Built like an ox at 6-foot-7, Marquis Barnett’s greatest strengths lie around the hoop — his ability to block and change shots, rebound and finish. Yet, with 6.7 seconds remaining and his Cardozo boys’ basketball team tied with Patterson (Md.) in the Big Apple Basketball Invitational at Baruch College, the senior forward was far from the hoop. Comment.

It’s slow and steady for Sierra Calhoun. Comment.

Two Whitestone men have started websites for the neighborhood’s business community in the past year, but both say there’s no bad blood between them. Comment.

Sanitation officials reminded New Yorkers to shovel their sidewalks following the worst of the Dec. 26 snowstorm, but many Maspeth sidewalks in front of city property remained covered with a treacherous layer of ice even before the latest bout of winter weather this week, a civic leader said. Comment.

On the day the city celebrated the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., leaders in southeast Queens urged residents and law enforcement agencies to continue the civil rights leader’s work for peace by getting guns off the streets. Comment.

Most of the 22 green projects proposed as mitigation for the city’s refusal to revamp the Newtown Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant are located in Kings County, but nearly 700 residents of Queens and Brooklyn threw their support behind projects in Long Island City and Maspeth. Comment.

Long Island Jewish Medical Center received an award from the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s Get with the Guidelines Stroke Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award — the organization’s highest distinction for stroke care. Comment.

The Grace Episcopal Church’s Memorial Hall may be one of the oldest buildings in downtown Jamaica, but right now its historical significance will not be recognized among other famous buildings in the city. Comment.

Two Glendale men accused of committing a long string of graffiti vandalism over several years were arrested earlier this month by officers at the 104th Precinct, police said. Comment.

FDNY Capt. Kevin Cassidy and Firefighter James Ryan were men who would not think twice about returning to help at Ground Zero, even after they knew they would die from the cancer they were diagnosed with after responding to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, family and friends said at a ceremony honoring the two men at a Bayside firehouse last week. Comment.

ST. ALBANS — An Addisleigh Park man was charged with operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of alcohol or drugs after he allegedly admitted to an officer that he was smoking marijuana, a spokeswoman for Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said. Comment.

JAMAICA — A firefighter who suffered serious burns to his face was one of a dozen FDNY members who was injured fighting an eight-alarm blaze for hours Monday night into Tuesday morning, officials said. Comment.

FAR ROCKAWAY — A Far Rockaway woman was sentenced to four months in jail after she pleaded guilty to assaulting another woman during a dispute earlier this month, a spokeswoman for Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said. Comment.

When Jamaica High School sophomore Nneoma Okorie last week entered the stage as a modern-day Antigone — the heroine who stands up to the former city schools chancellor — hundreds of students raised their hands and cheered for a play that became a rallying cry to save the school the city Department of Education has vowed to close. Comment.

A nonprofit scrapped its plans last week to build housing for former homeless residents in Jamaica and community activists said they were pleased the neighborhood is not the location for another home for displaced New Yorkers. Comment.

One of Jamaica’s popular centers for senior patients with mental health problems avoided closure by the city last week and administrators are looking forward to a brighter future. Comment.

A reputed St. Albans gang member was sentenced Friday to more than a dozen years behind bars for holding up a teen at gunpoint and taking his belongings, the Queens district attorney said. Comment.

Barring the sudden and unexpected growth of a conscience, Wonder Bread will close its doors in Jamaica this week, putting 200 men and women out of work. After 100 years of operating in southeast Queens, Wonder Bread is turning its back on it and its blue-collar workers. Comment.

After more than a decade of preparation, Corona’s Louis Armstrong House Museum is gearing up to start construction on a new visitor’s center, which will be located across the street from the jazz legend’s home and will house an extensive collection as well as hosting numerous concerts and events for visitors. Comment.

Two antiquated diesel trains that belch out clouds of pollution as they haul waste through Queens may get an environmentally friendly makeover if a federal grant is approved in the spring. Comment.

Three relatives from Long Island have admitted they killed a man from their home country, El Salvador, on a Little Neck Playground on Christmas Night three years ago in what police suspect was a gang related murder, the Queens district attorney’s office said. Comment.

Community Board 8 unanimously approved a resolution last week that strongly condemned the city Department of Education, claiming the agency is setting up Jamaica High School to fail. Comment.

Shawn Peace, the 22-year-old man charged with shooting a livery cab driver in South Ozone Park last month, allegedly robbed another driver in a similar fashion in November and has a history of sticking up fast food restaurants around the borough, police said. Comment.

