Police suspect community leaders were aware of alleged crimes against dozens of victims but preferred to deal with matter internally

Police on Monday arrested 22 suspects from ultra-Orthodox communities on suspicion they carried out dozens of sex crimes against women and minors over the past two years, but were sheltered from the law by community figures who preferred to deal with the matter in their own way.

Investigators believe that various senior ultra-Orthodox leaders were aware of the suspects’ alleged crimes but did not report them to police or welfare workers, police said.

The early-morning arrests of men aged 20-60 were made in Jerusalem, Beit Shemesh, Beitar Illit, and Bnei Brak, cities with large ultra-Orthodox communities.

http://www.timesofisrael.com/22-ultra-orthodox-men-arrested-for-sex-assaults-on-women-minors/

A Colorado startup was one step closer toward its ambitious goal of building supersonic passenger jets capable of crossing the Atlantic in slightly more than three hours after securing $33 million in funding.

snip

“This funds our first airplane, all the way through flight tests,” Boom founder and CEO Blake Scholl told TechCrunch. “Now we have all the pieces we need – technology, suppliers and capital – to go out and make some history and set some speed records.”

Boom Supersonic said its passenger jet will fly at Mach 2.2, or 1,451 miles per hour, and carry 45 passengers.

While the company will not be the first to build a supersonic passenger jet, it would be the first to offer supersonic flights to passengers at reasonable — although not cheap — prices. The supersonic Concorde brought passengers across the Atlantic in three and a half hours for nearly three decades before it was put into retirement in 2003. A one-way ticket on the Concorde cost $18,500 in today's dollars; a ride on a Boom flight will cost just $2,500.

People who aren’t afraid of death have all sorts of different jobs, hobbies and lives, but one thing they tend to have in common is confidence in their faith. Or lack thereof.

A study in Religion, Brain & Behavior says fearing death happens in a curve, with religiously observant people on one side and staunch atheists on the other. Smack in between those two groups are the undecideds, and the amount of fear reaches its peak in that middle, before dropping down as it nears one of the two extremes.

In other words, you are more anxious about death the less certain you are about religion — either that you have faith in a higher power and an afterlife or that there is no God.

The researchers on this study analyzed previous international studies on the matter to come to their conclusion. One of the nuances of their findings was that some people who believed in a religion on the basis of actual faith were not very anxious about dying, while people who followed a religion for social reasons did not have that same experience, according to the University of Oxford. Of the 100 studies researchers looked at, most of them from the United States, some had some conflicting results. They showed the idea of religion easing the fear of death may differ depending on the religious and cultural context.

http://www.ibtimes.com/afraid-dying-scientists-pinpoint-who-terrified-death-who-isnt-2514967

John Fleming, a new Health and Human Services deputy, wrote a book that is pretty crazy!

snip

Among the gems:

Why opiates are proof of God's existence: "Were it not for these drugs, many common and miraculous surgeries would be impossible to either undergo or perform. In my opinion this is no coincidence at all. Only a higher power and intellect could have created a world in which substances like opiates grow naturally."

How pornography can lead to fear of dick: "Another recent example I can cite is that of an adult woman who was allowed to see a pornographic movie as a child. As an adult, she has suffered from a phobia to male genitalia."

On the correlation between tattoos and substance abuse: "Body art comes into play in drug addiction as well, although obviously, not all who have a tattoo are addicts. A sailer who gets a single tattoo on his arm or an adult woman who has a small butterfly tattooed on her lower abdomen are not necessarily drug addicts or even rebellious — just dumb, at least temporarily!"

On whether goths are predisposed to drug addiction: "Goths usually smoke cigarettes and many practice an odd sort of devil worship, although kids in the 'punk' culture may not have any interest in these non-mainstream beliefs. Not all Goths are drug addicts, but a high percentage experiment with all types of drugs, including hallucinogens... When you see that your child has become interested in body art or has a fascination with the Goth or other subculture, then be on alert, because your child is likely headed into rebellion and possible drug experimentation."

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/trump-healthcare-appointee-opiates-are-proof-god-exists

Watch Motherboard's new documentary.

It happened in an instant.

