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Speaking from the Knesset plenum on Tuesday, MK Yaakov Katz asked U.S. President Obama to remember that Israel’s electorate voted against a 2-state solution

National Union chairman Ya'acov "Ketzele" Katz sent a letter to White House chief-of-staff Rahm Emanuel last week admonishing him not to forget his Jewish and Israeli origins. Katz claims that in a private meeting with the unnamed leader, Emanuel said, "In the next four years, there will be a peace agreement with the Palestinians on the basis of two states for two peoples, and it does not matter to us who is the prime minister."

To avoid a potentially messy court fight, Gov. Jon Corzine has paid $362,500 to the brother-in-law of labor leader Carla Katz, his former girlfriend. Corzine completed the confidential deal with Rocco Riccio, a former state employee, in late September after Riccio threatened to sue the millionaire governor for allegedly reneging on a promise to find him a private-sector job, the governor confirmed. The payment marks the second time the governor has paid Katz or one of her relatives after publicly saying he had ended all financial ties to the labor leader he dated for two years. (snip) Riccio has said...

Aaron Katz, who for more than 50 years relentlessly and publicly sought the exoneration of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, the central figures in the nation’s most controversial spying case, died on Sept. 28 in Venice, Fla. He was 92 and lived in North Port, Fla. The death was confirmed by his wife, Cynthia. Mr. Katz was director of the National Committee to Reopen the Rosenberg Case for 42 years, repeatedly leading demonstrations outside the federal courthouse on Foley Square in Manhattan on the anniversary of the couple’s execution in Sing Sing’s electric chair on June 19, 1953. They had been...

Eighty-five thousand cheering fans. Pyrotechnics. A dramatic, temple-style backdrop. Such was the scene in Denver Thursday night as Barack Obama accepted his party’s presidential nomination with “great humility.” As his deep voice reverberated throughout the massive venue, thousands of eyes welled up with tears of hope and change. In the sea of faces and waving flags stood a woman by the name of Marilyn Katz. Like several of the other radicals who populate Obama’s sphere, she once advocated guerilla tactics against police officers and participated in violent riots. Unlike some of her more infamous counterparts like Bill Ayers and Bernadine...

High school English teacher Shirley Katz insists she needs to take her pistol with her to work because she fears her ex-husband could show up and try to harm her. She's also worried about a Columbine-style attack. But Katz's district has barred teachers from bringing guns to school, so she is challenging the ban as unlawful, since Oregon is among states that allow people with a permit to carry concealed weapons into public buildings. "This is primarily about my Second Amendment right and Oregon law and the simple fact that I know it is my right to carry that gun,"...

(Trenton) Governor Jon Corzine and his staff have turned over to a judge all written communications discussing state business with president of Communications Workers of American Local 1034, Carla Katz whom the Governor once dated, but this does not ensure the e-mails will ever be made public. A spokesman with the State Attorney General's office says the administration gave Superior Court Judge Paul Innes the communications with Katz. Innes will review the documents privately and decide whether to make them public. Last month the judge ordered that the documents be turned over after denying a request by Corzine's administration and...

New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine (D) paid the brother-in-law of his ex-girlfriend $15,000 to quit a Turnpike Authority job last January, the Newark Star Ledger reports. "At the time, reporters had been pressing Corzine's office for answers about [Rocco] Riccio's work record and how he got hired." These revelations add to the scrutiny over numerous gifts Corzine gave Carla Katz, president of the largest state workers union, since their break-up in 2004 -- which Corzine did not disclose when he ran for governor in 2005. Corzine contends the gifts are a personal matter, and says the total was less than...

Did Governor Jon Corzine and ex-girlfriend, union leader Carla Katz discuss te recently completed public employee contract away from the bargaining table and did that impact the final deal? Republican State Committee chairman Tom Wilson is suing to find out. The GOP wants Corzine to turn over e-mails he exchanged with Katz during the contract talks. Katz argues that the court should consider her rights as a private citizen and the rights of her union, Communications Workers of America Local 1034, as a private organization in deciding whether the e-mails will be made public. A hearing is set for today...

"Back door, backroom conversations, private correspondence using private e-mails designed to circumvent the (Open) Public Records Act makes us curious," says attorney Mark Sheridan. He's the lawyer planning to file a lawsuit on behalf of the Republican State Committee today asking a judge force Governor Jon Corzine and Carla Katz, president of Communications Workers of America Local 1034 to turn over private e-mails. Sheridan believes there is precedent for the suit. He cites the fact that, twice the Government Records Council has forced mayors to turn over personal e-mails dealing with official business, "Why should the Governor be subject to...

