Coming Soon.

The candidate endorsed by right-to-die proponent Michael Schiavo for the Senate race in Connecticut is losing steam as incumbent Sen. Joseph Lieberman has widened the margin between himself and Schiavo-supported challenger, Ned Lamont.

Jeanine Pirro is the most popular Republican running for state office because she is the closest candidate to Rudy Giuliani we have running. And most people admire Rudy because we need more of his toughness and resolve in our leaders, law and policy makers that they may preserve all we entrust them to preserve for our heirs and us.

TALLAHASSEE - Florida Attorney General Charlie Crist has sued an internet service company for improperly tacking unauthorized charges onto consumers' phone bills. Crist also joined Florida's Public Counsel Harold McLean in filing a petition with the Public Service Commission demanding that Verizon, BellSouth and Embarq be held responsible for charges placed on phone bills and calling for full reimbursement for affected consumers.

ALBANY-- New York has joined 27 other states in reaching an an agreement with PayPal, Inc. that resolves concerns about the company's business practices.

LAKE GEORGE---As the town and village of Lake George and hundreds of rescuers, survivors and others prepare to observe the anniversary of the capsizing of the Ethan Allen tour boat on Lake George last Oct. 2, the owner of the boat company which performed modifications to the boat says the public needs to have an accurate understanding of the facts that have been established by the investigation conducted by the National Transportation Safety Board.

ALBANY---An innovative telemedicine initiative that will expand access to stroke care for patients in sparsely populated areas of the state has been launched by NYS Health Commissioner Dr. Antonia Novello.

CHESTERTOWN---It's not game show host Monty Hall who's hollering "let's make a deal", in Warren County, it's Warren County Court Judge John S. Hall.

JOHNSTOWN-The man who shot his sister's four German shepherds and then burned them in his backyard after his mother first tried to kill them with rat poison has pleaded guilty to two counts of felony aggravated animal cruelty under the state's Buster Law.

CUYAHOGA COUNTY, OHIO----Former Oak Harbor attorney Elsebeth Baumgartner appeared in Cuyahoga Common Pleas Court Thursday before Judge Shirley Strickland Saffold who had called the hearing to determine if Baumgartner had found an attorney to represent her in the free speech cases pending on the complaints of retired visiting judge Richard Markus and Baumgartner's former business partner Bryan DuBois and his wife.

The Terri Schiavo case has come full circle.

Payback time.

Pamela A.M. Campbell, the attorney who allegedly committed the fatal error in the Terri Schiavo case which served as the basis for the denial of all future appeals and set the stage for the unprecedented death of a disabled person by judicial order, has been named to the Sixth Judicial Circuit Court by Gov. Jeb Bush where she will now sit alongside Judge George W. Greer, Schiavo executioner; Mark Shames, Schindler betrayer and John Lenderman, brother of Martha Lenderman, George Felos compadré and fellow hospice board member.

LAKE GEORGE---A year ago this weekend, a tour group of 47 senior citizens from Ohio and Michigan were aboard the 40-foot long Ethan Allen tour boat owned by Shoreline Cruises for a leaf peeping tour along the shoreline of Lake George.

ALBANY---It was dirty politics in full gear as five weeks before Election Day it has been revealed that former Westchester district attorney Jeanine Pirro, Republican candidate for Attorney General, is under investigation by the FBI for allegedly engaging in illegal wiretapping to try and catch her husband in a suspected adulterous affair.

WASHINGTON - Joseph Francis, founder, CEO and sole shareholder of two California companies doing business under the name "Girls Gone Wild," has pleaded guilty to charges that he failed to create and maintain age and identity documents for performers in sexually explicit films produced and distributed by Girls Gone Wild, as required by federal law.

NEW YORK---A former New York hospital employee pleaded guilty for his role in a conspiracy involving bid rigging and contract allocation for the supply of telecommunications equipment and services to Mount Sinai School of Medicine and the Mount Sinai Hospital.

WASHINGTON - Horizon West Inc. and its wholly owned subsidiary, Horizon West Healthcare Inc., have agreed to pay the United States $14.7 million to settle allegations that the companies violated the civil False Claims Act.

MIAMI---Two men with a residence in Plantation, Fla., have been charged with illegally transmitting over 25,000 electronic mail messages during a 30-day period.

