Gov. Cuomo announced Thursday morning that A train subway service will be restored to the Rockaways on May 30, just over seven months after Hurricane Sandy destroyed tracks across Jamaica Bay and seriously damaged two stations.

More than 40 percent of the state’s population lives here in New York City, and when you count the other downstate counties, the number soars above 60 percent. Put simply, this is where the people are.

So why does Gov. Cuomo want to see new casinos built upstate only? And why would he continue to deny Resorts World Casino at Aqueduct Race Track the full table gaming he would allow upstate?

The idea that the City of New York intentionally discriminated against minority applicants to the Fire Department was never more than a misguided misinterpretation of test results, at best, or a demeaning lie at worst.

Now a federal appeals court has agreed that it was wrong for U.S. District Court Judge Nicholas Garaufis to determine that was the case because too few black and Hispanic applicants to the FDNY managed to pass the department’s entrance exam.

It’s been 30 years since the New York Islanders won their last Stanley Cup, and frankly, they have been abysmal for most of the years between 1983 and now. During this labor-dispute-shortened National Hockey League season, the Islanders played respectably enough to earn their first playoff berth in seven years as they clinched the eighth and final spot in the Eastern Conference.

The Islanders drew the unenviable assignment of playing Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and the rest of the Pittsburgh Penguins, long an NHL powerhouse, in the first round. To their credit, the Isles showed that they weren’t merely happy to be there, as they battled hard to force the series to six games. Unfortunately for the Isles, they lost two overtime games at the Nassau Coliseum, including Saturday night’s finale.

The recent spate of arrests and criminal investigations involving public officials has ensnared a high percentage of minorities in the state Legislature, leading some in the community to ask if black and Hispanic lawmakers are being targeted.

State Sen. James Sanders (D-Jamaica) decided last week that the question of conspiracy or corruption was far better-suited for an open, frank and free-wheeling debate before nearly 200 people at the Black Spectrum Theatre in Roy Wilkins Park in Jamaica.

About a dozen restaurant owners and bikers got the 411 on Tuesday on new delivery regulations.

A package of city laws that went into effect on April 23 requires helmets, reflective vests, lights, bells and identification linking the riders to their employers’ establishments.

Ten people have been indicted on 82 counts in an alleged auto theft ring that targeted four well-known Queens auto dealerships, according to District Attorney Richard Brown.

The suspects are accused of stealing vehicles from the four dealerships in Queens and one more in Brooklyn over the course of three months and allegedly selling one of the cars to a defendant who planned to send it overseas on a container ship.

The last section of the spire atop 1 World Trade Center — the building once officially known, and still often referred to, as the Freedom Tower — was installed last Friday, marking the building’s official height of 1,776 feet, which pays homage to the year the Declaration of Independence was signed. The top of the mast was placed just after 8 a.m. Friday morning.

The $3.8 billion skyscraper can be seen from nearly every neighborhood in Queens. It returns the title of the city’s tallest to Lower Manhattan for the first time since 9/11 and stands next to the former site of the World Trade Center’s Twin Towers, which were destroyed that day by terrorists, killing 2,606 people, including more than 200 from Queens.

If published reports are right, state Sen. Jose Peralta (D-East Elmhurst) and seven others were taped in former Sen. Shirley Huntley’s home either at the request of the FBI, or at Huntley’s recommendation to the bureau.

In an interview following Huntley’s sentencing to prison last week, Peralta said he is at a loss to explain why either would consider him a possible target for a corruption probe.

Only one will be crowned No. 1.

On Sunday at 1:30 p.m. about 100 foodies are expected to gather at Diversity Plaza in Jackson Heights, at the confluence of 37th Road, 74th Street and Broadway, to kick off the second annual Momo Crawl. Last year 30 hungry folks participated.

Last Thursday a man allegedly terrorized his home neighborhood of Long Island City, stealing cars and money while wielding a gun that wasn’t all that it seemed.

