Wal-Mart loses trademark on smiley face

"In its claims for trademark infringement against an online parodist, Wal-Mart claimed that it had trademark rights in the ubiquitous yellow smiley face. Not only did Wal-Mart lose its case, the judge held it had no rights in the smiley face mark. The smiley face has been liberated!" "This ruling shows that even the biggest company in America is subject to parody, and that trademark rights must yield to the right of free speech. This is a resounding victory for First Amendment rights and sends a clear message to big corporations that would try to use their deep pockets to intimidate and silence their critics."

Tolls Going Up Today On NYC Bridges And Tunnels

March 15, 2008

At 3:00AM EST Today, cars crossing the Verrazano Narrows Bridge from Brooklyn to Staten Island will be charged $10, up from $9. Drivers using E-ZPass will pay $8.30, up from $8. That toll is only in one direction. Cash customers will pay $5 to cross the Triborough Bridge in each direction, up from $4.50. That toll also applies to the Whitestone Bridge, the Throgs Neck Bridge, the Queens Midtown Tunnel and the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel. The E-ZPass rate will be $4.15.

The MTA also has raised tolls at the Marine Parkway-Gil Hodges Memorial Bridge, the Henry Hudson Bridge and the Cross Bay Veterans Memorial Bridge.

NY State Thruway - Sloatsburg Gas Station Closed For Renovation

The gas station at the Sloatsburg travel plaza on the northbound New York State Thruway is closed starting today for renovation.

The station will reopen by Memorial Day. Other services at the travel plaza remain open. [record]

Newark Airport - Threat That on London-Newark Flight a Hoax

Newark Airport - An unspecified threat that forced passengers on a Continental Airlines flight from London to Newark to wait while their baggage was screened was determined to be bogus, officials said today.

Flight 115 landed at Newark Liberty International Airport at about 2:45 p.m. and was taken to a designated emergency area, according to Marc LaVorgna, spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the airport.

At least 8 Yeshiva Students killed, dozens injured, in Palestinian shooting attack at Yeshivat Merkaz Harav in Kiryat Moshe, Jerusalem

March 6, 2008, 11:20 PM (GMT+02:00) Of the many injured students, five are in critical or serious condition. A Palestinian gunman armed with a Kalashnikov gun and a bomb vest stormed the Yeshiva library Thursday night, March 6, and opened automatic fire in all directions at the scores of seminarists studying there. After several minutes, he was shot dead by a neighboring army officer. He has been identified as resident of the south Jerusalem suburb of Jebal Maqaber, bearer of an Israeli identity card. The Lebanese Hizballah’s TV station interrupted broadcasts to name the perpetrators of the attack as the “Imad Mughniyeh Liberators of Galilee.” Hamas came close to claiming responsibility for the terror attack, by issuing the following statement: “We bless the (Jerusalem) operation. It will not be the last.” In Gaza City, residents went out into the streets and fired rifles in celebration in the air and distributed sweets in the streets after hearing the “good news” of the attack. President Bush issued the following statement: “I condemn in the strongest possible terms the terrorist attack in Jerusalem that targeted innocent students at the Mercaz Harav Yeshiva. This barbaric and vicious attack on innocent civilians deserves the condemnation of every nation. I have just spoken with Prime Minister Olmert to extend my deepest condolences to the victims, their families, and to the people of Israel. I told him the United States stands firmly with Israel in the face of this terrible attack.” US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Thursday condemned the attack calling it an “act of terror and depravity.” One of the injured Bochrim in serious condition’s name for Tehillim is Yehonasan ben Avital.

New Jersey - Private School Busing State Regulations. Can this happen here?

New Jersey - Lakewood's Orthodox Jewish parents send their boys and girls to separate private schools, as their faith requires. To do so, they pay van operators to transport their children, but many drivers do not have commercial licenses or drive commercial vehicles.
When police found out, they began ticketing the drivers. Parents of the 15,000 Orthodox students in the Ocean County township complained, and the citations stopped.

