King Kullen, Long Island's largest family-owned grocery chain, is closing another supermarket, this time a 34-year-old store in Middle Island. The store is located at 1235 Middle Country Rd. in the Strathmore Commons Shopping Center. The supermarket occupies about 45,000 square feet, said Robert Monahan, property manager for Island Associates Real Estate Inc., the Smithtown-based company that manages the center. Monahan confirmed that the store will be closing but said he did not know when or the reason for the impending shutdown. Tory N. Parrish reports in NEWSDAY that the King Kullen in Middle Island opened in January 1991, according to a grand-opening advertisement in Newsday's archives. Headquartered in Hauppauge, King Kullen Grocery Co. did not respond to Newsday's inquiries yesterday about the reason for the store's closing, the timeline for the closing and the number of affected employees. Most of the grocery company's store employees are members of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union. UFCW Local 1500 in Westbury represents 41 part-time and nine full-time employees working in the front-end, grocery, produce, dairy, frozen food, deli, bakery and receiving areas of King Kullen's Middle Island store, said Aly Y. Waddy, secretary-treasurer for the local union. "Local 1500 is working to maintain as many jobs as possible. [There is] no indication of any layoffs yet," she said yesterday. Founded in Queens in 1930, King Kullen Grocery Co. operates 30 stores on Long Island, including 26 King Kullen supermarkets. The other four are Wild by Nature natural food stores. Across eastern Suffolk there are King Kullen Grocery Stores in Bridgehampton, Cutchogue, Eastport, Hampton Bays, Manorville, Center Moriches, Shirley, and for the moment – Middle Island.

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A divided Riverhead Town Board this week took the first step toward selling the historic and blighted Vail-Leavitt Music Hall to The Jazz Loft. Alek Lewis reports on Riverheadlocal.com that the Riverhead Town Board passed a resolution 3-2 authorizing the town attorney “to take all such actions as may be necessary and appropriate to consummate such sale” of the building to The Jazz Loft. The nonprofit organization previously restored a historic building in Stony Brook built in the 1770s and turned it into a performance venue and music museum.

Council members Bob Kern and Ken Rothwell dissented. They tried unsuccessfully to table the resolution, arguing that the town should open the process to other potential buyers. They voiced support for the other pitch to purchase the building made by Ray Castronovo, principal of the Riverhead-based Zenith Group.

In 2023, Suffolk County granted $250,000 for the restoration of the Vail-Leavitt, which Riverhead Town officials say will be transferable to The Jazz Loft when it takes possession of the building. The Vail-Leavitt is in need of extensive repairs, according to officials.

Supervisor Tim Hubbard and council members Joann Waski and Denise Merrifield backed The Jazz Loft, citing its year-long collaboration with the town and commitment to restoring the Vail-Leavitt.

The Jazz Loft could start renovations on the Vail-Leavitt…built in 1881 as an upstairs opera house…at the beginning of this summer and be open by November, depending upon how quickly the transaction occurs according to Jazz Loft President and Founder Thomas Manuel.

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The Southampton Village Police Benevolent Association will hold its annual Easter Egg Hunt on Friday, April 18…that’s tomorrow morning at 10 a.m. in Agawam Park in Southampton Village. All kids age 10 and younger are invited to participate but should bring a receptacle to pick up eggs. The Easter Bunny will be on hand for photo opportunities. There will be a great prize egg among the thousands scattered on the field at Agawam Park in Southampton tomorrow at 10...

After weeks of infighting and political grandstanding, Democratic leaders in New York said yesterday that they had reached agreement on a contentious issue holding up this year’s state budget negotiations: criminal discovery.

For years district attorneys have pushed for changes in state law governing the timing and scope of what evidence prosecutors must produce, which is known as discovery, before a trial. Prosecutors argued that they lacked the staffing and resources to comply with the demands and deadlines laid out in the law, resulting in serious cases being dismissed. Benjamin Oreskes and Grace Ashford report in THE NY TIMES that the D.A.’s campaign was backed by Gov. Kathy Hochul, who spent considerable political capital pushing to loosen the rules for prosecutors — even going so far as to refuse to sign any budget that would not reduce the number of criminal cases that are dismissed on procedural grounds.

On Tuesday, the NYS Legislature passed Hochul’s fifth emergency spending measure to keep the state operating until a 2025-26 budget is adopted.

The "extender" measure authorized $437.7 million in spending to fund state government into tomorrow. Since the 2025-26 fiscal year began, Hochul and the Legislature have approved $6.6 billion in emergency extenders to keep programs funded and most state workers paid.

Michael Gormley reports in NEWSDAY that the latest pressure to seal a deal is the need for most school districts to know state school aid figures so local school district budgets can be finalized on April 22 before district votes on the budgets are held statewide on May 20.

