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Your Turn

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By John Avlon

This past week’s extreme weather is yet another wake-up call that we can’t afford to ignore. 

Touring the damage in Port Jefferson village, the devastation was striking, but let’s be honest — none of this should surprise us anymore. We’ve seen it before, and it’s clear we need to do more. The federal government has got to step up, which is why I’ll work to make sure that we deliver more relief and resilience for our communities in the face of natural disasters. 

The first step is a significant boost in funding for FEMA’s Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities grant program. BRIC isn’t just another government acronym — it’s a crucial resource for states, local communities, tribes and territories to tackle hazard mitigation head-on, reducing disaster risks before they strike. The goal is simple: Stop reacting after disasters and start building resilience now. 

BRIC is currently funded by a 6% set-aside from major disaster declarations, meaning the funding is inconsistent and not guaranteed. While the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act committed $1 billion to BRIC over five years, that’s just a drop in the bucket. That’s why I’m advocating for an annual $1 billion investment in BRIC. To be serious about this issue, we need to make serious investments.

This investment isn’t just smart policy — it pays off big time. The National Institute of Building Sciences reports that every federal dollar spent on hazard prevention saves society $6. That’s a return on investment that would make Wall Street jealous.

But we can’t stop there. There’s a glaring gap in FEMA eligibility that needs to be addressed. Condos, co-ops and homeowners associations are excluded from aid because FEMA classifies them as businesses. That’s absurd. These are middle-class housing options that deserve relief like everyone else. 

I saw it firsthand at a homeowners association I visited in Port Jefferson, where a landslide wreaked havoc after the rain. This gap has been well known since Hurricane Sandy, and it’s time to fix it.

Send me to Congress, and I’ll fight to bring real resources home and tackle climate change with the urgency it demands. The time for action is now.

John Avlon is Democratic candidate for New York Congressional District 1 on Nov. 5.

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A construction worker assesses the damage of Harbor Road, just above the emptied Stony Brook Mill Pond. Photo by Toni-Elena Gallo

By Kurt Johnsen

To say the least, it was a gut punch when I heard and saw the footage that Harbor Road and the dam at the Mill Pond in Stony Brook was breached by the “thousand-year” rain. The water cascaded into the creek with its fish, turtles and plethora of biodiversity. Most of it settled into the harbor. In a flash, a diamond of my childhood was swept away with it.

In 1965, when I was 5 years old, I got my first Mill Pond Fishing Club badge and enjoyed my first opening day of trout season. It was a cold April morning when my father and I chose our place on the shore. I followed his instructions and put the worm on the hook. I cast out my bobber and bait. I know I cast because we had practiced in our backyard. After a while my bobber started to jiggle. Then it dipped below the surface of the water — I reeled in my first trout. The sky opened, and God spoke: “You are a fisherman.”

Next, we went to the Stony Brook Yacht Club. The adults served ham and eggs on hard rolls. Then it was time for the momentous occasion: the fishing contest. The first announcement was the winner of the junior category. I won! At all future family gatherings from that day forward, including one last week, I repeat the words my 5-year-old self said that day: “They put me up on a table and they all said “’ratulations.” I won a fishing pole and a tackle box, but the memory was worth far more than these prizes.

For the next couple of years, my father and big brother took me fishing at the pond frequently. The prelude to fishing started the night before. I was taught how to catch “night crawlers.” These meaty worms are perfectly named. They burrow out of the soil at night to garner more oxygen. Catching them is an art. The light from the flashlight does not bother them, but with any perceived motion they disappear back into the soil. I had to be slow, quiet and swift to grab them. The grass below our large cherry tree was the hotspot. We picked nice healthy fistfuls of large worms and put them into an old tobacco can, where they spent the night in the fridge.

Although it seems incomprehensible in 2024, in those days the pond was pristine. Brook trout spawned in the small creek near the upper pond. My big brother showed me that if I slowly and carefully walked on the small bridge next to where the cup where the spring water comes out of a tap, I could see them. Brook trout require cold, clean, brilliant water. Those were the days.

By the time I was 9 or 10, I could go down to the pond by myself. I remember one opening day when I walked to the dairy barn, down the woody path, over the railroad tracks, down Blydenburgh Lane, across Main Street to the sidewalk in front of the lumberyard and over to the pond. I parked myself at “my” tree, a red maple (it survived!), and my cast had to go right under a certain branch that draped low to the water. I swear the trout loved that place. I counted down, “5-4-3-2-1: 6:00,” and it was time to cast. Fish, breakfast, contest and, if need be, back to the pond to get my limit of three.

