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New York Times Devotes Entire Front Page to Names of Coronavirus Victims

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Though the Times used the number “100,000,” the actual death count on the newspaper’s own running count is just above 97,000 as of early Sunday morning. Photo Credit: Twitter

By: Joel B. Pollak 

The New York Times has devoted the entire front page of its Sunday edition to a list of names of those who have died from the coronavirus.

The Times deleted an earlier tweet of the image of its front page because of an error, as it explained:

Correction: Earlier editions of Sunday’s front page included at least one name in error. Our original tweet containing an image of that front page has been deleted and replaced with an image of the late edition.

Though the Times used the number “100,000,” the actual death count on the newspaper’s own running count is just above 97,000 as of early Sunday morning.

President Donald Trump ordered flags lowered to half-staff over Memorial Day weekend to commemorate the victims of the coronavirus. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) had asked him to lower the flags on the date the U.S. hit 100,000 deaths, but Trump chose to use Memorial Day as the focus instead.

The impact of the pandemic shocked leaders around the world and took many scientists and observers by surprise — including the Times itself, which reported Jan. 8: “The new coronavirus doesn’t appear to be readily spread by humans.” (Breitbart.com)

Memorial Day Tempts Americans Outdoors, Raising Virus Fears

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People walk past American flags flying at half-staff at the Washington Monument, Friday, May 22, 2020, in Washington. President Donald Trump ordered American flags to be flown at half-staff for a three-day period in remembrance of Americans who have lost their lives due to the coronavirus outbreak. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

By: AP

Millions of Americans are getting ready to emerge from coronavirus lockdowns and venture outdoors to celebrate Memorial Day weekend at beaches, cookouts and family outings, raising concern among public health officials that large gatherings could cause outbreaks to come roaring back.

Medical experts warn that the virus won’t take a holiday for the unofficial start of summer. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that people stay home, avoid crowds and connect with family and friends by phone or video chat.

Dr. Deborah Birx, coordinator of the White House coronavirus task force, said Friday that people can enjoy the outdoors if they stay at least 6 feet (2 meters) apart. Birx suggested playing tennis with marked balls, one for each player to handle, or not touching flags on the golf course.

“That is your space, and that’s the space that you need to protect and ensure that you’re social distanced for others,” Birx said at a White House briefing. She also suggested disposable utensils for picnics and potlucks.

Birx said COVID-19 is declining nationwide, but many healthy-seeming people are unknowingly infected, making social distancing, face coverings and frequent hand-washing necessary.

The holiday, which honors fallen service members, arrives amid the bleakest economy in decades. Tens of millions have been laid off since the virus hit hard in March and forced shutdowns. Unemployment has reached its highest level since the Great Depression. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell warned Thursday that prospects for a recovery will remain unclear until the health crisis is resolved.

Many Memorial Day commemorations have been canceled or downsized, including concerts and fireworks shows. Parks, beaches, campgrounds and swimming pools remain closed in much of the country.

But plenty of popular spaces will be open — with limits.

Californians headed into the weekend with both excitement and anxiety after restrictions eased in many areas. The nation’s most populous state has started seeing a decline in COVID-19 hospitalizations after being the first to order a statewide shutdown.

David Spatafore, who owns Blue Bridge Hospitality restaurant group, was looking forward to Friday’s reopening of patio seating at the group’s pizzerias and dining rooms at its high-end steakhouse in Coronado, across the bay from San Diego.

“I think people are going to be so happy to be able to go back out and not eat out of a plastic container or cardboard box,” he said. “I know I am.”

In Virginia Beach, Virginia, the famed 40-block boardwalk and sandy shoreline reopened, but with spacing guidelines and groups limited to 10. Group sports such as volleyball are prohibited, along with tents and alcohol.

Mayor Bobby Dyer said about 150 “beach ambassadors” in red shirts will “diplomatically” ask people to follow rules.

Without clear federal guidance, state and local officials have been left to figure out how to celebrate the holiday safely. Social distancing and bans on mass gatherings remain in place throughout much of the country.

Keeping holidays safe is a challenge worldwide. On the same weekend as Memorial Day, the Muslim world will mark the fast-breaking festival Eid al-Fitr. On Monday, residents in the United Kingdom get a bank holiday.

Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious diseases expert at Vanderbilt University, warned that being on holiday can lead some people to drop their guard.

“They forget to wear masks,” Schaffner said. “They’re not so keen on 6-foot distancing.”

Jersey Shore beaches will be open but there will be no fireworks, Ferris wheel rides, roller coasters, go-karts or arcade games. Atlantic City’s casinos remain closed.

Some locals plan to sit this summer out.

“The unfortunate thing is that all the out-of-town people have been cooped up the same amount of time that the locals have been here,” said Christine Barthelme of Point Pleasant, New Jersey. “My family will do mostly what we do on every holiday weekend here: relax in our backyard, have a barbecue and light the fire pit.”

Beaches, hotels and restaurants remain largely shut down in South Florida. The Urban Beach Week festival, which annually draws tens of thousands to Miami Beach for hip-hop and reggae shows, was called off.

“We saw what happened in early March with spring break crowds,” Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber said, recalling the raucous scenes of youngsters partying in close quarters.

But up the coast in Palm Beach County, officials were preparing for beachgoers.

“Lifeguards and other parks staff will be monitoring the beaches and reminding park users to practice social distancing,” said Chris Korbelak, public engagement manager for the county parks department.

Theme parks are closed at Walt Disney World and Universal Orlando, but both have reopened their entertainment and restaurant complexes, where guests can expect mandatory masks, hand-sanitizing stations and other measures.

