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April 18, 2019 at 10:01 am
Berlin - German prosecutors have charged a 92-year-old former concentration camp guard with being an accessory to murder, in what will be one of the last ever cases against Nazi-era war crimes.
Hamburg prosecutors accused the man, identified only as Bruno D., of aiding and abetting 5,230 cases of murder during the almost nine months he spent on duty at a concentration camp watch-tower at the end of World War Two.
According to Die Welt newspaper, which first reported the charges, the man admitted to prosecutors during a voluntary interrogation last year that he had seen people being taken to gas chambers to be murdered.
“What good would it have done for me to leave? They’d just have found somebody else,” he told prosecutors, according to the newspaper.
“I felt ba...
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April 17, 2019 at 11:21 pm
[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
Dvar Torah I
There is a passuk in davening that bothered me for a long time. The following is the translation of that passuk: “For forty years I was angry with the generation and I said they are an errant-hearted people...
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April 17, 2019 at 11:16 pm
Washington - The Trump administration on Wednesday proposed new regulations aimed at making it easier for investors to take advantage of tax breaks for investing in “Opportunity Zones” in low-income areas.
The proposed regulations issued by the Treasury Department seek to clear up questions that were keeping some investors from using the tax incentives.
President Donald Trump, speaking at a White House conference to promote the program, said governors in all 50 states and U.S. territories had designated 8,700 neighborhoods as Opportunity Zones, making these economically depressed areas eligible to be used for the federal tax incentives.
The program was included in the $1.5 trillion tax cut legislation that Trump pushed through Congress in 2017.
The new Opportunity Zones wer...
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April 17, 2019 at 10:40 pm
Baltimore, MD - Apr. 17, 2019 - 10:32 PM - A major MVA has recently occurred at the corner of Willow Glen & Fallstaff & with emergency personnel on scene.
Please steer clear of the area
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April 17, 2019 at 10:26 pm
New York - Electric scooters are overtaking station-based bicycles as the most popular form of shared transportation outside transit and cars in the U.S.
Riders took 38.5 million trips on shared electric scooters in 2018, eclipsing the 36.5 million trips on shared, docked bicycles, according to a report released Wednesday by the National Association of City Transportation Officials.
This as scooter companies face challenges from every direction, including vandalism, theft, rider injuries, intense competition and aggressive regulations in cities across the country.
Yet the scooter industry persists, and venture capitalists, ride-hailing companies and traditional auto manufacturers continue to pour millions into the fledgling companies.
Companies are jockeying for strategic position in t...
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April 17, 2019 at 10:25 pm
Once again, we will reenact the Seder as our ancestors have for generations.
Some families repeat long standing interpretations on the Haggadah that were expressed by their illustrious predecessors centuries ago. Many have unique and ancient customs associated with the various steps within the Seder. For the most part though the central text of the Haggadah remains universal and is the greatest common denominator amongst our people on this night and testament to our mutual mission.
Reflecting on my own experience as a child having sat at a Seder table together with grandparents who were transplanted from a world so different and seemingly much more authentic than my own, I often ponder what is it that was bequeathed to me on this special night that I am now entrusted with to convey to my...
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April 17, 2019 at 10:25 pm
Energy Secretary Rick Perry is reportedly planning to leave the Trump administration, Bloomberg News reported Wednesday.
The former Texas governor is reportedly finalizing the terms and timing of his departure, two people familiar with his plans told Bloomberg.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Hill on Perry’s plans. Perry has served as the secretary of the Department of Energy since being confirmed in 2017.
Read more at The Hill.
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April 17, 2019 at 10:24 pm
Washington - When President Donald Trump insisted last year that America’s southern border was in crisis, his warnings landed with a thud.
Making unverified claims about “unknown Middle Easterners” and prayer rugs found by ranchers, Trump drew eye rolls from Democrats and many others, who derided his tactics as little more than an election-year stunt .
