The Emanuel family –– including Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel –– sure knows how to stir the pot. Rahm’s older brother, Ezekiel, recently published a hugely controversial essay, “Why I hope to die at 75,” in The Atlantic. more

Kathleen Rice, the Nassau County district attorney, and Bruce Blakeman, a former presiding officer of the Nassau County Legislature, are locked in a spirited fight for the 4th Congressional District seat now held by U.S. Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, a Democrat from Mineola. more

The race for the New York State Legislature’s 14th Assembly District pits the incumbent, Republican David McDonough, of North Merrick, against Gaspare Tumminello, a Democrat from Merrick, who is deputy chief of staff for the Nassau County Legislature’s Democratic minority. Tumminello, a native of Franklin Square, had previously run unsuccessfully for Nassau County legislator in the 8th District in 2009. This year, the Herald asked each of the candidates to fill in a four-question survey about their positions on salient state issues. The 14th Assembly District takes in all or parts of Freeport, Roosevelt, Merrick, North Merrick, Bellmore, North Bellmore, Wantagh, North Wantagh, Seaford and Massapequa. more

New York State Senate candidate Michael Venditto, a Republican from Massapequa, is running for the 8th Senate District seat vacated by Charles Fuschillo Jr., a Merrick Republican, in January. Venditto’s one-time opponent, David Denenberg, a Democrat from Merrick, recently dropped out of the race amid civil fraud charges leveled at him by his former law firm, Davidoff Hutcher & Citron. The Herald asked Venditto to speak about the issues. more

The sting seemed innocuous. A bee nipped Jenn Sommermann in the leg as she entered the water at the River Cities Triathlon, contested around the Cypress Black Bayou, near Shreveport, La., in August 2011. more

After my last column, “For crying out loud, give cyclists a ‘brake’” (Sept. 18-24), my mother called from Florida, worried. more

Sept. 21 was the 76th anniversary of the infamous Long Island Express of 1938, a massive Category 3 hurricane that slammed into the Island, New Jersey and much of New England with rare ferocity, killing 800 people and causing $308 million in damage (the equivalent of $4.8 billion today), including the destruction of 57,000 homes. more

First, a warning and an invitation: This column is a rant. Please join in the diatribe online at www.liherald.com, under Opinions. Thank you. more

Nassau County Legislator Laura Curran, a Democrat from Baldwin who represents part of Merrick, and Bob Young, an environmental activist from Merrick, are among the local organizers preparing for the People’s Climate March on Sunday, Sept. 21, starting at 11:30 a.m. at Columbus Circle in Manhattan. more

Patients should stop thinking of powerful pain medications like Oxycontin and Vycodin as slightly stronger versions of Tylenol and Advil. Rather, they should think of them as “heroin pills.” That’s according to Dr. Andrew Kolodny, president of Physicians for Responsible Opioid Prescribing and chief medical officer for Phoenix House, a national, nonprofit drug treatment agency. more