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To the Bukharian Jews of Central Asia, a big house is an essential tradition: a place to shelter multiple generations, to hold large parties, memorials and holiday dinners, to reaffirm a community’s unity. So wherever they have put down roots, Bukharians — or, as they are sometimes called, Bukharans — have built aggressively, including in central Queens, where tens of thousands have settled since the early 1990s and the collapse of the Soviet Union. Nowhere has their love of big homes been on more opulent display than in a section of Forest Hills known as Cord Meyer, an upper middle...

WASHINGTON, April 23, 2008 – In celebration of Military Appreciation Month, more than 100 festival queens will gather in Opelousas, La., on May 10 for “Operation Rhinestone.” The ladies, ages 7 to 23, will record messages of support for a DVD the Thank You Foundation will send to troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan throughout May. In addition to their verbal messages, each festival queen will write a note of support to be included with the discs. “We are very excited to be a part of this project,” said John Guinn, president and founder of The Thank You Foundation....

On any given day, log on to RevolutionMuslim.com and a host of startling images appear: — The Statue of Liberty, with an ax blade cutting through her side; — Video mocking the beheading of American journalist Daniel Pearl, entitled "Daniel Pearl I am Happy Your Dead :) "; — Video of a puppet show lampooning U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq; — The latest speech from Sheikh Abdullah Faisal, an extremist Muslim cleric convicted in the UK and later deported for soliciting the murder of non-Muslims. Even more surprising is that RevolutionMuslim.com isn't being maintained in some remote safe house in...

A Queens livery driver who had become something of a hero, after he took to a firehouse a baby girl that he said had been abandoned in his cab, was arrested on Saturday after his story unraveled, the police said. A man and a woman were also arrested.

A man has been charged with a hate crime for attacking a Sikh worshipper near a Gurudwara in Queens area in New York. David Wood, 36, allegedly approached Baljeet Singh, 63, on January14, screaming: "Arab, go back to your country", and beat him up as Singh parked his car outside the gurdwara. Wood, who lives near the gurdwara, was charged with second-degree assault as a hate crime, second and third degree assault and second-degree aggravated harassment. He is being held on a $10,000 bail and will return to court Jan 30. He faces up to 15 years in prison if...

Shi'ite Muslims at the al-Khoei Islamic Center in Queens prepare to flagellate themselves during a procession marking the festival of Ashura. View the pics here.

(Edit) James Kelley, 22, was in the Richmond Hill pizza parlor where his mother works about 3:30 p.m. when he heard screaming. "I ran outside and saw two girls screaming from the second floor" of a neighboring building, Kelley said. "All I could think was, 'I need to help.' I was just thinking, 'Save those kids.'" Unable to break through a wall of fire and smoke on the second floor, he rushed to an adjacent laundermat and grabbed a fire extinguisher. After discharging it, he ran outside for another, but by then Police Officer Joe Amato had arrived, Kelley...

ANN ARBOR, MI — Persistence paid off for Frances Burke, a senior resident of Bayside, New York. For many years, the Bayside Hills Civic Association refused Burke’s request to include a nativity display in its annual holiday celebration which included a menorah and tree lighting ceremony at the public park. This year, however, Burke teamed up with the Thomas More Law Center, a national Christian public interest law firm based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, which seeks to restore public acknowledgment of the religious significance of Christmas. As a result, for the first time in its history, the Bayside Hills...

NEW YORK -- One person carrying a rifle in a bag was arrested on the St. John's Queens campus Wednesday afternoon, police said. The man appeared to be wearing a President Bush mask, according to preliminary information from law enforcement officials. Authorities asked students and faculty across the campus to stay indoors. There was a large police presence on the campus. Areas near the site of the man's apprehension have been locked down. Police said they were possibly looking for more suspects. The St. John's University Web site issued this advisory: "A male with a rifle in a bag was...

Twice this week I checked out the abortion mills on Roosevelt Avenue. On the whole, the community seems to be repelled by their terrible activity.

