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Damage in New York state from Superstorm Sandy could total $33 billion when all is said and done, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Thursday as the state began cleaning up from a nor'easter that dumped snow, brought down power lines and left hundreds of thousands of new customers in darkness. A damage forecasting firm had previously estimated that Sandy might have caused $30 billion to $50 billion in economic losses from the Carolinas to Maine, including property damage, lost business and extra living expenses. Cuomo's estimate will likely push the bill even higher. A damage estimate of even $50 billion total...

Volunteers and disaster victims have taken rescue, recovery and security into their own hands on New York's storm-ravaged borough of Staten Island, where they say FEMA has forgotten them. Already without power for more than a week in the wake of superstorm Sandy, hard-hit residents of the borough's South Shore braved a nor'easter Wednesday night, many -- perhaps hundreds -- huddling in condemned homes and ignoring orders to evacuate out of fear looters would take what little Mother Nature has left them. "FEMA packed up everything yesterday and left the area," said MaryLou Wong, whose home in the Midland Beach...

Nassau and Suffolk counties announced Thursday that they are imposing "odd-even" gasoline rationing to ease congestion and frustration at filling stations. The counties will join with New York City to impose the new system beginning at 5 a.m. Friday, in the wake of a shortage that began after superstorm Sandy hit the region. Under the system, drivers with license plates ending in an even number will be able to purchase fuel only on even-numbered days and drivers with license plate numbers that end in an odd number will be able to purchase fuel only on odd-numbered days. License plates such...

A winter storm battered the Northeast coast Thursday after cutting power to at least 115,000 homes and dumping record snowfalls in the New York City area. The National Weather Service warned of wind gusts as high as 60 mph along the coast, “minor to moderate” flooding from storm surges, and more snow, particularly in New England, early Thursday. More than 600,000 people were without electricity as a result of superstorm Sandy and the new storm. NBCNewYork.com reported that more than 198,000 Long Island Power Authority customers, 55,000 Con Edison customers in New York City and Westchester County, 197,560 Jersey Central...

Can’t make this stuff up. People in the New York and New Jersey area devastated by Hurricane Sandy are without homes, or have homes but no electricity while sleet and snow is pounding the area. FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) disaster “recovery” centers are closed in some areas of New York City and New Jersey. New Jersey FEMA says they will reopen tomorrow (Thursday). Staten Island says buses serving as warming centers have disappeared.

Two upstate appellate judges and a Long Island justice who sits on the appellate court in Manhattan were defeated on Nov. 6 in their reelection bids for Supreme Court, according to unofficial returns. Justices Bernard Malone Jr.  and E. Michael Kavanagh, both Republicans who sit in the Appellate Division, Third Department in Albany, were beaten by Democrats Richard Mott and Stephan Schick. And Justice James Catterson of Suffolk County came in eighth among 12 candidates vying for six seats in the Tenth Judicial District. Catterson sits on the First Department bench.... Throughout the state, judicial election voting appeared to be heavily influenced...

A nor'easter blustered into New York and Jersey on Wednesday, threatening to swamp homes all over again, plunge neighborhoods back into darkness and inflict more misery on tens of thousands of people still reeling from Superstorm Sandy. Under ordinary circumstances, a storm of this sort wouldn't be a big deal, but large swaths of the landscape were still an open wound, with many of Sandy's victims still mucking out their homes and cars. Thousands of people in low-lying neighborhoods staggered by the superstorm just over a week ago were warned to clear out, with authorities saying rain, wet snow and...

A FEMA disaster recovery center in a Hurricane Sandy-ravaged corner of Staten Island that was supposed to provide shelter, food and assistance to hurricane victims Wednesday morning went MIA, posting a sign saying that they were closed due to the approaching nor’easter. A printed paper sign taped to the front door of on the center at 6581 Hylan Blvd. at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday read “FEMA Center Closed Due to Weather.” The front doors of the disaster recovery center, which is housed inside the Mount Lorretto Catholic Youth Organization, were unlocked, but there was no staff anywhere in sight for at...

Rep. Kathy Hochul (N.Y.), a Democrat swept into office last year largely because of her support for Medicare, was defeated in her push for a full term on Tuesday. Chris Collins, a former Erie County executive, was leading Hochul 51 percent to 49 percent, CNN reported, with 97 percent of precincts reporting.

(AP) - Government leaders are turning their attention to the next crisis unfolding in the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy: finding housing for potentially tens of thousands of people left homeless. The Federal Emergency Management Agency said it has already dispensed close to $200 million in emergency housing assistance and has put 34,000 people in the New York and New Jersey metropolitan area up in hotels and motels. But local, state and federal officials have yet to lay out a specific, comprehensive plan for finding them long-term places to live, even as cold weather sets in. And given the scarcity and...

