Nyack’s Halloween Parade took place this year on the actual day, which some merchants and families thought was great. Personally, I like to stretch it out some, and the combo of a Saturday and parade day pushed the trick-or-treating kind of late. (Some could say that’s good, or bad, same as my observation that my [...]

An article today about a family’s dog shot and killed by a bow hunter in Tackamack Park/Blauvelt State Park elicited more than a hundred responses by mid-day. Many blast all hunting, others started fingerpointing because dogs off-leash aren’t allowed in the park, where hunting, of course, is banned too.

One reader believed the hunter, or as [...]

He was quick with a lollipop to soothe the sting of a shot. He made house calls at all hours of the night to check in on his young patients. The families he served for decades are mourning the loss of Dr. Sidney William Berezin, who died Oct. 12. He was 89.

Dr. Berezin was the [...]

This weekend, I got a call from Penny Jennings, who singlehandedly launched a mentoring program, Adults Caring For Teens, Inc., to tell me

she’s a delegate to this year’s Education Project, which takes place in Bahrain and addresses the future of education around the world. She’s also a presenter, joining a discussion on “Empowering Students, Parents [...]

Yesterday’s endorsement hearings (Rockland County Legislature District 14, Clarkstown Town Board and Nyack mayor and trustee candidates) went pretty well. We had 100 percent attendance, and informative Q&A.  See for yourself at the Editorial Spotlight archives, www.lohud.com/editorialspotlight.

Tomorrow, the Spring Valley candidates get their turn. The mayoral candidates are at 11 a.m. and trustees at noon. [...]

I’m prepping for the four endorsement hearings scheduled for tomorrow (Tuesday) and Thursday. Want to help with questions? Post them here, or e-mail them to ncutler@lohud.com. You can suggest questions for any contested race. Or, you can use Livestream during the endorsement hearings. Here’s this week’s schedule of hearings:

Tuesday, Oct. 6

1 p.m. – Rockland County [...]

Today, we have an editorial about Rockland Community College, which marks its 50th anniversary this week.

Last night, U.S. Rep. Eliot Engel sent out a press release announcing that the just-passed House-passed fiscal year 2010 Energy and Water Appropriations bill contained $300,000 for RCC that the college plans to use to upgrade and replace six science [...]

I spent the morning at the Summit on Financing Tappan Zee Bridge & I-287 Corridor, hosted by Rockland County Legislature Chairwoman Harriet Cornell at Rockland Community College.

I learned a lot about rocks. Not the kind you find smashed up by Tilcon into gravel for roadways. No. Like the kind you look under for funding sources.

Seems [...]

Now, Moshe Lefkowitz can’t figure out the fuss over debris, etc., at the site where he has been coordinating kapparot ceremonies for ultra-Orthodox Jews. The ceremony, performed during the period between Rosh Hashannah and Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, involves passing a chicken over one’s head three times while a prayer is recited, a [...]

According to the Tax Foundation’s examination of U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey data on property tax data for owner-occupied housing for 2008, Rockland County now ranks No. 5 in median property taxes paid on homes. For 2007, Rockland ranked seventh. (Westchester again ranks No. 1 and Putnam County breaks into the Top 10, having [...]