Yeshiva World News

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Tuesday, 5 Adar, toured IDF Southern Command headquarters. He received a security briefing; Defense Minister Moshe Ayalon, IDF Chief-of-Staff Lt.-Gen. Gadi Eizenkott and Southern District Commander Major-General Sammy Turgeman.

The prime minister used the opportunity to get his message out regarding the Hamas threat from Gaza. Mr. Netanyahu stated “Even after Hamas took the severest blow in its history, we are continuing to monitor its activities and we are prepared for any and all developments. I came here with the Defense Minister in order to be updated by the IDF on our deployment and on our possibilities for future action.

“It must be understood that Hamas, Islamic Jihad and all the other terrorist organizations are acting with the full support of Iran, which has openly declared its intention to destroy the State of Israel.

“To my regret, the information which has reached me in recent days greatly strengthens our concerns regarding the agreement being formulated between the major powers and Iran. This agreement, if indeed it is signed, will allow Iran to become a nuclear threshold state. That is, with the consent of the major powers, Iran – which openly declares its intention to destroy the State of Israel – will receive a license to develop the production of bombs.

“This is a bad agreement that endangers our future. It is my obligation as Prime Minister to do everything that I can to prevent this agreement; therefore, I will go to Washington to address the American Congress because the American Congress is likely to be the final brake before the agreement between the major powers and Iran.”

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)

The White House is threatening to veto a Republican bill to fix the widely criticized No Child Left Behind law that is set for debate in the House on Wednesday, calling it “a significant step backwards.”

Republicans say the bill would restore local control in schools and stop top-down education mandates. Democrats say it would allow billions in federal dollars to flow out without ensuring they will improve student learning.

The White House said the measure “abdicates the historic federal role in elementary and secondary education of ensuring the educational progress of all of America’s students, including students from low-income families, students with disabilities, English learners, and students of color.”

The White House’s statement Wednesday is the latest in a series of veto threats issued since both chambers of Congress went under Republican control last month for the first time in Barack Obama’s presidency.

A vote is expected on Friday, and it’s possible that members will vote strictly along party lines. That’s what happened with a similar bill in 2013.

The bill maintains annual federal testing requirements. It consolidates or eliminates many federal programs, creates a single local grant program and allows public money to follow low-income children to different public schools. It would also prohibit the federal education secretary from demanding changes to state standards or imposing conditions on states in exchange for a waiver around federal law.

The bipartisan law President George W. Bush signed in 2002 sought to close significant gaps in the achievement of historically underserved group of students and their more affluent peers. It mandated annual testing in reading and math for students in grades three to eight and again in high school. Schools had to show student growth or face consequences.

No Child Left Behind required that all students be able to read and do math at grade level by 2014. The Obama administration in 2012 began allowing waivers around some of the law’s more stringent requirements if schools agreed to certain conditions, like using college- and career-ready standards such as Common Core.

House Republican leaders view the bill as a way to show their opposition to the Obama administration’s encouragement of the Common Core state standards. The standards have been adopted in more than 40 states and spell out what English and math skills students should master at each level. They have become a political issue in many states because they are viewed by critics as a federal effort even though they were developed by U.S. governors.

In the Senate, there appears to be more of a bipartisan effort to fix the law. Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., the chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, and the committee’s senior Democrat, Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., have said they were working together on a proposal. Alexander said this week he wants to get a bill to the full Senate in March.

(AP)

In the heady days after winning control of both congressional chambers, Republican leaders vowed to keep the government funded and to block President Barack Obama from overhauling immigration policies on his own.

But House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell never crafted a plan to do both. And as events turned against them Tuesday, McConnell said he didn’t know how Boehner would handle a political dilemma heading his way.

For all their victories in the midterm elections, Republicans have been loath to accept the limits of their success. Even with 54 of the Senate’s 100 seats, they still lack enough votes to overcome filibusters, the bill-killing tactic that Democrats are now using against Republicans after years of being on the receiving end.

