Jerusalem home welcomes formerly ultra-Orthodox Jews

 https://www.i24news.tv/en/news/israel/culture/1670932642-jerusalem-home-welcomes-formerly-ultra-orthodox-jews

Barata' offers a refuge for those who left the closed world of ultra-Orthodox Judaism

Those who once tried to follow all of Judaism’s laws now celebrate the beginning of Shabbat as a purely cultural event at "Barata" — an open house in Jerusalem for former ultra-Orthodox Jews.

Yoni Klapholtz founded Barata four years ago. Two years ago, he moved the project into a house next to Jerusalem’s central Machane Yehuda Market.

“We love the Shabbat, we eat Shabbat food, sing Shabbat songs. We are not religious therefore we also make music. We add to the Shabbat, we don’t take away from it," Klapholtz said.

Covid-19 vaccination not responsible for excess deaths in US

 https://factcheck.afp.com/doc.afp.com.32ZT4XW

US health authorities agree Covid-19 vaccination saves lives, but an article claims official data indicate the shots are actually causing excess deaths. This is false; no such link has been proven, and experts say high mortality figures in 2022 correlate closely with the number of people who succumbed to coronavirus infections.

Messianic 'rabbi' charged with rape opens school board meeting

 https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/364384

Griffin, who heads a congregation in nearby Saginaw, Texas, that blends Christian beliefs and Jewish practices, is currently awaiting trial on four counts of sexual assault. According to reports of the indictment, he is accused of using his stature as a “rabbi” to sexually assault a woman in March 2020 after coercing her to become his “concubine” and citing Abraham and Jacob as examples of spiritual figures who enjoyed multiple partners. The victim claimed she had been assaulted in Griffin’s congregation, including in his office, which DNA samples seemed to corroborate, a warrant said.

Netanyahu must say no to the haredi party's demands - editorial

 https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-724803

Now it’s United Torah Judaism’s turn. They, too, had a hand in Netanyahu’s electoral victory, so they, too, will get. But they want more than just a ministry or a Knesset committee chairmanship. They have reportedly presented Netanyahu with a list of demands that, if met, would put Israel’s foot on the path toward becoming a state run by Halacha (Jewish Law – literally, “walking”).

Sexual abuse rampant in federal prisons, bipartisan investigation finds

 https://thehill.com/homenews/house/3773579-sexual-abuse-rampant-in-federal-prisons-bipartisan-investigation-finds/

Over the course of an eight-month investigation, the subcommittee found BOP employees sexually abused female prisoners in at least two-thirds of federal prisons over the past decade. 

The Bureau has also failed to prevent, detect and stop recurring sexual abuse in at least four federal prisons. 

Dem Dysfunction, Tabloid Hellscapes, Crime: How New York Almost Went Red

 https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2022/12/2022-midterms-crime-new-york-hochul-zeldin-new-york-post/

Adams and Zeldin’s rhetoric notwithstanding, no clear causality has been established between bail reform and the 30 percent increase in crime in New York this year. (Homicides are down 12 percent.) Quinn, the retired Queens prosecutor, studied the effects of bail reform in a report for the conservative Manhattan Institute. He found that 27 percent of people brought in on felony charges between July and August 2020 were rearrested while awaiting trial. In contrast, the office of New York City’s progressive comptroller Brad Lander concluded in March that there “has been essentially no change in the monthly percentage of people rearrested while released pending trial after bail reform.” 

Fact-checking claims bail reform is driving increase in violent crime

 https://edition.cnn.com/2021/07/07/politics/bail-reform-violent-crime-fact-check/index.html

Facts First: There’s no clear evidence linking bail reforms – which have been in place for years in some cities – to the recent rise in violent crimes. In fact, the majority of cities that have seen increases in crime have not eliminated cash bail. Many variables have contributed to the increases Graham is referencing but CNN has seen no evidence to suggest that bail reform is a major factor.

Times Union’s Josh Solomon on new DCJS crime stats

 https://spectrumlocalnews.com/nys/central-ny/politics/2022/09/29/times-union-s-josh-solomon-on-new-dcjs-crime-stats

One of the most politicized issues of this election cycle is bail reform. 

Republicans, including gubernatorial candidate Rep. Lee Zeldin, have argued that cashless bail has led to an increase in crime. Democrats like Gov. Kathy Hochul say it hasn’t. 

Until now, the numbers haven’t told a clear story. And it looks like, even with newly released crime statistics from the Division of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS), that the definitive answer some are hoping for on bail reform remains elusive.

