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June 14, 2019 at 12:01 am
BALTIMORE (WJZ) — Baltimore City Councilman Bill Henry will introduce a bill next week banning plastic bags and charging a fee for any other bags given out at checkouts.
The Plastic Bag Reduction Bill would also eliminate a voluntary plastic bag reduction program already in place for stores with food licenses.
It would create a checkout bag surcharge for paper, compostable and any other bags given out for delivery or carryout use. The exact amount has not been announced.
Henry plans to introduce the bill at a press conference Monday afternoon.
Last year, the city council unanimously approved a ban on plastic foam containers for carryout food and drinks.
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June 13, 2019 at 11:52 pm
Hashem wrote the Torah in order to be our “instruction manual” to life, and wrote it in such a precise manner and with such infinite wisdom that within each and every letter in the Torah, one can extract profound laws and lessons. In fact, whenever even a single letter appears to be “extra” in the Torah, the Gemara (Talmud) indeed extrapolates complex laws from it. Yet, strangely, in this week’s parshah the Torah invests 72 verses to repeat, in great detail, the 12 IDENTICAL gifts that the Nasi of each Shevet (each tribal leader) dedicated to the Mishkan (7:12-84). This begs the question: Why didn’t Hashem simply detail their gift ONCE, and state that it was brought by the twelve Shevatim? What profound message is Hashem conveying to us by repeating the ...
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June 13, 2019 at 10:46 pm
Agudath Israel of America has previously described that, with a measles vaccination rate in NY Orthodox Jewish schools of 96%, vaccination is our “clear societal norm” and that “it is imperative to build on the Orthodox Jewish community’s already high vaccination rate.” It has also decried an anti-vaccination rally held amidst the outbreak, and the inflammatory and senseless musings shared therein.
Agudath Israel has proactively organized multiple, free vaccination clinics in Borough Park, Flatbush, and Williamsburg; placed full page educational advertisements in community magazines and newspapers; and partnered with the NYS and NYC Departments of Health to disseminate critical information to schools and parents describing best steps to prevent th...
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June 13, 2019 at 9:53 pm
Washington - The Trump administration is expanding options for employers to use special accounts to help workers buy their own health insurance, upgrade job-based coverage, or choose low-cost plans with limited benefits, officials said Thursday.
The tax-free individual accounts are called “health reimbursement arrangements,” or HRAs, and starting next year employees will be able to use them to buy their own individual health insurance plans.
Employers that offer regular workplace coverage can also set up another type of HRA account — limited to $1,800 a year — that will allow workers to get additional benefits such as dental and vision care. This second type of account can also be used to purchase lower-cost, short-term insurance that comes with limited benefits a...
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June 13, 2019 at 9:51 pm
A federal jury on Thursday convicted a second Libyan militant of conspiracy in the deadly 2012 attacks on U.S. facilities in Benghazi that killed U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three other Americans.
The jury in the Distrit of Columbia, delivered a partial verdict, finding Mustafa al-Imam, 47, guilty on one count each of conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists and maliciously destroying government property, but deadlocking on 15 of 17 other counts, including the most serious charges of murder and attempted murder in the overnight attacks that began Sept. 11, 2012, on a U.S. diplomatic mission and nearby CIA post.
U.S. District Judge Christopher R. “Casey” Cooper directed jurors to continue deliberating.
The verdict, on the fifth day of jury discussio...
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June 13, 2019 at 9:50 pm
Juul Labs Inc. and other e-cigarette makers would face a 10-month deadline to submit applications for U.S. government clearance to keep their products on the market under a proposal that accelerates the deadline for federal review of the growing industry.
The Food and Drug Administration submitted the proposal to U.S. District Judge Paul Grimm in Maryland after he ruled last month in a lawsuit filed by anti-tobacco groups that the agency had illegally allowed e-cigarettes to stay on the market without a safety and public health review.
“The recent epidemic-level rise in youth e-cigarette use is a mounting public health crisis” that requires a robust regulatory response, the FDA said in the remedy brief filed Wednesday.
The plaintiffs want the judge to require companies that ...
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June 13, 2019 at 9:18 pm
Baltimore, MD —Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan is putting pressure on Baltimore City Public Schools following allegations of students' grades being fixed.
District officials have admitted to the discovery of at least five cases of improper grade changes.
