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Thursday, September 3, 2026 ~ Volume 71 ~ Issue Number 40 ~ $1.00
Zeldin Names New L.I. Sound Partnership Director By Matt Meduri
The Long Island Sound Partnership (LISP) is a cooperative effort that was formed in 1985 by Congress, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the states of New York and Connecticut. Its mission is to protect the health of the Long Island Sound. The partnership is also among the first EPA National Estuary Programs. Last Thursday in Port Jefferson, EPA Administrator and former Congressman Lee Zeldin (R-Shirley) returned to Suffolk to meet with regional Sound partners and name a new director of LISP, Nicole “Nikki” Tachiki. Tachiki will look to parlay her time with the EPA and her last year as acting director of LISP into further stewarding and restoring one of Suffolk’s most valuable bodies of water. Continued on page 13
Administrator Zeldin (left) and LISP Director Nikki Tachiki (right) (Credit - Matt Meduri)
Miller Place Honors Legendary Coach By Matt Meduri Coach William “Bill” Brown started this career in the Miller Place School District in 1974 teaching social studies and as an athletic coach. Last Friday, the high school dedicated their basketball court to him. Dozens of his former students, some now living out of state, filled the bleachers once again as a group to honor one of their greatest mentors. Brown’s athletic career started long before he and his wife, Diane, settled in Miller Place. He played baseball, basketball, and soccer at Patchogue High School. His college career, however, was interrupted when he joined the U.S. Navy during the Vietnam War. Nonetheless, he still competed in sports and earned the Navy All-District recognition in both sports. He would also start his instructional career overseas by teaching English to Vietnamese children. Upon returning home, Brown picked up the basketball again at Suffolk Community College, where he earned regional and tournament recognitions and was named Long Island’s Junior College Player of the Year in 1972.
Coach Bill Brown, for whom the Miller Place H.S. basketball court is now named (Credit - Matt Meduri)
Continued on page 12
FULL STORIES ON:
Lake Ronk. Improvement Candidate Spotlight: Group Turns 10 Senator Dean Murray Page 3
Page 15
Bayport-Blue Point Returns to Class Page 24
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Messenger Papers Thursday, September 3, 2026
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SUMMER EVENTS Sayville Farmers Market at the Islip Grange: Every Saturday until November, 9:00a.m. to 2:00p.m. Port Jefferson Farmers Market: Every Sunday until November, 9:00a.m. to 2:00p.m. Islip Farmers Market at Town Hall: Every Saturday, 7:00a.m. to 2:00p.m. Suffolk County Farmers Market at the H. Lee Dennison Building: Thursdays through October 1, 10:00a.m. to 2:00p.m. Tiny Tots – “Nature Discoveries”: Every Thursday, 10:30a.m. to 11:30a.m. through September at Nissequogue River State Park Citizen Science – Monarch Tagging (Free Adult Program): Wednesday, September 9, 9:00a.m. to 10:30a.m. at Robert Moses State Park
Just a Hike (Serpentine): Sunday, September 13, 9:45a.m. to 12:45p.m. at Caumsett State Park. Trees for You and Me at Sunken Meadow State Park: Thursday, September 3, 10:30a.m. to 11:30a.m. Dockside Family Festival at Captree State Park: Saturday, September 12, 11:00a.m. to 5:00p.m. (rain date September 13). Geology Rocks: Nissequogue River State Park, Thursday, September 24, 10:30a.m. to 11:30a.m. Pitch & Putt Tournament at Robert Moses State Park: Open to first 72 registrants. Tee-off is 10:00a.m. on Sunday, October 4. Rain date for Sunday, October 11. Entry fee is $40 per person, $160 per foursome. Deadline is September 25.
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Town News
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Thursday, September 3, 2026
In the summer of 2016, a News12 reporter reached out to the Lake Ronkonkoma Historical Society for a meeting at the museum. The museum’s president, Evelyn Vollgraff, took the meeting, but the reporter, Danielle Campbell, wanted to see Lake Ronkonkoma. Apprehensive due to the quality of the lake, Vollgraff nonetheless brought Campbell to its shores. It was then that the Lake Ronkonkoma Improvement Group (LRIG) would be born. “The visit was an eye opener to both,” said Matt Balkam, LRIG co-founder. “It was littered with garbage, anything you could think of - it was there.” Balkam says that after that trip to the Lake, the first meeting of the LRIG was held a week later at the firehouse on Portion Road. It attracted over 100 attendees, Brookhaven Town Councilman Neil Foley (R-Blue Point), then-Councilman Kevin LaValle (R-Selden), Suffolk Legislator Leslie Kennedy (R-Nesconset), and County Comptroller John Kennedy (R-Nesconset). “To say the residents were angry and fed-up would be an understatement,” said Balkam. After much discussion, the councilmen decided that August 27, 2016, would be the first clean up. They were going to sponsor it. Over 90 residents showed up, along with a number of elected officials and reporters from Newsday and News12. “A grassroots movement was officially born,” said Balkam. Only weeks later did Campbell mention the initiative to then-County Executive Steve Bellone (D-West Babylon). He invited Vollgraff and company to his office, where he
learned of the burnt remains of the bookstore property that was left on the shore. In just a day, Bellone ordered equipment and remediation at the site. Larry’s Landing, the late owner and longtime Lake Ronkonkoma resident Larry Holzapfel, was born. Over the next three years, cleanups continued, but they alternated from cleaning up garbage to regular maintenance visits. “Visitors to the lake took more pride in the beauty this lake holds,” said Balkam. In 2020, with rising water levels and COVID-19, cleanups slowed, but not the visits to the lake. Assemblyman Doug Smith (R-Holbrook) would appropriate funding to install a new playground at Lt. Michael Murphy Park in 2020. In 2021, the Navy Leap Frogs, an elite parachute demonstration team composed of highly trained SEALs and special warfare personnel who perform precision skydiving nationwide, did a show at Lake Ronkonkoma.
Credit - Matt Meduri
Lake Ronkonkoma Improvement Group Celebrates 10 Years
Local stakeholders have been more involved over the last few years. The Lake Ronkonkoma Chamber of Commerce has brought back the Clam Bake, which is now an annual summer event. There are now four historical dedication signs installed at the lake. One was dedicated in 2023 on the former grounds of the Bavarian Inn, an iconic restaurant and catering hall that was demolished in 2019. The area is now known as Bavarian Shores. “To show you how quickly times goes, our most recent clean up in April, we had 12 students from Connetquot High School. When LRIG was formed, they were 7 and 8 years old,” said Balkam. “We have many people to thank for getting us to where we are.” Balkam mentions all elected officials mentioned thus far, as well as former Suffolk Legislator Tom Cilmi (R-Bay Shore), Moloney Furnel Homes, Outer County Construction, Walsh Signs, Majestic Flooring Solutions, and St. Regis Knights of Columbus (4651). “We believe that if LRIG was never formed, many of the mentioned events would never have taken place,” said Balkam. “We thank not just the volunteers, but all the elected officials and, most importantly, the community for taking care of and taking pride is this jewel we call Lake Ronkonkoma.”
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Suffolk Matters Thursday, September 3, 2026
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Dems Cry Foul in GOP-Led Even-Year Election Lawsuit By Matt Meduri Albany’s controversial decision to merge local elections with state and national elections nearly three years ago remains a salient topic, but also one of local intrigue as of late. On Tuesday, Democrats of the Suffolk County Legislature announced their petition to Attorney General Letitia James (D-Clinton Hill) to investigate billing practices related the GOP-led lawsuit against the litigation in federal and State cases, citing a “pattern of public expenditures, including hotel accommodations, banquet bills, catering charges, outside legal retainers, collaboration with political parties and organizations, and a public relations campaign funded by taxpayers.” They also allege that “hundreds of thousands” of taxpayer dollars were spent on “a marketing and government relations campaign with little connection to the underlying case.” According to vouchers obtained from Suffolk County and the signed retainer agreement, Long Island municipalities spent a combined $3 million on the State and federal cases against the evenyear elections law. Suffolk County spent $246,054.03 on the federal case and $170,012.49 on the State case, totalling $416,066.52. Those numbers were shared identically with respect to the two lawsuits for the towns of Brookhaven, Hempstead, Huntington, Islip, and Riverhead. The Town of Smithtown spent $229,387.37 on the federal case, but the same aforementioned amount on the State case. The Town of North Hempstead only funded the State case to the tune of $81,881.01, while Nassau County chipped in $207,958.79 only for the federal case. Legislature Democrats point out that the County retained the law firm of Troutman Pepper Hamilton Sanders in the care of Steven Losquadro, the County GOP’s lawyer, to begin the litigation. Suffolk County then joined the litigation in the State case. After the October 2025 upholding of the law, the firm billed the County and five GOP-controlled towns $1.1 million. The federal suit saw the County retain the services of a Texas-based firm, Brewer Attorneys & Counselors. Nassau County and six other towns did the same. They allege that the County was already billed over $940,000 by Brewer before the case was even filed, with the total bill amounting $1.9 million when the case was dismissed in June. Legislature Democrats are asking the Attorney General for a “full review of all disbursements, contracts, expense reimbursements, credit card statements, and purchase orders” by the County and the other municipal plaintiffs.
