By: Jeffrey Edwards

The new head of the National Security Agency’s new Cybersecurity Directorate is an Orthodox Jewish woman from Brooklyn.

Anne Neuberger, who helped establish the U.S. Cyber Command, has worked for American intelligence agency for the past decade. She has also worked as chief risk officer, where she led the agency’s election security efforts for the 2018 midterms. She currently is an assistant deputy director the agency.

Neuberger formerly served as the deputy chief management officer at the U.S. Navy and worked for the secretary of defense.

“Neuberger, 43, also known as Chani, is from the heavily Jewish Brooklyn, New York, neighborhood of Borough Park, where she attended the Bais Yaakov Jewish day school for girls, according to the Yeshiva World News. She is a graduate of Touro College in New York and Columbia business school, and worked in the White House Fellows program,” reported Haaretz.

Indeed, she told The Wall Street Journal in an interview that the directorate will more actively use signals intelligence gleaned from expanded operations against adversaries.

“As part of its mission, the directorate will work to protect the U.S. from foreign threats by sharing insight into specific cyber threats with other federal agencies as well as the private sector,” said Haaretz. “She will be one of the highest-ranking women at the NSA since Ann Caracristi was named deputy director in 1980, according to the newspaper. Neuberger will report to the agency’s head, Gen. Paul Nakasone.”

An NSA statement, in Q&A form, explained the mission ahead for Neuberger:

Q: What is NSA’s Cybersecurity Directorate and what is its mission?

A: NSA’s Cybersecurity Directorate is a major organization that unifies NSA’s foreign intelligence and cyber defense missions and is charged with preventing and eradicating threats to National Security Systems and the Defense Industrial Base.

Q: Who is leading NSA’s Cybersecurity Directorate?

A: Ms. Anne Neuberger is the Director of Cybersecurity and reports directly to General Nakasone. Her previous positions include but are not limited to NSA’s first Chief Risk Officer, Deputy Director of Operations, and Lead of NSA’s Russia Small Group.

Q: When will this new directorate be in effect?

A: The Cybersecurity Directorate will be in its initial operating capability as of 1 October 2019.

Q: Does this new directorate change NSA’s cybersecurity mission?

A: The Cybersecurity Directorate will reinvigorate our white hat mission opening the door to partners and customers on a wide variety of cybersecurity efforts. It will also build on our past successes such as Russia Small Group to operationalize our threat intelligence, vulnerability assessments, and cyber defense expertise to defeat our adversaries in cyberspace.

Q: What contributions does the Cybersecurity Directorate bring to the cybersecurity effort?

A: This new approach to cybersecurity will better position NSA to collaborate with key partners across the U.S. government like U.S. Cyber Command, Department of Homeland Security, and Federal Bureau of Investigation. It will also enable us to better share information with our customers so they are equipped to defend against malicious cyber activity.

By: Ezra Ashkenazi

There has been a dispute for ages on who will fund a renovation of the rail infrastructure connecting New Jersey to New York. Recently, there has been statements made that point to progress on the project getting federal funding. Last year, the project was rated too low, and in a dispute on how much money New Jersey itself was going to pay, the project was disqualified from the federal funding grant program. One specific part of the Gateway project is to improve the transportation over the Hudson river. Right now, the Portal North bridge is crossed by 200,000 people and 450 trains everyday according to a Crain’s Business article.

The bridge needs improvements, for example, it often gets stuck when it splits in the middle to give boats beneath the bridge room, causing many traffic delays. In order to improve productivity in traveling across the Hudson, the project also wants to launch a new rail tunnel under the river. However, the funding for this specific project was also stalled as a result of funding disputes with the federal government. This slight progress is the furthest along the project has gotten since it completed design work, and received environmental approval in 2013.

The Gateway project as a whole lacked federal funding, as it was given a low rating, by the Federal Transit Administration. It was later disqualified from a key federal grant program even though the state of New Jersey put together 600 million dollars for the project. They needed to get around 811 million dollars from federal funding in order to begin working on this enormous project. Last week, acting Federal Transportation Administration administrator K. Jane Williams said that the New Jersey Transit, who is supervising this project, is “Making progress” in gaining the ability to fight for a higher urgency rating so they can receive the funding from the federal government.

