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Democratic State Sen. Hiram Monserrate was found not guilty today of the felony assault after Queens Supreme Court Judge William Erlbaum rendered his verdict after reflecting on the evidence. Monserrate was found guilty of the lesser charge of third-degree assault, a misdemeanor, in the non-jury trial for dragging his girlfriend down a hallway, an incident that was caught on surveillance cameras. Monserrate, who gets to keep his seat as a result of being acquitted on felony charges, faces up to a year in jail. He will be sentenced Dec. 4.

Investigation Into Alleged NYC Bomb Plot Includes Nearly All of the Bureau's U.S. Field OfficesCriminal Complaint Suggests Cops May Have Tipped-Off Zazi By Questioning New York Imam, Seizing CarThe FBI is expanding its investigation into an alleged terror plot targeting New York City, and nearly every one of the FBI's 57 field offices in the country and several overseas are now in on the case, working along with local police. On Wednesday, the NYPD was showing a new training video in precincts citywide detailing the intelligence from the agencies. Bomb Squad Commander Lt. Marc Torre narrates the video, giving regular...

Investigators probed a failed Queens truck rental for ties to a possible Al Qaeda bomb plot yesterday as a chief terror suspect tried making a deal to save his skin. The truck rental bid failed when none of the men could produce a valid credit card. All refused to surrender the identification needed to pay cash, the manager of the Flushing U-Haul said. A team of FBI agents spent 10 hours Thursday combing through the Queens truck rental business. At least three Afghan men - including Ahmad Afzali, a Queens imam identified by a U-Haul employee as one of the...

"Feds probe alleged terrorists who tried to rent giant truck in suspected Al Qaeda bomb plot" BY JAMES GORDON MEEK IN WASHINGTON, JUDITH CROSSON IN DENVER, KATE NOCERA, ROCCO PARASCANDOLA AND LARRY MCSHANE DAILY NEWS WRITERS Saturday, September 19th 2009, 4:00 AM Investigators probed a failed Queens truck rental for ties to a possible Al Qaeda bomb plot yesterday as a chief terror suspect tried making a deal to save his skin. The New York end of the expanding federal probe centered on seven Afghan men who tried to rent the biggest truck at a Queens U-Haul on Sept. 9,...

The Denver shuttle bus driver at the center of a federal terrorism investigation has begun to cooperate with the authorities, admitting that he had perhaps unwittingly crossed paths in Pakistan with extremists allied with Al Qaeda, according to government officials briefed on the case. The officials did not indicate whether the admissions of the man, Najibullah Zazi, made during three days of intense questioning by F.B.I. agents in Denver, clarified whether he had directly engaged in terrorist activity. And it is not known whether his account could mean he will be charged with any wrongdoing. But Mr. Zazi’s discussions with...

Note: Photo included. Contrite St. John's Univ. student behind alleged massacre threats on Facebook says booze to blame BY KERRY BURKE DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER Thursday, September 17th 2009, 3:34 PM PHOTO CAPTION: "Radames Santiago Jr., 18, a student from St John's, who was arrested for making threats on his Facebook page." SNIPPET: "A St. John's University freshman who posted messages on Facebook threatening to launch a "Virginia Tech attack" at the Queens campus told the Daily News that he was just drunk and never would have caused anyone harm." SNIPPET: "Santiago, who lives in Washington Heights with his mom...

Two New York City apartments were raided following a visit by a suspected al-Qaida operative. No arrests were made and no weapons were found in Monday's raids, according to The New York Times. The man suspected of ties to al-Qaida is of Afghan descent and has been under FBI surveillance. He visited the Queens residences over the weekend and returned to his Midwest home, according to reports. The Times reported that the five men who lived in one of the apartments were all of Afghan descent and came from the same area of Afghanistan. The U.S. Justice Department's Joint Terrorism...

SNIPPET: "The Tablighi Jamaat (TJ) name has come up before in connection with terrorism plots, including the October 2002 Portland Seven and the September 2002 Lackawanna Six cases in the United States, as well as the August 2006 plot to bomb airliners en route from London to the United States, the July 7, 2005, London Underground bombings and the July 2007 attempted bombings in London and Glasgow, Scotland. Over the past several years we also have received several queries about TJ from U.S. law enforcement officials who are concerned about the group’s presence and activities in the United States. U.S....

