If the rabbis would rage against lies, rape, hatred, embezzlement, immorality, adultery, perjury, contempt, violence, swindling, false witness, depravity, pedophilia, undue risk of infanticide, drunkenness, perversion....
If the rabbis would do good, lead by example, excel in virtue, set an example, proving morality is on their side; if they would scrupulously respect the Commandments and obey the dictates of Halacha, and thus neither lie nor thieve, nor commit adultery with their congregants or with women of ill-repute, neither rob nor rape, neither bear false witness nor commit soul-murder, neither accept bribes nor "kosher" filthy money, nor commit incest or child rape, or cover up for pedophile rabbis.
The world would look at the Jews and the God of the Jews through their example of their shining conduct!
But instead...............
*
69 comments:
We live in a corrupt world.... With Chassdim leading the pack by far....
I hope schools such as Torah Temimah fail. The school harbored sex offenders and knowingly protects their Rebbes rather than the children. Why parents are so scared of these bully Rebbes are beyond me.
I intend to contact Dov Hikind and offer my help so as parents can get help without fear. Thank you for this website that allows the unsaid to be said. There is a sexual predator who abused his cousin as a teenager and is now living in Lakewood, married with children. He never received help for his past deeds. Do you think he is recovered or continuing what he started as a teenager? These are the families that need to be helped.
Teenagers who molest are a seperate phenomena and may not necessarily translate into being a serial or career or repetitive molester. An open and frank discussion with the offender will tell you where he stands today.
THOMAS TOWNSHIP, Mich. – Police say a Michigan man has been arrested after "receiving sexual favors from a vacuum" at a car wash.
The Saginaw News reports the 50-year-old Detroit man was arrested Thursday in Saginaw County's Thomas Township, about 90 miles northwest of Detroit.
Police Sgt. Gary Breidinger says a resident called to report suspicious activity at the car wash about 6:45 a.m. An officer approached on foot and caught the man in the act.
The suspect is being held in the Saginaw County Jail.
The following information is provided in hopes of preventing one more child from becoming the next victim of a sex crimes. Please share this posting with any and all parents living in the Boca Raton, FL area.
The Awareness Center has been notified that Rabbi Baruch Lanner has moved to Boca Raton, FL. More information will be posted soon. For more information on this case go to:
http://www.theawarenesscenter.org/Lanner_Baruch.html
Case of Rabbi Baruch Lanner
(AKA: Bernard S. Lanner, Baruch S. Lanner, Bernard Lanner)
National Conference of Synagogue Youth (NCSY)
(Some of the teens called Rabbi Lanner "Charlie" among themselves, referring to convicted cultist killer Charles Manson, and spoke of the female teens the rabbi favored as "Baruch's girls.")
Convicted sex offender. Baruch Lanner was released from prison on either January 8th or 12th 2008.Convicted sex offender. Baruch Lanner was released from prison on either January 8th or 12th 2008.
We are currently working with various community leaders to make sure that convicted child molester Yechiel Brauner does not spend this Simchas Torah dancing with children as he does every year. This vile being portrays himself to be an ehrliche person who is being mesameach with the Torah, while in reality he is using the dancing that takes place as a way of getting close to children and groping them. We are hoping to put a stop to his tricks this year and to make sure that he is not anywhere near vulnerable innocent Yiddishe knider. We are the adults, it is our job to protect every single child so that they can dance this Yom Tov unscathed from this predator.
In order to help move things along with this specific situation and help form a clearer picture of this dire situation that we can present to the Shuls that he makes his rounds to, we are asking anyone who has been molested by Yechiel Brauner to please anonymously post a comment stating where the molestation took place and approximately when. You do not have to give any identifying details, only an approximate date, place and brief description of what transpired.
We cannot understand the horrific suffering that you are going through and wish we could help assuage your pain. If you can help save one innocent soul from experiencing the same, then your suffering will have not been in vain. Please help us help others.
I want to express my umbrage at the notion that the Rabbi's are totally at fault for all the Jewish world's ills. When did an individual's responsibility end? When did the ehrliche Yid die an ignoble death to be replaced by a grade of 65 on institutionalized multiple choice exams that focus on subjects that most Rovs never deal with - ask your Rov the last time he psakened on a chicken. When did the tekufah of the shtelar Rov get replaced with the tekufah of the 5 Artscroll Gemorrah talmid chochom? It is an embarrassment and a revolting turn in Yiddishkeit that we Yidden have replaced the need to break our heads with the Reader's Digest of Learning. Hashem created man, not Rebbeim or Chassidic Rebbes or Rosh Yeshivas or Executive Directors or CFOs or CEOs; He created man. Isn't about time that we stood up and acknowledge Hashem's act and acted first as men before clothing ourselves in labels? We have disabused ourselves of the notion that He is in control of the world by acting contrary to His Torah. It is a mockery of Torah to read the cry and the laments that get written in this and other blogs because such cries are in vain when compared to the basics of Yiddishkeit. To all those who shame and regret the existence of your fellow Yidden - regardless of their self affixed label - they are Yidden first. We belittle and besmirch the memory of true Big people who declare "I'm a chossid of Hashem". It's coming upon the time when Himmel will cry, Mi Hashem eylai? Men will answer with truth and alacrity. Please, dear Yidden, learn Bereshis with Rashi, learn what being a man is truly about. Women too.
If you or anyone you know were molested by David Kramer please e-mail: The Awareness Center (VickiPolin@aol.com) or call: 443-857-5560.
The Awareness Center has been informed that David Kramer molested over 30 children in Australia betrween 1989 - 1992. Instead of reporting the crimes to local law enforcement, Rabbi Yitzchok Dovid Groner (acting head rabbi of Australia and also the Rosh Yeshiva/ Dean of Yeshivah Colleges) allegedly attempted to handle things on his own. Community members have stated that Groner was warned by a psychiatrist that David Kramer would harm himself. After a few days went by with no action, parents of the child victims warned Rabbi Groner that they would go to the police. It was at that point that Rabbi Yitzchok Dovid Groner allegedly purchased a plaine ticket and sent Kramer to Emanuel, Israel. Needless to say, there are rumors that David Kramer molested more children in Israel.
At this time we do not know how long Kramer was in Israel or where he went next.
Last year David Kramer was arrested in St. Louis after molesting a young boy. Kramer was a volunteer youth leader at a local orthodox synagogue. Rabbi Ze'ev Smason confronted Kramer with the allegations and immedately reported the crime to the police. Kramer was convicted and is currently sitting in Missouri prison.
In September, 2008 someone connected to the Kramer case in Melbourne (from 18 -19 years ago) found The Awareness Center sit. They wanted to do what ever they could to help the new child victim and their family. They were outraged to learn that someone like David Kramer would go under the radar for so long and be allowed to sexually violate a child once again.
The Awareness Center is working on putting the whole story together and are looking for survivors of Kramer. We want to make sure they are receiving the help they might need and the opportunity to have their voices heard.
Knowing David Kramer's profile, it's very unlikely he molested 20 years ago and then stopped until last year. Rumors are there are hundreds of children out there he molested.
For more information on this case go to: http://www.theawarenesscenter.org/kramer_david.html
Fleeing Jewish school teacher jailed in US
By James Campbell
Sunday Herald Sun
October 19, 2008
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,,24515920-2862,00.html
A SECOND case has emerged of a teacher at a Jewish school fleeing Australia after allegations of inappropriate behaviour with students.
David Kramer - a former teacher at Yeshiva College in Caulfield - was jailed in July for seven years in St Louis, Missouri, US, after pleading guilty to two counts of child molestation.
Allegations were made in the 1990s that Kramer, now 47, had abused boys while teaching at Yeshiva.
He is understood to have been dismissed by the school and is claimed to have been asked to leave the country. The alleged incidents were not reported to the police.
Vicki Polin, of the US-based The Awareness Center - International Jewish Coalition Against Sexual Abuse/Assault, said she had been contacted by several former pupils and parents of the school.
"I have been told that Kramer abused over 30 boys in his time at Yeshiva," Ms Polin said.
She said when parents complained to the school, Yeshiva Centre head, Rabbi Yitzchok Dovid Groner - who died in July - told Kramer to leave.
"He paid for him to leave - he gave him a ticket," Ms Polin said.
