President Barack Obama gave his first State of the Union address of his second term Tuesday, Feb. 12, 2013.

Federal authorities are investigating letters sent to President Barack Obama and Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) that contained a suspicious substance that preliminarily tested positive for ricin, a lethal biological warfare agent.

The U.S. Secret Service immediately quarantined the letter to Obama that was received at a mail screening facility offsite from the White House, the front of which was cordoned off by yellow tape Tuesday, officials said. Lab test results will take 24-48 hours to confirm if the substance is Ricin.

“The investigation into these letters remains ongoing, and more letters may still be received,” the FBI said in a statement that did not indicate if there was a written message in the envelope. “There is no indication of a connection to the attack in Boston.”

The mail case broke a day after the Boston Marathon bombings that left three dead and nearly 200 wounded. The FBI has said at least one of the two bombs was built out of a pressure cooker filled with projectiles.

The apparent Ricin mailings are similar to letters containing Anthrax that were mailed to two U.S. Senators and several New York City-based news outlets for weeks following the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. Five people died and 17 were hospitalized for exposure and the FBI’s suspect killed himself.

U.S. Capitol Police, which responded with its HAZMAT crew, described the powder in the latest case as a “white granular substance.”

Jay Carney, the White House spokesman, referred most questions about the case to the FBI and said Obama is scheduled to travel Thursday to Boston, where he will speak at an interfaith service.

“Any time a suspicious powder is located in a mail facility, it is tested,” Carney told reporters Wednesday.

Operations at the White House and the Capitol Complex have not been affected as a result of the investigation, authorities said, but other cases of suspicious packages have been reported Wednesday.

“On the House side, at least, it’s business as usual,” Samantha Slater, spokeswoman for Rep. Steve Israel (D-Dix Hills), told the Press. “What they’ve found so far is on the Senate side.”

She added that she noticed the garbage cans were dismantled Wednesday outside the U.S. Capitol Building.

Joseph Pritchard

The man who was killed in a truck crash on the Long Island Expressway in Dix Hills early Monday morning has been identified as a New York City police officer.

Suffolk County police said 30-year-old Joseph Pritchard of North Babylon was driving a Dodge pickup truck that stopped for an unknown reason in the westbound right lane of the LIE near exit 51 before being rear-ended by a International box truck at 2:23 a.m.

Both trucks burst into flames upon impact. Pritchard was pronounced dead at the scene.

An NYPD spokesman said Pritchard was assigned to Midtown South and was hired in January 2005.

The driver of the box truck, 34-year-old Eduardo Garcia of the Bronx, was taken to Huntington Hospital for treatment of non-life-threatening injuries. The truck is owned by Barakat Trucking.

Both vehicles were impounded for safety checks while the investigation is continuing.

Second Squad detectives ask anyone with information on this crash to call them at 631-854-8252 or anonymously to Crime Stoppers at 1-800-220-TIPS. All calls will be kept confidential.

Suffolk County police said Joseph Pritchard was driving a Dodge pickup truck that stopped for an unknown reason in the westbound right lane of the LIE near exit 51 before being rear-ended by a International box truck at 2:23 a.m.

Both trucks burst into flames upon impact. Pritchard was pronounced dead at the scene.

The driver of the box truck, 34-year-old Eduardo Garcia of the Bronx, was taken to Huntington Hospital for treatment of non-life-threatening injuries. The truck is owned by Barakat Trucking.

Both vehicles were impounded for safety checks while the investigation is continuing.

Second Squad detectives ask anyone with information on this crash to call them at 631-854-8252 or anonymously to Crime Stoppers at 1-800-220-TIPS. All calls will be kept confidential.

Krista Kazan

Suffolk County police say they have apprehended a woman wanted for stealing an $1,800 purebred Pug puppy from a Dix Hills pet store last month.

Krista Kazan was arrested Saturday and charged with grand larceny for the alleged Feb. 17 theft of the puppy from Yippity Yap on East Jericho Turnpike.

