Free Republic

NEW YORKA New York City public elementary school has adopted an all-vegetarian menu, serving kids tofu wraps and veggie chili. Public School 244 is the first public school in the city to go all-veggie. The animal-welfare group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals says it might be the first all-veggie public elementary school in the nation. Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott says he's proud of the "trailblazing" school. He ate the new food with children on Tuesday.

Unlike Teddy Roosevelt, the president he quoted at last night’s Queens redistricting hearing, Republican Councilman Dan Halloran spoke loudly and did not carry a big stick. Mr. Halloran’s bruising 2009 City Council race in northeast Queens cast a long shadow over the hearing in Long Island City- the third of its kind in front of a commission tasked with the decennial redrawing of districts to reflect demographic changes in the city- where he and allied civic groups clashed with Asian advocacy organizations about whether a neighborhood, Oakland Gardens, should be incorporated into Mr. Halloran’s 19th District. The heavily Asian neighborhood,...

The woman walked behind the man along the platform, mumbling to herself, witnesses told the police, before shoving him into the path of a northbound No. 7 train just after 8 p.m. It is the second time this month that a man has been killed after being pushed onto the subway tracks.

A heavyset Hispanic woman — seen by five witnesses pacing and mumbling to herself — pushes a helpless man in front of an oncoming Flushing-bound No. 7 train in Queens. She was caught on tape while fleeing the crime scene: police. A MAN WAITING for an approaching No. 7 train in Queens died a gruesome death Thursday night when a young woman darted up behind the helpless straphanger and pushed him onto the tracks, police said. The unidentified victim was crushed by the first and second cars of the Flushing-bound train about 8 p.m, as his murderer hustled down the...

Civic Virtue has become a Greek tragedy. Queens residents are protesting the city’s plans to banish a controversial sculpture to Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn — which would be the second move for the classic, 90-year-old monument that pols have slammed for decades as a sexist eyesore. “The Triumph of Civic Virtue” depicts a nude male warrior symbolizing civic virtue trampling two women, the sirens of vice and corruption.

Rep. Bob Turner (R-N.Y.) was one of the many whose homes burned down in widespread fires that devastated the Breezy Point community in Queens last night in the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy. Officials estimated that anywhere from 80 to 100 houses were destroyed, according to The Associated Press. Turner issued a statement on his Facebook page, saying that he was safe despite the fire and urging support for those who weren't as fortunate. Here's the full statement: ***** "My thoughts and prayers are with all of my fellow New Yorkers and the many others who are experiencing loss as a...

NEW YORK (WABC) -- Firefighters are battling a six-alarm fire in the Breezy Point section of the Rockaway peninsula in Queens. Officials say the fire was reported at about 11 p.m. Monday and involves about 50 houses situated in a flooded Zone A area. A fire department spokesman says nearly 200 firefighters are currently at the scene. He says two people have suffered minor injuries. The cause of the fire was not immediately known.

The four areas where organized crime reigns in America -- New York City, Dirty Jersey, Chicagoland and South Florida -- also account for the lion's share of corruption convictions by federal prosecutors against local officials as reported by Joe Palazzolo for The Wall Street Journal Law Blog. The U.S. Department of Justice has released the number of corruption convictions its prosecutors have won against public servants over the last ten years across the 93 federal judicial districts into which the country is divided, and at the top of the list is New Jersey with 429 convictions. Third on the list...

He picked the wrong guy to mess with. A drunken Queens man went berserk after he couldn’t get an ATM to work at a gas station early yesterday and was killed when he turned his rage to the attendant — a former competitive kickboxer. “I feel bad. I didn’t mean for the guy to die. He called me a Taliban,” said Jasjeet Walia, who was released from custody last night after being grilled by cops all day. “I feel like throwing up. I’m having a bad headache,” said Walia, an amateur kickboxer for seven years in his native Mumbai. Arzeno...

