A Great South Bay YMCA swimming instructor teaches a child how to swim on Tuesday, June 18, 2013.

Forty-five Suffolk County youngsters were among an estimated 35,000 nationwide that simultaneously plunged into The World’s Largest Swimming Lesson, an annual event designed to promote water safety for kids on Tuesday morning.

The Great South Bay YMCA in Bay Shore was one of a half dozen locations that participated in the event on Long Island, where Nassau and Suffolk county officials have launched drowning prevention awareness campaigns in recent years.

“YMCA’s of Long Island teach 22,000 plus swimming lessons yearly,” said Saskia Thomson, marketing and communication director of YMCA of Long Island, Inc. Several flotation devices were implemented into the lesson to kick start the kids’ journey to safe swimming.

The World’s Largest Swimming Lesson was created by the World Water Park Association in 2010 to decrease the amount of childhood drowning accidents by encouraging formal swimming lessons. Nearly 25,000 children participated throughout the country last year, qualifying the event for the Guinness Book of World Records for four consecutive years.

While it seemed the children were merely playing games with the Great South Bay YMCA swimming instructors, they were learning life lessons on how to prevent tragedies in the pool. Not only does it benefit the child to know how to swim properly, it also benefits those around that that may not be skilled swimmers.

Among those ages 1 to 14, fatal drowning remains the second-leading cause of unintentional injury-related death, behind motor vehicle crashes, studies show. Formal swimming lessons can reduce the risk of drowning by as much as 88 percent among young children in that age bracket.

In order to prevent children from drowning, swimming instructors offer these recommendations: by age five children should be properly instructed on how to swim, never leave a child unattended while in the pool area, have a four-foot fence surrounding pools at home and install an underwater pool alarm to utilize during emergency situations.

Rep. Peter King (R-Seaford), second from left, met with community leaders at the Brentwood Public Library on Thursday, May 30, 2013 (Photo courtesy of the Long Island Civic Engagement Table)

Rep. Peter King (R-Seaford) suggested Thursday that federal legislation requiring background checks for gun purchases nationwide would help stem deadly violence such as the three fatal shootings in Central Islip this week.

Long Island’s lone Republican congressman was responding to a question from Tyzier King, a resident of that community, who asked how the veteran lawmaker could address the murders during a town hall meeting at the Brentwood Public Library, where King also shared his views on immigration, terrorism and the economy.

“Most of the crimes committed with guns in New York are committed with guns that are from out of state, where other states have virtually no background checks or little background checks,” said King. “Having a background check in no way infringes on the Second Amendment.”

Gun Control Debate Ricochets on Long Island

A groundswell has been forming to reintroduce new gun control measures in Congress after a background check bill failed in the U.S. Senate in April. But, getting the most attention of late has been an immigration reform bill being negotiated—an idea King told LI’s largest immigrant community he supports, as long as it also adds border security.

“After the last mass immigration legalization on [LI]of 20,000 Salvadoran war refugees, a study found a 40 percent increase in earnings by the newly documented and a direct contribution in increased state and federal taxes paid by the formerly undocumented,” said Pat Young, an immigration attorney and program director of the Central American Refugee Center who served as one of the panelists. “These individuals also shifted towards homeownership and became citizens in large numbers.”

A member of The Muslim Center of Long Island in Bay Shore—the largest mosque on LI—said the congregation is concerned about the Muslim radicalization hearings that King held, hate crimes they have suffered and Islamophobia.

King defended the hearings he held when he was chairman of the Homeland Security Committee as “fair and objective,” said Muslims aren’t victimized by hate crime perpetrators more than other religious groups and said he is willing to meet with Islamic community leaders.

The nonprofit Long Island Civic Engagement Table and Islip chapter of the NAACP organized the meet-and-greet for King to get to know the Bay Shore, Brentwood and Central Islip communities that he absorbed during redistricting last year.

The congressman noted that he’s discussed the recent Central Islip murders with Suffolk County police, who he said suspect gang involvement in the first two slayings. Homicide Squad detectives have said the third fatal shooting does not appear to be linked to the first two.

Pastor Roderick Pearson, president of the Islip chapter of the NAACP, who lead an invocation to open the meeting and the benediction to close it, asked the about 200 people in attendance to join hands and pray together for peace in the community.

“There are three families mourning,” Pearson said. “We may not agree on every issue, but…I ask that we the people seek justice and love in one another.”

Suffolk police blocked off Clayton Avenue while they investigated the third shooting in two days in Central Islip on Tuesday.

A man was shot and killed inside a Central Islip rooming house on Tuesday afternoon, making him the third victim to be gunned down in less than two days in the same community, Suffolk County police said.

Officers responded to a report of shots fired at a house on Clayton Avenue where they found the victim dead of multiple gunshot wounds at 2:30 p.m., police said. The victim, 25-year-old Matthew Gilmore, was pronounced dead at the scene.

