Yeshiva World News

A blast hit a metro station in the centre of the Belarussian capital Minsk on Monday and police said some people had been killed.

The state news agency BelTA said the blast occurred at 5.55 p.m. local at the metro station Oktyabrskaya on a square of the same name about 100 metres from the administration building of President Alexander Lukashenko.

There was no indication of what caused the explosion.

Asked by a Reuters correspondent if there were dead, a police spokesman said: “Yes, there are. We don’t yet know the exact number.”

A 52-year-old man said a train was coming into the station when the blast occurred on the platform.

“The doors (of the train) opened and then there was an explosion,” said the man who gave his name only as Igor. “I saw people lying on the floor without moving. There was a lot of blood.”

Reuters correspondent Andrei Makhovsky went to the scene and saw one dead person lying outside the station covered in sheeting.

Interfax news agency, reporting from Minsk, quoted an euewitness as saying he had seen two dead bodies. The agency quoted an ambulance service spokesman as saying “very many“ people had been injured.

First-aid workers were helping injured people at the scene, BelTA said.

(Source: Globe & Mail)

A warning for drivers who use the Brooklyn Bridge: the iconic span will once again be closed to overnight Manhattan-bound traffic. Transportation officials say the overnight closures are long term and necessary to rehabilitate and repaint the Brooklyn Bridge. The closures begin Monday, April 4 and last from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. On weekends the closures will begin at midnight and last until 7 a.m. on Saturdays and 9 a.m. on Sundays.

(YWN Desk – NYC)

A massive attack that’s trying to scare computer users into visiting a bogus antivirus site has infected more than 1.5 million websites and continues to spread, according to an Internet security firm.

Several pages on Apple’s iTunes store have been infected.

The so-called LizaMoon “SQL injection attack” began Tuesday and is being tracked by Websense. Such attacks redirect users by exploiting programming errors and poorly written code and scripts.

eWeek says the attack is “out of control … with no end in sight.” Nearly half the compromised sites are in the United States. Other affected countries include United Kingdom, Kuwait, India, Australia, Turkey, Brazil, Israel, Mexico, Taiwan and Chile.

VentureBeat writes that the attack “shows that malware is a bigger menace than ever and that many web sites aren’t protected.”

Websense has a Q&A about the attack.

(Source: USA Today)

10:30AM EST: Township officials tell YWN that Route 9 has just been reopened.

Earlier report below:

Route 9, Lakewood, is closed between Central Avenue and Route 88 because of a motor vehicle accident that left wires down. Since vehicles will not be able to cross the lake, drivers should use alternate routes, such as New Hampshire Avenue or Cross Street. JCP&L expects the closure to last about 10 or more hours.

(YWN Lakewood News Team)

The New York City Police Department is investigating a burglary in Manhattan that investigators believe is connected to others in the Bronx.

Three men are wanted in connection with six burglaries. In most cases, the suspects have posed as water department workers to gain access to the homes.

In the most recent incident, one of the men got an 80-year-old woman to let him into her Barrow Street home by pretending to be a plumber. Once inside, investigators say he distracted her, while the two others stole jewelry.

Investigators believe the three men are responsible for five similar crimes in the Bronx since late December.

Anyone with information about the case is being asked to contact Crime Stoppers by calling 1-800-577-TIPS, by texting TIP577 to CRIMES, or by going to NYPDCrimeStoppers.com.

(Source: NY1)

Washington, DC – Following reports that the spouse of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas is a lobbyist who has gained financially from efforts to overturn health care reform, a conflict of interest the associate justice failed to disclose, Rep. Anthony Weiner (D – Queens and Brooklyn) and 73 of his House colleagues sent a letter to Justice Thomas calling on him to recuse himself from any deliberations on the constitutionality of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

Current co-signers include: Reps. Al Green, EB Johnson, Wm. Lacy Clay, Carnahan, Sheila Jackson-Lee, Karen Bass, Neal, Welch, Chu, Yarmuth, Sutton, Perlmutter, Connolly, Kucinich, Meeks, Schwartz, Doggett, Moore, Polis, Waters, Payne, Rush, Cohen, Crowley, Engel, Cicilline, Susan Davis, Sires, Doyle, Slaughter, McDermott, Velazquez, Garamendi, Carson, Capuano, Berkley, Wasserman Schultz, Tim Bishop, Barbara Lee, Courtney, DeLauro, Conyers, John Larson, George Miller, Boswell, Edwards, Capps, Becerra, Deutch, Israel, Owens, Richardson, Clarke, Hirono, Ackerman, Ellison, Grijalva, Chris Murphy, Woolsey, DeFazio, Jesse Jackson Jr, Reyes, Maloney, Andrews, Pascrell, Filner, Tonko, Fudge, Hinchey, Honda, Eshoo, Pallone, Stark

Full text of the letter below:

The Honorable Justice Clarence Thomas
United States Supreme Court Building
1 First Street Northeast
Washington D.C., DC 20543
 
Dear Justice Thomas:

As an Associate Justice, you are entrusted with the responsibility to exercise the highest degree of discretion and impartiality when deciding a case. As Members of Congress, we were surprised by recent revelations of your financial ties to leading organizations dedicated to lobbying against the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. We write today to respectfully ask that you maintain the integrity of this court and recuse yourself from any deliberations on the constitutionality of this act.

