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July 17, 2019 at 5:36 pm
John Paul Stevens, a moderate Midwestern Republican and former antitrust lawyer from Chicago who evolved into a savvy and sometimes passionate leader of the Supreme Court’s liberal wing and became the third-longest-serving justice on the high court before he retired in 2010, died July 16 at a hospital in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. He was 99.
The cause was complications from a stroke that he suffered Monday, according to an announcement from the Supreme Court. The only justices who served longer were William Douglas, whom Stevens replaced in 1975, and Stephen Field, a nominee of President Abraham Lincoln who served for much of the late 19th century.
During his 35-year tenure, Stevens left his stamp on nearly every area of the law, writing the court’s opinions in landmark cases ...
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July 17, 2019 at 5:33 pm
Former congressman Mark Sanford said Tuesday that he is considering a presidential bid, making him potentially the second Republican to wage a primary challenge against President Donald Trump.
In an interview on CNN, Sanford, a former South Carolina governor who represented the state’s 1st Congressional District in the House until earlier this year, said he was motivated to consider a bid due to the lack of debate over the federal debt and deficit.
“The place where there is no discussion is the way in which, you know, interest is the largest growing expense in the federal government,” Sanford said.
The news of Sanford’s potential run was first reported Tuesday by the Charleston Post and Courier.
“Sometimes in life you’ve got to say what you’ve ...
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July 17, 2019 at 5:29 pm
Speaking to Israel Radio on Tuesday, Israel’s Science and Technology Minister Ofir Akunis said that the Likud Party under Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would not lend a hand to turning Israel into a state governed by Jewish law.
“If there is a need, we will carry out [infrastructure] work on Shabbat,” said Akunis. “There will be work on Shabbat to avoid inconveniencing the tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians who need to use the trains. This is not a violation of the status quo.”
Turning to a controversial bill that would make conscription of ultra-Orthodox yeshivah students mandatory, Akunis said, “We absolutely intend to see more and mcore haredim enlisting in the IDF—and incidentally, that&rsquo...
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July 17, 2019 at 5:23 pm
White House counselor Kellyanne Conway will ignore a congressional subpoena at the request of President Donald Trump, refusing to testify about a government watchdog’s findings that she broke the law dozens of times, the White House said Monday.
Last month, the House Oversight Committee authorized a subpoena for Conway after special counsel Henry Kerner said she blatantly violated the Hatch Act, a law that bars federal employees from engaging in politics during work.
“We’re not requiring her to testify about advice she gave the president or about the White House policy decisions. . . . We are requiring her to testify before Congress about her multiple violations of federal law,” Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., chairman of the committee, said at a session Monday. &ldq...
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July 17, 2019 at 5:22 pm
A Canadian man who lost five family members in one of two crashes of Boeing 737 Max aircraft is among those scheduled to testify Wednesday at a House aviation subcommittee hearing on the state of aviation safety.
Paul Njoroge lost his wife, Carolyne, his mother-in-law, and his three children, when Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 crashed March 10, shortly after takeoff from Addis Ababa. All 157 passengers and crew members aboard were killed.
It was the second crash involving a Boeing 737 Max jet in less than five months. In October, a Lion Air flight crashed into the Java Sea off the coast of Indonesia, killing all 189 people aboard.
Njoroge remains haunted by what could have been.
“In Canada, Independence Day was celebrated July 1,” Njoroge said in testimony prepared for Wedn...
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July 17, 2019 at 5:21 pm
Joaquín Guzmán Loera, the crime kingpin known as “El Chapo” who controlled much of the illegal drug trade across the Western Hemisphere for almost three decades, was sentenced to life in prison plus 30 years in a federal courtroom in New York on Wednesday.
Before he was sentenced, Guzman, 62, told a federal judge in a heavily-guarded Brooklyn courthouse that his case was “stained” by juror misconduct. He said the judge denied him a fair trial on drug trafficking charges “when the whole world was watching.” He said America lacks justice and is corrupt, just as other countries.
He also thanked his family, legal team, prison guards and supporters for prayers, before griping about the conditions of the jail where he has been kept.
Guzm&aacut...
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July 17, 2019 at 5:17 pm
U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) compared Israel’s “dehumanization and racist policies” to 19th-century segregation in the United States.
