Employees at elder care facilities on Long Island and across the state who have Temporary Protected Status are receiving deportation letters from the Trump administration, putting already understaffed nursing homes and assisted living communities at risk of being unable to care for their most vulnerable residents, according to advocates and trade groups.

Robert Brodsky reports in NEWSDAY that a central focus of President Donald Trump's mass deportation policy includes winding down TPS, a program expanded under former President Joe Biden that allows people already living in the United States to stay and work legally if their home countries are deemed unsafe due to civil unrest or natural disasters.

Workers from many countries with TPS status are overrepresented in elder care roles, experts said, including Haiti, Venezuela, Honduras and Nicaragua.

Stephen Hanse, president and chief executive of the New York State Health Facilities Association, which represents the nursing home industry, said elder care employees with TPS status, including those working in Nassau and Suffolk, have begun receiving letters stating that their temporary work visas have been revoked.

There have been no confirmed reports of ICE raids at nursing homes or assisted living facilities in New York.

DHS said it could not provide information on the arrest, detention or removal of employees working at elder care facilities but in a statement this week defended ending TPS protections.

"Temporary Protected Status was designed to be just that — TEMPORARY," the agency said. "Granted for 18 months under extraordinary circumstances. It was never meant to last a quarter of a century. For many of these countries, TPS was granted in the 90s after natural disasters. Now that conditions have improved, it is time to return home."

***

The word Dr. Peter Sultan’s family associates him with is love. He loved his two children and his family. He loved his patients. He loved playing the piano. He loved athletic pursuits. And, they said, he loved helping people. Olivia Winslow reports in NEWSDAY that Sultan, an orthopedic surgeon at Northwell Health’s Peconic Bay Medical Center in Riverhead, where he specialized in hip and knee replacements, died while participating in the Jamesport Triathlon this past Sunday. He was 54.

"He collapsed during the third leg of the triathlon, and they were unable to revive him," said one of his three sisters, Dr. Marla Sultan, of Short Hills, New Jersey. "Very unexpected."

Dr. Agostino Cervone, director of robotic surgery at Peconic Bay Medical Center, said Sultan was a regular Jamesport Triathlon participant.

Sultan's sisters said his death was "devastating." They highlighted their brother's legacy of devotion to family and to the wider community. "He really loved helping people," said another sister, Jessica Fields, of Northport. "He was good at everything. He played piano by ear. He was a cyclist ... There’s so much to say," she said.

Peter Sultan, who at the time of his death lived in Westhampton, was born in Mineola, Long Island.

Dr. Cervone said Sultan had practiced at Peconic Bay Medical Center for "at least 20 years." He said the mood at the medical center was "somber" after Sultan's death. "Everybody's still trying to come to the realization that Dr. Sultan's not going to be there anymore," Cervone said. He said "memorials are starting to come up in the hospital in different places."

A prayer service for Sultan is scheduled for today from 11 a.m. to noon at Tuthill-Mangano Funeral Home in Riverhead.

***

Shelter Island Friends of Music invites you to a concert free of charge in the Shelter Island Presbyterian Church this coming Sunday at 6pm featuring Sam Reider and the Human Hands.

“Led by Latin Grammy-nominated accordionist, pianist, and composer Sam Reider, the Human Hands is a collective of innovative acoustic musicians exploring the crossroads of folk, jazz, and traditional music from around the world.” Sam Reider and the Human Hands will be performing this coming Sunday at 6pm in the Shelter Island Presbyterian Church. Admission is free.

The Shelter Island Friends of Music (SIFM) was founded in 1977 and incorporated as non-profit in 1979. Their mission is to present world-renowned artists and rising stars to music lovers on Long Island’s East End.

***

Two days before the Fourth of July, Jesse Matsuoka and Kevin Menard, who are both members of the Sag Harbor Village Business Advisory Committee, as well as the Sag Harbor Chamber of Commerce, were given 350 parking passes by Mayor Tom Gardella to be distributed to local businesses for their employees.

Stephen J. Kotz reports on 27east.com that those passes were to be used in two lots at Pierson High School that the village has been allowed to use by the Sag Harbor School District for the months of July and August, and in the so-called gas ball lot at 5 Bridge Street, where the number of cars parked there has declined sharply this summer after the village began to charge for parking there.

The goal was to reduce congestion around the business district caused, in part, by employees dashing out of work every two hours to move their cars to avoid parking tickets.

Matsuoka, an owner of Sen and K Pasa restaurants and several other East End restaurants, and Menard, the owner of Dragon Hemp Apothecary, set out to distribute the parking passes, but quickly learned, according to Matsuoka, that “there seemed to be a lot more people needing permits” than they expected.

So many more that even when they talked business owners into accepting fewer permits than they requested, Mastusoka and Menard soon ran out, having made their way only about halfway up Sag Harbor's Main Street.

The effort led to some grumbling from shopkeepers who said they did not receive permits — and from Ellen Dioguardi, the president of the Sag Harbor Chamber of Commerce, who said the approach was rushed and poorly thought out, and that the chamber should have been more closely involved.

For Matsuoka and Menard, it felt like a textbook example of the adage, “No good deed goes unpunished.”

“This whole idea that somebody dropped the ball,” said Matsuoka. “This is a pilot being run by volunteers during peak season, and we have day jobs. We just want to help out.”

To make up for the shortfall, Matsuoka printed another 150 permits, which have since been distributed to businesses that were overlooked in the initial distribution.

At the end of the day, the two volunteers said that, while not perfect, their distribution effort will provide useful information when the Village of Sag Harbor revisits parking next year.

Mayor Gardella said the effort is a work in progress.

***

There are GOOD TROUBLE LIVES ON rallies being staged nationwide today including here on the east end. GOOD TROUBLE LIVES ON organizers state that, “On July 17, the anniversary of Congressman John Lewis’s passing, we’re taking action across the country to defend our democracy and carry forward his legacy of Good Trouble…This is more than a protest; it’s a moral reckoning. A continuation of the movement Lewis helped lead, and a new front in the struggle for freedom.”

The group who calls itself “Indivisible” emphasizes, “A core principle behind our Good Trouble Lives On actions is a commitment to nonviolence in all we do. We expect all participants to seek to de-escalate any potential confrontation with those who disagree with our values.”

A demonstration has been scheduled for this afternoon from 4pm to 5pm in the MACY’S HAMPTON BAYS PARKING LOT.

From 5:30pm to 7pm there’s a rally in Westhampton Beach by the Sunrise Hwy (Rt 27) OVERPASS at exit 63S (Rt 31) Westhampton Beach.

Another rally starts at 5pm in the area surrounding the Route 58 traffic circle in Riverhead.

And in East Hampton from 4:30pm – 5:30pm today there is a GOOD TROUBLE LIVES ON rally on East Hampton Town Hall grounds, 159 Pantigo Road East Hampton, NY 11937.

***

The Westhampton War Memorial Ambulance Association marked its diamond anniversary with a celebration event this past Saturday at the Village Green in Westhampton Beach, recognizing 75 years of serving Westhampton and its surrounding communities as a volunteer ambulance corps.

Founded in 1950, the group provides emergency medical care to eight East End communities: Westhampton, Westhampton Beach, West Hampton Dunes, Eastport, Speonk, Remsenburg, Quiogue and Quogue.

Dan Stark reports on 27east.com that the group currently features 92 active volunteers, which consist of emergency medical technicians (EMTs), drivers and members of the Ocean Rescue Team, which was founded in 2022 to respond quickly to medical emergencies along beaches and open waters in the ambulance’s coverage zone.

The group’s volunteers are required to serve four 12-hour night duty shifts per month, as well as complete multiple trainings before being approved.

The ambulance also features some volunteers who have been serving for 30 years are more and are among the longest serving EMTs and ambulance volunteers in Suffolk County.

In its 75-year history, Westhampton Ambulance has taken part in recovery efforts for events like the Sunrise Wildfire in August 1995 and the recovery of TWA Flight 800 in July 1996.

***

The endorsement of Riverhead Town Council candidate Kevin Shea by the Long Island Democratic Socialists of America has fractured the Town of Riverhead’s Democratic Party ticket in this year’s election. Alek Lewis reports on Riverheadlocal.com that Riverhead Town Democratic Party leadership is looking to distance itself from the Long Island Democratic Socialists of America without disavowing Shea — the only registered Democrat on the party’s Town Board slate. The two other Town Board candidates on the ticket are distancing themselves from the candidate himself because of his affiliation with the socialist group. The Democrats’ supervisor candidate says he can’t support Shea and the other council candidate says he hasn’t yet decided whether he supports him.

The Long Island Democratic Socialists of America {LIDSA} is the local chapter of a national political organization known for supporting politicians like Vermont U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York's 14th congressional district. The group’s national political goals include instituting “Medicare for All, defunding the police/refunding communities, the Green New Deal, and more, as a transition to a freer, more just life,” according to its website.

Last week, the Riverhead Democratic Committee published a Facebook post disavowing the socialist organization’s views and said the endorsement of “a Democratic candidate” by the LIDSA “was made without the knowledge, input, or support of the Riverhead Democratic Committee.”

“This endorsement does not reflect the values or priorities of our local party,” the post says. “Our focus is on local leadership, practical solutions, and community trust.”

The committee’s post came after Shea told NEWSDAY, "…that anyone living in Riverhead, and anyone looking from outside Riverhead, would consider that the rhetoric, sentiment, ideology and/or strategy of Zohran Mamdani's NYC Mayoral campaign, endorsed by A.O.C and Bernie Sanders, would be a viable option to strive for to make Riverhead a more resilient and affordable place for all, I embrace it," Shea wrote in a text.

Shea, who lives in Baiting Hollow, has been open about his affiliation with the LIDSA. The resume and cover letter Shea sent to the Democrats when he was screening for the nomination, copies of which were shared by Shea with RiverheadLOCAL in February, discloses his membership with LIDSA.

The LIDSA officially endorsed him in May, with 90.6% of its membership voting in support.

