Queens, NY - NYPD and the Medical Examiner's office responded today to 67th Place in Queens, for a female that overdosed and died. The kind hearted 28-year-old former student of Bais Rivka of Crown Heights, slipped into a drug abusing lifestyle many years ago and today passed away from a drug overdose. The Medical Examiner office reached out to Chesed Shel Emes who picked up the Nifter and...

Melbourne, Australia - Rift among 613 members of Blake Street Hebrew Congregation (BSHC) in Caulfield South over whether their longstanding spiritual head, Rabbi Yirmi Garfunkel, should have been dismissed could see the development of a breakaway shul. Rabbi Garfunkel, who has led the shul for 11 of its almost 13 years, was given an ultimatum to step down -– but reportedly refused to do so...

Memphis, TN - In a contentious primary that garnered national attention this week, U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen took a substantial early lead over his Democratic rivals. Based on early votes and absentee ballots results, Cohen leads with 80.56 percent of the votes. His main challengers, attorney Nikki Tinker and state Rep. Joe Towns Jr., trail with 17.22 percent and 1.44 percent...

Bronx, NY - The owner of the Bronx nursing home where workers have been on strike for six months was arrested Thursday for failing to provide workers’ compensation insurance for her employees, state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said. The arrest of Helen Sieger, 55, owner and chief executive of the Kingsbridge Heights Care and Rehabilitation Center, is the first in the state under a new law...

New York, NY - Public school principals across the city are returning from summer vacation to learn that they have been enlisted among the ranks of city officials being asked to curb their car use in order to help the environment — and many are not pleased. In the past, every staff member at a school was eligible for a free parking permit that gave its user free rein to park in a school's lot...

Israel - In its International Religious Freedom Report for 2008, the United States State Department has accused the counter-missionary organization Yad L'Achim of using violence against those who come to Israel seeking to bring Jews to abandon Judaism. Yad L'Achim accuses the State Department of publishing the report without a minimal investigation of the truth of the claims. The recent...

New York - A federal judge in New York has rejected an effort to force the U.S. government to quickly process tens of thousands of citizenship applications before November's election. Judge Lawrence McKenna says a lawsuit brought in Manhattan in March must be dismissed. The lawsuit claimed the government failed to process naturalization applications in a timely manner. The judge said...

Seattle, WA - Prosecutors in Seattle say they may bring new charges for the re-trial of a man accused of killing a woman at the Jewish Federation and wounding five others. The attack in downtown Seattle occurred in July 2006. At a hearing, Deputy Prosecutor Erin Ehlert said new evidence in the form of telephone recordings Naveed Haq made from jail suggest that his attack had a political...

New York - The animal rights group PETA has tried unsuccessfully to run a newspaper ad comparing the beheading and cannibalizing of a passenger on a Greyhound bus in Canada last week to the treatment of animals by the meat industry. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals said on its Web site it wanted to run the ad in Manitoba's Portage la Prairie Daily Graphic, which is distributed in...

New York - Citigroup Inc. will buy back more than $7 billion in auction-rate securities and pay $100 million in fines as part of settlements with federal and state regulators, who said the bank marketed the investments as safe despite liquidity risks. Citigroup will buy back the securities from tens of thousands of investors nationwide under separate accords announced Thursday with the...

New York City - Stocks ended the trading session lower as concerns about a pipeline that was attacked in Turkey propelled oil to close above $120 a barrel. Adding to the selling pressure was a trio of dismal news: a rise in jobless claims, Wal-Mart's sales miss and AIG's wider-than-expected loss. the DJ industrial average fell 217 points to close at 11,438 ...

Miami, FL- A man is being held in Florida by federal authorities on charges of threatening to assassinate Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama. Raymond Hunter Geisel was ordered held without bail Thursday at a brief court hearing. The Secret Service says Geisel made the threat during a training class for bail bondsmen in Miami in late July...

Portland, OR - A New York man who pleaded guilty to murder in Oregon in exchange for buckets of fried chicken will get calzones and pizza to go with his life sentence. Tremayne Durham, 33, of New York City, admitted last month that he fatally shot Adam Calbreath, 39, of Gresham, in June 2006. Durham wanted to sell ice cream and ordered an $18,000 truck from an Oregon company. He later changed...

New York, NY - Former Mayor David Dinkins is recuperating after having a pacemaker implanted today at the New York-Presbyterian Hospital's Weill Cornell Medical Center. The DN's Frank Lombardi spoke with Peter Johnson Jr., a longtime friend who was an unofficial senior adviser and speech writer for Dinkins when he was the 106th mayor from 1990 through 1993. “I saw him today and he...

Albany, NY - A New York appeals court has upheld the firing of a worker who took smoking breaks despite a new policy by her employer. The court shows the woman, paralegal Karen Krindel of Rochester, was fired after 15 months on the job because she didn't comply with a new written policy that banned smoking breaks. She applied for unemployment benefits and received about $3,000 worth. But...