THE heat on embattled State Comptroller Alan Hevesi is bringing unwanted attention to his relationship with Queens City Councilwoman Melinda Katz, who has long been his political protégé. "It's an open secret in Queens political circles," one lawmaker told Page Six. "She kisses him on the lips in public, and he went to war with the county organization to get her elected." "It's common knowledge," said another politico. "I've seen them making out." One pol said he spotted them canoodling years ago one night at Terrace on the Park, the catering facility near La Guardia Airport. Although Katz is single,...

Disclosure reports: Corzine gave cash gifts to top aides The Associated Press Published: Saturday, May 6, 2006 Updated: Saturday, May 6, 2006 TRENTON, N.J. (AP) - New Jersey's multimillionaire governor dipped into his personal fortune to give nearly $100,000 cash gifts to top aides late last year, just weeks before his Jan. 17 swearing in, according to recently released financial disclosure reports. Officials in Gov. Jon S. Corzine's administration acknowledged that each gift was kept under $11,000 so that neither the staffers or Corzine would have to pay taxes. "A gift is just that, and a number of Jon Corzine's...

In his first political firestorm since taking office in January, Gov. Jon S. Corzine said Wednesday that he provided $5,000 in bail money to a lobbyist accused of stalking a state assemblyman. "I reacted as a human being responding to someone in need," the multimillionaire Democrat said. "However, in light of my position as governor, I realize this was a mistake." Karen Golding, a government relations manager for insurance giant Prudential Financial, is accused of breaking into the government-issued car of Assemblyman Joseph Cryan, a Democrat, and of writing threatening letters and making threatening calls to Cryan and others. Authorities...

Nov. 24, 2005 18:47 | Updated Nov. 24, 2005 21:25 Low turnout mars Sharon-less Likud committee event By GIL HOFFMAN The Likud central committee convenes Minister without portfolio Tzahi Hanegbi Photo: Ariel Jerozolimski The first Likud central committee meeting without Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was intended to be a showcase of party unity in the post-Sharon era, but instead it will be remembered for its low turnout. When the event was supposed to start at 5 p.m., the room was nearly empty. It started an hour late and finished shortly thereafter. Organizers said after the event that 911 central committee...

(AXcess News) New York - The people of the Garden State elected Senator Jon Corzine, a liberal Democrat, as their new governor and they have decided being a Blue State takes a front seat to ridding New Jersey of rampant corruption. Suprisingly, during the campaign, the editorial editors for all the major New Jeresy newspapers had endorsed Corzine's conservative opponent, Doug Forrester. The editorials stressed that while they didn't agree with Forrester's conservative views, he was preferable to Jon Corzine and his lack of honest and integrity. Jersey voters didn't agree. While the American people are being bombarded with news...

Congressman DeLay, according to a recent article in the Washington Times, “said … that Republicans have done so well in cutting spending that he declared an "ongoing victory," and said there is simply no fat left to cut in the federal budget.” Would that this were true. In reality, the Republicans during President Bush’s administration have taken government spending to unprecedented new heights, far beyond the most extravagant fancies of Bill Clinton and his big-spending Democratic cronies.

TRENTON — Oh, to have friends in high places. Take Carla Katz, union president and former gal pal of Sen. Jon Corzine. She used Corzine's money to buy a 10-acre farm in a region now protected by the Highlands Act.

Elected officials have a right to keep their personal lives private. But there's something about New Jersey that seems to impel politicians to mix their love lives with the taxpayers' business. When former Gov. James McGreevey revealed he was gay, it was impossible to support him on that count without pointing out that a public official, no matter what his sexual orientation, does not have a right to appoint the object of his affection to a post as security adviser. Now we have Senator Jon Corzine, who is currently running for governor, and his affair with Carla Katz, the president...

Election: It's the Cat People vs. the Dog Lovers Written by Burt Prelutsky Sunday, August 15, 2004 All the pundits who are forecasting the November election, busily analyzing blue states, red states, and those all-important purple swing states, are spinning their wheels. At the risk of sounding even more presumptuous than usual, I contend that they are wasting their time and yours. If you want to know who's going to emerge victorious, all you really need to do is find out how many people have cats living with them and how many have dogs. The cat people, I have decided,...

MADRID, Spain — The fingerprints of the American attorney arrested as a material witness in the Madrid train bombings were found on a plastic shopping bag that held detonators like the ones used in the deadly March 11 terrorist attacks.

