As the Yiddish saying goes "Ess felt nisht kein meshugaim" "there is no lack of crazies out there!" On October 11, 1973, Calvin Parker, Jr and Charles Hickson reported being abducted by aliens in Pascagoula, Mississippi. Decades later, in a rare interview with the Associated Press, Parker breaks his silence and stands by his story. (Oct. 11) AP
It was an event he has been reluctant to speak about, yet it shaped much of his life. Calvin Parker, now of Moss Point, along with friend Charles Hickson, claimed they were abducted by aliens while fishing on the Pascagoula River and now Parker has written a book he hopes will set the record straight.
"Pascagoula — The Closest Encounter, My Story" was recently published. It contains the first full account of the event given by Parker along with how it affected his life. It includes photos, documents and newspaper articles written through the years. It also marks the first time a transcription of a hypnosis session with Parker has been published.
The city of San Francisco has created a new "poop patrol" to clean up its streets because everyone there is really tired of seeing massive amounts of shit all over the sidewalks.
The new program will include a team of six people using pressure washers and steam cleaners to scrub feces from the city's sidewalks, according to San Francisco Public Works spokesperson Rachel Gordon. The "Poop Patrol" — "I guess that is its official name," Gordon said — will begin work in September, focusing on areas that have generated high numbers of complaints about sidewalk poop.
"We know that there’s a problem and people want it cleaned up," Gordon told BuzzFeed News Tuesday.
The scope of the problem is actually quite staggering. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the city's public works department has received 14,597 complaints about feces just since Jan. 1. The situation received renewed attention last month after a 20-pound bag of human feces was discovered sitting on a sidewalk, prompting multiple complaints to the Public Works Department.
The complaints have coincided with an explosion of calls about other street problems, such as public drug use and discarded needles, in a city that was once considered among the most beautiful and livable in the US.
In a statement to BuzzFeed News, San Francisco Mayor London Breed said that the city's "cleanliness has been impacted by human waste on our streets."
"We have increased the number of public restrooms and added street cleaners, but now we have a dedicated team to tackle this poop problem," Breed said.
Joseph Curtatone, the mayor of Somerville, Mass., said Sunday that he will never drink Sam Adams beer again after the cofounder of the Boston brewery thanked President Trump for a corporate tax cut.
“I will never drink Sam Adam's beer again!” the Democrat said on Twitter.
Why does the head of a major Jewish organization go to the Times with his complaints about Israel, instead of one of the many Jewish newspapers? What is he saying between the lines?
I glanced at this morning’s headlines and saw quite a few things that could use some attention from the president of the World Jewish Congress.
Palestinians threw bombs at the Tomb of Rachel.
Howabout a campaign, led by the World Jewish Congress, for international action to protect Jewish holy sites from violent attacks?
Kite-bombers are destroying thousands of acres of farm land belonging to kibbutzim in southern Israel.
Howabout a World Jewish Congress fundraising campaign to restore the damaged property?
Several American Jews who advocate boycotting Israel (or boycotting Jews living beyond the 1948 armistice line) were questioned for 20 or 30 minutes when they entered Israel recently. As a result, they are being made into martyrs and heroes by the international news media.
Howabout the World Jewish Congress defending Israel’s right to question those who harass and bash the Jewish state?
No..... this is not a Satmar Vaaabel, this is an anti-Semite
Ilhan Omar, who once called Israel an “apartheid regime,” but who more recently came out against the boycott Israel movement, handily won the Democratic nomination in a Minneapolis-area congressional District.
Omar, a Somali-born community activist and representative in the State House, is favored to win in November in the 5th District now held by Keith Ellison, who won the DFL primary for state attorney general. DFL is the state’s Democratic Party.
There were primaries Tuesday in four states: Minnesota, Wisconsin, Connecticut and Vermont.
Omar’s tweets about Israel have earned her notoriety in the pro-Israel community. In 2012, she said that Israel had “hypnotized the world” to ignore its “evil doings.” Defending that tweet earlier this year, she said on the same platform that calling attention to the “Israeli Apartheid regime” was not anti-Semitic.
Speaking last week at a candidates’ forum at the Beth El synagogue she affirmed her belief in Israel’s right to exist and she said she opposed the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement targeting Israel.
