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With new Nassau budget forecasts expected to be released next week, let's take a look back at NIFA. You know, the Nassau Interim Finance Authority, the financial control board composed of unelected Democrats and Democratic donors who ostensibly have the power to tell Nassau's Republican elected officials how to spend taxpayer money. Notice "interim" in its title: The term means provisional or temporary. But NIFA was created by the state 22 years ago. The unpaid board apparently has redefined "interim" to mean "permanent." And it certainly has taken to heart the term "authority" which means "right to control" or "command." NIFA has decided it can withhold billing records of its controversial labor lawyer, even though he is paid with Nassau sales tax money. And the NIFA chairman, appointed by disgraced former Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo, said NIFA will decide whether it will give up financial control of the county even ...

                                                                              Todd Kaminsky's state Senate Facebook page is already down. The Long Beach Democrat's twitter account as a state senator has been inactive for more than a month. That's because Kaminsky called it quits today. Kaminsky,  who decided against running for re-election this year after losing his bid to become Nassau's District Attorney last year,  said in a resignation letter to  Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins that he will "start a new chapter in my life next week in the private sector."  Kaminsky stil...

All those Democratic judges and lawyers hoping to be nominated and cross-endorsed for a Supreme Court judgeship this fall can stop kissing up to Nassau and State Democratic chairman Jay Jacobs or other members of party selection committee. The cross-endorsements, expected to be issued next month, have been decided -- for now, sources say. Cross-endorsed Supreme Court candidates in this November's elections are Republicans Lisa Cairo, a Nassau Family Court judge, and Francis Ricigliano, a Nassau County Court Judge,  and Democrat Stacy Bennett, a Family Court judge who has been an acting Supreme Court Justice for ten years. Stacy Bennett (from nylaw) There are rumors of another Democratic Supreme Court justice being cross-endorsed for the fall elections but that has not been confirmed. The Republicans candidates come with party lineage: Lisa Cairo is the daughter  of Nassau Republican Chairman Joseph Cairo. Ricigliano is the son of the late Michael Ricigliano, who was law partn...

                                                                                                                                           Got to hand it to State Sen. James Gaughran, a Democrat from Northport. He knows how to squeak past State Senate rules before he leaves office at the end of this year while providing taxpayer-paid publicity to his Democratic colleagues. See above the mailer that arrived at a constituent's house on Monday.  While the cause may be worthwhile,...

                                                                      Bruce Blakeman announces appointment of Irina Gelman (at microphone) as health commissioner Was it only a few months ago that Republican Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman appeared on national television,  assailing Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul's  Covid-19 school mask mandates and standing up for parental rights? He had just won a stunning upset against popular incumbent Democratic County Executive Laura Curran last November, in part by campaigning against forced masking of school children and promising parents that he would issue an executive order to ban it. Paren...

                                                                      Sylvia Cabana     Judicial candidates and judges continue to be moved around the Long Island court system like chess pieces, making it very confusing to outsiders. Sources say former Democratic Hempstead Town Clerk Sylvia Cabana, a Garden City lawyer recently appointed to Nassau's financial control board, will be cross-endorsed this week for a newly created Nassau Family Court seat. The new judicial spot comes from state legislation signed by Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul last month that created additional Family Court judges and Supreme Court justices throughout the state. Nassau Family Court was given one additional judge while the Nassau-Suffolk Supreme Court District is getting one additional justice The new Supreme Court justice is ...

                                                                   Town of Hempstead Town Hall     The scuttlebutt around Nassau in the last few weeks has been that Glen Cove lawyer John Maccarone would be the next Hempstead Town Attorney, replacing Joseph Nocella, who was appointed to the District Court bench last week. Maccarone, a Republican, is a former Glen Cove councilman and planning commission member, whose son,  Kevin Maccarone, also an attorney, is a current Glen Cove Council member. In Glen Cove, the administration party seems to change with the seasons: Democrat, Republican, Independence and back again. Currently, Republicans are i...