Consumer prices in the New York area, including Long Island, rose at a faster pace in June than in May, driven in part by higher costs for child care, housing and groceries, such as meat and eggs.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported yesterday that its Consumer Price Index for the 25-county region covering parts of New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania increased 3.5% in June compared with a year earlier. That year-over-year jump was higher than May’s 3.4% but below April’s 3.9%. The index is a key measure of inflation.

James T. Madore reports in NEWSDAY that grocery prices rose 1.8% in June, led by a 4.7% increase in the meat, poultry, fish and eggs category and a 2.9% rise in cereals and baked goods. Those increases, along with rising child care and housing costs, were partially offset by an 11.3% drop in gasoline prices. Nationwide, consumer prices also rose more quickly in June than in May. The national Consumer Price Index increased 2.7% in June from a year earlier, up from May’s 2.4%, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported. Restaurant meals were up moderately in the New York area — 3.1% in June year over year — and that could boost Long Island's tourism industry, said John A. Rizzo, an economist and Stony Brook University professor.

Restaurants, beaches, museums and entertainment venues generate more than $7.5 billion in annual consumer spending across Nassau and Suffolk counties, according to the research firm Tourism Economics.

Rizzo said the latest metro-area inflation data don’t yet show any major price pressure from federal tariffs.

“There is little evidence of any inflationary effects of the tariffs yet,” he said. “But that could change in the coming months.”

***

Engineers returned to the Ponquogue Bridge in Hampton Bays this week to begin an extensive new assessment of the condition of the bridge’s concrete structure as the county tries to devise a game plan for what could be a years-long, multi-million-dollar repair job.

Michael Wright reports on 27east.com that Suffolk County engineers will be working beneath the bridge, utilizing an under-bridge truck that lowers workers from the roadway above, over the next two weeks. Two-way traffic will be maintained at all times, but while the workers are on site just one lane will be open with flaggers directing alternating traffic. Delays are expected and town officials are asking motorists headed to the beach, Shinnecock Inlet and the restaurants on Dune Road to plan accordingly.

A New York State Department of Transportation inspection in October determined that deterioration of the concrete in portions of the girders that support the bridge’s roadway, 55 feet above the waters of Shinnecock Bay, had progressed to the point of threatening the structural integrity of the bridge.

State DOT engineers have noted gradually worsening cracked and crumbling concrete, exposed steel rebar and failed joint seals in the bridge’s roadway since at least 2020, according to state inspection reports.

The Ponquogue Bridge is a 2,812-foot-long bridge over Shinnecock Bay in Hampton Bays, New York. Maintained by the Department of Public Works for Suffolk County, the 29-span bridge carries two lanes of County Route 32 over the bay, connecting Hampton Bays to the eastern end of Westhampton Island.

Local officials have said Ponquogue Bridge repairs will be exceedingly complicated and the county has offered no timeline yet for when or how the issues will be addressed.

***

A rally organized by a group who calls itself “Indivisible” is scheduled for tomorrow afternoon from 4pm to 5pm in the MACY’S HAMPTON BAYS PARKING LOT.

“We will unite in honor of John Lewis and the democracy he fought for. This rally will have a visibility of 360 degrees at the intersection of Route 24 and Route 27A in Hampton Bays. Hope you can join us in fighting for liberty, freedom, and justice. A core principle behind all “Indivisible” events is a commitment to nonviolent action. We expect all participants to seek to de-escalate any potential confrontation with those who disagree with our values.”

The GOOD TROUBLE LIVES ON rally is tomorrow from 4pm to 5pm in the parking lot outside Macy’s in Hampton Bays.

***

The tribal seal of the Shinnecock Nation was removed from Southampton Town Hall’s main meeting room this past Friday, after town officials acquiesced to demands by Shinnecock leadership who are angered at the town’s legal opposition to the construction of a gas station and other development plans in Hampton Bays.

Michael Wright reports on 27east.com that the seal, which has hung in the People’s Room at Town Hall since 2010, next to the seals of the seven incorporated villages in Southampton Town, was returned to the tribe’s offices on Monday, tribal officials said. It was replaced on the wall in Town Hall with the seal of the Southampton Town Trustees. Tribal Chairwoman Lisa Goree, who works in Town Hall as the town’s tax assessor, has been demanding that the town take down the seal since December, when the town filed a lawsuit to halt construction of the gas station, which the Shinnecock were constructing on the tribe’s Westwoods land in Hampton Bays. Last month, Southampton Town Supervisor Maria Moore had responded in a letter to the tribe saying the town planned to leave the seal in place, because it saw its official and cultural relationship with the tribe as separate from the legal dispute over a single development project. But Shinnecock leaders were adamant that the seal be removed — and on Friday a split Town Board agreed to oblige. “We told them that we’d discussed it with the entire nation, and that everyone agreed, in light of everything that has transpired, we wanted our seal out of that building,” Shinnecock Council of Trustees Vice Chairman Lance Gumbs said on Monday. “The chairwoman walked into the tribal office today and said she’d gotten it back.”

***

Former Suffolk County Executive Patrick Halpin announced yesterday he has launched a campaign to challenge Rep. Andrew Garbarino (R-Bayport) in the 2nd Congressional District next year. Joe Werkmeister reports in NEWSDAY that Halpin, 72, a Democrat who lives in Oak Beach, will attempt to revive a political career that began in his 20s and ended three decades ago before he segued into the private sector.

"I’m not running to make noise," Halpin said in a statement. "I’m running to get things done. Washington’s broken, but I’ve seen what happens when you put your head down and do the work — when you ignore the noise and focus on people."

The general election is November 2026.

Garbarino, 40, was first elected to Congress in 2022. Last November, Garbarino was reelected to a two-year term by defeating Democrat Rob Lubin with 58% of the vote in the district that stretches across Long Island's South Shore from Massapequa to Mastic Beach.

Halpin criticized Garbarino as "asleep at the wheel — literally" in reference to the congressman missing an early morning vote in May on President Donald Trump’s domestic policy bill. Garbarino later voted in favor of the revised version.

"He’s been caught snoozing while voting to gut hospitals, slash food assistance, and hand billionaires more tax breaks — all while Long Island families can’t keep up with rent, childcare, or medical bills," Halpin said in a statement.

Since even THE NY POST is now calling Congressman Garbarino - “Sleepy Drew’’ - the 2026 "2nd Congressional District" race promises to be a nasty one.

***

As neighbors of the site that is slated to become “The Enclaves” resort hotel in Southold have complained about the large piles of sand and lack of work being done there over the past several months, the hotel’s developers received an extension of its site plan approval from the Southold Town Planning Board this past Monday. Beth Young reports in EAST END BEACON that in a June 12 letter to the Planning Board, the developers’ attorney, David Altman, said the project had initially had a commitment of $25 million from Dime Bank, which “withdrew its commitment due to regulatory considerations pertaining to the bank. The Enclaves is actively pursuing other sources of project financing,” he wrote, adding that the developers expect to secure new funding in three to four months.

The project includes a 44-room hotel, four guest cottages, renovation of an existing house for use as a 74-seat restaurant that will be open to the public and another restaurant for hotel guests only, a spa, meeting rooms, lounges and 100-person-capacity event space in nearly 73,000 square feet of new buildings, on a 6.75 acre property on the Main Road in Southold, across from the Southold 7-Eleven.

The Southold board granted an initial six-month extension, with several conditions that would need to be met by January of 2026 before it would receive another automatic six-month extension, for a total of 12 months.

***

Long Island K-12 schools and colleges could face disruptions in federal civil rights protections, financial aid and services for students with disabilities as a result of the Supreme Court’s decision this week allowing the Trump administration to proceed with mass layoffs at the Department of Education, according to some local officials. Maura McDermott reports in NEWSDAY that the high court temporarily lifted an injunction that had prevented the administration from firing more than 1,300 employees, including four from Long Island, according to documents sent to the employees' union by the Department of Education in March.

President Donald Trump said on social media Monday that the court “has handed a Major Victory to Parents and Students across the Country,” saying the agency’s functions would be transferred to the states.

The current U.S. Department of Education was created by Congress in 1979. The layoffs still face a legal challenge in the lower courts, with opponents charging that the effective dismantling of the agency without Congressional approval violates the Constitution.

Schools continue to face federal mandates, including a requirement to provide equal access to education to students with disabilities, said Bob Vecchio, executive director of the Nassau-Suffolk School Boards Association.

“Long Island schools will continue to make sure that the educational needs of the children are met,” he said. “Most of the laws and the mandates that schools have to follow and the regulations that the federal government puts out, we're still going to have to follow them.”

The agency’s work appears likely to be shifted to other agencies, Vecchio said. But, he said, “I think any major change like this will cause disruption for a period of time.”

Plus, he said, while the ruling does not translate into any decrease in local school districts’ federal funding, “We are concerned and worried that there will be a reduction in federal dollars.”

On Long Island, federal funding makes up 10% or more of the budgets of the highest-need districts and roughly 3% of the budgets of more affluent districts, Vecchio said.

New York is among 24 states and the District of Columbia — all led by Democrats — suing the Trump administration for "illegally" freezing nearly $7 billion in education funds affecting after-school care and summer programs for children, teaching English to children who are non-native speakers, and programs to recruit and train teachers in low-income areas, among others.

"This illegal and unjustified funding freeze will be devastating for students and families nationwide, especially for those who rely on these programs for childcare and to learn English," New York State Attorney General Letitia James said in a statement yesterday announcing the lawsuit regarding the freeze imposed by the U.S. Department of Education.

"Congress allocated these funds, and the law requires that they be delivered," James said. "We will not allow this administration to rewrite the rules to punish the communities it doesn't like."

Olivia Winslow reports in NEWSDAY that James said the coalition of attorneys general and governors argues that the funding freeze violates the Constitution and federal law, adding that "the administration offered no reasoned explanation for a drastic policy reversal and failed to consider states' reliance on long-established funding processes."

The money was supposed to be distributed July 1, but then the department announced the freeze.

According to a notice The Associated Press obtained earlier this month, the administration's Education Department said the money would not be released while a review was underway of the programs. “The Department remains committed to ensuring taxpayer resources are spent in accordance with the President’s priorities and the Department’s statutory responsibilities," the AP reported the notice said.