Even now, when I arise on a serene morning laced with dew, and the sparrows are singing hushed but bright melodies, I am transported back to those days. It’s magical.

At some point, I was given a bright red badge that simply said “Warden.” My job was to report anyone that was fishing at the pond that wasn’t a member. The gig was to go to the village office to the right of the post office and report the infringement to a nice man named Mr. Murphy. He would then go down to the crime scene, perform a thorough investigation and, if there was sufficient evidence, lay down the law and tell them to leave. It happened once. I was a Trout Narc.

With the summer heat, the trout would stop biting. We fished for small, inbred, stunted bass as well as sunfish. And we snuck onto the trail to the woody back of the pond adjacent to the upper pond. There were large oaks that had fallen into the pond but still lay across it. We would climb out to the end of them and try to fish. We mostly lost our hooks.

Speaking of the upper pond, it was loaded with huge trout. We were not permitted to fish in it but, of course, we did. When we were about 10 years old, my friend Eddie and I fished the pond. I caught a very big trout and hooked it on a stringer. An old lady who lived across the street — a legend in her own time — came rushing up to us maniacally screaming that we couldn’t fish there.

She took my trout and threw it out into the pond and then harrumphed away. I was not happy. I was taking off my shoes and shirt and ready to swim out to get it. Then, I swear, a guy backed up an old woody station wagon to the pond. He opened the back hatch, pulled out a piece of plywood to make a ramp and slid a giant snapping turtle into the pond — remember that we were 10. At that point, I was damn well not going to swim out to get my trout!

The dog days of summer meant carp fishing. In the evenings, my friends and I would fish near the end of the pond left of the big buckeye tree and right of the point across from the island. I could see the shadows of the giant carp come lumbering in, and if I was lucky I got one. I was only lucky a couple of times. Deemed a danger to the trout population, we threw these carp down the ramp that led out of the dam and into the creek. We were proud to be good citizens and help our invaluable trout population. Plus, it was fun. Everything was fun at the Mill Pond.

As you might guess by now, although I lived in Stony Brook surrounded by salt water, I was a freshwater fisherman. I still am. If you were around in the late 1960s and early ’70s and were driving on Stony Brook Road or Route 25A, you likely saw a boy riding his bike holding a fishing pole and a stringer of fish in his hand. That boy was me.

The Mill Pond Fishing Club sponsored me to go to the New York State Department of Environment Conservation Camp DeBruce in Sullivan County in the Catskills. We campers got fly-fishing lessons, learned to identify trees, learned how to conduct fish surveys in a stream and more. At that point I knew I wanted to work in fisheries or forestry. 

I am now a forest scientist. I was 15 in my last year in the club. On my final opening day, I won first place again. Bookends. I think it was that year they stocked a “breeder.” It was a brown trout with a hooked jaw that weighed 6 pounds. It was immediately proclaimed “the big trout.” I caught it. I still have all my badges from my years in the fishing club in my treasure chest.

When I turned 17, I became an Eagle Scout. For my Eagle project I led a group of boys in making wood duck houses. Wood ducks are small, fast-flying, colorful ducks that nest in tree cavities. They became threatened in the early 20th century. I hoped I could attract them to the pond. The group constructed three houses in my father’s wood shop. And then a few of us, led by an adult, paddled to the island with a ladder and we hung three boxes on trees that were meant to act as cavities. I never observed any wood ducks at the pond, but you never know. I was so proud of those houses.

My wife and I are fanatical Beatles fans. When I heard and saw how the Mill Pond was destroyed, I felt the same emotion that I felt when I heard John Lennon was murdered, a horrific memory etched in my psyche. People have told me those two events are not comparable, but for me there was Sgt. Pepper and the Mill Pond. What can I say?

I do think the pond will live and thrive again. It isn’t just a matter of making a new dam and letting the pond fill again. It’s not a fishbowl. It was and will be an intricate ecosystem, and it will take time to recover. Hard decisions will have to be made. What species of fish will be stocked? Just trout? Bass? Even carp? We’ll see.

