The first week of the new traffic patterns on County Road 39 in Southampton…especially between the North Sea Road intersection and Magee Street…brought long backups at times and struggles to keep traffic flowing westward swiftly, as had been hoped when the town and Southampton Village convinced Suffolk County to restripe the roadway. Michael Wright reports on 27east.com that Suffolk County Department of Public Works crews repainted the lanes on both County Road 39 and Sandy Hollow Road on Wednesday November 12, cutting two lanes down to one leading into where the two roads come together. Along with the restriping, the Sandy Hollow Road intersection traffic signal was reprogrammed to only turn red for westbound cars on both roads when multiple cars were waiting in the eastbound County Road 39 lane to turn left onto Sandy Hollow, so as to allow the westbound traffic to proceed uninterrupted as much as possible. The changes were intended to keep the evening westbound trade parade coming out of Southampton and North Sea flowing smoothly — as it had done in the spring, when a complex experimental pilot program was conducted by the county and Southampton Town to bypass the County Road 39 traffic lights. But this time around, the traffic lights at Magee Street and Tuckahoe Road are cycling red and green — and during times of heavy commuter volume, traffic quickly backed up again. Southampton Town Highway Superintendent Charlie McArdle said that town staff are trying to devise a strategy for broader improvements. McArdle said he’s hopeful that adjusting the timing of the light changes might be able to ease some of the delays they cause. After the lanes were restriped by the county, the new arrangement appeared to create long backups as cars were forced to merge into single lanes, and the westward flow was halted by the red lights at Magee Street and Tuckahoe Road. Southampton Village Police Chief Sue Hurteau said that village back roads traffic had not yet seen improvement and that she’s hoping tweaks to the system by the town might be able to make things go smoother.

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The Riverhead Town Board voted 4–1 Tuesday night to sell the historic Vail-Leavitt Music Hall to The Jazz Loft, a decision that followed more than a year of quiet negotiations and competing proposals. Bob Kern cast the lone dissenting vote, raising concerns that The Jazz Loft did not have the resources or expertise needed to renovate, open and operate the theater in a way that will benefit downtown revitalization. Nonetheless, after further discussion during Tuesday’s board meeting, the resolution determined The Jazz Loft “qualified and eligible” for purposes of the State Urban Renewal Law and authorizes the supervisor to sign the previously negotiated contract of sale and it did pass by a vote of 4–1. Denise Civiletti reports on Riverheadlocal.com that under that contract, the Town of Riverhead agrees to sell the Vail-Leavitt theater to The Jazz Loft for $150,000 and The Jazz Loft agrees to perform renovations and repairs to the 144 year old building, maintaining its historic character, and to operate the theatre as a performing arts venue.

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Tomorrow evening, East Hampton Arts Council presents Creative Networking Night. The topic is Creative Process.

The following artists will discuss their work and process: Joanne Roberts film, Mariah Ke' Olani painting, Meg Gibson acting and live theater and Carlos Barrios guitar maker and musician. That’s tomorrow at 6 PM in East Hampton Town Hall and the event is free. The East Hampton Arts Council is a local organization founded to advise and assist the Town of East Hampton on issues pertaining to the arts.

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A web of interlocking court cases have temporarily blocked East Hampton Town officials from evicting Long Island Airlines from East Hampton Town Airport in Wainscott. Jack Motz reports on 27east.com...

A cannabis licensee has sued the Town of Southampton over a recent rezoning, arguing the move prevented its dispensary from opening in a former bank building in Hampton Bays, court filings show. That property is on the north side of 27A just east of the Hampton Bays Carvel. Alek Lewis reports in NEWSDAY that the town board in July rezoned a stretch of East Montauk Highway, where a developer sought to add a new pot shop. Cannabis sales were allowed in that area until the board approved the rezoning, which bans cannabis sales on that stretch of the highway.

Mottz Only Authentic New York Style and its majority owner, Sean Lustberg, said the Town of Southampton “targeted” the rezoning to block the opening of their cannabis dispensary. Lawyers for the licensee said that for months, town officials had “stalled” approvals for the dispensary before approving the zone change.

The lawsuit seeks to overturn the rezoning as well as monetary damages, citing the potential for significant financial losses.

