The total, non-farm sector job count on Long Island rose by 14,000 to 1.34 million in April 2017 compared to a year earlier, according to the state’s Labor Department. Leading the increases were the private educational and health services sector, which rose by 8,100, and trade, transportation and utilities, which increased by 3,200. The financial sector declined by 1,600 jobs and manufacturing was down 600. Click on the trend lines below for details on the 10 sectors going back to 1990. The table below gives details for the 2017 and 2016 levels. And read more about the Long Island job trend here.
The Department of Education recently released the results of water quality tests in all of New York City’s schools. The data show 83 percent of school buildings have at least one water fixture with elevated lead levels.
The DOE tested 132,276 fixtures — everything from water fountains and bathroom faucets to ice makers and slop sinks. Eight percent showed unsafe levels of lead.
Lead was found around the city, although the most contaminated fixtures were found in parts of Brooklyn.
Percentage of water fixtures showing elevated lead levels, by NYC geographic district
A single school in Brooklyn — the William E. Grady Career and Technical Education High School in Brighton Beach — had 101 elevated results, the most of any school in the city. Three of the samples at Grady High School showed lead levels above 10,000 parts per billion, more than 600 times the maximum safe level for drinking water of 15 parts per billion. When water contains more than 5,000 parts per billion of lead, the EPA considers it to be hazardous waste.
Lead can be toxic, and health officials say even at low levels, it can cause problems, especially in children. It can damage young brains and nerves. It can result in learning problems, behavioral issues, hearing loss, seizures, hyperactivity and more.
Contamination was primarily found in hand washing sinks and water fountains.
Twenty-two fixtures tested worse than the most serious lead contamination found in Flint, Michigan. In Flint, the worst contamination found was approximately 13,200 parts per billion. The worst fixture in a New York City school had lead levels of 87,300 parts per billion. The table below shows the 10 worst test results across the city:
School
Lead level (ppb)
Room type
Borough
P.S. 723 – BRONX
87,300
Classroom
Bronx
WILLIAM E. GRADY VOC HS – K
62,200
Classroom
Brooklyn
WILLIAM E. GRADY VOC HS – K
41,500
Classroom
Brooklyn
HS FOR ARTS AND BUS. (OL NUTN X)-Q
39,000
Bathroom
Queens
WILLIAM E. GRADY VOC HS – K
35,300
Classroom
Brooklyn
P.S. 224 ANNEX – QUEENS
33,440
Classroom
Queens
I.S. 27 – STATEN ISLAND
32,500
Classroom
Staten Island
P.S. 139 – BROOKLYN
31,000
Bathroom
Brooklyn
P.S. 111 – MANHATTAN
27,400
Kitchen
Manhattan
P.S. 151 – BROOKLYN
23,200
Bathroom
Brooklyn
The largest percentage of contaminated faucets were found in classrooms.
See which valedictorians are bound for the Ivy League, who is staying on Long Island, who will major in STEM-related fields, and who is still undecided.
Signal problems, equipment failure, track repairs, even lightning strikes — commuting on the LIRR isn’t easy. It’ll only get worse as the “summer of hell” begins. Tell us, face to face, about your worst commuting experience. Be sure to say what line you travel on most frequently.
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Grace Sullivan, Wantagh Sr. High School; Hannah Graff, St Anthony’s High School; Emily Mohlin, Our Lady of Mercy Academy; Paige Volkmann, Center Moriches High School
Michael Demi Lambadis, Centereach High School; Max Cheng, Bridgehampton High School; William Sussman, Miller Place High School; Kristian Rosado, Henry Viscardi High School
Gabriella Albanese, Babylon Junior/Senior High School; Alexis Bainnson, Half Hollow Hills High School West; Rena Fukuda, New Hyde Park Memorial High School
Gabriella Michael Hermanns, Elwood/John Glenn; Yash Samataray, Syosset High School; Esteban Idrovo, Amityville Memorial High School; Kirti Nath, Ward Melville High School
2017 has become the year of airline passenger disputes gone viral. But do the videos and photos capture bad airline behavior, bad passenger behavior or something in between? The in-between is where there may be lessons consumers can learn.
Nearly all of the disputes stem from a disconnect between what passengers believe their rights to be and what their rights actually are, said Christopher Elliott, a consumer advocate, author and travel journalist.
