Monday, March 17, 2025
Draining the swamp or war on Israel? Israeli politicians react to Netanyahu firing Shin Bet chief
https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-846321
Netanyahu moves to fire Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar, drawing praise from the Right and fierce opposition from the Left.
Netanyahu says decided to fire Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar
https://www.ynetnews.com/article/bypkkkvhje
Prime minister summons Bar to inform him he will be bringing a decision to fire him to cabinet for approval; move expected to come before court because of prime minister's conflict of interest after Shin Bet investigates his close aides
The SHABBATTO: Mobility Meets Halacha
https://www.timesofisrael.com/spotlight/the-shabbatto-mobility-meets-halacha/
Movinglife, also partnered with the Star-K kosher certification agency to develop the SHABBATTO mobility scooter with a unique “Shabbat Mode” for observant Jews with mobility challenges. In seeking approval for Shabbat use, Movinglife met with Star-K’s rabbinic authority, Rav Moshe Heinemann, and programmed the scooter’s Shabbat mechanism according to detailed halachic guidelines he provided. After making minor adjustments and passing Star-K’s testing, the SHABBATTO became the only mobility scooter approved by Star-K for Shabbat use. This Star-K approval means the scooter can be used on Shabbat by those designated as cholim, allowing them to attend synagogue and participate in community life without violating Shabbat.
How Do You Like the Trade War Now?
https://www.wsj.com/opinion/donald-trump-tariffs-canada-doug-ford-trade-war-ba0c6147
Trump is furious that Canada won’t take his tariffs lying down.
As AI nurses reshape hospital care, human nurses are pushing back
The next time you’re due for a medical exam you may get a call from someone like Ana: a friendly voice that can help you prepare for your appointment and answer any pressing questions you might have.
With her calm, warm demeanor, Ana has been trained to put patients at ease — like many nurses across the U.S. But unlike them, she is also available to chat 24-7, in multiple languages, from Hindi to Haitian Creole.
That’s because Ana isn’t human, but an artificial intelligence program created by Hippocratic AI, one of a number of new companies offering ways to automate time-consuming tasks usually performed by nurses and medical assistants.
White House touts deportation of alleged gang members that court ordered returned to US
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/03/16/deport-support-venezuela-el-salvador-00232379
Justice Department lawyers submitted a vague two-page filing to Boasberg on Sunday afternoon that appeared to assert that planes carrying the deportees were outside the judge’s jurisdiction by the time he ordered them to turn back.
The DOJ submission also suggested Boasberg’s order wasn’t effective until it was noted in the court’s electronic docket at 7:26 p.m., even though the judge issued the order verbally about 45 minutes earlier and said it had to be “complied with immediately.”
Trump administration deports hundreds under sweeping wartime authority despite judge’s pause order
In the latest dramatic showdown between the White House and the judiciary, a federal judge temporarily blocked the administration’s ability to use the centuries-old Alien Enemies Act on Saturday evening, and verbally ordered any planes in the air carrying some of those migrants to turn back to the US.
Leavitt’s assertion that there was no conflict between the administration’s actions and the judge’s “written order” appears carefully crafted to exclude the judge’s directive that planes be turned around — which he issued verbally from the bench.
Verbal orders hold the same legal weight as written directives, CNN senior legal analyst Elie Honig told CNN’s Jessica Dean on “CNN Newsroom” Sunday. The big question, Honig explained, was where the planes were when the order was given.
Republicans Push to Make 'Trump Derangement Syndrome' a Mental Illness
Five Republican Minnesota state senators are set to introduce a bill tomorrow that would classify "Trump Derangement Syndrome" (TDS), which they define as an "acute onset of paranoia" regarding the presidencies of Donald Trump, as a mental illness, according to state documents.
Throughout his presidential campaigns, Trump and his top communication advisers—including current White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt and communications director Steven Cheung—have repeatedly accused many critics of having a "severe case of Trump Derangement Syndrome," as Cheung previously told Newsweek. The phrase has also been used by Republican politicians and talk show hosts, among others.
The bill seeking to classify TDS as a mental illness raises concerns about the politicization of mental health diagnoses, which could be used to misappropriate care, diminish other mental health concerns, and suppress dissent and political expression.
Sunday, March 16, 2025
'Simply not conceivable': Judge says Trump admin lied to court, engaged in 'illegal scheme' to fire 'broad swaths of the federal workforce'
A federal judge in Maryland on Thursday evening ordered the Trump administration to rehire tens of thousands of recently terminated federal workers and issued a temporary restraining order prohibiting additional unlawful mass firings, becoming the second judge to issue such an order in the same day.
The sweeping 56-page ruling from Maryland-based U.S. District Judge James Bredar covers firings across 18 different agencies, including the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Department of Education, and Homeland Security. Bredar reasoned that the administration’s actions appeared to be an attempt to skirt statutory constraints regarding “reductions in force” (RIFs) by falsely claiming that each of the thousands of workers were fired for “performance or other individualized reason.”
“In this case, the government conducted massive layoffs, but it gave no advance notice,” the judge wrote. “It claims it wasn’t required to because, it says, it dismissed each one of these thousands of probationary employees for ‘performance’ or other individualized reasons. On the record before the Court, this isn’t true. There were no individualized assessments of employees. They were all just fired. Collectively. Accordingly, in the language of relevant laws, these big government layoffs were actually ‘Reductions in Force,’ or ‘RIFs.’ And, because these were ‘RIFs,’ they had to be preceded by notice to the states that would be impacted.”
Saturday, March 15, 2025
Union rages after Elon Musk shares X post that ‘Hitler didn’t murder millions, public sector workers did’
Workers blasted DOGE hatchet man Elon Musk Thursday after he reposted a startling message on X declaring that “Hitler didn’t murder millions of people. Public sector employees did.”
Lee Saunders, union president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees of the AFL-CIO, fired off a furious response saying: “America’s public service workers — our nurses, teachers, firefighters, librarians — chose making our communities safe, healthy and strong over getting rich. They are not, as the world’s richest man implies, genocidal murderers.”
He added: “Elon Musk and the billionaires in this administration have no idea what real people go through every day. That’s why he’s so willing to take a chainsaw to people’s jobs, Medicaid, Social Security and Medicare.”
Russia Says Nyet to Trump’s Ukraine Cease-Fire
As his troops take more territory, Putin rejects what Kyiv accepted.
President Trump’s envoy, Steven Witkoff, is visiting Moscow, and the Kremlin welcomed him with the back of its hand. Yuri Ushakov, a close adviser to Vladimir Putin, told Russian television that a cease-fire would be “nothing other than a temporary breather for Ukrainian soldiers.” He added, “our goal is long-term peaceful resolution. . . . Steps that imitate peaceful actions are not needed.”