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July 18, 2019 at 12:16 pm
Washington - The chairman of the House Republican campaign organization says “there’s no place” for the “send her back” chants unleashed at a campaign rally for President Donald Trump.
Rep. Tom Emmer heads the National Republican Congressional Committee. The Minnesota lawmaker is referring to the crowd’s chants Wednesday night in North Carolina that were aimed at Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota. She’s a fierce Trump critic.
At the rally, Trump began by verbally attacking Omar as the crowd chanted “send her back!” Omar came to the United States as a refugee from war-torn Somalia when she was a child.
Emmer tells reporters on Thursday that “there’s not a racist bone in this president’s body.”
And Emmer ...
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July 18, 2019 at 12:16 pm
Des Moines, IA - Authorities say a Guatemalan man charged with killing an Iowa woman and her two children had been deported twice from the U.S. and is believed to be in the country illegally.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said Wednesday night that 31-year-old Marvin Oswaldo Escobar-Orellana gave Des Moines police a false name, Marvin Esquivel-Lopez.
Shawn Neudauer, an ICE spokesman, says Escobar-Orellana was deported in 2010 and again in 2011. In 2010, he was convicted of illegal entry into the U.S.
He’s accused of shooting 29-year-old Rossibeth Flores-Rodriguez, her 11-year-old daughter and 5-year-old son. Police say he had been living at the family’s home and that they found no evidence that he had a personal relationship with the victims.
Court records don&rsq...
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July 18, 2019 at 12:15 pm
New York - The first two new Toys R Us stores will open in November as part of a small comeback of the defunct iconic toy chain in the U.S.
Richard Barry, a former Toys R Us executive and now CEO of the new company called Tru Kids Brands, says an online experience will follow. He says brand partners and more details will be announced in coming weeks.
Plans are to open a store in The Galleria mall in Houston, Texas, and in Westfield Garden State Plaza in Paramus, New Jersey. The first two locations will be about 6,500 square feet — a fraction of the brand’s former big box stores, which were about 30,000 square feet. Barry noted stores opened later will be about 10,000 square feet.
Tru Kids Brands said it has entered a partnership with a startup called b8Ta, an experiential re...
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July 18, 2019 at 12:15 pm
Jerusalem - Israeli plans to demolish Palestinian homes near a military barrier on the outskirts of Jerusalem have drawn international criticism, amid Palestinian fears that a precedent would be set for other buildings along the barrier route.
The deadline for residents of Sur Baher to remove the buildings expired on Friday after Israel’s Supreme Court ruled in June that the structures in question violated a construction ban.
Sur Baher is a Palestinian community that lies southeast of Jerusalem’s city center in an area that Israel captured and occupied in the 1967 Middle East War. A sprawling village, it straddles the line between East Jerusalem and the West Bank.
Its political geography is further complicated because parts of Sur Baher lie inside the West Bank - but on the ...
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July 18, 2019 at 11:07 am
Berlin - Germany’s Foreign Ministry says it has opened an investigation after learning the head of the country’s mission to the Palestinian territories had “liked” anti-Israeli tweets.
Bild newspaper reported Thursday that the “likes” came from the verified Twitter account of German diplomat Christian Clages.
The multiple “likes” included one for a video praising an attack on Israeli soldiers, and another for an exchange between American white-supremacist David Duke and another user about an alleged massacre of Jews.
Bild reports the Foreign Ministry “emphatically” disassociated itself from the “likes” and called them “unacceptable.”
The ministry, which didn’t immediately respond to a request for ...
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July 18, 2019 at 10:55 am
U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar proposed a resolution this week supporting the right to boycott Israel, likening the boycott of the Jewish state to boycotts of Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union.
Omar’s resolution seeks to push back against U.S. laws banning the boycott of Israel and affirms the right of Americans to organize boycotts of foreign countries if they so wish.
While the resolution doesn’t explicitly name Israel or the pro-Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, she told media outlets that the resolution concerns the Jewish state.
“We are introducing a resolution … to really speak about the American values that support and believe in our ability to exercise our First Amendment rights in regard to boycotting,&rdq...
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July 18, 2019 at 10:50 am
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has expressed reservations about a $5 billion proposal for a highway and railway between the West Bank and Gaza as part of the Trump administration’s Mideast peace deal for Israel and the Palestinians, reported Axios and Israel’s Channel 13 on Tuesday, citing “sources briefed on the matter.”
