Algemeiner Reports: Congressman Eliot Engel of New York just returned from Israel, where he met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a week prior to his arrival at this year’s AIPAC conference in Washington.
The Congressman spoke highly of President Obama’s address at this year’s conference in an interview with The Algemeiner, but stressed that Netanyahu and Obama can only assure each other of their views on crucial matters, in private. Read more »
New York Jews getting ready for Purim skipped the costume parties Sunday to focus on giving back.
Doing extra charity is a must during the two-day celebration that begins Wednesday night and honors Queen Esther for saving the ancient Persian Jews from slaughter.
World War II vet Jerome Richard, 95, wanted the preschool in his Manhattan neighborhood to have its own Torah, so he shelled out more than $50,000 buying a three-foot handmade scroll. Read more »
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney said today in Georgia: “If Barack Obama is reelected, Iran will have a nuclear weapon and the world will change….He’s also failed to communicate that military options are on the table and in fact in our hand, and that it’s unacceptable to America for Iran to have a nuclear weapon.”
In response, NJDC President and CEO David A. Harris said: Read more »
CNN Money: Those hoping for gas prices to turn around and start falling should be careful what they wish for. If consumers get significant relief from prices, it could well be due to a new recession that’s far more painful than the gas pains they’re now feeling.
The chance of the U.S. economy falling into a new recession isn’t a front-burner issue the way it was in the second half of last year. Stronger hiring, a pick-up in home building and auto sales and a stock market rally has given a significant lift to consumer confidence. Even most economists are now downplaying the risk. Read more »
After being asked if she’d consider the VP position during an interview with Fox News, Palin stumped for Allen West, counting his military experience as valuable. “You know who I’d like to see considered for the VP slot is Colonel Allen West,” Palin said. “In this very tumultuous time across our world, someone who has served in our military or at least has intimate knowledge of the way the military works and should work, perhaps by having a close family member serve, someone like that.” – Huff Post
Jon Tobin Writers: The left-wing J Street lobby has failed to gain much traction on Capitol Hill in its four years of existence. So it was hardly surprising that it would attempt to gain some publicity on the eve of the annual conference of AIPAC, the organization it once hoped to supplant. The group released a memo by its pollster Jim Gerstein that, it claims, debunks the notion that President Obama is in any danger of losing his stranglehold on the Jewish vote this fall.
Gerstein’s numbers and analysis are, however, merely a rehashing of much of what we already knew about the Jewish vote. It also largely mischaracterizes the debate about the issue. Read more »
Joe Carvin, supervisor of the Westchester County town of Rye and a hedge fund executive, formally announced he is seeking the Republican nomination to challenge Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand this fall. There are now three candidates in the GOP field: Carvin, Wendy Long and Nassau County Comptroller George Maragos. News that Carvin was considering a run first leaked out several days ago. He began calling GOP chairs this week, one of them told me, and has hired Bill O’Reilly to assist his campaign. O’Reilly as well as the firm of Capitol Public Strategies (where Dave Catalfamo hangs his shingle) had been retained to help Marc Cenedella, a Manhattan executive who ended up aborting a potential run earlier this month. – CC
Silive.Com Reports: Former Congressman Guy V. Molinari yesterday issued a full-throated defense of his hand-picked candidate, embattled Rep. Michael Grimm (R-Staten Island/Brooklyn).
The borough Republican Party heavyweight called the spate of recent allegations about Grimm’s business dealings and fund-raising nothing more than a Democratic smear campaign.
He blasted reports by former Congressman Anthony Weiner that he had contacted the Federal Bureau of Investigations with concerns about Grimm, as nothing more than political. Read more »
Politifact: By Gov. Chris Christie’s account, he arrived in Trenton and slashed billions of dollars of state spending in two years.
In a state capital thriving off freewheeling use of tax dollars, Christie said he immediately closed a $2.2 billion gap left by his predecessor. Then, the governor claims, he wielded his budget ax to eliminate another $10.7 billion.
In an interview on “Piers Morgan Tonight” that aired on Feb. 21, the same day the governor delivered his budget speech, Christie described his fiscal prudence to a national audience.