According to a Crain’s Business article, however, “Democratic New Jersey Reps. Donald Payne and Tom Malinowski… along with fellow New Jersey Democrat Albio Sires wrote to Williams on Wednesday noting that those benchmarks have already been met.” So the progress is definitely more than what has been made before but the exact progress seems to be arguable based on who one would ask. Jerry Zaro, the chairman of the Gateway Development Corp., said, “Portal is ready to move forward and finally deliver 21st-century transportation for 200,000 daily passengers who will never again have to endure delays due to an ancient, moveable bridge,” All in all this project would help many get to their destinations faster and more effectively, we hope the funding is given as soon as possible.

By: Robert Bouyant

Queens Borough President Melinda Katz claimed victory Thursday after a recount gave her a slight lead in the Democratic primary—but her opponent plans to take the battle to court, Crain’s reported.

More than 85,000 votes were counted electronically in the June 25th primary for Queens District attorney election to replace longtime DA Richard Brown, who recently passed. Last week, after the initial count, 31-year-old Tiffany Cabán, held the lead. The progressive public defender declared victory over the six democratic candidates who competed, earning 39.6 percent of the votes. Katz came in close with 38.3 percent of the votes, with 99 percent of precincts reporting. Katz, formerly a NYC councilwoman, refused to concede to defeat, saying that there were still absentee ballots that had not yet been accounted for. Cabán’s lead stood at 1.3 percentage points, which is above the 0.5-point threshold that would require a recount. Still, she pointed out that there were roughly 3,400 absentee ballots still being counted, JV previously reported.

Katz stunned the city, amassing a hefty percentage of the absentee votes to make up for the 1,090-vote lead Cabán held over her. Astonishingly, Katz must have won over two-thirds of the mailed and signed votes. After a count of absentee and affidavit votes, Katz at the time lead by 20 votes. This extremely close result triggered an automatic recount.

A three-week manual tally of ballots cast in last month’s election left Katz, the preferred candidate of the local party establishment, 60 votes ahead of insurgent Tiffany Cabán., as per Crain’s

The borough president Friday declared victory for the second time this month.

“Now that every valid vote has been counted and recounted, the results confirm once again that the people of Queens have chosen Melinda Katz as the Democratic nominee for district attorney,” her campaign said in a statement.

The New York City Board of Elections officially declared Monday that Queens Borough President Melinda Katz narrowly topped her Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez-backed challenger, Tiffany Cabán, in the Democratic primary to become the county’s next district attorney, NY Post reported

But the fight for the party’s nomination will continue Wednesday in Queens Supreme Court, where public defender Cabán plans to argue the BOE improperly excluded hundreds of ballots that could once again tip the scales in her favor, NY Post reported.

The parties — that were the subject of the litigation that’s coming up — were given full, fair, open and transparent access to every step of these proceedings,” said Board of Elections executive director Michael Ryan. “At the conclusion, the faith of the public will rest easy.”

The winner of the Democratic contest will become the heavy favorite to win the job in the November general election in the increasingly socialist leftist leading borough, as the local Republican party has churned out candidates who can barely scrape up 20% of the vote in most races across NYC. Essentially, NYC is becoming a one-party city, with two variations of Democrats, liberals and radical leftists such as Cabán.

By: Dennis Morley

A Bronx man has been arrested for attempting to provide material support for terrorism.

Delowar Mohammed Hossain was arrested at John F. Kennedy International Airport while allegedly attempting to provide material support for acts of terrorism, specifically in support of killing U.S. nationals located overseas. Hossain was presented before Magistrate Judge Stewart D. Aaron in Manhattan federal court.

“As alleged, Hossain planned to travel overseas and join the Taliban in order to kill American soldiers,” said Assistant Attorney General Demers. “The threat of terrorism at home and abroad remains, and the National Security Division is committed to preventing individuals from carrying out deadly plans such as this. I want to thank the agents, analysts, and prosecutors who are responsible for this case.”

Hossain allegedly “plotted to travel to Afghanistan to join the Taliban, specifically so he could commit acts of terrorism,” said U.S. Attorney Berman. “Hossain wanted to kill Americans, and particularly wanted to target members of our armed forces, serving our nation overseas. The excellent work of the FBI and NYPD stopped Hossain’s alleged deadly plan to join the Taliban before he took flight, and he now faces federal terrorism charges.”

