Chicago, IL - A study in mice suggests lack of sleep may play a role in the development of Alzheimer's disease, U.S. researchers said. The findings, reported in the journal Science, are some of the first to link sleep with the development of Alzheimer's, the most common form of dementia. Researchers at Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis studied levels of amyloid beta -- a protein that...

Karlsruhe, Germany - The top court dismissed a claim today for the return of land seized by the Nazis from its Jewish owner in 1933. Jewish businessman Adolf Sommerfeld, who owned nearly 80 percent of a company building a housing estate in the Berlin suburb of Kleinmachnow, was beaten up and shot at by Nazi thugs and fled Germany in 1933, the year the Nazis came to power. The Nazis later sold...

Brooklyn, NY - A hate-monger blanketed a stretch of a Brooklyn neighborhood with "Kill Jews" notes today - weeks after a similar incident in two other communities. Residents along Third Ave. in Bay Ridge woke up to find hundreds of two-inch handwritten signs bearing the ugly message in black marker. "I don't expect to see messages to kill Jews as I walk to school in the morning," said mom...

Postville, IA - A congresswoman has joined with a host of national Jewish organizations to pressure a controversial Iowa kosher meat company to open up dialogue with the community in which it is located. According to The Forward Jan Schakowsky, an Illinois Democrat, wrote one of a number of recent letters to the new owners of Agri-Star, who bought a kosher slaughterhouse in Postville, Iowa, in...

Washington - I hate to write about this, but I have actually been to this play before and it is really disturbing. I was in Israel interviewing Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin just before he was assassinated in 1995. We had a beer in his office. He needed one. I remember the ugly mood in Israel then — a mood in which extreme right-wing settlers and politicians were doing all they could to...

Brooklyn, NY - A teenage girl pedestrian was struck by a vehicle on Kings Highway and Ocean Parkway, vehicle fled the scene. Hatzolah paramedics transported the 17-year-old girl, Esther Msmar, to Lutheran Medical Center unresponsive in serious condition. NYPD Highway-2 Accident Investigation team is responding for the investigation. The driver has been stopped by brave passerby Ely...

New York, NY - Two-term Brooklyn Councilmember David Yassky (D-Brooklyn Heights, Williamsburg) lost in a Democratic primary run-off to his Queens colleague Councilmember John Liu (D-Flushing), ending his bid to be the city’s next Comptroller. “John Liu earned a well-deserved victory and I’m sure he will be a terrific Comptroller for the city of New York,” said Yassky, surrounded by his...

Brooklyn, NY - New York City Council Member Simcha Felder (D-Boro Park, Midwood, Bensonhurst) announced the launch of the City’s Penalty Relief program, which runs through December 21st of this year. The program, open to any homeowner or business, offers relief for those in default on Environmental Control Board (ECB) violations by eliminating costly additional penalties, late fees, and...

Los Angeles, CA - The Los Angeles City Council has passed a law requiring all new buildings and homes in Los Angeles to be coated in a special anti-graffiti coating, it was reported today. The unanimous vote requires that the clear coating be placed over existing paint up to a height of around 3 metres, the Los Angeles Daily News reported. The impermeable coating means that graffiti can easily...

New York, NY - Approximately 14,000 children from 50 New York City yeshivas now have access to government-sponsored tutoring services for the three "R"s - reading, writing, and arithmetic. "This free tutoring program may be the single biggest benefit for yeshiva students since President Harry Truman signed the federal free lunch program into law in 1946," said David G. Greenfield, executive...

Indonesia - Thousands of people are feared killed by a massive earthquake that flattened homes in Sumatra. Indonesia initially put the death toll at 75 but said many more were trapped under flattened buildings. The 7.6-magnitude quake hit off the coast from the town of Padang. Rustam Pakaya, head of the health ministry's crisis centre, said thousands of people were trapped under...

Oregon - While University students got an extra day of rest in observance of Yom Kippur on Monday before classes started, Oregon State University held classes without regard for the Jewish holiday. It was a move that drew criticism from Jewish leaders and others in Corvallis and an apology from the school. “We obviously missed the boat on this,” OSU Community and Diversity Director...

Flatbush, NY - Nathan’s, Shmathan’s! Welcome to the borough’s first kosher hot dog eating contest. The event is slated for between 1-2 p.m., Sunday, Oct. 25 at Brooklyn Burger Boyz in the heart of one of the borough’s largest kosher restaurant rows, at 533 Kings Highway. “You don’t have to be Jewish, but it wouldn’t hurt,” said Burger Boyz spokesperson Bill Ades. “People...

New York - VIN News has learned from high-ranking Iranian officials that a New York meeting between President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and members of the radical anti-Zionist Neturei Karta group was canceled at-the behest of Ahmadinejad himself. Neturei Karta members reportedly were scrambling to secure a meeting with Ahmadinejad himself during his recent visit to New York for the U.N. meeting. ...

Queens, NY - A Delta Air Lines shuttle flight from Boston got a bloody nose, courtesy of a bird flying near La Guardia Airport. The latest midair collision between a commercial airliner and a fowl happened just before 6 p.m. as the Boeing MD-80, which had taken off from Logan Airport at 4:30 p.m., struck the bird on final approach to the airport, an FAA spokeswoman said. The crew of Flight...