Southampton Town adopted zoning laws in 2023, limiting the siting of non-medical cannabis dispensaries to two of its eight commercial business districts.

The town, according to the lawsuit, relied on an outdated plan and environmental impact study to justify the rezoning.

Southampton Town Attorney James Burke said the lawsuit was “not unexpected.” He noted Mottz had filed a separate lawsuit in September challenging the town’s cannabis zoning law.

“We are confident that the court will recognize that the town board in voting for the zoning amendments acted well within their legislative authority and such action was based on an extensive planning study concerning the Hampton Bays Montauk Highway corridor,” Burke said.

The lawsuit seeks financial damages and projects $18 million annually in losses — including lost revenue, rent payments and other expenses.

Southampton Town has faced a series of legal challenges to its zoning rules from cannabis companies. Last month, the New York State Office of Cannabis Management ruled that Southampton’s cannabis zoning, as well as Riverhead's, were "forbidden" under state law.

The agency had issued advisory opinions calling the towns' limits "unreasonably impractical."

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Even though Southampton Town is poised to turn down $2.93 million in state grant money, Highway Superintendent Charles McArdle told the Noyac Civic Council last week that a proposal to install sidewalks and crosswalks along Noyac Road in the hamlet would proceed as planned and be completed sooner than expected. McArdle, accompanied by Nick Jimenez, the town’s capital projects manager, and Deputy Highway Superintendent Marc Braeger, said Southampton Town’s Highway and Engineering departments had reviewed the state requirements, and “we came up with the theory that we would turn down the grant and do the work ourselves.” The Town Board seems on board with the proposal. Stephen J. Kotz reports on 27east.com that among other things, McArdle said the state would require 5-foot-wide sidewalks, curbs and drainage that would jack up the price. In addition, the town would have to condemn small amounts of land from 10 property owners under the state plan, which would add to the cost and delay the project. That number has been reduced to four or five people. Along with sidewalks, the project calls for the crosswalks at Trout Pond, Il Cappelletti, Noyack Delicatessen, Cromer’s Market and Long Beach Road. While most of the sidewalks will be on the south side of Noyac Road, they will run along the north side in areas with more right-of-way. Members of the Noyac Civic Council were generally enthusiastic about the update, although some questioned how it would be possible to do the project for so much less than the state budget. The state grant would require the town to contribute about $1.6 million to the project, whereas if the town does the...

Long Island Rail Road foreman John Cerulli arrived at work for a weekend overtime shift wearing a swim shirt, bathing suit and flip-flops, a co-worker told investigators. He swiped his employee ID card at a time clock at the Ronkonkoma facility and allegedly announced: "Don’t bother looking for me. I'll be next to my pool with a margarita."

Using cloned identification badges hidden in refrigerators and lockers, and coordinating with co-workers through group chats, some LIRR workers left work early nearly every day for weeks at a time, according to a three-year investigation by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's inspector general. Others hit the gym, ate meals at home and worked second jobs while on the clock. Alfonso A. Castillo reports in NEWSDAY that the 65-page report, released last month, lays out the brazenness of the LIRR’s latest employee time-fraud scandal, according to investigators and MTA officials. The probe implicated three dozen LIRR workers — seven of them supervisors — in a scheme to create and distribute counterfeit employee badges sold for $5-$40 and used to cover up absences, like Cerulli’s alleged on-the-clock pool day. The workers exploited COVID-era health precautions that suspended biometric time clocks — which had been implemented after the last timecard scandal, according to the report.

Several LIRR workers admitted their involvement and implicated others to investigators. Others denied any involvement. Some refused to answer investigators' questions.

"It was the ‘culture,’ " at the LIRR's Maintenance of Equipment department to have a cloned card, one employee told investigators.

Most have been disciplined by the LIRR, but have not faced any criminal charges.

Cerulli was forced to pay back $3,196 to the LIRR after he was caught on surveillance skipping out of work on 14 days over three months.

Although most of the implicated employees are facing what the MTA calls "severe" consequences — including lengthy unpaid suspensions and, potentially, termination — others avoided punishment by retiring before the investigators' findings were released. None have faced criminal charges. Several, including those who were consistently among the railroad's highest overtime earners in recent years, remain on the LIRR’s payroll.