As alleged in the criminal Complaint filed in Manhattan federal court, beginning in the fall of 2018, Hossain expressed his desire to join the Taliban and fight against American forces, according to DOJ. “ Over the months that followed, Hossain attempted to recruit a confidential source of the FBI (CS-1) to travel with Hossain from the United States to Pakistan, and then to cross the border into Afghanistan to join the Taliban. Hossain told CS-1 that his purpose was to “fight the American government from there . . . combined with the Taliban,” and that “I want to kill some kufars [non-believers] before I die.” Hossain described to CS-1 steps he had taken to prevent detection of his plan, such as planning to reach Pakistan by first flying to Thailand, which Hossain believed would conceal his ultimate goal of joining the Taliban. At the same time, Hossain made preparations to fight in Afghanistan, including buying equipment such as walkie-talkies and trekking gear and instructing CS-1 to save money “to buy weapons” after reaching Afghanistan.”

Hossain purchased an airline ticket for a flight scheduled to depart on July 26, 2019, from JFK Airport, to Thailand, for the first leg of the route to Afghanistan that Hossain had described to CS-1. On July 26, Hossain traveled to JFK Airport, where the FBI arrested him after he attempted to board that flight.

“The criminal complaint in this case reveals Delowar Hossain had a despicable goal. He wanted to make his way to Afghanistan, join up with Taliban forces, and kill Americans,” said Assistant Director McGarrity. “But he failed because members of the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force interrupted his plans. The FBI is committed to working with our law enforcement partners to stop those who want to commit acts of terrorism here in the U.S. or overseas.”

By: Jared Evan

US District Judge Richard Berman doesn’t want that information to leak out in the Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking case and issued a protective order, Bloomberg reported.

The so-called protective order, standard in criminal cases, strictly limits how Epstein’s legal team can handle the information, and bars Epstein from reviewing the evidence outside the presence of his lawyers. It also prohibits anyone involved in the case, including the government, from causing any of the material to be posted online or on social media, Crain’s explained.

Controversial billionaire Jeffrey Epstein was arrested earlier in July in New York City for allegedly sex trafficking underage girls in New York and Florida, TJV reported. Epstein, 66, has been embroiled in allegations of sexual abuse against minors for a number of years. A decade ago, the hedge fund manager received a lenient plea deal after being accused of paying girls for sexual massages in Florida.

Epstein’s exploits have long been a topic of real investigative journalists and alternative media sources for close to a decade. Rarely mentioned by main stream media, his high profile arrest in NY forced Epstein into the spotlight for the general public to soak in. People have been speculating which high profile politicians and celebrities were involved in these perverted and highly illegal activities. Bill Clinton’s name has been at the top of the speculation for years.

With this protective order set in place by Berman, the public is going to have to wait longer to learn the truth.

In other developments s some of the long-time personal pilots Jeffrey Epstein have been subpoenaed by federal prosecutors as investigators scrutinize the convicted sex offender’s travels, according to Washington Examiner.

It isn’t clear which pilots were subpoenaed, what topics the subpoenas cover, and whether any of the pilots are working with investigators already. Epstein, who has homes in New York City, Florida, New Mexico, and the Virgin Islands, was arrested at Teterboro Airport in New Jersey earlier this month when he arrived from Paris, France, where he also has a residence, Washington Examiner explained.

Some of Epstein’s alleged victims have said the logs show they were on Epstein’s so-called “Lolita Express” when they were underage, and that Epstein’s pilots and other employees helped him break the law in the late 1990s and early 2000, Washington Examiner stated.

With Epstein’s legal team poised to begin reviewing prosecutors’ evidence, Berman said that any publication of the materials would “affect the privacy and confidentiality of individuals” and impede the investigation into others who haven’t been charged” Bloomberg reported the judge stating.

On July 23rd it was reported that Epstein may have attempted to kill himself while in jail. Almost instantaneously upon this news being broke the term “Clinton Body count” trended to the top of the online world. Ever since Vince Foster’s alleged suicide, thousands of journalists, and investigators have pondered if the Clinton’s have used their power and intelligence connections to have their political enemies and people with knowledge of possible Clinton wrongdoings killed off.

By Henrietta Fishman

The Port Authority on Thursday approved installing cashless tolls at the George Washington Bridge and Lincoln and Holland tunnels.

The agency will spend $240 million to replace the existing toll collection system at the crossings by 2021, NJ.com reported.

The George Washington Bridge, Lincoln and Holland tunnels will join two of the authority’s Staten Island crossings that already have cashless toll collection.

The agency’s board approved $240 million in contracts to do the work at the three Hudson River crossings and hire Conduent State & Local Solutions, Inc. to add the system to the E-Z Pass work it already does for the authority, NJ.com explained.

Motorists with E-ZPass will pass under a system that will debit the toll from their accounts. Those who don’t have E-ZPass will have a photo taken of their license plates and get a bill in the mail. The Port Authority says the technology will reduce travel time and crashes.

