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Crisis Consultant Management Team Drops Kushner Companies

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Jared Kushner is the CEO of Kushner Companies as well as President Donald Trumpu2019s son-in-law and senior advisor.

The family real estate company of Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and senior advisor, has been dropped as a client by crisis management consultant Risa Heller.

Early last week, after only a year and a half of representing the company, Heller decided to part ways. Heller actually lasted longer than many of the other media relations firms that worked in the past with Jared’s father, Charlie Kushner, the family patriarch and convicted felon.

This account is disputed by a spokesman for Kushner Companies, who said that last week the company decided to replace Heller. This parting of ways came as outrage spread across the country over the response of Trump to the white supremacy protests in Charlottesville, Virginia.

According to Politico, “Heller’s work with a real estate client was not political — but it bled into that realm after the election, when she served as a spokeswoman for Jared Kushner, before he joined the White House, and then for his wife, Ivanka Trump. Heller was hired separately by the president’s daughter last Christmas, before Ivanka Trump expected to take an official role in the administration. Heller helped oversee the rollout of Ivanka Trump’s self-help book, ‘Women Who Work,’ earlier this year, and helped handle her ethics disclosures, but wrapped up her work with her client in July. 

Heller’s involvement with two of the most prominent members of the Trump family and administration has roiled New York City political circles, where the one-woman crisis management machine has long been known as a straight-talking Democratic operative, known best as a former spokeswoman for New York Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer and as a close friend and adviser to former New York Democratic Rep. Anthony Weiner. She now heads up her own firm, Risa Heller Communications.”

Heller leaves the real estate company as public relations crisis are hitting Kushner Companies from every direction. According to a report last week in the Baltimore Sun, judges were used by the company to arrest tenants who did not repay their debts. 

Also, recently the Chinese company Anbang Insurance Group has dropped out of discussions to redevelop 666 Fifth Avenue, one of Kusher’s flagship skyscrapers in Manhattan. 

Last April, Ivanka Trump told BuzzFeed, “Risa is incredibly talented, driven and passionate. She is a formidable advocate and respected by all as a trustworthy and honest broker of facts.”

A inside source told Politic that Heller is parting on good terms with Ivanka and Jared. 

Meanwhile, global strategy firm based in New York and London, Finsbury Communications, has been retained by Kushner Companies as their new representation. 

By Charles Bernstein

Sahara Group Ready to Sell Plaza Hotel; Other Owners Balk

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Yet another chapter opens in the ongoing drama around the sale of the Plaza Hotel. The hotel’s current majority owner, Sahara Group, has taken steps to finally sell the property after years of almost selling the hotel but never finalizing any deal, the company has hired a broker to market the iconic building. 

Curbed provides a concise summary of the property’s recent history in an article last week. The paper states, “Let’s revisit how the hotel got here: It’s had many owners over the years, including the Hilton clan and current president Donald Trump; El-Ad purchased it in 2004, and led the conversion of more than 100 of its hotel rooms into luxury condos. In 2012, Sahara Group purchased a majority stake in the company, valuing it at about $575 million. But things spun out of control quickly for the firm and its president, Subrata Roy; after defaulting on loans, Roy was imprisoned in India, and Sahara was said to be shopping the hotel around to help get him out of jail. (WSJ says he’s been out on parole since 2016.)”

There are many other twists and turns in this saga, but it seems that Sahara is finally prepared to part ways with the Plaza Hotel. Consulting firm Lodging Advisors’ CEO Sean Hennessey said that Sahara hiring a broker for the property.” Even though prior attempts by potential buyers, like Fugees’ Pras Michel, to purchase the property have never fully came to fruition, this should now all change with the involvement of JLL Hotels and Hospitality Group.

JLL’s international director Jeffrey Davis, who is managing the bidding on the Plaza, said, “We’ll solicit bids. It’s the most iconic real estate asset in the world. It’ll garner international attention.”

While the Sahara seems prepared to finally sell, New York investment and development company Ashkenazy Acquisition Corporation and Prince al-Waleed bin Talal of Saudi Arabia, who hold a combined 25 percent stake in the hotel, have other plans for the property.

The New York Times reports, “The prince, who has been an owner of the hotel since 1995, formed a partnership with Ashkenazy earlier this year to buy out Mr. Roy and restore the Plaza to its five-star grandeur. Under the ownership agreement, the partners have the right to match any offer for the hotel and to take it over, according to real estate executives who have been briefed on the agreement and who spoke anonymously because they were not authorized to disclose the details.”

The chief executive of the prince’s company, Kingdom Hotel Investments, Sarmad Zok said, “We are not selling our stake and are comfortable with our rights relating to any sale by others. We are proud to have partnered with Ashkenazy to reinstate the glory of this unique asset.”

