WASHINGTON (AP) — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday questioned Attorney General William Barr’s independence from President Donald Trump, arguing Barr’s pursuit of Trump’s claims about “spying” during the 2016 campaign undermines his position as the nation’s top law enforcement officer. In a wide-ranging interview with The Associated Press, the California Democrat said she was “very concerned” about Barr’s handling of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report on Russian meddling in the campaign and accused Barr of doing Trump’s political bidding in his testimony at a Senate hearing. “He is not the attorney general of Donald Trump. He is the attorney general of the United States,” Pelosi told AP. &ldquo...
Israeli startups raised a total of $1.55 billion in the first quarter of 2019 across 128 deals, according to a new report published Tuesday by Tel Aviv-based market research firm IVC Research Center Ltd. and law firm Zysman Aharoni Gayer & Co. (ZAG/S&W). The sum represents a 28 percent increase compared to the first quarter of 2018, spread across 15 percent more deals. Venture capital players accounted for 71 deals and $1.3 billion of the total sum raised. Compared with the fourth quarter of 2018, this quarter’s total deal number fell 25 percent, mostly due to a decrease in seed and series A rounds. The median amount of these early rounds increased, while mid and late rounds continued the uptrend seen since 2016, with series C rounds attracting the most capital of all rounds...
The top Democratic congressional leaders are calling on special counsel Robert Mueller to testify on Capitol Hill as soon as possible following what they describe as Attorney General William Barr's "partisan" handling of the release of the Mueller report. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) released a joint statement early Thursday, hours ahead of when a redacted version of Mueller's report is expected to be released and hours after a New York Times report revealed that White House lawyers and Department of Justice officials have already repeatedly discussed details of Mueller's conclusions. The Democratic leaders laid out a s...
Attorney General William Barr on Thursday said no redactions in special counsel Robert Mueller’s report on his Russia investigation were made based on claims of executive privilege by the White House. Barr said that although there were “significant portions” of the report that Trump would have been within his rights to redact since the White House complied with the investigation, he refrained from doing so. The Office of the White House Counsel requested to examine the report — after Barr told lawmakers they would receive a redacted version of the report by April — so they could “advise the President on the potential invocation of privilege.” “Following that review, the President confirmed that, in the interests of transparency and full dis...
The Justice Department considered President Donald Trump’s frustrations about media and political speculation about the Russia investigation when deciding whether to charge him with obstructing the probe, Attorney General William Barr said Thursday.  Special counsel Robert Mueller’s report on his Russia investigation recounts 10 episodes involving Trump and questions of obstruction of justice, Barr said. A redacted version of the approximately 400-page document is expected to be released after Barr’s remarks. After reviewing the information gathered by Mueller, the top Justice Department official and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein concluded there was not sufficient evidence to charge the president with obstructing the probe into Moscow’s eff...
Is Beto O’Rourke’s campaign already over? Reaction and analysis from Ben Shapiro on ‘Tucker Carlson Tonight.’
After threatening to fine or even close yeshiva schools and daycare centers that allowed unvaccinated students amid the measles outbreak, 23 sites have now been fined and shut one in Williamsburg. CBS2’s Andrea Grymes reports.
The Instagram accounts of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and Qasem Soleimani, the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ (IRGC) Quds Force, were suspended Tuesday – a day after the IRGC was officially designated by the United States as a terrorist organization. Instagram also suspended the accounts of IRGC commander-in-chief Mohammad Ali Jafari and Brig. Gen. Mohammed Pakpour, the commander of the IRGC’s ground forces. Khamenei’s English account was suspended, though his Farsi one remains active. The reason for the suspensions is unclear. Instagram did not respond to a request for comment.
New York - A New Jersey man has been arrested outside St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City with two jugs of gasoline. Police say church personnel stopped the 37-year-old man from entering the landmark cathedral in Manhattan at about 9 p.m. Wednesday. Authorities were investigating whether the unidentified man is emotionally disturbed. There is currently a heavy police presence outside the cathedral on Fifth Avenue. The incident comes just days after flames ravaged the Notre Dame cathedral in Paris. St. Patrick’s Cathedral, which was built in 1878, has installed a sprinkler-like system during recent renovations and its wooden roof is coated with fire retardant.
Washington - The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits dropped to the lowest level in nearly half a century. The Labor Department says claims for jobless aid fell by 5,000 last week to 192,000, lowest since September 1969. The four-week average, which is less volatile, dropped by 6,000 to 201,250, lowest since November 1969. Weekly claims have been at historically low levels — below 300,000 — for more than four years. Unemployment claims are a proxy for layoffs. The low levels show that most American workers enjoy job security. The employment rate is 3.8%, the lowest in almost 50 years.
Washington - President Donald Trump is blasting the investigation into Russian election meddling as “The Greatest Political Hoax of all time!” hours before the long-awaited released of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report Thursday. Trump’s first tweet of the day blasted investigators. Trump tweeted, “Crimes were committed by Crooked, Dirty Cops and DNC/The Democrats,” although there is no evidence of that. Trump frequently calls the probe into contacts between his 2016 campaign and Russia a “witch hunt.” After nearly two years of waiting, America will get its first glimpse of Mueller’s report later Thursday— but not before Attorney General William Barr weighs in at a 9:30 a.m. press conference. A redacted version of the nea...
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...
[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...
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...
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
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...
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...
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.
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 ...
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...
More articles