The good news is Fresh Direct has decided to relocate to the Bronx. The bad news is Queens will lose 2,000 jobs. Comments (1).

With all due respect, Dee Richards’ Feb. 9-15 headline is incorrect. Comment.

Florida has just proven to be a key state in the presidential race. Mitt Romney has established himself as a lead contender for the Republican nomination. Newt Gingrich, after doing well in the South Carolina primary, could not maintain his momentum. Gingrich is a good public speaker and knows the issues well, but it was not enough. Comments (1).

A crowd of 2,000 angry people packed the Brooklyn Tech High School auditorium to send a message to the city Panel for Education Policy that the people are opposed to the mayor’s plan to close 23 schools. Comment.

Generally I look forward to reading your articles, but found your Feb. 9-15 article entitled “Bayside-Whitestone Lions Club looking for new president” misrepresentative of the club and its procedures. Comment.

Here are the comments of my fourth friend, responding to my recent column about my gripes about our society. Comment.

By the time this newspaper reaches your hands, religious services will be banned by the city Department of Education in public schools. The DOE set Sunday as the final day when the doors would be open to religious services. Comment.

It was a windy, cold January afternoon, and after battling Steinway Street traffic I finally found a parking spot. I had to remind myself that this challenge is always worth the effort when I am visiting my friend Zafar from Humza Studio to have my old 8 mm tapes transferred over to DVDs. Comment.

Let me start this week’s column on a rather sad note. I wish to extend my deepest, heartfelt sympathy to the family of Marissa Roslyn Feldman. Comment.

Finally, our troops are out of Iraq but without the oil which precipitated the phony invasion and without the lives of our 4,000 soldiers unknowingly fighting and dying for it. Comment.

It is a sad reality that more than 10 years after Sept. 11, the NYPD still finds it necessary to conduct undercover surveillance in city mosques. It is understandable that this infuriates city Islamic leaders. Comments (1).

The article “Queensborough Bridge accident driver sues city” (Astoria Times, Dec. 15-21) contained excellent reporting, but I wish to bring up a few points. Comment.

The World’s Fair was in Queens, attracting visitors from far and wide. On Feb. 3, 1965, the Star-Journal reported that the fair “made news internationally as well as locally yesterday. The city will bring the fair into court if it fails to heed the subpoena served yesterday.” Comment.

In a crime taken right from a cop show, Kwame Hamilton, 19, and Antwione Nabnet, 20, both of Jamaica, allegedly stole a cell phone from a victim walking down a Jamaica street and then attempted to sell the phone back to their victim. Comments (1).

Over the last few years, we have experienced tornados, snow and ice storms, hurricanes and major rain storms. During these events, power is often lost and power lines are down, making roads impassable and walking treacherous. Comment.

In 1991, when the new City Charter was written, civic leaders warned that the creation of a city Board of Standards and Appeals would lower the quality of life, and it is happening as predicted. Comment.

Hiding behind the letter of the law, Community Board 7 has unanimously refused to grant a waiver to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to build a two-story church in Queens. Comments (2).

For co-op and condo residents, the real property tax assessment rolls have become a tax roller coaster. Some eastern Queens co-ops are facing 50 percent increases in assessed value this year, at a time when market values are essentially flat. Comment.

I read the reports that there is opposition from merchants to the Jackson Heights pedestrian plaza that was established last fall on 37th Road between 73rd and 74th streets. Some of the opposition claims that the loss of parking spaces has hurt business in the area. Comment.

Okay. So you have not heard from your elected officials, if you wrote to them or called them or e-mailed them about having public executionism in New York state. Don’t despair. It happens to the best — or worst — of us. Comments (6).

This was a rather slow week, or at least for me it was. Last Thursday, the Queens Chamber of Commerce held a business card exchange mixer. Those events are always a fun way to network. Comments (2).

Across the United States and Canada, utility companies are forcing the installation of the Smart Meter, a digital device to monitor electric, gas and water consumption, upon a seriously uninformed public. In areas where the meters are located outside the house, they are installed without the owner’s knowledge. Comments (1).

In the Jan. 12-18 TimesLedger Newspapers article “DOT says safety measures cut traffic fatalities in Queens,” city Department of Transportation Queens Commissioner Maura McCarthy said “there were 67 traffic deaths in Queens last year, ‘which is quite an accomplishment.’” Comment.

TimesLedger Newspapers letter writer Anne, of College Point, makes the case that the spa proposed for the College Point Corporate Park has a good chance of succeeding. Comments (1).