“It is going to be important for us to recognize Israel’s place in the Middle East and the Jewish people’s rightful place within that region,” she said, according to a report by a local news site, TC Jewfolk.
The Psagot Winery, which marketed a special bottle on the occasion of Israel’s 70th anniversary, was forced to hide the Kashrus symbol of the Badatz Eida Chareidis as reported by KAN News, but not necessarily because of the anti-Zionist ideology attributed to it. It is pointed out, the wine is still certified Kosher under the Eida Chareidis.
Journalist Uriah Elkayam exposed the behavior of the Badatz, which took place at the Psagot Winery in the Binyamin Regional Council, Shomron. A senior member of the Eida explained this was for reasons that are connected to outside parties, and not within the organization. However, the KAN News report states the Eida kashrus symbol was indeed removed because of the 70th anniversary label.
In a conversation with Kikar Shabbos News, the senior official from the Badatz said: “It’s not because there’s the symbol of the 70th anniversary on the bottles. It does not bother us. The point is, we do not have the time and the energy to fight over this with the faction that is more extreme than us.”
The official noted the Eida handled this exact issue the same way during Israel’s 60th anniversary.
“During the 60th anniversary of the Zionists, even more extreme activists from among us began a struggle to boycott the Osem Bamba company because of the it contained the symbol of the festivities”, he said.
It should be recalled that the inscription ‘Special Edition on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the State of Israel’, which appeared about a decade ago on a nougat-flavored Bamba stirred the wrath of the extremist circles, leading to pashkavilim calling for a boycott of the snack.
Then, in 2009, senior members of the Eida’s Vaad Kashrus were forced to defend themselves and prepare to absorb the economic damage to the large conglomerate under their supervision, said the Eida official.
An Israeli woman accused of molesting several girls while serving as principal of the Charedi Adass Yisroel girls’ school in Melbourne has been found mentally competent and fit to undergo an extradition hearing.
Jerusalem’s District Psychiatrist submitted two reports yesterday asserting that Malka Leifer, 54, is fit to face a hearing despite her longstanding claim that she suffers from crippling anxiety issues that would prevent her from being tried.
Leifer fled to Israel in 2008 amid allegations that she had sexually abused students. She is wanted on 74 charges of child sexual abuse in Melbourne.
In the beginning of July she lost an appeal for release to house arrest during extradition proceedings, the same day that an Australian newspaper quoted an Israeli man as saying she molested his daughter. She had previously missed several court appearances by saying she was feeling unwell. She was arrested in February after an undercover investigation found that she lived a normal life and was mentally fit to face extradition proceedings.
The Sydney Morning Herald reported last month that a resident of Emmanuel, the Charedi Samaria town where Leifer lives with her husband and 10 children, has alleged that she sexually molested his daughter while tutoring her in religious studies.
The man, identified as Daniel, told the newspaper he saw her touching another girl as well and alleged that she lures children into her apartment by offering them food, or to tutor them for free.
Posting on Facebook on Monday, Dassi Erlich, one of the students allegedly molested, wrote that her “abuser Malka Leifer has played the court system for 10 years,” adding the hashtag #nomoredelays.
Today, the third of Elul, is the anniversary of the passing of Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak HaCohen Kook, the first Chief Rabbi of the Land of Israel, who died 83 years ago.
The Rabbi's grave, whose teaching is one of the cornerstones of national-religious thought, is now being visited by yeshiva heads and their students to read psalms and say Kaddish.
This morning's pilgrimage was attended, among others, by Yeshivat Har Hamor heads Rabbi Tzvi Tau, Rabbi Amiel Sternberg, and Rabbi Mordechai Sternberg; Deputy Defense Minister Rabbi Eli Ben Dahan; Deputy Mayor Hagit Moshe; Rishon Lezion Hesder Yeshiva head Rabbi Shlomo Levi.
Rabbi Kook's House Educational Director Rabbi Avraham Teitz said, "The Rabbi's legacy shines forth from one end of the world to the other. Rabbi Kook left behind a great educational, Torah, and Zionist legacy. We at Rabbi Kook's House in Jerusalem make every effort to imbue this heritage into the entire nation. We embarked on a huge fundraising campaign to improve the accessibility of his legacy to every household and sector."
