Village Times Herald

Pete Caldera will perform at The Jazz Loft on May 4, 5 and 6.

Frank Sinatra once said, “I think my real ambition is to pass on to others what I know. It took me a long, long time to learn what I now know, and I don’t want that to die with me.”

Enter vocalist Pete Caldera to grab the “Sinatra baton” with his perfectly nuanced interpretations of Frank’s catalog. Caldera will head to The Jazz Loft, 275 Christian Ave., Stony Brook for three shows filled with Sinatra classics, called “Strictly Sinatra,” on May 4, 5 and 6, with all shows starting at 7 p.m. Caldera will be joined by the Jazz Loft’s 17-piece big band directed by Jazz Loft founder Tom Manuel.

“Sinatra was one of the most important entertainers of the 20th Century,” said Manuel. “Just as Frank never did anything in a small way, we will be devoting three nights to Ol’ Blue Eyes, with Pete Caldera.”

This is Caldera’s second year performing at The Jazz Loft’s tributes to Frank Sinatra. Away from performing, Caldera is a reporter for the Bergen Record and the USA Today network, covering the Yankees. He is a past chairman of the New York Chapter of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America for the Bergen Record and the USA Today network, covering the Yankees.

Tickets are $40 adults, $35 seniors, $30 students, $25 children at www.thejazzloft.org or at the door. For more information, call 631-751-1895.

Photo from Leg. Hahn's office

On May 1, Suffolk County Legislator Kara Hahn (D-Setauket) kicked off her annual countywide “A Park a Day in May” campaign designed to encourage Suffolk residents to visit, enjoy and help promote and protect Suffolk County’s hundreds of parks. This year, she invited her fellow legislators to participate by choosing a favorite park in each of their districts to highlight together.

In addition, in a separate but related initiative, Hahn is also partnering with the Association for Mental Health and Wellness (AMHW) to bring attention to May being Mental Health Awareness month and the tangible role parks can play in helping to minimize the impact of stress on our daily lives.

For several years, Hahn has highlighted a park a day each day for 31 days during May using social media to spread the word. She challenges county residents to visit each of the parks highlighted sometime during the spring or summer; take and post a “selfie” that identifies which park they are visiting, and include the hashtag #aparkaday with their Facebook, Twitter and Instagram posts.  “We have a remarkable park system in Suffolk County and across Long Island that provides our residents with nearly limitless recreational opportunities to get out in nature at very little cost,” said Hahn.  “Not only does the ‘A Park a Day in May’ Challenge give people a roadmap for exploring our majestic natural landscape, but it also gives them the opportunity to celebrate that journey of exploration with their family and friends.”

Each day in May, Hahn will highlight another park, more than half chosen by her fellow legislators. From Inlet Pond Park on the North Fork to Laurel Valley Park on the South Fork, Sagtikos Manor on the South Shore and West Hills on the North Shore, the legislators are joining with Hahn in highlighting favorite parks across the county. In 2016, Hahn began her challenge focusing on parks within District Five, the legislative district she serves. “Residents of my district really took up the challenge, and each year since we have expanded our reach and I am excited and hopeful that across Long Island, families are going to get into the spirit of the idea of ‘A Park a Day in May,’” said Hahn.

Through the “A Park a Day in May” campaign, Hahn has enlisted scores of Suffolk residents in raising awareness about Suffolk’s parks.  “Whether along a waterfront or deep in a forest, our parks and beaches are the natural resources that define our quality of life and make Suffolk and all of Long Island unique, and we must do everything we can to keep them clean, safe and accessible to local residents,” said Hahn.

Hahn chaired Suffolk’s Parks & Recreation Committee for five years beginning in 2017 and has focused on protecting the County’s more than 50,000 acres of parkland from illegal dumping and misuse, while also finding innovative ways to increase public access and enjoyment of these parks.  That year, Hahn led an effort to expose illegal dumping in some county parks and provide stiffer penalties for such abuse. Hahn has also created a volunteer Parks Stewardship program for County parks and has also created a fifth-district Parks Passport for kids and is working with the County Parks Department on a countywide version as well.

Legislator Hahn is accepting recommendations for parks to highlight during the 2023 “A Park a Day in May,” and is asking residents to take a photo of themselves in their favorite park and e-mail it to [email protected] along with the reason why that park is their favorite.