The appearance of a conflict of interest merits recusal under federal law. From what we have already seen, the line between your impartiality and you and your wife’s financial stake in the overturn of healthcare reform is blurred. Your spouse is advertising herself as a lobbyist who has “experience and connections” and appeals to clients who want a particular decision – they want to overturn health care reform. Moreover, your failure to disclose Ginny Thomas’s receipt of $686,589 from the Heritage Foundation, a prominent opponent of healthcare reform, between 2003 and 2007 has raised great concern.

This is not the first case where your impartiality was in question. As Common Cause points out, you “participated in secretive political strategy sessions, perhaps while the case was pending, with corporate leaders whose political aims were advanced by the [5-4] decision” on the Citizens United case. Your spouse also received an undisclosed salary paid for by undisclosed donors as CEO of Liberty Central, a 501(c)(4) organization that stood to benefit from the decision and played an active role in the 2010 elections.

Given these facts, there is a strong conflict between the Thomas household’s financial gain through your spouse’s activities and your role as an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court. We urge you to recuse yourself from this case.  If the US Supreme Court’s decision is to be viewed as legitimate by the American people, this is the only correct path.

We appreciate your thoughtful consideration of this request.

Sincerely,
 
ANTHONY D. WEINER
Member of Congress

(YWN Desk – NYC)

Today, Congressman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, re-introduced legislation designed to stop preventable injuries, accidents and deaths that result from a lack of public access to crucial consumer information.  The Sunshine in Litigation Act of 2011 would restore accountability to our judicial system by restricting court enforced secrecy on matters that affect public health and safety.

“Current rules governing federal court process make it too easy for defendants subject to lawsuits to hide information from third parties,” said Nadler.  “Big corporations and manufacturers use various mechanisms to broadly shield vast amounts of information – some of which is vital to health and safety – from public scrutiny.  Powerful litigants have used these tricks time and again to protect their bottom lines at the expense of the lives and well-being of innocent and unsuspecting people.  My legislation would ensure that we balance the confidentiality needs of corporations with the necessity to protect people from dangerous or malfunctioning products.”

As a condition of settling product liability cases, businesses commonly require individuals to agree to secrecy provisions that prohibit them from disclosing public health and safety hazards uncovered during litigation.  In the past decade alone, corporations that settled product liability cases have used secrecy to conceal injuries and deaths associated with common consumer products including automobile tires, magnetic toys, baby cribs, prescription drugs and over-the-counter medications.  There are likely many more sealed cases and documents, and each one could be hiding another dangerous product or pattern of negligence.  Sealing all litigation records without any regard to their impact on public health and safety endangers consumers and encourages corporate wrongdoing.

Since the 1990s, court systems in 41 states and 50 federal court districts have successfully taken steps to limit court-ordered secrecy.  The Sunshine in Litigation Act is a natural progression of these measures, and would ensure consistency in federal courts, while facilitating access to life-saving information.

(YWN Desk – NYC)

Ongoing construction has made coming and going through the Holland Tunnel a bit tricky lately and come Monday it will get worse.

The New York City Department Of Design and Construction announced that necessary water main work must take place promising to complicate going uptown from the traffic rotary.

Specifically, “The major change will be the restriction of the right turn on to Hudson at exit 2,” says the department’s assistant commissioner Matthew Monahan.

Monahan says the city is adding a traffic agent to try to move things along.

The right turn prohibition starts Monday, Feb. 14 and this construction phase is expected to go on for 8 months.

(Source: WCBSTV)

4:10PM EST: Con Ed is reporting a power outage in the Marine Park section of Brooklyn. There are approximately 1,333 customers impacted and the population count for the affected area is approximately 5,316.

VISIT FLATBUSHSCOOP.COM FOR MORE

NEW YORK, NY – The City failed to collect a total of $3,355,470 from property and utility taxes because of bookkeeping flaws, two audits released by Comptroller John C. Liu have revealed.

The first audit examined the City’s handling of its Payments in Lieu of Taxes (PILOTs) program from July 1, 2006 through December 31, 2009.  The PILOT program offers substantial incentives and subsidies to property owners in the form of real property tax relief for the creation of affordable housing, jobs and economic growth within the City. The audit found the Department of Finance (DoF) failed to return 19 out of 54 expired PILOTs back onto the City tax rolls, failing to bill for $785,730.
 
A second audit found that $2,569,740 in unpaid utility tax bills slipped past the DoF because of flaws in recording payments.
 
“These revenues due to the City are sorely needed in the face of looming budget cuts and the City should collect them immediately, especially in the case of developers who have already enjoyed significant tax breaks,” Comptroller Liu said.  “We appreciate the Department of Finance’s willingness to act immediately on these matters.”
 
Initially, the DoF requested the Comptroller to postpone its scheduled audit, stating that it was conducting its own internal audit of the PILOT program. Later, DoF hampered the PILOTs audit and handed over limited information. In addition, in the midst of the Comptroller’s audit, the agency spent $575,000 to hire an outside consultant to conduct a similar review of the PILOT program.  However, the agency agreed with all of the recommendations issued in the Comptroller’s PILOT audit.  “We have found the separate findings of your audit team to be helpful in re-organizing our PILOT unit’s work,” the agency said it in its response.
 
Audit 1: Payments in Lieu of Taxes (PILOTs) program ($785,730 not collected)
PILOTs are negotiated tax breaks in which the City agrees to waive property taxes in exchange for lower, regular payments from the property owner.  In many cases, PILOTs are intended to encourage business growth and support low income housing development.
 
Chief among the findings of the audit:
§  DoF failed to put 19 expired PILOTs back onto City property tax rolls, missing the collection of $785,730 in the process.
§  DoF lacked proper controls and oversight to ensure it billed PILOTs recipients accurately.
 
The recommendations made by Comptroller Liu to the DoF include:
§  Recoup the lost $785,730 in real property taxes. The agency billed for payments after being notified of the audit’s findings. Payments were due January 1, 2011.
§  Ensure that properties whose PILOT agreements have expired are immediately returned to the City’s property tax rolls.
§  Ensure bills for properties within the PILOTs program are accurately calculated
§  Ensure compliance with the City charter by providing information to audits conducted by the Comptroller’s office.
 
The audit was conducted from December 17, 2009 to September 14, 2010 and examined PILOTs that existed or expired between July 1, 2006 and December 31, 2009.
 
Audit 2: Reliability and Accuracy of the Utility Tax ($2.6 million)
The DoF received $1.15 billion in Utility taxes from gas, electric, telephone and certain transportation companies from Fiscal Year 2007 to Fiscal Year 2009. The Comptroller’s audit of the Utility tax data found that while the data was generally accurate and reliable, the DoF neglected to bill for $2.1 million in outstanding payments and failed to record that an additional $469,740 in outstanding bills was not paid.
 
Chief among the findings of the audit:
§  The City was owed $2.1 million in outstanding balances that the DoF failed to forward from one payment period to the next.
§  The City lost $469,740 in Utility tax revenue because DoF lacked a system to monitor or follow up when payments were not received.
 
The recommendations made by Comptroller Liu to the DoF include:
§  Collect the outstanding taxes due to the City.
§  Ensure that no filing periods lack payment returns and outstanding balances are carried forward.
 
The DoF agreed with the majority of the Audit Bureau’s recommendations.
 
Comptroller Liu credited Deputy Comptroller for Audit H. Tina Kim and the Bureau of Audit for presenting the findings. The full reports are available at www.comptroller.nyc.gov/audits.

(YWN Desk – NYC)

It’s the calm before the storm for parts of the Tri-State, once again. A low pressure system developing in the Gulf will travel along the Atlantic coast and arrive over our area by early Saturday morning.

The National Weather Service has issued a Winter Weather Advisory for parts of New York and New Jersey, which will be in effect from 4 a.m. through 10 p.m. Saturday.

Snow is expected to develop late Friday night and gradually change to a wintry mix of snow and freezing rain by Saturday morning. Rain will take over in the afternoon before turning into all snow by Saturday evening.

Accumulations of 1 to 4 inches of snow are possible as well as a glaze of up to a tenth of an inch of ice. Northern portions of the Lower Hudson Valley will see the most amount of snowfall.

Motorists are advised to take caution on the roads, as both slippery conditions and limited visibility are expected.

Temperatures Friday will reach a high of 35 and drop to a low of 19. They will be slightly higher Saturday, with a high of 37 and a low of 29.

(Source: WCBSTV)

10:10AM (Thursday): A suspicious package inside a post office has led the NYPD to cordoned off an area in front of the building on Nostrand Avenue Between Avenue’s I and J. There are reportedly three patients being treated by FDNY EMS for difficulty breathing.

FULL STORY AT FLATBUSHSCOOP.COM

Anderson Cooper and his crew have been attacked by supporters of Hosni Mubarak in Egypt, according to CNN.

CNN’s Steve Brusk tweeted that “Anderson said he was punched 10 times in the head as pro-Mubarak mob surrounded him and his crew trying to cover demonstration.”

Al-Jazeera also reported the news.

A Detroit-area district says it’s allowing Sikh students to wear a small, religious dagger to school, MyFoxDetroit.com reports.

The decision by the Plymouth-Canton Community Schools reverses a ban put in place in December after a fourth-grader at a Canton Township elementary school was found with a dull, 3- to 5-inch kirpan.

The kirpan represents a commitment to fight evil in the Sikh tradition. The dagger is a religious symbol that baptized Sikh males are expected to carry.

The principal initially let the boy keep the kirpan, but the school board instituted a ban because of parental concerns and conflicts with the district’s rules against bringing weapons to school.

The Detroit Free Press and WXYZ-TV report that under the new guidelines, kirpans meeting certain criteria will be allowed for Sikh students.

Click to read more on the religious dagger at school at MyFoxDetroit.com