BUFFALO---Florida, long the retirement destination for thousands of New Yorkers, has mounted a quiet but aggressive campaign to lure more New Yorkers.

But, beware of the guardianship laws in Florida.

RIVIERA BEACH, FLA---Just as Justice Sandra Day O'Connor warned in her dissent in the Kelo eminent domain case last year, lower-income and minority property owners are being forced off of their land by the government to make way for the rich and politically powerful in one Florida community.

BROOKLYN---A former sergeant with the New York City Police Department has been convicted of murder.

Angry confrontations over the role of churches in politics are now a staple of every election cycle - and this year's mid-term battles are no exception.

MANHATTAN---A settlement agreement with the Bank of America Corporation stemming from its deficiencies in handling of foreign money service business clients has been reached with the New York County district attorney's office.

NEW YORK---National Cyber Security Awareness Month is being recognized in October in New York State with a number of initiatives underway. National Cyber Security Awareness Month, first established in October 2004, is a collective effort to raise cyber security awareness nationwide and to empower citizens, businesses, government, and schools to improve their cyber security preparedness and ensure a safe Internet experience.

Under new legislation signed by Gov. George Pataki, consumers will benefit from telephone corporations being allowed to reduce or eliminate fees on non-basic services.

LORAIN, OHIO---Would police officers harass a reporter who was undertaking an investigatory series about alleged police corruption?

QUEENS---A New Orleans woman who fled the city in the wake of Hurricane Katrina last year has been charged with defrauding the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) out of thousands of dollars in disaster relief funds.

QUEENS---A 21-year-old Astoria man has been charged with criminal impersonation, among other charges, for posing as a plainclothes New York City police officer and unlawfully stopping and questioning an innocent pedestrian about a purported robbery.

CUYAHOGA COUNTY, OHIO---Judicial whistleblower Elsebeth Baumgartner has been transferred from the Erie County Jail in Sandusky back to the Cuyahoga County Jail in Cleveland where she awaits a mysterious hearing called for Thursday at 9 a.m. before Judge Shirley Strickland Saffold in Courtroom 21B at the Justice Center.

Where'd Lord Voldemort go?

You know, Michael Schiavo, the Lord Voldemort of politics.

Prior to the Sept. 5 primary in Florida, Schiavo was traveling all over the country, campaigning for candidates, as if anyone really cared who Michael Schiavo endorsed.

In one of the most daring moves to legalize Physician Assisted Suicide (PAS), a form of euthanasia, (http://www.cmawashington.org/index.cgi?CONTEXT=art&art=1646&BISKIT=1531536777) and present it as acceptable mainstream views and medical practice, End of Life (EOL) and Right to Die (RTD) proponents sponsored by the defunct Last Acts Coalition, set a plan in motion that not only identifies and defines specific chronic diseases as terminal, but rations health care in the process for people with these chronic diseases.

In a year riddled with exposes of under reported crimes and violence and poor performance in public schools, many have come to appreciate the option of school choice. http://www.northcountrygazette.org/articles/041906ThirdLowest.html

MINEOLA---Another former official in the Roslyn School District scandal has been sentenced to prison after admitting to stealing over $850,000 from the school district.

ALBANY---Three new measures have been signed into law in New York State by Gov. George Pataki that will further protect New York's consumers and their privacy. These bills establish the Consumer Communication Records Privacy Act, place limits on the use and disclosure of Social Security account numbers, and further clarify and define what is considered a computer crime.

NEW YORK---Brigadier General F. David Sheppard has been appointed director of the New York State Office of Homeland Security (OHS) to succeed James. W. McMahon, former superintendent of the New York State Police, who is retiring.

TOLEDO---Ohio Supreme Court Justice Alice Robie Resnick, who pleaded guilty in 2005 to drunk driving, refused to take a breathalyzer test and attempted to flee the Ohio Highway Patrol, has been fined $20 plus costs after pleading guilty to failing to control her vehicle earlier this month, crossing over several lanes of traffic in her Cadillac Escalade and striking another vehicle nearly head-on.

FORT MITCHELL, KY---Did ya hear the one about the guy who videotaped himself attempting a burglary and left the tape behind?

GREENE COUNTY--A court ruling has secured restitution for victims of an immigration scam.

NEW YORK---Attorney General Eliot Spitzer has filed a complaint against mutual fund manager J. & W. Seligman & Company and its current president, Brian Zino, alleging that the firm sanctioned numerous secret timing arrangements that cost small investors $80 million.