Seventy miles away, in Dover in Morris County, the town's Latino parents have a similar dilemma but a different outcome.
Many of the 3,000 school-age children live within 2 miles of their school, which means they don't qualify for busing. So, parents pay van drivers there, too. Just like in Lakewood, the ticketing started, but in Dover it hasn't stopped.
Police say these vans don't use seat belts or car seats. They say they ticket drivers paid by parents because the exchange of money makes the drivers part of a business, and a business should have the proper commercial license.

Although our New York laws are different this issue can affect our local Monsey area where many parents create carpools or hire private vans for busing on days that the the public bus service does not run.

(Star Ledg)

Ramapo cabbie accused of trying to bribe police officer

RAMAPO - A cabdriver was accused yesterday of trying to avoid a potential $155 ticket by offering an officer $50, police said.

Abe Deen, 31, of 23 Washington Ave., New Square, has a traffic summons and is facing a felony bribery charge, police said.

Officer Christopher Franklin stopped an Emunah Transportation car at 10:33 a.m. yesterday on Union Road, said Sgt. Robert Lancia of the Ramapo police.

Franklin observed Deen make an illegal left turn onto Union from Old West Eckerson Road, Lancia said. Franklin was patrolling with the department canine, Shea.

Franklin approached the vehicle to get a license and other documents from the driver.

Sometime after that, Lancia said, Deen offered the officer $50 to not issue him a ticket.

Lancia, an officer since 1993, said he was shocked and surprised by the alleged offer.

"This is the first time in my career that I have heard of someone being offered a bribe," Lancia said. "Quite frankly, I am disgusted."

Franklin immediately arrested Deen, police said.

"He took the proper steps to make sure this was done correctly," Lancia said. "You can't buy a man's integrity."

Deen was charged with third-degree bribery, a felony, and failure to obey a traffic control device, a violation, Lancia said.

The felony bribery charge carries a potential state prison term.

The alleged traffic violation carries a potential $155 fine and two points on a license.

Deen was being held in the Ramapo police lockup pending arraignment in Ramapo Town Court on the felony charge.

JN

ASHAR FIRE UPDATE

RAMAPO - An electrical malfunction ignited the fire that destroyed a lunchroom and auditorium at an Orthodox Jewish day school earlier this month, Ramapo police said today.

A short among the wiring near the auditorium stage caused the fire Feb. 13 at the Adolph Schreiber Hebrew Academy at 70 Highview Ave.

The cause was determined following a joint investigation by the Ramapo police, the Sheriff's Department Bureau of Criminal Investigation's arson unit and investigators with Church Mutual Insurance.
(JN)

Suffern taxpayers paying Karben

Karben was retained by the village nearly a year ago as "special counsel" for legal issues related to the proposed project on Orange Avenue and has been paid with taxpayer dollars since the builder pulled out of the project in October.

Ginsburg Development Companies, then the prospective builder, established a $10,000 account with the village to pay Karben, who is also a former county legislator.

The company, though, pulled out of the project, citing the slumping real estate market. Suffern returned to Ginsburg $3,942 that was left in the account for Karben, then continued to pay Karben from the village's General Fund.

Karben has been paid $3,178 by Suffern, Village Treasurer Thomas Zordan said.

Trustee Jack Meehan was surprised that Karben was being paid by the village.

"There's been no vote by the village board to pay him," Meehan said. "My understanding, and I may have misunderstood, but my understanding was that he would not be paid with village funds, but strictly with funds from Ginsburg."

The continuation of Karben's employment has been unaffected by his Jan. 30 arrest on charges of driving while intoxicated.

(JN)

Suffern's immigration plan

(JN)

SUFFERN - Hispanic-immigrant advocates wary of the village's pursuit of a partnership with federal immigration enforcement want to meet with village officials to air their concerns.

Mayor John Keegan said Friday that he would welcome a private meeting with representatives of the Latino community. He said he also would be open to attending an informational forum for the general community.

Suffern wants to enroll in 287(g), a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement program to partner with local law enforcement. Under the partnership, village officers would be trained to identify criminals who are undocumented, detain them on immigration charges and start deportation proceedings.

Brooklyn, NY +Man Collapsed, Police Looking for Next-of-Kin+

Brooklyn, NY +Man Collapsed, Police Looking for Next-of-Kin+ NYPD of the 70th Pct, Flatbush Shomrim and Misaskim need the publics help for a man that collapsed near 1280 East 18th Street between Avenue "L" and Avenue "M" and was pronounced dead at Maimonides Hospital, but the aided didn't have any identification on him.

