Free Republic

For residents and storekeepers on one Neptune Avenue block between Ocean Parkway and Brighton 3rd Street, being close to Lincoln High School has been an unrelenting disaster. Massive groups of students, often high on marijuana, wreak chaos, and intimidate the neighborhood every school day, neighbors complain. The large groups of teenagers — often 60 kids or more — block entryways, dance on Dunkin’ Donuts tables, play dice games, and harass residents and store owners to the point that business owners say their commerce is interrupted and residents say it has become unsafe to leave their apartments.  Businesses Plan for Daily Chaos...

U.S. authorities have charged 49 Russian diplomats and their spouses with conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud, alleging that they stole $1.5 million from the American government via a years-long Medicaid scam. According to a criminal complaint made public today, the former and current diplomats lied about their income and citizenship status in order to qualify for the health benefits, which they used towards pregnancy care, births, and post-natal medical needs. They were also charged with conspiracy to steal government funds and make false statements relating to health care matters, reports the Associated Press. The complaint notes that medical costs associated...

A small, but passionate group of Russian opposition activists is asking emigres in New York to deface their ballots in the Dec. 4 parliamentary elections in an act of symbolic resistance. The technique is called “Nacht-Nacht”: Voters mark their ballot with a large “X” or write an off-color word or phrase. In Russian, “Nacht-Nacht” is an obscene play on words intended to send a rude message to the ballot counters. “It is a way of saying, ‘Go to hell’ to those in power,” said Natalia Pelevine, a Russian activist based in New Jersey, “saying, ‘We are not voting for any...

A 16-year-old girl was killed and four people were wounded by gunfire Thursday after two groups clashed on a crowded Brooklyn boardwalk, cops and witnesses said. Two of the victims were bystanders, sources said. One man used an umbrella to crack another man in the head as the fight erupted on the Brighton Beach Boardwalk near Brighton Sixth St. about 5:20 p.m. Suddenly, a gunman squeezed off about eight rounds, first shooting in the air before aiming at the brawling crowd, cops and witnesses said. Onlookers scurried into nearby stores and restaurants, huddling in fear as the bullets flew near...

Five people were shot along the boardwalk in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, Thursday afternoon during a mini heat wave that had packed the city’s beaches. Two of the victims are badly wounded, the authorities said. The shooting took place around 5:20 p.m. on the boardwalk near Brighton Sixth Street, the Fire Department said. The shooting unfolded on a day when a mini-heat wave and a school holiday sent hordes of people to Coney Island and Brighton Beaches, which were teeming with beachgoers — many of them teenagers — trying to escape temperatures approaching 100 degrees.

A teenage girl was killed and four men were wounded when two gunmen opened fire on the Brighton Beach boardwalk that was crowded with people seeking relief from Thursday's heat, police said. The shooting erupted at about 5:30 p.m. at Brighton 4th Street and Brighton 6th Street. Police spokesman Paul Browne says the shooting occurred during an altercation on the beach. He did not know if the people shot were intended targets or bystanders. He described the situation as "chaotic.'' Police believe it may be gang-related. The 16-year-old girl who died was identified as Tysha Jones. She was shot under...

The lawyer for one of the men last seen with a Connecticut newlywed before he vanished on a Mediterranean cruise last summer said federal agents had pressured his client for information about the man's disappearance and threatened to charge him with the rape of a female passenger if he declined to cooperate. In his first extensive comments on the case, the lawyer, Albert Y. Dayan, said that his client, Rustislav Kofman, denied any role in the disappearance of the Connecticut man, George Allen Smith IV, last July 5 on a Royal Caribbean cruise or in any rape. [snip] Mr. Dayan...