Flatbush – Husband is 80 years, Wife is 61, Husband Refuses to give GET

all the details here

http://www.nycourts.gov/reporter/3dseries/2009/2009_50141.htm

2 NY banks turn over $534.9 million from accounts owned by Bernard Madoff’s to trustee

NEW YORK (AP) Two New York banks have agreed to transfer a combined $534.9 million from accounts owned by Bernard Madoff’s investment firm to a trustee overseeing the liquidation of the company’s assets.
Madoff is accused of running a $50 billion Ponzi scheme. He remains under house arrest in his New York City apartment as part of an earlier bail agreement.
JPMorgan Chase & Co. has agreed to transfer $233.5 million it held in an account in the name of Madoff’s investment firm, Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC.
According to court documents filed Thursday, Bank of New York Mellon Corp. is set to transfer about $301.4 million from an account at its bank. The money will likely be used to help settle claims and repay allegedly defrauded investors.

Feds allege plot to destroy Fannie Mae data

URBANA, Md. (AP) Federal prosecutors say a fired Fannie Mae contract worker in Maryland has pleaded not guilty to charges he planted a virus to destroy all data on the mortgage giant’s 4,000 computer servers nationwide.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office said 35-year-old Rajendrasinh Makwana, of Glen Allen, Va., pleaded not guilty to one count of computer intrusion Friday in U.S. District Court in Baltimore.
U.S. Attorney Rod Rosenstein says Makwana was fired Oct. 24.
Rosenstein says that on that day, Makwana programmed a computer with a malicious code that was set to spread throughout the Fannie Mae network and destroy all data this Saturday.
Makwana’s federal public defender did not immediately return a call seeking comment.
Washington-based Fannie Mae is the largest U.S. mortgage finance company

Samaritan recalls finding abducted woman near the New Jersey-New York border

NORTH BERGEN, N.J. (AP) The man who rescued a young woman who police say was abandoned by her friends in 8-degree weather near the New Jersey-New York border says he’s no hero.
David Laske says he’s just a “nice guy.”
The Nyack, N.Y., resident tells The Record of Bergen County he was driving home from work as a waiter when he spotted a desperate-looking, barefoot woman.
The 38-year-old says he first feared he was being set up to be robbed when he pulled over.
The 19-year-old told him she was a “good girl” before describing what happened.
Laske says the woman couldn’t feel that he had turned the heat on high to warm her blue, frostbitten feet.
She asked him to take her home, but he went to a hospital, where the woman tried to give him money.
Her three friends face kidnapping, assault and conspiracy charges

Bird expert: Too many Canada geese in NYC-LI area

HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. (AP) A state official says that New York City and Long Island are home to an excessive number of Canada geese.
State game bird specialist Bryan Swift says there is about five times the number of Canada geese than should be supported by the region’s land mass. He says the area is home to an estimated 20,000 of the birds.
The state Department of Environmental Conversation official was speaking at a round-table discussion in Hempstead convened on Thursday to talk about how to control the geese population.
The region’s geese have come under scrutiny as possible culprits in the crippling of US Airways Flight 1549. The pilot was forced to ditch the jet in the Hudson River after the engines lost power following a bird strike.

4 reprimanded for taking $70 in nickels from Fla. highway

MELBOURNE, Fla. (AP) About $70 in nickels is ending up costing three Brevard County Sheriff’s deputies a lot more.
The three deputies, along with one communications officer, have been reprimanded for collecting and keeping the nickels after an accident on Interstate 95 involving a truck en route from the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia.
The September crash happened just south of Scottsmoor with a truck headed for the Federal Reserve Bank in Miami. One person was killed and 3.7 million nickels spilled onto the roadway.
Most of the nickels had been picked up, but the Brevard employees admitted picking up more than 1,400 that were missed.
Two of the officers have resigned and a third was suspended without pay for two weeks and reassigned.
The communications officer was the only one not on-duty at the time; he was given a written letter of warning.

AGUDATH ISRAEL TO CONGRESS: EXCLUDING RELIGIOUS SCHOOLS “MAKES NO SENSE”