If anyone knows of a missing 45 to 50-year-old about 350lb with a small gray beard, please contect the NYPD of the 70th Pct at 718-851-5511

Jews in Syrian Town Face Persecution

According to press reports hundreds of Jews in the Syrian town of Al Qamishli, located near the Turkish border, face threats of annihilation. Their property has been appropriated and the police persecute them and throw many into prisons and torture chambers. The town's impressive beis knesses was commandeered by the army and turned into a horse barn, Rachmono litzlan, and according to recent reports four women from the town were arrested on charges of assisting their husbands to cross the border illegally. After five years of imprisonment and torture they were on the verge of losing their sanity.

Reports on developments in this community of 450 Jews are few and muddled. They are cut off from the rest of the world. Tourists and reporters are banned from entering the town's Jewish ghetto and the Jews are under house arrest, unauthorized to leave the town even for urgent medical care. Their stores have been confiscated and they are forbidden to engage in commerce, which is their only source of income. They are also forbidden to maintain ties with the local non- Jewish population. A curfew on them starts at dusk and spot checks are often conducted to ensure that they are at home. Many Jews caught trying to flee have been thrown into torture chambers.

(dei"ah Vdibur)

Lipa Schmeltzer Backs Out Of Big Event Concert!

February 24, 2008

There has been much talk regarding the Kol Koreh issued by Gedoley Yisroel banning the “Big Event Concert”.

Yeshiva World has reported that Lipa Schmeltzer has spoken to them and he has informed us that he will not be singing at the “Big Event Concert”. This decision was reached after he consulted with Daas Torah, and talking to leading Gedoley Yisroel.

(YWN)

United Water released too much Water from Lake DeForest

WEST NYACK - The state has ruled that United Water New York did indeed violate the terms of its permit by releasing too much water from the Lake DeForest reservoir into New Jersey.

County officials had reported the action out of concern for the local water supply, which relies primarily on the rain and snow that falls within Rockland's borders. The supply can be challenged if there has been low precipitation, and the temperature and demand for water soar.

United Water hired a consultant to review the releases and acknowledged it had sent more water than was allowed. The company then reduced the amount it released for 17 days to make up the deficit.

United Water must now appear before the state for a "compliance conference" to discuss a resolution to the violations, the Department of Environmental Conservation said.

The discharges took place last year between June 1 and Sept. 22, when the company released 231 million gallons more than it was allowed, according to a DEC notice of violation obtained by The Journal News under the Freedom of Information Law.

The DEC also ordered United Water to stop violating the conditions of its permit and to commit no further violations.

United Water provides drinking water to the majority of homes and businesses in Rockland. Lake DeForest can supply about one-third of the daily supply.

(JN)

Schools close tomorrow morning because of storm

February 21, 2008

The threat of a snowstorm has caused many Rockland schools to announced they will close and cancel transportation tomorrow.

Rockland residents on either the district's formal or informal e-mail notice list were alerted to the change early this afternoon.

The bus cancellations affect the private school students and the Yeshiva students.
Please call your school for updated information.

ASHAR finds temporary home in East Ramapo school

WESLEY HILLS - A group of boys and teachers from a local Orthodox Jewish day school gathered yesterday for a prayer service in the Lime Kiln Elementary School cafeteria.

On Feb. 12, a blaze tore through the gym and synagogue of the Adolph Schreiber Hebrew Academy of Rockland, destroying part of the building and leaving a stench of smoke throughout it.

While the building is being cleaned, East Ramapo's administrators offered ASHAR space at Lime Kiln, just up the road from the school, all this week during February vacation.

"Any opportunity that we have to settle things, ease problems, ease pain, reach out, that's the most gratifying thing in life and we work very hard at that in East Ramapo," Schools Superintendent Mitchell Schwartz said.

So while Lime Kiln's students were enjoying their break, ASHAR's staff and 350 students found a temporary home
(JN).

Ramapo supervisor and Suffern mayor at odds

RAMAPO - A rift appears to be growing between Supervisor Christopher St. Lawrence and Suffern Mayor John Keegan.

