Tag: new york

Thousands of Orthodox Jews rally in New York to protest change in Israel’s military draft rules

Thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews packed the streets and sidewalks for blocks around the Israeli consulate in New York City on Sunday to protest issues including a potential end of an exemption for religious students from compulsory service in Israel’s military.

The protest at the consulate, a block from the United Nations campus in Manhattan, illustrated the complex relationship between Israel and segments of the large population of very religious Jews in New York and its suburbs.

The two influential, and often rival, grand rebbes of the Satmar community both called on adherents to participate in the demonstration. The Central Rabbinical Congress of the U.S.A. and Canada, a consortium of Orthodox Jewish groups, said it helped organize the protest.

It comes after Israel’s Supreme Court last year ordered the government to begin drafting ultra-Orthodox Jewish men into the military. There had been a longstanding enlistment exemption – dating to the founding of Israel in 1948.

The ultra-Orthodox worry that mandatory enlistment will impact adherents’ ties to their faith. But many Jewish Israelis have argued that an exemption is unfair. Rifts over the issue have deepened since the start of the war in Gaza.

Rabbi Moishe Indig, a Satmar community leader, said he’s not sure organizers expected so many people to show up but he said he felt urgency building around the issue.

He said he was appreciative of the governments in New York and the U.S. “for giving us the freedom and liberty to be able to live free and have our children go to school and study and learn the Torah.”

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How Letitia James’s Fake Marriage to Her Dad Sparked a Lifetime of Mortgage Fraud

How did Letitia James’s claim that she married her father in order to qualify for her first loan evolve into a lifetime of mortgage and bank fraud?

It all began in the spring of 1983, when a 24-year-old Letitia James and her father, Robert James, posing as “husband and wife,” took out a real-estate loan for $30,300 from Kadilac Funding Ltd. for the purchase of a two-story townhome in Queens. The loan document, signed by both, listed “ROBERT JAMES AND LETITIA JAMES, HIS WIFE” in three separate places. This was no clerical error.

At that time, young Letitia likely lacked sufficient income or credit to qualify for a mortgage as a single woman. The fraudulent claim of marriage to her father allowed her to obtain financing she otherwise couldn’t have, an act that meets the legal definition of mortgage fraud under state and federal statutes.

This deception set a precedent for her. Once Letitia discovered that falsifying personal information could deliver tangible financial rewards without consequence, the act of misrepresentation for loans became a lifelong habit.

Decades of mortgage misrepresentations followed. Even after she became the high-profile Attorney General of New York state on January 1, 2019, James continued the same behavior pattern.

In 2020, James purchased a property at 3121 Perone Avenue in Norfolk, Virginia, signing a document claiming it would be her primary or secondary residence, rather than a rental property, to secure a lower interest rate. That misrepresentation recently became part of the criminal indictment against her for mortgage and bank fraud, carrying a potential 30-year prison sentence.

In 2021, James applied for a $200,000 line of credit mortgage from Citizen’s Bank on her 5-unit apartment building in Brooklyn, but in mortgage documents James claimed it only had one apartment unit. Accordingly, James received a lower residential mortgage interest rate she was not entitled to, and avoided a higher commercial loan rate and much higher closing costs.

In 2023, James bought a home at 604 Sterling Avenue in Norfolk, Virginia. Per Sam Antar, Letitia qualified for the loan only after certifying in an updated application that it would be her “primary residence”, even though she lived in Brooklyn.

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NYC teen shooters, victims skyrocket since passing of Raise the Age law: new data

The number of teen gunshot victims and teen shooters has exploded since the state’s controversial Raise the Age Law went into effect in 2018, according to new data obtained by The Post.

As of last week, 92 people under 18 have been shot so far this year –  96% more than the 47 shot in the same period in 2018, the year before the legislation enacted by leftist state pols fully took effect, raising the age of criminal responsibility from 16 to 18.

The 92 teen shooting victims this year is 21% more than the 76 shot at this point last year, according to NYPD data through Sept. 28.