“We just want a little bit more transparency. We saw that some local governments have spent County and Town funds on political endeavors,” said the Legislature’s Minority Leader Jason Richberg (D-West Babylon) (pictured left) in Hauppauge on a rainy Tuesday afternoon. “A public dollar carries a public trust,” said the Legislature’s Minority Whip Rebecca Sanin (D-Huntington Station). “This is not about whether someone supports or opposes even-year election law. It is not about whether someone agrees or disagrees with the underlying litigation. Municipalities have a right to advocate for their best interest and to participate in litigation, but when they choose to do so with public funds, then public accountability is not with it.” Sanin added that they do not want to “prejudice the findings,” but they are “simply asking for the facts.” Legislator Greg Doroski (D-Mattituck) said that the lawsuits were not to “defend elections” or to “protect voters;” rather, a way to “wage a partisan fight and enrich connected attorneys.” He added that the lead plaintiff in the case, the New York State Republican Committee, paid “zero dollars” in this case, while “taxpayers were forced to foot the bill.” “$14,000 for hotel rooms and banquets,” at the Garden City Hotel, said Doroski. “$10,000 to rent a mansion for a day. Over $100,000 to attorney William Brewer III to ‘pursue various matters,’ whatever the heck that means. Hundreds of thousands of dollars spent on marketing and political campaigns not traditionally associated with a lawsuit…by families working overtime just to keep the lights on.” “This is the same playbook we are watching play out in Washington - the powerful and connected, like William Brewer, cashing in while us regular folks are struggling and forced to pay the bill,” said Doroski. “We have a name for it and we need to call it out. It’s corruption.” Doroski (pictured left) said he filed I.R.1620 in the Legislature, a bill to “rescind the authorization for this lawsuit and to try to recover” what it cost the County. “I’ve never heard about the renting of mansions or hotel rooms and paying for banquets, all of the attorneys taking their own black car Ubers to and from the city,” said Doroski of some of their accusations. Documents produced by Richberg and company show that members of the litigating parties, including Steven Losquadro, stayed at the Garden City Hotel on July 23 and 24, 2025, which coincides with “deep dive” meetings listed on invoices to the County from Brewer. These meetings presumably consisted of the legal strategy of overturning the laws. Another “deep dive” conference was held on September 3, 2025, at the Mansion at Glen Cove. Bills show black-car Uber rides costing a total of $37,700 for that event. Legislature Democrats allege that while Losquadro was not officially involved in the federal litigation, his appearances on invoices and alleged involvement “raise serious concerns about his involvement in the case.” They point out his connections to Brewer, who both notably worked on 50 Cent’s 2015 lawsuit. Steven Losquadro is the brother of
Brookhaven Highway Superintendent Dan Losquadro (R-Shoreham), who is running for County Comptroller this year. Brewer Attorneys & Counselors donated $5,000 to his campaign for comptroller in February. Records also show that the litigants paid $650 for an oped placement in Long Island Life & Politics and $1950 in a response to an op-ed in The Finger Lake Times. Presiding Officer of the Legislature Anthony Piccirillo (R-Holtsville) (pictured left) issued a statement in response. “The Even Election Year Law was nothing more than a blatant attempt by the Democrats to steal local elections. If the Democrats really believed that the Even Year Election Law was good government, why did they choose not to impose it on New York City residents?” said Piccirillo. “The Albany Democrats and their Suffolk cohorts treated Suffolk voters as second class citizens, having less rights to self-determination than New York City residents. New York City residents were given the ability to decide how and when to hold local elections and not have it thrust upon them by Albany, but Suffolk residents were not given that choice. Ironically, when given the choice of whether to switch local elections to even years, New York City voters overwhelmingly rejected it.” Piccirillo added that the party “will not apologize for standing up for the rights of the citizens of Suffolk, regardless of party affiliation.” “If Legislator Doroski and the Suffolk Democrats were serious about working on behalf of Suffolk residents and made an honest attempt to work with the Republican majority, they would know that I have been working with the County Attorney since January to ensure that taxpayer dollars were being correctly spent. In fact, in January the County secured a deeply reduced billing rate and has also secured an agreement to be reimbursed for certain expenditures.” He billed Doroski and company’s actions as “political theatre.” “Shame on them. Legislator Sanin (pictured above) said we should not be afraid of transparency… He received fully unredacted copies. Legislator Sanin also said we should not be afraid to answer questions. We are not, but Legislator Sanin and other members of the Democratic majority have not asked any questions, they have only engaged in political grandstanding.” On Thursday at 11:00a.m., the County Legislature’s Ways and Means Committee will see the County Attorney appear in Riverhead to discuss the litigation and the “steps that the Republican majority and the Romaine administration have taken to protect taxpayer dollars.”
Suffolk Matters Published by Messenger Papers, Inc.
Thursday, September 3, 2026
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Suffolk Community College Gains Partnership for Cybersecurity Program By Matt Meduri
Credit - Office of the County Executive
Suffolk County Community College (SCCC) offers a nationally recognized Cybersecurity and Information Assurance Program that prepares students for technical careers through an Applied Sciences degree. The program is now bolstered by SentinelOne, a Californiabased cybersecurity program, who has donated $10,000 to SCCC. SCCC President Edward Bonahue called the donation a “generous gift.” “This college lives out its mission of access and academic success every day, only with the support of our partners in County government,” said Bonahue. “Your gift will help ensure that our college continues to meet the rapidly growing demand for cybersecurity professionals who are needed in every kind of organization – nonprofits, healthcare, education, and local government.” He added that the New York Metro Area is a “major hub for information security analysts.” “These are among the highest-paid professionals in our country. On Long Island, the need for these positions is projected to increase by over 25% over the next several years, with median salaries well into the six figures.” Bonahue said that the college has been working to expand their capacity since the institution’s “first humble” grant fund started in 2014. Since then, $22 million has been secured for “curriculum development, lab enhancements, and equipment form outside sources.” The program has been expanded beyond the Selden campus; a parallel program operates at the Brentwood campus. The fall semester will see over 150 students in cybersecurity classes. In 2022, the program was designated as a National Center of Excellence in Cybersecurity by the National Security Administration (NSA) and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS). That, Bonahue says,
opens the doors for partnerships with federal agencies, such as the FBI, the NSA, the Department of Defense, and U.S. Cyber Command. SCCC students of this program continue to rank in the top ten nationally in intercollegiate competitions hosted by the National Cyber League. “In fact, one year ago, in the fall of 2025 Cyber League Competition, SCCC ranked as the Top community college, the top SUNY school among all 60 colleges and universities, and number 27 nationally among 500 colleges and universities,” said Bonahue. Suffolk County Executive Ed Romaine (R-Center Moriches) mentioned the 2022 cyber attack that crippled Suffolk County services as proof-of-concept for investing further into cyber programs. “[It was] an attack that should have been seen because it was noticed months before that there were people in our environment,” said Romaine. “The Bureau of Labor Statistics quoted that by 2030, there will be a 35% growth in cybersecurity
jobs throughout the United States. Suffolk Community College is the largest community college in the state of New York by enrollment. We want to keep that enrollment not only up, but relevant so that people attending here, whether they go on to a four-year or even graduate school, they can go back into the workforce and be employed.” Suffolk County Legislator Nick Caracappa (C-Selden), in whose district the Selden campus resides, said the program is a “necessity going forward.” Bonahue mentioned the widespread fear of AI taking jobs, but according to CyberSeek, Bonahue says, it’s “absolutely not happening in cyber security.” “There are 514,369 unfulfilled cybersecurity jobs in the country; that’s grown about 12% year-over-year. If you look at what’s happening in…the development of AI tools that are powering attackers, we need amazing professionals to help be defenders to protect our communities, to protect businesses, protect families, and that’s exactly what is happening here on campus.”
