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There once was a time when campus highjinx referred to the antics of college kids engaged in such harmless stunts as conducting late night panty raids, swallowing goldfish, or stuffing twenty human beings into a Volkswagen. Those college days are long gone. Many of today’s college students are so hungover from last night’s binging and with heads so clouded with marijuana that they wouldn’t know how to conduct a panty raid or they would confuse a goldfish with a bong. As for stuffing twenty of themselves into a Volkswagen, they’re far too busy stuffing themselves into coeds. The trickle down...

A predator drone being built by an engineer on Long Island sparked a large counter-terrorism investigation across the New York area, officials tell WNBC.com. Police said they had stumbled upon overnight testing of the drone at a little-used airstrip in Calverton, Long Island. The investigation began in February of last year, when investigators first learned testing of the drone was underway. Officials said the drone was being designed to carry more than 600 pounds of explosives. "It could be in the air for 8-10 hours and there's potential harm if it is carrying a large amount of toxic material," NYPD...

Pentagon Makes Fighting Extremism Top Priority Seven years after the Sept. 11 attacks, the Pentagon on Thursday officially named "the long war" against global extremism as its top priority and pledged to avert any conventional military threat from China or Russia through dialogue. The Defense Department, in a new national defense strategy, also emphasized the need to subordinate military operations to "soft power" initiatives to undermine Islamist militancy by promoting economic, political and social development in vulnerable corners of the world. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he hoped the change would help establish permanent institutional support for counterinsurgency skills...

TEACHERS GONE WILD IVPublished in August 23rd, 2008 | EditPosted by Berlet98 in AMERICAN CULTURE TODAYNo Comments(Please see Part III in this series to make some degree of sense of Part IV.) As seen in Part III, Principal C. was unique, to say the least. Whether attributable to being the runt of his family’s litter or to a brother who, also an educator, was accused of child molestation in Massachusetts, he was paranoid as well as, possibly, psychotic, which is admittedly a layman’s diagnosis. At the minimum, he was a legend in his own mind. I’m not aware of his...

TEACHERS GONE WILD! III Herman Wouk’s Captain Queeg may have been a fictional character in The Caine Mutiny (http://www.answers.com/topic/the-caine-mutiny) but he must have been the hero of Principal C., who is included in “Teachers Gone Wild” since, back in the old days at least, principals began their careers as lowly teachers. Known by much of the high school staff which he eventually commanded as a legend in his own mind, it took much less than the disappearance of a quart of strawberries from an icebox to trigger radical behavior from Principal C. Imported from Massachusetts to our Long Island school...

At the risk of playing a game of Can You Top This? I thought this expose’ by ParentDish.com was either an exercise in naivete’ or an intentional cover up of what’s actually going on in America’s public schools: http://www.parentdish.com/2008/08/18/teacher-texts-talks-to-teen/?icid=200100397×1207972092x1200439589. Granted, all the snippets provided there are examples of teachers being unprofessional and worse, ranging from male teachers texting and calling high school girls at all hours of the night, to female teachers berating four year olds for refusing to nap, to nutty teachers branding students, to female teachers bedding their male students. I’m not trying to mitigate the offenses of...

NEW YORK -- Is it real or is it a hoax? That's what many are asking after the corpse of a bizarre-looking creature with a dinosaur-like beak washed up on a Long Island shore this week. A tipster told Gawker.com that there is "a government animal testing facility very close by" where the creature washed ashore. But government biologists contacted by Hamptons-based Web site Plum said after looking at the pictures that "no such creature exists," according to Gawker. The woman who took the photo of the creature's corpse on the shore, along with two others who claim to have...

BY ALFONSO A. CASTILLO | alfonso.castillo@newsday.com May 28, 2008 Standing before a backdrop of mug shots of 81 men and women arrested for driving while intoxicated over Memorial Day weekend, Nassau County Executive Thomas Suozzi billed the display as "The Wall of Shame." But several of the wall's members said Wednesday that the only thing shameful was Suozzi's attempt to publicly humiliate them, their families, and potentially cost them their livelihood before they get their day in court.

