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February 13, 2020 at 4:37 pm
MARYLAND — The health care information company Healthgrades recently released its latest rankings of the best hospitals in the United States. In Maryland, 10 hospitals were named as part of the 250 hospitals listed.
Healthgrades said in a release about the 2020 rankings that patients treated in hospitals on its list have a 26.6 percent lower chance of dying than if they were treated in hospitals that weren't named to the rankings.
Healthgrades evaluated hospital performance through 32 procedures and conditions. To be eligible for the list, a hospital must have successful evaluations in at least 21 of the procedures and conditions.
The procedures and conditions evaluated by Healthgrades included treatment of heart attack, heart failure, pneumonia, respiratory failure...
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February 13, 2020 at 4:34 pm
William Barr’s comments come after Trump tweeted about DOJ sentencing recommendation in Stone case
* AG Barr : “I think it’s time to stop the tweeting about Department of Justice criminal cases” -- ABC Interview
*Barr: Tweets ‘disruptive’ to work of Justice Department
*Barr: Trump ‘has never asked me to do anything in a criminal case’
*Barr: Public statements and tweets ‘make it impossible for me to do my job’
*Comments Come After Trump Tweeted About DOJ Sentencing Recommendation in Stone Case Read more at WSJ
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February 13, 2020 at 4:31 pm
Some 75 years later – after a series of recent serendipitous moments and intensive research – five fallen Jewish American soldiers from World War II finally will be buried beneath a Star of David.
The unique re-naming ceremony is slated to take place in Manilla, Philippines, on Wednesday – coordinated by the American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC) and the founders of Operation Benjamin. The Latin cross headstones adorning the graves of five U.S. soldiers buried in the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial will be replaced with the Star of David.
“We wanted to bring truth to the historical record. Amid a time of rising anti-semitism, it is important that when someone visits the cemetery that they see the physical manifestation of t...
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February 13, 2020 at 4:29 pm
Security source says Hamas sent message it was ending rocket launches, arson balloons. 'We are skeptical.'
A security source said this evening that "Hamas sent messages to Israel, which they unilaterally decided to stop launching incendiary balloons and firing rockets at Israel."
"As peace is maintained, Israel will expand its fishing grounds back to 15 miles and return the reduced 500 trade permits. We are skeptical - but an attempt will be made to restore stability to the Gaza envelope," the official said.
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February 13, 2020 at 4:29 pm
USS Normandy seizes ship carrying Iranian weapons to Yemen in Arabian Sea.
The US Navy seized a ship carrying 150 Iranian missiles, the American military announced Thursday.
The USS Normandy warship found the weapons after boarding a dhow in the Arabian Sea on Sunday, Reuters reported. The weapons were reportedly bound for Yemen.
“The weapons seized include 150 ‘Dehlavieh’ anti-tank guided missiles (ATGM), which are Iranian-manufactured copies of Russian Kornet ATGMs,” the military stated.
“Other weapons components seized aboard the dhow were of Iranian design and manufacture and included three Iranian surface-to-air missiles, Iranian thermal imaging weapon scopes, and Iranian components for unmanned aerial and surface vessels.”
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February 13, 2020 at 4:26 pm
NEW YORK (AP) — A federal judge in New York City who was nominated by President Lyndon Johnson and who contributed to the landmark case that struck down racial segregation in public schools is retiring at age 98.
U.S. District Judge Jack Weinstein was known for favoring lenient sentences and rehabilitation. He retired this week after moving his remaining cases to his fellow jurists in the federal court based in Brooklyn, the New York Daily News reported Wednesday.
He was the longest-serving incumbent federal judge, the newspaper reported. He spent nearly 53 years on the bench.
Weinstein, who was appointed in 1967, was the last federal judge named by Johnson. Weinstein said he often pushed for the shortest prison sentences possible so people could try to build a better life.
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February 13, 2020 at 4:15 pm
Iran will respond forcefully to any Israeli action against its interests in the region, Iran’s Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday, according to the news agency Mehr.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran will give a crushing response that will cause regret to any kind of aggression or stupid action from this regime against our country’s interests in Syria and the region,” ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi said.
Iranian officials accuse Israel of carrying out attacks against military forces in Syria that are allied with Tehran.
