Happy Hanukkah From Tiger
The UOJ Archives - October 2008
LUBINSKY PULLS OLD RUBASHKIN ADS! OU CERTIFIES KOSHER - LIQUID JEL PRISON SOAP! STRONGLY DISCOURAGES USE OF BAR SOAP WHILE IN PRISON!
THE POSTVILLE HORA & FABRENGEN AT THE LOCAL YMCA!
BUY RUBASHKIN CAR - GET OU CERTIFIED MEAT!
SHMUEL BOOM BOOM BLOOM - AGUDATH ISRAEL V.P. GRAZING AT A RUBASHKIN AFFILIATE - BERGER KING!
Sholom Rubashkin - "IF NAILED, I'LL BE BACK"!
BOROUGH PARK YENTAS IN RUBASHKIN'S DELI! WHERE'S THE BEEF? SUCH A GONIFF!
Three Rubashkin mashgichim were picked up during the raid. Two had failed to renew their R-1 visas, and one was thought to have crossed into the US from Canada on a tourist visa. It is unclear which of the three is Ginter. Rubashkin cronies are making a big deal about his release even though it could just be for lack of evidence.
ReplyDeleteAgriprocessors did not volunteer meat for flood victims on its own. The suggestion came from their PR people. Agri did not volunteer meat to the Food Pantry in Postvillle for victims of the raid - the suggestion had to come from others. The aid was certainly gratefuly accepted and needed but the idea did not come from some altruistic epiphany of the Rubashkins. It came as a result of a cold, hard business decision that it would help their public image. And, it followed well after the tens of thousands of dollars sent by Jews across the country to St. Bridget's to ease the plight of these unfortunate victims of Rubashkin's exploitation.
Rubashkin was not the first to offer help, he was the last.
Rabbi Mendel Samuels writes about a visit Rabbi Seth Mandel, the head of shechita for the OU, paid to Hartford, Connecticut this week:
ReplyDeleteWe would like to take this opportunity to thank Rabbi Yitzchok Adler for taking the initiative by bringing Rabbi Seth Mandell of the OU, to our community, to clear up any and all issues regarding Rubashkin Meat. Rabbi Mandell assured us that the many articles were “Loshen Harah” by people who are looking, for personal reasons, to hurt and damage the Rubashkin Name, and that the OU stands by and maintains that they continue to have the highest standards of Kashrus.
http://blogs.jta.org/telegraph/2008/06/18/484/this-week-in-postville-what-the-ou-is-telling-rabbis/
Ben Harris, who posted the above email on his JTA blog a few minutes ago, asked Rabbi Menachem Genack, the CEO of OU Kosher, about Mandel's visit and his reported statements. According to Harris, Genack told him:
…[T]he “people” Mandel was probably referring to is PETA, which first drew unwanted attention to the company in 2004 with an undercover video shot in the plant, and the food workers’ union, which has waged a long and still unsuccessful campaign to organizers Agri’s workers. As for the “any and all issues” comment, Genack says that’s not the OU’s position. He declined to be more specific on the record about the OU’s outstanding issues with the way the plant has been run, though he said, as he has repeatedly throughout, that the kashrut of the meat is not in question.
In any case, the impression Mandel appears to have left, and that Samuels is pushing, is that there’s no reason to be concerned about Rubashkin’s — the meat is kosher, the allegations are unproven, and, anyway, those folks who are making them have an agenda.…
Who is Rabbi Seth Mandel?
He's the rabbi who claimed Rubashkin was not using a meat hook to probe the open shechita wounds of fully conscious cattle.
Rabbi Seth Mandel was lying.
And that is some of the "lashon hara" Seth Mandel doesn't want you to see or hear.
UPDATE (June 20): In an email yesterday, Mandel writes that his conversation in Hartford was private and that the rabbis assured him his comments would not be publicized. The Samuels email “did not represent what I said,” he wrote. Mandel says he never said that “any and all” of the allegations are slanderous, merely that people should reserve judgment until the facts are established.
http://www.ameinu.net/newsalert.php?newsalertid=23
ReplyDeleteAmeinu, the American wing of the World Labor Zionist movement, has issued a statement urging Jewish groups not to patronize Agri. We’ve also heard that another summer camp, the Conservative Ramah Darom in Georgia, turned away a shipment from Agri. Our gut here is that this is likely to further convince the company’s defenders that Jewish outrage over this issue is simply an opportunistic pile-on for liberal groups.
http://blogs.jta.org/telegraph/2008/06/18/484/this-week-in-postville-what-the-ou-is-telling-rabbis/
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile, some of the most damning evidence of an impending shortage emerged last week when we discovered that FreshDirect, the popular Internet retailer that gets all its kosher meat from Agri, has some 40 kosher meat products listed as currently unavailable. No worries if you’re planning to serve glatt kosher beef neck bones this Shabbos, the supply of which seems to be holding. (NOTE: If you follow that link, you need to type in a NYC zip code to see the page. If you’re outside the city, use mine: 11215).
Engelmayer, who has been fighting against R' Moishe Feinstein's wishes that an eruv not be established on the Lower East Side, was last seen acting as the official attack dog against critics of the OU when the French bastards at Le Marais were exposed selling treif.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.chabad.org/news/article_cdo/aid/689930/jewish/Flood-Relief-Mounts.htm
“Agriprocessors is proud to serve the greater good,” said Juda Engelmayer, a spokesman for the Postville, Iowa-based Agriprocessors, the largest kosher slaughterhouse in the United States. “The people need our help right now.”
Rubashkin Son-In-Law Rabbi Milton Balkany Threatens Orthodox Rubashkin Boycott Leaders – Rubashkin PR Flack Menachem Lubinsky Plays Holocaust Card
ReplyDeleteBalkany, another Aaron Rubashkin son-in-law Sholom Baer Minkowitz, and Rubaskin PR flack Menachem Lubinsky met last week with the leaders of Uri L'Tzedek, as the Forward reports:
http://www.forward.com/articles/13619/
Uri L’Tzedek’s willingness to organize a boycott seems to have succeeded in persuading the often unreachable Agriprocessors leadership to sit down and talk. The meeting marked the first time since the raid that Agriprocessors has agreed to talk with any of the Jewish groups calling for reform at the plant.
In attendance on the Agriprocessors side were Menachem Lubinsky, a consultant to the company; David Oberman, director of operations and sales; Sholom Baer Minkowitz, a son-in-law of Aaron Rubashkin and director of New York operations, and another son-in-law, Milton Balkany, who has no official position within the company. Balkany, the first person affiliated with Agriprocessors to make contact with Uri L’Tzedek, is something of a public figure apart from his connection to the company. A prominent figure within the Brooklyn Lubavitch world, and a major Republican campaign donor, he made headlines in 2003 when he was charged by the federal government with embezzling $700,000 from an Orthodox girls’ school. [The grant was for educating disabled children. Balkany distributed the money among his family and used large chunks of it for his personal expenses.] After issuing an apology and making restitution, he was not prosecuted and remains dean of the school.
Shmuly Yanklowitz and Ari Hart, co-directors of Uri L’Tzedek and students at the Manhattan liberal Orthodox seminary Yeshivat Chovevei Torah, along with Jason Herman, a young pulpit rabbi, represented the organization.
According to both parties, the conversation was frequently acrimonious.
“They came in trying to intimidate us,” Yanklowitz said.
According to the rabbinical students, Balkany at one point made an ominous reference to “the last guy who went up against my father-in-law.” Balkany denies having made any sort of threat, maintaining that he had referred only to a business loss that a Rubashkin competitor had suffered.
In a conversation with the Forward, Balkany dismissed Uri L’Tzedek as being too far to the left for its positions to be relevant within the rest of the Orthodox community. Lubinsky invoked the Nuremberg Laws in his criticism of the calls for a boycott.
“As someone whose grandparents suffered greatly during the German boycotts, I don’t even like to hear that word,” Lubinsky said.
Lubinsky suggested that if company representatives had anticipated that Uri L’Tzedek would report to the media about the meeting, they would not have agreed to meet.
Whether anything will significantly change at Agriprocessors because of the meeting remains unclear. The company agreed to draft a document stipulating its workers’ rights policies and to send it to Uri L’Tzedek within 48 hours after the conversation. To date, the document has not arrived.
http://failedmessiah.typepad.com/failed_messiahcom/2008/06/rubashkin-son-i.html
Lubinsky has a long history of taking money from Rubashkin while at the same time "reporting" on Agriprocesors in his Kosher Today newsletter – all without any disclosure of his financial ties to Agriprocessors and Rubashkin.
Balkany US DOJ Indictment Press Release:
Balkany 2003 Federal Charges-1.pdf
More on Rabbi Milton "Yehoshua" Balkany, including his attempt to use a beit din (religious court) to force an aide to a US Senator to do Balkany's political bidding.
1. Calling Balkany a "prominent figure in the Brooklyn Lubavitcher world" isn't quite accurate. Balkany is not a Lubavitcher and never has been. He married a Lubavitcher and agreed as part of the marriage deal to bring his children up as Lubavitchers, which he has done.
ReplyDelete2. Lubinsky's comment that he doesn't like to hear about boycotts is ironic. The Rubashkins are, after all, Lubavitchers, and Lubavitch twice instituted a boycott of Satmar-Hisachuds products. In 1977, when the Lubie-Sat wars broke out, the Vaad Rabonei Lubavitch started giving its own hasgocha on milk and dairy products, in order to allow Lubavitchers to stop using Golden Flow and J&J (both under Satmar-Hisachdus). They stopped using pretty mucy all other Satmar products as well.
Again, in 1983, when two Lubies suffered the loss of their beards in felonious assaults (which were eventually traced to a lunatic with no Satmar connection) The Lubavitcher Vaad announced a formal boycott on all products under the Satmar-Hisachdus hashgocha. This time, the boycott was published by advertisement in various newspapers, and specific products were listed. The Vaad's proclamation said that since the Satmar leadership did not denounce the activities of a half dozen goons vociferously enough, the entire Satmar leadership had to bear the blame.
I respectfully request that you remove the image of the toeiva. Not because of any religious discrimination but because it is beneath us, as Jews, to promote any other belief, in any form, that is antagonistic to Jews. It has been noted, by many, that this image is a reminder to these followers that all Jews must wind up in similar circumstances for complete salvation to occur and for the return of their representation of human deification to return. It is an abomination to watch this suffering Jew used as a symbol for another's absolution. It is a fundamental premise in that belief system that we must be in this position for them to be absolved and to gain Heaven. Let them rot, please remove the picture.
ReplyDeleteBoruch:
ReplyDeleteFrom the correct historical perspective - approximately 250,000 people or more, of all race and creed, were executed by the Romans during their rule - by crucifixion.
