Home Burglars Arrested

Suffolk County Police have arrested two men who burglarized homes in Hauppauge, Ronkonkoma and Dix Hills last month.

On February 11 at approximately 11:00 a.m., Fourth Squad detectives, assisted by police officers from the Fourth Precinct, pulled over the driver of a suspicious vehicle that was driving around Hauppauge. An investigation revealed that the occupants of the vehicle, Robert Salerno and Keith Savoy, were involved in various residential burglaries that occurred in Hauppauge, Ronkonkoma and Dix Hills.

Salerno, 39, of 33 Warner Lane, Lake Ronkonkoma, was charged with three counts of Burglary 2nd Degree, one count of Possession of Stolen Property 4th Degree, Possession of Burglar’s Tools, two counts of Criminal Mischief 4th Degree and two counts of Petit Larceny.

Savoy, 31, of 351 Woodlawn Ave., Ronkonkoma, was charged with two counts of Burglary 2nd Degree, one count of Possession of Stolen Property 4th Degree, Possession of Burglar’s Tools, two counts of Criminal Mischief 4th Degree, two counts of Petit Larceny and Possession of a Hypodermic Instrument.

The Fourth Squad detectives are continuing their investigation to determine if Salerno and Savoy are involved in any other burglaries. Salerno and Savoy are scheduled to be arraigned today, February 12, at First District Court in Central Islip.

Big Winners: Plant & Krauss, Lil Wayne, Jennifer Hudson, Coldplay

By Jim Abbott
The Orlando Sentinel

(MCT) With the 51st annual Grammy Awards in the books, it's time for the show's producers to start looking for more superstar duets for next year.

Here's a quick look at 3 ½ hours of music:

_The big winners

In a Grammy surprise, Alison Krauss and Robert Plant won five awards _ the night's biggest take _ for their genre-bending "Raising Sand," a haul that included best album and best record for "Please Read the Letter."

Jennifer Hudson, fresh from her Super Bowl triumph, provided one of the evening's most emotional moments with her early win for best R&B album. She held back tears as she thanked God and "my family in heaven, and those who are here today." That award was presented by a loopy-looking Whitney Houston.

For its seven nominations, Coldplay won for best rock album for "Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends," best pop performance by a duo or group with vocals, and best song for "Viva la Vida."

Lil Wayne, up for a leading eight nominations, took best rap album for "Tha Carter III" and awards for rap solo performance, rap performance by a duo or group, and rap song for "Lollipop." His performance with Robin Thicke, Allan Toussaint, the Dirty Dozen Brass Band and trumpeter Terence Blanchard was a show-stopper.

British singer Adele was honored as best new artist, sneaking quietly past Jonas Brothers in that category.

_The duets that (mostly) didn't work

Plenty of A-list pairings, again demonstrating that these ideas often are better on paper than in reality. Miley Cyrus joined Taylor Swift for her "Fifteen" _ sadly these two young stars together don't have enough charisma to light a 30-watt bulb. Stevie Wonder teamed with Jonas Brothers for a medley that added Super Bowl excess to Jonas' hit "Burning Up" and Wonder's "Superstition."

And what was that psychedelic-flashback-gone-bad production with Katy Perry's "I Kissed a Girl"? Could anyone see the fan-submitted videos for that "Grammy Moment" gimmick?

Better: The Rev. Al Green's "Let's Stay Together," which still soared even with unnecessary help from Justin Timberlake, Boyz II Men and Keith Urban.

For spirit, at least, Paul McCartney's "I Saw Her Standing There" was bolstered by Foo Fighter Dave Grohl's manic drum pounding. Sir Paul looked better than the aging Plant.

_Other performances

U2's "Get On Your Boots" opened the show with the lead single from the band's upcoming album. The mondo video offered Bono a chance to do the dramatic silhouette thing, and disguised the fact that he's really showing his age. And that Carrie Underwood song was noisy, wasn't it? Is that country music now?

_The no-shows

Chris Brown and Rihanna, two nominees scheduled to perform on the show, were absent instead. Before the show, the Los Angeles Police Department announced that Brown was the subject of a felony domestic-violence investigation. During the show, it was reported, Brown was being questioned by detectives about the incident. He and Rihanna have been romantically linked, although she apparently was not involved in the incident.