Republicans confronted that cold reality on Tuesday. McConnell publicly conceded he can’t force Senate Democrats to allow action on a contentious House-passed bill. The bill would fund the Department of Homeland Security while also blocking Obama’s 2014 executive order to protect millions of immigrants from deportation even though they are here illegally.

Senate Democrats insist the two issues be separated. McConnell reluctantly yielded Tuesday, and prepared to send House Republicans an unpleasant choice.

They can keep Homeland Security funded beyond this week, inviting fury from anti-Obama groups who want to use the funding as leverage on deportation policies. Or they can let the funding lapse, and invite the type of criticism they received for a partial government shutdown in 2013.

“To me, this is a test of the new majority,” said GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina. Yet he, like McConnell, said he doesn’t know what Boehner and the House will do.

“I think Mitch’s proposal is about as good as we’ll get,” Graham said. “We’re not going to get the defunding bill through here,” he said, thanks to Senate Democrats’ solidarity.

Many House conservatives refuse to acknowledge that Senate math reality, say some senior Republicans. But groups that prize ideological consistency over pragmatism continue to call on GOP lawmakers to refuse to fund Homeland Security unless Obama yields on deportation policies.

Michael A. Needham, head of Heritage Action, said spending bills are Congress’ only tools “to rein in executive overreach.”

Boehner, from Ohio, and McConnell, from Kentucky, are two of Congress’ savviest and most experienced negotiators. Over the decades they’ve cut deals with Democrats on education, taxes and other issues. They have a cordial, if not chummy, relationship, and their staffs confer often.

But a House speaker and a Senate majority leader must tend relentlessly to their colleagues’ needs and grievances. It’s an often thankless task that limits their ability to strike bargains with each other, let alone with presidents.

House members, in particular, have become increasingly partisan and ideological in recent years. That makes it ever more difficult for Republican and Democratic leaders to strike bipartisan accords.

Boehner gave few hints of what might come next. His spokesman Michael Steel said the Speaker “has been clear: the House has acted, and now Senate Democrats need to stop hiding” on the proposal to link Homeland Security funding to deportation actions.

The impasse also highlights the gap between the Republican Party’s congressional wing and its presidential wing. Many GOP lawmakers — especially those from staunchly conservative House districts — say it’s almost always politically safe for them to oppose Obama, illegal immigration and government bureaucracies.

To fund Homeland Security without clipping Obama’s wings on immigration “is problematic back home,” said Rep. Mark Meadows of North Carolina. Even if critics accuse Republicans of weakening Homeland Security at a time of terrorist threats, he said, a funding bill that fails to block “lawless actions on behalf of our president is not something we can stand.”

Such rhetoric, however, may not play as well with important independent and Hispanic voters in presidential elections.

Graham, who is weighing a 2016 presidential bid, said he dislikes the Democrats’ tactics, “but we’ll get the disproportionate blame” if Homeland Security partly shuts down. As an advocate of tougher military action against terrorists, he said, “I can’t have my fingerprints” on that.

Sen. John McCain of Arizona, the GOP’s 2008 presidential nominee, said it’s time for House Republicans to accept the party’s limits under Senate rules. Senate Republicans aren’t going to eliminate the filibuster, McCain said, so McConnell’s compromise “is the only path forward.”

As for how the House might react, McCain said: “I don’t know. I don’t know what they’re thinking.”

(AP)

The World Health Organization is urging Europe to step up measles vaccination efforts as countries report thousands of cases of the disease.

WHO’s regional office said Wednesday that cases in Europe and Central Asia fell by half from 2013 to 2014 but its goal of eliminating measles there this year is threatened.

It said seven countries have reported more than 22,000 cases since the beginning of last year — led by Kyrgyzstan with nearly 7,500 and Bosnia with 5,340. Russia and Georgia had more than 3,200 each and Italy more than 1,600. Germany has seen more than 570 cases.

WHO regional director Zsuzsanna Jakab says the region has seen a 96-percent reduction in measles cases over the past two decades and must act “without further delay to close immunization gaps.”

