A newly opened “temporary” facility to house unaccompanied migrant children could cost up to $300 million and stay open through January 2020, the Trump administration says. The Carrizo Springs facility in Texas officially opened June 30, and currently houses about 225 children. It is eventually expected to hold up to 1,300, which would make it one of the largest facilities for unaccompanied minors in the country, according to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The Carrizo facility is run by the non-profit firm BCFS, which HHS will pay $50 million for its first 60 days of operation, according to recent federal filings. Supplemental funding of up to $250 million will be paid if the facility is open through Jan. 31, 2020. Read more at The Hill.
Moscow - Russian President Vladimir Putin says he’s willing to sit down with Ukraine’s new president for talks to settle a deadly conflict in eastern Ukraine. Putin responded Thursday to Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s proposal to hold talks with the mediation of U.S., British, French and German leaders, saying that he is open to the idea. He said, however, that the talks are unlikely to go ahead before Ukraine elects a new parliament later this month. Zelenskiy, who took office in May, pledged to put an end to the separatist conflict in the east, which has killed more than 13,000 people since 2014. Zelenskiy’s proposal would build on peace talks in the Belarusian capital Minsk in 2014 and 2015 where Ukrainian officials were negotiating with separatist leaders with the Rus...
As emergency personnel continue their search for Rabbi Reuven Bauman, a rebbi at Yeshiva Toras Chaim in Norfolk, Virginia, who was swept out to sea on Tuesday, Chai Lifeline is offering its resources and support to the local community. Team members of Project Chai, the crisis intervention, trauma and bereavement department of Chai Lifeline, are currently on the ground—led by Zahava Farbman, MSW, PhD Candidate, and Project Chai co-director—offering emotional and psychological assistance to family, camp staff and the Norfolk Jewish community. “As the Jewish world struggles to adjust to the frightening image of a disappearance at sea, we must also be mindful of the fear and agony of campers, students, children, and all who are impacted by this unfolding event,” s...
Socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) attacked House Speaker Nancy Pelosi during multiple recent interviews, going as far as to say that she believes that Pelosi is targeting her because Pelosi is racist. Pelosi has repeatedly mocked Ocasio-Cortez and the other three far-left freshmen House Democrats, recently telling The New York Times: “All these people have their public whatever and their Twitter world. But they didn’t have any following. They’re four people and that’s how many votes they got.” Ocasio-Cortez suggested to The Washington Post on Wednesday that Pelosi was a racist: “When these comments first started, I kind of thought that she was keeping the progressive flank at more of an arm’s distance in order to protect more moderat...
It's that time of year again! In honor of its namesake date—and its birthday—7-Elevenis giving away free Slurpees on July 11. The tradition has been around for well over a decade, with the first 7-Eleven Day taking place back in 2002 as a way to celebrate the convenience store's 75th birthday. Come 2019, the store is the ripe old age of 92 and you can once again get a free cold drink in honor of the occasion. So as to rein in the chaos, there are a few rules you should be aware of, starting with the time limits. It's easy enough to remember: Free Slurpees are available while supplies last between 11 a.m. and 7 p.m. Thursday. Sensing a theme here? There's a limit of one Slurpee per customer, per location...so if you feel like driving over...
Owings Mills, MD - July 11, 2019 - On Monday night Owings Mills Truck 313 was dispatched to the report of a pedestrian struck on Dolfield and Painters Mill Rd. Truck 313 arrived to find that a pedestrian in a power wheelchair had been struck in the intersection. The patient was transported by Medic 505 from Chestnut Ridge to a local area hospital with non-life threatening injuries. As the power wheelchair had been left behind, our volunteers used Utility 318 to transport the chair and groceries to the patient’s home in Owings Mills. Our volunteers also made sure to put the patient’s groceries away in the refrigerator. A big thanks to our volunteers for going above and beyond in our community!
West Bank - The cash-strapped Palestinian Authority (PA) denied on Thursday U.S. allegations it had increased payments to families of militants in Israeli jails, and said the main obstacle to peace was Israeli occupation of Palestinian land. U.S. officials have criticized the PA’s prisoner stipends as fanning Palestinian violence, and U.S. President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy Jason Greenblatt said the PA had increased those payments by some 11 percent in the first months of 2019. “PA increased pay to murderers by over 11% at the same time as they slash pay to their government workers and police,” Greenblatt tweeted on Wednesday. “More harm to Palestinians & to peace!” The Palestinian Finance Ministry rejected the accusation as “absolut...