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With the end of the federal government shutdown, New York has issued November SNAP benefits providing food assistance to low-income families. But the resumption of the benefit program doesn’t eliminate food insecurity altogether. Denise Civiletti reports on Riverheadlocal.com that the maximum monthly benefit varies by household size, from $298 for a single person to $994 for a family of four. To be eligible for SNAP, gross household incomes cannot exceed $23,484 per year for a single person and $48,228 per year for a family of four (where all members of the household are under age 60.)

With food prices rising higher than overall inflation, more families are struggling to put food on the table, and more people are turning to food pantries to fill the gaps. More people were seeking food assistance at food pantries even before the shutdown and the delay in November SNAP payments.

The uncertainty about whether or when SNAP benefits would be paid increased anxiety and demand at food pantries in November, said Michael Haynes of Long Island Cares-The Harry Chapin Food Bank, which distributes food to 330 food pantries and soup kitchens in Suffolk and Nassau.

But that’s only part of the story.

‘We saw a 20% increase in demand for our services in October of 2025, compared to September of 2025,” Haynes said. “It’s not just due to the shutdown. It’s affordability, it’s everything else.”

All pantries are in need of donations of food and/or monetary contributions to help them buy food.

In Riverhead, St. John Parish Outreach will host a Thanksgiving meal on Saturday, Nov....

Protests over the recent detention of at least a dozen people by federal immigration agents in Hampton Bays and Westhampton continued to ripple across the South Fork last week — with dozens of angry residents flooding into the Southampton Town Board meeting on Wednesday and staging a demonstration in Westhampton on Friday. As reported on 27east.com, more than three dozen residents filled the Town Board meeting room on November 12, one week after ICE agents conducted sweeps in Hampton Bays and Westhampton, arresting 12 people on charges of entering the United States illegally. Southampton Town Supervisor Maria Moore said she empathized with those angered by the deportation wave and the way ICE conducts its work and sought to assure residents that no town officials — including the Southampton Town Police Department — were notified that the federal agents on their way.

“I understand there is concern and anxiety because of the ICE activities we saw in Hampton Bays and Westhampton last week, and the most difficult part is that there is no clear accurate information coming our way,” she said. The supervisor added, “While immigration enforcement is a federal matter outside the jurisdiction of this town government that does not mean that we are indifferent or powerless.”

Moore said she would send a letter to Senator Chuck Schumer and U.S. Representative Nick LaLota asking that the town be better informed of ICE activity within its borders.

Meanwhile, this past Friday morning, more than 50 protesters lined the streets of Westhampton calling for ICE to stay away from the region.

“I’m very upset at the constant news about the way immigrants are being treated, even though they’re such an integral part of our community on Long Island,” David Saunders said at the protest. “It’s a thrill for me to be able to stand out here and tell my neighbors that I support due process in America.”

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Suffolk County will face a worsening housing crisis unless it can eliminate barriers such as overly restrictive zoning and high costs that slow development and push up prices for houses and rental apartments, affordable housing advocates and builders said on Friday.

Carl MacGowan reports in NEWSDAY that about a dozen speakers at a hearing convened by the county's Welfare to Work Commission said efforts to bring down housing costs had been routinely stymied by bureaucratic hurdles and poor infrastructure, as well as community opposition that tied up housing proposals for years, leaving homeownership out of reach for many middle-class Suffolk residents.

"Suffolk County is facing one of the most severe housing crises in its history," Pilar Moya-Mancera, executive director of the Greenlawn nonprofit Housing Help, said at a news conference before the hearing in the county office complex in Hauppauge. "We cannot wait 10 more years for housing solutions."

The Welfare to Work Commission, an advisory board for the Suffolk County Legislature, called the hearing as it prepares a report looking at systemic impediments to developing affordable housing.

Commission chairman Richard Koubek said before the hearing the average Suffolk resident must make about $218,000 to afford a typical single-family home, or $90,000 to pay $2,000 monthly rent.

But many residents make far less, he said, citing licensed practical nurses who earn an average $57,670 annually and supermarket cashiers who make $39,520 a year.

"This has been a struggle for Long Islanders for years and years," Koubek said.

