Yeshiva World News

President Obama, who is locked in a stalemate with House Republicans over the debt ceiling, is taking his case directly to the public Monday night.

White House press secretary Jay Carney announced on Twitter that Obama will address the nation at 9 p.m.

Obama will speak from the East Room and talk about “the stalemate in Washington over avoiding default and the best approach to cutting deficits,” according to the White House.

The president met with congressional leaders Saturday morning, but they failed to get a deal to raise the $14.3 trillion debt ceiling as the Aug. 2 deadline approaches.

Talks then shifted to Capitol Hill, with congressional leaders sitting down for negotiations.

Those discussions also failed to yield a plan, leading to Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) offering rival proposals on Monday.

Reid unveiled a $2.7 trillion deficit-reduction plan that includes an array of savings Republican leaders have already endorsed.

Boehner, meanwhile, offered a proposal to raise the debt ceiling by up to $1 trillion while conditioning a future increase on enactment of a deficit-reduction plan and a congressional vote on a balanced-budget amendment.

The White House backed Reid’s plan.
 
“Senator Reid’s plan is a reasonable approach that should receive the support of both parties, and we hope the House Republicans will agree to this plan so that America can avoid defaulting on our obligations for the first time in our history. The ball is in their court,” said Carney.

(Source: The Hill)

A former New Jersey prisoner’s demand for kosher food has triggered a debate over “who is a Jew.”

At issue: Must a prisoner prove that he is Jewish in order to get kosher food and, more importantly, who gets to decide — the individual, the state, or an outside religious authority?

Thomas Feldheim was being held earlier this year in the Middlesex County Adult Correction Center as he awaited extradition to North Carolina on a 2008 charge of ‘abducting’ a 13-year-old girl.

While being held in the North Brunswick jail, Feldheim requested kosher meals. Corrections officials sought advice from Rabbi Mendy Carlebach, director of the Chabad of North and South Brunswick and chaplain at the corrections center.

“The rabbi asked Feldheim if his mother was Jewish and he said, ‘No, but my father is Jewish.’ So the rabbi went back to the correction center and said, ‘No, he is not Jewish,’ and the correction center denied Feldheim’s request for kosher meals,” said Katie Wang, spokesperson for the ACLU of New Jersey.

Under Halacha, traditional Jewish law, a person is Jewish by birth only if his or her mother is Jewish.

Carlebach’s version of the story is slightly different.

“I don’t recall telling anyone they are not Jewish,” he said in a July 11 phone interview. “I do recall being asked by the prison what makes someone Jewish. I said clearly by halachic facts it is someone born to a Jewish mother or who converted according to Halacha. I do not investigate anyone’s background.”

After Feldheim application was rejected, the inmate asked the ACLU of NJ to intervene on his behalf. Alexander Shalom, ACLU of NJ’s policy counsel, handled Feldheim’s case.

“Decisions about religious affiliation are deeply personal, and it is not up to the state to determine whether a person’s beliefs are sincerely held,” Shalom told NJJN. “The state should have no role in deciding if a person is sufficiently religious. The constitution forbids the state or its designated rabbi from determining whether Mr. Feldheim is Jewish enough.”

Shalom drafted a complaint in April 2011 seeking kosher food for Feldheim.

“We said to the county, ‘We were going to file a lawsuit’ and they said, ‘Hold on, let’s see if there is something we can do short of a lawsuit.’ By the next day, they remedied the situation,” Shalom said.

Feldheim received kosher food until two months later, on June 20, when he was sent back to North Carolina to stand trial for rape. Neither he nor his attorney could be reached for comment as they prepare for a court date next month.

‘Is he sincere?’
Carlebach’s issue with someone’s religious identity, he said, focuses on different aspects of observance. “I have no problem with people getting kosher food if they are not Jewish,” he said. “The only issue I would have is if someone considers himself Jewish and how that may affect other people who are Jewish. One example is a minyan. If they are going to be counted and people there are relying on them to be Jewish, that I may have a problem with.”

Feldheim’s attorney said he was pleased that the issue was resolved without a court battle.

“We think this is a rare case which impacted both Mr. Feldheim’s free exercise of his religion, but also impacted the establishment clause of the First Amendment. What you had was the county endorsing one sect of Judaism,” said Shalom.

Among the major Jewish denominations, only the Reform movement considers children of Jewish fathers and non-Jewish mothers as Jews. Chabad is an Orthodox movement.

Marc Stern, associate general counsel for legal advocacy at the American Jewish Committee, said the ACLU applied a proper interpretation of the separation of church and state.

“The ACLU’s position is certainly reasonable. So is the position of the chaplain, who says, ‘You can’t make me accept somebody as Jewish,’” said Stern.

