Manhattan, NY – Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly unveiled on Wednesday the NYPD’s latest high-tech weapon against terror.

Addressing a civic group, Kelly said the department has begun using analytic software to monitor the behavior of potential terrorists.

By training cameras on something as mundane as an article of clothing, police can lock in on a person and track their movements. The collection of images can reveal whether someone is casing a location for a possible attack.

“With that software, we can conduct detailed searches,” he said. “We can pull up any camera, scroll back in time for as long as the data is store, which in our case is generally 30 days, and do this from any terminal on the network.”

Police officials said many of the cameras are already being used in lower Manhattan. Specifics weren’t immediately available. Kelly demonstrated the new technology at a midtown breakfast hosted by the Association for a Better New York.

As part of its growing counterterrorism efforts, the NYPD is beefing up security downtown with a network of some 3,000 cameras feeding into a data coordination center.

A similar program of security cameras and license plate readers is also planned for midtown — from 30th St. to 60th St., spanning the East River to the Hudson River.

News Source:  NY Daily News

Windsor Locks, CT – Three hundred travelers started the summer with a travel nightmare they will not soon forget.

Hundreds of Newark-bound passengers sat for four hours on a tarmac in a stifling cabin after bad weather and union regulations grounded their flight from London in Connecticut. To make matters worse, passengers said,  the plane’s generators shut down for the second time, leaving them with no air conditioning and sweltering temperatures that reached 100 degrees.

Some people on the inauspicious Virgin Atlantic flight fainted from the heat, said Andrew Porwancher, of Princeton, N.J.. One passenger was taken to a hospital, but airline officials said there is no evidence to link this with the flight.

Even before the flight left Heathrow Airport, there were problems. The generators were not working, so neither was the air conditioning system, passengers said. The flight was supposed to leave at 5:33 p.m., London time. Two hours later, with the plane fixed, the flight took off for Newark.

But problems arose again because of storms in the New York area on Tuesday night. The airline needed to divert the plane. With no option to land at JFK, it landed at Connecticut’s Bradley Airport, the company said.

When the plane, carrying 300 passengers and 14 crew, landed on the tarmac, the generators broke for the second time, passengers said. With no fresh air coming in, temperatures reached a baking 100 degrees, they said.

For four hours, they sat on the plane, sweating, frustrated and tired. During the ordeal, pilots exceeded their maximum flight time and the plane had to stay grounded so after all that, the passengers still couldn’t reach their Newark destination.

Passengers were eventually brought into a terminal, where they waited at least two more hours for their luggage and instructions on how they would eventually get to Newark.

Virgin Atlantic officials said Bradley Airport is not equipped to deal with international arrivals, so Virgin Atlantic had to wait for U.S. Immigration and Customs to arrive to process the passengers.

The flight was scheduled to reach Newark at 9:10 p.m. on Tuesday. Nearly 12 hours later, at about 8:30 a.m. Wednesday, passengers finally began boarding buses en route to Newark Airport.

Peter Blok, of Philadelphia, called the trip “hell on wheels.”

The airline apologized for the frustration and inconvenience the delays caused for the passengers.

“The safety and welfare of our passengers and crew is of paramount importance,” Virgin Atlantic said in a written statement.

The delays frustrated not only the passengers desperately waiting to get off the Virgin Atlantic plane in Connecticut, but those waiting to get out of Newark on the airline as well.

Eva Shah may not even make her own wedding. Shah was supposed to fly Virgin Atlantic to Mumbai, but the Newark flight she  needed to take to connect in Heathrow to complete the trip to India has been delayed 23 hours, her future brother-in-law, Justin Holmes, told NBCNewYork.

Holmes said the airline will only offer Shah a refund and will not transfer her to a more expensive flight.

The airline couldn’t immediately be reached for comment on that matter.

