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Nassau Democratic Chairman Jay Jacobs, who is also the state Democratic chairman, is denouncing  campaign flyers that link Oyster Bay Town Clerk James Altadonna, Jr. to former Republican Oyster Bay Town Supervisor John Venditto. Altadonna is a registered Republican running on the Democratic ballot line against Republican incumbent Joe Saladino for Oyster Bay Supervisor. Venditto was acquitted last year of federal corruption charges but the 70-year-old Republican pleaded guilty to two state white-collar offenses this year in return for no jail time, no probation and no community service. Jacobs in a letter warns the flyers, which went to Democratic households, are meant to "SUPRESS THE DEMOCRATIC VOTE." (Like the GOP flyers, which misspelled Altadonna's name, Jacobs misspelled suppress. It seems both parties are in need of copy editors, who are paid to correct spelling, grammar and factual errors.)   In his letter, Jacobs said Altadonna has been ANYTHING BUT a ...

End-of-campaign flyers always tend to overreach, but this one's interesting. Incumbent Republican Oyster Bay Town supervisor Joe Saladino is being challenged by Town Clerk James Altadonna, Jr., who also is Republican but is running on the Democratic line. This new flyer attacks Altadonna--though Altadonna's name is mispelled--but also attacks former Republican Supervisor John Venditto by linking the town clerk to the former supervisor. How will this play in rock-solid Republican Massapequa, where old-time GOP voters are still loyal to Venditto, who served for two decades as their supervisor? Venditto was acquitted of federal corruption charges last year and then ended a state corruption case against him this year by pleading guilty to a felony charge of corrupt use of position and a misdemeanor charge of official misconduct.  In return for his plea, Venditto received  no jail, no community service, no probation, and no further attorney fees to pay. The only penalty ...

A multi-year partnership between the Nassau University Medical Center and Northwell Health,  intended to stabilize the public hospital's shaky finances, appears to have had a bumpy beginning, according to minutes of NUMC's last board meeting. As part of the deal to help build a leadership team at the public hospital, Northwell executive Winifred Mack took over as interim president and CEO in April for a six-month term with options for renewals. But not even a full five months into her six-month agreement, Mack gave notice on Sept. 9 that she would be leaving Oct. 15, according to George Tsunis, chairman of NuHealth, the public benefit corporation that runs the East Meadow hospital and related facilities. Minutes from NuHealth's governing board's Sept. 9 public meeting say that Tsunis thanked Mack for her service and noted "that this was a capstone to a long career and that she was deserving of a great deal of gratitude." But the board didn't seem...

Nearly lost in the uproar over a state audit of Long Beach in August was the abrupt appearance of a former federal prosecutor secretly hired by the city with taxpayer dollars a year earlier to handle probes into questionable payments to current and retired employees. Anthony Capozzolo, a former assistant U.S. Attorney,   suddenly stepped forward to respond to a letter from Nassau District Attorney Madeline Singas to the City Council and then-acting city manager Rob Agostisi on Aug. 29, the same day a draft audit by State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli was delivered to Long Beach officials. Until then, city management had sidestepped public questions about whether Long Beach was using an outside attorney to look into the payments. The city council never voted to hire Capozzolo and at least three council members say they were never told he was working for the city until he responded to Singas. Remember back in July 2018 — about three months after residents learned that...

The Hempstead Town race for supervisor between Democratic incumbent Laura Gillen and Republican Tax Receiver Don Clavin is probably the most competitive in Nassau this year. Although District Attorney Madeline Singas, the Democratic incumbent, tops the ticket, her opponent Francis McQuade, who is running on the Republican line, has little name recognition or money. That leaves the two major parties to fight for Long Island's prime political plum: supervisor of the most populated town on Long Island and possibly the nation. Republicans have spent money on ads and flyers complaining that Gillen voted against a tax cut approved by the Republican-controlled town board last year.  Democrats retaliated by alleging that Clavin was just another cog in the wheels of the Nassau Republican corruption machine, noting recent convictions of Republicans : Former County Executive Ed Mangano, Former Oyster Bay Supervisor John Venditto Former Hempstead Town Boa...

If former Nassau County Executive Ed Mangano indeed helped Oyster Bay concessionaire Harendra Singh secure nearly $20 million in indirect loan guarantees from the town, he didn't do a very good job of it. Two appellate courts -- one federal and the other state -- have found that two of three loan guarantees central to Mangano's federal conviction are invalid and "unenforceable" because the town board never authorized them. The federal appellate panel, in fact, declared one guarantee imposed an "unfathomable obligation" upon the Town of Oyster Bay. A lawsuit involving the third loan guarantee is pending, but its hard to imagine a state court judge ignoring separate but similar decisions from both the federal and state appellate divisions.   Mangano was convicted by a federal court jury in March of accepting bribes and kickbacks from Singh in return for using his official government position to help secure town backing for millions of dol...