private invesigations

Portland, OR - Teen Arrested In Flight Ruckus Sang Of Bin Laden

2012-02-23T05:38:00.003-05:00

Yazeed Mohammed Abunayyan starting shouting and trying to hit a flight attendant

Portland, OR - A Saudi Arabian teenager who authorities say swung his fist at a flight attendant and praised Osama bin Laden during a flight from Portland to Houston has appeared in court to hear the charges against him.

An attorney for 19-year-old Yazeed Mohammed A. Abunayyan (ah-boo-NYE-an) told a federal judge in Portland on Wednesday afternoon that he needs more time to meet with Abunayyan before he enters a plea.

Attorney Phil Lewis was hired to represent Abunayyan, but would not say who hired him.

Ashland police believe Abunayyan is the same teenager who led police on a slow-speed chase in the Southern Oregon town on Sunday, ramming two police cars and nearly hitting a pedestrian. He was accused of drunken driving and assaulting an officer. He was released on bail Monday.

Shmuley Boteach Run for Congress & Faces Questions

2012-02-23T05:33:00.003-05:00

Celebrity Rabbi: Among the general public, Rabbi Shmuley Boteach is known as a best-selling author and advisor to celebrities like the late Michael Jackson

Shmuley Boteach wants to be the first rabbi elected to the U.S. Congress.

The onetime Chabad emissary is perhaps best known for his books about sex and for his celebrity ties. But now he is taking his message about Jewish values to New Jersey’s electorate, in the process raising questions about how the outspoken public relations whiz will transition to the more constrained world of the political campaign.

A Forward examination of public records reveals that the charity Boteach heads spends a significant portion of its revenues on payments to Boteach and his family. The examination also raises the possibility of a future conflict between the group’s role supporting Boteach’s work and Boteach’s political campaign.

“Why would a rabbi run for Congress?” Boteach asked in a column in early February. “Because the problems we’re seeing in our great nation are not caused by an economic downturn but by a values erosion, and I intend to be the values-voice that Congress so desperately needs.”

Boteach, who lives in Englewood, filed a statement of candidacy with the Federal Elections Commission on January 31 to run as a Republican in New Jersey’s 9th Congressional District. He says he won’t make a final decision about his run until March 14. Primary elections are to be held in June.

The district is heavily Democratic, and the winner of the hotly contested Democratic primary is expected to win the congressional seat. But one local Republican official expressed enthusiasm for Boteach. He’s a “very dynamic guy, if I don’t say so myself,” said Robert Yudin, chair of the Bergen County Republican Organization. “He has name recognition, he’s written books. He would certainly give the Democrats a run for their money.”

In an essay posted on the Huffington Post and Jerusalem Post websites, Boteach outlined a political platform that hews closely to the Republican mainstream, with a particular focus on social issues. He supports a flat tax, an aggressive foreign policy, and school vouchers. He also proposed an extension of the so-called blue laws, religiously motivated legislation common in New England that keeps certain stores closed on Sundays.

“[L]et’s consider legislation to recreate an American Sabbath so parents have an incentive to take kids to a park rather than teaching them to find satisfaction in the impulse purchase,” Boteach wrote.

In a departure from Republican Party norms, Boteach called for a de-emphasis on opposition to gay marriage and abortion in favor of a focus on opposing divorce. Boteach, who is a marriage counselor, is proposing that marriage counseling be made tax deductible.

The 45-year-old rabbi has had little involvement in politics. An online database of donations to federal election campaigns going back two decades revealed no gifts by Boteach.

But the rabbi has been a public figure since the early 1990s, when he was in his 20s and the leader of the campus Chabad House at Oxford University. Boteach clashed publicly with Chabad. Contemporary press accounts suggest that Boteach outgrew his role in the movement as his campus activities and public profile swelled. He resigned as a Lubavitch representative in 1994 after movement officials in the United Kingdom objected to his invitation to then-Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin to speak at Oxford. In a 1995 profile of Boteach in a publication called Inside, a Lubavitch spokesman praised Boteach’s work but said that he is “an individualist. He cannot be encumbered by the framework of an organization.”

While at Oxford, Boteach began building ties to the impressive intellectual and public figures with whom he has become linked, including Newark, N.J., Mayor Cory Booker and Harvard law professor Noah Feldman, both of whom were Rhodes Scholars when Boteach was at Oxford, and who remain close to Boteach.

“If you asked yourself the question among people who are not Orthodox Jews, who are the best-known rabbis in the English-speaking world, there’s a reasonable argument to be made that he’s the single best known,” Feldman said in an interview with the Forward.

Though Boteach lost his funding from Chabad, he kept control of the organization he had built. It’s that organization’s American entity, now called This World: The Jewish Values Network, that currently pays Boteach’s salary. Boteach told the Forward that the group exists to support his writing and lectures.

“The people who are supporting us, these are all dear friends and acquaintances who believe in my vision that Jewish values must have a seat at the table, that Judaism must have a high profile,” Boteach said. “The organization was set up for me to do this work by people who want me to do this work.”

The group has top-flight supporters. The Judy & Michael Steinhardt Foundation, major funders of Taglit-Birthright Israel, gave a combined $260,000 in 2007 and 2008. The Steinhardts’ daughter, Sara Berman, was the board’s secretary in 2010 and is currently on the organization’s board of governors.

Some aspects of the organization’s finances are of the type that, depending on the circumstances, could raise questions among regulators. Boteach’s salary varies dramatically from year to year, quadrupling between 2008 and 2009 from under $50,000 to nearly $230,000, then dropping to just over $160,000 in 2010.

The organization was dormant between 2003 and 2007, and paid next to nothing in salaries in 2007, though it raised more than $100,000 that year.

Generally speaking, compensation practices like this could raise questions for regulators as to whether an executive director “is treating the charity as a pocketbook, a personal pocketbook, and he’s taking out whatever the entity can afford, or whatever he needs whenever he wants to,” said Bruce Hopkins, a not-for-profit law expert and a senior partner at Polsinelli Shughart. “It’s not supposed to be that way.”

In an email to the Forward, This World Chairman Michael Fromm defended Boteach’s varying compensation. “Given Rabbi Boteach’s vital and demanding role, he is compensated accordingly, and his salary is set by the board. However, as with any small non-profit, the amount of financial resources available for compensation can fluctuate from year to year,” Fromm wrote.

Besides his salary, annual auditors’ reports submitted to the New York State attorney general note annual expenses between $50,000 and $60,000 incurred by the charity to an “affiliated entity of the executive director.” This World did not respond to a question about the nature of that entity. In 2007, the group paid $10,000 in rent to Boteach.

Taken together, total payments to Boteach and his family described in This World’s auditor’s reports amounted to between 39% and 47% of the group’s annual revenue in 2008 through 2010.

“I am happy to say that the board is immensely proud of Rabbi Boteach’s achievements as an exponent of Jewish values and grateful for his tireless efforts to secure vital support for the organization,” Fromm wrote in an email to the Forward. He declined to respond to specific questions about the group’s finances.

When asked about Boteach’s varying compensation and the proportion of revenues paid to Boteach and his family, Jerry Goldfeder, an election and charity law expert and special counsel at the law firm Stroock & Stroock & Lavan, said, “These facts raise serious questions as to the independence” of the foundation.

A Boteach charity has run into trouble with regulators on one occasion. In 1999, a British newspaper reported that England’s official charity watchdog had frozen the assets of Boteach’s organization over questions about payments a trust related to the organization had made on a home Boteach owned in Oxford. Boteach told the paper that the home was being used for charitable purposes. A January 2012 article in Bergen County’s The Record newspaper reported that the Charity Commission eventually determined that the mortgage payments broke British law. Boteach told The Record that he had repaid the funds to his organization.

Boteach’s current dual role at the helm of the charity and as a congressional hopeful could create problems for This World. The IRS enforces an absolute ban on the direct or indirect participation of tax-exempt groups like This World in political campaigns. Tax-exempt groups that violate the ban are at risk of losing their exempt status. Charity experts note that if Boteach is paid by This World to speak and write, his activities as the head of the not-for-profit could come into conflict with his political campaign.

“To the extent that Rabbi Boteach is not currently a candidate for any public office, we believe the discussion of any conflicts of interest is premature,” Fromm said. “Should Rabbi Boteach announce that he is, in fact, launching a formal campaign, the Board of Directors will of course take every precaution to ensure no conflicts exist.”

In one illustration of the potential for conflict, Boteach discussed his candidacy in his regular column, posted on the websites of The Huffington Post and Jerusalem Post, which is often linked to from the website of This World. And though This World did not link to that particular essay, Boteach’s biography on The Huffington Post’s website identifies him as the founder of This World.

Boteach also briefly discussed his candidacy at a launch event for his new book, “Kosher Jesus,” while seated in front of a banner bearing the name of his organization. (Forward Editor Jane Eisner moderated the discussion.)

“I’m not here to criticize anyone because this isn’t a political conversation,” Boteach said. “But I will say that now I am seriously considering a run for Congress…I’d like to bring a values conversation to the American political radar.”

