Part one of a two-part series. Imagine building an incinerator next to a hospital nursery. That, critics say, is about what the Village of Freeport would be doing if it were to build a $550 million waste-to-energy incinerator alongside a wetland in south Freeport, near the Merrick border. Plans for the facility appear in doubt (see related story, "What's up with Freeport's incinerator plans?"). But if eventually approved, the project could have serious consequences for the local environment and human health. more

Richard Lawrence of Merrick, a former Nassau County Family Court judge, longtime legal counsel to a state senator, and well-respected, well-loved community activist, died suddenly on April 21 of complications from a bone-marrow transplant. He was 66. more

Heroin addicts describe their first high as the ultimate escape, a 20-hour fix starting with a pleasure rush that races from the tip of the tongue throughout the body and steadily progresses toward hallucinations that transfix a user in a state of semiconscious euphoria. more

Welcome spring with some foot stompin' music from the Dukes of Dixieland, enjoy a performance of chamber music classics featuring retired New York Philharmonic clarinetist Stanley Drucker, or check out a performance by the Manhattan-based Aesthetic Realism Theatre Company. more

More than 100 residents of Freeport and neighboring communities like Merrick, Bellmore and Rockville Centre converged on Freeport Village Hall on Monday to protest Mayor Andrew Hardwick's reported proposal to build a $550 million waste-to-energy trash incinerator in south Freeport, near the Merrick border. more

The sound started as a slow creaking, which quickly became a wrenching noise, as if sheet metal were being folded back and forth violently. Then, snap! more

Exhibits and more... Eye Of The BeholderA showcase of six of the most intriguing female artists working today. Works by Nina Chanel Abney, India Evans, Marilyn Minter, Sara Rahbar, Christy … more

It’s opera with a twist when two “divas” take the stage, presented by Merrick-Bellmore Community Concert Association, Sunday, Feb. 21, at 4 p.m. Somewhere amid the many costume changes, … more

Saul Lerner, the Bellmore-Merrick Central High School District athletic director, recently resigned his post as coordinator of the Nassau County Boys' Basketball Committee because, he said, the Section VIII Athletic Council rejected a proposal of his to fine-tune the seeding process that ultimately determines teams' playing schedules. In 2006, Lerner was the architect of an ability-grouping system that determined a team's conference by its record. Previously, teams were assigned to conferences without much regard to their records. Rather, officials used what they called the "snake," in which teams were seeded and then laid out on a grid that wound back and forth in serpentine fashion. more

Rabbi Avraham Holtzberg stood beside Cammans Pond in Merrick last December with head bent slightly to the side and hands clasped at his waist, looking solemn and forlorn at the Merrick Chabad’s otherwise joyful Hanukkah celebration. A month earlier, terrorists had murdered Holtzberg’s brother, Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg, 29, and his sister-in-law, Rivka, 28, in Mumbai, India. more