Yeshiva World News

A disgraced emergency medical technician charged last year with doing nothing while a pregnant woman died in a Brooklyn Au Bon Pain was busted Tuesday for shoplifting, authorities said.

Melissa Jackson, 23, was collared in Long Island after trying to swipe under $50 worth of cosmetics from a Westbury Walmart, Nassau County police said.

Nassau County cops charged Jackson with petit larceny. Fire officials said she was suspended for 30 days without pay.

Jackson was charged in October with official misconduct for not acting as expectant mom Eutisha Rennix, 25, suffered an asthma attack at the downtown Brooklyn restaurant. Jackson was on a lunch break with her boyfriend, EMT Jason Green, who was also accused for not helping the ailing woman.

Jackson called a dispatcher, but witnesses told authorities that the pair did nothing to help Rennix, who later died along with her premature baby.

Green was fatally shot in July outside a SoHo nightclub.

(Source: NY Daily News)

A new Goethals Bridge is in the works, but the Port Authority is not building it.

A private company will build, maintain and front the money for the project.

It is the first time in more than 100 years that a private sector company will take on the task of building a bridge in the city.

The Port Authority will ultimately pay off the billion-dollar price tag in a 30-year installment plan.

The company will front 10 percent of the money and get federal transportation bonds for the rest.

The Port Authority will own the new bridge and collect the tolls.

The current four-lane Goethals Bridge is considered too small to handle modern traffic.

The new bridge will have six 12-feet-wide lanes, with shoulders and a pedestrian walkway.

The span is set to open in 2017, after which the old bridge will be torn down.

(Source: NY1)

About 200 protestors rallied Tuesday outside the district office of Rep. Peter King (R-Seaford), who has stirred controversy with his plans to hold hearings on radical Islam in his role as homeland security committee chairman.

A counter protest backing King broke out as well, with the total number of protestors split about evenly “for” and “against.” The peaceful groups were watched by at least 30 police officers on Park Boulevard in Massapequa Park.

Christian, Jewish and Muslim opponents of the hearings had billed their event as an interfaith “pray-in.”

They’re urging King not to hold controversial hearings on what he calls the “radicalization” of some American Muslims.

Some protesters held up crosses or Muslim crescent symbols.

King supporters carried signs that read, “Don’t Tread on Me.”

It wasn’t clear whether the Congressman was at his office.

(Source: Long Island Press)

The following is a NY Daily News article:

Chicago voters were poised Tuesday to move former White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel a huge step closer to becoming the Windy City’s first Jewish mayor.

Most polls showed Emanuel leading the pack of Democrats vying for the top job in City Hall – he’s been the clear front-runner since he resigned to run for mayor last fall.

Emanuel has to win more than 50% of the vote to avoid a runoff on April 5. And Republicans are scarce in Chicago.

So winning the Democratic primary would give Emanuel a lock on a job that Richard Daley held for more than two decades.

Emanuel’s former boss and fellow Chicagoan, President Obama, has not weighed in publicly on the mayoral race.

Also vying for mayor are former U.S. Sen. Carol Moseley Braun, former Chicago public schools president Gery Chico, City Clerk Miguel del Valle and two largely unknown longshot candidates.

Voting appeared to be brisk in a city where the dead have been known to cast ballots and where election day hijinks are part of the local lore.

Emanuel’s five-month bid to become mayor had its share of unexpected twists and turns.

He had to prove he was a Chicagoan and thus entitled to run for mayor in a legal battle went all the way up to the Illinois Supreme Court.

He also had to fend off a challenge by the Rev. Jesse Jackson and other black leaders, who tried to get the city’s massive African-American vote behind Braun.

Armed with name recognition and a $12 million war chest, pollsters said Emanuel appeared to shaved off at least half of the black vote.

He also was believed to be running strong in Chicago’s other big voting blocks – the Poles and Hispanics.

(Source: NY Daily News)

Libyan leader Col. Moammar Gaddafi appeared on state TV on Tuesday to deliver a defiant address.

Speaking in a loud voice, he announced he had no attention to step down as other African leaders had and vowed to “die a martyr” in Libya as “head of the revolution.”

He added that Libya’s image was being distorted by Western media and denounced the protesters as “rats.”

He said, “We Libyans have resisted the US and Britain in the past and will not surrender.”

His rambling address came hours after a bizarre 22-second appearance on state TV when he appeared beneath an umbrella in pouring rain in order to “prove that I am in Tripoli and not in Venezuela and to deny television reports, those dogs.”

