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Analysis, discussion and opinions by members of Newsday's editorial board.

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Rita Ciolli

Rita Ciolli began working for Newsday 40 years ago as a summer intern. During her senior year at Fordham University, the Bronx native worked full time covering Hempstead town. After graduating from Georgetown University Law Center in 1977, she spent a decade in the Washington bureau assigned to the U.S. Supreme Court, the Justice Department and the FBI. After a long stint as a media and technology reporter, Ciolli covered religion before joining the editorial board in 2005. She became editor of the opinion section in November 2007 and has expanded its commentary and letters sections both in print and online.

Dolman: Truths large and small in the death of Trayvon Martin

Demonstrators attend a protest march in Times Square

Photo credit: Charles Eckert

In Times Square late Sunday night, hundreds of protesters gathered to vent angrily about the acquittal of George Zimmerman, the pistol-packing neighborhood watch volunteer who shot an unarmed black teenager named Trayvon Martin last year in a scuffle whose details are murky to this day.

While gut-wrenchingly furious, most of the protesters I saw interviewed managed to maintain their poise....

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Up on the Board: Readers react to Zimmerman verdict, ShotSpotter not, LIRR bans fake cigs

Demonstrators protest in front of the Seminole County

Photo credit: Getty Images

The editorial board discussed whether we should take a position on the Justice Department’s consideration of a criminal civil rights case against George Zimmerman, who was acquitted of state charges in a Florida courtroom on Saturday. The DOJ says it’s reviewing evidence. We decided to hold off writing an editorial for now, and noted that there are major barriers to federal prosecution, such as...

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Dolman: Taxis are New York City's daily dose of agita — and magnificence

A woman tries to hail a taxi on

Photo credit: Getty Images

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...

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Up on the Board: Napolitano’s successor, a death in custody, post-Sandy spending

Photo credit: AP

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...

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Uberti: Twinkies are back -- for eternity

The new Twinkies box bears the tagline, quot;The

Photo credit: Handout

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...

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Up on the Board: Spitzer’s poll numbers, Hempstead spelling snafu, Twinkies on the shelf

A suburban Chicago restaurant has given away about

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...

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Dolman: It's not NYC's role to save Catholic schools

Anthony Weiner is questioned by the media in

Photo credit: Charles Eckert

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...

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Crowley: Should high school students spend their summers in college lecture halls?

A Penn State University student walks across campus

Photo credit: AP

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...

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Up on the Board: JFK Airport’s worst record in nation, Hempstead summer reading list

An air traffic controller looks out from the

Photo credit: Craig Ruttle

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...

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Dolman: 2013 elections already giving New York City a wild ride

Former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer speaks to

Photo credit: Charles Eckert

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...

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