(AP)

Budget cuts forced the IRS to reduce the number of tax audits last year to the lowest level in a decade, IRS Commissioner John Koskinen said Tuesday. And the number of audits could be even lower this year.

“The math is pretty simple,” Koskinen said in a speech to the New York State Bar Association. “There are fewer audits because we have fewer auditors.”

“Audits fell in virtually every individual category and across income levels,” Koskinen said. “This continues a long-term trend that carries serious implications for our tax system and the nation.”

Koskinen’s speech comes in the middle of tax season, just as millions of Americans are filing their annual returns.

Last year, the IRS audited 1.2 million individual tax returns. That’s less than 1 percent of the returns that were filed, the lowest rate since 2004.

Koskinen said the IRS is down more than 2,200 revenue agents since 2010. Last year, a little more than 11,600 revenue agents examined returns, and Koskinen is warning that the number of agents will decline again this year.

Congress has cut the agency’s budget by $1.2 billion since 2010. The IRS will receive $10.9 billion for the budget year that ends in September.

President Barack Obama has proposed a $12.9 billion budget for the IRS in the coming budget year — about an 18 percent increase. The proposal, however, was not well-received by Republicans who control Congress.

The agency’s budget cuts have come as the IRS is starting to play a bigger role in implementing Obama’s health care law. For the first time, taxpayers have to report on their tax returns whether they have health insurance.

Millions of taxpayers who are receiving tax credits to help pay insurance premiums have to report them as well.

Some Republicans in Congress have vowed to cut IRS funding as a way to stifle implementation of the health care law.

Koskinen has said it won’t work. He said the IRS is required to enforce the law, so other areas will have to be cut, including taxpayer services and enforcement.

The agency projects that about half the people who call the IRS for assistance this filing season won’t be able to get through to a person. The agency is also considering shutting down operations for two days later this year — after tax season — resulting in unpaid furloughs for employees and service cuts for taxpayers, Koskinen said.

(AP)

Hillary Rodham Clinton said Tuesday if she decides to seek the White House again she would seek to bring Republicans from red states and Democrats in blue states into a “nice, warm, purple space” that would encourage problem-solving.

Clinton, the leading Democratic contender should she run, referred to her likely presidential campaign in hypothetical terms during an interview on stage at a women’s conference in Silicon Valley. But she said anyone who mounts a campaign for president in 2016 should make economic growth and restoring rising wages a top priority along with rebuilding trust and cooperation in the nation.

“I’d like to bring people from right and left, red, blue, get them into a nice, warm, purple space where everybody is talking and where we’re actually trying to solve problems. That would be my objective,” Clinton said at a paid appearance before the Watermark Silicon Valley Conference for Women. It was her first U.S. speech of 2015 and offered clues of how she might conduct a campaign as she huddles with advisers about a possible campaign for the Democratic nomination.

Presidential politics was an undercurrent throughout her remarks and a question-and-answer session with Kara Swisher, the co-executive editor of technology media company Re/code. During her speech, the former secretary of state encouraged female technology executives to do more to help women grow in leadership.

“What you do does not have to be big and dramatic. You don’t have to run for office,” she said to knowing laughter and applause. “Although if you do, more power to you.”

Swisher got into the act, drawing laughs from Clinton when she recalled her recent interview with President Barack Obama and eagerness “to interview another president.”

Even in the high-flying technology sector, Clinton said, many women struggle in the workplace with policies related to family leave and child care. She pointed to Oscar winner Patricia Arquette’s appeals for pay equity at Sunday’s Academy Awards ceremony. “She’s right. It’s time to have wage equality once and for all,” Clinton said.

“In so many ways, our economy still seems to be operating like its 1955,” Clinton said. Describing a challenging economy for many workers, she said that “wages no longer rise with productivity while CEO pay keeps going up” and the nation would need to find balance in the economy so that all workers could benefit.

Clinton did not specifically address whether she would support Obama’s proposed authorization in Congress to use military force against Islamic State militants. She said in the interview that “a lot of the right moves are being made, but this is a really complicated and long-term problem.”