“In this case it is relatively easy. The only test the state ought to make is ‘Is he sincere?’ It is not the state’s business to police this. It doesn’t matter whether he is Jewish or not. It is whether he has a sincere religious belief that he needs kosher food,” said Stern. “It should not depend on whether the rabbi thinks he’s Jewish.”

(Source: NJ Jewish News)

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver urged Gov. Cuomo to sign a bill allowing livery cars to pick up street hails in the outer boroughs.

Silver said the proposal would lead to better service and pump as much as $1 billion in needed revenue into the cash-strapped city’s coffers.

“I’d hate to see firehouses closed and teachers laid off” if the livery bill is not enacted, Silver said.

The bill has not yet been sent to Cuomo for his consideration.

The holdup stems from discussions over possible amendments to mandate GPS tracking and other enforcement measures to ensure livery cabs don’t encroach on yellow cab turf.

(Source: NY Daily News)

On the first day of the marriage equality law, New York City wed a record 659 couples. 484 were married by State Court Judges who volunteered their time to be part of the event. New York is the sixth and largest state in the nation to legalize same gender marriages. Clerk’s offices in all five boroughs were open for a full day, from 8:30 AM to 4:30 PM.

“Today was a historic day in our City, and we couldn’t be prouder that on the first day that everyone in New York City could have their love affirmed in the eyes of the law, we were able to serve everyone,” Mayor Michael Bloomberg said. “I want to thank all of the city workers and volunteers who made this success possible.”

The Mayor brought together two-long time City Hall staffers at Gracie Mansion late Sunday evening. Jonathan Mintz, the Commissioner of the Department of Consumer Affairs and John Feinblatt, the Mayor’s top policy adviser married with their two daughters and family present.

Of the 659 marriage licenses issued citywide, 511 couples had at least one spouse from New York City. Below is a breakdown of the licenses issued by borough:

365 in Manhattan 121 in Brooklyn 89 in Queens 42 in the Bronx 41 on Staten Island

Many people came from out-of-state to tie the knot in the Big Apple. The following states were represented: Alabama, California, Connecticut, Washington D.C., Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Florida, Indiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and Virginia.

(Source: WPIX)

Authorities have given the all-clear at an American Airlines terminal that was shut down at John F. Kennedy Airport because of a suspicious bag.

A law enforcement source said the bag was left by a man who was screened and boarded a flight to San Francisco. He left the bag in the business class lounge, the source said.

The Transportation Security Administration says a bomb-sniffing dog conducting routine screening gave an alert about the bag, so a bomb squad checked it out.

Authorities closed the check-in desk, the screening checkpoint and the roadway to the terminal, as a precaution.

The first alert was at about 7:42 a.m., and the all-clear was given around 9:15 a.m.

 8:55AM EST: Port Authority police have shut down an American Airlines terminal at John F. Kennedy Airport as they investigate a suspicious package.

A bomb squad has been called in to investigate the package, officials said.

This story is developing. Check back for updates.

(Source: NBC New York)

Two teenagers badly mauled by a bear while on a survival skills course in the Alaskan wilderness were Sunday in a hospital in Anchorage with “serious, life-threatening injuries,” the Alaska Dispatch reported.

Seven teens were attacked while crossing a river Saturday night, by a brown bear with a cub.

A statement from Alaska State Troopers and the Department of Public Safety said two of the victims had life-threatening injuries, two were seriously hurt and three others all had “minor injuries or had exposure-related issues.”

The teenagers were identified as, Samuel Boas, 16 of Westport, Conn.; Noah Allaine, 16, of Albuquerque, N.M.; Shane Garlock, 16, of Pittsford, N.Y.; Joshua Berg, 17, of New York, N.Y.; Samuel Gottsegen, 17, of Denver, Colo.; Simeon Melman, of Huntington, N.Y.; and Victor Martin, 18, of Richmond, Calif.

The seven were with other teens and instructors from the National Outdoor Leadership School.

They had been in the wilderness for about one month, KTUU-TV reported, when the attack happened at about 8:30pm local time Saturday as they crossed a river about 120 miles north of Anchorage.

The group activated an emergency beacon after the attack and victims were evacuated by air.

Four teens were taken to the Mat-Su Regional Hospital in Palmer for treatment, while three others were transported to the Providence Alaska Medical Center in Anchorage.

Department of Public Safety spokeswoman Megan Peters said the teens told troopers that as they crossed a river, one in front of the other, the people at the back heard those at the front of the line screaming there was a bear.

The two teens at the front of the line — identified in one report as Berg and Gottsegen — received the brunt of the bear attack. After the attack was over the teens were able to set up a camp, provide first aid to each other and activate the beacon.

(Source: News Core)

With his self-imposed deadline for releasing a deficit plan before overseas markets open just a few hours away, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said both sides were “not there yet” and pushed for a two-stage debt-limit vote.

