Yeshiva World News

An FBI spokeswoman says two special agents have been shot in St. Louis County and that the incident isn’t directly related to the Ferguson protests.

Rebecca Wu, a spokeswoman with the FBI St. Louis Division, says the agents were assisting the University City Police Department execute an arrest warrant at 2:53 a.m. Wednesday.

One agent was shot in the shoulder and the other agent was shot in the leg. Wu says neither injury is life-threatening.

The flashing lights of police cars, fire trucks and ambulances could be seen near the scene of the shooting, which took place about 5 miles south of Ferguson.

(AP)

According to Ministry of Transportation data, 18% of all road deaths occur during nighttime hours and 17% of all vehicular accidents occur at night.

Deputy Minister of Transportation Tzipi Hotevely has decided to become more aggressive in fighting road accidents. She is addressing accidents that occur as a result of driver fatigue.

Hotevely has contacted the nation’s major gas companies, Paz, Sonol, Dekel and Dor Alon and they have agreed that their convenience stores will sell a cup of coffee to drivers for 1 shekel between midnight and 06:00. Hotevely hopes they will encourage drivers to stop for a cup of java and increase driver alertness on the road.

The deputy minister explained that data shows driver fatigue and a lack of driver awareness are major causes in vehicular accidents during the night and she hopes the new arrangement will reduce road deaths and injuries. .

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)

For many, it is nothing short of a miracle that the current coalition has survived as long as it has but the latest piece of legislation to challenge its continued existence is the Jewish Nation Bill. Due to the efforts of Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, the bill will not be voted on in Knesset on Wednesday 4 Kislev, as the Yisrael Beitenu party leader managed to buy a week’s time during which he hopes a version of the bill that is acceptable to all will be formulated during the coming week. However, even if this is successful, it is becoming increasingly clear to lawmakers that this current coalition is approaching its final days.

He daily Yisrael Hayom reports that Lieberman and his party have already made overtures to Likud and Bayit Yehudi, seeking to preempt others towards agreeing on a future coalition following the next election.

Opposition leader Labor party leader Yitzchak Herzog has turned to Yesh Atid and The Movement party to come on board to form an alternate coalition.

The chareidim are rumored to be conducting back-room negotiations. Chareidi lawmakers have stated of late that they have no intentions of being the saviors of this coalition, signaling they will not come in to replace any party that breaks away. Chareidim have decided elections are on the agenda.

Polls indicate that in another round of elections Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu will return to his leadership role. While the chareidim are aware of this, perhaps they are relying on polls that predict Yesh Atid will drop into the single digits from its current 19 seats. The chareidim, Yahadut Hatorah and Shas alike would like to see Yair Lapid and his party knocked down so they are no longer a senior coalition partner.

As the coalition shifts from one crisis to another, Lapid is now accusing Likud of leading the country to elections, insisting he genuinely does not want to go to the polls. Despite his noble statements, Lapid regularly threatens to bring down the government if legislation viewed as significant by his party is not passed, or in the latest case, he is threatening in the event the Jewish Nation Bill is passed.

Lapid and coalition partner The Movement party feel that the bill must be amended to place the emphasis on Israel being a democratic nation above its Jewish character while currently, the Jewish aspect of the nation’s identity is the priority. Lapid and Livni feel this would be discriminatory to Arab and other non-Jewish citizens.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)

Residents of Gaza’s Shajaia neighborhood and nearby areas are refusing to enter into caravan homes donated to Gaza by the Turkish Government ahead of winter. According to Housing and Public Works Minister Mufeed Al-Hassayna, tens of thousands of homes must be restored and rebuilt following the warfare with Israel this summer, Operation Protective Edge.

UN Mideast Envoy Robert Serry is working as the international organization is overseeing efforts to rebuild Gaza. He reports agreement has been reached to permit importing materials into Gaza to rebuild and repair 25,000 homes. Al-Hassayna explains that in the coming days, the names of those eligible for the assistance to rebuild their homes will be announced. The housing minister adds that Qatar has pledged to spend $1.4 million for 100 temporary housing units.

A Maariv report quoting Gaza resident “Ibrahim” explains that residents are remaining in bombed out buildings despite the winter climate for they fear if they move into the caravan homes that situation will become permanent.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)

Chabad Shaliach to India Rabbi Shmulil Sharf is getting married again after his rebitzen, Miri Sharf HY”D, was killed when a Hamas rocket made a direct hit on a Kiryat Malachi home in 2012, during Operation Pillar of Defense. The chasenah will take place IY”H on Tuesday night the eve of 4 Kislev in Kfar Chabad.

