Will Gary Schaer really run for Mayor this coming November?

Acting Mayor And Assemblyman Gary Schaer

Editor’s Note  We at PCJN believe that Acting Mayor and Assemblyman Gary Schaer has to much to lose to run for Mayor in November. If Gary Schaer would run for Mayor, and win he would only be Mayor for several months, and have to give up his Assembly seat. If he gives up his Assembly seat and lose the Mayor Race next year he is pretty much out of politics’s.

 Why would Gary Schaer pretend to run for Mayor?  Gary Schaer would pretend to run for Mayor to build him self up for the Mayor election next year in 2009.

Also interesting to note that Gary Schaer may try to put a weak Mayor in, this way he can run for Mayor next year and win the Mayoral seat easily.  PCJN Exclusive

Clinton holds big leads in West Virginia and Kentucky

Even as her campaign appears to be in its final stages, Hillary Clinton is headed for two sweeping victories in West Virginia and Kentucky, the next two states to weigh in on the prolonged Democratic presidential race.

According to new polls released Monday, Clinton holds a 34 point lead in West Virginia and a 27 point lead in Kentucky.

In West Virginia, which votes Tuesday, a Suffolk University Poll has Clinton drawing 60 percent of likely Democratic voters compared to Obama’s 24 percent. That poll also shows Clinton holds a 70 percent approval rating among West Virginia’s Democratic primary voters. Only half the state’s primary the state’s likely primary voters think Barack Obama can beat John McCain in a general election matchup.

In Kentucky, a Research 2000 poll shows Clinton winning 58 percent of the vote to Obama’s 31 percent. But despite Clinton’s strength in the state, the poll suggests John McCain would easily defeat both Democrats in November — the Arizona senator holds a 25 point advantage over Obama and a 12 point lead over Clinton. Kentucky is considered a solidly Republican state, though former President Bill Clinton carried it twice. The state’s primary is May 20.

It remains unclear how Clinton’s likely large wins in both states will affect the presidential race, given Obama’s significant lead in total delegates. Only 28 pledged delegates are at stake in West Virginia Tuesday, while 51 are up for grabs in Kentucky. Cnn

Convictions still haunt ex-mayors

The real punishment may be the remaining life of regret, longing and debt.

Sammy Rivera, 61, may face as little as 18 months in prison when a federal judge sentences him in August for accepting a $5,000 bribe from an FBI informant. But when Rivera finishes whatever term he may receive, his troubles will be far from over if the experiences of other Passaic County mayors toppled by federal corruption charges are any indication.

Although their prison sentences stretched no longer than three years, their punishments seem to have lasted much longer.

Since emerging from their prison cells, three former Passaic County mayors — Louis V. Messercola of Wayne, Joseph Lipari of Passaic and Martin G. Barnes of Paterson — have been saddled with mountainous legal debts and fees.

But the bigger price is the loss of power and influence. While the three disgraced men all still live in or around the cities they once ruled, their presence has eroded from larger than life to practically invisible.

That’s a crushing blow for politicians such as Lipari, who used charisma and backroom dealings to rule Passaic for nearly a decade until his 1993 conviction forced him to step down. Asked to sum up the price of his conviction, he replied: “Very costly. Too costly.”

The former mayor has since regained a semblance of normality, if not opulence. Two black Mercedes-Benzes were parked near the backyard swimming pool of his ranch-style house in Garfield. But the words he spoke in an interview last week echoed a longing for the station he once held.

Of the three mayors, only Lipari invited a reporter into his house, and for an hour he ruminated about his political past while reclining on a couch. Withered by chronic illness and a heart condition, he managed to muster the energy to speak about his life as a street kid with a sixth-grade education who grew up to become mayor.

Lipari spoke defiantly about the charges he once faced, proudly about his accomplishments in office and vaguely about the vicious entanglement of money and politics he found himself in.

“Unfortunately,” the 71-year-old said, his voice a sleepy gravel, “you get wrapped around an axle, and the next thing I know, I’m indicted.”

He asserted he never was convicted of accepting bribes, only conspiracy to extort money and evading taxes, albeit on cash bribes he allegedly took. Lipari was acquitted of seven other charges, including demanding and receiving $175,000 in bribes for steering city contracts to crooked roofing and towing companies.

First regret filled his voice as he wondered how he could have avoided his conviction. “I wanted to testify,” but his lawyers advised against it, he said.

“Maybe that was a big mistake,” he said.

Then mist filled his eyes when his thoughts turned to his beloved Passaic.

“I don’t think there’s a day that goes by that I don’t think about Passaic,” Lipari said slowly and surely. “I loved Passaic. I still love Passaic. The city will always be in my heart.”

And Passaic still loves him, too, he said.

“If I ran for mayor of Passaic, I’d win,” he said. Then, when talk turned to who should come after Rivera, Lipari muttered: “They should appoint me mayor.”

That’s not a possibility. Those who are convicted of federal corruption charges are barred from holding elected office again.

Lipari emerged from prison in 1996. Burdened with debts, he was forced to sell his lucrative meat business, Top Grade Sausage Inc. in Hawthorne, which he said once earned him more than $500,000 a year. His children now own the firm.

Louis V. Messercola’s leadership unraveled on a day in 1988, when federal agents nabbed him in a grocery store parking lot. He later was convicted of extorting enormous cash bribes from contractors wanting to do business in Wayne. When he left prison in 1991, he declared in a newspaper article that incarceration had freed him from personal demons. NorthJersey.com

Rabbi, priests, sheriffs support Passaic imam in court

A Jewish rabbi, Roman Catholic and Episcopalian priests, a federal prosecutor and two sherriffs took the witness stand today to heap praise upon a popular Muslim cleric as his attorneys began presenting their case for why he should not be deported.

