Tiffany Cusaac-Smith

1 month ago | newsday.com | Tiffany Cusaac-Smith

Rahul Tripathi came to the United States from India when he was about 11 months old. America was his home, the place where the Port Jefferson resident came of age and eventually became an internal medicine physician at Stony Brook University Hospital. Yet, he wasn’t a citizen. On Wednesday, Tripathi, 31, took the oath, along with about 45 other people, in a naturalization ceremony at The Long Island Museum in Stony Brook. "This country has given me opportunities, education and tools to serve ...

1 month ago | newsday.com | Tiffany Cusaac-Smith

New York Attorney General Letitia James and 19 of her counterparts are suing over the Trump administration’s cuts to staff and programs at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The lawsuit, which was filed Monday, argues that the termination of thousands of jobs at the department, the halting of essential experiments, and cuts to initiatives like the World Trade Center Health Program have been disastrous and have harmed Americans.

1 month ago | newsday.com | Tiffany Cusaac-Smith

Central Islip resident Lynne Pallmeyer had a picture of her late sister, Karen Rogers-Holden, pinned on her chest at a Sunday walk to commemorate friends and loved ones killed in crashes with drivers impaired by drugs or alcohol. In 2016, Rogers-Holden was a passenger in a vehicle and on a road trip from Long Island to Virginia to help paint her eldest son’s new apartment. As she sat in the backseat at a red light, an impaired driver barreled into the back of the vehicle. Rogers-Holden, 56, died.

1 month ago | newsday.com | Tiffany Cusaac-Smith

For the past few years, an AmeriCorps team based in Iowa arrived at the expansive Planting Fields park in Oyster Bay for a month or two as part of their nearly yearlong national service term. The young people removed thousands of pounds of debris and invasive species, preserved artifacts and assisted with community events, adding to the botanical appeal of the more than 400-acre site, even as they plotted out their life goals, Planting Fields Foundation said. But not this year.

1 month ago | newsday.com | Tiffany Cusaac-Smith

While teaching a summer course at Nassau Community College years ago, Helen Rice confronted a very thin student who was falling asleep in the back of her classroom. Rice, an adjunct professor in the college's English Department, said she was initially angered by the student's nodding off, until he told her he hadn’t eaten in 24 hours.