When New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg refused Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz's urgent plea to bring in the National Guard to help relief efforts and prevent looting following Hurricane Sandy, the mayor told reporters: "We don't need it. The NYPD is the only people we want on the street with guns." Bloomberg's reaction was irrational, given that thousands of National Guard troops had already rescued more than 3,000 people and 200 pets from floodwaters in neighboring New Jersey. But his was an all too typical knee-jerk reaction. The same anti-gun mentality was on display at the 4th Circuit Court of...

New York Senate candidate Wendy Long said a poll worker "studied" her ballot and told her to check boxes for Democrats. (AP)********************************************************** Not even a Senate candidate is immune from strange goings on at the polling sites. Wendy Long, the Republican candidate for Senate in New York, said she went to cast her vote Tuesday morning and got the runaround from a poll worker. Voting in the very blue New York borough of Manhattan, where voters fill out paper ballots, slip them into a “privacy sleeve” and then insert them into a scanner, Long said she had hers ripped away...

Being prepared for disaster is a way of life for many American preppers, but there are also many people throughout the Nation completely unprepared for the unthinkable. Those who are unprepared become easy targets for victimization. Since Superstorm Sandy struck New York, there have been hundreds of reports of price gouging in the area as frantic city-dwellers rush about in search of basic supplies. New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said Monday that he was in the process of investigating more than 400 possible cases of price gouging as prices on things like gasoline, food, bottled water, generators, batteries...

Heard from family members in Astoria, NY. They're seeing a HUGE turnout at the polls. Wait times of 45 minutes to 1.5 hrs or more in line. These are the biggest lines they've EVER seen when voting (over 30 year span)! This is the kind of passion and enthusiasm we've seen from Romney voters, not the Obama "fear and revenge" crew. It looks like New York may be in play after all. Keep praying America, keep praying!

Stocks climbed on Tuesday as some investors bet that Republican Mitt Romney could pull off a surprise victory in the presidential vote, citing gains in defense and energy shares. Gains were fairly broad-based, but among S&P 500 sectors, energy led the market along with materials and industrial shares, all sectors that rise with the economy. Defense shares like United Technologies shot higher, raising some market speculation that Romney,, who has called for increased military spending, could be moving ahead of Democratic President Barack Obama in the vote.

Voted at 9:45 am-Longest lines I've ever seen at this polling place (probably because I normally vote at 6-7am) Election district has large population of Hispanics but something new I've noticed this time-I'm seeing a large amount of Eastern European and Irish voters-all no doubt new citizens to this area. Eastern Euros are mostly Russian and Polish. I would guess about a quarter of voters are older white voters (mostly home-owners who for whatever reason have decided to stay here-and who, for the record seem to be largely Romney voters)

New York state on Wednesday asked the U.S. federal government to pay all the costs of cleaning up and repairing damage from massive storm Sandy that tore through the Northeast this week and crippled New York City. Governor Andrew Cuomo said he is asking fellow Democrat, President Barack Obama, to pay 100 percent of the estimated $6 billion bill, at a time that state and local government budgets remain constrained by a weak economic recovery. … New York top finance official, Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, said Washington should foot the bill, because of lingering financial pressures on state and local governments...

Hurricane-relief Guardsmen tossed out of armory - for Victoria's Secret show The Victoria’s Secret show must go on — even if it means kicking out hardworking men and women in uniform. Dozens of National Guardsmen, and Army and Air Force personnel who have been sleeping at Manhattan’s Lexington Armory in between hurricane-relief shifts are being booted — to make room for Victoria’s Secret models in anticipation of Wednesday’s runway show. About 300 uniformed personnel have been bunking down at the armory at various times since Sandy hit. But their numbers will be reduced to 60 by Wednesday for the event,...

Mayor Bloomberg’s Response to Sandy Leaves Many New Yorkers Out in the Cold The mayor has brilliantly stage-managed his handling of the storm, but outside the city’s affluent precincts numerous angry residents feel abandoned by his administration as days have passed and help has remained distant, writes Harry Siegel. “Are you from OEM? Or FEMA?” “No, we’re from Brooklyn.” That was the exchange when, after nearly six hours, the volunteer group I spent Sunday with finally managed to deliver supplies— flashlights, blankets, winter jackets, baby supplies, and pet food—to Staten Islanders who’d been rocked by Hurricane Sandy. On television, New...

Elliott Carter, the Pulitzer Prize-winning American composer who fused European and American modernist traditions in seminal but formidable works, and who lived to hear ovations for music that was once thought to be anything but listener-friendly, died Nov. 5 at his home in New York City. He was 103.