Volunteers are need for Jackson Heights, Queens, and Flushing for prayer vigils in front of abortion mills for a 40 day vigil beginning on September 26, 2007.

"In my life I've made some mistakes and I've done some things I'm not proud of but I always tried my best to represent my community and hope to continue to do so," he told the News. "Obviously this is a difficult time for me and my family," he added. "But my family believes in my and know I would not do what I am accused of doing." His accuser sounded relieved when a reporter told her about the grand jury's decision but said prosecutors asked not to comment on the case anymore. On Wednesday she said Gallagher's story was...

He did eight years in prison for torching a Catholic church in Queens, but it didn't take long for Calvin Bostick to return to the scene of his crime. Eleven days after he was set free, Bostick returned to St. Anthony of Padua Church in South Ozone Park, sought out the pastor and allegedly beat him with a cane. "I'm just in shock. I still remember Feb. 15, 1999, when the fire happened. I just don't understand why this man would come back," said parishioner Maria Biordi-Walsh. "He must not like St. Anthony." Bostick, 48, a career felon, confronted the...

A Scimitar Combat Vehicle Reconnaissance (Tracked) (CVR(T)) of the Queen's Royal Lancers (QRL) on patrol in Maysaan Province BASRA -- Iraq’s border with Iran is a safer place, thanks to the Queen’s Royal Lancers. The Battlegroup began operating recently in Maysaan province, southern Iraq. The Lancers deployed as part of 19 Light Brigade, which took over as the main British Army force in the Multi-National Division in south-eastern Iraq. The QRL are equipped with Scimitar armored reconnaissance vehicles and ‘WMIK’ landrovers which are ideally suited to the mostly flat terrain, with large areas of marshland. The Battlegroup mounts regular patrols...

Protesters taunt NYPD as victim buriedVERENA DOBNIK, Associated Press WriterNEW YORK - The man gunned down in a spray of 50 police bullets on his wedding day was buried Saturday as hundreds of angry demonstrators honored him with a moment of silence before going jaw-to-jaw with police in a bitter confrontation outside a Queens precinct house. The demonstrators taunted police, standing just inches away from a row of officers and daring the police to lay a hand on them. Some in the crowd held signs reading "Death to the pigs" and "Shoot back." "Fifty shots from the New York cops!"...

Queens County Conservative Party For Immediate Press Release The next meeting of Queens County Conservatives is Thursday, November 16, 2006, at the American Legion Continental Post #1424, located at 107-15 Metropolitan Avenue, Forest Hills, New York at 8:00 P.M. Our featured speaker is Curtis Sliwa, well known radio talk show host and founder of the crime fighting group the "Guardian Angels". Also on the agenda will be a discussion of Election Day results, including how to continue spreading our message of pro-family and pro-American values. For more information, please contact Queens County Chairman, Tom Long at (718) 921-2158. **END**

Fiend on gun runs in Queens Man busted after fires at cars, hurts 7 - cops BY VERONIKA BELENKAYA, ALISON GENDAR and LEO STANDORA DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS "...Investigators said the drive-by maniac shot away from behind the wheel of a green, four-door Cadillac with a navigational device on the dashboard. "It's early, but it looks like some nut in a green car shooting at guys in red cars," a police source said. "It makes absolutely no sense."... "A 9-mm. shell casing was found at one scene but it was not clear if that was the only gun used."... Chronology...

ICE & FBI agents arrest 31Korean nationals throughout the Northeastern United States in federal human trafficking case Korean women were smuggled to U.S. work as prostitutes in brothels NEW YORK, NY -- Michael J. Garcia, United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Roslynn R. Mauskopf, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, Julie L. Myers, Assistant Secretary, United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and Mark J. Mehrson, Assistant Director-in-Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, New York Field Office, today announced that 31 individuals were arrested yesterday and charged in a wide-ranging human trafficking ring...