In response to a question from the Forward about whether the statement amounted to intervention in a political campaign by This World, Fromm wrote, “don’t be silly.” Fromm noted that Boteach was speaking as the author of “Kosher Jesus,” not as the executive director of This World, and that the launch event was paid for by the publisher of the book and not by This World.

But This World’s logo appeared in promotional material for the event and on a poster behind Boteach, and an introductory and closing speaker solicited donations for This World.

“The not-for-profit organization needs to be extremely careful to make certain that none of its officers and key employees engage in partisan political activity,” Goldfeder said. Boteach could continue as executive director of the organization during his congressional campaign “if both he and his employer maintain an absolute firewall between professional duties and personal political activity,” he added.

Boteach has recently been involved in a high-profile battle over the property taxes at his Englewood home. Boteach has argued that his home is used as a synagogue, and that as such it should be exempt from local property taxes. Local officials have yet to rule on the matter.

“Up until now, for the past 12 years, I have paid some of the highest property taxes in the country. We should have been exempt from day one,” Boteach told the Forward.

Boteach and his wife purchased their home for $1.52 million in 2000, according to county documents. The Record described the residence as a “large stone house with an indoor swimming pool.” Besides the main home, the property includes a smaller outbuilding.

That home is one of at least three properties owned by Boteach and his wife. They jointly own a two-story, three-bedroom home in Miami Beach, purchased for $1 million in 2006. His wife independently owns a condo in a shorefront development in Miami Beach, also purchased in 2006 for an unknown sum. Boteach grew up in Miami.

If he wins the Republican primary and then the November general election, Boteach would be the first rabbi ever elected to the U.S. Congress. The previous hopeful, a blind rabbi named Dennis Shulman, won the Democratic nomination in a nearby New Jersey district in 2008 but lost in the general election.

But Boteach thinks he can make a difference in Washington. “The values that have dominated the American political landscape for decades is the American obsession with gay marriage and abortion, to the exclusion of nearly all others, which explains why our country is so incredibly religious yet so seemingly decadent,” Boteach wrote in his column. “It’s time to expand the values conversation and policy agenda.”

By Josh Nathan-Kazis - Forward

Investigators probe rush at MF Global to move cash

2012-02-23T05:16:00.002-05:00

CHICAGO -- Investigators probing the collapse of MF Global Holdings Ltd. are scrutinizing two money transfers made during the securities firm's final days in an effort to uncover what happened to $1.6 billion in missing customer funds.

Federal regulators at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the US bankruptcy trustee for MF Global's brokerage unit are examining two separate transfers from customer accounts, including a previously undisclosed $165 million transaction, said people familiar with the matter. They said some of the investigators are poring over emails and records related to these and other money transfers.

MF Global collapsed into bankruptcy on Oct. 31, hurt by repercussions from an outsize bet its chief executive, Jon S. Corzine, made on bonds of troubled European countries.

Among those at the center of money transfers in the days leading up to the collapse was Edith O'Brien, an assistant treasurer at MF Global.

NYPD Commissioner says NYC has come far but needs to do more in the fight against crime

2012-02-23T05:13:00.004-05:00

As shocking as it may be to some, the shooting of a little 8-year-old boy in the Bronx on Tuesday is an unacceptable reality in the poorer neighborhoods in the city, where young men of color are far more likely to be the victims of shootings than their white counterparts.

An examination of shootings last year showed that 94% of all shooting victims in the city were black or Hispanic, often targeted by other youths, or accidentally shot as bystanders like the little boy in Soundview.

Disputes that were settled generations ago with fists are settled with guns, which were often manufactured before the shooters were born. In most cases, the guns were purchased outside of New York State — in Pennsylvania, Virginia, and other points south — and then resold on the streets of New York at triple their retail value.

Mayor Bloomberg has led the effort nationally to address the problem of the iron pipeline and loopholes in gun laws generally, and he has supported the NYPD in its efforts to reduce crime to record lows.

A relatively new phenomenon of the “community gun” has arisen, where neighborhood youths agree to keep a gun in one hiding place for mutual use. It’s a phenomenon that has grown out of concern about individuals being caught with a gun in their possession on the street by police.

Through innovative police strategies like Operation Impact, in which we flood areas where shootings have spiked with additional police officers, as well as policies of engagement, like stop, question and frisk, murders have been driven down to record lows.

Over the past 10 years, there have been 5,430 murders in the city, compared with 11,058 in the decade before the current administration took office. That’s a 50% reduction, or 5,628 lives saved. During the same decade, violent crime in schools fell by 50%, because of the great work of school safety agents and police officers .

In Brooklyn last year, murders fell below 200 for the first time since President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963. There was also a 33% reduction in the number of young black men who were killed in the neighborhoods with churches whose African-American clergy are working in collaboration with the police. They have helped.

As safe as New York has become, the shooting of an 8-year-old is a reminder it’s not always safe enough. Three New York City police officers were shot, one fatally, in the past two months confronting criminals armed with illegal handguns. But we won’t be deterred.

The NYPD is in it for the long haul, and we will continue to do all we can to keep New Yorkers as safe as possible wherever they live.

The Real Story of CNN’s Firing of Jerusalem Bureau Journalists

2012-02-22T17:56:00.002-05:00

CNN’s decision to fire four Jewish Israeli journalists from the cable network’s Jerusalem bureau earlier this month was due in part to their religion and nationality, and to their perceived inability to operate freely throughout the Middle East, the Algemeiner has learned.

“The fact is, just Jewish Israelis were fired from CNN,” said a source who was directly involved in the layoffs and who requested anonymity. While reports said CNN had fired all its Jewish workers from the bureau, the source told the Algemeiner that “they left 2 Jewish Israeli journalists but here’s the catch, they’re each working one shift a week for 8 hours.”

According to the person involved in this matter, CNN’s belief, including that of bureau chief Kevin Flower, was that Jewish Israelis would not be allowed or welcomed into Gaza, the West Bank and other countries in the region, so it made the most sense to cut those who might become a problem.

The source charged that CNN is considering replacing the fired staff members with hires in other countries in the region. The person said “I understand they are planning on changing their coverage, it might be that the staff won’t be based in Israel even, and if a story happens in Israel, they will take the first flight and cover it, and so an Israeli is a pain in the neck for them.”

On February 15th, Turner Broadcasting, the parent company of CNN, posted a job listing, with the following description:

The Jerusalem photojournalist is responsible for recording images and sound to illustrate CNN news events and stories as well as editing and feeding video.

The location for the position is posted as “United Arab Emirates – Abu Dhabi.”.

In early February, soon after CNN announced it was reducing its headcount in Jerusalem by firing four of its 10-person staff there, the network denied reports that it was cutting only Jewish Israelis because of their background. At the time, the Atlanta-based media outlet issued a statement saying, “CNN strongly rejects any suggestion that the reorganization in the Jerusalem bureau is in any way based on the small number of contract employees concerned being Israeli, particularly given CNN’s long history of working with locals in the region.”

The current staff of CNN’s Jerusalem bureau consists of bureau chief Kevin Flower, Flower’s administrative assistant, who is Jewish, an Israeli Arab producer, a Spanish correspondent with Israeli identification and the two Jewish Israeli’s working one shift each per week, according to the source. “One Palestinian producer remains at the bureau but he has Israeli identification,” this person said, charging that the Arab Israeli from East Jerusalem is “working for the Palestinian cause.”

At the time of publication, CNN’s public relations office in Atlanta and their bureau in Jerusalem had not responded to The Algemeiner’s requests for comment on this story.

Moreover, according to the source at least one of the people who was let go was informed by phone, a practice that is illegal in Israel. Yair Green, a lawyer at the Moshe Kahan law firm in Tel Aviv, said that in Israel, before someone is fired, “an in person hearing needs to be conducted.”

The source quoted Kevin Flower as saying that the bureau was cutting its staff to conform with other bureaus. But the person quoted Flower as telling staffers that “we need journalists but we will need journalists that are able to go to the West Bank and the Gaza Strip and to all the Middle East.”

Part of CNN’s statement in response to the backlash from this incident spoke about “operational and technological efficiency”.

“CNN has recently reviewed its worldwide operations, an exercise we do regularly to ensure operational and technological efficiency in everything we do. As part of this exercise, we have reorganized the CNN bureau in Jerusalem.”

The source made it clear that CNN’s decision to downsize was understandable, but questioned why only Israeli Jews were let go. “From my point of view, they were fired because they are Israeli,” this person told the Algemeiner.

The Algemeiner Exlusive

Jewish Billionaire Sheldon Adelson Says He Might Give $100M To Newt Gingrich Or Other Republican

2012-02-22T16:41:00.001-05:00

plays as stubbornly in politics as he does in business. So the criticisms that he’s trying to personally buy the presidential election for Newt Gingrich are met with a roll of the eyes. “Those people are either jealous or professional critics,” Adelson tells me during his first interview since he and his wife began funneling $11 million, with another $10 million injection widely expected, into the former speaker’s super PAC, Winning Our Future. “They like to trash other people.