Now, six months later, Trump’s new cries of alarm are again being met with skepticism, though the situation at the border has indeed deteriorated. Lawmakers of both parties agree there is a genuine humanitarian emergency, with federal authorities and non-profits unable to cope with the tens of thousands of Central American families seeking refuge in the U.S.
It’s a classic case of the boy who cried wolf.
No ...
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April 17, 2019 at 9:41 pm
Cherry Hills Village, CO - A Colorado city has voted to drop the name “Swastika Acres” from a subdivision.
KDVR-TV reports the Cherry Hills Village City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to approve a name change to “Old Cherry Hills” to prevent future controversy.
The neighborhood in the Denver suburb was named Swastika Acres decades before the symbol was adopted by the Nazis.
Councilman Dan Sheldon spearheaded the change and says the name comes from the Denver Land Swastika Company that divided area land into plots near the turn of the 20th Century.
While the name cannot be found on road signs, it still appeared on real estate closing documents.
Sheldon says one woman attending the council meeting opposed the change to preserve the “historical value&rdqu...
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April 17, 2019 at 9:35 pm
Baltimore, MD - Apr. 17, 2019 - It's that time of year when you can benefit Ahavas Yisrael by bidding on the first Tov Pizza after Pesach.
Click on the graphic below and bid now...
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April 17, 2019 at 9:19 pm
An Israeli flight attendant has slipped into a coma after contracting measles, according to health officials.
The 43-year-old woman has encephalitis, or inflammation of the brain, a well-known and potentially deadly complication of the virus. She was otherwise healthy before getting measles.
"She's been in a deep coma for 10 days, and we're now just hoping for the best," said Dr. Itamar Grotto, associate director general of Israel's Ministry of Health.
The flight attendant, who works for El Al, the Israeli national airline, might have contracted the virus in New York, in Israel or on a flight between the two, Grotto said. Health authorities do not believed that she spread the virus to anyone on the flights.
She's unable to breathe on her own and on a...
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April 17, 2019 at 9:18 pm
New York - With its mountains and desert, beach resorts and Berber villages, Morocco is a feast for travelers of all kinds, including those who want to explore the kingdom’s deep Jewish roots.
The presence of Jews in Morocco stretches back more than 2,000 years. Before the founding of Israel in 1948, estimates put their number as high as about 275,000, which was considered the largest Jewish community in the Muslim world, said Roy Mittelman, director of the Jewish studies program at The City College of New York.
Today, after vast waves of departures over the years, only about 2,000 Jews remain in Casablanca and about 500 elsewhere in Morocco, but the Jewish presence is still alive in a variety of sights. The Museum of Moroccan Judaism in suburban Casablanca, for instance, is the on...
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April 17, 2019 at 9:17 pm
United Nations - Israel’s U.N. ambassador says he believes the government will take no action on annexing Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank until after the Trump administration releases its long-awaited Israeli-Palestinian peace plan.
Danny Danon told reporters Wednesday he thinks the U.S. will present the plan between May and the summer.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged in the final stretch of his campaign to annex the settlements if he was re-elected. Netanyahu was asked Wednesday to form a government after his election victory.
Danon sidestepped a question on what Israel would gain from annexing the settlements, saying that “I don’t think we will see any major action by our government before the peace plan” is presented.
He noted t...
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April 17, 2019 at 9:16 pm
Fort Lee, NJ - New York’s plan to charge a fee for motorists entering its congested midtown area won’t go into effect for another two years but is already renewing time-honored animosities between the state and its neighbor to the west.
Standing on a bridge overlooking the heavily traveled George Washington Bridge that connects the two states, two New Jersey congressmen on Wednesday variously called the plan “poorly conceived,” ‘‘a raw deal” and “a two-by-four to our head.”
New York would become the first American city to use so-called congestion pricing to decrease vehicle traffic and fund mass transit improvements, following in the footsteps of London, Singapore and Stockholm. Those cities experienced an initial reduction in traffic...
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April 17, 2019 at 9:16 pm
San Francisco - Some of Samsung’s new, almost $2,000 folding phones appear to be breaking after just a couple of days.