Mohammad Qatanani, imam of the Islamic Center of Passaic County in Paterson faces deportation for allegedly failing to disclose on his 1996 green card application that he had been arrested and pleaded guilty to aiding the terrorist group Hamas in an Israeli military court three years earlier.

His attorneys argue that Qatanani was detained administratively, convicted in absentia and subject to interrogation tactics Israel’s top court later outlawed as torture.

Among the witnesses subpeonad by Qatatani’s lawyers was Assistant United States Attorney Charles McKenna, who described numerous trips to the Paterson mosque as part of an effort to create better understanding between law enforcement and the Muslim community.

As an example, he said investigators often interpreted the tendency of Muslim women to not look them in the eye as a sign of deceit. Through the dialogue at the mosque, they realized it is routine in Arab culture for women not to look men outside their family in the eye.

“It’s important for us to have leaders in the Islamic community who will be accepting of us and give us inroads in the community,” he said.

The sheriffs of two north Jersey counties echoed McKenna’s statements that the mosque’s open door policies had helped investigators become more familiar with cultural aspects of the Muslim community.

But they also described a more personal connection they had made through their cooperation with Qatanani.

“When I’m in his presence, and he does have a presence, this small, unassuming person, he doesn’t say “boo” but he gives me a better feeling of peace,” said Bergen County Sheriff Leo McGuire. “I feel better as a person to be with him.”

Jerry Speziale, the sheriff of Passaic County echoed McGuire’s testimony saying Qatatani “radiates peace.”

Christopher Brundage, one of two Department of Homeland Security attorneys serving as prosecutors in the case, pressed Speziale and McGuire, asking if they would have different opinions if they had known about Qatatani’s alleged ties to Hamas.

Speziale said he would need to see proof of the conviction himself. McGuire said, “It would surprise me,” but added, “it cannot change my mind about what I have observed.” NJ.com

Gary Schaer becomes acting Mayor and keep’s 3 other job’s

Passaic City Council President/Acting Mayor Gary S. Schaer released a statement today in the aftermath of Mayor Samuel Rivera’s departure from office. Rivera re signed at 5 p.m. after earlier in the day pleading guilty to extortion in federal court.

“This is a difficult time for Passaic,” said Schaer. “I am committed, along with my city council colleagues, to restoring confidence to the residents of Passaic and assuring them that the services provided by our municipal government will continue as normal.

“The hard-working residents of Passaic deserve a municipal government that is honest and trustworthy,” he added. “…While I did not seek this position, my role as Council President statutorily requires this service.” Schaer, who said he would receive no additional compensation or benefits as acting mayor, announced that he will be sworn-in during a “private ceremony” performed by the city clerk. He has scheduled a meeting of the city’s department directors for Monday morning. “Together, we will move forward and continue to improve the quality of life for everyone who lives in our great city,” Schaer said.

Mayor to plead guilty of corruption

(You first heard it yesterday, here on PCJN!)

PASSAIC — Mayor Samuel Rivera was expected to be in Trenton today, pleading guilty to federal corruption charges. But on Thursday, he was in City Hall as streams of well-wishers said their goodbyes.

Men and women stood in a line outside his office, crying. Even the mayor’s hefty bodyguard, Passaic police Detective Lucho Candelaria, was a little misty.

“He’s leaving, and we’re never going to see him again,” said the mayor’s secretary, Angely Ramirez, who wiped her eyes with tissues.

“It’s just sad for the people who knew him well,” Ramirez said between sniffles. “He helped a lot of people.”

Rivera, a former police detective who built his reputation on being tough on crime and cleaning up the streets, is expected to plead to a two-count indictment alleging he accepted a $5,000 bribe and the promise of another $50,000, in exchange for lucrative insurance contracts with the city. Rivera’s plea hearing is scheduled for 10 a.m. in Trenton.

In an interview Thursday evening with Univision 41, a Spanish-language news channel, Rivera sat down with a reporter and said in Spanish, “I have to resign.”

Julio Luciano, the mayor’s assistant, carried cardboard boxes out of the office. Later, he stood on the steps of City Hall, smoking a cigarette and shaking his head.

“He gave a lot of people jobs and helped a lot of police,” Luciano said. “The people that don’t like him are going to see: Passaic is going to be bad. Without him, there will be a lot of gangs and dirty streets.”

Ramirez said Rivera would not see reporters in his office: “He’s not in a good mood right now,” she said.

Then, about noontime, Rivera emerged from his office. A group of employees surrounded him as he made his way out of City Hall. He shook their hands and embraced them.

When asked whether he had resigned, he simply shook his head and said, “No.”

“I’ll see you tomorrow,” he said, offering a handshake. If convicted, Rivera faces up to 30 years in prison on both offenses as well as up to $250,000 in fines on each.

Under state law, once Rivera pleads guilty, he must resign.

Rivera, along with former Councilmen Jonathan Soto and Marcellus Jackson, was accused of taking bribes from undercover FBI agents in exchange for working to get public contracts for a fake insurance company, called Coastal Solutions LLC. The officials were arrested in September as part of a statewide FBI sting dubbed “Operation Broken Boards.”

Jackson pleaded guilty in December and resigned from the council in January. Soto awaits trial.

Neither prosecutors nor Rivera’s attorney, Henry Klingeman, would comment on whether a plea agreement had been struck.

Thus far, all but five public officials have pleaded guilty to being part of the scheme. Among them are former state Assemblyman Alfred Steele, D-Paterson; Jackson, of the Passaic City Council, Pleasantville school board members Rafael Velez, Jayson Adams and James Pressley, and Pleasantville Councilman Peter Callaway. All await sentencing. NorthJersey.com

Breaking News Mayor (sammy) Samuel Rivera to plead guilty tomorrow

Passaic New Jersey   Mayor Samuel Rivera will plead guilty on Friday tomorrow ( 05/09/2008 ) to taking bribes last year.

 The mayor will be resigning from his office tomorrow. He will plead guilty for a plea deal. As more will come we will update you.

