After hearing testimony for weeks (jury selection began in June), the jury deliberating whether four men were plotting to bomb synagogues in the Bronx last May was dismissed early yesterday because a juror received inadmissible evidence. Apparently in a packet of transcripts—prepared by the government—there was a conversation between a defendant and his father about entrapment. Federal Judge Colleen McMahon said it was "utterly, completely and totally inadmissible." more ›

The four men, arrested back in May for plotting to blow up Bronx synagogues and shoot planes at a National Guard base in Newburgh, NY, will be tried in June of next year. Lawyers for the four defendants had contended that the men were entrapped by the fed's informant, who promised/gave them money and fried chicken dinners, luring them into the plot. But the AP reports the judge "ruled that prosecutors don't have to disclose before trial any payments from a federal informant" to the defendants. more ›