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In his bid for re-election, Rob Astorino didn't get the Westchester Independence Party's nomination for county executive. It went to Democrat Noam Bramson.

No big surprise there.

That party's boss, Giulio Cavallo, endorsed Astorino in 2009, but soon after became disenchanted with the Republican. Now, as Cavallo was doling out endorsements this week, he's saying that Astorino is too far...

The editorial board debated the wisdom of President Barack Obama appointing Susan Rice as his national security adviser. Rice is a political hot-button, given her involvement in issuing false information after the U.S. embassy attacks in Benghazi, Libya, last September 11.

“He’s doing something that seems to have a politically huge cost, and she’s not head and shoulders above everyone else”...

Editorial board member Jerry McKinstry is attending a meeting this morning with U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Deputy Secretary Maurice A. Jones. Jones is in Westchester to talk about the county’s obligations under the Fair and Affordable Housing Settlement. Integrating upscale neighborhoods with affordable homes is the issue, and Westchester appears to be a national test case...

Sen. Frank Lautenberg's death this morning presents New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie with both a political opportunity and a partisan dilemma.

Christie now has an opportunity to appoint a successor who would have the huge advantage of running for election in 2014 as an incumbent.

But does the Republican governor appoint a Democrat -- say Newark's popular Mayor Corey Booker -- and burnish...

The editorial board is concerned that Suffolk County pulled out of two anti-gang efforts, given that the two fatal shootings in Central Islip appear to have been gang-related. What were Suffolk County’s motives for disbanding the police department’s centralized gang unit, and for leaving the Long Island Gang Task Force? Was it money or policing strategy? We’re looking into this.

We’re confused...

In a month-long sting operation begun in April by the Nassau County Police Department and the district attorney’s office, 104 men were arrested for soliciting prostitutes.

Called “Operation Flush the Johns” (oh, to be a fly on the wall at the meetings where they argue over operation names), the plan involved creating online advertisements for escorts, getting men to agree to meet up at a hotel,...