Yeshiva College general manager Nechama Bendet confirmed the school employed Kramer in June 1989, but could not find records of when he left.
"We have robust policies in place to deal with these allegations," she said. "We take it very seriously."
In March, Malka Leifer, principal of Adass Israel Girls School in Elsternwick, fled Australia after being sacked over allegations of improper behaviour with girls in her care.
BUT INSTEAD..........
They accept bribes to determine "Torah" law.
They Kasher dirty money.
They pursue victims and protect the perpetrators.
They threaten the safety of the aggrieved parties.
THEREFORE...............
NOBODY should ever go to a "Din Torah". The rulings of truth in favor of the aggrieved are ignored, and are unenforceable.
EVERY dayan must undergo a thorough audit of donations and payments received personally, and professionally for three years prior to taking a case, and one year post-verdict, to assure NO GOODS OR SERVICES WERE RENDERED BY ANY PARTY IN A DISPUTE.
NOBODY should ever attempt to negotiate a settlement, or binding agreements in a Bais Din.
King Shlomo just said in Koheles, "V'Hashem Yivakesh Es Hanirdaf", Hashem seeks justice from the pursuer on behalf of the pursued.
Just have patience, go to the proper authority, and let it rip!
http://daattorah.blogspot.com/
> >
> > SUNDAY, JUNE 8, 2008
> > Rav Moshe Sternbuch, shlita - Guidelines for calling the Police
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > There is a widespread impression that the police and the chareidi world have
> > an inherently antagonistic relationship. There is also a widespread
> > perception that the chareidi world is more concerned with covering up crimes
> > such as child or wife abuse and that pedophiles are given free run. In other
> > words there is a perception that the chareidi community is more worried by
> > adverse publicity then it is about the welfare of the individual.
> >
> > This Shabbos I had an intensive discussion with Rav Moshe Sternbuch, shlita
> > about these issues.
> >
> > 1) Child Molesters
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > He stated without hesitation and said that I can quote him - that if one
> > knows that children are being molested that one should call the police. He
> > noted that there is an important distinction to keep in mind. One calls the
> > police when it is clear that someone is still in danger. Thus one does not
> > automatically call the police concerning an event that took place once and
> > is not going to be repeated. In such a case one should first consult with a
> > rav. When I mentioned that many rabbis apparently felt differently – he
> > dismissed such a view as being wrong. He noted also that it is important for
> > the community rabbis to have a good working relationship with the police.
> > That means that the police need to be sensitive to the needs and nature of
> > the chareidi community and the community needs to be understanding of the
> > police. He said that there is such a relationship with many police forces.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > The rule is summarized simply – if one knows that someone is being
> > physically abused or will be abused than it is required to call the police
> > after consulting a rabbi who agrees he is a future danger as is common in
> > such cases.
> >
> > 2) Vigilante actions
> >
> > I mentioned the issue of vigilante actions in the chareidi community and
> > whether they are to be praised or condemned. He noted that there are
> > unfortunately disturbed and misguided individuals in the chareidi community
> > – as there are in other communities. The general rule is not to make a
> > public protest when the problem is rare and insignificant. He said that it
> > only encourages these individuals when their activities are publicized.
> > However if they progress beyond this stage then it is important to take
> > action. He mentioned the Bedatz dealt last year with vigilantes who burned
> > down a clothing store in Geula. I mentioned the recent incident in Beitar.
> > He said he condemned such behavior. If it is clearly not a rare act of a
> > disturbed person then it needs to be dealt with.
> > [This is also related to the recent outbreak of burglaries in Har Nof where
> > Rav Sternbuch lives. The unanimous ruling of the rabbonim of Har Nof is that
> > one can call the police on Shabbos if one witnesses a break-in as there is
> > also life danger involved. As is explained in Shmiras Shabbos K'hilchosa
> > (41:25-29) – this is because the possible danger associated with these
> > break-ins. See also Aruch HaShulchan (C.M. 388:7). Tzitz Eliezer (19:52)
> > also permitted calling the police in the case of teacher molesting his
> > students. He based his psak on the Aruch HaShulchan.]
> >
> >
> >
>
http://www.ynetnews.com/Ext/Comp/ArticleLayout/CdaArticlePrintPreview/1,2506,L-3610518,00.html
Hasidic leader’s costly favor
Haredi man asks Rabbi Simcha Ashlag, his personal assistant to bring clothes to US for needy family. Both arrested in France after customs officials find drugs in luggage
Artzi Halfon
Hasidic leader Rabbi Simcha Ashlag will return this weekend to the partial detention he and his personal assistant received in February, in which the two are forbidden to leave Paris. The reason: 20 kilograms (44 pounds) of drugs found in their suitcases.
The rabbi is the grandson of the famous Yehuda Leib Ha-Levi Ashlag, otherwise known as Baal Ha-Sulam (Author of the Ladder) and the only interpreter of the Zohar (the mystical commentary on the Torah).
In February, before leaving Israel, an ultra-Orthodox man who presented himself as a clothing manufacturer from Turkey approached Ashlag.
The man claimed that he heard that prior to his trip to the United States the rabbi was expected to fly to Turkey and therefore requested that he take four suitcases packed with clothing with him to his needy family in the United States.
The Hassidic leader agreed but when the local customs official at the Paris airport asked him and his assistant to open their luggage, it turned out that aside from clothing, there were 20 kilograms (44 pounds) of drugs hidden and folded at the bottom.
Their attorneys, Yitzhak Osbicher and Moti Zivin, who is know for assisting Israelis arrested abroad, filed a request through their representatives in Paris to allow the rabbi and his assistant to visit Israel over the holidays.
'He took advantage of their kind-heartedness'
Surprisingly, the judge allowed the two to leave Paris for a limited period of time so that they can celebrate the holidays with Ashlag’s thousands of Hassidic followers at his hatzer (court) in Bnei Brak.
Attorney Osbicher confirmed the details and said in response that “this is a rare case in which a drug smuggling suspect who is not a French citizen, is released under no conditions but rather only based on his personal liability.
“I am happy that Attorney Zivin and I managed to persuade the French judge to release the honorable Hassidic leader for the holidays without entrusting any guarantee that he will return to France," he said.
“This apparently proves that the judge is starting to believe that the Hassidic leader and his assistant were led astray and that someone took advantage of their kind-heartedness.
“We would like to emphasize that the public needs to know that a small favor they ask from someone may cause them to pay the price of a heavy and unnecessary legal case,” said Osbicher.
Zogby: McCain Is Gaining, Race Tightens
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Republican John McCain continued a slow advance on Democrat Barack Obama in the race for president, moving back within three percentage points as the race begins to head down the stretch run, the latest Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby daily tracking poll shows.
McCain now trails Obama by 2.7 points, down from the 3.9 point deficit he faced 24 hours earlier.
Seven-point-one percent of the likely voters surveyed said they remain undecided
http://www.wkyxwngo.com/local-news-details.asp?NewsID=8269
Rabbi Moshe Laurie
NYT Editorial
29th on Infant Mortality
Published: October 19, 2008
After five years of stagnation, the United States has managed to cut its infant mortality a bit. That is no great cause for celebration, especially since this country’s rates remain far too high and so many other countries are doing so much better on this important measure of a nation’s health and the quality of its medical system.
The infant mortality rate in this country declined sharply in the 20th century but then plateaued from 2000 to 2005. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported last week that in 2006 the rate of infant deaths in the United States fell to 6.71 per 1,000 live births, down from 6.86 the previous year. That is still 50 percent higher than the official national goal of 4.5 deaths per thousand.
What is particularly shameful is how poorly this country compares with other industrialized countries. In 1960, the United States ranked 12th lowest in the world in infant mortality. By 2004, the last year for which comparative data are available, it had dropped to 29th, tied with Poland and Slovakia. Even with the improvement, it is still likely to rank 29th, far behind many Scandinavian and East Asian countries that report rates below 3.5.
Infant mortality is associated with many factors, including the health and economic status of the mother, her race or ethnicity, access to quality medical care, and such cultural problems as rising obesity and drug use.
That makes it difficult to identify the cause of the United States’ poor performance. Some researchers blame an increase in premature births, many by Caesarean section. The chief lesson we draw is that the American health care system, despite the highest expenditures in the world, is badly in need of an overhaul.