A speeding SUV flying down a Queens street at more than 85 mph smashed into a concrete stanchion yesterday — killing two children and three women and injuring three other passengers, law-enforcement sources said. The scene was so horrific, “one of the firemen cried as he looked at the children’s bodies,” said witness Ray Cortez, 52. None of the victims was identified, but all eight are related and have roots in the Nigerian town of Arondizuogu.

An MTA cop was clinging to life Wednesday after a violent confrontation with a man outside a Long Island Railroad station in Queens, sources said.

Geraldine Ferraro, the 1984 candidate for the vice presidency whose position on abortion repeatedly put her at odds with New York’s late John Cardinal O’Connor, will soon be memorialized at Fordham Law School, according to a report in Fordham magazine. Ferraro’s husband, John Zaccaro Sr., and their son, John Zaccaro Jr., who are pictured in the magazine, recently made a “leadership gift” to Fordham in honor the late Queens congresswoman who rose to national prominence. Ferraro died of multiple myeloma in 2011. The gift, whose amount is not disclosed in the article, reportedly will go to support a new Law...

Wow. On the heels of his possible congressional opponent, Rory Lancman, bowing out of a run for Congress, Queens/Long Island Rep. Gary Ackerman is now bowing out too, according to a press release I just got from Ackerman’s office. I am told the Queens Dems are meeting tomorrow to nominate congressional candidates, but two people I’ve spoken to close to the Queens Dems were unaware of Ackerman’s retirement. I also have heard rumors that Rep. Joe Crowley would be interested in this seat, since this would be a favorable district for him, but I have no idea if that’s actually...

Molotov cocktails made from Starbucks glass bottles were hurled at three sites in Queens last night, including a mosque with 100 people inside, a Hindu Temple and a bodega. Cops were investigating whether a nearby fire that caused major damage to a private home was also part of the frightening pattern. One attack damaged the front door of the Al-Khoei Benevolent Foundation on the Van Wyck Expressway in Jamaica at 8:45 p.m. “We were having a gathering tonight, spending some time with members of the mosque after a service, and someone alerted us that there was a fire outside,” said...

A Queens man is very upset after trying to put his trash out for collection and ending up with a ticket. He, and others, are getting snared in an enforcement of a law that few people even know exists. The scrooge award goes to the New York City Sanitation Department for the $100 tickets. Raymond Janson says he received the $100 fine for putting his garbage cans at the curb 30 minutes early. It is legal to put out the trash cans the day before pick-up but the time of the day matters. City sanitation rules say the cans can...

He preys on women with sick, vicious stealth. An armed serial rapist who has attacked three times in southeast Queens in the past two months has been caught on shocking video surveillance pouncing on his latest victim — a 22-year-old woman whom he grabbed from behind Wednesday and dragged by her neck down the street. But the hooded monster’s 2 a.m. strike near 154th Street in Jamaica was ultimately foiled by a pajama-and-slippers-clad single mom of six who lives nearby and ran to the aid of the screaming victim, authorities said. “[The victim] was saying, ‘Please stop! Please stop! Don’t...

AP has called the race for Turner

So a Catholic priest walks onto a tennis court. Seriously. It happens, for Father Paul Arinze, every day at the United States Open. Often, Arinze climbs into the chair, as a certified bronze badge umpire. There, he officiates serves, not church services, matches instead of Mass. Below, players cross themselves and pray for victory or take the Lord’s name in vain. They do not know that while God may not be interested in their tennis match, a clergyman is watching from close range. “Sometimes, I’m tempted to say, ‘You know, you have a Catholic priest sitting here,’ � Arinze said, reclining...

A Queens party advertised on Facebook and Twitter as "Drama Free" turned into a shooting gallery early Saturday. Eleven young people were shot, including a teenage girl left paralyzed, when a gunman opened fire into the crowd. About 100 people were packed into the backyard of the single-family home on Inwood St. in South Jamaica shortly before 1 a.m., when the shooter sneaked up a back alleyway and opened fire into the yard through a chain link fence. Police said six males ages 15 to 23, and five women, ages 15 to 21, were shot, with bullets hitting them in...