News Source:  NBC NY

Berlin – The day the Mossad operation on German soil began was a clear, sunny Sunday in late March 2009. Alexander Verin, who holds an Israeli passport, had an appointment with an attorney in Cologne to discuss naturalization. Verin was accompanied by a man named Michael Bodenheimer, who claimed that he was an Israeli of German descent. Bodenheimer wanted to apply for a German passport, but Verin, who had made the appointment, was doing most of the talking.

The two men explained that Bodenheimer’s father Hans had emigrated to Israel to escape Nazi persecution. As proof, the Israelis showed the attorney what they claimed was the parents’ marriage certificate, as well as a passport. In such cases, which number around 3,000 a year, Article 116 of Germany’s constitution provides for a relatively straightforward naturalization procedure.

The two Israelis were staying in a Cologne hotel. Bodenheimer would later rent an apartment on a run-down street in Cologne’s Eigelstein neighborhood, in a nondescript, sand-colored apartment building with a pizza takeout restaurant on the ground floor, near the railroad station. It was the perfect, cheap apartment for someone who didn’t want to be noticed.

On June 16, 2009, the attorney submitted the naturalization application to a registry office in Cologne. A German passport was issued in the name of Michael Bodenheimer two days later. It looked like a routine procedure.

But it was everything but routine when the passport was used in January in connection with the murder of Hamas official Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai.

Read the full story at Der Spiegel

News Source:  Der Spiegel

Calgary, Canada – Authorities have arrested a man wanted on warrants in connection with anti-Semitic graffiti that was spraypainted on Jewish monuments in Calgary

The 18-year-old Calgary man was wanted on Canada-wide warrants for mischief to property and inciting public hatred, (as was reported here on VIN News). Calgary police believe it’s the first time they have laid hate-related charges in connection with defacing a place of worship.

The 18-year-old allegedly hit the Calgary Jewish Centre, The Chabad Lubavitch Centre in Woodbine and the Holocaust memorial in Pump Hill last November with hate graffiti that included swastikas and phrases such as “Die Jews.”

The man, who can’t be named because he was a juvenile at the time of the alleged crime, was arrested by Winnipeg police and charged with several hate crimes, just one day after a Canada-wide warrant was issued for his arrest and they are now working to return the man to Calgary.

Adam Singer, vice-president of the Calgary Jewish Community Council, said the graffiti spree had a major impact on the local Jewish community.

“What happened last November made many in the Jewish community, especially Holocaust survivors, extremely uncomfortable,” he said.

“It was a harsh wake-up call and we’re happy with the very positive response from the police and the (Crown) prosecutors’ office.”

Police have enlisted the aid of a graffiti expert to go through a data-base of previous tagging and have also gathered forensic evidence from the scenes.

Singer said the local Jewish community was also comforted by the reaction from Calgarians who were quick to condemn the attacks.

“Calgarians treated it as an attack against Calgary and not just one small group,” he said.

News Source:  CBC News

Nashville, TN – The loud pop of a semi-automatic rifle shatters the quiet of a still winter day. The sun is shining through the motionless branches of bare trees in a large wooded area, reflecting off the sunglasses of a slender, dark-haired German. He takes aim once more, then fires.

Just a few yards away, a slightly round, white-haired man lifts his weapon to his shoulder and eyes the target in his scope. This man, however, could have come from a Central Casting file marked “Hasidic Jew.” He’s wearing a black hat, and his peyos — the long sidelocks of hair that Orthodox Jewish men grow — are wrapped around his ears to keep them out of his way.

He squints, steadies his arms and fires. Moments later, just several yards away, the German sets his sights on his quarry, exhales deeply and squeezes his trigger, as he’s been taught to do.

Read the full story at Nashville News

News Source:  Nashville Scene News

Washington – Pushing toward a history-making vote, Democrats struggled to eliminate lingering complications standing in the way of House action this weekend on President Barack Obama’s landmark health care overhaul.

Their drive to change the way health care is administered and extend coverage to millions of uninsured Americans took on a growing sense of inevitability, picking up endorsements from a longtime liberal holdout and from a retired Roman Catholic bishop and nuns who broke with church leaders over the bill’s abortion provisions.