The number of teen shooters has surged even higher — climbing 143% — with 73 arrested so far this year, compared to 30 in the same span in 2018, and 3% more than the 71 busted in the same period last year, the data show.

Even more troubling is that the shocking surge in teenage gunplay comes as shootings in NYC have dropped 20% overall so far this year compared to 2024, NYPD data shows.

Shooting incidents overall have fallen by more than 50% since 2020, the data show.

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Zohran Mamdani Campaigns with Imam Tied to 1993 World Trade Center Bombing

One day after the New York City mayoral debate, Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani openly campaigned at a mosque alongside Imam Siraj Wahhaj, an unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.

Instead of distancing himself, Mamdani proudly highlighted the event.

He even posted about it publicly, as if daring New Yorkers to overlook the danger.

For years, warnings about Mamdani’s ties to Wahhaj have circulated. Wahhaj was named by federal prosecutors as a co-conspirator in the terror plot that killed six and injured more than a thousand.

Despite this, he continues to serve as an imam in New York and has donated to Mamdani’s campaign.

He remains an influential figure in the same activist networks that have normalized radicalism under the banner of “progress.”

The connections don’t stop there. Linda Sarsour, the anti-Israel activist who has publicly defended Hamas sympathizers, calls Wahhaj her mentor.

His son, Siraj Wahhaj Jr., operated a jihadi compound in New Mexico where children were indoctrinated and trained to commit terrorist attacks.

Federal authorities reported that the group stockpiled weapons, plotted mass murder, and buried the remains of children on the site.

Members of the compound received life sentences.

These are the people surrounding Mamdani. These are the networks trying to seize political power in New York City.

Instead of distancing himself, Mamdani embraces them.

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Letitia James’ criminal kin have been charged 11 times in 5 years — but keep getting off easy

New York Attorney General Letitia James’ troubled grandnieces have been charged with a combined eight felonies and three misdemeanors in the past five years — but had their charges downgraded or dropped every time.

The women live in James’ Norfolk, Va., homes, which have been the subject of intense federal scrutiny in recent months over mortgage documents James signed — including a federal criminal indictment that has New York’s top law enforcer facing 60 years in federal prison.

Cayla Thompson-Hairston, 21, an OnlyFans model with an X-rated social media presence, was hit with felony charges in April 2024 for allegedly lying about having a felony criminal record when she tried to buy a gun in Suffolk, Va., according to court documents.

Cops said she was barred from owning a handgun due to a juvenile felony charge of malicious wounding in August 2020.

However, the weapons charges were later dropped entirely.

Norfolk Commonwealth’s Attorney Ramin Fatehi, a Democrat, said prosecutors later learned the juvenile charges were pleaded down to a misdemeanor.

Suffolk Commonwealth’s Attorney Narendra Pleas, also a Democrat, did not respond to The Post’s request for clarification on why she dropped the charges.

One legal observer said it was concerning that the charges were dropped entirely — particularly in light of Thompson-Hairston’s violent criminal history.

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NYC Wikipedia conference halted when ‘non-offending pedophile’ storms stage, points gun at own head

A Wikipedia conference in Manhattan descended into chaos Friday morning when an unhinged Ohio man jumped on stage and pointed a gun at his own head.

Connor Weston, 27, allegedly clutched the loaded revolver as he declared, “I’m a non-contact pedophile. I want to kill myself” — prompting WikiConference staff to quickly tackle and disarm him before cops took him into custody, sources said.

“It was just adrenaline,” said one of the staffers who stopped the gunman.  “Since you’re on the trust and safety team you’re expected to do this . . . we’re not used to loaded weapons in the same room . . . we’re used to more prank behavior.” 

Weston — who wore a multicolored banner draped over his shoulders and a sign around his neck with the words “ANTI-CONTACT NON-OFFENDING PEDOPHILE” — was detained at the conference, which was hosted at Union Square’s Civic Hall on East 14th Street near Irving Place, sources said. 