It revealed itself last week in St. Lawrence's criticism of Keegan for considering a sale of village water to United Water New York.

Keegan noted other matters that he thinks have put him in St. Lawrence's doghouse.

For one thing, the mayor wasn't thrilled that a clock the town installed with the village's permission broadcasts a greeting from St. Lawrence. Keegan has asked Ramapo to remove the recording.
"This is Ramapo Supervisor Christopher P. St. Lawrence wishing you a lovely day," the talking clock announces just a moment after the hour on mornings, afternoons and early evenings.

Ramapo's clock was installed last year. It's a 20-foot-tall, four-sided shining black beauty that cost the town's taxpayers nearly $30,000. It sits in a vest-pocket park on the southeast corner of the Orange Avenue intersection.

St. Lawrence said the town has installed seven clocks as part of a beautification campaign. He said he taped the recording for the Suffern clock because it was an available option.

"I kept it short, 2.8 seconds," St. Lawrence said.

The clock also plays short renditions of music.

St. Lawrence emphasized that he liked Keegan. His criticism of the potential water sale, St. Lawrence said, was not meant as an attack on the mayor.

Then St. Lawrence later suggested that Keegan wished to discourage Hispanics from being in the village.

"He called Elaine Silverberg (a St. Lawrence assistant) and said he didn't want Hispanic music played because he didn't want Hispanics to feel welcome in the village," St. Lawrence said.

"That's baloney," Keegan said, when called later. "I didn't say anything like that."

Keegan suggested that a reporter call Gail Curtin, the village's recreation director, who he said had handled Suffern's requests regarding the clock.

Curtin, contacted at home, said she couldn't say anything without having the paperwork, which she said was in her office.

Another potential sore point with St. Lawrence, Keegan said, was that the village had reduced town revenue last week when Suffern decided to have its own building and fire inspectors instead of part-time ones from the town.

During the past five years, the town got $685,236 for the services, Keegan said, mostly from a fee-splitting arrangement.

Village Treasurer Thomas Zordan expected Suffern would save about $70,000 annually, even after paying $65,000 for its two inspectors.

Keegan said he upset St. Lawrence because "I dumped his building inspector and his fire inspector."

St. Lawrence said the loss of town revenue didn't bother him.

"We were glad to help them," he said, "and if they need our help in the future we'll be there to help them again."

Keegan was still smarting yesterday from what he saw as a tongue lashing from St. Lawrence on local television and radio.

"We're only researching this thing," Keegan said of the water sale. "We haven't agreed to anything, and as mayor it's my responsibility to research ways to get out of a $630,000 (Water Department) deficit without raising rates that could go up as high as 26 percent."

Suffern could receive as much as $200,000 annually for providing water daily a few months of the year.

It seemed to Keegan that St. Lawrence should keep out of village affairs.

"I take offense at the way he did it," Keegan said. "There he was for about 15 minutes ripping me up."

St. Lawrence saw it differently.

"I'm not attacking the mayor," St. Lawrence said. "I'm attacking Suffern selling its water. I think it's bad public policy."

St. Lawrence said he was merely informing viewers of the Suffern Board of Trustees' March 10 meeting, when the water-sale issue will be open to public discussion.

A week earlier, on March 3, St. Lawrence will host his own meeting on the potential sale. That will be at 7 p.m. at the Ramapo Senior Center on Route 202 in Montebello, just outside Suffern.

"The public's invited," St. Lawrence said, "and I'll be sending an invitation to the mayor and village board."

(JN Tom Walsh)

Concert Banned! in New york

THE 'Big Event' Concert has been Banned

(VIN NEWS)

Palestinian missile attacks from Gaza more doubled in 2008

ISRAEL: Homeland Front commander Maj. Gen. Yair Golan reported to a Knesset panel Feb.19 that 400 Qassam missiles were fired at Israeli civilian locations bordering on the Gaza Strip in the first six weeks of 2008. This brings the monthly rate of fire to roughly 265 - more than double that of the last two years. If this rate is sustained, Sderot and its environs will be assaulted by more than 2,500 Palestinian missiles by the end of this year, compared a total of 1,500 missiles in 2006 and 1,150 in 2007. Already the average has risen. Monday, 16 Qassam missiles exploded on the Israeli side of the Gaza border causing heavy damage and tens of shock victims. (Debka)

Jewish Center In LA Firebombeb

No injures reported in attack being investigated as a hate crime

Tues., Feb. 19, 2008

LOS ANGELES - Someone threw a fiery object at a Jewish community center in the San Fernando Valley, and police are investigating the attack as a hate crime.

