Baltimore City Council President Brandon Scott is calling for further investigations into former Mayor Catherine Pugh's book dealings with the city, according to WBAL-TV 11. The calls come not long after Pugh pleaded guilty to four counts related to her children's book sales in federal court. Scott said CEO and president J.P. Grant of Grant Capital Management was "closely-tied" to Pugh, and he wants to discover if there were any questionable deals made pertaining to city contracts, WBAL-TV 11 reports. In 2016, Grant paid $100,000 to Pugh's Healthy Holly LLC, according to court records. Last month, prosecutors alleged Grant violated state election laws by paying $50,000 for books, and the money went to Pugh's mayoral campaign. The company's website shows it ente...
Gov. Larry Hogan on Thursday announced a $3.8 billion proposal to more than clear local school systems' capital funding requests. Hogan also announced a measure to allow communities to take over struggling schools. "Education has been and will continue to be our administration's highest priority because I believe very strongly that every single child in Maryland deserves a world-class education, regardless of what neighborhood they happened to grow up in," Hogan said. The state has received a total of $3.7 billion in requests from school systems, Hogan said. "No governor in the history of our state has ever invested more in K through 12 education," Hogan said. Hogan also announced a proposal, modeled on a similar law in Massachusetts, to allow schools that get two straig...
WARWICK, PA (VINnews) – A Pennsylvania man faces charges of ethnic intimidation and harassment after spending part of his Thanksgiving sending antisemitic images and videos to a Jewish man via text message. Hunter Robert-William Ryan, 21, of the 2600 block of Fallow Hill Lane in Warwick Township, was arrested Tuesday night and arraigned on the misdemeanor charges. District Judge Maggie Snow ordered Ryan to have no contact with the victim and set bail at $50,000 unsecured. “People deserve to feel safe across all forms of communication,” said District Attorney Matthew D. Weintraub. “While we review these incidents on a case by case basis, generally hate speech becomes criminal when it is implicitly harassing or threatening towards someone else. If you are threatene...
BERLIN (AP) — An activist group has apologized to Jewish organizations outraged over their use of purported Holocaust victims’ remains in an installation outside Germany’s parliament building meant to draw attention to the perils of far-right extremism. The Center for Political Beauty, a Germany-based activist group known for provocative stunts, installed an urn outside the Reichtstag building on Monday, saying it contained victims’ remains that it had unearthed from 23 locations near Nazi death and concentration camps in Germany, Poland and Ukraine. Soil the group said contained the remains could be seen in the transparent orange urn, about the size of an oil drum, set atop a metal pillar. Following the uproar from Jewish organizations decrying the stunt as an in...
WASHINGTON (AP) — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced Thursday that the House is moving forward to draft articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump. ‘’Our democracy is what is at stake,” Pelosi said. “The president leaves us no choice but to act.” Pelosi delivered the historic announcement as Democrats push toward a vote, possibly by Christmas. She said she was authorizing the drafting of articles of impeachment “sadly but with confidence and humility.” “The president’s actions have seriously violate the Constitution,” Pelosi said. At the heart of the impeachment probe is a July call with the president of Ukraine, in which Trump pressed the leader to investigate Democrats and political rival Joe Biden as Tr...
JERUSALEM (VINnews) — Tzipi Rimel, who was tragically killed in a road accident Sunday evening together with her three-week old daughter Noam, was a dedicated and much loved teacher who recently spent four years in Chicago with her family where she taught, inspired, educated and motivated her students at Ida Crown Jewish Academy (ICJA). Many of her proteges have successfully made Aliya and established themselves in Israel, after she encouraged and advised them on how to integrate into Israeli society and how to make a meaningful contribution to others, just as she did for so many. Tzipi Rimel’s (z’l) family has requested that we share stories about Tzipi so that they can share them with her children. The stories reveal a multifaceted woman who was both mother and te...