Iranian Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said last week that Iran would support Palestinian armed groups as much as it could and urged Palestinians to confront the Trump administration’s recently-unveiled Israeli-Palestinian peace plan.
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February 13, 2020 at 4:11 pm
A Palestinian public-opinion survey released on Tuesday found that U.S. President Donald Trump’s Mideast peace plan is opposed by 94 percent of Palestinians, and that 64 percent favor terrorism as a response to the plan.
The poll, the first conducted since the release of the Trump plan last month, was carried out by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research, according to the AP.
The study found that Palestinian support for the two-state solution has dropped to its lowest level since the surveys began 30 years ago, with only 39 percent in favor and 59 percent opposing.
“I don’t think we’ve ever seen such a level of consensus among the Palestinian public,” said Khalil Shikaki, the head of the polling center, according to the report.
Support for a...
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February 13, 2020 at 3:26 pm
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s advisers are holding talks with the head of the far-right Otzma Yehudit Party to try to find a way for Otzma to pass the electoral threshold in Israel’s March 2 election.
Having realized that there was no chance of convincing Otzma leader Itamar Ben-Gvir to give up his election bid, Netanyahu and his advisers decided instead to try to guarantee the party gets into the Knesset, reasoning that this would increase the chances of a right-wing majority coalition being formed after the election, according to Ynet.
In Israel’s September 2019 elections, Otzma received 84,000 votes, a significant number though not sufficient to get the party over the 3.25 percent threshold to enter the Knesset.
Among the options being discussed, accor...
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February 13, 2020 at 3:25 pm
It is with great sadness that Matzav.com reports the passing of Rav Chizkiyahu Alexander (Sender) Yitzchok Erlanger zt”l. He was 69.
Rav Sender, as he was known, was a noted mashpiah and mekubal, with wide-ranging yedios haTorah.
Born in Switzerland, a son of Rav Shamshon Raphael Erlanger, Rav Sender learned in his younger years at Ponovezh Yeshiva in Bnei Brak and Yeshivas Brisk in Yerushalayim under Rav Berel Soloveitchik. He became well-respected for his hasmadah, his tzidkus, his dikduk b’mitzvos, and his ahavas Yisroel.
When he became of marriageable age, he married his rebbetzin, Miriam, a daughter of Rav Eliezer Tzadok Turtzin.
In addition to his vast Torah knowledge, Rav Sender was belov...
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February 13, 2020 at 3:07 pm
Restoration of the National Library of Israel’s renowned Moskowitz Mahzor has been completed with the manuscript online for the first time.
It was created on parchment in the 15th century by Joel ben Simeon, considered by many to be the most important Jewish artist of the Middle Ages.
Ben Simeon was a scribe and illuminator active in Germany and Northern Italy. The manuscript is considered exceptional due to the illustrations and illuminations found throughout, including images of rabbits, bears, fish, squirrels and birds, as well as imaginary creations such as a unicorn, and a diverse range of mythological, religious and astrological symbols.
It includes prayers according to the Jewish Roman rite for the entire year, including weekdays, the Sabbath, holidays, To...
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February 13, 2020 at 3:06 pm
The body of Faye Marie Swetlik, a 6-year-old girl who mysteriously vanished in front of her South Carolina home Monday, has been discovered and her death is being treated as a homicide, investigators said.
“It is with extremely heavy hearts that we are announcing we have found the body, who the coroner has identified, as Faye Marie Swetlik,” Cayce Public Safety Director Byron Snellgrove said during a brief news conference Thursday afternoon.
No arrests have been made, he said, adding that the investigation is fluid. He did not say where the body was located or give a cause of death.
Snellgrove also announced that during the investigation a deceased male was located in the Churchill Heights neighborhood, which is also being investi...
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February 13, 2020 at 2:58 pm
Eight Senate Republicans voted with all 47 Democrats on Thursday to rein in President Trump's ability to take military action against Iran, paving the way for a veto showdown with the White House.
Senators voted 55-45 on the resolution, spearheaded by Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), that would require Trump to pull any U.S. troops from military hostilities against Iran within 30 day unless he gets congressional approval for the military actions.
The rebuke comes just a week after senators voted to acquit Trump in his impeachment trial.