He’s in contract to buy a 16-room, 7-bedroom Nassau County mansion on north-shore Centre Island (Oyster Bay) that’s been listed for $10.5 million. RealLI.com says that’s in the same area as Fox boss Rupert Murdoch and Billy Joel (who’re both trying to unload their shacks, for $12.8 million and $32.5 million, respectively). Hannity was raised on Long Island and used to deliver the Newsday paper as a kid. Now – he can get anything he wants delivered to his house. He currently lives in a decent-enough place in Lloyd Harbor – but if I’m right, that he’s in negotiations to...

Long Island - bigger than 19 states and more populous than all but the country's three largest cities -- is big enough to stand on its own, secede and become the 51st state, said Suffolk Comptroller Joseph Sawicki. Sawicki will formally renew his call to make Nassau and Suffolk -- with their 2.8 million people -- its own state at an 8 a.m. breakfast Friday morning sponsored by Dowling College's Long Island Economic and Social Policy Institute. "Before you dismiss me as being on the fringe of craziness, just imagine: Taxes raised on Long Island would be spent on Long...

WASHINGTON - Federal energy regulators on Thursday approved a $700 million liquefied natural gas terminal proposed for Long Island Sound, a facility opposed by the state of Connecticut and other critics who say it would damage the environment and be vulnerable to a terrorist attack. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission voted 5-0 to approve the terminal, which would be located 9 miles from Long Island and 10 miles from Connecticut. FERC says it would be the first floating terminal in the U.S. for storage and delivery of natural gas. The 1,200-foot-long, 82-foot-high terminal would be built by Broadwater Energy, a...

RIVERHEAD, N.Y. -- A black man who grabbed a gun instead of calling police when his son awakened him with a claim that carloads of abusive white teenagers were headed to their home was sentenced to prison Wednesday for killing one of the boys. The sentence -- two to four years -- John White received incensed the family and supporters of Daniel Cicciaro, the 17-year-old who was killed in August 2006. White, a 54-year-old construction laborer from Miller Place, could have received up to 15 years. He was convicted in December after an emotional three-week trial in which defense attorneys...

Guilty verdict for black dad in shooting death of white teen in Long Island BY NICHOLAS HIRSHON, JOE GOULD and RICH SCHAPIRO DAILY NEWS WRITERS Saturday, December 22nd 2007, 10:25 PM Roca/NewsJohn White and his wife Sonia as they leave the courthouse after his guilty verdict was handed down. Roca/NewsMembers of the Cicciaro family celebrate the verdict. The black Long Island father charged with shooting a white teen was convicted of manslaughter Saturday night by a jury that rejected his claim he was defending his family from a "lynch mob."John White, 54, was found guilty of gunning down 17-year-old...

RIVERHEAD, New York (CNN) -- The tragic story that began with a sick joke on the Internet is coming to a close as a Riverhead, New York, jury deliberates the fate of 53-year-old John White, on trial for killing a friend of his son. White is accused of shooting 17-year old Daniel Cicciaro in the face on August 9, 2006, outside his Long Island home after a heated exchange with Cicciaro and his friends. Cicciaro died that night, and White was arrested. He is charged with second-degree manslaughter. The trial has brought out allegations of racism and revenge. White, who...

A resident of an exclusive gated community has pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in the grisly killing of a neighbor whose head was found in the trunk of his car. Evan Marshall, 32, a bedding salesman, entered the plea Wednesday to murder, assault and other charges, about a week before jury selection was about to begin. Marshall was arrested a year ago in the death of retired schoolteacher Denice Fox, his neighbor in Glen Cove on Long Island. Marshall will get 30 years to life in prison when he is sentenced on Nov. 19 in Nassau County Court; he...

BY DAVE MARCUS As he put up a house in Sag Harbor, builder Paul Fried came up with a green idea. He decided to install a pair of four-foot-tall wind turbines to help power lights, computers and other appliances. The turbines would not only save energy but could also increase the value of the house, which Fried hopes to sell for $2.2 million. Several neighbors didn't like the idea. They said the turbines would be unsightly and noisy. Now, as he finishes the house, Fried finds himself in a battle with residents and village officials. The neighbors see the Finnish...

he Center for Governmental Research put together a great study in which they compared the level of and rate of satisfaction with government services in Long Island and Northern Virginia. Here are the vitals:

February 4, 2007 -- A Long Island man was shot to death while struggling with a trio of masked home invaders but not before firing off a few bullets from the thugs' gun - fatally wounding one and leaving another with severe injuries, Suffolk County police said yesterday. Dane Aulak, 22, was at his Medford home with his parents and teenage brother and sister when the men broke in around 11 p.m. Friday. The bandits demanded cash and drugs and Aulak - who had been studying mixed martial arts - tried to fight them off. He grabbed the gun long...

