LOCAL NEWS & LETTERS

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Letters to the Editor

Vote! Every election is important. Free and fair elections are the ultimate expression of our democracy, the strength of which is based on the participation of the people. Use your power!
Election Day is November 3. There are options to vote early prior to Election Day, either in person or by mail, and to register if you are not registered to vote in Suffolk County.
For more information on voting, visit suffolkcountyny.gov/Departments/BOE. Make a plan to vote now. … [more']
A very consequential midterm election will take place in less than three months. The outcome of the congressional race in District 1 could very well determine which party controls the House. Here are some sobering statistics to consider when choosing whom to vote for.
Since Donald Trump was elected in 2024, and Republicans have controlled the House and Senate, job growth on Long Island has been extremely weak. Several major industries, including … [more]
“Suffolk County has long recognized the importance of managing and protecting its water resources and has developed and implemented drinking water and groundwater management regulations and programs for decades,” declares the statement on the Suffolk County government website. “Water resource management and protection are of utmost importance in Suffolk County, since residents rely upon groundwater as their sole source of drinking water supply.”
Thus, through the decades, there has been a succession in … [more]
What with the pressing concerns of town and village matters and the constant media focus on the national scene, we often lose sight of what’s in between: namely, our state government.
This is a great oversight. Extremely important decisions are made at the New York State level, decisions affecting all of us in the most impactful ways.
Fortunately for us, we have an eloquent and effective advocate in Albany, Assemblyman Tommy John Schiavoni. …[more]
It’s tempting to hope the Discovery Land settlement now before the Southampton Town Board could resolve the town’s long-running legal headache with little or no consequence to the broader community — little consequence other than handing over the blanket approval of a 600-acre golf resort already denied by the town and situated on land zoned for low-density residential use to protect the town’s drinking water and Pine Barrens.
The Town Board must face the fact that its actions here will have …[more[
Two headlines grabbed my attention. This is one: “Trump Overhaul Could Gut Head Start Preschool Standards” (ABCNews.com). This is the other: “Schiavoni Announces $2.25 Million in Funding from State to Help Build New, State-Of-The-Art Head Start Center in Riverside” [27east.com, July 23, 2025].
Why would any national administration want to touch Head Start, unless it was to provide more resources, not to lower standards and effectively end Head Start’s mission?
Head Start is an objective success and has shown …[more]
Democratic Socialism is having a moment. Its basic tenet is to provide a robust safety net for essential human needs, including universal healthcare, public education, food security, job safety and affordable housing.
MAGA Republicans like U.S. Representative Nick LaLota decry socialism as expensive handouts to illegal immigrants and warn that it’s the next step to communism (please learn your history!).
As the great Supreme Court Justice Earl Warren once said, “Many people consider the things government does for them to be social progress, but they regard the things government does for others as socialism.”
Let’s consider how Congress has engineered its own … [more]
For someone who whines so much about political violence [“Upholding a Standard,” Letters, May 21], U.S. Representative Nick LaLota sure takes a hardline approach to threatening people’s livelihoods [“Making Things Worse,” Letters, July 30]. And this is a guy who voted to strip SNAP benefits and Medicaid from millions of Americans. Because … fraud?
Let’s be honest for a moment: LaLota cares as much about fraud and abuse as he cares about
Congressman Nick LaLota’s letter threatening to withhold Community Project Funding from East Hampton Town and East Hampton Village [“Making Things Worse,” Letters, July 30] is a slap in the face to every taxpayer in those communities. LaLota’s job is to bring federal resources home, not deliberately send them elsewhere.
Community Project Funding has supported projects such as Southampton Town’s Riverside sewer initiative and other vital water quality and infrastructure improvements. These funds are … [more]
It happened again. Two more people have been killed. But this was not a gang shooting or a drug war — this was an attack by agents of our federal government.
There is no excuse for ICE agents not to have body cameras. They have more money than ever.