County to Focus on Substance Abuse & Recovery for Women Suffolk County has launched its first initiative that emphasizes resources and recovery for women facing substance abuse issues. It coincides with September, National Recovery Month, and the nationwide “go purple” initiative. While the County’s program will be open to everyone, they are assigning a specific focus to women. Suffolk County Executive Ed Romaine (R-Center Moriches) said that the County does have funds from settlements from drug companies. Suffolk County was one of the first counties to sue the drug companies who produced pernicious and addictive opioids. “Opioid deaths are down. That’s great news. But does that mean we’ve won the battle? Addiction is never an easy battle to claim total victory,” said Romaine. “You can claim that you’ve reduced the people affected, but there are still issues out there that must be addressed and will be continued to address. As a County, we are concerned with people who fall into the web of addiction.” Romaine and County health officials were joined by Sharon Richmond, an opioid awareness advocate who lost her only child, 25-year-old Emanuel Vincent D’Antoni, to a fentanyl-related overdose in 2017. Richmond is also on the Suffolk County Women’s Commission. “There will always be a need for people to work in substance use. But we are getting much, much better,” said Richmond. “It’s very sad. I’ve lost friends; I’ve lost kids who I took care of. But now, we’re working on it in a better way than we ever did in my day.” Sylvia Diaz, Deputy County Executive for Health, Human Services, and Education, said that the fight is “personal” for Suffolk County. “We have led the fight in Suffolk County as the first municipality in New York State to come forward and sue on
Credit - Office of the County Executive
By Matt Meduri
behalf of the residents of Suffolk County and those impacted by this devastating illness,” said Diaz. “As we prepare for this third round, we’re looking far beyond the individual programs that we funded at $57 million in rounds one and two.” Diaz said that the County has seen “tremendous change” in the trends of overdose deaths. “It’s an ever-changing landscape.” For 2025, the County Medical Examiner’s Office found in their Accidental Overdose Report that cocaine led all other substances in the category, closely followed by fentanyl. Fentanyl analogs were tied with methadone for fifth – behind benzodiazepines in third and opiates/opioids in fourth. The Seafield Center, a medical detox facility with locations in Patchogue, Medford, Riverhead, Mineola, and Amityville, is engaged in the initiative. “Addiction doesn’t only affect the person struggling with the illness, but the entire family,” said Anthony Rizzuto,
Director of Provider Relations at Seafield. “The toll it takes is real.” He added that “addiction doesn’t have to be a death sentence” and that he himself struggled with addiction. He has been sober for 33 years. “God has blessed me with sobriety. In that time, I was able to have a wife for 38 years and two children; one of them became an ER doctor.” Richmond summed up the initiative with one word, hope. “Hope matters. Such a beautiful word, hope. One difficult chapter should never define a person’s life or their story. To every person in recovery, your story is still being written. Your hardest chapters do not have to be your final chapter. You can start another chapter where there can be healing, purpose, joy, and a beautiful future. Use your voice to remind people that compassion matters, connection matters, access to treatment matters, and most importantly hope matters.”
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Editorial Thursday, September 3, 2026
Published by Messenger Papers, Inc.
Questions Abound in Even-Year Election Lawsuit We saw the even-year law for what it was: partisan damage control. Democrats realize their brand in the Empire State is gradually crumbling, just as the state’s finances and national standing aren’t too far behind it, unfortunately. They saw two back-to-back competitive statewide races in 2022 and 2024 and they know that the dam can’t be held for long. If New York falls into battleground territory, New York Democrats will earn the ire of Democratic machines and voters across the country, as that would not only make clinching an Electoral College majority more difficult, but it would also mean that the popular vote edge in national elections sees a significant reset of the baseline. We think New York was paramount to Trump winning the popular vote in 2024. Moreover, if Democrats have to spend more money than they have in decades in New York, it means less attention elsewhere. At the end of the day, it’s been their machine for decades, and exclusively so since 2019. The recent revelation of alleged billing practices surrounding the County’s and State Republican groups’ lawsuit against New York State’s even-year election law begs many questions. Not only are there questions regarding the lavish spending that appears to have occurred based on documents, but also regarding the integrity with which the State GOP might have taken the lawsuit - or lack thereof. Let’s recap how we got here. When Governor Kathy Hochul (D-Hamburg) signed the bill into law on December 22, 2023, it required elections held in odd-numbered years, whose ballots feature candidates for local office, to be held concurrently with elections in even-numbered years, which famously hold state and federal elections. Proponents, exclusively Democrats in the State Legislature, argued it would reduce cost burdens on local election boards, increase voter turnout - particularly among minority voters - and circumvent “voter fatigue” by giving voters a year off from the polls. Opponents, almost entirely Republicans, said it was nothing more than a power-grab to benefit from state and national environments when the overall electorate in New York is largely Democratic. In local years with a presidential or gubernatorial candidate heading the ticket, they say that municipalities’ individual concerns would be drowned out by nationalized politics. They also took issue with New York City’s exemption from the rule, citing a “rules for thee, not for me” political position. Suffolk County joined seven other counties - Dutchess, Nassau, Oneida, Onondaga, Orange, Rensselaer, and Rockland - in filing separate lawsuits against the state. Suffolk was the sixth county to file suit on April 19, 2024. They argued that the law violated Article IX of the New York State Constitution’s home rule provisions, and that the law conflicted with county charters that set election dates. A Steuben County judge initially sided with the counties and struck down the law in October 2024, but an appellate court reversed that decision in May 2025. The Court of Appeals ruled unanimously in favor of the State in October. Now, Suffolk Legislature Democrats claim they have a smoking gun in how Republican groups across the state fought the law. We’ll say now that we will be in attendance at Thursday’s meeting of the Legislature’s Ways & Means Committee to hear from witnesses and watch the deliberations. We hope answers and clarity are given, because if the official story based on documents is to be believed, we, who vehemently came out against the even-year elections law, have some serious misgivings with State Republican leadership.
Suffolk Legislature Democrats, except for Legislator Tom Donnelly (D-Deer Park), were in lockstep against the horseshoe’s prerogative to join suit against the state. They claimed at their Tuesday press conference that their whistleblowing had nothing to do with the outcome or intention in the lawsuit; rather, transparency for the sake of itself. Based on what we see with the documents thus far, and what transpires at the Ways & Means Committee meeting in Riverhead, we think they’ve earned that prerogative. Here’s why we think that: number one, a smoking gun is a smoking gun. If there truly is malfeasance in these finances as stated, there’s no arguing against it. And as a paper who has done some good investigative work over the years, we can’t hate the player, just the game. Number two, those named in the files must answer. Even if all the billing practices were fine and if the County taxpayers aren’t on the dole, why are mansions, hotel banquets, and black-car Uber services necessary to prove that the State is violating a charter county’s prerogatives in what’s clearly a politically-motivated law? Moreover, ad campaigns for generic “save our state” branding without messaging directly against the law seems counterintuitive for us. Number three, and the most important: this lawsuit needed to be fought as best as possible. We knew from the beginning it would be an uphill climb to overturn it, unfortunately for the local voter - again, New York City excluded. That’s why if it’s shown that the case was not fought as vehemently and as genuinely as possible, we’d be sorely disappointed in those tasked with that mission. The ballot box is sacrosanct, and at a time when “all politics is national,” we have continued to call for a return to “all politics is local.” If Albany and Democratic officials in Suffolk don’t agree, that’s their right, but the State GOP should have done a much better job in staking their claim. We will question one practice of the Democrats, however: how many questions were raised within the Legislature before these documents were obviously leaked to Riverhead Local? Was it truly about transparency, or about timing an opportune story at the start of the home stretch of the 2026 campaign? The politics of the revelation are unmistakable as well, we think. Minority Leader Jason Richberg (D-West Babylon) has taken a more metered tone, while freshman Legislator Greg Doroski (D-Mattituck) is going for the jugular. We think he’s positioning himself for a possible leadership role with this case. Again, don’t hate the player, hate the game. But the burden of proof is clearly on the GOP on this one, and we hope there is some clarity in what burden exactly, if any, fell on the Suffolk taxpayer.
