KJOY spent the morning at Crossroads Farm in Malverne to get the scoop from Malverne Mel, Nassau County’s famous prognosticator! Six more weeks of winter? Early spring? Find out what Mel had to say here:
Nassau County Executive Laura Curran joined Jamie Thursday morning to discuss how Nassau County is dealing with COVID-19.
Check out this awesome duet remix of “Cold Heart” with Elton John and Dua Lipa!
PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — The Titan submersible disaster could have been prevented, the U.S. Coast Guard said in a report Tuesday that held OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush responsible for ignoring safety warnings, design flaws and crucial oversight which, had he survived, may have resulted in criminal charges.
Rush and four passengers were killed instantly deep below the North Atlantic in June 2023 when Titan suffered a catastrophic implosion as it descended to the wreck of the Titanic. A multi-day search for survivors off Canada grabbed international headlines, and the tragedy led to lawsuits and calls for tighter regulation of the burgeoning private deep sea expedition industry.
The Coast Guard determined the safety procedures at OceanGate, a private company based in Washington state, were “critically flawed” and found “glaring disparities” between safety protocols and actual practices.
Preventing the next Titan disaster
Jason Neubauer with the Marine Board of Investigation said the findings will help avoid future tragedies.
“There is a need for stronger oversight and clear options for operators who are exploring new concepts outside of the existing regulatory framework,” he said in a statement.
OceanGate suspended operations in July 2023. A spokesperson for OceanGate, Christian Hammond, said the company has been wound down and was fully cooperating with the investigation, and offered condolences to the families of those who died and everyone affected.
‘Red flags’ at OceanGate
Investigators pointed to OceanGate’s culture of downplaying, ignoring and even falsifying key safety information to improve its reputation and evade scrutiny from regulators.
The company ignored “red flags” and had a “toxic workplace culture,” where firings of senior staff and the looming threat of being fired were used to dissuade employees and contractors from expressing safety concerns.
Rush, a former test flight engineer for fighter jets, founded the company in 2009 after years of experience in aerospace and aviation.
The Marine Board concluded that Rush had an “escalating disregard for established safety protocols,” which contributed to the deaths of four people. If Rush were alive, the board would have passed the case to the U.S. Department of Justice and he may have faced criminal charges, the board said.
Rush bragged he’d ‘buy a congressman’ if challenged
The company reclassified submersible passengers as “mission specialists” to bypass regulations on small passenger vessels and claim its subs were oceanic research vessels. Former mission specialists and OceanGate employees said their participation was “purely for a ride in the submersible, not for scientific research,” the report said.
Rush and OceanGate received numerous warnings about Titan’s fraudulent classifications. In 2017, Rush was told by a Coast Guard Reserve officer hired by OceanGate that his planned Titanic dive would be illegal.
Rush said “he would buy a congressman” if ever confronted by regulators, the officer testified.
Over the years, the company resorted to increasingly deceptive strategies, the report said. By 2021, an OceanGate attorney falsely informed a federal court in Virginia — which was presiding over The Titan’s authorization to conduct dives — that the vessel was registered in the Bahamas, even though it wasn’t.
To obtain his credentials, Rush submitted a fraudulent sea service letter signed by OceanGate’s chief operations officer to the Coast Guard’s National Maritime Center, the report said. In the letter, Rush claimed past service as a crew member on Titan and misrepresented the size of the vessel, when in fact it had never been registered or admeasured.
Titan’s inadequacies
Investigators found the submersible’s design, certification, maintenance and inspection process were all inadequate. The vessel’s carbon fiber hull design and construction introduced flaws that “weakened the overall structural integrity” of its hull, the report stated.
Mounting financial pressures in 2023 led to a decision by OceanGate to store the Titan submersible outdoors over the Canadian winter, where its hull was exposed to temperature fluctuations that compromised the integrity of the vessel, the report said.
The victims of the Titan disaster
The implosion also killed French underwater explorer Paul-Henri Nargeolet, known as “Mr. Titanic,” British adventurer Hamish Harding, and two members of a prominent Pakistani family, Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman Dawood.
Nargeolet’s family filed a $50 million lawsuit last year that said the crew experienced “terror and mental anguish” before the disaster. The lawsuit accused OceanGate of gross negligence.