The city Department of Education issued a proposal to temporarily house one grade of a new Maspeth high school in Forest Hills, but not everyone in the neighborhood will welcome the potential guests. Comment.

Art lovers gathered at a Kew Gardens gallery to toast a new exhibit by raising their glasses — and juice boxes. Comment.

Bob Barker would be proud. Comment.

A fraught relationship between three big-name players in the Willets Point redevelopment discussions has reached a happy detente just in time for Valentine’s Day. Comment.

City Comptroller John Liu dismissed a question about running for mayor at the Jefferson Democratic Club’s first meeting in Bayside last week. Comment.

QUEENS — Police have asked for the public’s help in identifying and locating the whereabouts of a man wanted in connection with 10 robberies in the 109th, 110th and 112th precincts. Comment.

COLLEGE POINT — A College Point man was charged with assault after he allegedly punched a man in the face on a College Point street, a spokeswoman for Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said. Comment.

BRIARWOOD — A Brooklyn woman was charged with attempted petit larceny after she allegedly stole five bags of frozen shrimp from a Briarwood Key Food, a spokeswoman for Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said. Comment.

FLUSHING — Police have asked for the public’s help in locating at least two men and one woman wanted in connection with a pattern of three armed robberies that occurred within the 107th Precinct in Flushing. Comment.

Lost in the anger over the city’s performance following the December blizzard is the fact that hundreds of city employees worked night and day to get the city back to normal. Sanitation employees worked 12-hour shifts to clear the snow and then overtime again to pick up trash. Comment.

The Clearview Expressway and the Throgs Neck Bridge brought big changes to Queens when they opened 50 years ago — including the removal of hundreds of area homes for the expressway’s construction — and the Bayside Historical Society is looking to tell residents’ stories about the structures as part of its upcoming exhibit. Comment.

The plans for the crumbling RKO Keith’s Theatre in downtown Flushing are not going to go through as easily as some local politicians have hoped, Community Board 7 leaders caution. Comment.

Two recent college graduates from Bayside are trying to revive a basketball league for youth that hundreds of children from around Queens once participated in every summer until it fell apart after the league’s founder had to leave to take care of his sick daughter about five years ago. Comment.

An overflow crowd packed into the Officers Club at Fort Totten Sunday for the 10th-annual celebration of the arts sponsored by the Bayside Historical Society. Comment.

State Sen. Tony Avella (D-Bayside) is one of three freshmen Democratic senators to be appointed as ranking minority members of legislative committees in Albany, Sen. Democratic Leader John Sampson (D-Brooklyn) announced last week. Comment.

After more than six decades at its office on Northern Boulevard in Bayside, North Shore Animal Hospital is bidding adieu to the place that was once the only animal hospital for miles around. Comment.

A Long Island man was charged with harassment Friday after he allegedly made about 50 “rambling” phone calls to U.S. Rep. Gary Ackerman’s (D-Bayside) Bayside office, including one threatening message aimed at local and federal law enforcement, Nassau County police said. Comment.

U.S. Rep. Gary Ackerman (D-Bayside) has joined the chorus of lawmakers calling for tighter arms control after a gunman in Arizona shot a U.S. congresswoman in the head and killed six others, including a federal judge and the 9-year-old granddaughter of a former New York Mets manager. Comment.

At 6 a.m. two weeks ago, around 50 people gathered outside a darkened Bayside office building in the cold for the swearing in of the 112th Congress. The event was still a five-hour bus ride away in Washington, D.C., but residents were ready to make the trip in support their congressman, U.S. Rep. Gary Ackerman (D-Bayside), who invited them along to witness the ceremony. Comment.

HOWARD BEACH — A Howard Beach man was arraigned on criminal possession of a weapon and obstructing governmental administration after he allegedly threatened to shoot a city marshal who was serving him an eviction order, a spokeswoman for Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said. Comment.

FOREST HILLS — A Forest Hills travel agent was arraigned on grand larceny and identity theft charges after he allegedly used a customer’s credit card to rack up more than $10,000 in airline tickets, the Queens district attorney’s office said. Comment.

CORONA — A Bronx woman was charged with reckless endangerment, criminal possession of a controlled substance and three traffic violations after she was allegedly driving erratically in Corona, a spokeswoman for Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said. Comment.

I am writing in response to your Jan. 13-19 story entitled “Officials wary of Halloran claims on snow cleanup.” Comment.

I normally enjoy Dee Richards’ weekly column, but in last week’s column (“Ackerman holds D.C. bus trip for official swearing-in,” Jan. 13-19) I found her remarks about Queens County Republican Party Chairman Phil Ragusa and Executive Vice Chairman Vince Tabone unwarranted and inappropriate. Comment.

