The Queens Public Library has always been the place for readers to find books on famous literary heroes such as Tom Sawyer and Harry Potter, but they can also check out the latest adventures of Super Mario and Master Chief as well. Comment.

When her daughter Carly Nieves suffered a relapse at age 12 of the cancer she had been diagnosed with when she was 7, Lisa Horner promised her daughter they would make a positive out of the suffering Carly was going through. Comment.

A Bellerose street turned into a demolition derby Saturday night after a pickup truck rear-ended a BMW by 88th Road and Commonwealth Boulevard Saturday night, causing a nine-car accident, police said. Comment.

City officials have not come through on promises to fix leaks at JHS 67, resulting in health problems for students, Little Neck parents and school officials told a Community District Education Council 26 meeting last week. Comment.

Last year, when Tony Avella was a city councilman, he secured a $250,000 city technology grant for PS 79 in Whitestone. Comment.

RICHMOND HILL — The NYPD requested the public’s help in finding a 13-year-old girl who went missing from her home in Richmond Hill. Comment.

FAR ROCKAWAY — The NYPD reported that an employee of the city Department of Correction was arrested and charged Sunday with driving while intoxicated. Comment.

Police Officer John G. Scarangella gave his life to help protect the streets of southeast Queens 29 years ago and the city honored the member of New York’s Finest Monday by renaming the street outside his precinct in his honor. Comment.

A 19-year-old Brooklyn man was shot and killed in front of a store in St. Albans Friday in what those who work in the area believe was a gang-related conflict. Graffiti identifying one gang was painted over with rival gang signs on a wall near the murder site hours later. Comment.

The spirit of Kwanzaa is coming to the Rochdale Village Community Center Sunday as part of a fifth-annual event held by the complex and the Afrikan Poetry Theatre. Comment.

A Jamaica man who has had brushes with the law involving illegal drugs was arrested again Sunday after officers found 500 of pounds of marijuana in the back of his minivan after he ran a red light, police said. Comment.

Dozens of advocates for elderly southeast Queens residents with Alzheimer’s disease who use the Friendship Center in Jamaica rallied outside the building last week after the city Department of Health decided to cut the center’s funding so drastically that it will most likely be forced to close. Comment.

A group in Ridgewood plans to transform a garbage-strewn eyesore into a community greenspace after receiving an award earlier this month. Comment.

A Hindu priest finally got some justice last week after being forced to toil for $50 a week in a Corona temple for seven years. Comment.

A railroad company unpopular in Middle Village, Maspeth and Glendale paid for 21 new trees in Juniper Valley Park last month. Comment.

Administrators, parents and community leaders banded together as part of a task force at IS 61 last week to combat school bullying, which is a problem for 81 percent of students at the Corona school. Comment.

U.S. Rep. Gary Ackerman (D-Bayside) introduced a resolution last week condemning the anti-Christian violence in Iraq that has prompted an exodus of Christians from the country. Comment.

The state Regents has agreed to grant a waiver so a woman with no education experience, ties to any public school system or advanced academic degrees can become city schools chancellor. Comment.

A Rego Park child care center opened its new location last week despite continuing cuts in the city’s day-care budget. Comment.

About 30 Humanistic Jews met at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation in Flushing to ask two Muslims about their beliefs and their place in America at an event Saturday run by the Brooklyn-based Dialogue Project. Comment.

Queens legislators said they were disappointed to learn the group ride van service along the axed Q74 and Q79 bus routes ended Friday because of low ridership and said they planned to fight to reinstate the buses. Comment.

After a long, arduous approval process, two large Willets Point businesses have closed on deals to move to the College Point Corporate Park, clearing one more hurdle for the city Economic Development Corp.’s plans to revamp the neglected Iron Triangle into a $3 billion development. Comment.

Police arrested four men last week thought to be connected to a string of construction site robberies in northeast Queens. Comment.

FLUSHING — An apartment fire earlier this month killed a senior citizen in her Flushing home, but did not cause extensive damage to any neighboring apartments, according to the FDNY. Comment.

FLUSHING — Two Flushing women were arraigned Dec. 16 on charges of assault and harassment, the Queens district attorney’s office said. Comment.

The special education students in the PS 205 building in Oakland Gardens used to be known as “those kids upstairs.” Comment.

For the third time in as many years millions of straphangers, commuter train riders and motorists in the New York City metropolitan area will once again pay more for transportation starting Dec. 30. Comment.

Bayside resident Joel Bondy was suspended last week without pay from his position as executive director of the city Office of Payroll Administration after federal prosecutors accused individuals affiliated with the agency of defrauding the city of $80 million, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and city Comptroller John Liu said. Comment.

Around this time of year, longtime Bayside residents Phyllis and Jeffrey Steiman are normally celebrating Hanukkah with their children and grandchildren. Comment.

City officials are looking for a site to build a high school in northeastern Queens, particularly in the Bayside and Auburndale area, a city School Construction Authority spokeswoman said last week. Comment.

Standing amid towering piles of presents in her office last week, state Assemblywoman Ann-Margaret Carrozza (D-Bayside) said she received more gifts this year than ever before that she will distribute to needy families and hospitalized veterans. Comment.

As the official scorekeeper for the New Jersey Nets and the owner of Crown Trophy on Bell Boulevard for decades, longtime Bayside resident Herb Turetzky’s world has long been dominated by sports and not so much poetry. Comment.

