The Suffolk County Sheriff’s Office plans to more than double the number of license plate reader cameras it deploys across the East End, pending legislative approval, to aid in solving crimes from hit-and-runs to stolen vehicles, according to the department. Joe Werkmeister reports in NEWSDAY that the new equipment boosts a program the sheriff’s office started in 2022 and will be funded through a $542,500 Law Enforcement Technology Grant from the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services.

Suffolk Sheriff Errol D. Toulon Jr. tells Newsday that the department "has seen real success" using the camera technology to solve crimes.

"With this grant-funded expansion, we’ll further enhance public safety in the East End and across Suffolk County," he said.

The Suffolk County Legislature will vote Tuesday on whether to approve a resolution that would allow the sheriff’s department to install 16 plate reading cameras on roads within a New York State right-of-way. The county approval is a precursor to NYS Department of Transportation approval.

Additional plate readers will be installed on roads that do not require legislative approval, bringing the total from 25 to about 60.

The plate readers requiring legislative approval would be installed on Sunrise Highway in Southampton, Route 25 in Riverhead, Main Road in Southold and the Long Island Expressway near Exit 71. Other locations include Route 114 in Sag Harbor and East Hampton Village.

The Suffolk Legislature’s Public Safety Committee yesterday unanimously approved the resolution, which now can be formally adopted at next Tuesday's general meeting in Riverhead.

While law enforcement has praised the technology for assisting in crime solving, civil rights advocates and criminal justice experts have raised concerns related to privacy, potential abuse and risk of foreign nations hacking data.

Departments across Long Island use plate readers, including Suffolk County police, Nassau County police and New York State Police, as well as several smaller departments in villages.

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At the end of last year, the issue of notoriously bad cellphone service in and around Sagaponack Village emerged as a sharply divisive topic among residents of the small village.

Cailin Riley reports on 27east.com that Mayor Bill Tillotson said that, for a long time, many residents were eager to see the village do something about it, not only to improve cellular service for the community at large but also to ensure that first responders in the area would be able to reliably communicate with each other when answering calls. It was billed as a safety issue, a potential matter of life and death, even. There were also many Sagaponack residents who voiced frustration about the village’s long-term contract with Homeland Towers to construct a large cell monopole tower on village-owned property behind Village Hall, within a stone’s throw of several homes and one local business. The tower is, by now, a recognizable feature in the village, visible from Montauk Highway, rising high in the air behind Village Hall. But reliable cell service has still not come to fruition for most residents and those who travel through the area — leading to further frustration and questions about why it doesn’t seem to be working. Both the mayor and representatives from Homeland Towers say it is simply a matter of time before the tower can fulfill its promise to bring reliable cell service to Sagaponack. Mayor Tillotson said that when residents inquire about the continued lack of service, he tells them to speak with their cell service provider. “We’re just renting a piece of space, so we have no say in it,” he said of the timeline for when the tower will provide better service to residents.

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The Hampton Bays Beautification Association’s next meeting is this evening at 7 p.m. in the Hampton Bays Library, featuring special guest speaker Rikki Klieman — renowned television anchor, legal analyst, trial attorney, actor, and best-selling author.

Klieman is widely recognized as one of the nation’s most respected legal minds, with a career spanning television journalism, courtroom litigation, academia, and public speaking.

She has served as a legal analyst for CBS News and appeared as well on NBC, ABC, and CNN.

Klieman’s best-selling autobiography is - “Fairy Tales Can Come True: How a Driven Woman Changed Her Destiny.”

She was named one of the five most outstanding women trial lawyers in the country by Time magazine.

Rikki Klieman resides in Hampton Bays with her husband, former New York City Police Commissioner William Bratton.

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The Riverhead Town Board this coming Tuesday will vote to designate Riverhead town square master developer J. Petrocelli “qualified and eligible,” allowing the company to move forward with the construction of a hotel, public plaza and playground in the center of downtown Riverhead.

Alek Lewis reports on Riverheadlocal.com that last week, the Town Board held a hearing on the designation of J. Petrocelli Riverhead Town Square LLC, an affiliate of the Ronkonkoma-based J. Petrocelli construction company. During the meeting, Petrocelli representatives presented the company’s vision and qualifications for building a new boutique hotel and overseeing the construction of new public spaces surrounding it.