The new dam will have to be skillfully engineered and built. The old Harbor Road was just a thin slice of hardtop sitting on top of sand. The new road needs to be reinforced to withstand the raging storms that will haunt us as climate change continues to uproot our lives.

However, the barren Mill Pond presents an opportunity for important archaeological explorations. With its cold, pure, fresh water, the small creek flowing out of the deep springs must have been an important feature of native tribes’ lives. An abundance of precious relics certainly reposes under the centuries of sediment deposited since the first Grist Mill was built in 1699. Clearly, the ancestors of the indigenous Setalcott Indian Nation should be the first to provide input on how to proceed.

This may seem an odd way to end my essay, but there is an elephant in the room: the white ducks! Had you visited the Mill Pond even the week before last, you would have witnessed a horde of people throwing handful after handful of white bread into rafts of white ducks. Make no mistake, these creatures are not native to the pond. They can’t fly, are prodigious breeders and are permanent inhabitants. Those cute little chicks given to kids for Easter grow fast, and where do they end up? The Mill Pond. 

The bread that is fed to them is foul (pardon the pun) and provides no nutrition. If you could even see the water through the flock, you would not see past the dissolved bread and duck waste that denudes the water, the essence of life. This practice needs to be discouraged. Education is the key. There is a predominant sign at the entrance to the park informing the public about the harm that feeding bread to ducks may cause. Let’s hope people pay more attention to that sign to remind them that they are privileged to enjoy a rare ecosystem in Stony Brook, New York.

I can’t wait to visit the restored Mill Pond, the gem of my childhood.

Author Kurt Johnsen is a resident of Asheville, North Carolina.

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The author with his granddaughter at West Meadow Beach.

By Thomas M. Cassidy

Thomas M. Cassidy

According to a new CNBC poll, Social Security is a top issue for most American voters, so let’s strengthen this vital program rather than water it down. 

Social Security has provided essential economic support for Americans for almost 100 years. The program, which provides workers with inflation-protected retirement, disability and survivorship benefits, is a model for the world: It’s such an effective, efficient and easy-to-understand program that its principal features have been adopted by more than 170 countries.   

Social Security is not a welfare program; it’s paid for by workers. For 2024, workers are taxed 12.4% on their income up to $168,600. If you work for someone, a 6.2% tax is taken out of your paycheck and your employer pays the other 6.2%. If you are self-employed, you pay the full 12.4% when you file your taxes. The more years you work, the more tax you pay and the higher your benefit.

However, the trustees of the Social Security trust fund estimate that Social Security will be able to pay 100% of scheduled benefits only until 2033, and “at that time, the fund’s reserves will become depleted and continuing program income will be sufficient to pay 79 percent of scheduled benefits.” 

One proposed solution has been raising the full retirement age from 67 to 70. But that would hurt millennials and Gen Z workers and gain us only a few more years of solvency. Twenty-five or 30 years from now, monthly Social Security checks might be the only lifeline to keep retired workers from poverty. Keep in mind: People can’t work into their older years if artificial intelligence takes their jobs, and Goldman Sachs estimates that 25% of current work tasks could be automated by AI. 

There is another solution.

Medicare and Medicaid programs have wasted trillions of taxpayer dollars since the beginning of this century, money that could have been used to fully fund the Social Security Trust Fund. For example, the Government Accountability Office estimates the combined Medicare and Medicaid programs paid out more than $100 billion in improper payments in 2023 alone.

As a former senior investigator for the New York State Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, it’s disheartening to see that every year hundreds of billions of dollars are stolen from government health programs, especially knowing that the taxpayer money stolen from these essential, but dysfunctional, programs could keep Social Security on track.

President John F. Kennedy said, “One true measure of a nation is its success in fulfilling the promise of a better life for each of its members.” Fully funding Social Security will help us keep our promise for a better life for millennials, Gen Z and future generations of Americans.

Thomas M. Cassidy, an economist, is the creator of the TV series, Manhattan South, which is in development. (ktpgproductions.com)

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Tom Cassidy with his late father, Hugh 'Joe' Cassidy. Photo by Jonathan Spier

By Thomas M. Cassidy

Thomas M. Cassidy

Artificial Intelligence (AI) will cost many people their jobs. But some occupations desperately needed by a rapidly aging population cannot be replaced by computers or machines. For example, nurse assistants in hospitals and nursing homes.

