My, how the holiday season crept up on us this year! One minute, it seemed, we were basking in the summer sun, and the next, Thanksgiving appeared out of nowhere. On Friday, after downing turkey, playing touch football and remembering all that we’re thankful for, many will be out and about, shopping for the December holidays. more

Most of us cannot understand what possesses a person to drive drunk. This paper’s position has long been that drinking and driving is potentially deadly behavior that can have the same result as opening fire with a gun in a crowded mall. DWI requires stiff penalties. more

The holiday shopping season began with a headline-making tragedy last year: A 34-year-old temporary worker at the Valley Stream Walmart was killed when customers rushed the store at its 5 a.m. opening. Jdimytai Damour was trampled to death, and as the anniversary of this Black Friday incident approaches, our thoughts are with Damour’s family. more

Congratulations are in order to the Republicans who defeated incumbent Democrats in the county Legislature. The majority has now shifted to the GOP after the Democrats held it for 10 years. more

Kathleen Rice ascended to the district attorney’s post four years ago as a virtual unknown -- a former federal prosecutor and Brooklyn assistant district attorney who had never run for political office before. Back then, she appeared a tad unsure of herself, slightly nervous in her interviews with the Herald. And why not? She was opposing the legendary Denis Dillon, who had served as Nassau County district attorney for 31 years. Despite being a political neophyte, Rice ran a strong campaign, and was elected with 51 percent of the vote to Dillon’s 49 percent. Four years later, we’re happy that Rice was elected. She has proven herself to be a consummate professional who only improved an already well-run D.A.’s office. Cases are processed nearly twice as fast as they once were. Conviction rates are up. And Rice has garnered a national reputation for her aggressive stance against driving while intoxicated. Many now call her the toughest DWI prosecutor in the country. more

It’s hard to argue with a track record like that of Nassau County Executive Thomas Suozzi, a Democrat from Glen Cove. Over the past eight years, he took a fiscally mismanaged, virtually insolvent county and turned it around, consistently balancing a budget that seemingly could not be balanced. Suozzi saved money by cutting the county work force by 1,000 employees and instituting tried-and-true management practices that were previously nonexistent. At the same time, he has put in place a host of programs to improve residents’ quality of life, from smoking-cessation regimens to energy-efficiency incentives. more

In November 2008, the Empire Center For New York State Policy published a policy paper entitled “Lifting the Shroud of Secrecy From Public Employee Contracts.” The article started with the sentence “The ‘people’s right to know’ is a hollow concept when government can withhold vital information until it is too late for the people’s voice to be heard.” Unfortunately, it seems that the new Long Beach Board of Education’s philosophy about the “people’s right to know” is that the less the people know, the better off the board is. more

While it might be easy to overlook the office of county clerk, the office plays an important role in keeping Nassau County’s court cases and real estate humming. They hum now, at least, and that’s in large part the work of County Clerk Maureen O’Connell, who has earned the Herald’s endorsement. more

In the race for Town of Hempstead clerk, the choice is clear: Republican incumbent Mark Bonilla of Bellmore. more

While Nassau County residents are paying some of the highest taxes in the nation, Comptroller Howard Weitzman has done his part to ease the burden somewhat. During the past eight years Weitzman has shown that he is a competent financial watchdog, and has looked for savings in places no one before him ever tried. more