Not enough daylight. Not enough space. Not enough track capacity. Not enough entrances or exits. Alfonso A. Castillo reports in NEWSDAY that even after hundreds of millions of dollars on upgrades in recent years, Penn Station in Manhattan still has more than its share of shortcomings. And, there are several competing proposals to address them.

President Donald Trump’s administration in April took over the effort to transform the 115-year-old station "into a world-class facility while safeguarding taxpayer dollars," a spokesperson told Newsday in a statement. Hosting three railroads and six subway lines, Penn Station is the busiest rail facility in the United States. And the stakes are particularly high for the 140,000 Long Island Rail Road customers going into and out of the station each day, more than any other agency.

Former New York City Transit president Andy Byford, now a board member for Amtrak, which owns Penn Station, has been tapped by the U.S. Department of Transportation to lead the effort and evaluate several competing visions for Penn Station. Some proposals aim to create space by removing all or part of Madison Square Garden, which sits atop the station — and has an agreement with New York City to stay in place at least through 2028. Others focus on maximizing train capacity, either by adding new tracks, or by taking some away.

Two major questions — when work would begin on a new Penn Station and how it'd be paid for — remain unclear, and will largely depend on which proposal is chosen. Gov. Kathy Hochul previously estimated the cost of rebuilding Penn Station at $7 billion, but the Trump administration has said it wants to shrink the cost of the project, in part by leaning on "private sector expertise."

MTA Board member Sammy Chu, of Plainview, wants the MTA to stay involved in the plan to ensure its riders' needs are looked after. "Your goal as a commuter is to spend sub-five minutes at Penn Station. Your goal is to get in, pee, grab something to eat if you're hungry or grab a bottle of water, and get on your train as quick as possible."

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Prosecutors say a modest house on Brown Street in Riverside doubled as a round-the-clock open air drug market. Alek Lewis reports on Riverheadlocal.com that Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney yesterday announced the indictment of several Riverhead-area residents for their alleged roles in an extensive cocaine trafficking network run out of the Brown Street home. Law enforcement launched an investigation into 36 year old Timothy McKay Sr. and his home at 20 Brown Street in Riverside in July 2024; McKay allegedly operated a drug market at the residence 24/7, according to the Suffolk D.A..

Members of law enforcement surveilled the home and observed individuals walking up the driveway and into the yard of the residence, where they allegedly purchased narcotics from several of the people indicted. An undercover detective with the district attorney’s Fentanyl Task Force purchased cocaine at the home on 26 different occasions from several members of the organization.

The alleged head of the operation was Robert E. “Boy” Love, 71, of Riverhead, according to the district attorney. Love’s home in Riverhead was searched by warrant in June; police recovered over 14 ounces of cocaine from the home and over $11,000 in cash. Love was previously arrested in 2012 after being accused by prosecutors of being the leader of a Bronx-to-Riverhead cocaine trafficking ring. He pleaded guilty to two felony charges in 2013.

In total, 18 search warrants were executed across Suffolk County, Nassau County, and Queens County as a part of the investigation; police recovered 14 ounces of cocaine, over 100 pounds of illegal cannabis, eight operable firearms, ammunition, over $170,000 in cash, and drug paraphernalia such as a kilo press, scales, dilutants used in the manufacturing of crack cocaine, and...

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."

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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.

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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...

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.”

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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.

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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...

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.

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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...

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.

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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...

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.”

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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.

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This Saturday – tomorrow - is a chance to explore the 20...

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.

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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.

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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

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.

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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.

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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...