New York City - “Rider safety must be a priority - before MTA perks, before subway fare increases, before capital projects,” said Assemblyman Dov Hikind (D-Brooklyn). Hikind has launched a “Safer Subways” campaign to inspect subway stations for perilous hazards. “In the last five months, three constituents have called me and come forward with near-death experiences because of...

Narrowsburgh, NY - Hatzolah responding to 96 Camp Utopia Road near Camp Sternberg for a moto vehicle accident with one vehicle that overturned and aided trapped inside the vehicle, Hotzolah Medics and Mobile Medics, Fire Department for the extrication and Police are all responding to the scene. Hatzolah sending ambulance from White Lake and Monticello. U/D: 09:54 All patients have been...

Chicago, IL - Senator Obama is saying decisively that he does not support private school vouchers, while sticking with his support for incentive pay for teachers based on their students' performance. Mr. Obama made the remarks yesterday in a telecast speech to the American Federation of Teachers' national convention in Chicago after the union voted overwhelmingly to endorse his presidential...

Miami, FL - Rabbinical students Meir Menkes and Zalmi Klyne have spent the past couple of weeks traveling with an ice chest in the backseat of their rental car, firing up a George Foreman grill to cook their kosher food, staying in Motel 6's, and visiting Jewish prison inmates in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan and Indiana. How do a couple of 20-year-old students from Southern California get...

Washington - As home prices continue to decline and loan defaults mount, federal regulators are bracing for dozens of American banks to fail over the next year. But after a large mortgage lender in California collapsed late Friday, Wall Street analysts began posing two crucial questions: Just how many banks might falter? And, more urgently, which one could be next? The nation’s banks are...

Monsey, NY - A fire in insulation at a residential construction site on Route 306 early this morning may have been set, Ramapo police said. Someone saw saw smoke coming from a housing unit and called police. When police arrived, a pile of insulation was smoking and the floor beneath it had been charred by fire, police said. Firefighters put out the small fire before it could spread to the...

Germany - Jewish community leaders in Germany last week criticized the interior ministry's planned citizenship exam for new immigrants, which features a questionnaire that does not make any mention of the Holocaust. Imitating a trend taking hold in other European countries, Germany will require immigrants who wish to obtain citizenship to pass a 33-question "proficiency exam." The new policy...

Brooklyn, NY -The bitter feud between the two brothers fighting for spiritual control of Brooklyn's Satmar community has spilled into the corridors of City Hall. Their battle centers on the fiscal-year 2009 budget. Through City Council Speaker Christine Quinn's discretionary fund, Brooklyn Councilmen David Yassky, Simcha Felder and Bill de Blasio dished out an unusually large sum to a new...