For the close to 88% of drivers who now use E-Z Pass to pay tolls, this won’t change much, except for some toll plaza traffic patterns and hopefully, reducing some of the traffic, NJ.com reported.

Building gantries to hang the toll readers and cameras on, modifying the approach roads and demolishing toll plazas is estimated to cost $89 million at the bridge and $60 million at the two tunnels.

This is also part of the broader congestion pricing plan. Port Authority officials expect collection systems in place by 2021, when New York City officials plan to implement congestion pricing, a program where drivers would be charged a toll if they enter Manhattan below 60th Street.

Thirty-four states have toll roads, according to International Bridge, Tunnel and Turnpike Association, which represents owners and operators of toll facilities At least 23 of them use some type of electronic tolling in combination with a cash payment system.

Toll collector jobs have dwindled and will continue to do so.

“It is a dying profession,” Bill Cramer, communications director for the International Bridge, Tunnel and Turnpike Association, explained to Pew research group.

A growing number of states are eliminating toll plazas entirely in some areas and moving to all-electronic systems. At least six — California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Massachusetts and Texas — have swapped traditional toll booths for cashless systems on some roads or bridges, Cramer said. That allows drivers to zip past without having to slow down or queue into single-file lanes. This fast convenience is what we will see at the 3 Hudson crossings.

On San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge, for instance, officials did away with toll booths two years ago and moved to an all-electronic system. Twenty-eight full-time toll collector jobs were eliminated. Some transitioned to other position, Pew Research documented.

By Howard M. Riell

A Queens man is said to have stumbled into a fortune after finding an original drawing by renowned Austrian artist Egon Schiele – who died more than a century ago — in a Queens thrift store.

The drawing’s value is being placed at approximately $200,000.

The purchaser, whose name has not been made known, found the expensive drawing at a Habitat for Humanity thrift shop in Woodside, Queens, according to The Art Newspaper. Soon after, he reportedly reached out to Jane Kallir, director of Galerie St. Etienne.

“Ninety percent of the time they’re wrong,” Kallir is said to have told the store, according to the New York Post. “Most of them are fakes—egregious copies.”

The buyer took the etching to the gallery, where Kallier confirmed it was genuine. “It was a girl who modeled for Schiele frequently, both alone and sometimes with her mother, in 1918,” Kallir told the Post. She also pointed out that the art work had probably been one in a series used as studies for Schiele’s final lithograph, titled simply “Girl.”

“If you look at the way this girl is lying on her back, and you look at the foreshortening both on the rib cage and on her face, and the way you see that little nose pointing up — think about how difficult that is to do,” Kallir told the Post. ““There are very few people in the history of art who can draw like that.” The drawing is on display at Galerie St. Etienne in Manhattan through Oct. 11.”

“If it sells, the man who found the drawing plans to donate some of the proceeds to Habitat for Humanity New York City, Kallir said, according to CNN.

“We are ecstatic!” Karen Haycox, chief executive of Habitat for Humanity New York City, told The Art Newspaper. “And, maybe a little bit in shock but ultimately really happy for all involved.

According to CNN, Haycox added, “I can’t help but think that were it not for the Habitat NYC ReStore, this piece of art history might have ended up in a landfill, lost forever.”

“Kallir even placed the work alongside two others that may have been drawn in that same modeling session,” according to the web site artsy.net. “Kallir observed in her authentication of the drawing the specific cream wove paper and the type of black pencil used by Schiele. She also pointed out stylistic notes specific to Schiele, saying: “If you look at the way this girl is lying on her back, and you look at the foreshortening both on the rib cage and on her face, and the way you see that little nose pointing up—think about how difficult that is to do [. . .] There are very few people in the history of art who can draw like that.”

By: Ezra Ashkenazi

Tosun Bayrak al-Jerrahi al-Halveti is the founder of the Jerrahi Order of America mosque in Chestnut Ridge. The leader and founder of the mosque passed away at the age of 92 in February of 2018. A few days later he was buried behind the mosque, without many people outside of the mosque and officials knowing. However, in May of this year, the mosque used imported Turkish marble to create an extravagant monument in the Imam’s honor. They also installed a bench right next to it.

According to a New York Post article, the monument has a famous saying engraved into it, it says, “The most beloved of Allah’s servants are those who engender Allah’s love in his servants and their love in Allah.” Although a burial site is meant to be where the dead rest in peace, there has been no peace regarding the private burial site. The people who are opposed to this burial are led by a former FBI agent, and their main claim is that backyard graves are a public health risk and that the officials should have never approved the burial to be done.

