The annual canoe races at Cow Meadow Park in Freeport proved to be a cherished community event, offering residents a delightful day of family and friendly fun on the water. Held on Sunday, Aug. 4, this year’s races drew a large crowd of participants and spectators, eager to engage in a tradition that dates back several decades. Story, additional photos, Page 3.
By JoRDAN VAlloNE jvallone@liherald.com
A special election will take place on Nov. 5 to determine who will succeed Chris Carini in the 5th Councilmanic District in the Town of Hempstead, but until then, Chris Schneider, a Republican, has been sworn in as a town councilman.
“I am proud to welcome Chris Schneider as the newest member of the town board,” Supervisor Don Clavin said in a news release. “Although the Town of Hempstead suffered a great loss with the passing of Councilman Chris Carini, the town board and I truly believe that Chris Schneider is the perfect person to carry on Cari-
ni’s legacy.”
Kevan Abrahams, a Democrat who is a former Nassau County legislator, will oppose Schneider. The district includes parts of Freeport, Merrick, North Merrick, Bellmore, Wantagh, Seaford, Lido Beach, Point Lookout and North Bellmore.
The special election comes after Carini’s unexpected death on July 14, while visiting family in Florida. He was 49. Carini was serving his second term, following a re-election bid in November of 2023. Town council terms are four years.
Schneider is the vice president of the Wantagh-Seaford Homeowners Association and he
By MoHAMMAD RAFIQ mrafiq@liherald.com
Co-op shareholders in Freeport are banding together, calling for substantial changes in the oversight of co-op boards and the way they are being governed.
These residents said they are frustrated by a lack of transparency and accountability and are advocating for new legislation to protect their rights and ensure the proper maintenance and management of their buildings.
TRandall Ave., citing issues like cracking facades and inadequate repairs.
But Bass added that when co-op shareholders face such issues, their only recourse is often expensive and lengthy litigation.
he only thing a shareholder has as a recourse is lengthy and expensive litigation
A co-op, or cooperative housing, is a type of housing arrangement where residents own shares in a corporation that owns the building, rather than owning individual units directly. A co-op board is a group of elected individuals responsible for managing the operations of a cooperative housing building.
“There is a policy in place that department of buildings does not tend to the needs of residents living in a co-op, condo or (a homeowners’ association),” Bass said in an email. “If there is a heating or structural issue, again, the expectation is for you to start a civil lawsuit against the building.
STEpHANIE loVERGINE Co-op resident
“Your only option is through suing, and that could be enormous burden on someone,” Bass said Stephanie Lovergine, another shareholder, said that while laws exist, no federal agency or advocacy group is responsible for effectively enforcing them.
Jason Bass, a long-time resident of a Freeport co-op, described the severe structural damage in his building, at 99
“The only thing a shareholder has as a recourse is lengthy and expensive litigation,” she Continued on page 12
By MOHAMMAD RAFIQ mrafiq@liherald.com
The annual canoe races at Cow Meadow Park in Freeport proved to be a cherished community event, offering residents a delightful day of family and friendly fun on the water.
Held on Sunday, Aug. 4, this year’s races drew a large crowd of participants and spectators, eager to engage in a tradition that dates back several decades.
The races began at 10 a.m. and continued until 2 p.m., with participants of all ages and skill levels taking to the water.
The event was a collaborative effort sponsored by the Freeport Police Athletic League, the Village of Freeport, and the Chamber of Commerce.
Maryanne Endo, whose husband was a member of the chamber before he passed, played a central role in organizing the races.
“The determination and smilers were so evident on the faces of the youngsters, olders, girls, boys, men, women, and even all the volunteers!” said Endo over message in regards to the race. “The pressure was on to best their performance or other’s (performances)!”
Over the years, the event has evolved, but its core mission of fostering community spirit has remained unchanged.
Originally held along the Nautical Mile behind the Point Lookout restaurant, the event now takes place at Cow Meadow Park. This change has made the event more accessible and safer for participants.
This inclusivity extended to all types of participants, from novices to more experienced paddlers, with races tailored to suit all levels.
The canoes were provided by Bob’s Canoe Rentals, ensuring that participants had everything they needed for a safe and enjoyable experience on the water.
Safety was a top priority, with life jackets provided and safety measures in place to ensure a secure environment for all participants.
The event followed a similar event on Tuesday evening, wherein canoe races were held in Freeport/Baldwin’s Milburn boat basin for special need’s athletes. They teamed up with members of Freeport electric, Police, the Fire Department, and Rescue Squad employees to vie for medals.
Sunday’s event also featured medals for the winners, fostering a sense of achievement and pride among the racers.
All in all, August 4 at Cow Meadow Park was a day of fun, camaraderie, and healthy competition on the water.
has also worked hand-in-hand with police officers through the Nassau County Police Commissioner’s Community Council.
Schneider has worked for over 20 years for the state Senate. Most recently, Schneider has also worked in a senior leadership role for the Alzheimer’s Foundation of America.
“Councilman Carini was a tireless and dedicated advocate for the communities he represented, and the 5th Councilman District was the beneficiary of the Carini’s work,” Schneider said in the release. “It is my goal to continue his legacy of effectiveness, hard work and caring.”
Abrahams, 49 of Freeport, is the County Legislature’s former minority leader. He retired from the Legislature last year, and he has since worked as the director of strategic planning at Northwell Health. He’s been involved in public service for nearly 25 years, and his tenure was marked by his commitment
to the community, as well as his efforts to ensure government accountability, according to Nassau County democrats.
“Kevan’s leadership and integrity are unmatched,” the Nassau County Demo-
cratic Committee Chairman Jay Jacobs said in a separate news release. “He has been a tremendous advocate for his constituents and has fought tooth and nail against Republican corruption. He’s
The special election will take place on Nov. 5, the same day as the presidential election and general election in New York.
The district includes Freeport, Merrick, North Merrick, Wantagh, Seaford, Lido Beach, Point Lookout and North Bellmore.
exactly who we need on the Town of Hempstead board right now.”
Abrahams expressed concerns over the Town of Hempstead’s tax levy, which increased by a little over $2 million, which prompted him to run for office. He also disagreed with fee hikes on essential services.
“These back-door tax increases affect everything from seasonal and daily passes at town pools to parking permits, and sports league fees,” he said in the Jacobs release. “It’s happening on the backs of the taxpayer — the people are carrying the burden for the town’s fiscal mismanagement. It needs to change.”
We all know the road to you know where is paved with good intentions. Nowhere is this more true than leaving a vacation or beach home for the children to share after the parents have passed. We have often advised that if they are all happy and get along well this might very well lead to the end of those good feelings and relationships.
Inevitably, some will do more work on the premises than others, some will use the premises more than others, there will be disagreements as to maintenance and repairs. Some may never visit or use it at all.
Initially, all expenses tend to be shared equally, since all are equal owners. The foregoing issues, however, will quickly arise and then it will often be difficult or impossible to determine what each child’s fair share of the expenses should be. The one living across the country who never visits may insist that they be “bought out” or, if that’s unaffordable to the others, that the house be sold so that they can get their share.
Sooner or later, one of the siblings dies
and their share goes to a sister-in-law or brother-in-law who may remarry and bring a stranger into the shared arrangement. Or let’s say an owner of one-third of the house dies, and now their share goes to their four children. How is that going to work?
Vacation homes are an excellent example of why good estate planning is often more social work than legal work. In these cases we anticipate the problems and spend the time to figure out who wants and uses the home and perhaps leave it to those children only and compensate the others with money or other assets. If they all use and enjoy the home, we sometimes require that it be held jointly with the right of survivorship, allowing the last of the joint owners to decide who to leave it to.
While the possibilities are endless, each case should be looked at and thought through so as to keep harmony in the family by preempting any potential conflicts. Otherwise, it’s often a case of the old adage that “no good deed goes unpunished”.
Fax: (516) 569-4643 ■
Ext. 232 E-mail: legalnotices@liherald.com
Vik, Baldwin and former Roosevelt resident, shares her secret
By HERNESTO GALDAMEZ hgaldamez@liherald.com
Dorothea Vik, who recently turned 100 years old, has long believed in the friendly, good-neighbor policy. Vik, who spent the beginning of her life in Roosevelt and has lived in Baldwin since the thirties, has consistently introduced herself to every new neighbor on her block for more than 90 years. Just ask Dawn Singh, who immediately felt welcomed when she moved next door to Vik 15 years ago.
“She was such a God-sent neighbor,” Singh said. “You hear a lot about neighbors — they don’t talk to you. But from Day One, it was great because it was welcoming. It was new for us.”
According to Vik, being friendly with people is vital to living a long life, validating this belief by recently celebrating her 100th birthday.
“You have to have an interest in things to have an interest in people,” Vik said.
Vik was born on July 14, 1924, to Norwegian parents Rasmus and Agnes Vik. Although born in the United States, she proudly displays her patriotism by flying both the flag of Norway and the United States in her front yard, and showcases her heritage inside with a small Norway pillow in her living room.
Before settling in Baldwin, her family called Roosevelt home, residing on Washington Street. They moved to Baldwin after her father, a builder, constructed their current home in the 1930s on Grand Terrace Avenue. She added that her father was integral to the Baldwin community, building homes throughout the area, including Singh’s next door.
“She used to tell me, ‘Your house, your lot, I used to
Hernesto Galdamez/Herald Baldwin resident Dorothea Vik, who grew up in Roosevelt, recently celebrated her 100th birthday. Her secret to living a long life is being friendly to people.
park my car here because it was farmland,’” Singh said. “She is very proud of her father’s work of being a builder.”
Vik fondly recalled visiting her father at work, where he built homes, granting her unrestricted access to the interiors under construction, unseen by anyone else.
“My father didn’t let anybody go into the house,” she said. “We were able to go there all the time. He made
some beautiful homes, especially the ones in Port Washington.”
Vik, however, followed a different career path than her father. After graduating from Baldwin High School in 1942, she worked at Chase Bank as a messenger in Manhattan for more than 40 years.
She said her graduating class was the first to hold graduation ceremonies outside on the football field, a tradition the school district has continued ever since.
“I was with the same people that I started kindergarten with,” she said, reminiscing about her early days attending the then Shubert Elementary School. “Everybody knew everybody, and it was such a wonderful class. We were very friendly and outgoing.”
One memory she vividly recalled as a student was when she and a group of her friends were told to bring their mothers to school to apologize to the principal for wearing slacks in the classroom.
“We were the first people that wore slacks to school,” she recalled. “There were 10 of us, and we had to bring our mothers to see the principal and apologize.
“Since then, now you can wear slacks,” she added.
In high school she joined the track team with her friends from kindergarten, breaking barriers for women in sports along the way.
“They didn’t have any women runners, and it was something we did,” she said. “I was a great runner.”
Despite never marrying nor having children, she has family all throughout the country and was reunited to celebrate with them on the East End of Long Island the day before her birthday.
“I had a wonderful life,” Vik said. “Growing up was really wonderful — everybody was so friendly and knew everybody.”
Summertime fun on the Nautical Mile at Sparkle on Stage Cultural Arts Center with Freeport Magician Zach Alexander and ice cream from Sam’s Scoops.
technologies like ‘adaptive learning’ is proving to be key to keeping
By Nicole Wagner & Danielle Schwab
Continuing a series exploring the presence of artificial intelligence in our schools — and, over time, in society as a whole. Thoughts? Questions? Ideas? Email us at execeditor@liherald.com.
