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File photo by Raymond Janis

Kathianne Snaden for mayor

As a Port Jefferson village resident and longtime Long Island business owner and entrepreneur, I’m proud to offer my strong support for Kathianne Snaden in her campaign for mayor.

Kathianne understands firsthand the challenges faced by our business community, whether it’s retail, restaurants or service-based industries. Having grown up in a small family-run business, she brings a deep, personal understanding of what it takes to keep a business alive and thriving. She knows that without the support of local government, small businesses can struggle to survive, especially in an ever-changing economy.

Over the years, Kathianne has proven her dedication to Port Jefferson’s business owners. Her track record speaks for itself. She listens, she shows up, and she works side by side with businesses. Whether it’s helping to navigate local regulations, advocating for improvements to our village infrastructure, or simply taking the time to hear concerns, Kathianne has been a consistent and reliable ally. Her accessibility and responsiveness have been critical in helping face both everyday challenges and larger, unexpected hurdles.

Having someone in office that understands business is crucial. I have seen unnecessary roadblocks and hurdles for local businesses that need to be addressed, so we need leaders that will take action immediately. Kathianne’s unwavering support and hands-on approach have made a real difference in our village, and I have no doubt she will continue this level of commitment as mayor.

We need leadership that prioritizes the success and sustainability of our local economy. Kathianne Snaden is that leader. She has the experience, the dedication and the heart to ensure Port Jefferson remains a vibrant and welcoming place to live, work and do business.

I urge my fellow residents to join me in voting for Kathianne Snaden for mayor. Our businesses and our community will be stronger for it.

[The  election is on June 17 at Port Jefferson Village Center.]

Joe Dovi

Port Jefferson Village

Silly season returns: Port Jefferson deserves better

As we enter another mayoral election season, it’s important to remember not just of what’s at stake — but what we’ve already witnessed.

The so-called silly season is in full swing. Yard signs are sprouting across lawns, social media is ablaze and performances are taking center stage while real policy takes a backseat. But elections aren’t theater. They’re about leadership, vision, policy and results. Unfortunately, some candidates still haven’t gotten the message.

In the last election, the Snaden camp engaged in questionable behavior and sadly, it hasn’t stopped.

Let’s remember:

• Worked to kick Lauren Sheprow off the ballot;

• Used fake social media profiles — created and operated by “friends” and surrogates — to launch personal attacks and spread misinformation; and

• Behind the scenes, then-Trustee and Deputy Mayor Kathianne Snaden was making questionable decisions — most notably involving Maryhaven, a project with long-term consequences for our Village and no public transparency.

And we can’t forget one of her most visible policy failures: the PassPORT Taxi service. Snaden’s program cost the Village thousands of taxpayer dollars to subsidize local taxi rides — a plan that ended up being far more expensive and far less efficient than simply utilizing services like Uber or Lyft. What was billed as innovative transit became a financial burden with little to show in return.

It’s no wonder Snaden lost. Not because she lacked visibility or resources, but because her policy advancements were failures, and her leadership didn’t deliver for the people of Port Jefferson. Performance may win applause in the moment, but residents care about outcomes — and in that area, she fell short.

Now, two years later, they’re back — repeating the same tactics.

She’s now offering “ideas,” but let’s be clear: nothing she’s proposed addresses fiscal management, sustainability, or real forward-thinking policy. And much of what she mentions has already been done — by others. If these issues were truly urgent, where was her action in the intervening years? Why wait until campaign season to suddenly care again?

So let’s ask some hard but necessary questions:

• How is it ethical for a then sitting Trustee to be paid by the Village as a photographer during her term? That’s a clear conflict of interest, or behavior, at the very least that should have been avoided to dispel any appearance of conflict. Then, she and her surrogates spoke out against the village’s new ethics code. Hard to fathom.

• And why would a former Trustee, who prematurely announced her candidacy, remain disengaged from all meaningful Village work — sitting silently in the back of the room during meetings, offering no value, no ideas, no policy, no involvement?

