Long Island Rail Road commuters are being advised to expect delays and cancellations during Tuesday’s afternoon rush hour as crews repair damage from a derailment inside an East River tunnel on Monday night.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority said no one was hurt when the 10-car 5:51 train to Hempstead, LI, had two cars derail while eastbound in the tunnel. Eight switches and roughly 500 feet of track were damaged. The tunnel is one of four owned and operated by Amtrak.

(BPT) - Most of us view lawns, porches, decks and gardens as extensions of our homes and look forward to enjoying these spaces during warm weather. Unfortunately, rising temperatures also bring invasive insects that can lay their claim to these spaces and cause hefty damage.

Public Advocate Bill de Blasio minces no words when asked why he is running for mayor and why he feels he is the best choice for the Democratic nomination.

“I am fundamentally dissatisfied with things in the city,” he said last week at a meeting with the editorial board of the Queens Chronicle.

Almost all items at the June 6 Community Board 2 meeting were tabled when the public hearing about 5 Pointz, a well-known place for legal graffiti in Long Island City which is facing extinction, ran more than two hours.

The many comments concluded with a recommendation to turn down the request by G & M Realty to the City Planning Commission for a special permit to convert the area to a mixed-use 1,000-housing-units complex [see other story].

Public Advocate Bill de Blasio and Assemblywoman Nily Rozic (D-Fresh Meadows) Friday blasted the city’s Department of Environmental Protection for what they saw as a lackluster response to chronic flooding in Fresh Meadows and similar neighborhoods all across the city.

“This is a decades-old problem in neighborhoods like Fresh Meadows. But after the wake-up call Sandy delivered, there’s just no excuse for inaction. We need a water system that matches the extreme weather we face, and policies that treat homeowners fairly when their homes are damaged through no fault of their own,” de Blasio said during a rainy press conference, ironically adding “We can’t keep leaving families high and dry.”

Something is out of joint on the stretch of 156th Avenue between 77th and 78th streets in Lindenwood. The street here is twice the width it is on adjacent blocks.

The odd layout has existed for more than three decades, since this part of the neighborhood was developed. It has led to residents parking in the middle of the street, sometimes with two cars next to each other, in what many say is an unsafe traffic condition.

The New York State Court of Appeals has cleared the way for implementation of Mayor Bloomberg’s Outer Borough Taxi Plan.

The ruling, issued by the court on June 6, paves the way for livery car operators to get licenses that will allow them to accept street hails with the exception of Midtown and Downtown Manhattan and the city’s two airports.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the union representing its subway workers are about $15 million apart on just how much extra funding will be available from the state this coming fiscal year.

But that is virtual agreement compared to their stands on reopening 100 of the subway booths that were shut down when the MTA was suffering a cash crunch in 2010.

It took Hurricane Sandy and the destruction of the Broad Channel rail bridge last October — and the ensuing seven-month disruption of direct A train subway service — to return ferry service between the Rockaways and Manhattan.

Now, with public officials hoping to make the ferry permanent, the city’s Economic Development Corporation plans to study the feasibility of adding a second Rockaway site to the one already at Beach Channel Drive and Beach 108th Street.

The Malba Gardens Civic Association is worried the city’s Department of Transportation may have forgotten a promise to study traffic conditions in the area after former Queens DOT commissioner Maura McCarthy’s departure.

Two years ago, the civic asked Fifth Avenue be converted to a west-bound one-way street from 150th Street to the Whitestone Expressway Service Road. A DOT survey found 107 cars traveled down the street per hour, with a third of them speeding. Most were drivers who got off at the final exit before the Whitestone Bridge, after accidentally getting snagged onto the approach for the span.

Work started this week on the controversial project to remove toxic chemicals from a former industrial site in Ozone Park.

The work along 100th Street between 101st and 103rd avenues will clean eight bays under the former Ozone Park LIRR station that were once used for storage by Ozone Industries, an aircraft parts manufacturer that operated out of an adjacent factory until the late 1990s.

The Maspeth Bypass plan that went into effect two years ago doesn’t seem to be doing much. Residents, elected officials and civic leaders are reporting truck after truck ignoring truck route signs to avoid traffic on the Long Island Expressway.

(NAPSI)—When it’s time to move to your college dorm, your first apartment, your family house, your scaled-down empty nest or whenever you have a new home, you may be able to save time, trouble and money by doing it yourself.

(NAPSI)—A group of seniors with imagination and initiative recently demonstrated how committed volunteers can make a difference in a community.

(BPT) - Warm weather and sunshine are putting families across the country in vacation-planning mode. Whether traveling by train, plane or automobile, mobile devices are typically the first thing parents and kids pack.

(BPT) - The last few years have brought record destruction from natural disasters. While disasters such as Hurricane Isaac, Superstorm Sandy or the Oklahoma tornadoes are tragic and unavoidable, there is value in being prepared for the challenges Mother Nature throws our way.

by Lloyd Carroll

(NewsUSA) - Choices. Choices. There are countless options of what souvenirs to bring home from summer vacations. The National Pest Management Association (NPMA) lightheartedly recommends opting for tchotchkes or t-shirts and not bed bugs.

Dear Editor:

At a recent meeting of the Lindenwood Alliance, representatives from Birch Family Services spoke about the proposed group home for autistic and developmentally disabled young adults in Lindenwood. Denis Rosenberg, Deputy Director of Birch Family Services, spoke with our group and outlined the plan for the home and its residents. Mr. Rosenberg was extremely transparent, and reassuring, when answering the many valid questions asked by our attendees.

The home, located at 137-31 80 St., will be operated by Birch Family Services and house six young men with autism or other developmental disabilities. The residents will all be around 21 years old.

In addition to attending the Lindenwood Alliance, the senior management of Birch Family Services, including Nigel Cole, another of Birch Family Service’s deputy directors, was in attendance at a meeting of Community Board 10 in an effort to answer questions regarding the proposed site, its employees and its residents.

As reported in the Queens Chronicle (“CB 10 OKs group home in Lindenwood,” May 9, South Queens edition), Mr. Lester Kaufman, the organization’s executive vice president, said, “We want them to lead as normal a life as possible.” Mr. Kaufman also noted in the Chronicle that, “The men inside the home would use local stores and facilities under the supervision of Birch’s on-site staff. “We want them to participate in the community and have a normal community life.”

Some of the information they shared is as follows: The home is a two-family residence that will be kept as is. Three of the residents will live on the first floor and three on the second.

Two staff members will be present during the day and two during the overnight shift, while there will also be two “floating” workers in the morning and at night when the residents are home.

During the majority of the day, the residents will be taking classes at an off-site school which they will be transported to. There will not be any large buses on the block. Smaller vehicles will be used to transport the residents.

It was further reported in the Queens Chronicle that after the unanimous vote, CB 10 Chairwoman Betty Braton said, “The board has not had any serious problems with any of the group homes in the neighborhoods the community board serves. “

As your neighbor, as well as a civic and community activist, I ask that you welcome these residents. We have the commitment of the Birch Family Services Organization that they will remain good neighbors and we will hold them to that promise.

If you have any questions or concerns, I can be contacted via e-mail at lindenwood alliance@gmail.com.