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!
By TIM REYNOLDS AP Basketball Writer
Jalen Brunson made more baskets than anyone else in the NBA this season when games were considered to be on the line.
He delivered in the clutch. And a trophy is coming his way.
Brunson, the New York Knicks’ star guard, won the NBA’s clutch player of the year award on Wednesday. He got 70 of the 100 first-place votes, easily beating second-place Nikola Jokic of Denver and third-place Anthony Edwards of Minnesota.
“I think some people are born into it,” Brunson said on TNT shortly after the results were revealed. “I think I had to learn. I learned back in high school, kind of got better and better at each stage, and here we are.”
Brunson — who made a league-best 52 field goals in clutch time — averaged 5.6 points on 51.5% shooting in those moments, with the Knicks going 17-11 in the games he played that met the criteria for the “clutch” designation.
Brunson was truly at his best in the final 30 seconds of those games. He shot 11 for 17 — 64.7% — in those moments, including 4 for 8 from 3-point range.
A panel of 100 global writers and broadcasters who cover the NBA voted on the award. The NBA’s head coaches each submitted five names for consideration, and that list resulted in 20 candidates.
Brunson is the third winner of the award, after De’Aaron Fox (then of Sacramento, now of San Antonio) in 2023 and Golden State’s Stephen Curry last year. The award is named for Hall of Famer Jerry West — who was dubbed “Mr. Clutch” when he played as a nod to his exploits when games were on the line.
For a play to be considered clutch, by the NBA’s definition, these are the criteria: the score differential has to be five points or less, and the game has to be in either the final five minutes of the fourth quarter or in overtime.
“Oftentimes you’d say, ‘Well, he has poise under pressure and he has confidence.’ And so, where do those things come from?” Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau said of Brunson. “And you understand that it comes from his preparation. You obviously have to have great talent. But because of the way he prepares himself, when he’s in those situations he’s very confident because of the work that he’s put into it.”
The clutch player award was the second handed out by the NBA during its awards season. Boston’s Payton Pritchard was announced as the league’s sixth man of the year on Tuesday. Another award comes Thursday: defensive player of the year, with the finalists being Atlanta’s Dyson Daniels, Golden State’s Draymond Green and Cleveland’s Evan Mobley.
The hustle award will be announced Friday. Announcement dates for the other top honors — MVP, most improved player, rookie of the year, and coach of the year, along with All-NBA and All-Rookie team selections — have not yet been revealed by the NBA.
Edwards led the NBA with 157 clutch points this season, while Brunson was second with 156 and Jokic was fourth with 140. Jokic was also third in clutch-time rebounds with 50 (behind Domantas Sabonis and Giannis Antetokounmpo, both of whom grabbed 53), and Edwards was fourth in clutch rebounds with 45. Jokic was second in clutch assists with 36 (one fewer than Trae Young), with Brunson third in clutch assists with 28 and Edwards tied for 28th.
“Finding a way to win, I think that’s what’s most important,” Brunson said. “You can have clutch plays, but they literally don’t mean anything if you don’t win. The winning part is most important for me.”
Jokic got 28 first-place votes and Edwards got the other two. Young was fourth, Curry was fifth, Cleveland’s Darius Garland was sixth, LeBron James of the Los Angeles Lakers was seventh, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander of Oklahoma City was eighth, Cleveland’s Donovan Mitchell was ninth and three players — Dallas’ Kyrie Irving, Philadelphia’s Tyrese Maxey and Boston’s Jayson Tatum — tied for 10th.
(Nassau Police) The Third Squad reports the arrest of an East Garden City man for an incident that occurred on Sunday, April 20, 2025 at 1:50 pm in East Garden City.
According to Detectives, Defendant Victor Divergilio, 83, of 223 Wheeler Avenue entered the parking lot of the Roosevelt Field Mall located at 630 Old Country Road when he walked alongside five brand new Tesla vehicles and used a sharp object to deeply scratch, causing approximately $23,000 worth of damage, to these vehicles.
After a thorough investigation, detectives located the defendant at his residence and placed him under arrest without incident.
Defendant Victor Divergilio is charged with Criminal Mischief 2nd Degree. He will be arraigned on Wednesday, April 23, 2025 at First District Court, 99 Main Street, Hempstead.