CHESTER, NY (VINnews) – Attorney General Letitia James today took action to fight discriminatory housing practices that the Town of Chester and Orange County have utilized to prevent members of the Jewish community from moving to Chester, New York. Attorney General James filed a motion to intervene in a lawsuit against the Town of Chester and Orange County alleging that they have engaged in a concerted and systematic effort to prevent Hasidic Jewish families from moving to Chester by blocking the construction of a housing development. The original lawsuit, filed in July 2019 by the developers of the “The Greens at Chester,” outlined countless discriminatory and unnecessary actions that Chester and Orange County have taken to stop the homes from being built in order to pr...
WASHINGTON (AP) — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is bristling over a question about whether she “hates” President Donald Trump. Pelosi told reporters at her weekly press conference Thursday that as a Catholic, she resents the suggestion that she hates anyone. She fired back at the questioner: “Don’t mess with me when it comes to words like that.” The reporter asked: “Do you hate the president, Madam Speaker?” “I don’t hate anybody,” Pelosi responded. She went on to call Trump, the subject of only the fourth presidential impeachment inquiry in history, a “coward” on gun policy, “cruel” on immigration and “in denial” about climate issues. Earlier, Pelosi announced that the House will draft a...
Baltimore, MD - Dec. 3, 2019 - This year (5780/2019) in chutz la’aretz we will begin reciting vesein tal umotor livracha at Maariv of Thursday night, December 5th.  It is well known that in chutz la’aretz we usually begin saying vesein tal umotor livracha in Shemoneh Esrei at Maariv of December 4th. Why is this year and every four years different? The Shulchan Aruch (Orach Chaim 117:1), based on the Gemara in Maseches Taanis (10a), says that in chutz la’aretz, we begin reciting vesein tal umotor on the 60th day of tekufas Tishrei. [Note: “Tekufos” are seasons.] In the 20th and 21st centuries, Tekufas Tishrei always occurs on October 7th. If we count October 7th as Day #1, then December 5th is Day #60. The halachic day of December 5th begins th...
Extending the chain of learning begun by Rav Meir Shapiro, ZTL, as the 14th Daf Yomi cycle begins anew, Klal Govoah aims to maximize Torah study by rallying Klal Yisroel to join Daf Yomi on the first day of the new cycle and experience its joy and fulfillment even for one day. The initiative is dedicated in memory of Rabbi Meir Zlotowitz, z’l, whose efforts sparked an explosion of learning. Revolutionizing Torah study through ArtScroll’s many volumes, Rabbi Zlotowitz made Gemara accessible to the masses and Daf Yomi an attainable goal.  With the new cycle beginning on Sunday, January 5th, Klal Govoah is recruiting an even larger number of people to start Daf Yomi with a free live stream that will give anyone, anywhere in the world, the ability to participate as the daily ...
Jerusalem, Israel - Dec. 5, 2019 - The Condition of the Brisker Rosh Yeshivah, Hagaon Reb Dovid Soloveichik, Shlita, has worsened. He is now hospitalized in the ICU and is in need of Rachamei Shamayim.Please Daven for R’ Meshulam Dovid Halevi ben Alta Hendel.
Baltimore, MD - Dec. 5, 2019 -  I love to attend Rabbi Silber’s parshah shiur on Wednesday nights. He is very clear and articulate. If I stare at his face, I’m OK. But I miss a few words when he turns his head the other way.  That is why I am so excited about the unearthing of a fabulous speech-to-text technology made in Australia called OTTER. Otter is a free download on any smart phone or device that can transcribe everything you say in real time. It picks up a voice from within three feet but if you attach a microphone, you can stand further away and still enjoy its benefits. I started losing my hearing about 40 years ago and more recently I had to stop attending public lectures. But one year all my friends were talking about going to attend WIT’s video pres...
19-year-old Tamar Fenigstein from Petah Tikva identified as the woman killed in light rail accident in Jerusalem. The young woman killed in an accident involving Jerusalem’s light rail train system has been identified as 19-year-old Tamar Fenigstein, the daughter of the director of the pre-army preparatory yeshiva in Givat Shmuel. A resident of the central Israeli city of Petah Tikva, Fenigstein was a volunteer in Israel’s civilian National Service, an alternative to military service in the IDF. Fenigstein had recently begun working at Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem. “Tamar began her service three months ago at the Shaare Zedek hospital, and with her wonderful smile and cheerfulness which characterized her, she brought light to the place,” said Y...
