Today’s Community View by Rockland Business Association President/CEO drew comments. After all, it’s about Indian Point, which continues to be a hot-button issue in the Lower Hudson Valley. Samuels’ basic point? Well, here’s the “nut graf,” editor-speak for the sentence or sentences that summarize the essence, and context of the story or the “why it [...]

The U.S. Education Department has re-set its guidelines for schools’ response to the swine flu, saying the schools should stay open unless “high numbers” of kids come down with H1N1 virus. (See story in today’s USA Today here.)  It’s a big change from last spring, when 700 schools first closed for two weeks, acting on [...]

The sadness and confusion felt thought the community last week over a July 26 eight-fatality wrong-way crash on the Taconic State Parkway changed yesterday. The sadness has become anger, though the confusion remains, as many who read that the wrong-way driver, Diane Schuler, was drunk and stoned, with a BAC of .19 and high levels [...]

The push to put wine in supermarkets is back. Gov. David Paterson had proposed allowing wine to be sold in supermarkets in his 2009-2010 budget proposal. It flopped, with small liquor stores fighting hard to hold onto their exclusive stock. Now, some lawmakers are seeking a compromise. (See bill here.) Liquor stores would be able [...]

New York Gov. David Paterson is expected to sign a ban on text messaging while driving, a law that already exists in Rockland and Westchester. That comes as a new federally funded study by the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute shows a crash is 23 times more likely while texting than not. The study grabbed headlines [...]

When news first broke in March about an investigation into the finances of Stony Point Little League, The Editorial Board examined the issue, with an eye toward a disturbing trend of ripoffs to nonprofits, sports organizations and fund-raisers during times of recession. Below is a March 10 editorial. It seems relevant again, after reading Sunday’s [...]

East Ramapo’s school board wants to move next year’s school board and budget election up a week because the state-designated day (May 18) falls on Shavuot, which commemorates the giving of the Torah to Moses. (See story here.)

Should it be moved, considering nearly 10,000 voters are observant Jews, and therefore couldn’t vote after sunset, when [...]

State Sen. Thomas Morahan, R-New City, has been one of the senators who has been “undecided” on the pending gay marriage legislation in Albany.

Not anymore. “I’m going to vote against, it,” he said today as we discussed the Senate standoff and other Albany issues. He figured that the governor was going to continue to push [...]

Well, something’s getting done in the Senate. Kind of. Amid all the chaos that is Albany, (see latest here) state Sen. Thomas Morahan, R-New City, announced that South Orangetown Schools Superintendent Kenneth Mitchell will be presented the New York State Senate Liberty Award.

Mitchell was held hostage on Tuesday in his office, located at the district’s [...]

Today, we have an editorial about the 65th anniversary of D-Day (see here), a news story talking to locals who were at Normandy (here) and  a column by staff writer Rich Liebson, (here) who pens the “At Ease!” blog on veterans issues, wrote this column.

I had the opportunity to speak this week with Jerry Donnellan, [...]