MAYOR BLOOMBERG AND COCA COLA ENTERPRISES ROLL OUT THE COMPANY’S FIRST-EVER HYBRID DELIVERY TRUCKS IN THE SOUTH BRONX

New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg today joined Coca-Cola Enterprises (CCE) executives to announce that the company is undertaking energy saving measures here in New York, including introducing the first five hybrid-electric delivery trucks, which will operate out of the company’s distribution center in the Bronx. Coca-Cola Enterprises is responsible for the distribution of Coca-Cola products in North America and Europe. The Bronx sales center has 90 trucks servicing 8700 customers in Manhattan and the Bronx, delivering more than 8 million cases of beverages annually. The hybrid-electric trucks use 32% less fuel than standard trucks and use technology to eliminate emissions when they idle or sit in traffic.

“Sustainable business practices will save businesses and government money in the long run. That’s why we’re converting our taxi fleet to hybrids. It’s why major rental companies like Hertz are converting their fleets, and it’s why a world leader in product distribution like Coca-Cola has made this commitment,” said Mayor Bloomberg. “Although clearly a major international brand, there are important local implications resulting from this decision. Coca-Cola Enterprises runs trucks though our five boroughs on their distribution routes, and by introducing these hybrid-electric trucks, they are contributing to better air quality in the communities they serve locally – especially their home in the South Bronx.” NyC.gov

Brooklyn N.Y. Hatzolah Ambulance Involved In A Motor Vehicle Crash

Brooklyn N.Y. A Hatzolah ambulance while responding to a Cardiac Arrest was just involved in a Motor Vehicle Crash in the Boro Park section of Brooklyn,on 14th Avenue . There are injuries reported at this time. Multiple Hatzolah  Ambulances and multiple units  are responding to the scene at this time .

Gas in N.J. no longer nation’s cheapest

Prices at the pump crept up several cents in the past week, meaning gasoline in New Jersey now is the second cheapest in the nation, according to a report by the AAA Fuel Gauge.

At an average of $2.95 per gallon for regular, up three cents from one week ago, gas in the Garden State now is the nation’s second least-costly behind Missouri, where a gallon sells for $2.90.

The average price in the Trenton area is $2.97. NJ.COM

The national average price Wednesday morning stood at $3.10, according to the AAA survey

Immigrants reach 21 percent of NJ population

A massive new wave of immigrants that began in the 1980s has pushed New Jersey’s population to 21.6 percent foreign born, according to a study released Thursday.

With immigrants arriving at a faster clip and growing numbers of non-immigrant residents moving to other states, the total is rapidly approaching the all-time high of 26 percent, according to the study by the Center for Immigration Studies in Washington D.C. The 26 percent figure was reached in 1910, when thousands of people arrived daily at Ellis Island.

The report found that the last seven years have been the highest period of immigration in history, both in New Jersey and nationally, with 1.5 million legal and illegal immigrants arriving in the country each year.

The Center for Immigration Studies is a think tank that lobbies for lower immigration levels. While other demographers did not agree with the report’s more ominous tones, there was no quibbling with the overall numbers.

“No nation has ever attempted to incorporate nearly 38 million newcomers into its society,” the report’s conclusion states, referring to the total number of foreign-born people living in the US. “Whatever one thinks of contemporary immigration, it is critically important to understand that its effect on America represents a choice” by the government to allow such high levels of immigration.

While New Jersey saw slower immigration during the 1990s than several other states, including New York, the growth has quickened, with 589,000 new immigrants arriving since 2000. Only Texas and California added more immigrants over that time period.

The children of immigrants now comprise 31 percent of all school age children in New Jersey. The study puts the number of illegal immigrants living in the state at 429,000. by Brian Donohue/The Star-Ledger NJ.COM

Truck fire closes parts of Route 3 in Clifton

CLIFTON — A Wednesday afternoon truck fire on Route 3 snarled eastbound traffic for more than three miles, causing delays that stretched onto Route 46 and into Little Falls.

At about 1:30 p.m., a plumber driving onto the highway from the Bloomfield Avenue entrance heard an explosion from the back of his truck. He pulled over on the ramp’s shoulder, saw smoke pouring out the back and thought about the chemicals onboard. NorthJersey.com

Bush Calls Abbas, Olmert to White House

WASHINGTON (AP) — Just 24 hours after securing an agreement between Israeli and Palestinian leaders to resume long-stalled peace talks, President Bush invited the pair to the White House to ceremonially inaugurate the first formal, direct negotiations in seven years.

Capping an intense flurry of diplomacy that salvaged a joint Israeli-Palestinian agreement at nearby Annapolis, Md., to launch a fresh round of talks, Bush planned to meet separately with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, then Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and finally to get them together for an afternoon session and declaring the talks formally under way.

After meeting their own low expectations for the Annapolis conference amid intense skepticism, Bush administration officials crowed with delight.

“President Bush has invited them both to the White House tomorrow to inaugurate those negotiations, and the two sides have agreed that they will return to the region and meet on December 12th to continue the process,” Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told reporters late Tuesday.

