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May 16, 2019 at 12:28 pm
Parshat Emor portrays the scathing blasphemy of an unnamed Jew whose pedigree was questioned. This desecration of G-d’s name threatens communal sanctity and the offender is publicly stone. This entails the first moment a Jew willingly “abandoned“ religion. In the supernatural context of the desert this decision is jarring, as it is difficult to envision willfully ignoring the great miracles and revelations while challenging Divine authority. However, this experience may help us better understand the general phenomenon of a person “walking out” on religion- a phenomenon which unfortunately has become more and more common in the contemporary setting. On the surface it may appear that people abandon religion due to deep philosophical questions; in reality, there ...
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May 16, 2019 at 9:00 am
Baltimore County Executive John Olszewski Jr. said his budget process required "some tough choices."
Speaking about an unpopular proposal to tax individual cell phone lines, he said he put forward an alternative proposal to the County Council, but said that ultimately, he needed to close an inherited $81 million deficit while also providing services residents said they wanted.
"We took $20 million of new spending out of the budget," Olszewski told Brett Hollander on Wednesday. "We cut 15 positions. We have $18 million of more savings in the future years because we're changing out [school] laptops for Chromebooks.
He said he worked with lawmakers to replace the proposed $3.50 monthly fee on cell phone lines with a monthly fee on cell phone accounts. He didn'...
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May 16, 2019 at 8:28 am
Baltimore, MD - May 16, 2019 - ALL MARC **PENN LINE** SERVICE between Baltimore and Washington, D.C. has been SUSPENDED because a pedestrian was struck by a train south of the Odenton Station.
Use the CAMDEN Line instead.
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May 16, 2019 at 7:02 am
Baltimore, MD - May 16, 2019 :
***I-95 Northbound Closed in Laurel***
+ TRACTOR TRAILER CRASH / FIRE +
I 95 NORTHBOUND MAIN LANES are CLOSED at MD 200/ICC.
ALL TRAFFIC MUST EXIT into the SERVICE LANES, which **HAVE BEEN REOPENED AND REJOIN THE MAIN LANES AT THE SCENE**
Use B/W Pkwy, US 29 or US 1 instead of I-95
According to Maryland State Police, a tractor trailer crashed into a car that was stopped in the roadway.
Both vehicles burst into flames.
There were no injuries
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May 16, 2019 at 7:01 am
A Baltimore City councilman said Wednesday he's been told recovery from the ransomware attack on city government could take anywhere from three weeks to three months.
"It's been, I would say, frustrating--from the government side, it's been very frustrating," 4th district Councilman Bill Henry said. "I'm sure it's just as if not more frustrating from the side of constituents who are trying to reach us."
Hackers demanded 13 Bitcoin. At the start of the hack, that was equivalent to around $75,000. However, the same amount of Bitcoin ran more than $100,000 on Wednesday.
As the outage drags on, city permits and real estate deals are being held up. City officials have no date for when systems will be back up. Real estate transactions should resume la...
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May 15, 2019 at 9:23 pm
On April 11, the Israeli nonprofit SpaceIL tried to land a small robot on the surface of the moon. But an errant software command apparently caused the lander’s main engine to shut off and slam into the moon. Now new before-and-after pictures taken around April 22 and released on Wednesday from NASA reveal the results of Beresheet’s high-speed crash.
“While the spacecraft did land, it first touched the surface about 1,000 meters per second [2,200 mph] faster than intended,” Mark Robinson, a lunar researcher at NASA, said in a blog post about the images.
That speed is roughly twice as fast as a bullet shot from a gun. Robinson added that Beresheet came down at a sharp angle, and disintegrated upon impact, leaving a sizable scar on the moon.
Read more at The B...
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May 15, 2019 at 9:14 pm
An Israeli man has apologized for spitting at Polish Ambassador to Israel Marek Magierowski.
“I would like to express my apologies,” said Arik Lederman, who was arrested for spitting at the ambassador, in a statement. “My family experienced the Holocaust, and my appeal to the embassy was on the matter of restitution of property.”