“We’re not dealing with common sense when it comes to airlines,” he said. “The way the rules work on the plane are different than on the ground, it’s not a democracy.”
We asked travel experts to share their takes on six recent controversies. Follow this list of don’ts to help you make it to your destination without becoming a headline.
Do NOT ignore the fine print
On March 26, two teenage girls traveling from Denver to Minneapolis were told they could not board their United flight because they were wearing leggings. A third girl wearing leggings changed clothes before she was allowed on. Following backlash, United clarified that the girls had been flying using employee passes, which require those passengers to follow a company dress code that does not allow leggings.
2) She's forcing them to change or put dresses on over leggings or they can't board. Since when does @united police women's clothing?
Experts say: Most airlines don’t have specific dress codes for regular passengers but the lesson is the same, Elliot said: Make sure you read the fine print for your ticket to be aware of any restrictions.
George Hobica, founder of airfarewatchdog.com, recommends always finding out airline regulations, but especially when using free tickets.
“As a former airline employee, I have suffered through not being allowed to board,” he said. “If you’re flying on a free pass, you should inform yourself or whoever gives [you the pass] should inform you of company regulations. I would err on the side of dressing up. Up your sartorial game a bit.”
Do NOT refuse to get off the plane
There have been several incidents this year regarding passengers being forced off planes despite having purchased tickets. Perhaps the most notorious example was the removal of Dr. David Dao, a Kentucky doctor who was violently dragged off a United flight from Chicago to Louisville after declining to give up his seat for United employees.
Experts say: United has apologized for the way the situation was handled, but the incident brought to many customers’ attention that airlines do under federal law have the right to bump you from your seat. The easiest way to handle this is to just go ahead and give up your seat when asked, all of the experts said.
Airlines bump customers for a variety of reasons, including needing to transport employees, accommodate an air marshal or because the flight was overbooked. Customers may be chosen to give up their seats based on a variety of reasons, including check-in time.
“Even if you think you’re in the right, and you may be, if you refuse that request you’re in violation of federal law,” Peter Greenberg, CBS News travel editor, said. You can ask for more money to give up your seat, if you choose to do so. Following the incident, United announced it would offer up to $10,000 for customers who volunteer to give up seats on overbooked flights.
When Spirit Airlines canceled at least nine flights out of Fort Lauderdale on May 8 after labor negotiations with its pilots failed, angry customers in the Spirit terminal nearly started a riot. Once physical violence began, three Long Islanders were arrested.
Experts say: “Passengers don’t have a right to riot but they should have a right to be compensated in certain circumstances,” Hobica said.
You’re entitled to either a refund or a seat on another flight from the airline, but not much else. Some larger airlines in the U.S. have interline agreements that allow them to schedule customers on another airline. Greenberg said it may be worth checking whether the airline for your next flight has this policy in place (Spirit does not).
“The price you pay for flying an airline without an agreement is you may be sleeping at an airport,” he said. Elliott also advised checking the status of your flight before you leave. It may not help you avoid a canceled plane, but you won’t have to spend as much time at the airport.
Do NOT ship your pet (unless absolutely necessary)
Simon, a giant rabbit from Worcestershire, England, expected to become the biggest in the world, was shipped via a United Airlines flight to Chicago on April 26, but he never made it to his new owner. He was found dead in his carrier in the cargo hold when the plane arrived, though his breeder said he was in good health when he left.
Experts say: While Simon’s cause of death isn’t clear, all three experts agreed that shipping a pet in the cargo hold is a big risk. “It’s a very dangerous place,” Hobica said. “Many animals perish every year.”
According to the Department of Transportation’s animal death statistics, 136 animals died on flights between January 2012 through February 2017. “It’s tragic and 100 percent preventable,” Elliott said.
Do NOT bring a stroller on-board
One April incident highlighted what parents can and can’t bring with them. In a viral video, an American Airlines flight attendant on a plane from San Francisco to Dallas, is shown yelling at a tearful mother with a baby and another passenger who stepped in to help. According to witnesses, the woman tried to bring a stroller on the plane and the attendant roughly grabbed it.