It’s unfair that I’ve been treated unfair—but it doesn’t stop me. I might give $10 million or $100 million to Gingrich.”

Adelson, the 78-year-old CEO of casino giant Las Vegas Sands, certainly can afford to: With a net worth of roughly $25 billion, that $11 million, which jolted Gingrich’s flatlining presidential bid back to life, equates to 0.044% of his fortune. For someone with a $1 million net worth, the equivalent would be $440, or a two-night stay at Adelson’s Venetian casino. Adelson could personally fund an entire presidential campaign—say, $1 billion or so—and not even notice.

Is that fair? “I’m against very wealthy people attempting to or influencing elections,” he shrugs. “But as long as it’s doable I’m going to do it. Because I know that guys like Soros have been doing it for years, if not decades. And they stay below the radar by creating a network of corporations to funnel their money.

I have my own philosophy and I’m not ashamed of it. I gave the money because there is no other legal way to do it. I don’t want to go through ten different corporations to hide my name. I’m proud of what I do and I’m not looking to escape recognition.

NYPD built secret files on NJ, Long Island mosques

2012-02-22T16:29:00.003-05:00

Newark, NJ - Americans living and working in New Jersey’s largest city were subjected to surveillance as part of the New York Police Department’s effort to build databases of where Muslims work, shop and pray. The operation in Newark was so secretive even the city’s mayor says he was kept in the dark.

For months in mid-2007, plainclothes officers from the NYPD’s Demographics Units fanned out across Newark, taking pictures and eavesdropping on conversations inside businesses owned or frequented by Muslims.

The result was a 60-page report, obtained by The Associated Press, containing brief summaries of businesses and their clientele. Police also photographed and mapped 16 mosques, listing them as “Islamic Religious Institutions.”

The report cited no evidence of terrorism or criminal behavior. It was a guide to Newark’s Muslims.

According to the report, the operation was carried out in collaboration with the Newark Police Department, which at the time was run by a former high-ranking NYPD official. But Newark’s mayor, Cory Booker, said he never authorized the spying and was never told about it.

Wow,” he said as the AP laid out the details of the report. “This raises a number of concerns. It’s just very, very sobering.”

Police conducted similar operations outside their jurisdiction in New York’s Suffolk and Nassau counties on suburban Long Island, according to police records.

Such surveillance has become commonplace in New York City in the decade since the 2001 terrorist attacks. Police have built databases showing where Muslims live, where they buy groceries, even what Internet cafes they use and where they watch sports. Dozens of mosques and student groups have been infiltrated and police have built detailed profiles of ethnic communities, from Moroccans to Egyptians to Albanians.

The documents obtained by the AP show, for the first time in any detail, how those efforts stretched outside the NYPD’s jurisdiction. New Jersey and Long Island residents had no reason to suspect the NYPD was watching them. And since the NYPD isn’t accountable to their votes or tax dollars, those non-New Yorkers had little recourse to stop it.

All of these are innocent people,” Nagiba el-Sioufi of Newark said while her husband, Mohammed, flipped through the NYPD report, looking at photos of mosques and storefronts frequented by their friends.

Egyptian immigrants and American citizens, the couple raised two daughters in the United States. Mohammed works as an accountant and is vice president of the Islamic Culture Center, a mosque a few blocks from Newark City Hall.

If you have an accusation on us, then spend the money on doing this to us,” Nagiba said. “But you have no accusation.”

NYPD spokesman Paul Browne did not return a message seeking comment about the report. Former Newark Police Chief Garry McCarthy, who is now in charge of the Chicago Police Department, also did not return messages left on his cellphone and with a press aide.

The goal of the report, like others the Demographics Unit compiled, was to give police at-their-fingertips access to information about Muslim neighborhoods. If police got a tip about an Egyptian terrorist in the area, for instance, they wanted to immediately know where he was likely to find a cheap room to rent, where he might buy his lunch and at what mosque he probably would attend Friday prayers.

These locations provide the maximum ability to assess the general opinions and general activity of these communities,” the Newark report said.

The effect of the program was that hundreds of American citizens were cataloged - sometimes by name, sometimes simply by their businesses and their ethnicity - in secret police files that spanned hundreds of pages:

A Black Muslim male named Mussa was working in the rear of store,” an NYPD detective wrote after a clandestine visit to a dollar store in Shirley, N.Y., on Long Island.

The manager of this restaurant is an Indian Muslim male named Vicky Amin” was the report back from an Indian restaurant in Lindenhurst, N.Y., also on Long Island.

Owned and operated by an African Muslim (possibly Sudanese) male named Abdullah Ddita” was the summary from another dollar store in Shirley, N.Y., just off the highway on the way to the Hamptons, the wealthy Long Island getaway.

In one report, an officer describes how he put people at ease by speaking in Punjabi and Urdu, languages commonly spoken in Pakistan.

Last summer, when the AP first began reporting about the NYPD’s surveillance efforts, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said his police do not consider religion in their policing.

On Tuesday, following an AP story that showed the NYPD monitored Muslim student groups around the Northeast, school leaders including Yale president Richard Levin expressed outrage over the tactics. Bloomberg fired back in what was the most vigorous defense yet of his department.

“The police department goes where there are allegations. And they look to see whether those allegations are true,” he told reporters. “That’s what you’d expect them to do. That’s what you’d want them to do. Remind yourself when you turn out the light tonight.”

There are no allegations of terrorism in the Demographics Unit reports and the documents make clear that police were only interested in locations frequented by Muslims. The canvas of businesses in Newark mentions Islam and Muslims 27 times. In one section of the report, police wrote that the largest immigrant groups in Newark were from Portugal and Brazil. But they did not photograph businesses or churches for those groups.

No Muslim component within these communities was identified,” police wrote, except for one business owned by a Brazilian Muslim of Palestinian descent.

Polls show that most New Yorkers strongly support the NYPD’s counterterrorism efforts and don’t believe police unfairly target Muslims. The Muslim community, however, has called for Police Commissioner Ray Kelly’s resignation over the spying and the department’s screening of a video that portrays Muslims as wanting to dominate the United States.

In Newark, the report was met with a mixture of bemusement and anger.

Come, look at yourself on film,” Abdul Kareem Abdullah called to his wife as he flipped through the NYPD files at the lunch counter of their restaurant, Hamidah’s Cafe.

An American-born citizen who converted to Islam decades ago, Abdullah said he understands why, after the 9/11 terror attacks, people are afraid of Muslims. But he said he wishes the police would stop by, say hello, meet him and his customers and get to know them. The documents show police have no interest in that, he said.

“They just want to keep tabs on us,” he said. “If they really wanted to understand, they’d come talk to us.”

After the AP approached Booker, he said the mayor’s office had launched an investigation.

“We’re going to get to the bottom of this,” he said.

Booker met with Islamic leaders while campaigning for mayor. Those interviewed by the AP said they wanted to believe he didn’t authorize the spying but wanted to hear from him directly.

“I have to look in his eyes,” Mohammed el-Sioufi said at his mosque. “I know him. I met him. He was here.”

Ironically, because officers conducted the operation covertly, the reports contains mistakes that could have been easily corrected had the officers talked to store owners or imams. If police ever had to rely on the database during an unfolding terrorism emergency as they had planned, those errors would have hindered their efforts.

For instance, locals said several businesses identified as belonging to African-American Muslims actually were owned by Afghans or Pakistanis. El-Sioufi’s mosque is listed as an African-American mosque, but he said the imam is from Egypt and the congregation is a roughly even mix of black converts and people of foreign ancestries.

“We’re not trying to hide anything. We are out in the open,” said Abdul A. Muhammad, the imam of the Masjid Ali Muslim mosque in Newark. “You want to come in? We have an open door policy.”

By choosing instead to conduct such widespread surveillance, Mohammed el-Sioufi said, police send the message that the whole community is suspect.

“When you spy on someone, you are kind of accusing them. You are not accepting them for choosing Islam,” Nagiba el-Sioufi said. “This doesn’t say, ‘This guy did something wrong.’ This says, ‘Everyone here is a Muslim’.”

“It makes you feel uncomfortable, like this is not your country,” she added. “This is our country.”

Avigdor Lieberman: It's Not The Business Of The U.S. Whether Israel Decides To Strike Iran

2012-02-22T16:26:00.003-05:00

Jerusalem - Israel’s foreign minister says the Jewish state will not bow to foreign pressure in deciding whether to attack Iran.

In an interview Wednesday with Israeli Channel 2 TV News, Avigdor Lieberman rebuffed suggestions that American and Russian warnings against striking Iran would affect Israeli decision making, saying the decision “is not their business.”

He said “the security of the citizens of Israel, the future of the state of Israel, this is the Israeli government’s responsibility.”

Israel fears Iran is developing a nuclear bomb, which Tehran denies.

Israel has sent a series of hints that it may attack Iran’s nuclear program.

The U.S. and others believe tough economic sanctions must be given time to work. This week, the U.S. military chief said an Israeli attack would be “not prudent.”

