Rubashkin to get 27 years

AP

DES MOINES, Iowa — A former vice president of an Iowa kosher slaughterhouse will be sentenced to 27 years in prison and ordered to pay nearly $27 million restitution for his conviction on financial fraud charges, a federal judge said Monday.

Chief U.S. District Court Judge Linda R. Reade released the memorandum outlining the sentence she will hand down for Sholom Rubashkin during the former Agriprocessor's Inc. manager on Tuesday in federal court in Cedar Rapids.

A jury found Rubashkin guilty last fall on 86 federal financial fraud charges. Prosecutors had sought a 25-year sentence. Rubashkin's attorney, Guy Cook, said the sentence is longer than necessary and plans to appeal.[...]

Rabbinical Court drops Emmanuel case after Laloum snub

Jpost

The likelihood of a breakthrough in the Emmanuel case seemed meager on Monday afternoon as negotiations fell through for an agreement between the Hassidic parents and a foundation that strives for equality between Ashkenazim and Sephardim in the haredi school system.

Each side blamed the other for the failure of the talks, with the Rabbinical Court that had called for integration canceling a hearing on the matter after Yoav Laloum, the man who originally sued the school, failed to drop his case with the High Court as he was asked to do.[...]

Additional abuse charges against Baruch Lebovitz

Daily News

New sex abuse allegations - at least one stretching back more than a decade - are surfacing against a once-respected Brooklyn rabbi recently convicted of molesting a teen.

A 29-year-old Borough Park man went to cops last week saying that Rabbi Baruch Lebovits fondled him in a ritual bath, known as a mikvah, when he was just a teen.

Several more men have reached out to police to share stories of sexual abuse at the hands of Lebovits, sources said.

"What he is charged with is the tip of the iceberg," said one law enforcement source.[...]

Social Reading: Reading is to combat loneliness:

New York Times

“THE point of books is to combat loneliness,” David Foster Wallace observes near the beginning of “Although of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself,” David Lipsky’s recently published, book-length interview with him.

If you happen to be reading the book on the Kindle from Amazon, Mr. Wallace’s observation has an extra emphasis: a dotted underline running below the phrase. Not because Mr. Wallace or Mr. Lipsky felt that the point was worth stressing, but because a dozen or so other readers have highlighted the passage on their Kindles, making it one of the more “popular” passages in the book.

Amazon calls this new feature “popular highlights.” It may sound innocuous enough, but it augurs even bigger changes to come. [...]

Chazon Ish on fish worms

Could someone explain what the Chazon Ish is talking about? In
particular the last line.

Aging & sickness vs medical treatment:Stopping pacemaker

NYTImes

One October afternoon three years ago while I was visiting my parents, my mother made a request I dreaded and longed to fulfill. She had just poured me a cup of Earl Grey from her Japanese iron teapot, shaped like a little pumpkin; outside, two cardinals splashed in the birdbath in the weak Connecticut sunlight. Her white hair was gathered at the nape of her neck, and her voice was low. “Please help me get Jeff’s pacemaker turned off,” she said, using my father’s first name. I nodded, and my heart knocked. [...]

New Chabad Representatives To Mumbai

Chabad News hat tip Rabbi Oliver

Rabbi Chanoch and Leah Gechtman are the newly named Chabad representatives to Mumbai. Before details of their appointment were made public, they shared a candid conversation with Baila Olidort, Editor-in-Chief of Lubavitch.com/Lubavitch News Service, about their decision to accept this appointment. [...]