Season in Review: Top Stories from Summer 2012

With the unofficial end of summer comes fall traditions like the back-to-school rush, pumpkin spice lattes, and a wrap-up of the top 10 news stories between June and August on Three Village Patch. In no particular order, here they are:

On Aug. 21, officials detonated highly explosive chemicals that were found at The Stony Brook School by a school employee.

That same week, residents reported a low flying helicopter over some neighborhoods. Police confirmed it was a burglary that sparked the aerial search.

After 20 years in business, the owner of Land & Sea Fish Market in Setauket closed the doors and went back to school to study nursing.

A story about three puppies up for adoption – named after one of the music world's biggest local pop acts – went seemingly viral on a local level.

Following in May that left an East Setauket woman dead, a Centereach man now faces felony manslaughter charges after a Suffolk judge unsealed a seven-count indictment on Tuesday.

A magical night for the senior class was caught on camera in June.

The community breathed a collective sigh of relief in June after avoiding an austerity budget by passing a revised school budget. The original budget failed to pass in May after the district fell short of reaching 60 percent budget approval.

A story on possible fake panhandlers seen throughout Suffolk County attracted a lot of attention both from those who had seen them and those who hadn't.

County Legis. Kara Hahn introduced a bill to rename a part of Nicolls Road in honor of fallen firefighter Joseph "Joey D" DiBernardo Jr.

The Setauket Fire Department led efforts to squash a basement fire before it completely gutted a home on View Road in August.