Op-Ed Published by Messenger Papers, Inc.
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Thursday, September 3, 2026
Blakeman’s Odds Will Improve If He Embraces a State Spending Cap By Steve Levy | Long Island Life & Politics New York Governor Kathy Hochul (D) is the oddson favorite to win re-election in this very blue state. But her Republican opponent, Bruce Blakeman, is running a very spirited, hard-fought campaign. Even though the demographics are overwhelmingly in favor of the incumbent, she cannot take this race lightly. Her Republican challenger four years ago, Lee Zeldin, came within six percentage points of knocking her off. This year is bound to be a much tougher test for the Republican challenger, given that President Trump‘s approval rating hovers in the midthirties and that, in most off-year elections, the party controlling the White House will suffer. But Blakeman can benefit from a potential backlash that may come about, especially in more moderate and independent precincts, where voters are fearful of the rise of the Democratic Socialists. It won’t be enough, however, for Blakeman to simply bash New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani or the dangers associated with the Democratic Socialist platform. Blakeman needs something bold to set him apart and to give New York residents something to vote for. If he plays his cards correctly, that something should be a promise to impose a cap on New York state spending. Blakeman could have a field day noting how hypocritical our State leaders have been in imposing a spending and tax cap on local governments and schools, while conveniently exempting themselves on the state level from those same restrictions. And here is the most convincing statistic of all: had the state imposed the cap on itself in 2012 (when the budget was $132 billion) as it did for the lower-level jurisdictions, the State budget today would be over $100 billion lower than the $277 billion budget the
governor and the Legislature pushed through this past June. The cap law limits spending and taxes to come in at or under 2% or the rate of inflation, whichever is lower. Had the cap applied to the state government, it would only have grown to $174 billion today. The cap wasn’t a silver bullet, but it was a fairly successful law on the local level. Prior to the tax cap that took effect in 2012, school budgets on Long Island were increasing an average of 6% a year. After the caps were implemented, the average rate of increase shrunk to about 2%. That equated to an enormous taxpayer saving of over $25 billion through 2019. As noted in a Center for Cost Effective Government report, spending caps work because they force prioritization. Each year, every special interest group under the sun appears before state and local governments to lobby for more money. Where no caps exist, it’s rather easy for officials on both sides of the aisle to cave and put them all inside the pot. The cap actually gives them the excuse to tell some of these organizations that they just don’t have the room this year and they will have to come back the following budget cycle. Of course, there’s always a safety valve allowing for a piercing of the cap with a supermajority, but that’s not as easy to effectuate as one would think. Spending caps work not only in New York schools and local governments but have worked successfully in numerous states throughout the country. Those states with spending caps have overall lower spending and lower tax rates and are more competitive for their businesses and residents. The property tax cap came into effect in large part because it was a major issue in the gubernatorial
– Letter to the Editor – Seniors Taking Action
election of 2010. In the campaign four years earlier, then-Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi (D) ran for governor talking about a cap, but it got little traction. However, after the real estate collapse of 2007 and the economic pain felt by homeowners, the cap became a centerpiece of the 2010 campaign. I made the issue part of my platform in my very short-lived run for governor. After I failed to secure the Republican nomination, the Democratic candidate, Andrew Cuomo, absorbed the issue into his campaign. Upon winning the general election, it became something of a mandate from the people, and it paved the way for this otherwise contentious issue to pass in the 2011 legislative session. Were Blakeman to make this his top priority in this year’s election, it would not only gain him notice from residents not giving much attention at this time to the race, but it would also provide the mandate that would be needed to help get the concept passed in 2027. We know Governor Hochul will never embrace the cap on state spending, given the pressure from her flank on the left. There’s an opening for Blakeman here. He shouldn’t waste it. Steve Levy is President of Common Sense Strategies, a political consulting firm. He served as Suffolk County Executive, as a NYS Assemblyman, and host of the “On the Right Side Podcast.” He is the author of “Solutions to America’s Problems” and “Bias in the Media.” www.SteveLevy.info, steve@commonsensestrategies.com This op-ed originally appeared in Long Island Life & Politics. For more from LILP, visit them online at lilifepolitics.com.
MESSENGER
MESSENGER
MESSENGER
Dear Editor, This is a call to all seniors to make sure that not only you, but all your friends and relatives get out to vote. It’s fun, and extra support is always a good idea. Trump is desperately trying to block us from voting, so we must have ways to ensure that we can get to the polls safely to exercise our most precious democratic right. Seniors are old, bold, and they vote. Now, more than ever, we need that vote. Please realize how important the senior vote is. It is the largest voting bloc, and with that, we have to get every senior out to vote, either by mail or at the polls. It is suggested that we vote by mail (double check your ballot and mail it EARLY or by early voting at the polls, as they should be safe.) Whoever thought we would be saying that we had to worry about how to vote, or that write-in ballots would in some way be destroyed? This vote is the best chance we have to restore our democracy. If you encounter problems at the polls, call 866–OUR-VOTE if you see anything improper. Charlie Gueli Laurel
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Small Business Spotlight Thursday, September 3, 2026
Published by Messenger Papers, Inc.
Villa Sorrento - Sal and Deborah Coppola
By Diane Caudullo The passing of the wooden spoon… Villa Sorrento has been a well-known and highly respected Italian restaurant on Middle Country Road in St. James for 30 years. Owned and run by Sal and Deborah Coppola, Villa Sorrento has always been a perfect blend of fine dining with just enough casual where the food was delicious and simply accentuated the time spent with those around you. Sal regularly visited your table and made you feel like the only diners in the place even though every table was full. His staff carried on the same way, always genuinely happy to see you. Ask a few of the regulars and they will tell you his signature dishes that they kept coming back for were fettucini with filet mignon, veal chop valdostano, and braised short ribs. Sal says although penne alla vodka is still an overall favorite dish for the masses, he believed his had a special touch to make it stand out amongst the crowd. Sal ran Villa Sorrento like a well-oiled machine and it showed by the loyalty of his patrons and his staff. Sal met Orlando, the best pizza maker he ever met, when Sal owned Sorrento Pizza on Maple Avenue in Smithtown (now Monte’s). That was 30 years ago. Sal then opened Villa Sorrento and brought Orlando with him. Orlando quickly became a stellar chef in his own right and took on the role of catering manager. Together, they mastered the menu, on and off premise, and their friendship into what it is today. Many of us have great memories at Villa Sorrento, from simple dinners with friends that ended with a shot of plum wine or a cappuccino, to weddings, milestone birthdays, and, sadly, some celebrations of life. Sal was involved in many community organizations and fundraisers and behind every event for the Sisters of St. Joseph, which holds a special place in his heart. When he wasn’t catering their huge events he was quietly volunteering his time there.
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Choosing the existing restaurant located at 823 Middle Country Road Smithtown to purchase, was not by chance. Sal had worked there as a waiter while he was in high school while the restaurant was known as The Frog and The Peach. Then, off to own the pizzeria, then back to take ownership from his former employer - just like when Nonna sits back and lets the next generation host the holidays. This past March, however, Sal decided it was time to pass the wooden spoon on to another great chef. Frankie Soletti, having run an iconic restaurant in Queens for many years, found the opportunity to continue Villa Sorrento’s legacy somewhat serendipitous. He happens to have been born on August
23 - 8/23, like the address. This past August was his first birthday celebrated at what is now formally Frankie’s 823. According to Sal, Frankie’s dishes are beyond amazing and Frankie brings a whole new vibe to the newly renovated restaurant. Frankie has created quite a stir and the place has been steadily packed and highly spoken of. So, as much as it may be the end of one era so to speak, a new one begins with a promising bright future. The Messenger wishes Sal and Deborah a happy and healthy next chapter and we welcome Frankie’s 823 to the neighborhood. Sal is looking forward to more time with family including his brand-new and first granddaughter, and sometimes only cooking for two. Frankie’s 823 is located at 823 Middle Country Road in St. James and can be reached at (631) 265-9865.
