Viewsday
Analysis, discussion and opinions by members of Newsday's editorial board.
Alleen Barber
Alleen Barber oversees the op-ed pages and works directly with its columnists. Before coming to Newsday's opinion section in 2000 as a production assistant, she was the managing editor at United Features Syndicate. In January 2006, she joined Newsday's editorial board and was named deputy editor in 2007. She grew up in Davidson, N.C., attended Haverford College and earned a master's degree in sociology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Filler: Is prostitution really the biggest problem in Nassau County?
Photo credit: Howard Schnapp
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,...
Read more »Up on the Board: NY casinos, NJ tunnel, and Suffolk health clinics
Photo credit: Resorts World Casino
We’re taking a look at the State Legislature’s casino decision for Sunday. Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo's proposal to build casinos in two phases, five years apart, doesn’t make sense to the editorial board. For one thing, it’s important for New York to act quickly if it wants to capture a share of the casino market. Western Massachusetts and the Philadelphia area are planning casinos too. Also, concern...
Read more »Up on the Board: Ethics in Albany, boating laws, and old voting machines
Photo credit: Craig Ruttle
The editorial board held a short meeting today because we had a visit from Ellen Biben, who is stepping down as the executive director of the Joint Commission on Public Ethics, and Daniel Horowitz, chairman of JCOPE. The discussion was eye-opening, and we plan to editorialize about this important agency in the near future.
For tomorrow, we’re looking at legislative proposals to...
Read more »Up on the Board: Tax-free SUNY zones, GOP budget battle, and pro soccer
The editorial board will be speaking with Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s office this afternoon about his proposal to give tax-free status to companies that locate onto SUNY campuses. There are some blanks we want to fill in, but we plan at this point to write about the idea for tomorrow’s paper. One question is, would this be a good fit for all SUNY campuses? And, would it create a competitive disadvantage...
Read more »Cartoon: Andrew Cuomo declares war on Canada

A dispute rippling from planned improvements on the New York side of the Peace Bridge connecting New York and Canada has divided the American and Canadian members of the binational board that oversees it, with Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo lamenting that projects important to New York's economy have languished while Canadian-side improvements have moved along.
Mark Wilson is a New York political cartoonist and illustrator who lives in the Adirondacks. He publishes under the pen name Marquil.
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Up on the Board: Boating-safety classes, Liberty Island checkpoints, delays in SBA loans
Photo credit: Getty/ALI MOHAMMADI
With Memorial Day behind us and summer unofficially begun, the editorial board is talking about a proposal in Albany to require boating-safety courses for new operators. Many on the board feel this is a good idea. Is there another instance when someone can operate a heavy vehicle like a boat with no prior training? However, many in the boating community are against the bill and see it as harassment....
Read more »Bessent: Boy Scouts on the right path, but need to go further
Photo credit: Getty Images
The decision by the Boy Scouts of America to allow openly gay members for the first time in its 103-year history marks laudable progress for the venerable organization.
Implementing the enlightened new policy after Jan. 1, 2014, will provide a real-world lesson in character development for the group's 2.7 million young members.
Unfortunately the scouts left some work on the contentious...
Read more »Up on the Board: Boy Scouts, Yonkers district lines, readers' letters
We received many letters this week about the Long Island Power Authority restructuring, and the unfortunate death of Hofstra University student Andrea Rebello. Watch for those to run over the long holiday weekend.
The editorial board thinks the Boy Scouts have taken a half step by admitting gay youth but continuing to prohibit gay leaders. We wonder, what can a boy do who finishes his time...
Read more »Bessent: Barack Obama's speech on national security is welcome and overdue
Photo credit: AP
The case for a fundamental shift in the nation’s approach to combating terrorists that President Barack Obama laid out Thursday — including a call for Congress to refine or even repeal the 2001 authorization for the use of military force — was both welcome and overdue.
The nation is still threatened by terrorists. Boston and Benghazi made that painfully clear. But the existence of a few individuals...
Read more »Up on the Board: Storm evacuation in NYC, Obama on drones, tax-free zones on campus
Photo credit: Getty
The editorial board is discussing a new storm evacuation study from the Bloomberg administration that expands the mandatory zones -- though we're dismayed by the numbers of New York City residents who were told to evacuate for Sandy but didn’t. We’re wondering what the city can do increase evacuation compliance before the next big one.
President Barack Obama plans to speak about drones...
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