Long Island MacArthur Airport in Ronkonkoma.

A renewed push to establish international flights in and out of Long Island MacArthur Airport in Ronkonkoma has sparked mixed reactions among Suffolk County residents, including frequent flyers that use it.

U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) held a news conference Monday at the airport with local officials calling on the U.S. Department of Customs, Border and Protection to develop a plan that would allow flights to and from popular vacation destinations such as Aruba and the Bahamas.

“A customs facility at Macarthur could be a magnet for new carriers, helping the airport regain some of its lost flights and giving Long Islanders direct access to some of the most popular tourist destinations,” said Schumer.

He hopes such service would reverse the 46.4 percent loss of commercial flights at LIMA from 2007 through last year, he said.

International airlines like Interjet and FlyA have inquired about establishing routes at MacArthur, but airstrips would have to be lengthened and space would be needed for the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service to enforce regulations designed to stop the introduction of exotic or foreign plants, animal pests and diseases, according to Schumer.

“This airport wasn’t meant to be heavily populated,” said Christina Monteleone, a Commack resident who regularly flies out of MacArthur. “Some of us live out here to escape the overpopulation. We already have JFK and LaGuardia.”

Islip Town Supervisor Tom Croci has begun to develop a plan in the event that it gets approval to add carriers in addition to Southwest Airlines, U.S. Airways shuttle service to Washington, D.C. and Pen Air flights to Boston.

“The addition of this customs and agriculture inspection capability brings our residents exactly what they have been asking for….more direct flights from the hassle free airport down the road,” he said.

James Owsinski, a Kings Park resident, believes that international flights the airport would be both convenient and help the economy.

“More planes coming in here would boost the economy,” he said. “Quite frankly, it would be easier for people who want to travel but don’t want to drive to JFK from the Hamptons just to get on a plane.”

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.

Since most sons and daughters are well passed the age when cutesy homemade cards made in grammar school would suffice, everyone else has to find more grown-up ways to get creative.

But fear not, the Long Island Press is in the same boat. To help with this annual dilemma, here’s a list of Mother’s Day events to either shop for a gift or  bring mum herself on her big day.

Don’t forget the flowers!

Weekend-long events:

Mother’s Day Fair. Green Acres Mall, 1 E. Merrick Rd. Valley Stream. 10 a.m.-7 p.m.

Mother’s Day Plant Sale. Munns Pond County Park, 228 West Montauk Highway. Hampton Bays. 10 a.m. -4 p.m.

Mother’s Day Craft & Gift Show, Christopher Morley Park 500 Searingtown Rd. Roslyn. 10 a.m.-6 p.m.

Mother’s Day Crafts. Maritime Explorium, 101 East Broadway Port Jefferson. 1-5 p.m.

Saturday

Mother’s Day Art & Craft Fair. Northport High School, Corner of Laurel Hill & Elwood Rd. Northport. 10 a.m.-5 p.m.

Mother’s Day Yoga by the Sea! Whaling Museum, 279 Main St. Cold Spring Harbor. 11 a.m.

Mothers’ Day Floral Design, Old Westbury Gardens, 71 Old Westbury Rd. Old Westbury. 12-1 p.m.

Mother’s Day Crafts. Garvies Point Museum, 50 Barry Drive. Glen Cove. 12-3 p.m.

Spa Science with Mom. Long Island Science Center, 11 West Main St. Riverhead. 3-5 p.m.

Sunday

Mother’s Day Dinner. Rockwell’s Bar & Grill, 60 Terry Rd. #7 Smithtown

Carl Hart Mother’s Day Duathlon. Heckscher State Park, Islip. 9 a.m.

Spring Lake’s Mother’s Day nine. Spring Lake Golf Club, 30 E. Bartlett Rd. Middle Island. 10 a.m.

Mother’s Day at the Hatchery. Fish Hatchery and Aquarium, 1660 Route 25A. Cold Spring Harbor. 10 a.m.- 5 p.m.

Mother’s Day Brunch. Long Island Aquarium & Exhibition Center, 431 East Main St. Riverhead. 10:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m.