An extensive modernization program is in the partners plans, to better equip the Plaza to compete with other five-star Manhattan hotels. They also plan to open parts of the hotel that have been closed for renovations for years, including the infamous Oak Room and the wood-paneled Oak Room Bar, which have been closed for six years now. 

Although it’s not the highest ever valued hotel to go on the market in New York City, The Wall Street Journal reports that it could be worth as much as $560 million. The priciest sale ever is held by the Waldorf Astoria, which was sold by the Hilton for $1.95 billion to the Chinese developer Anbang. Similarly, to the Plaza, the Waldorf Astoria is in the process of converting hundreds of its rooms into condos.

 By Mark Snyder

New Tappan Zee Bridge is Open to the Public

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A new New York bridge has officially opened, providing a critical connection in the state’s Northeast U.S. highway system. Early on Saturday, August 26, the first cars drove over the Hudson River on the Governor Mario M. Cuomo Bridge. These cars were the first of an estimated 50 million vehicles to use the bridge each year.

The old Tappan Zee Bridge will still be used by motorists driving south or east, until this fall when the new bridge completely replaces it.

On Thursday, August 24, democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo commemorated the bridge that is named after his beloved father. The replacement bridge was known as the New NY Bridge, until a new state law recently passed changing it. From 1983 to 1994, Mario Cuomo served as governor of New York for three terms. In 2015, he passed away on New Year’s Day.

Cuomo said, “We’ve been through this every day, but to see it in reality, it takes my breath away.”

The bridge, which runs 3 miles, connects Westchester and Rockland counties north of New York City along the New York State Thruway. 

According to The New York Times, “The new bridge is a sleek two-span cable-stayed design, with the cables holding up its steel decks anchored to the tops of the angled central towers rather than to the shore, and its striking look stands in contrast to the shabby erector set of the old Tappan Zee. The new bridge, like its predecessor, will stand at one of the widest points of the Hudson, its location determined by political considerations: Anything built within 25 miles of the Statue of Liberty would be controlled by the Port Authority, governed by both New York and New Jersey; the Tappan Zee, just outside the zone, is controlled completely by New York. The new bridge is a symphony of statistics. More than 1,000 cylindrical piles were planted into the Hudson riverbed to create 41 pillars to hold up each span. Some 330,000 cubic yards of concrete were poured in construction, including some 6,000-precast concrete road deck panels. The main decks of both spans are held up by 192 cables stretched among eight 419-foot angled towers. The bridge will handle 140,000 cars a day.”

In 2013, the state Thruway Authority began construction on the new bridge after decades of political turmoil. 

By Rachel Shapiro

Village Voice Goes Digital; Ceases Print Edition After 60 Years

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On Tuesday, the Village Voice announced that it will be terminating its free print edition. The longtime fixture of New York City street corners will be moving its presence entirely online, marking the end of an era. As reported by the NY Post, the alt-weekly paper, co-founded in 1955 by Norman Mailer, will follow their ads and classifieds, which have funded the paper, as they shift onto the web.

The change means layoffs “in the near future”, admitted a spokeswoman, though she did not specify how many.  Nor has any explicit end date been given. According to owner Peter Barbey, the media outlet will continue “exploring some exciting new opportunities related to its archives” and “potential partnership opportunities” similar to the well-received Pride Awards that it launched this year. It will also continue to present the Obie Awards for Off-Broadway theater.

“When The Village Voice was converted into a free weekly in an effort to boost circulation back in 1996, it was at a time when Craigslist was in its infancy, Google and Facebook weren’t yet glimmers in the eyes of their founders, and alternative weeklies — and newspapers everywhere — were still packed with classified advertising,” said Barbey.

“That business has moved online — and so has the Voice’s audience, which expects us to do what we do not just once a week, but every day, across a range of media, from words and pictures to podcasts, video and even other forms of print publishing.”

As one of the earliest alternative news weeklies in the U.S., the village voice was iconic. It was well known for its investigative reporting and pioneering cultural criticism. The paper propelled the writing careers of Wayne Barrett, Robert Christgau and Molly Haskell. The publication has been selected to receive three Pulitzer Prizes.

Following the universal collapse of print advertising, the company tried to fill the void with escort ads which were considered offensive, leading to criticism and repercussions.

Barbey, who purchased the media outlet from the Voice Media Group in 2015, relaunched the paper and Web site. He is also CEO of Reading Eagle Company, which contains the Reading Eagle newspaper, and the WEEU 830 AM radio station. The Barbey family is the 48th wealthiest in the country, as per Fortune Magazine. Barbey is one of the heirs to the VF Corporation which includes The North Face, The Timberland Company, and Lee jeans.

