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May 20, 2019 at 4:00 pm
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) introduced legislation Monday to raise the tobacco purchasing age from 18 to 21.
McConnell, who hails from one of the biggest tobacco producing states, said he's proud of Kentucky's history but the purchasing age must be increased amid record high youth vaping rates.
"We're proud of our past, and we're proud of who we are, but Kentucky farmers don't want their children to get hooked on tobacco products while they're in middle or high school anymore than any parents anywhere want that to happen," McConnell said on the Senate floor Monday.
"This is not a zero sum choice between farmers and public health. We can support both, we need to support both,...
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May 20, 2019 at 3:59 pm
The Prime Minister of Poland has declared that paying compensation for Jewish property stolen during the Holocaust would be a “victory for Hitler” and he will never allow it to happen.
Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki made the comments on Friday at a campaign rally in the city of Lodz, which was home to the second-largest Jewish ghetto under Nazi rule.
Calling on Poland to pay compensation for World War II “violates international law and would also be a posthumous victory for Hitler,” he said.
Under his ruling Law and Justice party, he added, “something like this will never happen.”
Relations between Poland and Israel have been strained over the past year as the debate over reparations and Polish guilt regarding the Holocaust has heated up.
Last we...
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May 20, 2019 at 3:37 pm
President Trump has instructed former White House counsel Don McGahn to evade a subpoena to testify before Congress on Tuesday.
"The Department of Justice has provided a legal opinion stating that, based on long-standing, bipartisan, and Constitutional precedent, the former Counsel to the President cannot be forced to give such testimony, and Mr. McGahn has been directed to act accordingly," press secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement Monday.
"This action has been taken in order to ensure that future Presidents can effectively execute the responsibilities of the Office of the Presidency."
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May 20, 2019 at 12:12 pm
Baltimore, MD, May 20, 2019 — The Coalition for Jewish Values (CJV), representing over 1000 traditional rabbis in matters of public policy, today condemned the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism (RAC) for inviting the Rev. Al Sharpton to address its Washington, DC conference earlier in the day. Rev. Sharpton was touted on the agenda of the RAC program, entitled "Consultation on Conscience," as "one of the nation’s most renowned civil rights leaders."
"That is a shameful way to describe a man known for Antisemitic statements and incitement to violence," said Rabbi Pesach Lerner, President of the CJV. "Al Sharpton set race relations back years, and helped ignite a hostility towards Jews in the black community that persists to this day. For a Jewish organization ...
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May 20, 2019 at 11:53 am
Garden State Parkway - May 20, 2019 - 11:45 AM - Reports of electrocution on GSP in area of exit 109, with CPR in progress.The northbound direcion is shut down while the southbound side traffic has just resumed and is moving freely.
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May 20, 2019 at 11:00 am
BS'D
This text approved by Rabbi Moshe Heinemann
Thursday, May 16, 2019, Parashas Emor,
EMERGENCY ERUV NOTICE
Effective immediately, it is no longer permitted to carry on Shabbos and Yom Kippur on the stretch of Park Heights Ave between Old Court Rd and the Beltway.
The Baltimore County government
has effectively required the
Druid Ridge Cemetery to remove
its fence along its Park Heights Ave boundary.
Therefore, the boundary of the eruv is being moved now
from Old Court Rd to the south side of Sudbrook Ln, between Park Heights Ave and Reisterstown Rd. It is no longer permitted to carry on either Old Court Rd or Sudbrook Ln between Park Heights Ave and Reisterstown Rd.
Please advise your Sabbath-observant friends and neighbors of this...
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May 20, 2019 at 10:58 am
Baltimore, MD - May 18, 2019 - The Baltimore Jewish community wishes to thank County Councilman Izzy Patoka for his critical assistance ensuring that necessary modifications to the Baltimore Eruv could be implemented.
