Free Republic

After the first day of recounting votes from Election Day, Nassau County Executive GOP candidate Ed Mangano leads incumbent Tom Suozzi by 24 votes. The number is small but could paint a troubling scenario for Suozzi, who is seeking a third term in office. According to sources the votes counted were from the 14th Legislative District, where Democratic Legislator Dave Mejias is also hoping the recount puts him on top of his challenger Republican Joe Belesi, Long Beach and most of Suozzi’s hometown of Glen Cove. More than 1,000 voting machines were taken to the Nassau County Board of Elections...

Bernard Madoff once slept there. Soon, someone else will. The imprisoned swindler's Montauk, New York, home, located on a beach with sweeping views of the Atlantic Ocean, has been sold for more than the $8.75 million asking price, a spokeswoman for broker Corcoran Group said on Thursday. The name of the buyer and the purchase price were not immediately disclosed. Several buyers submitted bids for the four-bedroom, three-bath, 3,000-square-foot home, which was on the market for two weeks. Sale proceeds will go toward reimbursing victims of Madoff's estimated $65 billion Ponzi scheme. The government is also selling two other U.S....

EAST MORICHES, N.Y. (CBS) ― An allegedly drunk driver brought down part of a house in Suffolk County when he crashed through the home's second floor. Police say the allegedly drunk driver ran a stop sign and hit a berm, causing the SUV to be catapulted action-movie style. From the second floor, the vehicle dropped down to the first floor vertically, with it's headlights pointing toward the sky. Homeowner John Sarli says he's lucky to be alive. He was the only person at the home, sleeping on a couch in the den when he heard the crash and the sound...

NEW YORK — Police say attackers used health care reform as a ruse to approach their victims and then shot two and pistol-whipped another in a Long Island home. Suffolk County police said Saturday that a 26-year-old woman was arrested on attempted murder and burglary charges in the attack Friday in Huntington. Two men were arrested on the same charges earlier. Information on the suspects' arraignments wasn't immediately available Saturday night. Police say the three told the home's residents they were selling insurance, referring to President Barack Obama's push to overhaul America's health care system. Police say the suspects then...

NY Congressman Tim Bishop tried to pack his town hall with unions on the ‘take’ for nationalized healthcare. The people of his district erupt in open rebellion when one of the union goons tries to speak! Union members, many from outside the district, were snuck into the hall beforehand in an effort to stack the deck with a friendly audience. The last straw came when one of the union leaders from outside the district was asked to speak. The citizens erupted in open revolt which almost led to violence from the union goons.

A local union leader was booed out of Rep. Tim Bishop's town hall meeting last night in New York.Like they tried to do here in St. Louis, union members, many from outside the district, were snuck into the hall in an effort to stack the deck with a friendly audience. There are reports that as many as three busloads were brought in.Things boiled over when Mr. Mitchell, head of the Long Island Federation of Labor, steps up to the podium and announces that he in fact does not reside within the borders of NY's First Congressional District.

More than 900 residents met U.S. Rep. Tim Bishop's promise to approve only a health care bill that "improves on a status quo that is unacceptable" with a mix of cheers and boos at a packed town hall meeting in Farmingville Thursday night.

Via Gateway Pundit, although I’m certain there’s an alternative explanation. Maybe the leader of the Long Island Federation of Labor couldn’t make it to the town-hall forum in his own district, or perhaps his Representative was busy hiding, like many House Democrats this August. His attempt to pander to the actual constituents of Rep. Tim Bishop results in catcalls and a full minute of disruption. Jim also reports that the Magical Mystery Bus Tour continued for this meeting, with unions sending three busloads of people to the event. Even so, the angry constituents shout them down fairly effectively … or...

Topics go well beyond healthcare - 2d Amendment, tax policy, bailouts, and cap and trade. Makes one proud. Best example of democracy since the Revolution.

