These are the 22 Long Islanders accused of stealing nearly $50M in COVID funds

At least 22 residents of Nassau and Suffolk counties have been arrested for bilking the federal government's marquee business-relief programs, allegedly using the money for yachts, luxury watches and automobiles, vacation homes and nights out in New York City.

See what happened to LI real estate agents involved in fair housing probe

LI Divided investigation results in license revocations, suspensions and fines for agents named in Newsday series.

Special election map: See how LI voted

View results by community for 3rd Congressional District special election between Tom Suozzi and Mazi Pilip.

See how student enrollment has changed in each LI district

Of Long Island's 124 school districts, 76%, saw their student population drop from the 2012-13 school year to the 2022-23 year.

Data: These are the 139 LIers investigators are still looking for

Suffolk has 103 cases dating back to 1969, and Nassau has 36 missing persons cases going back to 1955.

See how much rain fell in your community

Totals varied widely across the Island, with especially high numbers in southwest Nassau County.

Storms that touched Long Island

Atlantic storms follow a variety of tracks as they move toward land. Here is a sampling of storms that have visited Long Island, some with a direct hit and some with a glancing blow.

Search Nassau County's 2022 payroll data

Explore Nassau County's 2022 payroll data through the charts, overview and a searchable database.

Search Suffolk County's 2022 payroll data

Explore Suffolk County's 2022 payroll data through the charts, overview and a searchable database.

Find out which LI school districts paid millions to settle decades-old sex-abuse claims

Look up what Long Island school districts are paying to settle Child Victims Act claims.

Report: LI bucks pandemic trend of taxpayers leaving NY

While there was an exodus of NYers during the first two years of the pandemic, on LI, the number of full-time taxpayers climbed.

Empire Center report critical of special offseason votes on school bond propositions

In the Nassau-Suffolk region, districts have held more than 70 special votes over the past dozen years and approved nearly $1.4 billion in spending, the report says.

LI Republicans widened turnout margin, captured independent votes in 2023

On Jan. 1, the GOP will control the county executive and district attorney offices in Nassau and Suffolk for the first time since 2001.

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As compensation for college presidents rises, 3 LI administrators topped $1M in 2021

The highest compensated administrators are LIU's Kimberly Cline, NYIT's Hank Foley and Adelphi's Christine Riordan.

LIRR billed fare beaters over $1.4M last year; it collected $60,000

The MTA has said the system isn't working and vowed changes, including stepped-up police enforcement.

Syphilis cases quadrupled on LI — an ominous sign for public health

Rates are rising more rapidly among women. That has led to a 10-fold increase in syphilis cases in newborns nationwide.

2 LI elementary schools ranked in state's top 10, 4 more in top 20

Six schools ranked in the top 20 in New York State, according to U.S. News & World Report rankings.

Gas prices projected to stay low for months

Pump prices tend to decline this time of year, but they've fallen below where they were a year ago.

South Shore town buys homes near bay to accommodate rising seas

Experts say "managed retreat" — moving human infrastructure away from the advancing ocean — will be unavoidable in decades to come.

Thousands moving out of New York, Census figures show, possibly due to appeal of remote work

The data also showed that New York state faced a net loss of an estimated 244,000 people who moved to other states between 2021 and 2022, with the largest number relocating to Florida and other parts of the Sun Belt.

Enrollment rebound on LI college campuses marked by more first-year students

First-year enrollment on most local campuses is slightly above figures from last year, when colleges began to recover from the impacts of the COVID pandemic.

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Reckless driving up, enforcement down as fatalities surge on LI, Newsday finds

Crashes claimed 243 lives in 2022, 29% more than in 2019. That's an average of nearly five deaths per week.

To build Third Track, MTA paid for pickleball court, snowblowers, welcome signs

Some project opponents and fiscal watchdogs have criticized the tactic as an overt attempt to curry favor through earmarks unrelated to the project, funded in part by commuters and taxpayers.

3 up, 3 down: Here's where LI home prices changed the most in the first half of 2023

A Newsday analysis shows three communities that saw big price increases, and three that saw big decreases. Check our database to see what happened in your community. 

LIRR delays more than doubled since GCM opening

The average monthly delays between March and August were about 136% higher than for the same six-month period last year and 21% higher than during the same period in 2019.

Turf vs. grass? Aaron Rodgers' injury rekindles debate on Long Island

On Long Island, most high schools have made the switch to turf fields. Of the 111 varsity teams, only 11 have grass football fields.

They spent $20,000 or more to go geothermal. Their heat bill will probably be $0.

Pricey upfront but nearly free in the long run, geothermal systems are slowly heating up on Long Island.

Poverty on LI lower than the national rate, census data shows, but experts say economic challenges remain

Experts say the census data doesn't accurately portray the economic hardships Long Islanders are struggling with, especially in the real estate market.

