Michael Phelps is proud he owes it all to his mom

August 17, 2008

Joye Brown recounts meeting Olympic champ Michael Phelps and his impromptu tribute to his mother

Recent columns

• Roosevelt library has key role in community

  August 14, 2008

  Roosevelt's public library is more than a library, with one of the largest collections of African-American literature in the region.

• Joye: Lawmakers' early warning leads to new legislation

  August 12, 2008

  'This smells like bad fish," Legis. Cameron Alden warned fellow legislators about a proposal to extend a contract with Global Golf Inc. in 2002.

• Suffolk's "Crash Course" teaches teens to drive safely

  August 10, 2008

  Relax, relax.

• Brown: New scope needed to navigate sea of change

  August 7, 2008

  THIS is not your grandfather's Long Island.

• Clerical error led to overassessment of Massapequa home

  August 5, 2008

  It took me about five seconds yesterday to determine why Doug Amante's assessment tripled after he added a second floor to his Massapequa home.

• What's up with all the jellyfish in local waters

  August 3, 2008

  'EVERYONE on the beach keeps saying the same thing, 'They are so early this year,'" Leslie wrote in recently from the North Fork. "I was wondering if your research found whether or not the jellyfish are here to stay for the rest of the season."

• Montauk Monster, real or not, has many fans, witnesses

  August 1, 2008

  Quick. Grab something. It's time to slay the Montauk Monster.

• The Montauk Monster: Legend or latex?

  July 31, 2008

  'If this could be certified as the Suffolk version of the Loch Ness monster," County Executive Steve Levy said, "we'd sell tickets and get a lot of revenue."

• Knowledge of rip currents can help you survive

  July 29, 2008

  I know about rip currents and fortunately had learned what to do if I ever got caught.

• Knowledge of rip currents can help you survive

  July 29, 2008

  I know about rip currents and fortunately had learned what to do if I ever got caught.

• Training needed on drug to reverse heroin overdose

  July 24, 2008

  There's a way to reverse a heroin overdose. And it's been available to addicts, their families and friends, in New York State, since 2006.

• Jellyfish real pain for Long Island Sound swimmers

  July 20, 2008

  Not long after Holger Fietkau fired his starter's gun to send a wave of swimmers off on a 5K race in Huntington Bay last Sunday, a jellyfish undulated brazenly into view.

• Addicts' parents pass along suspected dealers' numbers

  July 17, 2008

  Here are some dealers' numbers," an e-mail from one parent read.

• After 7 miserable years, parents make their stand

  July 15, 2008

  A mother, joined by her best friend, traveled to a courthouse not too far from her home.

• Daughter's fatal drug problem resonates with families

  July 13, 2008

  "Like the Ciappas, I have a son hooked on drugs," read one e-mail plucked from a stack almost a half-inch thick.

• Parents' struggle to save teen from heroin's clutches

  July 10, 2008

  TEN WEEKS after her 18th birthday, Natalie Ciappa spent an evening with friends before returning to Massapequa and the safety of her bed.

• Parents' struggle to save teen from heroin's clutches

  July 10, 2008

  Ten weeks after her 18th birthday, Natalie Ciappa spent an evening with friends before returning to Massapequa and the safety of her bed.

• Activist urges community to help stop violence

  July 8, 2008

  Karina Singh, steadfast and sure, was up and making the rounds in Wyandanch early yesterday.

• Some teachers - and students - you never forget

  July 6, 2008

  It reads, almost, like a poem:

• Where's the justice for Tankleff's parents?

  July 1, 2008

  Someone's getting away with murder.

• Joye Brown: Handmade quilt reunites Long Island cousins

  June 29, 2008

  Rose Pezzanite started making her first quilt one month after her husband, Dom, died of cancer, in 2006. She's made 174 other quilts since then; she has a photo of each one, carefully numbered, in three albums.

• 8-year-old's pretty pink tee targets an ugly word

  June 26, 2008

  It took a few days to figure out the message on the pretty pink T-shirt that got an 8-year-old in trouble at her Amityville elementary school this week.

• Long Islanders had big role in pension reform push

  June 24, 2008

  Take a bow, Long Island.