WASHINGTON (AP) — One of President Bush's top economic advisers said Sunday that parts of the country probably already are experiencing a recession and it could take a few months before the clogged credit system starts working again.
Many analysts predict the economy could contract over the final three months of this year and in the first 90 days of 2009. That would meet the classic definition of a recession — two consecutive quarters of economic contraction. Some economic analysts say the sagging economy already is in recession.
The White House has been loath to use that word, both because the technical definition has not been met and because it carries such negative weight.
Speaking in a broadcast interview Sunday from California, the chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers noted that national unemployment stands at 6.1%. Ed Lazear said some parts of the country, such as California, have even higher rates of people out of work.
"We are seeing what I think anyone would characterize as a recession in certain parts of the country," Lazear said.
Abducted boy found alive CNN LAS VEGAS –
A 6-year-old boy abducted from his home at gunpoint was safe in his father's custody Sunday as police tried to untangle any ties the youngster's family had to the Mexican drug dealers suspected of taking him.
Police were interviewing Cole Puffinburger after he was found alone Saturday night on a quiet street outside a Methodist church in Las Vegas.
"We're speaking with the boy today," FBI spokesman David Staretz said Sunday. "I know he's being interviewed by law enforcement, and we'll probably get a better idea of where he's been."
Cole's father, Robert Puffinburger, was a picture of relief at a news conference, as he smiled, cried and thanked police and neighbors for helping to bring Cole home.
"I'm just so glad he's safe," his father said.
Staretz would not comment further on what had happened to Cole in the four days since he was snatched from his mother's home by two men posing as police officers. Police have said they believe the abduction Wednesday was an attempt by drug dealers to send a message to the boy's grandfather.
Cole was found in "extremely good condition" but was taken to University Medical Center as a precaution, Las Vegas police Capt. Vincent Cannito said. Cole was treated and released to his father's care early Sunday, hospital spokesman Rick Plummer said.
http://www.poconorecord.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081018/NEWS/81018004/-1/NEWS01
By ADAM BOSCH
Times Herald-Record
October 18, 2008
COOKS FALLS, N.Y. — Roland "Jack" Auslander collected his mother's Social Security payments for more than a year while she lay dead in the freezer, police said.
State police on Wednesday discovered the body of Herta Auslander inside a freezer chest at her home in Cooks Falls, a Delaware County hamlet not far from the Pennsylvania border. They believe her 69-year-old son, Jack, stashed her body in the freezer more than a year ago. Herta was at least 100 years old, police said.
Police were tipped off by a community bank near Roscoe, N.Y. that something might be awry. Herta's bank account had been especially active in recent months, but no one at the bank had ever seen the elderly lady. So police got a search warrant and found her in the freezer.
"One of the troopers from Roscoe initiated an inquiry and, as a result, we found that she was still at home, in the freezer," Senior Investigator Les Hyman said.
It's believed that Jack was controlling his mom's bank account, keeping her Social Security payments and endorsing some checks with a rubber stamp of her signature.
It's unclear how Herta died or whether foul play was involved. Doctors must wait for her body to thaw out before they can perform an autopsy, police said. The body is being held at Lourdes Hospital in Binghamton.
Meanwhile, police are still trying to find Jack Auslander. Hyman said investigators have spoken to his attorney. It's not a manhunt, "but we'd certainly like to talk to him," Hyman said.
Jack Auslander is not being urgently pursued because police are still unsure how his mother died and, therefore, what charges will be filed against her son. Barring homicide, the fraud associated with cashing her Social Security checks will likely outweigh charges for stowing her body, which would amount to a violation of the public health law, police said.
Auslander has been locked up several times in Sullivan County Jail and in the Woodbourne Correctional Facility on drug charges. Court records show he was convicted of buying more than 3 ounces of cocaine in Livingston Manor in 1987. He was imprisoned on drug charges again in 1999 and was released in 2003.
His mom, Herta, lived in a run-down farm house on Auslander Road. Jack lived around the corner in a small cabin.
Both houses were quiet on Friday, except for a fire smoldering inside a barrel and several dogs barking at Herta's house. A sign tied to her fence indicated that Herta rescued abandoned dogs, and that she'd be open for adoption visitors at 1 p.m. When police arrived on Wednesday morning, about 30 dogs were at the house, some of them vicious, which made it difficult to retrieve the frozen woman.
BEIJING (AP) — Some 1,500 dogs in northeast China have died after eating animal feed tainted with the same chemical that contaminated dairy products and sickened tens of thousands of babies nationwide, a veterinarian said Monday.
The raccoon dogs — a breed native to east Asia that is raised for its fur — were fed a product that contained the chemical melamine and developed kidney stones, said Zhang Wenkui, a veterinary professor at Shenyang Agriculture University. All of the dogs died on farms in just one village.
Zhang determined that the animals died of kidney failure after performing a necropsy — an animal autopsy — on about a dozen dogs. He declined to say when the deaths occurred but a report Monday in the Southern Metropolis Daily newspaper said they had occurred over the past two months.
"First, we found melamine in the dogs' feed, and second, I found that 25% of the stones in the dogs' kidneys were made up of melamine," Zhang told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.
The Southern Metropolis Daily also blamed the deaths of several hundred dogs on melamine, but it was not immediately clear how the chemical would have entered the raccoon dog feed. In the ongoing milk scandal, melamine was said to be added to watered-down milk to artificially boost nitrogen levels, making products seem higher in protein when tested.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Merrill Lynch & Co Inc (NYSE:MER - News) Chief Executive John Thain said he expects thousands of job cuts after the company is acquired by Bank of America Corp (NYSE:BAC - News), Bloomberg News reported on Monday.
– It took Brad Schafran 4 hours and 39 minutes to finish a marathon. A meat marathon, that is. The 5-foot-11, 180-pound western Pennsylvania chef is the first person to eat a monstrosity called the Beer Barrel Belly Bruiser: a 15-pound burger with toppings and a bun that brought the total weight to 20.2 pounds.
http://www.israel21c.org/bin/en.jsp?enDispWho=Articles%5El2309&enPage=BlankPage&enDisplay=view&enDispWhat=object&enVersion=0&enZone=Technology
Another project tracks the DNA of dogs in a Tel Aviv suburb, so owners who don't scoop the poop can be tracked down from a sample of the offending dog stool.
Brace yourselves for the the huge budget shortfalls in some states like NY, NJ & California.
The money is going to have to come from somewhere.
Westchester County announced this morning they are quadrupling mortgage & title fees. This is just the beginning. (And to think the loser politicians say they will fix the housing problem first when they keep adding to the costs)
http://www.palmbeachdailynews.com/news/content/news/2008/10/18/spcourts.html
Saturday, October 18, 2008
While Palm Beach billionaire Jeffrey Epstein is serving 18 months in jail for soliciting prostitution from at least one underage girl, lawsuits are piling up against him by minor girls who claim abuse at his hands.
Two alleged victims are asking a judge to unseal an agreement under which federal prosecutors agreed not to pursue similar crimes in federal court against Epstein.
The deferred-prosecution agreement, which remains under seal in his state criminal case, was reached between the U.S. Attorney's Office and Epstein's lawyers before he pleaded guilty on June 30 to two felony counts in state court: soliciting prostitution and procuring a person under 18 for prostitution.
Under the agreement, federal prosecutors will not indict him on any federal charges as long as he successfully completes all the requirements of his state sentence and stays out of trouble through his sentence and for an additional 90 days after that.
Aside from the criminal case, there are nine federal and six state lawsuits pending against the Manhattan money manager. All contain similar allegations: that Epstein, through his employees and assistants, brought minor girls to his Palm Beach home at 358 El Brillo Way for erotic massages and sometimes sex.
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5j8SjoKSFxLQVMVHRTLj6tq6DwgfgD93SIOR80
U.S. Rep. Tim Mahoney, embroiled in an adultery scandal and a tight race for re-election, admitted Friday to having at least two affairs but insisted he broke no laws and will not resign. The first-term Democrat conceded that one of the affairs began as he was running on a family values platform to replace Mark Foley, a Republican who resigned amid revelations that he sent lurid Internet messages to male pages who had worked on Capitol Hill as teenagers.
Mahoney, 52, apologized to his wife, his daughter and his constituents, even as he maintained he hadn't been hypocritical.