Lederman accused a security guard at the Polish embassy for calling him a zhid, a disparaging label for a Jew, causing his eruption. He has requested to apologize to the ambassador in person, adding that he didn’t know the person he spat at was him.
“I hope that with this, the incident will come to an end and will be kept in proportion,” he said.
“We received a report of an incident involving the Polish ambassado...
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May 15, 2019 at 9:02 pm
New York University chaplain Rabbi Yehuda Sarna will be the first chief rabbi of the Jewish community in the United Arab Emirates, announced the international affairs director for the Anti-Defamation League on Tuesday.
“It’s a very exciting and daunting challenge to try to build the community in such a way that is not only sustainable and enriching for the people who are members of it, but also it serves the function of engaging with the Muslim world in that part of the world,” said Sarna, who will remain at NYU and travel to the UAE four times annually in an unpaid capacity.
A few years ago, a new shul opened and has since been operating without a rabbi.
An official from the Jewish Council of the Emirates told Jewish Telegraphic Agency that Sarna’s position won&...
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May 15, 2019 at 8:59 pm
President Donald Trump on Tuesday denied a New York Times report that US officials were discussing a military plan to send up to 120,000 troops to the Middle East to counter any attack or nuclear weapons acceleration by Iran.
“I think it’s fake news, OK? Now, would I do that? Absolutely. But we have not planned for that. Hopefully we’re not going to have to plan for that. And if we did that, we’d send a hell of a lot more troops than that,” Trump told reporters at the White House.
The Times reported that Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan presented an updated plan last week in a meeting of top national security aides that envisions sending as many as 120,000 American troops to the region if Iran attacks US forces or accelerates work on its nuclear wea...
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May 15, 2019 at 8:57 pm
San Francisco - Pacific Gas & Electric Corp. power lines caused a fire that killed 85 people — the deadliest and most destructive wildfire in state history, California fire officials said Wednesday.
Cal Fire said the transmission lines owned and operated by the San Francisco-based utility sparked the Nov. 8 fire in the Pulga area that nearly destroyed Paradise.
The investigation also identified a second nearby ignition site involving vegetation and electrical distribution lines, also owned and operated by the San Francisco-based utility.
The second fire was quickly consumed by the initial fire.
Lynsey Paulo, a spokeswoman for PG&E, did not immediately comment.
The fire in Butte County destroyed nearly 15,000 homes.
The nation’s largest utility filed for Chapter 11...
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May 15, 2019 at 8:56 pm
London - Gone, at least for now, are the halcyon days when strong military and political ties between Britain and the United States meant that Washington could assume it had a staunch partner for standing up to a foreign foe.
Dating back to World War II and including joint actions against Kosovo, Afghanistan and the two wars against Iraq, U.S. leaders have been able to count on Britain to take part in invasions and airstrikes, and to help persuade sometimes cautious European allies to offer political and logistical support.
The Trump administration was expecting similar support over what it calls an increased threat from Iran, but this hope has been swatted down — not with anonymous whispers but by public comments from top British officials.
In an unusually blunt challenge from Br...
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May 15, 2019 at 8:54 pm
Philadelphia - Muslim leaders in Philadelphia are apologizing for an event last month at which children were captured on video speaking in Arabic about beheadings and the liberation of Jerusalem’s most sensitive holy site.
The Muslim American Society’s Philadelphia chapter and the Leaders Academy, a gathering space for cyberschooled children, issued a joint statement Wednesday saying “the mistake is ours to own.”
A video uploaded to the chapter’s Facebook page shows children moving to a revolutionary anthem often used by Islamist groups, and two young girls reading from a prepared text. One says, “We will chop off their heads, and we will liberate the ... Al-Aqsa Mosque.”
The statement says a volunteer aide selected the material and “feels...
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May 15, 2019 at 8:53 pm
Providence, RI - A self-driving shuttle got pulled over by police on its first day carrying passengers on a new Rhode Island route.
Providence Police Chief Hugh Clements said an officer pulled over the odd-looking autonomous vehicle because he had never seen one before.
“It looked like an oversize golf cart,” Clements said.
