Another major accident on Sunrise Highway on Long Island at the Oakdale Connetquot merge. The vehicle involved with the accident is a tractor trailer, which overturned and knocked down a power line which supplied power to Oakdale and some parts of Bohemia. According to WRAJ Internet Radio, which has been keeping track of major accidents and road closures since 2005, says that this is the worst its seen this year, while reporting 32 accidents this year so far, which a few caused road closures.

This resulted in road closures and power failures. And for the fourth time this year, the eastbound and westbound was closed. The road was reopened sometime after 7pm but was closed again into the late night. At our 1:30am inspection of Sunrise Highway this morning, the highway is still closed from exit 46 to exit 49 eastbound and westbound, according to officials.

Vidgle’s and WRAJ Internet Radio’s offices lost power instantly after the crash at around 3:30pm Thursday. According to Maria O’Connell, WRAJ Internet Radio’s relations director, said that it caused the headquarters of WRAJ and Vidgle to have no power for over 7 hours. “The lightpole that was hit by the tractor trailer is only 10 poles down the street from us,” O’Connell added. The light pole that was hit is the lead pole for cables to cross the 8 lanes of traffic of Sunrise Highway. “The power company and Verizon also had to replace their cable from the lead pole.”

WRAJ Internet Radio also identified of what might be the location of the accident, as seen above. The location is the on-ramp from Pond Road to Sunrise Highway westbound. WRAJ Internet Radio reported similar accidents like this in the past when the light pole was hit in 2006 and 2007.  WRAJ Internet Radio is assuming, by previous similar accidents, that the tractor trailer was on the service road and lost control at the fork of the service road; in which one way leads to a stop sign to Pond Road South so drivers can get back onto Sunrise Highway or to go northbound onto Pond Road leading to Sycamore Avenue.

WRAJ Internet Rado is the sister website of Vidgle, which has been operating since 2002. Satellite image courtesy of Google Earth.

 Updated: May 13, 2008 at 4:10pm.

At 10:27pm Monday evening during a live teaser for the 11PM news on WNBC NY Channel 4, news anchor Sue Simmons slipped “a word that many people find offensive.” This happend on the same day as an old video of Bill O’Reilly, from the O’Reilly Factor on Fox News, turned up on the Internet showing O’Reilly angry during a recording of the “Inside Edition.”

After the incident occured, I wrote my reaction of what I thought happened.

“As an observer of WNBC News 4 New York for the past many years, I noticed something different about the teaser that was aired. After my observation of watching the clip online several times, it seems like it is not Simmon’s fault; it feels and looks like they were unaware that they are live. One hint during the teaser, Chuck Scarborough, the co-anchor of Simmons for the past 28 years, was not looking at the camera; something that Scarborough will never do during a live teaser. If in that case, the director in the studio did not tell Simmons and Scarborough that they are live; the audio and video was perfectly done just like the other live teasers at 10:30pm. But it is what Simmons said that outraged the audience. My prediction is that there was a similar situation just like in the O’Reilly video posted on Monday that might have been going on in Studio 6B; an argument between the anchor and the director. On the 11 o’clock newscast, she apologized to the audience.”

During the mid-day on Tuesday, the Daily News is reporting that she slipped on the word “heck” that caused her to say the F-word while teasing the first story when the video switched to a cruise-ship story.

It is expected that Simmons will not be on the air tomorrow during the 5 o’clock and 11 o’clock newscast if the situation is not resolved.

In my views, Simmons seems like she won’t be fired; Simmons and Scarborough is the anchor team that represents New York news. Simmons joined WNBC back in 1980 with Scarborough.

Because videos and links contains strong language, links were not posted.

Left image: snapshot of the May 12 live teaser, Right image: Sue Simmons in February 2007.

There are currently 1,341 reported customers without power this morning living in Ronkonkoma, Bohemia, Central Islip, Oakdale, East Islip, and Islip Terrace. The power outage is due to a short circuit break, according to LIPA. An additional 94 customers are without power in Oyster Bay due to weather related outages.

 New York State Governor Eliot Spitzer is stepping down. On Monday, he will be replaced by Lt. Governor David Paterson, who will be the first black and legally blind governor for the state. On Monday, Spitzer was caught in a federal investigation. In the investigation, he has spent $4,300 at a high-class Washington D.C. hotel on February 13; the public evidence that he in the area was that he was on an interview from Washington on the CNBC cable outlet.

According to the investigation, he has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars, and now the public will be ask “who did the money belong too?” For now, it is believed that it is personal assets, but the investigation will continue.

Spitzer is married to his wife and has three teenaged daughters.  