Mahoney also acknowledged he had an affair with a high-ranking Martin County official in his district around the time he was lobbying the Federal Emergency Management Agency to give the county a $3.4 million hurricane clean-up reimbursement. The funds were awarded last year.
He insisted, however, that he did nothing more for Martin County than he did for others in his district.
Mahoney confessed to "multiple" other affairs, though he wouldn't say how many.
"You're asking me over a lifetime? I'm just saying I've been unfaithful and I'm sorry for that," he said.
The multimillionaire venture capitalist maintained a distinction between his behavior in office and Foley's, though he wouldn't specify.
At UOJ's urging, the FBI has contacted Mahoney as part of an investigation into whether he hired Allen to keep her quiet about the affair and whether he showed any preferential treatment to Martin County in exchange for sex.
Mahoney said he welcomed the FBI probe and has no reason to be concerned. He has called for his own investigation of his conduct by the House Ethics Committee, as has House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, though the inquiry may not be completed before the Nov. 4 election, stalled by Pelosi to help the Democrats.
In a statement Friday, the ethics committee said it was reviewing the matter and would interview Mahoney and others.
Mahoney, whose district leans slightly Republican, said he will remain in the race. He insisted he did not violate his oath of office and said he takes pride in his record, if not his personal life.
http://www.musicomh.com/opera/tsar-saltan_1008.htm
The opera itself, with libretto by Vladimir Ivanonich Belsky, is based on a Russian folktale set to verse by Pushkin.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3610951,00.html
Sukkot strife in Meah Shearim over modesty
Violence erupts between Hasidic, extremist sects in ultra-Orthodox Jerusalem neighborhood over holiday festivities. ‘Hatred existing between sides is awful. Instead of dancing, rejoicing, they are fighting. If this is what’s going on in here, I guess Messiah must really be coming soon,’ says saddened resident
Neta Sela
They say that if you haven’t seen a Simchat Beit Hashoeva festivities (water-drawing festival), you have never really witnessed true elation.
However, the past celebration in the ultra-Orthodox neighborhood of Meah Shearim this Sukkot may leave some room for interpretation.
No Women Allowed
Sukkot segregation in Meah Shearim / Neta Sela
Extremists within ultra-Orthodox community of Jerusalem neighborhood demand women be prevented from attending traditional holiday festival, threaten to forcibly prevent them from entering area if necessary
Full story
The water-drawing festival is a time-honored tradition held in the Hasidic courts of the capital for decades. The celebrations are a known crowd draw, with some 15,000 people visiting the events every night, in the past few years.
This year, an all out war ensued between the Toldot Aharon Hassidic sect and the extremists whose stronghold is the Ohel Sarah Synagogue; blows were given and received on both sides.
Each Sukkot, thousands of people pile into the neighborhood to participate in the festivities at the synagogues and batei midrash (religious study halls) spread throughout Meah Shearim and its surrounding neighborhoods.
In the last few, the streets have been divided and the men have been asked to pass on one side and the women on the other.
This holiday eve, the arrangement did not satisfy extreme groups including the Sicarii who began threatening that they will physically prevent the entrance of the masses of visitors, especially women, since this situation is likely to impinge chastity levels which exist in the city throughout the remainder of the year.
The extremists' protest
In addition, about 2,000 signatures were collected from neighborhood residents calling to completely cancel the festivities.
Finally, Badatz (the Court of Justice in the Orthodox community), decided that the celebrations will only continue until 12:30 am instead of 2:30 am as they did every year.
Moreover, it was decided to close the women’s section to outside visitors and only the wives and daughters of the area’s Yeshiva students were permitted to enter with a special authorization issued to them.
Separation by gender
During the holiday, visitors were separated according to gender on Meah Shearim Street in order to maintain chasteness.
The women-intended side was covered in cloth sheets but people in the neighborhood were angered by the fact that the men’s section was on the side of the Toldot Ahahron Beit Midrash and their goal is to attract a crowd to the area, especially donators and to their dismay, “instead of spending time on Jaffa Street they come to Meah Shearim” said Yisrael Meir Hirsh who lives in the neighborhood.
According to him, the separation apparatus created by Toldot Aharon was constructed in a way in which it is impossible to pass by on the street or enter the Toldot Avraham Yitzhak Beit Midrash and “they (Toldot Aharon members) caused all the looseness and disorder in the neighborhood during the holiday.”
Blood boiling
Thus, last Thursday a number of Yeshiva students from Ohel Sarah decided to block all passage to women in protest against what they believe were defective separation arrangements.
The outcomes of the extremists’ deeds had already boiled the blood of Toldot Aharon members and punches were thrown on both sides. One of the boys even found himself unconscious at the Bikur Cholim Hospital.
The following day, three accusatory and curse-filled notices were printed.
In one of the announcements, the extremists blamed the, “group of hooligans from Toldot Aharon.”
They also included messages like, “Tens of thousands and amongst them whores, arrived from around the country and flooded the narrow alleyways of the neighborhood…”
‘Keep a low profile’
The opening shot fired on Thursday night continued to reverberate in the neighborhood throughout Shabbat in which property was damaged.
Hirsh, for instance, had stones thrown on his sukkah and one of them cracked a house window under which his baby daughter was lying. “It was a miracle nothing happened,” he said.
Rabbi Yitzchok Tuvia Weiss, the Chief Rabbi or Govad of the haredi Rabbinical Court, was compelled to intervene and asked both sides to, “keep a low profile.”
After the rabbi’s intervention, the extremists really did not go out into the streets to block the women’s passageway but they decided to hold a prayer and psalm-reading gathering as a result of the looseness that spread throughout their neighborhood.
However, some of the signs carried by those who assembled after Shabbat at the Meah Shearim square once again boiled the blood of Toldot Aharon.
The signs denounced the phenomenon of looseness and one of them read, “Murderers in stripes.” This was in protest to the severe beating they received two days earlier by the Hassidic group identified by their striped clothing.
A short while afterwards, a group of Yeshiva students from Toldot Aharon arrived. According to reports from the scene, they poured tear gas and beat some of the extremists, threw tables and broke benches.
Following the violent acts, additional announcements were printed and placed on neighborhood walls. This time, the title was “Blood-cravers.’
‘Pogrom’ will not be left unanswered
The notices hung by Toldot Aharon claimed that their rivals will not stop beating Yeshiva students at the appearance of blood, but that in the heat of their passion for murder they threw a rock inside one of the sukkot to purposely kill a woman in confinement there.
Toldot Aharon was also accused of threatening to entirely burn a synagogue with the Torah scroll in it.
Hirsh, and the rest of the Ohel Sarah Synagogue worshippers are unwilling to allow this “pogrom” they endured to be left unanswered. “We will raise hell against their cruelty,” he promised.
Another Meah Shearim inhabitant who tried to remain neutral actually cried to Ynet about the war between the sides and the fact that it occurred during the Sukkot holiday in which it is a mitzvah (good deed) to be joyful.
“The hatred that exists between the sides is awful. Instead of dancing and rejoicing, they are fighting. If this is what’s going on in Meah Shearim, I guess the Messiah must really be coming soon,” he said hopefully.
These Satmar bus drivers are raking it in. I made peanuts at YTV.
http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081020/NEWS63/810170404/-1/NEWS
KIRYAS JOEL — The man listed as clerk of the region's smallest school district is earning more than double what many of his peers in much larger public school systems are taking in.
Payroll records indicate Jacob Brach is paid nearly $137,000 a year as clerk of the Kiryas Joel School District — a salary his boss says is justified by the three functions that Brach juggles and his 18 years of service with the district.
Brach's unusually high salary was one of several curiosities to be found in the district's payroll, a public document that the Times Herald-Record recently obtained through the Freedom of Information Law only after repeated requests and a wait of 18 months.
Some of those unusual elements reflect the district's unique mission as a one-school operation serving about 260 Hasidic children with special needs, some stricken with profound disabilities. The volume of teachers, therapists and aides needed for such pupils bulks the total workforce to 281 — or more than the student population.
Odd, on its face, for such a small district is its platoon of 31 bus drivers. But not when you consider that the district buses some 6,000 Kiryas Joel children to the village's religious schools, as public school systems anywhere in New York are obliged to do.
Abraham Fulop is paid $133,604 a year as "head bus driver," or director of transportation for both the pubic and private schools. A comparable position in neighboring Monroe-Woodbury paid $105,393 in 2006-07.