The ex FBI agent’s name is Hilda Kogut, and she is also the chairwoman of Citizens United to Protect Our Neighborhoods. She is leading the opposition to the burial and recently said, “I don’t think that an incorporated village where people live next door to one another on small or large parcels of land should allow the burial of human remains on properties.” She also called the town policy a “Shock to the system.” After seeing the backlash of the town residents, the officials claimed that they in fact did not approve the burial back in 2018, and that the mosque “did it against our respectful wishes.”

The officials said that they tried to verbally prevent the burial, but they had no legal authority to shut down the burial. The new leader of the mosque, Yurdaer Dognata, said that his congregation followed, “local safety codes and health regulations and used a traditional casket. It was a green burial and there were no chemicals used. The grave site was approximately six feet deep. A member of our community who is a licensed contractor performed the ground preparations.” The Mayor of the town, Mayor Presti, hopes to soon draft a law to prevent backyard burial. However, the buried body of the late leader of the mosque cannot be moved.

(Ezra Ashkenazi is currently an intern in the Jewish Voice Student Journalist Initiative)

By Clark Savage, Jr.

Jeffrey Parsons, the psychology professor at CUNY’s Hunter College campus on the Upper East Side who resigned last month, is alleged to have hired his photographer husband at a fee of more than $600,000 in taxpayers’ money, to shoot photos.

The husband, Chris Hietikko, “though not a CUNY employee, also collected big bucks in grant dollars working for Parsons’ Center for HIV Educational Studies and Training, known as CHEST,” according to the New York Post. “Hietikko’s Mindful Designs company was paid an average $82,000 a year — or a total of $656,000 — from 2011 to 2018, according to a CUNY spokesman who said the work was cleared by a conflict of interest panel. He is no longer working for CUNY.”

Hietikko is also reported to have designed recruitment ads for CHEST studies. But, the Post piece continued, “he collected money from CHEST far longer than just eight years. A 2013 federal grant application said he worked “with the center for more than 12 years,” providing “a variety of recruitment and project materials.”

Parsons achieved celebrity status in some quarters for his research on HIV and drug use. According to published reported, he resigned in the wake of reports of misconduct.

The professor exited his position at the beginning of July “after an investigation substantiated claims that the professor used cocaine at school events and hosted university-affiliated, booze-fueled parties where he was accused of sexually harassing other employees,” according to Patch.com. The investigation began after a get-together organized by Parsons at the Stonewall Inn on May 18.

“Dr. Parsons’ conduct was reprehensible. There is no place for it at CUNY. By dealing with what happened decisively and to the fullest extent, the University is sending a clear message that there will be zero tolerance of sexual harassment or sexual misconduct,” CUNY spokesman Frank Sobrino told Patch in a statement.

According to the New York Post, Parsons led CUNY’s Center for HIV Educational Studies and Training while teaching at the university. The Center drew headlines for its research into unsafe sex and drug use. For that, it garnered millions of dollars in grants.

“Each year, Parsons would throw a party for the center’s staff using money from a school expense account, according to the report,” noted Patch.com. “The parties grew increasingly raunchy every year, and Parsons’ behavior at the 2018 event caused employees to bring complaints to university administrators. The professor was accused of forcing employees to drink, telling employees to take off their shirts and lifting an employee’s shirt to expose their chest without their permission, the Post reported.”

“The mission of Hunter College’s PRIDE Health Research Consortium (which stands for Promoting Resilience, Intersectionality, Diversity, and Equity) is to support research to understand the structural, social, and psychological determinants of health disparities for sexual and gender minority (SGM) communities, to investigate the role of gender and sexuality in health, and to design and implement empirically-supported interventions to reduce disparities among these communities in pursuit of health equity,” the colleges notes on its prideresearch.org web site.

By Andy Mayfair

A three-year-old rap video in which a singer – now a New York City police officer — declares “war against the white man on the beat” has members of the force nervous.

Police Officer Atisha Samuel’s video was a hit on social media, but now it may come back to bite her.

According to atlantablackstar.com, the officer is currently being investigated by the NYPD for her music video. “The Midtown North Precinct officer posted the controversial video just one month before joining the police force. However, she’s tried her best to delete all traces of the footage, but one clip still remains on Instagram.”

