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Diaspora and the Panim organization.
“In light of all this,” concluded Rabbi Lerner, “we are asking for an immediate freezing of the transfer of funds.”
As of this moment, the Israeli Supreme Court has given those involved in the transfer of those funds ten days to respond to the complaint.
Hurricane Ian Threatens FL
Hurricane Ian, now an “extremely dangerous” storm that is threatening to inflict “catastrophic winds and rain” onto southwestern Florida, has already been pummeling the state with winds of 155 mph.
The storm is expected to make landfall near Fort Myers on Wednesday afternoon. Experts are predicting an “historic” storm surge of up to 16 feet that could even flatten coastal homes. Electricity is expected to be lost in certain areas.
In places where it’s not safe to evacuate, officials are telling residents to move to upper floors to escape rising waters.
“It’s no longer possible to safely evacuate” from Collier County up to Sarasota County, Gov. Ron DeSantis said around 8 a.m. on Tuesday, as key paths out, including the Skyway Bridge from Manatee to Pinellas counties, were closing.
“It’s time to hunker down and prepare for this storm,” he said. “This is a powerful storm that should be treated like you would treat” a tornado approaching your home.
After pummeling Cuba on Tuesday, leaving at least two dead and an islandwide blackout, Ian set its sights on Florida. More than 2.5 million people were advised to flee, including 1.75 million under mandatory evacuation orders – no small ask in a state with a large elderly population, some of whom have to be moved from long-term care centers.
Florida has around 6 million residents over the age of 60, according to the state’s Department of Elder Affairs – nearly 30% of its total population.
Schools, supermarkets, theme parks, hospitals and airports have announced closures. The Navy moved its ships, and the Coast Guard has shut down ports.
LinkedIn ran experiments on more than 20 million users over five years that, while intended to improve how the platform worked for members, could have affected some people’s livelihoods, according to a new study.
In experiments conducted around the world from 2015 to 2019, LinkedIn randomly varied the proportion of weak and strong contacts suggested by its “People You May Know” algorithm — the company’s automated system for recommending new connections to its users. The tests were detailed in a study published this month in the journal Science and co-authored by researchers at LinkedIn, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, and Harvard Business School.
LinkedIn’s algorithmic experiments may come as a surprise to millions of people because the company did not inform users that the tests were underway.
Experts who study the societal effects of computing said conducting long, large-scale experiments on people that could affect their job prospects, in ways that are invisible to them, raised questions about industry transparency and research oversight.
“The findings suggest that some users had better access to job opportunities or a meaningful difference in access to job opportunities,” said Michael Zimmer, an
34 associate professor of computer science and the director of the Center for Data, Ethics and Society at Marquette UniverThe Jewish Home | SEPTEMBER 30, 2022 sity. The study in Science tested an influential theory in sociology called “the strength of weak ties,” which maintains that people are more likely to gain employment and other opportunities through arms-length acquaintances than through close friends. The researchers analyzed how LinkedIn’s algorithmic changes had affected users’ job mobility. They found that relatively weak social ties on LinkedIn proved twice as effective in securing employment as stronger social ties. In a statement, LinkedIn said that during the study it had “acted consistently with” the company’s user agreement, privacy policy and member settings. The privacy policy notes that LinkedIn uses members’ personal data for research purposes. The statement added that the company used the latest, “noninvasive” social science techniques to answer important research questions “without any experimentation on members.” The goal of the research was to “help people at scale,” said Karthik Rajkumar, an applied research scientist at LinkedIn who was one of the study’s co-au-
What Is Healthy?
According to the Food and Drug Administration, there is a new definition of “healthy.”
The government agency announced new rules this week for nutrition labels that can go on the front of food packages to indicate that they are “healthy.”
Under the proposal, manufacturers can label their products “healthy” if they contain a meaningful amount of food from at least one of the food groups or subgroups (such as fruit, vegetable, or dairy) recommended by the dietary guidelines. They must also adhere to specific limits for certain nutrients, such as saturated fat, sodium, and added sugars. For example, a cereal would need to contain three-quarters of an ounce of whole grains and no more than 1 gram of saturated fat, 230 milligrams of sodium, and 2.5 grams of added sugars per serving for a food manufacturer to use the word “healthy” on the label.
