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T.R. school holds largest art show Page 6 VOL. 127 NO. 18
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Santos sentenced to seven years Disgraced former congressman ordered to surrender on July 25 By ROKSANA AMID & WILL SHEELINE of the Herald
Roksana Amid/Herald
George Santos, center, the former representative of the 3rd Congressional District, was sentenced on April 25 to seven years in prison and over $300,000 in fines.
When George Santos was elected to represent New York’s 3rd Congressional District in 2022, Glen Cove resident Paula Erome remembers being stunned. “I couldn’t believe that we elected somebody like this,” Erome, an organizer of Concerned Citizens of NY-03, said. From the moment Santos’s elaborate fabrications began unraveling, Erome and others in her community went into action, protesting, organizing and demanding that he be held accountable. Their calls were finally answered last week, when U.S. District Judge Joanna Seybert sentenced the disgraced former congressman to seven years in federal prison and over $300,000 in fines. The sentence followed Santos’s guilty plea last August to wire fraud and aggravated identity theft, as he admitted to defrauding donors, misusing campaign funds and fabricating key CONTINUED ON PAGE 4
Oyster Bay residents recall encounters with the pope By WILL SHEELINE wsheeline@liherald.com
When Pope Francis died, the moment was deeply felt by Catholics around the world. While his death marks the end of an era for the Catholic Church, his impact was also felt by everyday people, including some in Oyster Bay, who managed to cross paths with the first pontiff from the Americas. Local couple Ravin Chetram and Denise Domenechi-Chetram were in Italy on vacation last month, and had plans to finish their trip in Rome. They never imagined their arrival would coincide with Francis’s
death, or his lying in state at St. Peter’s Basilica. “We lucked out,” Chetram. “It’s crazy to say we lucked out for a death, but we did.” The couple arrived in Rome on April 24, and stayed just three blocks from the Vatican. Within hours they were able to view the pope’s body inside the iconic basilica. Chetram, who was raised Hindu, said he does not practice any religion regularly, but the experience made a deep spiritual impact on him. “I do believe in prayer,” he said. “And whenever something is that powerful that someone believes in, you feel that energy.”
It was not Chetram’s wife’s first time in the Eternal City, but Domenechi-Chetram said that the heightened emotions of the residents of Rome, as well as tourists and the gathe r e d c l e r g y, c h a n g e d t h e dynamic of both the city and the Vatican. “It was such an overwhelming experience,” she said. “There were people there crying, people mourning, people praying, so it was really just incredible to be there and to feel that.” Still, as the couple joined crowds lining up to pay the respects to Francis, what had started as a sightseeing trip
became something greater. The couple also watched the funeral procession, and toured the Sistine Chapel just before it closed for the conclave that will choose the next pope. “To stand in that room and look at the ceiling, man, it’s intriguing,” Ravin said. “You feel it. You get goose bumps.” Back in Oyster Bay, Bob and
Donna Viscovich have their own treasured memory of Pope Francis — one from much closer to home. In 2015, during the pontiff ’s historic visit to the United States, the Viscoviches and their son, Nicholas, were invited to attend a Mass at Madison Square Garden by St. Dominic’s Catholic Church, and CONTINUED ON PAGE 2