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Muslim cleric Mohd Qayyoom Muslim cleric Mohd Qayyoom of the Jackson Heights area of Queens, NY is calling for the birth date of Islam's founder to be declared a National Holiday. The Times-Ledger of Queens, NY has quoted the leader of the Muhammadi Community Center as stating: "We’ll give the message of peace, we’ll give the message of interfaith harmony." Qayyom went on to say: "We want one day, an annual holiday like Christmas." The imam has spoken out against terrorism and radicalism, much to the disconcertion of many of his fellow Muslims.

An estimated 5000 demonstrators have formed a five-kilometer line in downtown New York to protest unemployment in the United States, an event aimed at drawing notice during the Super Tuesday primaries. The marchers carried pink slips, the traditional symbol of job layoffs, as they formed a procession from Wall Street to Union Square along Broadway, a distance of some five kilometers, in a 14-minute protest. 'We are forming a single line to represent the 14 million unemployed in America. It's a representation of an unemployment line, the longest unemployment line in the world,' said Yana Landowne, one of the organizers....

Leave it to Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to one-up Rush Limbaugh in the name-calling department. "Speaking of prostitutes, big oil's top call girl Sen Inhofe wants to kill fuel economy backed by automakers, small biz, enviros, & consumers," the New York-based environmentalist wrote Tuesday on Twitter. Kennedy was targeting Inhofe for a letter the Oklahoma Republican sent last week to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson that questions the Obama administration's fuel economy and air pollution policies. Inhofe spokesman Matt Dempsey said Kennedy's tweet crosses the line, especially in the wake of Limbaugh’s apology to a Georgetown University student after calling her...

A group of Muslim Americans gathered outside NYPD headquarters this morning to support the Police Department's surveillance of Muslims. Led by Dr. Zuhdi Jasser of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy, the ralliers spoke out in favor of the NYPD’s counterterrorism efforts....Jasser said the statistics speak for themselves. “If you look at arrests for terrorism, of the last 200 arrests, 80 percent have been from Muslims,” Jasser said. “So, it’s rather denial not to recognize that we have a responsibility to root out the radicalization.”

MASSENA — Walking into the woods Saturday behind the Massena Rod and Gun Club, 155 Patterson Road, was like stepping 200 years into the past. Nearly a dozen competitors braved the elements for the first St. Lawrence Valley Primitive Snowshoe Biathlon. One by one, the racers donned their wooden snowshoes, packed their long guns with black powder and trekked through the snowy woods, stopping only to take aim at several targets scattered throughout the mile-long course. It was not only a race against the clock, but also a jump back into a world before automatic rifles and snowmobiles. Contestants as...

The New York State Senate has passed a law making the sale of caffeinated alcoholic beverages a felony.

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Staten Island's female elected officials from both sides of the aisle are demanding that conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh "apologize to all women" for calling a Georgetown University Law student a "slut" on his program. Limbaugh caused a national firestorm when he used the word after Sandra Fluke testified before Congress about the need for contraceptive coverage. "What does it say about the college coed ... who goes before a congressional committee and essentially says that she must be paid to have sex?" Limbaugh said on Wednesday. "It makes her a slut, right? It...

It's not just the folks at the Empire State Building who are snubbing Cardinal Dolan — a group of Irish-American state legislators in Albany have dissed him, too. A push to make Dolan the guest of honor at the March 12 annual dinner for the New York State American-Irish Legislators Society was squashed amid internal controversy, multiple sources said. “Dolan was the first one mentioned to honor, given his recent ascension to cardinal, and originally it looked like it was leaning that way,” said one supporter of the idea. “It was a no-brainer.” But some Assembly Democratic members are said...

The Legislature is expected at last to vote on redistricting next week — although not on a plan for new congressional seats. Its foot-dragging is undoing all of the goodwill gained from its cooperation with Gov. Cuomo last year. The congressional plan, which was due last week, is about to wind up in the hands of a court-appointed special master. The state Senate and Assembly punted this core legislative responsibility to the judiciary. As a high-school football coach recently put it on HBO’s Real Sports, “Punting is a sign of offensive failure.” The Legislature’s failure is offensive: Lawmakers surrendered to...

SARATOGA SPRINGS — A local resident under threat of arrest if he steps on public housing property will be able to do so after all — to attend a public meeting. A trespass notice had been issued against John Tighe based on a complaint made by Saratoga Springs Housing Authority Executive Director Ed Spychalski, who has been the target of criticism in Tighe’s blog. The banishment also made a controversial January meeting of the authority off-limits. But it turns out such a notice won’t lead to the arrest of someone who is merely attending a public meeting on the property....

Mayor Bloomberg blasted Virginia’s repeal of a 20-year-old law restricting handgun buyers to one pistol a month, saying Wednesday that it’s “only going to make matters worse” in New York. Bloomberg, one of the country’s top advocates for tough gun laws, said dismantling the law will enhance Virginia’s reputation as the gun-running capital of the East Coast. “Virginia is the No. 1 out-of-state source of crime guns in New York, and one of the top suppliers of crime guns nationally,” Bloomberg said. Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell signed the law repealing the gun limit on Tuesday, a day after the nation’s...