Las Vegas Sands has decides not to pursue the development of a casino & resort at the Nassau Coliseum and it will not apply in June for one of the state’s three gaming licenses available for the downstate region.
In a statement, the company says it believes that the Coliseum “is the best location” for a development opportunity. However, the company cited concerns about the impact of the potential legalization of iGaming on the overall market opportunity and they are attempting to secure an agreement with a third party who would bid for a casino license at the Nassau Coliseum site.
MINEOLA, N.Y. (AP) — A woman and toddler whose remains were discovered scattered along an oceanfront highway not far from the victims of Long Island’s infamous Gilgo Beach killings were identified Wednesday as a U.S. Army veteran from Alabama and her daughter.
Tanya Denise Jackson, 26, of Mobile, had been living in Brooklyn with her 2-year-old daughter, Tatiana Marie Dykes, at the time of their deaths, Nassau County police announced.
Jackson, who police say may have worked as a medical assistant, had been previously nicknamed “Peaches” by investigators after a tattoo on her body.
Her identity had been a mystery for nearly 28 years. For roughly half that time, investigators have sought to determine whether she and her daughter were victims of the same killer, or killers, who left the bodies of several other people strewn in the sand along the parkway that runs the length of Jones Beach Island.
Police said Wednesday that they had no evidence at this point linking the mother and daughter’s deaths to Rex Heuermann, who has been charged in the deaths of seven women whose remains were discovered elsewhere on the beach road and other parts of Long Island.
“Although Tanya and Tatiana have commonly been linked to the Gilgo Beach serial killings because the timing and locations of their recovered remains, we are not discounting the possibility that their cases are unrelated from that investigation,” Nassau Police Det. Capt. Stephen Fitzpatrick said.
“I’m not saying it is Rex Heuermann and I’m not saying it’s not,” he added. “We are proceeding as if it’s not, keeping our eyes wide open.”
Some of Jackson’s remains were discovered on June 28, 1997, stuffed inside a plastic tub in a state park in West Hempstead. More remains, and the skeletal remains of the female child, were found in April 2011 off Ocean Parkway, which runs for 15 miles (24 kilometers) along Long Island’s barrier island beaches.
At the briefing Wednesday, law enforcement officials said they had identified Jackson and her daughter through advanced DNA and genealogy research.
“The reality is, our work has just begun,” Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly said. “Knowing the identities of the mom and the little baby is just a first step to help us get to solving these murders.”
Fitzpatrick said police spoke with the child’s father, who was cooperating with the investigation and is not considered a suspect at this time.
He said local authorities initially turned over DNA evidence to the FBI, which provided a likely identification for the two in 2022. Additional DNA samples obtained the following year allowed police to notify surviving family members last year. The two were recently laid to rest, with Jackson receiving “full military honors,” Fitzpatrick said.
Jackson, who drove a black 1991 Geo Storm, was estranged from her family so it was some time before she was reported missing, he added. She served in the U.S. Army from 1993 to 1995, living on three bases in Texas, Georgia and Missouri, according to Fitzpatrick.
“We never gave up on striving for justice for either Tanya or Tatiana,” he said. “We’re determined to find the reasons and circumstances that led to their untimely deaths.”
Nassau Police said they’re offering a $25,000 reward to anyone with information leading to an arrest.
Public interest in the mystery of “Peaches” identity surged in 2011, when police searching for victims of a possible serial killer discovered that her bones were among 10 sets of human remains discovered off of Ocean Parkway not far from Gilgo Beach.
Most of the victims were female sex workers.
Heuermann, an architect who lived on Long Island, was charged with killing three of the women in 2023. Authorities have since charged him with four more killings. Heuermann has maintained his innocence and pleaded not guilty. His lawyer did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment Wednesday.
Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney’s office, which is prosecuting Heuermann, said in a statement he is not commenting on “any topics even tangentially involved to the investigation” while a pre-trial hearing plays out.
Authorities are still trying to identify one more set of remains. In September, Long Island officials released more detailed renderings of a victim believed to be of Chinese descent whose remains were found off Ocean Parkway in 2011. The victim died in 2006 or earlier, was likely between ages 17 and 23 and about 5 feet 6 inches (170 centimeters) tall.
Officials for years had identified the victim as male, but said they now believe the person may have presented outwardly as female as they were dressed in women’s clothing.
