Free Republic

High-profile tribal activists backed a Long Island school in its fight to keep its team name despite a state ban on Native American logos – joining a President Trump rallying cry. Frank Black Cloud, a member of the Spirit Lake Nation in North Dakota, said Tuesday that rebranding the Massapequa Chiefs would be a “terrible thing to do.” “Historically, we are Chiefs, we are Warriors,” said Black Cloud, 60, referencing neighboring Wantagh’s Warriors team — which may also have to drop its name. He pointed to a pair of 2004 and 2016 polls that found nine in 10 Native Americans...

Long Island Rep. Laura Gillen is urging the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee to hold an emergency hearing on the nationwide “surge” in deadly traffic accidents — after an unsettling investigation revealed that a serious car crash occurs every seven minutes on Long Island. “The failure to secure our roads has led to thousands of lives being cut short, families being ripped apart, and a terrible void being left in too many communities,” Gillen wrote in her letter compelling the committee to take action. The Democratic lawmaker’s campaign comes after an investigation by Newsday revealed that Long Island drivers get...

A 15-year-old boy killed his grandmother and stabbed his mother in their Long Island home after an argument erupted over content that was discovered on the teen’s computer, according to police. The boy’s mother, 36-year-old Vanessa Chendemi, fled the horror scene at the Selden residence after her son had repeatedly stabbed her with a knife around 9:45 p.m. following a confrontation about the teen’s computer, according to the Suffolk County Police Department. It is not clear what content led to the gruesome attack. The knifed mom flagged down a driver passing by and called 911 when the good Samaritan stopped...

He knows how to make a stink. Longtime New York congressman Jerry Nadler has become famous as a champion of progressive policies in the House of Representatives. But among his colleagues in the chamber, he has also earned the dubious distinction of being its smelliest member. "He’s the kind of guy who when he makes his way onto the floor he barrels through everyone, and sometime he doesn’t really need to barrel through because his stench kind of clears the way and it equates to his personality, which is nasty and most people want to keep away from," said Anthony...

Last night, a high-ranking leader of La Mara Salvatrucha, also known as MS-13, was arrested in New York for his alleged role in a conspiracy responsible for 11 murders.Joel Vargas-Escobar, also known as Momia, was indicted the District of Nevada and charged with racketeering conspiracy that involved 11 murders. Vargas-Escobar is also charged with two counts of murder-in-aid of racketeering and associated firearms charges. Vargas-Escobar – who previously had been deported to El Salvador and illegally re-entered the United States – had been a fugitive from justice for nearly four years.“The American people are safer following the arrest of yet...

It’s a big score for the north shore. Nearly a dozen affluent Nassau County enclaves on the Gold Coast, or just a few miles south, made a newly released list of the best places in the US to raise a family. Kensington, a neighborhood on Manhasset Bay near the Queens border, placed second in the nation out of 18,084 towns in Niche’s 2025 rankings. The small but elite section of Great Neck — it has a population under 1,500 — trailed only the Philadelphia suburb of Chesterbrook and earned top marks for its overall safety and high-performing public schools.

A Long Island tax preparer allegedly bilked the IRS out of $12 million in a COVID scheme she used to buy jewelry, a Honda — and a house in the Dominican Republic. Damaris Beltre, 57, filed false tax returns for her clients between 2021 and 2024, and launched a scheme to illegally obtain Payroll Protection Program loans during the pandemic, federal prosecutors said. “The defendant’s fraudulent work as a tax preparer and in furtherance of a COVID-19 loan scheme, cost the government millions of dollars,” John Durham, US attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said in a statement...

A family attempting to make s’mores in their backyard accidentally sparked several brush fires that burned hundreds of acres on Long Island, authorities said. An aerial view of a wildfire burning on Long Island on Saturday, March 8. NYS Department of Environmental ConservationAn investigation by Suffolk County Police Arson Section detectives determined that high winds spread embers from a Manorville backyard on Cozine Road after the family attempted to start a fire for s’mores, the agency announced Monday, March 10. “It’s believed strong winds spurred additional fires from embers leading to the brush fires,” Suffolk County Police said. Detectives are...

Massive brush fires that raged across Long Island over the weekend may have been caused by someone trying to cook s’mores for breakfast. Residents in Center Moriches/Manorville tried to start a fire in their backyard around 9 a.m. Saturday to cook up the treat despite heavy winds, officials told ABC 7. The cardboard ignited and the flames spread to the backyard – and although the blaze was extinguished, embers sparked three other fires near Sunrise Highway, the outlet reported. The fires tore through the area through Sunday before they were knocked down by emergency responders from more than 90 fire...