I received an email from Individuals United for Freedom about a "healthcare rally", coordinated between Congressman Tim Bishop of Long Island & the SEUI. (Tim Bishop cancelled his earlier-scheduled townhall meetings out of cowardice.) If anyone on Long Island is interested in countering, the group I cited above is planning to be there to protest. Just be careful - this one sounds like it could get ugly. Here's the details, per the email: What: Tim Bishop Town Hall meeting in Hicksville When: August 13, 2009 1:00 PM Where: SEUI United Healthcare 100 Duffy Avenue Hicksville, NY 11801 "Congressman Tim Bishop...

Constituents protest before his arrival and speak out in frustration at the meeting. Outdoor protesters from csa-1776.org and Suffolk County 9-12 Project. Silent no more.

A white Valley Stream man remained in critical condition Monday after police said he was beaten by a group of young African-American assailants in what authorities are investigating as a possible hate crime. The 30-year-old victim, a Long Island Rail Road worker, was not identified by police, who said the attack was unprovoked. The victim was repeatedly punched and kicked in the face, head and body at about 12:30 a.m. Sunday by a group of about 12 to 15 male and female assailants, said Nassau police Det. Sgt. Anthony Repalone. The man had gone outside to move his car off...

Beer-sodden fans and rain combined for an ugly finish to a long day of golf yesterday, with Tiger Woods and other golfers subjected to drunken heckling as the action at Bethpage Black came to a close. At 6:42 p.m., dozens of drunken spectators at Hole 10 taunted Woods as he prepared to start his third round in the rain. "We're on Long Island, baby, where men are men!" one fan yelled. "Put that umbrella down!" The taunts were mixed with cheers from the majority of the crowd. Woods did not respond to the people who were heckling him but tried...

... FRANCISCO arrived in Hempstead, a decaying inner-ring suburb in Nassau County, nine years after his mother. She had come ahead in the early 1990s, as the Salvadoran civil war was ending, leaving Francisco in the care of an aunt until she could save $5,000 to pay a smuggler to ferry him across the border to join her. Francisco was 12 when he crossed from Tijuana to San Diego in 2001, stuffed in the trunk of a Honda next to several strangers. The trip was terrifying, but later he would say it had toughened him for life on Long Island....

Has the Montauk Monster mystery finally been solved? FOXNews.com readers will remember the story that gripped the nation last summer — a stinking, hairless carcass washed up on the beach in Montauk, N.Y., part of the Hamptons vacation area. Some speculated it was an escaped mutant from a government lab. Others thought it was an alien. A few suggested it might be a dog or raccoon. Now one man has come forward, or at least his friend has, to claim it was all the work of him and his buddies. "I was one of those guys behind that Montauk monster...

EC just returned from an adventure in the wild with Pack 21, an overnight adventure that left EC grimy, exhausted, and with a better understanding of WHY our fight to keep America free, and to preserve our liberties is so important. Will our generation be the first in American history to leave a world of LESS opportunity for our children?

More than 300 people, many of them waving American flags and carrying anti-tax signs, lined the curb at Sunrise Highway and the Long Island Rail Road station in Massapequa Wednesday, protesting taxes and the federal bailout of the financial sector.

EXCLUSIVE The North Shore Country Club lost a third of its members after many victims of swindler Madoff couldn't afford the $16,000-a-year fee....."One member was hysterical, she cleaned out her locker and left." The club had to lay off 20 part-timers and six full-timers and is struggling to survive with a staff of 40....membership dropped from 175 to 110. Some say the club may be sold but has fees and commitments from weddings and other revenue to get through 2009......."We're 95 years old. We were hoping to make it to 100"......one source told reporters.

Chanting "Give us rain, give us thunder, we won't let the government plunder," a crowd of more than 300 sloshed through puddles to protest what they believe to be government tyranny by dumping two boxes stamped "tea" into Northport Harbor. "I'm very unhappy with the administration, where they are bringing the country . . . we don't need bigger government," Theresa Baron, 41 of East Northport, said at the Freedom Friday Tea Party. "Let the free enterprise work. The government doesn't have to solve every problem." The event's sponsoring group, Free America, models itself after the Heritage Foundation, which promotes...