Rabbi Sharf, who is a shaliach in New Delhi was visiting family in southern Israel when the attack occurred. He will be marrying Margalit, who will become the mother of his three children and serve as his wife in their ongoing shlichus in India.

Both the rav and his son Yosef sustained serious injuries in the rocket attack. They were unable to participate in the levaya as a result of their injuries.

With a great deal of Siyata Dishmaya, about ten months after being injured the rav and his children returned to their shlichus in India.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)

Police in U.S. cities from Los Angeles to New York prepared for another day of demonstrations Tuesday after thousands flooded the streets, some in peaceful protest and others in riotous anger over a grand jury’s decision not to indict a white officer who killed a black 18-year-old in Ferguson, Missouri.

Renewed plans for marches and rallies came as officials in cities such as Oakland, California, were still cleaning up after scores of people hurled bottles, broke windows, set small fires and vandalized a police car.

At least 40 people were arrested in the melee that escalated after some protesters shut down traffic on a major highway in the San Francisco Bay Area, though no injuries were reported.

In Seattle, police responded with pepper spray and flash-bang grenades after demonstrators threw canned food, bottles and rocks. Protesters also briefly shut down part of an interstate. Five were arrested.

In New York, a man was arrested for throwing red paint that struck Police Commissioner William Bratton and his security detail.

Elsewhere nationwide, demonstrators were mostly law-abiding Monday night, leading marches, waving signs and shouting chants of “hands up, don’t shoot,” a refrain that has become a rallying cry in protests over police killings across the country.

Activists had planned protests even before the nighttime announcement that Officer Darren Wilson would not be charged in Michael Brown’s shooting death.

The racially charged case in Ferguson has inflamed tensions and reignited debates over police-community relations even in cities hundreds of miles from the predominantly black St. Louis suburb.

Rallies were planned Tuesday in many Newark, New Jersey; Portland, Maine; Baltimore; Washington, D.C.; and elsewhere. In the nation’s capital, one group lay on the ground to stage a “die-in” in front of Metro police headquarters. The group plans to occupy various buildings in the district over 28 hours.

“Mike Brown is an emblem (of a movement). This country is at its boiling point,” said Ethan Jury, a protester in Philadelphia, where hundreds marched. “How many people need to die? How many black people need to die?”

Protests could continue Tuesday in California, including in Oakland, where marchers took over Interstate 580.

In Los Angeles, demonstrations remained mostly small and peaceful, but about 200 people marching toward downtown briefly shut down Interstate 110, City News Service reported.

After midnight, officers wearing riot gear fired hard-foam projectiles into the ground to disperse about 50 protesters downtown, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Police Chief Charlie Beck said Tuesday there were no injuries and no property damage during hours-long demonstrations across LA. Three people were arrested.

After a night of rallies in Chicago, dozens of protesters upset with the grand jury’s decision camped out at the doors of Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s office inside City Hall and planned to remain there throughout the day and overnight. They were holding teach-ins on political issues and “healing circles” for people to discuss experiences with violence in Chicago.

In New York, mostly peaceful protesters swarmed through traffic, closely trailed by police, as they marched to Times Square for a rally.

Another crowd of several hundred continued north up Columbus Avenue on Manhattan’s Upper West Side shouting “Don’t shoot!”

They were flanked by police on foot and in vehicles with their lights flashing. The activists stopped traffic for more than a dozen blocks.

Police said protesters briefly shut down the Brooklyn Bridge and one of the three spans of the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge, formerly known as the Triborough Bridge.

(AP)

During a session of the Knesset Interior Committee on Monday, 2 Kislev, Israel Police Brigadier-General Amitai Levy explained the department evaluates the security situation and makes daily decisions regarding what is required in the nation’s schools and other venues.

Committee members are calling on police to reinstate school patrols in which cars are assigned to patrol schools in a particular district. Regev wants to see demobilized soldiers placed at schools to provide protection, calling on Finance Minister Yair Lapid to withdraw his objections to such a plan. Regev asked Levy is Police Chief Yochanan Danino is on top of things and if the concerns surrounding the protection of the nation’s schools amid the escalating wave of attacks and Islamic terror are being addressed. She asked if Danino has consulted with senior commanders and if he is being briefed on concerns and the daily situation in schools around the country.

Levy insists the matter of protecting the schools is part of the daily briefing sessions for the chief and the decisions made vary from city to city and municipality to municipality. He cited Modi’in and Oranit as two examples in which security arrangements over the last year have changed to include school patrols, and facilitating operations for security companies.

