The noise of Hamptons helicopters overhead continues unabated. The choppers that run between Manhattan and the Hamptons still are flying low and loud. And now the Federal Aviation Administration, which earlier this year said, at long last, it would impose rules to try to reduce the racket made by the Hamptons helicopters says it will [...]

By Karl Grossman
It was supposed to happen to the south of Long Island and was scuttled because of skyrocketing costs, public opposition and a lack of need. But the concept of floating nuclear power plants is back, demonstrating that some bad ideas never go away.
I ran into the scheme driving down Dune Road in Hampton [...]

By Karl Grossman
Preservation Crashes: Considering the Consequences is an important report recently issued by the Long Island Pine Barrens Society. It notes how “for more than half a century, Long Island has preserved open space and farmland, protected the source of its purest drinking water and created parks and recreational opportunities.” The result has been [...]

by Karl Grossman
There’s a sitting duck for terrorists right off the coast of Long Island. And al Qaeda knows about this. So does the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) which, for security reasons primarily, wants this potential target, the Plum Island Animal Disease Center, eliminated  and its work done elsewhere.
But there’s resistance. Congressman Tim [...]

As of Monday there were 49 comments on the website of the Federal Aviation Administration on its proposed plan for routing those terribly noisy helicopters that shuttle between Manhattan and the Hamptons.
If you’d like to comment via the Internet or read comments made by others, go to www.regulations.gov and for “keyword” type in: FAA-2010-0302. Comments [...]

By Karl Grossman
At long last, the Federal Aviation Administration has agreed to take steps to do something about the racket made by helicopters taking people from Manhattan to the Hamptons and back again. But its plan is just a start.
U.S.  Senator Charles Schumer announced Friday that the FAA will set a minimum cruising altitude of [...]

Not mentioned in any media following the recent death of former U.S. Interior Secretary Stewart Udall—including in the obituaries in Newsday and New York Times—was Mr. Udall’s central role in the creation of a Long Island treasure: the Fire Island National Seashore.
 “Stewart Udall was critical,” says Murray Barbash, who was chairman of the organization that [...]

By Karl Grossman
Drill, Baby, Spill. Oil spillage is intertwined with offshore oil drilling—as the environmental disaster now unfolding in the Gulf of Mexico tragically demonstrates.
Only strong political action prevented offshore oil rigs—and the inevitable spillage—from affecting us. That kind of action will have to come again if Congress approves the Obama administration’s plan to open [...]

The conviction of Jeffrey Conroy of first-degree manslaughter as a hate crime and conspiracy for stabbing to death Ecuadorian immigrant Marcelo Lucero in Patchogue—a slaying and trial that brought international attention to Suffolk County—has happened.
More trials of members of the gang of seven young men who engaged in what they called “beaner-hopping”—searching out and assaulting [...]

By Karl Grossman
The planned closing of most of SUNY’s Stony Brook Southampton campus represents more than an outrageous decision by the administration of Stony Brook University. It further shortchanges Long Island of seats at four-year SUNY schools.
Compared to upstate New York, Long Island for decades has been under-served in having such seats. The Southampton shuttering [...]