The Citizen's Freedom Day Tax Revolt Tea-Toss. April 3, 2009 in Northport, Long Island. A heavy rain didn't keep than 300 patriots away. (of course the symbolic Tea Crates were recovered later on to be used for MORE Freedom Day Tax Tea Parties)We will not be Silent! The People Say NO MORE! Videos and pictures posted here: http://vigilantsquirrelbrigade.blogspot.com/2009/04/tax-tea-party-revolt-in-northport-long.html

I didn't see any other posts reporting on this event, so figured I'd give a quick report. My husband & I were at the Long Island book signing of Mark Levin's new book yesterday, and we were absolutely shocked at the turnout. This was the signing for Mark's book "Liberty and Tyranny - A Conservative Manifesto"; Sean Hannity was also there. Both Mark & Sean spoke before the signing began. They couldn't fit everyone in the store - not even close - and this is a good sized bookstore. The event began at 5. By the time we had our...

WAITER DISRUPTS JEWISH WEDDING WITH ARABIC CHANT By LORENA MONGELLI and ERIN CALABRESE January 10, 2009 -- Long Island waiter rebelling against his pastor father terrorized guests at a Jewish wedding reception, blasting a recording of a pro-Palestinian rally that included Arabic chants through the DJ's microphone, authorities said today. Stephen Buttafuoco, 23, was charged with a aggravated harassment as a hate crime for allegedly blaring "Allahu akbar," Arabic for "God is great" - scaring the over 700 wedding guests who were wrapping up the party at the Woodbury Jewish Center around 1 a.m. Jan. 4., Nassau cops said. Buttafuoco,...

Want to make a killing in an economy hurrying south? Sell guns. Starting in October and accelerating with the election of Barack Obama, firearm retailers across the Island followed a national trend by reaping record sales. Although there are no statistics on how many guns have been sold, the FBI during the week of Nov. 3 received more than 374,000 background requests on potential customers from gun shop owners across the country, an increase of almost 49 percent over the same period in 2007. Jon Sweezey, owner of The Camp-Site Sport Shop in Huntington Station, stood in the firearms section...

Lawsuit: Marketing Blamed in Wal-Mart Trampling Death Advertising 'Specifically' Designed to Attract Large Crowds By Jack Neff BATAVIA, Ohio (AdAge.com) -- Security should have been better, but advertising also helped kill a temporary worker at Wal-Mart, according to a lawsuit filed by the estate and relatives of the 34-year-old man trampled by a pre-dawn Black Friday crowd at a Valley Stream, N.Y., store. At least one local police official and one retail marketing consultant also argue that Black Friday marketing and merchandising practices need to change in the wake of the incident. A complaint filed today in New York State...

Thanksgiving is always a good time for Wal-Mart. Well, almost always. This year, the big-box retailer saw its usual Thanksgiving-week spike of attention from Black Friday bloggers, earning more than 7,000 mentions on Nielsen-monitored blogs last week—the most in any single week so far this year. Unfortunately, a big chunk of those mentions concerned the tragic events of early Friday morning in Valley Stream, N.Y., where a Wal-Mart worker was trampled to death by a mob of bargain-seeking shoppers. There's plenty of blame to go around, and Wal-Mart's PR crisis is only one part of the story. Bloggers across the...

NEW YORK – Police were reviewing video from surveillance cameras in an attempt to identify who trampled to death a Wal-Mart worker after a crowd of post-Thanksgiving shoppers burst through the doors at a suburban store and knocked him down. Criminal charges were possible, but identifying individual shoppers in Friday's video may prove difficult, said Detective Lt. Michael Fleming, a Nassau County police spokesman.

