Columnists

The Republican victories across Long Island on Tuesday could boost the party in the 2022 elections.

In less than a half-hour, Nassau County legislators killed $106 million in unpopular fees — and opened a sizable hole in the 2022 budget.

The Republican leader of the Nassau County Legislature is the latest in a long line of county officials to try to curb taxpayer-funded mailings at election time.

No one party has a lock on Long Island, which leaves major parties pitching for every vote they can get.

Huntington Town officials have offered a bare-bones account of an accident in which Supervisor Chad Lupinacci hit a utility pole, sustaining $22,000 in damages to his sedan.

Officials and anti-drug abuse experts say they will try to ensure that millions of dollars Nassau and Suffolk will get in opioid settlement money goes toward drug treatment and prevention.

The former Suffolk County district sat at the defendant's table, where he'd spent six weeks from the start of his trial to the day he'd been convicted by a jury of his peers.

Legislation passed by Nassau County lawmakers would tie the potential for legal action to every interaction between police and other emergency responders and the public.                                                                                                                        

Cuomo is asking New Yorkers to believe, basically, that he's the victim, and that allegations of sexual harassment are distorted and politically motivated.

Nassau County Executive Laura Curran wants to send $375 payments to 300,000 homeowners. Who doesn't love a little cold, hard cash?

A push for accountability, transparency and reform of policing practices on Long Island has been spurred by national revulsion at George Floyd's death in Minneapolis.

Who ruined the Nassau County assessment system? It's a debate that apparently will never die.

Long Island officials already are dealing with issues including how to determine when drivers are impaired by marijuana.

Community activists continue to push for outside oversight of complaints about police conduct.

Blakeman, the GOP candidate for Nassau County executive, is no stranger to bucking his party's leaders. Asked if he has made peace with them he says: "I'm the top of the ticket, aren't I?" 

Release of body-cam footage of Suffolk County police officers cursing and kicking a suspect comes as Suffolk and Nassau officials ready police reform plans.

The Suffolk County term-limit law, which passed via voter referendum, states simply: "No person shall serve as a County Legislator for more than 12 consecutive years."

Two different plans for police reform are headed toward the same destination: reviewing and reforming police practices in Nassau and Suffolk counties.

Nassau's crazy popular bond offering provided the county with a $1.1 billion cushion as it struggles with budget deficits resulting from the pandemic.

The Nassau County Legislature offered a sobering look into the guts of Long Island's vaccine distribution system.

For days, it was like "The Hunger Games" meets "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" out there as Long Islanders scrambled to find vaccines.

On election night, Long Islanders appeared to have soundly supported the reelection of Republican President Donald Trump. But that was a red mirage.

In Oyster Bay, an attempt to balance decorum with freedom of speech at public meetings has landed the town in federal court.

Armageddon, defined, is a final destructive battle or conflict. In Suffolk, at least, the meaning could be stretched to, well, hoping to avoid all hell breaking loose.

Jesse Garcia, Suffolk's GOP chairman, and Joseph Cairo, head of Nassau's Republican Party, are old hands at getting out the vote.

Young people between the ages of 18 and 34 represented the largest group of new voter registrations in Nassau and Suffolk this year.

"We're walking and chewing gum," said Nicholas LaLota, Suffolk's Republican elections commissioner. That's one way of putting it.

The Suffolk County executive had hoped the federal government would come through with millions of dollars in pandemic disaster aid.

The most asked question of the Nassau and Suffolk boards of election this year is, "How do I get an absentee ballot?"

The one thing about Alicia Patterson, Newsday's oh-so-very prim and proper looking founding publisher, that's always captured my imagination was her childhood nickname, Roughneck.

Long Island party leaders hope the national political conventions will energize their supporters for the Nov. 3 elections. 

A Democratic delegate from Suffolk voted by PDF email. But a Republican from Nassau is thrilled to be one of 336 delegates to be voting in person at the GOP convention.

Alyssa Nightingale, of Cold Spring Harbor, made 48 phone calls to PSEG LI after losing power in Isaias. On Aug. 11, the lights finally came back.

Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone proposes another tap Peter to pay Paul move to plug massive deficits caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

Under an order by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, every municipality must submit a plan that "reinvents and modernizes police strategies and programs ... based on community input."

Nassau's police commissioner, Patrick Ryder, says protesters are having a big impact.

For the first time in decades in New York, there could be greater public scrutiny on how police discipline is handled.

A course for contract tracers emphasizes it takes just two days for someone who's had contact with an infected person to be able to transmit the coronavirus to others.

Like Mary Mallon, we're all caught up in an iteration of the conflict between public health and individual rights that played out in her case.

In a ruling, Justice David T. Reilly managed to resolve the long-running discussion about whether red-light cameras were created for safety, or to raise revenues.

Zeldin (R-Shirley) helped make a call happen last week between Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone and U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.

Suffolk town supervisors want residents to get an extension on property tax payments. But could a freeze in payments cripple the county budget?

They've closed playgrounds, beach parking lots and tennis courts — and residents still find ways to gather.

After the virus crisis passes, the county will have to address concerns about construction contracts raised by Nassau's inspector general, Jodi Franzese.

Bellone went into voluntary quarantine after Deputy Suffolk County Executive Peter Scully tested positive for coronavirus.

The Suffolk DA and the county legislature plan to dig deeper into the system that failed 8-year-old Thomas Valva.

For Long Beach, Moody's "Credit Outlook" is not so good.

In Huntington, residents questioned Supervisor Chad Lupinacci's decision to put forth only one candidate to head a new bureau that will enforce some town codes.

The documents provide a rare look at the actions of CPS, the police and courts -- an inside view of a system shielded even from experts.