Yeshiva World News

Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan is “not kosher” — meaning she is not fit to serve on the court — according to more than 850 Orthodox members of the Rabbinical Alliance of America. That’s the term the rabbis used about Kagan in a press release issued Thursday, saying “Elena Kagan is not kosher. She is not fit to sit on this Court — or any court.”
 
Rabbi Yehuda Levin, spokesman for the alliance, told CNSNews.com on Thursday that “a great deal has been made about the fact that she would be the second Jewish woman on the court, and we want to signal to people across the country that we take no pride in this.”
 
Levin said most people are happy when “one of their own” is nominated to such a high position. But, he added, “We feel that Elena Kagan turns traditional Judaism on its head – from a concept of a nation of priests and holy people, she is turning it into, ‘Let’s Toeiva’ize every segment of society. And by the way, partial-birth babies have no right to be delivered.’”
 
In a statement issued Thursday, the rabbinical alliance called on the Senate Judiciary Committee to refuse to confirm Kagan to succeed the outgoing Justice John Paul Stevens.
 
“It is clear from Ms. Kagan’s record on issues such as abortion-on-demand, partial-birth-abortion, the radical Toeiva agenda, the “supremacy” of the anti-family panoply over religious liberties of biblical adherents, et. al., that she will function as a flame-throwing radical, hastening society’s already steep decline into Sodom and Gomorrah,” the rabbis said in the statement.
 
Levin told CNSNews.com that his fellow rabbis – and hundreds of thousands of Orthodox and traditional Jews – are puzzled at the president’s choice of Kagan.
 
“What exactly was Obama thinking, President Obama thinking, when he nominated Kagan? Because eventually, down the road, someone — or some group — is going to ‘take the hit’ for the crazy decisions that Kagan is bound to make. So we would have much preferred if President Obama had given this ‘distinction’ to another minority group, instead of singling out the Jews.”
 
Barring a rebuff from the Senate Judiciary Committee, Levin told CNSNews.com that the rabbis want someone in the Senate to launch a filibuster to stop Kagan’s nomination from coming to a vote.
 
‘We’re waiting for the more courageous, decent senators – whether it’s a (Sen.) Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) or a (Sen.) Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) or a (Sen.) Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) – we’re looking for them to stand up and filibuster this embarrassing endangerment of a nomination,” Levin said.

Confirmation hearings for Kagan begin Monday at the Senate Judiciary Committee. Neither Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) nor  Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) — both members of the committee, known Kagan supporters and top Jewish members of the Senate — responded to calls for comment on this story.

(Source: CNS News)

Straphangers will bid farewell to two of the city’s subway lines today.

The W and V trains are set to make their final runs, before being discontinued as part of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s cost-cutting plan.

The changes officially take effect Sunday, but neither the W nor V runs on the weekends.

Come Monday morning, the M line will be rerouted to cover some of the stations in Lower Manhattan that had been served by the V. And, the Q will be extended to Astoria to make up for the loss of the W train.

Thirty-seven bus lines are also being eliminated with many more being rerouted, or facing reductions in night and weekend service.

The MTA says the cuts will save about $100 million.

The agency also is trying to reduce overtime and has given pink slips to hundreds of workers to cut costs.

(Source: NY1)

Gavaad Eida Chareidis HaGaon HaRav Yitzchak Tuvia Weiss Shlita has sent a letter to Gavaad London, HaGaon HaRav Akiva Padwa Shlita, to do whatever he can to assist the askanim arriving in London who are seeking assistance in the Emanuel Beis Yaakov case.

The Gavaad explains that the children who were not accepted in the Beis Yaakov were rejected because of their lifestyle, not because of their ethnicity. The High Court of Justice ruled as it did, and as a result, the parents are truly in a difficult situation.

The Gavaad asks that the tzibur do whatever it can to assist the askanim arriving in London doing what they can to assist the Emanuel families.

(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)

9:30AM EST: A tragic accident in the heart of Flatbush has left a truck driver dead on Friday morning, YWN has learned.

The accident occurred on East 15th Street and Chestnut Avenue (just off Avenue M) – directly in front of Shulamith School For Girls.

The NYPD is investigating the incident, but appears that a truck driver was delivering a heavy load of metal sheets to work on the train station, and the load on the truck had shifted in transit. As soon as the driver opened the straps the load fell on the driver, crushing him, and killing him instantly.

He was pronounced DOA on the scene by FDNY Paramedics.

The NYPD Highway Division is on the scene conducting an investigation, and Misaskim is on the scene awaiting an ID on the victim.

There is no disruption to train traffic – as per the NYC OEM.

UPDATE 10:08AM EST: Misaskim services are not needed in this tragic accident.