By:  Benyamin Davidsons

55-Story Condo Tower Tries to Soar Above Midtown Manhattan

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The building at 277 Fifth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan is still under construction.

Developers Victor Group and Lendlease Development are trying to raise their 130-unit condo under construction at 277 Fifth Avenue at East 30th Street near the Empire State Building, above the surrounding buildings with the hopes of attracting residents with spectacular views. 

According to The New York Times, “In a chess-like series of moves that stretched over several years, these developers stitched together not two or three parcels, as is often the case, but essentially eight different lots — about the entire length of the condo’s block and then some. This helped allow the condo to soar to 55 stories, or taller than most of the buildings around it (so far). Snapping up so many surrounding development rights, better known as air rights, has an added benefit, said Ran Korolik, the executive vice president of Victor. It ensures that no other high-rises will ever go up next door, along any of the condo’s facades, which might have permanently blocked the windows there, he explained.”

Korolik said, “I think buyers will appreciate it.” He explained the in 2014 he purchased the original development site, which was only three lots, and would therefore allow for at most a 35-story building. Any building that hasn’t reached its maximum permitted height, can sell those air rights, which can then be shifted around, usually between buildings that are next to each other. 

“But developers are like teachers and parents. We do a whole lot of work, but sometimes we are underappreciated,” Korolik added.

The tower is designed by Rafael Viñoly Architects. Skyscrapers, including 432 Park Avenue, are among the firm’s portfolio. Though every resident can’t have an upper level view, all the apartments in the building are corner units with two exposures, ensuring each has a large amount of natural light. The majority of the units contain one, two or three bedrooms, and there are two full floor penthouses. 

The NYT reports, “The interiors, from Jeffrey Beers International, an architecture and design firm known for its hotels and restaurants, have wide-plank oak floors, at least 10-foot ceilings and open kitchens, with white marble counters, wine fridges and Miele ranges. And while there are no windows in the baths in the one-bedrooms because the baths are tucked into the interiors of the units, windows are a feature of the baths in units with two bedrooms or more. Unlike some of its peers, 277 Fifth isn’t taking a more-is-more approach to its recreational spaces, with just about 7,000 square feet of amenities compressed on two lower floors connected by staircase. Amenities there include a gym, saunas and a custom surface for table tennis.”

Lendlease’s, a division of the global construction firm with the same name, executive general manager Melissa Roman Burch said, “It’s not about unlimited choices, but it was about curation.” This condo is the development division of Lendlease’s first project in New York. 

By Mark Snyder

NYC Taxi Drivers May Soon Lease Cabs for Less Than 12-Hours

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A pilot program started being tested this week in New York City by its Taxi and Limousine Commission, which will allow taxi drivers to lease a cab for less than the currently required 12-hour periods.

A decades-old rule that requires that a driver lease a taxi car for at least 12 hours, is the reason why there is often a shortage of cabs in Manhattan during the evening rush. The majority of leases, either begin or end at 5 p.m., which means most drivers are heading to or from garages in the outer boroughs during the crucial evening rush.

On Monday, August 28, this could all change as the testing of the pilot program beings, which will permit cabs to be leased for shorter periods for a prorated fee or a 35% commission on the fares.

Brooklyn-based NYC Taxi Group is the first to implement the new program, which others can sign up for thereby expanding it.

In October 2015, the commission announced the pilot program, but it was not until now that a fleet operator has signed up. Taxi and Limousine Commission chairwoman Meera Joshi said, “There was a lot of industry reluctance to change practices.” 

There still remains a lot of skeptics throughout the industry. skepticism remains. A spokesman for the Metropolitan Taxicab Board of Trade, which thousands of taxi owners are represented by, Michael Woloz advised that commission-based leasing, which encourages driving during the big money hours, “could result in less service during certain times and may have other implications on a fleet’s overall ability to adequately serve the riding public.”

An article in the Wall Street Journal reports, “The first company to enter the program is doing more than offering drivers leasing flexibility. Aleksey Medvedovskiy, the chief executive of NYC Taxi Group, has spent two years developing an app that unchains drivers from the garage model altogether. Mr. Medvedovskiy, who is 35 years old, is outfitting his fleet of more than 260 cars with technology that allows drivers to locate and unlock vehicles wherever they are parked. Instead of a cab being based at Mr. Medvedovskiy’s garage in Brooklyn, drivers can park a cab close to home. A driver who wants a car can use the app, called Lacus Driver, to see all vehicles that aren’t in use on a map. He can book that car, unlock it with his phone and begin driving straight away.”

As ride sharing apps, like Uber and Lyft, gain popularity, the yellow cab industry facing increasing hardships. According to an analysis by former NYC Taxi and Limousine Commissioner Matthew Daus, in 2015 yellow taxi farebox revenue went down 7.5%, and in 2016 it decreased another 8.8%.