Stimulus Package Provisions Inequitable,
Asserts Orthodox Jewish Group

WASHINGTON, D.C. — As the U.S. Congress considers President Barack Obama’s Economic Stimulus Package, Agudath Israel of America’s Washington Office is sending a clear message to members of both the Senate and House of Representatives, urging lawmakers to “provide the full measure of federal education assistance to all schoolchildren,” including those in nonpublic schools like Jewish day schools and yeshivos.
In advocating this message, Washington Director and Counsel Rabbi Abba Cohen is focusing on two aspects of the proposed legislation.  One concerns several programs aimed at modernizing, renovating or repairing educational institutions to ensure that they are safe, healthy, high-performing and technologically up to date.  As currently drafted, the provision effectively excludes the entire gamut of religious educational institutions – day schools to yeshivos gedolos – from receiving any benefits – a lapse that Rabbi Cohen contends “simply makes no sense.”
“The goal of these programs” he explains, “is to help address our nation’s economic crisis with an eye to enhancing the health and safety of students, the technological proficiency of their educational environments and access for the disabled at schools.”  Not only is there no reason nonpublic schools should be excluded, the Agudath Israel representative notes, “but religious schools have participated in similar programs in the past.”
The second area addressed by the Agudath Israel communication is a proposed “State Fiscal Stabilization Fund” (SFSF) intended to bolster services at elementary and secondary schools.  Permissible uses for the fund include activities authorized under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act – all programs whose “equitable participation” clauses require that nonpublic schools receive their fair share of federal services and funding.  But the proposed SFSF fails to clearly state that nonpublic schools would be eligible, like their public school counterparts, to benefit from the fund. This, it is feared, might provide an opening for limiting their eligibility.
Agudath Israel’s lobbying on these issues has encompassed both oral and written communications and, because of its high priority, the organization has mobilized its national network of grassroots activists to assist the Washington Office in its efforts.  Rabbi Cohen has also been working closely with the Council for American Private Education, the United States Catholic Conference and the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations.
While the legislation passed the House without the desired changes, action now moves over to the Senate, which appears more amenable to the proposed amendments.  In any event, a conference committee is expected to be convened to iron out differences between the bills and passage is not projected until the President’s Day break.  This leaves several weeks, and numerous opportunities, for additional advocacy.
Rabbi Cohen extended his offer to the members of both House and Senate “to work with you and your staff[s] to craft amendments that would effectively address these issues.”

260 guns and 500,000 rounds of ammunition seized from NJ ex-cop

FRANKLIN TOWNSHIP, N.J. (AP) State police seized nearly 260 guns and 500,000 rounds of ammunition from a four-acre site owned by a retired Vineland police officer.
The weapons and ammunition were found Tuesday in Brian Hinkel’s house, two outbuildings and a buried septic tank outfitted as a bunker. A live grenade also found at the property in Franklin Township (Gloucester County) was detonated, and forklifts were used to move about a dozen pallets of ammunition.
State police Sgt. Stephen Jones said authorities were trying to determine why Hinkel had so many weapons and so much ammunition, as well as whether any of those items were stolen or prohibited. Hinkel has not yet been charged in connection with the weapons or ammunition, but could faces charges soon.
Two state police troopers had gone to Hinkel’s home Monday as part of a burglary investigation, Jones said Thursday. After speaking with Hinkel, the troopers told him they wanted to take him back to their office for further questioning.
The 59-year-old man asked if he could get a jacket from his home, and all three men went inside. Hinkel then allegedly grabbed a loaded .45-caliber handgun. One of the two troopers subdued him and the pair soon noticed other firearms in the residence, Jones said.
Hinkel was charged with three count of aggravated assault on a police officer, and later released on $10,000 bail. He did not immediately respond to a telephone message left at his home on Thursday, and Jones said he did not know if Hinkel had retained a lawyer.

Police: NJ Man delivered stolen newspapers for years

PHILLIPSBURG, N.J. (AP) Some newspaper subscribers in rural Warren County are surprised to learn their newspaper delivery man may not have been legit.
Phillipsburg police say Michael Farrell was delivering copies of the Express-Times of Easton (Pa.) to customers for the last three years. The problem was, police say he wasn’t paying for the papers but was stealing them from boxes.
Express-Times officials say the Lopatcong Township used to work as a carrier for the paper.
Customers assumed the 53-year-old still did and some wrote him a check every month. Subscriber Mike Markle of Phillipsburg says he never had any problems getting his paper in the morning.

Doctor: Shabbos blech (hot plate) ‘may spell danger’ exposure to toxic carbon monoxide

A PRESTWICH doctor has warned about exposure to toxic carbon monoxide because of ill-fitting blechs used on Shabbat. A blech is used by Orthodox Jews to cover a cooking hob. Usually, one or two of the burners beneath the blech are left on low – sufficient for warming food placed on top. Now Dr Nathan Stein has called on the religious community to make sure they have a carbon monoxide meter fitted in their kitchens to detect high levels of the poisonous gas. He said: “If you experience headaches, nausea, vomiting or flu-like fatigue recurrently, especially on Shabbat, it could be that your blech is causing CO poisoning if it is on a gas flame. “Make sure you either get a smaller blech that does not block the air flow at the sides, or raise the blech on fireproof blocks so there is a wider gap all around for the air to get in.” When gas is burned, it produces carbon dioxide. But when it isn’t completely burned it also releases the dangerous carbon monoxide. The warning comes after Dr Stein began feeling unwell before Shabbat and, after checking his CO meter, found levels higher than they should be. He said: “We had the gas on very low under the blech, on two gas rings. “I noticed that the flame was nice and blue, but I also noticed that the gap between the edge of the blech and the edge of the cooker was quite narrow, approximately one centimetre to half an inch all around. “I wondered if that might not be enough for the flame to get enough oxygen to burn fully.” He added: “CO toxicity varies from person to person, so a reading of 35 over a few hours could cause poisoning to the elderly or to very young children. Since this incident, we have been putting the blech on the hob crooked to leave large gaps on the edges for the air to feed the flame. “As a result, the CO meter has remained at 0.” Other alternatives to using a blech could include an electric cooker or a hot plate. It is also important to make sure the room is well ventilated as the burning gas uses up oxygen.

http://www.jewishtelegraph.co.uk/nat_2.html