Regev stated Minister of Public Security Yitzchak Aharonovich and Chief Danino have not made major changes and the reality is a city or municipality with the funds will finance security for its schools while cities without money will have to permit their children to remain at risk.

She is calling for security companies and 5,000 soldiers, with the latter to be given preferential terms to encourage demobilized soldiers to respond to the needs of the system. “It is not an embarrassment to ask the IDF for assistance for such an overwhelming mission” added Regev. She stresses parents have a right to be concerned for when children are heading to school they are increasingly vulnerable and therefore both the Israel Police are IDF are needed for this major operation.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)

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An aide to St. Louis County Prosecutor Bob McCulloch is defending the timing of the grand jury announcement in the Ferguson case, even as some question whether the nighttime announcement fed the unrest.

McCulloch held a news conference at 8 p.m. Monday to disclose that the grand jury declined to indict Ferguson police Officer Darren Wilson for killing 18-year-old Michael Brown.

The announcement led to violent protests.

Former two-term Ferguson Mayor Brian Fletcher says it should have been announced early in the day to give police more time to prepare for any nighttime unrest.

McCulloch spokesman Ed Magee says the timing allowed for coordination with law enforcement, gave schools time to get kids home safely, and gave businesses time to decide what was best for them.

(AP)

Attorney General Eric Holder said Tuesday he was “disappointed” by the violence in Ferguson, Missouri, that followed a grand jury’s decision not to indict Officer Darren Wilson for killing Michael Brown.

“It is clear, I think, that acts of violence threaten to drown out those who have legitimate voices, legitimate demonstrators,” Holder told reporters. “Those acts of violence cannot and will not be condoned.”

Holder said he was encouraged by some of the peaceful demonstrations in the suburban St. Louis city and by those protesters who discouraged others from rioting, calling them “heroes, in my mind.”

The attorney general said he has instructed his staff to work with leaders of the nonviolent protests to help root out and isolate anyone bent on destruction. He also has asked for an after-action review to help identify “criminal elements” in otherwise peaceful demonstrations.

Minutes after the decision not to indict Wilson was announced Monday night, protesters poured into the streets of Ferguson. Some commercial buildings were burned down and dozens of people were arrested, many for burglary and trespassing. Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon said more than 2,200 National Guardsmen will be in place in the region near Ferguson on Tuesday night in the event of more violence.

“This is a difficult time for people in Ferguson. It’s a difficult time for people in our country,” Holder said.

Separate from the county grand jury probe, the Justice Department is conducting a civil rights investigation into the Aug. 9 shooting of Brown, an unarmed black 18-year-old, and is also investigating the policing practices of the entire Ferguson police department.

Holder said the department was looking to complete those investigations as quickly as possible “to restore trust, to rebuild understanding and to foster cooperation between law enforcement and community members.”

(AP)

At a time many feel the current coalition government is all but done for, opposition leader MK Yitzchak Herzog is looking ahead, calling on the Yesh Atid and The Movement parties to agree to enter into a coalition with Labor.

At the start of a faction meeting on Monday 2 Kislev, Herzog stated “Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is jeopardizing the nation’s basic and fundamental interests with his decisions and policies…” Herzog blames the Netanyahu administration for failing in the areas of the economy, social issues, security and peace-making efforts.

“It is not too late” Herzog (15 seats) told his colleagues from The Movement (6) and Yesh Atid (19), as he tries to persuade them to join forces to bring an alternative government to the nation. Should such a union occur, it would result in a coalition of 40 seats, a far cry from the minimum required, 61. Hence, Yesh Atid and The Movement can break from the coalition and topple the government, but the trio coalition would be insufficient to form a new coalition. If Yahadut Hatorah (7) enters with Shas (11), there would be a total of 58, closer but still lacking.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)

Two unarmed black teenagers shot dead. Two very different reactions from President Barack Obama.

In contrast to the deeply personal response that Obama delivered last year after a Florida jury found Trayvon Martin’s killer not guilty, America’s first black president was more restrained in speaking after a Missouri grand jury declined to indict Michael Brown’s shooter.

The cases have many differences, most notably that the bullets that took Brown’s life came from a policeman’s gun after a confrontation on the street.

Obama’s call for calm Monday night was not heeded by the protesters in the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson who torched buildings and police cars, smashed and looted storefront windows and fired gunshots. In a real-time display of the limits of his influence, television networks showed Obama’s remarks from the White House on a split screen with live video of the violence.

“We are a nation built on the rule of law, and so we need to accept that this decision was the grand jury’s to make,” Obama said in response to the decision not to charge police officer Darren Wilson in Brown’s death.

