” encourage hostility towards Iran, and reiterating his belief that Israel engages in “psychological warfare.” Read more ...
Doctors reported a marked improvement in the medical condition of an IDF soldier wounded in a West Bank terror attack earlier in the week. Alexander Dvorsky, who was shot on Sunday, was fully conscious, breathing on his own and able to talk with medical staff at Beilinson Hospital in Petah Tkiva, the hospital said. The hospital says the patient is in stable and moderate condition. ‬ Read more at Times of Israel.
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Some of the money earned by Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh's book company, including proceeds from a contract with the University of Maryland Medical System, reportedly went into political campaigns, including her own. Healthy Holly LLC has made $7,040 in political contributions, according to state campaign finance records. Of that, $5,000 was given to Pugh's own campaign in 2015. Another $1,000 was spent on a ticket purchase last August to support the campaign of Baltimore County Executive John Olszewski Jr., and $1,000 went to Sen. Jill P. Carter's campaign. Olszewski fundraiser Colleen Martin-Lauer said the county executive wasn't aware of the contribution, and has directed his treasurer to return the money. Baltimore Brew reported last week that the LLC was ...
European regulators on Wednesday slapped Google with a roughly $1.7 billion fine on charges that its advertising practices violated local antitrust laws, marking the third time in as many years that the region’s watchdogs have penalized the U.S. tech giant for harming competition and consumers. Margrethe Vestager, the European Union’s top competition commissioner, announced the punishment at a news conference, accusing Google of engaging in “illegal practices” in a bid to “cement its dominant market position” in the search and advertising markets. The new penalty adds to Google’s costly headaches in Europe, where Vestager now has fined the tech giant more than $9 billion in total for a series of antitrust violations. Her actions stand in stark co...
The race for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination may be about to get a front-runner. Former Vice President Joe Biden has told some supporters that he’s making plans to jump into the race, joining a diverse field of candidates vying to challenge President Donald Trump, a person familiar with the conversations said. Biden, 76, has led in early polls of primary voters, and could capture significant support from major Democratic donors, many of whom have held off from backing other candidates while awaiting his decision. An announcement of his plans is expected in the coming weeks, according to the person, a Biden ally who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a private conversation. A spokesman for Biden, Bill Russo, declined to comment. Biden has indicated in recent w...
FORT MEADE, Md. (AP) — A Maryland middle school teacher is accused of slamming a door on a student's hand so hard that three of her fingers were severed. The Capital reports a lawsuit filed by the child's father accuses the Ann Arundel County Board of Education and former teacher Steven Akers of negligence. Court documents filed this month in the 2018 lawsuit reveal new details about the girl's injuries, which they say left permanent discomfort and nerve damage despite surgery. The family says the girl was asking Akers a question in 2017 when he slammed a door to get the class' attention. County prosecutor Philip Culpepper says the girl was looking out of a window when Akers unintentionally hurt her. Schools spokesman Bob Mosier says Akers resigned in 2018. The...
BALTIMORE (AP) — The Baltimore City Fire Department says it relies on employees working overtime to cover nearly a third of its firefighter and medic shifts. Department spokeswoman Blair Adams tells The Baltimore Sun that the department has already used its $11.2 million overtime budget for this fiscal year, which has several months left. WBAL-TV 11's Lowell Melser reports that this amounts to the entire fiscal year 2019 overtime budget. The department overspent on overtime by more than $8 million last year. Fire Chief Niles Ford has said the department's payment system is faulty and has been miscalculating overtime pay since at least 2017. He said last month that it still wasn't fixed. "We have to build the practices in place so the agencies can fun...
The Megilla, which was written by both Mordechai and Esther, does not tell us Mordechai’s real name, his Hebrew name.  Neither the name Mordechai (arguably, a form of the avoda zara, Mar-duch) nor the name Esther (arguably, a form of the avoda zara, Eesh-tar) has the Hebrew characteristic of three osios in the shoreish, i.e. three letters in the root.  Neither name appears to be Hebrew.  Even though we see from Esther 2:5 that Mordechai’s father, grandfather and great-grandfather had Hebrew names, I assumed initially that Mordechai, though apparently born in Eretz Yisrael, had only a Persian name and not a Hebrew name.  I do not believe that Mordechai was called to the Torah on his Bar Mitzva with, “Ya-amod, Mor Dror ben Yair.”    ...
President Trump took direct aim at the husband of one of his top advisers early Wednesday, blasting George Conway over his repeated criticism of the president. In a tweet referring to Conway as a “stone cold loser,” the president claimed that he “barely” knows George Conway, who frequently targets him on Twitter with accusations of ethical misconduct. George Conway is married to White House counselor Kellyanne Conway, Trump’s former campaign manager. “George Conway, often referred to as Mr. Kellyanne Conway by those who know him, is VERY jealous of his wife’s success & angry that I, with her help, didn’t give him the job he so desperately wanted,” the president wrote. “I barely know him but just take a look, a stone cold LO...
The whole world is a narrow bridge, but the essence, is not to be afraid Rav Nachman of Breslav That the Ba’alei HaKabalah find mystical connections and meanings in things large and small is a credit to their insight and spirituality.  Still, when they draw a direct connection between Purim and Yom Kippurim it feels astonishing to us.  To take a holiday in which we dress up and wear masks, in which we drink copious amounts of wine and play games and suggest it is connected to our most solemn, holiest day?  Yes, there is the grammatical implication of “Ki-purim”, which can mean “like Purim”, but that is surely a superficial connection. Or is it? In Rabbi Soloveitchik’s esteemed estimation, the reverse is true.  It is the difference...
"Every night when I returned to my room, I leanred Torah", said Major Moses Scheinfeld
The Israeli military said it has shot and killed two Palestinians who attacked troops at Kever Yosef HaTzaddik in Shchem early Wednesday morning. The military says several explosive devices were hurled at soldiers securing Jewish worshippers at the ancient tomb in the city of Shchem. Troops opened fire in retaliation and killed two of the assailants. The Palestinian Health Ministry identified them as 21-year-old Raed Hamadan and 20-year-old Zeid Nouri. Read more at YNET.
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