They’re back!            
Memorial Day weekend arrived, the starting date for the return of many noisy helicopters ferrying people to and from the Hamptons. This was no Long Island counterpart to the swallows of Capistrano. The choppers with their raucous noise came back.
The economy is in a downturn but that apparently isn’t discouraging some folks [...]

By Karl Grossman
 “Suffolk’s Declaration of Independence,” was the heading of a statement issued by the Suffolk County Legislature last week after it passed a home rule message backing bills in the state legislature that would set up a commission to study secession of Nassau and Suffolk from the state and their formation into a new [...]

Last week, Carol Ann Duffy was chosen as the first female poet laureate of the United Kingdom, and next week, Tammy Nuzzo-Morgan is likely to become the first female poet laureate of Suffolk County. The county post, established in 2003, derives from the centuries-old British position held by such figures as Alfred Tennyson and [...]

A clutch of Suffolk County legislators is opposing efforts to acquire land to preserve open space and safeguard the underground water table and to save farmland
—matters on which nearly all officeholders in Suffolk have agreed upon for decades. But citing the economic downturn, this grouping—oblivious to tourism and farming as mainstays of the Suffolk economy [...]

By Karl Grossman
There ought to be a law is the wishful expression. And when it comes to zone pricing of gasoline, finally there is a law in New York State. And it works.
Amazingly, after years and years of gas prices on the East End being substantially higher than in western Suffolk County, in recent weeks [...]

by Karl Grossman
It’s February and we’re still deep in winter—but in just a month spring will arrive and with it the birds of spring will return…and also the noisy helicopters ferrying people to and from the Hamptons that have so disrupted life on eastern Long Island in recent years.
But Suffolk County Legislator Edward Romaine and [...]

By Karl Grossman
What has come through to me clearly in decades of writing about the environment and energy—including several books—is that virtually all polluting products and processes are unnecessary, that there are safe alternatives available.
A case in point: trans fats—an artificial ingredient found in cooking oils and in some baked goods, salad dressings and margarine.
Last [...]

By Karl Grossman
Last week, for the first time, I saw our LIPA meter go backwards.
What a sight—that little wheel going not to the right, marking a draw from the Long Island Power Authority electric system, but spinning—and spinning fast—to the left. That signified that the photovoltaic panels newly installed on the roof of our house [...]

William Lindsay, presiding officer of the Suffolk County Legislature, is making a push to overturn provisions of two public referenda aimed at preserving open space and farmland, creating parks and promoting affordable housing in Suffolk.
Environmentalists are rightfully outraged. “The public voted to preserve land and encourage affordable housing and the Suffolk Legislature is thinking about [...]

By Karl Grossman
When you see a Suffolk County deputy sheriff’s vehicle doing traffic duty on the Long Island Expressway or Sunrise Highway, a lot is involved.
The story begins with County Executive Steve Levy asking last year for New York State to provide its troopers to patrol the LIE and Sunrise or reimburse the county the [...]