For the hard-hit tourism and hospitality industry, there is modest hope Memorial Day will mark the start of something resembling recovery.

“This weekend is an early indicator as to how consumers feel about coming back and partaking in normal social behavior,” said Jason Guggenheim of Boston Consulting Group, which has surveyed consumers.

Data and consulting firm Tourism Economics projects travelers will spend $4.2 billion on Memorial Day weekend, compared with $12.3 billion last year.

Airlines, meanwhile, have largely written off hope of a quick rebound. Air travel in the U.S. remains down about 90% from a year ago, according to Transportation Security Administration figures.

Oklahoma resident Seth Rott this week boarded a plane for the first time since the pandemic to visit a friend in Washington for Memorial Day. Rott said he had little concern about social distancing or safety, given airlines’ anti-virus measures.

“I think it will probably be the easiest flight that I’ve ever had just because of a lack of traffic,” he said.

But for most who leave home, it will be by automobile and for relatively short excursions to places like Washington state’s Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest.

“We’re expecting a bottleneck at some of the popular trails,” spokesman Colton Whitworth said, “especially the lower-elevation ones closer to Seattle.”

At an outdoor beach restaurant in San Diego on Friday, a server wearing surgical gloves and a face covering rushed by with a piña colada in a pineapple-shaped cup. Another employee stood by with cleaning supplies in a gloved hand, ready to sanitize empty tables.

Customer George Cruz could only imagine what crowds may come over the weekend, when he, his wife and 6-year-old daughter will be staying home.

“That’s why we decided to come now,” he said. “There definitely will be a surplus of people at the beach.”

“I just hope everybody is smart about how they go out,” Cruz added. (AP)

Joe Biden Wins Hawaii Presidential Primary Delayed By Virus

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. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel, File)

By: AP

Joe Biden won the Democratic Party of Hawaii’s party-run presidential primary on Saturday, which was delayed by more than a month because of the coronavirus.

Biden defeated Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders 63% to 37%.

Biden won 16 of Hawaii’s delegates and Sanders will take eight. Biden has a total of 1,566 delegates to the party’s national convention, according to the count by the Associated Press. He needs 1,991 delegates to win the nomination, a threshold he is projected to reach in June.

A total of 35,044 voters cast ballots in the party-run primary. All ballots were cast by mail.

The party had initially planned to hold the primary on April 4 and had expected most party members would vote by mail and some would cast ballots at about 20 in-person polling sites around the state.

It began mailing ballots to registered party members in early March back when Sanders and Biden were the two front-runners and Hawaii Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard was still maintaining her long-shot bid for the nomination.

But concerns about the spread of the coronavirus forced the party to announce on March 20 it would cancel plans for in-person voting and allow only mail ballots. To give those who expected to vote in person on April 4 a chance to cast a ballot, the party said it would mail another round of ballots to members and wait until late May for them to be returned and counted.

Amidst these shifts, Gabbard dropped out and endorsed Biden. Sanders ended his bid and endorsed Biden on April 13.

Voters were instructed to mark their top three choices on paper ballots.

Only candidates receiving at least 15% of the votes cast in a given congressional district were to be allocated delegates. Votes for candidates who didn’t receive at least 15% were redistributed to voters’ second-ranked choices, starting with the candidate who received the lowest number of votes.

Gabbard represents Hawaii’s second congressional district in Congress, and got 4% of the vote in the first round of voting. She was absent from the district during much of the year while she campaigned for the presidency in Iowa and New Hampshire. State Sen. Kai Kahele, a fellow Democrat, fiercely criticized her for neglecting her constituents and mounted a campaign for her seat, which covers suburban Honolulu and the more rural islands of the state. Not long after, Gabbard said she wouldn’t run for reelection and would focus on her presidential bid.

Hawaii Democrats hired a contractor, Merriman River Group, to handle aspects of the election, including designing the vote-by-mail package and safely keeping returned ballots. The company has experience running elections for labor unions and organizations such as the Kauai Island Utility Cooperative, the electric utility on Kauai island.

The Republican Party of Hawaii canceled its presidential caucus after President Donald Trump was the only candidate to declare for the ballot by the Dec. 2 deadline. The party is committing its national convention delegates to Trump. (AP)

One New York Family’s Story Of Surviving The Coronavirus

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Brooklyn’s Mount Sinai Hospital. Source: Facebook.

With the help of the Jewish community and former IDF training, Sarit Haviv of Brooklyn aided her husband’s recovery while she coped as well.

By: Heather Robinson 

For Sarit Haviv, 53, of Mill Basin in Brooklyn, N.Y., the toughest part of having COVID-19 was seeing her beloved husband of 30 years, Shlomo Haviv, become ill after she did, and then summoning the strength while sick herself to fight for him to receive the care he needed.

But with help from her family and community, she did it.

On March 17 after returning by plane from a short trip to Michigan, the Havivs, who own an entertainment business, noticed symptoms. Sarit developed body aches, fever and a light cough. The next day, Shlomo, who is in his 60s, developed a backache. His fever spiked as high as 103 degrees.

Unsure what type of flu they had—and fearing the coronavirus—the couple told their son and daughter-in-law, 20-somethings who live next door, to keep their distance and tried to tough it out at home.

At first, “it wasn’t too bad,” recalls Sarit. Although they lacked energy and appetite (Sarit’s sense of smell and taste would “come and go”), they tried to eat well, relax, take vitamin C and watch TV to relax.

Ten days in, Sarit was holding steady, but Shlomo’s condition took a serious turn.

‘It was a nightmare ’

In bed with fever, Sarit heard Shlomo in the hall and called out to him. When he didn’t answer, she ran to him.