I read the letter to the editor “Queens Center Mall owner must help neighboring area” (Jan. 19-25) with interest. We are proud of the fact that Queens Center Mall is a generator of tax dollars for the city and state and we try to do as much as we can to be a positive force for the Queens community and a fair employer. Comment.

During the last few weeks, we have heard a lot about instituting a public school teacher evaluation system in New York state and especially in New York City. Comments (1).

The state of our government is chaos. The idiots who represent the American people in Congress in Washington, D.C., are all overpaid, underworked windbags and total disgraces. Comments (1).

Many of you will remember the battle between co-op and condo owners and the city Department of Finance last year, after DOF Commissioner Frankel announced double- and triple-digit, single-year property valuation increases in eastern Queens. Comment.

U.S. Sens. Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand have backed off their support for a piece of legislation that would have greatly restricted user access to the Internet. Comment.

It is a sad day for all Queens residents with the closing of both the Gold Star Diner in Bayside and the Palace Diner in Flushing (“Gold Star Diner shuts its doors after being sold,” Bayside Times, Dec. 29, 2011-Jan. 4, 2012). Comment.

How the weeks fly by! Would you believe it’s now February? This past week was both fun and productive and informative. Comments (3).

Born Jan. 16, 1908, as Ethel Agnes Zimmermann, Astoria native Ethel Merman is perhaps best remembered for her mezzo-soprano voice in numerous Broadway musicals and Hollywood films. Her musical numbers include “Everything’s Coming Up Roses” and “There’s no Business Like Show Business.” Comment.

The punishment should fit the crime. Fining law-abiding citizens up to $300 because they put their trash cans out too early in the day is nuts. Comment.

I am writing in response to an article which was published in the Dec. 15-21 edition of TimesLedger Newspapers about carriage horses. Comment.

What follows are the gripes of three of my friends, based on my most recent column of my own gripes. Comment.

Immigrants hoping to a build a new life in America can easily fall prey to vultures who are willing to exploit their situation. Last week, a Queens judge sentenced three members of a Trinidadian family to 78 to 235 years for taking advantage of their countrymen. Comment.

There has been much discussion regarding a proposal to convert abandoned areas of the old Rockaway Beach rail line into a “highline” park space. While I am an advocate for increased park space in Queens, I believe southern Queens and the Rockaways would be better served if this forgotten track once again fulfilled its original purpose as a railroad. Comments (6).

In 1935, at the height of the Great Depression, a group of retired policemen came together to organize one of the largest international expositions the world had ever seen. The end goal: to lift the city out of an economic depression. Comment.

Can someone tell the New Jersey governor that stealing Fresh Direct would be the economic equivalent of an act of war? Comment.

After giving it long and hard thought on whether or not to print the following information, I decided it was better to print it and thereby kill the tiger cub before it had a chance to grow into a fully grown man-eater. Comment.

In response to your Dec. 22-28 editorial “Avella: Pull on the Reins,” I must agree with you for calling state Sen. Tony Avella (D-Bayside) “a fighter for the people.” Comments (34).

The world “mandate” may be one of the most intentionally or unconsciously abused directives. There are mandates and then there are mandates. In the 2010 election, the U.S. House of Representatives was decimated with the influx of the clueless freshman and gained a Republican majority. The Democratic majority in the U.S. Senate was sadly diluted and many Republican governors were voted into office. Comment.

In his State of the City address, Mayor Michael Bloomberg made education reform the cornerstone of his administration’s final two years. The 12th-richest person in the United States continues to believe the take-no-prisoners approach that made him a success on Wall Street will work well in the public school system. Comment.

Bring our troops home now. The United States is in a state of perpetual war. American troops are stationed in almost every country around the globe. Comments (1).

A son of Forest Hills has been appointed to one of the most important positions in the Obama administration. Comment.

Since this issue has gone viral — as you can see, I am from Virginia — I wish to join with those protesting this abuse of horses and ask that horse-drawn carriages be discontinued as soon as possible. Comments (48).

Here in New York state, we have been using voting machines for at least the last 70 years. When these machines came into use, it was heralded as an end to voting fraud, since votes would now be counted by the voting machines instead of by hand. There seemed to be little possibility of mistakes in counting the ballots. Comments (1).

In his State of the City address, Mayor Michael Bloomberg made education reform the cornerstone of his administration’s final two years. The 12th-richest person in the United States continues to believe the take-no-prisoners approach that made him a success on Wall Street will work well in the public school system. Comments (1).

As clergy leaders from Queens Congregations United for Action, we minister to families from all walks of life struggling to make ends meet. It is not just that we are living through hard economic times. Comment.