Toldos Avrohom Yitzchok Kehillah Impacted by Bloomberg’s Ban on Religious Groups Renting School Space

2012-02-22T16:23:00.003-05:00

Brooklyn, NY – For the first time since the Bloomberg administration adopted a policy prohibiting churches from renting space in public schools, a chasidic kehillah organization has been adversely impacted and was nearly forced to cancel a popular and important annual event this past weekend. Councilman David G. Greenfield (D-Brooklyn), who rallied against the change in policy before the mayor’s State of the City Address last month, is now calling on Albany to immediately pass legislation overturning the misguided decision by the Department of Education banning religious groups from renting public school space for services.

Each year, as many as 1,000 local Orthodox Jewish residents who are supporters of the Toldos Avrohomm Yitzchok Chasidus gather in Borough Park to welcome the Rebbe, who travels from Eretz Yisroel to Brooklyn annually for this event. The event, a Shabbos tish, is usually held in the rear yard of PS 180 at 16th Avenue and 56th Street. Greenfield normally facilitates this and other religious gatherings through his relationship with the Department of Education. However, Greenfield’s efforts to secure the location this year were rebuffed for the first time due to Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s decision to prohibit religious-based organizations from using any public school property for services, even though the groups only use the facilities after school hours and pay the same rental fee that all non-profit groups pay. Organizers of the Borough Park event scrambled to secure a new location and to redirect hundreds of attendees at the last minute.

A bill overriding the mayor’s policy decision was approved last week by the state Senate but remains stalled in the Assembly. Meanwhile, the Bloomberg administration has gone to great lengths to keep this policy in place, including sending Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott to Albany to lobby against the bill, despite lack of support from city residents for this policy. A Quinnipiac Polling Institute survey earlier this month showed that just 33 percent of city residents think it is a good idea to ban the rental of public schools for religious services, with 58 percent saying it is a bad idea. Those feelings were reflected across all five boroughs, both major political parties, men and women, and white, black and Hispanic respondents.

In light of last weekend’s incident and the public’s overwhelming opposition to the policy, Greenfield is calling on leaders in Albany to immediately pass legislation overturning the ban, which has forced about 70 congregations around the city to find new meeting space in banquet halls, homes, and even in the street. The policy went into effect following services on February 12.

In a city that is supposed to celebrate diversity, it’s shocking that the administration would discriminate against religious freedom. The time has come for Albany to resolve this issue so that groups aren’t punished simply for their religious beliefs. I urge the Assembly and Governor to immediately approve legislation overturning the Department of Education’s misguided decision,” said Greenfield.

Park Slope Food Coop is Moving Toward A Vote On Whether To Boycott Products From Israel.

2012-02-22T05:09:00.003-05:00

The three-year batle over whether Israeli products belong on the shelves of the Park Slope Food Coop is finally coming to a vote -- sort of.

The 39-year-old organic-food haven has scheduled a vote for next month to decide whether to hold a referendum of its 16,000 members on banning Israeli-made products like hummus, paprika, and seltzer.

The coop has taken stands before - banning bottled water, Coca-Cola, and hummus from a Brooklyn company accused of mistreating its workers. But no issue has split members like the Israel boycott.

“Anything we’ve boycotted in the past, the sentiment for the boycott was at almost 100%,” said general coordinator Ann Herpel.

But she said while passions run high on both sides of the issue, most members are more interested in shopping for organic produce than delving into Middle East politics.

“There are two groups that are very interested in this, and there’s a lot of people that this has not been on their radar,” she said. “Most people just feel passionately about the coop, not passionately about this issue.”

The proposal is being pushed by a group dubbed Park Slope Food Coop Members for Israeli Boycott Divestment Sanctions.

“Economic engagement with the state of Israel gives it the means and muscle to oppress, destabilize, and colonize the Palestinian people,” Mohan Sikka wrote in one letter to the Linewaiters’ Gazette - one of dozens of impassioned missives from both sides that have filled the newsletter’s pages in recent months.

Opponents have countered with their own group, called More Hummus, Please.

“It’s wrong to try to use the coop’s reputation to speak for one particular cause. We’re a diverse group of people, and we’ve come there to save money on food, period,” said Barbara Mazor, 54, of Midwood. “This is not going to have any effect on anything. It just promotes hostility, because it only puts the blame for the problem on Israel.”

Sen. Chuck Schumer, who is not a member of the coop, advised against a boycot. “A boycott of Israel, which protects women's and human rights far more than any of its neighbors, is one-sided and unfair and I urge coop members to reject this misguided and counter-productive proposal,” the Democrat said.

At the store Tuesday, most members dismissed the idea of a boycott. “You will not change Israeli policy by boycotting its products. If it is approved, it will be damaging to the coop and a futile exercise,” said Alan Rosner, 68, of Park Slope.

Stephanie Adams Wins $1.2M Excessive Force Judgment From NYPD For 2006 Arrest

2012-02-22T05:03:00.004-05:00

Stephanie Adams

An ex-Playboy playmate stripped the city of a $1.2 million payout Tuesday after suing the cops for manhandling her.

A Manhattan jury of four women and two men took 81/2 hours deliberating before tossing fistfuls of money at Miss November 1992, Stephanie Adams, 41, for the injuries she suffered in a 2006 scuffle with police.

The former Bunny’s tale was so compelling that jurors doled awarded her $385,000 more than her lawyer asked for.

Adams, the first openly lesbian Playmate, said cops threw her to the ground at gunpoint after a bizarre confrontation with a cabbie who falsely told them she “flashed vampire teeth” and was going to shoot him.

Adams got into it with the hack, Erik Darko, on Ninth Ave. after he refused to carry her clothing into her Chelsea apartment on May 25, 2006.

Darko, who had his taxi license yanked after the fracas, called her a “b---h” and slammed the door on her stomach.

The cabbie called police, and when they arrived, cops said, Adams refused their commands to get on her face.

She says she was wearing skintight jeans and a bare-midriff shirt, and that she immediately obeyed the cops’ commands and spread her arms wide to show she was unarmed.

Sgt. John Rajan told the jury he made a “controlled drop to the ground” to subdue the centerfold. “We didn’t know if she had a firearm,” he testified.

Later, he admitted that she “was wearing tight-fitting clothing, and there was no place to conceal a weapon.”

Adams, who claims to be a direct descendant of Presidents John Adams and John Quincy Adams, said the rough treatment gave her permanent neck and back injuries. The jury sympathized.

I put myself — I put my daughter — in her shoes and wondered if this could not have been handled more judiciously,” said a middle-aged woman who sat on the jury. “He not only threw her to the ground, he was holding her there, even though he could see she was not armed. It felt like it was too much.”

More than $1 million of the jury award is for future pain and suffering and medical bills. Experts said that it was highly unusual for the jury to award more money than the lawyers had asked for.

Adams, who was once a model and now peddles astrological literature, aromatherapy oil and custom-blended herbs, hopes to get back on the runway after her injuries have fully heeled.

When she appeared in Playboy, she declared herself the first openly lesbian Playmate and was celebrated by the gay community. She is now married to a man and has a 1-year-old son.

I was praying for justice and waited six years to speak my truth in court and I’m very grateful for the closure and the healing,” Adams said, holding her son, Vincent, on her hip.

The city Law Department said that it could ask the judge to reduce the payout or overturn the jury’s verdict. The city also has 45 days to appeal the case.

“This jury verdict demonstrates that there is a serious problem in this city regarding excessive use of force of our police against ordinary citizens. This must be addressed by the appropriate city officials,” said Adams’ lawyer Sanford Rubenstein.

Bronx community want vodka billboard taken down

2012-02-22T05:01:00.003-05:00

Bronx community leaders want this Wodka vodka billboard in Hunts Point taken down.

Bronx community leaders are decrying a crass billboard hawking vodka that greets drivers near an area once synonymous with prostitution.

Aiming to convey that Wódka vodka is top-notch and cheap, the sign over the Bruckner Expressway in Hunts Point reads: “Escort Quality, Hooker Pricing.”

The analogy did not amuse members of the Bronx’s Community Board 2, who have been battling for a decade to revamp Hunts Points reputation as a place to pick up hookers.

When I saw it I almost fell out of my seat,” said Rafael Salamanca Jr., district manager for CB 2. “That’s an inappropriate billboard given what the Hunts Point community has gone through in the past.”

The creators of the ad stood by it, but said they’d be responsive to feedback.

“Listen, if it’s offensive it’s because the topic is offensive to people and we understand that,” said Brian Gordon, managing partner for Wódka’s marketing company, MMG. Wódka drew fire from the Anti-Defamation League in November with its “Christmas Quality, Hanukkah Pricing” billboard.

CB 2 Chairman Ian Amritt called on the owners of the billboard, Van Wagner, to take down the sign.

A Van Wagner lawyer said, “We have reached out to our advertiser to see whether we can remedy the situation”

Vodka Billboard Removed: MyFoxNY.com

Texts & Emails Can Be Used in Divorce Cases

2012-02-21T19:23:00.005-05:00

Text messaging is the most common form of divorce evidence taken from smartphones

NEW YORK--Couples who may be heading for a nasty break-up should be careful about text messaging because it could end up as evidence against them in divorce court.