Experts say: Do your research and check the airline’s carry-on rules before you get to the gate. “There the passenger was at fault,” Hobica said. “Do a little homework. If this passenger had, she would have seen strollers are checked.”
Greenberg said the flight attendant could have handled this situation in a more tactful way, but the lesson for consumers is if a flight attendant tells you something won’t fit, don’t escalate the situation by fighting with them, just listen.
Do NOT use someone else’s ticket
On May 3, a Delta Air Lines customer posted a video to YouTube of his family in a heated dispute with flight attendants over whether his two-year-old could sit in a seat originally purchased for one of his other children who was on a separate flight. The entire family was ultimately kicked off the flight.
Experts say: For security reasons, you can’t take a seat if your name isn’t on the ticket – even if the situation seems innocent enough. That’s standard policy. “Basically, you cannot pull a switcheroo,” Hobica said. Hobica said the father should have purchased a separate seat for his young child in the first place.
Underground, in a basement gym in the desert, Jay Hieron’s UFC career began.
Hieron was helping Massapequa’s Phil Baroni train for an upcoming bout when he caught the eye of Dana White in that gym inside of the UFC’s old headquarters on Sahara Avenue in Las Vegas in 2004.
Hieron, from Freeport, was just barely into his career as a mixed martial arts fighter, one that eventually would take him to multiple countries and the world’s biggest fight promotions.
“I didn’t even have a manager then, that’s how green I was,” Hieron said recently while back on Long Island at Bellmore Kickboxing Academy, where he first started training in MMA.
Still, one year and four fights into his professional career in a relatively new sport, there Hieron was — on UFC president White’s short list of who to call when he needed a fighter quickly.
“I was 4-0, I’m pretty green and took a short-notice fight versus a guy you might have heard of — Georges St-Pierre,” Hieron said. “It didn’t go my way, but it was a great learning experience. I was young in my career. I could have went in two different directions. I could have said, ‘Nah, this isn’t really for me’ or ‘All right, I gotta train harder.'”
He chose the latter.
“It made me who I was in my career,” Hieron said of his fight against St-Pierre, who later became the UFC welterweight champion and one of the greatest fighters in MMA history.
That career included 30 professional fights — 23 of them wins — the welterweight world title in the International Fight League, the Bellator Season 4 tournament win and one of those oversized checks that looks cool in the photo but doesn’t fit in the overhead compartment of the plane for the flight home. (A minor detail when the actual check includes three digits on each side of the comma.) It included four fights in the UFC, all losses.
It also led to Hieron’s post-fighting career: acting and stunt work.
Hieron moved to Las Vegas in 2004 as his fighting career began to take shape. He trained at Xtreme Couture and befriended Randy Couture, a five-time UFC champion. Couture, who since has transitioned into acting as well, introduced Hieron to John Cenatiempo, a noted Hollywood stunt man from New York.
“I didn’t think I could turn it into a career at first until a few years being in it,” Hieron said. “Thank God it’s going well.”
Well enough where Hieron has appeared in more than 50 movies and TV shows.
Going from a professional fighter to someone who fights on camera may seem like a natural jump. In theory, sure. In reality, it’s a bit more nuanced.
“I had to learn how to fight for film. It’s totally the opposite of real fighting. The punches that work in real life, they don’t translate well on camera,” said Hieron, 40. “Even though I was a real fighter, I had to transition and make you believe that I could do a film fight because the camera don’t lie.”
No, it does not, which works out nicely for the former national champion wrestler at Nassau Community College who recently acted opposite Method Man. Not too shabby for a kid who grew up listening to the Method Man and his rap group, the Wu-Tang Clan, in the early 1990s.
“I’ve done a car chase with a police car 100 miles an hour down Madison Avenue in New York City,” Hieron said. “I mean, it’s pretty cool. With the lights on and I’m dressed as a full cop. I’m a kid from Freeport, you know what I mean.”
Three months into the administration of President Donald Trump, the polls tell the story.
The majority of Republicans approve of his performance, consistently. The majority of Democrats and independents disapprove, consistently.
Somewhere in the middle, between his ardent fans and his entrenched opponents, lies the slice of voters on Long Island and elsewhere whose opinion of him shifts with events. At least some of them helped put Trump in the White House. And if they are happy with the country’s direction over the next four years, they could help keep him there for another four.