The Titan’s final dive
Titan had been making voyages to the Titanic site since 2021. The Titan’s final dive came on the morning of June 18, 2023. The submersible lost contact with its support vessel about two hours later, and was reported overdue that afternoon. Ships, planes and equipment were rushed to the scene about 435 miles (700 kilometers) south of St. John’s, Newfoundland.
The Coast Guard-led team operated under the possibility there could be survivors for several days. Wreckage would subsequently be found on the ocean floor about 330 yards (300 meters) off the bow of the Titanic.
Hempstead Town Supervisor Don Clavin resigned Tuesday morning during a Town Board meeting. Clavin who had served as supervisor since 2019 announced earlier this year he would not run for another term.
The town has already sworn in Republican Legislator John Ferretti to serve as interim supervisor. Ferretti will run for a full term against Democrat Joe Scianablo in November.
HILLSDALE, N.J. (AP) — A second small earthquake rattled the New York metropolitan area on Tuesday within several days of another.
The 2.7 magnitude earthquake struck a little after noon near suburban Hillsdale, New Jersey, about 10 miles (16 kilometers) northwest of the Bronx in New York City, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
There were no initial reports of damages or injuries from the quake, which was felt in the city and Connecticut.
The tremor came after a 3.0 magnitude earthquake shook the area Saturday night. That earthquake struck Hasbrouck Heights, which is about 9 miles (14 kilometers) south of Hillsdale.
Though the two relatively mild quakes occurred nearby over several days, geophysicist Jessica Turner of the National Earthquake Information Center said it was “a little hard” to label the second one an aftershock.
“While it did occur about nine miles to the north of the earthquake that occurred on August 2nd, we aren’t quite sure because it’s not right on top of that location,” she said. “We aren’t quite sure if this is an aftershock of that earthquake or if maybe it’s just kind of like a separate earthquake that occurred.”
While tremors this strong are common in other parts of the United States, relatively few have been recorded in the New York City area.
A much larger, 4.8-magnitude quake that struck in Tewksbury, New Jersey, a little farther west of the city, in April 2024 was felt as far away as Boston and Baltimore.
Toast Coffee + Kitchen has opened its fifth Long Island location at Station Yards in Ronkonkoma. Located near the Ronkonkoma LIRR station, the restaurant is part of the redevelopment of the are by TRITEC Real Estate Company. When completed Station Yards will include 1,450 apartments, 195,000 square feet of retail.
A Mister Softee ice cream truck caught fire Sunday night just after 10pm in Valley Stream near the Honda dealership in the Green Acres Mall Complex. No one was injured and the fire was put out in about 30 minutes by the Valley Stream Volunteer Fire Department. Officials did not say what caused the fire.
The Federal Trade Commission is warning the public to ignore and delete a new wave of scam texts messages that falsely clam to be a recall notices from Amazon. According to the agency the messages claim a defect was found in a recent Amazon purchase and tells customers can get a full refund by tapping a link. Clicking the link takes victims to a look-alike sites designed to harvest Amazon credentials, credit-card numbers, or other personal data that can be resold or used for identity theft.
NEW YORK (AP) — The New York Post is launching a California tabloid newspaper and news site next year, the company announced Monday, bringing an assertive, irreverent and conservative-friendly fixture of the Big Apple media landscape to the Golden State. In the process, it is creating a 21st-century rarity: a new American newspaper with a robust print edition.
Adding another title to Rupert Murdoch ‘s media empire, The California Post is setting out to cover politics, local news, business, entertainment and sports in the nation’s most populous state, while drawing and building on the venerable New York paper’s national coverage. Plans for the Los Angeles-based paper call for a print edition seven days a week plus a website, social media accounts and video and audio pieces.
“There is no doubt that the Post will play a crucial role in engaging and enlightening readers, who are starved of serious reporting and puckish wit,” Robert Thomson, chief executive of Post corporate parent News Corp., said in a statement. In typically brash and punchy Post fashion, he portrayed California as plagued by “jaundiced, jaded journalism.”
