10 LONGISLANDPRESS.COM • DECEMBER 2019
IN THE NEWS
WEB BRIEFS LI AT A GLANCE
VIOLENT ARREST VIDEO SPURS PROBE
Authorities are ivestigating Freeport village police
after a video surfaced of officers beating and using a
stun gun on a fugitive who allegedly resisted arrest.
When police tried to arrest Akbar Rogers at his
home on Dec. 3, he ran away through several backyards
before officers captured him, officials said.
The video shows multiple officers punching Rogers
and using a stun gun on him during a struggle. Police
said he refused to surrender and kept reaching
for his waistband.
Freeport Village Mayor Robert Kennedy
asked Nassau County District Attorney
Madeline Singas’ office “to look
into the matter,” a village
spokesman said. A Singas
spokesman said, “We are
reviewing the matter.”
HPV VACCINE
MANDATE
DEBATED
A proposal in the New York State Legislature
that would require elementary school students to
receive the HPV vaccine is proving controversial
among parents who are trying to block the bill.
State lawmakers say they’re just trying to keep
children from contracting the sexually transmitted
human papillomavirus that can cause genital
warts and cancer. But opponents of the legislation
are concerned with side effects of the vaccine and
a second bill that would allow schools to immunize
children without parental consent.
“These bills trample on parental rights and medical
freedom and the government has no place in
making medical decisions for our families,” Jessica
Rudin, a parent from East Setauket, wrote in an
online petition opposing the bill that has gotten
nearly 90,000 signatures as of Dec. 4.
Rhode Island, Virginia, and the District of Columbia
are currently the only jurisdictions nationwide
that require that children get the HPV vaccine to
attend school, according to the National Conference
of State Legislatures. At least eight other state legislatures
are considering such proposals.
WOMEN YOUNGER THAN 50 MOST
STRESSED OVER HOLIDAYS
The holidays can be a stressful time of year for
everyone, but those who feel the most stressed out
during the most wonderful time of year are local
women younger than 50, according to a new poll.
Sixty-one percent of females in that age group
reported their stress level is high or very high, a
Truth in Medicine poll of the New York Metro area
found. That’s compared to nonholiday periods
when 26 percent reported having high stress and
5 percent reported their stress is very high. And
46 percent of those polled overall reported high
or very high levels of holiday-induced anxiety.
T he
Mount Sinai
South Nassau Truth
in Medicine Poll, sponsored
by Bethpage Federal Credit Union,
is a quarterly survey of 600 Long Island and New
York City residents conducted by LJR Custom Strategies
over landlines and cell phones between Nov.
6 and 11.
CLAVIN UNSEATS GILLEN
Democratic Hempstead Town Supervisor Laura
Gillen conceded the election to Republican challenger
Don Clavin, who recaptured the town’s top
job in the GOP stronghold.
Gillen, a first-term supervisor who two years ago
became the first Democrat to win the town’s top job
in more than a century, trailed Clavin, the town tax
receiver, by more than 1,500 votes on election night.
That lead grew by another 100 votes following a
count of paper ballots.
Clavin had declared victory on election night, but
Gillen waited two weeks for the Nassau County
Board of Elections to count the absentee and affidavit
ballots before conceding.
PICCIRILLO OUSTS LINDSAY
Suffolk County Legislator William J. Lindsay III
(D-Bohemia) conceded the election to Republican
challenger Anthony Piccirillo following a recount
in the lone county legislature seat to be flipped on
Long Island this year.
Lindsay was trailing Piccirillo by 223 votes in the
unofficial returns on election night but did not make
up the loss after the Board of Elections counted the
paper ballots in the rematch of a 2017 race. The challenger
finished the race with a 215-vote lead.
While seeking a rematch of a race Piccirillo lost
by about 200 votes two years ago, Piccirillo beat
Lindsay in primaries for the Conservative and Independence
party lines this year before ultimately
un- seating the three-term
legislator on Election Day.
EX-POL GETS
SIX MONTHS
FOR FRAUD
Former Hempstead Town
Councilman Edward Ambrosino
was sentenced to six months in
jail following his guilty plea of federal tax
evasion.
The 55-year-old North Valley Stream man was also
sentenced at Central Islip federal court to three
years’ supervised release. Judge Joanna Seybert
additionally ordered him to pay $700,000 in restitution
to his former employer and $254,628 in
restitution to the Internal Revenue Service.
Federal prosecutors said Ambrosino, an attorney
who was disbarred due to the felony conviction,
diverted more than $800,000 in legal fees from
clients that he was required to provide to his former
Uniondale-based law firm. The Republican
resigned from the town board following his guilty
plea.
KING TO RETIRE
Fourteen-term U.S. Rep. Peter King (R-Seaford),
the dean of Long Island’s congressional delegation,
announced that he will not seek re-election in 2020,
setting up a fierce fight for his district.
King, who was first elected to Congress in 1993,
remained as feisty as ever in announcing his
retirement, suggesting that he believes he’d win
re-election if he ran, intends to back President Donald
Trump’s re-election campaign, and will vote
against impeaching the president. He is currently
the longest-serving Republican congressman from
New York.
King is one of 20 members of the GOP minority in
the U.S. House of Representatives to decline seeking
re-election next year. His last day in office will
be on Dec. 31, 2020.
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