Mother’s Day Brunch. Garden City Hotel, 45 Seventh Street, Garden City. 12 p.m. and 3 p.m.

Mother’s Day Dinner. Glen Cove Mansion, 200 Dosoris Lane, Glen Cove. 1-4 p.m.

Celebrate Mother’s Day. Perfecto Mundo Latin Bistro, 1141-1 Jericho Turnpike. Commack. 1-7 p.m.

The Suffolk County SPCA is asking for the public’s help in finding who shot this opossum in the face.

Two decapitated animal heads were found in East Northport on Tuesday, the same day an opossum was discovered to be suffering from pellet-gun wounds in Holtsville, Suffolk County SPCA investigators said.

The pair of severed heads—belonging to either sheep or goats—was in a plastic bag near the intersection of Elwood and Warner Roads in East Northport, authorities said.

“We find this deeply disturbing,” said Roy Gross, chief of the Suffolk SPCA, noting that it’s the second time in less than a year that animal remains have been found in the same area.

The Holtsville resident who reported finding the opossum alive in a garbage pail took it to a veterinarian who determined that the animal had been shot in the face with a pellet gun, officials said.

“This is a blatant act of animal cruelty and we will do everything we can to see that those responsible are apprehended,” Gross said of the opossum shooting.

The animal head case comes after a bag of decapitated animals was found Deer Park last year, 18 headless chickens were found in Manorville in 2011 and a beheaded goat turned up in Islip in 2009.

Anyone with information is asked to call the Suffolk County SPCA at 631-382-7722.

The victim was struck by the 1:09 a.m. train from Penn Station due in Montauk at 3:57 a.m. at about 2 a.m., according to the LIRR.

MTA police are continuing the investigation. The victim’s identity was not immediately available.

The person is the second to be stuck by an LIRR train this week after another case in Syosset on Monday night.

A Suffolk County police spokeswoman said officers responded to search town hall in Farmingville after receiving the tip from Nassau County police.

A Nassau County police spokeswoman said Emergency Services Unit officers responded to a report of a suspicious envelope at News 12 Long Island in Woodbury, opened it and read the threat.

“It was for a different date, not today’s date,” the Nassau police spokeswoman said.

Brookhaven town spokesman Jack Krieger said the building was evacuated at about 1:30 p.m. and workers were allowed back inside an hour later.

The incident comes after Suffolk County police found “Bomb Town Hall” written in graffiti on Jan. 13 at Martha Avenue Recreational Park in Brookhaven hamlet, about seven miles from town hall.

It also comes about a week after Brookhaven drew harsh criticism for its extremely slow response in plowing many local streets following a blizzard that dumped a record nearly three feet of snow while Brookhaven Town Supervisor Ed Romaine was on vacation.

Romaine has since apologized. Acting Superintendent of Highways Michael Murphy who was also away during the storm resigned last week. John Capella replaced him until a March 5 special election to pick a new highway chief.

Town Councilwoman Kathy Walsh, an independent, is running on the Democratic Party line for the highway post against New York State Assemb. Daniel Losquadro (R-Shoreham).

Such threats are nothing new on LI, although they’re usually outnumbered by shooting and bomb threats at local schools, which have been increasingly sensitive to similar scares after the Newtown school massacre in December.

Ronald Kellman of Central Islip pleaded guilty in October to phoning in four bomb threats to Islip Town Hall over nine months. He was sentenced to six months in jail and five years probation, court records show.

An NYPD spokesman said the Warrant Squad was conducting the investigation with the help of Suffolk police.

The LIRR shut down service in both directions around 11:30 a.m. between Babylon and Patchogue at the request of Suffolk police, a spokesman for the railroad said.

Service was suspended for 30 minutes, he added.

Both the Islip and Bay Shore School District’s put schools on lockout around the same time that the search was being conducted in Bay Shore. The schools didn’t say if the security procedures were related to the search.

Reports that Southside Hospital in Bay Shore was under lockdown were incorrect, a spokesman for the hospital said in a phone message.

The NYPD said the suspect is wanted in a non-fatal shooting that occurred in the Bronx last November.