|
January 21, 2020 at 9:57 am
A nearly hourlong city police body camera video shows Baltimore mayoral candidate Thiru Vignarajah being cited for driving with a suspended registration, according to the Baltimore Sun.
Around 1 a.m. Sept. 26, Vignarajah was stopped in the 2400 block of Greenmount Avenue in East Baltimore for driving without his headlights on, according to body camera footage obtained by the Sun. He contested the officer's claim.
The officer took Vignarajah's license and found his registration was suspended because of an outstanding repair order from May, the video shows.Vignarajah questioned the officer during the nearly hourlong traffic stop.
"We are short 600 patrol officers, and that's what you're doing in Greenmount?" Vignarajah said in the video.
The officer told Vignarajah he...
|
January 21, 2020 at 9:55 am
The Baltimore County Council is set to vote Tuesday on a bill proposed by County Executive Johnny Olszewski Jr. that would require further security for gun shops and gun shows in the area.
The Secure All Firearms Effectively Act, deemed the SAFE Act, would require gun shops to install an alarm system that is registered with the county, a video system, installation of bollards or other types of physical barriers, installation of security gates or screens over windows and doors, require guns to be locked in a secure room during off-hours or utilize a live security guard and gun shows would need to have a live security guard when the show is not open.
The proposed legislation would also implement a new license for all firearm stores and gun shows in the county. Gun shows and shops would not...
|
January 21, 2020 at 9:53 am
Event focused on combating rising antisemitism in the classroom
ELIZABETH, NJ – The Jewish Foundation for the Righteous (JFR) selected 22
middle and high school teachers and Holocaust center staff from six states to participate in its 2020 Advanced Seminar, an intensive three-day academic program that explored a number topics addressing the history of the Holocaust. The seminar took place January 18-21 at the Hilton Newark Airport hotel in Elizabeth, N.J.
For the first time ever, due to the rising wave of antisemitic incidents throughout the country, the annual seminar extended its program by one day which was devoted entirely to training teachers to combat the growing wave of hate from within their classrooms.
Participants came from Alabama, Delaware, Florida, New Jersey, ...
|
January 21, 2020 at 9:50 am
Slated to be the cornerstone of New York State’s social-justice reform in 2020, a new law that eliminates bail for misdemeanors and some felony crimes has come under increasing scrutiny, in part because of the uptick in anti-Semitic attacks.
Proponents of the new bail-reform law, which went into effect on Jan. 1, say it will address racial and economic imbalances in the justice system throughout the state. They maintain that an overwhelming number of those incarcerated are poor individuals or African-Americans who cannot afford bail. Others note the high cost to taxpayers for housing and caring for those incarcerated as they wait for their day in court.
As New York Civil Liberties executive director Donna Lieberman said in a press release at the end of December, “The end of t...
|
January 21, 2020 at 9:47 am
William Warden, son of state Court of Appeals judge Lucy Inman, pleaded guilty on Jan. 15 to misdemeanor charges related to potential harm of a North Carolina synagogue in 2018.
He was charged with ethnic intimidation for ringing a doorbell and threatening damage through the camera at Congregation Sha’arei Shalom in Cary on Nov. 3, 2018.
Warden, who has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, remains in 24-hour mental-health treatment in Florida and was absent from last week’s hearing.
As part of his plea, he will remain in treatment another 12 months to finish two years of treatment—longer than the maximum 45-day jail sentence that could be allotted.
The 21-year-old issued an apology, which his attorney, Roger Smith Jr., read in which the suspect said...
|
January 21, 2020 at 9:42 am
Baltimore, MD - Jan. 21, 2020 - In the first aliyah (portion) of Parshas Va'eira, Hashem appears to Moshe and tells him that He will redeem the Jewish people because of the promise that He made to the avos. Hashem established a covenant with our forefathers; therefore, we have this belief in our DNA. Even when there are times that we act like avadim (servants), uninspired, we always have this strong, core relationship, based on the covenant that Hashem made with Avraham Avinu.
