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October 18, 2021 at 10:38 pm
Democrats are grappling with the increasingly dire political reality facing them in next year’s midterm elections as warning signs pile up for the party ahead of 2022.
Once hopeful that they could defy the typical midterm shellacking dealt to the party in power, a series of foreboding developments has rocked that sense of optimism. President Biden’s approval ratings are in free fall, his top legislative priorities have stalled and, just this week, Rep. John Yarmuth (D-Ky.) announced that he would retire, making him the first senior House Democrat to bow out ahead of the midterms.
In conversations with The Hill in recent days, several Democratic strategists and operatives expressed a growing sense of pessimism about 2022. Each one said that the party’s rec...
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October 18, 2021 at 10:35 pm
Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) has reportedly laid down new red lines for the Democrats’ multitrillion-dollar reconciliation bill, this time making demands regarding the expanded child tax credit provision.
Axios reported on Sunday, citing people familiar with the matter, that Manchin informed the White House that the child tax credit must have an “established work” requirement and a family income limit in the $60,000 range if Democrats want his vote for the package.
Those demands, Axios noted, would significantly weaken the child tax credit, which is one of President Biden’s key programs to assist working families. It would also bring down the price tag of the spending bill, which Manchin and fel...
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October 18, 2021 at 10:33 pm
The EPA on Monday released its strategy for addressing a type of cancer-linked chemicals called PFAS, including its plans to finish a rule to regulate certain types of PFAS in drinking water in 2023.
PFAS stands for perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, and these substances are a group of man-made chemicals that have been linked to health problems such as kidney and testicular cancer.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, exposure rates can be difficult to assess, but one 2015 study found PFAS to be in the blood of 97 percent of Americans.
The EPA’s overall strategy is focused on researching PFAS, restricting its release into the air, land and water and broadening cleanup efforts.
The agency’s drinking water limit pertains to certain types of...
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October 18, 2021 at 10:31 pm
In a recent letter to Amazon CEO Andy Jassy, five members of the U.S. House Judiciary Committee allege that the company’s top executives including founder Jeff Bezos misled or possibly lied to Congress about Amazon’s business practices.
In a letter to Amazon CEO Andy Jassy, five members of the U.S. House Judiciary Committee including the committee’s chairman, Jerry Nadler (D-NY), and four members of the antitrust subcommittee, David Cicilline (D-RI), Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), Ken Buck (R-CO), and Matt Gaetz (R-FL), claim that Amazon’s top executives including company founder Jeff Bezos either mislead Congress or lied about Amazon’s business practices.
The letter states that the committee is considering “whether a referral of this matter to the ...
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October 18, 2021 at 10:28 pm
Former President Donald Trump is suing the Democratic-led House select committee that’s investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, and the National Archives, to try and stop documents related to the riot from being turned over to the panel.
“The Committee’s request amounts to nothing less than a vexatious, illegal fishing expedition openly endorsed by [President] Biden and designed to unconstitutionally investigate President Trump and his administration. Our laws do not permit such an impulsive, egregious action against a former President and his close advisors,” the lawsuit, which was filed Monday in district court in Washington, D.C., says.
Trump had urged former officials in his administration not to comply with subpoenas from the House panel, citing ...
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October 18, 2021 at 10:25 pm
Planeloads of underage migrants are being flown secretly into suburban New York in an effort by President Biden’s administration to quietly resettle them across the region, The Post has learned.
The charter flights originate in Texas, where the ongoing border crisis has overwhelmed local immigration officials, and have been underway since at least August, according to sources familiar with the matter.
Last week, The Post saw two planes land at the Westchester County Airport, where most of the passengers who got off appeared to be children and teens, with a small portion appearing to be men in their 20s.
Westchester County cops stood by as the passengers — whose flights arrived at 10:49 p.m. Wednesday and 9:52 p.m. Friday — got off and piled into buses.
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October 18, 2021 at 10:22 pm
First Lady Jill Biden will be the keynote speaker at the upcoming annual Yeshiva Beth Yehudah dinner at the Detroit Marriott Renaissance Center this Sunday.
The dinner will begin at 4:30 p.m.