By Hannah Hayes

SoftBank to Invest $4.4 Billion into WeWork

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On Thursday August 24th, Japan’s Softbank announced that it would invest $4.4 Billion into WeWork, the rapidly growing shared workspace startup. As reported by the NY Times, $3 billion will be directed towards WeWork itself, while the remaining of the $1.4 billion will work towards expanding the company’s current operations in China, Japan, South Korea and Southeast Asia. Over half of the investment will purchase newly issued stock from the company, and the rest will be utilized to buy shares from existing investors. As part of the deal, two SoftBank directors, Ronald D. Fisher and Mark Schwartz, will join the board of WeWork.

SoftBank Group, founded in 1981, is the 62nd largest public company in the world, as per Forbes. It is also the third largest public company in Japan. Softbank’s founder, Masayoshi Son, will dip into Vision Fund, the $93 billion he has raised thus far, whose backers include Apple, Qualcomm and the kingdoms of Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi. Over the past year, the Japanese conglomerate has poured billions of dollars around the world investing in diverse startups. He has already proved his ambition spending $32 billion last year to purchase ARM Holdings, the British semiconductor designer making chips for modern smartphones; $4 Billion in graphics chip maker Nvidia; billions of dollars in global ride-hailing businesses; and $500 million for Improbable, a British virtual reality start-up. 

Wework has been trying to score an investment from SoftBank for over a year. The fund set the value for WeWork at roughly $17 billion. WeWork has already earned the confidence of investors including Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and Benchmark, the venture capital firm.

WeWork, founded in New York in 2010, now claims about 150,000 members across its 160 locations around the globe. It has become one of the world’s fastest-growing co-working businesses. It is indispensable to companies who want flexible office space without the commitments or hassles of moving into a full office. The shared office environments include extra services like conference rooms, mail handling, dedicated front desk services, fresh coffee, phones, Wi-Fi, printers, scanners, and cleaning crews. There are even networking opportunities, happy hour events, and classes. In the U.S. the price for a “hot desk”, or a guaranteed work space in a common area, starts at $220 a month, while a private office is $400 and up per month.

In a statement Mr. Son said, “We are thrilled to support WeWork as they expand across markets and geographies and unleash a new wave of productivity around the world.” WeWork’s co-founder and CEO, Adam Neumann, said, “This support from SoftBank and the Vision Fund will provide even more opportunities for creators as we set out to humanize the way people work and live.”

By:  Shmuel Rachelov

End of Summer Signifies Best Time  for “House Bargain Shopping” in Hamptons

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114 Lockwood Avenue in Bridgehampton slashed its price down from $5.99 million to $5.89 million. (Photo Credit: Douglas Elliman)
4 Sandacres Lane, which is spread over 15 acres in the hamlet of Quogue, dropped its price down to $17.49 million from $24.9 million. (Photo Credit: Douglas Elliman)
8 Liano Drive sits on 4 acres in Wainscott, and has chopped its price from $2.34 million to $1.55 million.
This cute home at 71 Franklin Avenue in Sag Harbor Village cut its price to $1.1 million from $1.2 million. (Photo Credit: Context Media Development)

Since 2014 David Shaulian and Yonel Devico have been trying to sell their glorious eight-bedroom home at 114 Lockwood Avenue in Bridgehampton. The 11,000-square foot home sits on about half an acre of land, and despite it having eight full bathrooms, a finished basement, a chef’s kitchen, a pool and spectacular cedar-shingles, the home has not sparked he interest of any serious buyers. 

As the summer nears its end, the couple decided to take $100,000 off the property’s list price this month. The home is now listed through Douglas Elliman’s Dianne McMillan Brannen and Lori Barbaria with an asking price of $5.89 million.

Home builder Devico, who financed the investment property with business partner Shaulian, told The Post, “We just really wanted to make the home more appealing to prospective buyers. Showing some movement on the price is the best way to do that.”

The Post reports, “As the dog days of the season come to a close, home sellers on the East End are adding one more item to a to-do list that usually includes packing up beach chairs and putting away bikinis. Many are also slashing prices on properties that have sat unsold all summer in a last-ditch effort to lure buyers before the leaves change. While a flurry of late-summer price cuts is not uncommon, 2017 has seen more than usual, brokers report. The reductions range from the extreme (a 15-acre spread at 4 Sandacres Lane in Quogue that dropped its price from $24.99 million to $17.49 million) to the relatively slight (Devico and Shaulian’s $100,000 chop, or the $300,000 shaved off a modern farmhouse at 16 Fieldview Lane in East Hampton that is now asking $5.39 million).”

Corcoran broker Gary DePersia said, “No one is panicking, but moving the price lower ensures that your listing gets attention. If your home hasn’t sold yet, it’s time to take action, and cutting the price is usually the best thing to do.”