It’s war! The wealthiest Americans are orchestrating a war between private and public sector employees. First, our jobs are sent to China and Mexico. Whole towns are devastated and the tax base gutted. The owners and the corporations move their accounts off-shore and pay no taxes. The Republicans turn billion-dollar surpluses into trillion-dollar deficits, deregulate the banks and fund two wars with blood but not money. Comment.

An open letter to Principal Stephen Duch of Hillcrest High School in Jamaica. Comment.

Let’s take a took at former city Schools Chancellor Joel Klein’s true accomplishments. Comment.

As New York state’s new governor, Andrew Cuomo takes over the running of the state government, let’s extend to him our best congratulations and wishes for nothing but success in his new position. Comment.

There is no evidence that the man who shot and seriously wounded U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and killed six other bystanders was directly influenced by the heated rhetoric that has dominated political discussion in recent years. This angry dialogue has reached a feverish pitch since the election of President Barack Obama, especially on right-wing talk radio. Comment.

While some political observers believe Mayor Michael Bloomberg is interested in possibly running for the U.S. presidency in 2012 as an independent candidate, there is now some speculation that former Mayor Rudy Giuliani is showing interest in preparing for another presidential bid in 2012. His 2008 presidential campaign ended in Florida when he was only able to get 15 percent of the vote in that state’s Republican Party primary. Comment.

There is an old Irish superstition that all things both good and bad happen in threes. It does seem to work out that way, for some odd reason. Witness the recent deaths in the past few weeks of three high-profile political types. They were Queens County Clerk Gloria D’Amico, Democrat; former state Assemblyman Tony Seminario, Democrat; and Republican State Committeewoman/District Leader Marge Adams. Marge had a long run — she was in her late 90s. May they all rest in peace. Say a prayer for them as they would for you. Comment.

A Woodside man arrested in 2008 pleaded guilty to manslaughter last week for stabbing his wife to death while their then-7-year-old daughter looked on, the Queens district attorney’s office said. Comment.

In the nearly one year that Jose Peralta has been a state senator representing western Queens, his star has surely risen. Comment.

New York City Transit President Thomas Prendergast admitted to a City Council committee last week that his agency faltered in preparations for the Dec. 26 blizzard and stumbled in reacting after the storm laid waste to the transit system. Comment.

Joseph Tacopina, the longtime attorney for ousted state Sen. Hiram Monserrate, filed papers earlier this month requesting to be Monserrate’s court-appointed lawyer after his scandal-plagued client said he could not pay him, but the U.S. attorney in Manhattan said no. Comment.

A Forest Hills congressman said Friday Jewish chaplains may finally get a memorial in Arlington National Cemetery, nearly 70 years after the first died in World War II. Comment.

While many other teen boys spend their afternoons engaging in sci-fi video games and movies, Bin Wu spent most of his free time creating science fact in a lab and the Jamaica student’s work has gotten national recognition. Comment.

New Yorkers are living longer than average Americans. Bayside has the city’s lowest death rate and more than 88 percent of births in Elmhurst and Corona were to foreign-born women. Comment.

About two dozen residents prayed for Haiti inside a Cambria Heights church Saturday, urging their neighbors to continue to help the nation’s citizens a year after a 7.3-magnitude earthquake rocked the country. Comment.

Two high school students from Forest Hills made it to the semifinals of a national science competition, but their projects are slightly more complicated than your standard frog dissection. Comment.

Christavious McAllister said he looks at surviving a gunshot wound to his stomach as a second chance at life and he wants to make sure he does not mess it up. Comment.

A month after the decision was made, residents from Dutch Kills irate over a nine-story hotel under construction on a residential block in the neighborhood learned their suit against the developer had been thrown out, but they are not yet giving up the fight. Comment.

A College Point high school student has been recognized in the nation’s most prestigious science competition for his intellectual prowess and research skills. Comment.

The Haitian community is keeping a close eye on the return of the country’s former dictator, Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier, after 25 years in exile in France amid a nation full of uncertainty and rebuilding. Comment.

A Manhattan accountant who worked for the TV show “30 Rock” allegedly used the NBC network’s money to line his own pockets, the Queens district attorney’s office said last Thursday. Comment.

The Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria has been reborn as a world-class institution that highlights Queens’ crucial role in the entertainment business thanks to a $67 million, two-year expansion that doubled the size of the building and added a theater, education center and gallery space. Comment.