Spin Cycle
News, views and commentary on Long Island, state and national politics
Rick Brand
Rick Brand, a Newsday reporter for nearly three decades, writes about politics and government on Long Island.
The veteran reporter has covered a variety of assignments for Newsday in Washington, Albany and around the country and was part of the Long Island staff that won the 1997 Pulitzer Prize for the paper’s coverage of the crash of TWA Flight 800.
During his career, Brand has been the paper’s lead reporter covering Suffolk county government, and spent three years as the paper’s beat reporter covering LILCO during the height of the controversy over the Shoreham nuclear power plant. He has also headed the paper’s East End bureau and even spent a summer doing a gossip column on the Hampton’s social whirl.
Brand had also worked several stints in Newsday’s Albany Bureau during the Carey and Cuomo administrations. He covered the upset victory of Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, Long Island’s first woman congresswoman, and the 1997 U.S. Senate battle between Alfonse D'Amato and Chuck Schumer and part of the marathon Senate campaign that led to the election of Hillary Clinton.
Before joining Newsday, Brand, a graduate of St. Bonaventure University, worked as news editor of Suffolk Life Newspapers and as a reporter for the Long Island News and the Buffalo Courier Express.
Mangano touts record at GOP luncheon
County Executive Edward Mangano extolled his administration, especially its superstorm Sandy related-activity, at a luncheon of the Nassau County Federation of Republican Women in Williston Park on Wednesday.
“My administration has held the line on property taxes for three consecutive years while being faced with $100 million dollar increases in Medicaid and pension costs,” he said. “Our success...
Read more »Weitzman to Maragos: Release '12 fiscal results
Photo credit: Newsday, 2008 / J. Conrad Williams Jr.
Former Nassau County Comptroller Howard Weitzman is calling on Comptroller George Maragos to publicly release Nassau County's 2012 year-end fiscal results, a process traditionally done in February or early March.
Weitzman, a Democrat who is running to recapture the job he lost almost four years ago, said in a Tuesday news release that those results are used by bond rating agencies to evaluate...
Read more »Cuomo: We'll move 'very aggressively' to replace LIPA
Photo credit: News 12 Long Island
Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said Wednesday he would “aggressively” move to give a New Jersey utility nearly complete control of Long Island’s electric grid, intending to have some major pieces in place by the end of June.
Long Island lawmakers briefed on the governor’s plan said they generally support the idea, although one said the "very, very tight timetable" is a concern. They also are...
Read more »NY Ethics board threatens to release Lopez report
The state ethics panel declared Tuesday it would release its sexual-harassment allegations report involving Assemb. Vito Lopez in mid-May if lawmakers fail to release it themselves.
But the warning clashes with legislators’ promise to withhold the report until a special prosecutor determines whether criminal charges should be filed against the once-powerful Brooklyn politician.
The state...
Read more »Cuomo inks book deal after downplaying aspirations
Photo credit: Getty Images
A major publisher announced Tuesday it has signed Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo to a book deal, just hours after he tried to downplay his presidential prospects.
HarperCollins said Cuomo’s book would be a “full and frank look at his public and private life” and “profound moments” of his term in office. It is slated to be published in 2014; terms weren’t disclosed.
“He will reveal the story of...
Read more »Islip GOP backs Musumeci over Greene
Islip Republicans have passed over former town board member Pamela Greene and instead named Anthony Musumeci to run for the open Eighth District legislative seat against the son of exiting Presiding Officer William Lindsay (D-Holbrook).
“Obviously, it was a difficult decision. Both screened fabulously,” said Frank Tantone, Islip Republican chairman. “But it was decided to go with the younger...
Read more »Cuomo court pick to go before Senate panel Tuesday
The state Senate will grill Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s nominee for New York’s top court on Tuesday.
Sheila Abdus-Salaam, 61, of Manhattan, who is currently a justice on the mid-level Appellate Division bench, will be reviewed by the Republican-led Senate Judiciary Committee.
Abdus-Salaam would become the first African-American female to serve on the New York Court of Appeals. She would...
Read more »Bill backing statehood study fails in Suffolk Legislature
A measure backing a state bill for a study on making Long Island a state failed last week in the Suffolk County Legislature.
The home rule message was for a bill introduced by state Sen. Kenneth LaValle (R-Port Jefferson) to create a commission to study the feasibility of creating a state of Long Island, and to authorize a nonbinding referendum on statehood in Nassau and Suffolk in November...
Read more »Fiore-Rosenfeld screens with Dems
A day after prosecutors confiscated his town computers, Brookhaven Town board member Steve Fiore-Rosenfeld appeared before the town Democratic screening committee seeking renomination.
Democratic chairman Anthony Parlatore said Fiore-Rosenfeld, of East Setauket, appeared Thursday and told the committee he has done nothing wrong. “They seem to be satisfied with his answers,” Parlatore said....
Read more »Mangano hires Joanne Maglione, who was Michael Venditto opponent
Joanne Maglione, who ran on the Democratic line against Republican Michael Venditto last fall to fill the Nassau legislative seat of the late Presiding Officer Peter Schmitt, has been hired by the administration of Republican County Executive Edward Mangano.
Maglione, a registered Republican from Massapequa Park who practices law under her maiden name of Oweis, started two weeks ago as a $95,000-a-year...
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