(Yehuda Drudgestein – YWN)

Costs associated with the Gulf oil disaster have gone up more than $300 million in less than a week, BP said Friday.

“The cost of the response to date amounts to approximately $2.35 billion, including the cost of the spill response, containment, relief well drilling, grants to the Gulf states, claims paid and federal costs,” a company statement said. BP put the tab at $2 billion on Monday.

The company previously agreed to set aside $20 billion in an escrow account for spill-related costs, a sum that does not cover fees and penalties that could be imposed by the federal government.

“To date, almost 74,000 claims have been filed and more than 39,000 payments have been made, totaling almost $126 million,” the company said.

According to BP, approximately 37,000 personnel, more than 4,500 vessels and some 100 aircraft are involved in the response effort.

The news came a day after BP’s stock price hit a new low. The troubled oil giant’s stock closed Thursday at $28.74 a share — down 52 percent since April 20, when its Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded off the coast of Louisiana, killing 11 workers.

Paving the way for drilling to resume, a federal judge Thursday denied a request to keep a six-month moratorium in place pending a government appeal.

U.S. District Judge Martin Feldman in New Orleans, Louisiana, issued a preliminary injunction against the ban Tuesday. The government had asked Feldman to delay lifting the ban until an appeals court reviewed the issue later this summer.

The moratorium was imposed by President Obama on May 27. The moratorium prohibited drilling in more than 500 feet of water and prevented new permits from being issued.

In an emergency hearing Thursday, the judge denied the government’s motion to stay his decision pending appeal “for the same reasons given” Tuesday for issuing the injunction.

Government lawyers did not file an appeal to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals Thursday, though the expected move could come as soon as Friday.

In Tuesday’s ruling, Feldman wrote, “An invalid agency decision to suspend drilling of wells in depths of over 500 feet simply cannot justify the immeasurable effect on the plaintiffs (oil drilling support companies), the local economy, the Gulf region, and the critical present-day aspect of the availability of domestic energy in this country.”

The government has 30 days to show it is beginning to comply with Feldman’s order and start issuing permits. The appeals process can continue, but until the appeal, the government must act as if Feldman’s order will be upheld.

Meanwhile, the full Senate Energy and Natural Resources committee met Thursday to consider bills related to Minerals Management Service reform and to offshore drilling. Committee member Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyoming, said the Obama administration is putting ideology over scientific integrity.

“The administration put together a group of experts to review safety recommendations for offshore oil and gas exploration,” Barrasso said. “The administration proudly stated that the safety recommendations were peer reviewed. Well, afterwards, the American people found out that the most significant recommendation — which was the moratorium — was not actually peer reviewed. The moratorium was added after the experts had been consulted. The majority of the experts consulted say that their names were used to justify a political decision made by the administration.”

Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-Louisiana, responded, “When your team was in charge, which would be under the previous administration, you didn’t leave a very clear instruction book as to how to do this. And in defense of this administration … the president is trying to rise above partisanship. And I think we all have to make our best effort to do this. This is not a time to try to take what I would consider a cheap shot.”

(Source: CNN)

People in parts of Queens and Long Island are still cleaning up Friday morning – and probably will be for weeks to come – after Thursday night’s storm left behind everything from downed power lines to roads clogged with fallen trees.

Mayor Bloomberg’s late night update on Thursday’s storm probably didn’t break any news.

“If you hadn’t heard, there are dozens of trees and power lines that were knocked down by high winds,” Bloomberg said.

A brief but powerful thunderstorm tore across Queens. And on Long Island, trees were uprooted and tossed about like twigs. The damage was extensive, and with so many power lines down, thousands are still in the dark Friday morning.

As of Friday morning, there were still more than 16,000 homes with no electricity on Long Island.

(Source: WCBSTV)

The NY Daily News reports:

An upstate Hasidic woman won a whopping $5 million legal settlement in a lawsuit over a Sept. 11, 2007, crash with a Brooklyn kosher-meat delivery truck in which she was seriously injured.

Eva Bickel, 50, suffered a brain injury and broken bones when the truck crossed yellow lines on a Monroe, N.Y., road and collided head-on with the livery cab she was in, according to her suit.

“[The driver] definitely wasn’t acting very kosher,” Bickel’s lawyer, Herb Subin, said yesterday.

The married mother of three children underwent four surgeries and spent more than six weeks in a hospital and nursing home.

The case had already gone to trial in Brooklyn Supreme Court when the truck company, Alle Processing Corp., settled on Tuesday.

“This woman needs a lifetime of future care and the pain and suffering was substantial,” Subin said.

(Source: NY Daily News)

The city’s Rent Guidelines Board voted to raise rents on the city’s rent-stabilized apartments Thursday night.