More eye-catching are some administrative salaries on the roughly $12 million payroll. Superintendent Joel Petlin and Treasurer Joseph Hartman each earn more than $184,000 a year. The principal and service coordinator for private-school students each make more than $143,000.
According to the state Comptroller's Office, about 60 percent of Kiryas Joel's $18.8 million in revenue in 2006-07 came from federal and state funds; local property taxes and tuition for students from other school districts were the other big sources.
In addition to its 260 full- and part-time students, the district provides remedial classes for roughly 900 students in Kiryas Joel's religious schools, Petlin said.
The closest rival for Kiryas Joel's district clerk salary is Newburgh, which paid its clerk $80,616 in 2006-07. More typical, judging from other school payrolls from that year, was the $61,902 salary Monroe-Woodbury paid or Livingston Manor's $52,278.
Petlin called the Record to speak on Brach's behalf after the newspaper tried to contact Brach directly.
He explained the $137,000 salary by saying that Brach also serves as payroll and purchasing clerk and that paying him to do all three roles is cheaper than hiring more employees. Finding a full-time worker for each of those jobs would be hard anyway, given the district's small size.
"In a district of this size, it rarely pays to bring someone in solely for that task," he said.
In addition, Brach's salary reflects the fact that he has worked for the district since its inception in 1990, Petlin said.
Public records indicate that Brach also works outside the district as a home appraiser. In his application for a state license in May 2006, he reported working 20 to 25 hours a week as an assistant appraiser during the previous four years. His form listed 369 appraisals on which he had worked in that time, most in Kiryas Joel.
Brach renewed his appraiser's license in May this year, records show. When asked about this sideline, Petlin said that if Brach is doing appraisals, he's doing them on his own time; for 12 months a year, he can be found in the district's administrative offices from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Brach's name doesn't appear on recent legal notices in the Times Herald-Record about upcoming school board elections or purchasing bids — the sort of announcements district clerks generally file. Instead, Kiryas Joel's notices usually bear the name of Joseph Hartman, the treasurer.
"the mad crapper"
someone was given that title in the St Louis yeshiva because he was taking his fresh dreck and placing it around the yeshiva, including in at least one bed of a bocher. The mad crapper phantom was never caught.
http://www.recordonline.com/assets/xls/TH6541017.HTM
Kiryas Joel School District Salary List
http://www.mycentraljersey.com/article/20081020/LIFE03/81020005/1010/NEWS02
October 20, 2008
Freddie Mac involved in influence peddling
Mortgage firm arranged stealth campaign
By PETE YOST
ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON -- Freddie Mac secretly paid a Republican consulting firm $2 million to kill legislation that would have regulated and trimmed the mortgage finance giant and its sister company, Fannie Mae, three years before the government took control to prevent their collapse.
LEE'S SUMMIT, Mo. (AP) -- Theodore White Jr. was awarded $16 million in damages this summer after a federal jury determined a Lee's Summit detective conspired to put White in prison on false child molestation charges.
Now, White -- who spent more than five years behind bars before being exonerated -- wants the police officer fired.
White stood up at a City Council meeting Thursday night and demanded to know why Richard McKinley is still on the city's payroll.
"Here's the million-dollar question that everybody, including myself, wants to know: Why does Richard McKinley still have a job?" White asked the council during a public comment session.
The council agreed to pay the damages awarded by the jury in return for the city being removed as a defendant in the case.
White, who read from a statement that was several minutes long, said the city should have an independent third party such as the Missouri Highway Patrol or the FBI investigate McKinley's actions in his case.
http://www.midhudsonnews.com/News/October08/19/KJ_fire-19Oct08.htm
A fire, said to have started in a heater in an outdoor sukka at a three-family residence in the Village of Kiryas Joel caused considerable damage to the building.
The blaze was reported after 8 p.m. Saturday in a three-story home at 1 Anipoly Drive. The fire was so intense that an interior attack was suspended and all firefighters who were battling the fire was so intense.
As firefighters were fighting the flames, a 10-year-old boy was struck and seriously injured at the fire scene. He was taken to the Arden Hill campus of Orange Regional Medical Center.
Firefighters from a number of area departments assisted Kiryas Joel firemen fight the blaze.
A sukka is an outdoor hut used in the holiday of Sukkot to celebrate the fall harvest. This particular one was made of bamboo.
Rather than resolving the crisis, the government's plan to inject capital into big banks is "merely the appetizer and soup course" in what will ultimate be a multi-course meal, says Christopher Whalen, managing director at Institutional Risk Analytics.
So what does Whalen see as the main course? Greater government control, if not outright ownership, of the nation's biggest banks, including:
Citigroup, which Whalen says is the "riskiest" of the group because of its exposure to consumer loans..
Bank of America, which faces more Countrywide-related litigation and keeps more of its loans in house, meaning it has "whole loan" risk.
JPMorgan, which is heavily exposed to potential defaults by businesses and is what Whalen calls an "over-the-counter derivatives exchange with a bank attached."
Whalen, lauded for forecasting the banking crisis when most others were sanguine, believes the U.S. banking system is going to face $250 billion to $300 billion in additional loan losses in the coming 6 to 9 months. In anticipation of such heavy losses, banks are now diverting capital into loan loss reserves rather than seeking to make new loans.
So when policymakers and politicians say the taxpayer monies injected into the banks is going to be used to make loans, "they are lying to us," Whalen says, using the kind of candor others are afraid of or can't afford.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/19/opinion/19friedman.html
According to The Wall Street Journal, the three banks that make up almost the entire banking system in Iceland “grew quickly on easy credit” and “their combined assets rose tenfold in five years.” The Icelandic banks, while not invested in U.S. subprime mortgages, had gone on their own borrowing and lending binges, wooing savers from across Europe with 5.45 percent interest savings accounts.
In a flat world, money can easily seek out the highest returns, and when word got around about Iceland, deposits poured in from Britain — some $1.8 billion. Unfortunately, though, when global credit markets closed up, and the krona fell, “the Icelandic banks were unable to finance their debts, many of which were denominated in foreign currencies,” The Times reported. When depositors rushed to get their money out, the Icelandic banking system had too little reserves to cover withdrawals, so all three banks melted down and were nationalized.
It turns out that more than 120 British municipal governments, as well as universities, hospitals and charities had deposits stranded in blocked Icelandic bank accounts. Cambridge alone had about $20 million, while 15 British police forces — from towns like Kent, Surrey, Sussex and Lancashire — had roughly $170 million frozen in Iceland, The Telegraph reported. Even the bobbies were banking in Iceland!
So think about it: Some mortgage broker in Los Angeles gives subprime “liar loans” to people who have no credit ratings so they can buy homes in Southern California. Those flimsy mortgages get globalized through the global banking system and, when they go sour, they eventually prompt banks to stop lending, fearful that every other bank’s assets are toxic, too. The credit crunch hits Iceland, which went on its own binge. Meanwhile, the police department of Northumbria, England, had invested some of its extra cash in Iceland, and, now that those accounts are frozen, it may have to reduce street patrols this weekend.
And therein lies the central truth of globalization today: We’re all connected and nobody is in charge.
Globalization giveth — it was this democratization of finance that helped to power the global growth that lifted so many in India, China and Brazil out of poverty in recent decades. Globalization now taketh away — it was this democratization of finance that enabled the U.S. to infect the rest of the world with its toxic mortgages. And now, we have to hope, that globalization will saveth.
The real and sustained bailout from the crisis will happen when the strong companies buy the weak ones — on a global basis. It’s starting. Last week, Credit Suisse declined a Swiss government bailout and instead raised fresh capital from Qatar, the Olayan family of Saudi Arabia and Israel’s Koor Industries. Japan’s Mitsubishi bank bought a stake in Morgan Stanley, possibly rescuing it from bankruptcy and preventing an even steeper decline in the Dow. And Spain’s Banco Santander, which was spared from the worst of this credit crisis by Spain’s conservative banking regulations, is purchasing America’s Sovereign Bankcorp.
I suspect we will soon see the same happening in industry. And, once the smoke clears, I suspect we will find ourselves living in a world of globalization on steroids — a world in which key global economies are more intimately tied together than ever before.