NEW YORK – A Wal-Mart worker was killed Friday when "out-of-control" shoppers desperate for bargains broke down the doors at a 5 a.m. sale. Other workers were trampled as they tried to rescue the man, and customers shouted angrily and kept shopping when store officials said they were closing because of the death, police and witnesses said. At least four other people, including a woman who was eight months pregnant, were taken to hospitals for observation or minor injuries, and the store in Valley Stream on Long Island closed for several hours before reopening. Shoppers stepped over the man on...

MyFoxNY.com -- A Long Island couple knew that getting married was expensive. What they didn't count on was the priest planning to charge them extra for living together. Fox 5's Arnold Diaz exposes a so-called 'fornication fee'. A Long Island couple knew that getting married was going to be expensive. But what they didn't count on was that the priest was going to charge them extra for living together.

Hundreds of shoppers smashed through windows at a Long Island Wal-Mart early Friday morning, killing one store employee in the stampede. News' reader Nakea Augustine caught the chaotic scene on her cell phone, check out the photos. http://www.nydailynews.com/money/galleries/walmart_stampede_captured_in_pictures/walmart_stampede_captured_in_pictures.html

The 34-year-old man was at the entrance of the Valley Stream Walmart store just after it opened at 5 a.m. local time and was knocked to the ground, the police report said. The exact cause of death was still to be determined by a medical examiner.

<p>An annual parade of boats on a Long Island river that dropped "Christmas" from its name has apparently lost lots of supporters.</p> <p>About 1,000 people showed up Sunday for the Patchogue (PACH'-awg) Boat Parade of Lights. That's 500 fewer than usually showed up when it was called the Patchogue Christmas Boat Parade.</p>

A Long Island teen now faces a murder charge in the vicious stabbing death of an Ecuadoran immigrant during a day-long spree targeting at least four Hispanics this month, officials said.  Jeffrey Conroy, 17, accused of wielding the knife that killed Marcelo Lucero on Nov. 8, got the stiffer charge of second-degree murder as a hate crime in an indictment unsealed in Suffolk County Court Thursday. Prosecutors also revealed that a fourth man was attacked during the rampage that Conroy and his six buddies allegedly went on that day, culminating in the vicious murder of Lucero, 37.  Hours before Lucero's...

"...Nobody is asking questions because they voted for an idea. Not Barack Obama’s ideas, but their own ideas. They picked something they really wanted or really needed and decided that Barack Obama could and would do it for them. Barack Obama represents to them a utopian idea that divorces itself from reality. The Barack Obama Elementary School is just a reaffirmation of that charge. He’s done nothing, but we’ve already named a school after him..."

It was only a matter of time. A New York school has been renamed in honor of President-elect Barack Obama. The former Ludlum Elementary School, in Long Island's Hempstead Union Free School District, was renamed at a school board meeting Thursday -- effective immediately. School officials say most of the 440 students there are black or Hispanic, and Obama's victory is a source of great pride.

NEW YORK – It was only a matter of time. A New York school has been renamed in honor of President-elect Barack Obama. The former Ludlum Elementary School, in Long Island's Hempstead Union Free School District, was renamed at a school board meeting Thursday — effective immediately. The new name is the Barack Obama Elementary School.

Like Barack Obama's campaign, the plan to rename a Hempstead school after the president-elect was "a remarkable grassroots approach," the district superintendent said Friday. At a meeting Thursday night, the five-member Hempstead school board voted unanimously to rename one of its schools Barack Obama Elementary School, said Superintendent Joseph Laria.

It was only a matter of time. A New York school has been renamed in honor of President-elect Barack Obama.

ALBANY - Republican Sen. John McCain got an 8-point bounce on Long Island after the Republican convention, taking a narrow 44 to 39 percent lead over Democratic Sen. Barack Obama, according to the latest Dowling Polling Institute data. (...) In the Dowling poll, both candidates solidified support among their party bases, but McCain's biggest gain came among those describing themselves as moderates, jumping from 31 percent to 43 percent. In that group, Obama dropped from 48 percent to 36 percent. Long Islanders also had strong feelings about vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin -- 44 percent of them favorable and 34 percent...

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...

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: