Postville, IA - Iowa Workforce Development has agreed to slash its nearly $10 million penalty claim against Agriprocessors for illegal wage deductions and unpaid wages. The fine announced on Oct. 29, 2008, was the largest that Iowa Workforce Development had ever levied. It covered findings that Agriprocessors unlawfully deducted $192,597 from workers paychecks for frocks they wore on the job...

New Jersey - Court appearances continued Friday in a wide-ranging corruption probe that has netted 44 people in New York and New Jersey, including several elected officials and religious leaders. Bail was set much higher for many others facing money laundering charges after prosecutors argued that the mostly orthodox Jewish defendants were flight risks, citing their strong ties to...

Litchfield, CT - Rabbi Joseph Eisenbach was transported to Charlotte Hungerford Hospital from the scene of a two-car crash this afternoon. James Mattice Sr., 50, of Terryville was at the wheel of his sister’s Nissan Altima headed east on Rt. 202 past the Green when Rabbi Eisenbach, the driver and lone occupant of a Toyota Avalon, pulled out in front of the oncoming car from Meadow Street and...

New Jersey - New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine, a Democrat, has chosen state Sen. Loretta Weinberg as his running mate, according to a top Democratic official. Weinberg, 74, gained a reputation for taking on members of her own party, the AP reports. She represents District 37, which encompasses several communities of Bergen County. Prior to her election to the senate, she served in the state...

Washington - Seeking to quell the controversy over his Wednesday comments on the arrest of Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr., President Barack Obama made a surprise visit to the White House briefing room this afternoon. “I unfortunately gave an impression that I was maligning the Cambridge Police Department or Sgt. Crowley specifically, and I could have calibrated those words...

White Lake, NY - In the ongoing showdown between a Hasidic bungalow colony, and the town of Bethel over the use of a newly built shul and community center. This morning in Monticello court, the town lawyer argued that its premises is not safe to use, the Sullivan County Judge Frank LaBuda decide to took a tour of the controversial shul and community center in on Friday afternoon to determine...

Manhattan, NY - Approximately $120,000 worth of jewelry was stolen from two jewelry company employees in Grand Central Terminal a month ago, and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority Police are asking for anyone with information regarding the theft to come forward. MTA Police believe that on the lower level of the Terminal at about 6 p.m. on June 24, the jewelry company employees were...

Hevron, Israel - Police were surprised when a local Arab stopped by their police station to return a cell phone that had been reported missing by a member of the Jewish community. The incident became clearer when officers realized that the cell phone was owned by Racheli Marzel, the daughter of local activist and politician Baruch Marzel. Marzel credited the return of the phone to his “good...

Tehran - Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, on Friday ordered President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to sack his deputy, Fars news agency reported. "It is necessary that the appointment is cancelled," Khamenei said in a letter to the president, adding that the appointment of Esfandir Rahim-Mashaie as first vice president was neither to Ahmadinejad's nor the government's advantage and would...

Hoboken, NJ - The FBI's cooperating witness in the New Jersey poltical scandal also approached at least one of the other Hoboken mayoral candidates, according to Jake Stuiver, mayoral candidate's Beth Mason's campaign manager. Stuiver said a third party set up a meeting between Dwek and Mason that Stuiver attended. Stuiver declined to say whom the third party was. On Saturday, May 9, the...

Berlin, Germany - The American Jewish Committee in Berlin filed a complaint Friday asking prosecutors to investigate Amazon.de to see if it has broken German laws against Holocaust denial by selling far-right books. "We must not allow the laws against denying the Holocaust and hate against minorities in Germany to be eroded through the proliferation of online companies," said AJC-Berlin...

Brooklyn, NY - The Brooklyn man arrested Thursday for dealing in black-market kidneys was identified to the FBI seven years ago as a major figure in a global human organ ring. Levy-Izhak Rosenbaum's name, address and even phone number were passed to an FBI agent in a meeting at the Roosevelt Hotel in Manhattan by a prominent anthropologist who has been studying and documenting organ...

Delray Beach, FL - The bronze statue parked outside Addison Plaza shopping center west of Delray Beach is drawing the ire of parents of children who attend nearby Morikami Park Elementary School. "My daughter has been joking about it," said Jeffrey Cohen, whose 6-year-old daughter attends summer camp there. "She shouldn't be talking to me about this." The anatomically correct figure is part...

Jerusalem - A special committee set up by the Belz Hasidic stream recently issued a special protocol limiting wedding spending among the community members, in a bid to ease the financial burden on couples' parents, (as was reported before here on VIN News). The "Wedding Plan," which was sent to the families of the community this week, includes a list of restrictions regarding wedding...

New Jersey - The political and housing brass here have long heard the rumors: Jeffrey Williamson, a housing inspector, was for sale. So they weren't exactly blindsided by the news Thursday morning that the two-time Assembly candidate was arrested on bribery charges as part of a sweeping FBI public corruption probe. Still, it stung. I've heard rumors over the years but was hoping they were...