The comprehensive immigration reform bill that U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) is co-sponsoring would put millions of immigrants on the path to citizenship and would specifically benefit the Asians here, he said.

“We have a great Asian community and I am a great fan of immigration because it adds to the greatness of New York and the greatness of our country,” Schumer said during a phone press conference Friday.

Dear Editor:

HR 1565 is new legislation in Congress to expand Brady background checks on gun sales. But despite the fact that nine in 10 Americans support expanded background checks, the gun lobby extremists are working overtime to kill the bill.

Strong, sensible gun laws preserve Second Amendment rights, prevent gun violence, and save lives.

While the Brady Law requires criminal background checks of gun sales at gun stores, these checks are not required at gun shows, online sales and other venues where unlicensed sellers operate.

Right now in most states, felons, domestic abusers and the dangerously mentally ill can walk into a gun show, flea market or even log on to the internet and buy weapons from unlicensed sellers, no questions asked.

Congress should require a simple criminal background check on gun sales. The Brady Law has stopped over 2 million felons and domestic abusers from getting guns at gun stores. Now it’s time to finish the job.

Completing the necessary paperwork for background checks takes mere minutes, and more than 91 percent of these checks are completed instantaneously.

I strongly support the Second Amendment. However, this right also requires basic responsibility, and as a society we are responsible for keeping guns out of the hands of dangerous people like criminals, terrorists and the dangerously mentally ill.

In addition, there are exemptions from a check between family members, hunters and sportsmen who temporarily want to exchange firearms while hunting or participating in sports shooting activities.

I urge every reader to contact their representatives today and ask them to co-sponsor the bipartisan King-Thompson bill (H.R. 1565) to expand criminal background checks and save lives.

The recent arrest of a man charged in connection with a string of burglaries in Forest Hills was announced by Captain Thomas Conforti, commander of the 112th Precinct, at the May 8 meeting of Community Board 6.

But a couple of attempted robberies targeting taxi drivers in the area marked a new cause for concern, Conforti indicated.

A group that began seven months ago with a few people venting their complaints while eating at the Terrace Diner has evolved into a neighborhood movement, a force dedicated to making the Federal Aviation Administration and the Port Authority work for the residents of Northeast Queens to alleviate the noise and pollution from planes flying out of LaGuardia airport.

Approximately 200 people with similar frustrations attended the first Queens Quiet Skies community education meting on May 2 in the Bayside High School auditorium. While planes rumbled overhead, leaders and experts presented residents with legal and technical information and encouraged them to get more involved.

The nation’s collegiate students are staring down the barrel of a doubling interest rate on academic loans on July 1, but two Queens lawmakers have sponsored legislation that could extend the reduced rate for another two years.

Interest rates on Stafford loans will double from 3.4 to 6.8 percent, as a reduction in rates signed in 2007 and extended last year is set to expire.

Councilman Dan Halloran (R-Whitestone), who was arrested last month on accusations that he took part in a scheme to bribe Republican officials in order to get state Sen. Malcolm Smith (D-Hollis) onto the mayoral ballot as a Republican, announced Wednesday that he will not run for a second term.

Halloran, who was first elected in 2009, was arrested April 2, along with Smith and Vince Tabone, former vice chairman of the Queens Republican Party, for an alleged plot to solicit bribes to acquire a Wilson Pakula for Smith, a Democrat, in order for him to get a place on the GOP primary ballot for mayor. He was indicted late last month.

Congresswoman Grace Meng (D-Flushing) is celebrating her first 100 days in office as the first Asian-American member of Congress from New York and the first female member of Congress from Queens since vice-presidential nominee Geraldine Ferraro.

“It is difficult to put into words how honored I am to be your congresswoman, and how excited and proud I am to represent the great borough of Queens in the United States Congress,” she said in an address given Sunday. “It is an incredible privilege to be your voice in Washington, and I cannot thank you enough for the confidence you have in me to fight on your behalf.”

For all the talk about North Korea’s possible ability to deliver a nuclear warhead on a ballistic missile, there appears to be only a slight fear of war breaking out in the region — at least among members of the Korean community in Queens.