The Nassau County Police Department will have a press conference Wednesday where they will be providing updated information on a 1997 homicide investigation of a victim known only as “Peaches.” The female victim is called that because of a tattoo she had.
Officials have said that DNA links “Peaches” to a toddler who was found buried on Gilgo Beach.
The press confidence will b at 11 a.m. at Nassau County Police Headquarters in Mineola.
NEW YORK (AP) — The New York Times did not libel former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin for an error in a 2017 editorial that she says damaged her reputation, a jury concluded Tuesday.
The jury deliberated a little over two hours before reaching its verdict after lawyers for Palin and the newspaper delivered closing arguments at a Manhattan federal court civil trial that was in its second week.
Palin was sullen immediately after the verdict was announced by a jury foreperson who said the Times was “not libel.”
She testified Monday that death threats against her increased and her spirits fell after an editorial about gun violence said her political action committee had contributed to political rhetoric that enabled an atmosphere of violence.
The Times corrected the article less than 14 hours after it was published.
Palin was subdued as she left the courthouse for the final time and made her way to a waiting car, telling reporters: “I get to go home to a beautiful family of five kids and grandkids and a beautiful property and get on with life. And that’s nice.”
Later, she posted on the social platform X that she “didn’t prevail” in her lawsuit but vowed to “keep asking the press to quit making things up.”
Kenneth Turkel, an attorney for Palin, said as he left the courthouse that the legal team will evaluate all posttrial and appellate options.
Danielle Rhoades Ha, a Times spokesperson, said in a statement that the verdict “reaffirms an important tenet of American law: publishers are not liable for honest mistakes.”
In his closing argument, Turkel had urged the jury to find the Times liable for defamation on the grounds that its former editorial page editor, James Bennet, either knew what he was publishing was wrong or acted with “reckless disregard” for the truth.
He asked the jury to award Palin compensatory damages for the harm done to her reputation and private mental anguish, adding that they should “find a number and let her get some closure to this thing.”
“To this day, there been no accountability,” he said. “That’s why we’re here.”
He told jurors not to be deceived by Palin’s “bouncy” persona on the witness stand.
“She doesn’t cry a lot,” Turkel said. “It may have been to them an honest mistake. For her, it was a life changer.”
Palin, who earned a journalism degree in college, sued the Times for unspecified damages in 2017, about a decade after she burst onto the national stage as the Republican vice-presidential nominee.
Her lawsuit stemmed from an editorial about gun control published after U.S. Rep. Steve Scalise, a Louisiana Republican, was wounded in 2017 when a man with a history of anti-GOP activity opened fire on a Congressional baseball team practice in Washington.
In the editorial, the Times wrote that before the 2011 mass shooting in Arizona that severely wounded former U.S. Rep. Gabby Giffords and killed six others, Palin’s political action committee had contributed to an atmosphere of violence by circulating a map of electoral districts that put Giffords and 19 other Democrats under stylized crosshairs.
In a correction, The Times said the editorial had “incorrectly stated that a link existed between political rhetoric and the 2011 shooting” and that it had “incorrectly described” the map.
A tearful Bennet apologized to Palin from the witness stand when he testified last week, saying he was tormented by the error and worked urgently to correct it after readers complained to the newspaper.
Felicia Ellsworth, an attorney for the Times, told jurors in her closing that there was not “one shred of evidence showing anything other than an honest mistake.”
Ellsworth said Bennet and the Times “corrected the record loudly, clearly and quickly” once the error was discovered.
The lawyer pointed out that several Times editors testified consistently about the effort to correct the error and the importance they placed on accuracy while Palin’s claims were “supported by nothing other than her say so.”
“To Gov. Palin, this is just another opportunity to take on fake news. To James Bennet, the truth matters,” Ellsworth said.
In February 2022, Judge Jed S. Rakoff rejected Palin’s claims in a ruling issued while a jury deliberated. The judge then let jurors deliver their verdict, which also went against Palin.
The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan restored the case last year.
The appeals court said Rakoff’s dismissal ruling improperly intruded on the jury’s work. It also cited flaws in the trial, saying there was erroneous exclusion of evidence, an inaccurate jury instruction and a mistaken response to a question from the jury.
NEW YORK (AP) — George Santos is defending his recent social media tirade to a federal judge who will be sentencing the disgraced former New York congressman later this week on fraud charges.