Crime Stoppers had released a surveillance photo of the woman stealing the dog. The pup was returned to the store by a family member the day after the surveillance photos were released, police said.

The 43-year-old suspect was released without bail after being arraigned Sunday at First District Court in Central Islip. She is due back in court May 9.

Raphael Guerrero, who was charged with driving while intoxicated after the crash, was driving a 2008 Chevrolet Tahoe south on Deer Park Avenue when he lost control of the car at 4:50 a.m., police said. Guerrero hit a curb, went up on a grass embankment and hit a large stone and telephone poll before the car overturned, police said.

He was transported to Huntington Hospital for treatment with non-life-threatening injuries, police said. His 24-year-old passenger, Cesar Montano, was taken to the same hospital with serious injuries, police said.

The Tahoe was impounded for a safety check and the investigation is continuing, police said. Anyone with information regarding the crash is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-220-TIPS. All calls are anonymous.

Have you seen this dog-napper?

A woman stole an $1,800 purebred Pug puppy from a Dix Hills pet store last weekend and now Suffolk County police are asking for the public’s help to catching the dog-napper.

The canine crook entered Yipity Yap on East Jericho Turnpike, picked up the black pup, put it in her bag and stole it from the store at 1:30 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 17, police said.

Second Squad detectives released an image of the woman who was caught on surveillance camera fleeing with the dog. They also released an image of a Pug puppy similar to the one that was stolen.

Anyone with information about this crime is asked to call Crime Stoppers anonymously at 1-800-220-TIPS. All calls will be kept confidential. A cash reward of up to $5,000 is being offered for information that leads to an arrest.

In the first of the most recent cases, two men broke into a Pleasantview Court home in Copiague, flashed a gun, demanded money and pistol-whipped a man inside at 9:20 p.m. Friday, police said. The suspects, described only as black men, fled with cash and property, police said.

Then at 11:40 p.m. Friday, three armed men kicked in the back door of a North 17th Street home in Wyandanch, stole money from the victims inside and fled the scene. The trio was only described as a group of Hispanic men.

A police spokesman could not confirm initial reports that the suspects were armed with a pistol and a machete but did say there have been no arrests in either case. It was unclear if there were any injuries in the second case.

The pair of Feb. 15 cases bring into the double digits the number of armed home invasions in Suffolk since Jan. 15, when there were five such incidents in a week in Mastic, North Lindenhurst, Dix Hills, Huntington and Coram. There were five arrested in the Huntington case and three arrested in the North Lindenhurt case.

A sixth armed home invasion was reported in Gordon Heights on Jan. 25, two days before a 21-year-old man was gunned down by home invaders in Flanders.

Three people have been arrested for the eighth armed home invasion in Halesite on Feb. 5 and another trio has been charged with the ninth home invasion in Central Islip in the early morning hours of Feb. 7.

Police are continuing the investigations.

Gloria Montoya, 49, Commack, was driving a Honda Accord eastbound on the LIE near exit 51 when her car was rear-ended in the center lane by the dump truck that was merging from the right lane at 7:30 p.m., police said.  The Accord then struck the concrete center divider, a Toyota Solara in the HOV lane and a Dodge Magnum in the center lane, police said.

The driver of the Solara, 83-year-old William Broer of Hauppauge, was airlifted to Stony Brook University Hospital where he was listed in serious condition. Montoya was taken to Good Samaritan Hospital Medical Center in West Islip where she was treated for non-life-threatening injuries.  The driver of the Magnum, 35-year-old Carlos Gonzalez of Central Islip, was not injured.

Police described the dump truck that fled the scene as a newer-model, clean silver or grey-colored vehicle.

Second Squad detectives are continuing the investigation and ask anyone who may have witnessed this incident or has information to contact them at 631-854-8252 or call anonymously to Crime Stoppers at 1-800-220-TIPS.  All calls will be kept confidential.

President Barack Obama gave his first State of the Union address of his second term Tuesday, Feb. 12, 2013.