Izzy posted the following on his Facebook page:
On Wednesday, our office was alerted that modifications to the fence at Druid Ridge Cemetery distributed the eruv line in a way that caused significant and urgent issues as it relates to Shabbos. An eruv line allows members of the Jewish faith to carry babies with them, strollers and other items within its borders on Shabbos. The line forms a nearly invisible enclosure and can be comprised of a series of pre-existing structures (walls, fences, electrical poles and wires) and/or structures created expressly for th...
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May 20, 2019 at 10:55 am
Jerusalem - The Palestinian prime minister said Monday that any American peace plan that ignores the Palestinian people’s political aspirations for an independent state is doomed to fail.
Mohammad Shtayyeh’s comments immediately cast a cloud over the American-led Mideast peace conference expected to take place in late June in the tiny Gulf Arab state of Bahrain.
The White House announced Sunday it will unveil the first phase of its long-awaited Mideast peace plan at the conference, saying it will focus on economic benefits that could be reaped if the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is resolved.
The plan envisions large-scale investment and infrastructure work, much of it funded by wealthy Arab countries, in the Palestinian territories.
But officials say the June 25-26 conferen...
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May 20, 2019 at 10:54 am
Washington - The chairman of the Federal Communications Commission says he plans to recommend the agency approve the $26.5 billion merger of wireless carriers T-Mobile and Sprint, saying it’ll speed up 5G deployment in the U.S.
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai also said Monday that the combination will help bring faster mobile broadband to rural Americans.
“Two of the FCC’s top priorities are closing the digital divide in rural America and advancing United States leadership in 5G, the next generation of wireless connectivity. The commitments made today by T-Mobile and Sprint would substantially advance each of these critical objectives,” he said in a statement.
Pai said the companies have committed to deploying a 5G network that would cover 97% of the U.S. population within...
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May 20, 2019 at 10:52 am
Israel Hayom has reported that the Likud offered to move the Planning Administration from the Finance Ministry to Shas MK Aryeh Deri’s Interior Ministry, in exchange for the party compromising on its demand to receive the Housing Ministry.
However, such a move may be protested by Kulanu’s Moshe Kahlon, and therefore no agreement has been signed.
Previously, Shas had requested the Housing Ministry, Interior Ministry, Religious Affairs Ministry, and the Development of the Negev and Galilee Ministry.
Read more at Arutz Sheva.
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May 20, 2019 at 10:50 am
Billionaire tech investor Robert F. Smith stunned college graduates on Sunday as he gave their commencement speech — offering to pay their student debts despite it costing an estimated $40 million.
“On behalf of the eight generations of my family that have been in this country, we’re gonna put a little fuel in your bus,” Smith told the 400 graduating seniors at the all-male Morehouse College in Atlanta.
“This is my class, 2019. And my family is making a grant to eliminate their student loans.”
The announcement was initially met with stunned looks — before the graduates broke into cheers and tears at the largest gift ever given to the historically black college.
Read more at NY POST.
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May 20, 2019 at 10:46 am
PARIS (AP) — The Eiffel Tower has been closed to visitors after a person has tried to scale it.
The Paris monument’s media office said the unidentified individual tried to climb up the tourist attraction on Monday afternoon. But it wasn’t clear how high the trespasser managed to get.
A Paris police spokeswoman said a team of firefighters including a climbing specialist is on the scene and in touch with the intruder, whose motivations remain unclear.
Officials haven’t immediately provided further information about the incident, and it’s not known when the Eiffel Tower will reopen. Read more at AP
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May 20, 2019 at 10:38 am
Webcast will offer a halachic, hashkafic and psychological perspective on the role of today’s grandparents in their grandchildren’s lives
New York, NY, May 20, 2019—Chai Lifeline will present “Grandchildren in Crisis,” a discussion with Rabbi Lipa Geldwerth, Rov of Khal Kol Torah in Brooklyn, and renowned psychologist Dr. David Pelcovitz. The wide-ranging talk will examine the role of grandparents with grandchildren undergoing traumatic experiences—such as addiction, serious illness, bereavement or their parents’ divorce—through a hashkafic and psychological lens.
The discussion will be moderated by Chai Lifeline Chief Executive Officer Rabbi Simcha Scholar and will be available online on Wednesday, May 29 at 8 p.m. via webcast at www...
