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.
Think about what actually touches your week. The state legislators you elect decide how much aid flows to your school district, which shapes your property tax bill. They write the laws on housing, transportation and public safety. Your town officials decide whether that pothole gets fixed, how your parks are maintained and what gets built on the empty lot down the street. Judges on your ballot will rule on cases involving your neighbors, and maybe one day, you. These races are often decided by a few hundred votes, sometimes fewer. In a local contest, your single ballot carries real weight.
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.
Up until a few months ago, A.I. was in the news but not dominating it. In July, Geoffrey Hinton, who’s been called “the godfather of A.I.,” warned lawmakers that humanity could lose control of it within a year if proper safeguards were not established. Dario Amodei, the CEO of Anthropic, has been arguing that robust ethical and technical guardrails are needed to prevent misuse or loss of control.
Learn who's on the ballot in Malverne, West Hempstead and Lakeview for the 2026 Elections.
West Hempstead resident Peri Finkelstein has published her debut memoir, “The Velvet Bow and Other Dark Sh*t,” sharing her experiences with muscular dystrophy, disability advocacy and self-acceptance.
Lakeview couple Sully Arias-Serna and Christopher Serna opened The Neighborhood Coffee in West Hempstead on Sept. 12, creating a café inspired by local history and community connections.
The Lakeview Civic Association brought volunteers together Oct. 10 for a neighborhood cleanup focused on improving the train station and nearby streets.