“Let’s look at what I’ve done in New Jersey, OK? And that’s the best gauge to gauge and to judge a politician. Not what they say in a talk show with you, but what they’ve done,” Christie said. “And in two years, what we’ve done is to protect the most vulnerable here, even when we had to cut 13 billion dollars in state spending over two years.”
OK, let’s judge the governor by his actions. Read more »
AP Via Canada.com: Speaking to a pro-Israeli lobby group ahead of his meeting Monday with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Obama said the U.S. will prepare for a military contingency to keep Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. But Obama stressed he has a “deeply held preference for peace over war” having sent American troops into battle in Iraq and Afghanistan as commander in chief. Read more »
AP Via Politico Reports: An upstate New York man is accused of threatening to kill President Barack Obama and elementary schoolchildren in Saratoga County.
Prosecutors say the U.S. Secret Service and local authorities collaborated to arrest Brent Dickinson of Saratoga Springs.
The county district attorney’s office said Saturday the 33-year-old man “intended to murder” the targets of his threatening messages. They said the U.S. Secret Service intercepted two threatening messages posted by Dickinson on a White House message board Friday.
Dickinson was arraigned in Saratoga Springs City Court on charges of making terroristic threats.
He was taken to city jail after bail was set at $50,000. It wasn’t immediately known whether he had an attorney.
Times Dispatch Reports: House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, who represents a district in Virginia, endorsed Mitt Romney this morning, just two days ahead of the Super Tuesday Republican presidential primaries. Virginia and Ohio are among 10 states that will vote in primaries and caucuses on Tuesday. In Virginia, only Romney and U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, has qualified for the ballot.
Romney has also picked up backing here from VA Gov. Bob McDonnell, and Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling
The former Massachusetts governor and former U.S. senator from Pennsylvania are tied with 32 percent support from likely voters in the Ohio Republican primary, the most important of the 10 state nominating contests on “Super Tuesday” this week. After his victory in Saturday’s Washington state caucuses, Romney is gaining momentum going into Tuesday after trailing Santorum in recent polls in Ohio. Reuters
In recent weeks, there have been a few high-profile instances of (former) Hasidim who went to major media outlets to reveal many secrets of the Hasidic community:
While your frustrations are understandable I ask that you do not reveal to the public from where we get blood for Matzo now that we don’t kill Christian kids anymore for Passover. In addition, please don’t reveal how all Jews are rich in this bad economy and with little-to-know education. Certainly, do not spill out in the open how Jews act to be so poor when in fact they all swim in bundles of cash…
Just before the AIPAC conference begins in Washington, a pro-Israel, anti-Obama group called Emergency Committee for Israel is releasing a 30-minute movie called “Daylight: The Story of Obama and Israel.”
The group run by executive directors Noah Pollak and Michael Goldfarb has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in their campaign ahead of the AIPAC Conference. There, Obama will have to defend his record in front of a voting bloc that is becoming less uniformly democrat, as The Hill writes: Read more »
Fox News: Beren Academy’s boys basketball team is headed to the state championship. And this time, there’s no need to reschedule the game.
The Orthodox Jewish school in Texas advanced Friday with a 58-46 victory over Dallas Covenant in a semifinal that was rescheduled only after parents sued to ensure it wouldn’t conflict with the Sabbath.
A group of about 100 relatives and friends of the Houston team, whose plight had generated national media attention, stood and cheered in the final seconds.
“It’s great — absolutely hard to describe,” team co-captain Isaac Buchine said. “To find out that other people would be playing in our spot didn’t sit well … but we focused on the basketball aspect of it.” Read more »
Sales of the gas-electric car have been flagging. GM had a set a goal of selling 10,000 Volts by the end of 2011, but was only able to sell about 7,600 by then. Last month, Volt sales actually rose substantially compared to the prior months. Chevrolet dealers sold 1,023 of the cars in February compared to only 600 in January. Still, GM has more Volts sitting on dealer lots than it has buyers. GM had, in the past, said slow sales were the result of an insufficient supply of cars, not a lack of demand. Now, the carmaker is admitting that supply is no longer the problem. As part of the shut down, GM will temporarily lay off 1,300 workers at the plant. - CNN Money