A student has stabbed a student in the back at Gorton High School. According to WNBC, The stabbing occurred over a dispute over a cell phone that occurred in a corrider and into a classroom. Police said that three students attacked the victim and one stabbed him by struggle and fled while the student was rushed too the nurses office. Two teenagers, ages 16 and 17, were charged with assault and a 15-year-old was charged with juvenile delinquency.

I-CON, shorten for Island-Convention, will not be held at SUNY Stony Brook University in 2009 as its sports complex will have a massive renovation project. For the year (or two) when the sports complex will be under construction, the convention will be held at sister school SUNY Suffolk County Community College Grant Campus, located in Brentwood. The convention may return to the Stony Brook campus by 2010 but some say that I-CON has a weak future to survive at Stony Brook.

There has been a report of a gunman at Stony Brook University. According to the Stony Brook website, it reports that the school is under lock down as a young male fled from the Student Activity Center who witnesses say he had a handgun.

 The individual was reported to be an African American male, approximately 25 years of age, wearing a black coat and black wool hat. He fled in the direction of Harriman Hall. University Police are searching the area and investigating the report. Remain alert, proceed with caution and notify University Police if you see anyone fitting the description of the individual or anything unusual. You can reach University Police by callling 911 from any campus phone or 632-3333.   

 They reported that no shots has been fired. Students were informed via text messages and the website.

UPDATED 4:20pm:  There has been an all clear given to the students at Stony Brook University after 4:00. There has been no word that police has found anything. 

WNBC announced on Thursday that New York City has opened the first public bathroom that can self-clean itself. At a fair price of 25 cents, you have 15 minutes “to do anything inside.” After the fifteen minutes, the doors will open automatically. After leaving, the bathroom will self-clean itself for 60 seconds before its next use. The first toilet is located in Madison Square Park in Manhattan, another 19 is on the way throughout the city.

As a ‘plot’ of a deadly shooting at a high school effected us so close to home and throughout the nation, we’ve decided to share the views of what some students and alumni told us at WRAJ in the last 24 hours. In this blog post, we have not shared names.

Most of the staff team here at WRAJ Internet Radio have attended Connetquot High School in Bohemia within the past 5 years. As you may recall from last year, we received media attention after two alumni from the school hacked into the social networking website Myspace.com which had national attention. And once again, Connetquot is in the national news again, this time a student plotting to destroy it with everyone inside.

You can read an article about what happened on WNBC’s website by clicking here. (The link will expire within the next 2 weeks from July 14)

Most students who attended the school in the past year were not surprised by the spoiled plot. There were many bomb threats, especially around the anniversary of the Colombine massacre back in April.

“When I was student at the school, there weren’t any bomb threats or scares,” another staff member added. “After graduation, I spotted something so bad that might hurt the student body, a security loop hole. Sometimes when I arrive at the school, a security guard in the front of the school did not stop the vehicles to inspect where they were going during school hours. And a few times when I walked into the main entrance, there were no security guards to ask where I was going or even stopping me.”

“The security is lack at the school, but its not the point of what exactly happened earlier this month,” said a staff member of the station. “I was in the transition of the school as it became a 9-12 grade school from grades 10-12, which took place in the 2004-2005 school year.” Before 2004, there were around 1,600 students, after the grade changes, over 2,300 students attend the school, according to the school’s former principal in 2004. “And what is worst is that students are not getting the help they need.” One of his many problems he told us involved his friend. “My friend received no support when she needed help from her teacher when other kids were picking on her; they even stole something of hers in front of a teacher and the teacher/school still did not do anything. The administration of the school said to the student that they couldn’t do anything about it, its out of our hands. This is just… sad, the school could not do anything to get her belongings back, and this coming out from the people who are suppose to help students to be safe and learn.”

“The student(s) involved with the plot most likely did not receive support from the teachers and staff,” a friend of ours who attended the school has said to us. “If the school was not under-staffed, this might have never happened.”

A member of the community told us that there is no communication of the school, which has becoming a big rumor in the community since early this year. The Superindent of the school district established of creating a ‘Rumors’ section of the district’s poor designed, confusing website, to keep rumors off the streets. But the rumors section of the site is still keeping rumors in the district. “This district needs to be restructured, the staff, the board, and the teachers,” said a parent contacting WRAJ.

Overall, most of the staff team were not surprise of the plot. “I saw this coming ever since I left the school,” said WRAJ General Manager Anthony Zaragoza, a graduate of the school in 2005. “I see the school safety going down and there is not that much for me to do,” said a faculty member contacting the station back in January 2007.