The Nassau Inter-County Express, better known as NICE Bus, will bring back the half-hourly N88 from Freeport and hourly N87 from Hicksville for the summer, starting Saturday, May 25, the agency announced last week.

Both bus lines start at the Long Island Rail Road stations in their respective towns of origin. The LIRR is offering package fares for those taking the train to the bus to the beach—$18.50 from Penn Station or Brooklyn and $15.25 from Jamaica.

The buses stop at Jones Beach’s two bathhouses and Central Mall. They will only run on weekends until June 24, when the daily service starts through Labor Day.

The N88 will also run after concerts at the Nikon Jones Beach Theater.

The cash one-way fare is $2.25 and the Metro Card fare is $2.50.

Sandy damaged houses across Long Island, such as this one in Atlantique on Fire Island.

Superstorm Sandy went down in history six months ago as one of the biggest natural disasters to hit Long Island, irreversibly changing its landscape and washing away many residents’ sense of security.

While the widespread blackouts, lengthy gas-shortage lines, catastrophic flooding and mountainous debris piles are mostly just a memory, recovery efforts are still most visible on LI’s Atlantic Ocean-facing barrier beaches that suffered the worst damage.

“Sandy to some people is gone, it’s passed,” said James Mallot, the mayor of Ocean Beach, Fire Island’s unofficial capital. “We live it out there every single minute of the day.”

The village, like the rest of LI’s Sandy-ravaged beachfront communities, is rushing to prepare for Memorial Day weekend, the kickoff to the summer beach and tourist season that pumps billions into the local economy.

Meanwhile, a breach that Sandy caused in Fire Island’s federal wilderness area to the east of the residential communities remains open, which has become a point of contention between those who blame the breach on flooding in communities near the Great South Bay and others who argue it’s cleaning out the polluted waterways.

The storm, a massive hybrid of a category 1 hurricane that merged with a nor’easter, is considered the worst to hit the region since the infamous “Long Island Express” in 1938.

Looking to Katrina for Perspective on Sandy Recovery Timeline

In the City of Long Beach on LI’s westernmost barrier island, officials held a groundbreaking ceremony Saturday to commemorate construction of the new boardwalk to replace the old one that Sandy destroyed—although the Long Beach Medical Center is still closed.

“We came together months ago to mourn the loss of our boardwalk,” Scott Mandel, president of the Long Beach City council, told hundreds of residents who gathered for the event. “Today we come together to celebrate the rebirth of it. Long Beach is coming back better than ever.”

A five-mile stretch of badly damaged Ocean Parkway on Jones Beach Island just reopened last week after contractors rebuilt the roadway’s protective dunes that were washed away. Parts of Jones Beach itself are already reopened, but Robert Moses State Park is still closed.

And in the Hamptons, some millionaires have sparked controversy by building seawalls—work that may be challenged in court—in the hopes of protecting their oceanfront mansions, The New York Times recently reported.

Signs of a comeback can be found on mainland LI as well. Camp Bulldog, a makeshift support network in Lindenhurst that was a lifeline for residents coping in Sandy’s aftermath, closed over the weekend. On the North Shore, the West Shore Road seawall is nearing completion. And East Rockaway Junior-High School reopened Monday just in time to mark the six-month mark of the Oct. 29 storm.

Also on Monday, the Federal Emergency Management Agency reported that its four remaining disaster recovery centers in Long Beach, Island Park, Seaford and Copiague will become Disaster Loan Outreach Centers on Wednesday, indicating another milestone in the recovery process.

“New York has made tremendous progress in the six months since Sandy,” said Michael F. Byrne, FEMA’s federal coordinating officer for Hurricane Sandy operations. “But the work is not done.”

Brian Davis, the attorney for Raymond Roth, speaks to reporters outside Nassau COunty court on March 21, 2013.

A Massapequa man has admitted faking his own drowning death in an attempt to escape mounting debt, have his family profit from his life insurance policy and secretly start his life over in Florida.

Raymond Roth pleaded guilty Thursday at Nassau County court to fourth-degree conspiracy, a felony, in a plea deal with prosecutors. He’s expected to be sentenced May 21 to 90 days in jail on the condition that he pays $36,000 in restitution to the U.S. Coast Guard and Nassau police for resources wasted searching for his body at Jones Beach last summer.

“I’m feeling better, I’ve started school,” the 48-year-old unemployed telecommunications worker told Judge Tammy Robbins after recapping his two-week psych-ward stay, diagnoses as bipolar and suicide attempt before he turned himself in to police last August.

Roth’s 22-year-old son, Jonathan, had reported that Raymond went missing while swimming at the beach July 28, prompting a search that lasted days until police learned he was at his time share in Florida. Jonathan pleaded guilty to conspiracy and filing a false report Monday.