The honoree will be Mary Teresa Barra, an American businesswoman who has been the chair and chief executive officer of General Motors since January 15, 2014. She is the first female CEO of a ‘Big Three’ automaker.
The evening’s guest speaker, Jill Biden, is the First Lady of the United States, a community college educator, and bestselling author. Dr. Biden also served as Second Lady of the United States from 2009–2017.
Jill Tracy Jacobs Biden was born on June 3, 1951, in Hammonton, New Jersey, to Bonny Jean Godfrey Jacobs and Donald Carl Jacobs. The oldest of five daughters...
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October 18, 2021 at 10:20 pm
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases head Dr. Anthony Fauci said on this week’s broadcast of “Fox News Sunday” that Americans who think he is a “polarizing figure” were people who denied “reality.”
Anchor Chris Wallace asked, “When this pandemic started, it is fair to say you were generally regarded as the authority on infectious disease. As time has gone on, you have become a polarizing figure, and critics accuse you of sending mixed messages. There’s allegations that you helped fund dangerous research at the Wuhan lab. Two questions, why do you think you’ve become so controversial? And honestly, do you think there’s anything you have done that has contributed to that?”
Fauci said, “I can&rsqu...
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October 18, 2021 at 10:14 pm
President Joe Biden had pitched himself as the uniter in chief, but his failing to bring even his own party together to pass a budget has Democrats wanting him to be more aggressive than passive.
“The reality right now is that a lot of people are saying, ‘Where’s Joe Biden? This is his agenda, why isn’t he more involved in the negotiations?'” a House Democrat told CNN.
A failure to move big-ticket spending items is one thing, but even failing to agree on what the size and scope of the budget should be is leading some to question whether Biden can live up to his campaign promise to prove government can work.
“You don’t want to get to a point where we look so indecisive that it can’t be repaired with the package that’s g...
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October 18, 2021 at 10:14 pm
If ever a man missed his moment in history, it was Colin Powell.
Bill Clinton told me that he thought that Powell was the only person that could have defeated his bid for a second term in 1996. And, when Powell announced that he would not run, I turned to President Clinton and said “Congratulations, you’ve just been reelected.”
He waited a moment for it to sink in and then silently nodded.
Had Powell run and won, he would have personified what we all had hoped President Barack Obama would be: A non-racial healer who would have finally mended the scar of slavery and brought America together.
He would have focused on encouraging Black and minority upward mobility the same way he himself had made it: On the merits and by the book.
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October 18, 2021 at 10:12 pm
Baltimore City Councilman Isaac "Yitzy" Schleifer joined C4 and Bryan Nehman on Monday morning to talk about crime in Baltimore after Gov. Larry Hogan's "refund the police" comments on Oct. 15, while revealing his $150 million initiative to address crime. "When you say 'refund the police,' you're indicating they were defunded," Schleifer said speaking specifically on Baltimore. In Baltimore city, the numbers don't lie. There have been increases in the police department.
Schleifer said there are multiple problems in Baltimore that need to be addressed, in response to Hogan calling Baltimore a poster child for its failure to stop crime. He said he believes clearing cases is what matters most when it comes to crime in the city.
Shleifer also said he is "...
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October 18, 2021 at 5:53 pm
Baltimore, MD - Oct. 14, 2021 - On Sunday, October 10, 2021, Suburban Orthodox Congregation Toras Chaim celebrated an event billed as a Simchas HaTorah, a Gala Siyum. It was a night intended to rejoice over three separate communal accomplishments that all concluded in close proximity: the completion of two tractates of daily Talmud study in the Daf Yomi cycle, Masechtos Sukkah and Beitzah, and the completion of a zman in the Semichas Chaver Program.
The Semichas Chaver Program, a project of the OU, is a practical halacha chabura that empowers participants with a broad yet deep understanding of timely and applicable halacha. Participants attend a weekly shiur which traces the halachos from their origins and early sources through contemporary poskim and provides an analytical framework and ...
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October 18, 2021 at 5:41 pm
Baltimore, MD - Oct. 18, 2021 - Baltimore County’s Traffic Calming program that can assist residents concerned by traffic speed and safety on their neighborhood roads has made its way to Willow Glen Drive between Greenspring Ave and Sanzo Road.
