Free Republic

The assumption? Young adults are moving away from the region in large numbers due to the high cost of living, particularly housing prices. So, the story goes, the suburban pattern must be broken, and small, high density housing units must replace detached, single-family homes as the dominant urban form if young adults are to be retained.

He did it for her. Suspected pill addict David Laffer has been charged with slaughtering four people in a Long Island pharmacy to score a bag full of painkillers for his nagging, drug-addled wife, who was his getaway driver after the Father's Day massacre, police and witnesses said yesterday. "He was doing it because he lost his job and I was sick," his wife, Melinda Laffer, confessed to reporters as she was walked out of Suffolk County police headquarters in Yaphank early today. When asked what she would tell the families of the victims, she said, "I'm sorry that he...

The massacre happened at about 10:20 a.m. inside a family-owned pharmacy in a small cluster of medical offices in Medford, a middle-class hamlet on Long Island about 60 miles east of New York City.Police rushed to the scene after getting a 911 call from someone in the pharmacy's parking lot. When they arrived, they found two employees and two customers dead, said Suffolk County Police Department's Chief of Detectives Dominick Varrone. No one inside the shop survived.Suffolk County Police identified the dead employees as Raymond Ferguson, 45, of Centereach, and Jennifer Mejia, 17, of East Patchogue. Bryon Sheffield, 71, of...

A whale that appeared to be dead washed ashore on Atlantic Beach, Long Island Wednesday. [snip] Typically, when dead mammals wash onto beaches, marine experts are brought in to assess the animal.

Two NYPD cops are being eyed in the Long Island serial slayings after investigators learned they got into trouble for hiring prostitutes while working for the department, according to sources familiar with the probe. One cop was forced out of the job in the 1990s when his supervisors learned he spent time pursuing hookers and paying street walkers and down-and-out women for sex while he was supposed to be on patrol. An internal investigation led to his resigning under pressure, one source said. The other officer still works for the NYPD but was stripped of his gun and badge years...

Nine people arrested in total following an undercover investigation into the sale of assault weapons at gun shops throughout Nassau County. The owner of a New Hyde Park business and his son were among nine people arrested following an undercover investigation into the sale of assault weapons at gun shops throughout the county, Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice announced Thursday.Bellmore residents Martin Tretola, 55, owner of T&T Gunnery in Seaford and T&T Tactical in New Hyde Park and his son Thomas Tretola, 24, who is also one of his father's employees, were both arrested as a result of the...

One of the latest four sets of remains found on a Long Island beach linked to the Craigslist Ripper belongs to a baby or child - and not a grown woman, it was revealed today. The remains were found last week among four sets of bodies several miles away from where the bodies of four prostitutes were located in December. But the victim may not be related to the other New York murders as a young person’s body ‘would not fit a serial killer’s pattern’, according to law enforcement sources.

Residents of Smithtown were proud patriots during the Revolutionary War. During the Revolutionary War, from 1776 to 1783, Smithtown was under British occupation. Residents suffered poverty, destruction and the loss of property and loved ones at the hands of British soldiers and loyalists. Smithtown historian Bradley Harris said one-third of Long Islanders were loyalists, one-third patriots and one-third neutral. Most loyalists were found in Nassau, and the majority of those who were neutral were Quakers. According to the historian, Suffolk County is where you found the majority of patriots. As for one’s alliance, Harris said, “Where you were on Long...

This case is a frightening example of what can happen when a photographer encounters ignorant bullies with badges. According to the complaint filed in Federal Court, Nancy Genovese, a mother of three, was driving home on County Road 31 past Gabreski Airport in Suffolk County. Gabreski Airport displays a decorative helicopter shell by the roadway to the public, which is visible to all who pass by. Nancy Genovese stopped her car on the side of the road across the street from the airport in an area that is open and accessible to the public, and crossed over the road to...

At the link, there's access to 2 videos, each a little over a 1/2 hour. These are the first videos I've seen covering the whole event, rather than just 2 to 4 minute clips.