“He was not thinking rationally at the time,” Raymond’s Garden City based attorney, Brian Davis, told reporters outside the courthouse. He said his client was planning to get a job on a fishing boat or at a tiki bar in the Sunshine State.

Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice said the bizarre case proved to be a needless distraction for search and rescue workers.

“This case easily could’ve turned tragic had an actual emergency occurred while this defendant sent first responders on a wild goose chase,” Rice said.

Davis said that Raymond, who is reportedly enrolled in culinary school, is hoping to reconnect with his son, who accused Raymond of abusing him and coercing him to participate in the scheme.

Raymond Roth

Raymond’s wife, Evana, filed for divorce last year after she discovered emails revealing her husband and son had plotted the fake drowning a week in advance. Raymond had also put the family home up for sale, sold his clothes and emptied the couples’ bank accounts.

After the plot started to unravel, Raymond called police himself to say he would turn himself in, then was stopped for speeding in South Carolina while on his way back to New York.

Raymond had faced up to 15 years in prison if he had been convicted at trial of insurance fraud. His son is due back in court April 15. Raymond declined to comment to reporters while leaving the court.

The search included K-9, marine and aviation bureaus from various departments after the vehicle was found at about 2 p.m., authorities said. The potential missing person reportedly could be a woman from New York City. There was no description of the possible missing person.

No further details were available from police. The investigation is continuing.

The skeletal remains of four missing prostitutes were discovered on Gilgo Beach in December 2010. Six more sets of human remains were discovered along the parkway between Jones Beach and Oak Beach in March and April 2011.

Police believe some of the bodies to be victims of a serial killer, who to date remains at large.

The closure is required to rebuild the pedestrian tunnel between Jones Beach parking field four and the central mall, which is expected to be completed by the Memorial Day Holiday weekend, according to the New York State Department of Transportation.

Drivers will be detoured to Bay Parkway on the north side of the barrier island. The eastbound lanes of the same stretch of Ocean Parkway will also be closed after the first phase of the work is completed.

Drivers are advised to avoid the area to avoid delays. For more information, call 511 or visit www.511ny.org

Dave Matthews Band playing in Melbourne, Australia (Photo by DAVID ILIFF. License: CC-BY-SA 3.0)

Fans of jam band icon Dave Matthews, Canadian rock legends Rush and country rock star Blake Shelton rejoice: Tickets for these performers’ Jones Beach Theater concerts this summer go on sale soon.

The early draft of the 2013 concert season lineup started taking shape when dates were set for British boy band One Direction, British-American classic rock quartet Fleetwood Mac and the mayor of Margaritaville, Jimmy Buffet and the Coral Reefer Band. The venue usually announces much of its lineup at once in the spring when more dates are set. The schedule is a good sign that the waterfront theater, which was flooded during Superstorm Sandy, is being repaired.

Tickets go on sale 10 a.m. Monday for three Nikon at Jones Beach Theater dates: Rush’s Clockword Angels Tour stop on Sunday, June 23, country stars Rascall Flats & The Perry Band show on Friday, May 31 and the Sunday, July 21 concert featuring Shelton with Easton Corbin & Jana Kramer.

Tickets for Jimmy Buffet’s concerts on Tuesday, Aug. 20 and Thursday, Aug. 22, can be purchased starting 10 a.m. Monday, March 4.

Dave Matthews Band ticket pre-sales begin 10 a.m. Monday, March 18 for Citi Cardmembers and members of his fan club, the Warehouse Fan Association, going to the pair of DMB concerts Tuesday, June 25 and Wednesday, June 26. Ticket sales open to the public 10 a.m. Friday, March 22.

One Direction concert ticket pre-sales start 10 a.m. Saturday, April 14 before they go on sale to the public 10 a.m. Saturday, April 21. They’re set to play two back-to-back shows Friday, June 28 and Saturday, June 29.

Already on sale are tickets for the Fleetwood Mac concert Saturday, June 22 and the Tuesday, July 23 concert starring ’90s pop rockers Train on their Mermaids of Alcatraz Tour with The Script and Gavin DeGraw.

Tickets can be purchased through www.ticketmaster.com or calling Nikon Jones Beach Theater 866-558-8468.

The 10th anniversary Jones Beach Air Show is set for Saturday, May 25 and Sunday, May 26. This year’s show stars the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds and the U.S. Navy F-18 SuperHornet.

Illustration by Jon Moreno

I pulled up to Republic Airport in misty could-go-either-way weather, parked my car in a back lot and walked toward the hangar. In front of me was this model toy plane, red and blue, plastic bubble on top.