In a lengthy letter ahead of the Friday court date, Santos, 36, said he remains “profoundly sorry” for his crimes but protests that the seven-year prison sentence sought by prosecutors as “ridiculous” and overly harsh.
“Every sunrise since that plea has carried the same realization: I did this, me. I am responsible,” wrote the former Republican lawmaker, who pleaded guilty last summer. “But saying I’m sorry doesn’t require me to sit quietly while these prosecutors try to drop an anvil on my head.”
Prosecutors, in a filing last week, argued Santos “remains unrepentant” and has not shown genuine remorse, as his lawyers have claimed in their own filing seeking a lighter, two-year prison stint.
They cited a series of posts on X, formerly Twitter, in which he disparaged the U.S. Department of Justice as a “cabal of pedophiles” and cast himself as a victim of prosecutorial overreach.
Santos, who admitted he deceived donors and stole the identities of nearly a dozen people to fund his congressional campaign, countered that his “colorful” posts are being wrongly “repurposed as a sword against me” by prosecutors.
“Contesting the severity of a proposed sentence is not the same as contesting guilt, and punishing protected speech because it questions punishment should trouble anyone who values fair prosecution over personal vindication,” he wrote.
Santos said calling himself the “scapegoat” in social media posts was in reference to prosecutors claiming he was the “organizer/leader” of his campaign’s financial fraud and warranted a stiffer sentence. He argued his former campaign treasurer, Nancy Marks, who has also pleaded guilty and faces sentencing next month, shares equal part in the blame.
“If I were the criminal mastermind they portray, I would be the clumsiest in modern memory: leaving a trail of screenshots pointing directly back to myself,” he wrote in the Saturday letter.
Santos also pushed back at prosecutors’ claims that he has not made efforts to pay the roughly $580,000 owed as part of his plea deal, saying he’s “liquidated personal assets, reduced my living expenses, and tried as hard as I could to raise some money for restitution.”
He added that he has not asked any of his friends or family to write letters to the court on his behalf, nor did he expect any supporters to attend Friday’s sentencing in Long Island federal court out of embarrassment and shame.
“I don’t want to bring anyone else in my life into this mess,” Santos wrote. “This is mine to deal with and mine alone.”
The U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York’s office, which is prosecuting the case, declined to comment.
Santos was elected in 2022 to represent parts of Queens and Long Island but served barely a year before being ousted by his House colleagues.
Santos fabricated much of his life story, leading to questions about how the political unknown had funded his winning campaign.
By STEPHEN WHYNO AP Hockey Writer
Lou Lamoriello is out as president and general manager of the New York Islanders, after the team said Tuesday the longtime NHL executive’s contract was not being renewed.
Managing partner John Collins will lead a search to find the Islanders’ next GM.
“The Islanders extend a heartfelt thank you to Lou Lamoriello for his extraordinary commitment over the past seven years,” the team said in a statement. “His dedication to the team is in line with his Hall of Fame career.”
Lamoriello, 82, spent the past seven years running the Islanders’ hockey operations with a close connection to ownership. They missed the playoffs this season but qualified five times under Lamoriello’s watch, including a trip to the Eastern Conference final in the 2020 “bubble” during the coronavirus pandemic.
For the bulk of his time in the league, Lamoriello worked as president and GM of the New Jersey Devils from 1987-2015, a stretch during which they won the Stanley Cup three times. He served as GM of the Toronto Maple Leafs from 2015 until he joined the Islanders in 2018.
A Hall of Famer in the builders category, Lamoriello’s old-school approach with everything from not sharing information to banning facial hair for players and coaches made him a rarity in modern hockey and arguably played a part in stagnating the once widely successful franchise. It is now more than four decades removed from the dynasty days when the Islanders won the Cup four years in a row from 1980-83.
Moving on from Lamoriello puts the entire organization in flux, including the future of the rest of the front office and coaching staff. Lamoriello hired Patrick Roy as coach in January 2024 to replace Lane Lambert.
Son Chris Lamoriello has worked for the Islanders since 2016, originally as director of player personnel, and was promoted to assistant GM to work for his father in 2018.
NEW YORK (AP) — Cade Cunningham wasn’t thinking about himself after the first postseason victory of his career. His focus was on all the Detroit fans who stuck by the Pistons during 17 years since the last one.
Now Cunningham and his teammates want to give those fans more than just a game. They want to get them a series.