In the video, atlantablackstar.com reported, Samuel is wearing a Black ski mask and t-shirt standing beside her fiance. “She recites, “It’s the war against the white man on the beat — with his handguns, quick to pull out on a n–ga if he dare run… They say we gotta make America great again, we were never great, we were slaves and caged in… They see us like a gorilla in a jungle…So we gotta get it…A black ski mask and a black fitted…Got my crew and a couple hittas.” The 26-year-old’s verse is in light of the umpteen cases of police brutality with images of Eric Garner and Sean Bell flashing across the screen.”

Several of her fellow police officers have weighed in, confiding that they do not feel safe working with her, and complaining about the racial hypocrisy involve.

Samuel, who wore a black ski mask in the video, has now filed a lawsuit against New York City, claiming that her co-workers are trying to undermine her at work, according to her Manhattan Federal Court papers that have been filed.

“According to the complaint, Samuel said her car was keyed; a union rep told her to “ask for forgiveness” from fellow cops at roll call; she was followed by the NYPD’s Career Advancement Review Board and hauled into an Internal Affairs meeting and “asked if she had a problem with cops,” reported the New York Post. “In at least one instance, supervisors did not send backup when Samuel and her partner responded to a call of a violent emotionally disturbed person, she claims in court papers.”

The song is about peace and the offending lyric was taken “out of context,” Christopher Albanese told The Post. “The song is not against the cops in any capacity,” Albanese said. The entire stanza, the lawyer said, is, “Sh*t is getting real. My little black brothers are out here getting killed. If it’s not a war against ’n—gas’ in the street, it’s a war against the white man on the beat.”

By Pat Savage

Everyone makes mistakes, the expression goes, but when the eraser wears out before the pencil, you’re pushing it.

What about a divorce proceeding that lasts longer (two years and counting) than the marriage (14 months)?

“A Manhattan socialite has dragged out a divorce and custody battle with her estranged elevator executive husband for twice the length of their actual marriage while cycling through nine lawyers, her ex’s attorney alleged in court Friday,” the New York Post has reported.

Actress Julianne Michelle Reeves, 34, and her husband Karl Reeves went their separate ways back in 2017. Since then, she has hurled accusations of abuse, cocaine use, infidelity and financial shenanigans. He denies them all.

“They were one of Park Avenue’s golden couples. A socialite-turned-actress and her millionaire CEO husband. New York society pages called their wedding a ‘fairy tale’ and the groom a ‘Prince Charming’,” reported the Daily Mail.

Reeves is reportedly attempting to cut off his ex-wife’s spousal support.

“As the couple both fight for full legal and physical custody of their two-year-old daughter, a disturbing portrait has emerged of a relationship allegedly marred by abuse, drugs, racism, and violence,” according to the Daily Mail. “The court documents, video, and audio clips seen exclusively by DailyMail.com allege that Reeves, the owner of elevator installation company CEI New York, is a Neo-Nazi. Video also show Reeves snorting what appears to be ketamine and cocaine from a glass dish in his kitchen, while records appear to capture him threatening to kill his actress wife’s parents.”

This was a high-profile marriage made in heaven. The November 2015 news item announcing it in the New York Times reads almost like a fairytale: “Julianne Michelle, a daughter of Joycelyn Engle and Joseph A. Di Palma of Manhattan, was married Saturday to Karl Christian Reeves, the son of Charlotte D. Revesz of Suffern, N.Y., and Karl Revesz of Manhattan. The Rev. Daniel G. O’Hare, a Roman Catholic priest, performed the ceremony at the Church of St. Ignatius Loyola in Manhattan.

“The bride, 31, will continue to use her name professionally,” the Times continued. “She is an actress who has appeared in films and on television. She had a lead role in a 2006 film “The House Is Burning” and starred in “Awakened,” a 2014 film that was directed by her mother and for which the bride wrote the music and lyrics to four songs. The bride also owns Juls New York, a line of bracelets that she designs. She graduated from Marymount Manhattan College, and is pursuing a master’s degree in social work at Columbia.”

By: Benyamin Davidsons

Bernie Madoff refuses to accept defeat.

The former money manager, who was convicted of masterminding the notorious Ponzi scheme, has asked for President Donald Trump’s help in getting a reduced sentence. While the 81-year-old shied away from asking for a full pardon, he has petitioned for a “commutation of sentence”, or to decrease his 150-year jail sentence. The petition for clemency, filed with the Justice Department, is currently listed as “pending” on the agency’s website. While it is not known when exactly Madoff filed the petition, it was first reported last week, by NBC news.