July 29, 2006 -- Last week's power outage in Queens was a "classic case of blunder after blunder" that smacked of either incompetence or negligence, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton said yesterday as Con Ed warned the coming heat wave could cause problems. Some Con Ed customers hit by last week's outage could lose power for around 20 minutes this weekend as crews transfer them from temporary generators back to the regular electric grid, the utility said. Also, Con Ed issued a statement yesterday asking people in northwest Queens "to limit their energy usage as much as possible while crews reinforce...

Push to declare Queens blackout a disaster Almost a full week of no power (Astoria-WABC, July 23, 2006) - A group of Queens political leaders urged Gov. George Pataki on Sunday to designate a section of the borough suffering from a massive power outage a disaster area, making it eligible for federal aid. "Anywhere else it would be," said Rep. Joe Crowley, D-N.Y., at a news conference in Sunnyside. "If this were an area of 100,000 people in upstate New York, the governor would have declared it a disaster area." A spokeswoman for Pataki, Joanna Rose, said the governor has...

8,000 Applicants For 350 Jobs At N.J. Wal-Mart BY DAVID LOMBINO - Staff Reporter of the Sun June 13, 2006 URL: http://www.nysun.com/article/34316 Wal-Mart tomorrow will open its newest store just more than seven miles from Manhattan, in Kearny, N.J., part of its strategy to ring the city with stores in order to hasten their arrival here. The store received more than 8,000 applications for 350 jobs, a Wal-Mart executive said. Although Wal-Mart is the nation's largest retailer, boasting more than 4,000 stores nationwide, it has no outlets in the five boroughs, and in the last 16 months, two attempts at...

June 9, 2006 -- The Queens chapter of an international jihadist group - founded by the Brooklyn College grad accused of being an al Qaeda sympathizer - is terrorizing people in the extremist's old stomping grounds, residents said yesterday. "They have a lot of hatred [but] the police said they can't do anything about them," Kana Chauhan, president of the Jackson Heights Merchants Association, said of the radical group Al Muhajiroun. The organization is tied to suspected terrorist ally Syed "Fahad" Hashmi, a disciple of Syrian cleric Omar Bakri who was banned from speaking on English college campuses. The Queens-bred...

The US trade deficit unexpectedly narrowed in March for a second month as exports climbed to a record and the value of petroleum imports declined. The shortfall in goods and services trade shrank to $62bn, the smallest since August, the Commerce Department said in Washington. The price of goods imported to the US in April jumped by the most in seven months, the Labor Department said in a separate report. Stronger European and Asian economies, along with a decline in the dollar, may spark greater demand for US exports in coming months, economists said. The smaller deficit prompted economists to...

Wal-Mart appears to have backed out of a plan to move into a vacant retail space in Queens, a location that likely would have bypassed City Council review of a new store. It's the second location that America's largest retailer has been known to have eyed in Queens, and the second time in 14 months that Wal-Mart has backed down. The Arkansas-based chain has no store in New York City. Shoppers who want to patronize Wal-Mart have to go to New Jersey or Long Island, which reap the sales tax revenues. Labor unions and some politicians in New York have...

ALBANY - Abusive state Sen. Ada Smith - who faces criminal charges for allegedly throwing hot coffee in an aide's face - was booted off a United Express flight last month after an angry confrontation with a flight attendant, The Post has learned. Smith, a Queens Democrat who pleaded guilty two years ago to running a State Police security checkpoint and who has been accused of biting a cop and assaulting another aide with a butcher knife, was kicked off Flight 7990 from Albany to Washington/Dulles International Airport on March 11, after refusing to remove a carry-on bag from her...

The Flushing YMCA said four people were killed in an accident on the New York State Thruway at 7 a.m. en route to a swimming meet in Buffalo, N.Y. The victims included a 47-year-old woman, her two sons and a 14-year-old girl, who died when a tanker truck slammed into their minivan, New York 1 reported. Two other passengers in the vehicle were removed from the battered minivan and taken to a local area hospital, New York 1 reported. In addition, the driver of the tanker truck was taken to the hospital, according to New York 1. Neither the Flushing...

