Southold Town Anti-Bias Task Force Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Celebration this Sunday

Long Island Morning Edition

A NYS Appellate Court has set Jan. 27 for a hearing on the Shinnecock Indian Nation’s request for reconsideration of case to keep its Sunrise Highway billboards operating following a federal finding that the signs are on protected sovereign land.

But the court declined to suspend its Dec. 4 ruling that found a lower court should have allowed the state Department of Transportation’s 2019 request for a temporary injunction to block construction and operation of the 60-foot electronic signs on tribal land in Hampton Bays. Mark Harrington reports in NEWSDAY that the hearing, scheduled for Brooklyn, comes amid increased acrimony between Shinnecock Nation leaders and the Town of Southampton stemming from the town’s recently filed lawsuit seeking to block a tribal gas station on land adjacent to the signs. The tribe’s Westwoods property was the subject of a Dec. 23 letter from the U.S Department of the Interior that found it was part of the Nation’s aboriginal, sovereign land.

The town’s lawsuit cited the Appellate Division’s December ruling in claiming Westwoods had no special status and was subject to the town’s zoning laws. "The town’s position that somehow they have dominion over land that has been in our control prior to this town being formed and prior to settlers coming over from Europe is a slap in the face to the Shinnecock people," former tribal chairman Bryan Polite told Southampton council members Tuesday.

Polite said the town’s action has resulted in a "generational schism" with its Shinnecock neighbors and "irreparable harm" to tribal relations after "years and years of trying to mend those fences."

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Members of the Shinnecock Nation Council of Trustees were invited to attend New York Governor Kathy Hochul’s annual State of the State address in Albany this past Tuesday. Tribal leaders said they welcomed the invitation as a sign that the governor is serious about building better relationships with the state’s sovereign Indigenous nations. Michael Wright reports on 27east.com that while the current tribal leadership was in Albany Tuesday seeking olive branches, some of the tribe’s recent past leadership were in Southampton Town Hall thrusting daggers. Bryan Polite, the former council chairman, told the Town Board, “Calling us a public nuisance, claiming that we are destroying the forest while we’re surrounded by development, is just plain wrong. I’m here to say how disappointed I am with the majority of this board.” Polite said that the board’s decision on December 19 to file a lawsuit challenging the tribe’s right to construct the gas station on a portion of the 79-acre property known as Westwoods has sowed disrespect of the tribe and fed a torrent of racist outbursts from members of the Hampton Bays community directed at the tribe in recent weeks that has incorporated some of the same language used in the town’s legal complaint. Southampton Town Supervisor Maria Moore said that the town’s decision to sue — only three of the five Town Board members voted in favor of pursuing the legal challenge — was focused solely on the use of the Westwoods property and represented no official diminution of the tribe’s status in the community.

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The Calvary Baptist Church of East Hampton and St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in East Hampton invite all community members to an interfaith program in honor of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. this coming Sunday, January 19, at 4 p.m. in St. Luke’s Church, 18 James Lane, East Hampton. The program will include prayers, music, songs and speakers from various churches and students from East Hampton High School and the East Hampton Middle School. A potluck dinner will follow Sunday’s program.

For more information, visit stlukeseasthampton.org.

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Thousands of acres of trees have been killed by the southern pine beetles in the 10 years since they arrived in Suffolk County, foresters say, heightening the risk of wildfires by generating heavy fuel loads that can drive bigger, hotter fires. "There's a been progression toward more severe fires," said Capt. Timothy Byrnes, a forest ranger with the state Department of Environmental Conservation based in Stony Brook, largely "due to the infestation of the pine beetle." Tracy Tullis reports in NEWSDAY that the beetles have ravaged forests from the Rocky Point Preserve to Southaven County Park in Yaphank and as far east as Napeague State Park in the Town of East Hampton. Infestations have also reached Fire Island. Their favorite target is the pitch pine — the most common species in the pine barrens, 100,000 acres of ecologically sensitive private and public lands in eastern Brookhaven, southern Riverhead and western Southampton. "Thousands, if not tens of thousands, of trees have been lost" on the south fork, said David Lys, an East Hampton town councilmember. "It’s very devastating." The towering stands of dead pines don’t by themselves increase wildfire risk, according to Kathy Schwager, natural resource and fire program manager at Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton, which is surrounded by 5,000 acres of pine forest. "You open up the canopy and all of a sudden you have this flush of growth" — plants growing lower to the ground — in the forest's understory. "What creates really intense fire conditions is the small-diameter fuel," Schwager said. "That's what makes that fire go." Global warming has increased the number of "fire weather days," when hot, dry conditions enable fires to spread as well as the growing number of pine beetles in the northeastern U.S.