The MTA has approved the use of taxicabs to pick up and drop off elderly and disabled Access-A-Ride passengers in a trial program some officials said would cut costs by 70 percent. Comment.

RIDGEWOOD — A Queens transportation worker was arrested for allegedly exposing himself to a 17-year-old girl who was on her way to school Friday, according to police. Comment.

WOODSIDE — Police have asked the public to help in the search for a fugitive that robbed a Chase bank Monday. Comment.

JACKSON HEIGHTS — A 31-year-old sex offender from Jackson Heights has been charged Monday with failing to register his electronic identifiers, the Queens district attorney’s office said. Luis Ortiz is the first man to be charged under the 2008 Electronic Security and Targeting of Online Predators Act, the DA said. Comment.

The midterm election has been called a referendum by the usual and expected detractors, the “Obstrublicans,” and indeed it was. But it was not a referendum directed at the Democratic policies which any middle-class, unduped American should cheer. It was a referendum on President Barack “Can’t we all just get along?” Obama. Comment.

An open letter to Port Authority of New York & New Jersey Executive Director Christopher Ward. Comment.

It is a rare occurrence today for people to frequent their corner candy shop, neighborhood pharmacist or local vegetable stand. With the ever-increasing popularity and expansion of superstores such as Target, Wal-Mart and Costco, for example, individuals crave the convenience of “one-stop shopping,” a megastore where you can buy anything from plumbing supplies to fashion accessories, a warehouse where products too numerous to list are categorized and organized for your purchasing pleasure. Comment.

The well-known dialogue between Joseph Welch and then-U.S. Sen. Joseph McCarthy during the U.S. Army hearings, when Welch finally toppled McCarthy by accusing the senator of having no shame or decency in his treatment of a young Army lawyer, has been referred to on many parallel occasions when public officials have acted in an outrageous manner. Comment.

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

An open letter to state Sen. Frank Padavan (R-Bellerose). Comment.

As happens every year at this time, our thoughts turn to our readers who will spend the holidays without loved ones defending this country in Afghanistan and elsewhere overseas. Like them, we look forward to the holiday season when that will not be the case. Comment.

Half a century ago, I was editing the weekly newspaper in Forest Hills when I was offered an appointed position in the city government. It was for the post of secretary in the Department of Air Pollution Control. I was still a “wet behind the ears” kid. Comment.

The four stages of life. Comment.

Bayside is now home to the first branch of the La Bottega Italian restaurant chain, but its manager and chef promises that diners will get a one-of-a-kind experience and meal every time they come through his doors. Comment.

It was a night where visitors to the library were allowed to make some noise. With a slideshow, a live band, presents and a big cake, Queens Library officials, legislators and community members celebrated the Woodside Library’s 100th anniversary last Thursday. Comment.

The $858 billion bipartisan tax compromise bill President Barack Obama signed into law Friday exposed divisions on economic issues between Queens Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives. Comment.

St. John’s University said it has not given permission for a Citi Field bar to use its name in promoting a College Night at the establishment. Comment.

A group of lawmakers announced legislation Sunday that would cap increases in parking meter fees after the city proposed a fee hike that is scheduled to take effect in January. Comment.

A Rikers Island prisoner who killed one man and attempted to finish off two others at the scene in Woodside last year pleaded guilty Friday to trying to hire a hitman to murder the two witnesses so they could not testify against him, the Queens district attorney’s office said. Comment.

A city agency announced that it found radioactive material in and around a Ridgewood building, and will continue to test the site. Area officials said that the material was left over from the World War II-era nuclear experiment known as the Manhattan Project. Comment.

Using the services of minority- and women-owned businesses accounts for only 2.3 percent of the spending by city agencies, according to a database rolled out last week by city Comptroller John Liu. Comment.

This holiday season, the Queens Public Library is asking its users and others to lend a helping hand to increase its selection of materials. Comment.

A 10-year-old couldn’t get any more suave than the young men at a Woodside school last Thursday. They were wearing ties, black slacks and, in some cases, bright red cumberbunds and matching bow ties. The ladies, often head and shoulders above their male partners, held their heads high as the room descended into silence. Comment.

The girlfriend of former state Sen. Hiram Monserrate has filed a $35 million civil rights lawsuit in Brooklyn federal court against the city, the Queens district attorney’s office and the North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System, alleging that LIJ doctors conspired with the police and DA officials to coerce her into saying Monserrate intentionally cut her with a broken glass two years ago. Comment.

Both openly gay Queens city councilmen applauded the U.S. Senate’s vote to repeal the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” military policy Saturday. Comment.

The dreams of many immigrant children died in the U.S. Senate last week, but Queens legislators are working to ensure they live on. Comment.

State Assemblyman David Weprin (D-Little Neck) and state Sen.-elect Tony Avella (D-Bayside) said this week they plan to introduce a bill that would require a future nomination of a city schools chancellor to be confirmed by a majority vote of the City Council after a public hearing. Comment.

The Woodhaven man who went on a wild, drug-fueled shooting spree throughout several Queens neighborhoods in August 2006, killing one man and shooting at 13 others, was sentenced last Thursday to 384 years to life in prison. Comment.

After spending more than a month in a coma following a surfing accident in Rockaway Beach, a top Astoria male model died Friday, his family said. Comment.

Every one of the borough’s 18 state Assembly districts had an increase in its Asian population between 2000 and 2009, according to new data released by the U.S. Census last week. Comment.