By now I’m sure you are aware that Eric Ulrich has been appointed as the New York City campaign chairman for Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney. After Romney won in both Iowa and New Hampshire, hopefully for Eric he will do equally well in South Carolina and Florida. Comments (1).

Some of you may have noticed that I did not emphasize in my last blog what public executions could do for the economy of Queens. Let me rectify that immediately, lest you think this is a matter of no concern to your pocketbook and mine. Comments (6).

Are you as startled as I every time a commercial on TV from an attorney’s office informs us that if we took a certain medication to contact their office because the medication causes all kinds of problems, including death? Comment.

Two Yale students on the final leg of a 29,000-mile world tour land in College Point in early January 1935. They take more than 600 pictures of places and people with an aerial camera and plan to donate the images to the Geographical Society of America. Their last hop, a four-hour trip from Morehead City, N.C., was one of the most brutal. Facing a 45 mph headwind, the ice-covered plane lands in an ice-caked Flushing Bay. Comment.

The carcass of what once was a proud high school should serve as a monument to the incompetence and arrogance of the city Department of Education. Comment.

This is a very important letter. My name is Maxie Hom. I think the wild turkey should be our national bird. Comment.

New York City is starting a new round of witch trials in our schools, just like the ones conducted last year. The witches are the schools accused of being failures. City education officials just announced that they want to close 19 failing schools while state education officials claim 104 Queens schools were in need of improvement under the federal No Child Left Behind Act. Comment.

Imagine that one day you head to a local pharmacy to pick up a prescription and find out the store no longer accepts your employer’s pharmacy plan. This could happen soon consumers in New York state if the Federal Trade Commission signs off on a plan to merge two of the nation’s largest pharmacy benefit managers. Comment.

The headline of a story in the Dec. 22-28 edition of the Bayside Times read, “Bayside priest jailed for 5 years.” Comments (1).

Imagine that one day you head to a local pharmacy to pick up a prescription and find out the store no longer accepts your employer’s pharmacy plan. This could happen soon to New York state consumers if the Federal Trade Commission signs off on a plan to merge two of the nation’s largest pharmacy benefit managers. Comments (3).

Regarding the Dec. 1-7 TimesLedger Newspaper article “Students protest as CUNY hikes tuition,” I am pleased to share several unreported data points on the value and affordability of a City University of New York education and its benefits for our students. Comment.

Hopefully, the holiday party season is finally beginning to wind down. I don’t mind feeling dead tired, but when you look in the mirror and you look dead tired, that’s where you have to draw the line. Comments (1).

As I have made clear from Day 1, the main reason I got into politics is out of concern for the future of our nation. As a grandfather of 13, my priority is to improve our economy by helping foster an environment where businesses can create lasting jobs and address our national debt crisis so our children and grandchildren can prosper in this country. Comment.

A few weeks ago, I attended an event at the Gurdwara Sant Sagar, a Sikh house of worship in Bellerose. The event was organized by the Creedmoor Civic Association for community residents to learn more about the gurdwara and the Sikh community. Comments (2).

We are curious about Borough President Helen Marshall’s decision to reject a proposal to build a second spa in College Point. It took Marshall several weeks to decide that that spa would create a parking and traffic problem in the Corporate Park. Comment.

As the first vice president of the Auburndale Improvement Association Inc., it is part of my responsibility to address community problems. Comments (1).

This started out to be one column to be sent out into the world at anytime. It has turned into more than that and I think the comments in these columns may be something to think about in the new year. They represent my thinking and those of a group of five younger friends who see my columns on a regular basis. Comment.

Every day tons of food are wasted in the city. Fortunately, there is an organization that wants to do something about that. Comment.

I was happy to hear that there will be no snowfall snafus this winter and during future winters. Comment.

We are watching a contest between Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich for the Republican Party 2012 presidential nomination. Although there are other candidates competing, these two candidates seem to be leading. Comments (1).

A lawsuit on behalf of 10 disabled children who were fraudulently adopted by an ex-Laurelton woman who used their adoptions to make more than a million dollars raises questions about the justice system. The children’s lawyers are looking for a $68 million settlement. Comment.

My name is Joseph Ciciliato. I am in third-grade at PS 94. I am writing to tell you that I have a special bird in mind to represent our country. The bald eagle, instead of the wild turkey, should be our national bird. Comments (4).

Happy New Year to everyone! We hope 2012 is one of the best-ever new years for you. Don’t make too many resolutions, as we all know that even with the best of intentions they are hard to keep after the first few weeks. Comment.