Long Island

• Some LIRR retirees could lose disability pensions

  Some Long Island Rail Road retirees who took advantage of a federal disability pension that gave benefits to nearly anyone who applied could have those benefits taken away if changes being considered by the U.S. Railroad Retirement Board are enacted, federal lawmakers from New York said after meeting Friday with the retirement board's members.

• Con Ed worker killed blast wanted out of manhole duty

  George Joseph Dillman didn't want to work underground anymore.

• 110-Jericho plan draws skepticism

  Charlie O'Keefe was apprehensive Friday before viewing designs of a proposed overhaul to the intersection of Route 110 and Jericho Turnpike in Huntington Station.

• Board won't stop Suffolk deputies from highway patrol

  A state board has denied a Suffolk police union's request to stop the county from replacing police patrols on two Long Island highways with sheriff's deputies.

• Crude oil drop lowers gasoline prices on Long Island

  Fueled by a sharp drop in crude oil prices, the average for a gallon of regular gasoline on Long Island slipped under $3.50 Friday - for the first time in nearly six months.

• LAWYER'S FRAUD CONVICTION OVERTURNED

  A personal injury lawyer who was convicted in 2006 of scamming insurance companies into paying his clients more money than they deserved had his conviction overturned this week by a state appellate court. In a unanimous decision issued this week, the state Appellate Division, Second Department in Brooklyn, said that there was no proof that Daivery Taylor, 40, of Freeport, obtained any money fraudulently. "It was guilt by association," said Gerald Lefcourt of Manhattan, who represented Taylor in his appeal. "Because he knew some of the other parties in the case, they just tarred him with the same brush, but that was unwarranted." A spokesman for state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said his office is reviewing the decision. The state attorney general's office, which was then headed by Eliot Spitzer, prosecuted the case against Taylor and several others in 2004.

• HARBORFIELDS BUS RIDER HAS VIRAL MENINGITIS

  A student who rides Harborfields School District buses has been diagnosed with viral meningitis, a Harborfields spokesman said Friday. The unidentified, high-school-age-student lives in the district but attends an "out-of-district" program, spokesman Michael Conte said. Under state law, districts must provide transportation to school-age district residents who don't attend public schools. "This is not a student that attends district schools," Conte said. The student was released from the hospital Friday and is expected to recover, Conte said. Viral meningitis is serious but rarely fatal. Three Harborfields students, including two siblings, have contracted viral meningitis since the beginning of the school year. Doctors told district officials there is a low risk of transmission, Conte said.