“There is continued dehumanization and racist policies by the State of Israel that violate international human rights, but also violate my core values of who I am as an American,” the freshman congresswoman told the left-wing outlet Jacobin, which published a Q&A with her on June 13.
“ ‘Separate but equal’ doesn’t work. I know that my ancestors were killed, died, uprooted from their land,” she continued. “That’s something that no one even wants to acknowledge that had to happen to create the State of Israel.”
“We’re not just a country that’s divided, w...
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July 17, 2019 at 5:16 pm
Former CNN commentator Marc Lamont Hill, who has made remarks widely considered antisemitic in the past, told a progressive conference on Friday that Fox, ABC, NBC, “or whoever” were Zionist organizations that produced “Zionist content.”
Hill was speaking on a Netroots Nation panel discussing how to put “Palestinian rights” on the “2020 agenda” when he made his remarks.
According to Jewish Insider, when asked by a member of the audience to talk about journalists who wanted to report on the Palestinians, Hill said, “They’re like, I want to work for Fox, or I want to work for ABC or NBC or whoever. I want to tell these stories.”
“You have to make choices about where you want to work. And ...
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July 17, 2019 at 5:09 pm
The second Democratic primary debate is on July 30 — but some candidates are at risk of not meeting the thresholds for support and donations to qualify for the party’s debates.
Here is a rundown of how candidates can qualify for the first two debates, and who has qualified so far:
To qualify for the first two debates, candidates have to fulfill one of two criteria: either get 65,000 donors to their campaigns, with at least 200 donors in 20 different states, or obtain at least 1 percent in three polls recognized as legitimate by the committee. If more than 20 candidates qualify for the debate, the DNC has said it will choose participants with “a methodology that gives primacy to candidates meeting both thresholds, followed by the highest polling average, followed by the ...
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July 17, 2019 at 5:08 pm
Israel launched a tender for fifth-generation (5G) cellular frequencies on Sunday, hoping discounts to cash-strapped mobile phone operators battling fierce competition will entice bids.
The telecoms regulator expects three groups to bid, including a combination of operators to cut down on costs. It expects to announce winners by the end of the year with a commercial launch to start in 2020 and continuing through 2023.
“We are aware of the companies’ current financial situation and the tender takes this into account,” said Communications Minister David Amsalem.
The ministry has said 5G is necessary to develop health, agriculture and education, as well as smart cities and self-driving cars.
Israel’s three main telecom operators — Cellcom, Partner Communicati...
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July 17, 2019 at 5:05 pm
The Lahav 433 anti-corruption unit is investigating a suspicion that some of the results of April’s election were purposely fraudulent, Kan 11 reported.
According to the report, the Elections Committee reported inaccuracies in the results, and those were recently called to give testimony. Some of those testifying worked in the voting stations’ committees.
The central suspicion is that in certain voting stations, votes were actively distributed among the parties and incorrectly entered into the system.
Read more at Arutz Sheva.
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July 17, 2019 at 5:01 pm
The IDF is making significant progress in its efforts to shore up defenses along the Gaza border, including an underground barrier, an above-ground fence and protections against anti-tank missiles.
According to Israeli news site Walla, 40 kilometers (25 miles) of the underground barrier, which is intended to block attack tunnels dug by Hamas and other Gaza terrorist groups, has already been completed.
This is more than half the planned length of the barrier.
During construction of the barrier, the IDF has discovered and mostly destroyed 18 tunnels, apparently dug after the 2014 Gaza war in which large numbers of such tunnels were found and demolished.
The IDF believes 16 of these tunnels were dug over the last two years, and is convinced that Hamas is still attempting to build tunnels ...
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July 17, 2019 at 4:59 pm
The House is set to vote Wednesday to hold Attorney General William Barr and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross in criminal contempt for failing to provide documents related to the Trump administration’s efforts to add a question on citizenship to the 2020 Census, further escalating tensions between Democrats and the White House over congressional oversight.
After a string of legal defeats, President Donald Trump last week abruptly retreated from his efforts to add the question to the census, announcing that he will instead order federal agencies to provide the Commerce Department with records on the numbers of citizens and noncitizens in the country.
But lawmakers continue to demand answers about the motivations behind the administration’s 19-month effort to ask about citizenshi...