And I believe - the Yushka story; he was either non-existent or pure fabrication, from peasants with too much time on their hands.
So.... posting an outrageous lie of a symbol - corresponds with what Lubinsky is trying to "resurrect" in Putzville, Iowa.
Lighten up...
Good Shabbos
UOJ,
ReplyDeleteDon't misunderstand, I appreciate your intention to post a lie of a symbol to corroborate Lubinsky duplicity regarding Rubashkin. You could as easily post a picture of Hillary for the same effect, or Bill. The historical perspective of crucifixation is at issue. The Romans, the Huns, the Chinese, the Macedonians all practiced barbarism at one time or another and this form of slow asphyxiation was used. Not my issue. My issue and the issue I am trying to put across is that this toeiva warms the cockles of a Catholic's heart as he sees this suffering Jew dying for his absolution. He then, with the approval of his lot, wishes this on all of us. This is doctrine to them; that's why they wear the damn thing to remind them that until all Jews suffer the same fate, they are absolved and God won't come back.
So why should we show it?
Boruch:
ReplyDeleteAs time progresses, this symbol of nonsense, will become the symbol of everything that's wrong with religious fabrication. As I said many times, the masses are asses, that includes all masses - from whatever belief system they adhere to.
My intention is to destroy - as much as one person is able to do - the notion that if a majority of people believe something is right - that majority opinion wins.
Just the opposite - for most of my life - I was able to demonstrate over and over that the majority, the vast majority of people are ignorant and unabashed fools.
Pardon if you don't agree; that's fine too.
Respectfully
http://uriltzedek.webnode.com/information-on-the-agriprocessor-effort/
ReplyDeleteKosher meat suppliers besides Rubashkins:
Empire Poultry, Alle Packaging, Meal Mart, Vineland, Kiryas Joel chicken, Marvid chicken, Chai Chicken, International Glatt, Wise Organic, Solomon's Natural, 999, Kol Foods, Kosherbison.com
New York meat restaurants that currently do not purchase Rubashkins meat:
University Pita 21 E. 12 – 5th and University plaza
Mr. Broadway/Me Tsu Yan 1372 Broadway - @ 37th and 38th
Abigael’s on Broadway – 1407 Broadway
Dougie's - 74 W. 47th.
Kosher Deluxe - 10 W. 46th
Nargila Grill - 1559 York Avenue
Kosher Delight - 1359 Broadway
Colbeh - 43 W. 39th
Levanah – 141 W. 69th St.
Cafe Classico – 35 W. 57th
Village Crown – 216 E. 49th, 2nd floor
Chap a Nosh - 1424 Elm Avenue, Brooklyn
Glatt Kosher Subway - 937 Kings Highway
New Jersey restaurants that currently do not purchase Rubashkins meat:
Glatt World - 89 Newbridge Road Bergenfield, NJ
Atlanta area restaurants that currently do not purchase Rubashkins meat:
Publix Kosher Deli - 2969 N. Druid Hills Road
Rabbi Dr. Seth Mandel mentioned in the above comments IS the same Seth Mandel whose 13 year old son Coby was murdered by Palestinian terrorists.
ReplyDeleteHe is head of all shechita at the OU. According to Rabbi Yudel Shain, Mandel is disgusted by Rubashkin and the OU cover up policy but he plays along with it to keep his job.
"Putzville, Iowa"
ReplyDeleteLet's move on to more important questions.
ReplyDeleteAre there any bungalow colonies in Iowa?
As reported by Shmarya:
ReplyDelete------------------------------
Agriprocessors Official Who Sold Used Cars and Favors Has Fled the Country, Residents Say
by: Lynda Waddington
Jun 20, 2008 at 07:00 AM
Employee under investigation 'was selling my people junk'
A former supervisor at the Postville meatpacking plant raided by federal agents last month has fled the country, Iowa Independent has learned.
The supervisor, Hasom Amara, sometimes required workers to buy illicitly registered cars as a condition of work, three former workers have told the Iowa Independent. Their stories corroborate allegations first made by a federal immigration agent in the search warrant obtained for the May 12 raid at the Agriprocessors Inc. facility in which 389 workers were detained.
Such activities may have broken the law, immigration agent David Hoagland stated in a sworn affidavit in support of the search warrant used in the raid.
“There is probable cause to believe an Agriprocessors supervisor has assisted, for a cut of the proceeds, illegal aliens in obtaining false documentation in relation to purchasing vehicle, and thereby has aided in the harboring of illegal aliens,” Hoagland said.
The supervisor was identified only as “C” in search warrant affidavit. In separate interviews, the three workers identified Amara, a 44-year-old supervisor at Agriprocessors, as the chief car salesman.
Amara left the United States and is now in Israel, according to five people in Postville who know him or his wife. These sources also confirmed that Amara’s wife did not travel immediately to Israel with her husband, but remained in Iowa to pack the family’s belongings. The sources asked their names not be published, citing a fear of retaliation from Agriprocessors.
The Postville plant, owned and operated by the Rubashkin family, is one the leading manufacturers of kosher food in the country. Members of the Rubashkin family have donated more than $120,000 to the Iowa Republican Party and Republican office holders in recent years and a smaller amount to Democratic Gov. Chet Culver and Lt. Gov. Patty Judge.
Congressman Bruce Braley, a Democrat whose district includes part of Postville, has been the most vocal of Iowa's federal delegation in calling for a full investigation of Agriprocessors. U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin has also called on federal officials to investigate the plant following the raid. Congressman Tom Latham, a Republican whose district includes the other portion of Postville, stopped short of calling for an investigation, but has proclaimed the immigration system "broken." Several local residents have told news organizations that they have been called to testify before a grand jury, a sign that the company is under investigation.
Amara’s automobile business was common knowledge in Postville, according to former employees.
“Everyone knew that if you wanted better conditions -- or even if you wanted a job at the plant -- you bought a car from Hasom,” a 26-year-old former worker from Mexico said in a taped interview. “Then you could get what you wanted."
According to this man who was not detained in the May 12 raid, a male relative, also from Mexico, came to Postville in search of work and was told there were no jobs available.
"I spoke to him, and I said that I knew a way he could get a job," the former worker recalled. "He told me that he knew what he had to do. He went to Hasom and, without asking for a job, said that he wanted to buy a car. Hasom asked him what car he wanted and, a day or two later, the car arrived.”
Only after the deal on the vehicle had taken place did the undocumented worker approach Amara about employment at the plant.
“When he went to pick up the car, he told Hasom that he'd really like a job at Agri, but that human resources had told him there were no jobs available,” the worker explained. “Hasom told him to come to Agri the next day and be ready to work. He did, and he started working that same day."
Chaim Abrahams, a spokesman for Agriprocessors, declined to answer questions about Amara, stating in an e-mail that "the company is performing an independent investigation and will continue to cooperate with the government about this matter.”
The Iowa Department of Transportation began investigating possible document fraud involving vehicles owned by Agriprocessors employees in September 2005, according to Hoagland’s affidavit. One worker interviewed in the probe reported being told by other workers that “in order to get a favorable position in the plant” he or she “would have to purchase a car from the supervisor.”
In the interview with Iowa Independent, the former worker, who claimed to have begun his career at Agriprocessors as a teenager, said that he was approached “a couple of years ago” by the company’s human resources director, Elizabeth Billmeyer, and another member of plant management, who asked him explain "what was going on with the cars."
"I told her and him exactly what I'm telling to you today," the man said. "I told them that Hasom Amara was selling cars to workers in exchange for better treatment."
He said he spoke out because of a belief that Amara would be punished for what he was doing.
"I was so stupid," he added. "I thought he would get in trouble -- maybe even get fired for what he was doing. That's not what happened at all.”
A request for comment from Agriprocessors on Billmeyer's involvement and knowledge of the car sales was acknowledged with the prepared statement of Abrahams that is quoted above.
In a separate interview, another former worker said he also spoke with Billmeyer and another company official about the car sales.
"I told them that the cars were junk and that the workers were paying too much," said the man, a native of Guatemala who was not arrested in the May 12 raid. "I told them everything I knew about the cars because I wanted Hasom to be punished for what he was doing. I was angry. I'm still angry."
A third former plant worker, a 20-year-old male, said he traveled with Amara to Cedar Rapids for the purpose of driving the vehicles into Postville for delivery to the workers.
"It wasn't a dealership," he said in a recorded interview through a translator. "We picked up the cars at a junk yard. The cars were not good -- crap."
The worker said he confronted Amara after driving the vehicle to Postville.
“I told him that I was going to turn him in because he was selling my people junk,” the man said. Amara’s response to this threat, if any, is unknown because Iowa Independent’s interview abruptly ended when the former worker’s attorney arrived.
DOT investigators audited a Cedar Rapids business, identified only as "dealership,” according to the search warrant affidavit, and determined that roughly 90 percent of the organization's sales came from Postville residents. Investigators also determined that the Agriprocessors supervisor and "dealership" owner were friends.
In the affidavit, a confidential source described registering the cars in Burlington in southeastern Iowa using the addresses of friends. When the registration documents arrived, the source shipped them back to Postville. The source said he had done this more than 200 times.
Two of the former workers also corroborated a story reported by Postville radio station KPVL that employees of Agriprocessors were supplying undocumented workers with falsified documents. Both men said that they were paid in cash when they first started working for the company. After a few months, the workers were asked if they wanted a raise in pay. After the men agreed, they said they were given documents by Agriprocessors and then began to receive their pay by check.
"They knew from the beginning who and what we were," one of the former workers said. "They didn't care. They wanted us because we work hard and for not much money. They wanted us because we couldn't complain."
Spokesmen with the U.S. Attorney's Office of Northern Iowa and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said they could not comment on questions about an ongoing investigation.
Calif officials: Bureaucracy failed abused boy, age 5
ReplyDeleteBy ALLISON HOFFMAN, Associated Press Writer
LOS ANGELES - The little boy's body was a study in pain. He was covered in cigarette burns, including to his genitals. He couldn't fully open his hand because it had been burned on a stove. His tooth was broken with a nerve exposed. And he had been made to sit in his own urine and feces, authorities say.
As the 5-year-old remains hospitalized by kidney failure brought on from malnutrition, two county supervisors are blaming welfare and law enforcement agencies for missing earlier chances to rescue the child from what police say were months of "unbearable psychological and physical abuse."
The case came to light after a woman called a hotline June 4, saying the boy told her at a commuter train station that his mother had burned his hand on top of a stove.
Summoned to a county Department of Children and Family Services office, authorities say Starkeisha Brown brought her baby sitter's healthy 4-year-old son and daughter and tried to pass them off as her own.
Brown and her girlfriend ran from the office when a social worker questioned whether the child was really Brown's, authorities say. The boy was found nearby, after someone called 911 to report that a sick child with bruises had been left with a homeless person.
