Goshen, NY - Orange County lawmakers tonight rejected a bid by Easy Equities to buy Camp La Guardia and decided for the second time to postpone choosing a buyer for the 258-acre property. A Legislature committee had voted last week to accept a $10.5 million offer by Easy Equities, the only bidder willing to pay the county its full price up front. The other two would have paid over several...

New York - State officials are requiring alarms in new commercial and residential swimming pools to reduce child drownings. The emergency regulations published Wednesday by the Department of State were adopted this month by the State Fire Prevention and Building Code Council. They took effect June 13, following 2006 legislation, and apply to pools built or substantially modified after Dec. 14...

New York - Shares of General Motors Corp. plunged Wednesday to close below $10 for the first time in more than half a century, on worries about the company’s cash needs and speculation about a possible bankruptcy protection filing down the road. GM shares fell $1.77, or 15.1 percent, to close at $9.98. Their session low of $9.96 marked their lowest point since Sept. 13, 1954, when they hit...

Teaneck, NJ - Michael Kevie Feit was unanimously named the new mayor of Teaneck, succeeding Elie Katz, who will return to a council seat for the final two years of his term. The council also unanimously voted for Deputy Mayor Lizette Parker to retain her position for another two years. Feit said he hopes that the new council will work to change the tone at meetings, which have sometimes...

Washington - The Justice Department is considering letting the FBI investigate Americans without any evidence of wrongdoing, relying instead on a terrorist profile that could single out Muslims, Arabs or other racial and ethnic groups. Law enforcement officials say the proposed policy would help them do exactly what Congress demanded after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks: Root out terrorists...

New York - “Paul Kriwaczek tells us in his book ‘In Search of Zarathustra: Across Iran and Central Asia To Find the World’s First Prophet’ that the Hebrew word ashkenazi originally meant a Scythian. I myself always thought it meant a German. Did ancient Hebrew speakers use one term to describe all the barbarians beyond the Danube, or did they actually distinguish between Goths and...

New York City - Mayor Bloomberg has signed legislation requiring the Department of Transportation to extend the operating authority of two unsubsidized bus services The Mayor said, The final bill before me, allows the Department of Transportation, with the approval of the Franchise Concession Review Committee, to extend the operating authority of two unsubsidized bus services who are scheduled...

Woodmere , NY - Morris Talansky, the Woodmere businessman at the center of an Israeli political scandal, seems to keep attracting legal problems. The 75-year-old Talansky, an ordained Orthodox rabbi, was thrust into the spotlight this year after his name surfaced in an Israeli probe into bribery allegations surrounding Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. Talansky is being sued in New York by...

New York - What would you do if you found out you were living over a buried treasure worth millions? That's the question facing residents in a town in Sullivan County. Some say they are sitting atop a wellspring of natural gas. With all the talk about overseas drilling and energy, almost everyone seems to have overlooked what's below our feet here in New York. A buried treasure, not of...

Sullivan County, Woodbourne, NY - Fire Departments responding to a working fire at 218 Firehouse Road at Rt 52 in the Klosenburg Camp in bungalow #40. Fire started in a oven, now requesting Falsburg with fast team to respond and requesting a 2nd Alarm. U/D: 1:04pm Commend on the scene reporting all fire is out and releasing fast team...

New Jersey - A state appeals court said today that police do not need to appear before a judge to get a search warrant. In a unanimous decision, the judges found it was enough that a member of the Ocean County Narcotics Strike Force spoke on the phone with a municipal court judge and sent a fax to support the request for a search warrant...

Arkansas - Wal-Mart stores in Arizona now stock Grand Canyon sweet onions while aisles in New York display state-grown eggplant, as the world's largest retailer says it has become the United States' largest buyer of locally grown fruits and vegetables. For Wal-Mart, which leverages bulk purchases to keep prices down, buying from local farms might not appear to fit the company's strategy...

New York, NY - The World Jewish Congress has called on the Lithuanian government to urgently address the negative climate in the country vis-à-vis members of its Jewish community and to speedily enact legislation allowing for the restitution of properties seized under the Nazi occupation. At a meeting in New York attended by several leaders of Jewish organizations, WJC Secretary General...

Williamsburg, NY - For those of us on the outside looking in at Brooklyn's mysterious and ultra-Orthodox Hasidic communities, there has always been Isaac Abraham to explain things. As he would say: "Thank God!" Isaac Abraham, 57, is ready to claim his reward: He has announced that he will stand as candidate for the Democratic nomination to the 33rd District of the City Council in next year's...

Los Angeles, CA - A man pleaded guilty to participating in a decade-long tax fraud and money laundering scheme that prosecutors claim involved the leader of an Orthodox Jewish group. Moshe Z., 62, of Brooklyn, N.Y., pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit tax fraud, U.S. Attorney's spokesman Thom Mrozek said. He faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine when he is sentenced Dec. 8...