The IS threat, Clinton said, is “a very hard challenge because you can’t very well put American or Western troops into fight this organism” and she pointed to the U.S. need for military partners in Iraq and the Middle East.

Asked about whistleblower Edward Snowden, Clinton said she could “never condone” what he did. “He stole millions of documents, and the great irony is that the vast majority of those documents had nothing to do with American civil liberties or privacies,” she said.

Clinton was asked about the impact on the technology sector following damaging revelations that the U.S. government was collecting phone records and digital communications of millions of people not suspected of wrongdoing. She said the National Security Agency needs to be “more transparent” about its activities and act lawfully. The U.S., she said, needs to determine “what the rules are and then we have to make it absolutely clear that we are going to hold them accountable.”

Clinton said the use of strong data encryption by technology companies required a “balance” with the needs of law enforcement. She also said she supports a Federal Communications Commission plan on “net neutrality” that would put Internet service in the same regulatory place as the telephone.

Clinton has kept a low profile so far this year but is starting to take a more public approach as she heads toward her expected 2016 campaign for president. Like the Silicon Valley event, many of her upcoming speeches will address female audiences.

In March, Clinton is scheduled to appear at a gala for EMILY’s List, which supports female Democratic candidates who support abortion rights, an awards ceremony in Washington for political journalists and a U.N. meeting on women’s rights.

(AP)

Congressional Republicans are laying the groundwork for an overhaul of the nation’s food stamp program, trying again after an unsuccessful attempt two years ago.

House Agriculture Chairman Mike Conaway, R-Texas, said Tuesday that his panel is starting a comprehensive, multiyear review of the program to see what’s working. He said “either huge reforms or small reforms” could come from that, though he wouldn’t detail what those might be.

Conaway says a 2013 GOP effort to cut food stamps “didn’t resonate well” because Republicans didn’t spell out why it was important. House Republican leaders tried unsuccessfully to cut the program by 5 percent annually by passing a bill with broad new work requirements.

“In order for this thing to work we have to have the American people supporting it, understand what’s working and not working,” Conaway said.

Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Pat Roberts, R-Kan., has said he will do a similar review.

The food stamp program, now called the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, serves more than 46 million Americans and costs $74 billion last year. That’s twice the program’s 2008 cost.

In 2013, GOP leaders held up a massive farm bill for more than a year, insisting that money for farm programs be paired with cuts to SNAP.

Democrats balked, and the final bill included a much smaller cut, scaling back policy that entitled some low-income families to more SNAP aid if they received federal heating assistance. Congress estimated then that the cut would trim SNAP by about 1 percent annually, but the amount is likely much lower because several states found ways to avoid the cuts.

The House Agriculture Committee will start its review this week with two hearings.

Some Democrats say they are wary of the review process. Agriculture Committee member James McGovern, a Massachusetts Democrat who is a longtime advocate for food stamps, said he wonders why the SNAP program is singled out for review and not expensive farm programs.

“I am deeply concerned about this,” McGovern said. “This is a program that by and large works.”

(AP)

Faced with the task of preserving a GOP Senate majority in 2016, Sen. Mitch McConnell gave his blessing Tuesday for an election calendar that would let fellow Republican Rand Paul run for president and re-election to the Senate at the same time.

McConnell, the Senate majority leader, endorsed Paul’s bid to create a Kentucky presidential caucus in 2016, a move that would allow Paul to run for president and re-election without appearing on the ballot twice in the same election, which is barred by Kentucky law.

“Senator McConnell’s initial reaction to the caucus proposal could best be described as respectful skepticism,” McConnell’s chief of staff Brian McGuire said in a written statement first reported by the Lexington Herald-Leader. “But after a lengthy discussion of the details with Senator Paul he has become convinced that switching from a primary to a caucus is worth his support.”

McGuire noted the caucus would be a one-time event and Paul would raise money to pay for it so it “would do no damage to the state party or interfere with this year’s state races.”