This has been an ongoing concern over a number of years. The governor said Thursday that the public deserves answers.
"I don't know what the facts are, but I know we have to be open and transparent, and I'm going to push (district CEO) Dr. (Sonja) Santelesis and the chairman of the school board to release all of this information so that we can get to the bottom of it," Hogan told 11 News after appearing on the "C-4 Show" on WBAL NewsRadio 1090 AM.
District officials said its in-house investigation has turned up dist...
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June 13, 2019 at 9:17 pm
According to explanatory material distributed to the ministers ahead of the cabinet meeting, the United States has through the years been Israel's greatest friend in the international arena.
The cabinet will convene a special meeting on the Golan Heights on Sunday to approve the establishment of a new community there to be named after US President Donald Trump: Ramat Trump (“Trump Heights”).
This step, according to resolution that will be brought for the government’s approval, will be taken as a way of showing appreciation for Trump’s actions toward Israel across “a wide range of fields, and out of gratitude for the American recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and the recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights.”
The c...
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June 13, 2019 at 9:13 pm
Two defiant Brooklyn yeshivas were closed by the city on Thursday for failing to comply with emergency measures to combat the ongoing measles outbreak.
The two United Talmudical Academy locations — UTA of Williamsburg-Yeshiva Torah V’Yirah at 590 Bedford Ave. and UTA 212 at 212 Williamsburg St. — won’t be allowed to reopen until the Health Department determines they’re compliant with the city’s emergency order.
So far eleven schools have been closed down since the city mandated anyone who lives, works or goes to school in four Williamsburg zip codes be inoculated with the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine or risk fines.
UTA of Williamsburg was closed Thursday for failing to prove a child present at the school was immune and for...
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June 13, 2019 at 9:12 pm
Baltimore, MD —The University of Maryland Medical System received and released on Wednesday an independent report assessing the governance of the board of directors.
The report, completed by Nygren Consulting, comes as an independent review of conflicts of interest that arose involving board members.
| Read the entire report |
The report on self dealing among UMMS board members comes after the departures of the system's CEOand board members, including former Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh. Controversy arose over board members -- including Pugh -- who made money in business deals with the system.
Regarding Pugh's "Healthy Holly" book arrangement, Nygren wrote, "Our review has determined that management did not present the...
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June 13, 2019 at 9:07 pm
Baltimore, MD — Authorities have contained two loose bulls in a residential area of west Baltimore.
Baltimore police were called Thursday afternoon to an apartment complex at Pennsylvania and North avenues, where the animals were corralled.
Authorities were able to get the animals into a transporter for return to their owner.
In July 2016, two bulls escaped a slaughterhouse in about the same area. Even that wasn't the first time this has happened. An almost 800-pound bull escaped from the same slaughterhouse and ran along city streets in 2014.
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June 13, 2019 at 8:56 pm
Former Rep. Beto O’Rourke, D-Texas, on Thursday took an aggressive new stance against former Vice President Joe Biden, arguing that a vote for his competitor in the 2020 Democratic presidential primaries would be a return to the past.
O’Rourke’s remarks, made in an interview on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” mark a departure from his previous hesitance to criticize fellow party hopefuls. Biden is currently leading in early polls for the party’s nomination.
Asked what he would tell voters in trying to persuade them to vote for him rather than Biden, O’Rourke replied that “you cannot go back to the end of the Obama administration and think that that’s good enough.”
The country “had real problems before Donald Trump became pre...
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June 13, 2019 at 8:56 pm
President Vladimir Putin said relations between Moscow and Washington were getting worse and worse, noting in an interview published on Thursday that the current U.S. administration had imposed dozens of sanctions on Russia.
Putin made his gloomy assessment ahead of a G20 summit in Japan later this month at which he might meet U.S. President Donald Trump.
“They (our relations) are going downhill, they are getting worse and worse,” Putin told the Mir TV channel, according to a Kremlin transcript.
“The current administration has approved, in my opinion, several dozen decisions on sanctions against Russia in recent years.”
Read more at REUTERS.
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June 13, 2019 at 8:55 pm
Donald Trump has reiterated that he doesn’t believe it’s necessary to tell the FBI if a foreign government approaches him with damaging information about one of his political opponents.
Trump was criticized Wednesday for admitting he would not object to hearing out foreign figures if they came to him offering dirt on a 2020 opponent. In an apparent response to that criticism, Trump doubled down in a series of tweets, saying he’d recently met leaders in Britain, France, and Poland.
