There’s nothing quite like an open political race to define candidates. With no incumbent to spar, the various personalities and characters of the candidates usually rise to the surface and take center stage. The race for Rockland County Executive got down to business this past Monday night when all three Democratic candidates met to present themselves to a hometown crowd at the Orangetown Democratic Committee meeting. Continue Reading

Local media operative Richard Gandon apparently knows a good story when he sees one. Gandon has booked Julie Wiener and Hella Winston for his Friday Ramapo Times/Rockland Star Community News Hour on WRCR AM1300. The writers are behind the months-long investigative three-part article now running in the Manhattan-based The Jewish Week that delves into possible chicanery involving E-rate funds for private schools — including Rockland County. Continue Reading

In a case of dueling releases, Rockland County Legislature Chairwoman Harriet Cornell (D) and Legislator Ed Day (R) took whacks at each other this week. The topic was gun control. Continue Reading

Now Rockland County pistol permit holders can just say no. Or at at least they can officially request that their personal information remain exempt from public disclosure.

After public upheaval and outcry following The Journal News’ December article that included an online version with interactive map of Westchester and Rockland pistol permit holders, the New York State Legislature took action. Continue Reading

The East Ramapo School District finds itself sinking deeper into discord and community angst. Journal News reporter Khurram Saeed interviewed the two East Ramapo School Board members who resigned abruptly this past week — Stephen Price, a 20 year board member, and Suzanne Young-Mercer, elected in 2010, both submitted their resignation letters to East Ramapo District Clerk Cathy Russell on Monday. Continue Reading

What happens when a hometown turns on its newspaper? Well, The Journal News is finding out these days as an editorial decision has gathered national headlines and harsh criticism. The now infamous interactive map of pistol permit holders in Rockland and Westchester counties has nearly everyone, from average readers to advertisers to Rockland officials across the spectrum, including the sheriff himself, lining up to throw stones.

Now that Tuxedo’s wood chipping facility has been fingered as an environmental problem, what next?

The town’s consultant on the issue, Land Use Ecological Survey, Inc., released findings related to the March 2012 fish kill at Four Corners Pond in Sterling Forest State Park. LUES’s report stated that “the Town wood chipping facility has been the source of additional nutrients and organic matter that have caused the eutrophic and oxygen depleted conditions in Caretakers Marsh and upper reaches of the south branch of Warwick Brook.” Continue Reading

There are days when even the mightiest must stop and tend to that irritating pebble stuck in a shoe. That day has arrived for the Ford Motor Company. Ford is scheduled to begin a new remediation effort the day after the dedication of the Ramapo Saltbox Environmental Research Center, scheduled for Sunday, October 7 at noon on Torne Valley Road in Hillburn.

An odd, interesting case has been filed by a resident in Tuxedo that blames the Town of Tuxedo for flooding her home during Hurricane Irene.

Times-Herald Record reporter John Sullivan published an article on September 18 about Tuxedo East Village resident Evelyn David, of River Road, and her allegation that “a town decision to fill in wetlands for a park across the Ramapo River from her home caused the flooding to her community.” Continue Reading

LoHud writer Gary Stern has continuing coverage of the fiscal slow-mo train wreck happening in the East Ramapo School District.

From budget shortfalls and lawsuits to board members preventing public access at school board meetings, the East Ramapo district is under increasing state and federal review.

In Stern’s Sunday, September 9, article he writes about “the single most divisive issue in East Ramapo — and the primary reason that the Orthodox community first sought a majority on the school board in 2005.”

Special education, or rather the dollars involved. Continue Reading