Click here to listen
|
January 21, 2020 at 9:35 am
A new comprehensive report about the history and current state of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement—more commonly referred to as BDS—was released on Monday by the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
The 44-page monograph, “War By Other Means: A History of Anti-Israel Boycotts, From the Arab League to BDS,” by FDD research analyst David May, “details how despite framing itself as a social justice movement, BDS is the most recent iteration of a century-old effort to attack the legitimacy and economic viability of the Jewish state and its precursors,” said the Washington, D.C. think tank in a statement.
“There are many good reports out on BDS, but ours is the most comprehensive report covering BDS’s evolution from the Arab...
|
January 21, 2020 at 9:32 am
President Trump on Tuesday announced the United States will join the “One Trillion Trees Initiative” launched at the World Economic Forum as world leaders seek to combat climate change.
Trump made the announcement during an address to global business leaders gathered for the annual event in Davos, Switzerland.
“We’re committed to conserving he majesty of god’s creation and the natural beauty of our world,” Trump said, adding that the U.S. “will continue to show strong leadership in restoring, growing and better managing our trees and our forests.
Read more at The Hill.
|
January 21, 2020 at 9:31 am
Seven men have been arrested in Brittany, western France, on suspicion of planning a terrorist attack, a source close to the investigation said.
The seven, who were arrested on Monday, were also suspected of having planned to travel to areas where terrorist groups were active, the source said.
France has been on high alert for Islamist attacks since a series of atrocities, mostly claimed by the Islamic State extremist group, cost more than 230 lives in 2015 and 2016.
Read more here.
|
January 21, 2020 at 9:28 am
The head of Israel’s domestic security agency, the Shin Bet, revealed on Monday that his organization had thwarted 560 terrorist attacks in 2019.
The Israeli daily Yediot Ahronot reported that Nadav Argaman made the statement during a ceremony for the Prime Minister’s Award honoring operational and intelligence achievements over the past year.
Argaman said that the attacks which were prevented included more than 300 shootings, 10 suicide bombings and four kidnappings.
“Last year was a year filled with security challenges in all the arenas we operate in,” he said.
Argaman told the six prize winners that out of all the outstanding accomplishments in 2019, “we had to choose those who were worthy of special mention. And the choice was not easy.”
“...
|
January 21, 2020 at 9:26 am
JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is calling on the world to take “concrete actions” against the International Criminal Court ahead of a possible war-crimes case against Israel.
The ICC’s chief prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, said last month that there was a “reasonable basis” to open a war crimes probe into Israeli military actions in the Gaza Strip as well as Israeli settlement construction in the West Bank. She has asked the court to determine whether she has territorial jurisdiction before proceeding with the case.
Israel, which is not a member of the ICC, has said the court has no jurisdiction and accused Bensouda of being driven by anti-Semitism.
In an interview with the Christian network TBN to be aired later Tuesday, Netan...
|
January 21, 2020 at 9:25 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — Legal filings to the Senate have laid out the arguments that will be made in President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial, where he faces two distinct allegations of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.
A look at the main points Democrats are making as they argue for Trump’s removal from office, and Trump’s response as the defense team pushes for his speedy acquittal. The GOP arguments have already raised charges of distortion.
ON ABUSE OF POWER
Democrats say Trump abused the power of his office by urging Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in a July 25 phone call to announce an investigation of political rival Joe Biden and the Democrats. At the time, Trump was withholding hundreds of millions of dollar in military aid to the country.
...
|
January 21, 2020 at 9:22 am
WUHAN, China (AP) — Face masks sold out and temperature checks at airports and train stations became the new norm as China strove Tuesday to control the outbreak of a new coronavirus that has reached four other countries and territories and threatens to spread further during the Lunar New Year travel rush.
Anxiety grew both at home and abroad after Chinese government expert Zhong Nanshan confirmed fears on state television late Monday that the virus can spread from human to human.
Six people have died and 291 have been infected in China, the National Health Commission said Tuesday.
The stock prices of some companies that sell masks rose Tuesday, but markets fell in much of Asia as investors worried about the potential impact on tourism and the economy.
Concerned about a global ou...
|
January 21, 2020 at 9:20 am
DAVOS, Switzerland (AP) — President Donald Trump sought Tuesday to sell the United States to the global business community, telling an economic conference in the Swiss Alps that America’s economic turnaround has been “nothing short of spectacular.”
