Manhattan, NY - New Yorkers better get used to big public displays of depressing numbers, if the home run totals at the new Yankee Stadium aren’t enough. This morning, near Madison Square Garden and just a few blocks from the national debt counter, Deutsche Bank unveiled a huge digital counter that tracks greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. The bright red numbers kicked off at 3.6 trillion...

New York - If one were to point out that there is swine flu going around, one would not be surprising anyone with earth-shattering news. What many people are unaware of is that all the testing that is being done by local pediatricians is not for Swine Flu per se. The tests being performed is for regular Type A Flu. Currently health department authorities are only testing for complete Swine...

Jerusalem - Espousing a dream of harmony that may stretch credibility among even the most fervent believers in dialogue among the great religions, clerics in Jerusalem launched a project on Thursday aimed at finding a way to share the city's holiest, and most fought over, site. Even the Jewish religious scholar promoting it acknowledges it might need divine intervention before a peaceful...

Washington - In case you forgot, Barbara Boxer is a senator. The feisty California lawmaker felt the need to remind an Army brigadier general of that fact Tuesday during a hearing before her Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, where the military officer testifying had the apparent gall to call Boxer "ma'am." Brig. Gen. Michael Walsh, with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers...

New York - Over the past few weeks, I've become an improved Jew. I learn more, say more brachos, bench more, and didn't have a problem remembering the day in the Omer. I haven't been to Israel recently, didn't have a near death experience that reawakened my spiritual side, nor did I feel empty in my life and decided I needed to search for more meaning. So what caused this recent growth spurt in...

Pyongyang - North Korea may fire a long-range ballistic missile toward Hawaii in early July, a Japanese news report said Thursday, as Russia and China urged the regime to return to international disarmament talks on its rogue nuclear program. The missile, believed to be a Taepodong-2 with a range of up to 4,000 miles (6,500 kilometers), would be launched from North Korea's Dongchang-ni site on...

Tehran, Iran - Tens of thousands of Mirhossein Mousavi's backers, wearing black and carrying candles, rallied in Tehran on Thursday to mourn those killed in mass protests against an election the defeated candidate says was rigged. Days of public fury over the disputed election led Iran's top legislative body, the Guardian Council, to invite Mousavi and the two other candidates beaten by...

Newark, NJ - The captain on a Continental Airlines flight died as the plane headed from Belgium to Newark Airport. Authorities say the death occurred as Flight 61 traveled from Brussels to Newark this morning. There are two first officers on the aircraft, and they are flying the plane. The flight crew declared an emergency, and the plane will get special treatment from the Newark Airport tower...

Jerusalem - The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) criticized Hamas on Thursday for its continued refusal to allow the organization's representatives to visit captured IDF soldier Gilad Schalit, as well as its refusal to allow him contact with his family throughout three years of captivity. Jimmy Carter and Noam Schalit... In a statement issued Thursday, the ICRC stated: "Since...

Long Island, NY - Helen G. survived Auschwitz and Mengele’s experiments on twins and grew up in an orphanage in the United States, but the agony of those years haunts her still. When poverty threatened to make her homeless and hungry, The Blue Card, a financial aid organization for Holocaust survivors, helped with her mortgage and food. Helen’s case is not an isolated one. One fourth of...

Albany, NY - With same-sex marriage still hanging in the balance in a paralyzed New York State Senate, the anti-marriage National Organization for Marriage is promising to spend $500,000 underwriting a primary campaign against any Republican who votes for gay marriage. Gay rights groups are lobbying Republican senators hard on the vote, as a handful would need to switch sides to pass the...

Washington - After the President very publically swatted and then killed a fly during an interview with CNBC yesterday, the outspoken animal rights group PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) said they wished Obama had served a better example. “We support compassion for the even the smallest animals," says Bruce Friedrich, VP for Policy at PETA. “We support giving insects the...

Erie, PA - Former President George W. Bush fired a salvo at President Obama on Wednesday, asserting his administration's interrogation policies were within the law, declaring the private sector, not government, will fix the economy and rejecting the nationalization of health care. "I know it's going to be the private sector that leads this country out of the current economic times we're in,"...

Tel Aviv, Israel - An Israeli woman in her mid-40's has given birth to her 18th child in 21 years, accumulating a combined total of 14 years pregnancy, and she and her husband are planning their 19th. The ultra-Orthodox couple have 12 boys and six girls. The most recent was born yesterday, one week after the oldest child celebrated her 21st birthday. "I cannot say I was as moved as I was...

Albany, NY - Assemb. Margaret M. Markey’s controversial bill that would create a one-year window for victims of child sex abuse to file lawsuits decades after the fact appeared today to be foundering in the Assembly. Speaking to VIN News from Albany, Assemblyman Dov Hikind reports that the Markey bill “appears to be in big trouble and perhaps death for now, as many in the Assembly have...