AP-A student driver passed his test Monday, then crashed the car into the Texas Department of Public Safety building. No one was hurt.
The man was parking the car when the vehicle went over the curb and hit a wall of the brick building, creating a small hole, DPS spokesman Tom Vinger said.
The driving examiner was not in the car, Vinger said. 1010wins.com
Send greetings to all those celebrating Hanukkah, the festival of lights.Hanukkah commemorates a victory for freedom and the courage and faith that made it possible. More than 2,000 years ago, the land of ancient Israel was conquered, its sacred Temple was desecrated, and the Jewish people were forbidden to practice their faith. A patriot named Judah Maccabee and his followers rose up against their oppressors to take back Jerusalem. When the Maccabees returned to reclaim and purify their Holy Temple, the oil used for dedication should have lasted only one day but burned for eight. Every year since then, Jews have celebrated this victory of light over darkness and given thanks for the presence of a just and loving God.
As Jewish Americans prepare to light the Hanukkah candles, we are reminded of the many blessings in our lives. The candles’ glow has the power to lift our souls, put hope in our hearts, and make our Nation a more compassionate and peaceful place. We pray that those who still live in the darkness of tyranny will someday see the light of freedom, and we ask for God’s continued guidance and boundless love and His protection of all those in need during this holiday season.
Laura and I wish all people of the Jewish faith a Happy Hanukkah.
GEORGE W. BUSH
BY JEFFERY C. MAYS Star-Ledger Staff
Newark code enforcement and vice squads yesterday seized the largest cache of counterfeit goods since the formation of a special task force when they closed a store on Broad Street they said held nearly half a million dollars’ worth of illegal jeans, sneakers and compact discs.
The store, Fit Fine, at 893 Broad St., was selling counterfeit NFL jerseys, The North Face coats, Coogi jeans and fur coats, officials said. Although the gear looked real, it was being sold at steep discounts, said Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Ronald Salahuddin. Police also uncovered $16,000 in cash and an illegal barbershop where a bootleg CD operation was under way.
“This is the biggest bust in one spot. This is so much stuff it’s like a warehouse,” said Salahuddin. “This is right across the street from City Hall and they were defrauding the public while hundreds of thou sands of dollars in merchandise was going untaxed.”
Owner Ali Muhammad of Jersey City was arrested and charged with selling counterfeit goods, said Sala huddin. Bail had not been set as of last evening.
Salahuddin said the owner told him that he only started counterfeit merchandise six months ago because his store was doing poorly. The store has been open since 1994.
The bust was more significant than others because — unlike street vendors who sell counterfeit gear — customers may have thought the merchandise was real, Salahuddin said.
The task force was formed last year with the intention of addressing quality-of-life issues that often lead to other types of crime, city officials say. Composed of health, license, and fire inspectors, the vice squad and code enforcement, the task force has set a goal of inspecting all of the businesses in the city. Unlicensed stores, filthy restau rants and stores that sell bootleg merchandise not only endanger public health but also lead to a sense of lawlessness, they say.
The operation was uncovered during a regular check of stores done by Salahuddin’s task force. An officer from the vice squad allegedly purchased a pair of sneakers that looked real but were discovered to be fake.
“People walk in and see stacks and stacks of jeans and think they are buying something legitimate,” said Salahuddin. “They’ve got the tags on it and everything but they are being defrauded.”
Spring Valley, NY – Teacher Jacob Klang collapsed in front of 200 students in a study hall at the Ohr Hameir Theological Seminary in Cortlandt on Nov. 7. Instantly, students jumped to his aid, one calling 911, another running to get the school’s oxygen tank and others taking turns performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation for nearly 10 minutes until an ambulance arrived.
He went into cardiac arrest and no one knows why. The 37-year-old father of six from Spring Valley was otherwise healthy.He lay in a coma at Westchester Medical Center for nine days. His organs were failing. His mother and wife slept in the waiting room for nearly two weeks. Doctors told them to pray.
But members of the cardiology team under Dr. Melvin Weiss, chief of cardiology, worked to keep his heart artificially pumping using a relatively new device called the TandemHeart.