The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles says someone threw a Molotov cocktail at its community center in West Hills early Monday. No injuries or damages were reported.

Police spokesman Mike Lopez couldn't confirm whether the object was a Molotov cocktail. He says it was a flammable object which caught fire.

The city's police and fire departments are investigating the attack as a hate crime.

Ladentown dismissed by the Court of Appeals

February 19, 2008

RAMAPO - Supporters of the proposed village of Ladentown say they may keep fighting for incorporation despite a knockout punch by the state's highest court.

Plans for a village adjacent to Pomona in northern Ramapo germinated nearly six years ago in response to concerns about potential development on the 200-acre Patrick Farm.

It's a concern that continues and one that could withstand the Court of Appeals' decision not to review Supervisor Christopher St. Lawrence's rejection of a petition to incorporate the area as a village.

The court denied a request last week by James Barnard and other Ladentown supporters to hear their case after losses in state Supreme Court and in its Appellate Division, the first level for appeals.

"It's disappointing," Barnard said yesterday. "We thought it was an issue with statewide ramifications, and as such, one that the Court of Appeals would hear."

Free Online Access to U.S. Court Decisions

Activist to put more than 250 years of U.S. Supreme Court and U.S. appellate court decisions dating back to 1950 online

This week, Carl Malamud invites you to enhance your federal case law library by downloading millions of pages of decisions stretching back more than 250 years, all free of charge.

His latest online "public works" project is a Web site, public.resource.org, which will open up all Supreme Court opinions dating back to the 1700s and all U.S. appeals courts decisions dating back to 1950. The activist's efforts for the nonprofit group present a potential challenge to paid legal research services Thomson and LexisNexis.

Malamud's northern California-based group last week received full delivery of content from legal research company Fastcase, which agreed in November to sell the information with no strings attached. Malamud's group has spent the past several days reformatting the data to post on the Web site, an event that will occur sometime this week.

"We're about getting bulk data and making it available," free of charge, to the public, Malamud told the Law Tribune last week. "I want to see all federal case law downloadable in bulk."

By Douglas S. Malan
The Connecticut Law Tribune
February 19, 2008

Letter from HaRav Eliashiv shlita about Brain Death

I hereby reiterate my opinion, which I put on record on the eighteenth of Menachem Av 5751, that according to our holy Torah, as long as the heart beats, even though the patient has suffered brain death, there is no license whatsoever to remove any organ from his body.

May Hashem yisborach repair our nation's breaches.

(signed) Yosef Sholom Eliashiv

(Dei"ah veDibur)

Rockland families may get help in paying heating bills

February 18, 2008

Rockland County has received additional federal funds to allow low income families to apply for a second cash grant to help pay their heating bills.

HEAP the state's annual Home Energy Assistance Program, is run by the county Department of Social Services. The programs start every year in November and is typically a one-time grant.

The extra money will allow for a second emergency benefit for those eligible families that have received a HEAP grant this winter but are still unable to pay their heating bills.

"We are very thankful that New York State received this extra funding. This will allow numerous families here in Rockland to stay warm this winter," DSS Commissioner Susan Sherwood said in a statement.

Please say Tehillim For Tosher Rebbe

February 18, 2008

Please be Mispallel for the Tosher Rebbe Shlita - who was rushed by Hatzolah to Jewish General Hospital in Montreal on Monday morning with severe difficulty breathing. Unfortunately, his condition has deteriorated throughout the day, and is reportedly in critical condition. There will be Minyanim for Tehillim in all Tosher Batei Midrashim 5:15PM EST. Please be Mispallel for Mishulim Fayish ben Tzirel.