Bush, along with Rice, had earlier salvaged a “joint understanding” between the Israelis and Palestinians, who had remained far apart on the details of the statement until the last minute.

But with prodding from the American side, Olmert and Abbas – troubled leaders with fragile mandates for peace – told international backers and skeptical Arab neighbors they are ready for hard bargaining toward an independent Palestinian state in the 14 months Bush has left in office.

“This is the beginning of the process, not the end of it,” Bush said after reading from the just-completed text the statement that took weeks to negotiate and yet sets only the vaguest terms for the talks to come.

“I pledge to devote my effort during my time as president to do all I can to help you achieve this ambitious goal,” Bush told Abbas and Olmert as the three stood together in the U.S. Naval Academy’s majestic Memorial Hall. “I give you my personal commitment to support your work with the resources and resolve of the American government.”

The two Mideast leaders were circumspect but optimistic.

“I had many good reasons not to come here,” Olmert told diplomats, including those from Arab states that do not recognize Israel like Saudi Arabia and Syria. “Memory of failures in the near and distant past weighs heavy upon us.”

Abbas, meanwhile, recited a familiar list of Palestinian demands, including calls for Israel to end the expansion of Jewish settlements on land that could be part of an eventual state called Palestine and to release some of the thousands of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.

“Neither we nor you must beg for peace from the other,” Abbas said. “It is a joint interest for us and you. Peace and freedom is a right for us, just as peace and security is a right for you and us.”

Bush has held Mideast peacemaking at arms’ length for most of his nearly seven years in office, arguing that conditions in Israel and the Palestinian territories were not right for a more energetic role. Arab allies, among others, have warned that the Palestinian plight underlies other conflicts and feeds grievances across the Middle East, and have urged the White House to do more.

Bush seemed to answer the criticism Tuesday, giving detailed reasons why the time is now. He said Israeli and Palestinian leaders are ready to make peace, that there is a wider and unifying fight against extremism fed by the Palestinian conflict and that he world understands the urgency of acting now.

Later, in an interview with The Associated Press, Bush spoke of the importance of giving beleaguered Palestinians something positive to look forward to – and he sketched a grim alternative.

Without a hopeful vision, he said, “it is conceivable that we could lose an entire generation – or a lot of a generation – to radicals and extremists. There has to be something more positive. And that is on the horizon today.”

Negotiating teams will hold their first session in the region in just two weeks, on Dec. 12, and Olmert and Abbas plan to continue one-on-one discussions they began earlier this year. In addition, many of the same nations and organizations attending Tuesday’s conference will gather again on Dec. 17 in Paris to raise money for the perpetually cash-strapped Palestinians.

To attract Arab backing, the Bush administration included a session in the conference devoted to “comprehensive” peace questions – a coded reference to other Arab disputes with Israel. Syria came to the conference intending to raise its claim to the strategic Golan Heights, seized by Israel in 1967, and Lebanon wanted to talk about its border dispute with Israel. Rice told reporters that Syria and Lebanon spoke up, but she gave no details.

But in a sign of the difficult road ahead, Abbas’ speech was immediately rejected by Hamas, the militant Palestinian faction that stormed to power in the Gaza Strip in June, a month before Bush announced plans for the peace conference.

Hamas now governs the tiny territory and roughly a third of the people on whose behalf Abbas would negotiate a state. Hamas has refused to drop its pledge for Israel’s destruction, and the United States and Israel consider the group a terrorist organization.

Tens of thousands of Hamas supporters chanted “Death to America” in a Gaza City rally. The marchers, including women in black robes and full face veils, raised their index fingers heavenward in a sign of Islamic devotion, as they denounced the Annapolis conference as a sellout of Palestinian dreams. NorthJersey.com

New Jersey Law Makers Are Raising The Price To Drive

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — A key New Jersey lawmaker wants the state to consider increasing its gasoline tax – an idea that puts him on a collision course with the governor who is looking to hike highway tolls instead.

New Jersey hasn’t boosted its 14.5-cent-per-gallon gasoline tax since 1988, giving it the nation’s third lowest gasoline tax.

But Assemblyman John Wisniewski, a Middlesex County Democrat, said increasing the levy would be more responsible than Democratic Gov. Jon S. Corzine’s plan to solve state fiscal woes by issuing bonds that would be paid back with increased highway tolls.

“The only way to have a real guaranteed system is to have a guaranteed revenue source, and the motor fuels tax has proven to be that over the long haul and I think that has to be part of a solution,” Wisniewski said on Tuesday.

Wisniewski said he doesn’t know how much the tax should increase, but that doubling it would bring in enough money to fix aging bridges and roadways without borrowing money.

“I think it’s a more equitable way to fund our transportation infrastructure,” he said.

But state Transportation Commissioner Kris Kolluri said the gas tax would have to increase to as much as 58.5 cents to meet current transportation needs and provide money to improve toll roads and meet future state transportation needs.