President Barack Obama laid out more than a dozen new initiatives Tuesday in the first State of the Union address of his second term, packing an array of issues into the hour-long speech, including four—climate change, immigration, veterans and gun control—of particular importantance to Long Islanders, a few of whom were in the audience.

Obama started off flat while discussing his budget and tax reform proposals, but he worked his way up to an emotional plea for Congress to enact new restrictions on firearms sales to reduce the number of gun deaths nationwide. He sounded encouraged by current immigration reform talks among lawmakers, but the president oscilated between urging the Republican leaders in the House of Representatives to negotiate a compromise on the upcoming deficit reduction plan known as sequestration, and threatening to use executive orders if Congress doesn’t act on global warming.

“We can choose to believe that Superstorm Sandy, and the most severe drought in decades, and the worst wildfires some states have ever seen, were all just a freak coincidence,” Obama said, referring in part to the Oct. 29 hurricane-nor’easter hybrid that ravaged LI and the Northeast. ”Or we can choose to believe in the overwhelming judgment of science—and act before it’s too late.”

The president remained vague on most of his proposals, choosing to paint a broad picture of the goals he’s setting for the year to come, but did get into some specifics while discussing immigration and, to a lesser degree, gun control.

“Senators of both parties are working together on tough new laws to prevent anyone from buying guns for resale to criminals,” the president said, before rallying for a vote on the bill. ”Police chiefs are asking our help to get weapons of war and massive ammunition magazines off our streets, because these police chiefs, they’re tired of seeing their guys and gals being outgunned.”

Among those top cops was John Aresta, the Malverne village police chief, whose uncle was among six murdered in the 1993 Long Island Rail Road massacre. He was invited to attend by Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-Mineola), whose husband was killed and son injured in the same shooting spree that launched her to the national stage to advocate for gun control.

“I personally don’t see a reason why anybody would need a 30-round clip or a 10-round clip for an assault rifle,” Aresta had told Fox Business News  last month shortly after New York State passed sweeping new gun control laws in the wake of the Newtown elementary school massacre in December.

Rep. Peter King (R-Seaford), the lone Republican among LI’s five-member Congressional delegation, wrote on Twitter that he was disapointed in Obama’s lack of focus on unemployment and deficit reduction, but co-authored an op-ed in Politico expressing support for ensuring background checks for all  gun purchases, with the exception of gifts between family members or temporary transfers for hunters. He noted national estimates that only four in 10 gun buyers are subject to such checks.

New York City got two mentions. Obama first touted the heroic nurses who evacuated newborn babies from the NYU Langone Medical Center in Manhattan during Sandy, signaling Menchu Sanchez by name. She was seated next to First Lady Michelle Obama. He later extolled the benefits of P-Tech in Brooklyn, a collaboration between New York Public Schools, the City University of New York and IBM, where students graduate with a high school diploma and an associate’s degree in computers or engineering—a model he wants emulated nationwide.

The emphasis on improving education to better the economy dovetailed with his reasons for supporting immigration, a hotly debated issue on LI, where undocumented Hispanic immigrant day laborers have repeatedly been victims of Suffolk County hate crimes in recent years.

“Our economy is stronger when we harness the talents and ingenuity of striving, hopeful immigrants,” Obama said, emphasizing that reform must include stronger border security, cutting waiting periods, attracting highly skilled engineers and ”establishing a responsible pathway to earned citizenship—a path that includes passing a background check, paying taxes and … learning English.”

But some immigration issues are easier to solve than others. Rep. Steve Israel (D-Dix Hills) invited as his guests Dania and Nick Marvos, a Little Neck couple who were in the process of adopting a 1-year-old boy named Ari from Russia until two months ago when Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law banning American adoptions of Russian children. The move was widely seen as retaliation for a recently passed U.S. law punishing Russian human rights violators.

“Waiting for news to see if we will be allowed to bring our baby home has been one of the most trying times in our lives,” Dania Mavros said in a statement released by Israel’s office. ”Devastating does not capture the emotional roller coaster that we are enduring every day.”

