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The Long Island Farm Bureau told the Newsday editorial board on Monday that the public has misconceptions about pesticides -- starting with their very definition.

Joe Gergela, executive director of the bureau, said in a meeting with the board that even ordinary baking soda and chlorine for pools fall into that category. And he said many pesticides serve the important function of protecting...

As Congress leaves town for the weekend, the consequences of its irresponsible budget behavior are starting to take hold.

Let us know how the sequester will affect your institution or community. Please email the details to letters@newsday.com. Thank you.

Stony Brook University President Dr. Samuel Stanley Jr. detailed the consequences in an email to his academic community on Thursday,...

The enormous power of Sandy savagely exposed the flaws of the Long Island Power Authority -- flaws that had been hidden for years by a political establishment that benefited from its cronyism.

LIPA’s vulnerable. The public is demanding change. But do state legislators have the political will to make a bold move? Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo told Newsday’s editorial board Thursday that “the moment...

The Long Island Coalition for the Homeless will hold its annual Have a Heart for the Homeless candlelight vigil from 6 to 8 p.m. on Wednesday at Farmingdale State College to raise awareness about the growing problem of homelessness on Long Island. This year, that includes people who lost their homes to superstorm Sandy. 

But who is it that needs to be made aware? Not those who have been...

Newsday's opinion pages seek to be a reasoned and pragmatic forum for Long Island and its values. Today we launch a new interactive feature to further the mission we first described in 1940.

In print, our editorials, columns, op-eds and letters to the editor give voice to Long Islanders' opinions about politics, policy and life on Long Island. Our new feature, Take the Podium, will offer Long...

Chalk up a victory for mass transit riders.

A few years ago, red-state congressional Republicans sliced a hefty chunk out of the monthly mass-transit tax benefit for commuters on the Long Island Rail Road and other forms of public transportation. But they retained a significantly higher benefit for commuters who drive to work and rack up monthly parking fees.

Not only was the move unfair....

The Senate is on track to approve desperately needed aid for superstorm Sandy, but the fractious House of Representatives could still muck things up. That would be another disaster for the hard-hit region, this one inflicted by the very people elected to help when such epic misfortune strikes.

The Senate is expected to vote on the $60.4-billion aid package late Friday or Saturday. And because...

For many months, in the debate over raising taxes on higher-earning Americans, Rep. Steve Israel (D-Huntington) has been saying over and over that the threshold of wealth that has been bandied about, $250,000, is grossly out of whack with reality on Long Island.

That dividing line simply needed to be higher, to reflect the Island's high cost of living, he argued. In fact, he pushed his case...

Our first reaction to the announcement Friday evening that President Barack Obama is going to ask Congress for a $60 billion supplemental appropriation to cover the devastation of superstorm Sandy?

We hope it’s enough. It's less than what we asked for.

We hope we, meaning New York in general and Long Island in particular, get enough of it.

This is a reasonable worry, since the...