A massive early-morning fire ripped through an assisted living facility in Spring Valley. The fire started at around 1:30AM at the “Evergreen Court For Adults” located at 65 Lafayette Street. Hatzolah and EMS dispached around 20 ambulances and treated many victims. Dozens of trapped residents were rescued by firefighters. Rockland Chaveirim was on the scene assisting as well. Dramatic video footage captured the moment part of the building collapsed. CPR was being performed by Hatzolah on one victim. Local Yeshiva school busses as well as the Rockland Chaveirim Command Center were being used to keep elderly residents warm and to transport them to other locations. One firefighter called a “mayday” but was found and treated for injuries. The cause of the fire was unknown.

To Fox News Channel’s Janice Dean, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is a liar and a criminal. He blames others for his “disastrous decisions.” He needs to resign – no, that’s not enough. “He needs to go to jail!” she thundered on “Fox & Friends.” Dean isn’t a political commentator – she’s Fox’s senior meteorologist. In the past year, though, a searing personal loss has transformed her into a fighter for families who believe that a Cuomo-backed policy encouraging the transfer of COVID-19 positive patients into nursing homes was a deadly error. “She really hates when people are being screwed with and … always has fought for the little guy,” said Meghan McCain of “The View,” who once worked with Dean at Fox News. McCain knows politics, and suggests her friend may have a future there.

A New York City police officer who’s been arrested twice for alleged brutality was arrested again Sunday after police on Long Island say he fired a pistol into the Atlantic Ocean while off duty. David Afanador, 39, was carrying a loaded pistol and three loaded high-capacity magazines when officers investigating a report of shots fired in Long Beach saw him walking off the beach with three other people around 6:50 a.m. Sunday, police said. Afanador was charged last year with putting a Black man in a banned chokehold while responding to a call at a Queens boardwalk. The NYPD suspended him without pay after that arrest and then placed him on restricted assignment. He was not authorized to carry firearms, police said. An NYPD spokesperson, Sgt.

The following appeared in this weeks Flatbush Jewish Journal: This week marks a full year since the start of the Coronavirus Pandemic, a long sad year since our infamous cover featuring close to 20 niftarim in one tragic week. It has been a year highlighted by the epic loss of thousands of acheinu b’nei Yisroel, whom we dare not forget. This is why the FJJ has chosen to pay a pictorial tribute to them in this week’s issue – to remember the faces and souls that were tragically taken from us. CLICK HERE TO READ THE FJJ TRIBUTE

The first case of a COVID-19 variant known as the Brazilian variant was confirmed in New York. Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced that scientists at Mount Sinai Hospital identified the case, which was then verified by the state Department of Health’s Wadsworth Center Laboratories. The patient is a Brooklyn resident in their 90s who hasn’t traveled recently, officials said in a news release. Health officials are doing further investigation of the patient and any potential contacts. “This is a race between the vaccine and the variants, and we continue to make tremendous progress of getting shots in the arms of eligible New Yorkers,” state Health Commissioner Dr. Howard Zucker said in a statement Saturday.

Anti-Semitic NY Post columnist Steve Cuozzo slanders Orthodox Jewish community with outrageous false claims. It seems the NY Post, is back to one of its favorite pastimes, attacking the City’s Orthodox Jewish community. In a completely bigoted op-ed totally devoid of reason, Steve Cuozzo asks why Manhattan’s Covid positive rate is so much lower than the rest of the city. Astoundingly, he then proceeds to suggest that this may be due to ” large, often mask-less ultra-Orthodox gatherings ” and that “Manhattan has none of the huge Hasidic congregations found in Brooklyn and Queens.” In other words, Cuozzo is saying that it is the Orthodox Jews who are somehow responsible for the higher covid rate across the entire city of NY.

Statewide community leaders visited the New Jersey State Police Headquarters in Trenton last week, presenting a letter of gratitude to Colonel Patrick Callahan during a pre-Passover safety and security meeting. The group thanked Callahan for his tremendous dedication during a time of incredible hardship, working hand in hand with leaders of New Jersey’s faith-based communities during the many long months of COVID.

A woman who currently works in the office of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo says he engaged in innaproppoarte behavior to her and another aide, according to a newspaper report published Friday. Alyssa McGrath told The New York Times the allegations, who reported it just before Shabbos. “He has a way of making you feel very comfortable around him, almost like you’re his friend,” Ms. McGrath told the newspaper. “But then you walk away from the encounter or conversation, in your head going, ‘I can’t believe I just had that interaction with the governor of New York.’” McGrath is the first current aide to come forward publicly to join mounting allegations of misconduct against Cuomo.

As the coronavirus made an end-of-the-year surge across New York, few nursing homes escaped unscathed. But some proved especially helpless at stopping the spread of COVID-19, despite having nine months to stockpile protective equipment and refine preventative measures. At least 15 homes each saw at least 30 patients die between November and early February, with most of the deaths occurring in a matter of weeks, recently released public records show. Seven homes had more than 40 patients die, a tally that does not include specialized nursing homes that treat only COVID-19 patients. The unusually swift and deadly outbreaks stand out in a state where the great majority of nursing homes reported fatalities in the single digits during that time period. The Commons on St.

A man charged with beating to death a New Jersey resident he says sexually abused him as a child now claims he has killed a total of 16 people, including his ex-wife and three others in New Mexico, officials said. Authorities have not corroborated that claim. Sean Lannon, 47, said he killed the four whose remains were found in a vehicle at an airport and “11 other individuals” in New Mexico, Alec Gutierrez, an assistant prosecutor in Gloucester County, New Jersey, said during a detention hearing Friday, NJ.com reported. Authorities said in court documents that Lannon made the admission in a phone call to a relative, who told investigators he expressed remorse. Lannon had been sought after the discovery of the four bodies but has been charged only with the death in New Jersey.