Free Republic

Sword-wielding MS-13 thugs who have been terrorizing Long Islanders for years have been rounded up as part of a sweeping Nassau County crackdown of nearly 40 of the notorious gang’s street soldiers — on attempted murder, weapons and illicit drug charges. Included in the massive bust were five college-aged thugs — accused of being part of the deadly MS-13’s Hempstead Locos Salvatruchas branch — who were allegedly responsible for a machete and knife attack that wounded six during a soccer game in broad daylight at the town’s Kennedy Memorial Park last October. The attack was so gruesome that one victim...

He’s dying to know what went wrong. An elderly Long Island man says he has been unable to collect his Social Security benefits — because the federal agency thinks he’s both dead and a fraud at the same time in what has been a years-long ordeal. “I am suffering because every day I say, ‘Why do I deserve what happens to me?’ ” said Wilfredo Pagan, 77, of Freeport to NBC 4. “It’s a nightmare,” said Pagan, who runs a modest religious figurine and candle store in Far Rockaway. “I think they want to kill me.” Pagan, who is in...

They’re running rings around Uranus. New research suggests a moon orbiting the sophomoric-sounding planet might contain enough natural resources to support alien life. Scientists from Johns Hopkins and the University of North Dakota say the lunar object, named Miranda, has sources of water hidden below its surface. The finding could be a breakthrough in mankind’s ongoing search for the little green men. “To find evidence of an ocean inside a small object like Miranda is incredibly surprising,” said planetary scientist and researcher Tom Nordheim. The findings were published in The Planetary Science Journal. “It helps build on the story that...