Only rarely is the world privileged to see a man of such greatness as the icon of religious Zionism, HaRav Avraham Yitzchak HaCohen Kook.
In Memoriam
by Rabbi Shmuel Knopfler
HaRav Kook ... His Personality
There have been scores of Torah giants in recent generations, but the stature of none compares to that of Rabbi Avraham Isaac HaCohen Kook, zt”l (1865 -1935). His genius was astounding - there was no field of Torah study that he had not mastered. His recall was astonishing – great scholars related that no matter what Torah subject they discussed with him it would appear as if he had just recently learned the issue in depth.
Not only was he versed, sharp, and innovative in the arenas of Talmud and Halakha, he was at home in all areas of Jewish thought: Bible, Midrash, philosophy, and mysticism. On top of all this, he was unmatched in piety and righteousness, and his entire existence was dedicated to the service of the Creator.
Rabbi Kook was a mighty figure who fought for truth and was willing to put himself on the line for the sake of Torah justice.
It is not uncommon for extreme brilliance to result in strange character traits, but Rabbi Kook was friendly and pleasant, so much so that all who knew him were captivated by his warm character. He was intellectual and emotional, sharp and poetic. He possessed a rich inner life, while at the same time was very active spiritually and publicly on behalf of the Torah, the nation, and the land.
That all of these talents could reside together harmoniously in one soul is itself remarkable.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office refuses to approve the construction of hundreds of housingunits in the capital city of Jerusalem, despite the end of the eraof pressure from the US administration, as was the case duringPresident Hussain Obama's term.
According to a report by journalist Michael Shemesh in "here," a document by local officials in Jerusalem shows thatNetanyahu's office ordered a freeze on construction ofhundreds of housing units in Jerusalem. The officials are now asking the Prime Minister's Office to approve the plansurgently, but at this stage Netanyahu refuses to approve theconstruction.
According to the report, there are about 1,000 housing units for the ultra-Orthodox sector. Including the neighborhoods of Ramat Shlomo, Ramot and Neve Yaakov.
After DIN's Jerusalem Office called The Prime Minister's Office, the spokeswoman said that "the Prime Minister's Office is not delaying construction in Jerusalem"
Scientists have discovered a drug that can target a signalling pathway that switches about half of all cancer cases into overdrive, offering hope to treat drug-resistant tumors
An experimental drug could finally let doctors treat half of cancers, which often become drug resistant, defying treatment.
Researchers at the University of California, San Francisco used a drug being developed by Revolution Medicines to slow the growth of lung, skin, colon and pancreatic cells in the lab.
The cancers they hope to treat are particularly stubborn thanks to mutations that make ells grow out of control.
Since their experiments in animals so successfully disrupted this process, the researchers plan to expedite it to clinical trials, where it could change the way doctors treat half of the most stubborn, deadly cancers they encounter.
Any body tissue can become cancerous because any cell's copying process can be corrupted by genetic mutations that cause it to grow out of control.
Our tissues are constantly repairing themselves by creating more cells, which is accomplished through cellular division.
These divisions are triggered by communications passed through a sort of cellular game of telephone, or a signalling pathway.
As the instructions for cell division are passed down the line, they're vulnerable to get interrupted, which can then cause a genetic mutation that causes cells to multiply out of control.
One of the signalling pathways involved is the MAPK/ERK pathway. Messages to turn cell division 'on' or 'off' travel through this pathway.
But if one of the proteins that acts like a switch gets stuck in one position or the other, divide out of control, becoming a cancer.
Ohio authorities said Monday that two men found dead inside a house after a 12-hour SWAT standoff were the sons of Dr. Richard Warn, whose body was discovered in his home on Thursday.
The Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner said 29-year-old Mark Warn and his 31-year-old brother Michael Warn died from self-inflicted gunshot wounds.
Dr. Richard Warn, a 59-year-old Jewish podiatrist, was found dead from multiple gunshot wounds at his home in a Cleveland suburb. Police said there was no sign of forced entry into the Beachwood house, but that foul play was suspected.