FULL TITLE: Moving on and out: Anthony Weiner and pregnant wife Huma finally sell Queens apartment as they prepare for first child As the Weiners try to put the year's events behind them, it was only natural their marital home - Anthony Weiner's former sexting headquarters - should be one of the first to go. Thankfully for the couple, after putting their Queen's two-bedroom apartment back on the market - after quietly taking it off during the scandal - they have finally found a buyer. Their 875-square-foot home on Ascan Avenue was listed at $449,000 in June.

Much of the attention being paid to Rep. Anthony Weiner, D-N.Y., is focused on the salacious - whether he sent the lewd picture to a college undergrad or whether he was the victim of a grand hoax. Few are talking about the possibility that Republicans could pick up Weiner's seat. If the scandal snowballs, however, there could be some serious political implications for Democrats from the incident. While Weiner represents a New York City district that's conventionally thought to be safely Democratic, in reality it has trended sharply in a Republican direction in recent years. If Weiner stepped down from...

File this one under: Imagine If The Partisan Tables Were Turned. On her MSNBC show this evening, Rachel Maddow repeatedly mocked the Republican Senate leader as "little Mitch, the rodeo queen." Maddow was miffed over McConnell's arranging a Senate vote on the raising of the debt ceiling, and by extension the Republican position on Medicare reform. And so, for about ten--interminable--minutes, Maddow beat into the ground a labored metaphor, somehow analogizing McConnell to the little girls in Utah who were forced to compete on stick ponies because the real horses had been sidelined by illness. View video here.

A New York assemblyman says he wants the state to require hotels to provide their housekeepers with an emergency "panic button" that would help protect them from sexual assaults on the job. Assemblyman Rory Lancman, a Democrat from Queens, said he will introduce the bill Monday. The move comes a week after former International Monetary Fund Chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn was charged with sexually assaulting a Manhattan hotel maid. "We send hotel workers, housekeepers into rooms by themselves without any other staff, without any other security," Lancman said at a news conference Sunday outside the Sofitel Hotel, the site of Strauss-Kahn's...

Dawn Flemming is counting her blessings.   Just six months ago, the Queens woman's unborn daughter Jade was given no chance of survival because a mango-sized tumor stretched across the baby's neck.  "I could tell something was wrong by the doctors' body language," says Flemming, a 35-year-old nurse from South Ozone Park. "I noticed people coming in, passing looks at each other but not saying anything."  They doomed Jade to die because the tumor blocked her pencil-thin airways, making it impossible for her to breathe once detached from the placenta.At 24 weeks, it was too late to have a legal abortion, so...

Senior citizens are furious with officials at the Queens Botanical Garden, saying they are being pushed out of the spots they helped cultivate for decades. The cash-strapped organization increased fees for use of its Senior Garden to $150 this year - too steep say many retirees living on a fixed income. It also plans to transform the site to a "Family Garden" next year and open it up to gardeners of all ages. "What they are doing is an act of desperation," said Lola McLinden, a 91-year-old Flushing resident who has grown vegetables at the Senior Garden for 15 years....

A 265-pound Queens man was arrested by the ASPCA Friday for fatally beating his 8-pound Chihuahua. The tiny pooch, named Spotye, was so severely injured he had to be euthanized. Jerry Melendez, 33, was charged with felony animal cruelty after ASPCA investigators determined the pup suffered a fractured skull caused by blunt force impact and a hemorrhage in his left eye. A necropsy also showed the dog had blood in his abdominal cavity. The 5-year-old Chihuahua was brought to a veterinarian on Feb. 10 and was treated for seizures and head trauma, according to ASPCA Assistant Director Joseph Pentangelo. The...

Tuesday, June 22, 2004 WAR ON TERRORAl-Qaida suspect tied to U.S.-UK jihad groupAlleged sleeper agent nabbed by FBI part of cell operating in Queens, N.Y. Posted: June 22, 20041:00 a.m. Eastern By Aaron Klein © 2004 WorldNetDaily.com An American citizen living in Queens arrested by the FBI, and who has admitted to being a sleeper agent for al-Qaida, has ties to a British-based Islamic extremist organization with still more agents operating in the New York borough, WorldNetDaily has learned. Mohammed Junaid Babar, a naturalized citizen from Pakistan, was secretly taken into custody in April and is being held at the Metropolitan Correctional...