For now, Trump’s approval ratings are historically low for the first months of a new president’s administration, reflecting the contentious presidential campaign with Democrat Hillary Clinton, Trump’s unconventional presidency and a deeply divided electorate.
For now, many Long Islanders who voted for Trump say they are pleased with him, and are willing to give him more time to get his initiatives through Congress. They approve his appointment of conservative jurist Neil Gorsuch to the U.S. Supreme Court, and see many of his executive orders as promises fulfilled, even if some of them are tied up in court.
But some of Trump’s moves have prompted complaints among his supporters of campaign promises betrayed, such as his promised opposition to intervening militarily in Syria or his health care legislation. Also, the debate over Trump’s firing of FBI Director James Comey and the investigations into possible Trump campaign links to Russia, have raised some questions in the minds of otherwise staunch Trump supporters.
Trump voters from Nassau and Suffolk, most of them Republicans but some who are independents, agreed to discuss Trump’s performance after his first 100 days in office. Newsday will reach out to them and others in the coming months to see how events, and Trump’s successes and failures, affect their opinions.
He puts his tweet in his mouth pretty regularly but on the other hand, I think he’s doing alright.
Eltringham is an insurance broker, in his 60s, who lives in Garden City and is active in civic affairs. Before the election, he saw in Trump an unorthodox, rough-edged candidate who struck a nerve with voters on issues they felt strongly about. As Trump moves into his fifth month in office, Eltringham says his performance so far is “pretty much as I expected.”
Trump “puts his tweet in his mouth pretty regularly but on the other hand, I think he’s doing all right,” Eltringham said. “He admitted it is a lot harder than he thought it would be. At least he’s man enough to say that.”
Eltringham said Trump has learned hard lessons on the limits of what a president can do.
“He’s a work in progress and I think it’s amazing how little slack he’s getting from the media,” he said. “They can’t wait for him to stumble and then they let him have it. The jury is out on Donald Trump but he is not getting a fair shake as far as I’m concerned.”
Eltringham attributes some of Trump’s problems to his “own bombast. Some of that is his own fault because he antagonizes the media.”
In the days after Trump fired Comey, however, Eltringham said he was trying to sort through the “hysteria,” and said that while he thought Trump had a right to fire him, the way he did it was “a little ham-handed.”
He said he thought a special prosecutor wasn’t yet warranted to investigate whether the Trump campaign colluded with the Russians, but would now like to see the congressional investigations move more quickly. “Let’s get to the bottom of this,” he said. “I’m not prepared to say Donald Trump is involved with the Russians or not involved. We have to get it addressed and resolved one way or another without a doubt. It’s distracting.”
As for Trump’s policies, Eltringham said he approves and is reassured by the administration’s more aggressive tone in foreign policy. “What he has done is so different from the last eight years and it’s been successful,” said Eltringham, citing the Syrian missile attack on April 6 in particular. “I think it’s refreshing for someone to get more decisive on this.”
For now, he gives Trump a “B or B plus.”
One of my main concerns with Trump was the establishment of a supreme court judge and he’s already done that so he’s already filled the
bill.
Lopez, 68, of Levittown, is a retired New York City police sergeant who owns Alante Security Group, a Westbury security firm with 250 employees. He’s an independent who voted for Trump, in part because he didn’t like Clinton and considers the Democratic Party too far to the left.
“I was once a Democrat, my parents were Democrats,” said Lopez, who came to New York from Puerto Rico at ten years old. “What they espouse [now] is not what I believe in.”
Until the recent firing last Tuesday of Comey, Lopez would have given Trump a grade of “B plus.” Now, he said, “I’m taking back the B plus. It’s on hold. I’m holding my grades back in lieu of a final.”
His concern, he said, “is that the Russian investigation be concluded so the facts come out one way or another.”
Lopez said some of Comey’s actions in the FBI probe of Clinton’s use a private email server while she was secretary of State “were not within his purview.” But “why wait and do it now?” Lopez said of Comey’s firing. “It makes it seem questionable because of the timing. It’s given people food for thought. To me, it’s not fully making sense.”
While Lopez said he finds Trump’s lack of political experience refreshing, he has been frustrated by the president’s slowness in getting legislative results. The confirmation of Gorsuch to the U.S. Supreme Court, however, satisfied one of his main concerns, he said.