LI's 10 highest-paid executives made between $5.9M and $12.2M last year

Some pay packages are eye-popping, but the pace of raises moderated, a Newsday analysis found. Search our database of 200 public company executives to see who had the biggest paychecks.

LI will spend record $36,105 per student this school year, analysis shows

That average cost per student is up nearly 6% from last year, Newsday found. Statewide, the average per pupil is $31,950.

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Report: Under age 50 cancer rate up 'substantially'

Gastrointestinal cancers were the fastest growing category from 2010 to 2019, followed by cancers of the urinary system and female reproductive system, the data showed.

State classifies 16 LI schools, 13 districts as needing improvement

The ratings were suspended three years ago amid the COVID pandemic. Now they're back, but they face criticism from some educators, who contend that entire districts can be called out based on data covering relatively small numbers of students.

'Different epidemics:' HIV/AIDS hit Long Island Black and Latino communities hardest

A Black Long Islander is seven times more likely to have been diagnosed with HIV as a white resident. A Latino resident is three times more likely, data shows.

LI districts will start new public school year from Aug. 30 to Sept. 7

Long Island's public school students will return to classrooms over several dates to start 2023-24, beginning Aug. 30 in Jericho and ending Sept. 7 in more than a dozen school systems.

Why this Suffolk area is a hotspot for millennial homebuyers

Vibrant downtowns and lower prices are driving millennials to these Southwest Suffolk communities.

LI minimum wage headed to $17; will rise with inflation index

Minimum wage will reach $17 in 2026 and will rise annually to keep pace with inflation starting in 2027.

Report: MTA's OT bill 'surged' last year to highest since 2018

The report from the Empire Center on Public Policy, a conservative think tank, found that MTA overtime climbed from $1.1 billion in 2021 to $1.3 billion last year.

8 Suffolk, Nassau county employees earned over $200G in overtime in 2022

Hundreds of employees racked up more than $100,000 in overtime each, data shows.

'Such a need for services': Suffolk, Nassau have high rates of Alzheimer's

Nassau's rate was 12.5% and Suffolk's 11.7%, proportions higher than more than 70% of counties nationwide, a Newsday analysis of the data found.

100 people killed by fire in NY so far in 2023, federal statistics show

Nationwide, there have been 1,305 fire deaths this year, according to statistics compiled by the U.S. Fire Administration. The number of fire-related deaths on Long Island are three in Nassau and one in Suffolk.

Report: 4 LI beaches among top 10 in New York most often testing positive for fecal contamination

Beaches in the report, based on 2022 numbers, were "potentially unsafe" if water samples showed bacteria levels exceeded a federal quality standard for safety.

Which LI hospitals are best? It's complicated

U.S. News & World Report, the federal government and others rate hospitals. Which ratings should patients trust, and how can they choose the right hospital for them?

Thirsty lawns: Hamptons' high water use raises alarms

The epicenter of the escalating battle to curb water consumption can be found on the East End, where 70% of usage goes for lawn watering and irrigation.

Advanced-test results show more LI high school students flex college-level skills

Long Island students passed a total of 58,798 Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate tests out of 85,753 administered last year, a Newsday analysis found. That's a success rate of more than 3 percentage points higher than a year earlier.

Smoke caused Long Island's worst air quality since at least 1999, pollution data shows

The only other time that Long Island's air quality went into the "unhealthy" category was in July 2002, when forest fires in Quebec created a plume of smoke.

LGA, Kennedy airport parking prices spiking; up to $89 a day

The agency is urging passengers to take mass transit, taxis or ride-share services during the summer peak travel period.

Almost a third of Long Islanders with mortgages considered 'cost-burdened,' Census Bureau data shows

The large number with mortgages and renters who spend 35% or more of their income on housing "speaks to the high costs of our region," housing expert Gwen O'Shea said.

Truck crossings up, LIE speeds vary as pandemic scrambles traffic

Overall vehicle volumes on Long Island highways were still below pre-COVID pandemic levels, but the region's bridges and tunnels showed that congestion is up.

Nassau tried to clean up its assessment mess. Here's what happened next.

The share of property owners who have won reductions remains persistently high, four years after the county spent more than $5 million to fix the system, according to new data.

Population goes down in LI's cities, towns, Census Bureau says, experts say it could be the housing

The Island population declines are "something that policymakers should be paying attention to ... It has to do with the future prosperity of the region and the metro area as a whole," said one expert.

Survey: School spending would go up 6%, taxes an average 2%

Long Islanders head to the polls Tuesday to vote on school districts' nearly $15.2 billion in proposed spending, as well as hundreds of school board candidates. Included in the budgets are a combined $9.5 billion in school property taxes.

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