This afternoon New York Gov. Kathy Hochul is expected to announce plans to boost math instruction in her State of the State policy speech through guidance for school districts and increased professional learning opportunities for teachers. Keshia Clukey reports in NEWSDAY that the Democrat’s 2026 legislative agenda also is expected to address literacy, with a proposal to provide targeted resources to the state’s highest-need districts to help improve reading efficiency and allow teachers to access microcredentials in the science of reading at state and city universities at no cost, according to the agenda provided exclusively to Newsday ahead of the speech.

"My dream is for New York students to be the absolute best in the country academically — that’s why we’re making record investments in evidence-based learning models to get our kids up to speed in math and literacy," Hochul said in an emailed statement to NEWSDAY. The Governor’s speech today will lay out her legislative agenda for the year and is expected to focus largely on affordability — a rallying cry for both Democrats and Republicans heading into an election year. All 213 seats in the New York State Legislature are up for election. Hochul, who also is facing reelection, already has released plans to make child care more affordable, increase access to universal pre-kindergarten, lower auto insurance rates and eliminate the state tax on tips up to $25,000 a year.

She also has called for increasing social media and artificial intelligence protections for children, investing in peer-to-peer mental health training for teens, and preventing the building of homemade "3D guns."

Details on how Hochul plans to pay for her agenda and address a $4.2 billion budget gap for fiscal 2027, which begins April 1, will be released in her budget proposal next week.

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A Suffolk County judge has upheld the termination of Gadi Capela, the former longtime rabbi of Congregation Tifereth Israel, the historic Greenport synagogue. Joshua Needelman reports in NEWSDAY that the congregation voted to remove Capela, the rabbi since 2013, in September, following three days of voting. That came more than a month after Capela was removed "for cause," which was later changed to a suspension.

Capela filed a lawsuit in October, alleging he was illegally terminated and suffered "severe" reputational damage because of the firing, attorneys for him and several of his supporters said.

The lawsuit called for Capela to be reinstated as the congregation's "lawful rabbi."

Suffolk state Supreme Court Justice Christopher Modelewski wrote in his decision Friday that it would not be proper for the court to consider Capela's claims. He wrote that "American Courts are precluded from adjudicating disputes involving ecclesiastical governance."

"Even if this Court was possessed of sufficient knowledge and understanding of Judaism in order to discern whether Rabbi Capela violated any tenets of faith, the aforestated Constitutional prohibitions forbid this Court from uttering any such determinations," Modelewski wrote.

Modelewski did not rule on Capela's claim of defamation, and set a court date of Feb. 20 to discuss that claim.

Eighty-two congregants "in good standing" participated in the vote to determine Capela's employment, with 52.4% voting for his termination according to Sara Bloom, president of the temple's board, who calls Tifereth Israel, founded in 1892, the "synagogue of record on the North Fork."

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Peeko Oysters Founder Pete Stein will discuss “How Oysters Shape Our Shores” in a talk at the Cutchogue Civic Association’s monthly meeting this coming Thursday, Jan. 15 at 6 p.m. in the Cutchogue-New Suffolk Library 27550 Main Road in Cutchogue. He’ll discuss how oysters are grown in the Peconic Bay, why shellfish farming helps local waters, what daily life on an oyster farm looks...

New York education leaders and advocates are pushing Gov. Kathy Hochul to overhaul the state’s decades-old school aid formula in her budget proposal this month — a formula that currently would cut funding for hundreds of districts if not for a safety net policy.

The complex formula, known as Foundation Aid, was enacted in 2007-08 and is the single largest source of financial support for public schools in the state, sending billions of dollars to Nassau and Suffolk counties alone.

Parts of the formula are regularly updated, but others are frozen and haven’t kept up with rising costs, education leaders and advocates told NEWSDAY. The calculation also doesn’t consider the state’s 2% cap on property taxes, which limits how much districts can raise locally.

Keshia Clukey reports in NEWSDAY that a safety net policy, known as "hold harmless" or "save harmless," ensures districts that otherwise would see cuts under Foundation Aid receive at least as much as they did the previous year. More and more districts are relying on the policy, due largely to declining enrollment and rising income and property wealth, which reduce the state aid districts are eligible for according to the Foundation Aid formula. This school year, more than 56%, or 378, of the state’s 673 school districts fall under "save harmless," according to data from the Association of School Business Officials of New York.

