The Most Reverend John Oliver Barres, the Bishop of the Rockville Centre Diocese, has made ministering Latino Catholics a priority but some in the Church are looking to him for stronger leadership amid the national immigration crackdown. Pope Leo XIX is starting to speak out against the crackdown, and said church leaders “cannot remain silent before injustice.”

Bart Jones reports in NEWSDAY that some Long Island Catholics feel Barres is doing what he can to support the immigrant community. Others say he has not done nearly enough and is missing a major chance to help the Latino community, which is the fastest growing group of Catholics, at a time of crisis.

"I would say it's time for him to catch up with Leo and it's time for him to catch up with the National Conference" of Catholic bishops, said Richard Koubek, a former public policy advocate at Catholic Charities on Long Island. "He's done nothing so far. It's been very, very frustrating."

A spokesman for Barres said that in addition to outreach work to migrants already being done by Catholic Charities and local parishes, the bishop is collaborating with the New York State Conference of Catholic Bishops to devise a joint response to the immigration issue. His spokesman, the Rev. Eric Fasano, referred to a four-page statement the bishop issued in 2019 calling for comprehensive immigration reform. In it, Barres urged compassion for immigrants while also asserting the rights of nations to regulate their borders. The Diocese of Rockville Centre serves approximatly 1.4 million

baptized Catholics on Long Island. The Diocese covers Nassau and Suffolk counties and is one of the largest in the United States. Long Island is home to an estimated 100,000 undocumented immigrants — many of them Catholics, including some Haitians and Filipinos.

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Slightly before 9 a.m. yesterday morning, Quogue Village Police received a call of a dolphin in distress on the beach just slightly west of the drive-on entrance at Quogue Village Beach. Cailin Riley reports on 27east.com that police responded, along with personnel from the Southampton Town Marine Bureau, to investigate, but when they arrived, the dolphin was dead. The female common dolphin did not show any obvious signs of physical injury. Later in the day, volunteers from the Atlantic Marine Conservation Society, a nonprofit based in Hampton Bays with a mission to “promote marine conservation through action,” responded to investigate the dolphin’s death.

The society, led by Chief Scientist Robert A. DiGiovanni, Jr., works with staff and volunteers to conduct health assessments on marine animals like dolphins, whales, sea turtles and seals, responds to reports of stranding, performs necropsies on dolphins, whales and other large marine mammals, and does a wide range of data collection in the marine environment. DiGiovanni and his fellow staff members who responded to the beach on Tuesday were assisted in removing the female dolphin by members of the Quogue Village Department of Public Works, who were at Quogue Village Beach doing work. They used their forklift to assist in getting the dolphin off the beach. The Atlantic Marine Conservation Society performs necopsies on deceased dolphins and other marine mammals that wash up on area beaches to determine the cause of death.

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In Suffolk County, early voting for the 2025 General Election will take place from Saturday, October 25, through Sunday, November 2, 2025. You can cast your ballot at any of the designated early voting centers during this nine-day period.

The hours for early voting centers vary by day:

Weekend days (October 25, 26, November 1, 2): 10 a.m. – 6 p.m.

Monday, October 27: 10 a.m. – 6 p.m.

Tuesday and Wednesday, October 28 & 29: 7 a.m. – 3 p.m.

Thursday and Friday, October 30 & 31: 12 p.m. – 8 p.m.

On Election Day, November 4, all ballots will be cast at usual polling places assigned according to election districts specific to where a voter is registered.

Important information for voters

You can vote at any early voting center in Suffolk County for the General Election. Visit the Suffolk County Board of Elections website for a list of locations when available.

Voting during the early period means you cannot vote again on Election Day, November 4, 2025.

If you have an Early Mail ballot, you cannot vote in person on a machine; you must use an affidavit ballot.

The deadline to register to vote for the 2025 General Election is October 25, 2025.

Check your voter registration status and find your polling site on the New York State voter lookup website.

For questions, contact the Suffolk County Board of Elections at (631) 852-4500.

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East Hampton wants to use AI to crack down on illegal rentals as half of listings are found to be unlicensed. Brandon Cruz reports in THE NY POST that the Town of East Hampton is considering using AI and stricter penalties to root out illegal short-term rentals after new data revealed half of the roughly 2,000 listings in the town are unlicensed. East Hampton Town is seeing a surge in illegal bookings that elected officials blame on an influx of new investors — and now they want to use artificial intelligence to flag the black-market bookings and increase fees on owners who list their properties.

“We are looking at commercial investment in our residential districts by investors who only seek to make profit and are not looking at being part of this community at all,” Deputy Supervisor Cate Rogers said at a recent town board meeting. Rogers recommended purchasing AI software to track rentals within the town’s borders — or slapping hotel-like taxes on local AirBNB-style rentals or increasing registration fees. Other suggestions include restricting rentals to owners who use the home as their own primary residences. Currently, East Hampton Town law limits short-term rentals to a minimum of 14 days and only allows homeowners to open up for the two-week stays once every six months — resulting in a massive illegal black market on AirBNB where rentals can go for over a thousand dollars for just a weekend stay.