You heard this story first from P.C.J.N 

‘Tribal’ tension in Crown Heights keeps neighborhood from moving beyond hate

Nearly 17 years after riots tore Crown Heights apart, the recent beating of a black college student by Jewish assailants has exposed rising tensions between blacks and Jews in my neighborhood.

Cops and city officials have quietly gone on high alert, worried that another riot could be in the works.

The troubles began on April 14, when Andrew Charles, a 20-year-old sophomore at Kingsborough Community College, says he and a friend encountered a pair of young Jewish men while walking down Albany Ave. about 6 p.m.

“One was on bike, one was on foot. They were staring at us, staring us down,” Charles told me. “We stared back. They approached us and asked if we had a problem.”

The man on the bike sprayed Charles with tear gas, and a few minutes later a contingent of Jewish men arrived by car and in scooters and began chasing them.

One man beat Charles on the back and arm with a nightstick, inflicting injuries that sent him to the hospital. The group fled, but not before a witness on the street got the license plate number.

In any other neighborhood, a staredown between young men, even one that turns into a beatdown, would barely count as major news.

But this is Crown Heights, where a smoldering pile of intergroup grievances and injustices – some real, many imaginary – set the stage for the shocking outburst of mob violence in August 1991.

According to a memo circulated by Mayor Bloomberg’s Community Assistance Unit, city officials immediately descended on Crown Heights last week to establish “contact with the [Charles] family before outside agitators could jump in and reach out to the family to create community turmoil.”

I don’t know which “outside agitators” the mayor’s people were afraid of, but community activist Taharka Robinson, founder of the Central Brooklyn Anti-Violence Coalition, is acting as Charles’ adviser. The family also has retained Paul Wooten, a well-known Brooklyn lawyer recently nominated for a Supreme Court judgeship.

Robinson and Wooten are reliable, levelheaded men. They will have their work cut out for them.

At the urging of city officials, a group of leaders from both communities will meet tomorrow – “before the Sean Bell verdict,” the Community Assistance Unit memo cautions – to figure out a way to dial down the tension.

In the neighborhood’s calculus of tribal resentments, the attack on Charles was the mirror image of a January incident in which a teenage yeshiva student named Samuel Balkany said five black kids jumped and beat him, shouting “little Jew boy, you think you own this neighborhood,” and such.

Despite a call from authorities for help in solving the case, nobody was arrested for the Balkany beating. Let enough of these tribal skirmishes accumulate, and you end up with a neighborhood ready to explode.

Last week, much to their credit, cops from the 71st Precinct and Patrol Borough Brooklyn South quickly began a full-court press to solve the latest beating, with an extra incentive supplied by the fact that Charles’ father, Moses Charles , is a cop in Brooklyn’s 70th Precinct.

The NYPD swiftly found the attackers’ car in East New York , stripped of plates but still traceable. At the car owner’s home, according to the Community Assistance Unit memo, cops arrested a man – believed to be the brother of the car’s owner – for interfering with government administration, and later released him.

All along the way, local politicians and community leaders – both black and Jewish – have been talking.

It’s a rotten shame that people in my neighborhood haven’t figured out how to live side by side, and an embarrassment that we have to rely on cops and nervous bureaucrats to keep the peace.

Nowhere in the city will you find more devout religious people than in Crown Heights, yet it has come to this – shortly after Easter and the Pope’s visit, and in the middle of the Jewish High Holy Days.

Can’t we all just get along? DailyNews

Pennsylvania—- Hillary Clinton Wins Primary—- CNN

Sen. Hillary Clinton will win the Pennsylvania primary, CNN projects. Clinton earlier acknowledged her White House bid was on the line in the state. The win would allow her to pick up a majority of the 158 delegates at stake in Pennsylvania and make a small dent in Obama’s lead.

Hillary Clinton Wins Again

 Sen. Hillary Clinton will win Florida’s Democratic presidential primary Tuesday, although party sanctions have stripped the state of its convention delegates and no Democrats campaigned there

Published polls showed the New York senator and former first lady was heavily favored in the state.

Her leading rivals, South Carolina primary winner Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. John Edwards, did not campaign in Florida. They opted to concentrate on next week’s “Super Tuesday” contests in states such as New York, California, Missouri and Georgia.

The sanctions make Tuesday night’s results largely meaningless to the Democratic presidential race. Obama described the primary as a “beauty contest” Tuesday, and his campaign issued a statement declaring the race a tie in the delegate count: “Zero for Obama, zero for Clinton.”

But Clinton has pledged to fight to have the state’s delegates seated at the August convention in Denver, and has increasingly stressed the state’s importance since losing Saturday’s hotly contested primary in South Carolina to Obama.

Looks like the former Mayor Of New York is looking for a job

Fresh off his victory in the Florida Republican primary, Sen. John McCain was poised to take another big prize on Wednesday.

Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani plans to drop out of the presidential race and endorse McCain at an event in California, two GOP sources with direct knowledge of the plans said.

Giuliani was a distant third with the results from Tuesday’s voting almost final.

While Giuliani didn’t say he was withdrawing from the race, he did speak of his campaign in the past tense at one point.

“I’m proud I ran a positive campaign,” he told supporters. “I ran a campaign that was uplifting.”

An endorsement would give McCain added momentum heading into a debate Wednesday night — and the Super Tuesday contests next week.

The remaining GOP White House hopefuls face off Wednesday at a CNN-Los Angeles Times-Politico debate being held at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California.

With 99 percent of Republican precincts reporting, McCain held a 36 percent-31 percent lead over former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. Giuliani had 15 percent of the vote, followed closely by former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee who held 14 percent.

A top campaign official from McCain’s camp has been in “ongoing discussions” with Giuliani’s campaign about endorsing McCain’s candidacy, a GOP official familiar with talks told CNN Tuesday.