And yet, it’s doubtful any minds will be changed in the village Facebook pages, where vitriol and echoes are all that matter. These digital echo chambers reward outrage over insight, loyalty over logic, and spectacle over substance.

Leadership is not seasonal. It’s not something you dust off for campaign season.
True leadership is built through consistent engagement, ethical conduct, and a genuine commitment to serving the community — not self-interest. If someone seeks your vote, they should have already been doing the work, not just appearing when it’s politically convenient.

Port Jefferson deserves better. It deserves leaders who show up, speak up, and stand up for this community — all year long.

Let’s remember the past, recognize the patterns, and vote for substance over show.
Keep Lauren Sheprow Mayor of Port Jefferson.

 Drew Biondo
Former Trustee, Port Jefferson

Why we need to reelect Mayor Sheprow

As a lifelong Port Jeff resident and former village trustee, I enthusiastically support Lauren Sheprow’s reelection as mayor.

Mayor Sheprow has been a careful steward of our tax dollars. When a forensic audit of the capital fund uncovered a $1.3 million deficit left by the previous administration, she immediately put a plan in place to address the shortfall. And she still managed to keep taxes low and not exceed the tax cap, both this year and last, something that hasn’t been achieved in over a decade.

She also acted quickly to solve a long-standing problem with the carrying of firearms by our Code Enforcement personnel. The mayor worked with a unanimous board to eliminate this liability for the village, given that there is no legal authority to use guns in our village code.

One of the most distinctive achievements spearheaded by the mayor has been the creation of the Make a Difference program. These volunteer committees are filled with some of Port Jeff’s most talented residents, all of whom are devoting their time and expertise to work on the many challenges we face.
Given how effective Mayor Sheprow has proven to be in her first term, I believe she deserves the opportunity to continue her good work. We have been well served by her diligence, her dedication and her love for this village.

Please join me in reelecting Lauren Sheprow as our village mayor!

Virginia Capon
Port Jefferson Village

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With summer-like temperatures in the forecast this week, AAA Northeast is sounding the alarm that vehicular heatstroke can happen quickly — especially given that child deaths inside hot cars increased by nearly 35% last year.

In 2024, 39 children died in hot cars across the U.S., according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, including a 2-month-old infant who died on a 77-degree June day. That’s a significant increase over 2023, when 29 children succumbed to vehicular heatstroke. On average, 37 children die each year because of vehicular heatstroke.

The inside of a car can become lethally hot even on a cool but sunny day: Although most deaths occur when temperatures exceed 80 degrees, a child has succumbed to vehicular heatstroke in 70- to 80-degree temperatures in each of the past 11 years. A child died of heatstroke in Rossville, Georgia in January, 2016 when the outside air temperature was 52 degrees.

On a typical 80-degree summer day, the interior temperature of a vehicle climbs by 20 degrees in only 10 minutes and reaches a deadly 109 degrees in 20 minutes. On hotter days, the interior temperature can easily reach 120- to 140-degrees, and cracking the windows has little effect.

“While every family wants to believe this could never happen to them, the reality is a child dying from vehicular heatstroke is an unimaginable tragedy that can happen to any family,” said Robert Sinclair of AAA Northeast. “We urge families to take action to ensure children’s safety. Establish firm guidelines about heatstroke safety with family members and caregivers and put processes in place to ensure children — and pets — are never left behind. In some cases, a sticky note affixed to the steering wheel or a smartphone screen can help prevent a fatality.”

To prevent hot car deaths, AAA Northeast recommends caregivers practice the following:

Stop and look at the backseat before exiting a parked vehicle. Make it a habit to check the entire vehicle before locking the doors and walking away. Place personal items, like a purse or briefcase, on the floor in the back seat as another reminder to look before you lock. Ask childcare providers to immediately call if your child doesn’t show up for care as expected and always seek confirmation that your child was removed from the vehicle safely by anyone transporting them — including spouses, grandparents, other family members and close friends.