The child was taken to a hospital with a round belly common in cases of severe malnutrition. Police were shocked by injuries that showed the abuse was horrific and prolonged.
"I've never seen anyone with these kinds of injuries who has lived," Assistant Police Chief James McDonnell told reporters last week. "This kid must have a tremendous will to live, to be able to still hang on despite what he's been through."
The anonymous June 4 call was the second public tip that the boy was at risk.
DCFS is investigating why no one followed up an initial case review after a tip in November 2005 that the boy was neglected and at risk while in the care of his grandmother, who took the boy in after his mother was arrested for shoplifting.
An array of other agencies missed their chance to intervene, said Gloria Molina, a member of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, including the state Department of Corrections and the county's Department of Probation, Department of Mental Health and foster care agencies that had case files for Brown and the two other women charged in the case.
"Why was there no intervention? It shouldn't have to be from the hotline," Molina said.
Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky blamed a "silo" mentality of agencies that do not reflexively alert one another to potential risks posed by cases.
Others missed chances to stop the torture. The boy's great-grandmother and two caretakers told the Los Angeles Times they saw scratches on his body, a large knot on his forehead and other warning signs but didn't want to believe he was abused.
"I don't really know what I was thinking," Donna Hunter, who took turn taking care of the child with his great-grandmother while his mother was in prison.
Brown, 24, turned herself in to police June 13. A woman authorities describe as her live-in girlfriend, 24-year-old Krystal Matthews, was arrested later. Both were charged with one count each of torture, child abuse, corporal injury to a child, dissuading a witness, and two counts each of conspiracy. They face 25 years to life in prison if convicted.
Brown's attorney, Donald Herzstein, and a public defender assigned to Matthews both declined comment earlier this week.
Both women have criminal records. Matthews was sentenced to three years of probation earlier this year for assault with a deadly weapon, according to court documents.
The boy's mother served 2 1/2 years in prison for felony robbery of an elderly woman in 2003 and for petty theft.
A third woman, LaTanya Jones, 26, was arrested in the case Tuesday. Authorities said they believe Jones, described as a baby sitter, disfigured the boy's hand by holding it to the stove. She has been charged with child abuse, corporal injury to a child and conspiracy to dissuade a witness.
Jones was ordered held on $180,000 bail Thursday. A sheriff's deputy at the jail did not know if she had an attorney.
Jones' son, who Brown allegedly tried to claim was hers, and a daughter have both been taken into protective custody.
As for the 5-year-old, authorities describe him as withdrawn and shy but plays with people he trusts. He has a healthy appetite and began walking over the weekend with a slight limp. His burnt hand is healing well and regaining its range of motion.
____
Associated Press writers Raquel Maria Dillon and Greg Risling contributed to the report.
Where do they get all these stories from?
ReplyDeleteNext they're going to say I forced people to buy Rubashkin trucks.
Ken Yerbu,
ReplyDeleteWhat about David Elliot's poultry?
http://start.telsheyeshiva.com/
ReplyDeleteTHE PEOPLE WHO RUN TELSHE TODAY
Rabbi Levitansky the Rosh Mesivta together with Mr. Yona Schenbaum director of Camp Kol Torah and Mr. Moshe R. Barkin were seen trying to break into the bookkeeper's office Wednesday night the day after the lock on the door was changed. Late Thursday night 2 goyim were seen by one of the employees of the yeshiva hanging around the back of the kitchen when asked why they were there they did not give an answer he then called the administrator and the police and when asked by the administrator why they were there they said something about fixing air conditioners he told them they are lying because he never called them. When the police arrived the goyim told the police they were hired to break into an office. Soon after Levitansky was seen arriving. It seems they are trying to get to the computer of the bookkeeper.
This happens after months of not paying the rabbim and bills and getting shutoff notices from the gas and water companies!
The 10th 11th & 12th graders are leaving the Mesivta and the Bais Medrash has about 15 Bouchurim left
"The Yeshiva is about to declare bankruptcy"
It is not known if Camp Kol Torah will end up opening this summer if they end up declaring bankruptcy before the end of the zman.
For more information and updates about Telshe Yeshiva email info@telsheyeshiva.com
The efforts of Uri Le’Tzedek are troubling for a host of reasons. First they no firsthand knowledge of the plant. They seem to be working together with the new Conservative Heksher Tzedek which is led by a Conservative rabbi Maurice Allen. He has been working hand in hand with a union is trying to take over the meat plant in Iowa. He went to Postvile and pronounced judgment after interviewing workers pre-screened by the Union in a church. Allen himself according to media reports eats in non kosher restaurants and preforms gay commitments ceremonies.
ReplyDeleteThere may be a more deeper agenda by the Uri which is part of the new left winged rabbinical school with serious issues. Its well known in the Orthodox community that their graduates are not being in accepted by the major groups as Rabbonim. In fact their are reports of some synagogue groups demanding an additional smicha. Being on the fringe of Orthodoxy they are trying to muscle their way in with a new ethical standard, much the same as their partners in the Conservative movement.
Rubashkins must follow all Federal and State Law. There has been no prosecution that the workers are being paid below legal wage. Its a story floating around on blogs. Its seems Rubashkin has failed to tell its side of the story. Without knowing that firsthand one cannot draw judgment.
What we really have a group of liberal rabbis with an agenda of social engineering, a union,a group of students from a rabbinical school that many are not recognizing and PETA are in a political coalition. Sounds quite ominous.
To be continued
Part 2
ReplyDeleteThere has not been, to date, one iota of evidence presented that, as the Uri boys put it, the Rubashkins “knowingly” hired illegals. They, like many employers, hired foreigners who presented proper papers. It is not an employer’s responsibility to play private investigator.
Nor have any of the union/employees’ claims of economic or physical abuse been taken from the level of accusation to anything higher. The future might show otherwise, but the point of the posting is that at this point it is wrong to in effect accept the accusations as facts, make demands of the company and threaten it. Those who are doing so are simply tzaddik-wannabees, trying to present themselves as righteous (and of course important). If the really aspire to tzidkut, they should go back to the beit medrash and begin by learning the laws of motzi shem ra and those about the issur or causing financial loss to others.
If anyone wants to personally think negatively about Agriprocessors, with regard to kashrut or business ethics, that’s his business. But the concerted effort to make a villain of it is wrong — especially from a Jewish perspective, as yeshiva boys (what the Uri’s aspire to be seen as) should know.
Lets get real here. PETA wants to do away with kosher slaughter. The Union wants to take over the plant. The Conservative movement trying to muscle its way back into Kashruth. And a group of students from a liberal Yeshiva that needs credibility since its students are not being being employed as Mashgichim by any national Kashruth agency. And these students, who have decided, based on the statements of a union and Conservative rabbi who eats non kosher, that they know what has to change, or else they will launch a boycott.
How can the URI bachurim make such a irresponsible decision without impartial information. And how is these Uri guys to become judge and jury. Going public, fueling a Chilul Hashem (for this Rubaskin carries a big responsibility) much worse with out any factual independent corroboration.
I would like to know if janitors in Chovevie, JTS and the American Jewish University(thats the west coast Conservative) have been unionized. Does AJU scrutinize the social cards for all their gardeners-they have a lot of grass to cut.
Also take a peek at Empire they have numerous safety violation also. I think even more than Aggri. They are sitting on the side and enjoying the torment done to their competitor. Maybe we should boycott them also.
There are full time Mashgichim from reputable Kashruth organizations in the plant. There are federal inspectors. They have not found a meth labs, one of the accusations. Nor is there much other proof of the stories spread by a union is being sued for racketeering by Smith Foods.
Lets get real. In America you are innocent until proven guilty. In wo
Halacha you need Edos. Neither the Rabbonim cheking the plant daily nor the Federal inspectors have indicated these allegations as being true.
And if their biggest sin was employing someone with a social security card that turned out to be fake then its clear that a more nefarious agenda is behind all of this.
Cholent Fresser,
ReplyDeleteWith whatever problems YCT has, FBI tape recordings at Postville do not lie. There is plenty of evidence that hasn't been officially verified.
There is also plenty of information (off the record) from KAJ who pulled out and whistleblower mashgichim from other kashrus agencies. Why do you think mashgichim are being threatened with huge financial penalties if they talk by Rubashkin, Weissmandel & the OU.
Hey, in addition to all the heat here, there is a claim that Rubashkin muscled its way in to this and uses that muscle to keep competition out, but it is asinine.
ReplyDeleteI’m old enough to know that Alie Packaging, 999, International Kosher, Vineland, Falls, Empire, Meal Mart, Teits, Heineman, KAJ, etc have been around far far longer than anyone else. I used to visit 999 when they were on the Lower East of New York in the Seventies. Why no one, no one, ever had the forethought to open up a midwestern plant and figure out how to become a NATIONAL distributor, not just one that sends to the largest Jewish communities, but to all points U.S. where a kosher Jew might live, is beyond me. I say sour grapes to all those who see what Rubashkin built as evil, and hey, it’s a free enough country for every one of thee others out there to start and compete and knock Rubashkin down. To do this underhanded by laying out the claims that truthfully effect so many major U.S. companies, food, manufacturing, clothes, whatever, including small mom pop shops that hire the “Arbita” the illegals to shlep, or the building supers who are Mexicans, do.
To say everyone does it is not an excuse, but it is a reality. Demand that Rubashkin clean up, but let’s just be honest that there are so many people out there who would financially see benefit of this Iowa plant shuts its doors.
http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/10/30/debt.collectors.ap/index.html
ReplyDeleteComplaints surge as bill collectors get tough
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122533169940482893.html
ReplyDeleteOCTOBER 30, 2008
An Acorn Whistleblower Testifies in Court
The group's ties to Obama are extensive.
By JOHN FUND
Acorn, the liberal "community organizing" group that claims it will deploy 15,000 get-out-the-vote workers on Election Day, can't stay out of the news.
The FBI is investigating its voter registration efforts in several states, amid allegations that almost a third of the 1.3 million cards it turned in are invalid. And yesterday, a former employee of Acorn testified in a Pennsylvania state court that the group's quality-control efforts were "minimal or nonexistent" and largely window dressing. Anita MonCrief also says that Acorn was given lists of potential donors by several Democratic presidential campaigns, including that of Barack Obama, to troll for contributions.
The Obama campaign denies it "has any ties" to Acorn, but Mr. Obama's ties are extensive. In 1992 he headed a registration effort for Project Vote, an Acorn partner at the time. He did so well that he was made a top trainer for Acorn's Chicago conferences. In 1995, he represented Acorn in a key case upholding the constitutionality of the new Motor Voter Act -- the first law passed by the Clinton administration -- which created the mandated, nationwide postcard voter registration system that Acorn workers are using to flood election offices with bogus registrations.
