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HERALD $1.00
local’s daughter is Coast Guard-bound
Kiwanis Club to host fundraiser
Fatal incident at railroad station
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Vol. 69 No. 39
SEPTEMBER 23 - 29, 2021
We learned we’re stronger together
On Sept. 14, a federal judge in upstate New York temporarily blocked enforcement of the state’s Covid-19 vaccine mandate for health care workers, and ruled again their employers’ denial of religious exemptions. The ruling came a day after a federal judge in Brooklyn refused to suspend the mandate, responding to a suit filed against the state by a Seaford resident and other
nurses earlier this month. Diane Bono of Seaford, fellow Syosset Hospital nurse Michelle Melendez, of Wheatley Heights, nonprofit civic group We The Patriots USA Inc. and a Syracuse hospital worker, Michelle Synakowski, filed a civil suit on Sept. 2 in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn. The plaintiffs sought to block the state-issued mandate requiring all health care workers to obtain at least one Covid-19 vaccine by Sept. 27. According to
court records, Connecticut-based attorney Norman Pattis, representing the plaintiffs, argued that the mandate violated their First Amendment rights and religious freedoms. Specifically, the health care workers took issue with the fact that the three vaccines currently authorized in the U.S. were created using stem cells. Court records indicate that Bono is a nondenominational Christian. On Sept. 13, Judge William F. Kuntz II denied the plaintiffs’ Continued on page 13
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By KaTE NalEPiNSKi
www.liherald.com
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State vaccine order for health workers temporarily blocked
Wantagh/Seaford
The pandemic stretched us to our limits, but we never broke. We have been with you throughout, and our pledge is to remain with you until all of us return to normal life — or whatever our lives will be in the new normal. Producing the news, however, is a costly endeavor. We must pay the salaries of reporters, editors, p h o t o g r ap h e r s, g raphic artists, a dve r t i s i n g a c count executives, press operators, drivers and managers. Now, more than ever, we are relying on you, our readers, to suppor t us, as w e h a v e suppor ted you through this crisis. Please consider taking an annual subscription to the Herald. See our subscription ad in this week’s paper on Page 9. If you are already a Herald subscriber, thank you for your suppor t. We hope you are pleased with our coverage, and if you are, you might consider taking a two- or three-year subscription. CH
Seaford district band teachers Christopher Coniglio, left, and Anthony Romeo, with Seaford High School senior Angela Dean. Dean has been selected to perform in the New York State School Music Association’s All-State music festival later this year. Story, Page 9.
Living in
Musically inclined
2021-2022
Courtesy Seaford School District
The coronavirus pandemic sw e p t a c r o s s t h e U n i t e d States, including Seaford, like a wildfire over the past 18 months, killing more than 600,000 of our fellow Americans. We mour n each and every one of these precious lives taken too soon. In recent months, however, we have begun to emerge from this nationwide catastrophe, and because of the Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines, we are seeing a glimmer of hope. Though the Covid-19 infection and death rates h ave t i c ke d u p recently, we are far better off than we were one year ago. We also learned an important lesson during this crisis: We are stronger together. Throughout the pandemic, all of us at the Herald have strived to report the news of the day swiftly and accurately. Suddenly last spring, we were no longer a weekly newspaper. We were a daily, publishing the news online at liherald. com and in our newsletter. Hundreds of thousands of people a month came to our website for the latest news.
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Kate Nalepinski Editor