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Local entrepreneurs share their stories at the “The Business of Mattituck,” a presentation organized by the Mattituck-Laurel Civic Association this evening at 6:30 p.m. in the Mattituck Park District headquarters at Veterans Beach. Tonight’s event is free to attend. All are welcome.

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A federal jury has ordered Suffolk County to...

Most of the states’ inflation reduction checks have been sent to mailboxes, but the payout of up to $400 won't be going to every state resident. Tiffany Cusaac-Smith reports in NEWSDAY that the checks — aimed at compensating New Yorkers for overpaying sales tax during heightened inflation — might not go to certain Social Security recipients who opted not to file state taxes because doing so wasn’t required, state officials confirmed on Wednesday. The inflation refund check program has several requirements, including that residents file their 2023 state tax returns, officials said. There is also an income threshold and the person can't be named as a dependent on someone else's tax returns.

Because of that stipulation, inflation refund checks might not go out to some recipients of both Social Security and Supplemental Security Income (SSI), benefits that help people who are low-income, disabled, and 65 and older, according to officials.

Those beneficiaries who receive all their income from either program generally do not have to file state or federal taxes, experts say. Therefore, the nonfilers don’t meet the tax-filing requirement for the state inflation refund check, experts say.

Gov. Kathy Hochul’s administration instituted the $2 billion check program to repay taxpayers after the state saw a surge in sales tax revenue amid heightened inflation, tax officials said. In New York, 6.5 million of the roughly 8 million inflation reduction checks have been sent out as of Wednesday, state officials said. The state's population is almost 20 million.

The payout on the checks can be as high as $400 for a couple who files together or a qualifying surviving spouse who earns a maximum of $150,000, officials said. It can be as low as $150 for a person who files by themselves or as the head of a household and makes "more than $75,000, but not more than $150,000."

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Turning Point USA, a conservative organization founded by Charlie Kirk, has been thrust into the national spotlight since Kirk's assassination in September. New Turning Point USA chapters have been proposed at Stony Brook University and Farmingdale State College. At least two academic institutions on Long Island have affiliations with Turning Point's K-12 educational arm, known as Turning Point Education.

Lorena Mongelli reports in NEWSDAY that Turning Point — whose founder had been criticized for espousing viewpoints like opposing same-sex marriage and advocating for traditional gender roles — has seen a surge in interest in opening new chapters across the country.

As an example of Turning Point's influence, the U.S. Department of Education announced shortly after Kirk's death that it had partnered with the organization and several other conservative groups to help launch civics programming in schools ahead of the nation’s 250th anniversary next year.

Turning Point has also started making forays into elementary and middle schools, where it has sought to advance a "Christian, conservative values education."

But even while the organization gains new ground, experts said it is unclear whether it will have lasting power, particularly with young people.

"Whether or not a group like that can really shift a generation's politics, it remains to be seen," said Melissa Deckman, author of "The Politics of Generation Z: How the Youngest Voters Will Shape our Democracy."

Erasing the line between church and state is concerning, according to Michael O. Emerson, director of and chavanne fellow in religion and public policy at Rice University in Houston.

"The founders worked pretty hard at this idea of separation of church and state. Their ideal was we will not limit the practice of religion, nor will we as federal government, state governments, support any particular religion, because if we do, we limit the practice of other religions. So that is the concern," Emerson...

The bay scallop harvest on the South Fork opened in Southampton and East Hampton waters this month to expectedly dark prospects in the wake of a seventh straight summer in which the vast majority of adult scallops died in most local bays. Michael Wright reports on 27east.com that East Hampton Town baymen say that they have found only the barest few scallops, and many said they have not bothered to even go in search after Monday’s opening day in East Hampton waters. Southampton Town baymen, who started fishing town waters on November 3, have found only marginally more uplifting results, in a stash of the famously delicious but notoriously unstable bivalves that survived the summer on the edge of a navigation channel in eastern Shinnecock Bay off the shoreline of Hampton Bays.

Hampton Bays bayman Edward Warner Jr., who is a Southampton Town Trustee, said that the area of the bay south of Cormorant Point has seen the return of dense eelgrass, the aquatic grass that once carpeted most of the region’s bay bottoms and was seen as critical habitat for scallops and many other marine species, and that has helped support the collection of scallops in the area this year.