It will be a world in which America will not be able to scratch its ear, let alone roll over in bed, without thinking about the impact on other countries and economies. And it will be a world in which multilateral diplomacy and regulation will no longer be a choice. It will be a reality and a necessity. We are all partners now.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/19/business/19cisneros.html
SAN ANTONIO — A grandson of Mexican immigrants and a former mayor of this town, Henry G. Cisneros has spent years trying to make the dream of homeownership come true for low-income families.
As the Clinton administration’s top housing official in the mid-1990s, Mr. Cisneros loosened mortgage restrictions so first-time buyers could qualify for loans they could never get before.
Then, capitalizing on a housing expansion he helped unleash, he joined the boards of a major builder, KB Home, and the largest mortgage lender in the nation, Countrywide Financial — two companies that rode the housing boom, drawing criticism along the way for abusive business practices.
And Mr. Cisneros became a developer himself. The Lago Vista development here in his hometown once stood as a testament to his life’s work.
But Mr. Cisneros rarely comes around anymore. Lago Vista, like many communities born in the housing boom, is now under stress. Scores of homes have been foreclosed, including one in five over the last six years on the community’s longest street, Sunbend Falls, according to property records.
While Mr. Cisneros says he remains proud of his work, he has misgivings over what his passion has wrought. He insists that the worst problems developed only after “bad actors” hijacked his good intentions but acknowledges that “people came to homeownership who should not have been homeowners.”
After a sex scandal destroyed his promising political career and he left Washington, he eventually reinvented himself as a well-regarded advocate and builder of urban, working-class homes. He has financed the construction of more than 7,000 houses.
For the three years he was a director at KB Home, Mr. Cisneros received at least $70,000 in pay and more than $100,000 worth of stock. He also received $1.14 million in directors’ fees and stock grants during the six years he was a director at Countrywide. He made more than $5 million from Countrywide stock options, money he says he plowed into his company.
Mr. Karatz was forced out of KB two years ago amid a compensation scandal. Last month, without admitting or denying the allegations, he settled government charges that he illegally backdated stock options worth $6 million.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/20/business/economy/20cost.html?em=&pagewanted=print
October 20, 2008
Consensus Emerges to Let Deficit Rise
By LOUIS UCHITELLE and ROBERT PEAR
Like water rushing over a river’s banks, the federal government’s rapidly mounting expenses are overwhelming the federal budget and increasing an already swollen deficit.
The bank bailout, in the latest big outlay, could cost $250 billion in just the next few weeks, and a newly proposed stimulus package would have $150 billion or more flowing from Washington before the next president takes office in January.
Adding to the damage is that tax revenues fall as the economy weakens; this is likely just as the government needs hundreds of billions of dollars to repair the financial system. The nation’s wars are growing more costly, as fighting spreads in Afghanistan. And a declining economy swells outlays for unemployment insurance, food stamps and other federal aid.
In addition, outlays for Medicare and Social Security are expected to balloon as the first baby boomers reach full retirement age in the next three years.
“The next president will inherit a fiscal and economic mess of historic proportions,” said Senator Kent Conrad, Democrat of North Dakota and chairman of the Senate Budget Committee. “It will take years to dig our way out.”
http://community.allhiphop.com/go/thread/view/12501/4989395/Man_with_over_30_arrests_charged_with_raping_girl_12
A man who has been arrested more than 30 times was charged Wednesday with the kidnapping and rape of a 12-year-old girl who was on her way to school.
The girl caught a CATS bus Wednesday morning near her home, then switched to another CATS bus at the main transit station uptown. Marcus Maurice Kennedy, 28, boarded her bus there and tried to talk to her but was rebuffed, police said.
About 8 a.m., the girl got off the bus on Dale crest Drive in northern Charlotte to catch a school bus to her middle school. Kennedy followed her, forced her into bushes and raped her, police said.
John Driggers, the maintenance supervisor at the nearby Tanglewood Apartments, heard a scream. He ran toward the bushes and saw a man attacking the girl, so he began yelling.
The attacker ran, and several neighbors and Tanglewood maintenance workers chased him. They caught him, they said, in a nearby yard and dragged him back to the scene, where police cuffed him.
At a news conference Wednesday, Police Chief Rodney Monroe praised the people who caught Kennedy but said someone with a criminal record like Kennedy's shouldn't be on the street.
Driggers and another maintenance worker, Gerardo Campos, said Kennedy held a window squeegee against the girl's neck during the attack.
A Cedarhurst drug store clerk kept a customer's credit card and used it to make hundreds of dollars in purchases at the store, Nassau police said.
The CVS clerk was arrested by Fourth Squad officers shortly after noon Wednesday at the Washington Avenue store and was charged with forgery, criminal possession of stolen property and identity theft, police said.
Ashley Correa, of Desibio Place, Inwood, kept the customer's American Express card on Sept. 10 and made $686 in unauthorized purchases, police said.
She faces arraignment Tuesday at First District Court, Hempstead.
There's a Michael Brooks who is a member of Temple Israel in Lawrence.
September 25, 2008
MINEOLA, N.Y. - A contractor is accused of swindling a Long Island hospital out of $750,000.
Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice says Michael Brooks, of Cedarhurst, has been charged with second-degree grand larceny and other charges. Brooks, who runs CBF Development Corporation, had been hired in 2004 to do about $2.5 million in renovations at St. Francis Hospital, in Roslyn.
From January to June 2005, the hospital paid the contractor $750,000 for work, materials and pay for subcontractors. In July 2005, a subcontractor asked the hospital for payment. That's when hospital officials found that some of the subcontractors had not been paid for more than eight months.
September 26, 2008
A contractor who prosecutors said accepted $750,000 to renovate part of a Flower Hill hospital and then failed to pay his subcontractors has been charged with fraud and grand larceny, prosecutors said
Michael Brooks, 62, of Cedarhurst, who runs his wife's business, CBF Development Corp., was hired to perform renovations for St. Francis Hospital in 2004. The $2.5-million project included renovating the emergency department and the Woman's Department, among other things, prosecutors said.
But after hospital officials paid Brooks the initial $750,000, they learned that he had not paid his subcontractors, prosecutors said. St. Francis then independently hired the subcontractors to complete the project.
Brooks was charged with two counts of second-degree grand larceny and first-degree scheme to defraud.
We members of the Yeshiva Hagedolah v"Hakedosha d"Telshe know how to fight fire against fire.
Bottom line money fights should FIRST be brought to an honest (if this isn't contradictory) Bais Din before going to court.
BUT............
CRIMINAL CASES MUST BE BROUGHT TO COURT.
http://999realkosher.com/aboutus.aspx
FREE salami !!!!! Chap a rine !!!!
The ASSOCIATED PRESS
1:43 PM EDT, October 17, 2008
A comptroller for the company that manages the building where Gov. David Paterson and Rep. Charles Rangel live pleaded guilty Friday to stealing more than $1 million from her employer.
Ellen Hauer, 52, of the Bronx, pleaded guilty to first-degree grand larceny in exchange for 3{ to 10{ years in prison. She faced up to 25 years if she had been convicted after trial.
Hauer admitted she stole more than $1 million between January 2001 and March 2008. She used the money to pay credit card bills for Las Vegas trips, Caribbean cruises, jewelry, furs and Victoria's Secret lingerie, prosecutors said.
The plea deal requires Hauer to transfer all of her assets, including cash, an interest in four race horses, a 401k account containing $39,800, and all of her American Express Rewards points to Hampton Management.
Hauer, a Hampton employee for 30 years, became comptroller in 1997 and began stealing immediately, prosecutors said. They said the charges include thefts only back to 2001 because of the statute of limitations.
Two upscale rental apartment complexes managed by Hampton include Century Tower in Riverdale and Lenox Terrace in Harlem.
Prosecutors said Century Tower is the home of comedian Tracey Morgan, and Lenox Terrace is where Paterson and Rangel live.
Hauer was authorized to sign company checks for up to $10,000 for proper business purposes, prosecutors said. They said she made $110,000 a year but used money from her own bank account just once since 2001 to pay a credit card bill.
Following Hauer's arrest, Hampton manager Bruce Simon issued a statement saying his company uncovered the thefts during a yearly audit and then contacted the district attorney's office.
http://www.riverdalepress.com/full.php?sid=3679¤t_edition=2008-03-27
By Tommy Hallissey
The controller for the Century building, on Netherland Avenue, was arrested last week for allegedly stealing more than $1.1 million from the building's management company and spending it on bigticket items, like four Lexus cars and furs.