Doctors pushed a catheter, or a tube, through an incision near Klang’s groin. The tube, nearly the thickness of a garden hose, went up through his femoral vein into his heart. First into the right atrium and then through the thin wall into the left atrium.
Oxygen-rich blood is sucked from the left atrium back into the machine, where the blood passes through a centrifuge and is pushed out through another smaller tube into the femoral artery. This supplies oxygen-rich blood to the lower part of the body and the abdominal organs.
It does the job of the left ventricle, the main muscle of the heart, pumping blood into all parts of the body.
It worked and yesterday Klang was released from the hospital with a clean bill of health.
In one month’s time, Jacob Klang went from near death to a full recovery. His brain is functioning well.
After resting at home for the next month or two, Klang said, he will likely return to teaching at the Cortlandt yeshiva.
Family members, happy to have him home tonight for the first night of Hanukkah. They thanked everyone at the hospital and the school.
“Our biggest gratitude is to God for creating this miracle,” said his brother-in-law, Shaul Seitler, 35, of Monsey.
As for the first responders, the brave students, Klang’s wife, Esther, 32, was at a loss for words.
“What do you say to someone who saves your husband’s life?” she said. “There’s not enough you can say to someone who has saved your whole world. ‘Thank you’ just isn’t enough.” Vosizneias.com
By DENISA R. SUPERVILLE and MEREDITH MANDELL
HERALD NEWS
PASSAIC — A rabbi didn’t think twice about interrupting prayer to rush to help a man struck on Katherine Avenue Monday by branches of a fallen 40-foot tree.
“I don’t understand why people shouldn’t help another human being,” Rabbi Yehoshua Kaganoff said. He was praying in a home on Katherine Avenue shortly after 2 p.m. when the tree came crashing down.
“I don’t understand that. I really don’t,” he said. “If a person is hurt, why shouldn’t we help them? It’s beyond me that someone should just walk away.”
The injured man, whom police identified as Thomas Painter, 59, suffered a dislocated left shoulder and a cut to the back of the head, according to Detective Andrew White of the Passaic Police Department. Painter, who was conscious at the scene, was taken to St. Mary’s Hospital and listed in stable condition, White said Monday.
Police said Painter was standing outside of his silver 2003 Toyota Camry when he was struck by one of the tree’s branches. The car sustained extensive damage to the rear windshield, and part of the roof caved in as a result.
Kaganoff, who worked as an ambulance technician in New York City about 20 years ago, and others inside the house rushed to the street thinking that a car or house had been damaged by the fallen tree. Then Kaganoff noticed Painter and the blood on the street, he said.
“When I saw the guy, I thought the worst,” said Yehuda de Sa, a rabbinical student who saw the tree fall while he was praying. “It was a huge tree. The guy was really, really fortunate.”
Kaganoff used his medical training to assist Painter until emergency medical technicians arrived, he said, adding that he stabilized Painter’s head wound. Another neighbor, Sharone Perlman, said she heard a loud “earth-shattering boom” while sitting at her computer.
“It was very terrifying,” said Perlman, who dialed 911.
Later, de Sa said, Perlman brought blankets and a pillow to keep Painter warm and comfortable. Kaganoff asked de Sa to go inside the house to fetch a first aid kit.
The accident involving Painter came as the National Weather Service issued a wind advisory for much of the tri-state area, including Passaic County and North Jersey. The advisory was expected to continue until 7 a.m. Tuesday. Advisories are issued when sustained winds of between 31 and 39 miles per hour or gusts of more than 45 miles per hour are possible, according to the National Weather Service.
These winds are “certainly strong enough to tear down some tree limbs, certainly strong enough to blow around some lightweight and loose objects like garbage lids,” Gary Conte a National Weather Service in Upton, N.Y.
Although the winds are expected to subside on Tuesday, it will still be a windy day, Conte said.
High winds can fell trees and down power lines, which could result in injury and even death. Driving also becomes dangerous, especially for trucks and other large vehicles, authorities say.
Passaic - Bergen Jewish News 