Today’s editorial, explores Rockland legislators’ efforts to launch a Silver Alert program in the county that would help find people who have Alzheimer’s disease or another form of dementia if they go missing. (The Lower Hudson Valley, as Director of Putnam County’s Office for the Aging William Huestis describes it, a “gray belt,” with a [...]

Most people in Ramapo, and Rockland, have heard of Preserve Ramapo, an environmental activist group that has morphed into a ballot line, and has spoken out long and loud against the policies of Ramapo Town Supervisor Christopher P. St. Lawrence. Preserve Ramapo’s Web site defines the group as “The not so silent majority.” (Personally, I [...]

Today, amid a busy, crazy, newsy kind of day, I joined many of my colleagues to celebrate the life and mourn the passing of our former colleague and my neighbor, Myra Dembrow. Myra was just 58, so young, with an attitude of a fighter, a challenger-of-all-things, an intellectual giant, a devoted and wonderful mother and [...]

The chatter is on over a recent candidate’s debate for Democratic Spring Valley mayoral candidates. Six are running on the Democratic ticket, and five are Haitian-American. So, a Haitian Creole local access cable talk show held a debate at Finkelstein Library, in Creole. The one non-Haitian candidate, Bernard Charles Jr., who was not invited, called [...]

Today’s Community View by Rockland Business Association President/CEO drew comments. After all, it’s about Indian Point, which continues to be a hot-button issue in the Lower Hudson Valley. Samuels’ basic point? Well, here’s the “nut graf,” editor-speak for the sentence or sentences that summarize the essence, and context of the story or the “why it [...]

If you want to stir up some talk in Rockland, say these four words:

Hudson—River—Drinking—Water.

Wowee. You’ll get a response.The concerns over United Water’s plans to tap the Hudson to supply drinking water for Rockland has many concerned not just about the water quality (United Water has assured Rocklanders that they have the ability to make the [...]

Finally! Staff writer Ben Rubin reports today at the county and Volunteer Fire Association Tappan have come to a settlement regarding curbing the county placed in front of their Washington Street firehouse driveway during a revitalization project in the hamlet. (Story here.)

This has gone on for two years, and put a freeze on finishing the [...]

The U.S. Education Department has re-set its guidelines for schools’ response to the swine flu, saying the schools should stay open unless “high numbers” of kids come down with H1N1 virus. (See story in today’s USA Today here.)  It’s a big change from last spring, when 700 schools first closed for two weeks, acting on [...]

Plenty of stories in the region impact us in Rockland in a profound way. The July 26 crash on the Taconic State Parkway that killed eight is certainly one of them.

The news yesterday that the driver, Diane Schuler, was both drunk and stoned, brought back all that community talk. Every person I talked to — [...]

It was a recipe for disaster: A roadway bridge that carries traffic from a huge condominium complex and residential areas in Valley Cottage to Route 59 and the New York State Thruway needed major structural repairs. Its closure would mean traffic would have to head the other way, and traverse hilly, windy roads that traveled [...]