The suspect accused in the Monsey Hanukkah stabbings is back in court today. A doctor hired by the attorney for Grafton Thomas recently determined he is not competent to stand trial. The psychiatric examination also shows he has schizophrenia. The Greenwood Lake man is facing six counts of attempted murder and other charges stemming from the stabbings at a rabbi’s home in December. He has pleaded not guilty. Meanwhile, a court ruled that attorney Michael Sussman may continue representing Thomas. Prosecutors were looking to remove Sussman, arguing he is a witness in the case after he searched a home Thomas may have lived in a few years ago and removed evidence. NEW YORK: now at the court case on the Monsey Stabbing terrorist, Grafton Thomas, at the New City Courthouse.

YWN regrets to inform you of the Petira of R’ Yerachmiel Shraga Feivel (Rocky) Zweig Z”L who was Niftar on Tuesday morning. He was 69. “Rocky” was born in Boro Park and spent most of his life in Flatbush. He was one of the original founders of Neginah Orchestra around 50 years ago. For the past 10 years he wrote weekly columns in the Flatbush Jewish Journal, something that thousands of readers looked forward to each week, with his humor and opinions about a multitude of topics. His letters and articles elicited much response and he always enjoyed debating people in good spirits. Unfortunately, he suffered from a lung illness and was waiting for a lung transplant the past year. Despite his Yesurim, Rocky was always Besimcha – with his humorous quips and a good word to others.

New York retailers have begun giving up single-use plastic bags as the state prepares for the March 1 implementation of a ban aimed at reducing pollution, but many of those who support a move away from plastic are worried the new law doesn’t go far enough. The law bars many types of businesses from using the thin plastic bags that have been clogging up landfills, getting tangled in trees and accumulating in lakes and seas. Single-use paper bags will still be allowed, but counties have the option of imposing a 5 cent fee. As the deadline to drop plastic bags nears, though, not all environmentalists are ready to celebrate.

A YWN video from 2011 is being used nationally against Bloomberg campaign where he1 predicts that Oabmacare will implode. The video was from when Nachum Segal was sitting Shiva for brother R’ Moshe Z”L. In the video, the Segal family notes that their brother was in the emergency room for 73 hours before he died and they wonder what can be done about emergency room overcrowding. “It’s going to get worse with the health care bill and with the government’s cutbacks,” Bloomberg said. “All of these costs keep going up. Nobody wants to pay any more money, and at the rate we’re going, health care is going to bankrupt us.” “If you show up with prostate cancer and you’re 95 years old, we should say, ‘Go and enjoy. Have a nice (inaudible). Live a long life.

A judge has ordered the developers of a condo tower under construction in New York City to remove several floors from the top of the building because it is too tall. State Supreme Court Justice W. Franc Perry’s ruling last week instructs the Department of Buildings to revoke the building permit for the nearly completed tower on Manhattan’s Upper West Side and remove floors that exceed the zoning limit, The New York Times reported. The number of floors to be removed from the 52-story tower is not yet known, but the newspaper said it could be 20 or more. A lawyer representing the project said the developers would appeal the Feb. 13 decision.

With the Nevada caucuses less than a week away, Democratic presidential candidates campaigning Sunday were fixated on a rival who wasn’t contesting the state. Bernie Sanders, Joe Biden, Amy Klobuchar and Pete Buttigieg all targeted billionaire Mike Bloomberg, accusing him of buying his way into the election and making clear they were eager to take him on in a debate. “He thinks he can buy this election,” Sanders said of the former New York mayor at a rally in Carson City, Nevada. “Well, I’ve got news for Mr. Bloomberg — the American people are sick and tired of billionaires buying elections!” Their attacks are a sign of how seriously the field is starting to take Bloomberg as he gains traction in the race and is on the cusp of qualifying for Wednesday’s Democratic debate in Las Vegas.

A Rebbe in a Kiryas Joel Yeshiva was arrested on Friday. The crime? Hitting a child. Sources tell YWN that the 13-year-old child was hit by his Rebbe, and the child immediately called the police to file a complaint. The NY State Police arrived at the Yeshiva, and after an investigation, took the rebbe into custody. A photo of the NY State Police outside the Yeshiva quickly went viral. It appears the rebbe has since been released. Recently, YWN reported about another incident where a Rebbe struck a child, and published a Halachic analysis by Rabbi Yair Hoffman if this is permitted. The following is the analysis: UNITED STATES LAW Shockingly enough – there is no Federal law in the United States that prohibits corporal punishment in the United States.

David Ourlicht was a college student, walking down a street near campus, when he became one of millions of New Yorkers swept up in the era of stop and frisk. A police officer accosted Ourlicht, deeming suspicious a bulge in his jacket. Police patted him down, told him to stand against a wall, emptied his pockets, finding nothing illegal, and accused him of lying about his address, according to court testimony. The 2008 encounter ended with a disorderly conduct summons, which was later dismissed. Ourlicht was embarrassed, angry and rattled, but not surprised. Police encounters like that had become a cornerstone of policing under then-Mayor Mike Bloomberg and a fact of life for Ourlicht, who is of black and white heritage, and his friends growing up.

Two stories today are making headlines in just how insane the new “bail reform” law that New York Democrats shoved down the throats of every New Yorker on January 1st actually are. In one story, a 19-year-old thug named Elijah Hodge was released after his latest in a long line of arrests – for allegedly joyriding in a stolen car in Brooklyn. Hodge was previously charged with an attack on a plainclothes NYPD captain in Midtown last October. An NYPD source tells YWN that he was also charged in the attacks of six elderly Hasidic Jews who were walking to Shul in Williamsburg this past August. In those incidents, at least two of the victims were punched in the face, and all 6 had their pockets emptied.

Last week, the New York State Legislature held its annual joint Senate and Assembly budget hearings on the topic of education in New York State. These hearings directly impact the final budget allocations for education-related expenses in the state. The Legislature heard testimony from Interim State Education Commissioner Shannon Tahoe, New York City Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza, and other stakeholders. Rabbi Yeruchim Silber, Agudath Israel’s Director of New York Government Relations, testified on matters of concern to the Orthodox community. On the matter of substantial equivalency, he related how over 140,000 individuals and groups commented last summer opposing the regulations proposed by the New York State Education Department.