Cell Phone-Cancer Link Found by Tel Aviv University Scientist

A new study finds an association between heavy cell phone use and tumors

Thursday, February 14, 2008

An Israeli scientist, Dr. Siegal Sadetzki, has found a link between cell phone usage and the development of tumors.
Dr. Sadetzki, published the results of a study recently in the American Journal of Epidemiology, in which she and her colleagues found that heavy cell phone users were subject to a higher risk of benign and malignant tumors of the salivary gland.
Those who used a cell phone heavily on the side of the head where the tumor developed were found to have an increased risk of about 50% for developing a tumor of the main salivary gland (parotid), compared to those who did not use cell phones.

“This unique population has given us an indication that cell phone use is associated with cancer,” adds Sadetzki, whose study investigated nearly 500 people in Israel who had been diagnosed with benign and malignant tumors of the salivary gland.

The study also found an increased risk of cancer for heavy users who lived in rural areas. Due to fewer antennas, cell phones in rural areas need to emit more radiation to communicate effectively. Sadetzki predicts that, over time, the greatest effects will be found in heavy users and children.

“While I think this technology is here to stay,” Sadetzki says, “I believe precautions should be taken in order to diminish the exposure and lower the risk for health hazards.” She recommends that people use hands-free devices at all times, and when talking, hold the phone away from one’s body. Less frequent calls, shorter in duration, should also have some preventative effect.
Parents need to consider at what age their children start using them. Parents should be vigilant about their children’s using speakers or hands-free devices, and about limiting the number of calls and amount of time their children spend on the phone.

Village of Mamaroneck Former trustees write about the $4.75 million RLUIPA settlement

Previous village board was fully informed on lawsuit

By Philip Trifiletti • February 15, 2008

We, the undersigned former Village of Mamaroneck officials, collectively write to correct several misstatements and factual inaccuracies that have recently been made and printed in various newspapers and journals relative to the Westchester Day School case. During a majority of the time that the Westchester Day School case was being litigated, we collectively served as elected and appointed officials of the Village of Mamaroneck. (The village recently agreed to pay $4.75 million in damages to the school to settle a lawsuit brought under the federal Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000 - Editor.)RLUIPA

Some members of the current Village of Mamaroneck Board of Trustees have made serious disparaging statements, specifically, that the village's attorneys did not advise the members of the Board of Trustees and zoning board of the potential impact of losing the Westchester Day School case, and that a few residents influenced the village (members of the zoning board) to the detriment of the village at large.

The current members of the Board of Trustees who made these statements are incorrect, mistaken and/or misinformed. It is clear that these statements were made purely for political purposes and to justify a settlement of $4.75 million......

Classroom Teaches How to Detect Non-Kosher Suits

Lakewood, NJ - In a small basement, high school science lab, Rabbi Yoel Shocket holds up a navy blue pinstripe with a tag boasting 100 percent wool. A dissection of the lining inside the floating chest piece, however, reveals a cocktail of other fabrics, namely horse hair, acrylic and linen. It's the linen that bothers Shocket.

"This was sold as a kosher suit in Hong Kong,'' he said. "But it is only fulfilling the legal requirement, not the Torah requirement.''

Across the globe, rabbis and religious scholars are devoting large chunks of their lives to protecting an arcane Jewish called shatnez, the mixing of wool and linen is forbidden by the Torah, whether in garments, sofas, carpet, boots or baseball gloves. Yet the Federal Trade Commission often only requires labels to list materials comprising the shell of the product.

That has forced Orthodox Jewish communities to cultivate their own textile police. Over the years, they have grown under one organization, the NCSTAR, with their headquarters in a cramped basement of a private home in Lakewood.
There, Shocket and his NCSTAR co-director Yosef Sayagh, teach the laborious science of identifying shatnez. A typical training session involves three to six pupils bent over a microscope from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday through Thursday. Passing a final test will authorize them to begin an apprenticeship under a seasoned tester. xtease Intense screening.

Only three or four courses are offered each year. Students range from doctors, computer programmers and engineers to Hasidic rabbis and rabbinical college students. They are admitted after an intense round of screening that involves written recommendations and aptitude tests in dexterity, patience and eyesight.
There about 80 testing labs in the United States and Canada and another 62 abroad. Those labs not started by NCSTAR eventually joined the group.