In March 2009, Madoff pleaded guilty to 11 financial crimes. On June 29, 2009, Judge Chin sentenced Madoff to the maximum sentence of 150 years in federal prison. Once the esteemed Chairman of the NASDAQ, Madoff has since been serving his sentence at a federal prison in Butner, North Carolina. Madoff was taken to the hospital a few times during his early incarceration, due to injuries incurred in prison.

It is being widely speculated whether Mr. Trump will deny or accept Madoff’s request. As reported by USA Today, the President has only rarely pardoned or given clemency during his term to those who applied formally through the Justice Department. Last year, Trump denied 180 requests from prisoners who applied for pardons and commutations through the DOJ.

Incidentally, Trump has occasionally pardoned political allies who did not officially apply for a pardon, as well as people who were recommended by celebrities. Recipients of his good will include Dinesh D’Souza, the conservative political commentator charged with making illegal campaign contributions in a senate campaign, and Joe Arpaio, former Sheriff of Maricopa County, Arizona and Republican politician charged with criminal contempt of court.

Furthering the case for commentators who predict Trump will deny the request for clemency, are the comments Trump has made about Madoff in the past. In 2008, when the allegations were first rising up, during a CNN interview Trump called Madoff a “sleazebag,” “a total crook,” and a “disgrace”. In his 2009 book, “Think Like a Champion,” Trump also seized the opportunity to criticized Madoff. “He is without a doubt a sleazebag and a scoundrel without par,” Trump wrote.

Marc Litt, who was the head federal prosecutor in the criminal case against Madoff, expressed his dismay at Madoff’s request. “Bernard Madoff received a fair and just sentence – one that both appropriately punished him for decades of criminal conduct that caused devastating damage to tens of thousands of victims, and sent a loud and clear message to deter would-be fraudsters,” said Litt. “Madoff’s current request is the very definition of chutzpah.”

By Pat Savage

It’s the kind of story – wealth and power, illicit sex, an innocent child, a playground of the rich and famous, and high drama in the courtroom – that some editors dream of.

The New York Post captured it beautifully in its headline: “Wasserstein heirs battle with dad’s love child over $2.3 billion Hamptons estate.”

The illegitimate child of the deceased banker and owner of New York magazine, Bruce Wasserstein – an 11-year old girl – is saying through her representatives that five half siblings are conspiring to rip her off to the tune of a $2.3 billion estate, a mansion in the exclusive Hamptons.

“In addition to six kids, Wasserstein, who died in 2009 at age 61, left behind a widow, two ex-wives, a mistress, and four lavish residences: a London townhouse, a Paris apartment, a 17-acre Santa Barbara estate, and a sprawling 27.5-acre oceanfront East Hampton property known as Cranberry Dune,” the Post reported.

Erin McCarthy was reportedly sleeping with a married Wasserstein, got pregnant and had a child, named Sky, in 2008. Apparently, the other kids don’t want to share with the result of their dad’s dalliance.

Wasserstein, of course, was born and raised in Midwood, Brooklyn. He was one of five children of Lola (née Schleifer) and Morris Wasserstein, a Jewish immigrant from pre-World War II Poland who emigrated to New York City and started a ribbon company. Wasserstein’s maternal grandfather, Simon Schleifer, was a Jewish teacher in the yeshiva in Wloclawek, Poland who later emigrated to Paterson, New Jersey and became a Hebrew school principal.

Piety, however, has no place in this tale. Despite his impressive credentials — investment banker, businessman, graduate of the McBurney School, the University of Michigan, Harvard Business School, and Harvard Law School (plus a year at the University of Cambridge) – Wasserstein had trouble with fidelity.

“The trustees overseeing the estate sold three of the four homes before reaching the 2015 deal with McCarthy, but Sky hasn’t gotten a penny from the property deal since the two sides are still squabbling over how much Cranberry Dune is worth,” the Post chronicled. “The estate insists the Further Lane property, which includes a 23,500-square-foot, seven-bedroom manse, is worth just $120 million.”

Wasserstein’s somewhat unkempt family tree looks like this:’

– Laura Lynelle Killin (married 1968, divorced 1974).

– Christine Parrott (divorced 1992 after giving birth to three kids, Ben, Pam and Scoop.

– Claude Becker (married 1996, divorced 2008 but not before having a pair of sons together).

– Angela Chao, (married 2009, up until Wasserstein’s death).

