Conservative pundit Ben Shapiro invited a wave of rebuke by comparing needing health care to wanting a nice piece of furniture. Shapiro was responding to Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, who has called healthcare a right and denounced President-elect Donald Trump and Republicans’ plan to repeal Obamacare. You heard it here first folks—health is an accessory…
Chelsea Handler will be at Utah’s Sundance Film Festival when President-elect Donald Trump gets sworn in next week. But that won’t stop the comedian from making her opposition heard, as she’ll be leading a women’s protest in Park City on January 21 against the new administration. “If there’s anything I learned in the last year,…
(JTA) — The British rock band Coldplay will play two “peace concerts” for Israelis and Palestinians. The concerts, set for Nov. 3 and 4, will be performed at an outdoor location north of the Dead Sea, Israel’s Channel 2 reported Monday. The shows will aim to promote human rights and bring people together, The Times of…
(JTA) — Accusations that the United States orchestrated last month’s U.N. Security Council anti-settlements resolution have no basis in fact, President Barack Obama said. In one of his final interviews as president, Obama spoke to Ilana Dayan, the reporter for Israel’s Channel 2, who has interviewed him in the past. The interview is to be broadcast…
(JTA) — The New York Times named Ian Fisher, an assistant editor who has reported from Israel, Gaza and the West Bank, to serve as its Jerusalem bureau chief. The newspaper announced the appointment of Fisher on Monday. Fisher joined the New York Times in 1990, and has since worked as bureau chief in East Africa…
Elisha Wiesel, son of Holocaust survivor and Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel, will be chief information officer at Goldman Sachs Group Inc., the bank announced Monday. Wiesel will oversee more than 10,000 people in the bank’s technology division. He will replace R. Martin Chavez in a rotation of top management posts that followed the…
Chuck Schumer, the new leader of the Senate Democrats, wants the Republicans to ease up on their aggressive calendar for confirming Donald Trump’s Cabinet nominees. To make his point, he’s sending the Senate Republicans a letter that might look a bit familiar. This afternoon, Schumer posted on Twitter a letter that Senate Majority Leader Mitch…
When Super Bowl fans descend on Houston this February, many of the town’s visitors will have David Mintzner to thank for the warm hospitality. He died a few months ago, at 101, but not before conceiving the city’s new Marriott Marquis hotel — with its record-sized ballroom, ornate chandeliers and a lazy river in the…
The top Democrat in the U.S. Senate, Chuck Schumer, decried what he called undue haste to confirm President-elect Donald Trump’s nominations for various top posts, saying on Monday they needed more thorough vetting. Hearings start on Tuesday for the Republican president-elect’s choices for senior administration posts, beginning with U.S. Senator Jeff Sessions, nominated to be…
Imagine getting a tweet with your face on a lampshade. You report the picture to Twitter as anti-Semitic harassment — and Twitter responds by suspending your account, not those of your trolls. That’s what activist Alexandra Brodsky says happened to her. The fellow at the National Women’s Law Center, an advocacy group for women, tweeted…
President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team confirmed a White House role for his son-in-law Jared Kushner on Monday, but opponents might challenge the appointment. Kushner will become a “special adviser” to the president, a position that might violate a federal anti-nepotism law, and that will bring possible conflicts of interest raised by the Kushner family’s far-flung…