Research conducted by Goldman Sachs estimates that 25% of current work tasks could be automated by Artificial Intelligence (AI). Unlike prior technological advances that replaced workers in labor intensive occupations, this time “it’s the higher-paying jobs where a college education and analytical skills can be a plus that have a high level of exposure to AI,” according to The Pew Research Center.

During my twenty-year career as an investigator for the New York State Attorney General’s Office, I conducted many investigations of potential patient abuse in nursing homes and other health facilities. I had the privilege of meeting hundreds of nursing assistants. Most were dedicated, knowledgeable and compassionate, but a few were not. Nursing aides dress, bathe, toilet and ambulate patients among many other services. Sometimes they also interact with families, which can be a difficult task. Let me explain:

I was assigned to investigate a possible case of patient abuse at a nursing home. An elderly woman with a doctor’s order for a two-person transfer was helped from her bed for a bathroom trip by only one nurse aide. The elderly woman fell and fractured her hip. The nursing assistant was immediately suspended pending an investigation. My assignment was to investigate this incident as a possible crime. Here’s what happened:

The nursing home patient had a visit from her daughter. Mom told her daughter to help her get out of bed and walk her to the bathroom. The daughter obeyed and helped mom get out of bed. The daughter tried to hold her up, but mom was weak and started to slip. The daughter screamed for help. A nursing assistant rushed to help the falling patient, but it was too late. Mom fell and fractured her hip. There was no crime. The nursing assistant returned to work the next day.

Fast forward twenty years. My father, a World War II combat veteran and a decorated NYPD Detective Commander, fractured his hip at age 80. I visited him at the Long Island State Veterans Nursing Home in Stony Brook. He was alone in his room. He says, “Tom, help me get to the bathroom.” I say, “Dad, let me get an aide to help you.” He says, “YOUR MY SON, just do this for me. I don’t want anyone else to help.” I told him about the elderly woman who fractured her hip when her daughter tried to help her. He said, okay, go get someone to help. If not for my experience as an investigator, I might have tried to help my father. I was taught “To Honor Thy Father and Thy Mother.” But instead, two aides moved my dad safely to the bathroom and back into his bed. Nine months later he walked out of the nursing home to live at home with my mother. 

Not every resident of a nursing home is elderly, but most are. In the United States today, one in every six Americans is age 65 or older. That number will increase dramatically in the next six years to 20% of the population or 70 million older Americans. Incredibly, nursing homes are closing, instead of opening. 

The American Health Care Association reports that since 2020 almost 600 nursing homes have closed, and more than half of nursing homes limit new admissions due to staffing shortages. As a result, there is a shortfall of hospital beds nationwide because displaced nursing home patients remain in hospital beds until they can be safely transferred home or to a care facility.

The Massachusetts Hospital Association reports that one out of every seven medical-surgical beds are unavailable due to patients remaining in the hospital when they no longer need hospital care. Keep in mind that hospitals are required by federal law to provide emergency care, stabilize patients, and discharge patients to a safe environment.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that nursing assistants have one of the highest rates of injuries and illnesses because they frequently move patients and perform other physically demanding tasks. For these, and many other tasks, nurse assistants are paid a median wage of less than $18 per hour; not even close to a salary that is in line with the responsibilities of their job. Small wonder that a survey by the American Health Care Association found that one of the biggest obstacles for hiring new staff in nursing homes is a lack of interested candidates.

Reversing the hemorrhage of nursing home closures requires leaders with Natural Intelligence (NI). It benefits all generations of Americans when hospitals fulfill their mission for acute care and not operate as quasi-nursing homes. After all, languishing in a crowded emergency room “Can Be Hazardous To Your Health!”

Thomas M. Cassidy is the creator of the TV series, Manhattan South, which is in development. (ktpgproductions.com)

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Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney. Photo from Tierney's office

Prepared by District Attorney Raymond A. Tierney and Dr. Jeffrey L. Reynolds

Dr. Jeffrey L. Reynolds

New York’s roads are deadlier than ever. With the legalization of personal use quantities of marijuana and New York’s antiquated impaired driving laws, which have not kept up with new synthetic designer drugs, the problem is getting worse by the day. The Drugged Driving Loopholes in our laws enable dangerous drivers to escape responsibility far too often while endangering innocent people simply trying to drive on our roads or walk on our sidewalks in safety.  