Update at 11:32 a.m. ET: Gadhafi says Libyans can have whatever constitution or legal system they want and can decide how to spend the country’s oil riches.

Update at 11:25 am. ET: Gadhafi says he has not yet started to use force and violence against protesters, but is willing to do so.

Update at 11: 23 a.m. ET: Gadhafi says anyone taking up arms against the state will face the death penalty.

Update at 11:16 a.m. ET: In a rambling speech on state TV, Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi says, “I will fight to the last drop of my blood with all the LIbyan people behind me.”

“If you love Moammar Gadhafi, go out and secure Libya’s streets,” he says.

Update at 11:14 am. ET: Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi vows to fight on against protesters demanding his ouster and die as martyr.

Update at 11:12 a.m. ET: “All the legislative power is in the hands of the Libyan people,” Gadhafi says. “The Libyan people will decide.”

At another point in his rambling speech, Gadhafi tells Libyans that unnamed forces are trying to mainpulate young people with drugs and alcohol.

Update at 11:05 am. ET: Opponents are “trying to copycat Tunisia and Egypt,” he says. He says he is “not a president to step down.”

Update at 11:01 a.m. ET: In his televised remarks, Gadhafi, who is standing, shouts and gestures frequently, saying at one point that “friendly Arab nations are betraying you. They want chaos (and) … have tarnished your image.”

Update at 10:55 a.m. ET: Gadhafi has begun to speak on state TV, saying his opponents “want to insult you” by criticizing what is happening in the country and says it it time for Libyans to “respond with action on the ground, on the square.”

(Source: Newsmax)

You’re walking to work, making good time, and then… someone steps in front of you, moving at a snail’s pace. Or a tourist blocks your path to snap a picture. Or some knucklehead in front of you is focused on their Blackberry, not where they’re going.

We’ve all been there. If just the thought of any of these scenarios makes you reach the boiling point, though, you may have a problem. Apparently, you don’t have to hit the road to feel the rage.

Researchers say “sidewalk rage” is real.

Aggressive walkers can express their frustration in different forms and intensity levels – ranging from staring down a slow walker to physically bumping into them. Experts say acting out on sidewalk rage may be a sign of a psychiatric condition known as “intermittent explosive disorder.”

“I am one of those sidewalk ragers, it just drives me crazy,” Joe Camposo, of Westbury, confessed to 1010 WINS’ John Montone. “It’s either move or get out of the way. I have no patience.”

Two women from Brooklyn told Montone they’ve been victims of sidewalk rage getting pushed, knocked down and elbowed.

Researchers are conducting studies to determine what sets people off and how it can be curbed – especially since the sidewalks aren’t getting any less crowded.

According to a study conducted by the NYC Department of City Planning, the city was listed as having the highest population density in the country with 26,403 people per square mile in 2000.

According to the study, the average speed of walkers in Lower Manhattan is 4.27 feet per second – tourists clocked in at 3.79 ft/s, smokers at 4.17 ft/s, cell phone users at 4.20 ft/s, men at 4.42 ft/s, and woman at 4.1 ft/s.

So, if you can’t get rid of all those people in your way, then you have to get the anger out of your head.

Frank, from the Upper West Side, suggests getting away for a while. He admits that he used to be an aggressive walker until he spent a few years in Los Angeles.

“You kind of calm down over there, you mellow out,” Frank said.

If you can’t take a vacation from the mean streets of New York City then take a deep breath and realize those slow walkers aren’t out to get you.

(Source: 1010WINS)

Russia – This week, Rabbi Aaron Gurevich, the head of FJC Russia’s Department for Cooperating with the Military, the Ministry of Emergency Affairs and Law Enforcement Agencies, visited Corrections Facility 11 in the Nizhny Novgorod region.

Over the past six months, due to prison reforms and the reorganizing of Corrections Facilities, many prisoners have been transferred from one facility to another. The database of Jewish inmates has to be reorganized as well.

For this reason, certain facilities are being personally visited by FJC staff. Rabbi Gurevich’s visit clarified that there are 10 Jews at Corrections Facility 11 in the town of Bor, located in the Nizhniy Novgorod region, not two as was previously believed.

In a meeting between Rabbi Gurevich and the inmates, the group decided that they wished to establish a Jewish community in the Corrections Facility. They are submitting the relevant documents for its official organization and the allocation of space. During his visit, Rabbi Gurevich also had a one-on-one conversation with each of the prisoners.