Lock your vehicle to prevent unsupervised access and a child getting trapped inside. Keep car keys away from children and teach them that the inside of a car should never be used as a play area.

Act fast, call 911 and take action if you see a child alone in a locked car. A child in distress should be removed as quickly as possible.

Statistics about hot car deaths:

Over 52% of deaths are caused by a caregiver forgetting the child in the vehicle, according to NoHeatStroke.org. And it’s often not a parent: 29% of the deaths related to children forgotten in vehicles involve a caregiver other than a parent. Be especially vigilant whenever there is a change in your childcare or drop-off routine.

Nearly 22% of deaths result when a caregiver knowingly leaves a child in the car (typically to run a quick errand or let the child finish a nap). The majority of the temperature rise occurs within the first 15 to 30 minutes, and caregivers may mistakenly assume that cracking the windows is sufficient to cool and ventilate the vehicle.

Nearly 25% of cases are related to the child gaining access to the vehicle without adult supervision and becoming trapped in the vehicle. An innocent game of hide-and-seek can lead to such tragedies; often the child enters the vehicle and closes the door or trunk and cannot get out. It is important for all drivers, not just parents, to lock their vehicles in driveways and parking lots.

Statistics about pets dying in hot cars are not tracked as closely, but the American Veterinary Medical Association reports that every year, hundreds of pets die of heatstroke in parked vehicles. Exercise the same care with a pet as you would with a child.

AAA Northeast is a not-for-profit auto club with offices in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Jersey, New Hampshire and New York, providing nearly 6.8 million local AAA members with travel, insurance, financial and auto-related services.

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By Leah S. Dunaief

Leah Dunaief,
Publisher

It isn’t often that you see a big picture of a toilet on a front page of The New York Times. But there was one on the Business section this past Friday, and it made me smile. The reporters had fallen in love with a bidet made by Toto, much as I had. Only I beat them, for I discovered this marvel when I visited Japan 10 years ago.

So what is a bidet? That was my question when I first saw the wash basin alongside the toilet bowl in a bathroom many years ago. I couldn’t understand why there would be two toilets and was enlightened by some patient soul to the bidet’s function. Although I am a fan of personal hygiene, it seemed like it provided a nice but unnecessary additional chore at the time. 

Just FYI, the word, “bidet” is French for “pony” due to the straddling position adopted in its usage, according to the internet, which also told me that it is considered an indispensable tool in Spain, Italy and Portugal, in addition to France. Also devotees of its use may be found in Uruguay, Argentina, Paraguay, Egypt and Eastern Asia but rarely in sub-Saharan Africa, Australia and North America.

The electronic bidet featured in The NYT is built into the toilet seat, thus taking no extra room and requiring no additional movement on the part of the user. Many different controls make for a pleasant experience. Adjustable water pressure, adjustable temperature, direction of the spray, a heating element for drying the user’s bottom, a night light, a deodorizer, and even a knob for warming the toilet seat are common features. The control panel with these options can sit on the edge of the seat or hang on the wall. Or a wireless remote control may be employed.

The first electronic bidet, as opposed to a wash basin, I saw was in a restaurant in Japan. My travel companions waited a long time outside while I figured out how to use the feature. It was a life-changing moment for me and for them, too, after I re-emerged and told them what I had discovered. I was impressed to find bidets in Japanese department stores, hotels, the airport and in private homes on that trip. 

When I returned home, I called our plumber, explained what I wanted him to install and had to work hard to persuade him that such a product existed. He told me that if he could find it, he would order two: one for me and one for him. I guess it was a life-changing moment for him, too.

“From an environmental standpoint, bidets can reduce the need for toilet paper. Considering that the average person uses only 0.5 liter (1/8 US gallon) of water for cleansing by using a bidet, much less water is used than for manufacturing toilet paper…Scientific American has also reported that if the US switched to using bidets, 15 million trees could be saved every year,” according to the internet.