The vehicle, operated by Michigan-based May Mobility, was dropping off passengers Wednesday morning at Providence’s Olneyville Square when a police cruiser arrived with blinking lights and a siren.
It was just hours after the public launch of a state-funded pilot for a shuttle service called “Little Roady.” The shuttle offers free rides on a 12-stop urban loop that links to a train station. Each vehicle holds six people, including an at...
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May 15, 2019 at 8:31 pm
Brooklyn, NY - A 16 year old boy was killed late this afternoon in a tragic accident that took place on 17th Avenue near 53rd Street.
Police said that the boy was riding his bicycle just after 5:30 when he was struck by a vehicle after he swerved to avoid the opening door of a parked car. Rescue crews rushed to the scene, where the overturned bicycle could be seen laying on the roadway.
He was transported to Maimonides Hospital where he was later pronounced dead.
From photos circulating on social media it appears the boy was wearing a helmet at the time of the accident.
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May 15, 2019 at 6:28 pm
This is definitely one of the most incredible stories I've ever reported. The inspiring story of Holocaust survivor, Marta Motzen, a'h, mother of a fallen IDF soldier, and his friends who, 37 years later, refuse to forget him. Marta passed away this Yom HaZikaron, just hours before we broadcast her story.
A Torah study session at Marta Motzen’s home in Petah Tikva (Channel 12 screenshot)
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May 15, 2019 at 6:26 pm
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) on Thursday will reportedly join the crowded field of Democratic candidates vying for the party's 2020 presidential nomination.
The two-term liberal mayor is expected to visit Iowa and South Carolina after announcing his candidacy on Thursday morning, according to The New York Daily News and NBC News.
De Blasio intends to emphasize his mayoral accomplishments including the creation of universal pre-kindergarten, raising the minimum wage to $15 per hour and overseeing an all-time crime low, according to NBC News, citing a campaign spokesperson.
Good Morning America announced Wednesday that De Blasio and his wife Chirlane McCray will appear on the program on Thursday. Read more at The Hill
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May 15, 2019 at 5:47 pm
Countless rabbinical figures and leaders, including leading rabbis in the Agudath Israel movement and doctors serving these communities, have repeatedly encouraged vaccination in the strongest possible terms.
A recent gathering in Monsey, NY, heavily promoted in Orthodox Jewish areas, featured figures in the anti-vaccination circuit, including a pediatrician who uses “cranial-sacral therapy, homeopathy, essential oils, aromatherapy, yoga, Reiki, meditation, reflexology, and mindfulness”; a television producer who has sported a large yellow star at anti-vaccination rallies; and the author of a paper in the Lancet on vaccines that the publication retracted as fraudulent. The latter lost his British medical license for unethical behavior.
Of particular concern to us were as...
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May 15, 2019 at 5:24 pm
A dispute is emerging between former FBI Director James Comey and former CIA Director John Brennan over who pushed to include information from the Steele dossier in an intelligence community assessment of Russian meddling.
A potential rift is emerging between James Comey and John Brennan over who pushed to include information from the unverified Steele dossier in an intelligence community assessment of Russian interference in the 2016 election.
Comey, a former FBI director, sent an email to subordinates in late 2016 indicating Brennan, a former CIA director, wanted to include materials from the dossier in the intelligence community assessment, known as the ICA, Fox News reported.
A former CIA official speaking on Brennan’s behalf is disputing the assertion. The former official t...
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May 15, 2019 at 5:06 pm
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday that coalition partners had ‘impossible’ demands and that clashes between them continue.
“The parties are making impossible demands. One party has requested four positions and budgetary demands that we don’t have,” Netanyahu said.
On Wednesday, Israeli President Reuven Rivlin on accepted Netanyahu’s request to extend the deadline to form the next government by two weeks, giving the incumbent premier until May 29 to finalize his new cabinet.
Read more at i24NEWS.
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May 15, 2019 at 4:49 pm
Trump Signs Executive Order Declaring National Emergency To Address Threats To Telecommunications Networks From Some Foreign Companies -- Statement