The rocky, rickety boat that is the New York times has long been in peril of sinking. Now the Times staffers have sent a letter to publisher Arthur Sulzberger expressing "profound dismay" at the direction the company is headed. Huffington Post: The letter calls attention to several grievances. Last week, Times brass notified foreign citizens employed in the paper's overseas bureaus that their pensions would be frozen. In the letter, Times staffers dismayed by this decision point out to Sulzberger that some of these foreign employees, working alongside Times reporters in war zones, have "risked their lives so that we...

The Fordham Urban Law Journal will host its Volume XXXIX Symposium, titled "Gun Control and the Second Amendment: Developments and Controversies in the Wake of District of Columbia v. Heller and McDonald v. Chicago," on Friday, March 9 at Fordham Law School in New York City. The event will be divided into the following panels: · The Effect of the Supreme Court's Gun Control Restrictions on Crime Rates · The Scope of the Right to Keep and Bear Arms Post-Heller and McDonald · Urban Exceptionalism and Modern Conceptions of the Militia Fordham Dean Michael M. Martin will deliver opening remarks....

Each state must redraw its political maps to reflect the 2010 census, and New York is among the last to comply. The delay makes it harder for challengers to start campaigns. The state’s Congressional primary will be on June 26; its legislative primary will be on Sept. 11. SO FAR Legislative districts have been proposed by lawmakers, but not approved, and have been criticized as gerrymandered to protect incumbents. No Congressional districts have been proposed. THE LATEST A group of elected officials seeking the creation of a Latino Congressional district centered in Upper Manhattan marched from the Inwood neighborhood to...

Gun owners, possessing firearms for hunting and self-protection, are beset each year with a volley of laws, rules, regulations, ordinances, and judicial decrees that affect their hunting privileges and rights under the Second Amendment. Judges in each county of the state have the discretion to grant pistol permits on the basis of what they deem permissible in their county. New York State allows only carrying a pistol/ handgun that is concealed. Hence, when a person applies for a pistol permit, he or she is offered two basic options: restricted (to hunting or target shooting) or unrestricted (carried concealed on one’s...

Sen. Schumer tells Clinton to pressure Saudi Arabia to pump more oilBy Ben Geman - 02/26/12 11:59 AM ET Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) wants Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to press Saudi Arabia, OPEC’s dominant oil producer, to boost output as rising prices are hitting consumers at the gasoline pump. A letter to Clinton on Sunday from Schumer, a top political strategist for Senate Democrats, comes as Democrats are trying to blunt constant GOP attacks over soaring gasoline prices. “These skyrocketing fuel prices are directly linked to the global energy market, particularly Iran’s recent efforts to manipulate oil prices...

Not long after winning a big upset in September in a special election for Congress, Bob Turner flew hundreds of miles away from his New York City district to a federal prison in North Carolina. There, Mr. Turner walked past the guards, through the metal detectors and gates and into a visiting room, where he met Prisoner No. 09185-016 — also known as Jonathan Pollard. To many Americans, Mr. Pollard is a dreadful character, having pleaded guilty in 1986 to spying on behalf of the Israeli government. But back in Mr. Turner’s heavily Jewish district, his life sentence has become...

A New York State judge ruled on Friday that Middlefield, in Otsego County, can ban natural gas drilling within its borders. It was the second court ruling this week that affirmed local authority over the process known as hydrofracking. Middlefield, with about 2,100 residents, passed a zoning law last June prohibiting heavy industry uses of land, including oil and gas drilling. Three months later, a landowner who had leased 377 acres of land to a gas company for drilling sued the town, arguing that only the state could regulate natural gas drilling. The landowner, Jennifer K. Huntington, a dairy farmer...

... When the bell rings and the school’s 3,295 students spill out of classrooms into the maze of hallways, escalators and stairs like ants in a farm, blacks stand out because they are so rare. Rudi was one of 64 black students four years ago when she entered Stuyvesant, long considered New York City’s flagship public school. She is now one of 40. Asians, on the other hand, make up 72.5 percent of Stuyvesant’s student body (they are 13.7 percent of the city’s overall public school population), a staggering increase from 1970, when they were 6 percent of Stuyvesant students,...

LANCASTER, NY - Representative Kathy Hochul (D - 26th District) was booed at her own town hall meeting on Friday morning in Lancaster. The packed crowd was critical of Hochul for supporting President Obama's plan to require religiously affiliated employers, such as hospitals and schools, to provide full contraception coverage to female employees. The plan was later altered. It now calls for those workers to get free contraceptive coverage from health insurers, thus sparing religious based groups, morally opposed to paying for birth control, from having to do so. Even though Hochul's town hall meeting was open to any topic,...