But East Hampton homeowners are worried these crackdowns will end up targeting and pricing out regular homeowners who are trying to go by the book.

“Since property taxes and everything else are so expensive, if I don’t AirBNB part of my house I wouldn’t be able to afford to live here,” Stephanie, an East Hampton rental host who inherited her grandparents home built in 1974, told The Post. East Hampton Town officials acknowledged that short-term rentals are a deep part of the tourist-hotspot’s economy that many permanent residents rely on, and stressed the challenge of finding balance without hurting locals as new regulations could be a pocket-strainer.

In August, Southampton officially banned short-term rentals as well, following East Hampton’s lead and establishing two-week minimum stays.

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The Most Reverend John Oliver Barres, the Bishop of the Rockville Centre Diocese, has made ministering Latino Catholics a priority but some in the Church are looking to him for stronger leadership amid the national immigration crackdown. Pope Leo XIX is starting to speak out against the crackdown, and said church leaders “cannot remain silent before injustice.”

Bart Jones reports in NEWSDAY that some Long Island Catholics feel Barres is doing what he can to support the immigrant community. Others say he has not done nearly enough and is missing a major chance to help the Latino community, which is the fastest growing group of Catholics, at a time of crisis.

Latinos and other immigrants "are suffering. They feel afraid and abandoned and they’re people of faith," said Sister Mary Beth Moore, retired director of Centro Corazon de Maria, a nonprofit that serves Latinos in the Hampton Bays area. Speaking out on their behalf is "not something that’s political. It’s something that’s pastoral."

Catholics are by far the largest religious group on Long Island, with 1.3 million baptized Catholics out of a total population of 2.9 million people in Nassau and Suffolk combined. Diocese of Rockville Centre statistics show. Hispanics account for at least a third of Catholics on Long Island, church leaders said, and many actively attend Mass.

Nationwide, Latinos make up 36% of the adult Catholic population, up from 29% in 2007, according to the Pew Research Center. Some experts put the figure even higher — close to 50% — and predict Hispanics will eventually be a majority.

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Across New York, nearly 1.6 million inflation refund checks have been cashed as of Friday, amounting to more than $388 million, state officials told Newsday. Gov. Kathy Hochul implemented the $2 billion initiative to award taxpayers checks of up to $400 to reimburse them for a jump in state sales tax revenue due to elevated inflation, tax officials said.

And since September, the state has mailed out about 3 million of the 8.2 million checks it estimates will be sent to New York residents, officials have said. On Long Island, 1.25 million people are eligible for a check.

Tiffany Cusaac-Smith and Nicholas Grasso report in NEWSDAY that outside of filing taxes, residents who qualify must be within the income limits, plus they should not be listed as a taxpayer’s dependent, officials said.

For instance, a couple who submits their taxes together and has a maximum income of $150,000 can get a $400 check, officials said. Couples earning up to $300,000 will receive a $300 payout.

Individual filers will be granted a $200 check if they make no more than $75,000, or a $150 payment, as long as their income doesn’t exceed $150,000, officials said.

The state has noted that checks are being delivered through the mail and that qualifying residents who filed their 2023 state taxes earlier are expected to receive their refund check faster.

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Projected salaries and benefits for Suffolk County’s workforce are expected to “grow significantly” as part of the county’s proposed $4.3 billion 2026 operating budget, climbing an additional $178.1 million, according to the Suffolk Legislature’s Budget Review Office.

Joe Werkmeister reports in NEWSDAY that the nonpartisan BRO released an analysis of the recommended operating budget last week and Deputy Director Benny Pernice discussed the findings during a budget working group meeting Monday. The report says the recommended budget is “generally reasonable” in the face of an uncertain economic future caused by high inflation and likely stagnant sales tax revenue, which represents the county’s largest revenue stream.

The report came the same day the county announced it had received two bond upgrades that County Executive Edward P. Romaine, a Republican, said signaled a “resounding vote of confidence in Suffolk County’s fiscal turnaround.” In 2020, the county faced an $800 million shortfall during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Higher than expected revenue post-pandemic, as well as federal aid, helped the county reverse course.

The legislature’s budget working group met again yesterday as lawmakers continue to pore over possible amendments before a Nov. 5 meeting where they can vote to adopt the budget, which takes effect Jan. 1.

Romaine released the budget Sept. 19, beginning the process for lawmakers to review it with department heads and suggest any changes. Romaine said the budget “protects the services our residents depend on, strengthens our public safety and environmental protection efforts and manages taxpayer dollars responsibly.”

The budget includes a 3.18% property tax increase, which falls under the maximum of 3.25%, according to the BRO report. The property tax increase is approximately $500,000 less than allowed under the tax cap.