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Two days before Hurricane Sandy made an East Coast landfall, the feds downgraded it to a post-tropical cyclone.

Yes, a cyclone! The kind of thing that carried Dorothy from the prairies of Kansas to the Land of Oz. The kind of thing that thrill-seekers pay money to ride at Coney Island.

But the scientists at the National Hurricane Center knew precisely what they were doing, and from their...

How do you control the actions of a nation whose leader doesn’t much care what the United States or anyone else thinks or does?

That’s the hellish conundrum the United States and the world face with North Korea, which conducted a nuclear weapons test Tuesday in defiance of United Nation’s resolutions, international sanctions and negotiated commitments.

The test was met with universal...

The Long Island Coalition for the Homeless will hold its annual Have a Heart for the Homeless candlelight vigil from 6 to 8 p.m. on Wednesday at Farmingdale State College to raise awareness about the growing problem of homelessness on Long Island. This year, that includes people who lost their homes to superstorm Sandy. 

But who is it that needs to be made aware? Not those who have been...

Could the next pope be the last of the Roman Catholic Church?

Yes, according to an ancient prophecy written by an Irish saint.

St. Malachy, bishop of Armagh in the 12th Century, predicted that the current pope -- although he was not specifically identified as Pope Benedict XVI -- would be the second-to-last pontiff before the end of the world.

Benedict said Monday that he would...

Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino added about $100,000 on Thursday night to a growing war chest that he’ll need to fend off a Democratic challenger this fall in his bid for a second term.

The Republican, whose fundraiser at the Double Tree Hotel in Tarrytown cost top donors $5,000 a piece, mingled with the 350 or so guests, including business leaders, public officials, GOP and Conservative...

While targeted executions of American citizens believed to be terrorists grabbed most of the attention when Senators grilled thepresident’s nominee to head the CIA Thursday, a close second was leaks.

Members of the Intelligence Committee demanded to know why the press seems to get so much information from the agency while they get so little.

Sen. Jim Risch (R-Idaho) even accused John...

Newsday's opinion pages seek to be a reasoned and pragmatic forum for Long Island and its values. Today we launch a new interactive feature to further the mission we first described in 1940.

In print, our editorials, columns, op-eds and letters to the editor give voice to Long Islanders' opinions about politics, policy and life on Long Island. Our new feature, Take the Podium, will offer Long...

It is a tribute to Arizona Sen. John McCain’s unique skill set that he was able to dream up a way to describe Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that actually angered people.

Ahmadinejad regularly denies the Holocaust happened, has called for Israel to be “wiped off the map” and stated that the United States planned and carried out the attacks of 9/11 against its own people.

I’m pretty...

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney told reporters today, as they flew to Minneapolis for an event on tougher gun control, that The White House released a photograph of President Barack Obama shooting skeet at Camp David in an attempt to quiet “persistent questions.”

Clearly, that didn’t go very well.

The photograph, released on Saturday, depicts Obama shooting clay targets on Aug....