A man who was pulled over in Queens during a routine traffic stop was arrested after cops found bomb-making materials in his car, authorities said. The driver, who has not been identified, was pulled over in Jamaica at about 2 p.m. after a cop spotted him illegally crossing a lane, sources told The Post. The officer arrested the driver, who is in his 30s, after spotting a car battery, fertilizer and glass jars with aluminum shavings inside -- materials commonly used to make bombs.

<p>MYFOXNY.COM - A fight broke out at a Wendy's in Queens Village, leaving one of the workers seriously injured. The disturbing scene from inside the Wendy's was captured on a phone. In the video, you can see the cashier get pummeled to the ground by teenage girls.</p>

First California. Now they're shooting at Queens! Two days after a mysterious vapor trail appeared at sundown off the Los Angeles coast -- triggering fears of an enemy missile attack -- a stunning replay occurred in the sky over Far Rockaway. A passer-by snapped a photo of a billowing streak yesterday afternoon at around 5 p.m. Like Monday's scare on the West Coast, it looked like the exhaust from a just-launched missile. What caused the contrail visible from the Rockaways also is not known. "It looked like a rocket," said the photographer, who added that the plume appeared to the...

BREAKING: 2 UPS Planes Isolated At Philadelphia International Airport October 29, 2010 9:56 AM From Jessica McWilliams PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – Authorities have isolated two cargo planes are Philadelphia International Airport following a report of a suspicious package. Local and federal authorities are investigating a suspicious package aboard a cargo plane that landed at Philadelphia International Airport at about 9 a.m. Friday. A second UPS plane was isolated near the UPS terminal before take off. Authorities say a crew member aboard an inbound UPS plane from Paris, France notified authorities on approach about a suspicious package. The crew member described a...

Note: Photo included. "Syed Omair Ali, Queens man charged with terror hoax that cost feds $1 million, bailed out by mom" SNIPPET: "Ali, who lives at this Queens address, allegedly led FBI and NYPD on a 6-month goosechase, claiming he knew three guys who were plotting a terror attack on Times Square. A hoaxer who made the feds scramble to investigate a purported terrorist plot in Times Square was released on bail Monday after his mother arrived from Pakistan with $20,000 in cash." SNIPPET: "Ali, 25, is accused of fabricating the plot to get an associate, Muhammed Assad Butt, in...

(CNN) -- SNIPPET: "The charge centers around a one-way ticket that authorities allege Abdel Hameed Shehadeh purchased from Queens, New York, to Islamabad, Pakistan. Shehadeh originally told investigators that the purpose of his trip was to visit an Islamic university and attend a friend's engagement party. But he later admitted to FBI agents in Hawaii that he bought the ticket in order to join a fighting group such as the Taliban, according to a criminal complaint unsealed in New York Monday."

NOTE The following text SNIPPET is a quote: newyork.fbi.gov/dojpressrel/pressrel10/nyfo082410.htm Two Additional Arrests Made of Members of Violent International Organized Crime Group Albanian Government Aide Arrested; Newly Unsealed Indictment Charges 17 Defendants with Murder, Kidnapping, and Other Racketeering Offenses PREET BHARARA, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, JANICE K. FEDARCYK, the Assistant Director-in-Charge of the New York Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation ("FBI"), and RAYMOND W. KELLY, the Police Commissioner of the City of New York, announced the arrests of FLORIAN VESHI and ALMIR RRAPO for their roles in a racketeering enterprise that engaged...

Four men including former PNCR Member of Parliament Abdul Kadir were yesterday charged by United States law enforcement officials with allegedly conspiring to blow up the John F Kennedy International airport as well as tanks storing aviation fuel and underground fuel pipelines. Those charged with Kadir are former JFK worker Russell Defreitas, a Guyanese-born US citizen; Kareem Ibrahim, an imam from Trinidad; and Guyanese Abdel Nur. Kadir and Ibrahim were arrested in Trinidad, while Defreitas was held in New York. Up to press time, however, Nur had not been apprehended and was thought to be still at large in Trinidad....