BULLETIN -- NEW YORK POLICE AND FBI RAID HOMES IN QUEENS IN TERRORISM INVESTIGATION.6 minutes ago from BNO Headquarters

Three Queens schools are being closed Friday because hundreds of students have reported flu symptoms and four cases of swine flu have been verified including an assistant principal who has been hospitalized in critical condition. IS 238 in Hollis, PS 16 in Corona and IS 5 in Elmhurst will be shuttered for five days each. "There is an unusually high level of flu levels at those schools," Mayor Bloomberg said a press conference surrounded by Gov. David Paterson, and health and school officials. Four students and a staff member have tested positive for swine flu at IS 238. More than...

Queens Man Admits Supplying Social Security Numbers to Fraud Ring NEWARK—A Queens, N.Y. man pleaded guilty today to supplying Social Security numbers to members of an identity fraud ring, acting United States Attorney Ralph J. Marra, Jr. announced. Yomi Jagunna, 44, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Susan D. Wigenton to one count of conspiracy to commit identity theft. Sentencing is scheduled for Aug. 12. Jagunna, whose bail is set at $1 million, was returned to custody, where he has been since his arrest on a criminal Complaint in New York on Oct. 28. A one-count Indictment charging him in...

St. Francis Prep high school seniors....likely brought in Mexico's deadly swine flu epidemic after spring-break in Cancun leaving about 200 kids ill. City health officials confirmed eight students "have probable human swine influenza" after testing positive for the swine strain......health officials put all NY hospitals on alert after nine kids complained of nausea, dizziness, headache and other swine flu symptons, which has already killed at least 81 Mexicans and sickened more than 1,300. Some residents recently returned from Mexico have called saying they were ill.....WHO said swine flu may soon be a global pandemic that killed 50 million people worldwide...

group of Queens high school students likely brought Mexico's deadly swine flu epidemic to the city after they went on a wild spring-break party to Cancun earlier this month. Some seniors from St. Francis Prep in Fresh Meadows took the trip over Easter hiatus two weeks ago. Days later, an outbreak of flu-like symptoms erupted at the school, leaving about 200 kids complaining of being ill. Yesterday, city health officials confirmed that eight students "have probable human swine influenza" after testing positive for Influenza A, which officials say causes the swine strain of disease. "We're very concerned about what may...

The head of a Queens Islamic school is accused of brutally beating a 12-year-old student over a crack made about the man's private parts, The Post has learned.

Megyn Kelly interviews Courtney Friel about Miss USA. It doesn't get much better.

Mohammed Khoda bought his Queens home at the peak of the real-estate market, and now that "everything is crashing," he's hoping President Obama can save him from foreclosure. "It was our dream to get a home in New York City," the Bangladeshi immigrant said. "And now we only hope to be able to live here." Khoda, 59, bought his two-family home on 160th Street in Jamaica for $700,000 in 2006.

  'The mayor is like Noah, he is throwing out a life preserver and I'm going to grab it,' Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio of the Brooklyn Diocese said at City Hall Saturday. In attempt to keep cash-starved Catholic schools in Brooklyn and Queens from closing, the city may convert them into charter schools, Mayor Bloomberg announced Saturday. "We are in a flood," Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio of the Brooklyn Diocese said at a City Hall press conference. "The mayor is like Noah, he is throwing out a life preserver and I'm going to grab it." The diocese has identified four schools in...

Donat Kubwimana escaped Rwanda in a van filled with fellow Catholic monks, all fleeing the genocide that claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of their countrymen.  Fifteen years later, the 44-year-old is working on his master's degree in French at Queens College in Flushing. On Thursday, he became a U.S. citizen. "I'm so lucky," Kubwimana said after being sworn in. Kubwimana's harrowing tale of survival and achievement has become an inspiration to his Flushing community. "Just his story could have an impact," Brother David Turmel, 60, said of Kubwimana's journey from a Catholic compound in Rwanda to Queens.Kubwimana left...

Joyce Dopkeen/The New York Times Kimberly Lane, a teacher at Heritage High School, expressed dismay after the arrest. At Heritage High School in East Harlem, where the student idiom is hip-hop and salsa, the 16-year-old Guinean girl stood out, but not just because she wore Islamic dress. She was so well liked that when she ran for student body president, she came in second to one of her best friends - the Christian daughter of the president of the parent-teacher association, Deleen P. Carr. Now Ms. Carr, a speech pathologist who calls herself "a typical American citizen," is as outraged...

Veteran Assemblyman Anthony Seminerio was indicted for fraud yesterday after plea negotiations in his corruption case apparently broke down. The Manhattan federal court indictment boosted to $1 million the amount of cash the Queens Democrat is charged with collecting through an eight-year, influence-peddling scheme. In early September, federal authorities charged that Seminerio pocketed money in exchange for access to Albany lawmakers. Payments allegedly went to a bogus consulting outfit linked to the Assemblyman.