Police briefly closed down part of Borden Avenue in their pursuit of the suspect. About eight hours later they arrested Nicolas Almonte, 27, who lives on Borden Avenue.

About two dozen bicycle enthusiasts came together last Saturday at Maspeth High School for a community forum to kick into gear plans that could see a new bike infrastructure for the area and surrounding neighborhoods in place by as early as next year.

Among those in attendance was Frank Rosado, a Ridgewood resident who commutes by bicycle to Manhattan every day.

New York City’s Landmarks Preservation Commission voted on Tuesday to have a public hearing on an application to designate Jamaica High School a city landmark.

No date has been set for the hearing, according to a spokeswoman for the commission.

Corona residents gathered last Wednesday to talk trash.

As part of the ongoing $3 million effort to clean up Roosevelt Avenue, Councilwoman Julissa Ferreras (D-Corona) held a town hall meeting so residents could ask her and representatives from the Department of Sanitation and two community boards about sanitation issues. About 40 attended.

The New York City Water Board voted on Friday, as expected, to increase water rates by 5.6 percent for the new fiscal year, which begins on July 1.

The average annual water bill for a single-family home will increase from $939 per year to $991. The average increase for a unit in a multifamily dwelling will go up from $610 to $644.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority is close to approving a new bus route that would offer more direct service to LaGuardia Airport while cutting the existing Q33 route short to focus more on neighborhood riders.

The proposed Q70 Limited line — “a new faster and more direct route to LaGuardia” — would run from transit hubs in Woodside and Jackson Heights along the 7 subway line on Roosevelt Avenue and provide a shorter link with the airport.

An Astoria man faces several charges for allegedly bringing what were described as two BB guns to a crowded park May 7, loading one of them with plastic pellets, firing at a tree and then handing them to his children so they could shoot too.

His 5-year-old daughter allegedly ran around the park waving one of the loaded guns at other children.

MillionTreesNYC was established to greenify public spaces in the city, but private spaces, including backyards, apartment building courtyards and community gardens, are not included in the initiative.

In an effort to bring some of the greenery to Queens’ private areas, the Four Borough Neighborhood Preservation Alliance and the New York Restoration Project will be giving away 200 trees on Sunday in MacDonald Park in Forest Hills at Queens Boulevard and 70th Avenue from 1 to 3 p.m.

From his office on Bell Boulevard and 73rd Avenue, City Councilman Mark Weprin (D-Oakland Gardens) says he can hear his frustrated constituents at the former Q75 bus stop swearing, yelling, and literally crying out for someone to restore the cancelled bus route.

The Q75, which ran from Oakland Gardens to the F train stations in Jamaica, was eliminated along with 32 other bus routes, 570 bus stops and two subway lines on June 27, 2010, a $93 million service reduction.

The historic Forest Park Carousel, which has survived fire, closure and bad management in the past, may finally be heading into a safer position than the tenuous one it lived under for decades.

The carousel, built in 1903, will be considered for landmark status after the city Landmarks Preservation Commission voted to schedule a public hearing on the proposal.

Ten blocks west of Resorts World Casino New York City, a billboard over Rockaway Boulevard advertised casino table games less than two hours away in New Jersey.

To anyone with even the slightest knowledge of marketing, the ad seems to make sense — targeting gamers leaving Resorts World perhaps disappointed that New York City’s first casino lacks real roulette wheels and craps tables.

“Gravity of the Sculpture: Part II” will remain on display at The Dorsky Gallery, 11-03 45 Ave., Long Island City, through July 3. Call (718) 937-6317, email david@dorsky.org or visit dorsky.org.

Triston Griffith, a 20-year-old from Jamaica, wears a Barry Manilow Broadway play pin on his tie and someday hopes to sing just like him.

“I want to go to college and work on my singing more to make sure I don’t make a fool of myself,” Griffith said. He sits calmly in the lounge area at the Mental Health Association of New York City. His hair is neatly braided and his suit is fancier than anyone’s dress in the multiroom school.