News Roundup

Oct
14
2012
Good news for Brentwood community

Violent crime has been cut by more than a third in Brentwood in the past three years because of increased police patrols, community renewal efforts, and an expansion of neighborhood watch groups.

Violent crime such as murder, rape and robbery has dropped from 223 occurrences in 2009 to 95 as of Aug. 31, the most recent date for which statistics are available. That's on pace for a reduction of about 36 percent.

Three years ago,...read more ››

Oct
14
2012

Spending by outside interest groups in the congressional race between Rep. Tim Bishop (D-Southampton) and St. James Republican Randy Altschuler has topped $2 million -- double the total spent by such groups when the candidates first squared off in 2010.

Prosperity First Inc., a new super PAC largely funded by East Setauket hedge fund manager Robert Mercer, on Tuesday purchased $104,868 in ads supporting Altschuler, according to Federal...read more ››

Oct
12
2012

Huntington Station, NY - New York State Assembly candidate Joe Dujmic today called upon the Long Island Power Authority to release the full details of its recently announced Amended and Restated Power Supply Agreement (PSA) with National Grid, and delay implementation of the agreement until it can be coordinated with the utility's 2010 Request for Proposals for new power generation.

Dujmic also said that the long-term goal for LIPA...read more ››

Oct
11
2012

Earlier this year, a Blue Ribbon task force that I appointed to examine Suffolk County’s budget crisis informed us that we were facing a three-year budget deficit of $530 million – a shocking number that was far worse than we could have imagined.

With your support, we have taken the tough measures needed to pull our county out of this mess and avert a fiscal disaster. In just the past few weeks, I am proud to say that we have taken...read more ››

Oct
11
2012

In the race for Town of Babylon Supervisor, Rich Schaffer has received endorsements from the following important groups and organizations:

The Coalition of Suffolk Police Unions

Suffolk County Correction Officers Association

Suffolk County Probation Officers Association

Suffolk County Superior Officers Association

Suffolk County Detective Investigators Police Benevolent...read more ››

Oct
10
2012

Huntington Station, NY - New York State Assembly candidate Joe Dujmic announced today that Jennifer Maertz has been added to his growing campaign team in the 10th Assembly District.

Ms. Maertz, a practicing insurance litigation attorney, ran for New York State Senate in eastern Suffolk in 2010. Despite entering that race late in the campaign cycle, Ms. Maertz made a strong challenge to an entrenched incumbent -- her vote total was in...read more ››

Oct
9
2012

Suffolk County Legislator Jay Schneiderman recently succeeded in passing a bill, on September 13, to rid county roads of some 12,000 double utility poles marring the landscape along the highways and byways on this side of the Island. Despite the absurd number of these unsightly and redundant poles, it seems some local residents never noticed the poles or even knew they aren’t supposed to be this way.

“It’s basically like littering,”...read more ››

Oct
9
2012

Social Security works, as it always has, for over 75 years. It is an insurance program that has provided benefits to millions of American workers since it was created by Democratic President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1935. Social Security’s opponents called it socialism from the beginning. It is not socialism; it is insurance. People pay into the program their entire working lives to insure they are not poor when they reach their older years...read more ››

Oct
9
2012
Islip Town Hall

"This is the hardest possible thing for a fiscal conservative to have to wrestle with," Croci said during the public hearing, which drew a large crowd. "We cut to the bone . . . It wasn't what I thought I would ever have to do my first year in office."

Several residents, however, accused Croci and the board of fiscal irresponsibility and urged a harder look at budget cuts.

"I'm just so frustrated," said Nancy Weibel, 63, of...read more ››

Oct
7
2012

The former commissioner of Long Island MacArthur Airport, whose career was grounded in June when she was fired as the airport's leader, is taking off again with the Federal Aviation Administration.

Teresa Rizzuto, 51, of Bayport, begins working for the FAA at its Eastern Region headquarters in Jamaica, Queens, this week. Rizzuto will be manager for the Safety and Standards Branch of the agency's airports division, an FAA spokesman...read more ››