Besides teaching, Shocket and Sayagh also police the local clothing shops and dry cleaners. Shocket said he visits about six stores every week, charging $15 to $40 to remove shatnez, which is most commonly found in higher end suits. [app]

Syria uses Mughniyeh death to further Syrian goals in Lebanon

February 18, 2008, 12:08 PM (GMT+02:00)

Military and intelligence sources report fears in Washington and Jerusalem that Bashar Assad’s strategists are working up a frame for anti-SyrianSyrian LebaneseLebanese forces, especially Druze leader WalidWalid JumblattJumblatt, for engineering the death of Hizballah commander ImadImad MughniyehMughniyeh in Damascus on Feb. 13. Therefore, while plotting revenge on Israel, Syria may well launch a series of military incursions, spearheaded by Hizballah, to achieve their shared goal of unseating the pro-WesternWestern FouadFouad SinioraSiniora government.

Is this typical Syrian opportunism or something more sinister? DirectorDirector ofof USUS NationalNational IntelligenceIntelligence MikeMike McConnellMcConnell suggested Sunday, Feb. 17, that while Hizballah is blaming Israel, “…there's some evidence that it may have been internal Hezbollah. It may have been Syria. We don't know yet, and we're trying to sort that out.” Meanwhile FBIFBI has put counter-terror squads on alert in the US.

Williamsburg: New Satmar Matzoh Bakery Destroyed In Fire

February 18, 2008

At approximately 4:30AM a massive fire broke out in the Satmar Matzoh Bakery in Williamsburg - causing extensive damage. The 3rd alarm fire which originated in the basement of 799 Kent Avenue, was contained to the basement (where the bakery is located) - and did not spread to the upstairs of the building - which is the home of the Krula Cheder. More than 100 members of the FDNY were called to battle the fire, and Williamsburg Hatzolah was called to the scene to stand-by.

The fire was placed under control at approximately 7:30AM, and only two firefighters suffered minor injuries.

A YWN reporter (YW-88) who was on the scene spoke with FDNY Battalion #57 about the damage. The Chief said that “although there were reports of the flames showing throughout the entire structure, it seems that the flames were travelling up to the roof through various chimneys from the bakery - thus saving the entire Cheder building.”

YW-112 spoke with the Krula Mosdos a few moments ago, and they advised YWN that due to the smoke damage in the Cheder building, classes will (most probably) be held at the Krula Bais Medrash - located at 127 Wallabout Street.

The Matzoh bakery is the bakery belonging to the Satmar Chassidim - under the leadership of the Satmar Rebbe of Kiryas Yoel Shlita - and bakes tens of thousands of pounds of Matzoh each year. The bakery is a fairly new bakery, and their main bakery is located in Kiryas Yoel.

HaRav Eliashiv Shlita Opposes Bill to Disconnect Brain-Dead Patients from Life Support

February 18, 2008

During a rabbinical conference held at a Dead Sea hotel MK Rabbi Moshe Gafni delivered a speech in which addressed the bill regarding brain-dead patients on respirators proposed by Otniel Schneller (Kadima), who was in attendance.

Rabbi Gafni objected to the position espoused by Schneller, who claimed that all gedolei Torah support the proposal. Rabbi Gafni said that in fact the opposite is true. Maran HaRav Eliashiv shlita issued instructions to oppose the law, saying that according to halochoh as long as the heart continues to beat the patient is considered alive in every respect and it is strictly forbidden to deny medical treatment, and as such UTJ has decided to oppose the bill.

Rabbi Gafni even called on every family who faces such situations, chas vesholom, to demand full treatment for the patient based on legal rights.

Letter from HaRav Eliashiv shlita about Brain Death

I hereby reiterate my opinion, which I put on record on the eighteenth of Menachem Av 5751, that according to our holy Torah, as long as the heart beats, even though the patient has suffered brain death, there is no license whatsoever to remove any organ from his body.

May Hashem yisborach repair our nation’s breaches.

(signed) Yosef Sholom Eliashiv

(Yechiel Sever for Dei’ah veDibur)

Good Sam Hospital gives MedJetAssist membership

SUFFERN - Starting this month, heart patients will get more than a bill and stack of instructions when they leave Good Samaritan Hospital.

