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March 24, 2020 at 10:26 pm
As states including neighboring Virginia close schools through the end of the academic year, Maryland education officials are taking a more deliberate approach.
Maryland is in the second week of two weeks of school closures initially ordered by state Superintendent Karen Salmon to mitigate the spread of COVID-19.
Speaking Tuesday to the Maryland State Board of Education, Salmon said the break allowed custodial crews time to sanitize school buildings and allowed teachers time to prepare for a longer time away from classrooms. However, she said no decision has been made on whether to extend the closures beyond this week.
In Baltimore, Gov. Larry Hogan said he expects Salmon to come to a decision "in the next day or two."
"There's not a decision at this point on what to do. A lot of ...
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March 24, 2020 at 10:25 pm
An 87-year-old man is being confirmed as the third person to die from the novel coronavirus, Israel’s Health Ministry said on Tuesday.
The individual, who has yet to be identified, died just hours after the second person to succumb to the illness was pronounced dead on Tuesday, a 67-year-old woman with COVID-19 suffering from “a serious preexisting medical condition” who died at The Wolfson Medical Center in Holon earlier in the day.
There were 1,930 confirmed cases of coronavirus in Israel as of Tuesday, with at least 34 patients in critical condition.
Read more at i24NEWS.
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March 24, 2020 at 10:23 pm
The Trump administration is advising that individuals leaving New York self-quarantine for 14 days to avoid spreading the coronavirus to other parts of the country.
Dr. Deborah Birx, a member of the White House’s coronavirus task force, made the recommendation during a press conference as cases in New York continue to increase rapidly. “Everybody who was in New York should be self-quarantining for the next 14 days to ensure that the virus doesn’t spread to others, no matter where they have gone, whether it’s Florida, North Carolina or out to … Long Island,” Birx said.
It is the first time U.S. officials have recommended that individuals traveling domestically self-quarantine. The directive signals how dire the situation has grown in New York, which ha...
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March 24, 2020 at 10:18 pm
Despite the lack of a working coalition, the center-left political bloc comprising the Blue and White, Joint List and Yisrael Beiteinu parties got to work on Tuesday crafting and staffing six special parliamentary committees. The right-wing Likud bloc, outraged over what it called the Blue and White bloc’s “anti-democratic behavior,” boycotted the proceedings in protest.
After gaining control of the Knesset Arrangements Committee, which oversees the creation and staffing of all other parliamentary committees, Blue and White Knesset member Avi Nissenkorn approved late on Monday night the creation of six interim committees, all headed by members of the center-left bloc. Four of them will need to be approved by the plenum.
The Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee will be ...
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March 24, 2020 at 10:06 pm
This article is adapted from my sefer “What Can I Say… Today?” on the laws of Loshon Hora in contemporary times. All halachos mentioned herein are complex and part of a larger framework. The purpose of the article is to raise awareness of these essential halachos. Hence, one should not draw any practical conclusions without first consulting a rav.
Loshon Hora and Rechilus
The term Loshon Hora translates as “derogatory speech”. It refers to communicating negative information about another person. This is prohibited by the Torah.
In addition to the prohibition of Loshon Hora, there is a prohibition known as Rechilus. Rechilus refers to information related to a person that will cause him to feel anger or resentment towards another. Unlike Loshon Hora...
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March 24, 2020 at 6:45 pm
Regular mail service could be shut down as early as June, two US representatives said, and the effects could be disastrous.
Critical supplies — like the more than 1 billion shipments of prescription drugs delivered by the Postal Service last year — could be stuck, mail voting in the November election could be stymied, and hundreds of thousands of postal employees could be out of work, Reps. Carolyn Maloney and Gerry Connolly said in a statement on Monday.
"Based on a number of briefings and warnings this week about a critical fall-off in mail across the country, it has become clear that the Postal Service will not survive the summer without immediate help from Congress and the White House," Maloney and Connolly said.
"Every community in America relies on the Postal Serv...
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March 24, 2020 at 5:22 pm
Baltimore, MD - Mar. 24, 2020 - The Moatzos Gedolei HaTorah of Eretz Yisroel and the United States have called upon all to come together in their individual homes, at the same time, in a Global Yom Tefillah tomorrow.
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March 24, 2020 at 4:56 pm
Trump supports reopening businesses sooner rather than later
U.S. equity markets registered the strongest one-day rebound in history on Tuesday amid investor optimism that members of Congress will overcome their differences to reach a deal on a nearly $2 trillion COVID-19 stimulus package.
In the final hour of trading, gains picked up steam giving the Dow Jones Industrial Average a 2,112 point gain, the biggest ever, or 11 percent, while the S&P 500 gained over 9.3 percent and the Nasdaq over 8.1 percent.