While some educators have gotten acquainted with artificial intelligence hesitantly, many school districts across Nassau County have embraced the technological tool in the classroom. It’s no secret that AI is changing the academic landscape. Educators, parents and students are in a race to keep up with its abilities, and especially about how it can — and will — be used in education. A helpful visual representation of just how AI can help students is a ramp. Ramps are used in buildings to make different levels accessible to people who can’t climb steps. But many of those who can take the steps use ramps as well. AI can be seen as a tool that all students can use to make education more accessible and to serve their individual needs.
Meeting students where they are
The Franklin Square school district has embraced AI as a way to help individualize education for students from pre-K through sixth grade. District Superintendent Jared Bloom spoke with the Herald about the multitude of ways AI can help keep students engaged, tai-
loring lessons to their interests.
One tool that district students and parents have used is Goblin.Tools, an AI-powered site that can identify an essay’s key points if a student need to create a Power Point or poster board for a given assignment.
“You can even break those chunks into smaller chunks,” Bloom said. “So it really becomes manageable, and you can really understand what are the key components of that assignment.”
Another way in which AI can help teachers and students is by varying the reading level of a passage. This has been a welcome change for educators in Franklin Square, Bloom explained: 20 years ago, teachers had to find a handful of different reading passages for the various skill levels in their classrooms.
student’s interests, whether it be music, sports, art or anything else. “We know that when students are interested in a topic, they’re going to be more engaged and more open to learning,” Bloom said.
Nassau County BOCES’ Special Education Department, which serves 1,800 students at 10 Nassau BOCES schools, is exploring AI’s potential in special education. Ken Kroog, assistant director of the department, said that AI can help students through what’s known as “adaptive learning.” During online assessments, AI tailors questions based on a student’s performance in real time.
“Now you can take one passage and run it through AI, and be able to hand that reading out to kids all on the same topic without having to go out and get new material,” Bloom said. “And that’s very helpful for students.”
The promise of personalization in any subject excites Bloom about AI. A fourth-grade math problem can be plugged into AI and personalized to a
“So let’s say if I answer correctly or achieve a certain level of proficiency, the subsequent questions will challenge me at a greater level,” Kroog explained. “So you get a real clear picture of where, exactly, I’m performing across the different skill areas.”
Students who are visually or audibly impaired can use tools like Otter.ai to transcribe a lecture to better understand what is going on in the classroom. Katherine Lewis, a disability counselor at Nassau Community College, said she uses this tool to help students. AI can be a great help for students who are strug-
gling to understand a topic — and for families who can’t afford a home tutor.
“To be able to sit with your child and utilize some of these tools that are out there, free of charge, helping support an understanding of a particular topic, is pretty magical,” Bloom said.
Students at NCC can benefit from AI when the college’s learning centers are unavailable. Genette Alvarez-Ortiz, vice president of academic affairs, said she hoped it could be used around the clock to help students when staff are not accessible.
“In terms of availability, there are challenges with the evening coverage and weekend coverage,” Alvarez-Ortiz said of the college’s learning centers. “We may be able to look at AI as a possibility to help support our learning centers.”
Benefits that AI offers educators Staff in the Franklin Square school district have reported that personalization and customization of lessons for students can “support students in new and different ways that we wouldn’t have been able to do as easily” without AI, according to Bloom. These tools help teachers save time when creating lesson plans.
“I’m really hopeful that we’re going to be able to get to that point where we’re utilizing AI to make everybody’s life a little bit better and easier,” he said,
“and as a result of that, we’re customizing and personalizing for kids in ways that we wouldn’t have been able to do as quickly before.”
kind of both.”
Student reception
WBOCES educators have not only used AI tools as time-savers when creating lesson plans, but have also used them as “thought partners,” Kroog said. “It allows special educators to differentiate learning for students, customizing instruction for specific learning needs and leveraging their strengths to give them a very personalized, individualized learning experience,” he said.
This helps teachers in the Special Education Department at BOCES as they work on time-demanding aspects of their jobs, such as report writing and individualized education programs, or IEPs.
As an elementary-focused school district, Bloom said, Franklin Square’s students are using AI differently than a kindergarten-through-12th grade district would. However, the students who are able to use AI prompts have been very excited to embrace the tool. The district has been trying to give students a variety of opportunities to learn how to program, prompt AI, design video games and more to increase their exposure to different technologies.
e know that when students are interested in a topic, they’re going to be more engaged and more open to learning.
JAred Bloom Franklin Square superintendent
Rockville Centre school district Superintendent Matthew Gaven said he also believes AI can be used to tailor lessons to students’ needs.
“Computers and teachers have always given the diagnosis, but not always the prescription,” Gaven said. “Like, ‘How do you get better?’ So AI is
“That’s the world that they’re growing up in,” Bloom said. “We have to be preparing our kids for their future, for their tomorrow.”
In Rockville Centre, students in middle and high school have the chance to enroll in an elective AI course that uses the coding program kidOYO. Gaven said that students have embraced the elective courses that teach AI research at the middleschool level and prompting at the highschool level.
“Our students are going to have these tools embedded in their lives,” Gaven
said. “They need to know how to use them responsibly. They need to know what they’re good for and what they’re not good for. And then they need to know, you know, how do you take the stuff that AI generates and add value on top.”
What are its limitations?
AI does have its limitations. Teachers still need to vet its output to see what’s applicable and what’s not. It’s a process that Kroog believes requires human expertise to navigate.
The technology must comply with New York State Education Law 2-D, which protects students’ and teachers’ personal information.
“Educators need to know how to use them right for their own instruction, and then teach students how to use them responsibly to support their learning,” Kroog said. “And with that comes a lot of learning, a lot of training on our part, and then a lot of understanding of what AI can do and what it can’t do.”
Maintaining academic integrity while using AI is something Bloom is passionate about. “I believe that with enough support and with enough training, just like with the calculator, we’re going to be able to help students to see how it is a tool to improve learning, and not a tool to just get you the answer,” he said.
As Gaven sees it, the future looks
■ ChatForSchools.SkillStruck.com
■ Diffit.ai
■ Goblin.Tools
■ Firefly.Adobe.com
■ Canvas.com
■ Chat.Openai.com
■ Claude.ai
■ Gemini.Google.com
■ Perplexity.ai
■ Otter.ai
bright for the ways AI will be used to help students in the years to come. “If AI truly allows individual pathways for students — you know, really specifically tailored instruction, with the resources that support it,” he said, “then I think it’s going to be a tremendous help for all of our students, particularly our students with special needs.”
By TONY BELLISSIMO tbellissimo@liherald.com
Sunbathing, surfing and maybe even a few sandcastles took a back seat last Saturday as a wresting tournament with nearly 250 participants dominated a steamy summer day in Long Beach.
The [Reggie] Jones & [Paul] Gillespie East Coast Beach Wrestling Tournament, the second of its kind on the sand at Edwards Boulevard Beach since Superstorm Sandy in 2012, honored those two legendary coaches and “ran smoothly,” organizer Miguel Rodriguez said.
“It was such an incredible day and the city of Long Beach was a huge help,” said Rodriguez, a longtime member of the Long Beach High School wrestling program coaching staff who competed for the Marines from 1997-99 and took part in a handful of beach wrestling events himself.
“We were hoping for 100 wresters and ended up with close to 250,” he added. “It was a lot of work and took a lot of people to make it possible. The day turned out just perfect. We hadn’t hosted one in nine years, but this was the best-run tournament we’ve had in a long time and honored some special people.”
In addition to coaches Jones and Gillespie, the tournament was dedicated to late Long Beach wrestlers and graduates Lazar LaPenna, Joshua Encarnacion and Michael Berube. Three of the event’s four wrestling rings was named in their
honor, Rodriguez said.
While there was no shortage of high school varsity and JV, and middle school-aged competitors, Rodriguez noted the ages ranged from kindergartners through 55.
Dylan Martinsen, a 2019 Long Beach High School graduate, won the 172-pound weight group. His father, Kevin, 55, also competed. “I hadn’t wrestled since high school and it was really cool,” Dylan said. “Everyone did a great job putting it together, and honoring the memories of the guys we’ve recently lost was touching.”
Each match consisted one of three-minute period and began in the neutral position — both wrestlers stood opposite one another in the center of the ring and waited for the referee’s whistle to start grappling. That was also the case for any restart, Rodriguez said. The first wrestler to score three points advanced. In the event of a tie at the end of three minutes, the wrestler who scored the last point was declared the winner.
“Most matches didn’t last the full three minutes, but one of the finals did,” Rodriguez said. “We had 14 different categories and about 50 first-place medals handed out.”
The goal moving forward, Rodriguez said, is to take the tournament up a notch on the beach wrestling stage. “Not only do we want to make this an annual event, but we’re hoping it can be a qualifier for the Beach World Series,” he said.
Mount Sinai South Nassau’s Emergency Department has been selected as a recipient of the prestigious Emergency Nurses Association’s 2024 Lantern Award for outstanding patient care and reducing wait times, and for excellence in nurse retention, achieving a zero vacancy rate and one percent turnover rate.
The Lantern Award also recognizes nursing sta commitment to ongoing education and training and fostering an environment of learning and professional growth.
We congratulate Mount Sinai South Nassau’s Emergency Department nursing sta for their commitment to patient care, quality, safety and a healthy work environment.
Learn more at mountsinai.org/southnassau 877-SOUTH-NASSAU.
By AVITA JOHN Correspondent
The Annual Catholic Charities of Long Island’s Women, Infants, and Children Program Breastfeeding walk took place in Freeport last Friday August 2, 2024, to raise awareness for Breastfeeding Awareness Month.
At around 10 a.m., mothers assembled at the WIC office on 333 N. Main Street where the walk took off.
Among them were breastfeeding moms and one prenatal mom. They came with their children, some with babies, and even a few dads joined the walk to show their support for Breastfeeding Awareness Month.
The presence of nurses from local hospitals and other healthcare workers came to help show their support which aligned perfectly with the theme of Breastfeeding Awareness Month, “Closing the Gap: Breastfeeding for All.” By 10:30 a.m., the group began their walk from the office onto the designated area map out for the walk.
During the walk, chants of “Breastfeeding, anytime, anywhere” and a song filled the air which added to the enthusiasm. “We also have a song...I came up with that was fun too… It says, “I don’t know what you’ve been told breast milk is liquid gold”” Breastfeeding Coordinator Marlyse Cetoute-Bernardin said. The children who were present enjoyed the event, with some in strollers and others walking, while snacks and water were provided. After the walk was completed, everyone headed back to the office where the WIC program had a gathering where drinks and snacks were handed out for about 45 minutes. Moms chatted and bonded over snacks, cake, and ice pops. The entire walk and gathering ended the day’s activities at 12 noon, which marked the successful end of 2024 WIC Breastfeeding Program Walk.
Helen Keleman-Mysliwiec Qualified Nutritionist, left, Diana Mitelman, support staff, Anne Elizabeth Bernardin 9 years old, and Marlyse Cetoute-Bernardin, Breastfeeding Coordinator, together held up a banner for Breastfeeding Awareness Month.
Cetoute-Bernardin reflected on the turnout for this year walk and she noted that they were expecting more mothers but due to the extreme heat, it led to last-minute cancellations. Despite this, the event was considered a success, with good participation from both moms and the community.