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) issued a state of emergency as several brush fires were reported as having broken out in Long Island on Saturday. In a post on X, Hochul revealed that the New York National Guard’s helicopters were “providing air support.” Hochul added that “multiple state agencies” were also assisting with on the ground efforts. “I am issuing a State of Emergency as Suffolk County fights brush fires in the Pine Barrens,” Hochul wrote, adding that she spoke with Suffolk County Executive Edward Romaine and “offered any necessary State resources.”

A massive fire broke out in New York’s Long Island in the United States, after which large plumes of smoke were seen rising into the air. On Saturday, New York Governor Kathey Hochul declared a state of emergency after the fire broke out. The fires have led to the closure of a section of Sunrise Highway, the New York Department of Transportation reported. According to a CNN report, the fire fighters in Suffolk County responded to at least three major brush fires on East End, County Executive Ed Romaine said. Later, the New York Department of Transportation said the fires...

A Long Island caretaker was arrested this week in the heinous abuse of an 83-year-old woman in her care that was caught on video, police said Friday. A guardian of the victim had placed a camera in the elderly woman’s Woodmere home after finding bruises on her late last month, Nassau County Police said. The surveillance equipment allegedly captured the victim’s caretaker, Merlyn Fredericks, 36, yanking the helpless old woman harshly and beating her in her face and body, authorities said. The guardian notified police, and Fredericks was arrested Thursday and charged with felony assault, as well as endangering the...

A duck farm on Long Island has hatched a new generation of chicks — beginning to replace the nearly 100,000 mallards they were forced to kill due to the spread of avian flu. Crescent Duck Farm in Aquebogue welcomed 3,700 new chicks just over a month after farm operators were forced to cull 99,000 ducks when an outbreak of H1N5 — bird flu — spread across the susceptible flock. About half of the newborn birds are female — with hens beginning to lay their own eggs at the age of six months. New York state had sanitized 15,000 eggs from...

The pastor cousin of accused Long Island serial killer Rex Heuermann was himself accused of sexually abusing a young girl for seven years. The Rev. Kenneth Heuermann, a pastor at St. Michael’s Lutheran Church in upstate Camillus, drugged and sexually abused the girl starting from when she was 8, allegedly using clerical stoles to bind her, the victim claims in a 2019 lawsuit.

A knife-wielding teenager is facing felony charges after stabbing another youngster during a heated dispute inside of a Long Island Macy’s, cops said. The argument between two 17-year-old boys inside of the department store at Green Acres Mall in Valley Stream ended when one of them whipped out a blade around 12:30 p.m. Friday, according to the Nassau County Police Department. The teen stabbed the victim twice, once in the arm and once in the back, then tried to run from the grisly scene, police said. The victim was taken to an area hospital in stable condition, according to authorities....

Accused Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann has been charged with a seventh murder: the death of Valerie Mack, whose remains were first found 24 years ago, according to a superseding indictment unsealed Tuesday. A hunter's dog discovered Mack's decapitated body in a wooded area of Manorville on Long Island on Nov. 19, 2000. Her remains were bound with rope inside a black plastic bag which was wrapped with duct tape, according to a bail application that accompanied the new indictment.

New York’s Suffolk County is putting the brakes on its red-light camera program after 14 years. It will be out of commission on Dec. 1. "I get too many tickets. Turning on red when it doesn't say no turn on red," says Ben Leibstein, of Babylon. Legislator Kevin McCaffrey says lawmakers did not renew the program beyond Dec. 1. "This program needs to be redesigned about safety, not revenue generation," says McCaffrey. As News 12 has reported, Suffolk County has about 100 red-light cameras. The tickets are about $115. The program has generated around $39 million each year for Suffolk...

A former Israel Defense Force officer just became the first Republican elected to a state assembly seat in northern Hempstead, LI, in more than 50 years. Daniel Norber, a 45-year-old dual US-Israeli citizen, will occupy the Nassau County seat bordering Queens that was once represented by Democratic state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli. Norber got a big assist from President-elect Donald Trump at the top of the ticket. Trump carried the 16th Assembly District by more than 2,000 votes over Vice President Kamala Harris.

Democrats looking for a boost in crossover voters might want to politely reject endorsement by former Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., who became a Democratic Party surrogate after endorsing nominee Kamala Harris in September. Cheney-endorsed Susan Wild and John Avlon lost their closely watched House races to a Republican challenger and Republican incumbent, respectively. Pennsylvania three-term incumbent Wild made a series of blunders in her campaign, including sending contradictory letters to pro-Israel and pro-Palestine constituents and mocking a Republican stronghold in her district in a leaked conference call with fellow Democrats, the Washington Free Beacon reported. An allied labor union even...

An migrant who was arrested at the border for crossing illegally before being cut loose has been charged with raping a five-year-old girl on Long Island. Wilson Castillo Diaz, 26, of Westbury, is accused of raping the young victim at an undisclosed location on October 16, according to Nassau County Police. Diaz, who illegally crossed the US border near Rio Grande, Texas in April 2014, was arrested by US Border Patrol agents and then released.