Albany - Gov. David Paterson this afternoon called on the Senate to unlock the doors of the chamber and settle their differences by holding a second leadership vote. The governor declined to take sides in the ongoing stalemate over Monday's coup, reiterating that he will work with whoever emerges as the new majority leader. He said he thought Malcolm Smith had been doing a "good job" as...

Washington - Israeli TV newscasters Tuesday night interpreted a photo taken Monday in the Oval Office of President Obama talking on the phone with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as an "insult" to Israel. They saw the incident as somewhat akin to an incident last year, when the Iraqi reporter threw a shoe at President Bush in Baghdad. It is considered an insult in the Arab world...

Washington - At least two people were shot when a gunman opened fire at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. Wednesday, authorities said. D.C. police spokeswoman Traci Hughes said a person walked into the museum with a rifle and shot a guard. Hughes says the shooter was also shot. The suspect was in police custody and the weapon was recovered, officials told CBS...

Chicago, IL - In a racially charged interview, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright said that President Obama hasn't spoken to him since they parted ways last year, because "them Jews aren't going to let him talk to me." He suggested White House advisers were keeping the two separate. "Them Jews aren't going to let him talk to me. I told my baby daughter, that he'll talk to me in five years when he's a...

Israel - The rabbi of the popular "Halacha and Minhag Corner" in the Sichas Hashavua weekly bulletin, Rav Yosef Ginzburg, was asked the Jewish view on beggars who try to panhandle from drivers stuck at a red light. Rav Ginzburg, who is rav of Omer, firmly replied, "The phenomenon of traffic-light beggars endangers life. They stand in a perilous place and endanger themselves by having to dodge...

New York City - By 9:30 a.m., the 11th-floor hallway of a courthouse in downtown Brooklyn is filled with tight huddles made up of people in debt and the lawyers who are after them to pay. The goal of the conferences is almost always the same: to cut a deal in the hallway before going into the packed courtroom to appear before the judge. The people who owe money are anxious. They ask legal...

Washington - The Obama administration on Wednesday appointed a compensation czar who will have broad discretion to set the pay for 175 top executives at seven of the nation’s largest companies, which received hundreds of billions of dollars in federal assistance to survive. The mandate given to the new compensation official, Kenneth R. Feinberg, a well-known Washington lawyer, reflects the...

Kfar Khabad, Israel - Forty years of fertility treatments finally give ultra-Orthodox couple their hearts' desire – a healthy baby boy "I've waited for a baby for so long, I'm so happy," a woman who became the proud mother of a firstborn son at the age of 60, said today. The woman and her husband, an ultra-Orthodox couple living in the central Israel community of Kfar Khabad, were married...

Jerusalem - With cyclical regularity, usually once every two or three years, the Days of Awe come early to the capital. Suddenly in early summer, stormy demonstrations visit the local miasma, which cause "even the fish in the water to tremble," as the "supervisors" at the Lithuanian yeshivas say. The local journalists on the Haredi beat know it. So do the press photographers, the police...

Manhattan, NY - The New York Civil Liberties Union has filed a lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security to protest the so-called 'Ring of Steel." The DHS and the New York City Police Department are working together to install about $100 million worth of security and surveillance cameras as part of the Lower Manhattan Security Initiative. But the NYCLU has filed suit, claiming the...

Brooklyn, NY - Council Member Simcha Felder launched an outreach campaign this week to raise awareness of the City’s strictly enforced ban on placing fliers or posters on telephone and utility poles and other public property. On Monday, Felder mailed hundreds of letters to community based organizations and yeshivas informing them of the details of these rules. “Individuals, community based...

Brooklyn, NY - On Thursday, June 11, 2009, Assemblyman Dov Hikind (D-Brooklyn), in conjunction with the Borough Park Jewish Community Council and the Lazar Consulting Group will host a Community Services Fair at the Boro Park Y to address what the Assemblyman calls, “a recent increase in demand for assistance in accessing and obtaining all types of social services” throughout his Assembly...

Brazil - Two passengers with names linked to Islamic terrorism were on the Air France flight which crashed with the loss of 228 lives, it has emerged. French secret servicemen established the connection while working through the list of those who boarded the doomed Airbus in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on 31 May. Flight AF447 crashed in the mid-Atlantic en route to Paris during a violent...

Iran - Voting stations throughout Iran will open Friday morning, and 46 million citizens will be casting their votes for their next president. Several thousand of these eligible voters belong to the Jewish community within the Islamic State, and, contrary to what some may believe, experts estimate that most of these Jews will actually be casting a ballot with current President Mahmoud...

Oslo, Norway - King Harald V and his son, Crown Prince Haakon made a historic visit to the Jewish community center and synagogue in Oslo. Local Jews expressed hope that the royal visit will help alleviate the growing anti-Semitic trends in the country. "About a week and-a-half ago the heads of the Jewish community in Oslo were notified of the royal family's planned visit," related Dvorah...