A source close to Giuliani confirmed that discussions were taking place and said there is talk among the staff that an endorsement could come Wednesday in California. The source said McCain and Giuliani need to talk, but “we are working to make it happen.”

“We have a ways to go, but we’re getting close, and for that, you all have my profound thanks,” McCain said as he claimed victory.

Cop Uses Last Day to Ticket Other Cops

A Middletown police officer spent his last day on the job writing tickets for 14 patrol cars that had expired inspection stickers.

Cpl. Frank Holden says he was just doing his job.

The 26-year veteran tells the Asbury Park Press he retired at the end of the year because Police Chief Robert Oches is hurting morale.

Holden says he spoke to the chief about the vehicles that needed to be inspected several months ago.

The township is investigating whether the tickets are valid because some of the vehicles were out of service.

Driving a vehicle with an expired inspection sticker may result in fines between $100 and $200.

Passaic Council Is A Mess

PICTURE THIS: Passaic 2008. The City Council has scheduled a vote to fill the vacancy on the council created when Marcellus Jackson resigned after pleading guilty to a federal corruption charge. Three council members are present for the vote on Tuesday. Three members, including the president, are absent. The mayor is there in case he is needed to break a tie. But with three councilmen missing, there’s no vote.

In any other city, the main story would be that the missing councilmen — Council President and Assemblyman Gary Schaer, Chaim Munk and Daniel Schwartz — wanted to dodge a difficult vote. Terrence Love, the likely replacement and a Passaic schoolteacher, has the support of the other three council members. Earlier this month, the council deadlocked 3-3 on appointing Love.

Some Passaic residents want Jeffrey Dye to get the seat. He unsuccessfully ran for a council seat in 2005. Approving Love comes with political consequences. Perhaps the council members who were AWOL want to avoid them. Mayor Sammy Rivera told the Herald News last week, “Gary has his own political agenda.”

That may be, but he is not alone. The “Sammy and Schaer Show” has been anything but harmonious of late. “Sammy” — Mayor Rivera — is under indictment. In fact, he was arrested with former city Councilman Jackson. Rivera claims he is innocent, despite federal officials claiming they have him on tape saying he is all too willing to accept a bribe.

Leave that on the side and focus on the facts. The council appears split down the middle. The mayor has the authority to break the tie. So the same person who is under indictment, caught up in the same corruption probe that led to Jackson’s admission of guilt and resignation, probably will be the deciding vote for Jackson’s replacement. Is that irony or just Passaic?

Schaer was unavailable for comment on Friday. He may not want to take a position on either Love or Dye, but he has no choice. Equally unpleasant is that the mayor who is busy trying to raise funds for his legal defense can still have a major impact on Passaic government. It is outrageous that given he was caught in the same net as Jackson, who has pleaded guilty, that Rivera gets a say in who replaces Jackson.

I don’t know why people are walking on eggshells if the eggs went bad long ago. Passaic needs to clean its house. First on the list is reducing the smell of sulfur. According to federal authorities, Rivera boasted that he had the needed votes in his pocket to get what turned out to be a sham insurance contract approved by the council.

The people of Passaic should demand that whoever replaces Jackson be independent of Rivera’s sway. They also should be concerned about the integrity of all elected council members.

Schaer may not win a congeniality award, but he’s a smart politician. Maybe he will run for mayor. Even if he chooses not to run, he has more at stake politically than any other player. He’s found a solid niche in the Assembly. Rivera is correct: Schaer has a political agenda.

Rivera’s agenda is primal: survival. The odds are against him. U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie has a 100 percent conviction rate against public officials to date. The Giants should be so favored Sunday.

The AWOL councilmen have a responsibility to the people of Passaic. Whether Munk had jet lag, as reported, and that is why he missed the council meeting, or whether there were legitimate reasons that Schaer and Schwartz were no-shows, there can be no excuse for their absence at the next scheduled council session.

There are boundaries, real and imagined, that separate the Jewish, Hispanic and black communities of Passaic. Leaders forge alliances, shape compromises and find a way of governing for the greater good of all. They take stands, even unpopular ones.

But most of all, they show up. NorthJersey.com

Mayor Rivera Pleads Not Guilty

 

Passaic Mayor Samuel Rivera, one of 10 public officials caught up in a statewide FBI sting last year, pleaded not guilty to bribery and attempted extortion today.

Rivera, 61, was indicted by a federal grand jury last week for allegedly accepting $5,000 in cash from an insurance brokerage firm in exchange for his help getting contracts. The firm turned out to be a front for the FBI.

“Don’t worry about it. I’ll help you out. I’ll help you out,” Rivera told an undercover FBI informant last year during one secretly recorded conversation, according to the two-count indictment.

During a hearing in federal court in Trenton today, U.S. District Judge Freda Wolfson set Rivera’s trial date for March 24. The mayor’s attorney, however, said he would seek a delay until summer.

“We expect to receive the government’s evidence shortly. Without it, we really can’t evaluate the case,” Klingeman said after Rivera’s arraignment. “Mayor Rivera looks forward to his day in court as he continues to run the city of Passaic.”

Rivera faces up to 20 years in prison. Some of his fellow defendants, including former Assemblyman Alfred Steele, have pleaded guilty while others, such as Orange Mayor Mims Hackett, have also vowed to fight the charges. Nj.com

Clinton gains added help for N.J. push

New Jersey politicos and volunteers responded to Hillary Clinton’s four-alarm call for help in New Hampshire three weeks ago.

Now, some of Clinton’s New Hampshire operatives are returning the favor.

Sylvia Larsen, the New Hampshire state Senate president who is known for her high-energy turnout skills, will assist the New Jersey operation in the final weekend before the Feb. 5 primary, Larsen and other campaign officials said Friday.

Clinton advisers are expecting Larsen and her colleagues to work the phones, knock on doors or provide the kind of strategic advice that helped them secure Clinton support amid the post-Iowa Barack Obama fever that swept through New Hampshire.