The no-shows were a headache for producers, who were left to put Dwayne Johnson (formerly The Rock) in the awkward position of doing jokes to fill time early in the show.
___
© 2009, The Orlando Sentinel (Fla.).
Visit the Sentinel on the World Wide Web at http://www.orlandosentinel.com/.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

Google Earth 5.0

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Bulletin: Baseball star Alex Rodriguez

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East Athletes Helping Athletes Program

Smithtown High School East’s Athletes Helping Athletes members went to five different Smithtown schools and visited with eighteen 5th grade elementary classes. This program brings high school students and their elementary counterparts together to discuss sportsmanship, healthy life styles and good decision making. The AHA members will visit the elementary students two more times before the end of this year to present a clear message on these extremely important topics.

Superintendent Calls For Sacrifices To Preserve Educational Program

(Smithtown Central School District) -
Business Affairs Meeting - February 2, 2009 Report
Mr. Joseph Saggese, co-chair of Business Affairs, called the meeting to order and introduced Edward Ehmann, Superintendent of Schools, to discuss the introduction of the Superintendent’s Budget for 2009-2010. Also present were Business Affairs Co-chair Neil Carlin, President Carl Gianino, Vice President Bob Rossi, and trustees Gladys Waldron, Terri Knox, and Lou Liguori. In addition to Mr. Ehmann, representing central administration were Mary Cahill, Assistant Superintendent for Instruction & Administration, Joan Niles, Assistant Superintendent for Finance & Operations, and Karen Ricigliano, Assistant Superintendent for Personnel Services.

Mr. Ehmann began by saying that he was going to share some very unsettling news about what it would take to maintain this year’s program into next year. He said that the combination of reduced state aid, lower Town assessments, unfunded mandates, and contracted increases, created a gap between revenue and expenditures which will require Draconian measures to close. Mr. Ehmann added that for the District to remedy the $12,650,787 gap between revenue and expenditures, it will take a combination of expenditure reductions and increased revenue. As he took the audience through a Power Point presentation, he demonstrated how difficult it would be to build the 2009-2010 budget even with modest reductions in programs and personnel.

“It is very depressing to come to this meeting and share bad news,” Mr. Ehmann said. “Everyone in the community needs to understand the magnitude of the problem.” He said that the number one priority is to preserve our educational program, which he called the “jewel of the community.” He warned that our current educational program is in jeopardy and said that everyone needs to contribute to the solution. He said that unlike previous years, the CABDAC committee will not be coming to the board requesting additions to the program.

Mr. Ehmann also announced that the 15 non-aligned central office administrators and supervisors who are not in a bargaining unit had agreed not to accept raises from the Board of Education even if they were offered for 2009-2010. He added that he has begun conversations with the bargaining units and has emphasized to them that to close a gap of this magnitude requires great sacrifices from all members of our community. He indicated that it would appear that only a freeze in all salaries would avoid a massive layoff. Mr. Ehmann is hopeful that the various bargaining units will approach him with suggestions as to how they can help. Mr. Liguori calculated that as many as 80 positions might have to be excessed to fill the gap. “Both taxpayers and employees need to close the gap,” Mr. Ehmann said.

Mr. Saggese requested an actual proposal from the Superintendent at the February 26th meeting on how to fill the gap. He added that the three weeks would give Mr. Ehmann the chance to go to the various parties and ask for sacrifices.

Mr. Carlin advised Mr. Ehmann that he should run two concurrent budget proposals. “We can’t wait to see what we’re getting.” He also raised the question of overlap between District employees and residents. He asked how many employees live in the community. He requested a breakdown of Smithtown residents among the individual units. Mrs. Ricigliano said that we are running that report now. The last time it was run, she believes that the number was about one-third of the employees. Current numbers will be available shortly.

Mrs. Cahill invited persons who desire additional information to call her or one of the other administrators and to meet with her in an ad hoc citizens’ advisory committee on Monday, February 9. Mr. Ehmann announced that citizens could also e-mail their questions and concerns to budget@smithtown.k12.ny.us.

The remainder of the Business Affairs meetings will take place at 7 p.m. in the NYA Auditorium.
· Thursday, February 26
· Thursday, March 5
· Wednesday, March 18
· Tuesday, April 14

Citizens’ Advisory Meetings will take place at 7 p.m. at NYA in room 222A.
· Monday, February 9
· Monday, March 2
· Wednesday, March 11

'It's a Bird Strike'

The FAA has released new audiotapes of the US Airways flight that crash-landed in the Hudson River.