United States of America
My name is David Weingrad and I am a former editor for the Long Island Herald, a weekly print newspaper in Long Island, NY, which covers the island's south shore. The LI Herald is a chain of community newspapers, with an online presence, and I oversee one of the newspapers.
I currently am continuing my journalism career as a freelance reporter for the Washington Post and the Long Island Herald.
As an editor and reporter for several years, I have written hundreds of stories on large number of topics, including crime, politics, sports, entertainment, celebrities, schools and feature stories. My work has earned me several awards from the New York Press Association and the Press Club of Long Island.
He had been getting treatment at a mental health clinic and then stopped. He was expelled from school for discipline problems. Many of his acquaintances had cut ties in part because of his strange Instagram posts and reports that he liked shooting animals. His father died a few years ago.
The hurricane struck hard and fast, leaving hundreds of thousands of Puerto Ricans without food and shelter. The damage to the island totaled in the millions of dollars, and more than 3,000 people were killed. Telephone and electrical services were lost.
As he walked 13 miles through the scorching heat and humidity on a 95-degree August day in Columbia, S.C., side by side with leaders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and other clergy from across the country, Rabbi Daniel Bar-Nahum couldn't help but think of the progress he made with each step of his journey as a metaphor for the nation's struggle to provide equal rights for all its citizens.
My story on a Holocaust survivor, who, as a child roamed the Polish countryside with his mother to escape Nazi persecution.
Ruth Mermelstein detailed her time spent as a young girl in Auschwitz, one of the more horrifying concentration camps run by the Nazis in the Holocaust.
When I attended a Narcan training session at the East Meadow Public Library on May 28, I knew I was going to be leaving with a kit equipped with the drug that prevents deadly overdoses.
Michelle Arenella's first horse ride did not go well. She was 12, at a summer camp with her twin sister, Danielle, and the horse underneath her was not in a cooperative mood. She was thrown off. What might have been a traumatizing experience, however, had the opposite effect on Michelle, who is now 21.
The story of Robbie Twible, a 12-year-old boy with a rare, life-threatening skin disease who met his hero, Justin Timberlake.
A story on a national organization that sends veterans to the World War II memorial in Washington D.C., free of charge. It won me second place for best news feature at the New York Press Association Awards.
Sandra Foster is a softball star for her high school team. It's amazing, when you consider that she is deaf. This story won me third place for best sports feature at the New York Press Association Awards.
The teenagers sat together on the floor of the Islamic center, some speaking lightheartedly about their experiences with religion and faith. Others were engrossed in a more serious theological discussion. The setting was the Long Island Muslim Society, on East Meadow Avenue, on June 22, and the scene was a youth interfaith session hosted by a local student, Ayyan Zubair, who, six days later, graduated from East Meadow High School.
The high school résumés of siblings Sabrina and Thomas Brody are nearly identical. The musically gifted seniors are members of the East Meadow High School orchestra, are All-County and All-State musicians, and have performed together at Carnegie Hall as part of the Metropolitan Youth Orchestra. Another similarity?
Courtesy the Goldstein family Dr. Scott Goldstein hopes this weekend is an uneventful one for him when Pope Francis visits Philadelphia on Saturday, the final leg of his highly anticipated and historic trip to the U.S., preceded by stops in Washington and New York City.
My coverage of Mumford & Sons' concert at the Forest Hills Tennis Center in Sept. 2013, the first major concert the venue had hosted in more than two decades.
How a local kid went to an NFL journeyman, only to step into the spotlight in the NFL Playoffs and guide the San Diego Chargers to victory.
Spend five minutes with Robbie Twible, and we challenge you not to walk away with a smile. In a brief interaction, the 12-year-old is likely to recap the latest episode of "Ellen," play you a Justin Timberlake track on his phone, and break into a song-and-dance number from his favorite Broadway play.
A profile on pop superstar Debbie Gibson, who grew from a hometown Long Island girl into one of the biggest '80s pop stars.
My coverage of Olympic champion soccer star Abby Wambach, who visited a local Long Island camp to speak to campers.
Marine Cpl. Kevin Vaughan lost his leg serving in Afghanistan in 2011. When he came home six months later, he was given a hero's welcome by his community.
Part one of a biographical feature on Herbert Deutsch, who, in 1964, co-invented the Moog synthesizer, which paved the way for electronic music into mainstream culture.
Courtesy of Frank Constantino Immobilized in a wheelchair after suffering a stroke at age 6, the entire left side of her body having shut down, Rossella Cangialosi spent her days watching her mother cook. Cooking always had special meaning in the Cangialosi household.
An interview with Roland Meier, the president of the Forest Hills Tennis Center, who explained how the 90-year-old arena underwent a transformation from decrepit and unused, to hosting one of the world's biggest band, Mumford & Sons, for a 17,000-person concert in 2013.
When I attended a Narcan training session at the East Meadow Public Library on May 28, I knew I was going to be leaving with a kit equipped with the drug that prevents deadly overdoses.
While Long Island offers its fair share of musical venues, there's no major music festivals here that attract the biggest bands in the world. New York City is just a stone's throw away, of course, but many prefer to see live music in an outdoor, spacious setting, while being able to lie in the grass and soak in the fresh air.