The proposed rule would align the definition of the “healthy” claim with current nutrition science, the updated Nutrition Facts label, and the current Dietary Guidelines for Americans, the FDA said. It is designed to help consumers make better food choices when shopping.
The agency also is developing a symbol that companies can voluntarily use to label food products that meet federal guidelines for the term “healthy.”
The announcement came ahead of Wednesday’s White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition and Health. The conference is the first of its kind since 1969, when a summit hosted by the administration of President Richard M. Nixon led to major expansions of food stamps, school lunches, and other programs that have been credited with reducing hunger nationally and providing a critical safety net during the pandemic.
Americans need to start eating healthier. Six in 10 American adults have chronic lifestyle-related diseases, often stemming from obesity and poor diet, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC says these diseases are the leading cause of death and disability and a leading driver in the nation’s $4.1 trillion of annual healthcare costs.
Studies show that obesity, especially among children, rose significantly during the pandemic, with the greatest change among children ages 5 to 11, who gained an average of more than five pounds. Before the pandemic, about 36 percent of 5- to 11-year-olds were considered overweight or obese; during the pandemic, that increased to 45.7 percent.
What is considered healthy has differed over the years. Now, newer guidelines put an emphasis on eating a plantbased diet, including vegetables, fruits, whole grains, legumes, nuts and seeds. They maintain a hard line about limiting your intake of salt and saturated fat, but they state simply that cholesterol is “not a nutrient of concern,” doing away with the long-standing 300-milligram-per-day limit.
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Student Loan Forgiveness Could Cost About $400B
President Joe Biden’s plan to erase significant amounts of student loan debt for tens of millions of Americans could cost about $400 billion, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said in a report Monday, making it one of the costliest programs in the president’s agenda.
The CBO said the price tag might rise even higher because of Biden’s decision to extend a pause on federal student loan repayments through the end of the year, which could end up costing some $20 billion. The report gauged the cost over a period of 30 years, though the bulk of the effects to the economy would be felt over the next decade.
Although the office called the figures “uncertain,” they are generally in line with those that economists put forth after Biden announced the program in August. The report is certain to revive the political debate over student loan forgiveness just weeks before the midterm elections. Critics have cast the plan as a costly giveaway that could exacerbate inflation, while the administration argues that it will help millions of low- and middle-income Americans get their footing in a volatile economy.
Biden’s plan cancels $10,000 in debt for those earning less than $125,000 per year and $20,000 for those who had received Pell grants for low-income families. In its report, the CBO said that of the 37 million borrowers with direct loans from the federal government, 90% who are eligible could be expected to take advantage of debt forgiveness once it becomes available. (White House officials have suggested that a far smaller share of eligible borrowers are likely to opt into the program than the budget office predicts, which would reduce its cost.)
In a joint statement, Democratic Sens. Chuck Schumer of New York, the majority leader, and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts said the CBO estimate “makes clear that millions of middle-class Americans have more breathing room thanks to President Biden’s historic decision to cancel student debt.”
Still, critics have accused the Biden administration of hiding the plan’s true cost.
Marc Goldwein, the senior vice president for the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, said that the CBO score did not take into account a significant part of the administration’s loan relief program: a plan to reduce payments for future borrowers who go on to earn low incomes after college, which outside analysts say could host hundreds of billions of dollars more. (© The New York Times Company)
Back From Extinction
The Greenback cutthroat trout is back. Colorado’s state fish had been nearly extinct for almost 100 years. It had been decimated in the 1930s by mining pollution and over-fishing. Last week, biologists from Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) said that the fish is naturally reproducing, marking the official recovery of the once-extinct species.
“This is huge,” CPW said in a statement, after more than a decade of “intensive efforts” to rescue the species from the brink of extinction.
The naturally reproducing fish were found in Herman Gulch, in Clear Creek County, Colorado, one of the first places in which CPW stocked the fish.
“The long-term survival and natural reproduction of the greenbacks discovered is a major milestone for our recovery efforts and a huge win for conservation,” the CPW statement read.
Several endangered populations were found in 1957, 1965, and the 1970s, but it was discovered that they weren’t purebred trout but rather a type of subspecies.
The only pure population of the species was discovered in 2012, near Bear Creek, central Colorado. Biologists began making the trek there every spring to collect samples from the population of fish in the region.
A small population of the species were kept in a hatchery to enable breeding and
