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Staten Island resident William Boden interviewed by phone. Staten Island has been abandoned. No electricity, no gas, no heat. People without shelter, clothing, food, water. Staten Island is gone and will never come back. Obama and Bloomberg lied to us. Red Cross absent. Promised FEMA aid absent. No aid of any kind. People lost all personal possessions in flooded, wrecked houses.

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...

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...

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...

LIsten to KFI AM 640 The Lisa Ann Walker Show. She has family on Staten Island. KFI will offer the pdcast after the show airs. She reports lots of bodeis still being found. The news is not being reported becuase of the election and the possibiklty of another storm.

In Tuesday’s election, New York City was firmly Obama country with the Democratic candidate sweeping the city with huge margins of victory. But that was not the case in all parts of the city. While Barack Obama won 88 percent of the votes in the Bronx, 85 percent of Manhattan, 79 percent of Brooklyn and 74 percent of Queens, Staten Island went for John McCain, giving the Republican senator 52 percent of the borough’s vote, according to unofficial returns tabulated by The Associated Press. Those results again underscored the distinctive position that Staten Island has had in the fabric of...

The nightmare that began when raging storm waters ripped two little Staten Island boys from their mother’s arms reached its tragic conclusion yesterday when their bodies were found in marshlands close to where they disappeared.Glenda Moore wailed uncontrollably after cops showed up at her Great Kills home yesterday and delivered the grim news. The short lives of Brandon, 2, and Connor, 4, ended in murky water, under debris and trees toppled by the storm. They were found about 20 yards apart at around 10 a.m. by cops in wet suits using shovels and pitchforks to clear the thick brush.“It’s a...

It's just too tempting to compare the media response to government relief efforts in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and the response to Sandy. The dichotomy is stark. ABC News: ***** The residents of Staten Island are pleading for help from elected officials, begging for gasoline, food and clothing three days after Sandy slammed the New York City borough. "We're going to die! We're going to freeze! We got 90-year-old people!" Donna Solli told visiting officials. "You don't understand. You gotta get your trucks down here on the corner now. It's been three days!" Staten Island was one of the...

THEN--KATRINA: Due to the topography and the extent of the flood damage to the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans-- rescue and aid delivery was painstakingly slow. Days went by before the rescues were completed and meaningful aid arrived in the Lower Ninth Ward.... The DEMS and the press loudly castigated the President and his administration for not waving some magic wand over this situation. NOW -- SANDY: The death and widespread destruction on Staten Island is getting very little exposure press through the recovery stages of the SANDY storm disaster. ....YES---there are similar limitations hindering the delivery of basic...

At a press conference this morning on Staten Island, a host of local officials, including Senators Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, gathered to highlight the needs of the hard-hit borough in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. And, although many pols spoke, no one was more impassioned than Borough President James Molinaro, who called the Red Cross an “absolute disgrace” and even urged the public to cease giving them contributions. “Because the devastation in Staten Island, the lack of a response,” Mr. Molinaro said to explain his comment to NBC after the press conference. “You know, I went to a shelter...

At a press conference this morning on Staten Island, a host of local officials, including Senators Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, gathered to highlight the needs of the hard-hit borough in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. And, although many pols spoke, no one was more impassioned than Borough President James Molinaro, who called the Red Cross an “absolute disgrace” and even urged the public to cease giving them contributions. ..... (Read the whole thing)

The four areas where organized crime reigns in America -- New York City, Dirty Jersey, Chicagoland and South Florida -- also account for the lion's share of corruption convictions by federal prosecutors against local officials as reported by Joe Palazzolo for The Wall Street Journal Law Blog. The U.S. Department of Justice has released the number of corruption convictions its prosecutors have won against public servants over the last ten years across the 93 federal judicial districts into which the country is divided, and at the top of the list is New Jersey with 429 convictions. Third on the list...

Hundreds of mud-covered participants darted from one obstacle to the next as they competed in the grueling eight-mile Super Spartan Race yesterday at Wolfe's Pond Park, as part of the Spartan Race Challenge. Under the Spartan Race banner, there are four different obstacle courses with varying degrees of "extremeness," starting with the Spartan Sprint, then the Super Spartan followed by The Spartan Beast and -- the most extreme -- The Death Race.

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Spurred in part by an Advance editorial that criticized her, state Sen. Diane Savino (D-North Shore/Brooklyn) today apologized for referring to Tea Party members as "the new mafia" on her personal Facebook page. In a posting on her Facebook page, Ms. Savino said, “when you use language that upsets people it muddies your message. So, if the term mafia is offensive to anyone, I offer my apology.” Ms. Savino said “leaders should be able to admit when they are wrong.” As part of her mea culpa, Ms. Savino also posted a link to the critical Advance...

The brutal assault occurred Sunday after Joseph Naimo and his 74-year-old wife, Linda, celebrated his 81st birthday at their 3J's Variety Store on Victory Boulevard in Tompkinsville. They left the store and walked a few steps to the door leading to their upstairs apartment. A hulking man and his female cohort suddenly pushed them into the stairwell and knocked them to the ground. The man punched and kicked Joseph, demanding, "Give me the money!" cops said. Joseph, who is legally blind, offered his wallet and pleaded, "I don't have any more. Look!" according to his granddaughter Gina Naimo, 29. "He...

Thanksgiving may be two weeks away, but every day is turkey day for a quiet section of New York City's Staten Island. While some residents embrace the roughly 100 turkeys that live year around in the Ocean Breeze neighborhood on the island's southern shore, others find them a nuisance. "It's a controversy because some people are upset by them and others love them," says Suzanne Mattei, regional director of the New York Department of Conservation in Staten Island. Mattei said the turkeys first started showing up in 2000 after nine birds were released by a private citizen. Since then, they've...

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Call it a bit of campaign shenanigans unrivaled even in the rough and tumble that is a hallmark of Staten Island politics. Just before Democratic Rep. Michael McMahon and Republican challenger Michael Grimm strode on stage for their dramatic debate face-off at Wagner College Tuesday night, there was high drama unfolding in the audience: The sudden presence of Grimm's former wife in a front-row seat -- courtesy of the McMahon campaign. Also, Grimm's former father-in-law, businessman Jhong Uhk Kim, better known as "Master Kim," and two of his former brothers-in-law.

(CNN) -- SNIPPET: "The charge centers around a one-way ticket that authorities allege Abdel Hameed Shehadeh purchased from Queens, New York, to Islamabad, Pakistan. Shehadeh originally told investigators that the purpose of his trip was to visit an Islamic university and attend a friend's engagement party. But he later admitted to FBI agents in Hawaii that he bought the ticket in order to join a fighting group such as the Taliban, according to a criminal complaint unsealed in New York Monday."

A 15-year-old boy has been busted in the robbing and beating of a Mexican immigrant on Staten Island, the latest in a string of hate crimes... The 18-year-old victim was beaten and robbed... The suspect a Liberian immigrant who is now a U.S. citizen...