“I think we handled it pretty well considering this was not an expected thing,” the worker who helped stop the incident added. “We’re expected to do that for every event but in a place like NYC you’re going to have more people and more chance of it.”

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Two Deep State Prosecutors in the Eastern District of Virginia FIRED and Escorted From Building For Leaking Following Letitia James Indictment

The Justice Department is cleaning house as Deep State prosecutors in the Eastern District of Virginia ‘resist’ Trump and leak to the stenographers in the mainstream media.

Two more Deep State prosecutors in the Eastern District of Virginia (EDVA) have been fired.

Politico reported on Friday that two federal prosecutors in the EDVA – Elizabeth Yusi and Kristin Bird – were fired.

MSNBC confirmed the firing of the two prosecutors after New York Attorney General Letitia James was indicted by a grand jury in the Eastern District of Virginia.

According to Julie Kelly, the fired prosecutors were escorted from the building and stripped of security clearances for leaking sensitive information to the media.

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NYC public school staffer skimmed $415K in tax dollars for her private cheerleading team: DA

A former public high school staffer skimmed $415,000 in taxpayer cash meant for students — to fund her own private cheerleading business, Queens prosecutors charged Thursday.

Abi Corbin, 53, worked as a community associate at the East-West School of International Studies, PS 281 in Flushing, when she allegedly ran the scam, from July 2021 through July 2024, the Queens District Attorney’s Office said.

As part of her job, Corbin was responsible for processing work orders to purchase materials for the school, which does not have a cheerleading team, prosecutors said.

Instead, Corbin used the principal’s login information and signature to buy merch for her own business Queens Campus Cheer, according to prosecutors.

“Instead of purchasing necessary educational materials to help students thrive, the defendant is accused of stealing school funds for her own private cheerleading company,” Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said in a statement.

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Shocker: ‘No Kings Protest’ in New York City on Saturday Is Sponsored by Several Communist Groups

Democrats and Communists, or Communist Democrats, are holding a “No Kings” rally Saturday in cities around the country.

The New York City No Kings rally is sponsored by several communist groups. The Democratic Socialists of America, New York Working Families Party, CPUSA, and Freedom Socialist Party are all sponsoring this rally against President Donald J. Trump.

Rather than working to end the Schumer government shutdown, Chuck Schumer is out promoting the communist-backed rally.

Senator Rick Scott (R-FL) called out Minority Leader Chuck Schumer for endorsing this disgusting anti-American event. Scott warned Schumer that if he attends this event he will endorse communism in America!

Senator Rick Scott: The “No Kings” protest in NYC this weekend is sponsored by multiple communist groups, including the Communist Party of the USA.

This is who @SenSchumer is cowering to & shutting down your federal government to appease. It’s disgusting & if Chuck Schumer attends this protest, it will be his full endorsement of communism in America.

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Nassau won’t have to pay back $400M in illegal red-light camera fees as judge oddly claims payments were ‘voluntary’

Nassau County won’t have to pay back $400 million in illegal red-light camera fees as a judge bizarrely ruled drivers voluntarily paid the fines — even though they were threatened with getting their licenses suspended.

The “outrageous” ruling by County Supreme Court Justice Thomas Rademaker has the plaintiffs’ attorney calling for the judge to be removed from the case while Nassau administrators hold onto improper administrative fees it took in from drivers for over a decade.

“Judge Rademacher issued a radical decision and ruled, despite Nassau County’s illegality, its citizens paid voluntarily,” attorney David Raimondo, who represents drivers in cases against Nassau and Suffolk County, said of the decision.

“This ruling was so far off from the law that you can’t even comprehend it,” he added, claiming the judge issued the ruling to protect the county from its massive liability.

Raimondo questioned how the judge could view the payments as “voluntary” when Nassau threatened to revoke licenses and registrations, boot and tow people’s cars — and even put a mark on credit reports if the fee is not paid.

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