SNIPPET: "U.S. counterterrorism officials have linked one of the nation's most wanted terrorists to last year's thwarted plot to bomb the New York City subway system, authorities said Wednesday. Current and former counterterrorism officials said top al-Qaida operative Adnan Shukrijumah met with one of the would-be suicide bombers in a plot that Attorney General Eric Holder called one of the most dangerous since the 9/11 terror attacks."

<p>WASHINGTON — Ten Russian intelligence officers have been arrested for allegedly serving as illegal agents of the Russian government in the United States, the Justice Department announced Monday.</p>

Note: The following text is a quote: Manhattan U.S. Attorney Charges Two Brooklyn Men with Conspiring to Provide Material Support to al Qaeda PREET BHARARA, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, GEORGE VENIZELOS, the Special Agent-in-Charge of the New York Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation ("FBI"), and RAYMOND W. KELLY, the Police Commissioner of the City of New York, announced the indictment of U.S. citizens WESAM EL-HANAFI and SABIRHAN HASANOFF for allegedly conspiring to provide material support, including computer advice and assistance, to al Qaeda. EL-HANAFI and HASANOFF are expected to be presented...

U.S. Citizen Pleads Guilty to Conspiring to Provide Material Support to Al Qaeda Syed Hashmi, aka “Fahad,” pleaded guilty today in Manhattan federal court to conspiracy to provide material support to al Qaeda, announced Preet Bharara, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York. Hashmi, 30, was arrested on June 6, 2006 at Heathrow Airport in London, shortly before he was to board a flight to Pakistan. He was later extradited to the United States; Hashmi is the first individual to be extradited from the United Kingdom to the United States on terrorism charges. According to the superseding indictment...

Note: The following text is a quote: March 10, 2010 Queens MS-13 gang leader sentenced to life in prison for racketeering and murder NEW YORK - The leader of a Queens chapter of the international street gang La Mara Salvatrucha, more commonly known as "MS-13," was sentenced March 10 to life imprisonment for racketeering conspiracy, including the acts of murder and attempted murder; murder in-aid-of-racketeering; and using a firearm in connection with a crime of violence. A federal jury in Brooklyn convicted Amilcar Gomez, 26, on April 3, 2009, following an investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) with...

The former assemblyman Anthony S. Seminerio, who prosecutors said took more than $1 million in payments from people and organizations doing business with the state, was sentenced to six years in prison by a federal judge in Manhattan on Thursday. For 30 years Mr. Seminerio, a Democrat, cultivated a streetwise persona and the trappings of crude political clout while representing the 38th District in southwest Queens. * * * The judge also chided him for his “refusal to acknowledge the breadth and depth of your criminal conduct.” Mr. Seminerio, 74, is among more than a dozen state lawmakers who have...

A Muslim chaplain for the city’s Department of Correction showed up for work on Wednesday as he routinely does — entering the city jail in Lower Manhattan to minister to some of the roughly 900 male inmates there. But when the chaplain, Imam Zulqarnain Abu-Shahid, flung his shoulder bag onto an X-ray machine at the entrance of the Manhattan Detention Complex, at 125 White Street, officers were alerted to the presence of metal. They found a pair of scissors and three metal blades, the kind used in box cutters, in the bag’s outer flap, the authorities said. Imam Abu-Shahid was...

A Queens man is accused of ripping out a woman's heart and lungs after she turned down his romantic advances and didn't find him a job, according to investigators. After harassing 46-year-old victim Qian Wu for years, 47-year-old suspect Huang Chen is accused of bludgeoning and stabbing her to death and removing her organs, which have not been recovered. Chen, who lives two doors away from Wu's Flushing apartment, met the woman in 2006 when he went to an employment agency she ran out of her home. Apparently, Wu was unable or unwilling to find Chen a job, and the...

