GOP Gerrymandering in Ohio Thwarted by State Supreme Court

 https://www.newsweek.com/gop-gerrymandering-ohio-thwarted-state-supreme-court-1668956

Stewart rejected an argument from Senate President Matt Huffman and House Speaker Bob Cupp, both Republicans and members of the commission, that Section 6 was "aspirational" and only applied if other requirements were not met.

"We reject the notion that Ohio voters rallied so strongly behind an anti-gerrymandering amendment to the Ohio Constitution yet believed at the time that the amendment was toothless," Stewart wrote.

According to Huffman, the maps could have given the GOP an advantage of 62 seats to 37 in the House and 23 seats to 10 in the House.

Republicans had defended the proposed maps by arguing that voters in Ohio preferred GOP candidates between 54 percent—the average percentage of Republican votes in statewide elections—and 81 percent of the time, according to The Columbus Dispatch. That latter figure represents the percentage of statewide races the GOP has won in the last decade.

Justice Stewart also suggested that the redistricting commission had been partisan. Two Republicans staffers had drawn up the maps and reported to Huffman and Cupp rather than the commission generally.

"The evidence here demonstrates that Senate President Huffman and House Speaker Cupp controlled the process of drawing the maps that the commission ultimately adopted," Stewart wrote.

'ICUs aren't filled with coronavirus patients'

 https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/320408

Prof. Galia Rahav, top doctor at Sheba Medical Center, says hospitals are 'completely packed, we feel the rise in new COVID-19 cases - but the ICUs are not packed with COVID-19 patients.'

Regarding whether Israel would soon see a drop in numbers, Prof. Rahav said, "There are a lot of 'maybes' here - that's the problem with this virus. Maybe it won't cause more serious illness, because we don't know exactly. We are the first country in the world to have received a booster dose half a year ago, and the elderly already don't have that booster anymore, they received the fourth dose and we don't know exactly how and how much it protects. Logically it should."

When asked if she recommends the fourth dose, Prof. Rahav said, "It depends for who. For the elderly and immunocompromised, I definitely recommend it. At the moment, I don't recommend it for the entire public, because we don't know exactly what the data on the fourth dose is, in terms of efficacy."

"I got the vaccine - that says everything," she added.

G-d's empathy

 Shemos Rabbah (02:05). 5. AND THE ANGEL OF THE LORD APPEARED UNTO HIM (III, 2). It is written: I sleep, but my heart waketh (S.S. V, 2). I am asleep as regards the commandments, but my heart is awake to do them. My undefiled-tamathi (ib.)-because they attached themselves (nith-tamemu) to Me at Sinai and said: ‘All that the Lord had spoken will we do, and obey’  (Ex. XXIV, 7). R. Jannai said: Just as in the case of twins (te'omim), if one has a pain in his head the other feels it also, so God said, as it were6: ’I will be with him in trouble’  (Ps. XCI, 15)....It says: In all their affliction He was afflicted (Isa. LXIII, 9). God said to Moses: ‘Do you not realize that I live in trouble just as Israel live in trouble? Know from the place whence I speak unto you-from a thorn-bush- that I am, as it were, a partner in their trouble.’

Doctors Urge Pregnant Women to Get Vaccinated Amid Omicron Surge

 https://www.newsweek.com/doctors-urge-pregnant-women-vaccinated-omicron-surge-1668572

As the highly contagious Omicron variant of COVID-19 continues to drive a surge in infections across the country, doctors are again sounding the alarm about the importance of pregnant women getting vaccinated.

Worryingly low vaccination rates in pregnancy prompted the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to issue an urgent health advisory in September, calling on all pregnant women to get vaccinated.

The CDC also recommends that those who are pregnant, breastfeeding, trying to get pregnant now, or who might become pregnant in the future, get a booster shot.

Canada says vaccine mandates work as Quebec's 'unvaxxed tax' leads to spike in first-dose appointments

 https://edition.cnn.com/2022/01/12/americas/quebec-vaccine-mandate-intl/index.html

One day after the Canadian province of Quebec announced it would financially penalize residents who are unvaccinated, the province's health minister said Wednesday first-time appointments spiked in the hours following the announcement.

"It's encouraging!" Quebec's health minister, Christian Dube, tweeted, indicating that Tuesday's first-dose appointments were the highest in several days.

The fine for the unvaccinated would not apply to those with a medical exemption, and no details have been announced, although officials said the amount to be levied would be "significant."

The Quebec government says that while nearly 90% of eligible Quebecers have received at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine, the unvaccinated remain a burden on the province's public health system.

Rabbi Chaim Druckman joins rabbinate opposition to conversion reforms

 https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/320370

Senior Religious Zionist rabbis affiliated with the 'Rabbanei Torat Haaretz Hatovah' organization signed a letter Wednesday opposing Religious Affairs Minister Matan Kahana's conversion reforms.

The letter was signed by Rabbi Chaim Druckman, Rabbi Dov Lior, Rabbi Yaakov Ariel, Rabbi Chaim Steiner, Rabbi Eitan Izman, Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu, Rabbi Zephaniah Drori, Rabbi David Chai HaCohen, Rabbi Uri Cohen, Rabbi Elyakim Levanon, Rabbi Isser Klonsky, Rabbi Mordechai Sternberg, Rabbi Yaakov Shapira and Rabbi Yosef Artziel.

"The Chief Rabbinate of Israel is the body that gives the State of Israel its unique weight and Jewish character. It is the only body authorized to manage religious affairs in the country. In light of this - any change in religious matters can be made only by the Chief Rabbinate of Israel," the rabbis wrote.

