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Just before Gov. Andrew Cuomo locked down New York on March 22 and months before George Floyd was killed on May 25, Nassau lawmakers were worried about the effects of the new bail reform law and requested crime reports. Bail reform, adopted by the Democratic majority in Albany last year, took effect on Jan. 1. It eliminated bail for all but the most violent crimes. Long Island lawmakers publicly worried about the number of suspects released immediately after arrest only to go back onto the street and allegedly commit more crimes. Well, it may be two months late, but the Nassau legislature got its first report this week on the effect of bail reform from Jan. 1 through March 31. During those three months, 3,497 people were arrested  in Nassau; 3,010 were released without bail while 295 were re-arrested, according to the report from the county police department. That's nearly 10 percent that were re-arrested. The majority of no-bail crimes involved drugs, either controlled sub...

Patricia Canzoneri-Fitzpatrick Judy Griffin In these days of bail reform and calls to defund the police, will the endorsement from a heroic police detective's widow and former Malverne mayor make any difference to voters in November? On Tuesday, Patricia Ann McDonald, who served 12 years as Malverne's mayor, is expected to endorse her former deputy village mayor  Patricia Canzoneri-Fitzpatrick as the Republican and Conservative candidate for state assembly against Democratic incumbent Judy Griffin of Rockville Centre, according to a news advisory. McDonald is the widow of the late New York City detective Steven McDonald, who stunned the world by forgiving the teenager who shot him while on patrol in Central Park in 1986. The shooting left McDonald a quadriplegic who required a respirator to breathe while living in a wheelchair for the next 31 years. Patricia McDonald remained at her husband's side while she served as a village trustee and then mayor.  R...

Nassau Comptroller Jack Schnirman While Long Island's unemployment rate remains high and businesses are still struggling to survive, Nassau Comptroller Jack Schirman is hoping that his supporters have enough cash to share with him despite the government-imposed coronavirus shutdowns. Schnirman today emailed a plea for campaign donations even though he doesn't face re-election until Nov. 2021 -- assuming the Nassau Democratic party renominates him to another four-year term. "Thanks to the support of folks like you, we’re in a strong position to keep up our work, and ensure Jack stays in office come 2021. Will you chip in to his re-election campaign?," his re-election committee asks. Schnirman's past fundraising emails stopped around the same time Gov. Andrew Cuomo locked down all but essential businesses on March 22, putting thousands of Long Islanders out of work while pushing scores of businesses into the red. But a July 15 deadline is just aro...

Got to give it to Lynbrook homeowner Dennis Duffy. He continues to press for Nassau reassessment information to be made public, rather than kept hidden from property owners trying to figure out how the county came up with their new home values. Duffy says he sent a letter to State Supreme Court Justice Steven Bucaria in Mineola this week, objecting to the judge's recent order directing that information provided by either side in an ongoing lawsuit challenging the county's 2018 reassessment remain confidential unless he rules otherwise. That information, Bucaria wrote earlier this month,  includes documents or testimony that "contain trade secrets, proprietary business information, competitively sensitive information or other information the disclosure of which would ...be detrimental to the conduct of the party's business...." Duffy went to court last year -- to argue before Bucaria no less-- to demand the county reveal the computer formula used to come...

"New York's Nursing Home Policy was not fully in line with the CDC" New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo today praised state Health Commissioner Howard Zucker for his work during the Covid-19 pandemic, saying "He's done exquisitively well" --  even though New York has the highest nursing home death toll in the nation. Yesterday, Cuomo again blamed federal CDC guidelines for New York's estimated 6,200 confirmed and presumed deaths in nursing homes and aged care facilities. "Start with the fact it was guidance from Mr. Trump," Cuomo declared when a reporter pressed him on his responsibility the deaths. But Cuomo's repetitive finger-pointing at the CDC has been labeled "mostly false" by the fact-checking website Politifact. After reviewing the CDC guidelines and then looking at how New York handled its nursing home patients compared to other states, Politifact concluded, "New York's nursing home policy was not fully...

Apparent staff member warns Nassau County Executive Laura Curran yesterday that her police defunding comment was "misheard." Nassau County Executive Laura Curran's public statements about defunding the police have been so confusing that Republicans continue to accuse her of  "flip-flopping" on the controversial issue. Since the death of George Floyd at the hands of the Minneapolis police three weeks ago, some protestors across the country have called for defunding police departments and using the money to pay for more social workers, health clinics and affordable housing as a way to combat criminal activity. Newsday originally quoted Curran as declining to say whether she was for or against police defunding. After local Republicans criticized her lack of support for county police, Curran's spokesman quickly corrected the story to say the Democratic county executive was 100 percent against defunding law enforcement. But then Curran was aske...