“Those are the facts,” Kolluri said. “Those are the numbers that we ran.”

Wisniewski is the Assembly Transportation Committee chairman and will have heavy influence over how Corzine’s plan advances through the Legislature. NorthJersey.com

Passaic Mayor Sammy Rivera Waiting Indictment

Passaic Mayor Sammy Rivera isn’t interested in negotiating a plea deal in his federal corruption case and fully expects to be indicted early next year, his lawyer said Tuesday.

A judge has granted Rivera another 60 days to pursue a possible plea deal before prosecutors present evidence to a grand jury, court records show. A court order, signed last week by U.S. Magistrate Judge Tonianne Bongiovanni in Trenton, granted a second continuance in Rivera’s case.

But Rivera’s attorney said it doesn’t make a difference.

“There are no plea discussions going on,” said defense attorney Henry E. Klingeman. “The government expects to indict Mayor Rivera at some point. But everybody is busy and they’re planning to wait until after the first of the year, as far as I can tell.

“I would expect the next event in the case to be an indictment,” said Klingeman, a former federal prosecutor.

“As he’s said repeatedly, he’s planning to defend himself,” Klingeman added, “and that’s what we’re going to do with vigor.”

Rivera was one of 11 public officials arrested by the FBI on Sept. 6 on charges of extorting more than $150,000 in bribes from cooperating contractors in an undercover sting dubbed operation “Broken Boards” He has steadfastly denied any wrongdoing.

Under federal rules, a defendant has a right to have charges presented to a grand jury within 30 days of an arrest, but can waive that right and obtain a continuance for good cause.

Bongiovanni’s latest order extends that deadline to Jan. 25 to give the parties time “to conduct plea negotiations and attempt to finalize a plea agreement.”

“That’s simply the language that the court requires in order to justify these continuances,” said Klingeman, calling the order a “formality.” The U.S. Attorney’s Office does not comment on plea negotiations, a spokesman said.

Last month, three of the defendants arrested in the sting pleaded guilty to charges they took bribes to influence the award of public contracts.

Awaiting sentencing are the Rev. Alfred E. Steele of Paterson, who resigned his posts as a Passaic County undersheriff and state assemblyman following his arrest, and former Pleasantville school board members Jayson Adams and Rafael Velez.

Steele admitted that he accepted $15,500 in bribes; Adams said he took $62,200; and Velez pocketed $4,000 but had arranged to be paid $15,000 more.

Among the other defendants, only Orange Mayor Mims Hackett, also a former assemblyman, has been indicted so far. He has pleaded not guilty to charges he pocketed a $5,000 bribe and faces a Dec. 17 trial. PETER J. SAMPSON NorthJersey.com

Judge Removed Over Cell Phone Jailing

NIAGARA FALLS, N.Y. (AP) - A judge who jailed 46 people who were in his courtroom when a cell phone call interrupted proceedings was removed from the bench Tuesday by a state commission.

Niagara Falls City Court Judge Robert Restaino “snapped” and “engaged in what can only be described as two hours of inexplicable madness” during the March 2005 session, Raoul Felder, chairman of the state Commission on Judicial Conduct, wrote in the decision to remove Restaino from the $113,900-per-year post.

A phone rang while Restaino was hearing the cases of domestic violence offenders who had been ordered to appear weekly to update the judge on the progress of their counseling. A sign in the courthouse warns that cell phones and pagers must be turned off.

“Everyone is going to jail,” Restaino said. “Every single person is going to jail in this courtroom unless I get that instrument now. If anybody believes I’m kidding, ask some of the folks that have been here for a while. You are all going.”

When no one came forward, Restaino ordered the group into custody, and they were taken to jail, where they were searched and packed into crowded cells. Fourteen people who could not post bail were shackled and bused to another jail.

Restaino ordered them released later that afternoon.

Restaino told the state panel he had been under stress in his personal life.

His attorney, Terrence Connors, said Restaino would appeal.

Giant Israeli Flag Breaks World Record

MASADA, Israel (AP) — The record for the world’s largest flag now belongs to an Israeli banner produced by a Filipino evangelical Christian.

The huge blue and white flag, measuring 2,165 feet long and 330 feet wide and weighing 5.7 tons, breaks the record for the world’s largest, according to the Israeli Ministry of Tourism.

The flag was unfurled Sunday beneath the ancient Jewish desert fortress of Masada. Representatives of the Guinness Book of Records measured the flag and later confirmed the record.

Filipino entrepreneur Grace Galindez-Gupana said she decided two years ago to produce a giant Israeli flag as a testament to her love for Israel and the Jewish people and as a celebration of 50 years of diplomatic relations between the Philippines and Israel.

“God spoke to me in thunder and lightning,” Galindez-Gupana said. “The Lord said, ‘Make the flag of Israel, the standard of my people.’”

“This is a tall order,” she said, breaking down in tears.

The Israeli flag was accompanied by a giant Philippines flag — huge, but not quite as big. It weighed about 4.2 tons.

Large stones anchored both flags as they billowed in the desert winds.

