Brooklyn, NY - Councilman Simcha Felder is not getting into the city comptroller race, but he will run for the Brooklyn State Senate seat currently held by fellow Democrat Kevin Parker. The five-way comptroller’s race was always going to be a tough haul for Felder. (He never declared, but gave every indication he would enter the race). Felder, who is an Orthodox Jew, was one of three...

Lithuania - The Conference of the Lithuanian Jewish Community, which represented 25 organizations, expressed deep concern about the rise in anti-Semitism and xenophobia in the country. The conference also decried Lithuania's attempt to prosecute Holocaust researcher and Israeli army general Yitzhak Arad while ignoring Nazi collaborators living within its borders. Lithunanian Jewry also...

Monsey, NY - The third and fourth reported black bear sightings in Rockland in a month happened today, with what appeared to be a black bear cub snooping around Lexington Avenue in Suffern. Two previous sightings were in Suffern on May 21 and Stony Point on May 12. Today's sighting was reported at around 7:30 a.m. Suffern Sgt. Edgardo Alvarez said an officer spotted the bear and scared it...

Springfield, MA - A federal court judge said that he will dismiss claims filed by the former manager of the Longhill Gardens Condominiums that accused the city of malicious prosecution and of violating his religious rights. U.S. District Court Judge Michael A. Ponsor ruled that motions to dismiss all counts, shall be granted. The suit was filed by former property manager Shalom Segelman, of...

New York - All remaining stores of bankrupt gadget retailer Sharper Image will be closed and liquidated, its new owners said today. More than $50 million of inventory is being sold at 86 Sharper Image store-closing sales throughout the United States. A joint venture led by units of Hilco and Gordon Brothers purchased the company's assets at a bankruptcy auction last week for $49 million...

Moscow, Russia - Prison officials have denied reports that Alexander Koptsev, convicted of stabbing nine people in a Moscow synagogue in 2006, has committed suicide. A spokesman for the service said reports that Koptsev is dead are untrue, and that the Muscovite is serving his 16-year sentence in a high-security prison in the Russian republic of Mordovia, in the Volga area. In an interview...

Israel - Google co-founder Sergey Brin told fans at a Holon meeting that Israeli Internet entrepreneur Yossi Vardi gave him the idea upon which he and partner Larry Page based the search engine that made his company grow into one of the largest and most influential in the world. Speaking at a "Garage Geeks" event, Brin described how Google had decided upon its business model. "Yossi invented...

Puerto Rico - A day after the party dealt a blow to Hillary Clinton's presidential hopes by restoring only half of Michigan's and Florida's voting power. Polls opened in Puerto Rico today. The US territory will send to the party convention in Denver 55 delegates - more delegates than 28 US states. Fox News projects that Hillary Clinton has won the Primary, but Barack Obama crept closer to...

Manchester, England - Cleric Arnold Saunders's remarkable likeness to Manchester United owner Malcolm Glazer has its up and down sides.. The rabbi has had beer poured over his head and has been threatened by angry Reds fans. But when things are going well, he has been mobbed by supporters wanting autographs and photographs. After United clinched the Premier title at Wigan, the rabbi...

Newark, NJ - Ping! Your flight departs from Gate 10. Continental Airlines passengers traveling out of Newark Airport can now download their boarding pass to their cellphone, BlackBerry or other hand-held device. The move is part of an experiment by Continental under way at four airports across the country. Northwest Airlines launched a test of its paperless boarding pass last week in...

Crown Heights, NY - Lieb Skoblo's silver Honda Pilot motors through dusk in Crown Heights. A black man stands idly on the street, peering apprehensively at the car, which is emblazoned with law enforcement-type decals and a bank of amber lights on top. Not far away, a black woman sits in her Jeep Grand Cherokee. She looks at the vehicle and scowls. Skoblo eyes them both. That's his job as a...

New York City - In a cruel coincidence that scientists do not yet fully understand, research has shown that people with Down syndrome, a chromosomal abnormality, have a much higher incidence of Alzheimer’s disease at an early age. Some studies have said that 60 to 75 percent of people over age 60 with Down syndrome will have Alzheimer’s, though Dr. Ira Lott, who is in charge of the Down...

Brooklyn, NY - The soaring price of crude oil has turned gas tanks into a cache of valuable booty, While gas station drive-offs and siphoning are far more common methods of stealing gas, reports of tank and line puncturing are starting to trickle into police departments and repair shops across the country. Some veteran mechanics and law enforcement officers say it's an unwelcome return of a...

Israel - Among Israel's ultra-orthodox Jews, the Haredim, social workers are often called "child-snatchers" and the police "Cossacks," harking back to the 19th century pogroms against Jews in Russia. These cloistered communities, in which women are expected to raise and financially support their large families while their husbands spend their days stooped over the Torah, make up 10% of Israel's...

Baghdad, Iraq - "I have no future here to stay." Written in broken English but with perfect clarity, the message is a stark and plaintive assessment from one of the last Jews of Babylon. The community of Jews in Baghdad is now all but vanished in a land where their heritage recedes back to Abraham of Ur, to Jonah's prophesying to Nineveh, and to Nebuchadnezzar's sending Jews into exile here...