In May, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority Board of Directors allocated $1.95 billion to construct a third Long Island Rail Road track down the center of Nassau County, on the Main Line between Floral Park and Hicksville. more

People have gathered on the Long Beach boardwalk in recent weeks to watch crews operating towering cranes hauling stones along the beach to rebuild the city’s jetties, part of an Army Corps of Engineers coastal protection plan . . . more

Unbelievably, four years have passed since Superstorm Sandy rolled across Long Island’s South Shore on Oct. 29, 2012, leaving destruction and chaos in its wake. We mustn’t forget that day. more

All New York state schools must now have their drinking water supply tested for lead contamination, according to legislation signed last month by Gov. Andrew Cuomo. New York is the first state in the country to institute a lead testing mandate for schools. more

There’s a perverse irony in the fact that negotiations about ethics reform in the corruption-stained state Capitol are conducted in secret. Time and again we’ve seen the governor, the Assembly speaker and the Senate majority leader . . . more

The Governor’s Office of Storm Recovery announced the extension of the application period for its new Citizens’ Advisory Committee, related to the $125 million Rebuild By Design (RBD) “Living … more

I am angry with Governor Cuomo. No, I am furious. more

Rolling River Day Camp sits on five acres along Mill River, which snakes through East Rockaway and Bay Park on the way to East Rockaway Channel. The river can be a friend. It forms an idyllic backdrop for a camp replete with swimming pools, playgrounds and ball fields. It can also be a foe. During a nor’easter in 2010, Tropical Storm Irene in 2011 and Hurricane Sandy in 2012, the river inundated much of the camp, wreaking havoc. more

Kendall and Ciro Frulio and daughters Olivia and Emma were living in a quaint home on Franklin Street in East Rockaway, within the village limits but blocks from the Bay Park border, when Hurricane … more

Hurricane Sandy was our worst nightmare realized. This monster storm packed as much energy as two World War II era atomic bombs, causing massive destruction, the likes of which had not been seen since the Long Island Express of 1938, a now legendary Category III hurricane. Trapped on an island jutting into the Atlantic Ocean, we were front and center when Sandy attacked with a vengeance. Thousands of homes were inundated with seawater and sewage. Hundreds were left uninhabitable. Two and a half years later, we continue to rebuild our tattered shoreline. In this series we will look in the coming months at the Governor’s Office of Storm Recovery’s ongoing effort to reconstruct worst-case homes, businesses and communities that Sandy ravaged on Oct. 29, 2012 — and the myriad issues that residents and officials face as they piece together our shredded infrastructure. At the same time, we will look at state and local officials’ efforts to reinforce Long Island in the hope that we might be able to withstand nature’s fury better when the next monster storm hits. —Scott Brinton, senior editor more