“I saw him leaning on the wall, then he stumbled and I caught him,” she recalled. “Next thing I knew, I was going down with him. He was purple, and his eyes were half-closed like he didn’t even know who I was.”

Frantic to revive her husband, Sarit splashed his face with “water and celtic salt.” Next she called 911 and Hatzalah, the Mill Basin/Canarsie branch of the worldwide volunteer emergency medical service run by Orthodox Jewry.

Hatzalah arrived first, noted Sarit, and took Shlomo to Lenox Hill Hospital on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, where staff tested him for COVID-19 and X-rayed his chest (Sarit was not permitted to accompany him but heard about it when he returned home). “They told him his numbers were fine” and released him, she said.

The next day, however, Shlomo’s test came back positive.

That evening was Shabbat, so the couple’s son and daughter-in-law, who that morning had begun to feel unwell, came over, figuring since they all probably had the illness by this point, at least the family could be together.

“We did a small Kiddush,” said Sarit. “Shlomo took two bites from the soup. He got up from the chair, went to the family room couch, sat down and fainted.”

Hatzalah rushed over, tested Shlomo’s vitals and recommended he go to a hospital. Wanting to stay with his family, Shlomo refused. The volunteers told Sarit that “if we needed anything, they would be here for us”—words she would remember.

The next morning, Sarit told Shlomo she had to go to the hospital because she couldn’t eat or drink anything.

“It was true,” Sarit recalled. “But that’s also how I got him to go.”

At the height of the pandemic in New York City on March 28, a horrific scene awaited them at Brooklyn’s Mount Sinai Hospital.

The ER “had no beds, and like 100 people” sat in chairs, some on ventilators, “moaning and screaming, calling for nurses,” said Sarit. “There was no room to walk. [There were] 10, 20 people for each nurse, and they worked hard. It wasn’t their fault, but it was a nightmare.”

The Havivs waited two-and-a-half hours to be seen.

“By the time a nurse saw me I was OK, probably from the IV” Hatzolah had administered in the ambulance, related Sarit.

“The nurse yelled at me, ‘Why did you come here? These people have corona!’

I said, ‘Well, what do you think I have?’”

Shlomo’s condition was precarious.

X-rays showed that the virus had “spread to [Shlomo’s] lungs and stomach,” said Sarit, who asked to be tested. Staff told her that in all likelihood, she had COVID-19, but they “couldn’t waste a test” on a mild case.

They admitted Shlomo. Sarit asked about the drug hydroxychloroquine and was told there was none available for him.

I asked, “Where will you take him?”

“They said, ‘There are no beds.’

“’He’s staying on a chair.’ ”

Sarit said she “left crying.”

‘Every half an hour, he needed something’

Back home, her son and daughter-in-law forced her to eat, and they sent Shlomo’s medical report to their family doctor. Haunted by the image of her husband alone in a hospital chair, Sarit asked the doctor if there was any way Shlomo could be brought home.

Since Shlomo was not on a ventilator, the doctor gave the green light for Sarit to set up “a little home hospital.”

Although sick herself, Sarit, at one time an officer in the Israel Defense Forces, sprang into action.

Hatzalah helped her borrow an oxygen machine from Flatbush Shomrim Society, a haredi Jewish auxiliary police force that had received the machines as a donation, and showed her how to measure Shlomo’s oxygen levels and give him oxygen if he needed it.

Still ailing, Sarit drove to the hospital and brought her husband home. Because Shlomo could breathe best when not fully reclined, Sarit and their son settled him on the couch.

That night and the coming days weren’t easy.

“Every half an hour, he needed something—Tylenol, a blanket, take away blanket, drink water, he would be warm, hot, cold, or I’d need to measure his oxygen level,” recalled Sarit.

The next morning, the hospital came through with hydroxychloroquine and a “double dose” of azithromycin—the drug cocktail Sarit believes has aided Shlomo’s recovery.

Sarit described the next two weeks of gradual recovery as two steps forward, one step back.

Hatzalah “brought IV drips” every day.

“They came every day with machines—they guided us, helped us, calmed us down—and called me every six hours,” said Sarit.

Shlomo’s progress was gradual, but as of early May, they and their children (who had mild cases of COVID-19) are fully recovered. As of mid-May, they have all tested negative for COVID-19.

Sarit’s only lingering symptom has been some loss of smell and taste, although she said that “75 percent” of these senses have returned.

The Havivs all tested positive for antibodies for the illness, which doctors believe give them some immunity.

Sarit has credited her survival to “Hashem,” her family, her community, including friends and Hatzalah, and healthy living, including what she called “organic nutrition,” prior to the illness. (JNS.org)

NBA Says it is Talking with Disney about Resuming Season

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.(Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel via AP, FIle)

By: Tim Reynolds

The NBA is in talks with The Walt Disney Company on a single-site scenario for a resumption of play in Central Florida in late July, the clearest sign yet that the league believes the season can continue amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The National Basketball Players Association is also part of the talks with Disney, the league said Saturday. Games would be held at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex, a massive campus on the Disney property near Orlando.

NBA spokesman Mike Bass said the conversations were still “exploratory,” and that the Disney site would be used for practices and housing as well.

“Our priority continues to be the health and safety of all involved, and we are working with public health experts and government officials on a comprehensive set of guidelines to ensure that appropriate medical protocols and protections are in place,” Bass said.

The ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex is a 255-acre campus with multiple arenas that could host games simultaneously and has been home to, among other things, the Jr. NBA World Championship in recent years. ESPN, one of the NBA’s broadcast partners, is primarily owned by Disney.

Space won’t be an issue, even if Major League Soccer — which is also in talks to resume its season at Disney — is there at the same time as the NBA. The entire Disney complex is roughly 40 square miles, with nearly 24,000 hotel rooms owned or operated by Disney within the campus.