There are about 31,000 Filipinos in Israel, most of whom are foreign workers, said Gilberto Asuque, consul general of the Philippine Embassy in Israel.

“This flag expresses the friendship between the Philippines and the state of Israel, and also the friendship between Jewish and Christian communities,” said Shaul Zemach, director of the Israeli Ministry of Tourism.

Thousands of Jewish settlers protest against US talks

Several thousand Jewish settlers protested in Jerusalem on the eve of Tuesday’s meeting in the United States that aims to kick-start dormant Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.

During the protest organised by the Council of Jewish settlers in Judea and Samaria on Monday, demonstrators brandished placards saying “Don’t feed Israel to the sharks” and “Hands off Israel — we are in God’s hands.”

“Never again a divided Jerusalem” read another.

The protesters, estimated by organisers to number 10,000, said no territorial concessions in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem should be made to the Palestinians.

Tuesday’s meeting at Annapolis in Maryland “poses a real threat to Israel, because to sign any agreement with (Palestinian president) Mahmud Abbas will inevitably lead to Hamas taking power in Judea-Samaria” in the West Bank, Pinhas Wallerstein of the organisers told AFP.

The Islamist Hamas movement ousted the secular Fatah party of Abbas from the Gaza Strip in June after a week of deadly factional fighting.

From a podium set up several dozen metres (yards) from the home of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, in Washington for the US-sponsored meeting, another organiser of the protest urged the premier not to make concessions.

“Olmert, you have no mandate to give up Israeli territory,” Shaul Goldstein said to applause from protesters who called on the prime minister to quit.

Right-wing MP Tzvi Handel told the protesters Olmert was “undoubtedly the most dangerous prime minister in the history of Israel.”

The peace conference in Annapolis will bring together more than 50 organisations and countries, including some 16 Arab nations.

MPs from government coalition party Yisrael Beitenu, which has 11 MPs in the 120-member Knesset, also attended the protest as did Zeev Elkin, who is a member of Olmert’s Kadima party.

Before Tuesday night’s protest thousands of settlers gathered at the Wailing Wall in the Old City of Jerusalem, Judaism’s holiest site, to pray for failure at the Annapolis talks.

The settlers oppose any withdrawal by Israel from land occupied in the 1967 Six-Day War.

They aim to prevent any repetition of what they called the “catastrophe” of a unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza Strip in 2005, which the settlers’ movement fiercely opposed. IC

Partly cloudy and breezy

It will be a partly cloudy and brisk day.

The morning hours will be unseasonably mild with temperatures near 60 degrees, according to the National Weather Service. But winds gusting up to 30 mph will begin kicking up by lunchtime. The windy conditions continue tonight with lows dipping into the 30s.

Wednesday will be sunny with highs in the mid 40s.

On Thursday, some rain showers roll into the area and the mercury inch back up to the mid 50s.

But it drops back into the 40s Friday with highs in the mid 40s. The Star-Ledger

Mother of choking baby thanks officer who rode to the rescue

Tiffany Blake’s knight arrived in a police uniform instead of shining armor and came on a brown police horse named Bandit instead of a white stallion. But like any true rescuer, Trenton Officer John Harbourt arrived just in time to save her 11-month-old daughter’s life.

Harbourt successfully performed a back blow on Nevaeh Croweli last Wednesday afternoon when the infant was choking on a carrot during a Thanksgiving party inside Capital Child Care Center, where Blake was volunteering.

After several people tried unsuccessfully to clear Nevaeh’s airway, Harbourt was the calm, reassuring presence who took the limp girl from her mother’s grasp and, in one swift back blow, had the little girl breathing again.

“He is my knight, my hero,” Blake said yesterday outside Trenton Police Headquarters, where the mom and Harbourt were reunited.

“I feel like saying ‘Thank you’ isn’t enough,” Blake, a Morrisville, Pa., resident, said after Harbourt arrived at the media event much like he did last Wednesday, on Bandit.

“She looks a lot better than the last time I saw her,” Harbourt said as Nevaeh played with television reporters’ microphones and her mother told of the harrowing incident, something she said she never wants any parent to go through.

Blake said she was not right next to her daughter when the baby started choking on a hard carrot after swiping it from another child’s plate at the center on West Front Street downtown.

When Blake rushed to Nevaeh — heaven spelled backward — her daughter was silent, her eyes were rolling back in her head and her arms dropped by her side, said Blake. “It’s every parent’s nightmare and your instinct is to panic,” she said.

But Blake was concentrating on her daughter, trying herself to dislodge the obstruction. Someone dialed 911 and when Trenton dispatchers sent the call to police officers, Harbourt was about a block and a half away.

Harbourt rushed to the call — in horse terms, he cantered Bandit, — and tied up his partner outside. He was there in 30 seconds, he estimated

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Tolls in the Garden State may be going up 50%

Gov. Corzine’s plan to raise tolls on New Jersey highways in order to cut state debt could lead to toll increases of 50 percent or more within two years of taking effect, Senate President Richard Codey said Monday, according to a report in the Asbury Park Press.