Number Of Confirmed Cases In N.Y., N.J. Reaches 39 Source Of Bacteria Undetermined, But Food Products Sent To Labs For Testing (CBS/AP) TRENTON, N.J. At least 14 people in two counties on Long Island have been affected by the recent E. coli outbreak that was first reported in central New Jersey. Officials say three people in Nassau County and 11 people in Suffolk County are being treated in the outbreak, though there is no confirmation yet as to whether the outbreak in New Jersey and the one in New York are related. Eight Taco Bell restaurants on Long Island have...

LONG BEACH, N.Y. -- Captain Underpants may be a superhero, but he isn't welcome at one suburban New York school. Three 17-year-old girls were told to leave Long Beach High School when they showed up on the school's Superhero Day dressed as the subject of the bestselling children's books. Captain Underpants is a superhero from popular books that has battled, among other things, talking toilets and the infamous Professor Poopypants. The girls, Chelsea Horowitz, Ashley Imhof and Eliana Levin, wore beige leotards and nude stockings under white briefs and red capes. They were completely covered. Principal Nicholas Restivo said he...

Federal agents, tipped off by Canadian border agents, have arrested a teacher at the Long Island School for the Gifted in Huntington Station on child pornography charges, officials said today.  Michael Kelly Reiner, 46, of East Meadow, was charged with possession of child pornography, but federal officials said they were investigating whether he had sexually molested boys or acted out on sadistic fantasies.  Federal prosecutors said their investigation into Reiner began in August when he was stopped by Canadian officials crossing from the United States into Canada in Ontario. "Reiner stated, in sum and substance, that he had a...

New York Democrats in recent years have made serious headway in the longtime Republican strongholds of Nassau and Suffolk, the two heavily populated counties in the New York City suburbs of Long Island. Those gains have encouraged Democratic strategists to cast a closer look than usual at challenging long-popular seven-term Republican Rep. Peter T. King in the 3rd District, which straddles the counties, and to recruit a stronger than usual challenger in Nassau County Legislator David Mejias. CQPolitics.com has changed its rating on the race to Republican Favored from Safe Republican. This change means that King still appears to have...

HAUPPAUGUE, N.Y. -- A contentious anti-immigration bill in Suffolk County drew dozens of people to a public hearing on the issue, including several demonstrators who carried signs reading, ``Deport Illegal Aliens.'' Nearly 50 people testified before the Suffolk County Legislature on Tuesday night, and supporters outnumbered opponents 2-to-1. The crowd outside included flag-waving protesters and one man dressed up as Uncle Sam. The legislation is a new front on the assault on illegal immigration at a time when local governments nationwide are tackling the issue in several ways. The bill by County Executive Steve Levy would require companies doing business...

RIVERHEAD, N.Y. (AP) - A former bookkeeper for a doctor's office pleaded guilty Wednesday to stealing more than $2.3 million from her employer to buy lottery tickets. Annie Donnelly, 38, of Farmingville spent as much as $6,000 a day playing lotto and scratch-off lottery games, prosecutors said. She faces four to 12 years in prison for stealing the money from her employers, Great South Bay Surgical Associates. Donnelly, who is being held in lieu of $150,000 bail, also will have to repay the money. She is charged with second-degree grand larceny. "She obviously had a gambling problem," said Donna Planty,...

Two men have been charged with harboring more than 100 illegal weapons, including more than 50 assault rifles, in their West Islip and Bayside homes, the Suffolk district attorney's office said Thursday. Acting on tips from informants and electronic surveillance, District Attorney Thomas Spota said authorities searched the homes of Gregory Brozski, 56, of 65-32 223rd Place, Bayside, and John Acompora, 46, of 59 Penney St., West Islip, and .confiscated the weapons: four AK-47 assault rifles, submachine guns, a grenade launcher, .ammunition, and others. The firearms were insecurely stored in sheds and garages -- posing a threat to anyone who...