NEW YORK -- Girls in New York's juvenile prisons are being abused and neglected by state authorities, the American Civil Liberties Union and Human Rights Watch said in a report released Monday.

ALBANY---With his opponent asking Albany County district attorney to open a criminal investigation into the matter, state Comptroller Alan Hevesi has admitted using a state employee to chauffeur his wife, Carol for the past three and half years at taxpayer's expense, saying that he will repay $82,688 in restitution to the state.

SUFFOLK COUNTY---A 218-page report by the special grand jury impaneled last September to view evidence of corruption and review spending practices in Suffolk County's 70 school districts has been released by Suffolk district attorney Thomas Spota.

ALBANY---A report indicating that two-thirds of health clubs across the state do not have emergency medical equipment required by law has been released by Attorney General Eliot Spitzer.

ALBANY---If you're not already registered to vote for November's election, time is running out for you to do so.

The State Board of Elections has reminded all state residents to register to vote for the Nov. 7 general election, if they have not already done so.

The following letter to the editor raises some serious concerns about the safety of disbarred attorney and judicial whistleblower Elsebeth Baumgartner of Oak Harbor, Ohio who is currently incarcerated in the Erie County Jail in Sandusky, Ohio. She is scheduled to be transferred to the Cuyahoga County Jail for a surprise hearing on Sept. 28 in Cleveland before Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court Judge Shirley Strickland Safford. In an interview with The North Country Gazette Sunday evening, Baumgartner said she has not been served with any papers regarding the hearing nor does she know its purpose. When Baumgartner had been transferred from the Erie County Jail to Cuyahoga County Jail on Sept. 12 for the trial scheduled to have begun Sept. 13 before Saffold and multiple intimidation and retaliation charges on complaint of retired visiting judge Richard Markus and her former business partner Bryan DuBois and his wife, Saffold had reportedly said she was unaware of Baumgartner's jailing in Erie County and concurred with Baumgartner that she couldn't be held without formal charges, charges which have still not been filed although she's been incarcerated since Aug. 21 after retired visiting judge Richard Knepper revoked her bond in Erie County Common Pleas Court.

CYA can mean a lot of things.

It means "see you" in Internet slang.

Or, it stands for the Canadian Yachting Association or the California Youth Authority.

More commonly, such as in Cuyahoga County, it's an acronym for "cover your ass".

PINELLAS COUNTY---For three years, Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Court Judge Brandt Downey surfed porn sites on the computer in his judicial chambers, repeatedly infecting not only his computer, but the computer system for the entire courthouse.

Has the State of Ohio and Chief Justice Thomas Moyer of the Ohio Supreme Court thrown the U.S. Constitution out the window?

CLEARWATER, FLA---Are dogs personal property such as a television, car or refrigerator?

A judge in Pinellas County, Florida has ruled they are in a custody dispute involving two dogs which were rescued from Louisiana following Hurricane Katrina.

TROY---John "Jack" Carroll, convicted of sexual abuse as a result of what his attorney and family members say was prosecutorial misconduct by Rensselaer District Attorney Patricia DeAngelis, will be the featured guest this weekend on Justice Now, a TV show which airs on MyTV4Albany.

QUEENS---Writing that his crimes "strike at the heart of the administration of justice insofar as they include forgery of a judicial order and lying to FBI agents", the Appellate Division of state Supreme Court, Third Department, has disbarred Long Island attorney Perry S. Reich.

LORAIN, OHIO---He took dead rodents over to show his crotchety neighbor, frequently crossed into his neighbor's yard without permission and went to the bathroom in his neighbor's garden.

QUEENS---A New York State Department of Transportation (DOT) engineer has pleaded guilty to possessing images of underage children involved in sexual activity on a government computer that he used at a DOT field office in Bayside, Queens.

ALBANY---While the head of the state trooper's union says that the five-month manhunt for fugitive Ralph "Bucky" Phillips was grossly mismanaged, State Police Supt. Wayne Bennett refuted the claims and said that while there was an internal investigation already underway, he would welcome an independent investigation.

HARTSDALE---A disbarred attorney has been charged with second degree grand larceny for allegedly defrauding a bank in regard to a real estate transaction.

SUFFOLK COUNTY ---A 29-year-old Islip Terrace man was arraigned Thursday in Suffolk County court for allegedly scamming an elderly man by falsely claiming he needed money for life-saving cancer surgery.

