Lakewood, NJ - A 43-year-old Seaside Heights man who admitted driving much younger men to violently rob Orthodox Jews was sentenced this morning to 25 years in prison for his role in the crimes. Before he was sentenced, Jose Diaz Jr. of Franklin Boulevard professed to have no advance knowledge that violence was going to be imparted during the crimes. But First Assistant Ocean County...

New York City - The Department of City Planning has proposed regulations that would restrict certain homeowners from paving over their front yards to create parking spaces, a move that could alter the residential streetscape, especially in boroughs like Queens and Brooklyn. Responding to residents’ complaints of unsightly concrete driveways and lost street parking, the new rules would...

New York City - A coalition of 40 Brooklyn organizations held a press conference just prior to the City Council’s Land Use Subcommittee hearing Thursday, Nov. 19, on the plan to rezone the Broadway Triangle in Brooklyn. The rally took place 9 a.m. on the steps of City Hall. The triangle is a 50-acre urban renewal area on the border of Williamsburg and Bedford-Stuyvesant. The group, known...

Iowa - Former Agriprocessors vice president Sholom Rubashkin filed a motion today in U.S. District Court for an acquittal on the 86 counts he was convicted of last week, and is also asking for a new trial on those charges. The motion contends there was insufficient evidence to sustain the conviction on the bank fraud, money laundering and other charges. Reasons cited in the brief include: ...

London - The airline easyJet is withdrawing all copies of its in-flight magazine, easyJet Traveller, after a row erupted over a tasteless fashion shoot at the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin. The airline took the decision after being contacted by the New Statesman this afternoon. The latest issue of the in-flight magazine featured two unsanctioned photographs of models posing in designer...

Warsaw - Nearly a dozen Polish prisons and detention centers have signed up their inmates to an unusual form of labor - rescuing overgrown, long-neglected Jewish cemeteries. Poland was home to an estimated third of the world's Jews before World War II but the vast majority perished in the Holocaust during Nazi Germany's occupation of the country. With few if any relatives left to tend...

New York - Under intense pressure to compete with cancer centers in other states, New York City hospitals say they are moving closer to forming a consortium that would bring a proton beam therapy center to Manhattan. The technology allows radiation to be emitted in precisely focused cancer-killing doses, but the cost of building and equipping such a facility in the city is astronomical—perhaps...

New York - The holidays in New York City bring an influx of shoppers and visitors and with them comes increased congestion and gridlock. The city Transportation Department on Thursday listed nine days between Friday and Dec. 23 as gridlock alert days. It advised residents and visitors to use mass transit throughout the holiday season and especially on the nine gridlock days. The days are...

New York City - The peak times in which women report sexual harassment or assaults on the subways are the late morning rush, roughly 8 to 10 a.m., followed by the early afternoon rush, 4 to 6 p.m. One stretch of the subways — the crowded Nos. 4, 5 and 6 lines between Grand Central Terminal and Union Square — is a particular source of complaints. And the average age of the men arrested...

Jerusalem - Israeli and NATO officials say Israel will dispatch a warship to join a NATO naval force, marking an upgrade in ties. An Israeli missile ship will join NATO's "Active Endeavor" naval force, aimed at curbing terrorism in the Mediterranean. Israeli defense officials say Israel already has a liaison officer with the naval force. They say the dispatch of the ship within months...

New York - Republican advisers in New York say former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who many have been pushing to run for governor in 2010, is instead leaning more toward a run for U.S. Senate. Two advisers told The Associated Press that Giuliani has been indicating that the U.S. Senate might be a better fit for him than the New York governor's office. A third adviser said Giuliani is...

New York City - Group taxi rides in Manhattan are moving toward reality. A pilot program at three locations where two or more riders can hop into a cab for a discounted fare should be rolling out next month, the Taxi & Limousine Commission said Thursday. "We hope that before the end of the year we'll have at least three stands open," said TLC Chairman Matthew Daus. The planned locations...

Newark, NJ - Weysan Dun, whose tenure as the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Newark division included the arrests of 44 people in a sweeping corruption investigation this summer, announced Thursday that he will be leaving that post at by end of the year. Dun, a 27-year FBI veteran, made the announcement in brief remarks to about 200 people attending the Dialogue and Unity Dinner, an...

Brooklyn, NY - Mayor Bloomberg took the high road Thursday in a public spat with vanquished rival William Thompson and said he is sure the city controller isn't playing politics. The toned-down words came after Thompson, who lost narrowly to Bloomberg two weeks ago, gave Bloomberg a public punch in the nose Wednesday by refusing to approve a contract for a controversial Brooklyn jail expansion...

Bethel, NY - While absentee ballots in Bethel won't change outcomes in town races, the issue of whether newly registered Hasidic residents from several bungalow colonies will be allowed to vote in future elections will linger into the winter. That's because some 89 ballots After other absentees were counted, Incumbent Councilwoman Denise Frangipane unofficially held a 126-vote lead...