On Long Island, 67 of the 121 school districts are on "save harmless" — including 42 in Suffolk County.

"The higher that number goes, the greater the risk is that you really don’t have a functioning formula," said Robert Lowry, deputy director for the New York State Council of School Superintendents. "Fewer and fewer districts are actually on the formula and thereby dependent on getting some sort of minimum percentage increase."

The state budget for 2025-26 guaranteed at least a 2% increase in aid for all districts and maintained the "save harmless" policy, but neither is guaranteed this year.

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New York State’s plans for scores of battery-energy storage plants by 2030 face new headwinds this year after another fire at an upstate battery plant in December, Suffolk County’s rejection of a variance for a proposed plant in Holtsville and the federal government’s freeze on wind-energy arrays designed to feed the batteries. Mark Harrington reports in NEWSDAY that developers who had planned large battery plants for Long Island had already faced waves of opposition from most Long Island towns with moratoriums on construction of the plants, following fires at three plants in New York State in 2023. One of those, in East Hampton, has been back in operation since summer after a devastating 30-hour fire that required a near complete reconstruction.

Proponents of the batteries, which are part of Gov. Kathy Hochul’s plan for a carbon-free grid by 2040, say battery-plant fires have been greatly reduced in recent years and new plants in the state are subject to strict new fire codes that went into effect this month. The codes mandate intense scrutiny of the plants’ designs, continuing inspections and faster emergency response plans.

The battery facilities planned for Long Island vary in size from less than an acre for a facility operating on Brookhaven Town land in Patchogue to more than six acres for the planned Holtsville plant. The plants feature row upon row of large storage containers, each filled with hundreds of thousands of AA-size lithium-ion batteries like those used in other electronic products. The batteries are used safely in countless rechargeable electronic products and utility storage systems, but improper use, poor design or damage can cause them to catch fire and, in the worst scenario, experience an extremely high temperature thermal runaway process that is exceedingly difficult to extinguish.

LIPA last year said it would defer to the state to...

The state will not be able to cover "hundreds of millions of dollars" in expenses for social services like child care, emergency housing and public assistance if a freeze imposed by the Trump administration is not lifted by the end of the month, a spokesperson for New York Gov. Kathy Hochul's office said yesterday. Lorena Mongelli reports in NEWSDAY that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced Tuesday that it was withholding $10 billion in child care and family assistance subsidies to five Democrat-led states, including New York, as it conducts a review amid claims of fraud. The move followed allegations of fraud at several child care centers in Minnesota.

At a virtual press conference Thursday, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) told reporters, “This funding freeze is leaving our most vulnerable families and child care providers in a devastating limbo, not knowing if or when they will lose the assistance that they rely on to send their children to day care and keep their businesses running."

NYS Attorney General Letitia James said in a release last night she is leading a coalition of four attorneys general in suing the Trump administration in the Southern District of New York, seeking a federal court order preventing the freeze and declaring it unlawful.

HHS has said it was pausing funds to three programs overseen by the agency's Administration for Children and Families: Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, the Child Care and Development Fund and the Social Services Block Grant.

New York uses more than $3.6 billion yearly to run these programs — $2.7 billion for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, which serves more than 202,000 New Yorkers yearly; $832 million for the Child Care and Development Fund, which serves 170,000 children annually; and $93 million for the Social Services Block Grant, which serves 164,000 children and 52,000 vulnerable adults.

As part of its review of the Child Care and Development Fund, the government is asking for attendance documentation for "subsidized child care services," with personal information redacted, according to a letter sent to Hochul that was obtained by Newsday.

For the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families and Social Services Block Grant program, the government is requesting detailed administrative data such as recipients' names, Social Security numbers and dates of birth from at least 2022 to 2025. The deadline to submit this information is Jan. 20.

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The Remsenburg-Speonk School District has partnered with the Southampton Town Police Department to implement a new emergency alert system to improve communication between the district and Town Police during emergencies. Dan Stark reports on 27east.com that as part of the Centegix CrisisAlert system, teachers and faculty members at Remsenburg-Speonk Elementary School are given lanyards that hold a card with a button to press during emergences. Pressing the button three times will send an internal alert to the school’s security team. Doing so more than eight times will alert the police dispatch. As part of the system, messages are displayed on interactive displays, such as smartboards, in classrooms, including a red banner that reads “lockdown” in those scenarios, followed by instructions with safety protocols. In classrooms without smartboards, these instructions will come up on teachers’ laptops for them to relay to students. The district is currently working on replacing older smartboards in certain classrooms to ensure that each room can properly display the emergency messages.