Last week a four-bedroom spanning 1,700 feet at 781 North Sea Road in Southampton cut its price by $36,000 down to $739,000. In June, a Sag Harbor beach cottage located at 15 Oak Road dropped $40,000 off its asking price, which is now $649,000. 

These price cuts create a great opportunity for buyers to get magnificent estates for a bargain. In the East Hampton hamlet of Wainscott, the two-story contemporary four-bedroom, three bathroom at 8 Liano Drive, sits on 4 acres, has a heated pool and hot tub, and is a quick drive from beautiful beaches. This luxurious home hit the market last year with a price tag of $2.34 million. Its asking price is now down to just $1.55 million, since it didn’t sell this summer. 

Elliman broker William Wolff, who has the Liano Drive listing, said, “Sellers get motivated at this point of the summer. The best way to make these properties more attractive is to cut the price before summer ends.”

McMillan Brannen of Elliman explains that since many Hamptons homes are rented for the summer, as it comes to an end and the renters leave its common for owners to cut down their prices. A property can be made more appealing by even the slightest drop in price. She said, “Buyers typically come out here looking to make deals now. Even when we get past Labor Day, we’ll still see people looking for bargains.”

The Post reports, “Heeding this wisdom is Marilyn Stanco, a 68-year-old retired college administrator who put her Sag Harbor weekend home at 71 Franklin Ave. up for sale in late 2016. She recently reduced its asking price by $100,000 to $1.1 million. The two-bedroom sits in Sag Harbor Village and includes a secondary building that could be converted into an artist studio or guest house.”

Stanco said, “We got some attention and even a few offers [before], but nothing close to what we wanted. Hopefully the new price will get us what we’re looking for.”

Despite data that shows a booming real estate market in the East End, a surge of price reductions happens at this time of year. 

By Rebecca Gold

Drone Captures Shark ‘Feeding Frenzy’ Off Hamptons’ Coast

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When water temperatures shift sandbar sharks’ migration patterns can bring them to the North Atlantic Coast. (Photo Credit: Wikipedia)

Off the coast of the Hamptons, one of the most famous New York vacation spot, a tourist captured a natural sight with his drone that looks like a scene straight out of a horror movie. The movie shows a glorious huge school of menhaden fish being attacked and devoured by a shiver, or group, of sharks.

Massachusetts Marine Fisheries senior scientist Gregory Skomal say that it is a common occurrence for sharks to feed on big schools of fish, even near popular recreation sites like the Hamptons’ beaches. He told National Geographic, “Sharks’ travel patterns in the area are well documented, and include regularly feeding on large schools of fish. This year we’ve seen an increase in schools of menhaden in the area, leading to more of these occurrences.” 

According to Skomal, the sharks seen in the video are most likely dusky or sandbar sharks, which are two of the most common species of shark in the North Atlantic Coast. He said, “These species have a very strong seasonal presence, from New Jersey all the way up to the coast of Maine.” Skomal explained that this geographic region is known as the New York Bight.

Shifting water temperatures lead to migration patterns that will usually bring these types of sharks to the area. Skomal noted that beach goers need not fear however, because these types of sharks are not known to attack humans. 

National Geographic reports, “The area has seen a growth in shark activity, with a reported nine baby white sharks being born in the last year. This and other recent data led OCEARCH, a nonprofit organization for marine science and shark research, to report that Long Island may be a nursery, or a birthing site, for sharks along the East Coast. As shark sightings gain attention, hopeful sightseers turn to modern tools to capture these moments. In particular, drones equipped with cameras have been put to use, producing stunning video. Skomal points out that through the use of drones to document shark feeding, we get a look at these creatures in a new way.”

Skomal told the publication, “With drone technology being used like this, we’re seeing these kinds of images for the first time. It’s fascinating to see the natural biology of these animals and these interactions between predator and prey taking place.”

By Hannah Hayes

Schumer to Trump: Reject White Supremacy

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Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) says Democrats will attempt to use a “must-pass” bill to dissolve President Donald Trump’s voter fraud commission if the president does not end the commission voluntarily.

In an op-ed published Thursday, Schumer argued that if the president wants to show his commitment to rejecting white supremacy, he will dissolve the commission.

“If the president wants to truly show that he rejects the discrimination agenda of the white supremacist movement, he will rescind the executive order that created this commission,” Schumer wrote.

Schumer plans to call for public hearings on voting rights in September when Congress is back in session, the Hill reported.

“Experts can discuss policies like same-day registration” at public hearings, Schumer said in the op-ed.