Ms. MonCrief testified that in November 2007 Project Vote development director Karyn Gillette told her she had direct contact with the Obama campaign and had obtained their donor lists. Ms. MonCrief also testified she was given a spreadsheet to use in cultivating Obama donors who had maxed out on donations to the candidate, but who could contribute to voter registration efforts.
In her testimony, Ms. MonCrief says she was upset by Acorn's "Muscle for Money" program, which she said intimidated businesses Acorn opposed into paying "protection" money in the form of grants.
She says she became disillusioned because she saw that Acorn was run as the personal fiefdom of Wade Rathke, who founded the group in 1970 and ran it until he stepped down to take over its international operations this summer. Mr. Rathke's departure as head of Acorn came after revelations he'd employed his brother Dale for a decade while keeping from almost all of Acorn's board members the fact that Dale had embezzled over $1 million from the group a decade ago. (The embezzlement was confirmed to me by an Acorn official.)
"Anyone who questioned what was going on was viewed as the enemy," Ms. MonCrief told me. "Just like the mob, no one leaves Acorn happily." She believes the organization does some good but hopes its current leadership is replaced. She may not be alone.
Last August two of Acorn's eight dissident board members, Marcel Reed and Karen Inman, filed suit demanding access to financial records of Citizens Consulting Inc., the umbrella group through which most of Acorn's money flows. Ms. Inman told a news conference this month Mr. Rathke still exercises power over CCI and Acorn against the board's wishes.
According to public records, the IRS filed three tax liens totaling almost $1 million against Acorn this spring. Also this spring, CCI was paid $832,000 by the Obama campaign for get-out-the-vote efforts in key primary states. In filings with the Federal Election Commission, the Obama campaign listed the payments as "staging, sound, lighting," only correcting the filings after the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review revealed their true nature.
"Acorn needs a full forensic audit," Ms. MonCrief says, though she doesn't think that's likely. "Everyone wants to paper things over until later," she says. "But it may be too late to reform Acorn then." She strongly supports Barack Obama and hopes his allies can be helpful in cleaning up the group "after the heat of the election is gone."
Acorn insists it operates with strict quality controls, turning in, as required by law, all registration forms "even if the name on them was Donald Duck," as Wade Rathke told me two years ago. Acorn whistleblowers tell a different story.
"There's no quality control on purpose, no checks and balances," says Nate Toler, who worked until 2006 as the head organizer of an Acorn campaign against Wal-Mart in California. And Ms. MonCrief says it is longstanding practice to blame bogus registrations on lower-level employees who then often face criminal charges, a practice she says Acorn internally calls "throwing folks under the bus."
Gregory Hall, a former Acorn employee, says he was told on his very first day in 2006 to engage in deceptive fund-raising tactics. Mr. Hall has founded a group called Speaking Truth to Power to push for a full airing of Acorn's problems "so the group can heal itself from within."
To date, Mr. Obama has declined to criticize Acorn
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/31/us/politics/31taxes.html
ReplyDeleteObama would give a “Making Work Pay Credit” equal to 6.2 percent of a worker’s first $8,100 in wages. That would yield a tax credit of $500 for a single person, and $1,000 for a couple in which both adults work. As a result, a low-income couple now paying no income taxes might receive a $1,000 refund.
But Mr. McCain has told audiences that Mr. Obama’s “plan gives away your tax dollars to those who don’t pay taxes. That’s not a tax cut, that’s welfare.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/photo/postphotos/orb/asection/2008-10-31/8.htm
ReplyDeleteMaybe UOJ has it in for me because of the cover up for 2 molester rebbeim at the Postville cheder.
One of them is currently living in Crown Heights according to court records that Shmarya unearthed and the other one may be my eidim Yaakov Weiss who was recently arrested for touching boys in Albany.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macaca_(slur)
ReplyDeleteI'm very insulted. George Allen tells me that Boog called me "macaca".
October 30, 2008, 3:30 pm
ReplyDeleteMassive Job Losses Seen in Chrysler-GM Merger
A merger of General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC could result in the closure of seven of Chrysler’s 14 auto assembly plants and the elimination of 19 of Chrysler’s 26 models, a leading automotive consultant said on Thursday.
40,000 of Chrysler’s 67,000 employees would lose their jobs. An additional 50,000 jobs at suppliers would be affected
If Chrysler doesn’t merge with GM, the company would have a hard time surviving. If Chrysler were to collapse, it could cause a chain reaction of failures at suppliers that GM and Ford Motor Co. depend on. What you would have is a shut down of the auto industry
AP poll: 1 in 7 voters still persuadable
ReplyDeleteWASHINGTON – Patrick Campbell worries Barack Obama will raise his taxes but thinks John McCain will send people off to war. He says that leaves him leaning toward Obama ... maybe.
"I'm split right down the middle," said the 50-year-old Air Force Reserve technician from Amherst, N.Y. "Each one has things that are good for me and things that are bad for me. And people like me."
With the sand in the 2008 campaign hourglass about depleted, Campbell is part of a stubborn wedge of people who, somehow, are still making up their minds about who should be president. One in seven, or 14 percent, can't decide, or back a candidate but might switch, according to an Associated Press-Yahoo News poll of likely voters released Friday.
Who are they? They look a lot like the voters who've already locked onto a candidate, though they're more likely to be white and less likely to be liberal. And they disproportionately backed Hillary Rodham Clinton's failed run for the Democratic nomination.
http://www.borderfirereport.net/latest/ice-arrests-former-agriprocessors-ceo.html
ReplyDeleteLaunch the video on the right side of this page
http://community.nascar.com/blogs/55270
ReplyDeleteIn 2003, Carroll Shelby International Inc. and AC Motor Holdings, Ltd. announced production of authentic Shelby/AC Cobra, with the production vehicle arriving at dealers in July 2004. In February 2004 the first handcrafted aluminum body shell was built. However, AC Motor Holdings, Ltd. failed to perform under the terms of its license agreement with Carroll Shelby, and a lawsuit was filed by Shelby against AC Motor Holdings, Ltd. and its proprietor, Alan Lubinsky, in May 2006.
http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/heraldnews/business/berko/1252139,4_3_JO31_BERKO_S1.article
ReplyDeleteMark Twain once said that America is a nation without a distinct criminal class "with the possible exception of Congress." And things haven't changed since Twain's comment over 100 years ago.
According to the Web site www.capitolhillblue.com: "In recent years members of Congress have gone to jail for child molestation, fraud and other charges." Capital Hill Blues' research found that 117 members have run at least two businesses that went bankrupt, leaving their partners and creditors holding the bag. Seventy-one members have credit reports so bad that they can't get an American Express card. And 53 members of Congress have personal and financial problems so serious that they would be denied security clearances by the Department of Defense and Department of Energy.
At least 27 members of Congress have DUI arrests on their driving records, 27 are current defendants to various lawsuits from bad debts, personal disputes and civil matters, 19 have been accused of writing bad checks, 14 of them have drug-related arrests, eight have been arrested for shoplifting, seven for fraud, four for theft, three for assault and one for criminal trespass.
This number doesn't include 43 members who are currently being investigated by the FBI and other agencies for predatory sex crimes and other criminal behaviors. The percentage of illegal activities committed by members of Congress exceeds, by orders of magnitude, the percentage of illegal activities committed by the general population. Are these the kind of people you trust to pass legislation and run the country?
I thought former President Jimmy Carter was a nut-cake, and, in some respects, I still think he is. However, I have enormous appreciation for this man's intolerance for Congressional pork and privileges, his budget programs, his energy programs, his tax programs, his efforts to curtail runaway spending for social programs, to repair Social Security, Medicare and reduce the cost of running Washington, all of which were defeated by Congress.
For The Record:
ReplyDeleteI'm agonized that it has come down to this! Jews in beards (or no beard) regularly being rounded up with handcuffs! Twenty five rabbis publicly visiting the plant and supporting criminal behavior!
The OU - refused to pull their kosher endorsement - knowing full well that criminal behavior was rampant at this plant!
The OU still has Israel Belsky on their staff - knowing that he was the architect - of the Kolko cover-up!
ANOTHER VERY SAD DAY FOR THE JEWISH PEOPLE... AND FOR ME PERSONALLY!
Our grandfathers gave their lives that Judaism should survive in America - Look what it looks like!
Chaval!
http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/heraldnews/business/berko/1252139,4_3_JO31_BERKO_S1.article
ReplyDeleteDear Mr. Berko:
My Merrill Lynch stockbroker has two foreign contacts in the Middle East, and he and they believe that there is a tremendous opportunity to make money by buying stocks on the Iraq Stock Exchange. He says it's increased by 25 percent this year because the country is on the verge of an economic expansion that will be felt throughout Iraq and the Middle East. He wants me to invest $100,000 in Iraqi banks and insurance companies that he and his two people believe can easily triple in value over the next year. Please tell me what you think about this. I can afford to risk some of that money but certainly don't want to lose it.
B.R. Chicago
Dear B.R.:
In my opinion, the Iraq Stock Exchange isn't worth spit on a sidewalk. Trading volume averages $800,000 a day versus well over $500 billion per day on the New York Stock Exchange. Although ancient Babylonia was the first society to adopt a stock exchange, it's still very much of a novelty for Mr. and Mrs. Iraqi.
The Iraq Stock Exchange is located in an abandoned Baghdad kosher restaurant and dominated by a few wealthy Iraqis who live in England and France, and left Iraq when the U.S. loosed its troops on Sadaam. These wealthy Iraqis reopened the exchange in 2004 and hope some day soon that they can return to their homeland with their fortunes intact. There are 98 companies listed on the exchange: hotel companies, oil service firms, insurance companies, some manufacturers, movie companies and few a trading/shipping companies.
However, foreign investors account for only about 15 percent ($120,000) of the daily activity. But I would sooner trust a hungry jackal than I would an Iraqi broker. Frankly, neither you nor I nor your broker has any bloody idea which of the 98 listed companies are legitimate or has potential value.
http://www.thejc.com/node/7569
ReplyDeleteOctober 30, 2008
A Lancashire theme park turned Jewish for a day, attracting 2,000 visitors from across the community.
The Camelot amusement park, near Chorley, held a special Jewish day on the Sunday which fell during intermediate days of Succot.
Organisers set up a kosher café, burger bar and six giant succah huts. Jewish music was also played throughout the day on the park's speaker system.
Arranged by the Manchester-based Aguda welfare organisation, which runs a family centre for the Orthodox community, this is the second year the event has run after the idea was trialled last Succot.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camelot#Etymology
Etymology
Cam, could also reflect the Celtic word meaning "crooked"
The Tosafos Yomtov did say talking in shul caused the Holocaust of Tach veTat but it's ridiculous to post this on a sign.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.totallyjewish.com/news/national/?content_id=10352
'Silence In Shul...Or Your Kids Die!'
by Erica Morris - Thursday 23rd October 2008
A Stamford Hill shul has promised to launch an investigation into how leaflets appeared in the building warning worshippers that their children would die if they spoke during services.
