Sunday, October 4, 2026
Every day, hospitals across Long Island and around the country rely on a steady supply of donated blood to care for trauma victims, cancer patients, premature infants, people undergoing surgery and those living with chronic blood disorders. When blood is needed, there is no time to wait for donors to come forward. The blood must already be on the shelves.
National Newspaper Week, Oct. 4–10, is an opportunity to focus attention on something Long Islanders experience every day but can easily take for granted: the value of having journalists paying attention to your own community.
Competency-based learning isn’t new territory for our schools. In many respects, it’s already woven into our strongest instructional practices. Our 11th-graders take on a Performance-Based Assessment Task, an assignment that pushes them to build and deliver a coherent argument while adjusting tone, structure and evidence to fit their audience and purpose.
What if the aspiration gap isn’t about students dreaming too small, but about us failing to show them the bridge between where they are and where they could be? In our district, we’re refusing to accept that a child’s Zip code, current performance or starting point should determine their ceiling.
Long Islanders pay among the highest utility rates in the nation, and the cost of power has risen 20 percent since January. This has pushed the cost of living even higher, and made it more difficult to get by. Inconsistent and partisan energy policies, repeated price hikes by utility companies and cuts to assistance programs have sent utility bills soaring. I’m doing everything I can in Congress to lower these costs.
Through their tireless advocacy, the World Trade Center Health Program (WTCHP) was established in 2011 and became a lifeline for thousands to receive care at no cost.
Student debt makes the American dream unattainable, or, at best, greatly deferred. Gallup reports that 71 percent of student borrowers delay major life milestones — homeownership, parenthood, starting a business, retirement — because of their debt. On Long Island, those delays have a geographic consequence: 22 percent of residents between ages 25 and 34 have left the region over the past eight years. Student debt and housing costs are inseparable drivers of that exodus.
Naturally, everyone thinks their road is the most important road. Of course, there are worse roads and intersections, but you see your own street on a regular basis. We rate and rank all village roads, and try to prioritize and stick to engineering statistics. But things like water main breaks, utility and emergency street openings — water, gas and communications companies seem to have to open streets all the time — accidents and potholes do change where our road program contractors and village street crews are sent to next.
St. Andrew’s Lutheran Church is celebrating its 80th anniversary with a special worship service and community gathering highlighting its history and service in West Hempstead.
Four Malverne High School students earned NYSSMA All-State honors, the school’s largest group of All-State musicians in 20 years.
Diamond Charter School is beginning the school year in West Hempstead with about 70 kindergarten and first-grade students and a focus on learning, family engagement and community.