White House officials are still considering whether Obama should travel to Ferguson, weighing the importance of the moment with the risk of inflaming tensions. They say a trip won’t come this week with the Thanksgiving holiday, giving them time to watch the response unfold and consider the president’s options. The White House said Obama senior adviser Valerie Jarrett reached out to Attorney General Eric Holder and civil rights leaders, while Broderick Johnson, who heads Obama’s My Brother’s Keeper Task Force, called the Missouri congressional delegation.

Speaking at the White House half an hour after the grand jury’s decision was announced, Obama tried to give voice to the feelings on all sides of the racially charged questions that have risen since Brown was killed Aug. 9. The president pleaded with both residents and police to show restraint. He said the case was a demonstration of how America’s legacy of racial discrimination has led distrust between law enforcement and minorities, but he also sought to dispel the notion that race relations have deteriorated.

The balanced middle ground stood in contrast to the stance Obama took in July 2013 after the acquittal of George Zimmerman, the neighborhood watch volunteer who fatally shot Martin as he walked back from a convenience store. “Trayvon Martin could have been me 35 years ago,” Obama said then, going on to describe how he had experienced being followed in a department store or hearing drivers lock their doors when he walked by.

Marcia Chatelain, who teaches black history at Georgetown University and has written extensively about how educators can speak to students about Ferguson, said Obama’s remarks Monday night “felt a lot emptier” than they did following the Martin case. She cited three major differences between the two situations — that the president seemed to personally identify with Martin in a way he didn’t with Brown; that he was responding to anxiety about violence in Missouri that wasn’t a factor in Florida and that the more recent case involved law enforcement. Still, she said she wished he would have spoken out about Ferguson sooner, and differently.

“When we look at this moment and we look at the president’s words, they just were not sufficient to really fully recognize what was happening to the people of Ferguson,” she said. “Even with the power of the office of the president, that message wasn’t strong enough because the fear and the violence and the victimization are even stronger.”

(AP)

President Barack Obama says there’s “no excuse” for burning buildings, torching cars and destroying property in response to the grand jury decision in Ferguson, Missouri.

Obama says such “destructive” actions are criminal and those who are responsible should be prosecuted.

The president is speaking in Chicago a day after a Missouri grand jury declined to indict a police officer in 18-year-old Michael Brown’s death.

Obama says he understands that many people are upset by that decision. He says their frustration is rooted in a sense that laws are not always being enforced “uniformly and fairly” in communities of color.

(AP)

MK (The Movement) Amir Peretz, who recently resigned as a member of the cabinet due to his objections to government policies, is now pushing a bill that will permit the direct election of the prime minister. At present, the party with the most number of seats is generally given the presidential mandate to assemble a coalition. If the party succeeds, then the head of the large party becomes prime minister.

Peretz fears that as Bayit Yehudi continues growing in popularity, it is not impossible that Bennett will find himself as the nation’s prime minister and he wishes to avoid this at all cost. Peretz wants voters to elect the prime minister and then place a separate ballot for the party of choice. He is confident that while more people will be voting for Bayit Yehudi, they will not select Bennett as their candidate to run the nation.

Peretz told Kol Berama Radio on Tuesday 3 Kislev that if the Jewish Nation Bill passes in the current text, then extremists like Bennett as he views him, will have additional power. He feels it is imperative to stop him now before he can possibly become a viable candidate to become prime minister.

There have been direct elections for a prime minister three times but the law flipped flopped and is now back to the old system, one vote per voter, with the latter selecting a party and not a person. In 1996, 1999 and 2001 the nation voted directly for prime minister.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)

Consumers across most of America will see their health insurance premiums go up next year for popular plans under President Barack Obama’s health care law.

But it will take time for families to figure out the best bang for their budgets — even as a bigger political battle brews over the program’s future.

For many people, government subsidies will cushion the hit. And there’s a new factor: Returning customers who are savvy about health insurance and prepared to shop for a better deal.

Scott Joens of St. George, Utah, said he and his wife are facing premium increases of about 18 percent for 2015. But instead of agonizing, he’s looking for a plan with a higher deductible, which is the amount of medical expenses that consumers are responsible for each year before insurance kicks in. By switching, he could lower his monthly premiums.

Joens, in his 50s and semi-retired from the pharmacy business, said he’ll worry if the trend keeps going.

“It’s not a major hardship,” he said. “But I still have some years until I am on Medicare. My worry is by the time I’m 65, who knows where this will be?” Overall, he said he’s been very satisfied with his “gold” plan this year.