Trump created the Election Integrity Commission via an executive order in May following his claims of voter fraud during the 2016 presidential election. The president has been criticized for exaggerating claims of voter fraud, and the commission has received pushback from states. A number of states objected to the commission’s request for voter roll data over privacy concerns.

Some Democrats argue that the true intentions of the commission are more nefarious than advertised. They argue Republicans aim to restrict voting rights in order to impact voters—including minority voters—who more often vote Democrat.

In July, Democratic National Committee chairman Tom Perez expressed this view in an op-ed.

“There seems to be no limit to how far Republicans will go to disenfranchise certain voters,” Perez said.

According to the White House, the purpose of the commission is to study vulnerabilities in the U.S. voting systems. It planned to evaluate voter suppression and voter fraud, both in terms of registration and actual voting.

Republicans have argued some voting requirements are “common sense,” and action is necessary to ensure those who vote do so legally.

Schumer nonetheless condemns any action taken by Trump’s commission.

“They are a ruse,” Schumer wrote in reference to the commission’s actions. “Their only intention is to disenfranchise voters. This is how the appalling failure to use the right words and stand up to hate in the aftermath of Charlottesville is made in the form of policy; they are two edges of the same sword.” 

By: Katelyn Caralle
(Washington Free Beacon)

Trump Facing Criticism After Pardon of Sheriff Joe Arpaio

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House speaker Paul Ryan says he disagrees with President Donald Trump’s decision to pardon former Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio, less than a month after he was convicted of criminal contempt in a case involving his department’s racial profiling policy.

“Law-enforcement officials have a special responsibility to respect the rights of everyone in the United States. We should not allow anyone to believe that responsibility is diminished by this pardon,” Ryan spokesman Doug Andres said in a statement.

Both Republican Senators from Arizona, John McCain and Jeff Flake, also were critcal of the move.

In a statement late Friday, the White House said of Arpaio: “Throughout his time as sheriff, Arpaio continued his life’s work of protecting the public from the scourges of crime and illegal immigration. Sheriff Joe Arpaio is now eighty-five years old, and after more than fifty years of admirable service to our Nation, he is a worthy candidate for a Presidential pardon.”

Trump had hinted at a campaign-style rally last week that he might pardon Arpaio, whom supporters have called “America’s toughest sheriff.”

As sheriff of Arizona’s Maricopa County, Arpaio was a vocal advocate for crackdowns on illegal immigration and last month was convicted of misdemeanor contempt of court because he refused to comply with a 2011 order by a U.S. district judge to stop traffic patrols that were aimed at identifying illegal immigrants.

Trump’s Homeland Security Advisor Thomas Bossert told ABC’s This Week that the pardon was “pretty straightforward” and “just about every modern president ends up with some controversial pardons.”

Some of Arpaio’s critics have expressed disappointment over Trump’s decision, including Cecillia Wang, deputy legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union.

“With his pardon of Arpaio, Trump has chosen lawlessness over justice,” Wang said, referring to Arpaio’s unorthodox disciplinary measures, some of which — such as the racial profiling policy — have been ruled illegal.

“Once again, the president has acted in support of illegal, failed immigration enforcement practices that target people of color and have been struck down by the courts,” she added. “His pardon of Arpaio is a presidential endorsement of racism.”

The American Bar Association, a national organization of lawyers and other legal professionals, said in a statement it is disappointed in the president’s action, which it said undermined public trust in the U.S. legal system. The ABA said Arpaio had “disobeyed the courts and violated the rights of people he was sworn to protect”, substituting his own interpretation of justice for the law.

The National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials called the pardon “an endorsement of racism from the highest office in the land.”

Arpaio would have faced up to six months in jail at his October 5 sentencing.

“Sheriff Joe” has enjoyed a significant amount of publicity with his unorthodox disciplinary methods, such as placing inmates in desert tent camps housing more than 1,000 people, in a state where summer temperatures often climb past 100°F (37°C).

Amnesty International spoke out against the so-called “Tent City Jail” in 1997, saying it was not an “adequate or human alternative to housing inmates in suitable jail facilities.”

The tent city continued to exist, however, until current Maricopa County Sheriff Paul Penzone announced in April 2017 that it would be shut down. Penzone said the tent city was neither a deterrent to crime nor cost-effective.

By: Walter Metuth

Texas Jewish Communities Hit Hard by Harvey; Relief Efforts Underway

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Texas National Guard members help rescue flooded Texans. Credit: Texas Gov. Greg Abbott via Twitter.

Relief efforts are underway in the Jewish communities of southeastern Texas following the deadly Hurricane Harvey that slammed into Texas killing at least six people and causing widespread epic flooding.

This was the strongest storm to hit Texas in decades. Heavy rainfall caused massive and widespread flooding, the most that’s been seen from a tropical storm, and power outages. Thousands of people around the Houston area were rescued from being stranded in their cars and homes in flood waters that were several feet high.

