I think this is unreasonable.

In an attempt to lighten the loads from the traffic courts, and in general to make the traffic laws bear harsher punishments, a proposal has been out forward by which a driver who appeals a fine to the courts and loses that appeal would have his fine doubled automatically.

About 30% of cases in the traffic courts are of people appealing their fines. Of those, the vast majority end up admitting guilt. This unnecessary tie-up of the courts would be relieved by the doubling of the fines - drivers will consider the situation carefully before appealing.
source: TheMarker

Everybody is entitled to their day in court. Threatening with the doubling of the fine to prevent people from going to court is taking away that basic right.

Machon Keter - an organization that studies and encourages finances according to a torah approach - has published an interesting psak regarding the purchase of tefillin.

The question they dealt with was how to relate to holy objects - tefillin and mezuza - that was purchased from someone who does not pay his taxes. Is such a person - a sofer who does not pay taxes - passul or lose his status of being a trustworthy and reliable person (from a halachic standpoint)? Are using such objects considered performing a mitzva via an aveira? can you make a bracha on such tefillin?

Their conclusions were that:
1. a sofer who evades taxes or steals from other people is not passul from writing holy objects like tefilllin and mezuza and his status as trustworthy and reliable remains.

2. somebody who buys tefillin "black" cannot make a bracha on the tefillin he acquired through an aveira. By buying "black" he is assisting in an aveira, and cannot make a bracha, and therefor eit is also prohibited to purchase tefillin like that.  However, if the person already wore the tefillin, bdieved he fulfilled his obligation - the tefillin themselves do not become passul.

If the buyer truly does not know what the seller does regarding the paying of the required taxes, despite being negligent in not clarifying before purchasing, he can make a bracha on his tefillin. And, this is dependent on his knowledge at the time of purchase - even if he finds out later that the seller did not pay his taxes, he can continue putting on his tefillin.
source: Kipa

I am pretty sure that at least 99 times out of 100 a buyer will have no idea if the seller is paying taxes or not and won't even think of asking. It might even be rude to ask, as if you are saying you suspect that he is doing something illegal. The relevant situation might be where you ask for a discount of the taxes for paying cash.

CIJ News, an online Candian publication that focuses on anti-semitism, points to an Imam in Canada who has publicly prayed for the annihilation of the Jews.

According to CIJ, "Quebec Imam Sayed AlGhitawi (سيد الغتاوي) recited supplications to Allah to support the mujahideen (Muslims who engage in jihad) in Palestine and to inflict total destruction on the Jews."

I don't care about this guy's prayer. What he davens for does not interest or bother me in the least. As long as he is not inciting others to violence or acting out on his wishes, just prayers alone don't bother me. The problem is that as an Imam with such a public prayer, chances are he is, at minimum, inciting to violence... that being the case, Canada needs to put an end to these types of things...

Food trucks get green light to roll into Jerusalem

-- Times of Israel

Food trucks can be great for city neighborhoods and provide awesome food options. They are known to have problems and many cities ban them or tightly regulate them regarding health and hygienic standards, so this will have to be administered and supervised carefully before we end up with problems.

I wonder how this would affect Shabbos and chilul shabbos in the city. A restaurant deciding to open on Shabbos is always a big deal. it becomes public knowledge very quickly. There are hechsher issues. There might be protests, though even if not they could be a target of attempts at legislation or public awareness campaigns... with a food truck it seems like it might be much easier for a restaurant to operate on Shabbos via the food truck, even if the owner keeps the actual restaurant closed on Shabbos, and it might be easier for them to get away with it, due to its size and mobility.... I don't know if there will be Shabbos restrictions on these food trucks getting licensed but if not I can see this becoming a serious breach in the ability to fight the ever-expanding amount of chilul shabbos in Jerusalem.

There are some people who think that only Rav Vaye (expert rabbi in bug infestations in fruits and vegetables) have the right to have an opinion/stance on such matters, and nobody else, no matter how learned that person might be or how involved and knowledgeable in kashut matters that person might be, if this person's opinion is any different than Rav Vaye's, it is to be discounted and rejected. Rav Vaye is the expert and nobody else can have an opinion or psak. When I asked such a person about kashrut organizations that pasken differently than Rav Vaye, such as regarding how to deal with strawberries, the response was that he is the expert, Rav Elyashiv said so, and therefore they are not experts and do not know what they are talking about - only Rav Vaye and the people he himself has trained, have the right to pasken on such matters.

I have no problem with people wanting to follow the psak of Rav Vaye. If they want to check certain fruits or greens a certain way, or stay away from others, because of what Rav Vaye paskened about those items, labriyut, as they say. Eat, don't eat - it is your business, and I don't really care.

What does get to me is the rejection of any other opinion as illegitimate.

Besides for having heard many times from other rabbonim and kashrus organizations how to  check strawberries and corn on the cob, for example, in order to properly eat them, the Chief Rabbi  himself, in a recent shiur about eating Tu B'Shvat fruits, discussed the matter as well.

Chief Rabbi Yitzchak Yosef said that Rav Vaye has done great work raising the awareness of bugs and infestations, thus making people knowledgeable regarding the need to check for bugs. But his approach is wrong. Rav Vaye says you are not allowed to eat strawberries, corn, figs, sunflower seeds... but according to the halacha only when there is a significant minority of infested fruit does one have to check it. Rav Yosef testifies about his father, Rav Ovadia, that he himself would open figs to check them and then give them out to the others to eat. Strawberries, you just need to cut off the top, split them in half, and then eat it.

Rav Yosef describes having bought campers fresh corn on the cob and when one asked about bugs he offered to pay $1 per bug found. He says all 100 students looked very carefully but not one bug was found.

Rav Yosef says about sunflower seeds that Rav Vaye found a bug in one and photographed it, magnified the picture and says they are infested and you can't eat them unless you check every single seed. That is bittul torah, Rav Yosef says! According to halacha [Rav Vaye] is wrong - this is not a significant minority of infested produce - a few bugs in a pack of sunflower seeds? People need to know that not everything is prohibited.

I fully support what Rav Yosef said, as if he needs my support. He is saying exactly what I heard form many other rabbonim. If you want to follow Rav Vaye and avoid corn and avoid strawberries and avoid other fruits, go ahead, but he is not the only voice out there.

and you can hear Rav Yosef say it himself...

this is from Haaretz...

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