MADRID, Spain (AP) - The fingerprints of the American lawyer arrested in Oregon in the Madrid terror bombing probe were found on a bag containing detonators like those used in the March 11 attack, the Spanish government said Friday. The plastic shopping bag was found inside a stolen van left near the train station from which three of the four bombed trains departed, an Interior Ministry official said on condition of anonymity. Brandon Mayfield, a 37-year-old lawyer and former U.S. Army officer who converted to Islam, was taken into custody Thursday by FBI agents, who also searched his home in...

Law-enforcement officials detain an Oregon man they say may be linked to Europe’s 9/11 FBI agents today detained a Portland, Ore., lawyer after receiving evidence from Spanish authorities that the man’s fingerprints allegedly were found on bomb-related evidence associated with the March 11 railway attack in Madrid that killed 191 people and wounded 2,000 people, Newsweek has learned. The arrest of the lawyer was described by federal law-enforcement authorities as a major investigative breakthrough that for the first time suggests links between an individual inside the United States and the Madrid bombing — the worst act of terrorist violence since...

<p>WASHINGTON  — FBI agents arrested a Portland, Ore., man Thursday as part of the investigation into the deadly train bombings in Spain, federal officials said.</p> <p>Brandon Bieri Mayfield, a U.S. citizen, was taken into custody on a material witness warrant, said a senior law enforcement official, speaking on condition of anonymity. The arrest, first reported in Newsweek, is the first known in the United States with connections to the March 11 bombings in Madrid.</p>

Twenty years ago, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon visited Homesh and outlined the diplomatic, security, and political reasons why the settlement in northern Samaria should remain forever. Sharon stressed the strategic importance of the community atop the hill between the Palestinian cities of Nablus and Jenin, where on a clear day, residents can see from Mount Hermon in the North to Ashdod in the South. "If Homesh didn't exist, someone would have to invent it," said Sharon, who was industry and trade minister at the time. Now, Homesh is one of the four West Bank settlements that Sharon intends to evacuate...

WASHINGTON - Officials are girding for a possible terrorist act on New Year's Eve, replaying fears of Al Qaeda's unsuccessful millennium plot to blow up Los Angeles Airport. "We're still concerned," a senior U.S. law enforcement official said yesterday. The official cautioned that the passing of Christmas without an attack had not diminished heightened fears of terrorism on U.S. soil. But ringing in the new year under a terror threat against large public gatherings is only one of the scenarios that have counter.terrorism agents worried. "There's a lot of little pieces of information that we've been able to obtain, and...

Democrats Repeat Divisive Strategy in Philadelphia by Timothy P. Carney Posted Nov 7, 2003 If all of the United States were like Philadelphia, the Democratic Party would have a strategy for sweeping the 2004 elections. It would involve former President Bill Clinton, 2000 loser Al Gore, race-profiteer Jesse Jackson and actor/pundit/all-purpose political hack James Carville. The tactics would be unfounded charges of racism, naked Bush-bashing and facile demonization of Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft. Using these methods, Democratic Mayor John Street of Philadelphia fought off an insurgent campaign by Republican businessman Sam Katz. While Democrats in Mississippi and Kentucky did everything...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 5 (JTA) — Decisive off-year gubernatorial wins in the South spurred some hopes for the Republican Party, but the hope of nurturing another representative constituency — Jewish Republican politicians — were undermined by decisive defeats of moderate Republican Jews across the country. Republicans have been touting inroads into the Jewish vote, once thought of as solidly Democratic. They have cited increased contributions to the GOP from Jews, and polls last year showing an increase in Jews voting for Republicans in midterm congressional elections, credited in part to President Bush’s pro-Israel record. But there has been little progress among...

Chaotic day marks end of tense campaignBy Clea Benson, Cynthia Burton and Jacqueline SoteropoulosInquirer Staff Writers From the cutting slap a Democratic ward leader dealt to the face of a Penn doctor, to the brawl inside a South Philadelphia polling place, yesterday's mayoral election was one of the most violent and chaotic in recent Philadelphia history.At the end of an edgy and tense campaign, forces for Mayor Street and Sam Katz faced off through the day in bitter and at times painful confrontations. Though more incidents were reported at the polls than during the contest between the two four years...

Vote for Mayor by Ward (97% of the vote) Ward Katz Street Skaggs 1st 3,087 1,775 19 2d 4,010 2,851 63 3d 191 5,963 14 4th 153 6,435 9 5th 5,638 2,961 66 6th 119 3,636 2 7th 600 3,785 5 8th 6,519 3,308 49 9th 2834 2,266 34 10th 274 9,323 15 11th 133 4,535 2 12th 471 6,150 28 13th 312 6,156 6 14th 83 1,827 4 15th 3,496 2,519 35 16th 75 3,853 3 17th 237 8,017 5 18th 2,039 1,954 21 19th 260 3,602 7 20th 60 1,929 2 21st 9,976 3,218 59 22d 987 6,868...