Remsenburg-Speonk is the first school district in Southampton Town to utilize the system. Superintendent Denise Sullivan said that Town Police see the district as a “pilot” for other school districts in the town considering it. “What Remsenburg School is doing with its crisis alert system is cutting edge,” Southampton Town Police Chief...

The Montaukett have been denied state recognition as a formal nation 7 times. In her recent veto memo, Gov. Hochul cites a case from 1910 in which the Montaukett were denied recognition as a formal nation. What is the reasoning behind her decision? Plus, what will the local impact be following the murder of Renee Nicole Good? The panel discusses these pressing issues plus horseshoe crab protection, Riverhead's news Town Supervisor, and a positive story about Peconic Community School.

Live on WLIW-FM Saturday at 10am, and on demand right here where you get podcasts.

New York City’s $9 congestion tolling is working so well in reducing traffic and generating revenue that there may be no need to raise it in a couple years as originally planned, Gov. Kathy Hochul said yesterday as she celebrated the anniversary of the program.

Joined by NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani, Metropolitan Transportation Authority leaders and dozens of other plan supporters at a Manhattan rally, Hochul touted the success of the first-in-the-nation congestion tolling program, which came online January 5, 2025.

Alfonso A. Castillo reports in NEWSDAY that one year in, Hochul said the program has already resulted in an 11% reduction in the number of vehicles in Manhattan’s congestion zone, a 22% reduction in air pollution, and significantly faster travel times at bridges and tunnels connecting to Manhattan and for buses in the city.

The tolls have also generated $550 million in revenue dedicated to MTA infrastructure projects, with about 10% committed to the Long Island Rail Road.

The MTA’s original plan would have charged vehicles $15 for driving below 60th Street in Manhattan, but Hochul instead opted for a plan to start the program with a $9 toll, then gradually ramp it up, with an increase to $12 scheduled in 2028 and to the full $15 in 2031.

But, Hochul on Monday said she’d like to “keep the price point” where it is.

Hochul said while there were initially "a lot of people who really thought this was going to result in their lives being affected negatively out on Long Island," opposition to the new tolls has significantly subsided over the last 12 months.

"It’s calmed down because people like getting across the bridges faster," Hochul said. "They’re happy not to sit in traffic."

But Jack Nierenberg, vice president of Passengers United, a transportation advocacy group, said Hochul should not mistake congestion tolling opponents’ resignation for support, as some Long Islanders have given up on coming into Manhattan altogether.

"A lot of the opposition ... you just don’t hear it, but it’s still there," Nierenberg said. "It’s coming in the form of people struggling to continue to come into the city, because they don’t have any other options available to them."

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A former Catholic church in Cutchogue is getting a fresh start as the permanent home of Peconic Community School. Tara Smith reports in NEWSDAY that the nonprofit school purchased the $2.85 million Sacred Heart church property on Dec. 16, according to Patricia Nicklaus, an associate broker at Howard Hanna Coach Real Estate in Port Jefferson, who represented the seller in the deal. The school had been in contract to buy the 10.2-acre Main Road site since 2022.

In addition to the 19th-century church, the deal includes the former Our Lady of Mercy Regional School, rectory, carriage house and five acres of vacant land.

“It’s going to keep its historic value, but now it’s going to have a new life in education,” Nicklaus said. “There’ll be children singing in it again.”

Peconic Community School cofounder and executive director Liz Casey said having a permanent home is a “game changer” for the independent school.

“We can put down the roots, we can grow from what we started and hope to be here for 100 years,” she told NEWSDAY.

The private school began renting the Cutchogue site in 2023 under a lease-to-own agreement while it secured financing and the church obtained regulatory approvals, Casey said.

Casey founded the independent school in 2012 with her sister, Kathryn Casey Quigley, and previously leased at Our Redeemer Lutheran Church in Aquebogue. It currently enrolls 89 students from early childhood through eighth grade, Casey said.

Our Lady of Mercy Regional School closed in 2018 as part of a decision by the Diocese of Rockville Centre to merge it with St. Isidore School in Riverhead.

Rev. Eric Fasano, a spokesman for...