Healthcare workers from South Nassau, Catholic Charities, and Fidelis Insurance were present, highlighting broad support. While few local residents joined the walk, their cheers and waves from doorsteps were appreciated.
“We want everyone not only the moms, but everyone to support breastfeeding so the moms… can close the gap, the mom know about their right to breastfeed, anywhere, anytime” Cetoute-Bernardin explained.
She continued, “For example, the nurses or the institution… can advocate also for the mom to have longer time to bond with their babies, so that they
Anne Elizabeth Bernardin, 9 years old, happily displaying her sign for the Annual WIC Breastfeeding Walk.
don’t have to be choosing between going back to work or staying with their babies.”
The support from the Freeport police, who ensured the safety of the group,
Luisa Montoya, left, Marlyse Cetoute-Bernardin, Breastfeeding Coordinator, Inoelia Santana taking a commemorative photo after the WIC Breastfeeding walk concluded.
added to the sense of community. Overall, the event felt more successful than the previous year, with increased involvement from various community entities.
said.
As a result, Bass, Lovergine and fellow shareholder Olivia Wills have spearheaded the formation of an advocacy group to provide more options to co-op residents.
They said the lack of oversight allows co-op boards to operate without accountability, sometimes leading to violations of their own by-laws.
In addition, the group claims that the co-op board is making poor maintenance decisions due to an excessive hesitance to use the money that is collected from shareholders ostensibly for the very purpose of maintaining the building.
Wills also stated that there have been abuses of power, with board members using their privileged position to garner perks such as extra parking spaces.
The board president of the 99 Randall Ave. co-op, Joseph Cutrone, did not respond to multiple requests for comment from the Herald.
Bass cited New York City’s 311 — a non-emergency number to report any number of complaints to city government, such as noise complaints, sanitation issues, as well as housing and building violations — as a resource he’d like to see made available on Long Island and across New York state.
Bass added that Florida has seen a substantial revamping of legislation protecting the rights of residents in multi-family housing units, as a result of a grassroots movement over the last few decades.
The Florida Legislature passed additional legislation after the collapse of the Surfside Condominium in 2021, resulting in the death of 94 people,
requiring that condo buildings must undergo an inspection certification process after 30 years, with records of inspections made easily available to tenants.
“The board doesn’t care … There’s a lot of redirecting back to the property manager, but ultimately, it’s up to the board,” Olivia said. “So that’s where we are, we just keep going around in this one circle.”
Wills added, “Us going down to village hall and making a complaint to Department of Buildings, it does nothing, because we are not renters. … Crazy enough, a renter has more rights.”
She described instances of structural damage, like the crumbling façade, and – at an Amityville co-op that the group has been in contact with – raccoon infestations, which have not been addressed despite numerous complaints.
The group has also been in contact with shareholders at co-ops in Yonkers and Forest Hills who have made felt similarly thwarted by the system in place.
In an effort to garner support for their cause, the co-op residents have been in touch with State Sen. Brian Kavanagh, chairman of the Senate Housing Committee; Assemblywoman Taylor Darling; and Nassau County Legislator Seth Koslow.
Noah Burroughs, a Village of Hempstead trustee who is running for Assembly in the 18th District as a Democrat, succeeding Darling, has shown interest in the group’s efforts.
After meeting with the shareholders, Burroughs expressed his intention to push for immediate action.
“(We just need to figure out) how to do this on a legislative basis, and you know it’s going to take some time to figure that out,” Burroughs told the Herald.
Burroughs said the extent of the structural damage reportedly in existence at 99 Randall Ave. should spur Freeport’s buildings department to take some sort of action.
Burroughs is facing Republican Danielle Smikle in the November 5 election.
The group is advocating for legislation similar to the reforms taken in Florida, mandating regular structural inspections and adequate reserve funds for repairs.
The group proposed that buildings more than 25 years old should be required to undergo structural engineering reports every five years, with the findings made public to shareholders.
They also suggested a mandate for a reserve specialist to ensure funds are adequately managed for necessary repairs in co-ops, as well as for condos, statewide.
Bass suggests for anyone interested in joining their grassroots movement to address legislative reform regarding the rights of co-op shareholders to join their Facebook group at Facebook.com/ Groups/Nyccoopshareholders/.
The Freeport Memorial Library Board recognized Kishore Kuncham, superintendent of Freeport Schools, for his 30 years of dedication to the district and community in a ceremony on July 11. Dr. Kuncham is concluding a long and esteemed career.
“Dr. Kuncham’s dedication to the education of our children has been instrumental in shaping the lives of countless students,” stated Library Director Lee Ann Moltzen. “We are grateful for his commitment to our community and his partnership with the Freeport Memorial Library.”
Upon receiving the proclamation, Kuncham expressed, “It has been an honor to serve the Freeport community for the past 30 years. I am proud of the many achievements of our students and staff, and I am confident that the Freeport School District will continue to thrive.”
–Mohammad Rafiq
freeport memorial Library assistant director Karen farrell, left, Library Board president Kenneth Saunders, Library director Lee ann moltzen, Superintendent of Schools Kishore Kuncham, Board president Jason Holin, Secretary dr. alma rocha.
By MELISSA BERMAN mberman@liherald.com
The Emergency Nurses Association has awarded the prestigious 2024 Lantern Award to Mount Sinai South Nassau’s Emergency Department.
The department staff received the award for reducing wait times and for demonstrating commitment to exceptional and innovative leadership, practice, education, advocacy and research.
The award is named in honor of Florence Nightingale, a trailblazing nurse and the founder of modern nursing, who was known by the nickname “Lady with the Lamp.”
MSSN’s Fennessy Family Emergency Department, along with emergency departments at Mount Sinai Morningside and Mount Sinai West, are three of only 94 emergency departments across the United States that met the Lantern Award criteria this year, according to the hospital.
Colleen Schaefer, quality operations coordinator for South Nassau’s Emergency Department, submitted the application and the necessary data.
“This was brought forward by our former director, Christina Salucci, and another Mount Sinai emergency department received the award last year,” Schaefer said, “so we really pushed and came together as a department to apply for the award this year.”
Melissa Berman/Herald
For its teamwork and an enduring commitment to service excellence, Mount Sinai South Nassau’s Emergency Department was awarded the Emergency Nurses Association’s Lantern Award for reducing wait times and for innovative leadership, practice, education, advocacy and research.
The Emergency Department nurses found out they had won early last month.
in a key measurement of patient satisfaction and performance.
“This is a testament to the ED staff, especially the nurses, for the amazing work they do on a daily basis,” Itzkowitz said. “Talk about the care they provide to all the patients, the patient experience and the patients who want to come here. We are providing a service to the community that they want in that area.”
MSSN’s emergency room simultaneously reduced the “left without being seen” patient rate to below 2 percent and handled a significant increase in post-pandemic patient volume.
“It goes without saying how proud I am and excited to be part of this,” Itzkowitz added. “We know the amazing team that we have — it’s just a matter of time till we’re recognized for the amazing work that the nursing team provides.”
The Lantern Award also recognized the ongoing education and training of the nursing staff to provide the necessary skills and knowledge to adapt to societal needs.
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“I think for both leadership and staff, it just signifies how hard we’ve worked together as a department, and we experience growth and change,” Schaefer said. “Our staff is adapting excellent to that, and we’re making sure that we’re growing our team and providing safe patient care for all our patients.”
Dr. Adhi Sharma, the hospital’s president, who is an emergency physician by background, said he was immensely proud of the ED staff and leadership.
Dr. Jay Itzkowitz, clinical chair of the department, helped implement a series of innovations that led to improvement
“It’s very rewarding to see it — it’s a good reflection on the culture in the ED and organization,” Sharma said. “This award is a great milestone, but the best is yet to come.”
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The 9th day of the Hebrew month of Av (Mon. night and Tues., Aug. 12-13) is the saddest in Jewish history, commemorating the destruction of the Jewish Temples (which were on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, now occupied by the Dome of the Rock). The Western [retaining] Wall, the Temple’s remnant, is the holiest place accessible to Jews today. Through the millennia, Jews have recited Psalm 137: ‘If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand wither; let my tongue stick to my palate if I cease to think of you, if I do not keep Jerusalem (Zion) in memory even at my happiest hour.’ Jews are not ‘settler colonial’ interlopers in the Land of Israel; Jews are the indigenous nation of the Land, having returned home to the Jewish state of Israel and to Zion (which is Jerusalem).
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Tyrone Williams, 23, of Baldwin was fatally shot and killed in Freeport on Aug. 1.
Freeport village police responded to shot spotter activation near W. Seaman Avenue around 2 a.m., where they found Williams with a gunshot wound.
He was taken to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead early Thursday morning.
The shooting allegedly occurred outside 164 West Seaman Avenue with a 9mm handgun - which has since been found by police - a few house down from a house party at 159 West Seaman Avenue that the victim had been in attendance since around 5p.m.
Kyzer Langley, 20, of Bridgeport Conneticut, was arrested by police. He has been charged with murder and criminal possession of a weapon.
Officers state that the alleged shooting followed an argument between Langley and Williams. The investigation is continuing.
Langley will be arraigned at First District Court in Hempstead on Friday, August 2.
Nassau police ask anyone with information on the incident to call Nassau County Crime Stoppers at 1 (800) 244-8477 or call 911. All calls are confidential.
–Mohammad Rafiq
A Freeport man was sentenced to six to 12 years in prison for a vehicular crash in West Hempstead last August that killed a six-year-old girl.
Jorge Bonilla Gutierrez, 19, pleaded guilty on June 5, before Judge Terence Murphy to charges including manslaughter, assault and driving while intoxicated.
Gutierrez was sentenced six to 12 years in prison on Aug. 5.
Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly had made a recommendation of six to 15 years in prison.
“Katerine Vanegas Hernandez was a bright light in her family, a best friend to her little brother, and a happy child excited to celebrate her seventh birthday in just two short days,” Donnelly said in a news release. “This defendant, driving drunk and recklessly on Hempstead Turnpike, stole young Katerine’s life when he struck her mother’s car and tore apart this close and loving family.
“Katerine’s loss – so senselessly and tragically at the hands of a drunk driver – is unfathomable. Our thoughts remain with her mother and brother as they continue to mourn.”
“Halfway through the summer season it bears repeating: do not drink and
get behind the wheel. Do not destroy another family.”
On Aug. 7, of last year near 2:20 a.m., Gutierrez, intoxicated and speeding, drove through a red light and crashed into the rear of Hernandez’s mother’s vehicle, which was stopped with hazard lights on Hempstead Turnpike near Westminster Road.
The impact sent the Toyota Corolla off the roadway and into a tree, while Gutierrez’s Nissan Pathfinder flipped multiple times.
Hernandez, a passenger in the Corolla, suffered significant internal injuries and was pronounced dead shortly after being taken to NYU Langone Long Island Hospital.
Her five-year-old brother sustained a fractured spine, and the driver of the Corolla suffered multiple broken ribs.
Gutierrez was apprehended near the crash scene by a member of the Nassau County Police Department, and taken to Nassau University Medical Center. His injuries included broken ribs and a broken nose.
Empty beer cans were found inside and around his vehicle, according to police reports. A search warrant revealed his blood alcohol content was 0.17 percent one hour after the crash.
On July 13, a man was arrested for driving while drunk. He was subsequently arrested.