MINEOLA---Geofreda Rivera, 22, of Roosevelt has pleaded guilty in Nassau County Court to aggravated cruelty to animals, admitting that he caused the death of a female pit bull earlier this year by chaining her on a leash so short she hanged herself.

On Monday, Jeanine Pirro stood on the steps of the State Capitol building and took a strong stand for civil confinement of violent sexual predators amongst other issues. Most media attention seems to focus on her comparison of civil confinement to terrorism as a public safety issue.

In the 15th century, the printing press was a technological advance revolutionizing the ability of those who published books to inform, provoke and entertain. Those suspected of using this "new media" to promote heresy or insurrection were threatened with the rack or worse.

BOCA RATON--- U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern district of Florida has filed a lawsuit against the City of Boca Raton, Fla., alleging that one of its zoning ordinances discriminates against individuals with disabilities.

WESTCHESTER COUNTY---Based on evidence made possible by new DNA testing, the Westchester district attorney's office has joined in a motion to vacate the 1990 murder conviction of Jeffrey Deskovic.

NEW YORK---This week, the Center for Constitutional Rights filed its appeal brief in Walton v. NYSDOCS with the New York State Court of Appeals, the state's highest court. The lawsuit seeks an order prohibiting the State and Verizon/MCI from charging exorbitant rates to the family members of prisoners to finance a 57.5% kickback to the State.

A recent statement by the Florida Catholic Conference asked Governor Jeb Bush to save death row inmate, Clarence Hill, convicted of shooting a police officer to death during a robbery of a Pensacola bank in 1982, from lethal injection and to stay his execution. The Florida Bishops state they are disheartened over this execution, as there are unresolved constitutional issues in regard to lethal injection. (Hill was executed Wednesday night.)

For 32 days, Elsebeth Baumgartner has been incarcerated in the Erie County Jail and the Cuyahoga County Jail without being formally charged with any crime and without the required hearing necessitated by law to revoke her bond, a bond which had been posted in the still pending felony grand theft charge from May, 2005 for stealing her own company vehicle.

It's hard to have faith in a system that allows judges like Florida Judge Richard Albritton Jr. of the 14th Circuit to remain on the bench.

ALBANY---The 2006 New York Consumer Guide to Health Insurers is now available in both hard copy and electronic versions. Updated with new editorial content for the eighth consecutive year, the publication enables New Yorkers to compare commercial and non-profit health insurers as well as health maintenance organizations (HMOs) on a variety of factors, from services offered to overall consumer satisfaction.

MINEOLA---Following an investigation and financial audit of the Five Towns Community Center, a Grand Jury has indicted a community center bookkeeper in connection with a check-cashing scheme that resulted in more than $50,000 in losses to the community center.

NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ---A New Jersey doctor is free on $1,000 bail after he pleaded not guilty to unlawfully disposing of human remains.

QUEENSBURY---A New York City police officer has been stripped of his job after he admitted to e-mailing photographs of himself, nude from the waist down and wearing only a police department shirt, to a 16-year-old girl from Queensbury that he had met in an Internet chat room.

"AP Photographer In Iraq Held Without Charges For Five Months", screams the headline on an Associated Press article appearing Monday.

"The U.S. military in Iraq has imprisoned an Associated Press photographer for five months, accusing him of being a security threat but never filing charges or permitting a public hearing", the article says.

Eighteen months ago this week, the feeding tube of Terri Schindler Schiavo was withdrawn for the last time.

Thirteen days later, she died.

Tragically, during the past 18 months and in particular the past two months, there have been astounding medical revelations and discoveries about the cognitiveness and recovery/improvement of brain damaged individuals using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRIs) as well as findings concerning new medical treatment involving the use of the drug ambien, also known as zolpidem. These findings have dramatic implications for life-and-death decisions concerning patients who have been diagnosed as being in a persistent vegetative state.

This spring, following reports that the drug zolpidem can temporarily revive people in a persistent vegetative state (PVS) to the point where they are able to speak, the Terri Schindler Schiavo Foundation called for a moratorium of all potential ordinary care removal for persons diagnosed in a PVS condition.

