Each night as a child, Connie Roberts stroked her white plastic rosary beads, recited her prayers and curled up in her comfortless bed at the Mount Carmel Industrial School for Girls, in Ireland’s Midlands region. She often heard screams echo through the cavernous institution. Now 52, Roberts can still hear them in her head. They were, she said, “the worst.” more

Jake Thomas and Alex Vargas, both 21, played baseball together in 2011 at Calhoun High School under legendary coach Joe Corea. In 2010, Thomas led the Colts squad that captured the Nassau County Class AA title. In 2012, Vargas played a critical role in the Colts’ victory at the Long Island Class AA championship. Major League teams recently drafted them both. more

Sixteen-year-old Sean Flynn, of Bellmore, called all 263 contacts on his cell phone on the afternoon of June 26, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that the Constitution guarantees the right to gay marriage. He made the calls in rapid-fire succession. “Marriage equality is legal!” Flynn yelled into the phone. “Woohoo!” Then he moved to the next number, again and again, for two and a half hours. He was ecstatic, he said. 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

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

In youth soccer, one arena tops all others –– the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex at Walt Disney World in Florida. It is a mecca for youth soccer players itching to display their skills before hundreds of college coaches at the Disney Soccer Showcase. more

Dave Denenberg, a longtime Nassau County legislator from Merrick accused by his former law firm of over-billing a corporate client for millions of dollars, pleaded guilty to eight counts of mail fraud Wednesday morning in Central Islip federal court. more

Nassau County Legislator Dave Denenberg, the Merrick Democrat accused by his former law firm of over-billing a corporate client for millions of dollars, was due in federal court on Jan. 21, after press time, to answer eight federal mail fraud charges. more

Nassau County Legislator Dave Denenberg, the Merrick Democrat accused by his former employer of overbilling a large corporate client for millions of dollars, was expected to plead guilty to mail fraud charges in federal court in Central Islip on Dec. 11, according to a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York. He didn’t, however. more