Ahead of the storm, most area synagogues cancelled Shabbat services. The Evelyn Rubenstein Jewish Community Center of Houston closed Friday and remained closed Sunday due to safety concerns.

Several Jewish community members led a volunteer emergency response team, and performed rescue operations Saturday night and Sunday. 

“It’s really bad here,” Jewish community rescue volunteer Jenelle Garner said, reported the Jewish Herald-Voice. “We might be forced to leave….”

Rabbi Gidon Moskovitz of the Meyerland Minyan said that over half of his congregation had “taken in water” up to five feet deep in their homes, reported Hamodia.

Chabad-Lubavitch said that one its emissaries in Houston had taken in several people after they had become trapped by flooding after Shabbat.

“I am sad to report that many of our friends who flooded in the recent past are flooded once again, and there are many others who have never been flooded before,” says Rabbi Chaim Lazaroff, co-director of Chabad of Uptown with his wife, Chanie. “The rain is not stopping.”

The Houston area has been hard hit by flooding in recent years, but Saturday’s storm was by far the most widespread.

The Jewish Federation of Houston on its Facebook page posted Sunday, “Parts of our community have been impacted by the severe weather of the past two days. We are working with our partner agencies to assess the current situation in our community and determine priority on action items.”

Relief efforts were underway even before the water started to recede in some areas.

“We are heartbroken to see the impact of the storm on our community,” the Jewish Federation of Greater Houston stated Sunday on its Facebook page, adding that it launched a donation page to collect funds for the community’s immediate needs. 

The Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago started a relief fund to help victims of the devastating storm.

“We are in touch and working with the Jewish Federations of North America, NECHAMA: Jewish Response to Disaster, and local Jewish communities in the storm’s path to gauge the scope of the damage as it unfolds and to quickly address specific needs of the Jewish and general communities,” the agency said in a statement.

Contributions to the Jewish Federation Hurricane Harvey Relief Fund can be made online at www.juf.org/HurricaneHarvey. 

(JNS.org)

Dershowitz Calls Out American Left for Ignoring “Bigoted” Extremists

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While pundits across the political spectrum criticized President Trump’s initial response to the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia earlier this month, one prominent left-leaning American jurist and lifelong Democrat is calling out the progressive-left for its own failure to condemn violent extremism.

Alan Dershowitz, a famed defense attorney and professor emeritus at Harvard Law School, criticized President Trump’s response to the killing of a demonstrator in Charlottesville by a white supremacist, writing in The Algemeiner that the president “has a special obligation to single out for condemnation… individuals and groups that claim… to speak in his name.”

But Dershowitz also noted that the American left had largely failed in this regard as well, with mainstream liberals increasingly “willing to excuse” the “anti-liberal bigotry” of “hard-left violent bigots, like the Antifa protest movement.

Speaking on Fox News last week, Dershowitz accused the American far-left of seeking to “tear down America”.

“Many of these people, not all of them, many of these people are trying to tear down America,” Dershowitz said of the Antifa movement. “A radical American, anti-free market communist, socialist, hard-left organization that tries to stop speakers on campuses from speaking. They use violence and just because they’re opposed to fascism and to some of these monuments shouldn’t make them heroes of the liberals.”

Touching on the recent efforts by Antifa activists to vandalize or remove statues of not only Confederate leaders but also America’s Founding Fathers and Christopher Columbus, Dershowitz compared the far-left to Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin.

“The idea of willy-nilly going through and doing what Stalin did, just erasing history and rewriting it to serve current purposes, does pose a danger.” 

By: David Rosenberg
(INN)

German Magazine Slammed for Trump ‘Nazi Salute’ Cover

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Last weeku2019s cover of a popular German news magazine depicting President Donald Trump draped in the American flag while giving a stiff-armed Nazi salute is drawing sharp criticism from a prominent Jewish group.

“This cover is a culmination of an increasingly alarming use of the Swastika and other Nazi symbols, depicting the elected President of the United States,” declared the Simon Wiesenthal Center of a German magazine cover showing Trump as a Nazi.

Last week’s cover of a popular German news magazine depicting  President Donald Trump draped in the American flag while giving a stiff-armed Nazi salute is drawing sharp criticism from a prominent Jewish group.

Stern magazine’s illustration is part of a cover story headlined “Sein Kampf,” which translates as “His Struggle” and is a play on Adolf Hitler’s infamous “Mein Kampf.”

The Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Center, which has been “outspoken in criticizing President Trump for failing to make a distinction between Nazis and KKK protesters and those who opposed them,” weighed in on the issue. “President Trump is fair game for serious criticism by the public and media at home and abroad,” but “the depiction of the president as a latter-day Hitler by a major German publication is untrue and beyond the pale,” declared Rabbis Marvin Hier and Abraham Cooper, Dean and Founder of the Simon Wiesenthal Center and Associate Dean and Director of Global Social Action. The Simon Wiesenthal Center is the leading Jewish human rights organization and was named in honor of the late Nazi-hunter.

“This cover is a culmination of an increasingly alarming use of the Swastika and other Nazi symbols, depicting the elected President of the United States,” the rabbis charged.

“There is no comparing the genocidal ideology of Nazism which would finish Hitler’s vision of a Jew-free world, the KKK, whose ideology would eliminate all Blacks and Latinos in the US and those who oppose these anti-Semites and racists,” they added.

“Germans must surely know that by misappropriating the Swastika, the Sieg Heil, and other Nazi symbols and terms associated with Adolf Hitler, they belittle and becloud the crimes of the past, and add heat but shed no light or perspective on the serious struggles and disagreements that currently beset our democracy,” they concluded. 

By: WIN Staff
(World Israel News)

Vatican Worried by ISIS Threats on Pope

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The Vatican’s security remains on high alert amid new threats against the Pope. 

Pope Francis’ top aide says a pro-Islamic State (ISIS) group video that targets the pope is worrying, but notes Vatican security is already at a high level.

Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Holy See’s No. 2 official, told reporters Saturday that a day earlier he had seen the video, which indicates the pope is a target. Recently, another video, transmitted on the pro-ISIS Telegram channel, suggested that Italy is the next target of an Islamic terror attack.

“Obviously, one cannot help but worry, above all for the senseless hatred that it is,” Parolin said.

But he said the Vatican hasn’t added more measures to its already high security.

The Vatican, headquarters of the Catholic Church, and Italy have previously been identified as possible targets of Islamist terrorism.

ISIS has openly threatened the Pope, the Vatican and Christians on several occasions.

In March 2014, Commander Domenico Giani, head of the Vatican police force, said in an interview that ISIS threats against Pope Francis are “real” and not just media propaganda.

Threats against the Pope and the Vatican go beyond ISIS’ apparatus operating out of Syria and Iraq. They extend to “‘lone wolves,’ those in Western countries appearing to be ordinary citizens, who are more dangerous because they are unpredictable,” the security chief explained.

The Pope is fully aware of the danger, Giani said, but “is not compromising the style of his pontificate, based on closeness to the people, that is, on personal contact with the greatest number of people possible.”

The Vatican Police and Interpol exchange intelligence with each other as well as with other investigative services, receiving valuable information even from Muslim states, Giani revealed.

According to Giani, 20 of the 138 Vatican police have received “special training” that enables them to carry out “anti-terrorist actions.” Some, he said, “accompany the Pope during his international travels.” 

By: WIN Staff
(World Israel News)

France’s Macron: Fighting Terrorism Abroad Is Top Priority

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French President Emmanuel Macron has made the fight against “Islamic terrorism” in Syria and Iraq the top priority in his foreign policy agenda.

Speaking Tuesday to French diplomats gathered at the Elysee Palace in Paris, Macron called the Islamic State group “our enemy.”

“Restoring peace and stability – Iraq then Syria – is vital priority for France,” he said.

He proposed creating a new contact group including the other permanent members of the U.N. Security Council to help handle negotiations with Syria. He didn’t give more details about the exact role and composition of this group, saying the main players of the Syrian crisis would be involved.

The group will first meet at the United Nations in New York next month.

Macron also announced the organization in Paris of an international summit “against the financing of terrorism” at the beginning of next year.

In Libya, a key country in Africa’s unstable Sahel region, Macron said only a political process will help “eradicating terrorists.” He vowed to help Libya’s neighbors, especially Tunisia, to protect those nations against the risk of destabilization.

On French territory, Macron confirmed that he plans to lift a state of emergency that has been in place since deadly November 2015 attacks by Islamic extremists in Paris. At the same time, he pledged to harden permanent security measures to fight Islamic extremism and other threats.

The state of emergency expires Nov. 1.

Macron recalled France’s commitment toward the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers – an agreement President Donald Trump has threatened to pull the U.S. out of.

“There’s no alternative” to this deal, Macron said, calling for a “constructive and demanding” relationship with Iran.

The French president praised a new European-African plan to grant asylum to migrants in Chad and Niger before they try dangerous, illegal sea crossings, calling it “more human and more effective” than any policies tried in the past.

He insisted that taking in refugees “is a question of dignity and loyalty to what we are,” but stressed the importance of sending home illegal migrants who don’t qualify for asylum.

Macron announced he is naming a new ambassador to oversee migration issues and said his government would step up European-African cooperation efforts to stop migrant smuggling.

By: Walter Metuth