After residents in the area applied for calming “devices”, this afternoon, the Baltimore County Department of Public Works and Transportation crews began cutting into Willow Glen Drive between Pimlico and Greenspring installing speed bumps.
These speed bumps were installed to discourage speeders while allowing for safer pedestrian crossings.
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October 18, 2021 at 5:27 pm
Alta Fixsler, a 2-year-old Jewish girl, was tragically nifteres a short time ago after British authorities ruled that she must be taken off life support.
Alta, z”l, was born with an irreversible traumatic brain injury that left her in a vegetative state for the duration of her tragically short life.
Her parents waged a protracted legal battle against British medical authorities to keep her on life support or have her transferred to a country that would provide her with the life-saving treatments she needed, but were ultimately denied.
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October 18, 2021 at 2:42 pm
While the Biden Administration is attempting to bring the Iranians back to the negotiating table, Israel has approved the budget package for building an attack capability against Iran's nuclear program amounting to about NIS 5 billion, Channel 12 News reported.
The budget that will fund the Israeli project to build the attack capabilities will consist of NIS 3 billion in the current state budget and another NIS 2 billion in the next budget.
The budget also includes the financing of aircraft of various types, intelligence gathering capabilities such as satellites, and dedicated and unique armament to enable this attack.
Meanwhile, a few days ago, the US Air Force published photos from an experiment it conducted that is closely linked to the IDF.
It was also reported that ...
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October 18, 2021 at 2:27 pm
“I think we ceased to understand that complexity is a good thing, and that if we cannot listen to and appreciate even people who are different from us, we are one short step from the destruction of our shared house.”
“Technological progress, which is reaching new heights every day, has many advantages, which are transforming our lives from end to end. But unfortunately, it has also become an available and hugely influential tool for the dissemination of incitement and hatred with intolerable ease.”
“To the leaders of this country, to its public opinion leaders and its citizens, I implore you from this mountain: in this situation, especially in this situation, raise a voice of moderation, of reconciliation, of outreach, of mutual respect! Empower what we have...
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October 18, 2021 at 2:22 pm
A vaccine mandate for Baltimore city employees is taking effect today.
The policy includes probationary, contractual, seasonal, part-time and temporary employees, as well as police and firefighters. Police have been pushing back against the mandate. They want it included in their collective bargaining with the city. Employees who are not fully vaccinated by today will have to show a negative test every week to continue reporting to work at their city jobs.
Mayor Brandon Scott announced the vaccination mandate for city employees on Aug. 31.
"Protecting the health of our workforce, residents, and their loved ones is my top priority. As we continue to navigate this pandemic — all while working to restore critical in-person access and assistance for Baltimoreans — the steps...
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October 18, 2021 at 1:09 pm
Seeking to curb the social injustice phenomenon known as “driving while Black,” Philadelphia has passed legislation the mayor is expected to sign that will bar police from making minor traffic stops.
Once Democrat Mayor Jim Kenney signs the law it would take effect in 120 days, restricting police from stops for busted tail lights and expired inspections, the first major U.S. city to do so, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported.
Activists have considered those traffic infractions as disproportionately exposing Blacks to traffic stops, leading to the Philadelphia City Council to pass the Driving Equality Bill 14-2 to curb “unequal police practices” against minorities.
Blacks individuals, who represent 43% of the population, have accounted for 72% of sto...
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October 18, 2021 at 1:09 pm
President Joe Biden is entering a crucial two weeks for his ambitious agenda, racing to conclude contentious congressional negotiations ahead of both domestic deadlines and a chance to showcase his administration’s accomplishments on a global stage.
Biden and his fellow Democrats are struggling to bridge intraparty divides by month’s end to pass a bipartisan infrastructure bill and a larger social services package. The president hopes to nail down both before Air Force lifts off for Europe on Oct. 28 for a pair of world leader summits, including the most ambitious climate change meeting in years.
But that goal has been jeopardized by fractures among Democrats, imperiling the fate of promised sweeping new efforts to grapple with climate change. There’s also rising anxiet...