By Marty Goldblatt

A landlord trying to dismantle the new rent law through the federal courts system was just handed a procedural loss in New York Supreme Court.

Two tenants in Astoria sued the Mycak family’s company Vermyck LLC last year over accusations of violating the J-51 program by not giving them a rent-stabilized lease when they moved into the building, Real Deal Reported.

The landlords were receiving tax benefits under the J-51 program while at the same time due to former de-regulatory rules, the apartments were no longer rent stabilized.

The class action lawsuit will consist of all tenants who live or lived in apartments that were deregulated while the owners were still receiving J-51 tax benefits on the property, according to court documents.

“This decision sends a clear message that the court will not tolerate any more of this landlord’s nonsense, and we’re pleased that these tenants are one step closer to receiving the relief to which they are rightfully entitled: rent stabilized leases and hundreds of thousands of dollars in rent refunds,” the plaintiffs’ attorney Lucas Ferrara said in a statement.

Richard Walsh, attorney for the Mycaks, responded by saying “does not mean the plaintiffs are correct” and that the court “never addressed our argument that the default formula was also a penalty and the plaintiffs had to waive it to achieve class action status.”

The Mycaks, Katz Realty Group and Constance Nugent-Miller are the three landlords suing New York City and a state agency over the strict new rent laws the state passed in June. They claim it violates the Constitution’s Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments, Real Deal reported.

Lawmakers had reached a deal in June on a number of reforms to the current laws, which affect about one million regulated apartments in New York City, and repackaged them into one bill dubbed the Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act of 2019.

Some of the key elements of the laws include: Rent regulations extended so they won’t expire like they have every four to eight years for decades, vacancy decontrol, or when a unit is removed from rent-stabilization because the monthly price hits a certain threshold, currently $2,774.76, and it becomes vacant, has been repealed, and If an owner has given a tenant a unit at a “preferential rent,” a price below the legal regulated rent, he or she will no longer be able to raise the rent to the full legal limit at a lease renewal. AM NY reported in detail on the new laws.

An investigation by the Housing Rights Initiative led to the lawsuit.

“It’s highly ironic that the landlord accused of flouting the old rent laws is now suing to challenge the new ones,” HRI executive director Aaron Carr said in a statement. “This victory couldn’t be more timely”, as was reported by the Real Deal.

The Rent Stabilization Association and the Community Housing Improvement Program are spearheading the suit. RSA president Joe Strasburg previously told The Real Deal he was not bothered that the Mycaks were both a plaintiff in a lawsuit over the new rent laws and a defendant in a lawsuit over the old rent laws.

By: Ezra Ashkenazi

The enormous lower Manhattan office at One Whitehall street is on the market for approximately $182 million. The building was developed by Rudin management in 1962, and it was renovated in 1989. The 387,390 square foot building is made of glass and steel. It is being sold by Bill and Eric Rudin who need to settle estate taxes for the leader of the Rudin family, Jack Rudin, who passed away in 2016. The buyers of the building is Jacob and Joe Chetrit, and closing is expected within 60 days, according to the New York Post. The ground floor of the building is occupied by the US post office and Duane Reade, a pharmacy. The upstairs office tenants include the Regional Plan Association, and Topps, a trading card company.

Topps now occupies 66,000 square feet on the fourth through sixth floors in a lease that expires in the late part of 2020. Other tenants have lower scale leases that end over the next six years. The building itself is magnificent and it will definitely boost future clientele. The building has outdoor terraces and smart building technology. There are also building-wide amenities that will definitely help the future owners get tenants.

The Rudin family was also planning on selling a building that they own at 110 Wall Street, however, they pulled the offering after the Whitehall building’s contract was signed. As for their building on Wall street, the Post says, Workspace startup WeWork subleases the entire property at 110 Wall St. for both co-living and co-working under a net lease for the next 22 years. The Newport Office Centre 4 in Jersey City was also placed on the market by another New York family facing a lot of estate taxes.

The LeFraks, have to sell their lavish Jersey City building as a result of the huge amount of taxes they now face after Sam Lefrak’s wife, Ethel Passed in 2013. They are selling the building through Cushman & Wakefield investment brokers. The pricing is going to begin above an astonishing 400 million dollars. This isn’t the first building they sold this year either. They sold the Newport Office Centre 6 to a company called iStar for around 170 million dollars. Although the families wish they didn’t have to sell these buildings, they are getting a lot of money to settle their tax problems, which is their main priority.

(Ezra Ashkenazi is currently an intern in the Jewish Voice Student Journalist Initiative)