Champlain, NY - A former senior officer with the U.S. Customs and Border Protection service said he'll keep fighting to get his job back after a review panel nixed claims he was forced out by anti-Semitic higher ups who drummed up bogus charges to get rid of him. [A story that was first broken by VIN news] "I'm going to keep fighting because I did not do anything wrong," Brian Israel, a...

New York - Inmates in 58 county jails across the state are getting playing cards with the pictures of missing persons in hopes the photos will jog memories and help solve cold cases. Under a state Senate pilot program, 7,200 decks of cards are being sent to the jails. They include telephone numbers of tip lines that offer rewards to anyone -- including prisoners -- who provide information...

Albany, NY - Electrocution of animals for its fur is now banned in New York, the first state to do so. PETA doesn't expect New York to be alone for long: the organization will use the new law, effective this year, to push other states to outlaw the practice. New York's ban on the practice for a wide range of animals was signed in March, one of the final acts of former Gov. Eliot Spitzer...

New York - The U.S. federal reserve has cut interest rates by another 0.25% to 2% the 7th cut in 6 months...

Geneva, Switzerland - A Canadian Jewish community advocacy group withdrew its application to attend the United Nations conference on racism after objections by Iran. Iran made a "series of aggressive and seemingly endless objections" to the NGO's attempt to obtain accreditation for the conference, said the human rights monitoring group. "It is ironic that a UN gathering meant to combat...

Queens, NY +MVA with Pin+ Hatzolah on the scene of a motor vehicle accident at 147th Street and 77th Road with a confirmed pin inside the vehicle, NYPD ESU are respondint for the extrication...

New York - A federal appeals court dismissed New York City’s blanket lawsuit against the gun industry on Wednesday, ruling that a relatively new federal law protects gunmakers against third-party litigation. The appellate ruling killed off — once and for all, perhaps — legal efforts by the city to charge gunmakers and distributors with knowingly flooding illicit, underground markets with...

Nouakchott, Mauritania - Police carried out a 24-hour sting operation on a cell with alleged al-Qaida ties, arresting at least five people Wednesday _ including two charged with organizing an attack on the Israeli embassy on Jan 31 2008 reported here The Algeria-based group, called al-Qaida in Islamic North Africa, has claimed responsibility for the embassy attack in which a gunman opened fire...

New York - The Simon Wiesenthal Center's list of 10 most wanted Nazis, as of April 1, 2008. It was released Wednesday: to see the list click here...

Parkland, FL - Swastikas were scrawled over parts of the Chabad Hebrew School of Parkland in Broward County on Wednesday. The institution, located at 7170 Loxahatchee Rd., is affiliated with the Chabad Jewish Center on Miami Beach, which was vandalized last week. ...

Manhattan, NY - A restored Torah rescued from the Auschwitz concentration camp is to be rededicated at a Manhattan synagogue in honor of Holocaust Remembrance Day. Central Synagogue Rabbi Peter J. Rubinstein tells The New York Times that the sacred scroll is "an extraordinary symbol of rebirth." It is to be rededicated today. The torah remained hidden for more than 60 years before it was...

Brooklyn, NY - The New York City Department of Education (DOE) has released the names of six nonpublic schools, including three yeshivos, that will participate in a pilot program enabling them to receive Title I remedial education services through a third-party contractor rather than the DOE. The designated yeshivos are Bais Yaakov of Boro Park, Yeshiva Toras Emes Kaminetz and Yeshivat Ohr...

Philadelphia PA - Four suspended Temple University students accused of a hate crime were ordered to stand trial. Defendants Bryan Pedreiro, 19, of East Brunswick, N.J.; Michael Walsh, 20, of Florham Park, N.J.; and brothers Stephen Scott, 19, and David Scott, 20, of Willow Grove, all are charged with assault, reckless endangerment and ethnic intimidation. The students are accused of...

Central Valley, NY - The Village of Woodbury has denied a request by the Village of Kiryas Joel for a tax exemption on land where the Hasidic village is building two 34-foot-tall water towers. Kiryas Joel made the request after it struck a controversial deal with Woodbury to lift a stop-work order on the project. The order was issued after it was discovered that construction on the towers began...

Grand Forks, ND - The county state's attorney's office issued charges against University of North Dakota student Spencer Garness because he allegedly wrote "Scott is a Jew" in ice cream on an elevator at West Residence Hall. The graffiti was directed toward Scott Lebovitz, a Jewish student, who said he moved out of his dorm room after repeated anti-Semitic taunts and intimidation. Garness was...