Now they are also getting free membership in a company that will provide emergency care and medical evacuation anywhere in the world when they travel more than 150 miles from home.

"It's an added patient benefit to extend care far beyond the walls of the hospital," said Sandi Jeanette, community liason for the hospital's cardiac care center.

The hospital has already started to offer the plan to patients leaving the heart center. The arrangement with MedJetAssist, an Alabama-based company, gives patients a one-year membership.

That membership guarantees that the company will send a medically equipped and staffed aircraft to transport any sick or injured person covered by the plan and take that person to whatever hospital he or she chooses at no cost.

"We think it's a terrific expression of confidence in the hospital," said Joe Allen, vice president of community affairs at Active International, a Pearl River marketing and corporate trading company and leading contributor to the heart center at Good Samaritan, which bears its name. "If you have surgery at the Active International Cardiovascular Institute and you need help while you are traveling, they will come and get you."

Under the plan, people can be taken to whatever hospital they choose for medical care if they fall sick or are injured while traveling.

Patients have 60 days after they leave the hospital to activate the plans.

Emergency medical transportation can cost $20,000 domestically and more than $75,000 internationally, according to MedJetAssist.

Active International bought the memberships and donated them to Good Sam.

The hospital started offering the membership to patients who were being discharged from the heart center earlier this month.

Say Tehillim For Rav Elya Svei Shlita

The public is asked to be Mispallel for Hagon Rav Elya Svei Shlita, Rosh Yeshivas Philadelphia who was hospitalized last night. Although the Rosh Yeshivas condition was serious last night, YWN has confirmed, that as of this posting (9:00AM EST) his condition has B”H stabilized. His name for Tehillim is Eliyahu ben Malka. (YWN)

Kiryas Joel, NY - Satmar Issues New Wedding 'Takanos'

Kiryas Joel, NY - A chief rabbi of the Satmar Hasidim has decreed new laws to cut down on the increasingly extravagant cost of weddings among Hasidic Jews.

Rebbe Aaron Teitelbaum issued his new laws last month in a recording accessed by phone. More than 40,000 calls came in, many of them broadcast inside synagogues in the United States, Europe and Israel.

The new rules:

Engagement: Only light refreshments - soda and cookies - can be served at engagement parties.

Gifts: No other gifts should be given except four pieces of jewelry: a watch, a pearl necklace, earrings and engagement ring with a cubic zirconia diamond for the bride; and the book of oral law, a Sabbath blessing cup and a menorah for the groom (in addition to the customary gift of prayer garments and accessories).

The wedding banquet: The last grace should occur no later than 11 p.m., and the wedding shall end no later than 1:30 a.m. During the mitzvah dance, grandfathers should dance first, followed by all other male relatives together (and not individually) with the bride, then the father of the bride, then the father of the groom.

Such decrees, known as "takanos," are embraced by Hasidic cultures that see them as effective means of addressing social ills, said Rachel Freier, a Hasidic attorney who works in Kiryas Joel. They usually follow grass-roots efforts to bring the problems of commoners to the clerical leadership's attention, she said.

"It's, 'Tell us, we need limitations to help us avoid problems,' " Freier said.

"What used to be affordable many years ago is now not," Freier said. She declined to estimate the cost of Hasidic weddings because of the range of family incomes, as well as to avoid embarrassment for her culture, she said.

Kiryas Joel residents usually spend less on weddings than Hasidim living in Brooklyn, where Freier lives, she said. [Record]

Baltimore: Yeshiva Bochrim Involved In Serious Accident

February 17, 2008

What could have ended in tragedy - ended in a miracle this afternoon. We have learned that a vehicle carrying Bochrim from Yeshiva Ner Yisroel in Baltimore was travelling to Lakewood for a Chasunah. At some point in the state of Delaware, on I95, the vehicle was involved in a major accident - totaling the vehicle. Bichasdei Hashem all the Bochrim were able to extricate themselves from the vehicle - all with no injuries.

A charter bus that was travelling from Baltimore to Lakewood for the same Chasunah, stopped off to pick up the Bochrim and took them to the Chasunah.