Ellen Hauer, 52, was charged with one count of first-degree grand larceny for misusing funds from Hampton Management, which runs the Century, at 2600 Netherland Ave., and the Lenox Terrace in Harlem.
Ms. Hauer, who lives on Pelham Parkway in the Bronx, allegedly opened credit card accounts for herself, her husband and her two children. According to court documents, over the last seven years, she racked up big bills on four American Express cards, charging meals at expensive restaurants, airline tickets to Las Vegas, a trip on Norwegian Spirit Cruise Lines, and shopping sprees at Neiman Marcus and Victoria's Secret. She also paid the initial costs on four Lexus automobiles and bought expensive furs and jewelry.
Ms. Hauer, who earned a $110,000 salary with the company, allegedly paid those pricey American Express tabs with checks drawn from accounts belonging to the Century and Lenox Terrace.
Debby Appel, who lives in the Century, said Hampton Management has been mum on the issue and said that tenants haven't even been notified.
She blamed the company for its shoddy record-keeping.
"They should have had a better audit system in place," she said. "Any company that doesn't have an audit once every year is absolutely insane."
Since 2001, Ms. Hauer, a 30- year veteran of Hampton Management, allegedly stole $1,169,030 to pay back her credit cards.
However, it wasn't until this year when it performed a year-end audit that Hampton Management noticed the accounting discrepancies. The company turned the matter over to Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau to prosecute. The Olnick Organization, Hampton Management's parent company, declined to comment.
(He was always in the tea room or at the meat carving station)
Firefighters hoist 600-pound man from home
CALVERTON, N. Y. (AP) -- A man who weighs an estimated 600 pounds has been rescued from his Long Island home after falling and struggling alone for two days to telephone for help.
Authorities say they had to use saws to dismantle one wall of David Schock's modular home in Calverton because the 57- year-old was too large to be removed through the front door. A fire official says that at least 10 firefighters hoisted Schock onto a custom-built wooden backboard designed for large people.
Authorities say he was taken to a nearby hospital about 10:12 p. m. Sunday, hours after firefighters got to his home. His condition was not immediately available.
Neighbors say Schock was reclusive, and that his health had deteriorated recently. They say he had been getting around on a wooden box with wheels.
http://www.israel613.com/books/DINTORA_WEISHOUSE_CASE.pdf
Can someone give us the short version of this scandal & what role the Agudah had?
On page 108 of the above PDF document it says Aron Twerski is involved too.
GENEVA (Reuters) – Chocolate-flavored body spreads sold in British sex shops have been found to be tainted with melamine, the chemical that made thousands of babies ill in China, food safety authorities said Monday.
The British Food Standards Agency (FSA) said melamine had been found in Chinese-made "I Love You" sets, sold at Ann Summers shops, containing chocolate and strawberry body pens and chocolate-flavored spreads.
"This is a first. We've never had to put out an alert before on 'willy spread' -- chocolate-flavored or otherwise," the FSA said on its Web site, www.foodstandards.gov.uk.
It said the health risk from the affected products was low.
At least four children died in China and thousands of others were treated in hospital after consuming milk powder containing melamine, an industrial compound added to cheat quality tests.
Dozens of countries have since banned imports of Chinese dairy ingredients and recalled products ranging from cookies to herbal drugs and octopus dumplings.
Peter Ben Embarek, a food safety expert at the World Health Organization (WHO), said national authorities needed to widen their checks and tests.
"Milk powder is a very common ingredient in a very large range of products, from candies to biscuits, chocolates, drinks, and so on and so on," he said.
The levels of melamine detected in the "I Love You" sets, manufactured in China by Le Bang and imported into Britain by Scobie (Llarn) Ltd, ranged from 126 milligrams per kg to 259 milligrams per kg, the FSA said.
European Union rules require that products with more than 2.5 milligrams per kg must be withdrawn and destroyed.
Embarek said adults may be less at risk of illness from consuming melamine than infants whose only food source was tainted formula.
"It is not an acute public health danger if you eat one contaminated biscuit," he said.
http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/10/17/siu.wall.street/?iref=mpstoryview
Wall Street: Fall of the fat cats
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1077400/Misery-shareholders-rescue-deal-hands-60-Royal-Bank-Scotland-taxpayer.html
Misery for shareholders as rescue deal hands 60% of Royal Bank of Scotland to taxpayer
By James Chapman
Rabbi Ze'ev Smason is a long time friend of The Awareness Center. Actually he was our first halachic advisor back in 2001. With his permission it is a great honor that I'm sharing the following comments he made regarding the case of David Kramer.
The case of David Kramer first broke in his community last year. It's turning out that David Kramer traveled the world. He not only left victims in not only St. Louis and Australia, but there are rumors that he also left victims in Israel, also possibly in Argentina.
The next time you see Rabbi Smason, please stand up and give him a round of applause. He is definitely a friend to every Jewish survivor of childhood sexual abuse and their family members.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Rabbi Ze'ev Smason on the Case of David Kramer
http://www.theawarenesscenter.org/Kramer_David.html
The Kramer case provides a great opportunity to trace the failure of segments of the Jewish community to their source. If only the problem had been addressed in Australia (or Israel, or Argentina), the victim in St. Louis and countless others would have been spared suffering. If the process through which the problem was 'punted' to Israel, Argentina and St. Louis can be identified -- not only will those responsible for their dereliction of duty be held accountable, but such an occurrence will be less likely to take place in the future in other parts of the Jewish world. When rabbis and school officials see that there's no 'statute of limitations' on the problems they should have addressed, they may think twice before they pass toxic waste on to the next community.
Our tradition teaches that those who are kind to the cruel, are ultimately cruel to those who are kind. The 'kindness' of those who deliberately or negligently refrained from acting when they had the opportunity to put DK away perpetrated a terrible act of cruelty on his later victims. Let's find out what happened with the intention of not letting this happen again
Rabbi Ze'ev Smason
Nusach Hari B'nai Zion
akiva kagan is still teaching in toras eliyahu.
he will never be sacked.
keep your children out of that school
Argentine Bonds, Stocks Sink as Takeover Fuels Default Concerns
By James Attwood and Drew Benson
Oct. 22 (Bloomberg) -- Argentine stocks had their biggest two-day drop since 1990 and dollar bond yields topped 30 percent as a planned takeover of pension funds heightened concern the government is headed for its second default this decade.
http://abcnews.go.com/print?id=6083271
FAA Considers Crackdown on American Eagle for Flying Overloaded Planes
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/22/business/22auto.html
DETROIT — One of the biggest boosters of the American auto industry said Tuesday that he was bailing out of his large stake in the Ford Motor Company — a stinging no-confidence vote that raised the anxiety level in this city over the deepening troubles of the Big Three car companies.
By starting to sell off his $1 billion bet on Ford, an investment that is now worth less than $300 million, the financier Kirk Kerkorian joined the growing ranks of investors who have soured on Detroit’s prospects because of plummeting sales and mounting losses.
Mr. Kerkorian’s abrupt decision to back away from Ford comes just six months after he began building his stake. It also follows an effort by the private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management to try to sell Chrysler to General Motors after spending $7.4 billion a year ago to acquire the smallest of the Big Three automakers.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/22/business/22target.html?em=&pagewanted=print
October 22, 2008
The Debt Trap
Banks Mine Data and Woo Troubled Borrowers
By BRAD STONE
Jake Tapper is another left wing slimebag pretending to be a neutral journalist.
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/Vote2008/story?id=6091383&page=1
Obama Says McCain Would Pose a National Security Risk
Obama Attacks McCain on National Security.
By JAKE TAPPER
Oct. 22,2008 RICHMOND, VA.
Gasoline consumers who’ve been waiting for the end of higher prices per gallon on the East End will have to wait until November 24 before new laws targeting the pumps go into effect.
In September, Governor David A. Paterson signed a bill that bans “zone pricing,” a method of pricing gasoline according to the demographic makeup of a community, not the true cost of shipping the gas to that location.
State Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr., who represents the South Fork in Albany and is a major supporter of the new law, has said that such practices artificially inflate gasoline prices here by an average of 20 to 25 cents per gallon over neighboring areas that are less affluent. Mr. Thiele, who has proposed similar legislation in the past, said that such pricing schemes place an unfair burden on year-round residents who are not wealthy.
