The Long Island Daily

Since the early 1980s, Long Island has become a hotbed for ticks and an epicenter for the diseases they can carry, such as Lyme disease, babesiosis and more recently, alpha-gal syndrome, the meat allergy sparked by a tick bite. Lisa L. Colangelo reports in NEWSDAY that predicting whether this will be a "bad" tick year is difficult because population is driven by factors such as weather, vegetation...

Commercial landscaping companies and governments on Long Island would be eligible for rebates to transition from gas-powered to electric lawn care and snow removal equipment, under a bill passed by the New York State Legislature. "Gas-powered landscaping equipment emits a stunning amount of air pollution, not to mention the noise that blights communities across the state," Sen. Liz Krueger (D-Manh...

Twenty-three schools in 16 Long Island districts have been flagged for subpar academic performance in the state's latest accountability ratings, a Newsday analysis has found. More than half of the schools — 15 — were classified as needing targeted support and improvement, also known as TSI. Six were designated as needing additional targeted support and improvement, or ATSI. Two schools, one in Hem...

Southampton Town police said yesterday that they rescued a kayaker marooned on a sandbar due to rough seas in the Great Peconic Bay. Janon Fisher reports in NEWSDAY that police responded to a 911 call around 4:30 p.m. Sunday from the boater who said that she was stranded about 500 feet northeast of the Shinnecock Canal, in Hampton Bays, according to a news release. Before help arrived, the kayaker...

After keeping their social distance from trains during the height of the pandemic, weekend Long Island Rail Road riders are back in a big way, and then some, according to a new state report. Alfonso A. Castillo and Joseph Ostapiuk report in NEWSDAY that according to the report by the office of NYS Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, weekend ridership on the LIRR was 27% higher last year than in 2019 — a...

Arrests made after an investigation cloaked in strict secrecy and undertaken by the Suffolk County district attorney’s office, over charges that staffers were taking bribes to expedite permits, sent shockwaves through East Hampton Town last week. At the helm in that office at that time was former East Hampton Town Chief Building Inspector Joe Palermo, who was the first to notice — and report — wha...

A Deer Park orthopedic spinal surgeon, accused of copying and pasting 43 virtually identical surgical reports, has been named in another federal racketeering lawsuit, this time for providing unnecessary spinal surgeries on drivers and passengers involved in allegedly staged motor vehicle crashes with FedEx vehicles. The wide-ranging lawsuit, filed last week by FedEx in New York's Southern District...

President Donald Trump’s attack on Pope Leo XIV offended Long Island Catholics who spoke with Newsday yesterday, including some Republicans who otherwise support the president. They said they disliked Trump saying Leo is "weak on crime" and caters to "the radical left" and Trump subsequently comparing himself to Jesus Christ in an apparently AI-generated image. The image disappeared from Trump's s...

The Trump administration's $2.2 trillion budget proposal prioritizes defense spending while proposing significant cuts to domestic programs, notably targeting New York and other blue states for alleged program mismanagement. Proposed cuts include eliminating the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program, prompting bipartisan opposition from local lawmakers concerned about the high cost of energy....

Long Island Rail Road commuters now have an opportunity to weigh in on what they’d like to see in a reimagined Jamaica Station. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul announced this morning the launch of a "customer engagement" effort as part of her proposed $50 million redesign of the Queens transit hub, which serves as the main transfer point for LIRR riders, and includes connections to buses, subways and t...