James said more than $463 million in funding for the 2025-2026 school year has been frozen in New York, which she said was 13% of the state's total K-12 education funding.

***

A major coalition of labor unions has called for the release and end of deportation proceedings against a Suffolk County Community College honors student who was arrested by immigration agents as part of an escalating nationwide crackdown.

Bart Jones reports in NEWSDAY that the heads of the Long Island Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO, an umbrella group of unions that represents about 300,000 workers, said yesterday that Sara Lopez Garcia should be released from an immigration jail in Louisiana and returned to Long Island to continue her studies.

"What we know is that Sara Lopez Garcia is a promise. She is a promise of what this country can be when we lift up hardworking students who contribute to our communities and try to make a better life for themselves, in this case through higher education," John Durso and Ryan Stanton, president and executive director of the group, said in a statement.

They noted that Lopez Garcia, 20, a native of Colombia, had protected legal status in the United States through a special immigrant juvenile status visa. The visa is granted to young people who have been abused, abandoned or neglected by a parent.

Lopez Garcia and her mother were arrested on May 21 when U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents came to their house in Mastic, long Island. Her 17-year-old brother was allowed to stay because he is a minor.

In a telephone interview with NEWSDAY on Saturday from the South Louisiana ICE Processing Center in Basile, Louisiana, where she has spent the last month, Lopez Garcia said she is grateful for the outpouring of support she has received from the college community and others. Rep. Andrew Garbarino (R-Bayport) said he is bringing her case to the attention of the White House and the Department of Homeland Security.

"I think that that's really important to show people that we are not criminals and I am not a criminal," she said. "They can see my record."

In the Louisiana facility, Lopez Garcia said, she is being held in a large room with a total of 72 people. They share bunk beds.

She said she has tried to help other detainees who don’t speak English by translating for them.

***

The annual meeting of the Suffolk County Gabreski Community Advisory and Review Board is this evening from 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM in the Riverhead County Center, Maxine S. Postal Auditorium, 300 Center Drive, Riverhead, NY 11901.

In accordance with the recommendations outlined in the Gabreski Community Advisory Board Final Report (July 2022) and pursuant to Resolution 224-2023, the Suffolk County Legislature formed an official review board composed of 18 members representing regional stakeholders and municipalities. The Gabreski Community Advisory and Review Board meets annually to ensure accountability, transparency, and continued public engagement regarding operations at Francis S. Gabreski Airport in Westhampton.

The Review Board is charged with monitoring the implementation of the Final Report’s recommendations and ensuring meaningful community input into the airport’s future. This evening’s meeting will include updates on airport operations, noise complaints, airport construction, and changes to airport approach procedures. Suffolk County Legislator Ann Welker; Gabreski Airport Manager Joshua Smith; Southampton Town Councilmember Michael Iasilli, and other stakeholders are expected to attend this evening’s meeting at 6pm in the Riverhead County Center.

***

Traffic on Noyac Road is clearly the most pressing issue affecting the residents of Noyac, at least judging from those who attended the Noyac Civic Council meeting last Wednesday. Stephen J. Kotz reports on 27east.com that Southampton Town Highway Superintendent Charlie McArdle and Councilman Michael Iasilli appeared at a packed Noyac Schoolhouse to discuss efforts to make Noyac Road safer for motorists and pedestrians alike.

Judging by the volume of traffic using the road, that will not be an easy task.

McArdle said traffic monitors had recorded 509,000 vehicles using Noyac Road since May 1, a figure, he said, “that blew my mind, and I’ve been here for years.”

The average speed was 36 mph, he said, which is not much higher than the posted speed limit of 30 mph.

But audience members had concerns about speeding, pedestrian safety, the number of trucks using the road, and the general difficulty of making left-hand turns out of driveways along any number of places along Noyac Road.

During his four-year term as highway superintendent, McArdle said he had corrected the intersection of Deerfield and Noyac roads to make it safer; added blinking lights to the crosswalk at the Hampton Christian Fellowship church; installed a digital stop sign at Cromer’s Market; reworked the intersection of Noyac and Stony Hill roads at the Serene Green farmstand; and completed the first phase of a three-year repaving project from North Sea Road to Deerfield Road.

Peggy Gallagher, the civic council president, said Noyac residents are patient and realize the road is one of two major east-west corridors to the East End, the other being Route 27. But, she stressed the town owns a 50-foot right-of-way, which provides it with plenty of space for sidewalks and other improvements for pedestrians and bicyclists.

Noyac resident and motorist John Kirrane said, “Noyac Road was engineered for 1950. It needs to be redesigned for the present.”

***

As sea surface temperature rises, some shark species could linger in northern waters nearly a month longer than usual, disturbing the ecosystem and interrupting conservation efforts, a Stony Brook University study found. Mercedes Hamilton reports in NEWSDAY that over five years, a team of Stony Brook scientists tagged 155 sharks along the East Coast and tracked their movements using underwater sound signals. The six highly migratory shark species studied annually migrate from the Northeast and Canada to waters ranging from the Carolinas to Florida during the early fall.

Lead author Maria Manz, a doctoral student, used the data to develop mathematical models that helped predict how each shark species travel and what environmental factors play the biggest role. "It's really important that we monitor and research both the negative and positive responses specific species have to climate change because it will impact how we manage them moving forward," Manz said.

Delays in sharks migration south could disrupt predator-prey relationships and interfere with ongoing conservation efforts, the study found.

Craig O’Connell, co-founder of a Montauk nonprofit called the O'Seas Conservation Foundation, said this could have drastic implications.

"Whenever you change something in the environment, there’s always some sort of repercussion ... We can’t exactly say what’s gonna happen, but most of the time it’s not good," O’Connell said.

Jon Dodd, executive director of the Atlantic Shark Institute, said: "Shark health is ocean health ... We want people to understand the importance of sharks in this ecosystem and that an ocean without sharks is not healthy."

***

The following announcement is for those who might want to attend this coming Thursday afternoon’s event and those who may wish to avoid it.

A rally organized by a group who calls itself “Indivisible” has organized a demonstration for Thursday; JULY 17th from 4pm to 5pm in the MACY’S HAMPTON BAYS PARKING LOT.

“We will unite in honor of John Lewis and the democracy he fought for. This rally will have a visibility of 360 degrees at the intersection of Route 24 and Route 27A in Hampton Bays. Hope you can join us in fighting for liberty, freedom, and justice.

A core principle behind all Indivisible events is a commitment to nonviolent action. We expect all participants to seek to de-escalate any potential confrontation with those who disagree with our values.”

The GOOD TROUBLE LIVES ON rally is this coming Thursday from 4pm to 5pm in the parking lot outside Macy’s in Hampton Bays.

***

Gov. Kathy Hochul grew her massive campaign war chest in the first half of the year, as Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY), a potential challenger, boasted a massive fundraising haul of her own. Vaughn Golden reports in THE NY POST that the Democratic governor raised around $4 million for her re-election bid in the first half of 2025, leaving it with around $17.5 million in the bank, according to her campaign.

“In the last six months, Governor Kathy Hochul has seen grassroots support pour in from every single county in the state as she fights back against Donald Trump and delivers real progress toward a safer, more affordable New York,” Hochul’s campaign manager, Preston Elliott, wrote in a statement yesterday.

But while Governor Hochul’s early fundraising advantage is clear, her likely challengers in next year’s race are already posting impressive totals of their own. Stefanik — who has yet to officially pull the trigger on running for the GOP nomination — raised $4 million between her campaign and various committees over the last quarter, her spokesperson said. The congresswoman’s camp claimed it was the most ever raised by a New York Republican in a single quarter during an off-cycle year. “I am humbled by the record early support from generous grassroots donors and supporters in New York and across the country,” Stefanik wrote in a statement. “I will continue to work tirelessly to enact President Trump’s historic mandate in Congress, ensure Republican victories up and down the ballot in New York, and then we will fire Kathy Hochul once and for all next year,” she said. Congresswoman Stefanik’s campaign raised $138,000 in the first quarter of 2025. She holds around $11 million cash-on-hand across all her accounts, her campaign said.

Those funds could ultimately be repurposed to help the North Country Republican’s gubernatorial campaign if she officially jumps in the race.

Fellow potential GOP challenger Rep. Mike Lawler reported raising $1.4 million in the second quarter of 2025.

That’s on top of $1.5 million raised by his congressional campaign in the first quarter of the year, leaving him with around $2.2 million cash-on-hand.

The Republicans aren’t the only ones cranking the cash machine.

Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado, who is running against his estranged boss Hochul for the Democratic nomination, hauled in almost $1.5 million between his various accounts, his campaign said.

Middle-income New Yorkers aged 65 and older are likely to see a tax break next year from the sprawling federal tax and spending legislation, but tax analysts say Social Security income won’t be tax free, contrary to Trump campaign promises.

Keshia Clukey reports in NEWSDAY that the "One Big Beautiful Bill Act," signed into law by President Donald Trump on July 4, includes a $6,000 tax deduction for seniors starting in the 2025 tax year and expiring by 2029. The deduction phases out for higher income levels, so single filers earning $175,000 or more and married filers earning $250,000 or more will not benefit.

In New York State, 3.7 million residents, or about 1 in 5, receive Social Security benefits, according to AARP.

Trump promised to eliminate the tax on Social Security benefits in his 2024 campaign, but tax analysts say that’s not what this bill does. Instead, it reduces income taxes for seniors on all incomes including Social Security, according to tax analysts.

"There’s some miscommunication," said Joseph Perry, a national tax leader in the Melville office of CBIZ, a national adviser of tax, accounting, advisory, benefits, insurance and technology services.

The bill will mean fewer seniors have to pay taxes, particularly when coupled with an increase in the standard deduction of $750 for single filers and $1,500 for married couples, Perry told Newsday. However, Barry A. Kaufmann, president of the New York State Alliance for Retired Americans, a senior advocacy group with 670,000 members representing retirees across the state, tells NEWSDAY, "Overall it’s a lousy bill. If you throw in a $6,000 sweetener, that doesn’t get rid of the pain that’s caused to seniors." Kaufmann also noted that the deduction ends in 2028, adding, "This is not a forever thing. It’s very limited in scope."

With more seniors paying less income taxes on their benefits, it means less revenue going toward Social Security’s two trust funds, policy experts and tax analysts said. Taxes on benefits make up a very small portion of the program’s total revenue, but the trust funds already are projected to run short if Congress doesn’t act, according to AARP.

***

A pop-up event set to last three days ended after just 40 minutes this past Wednesday when East Hampton Village officials walked over to Herrick Park and found what one said looked like a car dealership with General Motors vehicles. East Hampton Village Administrator Marcos Baladron later described the move as a “trojan horse,” as the village had permitted an educational event. Jack Motz reports on 27east.com that Wednesday morning, General Motors event organizers began unloading equipment and supplies from trucks, as the company planned to showcase about a half dozen cars from its subsidiaries, including Cadillac and Chevrolet, for the next three days. The idea was to show the company’s portfolio of electric vehicles. Less than a minute into the first day, Larry Cantwell, a former village administrator and town supervisor, walked by and realized it was a pop-up marketing event for General Motors. Cantwell told Brad Billet, the president of the East Hampton Village Foundation, that he thought the event inappropriate. Not long after, Cantwell took to Facebook to ask: “New General Motors dealership opened today on Herrick Park. When will the exploitation end?” At around 2 p.m., Mayor Jerry Larsen announced on the village’s official Facebook page that leadership had revoked the permit for the car event because it was outside the scope of what it had originally permitted. By evening, the company had vacated the space.

The original application did not list General Motors. Instead, it gave the name of a limited liability company. The Village of East Hampton, then, gave the green light for an electric vehicle education program...not a sales event. General Motors provided a statement that said the company wishes to introduce electric vehicles in a way that makes sense for the community, as it moves toward an all-electric future.

***

The East Hampton Library’s Long Island Collection will hold two events this week focused on the history of East Hampton’s business district.

A special pop-up exhibit, opening Wednesday, July 16, with a reception from 4 to 7 p.m. will be a Sneak Peek Series Exhibit: “Taking Care of Business.”

It will feature images, maps, and documents that record the history of East Hampton’s business district, particularly the areas around Main Street and Newtown Lane and the shops that used to be there. Admission is free but registration is requested.

Then, on Friday, July 18, at 6 p.m., the next in the Tom Twomey Series, “Let’s Get Down to Business!” will feature East Hampton Town Historian Hugh King and The Anchor Society’s Bess Rattray, who will present a virtual walking tour with archival images, personal recollections, and video, highlighting a variety of village storefronts and buildings, providing a hint of nostalgia and a “blueprint for creative ways our community can come together to return heart and soul to Main Street,” noted a press release.

For more information or to register, go to easthamptonlibrary.org.

***

New York State education officials have discontinued New York’s race-based admissions policy for advanced STEM classes for middle- and high-school students after a lawsuit by Asian parents. Carl Campanile reports in THE NY POST that the state-funded Science and Technology Entry Program (STEP) admits 11,000 seventh- to 12th-grade students a year for classes at 56 participating colleges and medical schools statewide, with a related College Science and Technology Entry Program (CSTEP).

The pre-college enrichment program aims to “increase the number of historically underrepresented and economically disadvantaged students prepared to enter college and improve their participation rate” in math, science, tech and health fields, according to its website. But while black, Hispanic and Native American students could apply regardless of family wealth, Asian and white schoolkids needed to meet certain income criteria — indicating they are economically challenged — or be excluded. A federal lawsuit filed in January accused New York of engaging in blatant discrimination against Asian and white students under the program. “Progress!” crowed Yiatin Chu — a co-founder of the Asian Wave alliance who tells THE POST her daughter was one of the students discriminated against because of the race-based policy.

Chu said her then-seventh-grade daughter was “able and ready” to apply for admission to the summer 2024 STEP program at New York University but couldn’t “because her race makes her ineligible.

“It was unfair and racist for my daughter to be subjected to a low-income requirement just because she is Asian when her black and Hispanic classmates weren’t,” Chu said yesterday. “I’m glad that my lawsuit instigated revisiting these decades long, race-based standards.”

In 1985, New York lawmakers passed legislation aimed at boosting interest in STEM and healthcare among low-income and underrepresented minority students.

But racial-preference programs — aimed at correcting historic injustices or underrepresentation of blacks and other minorities — have come under the microscope after the US Supreme Court last year struck down college affirmative action programs aimed at boosting minority representation as discriminatory.

***

Georgica Green Ventures, one of the largest developers of attainable housing on the East End, is pitching a proposed 40-unit mixed-use affordable rental housing complex on Flanders Road in Riverside. Beth Young reports in EAST END BEACON that the company, which has built several housing developments in Riverhead, Speonk, Southampton and East Hampton, is asking for $2.4 million from Southampton Town’s Community Housing Fund to purchase property at 47 Flanders Road, not far from the traffic circle in downtown Riverside.

This is the first major development proposal in this blighted hamlet since Southampton Town created a sewer district last year for the heart of Riverside, in anticipation of the town’s construction of a $35 million sewage treatment plant designed to make it easier to redevelop the area.

The Southampton Town Board will hold a public hearing on the use of CHF funds for Georgica Green’s project at its Aug. 12 meeting at 1 p.m.

As proposed, the project would include ground floor commercial rental space and a mix of studio, one bedroom and two bedroom apartments that “will be affordable for household incomes between 60% to 100% of the Area Median Income,” according to the public hearing notice, approved at Southampton Town Board’s July 8 meeting.

***

Shelter Island Friends of Music invites you to a concert free of charge in the Shelter Island Presbyterian Church next Sunday, July 20 at 6pm featuring Sam Reider and the Human Hands, folk, jazz, and traditional music from around the world.

“Led by Latin Grammy-nominated accordionist, pianist, and composer Sam Reider, the Human Hands is a collective of innovative acoustic musicians exploring the crossroads of folk, jazz, and traditional music from around the world.” Sam Reider and the Human Hands will be performing this coming Sunday at 6pm in the Shelter Island Presbyterian Church. Admission free. The Shelter Island Friends of Music (SIFM) was founded in 1977 and incorporated as non-profit in 1979. Their mission is to present world-renowned artists and rising stars to music lovers on Long Island’s East End.

***

The Town of Southold will review plans for an 81-room hotel in Mattituck after the developers won an exemption from a moratorium on building new hotels.

Developer D’Wayne Prieto is working with Mattituck developer Alan Cardinale, who owns the 12-acre site, to redevelop the property. The abandoned building, formerly a North Fork then Capital One bank office, would be converted into an 81-room hotel with space for a restaurant, catering hall and employee housing.

The waiver grants relief from the town’s hotel moratorium, allowing for a site plan review to take place. Final approvals must be granted by the town’s planning board.

Tara Smith reports in NEWSDAY that the Southold Town Board voted 6-0 to approve the waiver last Tuesday, citing the property’s commercial zoning and proposed reuse of the existing 77,000-square-foot building. The town imposed several conditions as part of the waiver, including setting the maximum number of rooms at 81 and prohibiting the developers from seeking tax abatements from the Suffolk County Industrial Development Agency.

“I commend the board for their decision and wisdom in preserving and increasing the town's tax revenue,” Prieto told Newsday in a text message. “It has been a long five years to reach this point.”

Two Greenport hotels are suing the Town of Southold after their expansion plans were stymied.

The Mattituck hotel proposal was first presented in 2019 as a 121-room resort with a spa and indoor water park, plans were scaled back in response to community opposition and further stalled by the town’s moratorium, which took effect in June 2024. Southold lawmakers recently voted to extend the moratorium another year, buying time to complete a townwide zoning update. The volume of short-term vacation rentals also has factored into the discussion as officials try to strike a balance between promoting tourism and preserving affordable housing.

On sweltering summer mornings, while sprinklers spin atop freshly cut lawns, showers are taken and pools are filled across the North Fork, officials at the Suffolk County Water Authority hold their breath. Tara Smith reports in NEWSDAY that seasonal overpumping, driven by irrigation, puts the agency in the “danger zone” in Southold, threatening water quality and capacity for emergencies. Water usage in the Town of Southold has nearly doubled in the past two decades, according to data provided by the agency.

The water authority is proposing a new $35 million pipeline to pump water from the pine barrens north and then northeast to Southold Town on the North Fork as it tries to keep pace with demand. The proposal has sparked debate over conservation and development pressure in the region.

The pipeline, which officials hope to complete by 2030, would stretch 8.5 miles from Flanders in Southampton to the Southold town line, bringing up to 6,000 gallons per minute to boost supply and reduce stress on existing public wells. A second proposed phase would extend public water 3.8 miles from East Marion to Orient, the easternmost tip of the fork. The Suffolk County Water Authority is in the process of conducting an environmental review. Tensions over the proposal were on full display at a recent community forum in Peconic. There, Southold residents, environmental groups and elected officials said the increased demand for water shows a dire need for conservation — and that supplying more water could be a catalyst for development on the North Fork. About 70% of water pumped in the summer is for irrigation.

Surging demand at peak summer periods puts stress on the water supply, according to the Suffolk County Water Authority, which serves 9,500 properties in Southold from about 60 shallow wells. Straining the supply puts the wells at risk from saltwater intrusion and other contaminants and places the agency in the “danger zone,” Jeff Szabo, the authority's CEO, said in an interview.

The pipeline would allow water to be pumped from the "South Shore Low Zone" in the Town of Southampton, an area with deeper supply, officials said.

“Every morning, the area I’m concerned about is the North Fork, because when it’s hot … we have every well running,” Szabo said. “Our tanks are draining down to, at times, just a couple of feet.”