Cunningham had 33 points and 12 rebounds, Dennis Schroder made the tiebreaking 3-pointer with 55 seconds left, and the Pistons snapped their NBA-record, 15-game postseason losing streak by beating the New York Knicks 100-94 on Monday night in Game 2 of their playoff series.
“It’s a great feeling. It feels good to represent the city like we did tonight,” Cunningham said. “It’s something that the city been waiting on for a long time, so we feel good about it and we’re ready to get back to the crib and perform in front of them.”
The Pistons, who hadn’t even been to the postseason since 2019, recovered after the Knicks erased a 15-point deficit to earn their first playoff victory since Game 4 of the 2008 Eastern Conference finals against Boston. The Celtics won the final two games of that series and the Pistons were then swept in 2009, 2016 and 2019 before dropping Game 1 at Madison Square Garden.
Now they are back in the win column, all tied in the series and will host Game 3 on Thursday night.
Schroder, who wasn’t even on the Pistons until a trade in February, nailed the 3-pointer after the Knicks had used a 16-4 run to tie it at 94 on Josh Hart’s dunk. He finished with 20 points off the bench.
The Pistons engineered one of the biggest turnarounds in NBA history this season, going 44-38 after a 14-win season in 2023-24 that included a 28-game losing streak, longest ever in a single season.
They were then in good shape to win Game 1 with an eight-point lead after three quarters, before the Knicks used a 21-0 run in the fourth to win 123-112. Detroit built another eight-point advantage after three Monday, and this time made the big plays after another Knicks rally.
“We got bigger things we’re out here for,” coach J.B. Bickerstaff said. “So our focus, and that’s why our guys have been able to grow and be consistent, because they just think about the now and I thought they did a great job tonight of staying in the moment and doing what we needed to do.”
Jalen Brunson scored 37 points for the No. 3-seeded Knicks, but Karl-Anthony Towns and OG Anunoby were each limited to 10 after both finished with 23 points in the opener.
“And now it’s on us to respond,” Brunson said.
Cunningham bounced back with a strong performance after the All-Star guard was just 8 for 21 in Game 1. The Knicks struggled to keep him out of the paint and defend him without fouling, as the Pistons shot 14 free throws to the Knicks’ two while building a 55-49 lead at halftime.
NEW YORK (AP) — Twice this year, the Trump administration has given New York an ultimatum to end a toll on most drivers entering the busiest part of Manhattan — and twice the state has ignored it.
On Monday, U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy gave the state another 30 days — until May 21 — to stop collecting the toll, or at least explain why they’re not breaking the law by continuing with the program after the government revoked its federal approval in February.
Duffy, in a letter to New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, warned the state risks losing federal funding and approvals for certain projects from the Federal Highway Administration if it fails to comply.
But Hochul, a Democrat, was unmoved.
“I repeat: congestion pricing is legal — and it’s working. Traffic is down, business is up and the cameras are staying on,” she said in a statement, referring to the system of traffic cameras used to assess the toll.
The fee, which began Jan. 5, is meant to reduce traffic jams and raise billions of dollars in revenue for New York’s subways, commuter trains and public buses.
But President Donald Trump, a native New Yorker whose namesake Trump Tower and other properties are within the congestion zone, had vowed to kill the plan as soon as he took office.
After first rescinding federal approval earlier this year, Duffy called the program “a slap in the face to working class Americans and small business owners,” and initially gave New York until March 21 to stop charging the toll.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the state agency overseeing the tolls, challenged Duffy’s decision in federal court and Duffy subsequently pushed the deadline back by a month, to April 20.
In his Monday letter, Duffy said the state is in “open defiance” of federal law.
“The federal government sends billions to New York — but we won’t foot the bill if Governor Hochul continues to implement an illegal toll to backfill the budget of New York’s failing transit system,” Duffy said in a statement after issuing the letter. “We are giving New York one last chance to turn back or prove their actions are not illegal.”
The toll varies depending on type of vehicle and time of day and comes on top of tolls drivers already pay to cross bridges and tunnels into Manhattan.
Drivers of most passenger cars pay $9 to enter Manhattan south of Central Park on weekdays between 5 a.m. and 9 p.m. and on weekends between 9 a.m. and 9 p.m. During off hours, the toll will be $2.25 for most vehicles.
Other big cities around the world, including London and Stockholm, have long had similar fees to reduce traffic congestion.