Law enforcement officers were called after Warn’s wife, Jane, returned from vacation without her key and found her husband was not answering the door, even though his car was in the driveway, cleveland.com reported
Upon gaining entry to the home, police officers discovered Warn’s body.
On Saturday, police announced that two men described as persons of interest, later identified as the victim’s sons, were found dead inside a home owned by Warn after a 12-hour SWAT standoff.
The standoff with a regional SWAT team began around 7:30 p.m. Friday when an armored vehicle breached the front door. Police said someone in the home responded with high-powered rifle fire and that officers returned fire. No officers were injured in the exchange.
Friends and neighbors described Warn as a devoted family man.
The Palestinian flags waving in Tel Aviv on Saturday night are the real narrative, which no amount of wording, impersonating or mountains of hypocrisy can conceal.
The protesters at Rabin Square are fighting for the right of return to Sheikh Munis (Ramat Aviv), Khirbet Azoun (Raanana), and the lands of the Abu Kishk tribe in Ramat Hasharon. They want to make Nakba Day their day of independence. Their fight is over the 1948 borders, not the 1967 borders. The protesters in the square, led by the Arab Higher Monitoring Committee in Israel – MKs Ayman Odeh, Hanin Zoabi and Jamal Zahalka – are voicing their truth. We should heed what they are telling us and stop already with the Left's foolish march of naiveté.
A 50-year-old Jewish man drowned at a Netanya beach Monday.
The Kikar Hashabbat news site reported that the man was a religious Jew who sought to ritually immerse himself in the sea prior to the Brit Millah of his newborn grandson, which was to take place today.
Magen David Adom paramedic Ron Levi said: "When we reached the shore, we saw a man of about 50 lying unconscious north of the declared beach. The rescuer who saw him from a distance dragged him out of the water. He was unconscious, not breathing, and had no pulse."
"We carried out long-term resuscitation activities that included medicine, respiration and massages, but unfortunately after a long time we have had no choice but to determine his death."
Democrat Rashida Tlaib, winner of her party’s primary in Michigan’s 13th congressional district, celebrated her win last week with a series of anti-Israel tweets.
Tlaib, who is Palestinian-American, will become the country’s first female Muslim member of Congress next year. She is running unopposed in November.
On Thursday, as Hamas rockets rained down on Israeli civilians, Tlaib attacked Israel indirectly on Twitter:
Tlaib followed up the next day by retweeting a supporter who declared that her “first fight was for Palestine, always Palestine.”
Tlaib is aligned with “democratic socialist” Alexandrira Ocasio-Cortez and received the endorsement of the Democratic Socialists of America. She is also supported by Linda Sarsour, the anti-Israel “Women’s March” organizer who recently called for “jihad” against the Trump administration.
She has come under criticism for her previous anti-Israel statements. She criticized Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA), for example, for meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whom Tlaib accused of “racism.” And, according to the Algemeiner, she supported Palestinian terrorist Rasmea Odeh in her bid to fight deportation for lying to U.S. immigration officials about her past.
Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked on Sunday instructed the Israel State Archives to release some 300,000 unpublished files relating to the children of Yemenite immigrants, whose disappearance after their arrival in Israel over half a century ago has been at the center of a lingering controversy.
The Knesset Committee for Archives, chaired by Shaked, heard that the hundreds of thousands of Israel Police files have not been previously published and that their existence was apparently largely unknown.
The police investigation into the slaying of a Beachwood doctor took an unusual turn late Friday and early Saturday with a SWAT standoff that ended with two others dead.
Cleveland.com has been following the story since Thursday when the body of Dr. Richard Warn was discovered at his Beachwood home.
In the ensuing days, police served a search warrant at a South Euclid home connected to Wren that resulted in a tense standoff with a SWAT team.
Two are now dead, and the 10-hour standoff ended with many questions still unanswered.
Here is what we know so far.
Dr. Warn's wife, Jane, called 911 saying that she and her family just returned from vacation and did not have a key to the house.
Her voice shakes as she explains to dispatch that her husband was not answering repeated knocks on the door, even though his car was in the driveway.
Beachwood police arrived a few minutes later to the Brentwood Road home and discovered Dr. Warn dead inside.