Queens, NY (LifeNews.com) -- A botched legal abortion killed a Hispanic woman earlier this week at a shoddy abortion center in Queens, New York. In an interview with a local newspaper, staff at the abortion center were dismissive of the woman's death, prompting outrage from a pro-life group that monitors abortion facilities.  As LifeNews.com has reported, 37-year-old Alexandra Nuñez was killed after a botched abortion claimed her life at the A-1 Women's Care abortion center located in Jackson Heights.Despite the abortion death, staff at the abortion center, who did not return a LifeNews.com phone call seeking comment, told the new...

New York, NY (LifeNews.com) -- A New York woman has apparently died as a result of a failed abortion done at the A-1 Women's Care abortion center located in the Jackson Heights section of Queens. Reports indicate emergency officials responded to an emergency call from the A1 Medicine facility at 95-45 Roosevelt on Monday afternoon. WPIX-TV indicates a woman in her 30s was reportedly undergoing heavy bleeding and was rushed to Elmhurst Hospital Center where she was later pronounced dead.The television station indicates an investigation into the failed abortion is ongoing and that one question officials are examining is whether...

Note: The following text is a quote: Manhattan U.S. Attorney Charges Three New York Businessmen with Laundering Money Through Iran PREET BHARARA, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York; JOSEPH M. DEMAREST, JR., the Assistant Director-in-Charge of the New York Field Division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation ("FBI"); and PATRICIA J. HAYNES, the Special Agent-in-Charge of the New York Field Office of the Internal Revenue Service ("IRS"), Criminal Investigation Division, announced that REZA SAFARHA, a/k/a "Ali," a/k/a "Ali Safarha," NICK MOHAMEY, a/k/a "Abdollah Mohammadipour," a/k/a "Abdi Pour," and MOHAMMAD SOROUSH MAHALATY, a/k/a "Mohammad Soroush," a/k/a...

http://www.jihadwatch.org/2010/01/new-york-jihadist-crashes-car-screams-we-love-death-more-than-you-love-life.html (NEW YORK POST) “New York jihadist crashes car, screams “We love death more than you love life!”” SNIPPET: “Adis Medunjanin, 25, called 911 as he sped erratically away from federal agents through Queens streets at up to 90 mph. “We love death more than you love life!” he exclaimed in Arabic. Medunjanin also praised Allah moments before he rear-ended another vehicle, sources said. Police are investigating the bizarre crash as a possible suicide attempt by the frantic Medunjanin, in the wake of a federal raid on his Queens home....”

F.B.I. agents on Thursday seized the passport of a Queens man who came under intense scrutiny last year during the investigation of an airport shuttle bus driver who was charged in a Qaeda bomb plot, law enforcement officials and the man’s lawyer said. About an hour later, a bizarre tableau unfolded as the man, Adis Medunjanin, 25, who was under surveillance by the F.B.I., was involved in a traffic accident while driving near the Whitestone Bridge, perhaps flustered by the surveillance or in an attempt to avoid it, one law enforcement official said. He tried to flee the scene, several...

SNIPPET: "It may have been one of the coldest days this season, but that did not deter angry protesters from gathering at the residence of Youssef Al-Khattab, a Jewish convert to Islam who has been tagged as an Al-Qaida sympathizer." SNIPPET: "Sunday’s protest came after Al-Khattab posted comments on his website, revolutionmuslim.com, supporting the Fort Hood attacks and other violent acts of radical Muslims. He also has made several anti-Semitic comments on his site, including saying he wants liquid drain cleaner to be thrown in Jews’ faces, and calling for the outdoor huts some build during the holiday of Sukkot...

High unemployment is spreading in New York City beyond the poorest neighborhoods to once-secure middle-class enclaves, where some residents are falling behind on rent and mortgage payments. Among the hardest-hit spots are the northern Bronx and southeastern Queens. Both areas have seen unemployment double since the third quarter of 2007, according to the Fiscal Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank. "The recovery in the labor market is a long way off and it will be a long time coming to middle-income neighborhoods," said James Parrott, the institute's deputy director and chief economist. Close to half of all New Yorkers work...