The Sunday after Election Day I was asked to address a Suffolk League of Women Voters post-election gathering. Obviously, the victory of Barack Obama would be the most important thing to comment on—his historical win nationally and his also carrying Suffolk County.
The LWV brunch at which I spoke was held at a country club in [...]

By Karl Grossman
As Thanksgiving passes, thanks should be given for something that never happened decades ago—the use as planned of BOMARC and Nike bases in Suffolk.
The Suffolk Legislature two weeks ago passed a bill authored by William Lindsay, its presiding officer, providing for prisoner labor to sort metal which has piled up at the former [...]

By Karl Grossman
If there was any question about the Federal Aviation Administration being out to lunch when it comes to doing something about the noisy helicopters ferrying people between Manhattan and the Hamptons, the presentation last week of an FAA official reinforced its nowhere status.
FAA Regional Executive Manager Diane Crean came before the Suffolk Legislature [...]

This coming Monday, November 24, the jig is up in New York State on zone pricing of gasoline—a scam that has especially impacted motorists on the East End.
Zone pricing is a marketing practice of the oil industry under which gas stations in various geographic areas are charged different wholesale prices. The oil industry figures that [...]

By Karl Grossman
For the nation—indeed the world—the presidential election last week was, well the word being used is transformational. The notion of transformational leadership was introduced 30 years ago by presidential historian James MacGregor Burns and he defined it as leadership that reaches “high levels of motivation and morality.”
That’s what a resounding majority in [...]

By Karl Grossman
 “We hear a lot about waste, fraud and abuse in government—this is the Trifecta,” declared Congressman Steve Israel of Huntington. He was speaking at a hearing presided over by New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo and the five Congressional representatives from Long Island on the disability scam engaged in by most retirees [...]

By Karl Grossman
Long Island real estate and pro-development interests, allied with a project at Dowling College, are seeking to stop the nationally-noted Suffolk County open space program.
For decades, Suffolk County government has been acquiring green spaces in order to prevent eastern Long Island from being sprawled over as has much of western Long Island. Thus [...]

By Karl Grossman
Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy has declared that he would sign a bill authored by Legislator Edward Romaine that would—to diminish noise from helicopters taking people between Manhattan and the Hamptons—establish a minimum 2,500 foot cruising altitude for choppers over Suffolk.
But members of the Levy administration and various other fellow Democrats were going [...]

It’s a Suffolk County tragedy of Shakespearean dimensions.
Former Suffolk Legislator Wayne Prospect, 58, for years an environmentally-committed, idealistic and truly independent-minded figure in Suffolk County government, was imprisoned last week for his 2006 bribery conviction. He was sentenced to 2 ½ to 7 l/2 years. Now terminally ill with cancer, he has been given less [...]

By Karl Grossman
Sea Tow. It is a remarkable Suffolk County-born and based enterprise that is now international. I’ve been meaning to write a column for several months on Sea Tow because this year is its 25th anniversary. Last week, I got a personal nudge.
The engine on our sailboat conked out on Little Peconic Bay. Of [...]