In jumping into the teacher-tenure debate, I know I’m stirring up a hornet’s nest. But who doesn’t like a little danger now and again? So here goes. more

How does any parent raise a child to succeed in life? That is the most basic, yet profound — many might say confounding — question that any mother or father might ask. more

I have many fond childhood memories. Among them, I remember sitting with my family on a sandy beach beside a lake that was as still as glass. It was night, and the sky was pitch black. I was 11 or 12 years old. more

President Obama’s National Climate Assessment, released May 6, brought memories of August 2011’s great flood racing back to me. more

President Obama was officially sworn in for his second term on Sunday, and the inauguration festivities got under way early on Monday, Martin Luther King Jr. Day. more

The eight students and one teacher shuffled into the center of what was left of the dining room of a red-brick ranch home on a canal in Long Beach’s East End last Friday. more

Quick: Where do East Coast hurricanes originate? A. Antarctica B. The Southern Ocean C. The Sahara Desert D. The Indian Ocean. more

I hate the smell of Hurricane Sandy. It’s the smell of decay. more

In a quiet corner of the main gymnasium at Nassau Community College’s athletic center in Garden City, where basketball games and wrestling matches are normally held, Red Cross volunteers have fashioned a small, makeshift daycare center out of room dividers, pinning up newsprint where children can draw pictures in crayon. There are books for reading as well, but little else. more

There comes a moment in a monster hurricane such as Sandy when you question why you live on Long Island, this 118-mile-long spit of glacial debris deposited in the Atlantic Ocean from the mainland 20,000 years ago. more