The NBA suspended its season March 11, becoming the first of the U.S. major pro leagues to do so after it was revealed that All-Star center Rudy Gobert of the Utah Jazz tested positive for COVID-19. The list of NBA players who were known to test positive eventually grew to 10 — not all were identified — and Commissioner Adam Silver said last month that the actual total was even higher.

But the league has been working on countless return-to-play scenarios for several weeks, all with the caveat that testing would be an integral part of any resumption of the season.

It remains unknown where the NBA is in the process of securing tests or developing large-scale testing protocols. Also unclear: how many regular-season games would be played before the postseason begins — or if all 30 teams would be playing. The league has asked team general managers for additional input on those matters.

Jared Dudley of the Los Angeles Lakers said in a conference call with reporters on Wednesday that he believes the playoffs, whenever they start, will be the traditional best-of-seven format.

“That’s the money-winner when it comes to Disney,” Dudley said. “That’s why we’ll be in Orlando. Disney owns ESPN. That’s where they make their money. During the playoffs and finals, it will all be seven games. That one I’m almost 100% sure of.”

Central Florida has been known as a viable option to host an NBA restart since at least mid-April, and other cities — such as Las Vegas, which also has a longstanding relationship with the NBA — were known to be considered as well.

Florida has confirmed just over 50,000 COVID-19 cases, though more than half of those are in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties and not in the Orlando area. Gov. Ron DeSantis has said he wants the state open for pro sports, even telling franchises not based in Florida that they could come to the Sunshine State and train if restrictions preventing it existed in their own locales.

“Places are opening up. Let’s not forget COVID isn’t magically less contagious now,” Malcolm Miller of the Toronto Raptors tweeted Saturday. “The virus itself didn’t get better… stay safe.”

Teams have been allowed to welcome players back to their training facilities for voluntary sessions since May 8, and more than half of the league’s franchises have taken advantage of that opportunity.

The next steps along a return-to-play path would likely include a loosening of the restrictions for those voluntary workouts — no more than four players are currently allowed inside any facility at a time — and then a plan for when training camps could open. If the league plans to resume play in late July, then camps conceivably could open around the start of that month.

Rescheduling at least some regular season games could be a major perk for players, even though some teams are out of the playoff mix.

The league can take about 1.08% percent of a player’s salary for each regular season game that is not played if what the collective bargaining agreement between the league and its players describes as a “Force Majeure Event,” the legal term for unforeseeable circumstances such as an epidemic or pandemic, is enacted.

The more regular season games played, the less money the players will lose. (AP)

 

Pompeo: Iran Echoing Hitler’s Call for Genocide

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Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Friday accused Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif of "echoing Hitler's call for genocide" after Zarif backed Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s call for a “Final Solution” such as the one the Nazis implemented against Jews. Photo Credit: AP

Secretary of State rips Iranian Foreign Minister who backed Supreme Leader call for a “Final Solution” against Israel.

 

By: Elad Benari

 

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Friday accused Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif of “echoing Hitler’s call for genocide” after Zarif backed Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s call for a “Final Solution” such as the one the Nazis implemented against Jews.

 

“Incredible that Zarif and Iran’s Supreme Leader are echoing Hitler’s call for genocide. This depravity should dispel any notion the regime belongs in the community of nations. We stand with Germany and Israel against this oldest & most vile form of hatred, and say ‘Never Again,’” tweeted Pompeo.

 

On Thursday, Zarif blasted Germany for condemning Khamenei’s use of a poster evoking Nazi Germany’s “Final Solution” to destroy Israel.

 

“Disgusting that those whose civilization found a ‘Final Solution’ in gas chambers attack those who seek a real solution at the ballot box, through a REFERENDUM,” Zarif tweeted.

 

“Why are US and West so afraid of democracy? Palestinians should not have to pay for your crimes, or for your guilt,” he added.

 

Khamenei’s use of the poster was condemned by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, who said, “Khamenei’s threats to implement the ‘Final Solution’ against Israel are reminiscent of the Nazi ‘Final Solution’ plan for the destruction of the Jewish people. He must know that any regime that threatens Israel with extermination will find itself in similar danger.”

 

On Thursday, European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs Josep Borrell condemned Khamenei as well.

 

“I condemn in the strongest possible terms the call by the Iranian Supreme Leader Khamenei to fight Israel. This is a threat to international peace and security. The security of Israel is of paramount importance and the EU will stand at its side,” said Borrell.

 

Following the condemnations of his remarks, Khamenei claimed that he had not referred to all Jews but only to the State of Israel in calling for a “final solution.”

 

“The Zionist regime has proven it won’t abide by any treaty & understands no logic except force. The nature of the Zionist regime is incompatible with peace, because the Zionists seek to expand their territories & will certainly not be limited to what they have already occupied,” he wrote.

 

“Eliminating the Zionist regime doesn’t mean eliminating Jews. We aren’t against Jews. It means abolishing the imposed regime & Muslim, Christian & Jewish Palestinians choose their own govt & expel thugs like Netanyahu. This is ‘Eliminating Israel’ & it will happen,” Khamenei claimed. (INN)

Would Netanyahu’s Trial be Different in an American Court?

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The criminal trial of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will begin on May 24. Photo Credit: AP

No one will ever know whether a randomly selected group of Israelis would have charged the Israeli prime minister with committing crimes if Israel had a grand-jury procedure.