***

An affordable housing developer who has worked with Southampton and East Hampton towns on several previous projects has proposed building a 40-unit rental apartment complex with a ground-floor retail space in Riverside. Georgica Green Ventures, a Jericho-based development firm, has applied to the Southampton Town Community Housing Fund for a $2.4 million grant to help cover the purchase cost of about an acre of land off Flanders Road near the Riverside traffic circle. Michael Wright reports on 27east.com that the Southampton Town Board will hold a public hearing on the CHF grant request on August 12 at 1 p.m. The town’s Community Housing Fund Advisory Committee has recommended that the town grant the funding award. The Community Housing Fund draws revenues from a half-percent sales tax on most real estate transactions and earmarks it for housing-related funding programs intended to increase the supply of residential units affordable to low and middle income residents increasingly priced out of the south fork housing market by soaring prices driven by second-home and investment markets. The project will not move forward until the planned Riverside sewage treatment plant is completed. The apartments would be built on three properties that Gerogica Green plans to purchase at 47 Flanders Road, just steps from the Riverside traffic circle and on the fringes of the land that the Town of Southampton has targeted to anchor the revitalization of the Riverside hamlet.

***

This Saturday – tomorrow - is a chance to explore the 20 varied demonstration gardens planted by Cornell Cooperative Extension Gardeners at the annual Open House at Cornell’s Long Island Horticultural Research Center, 3059 Sound Avenue in Riverhead.

Explore the 20 varied demonstration gardens planted and maintained for Long Island Horticultural Research Center tomorrow from 10 AM – 3 PM.

This free event features workshops, demonstrations, wagon rides, and tours of the gardens led by experienced and master gardeners.

There is also a plant sale with excellent prices for finishing off your gardens.

Rain or shine.

Tomorrow from 10 AM – 3 PM at Cornell’s Long Island Horticultural Research Center, 3059 Sound Avenue in Riverhead.

And it’s Free.

***

A proposed 81-room hotel at the site of the former Capital One Bank headquarters in Mattituck will now be able to go forward with review by the Southold Town Planning Board, after the Southold Town Board unanimously granted a waiver from its ongoing hotel moratorium this week. Beth Young reports in EAST END BEACON that the Southold Town Board on May 28 had extended a one-year moratorium on consideration of hotel development proposals while the town undergoes a zoning update. The moratorium is now in effect until June of 2026. But the owners of the sprawling bank building, Alan Cardinale’s limited liability company, 9025 Main Road LLC, this spring requested a waiver from that moratorium, arguing that the project is an adaptive reuse of a blighted building, and that, as currently designed, it would meet the requirements of the newly proposed zoning code. They have been looking to develop a hotel at that site since at least 2018. Past design proposals have included as many as 200 rooms, and a proposal for an indoor water park, which were roundly criticized by many in Mattituck. The request was the subject of two public hearings in May. The Southold Town Board granted the waiver for the Mattituck Hotel with four conditions — that the proposal “be subject to all code requirements in existence at the time of the final site plan determination, that it contain a “maximum of 81 rooms,” that the applicants “adhere to their pledge that no request for Suffolk County IDA property and/or school tax abatements will be requested,” and that “consideration of on-site resident management and/or employees is deferred to planning review.” The proposed new town zoning code would allow employee housing on commercial property.

The project will now go to the Southold Town Planning Board for review.

***

More than two dozen Long Island water suppliers will get $250 million as part of a sprawling multibillion-dollar lawsuit settlement against 3M, a manufacturer of toxic PFAS "forever chemicals," water district officials said this week. Tracy Tullis reports in NEWSDAY that districts received the first round of payouts last week and more will flow in later this year and over the next 11 years, according to Robert McEvoy, chair of the Long Island Water Conference, a trade group for local suppliers, and commissioner of the Oyster Bay Water District, which is party to the suit.

The Suffolk County Water Authority announced it will receive $34 million and more will be paid out until 2033.

It wasn't immediately clear how the payouts would affect ratepayers.

"We’re gratified to be receiving this award, and to see a major polluter of our aquifer be held to account for their actions," SCWA chair Charlie Lefkowitz said in a statement.

The Suffolk County Water Authority did not respond to a question about whether $80-per-year surcharges added to customers' bills in 2019 to help pay for PFAS treatment would continue. In total, 3M will pay $10.5 billion to water utilities across the country.

The money will help defray the costs of installing and maintaining treatment systems to remove PFAS compounds from drinking water.

***

Major work on a heavily trafficked Riverhead road is set to begin Monday morning. Denise Civiletti reports on Riverheadlocal.com that the Riverhead Town Highway Department will be repaving two stretches of Middle Road in Riverhead, Northville Turnpike to Roanoke Avenue and Osborn Avenue to Mill Road. The road will be closed to most traffic in those areas while the project is underway this coming Monday and Tuesday. It is expected to take two days to complete, Highway Superintendent Mike Zaleski said today. “We’re asking people who live on Middle Road in those areas to try and get shopping and errands done ahead of time,” Zaleski said. The highway department will have crew members at all intersections to assist residents. “I know it’s an inconvenience but it’s very important to get this done,” the highway superintendent said. “Starting Monday they will grind everything down, and on Tuesday they will pave,” Zaleski said. Paving work by nature is weather-dependent, so the project will be postponed in case of inclement weather. As of now, there is no rain in the forecast for Monday…a 30 percent chance of showers Tuesday morning in Riverhead according to weather.com.

***

About three million New Yorkers rely on food stamps, and around 10 percent could lose them because of changes in the new law, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, officials say. Over the next decade, it is expected to cause 22.3 million families nationwide to lose all or some of their benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as SNAP or food stamps, according to the Urban Institute, a nonpartisan policy research group. The law also includes about $4.5 trillion in tax cuts, many for the wealthy. “It’s just a given that a civilized society would want to take care of people who are struggling to put food on their table,” Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, told THE NY TIMES. “To see that all unwound for the sole purpose of ensuring there was more money to give tax breaks to millionaires and billionaires is beyond unconscionable — it’s cruel.”

Sarah Maslin Nir reports in THE NY TIMES that New York State administrators say they are still trying to understand the full implications of the law for SNAP. Preliminary data from the New York State Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance, which oversees the program, shows that some 400,000 New Yorkers may no longer be exempt from work requirements; 300,000 of them might lose benefits entirely. The fallout is expected to be wide-ranging, experts said, affecting businesses from urban bodegas to rural farm stands that rely on customers who use SNAP.

Anna Kelly, a spokeswoman for the White House, said the tax savings in the bill “will put more money in New Yorkers’ pockets and support families across the state…The One, Big, Beautiful Bill restores common-sense work requirements to SNAP for able-bodied recipients to work, volunteer or take classes.”

1st Congrfessional District Rep. Nick LaLota (Republican – Amityville) in an e-mail to constituents writes, “…work requirements for able-bodied adults receiving Medicaid and SNAP…do not apply to seniors, pregnant women, or people with disabilities...One Big Beautiful Bill Act isn’t about punishment. It’s about restoring the dignity of work—making sure government assistance helps people get back on their feet, not stay stuck in dependency. Both parties supported this approach when President Clinton was in office. I’m proud we brought it back,” states U.S. Congressman Nick LaLota.

Leaders on the East End agree that more affordable housing could prop up a year-round economy, legacy industries are worth preserving and infrastructure investments will strengthen the region. Tara Smith reports in NEWSDAY that though they differ on specific tactics, the five East End town supervisors emphasized unity during a panel discussion yesterday the Long Island Association moderated at East Wind Long Island in Wading River.

"We are all very different towns ... but we have a lot of the same issues," Riverhead Supervisor Tim Hubbard said. "Democrat or Republican ... at this level, it means the least. A good idea is a good idea."

Hubbard was joined by Amber Brach-Williams of Shelter Island, a fellow Republican, and Democratic Supervisors Al Krupski of Southold, Maria Moore of Southampton and Kathee Burke-Gonzalez from East Hampton for the "State of the East End" forum. All five are first-term supervisors who took office in 2024. Wednesday’s forum was the first to focus specifically on the East End, building on an effort by the Long Island Association to better support the region.

"You might just think Hamptons and mansions and millionaires, but the truth is, there are people that are bussing your table or working at the dry cleaner or a lifeguard at the beach and they can’t afford that million-dollar house," Matt Cohen, the president of the Long Island Association, said. "We really have to try to work together to fix these challenges." Some east end towns are eyeing ways to revamp zoning codes to accommodate more businesses and affordable housing on the twin forks.

***

The Southampton Town Board unanimously approved a sweeping rezoning of a swath of Montauk Highway on the edge of downtown Hampton Bays this week.

Michael Wright reports on 27east.com that the move came barely a month after the legislation proposing the change was first introduced, and over the vociferous objections of a businessman - Joseph Lustberg, one of the owners of the cannabis company Mottz Green Grocer, which had designs on opening in the former North Fork Bank building in Hampton Bays. Lustberg had planned to open a cannabis dispensary that will now be forestalled by the new zoning rules. The vote this past Tuesday will rezone two dozen properties along Montauk Highway, all to the east of downtown Hampton Bays, which are currently in a highway business zone, to hamlet commercial, and two more from highway business to village business. The uses allowed in the hamlet commercial and village business zones encourage smaller-scale development of properties suitable for the transition areas surrounding downtown areas. Under Southampton Town code, cannabis dispensaries are only allowed in highway business zones. After a single public hearing session and a two-week comment period, which ended on Tuesday, the board added approval of the rezoning legislation to its agenda for this week’s meeting.

***

Islip’s Long Island MacArthur Airport is slated to receive $3 million worth of security upgrades within the next eight months, according to town Aviation Commissioner Rob Schneider.

Sam Kmack reports in NEWSDAY that the Town of Islip announced yesterday that it was awarded a federal grant to cover the cost of the upgrades. They will include roughly 7 miles of improved fencing around the airport, and new security cameras around the perimeter.

Town Councilman John Lorenzo, the district representative for the airport, said the project, which has been in the works for about five years, is needed to “keep our airfields safe and secure for the future.”

The U.S. Department of Transportation funding will be used to replace the airport’s existing 6-foot fence with a new 8-foot fence topped with barbed wire.

The grant also will fund a “state of the art” security camera system along the airport’s boundaries.

The taller fence will help the airport remain compliant with federal rules that require it to “prevent wildlife from entering onto the airfield,” in addition to bolstering security, said Commissioner Schneider.

In a news release Wednesday, Islip Town Supervisor Angie Carpenter thanked Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Rep. Andrew Garbarino (R-Bayport) for helping facilitate the grant. “They both understand and appreciate the importance of Long Island MacArthur Airport to the region, and fully support our public safety priorities,” she wrote.