More than 90 percent of America's top divorce attorneys said they have seen a spike in the number of cases using evidence from iPhones and other smartphones in the past three years, according to the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers (AAML).

The rise in texting evidence follows a similar trend two years ago when the AAML, a professional group of 1,600 members who handle prenuptial agreements, legal separations, annulments, custody battles, property divisions and the rights of unmarried couples, noticed a surge in evidence from Facebook pages.

With emails you can think about and rewrite them. There is a window of opportunity to rethink what you are saying but text messaging is immediate,” said Ken Altshuler, the president of the AAML. “We get a lot of text messages that people send out without thinking.”

He described texts as “spontaneous venting” that can come back to haunt people because they are written records of someone's thoughts, actions and intentions.

Even a text message on a phone overlooked by someone over their shoulder, if the person is credible, can cause problems in divorce hearings.

I have used text messaging for cross examination,” said Altshuler, who has also submitted texts as evidence. “I would say in the last six months there have been a lot of text messages involved in litigation. For whatever reason, people are texting more and not thinking about what they are texting.”

Text messaging was the most common form of divorce evidence taken from smartphones, according to the AAML poll, followed by emails, phone numbers, call histories, GPS and Internet search histories.

Altshuler believes at least part of the reason for the surge in text evidence is because people think text messaging is safe, because it isn't easy to print out.

Not everybody can print out a text message. You have to know how to do it,” he explained.

Altshuler advises his clients not to use Facebook, which was the main source of divorce evidence from social media in a previous poll, but added that only about half follow his advice.

He is equally cautious about other emailing.

Anything that is in writing, you have to assume that someday a judge is going to see it. So, if it is not something that you don't want a judge to see, don't write it down.”

He added it applies particularly to text messages.

You can erase yours but it doesn't mean they erase theirs.

Busted! Finnish President's Husband Caught Admiring More Than Just ....

2012-02-21T19:11:00.008-05:00

Princess Mary turns and he knows he has been caught appearing to look at her chest at the state dinner in Copenhagen

Royal dinners can be tiresome occasions and sometimes the speeches are just not enough to hold your attention.

Pentti Arajarvi, the husband of the Finnish president Tarja Halonen, certainly thought so when he attended a state dinner in Copenhagen.

To pass the time the 63-year-old appeared to turn his attention to his neighbour's chest - who just happened to be Denmark's Princess Mary who was sat next to him.

The princess, wife of the Crown Prince of Denmark, was wearing a black low cut gown, tiara and an ornate necklace - which Mr Arajarvi could of course been admiring.

However, his sneaky glance was captured on film and has become an internet hit.

In the clip the 'first gentleman' of Finland is filmed appearing to stare at her chest area for several seconds before the Princess turns her head and catches him in the act.

She immediately covers her chest with her hand while appearing to glare at him.

An embarrassed Mr Arajarvi immediately averts his gaze turning his head in the opposite direction and then pretends to be looking at the ceiling.

The uncomfortable moment was filmed during a state dinner hosted by the Queen of Denmark in Copenhagen last month.

More than 12,000 people have now viewed the clip on Youtube.

One viewer posted a message underneath saying: 'He's only human.

NY - Judge Rules In Favor Of Mets In Kosher Hot Dog Fight

2012-02-21T19:06:00.002-05:00

Kosher Sports’ stand at Shea Stadium, Home of the NY Mets

Baseball season doesn't officially begin for another two months, but the Mets already batted one out of the park today.

The ball club's protracted fight with the vendor selling kosher hot dogs at Citi Field during Mets home games is finally coming to an end.

Today a federal judge ruled that the Mets have the right to restrict Kosher Sports Inc. from selling their wieners on the Jewish Sabbath, citing a contract between the two entities that does not explicitly guarantee weekend sales.

Two years ago, Kosher Sports -- headed by former Wall Street trader Jonathan Katz -- sued the Mets after claiming they were barred from selling hot dogs on Friday nights and Saturday, when attendance at ballgames tends to be higher.

The Mets argued that such sales violated the Jewish Sabbath, and internal ball-club e-mails cited concerns over a possible backlash from observant baseball fans.

At its core, the disagreement over baseball's omnipresent snack food became a real "federal case" - and could arguably rank among the most bitterly contested legal disputes over hot dogs in the history of American jurisprudence.

In a litany of court hearings over a two-year period, voices were raised, accusations of trickery were leveled, and tempers flared during discussions about the fine points of selling hot dogs at Major League baseball games.

At one point, the case even produced something of a "Weiner-gate" - when the Mets accused Kosher Sports of surreptitiously recording conversations between executives of stadium concessions giant Aramark -- and then employing a cover-up to hide the tapes from a federal judge.

Brooklyn federal Judge Jack Weinstein ruled today against Kosher Sports, throwing out its lawsuit against the Mets and holding that the hot dog vendor could be liable for damages because it stopped paying required annual fees to the ball-club.

The vendor - which sold its glatt-kosher dogs from pushcarts located on the stadium's lower levels - refused to make the payments because, they argued, the Mets never told them they couldn't sell wieners on the Sabbath until the 10-year contract was already signed.

In his four-page ruling, the judge held that the fine points of Kosher Sports' agreement to sell hot dogs actually were laid out in a contract with Aramark, which controls most concessionaires at Citi Field. Aramark was not a party to the lawsuit.

The hot dog vendor's contract directly with the Mets "does not" give Kosher Sports the right to sell its products at all events during the ten-year term of the agreement, the judge wrote.

Indeed, the hot dog vendor's contract with the Mets "principally cover advertising, not product vending issues," Weinstein wrote.

The judge directed a federal magistrate judge to hammer out the details of the legal dispute's resolution, and to decide how much Kosher Sports owes the Mets in damages - in addition to determining the future of the wiener vending contract.

Rabbi Wolpe Suspected Of Bribing Soldiers

2012-02-21T17:06:00.002-05:00

Rabbi Shalom Dov Wolpe.

Right-wing activists questioned by police on suspicion of encouraging soldiers to refuse orders to evacuate illegal outposts by offering them money.

A rabbi suspected of offering financial incentives to soldiers to refuse orders to evacuate West Bank outposts heads the nonprofit association behind the Gush Katif Museum in Jerusalem.

On Gush Katif Day last Wednesday, Education Minister Gideon Sa'ar toured the museum, which memorializes the Gaza settlements, evacuated in 2005. The museum is backed by the World Headquarters to Save the People and the Land of Israel (SOS-Israel ), headed by Rabbi Shalom Dov Wolpe.

The week before, Wolpe and right-wing activist Baruch Marzel had been questioned by police on suspicion of encouraging soldiers to refuse orders to evacuate illegal outposts by offering them money.

Although the museum's website lists SOS-Israel and Wolpe as being among "the people behind the museum," an SOS-Israel spokesman said on Monday that "there is no connection between the museum, the nonprofit association and the rabbi, other than in the past the rabbi initiated it."

Meanwhile, Peace Now director general Yariv Oppenheimer sent a scathing letter to Sa'ar following a report in Haaretz on Monday that revealed the contents of a curriculum on the evacuated settlements that was taught in nearly 800 schools last week.

Oppenheimer said the phones at Peace Now's offices had been ringing off the hook on Monday with angry callers, "who were shocked to read about the new lesson unit."

Oppenheimer writes to Sa'ar: "In the booklet your ministry is distributing, the story of the settlements in the heart of the Gaza Strip is told in a one-sided fashion, and misrepresents the situation to the pupils. The booklet doesn't make any mention of the heavy price the State of Israel had to pay for remaining in Gaza ... the whole question of the occupation and Israeli control of another people is left out of the lesson plan."

The curriculum, written by the Center for the Commemoration of Gush Katif and Northern Samaria under Education Ministry guidelines, includes a lesson unit called "My Zionism" that uses the Katif Bloc as a test case for Zionism.

The lesson plan calls for students to differentiate between "Zionist activities" and "good deeds," refers to former Knesset Speaker Avraham Burg and veteran journalist Dan Margalit as "extreme left-wingers," and includes an essay by Im Tirtzu chairman Ronen Shoval. No mention is made of the 1.5 million Palestinians living in Gaza except in the context of Palestinian terror.

"Worst of all is the attempt by people in your ministry to revise the concept of Zionism," Oppenheimer wrote. "There is no more fitting way to describe this document than 'political brainwashing' and an effort to dictate a one-sided, right-wing, manipulative narrative.

The Education Ministry said on Monday that Sa'ar "does not know Rabbi Wolpe nor about his connection to the [museum]." The ministry also called Oppenheimer's letter "political and provocative," adding that the curriculum on the Gaza settlements "was formulated by the ministry's professional echelons.

Rabbi Suspected Of Sexually Assaulting Female Students

2012-02-21T13:09:00.005-05:00

A principal of a haredi educational establishment and certified rabbi is suspected of sexually assaulting his female students, Ynet learned Tuesday. It is suspected that senior haredi leaders and politicians tried to keep the affair, which is now under police investigation, under wraps.

