Islip, NY - A Long Island town wants to start charging $100 a year to people and organizations that use charity boxes to collect clothing donations. Islip town officials say too many scammers have been putting out charity boxes illegally and collecting clothing, shoes and toys for themselves. Councilman Christopher Bodkin says the donations are lining somebody's pocket. Islip wouldn't be...

Cupertino, CA - Apple is indicating that it has something really juicy to introduce before the end of September. The tease came Monday as Peter Oppenheimer, the Apple chief financial officer, explained why the company expected its gross profit margin to drop from 34.8 percent in the three months that ended in June to 30 percent in the current quarter. That caused a sharp drop in Apple's stock...

Brooklyn, NY - NYPD of the 70th Pct are calling for a level one mobilization for a bomb threat by an EDP sitting on the fire escape at 1325 E 19th Street between Avenue's M & N. 120 people have been evacuated from the building and the surrounding area. NYPD ESU and Bomb Squad are on the scene. U/D: 10:42pm NYPD has the EDP in custody, but situation in the apartment isn't cleared yet. U/D...

Norfolk, VA - Over 15,000 naval personnel from four countries are participating in a Joint Task Force Exercise dubbed "Operation Brimstone", that is underway in North Carolina and off the eastern U.S. coast from Virginia to Florida. The nine day exercise began Monday and includes special forces from France, Brazil and the United Kingdom. 'Operation Brimstone' serves as a ready-for-deployment...

Denmark - Breast self-examination does not reduce breast cancer mortality and may cause harm by prompting unnecessary biopsies, according to data on almost 400,000 women. The study suggests that breast self-examination does not reduce the risk of dying of breast cancer and may increase the risk of unnecessary breast biopsies. Women who performed self-examination had virtually identical...

Baltimore, MD - Kestenberg, a Holocaust survivor featured in the WBAL-TV documentary "Survivors Among Us," has died. Born in Poland in 1921, Kestenberg survived a number of concentration and internment camps, including Auschwitz and Dachau. He was the only member of his family to make it out of Europe. He spoke publicly about his experience to community groups all over Maryland. Close...

New York City - Stores across the city worked to comply with a new law requiring chains and large stores to offer plastic bag recycling by the Wednesday deadline. Approved by the City Council in January, the new law requires stores of 5,000 square feet or more, and chains with more than five locations in the city, to make bins available for customers to return their plastic bags for recycling...

Washington - A final report just released by the Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Defense backs the claim of an Army engineer accused over ten years ago of spying for Israel that he was unjustly targeted because of his religion. The Army engineer, David Tenenbaum, was given a polygraph test in 1997 during which he said anti-Jewish epithets were shouted at him. The next day, he...

Borough Park, NY - A major event was held today by the Borough Park Hatzalah organization, on 16th Ave., with officials representing the Baltimor's city's Emergency Services, other public servants, and Baltimore Hatzolah chapters, in attendances. Some of those officials included Baltimore City Council Member Rochelle "Rikki" Spector, Baltimore EMS Division Chief Lloyd Carter, and...

New York - General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co., the two biggest U.S. automakers, have about a 46 percent chance of default within five years, according to Edward Altman, a finance professor at New York University's Stern School of Business. ``Both are in very serious shape and the markets reflect that,'' Altman, the creator of the Z-score mathematical formula that measures bankruptcy risk...

Washington, DC - New York City will see an increase this year in homeland security grants. The city and its suburbs will get $144 million. That's about $10 million more than the area received last year from the Department of Homeland Security's Urban Area Security Initiative. Officials with the agency have begun notifying lawmakers of the decision. A formal announcement is expected this...

Jerusalem - Two Palestinians narrowly escaped a lynching attempt in Jerusalem Tuesday evening after they were assaulted by dozens of ultra-Orthodox Jews. The two Arabs were wounded, while a Jewish resident who protected them with his body was stabbed. "Blood was boiling, and these crazy people almost killed me," the Jewish man told Ynet. The police are looking into the incident and searching...

Jerusalem - Israel plans to build a cycle trail linking the cities of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv as a potential tourist attraction. The 120-kilometre trail, passing through several forests and include several vantage points and restaurants, is to become operational in less than six months, according to the report. The project is being funded by the Jewish National Fund to the tune of around...

New York City - A tip of the hat to the tax lawyers for American Airlines, William Ault and Jay Rosen of Deloitte Tax LLP., They are on the verge of having litigated their way out of more than $200,000 in New York City hotel taxes on the basis of a provision that says that if you live at a hotel for at least 180 days out of the year, you don't have to pay the hotel tax. So a provision intended to...

New York - A Manhattan judge has indicated that he'll release nearly all the grand jury testimony in the Julius and Ethel Rosenberg case. U.S. District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein told lawyers he'd rule later Tuesday on a request by historical groups to make public the secret testimony in the Cold War spy case that resulted in the couple's execution. The government says it won't oppose...