At the same time, last-minute snags related to costs delayed formal release of the legislation and an analysis from the Congressional Budget Office at least until Thursday. Democratic lawmakers had hoped to see those details last week.

Since Democrats are promising 72 hours for lawmakers and the public to review the legislation once it’s released, that would push a House vote on the bill until Sunday at the earliest — the same day Obama plans to leave for an overseas trip. Obama already has delayed the trip once so he can be present for the vote and help with the 11th-hour arm-twisting that inevitably will precede it.

“You’ve got to realize how complicated this is and how focused we are on getting it right,” House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said Wednesday near the end of a long day of meetings on the legislation. “We’re waiting to get a real confidence level.”

Obama expressed optimism in an interview with Fox News Channel. “I’m confident it will pass,” he said. “And the reason I’m confident that it’s going to pass is because it’s the right thing to do.”

Democrats are seeking to make sure the legislation would reduce federal deficits annually over the next decade and are revisiting details of a planned tax on high-cost insurance plans that’s been a sticking point for organized labor. Richard Trumka, head of the AFL-CIO, met with Obama at the White House on Wednesday, and officials said the labor leader raised concerns. Obama has proposed significantly softening the tax in keeping with an earlier deal with organized labor, and labor leaders want to preserve that accord, at a minimum.

Trumka was to brief members of the AFL-CIO’s executive council on Thursday, and the federation was expected to announce whether it would support the legislation.

The long-anticipated measure is actually the second of two bills that Obama hopes lawmakers will send him in coming days, more than a year after he urged Congress to remake the U.S. health care system. The first cleared the Senate late last year but went no further because House Democrats demanded significant changes — the very types of revisions now being packaged into the second bill.

Together, the measures are designed to extend coverage to more than 30 million who now lack it and prohibit insurance industry practices such as denying coverage on the basis of pre-existing medical conditions. Obama also has asked lawmakers to slow the growth of medical spending generally, a far more difficult goal to achieve. The total cost is around $1 trillion over 10 years.

After heavy lobbying from Obama, liberal Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, announced his support Wednesday, becoming the first Democrat to declare he would vote in favor of the legislation after opposing an earlier version. Shortly after Kucinich’s announcement, a letter was released from 60 leaders of religious orders urging lawmakers to vote for the legislation.

The endorsement reflected a division within the Catholic Church. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops opposes the Senate-passed legislation, contending it would permit the use of federal funds for elective abortions.

Late Wednesday, however, retired Bishop John E. McCarthy of Austin, Texas, told The Associated Press he was urging approval of the legislation.

“The bill guards against the use of federal money for abortion,” McCarthy said in an interview. “This is an extraordinarily important bill, providing health care for 30 to 40 million people who don’t have it. It’s not perfect; we can come back later and improve it. But let’s not kill it at this crucial moment.” McCarthy, 80, served as bishop of the Austin diocese from 1986-2001.

Reflecting growing opposition among states to the health care bill, Idaho Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter, a Republican, signed a measure Wednesday requiring the state attorney general to sue the federal government if residents are forced to buy health insurance. Similar legislation is pending in 37 other states.

News Source: AP

New York – The far-left J Street activist group has written its supporters saying that President Obama is “under attack” for what it called his appropriate condemnation of Israel’s “provocative announcement” last week.

The organization has urged its supporters to email Congress and tell them they support Vice President Biden and Secretary of State Clinton in their condemnation of Israel.

New York – ‘If you really want to learn how to coach, lose.”

So says Jonathan Halpert, who should know.

Halpert was just named the Skyline Conference’s 2009-2010 Coach of the Year and is currently finishing his 38th season as Yeshiva University’s head basketball coach – the longest serving coach in the metro area.

The NCAA Division III Maccabees finished the season with a 12-14 record.

Nothing takes the sting out of a loss, Halpert said, but what’s more important is what you do afterward.

“Losing forces you to learn how to really teach, how to motivate, organize, and prioritize,” he said. “It teaches you how to run a practice.”