My fellow Freepers: I need your help! As many of you already know, I ran for Congress in New York’s 12th CD in 2004. As part of the experience, I became one of the principal subjects of a documentary being filmed on the Republican National Convention being held in the city that year. As a result, I had a camera follow me around during my campaigning in Brooklyn, Queens and Manhattan, to the convention at Madison Square Garden, to various meetings and events of our NY Young Republican Club, to my uncle’s house in Staten Island, and even to my...

Congratulations to juliej for organizing this and starting the thread. Actually, there has been a group going to this parade since 2000, when Hillary, Nadler, and every MSM camera in town were there. The politicians on parade today were Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, City Council President Quinn, Congressman Anthony Weiner, Queens Councilman John Liu, Eric Gioia, and John Tasini. There may have been others that we didn't spot.Freepers in attendance: firebrand, juliej, and Raquel. Also, nonfreepers Tom, Jesse, Ann G., Lifeboat Louie (the valiant savior of the unborn, among the many who served jail time for their rescue efforts),...

Please help us protest the ILGO all inclusive St. Pat's Day parade in Woodside, Queens on March 5, 2006 at 12:30 p.m. the no. 7 train to 46th Street in Queens. We will probably meet at 45th and Skillman Avenue. this "all inclusive" parade is an exercise in Christian bashing and bashing Pres. Bush. Signs at prior parades have read Free Mumia, Free Palestine, U.S. out of Iraq. Craven politicians who don't attend the Fifth Avenue parade show up at this one. This is nothing "inclusive" about this parade.

RUSH: I'm going to mention this again today. It's from Slate.com. It's by Daniel Gross, and it's just... Well, it speaks for itself. It may also explain why journalists are so mean and nasty and jealous and vengeful is because they have no money. (clearing throat) Daniel Gross, Slate.com, Tuesday December 20th, actually, this ran. "The New York real-estate boom is claiming a different kind of casualty, according to an article in Sunday's New York Times. Keying off a new report issued by the Center for an Urban Future, Jennifer Steinhauer noted that, thanks to high housing prices, many...

An undercover informant helped investigators tape a conversation with one of the seven...radical environmentalists accused in a series of arson attacks and other crimes... Existence of the informant was disclosed last week by an investigator in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn, N.Y., during a bail hearing for Daniel McGowan, 31, who faces indictments that he and another man firebombed the office of a wood products mill in Glendale and the office and truck shop of a tree farm in Clatskanie in 2001. The Earth Liberation Front, an underground group that advocates economic sabotage to stop environmental destruction, took credit for...

Twenty-one people allegedly supplied fake government documents to individuals throughout the United States while operating along a busy street in Queens described by the prosecutor as the East Coast ``epicenter'' of fraudulent documents. District Attorney Richard Brown said Wednesday that the suspects had been indicted on charges they operated a $1 million-a-year criminal enterprise that included production of phony Social Security cards, driver's licenses and resident alien cards. Four of the suspects remained at large; the others have been arraigned in the past few days and are being held without bail. ``What this shows is the vulnerability we have to...

CAMP BLUE DIAMOND, RAMADI, Iraq (Nov. 18, 2005) -- Sergeant Mohamed S. Salim moved from Guyana to Queens, NY when he was 15 years-old to make a better life for himself and to join the rest of his family. At 27, Salim is again trying to make a better life, only it’s for someone else. Salim is a platoon sergeant with the camp’s guard force. Since his arrival in late August, Salim has conducted nearly 100 patrols through the streets of Ar Ramadi that surround the camp here. “Most of the people I’ve met here are pretty good people,” Salim...

Someone needs to teach people at DU what a "metaphor" is. Or maybe we should just nuke them. ::snicker:: The funniest thing is how these people keep lamenting about how much smarter they are than everyone else.