It's one of the richest counties in the country with one of the highest tax rates for residents and they still can't find enough money to make one and one add up to two.New York Times: A state oversight board on Wednesday seized control of Nassau County's finances, saying the county, one of the nation's wealthiest and most heavily taxed, had nonetheless failed to balance its $2.7 billion budget. Many hard-hit local governments have flirted with insolvency because of revenue shortfalls caused by the recession, but the financial problems of Nassau, on Long Island, owed more to a failure by...

BABYLON, N.Y.—Four bodies have been discovered at a beach on Long Island during a search for a missing New Jersey woman. Suffolk County police say three bodies were found Monday at Oak Beach, which is on a remote barrier island that divides the Great South Bay and the Atlantic Ocean. The bodies were near where skeletal remains were discovered over the weekend. Police were continuing to search into Monday evening. A police canine unit searching the area Saturday came upon the first body. The unit was searching the area in response to a missing-person report made in May after Jersey...

<p>The magnitude 3.9 quake was detected about 80 miles south-southeast of Southampton just before 10:45 a.m., according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The epicenter was about 122 miles from New York City. The quake was first reported by the Lamont-Doherty Cooperative Seismographic Network ( LCSN ) at Columbia University.</p>

JERICHO, N.Y. — Fifteen eighth graders at Jericho Middle School were considering a fictional case of stereotyping by hair color the other day, or how a boy came to be prejudiced against people with green hair, or “greenies.” From there, they extrapolated to the stereotypes in their own lives: dumb football players, Asian math whizzes, boring bankers. “We can feel stronger going back to our hallways,” the teacher, Elisa Weidenbaum Waters, said, “going back to our homes, going back to our society, and saying: ‘You know what? What you said is a stereotype, and that’s not cool.’ ” This year,...

A law enforcement scandal is unfolding on Long Island. A Suffolk County District Attorney investigator and a police officer are now charged with tipping off members of organized crime about police investigations.

A New York man was arrested Wednesday on charges that he unwittingly funded a Connecticut man's attempt to bomb Times Square on May 1 by providing unlicensed banking services, an arrest that continues an effort by federal authorities to reduce the illegal flow of money that can finance terrorism. Mohammad Younis, 44, was accused in an indictment in U.S. District Court in Manhattan of engaging in hawala activities, an informal banking system which relies on wire transfers, couriers and overnight mail. He was arrested at his Long Island home and brought to the courthouse, where he was expected to make...

UNIONDALE, N.Y. (CBS 2) — He was arrested for protecting his property and family. But it’s how the Long Island man did it that police say crossed the line. He got an AK-47 assault rifle, pulled the trigger and he ended up in jail, reports CBS 2’s Pablo Guzman. George Grier said he had to use his rifle on Sunday night to stop what he thought was going to be an invasion of his Uniondale home by a gang he thought might have been the vicious “MS-13.” He said the whole deal happened as he was about to drive his...

A homeowner who grabbed a rifle from his house and fired warning shots in a confrontation with a group of men on his lawn faces criminal charges, but his family said he was defending his home from a threatening mass of strangers. George Grier, 30, fired rounds into the ground and air from an assault-style rifle after arguing with a large group of men gathered outside his Long Island home Sunday evening, Nassau County police said Monday. No one was hurt. His sister, Caprice Rines, said Grier feared for the safety of his wife and two small children when about...

Saturday, July 17th Time: 10 am to 1 pm Location: Deer Park - Knights of Columbus Chief Ray Downey Field. 759 Long Island Avenue DIRECTIONS to the EVENT Congresswoman Michele Bachmann will be here rallying support for John Gomez in his bid to take back New York's 2nd Congressional District. The grass roots event will be FREE to the public and all are welcome. Please spread the word to your friends and neighbors to come down and support John Gomez.

Times Square Is Evacuated in Bomb Scare The scene at Times Square on Saturday night after police found a suspicious package inside a Pathfinder on West 45th Street. RAY RIVERA and KARIN HENRY May 1, 2010 A bomb in Times Square led to the evacuation of thousands of tourists and theatergoers from the area on a warm and busy Saturday evening, the police said. There was no explosion. “It appears to be a car bomb left in a Pathfinder between Seventh and Eighth,” said Deputy Commissioner Paul J. Browne, the Police Department’s chief spokesman. The device, he said, contained “explosive...