NEW YORK (1010 WINS) -- Andy Krukar boarded TWA Flight 800 with a diamond ring in his pocket, planning to place it on his fiancee's finger at the Eiffel Tower during a weekend of romantic dinners and strolls through the streets of Paris. The fiancee, Julie Stuart, was going to follow him to Paris the next day to celebrate their formal engagement. AUDIO: TWA 800 Series Part One But Krukar was killed when Flight 800 exploded into a spectacular fireball over the Atlantic Ocean just minutes after taking off from Kennedy Airport — a disaster that claimed the lives...

Their son had been in Iraq for only six weeks when Gregory and Carol LiCalzi found out that two Marines were waiting at their front door. As they raced home from the airport on Friday, they prayed that their son Michael, a Marine 2nd lieutenant and 2000 graduate of Chaminade High School, had only been wounded. They prayed that he was still alive. "Can you believe that we were praying that our son had been grievously wounded? That would mean these two Marines, a gunnery sergeant and a captain, weren't there to tell us Michael was dead," his father said....

Armed burglars robbed four students at their door room in Stony Brook University Monday night, police officials said. The robbery happened at 8:30 p.m. on the second floor of an undisclosed building in the Kelly Quad at the university, Suffolk and Stony Brook University police said. Two to three masked men -- covering their faces with bandanas -- stormed the room and announced a robbery, they said.

HUNTINGTON, N.Y. -- A 71-year-old man who went outside in the rain to pick up the Sunday newspaper plunged into a cesspool in his front yard, and his son and neighbor were sucked in when they tried to rescue him. Firefighters said they helped pull out the victims -- covered in raw sewage but not badly hurt. Andrew Palladino said the soggy ground, which had been soaked by two days of rain, gave way outside his Long Island home. "I walked across the lawn, and all of a sudden I disappeared," he told cable television station News 12 Long Island....

"Weather Disaster of Historic Proportions" Could Strike as Early as This Year... The northeast U.S. coast could be the target of a major hurricane, perhaps as early as this season, according to research announced today by the AccuWeather... Hurricane Center. "The Northeast is staring down the barrel of a gun," said Joe Bastardi, Chief Forecaster... "The Northeast coast is long overdue for a powerful hurricane...not a question of if but when." ... "If you examine past weather cycles that have occurred in the Atlantic, you will see patterns of storms," added Ken Reeves, Expert Senior Meteorologist and Director of Forecasting...

MINEOLA, N.Y., March 16 — As the story of the $11.2 million Roslyn school embezzlement unfolded over the past two years, prosecutors and auditors often remarked on the almost giddy abandon with which a few administrators dipped into school funds to pay for personal indulgences like vacation trips, luxury homes, jewelry and pedicures. ...Mr. Signorelli, 60, of Manhattan, was for 33 years the domestic partner of the Roslyn schools superintendent, Frank A. Tassone. Dr. Tassone has admitted to stealing more than $2 million during his tenure between 1994 and 2002. Prosecutors said Dr. Tassone had been the schools chief for...

Infant Had Been Run Over Several Times (CBS) NEW YORK The dead body of a newborn baby that had been crushed by a car was discovered lying on a Long Island street Saturday. Police had few clues where the infant came from, or whether it was dead or alive when it was abandoned. A man walking his dog found the badly mangled body at 7:30 a.m. on a residential street near a golf course and a high school in Hempstead, about 20 miles east of Manhattan. "The first time I saw it, I thought it was a dead raccoon,...

A college student from Long Island was arrested in Westchester today and charged with making hundreds of fake driver's licenses and selling them to students who used them to drink in local bars. Westchester County District Attorney Janet DiFiore said 20-year-old Edward Henselder, of Melville, Long Island, was charged with one count of Forgery and one count of Criminal Possession of a Forged Instrument, both felonies. Henselder, a freshman at Pace University, who resided at Dow Hall in Briarcliff Manor, allegedly made and sold hundreds of high-quality fake New Jersey drivers licenses and sold them for $25 dollars a license....

Half a century ago, millions of young white couples left America's central cities for greener places to build homes and rear families. Their move created booming commuter communities and a new way of life. But that idealized picture has been transformed and the future of those pioneering suburbs is in jeopardy, according to a study issued yesterday by the Brookings Institution, a research group in Washington.

John "Junior" Gotti, who insists he quit the mob family run by his late father, the "Dapper Don," watched jury selection start yesterday at his racketeering retrial in Manhattan. One prospective juror was quickly disqualified: a former supervisor of the FBI's organized crime squad. The most serious charge facing Gotti is the 1992 kidnapping of radio host Curtis Sliwa, the founder of the Guardian Angels crime-fighting group, who allegedly was targeted by "Junior" Gotti because of his on-air rants against the late John Gotti.

NEW YORK (AP) -- A photograph of a pond taken by Edward Steichen sold for more than $2.9 million, easily setting a world record for the highest-priced photograph ever auctioned, Sotheby's said. "The Pond-Moonlight," taken on Long Island in 1904, sold on Tuesday for $2,928,000, including the buyer's premium, Sotheby's spokesman Matthew Weigman said. The buyer's identity was not immediately disclosed. The photograph shows a pond in a wooded area with light coming through the trees and reflected in the water. Pre-sale estimates priced the photo, which is slightly bigger than 16 inches by 19 inches, at up to $1...

An 11-year-old Lindenhurst boy who wanted to put an end to his mother's drug use took cocaine from his house Friday and brought it to school to show authorities, Suffolk police said. The boy woke up Friday morning and wanted his mother, Toni LaBarbera, 43, to take him to school at Deauville Gardens Elementary School in Copiague, police said. When he was unable to wake her, he noticed numerous plastic bags of white powder nearby and took one, police said. LaBarbera's boyfriend, Scott Pinto, 43, of Copiague, took the boy to school, where, upset over his mother's drug use, he...

Where are the Long Island Freepers? I never see any countering the filthy hippie leftovers who appear on every nice weekend on the corner of Rt. 25A in Setauket, with their flag-draped coffins and their signs screaming "Bush lied, kids died!" Their latest trick is to appear in orange jumpsuits with black underwear on their heads to simulate the "torture" imposed on those poor innocents in Abu Ghraib. I suspect they sort of like the get-up. I always oblige them with a digital salute, but I feel our side is under-represented here.

Cops: Girl Died While Playing With Family Dog (AP) MANORVILLE A six-year-old girl playing with her dog in the backyard was strangled - when the pet apparently grabbed her scarf and playfully pulled her down to the ground and dragged her around the yard. Suffolk County Homicide Detective Lieutenant John Fitzpatrick calls it "an absolutely tragic story." Police say the accident happened in the backyard of little Kaitlyn Hassard at 4:30 Tuesday afternoon. The girl came home from school wearing the scarf and the dog began pulling on it. The girl's mother put the dog in the backyard and a...

'ARCH' ENEMY: Thomas Sirico poses with a kill and his hunting bow. He allegedly used a bow and "razor" arrow to kill Juan Carlos Muñoz. January 10, 2006 -- A deranged deer hunter who stalked his prey using a powerful compound bow inexplicably fired a razor-tipped arrow into his neighbor's chest, killing the young father of three, Long Island police said yesterday. Juan Carlos Muñoz — a construction worker friends called "Angel" — was smoking a cigarette in front of his pal's Mastic home Sunday evening when shifty sportsman Thomas Sirico allegedly began cursing and screaming across the road....

Ruby Washington/The New York Times Martin H. Tankleff, photographed in 2004, was convicted in 1990 of killing his parents. He turned 34 in August 2005 and has expressed hope that he will not spend another birthday in prison. Martin H. Tankleff was supposed to start his senior year of high school on Sept. 7, 1988. But before dawn, his parents were bludgeoned and stabbed during a rampage in their home on a cliff overlooking Long Island Sound. Within hours he was arrested, based on a confession that was handwritten by a detective, which Mr. Tankleff promptly repudiated and never...

Supervisor apologizes after outcry over his angry response to prayer that invoked Jesus MELVILLE, N.Y. — When the Rev. Nick Zientarski uttered the name of Jesus Christ during his traditional blessing of the official Christmas tree lighting in Manhasset last week, he had no idea he had signed on as a soldier in the Christmas wars. Even as he spoke, the Roman Catholic priest said, he could hear North Hempstead Supervisor Jon Kaiman angrily objecting behind him, "this is inappropriate." Then, Kaiman got up and told the crowd, "I just want to make it clear that this is no way...

More Long Islanders say they are considering moving away amid difficulties paying for the high cost of housing, a new poll has found. The poll found the biggest jump in those considering leaving Nassau and Suffolk counties came among those the local economy can least afford to lose -- adults in their peak earning years between ages 50 and 64. The results come even as record-low interest rates have decreased homeowners' monthly housing bills, and as regional rental rates have leveled off or even decreased. "It's just getting to the point that people really are thinking ... is Long Island...

History will forever record Elizabeth Brooks' bat mitzvah as "Mitzvahpalooza." For his daughter's coming-of-age celebration last weekend, multimillionaire Long Island defense contractor David H. Brooks booked two floors of the Rainbow Room, hauled in concert-ready equipment, built a stage, installed special carpeting, outfitted the space with Jumbotrons and arranged command performances by everyone from 50 Cent to Tom Petty to Aerosmith. I hear it was garish display of rock 'n' roll idol worship for which the famously irascible CEO of DHB Industries, a Westbury-based manufacturer of bulletproof vests, sent his company jet to retrieve Aerosmith's Steven Tyler and Joe Perry...

GARDEN CITY, N.Y., Nov. 22 - The Nassau County executive, Thomas R. Suozzi, has ordered substantial cuts in pay for the top seven officials in the county's police union, who receive from $149,000 to $171,000 a year, all paid by county taxpayers. Mr. Suozzi has zeroed in on compensation awarded to the union officials by an arbitrator about a year ago for overtime, promotion pay and moonlighting income that officials say they lose because of union duties.

A Jesuit retreat house in Manhasset is hosting a workshop about gay Catholics and the church that had been barred from diocesan property last year by Bishop William Murphy of the Diocese of Rockville Centre. The workshop on building bridges to gay people comes just as the Vatican is about to release a document restating its prohibition barring gay men from the priesthood. Francis DeBernardo, executive director of New Ways Ministry, the organization leading the workshop, said yesterday that the program does not challenge church orthodoxy. "Our mission is simply to try to help Catholic institutions learn more about the...

Per TV report. No one was hurt. King said he is not sure if it was meant for him. There is also a bank by his office.

Long Island attorney has been charged with being an oline sexual predator. Nassau District Attorney Denis Dillon says 46-year-old Thomas Sheehan of East Setauket is accused of having explicit sexual conversations with a person he believed to be a 14-year-old girl. Dillon says Sheehan is an attorney with an office in Jackson Heights, Queens. DA Dillon says Sheehan visited a chatroom where he began a conversation with an udnercover officer posing as a teen-age girl. Sheehan allegedly talked about meeting the girl for sexual activity. Dillon says at the same time Nassau officers were zeroing in Sheehan -- New York...

(1010 WINS) BALTIMORE Tests show a Johns Hopkins University sophomore from Long Island who died earlier this week most likely had a meningococcal infection. Gilbert Duvalsaint of Searingtown, Long Island was taken by ambulance to a hospital Wednesday. His condition quickly deteriorated, and he died. The university says it first believed Duvalsaint had suffered an allergic reaction. But preliminary lab results now point to the infection. Meningococcal infections can lead to bacterial meningitis. But they spread only after very close contact. Campus authorities are contacting those close to Duvalsaint so they can begin taking antibiotics as a precaution. The 19-year-old...

EAST HAMPTON, Long Island The plane that crashed in East Hampton, Long Island over the weekend had been bought in Georgia and was being flown home to Nantucket, Massachussetts. The pilot - 50-year-old William Holdgate of Nantucket was killed in the crash Sunday afternoon in the middle of East Hampton. His family says Holdgate bought the twin-engine Cessna 411 several months ago and had traveled to Georiga to fly it home. Holdgate owned a construction company in Nantucket and had been a pilot for about ten years. An investigator with the National Transportation Safety Board says they found a three...