This Week Today Published by Messenger Papers, Inc.
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Thursday, September 3, 2026
National, State, and Local Temperature Checks By Matt Meduri National
Credit - wikipedia
The Iran War has taken an unmistakable turn as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy struck an Iranian commercial vessel in the Caspian Sea, killing one sailor. Kiev says it was targeting vessels used to transport Iranian military supplies to Moscow to disrupt their supply networks for the Ukraine War. Ukrainian drone strikes continue to batter Russia’s oil infrastructure and 200 Russian and Russian-linked tankers and ships in the Black Sea. The Caspian Sea has become a prime maritime route for Vladimir Putin amid his four-year incursion into western Ukraine. It links Russia with Iran and the two have been developing their own sphere of influence in the East. Iran cancelled their planned retaliatory strikes after Ukraine claimed the hit was unintentional, according to The Jerusalem Post. However, Iranian Foreign Affairs Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi wrote on X that the attack was a “blatant U.N. Charter violation done at Israel’s behest to drag Europe into its war.”
Indeed, Democrats have seen newfound success in Alaska politics. Not only has the state been shifting left in the Trump Era, but the ranked-choice voting system allowed Mary Peltola (D) to win the 2022 special election. Peltola won the 2022 general election thereafter, but lost in 2024. She is now running in the marquee Senate race in Alaska this fall. Part of Peltola’s path to victory in 2022 was through a “center squeeze” - an election in which one candidate of one party runs against multiple candidates of the other party. The GOP’s fringes split their votes between multiple Republicans, clearing a path for Peltola. In this year’s gubernatorial race, Democrats are putting all their money on Kreiss-Tomkins against the three other Republicans to repeat their 2022 success. On Tuesday night, Massachusetts voters selected their nominees for governor, Senate, and House. However, one of the most progressive states in the union didn’t oust a single incumbent, antithetical to the current trend on the left for ousting their incumbents for progressive-populist outsiders. Senator Ed Markey (D-MA) (pictured
defeated AI researcher Jason Poulos (D) 73%-27%. In MA-08, 13-term Congressman Stephen Lynch (D) held on 55%-45% over attorney Patrick Roath (D) in another ideological, old-young, insider-outsider primary. Congressman Bill Keating (D, MA-09) easily survived his primary over progressive organizer Craig Swallow (D) 78%-22%. State Governor Kathy Hochul (D-Hamburg) made headlines this week for wearing a hijab during a visit to an Islamic cultural center. Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman (R-Atlantic Beach) and the governor are trading barbs over Hochul’s Friday visit to the Upper East Side center. Hochul says her decision was consistent with how she visits religious sites. “I was invited as a guest, and I always wear the appropriate attire, whether I am going to a temple, whether I am going to an orthodox community or whether I am going to a catholic church in the Vatican,” she said according to ABC7 Eyewitness News. Blakeman, meanwhile, is calling her “Hijab Hochul” in a social media post. Blakeman added the act was pandering and tone deaf just two weeks before the twenty-fifth anniversary of the September 11 attacks. “Kathy’s Latest Costume: Whatever the Audience Wants.” Hochul has previously been spotted wearing a hijab on visits to Muslim sites, including her 2022 visit to the Masjid Fatmina Al-Zahra mosque in Ronkonkoma. “If he has a problem with that, that says more about him than it does anybody else,” said Hochul. Afaf Nasher, Executive Director of the Council on American Islamic Relations New York, said, “He [Blakeman] should not try to link any type of threat towards Muslims and 9-11 here, given the fact that we are in mourning just like every other New Yorker and American.” Blakeman told Newsday that wearing a hijab and “identifying as a feminist” are “incompatible” positions for the governor. President Donald Trump (R-FL) chimed on, claiming Hochul wore the hijab to get the “Arab Vote.”
Credit - markey.senate.gov
The world watched in horror this weekend as Nepal and Tibet experienced apocalyptic floods washed across the interior of the country. The cause of the flood is not yet definitive, but the U.S. Geological Survey reported seismic activity in a mountainous national park just seventy miles north of the capital city of Kathmandu. An earthquake is considered not to have been the cause, rather an avalanche due to glacier collapse. Researchers compared satellite imagery of a glacier with and without a 2,000-foot-wide chunk of ice that fell roughly 4,000 feet into the Lhende Khola river system. The first floods were detected at a port on the NepalChina border. The ensuing avalanche dammed the river. When the natural dam broke this weekend, the rapids began rushing, generating waves of unbelievable proportions. Peak flow heights have been recorded anywhere from 230 to 440 feet in the steep mountain gorges. Nepalese scientists say water levels rose by 30 feet in just 30 minutes. Infrastructure within those gorges have been wiped out and buried under 30 to 60 feet of sediment. As of press time, over 1,100 have died and nearly 4,000 are missing. Satellite analyses found that debris reached speeds of 110mph in the rapids, while flood waters reached communities as high as 270 feet above the river level.
However, there is growing debate on whether Ukraine’s strike on Iran was seen as a way of merging the two conflicts. The U.S. continues to see stockpiles of vital missile interceptors running alarmingly low, as nearly two-thirds have been spent over the last six months in the Iran War. According to The Independent, Putin said that Trump is “weakened” by the Iran War, while Zelenskyy remains focused on continuing the flow of munitions to the Ukraine War. In support of that theory, observers note a temporary ceasefire in long-standing tensions between Ukraine and Israel. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sent a letter to Zelenskyy in recognition of Ukraine’s 35th year of independence, praising Ukrainian resilience and that both nations face a “common threat” from Iran. He said he looks forward to bringing their nations “even closer.” Zeleneskyy responded on social media by highlighting the shared cultural history and economic ties, adding, “we count on working fruitfully together to bring about more security.” Israel and Ukraine have had a complicated relationship over the years. Since Israel has Middle Eastern neighbors, such as Syria, backed by the Russians, the Israelis have taken a meeker approach on the world stage regarding relations with Moscow. They were neutral in condemning the Russian annexation of Crimea, but condemned their invasion of Ukraine in 2022. However, Israel has refused calls to impose sanctions on Russia and has not sent weapons or defense technology to Ukraine. Meanwhile, Ukraine has consistently condemned Israel’s occupation of Palestine. Israel joined the U.S., Russia, and North Korea in voting against a U.N. resolution affirming Ukraine’s “territorial integrity” in 2025, according to The Times of Israel. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director John Ratcliffe (R-TX) (pictured left) made a secretive visit to Moscow to reportedly urge the Kremlin to end the Ukraine War. The New York Times reports that Ratcliffe painted a bleak picture for the Russians on their staggering losses and stalling gains on the battlefield. He also warned Russia to not escalate the war with the Baltic States Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, three former USSR states who are NATO members. Ratcliffe reportedly urged Russian officials to reduce military and financial support for Iran. Some observers are skeptical of the timing and have posited that de-escalation talks are preemptive as rumors swirl of the potential use of tactical nukes by the U.S. or Israel against Iran if their prospects dwindle. Others note it could have been to deescalate talks of World War III starting in earnest with Zelenskyy’s actions against Iran. In domestic political news, one of the two Democrats running in Alaska’s gubernatorial contest dropped out on Saturday. Tom Begich (D), a member of Alaska’s most notable political dynasty, has quit the four-way race for governor. He has endorsed Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins (D), a member of the Alaska House, over former Anchorage Mayor Dave Bronson (R), former Alaska Attorney General Treg Taylor (R), and waste management company founder Bernadette Wilson (R). Begich was the first Democrat to enter the race. Anchorage Daily News reports that Begich said that a Democrat was much likelier to flip the seat if only one such candidate appears on the November ballot.
above), an 80-year-old progressive, defeated the younger, more moderate Congressman Seth Moulton (D, MA-06) 65%-35%. Moulton, who briefly ran for president in 2020, was seen as a possible pretender to Markey’s long career in Bay State politics. He began his tenure in elected office in the early 1970s. He’s won two terms in the Senate after winning a competitive 2013 special election. Markey is a heavy favorite for this seat. No Republican has won a Senate race in Massachusetts since Scott Brown (R) won the 2010 special election in a massive upset. The last regularly-scheduled Senate election to produce a Republican was 1966. Several long-time House Democrats avoided defeat on Tuesday night as well. Congressman Richard Neal (D, MA-01) had the narrowest margin of survival - just 54%-46% over teacher Jeromie Whalen (D). Whalen had raised just over $330,000 to Neal’s $2.4 million. This was also a litmus test for the greater conversation on the pervasiveness of the Israel lobby, as Whalen had been supported by organizations in favor of cutting U.S. ties with Israel. The same was at play in MA-04, where Congressman Jake Auchincloss (D) easily
Local A dentist’s office in Babylon will be opening its doors next month to provide free care to people in need. Babylon Dental Care, located at 785 West Montauk Highway in West Babylon (Great South Bay Shopping Center) will provide the services on Sunday, October 25. Patients will be able to receive one free filling, cleaning, or extraction, based on their individual needs. Registration begins at 9:00a.m.; care is on a first-come, firstserved basis until 1:00p.m. or until 100 patients have been served. “For Babylon Dental Care, Care Day is about more than dentistry. Our team believes strongly in treating patients like family and giving back to the Long Island communities we have been fortunate to serve,” said staff in a statement. “This event is one way our doctors and team members can use what they do every day to help neighbors who may otherwise go without needed dental care.”