The idea was proposed as part of the deal’s economic component, which was released last month during the economic summit in Bahrain.
Netanyahu and his aides were briefed about it two weeks before it was publicized, according to the Axios report.
The prime minister’s wariness about the passage is related to security matters, the sources told the outlet.
The report stated, according to the sources, “Israel gave U.S. o...
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July 18, 2019 at 10:49 am
Update: The ordinance about gender-neutral language in Berkeley’s municipal code was approved at City Council Tuesday as part of the consent calendar.
The Berkeley City Council is scheduled to vote Tuesday night on an ordinance that would eliminate masculine and feminine pronouns from the city’s municipal code, changing gender-specific language to gender-neutral language.
The item proposes a revision to the grammatical interpretation of Berkeley’s municipal code, which now mostly uses masculine pronouns. It would switch “he” and “she” to “they” and “them” and assume they/them indicates a single individual, “unless the context indicates the contrary.” The rationale for this change states: &ld...
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July 18, 2019 at 10:43 am
In an interview with Judy Woodruff for “PBS NewsHour,” U.S. Special Representative for International Negotiations Jason Greenblatt wasn’t to blame for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and said that the Jewish state is “trying their best … under very, very trying circumstances.”
Uploaded to the PBS website on Wednesday and broadcast on American television, the interview focused on the U.S. role in mediating its version of peace negotiations, the economic component of which was unveiled at the June “Peace to Prosperity” conference in Bahrain.
Asked what responsibility Israelis bear for the conflict, Greenblatt responded, “I think that Israel is actually more the victim than the party that’s responsible.”
“From the m...
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July 18, 2019 at 10:41 am
Sababa Band feauring Isaac Honig performs "Kohanim" at a Bar Mitzvah in Monroe. Composed by Yossi Green, Isaac added a refreshing twist on "Kohanim" with such Hartz and emotion. The Shira Choir's sweet harmonies added the perfect touch to this beautiful song. Mendy Hershkowitz's arrangements were executed beautifully by the Sababa Band.
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July 18, 2019 at 10:39 am
Baltimore County police are investigating a fatal overnight shooting at the Comfort Inn in Towson Thursday morning.
Police say a call came just before 2:30 a.m.Thursday for reports of a person with a gun at the Comfort Inn on the 8800 block of Loch Raven Boulevard.
The only information confirmed was that the victim was an adult man and the incident is being investigated as a homicide.
Police say that it is currently an active investigation.
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July 18, 2019 at 10:38 am
Traffic could be extremely heavy in parts of Baltimore due to a series of events this week, Baltimore Department of Transportation advised.
BALTIMORE, MD — Several road closures are in effect this week in downtown and midtown Baltimore. The sinkhole that formed in the July 8 floods is still being repaired off Pratt at Howard streets, which may cause traffic snarls as fans come to watch the Orioles play at Camden Yards; and Artscape will be in town Friday, July 19, to Sunday, July 21, prompting a series of road closures in midtown.
After thunderstorms rolled through the region Wednesday night, the Baltimore Department of Public Works reported that stormwater breached the CSX tunnel, and officials were assessing impacts to the hole on Howard Street.
Drivers should give themselves ex...
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July 18, 2019 at 10:37 am
TOKYO (AP) — A man screaming “You die!” burst into an animation studio in Kyoto, doused it with a flammable liquid and set it on fire Thursday, killing 33 people in an attack that shocked anime fans across Japan and beyond.
Thirty-six others were injured, some of them critically, in a blaze that sent people scrambling up the stairs toward the roof in a desperate — and futile — attempt to escape. Others emerged bleeding, blackened and barefoot.
The suspect was injured and taken to a hospital. Police identified him only a 41-year-old man who was not a company employee. They gave no immediate details on the motive.
Most of the victims were employees of Kyoto Animation, which does work on feature films and TV productions but is best known for its mega-hit sto...
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July 18, 2019 at 10:35 am
GREENVILLE, N.C. (AP) — Going after four Democratic congresswomen one by one, a combative President Donald Trump turned his campaign rally into an extended dissection of the liberal views of the women of color, deriding them for what he painted as extreme positions and suggesting they just get out.