The Drugged Driving Loopholes exist because New York is one of only four states that still uses an archaic list to allow for arrest and prosecution of drugged driving. In New York, to prosecute a drugged driver, it is not enough that the drug has impaired the driver. The substance must be listed in the Public Health Law passed by the state Legislature and signed by the governor, before a dangerous, obviously impaired driver can be arrested. Right now, a driver can be as “high as a kite,” but if they are high on a drug, or other substance that is not listed, they go free. For instance, drugs such as xylazine (“tranq”), analogues of fentanyl and nitazene (“ISO”) are not on New York’s list.  

With modern chemistry, our lawmakers cannot keep up with new designer synthetic drugs coming out regularly. The constant influx of new impairing substances has turned the drug list into a barrier against stopping dangerously impaired drivers. It is at the root of the National Transportation Safety Board’s recommendation to New York and three other states to abandon the limitation of an ineffective drug list that will never be able to keep up.  

Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney

Additionally, even drivers high on a drug that is on New York’s list can avoid responsibility by simply refusing to take an identifying test because it prevents the drug from being named. Twenty percent of drivers in New York evaluated by police Drug Recognition Experts in 2021 refused to take a chemical test, up from 13 percent in 2019. We are not protected when drugged drivers can escape arrest simply by refusing a test. 

The type of alcohol ingested by a driver does not have to be named for someone to be charged with Driving While Intoxicated and if impairment is observed, no test is needed to establish a blood alcohol level or whether it was whiskey, vodka or wine, that has caused a driver to be impaired. The same should be true for drugs.  

Just like with alcohol impairment, driver appearance, behavior and common sense ought to apply to drug-impaired drivers too. Blood alcohol tests are valuable evidence in DWI cases, but if drivers refuse the test for alcohol, they can still be prosecuted and lose their licenses based on the other impairment factors.  

This is a public safety and public health emergency. If we have learned anything during the current opioid crisis, it is that public safety is enhanced when law enforcement and addiction treatment providers work together. Laws that hold people accountable for their actions, paired with evidence-based substance use prevention messages and readily accessible drug and alcohol treatment for those who need it, will save lives.  

It is time to plug the loopholes. New York’s outdated approach to impaired driving handcuffs law enforcement, leaves those struggling with a drug problem untreated and puts innocent people at risk. A commonsense bipartisan bill (S3135/A174), backed by both law enforcement and addiction treatment providers, has been introduced in Albany this session to plug these Drugged Driving Loopholes. We need to be responsible and keep everyone safe. It is time to reverse the increase in highway deaths and save lives by passing the Deadly Driving Bill.  

Raymond A. Tierney (R) is the Suffolk County district attorney and Dr. Jeffrey L. Reynolds is the president/CEO of Family and Children’s Association, based in Garden City. Both are members of the Coalition to Protect New Yorkers from Drugged Driving. 

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Flaco spotted in Central Park over the summer. Photo by by Gil Yang

By Patrice Domeischel

It was inevitable. Life for any bird is fraught with perils. That Flaco, the Eurasian Eagle-Owl illegally released over one year ago from the confines of his lifetime home in the Central Park Zoo would survive despite having no life experience outside his enclosure, would be nothing short of a miracle. 

We had all waited, expecting the worst. Would he make it?  The tentative answer appeared to be “Yes”. And it did seem that he just might have bucked the odds as instinct kicked in, and he mastered the unfamiliar, urban environment.

Flaco spotted in Central Park over the summer. Photo by by Gil Yang

Birders, photographers, city residents, tourists, all wanted a glimpse of the famous escapee owl. He delighted all who viewed him as he perched at some of his regular Central Park haunts, and later in the Upper West Side neighborhoods of Manhattan. Flaco had become a symbol of freedom, surprising and eluding those who sought to bring him back to the zoo’s safe confines. To New Yorkers and out-of-towners alike, some whom had never seen any owl, Flaco was an avian celebrity.  

Then our greatest fears were realized.  Flaco became one of up to one-billion birds EACH year that die in the United States alone after flying into windows, his death determined to have been caused by “traumatic impact.” And although a necropsy report indicated Flaco’s good condition, his weight only slightly less than when last taken at the zoo, he may also have been exposed to infectious diseases like West Nile Virus or Avian Influenza, and/or toxins including rodenticides that would have weakened him, contributing to the strike.