It was adorable, and presumably left there to greet guests, like me, at the entrance. I stopped and peered inside, then made my way to Lt. Colonel John Klatt’s trailer.

Klatt was in town to perform at the Jones Beach air show. And if you’ve ever been there, he’s the guy bouncing around the clouds in the world famous Staudacher S-300D, a 1,250-pound high-performance aerobatic aircraft, which tops out at 250 mph.

He’s also a veteran of three combat tours in Iraq, who has logged more than 2,000 hours at the controls of the F-16 alone and served in the Air National Guard for more than 20 years, flying combat, air support and humanitarian missions throughout the world.

Now a member of the 148th fighter wing of the Duluth Air National Guard, Klatt spends his free time wowing audiences across the world by defying gravity every chance he gets.

Today he was meeting me in Farmingdale for a tour of Long Island’s skies in his two-seater plane, capable of pulling more than 20 Gs, which is twice the load of the F-16 “Fighting Falcon” Klatt flies in his “day job.”

That toy plane in the parking lot—not a toy.

I was climbing in the front seat, and Klatt was climbing in behind me, with only a thin plastic canopy between us and the wild blue yonder. He’d be controlling the plane from the back so I’d get the full pilot experience.

I took a deep breath as one of the guys strapped me in so tightly I couldn’t move any part of my body even an inch. Then he tucked something under the belt on my leg.

“Just in case,” he said. It was a plastic bag. Now I was really getting nervous, and thankful the only thing I had eaten that day was a strawberry.

Klatt started the engine. I couldn’t see him but I was wearing a mic so we could talk to each other and I could ask questions.

We sped down the runway, I felt like I was strapped to a cannonball. Then, in a matter of seconds, I was in another world, 3,000 feet up.

I couldn’t stop looking down at the ground. The sky was blue up above the clouds, and another toy plane, this one red, pulled up right next to us.

The pilot waved to me. I waved back. I felt like the Red Baron—the Snoopy version.

Klatt asked me, “So, you want the regular ride or the wild ride?”

I was feeling great, so I didn’t give it a second thought before I asked for the latter.

With that the plane jerked 90 degrees and we were going straight up to the sun, perpendicular to the ground. I felt weightless as we paused for barely a second before swirling and spinning straight back down, then flipped over and flew in a straight line upside-down over the Robert Moses Causeway.

Strangely enough, dangling upside down over Long Island seems very natural. Things don’t look real from up there, where the tide is coming in above and the sky is at your feet.

Today, I can’t even get down to the beach because the bridge is closed. After super storm Sandy, the whole area is shut down. There are orange cones and construction vehicles everywhere so the view over the causeway just isn’t the same on the ground. But if I were up there, I’m sure nothing would be lost.

From above, everything looks so small, especially the things that are so big and heavy down here. We flew over a cemetery, which looked like a checkerboard of little white Chiclets from up there and nothing more, and I didn’t even realize what it was until I saw a group of little dots gathered around one of them.

“I’ve always enjoyed airplanes,” said Klatt, who began flying at 17. “My dad used to take me to air shows as a kid and I was always excited about it.”

After a few more loops, rollovers and a hammerhead or two—whereby the plane did a literal cartwheel across the sky—it was time to head back down to Earth. We had been up there about 20 minutes. I didn’t want to come down.

Slowly the beautiful white Chiclets became headstones and everything was real again. I felt sick, not in some spiritual and transformative way. I felt sick to my stomach, and I was reaching for the bag tucked in the straps on my leg, simultaneously glad that I had only eaten that strawberry and remembering that there was a video camera focused right on my face, recording every second of my in-flight experience.

Klatt later explained to me that the body has to learn to adapt to the changes in gravity. This was my first step. In other words, next time I’d be a little less nauseous.

Back on the ground, I climbed out of the plane, a little wobbly on my feet. Someone handed me a tape that I vowed to never let anyone watch, ever.

Back home, I turned the TV on, popped the tape in, cringed for a few minutes, then pushed the play button.

Nothing.

It was blank. The camera on the plane didn’t record.

I was a little disappointed and a little relieved. If something on the plane had to fail 3,000 feet above the ground, I’m glad it was the camera.

1. SIP 495 WINE

Chardonnay, merlot… Pick your exit. Palmer Vineyards in Aquebogue has come up with a line of beverages that screams Long Island—495 Wines. They all come with an Interstate 495 label that, depending on how your commute went, will make you either smile or swear as you savor the bouquet.

2. VISIT DAMNYOUAUTOCORRECT.COM

Smart phones are great, most of the time. But if you’ve ever sent a quick email or text message, only to have it butchered by autocorrect, then the hilarious, sometimes vulgar, miscommunications compiled here are a must-read.