Congregants at the Jacob Benjamin Elias Synagogue were shocked to see a pile of the "outrageous" flyers at the site over the High Holy Days, with at least one actually stuck up on a door.
The leaflets, attributed to New York-based Project Shul, feature a number of grim cautions, among them 'If one does not teach his children how to act in shul, he is punished and his children die', 'To save yourself from war and your children from dying do not talk in shul', 'It is a mitzvah to embarrass one who engages in idle conversation', 'it is proper for every community to appoint people to supervise with threats to those who talk during davening' and 'Woe is to the people who talk in shul for we saw how many congregations were destroyed because of this'.
Many of the quotations are taken from the Torah or from rabbinical commentaries.
Brandishing the leaflets a "disgrace", one distraught congregant, who has been a member of the shul for several decades, told TJ: "To say somebody's child is going to die for talking in shul is outrageous."
And condemning the synagogue for allowing the flyers into the building, he added: "I don't believe that nobody knew where it came from, that doesn't make sense. It was taped up on the door. It just doesn't sit right with me."
The synagogue's Vice Secretary Saul Einy told the Jewish News that a meeting would be held to review the shul's security video to try and discover who was responsible. He said: "The fact is, either someone came in without our permission or someone from the synagogue brought them in. Either answer I'm not happy with."
He added: "The committee will meet up in a week and there are several avenues we are looking at to get to the bottom of this."
Sharing his thoughts on the leaflet, Bushey Synagogue's Rabbi Meir Salasnik said: "The literature of Judaism through thousands of years is immense, and it includes strong statements, sometimes promising great benefits for simple actions and at other times warning of horrendous punishments for what may seem to most people as trivial sins.
"Many Jews respond to logical reasons given for concentration in prayer. At the same time, there are Jews who respond to the sort of threat of punishment that a number of the quoted statements warn of. The ideal is to do good for its own sake and not to escape punishment."
Chairman of the Rabbinical Council of the United Synagogue Rabbi Yitzchak Schochet said: "Decorum in synagogue is of paramount importance. It is a place of divine worship which has to be upheld with the highest respect and regard.
The Jewish News columnist added: "If they could sit quietly and maintain a proper dress code in churches and mosques why not in synagogues? However, there is a way in which to convey that message and the threatening tone and quotes used, especially where it goes to the core of one's mortality and that of their children, is frankly pathetic and wholly inappropriate."
His father learned in Telz in Lita before becoming a Lubavitcher.
ReplyDeleteIt's one thing that he doesn't know what he's talking about but he's not even an American citizen.
http://www.totallyjewish.com/news/national/?content_id=10419
UK Jews Back Obama
Jewish News columnist Rabbi Yitzchak Schochet, who lived in America for several years, said: "Where McCain has experience, Obama has vision. McCain will probably maintain the status quo vis a vis Israel, but has an airhead for a Vice President. Obama is more suspicious on the Middle East, but has a Vice President with a proven track record in favour of Israel. On balance I would go with Obama because I'm a firm believer in change.
http://www.chiefrabbi.org/rabbinate/cabinet/schochet.html
Rabbi Yitzchak Schochet
Education:
Yeshivah Yessodei Hatorah and Ner Israel Yeshivah in Toronto; Yeshivah Gedolah of London (UK); Yeshivah Tomchei Temimim, Brooklyn NY
Kolel Avreichim in Brooklyn NY for Advanced Rabbinic studies and practical Halachah 1988-90
MA in Jewish History and Philosophy, University of London (England) 1994
Professional occupations:
Educational director and Head Counsellor of various Jewish summer-camps
Assistant Principal, Yeshivah Oholei Torah in Brooklyn NY 1990-91
Rabbi of Richmond Synagogue, Richmond, England 1991-1993
Rabbi of Mill Hill Synagogue, London, England, since 1993
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1033009.html
ReplyDeleteThe Israel Prisons Service was shocked to learn, on Israel's two main commercial television channels, that Amir had given phone interviews to both networks from prison. Amir was never given permission to conduct the interviews.
Amir's privileges were revoked after Channel 10 aired excerpts from the interview, among them phone privileges, until further notice. The fact that Amir was able to conduct the interviews without the knowledge of the Israel Prisons Service proves that Amir's telephone conversations are not being monitored, as they have been in the past.
Last August, Amir used the prison's phone to issue threats against his wife's neighbor following a dispute between the neighbors over a burst pipe. In the past, the IPS has closely monitored the content of the phone calls made by Amir, and his brother Hagai who is also serving a prison sentence for conspiracy to commit murder. Several years ago, Hagai Amir's phone privileges were revoked and he was sentenced to another year in prison after saying to prison guards "I can have the prime minister blown up with one phone call."
TOP STORY
ReplyDeleteIn Crisis, Prosecutors Put Aside Turf Wars
On Sept. 25, as the world financial crisis escalated, two of New York's most powerful lawyers met for lunch in a restaurant near Wall Street with a name that recalled happier times: Bull Run.
They were Michael J. Garcia, the United States attorney in Manhattan, and Andrew M. Cuomo, the state attorney general. Both men's offices have histories of moving aggressively against financial fraud, and of vigorously defending their turf when other prosecutors try to compete for their cases.
But over lunch, The New York Times reports, Mr. Garcia and Mr. Cuomo reached an unusual agreemen. They will investigate jointly the shadowy world of credit-default swaps, the $55 trillion market in unregulated financial instruments at the center of the meltdown. Soon, both men's top aides were hammering out details of the cooperation in an eighth floor conference room in Mr. Garcia's office in Lower Manhattan.
Go to Article from The New York Times»
Lefties like Shmarya with little income who want Obama to redistribute our wealth to him, get very jittery whenever you demonstrate Obama is bad for Israel. They argue relentlessly that it's not true.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1032257.html
"Joe the Plumber," the small business aspirant and overnight media sensation who has endorsed John McCain's presidential campaign, said on Tuesday that he believed a Barack Obama presidency would spell "the death of Israel."
(Don't forget that the Putz in Iran is hoping to convince Obama to force Israel to become a single state with a Jewish minority.)
"I'm honestly scared for America,"
ReplyDeleteObama will end the democracy that the U.S. military had defended during wars.
"I love America. I hope it remains a democracy, not a socialist society. ... If you look at spreading the wealth, that's honestly right out of Karl Marx's mouth,"
McCain would be as bad for Israel as Bush was
ReplyDelete- Yossi Sarid
I varned Barack Obama dat Joe da plumber is probably vorking for UOJ!
ReplyDeleteI was the one who came up with the cheshash about Joe the Plumber and passed the word on to Margo through Moishe Aryeh Friedman.
ReplyDeleteMargo is a bum who doesn't even tell Obama besheim omro but takes all the credit for himself.
Bankrate.com
ReplyDelete14 financial horror stories
Wednesday October 29, 6:00 am ET
Leslie McFadden
In the spirit of Halloween, we dug up the spookiest reader stories to creep into our editor's inbox here at Bankrate. From Nigerian scams to evil customer service tricks, the tales that follow happened before and will happen again.
Take a lesson from these dreadful experiences. Promptly file a complaint with any company that has mistreated you, and report the business to a regulatory authority if necessary afterwards.
Company names have been changed in case angry business entities with lawyers haunt this article.
14 hair-raising financial horror stories
1. Tax refund rip-off
2. Eerie employment offer
3. Web of worthless checks
4. Insane logic
5. Frightfully sweet justice
6. Rotten recording trick
7. Phantom puppy
8. Lifeless interest rate
9. Taken for a magic carpet ride
10. Undead debt collector
11. Wallet weight loss
12. Fake sports memorabilia
13. The company that vanished
14. Grave mortgage lending
Has anyone seen Steven I. Weiss?
ReplyDeleteEvidently, journalism failed here too as outside intervention was required to put a stop to Rubashkin crimes.
At nursing homes, homes for the disabled, hospitals, etc., the
ReplyDeletehospital aides (members of the hospital unions) take the patients
into the booth who very often can't do it themselves and "help" them push the levers.
Anyone with relatives in nursing homes etc should help their relatives vote instead of letting the union workers fraudulently steal votes for the Democrats.
Very important.
http://www.hfls.org/contact/index.html
ReplyDeleteAssistant Executive Director - Moshe Soloway gives the loan interviews after you find co-signers.
He's Ner Yisroel Baltimore class of 1990 to 1994
http://www.hfls.org/partners/index.html
Our Partners:
Agudath Israel of America
http://www.nydailynews.com/archives/ny_local/2002/11/10/2002-11-10_religion_takes_its_place_amo.html
ReplyDeleteYDA Elite offers a mix of rigorous academic training and courses in Jewish studies and Hebrew as a second language for émigré children.
"We insist on teaching as opposed to preaching," said Rabbi Moshe Soloway, executive director of YDA Elite High School.
YDA Elite - which features a boys' school on Neptune Ave. and a girls' school on Ocean Parkway
Organizers estimate there are as many as 500,000 Russian-speaking Jews in the city, mostly in Southern Brooklyn and Queens. They make up about one-quarter of the city's Jewish population.
The Putz supports Obama AND Schumer.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dailypolitics/2006/06/the-russians-are-coming.html
Moshe Soloway
June 14, 2006
4:46 PM
Ben,
I recently read your article from June 8th, 2006, regarding the race in the 46th Assembly District. I found it very hard to believe that a respected journalist like yourself would take a very narrow point of view, inadvertently flipping the reality on the ground.
Mr. Ari Kagan, a well known journalist and a community activist was the first to announce his candidacy for the Assembly. He enjoys wide support in the African-American, Italian, Jewish and the Russian communities
I believe that its accurate to say that Ari is not only better qualified for the job because of his hands-on experience, but also is by far the most popular candidate of the PEOPLE since the days when Chuck Schumer ran for the same seat.
A. Kagan
July 14, 2006
7:00 PM
Dear Moshe Soloway,
You are a paid PR consultant for Ari Kagan's campaign. You should be running the campaign instead of sitting on your lazy behind and posting in this blog. No wonder the campaign is doing so poorly!
http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2008/10/31/2008-10-31_he_took_the_cake_greedy_cop_steals_pastr.html
ReplyDeleteGreedy cop steals pastries to go with his free coffee
BY RICH SCHAPIRO
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Friday, October 31st 2008, 12:27 PM
An upstate college cop with sticky-fingers has been busted for pilfering pastries from a convenience store, state police said.
Sgt. Steve Brody, of the Morrisville State College University Police, routinely stopped at the Valero Nice N Easy in Morrisville for a newspaper and a free cup of coffee offered to any cop in uniform.