I listened to the radio and read my e-mail this morning and wondered if I had tumbled through a wormhole getting out of bed and ended up in the Twilight Zone. Over the weekend the Swedish ended 75 years of Social Democrat rule, mostly over high taxes, and in France that venerable leftist paper Libertad is going bankrupt for lack of readers.

ALBANY---An upstate mobile home retailer has reached a settlement with the Attorney General's office after consumers complained that it failed to timely and properly complete the installation of new homes and make repairs.

JACKSONVILLE, FLA--- A California company doing business under the name "Girls Gone Wild" has pleaded guilty to charges that it failed to create and maintain age and identity documents for performers in sexually explicit films that it produced and distributed, and that it failed to label its DVDs and videotapes as required by federal law.

MINEOLA--Pamela Gluckin, 60, the former assistant superintendent of Roslyn School District, will serve the next three to nine years in prison, a sentence handed down by Judge Alan L. Honorof in Nassau County Court.

JACKSONVILLE, FLA---Attorneys for the wife of brain damaged Scott Thomas who had sued two television stations for libel must pay the opposing side's attorney fees for filing a frivolous appeal and making "offensive remarks" in their court filings and oral argument, the First District Court of Appeals has ruled.

ALBANY--- STAR eligible New Yorkers will begin receiving rebate checks this month that provide additional relief from their school property taxes.

MALONE-A veteran corrections officer at Bare Hill Correctional Facility has been charged with selling heroin to inmates inside the facility.

ALBANY---The New York State Bar Association's Committee on Civil Rights is seeking nominations for the 10th Annual Haywood Burns Memorial Award.

SANDUSKY, OHIO---How far will the State of Ohio go in violating the constitutional rights of disbarred Oak Harbor attorney Elsebeth Baumgartner?

NEW YORK----"You are an evil person", Bronx Supreme Court Judge Joseph Fisch told the man that police say was involved in the disappearance of the granddaughter of state Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno. "You are a peddler of human flesh".

LANCASTER, WIS---The three men accused to trying to have sex with a corpse have had those charges dismissed because Wisconsin has no law against necrophilia.

Tarrytown---A police officer with the Tarrytown Police Department has been suspended after he was arrested last week by state police and charged with felony counts of promoting a sexual performance by a child and possessing a sexual performance by a child.

BEDFORD HILLS---An elementary school principal has pleaded not guilty to charges that she failed to report the alleged rape of a nine-year-old student.

MINEOLA---A Glen Cove man has been indicted and charged with murdering his neighbor, dismembering her corpse and stashing her remains in garbage cans in his basement and placing her severed head in the trunk of his car.

Syndicated columnist Ellen Goodman's opinion entitled "More shades of gray amid, life, death" which appeared Sept. 15 in The Seattle Times attacked the recent British study concerning a 23-year-old woman who had been diagnosed in a persistent vegetative state.

Today, Sept. 17, is Constitution Day.

On Sept. 17, 1787, our nation's founders signed the The Constitution of the United States of America that established our system of government. Congress then sent printed copies of the Constitution to the state legislatures for ratification. In the months that followed, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton and John Jay would write the Federalist Papers in support, while Patrick Henry, Elbridge Gerry, and George Mason would organize the opposition to the new Constitution. By June 21, 1788, nine states had approved the Constitution, finally forming "a more perfect Union."

LAKE GEORGE---The tentacles of public corruption in the Republican party do indeed extend from Washington all the way into Lake George as was validated Friday with Congressman Robert W. Ney (R-Ohio), pleading guilty to a two-county criminal information charging him with conspiracy to commit multiple offenses.

ERIE COUNTY, OHIO---In June, Erie County Common Pleas Court Judge Roger E. Binette sentenced former Sandusky police officer James Fitzgerald to three years in prison after the ex-cop pleaded guilty to four felony counts of having sex with a minor.

PINELLAS COUNTY---How do you spell non-compliance?

Tampa attorney Mark Adams says in three words---The Florida Bar.

And he says the The Florida Bar is violating his due process rights by refusing to allow a complete record on which an appeal of his disbarment determination can be decided.

WASHINGTON---A videotape from the FBI, taken from a CITGO gas station near the Pentagon on 9/11 has been, released by Judicial Watch, a public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption.

ERIE, PA---An Erie, Pa. man pleaded guilty to copyright infringement in U.S. District Court.

Scott R. McCausland, 24, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit copyright infringement and one count of criminal copyright infringement in violation of the Family Entertainment Copyright Act. His guilty plea stems from his involvement in the BitTorrent peer-to-peer (P2P) network previously known as Elite Torrents.