The state party’s central committee is scheduled to vote on the proposal March 7. Paul has already written to committee members asking them to approve the change. Other prominent Republicans supporting the idea include U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie and Republican candidate for governor James Comer.

The caucus would only apply to the primary election. If Paul wins the Republican nomination for president and U.S. Senate, he would likely need a court order to appear on the ballot twice in November’s general election.

(AP)

The Movement for Quality Government (MQG) on Tuesday, 5 Adar sent a letter to the Office of Rishon L’Tzion HaGaon HaRav Yitzchak Yosef Shlita, requesting that he refrain from making a planned visit to Netivot on the eve of the elections for the 20th Knesset.

The rav is planning his first visit to the southern city next week, which the MQG feels will send a subliminal message to voters to back Shas in the election. The movement feels such a visit at this time would be illegal, and it is calling on the rav to postpone his visit.

MQG officials explain the election law prohibits civil servants from taking part in electioneering and therefore, a chief rabbi may not take part in any activity for one party or another.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)

The U.S. Secret Service says it will fly drones over the Washington area in the near future.

The agency isn’t disclosing exactly where the exercises will take place other than that they’ll involve areas where flights are typically restricted. Airspace above the White House, the U.S. Capitol and other sensitive sites in Washington is heavily restricted.

The Secret Service says the exercises have been carefully planned and coordinated with other government agencies, and will be “tightly controlled.”

The reason for the exercises isn’t clear. But they come amid heightened scrutiny about the security risks posed by drones. Last month, a government employee who was flying a drone recreationally crashed it into the White House grounds accidentally.

The Obama administration recently proposed long-awaited rules for flying commercial drones in U.S. skies.

(AP)

Unidentified drones flew over the Eiffel Tower and key Paris landmarks for a second night running, further baffling French authorities who are investigating the mysterious phenomenon at a time of high security across the country.

Police sighted one or more drones in five instances buzzing in the Paris sky in the night of Tuesday to Wednesday — from 11.30 p.m. to 2 a.m. An inquiry was launched after drones, which are banned over Paris, were spotted Monday night.

Paris prosecutors’ spokeswoman Agnes Thibault-Lecuivre says an unidentified flying object was first seen near the Gare de l’Est train station Tuesday night, with sightings continuing over the Paris Opera, then on to the Tuileries gardens, past the Eiffel Tower and then south past Paris’ Montparnasse Tower.

(AP)

The Israel Electric Company on Monday, 4 Adar cut the power for a number of hours to residents of PA (Palestinian Authority) occupied Jenin and Shechem. The move is symbolic, perhaps to place the plight of the utility company back in the headlines as Israel compels IEC to continue supplying electricity to the East Jerusalem Electric Company for the PA despite a staggering PA bill of 1.9 billion shekels. In short, the Israeli taxpayer continues to foot the bill for electricity to PA autonomous areas.

The power outage was short lived, under an hour, but it is reported in the media and the issue of the PA receiving free electricity is once again in the news, albeit nothing is done to change this reality.

An Israel Electric Company official told the press he hopes this will compel someone or a government agency to act towards making payment.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)

Four British Security Service officers have testified at the U.S. trial of a terrorism suspect charged with plotting to bomb a shopping mall in Manchester, England.

Identified only by four-digit numbers and wearing makeup, the MI5 agents on Tuesday described weeks of surveillance they conducted on Abid Naseer in 2009.

The agents said they observed Naseer during a case dubbed “Operation Pathway.” They said Naseer was given the code name “Small Panel.”

The 28-year-old Naseer is defending himself in federal court in Brooklyn. He has pleaded not guilty. Prosecutors say the British plot was part of a broader al-Qaida conspiracy calling on other cells to attack civilians in New York and Denmark.

The agents described Naseer’s movements to and from an Islamic center, a cybercafe and elsewhere.

Asked during cross-examination if his movements seemed suspicious, an agent said no.

(AP)

Once again, Arabs in the northern capital attacked a Jerusalem light rail as it passed through the predominately Arab Shuafat area of the capital. The latest attack occurred on Tuesday, 5 Adar. The attack was at least the third in as many days.