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Another federal deadline is approaching this Sunday for New York to take down congestion pricing, but MTA officials say the program is here to stay — offering new data showing a 13% reduction in cars in Manhattan’s toll zone that they say shows the program is working. Alfonso A. Castillo reports in NEWSDAY that after Metropolitan Transportation Authority officials blew off the Trump administration’s March 20 deadline to cease charging vehicles for driving at or below 60th Street in Manhattan, U.S. Secretary of Transportation Patrick Duffy gave the MTA a 30-day extension, with the warning that "continued noncompliance will not be taken lightly."

With the matter tied up in courts, MTA officials have said they won’t take down the tolls unless ordered to do so by a judge.

New data released by the MTA shows that 82,000 fewer cars a day entered Manhattan’s congestion relief zone in March as compared with the historical average for the month — a reduction of 13%. That’s more than the 8% reduction when the tolls started in January.

MTA figures indicate that for the full month of March, there was a reduction of 2,544,945 cars in the toll zone below 60th Street in Manhattan as compared with the historical average.

MTA Construction and Development President Jamie Torres-Springer said, “"Congestion pricing is working. It’s an extraordinary success ... It is a generational change. Traffic is down. Quality of life is up all across the city."

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Friends of The Big Duck, a nonprofit organization, celebrates the arrival of spring with the 12th annual Easter Duck Egg Hunt at Big Duck Ranch, 1012 Flanders Road (Route 24), Flanders. The free event is this coming Saturday, April 19, 12 noon sharp, so families should arrive by 11:45 a.m. Participating children must bring their own basket to carry eggs.

The grass field behind The Big Duck will be dotted with filled plastic “duck eggs” that children 2 to 9 years old can easily find. To make it a safe event, the children are grouped into three separate age groups. A prize basket is awarded to “The Good Egg” in each group who discovers the special egg. The family fun will include games and a visit from the Easter Bunny.

Friends of The Big Duck is the Southampton Town-appointed...

New York State leaders say environmental projects and policies will remain on track, despite an order from President Donald Trump attempting to undo state climate laws. Trump signed an executive order last week directing the U.S. attorney general to identify "illegal” state and local climate, energy and environmental justice laws that "impede” domestic energy use and production. The U.S. attorney general could then take action to try to stop the enforcement of the laws found to be illegal. Keshia Clukey reports in NEWSDAY that NYS Attorney General Letitia James, Gov. Kathy Hochul and other state leaders pushed back, saying efforts will continue, including electrifying vehicles and buildings, and building out renewable energy sources, as the State of New York aims to get all electricity from emission-free sources by 2040 and reduce economywide emissions by 85% from 1990 levels by 2050. "We are a nation of states — and laws — and we will not be deterred,” Hochul said in a joint statement with New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, who together co-chair the U.S. Climate Alliance, a bipartisan coalition of 24 governors. The executive order itself has "no legal effect,” said Michael Gerrard, professor of environmental law at Columbia Law School. "The issue will be whether the Department of Justice will actually bring any lawsuits.” Environmental advocates, however, say the order, along with actions of the administration, may give investors pause in financing new projects and delay new environmental legislation as state and local lawmakers consider legal challenges.

New York Republicans and gas and oil industry leaders applauded the president's order, stressing the importance of affordability — a major issue in elections last November.

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A co-founder of the California laboratory whose new nuclear DNA extraction method is at the center of an ongoing hearing to determine its admissibility in the criminal case against alleged Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex A. Heuermann is scheduled to testify in Riverhead today. Grant Parpan reports in NEWSDAY that Astrea Forensics co-founder Richard E. Green will be the third prosecution witness to testify during the hearing when it resumes at 10 o’clock this morning, per Suffolk Supreme Court Justice Timothy Mazzei.

Green, a professor of biomolecular engineering and bioinformatics at the University of California at Santa Cruz, is expected to speak to how Astrea recovers genetic profiles from rootless hair samples using ancient DNA methods and whole genome sequencing.

Suffolk prosecutors have said Astrea used highly degraded hair samples found with or near six of the seven Gilgo victims and linked it to the DNA of Heuermann or his family members.

Heuermann defense attorney Michael J. Brown, of Central Islip, has argued the DNA technique used to develop the evidence should be deemed inadmissible at trial because it has not been sufficiently tested and accepted in the scientific community.

The Frye Standard for admissibility of scientific evidence tests novel scientific evidence — like the DNA evidence that prosecutors want to use in their case against Heuermann — and "requires that before being admitted, the prosecutor must prove the evidence's general acceptance by the scientific community," according to the federal National Institute of Justice.

Prior witnesses in the hearing have testified to the effectiveness of the methods used by the lab and its acceptance.

Heuermann, 61, of Massapequa Park, has pleaded not guilty to murder charges in the killings of Melissa Barthelemy, Amber Lynn Costello, Megan Waterman, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, Jessica Taylor, Valerie Mack and Sandra Costilla. He has denied any involvement in the deaths since his arrest in the decades-old case in July 2023.

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Southold’s Economic Development Committee (EDC) is holding a “Synergy Summit” next Tuesday, April 22,...