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A NYS Appellate Court has set Jan. 27 for a hearing on the Shinnecock Indian Nation’s request for reconsideration of case to keep its Sunrise Highway billboards in Hampton Bays operating following a federal finding that the signs are on protected sovereign land. But the court declined to suspend its Dec. 4 ruling that found a lower court should have allowed the state Department of Transportation’s 2019 request for a temporary injunction to block construction and operation of the 60-foot electronic signs on tribal land in Hampton Bays. Mark Harrington reports in NEWSDAY that the hearing, scheduled for Brooklyn, comes amid increased acrimony between Shinnecock Nation leaders and the Town of Southampton stemming from the town’s recently filed lawsuit seeking to block a tribal gas station on land adjacent to the signs. The tribe’s Westwoods property was the subject of a Dec. 23 letter from the U.S Department of the Interior that found it was part of the Nation’s aboriginal, sovereign land. The town’s lawsuit cited the Appellate Division’s December ruling in claiming Westwoods had no special status and was subject to the town’s zoning laws.

Southampton Town supervisor Maria Moore said the lawsuit "should not be interpreted as a show of disrespect," saying it stemmed from the apparent lack of oversight at the gas-station construction.

"We really felt we didn’t have a choice," Moore said of the lawsuit. "It’s not that we are disputing the ownership of Westwoods and don’t want the nation to be economically independent and successful. It’s merely that there’s an issue in some of our minds as to whether the nation should comply with the planning rules of the town when it comes to construction."

She said no one from the town was contacted as the tribe sought a federal finding of sovereignty over Westwoods, making it appear the federal letter was "quickly written" with ambiguity about the land’s status.

"To us [restricted fee] means you can’t transfer the property without the federal government’s approval," Moore said. "It doesn’t address the issue of aboriginal title, and yet the word aboriginal was in the letter."

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The Southold Town Anti-Bias Task Force has scheduled its 2025 Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Celebration for this coming Sunday from 4 to 6 p.m. in the Southold Recreation Center at 970 Peconic Lane in Peconic.

The Southold Town Anti-Bias Task Force’s theme for 2025 is “Mission Possible: Protecting Freedom, Justice, and Democracy in the Spirit of Nonviolence365.

The Southold Town Anti-Bias Task Force states that, ”This theme serves as a compass ultimately leading to creation of the Beloved Community, where injustice ceases, and love prevails. All are welcome to Sunday’s celebration, as we strive to cultivate a Beloved Community Mindset.”

That’s this coming Sunday from 4 to 6 p.m. in the Southold Recreation Center at 970 Peconic Lane in Peconic.”

Per their Mission Statement: "The Southold Town Anti-bias Task Force shall promote diversity, unity, and understanding within Southold Town. It is their mission to organize educational and group activities as well as legal and legislative efforts to eliminate all forms of bias and prejudice."

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Just days from President-elect Donald Trump’s second inauguration, municipalities are bracing for an about-face on federal immigration policy, while waiting for guidance from Washington, D.C., on just what steps the new administration will take. Stephen J. Kotz and Christopher Walsh report on 27east.com that Trump has announced a policy of “mass deportation now” once he is back in power. As during his first administration, from 2017 to 2021, Trump’s statements have aroused fear among immigrants and an expectation that there will be widespread and concerted federal efforts to deport those in the country illegally, amid reports that the new administration is considering a dramatic expansion of detention centers. Suffolk County Executive Ed Romaine, a Republican, said it was premature to speculate on how far the Trump administration will push its agenda. “Clearly, it should be concentrated on getting the lawbreakers out of this country,” he said. “Start with the people in gangs and the criminal element and get them out.” But he added that it is too early to try to predict how much of the president-elect’s campaign trail rhetoric will be translated into policy. The reality, Romaine said, is that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement doesn’t have the manpower to undertake widespread sweeps across the country. Plus, he added, it would be counterproductive to target immigrants who work in vital sectors of the economy — such as farms on the East End. Still, Romaine said that Suffolk County has never declared itself a “sanctuary county,” and he said county officials would work with ICE in detaining dangerous criminals. 1st Congressional District U.S. Representative Nick LaLota, a Republican, said this week that “while specific plans have not been presented to Congress, there is a strong bipartisan level of support for the deportation of criminal illegal immigrants, who are both in our country illegally and have committed crimes.” A subsequent effort, he said, “will focus on those here to mooch off the system: those here for hotels, health care, other free benefits paid for by law-abiding American taxpayers.” “People who legitimately were not at risk in their own countries have been feigning asylum for three years now, and they get paroled into the interior of the country,” he said. While he said that he favors “good, positive, legal immigration,” LaLota added that “deportations will be a part of the 10-year plan to move forward."