The upbeat sentiments were boosted by comments from President Trump, who said he supports reopening businesses sooner rather than later.
""I’d love to have the country opened up and raring to go by Easter." Trump sai...
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March 24, 2020 at 4:54 pm
Baltimore – At LifeBridge Health, protecting our patients, visitors and employees is our responsibility and highest priority.
To proactively contain the spread of the Coronavirus, also known as COVID-19, we are tightening our hospital visitor policy, effective March 25, 2020 at 7 am.
These changes affect Sinai Hospital, Northwest Hospital, Carroll Hospital and Grace Medical Center.
Moving forward, there will now be no inpatient visitors with the following exceptions:
One parent visitor for pediatric patients
One significant other for labor and delivery patients
One visitor for end-of-life care patients
One visitor for heart attack or stroke patients
One visitor for emergency surgery patients
All of the exempted visitors will be required to wear a surgical ...
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March 24, 2020 at 2:21 pm
President Trump said he hopes to have the country reopened in just over two weeks, a timeline that is dramatically sooner than what many public-health experts have recommended to help contain the coronavirus pandemic.
“I would love to have the country opened up and just raring to go by Easter,” Mr. Trump said on a Fox News town hall filmed in the White House Rose Garden on Tuesday. Easter falls on April 12.
See More Coverage ›
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March 24, 2020 at 2:10 pm
Campaign will provide critical services to immunocompromised children and families
Chai Lifeline, the international children’s health support network, has launched an emergency response campaign to help children with life-threatening illnesses and their families during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
“We are all impacted by this global health crisis,” said Rabbi Simcha Scholar, CEO of Chai Lifeline. “However, children with weakened immune systems and their families are particularly at-risk right now. In the past few days and weeks, we’ve seen a surge in demand for our services and we’re committed to helping everyone as best we can.”
“As a mother of a child with Stage 4 cancer and a husband sick with fever, in...
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March 24, 2020 at 1:05 pm
More cases of infection are being recorded daily in the PA and Gaza, it is only a matter of days until a general outbreak occurs, and when it does it will be Israel that is forced to pick up the pieces.
The economic growth, rising salaries, and low unemployment that we've enjoyed over the past decade – before the coronavirus outbreak – also had a positive impact on the economy in the Palestinian Authority. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians earned a living working inside the Green Line, the settlements and the bustling industrial zones on the seam line areas in Judea and Samaria.
Another positive factor on the economy in the PA has been the relative stability of the PA, which survived the Arab spring – unlike strong and stable regimes in the ...
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March 24, 2020 at 12:54 pm
Baltimore, MD – The Maryland Department of Health (MDH) today announced the state’s fourth death as a result of COVID-19: a Prince George’s County resident in his 60s who suffered from underlying medical conditions. Our thoughts are with his family and loved ones.
Information and resources regarding COVID-19 are available at coronavirus.maryland.gov.
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March 24, 2020 at 11:16 am
[ED. Note]: There is a great new resource available for reviewing or learning the daf. Request to join by texting 7185772401 or clicking here or by emailing dafbirchaschaim@gmail.com for archives of the shiur. To download click here .
In Vayikra 2:13, the Torah commands us that on all Korbanos must be salted. We learn from the gemara in Menachos 21a that the salting must be done, even on Shabbos. Why do we need a posuk stating that we are allowed to salt the korban on Shabbos when there is no issurDe’Oraysa to salt on Shabbos? Perhaps, salting the animal is as if he is tanning the animal. This is not the case, since there is no tanning when it comes to food and it would therefore only be considere...
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March 24, 2020 at 11:01 am
The head of the World Health Organization warned Monday that the coronavirus pandemic is accelerating as more than 350,000 cases have been confirmed worldwide.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of the WHO, announced the increase in the number of infections during a press conference in Geneva, The Hill reported.
"The pandemic is accelerating," Tedros said. "We need to attack the virus with aggressive and targeted tactics."
He noted that it took 67 days to confirm the first 100,000 cases, 11 days for the second 100,000 and four days for the 100,000 cases. He urged the world's wealthiest countries to work together to combat the outbreak.
“We need unity in the G-20 countries,” he said. “Political comm...
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March 24, 2020 at 10:58 am
(CNN) Millions of people across India have been placed under lockdown until the end of the month as efforts to halt the spread of the novel coronavirus in the country intensify.
Residents living in 75 districts across the country, including in major cities such as the capital New Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, and Kolkata have been placed under travel, work and movement restrictions until March 31.
India -- the world's second most populous country -- has 415 cases of the coronavirus, including seven deaths, according to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. A sudden rise in cases has led to growing concerns over the country's capacity to test for the virus and that a major outbreak on the scale seen in Europe -- the pandemic...