Larsen and other Democrats deployed a fierce, fundamental strategy of identifying solid Clinton supporters and those who were undecided. Volunteers did the bulk of the work, but “clearly there were times I was at the phone banks, calling and recalling,” Larsen said. “By election day, we knew where our solid support was.”

Clinton supporters describe Larsen’s trip — at the request of Clinton fund-raiser John F.X. Graham of Verona and U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr. of Paterson — as a thank-you but also as a hedge against the turnout uncertainties of a first-ever presidential-only primary in the dead of a New Jersey winter.

The standard voter data that allow party officials to identify declared Democratic voters may not be enough this year: It doesn’t tell them who is a Clinton supporter and who is likely to vote for Obama.

Further complicating matters are voters who have not declared their affiliation with either party, which represent most of New Jersey’s electorate. These voters typically participate in the November contests but not in primaries.

But because of the novelty of the new primary and the intensity of interest this year, the campaigns are expecting many to show up on Feb. 5. Independents can declare their party affiliation at the polls on primary election day.

That’s where Larsen and her colleagues could help. “She has expertise that we hope to tap,” said Brendan Gilfillan, a spokesman for Clinton’s New Jersey campaign. NorthJersey.com

Jewish groups condemn attacks on Obama

 

Leaders of the Jewish organizations in the United States issued a joint letter Tuesday night condemning the email being distributed both in Hebrew and in English attacking Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama. In the email, Obama is depicted as a Muslim pretending to be a Christian and seeking to take over the White House and handing it over to the control of al-Qaeda. In an open letter to the Jewish community, the leaders said that they would not endorse or oppose any candidate for president, but felt compelled to speak out against “certain rhetoric and tactics in the current campaign that we find particularly abhorrent”. “Of particular concern, over the past several weeks, many in our community have received hateful emails that use falsehood and innuendo to mischaracterize Senator Barack Obama’s religious beliefs and who he is as a person.”

‘Make A decision based on factual records’

The letter was signed by Abraham Foxman, the national director of the Anti-Defamation League; William Daroff, vice president of the United Jewish Communities; David Harris, executive director of the American Jewish Committee; Nathan J. Diament, director of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America; Rabbi Marvin Hier, founder and dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center; Richard S. Gordon, president of the American Jewish Congress; Rabbi David Saperstein, director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism; Phyllis Snyder, president of the National Council of Jewish Women; and Hadar Susskind, Washington director of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs.

There is great importance to the fact that Jewish leaders from all sides of the political map joined forces in this letter. “These tactics attempt to drive a wedge between our community and a presidential candidate based on despicable and false attacks and innuendo based on religion,” the letter said. “We reject these efforts to manipulate members of our community into supporting or opposing candidates.”

The Jewish leaders warned that “attempts of this sort to mislead and inflame voters should not be part of our political discourse and should be rebuffed by all who believe in our democracy. “Jewish voters, like all voters, should support whichever candidate they believe would make the best president. We urge everyone to make that decision based on the factual records of these candidates, and nothing less.”  Ynet

Bush sees Mideast peace treaty in a year

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AFP) — US President George W. Bush on Thursday predicted the signing of a Middle East peace treaty within a year and called for an end to Israel’s four-decade occupation of Palestinian land.

Giving an assessment of his talks with Israeli and Palestinian leaders over the previous two days, he said it was time for both to make “difficult choices” for peace to become a reality and allow the creation of a Palestinian state.

“There should be an end to the occupation that began in 1967,” he said on his return to Jerusalem from his first trip to the West Bank, where he held talks with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas.

He said a peace deal should establish a state for the Palestinians “just like Israel is a homeland for the Jewish people.”

And as he prepared to leave Friday for a tour of Washington’s Gulf allies, he called on “Arab countries to reach out to Israel, a step that is long overdue.”

Bush is in the Middle East hoping to clinch a major foreign policy victory before leaving office in January 2009 after the repeated failure of previous US administrations to broker peace.

He is seeking to advance peace talks that have been dogged since their revival in November last year by discord over Jewish settlement expansion and continuing Israeli Palestinian violence.

“I believe it’s going to happen, that there’s going to be a signed peace treaty by the time I leave office,” he said in Ramallah.

“The establishment of a state of Palestine is long overdue. The Palestinian people deserve it, and it will enhance the stability of the region, and it will contribute to the security of the people of Israel.

And he said a Palestinian state had to be contiguous. “Swiss cheese isn’t going to work when it comes to the territory of a state.”

But he warned: “Security is fundamental. No agreement and no Palestinian state will be born of terror. I reaffirm America’s steadfast commitment to Israel’s security.”

He took aim at the Islamist movement Hamas, whose bloody takeover of the Gaza Strip seven months ago split the Palestinians into two separately-ruled entities and has complicated peacemaking.

Since peace talks resumed in November, about 100 people, mostly gunmen, have been killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza aimed at halting militant rocket fire.

Bush’s comments were the first hint of the tough talking he says needs to be done if his aim of having a peace deal signed by the end of his term, in January 2009, is realised.

“Achieving an agreement will require painful political concessions by both sides,” he cautioned.

He has previously called on Israel to end its occupation in June 2002, but his words Thursday carried particular resonance, given the time and place.

A senior Israeli official welcomed Bush’s comments.

“Bush’s statement reflects a solution which Israel would be happy to live with,” he said on condition of anonymity.

Bush, on his first visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories since assuming office in 2001, will return at least once more before his term ends in January 2009, national security adviser Stephen Hadley said.

Ahead of Bush’s latest statement, a US official said the president has named General William Fraser, a former B-52 bomber pilot, to supervise Israeli and Palestinian compliance with a 2003 roadmap blueprint for Middle East peace.

Although both Abbas and Olmert agreed on the eve of the Bush visit to start tackling the thorniest issues of the decades-old conflict — borders, Jerusalem and refugees — talks have stumbled.

