Some kids growing up in south Brooklyn in the 1960s had heroes such as Mickey Mantle, John F. Kennedy or The Beatles. For Madison High School graduate Chuck Schumer, it was his grandfather Jacob, a Polish immigrant.
“My real hero is my grandfather,” Schumer said fondly during a recent interview.
It was a quiet, touching moment, free of the increasing nastiness of the campaign trail, in which Schumer, the veteran Democratic Brooklyn congressman, is locked in a contentious, too-close-to-call battle to unseat longtime Republican U.S. Sen. Alfonse D’Amato.

A rabbi once honored as Chaplain of the Year has pleaded innocent to charges of smuggling drugs into the federal prison he served. Rabbi Eli Gottesman, 73, of Ogdensburg, N.Y., was arrested Oct. 7 at the checkpoint of Ray Brook prison when a routine search of his briefcase revealed a shampoo bottle containing several balloons filled with cocaine and marijuana.