ONCE THE BUG WAS FOUND, IT WAS ALL OVERFORGET IT, Sam. It's Philadelphia. Republicans for mayor are like the Cubbies or the BoSox in the playoffs: Even when it seems they got a chance, they lose.It's the curse. The goat. The Bambino. The bug. All the same. And don't start thinking Katz in '07. It has the sound of a bad rash. On the other hand, don't feel too down. There was not one thing you could do.Oh, I've heard the sniping. About how there's a reason you never won a contested election. About how you think you're too smart...

Turnout will be keyDifference from '99 campaign? Street's lead in pollsBy Thomas FitzgeraldInquirer Staff Writer The race for Philadelphia mayor comes to an end Tuesday, and, despite a winding campaign trail marred by an attempted firebombing, an FBI bug, race-baiting, and profane heckling, know this: Nothing has changed in the way the outcome will be decided.Even after the fury of the last nine months, the strategic Election Day map for both Mayor Street and Republican Sam Katz looks much as it did at the close of their 1999 contest."Look at the returns from last time, and that's the ground on...

Hecklers giving Katz a hassle Some are apparently members of Local 98, but the head of the union says it is not a concerted effort. By Michael Currie Schaffer Inquirer Staff Writer As campaign rallies go, Sam Katz's Monday evening foray into South Philadelphia was about as ugly as they get. After a shouting, sign-waving crowd dominated by supporters of Mayor Street drowned out the candidate's speech, Katz and his wife, Connie, headed for the campaign van. As Street supporters jostled the couple, Cement Masons and Plasterers Union leader Mike Fera lunged and yelled at Connie Katz, "How's it feel...

Goons gone wild a tired election actBy Tom Ferrick Jr.Inquirer Columnist When is someone in this town going to stand up to Johnny Dougherty and tell him to stop his guys from thugging up our elections?Time and again, members of Doc's union - Local 98 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers - have engaged in bully-boy tactics and punch-in-the-mouth politics. It's become their stock in trade.They did it again Monday night in South Philadelphia at a Sam Katz rally at Front Street and Snyder Avenue.When the Republican candidate arrived, he was greeted not only by a handful of supporters,...

With just a week to go in the race for mayor, the latest CBS 3 / Temple University poll gives incumbent Democrat John Street a widening lead. The poll of 511 people was conducted until 9 p.m. Monday. When asked "If the election were held today, who would you vote for?," 37 percent said Republican Sam Katz, while 54 percent said John Street. Nine percent are undecided. That compares to our October 16th poll, which showed 41 percent for Katz, 48 percent for Street and 11 percent undecided. When asked "Has the bugging incident influenced your vote?," 17 percent said...

If mayoral elections decided winners by which candidate had the highest score in training, knowledge and aptitude, perennial candidate Sam Katz would have long ago gained the office he most covets in the world: mayor of Philadelphia. Republican Katz, who even designed his own urban-studies major at Johns Hopkins University before going on to earn a master’s degree in urban affairs and policy analysis from New School University, says he has been preparing for the job all his life. “It’s the only job I ever wanted,” he said. On Nov. 4, after the polls close, Katz will know if he...

FBI Raids 3 City Agencies, Street Fund-raiser's Office By Anthony S. Twyman, Nathan Gorenstein and Emilie LounsberryInquirer Staff Writers       Ratcheting up the federal investigation that has engulfed the mayoral election, FBI agents crisscrossed Center City yesterday to search three city agencies and the office of a lawyer who is a top political ally of Mayor Street's and has earned millions from municipal legal work.   The extraordinary raids targeted the city Finance Department, the city treasurer's office, and the city Board of Pensions and Retirement, as well as the law office of Ronald A. White, a major...

PHILADELPHIA -- In the latest in the federal investigation into Mayor John Street, a newspaper is reporting that the bug planted in the mayor's office was only in place two weeks before it was discovered, and a federal judge has refused to unseal warrants related to the Federal Bureau of Investigation probe. Citing unidentified sources familiar with the investigation, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that the judge who approved the bugging only allowed FBI agents to listen to conversations from a short list of visitors, and that the devices had been installed with just weeks to go in Street's tight re-election...

Judge limited FBI's eavesdroppingBy Mark Fazlollah, Rose Ciotta and Emilie LounsberryInquirer Staff Writers The bugging lasted only two weeks.The device used to eavesdrop on conversations in Mayor Street's City Hall office was secretly planted about two weeks before Philadelphia police discovered it in the ceiling, people familiar with the investigation said yesterday.The bugging was limited in another important way: FBI agents were not permitted to listen in on all of the dozens of people who met with the mayor, but only to conversations involving a short list of visitors, the sources said yesterday.The judge who approved the bugging signed off...

