MARKET WATCH COLUMNIST
“Hard part is sorting Nassau lab errors” Ellis Henican Column, Newsday, February 13, 2011
Well, it’s about time.
After years of rumors, months of mounting evidence and weeks of irrefutable proof, Nassau County officials finally shut down what had become the most notoriously inept drug lab in America.
But that’s the easy part.
Now, prosecutors, defense attorneys and competent forensic scientists—there must be at least a few of those in Nassau County, right?—must catalog the terrible injustices that have already been done.
The people sitting in prison on false positives from the Nassau police lab. Kids doing felony time on what should have been misdemeanors. The truth is, nobody knows how many victims this incompetence – or worse – has created out of what often should be victimless crimes. But the numbers will be large, the price will be high, and the officials responsible must be fired, sued, and jailed.
Here’s a fresh idea for the Nassau County justice system: let’s use honest evidence against them. We’ll even give them a fair day in court.
Now that would be a change for Nassau County.
VALENTINE’S EXCUSES
1. It’s a made-up Hallmark holiday.
2. Those V-Day restaurant specials are mostly ripoffs.
3. You have any idea how oppressed diamond miners are?
4. Candy causes cavities.
5. St. Valentine’s background remains highly mysterious – why’s he a saint anyway?
ASKED AND UNANSWERED:
How about we all agree we’ll hang up immediately the next time some warm-weather relative calls and says: “Well, it’s 80 degrees down here”? Just shut up, will you?…How tough a bacterium must MRSA be to pin Nick Mauriello? How tough a wrestler must Nick be to pull himself up from the mat?…What’s so “inflammatory” about Monday’s hearing in the Christian Tarantino double-slaying case? What could be any more inflammatory than the basic allegations here, that the multimillionaire health-
club owner ran a mob robbery crew, botched an armored-car heist and helped snuff out two potential rats?…Was Nassau cop Mike Califano, hit by a truck while writing a traffic ticket, really as great a guy as everyone is saying now? Yes, apparently he was.…Will other faiths try to one-up the Catholics’ iPhone Confession app? If so, with what? A Zen app (“the sound of one hand clapping digitally”), a holy-city app (“GPS to Mecca”), a bris app (“cut and paste – well, cut anyway.”)…Suffolk prosecutors say convicted Ponzi schemer Steven Diaz spent $48,000 on Christmas lights and decorations for his Mount Sinai house. Holiday spirit, or tacky criminal excess?
HELP FOR OTHERS:
She wants the job? She’d better show up for the interview looking sharp and professional. That’s the concept behind the Junior League of Long Island’s First Step Program – and it’s a proven success. You donate gently worn (or new) women’s suits, dresses, shoes, briefcases and accessories. The professional attire gives a needed boost to local women transitioning back into the workforce. You clear your closet. She gets the job. Drop stuff off at the JLLI Thrift Shop, 1395 Old Northern Blvd. in Roslyn.
ELLIS BOOK NEWS:
NASCAR is the number-one spectator sport in America – except in certain snobby metropolises like this one. Want to
know what the fuss is all about? Check out my cool new best-seller, “In the Blink of an Eye: Dale, Daytona and the Day that Changed Everything,” just out from
Hyperion. Driver Michael Waltrip tells the greatest racing story never told: How he finally broke a 462-race losing streak just as his best friend, Dale Earnhart, slammed into the wall and died. Not just a gut-wrenching tale, a great American story of triumph and tragedy set in a world we’d all do well to understand.
LONG ISLANDER OF THE WEEK
Brian Rosenberg
Even back in his Ballenger’s days at the Garden City Hotel, Brian Rosenberg was convinced, especially after his assistant’s niece was hit and killed by a drunken driver, that bar owners and restaurateurs ought to be part of the DWI solution. These days, Brian owns Sugar 
Dining Den and Social Club in Carle Place and is working to build RADD, Restaurants Against Drunk Driving. He just had a major tough-times breakthrough: “We’re teaming up with the Long Island chapter of the Restaurant Association. That includes their members, their expertise, their lobbyist, all their resources. We’re going to raise some money together.” Watch out for new designated-driver programs, maybe even Breathalyzers behind the bar. And new voices repeating some important old words: “Don’t be greedy and serve people when they’ve had too much to drink.”
E-mail ellis@henican.com.
Follow him at twitter.com/henican
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