Journalists who received the phones to review before the public launch said the Galaxy Fold screen started flickering and turning black before completely fizzling out. Two journalists said they removed a thin, protective layer from the screens that they thought was supposed to come off, but was meant to stay.
But reporters from The Verge and CNBC said they left that layer on and their screens still broke. A CNBC video shows the left side of the inside screen intermittently flashing, and the right side as unresponsive.
The phone was “completely unusable” after two days, CNBC reporter Todd Haselton wrote .
The long-anticipated folding phone is about the...
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April 17, 2019 at 9:16 pm
Seoul - North Korean leader Kim Jong Un oversaw the testing of a new type of tactical guided weapon on Wednesday, state media Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said on Thursday.
It is North Korea’s first public weapons test since the second U.S.-North Korea summit in Hanoi ended with no agreement in February.
KCNA did not describe exactly what the weapon is, including whether it was a missile or another type of weapon, but “tactical” implies a short-range weapon, as opposed to the long-range ballistic missiles that have been seen as a threat to the United States.
Nevertheless, the missile has a “peculiar mode of guiding flight” and “a powerful warhead,” KCNA said.
Kim said “the completion of the development of the weapon system serves as ...
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April 17, 2019 at 9:15 pm
Albany, NY - Former radical activist Judith Clark was granted parole Wednesday after serving more than 37 years behind bars for her role as getaway driver in a 1981 Brink’s armored truck robbery that left two police officers and a security guard dead.
“We are grateful that the Parole Board affirmed what everyone who has interacted with Judy already knows - that she is a rehabilitated, remorseful woman who poses no threat to society,” said Michael Cardozo, who represents Clark pro bono as co-counsel with Steve Zeidman.
“My great hope is that the Parole Board continues to honor the work people do to transform their lives while in prison and lets more families’ loved ones come home,” said Clark’s daughter, Harriet Clark, in a prepared statement.
De...
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April 17, 2019 at 9:15 pm
Arvada, CO - Each morning for the last two decades, Frank DeAngelis has recited aloud the names of the 13 people killed at Columbine High School, where he served as principal during the 1999 massacre that marked a modern era of mass school shootings.
“When I wake up in bed each morning, that’s the first thing I do is recite the names. Then I go into my office and pray,” DeAngelis, 64, told Reuters in an interview. “They have been with me since that day and they’ll continue to be with me for the rest of my life in the Columbine community.”
On April 20, 1999, two heavily armed Columbine students stormed the school in suburban Denver, killing 12 classmates and a teacher before turning their guns on themselves and committing suicide. At the time, it was th...
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April 17, 2019 at 9:14 pm
Washington - After nearly two years of waiting, America will get some answers straight from Robert Mueller.
The Justice Department on Thursday is expected to release a redacted version of the special counsel’s report on Russian election interference and Donald Trump’s campaign, opening up months, if not years, of fights over what the document means in a deeply divided country.
Attorney General William Barr will hold a 9:30 a.m. news conference accompanied by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who oversaw the investigation after Mueller’s appointment in May 2017. It’s unclear if Barr will speak before or after the report is released.
The nearly 400-page report is expected to reveal what Mueller uncovered about ties between the Trump campaign and Russia that f...
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April 17, 2019 at 9:14 pm
Abidjian - On a trip to Africa to promote women’s economic empowerment, Ivanka Trump said the White House should be judged by its actions toward a continent that her father has privately disparaged.
In an interview with The Associated Press, the president’s daughter and senior adviser pointed to visits to the continent by herself, the first lady and others, saying: “Our commitment to Africa is clear.” She added that she hopes President Donald Trump will visit, saying: “I’ve been deeply, deeply inspired by my trip here. And I think he will be as well.”
Ivanka Trump spoke Wednesday, the last day of her four-day trip to Ethiopia and Ivory Coast, which has featured a mix of diplomacy and visits to local business ventures as she advances a White House...