“I would prefer to have a bipartisan approach to solve this problem,” Boehner said on Fox News Sunday. “If that’s not possible, I and my Republican colleagues are prepared to do this alone. Today.”

Boehner pushed for a proposed two-stage debt-limit vote.

It is not “physically possible” to get everything done before the Treasury Department’s August 2 deadline for raising the debt ceiling, Boehner said. “There is going to be a two stage process.”

“I don’t want to get anywhere close to [default],” he said. “This is about what’s doable at the eleventh hour.”

Boehner’s office said late Saturday that a two-vote approach was now necessary in order to raise the debt ceiling immediately while tackling deficit-reduction later.

Boehner also criticized President Obama for recommending a debt ceiling deal be timed to last beyond the next election season.

“The president’s worried about his next election, but my God, shouldn’t we be worried about the country?” Boehner said. “I’m not worried about the next election. I told the president months ago: Forget about the next election!”

The administration though has indicated that the debt ceiling should be raised at least through 2012, in order to take politics out of the negotiation. 

The president said in his speech Friday evening that he would be willing to work on “any plans” that lawmakers brought him over the weekend. “The only bottom line that I have is that we have to extend this debt ceiling through the next election, into 2013,” President Obama said.

A GOP leadership aide indicated Saturday that Republicans would fight back if the president threatened to veto a debt limit increase because it conflicted with the election calendar.

Boehner announced on Friday that he was walking away from deficit negotiations with the White House due to the fact that that President Obama was “adamant” about raising taxes and would not agree to “fundamental changes” to entitlement programs.

“It is hard to understand why Speaker Boehner would walk away from this deal,” Obama said at the time, accusing the Republicans of not being able to say “yes” to any agreement.

“Last Sunday, I thought there was an agreement,” Boehner said on Fox News Sunday. “On Tuesday, the president said they need more revenue. [House Leader Eric] Cantor (R-Va.) and I said no.”

Boehner said this back and forth went on all week, until on Friday he made the decision to step back from the negotiation table.

“My last offer is still out there. I’ve never taken my last offer off the table, and they never agreed to my last offer,” Boehner added. On the other hand, “It may be pretty hard to put humpty dumpty back together again.”

However, Boehner said he is an “optimist” when it comes to reaching a deal on the debt ceiling and believes it’s his job to find “as much common ground as we can” in order to reach an agreement. 

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) suggested Saturday night that Boehner’s two-vote approach was on the table.

“One option is to do something in two tiers,” she said as she left the Capitol, “and I don’t think we can accomplish what we need to do in deficit reduction without revenues.”

Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner however showed little enthusiasm for a two-tiered vote, saying on Sunday it “makes no sense” to leave the threat of a default hovering before the next election.

(Source: The Hill)

Words of thanks from the father of Leiby Kletzky.

Rabbi Nachman Kletzky appeared on WMCA radio Saturday night making his first public comments since his 8-year-old son’s funeral. He expressed gratitude for the support his family has received since Leiby’s killing.

Rabbi Kletzky also told New Yorkers they could ensure his son’s death was not in vain by donating to a memorial fund set up by the family. The goal is to help others going through any kind of tragedy.

“For Leiby, this is what he wanted, always for somebody else,” said Rabbi Kletzky. “Whoever knew him as a kid, he always had in mind everybody else so I’m doing it just for him.”

For more information about the memorial fund, click here. Rabbi Kletzky says his goal is to raise at least $1 million.

(Source: WCBSTV)

The traveling public could unwittingly play a role in closing the budget deficit, as lawmakers weigh whether to hike airline fees as part of a deal to raise the debt ceiling.

The airline industry’s Air Transport Association is raising alarm about what they claim is a proposal to double the $2.50-per-flight passenger security fee as well as impose a new departure fee on airlines.

There have been a host of possible plans floated on Capitol Hill in recent weeks. Lawmakers hit the reset button once again Friday evening as House Speaker John Boehner walked away from talks with the White House, and it’s unclear how seriously an airline fee hike is still being considered.

But ATA spokesman Steve Lott said it was still being discussed over the weekend.

The group is working “vigorously” to try and stop it, he said.

“The passenger is going to take a hit if this tax increase goes through, and it’ll make travel more expensive,” Lott told FoxNews.com. “Unfortunately, a lot of politicians see airlines and their passengers as a cash cow.”

The current $2.50 fee was imposed after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks and was meant to help fund the Department of Homeland Security’s operations. But Lott expressed concern that a hike would amount to a tax on passengers solely for the purpose of deficit reduction.

The idea apparently was hatched during the now-defunct talks led by Vice President Biden.

A July 12 slideshow from House Republican Leader Eric Cantor’s office — obtained by FoxNews.com — lists aviation fees in a category under “Biden Framework Details.” The chart estimated the potential savings from aviation and a separate pension program at $27 billion over 10 years.