Rabbi Riskin: Hareidim Are the Biggest 'Reformers'

 https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/187014

Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, Rabbi of Efrat in Gush Etzion and founder of Ohr Torah Stone, strongly criticized hareidi Knesset members on Tuesday for their stance on the government's conversion reforms.

In an interview with Galei Yisrael radio, Rabbi Riskin defended the proposed government decision regarding conversion which would remove Chief Rabbinate supervision of the conversion process, and criticized its opponents.

"I do not understand the whole issue. Yes, I think there is a (Torah) commandment of 'you shall love the convert.' Yes, I think that the Chief Rabbinate until now did not know what it is to get someone who wants to convert treated properly, with love and care," he fired. "How dare they say that my conversions were not done according to Jewish Law?"

Blood pressure drugs may cause kidney damage over time- study

 https://www.jpost.com/health-and-wellness/article-692239

Treatment for high blood pressure, a condition that affects one billion people globally, may actually be damaging the kidney, new research from the University of Virginia School of Medicine suggests. Scientists are urging studies to better understand the drugs’ long-term effects.

Researchers noted that patients should continue taking life-saving medications to prevent heart failure, which includes the commonly used ACE inhibitors. Their work was recently published in the scientific journal JCI Insight.

Boro Park Girl Attacked on 60th Street

 https://hamodia.com/2022/01/12/boro-park-girl-attacked-on-60th-street/

A 17 year old girl walking on 60th Street between 18th and 19th Avenues at 10:30 p.m. was approached from behind and knocked to the ground, and the perpetrator then attempted to assault her. The youth put up a fight and started screaming, which caught the attention of someone in the area who stopped to help. The perpetrator then fled. The special victims unit is investigating the incident.

"מי שמסית נגד החיסונים - יישב בשמיים עם הרוצחים"

 https://www.kikar.co.il/409962.html

הגאון רבי בן ציון מוצפי במתקפה חריפה נגד מכחישי הקורונה המסיתים נגד החיסונים: "בשמיים הם יישבו עם הרוצחים הפושעים, דמם של מאות נפטרים בראש התועמלנים"

Suicide hesped?

 https://www.aish.com/sp/ph/Robin-Williams-Suicide.html

The only one for whom suicide is to be regarded as a grave sin is “someone with full knowledge of his actions.” That, rabbinic authorities have agreed, is a standard from which almost all suicides are to be judged as falling short. Rabbi Yechiel Epstein, in his classic work the Arukh HaShulchan (Yoreh De’ah 345:5) states, “This is the general principle in connection with suicide: we find any excuse we can and say he acted thus because he was in terror or great pain, or his mind was unbalanced, or he imagined it was right to do what he did because he feared that if he lived he would commit a crime…It is extremely unlikely that a person would commit such an act of folly unless his mind were disturbed.”

כללו של דבר: במאבד עצמו לדעת – תלינן בכל איזה תלייה כל שהוא; כגון לתלות ביראה, או בצער, או שיצא מדעתו, או שסבור היה שזה מצוה לבלי להכשל בעברות אחרות, וכיוצא באלו הדברים, מפני שזהו באמת דבר רחוק שאדם יעשה נבלה כזו בדעת צלולה. צא ולמד משאול הצדיק שנפל על חרבו לבלי יתעללו בו הפלשתים, וכיוצא בזה מקרי אנוס. וכל שכן קטן המאבד עצמו לדעת, דחשוב כשלא לדעת.

As Omicron sweeps through Israel, vaccination still effective, expert says

 https://www.jpost.com/health-and-wellness/coronavirus/article-692335

“Unlike other variants, it does a very good job in escaping neutralizing antibodies in both vaccinated and recovered individuals. This means that while it still has a better chance to infect unvaccinated people, it can easily infect also inoculated ones, because it is highly contagious. The question is: is there still a benefit in getting vaccinated? The answer is definitely yes, because we have a great amount of data, not only from previous variants but also about Omicron, that if one is [vaccinated], their chances to develop a severe disease are significantly lower.”

In a report published on Wednesday, Hebrew University experts assessed that the vaccine efficacy in preventing infection might have dropped to as low as 10%-20%, but when it comes to serious symptoms, it is still higher than 90%.

Israel to begin classifying non-Arab gentile citizens as ‘extended Jewish’

 https://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-to-begin-classifying-non-arab-gentile-citizens-as-extended-jewish/

Changes to Israel’s census bureau means that citizens will only be classified as Jews or Arabs, with all non-Jews who are not Arab being counted under a new “extended Jewish population” rubric.

The change will see the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) eliminate the separate category of “others” in official publications on demographics, after a request from a Yesh Atid minister who worried the word could put off those included in it.

The “extended Jewish” category will include any citizen who is not Arab and not Jewish according to Jewish religious law. The CBS said it would also classify groups that are neither culturally Jewish nor Arab in the “extended” category.

High Court blocks Liberman crackdown on haredi subsidies until next year

https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/article-692291 

 The High Court of Justice on Wednesday blocked Finance Minister Avidgor Liberman’s crackdown on certain haredi (ulstra-Orthodox) subsidies until the next school year.

The justices did, however, uphold his authority to make the reform but required him to give the families more advance notice to plan for the rules and budget changes.

In November, an interim conditional order by Justices Uzi Vogelman, Ofer Grosskopf and Alex Stein told the state that it needed to explain within 14 days on what basis it had the authority to change the rules regarding subsidies for haredi child care after the school year had already started.