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May 20, 2019 at 10:35 am
DETROIT (AP) — Ford is cutting about 7,000 white-collar jobs, which would make up 10% of its global workforce.
The company has said it was undertaking a major restructuring, and on Monday said that it will have trimmed thousands of jobs by August.
The company said that the plan will save about $600 million per year by eliminating bureaucracy and increasing the number of workers reporting to each manager.
In the U.S. about 2,300 jobs will be cut through buyouts and layoffs. About 1,500 already have happened. About 500 workers will be let go this week.
In a memo to employees, Monday, CEO Jim Hackett said the fourth wave of the restructuring will start on Tuesday, with the majority of cuts being finished by May 24.
“To succeed in our competitive industry, and position Ford to...
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May 20, 2019 at 10:35 am
AUBURN, Ala. (AP) — A man opened fire on police responding to a call about a domestic disturbance in an Alabama mobile home park, killing one officer and wounding two others, authorities said Monday.
An intense manhunt led to his arrest hours later, not far from the Arrow Head Trailer Park, which is only a few miles from the campus of Auburn University, where students had been warnedto be on alert. The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency described 29-year-old Grady Wayne Wilkes as armed and extremely dangerous, wearing camouflage body armor and a helmet.
The officers were met with gunfire when they responded late Sunday night to the disturbance call. The chief says there is no indication that the 911 call was fake. Police did say that no one else was harmed.
The Lee Coun...
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May 20, 2019 at 10:29 am
Saudi Arabia said on Sunday that it wants to avert war in the region but stands ready to respond with “all strength” following last week’s attacks on Saudi oil assets, telling Iran that the ball was now in its court.
Riyadh has accused Tehran of ordering Tuesday’s drone strikes on two oil pumping stations in the kingdom, claimed by Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi group. Two days earlier, four vessels, including two Saudi oil tankers, were sabotaged off the coast of the United Arab Emirates.
Iran has denied involvement in either operation, which come as Washington and the Islamic Republic spar over sanctions and the US military presence in the region, raising concerns about a potential US-Iran conflict.
“The kingdom of Saudi Arabia does not want a war in t...
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May 20, 2019 at 10:28 am
The Trump administration has announced plans to host a regional “economic workshop” as the first stage of its much-anticipated Middle East peace plan, CNN reported on Sunday.
Commenting on the announcement, senior White House adviser Jared Kushner told CNN that “people are letting their grandfathers’ conflict destroy their children’s futures. This will present an exciting, realistic and viable pathway forward that does not currently exist.”
Another “senior administration official” told the network that the effort will attempt to improve the economies of the West Bank and Gaza.
The workshop will be held in Bahrain in late June and will include finance ministers, and international and regional business figures. It will deal with issues of in...
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May 20, 2019 at 10:27 am
In dealing with the complexity of military campaigns against militant organizations within densely populated areas, the Israeli Intelligence Corps has set up a new military role. In April, the first cohort of specialized big data analysts completed its training, according to several high-ranking officers in the corps who recently spoke to Calcalist. Calcalist withheld their identities for security reasons.
One of the new trainees’ first jobs was to trace money getting into the hands of Palestinian militant organization Hamas. In cracking down on Hamas’ money laundering methods, the Israeli military used data analysts to analyze large quantitative databases.
According to the officers, money was funneled in and out of Gaza via an intricate process in which Gazan merchants looki...
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May 20, 2019 at 10:25 am
U.S. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said on Wednesday that legislation to allow state and local governments the right to punish state or local contractors from boycotting Israel will go forwards “in the relatively near future.”
“The [House Foreign Affairs Committee] is considering this, and I expect to be moving something out of the committee in the relatively near future,” he said during a press briefing in the Capitol.
In February, Hoyer told JNS something similar: “[House Foreign Affairs Committee chairman] Eliot Engel and I are talking about it, and hopefully, we’ll move something soon.”
Hoyer’s remarks on Wednesday came as House Republicans launched a discharge petition by collecting signatures from House members to force a...