According to the ATA, $15 billion of that would come from increasing the security fee to $5. Another $3 billion would come from a proposal to impose a $25-per-flight departure charge on commercial and general aviation flights, according to the ATA. That fee would be charged to the airlines directly.

Nicholas Calio, president of the ATA, warned that the pair of fees could end up hurting the aviation industry as a whole, in addition to costing passengers.

“The two new proposed taxes will hinder travel demand, limit infrastructure investment, reduce global competitiveness and ultimately cost jobs — a bad outcome for our industry, our passengers and our country, and needs to be stopped,” he said in a written statement.

However, the push for more revenue ostensibly is what broke up the latest round of White House-led talks. House Republican leaders did not return requests for comment on whether the airline security fee might still be on the table as lawmakers try to cobble together a new deficit-reduction plan.

Some lawmakers repeatedly have called for shared sacrifice in the search for a deficit-reduction deal. Under the original framework in which the aviation fees were included, several other programs and sectors were slated to take a hit as well. The chart also listed “Fannie and Freddie Fees” and “Civilian/Military Retirement” and food stamps as possible sources of savings — it’s unclear whether those particular savings are still being discussed.

But the ATA says the airline industry already is overtaxed. According to the group, a typical $300 domestic flight includes $61 in federal taxes and fees.

(Source: Fox News)

At first glance, the guy in the white polo shirt and khaki pants looks like anybody else walking down Broadway.

He’s looking forward. He walks with purpose. Now, he’s stopping to answer his phone. But a closer look reveals something unsettling: The slightly distorted image is actually me.

I was captured walking to work this week by a surveillance camera perched outside the Cozy Soup N’ Burger, a diner near Astor Place. It’s a route I’ve taken countless times before, but never had I noticed the two cameras trained on the sidewalk outside.

It turns out those cameras are far from alone. On my typical route to work, encompassing just four blocks from my apartment to the nearest subway station, I come under the unblinking eyes of a staggering 15 surveillance cameras.

It’s not only Big Brother who is watching.

These days, cameras peer out from everything from bodegas to restaurants to traffic poles.

“Surveillance cameras are now a part of our way of life,” said Mitchell Moss, a city expert and director of NYU’s Rudin Center for Transportation Policy and Management. “Cameras have become the way to manage the public spaces of our city.”

The benefits of cameras came into focus in dramatic fashion this month when surveillance footage led to the capture of the suspected killer of Leiby Kletzky, the 8-year-old Brooklyn boy who was found dead and dismembered.

There is no definitive count, but it is likely there are now tens of thousands – if not hundreds of thousands – of cameras in the city.

In 2006, the New York Civil Liberties Union launched an effort to tally the number of surveillance cameras. But the search was called off after staffers counted 8,000 between the base of Manhattan and 14th St.

“We realized they had become too numerous for us to count,” said executive director Donna Lieberman.

The vast majority were put in place in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, experts say. In the years since, they have become crucial law enforcement tools – but the proliferation of cameras in the city is not universally supported.

Lieberman points out there are still scant procedures in place to monitor those who are responsible for handling the endless amounts of footage. “People don’t expect and shouldn’t have to expect that there’s going to be a permanent record of every step they take, every smooch they give to a lover, every kind of bar or restaurant they walk into,” Lieberman said. “The possibilities of abuse are just mind-boggling.”

I’m probably better off adopting the “ignorance is bliss” mentality.

READ MORE: NY DAILY NEWS

The triple-digit scorcher that taxed the electrical grid and made life uncomfortable in the tri-state is expected to simmer down somewhat Sunday.

National Weather Service meteorologist Joe Pollina said temperatures will begin to ease Sunday but will remain in the 90s.

“Monday is really when we see cooler air coming,” he said, with forecast temperatures sinking to the low to mid-80s.

Brutal heat and humidity continued throughout Saturday.

Temperatures reached 105 degrees in Atlantic City, N.J.; 104 in Trenton, N.J.; 103 in Norfolk, Va.; 102 in Baltimore, Newark, N.J., and at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport and New York’s Kennedy Airport; and 101 in Philadelphia. But humidity made it feel hotter most places across the region.

The bubble of hot air developed over the Midwest earlier this week and has caused more than a dozen deaths as it moved eastward. As of Saturday, the medical examiner’s office in Chicago listed heat stress or heat stroke as the causes of death for eight people.

About 10,000 customers remained without power in New York City and its suburbs, and about 9,000 in New Jersey, after parts of the region’s electrical network failed. Power utility Con Edison said it was reducing the voltage in 69 other New York neighborhoods to ease the load caused by thousands of air conditioners.

City officials said water usage had soared as New Yorkers tried to keep cool. On Saturday, it hovered around 1.5 billion gallons a day, about 50 percent higher than normal, said Environmental Protection Commissioner Cas Holloway.

(Source: NBC NY)