Venezuela - President Hugo Chavez met with the President of the World Jewish Congress (WJC), Ronald Lauder, and the President of the Latin American Jewish Congress, Jack Terpins. Following the meeting, Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro thanked Lauder for coming to Venezuela and said the meeting allows the Chavez government to “deepen the dialogue.” Argentina’s President Cristina Fernandez...

New York - Two area police departments have installed license plate readers into patrol vehicles with grants from the state Division of Criminal Justice Services. The Monticello Village Police and Town of Chester Police received the funding for the devices. The license plate reader uses infrared cameras that scan license plates on vehicles and then checks them against a database for stolen and...

Chicago, IL - Max and Erla Feinberg created an estate plan to distribute their considerable assets after their deaths. They left $250,000 to each of their five grandchildren who survived them. However, they provided that a grandchild's bequest would be lost if he or she married outside the Jewish faith, unless the grandchild's spouse converted within one year of the marriage. Upon Max and...

Brooklyn, NY - Two incumbent Brooklyn Democratic elected officials facing tough primary challenges in districts that could turn on the Jewish vote showed up at City Hall this morning to praise UJCARE, a new Satmar social services organization, for it very successful voter registration drive. Rep. Ed Towns and Sen. Marty Connor posed for photos with the UJCARE representatives, who announced...

Georgia - An Israeli correspondent who was severely injured in Tuesday's Russian bombardment in the Georgian city of Gori was flown to Israel, his newspaper said Wednesday. Journalist Zadok Yehezkeli, of Israel's biggest-selling Yediot Ahronot daily, was hit by shrapnel in the shoulder and chest in the same incident in Gori's main town square in which Dutch cameraman Stan Storiman was...

New York - According to FOX news Colin Powell will endorse Sen. Obama and will be a keynote speaker at the democratic convention. Mr Powell, 70, who left the currant bush administration in January 2005 under a cloud left by the war in Iraq, has served three Republican presidents...

New York City - Mayor Bloomberg said today that the city will revoke the reserved parking spots enjoyed by four City Council members in front of their district offices. Bloomberg said he talked to DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan after reading about the free spaces in this morning's Daily News and told her "we've got to have one policy that's reasonable." Bloomberg said he and Sadik-Khan...

Johnson City, NY - Patrick and Janet DiNottia woke to see their blinds glowing orange early morning. They could feel the heat. Their Custer Avenue home in Johnson City wasn't on fire. But about 25 feet away, a vacant three-story apartment building at 25 Carhart Ave. was burning. Johnson City Fire Investigator Robert Dempsey is investigating the cause of the fire that started about 1:50 a.m. and...

New York - Sen. Tom Duane, a Manhattan Democrat, has introduced legislation that would extend the protections of the state's shield law to "journalist bloggers." Duane cited the recent legal battle between Room 8 and Bronx DA Robert Johnson (a situation that perhaps was not as cut-and-dried as it first seemed) as proof that such a measure is needed and predicted that without it, there will...

West Hartford, CT - Responding to the concerns of the Jewish community, the town council changed the date of the budget referendum from Sept. 30 to Oct. 7 to avoid a conflict with Rosh Hashana.   Town lawyers found a 31-year-old Rhode Island case that mirrored West Hartford's situation and gave council members the grounds for a one-time waiver of the charter requirement that a second...

New York City - If the fight over the 421-a tax abatement rules seems like ancient history, guess again. The new rules enacted by the city and state last year (and bemoaned by many real estate developers) have been in place for just a month. But state legislators are already considering changes that could make many in the industry unhappier. As of June 30, the exclusion area, where...

Beit Shemesh - Beit Shemesh is a modern, attractive town 10 miles west of Jerusalem, in the midst of a building boom. Lush, multi-colored bougainvilleas cascade down the terraces of the apartment houses that line wide boulevards. Building cranes dot the skyline and real-estate billboards sing the praises of the latest development. Two homes in one project were recently purchased for $1 million...

New York, NY - The City Council is expected to pass legislation fining store owners who keep their doors open while running their air conditioning. After a warning to first-time offenders, stores would be fined $200 for a second offense and $400 for any more violations within an 18-month period. The bill would affect businesses with at least 4,000-square-feet, or small stores that are part...

Brooklyn, NY - “It happened twice in the mikva…..I was nine…. I never told anyone…I can’t tell my wife….she will never understand…How can she?....She will divorce me and take my children from me….,” fraught with intense pain, Duvid struggled as he divulged the more than two-decade old secret that was eroding his emotional and physical health. The avalanche of stories of...

Jerusalem - A new museum dedicated to the former Jewish settlements in Gush Katif is expected to open its doors in Jerusalem on Tuesday. The Gush Katif settlers were evacuated during Israel's unilateral pullout from the Gaza Strip in 2005. About three years ago, and just three weeks after the disengagement, SOS-Israel organized a conference titled "We won't forgive and won't forget" at...