***

Luis Gonzalo Barrionuevo Fuertes, the 18-year-old authorities said had been drinking when he crashed his car last month in East Hampton, injuring six friends from East Hampton High School and killing one, was indicted on charges of second-degree manslaughter and aggravated vehicular homicide, according to the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office.

Nicholas Spangler reports in NEWSDAY that yesterday Suffolk D.A. Ray Tierney said Barrionuevo Fuertes' "alleged dangerous and deadly actions" on June 15 — Father’s Day — caused the death of Scarleth Samaniego-Urgiles, a 19-year-old backseat passenger from East Hampton, and seriously injured another backseat passenger. All were in Barrionuevo Fuertes’ 2009 Toyota Camry when it flipped and crashed into a tree on Old Stone Highway in Springs.

According to prosecutors, the friends, whose ages ranged from 15 to 19, had visited a beach and were driving on Old Stone Highway in Barrionuevo Fuertes' car — with six passengers in the backseat — when he "allegedly approached a curve in the road at a high rate of speed and ended up driving into the opposite lane where he nearly struck an oncoming vehicle" before leaving the road. Samaniego-Urgiles died at the crash scene. The other passengers were taken to hospitals, one with a spinal fracture and cuts to her hand that prosecutors described as disfiguring.

Barrionuevo Fuertes, of Moriches, an East Hampton High graduate, faces a 19-count indictment with 8⅓ to 25 years in prison on the top charge of aggravated vehicular homicide, a B felony. Acting state Supreme Court Justice Steven A. Pilewski ordered him held on $500,000 cash, $1,000,000 bond or $5,000,000 partially secured bond.

Barrionuevo Fuertes' is in the Suffolk County jail in Yaphank.

***

The Suffolk County Water Authority, in correspondence to Southold Town this week, stated a Stage 1 Water Alert may soon be declared for Southold. Beth Young reports in EAST END BEACON that if enacted, this alert would prohibit all non-essential water use within the Town of Southold, including lawn irrigation, to ensure water is available for emergencies and other priority uses.

“We’ve known for some time that the activity with the biggest impact on water pressure and quantity during the summer months is residential lawn irrigation, particularly in the early morning hours,” said Supervisor Al Krupski in a press release yesterday. “As the town works on refining an irrigation code that will help conserve and protect water quantity, as well as quality, I ask all home owners and businesses to take it upon themselves to irrigate their lawns responsibly. Lawn irrigational professionals have been supportive of proper irrigation techniques, and are an important resource to consult on timing irrigation, and use of water saving devises and strategies.”

Most people irrigate their lawns between 2 a.m. and 7 a.m., but the best practice is to irrigate between 9 p.m. and 12 a.m., according to the Suffolk County Water Authority. Other steps to conserve water include turning off irrigation during rain events, prevent over watering, and investing in smart devices for your irrigation system.

Additionally, SCWA’s website states, “non-essential uses include the washing of vehicles, streets, sidewalks, driveways, or other outdoor areas, in addition to filling up inflatable pools, and using water for ornamental purposes such as fountains, artificial waterfalls or reflecting pools.”

For more information on the products and rebates, visit scwa.com/waterwise.

***

They’re in uncharted waters.

Alex Mitchell reports in THE NY POST that in a rare move, businesses and environmentalists have joined forces in court to furiously fight New York’s Empire Wind One offshore project, saying that it will devastate both the commercial fishing industry and marine life in local waters.

“A decade ago, we said it would affect fishermen, fisheries, and guess what? The state didn’t care,” said Bonnie Brady, executive director of the Long Island Commercial Fishing Association.

“We are collateral damage — even though we feed people.”

The decade-long planned energy initiative, which began construction last April off the coasts of New York and New Jersey, faces a growing lawsuit from stakeholders in the tri-state area. The Bronx’s massive Fulton Fish Market Cooperative, which employs around 1,200, and Nassau County’s Point Lookout Fishing Club, and the Long Island Commercial Fishing Association are some of the groups joining a legal action brought by environmentalists in the area.

On Long Island, Brady explained that in Point Lookout and nearby Long Beach — a mere 14 miles from the Empire project in the New York Bight — boats must dramatically divert around the massive windmill poles to reach canyons for fishing. “Think of cruising on the Long Island Expressway and suddenly there’s a bunch of telephone poles in the road.”

Equinor, the company in charge of Empire Wind, did not immediately return a NY POST request for comment.

***

From New York City to Los Angeles, images of immigrants being handcuffed by armed federal agents who are clad in plainclothes and balaclavas have become an indelible symbol of President Donald Trump’s deportation crackdown.

Now, Democratic elected officials throughout the nation are coalescing around an effort to disrupt the arrests by prohibiting law enforcement officials from concealing their identity in public.

Ana Ley in THE NY TIMES reports that in California, lawmakers introduced a measure in June that would prevent such officials at all levels from covering their faces on the job and require them to wear uniforms with clear identification. State and city officials in New York yesterday said that they would pursue a similar initiative, with the clear target being federal immigration authorities, especially those who occupy the hallways of courthouses waiting to take immigrants into custody.

“We’re in the midst of an autocracy, and we will not stand for it,” said Tony Simone, a state assemblyman and a Manhattan Democrat who drafted the proposal in New York.

Republican leaders seem certain to challenge the plan in court, setting up jurisdictional battles as liberal cities and states endeavor to protect immigrants from the president’s widening dragnet.

In a statement, Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, said that the effort to unmask federal agents who work for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency has undermined their safety.

“The men and women of ICE put their lives on the line every day to arrest violent criminal illegal aliens to protect and defend the lives of American citizens,” Ms. McLaughlin said in an emailed statement. “Make no mistake, this type of rhetoric is contributing to the surge in assaults of ICE officers through their repeated vilification and demonization of ICE.”

On Wednesday, Mr. Simone, who represents a West Side district, gathered with city and state leaders on the steps of an immigration courthouse in Lower Manhattan to announce that he had drafted legislation banning law enforcement officers from wearing masks in many circumstances.

The legislation would apply in public spaces across the state.

It makes exceptions for medical grade masks, or for N95 respirators designed to prevent the transmission of airborne diseases. It would also allow masks designed to protect against exposure to smoke from fires. Police officials could also wear masks to protect against biological or chemical agents and against exposure to cold during a weather emergency. SWAT teams would be allowed to use gear to protect their faces from physical harm.

Violating the law would be a misdemeanor offense.

The U.S. Department of Education has launched an investigation into the Connetquot school district for "actively taking steps to erase its Native American mascot and imagery," the federal agency announced yesterday. Darwin Yanes reports in NEWSDAY that the Connetquot School District, whose nickname is the Thunderbirds, has fought a state mandate banning such imagery in public schools. But in a letter to the community in June, Connetquot schools Superintendent Joseph T. Centamore said the district was "exploring options for an alternative mascot name that remains relatable to our community, such as 'Thunder,' while maintaining imagery that feels familiar to our history, including the lightning bolt and eagle-like bird."

The federal Education Department's Office of Civil Rights determined in May that the state's ban violates Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination in federally funded education programs on the basis of race, color, or national origin.

"The Department of Education has been clear with the state of New York: It is neither legal nor right to prohibit Native American mascots and logos while celebrating European and other cultural imagery in schools," U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said in a news release Tuesday. "New York’s patronizing attitude toward Native Americans must end. We will continue to support the Native American community and ensure their heritage is equally protected under the law."

New York State Education Department spokesman J.P. O'Hare said in a statement to Newsday: "All but one school district in New York — Massapequa — has either complied with or is actively working to comply with the state’s regulations regarding the use of Indigenous mascots ... Like the previous 'investigation' involving the state Education Department, we anticipate that the U.S. Department of Education will ignore the law — including the unsuccessful lawsuits filed by Long Island school districts — in favor of its predetermined outcome."

The New York State Board of Regents in 2023 banned the use of Native American mascots, team names and logos in public schools. Local Native American groups have said the school districts' mascots and imagery promote "a stereotypical image" of their community and damage Indigenous children's self-esteem.

***

Federal immigration agents were seen outside a house on Scuttlhole Road in Bridgehampton yesterday, where they took one person into custody, local officials confirmed. As reported on 27east.com, several agents from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, a division of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and possibly other law enforcement agencies were recorded on video by passersby gathered outside a house on Scuttlehole Road before sunrise on Tuesday. Southampton Town Police Chief James Kiernan said that his department was asked to send officers to the scene to keep traffic on the roadway flowing safely during the morning rush hour since the agents conducting the raid came in at least a half-dozen vehicles that had nowhere to stop but on the road shoulder. Chief Kiernan said the ICE agents had a warrant for the arrest of a person believed to be in the Bridgehampton house, but he did not know who the person was.

***

A new bottle-guzzling sculpture was unveiled yesterday in downtown Riverhead, near the River and Roots Community Garden and playground adjacent to the intersection of West Main Street and Griffing Avenue in Riverhead. The four-foot by seven-foot receptacle is made of mesh wire and recycled materials.

This is Riverhead Town’s second “litter critter”; a similarly eye-catching fish-shaped receptacle has been helping curb litter at Iron Pier Beach in Northville since last year.

Alek Lewis reports on Riverheadlocal.com that the bee was designed and built by local sculptor Clayton Orehek and funded by the North Fork Environmental Council, a local environmental advocacy group. The organization raised about $4,500 for the project, NFEC Riverhead Vice President Lisa Gavales said.

“We’re hoping that children and adults alike will go to it, and the big bee will be the buzz of the town,” Gavales said.

Next to the sculpture is a QR code that links to an NFEC webpage with information about the importance of bees to the environment.

The sculpture “should help people have an understanding of the importance of the environment, keeping litter out of the waterways, as well as off the streets,” Orehek added.

***

New York public school summer programs are carrying on after the Trump administration refused to hand over more than $6 billion for education programming, slated for such purposes as summer enrichment, adult literacy and after-school projects, state officials said last week.

Tiffany Cusaac-Smith reports in NEWSDAY that the NYS Department of Education said in a July 2 memo that the summer programming would not be affected by the funding freeze and could continue as arranged.