Halpert has spent his entire basketball career at Yeshiva, from high school to now. He played for the late, legendary coach Bernard (Red) Sarachek, a major influence in his career.

“Red stressed the fundamentals: move without the ball, cut, move,” said Halpert. “That was where I learned my basketball and how I still teach.

“I’m always yelling, ‘Stop at the foul line, stop at the foul line! You never run a fast break without stopping at the foul line and looking to hand the ball off for the layup.

“I’ll take a player out of the game if they don’t stop at the foul line,” he said. “That’s what I was taught, that’s fundamentals, that’s basic basketball.

“Kids come here the first year and they don’t know what the hell I’m talking about. A new kid gets on the court, he dribbles, he kicks it down the court, he shoots a three.

“I say to the new kid, ‘What the hell do you think you’re doing? If you can’t make four passes before you shoot the ball you can go home.”

It’s an unconventional philosophy in the age of in your face, one-on-one basketball, and Halpert’s coaching techniques are in the same vein.

For instance, the team practices four times a week, two hours each time, and that’s just fine with the coach.

“We can’t practice Friday night, the Sabbath, God took care of that,” he said. “I don’t know how popular I would be if I started Saturday night practices. They do have a social life.

“With the academic work load here, you could not go more than four a week if you wanted to,” Halpert said. “These guys take a double program, with Hebrew studies in the morning and secular studies in the afternoon.

“Frankly, at this level, I don’t think you should be practicing more than four times a week. After four nights of practice, I’m tired of the kids and I’m sure they are tired of me yelling at them.”

Halpert was 27 when he was named coach of Yeshiva’s varsity team. He was still in high school – and playing for the Yeshiva team – when he started coaching the Yeshiva junior varsity team in the early 1960s.

Halpert enrolled at Yeshiva Elementary school shortly after the family moved to the school’s Washington Heights neighborhood from the Bronx when he was in fifth grade.

The family has its own legacy with the school. Halpert’s father, Max, started there as a personal secretary to the school’s then-president Bernard Revel.

“He learned to type Hebrew in Israel, and when he immigrated here his father got him the job as the president’s personal secretary,” Halpert said. “There has been a Halpert at Yeshiva University since 1939.”

Max Halpert went on to be a major fund-raiser for the university.

Halpert and his brother Daniel were both athletic, though Daniel had a childhood bout of osteomyelitis which limited his aspirations.

Halpert fell in love with basketball, listening to Knicks games at night and practicing with rolled up socks and a hoop on his bedroom wall.

A graduate of Yeshiva schools straight through college, Halpert was named a Daily News City All Star in 1965.

He was captain of the university team when he was offered the junior varsity head coaching position, which he took in 1967, winning two JV championships over his five years as coach.

He was named varsity coach in 1972.

The father of five (Tzippora, Ariella, Tzofit, Yuhuda and Rafi) and grandfather of 17 met his wife, Aviva, on a camp basketball court and married while still in college.

They live in Flushing.

Halpert may also be one of the smartest coaches in the country, holding a master’s degree in Special Education from New York University and a doctorate in Special Education from Yeshiva’s Ferkauf Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences in 1978.

He’s amazed and appreciative to have stayed on the job all these years – longer than friend Lou Carnesecca of St. John’s University.

“It just means I’m more stubborn than he is,” Halpert said.

Halpert also longs for the one thing missing from his resume – a conference championship.

“I want it, badly,” he said.

News Source:  NY Daily News

New York – A Queens accountant says it will take $4 million to even the balance sheet after he was anonymously smeared on Craigslist, court papers reveal.

Two ads attacking Whitestone CPA Leo Kehoe were published March 5 in the online ads, the suit alleges.

One ad was headlined, “CPA FRAUD ALERT! (BEWARE OF CROOK),” and went on to say Kehoe “has been associated with TAX EVATION and falsifying records . . . Warn everyone you know.”