“Should I immediately call the FBI about these calls and meetings? How ridiculous!” he wrote. “I would never be trusted again. With that being said, my full answer is rarely played by the Fake News Media. They purposely leave out the part that matters.”
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June 13, 2019 at 8:55 pm
Washington - A sitting U.S. governor will be left off the stage when the Democratic Party holds its pivotal first debate in Miami later this month.
The Democratic National Committee announced on Thursday the list of 20 presidential candidates who qualified to participate in the debate.
The decision deals a blow to the four candidates who will be omitted: Montana Governor Steve Bullock, U.S. Representative Seth Moulton, former U.S. Senator Mike Gravel, and Wayne Messam, the mayor of Miramar, Florida.
The debates, held over two nights on June 26 and June 27, will offer a sprawling Democratic field their first close-up with Americans and allow candidates who have trailed in the polls the opportunity for a poll-boosting viral moment.
The 20 candidates will be randomly divided ...
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June 13, 2019 at 8:54 pm
Washington - More than 600 companies and trade associations, including Walmart and Target, have signed a letter telling President Donald Trump that an escalating trade war with China will hurt families, jobs and the U.S. economy.
The letter, dated Thursday and organized by a business coalition called Tariffs Hurt the Heartland, comes as the US. Trade Representative’s office is set to hold public hearings Monday that will consider extending the 25% tariffs to practically all Chinese imports not already hit with levies, including toys, shirts, household goods and sneakers.
Trump has already imposed 25% tariffs on $250 billion of goods from China.
The letter calls for the White House to remove the tariffs, saying they will have “a significant, negative long-term impact on Ameri...
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June 13, 2019 at 8:54 pm
Jerusalem - Israeli warplanes struck a militant site in the east Gaza Strip early Friday, Palestinian witnesses said, after a rocket launched from Gaza hit a building in southern Israel, escalating tensions along the border just weeks after a cease-fire.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli army, or reports of casualties on either side.
The rocket fired late Thursday struck a building in the Israeli border town of Sderot, a frequent target of rocket fire, police said.
A cease-fire reached in early May, which ended the worst spate of violence between the sides since a 2014 war, has begun to unravel in recent days. Early Thursday, the Israeli military said fighter jets targeted an underground Hamas tunnel in Gaza after air defenses intercepted an incoming rocket.
The flare-up ...
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June 13, 2019 at 8:53 pm
Albany, NY - New York eliminated a religious exemption to vaccine requirements for schoolchildren Thursday, following a trend of states trying to clamp down on opt-outs in the face of its worst measles outbreak in decades .
The Democrat-led Senate and Assembly voted Thursday to repeal the exemption, which allows parents of children to cite their religious beliefs to opt a child out of the vaccines required for school enrollment.
Soon after, Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, signed the measure.
Similar exemptions are allowed in 46 states, though lawmakers in several of them are also considering the elimination of the waiver.
“We are facing an unprecedented public health crisis,” said Sen. Brad Hoylman, D-Manhattan and the sponsor of the legislation in the Senate. “The atr...
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June 13, 2019 at 8:52 pm
Ciudad Hidalgo, Mexico - Central American migrants eager beat a crackdown by Mexico on its southern border with Guatemala scrambled into the country on Thursday as the government prepared to send thousands of National Guard members to plug gaps in the porous frontier.
Mexico has agreed with the United States to demonstrate by late July that it can contain a surge in U.S.-bound migrants, following a threat from U.S. President Donald Trump to impose tariffs on Mexican goods if it failed to do so.
Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said this week that Mexico would beef up control of its southern border, including sending 6,000 members of the National Guard. The deployment was due to begin on Wednesday though witnesses saw no signs of the deployment.
As dawn broke on Thursday, a family of Hond...
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June 13, 2019 at 6:16 pm
Instagram is down, with an outage hitting the social media platform Thursday afternoon.
Checking it on the Instagram mobile app brings up a "couldn't refresh feed" message, while attempting to use the desktop website comes up with a Facebook logo and a "Sorry, something went wrong" message.
Down Detector recorded more than 38,000 reports as of 3:00 p.m. PT.
Instagram didn't immediately respond to a request for comment on how long it's been down, when it will be back up, what caused the outage and whether it is global.