On July 14, a man was arrested for driving while drunk. The man was placed under arrest and transported to police headquarters.
On July 10, police officers arrested a subject who stole items from a local business. The defendant was then put under arrest.
On July 12, Freeport officers received information about an individual who took a barbeque from someone’s yard without permission.
People named in Crime Watch items as having been arrested and charged with violations or crimes are only suspected of committing those acts of which they are accused. They are all presumed to be innocent of those charges until and unless found guilty in a court of law.
By Danielle Schwab
There’s a special “day” for everyone and everything it seems. So it’s certainly fitting that the helpful yet often misunderstood honey bee gets its due. And that brings us to Aug. 17, aka “National Honey Bee Day.” Long Island Children’s Museum goes all out to celebrate the hard-working insect with two days of “Honey Hoopla” activities, Aug. 16-17.
The museum has been home to over 20,000 honeybees year-round since 2012, when a hive was introduced to the Feast for Beasts exhibit, which opened in January of that year. The museum welcomed visitors to the first “Honey Hoopla” that year so that everyone could experience the first harvesting of honey from the then newly active hive.
Now Honey Hoopla returns — in a big way.
Families can check in on the busy bugs from an observational beehive, still located in the Feasts for Beasts exhibit. There, honeybees travel in and out of the hive, pollinating flowers in the museum’s pollinator garden and working together to create a productive thriving colony.
“They all have an important task to do, and they really stick to that role. And then, of course, there’s the queen, the leader of the hive,” says Ashley Niver, the museum’s director of education.
The fruit of their labors? Lots and lots of honey, of course Color, aroma, and taste can change based on the nectar of the flower. Families are welcome to taste many different varieties of honey, including, of course, from the museum’s honey harvest. And for those interested, the museum’s honey is available for purchase in the Museum Store.
“A lot of people maybe don’t know that honey can taste different from different varieties of flowers or the location. We’re offering different honey varieties that the kids can taste test and try to match up,” Niver says.
Bees certainly give us more than that sweet treat. Families become fully involved in exploring the role of honey bees in our ecosystem through hands-on activities.
• Friday and Saturday, Aug. 16-17, 11 a.m.- 4 p.m.)
• $17 museum admission, $16 seniors 65 and older
• View the LICM events calendar at licm.org for additional information or call (516) 224-5800
• Long Island Children’s Museum, Museum Row, Garden City
Visitors will learn that honeybees are responsible for pollinating some of Long Island’s most abundant crops including melons, pumpkins, tree nuts, and berries; and that the honey bee population is in danger and decreasing rapidly. Without these pollinators, we would lose some of our favorite foods such as chocolate, grapes, apples, and pears.
‘Families can also explore the use of honeycombs, from which wax is made. The “Happy Beeday” activity is an opportunity to make and decorate beeswax birthday candles.
“They’ll have a strip of colored beeswax and wicks they’ll wrap and roll up to create the candle, and then any scrap pieces of wax can be used to decorate it,” says Niver.
A local beekeeper will be on hand to demonstrate how honey is harvested from those honeycombs. In addition, kids can get involved in bee-themed crafts throughout the galleries that highlight how we can help the bees so that our fruit and vegetable crops can be healthy.
After some time buzzing around, visitors might want to take a break, with a free theatrical reading of Gay Thomas’ book, “Beezy County Fair: A Bee Tale,” at 11 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. The charming story engages families with adorable illustrations and an uplifting message about cooperation and the great benefits of working together for a common goal, along with plenty of bee facts.
While we understand that honey bees do so much for our environment, climate change and pesticides put the insects at risk of colony collapse disorder, where worker bees will exhibit abnormal behavior that leads to the destruction of the colony.
“They’re in danger of continuing to decrease due to different environmental factors,” Niver explains. “If we don’t have the bees here to help us pollinate, then we don’t have the abundance of crops that we can use for our food, and we’ll lose the success of our crop.”
To that end, the museum has launched its Name a Honey Bee Campaign so that visitors can join in bee preservation efforts. A donation of $10 allows families to name one of the museum’s bees, to be recognized on a visual display featuring the bee’s new name and the donor’s name through year’s end.
“It’s very easy for people to feel fearful of bees because they don’t want to be stung, and maybe they assume that all bees are looking to sting and cause harm,” Niver adds. “But the reality is that the honey bees are very docile, and they are just looking to make their honey. They’re really our friends.”
Photos courtesy LICMl
The industrious honey bee buzzes into the spotlight to captivate museum visitors. Participate in a theatrical reading and meet Gay Thomas, author of the “Beezy County Fair: A Bee Tale,” and explore an observational beehive during the event.
Gladys Knight
Hop aboard that “Midnight Train to Georgia” when the legendary soul chanteuse brings her Farewell Tour to Flagstar at Westbury Music Fair. Gladys Knight is without a doubt one of the most influential, and beloved living singers on the planet. And while the Empress of Soul may have been in the business for more than 60 years now, that hasn’t stopped her from continuing to rock that beat as only she can do. She’s bringing her classic Motown-style R&B to fans one last time before she bids us farewell. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee’s fierce vocal power, elegant precision, and heartfelt performances have cemented her as one of music’s true icons. If you’re enjoy her classic Motown-style R&B, then you’ll surely want to see her perform — one more time. “That’s What Friends Are For,” “I Heard It Through the Grapevine,” — you know the hits, now hear her bring them to life once again.
Friday, Aug. 9, 8 p.m. Tickets start at $63. Tickets available at LiveNation. com. Flagstar at Westbury Music Fair, 960 Brush Hollow Rd., Westbury.
The iconic comedian Paula Poundstone is known for her smart, observational humor and a spontaneous wit that’s become the stuff of legend. When she isn’t collecting hotel soaps while on tour or panel-ing on NPR’s #1 show, “Wait, Wait...Don’t Tell Me!,” she hosts the popular Maximum Fun podcast, “Nobody Listens to Paula Poundstone.” “Nobody” is a comedy field guide to life, complete with taste tests, cats of the weeks and leading experts in everything from beekeeping to prosopagnosia. Her stand-up credentials are endless, along with numerous TV appearances. Her second book, “The Totally Unscientific Study Of The Search For Human Happiness,” in which she offers herself up as a guinea pig in a series of thoroughly unscientific experiments, was recognized a semi-finalist for the Thurber Prize for American Humor (the highest recognition of humor writing in the U.S.).
Friday, Aug. 9, 8 p.m. $55. $45, $35, $30, $25. The Paramount, 370 New York Ave., Huntington. Tickets available at Ticketmaster.com or ParamountNY.com.
The 1970s and ‘80s come alive when Double Vision brings their “Foreigner Experience” to the Paramount Stage, Saturday, Aug. 17, 8 p.m. Whether you’re a lifelong Foreigner enthusiast or a newcomer eager to experience the magic of their music, Double Vision promises a night of electrifying entertainment that will leave you singing along and craving more. Composed of some New York City’s top professional rock musicians, the band delivers the highest level of integrity and technical prowess in bring audiences all the hits from the band that you’ve come to love, while honoring Foreigner and its audience, with a show second to none. The spirit of rock ‘n’ roll lives on, one unforgettable performance at a time, with this group of talented musicians and die-hard Foreigner fans. Double Vision has perfected the art of bringing to life the unforgettable hits that have defined generations. From “I Want to Know What Love Is” to “Cold as Ice,” their renditions are a harmonious blend of passion, precision, and nostalgic energy.
Drawing inspiration from Foreigner’s unmistakable sound and stage presence, Double Vision delivers a performance that pays homage to the band’s legacy while infusing their own charisma and enthusiasm. Their commitment to authenticity is matched only by their unwavering dedication to creating an electrifying experience for every audience member. With an impressive catalog of classics at their fingertips, Double Vision transports audiences to an era when arena rock ruled and Foreigner reigned supreme. Each show is a testament to their musical prowess, transporting fans to a time when anthems were born and memories were made. Sing along to some of the greatest hit tunes , including “Juke Box Hero,” “Hot Blooded,” “Cold As Ice,” “I Want To Know What Love Is,” “Urgent,” “Double Vision,” “Head Games,” “Feels Like the First Time,” and more! . $60, $40, $25, $20. The Paramount, 370 New York Ave., Huntington. Tickets available at Ticketmaster.com or ParamountNY.com.
Enjoy a family film outdoors on Eisenhower Park’s big screen, Wednesday, Aug. 14, dusk, at the Harry Chapin Lakeside Theatre. See Disney’s recent animated musical comedy “Wish.” Audiences are welcomed to the magical kingdom of Rosas, where Asha, a sharp-witted idealist, makes a wish so powerful that it is answered by a cosmic force, a little ball of boundless energy called Star. Together, Asha and Star confront a most formidable foe, the ruler of Rosas, King Magnifico, to save her community and prove that when the will of one courageous human connects with the magic of the stars, wondrous things can happen. Eisenhower Park, Lakeside Theatre, East Meadow. For information, visit NassauCountyNY.gov.
Enjoy a tribute to ‘70s radio hits with 45 RPM, at Eisenhower Park, Friday, Aug. 9, 8 p.m. The New York City-based band of vocalists and musicians recreates the songs and their era with the C’mon Get Happy show, an entertaining and visually engaging evening that has you singing and dancing along. It’s a whole night of “wow, I remember that one” moments. Get “hooked on a feeling” with 45 RPM. Bring seating Harry Chapin Lakeside Theatre, Eisenhower Park, East Meadow. For information, visit NassauCountyNY.gov.
Bring the kids to Old Westbury Gardens for a Seasonal Sprouts session, Wednesday, Aug. 21, 11 a.m.-noon. Children (ages 4 to 6) can tour the gardens with guided activities exploring smells, sight, sound, and touch, even taste in planting a tasty veggie. $8 per child, $15 adult. Registration required. Old Westbury Gardens, 71 Old Westbury Rd., Old Westbury. For information, visit OldWestburyGardens.org or contact (516) 333-0048.
Cherish the last moments of this summer with a run and afterparty at EliteFeats’ Summer Party & 5K Run at Eisenhower Park, Field #2, on Thursday, Aug. 22, starting 6:30 p.m. The party will include food, drinks, and music. Check-in for the race begins at 5:30 p.m. $15 for the general public. Free for club and staff members. It is asked that all attendees meet near the Duck’s Red Shed. It is also suggested that those who are interested in staying for the after-party bring a change of clothes. For more information, visit Events. EliteFeats.com.
Dramatic Play Theatre Playground returns to Long Island Children’s Museum with “Dramatic Play!,” Monday, Aug. 12, 1 p.m., taught by Lisa Rudin, Director of Theatre Playground. In this interactive, theater-inspired workshop, children will act out an original story and help choose how it unfolds. Music, props, and sound effects create a theatrical world where participants are immersed in the story.
Embracing technology can greatly simplify caregiving responsibilities. Find out about the gadgets and tools available to enhance the care you provide to your loved ones while also ensuring your own well-being, Friday, Aug. 26, 1 p.m., at Freeport Memorial Library. E these useful technologies and discover how they can improve the quality of life for both you and your loved one. Registration required. 144 W Merrick Road. Register at FreeportLibrary.info or call (516) 379-3274.
Circus antics
Children are encouraged to express themselves as they create characters, stretch their imaginations and build selfconfidence.This week’s theme: The Amazing World of Bugs and Butterflies. ! Costumes encouraged. $5 with museum admission. Museum Row, Garden City. (516) 224-5800 or LICM.org.