In 1982, an actress in a pink floral dress drops paint on her hand and tries in vain to wipe it off with toilet paper. She then looks into the camera and asks, “Everyone, if your hands get dirty, you wash them, right?”

She then continues, “It’s the same for your bottom. Bottoms deserve to be washed, too.” This was a commercial, according to The NYT, from Toto for its Washlet, and started the electronic bidet offering. It took decades for the Japanese overwhelmingly to accept the innovation, but they certainly have now. More than 80 percent of Japanese households have them, and, as I discovered, they are found in all sorts of public places.

Now Toto is looking forward to a similar swell in the US market, which measures only 2.5 percent currently. Helped by the COVID-19 pandemic, with its shortage of toilet paper, Washlets here flow on.

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By Daniel Dunaief

Daniel Dunaief

Parenthood is filled with excrement, poop, and waste products. Call it what you will. It’s true.

We start out with this adorable lump of human flesh. And, for many of us, an anxiety that grows at a rate that far outstrips the pace at which the little person grows.

Wait? What! The baby was born at eight pounds. It’s now seven pounds? We must be screwing up. What are we doing wrong? Can I get someone on the phone immediately to explain what’s happening and how to fix it? No, I can’t wait.

Of course, we don’t know how good we have it until we enter the next stage. If, for example, our baby is drinking breast milk, its poop smells like roses and cherry blossoms on a beautiful, windy day compared with the cesspool stink that pours out of them once they start eating solid food or, heaven forbid, they get the Coxsackie virus.

But, of course, once you realize the magnificence of that early mild smell, it’s gone and you’re left trying to figure out how to get the particles of poop out from creases and crevices without causing discomfort to the small person whose sole mode of expression seems to be to cry and complain without end.

“Oh, that’s such a healthy cry,” they’ll say. “He’s a strong lad.”

“Oh, shut up! And stop calling her a lad.”

So, why am I writing about parenthood? Did I suddenly have to change 200 diapers last weekend?

No, you see, we’re about to welcome the first new member of our extended family in decades. Yeah, of course, we’re all excited and yes, I’m going to have the chance to be a great uncle when, up to now, I’ve been something between a regular uncle and perhaps an indulgent and slightly playful version of a run-of-the-mill uncle.

But, wow, our nephew’s wife is due any second, which kind of pushes us up the generational ladder.

We have heard about all the people of our nephew’s generation who are putting off or perhaps even ruling out parenthood.

But we also know that people are still having children and that those children are the ultimate form of optimism.

Sure, new parents, even if they’ve read 100 books, might not be completely prepared for every scenario. 

We went to all those Lamaze classes years ago around now as we prepared for the birth of our first child. And, you know what? They didn’t help one iota. Those classes were like giving us a toy steering wheel on a roller coaster. We could turn it however we wanted, but it wouldn’t affect the crazy ride that made us feel like our stomachs were going to drop out of our bodies on the next hair-raising turn.

If anyone actually thought about all the things they had to do as parents — staying up with a sick kid, worrying where those children are, thinking about all the germs that might hurt them (okay, I’m OCD, I admit it) — it’d be hard to prepare for, imagine and deal with the potential challenges. Most parenting playbooks are like New Year’s resolutions. Yeah, you’d like to be patient and even tempered, maybe lose some weight, sleep better, and all that good stuff, but things get in the way, including ourselves.

When you have a child, you not only have to worry about your sons and daughters, but you also have to manage the two or more families that always know better and whose ideas of everything from the right clothing to wear with variable temperatures to the right way to hold them to any of a host of other choices are likely different.

You can’t please everyone, including your relatives and the little crying, pooping child that doesn’t have work to do tomorrow and wants company late at night until he or she is ready to fall asleep.

Ultimately, parenting is a leap of faith. We all have to deal with craziness, discomfort, sleep deprivation and an uneasiness that comes from not knowing what to do next. And yet, during the best moments, when they’re truly happy, when that giggle bubbles out of them, massaging your ears and bringing a smile to your face, you realize what a spectacular privilege, excrement and all, parenting truly is. 