• Next stop: The Twilight Zone

  June 22, 2008

  Two friends took in the Jimmy Buffett concert at Madison Square Garden two weeks ago. And then, ecstatic, they hopped a Long Island Rail Road train bound for Huntington.

• Joye Brown: Civic leaders unite on a mission to renew Elmont

  June 19, 2008

  Could some superstore be coming to Elmont? That would be a big yes - if a coalition of local civic groups is successful in wooing a major retailer.

• A pipeline into LIPA's thinking

  June 17, 2008

  Kevin Law, head of the Long Island Power Authority, made his first visit to Shoreham long before last Friday, when he went with a LIPA advisory committee charged with determining the future of the mothballed nuclear power plant.

• Deaths prove Nassau child services didn't do its job

  June 15, 2008

  Nassau County's Child Protective Services unit bungled mightily its handling of a complaint against a New Cassel woman who police say drowned her three children, one by one, and posed their bodies resting together on her bed.

• Miley posed, but adults should be ashamed

  April 28, 2008

  Dear Miley,

• There's more to the story

  December 23, 2007

  "I crossed the color line a long time ago," John White told me in one of the few informal conversations we had in the hallway during courtroom breaks during his trial in Riverhead.

• How can syringe misuse, lack of data happen now?

  November 15, 2007

  Hepatitis killed my mother.

• This place needs change to be great

  January 25, 2007

  More and more residents on Long Island, home of the nation's first postwar suburb, say it's harder than ever to pay the mortgage. That's hard to imagine. But the data are right there on page 4 of this year's Long Island Index report.

• Embracing King's radical message

  January 16, 2007

  Now might be a good time to cut Martin Luther King Jr. back down to size.

• Driver's widow describes a love story

  October 4, 2006

  Rita Rabinowitz took her daughter's hand, holding tight as the DVD began to play before a crowded, hushed courtroom. And there, as she sat watching, she saw her husband's death just as he saw it that night -- through his eyes, from the front of the limousine in which he died.

• Loss of more than a child

  September 12, 2006

  Jennifer and Neil Flynn skipped breakfast yesterday, hours before testimony began in the trial of a man charged with second-degree murder in the death of their eldest child, 7-year-old Katie.

• Only right step is to step down from district

  August 8, 2006

  Richard Hawkins ought to rethink his decision not to step down as superintendent of the William Floyd school district. And he ought to take some school board members with him.

• For Rice, it's broom for change

  August 1, 2006

  The question for Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice yesterday was: Are you the witch critics say you are?

• At long last, NUMC sees some heroes

  July 21, 2006

  Let's say you want to mess with the Roosevelt School District. You have to get past State Assemb. Earlene Hooper and State Sen. Charles Fuschillo.

• Nassau first passes blame, now buck

  April 25, 2006

  Nassau County Attorney Lorna Goodman says she won't use county taxpayers' money to pay a $63,000 legal bill, the highest to come out of a bitter fight settled more than two months ago over the leadership in the county legislature.

• Keep these kids stationed here

  April 20, 2006

  'This club has kept me off the street and kept me out of the gang."

• Stereotypes all over this case

  April 19, 2006

  A rich kid. A white boy. A jock. Collin Finnerty, one of Long Island's own, was arrested early yesterday on charges of raping and kidnapping a black stripper hired to dance at an off-campus party.

• A Cradle with links to history

  March 23, 2006

  Kathy Wojcieszak left her long white scarf at the Cradle of Aviation museum in Mitchel Field almost three years ago. It was still there yesterday, streaming behind a pilot in a plane hanging from the lobby's ceiling.

• First step toward solution

  March 9, 2006

  Mr. Levy went to Washington this week. And he took a collection of officials who merit serious consideration from President George W. Bush.

• Students are the principal concern

  February 28, 2006

  What happened in Vermont didn't stay in Vermont.

• Tom assures Nassau's not out of sight

  February 26, 2006

  Someone called with a suggestion recently for a two-page graphic in the center of Newsday: A state map showing every stop Nassau County Executive Thomas Suozzi has made campaigning for governor.

• In Nassau, no work, all pay

  February 2, 2006

  The Nassau County Legislature has given us a month of nothing.