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New York City "makes up for its hazards and its deficiencies by supplying its citizens with massive doses of a supplementary vitamin -- the sense of belonging to something unique, cosmopolitan, mighty and unparalleled," wrote the incomparable E.B. White in 1948. On good days, I think he's still right. On others, I think his notion is a cruel joke.

Consider the taxi wars.

Here's...

The editorial board notes Janet Napolitano’s resignation as head of Homeland Security, the largest federal bureaucracy after the Pentagon. Her successor’s task will be to figure out if such a mega-agency is serving the country well – and if not, to reorganize it.

We’re looking at the 2011 death of Daniel McDonnell in the custody of Suffolk police. A new state report says the police, the medical...

Twinkies will return to store shelves Monday as one of the first items you should acquire in the event of a zombie apocalypse, right after bottled water and guns.

It has long been joked that the treats last forever, not to mention that they could be dropped from buildings, unscathed, before snack time. But the resurrected Twinkies will have a shelf life that’s almost double that of their 2012...

The editorial board was surprised to see Eliot Spitzer leading in an opinion poll, just days after the disgraced former governor announced he wants to run for NYC comptroller. It remains to be seen whether he will collect enough signatures on petitions in time for tonight’s deadline.

Also, today’s editorial about the 30 spelling errors in book titles and their authors on the Hempstead school...

Let’s start with the nice stuff first. Unlike other Democratic mayoral candidates, Anthony Weiner has not wasted his breath inveighing against Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s school reforms. Weiner doesn’t seem to mind the mayor’s charter-school push, and he has said kind things about Bloomberg’s hard-driving spirit of innovation.

But standing in front of a closed Catholic school yesterday, the...

High schoolers from around the world wish an answer to this trite question: what do I want to be when I grow up?

The question is more overwhelming now than ever as many colleges look for students who are less well-rounded and more specialized. The same goes for parents who don’t want to pay for four expensive years of experimentation.

So this shift from well-rounded to angular students...

The editorial board is concerned about the U.S. customs delays at JFK Airport, which are the worst in the nation, according to a new report. The average wait is 36 minutes. When you add that to all the other reasons passengers can get hung up at airports – security checks, flight delays, missed connections – flying seems more inconvenient than ever. The board thinks that JFK Airport should make...

We've always known New York City is not a normal place. Minneapolis is normal. Omaha is normal. New York is a town whose lurid eccentricities have a disturbing way of massing into destructive madness -- like Sandy roaring into town under a full moon at high tide. The resulting chaos is not a sight for the squeamish or for tiny school children or for civics teachers.

As the city's election...

The No. 1 issue on the minds of likely voters in New York City’s upcoming elections is not the stop-and-frisk imbroglio. It’s not the tough, elusive struggle for better outcomes in programs for the homeless and mentally ill. It’s not the shockingly sorry status of more than a few city parks. It is education, said a speaker at a Manhattan Institute forum this morning, citing a recent Zogby poll the...

The editorial board believes that the Obama administration is dancing around the definition of a “coup” in regard to Egypt’s military takeover from elected President Mohammed Morsi. Declaring it a coup would mean the U.S. would be required to withdraw financial aid and, as a result, would diminish our influence in this country’s affairs.

We’re discussing the resignation of Carole Hankin, the...