 

By: Nathan Lewin

 

The criminal trial of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will begin on May 24. The three Israeli judges who will decide the case have ordered that Netanyahu must personally be in court when the charges against him are read and his anticipated not-guilty plea is entered. The prosecution’s lead counsel, Judith Tirosh, had rejected the request of the prime minister’s lawyers, Amit Haddad and Micha Fetman, that the prime minister be excused so he could tend to government business. 

There is precedent in Israeli law for a defendant, and even for counsel, to be absent on the opening day of a complex criminal trial. That is when, as will surely be true of Netanyahu’s trial, the charges are read out loud and the following court session concerns scheduling of witnesses and discovery issues. Ms. Tirosh insisted—and the three judges agreed—that there is “legal significance” to an accused’s presence at the “reading of charges.”

The Israeli court’s ruling would surprise an American criminal-defense lawyer. In the United States, indictments are never read in open court. Regardless of how they plead, defendants customarily “waive”—knowingly give up—the right they have to a reading of the formal charge. No American judge gives “legal significance” to a public reading of an indictment or has ever rejected a defendant’s waiver of that right.

mericans following Israeli news know that Netanyahu will stand trial on three charges. The media say he has been “indicted” on these offenses. In fact, Israel has no protection like the one provided by the opening words of the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: “No person shall be held to answer for a capital or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury … .” 

In Israel, a prosecutor’s evidence is not presented to a grand jury—a group of ordinary citizens—before there can be a formal accusation. It is weighed only by a prosecutor; in Netanyahu’s case by Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit. It was Mandelblit and his team of prosecutors who, with no check by ordinary citizens on a grand jury, had the power to bring into a criminal court the man who was, and will be for 18 months, Israel’s prime minister.

To be sure, in most circumstances today, presentation to a grand jury in America is a formality. Sol Wachtler, formerly chief judge of New York’s Court of Appeals, famously said (as quoted by Tom Wolfe) that “a grand jury will indict a ham sandwich.” But there was substance to the Founding Fathers’ insistence on this procedure, as I learned when I was a lawyer in the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division in 1968. 

It was hard for us to prosecute local officials, even with evidence of their racial animus, unless we could persuade ordinary local residents sitting on a grand jury that criminal charges were warranted. The grand jurors to whom we presented our proof were skeptical, and they often voted “no bill” even though all the government’s lawyers who had weighed the evidence, including even the attorney general, were sure that federal crimes had been committed.

No one will ever know whether a randomly selected group of Israelis would have charged Netanyahu with committing crimes if Israel had a grand-jury procedure. Given his current popularity in Israel, such an outcome is surely less than certain.

Nor is there a right in Israel to trial by jury. Netanyahu’s guilt or innocence will be decided by a panel of three district judges. Trial jurors in the United States are directed to avoid publicity, and in high-profile cases jurors may even be sequestered. Criminal convictions have been reversed if the verdict may have been tainted by outside influence. The three judges hearing the evidence in Netanyahu’s case will continue, as the trial progresses, to be well-informed Israelis whose judgments might well be affected, consciously or unconsciously, by public and social media. There is no judicial ethics restraint against their access to opinions expressed in the Israeli press or on TV. And, as might be expected, there has been much speculation about their political leanings.

Although there are many similarities between the Israeli criminal process and the American system, including the right to confront and cross-examine witnesses and the requirement that the prosecution prove the accused’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, there are also major differences. The Israeli court’s opening decision regarding the accused’s presence when charges are publicly proclaimed may be a minor one, but it has real practical effect. (JNS.org)

Nathan Lewin is a Washington lawyer who specializes in white-collar criminal defense and in Supreme Court litigation.

 

 

Cast Your Vote Today in Cuomo Initiated Video PSA Competition!! 

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Edited by: JV Staff

Last week, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo initiated a competition in which he asked film makers to submit at video public service announcement asking people to wear a mask during the current pandemic. The winner will have their video shown on local television  channels throughout New York State. 

Out of 600 Submissions, there are 5 Finalists. One of the videos selected for the group of finalists is showcasing Chassidim in a positive light (IE: Kiddush Hashem) by Bunny Lake Films ( We  NY  ) 

Voting ends on Tuesday – We strongly encourage all of our readers and their families and friends to vote as this video displays Orthodox Jews in a positive light. So far over 100,000 people voted and ‘We  NY”  is in the lead !!!

Cast your vote today for We  NY”  by  Bunny Lake Films!!!

Click on this link: 

https://coronavirus.health.ny.gov/node/2871

  

 

Fauci: ‘Most of the Country’ Reopening ‘in a Prudent Way’ – ‘Prolonged’ Lockdowns Aren’t the Way to Go

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A notice of closure is posted at The Great Frame Up in Grosse Pointe Woods, Michigan. The Paycheck Protection terms are still not clear according to many nation’s small businesses. (Photo/Paul Sancya, File)

(Breitbart) On Friday’s broadcast of CNBC’s “Halftime Report,” White House Coronavirus Task Force member Dr. Anthony Fauci said “staying locked down for a prolonged period of time” is not the right approach, and “most of the country” is reopening “in a prudent way.”

Fauci said, “I don’t want people to think that any of us feel that staying locked down for a prolonged period of time is the way to go.

He continued that while locking down at the beginning was needed, “now is the time, depending upon where you are and what your situation is — is to begin to seriously [look] at reopening the economy, reopening the country to try and get back to some degree of normal. I’m totally in favor of that, if done in the proper way, in the appropriate setting.”

Fauci added that he is concerned if places are reopening while cases are increasing and they’re not following the recommended benchmarks. He further stated, “[I]n general, I think most of the country is doing it in a prudent way. There are obviously some situations where people might be jumping over that. I just say please proceed with caution if you’re going to do that.”