Codey, (D-Essex), said he does not know an exact figure, but that it’s “reasonable to say” tolls would rise by 50 percent or more, based on the amount of money Corzine hopes to raise in order to reduce the state’s $38 billion debt, the report said.

A 50 percent increase would mean a more than $3.20 increase on the $6.45 it costs cars to drive the length of the New Jersey Turnpike. A 70-cent Garden State Parkway toll would rise by 35 cents, the report said.

Officials from 40 Nations at Mideast summit

WASHINGTON (CNN) — With a Mideast summit starting Tuesday in Maryland, Israeli and Palestinian officials worked late into the night trying to hammer out a joint agreement on how negotiations would move forward, diplomats from several delegations said.

But the two sides have not agreed on several issues and there was no guarantee that any work plan would be agreed upon, the diplomats said.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was cautious but hopeful the parties could finish an agreement, diplomats said.

But Hamas leader Ismail Haniya denounced the Annapolis summit in a televised address Tuesday.

“The Palestinian people will not be bound by anything the Palestinian Authority agrees to in Annapolis,” he said.

Israeli and Palestinian leaders on Monday expressed hope and optimism that a renewed peace effort will emerge from the conference.

Hours apart, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas spoke to reporters alongside President Bush, following separate talks at the White House.

Abbas said he hoped the conference would trigger expanded negotiations with Israel that would lead to a permanent peace deal, calling the event a “historic initiative.”

Olmert explained to reporters that this visit was different “because we’re going to have lots of participants involved.”

“I hope we’re going to launch a serious process of negotiations between us and the Palestinians,” said Olmert. “This will be a bilateral process but the international support is very important.”

Representatives of more than 40 countries, including a wide array of Arab nations such as Syria and Saudi Arabia, will attend the conference at the U.S. Naval Academy.

Monday night, Bush, Olmert and Abbas attended a dinner held by Rice.

In a toast at the dinner, Bush said Israeli and Palestinian leaders would need to make “difficult compromises” in order to achieve a breakthrough during the summit but gave his personal commitment to a renewed peace process between the two sides.

“The extremists and terrorists want our efforts to fail,” Bush said. “We offer a more hopeful vision of a Middle East growing in freedom and dignity and prosperity.”

The Bush administration is hoping the conference will trigger final status talks on major issues such as Jerusalem and Israeli borders.

U.S. officials are looking for a commitment by the Palestinians and Israelis to carry out previous agreements linked to the “road map” plan for Mideast peace.

77 police officers hurt in Paris riots

AP VILLIERS-LE-BEL, France – Rampaging youths rioted overnight in Paris’ suburbs, hurling Molotov cocktails and setting fire to dozens of cars. At least 77 officers were injured and officers were fired at, a senior police union official said Tuesday.The violence was more intense than during three weeks of rioting in 2005, said the official, Patrice Ribeiro. Police were shot at and are facing “genuine urban guerillas with conventional weapons and hunting weapons,” Ribeiro said.

Some officers were hit by shotgun pellets, Interior Minister Michele Alliot-Marie said. She said there were six serious injuries, “people who notably were struck in the face and close to the eyes.”

The riots were triggered by the deaths of two teens killed in a crash with a police patrol car on Sunday in Villiers-le-Bel, a town of public housing blocks home to a mix of Arab, black and white residents in Paris’ northern suburbs.

Residents claimed that officers left the crash scene without helping the teens, whose motorbike collided with the car. Officials cast doubt on the claim, but the internal police oversight agency was investigating.

Youths first rioted Sunday and again overnight Monday to Tuesday, when the violence apparently got worse.

Police barricades were set on fire and youths threw stones and Molotov cocktails at officers, who retaliated with tear gas and rubber bullets. In Villiers-le-Bel and surrounding areas, youths set fire to 36 vehicles, the area’s prefecture said.

Youths were seen firing buckshot at police and reporters. A police union official said a round from a hunting rifle pierced the body armor of one officer who suffered a serious shoulder wound.

Among the buildings targeted by the youths was a library, which was set afire.

In Sunday’s violence, eight people were arrested and 20 police officers were injured — including the town’s police chief, who was attacked in the face when he tried to negotiate with the rioters, police said. One firefighter also was injured.

Residents drew parallels to the 2005 riots, which were prompted by the deaths of two teens electrocuted in a power substation while hiding from police in a suburb northeast of Paris.

A recent study by the state auditor’s office indicated that money poured into poor French suburbs in recent decades had done little to solve problems vividly exposed by the 2005 riots, including discrimination, unemployment and alienation from mainstream society.

___

University’s cell phone plan sounds like a bad call

Successful business marketing, as taught at Montclair State University:

Garner a captive audience, establish a monopoly on sale of the product, fix the price, require the purchase as a condition of attendance at school, collect the use fees even if the product isn’t used.

And, just to be on the cutting edge of contemporary sales, promote the product as a defense against terrorism, a hedge against campus violence.

