Nassau County Comptroller Howard Weitzman who relishes his job of exposing fraud and the waste of taxpayer dollars may have gotten a little too enthusiastic two weeks ago.

At a Hofstra forum entitled "Fraud Knows No Bounds" Weitzman touted a new technique his auditors were using which looked at "outliers," people who were collecting too much sick time or using too many vacation days or using too much gas. And to juice up the story he mentioned a county employee who had allegedly used a government gas card to pump $17,000 worth of gasoline in one year.

Afterwards, Newsday reporter William Murphy followed-up with Weitzman to get more details and the comptroller said situation actually was even worse. Newsday's story reported that the unnamed employee had used 17,000 gallons of gas making the possible fraud at least $51,000.

The barking is getting very loud at Brookhaven’s new doggie park. And we’re talking about the pet owners.

A Newsday story today describes the tensions between a volunteer who is overseeing the park and dog owners upset over her rules. Things got off to a bad start as soon as the town opened the Middle Island facility 10 weeks ago. The volunteer in chief, who owns a Jack Russell terrier, banned doggie favorites such as chew toys, tennis balls and Frisbees, fearing the items might make the dogs become territorial and fight.
One of the outraged dog owners -- he has a Doberman -- started a petition drive to get rid of the voluntary caretaker and is threatening a lawsuit as well. A town councilwoman supports the caretaker.

And they're worried about the dogs getting territorial?