Postville, IA - The lawyer for a bankruptcy trustee of an embattled kosher slaughterhouse says the company is unlikely to pay a $1 million fine charged by Iowa's labor agency. Iowa Workforce Development last week agreed to slash a proposed $10 million fine against Agriprocessors, Inc., to $1 million. The fines were based on allegations the company made illegal deductions from employee...

Butner, NC - A lawyer for victims of Bernard Madoff's Ponzi scheme says the financier told him during a 4 1/2-hour prison interview plenty of details about the fraud, including how it took place and how securities regulators missed catching him. The San Francisco lawyer, Joseph Cotchett, said he planned to use what he learned today to add defendants to a lawsuit to be filed in Manhattan this...

New York - A “wake up call” is how a number of ultra-Orthodox Jewish leaders are describing the arrest last week of several New York-area rabbis on federal money laundering charges. The clearest indication of the newly awakened state came in a symposium on business ethics held in the middle of ultra-Orthodox Brooklyn just a few days after the arrests. Rabbi David Zweibel, the head of the...

Monsey, NY - With the frum community reeling from one of the largest disgraces ever endured with its own arrested in a massive FBI sting operation, yet another scandal has emerged. This one, though, is considerably smaller. A Monsey couple has been arrested for large-scale public-assistance fraud. According to the Journal News, a Lower Hudson Valley newspaper, the parents of 12 children...

New York City - General Colin Powell today endorsed Mayor Mike Bloomberg’s re-election bid during a taping of Larry King Live that is scheduled to air tonight at 9PM. General Powell was the first African American appointed to serve as the 65th United States Secretary of State. He is also an American statesman and a retired four-star general in the United States Army. Below is the...

New Jersey - Jack Shaw of Jersey City, one of the 44 people arrested in Thursday's massive New Jersey corruption scandal, was found dead in his apartment this evening, Hudson County Prosecutor Edward DeFazio has confirmed. A relative found the 61-year-old political consultant's body, De Fazio said. Police were called at 5:17 p.m. and Shaw was officially declared dead at 6 p.m. Homicide...

Ferndale, NY - The New York State police have released the sketch of a suspect wanted in the assault that occurred at Camp Kavunas Halev, 249 Ferndale Loomis Rd., Liberty, N. Y. on July 26, 2009 at 10:00PM. At that time, Rabbi Mordchai Wosner, a resident at the camp was assaulted at the entrance to the camp by an unknown person, and sustained injuries to his head and face. The assailant is...

Ottawa, Canada - An Ottawa university professor accused of playing a role in a deadly Paris bombing nearly three decades ago and currently awaiting an extradition hearing is back teaching at Carleton University. Hassan Diab, 55, is teaching a part-time introduction to sociology summer course every Tuesday and Thursday for a few weeks, according to the university. The information came out in...

Jerusalem - Israeli police officers who arrived Tuesday night at the Meah Shearim home of the mother at the center of the “Starving Mom” case came up against a group of Haredim who jeered them and threw rocks at them. According to Yediot Ahronot No officers were reported hurt. The police left the location after completing their activities. ...

New York - The goal of Vosizneias is to be a positive means of growth for Klal Yisroel. Our readership needs to engage the issues, discuss them respectfully, and hopefully the products of these discussions would be fruitful to help improve Klal Yisroel, even one or two people at a time, for the better. VIN News realizes that at times our comment section does devolve into a mean-spirited...

Washington - A Jewish organization asked a federal judge for a default judgment against Russia today, following the country’s exit from a long-running lawsuit over a priceless religious library. Lawyers for Chabad-Lubavitch, one of the world’s largest sects of ultra-orthodox Hasidic Jews, filed a motion today at the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia accusing Russia of...

New York City - City Councilman Bill de Blasio, a Brooklyn Democrat who had been removed from the Democratic party line in the September primary election because of a one-digit typographical error, was reinstated on the ballot on Tuesday by the New York City Board of Elections. The board voted 9-to-0, with one abstention, to reinstate Mr. de Blasio, who is running for public advocate. Mr...

Brooklyn, NY - Anger-prone state Sen. Kevin Parker is still facing seven years in jail for allegedly battering a Post photographer - despite frantic efforts by his legal team to cut his punishment to nothing more than a slap on the wrist. Parker was arraigned today on felony assault charges after being accused of attacking shutterbug William Lopez, breaking his finger and damaging his car and...

Wesley Hills , NY - Some mail thieves are busted in the Wesley Hills section of Ramapo where cops say they caught two men taking mail out of mailboxes with metal cooking tongs. When the car was searched, Detective Lieutenant Brad Widell says they found hundreds of opened letters and checks sorted. "I don't think it was their first night," said Weidel. Weidel says the small checks were...

Manhattan, NY - Moshe Mosbacher, president of the New York Diamond Dealers Club, and Jacob Weinstock, the club treasurer, met with Raymond Diaz, New York City Police Department (NYPD) assistant chief, to discuss the state of security in the diamond district. Mosbacher and Weinstock indicated their interest in several areas that would have a beneficial impact on improving the safety of club...