Lopez said he’s eagerly awaiting tax reform legislation to lower his tax rates, and for health care legislation to lower his business health insurance plan’s rates, which he said rose by 30.6 percent this year. Lower rates “would be very, very helpful for business … Hopefully, we’ll see some results soon.”
Lopez likes Trump’s stance on national security and thinks “the world is beginning to see we’re a world power as we have always been,” he said. “Maybe it’s time to get peace within the world by letting these countries know we are back in business and we will protect the world. I am OK with that.”
But on the issue of immigrants living here without documentation, Lopez like other Trump voters interviewed on Long Island, was more open to policies that are less polarized than the rhetoric in Congress might suggest.
“I think there’s a place for them,” he said of the estimated 11 million immigrants living without permission in the United States. “There should be a mechanism for them to work themselves into citizenship and not be railroaded out of here.”
The reason I voted for him is because I think his narcissism will prevent him from failing.
Stacey Bishop, 50, is a contractor and voice-over actor who lives in Southold. “I’m a registered Republican but I vote my conscience,” she said. “I voted for Obama the first time.” For now, she wants her liberal friends on social media to calm down. “Everyone is so up in arms, they were blowing up my feed,” she said. “They’re taking these sound bites and running off with them and they don’t understand the thing they’re upset about.”
Bishop noted proposed budget cuts that would affect the federal agencies that provide some funds to local Meals on Wheels programs. She complained that liberal Trump opponents reacted to the cuts if they eliminated the entire program.
“It’s inflammatory; they’re running with it and crucifying someone who stepped up into the circus that is American politics,” Bishop said.
For Bishop, the flaws that so distress Trump detractors could be among his strengths as a leader. She considers him a “narcissist” and “uncouth in many ways, but the reason I voted for him is because I think his narcissism will prevent him from failing. He has a lot of good ideas. How many he’ll be able to implement I don’t know.”
For now, she is giving him a chance. “I like him but, I’m not hard core,” Bishop said. “Give him a year — are we going to be better off or worse off?”
Bishop says she feels strongly about ending illegal immigration and supports Trump’s deportation policies. She says she resents paying taxes for services and benefits used by the undocumented and their children. “People are frustrated,” about the issue, she said.
Bishop isn’t on board with all of Trump’s decisions.
She didn’t like his appointment of Betsy DeVos, an advocate of school vouchers, to head the Department of Education. And she says she will judge Trump harshly if he breaks his promise to improve health care insurance for everyone.
A daughter has medical conditions, including cystic fibrosis, that require costly treatments and drugs. Bishop’s insurance stopped paying the $2,700 a U.S. pharmaceutical company charged each month, and she was angry that she earned too much to get government help paying for it.
She now gets the drug for $200 from Canada, which she said tells her “something’s wrong with our health care system.” If good health insurance becomes more costly or inaccessible, she said, her support for Trump would erode “because I took him at his word that he had a better solution.”
Bishop gives Trump an A for effort, and a B for results. “It’s early,” she said. “Ask me again in a year.”
I regret voting for him, honest to God.
Bitakos, 52, has driven a taxi on Long Island for 15 years. He is an independent who “goes with the flow” politically, and has become almost a one-man predictor of success in the past seven presidential elections. He voted for Democrat Bill Clinton, Republican George W. Bush, Democrat Barack Obama, and most recently, Republican Donald Trump.
Bitakos said he was drawn to some of Trump’s stances, even though he’d initially liked Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who lost the Democratic primary race to Clinton.
Not long after the collapse of the first legislative effort in late March to repeal and replace Obama’s signature health care achievement, the Affordable Care Act, Bitakos gave his verdict: “He failed. They don’t have anything to replace it with so what are they going to do?”
Bitakos gets his health insurance through the expanded Medicaid program put in place under the ACA. “I need it … I’m diabetic, I get my blood pressure pills. If he throws everybody off and starts doing his own thing, we’re dead.”
For now, Bitakos is sorry he went with Trump. “I should never have voted for him,” he said. “I regret voting for him, honest to God.”
Trump had promised jobs and a stronger military and, “I like respect for the military and law enforcement,” said Bitakos, who hangs an American flag outside his home. “There were a lot of things I liked about him: I liked the patriotism about him, I liked the America thing, the America first.”