 

At 11-3 on the season, the Patriots of Ward Melville opened game one of the best of three game series at home against Bellport (6-8) on Monday, May 1, having defeated the Clippers decisively back in early April.

The Patriots bats spoke first, building a 7-4 advantage after four innings with pitcher Thomas Ruehle working his way out of a jam on two occasions in the early going. The Patriots prevailed, winning the League IV matchup, 9-5.

The Patriots trail top-seeded Connetquot by one game with five games remaining before postseason play begins May 16.

Aardvark. Pixabay photo

An international scientific project that compares the genomes of 240 living species of mammals has identified transposable elements (TEs) – genes that can change their position within a genome, creating or reversing mutations and thus altering a cell’s genetic identity – as a crucial area of study to help uncover the evolutionary process of mammals and to better understand biodiversity. Stony Brook University’s Liliana M. Dávalos is a collaborator in the analyses of TEs for the project. Two new papers, one published in the current issue of Science, and the other in Molecular Biology and Evolution, highlight the findings.

This graphic depicts the range of recently accumulated transposable elements (TEs) among sample mammals by proportion of their genome. Image credit: Osmanski et al. 2023 Science

The past 100 million years has caused mammals to adapt to virtually every environment on the planet. The Zoonomia Project, of which Dávalos is a scientific contributor, has cataloged the diversity in mammalian genomes by completing comparative genomic DNA sequences from the 240 species. The team, which consists of more than 150 scientists worldwide, published their multi-year comparative genome analysis in the Science paper.

Dávalos studies how biodiversity changes through time and what biological processes fuel biodiversity. She teamed up with David Ray and his lab at Texas Tech University to qualitatively analyze the dynamics of TEs.

The paper describes the TE repertoires of 248 placental mammals. TEs make up a sizeable proportion of all mammalian genomes, yet there is much variation from one species to the next. The scientific team points out that that relating TEs to biodiversity is far from simple. Additionally, with the ability to move throughout the genome, TEs can contribute to biodiversity or also stymie it.

“Determining how many transposable elements of each kind are in each species is key to figuring out how transposons contribute to biodiversity. It seems simple to relate these counts to the number of species or their ecology, however that is misleading,” explains Dávalos, Professor of Conservation Biology in the Department of Ecology and Evolution, and a co-author of the paper. “Some species , like bats and whales, believe it or not are more closely related to each other than to others, such as bats and primates, so we must factor this related into our statistics within the comparative genomic mammalian analyses.”

The researchers identified more than 25,000 TE sequences in the mammalian set, with some mammals having large portions of TEs in their genome, calculated over time for each species. The average was approximately 45 percent

Overall, they concluded that “considering the wide-ranging effects that TEs impose on genomic architecture, these data are an important resource for future inquiries into mammalian genomics and evolution and suggest avenues for continued study of these important yet understudied genomic denizens.”

In the Molecular Biology and Evolution paper, novel statistical approaches to determining genome sequences in bats developed by Dávalos were used by the authors to describe the place bats hold with regard to TEs in mammals.

According to the lead author, Nicole Paulat, a graduate student in the Ray Lab, the research team found bats uniquely have more events involving TE transfers from one species to another. One mechanism that may explain such excess transfers is through viruses, an important finding on how several bat species have been found to host diverse and sometimes dangerous viruses.

Both papers based on the work from the Zoonomia Project illustrate that TEs are highly active across the genome of most mammal species, and because of this, future studies centering on TEs may help provide answers to mammalian biodiversity worldwide. Such research may also provide further hints as to how and why TEs disrupt mammalian genomes, therefore changing DNA and contributing to evolutionary processes and/or the development of disease.

Stock photo

Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond A. Tierney announced on April 28 that his office’s Financial Crimes Bureau, in partnership with the Suffolk County Police Department’s Financial Crimes Unit, were able to recover $140,000 and return it back to an 87-year-old Suffolk County victim of a phone scam and warns the public to very skeptical if they face similar circumstances.

“Scammers are becoming more and more sophisticated, and they are preying on our vulnerable elderly population. The public needs be made aware of how they operate so they can take precautions to safeguard their funds if they are targeted,” said District Attorney Tierney.