Terrorist who tried to murder Israeli may have been Palestinian Authority policeman

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ISTOCK/A7

 

A Terrorist who tried to murder Israeli may have been Palestinian Authority policeman
Israeli intelligence believe terrorist from attempted shooting likely to be Palestinian Authority policeman.

 

Israeli intelligence suspects that the terrorist who tried to murder three Israelis passing through the Palestinian Authority-controlled village Huwara is a Palestinian Authority (PA) policeman.

The attempted attack was reported on Wednesday afternoon. According to the Samaria Regional Council, a PA Arab shot at an Israeli vehicle passing through Huwara.

The Israeli motorist had two minor hitchhikers aged 14 and 15 with him in the car, one of whom reported the ongoing incident to the local security hotline.

The Israeli was able to exit the vehicle and fire two warning shots into the air, forcing the terrorist to run away.

According to the 14-year-old minor who called the hotline, “We traveled along the main route, there was a big traffic jam. The Arab stood on the sidewalk, on the side of my friend and me, he took out a gun, loaded it, pressed several times on the trigger.”

“The driver with us pressed on the gas, rammed into the cars in front of us, got out and headed toward [the terrorist] and started to chase him, and the terrorist fled.”

Without losing their senses, they contacted the Samaria Regional Security Center, appealed for help and gave the line operator an accurate description of their situation while she provided instructions on what to do next.

In the recording, the conversation between one of the teens and the hotline operator can be heard. “They tried to shoot us in Huwara! There are shots, come quickly! He ran, the two of us are alone.”

Operator: “How old are you?”

Youth: “14, the driver ran out, he’s not here. Should we get in the car?”

Operator: “Get in the car, stay with me, everything’s okay. We’ll call the forces.”

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/280731

‘Those Are Coming’: Grenell Says He Is Working To Declassify More Flynn Documents

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AP

Chuck Ross (DAILY CALLER)

Richard Grenell, the acting director of national intelligence, said Friday he is working on declassifying transcripts of phone calls between former national security adviser Michael Flynn and former Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak.

Grenell revealed his plans in an exchange on Twitter with Democratic California Rep. Eric Swalwell regarding a request Friday from House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff for transcripts of the Flynn-Kislyak calls.

Schiff, a Democrat, requested the call transcripts as well as records related to 39 so-called “unmasking” requests that Obama administration officials made for intelligence reports that mentioned Flynn. Grenell declassified that list earlier this month, and it was released on May 13.

“Those are coming,” Grenell wrote to Swalwell. “It’s very important for the public to see ALL of them.”

He then took a swipe at the Democratic congressman, writing that “for too long the public has been misled.”

“Just compare your committee’s transcripts to your public statements!”

Grenell was referring to revelations in transcripts of Obama administration officials’ testimony to the House Intelligence Committee in 2017 and 2018. The transcripts, which were released on May 7, showed that the officials said they had not seen evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian government.

During that same time period, Schiff, Swalwell and other Democrats publicly claimed that the Trump campaign conspired with Russia.

Grenell said in another tweet that he is working to declassify the documents that are under the control of the intelligence community, or IC.

“The IC doesn’t have all the transcripts/summaries….it wasn’t our product. It’s odd that @AdamSchiff
doesn’t know this,” he wrote on Twitter.

“But I already started the declassification for the few we received. They should be released in full, though. The public deserves to see it.”

The transcript sought by Schiff is from Flynn’s calls with Kislyak on Dec. 29, 2016. The existence of the call was first revealed through a classified leak to Washington Post columnist David Ignatius for a column published on Jan. 12, 2017.

The story set off a chain of events that led the FBI to interview Flynn at the White House on Jan. 24, 2017. Flynn pleaded guilty to making false statements to the FBI during that interview regarding the substance of his conversation with Kislyak. He retracted his admission of guilt on Jan. 29, and the Justice Department filed a motion to drop the case on May 8.

Lawmakers have long speculated that the Flynn leak was the result of a so-called unmasking request made by Obama administration officials.

But a list of 39 Obama administration officials who submitted requests for intelligence reports regarding Flynn did not fit the timeline of the call with Kislyak.

It was revealed this week that Flynn’s name was never masked in an intelligence report about his calls with Kislyak. That’s because the FBI was conducting surveillance on Kislyak, and had a transcript of his call with Flynn.

Two former U.S. intelligence officials told The Washington Post on Wednesday that Flynn’s name was never masked in a transcript of the call.

Grenell did not say when the declassification process will be complete.

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Trump: “I have a chance to break the deep state.” An exclusive interview on “Full Measure with Sharyl Attkisson”

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In an exclusive interview set to air Sunday, President Trump tells Sharyl Attkisson that he believes he is making inroads in draining the Washington swamp.

If it keeps going the way it’s going, I have a chance to break the deep state. It’s a vicious group of people.

President Trump on “Full Measure with Sharyl Attkisson”

Also the interview:

  • The president calls churches, synagogues, mosques and other religious institutions “essential services” and says they must be allowed to open
  • Sharyl asks if someone review his tweets before he sends them out
  • Trump weighs in on the biggest strength and weakness of Joe Biden
  • He talks about the latest allegations about FBI misconduct and spying on his campaign
  • Sharyl ask about mixed messages the government is sending on the anti-malaria drug, hydroxychloroquine
  • She also asks President Trump how he can press to investigate allegation about Biden and Ukraine– without appearing to be doing the same thing Democrats did to him in 2016.

Here’s how to watch:

We never waste your time rehashing the same news you’ve heard all week. Find out how to watch on TV, online or on demand by clicking this link: How to Watch Full Measure

U.S Domestic Islamist Extremism Up 50 Percent Last Year

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Photo by Balkis Press/Sipa USA/AP

 (Clarion Project) Arrests and plots linked to U.S. domestic Islamist extremism in 2019 rose by 50 percent, according to data recently released by the Anti-Defamation League’s (ADL) Center on Extremism.