The US president said he understood the frustrations of Palestinians who have to live with Israeli checkpoints and barricades and said Israel should “help not hinder” development of the Palestinian security forces.

He caught a glimpse of the problems facing Palestinians at Ramallah checkpoints after travelling by road from Jerusalem when fog grounded his Marine One helicopter, although Bush’s convoy swept through the barrier.

In his statement he said that as part of efforts to establish the Palestinian state, new mechanisms to resolve the issue of the Palestinian refugees should be created.

“I believe we need to look to the establishment of a Palestinian state and new international mechanisms including compensation to resolve the refugee issue.”

Only the second US head of state to visit the Palestinian territories, Bush faces a difficult task to win over the hearts and minds of Palestinians, who are deeply sceptical about his ability to be an even-handed peace broker as Israel’s closest ally.

“I don’t believe he will do anything for the Palestinians,” said Mohammad Khaldi, a 64-year-old Ramallah resident.

Ramallah was under virtual curfew for the visit by the leader of the world’s biggest superpower, with about 4,000 law enforcement officers ensuring the president’s security as Abbas gave him a red carpet welcome.

Security forces used tear gas and batons to break up a protest, charging about 200 demonstrators who were chanting “Bush, war criminal!”, “Bush out!”

The Bush-Abbas talks were held in the Muqata government compound which was once virtually destroyed during an Israeli siege of then Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, long boycotted by Bush as an obstacle to peace.

In a break with protocol, pointedly Bush did not stop at Arafat’s tomb.

Corzine: Commuters could get discount, plan must be politics-free

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — Tolls may be increasing on New Jersey’s highways, but Gov. Jon S. Corzine on Wednesday said drivers who frequent those roads may get discounts under his plan to boost tolls to revamp troubled state finances.

“We will do some things to make it more attractive,” Corzine said.

He also told The Associated Press during a Wednesday interview that he won’t sign legislation approving his plan if it allows governors and legislators to interfere with toll increases and the nonprofit agency formed to manage the toll roads.

“I’m not going to sign a bill that has that,” Corzine said.

Corzine said commuters and carpoolers could receive discounts to help blunt the toll increases proposed to begin in 2010.

Corzine wants to increase highway tolls 50 percent in 2010, 2014, 2018 and 2022. Those increases would include adjustments to reflect inflation. After 2022, tolls would increase every four years to also reflect inflation.

The Democratic governor wants to pay off at least $16 billion in state debt and provide money for transportation improvements.

Corzine didn’t detail the potential discounts, but said they would assist people who rely most on toll roads, such as residents in Middlesex County — home to the Garden State Parkway, New Jersey Turnpike and Route 440, where tolls would be added.

“There are ways to address some of the inequities,” Corzine said.

Corzine wants to create a nonprofit agency that would manage the toll highways and issue bonds to bring the state a large cash infusion to pay debt and fund transportation. The bonds would be paid back by the increased tolls.

“It’s going to be independently governed, and it’s going to be independently financed,” Corzine said of the agency.

But the Democratic governor predicted it may be tougher protecting the agency from political interference than it is getting toll increases approved.

While Corzine said he might be willing to compromise with lower toll increases and keeping tolls off Route 440, he said preventing legislators and governors from getting involved in the agency’s daily operations is vital to giving investors confident it will run like a business.

“It will be a deal breaker because it will be a deal breaker in the marketplace,” Corzine said.

He said the agency will also have authority to try to earn money through other means, including improved rest stops, developing property along the roads and even attaching solar panels to sound barriers.

“A creative management team will be able to find other ways to grow revenue,” the former Goldman Sachs chairman said.

NJ.com

New Jersey;Year End Review

This year, New Jerseyans prayed that Gov. Jon S. Corzine would recover after a car crash left him with near fatal injuries that were no doubt worsened by his reluctance to buckle up at speeds up to 91 mph.

Corzine’s rocky year nearly turned tragic in April when his sport utility vehicle collided with a guard rail on the Garden State Parkway as his driver, a state trooper, was speeding at 91 mph en route to Drumthwacket, the governor’s mansion in Princeton.

Corzine, who was not wearing a seat belt, was hospitalized for 18 days, broke 15 bones and lost more than half his blood. He emerged as an advocate for buckling up and taped a federally funded public service announcement promoting it. Imus and Rutgers

Corzine’s rush that night was for another national story with Jersey origins: radio host Don Imus and the Rutgers University women’s basketball team. After the team made a surprising run at the national championship that ended with a loss in the finals, Imus dampened spirits with racially charged comments aimed at members of the team.

Imus was fired from CBS radio — actually, just hours before Corzine’s crash. Imus met with the team at Drumthwacket, sued CBS radio for lost wages, then recently returned to the airwaves on ABC radio.

Death penalty abolished

For a change, New Jersey made world-wide headlines without giving fodder to late-night comedians when it became the first state to repeal the death penalty.

This month’s signing of the repeal drew attention from across the country and the globe, as the Colosseum in Rome — site of gruesome gladiator fights centuries ago — was lit in support of Corzine’s signing the repeal.

Some critics, however, pointed to a public opinion poll that showed split views on whether to repeal and strong support for keeping capital punishment for the most heinous murders. While some families of murder victims lobbied for the repeal, others vowed to work against those politicians who pushed it. Slayings shock Newark

Every year dozens are murdered in New Jersey’s largest city — yet none gripped the city, state and country like the execution-style shootings in a Newark schoolyard of three Delaware State University students and a friend planning to enroll. One victim survived.

The August shootings also swirled together themes of gangs, illegal immigration and child sexual assault, as one of the six suspects is an illegal immigrant who was free on bail on child rape charges at the time of the shootings. Several suspects are members of the dangerous MS13 street gang.