For many years, I was a single mother of three. When Renée Good was killed, it became clear to me that all of us are at risk of being targeted by armed, masked federal agents while exercising our civil right to … [more]
Christopher Nolan's new movie, “The Odyssey,” has spurred renewed focus on forgotten mythological figures of the Trojan War, and among them is the blind Trojan seer, Laocoön. Recall, he was the first Trojan to warn that the “Horse was dangerous,” that evil lurked inside, that one cannot “trust Greeks bearing gifts.”
It seems that a bit of this drama is playing out here on the East End, as some of the mayors west of the Shinnecock Canal are now realizing that Gabreski Airport is not necessarily a wholly beneficial gift to the … [more]
Before handing out kudos to Congressman Nick LaLota in your editorial “Beyond Suspicion” [Opinion, July 23], we need to take a closer look at the Stop Insider Trading Act, HR 7800, and what exactly it encompasses.
Congressman Seth Moulton of Massachusetts has made a simple explanation of what this act entails: “Stop Insider Trading Act is not a stock trading ban; it’s actually a voter suppression bill in disguise. This Republican legislation allows members to profit off their positions and makes it easier for them to … [more]
The Southampton Town Democratic Committee strongly condemns hate, prejudice and aggression toward any religious, racial or other minority group.
The Executive Committee of the Southampton Town Democratic Committee thanks the elected officials and police chiefs of the Village of Sag Harbor, the Town of Southampton, and the Town of East Hampton, along with Suffolk County officials, for responding so quickly to the latest in a spate of antisemitic incidents that have caused great concern to the East End Jewish community. The Executive Committee appreciates the reassurance that has been provided to leaders of the local Jewish community that …[more]
Kudos to The Express News Group for including the article on the role of Long Island in the eugenics movement, and the book written by Mark Torres, an attorney and adjunct professor at Hofstra University [“Q&A: Author Says Study of Shinnecock Played Key Role in Creating Policies That Led to Mass Sterilization Campaigns,” 27east.com, July 2].
The article is based on Torres’s very important book, “Long Island and the Legacy of Eugenics,” published by The History Press in 2025. We read the book when it first came out and have used it in … [more]
Donald Trump’s fixation on the 2016 election — insisting that he received more votes than Hillary Clinton — and his loss to Joe Biden in 2020 have led him to weaken our institutions and endanger our democracy. He seems determined to use every power at his disposal to gain an advantage in the midterm elections.
Trump chose Greg Phillips, a loyal supporter and election fraud conspiracist with … [more]
On December 19, 2020, in a post on Twitter, Donald Trump wrote: “Big protest in D.C. on January 6th. Be there, will be wild!”
By the time Trump called his supporters to action, his lawyers had failed in court to prove that the 2020 presidential election was rife with fraud and was stolen. Many of his lawyers were later sanctioned by federal judges, including Trump lawyer Sydney Powell, whom a Wisconsin judge sanctioned for filing a case “in bad faith and for improper purposes.”
In all, Trump’s team lost 60 cases, with every suit dismissed or dropped for lack of evidence or standing. Former New Jersey governor and federal prosecutor Chris Christie called Trump’s legal team a … [more]
Italy’s Conservative prime minister, Giorgi Meloni, got straight to the point shortly after the recent G-7 meeting in Paris concluded. Italy’s leader was reacting to a statement President Donald Trump made that Meloni begged him for a photo: “Donald Trump’s statements are completely fabricated.”
“Fabrication” is a perfect word for Donald Trump. Whether he uses it to anger another country’s leader, or, for the purposes of this letter, to undermine democracy, it’s a disqualifying trait that should have been given sufficient weight by voters to conclude that he was unfit to be elected president.
It is his never-ending fabrications about voter fraud, undermining American elections, that threaten our democracy. His claim that Democrats systematically cheat at elections is a lie that … [more]
The Southampton Town Democratic Committee is proud to endorse Chris Gallant for Congress in New York’s 1st Congressional District in the Democratic primary on June 23.
This endorsement reflects our belief that Chris Gallant is the strongest candidate to represent Long Island families in Washington, D.C.