Despite the continuance of certain summer programs, some within the Long Island education community are advising school districts move with caution in their budgeting for the upcoming year and to contact their congressional representatives about the need for funding.

Long Island school districts get an average of 5% to 10% of their budgets from federal funding per Bob Vecchio, executive director at the Nassau-Suffolk School Boards Association.

At the Hampton Bays schools, summer school and programming began this week as usual, according to Superintendent Lars Clemensen.

But he tells NEWSDAY that worry about funding freezes remains because schools use the congressionally appropriated funding to make "commitments to kids and families and staff" for programming to meet their districts' goals.

In the meantime, Clemensen, a past president of the New York State Council of School Superintendents, counsels that school districts who use this funding should be more conservative with how they spend, given the funding uncertainties of the freeze and recent passage of the "big, beautiful" budget bill.

"But I think what we're learning in 2025 is that we have to proceed with caution ... in all these respects," said Clemensen.

***

More than 200 years after he was freed, Elymus Reeve’s story is finally being told in Mattituck through a new historical roadside marker.

The marker stands at the south side of Main Road at the intersection with Mill Lane, not far from the plot of land overlooking Marratooka Pond where Reeve, a former slave, farmed and raised his family. Tara Smith reports in NEWSDAY that it’s the first historical marker honoring Black history and acknowledging slavery’s role in Southold, and part of a broader effort by a group of area historians to remember enslaved people on the North Fork.

Southold historians and town officials dedicated the sign yesterday, hailing the commemoration as a more complete retelling of local history, which often focuses on European settlers starting in 1640. “A lot of times, history is written just around those lives,” said Southold Town Supervisor Al Krupski.

Krupski said Reeve’s is an “extraordinary American story” worth remembering.

Reeve was born into slavery in Cutchogue in 1783 and freed in 1813 — 14 years before it was outlawed in New York State, according to Southold Town Historian Amy Folk. His former enslaver, Elizabeth Reeve, left Elymus an acre of land and he inherited another 3½ acres from his father, Reuben.

Reeve and his wife, Hagar, had eight or nine children, Folk said. The couple are both interred at the Old Burying Ground in Cutchogue, where Reeve’s headstone is inscribed with a Bible verse that reads: “If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.”

Two of their daughters, Miriam and Parthenia, are also buried there. Their graves were unearthed during a Boy Scout’s Eagle project in 2018.

Town Councilman Brian Mealy, who made history in 2021 as the first Black person elected to the town board, said the marker is an overdue step to recognizing the contributions people of color have had in Southold.

North Fork Project, has spent four years researching slavery on the North Fork, poring over town records, wills, store ledgers, newspapers and town and church documents.

Through those records, the group has named more than 350 former slaves on the North Fork between the 1600s and 1827.

***

It’s fire and ICE in one Suffolk County community. Brandon Cruz reports in THE NY POST that tensions are burning in Brentwood after ICE agents were spotted using the local firehouse parking lot as a makeshift base of operations just weeks after the county doubled down on its anti-sanctuary stance.

Unmarked ICE vehicles and agents were confirmed to be operating out of the lot, according to several Long Island officials representing the immigrant-heavy community where more than 70% of residents are Latino.

“In a town built and protected by a Latino majority, ICE was shockingly allowed to use a Brentwood firehouse to launch enforcement operations against that very community,” state Assemblyman Phil Ramos raged on Facebook this week.

Ramos slammed Brentwood’s fire department, but B.F.D. officials told The Post they had no prior knowledge of ICE using the fire station’s parking lot as a base, adding that as a state entity, it can’t stop a federal agency from using the site, which they also said is public property.

***

Amid Native American ceremonial chanting and drumming, members of the Shinnecock Nation presented a dugout canoe called a mishoon to the Long Island Children’s Museum in Uniondale recently, where it will become part of the first new permanent exhibit at the museum in more than a decade. Beth Whitehouse reports in NEWSDAY that “Saltwater Stories: We Need the Sea & the Sea Needs Me,” scheduled to debut on Oct. 11, will be devoted to Long Island’s maritime history. The dugout canoe, crafted in the traditional manner by Long Island tribe members in Southampton, will be one of the exhibit’s central artifacts, says Maureen Mangan, museum director of communications. The mishoon will remain on display in the museum lobby until the exhibit opening, when it will move upstairs to the gallery currently devoted to the Pattern Studio exhibit, which will be retired. Once it moves upstairs, children will be able to climb inside.

The new exhibit will also include a fishing boat, a bay house, a fish market, and an area called “Lifting the Ocean’s Lid” that will explore what’s underwater and suggest ways families can help protect the sea. Visitors will enter the new exhibit through a 9-foot-wave, because “for so many people on Long Island, their first connection to the water is a day at the beach,” Mangan says.

The 10-foot long mishoon was created by hollowing out a white pine tree log using a controlled burn and hand tools over a three-day period in April. It was rolled into the museum lobby under black fabric and unveiled to a crowd of children, adults, and museum and local officials last week. Paddles were also presented.

“We’ve been here for thousands of years. These are mishoons you would see all around these waters on Long Island,” said Chenae Bullock, Shinnecock cultural steward, during the presentation, when she was dressed in traditional buckskin, pucker moccasins and wampum shell jewelry. “It doesn’t just represent the Shinnecock, but also other tribes throughout Long Island. It’s really nice to have a representation here for our youth.”

Boys and girls from the Boys and Girls Club of the Shinnecock Nation helped to make the mishoon along with their tribal elders and attended the presentation ceremony at the museum on June 30.

The museum commissioned the mishoon and is also gifting funds for the Shinnecock to make another mishoon to keep for their community, Mangan says.

Six months after Manhattan’s congestion pricing tolls switched on, drivers are spending less time in traffic — both within the toll zone and in the surrounding area, according to multiple data sources. At the same time, recent polls show opposition has dropped significantly in suburban areas like Long Island, from 72% a year ago to 48% in May, though more residents oppose it than support it outside New York City.

Peter Gill reports in NEWSDAY that commute times through the Queens-Midtown Tunnel, including the last three miles of the Long Island Expressway are down 22%, according to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Another report, using data from the Waze driving app, found jams reduced not only in Manhattan, but also in the outer boroughs and parts of New Jersey during the first 16 weeks of the program. Commute times for Long Islanders who drive or take the bus into the tolling zone were down as much as 13 minutes during the first two months of the program, according to another analysis using MTA bus data.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority imposed congestion pricing earlier this year to bust stubborn traffic in Manhattan and to generate a new stream of money for public transportation projects, including for subways, buses and the Long Island Rail Road. The measure has endured a vow from President Donald Trump to kill the program and blistering criticism from some suburban drivers, who say it would hurt the city’s economy and further burden overtaxed New Yorkers. The first-in-the nation program, which charges $9 for most vehicles driving below 60th Street, began Jan. 5 and is on track to raise $500 million from drivers this year, including $61 million in May alone.

The toll is scheduled to stay at $9 until 2028, when it will increase to $12; then it will go up to $15 in 2031.

***

Stephen J. Kotz reports on 27east.com that WLIW-FM of Southampton has joined in a suit challenging President Donald Trump’s recent executive order, “Ending Taxpayer Subsidization of Biased Media,” that the president signed in May.

Earlier this month, the local NPR station, which is owned by the WNET Group of New York City, filed a friend of the court brief supporting the effort by other NPR stations to overturn the president’s executive order.

But it may not matter if the suit is successful, as the Republican majority in Congress is already weighing two other options to cut off federal funding, and thus cripple public broadcasting in this country.

“It’s a distressing time — it’s really an inflection point,” said Bob Feinberg, the chief counsel for the WNET Group. “This is an existential threat to a very important, independent voice in our media landscape.”

Besides the president’s executive order, which is being challenged on grounds that the president does not have authority to eliminate funding that has been approved by Congress, as well as a free speech argument, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting faces a threat from a rescission bill, which, Feinberg said, is attempting “to claw back” $550 million in funding for each of 2026 and 2027.

That measure has already been approved by the House and is currently before the Senate, which has until July 18 to act.

Funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting has also been eliminated in the massive tax cut and spending bill, “the One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” for which a final vote is still needed to approve the legislation…although approval appears imminent.

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting is funded two years into the future as a means to prevent Congress from using its power to punish public media for airing programs it disagrees with.

“This is a clear example of the federal government using its power to direct or punish speech with which it disagrees,” Feinberg said on a recent edition of “Behind the Headlines,” a radio program co-sponsored by The Express News Group and WLIW.

Despite Republican charges that public media is biased against their views, both NPR and PBS are rated among the most trustworthy media in opinion polls.

The elimination of federal funding would be devastating for public media, Feinberg said. Every $1 in federal funding leads to $7 more in donations.

“This is not a situation where we can just make up the missing funding by reaching out to the Ford Foundation,” Feinberg said. “That won’t work.”

He said the $550 million that would be axed next year in the rescission bill amounts to about $1.38 per American.

***

Four Starbucks stores in the Hamptons are the first of up to 1,000 stores nationwide to undergo a redesign in the next year aimed at a turnaround for the coffee chain seeking a return to its "community coffeehouse" roots. Tory N. Parrish reporting in NEWSDAY does not indicate which 4 on the south fork are being redesigned. Starbucks website locations shows stores in Westhampton Beach, Hampton Bays, Southampton, Bridgehampton and East Hampton.

Starbucks remains the world’s largest coffee chain, but the Seattle-based company has reported five straight quarters of declining sales at U.S. stores open at least a year, amid growing competition from independent and national coffee retailers, and as consumers cut back on discretionary spending.

Faster-growing regional chains, such as Dutch Bros Coffee, 7 Brew and Scooter's Coffee, have chipped away at Starbucks' market share, said David Palmer, senior managing director and restaurant analyst at Evercore, an investment banking firm in Manhattan. Hampton Coffee Company’s success on the east end could be included among the aforementioned Starbucks competitors.

Unveiled in June in the Hamptons and first reported by CNN, the updated store design is part of the company’s “Back to Starbucks” strategy — a plan focused on employee investment, streamlining the menu to the most-popular items and improving the in-store experience to lure back customers who once lingered in the coffee shops.

Starbucks Corp.'s relatively new CEO, Brian Niccol, who started in September, is behind the changes.

The changes mean a return to some of the features that gave Starbucks a reputation as a “third place,” a term for settings other than home (the first place) and work (the second place), like coffee shops, parks and other places where people linger to socialize.

Current management is increasing staffing and using artificial intelligence to prioritize in-café orders over mobile ones, Palmer said.

Starbucks will be adding one to three people per U.S. store, which could cost an estimated $1 billion, he said.

Starbucks’ built its brand on the in-store experience, which is what the chain is trying to return to.

A private citizen’s novel plan to develop individual condominiums as affordable housing took its first step when the East Hampton Town Planning Board met the pitch favorably but cautiously at its most recent meeting. Jack Motz reports on 27east.com that if approved, the plan, pitched by Kirby Marcantonio, the publisher of Montauk Life and Hamptons Life magazines and a workforce housing proponent, would be to develop 47 affordable housing units spread across seven two-story buildings on a vacant 4-acre lot on Pantigo Road in East Hampton. Once built, the idea is for local employers to purchase individual units for employees to lease under terms agreed upon by the landlord and renter. In contrast, almost all other affordable developments in East Hampton Town are owned and operated by a single, certified housing corporation. To live there, tenants would have to qualify for affordable housing by maintaining a salary within 130 percent of area median income. The developers would cap the rent at half the market rate. Marcantonio said the starting price of a house in East Hampton today is $1.2 million to $1.3 million, which is far out of reach for any local resident or local worker. With that in mind, he began casting around for affordable housing ideas, as informed by his real estate background. Marcantonio will now have to submit formal plans once ready, which will take two or three months, and he hopes to get approval sometime early next year, so he can break ground on the development.

***

A new $40,000 limit on state and local tax deductions, known as SALT, would be a win for many New Yorkers, tax analysts told Newsday, but provisions in the bill the Senate passed yesterday could limit the number of people who benefit. The bill passed by the Senate sets an income threshold, so only those earning $500,000 annually or less could take advantage of the full $40,000 cap. The cap would remain at $10,000 for those earning $600,000 or more. The bill also raises the “standard deduction,” allowing more people to take advantage of the higher deduction and reducing the number of people itemizing and taking advantage of the increased SALT cap, tax analysts said.

Keshia Clukey reports in NEWSDAY that the SALT deduction allows filers who itemize to subtract some of their state and local taxes from their taxable income.

The bill also increases the standard deduction, which currently is set for $15,000 for single filers and $30,000 for married filers for the 2025 tax year, according to the Internal Revenue Service. The vast majority of taxpayers take advantage of the standard deduction instead of itemizing.

The U.S. Senate passed its version of the bill in a 51-50 vote on Tuesday, largely along party lines, and the House narrowly passed its version in a 215-214 vote on May 22. The bill now goes back to the House for final approval — though lawmakers must agree on the final language. President Trump has been pushing for Congress to pass the measure before the Fourth of July.

***

Peak season for political fundraising on the east end is underway as New York City Mayor Eric Adams will be feted at a power Hamptons fundraiser on Saturday as he gains momentum following former Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s stunning defeat in the NYC Democratic Mayoral Primary. Ian Mohr reports in THE NY POST that power couple Maria and Kenneth Fishel will host an Adams reelection event at their Bridgehampton estate, according to an invitation seen by Page Six, along with John and Margo Catsimatidis, Jared and Mindy Epstein and Todd and Liz Shapiro.

Per Page Six, money has been flowing towards the Adams campaign after Cuomo’s shocking loss to NYS Rep. Zohran Mamdani, though Cuomo will not drop out of the race and remove himself from the general election ballot, The Post reported.

“With Cuomo out, people are coming to Adams with oodles of cash,” said an Adams backer, who added that the Hamptons event is just one being lined up for the mayor out east.

Quipped the Adams backer of Mamdani, “People are afraid of this guy, and they don’t want Times Square to become Red Square.”

The source contended: “Since Cuomo lost, people worry what he’s really doing or not. People are bailing out left and right — unions are bailing out and running away.” He said that donors are, “calling [the Adams campaign] every day, wanting to give him money.

Yesterday, President Trump praised Adams’ re-election campaign.

“I helped him out a little bit,” Trump said of Adams, alluding to the Department of Justice’s controversial move to dismiss Adams’ federal corruption case. “He had a problem, and he was unfairly hurt over this question. That was a Biden indictment. I said, ‘Don’t feel bad. I got indicted five times.’”

Mayor Adams told THE NY POST yesterday, “Since Andrew Cuomo lost the primary and chose not to actively campaign, there’s been a noticeable shift in energy — particularly from New Yorkers. The energy is coming all over, from Brownsville to the Hamptons, on in all five boroughs."

Witnesses and court documents gave new details yesterday about the alleged drunken driving crash that destroyed paintings and sculpture works at a Montauk art show over the weekend. Nicholas Spangler reports in NEWSDAY that a security guard working an overnight shift at the Carl Fisher Plaza pavilion, Kyle Thomas Pomerantz, told police in a statement that about 3 a.m. Sunday he narrowly missed being struck after hearing "a loud crashing noise directly behind me. ... I rolled out of my chair to my right, at which time I saw a gray colored SUV barreling towards us."

At the wheel, according to police, was Nicoly Ribeiro De Souza, 23, of Farmingville, charged with driving while intoxicated and six counts of reckless criminal mischief after allegedly driving into the pavilion and hitting tents in which artwork was being stored overnight, causing an estimated $151,045 in damage, according to charging documents.

According to Pomerantz's sworn statement to police, De Souza told him she and another woman, her passenger in the Nissan Rogue, had just left the Surf Lodge, a nightlife hot spot on nearby Edgemere Street. Pomerantz told police he felt lucky to be alive.

"I thought we were going to be struck and we would be dead," he told police.

East Hampton Town police reportedly visited the Surf Lodge on Monday to review security camera footage.

John Papaleo, an art fair organizer and EMT said the SUV "hit it so hard the barrier ended up 100 feet away. The post it was connected to was ripped completely out of the ground."

The SUV continued past a gazebo in the middle of the pavilion and stopped near Pomerantz’s Toyota Tacoma, Papaleo said.

Papaleo said the crash would devastate the artists whose work was ruined.

He said dozens of artists were affected, including many who live on Long Island.

Papaleo said the Montauk Artists Association, which sponsored the art fair, still hopes to hold an August event at the pavilion, though the group's leaders will consult with town officials over safety. He hopes the area can be made more secure but not fortified. "It's a park — you don't want it to look like a prison," he said.

A spokesman for East Hampton Town Supervisor Kathee Burke-Gonzalez said that she and town public safety officials at a meeting tomorrow "will be reviewing this incident, and what further steps may be appropriate."

***

The Shinnecock Nation, in an elevation of its discord with the Town of Southampton, has made three formal requests, including a public demand, that its official tribal seal be removed from the town hall's main meeting room. Mark Harrington reports in NEWSDAY that at a town board meeting last week, Shinnecock vice chairman Lance Gumbs made the request after he said the town ignored two letters from chairwoman Lisa Goree for the seal’s removal. The move follows a series of legal challenges by the town against the tribe. The seal has been on the wall at the town hall meeting room since 2008.

"It is clear that there is great disdain in this town for the Shinnecock people, the Shinnecock Nation," Gumbs said from the podium, after a resident had questioned the nation’s ownership of its entire 80-acre Westwoods property. (A town councilman made clear to the resident that the Shinnecock Nation owns Westwoods.)

In response, Southampton Supervisor Maria Moore read a letter to Goree drawn up on Tuesday, saying the town "would like the seal to remain in its current place" in town hall.

"We understand and regret that you feel that the town has not honored your sovereignty," Moore said, reading from the letter. "While we may differ on interpretations of certain legal and jurisdictional matters, I assure you that the town remains committed to maintaining a relationship rooted in mutual respect dignity and continued dialogue."

Tensions between the nation and the town have escalated in recent months after the town filed a lawsuit in December seeking to stop construction of the nation’s gas station/travel plaza off Sunrise Highway in Hampton Bays. It questioned the status of the land as sovereign, restricted land even after a recent affirmation by the U.S. Department of the Interior. New York State has separately filed suit against Shinnecock billboards on Sunrise.

A judge in Riverhead earlier this year granted Southampton Town’s request to halt construction at the Westwoods gas station site, a decision that the tribe says is costing upward of $22,000 a day.

Gumbs at the town board hearing said the nation is "no longer going to participate in this town and the things that they are doing."

"It’s become abundantly clear that we are not respected as a government, as a nation, and we no longer want to deal with the hypocrisy that people talk about being good neighbors. That’s a joke," he said. "We’ve been good neighbors for 400 years.

***

The land of the free, and the home of the highest bidder.

From grand restorations to storybook backyard gardens, there are several historical homes on Long Island's East End that are currently on the market, awaiting their next chapter.

One Southampton Village property features a home constructed in the same century as the founding of the United States, which turns 249 years old on Friday. Rachel Weiss reports in NEWSDAY that in 1740, a farmhouse was built in Southampton. In 1944, building inventory records show it was moved from North Main Street to its current location on Post Lane in Southampton.

Now, it's been lovingly maintained and converted into a home, on the market for nearly $7 million. The house is listed by Harald Grant, of Sotheby's International Realty. Sitting on a 0.41-acre lot, the property is in the Southampton Union Free School District.

"I've gone to great lengths to try to keep as much character as possible," said Patricia Ross, the current owner.

For example, Ross, a landscape designer, discovered some of the plantings around the house had caused the shingles to darken in color, so she figured out a way to revitalize them.

"I did not want to do any kind of power washing," she said, "because I wanted to keep the shingles intact, along with the old nails. So we had the house hand-bleached, and it was lovely because we were able to get all the mold and mildew off the house and bring the shingles back to a nice gray, without damaging anything."

Ross has lived here for two years, and the owners before her had been there for 40 years, she said.

The "sense of history" is what first attracted Ross to this area. She once lived in Chappaqua, in a home that used to be an old schoolhouse on a big estate.

"I'm drawn to older houses," she said.