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For 18 months Newsday's investigative team has been documenting how spoils-system politics undercuts the public interest in Long Island's largest county, whose 1.3 million residents pay some of the nation's highest taxes. The stories reported that top county officials regularly pressured the health commissioner to hire unqualified people with political connections, while refusing to fill vacant posts to help abused and sick children. Senior officials from both parties routinely spent only a few hours a day at work, despite high full-time salaries.