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***

Gov. Kathy Hochul plans to sign legislation today aimed at encouraging law enforcement officers to use peer support groups. Steve Hughes reports in NEWSDAY that the Lieutenant Joseph Banish Mental Health Act establishes confidentiality requirements for communications made by law enforcement during peer-to-peer counseling sessions.

Officers who respond to crises deserve services that are tailored to their unique experiences, Governor Hochul said in a statement.

"By strengthening protections for law enforcement peer support programs, we are ensuring safe settings for honest conversations to improve the mental health and well-being of our first responders," she said.

The legislation is modeled after the 2021 federal COPS Counseling Act, a federal law that established confidentiality protections for peer counseling programs in federal law enforcement agencies.

The confidentiality is limited to those officers trained and designated as peer counselors.

Proponents of the bill have argued police officers often experience trauma and grief as emergency first responders and the bill would make it easier for them to seek help privately from trained peer specialists.

Law enforcement members were 54% more likely to die of suicide than the general public, a 2020 study in the journal Policing found. In 2024, there were 13 law enforcement suicides in the state, including two Suffolk County police officers as reported by NEWSDAY.

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A new would-be cannabis dispensary owner has proposed putting a shop on the north side of County Road 39 in a small Tuckahoe shopping mall where a Suffolk OTB once operated and currently Goldberg’s Bagels, Melrose Pizza, Birdie’s Ale House and a barber shop do business. Michael Wright reports on 27east.com that the company, MRM Ventures, does not yet have approval from the New York State Office of Cannabis Management for a Southampton location but has begun the application process to the Southampton Town Planning Board.

At a pre-submission hearing last week, members of the Planning Board had few initial concerns about the MRM proposal, which would pose few logistical challenges in moving into a vacant unit in the 14-unit shopping center.

But the dispensary’s biggest hurdle may be that another dispensary has aspirations of opening just across the highway from them – which would preempt MRM from making a bid for a location in their desired site under the state’s retail cannabis sales rules if the other dispensary were to open first.

An attorney for MRM Ventures, Joseph Buzzell, said the owner of MRM Ventures already had a state OCM-issued retail cannabis license that he has asked the OCM to allow him to transfer to the County Road 39 site.

However, the MRM Ventures proposed cannabis dispensary is almost directly across County Road 39 from Club Ultra where the landlord has proposed evicting Ultra and replacing it with a cannabis dispensary named Southampton Deep Blue Sea.

State cannabis regulations prohibit two dispensaries from operating within 1,000 feet of each other.

One of Deep Blue Sea’s principals, Danielle Durant, told the Planning Board that property owners had filed an eviction request with the Suffolk County Sheriff's office earlier this fall and is planning to proceed with...

WLIW-FM gives us something to believe in. If you're enjoying this podcast, consider a donation today, when every donation is being matched by our Board of Trustees.

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***

The Village of Greenport approved new laws allowing short-term rentals with no minimum stays. Residency rules are designed to deter investor-run vacation rentals. Rental properties must be owner-occupied for part of the year. Property owners are only entitled to one short-term rental permit under the new law. Critics say the rules favor part-time residents and don’t address the need for year-round housing.

So Greenport Village is going against the grain when it comes to regulating short-term rentals on the East End.

Tara Smith reports in NEWSDAY that as other municipalities clamp down, village trustees have approved new rental laws that contain no minimum lengths of stay. The law, which takes effect in January, imposes residency rules designed to discourage investor-driven real estate purchases.

The current law bans rentals for less than 14 days in single-family homes unless they are owner-occupied. The new provisions will allow entire single-family homes to be rented as long as an owner lives there part of the year.

Short-term rentals, popularized by sites like Airbnb and Vrbo, have set off debates in seasonal vacation communities over property rights, housing affordability and availability. In Greenport, tensions have flared: At one end of the debate are some residents who say short-term rentals bring too much noise, traffic and trash to their streets. But others argue that short-term rentals are crucial to the region's economy, including neighbors who say they depend on additional income, as well as businesses eager for tourist spending.

Mayor Kevin Stuessi voted against the legislation, which was approved 4-1 on Dec. 4. He said he supported a two-week rental minimum.

“All of the laws elsewhere on the East End … are much more restrictive than what we just passed,” Stuessi said in an interview.