Earlier this week, a former student at a Central Israel establishment for girls filed a police complaint against the principal. The girl claimed he sexually harassed her, performed indecent acts on her and had non-consensual sexual relations with her.

She told investigators that the suspect performed similar acts on other students. Police learned that word of the affair is already circulating in the haredi community and that community leaders including politicians tried to keep it under wraps. Police are also keeping mum and refusing to comment at this stage.

A court recently banned the suspect, who had signed a letter of resignation, from entering the educational establishment's premises. The judges based their decision on photos, documents and other evidence supporting the allegations against him.
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חשד: מנהל מוסד חינוך חרדי תקף מינית תלמידות

המשטרה חוקרת פרשה שלפי החשד בכירים ופוליטיקאים חרדים ניסו להשתיק: מנהל מוסד חינוכי חרדי לבנות בשרון חשוד שתקף נערות. תלמידה לשעבר התלוננה שביצע בה מעשים מגונים וקיים עמה יחסי מין שלא בהסכמה. הוא התפטר

מנהל מוסד חינוכי ידוע במגזר החרדי, רב מוסמך, חשוד שביצע עבירות מין בתלמידות. כך נודע ל-ynet. לפי החשד, בכירים ופוליטיקאים חרדים ניסו להשתיק את הפרשה. היא נחקרת בחשאי במשטרת מחוז מרכז.

במוסד החינוכי המוכר מאוד באזור השרון לומדות בנות חרדיות. לפני כמה ימים התייצבה במשטרה נערה, תלמידה לשעבר, יחד עם אביה כדי להגיש תלונה נגד מנהל המוסד, רב מוסמך. לבני המשפחה לקח זמן רב לאזור אומץ כדי להגיש את תלונה.

גם במשטרה יודעים שאם יש ממש בחשדות, מדובר בפרשה גדולה, ולכן החקירה הופקדה בידי יחידת ההונאה המחוזית בראשותו של רב-פקד משה רגב. בימים האחרונים גבו החוקרים עדות מפורטת מהנערה, והיא סיפרה כי המנהל ביצע בה מעשים מגונים והטרדות מיניות, וקיים עמה יחסי מין שלא בהסכמה.

הנערה אמרה לחוקרים כי מעשים דומים ביצע המנהל גם בתלמידות נוספות, וכעת בודקת המשטרה את התלונה. למשטרה נודע כי המידע על המקרה פשט במהירות בתוך הקהילה החרדית, וגורמים בכירים בה - כולל פוליטיקאים - ניסו להשתיק את הפרשה, ללא הצלחה. גם במשטרת מחוז מרכז מעדיפים להשאיר את החקירה בערפל ולא למסור לפי שעה מידע
עליה.

לאחרונה אסר בית הדין על המנהל החשוד להיכנס לשטח המוסד החינוכי, והוא חתם על הסכם התפטרות. בית הדין קיבל את ההחלטה בעקבות תמונות, מסמכים וראיות המחזקות את הטענות נגדו.

"רבנים פעלו בשיטות הזויות, תיפתח תיבת פנדורה"

בית הספר שניהל הרב הוא בית ספר גדול בשרון, ולומדות בו כ-750 בנות. הורים אמרו כי הם חרדים לבנותיהם הלומדות בבית הספר, כיוון שהמעשים נעשו לכאורה במשך תקופה ארוכה. "מה שמפחיד הוא שרבים ידעו על המעשים המיוחסים למנהל, אבל אף אחד לא קם והתלונן. ניסו לסגור את הנושא הזה ולטאטא אותו מתחת לשטיח", אמרו.

עוד אמרו: "רבנים רבים וידועים ידעו על כך ופעלו בשיטות הזויות. גם כשהובאו בפניהם ראיות ועדויות כדוגמת מכתבי תלונות של נערות והודעות טלפוניות, הם העדיפו לטייח ובחרו להעבירו מתפקידו עד לסיום הבדיקה".

ל-ynet נודע כי מלבד התלונה שפוצצה את הפרשה הוגשה גם תלונה של תלמידה אחרת על-ידי פרקליט שמייצג אותה. לדברי גורמים המעורבים התלונות בפרשה לא הוגשו בתחנת המשטרה שבתחומי השיפוט שלה נמצא בית הספר, כיוון

שהמתלוננות לא סומכות על המשטרה שבתחום אחריותה בוצעו המעשים. זאת משום שלפני כשנה הוגשה תלונה, והמשטרה לא חקרה כראוי את הנושא וסגרה את התיק. במשטרה אישרו כי בעבר אכן הוגשה תלונה אך הוחלט לגנוז אותה.

מעורבים בפרשה אמרו כי אם הפרשה תיחשף במלואה, תיפתח תיבת פנדורה גדולה: "לא רק אותו יצטרכו לחקור, אלא גם אנשים שידעו ושתקו, גם מבית הספר, גם רבנים שישבו בכמה בתי דין וגם פוליטיקאים שאליהם קשור המנהל בקשר משפחתי".

המעריץ החרדי של יעל גולדמן

2012-02-21T13:04:00.007-05:00

לא נכתוב כלום על זה שיעל גולדמן חזרה לגיזרה אחרי הלידה, אבל כן נכתוב על האדם שניגש אליה באמצע הרחוב ורצה משהו.

הקיפו בעיגול את התשובה הנכונה: א. הוא רצה צדקה. ב. הוא הגיע כדי להסביר לה שנשים צריכות מדרכה משלהן. ג. הוא רצה לדעת איך מגיעים לרוטשילד 47.

לנו אין תשובה, דרך אגב. אנחנו רק צילמנו את זה. אז אם מישהו היה באיזור ושמע משהו, שידבר איתנו. אנחנו מסוקרנים.

Food Fight with Mets for Selling Hot Dogs at Ballpark On Jewish Sabbath

2012-02-21T09:16:00.001-05:00

David Boies of high-powered law firm boise, Schiller & Flexner LLP is representing Kosher Sports Inc. in its hot dog fight with Mets at Citi Field.

A kosher food vendor has hired a heavy hitter in the legal profession in its upcoming court battle with the Mets over selling hot dogs at Citi Field on the Jewish Sabbath.

Stepping to the plate for Kosher Sports Inc. will be the high-powered law firm Boies, Schiller & Flexner LLP, which represented Al Gore in his historic clash with George W. Bush for the presidency in 2000. The firm also repped the NFL in anticipation of an anti-trust battle with the players union.

Kosher Sports filed a breach-of-contract suit against the Mets nearly two years ago after the team banned it from slinging kosher food during Friday night and Saturday home games — a move the vendor says caused it to lose hundreds of thousands of dollars in profits.

Kosher Sports had signed a 10-year, $725,000 contract to sell glatt kosher hot dogs, sausages, knishes, pretzels and peanuts at Mets home games, according to the suit filed in Brooklyn Federal Court. The case is set for trial this month.

Team officials “at the highest levels” of the Mets organization were apparently concerned about “undermined credibility with Sabbath-observing” fans, the court papers filed by the vendor charge.

Fortunately for both sides, the jury will parse contract law rather than a complex question of Jewish law — whether food that is prepared and sold on the Sabbath can be truly kosher.

“It doesn’t look kosher,” said Rabbi Zushe Blech, a lecturer at the Center for Kosher Culinary Arts in Brooklyn, who is not involved with the case.

“There is a way to make it technically kosher . . . precooked food could be warmed up by a non-Jew,” said Blech, who authored a book titled “Kosher Food Production.”

Blech added that no observant Jew would attend a Mets game on the Sabbath, anyway.

“This is really splitting many hairs,” he said.

The lawyer for the Mets, Avery Mehlman, is a former deputy commissioner with the city Human Rights Commission who successfully argued a case that Sikh members of the NYPD could wear turbans.

Mehlman contends that Kosher Sports’ beef should really be with Aramark, the main concession operator at Citi Field, and not with the ballclub.

He complained that the upcoming trial will spawn only further litigation unless Aramark is also made a defendant.

Kosher Sports “has to sought to have its cake and eat it, too,” Mehlman said.

Look in the mirror : See how we frum people look

2012-02-21T09:07:00.002-05:00

Rabbi: Participation in reality TV show violates Jewish law

2012-02-21T08:54:00.003-05:00

Akiva and Anhel Shmuli

Religious Zionism leader slams religious couple who took part in Israel's 'Amazing Race 2' for taking part in reality show. Aviner: It isn't modest

Did religious couple from Israel 's "Amazing Race 2" violate Jewish law? Religious Zionism leader Rabbi Shlomo Aviner is arguing that Akiva and Anhel Shmuli's participation in a popular reality TV show goes against Jewish values and may be considered a violation of Jewish law.

Not only is it not a mitzvah, but it's a violation to travel abroad," Rabbi Aviner said. "The exposure in itself isn't modest. A man must be modest and humble; he shouldn't have a video camera follow him and see what he does."

We're not that modest, and sometimes we take pride and behave in such a certain way as to make an impression. We're not okay and may God have mercy on us," the rabbi said. "But here we see a man who invited the television crews on purpose and they follow him and his every move...that's the opposite of being modest.