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July 17, 2019 at 4:56 pm
Pakistan authorities on Wednesday arrested Hafiz Saeed, the alleged mastermind of a four-day militant attack on the Indian city of Mumbai in 2008, on terror finance charges, a spokesman for the chief minister of Punjab province said.
The arrest came days before a visit to Washington by Prime Minister Imran Khan, who has vowed to crack down on militant groups operating in Pakistan.
Saeed, designated a terrorist by the United States and the United Nations, is the founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), or Army of the Pure, the militant group blamed by the United States and India for the Mumbai attacks, which killed more than 160 people.
He has denied any involvement and said his network, which includes 300 seminaries and schools, hospitals, a publishing house and ambulance services, has no ties...
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July 17, 2019 at 4:44 pm
The resolution aims to affirm 'the right to participate in boycotts in pursuit of civil and human rights at home and abroad' and was co-sponsored by Reps. Rashida Tlaib and John Lewis.
ASHINGTON – US Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minnesota) put forth a new pro-BDS resolution in Congress “affirming that all Americans have the right to participate in boycotts in pursuit of civil and human rights at home and abroad, as protected by the First Amendment to the Constitution.”The freshman congresswomen has become a focal point of anti-Israel and antisemitic sentiment, following numerous controversial comments regarding Israel.
Omar’s resolution revealed on Wednesday, cosponsored by Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Michigan) and Rep. John Lewis (D-Georgia), seeks to oppose ...
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July 17, 2019 at 12:10 pm
Here are some questions we need to ask ourselves: What does HaKadosh Baruch Hu want from us? What purpose is there in sharing all the painful details?
Is sharing sensationalist news in line with our heilige values? Does the desire to be the first one to share it come from a good place?
Yes, details have not been shared. Is that a problem? Should a grieving family and community also lose their right to privacy and dignity, just because klal yisrael is curious? Will knowing more details make you daven harder? Will you donate more because you heard something juicy?
What is driving this? Where is it coming from?
Is this a part of Western culture that we can adopt or a part of the culture that we say isn't for frum Yidden?
Do you have the strength to hold...
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July 17, 2019 at 11:57 am
Mrs. Miriam Leah Schwartz is continuing the shiva for her brother Rabbi Reuven Baumna, Z'L, as follows:
➡ Spring Valley:On Thursday, Friday, and Motzei Shabbos Mrs. Schwartz will sit Shiva with other family members at 183 McNamara Road, Spring Valley, NY, 10977.Urgent request: If someone who is planning to be menachem avel would drive the Schwartzes minivan to Monsey they would greatly appreciate it. Please contact Sarala at (845) 519-9279➡ Baltimore:On Sunday Mrs. Schwartz will be accepting nichumim in at 3400 Taney Rd, Baltimore, MDVisiting Hours in Baltimore will be 4-8pm. Mrs. Schwartz can be reached at 410-935-9959.
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July 17, 2019 at 11:19 am
Yosef Nissel had never met the 35-year-old teacher who disappeared in the Atlantic last week after he jumped in to save a student.
When Nissel learned Rabbi Reuven Bauman, z'l, was still missing, he decided to leave Baltimore to join the search for his body.
“When someone’s in need, you stop what you’re doing and go assist, no matter if you know them or not,” said Nissel, who has only been volunteering with Misaskim of Maryland for about a year. The nonprofit helps those in the Jewish community dealing with tragedy.
Through the weekend, organizations from New York, New Jersey, Maryland and Georgia combed area beaches for signs of Bauman, Nissel said.
Bauman died on July 9 after saving a 13-year-old student who got caught ...
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July 17, 2019 at 10:27 am
I’ve been thinking about this for a long time. I cannot put off writing it any longer.
Although painful to acknowledge, I’ve concluded a number of highly-visible Jewish Members of Congress (M.O.C.) are responsible, in large part, for the alarming increase in anti-semitism being witnessed and experienced in the United States, today. I can do this … I’m Jewish. I’m an M.O.T. I’ve got the credentials.
Specifically, I lay blame on an identifiable subset of M.O.C. who are also: Jewish.
Schumer (D), Nadler (D), Schiff (D), FeinsteinI (D), Blumenthal (D), Wyden (D), Wasserman-Schultz (D), Raskin (D), Schakowsky (D), Sherman (D), Engle (D), and Cohen (D).
I blame them for behaving and speaking in ways that are so far out-of-touch with the thoughts, hopes, b...