Remember Virginia Tech.

“Frankly, I think it’s a scam,” says Gennaro Esposito, 20, a senior.

He is talking about how the public university’s officials require students to purchase a cell phone and an accompanying service from them.

Through them actually. The service is Sprint/Nextel, with added gizmos provided by Rave Wireless, a company specializing in attracting a college audience.

At $552 a year with only limited use off-campus. Limited — 50 minutes a month.

“I never use it,” says Christine Kadets, a junior. “I leave it home. It would cost me more money to get out of my family plan.”

That’s a $552-a-year fee on top of tuition and fees of more than $8,000 already.  NJ.com

Hundreds Of Protesters Are Heading To The Agudah Convention.

Stamford Connecticut- Tonight at the 85th Agudah Convention at the Westin Hotel several Hundred protester’s expected anti Agudah. On scene is Swat team’s Bomb Squad’s State Police Local and State Authorities preparing for possibly thousand’s of Satmar Chassidim. The Satmar sect plans to protest the Anti Agudah movement they are sending approximately 15 buses. Police are on scene cornering off sections of the road towards the Hotel. The hotel is going on complete lock down soon. We at PassaicCliftonJewishNews are first to report this story. We will update as it comes available. Update As of 10:00 only 15-20 Neturei Karta people have shown up but Police made them stay down the road from the Hotel. Also they now have a Helicopter above and Bomb Sniffing Dogs as well as many authorities Local and State.

Best Buy In Little Falls Had Customer’s Wraped Around The Building Twice.

Best Buy In Little Falls Had Customer’s Wraped Around The Building Twice to try to grab the early morning specials. Our own PCJN reporter was on scene at 5:30 in the morning just 3o minutes before Best Buy opens its doors with the super specials. While our reporter was on scene a Passaic County Officer approched him and said the wait to get in once the store opens is going to be from then at least 2 hours. He said we might as well come back at 9 oclock. Our reporter approched the front of the line and people were telling us that they have been waiting since yesterday afternoon. Its amazing what people will do for good deals.

Don’t scare the children – teach them Handwashing

I have seen MRSA in my office become more of an issue, just in the last year,” reported dermatologist Marcy Goldstein, referring to methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, a bacterial infection that has been recently reported to have caused the death of a middle-school student in Brooklyn. At the Passaic-based day school YBH of Passaic-Hillel, principal Rabbi Joseph Abrams reported  that “the building is full of signs about hand washing: the hallways, the bathrooms, the stairways, the lunchroom.” 

The school nurse at YBH, Sara Schulman, explained that the administration put signs everywhere, reminding students to wash their hands with soap and water “when coming in from gym, after going to the bathroom, before you eat….”

“It’s important to wash hands with soap for 20 seconds, and then use a paper towel to close the faucet and open the door,” said Schulman, explaining that some people who don’t wash their hands touch the doorknobs.   The paper towel that is used to open doors should be properly discarded.   

As N.J. house sales fall, prices still rise – only more slowly

The number of New Jersey house sales dropped 13.4 percent during the third quarter of 2007 from the same period in 2006, continuing a slide from the hyperactive sales pace of 2004 and 2005, the National Association of Realtors said Wednesday.

Home prices, however, have not followed. In the census area that includes Bergen and Passaic counties, prices were up 3.6 percent from the same period last year, to a median of $550,900 for an existing single-family home, the NAR said.

That may reflect high demand in New York City, which is in the same statistical area. The New Jersey Multiple Listing Service says that North Jersey prices have risen just about 1 percent over the last year, to a median of $520,000 in Bergen County and $389,000 in Passaic County. northjersey.com

New Yorkers’ great holiday escapes off to a good start

Every plane in this illustration – all 6,998 of them – shows a flight over the U.S. at 4:15 p.m. on Tuesday. And that was just a warm-up for today.

New Yorkers hit the highways and skyways in record numbers Wednesday heading to points near and far, lured by a baked bird that can’t fly - and so far, so good.

At least through the late afternoon, no major problems were reported in the metro area - even at one of the busiest bottlenecks: LaGuardia airport.

Although many arrivals were behind schedule by an hour or more, departures were moving relatively smoothly - with delays of no more than 15 minutes at most gates.

“It’s so much better than I thought it would be,” said Victoria Wallm, 24, of Dallas.

Her boyfriend, Kenneth Harris, 24, lugged their Boston terrier, Charley, who somehow talked his way into being included on the family trip to Texas.

“You need to be positive before Thanksgiving,” Harris said. “LaGuardia is pretty good this year.”

Officials said a 25% increase in staffing helped speed passengers through security check points. President Bush’s decision to open up some military air space to commercial flights also eased delays somewhat.

“Things are rolling along pretty well,” said Warren Kroeppel, the airport’s general manager. “It’s like a normal day at the airport.”

Even so, many travelers weren’t taking chances: Andrew Thompson lives upstate and arrived a whopping seven hours early.