We get to see and share life with people whose thoughts, ideas, and resilience inspire us and, somewhere along the way, encourage us to share the best versions of ourselves.

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Members of the Sophia Valsamos Foundation with staff from the Northport-East Northport school district. Photo courtesy the Northport-East Northport school district

By Sabrina Artusa

Mental illnesses claim thousands of adolescents and young adults each year. Chris Valsamos, founder of The Sophia Valsamos Foundation, is dedicated to enabling this vulnerable demographic with the skills to navigate the tempestuous reality of being a teenager in the era of social media and cyberbullying.

Valsamos lost his 13-year-old daughter Sophia to suicide in 2017. He realized that mental health is still not normalized in schools — that shame, ridicule and judgment are still associated with asking for help. Through his foundation, he aims to create an environment where mental services are incorporated both into classrooms and at home. He and his foundation launched wellness kits filled with items carefully chosen to normalize mental services by making them accessible. 

“There is a lot of red tape involved with programming. With the wellness kits we were able to reach past the red tape,” Valsamos said, adding that the foundation is his way to “honor” Sophia by providing “as many tools as possible.” 

“We wanted to help them manage stress, some of the components help them build resilience, and some components help them manage stress throughout their day,” he said.

This includes mindfulness cards, a stress ball, a “calm the chaos” journal and books like “Anxiety Relief for Teens” and “Stuff That Sucks” that include cognitive behavioral therapy strategies for building resilience. The kits also provide ways teachers can integrate the items into the classroom. Valsamos and president of The Sophia Valsamos Foundation Keith Senzer imagine exercises where students work on a prompt from the journal and discuss as a class. 

The Northport-East Northport Union Free School District received the kits a month ago. Teachers have the option to utilize the contents as a class, perhaps by initiating discussion and integrating mindfulness exercises into the daily routine. 

 “If you have a group you are breaking the stigma,” said school social worker Anthony Ferrandino. “Everyone has these social emotional issues. Everyone has stress…if your peers are currently sharing stuff, you’ll reduce things like bullying and feeling judged or alienated.” Instead, he added, “it is the exact opposite of that. Students are growing together.”

Senzer, Valsamos and Ferrandino emphasize the parental support to reinforce the beneficial resilience skills students will learn in schools. While it is important to initiate conversation about mental health, teenagers may not want to talk with their guardian. If a parent is observing warning signs of declining mental health, like if a child is locking themselves in their room or losing interest in socializing or in their hobbies, it can be helpful to ask another trusted adult in their circle to help. This could be an aunt, a coach or a teacher. 

Parents should be diligent. Adolescent suicide or mental illness “is unthinkable as a parent,” said Senzer. “So why would we think it?” 

The kits are just one of many programs offered by The Sophia Valsamos Foundation.

Additionally, teaching your child how to be there for their peers has proved to be invaluable. Ferrandino said students come to him about a friend who may need help more often than teachers do about a student.

“It is about changing the entire culture — the educators, the administrators, the security guards, the bus drivers. It is a whole culture shift where everyone there is understanding the importance of emotional regulation, how to manage [it], how to support one another, how to be kind and empathetic and caring toward one another,” Senzer said. “Once we raise that generation, we can change the world that way. These kits are amazing on their own but they are just step one to broadening our horizons.”

For more information visit the foundation website: www.tsvf.org.

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Suffolk County Legislators Tom Donnelly (D-Deer Park) and Rebecca Sanin (D-Huntington Station), in conjunction with Suffolk County Fire, Rescue & Emergency Services, will host a free Emergency Preparedness Seminar for Citizens on Thursday, June 5, 2025, from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. at Dix Hills Fire Department Station 1, located at 590 Deer Park Avenue in Dix Hills.

As hurricane season approaches, the seminar offers residents and families an opportunity to learn how to prepare for severe weather and other emergency situations. The one-hour session is open to all and requires no registration. Light refreshments will be provided.