But he has quickly become anxious and frustrated. His complaints range from Trump’s frequent trips to his Florida estate, Mar-a-Lago, to his possible connections with Russia.
“I don’t see anything happening with anything he’s doing,” Bitakos said of Trump.
“I just hope he doesn’t cause any serious problems with the Middle East,” said Bitakos. “I hope he doesn’t open up a big war because guys are going to get killed. And who knows what is going on with him and Russia. That’s the big question. But it’s too soon yet.”
A lot of what he said was totally inappropriate for a president to say. Slowly he’s learning to do that. There’s a learning curve.
Brooks is a part-time real estate broker in her 70s who lives in Glen Cove and typically votes for Republicans.
She considers herself a moderate, and disagrees with Trump’s opposition to gun control and to a woman’s right to choose abortion. Yet Brooks eventually decided she couldn’t support Clinton, “as much as I’d have liked to see a woman president.”
She is relatively comfortable with her decision to vote for Trump.
“I think initially I just wanted him to, quite frankly, be quiet,” Brooks said. “A lot of what he said was totally inappropriate for a president to say. Slowly he’s learning to do that. There’s a learning curve.”
Brooks said Trump is “smart, savvy and knows how to negotiate and that’s a lot of the job. I thought for the most part he’s put good people around him.”
Brooks agrees with Trump about the need for a more secure border between the United States and Mexico, although she said it doesn’t have to be a solid wall from end to end.
But she is open to a path to citizenship for immigrants who are here without permission: “People have been here years and years and are good people. Someone has to figure this out.”
Health care is “the biggest thing sitting on the table,” for Trump, Brooks said. “I thought from day one that people with pre-existing conditions and young people [until age 26] would be covered … My cousin who is very Republican keeps saying it should go back to the free market, but that didn’t work.”
She said if improvements were made to Obamacare, “eventually it will be good health care.”
What would be a deal breaker for her, she said, is if Trump sent more troops to the Middle East, or took the country to war. “I’d be very against him for that.”
At this point, she said, she’d give Trump a B. If he improves health care, and gets something done on the southern border, she said, “I think he has the potential to be an A.”
Where is the general feeling of ‘an election takes place, and you know what, our candidate lost but we wish this guy well’?”
Ekstrom, 61, a cabinetmaker from Rocky Point, considers himself “an enlightenment guy,” with faith in the ability of people to hammer out reasonable compromises.
So he couldn’t understand the Democrats’ opposition to Gorsuch’s nomination to the Supreme Court. “Where is the general feeling of, an election takes place, and you know what, our candidate lost but we wish this guy well,” said Ekstrom. “Everything is a dogfight.”
Ekstrom said he voted for Trump as an anti-status quo candidate. Trump is “clearly not a polished, vetted, cover-my-tail lawyerly politician type,” he said.
Unlike more careful politicians who can make listeners feel they are not getting “the full story,” there is no “obfuscation with Trump; he blurts out what’s on his mind,” Ekstrom said.
Even Trump’s unsupported allegations that former President Barack Obama tapped his phones at Trump Tower had what Ekstrom considered a core of truth about the scale of surveillance. “It’s one of the things that scares me, the sweeping up of information,” Ekstrom said. But “do I think President Obama picked up the phone and said we have to drag this guy down, hook up wires in the basement and tap Trump’s phone? I don’t think that.”
Ekstrom approves of Trump’s proposed repeal of environmental regulations, including those aimed at climate change, and supports a more secure border.
Yet Ekstrom is open to immigration reform, and would like to see undocumented workers given legal status.
A worker with a green card “has no fear of deportation. He doesn’t lay awake thinking he has to stay out of sight,” Ekstrom said. “So why can’t there be an orange card for people who are working here? … I can tell you off the bat, if you had a big roundup and just shipped them out the construction industry would collapse.”
Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano sounded the horn to send the runners on their way.
Watch as thousands of runners took off at the start of the Long Island Marathon on Charles Lindbergh Boulevard in Uniondale on May 7, 2017. (Credit: Newsday / Jeffrey Basinger)
Note: On mobile devices, the 360-degree video experience can be viewed only in the YouTube app.