                                                                        U.S. District Court Joan Azrack yesterday denied requests from both former Republican Nassau County Executive Ed Mangano and his wife, Linda, to be released on bail pending appeal of their convictions on federal corruption charges. Azrack, who has been contemptous of the Manganos and what she described as Nassau's "culture of corruption" since the two were convicted in 2019 of taking bribes from restaurateur Harendra Singh, also denied Ed Mangano's request to stay payment of some millions of dollars in financial penalties during the appeal. Azrack a week ago ordered Ed Mangano to begin paying $10.6 million in restitution to two insurance companies that loaned $20 million to Singh, a longtime Oyster Bay Town concessionaire, in the belief th...

                                                                  Nassau Supreme Court The Nassau Bar Association today sent out its screening schedule for this fall's judicial candidates, primarily for Supreme Court. And it looks like Family Court judge Lisa Cairo, the daughter of Nassau GOP chairman Joseph Cairo,  is a sure-fire bet to be a Republican-proposed cross-endorsed candidate for Supreme Court this year. She is the only Republican on the list of candidates being screened for Supreme Court. In comparison, given the many Democratic hopefuls on the list, it appears their party has yet to make a selection. A cynic suggests another reason for putting so many Democrats up for screening is that judicial candidates being considered for elected office can engage in more political activity -- and give more contributio...

The race is heating up among Democrats for the Congressional District 3 primary. Rival candidates Robert Zimmerman, a Great Neck public relations executive,  and Josh Lafazan, a Nassau County legislator, released near simultanously "vote-for-me" videos and posts today as each seeks to win the August Democratic primary to run against Republican George Santos this fall. Lafazan this morning released his first television ad, which was also posted on Youtube. Josh Lafazan commercial Here is the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOxbQb8UkAE Lafazan actually sounds a bit like U.S. Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-Glen Cove) who gave up the Congressional seat to make a losing bid to run for governor this fall. In fact, Lafazan notes in his commercial that he has been endorsed by Suozzi, who garnered 13 percent of the vote in last month's Democratic primary for governor compared to Gov. Kathy Hochul's 68 percent. But Zimmerman countered Suozzi with former U.S. Senator and 2016 losing p...

                                                                                                                                                                                        There was no sound during the livestream of the last meeting of the Nassau County legislatur...

  Congressonal District 4   Congressional District 3 Nassau's Republican Congressional candidates are benefiting in their fundraising by having no primary challengers this year. Both Anthony D'Esposito, who is seeking the 4th District House seat being vacated by U.S. Rep. Kathleen Rice (D-Garden City), and George Santos, looking to fill the 3rd District  seat being vacated by U.S. Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-Glen Cove) have each collected more in campaign contributions and have more cash on hand than any Democratic candidates for the same seats, according records from the Federal Elections Commission. D'Esposito filed to run about a month after most Democrats in District 4 announced their candidacy in February or early March.  Santos ran against Suozzi two years ago and has been running ever since. Both House races are crowded with Democratics seeking their party's nod for the August 23 primary, which means party supporters divide their contributions among them. There are s...

It was a viral war of words last week between Republican Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman and four Democratic county legislators, as they traded accusations of "false hysteria" and "misleading information." The subject?  Monkeypox. The latest virus raising alarm across the country. Monkeypox  is similar to Smallpox, but is less lethal. The CDC says its symptoms include fever, headache, exhaustion but most distinctive, "a rash that can look like pimples or blisters that appears on the face, inside the mouth, and on other parts of the body, like the hands, feet, chest, genitals, or anus."  Unlike Covid-19, Monkeypox is not transmitted by breathing in the exhaled air of infected people, but through close physical contact, including "kissing, cuddling or sex." or through touching clothing that had touched the rash, according to the CDC. That's why it has become a touchy topic; it makes Monkeypox more similar to HIV and AIDs, which has...