ALBANY---The state health commissioner has confirmed seven cases of E. coli infections in New York State tied to the national outbreak associated with pre-packaged fresh spinach that has affected at least 10 states.

ALBANY---The New York State Senate has unanimously passed a legislative resolution honoring the life and achievements of fallen New York State Trooper Joseph Anthony Longobardo of Middle Grove, Saratoga County, who tragically succumbed to wounds suffered recently during the manhunt for Ralph "Bucky" Phillips in southwestern New York.

ALBANY---The New York State Senate has passed "Timothy's Law," to provide parity in insurance coverage for mental illnesses. The legislation, which has been sent to the Assembly, would require insurance companies to cover most mental illnesses and would require coverage for a broad range of mental illnesses and conditions specifically related to children.

PITTSBURGH---A Pennsylvania woman faces a $300 fine and up to 90 days in jail when she's sentenced in November after pleading guilty to disorderly conduct for her role in zapping a fake penis in a convenience store microwave.

BREVARD COUNTY, FLA---A 91-year-old man, on his way to a dialysis treatment, struck and killed a pedestrian, drove away and became involved in another accident.

Is censorship practiced by Google News?

Did Bryan DuBois, former business partner of disbarred attorney Elsebeth Baumgartner, work as a government agent in an entrapment scheme against her?

The public should be able to have confidence in the judiciary system.

Those sitting on the bench in judgment of others should be calm, rational individuals, not a bunch of loony tunes in need of psychiatric examination and a permanent vacation.

Two years ago, Sixth Circuit Court Judge George W. Greer, who gained international attention by ordering the death of a disabled woman by withholding all food and water from her, won reelection with 65% of the vote.

CLEARWATER--A former Hillsborough County police officer and detention deputy is facing 16 more charges in relation with allegations that she fired shots into the private residence of her former business associate in an aromatherapy business.

Sunday school classes are supposed to be on Sunday, but in some Texas public schools every day is the Lord's Day.

America's worst judge is out, now how about our worst elected official?

Congratulations and God bless to all who played a part in exposing Judge Cashman, leading to his resignation and in putting our judiciary on notice that some of the media will expose and pursue them (if they indulge in such hubris) as if they are common criminals, not nobility above scrutiny or the law. God bless in particular Bill O'Reilly and his crew who as usual took point and stayed out front on this.

NEW YORK--- Former FBI agent Ronald LeBlanc has pleaded guilty to making false statements.

NEW YORK---Daniel Storms, 32, a former employee of the New York City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has pleaded guilty in federal court in White Plains to a felony charge of making false entries in DEP records relating to the monitoring of drinking water while he was a DEP employee.

If you're a business owner, you can't advertise a "going-out-of-business" sale unless you have a license to do so.

MANHATTAN---A stock broker from the Manhattan firm Trautman Wasserman & Co., Inc. has been indicted for defrauding mutual funds by trading their shares after hours, a practice known as "late trading."

TOLEDO, OHIO---The Ohio Supreme Court Justice who was arrested for drunk driving last year after she blew more than three times the state limit of .08, has now been cited for failure to control her vehicle after she crossed three lanes of traffic. Crashing nearly head-on into another vehicle.

BUFFALO---State Police have recovered a rifle that may have been the weapon that killed State Trooper Joseph Longobardo of Middle Grove in an ambush on Aug. 31 and critically wounded Trooper Donald Baker.

MIAMI---An indictment has been filed in connection with the federal investigation of a massive kickback network involving local assisted living facilities, medical equipment companies, pharmacies and physicians.

PHILADELPHIA-- Two men from Pennsylvania have been charged with federal mail fraud and tax charges related to a scheme in which they embezzled approximately $6.4 million from the food and beverage giant Nestle USA.

SUFFOLK COUNTY---Nine people have been arrested as district attorney squad detectives, county police, agents from Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, agents assigned to the Attorney General's Organized Crime Task Force, and state tax enforcement unit investigators executed search warrants at the New York City homes of suspected smugglers of untaxed cigarettes. Warrants were executed last month in the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan and Staten Island.

SULLIVAN COUNTY--- The Humane Society of the United States is calling for Sheriff Michael Schiff and district attorney Stephen Lungen of Sullivan County to investigate an