“Due to the diligence and timely efforts of law enforcement partners, we were able to recover $140,000 here and provide it back to the victim. To avoid being scammed, any time you receive a phone call or communication where the person requests your personal information, money, or requests a transfer of funds, stop that line of communication. Hang up the phone. Do not respond to that e- mail or text. Take a moment to slow down and be skeptical. Call your bank or the agency that the scammer says they are from using published phone numbers (not a phone number the scammer gives you). Consult an expert or law enforcement, or just speak with your dependable friends or relatives about the phone conversation before accepting the story as true and sending money,” he said.

According to the investigation, the scam here began in July 2022, when the elderly victim was told by someone purporting to be from her bank that her account had been flagged, and she was instructed to call a number for “FBI Special Agent Johnson.” The victim, who is from Setauket, asked that her identity be kept confidential.

When the victim called the number provided by the scammer, the purported “FBI agent” advised the victim that someone had stolen her identity in order to rent a vehicle which was recovered in Texas with drugs and blood found in it. The phony agent further directed the victim that to protect her savings from the thieves who had stolen her social security number and identity, she needed to send her money to others for safekeeping and to pay for a new social security number.

The scammer established a rapport with the Suffolk County victim by calling every day to check up on her. The scammer’s efforts ramped up when he told her that there was a “gag order” placed on her, so she would not divulge “confidential information” on an “open investigation.” The scammer also sent her confirmation letters of transactions between the two on counterfeit FBI letterhead. In total, the victim sent the scammer cashier’s checks totaling over $650,000.

In December 2022, an Adult Protective Services Investigator from South Bend, Indiana, reached out to a Suffolk County Police Department Financial Crimes Unit detective to alert her that that while Indiana authorities were investigating a phone scammer case, they had obtained the name of the Suffolk County woman, who may have also been a victim. The victim here was initially apprehensive to talk to the Suffolk County detective because she had already been manipulated by the scammer on the phone who warned her the detective may be a con artist. Once the victim confirmed that the detective was a legitimate member of law enforcement, the victim described the elaborate scheme that had led to her sending more $650,000 to the fraudulent “FBI agent.”

The District Attorney’s Financial Crimes Bureau prepared a seizure order which seized $115,000 from a South Bend bank account, which represented some of the monies sent by the Suffolk County victim. Those funds were returned to the victim. Investigators on this case also learned that the victim had sent a cashier’s check for $25,000 to a location in Queens, New York.

After discovering that the package with the check was still in transit, detectives worked in unison with FedEx authorities to intercept that package before it was delivered and returned the $25,000 check to the elderly Suffolk County victim.

If you or someone you know may have been a victim of this or any scam, please call the Suffolk County Police Department’s Financial Crimes Unit at 631-852-6821.

 

Do you recognize this man? Photo from SCPD
Photo from SCPD

Suffolk County Crime Stoppers and Suffolk County Police Fourth Precinct Crime Section officers are seeking the public’s help to identify and locate the man who allegedly stole merchandise from a Lake Grove store in April.

A man allegedly stole assorted items from L.L. Bean, located at 1 Smith Haven Mall, on April 18.

Suffolk County Crime Stoppers offers a cash reward for information that leads to an arrest. Anyone with information about these incidents can contact Suffolk County Crime Stoppers to submit an anonymous tip by calling 1-800-220-TIPS, utilizing a mobile app which can be downloaded through the App Store or Google Play by searching P3 Tips, or online at www.P3Tips.com. All calls, text messages and emails will be kept confidential.

Pixabay photo

It’s difficult to drive anywhere on Long Island without facing speeding and aggressive drivers. We welcome measures to curtail such behavior, including the recent state Automated Work Zone Speed Enforcement program, where speed cameras are installed in work zones on highways and parkways.

Construction workers have the right to feel and be safe on the job. We applaud the state for taking action to grant them this right. We further welcome measures the state has taken to try to ensure the program is a fair one, such as the initial 30-day warning period prior to issuing fines.

After the program was announced, the overwhelming response from the public was one of outrage and aggravation. We reject the notion that this is due to people wanting to avoid responsibility. Rather, this is a symptom of the fundamental distrust the average constituent has in their government. Several aspects of the program, and its rollout, give the public good reason to question the state’s motivation for implementing it in the first place.