The League of Women Voters of East Nassau invites all to its next general meeting, Wednesday, Aug. 22, 7 p.m., at Levittown Public Library. Discuss the Equals Rights Amendment with a guest speaker from New York State Civil Liberties Union. 1 Bluegrass Lane, Levittown. For more information, visit LWVEastNassau.org.
Participate in a 45-minute walk with pace set by group, beginning at Freeport Memorial Library, Wednesday, Aug `14, 10:30-11:45 a.m All fitness levels welcome. Led by Maryellen Cantanno. Stay in tune with your body while walking and meeting people. Contact for more information, or ask@ freeportlibrary.info. Freeport Memorial Library. 144 W Merrick Rd, Freeport. More information available at FreeportLibrary.info or call (516) 379-3274.
Get in on the action with I. FLY Trapeze, Long Island’s only flying trapeze and circus arts school. Families will enjoy “Wild West Circus,” Saturday, Aug. 17, at 8 p.m., at Eisenhower Park. I.FLY Trapeze puts spectators up close to the aerialists who perform amazing feats of athleticism and agility 25 feet in the air. Performances include Chains, Silk and Lyra, with comedy and on the grounds acts with Balancing and Baton, also a Flying Trapeze Finale. Next to the Nassau County Aquatic Center off Merrick Ave., East Meadow. Free parking available in lot 1A adjacent to the trapeze. For more information, visit IFlyTrapeze.com.
The Freeport Camera Club welcomes new members. It meets at Freeport Memorial Library on the second and fourth Wednesday of every month, at 7 p.m. 144 West Merrick Road. More information available at FreeportLibrary.info or call (516) 379-3274.
Items on The Scene page are listed free of charge. The Herald welcomes listings of upcoming events, community meetings and items of public interest. All submissions should include date, time and location of the event, cost, and a contact name and phone number. Submissions can be emailed to thescene@liherald.com.
Nassau County Museum of Art ‘s latest exhibition
“Seeing Red: Renoir to Warhol,” reveals the many meanings, connotations, and associations of this powerful color in art. Evoking strong emotion, red can represent the human condition. Its myriad variations have come to signify authority as well as love, energy and beauty. Red warns us of peril and commands us to stop, but it can also indicate purity and good fortune. Red boldly represents political movements and religious identities. From the advent of our appreciation for this color in antiquity to its continued prominence in artistic and popular culture, this exhibition will span various world cultures through a range of media. It features more than 70 artists, both established and emerging, ranging from the classical to the contemporary. American portraitists such as Gilbert Stuart imbued red in their stately paintings of prominent individuals to conjure authority. Robert Motherwell, Ad Reinhardt, and other major abstract painters displayed a deep fascination with red in their commanding compositions that evoke a sense of chromatic power. And, of course, Andy Warhol is known for his bold and imposing silkscreened portrait of Vladimir Lenin saturated in bright red to his signature Campbell’s Soup Cans. On view through Jan. 5. Nassau County Museum of Art, 1 Museum Dr., Roslyn Harbor. (516) 484-9337 or NassauMuseum.org.
Plaza Theatrical presents a showstopping tribute to the legendary Patsy Cline, Sunday, Aug. 11, 2:30 p.m. Through a colorful tapestry of iconic songs and witty personal storytelling, Carter Calvert uses her award-winning vocal talents to create this captivating musical tribute. Calvert, a Broadway star and title character in Always… Patsy Cline (opposite Emmy Award winner Sally Struthers), has gained rave reviews and triumphant accolades for her heartfelt portrayal of this legendary country recording artist.
She vocally captures Cline’s musical stylings pitch-perfectly in mega hits including “Crazy,” “I Fall To Pieces,” “She’s Got You” and “Walkin’ After Midnight.” Both captivating and endearing, this fastpaced entertainment delights audiences of all ages. It’s performed at Plaza’s stage at the Elmont Library Theatre, 700 Hempstead Tpke., Elmont. $40, $35 seniors. Elmont. For tickets, call (516) 599-6870 or visit PlazaTheatrical.com.
By JOSEPH D’ALESSANDRO jdalessandro@liherald.com
Law enforcement agents, state legislators and experts on human trafficking met at a conference at Nassau Community College on July 31.
The Assembly Minority Conference Task Force on Human Trafficking was created to help Nassau and Suffolk investigators, policy makers and safe houses share what they need to protect victims.
The Interagency Task Force on Human Trafficking — the state organization responsible for providing annual reports on the topic — is three years out of date, resulting in a critical lack of data since coronavirus lockdowns eased. Since then, organizations that help victims have strained to mitigate the harm done by human traffickers.
“It is a problem that is everywhere, but nobody is actually seeing it,” Assemblyman Brian Curran said.
The participants discussed state financial support, law enforcement tools, aid for exploited migrants, and educational programs to help New Yorkers recognize when someone is a victim of trafficking.
Attorneys and law enforcement personnel considered the effects of changes in trafficking-related charges — some are not officially “sex crimes,” so perpetrators don’t end up on the state’s Sex Offender Registry — and proving a victim was exploited is difficult for prosecutors, Christine Guida, deputy chief of the Nassau County Special Victims Bureau, explained.
The difficulty of bringing cases to trial can begin much earlier. Trafficking victims are often young — high school and college students — or struggle to communicate due to a language barrier. In virtually every case, they are threatened by traffickers not to come forward.
“People think that in order to do the unthinkable, there has to be some kind of torture involved,” defense
Joseph D’Alessandro/Herald
The task force is composed of local law enforcement, legislators and members of organizations that provide services to people in need, representing a range of groups that deal with different aspects of human trafficking.
attorney Diane Clarke said. “That’s not the case.”
The goal of training and education programs is to demystify what human trafficking is and how it works. Deepening the public’s understanding of trafficking can make tools such as simple hand signals for help increasingly viable for victims to escape their captors.
The Empower, Assist and Care Network is one of many organizations that provide housing, case management and other forms of aid to victims across Long Island and New York City.
“It is my hope that these conversations are going to continue in a way that is coordinating and enhancing our services, and advocating for funding,” said Neela Mukherjee Lockel, president and CEO of the EAC Network. “We’re going up against giant criminal enterpris-
es. That’s what human trafficking is, and we need money and resources to do that.”
Dr. Jeffrey L. Reynolds is president and CEO of the Family and Children’s Association, which has been providing shelter for runaway, homeless and trafficked children for over 140 years. It also has a mental health program that serves about 400 young people, in addition to programs for those suffering from addiction.
“We’re here today to make a couple suggestions about ways to improve systems of care,” Reynolds said. “This would include educating health and human service workers about how to spot the signs of trafficking, what to do about it, and how to intervene.”
The conference was the first step in renewing the fight against trafficking, Assemblyman Brian Maher said.
LEGAL NOTICE
STATE OF NEW YORK
SUPREME COURT: COUNTY OF NASSAU
WILMINGTON SAVINGS FUND SOCIETY, FSB, AS TRUSTEE OF STANWICH MORTGAGE LOAN TRUST I, Plaintiff,
v. NATHANIEL JEFFERS
A/K/A NATHANIEL C. JEFFERS, ET AL, Defendants.
NOTICE OF SALE IN FORECLOSURE
PLEASE TAKE NOTICE
THAT
In pursuance of a Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale entered in the Office of the County Clerk of Nassau County on February 24, 2023 as reformed by Order entered on April 16, 2024, I, Michele Bencivinni, Esq., the Referee named in said Judgment, will sell in one parcel at public auction on August 19, 2024 at North Side Steps of the Nassau County Supreme Court, 100 Supreme Ct. Dr., Mineola, NY 11501, at 02:00 PM the premises described as follows:
65 Mount Joy Avenue Freeport, NY 11520
SBL No.: 55-398-365
ALL THAT TRACT OR PARCEL OF LAND situate in the Town of Hempstead, County of Nassau, State of New York. The premises are sold subject to the provisions of the filed judgment, Index No. 613310/2019 in the amount of $415,548.44 plus interest and costs. The aforementioned auction will be conducted in accordance with the Court System’s COVID-19 mitigation protocols and as such all persons must comply with social distancing, wearing masks and screening practices in effect at the time of this foreclosure sale.
Woods Oviatt Gilman LLP Attorneys for Plaintiff 500 Bausch & Lomb Place Rochester, NY 14604 Tel.: 855-227-5072 148070
LEGAL NOTICE
NOTICE OF SALE
SUPREME COURT COUNTY OF NASSAU NATIONSTAR MORTGAGE LLC, Plaintiff AGAINST SYLVIA A. FAISON, ALICE L. FAISON AS HEIR TO THE ESTATE OF ALICE A. FAISON, SYLVESTER FAISON, JR. AS HEIR TO THE ESTATE OF ALICE A. FAISON, JESSE LEE FAISON AS HEIR TO THE ESTATE OF ALICE A. FAISON, ANDREW FAISON AS HEIR TO THE ESTATE OF’ ALICE A. FAISON, ET AL, Defendant(s) Pursuant to a Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale duly entered June 6, 2024, I, the undersigned Referee will sell at public auction at the North Side steps of the Nassau County Supreme Court, 100 Supreme Court Drive,
Mineola, NY 11501, ‘Rain or Shine’ on August 20, 2024 at 2:30PM, premises known as 135 Whaley Street, Freeport, NY 11520. All that certain plot piece or parcel of land, with the buildings and improvements erected, situate, lying and being in the Incorporated Village of Freeport, County of Nassau and State of New York, Section 62, Block 129, Lot 2. Approximate amount of judgment $711,178.99 plus interest and costs. Premises will be sold subject to provisions of filed Judgment Index #011201/2014. The aforementioned auction will be conducted in accordance with the NASSAU County COVID-19 mitigation protocols and as such all persons must comply with social distancing, wearing masks and screening practices in effect at the time of this foreclosure sale. If proper social distancing cannot be maintained or there are other health or safety concerns, then the court appointed referee will cancel the foreclosure auction. Jane Shrenkel, Esq., Referee Gross Polowy, LLC 1775 Wehrle Drive Williamsville, NY 14221 20-002305 81481 147983
LEGAL NOTICE
SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK COUNTY OF NASSAU CIT BANK, N.A. F/K/A ONEWEST BANK N.A. F/K/A ONEWEST BANK, FSB, -againstWILLIAM HARDWICK A/K/A WLLIAM F. HARDWICK, ET AL. NOTICE OF SALE NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN pursuant to a Final Judgment of Foreclosure entered in the Office of the Clerk of the County of Nassau on March 2, 2017, wherein CIT BANK, N.A. F/K/A ONEWEST BANK N.A. F/K/A ONEWEST BANK, FSB is the Plaintiff and WILLIAM HARDWICK A/K/A WLLIAM F. HARDWICK, ET AL. are the Defendant(s). I, the undersigned Referee will sell at public auction RAIN OR SHINE at the NASSAU COUNTY SUPREME COURT, NORTH SIDE STEPS, 100 SUPREME COURT DRIVE, MINEOLA, NY 11501, on August 22, 2024 at 2:00PM, premises known as 238 BABYLON TURNPIKE, FREEPORT, NY 11520; and the following tax map identification: 55-353-1006. ALL THAT CERTAIN PLOT, PIECE OR PARCEL OF LAND, WITH THE BUILDING AND IMPROVEMENTS THEREON ERECTED, SITUATE, LYING AND BEING IN THE INCORPORATED VILLAGE OF FREEPORT, TOWN OF HEMPSTEAD, COUNTY OF NASSAU, AND STATE OF NEW YORK
Premises will be sold subject to provisions of filed Judgment Index No.: 009204/2015. Jeffrey Halbreich, Esq. - Referee. Robertson, Anschutz, Schneid, Crane & Partners, PLLC 900 Merchants Concourse, Suite 310, Westbury, New York 11590, Attorneys for Plaintiff. All foreclosure sales will be conducted in accordance with Covid-19 guidelines including, but not limited to, social distancing and mask wearing. *LOCATION OF SALE SUBJECT TO CHANGE DAY OF IN ACCORDANCE WITH COURT/CLERK DIRECTIVES. 148151
LEGAL NOTICE NOTICE OF SALE SUPREME COURT. NASSAU COUNTY. LOAN FUNDER LLC, SERIES 34866, Pltf. vs. AMERICAN DREAM RENOVATION’S LLC., et al, Defts. Index #606345/23. Pursuant to judgment of foreclosure and sale entered June 28, 2024, I will sell at public auction on the North Side Steps of the Nassau Supreme Court, 100 Supreme Court Drive, Mineola, NY on August 27, 2024 at 2:00 p.m. premises k/a 30 Franklin Square, Freeport, NY 11520 a/k/a Section 62, Block 47, Lot 217. Approximate amount of judgment is $488,993.26 plus costs and interest. Sold subject to terms and conditions of filed judgment and terms of sale. BRIAN J. DAVIS, Referee. DEUTSCH & SCHNEIDER, LLP, Attys. for Pltf., 79-37 Myrtle Avenue, Glendale, NY 11385. File No. LF-415#101618 148153
LEGAL NOTICE SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK COUNTY OF NASSAU U.S. BANK NATIONAL ASSOCIATION AS TRUSTEE SUCCESSOR IN INTEREST TO BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION AS SUCCESSOR BY MERGER TO LASALLE BANK NATIONAL ASSOCIATION, AS TRUSTEE FOR CERTIFICATEHOLDERS OF BEAR STEARNS ASSET BACKED SECURITIES I LLC, ASSET BACKED CERTIFICATES, SERIES 2006-HE6, -againstNORVAL CURTIS, ET AL. NOTICE OF SALE NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN pursuant to a Final Judgment of Foreclosure entered in the Office of the Clerk of the County of Nassau on November 16, 2023, wherein U.S. BANK
NATIONAL ASSOCIATION AS TRUSTEE SUCCESSOR IN INTEREST TO BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION AS SUCCESSOR BY MERGER TO LASALLE BANK NATIONAL ASSOCIATION, AS TRUSTEE FOR CERTIFICATEHOLDERS OF BEAR STEARNS ASSET
BACKED SECURITIES I LLC, ASSET BACKED CERTIFICATES, SERIES 2006-HE6 is the Plaintiff and NORVAL CURTIS, ET AL. are the Defendant(s). I, the undersigned Referee, will sell at public auction RAIN OR SHINE at the NASSAU COUNTY SUPREME COURT, NORTH SIDE STEPS, 100 SUPREME COURT DRIVE, MINEOLA, NY 11501, on August 27, 2024 at 2:00PM, premises known as 185 SOUTHSIDE AVE, FREEPORT, NY 11520; and the following tax map identification: 0062 - 00113-00 - 00102. ALL THAT CERTAIN PLOT, PIECE OR PARCEL OF LAND, SITUATE, LYING AND BEING IN THE INCORPORATED VILLAGE OF FREEPORT, TOWN OF HEMPSTEAD, COUNTY OF NASSAU AND STATE OF NEW YORK Premises will be sold subject to provisions of filed Judgment Index No.: 000676/2013. Russell S. Burman, Esq. - Referee. Robertson, Anschutz, Schneid, Crane & Partners, PLLC 900 Merchants Concourse, Suite 310, Westbury, New York 11590, Attorneys for Plaintiff. All foreclosure sales will be conducted in accordance with Covid-19 guidelines including, but not limited to, social distancing and mask wearing. *LOCATION OF SALE SUBJECT TO CHANGE DAY OF IN ACCORDANCE WITH COURT/CLERK DIRECTIVES. 148147
a notice by phone at 516-569-4000 x232 or email: legalnotices@liherald.com
LEGAL NOTICE
SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK COUNTY OF NASSAU CITIMORTGAGE, INC., -againstCHRISTINE ARIS, ET AL. NOTICE OF SALE NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN pursuant to a Final Judgment of Foreclosure and entered in the Office of the Clerk of the County of Nassau on October 12, 2022, wherein CITIMORTGAGE, INC. is the Plaintiff and CHRISTINE ARIS, ET AL. are the Defendant(s). I, the undersigned Referee will sell at public auction at the NASSAU COUNTY SUPREME COURT, NORTH SIDE STEPS, 100 SUPREME COURT DRIVE, MINEOLA, NY 11501, on August 22, 2024 at 2:00PM, premises known as 66 MARTHA STREET, FREEPORT, NY 11520; and the following tax map identification, 62-95-132-133-134.
ALL THAT CERTAIN PLOT, PIECE OR PARCEL OF LAND, WITH THE BUILDINGS AND IMPROVEMENTS THEREON ERECTED, SITUATE, LYING AND BEING IN THE INCORPORATED VILLAGE OF FREEPORT, TOWN OF HEMPSTEAD, COUNTY OF NASSAU AND STATE OF NEW YORK
Premises will be sold subject to provisions of filed Judgment Index No.: 612262/2019. John G. Kennedy, Esq. - Referee. Robertson, Anschutz, Schneid, Crane & Partners, PLLC 900 Merchants Concourse, Suite 310, Westbury, New York 11590, Attorneys for Plaintiff. All foreclosure sales will be conducted in accordance with Covid-19 guidelines including, but not limited to, social distancing and mask wearing. *LOCATION OF SALE SUBJECT TO CHANGE DAY OF IN ACCORDANCE WITH COURT/CLERK DIRECTIVES. 148149
LEGAL NOTICE NOTICE OF SALE SUPREME COURT COUNTY OF NASSAU Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., as Indenture Trustee for the registered holders of IMH Assets Corp., Collateralized AssetBacked Bonds, Series 2005-3, Plaintiff AGAINST Orazio J. Petito; et al., Defendant(s) Pursuant to a Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale duly entered December 19, 2018, and Amended February 2, 2022, and Amended October 4, 2022, and Amended June 25, 2024, I, the undersigned Referee, will sell at public auction at the North Side Steps of the Nassau County Supreme Court at 100 Supreme Court Drive, Mineola, NY 11501 on September 4, 2024 at 2:00PM, premises known as 73 Crescent Beach Road, Glen Cove, NY 11542. All that certain plot piece or parcel of land, with the buildings and improvements erected, situate, lying and being in the City of Glen Cove, County of Nassau, State of NY, Section 31. Block 47 Lot 417. Approximate amount of judgment $1,199,324.65 plus interest and costs. Premises will be sold subject to provisions of filed Judgment Index# 006906/2015. The auction will be conducted pursuant to the COVID-19 Policies Concerning Public Auctions of Foreclosed Property established by the 10th Judicial District. Foreclosure Auctions will be held “Rain or Shine.”
David S. Dikman, Esq., Referee LOGS Legal Group LLP f/k/a Shapiro, DiCaro & Barak, LLC Attorney(s) for the Plaintiff 175 Mile Crossing Boulevard Rochester, New York 14624 (877) 430-4792
Dated: July 18, 2024 81586 148181
LEGAL NOTICE BOARD OF EDUCATION BALDWIN UNION FREE SCHOOL DISTRICT
SPECIFICATIONS FOR PUPIL TRANSPORTATION
Section 1
ADVERTISEMENT The Board of Education Of The Baldwin Union Free School District. County of Nassau hereafter invites The Submission of Sealed Bids for the SouthWest Quadrant Consortium PUPIL TRANSPORTATION
Wednesday, August 23, 2024 At 9:30 A.M. At the office Of the Board of Education Baldwin Union Free School District, Baldwin N.Y. 11510
At which time and place All bids will be publicly Opened and read aloud Specifications and bid Forms may be obtained By Telephone 516-434-6040 Between the hours of 8:30 AM and 3:30 PM Weekdays. The Board of Education reserves the Right to reject any or all Bids, or to accept any bid Which is in the opinion of The Board of Education Will be in the best Interest of the School District Board of Education Baldwin Union Free School District. By: Pamela Pratt District Clerk 148389
LEGAL NOTICE NOTICE OF SALE SUPREME COURT COUNTY OF NASSAU JPMORGAN CHASE BANK, N.A., Plaintiff AGAINST DIANA J. BARNES A/K/A DIANA CARTER A/K/A DIANA CARTER; FARAJI BODDIE; Defendant(s) Pursuant to a Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale duly entered February 7, 2017, I, the undersigned Referee will sell at public auction at the North Side steps of the Nassau County Supreme Court, 100 Supreme Court Drive, Mineola, NY 11501, ‘Rain or Shine’ on September 5, 2024 at 2:30PM, premises known as 39 Lessing Place, Freeport, NY 11520. All that certain plot piece or parcel of land, with the buildings and improvements erected, situate, lying and being in the Incorporated Village of Freeport, Town of Hempstead, County of Nassau and State of New York, Section: 55 Block: 377 Lots: 1267, 1268 and 1269. Approximate amount of judgment $331,470.41 plus interest and costs. Premises will be sold subject to provisions of filed Judgment Index #011584/2007. The aforementioned auction will be conducted in
accordance with the NASSAU County COVID-19 Protocols located on the Office of Court Administration (OCA) website (https://ww2.nycourts.gov /Admin/oca.shtml) and as such all persons must comply with social distancing, wearing masks and screening practices in effect at the time of this foreclosure sale. Janine T. Lynam, Esq., Referee Fein, Such & Crane, LLP 28 East Main Street Rochester, NY 14614 NSRNC625 81287 148296
If proper social distancing cannot be maintained or there are other health or safety concerns, the then Court Appointed Referee will cancel the Foreclosure Auction. This Auction will be held rain or shine.
MCCABE, WEISBERG & CONWAY, LLC, 10 Midland Avenue, Suite 205, Port Chester, NY 10573
Dated: 7/15/24 File Number: 20-303039 SH 148330
LEGAL NOTICE
NOTICE OF SALE
SUPREME COURT COUNTY OF NASSAU State of New York Mortgage Agency, Plaintiff AGAINST
Gwendolyn Webb; et al., Defendant(s)
LEGAL NOTICE NOTICE OF SALE SUPREME COURTCOUNTY OF NASSAU DEUTCHE BANK NATIONAL TRUST COMPANY, AS TRUSTEE FOR ARGENT SECURITIES INC., ASSET-BACKED PASS-THROUGH CERTIFICATES, SERIES 2005-W4, Plaintiff, Against ZAHIRA CASTILLO A/K/A ZAHIRA M. CASTILLO, JANE DOE (REFUSED NAME), JANE DOE (REFUSED NAME), Defendant(s) Pursuant to a Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale, duly entered 06/04/2024, I, the undersigned Referee, will sell at public auction, on the North Side steps of the Nassau County Supreme Court located at 100 Supreme Court Drive, Mineola, N.Y. 11501 on 9/12/2024 at 2:00PM, premises known as 14 Laurette Lane, Freeport, New York 11520, And Described As Follows:
ALL that certain plot piece or parcel of land, with the buildings and improvements thereon erected, situate, lying and being Partly In The Incorporated Village Of Freeport And Partly In Freeport, In The Town Of Hempstead, County Of Nassau And State Of New York.