The rabbi also told his followers that because immodest people participate in such reality shows, competing in the show it helps it stay on the air and promote it. He therefore referred to participants as "aiding in committing an offence."

People tell me: 'It'll show how gifted and nice the religious people are and encourage (people) to repent,'" Aviner said. "But first of all, nobody asked to turn anybody religious. And second of all, you should repent first."

Israelis flock to sages' tombs seeking miracles

2012-02-21T08:17:00.005-05:00

Israeli woman and her daughter pray at the grave Rabbi Yisrael Abuhatzeira, affectionately known as the "Baba Sali" in Netivot, southern Israel.

NETIVOT, Israel—One man prays to heal the legs he broke in a car accident. An older woman pleads for grandchildren. Another visitor has come to see "God's secretary."
These believers are part of a growing phenomenon in Israel, where hundreds of thousands of people from starkly different backgrounds flock to the tombs of ancient Biblical figures or modern-day rabbis, seeking blessings and claiming they've witnessed miracles.

At many of these sites there is scant proof that any sage is actually buried there. Some are even believed to be co-opted Ottoman or Muslim burial places. But to the faithful, the lack of hard evidence is irrelevant. It's the deep spiritual experience or, for some, the desperate desire to be blessed, that matters.

"Coming here is being able to speak to God's secretary. It's the closest you can get," said Suzy Shaked, a 55-year-old teacher from central Israel who visited the tomb of Rabbi Yisrael Abuhatzeira, one of the most popular pilgrimage sites.

Shaked said she sees Abuhatzeira, better known as the Baba Sali, as God's envoy. A visit to his tomb puts her requests in God's earshot. She was praying at the Baba Sali's tomb for her son to marry.

While there are no firm statistics on how many Israelis visit sites like the Baba Sali's tomb, researchers say the number is growing.

They cite the rising power of religious political parties, the influence of Israelis of north African descent who traditionally practiced

these kinds of pilgrimages, and a growing desire by even secular Jews to find meaning in their lives through a spiritual act. Prominent businessmen and politicians are known to make appearances at the sites.
"It's hard for (people) to be satisfied with prayer in a synagogue to a God who is very abstract, who is unclear, who is not accessible," said Doron Bar, a historical geographer who studies the sites. "I think visiting a grave like this gives believers a line through which demands can be made."

Bar believes that the number of pilgrimage sites has grown into the hundreds.

The phenomenon has spawned a tourist trade, where busloads of faithful are ferried from one burial site to another to make a variety of wishes.

"People see results," said Benny Barzilai, who runs monthly trips to tombs. "That's why this tour succeeds."

Morroccan-born Abuhatzeira was revered even in life as a mystic and performer of miracles. After he died in January 1984, he gained rock star-like fandom.

Today, his tomb in the blue-collar town of Netivot in southern Israel draws an estimated hundreds of thousands of pilgrims. The anniversary of his death is especially popular, a time that is believed to grant the worshipper a heightened closeness to God.

It's the second-most visited tomb in Israel, after that of Yonatan ben Uziel in northern Israel. That site, which reportedly draws half a million people a year, is believed to answer prayers for marriage.

At the Baba Sali compound, believers of all stripes could be seen during the recent anniversary commemorations— mildly religious young women in tight jeans and red nails, pious elderly women in long floral skirts and head coverings, silver-haired politicians in pinstriped suits. The tomb was packed with a mass of wailing worshippers, which swelled gradually into the evening.

The day was joyful and festive, with barbecues, picnics and vendors selling candles and clocks bearing the Baba Sali's image. The faithful hurled candles into a large furnace, a ritual with pagan tinges meant to immortalize the sage's soul.

"I take advantage of any opportunity to go see a sage," said Shimon Kaslessi, a truck driver, who walks with crutches but was told he likely wouldn't walk at all after a car crash two years ago.

"When you've seen miracles, when the sage makes a handicapped person walk, you believe," he added, a tear streaming down his face.

Although the burial place of modern rabbis like Abuhatzeira are not questioned, those of more ancient sages are not always investigated or recognized by any official body, meaning anyone can theoretically designate a place as holy and spark a following.

A site near the central town of Modiin is believed by some to be the tomb of the Jewish priest Matityahu ben Yohanan, one of the heroes of the Hasmonean Revolt against the Greeks more than 2,000 years ago. While not officially recognized, the site draws hundreds of pilgrims a year.

Similarly, a tomb in a Jerusalem mosque is sacred to Jews, Muslims and Christians, yet each claims a different holy woman is buried there.

Researchers believe the grave of the prophet Havakuk in northern Israel was possibly deemed to be there because the prophet's name rhymed with a nearby village, Yakuk.

It's unclear how the phenomenon took root. Traditionally in Judaism, prostrating oneself at graves was forbidden, as it was likened to the prohibited custom of idol worship.

Some studies believe that after Israel gained independence in 1948, many important Jewish sites beyond Israel's boundaries were out of reach. Jews in turn assigned greater importance to less significant sites inside Israel or co-opted what was known to be, until then, an Ottoman or Muslim tomb.

Over time, myths surrounding the different graves emerged, and Jews began making pilgrimages to these sites. The custom is practiced at tombs of Jewish sages around the world as well, including a massive yearly pilgrimage to Ukraine.

Many are nondescript tombstones while some are grand domed mausoleums. Each sage is typically associated with different requests, whether for health, wealth, love or fertility.

More than 100 such sites are considered official holy places by Israel's Tourism Ministry, meaning they are maintained with government funds. New sites are rarely added to the ministry's list because they "lack proof" that anyone of importance is interred there, said Mina Genem, a ministry official.

Nonetheless, these tombs attract Jews from all backgrounds who return year after year because they say their prayers have been answered.

Sarah Cohen, 69, said her daughter became pregnant after she prayed for her at the Baba Sali's tomb.

"I've been coming here for 20 years," she said, after flinging a candle into the red furnace. "My daughter came too because she saw that my prayers were answered."

(AP) - By TIA GOLDENBERG

Adam Hock accused of beating up Grace Kelly’s grandson says he was defending bevy of supermodels

2012-02-21T08:09:00.005-05:00

Adam Hock was seated at same table as Victoria's Secret catwalkers Natasha Poly and Anja Rubik.

Adam Hock, who allegedly beat up Grace Kelly's grandson Pierre Casiraghi (top right), leaves his apartment Monday seemingly fine, then reappears with a sling

A former club owner charged with beating up Grace Kelly's grandson insisted Monday he was defending a bevy of supermodels when his punch sent the young royal flying across a Meatpacking District bar - and into a hospital.

The melee at Double Seven left Monaco's Prince Pierre Casiraghi bloodied, bruised and with a broken jaw, according to a criminal complaint against Adam Hock.

"I acted 100% in self-defense. I felt I had to defend the honor of the women I was with," said Hock, 47, who left a doctor's office wearing a sling on his left arm.

The prince's camp insists the one-time football jock went berserk, swinging round-house punches at anyone in sight in the early Saturday brawl.

"The facts are very clear," said Nadine Johnson, a spokeswoman for Casiraghi and his crew. "There was only one person arrested, Mr. Hock, who spent two days in jail as a result of his actions."

Casiraghi, 24, is the son of Grace Kelly's daugther, Princess Caroline of Monaco, and Italian sportsman Stefano Casiraghi, who died in a 1990 speedboat crash.

Saturday's fight broke out at 2:20 a.m. at the Gansevoort St. celebrity hot spot, prompting champagne-sipping fashionistas to duck for cover, witnesses said.

Hock‘s lawyer, Sal Strazzullo, insisted that Casiraghi and his trust-fund pals threw the first punch.

He portrayed the prince and his posse as "wealthy barons from Europe" with a vulgar sense of entitlement.

"They think New York is their honeycomb. They think they can come here and do whatever they want," Strazzullo said.

Still, it was Hock who cops hauled off to jail, where he sat until Sunday.

Hock, 47, the former owner of the defunct Hawaiian Tropic Zone in Times Square, was arraigned on misdemeanor charges of assault and harassment, and released.

"There was a verbal dispute that turned into a fist fight," an NYPD spokesman said. "Hock allegedly punched (the) complainants in the face with a closed fist. They suffered pain and bruising."

The Manhattan District Attorney's Office was reviewing surveillance video from inside the nightclub. It was not immediately clear if the video showed the fracas.

Hock, who played football for Rutgers University, claims he was the victim.

Strazzullo said the prince and his pals were harassing the models seated at Hock's table, including Victoria's Secret catwalkers Natasha Poly and Anja Rubik. Double Seven owner, Jeffrey Jah, was also at Hock's table.

"They teased, they harassed, and finally, they assaulted and he had to defend himself and the women he was with," Strazzullo said.

"They threw the first punch," Strazzullo said. "They were touching the girls, grabbing them the way Europeans feel they can touch whatever woman they want in New York."

Hock is also accused of attacking Stavros Niarchos, Diego Marroquin, and Vladimir Riotfeld - the son of former French Vogue editor Carine Roitfeld. Niarchos, the ex-flame of Paris Hilton, was with his girlfriend, Sports Illustrated swimsuit model Jessica Hart.