Chris Gallant brings a lifetime of public service experience. He is a veteran of the Army National Guard, where he serves as a Black Hawk helicopter pilot. He has also worked as an FAA air traffic controller, served as a firefighter and been a union leader. His career reflects discipline, leadership and a consistent commitment to … [more]
While our health and our futures continue to be imperiled by the rampant growing use of plastics, the fossil fuel industry is fighting sensible legislation that’s on the table in Albany.
Industry lobbyists from chemical companies, fossil fuel firms and big plastic are bombarding our state lawmakers with unsubstantiated claims about the alleged benefits of plastic recycling and warnings that switching to nonplastic packaging would raise costs — when Consumer Reports has already stated that this is not true!
Every day, we … [more]
In journalism, serious accusations require scrutiny, corroboration and context — especially when the primary source has recently been arrested and charged with felony fraud [“Police: Southampton Man Charged With Felony for Impersonating Biz Partner,” 27east.com, May 7]. When those standards are not applied, readers are left to question both the fairness of the reporting and whether they are receiving the full story.
In Michael Wright’s article [“Challengers Force Primary for Democratic Committee Seats in Southampton Town,” 27east.com, May 19], several allegations made by Ron Fisher against Southampton Town Democratic Committee Chairman Gordon Herr were repeated without … [more
Last week, I announced as a candidate for Southampton Village trustee in the June 19 village election [“Willa Bernstein Announces Run for Southampton Village Board; Zinnanti To Seek Reelection,” 27east.com, April 28].
As I make the rounds knocking on my neighbors’ doors, I’m focused on listening to what concerns and excites them about village life, and I’m hoping that I can bring my government and legal background into the mix to improve the quality of governance here.
I’m also continually struck by …[more]
Today, a New York Times Opinion piece by the editors screams: “America Needs To Build More Housing.” To prove this, after many graphs showing the cost of housing in various places, Austin, Texas is highlighted as proof that building thousands of units of housing in a brief period drives down the cost. “Less expensive” rather than “affordable” seems a more accurate description of the result.
Left entirely aside is the environmental impact. Austin has experienced repeat periods of drought in the last 20 years: 2010-15, 2021-23. Texas is forecast to have extraordinary issues with water in the coming decades. Austin currently uses the excellent device of recycling wastewater, which … [more]
As you read the following paragraphs, keep in mind that Republicans have chosen to appropriate $1 billion in taxpayer dollars to support Donald Trump’s vanity project: the proposed White House East Wing Ballroom. Note, too, that at the outset of this project, Mr. Trump assured that no tax dollars would be used for the ballroom, but that it would be funded by private donations (Carl Hulse, “Republicans Seek $1 Billion To Use for a Ballroom,” New York Times, May 6, 2026).
With the above noted, I would like to explain how Republican health care cutbacks will impact Suffolk County and Congressional District 1 residents. … [more]
Watching Bill Maher last night, with an Iranian war discussion with U.S. Representatives Dan Crenshaw and John Fetterman pushing Donald Trump’s agenda, not one of the four people on my screen — not one of them — even hinted that if Trump never got elected either the first time or second time, we would not be in this war, because President Barack Obama and his associates, including nuclear experts, and their months of intense, smart, intelligent negotiations had finalized a treaty that put a giant watchdog over Iran’s dream of a nuclear weapon and restrictions on missile proliferation. And the Strait of Hormuz would be open. …[more]
Over the weekend, Representative Nick LaLota provided his statement regarding the attempted attack on the White House Correspondence Dinner, in which he decried political violence. In his usual tone-deaf approach, he notes a “pattern” of attacks and assassinations, brought about by hyperbolic rhetoric, and warns us that words have power and meaning.
This is rich coming from such a rank-and-file Republican. Mr. LaLota, you’d benefit in more than one way by finding a mirror. … [more]
If you are worried about our country and the direction things are going, you are not alone. Economists, political advisors and military generals have raised alarms, and we are all struggling with the reckless policies pushed through by Donald Trump’s administration.
The upcoming midterm election is one of the most important in decades. It may be the only way to stop Trump’s failed MAGA agenda. … [more']

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