Brooklyn, NY - The world is not coming to an end. Repeat, everything is okay. The Edge sent out a release late this afternoon that it's sold one of its "premier duplex penthouse residences" for $5.145 million, which would be the most expensive residential sale ever in Williamsburg and the sixth most expensive sale in Brooklyn. The buyer, who is clearly not fazed by this meltdown twaddle...

Boston, MA - A woman who fabricated a best-selling memoir about surviving the Holocaust by living with wolves has won a Massachusetts court battle with her former publisher. A judge dismissed a lawsuit today filed by publisher Jane Daniel against Misha Defonseca and her ghost writer. He said Daniel had missed a one-year statute of limitations. Daniel sued this year after Defonseca admitted...

Newark, NJ - The lively Jewish community that made Newark, N.J., one of the capitals of American Jewish life is long gone, but once a year a small spark of the community is rekindled — under police protection. One day each year, typically the Sunday that falls between the High Holy Days, a detail of police officers creates a temporary bubble of security around Newark’s Jewish cemeteries...

New York - Several states -- including New York, Massachusetts, California and Illinois -- are beefing up tax enforcement and collection efforts as they face widening budget deficits. “As their budgets quickly hit the skids and the pressure is on, they're going to be looking to see where those dollars are,” said Verenda Smith of the Federation of Tax Administrators, an association of tax...

New York - Thursday may have been the Day of Atonement for Jews, but that doesn’t mean everyone else was off the hook. Regardless of religion or ethnicity, plenty of New Yorkers had reason to atone for wrongs committed, if not against God, then certainly against their fellow citizens. No lineup of sinners could possibly be complete. For many New Yorkers, a natural candidate would be any city...

New York - The National Debt Clock situated near Times Square ran out of numbers as the federal government's debt soared to $10.2 trillion. The billboard style clock, which was erected in 1989 by late Manhattan real estate developer Seymour Durst, was only equipped to handle a debt of up to $9,999,999,999,999. The current economic crisis helped push the clock over that mark. As a temporary...

Chicago, IL - Sheriff Tom Dart said he's ordered his deputies to stop taking part in evictions of properties that have been foreclosed upon. Dart said the change goes into effect Thursday, and he said the decision comes because many of those being evicted are people who've been faithfully paying rent and didn't even know about the foreclosures. Dart said he thinks he's the first sheriff in...

Washington, DC - A bank robber was looking to steal a getaway car and had a choice of two minivans parked outside Rabbi Shmuel Herzfeld's house in Washington. One was a nondescript silver Toyota Sienna, the other an old Dodge Caravan decorated with Stars of David and sporting a roof-top ad for a synagogue. Guess which one the robber took. "I don't know what he was thinking," Rabbi Herzfeld...

New York, NY - If the City Council has a class clown, it's Simcha Felder. The Brooklyn Democrat is known for his pixyish humor and candor. He once ducked into the men's room to avoid a ticklish Council vote. He cracked, "The only thing I'm acknowledging (is) that if you asked me, 'Is it true that the record shows that I was present but did not vote? Yes, that's what I acknowledge." But...

Lake Kiamesha, NY - Two youths, ages seven and 14, have been arrested by the Sullivan County Sheriff’s Office and charged with setting a bungalow on fire in Lake Kiamesha. On Wednesday, October 1 at 4:40 a.m., the Monticello Fire Department fought a structure fire at the Lakeside Village bungalow colony on Concord Road in the Town of Thompson. It took firefighters over two hours to...

Monsey, NY - The county's Department of Health yesterday issued a violation to a Monsey group for organizing a ritual involving the slaughter of chickens that resulted in blood and feces running into storm drains and eventually local streams. The county also contacted the state Department of Environmental Conservation, urging it to issue an appearance ticket to the organizer. The annual ritual...

Israel - Arab members of parliament on Thursday demanded better police protection for Arabs after a clash over religious observance led to a riot on Yom Kippur. The unrest erupted when an Arab motorist drove into a neighbourhood where Arabs and Jews live, playing his car stereo loudly as ceremonies marking Yom Kippur, were underway. Arab witnesses said Jewish youths stoned the car carrying...

New York - Another washout overtook Wall Street Thursday, sending major averages down as much as 7 percent as traders bailed out of the credit-battered stock market. The stock market's afternoon selloff sent Dow below 9,000 for the first time in five years, as unshakeable fears from the credit freeze combined with the expiration of short-selling rules to beat down stocks for the seventh...