"That guy totally attacked them," said a source close to Hart. "It seemed like Adam couldn't control his rage. He was going around punching everyone," said the source.

The source said Hock hit Casiraghi so hard he was "thrown across the room."

The source knocked down Hock's camp insistence that jealously over the hot models at Hock's table prompted the fisticuffs.

"They had Jessica Hart and models at their table," the source said of the prince and his party. "They weren't jealous. Jessica is a big-time model."

Another nightlife source familiar with the incident claimed the fight erupted after Hock returned from the restroom to find Casiraghi and his pals bothering the beauties at his table and helping themselves to his bottle of vodka.

"They're pouring themselves drinks from his bottle and talking to the women," the source said.

"Adam came back and he saw that his group was not interested in hanging with these guys," the source said. "Adam Hock got up to go and the four guys jumped on him at once."

Celebrity defense lawyer, Aaron Richard Golub, dubbed the "Ninja Lawyer" for his dismantling of opponents' witnesses on the stand, was hired to represent Casiraghi and his pals.

Golub insisted that the attack by Hock was "unprovoked."

"This case is not about what this lawyer says. It's about what's said on the witness stand before a jury," Golub said.

Ed Kratt, a criminal defense lawyer working with Golub, said Casiraghi and his entourage were invited to the bar by owner, Jeffrey Jah.

Kratt claimed that Hock began "acting strange" when Jah invited Casiraghi and his friends to join them.

"Hock was speaking to Diego . All of a sudden, he stood up and punched Diego in the face - unprovoked and without warning - knocking him down," Kratt said.

Kratt said Casiraghi, Roitfeld, and Niarchos were all "sucker punched" by Hock when they tried to help Marroquin.

"This guy was a serial sucker puncher," Kratt said of Hock. "There was no mutual combat here. As far as these guys were concerned, nothing was up. They had done nothing."

Jah, the club owner, refused comment.

Strazzullo scoffed at Kratt's account of the incident.

Informed that lawyers for Casiraghi and his friends might be planning to slam Hock with a civil suit, Strazzullo bristled, "Bring it on. We're planning a civil suit also. We would love to depose them."

Hock - who has dabbled in foreign diplomacy, most recently attempting to get heads of state in South America to recognize the transitional Libyan government - is no stranger to to lawsuits.

In 2008, his restaurant was sued for $600 million by female staffers at Hawaiian Tropic Zone, who charged they had been forced to perform sexual acts. The suit was settled in 2010.

The restaurant was also sued in 2009 by a Latina job applicant who said she was rejected after she was told she was "too ghetto."

Danielle Maudsley Left Brain Dead After Being Tasered By FHP Trooper

2012-02-21T07:57:00.006-05:00

Impact: The moment Danielle Maudsley, 20, was Tasered by Trooper Daniel Cole after she tried to escape the police station.

PINELLAS PARK — One day last September, Danielle Maudsley, clad in handcuffs, bolted out the door of a Florida Highway Patrol substation after she had been arrested in a hit-and-run case.

A dashboard video camera in a patrol cruiser in the parking lot captured Trooper Daniel Cole chasing her. Cole was only a few feet behind her when he pulled out his Taser and fired its electric probes into her back.

Maudsley spun, fell backward and smacked her head on the asphalt parking lot. She lay there, bleeding and crying as Cole stood over her. Then she went unconscious.

Those details were part of a report released Thursday by the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles that cleared Cole of wrongdoing in the incident. An investigation by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement also cleared him.

The report shed new light on the Sept. 19 incident, which left Maudsley, 20, in a vegetative state, said her mother, Cheryl Maudsley.

"Tell me that's not excessive force," Cheryl Maudsley said. "I'm not saying she was an angel, but she didn't deserve that. He couldn't reach out and grab her? He was an arm's length away."

Cole had arrested Danielle Maudsley after she was suspected of leaving the scene of two traffic crashes. She had a suspended license and blood tests later showed she had cocaine and oxycodone in her system, the report states.

While she sat in the back of his cruiser, Maudsley removed her right hand from the handcuffs, the report said. When Cole opened the door to take her out, she told him, "I took this off."

Maudsley was placed back in handcuffs and Cole took her into the substation, according to the report. As he worked on paperwork in a conference room, he sensed that Maudsley was moving, turned, and saw her at the main exit. He asked where she was going and got up from his seat before she ran out the door.

In an interview with investigators, Cole said he saw Maudsley turning in the direction of U.S. 19 after she exited the substation.

"If she makes it there, you know, there's no winning," the report quoted him saying. "I can't let her get out and get run over," he later said.

Cole, who at 267 pounds weighs about three times as much as Maudsley, was concerned that one or both of them would be injured if he tackled her. So he went for his Taser.

He could not warn Maudsley because of the immediacy of the situation, the report said. After Maudsley fell, Cole saw blood on the ground and summoned emergency personnel.

Asked if he would have done anything differently, Cole said, "No, I would not have."

The report ruled that Cole's actions were justified.

FHP policy says troopers can use Tasers on escaping suspects. It also says they should avoid using them on people who are handcuffed — though it allows exceptions to that provision.

Cheryl Maudsley said her daughter lives in an intensive care facility and is fed with a tube. "My daughter is dead because of this. She won't come back."

Maudsley said she is pursuing legal action against the FHP.

Her attorney, Kevin Hayslett, said the nature of the injuries merits compensation.

"When you've got injuries like this, you're dealing with big numbers," Hayslett said, noting that Maudsley's medical bills have risen to seven figures.

"Law enforcement have to make split-second decisions," Hayslett said. "Unfortunately, sometimes those decisions result in catastrophic consequences. But the more serious the injury a person suffers, the more safeguards have to be put in place to prevent that from happening in the future."

Strauss-Kahn arrested by French police over alleged prostitution ring

2012-02-21T07:54:00.003-05:00

Dominique Strauss-Kahn's car is surrounded by the media today. He will be held in custody until Wednesday at least before bail can be considered

Dominique Strauss-Kahn was today arrested by French police and faces criminal charges relating to an illegal prostitute racket.

The former International Monetary Fund chief was told by detectives that there is evidence linking him to ‘complicity in pimping’ and ‘misuse of corporate assets’.

He will be held in custody until ‘Wednesday at least’ before bail can be considered, said a source close to the case.

Strauss-Kahn, 62, has admitted to attending ‘sex parties’ in cities all over the world, but denies knowing that the women he slept with were prostitutes.

Now he faces criminal charges if prosecutors can prove that fraudulently obtained money was being paid to the prostitutes, and that Strauss-Kahn knew about this.

The money is alleged to have come from a building company executive who is accused of using his firm's funds to entertain the guests.

Strauss-Kahn was driven to the police station today in a Mercedes limousine with blacked-out windows before being hustled inside by his legal team.

He has claimed he did not know he was sleeping with prostitutes because ‘the women were all naked at the time’.

The unorthodox defence comes amid allegations that his mobile phone records showed he had relationships with at least 10 call girls.

All of the women, who come from France and Belgium, claim to have had paid sex with him while he was IMF chief.

But Strauss-Kahn’s lawyer, Henri Leclerc, said his client was ‘totally unaware’ that the women were receiving cash.

At these parties, people were not necessarily dressed, and I defy you to tell the difference between a naked prostitute and any other naked woman,’ said Mr Leclerc.

Strauss-Kahn admits taking part in orgies and said he had an ‘uninhibited sex life’, but that ‘he never paid a centime’ for it. ‘I have a horror of prostitutes and pimping,’ he said.

Strauss-Kahn, a leading member of the French Socialist Party who wanted to run for President this year, resigned from the IMF last May after being accused of raping Nafissatou Diallo, a 32-year-old chambermaid in a New York hotel.

The US case collapsed, but when he returned to France Tristane Banon, a 32-year-old writer, accused him of attempting to rape her.

Prosecutors found prima facie evidence of sexual assault, but said the alleged attack – which happened in 2003 - was too old to pursue.

Now Strauss-Kahn is at the centre of an entirely separate investigation into the prostitution ring which operated out of Lille’s upmarket Carlton Hotel.

executive is accused of using its money to entertain guests at the sex parties.
Strauss-Kahn, who is still facing a civil suit from the New York chamber maid, is said to have attended a number of the parties.

The last one he attended was in Washington in May, just before he was accused of attempted rape by Ms Diallo.

Prostitution is not illegal in France, but acting as a pimp – or somebody who controls prostitutes and makes money out of them – is.

There is also a suggestion that some of the girls involved in the Carlton ring may have been underage.

Strauss-Kahn had previously asked to be questioned by judges leading the inquiry into the so-called ‘Carlton Affair’, so as to put the record straight.

Strauss-Kahn has been keeping a low profile since returning from the U.S. living quietly in Paris with his wife, Anne Sinclair.

Ms Sinclair, a former TV presenter who now runs a news website in the French capital, has caused astonishment by staying with her husband, despite him admitting to numerous affairs.