Nothing appears to be done as the Arab violence in predominately Arab areas of the capital appears to be becoming increasingly frequent.

As was the case in previous attack, B’chasdei Hashem there were no fatalities or injuries but windows on the cars have been smashed and this places an entire car out of service until a replacement can be installed.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)

The Chofetz Chaim can be seen starting at 0:56 in the video.

The First World Congress (Knessia Gedolah) of the World Agudath Israel the first major gathering of all the different sects of Klal Yisroel which took place in Vienna starting from Elul 3, 5683 / August 15, 1923 and which lasted for ten days.

The following text was published on YouTube and appears under the video:

(World Congress of Agudas Yisroel, new organization of Orthodox Jews, in session. Shots of delegates arriving before Congress Building (the old circus building) in Zirkue Strasse. Group shot with Chief Rabbi Chaim Sechor (Roumania) in center. Group with Rabbi Lee Preschner, member of the business committee of the association. Group with Rabbi Ehrmann (Frankfort, Germany) in conversation. Dr. Jacob Rosenheim (Frankfort) leader of the new movement. Dr. Leo Jung (New York). Sally Guggenheim. Chief Rabbi Spitzer (Czechoslovakia). Delegate from Palestine. Chief Rabbi Lowenstein (Zurich, Switzerland). Dr. Kirschbaum (Warsaw, Poland), deputy in the Sejm (Polish Parliament). Chief Rabbi Permutier (Warsaw), Sejm deputy. The famous 90 year old Rabbi Yisrael Meier Hakohen (Radin), also called “Chofez Chaim” after his great work. Identifications of delegates may be incorrect.)

הכנסייה הראשונה יועדה להתקיים בחודש אלול תרע”ד (1914), אך מספר שבועות לפני התאריך המיועד פרצה מלחמת העולם הראשונה.

המועד: ג’-י’ באלול תרפ”ג (1923). המקום: וינה. בכנסייה השתתפו כ-900 צירים.

בין המשתתפים: החפץ חיים, האדמו”ר הרב אברהם מרדכי אלתר מגור, הרב חיים עוזר גרודז’ינסקי מווילנא, האדמו”ר הרב ישראל פרידמן מצ’ורטקוב, האדמו”ר רבי משה פרידמן מבויאן, האדמו”ר הרב יצחק זליג מורגנשטרן מסוקולוב, הרב מאיר דן פלוצקי בעל ה”כלי חמדה”, הרב מאיר שפירא מלובלין, הרב משה מרדכי אפשטיין מסלבודקה, הרב מאיר אטלס משאוויל, הרב יוסף יהודה ליב בלוך מטלז, הרב יהודה לייב צירלסון מקישינב, הרב איסר זלמן מלצר מסלוצק.

A wide swath of the country was shivering in freezing, record-breaking temperatures while other areas were expecting more winter precipitation Tuesday.

A mix of snow, sleet, rain and freezing rain was expected in parts of the southern Plains and the South, where school districts in more than a half-dozen states from Texas eastward canceled or delayed classes. Even parts of the coastal Carolinas were bracing for some precipitation.

Meanwhile, the East Coast was enduring colder-than-usual weather. Temperatures were well below average in many spots, and even far below zero.

Here’s a look at what’s happening:

———

SNOW FOR SALE

A Massachusetts man found a way to profit from the several feet of snow in his yard: Shipping it to people in warmer climates for the bargain price of $89 for six pounds.

Kyle Waring, of Manchester-by-the-Sea, got the idea while shoveling snow. He’s launched ShipSnowYo.com.

At first, he shipped 16.9-ounce snow-filled bottles for $19.99, but he found the snow melted by the time it arrived at its destination.

So he came up with a new plan, selling six pounds at a time. He tells Boston.com (http://bit.ly/17SWbEt ) that even if the snow melts a little by the time it arrives, the package can still make 10 to 15 snowballs.