Stocks rose on Thursday on the back of testimony by Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell that signaled easier monetary policy could be implemented later this month. The Dow Jones Industrial Average traded 100 points higher at the open while the S&P 500 climbed 0.2% to trade back above 3,000. The Nasdaq Composite advanced 0.1%. CVS Health and Cigna jumped 8% and 13.5%, respectively, after the White House dropped a proposal to eliminate drug rebates. Delta Air Lines rose 0.5% on better-than-expected earnings. In testimony to the House Financial Services Committee on Wednesday, Powell said business investments across the U.S. have slowed “notably” recently as uncertainties over the economic outlook linger. As a result, expectations of an upcoming rat...
Gaza - Israeli soldiers mistakenly shot a Hamas operative on Thursday who had been trying to prevent Palestinians from approaching the Israel-Gaza border, the Israeli military said. Hamas, the Islamist group that runs the Gaza Strip, said the man had been killed. The health ministry in Gaza said the dead Palestinian man was aged 28 and had been shot near Beit Hanoun in the northern part of the territory. “An initial inquiry suggests that a Hamas restraint operative arrived in the area of the security fence because of two Palestinians who were wandering in the area,” the Israeli military said in a statement. “In retrospect, it appears that the IDF (Israel Defense Force) troops who arrived at the location misidentified the Hamas restraint operative to be an armed terrori...
As many as 25 million Android phones have been hit with malware that replaces installed apps like WhatsApp with evil versions that serve up adverts, cybersecurity researchers warned Wednesday. Dubbed Agent Smith, the malware abuses previously-known weaknesses in the Android operating system, making updating to the latest, patched version of Google's operating system a priority, Israeli security company Check Point said. Most victims are based in India, where as many as 15 million were infected. But there are more than 300,000 in the U.S., with another 137,000 in the U.K., making this one of the more severe threats to have hit Google's operating system in recent memory. The malware has spread via a third party app store 9apps.com, which is owned by China’s Alibaba, r...
Washington - President Donald Trump’s July Fourth event has bankrupted a special fund used to provide security and protect the nation’s capital from terrorist threats. The Washington Post reports the celebration cost the District of Columbia about $1.7 million, not including police expenses for related demonstrations. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser wrote Trump on Tuesday warning that the fund will have a $6 million deficit by September, reminding the president that the account was never reimbursed for $7.3 million in expenses from Trump’s 2017 inauguration. Bowser wants the White House to fully reimburse the fund. She said on CNN Thursday that D.C. taxpayers shouldn’t “be left holding the bag for federal events.” White House spokesman Judd Deere says officia...
Berlin - German Chancellor Angela Merkel sat down at a ceremony to welcome Denmark’s prime minister on Thursday, a day after she shook visibly when standing to receive Finland’s premier - her third bout of shaking in three weeks. Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen sat next to Merkel at the welcoming with military honours on a warm day in Berlin before the two women walked to the chancellery. Merkel, showing no sign of shaking, smiled broadly. After meeting Finnish Prime Minister Antti Rinne on Wednesday, Merkel said she was “working through” a bout of shaking that first occurred in mid-June, but insisted she was fine and that “just as it happened one day, so it will disappear”. The chancellor, 64 and in office since 2005, has no history of seriou...
Six people, including Puerto Rico's former education secretary, were arrested in a sweeping corruption probe in which it's alleged that they steered federal funds to unqualified, politically connected contractors, federal officials said Wednesday. The FBI arrested former education secretary Julia Keleher, former Puerto Rico Health Insurance Administration head Ángela Ávila-Marrero; businessmen Fernando Scherrer-Caillet and Alberto Velázquez-Piñol, and education contractors Glenda E. Ponce-Mendoza and Mayra Ponce-Mendoza, who are sisters, on fraud and related charges. “It was alleged that the defendants engaged in a public corruption campaign and profited at the expense of the Puerto Rican citizens and students," Ne...