The board approved the increases of 2.25 percent for one-year leases and 4.5 percent for two-year leases after not passing four motions submitted by members.

Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer is opposed to the approval.

“Bit by bit, we are turning our City’s affordable housing stock into a once-affordable memory. It is disappointing to hear that the Rent Guidelines Board has chosen to stick with its annual rent hike at a time when so many New Yorkers are struggling to make ends meet,” he said.

“With vacancy rates below 3% and the City losing thousands of rent stabilized units each year, this decision brings us one step closer to a housing crisis. I am committed to working with tenants, landlords and my colleagues in government to make sure that we protect our City’s vital affordable housing stock and all of the New Yorkers who will see their rents climb even higher next year.”

(Source: WPIX)

Brooklyn, NY – Despite a historic $3.2 billion deficit in the year’s budget, Councilman David G. Greenfield announced that a deal had been reached between Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Council Speaker Christine Quinn to restore the funding for Priority 7 Day Care Vouchers in this year’s budget. Specifically, the program which costs the city $12 million this year will be funded for half a year, at a cost of $6 million, and will be revisited in January 2011.

“Thanks to the extraordinary leadership of Speaker Christine Quinn and the incredible generosity of Mayor Mike Bloomberg, we were able to save the most important government program serving the Orthodox Jewish community in New York. Now, thousands of needy children and families will continue to benefit from the Priority 7 childcare and after-school programs,” explained Councilman Greenfield. “In this tough budget year, this was the fiscally responsible thing to do, as Priority 7 actually saves the city money over traditional city-funded daycare.” The cost of Priority 7 is approximately $7,000 per-child per-year, while the cost of traditional daycare is nearly $13,000 a year.

Greenfield led a three month full-time effort, along with four other Councilmembers, to restore the Priority 7 vouchers. The “Brooklyn Five,” as they were known at City Hall, was led by Greenfield and included Councilmembers Steve Levin, Brad Lander, Letitia James and Lew Fidler. This dynamic group led rallies, arranged for press conferences, met with the ACS Commissioner, and this past Tuesday – delivered more than 12,000 letters from their constituents to Deputy Mayor Howard Wolfson urging the Mayor to restore funding to Priority 7.

“I am overjoyed to announce the extension of Priority 7 vouchers,” said Councilman Steve Levin. “I want to thank Mayor Bloomberg and Council Speaker Quinn for restoring these funds. This will ensure affordable childcare for thousands of our most vulnerable families.” “I am pleased that this essential after-school and childcare funding for needy families will continue thanks to the strong leadership of Speaker Quinn and Mayor Bloomberg,” said Councilman Brad Lander.

”It was not fair to ask people to choose between going to work and taking care of their kids,” said Councilman Lew Fidler. “I am delighted that we have restored one-half year’s worth of Priority 7 vouchers.”

The “Brooklyn Five” were joined in their advocacy efforts by Councilmembers Jimmy Oddo, Vinnie Ignizio and Debi Rose of Staten Island, Councilmembers Leroy Comrie, Karen Koslowitz, James Sanders and Mark Weprin of Queens, as well as Councilmembers Mathieu Eugene, Mike Nelson, and Jumaane Williams of Brooklyn and Councilmembers Annabel Palma, Oliver Koppel, Jimmy Vacca, Joel Rivera and Fernando Cabrera of the Bronx. City Council Finance Chair Domenic M. Recchia, Jr. played a critical role as an honest broker between the negotiating parties.

“The Orthodox Jewish community owes a debt of gratitude to Council Speaker Christine Quinn, Finance Chairman Domenic M. Recchia, Jr. and the four other Councilmembers who led this effort – Councilman Steve Levin, Councilman Brad Lander, Councilwoman Letitia James and veteran Councilman Lew Fidler.” said Greenfield. “This has been a tough fight in past years. However, because of the multi-billion dollar deficit, no one expected us to be successful in restoring these funds this year. Thanks to Siyata DiShmaya, and the combined hishtadlus of the councilmembers and the thousands of parents who wrote letters, the Orthodox Jewish community will continue to benefit from these vital Priority 7 vouchers.”

(YWN Desk – NYC)

WCBSTV is reporting that a New York City budget agreement is expected to be reached Thursday night.

Budget negotiations between the city and Mayor Michael Bloomberg have resulted in the decision to restore the 20 fire houses that were slated to be closed. They will all now remain open, after negotiations resulted in the restoration of $37 million to ensure that they stay open.

In addition, the city will not be laying off 4,200 teachers, but 2,000 will go due to attrition, as was planned.

Agreements are also expected on how to pay for library service, which will go from six days to five, and senior citizen services, but it is the mayor’s intention to get the budget done without any tax increases.

(Source: WCBSTV)