The brightest ray of hope for the scallop fishery, and perhaps the stock as a whole itself, has been the waters of western Moriches Bay, which have again produced a relative bounty of bay scallops for Brookhaven Town baymen — who have been keeping many of the seafood cases at East End shops stocked with the glistening beige morsels.

Even with that resource, however, local seafood shops reported only taking in a few bushels every couple of days and they’re charging over-the-counter prices of $55 per pound, or higher.

Harrison Tobi, an aquaculture specialist for the Cornell Cooperative Extension, said his surveys last month of more than two dozen scallop survival test sites revealed only a handful of live adult scallops. “We only had three live adults — so we thought it was going to be another really bad year,” Tobi said. “So it’s encouraging to hear that some are being caught.”

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The South Country school district which includes Bellport High School, has suspended all discretionary spending for the remainder of the fiscal year, just weeks after officials acknowledged that the district overspent last school year's approved budget by $3.49 million. Darwin Yanes reports in NEWSDAY that in a Nov. 6 letter sent to South Country staff members, John Belmonte, the district’s newly-appointed acting assistant superintendent for finance and management services, said that due to "significant fiscal challenges," the district must prioritize "available resources" to pay for operational costs. He said the spending freeze will apply to all "nonessential purchases, travel, conferences and new initiatives."

He added, "Moving forward, only essential items absolutely necessary to operate your programs and buildings through the end of this fiscal year will be considered for approval. All purchase orders and expense requests must clearly demonstrate how they meet this critical need."

The spending freeze went into effect yesterday. School officials said programming, including fields trips, related to the core curriculum of a class will not be impacted, but other elective field trips will be approved on a case to case to basis.

Belmonte previously said that last school year's overspending was in part caused by treasurer's reports submitted to the school board two to three months late, which lead the board having to cover "unanticipated expenses." The acting assistant superintendent said he did not believe "that there was any fraud or there was any theft."

Belmonte was hired by the district last month.

The South Country Central School District is located on the south shore of Long Island, within the Town of Brookhaven in Suffolk County. The district includes the Village of Bellport and...

The Trump administration’s recent deal with drug manufacturers to lower the cost of popular GLP-1 weight-loss medications is a "game-changer," but the price for many Americans would still be too high to afford, Long Island obesity doctors said.

David Olson reports in NEWSDAY that the current price for Zepbound when purchased directly from the company is $499; it can be more than $1,000 when purchased through pharmacies. The lowest dose will cost $299 a month.

Novo Nordisk, which makes Wegovy, has not announced its prices.

Higher doses, however, generally are needed to help people lose significant weight, said Dr. Andrea Bedrosian, director of bariatrics at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset.

GLP-1s currently are taken in injections, but Eli Lilly is asking for Food and Drug Administration approval for a pill, orforglipron, that it has agreed to price at $149 for the lowest dose, and $399 for other doses.

"That is still a very high price to ask," said Dr. Konstantinos Spaniolas, director of the Stony Brook Bariatric and Metabolic Weight Loss Center.

Even so, he said, combined with a planned $50 monthly Medicare copay for some GLP-1s that would cover many but not all Medicare beneficiaries with obesity, and possible Medicaid coverage, the deal "is a great step in the right direction to allow patients to get the care they need."

Medicare, a federal program for people 65 and over and younger people with certain disabilities, currently does not cover GLP-1s for weight loss, nor does Medicaid in most states, including New York. They do cover them for diabetes.

Medicaid is a state-federal program for low-income people. The agreement allows state Medicaid programs to purchase the drugs for $245, the White House said. States decide whether to cover the drug. New York "is still in the process of reviewing the announcement of the Trump administration," the state health department said in an email.

Low-income residents have the highest obesity rates, state data shows.

GLP-1 stands for glucagon-like peptide-1, a naturally occurring hormone that helps regulate blood sugar, digestion, and appetite. It works by stimulating the pancreas to release insulin, slowing down how quickly the stomach empties, and signaling to the brain that you are full.

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Similar to gatherings across the east end yesterday, in Riverhead, under wintry skies, with snow flurries swirling in cold, blustery winds, folks gathered at the War Memorial monument on West Main Street Tuesday morning for Riverhead’s annual Veterans Day ceremony. Denise Civiletti reports on Riverheadlocal.com that on the lawn outside the Suffolk County Historical Society Museum, where West Main and Court streets, intersect, is a massive granite block that bears a bronze tablet engraved with the names of the 304 Riverhead men who served in World War I. It is topped with a gas-powered torch whose flame burns day and night, year-round.