Trump addressed the annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, hours before his historic impeachment trial was to reconvene in the U.S. Senate in Washington.
Trump reminded the audience that when he spoke here two years ago, early in his presidency, “I told you that we had launched the great American comeback.”
“Today I’m proud to declare the United States is in the midst of an economic boom, the likes of which the world has never seen before,” the president said.
Trump’s pa...
|
January 21, 2020 at 8:04 am
FLATBUSH (VINnews) — A fire broke out on Monday inside a home located at 761 Ocean Parkway, near Foster Ave.
Upon extinguishing the fire, FDNY discovered an 11-year-old female inside of the location unconscious and unresponsive.
EMS responded and transported the female to Maimonides Medical Center where she was pronounced deceased.
The girl has been identified as 11-year-old Shira Teved.
Baruch Dayan Ha'emes
|
January 20, 2020 at 9:59 pm
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Monday praised Colombia, Honduras and Guatemala which designated Hezbollah as a terrorist organization.
In a post on Twitter, Pompeo wrote that Hezbollah “and other transnational terrorist groups remain active in the region. The US continues to rally international support to counter these threats.”
The three countries designated Hezbollah as a terrorist organization in the context of the regional anti-terrorism conference currently being held in the Colombian capital of Bogota.
Just last week, Britain's finance ministry added the entire Hezbollah organization to its list of terrorist groups subject to asset freezing, after previously having only blacklisted the group’s military wing and not its political arm...
|
January 20, 2020 at 9:46 pm
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Thousands of gun-rights activists from around the country rallied peacefully at the Virginia Capitol on Monday, protesting plans by the state’s Democratic leadership to pass gun-control legislation that have become a key flash point in the national debate over gun violence.
The size of the crowd and the expected participation of white supremacists and fringe militia groups raised fears that the state could see a repeat of the violence that exploded in 2017 in Charlottesville. But the rally concluded uneventfully around noon, and the mood was largely festive, with rally-goers chanting “USA!” and waving signs denouncing Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam.
Many protesters chose not to enter the designated rally zone, where Northam had instituted a tem...
|
January 20, 2020 at 9:38 pm
LOS ANGELES (JNS) — During a private audience on Monday of 54 international leadership delegation from the Simon Wiesenthal Center on the 78th anniversary of the infamous Wannsee Conference in 1942 that sealed the fate of European Jewry, as well as on the eve of the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the concentration and extermination camp Auschwitz-Birkenau, Pope Francis warned the world, “If we lose our memory, we destroy our future.”
“May the anniversary of the unspeakable cruelty that humanity learned of 75 years ago serve as a summons to pause, be still and to remember,” he added. “We need to do this lest we become indifferent.”
Responding to the speech of Simon Wiesenthal Center dean and founder Rabbi Marvin Hier, Francis went on to den...
|
January 20, 2020 at 9:23 pm
JERUSALEM (VINnews) — The Chief Rabbinate Council, a body of senior rabbis in the Israeli chief rabbinate, decided recently to reinforce the recognition of members of Ethiopia’s Beta Israel community as Jewish, after an earlier decision on the matter failed to stop some officials from continuing to question their lineage.
In the past, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef ruled in the 1970’s that members of Ethiopia’s Beta Yisrael community were Jewish, paving the way for their eventual immigration to Israel. Life in Israel, however, has not always been easy for them, since many authorities refused to accept the landmark decision by Rabbi Yosef and demanded that they undergo a form of conversion to be recognized as Jews. The Ethiopians steadfastly refused to undergo the procedure, cl...
|
January 20, 2020 at 9:10 pm
Israel’s Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit refused the request of defense attorneys of incumbent Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to receive the full investigation material in the three corruption cases their client is indicted in, local media reported on Sunday.
In his answer, Mandelblit replied that the defendant will receive the full investigation files only after the indictment will be handed over to the court.
In a fiery response, the Israeli premier slammed the attorney general, saying “How can one fight for the truth if the material indicating extortion under threat of state witnesses, selective law enforcement and setting judicial precedents in mankind’s history is hidden?”
“One who continues to act in a non-transparent manner probably wants to a...