It enters at a bumpy moment for its industry
However bold its intentions, the venture is being launched into a turbulent atmosphere for the news business, particularly for print papers. More than 3,200 of them have closed nationwide since 2005, according to figures kept by Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. The online world spawned new information sources and influencers, changed news consumers’ tastes and habits and upended the advertising market on which newspapers relied.
“While it’s true the media landscape is challenging, The New York Post has been finding success through its unique voice, editorial lens and quality coverage. That same formula is tailor-made for California,” said the New York Post Media Group. It includes the Post and some other media properties.
California, with a population of nearly 40 million, still has hundreds of newspapers, including dailies in and around Los Angeles and other major cities. But the nation’s second-most-populous city hasn’t had a dedicated tabloid focused on regional issues in recent memory, according to Danny Bakewell, president of the Los Angeles Press Club.
“It’s really an untested market here,” said Bakewell, who is editor-in-chief of the Los Angeles Sentinel, a weekly focused on the city’s Black population. “L.A. is always ready for good-quality news reporting, and particularly in this moment when so many other papers are shrinking and disappearing, it could be a really unique opportunity.”
The Post is a unique beast
There is no U.S. newspaper quite like the 224-year-old New York Post. It was founded by no less a luminary than Alexander Hamilton, the country’s first treasury secretary, an author of the Federalist Papers, the victim of a duel at the hands of the vice president and the inspiration for the Broadway smash “Hamilton.” Murdoch, News Corp.’s founder and now its chairman emeritus, bought the Post in 1976, sold it a dozen years later, then repurchased it in 1993.
The Post is known for its relentless and skewering approach to reporting, its facility with sensational or racy subject matter, its Page Six gossip column, and the paper’s huge and often memorable front-page headlines — see, for example, 1983’s “Headless Body in Topless Bar.”
At the same time, the Post is a player in both local and national politics. It routinely pushes, from the right, on “wokeness” and other culture-war pressure points, and it has broken such political stories as the Hunter Biden laptop saga. The Post has an avid reader in President Donald Trump, who gave its “Pod Force One” podcast an interview as recently as last month.
In recent years, the Post’s website and such related sites as PageSix.com have built a large and far-flung digital audience, 90% of it outside the New York media market, according to the company.
With the Los Angeles readership second only to New York’s, The California Post “is the next manifestation of our national brand,” Editor-in-Chief Keith Poole said in a statement. He’ll also be involved in overseeing the California paper with its editor-in-chief, Nick Papps, who has worked with News Corp.’s Australian outlets for decades, including a stint as an L.A.-based correspondent.
The company didn’t specify how many journalists The California Post will have.
Associated Press writer Jake Offenhartz contributed from Los Angeles.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Loni Anderson, who played a struggling radio station’s empowered receptionist on the hit TV comedy “WKRP in Cincinnati,” died Sunday, just days before her 80th birthday.
Anderson died at a Los Angeles hospital following a prolonged illness, said her longtime publicist, Cheryl J. Kagan.
“We are heartbroken to announce the passing of our dear wife, mother and grandmother,” Anderson’s family said in a statement.
“WKRP in Cincinnati” aired from 1978 to 1982 and was set in a flagging Ohio radio station trying to reinvent itself with rock music. The cast included Gary Sandy, Tim Reid, Howard Hesseman, Frank Bonner and Jan Smithers, alongside Anderson as Jennifer Marlowe, whose good looks were matched by her intelligence.
As the station’s receptionist, the blonde and high-heeled Jennifer routinely deflected unwanted business calls for her boss, Mr. Carlson. Her efficiency often kept the station running in the face of others’ incompetence.
The role earned Anderson two Emmy Award nominations and three Golden Globe nominations.
Anderson starred on the big screen alongside Burt Reynold s in the 1983 comedy “Stroker Ace,” and the two later married and became tabloid fixtures before their messy breakup in 1994.
Their son, Quinton Reynolds, was “the best decision that we ever made in our entire relationship,” she said during the unveiling of a bronze bust at Reynolds’ Hollywood grave site in 2021.
“I think back to the beginning of our relationship, it was so, oh, gosh, tabloidy. We were just a spectacle all the time. And it was hard to have a relationship in that atmosphere. And somehow, we did it through many ups and downs,” Anderson told The Associated Press.
Anderson detailed their tumultuous marriage in the 1995 autobiography, “My Life in High Heels,” which she said was about “the growth of a woman, a woman who survives.”