FBI Steps Up ProbeBy Emilie Lounsberry, Mark Fazlollah and Clea BensonInquirer Staff Writers A wide-ranging federal investigation of alleged corruption in City Hall broke into the open yesterday, as FBI agents seized records from people with political ties to Mayor Street.In several searches across the city, federal agents rushed to preserve possible evidence the day after Philadelphia police found a listening device that the FBI had planted in the ceiling of Street's City Hall office.Yesterday morning, agents raided a small financial firm run by two Street supporters, including one of Philadelphia's most prominent Muslim leaders. Under Street's administration, the firm...

Posted on Wed, Oct. 08, 2003 Mayor Street's office buggedBy Thomas J. Gibbons Jr., Leonard N. Fleming and Craig R. McCoyInquirer Staff Writers A sophisticated electronic listening device with multiple microphones was found yesterday morning hidden in the ceiling of Mayor Street's City Hall office.Within hours, the FBI said that the eavesdropping device was not related to the mayor's race, but declined to explain how it knew that so quickly.Pressed whether federal investigators themselves might have planted the bug, FBI spokeswoman Linda Vizi said the agency "would not confirm or deny" whether that was the case.Street emerged from his...

An inch-thick stack of allegedly stolen cell-phone records has touched off another firestorm in an increasingly ugly Philadelphia mayoral campaign. Each side is crying foul and lawyers are threatening to sue anyone divulging the contents of those records. Federal Postal Inspectors are being asked to investigate the possible theft of U.S. mail in this case — which would constitute a felony. The records are for the private cell phone of Michael Williams, better known as Michael Youngblood — former City Council aide, convict and confidant of mayoral hopeful Sam Katz. A cover sheet attached to the records attempts to draw...

"Mayor John Street lost his cool at a union meeting last weekend, shouting at a roomful of blue-collar municipal workers whose endorsement he is trying to win that he would "win this election without you if I have to!"" "The trouble began after Street noted that he had privatized "zero" jobs as mayor, drawing derisive laughter and boos. "I'm telling my story here, you hear? I'm telling my story whether or not people are respectful or not," said Street, who launched into an angry tirade. "You supported Rendell. You did everything you could to get him elected governor (in 2002),...

"With exactly six weeks to go until Election Day, a new KYW Newsradio/ Temple University poll says Republican challenger Sam Katz is holding a six-point lead over Mayor John Street. Low job approval ratings are affecting Mayor Street's bid for re-election. The poll shows that 47 percent of likely voters disapprove of Mayor Street's performance in office. That, and Sam Katz's support among Democrats, has led to an early lead for the Republican challenger. The survey of 427 likely voters gives Katz 46 percent of the vote, Street 40 percent, 1 percent for other candidates, and 13 percent undecided. The...

Mayoral candidates take gloves off earlyBy Thomas FitzgeraldInquirer Staff Writer Sam Katz unveiled a sober proposal to crack down on "pinstripe patronage" yesterday - but a few words at the end of his press conference ignited the kind of rhetorical warfare not usually seen until just before an election.Mayor Street's campaign is "out of control," Katz said, responding to questions about tactics. "They're engaged in character assassination. I'd urge the campaign to get out of the gutter."For good measure, Katz said it was not surprising that Street's campaign press secretary had come under fire for attack letters his wife wrote...

Portland [Oregon] mayor Vera Katz has suddenly embraced the basics of "capitalism" if one can believe her recent speech on economic development....a subject seldom addressed in the past by Katz and Council. Now Vera, instead of her usual advocacy of spending government dollars on such boondoggles as light rail, street cars and the PGE Park, has told a gathering of Portland business leaders that her administration wants to create a joint public/private fund to attract out-of-state companies and do a "better job of marketing our city." Well, "hello" to our dear mayor, who in the past presided over the move...

Announcing,"Operation Enduring Support": Oct. 6 - USS Hornet By the ChronWatch Editor, Jim Sparkman Friday, September 20, 2002 We recently received this notice by e-mail, which we are going to put on the ChronWatch calendar. However, the event deserves our full attention, so we are also displaying it as a special item here on ChronWatch. Simon Supporters: Dave Katz, newly elected to the SF Republican Central Committee, is co-organizer for an event we should all try to attend. "Operation Enduring Support" on October 6 between 12 and 5 p.m. will take place on the deck of the USS Hornet. The...