Brody, 55, apparently didn't want to pay for his Tastykake pastries either.
Over the course of several months, he was spotted grabbing glazed honey buns - sometimes as many as four at a time - and hiding them in his pockets, employees said.
"He would get his free cup of coffee and then pocket his Tastykakes," said manager Randy Hobson. "It was kind of ridiculous. When I first heard about it, I was in disbelief."
Hobson confronted Brody over the high-calorie thefts in March, but the campus cop's thievery continued, employees said.
State police arrested Brady on Oct. 21. He was charged with petit larceny for stealing 21 pastries, costing $1.29 each, on at least 17 separate occasions since Aug. 18.
Someone wrote that Moses & Yosef Tendler are brothers. Aren't they cousins?
ReplyDeleteI guess Rubashkin son in law Chaim Abrahams wasn't kidding when he had the audicity today to ask for a Federal bailout if this Chicago Tribune story is any indication:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-ap-ia-slaughterhouse-ba,0,5953658.story
IOWA CITY, Iowa - A St. Louis-based bank is seeking all of Agriprocessors' collateral, claiming the slaughterhouse defaulted on a $35 million loan.
First Bank says in a lawsuit filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Cedar Rapids that Agriprocessors overstated how much money it has available and that the company hasn't met its loan payments.
The suit names Agriprocessors owner Aaron Rubashkin, his son and former CEO Sholom Rubashkin and slaughterhouses in Postville, Iowa, and Gordon, Neb. In addition to livestock and plant equipment, the suit includes the Rubashkins' personal property as collateral.
If the bank prevails, the suit says it will hold foreclosure sales of the company's assets.
Barclays Bank, on the verge of insolvency, refused a British govt bailout because there are too many stipulations of how the money must be used, so they took a bailout from Persian Gulf Arabs.
ReplyDeleteBy DAVID BARBOZA - NY Times.Com
ReplyDeletePublished: October 31, 2008
SHANGHAI — Chinese regulators are widening their investigation into contaminated food amid growing signs that the toxic industrial chemical melamine has leached into the nation’s animal feed supplies, posing health risks to consumers.
The announcement came after food safety tests earlier this week found that eggs produced in three different provinces in China were contaminated with melamine, which is blamed for causing kidney stones and renal failure in infants. The tests have led to recalls of eggs and consumer warnings.
The reports are another serious blow to China’s agriculture industry, which is already struggling to cope with its worst food safety scandal in decades after melamine-tainted milk supplies sickened over 50,000 children, caused at least four deaths and led to global recalls of goods produced with Chinese dairy products earlier this fall.
The cases are fueling global concerns about Chinese food. In Hong Kong, food safety officials announced this week that they would begin testing a wider variety of foods for melamine, including vegetables, flour and meat products. On the mainland, Shanghai and other cities are moving aggressively to test a wide variety of food products for melamine, including fish and livestock feed, according to the state-run news media, which has in recent days carried multiple reports on melamine in animal feed.
In the United States, worried consumers frantically e-mailed one another on Thursday and Friday about the possibility of melamine-tainted Halloween treats following a spate of news reports that some candies and chocolates made in China or with ingredients sourced in China had tested positive for high levels of melamine or been destroyed in recent weeks as a cautionary measure.
A spokeswoman for the Food and Drug Administration said the agency was adjusting a nationwide sampling of products for melamine “as necessary.” The FDA, along with state and local authorities, have been sampling products in Asian markets since mid-September for traces of melamine.
“Thus far, most of F.D.A.’s testing of milk and milk-derived ingredients and products from China focused on human foods, but have included animal feeds as well,” said the spokeswoman, Stephanie Kwisnek. “The F.D.A. is currently re-evaluating its overall approach to keeping these products out of the U.S. market.”
Asian food safety experts warned consumers not to grow too alarmed over the finding of tainted eggs because they contained much lower concentrations of melamine than the powdered baby formula that caused such widespread problems in China.
Hong Kong food safety officials said a child would have to eat about two dozen of the eggs in a single day to become ill.
Still, if eggs, milk and animal feed supplies are tainted, there is the specter of an even wider array of foods that could come under scrutiny, everything from pork and chicken supplies to bread, biscuits, eggs, cakes, seafood and candy.
China is also one of the world’s largest exporters of food and food ingredients, including meats, seafood, beverages and vitamins.
Melamine was banned as an animal feed additive in China in July 2007. And last year, United States regulators put tough restrictions on the amount of melamine allowed in food products.
But interviews on Friday, and over the past year, with several Chinese chemical dealers who sell melamine suggests that melamine scrap, the substantially cheaper waste left over after producing melamine, continued to be added to animal and fish feed.
“I heard some melamine dealers still sell to animal feed producers,” said Qin Huaizhen, manager at the Gaocheng Kaishun Chemical Co. in city of Shijiazhuang, though he insisted he has never sold melamine to animal feed producers. “In Shandong province many animal feed manufacturers buy melamine scrap.”
Two other melamine dealers in east and south China said that only after the recent dairy scandal did government regulators begin to closely monitor the sale of melamine to animal feed producers.
Kidney experts said that there has been very little research into how the chemical disrupts kidney function. Dr. Fredric L. Coe, a professor of medicine at the University of Chicago, said that melamine is likely concentrated in the kidneys into crystals that the body cannot dissolve. Those crystals clog many of the kidney’s nearly one million nephrons, which are tiny filtering units, in a process very different from the usual way kidney stones are formed, Dr. Coe said. Urination slows or ceases, and patients suffer acute kidney failure.
1 2 Next Page » nytimes.com
How did this dumb broad graduate school without knowing about the UOJ effect? Postville is in the part of Iowa next to Wisconsin.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/10/us/10storm.html
December 10, 2009
Blizzard Paralyzes Much of Midwest
Penny Zabel, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Sullivan, Wisc., said blizzards are not particularly rare for the time of year, though the concentrated amount and the breadth of the storm made it so powerful.
“The size of the storm covering much of the country is much more rare,” she said, explaining that the entire system was not only bringing snow, but rain and thunderstorms extending to the Gulf Coast.
The storm dumped ice, snow and rain throughout the Midwest, from Nebraska to Illinois, but like Wisconsin, Iowa also recorded a record snowfall. In Des Moines, where 12 to 15 inches of snow fell, it was the second-largest December snow on record, the most since 1888, the state climatologist, Harry Hillaker, told the Des Moines Register.
While the snow was expected to taper off later on Wednesday in the Midwest, the temperature will drop and 40- to 50-miles-per-hour winds are forecast for parts of Wisconsin and Iowa.
http://www.forward.com/articles/120598/
ReplyDeleteDid Brooklyn DA Chase Sex Abuser?
By Nathaniel Popper • The Forward
Brooklyn’s district attorney has lost a key fight in his effort to keep the lid on details of how he has dealt with a high-profile sex-abuse case in the Orthodox Jewish community.
A New York Supreme Court judge ruled November 23 that Kings County District Attorney Charles Hynes must release documents related to the case of Avrohom Mondrowitz, who fled to Israel in 1984 after being charged with sexually abusing boys at a Jewish religious school.
Hynes has been criticized for allegedly bowing to pressure from Orthodox rabbis and not doing enough to push for Mondrowitz’s extradition from Israel. Since the United States demanded Mondrowitz’s extradition last year — a quarter-century after the indictment — Hynes has taken some credit for the move, part of a larger campaign to emphasize his office’s commitment to prosecuting sex-abuse cases in the Orthodox community. Michael Lesher, a lawyer for abuse victims and a longtime critic of Hynes, has requested that Hynes release any documents that could prove his stepped-up role in the Mondrowitz case.
In his affidavit, Lesher wrote: “If the District Attorney has been telling the truth about his role in the attempted Mondrowitz extradition, he has nothing to hide; if he has not been telling the truth, he has no right to hide.”
The judge agreed that Hynes should release the documents, but a spokesman for Hynes, Jerry Schmetterer, said that the district attorney’s office will appeal the decision. Hynes’s office has argued that the documents are part of the ongoing prosecution of Mondrowitz and that releasing them would divulge sensitive information about victims.
Mondrowitz currently sits in an Israeli jail; his extradition to the United States has not been authorized thus far by Israeli courts.
The argument over the documents reflects a broader debate about whether Hynes and Orthodox leaders have indeed become more committed to the prosecution of sex offenders in that community. In the past, Orthodox rabbis have said that sex-abuse cases should be dealt with by religious authorities rather than by secular law enforcement; Lesher and other advocates for sex-abuse victims say that Hynes dropped cases and generally went soft on Orthodox offenders due to pressure from the politically powerful Orthodox community.
Recently, though, after extensive public attention on the issue, Hynes and a number of Brooklyn Orthodox rabbis have said that they want to see more action on sex abuse. An article in The New York Times earlier this fall reported that Hynes’s office was responsible for a spate of new prosecutions of Orthodox offenders. One of the centerpieces of Hynes’s new work has been the move to extradite Mondrowitz. Schmetterer said that Hynes advocated for the U.S.-Israel extradition treaty to be changed so that Mondrowitz could be brought back for trial.
But Lesher said he is skeptical that Hynes, in fact, played such an active role. He said that he believes the documents he is seeking will likely affirm his view. More broadly, Lesher said that in his work with sex-abuse victims, he has not seen a great change in Hynes’s handling of such cases.
“People I know who come to me with complaints about having been abuse victims are not really seeing a sea change in the way they are being treated,” Lesher said.
Ben Hirsch, the founder of the group Survivors for Justice, said that Hynes has become more active on sex abuse in the Orthodox community recently. But Hirsch said that the documents Lesher is requesting will likely reveal that Hynes acted differently in the past.