And for all his bluster, North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un, who took over that country’s reins upon the death of his father late in 2011, doesn’t even seem to be rattling many nerves. In fact, the extent of his power is being questioned by many.

Lawmakers, city officials and Queens activists cut the ribbon for a new comfort station at the Rachel Carson Playground located in the Kissena Corridor Park on Colden Street between Juniper and Geranium Avenues, in Flushing.

The $1 million comfort station was funded by the City Council. It features sustainable design techniques to make the building energy efficient and environmentally friendly.

This is a tale of two agencies, both of them suffering constant criticism from those they serve, both of them suffering constant meddling by those who think they know how they should be run. Both of their most recognizable employees wear blue, both do their work in all kinds of conditions, both have a well-known motto, both are absolutely crucial to civilization, both are being forced to make do with less.

Former Assemblyman Jimmy Meng was sentenced Tuesday to 30 days in prison for his conviction in a bribery scheme gone awry.

The former Flushing lawmaker was found guilty in Brooklyn federal court last November of one count of wire fraud, after he took $80,000 in a fruit basket from someone seeking a lesser sentence in an unrelated case. Meng claimed he would use the money to bribe Manhattan prosecutors into leniency.

The power of the local press was on full display in the tight 2009 City Council race between Democratic nominee Kevin Kim and Republican Dan Halloran.

Halloran did not allow Multi-Media’s role in the race to go unnoticed. In September 2009, the Tribune ran a story originally headlined “Democratic Victor vs. Pagan Lord” that detailed Halloran’s unconventional religious practices.

Surprised just “how easy it is to be partisan,” Congresswoman Grace Meng (D-Flushing) discussed Washington’s issues with the public at the 112th Precinct Community Council meeting on Feb. 20 at the NYPD’s Forest Hills stationhouse.

Newly inaugurated last month after two terms in the state Assembly, Meng said she has co-formed the Bipartisan Freshman Caucus in order to reach across the aisle to affect change.

The Federal Transit Administration has earmarked $2 billion from the recently approved Hurricane Sandy relief package for repairs and upgrades to mass transit systems in the New York area.

Congresswoman Grace Meng (D-Flushing) said Tuesday that the money will be used to protect, repair, reconstruct and replace transit facilities and equipment that were damaged or destroyed by the storm.

Flushing lawmakers have again called upon the city to make the Asian Lunar New Year a school holiday, citing a high absence rate that counts on students’ records.

Congresswoman Grace Meng, state Sen. Toby Stavisky, Assemblyman Ron Kim and Councilman Peter Koo, all Flushing democrats, were joined by Chinatown state Sen. Dan Squadron (D-Manhattan) to ask the absences during the annual celebration not be counted.

Tributes poured in last Friday for Ed Koch, the three-term mayor who personified New York City from 1978 through 1989, and who died early that morning at age 88.

They came unsolicited from elected officials across the city, and were echoed on the street by the people of Queens.

While any hope for No. 7 train service during Flushing’s Lunar New Year festivities is lost, elected officials and members of the business community are already fighting for more service in 2014.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority and Flushing leaders have been at odds over the 7 line’s truncated service as it undergoes signal upgrades in the Steinway tunnel. The piecemeal work has been ongoing during the winter months, when the MTA says demand is lower than during the U.S. Open and baseball’s peak from spring through the fall.

Area legislators met with Federal Aviation Administration officials on Jan. 18 to express ongoing concerns over plane noise resulting from new flight patterns over the borough. They left empty-handed but promised to continue fighting.

Congressional reps Steve Israel (D-LI) and Grace Meng (D-Bayside), state Sen. Tony Avella (D-Bayside) and Assemblyman Ed Braunstein (D-Bayside) relayed community concerns over new flight patterns into and out of LaGuardia Airport that have increased the number of planes flying over Northeast Queens.

New York State’s three newest members of Congress enjoy a breather outside the Capitol Monday afternoon on the day of President Obama’s inauguration.

Congresswoman Grace Meng, left, (D-Queens) and Congressmen Hakeem Jeffries (D-Queens and Brooklyn) and Sean Patrick Maloney (D-Hudson Valley) are among 27 representatives in Capitol Hill’s lower chamber from the Empire State.