Despite rising gas prices and fears of air delays, a record 38.7 million U.S. residents were expected to travel 50 miles or more as part of the largest predicted Thanksgiving pilgrimage ever.

Many New Yorkers may have already left town but others were hoping to beat the evening rush on what is often called the busiest travel day of the year.

At Pennsylvania Station, knots of people gathered with heavy suitcases in the Amtrak waiting area.

Ryan Bevilacqua and Jeremy Lyon, 23-year-old childhood buddies, were headed back home to Harrisburg, Pa. They said riding the train beats driving any time.

“The drive from here to Harrisburg? It’s awful,” said Bevilacqua. DailyNews.com

Girl, 13, run over by school bus and killed

HAMILTON, N.J. (AP) — A 13-year-old was killed Wednesday when she was run over by a school bus after engaging in what authorities called horseplay with friends.

The girl, identified as Bryelle Dean, had just stepped off her bus from Crockett Middle School in Hamilton Township, Mercer County, at about 1 p.m. when she was crushed under the bus’ rear wheels.

Bus driver Jean Louis, 48, stopped the bus after he felt something and the students who had just gotten off screamed at him to stop.

Passaic N.J. Extreme Fog Alert

Dense Fog Advisory URGENT – WEATHER MESSAGE HAS BEEN ISSUED FOR EASTERN PASSAIC COUNTY VALID FROM THU NOV 22 2007 12:24 AM EST UNTIL THU NOV 22 2007 09:00 AM EST.

Recalled Toys still on store shelves in New Jersey

 NEWARK – Investigators from the New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs have found toys which were recalled for potential lead contamination on sale in nine stores in New Jersey following statewide inspections conducted within the past week, Attorney General Anne Milgram and Acting Consumer Affairs Director Larry DeMarzo announced today.

Division investigators, working in conjunction with staff from consumer affairs offices in Camden, Cumberland, Hunterdon, Monmouth, Passaic and Union counties, checked whether recalled toys were available for purchase at 160 stores across New Jersey. The federal Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) has sole authority to order the recall of toys.Consumers who believe a store is selling a voluntarily recalled toy without having public notice posted can call the Division of Consumer Affairs at 1-800-242-5846 (toll-free within New Jersey) or at 973-504-6200

Only the words ‘Hakadosh Baruch Hu’ survived the kassam:

One of the rockets that fell Friday night in Sderot landed a direct hit on the car of a local Lubavitcher Chossid. The flames engulfed the entire car leaving nothing intact except for the words Hakadosh Baruch Hu which were part of a sign that hung in the rear window. Thank G-d nobody was injured in the attack.  Chabad.info

Macy’s to Celebrate Chanukah Miracle on 34th Street

Macy’s flagship 34th Street department store in Manhattan has teamed up with the Jewish Children’s Museum in Brooklyn, N.Y., to celebrate the miracle of Chanukah.

The children’s museum, an initiative of the Chabad-Lubavitch program Tzivos Hashem, announced the partnership in a statement this week that detailed a host of activities taking place the afternoon of Dec. 9.

Museum staff will be setting up their “Chanukah Wonderland” on Macy’s kids floor, complete with a real wood and cast iron olive press. A person dressed as Judah the Maccabee – who led the Jewish people’s victory over the Greeks more than 2,000 years ago – will lead the children in making their very own olive oil with the press before using it to light a menorah.

The workshop will also be held on Dec. 2 at the Macy’s department store in Manhasset, N.Y.

After their military victory, the Jewish people rededicated the Holy Temple in Jerusalem with a jar of pure olive oil that despite only being enough for one day, lasted for eight days. The miracle is commemorated every year with the eight-day holiday of Chanukah, known as the Festival of Lights. Chabad.org

Families of kidnapped Israeli soldiers united in their cause

Shlomo Goldwasser’s voice trembles with a father’s anguish as he talks of his missing son.

“There is no school in the world to teach you what to do when your son is kidnapped,” he says.

 ”We’re not the army. We have no weapons. There are no tools in my hand. The only thing we have is our story and I’m using it and going everywhere that I can to raise my voice so people can hear.”

Fifteen months ago, on July 12, 2006, Ehud (Udi) Goldwasser, a just-married 31-year-old environmental engineer, had only a few hours left in his month-long tour of duty as an Israeli army reservist when his Humvee was attacked with anti-tank rockets by a squad of Hezbollah guerrillas who had slipped into Israel from Lebanon.

Three Israeli soldiers were killed in the initial attack and Sergeant Goldwasser and another army reservist, Sergeant Eldad Regev, 26, were captured.

Both the Israeli soldiers are believed to have been seriously injured before their Hezbollah attackers kidnapped them and retreated into Lebanon.

When an Israeli tank tried to pursue the Hezbollah guerrillas across the border, it was blown up by a roadside bomb, killing another four Israelis.

Gloating over their assault, Hezbollah spokesmen admitted to holding the two Israeli reservists and said they were taken in order to secure the release of Lebanese prisoners held in Israel.