For instance, a list of the supposed locations of speed cameras has been heavily circulating on social media. However, when several news outlets asked the state to confirm, they declined. It wasn’t until early this week that details were released. This lack of transparency is a prime example of the perception the public has of the program. 

The state website indicates that 30 cameras “will be moved around to work zones throughout the state.” When this does occur, we hope the public will be informed, as the state has promised.

Further, the sporadic location of cameras poses the question of why the cameras will not be instituted in all work zones, if the state is so concerned about safety. We would encourage the state to provide more information to the public, in terms of locations of the cameras, as well as remain equitable in terms of where they place cameras. We wouldn’t want to see cameras be solely allocated to low-income areas, affluent areas or middle-class areas.

Other components of the program, such as issuing violations for as little as 10 miles an hour over the speed limit as per state law, are reasons for further distrust, and why the average member of the public views this as a money grab.

Such little wiggle room for drivers also points to a lack of empathy from the state for the average Long Islander. We do not condone speeding in work zones, but someone going  as little as 10 miles over the speed limit, which drivers sometimes do, could be a parent trying to get to work to pay the bills after getting their children on the bus, a health care worker trying to get to the hospital, or someone simply preoccupied by the stresses of their day who has overlooked their speed.

The state has assured the public that signs will be displayed prior to entering a speed zone. We truly hope this remains the case, so a person is not surprised if a ticket is received.

Lastly, Newsday reported that 60% of fines will pay for work zone projects, and 40% will go to the vendor. This seems like a high take for the corporation involved and a poor use of the public’s money.

Ultimately, we hope the public is considerate of other drivers, as well as road workers, and we hope the state is considerate of the public in implementing this program.

The new state program will use photo enforcement technologies to monitor speeding in work-zones. Following a 30-day grace period, violators will receive a fine by mail. Photo from Wikimedia Commons

New York State has introduced its Automated Work Zone Speed Enforcement program. 

The system clocks vehicles traveling above the speed limit in specified work zones. A registered owner of a vehicle will be ticketed by mail if the posted work-zone speed limit is exceeded by more than 10 miles per hour, according to the legislation signed into law by Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) in September, 2021.

The law states that the “owner of a vehicle shall be liable for a penalty” when that “vehicle was traveling at a speed of more than 10 miles per hour above the posted speed limit in effect within such highway construction or maintenance work area, and such violation is evidenced by information obtained from a photo speed violation monitoring system.”

The ny.gov website indicates that this new program will be “located in construction or maintenance zones on New York State controlled access highways and parkways.” It also indicates that signs leading up to the enforcement areas will make it clear that a driver is entering one.

In a phone interview, Stephen Canzoneri, a spokesman for Region 10 of the state Department of Transportation, said that there will be “two signs posted in advance of the camera.” He added that these cameras are “only being placed in active work zones where there are boots on the ground.”

During the first 30 days of the program —which began Monday, April 17, according to Canzoneri — New York State will issue warnings by mail instead of actual fines. After this initial warning period, drivers violating the posted work-zone speed limits in the enforcement areas will receive a $50 fine by mail.

For a second violation, a violator will receive $75 fine, so long as this violation is within an 18-month period of the first violation. Any third or subsequent violations will result in a $100 fine if, once again, these are within 18 months of the first violation.

The website also states that “there will be 30 work-zone speed units … that will be moved around to work zones throughout the state.” To see an up-to-date listing of where the speed cameras are currently being utilized, go to www.ny.gov/work-zone-safety-awareness/automated-work-zone-speed-enforcement-program and scroll down to “Locations” on the left-hand side. The cameras are “being placed on the limited access highways, such as the Long Island Expressway, Northern State Parkway, a portion of Sunrise [Highway] in central Suffolk,” Canzoneri said.

The ny.gov website clarifies that drivers will not receive points on their licenses for violations in these zones and that these penalties are strictly “civil in nature, with no criminal implications.”

In 2021, there were 378 “work-zone intrusions” and that more than 50 of these intrusions resulted in injury for either a highway worker or a vehicle occupant. “A work-zone intrusion is defined as an incident where a motor vehicle has entered a portion of the roadway that is closed due to construction or maintenance activity,” the ny.gov website states.

