By Donald H. Harrison
SAN DIEGO COUNTY (Thursday, May 4, 2023)
San Diego City Council President Sean Elo-Rivera says the Council has only reluctantly consented to adding two lanes to State Route 56. While it may ease traffic flow on the route that connects the Interstate 5 and the Interstate 15, it also encourages even more gasoline-powered traffic. “This is not a win from a climate perspective,” Elo-Rivera was quoted Thursday in The San Diego Union-Tribune. “We need to own that and recognize that and do everything we can to turn the wheel in the right direction as quickly as possible.”
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County Supervisor Terra Lawson-Remer, joining the unanimous vote to add acreage to the Tijuana River Valley Regional Park as well as to make some improvements in its facilities, commented Wednesday that she knew “from first-hand experience that this is a very, very needed endeavor.” She also said the river valley can be an extraordinary biodiversity asset for the entire region, Times of San Diego reported.
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Anti-vaccination advocate Amy Reichert, who has announced her intention to run in the August 15 special election to replace Supervisor Nathan Fletcher, has made major changes over her lifetime, Ken Stone of Times of San Diego has reported. Once a Democrat, she is now a Republican. Once a bat mitzvah at Congregation Beth Israel, Reichert she later became a Christian volunteer at Eastlake Church. Others in the race include Marine Corps veteran Janessa Goldbeck and San Diego City Councilwoman Monica Montgomery Steppe.
NATIONAL
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was accused by U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisconsin) of having lied to Congress when he submitted to a voluntary transcribed interview in December 2020. Johnson told Fox News host Maria Bartiromo that Blinken said he never sent emails to Hunter Biden “and now we have those emails. We also know that his wife [Evan Ryan], using her private email address when she was a employee of the State Department, was basically a conduit between her husband and Hunter Biden as well. So, again, I think there is much more to uncover here. … He needs to be subpoenaed.”
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Linkedin founder Reid Hoffman visited Jeffrey Epstein’s private Little St James Island in the U.S. Virgin Islands on one occasion prior to the convicted sex offender’s 2019 arrest and death in jail, RadarOnline has reported. The visit was to seek a donation for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Media Lab. Hoffman has been in the news for financially backing E. Jean Carroll’s civil lawsuit alleging rape and defamation against former President Donald Trump. About his visit to Epstein, he commented: “It gnaws at me that, by lending my association, I helped his reputation and thus delayed justice for his survivors. While I relied on MIT’s endorsement, ultimately I made the mistake, and I am sorry for my personal misjudgment.”
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U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-California) has issued a statement concerning the impact of her medical absence on the confirmation process for federal judges, Business Insider reported. Her statement, distributed through her Washington office, said: “The Senate continues to swiftly confirm highly qualified individuals to the federal judiciary, including seven more judicial nominees who were confirmed this week. There has been no slowdown. While the Senate Judiciary Committee had advanced eight strong nominees during my absence, I’m disappointed that Republicans on the committee are blocking a few from moving forward.”
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In New York, author Daniel Handler, whose pseudonym is Lemony Snicket, offers to shop with an auction winner at a bookstore, then spend some time together reading poetry. Playwright Itamar Moses has offered to write a short play about an auction winner, and Jonathan Safran Foer says he will write a personalized children’s book for the child of a winner. They are among 25 alumni who have offered individualized services in honor of the Bronfman Fellowship’s 36th anniversary. Their offerings and others may be viewed via this link.
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The civil jury deciding the alleged rape and defamation case brought by E. Jean Carroll watched a videotaped deposition in which plaintiff’s attorney Roberta Kaplan question former President Donald Trump under oath about whether the rape occurred, Daily Beast reported. “She’s not my type,” Trump replied. “It’s not politically correct to say it. I know that, but I’ll say it anyway. … You wouldn’t be a choice of mine either.” During the deposition, taken a year ago, Trump watched the Access Hollywood tape in which he said when a man is a celebrity, women are accepting of sexual advances. You can “grab ‘em by the pussy!” he famously commented. Kaplan, who is unrelated to the Judge Lewis Kaplan, who is presiding over the case, asked if the former President really believed that. “Historically that’s true with stars,” Trump relied. “If you look over the last million years, that’s largely true, unfortunately—or fortunately.” In Ireland, Trump announced he would return to the New York to confront Carroll. The Evening Standard reported he described Judge Kaplan as a “rough judge” who “doesn’t like me very much, he was appointed by Bill Clinton.” About Carroll he said, “I was falsely accused by this woman. I have no idea who she is – it’s ridiculous.” In New York, his attorney Joe Tacopina told Judge Kaplan that Trump would not testify and that he did not plan to call any witnesses for the defense. Even though the defense rested, Judge Kaplan said he would consider reopening the case if Trump in fact wishes to tell his story in court.