The “qualified and eligible sponsor” designation allows town officials to enter into an agreement to sell 127 East Main Street in Riverhead to Petrocelli for the project without a competitive bidding process, as permitted under New York State Urban Renewal Law. Petrocelli’s company will pay the Town of Riverhead $2.625 million for the parcel where the hotel will be developed.

The board’s announcement came during yesterday’s work session, following a lengthy presentation by Community Development, Planning, and Building Administrator Dawn Thomas on the status and history of the town square project.

“I think we’d be hard pressed to find someone with more experience in doing an urban renewal project in downtown Riverhead” than J. Petrocelli, Thomas said.

J. Petrocelli has developed the Long Island Aquarium, the Hyatt Place East End, the East Lawn office building and the Preston House Hotel.

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Hondurans living in the United States under Temporary Protected Status may be facing arrest and deportation as President Donald Trump seeks to end the program. Many of the immigrants have lived in the U.S. for decades and built lives on Long Island, advocates said. Late yesterday, a federal judge in California extended temporary protected status for 60,000 people, including from Honduras, Nicaragua and Nepal.

Bart Jones reports in NEWSDAY that Temporary Protected Status – TPS – is a federal program offering protection against deportation to people whose home countries are considered unsafe because of war, natural disaster or other problems. TPS was approved for Hondurans after Hurricane Mitch killed at least 10,000 people in Central America in 1998, most of them in Honduras and Nicaragua. TPS, which also provides a legal work permit, can — and has been — extended for over a quarter-century for those two countries.

"TPS is a promise that the U.S. made," Nadia Marin-Molina, a leader of the National Day Laborers Organizing Network, said at a news conference in Hicksville, Long Island on Thursday. "But if TPS was a promise, then the Trump administration has broken that promise."

The Trump administration contends TPS was not meant to be permanent.

"Temporary Protected Status was designed to be just that — temporary," Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, said in a statement in June when ending the designation for Honduras was announced. "It is clear that the Government of Honduras has taken all of the necessary steps to overcome the impacts of Hurricane Mitch, almost 27 years ago."

Yesterday, U.S. Congressman Tom Suozzi…a Democrat from Nassau County…called for Trump to allow TPS to remain in effect for Honduras, arguing that many of the immigrants have lived here for decades, paid taxes and filled key jobs in nursing homes, home health care businesses and other industries.

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Shelter Island Friends of Music presents Igor Stravinsky’s THE SOLDIER’S TALE this coming Sunday, as performed by the Park Avenue Chamber Symphony.

Stravinsky’s THE SOLDIER’S TALE is about a fiddle-playing soldier who strikes a hard bargain with the devil in this theater piece with classical music.

That’s this Sunday; August 3rd at 5:30pm in Shelter Island School Auditorium, 33 North Ferry Road, Shelter Island, NY.

Sunday’s performance is admission free…no tickets required.

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Long Islanders suffering from sleep apnea inundated the sleep center at St. Charles Hospital in Port Jefferson with phone calls earlier this year after the Food and Drug Administration approved Zepbound, one of the new weight loss medications, as the first drug to treat the condition.

"Patients were really curious about this," said David Warkentin, system director for Catholic Health Sleep Service.

Lisa L. Colangelo reports in NEWSDAY that six months later, Long Island sleep experts said Zepbound has given patients a promising treatment option, but emphasized it is not a cure-all for a disorder that is estimated to impact 30 million adults in the U.S. Roughly 80% are not diagnosed.

Zepbound also marks another step in the use of the increasingly popular — and pricey — GLP-1 (glucagon-like peptide-1) medications to tackle chronic health issues including diabetes, weight management, and cardiovascular disease. Experts said that by losing weight, obese patients may get some relief from their obstructive sleep apnea — a condition in which people stop breathing dozens of times a night because their airway becomes narrowed or blocked when the muscles of the throat relax.

In response to these events, the brain sends a signal to wake the person up so they can start breathing again, a cycle that repeats while they sleep. This often leaves them exhausted and unfocused throughout the day.

Dr. Avram Gold, medical director of Stony Brook University’s Sleep Disorders Center, said he is skeptical of the claims that weight loss will make lasting changes for people with obstructive sleep apnea.

"It can make a difference in how they feel," he said. "But it won’t bring them back to normal."

People with obstructive sleep apnea should speak with sleep medicine experts and undergo an evaluation before starting any new treatment.