SHORT & TWEET

Rubashkin appeal filed: Attorneys for Sholom Rubashkin filed an appeal brief with the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals on January 3. Rubashkin, 51, former CEO of the Agriprocessors kosher slaughterhouse and meat packing plant in Postville, Iowa, was convicted of bank fraud and sentenced to 27 years in prison in November 2009. The Washington, D.C. firm Lewin & Lewin maintain that their client's sentence was "both procedurally flawed and substantively unreasonable". They argue that he should be awarded a new trial because Chief U.S. District Court Judge Linda Reade, who presided over the trial, had a role in planning a May 2008 immigration raid on the plant.

They cite Rubashkin's "stellar history" of good deeds, his contributions to his community and the needs of his teenage autistic son, which require his presence at home.

They term his sentence "outrageously severe" for a white collar crime.

Bye-bye Helen Thomas: The Helen Thomas lifetime achievement award, given out annually by the Indianapolis-based Society for Professional Journalists, may have come to an end. Thoraas, the former White House press correspondent who (among other things) said earlier this year that Jews ought to "get the hell out of Palestine", and confirmed those views recently (JEWISH STAR, June 25;' Dec. 10, 2010). The SPJ executive has recommended that the 102-year-old journalism group drop the award. The JEWISH STAR is an SPJ member.

Diplomatic slow-down: Everyone from the president Of Russia to Filipino guest workers and new immigrants is being blocked from entering Israel, not as a result of fighting on the border but internal dissent. A work slowdown by the country's diplomatic corps, which began last summer as wage talks between the diplomatic corps union and the Foreign Ministry became blocked, has grown more severe with time, according to The Media Line.

Foreign Ministry employees have stopped arranging official visits and processing visas for immigrants and foreign workers, and have stopped working with other branches of the government. The latest escalation went into effect December 27 and caused Israel a major diplomatic embarrassment this month when Dmitry Medvedev, Russia's president, was forced to cancel a rare visit to Israel January 16-19. In addition, official visits to Israel from Slovenia and Croatia have been postponed, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel may have to delay a visit to Israel scheduled for the end of January.

Obama appoints Syrian ambassador: President Obama appointed Robert Stephen Ford to be the first U.S. ambassador to Syria since 2005. The last ambassador was recalled by the Bush administration following the assassination of Rank al-Harari. Ford, whose nomination was opposed by Republican officials, waspreviously U.S. ambassador to Algeria.

- Complied by the CHICAGO JEWISH STAR