Now Flaco has become another painful window-collision statistic. His passing shines a harsh light on this serious issue. Window strikes can occur at any time of year, but take place most often during spring and fall migration when billions of birds travel to and from breeding and wintering grounds. Strike incidents occur with great regularity when birds collide with the highly reflective glass used in building construction. Birds see the reflections in these panes as a continuation of the natural landscape and attempt to fly through them. Most collisions occur with the windows of one-and-two story buildings; many are residential homes.

Flaco the owl in his Central Park Zoo enclosure. Photo by Mary Lor

But there may be a silver lining to this tragedy. The urgent need to protect birds from death caused by window strikes has already resulted in legislation in New York City that requires the use of bird-friendly materials in new construction.  The City also has a lights-out requirement for city-owned and city-managed buildings. In Albany also, a bill is now on the table that requires the incorporation of bird-friendly designs into new or altered-state buildings in New York State. Maybe Flaco’s needless end will help to propel the bill to completion and law.

What can you do? We all have the power to make a difference. We can prevent window-strike collisions at our own homes and in the community. Simply affixing decals that reflect ultraviolet sunlight, or that create visual interference, on problem windows can dramatically cut strike numbers. Birds detect the stickers, recognize something to avoid, and fly elsewhere.

Flaco will be remembered always in the hearts of New Yorkers; we mourn his loss.  But his name will live on in the meaningful and important legislation now on the table in Albany, a bill renamed the FLACO ACT: “Feathered Lives Also Count,” after this iconic and charismatic raptor.  

Note: Do you know of a building prone to window strikes? Let us know at: [email protected].

Learn more at these and other websites:

American Bird Conservancy

Fatal Light Awareness Program (FLAP)

windowalert.com

featherfriendly.com

theaudubonshop.com

Author Patrice Domeischel is a board member of the Four Harbors Audubon Society.

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NYS Assemblyman Ed Flood

By Ed Flood

As the legislative session and negotiations continue toward the 2024-25 New York State Budget, there are several policies my colleagues and I have proposed that we believe would better cater to our hardworking citizens throughout the state. New York ranks second for the highest budget in the nation, making it difficult to fathom any tax increases on families or funding cuts in essential areas to make up for other state spending programs. 

In her State of the State address in January, Gov. Kathy Hochul [D] highlighted her proposal of an additional $2.4 billion in funding for supporting migrants. This would pull $500 million from state reserve funds. To address the migrant issue, New York City has already provided housing and food for approximately 170,000 asylum seekers with no end goal in sight.

This is not about immigration, but a major public safety and financial concern. Back in September 2023, my colleagues and I called for an emergency special session to consider adopting a bundle of policies that would efficiently monitor the migrants entering New York City and ensure background checks are completed to prevent violent criminals from entering our state. Unfortunately, that request was denied, leading us to the financial cliff on which New York is balancing. 

At the same time, Gov. Hochul proposed to potentially end the “hold harmless” provision for foundation aid in school funding assistance, threatening the loss of major state school aid. This reckless proposal would create significant funding cuts to schools across the state, weakening their opportunities for extracurricular activities and causing potential staff layoffs. The proposed budget shows an increase in educational aid but major cuts to many rural and suburban districts, which is what we are seeing now. 

Rather than using taxpayer dollars on a federal issue that should be handled by the president, we are using a major portion of our state budget on the migrant crisis and taking money away from our children’s education. With a $234 billion budget, $6 billion more than last year, no school should lose funding. What are our priorities when we allocate $2.4 billion from our general fund to pay for the self-inflicted migrant crisis and cut funding to rural and suburban districts from that same general fund? The money is in front of us, yet it is spent in other areas of the state. 

As we continue our work in Albany, it is crucial that we remove these irrational proposals in the final budget and that our children’s education must be prioritized to ensure they are equipped for bright futures ahead. 

Please contact me any time if you have any questions or concerns at 631-751-3094 or by email at [email protected].

Assemblyman Ed Flood (R-Port Jefferson) represents the 4th Assembly District, which includes parts of Suffolk County, including portions of the Town of Brookhaven and the villages of Old Field, Poquott, Belle Terre, Port Jefferson and Lake Grove.

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New York State Senator Anthony Palumbo

By Anthony H. Palumbo

Late last month, as New Yorkers were making plans to celebrate the New Year, Governor Hochul once again vetoed the Grieving Families Act. Her action was a surprise to many of us in the State Legislature, especially considering the broad, nearly unanimous bipartisan support for the bill’s passage in consecutive sessions.