Most Americans have never had the experience of being wakened in the middle of the night by a Tzeva Adom (“Code Red”) siren, rushing to the closest bomb shelter, and hiding in the shelter while listening for the explosion of a Palestinian missile. I recently had this experience and am writing to share it with non-Israelis.
Together with nine other Sar-el volunteers, for three weeks this summer, I was stationed on an IDF base in fairly close proximity to the Gaza Strip. Immediately after flag raising on our second day on the base, the soldier (Danielle) in charge of our team of volunteers called us together: “Now there’s no reason to be nervous, but you should know that this morning Hamas fired 28 missiles from Gaza into Israel. Iron Dome shot down most of them but five landed in Israel. Three fell in unpopulated areas, but two did not. One of the latter fell in the playground of a kindergarten, and luckily no one was hurt. Since we are not too far from Gaza, you shouldn’t worry, but I will show you now the closest bomb shelter.”
by Rabbi Shmuel Knopfler – “You shall smite, yes smite, all of the inhabitants of that city by the sword…and you shall burn entirely with fire the city and all of it spoils to the Lord your God, and it shall be an everlasting desolation ); it shall not be rebuilt again” (Devarim 13: 16,17).
The Torah ordains the destruction of an entire city which has been seduced and deceived into practicing idolatry. And, although many sages of the Talmud maintain that such a situation “never was and was never created” (Talmud Sanhedrin), the harsh words nevertheless sear our souls.
What is even more difficult to understand are the concluding words of the Torahin reference to the idolatrous and hapless city: “…[And Hashem] shall give you compassion, and He shall be compassionate towards you, and He shall cause you to increase as he has sworn to your forbearers. … This is because you have harkened to the voice of Hashem to observe all of His commandments… to do what is righteous (hayashar) in the eyes of Hashem G-d” (13:18,19).
Tragedy struck in the Catskills on Thursday evening, with the horrific news that a young child was struck and killed by an ice cream truck in Monticello.
4-year-old Shmuel Gelis, of Toms River NJ, died at Catskill Regional Medical Center, around an hour after he was struck while riding his bike in a bungalow colony.
Catskills Hatzolah was on the scene at Birchwood Estates in Monticello, located on “Rod and Gun Club Road” just after 7:30PM, and found the child in traumatic arrest.
The Monticello Fire Department and MobileMedics responded as well, and a chopper was initially placed on standby in case it was needed. Due to his critical condition, Hatzolah Paramedics rushed him to the local hospital where doctors tried everything to save his life.
Unfortunately, he was Niftar shortly after.
An investigation is underway by the Sullivan County Sheriff Department.
Shmuel’s parents are R’ Moshe and Batsheva. Prior to moving to Toms River, they resided in Coventry Square in Lakewood.
The Levaya will take place at 10:30AM Friday morning, at the 7th Street Chapel in Lakewood. Kevurah will be in Lakewood.
The NY Post has not noticed that Hamas began the hostilities and Israel is responding to 140 rockets in one night on its civilians, and one critically wounded woman.
Never mind that Hamas started it and accelerated it with more than 100 rockets being fired into Israel as thousands of Israelis along the Gaza border are sent running to their bomb shelters.
That gets no mention and even the rest of the story gives it a passive voice moral equivalency twist, as in – “A flare-up of violence.”
It is no surprise that the story was picked up from the AP, never a friend, but it is a surprise that the Post carried it, with that howler of a headline, as is.
I guess he was upset that the Israeli Police No longer use Pretty Police Girls to arrest the demonstrators, so he thought he would get his thrills by sexually abusing a girl outright!
lOn Wednesday night, police were called to the light rail station in central Jerusalem by a young woman who reported that a young man with a Yeshivash appearance was traveling by the light rail and attacked her.
A policeman who was not on duty noticed the distress of the young woman, and immediately detained the suspect and prevented him from getting away. A short time later, additional police officers were summoned to arrest him.
Today the suspect will be brought before the court in the police's request to extend his detention. The investigation continues in an attempt to locate additional victims.
The Israel Police said: "The police give top priority tand a prompt response to any suspicion of offenses committed against any person, which may cause severe mental suffering to the victim