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Murray’s Message Thursday, September 3, 2026
Published by Messenger Papers, Inc.
Protecting Medicaid Means Protecting It from Fraud New York’s Medicaid program exists for an important reason: providing healthcare to some of our most vulnerable residents. Seniors, children, individuals with disabilities, and families who genuinely need assistance should be able to count on this program when they need it most. But protecting Medicaid does not simply mean increasing the amount of money we put into it. It means making sure that the dollars already in the system actually reach the people they are intended to help. That is why I have proposed two pieces of legislation designed to strengthen New York’s fight against Medicaid fraud, improve transparency, encourage whistleblowers to come forward, and ensure that credible allegations of fraud receive the attention they deserve. This is not about cutting Medicaid. It is about protecting Medicaid. New York cannot afford to look the other way when taxpayer dollars are being stolen, misused, or diverted by bad actors. Every dollar lost to fraud is a dollar that cannot be used to provide care for someone who legitimately needs it, and make no mistake, Medicaid fraud is NOT a victimless crime. When someone steals from Medicaid, they are stealing from taxpayers. They are also potentially taking resources away from the very people the program was created to serve. Fraud drives up costs, undermines public confidence, and threatens the long-term sustainability of an already enormous program. The good news is that New York already has people and agencies working to combat this problem. The bad news is that this agency has gone from one of the best Medicaid fraud units in the country to recently ranked 51st in the nation - dead last including Washington, D.C.! Due to the lack of convictions in this unit, the Department of Justice has recently pulled funding from the Medicaid Fraud Unit in the NY Attorney General’s Office. This is completely unacceptable! We know there is more fraud to uncover, and we should be doing more. It’s time for New York to right the ship! The Office of the Medicaid Inspector General (OMIG) conducts audits and investigations, identifies improper payments, and refers cases for enforcement. My first bill would put into statute a clear, standardized process for handling Medicaid fraud tips submitted to OMIG. Under the legislation, credible information would be shared with the appropriate investigative authorities, including the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, the New York State Attorney General, and the appropriate local District Attorney. Believe it or not, this currently does not happen. Our Local District Attorneys are left in the dark! Why is this important? Because information is only useful if it gets into the hands of the people who can act on it. Local district attorneys and investigators know their communities. They know the providers, businesses, organizations, and individuals operating in their jurisdictions. They also have the ability to investigate cases that might otherwise compete for attention with larger, statewide investigations. This legislation would also require OMIG to produce an annual report detailing the number of tips received,
investigations resulting from those tips, referrals, and outcomes. That report would be provided to the Governor, the Attorney General, and the Majority and Minority Leaders in both the State Senate and State Assembly. Transparency should never be controversial. New Yorkers deserve to know that when someone reports suspected fraud, the allegation is not simply entered into a database and forgotten. They deserve to know that credible information is evaluated, shared appropriately, investigated when warranted, and tracked through its conclusion. The second bill takes another important step: giving people an incentive to come forward. People who witness fraud sometimes hesitate to report it. They may be afraid of retaliation, they may believe nobody will listen, or they may simply decide reporting it is not worth the time and risk. My proposal would create a Medicaid Fraud Tip Reward Fund, much like the one they have for Crimestoppers. One percent of funds salvaged through Medicaid fraud recoveries, seizures, or forfeitures would be dedicated to this fund. In other words, the program would be designed to reward successful fraud reporting using recovered dollars, not create another burden on taxpayers. If a documented tip ultimately leads to the successful resolution of a Medicaid fraud case and results in a guilty plea or conviction, the person who provided the information could be eligible for a reward. A sevenmember board would establish the guidelines for the program and meet twice a year to review qualifying cases and determine awards. The proposed board would include representatives from the Governor’s Office, Lieutenant Governor’s Office, and the Majority and Minority Leaders of both houses of the Legislature. To be clear, this isn’t about creating a bounty system where anyone can make an accusation and receive a check. There would be standards, documentation, and an investigation. There would have to be a successful criminal outcome before a reward could be considered. The objective is simple, give people another reason to speak up when they have credible information about wrongdoing. We should not be afraid of people bringing fraud to light. We should encourage it. The federal government’s own recent experience with fraud demonstrates why aggressive Medicaid fraud enforcement is worth the investment. According to the HHS Office of Inspector General, nearly $2 billion was recovered in 2025 by the 53 state and territory Medicaid Fraud Control Units. That is not money wasted. That is money recovered. New York should be looking for every opportunity to replicate that success. This issue has also received renewed attention with recent reporting and investigations surrounding alleged Medicaid abuses in New York at Adult Care Centers and Nursing Facilities. Those reports should not lead us to condemn an entire program or an entire industry. The vast majority of healthcare professionals and providers are hardworking people who provide critical services to New Yorkers, but allegations of fraud must be taken seriously. We cannot allow political considerations, bureaucracy, or fear of uncomfortable headlines to get
in the way of protecting taxpayer dollars, and we cannot confuse protecting Medicaid with protecting the people who exploit it. There is nothing compassionate about allowing fraud to continue. If we want Medicaid to remain available to the people who truly depend on it, we have an obligation to protect its financial integrity. That means identifying waste. It means confronting abuse, and when there is evidence of criminal fraud, it means investigating it and holding those responsible accountable. This is not a partisan issue. Republicans and Democrats should agree that stealing taxpayer dollars is wrong. We should agree that seniors and people with disabilities deserve the care they were promised. We should agree that healthcare providers who play by the rules should not have to compete with bad actors who exploit the system, and we should agree that New Yorkers deserve accountability for every tax dollar spent! My proposed legislation is about giving investigators more information, giving prosecutors more opportunities to act, giving whistleblowers more incentive to speak up, and giving taxpayers greater transparency. Most importantly, it is about protecting the future of Medicaid. New York has a responsibility to ensure that this program remains solvent and sustainable for the people who truly need it, not for those looking for ways to take advantage of it. We cannot solve every problem with another dollar of spending. Sometimes the answer is making sure that dollars we already have are being used properly. That is what these bills are about. Protecting Medicaid means protecting its beneficiaries. Protecting taxpayers means protecting their hard-earned money, and protecting both requires us to stand up to fraud wherever we find it. I intend to keep fighting for the accountability, transparency, and enforcement necessary to make sure New York’s Medicaid dollars go where they belong: toward providing care, NOT enriching criminals! Senator Dean Murray (R-East Patchogue) has represented the Third District in the New York State Senate since 2023 after having represented the Third Assembly District from 2010 to 2013 and again from 2015 to 2018. The Third District contains Bellport, Blue Point, Brookhaven hamlet, Center Moriches, East Moriches, East Patchogue, Farmingville, Gordon Heights, Lake Grove, Manorville, Mastic, Mastic Beach, Medford, Moriches, North Bellport, North Patchogue, Patchogue, Shirley, South Haven, Upton, and Yaphank, as well as parts of Calverton, Centereach, Coram, Eastport, Holbrook, Holtsville, Lake Ronkonkoma, Middle Island, Ridge, and Selden. Senator Murray serves as Ranking Member on the committees on Commerce, Economic Development, and Small Business; Libraries; and Social Services. He also serves on the committees on Budget and Revenue; Codes; and Higher Education. The Third District office is located at 90-B West Main Street in Patchogue and can be reached at 631-360-3356.
