Unified. Moving. Inspiring.
Those may not be typical words describing a state legislative session, but all were apropos for the start of Florida’s Senate session on Monday.
A Somber Beginning
Several events came together that morning.

Germany’s leading Jewish organization expressed alarm Thursday over footage of flag-waving neo-Nazis in self-styled uniforms marching through an eastern German town on May Day unhindered by police.
Footage of the march Wednesday prompted widespread outrage in Germany and calls for authorities in the state of Saxony, where far-right sentiment is particularly strong, to step in.

The campus has turned quiet. Flowers and candles fill the steps outside the building where two students were killed. Exams have been postponed or canceled.
For students, professors and administrators, Tuesday’s shooting that left two dead and four wounded at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte has altered what they thought was a safe space, a home away from home.

Two children were seriously injured after falling put of a window in a Spring Valley home, Thursday afternoon.
Sources tell YWN that Hatzolah of Rockland was called to the home on West Street at around 5:00PM, after receiving reports of children out of a window.

A gunman fired his semi-automatic rifle at Jewish worshippers after walking through a Southern California synagogue’s open front door, a spot that synagogue leaders determined last year needed improved security.

“The Mueller Report” is now officially a best-seller.
A published edition of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into alleged ties between Russian officials and Donald Trump’s presidential campaign sold just under 42,000 copies last week, NPD BookScan reported Wednesday.
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Israeli researchers reported Wednesday that violent attacks against Jews spiked significantly last year, with the largest reported number of Jews killed in anti-Semitic acts in decades, leading to an “increasing sense of emergency” among Jewish communities worldwide.

New York is now providing free phone calls from jails, making it the first major U.S. city to eliminate fees for inmate calls, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Wednesday.
The Democratic mayor said the city has fully implemented the law passed by the City Council last August.

He was not originally included on the roster of speakers at the National Day of Prayer at the White House, but Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein, heroic senior rabbi of Chabad of Poway, drew tears from his listeners and words of grateful appreciation from President Donald Trump when the president spontaneously called him up to share his message of pride and strength in the face of evil.

U.S. productivity grew at a solid 3.6% rate in the first three months of this year, the strongest quarterly gain in more than four years and a hopeful sign that a long stretch of weak productivity gains may be coming to an end.
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