In August, the Village of Southampton enacted a two-week minimum stay. The Town of Riverhead doesn’t allow rentals of less than a month, while Southold Town has a 14-day minimum requirement. Southampton Town is planning to lift a two-week minimum during the U.S. Open golf championship next year, Newsday reported.

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New York State Attorney General Letitia James yesterday filed a lawsuit against UPS, alleging the company stole millions in wages from thousands of seasonal delivery workers for years. Brianne Ledda reports in NEWSDAY that an investigation opened in 2023 found the logistics company failed to accurately track hours worked, required off-the-clock labor from its workers and manipulated timekeeping systems to reduce paid hours, the attorney general’s office said.

These actions saved UPS millions while robbing seasonal workers trying to support their families, A.G. James stated at a news conference in Manhattan on Monday.

"They earned every dollar of their wages, and UPS had no right to take those dollars away," she said.

The state is seeking restitution for current and former seasonal workers and an injunction that requires UPS to adopt reforms to prevent these issues from happening again, James said.

UPS acknowledged the state's suit in an email, and said while the company takes "all accusations of wrongdoing seriously," it denies "the unfounded allegation of intentionally underpaying UPS...

Millions of Americans, including Long Islanders, are contending with higher health premiums taking effect in the new year as prices rise across coverage types. Brianne Ledda reports in NEWSDAY that the surge adds another pressure point to increasingly strained household budgets. Some policy holders might even drop coverage altogether, especially younger people with fewer pressing health needs, experts said.

Higher premiums "will result in cutbacks in overall spending,” especially among middle- and low-income families relying on tax credits to cover plans through the Affordable Care Act, said Martin Melkonian, an economist at Hofstra University in Hempstead. “I think there are many folks living on the edge at this moment," Melkonian said. Without action from the federal government, enhanced premium tax credits under the ACA are set to expire at the end of 2025, further increasing out-of-pocket costs for many consumers…with some paying hundreds more per month.

Most Long Islanders have some form of health insurance — 95.3% in Suffolk County, according to census data. The 28,000 Long Islanders who use federal tax credits to help cover costs for ACA plans stand to take the largest hit, with an average 32% price increase in 2026, in addition to the loss of income-based enhanced tax subsidies.

Premiums are also rising for other plans, including Medicare and employer-sponsored insurance, fueled by hospital consolidation, an aging population and increased expenses for medical services, among other things.

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Long Island's first snowstorm of the season dumped at least 8 inches of snow in several towns across Nassau and Suffolk, spurred lengthy flight delays at area airports and warnings to stay home and off the roads. But by late Sunday afternoon, the bulk of the storm had moved east, with just a few isolated snow showers lingering and a sunny, cold start to our Monday forecast.

Most schools across the east end have announced a two hour delayed start to classes this morning.

As reported in NEWSDAY, a hazardous weather outlook posted late yesterday warned motorists to use caution and be on the lookout through this morning for black ice when driving and walking.

The snow began across Long Island at about 10 p.m. Saturday and was the result of a quick-moving low-pressure system crossing the region from west to east, forecasters said.

In Suffolk County, Commack reported 8.5 inches by Sunday afternoon, with Dix Hills next at 8.3 inches and reports of 8.2 inches in Center Moriches and East Northport. The highest East End total reported was 8 inches in Remsenburg-Speonk, followed by 5.8 inches in Sag Harbor, 5.1 inches in East Quogue, 4.8 inches in Riverhead and Jamesport, 4 inches in Orient and 3.3 inches in Mattituck.

Roads across Long Island were wet and slippery, and authorities warned that travel could be hazardous.

Snow and freezing fog was reported at Republic Airport in East Farmingdale and Long Island MacArthur Airport in Islip.

Meanwhile, the Long Island Rail Road reported most its service was on or close to schedule Sunday. The Nassau and Suffolk police departments had no reports of weather-related crashes on roadways by Sunday afternoon.

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Peconic Bay Medical Center’s radiologic technology school has again turned out a class of graduates with a perfect record on their board exams – and on landing jobs. Denise Civiletti reports on Riverheadlocal.com that all 27 members of the Class of 2025 passed the American Registry of Radiologic Technologists certification exam in radiography, and all have already secured full-time, part-time or per-diem jobs, most of them within the Northwell Health system, according to PBMC and Northwell’s Center for Learning and Innovation.

The program, based at the Riverhead hospital and sponsored by Peconic Bay Medical Center, is Suffolk County’s only...