Two stories today are making headlines in just how insane the new “bail reform” law that New York Democrats shoved down the throats of every New Yorker on January 1st actually are. In one story, a 19-year-old thug named Elijah Hodge was released after his latest in a long line of arrests – for allegedly joyriding in a stolen car in Brooklyn. Hodge was previously charged with an attack on a plainclothes NYPD captain in Midtown last October. An NYPD source tells YWN that he was also charged in the attacks of six elderly Hasidic Jews who were walking to Shul in Williamsburg this past August. In those incidents, at least two of the victims were punched in the face, and all 6 had their pockets emptied.

A Chareidi man, 25, was R”L killed on Sunday afternoon in a traffic accident on Highway 443 next to the Maccabim checkpoint in the direction of Jerusalem. The accident occurred about 2:30 p.m. when the man’s motorcycle collided with a truck. The motorcycle driver, a resident of Bnei Brak, was found lying next to his vehicle unconscious. MDA paramedics and Ichud Hatzalah volunteers couldn’t do anything but pronounce his death at the scene. ZAKA was called to the scene to tend to kavod ha’meis. “The man was lying on the highway unconscious,” MDA paramedic Yishai Reuchberger. “He was suffering from multi system trauma and wasn’t breathing and had no pulse.” He was identified as Avi Weinberg Z”L, a beloved young man who had hundreds of friends.

A Palestinian Arab prisoner associated with Fatah was found to have 11 cellphones and 15 SIM cards inside his abdomen, Israeli Prison Services stated on Sunday. Last Tuesday, the Arab security detainee was brought by security forces to Meggido Prison in northern Israel. While he was being processed to enter the prison, something about the prisoner’s behavior aroused the guards’ suspicion. The guards scanned his body with a magnetometer, which beeped repeatedly over his abdominal area. The prisoner was taken to HaEmek Medical Center in Afula to be X-rayed, and the X-rays revealed three packages with 11 cellphones and 15 SIM cards within his abdomen. “Attempts by security prisoners to smuggle banned equipment and cell phones happen all the time,” Israeli Prison Services said.

The man who helped catch the suspected Monsey attacker back was recognized Thursday night at an event in Williamsburg, not just for his heroic actions that day, but also for refusing to accept money from “Zionists”. Josef Gluck was supposed to receive a $20,000 reward from the Jewish Federation of Rockland County and the Anti-Defamation League. However, Gluck told News12 that “after consulting with his rabbi, he decided to reject that money because he says it comes from Zionist organizations that don’t represent the beliefs and values of their community.” “I was not willing to offer my soul for $20,000”, Gluck told News12. Instead, $20,000 was raised from community members and presented to Gluck at a ceremony in Williamsburg on Thursday night.

Billionaire Mike Bloomberg’s presidential campaign on Saturday downplayed a report that he is considering 2016 Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton as his pick for vice president. The Drudge Report, citing a source close to Bloomberg’s campaign, reported that Clinton was under consideration after internal polling found that a Bloomberg-Clinton ticket would be a “formidable force.” The conservative news aggregator, which came to prominence in the 90s for first reporting the Monica Lewinsky scandal, reported that Bloomberg would consider changing his residence to a home he owns in Colorado or Florida, “since the electoral college makes it hard for a POTUS and VPOTUS from the same state.” But the Bloomberg campaign quickly tamped down that report but fell short of denying it outright.

Federal prosecutors have declined to charge former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, closing an investigation into whether he lied to federal officials about his involvement in a news media disclosure, McCabe’s legal team said Friday. The decision resolves a criminal investigation that spanned more than a year and began with a referral from the Justice Department’s inspector general, which said McCabe repeatedly lied about having authorized a subordinate to share information with a newspaper reporter for a 2016 article about an FBI investigation into the Clinton Foundation.

A new religious versus secular debate arose in Israel this week when media outlets reported on Tuesday that the Tel Aviv municipality has banned stands, including tefillin stands, within 100 meters of publicly owned buildings which service minors, such as schools. The decision was led by the Green Secular party, part of Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai’s coalition, which is headed by Tel Aviv Deputy Mayor Reuven Ladianski. The news was condemned by religious political parties, religious groups and even secular personalities. A secular television host fiercely attacked the municipality’s decision, saying: “I heard the deputy mayor of Tel Aviv saying that they’re banning stands outside schools. What type of stands!? Tefillin stands of the wonderful Chabad who work with such ahavas Yisrael.

A 20-year-old Chareidi Israeli was sentenced to two years of prison in France and a fine of €14,000 ($15,223) for smuggling khat on Wednesday, Israel’s Foreign Ministry announced on Thursday afternoon. The 20-year-old was arrested a week ago at the airport in Paris when 40 kilograms of khat was found in his possession. The Chareidi young man was convinced to smuggle khat into Europe by a Kiryat Sefer man, the man behind the network recruiting hundreds of Chareidi young men and women to smuggle Khat into Europe, according to a Chareidim10 report. Another young man from a Chareidi family was arrested in Chechkoslovia two weeks ago when 40 kilograms of khat was found in his possession.

New recordings obtained by police investigators revealing how Eliezer Berland, the leader of Shuvu Banim who was arrested on Sunday along with his associates, tried to intimidate people with physical violence, were aired on Channel 12 News on Wednesday evening. Berland is heard talking with the Shuvu Banim chief of operations Aharon Schwartz (Oren Amit) on one of the recordings, instructing him to use violence against two people. The conversation was recorded when Berland was in police custody in Tzalmon prison following his extradition to Israel after fleeing the country due to criminal charges against him for assaulting women.

Attorney General Bill Barr told ABC News on Thursday that President Donald Trump “has never asked me to do anything in a criminal case” but should stop tweeting about the Justice Department because his tweets “make it impossible for me to do my job.” Barr’s comments are a rare break with a president who the attorney general has aligned himself with and fiercely defended. But it also puts Barr in line with many of Trump’s supporters on Capitol Hill who say they support the president but wish he’d cut back on his tweets. Barr said he was prepared to accept the consequences of speaking out against the president. “I cannot do my job here at the department with a constant background commentary that undercuts me,” the attorney general said. (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)