Monroe, NY - An unauthorized walkway that caused County Route 44 to be closed last week may be allowed to remain if village officials block it with concrete barriers and seek permission for a permanent sidewalk, Orange County Executive Ed Diana said today. Diana had ordered the boardwalk removed and threatened $1,000-a-day fines on Thursday, a day after county officials discovered it and shut...

New York - Stocks rallied amid signs that the credit market may be defrosting and after remarks from the Fed chairman that a second round of government stimulus may be needed. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 413 points to close at 9,265.00 Offering stocks a boost was a drop in the cost of overnight lending rates between banks. The closely watched London Interbank Offer Rate, or...

Borough Park, NY - Supermarket mogul and Democrat-turned-Republican John Catsimatidis wasn't kidding when he said he planned to continue exploring a potential run for mayor in 2009 even as Mayor Bloomberg tries to change the rules so he can seek a third term. Catsimatidis paid a visit last night to the Borough Park sukkah of Grand Rabbi Mordechair Dovid Ungar with his adviser Rob...

New York City - “The public wants term limits and while there may be — it may be that the City Council has a right to override them, deliberately saying to the public ‘we don’t care what you think’ is, I would use the word ‘disgraceful.’ “ — Michael R. Bloomberg, Nov. 22, 2005. These words, uttered shortly after the mayor’s resounding re-election victory in 2005, may be...

Brooklyn, NY - City Councilman Simcha Felder's constituents in the 44th Council District, which encompasses parts of Borough Park, Midwood, and Bensonhurst have clear opinions when it comes to whether the City Council should extend term limits, without a vote by the people. "Nobody's above the law and the law says two terms, and after that, you're out," said one resident. "Let's be law abiding...

New York - Google CEO Eric Schmidt is to endorse Barack Obama and start campaigning for him, he told the Wall Street Journal Monday. The endorsement by the man widely seen as the most powerful figure in the technology world came just a day after the Democratic presidential candidate was boosted by the endorsement of Colin Powell, a widely respected former Republican Secretary of State and retired...

Meah Shearim - They say that if you haven’t seen a Simchat Beit Hashoeva festivities (water-drawing festival), you have never really witnessed true elation. However, the past celebration in the Orthodox neighborhood of Meah Shearim this Sukkot may leave some room for interpretation. The water-drawing festival is a time-honored tradition held in the Hasidic courts of the capital for decades...

Balad, Iraq - In a small, temporary structure, a U.S. Air Force chaplain eats, relaxes, entertains guests and sleeps in the middle of Housing-6 here on the most active airbase in the world. Chaplain (Capt.) Andrew Cohen, 332nd Air Expeditionary Wing Jewish chaplain, is observing the holiday of Sukkot by building and living in a sukkah a temporary shelter with a bamboo reed roof. Any rabbi...

New York - Members of Gov. Paterson's State Police security de tail are privately claiming to have been victims of racial discrimination by New York's first black chief executive, The Post has learned. The allegations, outlined to State Police union leaders and widely discussed among the troopers themselves, stem from a shakeup in their ranks ordered after Paterson took office in March. The...

Jerusalem - A 10-year-old new immigrant from France was forced to leave the soccer team for which he was registered since according to him, the other children refused to play with him because he wears a yarmulke. Y., a fifth grade student at the Netiv Zvulun School in Modiin, signed up for the extracurricular activity at the youth cultural center at the city's Yovel School. “Getting to...

Williamsburg, NY - The economy may be turning sour, but potential residents sure are sweet on the chance to move into Brooklyn's Domino Sugar Factory. Hundreds of visitors attended an open house at the vacant refinery in Williamsburg yesterday to check out the Manhattan views and get an update on the planned conversion of the 124-year-old landmarked building into housing. "I am very...

Kiryas Joel, NY - The man listed as clerk of the region's smallest school district is earning more than double what many of his peers in much larger public school systems are taking in. Payroll records indicate Jacob Brach is paid nearly $137,000 a year as clerk of the Kiryas Joel School District — a salary his boss says is justified by the three functions that Brach juggles and his 18 years...