U.S. Report

NEW YORK (JTA) -- A controversial Jewish radio personality will be honored by a national Orthodox group on Sunday.

Schlessinger's condemnations of homosexuality have earned her, popularly known as "Dr. Laura," the criticism of the Anti-Defamation League and queer rights groups, and led her to be dropped from a recent conference on Jewish medical ethics.

Officials with the National Council for Young Israel say the group will give laura Schlessinger its National Heritage Award to "support her call for a return to traditional American moral values."

Samson story shows social suffering signs

NEW YORK (JTA) -- The biblical hero Samson exhibited symptoms of antisocial personality disorder, according to a new scholarly article.

Samson exhibited six of the seven traits necessary for the diagnosis, writes Dr. Eric Altschuler in the Archives of General Psychiatry.

Altschuler cites Samson's failure to conform to social norms by torching the Philistines' fields and then refusing arrest, repeatedly lying to his parents, displaying impulsiveness and repeatedly getting involved in physical fights and cruelty to animals.

Ex-RNC money chief set to head U.S. bank

WASHINGTON (JTA) -- Mel Sembler, a prominent Republican Jew and former national finance chairman of the Republican National Committee, was appointed president of the Export-Import Bank of the United States, pending Senate confirmation.

The bank facilitates trade relationships between U.S. businesses and foreign countries, specifically those with financial problems.

California Shoah law upheld in latest ruling

LOS ANGELES (JTA) -- Holocaust victims and their families in California won an important legal victory this week with an appeals court ruling upholding the constitutionality of the state's Holocaust Victim Insurance Relief Act.

The decision overturned a lower court ruling that the relief act violated federal statutes.

Passed by the California legislature in 1999, the act requires insurance companies to make full disclosure of policies issued in Europe between 1920 and 1945.