Topics covered will include:

  • Extreme weather awareness
  • Personal and family preparedness
  • Emergency alerts and notifications
  • What to do during emergencies
  • Suffolk County’s disaster response plans

For more information, please contact Legislator Donnelly’s office at (631) 854-4433 or Legislator Sanin’s office at (631) 854-5100.

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By Frank Artusa

Try asking your Alexa, Siri, Google Assistant or any smart home device a similar question and you will get some variation of response assuring you that your privacy is important and the queried device is most certainly not spying on you. But how do these supposedly omniscient household oracles know to respond to their respective “wake” words if they’re not indeed listening to every sound wave to grace their diabolically helpful little speakers?

One thing is clear, these devices are indeed monitoring their local environments for all ambient and discrete vocal communications. Manufacturers of these devices, however, have repeatedly stated that no information is collected aside from the user instructions after activation with a wake word or phrase. This is when the device enters an active listening state of operation. Even if only post-wake word data is captured, the question is; what exactly happens to that data on backend servers? 

In 2019, Amazon admitted to employing personnel to listen to customer’s voice commands, albeit to help train and improve the Echo device and algorithm. Amazon in particular has recently changed the way data is handled. Previously, users were given the option to process requests on the local device, but as of March 28, all collected data will be sent to Amazon’s cloud environment for processing. This represents a significant potential opportunity for abuse of private data.

Trusting personal data to these tech behemoths can be a challenge, especially when data collection and selling is so lucrative since the information can be used for targeted advertising and other uses. Data brokers, organizations that buy and sell personal data about individuals, are estimated to earn over 200 billion per year worldwide and the industry continues to grow markedly year after year. They not only leverage personal data to assist advertisers, but this data is also used by retailers, credit agencies, employers and political groups. A big part of the problem is the erosion of consent when agreeing to use these devices. Buyers are faced with a barrage of privacy policies and end user agreements that are usually agreed to with a quick mouse click or touch of a phone screen.

Now with the advent of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GAI) and Large Language Model technologies like ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini, Meta’s LLaMA and Apple’s expected enhancement to Siri, these devices will become even more robust and likely increasingly involved in day to day lives. One example is the significant growth in how GAI based tools are augmenting mental health services, particularly when individuals don’t have access to resources, funding, or health care coverage needed to visit an actual therapist. The adoption of this service and technology is a boon to individuals needing access to therapeutic services even if on a rudimentary level, but the privacy concerns associated with the capture of deeply personal and intimate information are significant.

Governments recognize the problem and have begun taking steps to mitigate the issue surrounding the exposure of personal digital information. Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation and California’s Consumer Privacy Act are two such examples of efforts being made to give control back to individuals. Ultimately, as society increasingly embraces smart technology and more sophisticated devices become available, individuals must weigh the benefits to quality of life against the potential exposure and misuse of sensitive information. 

Until privacy is the default and not the fine print, we’d all be wise to treat our smart assistants like strangers in the room.

Frank Artusa, a resident of Smithtown, is a current cybersecurity professional and retired FBI Special Agent.

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SBU Graduation 2025. Photo by Isabel Epstein

On May 23, Stony Brook University celebrated the graduation of over 7,600 students, including those from bachelors, masters and doctoral programs at the 65th annual commencement ceremony. This year and every year we recognize and appreciate the effort and commitment required to finish degrees at one of the nation’s leading research institutions, with distinguished programs ranging from the biological sciences and engineering to creative writing and the fine arts. 

The way we define “success” in attending and finishing college is more than the common metric of leaving with straight A’s, awards, or the lucky problem of struggling to pose for a photo that captures each and every cord draped proudly about graduate  necks: it is also characterized by the new beginnings inspired by inspirations mined from hard work, passion and encouragement from our mentors and peers. Success is also defined by the barriers which students overcame including for those international, exchange or otherwise underrepresented student populations who have defied the odds. Their failures, shortcomings and mistakes are equally as important in the road to success as those colorful, exuberant representations of mastery are.