According to the report:

  • 30 arrests linked to domestic Islamist extremism were made
  • Of the 30 arrests, nine were for terror plots
  • Of the nine people arrested for plotting attacks, seven (78 percent) were U.S. citizens
  • 21 others were arrested for engaging in domestic criminal activity motivated by Islamist extremism
  • Of those 21 individuals, a large majority faced charges for attempting to provide material support to ISIS
  • Close to 70 percent of all domestic Islamist extremist criminal activity in 2019 was inspired by ISIS

The findings indicate that Islamist extremism still poses a significant threat to the United States, says the ADL, even though there were no attacks or murders linked to domestic Islamist extremism last year.

There was one deadly Islamist attack in 2019 perpetrated by Mohammed Alshamrani, a Saudi national studying at the Naval Air Station in Pensacola, Florida.

In December, Alshamrani opened fire at the naval station, killing three people and injuring eight others. Federal authorities announced yesterday they had uncovered evidence that Alshamrani was connected to al-Qaeda and had planned the attack for years before coming to the U.S.

“Make no mistake: the threat of Islamist extremist activity in the United States is serious and cannot be ignored,” said ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt.

In addition to the nine individuals arrested for plotting attacks, “ISIS’s ability to continue inspiring a large percentage of violent activity even after being effectively disbanded demonstrates the lasting influence of its violent ideology and propaganda on Islamist extremist activity in the United States,” said Oren Segal, vice president of the Center on Extremism. “As long as the ideology persists and spreads online, extremists will continue to be inspired by violent rhetoric and instruction.”

At a press conference Monday, Attorney General William Barr and FBI director Christopher Wray detailed how Alshamrani’s two iPhones were recently unlocked by federal technicians after months of failed attempts. Apple refused to open Alshamrani’s phones for U.S. law enforcement agencies.

Barr noted that based on the information gleaned from the phones, counterterrorism operations against one of Alshamrani’s overseas associates in Yemen are already underway.

The phones also revealed significant information about Alshamrani himself. Wray said Alshamrani was radicalized as far back as 2015 and maintained contact with al-Qaeda operatives the next four years.

“Alshamrani described a desire to learn about flying years ago around the same time he talked about attending the Saudi Air Force academy to carry out what he called a ‘special operation.’ He then pressed his plan forward, joining the Air Force and bringing his plot here to America,” Wray said.

“We now know that Alshamrani continued to associate with AQAP [Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula] even while living in Texas and in Florida, and in the months before the attack while he was here among us, he talked with AQAP about his plans and tactics, taking advantage of the information he acquired here to assess how many people he could try to kill,” Wray added.

“He wasn’t just coordinating with them about planning and tactics, he was helping the organization make the most it could out of his murders, and he continued to confer with his AQAP associates right up until the end — the very night before he started shooting.”

Alshamrani planned the attack carefully. He cased out the Navy base’s classroom building, made videos inside the building, and wrote out a will on his cell phone that described his motives for the attack.

The will was then released by al-Qaeda after the attack when the terror organization claimed responsibility.

The attack was carried out on December 6, 2019, but as early as September 11 of that same year, Alshamrani posted on a social media account, “the countdown has begun.”

Investigators previously said that he had posted anti-American, anti-Israeli, and jihadi messages on social media within two hours of the attack.

 

Trump Considering a Panel to Investigate Conservative Bias

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Igor Golovniov/Sipa via AP

(NEWSMAX) President Donald Trump is weighing launching an oversight panel to help conservatives who face bias on social media platforms, according to The Wall Street Journal.

“Left-wing bias in the tech world is a con­cern that definitely needs to be addressed from our vantage point, and at least exposed [so] that Americans have clear eyes about what we’re dealing with,” a White House official told the Journal.

In the past, Trump has accused social media companies of having a bias against conservatives.

“The Radical Left is in total command & control of Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Google,” Trump tweeted on May 16, adding that the White House is “working to remedy this illegal situation.”

Why Those COVID-19 Models Aren’t Real Science

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(MISES)

Since the onset of the COVID-19 crisis, Americans have been told countless times that public policy was based on Science (with a capital S) and that the public should just obey the scientists.

But the accuracy of their predictions and the consequent appropriateness of policies seems to have been little better than Ask Dr. Science and the 0 percent accuracy rate of its answers.

In fact, the massive errors in measurement that have been part and parcel of the scientific COVID Kops show should bring us back to what Lord Kelvin said about science and measurement: “If you cannot measure it, then it is not science” and “your theory is apt to be based more upon imagination than upon knowledge.”

To get an idea of how serious the COVID measurement problems are, one need only look to the two medical experts most commonly appearing on our TV screens. Dr. Anthony Fauci recently testified his belief that its death toll is “almost certainly higher” than reported, because “there may have been people who died at home who did have COVID, who were not counted as COVID because they never really got to the hospital.” In contrast, the Washington Post recently reported that Deborah Birx believes that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) accounting system is double counting some cases, boosting case and mortality measurements “by as much as 25 percent.” And what could be a clearer statement of the measurement problems than Birx’s assertion that “there is nothing from the CDC that I can trust”?

The mangled measurements have been with us from the beginning of the COVID crisis.

Mild cases were (and still are) frequently undetected. That means that we have undercounted how many people have (or have had) the disease. It also means that we have overestimated the risk of contagion, which is perhaps the most crucial determinant of COVID’s risk to others.