———

NO STOPPING FOR BICYLCE COMMUTER

The cold and snow haven’t stopped Fraser Cunningham. On Friday, just as he’s been doing every single morning at 5:30 for more than 18 months, the 56-year-old GE engineer hopped on his bicycle and rode to work.

It was so cold, that his eyes literally froze open during the trek, he told The Cincinnati Enquirer (http://cin.ci/1B8SPLc).

“It’s better than freezing shut,” he said.

Cunningham hadn’t missed a day commuting by bicycle since July 22, 2013. Hoping to beat out his personal best continuous streak of one year, eight-and-a-half months, he’s been counting every day.

His route is 16.5 miles each way.

Missing a day because it’s raining, or snowing, or windy, would be a slippery slope, he said — it has to be every day.

———

SALT SHORTAGE

As snow and frigid temperatures continue in Ohio, communities in parts of the state are running short on road salt, city officials said.

Some cities like Chagrin Falls and North Ridgeville have waited weeks for hundreds of tons of ordered salt, the Northeast Ohio Media Group reported (http://bit.ly/1DQsL6q ).

The region has recorded nearly 60 inches of snow since November. Lower-than average temperatures have made snow harder to melt and roads more difficult to clear.

For some cities, a serious salt problem is just one more snowfall away.

“We have enough to last this next week, but if it keeps consistently snowing it’s going to be difficult,” Middleburg Heights Service Director Jim Herron told the media group.

———

BRIDGE CLOSED

Blowing snow and a multi-vehicle crash prompted officials to close the Mackinac Bridge, which links Michigan’s upper and lower peninsulas.

Executive Secretary Bob Sweeney of the Mackinac Bridge Authority said the crash happened around 9:30 a.m. Tuesday on the causeway near the toll booths on the bridge’s north side.

It appears about eight cars were involved, he said. There was no immediate word of injuries.

Winds gusting up to 50 mph were blowing snow off the frozen Straits of Mackinac, making visibility poor, Sweeney said.

Sweeney says officers were re-routing traffic and hundreds of vehicles were waiting to cross the nearly 5-mile-long bridge.

———

SCHOOL’S OUT, SLEDDING’S IN

In North Carolina, Nicole Kincaid of Wake Forest has a 15-year-old who’s a high school freshman and a 5th-grader who’s 10. The teenager was getting ready to leave the house Tuesday morning when he got a Twitter notification of the two-hour school delay.

He was waiting at the house with friends when they learned school was canceled. Being a teenager, he went back to bed, Kincaid said.

“My 10-year-old is just waking up and going outside,” Kincaid said. “We have good sledding hills in our neighborhood. And I may join him for some of that sledding.”

———

HIKERS BEWARE

At the Top of Georgia Hostel & Hiking Center, a shelter for hikers on the Appalachian Trail, the branches of pine trees were dipping low with the weight of about 4 inches of snow, proprietor Bob Gabrielsen said Tuesday morning.

About 16 hikers spent the night Monday, Gabrielsen said, and all of them hiked out Tuesday morning on the trail, which was transformed into a bright white snowscape in the north Georgia mountains east of Hiawassee. This time of year, some hikers camp on the trail itself.

Gabrielsen warned that inexperienced hikers could find themselves in trouble, because weather forecasts aren’t always accurate, cellphone coverage can be spotty or nonexistent, and roads can be several miles away.

Some people think hiking the Appalachian Trail “is like the Pirates of the Caribbean ride where you can get off when you want to — and you can’t necessarily do that,” Gabrielsen said.

———

JET SLIPS OFF TAXIWAY

Nobody was hurt after an American Airlines jet slid off a taxiway and got stuck in the grass during wintry conditions at the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, officials said.

The MD-80 plane’s front nose gear slipped off the taxiway as the airplane turned a corner Monday night, Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Lynn Lunsford said.

Airline officials say 63 passengers and five crew members were onboard Flight 296 from San Antonio. All passengers safely exited the plane and were taken by a bus to an airport terminal.

Airline officials haven’t confirmed what caused the plane to slip off the taxiway.

(AP)