The families were also upset when they learned that the television show “Law & Order: Criminal Intent” based an episode called “Senseless” on the shootings. Clerk foils Fort Dix plot

After an electronics store clerk told the FBI that a customer asked him to transfer to a DVD footage of men firing assault weapons and yelling about jihad, five men were arrested in May in what federal investigators call a plot to attack Fort Dix and kill U.S. soldiers.

The five, all foreign-born Muslims, are scheduled for trial in March. A sixth pleaded guilty to conspiring to sell firearms and ammunition.

The trial seeped into dirty Jersey politics when the wife of one of the court-appointed defense lawyers ran for a state Assembly seat in Burlington County. Her Republican foes mailed an ominous-looking flier filled with masked men carrying guns insinuating the candidate would be soft on crime and terrorism. The mailing drew a rebuke from the federal judge on the case. Bryant indicted

Longtime Camden County legislator Wayne Bryant, D-Camden, head of the influential Senate budget committee, was charged with with creating a no-work job at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey to boost the school’s state funding.

Sen. Bryant, who pleaded not guilty, declined to run for re-election in November.

Government corruption

State senators, mayors of big cities and the 23-year-old president of a local school board found themselves among New Jersey’s growing hall of shame for elected officials as law enforcement netted some large names in their bid to clean New Jersey government.

In addition to Bryant, state Sen. Sharpe James, D-Essex, also a member of the budget committee and former longtime mayor of Newark, was indicted. James was accused of using city credit cards to pay for personal trips and selling city property on the cheap to a travel companion. All have pleaded not guilty.

The offices of a third member of the Senate budget committee, Joseph Coniglio, D-Bergen, were raided by FBI agents in November in a separate investigation related to state grants. Coniglio has denied any wrongdoing. None of the three ran for reelection.

In September, 11 public officials from Atlantic to Passaic counties were charged with taking bribes from phony roofing and insurance firms set up by the FBI. Those arrested include Assemblymen Alfred E. Steele, D-Passaic, and Mims Hackett Jr., D-Essex, who is also the mayor of Orange. Both resigned from the Assembly. The roundup also snared municipal and school board officials, including the 23-year-old president of the Pleasantville Board of Education. Six of the 11 have pleaded guilty.

After a two-week disappearance, Atlantic City Mayor Bob Levy resigned and admitted he lied about his Vietnam War service to get a bigger benefits check. Voters: Quit spending

Following the budget debacle of 2006, when a stalemate between Corzine and the Legislature shuttered state government over the governor’s proposal to raise the sales tax, things appeared smoother midway through 2007.

State leaders approved the largest-ever property tax rebate, sending 10 percent to 20 percent back to most homeowners, depending on income. They approved a budget three days before the July 1 deadline, remarkably early for a Legislature that usually waits until, or past, the last minute.

Then in November, Corzine, Senate President Richard J. Codey and Assembly Speaker Joseph J. Roberts Jr. took a hit when — for the first time in 17 years — voters unexpectedly rejected ballot questions.

Each of the three were vested in the questions: Corzine and Codey supported and funded the drive to borrow $450 million for stem-cell research, and Roberts was the driving force behind a measure to dedicate the proceeds from the 2006 sales tax hike to property tax relief. While Democrats maintained their control of the Legislature, the votes were seen as their first statewide rebuke since the tax revolt of the 1990.

Corzine and the toll roads

Most likely to appear on next year’s list is Corzine’s toll-road transaction – monetization, or financial restructuring, as he now calls it. That’s because the details won’t be known until Jan. 8, when the governor finally explains the plan that has been source of much speculation and scrutiny through the year.

The plan basically calls for the state to get a lump sum of cash up front, to be paid back through future toll hikes, in order to pay down existing debt and free up funds for other priorities.

Corzine’s reluctance to detail the plan caused even Democratic legislative candidates to say they will oppose it on the campaign trail. He has acknowledged the plan may spark a backlash but says the state needs to change its fiscal direction and urged people to wait to hear the details before deciding whether to support it.

Warren Grove fire

Thousands of people were driven from their homes when a large portion of the South Jersey coastal region burned in May from an errant flare dropped from an Air Force fighter jet.

The blaze burned more than 17,000 acres in the heart of the Pinelands and encroached on the developed environs, destroying three homes and damaging more than a dozen others.

It was the latest scare to residents in Ocean, Burlington and Atlantic counties who live around the Warren Grove Gunnery Range, a military training facility.

The fire renewed calls to shut the range that have arisen through the years after other incidents — an F-16 firing 40 rounds of ammunition that landed on an elementary school roof in the middle of the night in 2004, a 2002 crash that left a jet in the middle of the woods near the Garden State Parkway and an errant dummy bomb in 1999 that sparked a 12,000-acre fire.  courierpostonline

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

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

A little traffic ease for the Holiday season RT,46 RT,23 I,80

New Jersey

Although completion of repairs still is a year away, the bridges, ramps and travel lanes on Routes 80, 46 and 23 will be opened for the holiday season, state Transportation Department officials announced Monday.

The highway plan would make it easer for motorists to shop and travel from Thanksgiving to New Year’s, Transportation Commissioner Kris Kolluri said.

The roadway upgrades are part of a regional initiative by the DOT to improve the Route 46 corridor from Clifton to Fairfield, Kolluri said. The $70 million project to renovate the three routes and their nexus — also known as the “Spaghetti Bowl” — is in its final stages and should be completed by November 2008.

Once completed, the project will have replaced nine bridge decks, realigned and resurfaced roadways, modified ramps and added signs, lighting, guide rails and acceleration and deceleration lanes.

Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr., D-Paterson, who has guided appropriation of millions of dollars for the renovation of the “Spaghetti Bowl” while on the House Transportation Committee, said he appreciated the move by the DOT and that the area’s commuters would have an easier time.