While in the region, Rabbi Gurevich also spoke with Internal Affairs Colonel I.K. Deryabin and held a meeting with the Head of the Federal Penitentiary Service in the Nizhny Novgorod Region, Colonel A. Koshkin, dedicated to discussing mutual cooperation between the FJC and Federal Penitentiary Service structures.

During his visit, the FJC official also met with the Chairman of the Public Council under the State Penitentiary Service of Nizhny Novgorod Region, S.A. Zarya, and its Deputy Chief of Educational Activities, Colonel M.D. Molchanov.

Chief Rabbi of Nizhny Novgorod Shimon Bergman, who was an active participant in organizing and attending the visit, expressed his desire to provide outreach for Jewish inmates. In particular, it was agreed that he and the Jewish community of Nizhny Novgorod would organize a Purim celebration and deliver Passover matzo to the inmates.

There are an estimated 1,200 Jewish inmates in Russian penitentiaries, 400 of whom openly identity as Jews and are in contact with Rabbi Gurevich’s department. Rabbi Furevitch and other Chabad-Lubavitch emissaries are reaching out to these Jews, providing them with guidance and information, as well as literature and humanitarian assistance.

(Source: FJC)

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s deputy blamed Google Inc in an interview published on Tuesday for stirring up trouble in the revolution that ousted Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak.
“Look what they have done in Egypt, those highly-placed managers of Google, what manipulations of the energy of the people took place there,” Russian Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin told the Wall Street Journal.

Such strong comment from one of Putin’s most trusted deputies is a clear signal of growing concern among Russian hardliners about the role of the Internet in the unrest which has swept across the Arab world.

Sechin gave no further details on his concerns. Google executive, Wael Ghonim, became an unlikely hero of the uprising in Egypt which led to Mubarak’s deposition.

In contrast to state television, Russia’s Internet is remarkably free and the home to often scathing criticism of Putin, President Dmitry Medvedev and the entire Russian elite.

Russia has so far resisted placing restrictions on the Internet, but analysts say there are a group of hardliners close to Putin who would like to impose controls similar to China’s.

Chinese President Hu Jintao called on Saturday for stricter government management of the Internet and warned top Communist Party leaders that China was facing deepening social conflicts that would test the party’s ability to maintain firm control.

(Source: Reuters)

Yet another prominent elected official, national intelligence leader, and legal professional has appealed to the President to free Jonathan Pollard.

Arlen Specter, a former Senator United States Senator who served as both Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee and Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, recently wrote a letter to President Obama and asked him to release Pollard, who has spent more than 25 years in a federal prison for passing classified information to Israel (the full text of the letter appears below and a copy is attached).

“Based on my experience as District Attorney of Philadelphia, Chairman of The Senate Judiciary Committee, Chairman of The Senate Intelligence Committee and my studies of incarceration, I believe Jonathan Pollard has served more than long enough,” wrote Specter in his letter to the President.

“I think his spying was a very serious crime. Unfortunately, spying is not an uncommon practice even between allies and friendly nations,” continued Specter. “Considering all the factors, in my judgment Jonathan Pollard should not have a life sentence…..”

Specter, who was first elected to the United States Senate in 1980 and served five consecutive terms, is the longest-serving Senator in Pennsylvania’s history. Specter served as Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee from 1995-1997. He succeeded former Senator Dennis DeConcini as Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, who has also issued a public call for Pollard’s release. Specter also served as Chairman of the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs and Chairman of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary.

Prior to being elected to the Senate, Specter served as the District Attorney of Philadelphia from 1966-1974. A veteran of the United States Air Force and a graduate of Yale Law School, Specter also served as assistant counsel for the Warren Commission, investigating the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Specter currently practices law in Philadelphia and teaches a course at the University of Pennsylvania Law School.

Specter’s call for Pollard’s release is particularly significant because of his close relationship with President Obama. In the past, Specter has earned effusive praise from the President, who was a staunch supporter of Specter’s recent re-election bid.

In addition, Specter’s statement that “[u]nfortunately, spying is not an uncommon practice even between allies and friendly nations,” is particularly noteworthy, in that it is a direct rebuttal to the disingenuous claim made numerous times during Pollard’s incarceration by elements hostile to the case in an attempt to justify the grossly disproportionate sentence Pollard received, that allies do not spy on each other.

Further, Specter’s decades of public service and his reputation as a seasoned and sophisticated statesman who has served as a high-ranking official in various judicial and intelligence roles, give his calls for Pollard’s release additional weight.

Arlen Specter’s letter to President Obama comes in the wake of numerous calls for clemency for Pollard from prominent government officials, high-ranking individuals in the national intelligence arena, leading professionals in the legal world, and renowned religious and communal leaders.

Former CIA Director James Woolsey, former White House Counsel Bernard Nussbaum, former Deputy Attorney General and Harvard Law Professor Philip Heymann, former Senator and Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee Dennis DeConcini, and Congressman Anthony Weiner of New York, each of whom had the opportunity to thoroughly review Pollard’s classified file and is fully familiar with the circumstances of his case, have called for Pollard’s release.

In addition, a wide array of American leaders have called for a commutation of Pollard’s grossly disproportionate sentence, including former Vice President Dan Quayle, former U.S. Secretary of State George Shultz, former Attorney General Michael Mukasey, former Arkansas governor and former Republican Presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, Senator Charles Schumer of New York, former Assistant Secretary of Defense Lawrence Korb, former New York City Mayor and former Republican Presidential candidate Rudolph Giuliani, Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel, well-known conservative leader Gary Bauer, Rev. Theodore Hesburgh of Notre Dame, Pastor John Hagee, and Harvard Law Professor Charles Ogletree, who was President Barack and First Lady Michelle Obama’s law professor at Harvard and remains friends with them today.

The following is the text of the letter to President Obama:

February 16, 2011
 
The President
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500
 
Dear Mr. President:

I write to recommend the pardon of Jonathan Pollard.

Based on my experience as District Attorney of Philadelphia, Chairman of The Senate Judiciary Committee, Chairman of The Senate Intelligence Committee and my studies of incarceration, I believe Jonathan Pollard has served more than long enough.

I think his spying was a very serious crime. Unfortunately, spying is not an uncommon practice even between allies and friendly nations.

Considering all the factors, in my judgment Jonathan Pollard should not have a life sentence without parole or a pardon.

Sincerely,
Arlen Specter

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

Mayor Michael Bloomberg is expected to sign legislation into law today that bans smoking in many public spaces around the five boroughs.

Under the new law, smoking will be banned in the city’s 1,700 parks and 14 miles of public beaches and. City pools and recreation centers will also be smoke free.

The bill also bans smoking in city pedestrian plazas, where people congregate.

Violators could face a $50 fine.

The goal is to reduce secondhand smoke – and trash.

The City Council overwhelmingly approved the measure earlier this month.

Smokers will still be able to light up on sidewalks next to parks, squares or public places. Parking lots are also okay.

The law will go into effect 90 days after the mayor signs it.

The city already prohibits smoking in playgrounds, outdoor sporting events and concerts, as well as at bars and restaurants.

Critics call the expanded ridiculous, saying it will ultimately hurt the economy.

For more information on the newest smoking ban, go to nyc.gov.

(Source: NY1)

UK budget airline easyJet apologized Tuesday to Jewish customers after the only food choices served on a flight from Israel were ham melts and bacon baguettes.

Passengers who follow the faith’s ban on eating pork were forced to go hungry for the four-and-a-half hour journey from Tel Aviv to London.

The airline introduced the route in November, proudly promising that in-flight menus would feature kosher food that met Jewish dietary laws.

So Victor Kaufman, 25, was stunned when cabin crew announced the meal choices on his flight last weekend.

An easyJet spokeswoman said company policy bans even taking pork products aboard planes on the route.

She added, “It appears that a mistake was made on this flight and that incorrect food canisters were loaded. We would like to apologize to the passengers.”

READ MORE: THE SUN

(YWN-112 / YWN Desk-NYC)

The monthly Community Board 12 (CB12) meeting is taking place tonight, and is sure to be quite a spectacle.

This meeting has gained attention of Brooklyn residents because of the recent controversy regarding millions in tax breaks that are pending approval to assist Moisha’s Supermarket with a large expansion of of their store on Avenue M in Midwood.

The District Manager of CB12 reportedly told NYC’s Industrial Development Agency (IDA) that the Board backed the nearly $2 million tax break, when in fact, he had never even discussed the matter with the Board. The IDA has already given preliminary approval to the tax break, but a final vote will take place next month.

Coverage of this controversy by a daily Jewish newspaper failed to mention the basic facts of the controversy – that the District Manager lied to the city agency reviewing the tax break by claiming that the Community Board approved the tax break.

READ MORE: WWW.FLATBUSH.SCOOP.COM

Chicagoans are voting today in one of the city’s most historic municipal elections. Polls opened at 6 a.m.

For the first time in 64 years, a sitting mayor is not running for re-election. It also marks the first time in 22 years that the name of Richard Daley is not on the mayoral ballot.

Polls show former congressman and White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel well ahead of his three major challengers: Carol Moseley Braun, the former U.S. senator and the first black woman elected to that office; Gery Chico, who has held high-level positions at City Hall, Chicago Public Schools, the Chicago Park District and City Colleges, and Miguel del Valle, the first Latino in the state Senate and currently city clerk.

Also on the ballot are Patricia Van Pelt-Watkins and community activist William “Dock” Walls.

The big question appears to be whether Emanuel can get the 50 percent plus one vote needed to avoid a one-on-one runoff election April 5.

The election also will result in a major City Council makeover. Across the city, 239 men and women are running for alderman, with only seven uncontested races in the 50 wards.

Chicago election officials expect voter turnout of slightly over 50 percent. Polls close at 7 p.m.

The U.S. attorney’s office and the Cook County state’s attorney’s office are monitoring polling places for any irregularities reported and to investigate allegations of fraud.

(Source: Chicago Tribune)

A dispatching error delayed the response of a second engine company to Saturday’s deadly five-alarm fire in Brooklyn, prompting the FDNY to launch an internal probe, department sources told The Post yesterday.

Dispatchers sent Engine Co. 248 to the blaze in the six-story apartment building on East 29th Street in Flatbush, not realizing the unit was already helping a cop who had accidentally shot himself at the 67th Precinct station house, right next door to its firehouse, the sources said.

Officials are trying to determine if the dispatchers mistakenly assigned Engine Co. 248 two jobs at once, or if the company members went to the police station on their own and delayed reporting it.

It was more than a minute before the company alerted dispatchers, who then had to scramble to find another company, the sources said.

While officials have said the biggest problems battling the blaze were 50-mph winds and an open door in the apartment where the fire began, they conceded the delayed response was significant.

“It did make a difference because they [Engine Co. 248] weren’t there to stretch a [water] line,” one source said.

But Brian Kuntz, president of the fire dispatchers union, insisted the company called in to say it was helping the injured cop just as it was given the fire assignment.

“It was simultaneous,” Kuntz said, adding that the reassignment occurred “immediately.”

An FDNY spokesman said the first units were on the scene within three minutes after the call came in, but they “never had a chance to extinguish the fire in the original apartment and it quickly spread.”

The second company on scene was 248′s replacement, Engine Co. 249, which got there in about 6½ minutes.

It took about nine hours to bring the inferno under control, and it killed 62-year-old retiree Mary Feagin. Twenty firefighters and 11 residents were injured.

Steven Cassidy, president of the Uniformed Firefighters Association, said budget cuts kept the blaze from being contained sooner, since the first three units to respond were each short a man.

He called the communications mishap a “red herring.”

FDNY officials said the decreased manpower “does not apply in this case” because the conditions were so intense.

(Source: NY Post)

This report has been updated at 1:30AM EST: A powerful earthquake slammed New Zealand’s already-bruised city of Christchurch on Tuesday, killing at least 65 people, and sending rescuers scrambling to help people trapped under collapsed buildings.

The 6.3 magnitude earthquake hit the country’s second-largest city around lunchtime, collapsing buildings and sending bricks and other heavy debris toppling into busy city streets. It was the second major quake to strike Christchurch in the past five months.

Prime Minister John Key told reporters that the death toll was at least 65, and was expected to rise further.

Video footage showed some multi-storey buildings collapsed in on themselves, and others with walls that had collapsed into the streets, strewn with bricks and shattered concrete. Sidewalks and roads were cracked and split, and thousands of dazed, screaming and crying residents wandered through the streets as sirens blared. Groups of people helped victims clutching bleedings wounds, and others were carried to private vehicles in makeshift stretchers fashioned from rugs or bits of debris.

Christchurch Mayor Bob Parker declared a state of emergency and ordered people to evacuate the city center. Troops were deployed to help people get out and to throw up a security cordon around the stricken area, Deputy Prime Minister Bill English said.

READ MORE: FOX NEWS