“Tonight I have a suggestion for the hate-filled extremists who are constantly trying to tear our country down,” Trump told the crowd in North Carolina, a swing state he won in 2016 and wants to claim again in 2020. “They never have anything good to say. That’s why I say, ‘Hey if you don’t like it, let ‘em leave, let ‘em leave.’”
Full Coverage: Donald Trump
Eager to rile up his base with the some of the same kind of rhetor...
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July 18, 2019 at 10:33 am
Ticks are swarming, carrying myriad diseases such as Lyme and Rocky Mountain spotted fever and making people ill. And, as one congressman believes, these ticks came from secret Pentagon experiments to turn ticks into biological weapons.
Rep. Christopher Smith, R-N.J., is so concerned about an alleged tick-bioweapon project that he led an effort to pass an amendment ordering the Defense Department to investigate it. Specifically, the amendment orders the department’s inspector general to determine whether government scientists experimented with bioweapons – specifically in ticks – and whether those arachnids ended up making their way out of the labs and into the public between the 1950s and the 1970s.
Citing a rise in Lyme disease cases, Smith asked whether there “...
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July 18, 2019 at 10:31 am
BALTIMORE — Maryland health officials announced two heat-related deaths were reported this week.
Officials said a Prince George's County man between the ages of 18 and 44 and a Worcester County woman between the ages of 45 and 64 died this week.
There have been four heat-related deaths so far this summer. The other two deaths were a Baltimore City man between the ages of 45 and 64, and an Anne Arundel County woman older than 65.
The first heat-related death was reported July 3.
The Maryland Department of Health encourages residents to use the following tips to help cope with the hot weather:
Drink plenty of fluids
Avoid alcohol, caffeine and overly-sweetened beverages
Wear loose-fitting, lightweight and light-...
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July 18, 2019 at 10:21 am
Israeli security forces arrested three Palestinian Authority residents on Tuesday night as part of a crackdown against a Hamas scheme used to transfer funds between the Gaza Strip and Judea and Samaria.
According to the Israeli military, senior Hamas terrorists in Gaza have been funneling money to operatives in Judea and Samaria through the Al-Haramain travel agency, which obscured the source of the funds through the use of a complex network of independent money changers.
The network used a method of offsetting debts between several independent money changers without registration in official banking systems.
According to the military, the funds were used to pay for organizational terrorist activity in Judea and Samaria and to pay the salaries of Hamas operatives there.
“The metho...
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July 18, 2019 at 10:20 am
BALTIMORE — A date is now set for water billing to resume for customers of the Baltimore City water system.
The bills have been knocked offline by the ransomware attack that started in May.
The next water bill residents get will be hefty. No system has been delayed by the ransomware attack as much as this one.
City officials as recently as last week had been unable to provide a timetable for the resumption of water billing. On Wednesday, Baltimore Mayor Jack Young said bills will go out next month.
"We want to make sure we have our customer service team in place to explain bills to residents who have issues and problems with bills," said Young. "So, hopefully we want to roll it out in August. Earliest August."
The last time customers received bills was for the month of Apri...
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July 18, 2019 at 10:19 am
BALTIMORE — Late afternoon thunderstorms brought lightning, heavy rain and very strong winds throughout the Baltimore area and left behind some damage.
"Just upset. Happy I wasn't in it. Happy no one was hurt, but I'm upset, you know," said Janice Lang.
The knock Lang got on her door Wednesday night certainly wasn't good news.
Her little Mini Cooper, parked at East Lombard and South Wolfe streets, was a victim of the storms that quickly moved through the entire Baltimore metro, bringing trees down onto power lines, causing flash floods and even knocking out power at some intersections.
The storms moved from west to east, producing wind gusts over 60 mph in some places, heavy rain and minor flooding.
On East Cold Spring Lane and East 43rd Street, th...
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July 18, 2019 at 10:19 am
DUNDALK, Md. — Baltimore County is making good on its promise to equip more schools with air conditioning.
And on one of the hottest days of the year, work crews appear to making progress.
This has literally been a hot-button issue for a number of school systems, Baltimore County included. But based on the math alone, things appear to be improving.
A brand-new A/C unit has been mounted on the rooftop of Patapsco High School and Center for the Arts. It's been a long time coming.
"I've been there since 1993 is when I started," said Lisa Norrington.
That was 26 years ago, which is also how long Norrington has taught at Patapsco without A/C.
"We haven't had air conditioning until this year. We will be fully 100% air conditioning which is exciting. It's...