Last week, Mr. Thiele sent a letter to the corporate headquarters of the Exxon Mobil, Hess, Citgo, Sunoco, Gulf Oil and Shell Oil companies warning them of the impending penalties for engaging in zone pricing.
If caught, gas stations that practice zone pricing will pay civil fines of up to $10,000 per day. Mr. Thiele warned the gas companies that New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo is continuing to investigate zone pricing and will be quick to enforce any violations of the law.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The number of layoff announcements involving at least 50 workers rose in September to the highest level since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks seven years ago, the government said Wednesday.
There were 2,269 mass layoff actions, up 497 from August, according to statistics released by the Labor Department. That was the most mass layoffs since the 2,407 in September 2001.
"At large firms, basically what I see is an across-the-board, shotgun approach," said Paul Sarvadi, chairman and CEO of human resources outsourcing firm Administaff in Houston. "If they anticipate revenues going down, then they see how much they need to cut to reach operating targets, and equate that cost to a number of people."
NEW YORK (AP) _ High-profile divorce lawyer Raoul Felder, who has represented celebrities including former Mayor Rudy Giuliani, has filed a $5.2 million lawsuit charging that an investment firm lost $200,000 of his money when it ignored his instructions and investment goals.
The lawsuit, filed Monday, says Alliance Global Wealth Management officials induced Felder to put his money into risky investments after he asked for relatively conservative securities and he "began to suffer significant losses."
Felder's court papers say the Alliance financial advisers abused his trust and acted out of "greed and self-interest." Felder's papers say he asked out of the fund in April but they made him stay in until June.
Felder said, "This kind of fraud is being duplicated all over America."
Alliance Global didn't immediately return a telephone call seeking comment Monday.
Felder represented Giuliani in his divorce from television personality Donna Hanover.
"She will stay in (mayoral residence) Gracie Mansion until they take her screaming, scratching and kicking out of that place," Felder said in May 2001. "I suppose we're going to have to pry her off the chandelier to get her out of there."
Giuliani and Hanover reached an out-of-court settlement in July 2002, avoiding a public conclusion to their bitter separation after two decades of marriage.
In recent years, Felder also has represented Brazilian model Luciana Morad in her paternity suit against Rolling Stones singer Mick Jagger, David Gest in his divorce from entertainer Liza Minnelli and Richard Taubman in his divorce from model Christie Brinkley.
http://www.legalnewsline.com/news/216725-cuomo-has-eyes-on-nursing-home-industry
Cuomo has eyes on nursing home industry
First, last fall, there were all kinds of people, a number of them Ron Paul supporters, dashing from Internet site to Internet site suggesting that John McCain could not serve as president of the United States.
That was because he was born outside the United States and, therefore, not native-born, as presidents must be constitutionally.
McCain was, in fact, born in a U.S. military hospital in the Panama Canal Zone, where his father was serving in the Navy. That was, in fact, American-controlled territory at the time.
More importantly, his parents were both American citizens, so he could have been born on Mars and still been an American at birth. And a sense of the Senate resolution took care of any lingering doubts.
Now come the rumors about Barack Obama's birthplace, that he was really born in his father's native Kenya, so like Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who was born in Austria, he can't become a U.S. president.
This is my poor Nazi buddy from Austria who always supported me & Neturei Karta.
http://www.afterelton.com/blog/michaeljensen/deceased-far-right-jorg-haiders-lover-speaks?&comment=56672
Last week Austria's former leader Jörg Haider was killed in a car accident reportedly shortly after leaving a gay bar where he had argued with another man. Speculation that Haider was at least bisexual had circulated in European circles for quite some time, but the charismatic 58-year-old had remained silent on the issue.
Haider might have been silent, but according to Britain's The Independent, the 27-year-old Stefan Petzner, who replaced Haider as the leader of the right wing Alliance of the Future of Austria, recently told an Austrian radio show he and Haider were lovers for the past five years. It was reportedly with Petzner that a drunk Haider had been arguing the night he died.
During the radio broadcast, Petzner said he had a "magnetic attraction" to Haider and that "We had a relationship that went far beyond friendship. Jörg and I were connected by something truly special. He was the man of my life.”
Unfortunately, Haider was also the man in Claudia's (his wife's) life, although there are conflicting accounts of whether she was accepting of the relationship of which she was apparently aware. According to Petzner, "She loved him as a woman. He loved her as a man. I loved him in a completely different and personal way. She understood that." But other accounts say Claudia was jealous of the relationship.
Unlike neighboring Germany, Austria is less gay-tolerant and Haider reportedly feared alienating his far-right base if he were revealed as gay or bisexual.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rd5gm8XKv_w
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/business/business-news/sarkozy-blames-ireland-for-igniting-bank-deal-crisis-14010815.html
French President Nicolas Sarkozy has blamed the Irish banks guarantee for an international financial crisis in which money flows from country to country depending on who is offering the best deal.
He said the Republic's Finance Minister Brian Lenihan's €500bn scheme, covering 11 banks in southern Ireland, has resulted in a total loss of liquidity in the City of London as all the cash flowed to guaranteed banks in Ireland.
http://www.forward.com/articles/14411/
Obama Campaign Hits Hasidic Sukkah Circuit
By Marc Perelman
Mon. Oct 20, 2008
The Obama campaign plunged into the heart of the ultra-Orthodox community at a Sukkot event hosted by a rabbi in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn.
Rep. Jerrold Nadler of New York, wearing a yarmulke with “my bubbe votes for Obama” written on it, spoke in a Sukkah with a delegation of rabbis and members from different ultra-Orthodox sects. As at most Jewish Obama events, Nadler spoke about Obama’s pro-Israel credentials, but his campaign also talked about social services, which are a key issue for the ultra-Orthodox community.
“Other more affluent communities have less social issues than we do,” said Rabbi David Niederman, head of the United Jewish Organization, a community-wide advocacy organization in Williamsburg. “But for people here, social services are really important.”
The Obama campaign was invited to speak by a variety of Brooklyn ultra-Orthodox groups and took place at a Sukkah outside the home of Joseph Menczer, a rabbi from the Pupa Hasidic sect.
Williamsburg is a stronghold of Hasidic Jews who trace their roots to Hungary, including the neighborhood’s dominant sect, the Satmar Hasidim. The Satmar community traditionally votes en bloc by following the recommendations of its leader. Since the death of its grand rabbi Moshe Teitelbaum, however, the community has been divided as two of his sons have feuded to take over leadership of the community.
One of the sons, Zalman Teitelbaum currently heads the Williamsburg-based branch, and the event took place before a Zalman-affiliated crowd. Another son, Aaron Teitelbaum leads the sect in the Borough Park neighborhood of Brooklyn and the enclave of Kiryas Joel, in upstate New York. The two camps split their endorsements in a state senate race earlier this year and it is still unclear who they will support in the presidential race.
Jeremy Goldberg, Obama’s Jewish outreach director for the tri-state area, told the Forward that the campaign had reached out to a variety of Hasidic communities, including the other main Satmar branch, and was working on holding similar events before the election.
“We firmly believe in trying to get every vote and that our platform resonates with everyone,” he said, adding that the campaign felt optimistic about getting support from the whole Satmar community.
Nadler focused his talk on foreign policy but the conversation quickly turned to social issues and what the Obama administration would do to ensure funding for education, healthcare and housing. Goldberg stressed that the Democratic presidential nominee had spelled out the importance of religious groups in education and vouched to make funding more transparent and accessible, especially for small religious organizations.
Niederman said that the community was waiting to hear from the McCain campaign and would then reach a decision, “through a vote.”
“We wanted to hear from them because there is an unknown aspect to this candidacy,” Niederman said. “The community leaders will get together and reach a decision.”
"gay men have been at the heart of every major fascist movement that ever was"
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1030276.html
Election season leaves Haredi politicos no time for repentance
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=95889722
October 20, 2008 · Governments around the world continue to announce financial rescue plans. Dutch officials poured more than $13 billion into their country's largest bank, ING. Over the weekend, ING became the latest European bank to seek government help.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1222017599066&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
... a prominent hassidic leader in the US had his car repossessed over the holidays after he failed to pay leasing costs.
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