But rather than trigger negotiations, the abductions prompted an immediate retaliation from Israel and ignited a 34-day war with Hezbollah that left hundreds dead and injured, thousands homeless and the Middle East boiling with tension.

When the fighting finally ended, with United Nation’s Security Council Resolution 1701 ordering a UN-supervised ceasefire, the world body demanded the “unconditional release of prisoners.”
Udi Goldwasser’s family is still waiting to hear what happened to him.

“We know nothing,” says Mr. Goldwasser, a 60-year-old shipping contractor. “There is no information at all about their condition or anything. No one has visited them, not the Red Cross or any other humanitarian organization. Till now there is no information whatsoever. They don’t let them contact anyone. They isolate them and until now we know nothing about our sons.”

But rather than worry and wait, the Goldwasser and Regev families have joined forces with the relatives of yet another Israeli soldier, 20-year-old Corporal Gilad Shalit, who was seized by Hamas and spirited into Gaza just 18 days before the Hezbollah raids that captured Sgt. Goldwasser and Sgt. Regev, to tour the world campaigning for their sons’ release.

“We’ve become one big family,” says Omri Avni, Sgt. Goldwasser’s father-in-law. “It’s quite amazing. It took us a few hours to get organized, But within 48 hours from the abduction of Ehud and Eldad, the three families were together and we’ve been together ever since. We found it very, very effective. You can do more. You can share your work every day. You share your hope. It doesn’t fall on just one man.”

The relatives have launched rallies, distributed petitions, met with world leaders, staged protests and conducted video news conferences all around the globe trying to remind people of their sons’ plight.

They recently staged an International Day of Solidarity with video-linked rallies in 70 cities around the world to mark the 500th day of Cpl. Shalit’s captivity.

Jewish synagogues worldwide have been asked to recite a special prayer for the soldiers’ release and pictures of the three abducted men now hang in Rabin Park in Paris.

Last week, a dozen Arab Israelis joined Cpl. Shalit’s father, Noam Shalit, in a rally for the release of the kidnapped men in the Arab village of Kfar Kassem, at which they pleaded for the kidnappers “to act like human beings” and release the young men.

Mr. Goldwasser, Mr. Avni and Zvi Regev, Sgt. Regev’s father, are in Canada this week to promote their sons’ cause and meet with Members of Parliament in Ottawa. They will speak tonight at the Shaarei Shomayin Congregation at 470 Glencairn Ave. in Toronto

“We can’t lose hope,” Mr. Goldwasser says. “We are travelling all over the world trying to get the fulfilment of UN Resolution 1701. That is a demand to free our sons, unconditionally. We know that they are alive and we want them home.” National Post

N.J.S.P. targets drunken driving and seatbelts

Starting Wednesday, New Jersey State Police troopers will begin their days with shift briefings that include personal stories from representatives from Mothers Against Drunk Driving to inspire the troopers in their effort to combat drunken driving.

“Many of these Troopers have experienced the horror of DWI as part of their duties, but when the scene is cleared and the reports are written, the tragedy of the incident is truly just beginning for someone somewhere,” said Maj. Matthew Walker, Commander of Troop D on the New Jersey Turnpike. “These family members volunteering with MADD are the faces that our troopers never get to see — the victims that suffer the rest of their lives from a senseless loss.”

Targeted seatbelt enforcement is another very important job that troopers will perform on the state’s highways throughout the whole holiday season. According to the latest data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, (NHTSA) 31,415 passenger vehicle occupants died in crashes across the nation in 2005, and more than half of them were not wearing seat belts.

During the 2005 and 2006 Thanksgiving holidays, there were an unbelievable 16 fatal crashes each year resulting in 41 total deaths. Previous years averaged less than half that amount. About 50 percent of those deaths resulted from accidents involving alcohol.

Throughout the state, extra troopers will strictly enforce hazardous violations, including the failure of vehicle occupants to wear seatbelts. Sober driving and regular seat belt use are two of the most effective ways to protect people and reduce fatalities in motor vehicle crashes. Research has shown that when lap/shoulder belts are used properly, the risk of fatal injury to front seat passenger car occupants is reduced by 45 percent, and the risk of moderate-to-critical injury is reduced by 50 percent.

2nd car jacking with child in it in New Jersey in 1 day

Camden N.J A 2-year-old girl was recovered unharmed early this evening after she apparently slept through a carjacking and its aftermath in Camden, police said.

The child was still sleeping when her mother’s Toyota Camry was found abandoned 40 minutes later about a half-mile away, police said. The mother, although upset, also was not harmed during the theft, which came several hours after a a gunman carjacked a BMW in Newark this morning and drove away before noticing a three-month-old in the back seat. That child also was unharmed when the thief abandoned the vehicle.

In Camden, the car was forcibly taken at about 4:30 p.m. when the unidentified mother stopped to talk with someone at Mount Ephraim Avenue and Pine Street, police said. No weapon was used during the theft, police said.

The car was recovered shortly after 5 p.m. at 7th and Mount Vernon streets. No one was in custody several hours after the carjacking, police said. NJ.com