Next year’s budget for Baldwin schools makes the best of a bad situation. The choices district officials had to make on spending were grim, but they were realistic, and based on many hours of careful consideration. While there may be regret about the plan’s cost-cutting measures, there should not be anger, and voting “no” on the budget as an expression of vitriol would be a mistake. Voters who do so would actually be disadvantaging the students they hope to protect. The outcome would not be a restoration of programs, schools or jobs, but rather an even more savage slashing of funds that would gut district activities and significantly reduce the quality of life for students and non-students alike. more

City officials have asked two recently retired police officers — who are eligible for more than $1 million in total payouts — to take their payments over time, and the cash-strapped city will … more

A pungent smell that overwhelmed parts of the South Shore Wednesday morning — that many feared was caused by a gas leak along Lido Blvd., delivering a “noxious” stench that led several nearby … more

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Long Beach resident Brian McNamee, Roger Clemens’s former trainer and the chief accuser in the 2007 Mitchell Report on the use of steroids and human growth hormone in Major League Baseball, … more

A longtime Long Beach School District employee has jumped into this year’s school board race against two incumbents. On May 15, residents will vote on the proposed $122.1 million 2012-13 … more

Complaints about Tea Party ‘unwarranted’ To the Editor: As the lead judge among six who graded participants in the Rockville Centre St. Patrick’s Parade on March 24, I spent a good part … more

In an effort to continue environmental studies of the polluted Western Bays, Assemblyman Harvey Weisenberg (D-Long Beach) recently secured $300,000 in funding under the Environmental Protection … more

More than a thousand people turned out to say goodbye to Fr. Thomas E. Donohoe last week, a longtime pastor at St. Mary of the Isle Church in Long Beach, who died in Amityville on April 18 at … more

A plan to build a liquefied natural gas terminal off the coast of Long Beach has been scrapped, amid an outcry by numerous environmental groups and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who criticized the … more