“I think if you’re going to write about yourself, you have to do it warts and all,” Anderson told the AP while promoting the book. “You may not even tell the nicest things about yourself, because you’re telling the truth.”
She married four times, most recently to Bob Flick in 2008.
Anderson was born Aug. 5, 1945, in St. Paul, Minnesota. Her father was an environmental chemist, and her mother was a model.
Her first role as an actress was a small part in the 1966 film “Nevada Smith,” starring Steve McQueen. Most of her career was spent on the small screen with early guest parts in the 1970s on “S.W.A.T.” and “Police Woman.” After “WKRP,” Anderson starred in the short-lived comedy series “Easy Street” and appeared in made-for-TV movies including “A Letter to Three Wives” and “White Hot: The Mysterious Murder of Thelma Todd.”
In 2023 she co-starred in Lifetime’s “Ladies Of The 80s: A Divas Christmas” with Linda Gray, Donna Mills, Morgan Fairchild and Nicollette Sheridan.
“I am heartbroken to hear of the passing of the wonderful Loni Anderson!” Fairchild wrote on X. “The sweetest, most gracious lady! I’m just devastated to hear this.”
Anderson is survived by Flick, her daughter Deidra and son-in law Charlie Hoffman, son Quinton Anderson Reynolds, grandchildren McKenzie and Megan Hoffman, stepson Adam Flick and wife Helene, and step-grandchildren Felix and Maximilian.
A private family service is planned at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery, Kagan said.
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By PHILIP MARCELO Associated Press
Strong rain storms lashed the East Coast Thursday, delaying flights throughout the region and prompting emergency rescues of motorists trapped in deep water on busy highways from the Philadelphia area to New York City.
In New York, flash flooding briefly closed sections of major roadways and flooded train stations across the metropolitan region just as the evening rush hour approached.
Commuters captured video of water pouring over a train on a platform in Manhattan’s Grand Central Terminal, while commuter rail lines into suburban Long Island and New Jersey were suspended in places as tracks were deluged. Power lines also were impacted.
Amtrak officials announced Thursday evening that trains between Philadelphia and Wilmington were stopped because of severe storms causing high water over the tracks.
“Once a route is available, anticipate residual delays,” company officials posted on X.
Traffic cameras and social media posts on a highway in the New York City borough of Queens showed motorists at one point standing on the roofs of stranded vehicles and a tractor trailer nearly fully submerged. Police said they pulled cars carrying two people from the flooded stretch before the waters receded and traffic slowly resumed.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams and other local officials pleaded with people to stay off the roads and urged residents in basement apartments to move to higher locations as rain was expected to fall through Friday afternoon.
In Pennsylvania, National Weather Service warnings of up to 3 inches of rain in an hour produced flooding in Reading, a city about 60 miles (96 kilometers) northwest of Philadelphia.
Photos and videos online showed parked cars nearly underwater and water pouring down a narrow city street. Other videos from Reading showed emergency vehicles blocking off some streets or underpasses as flood waters had rendered them impassable.
In Maryland, emergency responders rescued multiple people from flooded vehicles in communities northeast of Baltimore.
Officials there also preemptively closed roads prone to flooding, shuttered schools and libraries early and opened emergency shelters as more thunderstorms were expected across Maryland into the evening. Flood watches and warnings were issued across the state.
Airports in New York, New Jersey and Philadelphia all reported scores of flight delays and cancellations into Thursday evening.
Tornado warnings in New Jersey came and went with no reports of twisters, though more than 20,000 electricity customers were without power as of Thursday evening.
States of emergency were declared in New Jersey and New York City, where government workers were sent home early.
Forecasters said the strongest storms were expected later Thursday afternoon and night, with heavy to excessive rainfall and potentially severe thunderstorms along the Washington-Philadelphia-New York City corridor.
Flood watches and severe thunderstorm watches remained in effect until late Thursday and Friday, with 4 to 6 inches (10 to 15 centimeters) of rain possible in some areas.
The weather service warned flooding was possible in small creeks and streams and urban areas, along with highways, streets, underpasses and places with poor drainage. Some areas could also see high wind gusts and penny-sized hail.