“Our hope is we will all learn from past errors and make sure they are never repeated,” Hirsch said
Hey Margo I'd like to conspire with you
ReplyDeleteHow about coming back to #42 to talk to Shmuel boom boom
You keep kvetching to me
I can dig your megalomania krank-kite
Know the way all of your 500 lbs move
Get in the groove
UOJ's driving me meshuga, episs vee a cuckoo
Second time you mutched me
Tzeit tzu redden mit Shmuel Boom Boom
You can come right close to me
We know you're such a liar
All the time you got me
It's fine for us to boom boom
If you see the lark in me
And feel my cover up desire
Boom Boom Bloom
Let's conspire in the board room
So we can handel all night
And you can make Kolko feel right
Boom Boom Bloom
Let's go to the boiler room
So we can shep nachas all night
In the place where Yudi felt right
(Margo says) Do the honor to me
Don't you know I like Fresser Convention podium limelight
Get to the view
of gantz Agudah looking at you
You're driving me crazy, crazy for kuved on queue
Bungalow Putz screwed up on me
It's time for us to Boom Boom
If I can bring Belsky with me
He's a baal hazmonos for hire
All the time you got me
It's fine for us to boom boom
If you see the spark in me
nitzotzos that Amulek alein sired
Boom Boom Bloom
Let's go back to the board room
So we can fress goulash all night
And you can make me feel right
http://www.lyricsdownload.com/paul-lekakis-boom-boom-boom-lyrics.html
Original lyrics
Who was the finstera letz who tried to trick me into singing the spoof of Paul Lekakis's Boom Boom Boom by the motzaei shabbos kumzitz by putting the lyrics by my seat?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/06/realestate/06livi.html?pagewanted=print
ReplyDeleteThis doesn't count the illegal renovations that have forged DOB permits posted.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/09/nyregion/09ethics.html
ReplyDeleteMr. Abbruzzese’s testimony was particularly revealing: Mr. Bruno, he said, was envious of the Assembly speaker, Sheldon Silver. “He started talking about Sheldon Silver and how Sheldon Silver was getting paid 40, 50, 60 thousand dollars a month from the Trial Lawyers Association,” Mr. Abbruzzese testified. Mr. Bruno wanted Mr. Abbruzzese to put him on retainer, and he obliged.
Mr. Silver actually works for Weitz & Luxenberg, the giant Manhattan personal injury firm, not the state trial lawyers association. But Mr. Abbruzzese’s confusion was understandable. Arthur M. Luxenberg, one of the firm’s named partners, is a longtime officer of the New York State Trial Lawyers Association, and Mr. Silver often defends the association’s interests in Albany.
What Mr. Silver does at the firm has been an Albany mystery. In a statement, the firm said Mr. Silver represented “individual claimants in personal injury actions” and handled eight or nine cases a year, although his name has not appeared in any public legal documents in years.
The Assembly recently rejected a request from The New York Times under the Freedom of Information Act for copies of e-mail messages between Weitz & Luxenberg and the Assembly. Indeed, the Legislature has written open-records rules to shield itself from disclosure rules that apply to the executive branch.
“State ethics laws for the Legislature are an irrelevancy,” said Senator Daniel L. Squadron, a freshman Democrat who represents parts of Lower Manhattan and Brooklyn.
Mr. Squadron has been the rare legislator to seek tougher ethics laws, and has even drafted legislation to address what he calls “the Bruno gap,” but his efforts have met with roadblocks by his colleagues.
Good-government groups have a lengthy wish list. The policing of ethics has to be overhauled, particularly for the Legislature, they say. And lawmakers, even those who are lawyers, in most cases must disclose their clients, and there must be a clear ban on lawmakers using state money to benefit business partners.
While the jury spent seven days deliberating at the Bruno trial, Blair Horner, the legislative director of the New York Public Interest Research Group, said the case had “already led to one conviction: New York’s ethics laws stink.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/06/opinion/06kristof.html
ReplyDeleteIt’s also well established that Western women are beginning puberty earlier, and going through menopause later. Dr. Maida Galvez, a pediatrician who runs Mount Sinai’s pediatric environmental health specialty unit, told the symposium that American girls in the year 1800 had their first period, on average, at about age 17. By 1900 that had dropped to 14. Now it is 12.
A number of studies, mostly in animals, have linked early puberty to exposure to pesticides, P.C.B.’s and other chemicals. One class of chemicals that creates concern — although the evidence is not definitive — is endocrine disruptors, which are often similar to estrogen and may fool the body into setting off hormonal changes. This used to be a fringe theory, but it is now being treated with great seriousness by the Endocrine Society, the professional association of hormone specialists in the United States.
These endocrine disruptors are found in everything from certain plastics to various cosmetics. “There’s a ton of stuff around that has estrogenic material in it,” Dr. Goldfarb said. “There’s makeup that you rub into your skin for a youthful appearance that is really estrogen.”
More than 80,000 new chemicals have been developed since World War II, according to the Children’s Environmental Health Center at Mount Sinai. Even of the major chemicals, fewer than 20 percent have been tested for toxicity to children, the center says.
Representative Louise Slaughter, the only microbiologist in the House of Representatives, introduced legislation this month that would establish a comprehensive program to monitor endocrine disruptors. That’s an excellent idea, because as long as we’re examining our medical system, there’s a remarkable precedent for a public health effort against a toxic substance. The removal of lead from gasoline resulted in an 80 percent decline in lead levels in our blood since 1976 — along with a six-point gain in children’s I.Q.’s, Dr. Landrigan said.
I asked these doctors what they do in their own homes to reduce risks. They said that they avoid microwaving food in plastic or putting plastics in the dishwasher, because heat may cause chemicals to leach out. And the symposium handed out a reminder card listing “safer plastics” as those marked (usually at the bottom of a container) 1, 2, 4 or 5.
It suggests that the “plastics to avoid” are those numbered 3, 6 and 7 (unless they are also marked “BPA-free”). Yes, the evidence is uncertain, but my weekend project is to go through containers in our house and toss out 3’s, 6’s and 7’s.
A longtime anonymous donor to the American Civil Liberties Union has withdrawn his annual gift of more than $20 million, punching a 25 percent hole in its annual operating budget and forcing cutbacks in operations.
ReplyDeleteAnthony D. Romero, executive director of the A.C.L.U., acknowledged in a written statement that a “family” had told the organization in September that it could not make its annual gift
A.C.L.U. board members, who insisted on anonymity because the loss of the gift was reported in an executive session of their meeting, identified the donor as David Gelbaum, who made a fortune as a hedge fund manager and is now better known as a major investor in clean technology.
Late last year, suffering from a decline in charitable giving caused by the economic downturn as well as the loss of income from two foundations hit by the Bernard L. Madoff scandal, the A.C.L.U. pared 10 percent of its national staff, or 36 jobs, and Mr. Romero agreed to a 15 percent cut in his salary, reducing it to $302,048 this year, compared with $355,000 in the prior year.
The organization also instituted a hiring freeze, curtailed travel and canceled conferences.
Mr. Romero said in his statement that he did not yet know what the additional cuts would be.
Mr. Gelbaum began contributing $50,000 or so annually to the A.C.L.U. in the early 1980s and kept increasing his gifts, to $22.5 million in 2008, board members said.
The only condition he placed on the gifts was that he remain anonymous, so only a handful of people at the A.C.L.U. knew he was the donor. He did not respond to e-mail messages or a letter sent to him in care of his investment vehicle, the Quercus Trust.
Calls to the phone numbers listed on filings the trust has made with the Securities and Exchange Commission resulted in busy signals.
Mr. Romero told the board that the donor had also stopped giving to three “sister organizations,” a phrase board members said he had used in the past to describe other groups with which the A.C.L.U. has collaborated, like the Sierra Club.
Mr. Gelbaum took a rare turn in the spotlight earlier this decade when environmental activists said he was behind the Sierra Club’s decision to adopt a neutral stance on immigration. Some people believe immigration has aggravated environmental problems.
He had given the organization a total of $101.5 million, according to The Los Angeles Times, which wrote what is perhaps the only major profile of him, in 2004. In the article, he is quoted as saying that he told Carl Pope, the Sierra Club’s executive director, in 1994 or 1995 “that if they ever came out anti-immigration, they would never get a dollar from me.”
Gelbaum confirmed on Wednesday that he had been forced to sharply reduce his donations to the American Civil Liberties Union and two other organizations.
Mr. Gelbaum, an intensely private philanthropist who has long insisted on anonymity in exchange for his gifts, said in a statement that he had made more than $380 million in donations over the last four years to the A.C.L.U. and two other organizations, the Sierra Club and the Iraq-Afghanistan Deployment Impact Fund of the California Community Foundation.
Amid significant concern about security arrangements for the trial of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. made an unannounced visit on Wednesday to federal prosecutors and law enforcement officials in New York.
ReplyDeleteMr. Holder went to the Metropolitan Correctional Center, the United States attorney’s office and the adjacent federal court in Lower Manhattan, where Mr. Mohammed, who is accused of being the mastermind behind the Sept. 11 attacks, and four other 9/11 detainees will be tried, just blocks from where the World Trade Center once stood.
He met with security officials, including Raymond W. Kelly, the city’s police commissioner, and Joseph M. Demarest Jr., the assistant director in charge of the F.B.I.’s New York office, “to discuss coordination, cooperation and security for the potential upcoming trials of the 9/11 terrorists,” said Special Agent Richard Kolko, an F.B.I. spokesman in New York.
Once the Justice Department announced on Nov. 13 that it was bringing its case to Manhattan, the Police Department began formulating plans for “security around the venue itself, and protection of the city,” including its bridges, transit system and landmarks, said Paul J. Browne, the Police Department’s chief spokesman.
William T. Morris, a deputy chief in the department’s Criminal Justice Bureau, is collecting information for Mr. Kelly from sectors like the Intelligence Division and the Counterterrorism Bureau, which oversees the more than 100 detectives assigned to work with the F.B.I. on the Joint Terrorism Task Force.
There will be the usual physical security elements, including roadway checkpoints, patrol officers in the streets and snipers on rooftops. There will be unseen elements, too: plainclothes officers mingling with crowds. Protection for the prosecutors, witnesses and the judge will also be factored in, officials said.
Senator Charles S. Schumer asked Mr. Holder in a Nov. 18 hearing in Washington if he would recommend that the president include money in the federal budget for the city’s extra security costs
December 10, 2009
ReplyDeleteShortage of Beds for Homeless in City
By JULIE BOSMAN
New York City shelters are so full that homeless men and women have been left to sleep on benches, floors and dining room tables over the last three months, violating a landmark 1981 agreement, Legal Aid lawyers charged in court papers on Wednesday.
The motion by the Legal Aid Society and the Coalition for the Homeless also alleges that homeless women have been transported on buses after midnight to a shelter in East New York, Brooklyn, where they have been allowed to sleep for less than five hours before being required to leave again in the morning.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/10/nyregion/10ackerman.html
ReplyDeleteHarold A. Ackerman, a federal judge in New Jersey for three decades whose hundreds of cases included trials of crooked politicians, corrupt union officials and reputed organized crime chieftains, died on Dec. 2 at his home in West Orange, N.J. He was 81.
In 1984, in the first such action in the nation, Judge Ackerman ruled that Teamsters Local 560 had been dominated by organized crime for a quarter-century and placed it under a trustee’s control. He said corrupt union leaders extorted money from companies employing the union’s members.
“This group of gangsters, aided and abetted by their relatives and sycophants, engaged in a multifaceted orgy of criminal activity,” he said in his 154-page opinion.
One of Judge Ackerman’s last official actions was his sentencing in June of a man convicted of maintaining a Web site devoted to child pornography. He tripled the 30-year sentence advised under federal guidelines after hearing testimony from a 28-year-old woman that the convicted man, Russell Christie, had sexually abused her as a child.