Congressman Israel said he is negotiating to help the couple complete the adoption process despite the new Russian law in an attempt to save their son-to-be from growing up in an orphanage. Thousands of other cases are also in jeopardy.

Rep. Tim Bishop (D-Southampton) invited Dina McKenna of Lindenhurst, whose husband, Sgt. William McKenna, died in 2010 of cancer caused by his exposure to toxic fumes from burn pits the military used for disposing of hazardous waste in Iraq. Bishop had laws passed to curtail the use of burn pits and require the Department of Veterans Affairs to improve its treatment of soldiers exposed to them.

“All veterans whose health may have been affected by toxic burn pits must be accounted for and given the health care and support they have earned,” Bishop said in a statement.

Obama’s nod to veterans came as he promised to better defend against cyber attacks, end the more than decade-long war in Afghanistan “by the end of next year,” prevent Iran from building nuclear weapons and isolate North Korea for its provocations in testing nuclear weapons potentially capable of being fitted on inter-continental ballistic missles. He reiterated plans to strengthen U.S. missle defense to block such an attack.

The commander-in-chief also made clear that while the military will not be sending large numbers of troops abroad for Iraq-style occupations, he vaguely referred to special operations forces that will continue to hunt al-Qaeda terrorists in Afghanistan and wherever else they may be hiding. He made veiled reference to the continued deployment of predator drones despite recently renewed controversy over their use to kill American citizens working with terrorists, such as Westbury-native Samir Khan, the al-Qaeda propagandist killed in U.S. airstrikes alongside militant cleric Anwar al-Awlaki in Yemen in 2011.

“Where necessary, through a range of capabilities, we will continue to take direct action against those terrorists who pose the gravest threat to Americans,” he said.

None of the incidents appear to be random and the victims in some cases knew their attackers, authorities said. The incidents occurred in Mastic, North Lindenhurst, Dix Hills, Huntington and Coram between Jan. 15 and Jan. 22. Five were nabbed in the Huntington case and three were busted for the North Lindenhurst case.

The first case came when police said a Mastic woman reported a pair of masked gunmen broke into her Wills Avenue home, stole her iPhone and fled at 2:30 a.m. Tuesday, Jan. 15. The victim reported that one assailant was wearing a Spiderman mask.

Then at 10:30 p.m. Sunday, three Brentwood men—one armed with a handgun—forced their way into a North Lindenhurst home on Feustal Street, where they stole cash and cell phones from the victims inside. The trio was arrested shortly afterward.

A half hour later, two masked gunmen walked into a Dix Hills house on Deer Park Avenue through an unlocked door, pistol-whipped a man and woman inside and fled with the victims’ wallets and cell phones, police said.

“They appear to be targeted locations,” Second Squad Det. Sgt. Richard Auspaker said of the Dix Hills case and the arrest of five men for an alleged home invasion in nearby Huntington two days later. “It’s possibly related.”

In the Huntington case, police said three suspects entered a home on Leigh Street through an unlocked door, threatened five residents inside and demanded cash while the other two suspects acted as lookouts outside at 1:20 a.m. Tuesday.

All five men fled in a Lincoln but were apprehended shortly later on Deer Park Avenue in Dix Hills, police said. Two guns were allegedly recovered.

And in the fifth case in the eight-day span, police said four men forced their way into a Coram home on Townhouse Road, one suspect displayed a rifle and the group tied up a woman and three children at 9:30 p.m. Monday. It’s unclear what the suspects stole.

The victims in the Dix Hills case were treated for minor injuries at Huntington Hospital. The victims in the other four cases were not injured.

No arrests have been made in the Mastic, Coram or Dix Hills cases. A police spokeswoman said the Mastic and Coram cases were also believed to be targeted.

“It doesn’t appear that these two are related to other precincts,” Auspaker said of the Huntington and Dix Hills home invasions versus the other three.