Viewsday

If you know that the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything is “42,” then today’s Google Doodle may have been your favorite of all-time. If you remember that "How many roads must a man walk down?" is the answer to the next deep mystery -- which was a Jeopardy-esque query as to what “42” could possibly be the answer to -- then the odds are even better.

March...

We are, before anything else, human beings.

That comes before our status as employees of a company, or members of a profession, or part of any kind of group. We are, first and foremost, human beings, members of society, part of a community.

And we need to help others when they need it, and if we can.

In California last week that didn’t happen, and an 87-year-old woman died, possibly...

So here comes another study making the point that if you eat right, there’s a much better chance you won’t die, or rather not as soon and not of the same things.

Regardless of what headlines often claim, no diet or safety initiative or smoking reduction can “prevent deaths.” They can only postpone them. The fatality rate of living is 100 percent.

The source of the good news this time...

In Nassau County, bus fares are going up, but passengers who choose to pay cash rather than using a MetroCard won’t see an increase.

In Suffolk County, disabled riders who use Suffolk County Accessible Transit will also see a hike, the first since 1994. 

In both cases, the increases are reasonable and necessary.

In 2012, Nassau turned its bus service over to private contractor...

It is a tribute to Arizona Sen. John McCain’s unique skill set that he was able to dream up a way to describe Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that actually angered people.

Ahmadinejad regularly denies the Holocaust happened, has called for Israel to be “wiped off the map” and stated that the United States planned and carried out the attacks of 9/11 against its own people.

I’m pretty...

New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli was at Newsday for an editorial board meeting Thursday morning.

A former Long Island assemblyman, DiNapoli is in charge of the state’s pension funds, and also runs an office that oversees the state’s spending and contracts and does some of the same for local governments and authorities.

An affable and friendly guy, DiNapoli generally doesn't...

Behind the scenes, the stage is being set for renegotiation of Nassau County’s contract with the Police Benevolent Association. The talks come with almost three years left to run on the current agreement, and it’s almost unheard for a union with a deal as good as Nassau’s to willingly discuss terms early, when it knows the county wants givebacks, but these are peculiar times, for numerous reasons:

The...

As if going to the dentist wasn’t already scary enough!

Accusations that Lindenhurst dentist Robert Garelick was trying to drill while intoxicated are sure to give pause to his patients in particular, and pop to mind for lots of folks going to any dentist as the whirring tools near their mouths. Garelick allegedly tried to see to a patient after sipping at a squeeze bottle full of vodka throughout...

It was the most ambitious speech of Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s life, in every imaginable way.

Sure, there was the obvious stuff: making New York the jobs capital of the Milky Way galaxy, turning around the 60-year decline of the upstate region, not raising taxes under any circumstances ever, seriously, and making school longer and better.

There was the tough stuff, like raising the minimum...

So exactly what are we to think of the $8.5 billion settlement of the mortgage mess between the United States government and 10 big banks announced this week? That is, if we can bring ourselves to think about it at all.

The whole story has gone so far beyond the comprehension of normal people that it’s impossible to know whether that’s a lot of money or a little, a fair settlement or an unfair...