Harold Arnold Ackerman was born on Feb. 15, 1928, in Newark. A furniture merchant’s son, he was a sports reporter for The Star-Ledger of Newark while in high school, attended Seton Hall University, and served in the Army from 1946 to 1948.
He intended to be a journalist but was attracted to the law during his Army assignment as an assistant for the United States attorney who had handled the Manhattan Project in Los Alamos, N.M. He graduated from the Rutgers School of Law in 1951. While attending law school, he worked as a researcher and writer in the state office of the Congress of Industrial Organizations in Newark.
After working for a Newark firm specializing in labor law and as a lobbyist for the C.I.O. in Trenton, Judge Ackerman served for nearly a quarter-century in state courts. In 1979, President Jimmy Carter nominated him to be a federal judge. He assumed senior status in 1994.
Judge Ackerman is survived by his wife, the former Barbara Schwartz; his son, Ross; his daughters, Leslie Ackerman and Rosemary Rupp; and three grandchildren.
In a truly New Jersey case, Judge Ackerman in 2001 dismissed a lawsuit against Bruce Springsteen by a former manager over copyright claims. When he dealt with another of the state’s standbys, corrupt politicians, he did it with verve.
In sentencing a former Atlantic City mayor, Michael J. Matthews, on extortion charges in 1985, Judge Ackerman declared, “You reached for that honey pot and you got stung.”
He continued: “The people of Atlantic City thought they were electing a mayor, not a crook. That’s what you turned out to be, a crook.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/09/world/europe/09lambsdorff.html
ReplyDeleteOtto Lambsdorff, a former leader of a small but pivotal German political party and his country’s chief architect of a program that paid reparations to hundreds of thousands of Nazi-era slave laborers, died in Bonn on Saturday. He was 82.
Tainted by a scandal in 1984, Mr. Lambsdorff resigned as economics minister, but retained power in his party and was still held in such esteem that the government chose him in 1998 to direct the negotiations leading to the historic slave-labor reparations agreement.
Known as “the count,” a reference to the title that one of his ancestors had received from a Russian czar, Mr. Lambsdorff was eloquent and adamant about free-market policy.
Mr. Lambsdorff resigned because of a scandal involving illegal political contributions to his party by Flick, a conglomerate with shares in more than 300 companies. Mr. Lambsdorff was acquitted of all corruption charges. He was convicted only of tax evasion, a misdemeanor, and was fined about $100,000. That did not prevent him being elected chairman of his party.
And it did not prevent Chancellor Gerhard Schröder from choosing him in 1998 to negotiate with the United States government on the slave-labor reparations program.
Several dozen major German companies were facing a raft of class-action lawsuits filed in American courts on behalf of Jewish slave laborers and some non-Jewish forced laborers who had received minimal pay.
They had been forced, for example, to work in munitions factories and mining pits for 14-hour shifts with no food. They rolled boulders up steep slopes and were shot if they fell. Near Buchenwald, they lived in deep tunnels while building V-2 missiles, and they slept on straw and were denied drinking water, ventilation and sanitary facilities.
In the end, the former slave laborers received $7,500 each; those who had been forced laborers received $2,500 each.
“It was imperfect justice,” Mr. Eizenstat said
http://www.towleroad.com/2009/12/nj-senate-judiciary-committee-to-vote-on-marriage-equality-bill-today.html
ReplyDeleteVery strange picture here of a chassidishe guy on the same side of the ropes as the pro-toyeva supporters.
The readers of this liberal blog are arguing whose side he's on and making nasty comments against frumme yidden and rabbonim.
"The Canadian Blood Services is now accepting gay men as donors of stem cells and bone marrow."
ReplyDeleteWhat a chilul Hashem. As usual, someone with a Yiddishe name started the campaign for this.
WASHINGTON, Dec. 8 (UPI) -- U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, says the "inadvertent" posting on the Internet of airport screening procedures is a massive security breech.
ReplyDeleteThe manual shows sample CIA and other law enforcement credentials and reveals the limitations of x-ray screening machines, ABC News reported Tuesday.
"This manual provides a road map to those who would do us harm," Collins told ABC News. "The detailed information could help terrorists evade airport security measures."
The TSA said it is conducting a "full review" of the security breech.
http://www.yournabe.com/articles/2009/12/08/brooklyn/courier_frontpage_martyrose.txt
ReplyDeleteBorough President Marty Markowitz found himself in the middle of a simmering feud between the leaders of two rival Hasidic factions over a troubled Williamsburg waterfront development project this week.
After failing to receive a positive recommendation from Community Board 1 on December 1, representatives of the building applicant made their pitch on Monday to rezone 3.7 acres of the Williamsburg waterfront off Kent and Division avenues to make way for a three-tower, 800-unit mixed use building, known as Rose Plaza, with a promenade down South 11th Street. This time the audience was Markowitz, who tartly dismissed ancillary arguments regarding the political context and history behind the development.
“Your dirty laundry should not be aired in public,” said Markowitz during the December 7 hearing at Borough Hall. “To the outside world, you are one. Ninety percent of Brooklyn does not know what you’re talking about. You guys, someday I pray, you will have to work things out. Happy Hanukkah.”
The building is owned by Certified Lumber’s Isack Rosenberg, a longtime Williamsburg businessman who has developed several projects in South Williamsburg.
Rosenberg is an honorary president of UJCARE, a Williamsburg social services organization that has increasingly competed with the United Jewish Organizations, a 43-year-old Williamsburg-based nonprofit and services provider, for resources and political allies.
Both organizations serve primarily members of the Satmar community, Williamsburg’s largest Hasidic sect, which remains bitterly divided from a 2006 schism, the result of a power struggle between the two surviving heirs of the late-Rebbe Moses Teitelbaum.
This past year, UJO and UJCARE were on opposite sides of two City Council campaigns and Brooklyn’s largest city-owned rezoning project, the Broadway Triangle, in which the UJO is an applicant.
LAS VEGAS -- Tiger Woods' list of alleged mistresses grew to eleven Tuesday with the addition of a second porn star.
ReplyDeleteThe latest addition to Tiger Woods' stable of women include adult film actress Veronica Siwik-Daniels, who is professionally known as Joslyn James.
Swedish newspapers are reporting that Woods' wife Elin Nordegren bought a $2 million home dubbed Faglaro Mansion on a small, secluded island reachable by ferry from Stockholm.
http://www.wpix.com/news/wpix-men-trapped-in-cesspool,0,7629982.story
ReplyDeleteCrews Rescue Man Trapped In Cesspool
A medevac helicopter and Nassau County police Emergency Services Unit were on the scene as crews determine how to safely rescue the worker.
12/6/2009, 5:18 p.m. EST
ReplyDeleteThe Associated Press
(AP) — SPOKANE, Washington - More than 500 people in the U.S. Northwest filed claims against the Oregon Province of the Society of Jesus in advance of a November deadline, alleging members of the Catholic order sexually abused them as children.
The Spokesman-Review in Spokane reports the claims against the Jesuits span decades and range from Native Alaskan children to students at Spokane's Gonzaga Preparatory School.
A federal judge overseeing the bankruptcy reorganization of the province set a Nov. 30 deadline for people to file the claims. The organization includes Jesuits in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana and Alaska.
Someone should tell Rabbi Zweibel and all the Rosh Yeshivas that around the world in Western Civilization, societies from Ireland to Australia to Utah, where Amish bishops have been arrested for cover ups, to Los Angeles, where the Archbishop is being investigated by the FBI for fraudulently placing pedophile priests in charge of unsuspecting children, to Lakewood, New Jersey, where the Ocean County prosecutor threatened a Rosh Yeshiva to arrest him for witness tampering and obstruction of justice, the world is no longer content to only prosecute the sexual predators. It is simple arithmetic. One molester can hurt dozens of kids. A school that puts molesters in classrooms, like kids in a candy store, hurts an exponentially greater number. And as Rabbi Margolis is finding out in the multi-million dollar civil suit against him and his yeshiva Torah Tmima, the excuse of "following Daas Torah" or "a psak from a Gadol" is not going to wash. And if it doesn't wash down hear in front of civili courts, can anybody of sound mind think for a second that it will wash, L'achar Meah V'esrim, in the Heavenly court????
ReplyDeleteIronically, it is OUR Torah that has taught this concept to the world!!!!!!! !
In this past week's Parsha, Shimon and Levi did not simply punish Shchem for raping their sister, but wiped out the whole city that was protecting, aiding and abetting Schem (according to some pshatim) or alternatively those that neglected to bring Shchem to justice (according to the Rambam's peyrush). Where are Shimon and Levi today when we so desparately need them?
Shimon & Levi = Siamese twin known as UOJ
ReplyDeleteWhich Lakewood rosh yeshiva was threatened by prosecutors?
ReplyDeleteUS Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor's opinion in the case, Mohawk Industries v. Carpenter, No. 08-678, marked the first use of the term "undocumented" immigrant. The term "illegal immigrant" has appeared in a dozen decisions.
ReplyDeleteIt's not a coincidence that it was the first Latina appointed by Obama to the Supreme Court who introduced the term "undocumented" immigrant into the Court's lexicon.
It seems like R' Yisroel Reisman was duped into siding with the mevazei kivrei yesomim, Ohel's David Jacobson & the Queens Vaad and called R' Moishe Handler a "rodef" for bringing their rishus to the attention of Maran Rav Elyashev & several other rabbonim.
ReplyDeleteIt doesn't hurt that Jacobson is one of the richest guys in his shul but he fell for their propaganda that they were just trying to pay for upkeep out of their own pockets like good little tzadikim at a Brooklyn cemetery that they claim Handler and two other eidim including a professional cemetery genalogist "lied" about. This while failing to mention their grave robbing at the Queens cemeteries.
http://www.aspendailynews.com/section/home/138030
ReplyDeleteAspen police say Rabbi Menachem Mendel Mintz’s driving isn’t so kosher.
The head of the Jewish Resource Center Chabad of Aspen is accused of hitting a parked car in the Clark’s Market lot and knowingly fleeing.
http://www.collive.com/show_news.rtx?id=6640
ReplyDeleteWhat a bunch of sad people. Sholom Rubashkin's wife says she consulted with the alive-dead Rebbe and that Rabbi Feller appointed her jailed husband as the Chabad shaliach for South Dakota.
While it has nothing to do with the Rubashkin issue at all, the Tiger Woods issue won't go away until at least 18 holes or hoes are played. A freilichen Chanukah
ReplyDeleteReb UOJ
ReplyDeleteIs there nothing better to write about?Is it really necessary to rehash this garbage with all the "window dressing" attached, when the man and his family are down and out? At the risk of raising the ire of all the "groupies" here or maybe even yourself,I find nothing redeeming or purposeful in the regurgitation of this whole sorry episode.Chaval.