The city of Chicago sued Jussie Smollett for more than $130,000 on Thursday to recover the cost of police overtime spent looking into an alleged hate crime against him.
The “Empire” actor has been accused of orchestrating the Jan. 29 assault, during which he says two men yelled racist and anti-gay slurs while beating him, pouring an unknown chemical substance on him and wrapping a rope around his neck. Smollett, 36, was indicted on 16 felony counts in early March for allegedly lying to police about the altercation – one count per alleged lie – but Cook County prosecutors dropped all criminal charges on March 26, citing his two days of community service and agreement to forfeit his $10,000 bond to the city.

President Trump on Thursday sought to distance himself from WikiLeaks after founder Julian Assange’s arrest in London, even though he praised the group during the 2016 presidential campaign.
“I know nothing about WikiLeaks. It’s not my thing,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office when asked if he still loves the organization.
Trump repeatedly professed his affinity for WikiLeaks during the 2016 campaign, when it published emails that were stolen from Democrats by Russian hackers as part of Moscow’s effort to hurt Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.

yahrtzeit-candlesRav Yitzchak of Drovitch (1758). He was the father of R’ Yechiel Michel, the Maggid of Zlotschov. In later years, Rav Yitzchak served as the official maggid or “mochiach” (admonisher) and dayan in the beis din of Brod at the time when Rav Yitzchak of Hamburg was serving as the town’s rav. Rav Yitzchak’s name is specifically attached to Drohobitch, a town that lies 40 miles south of Lelov and today is a major petroleum refining center.

President Donald Trump’s sister has retired as a federal appellate judge in Philadelphia, ending a civil misconduct inquiry launched after a report that she participated in Trump family schemes to dodge taxes.
The retirement of Maryanne Trump Barry was revealed in an April 1 order signed by a top court official in New York, where the misconduct case was assigned to prevent conflicts of interest for judges who knew Barry.
The April 1 order said Barry’s voluntary retirement ends the review stemming from claims based on the a New York Times article alleging that Barry may have committed misconduct relating to tax and financial transactions that occurred mostly in the 1980s and 1990s to help the family evade inheritance taxes..

An 18-year old man was critically injured when a bus rolled over on Thursday evening near Shomria in the Negev.
Five other people were moderately injured and three others were lightly wounded. The injured people were evacuated to hospitals in ambulances and an MDA helicopter.
The bus, which was empty of passengers at the time, rolled over for an unknown reason, injuring the young men who were on their way to a paratrooper military formation. The bus driver was detained for questioning by the police. The military police are opening an investigation as well.
Read more at Arutz Sheva.
{Matzav.com}

NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine on Thursday commended Israel for its attempt to land a spacecraft on the moon, even though the Beresheet spacecraft failed to land on the moon.
“While NASA regrets the end of the SpaceIL mission without a successful lunar landing of the Beresheet lander, we congratulate SpaceIL, the Israel Aerospace Industries and the state of Israel on the incredible accomplishment of sending the first privately funded mission into lunar orbit,” Bridenstine said in a statement.
“Every attempt to reach new milestones holds opportunities for us to learn, adjust and progress. I have no doubt that Israel and SpaceIL will continue to explore and I look forward to celebrating their future achievements,” he added.

Israel’s Central Elections Committee released the final results of Tuesday’s elections at midnight on Friday, following a day of delays, malfunctions, and recriminations.
The returns were slow in coming due to computer issues, which were initially falsely rumored to be the result of a cyber attack.
The final results were not markedly different from those previously reported, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party rising one mandate to 36 seats and the Haredi party United Torah Judaism falling one seat to seven in total, according to the Israeli news site Mako.

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