“I don’t see that this case is related to the other cases,” Det. Lt. Jack Fitzpatrick, commander of the Homicide Squad, told reporters outside the crime scene, which is adjacent to a convent. He said the first two cases may be linked.

That shooting occurred shortly after Keenan Russell died at Southside Hospital in Bay Shore about 12 hours following he was found suffering from gunshot wounds on Acorn Avenue approximately two miles from his Central Islip home at 12:30 a.m. Tuesday, police said.

Twenty five hours prior to the second deadly shooting, Derrick Mayes was found dead of a gunshot wound to the abdomen on Wilson Avenue, about a mile from his Central Islip home, at 11:35 p.m. Sunday, police said.

The first two victims were both 21 years old. Police have not made any arrests.

Homicide Squad detectives are continuing the investigation and ask anyone with information about these murders to call them at 631-852-6392 or anonymously to Crime Stoppers at 1-800-220-TIPS. All calls will be kept confidential.

In the first case, officers responded to a 911 call reporting shots fired on Wilson Boulevard where they found 21-year-old Derrick Mayes lying in the street with a gunshot wound to the abdomen at 11:35 p.m. Sunday, police said.

The victim was pronounced dead at the scene.

In the second case, 911 callers reported multiple gunshots on Acorn Avenue, 14 blocks from the first shooting, where responding officers found Keenan Russell, also 21, lying in the street with a gunshot wound to his abdomen at 12:30 a.m. Tuesday, police said.

Russell was taken to Southside Hospital in Bay Shore where he was admitted in critical condition.

Homicide Squad detectives are continuing the investigation and ask anyone with information on this case to call them at 631-852-6392 or call anonymously to Crime Stoppers at 1-800-220-TIPS.  All calls will be kept confidential.

The assailants in the Deer Park case forced their way into a Crossway Drive home, attacked the man and stole cash shortly at 11:50 p.m. Friday, police said.

The victim, who was home alone at the time, was treated at Good Samaritan Hospital in Bay Shore and released.

There have been no arrests made. Third Squad detectives are continuing the investigation.

The case marks the 16th armed home invasion in Suffolk this year.

After a police officer fatally shot a suspect and a hostage in Uniondale over the weekend, Nassau County is up to eight home invasions since January.

Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone joined Fire Island business leaders in Ocean Beach on Friday, May 10, 2013.

Rachel’s Waterside Grill on Freeport’s famed Nautical Mile celebrated its grand reopening about six months after Superstorm Sandy swamped the popular eatery. CJ’s Bar and Grill, one of the best known pubs in downtown Ocean Beach on Fire Island, has meanwhile been rushing to open its doors by Memorial Day weekend.

Both restaurants’ owners joined public officials in recent news conferences declaring that the waterfront tourist destinations they call home are back in business—although reconstruction may not be complete until closer to the unofficial start of summer in cases such as CJ’s. The comeback is the latest sign LI is not giving up after the catastrophe.

“It was hectic, and crazy, and busy, and fun,” Ivan Sayles, owner of Rachel’s Waterside Grill, optimistically told the Press while describing the April 26 grand reopening as an adventure. “It is like opening a brand new place. Business was phenomenal.”

Restaurants re-opening in hard-hit areas include Fatfish Wine & Bar Bistro in Bay Shore, Captain Bill’s Restaurant and Catering also in Bay Shore, View Restaurant in Oakdale, E B Elliot’s Restaurant in Freeport and in Long Beach: The Cabana; West End Pizza; East End Pizza; and Whale’s Tale, according to the Long Island Restaurant Association.

In the days and weeks after Sandy, it wasn’t clear how many local businesses that lost inventory and equipment to flooding would reopen. Nearly seven months later, the discouraging sight of debris has been replaced with ‘open’ signs on business doors.

“It has been inspiring to walk these streets where flood waters would have been at our waist six months ago,” Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone said at a May 10 news conference in Ocean Beach. “All of these business opening and ready for the tourism season is nothing short of a miracle.”

Relief can be detected in the voice of the several business owners who have recently reopened their stores.

“There was three feet of water in this building,” said Chris Mercogliano, who owns CJ’s, the 40-year-old bar that was initially believed to be gone forever after Sandy. “We had to completely gut it; all new electric, all new plumbing. It was basically a brand new place. There’s not much left of the old place now.”

He and several other FI business and civic leaders launched the Revive Fire Island campaign to raise money and awareness of the barrier island’s comeback.

“It’s been a long, hard struggle, but as you can see we’re open for business,” said Ocean Beach Mayor James Mallott, who owns The Albatross bar. “We want everyone to know that we are here.”

Back in Freeport, where the local chamber of commerce told reporters that some Nautical Mile establishments will not return this season, the optimism was tinged with harsh realities.

The future of Rachel’s Waterside Grill became dimmer after the storm when government aid was not provided for the desolated business. But a $50,000 grant from National Grid provided well needed help to get the restaurant back on its feet, said Sayles.

