New York - The police in New York City wrote 124,498 summonses last year for drinking in public — far more than for any other violation. After having to adjudicate so many of these public drinking cases, a Brooklyn judge has decided he has had enough. The sniff test, judge, Noach Dear wrote, was not enough. Judge Dear made his intentions known in a written decision released on Thursday in...

New York - 127,000 Israelis live in 41,000 households in New York City, Long Island and Westchester. On average, they are poorer, less educated, and more Orthodox than native Jews in the city, according to the "Jewish Community Study of New York: 2011" by the UJA Federation of New York. The study defines an Israel household as one where either the respondent or spouse was born in Israel, or...

New York, NY - If New York City bans big sodas, what's next? Large slices of pizza? Double-scoop ice cream cones? Tubs of movie-theater popcorn? The 16-ounce strip steak? Opponents of the proposed ban may use that slippery-slope argument along with other legal strategies to try to block the first-in-the-nation rule. Mayor Michael Bloomberg wants to bar restaurants, movie theaters, sports...

Washington - For $235,000, you could indulge in a shiny new Ferrari — or raise a child for 17 years. A government report released Thursday found that a middle-income family with a child born last year will spend about that much in child-related expenses from birth through age 17. That's a 3.5 percent increase from 2010. The report from the Agriculture Department's Center for Nutrition...

Rockland County, NY - A 31-year-old Monsey man pleaded guilty Thursday to sexually molesting two young brothers, accepting an offer for a probationary sentence and joining his brother on the state registry of sex offenders. Shmul Dym pleaded guilty as a state Supreme Court jury sat ready to hear evidence he improperly touched the young boys, ages 7 and 9. Rockland District Attorney Thomas...

New York - President Barack Obama is venturing onto the hallowed ground of the World Trade Center site, getting a firsthand look at the skyscraper being built to replace the twin towers destroyed in the Sept. 11 terror attacks. Obama was touring the 22nd floor of One World Trade Center in lower Manhattan, walking along the unfinished cement floor and stopping at easels set up with renderings...

New York - Who is Charles Barron? He is a demagogue who could be joining the U.S. House next year as the representative of New York’s Eighth Congressional District. Departing Democratic congressman Ed Towns has endorsed Barron, now a city councilman of New York, as his successor, despite having derided Barron as a “bomb thrower” when he challenged Towns in a primary four years ago. Along...

Cincinnati - Mitt Romney on Thursday said President Barack Obama is "long on words and short on action" when it comes to fixing the economy. Speaking in battleground Ohio, before the president's planned economic speech in a different part of the state, the likely Republican presidential nominee assailed his Democratic rival's policies. "Don't forget, he's been president for three and a half...

Israel - Rabbi Ratzon Arusi, municipal rabbi of Kiryat Ono and a member of the Council of the Chief Rabbinate, has proposed a radical new approach to the issue of organ donation. Instead of requiring the consent of a potential donor or their family, the decision would be put in the hands of rabbinical courts which would establish whether or not the potential donor has died and thereby permit...

Jerusalem - In the land of the People of the Book, the discounted book may soon be a thing of the past. Israeli authors have launched a battle to stop the country's two leading bookstore chains from discounting their works, claiming the price slashing has cut into their royalties. With support from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, they persuaded an influential committee of government...

New York - Needing to boost his donor base, President Barack Obama is banking on elite entertainers for help so often they have essentially become a cast of characters in his campaign. He is using his Hollywood access and raffling it off as a prize to others, tapping into a culture that revels in celebrity even in hard economic times. Obama's big-name tour makes its next stop on Thursday at...

Houston, TX - Former Texas billionaire R. Allen Stanford has been sentenced to 110 years in prison for orchestrating one of the largest Ponzi schemes in U.S. history. The sentence was handed down Thursday by U.S. District Judge David Hittner in Houston. The financier learned his fate during a court hearing in which two people spoke on behalf of investors about their losses. A jury in...

Buffalo, NY - P The search for a trauma surgeon and former military weapons expert who disappeared after the shooting death of his ex-girlfriend in a Buffalo hospital escalated into a nationwide manhunt Thursday, with authorities warning law enforcers and the public he could be armed and dangerous. A pick-up order for Timothy Jorden, 49, has been transmitted to every local, state and federal...

La Paz, Bolivia - A U.S. congressman has met with senior Bolivian officials to plead for the release of a New York man who he says has been wrongly jailed without charge for a year in a mockery of justice. Rep. Chris Smith says Bolivia’s interior and justice ministers promised him they would personally look into the case of Jacob Ostreicher. The New Jersey Republican called Ostreicher’s...

New York, NY - While the New York City Board of Health approves of Mayor Michael Bloomberg's plan to cut all large sugary drinks from New Yorker's diets, some members are taking issue with one major point: They don't think the plan goes far enough. Certain members spoke up, saying that the proposal should include other items. Board member Bruce Vladeck questioned why large tubs of popcorn were...