GOP senators who supported the resolution argued it was about clawing back some of the warmaking authority Congress has ceded to the executive branch in recent decades, and not a personal slight directed at Trump.
...
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February 13, 2020 at 2:53 pm
Eden Mantsur from Jerusalem was among the five soldiers who were injured after a Palestinian terrorist drove his car into them in a ramming attack at the Hizme checkpoint in July 2019. Eden was seriously injured and required immediate medical attention. For the first time since the attack occurred, Eden met with volunteer EMT Ariel Ben David who was the first responder at the incident and treated her injuries at the scene. The treatment that Ariel provided, prevented severe medical damage from occurring and may very well have saved Eden’s life.
“I remember that after I was struck by the car that I was lying on the ground in intense pain. Out of nowhere, Ariel arrived like an angel,” Mantsur said during the meeting.
Mantsur served in the Search and Rescue division of t...
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February 13, 2020 at 2:52 pm
Israel’s Shin Bet domestic security agency came out with a rare public rebuke for caretaker Defense Minister Naftali Bennett on Wednesday over a contentious decision to release a suspected Jewish rock thrower from administrative detention.
Israeli Channel 12 cited the agency as saying that the move could prompt more terror attacks by Jewish radicals in the West Bank.
Bennett signed the order providing for administrative detention for a teenage Jewish right-wing activist who allegedly threw a rock at a Palestinian driver, injuring the victim, on Monday.
Read more at i24NEWS.
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February 13, 2020 at 11:44 am
Yisrael Beytenu Chair MK Avigdor Liberman does not rule out the possibility of sitting in the same government with the Labor-Gesher-Meretz faction.
“I sat in the government with Amir Peretz and I had no problem getting along. It all depends on the basic guidelines,” Liberman said Thursday morning in an interview with Galei Tzahal.
He claimed that Yamina would also join a Blue and White government if it could. “As soon as Yamina can join the Blue and White – Bennett and Shaked will do so, therefore Netanyahu decided to support Ben Gvir.”
Read more at Arutz Sheva.
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February 13, 2020 at 11:40 am
(Bloomberg) -- Charles Munger, who’s a newspaper company executive as well as a Berkshire Hathaway Inc. vice chairman, said U.S. newspapers have no future.
“Technological change is destroying the daily newspapers in America,” Munger, 96, said Wednesday in Los Angeles at the annual meeting of Daily Journal Corp., the publishing company where he is chairman. “The revenue goes away and the expenses remain and they’re all dying.”
Berkshire, the conglomerate controlled by Warren Buffett, announced last month that it would sell off its newspaper holdings. BH Media and the Buffalo News will be acquired by Lee Enterprises Inc. in a rare divestiture for Buffett after he spent years snapping up local newspapers.
Buffett, a fan of newspapers since he was a boy, ...
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February 13, 2020 at 11:40 am
President Rivlin on the UN Human Rights Council’s ‘blacklist’ published yesterday: “When Israeli businesses are under the threat of boycott, we will stand with them. Boycotting Israeli companies does not advance the cause of peace and does not build confidence between the sides. We hope that our friends will oppose this outrageous political decision”President Reuven (Ruvi) Rivlin today, Thursday 13 February / 18 Shevat, met a delegation of ambassadors from African countries to Israel, headed by the Ambassador of Zambia, Martin Mwanambale. The president commented on the ‘blacklist’ published yesterday by the UNCHR, saying “I am proud to be Israeli. I am proud that these are Israeli businesses, patriots who contribute to Israeli society, to eco...
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February 13, 2020 at 11:36 am
Hope Hicks, formerly President Donald Trump's most trusted and longest serving aide, is expected to return to the administration in the coming weeks, sources familiar with the matter tell ABC News.
Hicks, who departed in early 2018, will return in the coming weeks as a senior adviser reporting to Jared Kushner, the president's son-in-law. Her official title will be counselor to the president.
Since her departure, she has served as the head of communications for the Fox Corporation, the parent company of Fox News, among other entities owned by Rupert Murdoch.
Hicks served as Trump's closest adviser, following the president from the campaign to the White House. She ended her tenure as the White House communications director in March 2018 while Special Counsel Robert Mueller...