Experts say numbers alone don’t tell the story.

“How all this shakes out will depend on one big wild card,” said Larry Levitt of the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation. “Will current enrollees become savvy shoppers or just sit back and stay in their current plans? This is a new program with no precedent, so there’s no way to predict exactly what will happen.”

In a departure from the process that officials followed last year, the administration has not released its own analysis of 2015 premiums. Instead, it published raw data, leaving it to independent experts to parse the numbers.

What they are finding points to an overall trend of rising premiums, although not everywhere.

The analysts have focused on “silver” plans, the coverage level picked by about two-thirds of the customers on HealthCare.gov and state-run health insurance markets. There are four levels — platinum, gold, silver and bronze. Silver is a notch below what most people with employer coverage have.

A study from the market analysis firm Avalere Health found that premiums for the lowest-cost silver plan will go up by 10 percent on average in communities across the country.

A Kaiser Foundation study took a different approach, focusing on premiums for the second-lowest-cost silver plan in every county. That type of plan is a benchmark that the government uses as a basis for setting consumer premium subsidies for the entire program.

Kaiser found that premiums for the second-lowest-cost silver plan are going up in 59 percent of counties nationwide, down in 34 percent, and remaining flat in 7 percent. Eighteen percent of counties will see an increase of more than 10 percent. At the other end of the spectrum, 13 percent of counties will see a decrease of more than 10 percent.

If you are currently in the second-lowest-cost silver plan in your community, there’s no guarantee that will be the case for 2015. Another insurer may have bid lower and captured the designation. People who don’t shop around could face significant price increases.

The rise isn’t too far out of line with what’s happening to employer-sponsored plans, which cover about 150 million people and make up the biggest chunk of the health-insurance market. Costs in those plans, which usually are more restrained than prices in the individual market, are expected to rise about 4.6 percent on average next year, according to a recent survey from benefits consultant Mercer.

Still, Levitt said many consumers will have the opportunity to find a lower-cost plan.

“In some places, premiums are actually going down, which is almost unheard of in health insurance,” he said.

That’s what Robert Glenn of Charleston, South Carolina, found when he started looking around. The premium for his current gold plan actually dropped by $17 for 2015. Nonetheless, Glenn re-evaluated his options, figuring he would save more next year by picking a middle-of-the-road silver plan instead. His new monthly premium will be $104 less than what he is currently paying.

“I see the forces of capitalism and competition working this year,” said Glenn, a psychiatrist in his early 30s who’s an independent contractor. “I know I am just but one of millions of people affected … but ‘Obamacare’ is working for me.”

Kaiser’s analysis found wide differences from state to state, and even within states. Some of the steepest premium increases for benchmark plans are for counties in Alaska and Minnesota. Most counties in Georgia will see decreases. Premiums are trending up in Florida and Texas, prime targets of the administration’s enrollment drive for 2015.

Stephanie Baechle, a nanny from Columbia, Mo., says she’s not happy. Although she’s in her 20s — a desirable demographic for insurers— market forces seem to be pushing more costs at her.

Her current plan is being canceled. The alternative she’s being offered costs $15 a month more, and the copay is higher. On top of that, her doctor is not in the new plan.

“As a supporter of the Affordable Care Act, I am extremely disappointed in what is happening,” said Baechle, who said she’s considering not signing up for insurance and instead paying the fine levied against those who go uncovered.

(AP)

In what most would view as an unrealistic occurrence, former Minister of Environmental Affairs Amir Peretz told the media he does not rule out being the person to replace Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu.

Peretz, a member of The Movement party, recently resigned from the cabinet over the administration’s policies. He feels his party should break from the coalition as well. Peretz, who defected to The Movement after being unseated as Labor party leader, now feels he might be the man Israelis will vote for to replace the prime minister. He modestly adds that The Movement leader Justice Minister Tzipi Livni and opposition leader Yitzchak Herzog are also suitable candidates.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)

Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon has ordered additional members of the National Guard to Ferguson, where violent protests broke out following the grand jury’s decision not to indict Officer Darren Wilson.

Nixon’s office announced early Tuesday that the additional guardsmen will provide security at the Ferguson Police Department, which was at the center of protests late Monday and early Tuesday. The governor says the presence of additional troops will free up the police to provide more protection.

Wilson shot and killed 18-year-old Michael Brown on Aug. 9. The grand jury decision led to protests in the area. Several buildings were burned down in Ferguson and demonstrators smashed store windows in downtown St. Louis. More than 80 people were arrested.

(AP)