A Long Island police commissioner said Friday he won’t resign over comments to Newsday blaming the lack of diversity in his police department on Black and Hispanic “broken homes.” Nassau County Police Commissioner Patrick Ryder told reporters that he serves at the pleasure of the county executive, Laura Curran, and will remain on the job “as long as she has me.” Ryder has apologized for his remarks. Some civil rights groups are calling for his ouster, while others have rallied behind him.

Gas prices remained steady in New Jersey and around the nation — and haven’t moved much in a month — as total gasoline stocks grew and demand increased. AAA Mid-Atlantic says the average price of a gallon of regular gas in New Jersey on Friday was $3.07, up a penny from a week ago. Drivers were paying an average of $2.11 a gallon a year ago at this time. The national average price for a gallon of regular gasoline was also $3.07, unchanged from last week. Drivers were paying an average of $2.09 a gallon a year ago at this time. (AP)

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has signed legislation requiring general hospitals in the state to seek input from nurses and other staff in creating staffing plans that are to include specific guidelines on how many patients each nurse is assigned. The law, signed Friday, requires hospitals to form committees composed of registered nurses, licensed practical nurses, ancillary staff members providing direct patient care, and hospital administrators to form the staffing plans. Hospital staffing committees must adopted their first staffing plans and submit them to the state health department by July 1, 2022. It’s unclear how the law will play out in non-unionized workplaces.

As the summer of 2021 begins, Catskills Hatzolah is finalizing location updates to their computer dispatch system for this year. If anyone is aware of any inaccuracies or any changes that have occurred since last summer, either new camps and colonies or name changes they should be notified as soon as possible. These updates are critical for responding members to arrive as fast as possible in the event of an emergency Chas V’Shalom. There has been ALOT of work in the past year, and there are changes that Hatzolah may not yet be aware of. All sites currently in the system can be verified by clicking HERE. Any corrections should either be directed to the Central Hatzolah office at 718-998-9000 or via email to gps@chvac.net.

Numerous people were injured when a fire truck collided with a civilian vehicle in Williamsburg, Friday afternoon. It happened at around 3:00PM, when an FDNY truck responding to an emergency with its lights and sirens on, slammed into a vehicle on Driggs Avenue and South 5th Street. Williamsburg Hatzolah and FDNY transported 8 victims to the hospital. All are in stable condition. Six are adults, and two are children. Police are investigating the incident.

New York Attorney General Letitia James today announced that her office has reached agreements with Orange County and the Town of Chester to end their use of discriminatory housing practices that were designed to prevent members of the Jewish community from moving to Chester, New York. The agreements mandate that the county and the town comply with the Fair Housing Act and take preventative measures to ensure equitable housing practices moving forward. “The discriminatory and illegal actions perpetrated by Orange County and the Town of Chester are blatantly antisemitic, and go against the diversity, inclusivity, and tolerance that New York prides itself on,” said Attorney General James.

Voters will likely pick the next mayor of New York City next week in a Democratic primary that will also be a major test of ranked choice voting, a system that lets voters rank several candidates in order of preference instead of choosing just one. Two years after city voters approved a measure to use the ranked choice system for primaries and special elections, Democrats will be asked to rank their top five out of 13 mayoral candidates on Tuesday’s ballot. The primary winner will almost certainly win the November general election in overwhelmingly Democratic New York City. If the process goes smoothly it may encourage other cities and states around the U.S.

The race for Mayor has had its ups and downs, “ebs” and flows.  Like a playoff basketball game, we have seen the lead change, and the game evolve.  But it’s now “crunch time” and we are getting to the end.  Early voting has started and by next week, the bulk of the votes will be cast. There is a lot at stake for our community.  A lot on the line. For many, our community, the Frum community, has looked at two candidates.  One that is new, but aggressively pursuing the community.  And another that has longstanding ties to the community, whose work for the community has been well known for decades. But the choice is no longer that simple.  It’s no longer an “either, or” scenario. Something else has happened.

A man died after jumping in the East River near Brooklyn’s Domino Park to retrieve a volleyball, police said. Police got a 911 call about a man in the water near the park in the Williamsburg neighborhood at around 6:30 p.m. Wednesday. Harbor unit officers brought the man to shore and tried to revive him, police said. The 36-year-old man was taken to Brooklyn Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. His name was not immediately released. The city medical examiner’s office will determine the cause of death. (AP)

One of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s sisters helped raise money to pay the legal fees of a former close aide of the governor, Joseph Percoco, who was convicted of accepting bribes. Madeline Cuomo sent an email in February 2020 to two dozen people, including allies and former employees of the governor, asking them to donate to Percoco’s legal defense, The New York Times reported Tuesday. Percoco was sentenced to six years in prison in 2018 for accepting more than $300,000 from companies that wanted influence with the Cuomo administration. Cuomo was not accused of wrongdoing, but the conviction of an aide he likened to a brother was an embarrassment that highlighted corruption in Albany.