3. GET A DESKTOP DUMPSTER

It’s January, a time for making New Year’s resolutions you probably won’t keep come February. If yours is to get organized, this mini dumpster from SteelPlant.net will do the trick, and look awesome holding your pens, scissors, mini liquor bottles, or whatever else you keep in your desk. Hey, we’re not judging.

4. SEE BLANCANIEVES

Director Pablo Berger’s fairy tale/drama remake of Snow White set in 1920s Seville tells the tale of Carmen, her evil stepmother and a band of roving, bullfighting dwarves. Need we say more? The movie hits theaters Jan. 18.

5. DOWNLOAD GOOGLE MAPS

If you have an iPhone, don’t risk your safety using Apple Maps any longer. To avoid ending up in a desert with no water or dangling off a cliff, download the new Google Maps app for iPhone. It’s free and it just might save your life, literally.

6. BUY AN “AUTHORS ARE MY ROCK STARS” WALL CALENDAR

From William Shakespeare to Mark Twain to Jack Kerouac to Maya Angelou, this wall calendar features insightful quotes and photos of authors with that rock-star edge. Get it at Amazon.com.

7. TOAST POE

An unknown visitor—or visitors—known as the mysterious “Poe Toaster” has celebrated Edgar Allan Poe’s birthday every year since 1949 in the early morning hours of Jan. 19 by leaving a bottle of cognac and three roses at Poe’s grave in Baltimore. But the Poe Toaster has been MIA for the past few years… Hint, hint.

8. AUDITION FOR MTV’S TRUE LIFE

Casting calls are open for Furries (people who dress up in animal fur suits); Drunkorexics (those who skip meals to save calories for alcohol); Re-sex-changers (those who have undergone gender reassignment surgery, then changed their minds)—and many others. Visit MTV.com for details.

9. TIVO STORAGE WARS NEW YORK

A&E’s spin-off comes to our stomping grounds in 2013, and follows a group of modern-day treasure hunters on their journeys every Tuesday at 10 p.m. beginning Jan. 1.

10. GET A STARGAZING PERMIT

A $30 stargazing permit from New York State Parks allows you entry after sunset to six LI parks—Hither Hills, Jones Beach, Montauk Point, Robert Moses, Wildwood and Sunken Meadow—to observe the skies above. Card-carrying stargazers are limited to the parking lots, so running into the ocean naked at 3 a.m. will still get you kicked out and/or arrested.

WESTBORO BAPTIST CHURCH PETITION

BULL’S EYE A petition is posted on WhiteHouse.gov to legally recognize the Westboro Baptist Church, known for its extremist ideologies against homosexuals, Jews and even their fellow Christians, as a hate group. With hundreds of thousands of cyber signatures so far, it’s the most popular petition ever posted since the Obama administration launched the site last year. Amen to that.

TRUMP ON THE OCEAN

BULL’S EYE After five years of arguing over a basement, Donald Trump’s massive on-again off-again luxury restaurant and catering facility that would have eaten up 86,000 square feet of Jones Beach with a two-story building, formal terraces, etc., is off again, after waves from super storm Sandy flooded the site. The risk of the same thing happening again sends the billionaire packing—back to his Manhattan penthouse. #1PercentProblems

THE EPA 

PARTIAL SCORE Lisa Jackson steps down as administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, issuing a statement that she is confident “the ship is sailing in the right direction” but doesn’t mention any reason for her decision. Hey, maybe she got a job on the board of directors over at Monsanto. It wouldn’t be the first time the agency charged with protecting the environment and the corporate giant set on destroying it swapped employees! We wish we were kidding.

THE FDA

OFF TARGET A genetically modified salmon mutated to grow twice as fast as natural salmon is on course to become the first GM animal in the world declared safe to eat, after the Food & Drug Administration gives it the OK, meaning mass production of the fish is just around the corner. So, the FDA, whose current deputy commissioner for foods is a former vice president of GM food giant Monsanto, has backed a mutant fish that will make the industry millions? Shocker!

BOTOX

OFF TARGET Botox users are warned that doses of the drug received by nearly 400 medical centers in the U.S. are unapproved and from foreign sources, putting patients at risk. But what those risks are is still unclear. We’re sure it’s just the government overreacting. Injecting paralysis-inducing neurotoxins between your eyes—what could go wrong!?

SNAPCHAT

PARTIAL SCORE Sexting app Snapchat, which allows users to send videos that last only for a specified amount of time before spontaneously combusting, is outsmarted by the techies at BuzzFeed, who detail exactly how to get those files back permanently after they supposedly disappear… And the publicists of B-list celebs around the world get a belated holiday bonus this year.