Down Ballot Published by Messenger Papers, Inc.
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Thursday, September 3, 2026
Governors’ Map: Anything Goes, Dems Surge in Plains By Matt Meduri As we’ve reiterated many times, no state is truly off the table for one party in a gubernatorial race and some interesting races appear to be shaping up. Arizona (D): Tilts D to Leans D - Governor Katie Hobbs (D) won a razor-thin margin of victory in 2022, making her the first Democratic governor of Arizona since Janet Napolitano (D) left office in 2014. It also marked Arizona’s full shift to a swing state, as Democrats had already captured the Copper State’s electoral votes and both Senate seats the previous cycle. Republicans initially thought Arizona would be one of their more auspicious pickup opportunities this cycle. However, Congressmen Andy Biggs (R, AZ-05) and David Schewikert (R, AZ-01), two Phoenixarea politicians, vied for months for the right to take on Hobbs. Biggs easily won his primary and Schweikert left behind a swing seat that will very likely define control of the House in January. Biggs has had his moments in the headlines over the last couple years. He ran for the contested Speaker position when the GOP narrowly took the House in 2023. Biggs would later be one of eight Republicans to vote to remove then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA). As House Freedom Caucus Chair, Biggs also made news when he called on then-Congresswoman Liz Cheney (R-WY) to resign from her leadership roles. On the homefront, Governor Hobbs has solid leads over Biggs - 7 to 9 points in most aggregates. While her raw leads in the polls aren’t massive, they’re consistent. She’s also pulled in over $10 million this cycle as of June to Biggs’ $3.2 million. We think Republicans will have a better shot in Arizona when Hobbs is term-limited in 2030. Iowa (Open-R): Toss Up to Tilts D (Flip): One of the most competitive races has quietly been unfolding in a state some had written off for Democrats this late into the Trump Era. Iowa State Auditor Rob Sand (D) is the only statewide Democrat elected in the Hawkeye State. He flipped the Auditor seat red-to-blue in 2018 and held on in 2022 by just 2,900 votes out of over 1.2 million cast. He was the only prominent Democrat to survive a wipeout year in Iowa. Not only has Sand been field-tested in a much more difficult environment, but his opponent, businessman Zach Lahn (R), has been facing questions about significant time spent in Wichita, Kansas. In a state like Iowa, retail politics goes far, and the aggregates of polls track Sand with a 4 to 5-point lead. According to The Des Moines Register, Sand has a massive $38 million fundraising advantage, which includes $11.5 million from his wife’s wealthy family. Lahn has raised just under $6.5 million. Republicans certainly risk defeat in this marquee gubernatorial race in a swing state which the GOP had just become accustomed to losing when Trump was elected in 2016. No Democrat has been elected governor of Iowa since 2006. Nebraska (R): Safe R to Likely R - The Great Plains’ most Republican states appear to be gradually becoming more competitive. Nebraska will play host to a unique Senate race that features an Independent running with the Democrats’ blessing. While such a nationalized race in Nebraska might not work up the ballot to the gubernatorial race, there could be such synergy there this year - of Governor Jim Pillen’s doing, that is. Pillen won the open seat in 2022; the solidly-red state elected him by 24 points. Surveys, however, have found Pillen to be underwater in the deep-red state, alongside President Trump for the first time in the latter’s political career. However, a poll sponsored by Pillen’s opponent found him at 32%-50% (-18), making him the last popular governor in the country at the time. But despite that outlier, Pillen isn’t in stellar shape and has only been tacked with minimal leads in limited polling. He leads Lynne Walz (D), a cousin-in-law of Governor Tim Walz (DMN), by just 2 points in April. Limited polling, however, has been sponsored by Democratic-affiliated pollsters. We take it with a grain of salt, but the overlapping Senate race and Pillen’s personal numbers can’t be ignored. Nebraska Public Media reports that in June, Walz outraised Pillen by almost $300,000 to just over $160,000. This seat is a long shot; no Democrat has been elected Governor of Nebraska since 1994. But in a year with an engaged Senate race in a state not used to political activity, and as Omaha continues to drift left, there could be an unusual opening in the Great Plains this year. New Mexico (Open-D): Leans D to Likely D - We had initially anticipated a more competitive race in the Land of Enchantment this year. Since the mid-1990s, the last four governors were elected on a two-term rotation: eight years of one party followed by eight years of the other. Some states vote on this trend, and we were assuming New Mexico was building such a reputation. That might still be under the hood at-large, but the GOP has missed their marks this year. Democrats scored a top recruit in Biden-era Interior Secretary Deb Haaland (D) who has raised over $11 million this cycle.
She faces Greg Hull, the Mayor of Rio Rancho, a key Albuquerque suburb. He’s raised just under $500,000 this cycle and faces a weaker ticket. Republicans for the concurrent Senate race were kicked off the ballot, necessitating a write-in campaign that all but forfeits that seat this year. We could find only one three polls for this race, one Republican-aligned, one Democraticaligned, and one officially nonpartisan. Two show a single-digit race, but the nonpartisan outlet’s 6-point lead for Haaland is probably more realistic. No Republican has been elected governor of New Mexico since 2014. Ohio (Open-R): Leans R to Toss Up - Vivek Ramaswamy (R) was once seen as a possible heir apparent to the Trump wing of the Republican Party. Now, as Trump’s base continues to fall apart, Ramaswamy isn’t seen in such a positive light anymore. However, his opponent’s, Amy Acton (D), claim to fame was administering Ohio’s COVID-19 response - a time most voters would rather forget and one where no move was the correct one in the court of public opinion. Ohio, like Iowa, has surprised observers in its rightward shift in the Trump Era. Some believe that the two are off the table almost entirely, but Ohio’s marquee Senate race this year, along with key House races in which Democrats have the momentum, have, in our view, pushed this seat to the possibility of being lost by the GOP. No Democrat has been elected governor of Ohio since 2006, but even that election was a rarity. Democrats have to go back to 1986 to find their last governor of the Buckeye State. Part of that was a strong state GOP that produced moderate, classical Republicans - Bob Taft (R), John Kasich (R), and term-limited current Governor Mike DeWine (R). Ramaswamy breaks that mold and with it, possibly the GOP’s hold on their newfound red state. Here’s the Count We now think that two seats will flip on this year’s map: Kansas to the Republicans and Iowa to the Democrats. Nothing to report in GOP-held Arkansas, Idaho, Tennessee, and Wyoming - although polling and fundraising show a race could be brewing in Alabama. For now, we’ll keep it as Safe Republican. We still think Governor Greg Abbott (R) will have his toughest fight yet for an unprecedented fourth term as governor of Texas. The concurrent, very competitive Senate race is likely to be a drag on his margins. Meanwhile, Democrats are safe in Colorado, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Maryland, and Pennsylvania - all but the last are solidly-blue, progressive bastions. Some of these states are producing 2028 hopefuls as we speak. Governor Josh Shapiro (D-PA) scored big in 2022 with a fluke opponent, but appears solidly set for re-election in this critical swing state that gave Trump his greatest margin of the three Rust Belt battlegrounds in 2024. The GOP is “Likely” to retain 6 seats; the Democrats “Likely” in 8, including California and New York. Of note, Governor Dan McKee (D-RI) is almost certain to lose his primary next week. The Democratic challenger polls exceptionally better than McKee does, but an Independent candidate could shake things up. Rhode Island is no stranger to that effect on the gubernatorial and senatorial levels. We currently identify three Toss Ups: Republican incumbents are termed out in Georgia and Ohio, while a two-term Democrat opted not to run for a third term in Wisconsin. There’s no prize for winning the most governorships, but it is a display of party strength from a federalist perspective. Republicans currently govern 26 states; Democrats govern 24. Democrats have to go back to 2009 to find the most recent year they held a majority of the nation’s governorships.
Brookhaven Matters
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Thursday, September 3, 2026
Published by Messenger Papers, Inc.