More surprisingly was that her veto pen fell on a vastly changed version of the legislation, which was updated to assuage the Governor’s concerns over the Act’s overhyped impact on the State’s hospitals and insurance industry.

The Grieving Families Act is important as it would bring New York State’s wrongful death statute into the modern era, on par with the rest of the nation and in line with our values. It would provide families who have lost a child or loved one the ability to seek damages for their pain and suffering in cases where wrongful death is established.

By expanding the State’s wrongful death statute beyond the callous ‘monetary value’ of the deceased and allowing for pain and suffering to be calculated in wrongful death cases, the legislation weighs the full and devastating impact that the loss of a child, spouse, stay at-home parent, or disabled grandparent has on a family.  It would also hold the wrongdoer responsible for the death accountable.

The benefits of the legislation to New York’s families are crystal clear. The steps that the New York State Legislature will take next to ensure the Grieving Family Act becomes law, is less evident.

There have been discussions to override Governor Hochul’s veto of the Grieving Families Act, but these talks have been met by a mixed response from Democratic Leaders in the State Legislature. Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie referred to a veto override as a nuclear option and Senator Brad Hoylman-Siegel, Chairman of the Judiciary Committee and the bill’s sponsor stated he doesn’t believe an override can occur in a different calendar year from when the bill was vetoed.  To the person, however, these same legislators have engaged in splashy press conferences and rhetorical speeches regarding the need to make the Grieving Families Act law so we can protect victims of negligence.

My solution would be for both houses of the State Legislature to again pass the 2023 version of the bill, and before the State Budget is approved. This would provide Legislators greater leverage, and show our resolve to have the Act become law in 2024.  With supermajorities in both houses, why won’t the Democrats that constantly claim to protect victims and be the Party That Cares More Than Everybody Else simply flex their legislative muscle to make this happen.  If the Governor vetoes the bill again, they must use the ‘nuclear option’ and override her veto.

Antithetically, during last year’s historic nomination of Justice Hector Lasalle for Chief Judge of the Court of Appeals, the Senate Democrats were more than willing to override the Governor to stack the court with progressives who would toe the political line when it came to the congressional redistricting case that was soon to be heard. Despite the historic nature of the nomination, as the first Latino nominee for Chief Judge, the impeccable qualifications of Justice Lasalle and the fact that the legislature has never denied a Governor’s nomination for Chief Judge, the Lasalle nomination was defeated because he didn’t fit with their agenda. 

Now, with something as important as the Grieving Families Act, the Democrats seem unwilling to move the ball forward.  If they were willing to challenge the Governor for political power, it would be my hope that they could do it for legislation that would serve a greater purpose for all New York’s families.  2024 must be the year the Grieving Families Act becomes law. Whether this happens by the Governor acquiescing to sign the bill or through an override, the important first step is for lawmakers to take action now and repass the Grieving Families Act so we can do what’s right as New Yorkers, for New Yorkers.

Anthony H. Palumbo

New York State Senator, 1st District 

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Suffolk County executive Ed Romaine and family at his inauguration ceremony at Eastport-South Manor Junior-Senior High School on Jan. 1. Photos courtesy Ed Romaine’s Office

By Steve Levy

Steve Levy. Nicole Rochelle Photography

Newly sworn in Suffolk County Executive Ed Romaine [R] gave a rousing inaugural speech to kick off his incoming administration. His success will be ours.

Incoming executives at the town and county levels today have the good fortune of taking the helm when local governments are flush with money, thanks to hundreds of millions of dollars given nearly unconditionally from the federal government to localities during COVID-19. 

But Romaine wisely noted that in the year prior to COVID, Suffolk was ranked as the most fiscally stressed county in the state. His predecessor inherited a balanced budget — contrary to the claims that there was a deficit — and a record high-bond rating, but faced an economic storm due to a crippling recession. The national economic downturn, coupled with a huge police contract and use of one shots such as selling the fully paid-off H. Lee Dennison Building only to lease it back, led to numerous rating agency downgrades that Romaine has referenced.

As noted by local economist Martin Cantor, the county’s likely fiscal Armageddon was avoided thanks to the feds pumping in over $500 million in grants. Moreover, the supercharging of the economy with $6 trillion in federal checks sent to the public caused hyperinflation and unprecedented spending that brought in hundreds of millions in unanticipated sales tax dollars to the county coffers. 