“Commerce will be made easier and families will feel safer on the renovated roadway,” Pascrell said in a statement. northjersey.com

Top Court holds ruling on Satmar Assets

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) – A court battle that has divided the ultra-Orthodox Jewish sect whose members mostly live in Kiryas Joel and Brooklyn has been decided again in favor of the faction that now holds power in Brooklyn.

The state Court of Appeals in a decision today upheld lower court decisions in favor of supporters of Rabbi Zalmen Teitelbaum, 1 of 2 brothers with rival claims to leadership of the Satmar Hasidic sect.

Supporters of his older brother, Rabbi Aaron Teitelbaum – chief rabbi in the Orange County village of Kiryas Joel for many years – had sued to wrest control of assets, contending they had won an election in 2001 for lay leadership of the sect’s Brooklyn branch.

Their father Rabbi Moses Teitelbaum, died in 2006 at the age of 91. In his will, he recognized Zalmen Teitelbaum, the third of his four sons, as the next rebbe, or grand rabbi

United States agrees to hold talks with Iran again

The United States has accepted an Iraqi proposal to hold new talks with Iran about the security situation in Iraq, the State Department said Tuesday.

The as-yet unscheduled meeting would be the third round of talks between Ryan Crocker, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, and his Iranian counterpart. Two previous sessions ended inconclusively with Iran rejecting U.S. allegations that it is supporting Shia insurgent groups in Iraq by providing bombmaking material responsible for the deaths of American troops.

Amid a decline in attacks involving such devices, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Washington had responded favorably to a suggestion from the Iraqi government that it was now “the appropriate time” for another meeting at the ambassadorial level in Baghdad.

“We said ‘yes,’ that we would agree to that,” he told reporters, adding that the United States had informed Iran of its acceptance through diplomatic channels that normally involve Swiss intermediaries. AP

When Is The Honorable Bloomberg GoingTo Anounce His Presidency?

NEW ORLEANS – Mayor Bloomberg Friday blasted the presidential candidates for being incapable of leadership – and deviated from his prepared remarks to take an apparent swipe at Sen. Hillary Clinton.

In a speech to municipal officials from across the nation, Bloomberg laid out his principles of governing and seemed to attack Clinton (D-N.Y.), whose campaign was criticized this week for answering staged questions from friendly crowds.

The mayor said his principles are “a challenge to candidates to move beyond photo-ops, to reject stage-managed town hall meetings, and to talk about how we’re going to use real accountability to solve real problems and take real questions from our constituents and give them real answers,” Bloomberg said.

“They’re a challenge to a rotten political culture that rewards sellouts and sycophants, and I’ve just always thought that we can do better.”

Bloomberg is mulling a billion-dollar independent bid for President next year, hoping voters will tire of Republican and Democratic business as usual and greet him as a nonpartisan alternative.

“You will not hear the truth on the campaign trail, because the campaign trail is – somebody described it as ‘pandering in full throttle,’” he said.

Asked later if he was talking about anyone in particular, he made clear he didn’t think any presidential candidate met his expectations. “I’m referring to everybody,” he said.

The mayor’s ambition was on display as he toured New Orleans’ hurricane-ravaged lower Ninth Ward, where he said the government ought to be fixing streets and sidewalks, mowing vacant yards and investing in infrastructure to help bring residents back.

During a stop at Fats Domino’s house, the famed musician said he’d gladly vote for Bloomberg if he ran for President.

“He’s a good man. I like him very much,” Domino said. “Maybe he could win, too.”

Dual offices didn’t hurt most N.J. incumbents

It’s now illegal to hold more than one elected office in New Jersey, but that didn’t keep 14 state legislators who are also mayors or county freeholders from being sent back to Trenton last week.

Once something is banned, the practice is supposed to end, but not when it comes to the state Legislature.

About two months ago, Governor Corzine signed into law a measure that effectively bans future dual office-holding in New Jersey, meaning you can no longer hold two publicly elected offices at the same time.

The new law, however, contains a grandfather provision that allows anyone who is currently holding two elected offices to continue doing so. That means it doesn’t apply to the 17 state lawmakers who already hold other offices at the municipal or county level along with their legislative offices.

For example, state Sen. Paul Sarlo, D-Wood-Ridge, can continue serving as the mayor of Wood-Ridge while still representing the 36th District. And he can run for both offices – just as he did Tuesday — as many times as he wants in the future, as long as he keeps winning the elections. NorthJersey.com

Olmert to Demand PA Accept Israel as Jewish State

(IsraelNN.com) Prime Minister Ehud Olmert intends to demand that the Palestinian Authority accept Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state in upcoming negotiations. This will be Israel’s precondition for any further negotiations with the PA, according to Channel 2 TV.

The report said that by making this simple demand, Olmert will be forcing the PA to give up its hope of making Israel accept an Arab influx into its borders (the “right of return” of “refugees”). If the PA accepts the condition, it will become that much simpler for Olmert to make concessions of his own

Until now, however, the PA negotiators’ position has been to reject this condition.

According to a report by Ynet, the PA’s negotiating team will refuse to recognize Israel as a Jewish state in the declaration expected to be signed at the Annapolis Mideast summit November 26. Israeli and PA negotiating teams are scheduled to meet Monday following an incident in which lead PA negotiator Ahmed Qureia (Abu Ala), the former PA Prime Minister, was held up Sunday for half an hour at a security checkpoint on his way to Jerusalem for the meeting.

Israeli police seek evidence against PM

JERUSALEM – Police raided more than 20 government buildings and private offices Sunday morning, seeking evidence in a series of criminal investigations of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, potentially weakening his position ahead of a crucial Mideast peace conference in the United States.

The early morning sweep came just as Olmert’s popularity, which plummeted after last year’s inconclusive war against Lebanese Hezbolah guerrillas, has begun to rebound.

The raid Sunday targeted more than 20 locations, including the Industry and Trade Ministry, the Postal Authority and Jerusalem’s City Hall, said police spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld.