Kamala Harris made history Saturday as the first Black woman elected as vice president of the United States, shattering barriers that have kept men — almost all of them white — entrenched at the highest levels of American politics for more than two centuries.| read more ››
President-elect Joe Biden says it’s time for America to "unite" and to "heal."
Biden said in a statement Saturday, "With the campaign over, it’s time to put the anger and the harsh rhetoric behind us and come together as a nation."| read more ››
Smithtown officials have presented to residents a $107.6 million tentative budget for 2021 that would maintain municipal services while trimming payroll and increasing property taxes on the typical non-village home less than 1%.
Those numbers exclude water and ambulance districts that cover only parts of the town; total spending including those special districts would rise to $115.6 million from $112.3 million.
The town appears to have "weathered the storm" of an ongoing pandemic, street protests and an actual tropical storm in 2020, Supervisor Edward Wehrheim said at Thursday's online hearing, though challenges are "expected to continue" throughout the next year, he said. Town budget officials are watching with concern revenue areas that could be susceptible to pandemic-related declines, such...| read more ››
Neither Mike Siderakis nor Mario R. Mattera has held elected office, but each knows his way around the halls of power. That experience reflects most positively on Siderakis, in the race to replace former Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan, at one time the most powerful Republican in New York.
Siderakis, 51, a Democrat from Nesconset, served as a state trooper for 28 years, including a two-year stint as legislative director for the troopers’ benevolent association. That experience meant he worked in Albany with lawmakers. Siderakis thoroughly understands the issues, and would be ready from the start to capably represent the district.| read more ››
Thomas Suozzi is the relentless voice Long Island needs in Washington.
The second-term Democrat, 58, has carried the mantle on the crucial reversal of the SALT deduction cap. He helped negotiate an elimination of the cap for 2020 into the pandemic relief bill that passed in the House.
Environmentally, he has put fixing the Bethpage plume at the forefront. He successfully appealed this past spring to the House Appropriations Committee for more federal funds to clean the polluted former U.S. Navy site, and he repeatedly has urged the Navy and Northrop Grumman to speed cleanup as the groundwater contamination continues to spread through Bethpage and beyond. He wants the Navy and Grumman to cede responsibility to local water authorities to get the job done.| read more ››