BALTIMORE — A sinkhole on Wednesday has swallowed part of a Light Rail platform next to the Convention Center near Camden Yards. It's making an already massive water main break and infrastructure failure in downtown Baltimore even worse. The portion of the platform that was swallowed into the sinkhole gives wheelchair users access to trains. The disruption has downtown workers wondering when it will end. "It hurts us more because we've been thrown in like a trick box because you don't know what you are going to get from one day to the next," said a downtown worker named Sheldon Arrington. The sinkhole is another consequence of a massive water main break that happened Monday near Howard and Pratt streets. The water main break, combined with a torrent...
WASHINGTON — Baltimore City State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby testified Wednesday morning before a congressional panel to support federal decriminalization and legalization of marijuana possession. Mosby announced in January that a new policy has been set so that marijuana possession cases will no longer be prosecuted in Baltimore. She testified Wednesday before the U.S. House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security at what's being called the first hearing on ending the federal prohibition of marijuana. "The reason I'm here today is because there is no better illumination of this country's failed war on drugs than the city of Baltimore, Maryland," Mosby said. A significant takeaway from the House hearing was that the debat...
Dallas County Judge Lela Mays on Wednesday approved an Oct. 10 death date for Randy Halprin, a Jewish prisoner sent to death row for his role in a 2000 prison escape and crime spree that left dead Irving police Officer Aubrey Hawkins. Now 41, Halprin and six other men took hostages in December of 2000 and broke out of the Connally Unit south of San Antonio, fleeing  to Houston in a getaway van where they pulled off two robberies to stock up on supplies, guns and money. On Christmas Eve, the escapees held up an Oshman’s sporting goods store in Irving – and Hawkins, who was the first officer who responded to the call was shot 11 times and dragged 10 feet by an SUV as the panicked prisoners fled with $70,000 and 44 guns. Aside from Halprin, only one other Texas 7 pris...
Baltimore County, MD - July 11, 2019 - Although the new school year is still about two months away, I am pleased to share that the Baltimore County Traffic Engineering and Transportation Planning Department plans to complete three school safety projects within the next week. The projects include speed bumps on High Falcon Road in Reisterstown and a raised crosswalk on Scotts Level Road in front of Winand Elementary and a raised school crosswalk in front of Sudbrook Magnet Middle in Pikesville. Many thanks to the Department of Public Works, the crews and everyone involved for getting these projects completed so quickly. We appreciate all your hard work and efforts.
Democrats on the House Oversight Committee sent out a pair of tweets Wednesday and earlier this month with photos of migrants sleeping on a detention center floor to publicize an immigration hearing in Capitol Hill. Just one problem — the pics were snapped in 2014, during the Obama Administration. The Dems deleted the two messages, and claimed it was an “error.” Democrats on the panel sent one of the tweets soon after 1:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Fox News reported, citing a screenshot of the tweet captured by the Trump 2020 campaign. “Last week, members of our committee visited a detention center at the souther border and discovered grotesque treatment of children,” they wrote in the message. “This week, we are examining the inhumane treatment of ...
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who is running for president in 2020, responded affirmatively on Monday to the anti-Israel group IfNotNow calling on her to pressure “the Israeli government to end occupation,” defined as “stealing Palestinian land.” Two IfNotNow activists approached Warren, who was campaigning in New Hampshire, with one of them, University of Michigan student Becca Lubow, telling her, “We really love the way you’re fighting corruption. We’d really love it if you also pushed the Israeli government to end occupation.” “Yes, yes. So I’m there,” responded Warren swiftly, followed by taking a picture with the activists. “Our members in New Hampshire just asked @ewarren if she woul...
And then there were five … That’s the number of Jews known to currently live in Cairo following the death of the mother of the president of the Jewish community there. The death of Marcelle Haroun at the age of 93, announced on Saturday, leaves her daughter, Magda, and four granddaughters as the only Jewish residents of the Egyptian capital, reported Watani International. As of 2017, there are an additional 12 Jews residing in Alexandria, according to AFP. Haroun was married to anti-Zionist lawyer and politician Shehata Haroun, who was part of Egypt’s Communist Party. He died in 2001 at the age of 82. Egypt was home to around 100,000 Jews in 1948, when modern-day Israel was established. But an exodus of Jews from Egypt occurred during the Suez Crisis in 1956, leavin...
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