Early on, there were a very limited number of tests and many of the first ones were faulty. So, as increasing numbers are being tested, especially systematically, rather than just targeting those who are already suspected of having COVID, we must disentangle the portion of the uptick of reported cases, and the implied downward adjustment of the odds of death and the risk of spread, caused by testing more of the population to determine whether there is an increasing incidence of the disease. When tests for COVID antibodies started to be done, it also suggested that more had already been exposed, changing the critical numbers again. And then there are questions about herd immunity, including whether sheltering at home actually undermines its development. Similarly, the constantly updated numbers of COVID cases in particular areas overstated the risk to others, since those who have gotten better and are not a potential source of contagion are still included in those counts.

This continuing evolution of what Science tells us reveals that what we are being told at any given time is highly likely to be revised, if not reversed, soon, and perhaps repeatedly. That should make us leery of all claims, including forecasts, premised on the truth of current Science. And if that weren’t bad enough, even the accuracy of the basic data has been compromised.

In some places, reported COVID deaths have included everyone who has it when they die, overstating (to a degree that we can’t know without more detailed information than we now have, and may ever have, for many cases) COVID risks. The director of the Illinois Department of Public Health, Dr. Ngozi Ezike, illustrated the problem when she said, “if you were in hospice and had already been given a few weeks to live, and then you also were found to have COVID, that would be counted as a COVID death….[E]ven if you died of clear alternative cause, but you had COVID at the same time, it’s still listed as a COVID death.” Further, the miscounting is often not due to judgments about shades of gray. For instance, Colorado counted a man who died of acute alcohol poisoning (his blood alcohol content (BAC) was 0.55, when 0.30 is considered lethal) as a COVID death. And when the state recounted to include only deaths caused by COVID, its total fell from 1,150 to only 878.

New York has also counted as COVID deaths cases involving flulike symptoms, even when postmortem COVID tests have been negative. CDC guidance explicitly advises that “suspected” cases, even in the absence of test evidence, can be reported as COVID deaths. That is why the New York Times could report that on April 21 the city death toll was augmented by “3,700 additional people who were presumed to have died of the coronavirus but had never tested positive.”

Then there is also lots of evidence that bears on appropriate COVID policy. For instance, Charles Murray has demonstrated that “The relationship of population density to the spread of the coronavirus creates sets of policy options that are radically different in high-density and low-density areas,” so that “too many people in high places, in government and the media, have been acting as if there is a right and moral policy toward the pandemic that applies throughout America. That’s wrong.”

Randal O’Toole has also cited studies finding that “mass transportation systems offer an effective way of accelerating the spread of infectious diseases,” that “people who use mass transit were nearly six times more likely to have acute respiratory infections than those who don’t,” that New York City subways were “a major disseminator—if not the principal transmission vehicle—of coronavirus infection,” and that there is “a strong state‐​by‐​state correlation between transit and coronavirus,” to ask why mass transit systems were not shuttered to stop the harm. Elsewhere, he noted that “The head of New York’s Metropolitan Transit Authority was infected by the virus and the head of New Jersey Transit actually died from it.”

All this evidence reveals that the COVID Science and conclusions Americans were supposed to follow unquestioningly have been incredibly incomplete or wrong, with the stability of quicksand. Such Science is too frail a reed to depend on in making policies with multitrillion dollar price tags. What it does support is much more humility, reflecting Kelvin’s recognition that:

When you can measure what you are speaking about, and express it in numbers, you know something about it; but when you cannot measure it, when you cannot express it in numbers, your knowledge is of a meagre and unsatisfactory kind; it may be the beginning of knowledge, but you have scarcely, in your thoughts advanced to the stage of science.

Andrew Weissmann to Part Ways With MSNBC Over Biden Fundraiser

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Youtube screenshot

( Free Beacon)

If NBC News legal analyst and former Robert Mueller prosecutor Andrew Weissmann participates in an upcoming fundraiser for Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, it would mean the end of his contract with the news network, the former special counsel investigator told the Washington Free Beacon.

“If the fundraiser goes forward, I’m withdrawing from MSNBC so I can be in compliance with their policy,” Weissmann said in a Friday night phone interview, in reference to the network’s policy that employees avoid activities “that may create the appearance of a conflict of interest.”

Weissmann, who joined MSNBC as a legal analyst last November, said he notified the network of his plans to headline a June 2 fundraiser for Biden with the understanding that it was prohibited by his contract. “I knew what I was getting into and what the consequences would be,” Weissmann said. “They wanted me to adhere to their policy.”

An MSNBC spokesman confirmed that Weissmann notified the network of his plans to headline the fundraiser and that there was a mutual agreement that he would need to terminate his contract to proceed.

The Free Beacon reported on Friday afternoon that Weissmann’s political activity would put him in violation of the network’s longstanding employee policy on political activity. The policy prohibits employees from making political contributions or participating in any campaign event without prior approval from the president of NBC News.

Reports of Weissmann’s involvement in the Biden campaign fundraiser gave fuel to supporters of President Donald Trump, who have long charged that Weissmann was biased against the president.

“It doesn’t get any swampier than this: trying to stage a partisan coup against the president and then raising money for his political opponent,” said Trump campaign spokesman Tim Murtaugh.

The decision to overtly campaign for Biden comes shortly after it was announced that Weissmann would be rejoining law firm Jenner & Block, where he was a partner before he was hired by the Department of Justice in 2011. He will take over the firm’s investigations division on July 1.

Weissmann was frequently deployed by MSNBC during the failed attempts to impeach Trump late last year, often offering advice to Democrats on how to more effectively execute their case. Trump was ultimately acquitted on both the articles of impeachment brought against him.

The Biden campaign did not respond to a request for comment on the planned fundraiser.