Johnny Milano

Multi house fire in Lindenhurst, NY, April 20, 2016.

Today I photographed the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge from the bucket of a fire truck.  Hundreds of participants came out and helped form the letters ICE ALS as their participation in the ALS Bucket Challenge.  

About an hour east of New York City, just out of earshot of Interstate 495 and minutes away from Long Island's MacArthur Airport, you can find a taste of the Midwest.   Tucked away inside the mere 7 square mile hamlet of Holtsville, a horse trainer just met his next venture.  For the past three months I've been photographing a horse trainer here on Long Island.  Cliff Schadt acquired a feral Mustang horse from the barren lands of the California desert.  In an attempt to seemingly help alleviate a nearing capacity of horse population, the Bureau of Land Management, working with various organizations, is encouraging Mustang adoption through competition.  Trainers are given approximately 90 days to train a once feral mustang under BLM control.  At the culmination of those 90 days, Cliff will demonstrate the progress of the horse and the horse's learned gentleness, amiability, and level of compatibility in the hopes that a sponsor or guest at the competition will eventually adopt him.  The horse is temporarily named Lost Cowboy, after the clothing brand that is owned by Cliff's sponsors during the challenge.

I'd even settle for Jones Beach right now...

Two covers and two outtakes.  I'ts been just over a year that I've been stringing for Newsday, and those of you that know me know that I'm not one to gloat, but in that time I've gotten at least 15 covers and to me that's mind blowing, even more so when the paper is a Top 20 Circulated Newspaper.  Me and the paper may disagree on how pictures should run, or what pictures to run, but I don't think I've ever progressed this much as I have in this past year.  I'm eager to see what lies ahead.  

Benjamin Cummings teaches a karate class in Wyandanch- a youth center that facilitates a number of activities for a wide range of visitors. Aside from teaching self defense, Cummings tries to instill lessons of discipline, hard work, and priorities in his classes.

6 Long Island school districts went back to the voting polls to re-propose their school budgets, after being rejected in late May.  The North Babylon school district, above, proposed the same exact budget, unchanged, that was defeated in May- a percentage increase of 3.4, nearly a full 1% increase over the tax levy cap.  Since most of the original budget proposals surpassed the tax levy cap, the school districts needed a 60% majority ruling in favor for it to pass.  All 6 school board budgets had passed the second time around.  

Martha Raimondi in her Oceanside home. Martha and her husband are in a constant battle with their insurance company over their claim after Sandy. After suffering sever foundation damage, the town had deemed her home inhabitable, but the insurance adjuster claims that the damage to the foundation occurred prior to the storm, and is ineligible to be considered for insurance payouts.

Housing and Urban Development Secretary,  Shaun Donovan, comes to Long Island  to speak on behalf of the USG about the continuation of "commitment" by the federal government to victims of Sandy in New York.  This morning, I spoke with a 70 year old man who lost his entire house and, being unable to afford flood or homeowners insurance, was subsequently denied by FEMA and was rejected on all three counts of his appeals.  Disconnect much?

"Storage Wars" Long Island style.

Coney Island USA and Denny's Ice Cream Shop, Coney Island New York  was hit hard by Hurricane Sandy, flooding the buidlings up six feet.  Andy only just started working at Coney Island USA- a historic spot for New Yorkers and tourists- a week before Hurricane Sandy hit.   Coney Island USA is renowned for  their famous "sideshow" attractions creating the gritty culture that makes Coney Island.