On July 10, South Carolina finally decided to join the Union for good when it removed the Confederate battle flag from its State House grounds in Columbia, its capital. more

With a herd of Nigerian dwarf goats eating their way through a field of mugwort weeds in the background, Town of Hempstead officials welcomed National Parks of New York Harbor Commissioner Joshua Laird to the Norman J. Levy Park and Preserve in Merrick last Thursday. Laird and a contingent of federal and New York City officials came to the 52-acre preserve to understand better how to convert a decommissioned landfill into a wildlife refuge. more

There’s a wonderful story about St. Francis of Assisi, the 13th-century champion of the poor, after whom the Roman Catholic Church’s current pope is named. St. Francis, it is said, would stop in his tracks if he . . . more

Hugh Mason, a Bellmore sheet metal worker, has learned to be patient. In Hurricane Sandy and its aftermath, he and his family endured more than most. “I had 39 inches of water in my kitchen, all over my countertops,” Hugh recalled. more

I was driving north on the Meadowbrook Parkway, headed to the Herald recently, and Nirvana's "All Apologies" –– that hauntingly beautiful song –– came on the radio. Instantly, I was transported back to 1993 . . . more

The Bellmore-Merrick Community Parent Center and the Bellmore-Merrick Central High School District will host a Drug Take-Back Day on Saturday, May 30, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Mepham High School, 2401 Camp Ave., Bellmore. more

When Suzanne Reek, of Wantagh, used to bring her young son, Joseph, to the dentist, she would hire a team of two to six people to carry him into the office. Once there, he was strapped down to an examination table for treatment in what the American Dental Association calls a “papoose board,” essentially a stretcher with wide Velcro braces. In the end, Reek said, she would be hit with a $5,000 bill because her son, who suffered from extreme “dental anxiety,” would inevitably need to be sedated during treatment, which insurance didn’t cover. more

Merrick Herald Life Senior Editor Scott Brinton, third from right, who is an adjunct journalism professor at Hofstra University, recently brought his Issues in Science Reporting students to a cleanup in the Merrick woodlands off the Meadowbrook Parkway to help out and report on the event. More than 50 volunteers attended the cleanup. more

Chaz Murray, 54, grew up in Merrick bounding through the woods near his home. He became a Boy Scout and went on to camp in the wild. He moved away when he turned 24 and returned seven years ago. On Sunday, he said he was horrified to see the derelict state into which Merrick’s forests off the Meadowbrook Parkway have fallen. Murray, a New York City paramedic, was one of 52 volunteers who came to the woods between Sunrise Highway and Meadowbrook Road in Merrick to clean up debris that had washed from farther north into the forest via the Meadow Brook or had been strewn there by vandals. He said he learned about the cleanup by reading the Merrick Herald Life. more

The April 6 issue of The New Yorker disappointed me. Therein lay what can only be described as a rambling rant decrying the National Audubon Society, of all organizations. more