According to Josh Solomon, a Capital Bureau reporter for the Albany Times Union who has done in-depth work on this issue, DCJS is urging New Yorkers to remain open-minded.

The Facts on Bail Reform and Crime Rates in New York State

 https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/facts-bail-reform-and-crime-rates-new-york-state

But the best available information suggests that bail reform is not the primary driver of these increases in crime. One recent analysis by the Times Union of Albany suggested that relatively few people released under the new law went on to be rearrested for serious offenses. The Times Union reviewed state data on pretrial releases between July 2020 and June 2021, identifying nearly 100,000 cases where someone was released pretrial in a decision “related to the state’s changed bail laws.” Just 2 percent of those 100,000 cases led to a rearrest for a violent felony; of these, 429 cases led to a rearrest for a violent felony involving a firearm. Roughly one-fifth of all cases resulted in a rearrest for “any offense,” regardless of severity, such as a misdemeanor or nonviolent felony.

That means any attempt to link bail reform to rising crime should be evaluated skeptically. Indeed, some early arguments about the effects of bail reform have been directly disproven. In 2020, the New York City Police Department claimed that bail reform and recent jail releases had led to an increase in shootings. But according to a New York Post analysis, the NYPD’s own statistics proved otherwise. Between January and late June 2020, according to NYPD data reviewed by the Post, “just one person released under the statewide bail reform laws” had been charged with a shooting.

We Need to Protect New York Bail Reform to Protect New York Communities

 https://www.vera.org/news/we-need-to-protect-new-york-bail-reform-to-protect-new-york-communities

All New Yorkers, regardless of wealth, age, race, or ZIP code, deserve to be safe. But an often-overlooked fact is that mass incarceration is actually counterproductive to public safety. People detained pretrial, in particular, are more likely to be rearrested in the future compared to people who are released pretrial—a reflection of the impact of ripping people from their families, homes, and jobs and placing them in unsafe jail conditions.

Before bail reform, New Yorkers facing minor charges were forced to pay bail they couldn’t afford just to stay out of jail. Many couldn’t pay even a $500 bail or, if they could, it would be at the expense of paying rent, putting food on the table, or taking care of other necessities. Without reform, the crisis occurring in New York City’s jails—where 18 people have died so far this year—would be that much worse. Bail reform has kept people alive, families together, and hard-working New Yorkers employed.

New Jersey overhauled its bail system under Christie. Now some Democrats want to roll it back.

https://www.politico.com/news/2022/12/11/new-jersey-bail-system-roll-back-00072781 

Eight years ago, then-Republican Gov. Chris Christie teamed up with Democrats to pass a major overhaul of New Jersey’s criminal justice system, ushering through legislation that made the state among the first in the nation to effectively eliminate cash bail.

Hunter Biden's Laptop and 'Twitter Files'—What We Do Know, What We Don't

 https://www.newsweek.com/hunter-biden-laptop-twitter-files-1765395

Right-wing commentators criticized the reveal too. Sebastian Gorka, a former advisor to President, Donald Trump, said he was "deeply underwhelmed" by Taibbi's thread.

How ‘woke’ went from a social justice term to a pejorative favored by some conservatives

 https://edition.cnn.com/2022/07/10/us/woke-race-deconstructed-newsletter-reaj/index.html

By using the term “woke” however they want, conservatives have muddied its meaning, have obfuscated it to refer to anything having to do with progressivism they don’t like. The same goes for “critical race theory.” They’ve done it with so many terms. “Identity politics” is another one. One of the earliest usages of “identity politics” is in the Combahee River Collective Statement from 1977. It was a way of describing working to end Black women’s oppression – it was a political movement on the basis of identity. Really straightforward. Now, though, “identity politics” is often seen as this negative thing that people don’t want to participate in.

One of the things that gets paired with semantic pejoration is what’s called semantic bleaching. Semantic bleaching is another linguistic process whereby the denotative content of a word is stripped away. I think that “critical race theory” is a good example of that, along with “woke.” Once a word gets semantically bleached, it can come to mean anything. “Woke” has come to mean anything having to do with race or, more broadly, progressivism.

Right loves to hate, imitate Alinsky

 https://www.politico.com/story/2010/03/right-loves-to-hate-imitate-alinsky-034751

“You become a better organizer when you understand that there is nothing new under the sun,” Steinhauser said of his appreciation of Alinsky. “All the pitfalls, the problems, the disputes — this is the way human beings are. Politics is a human science and this guy understood that. He was practical. He understood how to get competing factions and interests and individuals to get in the same room and form what he called a ‘peoples’ organization’ and to move in the same direction to take on city hall.”