The Supreme Court agreed Monday to decide a lawsuit that threatens the Obama-era health care law, but the decision is not likely until after the 2020 election. The court said it would hear an appeal by 20 mainly Democratic states of a lower-court ruling that declared part of the statute unconstitutional and cast a cloud over the rest. Defenders of the Affordable Care Act argued that the issues raised by the case are too important to let the litigation drag on for months or years in lower courts and that the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans erred when it struck down the health law’s now toothless requirement that Americans have health insurance. (AP)

IDF forces thwarted an attempted sniper attack on a vehicle near the Israeli border in the northern Golan Heights on Monday afternoon. “IDF forces identified an attempted sniper attack in the northern Golan Heights and subsequently attacked the vehicle involved in the attack,” the IDF spokesperson stated. The Syrian state-controlled news agency SANA said that Israeli forces fired a missile at a “civilian car” in the city of Quneitra in the Syrian Golan Heights. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights organization stated that the car, which belonged to members of a militia associated with Syrian President Bashar Assad, was completely destroyed.

This week visitors to the Chesed Fund platform fell in love with a 6-year-old boy, young Tzvi Kopshitz of Neve Yaakov. The happiness radiated by Tzvi’s big brown eyes and bright smile are contagious. His story, however, has more pain than that of most his age. Last year, the young boy began complaining of leg pain. His parents took him for routine checkups, and every parent’s worst nightmare came true: he had leukemia. What followed was a chaos which is unique to a household devastated by illness. Both parents were unable to work, as they immersed themselves in accompanying Tzvi and attending to his hospital matters. Their other six children stayed home with babysitters, struggling to acclimate to their new arrangement. Financial pressure loomed overhead, everpresent.

MAKE SURE TO CHECK THIS PAGE AS UPDATES WILL BE PUBLISHED ALL ELECTION DAY – THERE IS NO REASON TO REFRESH THIS PAGE AS UPDATES WILL APPEAR AUTOMATICALLY 
The post YWN LIVE BLOG: Live Time Updates From The Israeli Elections appeared first on The Yeshiva World.

The draft dodger, Gamliel Mahadani, who is of Ethiopian descent and part of the Peleg Yerushalmi movement, was awarded a furlough from his prison sentence for the holiday of Purim. The furlough comes just 19 days before he is supposed to be released entirely. Madhani was arrested at his home in Or Yehuda last month after he was found to have been draft dodging for more than 1,000 days. He was given a 70-day sentence to sit in military prison and has already served 40 of those days. Due to Madhani’s lengthy draft-dodging, the military prosecutor sought the maximum sentence of six months in prison.

A mysterious Kabbalist from the Jerusalem area relayed to people close to the Prime  Minister the results of tomorrow’s election, even before the ballot boxes opened. The Kabbalist wrote down the results over the past week and sent them to the Prime Minister’s Office. According to a report that appeared in BChadrei Charedim, the projected results of the Kabbalist were even told to the Prime Minister. Following the disastrous media developments of the past week for both the Likud and the Blue and White parties, members of the Prime Minister’s Office turned to the Kabbalist and asked if the results had changed. According to BChardei’s report, there was no change in the results that were as follows: Likud will win the election with 35 seats, Blue and White will gain 32 seats.

Ahead of Monday’s election, veteran Degel HaTorah leader MK Moshe Gafni speaks to Mishpacha’s Gedalia Guttentag and is typically blunt and to the point. LISTEN TO THE PODCAST HERE What does he expect from Monday’s elections?  What’s it like to run the Finance Committee without a government?  And what does Rav Chaim Kanievsky shlita think about the Trump Plan?  All this, and more, on Knesset Channel. LISTEN TO THE FULL INTERVIEW HERE

Bernie Sanders has a shot to deliver an embarrassing blow to Amy Klobuchar in the moderate senator’s home state on Super Tuesday, thanks to a large and motivated progressive base in a state where she was once considered a shoo-in to win. With the Vermont senator’s Democratic presidential campaign surging nationally and Klobuchar still struggling for a breakthrough, observers increasingly see the race in Minnesota as a toss-up. Losing her home state would be hugely damaging to Klobuchar, whose main selling point throughout the campaign has been her three statewide victories for U.S. Senate, which she points to as proof she can win with cross-party appeal in America’s heartland.

The Coronavirus has made its way to a Yeshiva on Sunday as numerous bochrim from one of the leading Litvish Yeshivos in Bnei Brak found themselves under house quarantine this week. Students from the Yeshiva went to the United States last week for a wedding and flew back to Israel with a stopover in Italy Once the plane disembarked in Israel, authorities made all of the passengers deplane through a different route and ordered them all to maintain a house quarantine for two weeks. The affected family has two students who study in the Orchos Torah Yeshiva in Bnei Brak and they too went under house quarantine for two weeks and cannot return to Yeshiva until after that time has passed. They will be forced to continue their studies in their own home.

Under the direction of the Ministry of Health, The Central Election Commission has set up sixteen ballot boxes in designated tents across the country, which will operate in the safest way tomorrow, from 10am to 5pm, in order to assist Israelis who are quarantined under the Ministry of Health’s directives, to exercise their democratic right, and vote in the Knesset elections, without coming in contact with voters at the regular polling stations. Today (Sunday), MDA members were briefed, and understood how to run the Central Election Committee’s special poll booths tomorrow, to ensure their safety, and the safety of voters and all citizens. Among other things, strong guidelines have been set in place, including wearing a full anti-infection protection kit.

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