Nicholas Naumkin was at a friend's house the evening of December 22, 2010. Middle school had let out for winter break and the two boys were left home alone, playing video games like Halo and Call of Duty and popping off an otherwise harmless Nerf dart gun. But the playdate would take a violent turn in the kitchen, where Nicholas found himself on the wrong end of an actual gun.

https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/who-killed-the-smart-gun


On a related matter(to me): http://www.democraticunderground.com/10455050

Fortune Magazine's latest list of "The World 50 Greatest Leaders" includes comedian Samantha Bee, but not President Trump.

Coming in at No. 1 on the annual list is Chicago Cubs General Manager Theo Epstein, who built the team that in 2016 won the Cubs's first World Series championship since 1908.

Rounding out the top five are Jack Ma, executive chairman of Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba Group; Pope Francis; Gates Foundation co-chair Melinda Gates; and Amazon's founder and CEO, Jeff Bezos.

Bee, the host and executive producer of the weekly political satire show "Full Frontal," came in at No. 19.

http://thehill.com/media/325384-fortunes-greatest-leaders-list-includes-samantha-bee-snubs-trump

Now if we can just get a few shelves for Guns and Ammo, life in Florida will be complete!

I actually don't mind this, but is this a priority for the bought and paid for legislature?



TALLAHASSEE — Floridians are one step closer to being able to buy whiskey, rum or vodka in a grocery store.

http://www.tampabay.com/news/politics/stateroundup/florida-senate-to-vote-on-letting-grocery-outlets-sell-hard-liquor-in/2317593

The relationship between President Donald Trump and his allies in Congress is rooted less in a simpatico bond than in a particularly ugly kind of transactional politics.

As is often the case when Trump strikes a deal, his side of it comes first: Republicans tolerate his racism, ignore his corruption, laugh off his erratic behavior, and in exchange he leaves the core of the party’s domestic agenda unmolested. He nominates originalists to the Supreme Court; he breaks all his promises to voters by letting Speaker Paul Ryan set social and economic policy.

Notwithstanding the mythical powers Republicans ascribe to cutting high-income taxes, the terms of the arrangement still leave the country vulnerable to humiliation and grave dangers. Back in November, I argued that this transaction set us in a race against time: Could Republicans squeeze what they wanted out of Trump’s presidency quickly enough to spare the organs of U.S. democracy from fatal damage?

https://newrepublic.com/article/141543/gops-deal-devil-unraveling

The family of a northern Indiana restaurant owner who ICE detained during a routine check-in in February says he’s scheduled for deportation Friday.

Roberto Beristain is the owner of a popular restaurant in Granger called Eddie’s Steak Shed. His family says he came to the United States from Mexico City illegally in 1998. He later obtained documentation to work in the country and checked in with ICE each year.

It was during one of those check ins last month that ICE took Beristain into custody because of an incident in 2000. Roberto and his wife, Helen, were visiting Niagara Falls that year and accidentally crossed into Canada. Officers there detained Roberto when they realized he was in the U.S. illegally. Helen says a lawyer helped get Roberto out on bail, but he was told he had to voluntarily leave the country within a month.

snip

During an interview earlier this month, Helen said she voted for President Donald Trump because she supports his immigration policies. She said criminals should be deported, but she didn’t think her husband would face that fate.

http://indianapublicmedia.org/news/indiana-restaurant-owner-deported-friday-116463/

The Founding Fathers probably didn't conceive of branding deals when they wrote the Constitution, but here we are.

Paul S. Ryan, not to be confused with the Speaker of the House, divides his professional life into two periods: before the Announcement and after.

Prior to the January 11 press conference in which Donald Trump said he wouldn't divest from his sprawling company despite being elected president, Ryan had a vaguely normal nine-to-five work existence. He'd wake up in the morning, drink some coffee, and drop his toddler off at daycare before heading into the office of Common Cause, an ethics watchdog group in DC where he serves as vice president of policy and litigation. But now he checks social media the second his kids nod off and again in the early morning hours, mimicking the erratic sleep schedule of a president who might ignite a mini-scandal at any moment with an off-hand tweet—or several of them.

"I didn't work late nights, early mornings, or through the weekends," Ryan tells me. "Now I feel like I'm now on duty 24/7."

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/the-nightmarish-existence-of-the-watchdogs-keeping-tabs-on-trump