Stony Brook University’s reputation may appear intimidating, with a rigorous curriculum, a robust research enterprise and a productive doctoral degree program. Graduates from Stony Brook University in these trying and complex times require an exceptional level of determination and passion, as well as a curiosity undeterred by hostility towards academic institutions and the societal pressure to fit “in-the-box.” Whether this pressure comes from the media, family, peers or even themselves, students can and should rely on their curiosity and passion; it is just a matter of finding what greases the gears of each of their unique minds. 

Graduates this year overcame a pandemic, may have struggled financially, and may have honored fallen family members this past Memorial Day. Some may have immigrated or were the first members of their family to attend college, while others may have faced discrimination. Fueled by curiosity and grit, these graduates can tackle any problem. We thank Stony Brook’s 2025 graduates for their contributions to the school and to the community. We wish them well and hope they can reflect fondly on their time in our community as they prepare for the challenges of the future.

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The New York State Police are warning the public about an ongoing phone spoofing scam in which scammers impersonate members of law enforcement or government agencies in an attempt to solicit sensitive personal information from individuals across New York State and beyond.

According to a press release on May 30, in recent days individuals have reported receiving phone calls from numbers that appear to be legitimate New York State Police phone lines,Callers falsely claiming to be law enforcement officials have demanded personal information such as Social Security numbers and have threatened punitive action against recipients who refuse to comply.

These calls are fraudulent. The New York State Police and other legitimate government agencies will never call individuals and demand sensitive information or threaten arrest or legal action over the phone.

Phone number spoofing is a tactic commonly used by scammers nationwide to make it appear as if calls are coming from trusted agencies. These scams are designed to create confusion and fear, often leading victims to comply with demands or share information that can be used to commit further fraud.

What You Should Do If You Receive a Suspicious Call:

  1. Do not provide any personal information.
  2. Do not send money or make payments under threat.
  3. Hang up immediately—even if the caller ID appears legitimate.
  4. Save any voicemails and record the phone number if possible.
  5. Verify the call by contacting the agency directly using a trusted number.

The New York State Police urge all residents to remain vigilant and to report any suspicious activity involving impersonation of law enforcement or government agencies.

 

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Photo courtesy of Del Vino Vineyards
Gold, silver and bronze medals awarded to Northport-based winery

Del Vino Vineyards of Northport has announced that several of its wines have received top honors at the prestigious 2025 Mid-Atlantic Winemaker Challenge, earning three Gold Medals, one Silver, and one Bronze, further solidifying its position as a leader in premium winemaking on Long Island’s North Shore.

The vineyard’s 2022 Ultimo, 2023 Sauvignon Blanc — Ventola, and 2023 Orange Blossom wines each received Gold Medals in their respective categories. The 2022 Suprema earned a Silver Medal, while the 2023 Pinot Grigio — Bobina was awarded Bronze.

“These awards are a reflection of our team’s passion, precision, and commitment to the craft,” said Joe Evangelista, Head Winemaker at Del Vino Vineyards. “From vineyard to bottle, every detail matters. We’re thrilled to see our Ultimo and Ventola recognized with top honors. 

“It’s especially exciting to see our Orange Blossom recognized—it’s a brand-new varietal we introduced last year, and it was an instant hit during the summer season. As far as we know, we’re the only vineyard on the East Coast producing wine from these grapes,” he added.

“This recognition means everything to us,” said Fred Giachetti, owner of Del Vino Vineyards. “We’ve always believed that Northport could be home to world-class wines, and these awards are a testament to that belief. We’re incredibly grateful to our community, our team, and every guest who supports us year after year.”

The Mid-Atlantic Winemaker Challenge is a blind-tasting competition judged by industry experts and sommeliers, showcasing the best wines from across the region.

Award-winning bottles are now available at the vineyard’s tasting room and can also be enjoyed during regular dining hours.

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