An NYPD helicopter followed a private chopper from Brooklyn to Lakewood, after the helicopter landed in a vacant lot on the corner of Carroll St. and Troy Ave. in Crown Heights, picked up passengers, and took off heading for New Jersey. According to highly credible sources YWN has been in contact with, the private helicopter received authorization from the JFK control tower to land and take off from the lot in Crown Heights, but the pilot did not notify the NYPD, resulting in the police giving chase. Footage obtained by The Lakewood Scoop shows the NYPD helicopter landing at the Lakewood Municipal Airport near the private helicopter which had just landed.

NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio said that the city will be offering $100 cash incentives for children ages 5 to 11 to receive Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine, two days after the CDC approved the shot for that age group. “Everyone can use a little more money around the holidays, but most importantly we want our kids and our families to be safe,” de Blasio said. Getting the $100 is as simple as coming to a city-run vaccine site, getting jabbed in the arm, and being handed the money. De Blasio added that he doesn’t care if children choose to get the vaccine at a city-run vaccine site or elsewhere, such as at a pediatrician’s office, their school, a mall, or perhaps even in a dark alley somewhere in downtown Brooklyn.

New Yorkers approved a ballot measure adding the right to a clean environment to the state constitution but rejected other proposed amendments that could have made it easier to vote. The environmental measure was one of five statewide ballot questions before New York voters Tuesday. Supporters say enshrining a constitutional right to clean air and water will require the government to consider the environment in policy-making and give greater weight to people who sue over a failure to do so. New York joins a handful of states that have created a constitutional right to a clean environment.

The FBI released hundreds of pages of newly declassified documents Wednesday about its long effort to explore connections between the Saudi government and the Sept. 11 attacks, revealing the scope of a strenuous but ultimately fruitless investigation whose outcome many question to this day. Agents for years investigated support given to several of the hijackers upon their arrival in the U.S., focusing in particular on whether three Saudi nationals — including a Saudi Embassy official in Washington — had advance knowledge of the attacks. Ultimately, investigators found insufficient evidence to charge any of the three with illegally supporting the hijackers, according to an FBI memo from May that closed out the probe and was among the more than 700 pages released Wednesday.

New Jersey’s longtime state Senate president, Democrat Steve Sweeney, has lost reelection, falling to a Republican newcomer who spent less than $200 on the race and leaving his party reeling. Edward Durr, a furniture company truck driver and political newcomer, has defeated Sweeney in New Jersey’s 3rd Legislative District, according to results tallied Thursday. Sweeney’s defeat was unexpected and threw his party’s legislative leadership contest into limbo on Wednesday, when he postponed a meeting set for Thursday. Sweeney had been expected to return as Senate president, but who’ll take over and what margin Democrats will have in the state Legislature is unclear. “It is stunning and shocking and I cannot figure it out,” said Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg said in an interview.

State Senator Simcha came out swinging against NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio’s vaccine mandate which has caused numerous firehouses to close as firefighter hesitate to get vaccinated. “The Mayor’s vaccine mandate flies in the face of science and restricts perfectly reasonable options, with disastrous consequences,” Senator Felder said. “In the name of public safety, hospital wards and police precincts are understaffed, fire stations are closed, rats are festering in the garbage that is piling up across the city; and they want us to believe that this is in everyone’s best interest!” “The mandate is a punitive policy that punishes people for making individual health decisions.

NEW YORK – Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz and NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea announced today that Martin Motta, 74, has been indicted by a Queens grand jury and arraigned in Supreme Court, charging him with murder in the second degree for the 1976 killing of an 81-year-old World War I Veteran. District Attorney Katz said, “After 45 years, the alleged killer of a WWI Veteran is being held accountable and brought to justice. We hope the identification of the remains and the indictment in this case will begin to bring peace and closure to his loved ones.

The Gerrer Rosh Yeshiva, Hagaon Rav Shaul Alter, is continuing his historic, whirlwind visit to the United States, visiting various rabbanim and mosdos, and meeting with numerous chasidim eager to be in his presence. Rav Shaul on Tuesday visited Yeshiva Yagdil Torah, the flagship Gerrer yeshiva in Borough Park, where he delivered a shiur and spoke to the yeshiva’s younger talmidim, followed by visits to the elder of the admorim, the Rachmastrivka Rebbe. The Rosh Yeshiva also held meetings with the Bobov-45, Bobov-48, and Kossover Rebbes, and attended a massive kabolas panim event in Borough Park, attended by well over 1,000 people.

Last month, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Kratz, the shamash of 770, and Rabbi Yehuda Pevzner, the director of Mitzvah Tank NYC, parked their tank at a busy street corner in Lower Manhattan for the day, Chabad.info reported. When an elderly priest approached them, they relaxed from their misson of kiruv for a moment and began joking around with him. “The truth is that when we asked him if he was Jewish, it was a joke. Why would we ask a priest, dressed in long flowing white robes, with a huge cross dangling across his chest, if he was Jewish?” said Rabbi Kratz. The priest’s answer was shocking. “Yes, I’m Jewish.” “What do you mean? Was your mother Jewish?” He answered: “My parents were both Jews.” The priest explained that his parents has entrusted him to the church during the Holocaust.

Askanim in Orange County, NY, are accusing the Board of Elections of deliberately withholding the results of the write-in votes in South Blooming Grove’s Ward 4 district election after a major grassroots voter turnout effort and write-in effort by the Chasidic community. As of Wednesday afternoon, the other races in the entire county had already been tabulated and publicized but for the Ward 4 District. A federal civil lawsuit is also reportedly being considered over allegations they say amounts to voter suppression, intimidation, and blatant discrimination by officials in the Board of Elections.