Three masked men robbed a Catholic priest at gunpoint Wednesday night in the rectory of a Cambria Heights church, police and the priest said Thursday. The robbery occurred shortly after 9 p.m. when three young men -- wearing dark do-rags, hoodies and leather gloves -- rang the bell of the rectory of Sacred Heart of Jesus Roman Catholic Church on 222nd Street, police said. Receptionist Myrtelle Ernest, 17, who was waiting for her mother to pick her up, opened the door slightly and the gunmen forced their way in, police and the priest said. The robbers, who police described as...

Long Island attorney has been charged with being an oline sexual predator. Nassau District Attorney Denis Dillon says 46-year-old Thomas Sheehan of East Setauket is accused of having explicit sexual conversations with a person he believed to be a 14-year-old girl. Dillon says Sheehan is an attorney with an office in Jackson Heights, Queens. DA Dillon says Sheehan visited a chatroom where he began a conversation with an udnercover officer posing as a teen-age girl. Sheehan allegedly talked about meeting the girl for sexual activity. Dillon says at the same time Nassau officers were zeroing in Sheehan -- New York...

 ANTONIN SCALIA, US SUPREME COURT JUSTICE, NAMED GRAND MARSHAL OF NEW YORK’S COLUMBUS DAY PARADEJustice Celebrated In Pageant of Italian-American AchievementNew York, NY, September 23, 2005 - Antonin Scalia, Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court, will be Grand Marshal of Manhattan’s 2005 Columbus Day Parade, Lawrence Auriana, president of the Columbus Citizens Foundation, announced today. The parade, which is produced by the non-profit Foundation, is the largest Columbus Day event in the world and will be held on New York’s Fifth Avenue on October 10, 2005.  "We are honored that Justice Scalia has accepted our invitation to be...

FORT BRAGG, N.C. A New York soldier based at Fort Bragg died last week in Iraq. The Department of Defense says 45-year-old Staff Sergeant Regilio Nelom of Queens, died Saturday near Asad, Iraq, when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle during an escort mission. Nelom was assigned to the 249th Quartermaster Compay, First Corps Support Command, at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.

HADITHA DAM, Iraq (Sept. 19, 2005) -- With all of the military vehicle convoys traveling over Iraq’s roads, carrying troops and equipment, the drivers and mechanics aren’t the only ones keeping the motor transportation operation going – someone has to keep their fuel tanks full. Lance Cpl. Milton A. Gamez knows his job as a bulk fuel specialist with 7th Engineer Support Battalion attached to 3rd Battalion, 25th Marine Regiment, is essential to completing the ongoing mission in Iraq. And it’s not as simple as one might think. He maintains up to 40,000 gallons of fuel at the fuel farm,...

MARINE CORPS BASE CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C.-- (Aug 19, 2005) -- The United States Marine Corps prides itself in tradition and uniformity despite the passage of time. While individual Marines share many similar traits, each also has a different background that proves to be a benefit to the unit. Lance Cpl. Darruse J. Stan, a native of Queens, N.Y., and originally from Poland, came to the United States when he was 16 years old to be with his mother. “My mother was here. She’s a citizen,” said Stan, who shares dual American and Polish citizenship, “I’m here by choice. It’s a...

NEW YORK (August 4, 2005) -- The Queens Community Veterans Affairs Clinic was renamed after a Medal of Honor recipient of the Vietnam War, Lance Cpl. Thomas P. Noonan, recently. The legislation of approval for the renaming of the clinic to the Medal of Honor recipient came after a group of former and active duty Marines from Noonan’s hometown of Queens sent a request to the Veterans Administration. According to former Marine Cpl. Jack O’Connor, the group of Marines, totaling near 150, meet annually on the Marine Corps’ birthday to celebrate the Marine Corps traditions. These Marines, who mostly hail...

Cops are shot at church 2 officers catch Qns. madman defacing statue of Virgin Mary and her mother BY NANCY DILLON, ALISON GENDAR and DAVE GOLDINER DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS A shotgun and sword-wielding madman wounded two cops at close range yesterday after they caught him blasting the head off a century-old statue of St. Anne and the Virgin Mary outside a Queens church. One officer was hit in the head and the other in the leg by shrapnel from police hater Kevin Davy's shotgun. But at least one of the cops managed to return fire and end the 2...