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Rabbi Dena Klein, a senior managing director of new models for the Jewish Education Project, has told Axios that the number of full time Hebrew schools in the United States is just half of what it was in 2006. In the same period, 556 after-school Hebrew programs shut down. Prof. Miriam Heller Stern of the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion commented “People who want to really explore their Judaism more culturally or ethnically, socially … they can do that without all the religious obligations.”
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U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff (D-California) has expressed skepticism over the likelihood that the subpoenas issued House Oversight Committee Chairman to the FBI for all documents containing the name “Biden” will result in evidence of any wrongdoing by President Joe Biden when he served as President Barack Obama’s Vice President. Comer (R-Kentucky) and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) have expressed belief that the FBI has a document from a whistleblower that while vice president, Biden engaged in a bribery scheme with a foreign national, a charge the White House has denied. In an interview with CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, Schiff commented: “We don’t even know if there is such a document or what the document pertains to. All we have is someone’s representation. And it doesn’t even sound like he [Comer] knows what it pertains to. So, I don’t want to speculate about it.”
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New York State Attorney General Letitia James has requested that a deadline be set by Judge Arthur Engoron for Ivanka Trump to turn over her emails in the investigation of whether the Trump Organization defrauded the New York State government of $250 million in taxes. Forbes reported that the number of emails the former First Daughter has turned over to investigators dropped from an average of 1,200 per month during most of 2014 to just 37 emails per month in 2016.
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U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Oregon), expressing opposition to the proposed Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), said, “Giving extremist governors the power to decide what content is safe for kids is a non-starter. Ron DeSantis and Greg Abbott are using every bit of power they have to go after queer and trans kids, censor information about reproductive health, and scrub basic history about race in America. I’m not about to give them even more power. I urge my colleagues to focus on elements that are actually going to protect kids rather than just handing more power to MAGA Republicans to wage a culture war against children.”
Wyden also demanded of Harlan Crow that he disclose all the money he has donated to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas or become the subject of a congressional inquiry. The demand came after disclosure that Crowe not only had provided Thomas with luxury trips and purchased property from him at favorable prices, but also has been paying $150,000 in tuition for Thomas’s grandnephew, Newsweek reported. Wyden commented, “With every new revelation in this case, it becomes clearer than Harlan Crow has been subsidizing an extravagant lifestyle that Justice Thomas and his family could not otherwise afford. This is a foul breach of ethics standards, which are already far too low when it comes to the Supreme Court.”
INTERNATIONAL
Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations, Gilad Erdan, responded to a comment made on social media by Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Michigan, calling Israel an “apartheid state,” Fox News has reported. “Tlaib’s ignorance and hatred toward the Jewish people and the State of Israel know no bounds,” the ambassador commented.
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Sarah Schmidthals teaches refugee students in Berlin, Germany, about the Holocaust. Coming from war-torn countries in the Middle East and Africa, they often have little knowledge of the Holocaust, reports Joel Obermayer, executive director of Widen the Circle. “Her innovative approach validates their own oppression first, and then shows them in a very personal way how the Holocaust unfolded in the neighborhood surround their school—relating it to the importance of preventing antisemitism today.” Schmidthals and Steve Becton, a Memphis, Tennessee, educator and the equity and inclusion officer of the Facing History and Ourselves project, will appear jointly in a Zoom cast sponsored by Widen the Circle at 11 a.m. PDT . A spot may be reserved via this link.
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Gilad Sevitt is the cofounder of Madrasa, a program in Israel to teach Jewish Israelis how to speak Arabic. On the New Israel Fund website, he reports that over 130,000 people have registered to learn for free online. “There is a huge desire to learn but until recently there was no convenient way to do so,” he said. “We are providing more than just lessons. When students join, they become part of a greater community, a movement to revolutionize how people learn to communicate in our society.”
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Donald H. Harrison is editor emeritus of San Diego Jewish World. He may be contacted via donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com