Kushner: Trump still undecided on Israel’s capital

Kushner: Trump still undecided on Israel’s capital

WASHINGTON

President Donald Trump has not yet decided whether to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital or whether to proceed immediately in moving the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to the holy city. That’s according to his son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner.

Kushner said Sunday that the president continues to weigh his options ahead of an announcement on the matter that is expected this week.

“The president is going to make his decision,” Kushner said in a rare public appearance at an event hosted by the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank. “He is still looking at a lot of different facts.”

Kushner’s comments were his first public remarks on his efforts to restart peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians. And, they came as he faces increasing scrutiny over actions taking during the transition period after former national-security adviser Michael Flynn’s guilty plea on charges of lying to the FBI.

Charter schools put growing numbers in racial isolation

MILWAUKEE

Charter schools are among the nation’s most segregated, an Associated Press analysis finds – an outcome at odds, critics say, with their goal of offering a better alternative to failing traditional public schools.

National enrollment data shows that charters are vastly over-represented among schools where minorities study in the most extreme racial isolation. As of school year 2014-15, more than 1,000 of the nation’s 6,747 charter schools had minority enrollment of at least 99 percent, and the number has been rising steadily.

The problem: Those levels of segregation correspond with low achievement levels at schools of all kinds.

Some see echoes of ’68 court case in cake dispute

WASHINGTON

The upcoming Supreme Court argument about a baker who refused to make a cake for a same-sex couple makes some civil-rights lawyers think of South Carolina’s Piggie Park barbecue.

When two African-Americans parked their car at a Piggie Park drive-in in August 1964 in Columbia, S.C., the waitress who came out to serve them turned back once she saw they were black and didn’t take their order.

In the civil-rights lawsuit that followed, Piggie Park owner Maurice Bessinger justified the refusal to serve black customers based on his religious belief opposing “any integration of the races whatsoever.”

Federal judges had little trouble dismissing Bessinger’s claim.

Skiing Santas ho-ho-hold court at ski resort’s bash

NEWRY, Maine

Santa Claus is known for shimmying down chimneys, but for one day a year, dozens of Santas try to avoid tumbling down a mountain.

The 18th annual Santa event took place at Sunday River ski resort in western Maine on Sunday. The event is highlighted by Santas skiing and snowboarding down the slopes to raise money for the Sunday River Community Fund, which benefits groups in the area.

One of the Santas was Yelena Walsh of Boston, a 50-year-old financial analyst who was once a professional skier in Russia. Walsh said the event is the highlight of her holiday season.

The skiing Santas participate in full Kringle garb, including, of course, a white beard and red hat. The Santas must all donate a minimum of $15.

Associated Press