One of the bombers in last week's attacks made a direct phone call to a suspected recruiter for an extremist group in New York. Authorities told ABC News that records show Mohammed Sidique Khan, the eldest of the bombers now believed to be the field commander of the attacks, had called a person who is associated with the Islamic Center, a mosque in Queens, N.Y. Yet, a member of that mosque claimed they had no knowledge of the phone call.

July 15, 2005 — One of the bombers in last week's attacks made a direct phone call to a suspected recruiter for an extremist group in New York. Authorities told ABC News that records show Mohammed Sidique Khan, the eldest of the bombers now believed to be the field commander of the attacks, had called a person who is associated with the Islamic Center, a mosque in Queens, N.Y. Yet, a member of that mosque claimed they had no knowledge of the phone call.

Afghans at Queens Mosque Are Divided Over bin Laden September 19, 2001 By DEXTER FILKINS At New York City's largest Afghan mosque, supporters of the Taliban have chosen to pray in the basement or outside in the parking lot. They have not returned to the mosque for daily prayers since last Friday, when their imam denounced the attacks on the World Trade Center. "When I speak against the Taliban and Osama, they harass me; so many times they harass me," Imam Mohammed Sherzad, the leader of Hazrat-I-Abubakr Sadiq mosque, said at his office in Flushing, Queens. "They say: "Why do...

NEW YORK (AP) - Three black men who ventured into a historically white neighborhood early Wednesday to steal a car were chased by a man with a baseball bat, police said. One man was beaten and suffered a fractured skull. The attack happened several hours before dawn in the same section of the borough of Queens as an infamous 1986 beating of three black men whose car had broken down. In Wednesday's attack, Nicholas Minucci, 21, was being charged with first-degree assault as a hate crime, menacing and criminal possession of a weapon, police Commissioner Ray Kelly said at a...

The young Muslim men, with beards and bullhorns, work the streets of Jackson Heights on the weekends. They surface at parades and protests around the city, loudly declaring America the enemy and advocating for an Islamic state. Several weeks ago, they publicly tore up an American flag as payback for the reported desecration of the Koran at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. Their own videos of violence against Muslims, one with the title "Muslim Massacres," have recently appeared on Queens Public Television.

A state senator from Queens jolted state Republican Party leaders this week by trying to block gay Republicans from obtaining greater power within the state party organization. The move occurred as the party was preparing political strategies for the 2006 election. The move against the gay Republicans was rebuffed by other party members, led by the state chairman, Stephen J. Minarik, and the Manhattan chairman, James Ortenzio, who both argued that the party should have a "big tent" image heading into 2006. Excluding gay Republicans could also have embarrassed party leaders who support gay rights, like Gov. George E. Pataki...

Queen’s remains are still elusive Devika Sequeira in Panaji The Archaeological Survey of India’s 20-year search for the relics of Queen Ketevan in Old Goa has ended in disappointment. But the excavations offer an intriguing and significant insight into 16th century Goa. Setting to rest a debate that has engaged historians and archaeologists for over 20 years, the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) announced earlier this week that though it had managed to locate the “burial site” of Queen Ketevan of Georgia amidst the ruins of the St Augustine complex in Old Goa, the queen's remains were not at the...

A 42-year-old police officer arrested on charges he raped his teenage daughter has been released without bail, prosecutors said Wednesday. Prosecutors in Queens had requested $25,000 bail for the officer, whose name has been withheld by authorities. Queens Criminal Court Judge William Harrington ruled the defendant could go free after issuing an order barring him from having any contact with his 15-year-old daughter. The officer has been charged with rape, incest, endangering the welfare of a child and sexual abuse based on allegations by the girl that he raped and molested her several times since 2001, court papers said. The...