Section 62 Block 206 Lot 3 The approximate amount of the current Judgment lien is $493,533.14 plus interest and costs. The Premises will be sold subject to provisions of the aforesaid Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale; Index # 609074/2020 Ronald J. Ferraro, Esq., Referee.
Pursuant to a Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale duly entered October 28, 2016 I, the undersigned Referee will sell at public auction at the North Side Steps of the Nassau County Supreme Court at 100 Supreme Court Drive, Mineola, NY 11501 on September 11, 2024 at 2:30PM, premises known as 36 New York Avenue, Freeport, NY 11520. All that certain plot piece or parcel of land, with the buildings and improvements erected, situate, lying and being in the Incorporated Village of Freeport, Residence Park, County of Nassau, State of NY, Section 54 Block 57 Lots 149 & 150. Approximate amount of judgment $449,801.26 plus interest and costs. Premises will be sold subject to provisions of filed Judgment Index# 006721/2012. The auction will be conducted pursuant to the COVID-19 Policies Concerning Public Auctions of Foreclosed Property established by the 10th Judicial District. Foreclosure Auctions will be held “Rain or Shine.” Janine T. Lynam, Esq., Referee LOGS Legal Group LLP f/k/a Shapiro, DiCaro & Barak, LLC
Attorney(s) for the Plaintiff 175 Mile Crossing Boulevard Rochester, New York 14624 (877) 430-4792
Dated: July 29, 2024 For sale information, please visit www.Auction.com or call (800) 280-2832 148311
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PALM BEACH GARDENS, FLORIDA East Pointe Country Club. Gorgeous 3BRs, 3Bths, Golf, Double Kitchen, High Ceilings. MLS#RX-10977928 $889,000 Jill 561-373-2724 CEDARHURST NO FEE trance, W/D, Storage, Wall To Wall Carpeting, Indoor Parking Space. Starting At $1450 For One Bedroom When Available. (516)860-6889/ (516)852-5135/ (516)582-9978
room and home office, also wet bar. Guest quarters. Taxes: $12,508.44 Franklin Square $905,000 Hoffman Street. Duplex. 5 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms. Finished basement. Eat-in kitchen with granite countertops and pantry. Formal dining room. First floor master bedroom. Updates include cathedral ceiling and skylight. Taxes: $12,430.17
Lido Beach $1,289,000
Gerry Avenue. Hi Ranch. 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms. Eat-in kitchen with granite countertops. Den/family room and home office, also wet bar and guest quarters. Master bedroom with walk-in closet. High end finishes include skylight. Security system.
Taxes: $15,290.87
Malverne $692,000
Morris Avenue. Colonial. Fully renovated and move-in ready. 3 bedrooms, 1.5 bathrooms. New eat-in kitchen with granite countertops and stainless steel appliances. New bathrooms, roof and windows.
Taxes: $14,800
contact Michele Flanigan at 518-546-9550
Merrick $1,350,000
Valerie Court. Split Level. 4 bedrooms, 3.5 bathrooms. Partial finished basement. Large custom eat-in kitchen with granite countertops and high-end stainless steel appliances. Formal dining room. Den/family room. Custom upgrades include 2 fireplaces, skylight and radiant heated flooring in main bathroom. All large rooms. Upper level Trex deck leads to paved yard with built-in pool. Security system.
Taxes: $29424.24
Oceanside $1,212,500
Oceanside Parkway. Colonial. 4 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms. Finished basement. Eat-in kitchen. Formal dining room. Den/family room and home office. Master bathroom with walk-in closet. High end finishes include cathedral ceiling. Security system.
Taxes: $23,265.16
Rockville Centre $850,000
Hamilton Road. Split Level. 3 bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms. Partial finished basment. Eat-in kitchen. Formal dining room. Den/family room. Expansive home on a beautiful block is meticulously maintained and filled with period charm and elegance. It features four spacious levels of living space, including all oversized bedrooms and light filled sunroom with backyard access. Ensuite master bedroom. Private backyard with pavered patio and mature landscaping throughout.
Q. We’re doing a major house lift, making changes to our existing first floor and adding a second floor. We thought it made sense to get a design and then stop, because this way we didn’t spend a lot of money on full construction plans and then end up disappointed that it was over our budget. Simple turned into complicated, as it often does. The contractor and the architect agreed that the house should just be reconstructed (nothing saved) and the estimators insisted on much more information to give us a price. Are we going about this the right way? We’re already disillusioned that we aren’t going to be able to build within our budget, and we don’t even have numbers to make a decision. What should we do?
A. Your house project isn’t sounding too “uplifting,” and frankly, from your description, you shouldn’t be lifting the original house. You may spend more than $50,000 just trying to save the little bit of the original house, moving plumbing and wiring, trying to work around the existing materials and reconstructing old ones. Money is the driving factor in most construction projects, and although it’s frustrating, you must either politely persist with evaluating costs with the contractor, or get to the finish line with plans to give estimators something to work with.
First, though, you should recognize that the current first floor will become a second floor, and the new floor above will be a third floor if you plan to have a lowest level high enough to park cars underneath or use for accessible, stand-up storage. Federal guidelines require that the new lowest level not be used for anything but car or general storage, and the state requires indoor sprinklers.
It’s really up to the contractor working with you, and the architect, to reach predictable costs for the total project. You need to pay both of them to spend the time necessary to hit a targeted budget. The contractor will then work with getting together material, labor and overhead costs, with profit and a cushion for issues that can arise, like weather, material delivery delays and scrambling when something isn’t available or a truck breaks down.
While it’s not completely unreasonable for estimators to want more information, putting together a preliminary budget isn’t a mysterious, unheardof request. My concern when this happens is that all parties need to cooperate. The reason for the architect’s involvement is to answer questions and guide decision-making about sizes of structure, material choices and code compliance. If the contractor or a subcontractor makes projections on the design of structure, for example, it must be understood that the architect makes the final decision about wall thicknesses, insulation values, structural components, and even window and door sizes. These are safety and code-related conditions that are governed by law.
The costs can escalate when plans are completed, so reducing the project to meet a budget, up front, is important. Good luck!
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Scorching, sweltering, suffocating. We’re all struggling to keep our cool these days, as a dangerous heat dome hovers over much of the country and threatens lives and livelihoods. Here in Nassau County, we’ve experienced successive weeks of extreme heat that has disrupted everything from our transit systems to our enjoyment of the outdoors.
This after last summer, when historic wildfires in Canada brought barely breathable, smoky air to our state. We can choose to stay indoors all summer, or we can be honest about how we got to this overheated moment. We know exactly what is causing this dizzying change in our climate. Emissions from burning fossil fuels — oil, gas, coal — produce greenhouse gases that blanket the globe and trap the sun’s heat. And we know that global carbon emissions have been steadily increasing, warming our oceans and atmosphere.
But even in the face of damning evidence, the fossil fuel industry won’t
back down. Companies continue to drill new wells, build new pipelines and sell oil, gas and coal to burn, trapping us all under heat domes that aren’t just unbearable, but lethal.
Why haven’t we moved away from burning fossil fuels?
Because fossil fuel corporations have used their resources to block necessary climate action at every turn.
The industry itself predicted global warming with uncanny
Decades ago, the fossil fuel industry documented a sophisticated scientific understanding and predicted with uncanny accuracy how the globe would heat. Next, its leaders developed a multipronged effort to undermine the scientific data they themselves had uncovered, so they could stymie policies that would reduce the use of fossil fuels. Part of that campaign was a sustained effort to frame climate change as a matter of individual actions (like recycling or turning off the tap while brushing your teeth) instead of structural policy change.
Rather than investing in solutions, these corporations spent billions of dollars on the systems that have enabled them to continue to frack, mine, extract and, most important, pull in constant, breathtaking profits — even while the
iplanet got hotter and hotter. This included investing in policymakers and politicians, from state houses to the halls of Congress to the Supreme Court, as well as universities. Today, legislation that would — and should — enable us to invest in clean-energy solutions is routinely quashed because of the powerful sway of the fossil fuel industry. Its profits are valued over our very lives.
So where do we go from here?
Simply put, to the streets: to the state houses, to Congress, to the ballot box. And we need to do it together. Amid a summer that is already one of the five hottest ever, we need to wield our collective power as voters, as citizens, as consumers. We need millions of people to stand up to those billions of dollars. We need to demand the kind of big, systemic changes that are our only hope to slow the pace of change and give us a chance to survive. Because, make no mistake, we have the means to change course on this path of destruction. Just as humans created coal-powered trains and oil furnaces, we have invented clean-energy solutions such as solar-, wind- and water-powered electricity.
But we need to demand this change.
That’s why I’m joining other people of faith and climate activists from all over at the ongoing Summer of Heat protests, which take place outside the headquarters of the major financial institutions in Manhattan. If we can persuade the executives of these institutions how much we care about this, and manage to cut off funding to the fossil fuel industry, we will be taking a huge step toward dismantling that industry.
People of all backgrounds need to show up with spiritual audacity, educating, energizing and mobilizing our communities to act. When people realize that generations to come may face ever more devastating disasters — droughts, fires, floods, famines — they need the inspiration to turn despair into action.
Bottom line? If we want to beat the heat, we need to keep fossil fuels in the ground, unburned. Which means challenging the fossil fuel industry with moves to cut off funding from banks, asset managers and financial firms.
I think of the quote from Deuteronomy: “It is not beyond us in heaven.” Indeed, humans can make a new future. We have the capacity. We have the science, the resources, the people and the power. It is in our hands and in our hearts, and we can do it. We must.
Lauren Krueger is the co-leader of the Nassau County Dayenu Circle. She lives in Merrick.
Momalas for Kamala, a thread to unite us
n a world where news breaks instantly on our phones, cracking the world open in an instant, behold the weekly newspaper, the tortoise of the news business. As I write, I realize it’s not all bad to have time to think between 72-point headlines.
When I wrote last, almost a month ago, President Biden was still the presumptive Democratic nominee, although there was plenty of chatter about his slow walk and whispery talk. He was adamant: He would not step down. He was ready to fight. Many of us who think Biden has done an outstanding job in office came to believe he was not up to another four years. He looked frail. He appeared to overestimate his ability, at age 81, to meet the demands of the job. It felt disloyal to urge him to make way for a younger contender, but loyalty to our democracy had to come first. I celebrated his willingness to relinquish power, wished it had come sooner, but we had a potential new candidate.
Three weeks ago, Kamala Harris was (and still is) the vice president, and at that point her own presidential dreams were on hold. Donald Trump was salivating like a lion at the Roman Forum, waiting to take on Biden in the next debate. After the president’s shockingly poor performance in the first one, the Donald was closing in for the kill.
J.D. Vance? Barely a twinkle in Trump’s eye a month ago. He’s the guy who wrote “Hillbilly Elegy.” Suddenly he morphed into a mega-MAGA, with extreme, creepy ideas about women’s rights and personal freedoms. Trump thought Vance would make a perfect addition to the ticket.