Peter’s Clam Bar on Long Beach Road is among the local shops mounting a comeback after Sandy assaulted the eatery. Dominick DeSimone, the bar’s co-owner, describes the months after the hurricane as agonizing.

“[The work has been] very heart breaking,” he said, noting that they reopened despite renovations being one third completed. “We’re waiting for some aid, but there’s no aid at this point.”

Kurt Smith, owner of Flair House clothing store in Ocean Beach, said Sandy forced him to leave his winter job to oversee the rebuilding of his boutique.

“I was pretty much here all winter,” he said. “Seven days a week since February; just making sure that the finished work was done and get everything opened up close to on time. I opened up a week later than I usually do.”

Smith, like other small business owners who rely on a short window of warm weather on LI to draw customers, is banking on patrons returning from bygone seasons.

“Hopefully people will come back to and enjoy the Island again,” he said. “Probably my favorite thing to see is when people come here and they find out what it is and then they fall in love with it for the first time. It’s kind of like a tag line; once you come here you pretty much never leave.”

Congresswoman Pelosi commemorates the LGBT victims of the Holocaust at the “Friends of the Pink Triangle” ceremony at the Twin Peaks Vista Overlook, Calif. (Courtesy of Nancy Pelosi’s office).

Rep. Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic minority leader of the U.S. House of Representatives, credited the nonprofit Long Island Gay and Lesbian Youth with being “part of a national movement for justice” while the group honored her efforts fighting for gay rights during its 20th anniversary gala Friday evening.

She said the federal Defense of Marriage Act, which defined marriage as between a man and a woman, “will be left in the dustbin of history,” predicting that the U.S. Supreme Court will overturn it after hearing arguments in March.

“There’s no time to waste, there’s much work to be done,” Pelosi said at Carlyle on the Green at Bethpage State Park. “All of our caucus is very committed to the GLBT agenda.”

She also evoked the memory of Harvey Milk, a Bay Shore native who became the nation’s first openly gay politician when he was elected in San Francisco, a leading city in the modern gay rights movement where Pelosi’s district office is located.

Also honored were Edie Windsor, who brought the lawsuit challenging DOMA to the Supreme Court, and Andrew Stern, the chief operating officer of NARAL Pro-Choice NY.

“This organization matters to me,” Stern said, choking up at times. ”It matters a lot to me.”

He recalled being called names, shoved in lockers and having his sweater lit on fire at alma mater, Plainedge High School, whose gay-straight alliance also presented him with an award.

He called it the best award and most meaningful recognition he’s ever received and accepted it on behalf of his parents. “This means the world to me,” he said.

David Kilmnick, chief executive officer of LIGALY, reflected upon how far his group has come in the past two decades while announcing that it will be opening its third center, the “GLBT center of the Hamptons,” this summer.

“It was indeed a different time in 1993,” he said, recalling the fear among LI’s gay and lesbian youth then to even gather the courage to ask him where GLBT could come together when he’d visit local schools to raise awareness about LIGALY. ”Twenty years later it is certainly a different time.”

“GLBT centers save lives,” he said. “From the bottom of my heart,” he told the crowd, pausing for a moment to collect himself, “thank you, thank you, thank you.”

Wesley Paul

A man has been convicted of stabbing his estranged wife to death at her Bay Shore home three years ago during a visit with their 6-year-old son, who was playing outside at the time.

A Suffolk County jury found Wesley Paul, 41, of Bay Shore, guilty of second-degree murder.

Prosecutors said he stabbed Monica Paul, 40, who died of a fatal neck wound that severed her carotid artery and jugular vein in the August 7, 2010 attack.

During the struggle with her estranged husband, the victim bit off part of his nose.

Police said the couple, who had separated three months prior, had an argument about Paul’s visitation of their son when Paul retrieved a knife from the kitchen and attacked his wife while she was taking a shower.

The child did not witness the killing and was not physically hurt, police had said.

Judge William Condon is expected to sentence Paul to 25 years to life in prison on June 24.

The westbound non-passenger train hit the victim’s car at the Islip Avenue crossing and pushed it down the tracks before coming to a rest at around 4 p.m. Friday, according to the LIRR.

The LIRR had suspended service in both directions between Farmingdale and Ronkonkoma for about two hours while investigators were on the scene.

MTA Police are continuing the investigation into the cause of the crash. The victim, whose identity was not immediately available, later died at Southside Hospital in Bay Shore.

Maria Cepparo

A Bay Shore woman has been accused of leaving her four children, one of them autistic, alone in a vehicle parked in a fire zone while she drank in a Holbrook bar.

Suffolk County Police arrested Maria Cepparo and charged her with endangering the welfare of a child.

Police said the 40-year-old woman was in Momo’s Sports Bar and Grill while her 13-year-old son, who is autistic, an 8-year-old son and 6-year-old twin daughters were left in her Ford Focus with no heat and the doors unlocked at 12:15 a.m. Sunday.

Cepparo will be arraigned Sunday at First District Court in Central Islip.

The four children were released to their grandmother.