Those one shots will run out, so implementing efficiencies is essential.

Romaine wisely stressed the building of sewers, supporting economic development and cleaning our environment. Good priorities, but let’s hope these measures could be pursued without seeking a sales tax increase when so many hundreds of millions of dollars are available in the present budget due to COVID surpluses. 

The best thing to spend one-shot revenues on is a one-time, nonrecurring expenditure such as constructing a sewer. That’s preferable to adding positions or programs that will have to be supported every year thereafter. 

The executive chose wisely in placing my former chief deputy county executive, Kevin Law, and Islip supervisor, Angie Carpenter, to guide his transition.

Hopefully, the team can share with the executive the success we had in 2004 in creating a workforce housing department that provided grants for municipalities willing to build up their housing stock in downtown corridors. It was remarkably successful, as witnessed with Patchogue’s renaissance, and dovetails nicely with Romaine’s housing policies.

It’s also hoped that the new executive can implement efficiencies by reconstituting the Long Island Purchasing Consortium, which was discontinued after my tenure. It brought together the two counties, as well as towns, fire departments and schools to coordinate their high-volume purchases. Having different jurisdictions buy 1,000 cars at one time gets you a much better discount than buying 10 at a time.

We’re also happy to see the search for a qualified police commissioner. We cannot have a repeat of a rogue police leader being allowed to dismantle the FBI task force I created. Kicking out the feds led to a slowdown in the Gilgo Beach search and a reconstituting of MS-13 throughout the county — which led to the murders of dozens of Suffolk youth. 

And to build on his goal to further protect our children, the new executive can reinstate my policy of requiring automatic backfills for vacancies in Child Protective Services.

Finally, it is hoped the new executive will be an ardent advocate for Suffolk residents. There was a dire need to push back against Gov. Kathy Hochul’s [D] contentious plans to overrule local zoning, impose an MTA tax on Suffolk businesses and enact congestion pricing fees. Hopefully, Romaine will lead that charge. He can start by replacing Suffolk’s present representative on the MTA board who, remarkably, voted in favor of congestion pricing that will crush Suffolk commuters.

As noted above, there’s a lot of breathing room for executives when so much federal money is sitting in reserves. But that luxury will be short lived. Hopefully, Romaine’s intentions to pursue structural efficiencies will come to fruition.

Steve Levy served as Suffolk County executive from 2004-11.

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By Rabbi Aaron Benson

Rabbi Aaron Benson

There would be no miracle of Hanukkah, the eight-day festival which begins this Thursday evening, without there first being darkness.   

Hanukkah is meant to be a time of joy. It is not a major holiday, still it is a time to play games, give gifts and enjoy foods fried in oil, reminiscent of the miracle at the heart of the holiday.  

In ancient times, the Holy Temple in Jerusalem had been defiled and when the Jews took it back from their oppressors, they found only enough oil to light the sanctuary’s special candelabra, the menorah, for one day.  Since the menorah must always be lit, the Jews did so, and miraculously, the oil burned for eight days during which time more oil was procured. 

But even more important than the oil, the miracle couldn’t have happened if there hadn’t been darkness at first.  

This year, Hanukkah occurs in a time of hatred and war for Israel and the Jewish People. It is a time of suffering for the innocent people of Gaza. It is a time in which Islamophobia has caused violent and deadly attacks on American Muslims; college students in Vermont and a little boy from the same part of Illinois where I grew up. Not to mention all that divides Americans from each other, too. 

This is a Hanukkah of much darkness. 

But it is only out of darkness that light, that miracles can come. 

I am reminded of the final scene from the first season of the HBO series, True Detectives. The two protagonists are discussing the fight against evil, the war between darkness and light. One of the two argues that looking in the night sky, there is far more darkness than the tiny points of light we see, “it appears to me that the dark has a lot more territory.” The other objects, saying, “You’re looking at it wrong, the sky thing … once there was only dark. You ask me, the light’s winning.”

If good people, Jews and non-Jews, can resist the vast darkness that surrounds us and bravely light one little light, we, all of us, will create a miracle. May such a miracle, one that brings understanding and peace, be kindled for us all soon. 

The author is the rabbi of  North Shore Jewish Center in Port Jefferson Station.

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