Manhattan, NY - An aide to Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer has resigned after reportedly posting comments on her Facebook account defending racial profiling in the recent arrest of a Harvard professor and calling President Obama "O-dumb-a." Lee Landor, who had been Stringer's deputy press secretary since May, posted a series of comments on her Facebook page over the weekend...

New York City - These officials got the wheels in motion early. Proponents were celebrating in advance Tuesday over the expected passage of New York City's bicycle access bill. It comes before the City Council on Wednesday. Under the proposal, commercial buildings must allow workers to bring their bikes into the office -- if their employers approve. It does not require the buildings to...

Vienna - The future of an Austrian institute for Holocaust studies was in doubt Tuesday over a dispute with the city's Jewish community. The Vienna Wiesenthal Institute for Holocaust Studies began provisional operations in January after being stymied for years by funding problems. Its aim, among other things, is to give scholars from around the world the possibility to carry out research...

New York - An article posted earlier by VIN News from the Jewish week has some troubling elements in it by singling out the Charedi community. The purpose of this response post is not to foster further discord or disunity within Jewish ranks. Au contraire. The purpose is to help foster a greater sense of achdus and unity. Please read it in that spirit. Below is part of The Jewish Week...

Denver, CO - A kosher meat salesman who scammed investors out of more than $2 million by faking purchase orders for hot dogs has pleaded guilty to fraud charges in U.S. District Court in Denver. Arnold Zaler, 59, faces between five and 12 years in federal prison and could be ordered to pay restitution at his Oct. 23 sentencing. He pleaded guilty to two counts of mail fraud and two counts of...

Manhattan, NY - A subway rider says he got the shock of his life when he peered into the cab and saw a kid behind the controls alongside the driver. "I saw him driving. He couldn't have been more than 8 or 9," said Jules Cattie, 41. "That has to be the craziest thing I've ever seen." Cattie, a lawyer who lives on the East Side, said he spotted the child after he got into the front car of a...

Queens, NY - New York City Transit Authority Collections Agent Aubrey Boyce is the $133,000,000 Mega Man. The eight-year MTA veteran from Kew Gardens, Queens today collected his over-sized check for the much talked-about $133,000,000 Mega Millions drawing of July 7, 2009. Boyce who described himself as the "quiet, laid back type" collected his new fortune as the Trustee of the Archibald Trust; an...

New York City - The Democrat hoping to challenge Mayor Michael Bloomberg in the general election has gained some ground against the billionaire Republican-turned-independent. A new Quinnipiac University poll shows City Comptroller William Thompson trails Bloomberg 47 to 37 percent. That compares with Bloomberg’s 54 to 32 percent lead last month. Quinnipiac notes another change. In June...

New York - It’s hard to adequately express the sense of outrage one feels at seeing the news of New Jersey and New York rabbis arrested in a money-laundering scheme this past week. These men are accused of using charitable and educational institutions to launder millions of dollars in the past several years. And let’s not forget the gruesome sideshow of trafficking in organ sales. One has...

Brooklyn, NY - In response to Glen and Gary McCoys’s anti-Semitic, syndicated cartoon, The Flying McCoys, which appeared in yesterday’s Daily News, Assemblyman Dov Hikind (D-Brooklyn) today sent a letter to Daily News Publisher Mort Zuckerman “demanding a public apology from your newspaper for displaying this ugly cartoon.” The Flying McCoys bills itself as a “delightfully absurd...

Jerusalem - Speaking to the media for the first time since her arrest two weeks ago, the Toldos Aharon woman accused of starving her gaunt three-year-old son and interfering with his medical treatment claimed the medical staff at the hospital conducted experiments on him. “The kids jumped on me with big shouts,” the suspect, known as Y., told Hebrew daily Maariv, describing her return from...

Washington - The Obama administration will dole out $1 billion in aid to help cities and states keep police officers on the beat during the economic downturn - but most of those who sought the help will be disappointed. The aid is just a fraction of what police departments across the country had hoped to get. For every $1 to be delivered, another $7 in requests will go unanswered under the...

New York - They were America’s finest and brightest and we were all proud of them. Physically fit, intelligent and dashing, they stood for all that was great about America. J. Edgar Hoover had fashioned a remarkable team. Here was a clean-cut agent that could outshoot the devil himself. Here was a science laboratory that rivaled that of Bruce Wayne’s alter-ego – but in real life. ...

Morocco - A court has sentenced a dual Moroccan-Belgian national to life in prison after his conviction for leading a terrorist network. The court has also handed Abdelkader Belliraj's 34 co-defendants to sentences ranging from 30 years in prison to one-year suspended sentences. The trial, which began in October and wrapped up with the sentencing on Tuesday, was one on the North African...

Jerusalem - Dr. Yaakov Weill, who wrote the psychiatric evaluation of the mother suspected of starving her three-year-old son, has changed his mind and now says the woman does pose a threat to her children. Weill's opinion, among other factors, contributed to the court's decision to release the suspect to house arrest with her children. Following his meeting with the mother last week, Dr...