“We are seeing an increase in work-zone intrusions throughout the Island,” Canzoneri said. “More people are back on the roads after the COVID shutdowns. And traffic patterns are returning to what they were. And unfortunately, it means that there’s more danger for our workers on the road.”

In a phone interview, Jaime Franchi, Long Island Contractors’ Association director of communications and government relations, said, “Anything that is a deterrent that makes people pause while they’re driving in a zone where our highway workers are vulnerable is something that we would absolutely advocate for.”

Franchi added that LICA has been advocating for highway safety for many years, particularly on winding stretches of the Southern State Parkway. “They deserve to get home to their families,” Franchi said about highway workers.

Canzoneri agreed. “We want everybody to go home at the end of the day to be with their families,” he said.

The ny.gov website indicates that this five-year program is a joint effort by the state Department of Transportation and the state Thruway Authority.

Left to right: Deputy Mayor Maria Torres-Springer, Simons Foundation president David Spergel, SBU President Maurie McInnis, New York City Mayor Eric Adams, Harbor School student Leanna Martin Peterson and Trust for Governors Island President Clare Newman. Photo by John Griffin/Stony Brook University

Climate change often conjures images of violent storms, rising sea levels and endangered animals.

Scientists around the world warn so often about the dangers to our one and only planet that some couples have decided to hold off — or even not — have children among all the future anxiety.

Amid all that worry, however, New York City, the Trust for Governors Island, Stony Brook University and a team of other universities, nonprofits and businesses are working on the kind of solutions that could lead to a better future.

On a sun-splashed Monday morning at Governors Island just off the southern tip of Manhattan, Mayor Eric Adams (D), SBU President Maurie McInnis, Simons Foundation President David Spergel and a host of other luminaries discussed a new $710 million center for climate solutions, which Stony Brook as the anchor institution has called the New York Climate Exchange.

With $100 million in backing from the Simons Foundation, $50 million from Bloomberg Philanthropies and $150 million from New York City, the center will serve a host of important functions, including retraining 6,000 workers a year for jobs in the green energy sector, providing incubator space for businesses that are working on climate solutions and educating children from kindergarten through 12th grade.

In addition to the huge win for Stony Brook, which competed against other high-powered public and private universities for this coveted lead role, the effort could be a victory for New York, the surrounding mid-Atlantic states, the country and the planet.

Near the Statue of Liberty, which is a beacon of hope for democracy and an iconic symbol of the country, the Governors Island effort can come up with solutions and alternatives to a doom-and-gloom scenario while also sparking a commitment from students eager to find an outlet for their energy and creativity.

Will the center on its own help the world avoid the 1.5 degrees Celsius increase in temperature from the pre-Industrial Revolution days that scientists often point to as a tipping point for the planet? 

Absolutely not. That’s up to everyone from government and state leaders to huge companies and even individuals in the U.S. and throughout the world.

What the climate center, which will be completed in 2028 and will generate its own electric power without adding greenhouse gasses, will do is encourage dialogue with everyone, offer hope and provide a place for the best and brightest minds to develop answers to some of the world’s most troubling questions.

Coming just a few days after Earth Day, that is worth celebrating.

TVGC President Karin Ryon with Giovanna Maffetone, SCCC scholarship recipient on April 11. Photo courtesy of Three Village Garden Club

Representatives from Suffolk County Community College attended the Three Village Garden Club meeting at the Setauket Neighborhood House on April 11  to present the Three Village Garden Club Scholarship to Giovanna Maffetone. This scholarship is offered to Suffolk County Community College students enrolled in the Environmental Science/Forestry program, specifically targeting students planning to transfer to a four year SUNY ESF program.

Chris Williams from the Suffolk Community College Foundation presented a $5000 scholarship check to Giovanna. Also in attendance was Vladimir Jurukovski, Academic Chair of Biology at the SCCC Ammerman campus.

The Three Village Garden Club is happy to support young people who are pursuing careers in horticultural science, wildlife science, ecology, environmental science, landscaping, forestry, and plant science. Additional scholarships are awarded to students from Ward Melville High School and SUNY Farmingdale.