Chicago, IL - Observant Jews have no right under federal law to install small scrolls known as mezuzot outside the doors of their condominiums, a federal appeals court declared. The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled, 2-1, that the condominium association at Shoreline Towers in Chicago did not run afoul of the Fair Housing Act when managers removed the religious items pursuant to a rule...

New York City - While aggressive evictions are making rent-stabilized apartments increasingly scarce in New York, Representative Charles B. Rangel is enjoying four of them, including three adjacent apartments in a sprawling penthouse overlooking Upper Manhattan, courtesy of one of New York’s premier real estate developers. Mr. Rangel, the powerful Democrat who is chairman of the House Ways...

Monroe, NY - The Monroe Zoning Board of Appeals granted a variance - with conditions - to Rabbi Herman Wagschal's garage expansion. The project came under town scrutiny when Wagschal expanded the one-car garage on his McMansion-style combination home and synagogue to a three-car garage. He constructed the addition without applying for any building permit despite the issuance of a "stop work"...

New York City - Recent comments posted by anonymous individuals on a website that follows the Rubashkin troubles were apparently traced back to prominent New York public relations firm 5WPR, recently hired by Agriprocessors to confront negative attention that the company was receiving on the Internet. The firm may now be facing fraud charges. Why? Because the comments were posted with names of...

Paris, France - French authorities have filed preliminary charges against three suspects over the beating of a Jewish teenager in Paris. A judicial official said that two suspects are being investigated for attempted murder with anti-Semitic motives. They are suspected of taking part in the June 21 attack on the 17-year-old, who was in a coma for two days at a hospital. The third suspect is...

New York - Chrysler LLC which has seen light truck sales plunge about 25 percent in the first half of the year, said on Thursday it would offer zero percent financing for six years on some 2008 Dodge Ram pickup trucks. The zero percent financing offer applies to the 2008 Dodge Ram Light Duty Quad and 2008 Dodge Ram Mega Cab, said Chrysler, which is launching a redesigned version of the Ram...

New York City - A former employee of the city’s housing agency has been arrested on allegations that she charged more than a dozen tenants $5,000 to $6,000 each for federal rent subsidy vouchers, in a scheme that took vouchers from legitimately needy families, the authorities said today. The former employee, Joba Cortorreal, 37, worked for the Department of Housing Preservation and...

New York City - - The Brooklyn real estate market is showing signs of wear as banks become skittish about lending and consumers worry about the economy. Home sales in Brooklyn took a nose dive during the second quarter, and median prices dipped, according to a report released Thursday by brokerage firm Prudential Douglas Elliman. Across the borough, the number of sales fell to 2,031, down...

New York City - Mayor Bloomberg's plan to permanently change the structure of local government is prompting anxiety among public officials and community leaders. There is talk in political circles that a commission to be appointed by the mayor to perform a top-to-bottom review of the city charter would seek to curtail the authority of borough presidents and the public advocate, or do away with...

The executives of 12 U.S. airlines sent an open letter to customers Thursday asking them for help lobbying Congress to regulate oil markets. The group said the "country is facing a possible sharp economic downtown because of skyrocketing oil and fuel price The Open letter to All Airline Customers: Last week, crude oil hit an all-time high of $146, and the skyrocketing cost of fuel is...

Lakewood, NJ - The issue of rental units in the midst of many prominent Lakewood neighborhoods that are rented to unlawful and nuisance-causing tenants has been on many people’s minds. From the older areas to ones more recently populated by the frum community, residents have had to deal with homes that are owned by frum people who rent them out to individuals that ruin the quality of life and...

Lakewoodn NJ - A gang of three men were charged in the attacks of two Orthodox Jewish men in Lakewood that frightened their tight-knit community. The suspects, all taken in custody, were linked to a Tuesday morning robbery on a 40-year-old man, and a May 28 robbery outside a convenience store, as reported first here on Vos Iz Neias. They are being charged with aggravated assault in both...

Israel - The Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the American Friends of The Hebrew University named Bill Gates, founder and chairman of Microsoft Corp. and co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the recipient of the first Einstein Award. Stated AFHU President George A. Schieren: "We are truly privileged to be honoring Bill Gates, who in addition to his revolutionary approach to...

Flatbush, NY - On the first day of class at a new kosher cooking school in Brooklyn, 22-year-old Erica Zimmerman carefully slices raw potatoes into a stainless steel bowl. Zimmerman, a student at New York University, says she’s always been interested in cooking, but as an observant Jew only wanted a kosher school. Why learn to cook food she’d never be able to eat? That limited her options...

New York, NY - An NYPD crackdown on illegally parked cars boldly sporting city, state and federal placards on their dashboards has resulted in 2,400 summonses - more than 1,000 of them issued to city cops and detectives. Over the last three months, special teams of Internal Affairs officers have scoured congested streets in lower Manhattan and around government hubs in outer boroughs...