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01 Dec 2011 22:57

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U.S.: One year later, “Craigslist Ripper” case leaves dark impression

  • A mystery with hard-to-come-by answers: One year ago, police began their search for Shannan Gilbert, a 24 year-old prostitute. During that search, they found the remains of Melissa Barthlemy, another prostitute. In the following days, they found three more bodies along the shores of Long Island. They nicknamed the killer the “Craigslist Ripper” because some of the victims had advertised online. Ten bodies have been discovered over the past year; seemingly all of them worked in the sex industry, though one of the bodies found was the two-year-old daughter of one of the victims.
  • past Officials used to think that this was the work of multiple serial killers. The oldest body was killed way back in 1996. They thought they were looking for “a number of killers who all favored the remote scrub land for dumping bodies.”
  • present According to Suffolk County Police Commissioner Richard Dormer, the police’s view of the events has changed: “It appears that one person, comfortable with the area, comfortable with Long Island, is involved in these crimes.” source

22 Nov 2011 11:43

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U.S.: Failing the test: Long Island SAT-cheating scandal widens

  • 13 students could get arrested over SAT/ACT cheating scandal source
  • » Were the parents involved in this? According to a state senator, the amounts of money being talked about in the test-taking scandal (which involved students taking the test in place of other students) were just too much for the kids involved to raise on their own. “There are parents that are complicit in this. They are involved,” claimed State Sen. Ken Lavalle. “You can’t tell me that students are walking around with $3,500, or $2,500, or $1,200. That’s a lot of money, and that means the parents were involved.” The case involves a number of different high schools in the same region; some of the districts have emphasized that the students alone are to blame for their actions.

02 Sep 2011 14:41

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U.S.: Long Island babysitter tragedy: Freak accident blamed for deaths

  • bad A Long Island babysitter, 39, suffered a heart attack and died while caring for a young infant Thursday night.
  • worse When the babysitter collapsed, she collapsed onto the infant. And the child died as well. This story is incredibly tragic and sad. source

23 Jun 2011 10:20

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U.S.: Pharmacy shooting has all the makings of a recession-era tragedy

  • He was doing it because he lost his job and I was sick. … He did it. He did all of this.
  • Melinda Brady • Explaining what she says may have led her husband, David Laffer, to kill four people in a Long Island pharmacy on Father’s Day. During the shooting, the suspect reportedly tried to steal prescription drugs from the pharmacy he could not afford, in what sounds like an awful recession story in the making. Brady and Laffer, who proposed to his wife at a New York Islanders game a few years ago, were arrested Wednesday after local police received hundreds of tips on the case. source

30 Aug 2010 20:50

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U.S.: Hurricane Earl ready to piss off a lot of elitist East Coasters

  • good The eye of the Category 4 Hurricane Earl will stay off the coast over the next few days. Hooray! *whew*
  • bad The storm as a whole will get very close to North Carolina, Long Island, and Cape Cod. Crap. Nevermind. source

14 Aug 2010 15:02

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U.S.: Google Earth stakeout: Because illegal swimming pools are bad

  • See any pools down here, guys? They’re kinda like handing out parking tickets for Riverhead, N.Y., which forces pools to have inspections. But since not everyone does it, they’ve resorted to using Google Maps to find out who’s breaking the rules. It’s netted them $75,000 so far. Not a bad way to nickel-and-dime your residents. source

01 Feb 2010 20:35

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Biz: The Adventures of Newsday Customer No. 36: We’ve been counted!

  • In response to a question, Terry said that we had approximately three dozen subscribers who have signed up to pay $5 per week for access to newsday.com.
  • Cablevision President of Local Media Tad Smith • In a memo regarding Newsday’s plan for subscriptions and Cablevision’s overall media strategy. Sure, he’s full of it and then some, but we have to admit we got a kick out of the fact he noted our subscription in the note. We’re No. 36! We’re No. 36! source
 

27 Jan 2010 10:57

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Biz: The Adventures of Newsday Customer No. 36: The subscription

  • When we read yesterday that Newsday had a total of 35 subscribers to its paywall-riddled Web site, we wondered how this could be. How could only 35 people who weren’t subscribed to Cablevision or the print product say, “I’m paying Newsday $5 a week for some of the best damn journalism to be found on Long Island!” So, we decided to find out why. ShortFormBlog is now Customer No. 36.

Subscription notes:

  • one They don’t bill you right away or ask for your credit card. Instead, Newsday.com staff contacts you afterwards. This is stupid.
  • two You have to give them your phone number. And the registration thing is written as if you live in New York state. We live in D.C., dudes.
  • three Newsday gives you a huge list of ways you can receive news from them. This includes e-mail and SMS alerts. We signed up; hey, we paid for it!

Review of Newsday’s signup process:

  • C- it clearly doesn’t understand how online commerce works source

29 Aug 2009 10:58

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U.S.: Danny acts like Bill, doesn’t have his swagger. Depression sets in.

Danny was a tropical storm, but now he’s just depressed. The depression will hit Long Island today. Based on storm path, he’s like Bill’s wannabe brother. source

26 Jul 2009 21:09

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U.S.: Sad, depressing story of the day: A huge car crash in New York

  • one Ford Windstar minivan drove the wrong way on a divided highway; it crashed, then rolled down a hill and burst into flames
  • eight people died in the crash, including four adults and four children; three were injured, including a boy who’s in critical condition source