That was July 13. Then, curtains up on the Republican National Convention, just days after the attempted assassination, with a buoyant Trump telling the world he was still standing.
i hope all the disparate political identities will form a cohesive movement.
A few weeks back, Thomas Matthew Crooks was a shy kid from rural Pennsylvania who got it into his head to kill the former president. And he nearly did, grazing Trump’s ear as he stood at the podium at an outdoor rally. I saw it happen, and time stopped until Trump was hustled to safety. I lived through the years of JFK, MLK and RFK dying in heartbreaking eruptions of political violence. Those murders scarred the political landscape forever.
Those were enough big news items for five years, compressed and pounded under pressure into just days, until the whole country, burnished like a diamond, seemed brilliant and raw. You could hear us, an entire nation, sucking in deep calming breaths, trying to steady ourselves.
Then, on July 21, Biden announced that he was stepping out of the presidential campaign and endorsing Harris to be the Democratic nominee.
I’m writing this all down because after some amount of time, nobody will believe that it all happened just like this over the past few weeks.
Then the head of the Secret Service stepped down because of her agency’s failure to stop the assassination attempt.
Then a kind of organic political wave swelled out of nowhere, pushing people forward to support Harris in a tsunami of relief and joy. Black women for Kamala. White Dudes for Kamala. White
Women for Kamala.
That’s where I lost the thread. Aren’t we all supposed to be coming together as Americans to choose our president? Can’t we be Citizens for Kamala? Am I a Short Woman for Kamala or a CR-V Driver for Kamala or a Yasso Pop Fanatic for Kamala? We’re dividing and subdividing into micro cells.
Then that changed, too. I decided to embrace the political moment.
Momalas for Kamala is born. Momala is Harris’s nickname in her family, but it’s more than that. According to the Urban Dictionary, “A momala is a trusted guardian. Outside of the family, a momala is the mother of a neighborhood. In a village, she is mother and healer. In a state, she is the mother of health, knowledge and creativity. For a country, she is the mom of compassion and strength.”
We all have mothers or are mothers or value mothers. Momalas are us, men and women, young and old.
I hope all the disparate political identities will form a cohesive movement to elect Harris president. I hope Trump will summon the courage to meet her toe to toe in a debate. I hope the young voters in this country will shed their indifference and get into the fray.
Copyright 2024 Randi Kreiss. Randi can be reached at randik3@aol.com.
as we mark the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples on Friday, it’s crucial for us here on Long Island to reflect on the rich indigenous history that shapes our communities and landscapes. From the Shinnecock and Montaukett to the Unkechaug and Setauket, Native American tribes have been integral to Long Island’s story since long before European settlers arrived.
The names of our towns and landmarks echo this heritage: Montauk, Quogue, Peconic, Ronkonkoma, Hauppauge, Patchogue, and many more. These names aren’t just relics of the past, but living reminders of the peoples who stewarded this land for millennia. They represent a deep connection to the environment and a complex cultural tapestry that continues to influence our region today.
But we must also confront the painful history of exploitation and displacement that followed European settlement. The original inhabitants of Long Island, like indigenous peoples across the Americas, faced immense challenges as their lands were seized, their populations decimated by disease, and their cultures suppressed. The Shinnecock Nation, for instance, was engaged in a long struggle for federal recognition, and continues to make its case for the return of ancestral lands.
Despite these hardships, indigenous communities have shown remarkable resilience. The Shinnecock Nation continues to maintain its cultural practices
To the Editor:
and advocate for its rights. The Unkechaug people, on the Poospatuck Reservation in Mastic, have preserved their language and traditions. These communities serve as a living link to Long Island’s past and as vital contributors to its present and future.
Nationally, Native Americans have made countless contributions to American society, often unrecognized. From agricultural techniques that feed millions to democratic principles that influenced the U.S. Constitution, indigenous knowledge and practices have shaped the nation in profound ways. Native American code talkers played a crucial role in World War II, using their languages to create unbreakable codes. In science, medicine, arts, and sports, indigenous Americans continue to excel and innovate.
Globally, indigenous peoples are at the forefront of environmental protection efforts. Their traditional knowledge and sustainable practices offer valuable insights for addressing climate change and preserving biodiversity. From the Amazon rainforest to the Arctic tundra, indigenous communities are often the most effective guardians of critical ecosystems.
As we commemorate this international day — which is followed in October by Indigenous Peoples’ Day, observed just in the United States — it’s essential to move beyond mere recognition to active support and engagement. On Long Island, we can:
1. Educate ourselves about local indige-
Imagine if residents of the five boroughs dumped tons of toxic wastes in the South Shore district represented by Congressman Anthony D’Esposito. Imagine further that a New York City politician loudly denounced a plan to protect the health of D’Esposito’s constituents.
The congressman would surely be outraged. So why does he support a permanent ban on congestion pricing in Lower Manhattan? (“Congestion pricing may be paused, but the fight continues,” July 25-31.)
Car commuters whom D’Esposito defends spew pollutants every day in the congestion-pricing zone. The fact that these tailpipe emissions are invisible does not make them less deadly than mounds of toxic garbage.
Studies suggest that 153,000 fewer cars would enter the zone once congestion pricing takes effect. And that will result in sharp decreases in nitrogen oxide emissions and particulate matter.
nous history and current issues facing Native communities.
2. Support indigenous-owned businesses and cultural events.
3. Advocate for the protection of sacred sites and the return of ancestral lands.
4. Incorporate indigenous perspectives in local decision-making, especially when it comes to environmental issues.
5. Promote the teaching of Native American history and cultures in our schools.
Recognizing indigenous peoples isn’t about dwelling in the past, but rather about creating a more inclusive and just future. It’s about acknowledging that the first inhabitants of this land have valuable knowledge, perspectives, and rights that deserve respect and consideration. As Long Islanders, we have a unique opportunity to honor the indigenous heritage that surrounds us daily. From the shores of Peconic Bay to the bluffs of Montauk, we walk in the footsteps of those who came before us. Let’s ensure that their stories, struggles and triumphs are not forgotten, but celebrated as an integral part of our shared history. This International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples, let’s commit to building stronger relationships with Native communities, supporting their rights and aspirations, and benefiting from their wisdom. In doing so, we enrich our own lives and communities while taking a step toward healing historical wounds and creating a more equitable society for all.
when legendary quarterback Tom brady announced his retirement (for the first time), i was the editor in chief of my college’s news magazine, the Campus Slate, at the New York institute of Technology. We covered a wide range of subjects, driven by the interests of our reporters, and one of my staff writers asked me if he could write something summarizing his thoughts on what it was like to watch “the greats” — the famed athletes of his childhood — retire. i liked the idea, and it came together nicely. Although i wasn’t the biggest sports fan in my youth, i could relate to the story.
but for me, the epitome of athleticism didn’t come in the form of an epic home run or, in brady’s case, so many game-winning touchdowns. For me it was the whoosh of a soccer ball hitting the net at the back of the goal.
Like millions of other youth around the U.S., i grew up playing soccer, and some of my fondest memories from my
adolescence and teenage years are of my days on the field.
So when i think of the greats, i don’t think of people like Derek Jeter or brady. i think of women like Abby Wambach, Megan Rapinoe, Hope Solo, Tobin Heath and Carli Lloyd, among many others.
in this country, female athletes don’t get the same attention, or respect, as their male counterparts, and that’s almost understandable. Men’s sports have built entire industries from the ground up over the past century. but there is much to be said about how hard women have worked to make sure they can have their moments of glory. Kathrine Switzer famously ran the boston Marathon before women were allowed to; thousands have fought the wage gap that still affects sports today; and, of course, superstars like Serena Williams have cemented the idea that women athletes deserve the spotlight, too.
w
hen I think of the greats, I think of Megan Rapinoe, not Tom Brady.
that over the past few years, the U.S. women’s soccer team has gone through changes. They performed poorly at last year’s World Cup, losing early in the tournament to Sweden. And in the lowest of moments for some of our players, many of whom are previous World Cup winners and Olympic gold medalists, they were not welcomed back to our country with open arms. instead they were hit with this: “WOKE EQUALS FAiLURE,” which Donald Trump posted to his Truth Social account last summer.
“Nice shot Megan, the USA is going to hell!” (This was in reference to a penalty kick Rapinoe missed in the game against Sweden.)
i’m old enough to have thick skin, to read things like Trump’s comments and brush them off with an eye roll. but i can’t help but think about the little girls whose shoes i was once in. i think it’s fair to say they’d be genuinely affected by seeing something like what Trump wrote. i think about how difficult it must be for them to see their heroes, their greats, subjected to cruelty.
The Paris Olympic Games will be wrapping up this weekend, and there have been many female athletes, not just soccer players, representing our country. Their successes and their setbacks — their journeys — are so important. We need to remember that.
it’s always nice to see our athletes win, and our teams bring home gold. but if they don’t? Think about what you say before you say it, and think about who you’re saying it to.
Women’s soccer isn’t the same, and i’m not sure at what point it became cool to tear down some of our country’s best athletes, but alas, it is our reality.
All teams, in every sport, have their ups and downs, and i’d agree with many
Levels of that latter type of pollution are now 60 percent higher in Manhattan than the upper limit recommended by the World Health Organization.
The congressman shows no respect for the New York City elected officials who decided, after years of debate and voluminous research reports, to impose a fee on drivers who poison the air breathed by Manhattan residents and workers.
D’Esposito should practice goodneighborliness by dropping his opposition to an initiative that will save many lives.
KEviN J. KELLEY Atlantic Beach
To the Editor:
As the administrator for the Emergency Department at North Shore University Hospital, i would like to extend our heartfelt wishes to Rosemary King for a swift recovery following her recent surgery with Dr. Tamayo. Additionally, i want to express our deepest gratitude for the kind words her husband, former Congressman Peter King, shared in his column in the July 18-24 issue of the Herald, “ i n a medical emergency, we were in experts’ hands.”
Our team was deeply moved by Mr. King’s account of his family’s experience.
LANDON WiTz, MHA Senior manager, Operations Emergency Medicine North Shore University Hospital Manhasset
To the Editor:
Thanks to Jerry Kremer for his op-ed, “if you like horror stories, read Project 2025,” in the July 18-24 issue. i am so grateful when our local newspapers are able to bring national issues to the forefront. i t’s so important to get this kind of information to local communities that are sometimes insulated within their own little world.
Project 2025 hasn’t received much attention until recently — despite the Heritage Foundation’s in-depth involvement in the Trump presidency and this year’s Trump campaign. it is so important that trusted local public servants sound the alarm on this extremely dangerous agenda, and that people are made to realize it is indeed very real.
ELizAbETH MURPHY Franklin Square
it should come as a surprise to no one that conservative America hates the women’s national team. Why? Simply because for decades, its players have expressed “progressive” opinions about equal pay, social justice and LGbTQ rights, among other things that are largely unliked by the far right. When the women are winning, the keyboard warriors are quiet. but when they lose? Well of course it’s because of their political and social beliefs.
As we’ve cheered for those athletes, we’ve been reminded that their worth isn’t measured solely by their victories, but also by their power to inspire. Let’s be careful in what we say, and ensure that our words foster encouragement, not disillusionment, for the next generation of greats.
Jordan Vallone is a senior editor who writes for the Bellmore, East Meadow and Merrick Heralds. Comments? jvallone@liherald.com.