The Jewish News, the UK's most read Jewish newspaper and website, is urging Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn to issue a real apology to the Jewish community for the anti-Semitism in his party. Under the headline, “This is what a REAL apology looks like, Mr. Corbyn”, Thursday’s front page of the newspaper will feature a photo of Corbyn holding a piece of paper with the following suggested apology to the Jewish community: “My years of endorsing anti-Semites and Holocaust deniers, calling them honoured citizens and inviting them to Parliament, has justifiably prompted concerns about my fitness to be prime minister. I acknowledge the vast majority of British Jews feel this way and I understand why. I should not have allied myself with such people. Their views disgust ...
HONOLULU (AP) — The military says a U.S. sailor shot and killed two and wounded civilian Department of Defense employees at the Pearl Harbor shipyard before taking his own life. The military didn’t release a motive or any identifying information about the sailor who opened fire Wednesday at Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard. A third victim is at a hospital. Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam has reopened following a lockdown.
Baltimore City Council President Brandon M. Scott reacted Wednesday to the revelation from State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby that there are more than 300 current or former police officers she won't call to testify, citing integrity issues. On Tuesday, Mosby told a state commission looking into the Gun Trace Task Force that some of the officers on her blacklist face allegations while others have convictions. She said some of the convicted officers remain with the department. Police downplayed Mosby's comments. Scott, who is a candidate in the 2020 mayoral race, touted his own whistleblowing as a young councilmember. He called for an investigation into police overtime fraud involving people later named in the federal investigation of the Gun Trace Task Force. Many o...
A veteran Baltimore police officer was sentenced to 15 months in jail for lying in testimony during a handgun trial, prosecutors said Wednesday. In June 2018, Officer Michael O'Sullivan gave false testimony in a district court that led to the wrongful conviction of Yusuf Smith, who spent 38 days in jail, prosecutors said. “Our justice system is hinged upon the integrity of law enforcement and when officers perjure themselves in order to convict innocent people, they must be held accountable for their violation of public trust – that was done today,” State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby said in a statement. On May 31, 2018, O'Sullivan and other officers learned about a possibly armed man who may have been involved in illegal activity in the area of the 5600 bl...
President Donald Trump, who has demeaned his rivals for being laughed at around the world, found himself the scorned child on the global playground at a NATO summit here Wednesday, as widely circulated video showed leaders gossiping about and mocking him. The video, captured at a Buckingham Palace reception Tuesday evening, appeared to show Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and others laughing about Trump’s freewheeling news conferences earlier in the day. “I just watched his team’s jaws drop to the floor,” Trudeau told the others, dropping his hand toward the ground to dramatize his retelling. And so it was Wednesday morning that Trump presented a sulking, brooding president, as he slapp...
First lady Melania Trump on Wednesday tore into the expert witness at the House Judiciary Committee hearing who used her teen son Barron’s name to make a point about the president. “A minor child deserves privacy and should be kept out of politics,” the first lady tweeted Wednesday night in response to remarks by Stanford Law School professor Pamela Karlan at the House Judiciary Committee’s hearing. Karlan told the Judiciary Committee, “The Constitution says there can be no titles of nobility, so while the president can name his son Barron, he can’t make him a baron.” “Pamela Karlan, you should be ashamed of your very angry and obviously biased public pandering, and using a child to do it,” the tweet continued. Read more at NY...
Elected officials in Montgomery County, Maryland, which lies just outside of Washington, D.C., voted Tuesday to give students a day off on the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr. The change will go into effect for the 2020-2021 school year, designating May 13 as a teacher professional day so students can celebrate the holiday, the Washington Post reported. College Board, the organization that facilitates testing for Advanced Placement classes, said tests planned for May 13 will be given a second time for Montgomery County students on May 18.   Muslim parents and students pressed for the day off at a recent school board meeting, the Washington Post reported. Montgomery County makes up Maryland’s largest school system with an enrollment of more than 165,000 students, and i...
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