Kehoe seeks damages of more than $1 million for each of the two counts against Craigslist and each of the two counts against whoever posted the ads, for a total of $4 million.

Kehoe has been licensed as a CPA in New York since 1991 and has had no disciplinary action against him, state records show.

The PR firm for Craigslist did not return a call for comment.

News Source:  NY Post

Cottage Grove, MN – Unlike many other boys his age, 17-year-old Levi Dubov wakes up excited to go to class each day.

“There is no other place like this,” he says, as he finishes up breakfast in his school’s basement cafeteria.

Dubov is talking about his Yeshiva school outside Minnesota’s Twin Cities, known simply as MyYeshiva .

The boys’ school not only focuses on the study of Judaism. It’s one of a few Yeshivas nationwide that combines religious teaching with a focus on students with special learning needs.

The school aims to help kids who are “stuck in the middle” — who can’t keep up with the pace of regular schools, but haven’t completely given up either.

“[It's] a place for kids that are struggling everywhere else,” the school’s director, Rabbi Moshe Weiss, said. “There wasn’t ever a place for those kids.”

Students come from all over the country to attend this boarding school, including many from low-income households.

“We wanted to try and help those kids out there that need more attention,” Weiss said, sitting in his office after just returning with the students from a twice weekly hockey trip to the local ice rink.

Since opening in 2006, the school has seen its enrollment double from its inaugural class of 18 students.

Dubov, now in 11th grade, feels more at home here than he did at his previous Yeshiva in his hometown of Montreal, Canada.

“They told me I was a weak learner,” he said. But he says at MyYeshiva he excels because of the different pace of teaching.

Tzemi Zimmerman, a ninth-grader from Chicago, Illinois, says he struggles with attention deficit disorder (ADD) and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

“In another school, if you can’t keep up with the learning, they’ll tell you … ‘We’re going to have to suspend you,’” Zimmerman said.

He says the school’s dedicated time for physical education — another unique quality of this Yeshiva — makes it easier for him to sit through classes.

“It makes you feel like people care,” he said. “It’s just — you’re wanted. You’re part of everybody.”

Victoria Livshutz, whose son attends the school, says he would be in a much different situation if it weren’t for the school.

“They are just like a family, which, to me, is very important,” she said. “Because even though he is a big boy, he still needs a lot of attention.”

There wasn’t ever a place for those kids.

The school’s co-founder Rabbi Mordechai Friedman calls MyYeshiva a place where “there’s a little bit less of the stress in learning, a little bit more relaxed in academics.”

“We want to know how you are doing — not just what your test scores look like,” Friedman said.

While the school may be unique in many ways, it’s still a functioning business. The rough economy hasn’t passed by unnoticed. Weiss acknowledges they’ve had difficulty making mortgage payments this past year.

If they can’t come up with the remainder of the building’s cost in cash or five-year pledges by May 15 — about $500,000 — they’ll be forced out.

“We’re talking about these kids’ home and the future kids that are going to come here,” Weiss said. “I believe that with God’s help, the best case scenario is going to occur.”

While this year the school has set tuition at more than $18,000 a year, it typically operates with a “pay what you can” mentality. But this is the first time since the school opened four years ago that not one of the 36 enrolled students has been able to come up with the full amount.

Weiss blames a combination of factors.

“Throughout last year, lots of our parents lost their jobs,” Weiss said, adding that they also “lost donations due to the economy, some large.”

Regardless, students and faculty are optimistic.

“What’d they say about Chrysler? Too big too fold. We’re not as big as Chrysler — yet. But we’re too important,” Friedman said.

“To see the kids we’re helping, there is no way in my mind that this won’t continue,” Rabbi Weiss said. “God is not that cynical.”

Levi Dubov says without this school, he’ll likely end up moving to Israel where his family lives now. That means he’d have to join the Israeli army after his 18th birthday.

But Tzemi Zimmerman offers a reassuring assessment:

“Someone will pull us through,” he said. “We’re going to keep going on like this for many more years, and one day maybe I can send my children here.”

News Source:  CNN