Originally erected in 1920 at the corner of Griffing Avenue and West Main Street, where the Historical Society was then located, the monument was unveiled on Memorial Day that year with great fanfare. Col. Theodore Roosevelt Jr., son of the late president, attended the dedication, which drew an “immense crowd,” according to the Brooklyn Daily Eagle. The monument was moved to its present site in 1926, on land donated to the Historical Society by Alice Perkins, where the museum was later built and still stands today.

Riverhead Town Supervisor Tim Hubbard spoke at this year’s Veterans Day ceremony. “Every American has the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. None of this would be possible without the sacrifice, dedication and service of our nation’s veterans,” Hubbard said. “They have truly made our nation and the entire world a better, safer, freer and more just place…Here in Riverhead, we are proud to be home to many veterans who...

As open enrollment begins this month for many health insurance plans, Long Island residents and businesses are seeing increases in premiums, some in double digits. David Olson reports in NEWSDAY that average increases include a projected 6.5% rise nationwide for employer-sponsored plans, 13% for small-group plans in New York and an estimated 11.6% for Medicare Part B standard monthly premiums. Experts said weight-loss drugs, medical advances, hospital consolidation, an aging population, and an increase in the number of people with chronic diseases are among the reasons health care costs are rising.

Most employers in a recent New York based survey said they will implement "cost-cutting changes" in plans — such as increased co-pays and deductibles — to address rising benefit costs and reduce premiums. Others are cutting back coverage of popular, but expensive, weight-loss drugs.

New York businesses with 100 or fewer employees that have small-group plans will see on average an increase of 13%, the largest hike in at least a decade, a Newsday analysis found, and nongroup, individual-based plans will rise an average of 7.1%. The increases for the state-regulated plans were approved by the Department of Financial Services, which noted that the price hikes were typically much less than insurers requested.

Medicare Part B standard premiums will rise by a projected 11.6%. For those on Affordable Care Act plans, premium increases could be massive in some cases, if more generous government subsidies passed in 2021 expire on Dec. 31. Democrats’ push to extend the subsidies is one reason for the federal government shutdown.

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About 100 community members gathered across from the Hampton Bays Firehouse this past Friday morning in protest of federal agents who conducted broad immigration sweeps throughout Hampton Bays and Westhampton last Wednesday. Another community gathering is planned for this coming Friday morning Nov. 14 from 8:30 to 10:30 at 92 Sunset Avenue in Westhampton Beach, across from the Westhampton Beach Fire Department. Beth Young reports in EAST END BEACON that Organización Latino Americana…OLA of Eastern Long Island…is urging residents to come to the Southampton Town Board’s meeting this coming Wednesday at 1 p.m. at Southampton Town Hall to “speak out about ICE.”

NYS Assemb. Tommy John Schiavoni (D-Sag Harbor) condemned the raids he said took place in Hampton Bays and Westhampton.

"Thousands across the country are being snatched off the streets without due process," he said in a statement. "Not only is this an affront to the United States Constitution and the New York State Constitution, but the lack of transparency harms the relationship of trust between public officials, law enforcement, and the public, putting civilians and law enforcement in danger."

ICE - United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement - is a federal law enforcement agency under the supervision of the United States Department of Homeland Security. Its stated mission is to conduct criminal investigations, enforce immigration laws, preserve national security, and protect public safety.

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The Commission on Veterans Patriotic Events will be hosting a Veterans Day ceremony tomorrow at 11 a.m. in Agawam Park in Southampton Village. Prior to the service, there will be a short parade from the First Presbyterian Church, west on Jobs Lane, to Agawam Park. All veterans are invited to participate and asked to be at the church parking lot by 10:30 a.m. tomorrow. Cars will be available for those who cannot march. The guest speaker will be Joan A. Furey, a U.S. Army nurse veteran. She began her military service in 1968 with deployment in 1969 to Vietnam, where she served as a second lieutenant and eventually earned the Bronze Star. Her post-war accomplishments include pioneering studies in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) through her service