Continued from front cover
Miller Place Honors Legendary Coach Credit - Matt Meduri Credit - Matt Meduri Credit - Matt Meduri Credit - Matt Meduri
He went on to attend Southampton College on a basketball scholarship and student-taught in Hampton Bays. At Miller Place, he would lead the program to two league championships, earn three Coach of the Year honors, and account for more victories than any other boys’ basketball coach in Miller Place history. He was also selected three times to coach the Long Island team at the Empire State Games, twice as an assistant, once as head coach. According to Board of Education meeting notes, the district summed up their logic in renaming the court in Brown’s honor. “The best compliment a team can receive is nobody wants to play them; that was Miller Place under Coach Brown.” The district noted his role as Athletic Director in helping “guide Miller Place High School through a very difficult period of financial troubles and staffing changes.” Brown also started the district’s Booster Club Golf outing as part of the S.O.S. (Save Our Sports) initiative. He’s also an inductee of both the Suffolk Community College and Miller Place Athletic Halls of Fame. Roy Kelly, a student of Brown’s, recalled attending basketball games and the “excitement” that went along with them. “As a kid, you don’t really understand who created that atmosphere or what it takes to build a successful program and a tradition. You just know you want to be a part of it,” said Kelly. “Looking back now, I understand that Mr. Brown was the person who built what I was watching.” Kelly would work under Athletic Director Brown in soccer, basketball, and baseball. In his first collegiate soccer game at Bryant University in Rhode Island, and despite having never informed Brown of the time or date of the game, his Coach was on the sidelines. “I was away from Miller Place about to play my first college game, and suddenly there was a familiar face from home standing on the sidelines. There was nothing better in that moment than having a little piece of home there to settle the nerves.” Kelly added that many in attendance last Friday likely had their “own version” of that story. “Mr. Brown once said that he never viewed his primary job as simply producing good basketball players. His job was to produce good people who could play some ball. He wanted to develop what he called ‘winners in life.’ He taught his players to respect their teammates, respect their opponents, and most importantly, respect the game. Henry “Buddy” Read (Miller Place ‘77), who also has a spot in the district’s Athletic Hall of Fame, said Coach Brown “represents Miller Place.” He was there for me. Weddings, birthdays, anything in our family, he was still there,” said Read. “He lived Miller Place and breathed Miller Place, and we thank you for being one of the first players to ever play for you.” Another one of Brown’s protege’s was none other than Miller Place native Matt Ryan (‘84) (pictured top right), who was a member of the U.S. Olympic handball team from 1989 to 1996, serving as captain in his last year. He was also one of Brown’s two players who became New York State Basketball Players of the Year. Ryan was also one of the first people to push for the high school’s gym to be renamed in honor of Brown. “Success is a byproduct of opportunity,” said Ryan, recounting a memory of when Brown pulled him aside and made that life lesson clear to him during his freshman year of high school. “It became the DNA of who I am.” Ryan added that his Olympic career “started in Miller Place” and with the “work ethic instilled” in him by Brown. “I thank you for telling us the things we needed to hear, not the things that we wanted to hear,” said Doug Read (‘85) (pictured middle right) to Brown. “When I found out the gym was officially named in his honor, I said, ‘it’s about time they named this 93x46 classroom after the man who taught us all the lessons that we needed to know.’” Coach Brown’s son, Will Brown (‘90) (pictured bottom right), played under his father and went on to become head basketball coach at the University of Albany. Will Brown is a twice-named America East regular season champion (2006, 2015), a five-time winner of the America East Tournament, and the 2015 America East Coach of the Year. “The kids he taught in the classroom every day who didn’t play sports were just as important to him as the players he coached,” said Brown of his father. Coach Brown himself reflected on years of service to a community that “paid back dividends.” “Miller Place has done more for me than I have ever done for Miller Place,” said Coach Brown, recognizing his wife of 54 years for her being with him “every step of the way.” The floor of the Miller Place High School gymnasium now bears the name of Coach Brown, paying homage to someone who shaped the community, but in many ways, was shaped by the community itself.
Around Town Published by Messenger Papers, Inc.
13
Thursday, September 3, 2026
Continued from front cover
Zeldin Names New L.I. Sound Partnership Director
Credit - Matt Meduri
Since 2019, Tachiki has served as the Strategic Planning Coordinator of LISP. One of her main duties in that capacity has been to develop LISP’s Reports to Congress and aiding the group through the Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan (CCMP) She worked in the Drinking Water and Groundwater Protection Section as a specialist in 2012, and ascended to Acting Section Supervisor in 2024. Since 2022, she has served as a special assistant to the Regional EPA Administrator. EPA Region 2 serves New York, New Jersey, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and eight Indian Nations. Tachiki hails from Los Angeles, California, and currently lives in New York City. She holds a bachelor’s degree in environmental science from UCLA and a master’s degree in environmental science and policy from Johns Hopkins University. “Nikki brings deep and long standing commitment to the Long Island Sound Partnership, extensive experience in program leadership, stakeholder engagement, and strategic planning within EPA Region 2,” said Administrator Zeldin. “Since 2019, Nikki has served as a life scientist and strategic planning coordinator with EPA Region 2 in New York, where she has led complex, high-priority Long Island Sound Partnership efforts.” Zeldin added that in 2023 and 2025, Tachiki “led multiple teams of more than 60 authors in developing the goals of and action of the 2025 CCMP.” She’s also served as a project officer to help secure $537 million in funding. Zeldin hailed her work in providing “strategic support” for the Sound’s hydrodynamic water quality model and her contributions to nutrient management. Tachiki succeeds Mark Tedesco who retired after nearly 30 years directing LISP. She is expected to lead the organization through its current 10-year environmental plan. “With nearly 9 million people touched by the Long Island Sound, it’s essential that we take the steps necessary to protect its waters, its wildlife, and its role in the lives of surrounding communities,” said Tachiki (pictured right). She mentioned that one “highlight project” during her time with EPA Region 2 is working with the NYC Department of Environmental Protection to “determine the next steps to tackling nutrient pollution.” “Not a single leader or a single organization drives the success of this program. It’s the hundreds of hours that each member puts into the program each year, and it’s the decades of combined experience that each committee and work group brings to the table when we’re creating a pathway.” Sound Quality
Before the announcement of Tachiki’s promotion, Zeldin sat down with Congressman Nick LaLota (R-Amityville) and key regional stakeholders, such as Sea Grant (both New York and Connecticut groups), Citizens Campaign for the Environment, and the Cornell Cooperative Extension of Suffolk County. Zeldin called “partnership” the “name of the game,” owing to his near-decade with the same stakeholders during his time in Congress. When he entered Congress in 2015, funding for LISP was at about $4 million. Now, their current authorization is over $40 million annually. “It’s not all about the dollars, it is about protecting the environment for future generations,” said LaLota, the only House Republican from the Northeast to sit on the powerful Appropriations Committee. He asked for the partnership’s continued guidance in their needs and the ROI on investing in the Sound’s protection and quality so as to better make the pitch to his fellow lawmakers in Washington. The EPA has found that the Sound’s hypoxia - low levels of oxygen - is a historic low since the program’s inception. They’ve mapped 257,000 acres of seafloor habitat, as well as more than 2,000 acres of eelgrass. 421 coastal habitat acres have been restored and 215 acres of open space have been conserved. On the training/education front, Zeldin said that they’ve trained 2,500 “decisionmakers” and have engaged over 5,300 students. Adrienne Esposito, Executive Director for Citizens Campaign for the Environment, said that while the 42 members in the coalition is down from its peak of 60, they are
“rebuilding” that coalition. She mentioned the coalition’s high school education program, which saw students read the CCMP, choose projects, and attend field trips to the Sound - especially for inland students who have never visited the regional gem. Eric Swanson, Executive Director for the Hempstead Harbor Protection Committee, said that the harbor’s shellfish beds, which had been closed for 45 years, have reopened under the sub-watershed plan and alongside wastewater upgrades, wetland restoration, shellfish seeding, and geese control. It’s now the second-largest hard clam producer in the state, at a peak value of $136 million. Six million oysters were planted in Hasset Bay, Hempstead Harbor, and Oyster Bay this summer alone, giving them the capacity to filter 100 million gallons of water a day if grown to their full size. Swanson added that Crescent Beach in Glen Cove, which was closed for 17 years due to “extreme bacterial levels,” reopened this summer. Zeldin Talks Data Centers Islip and Brookhaven are currently Suffolk’s only towns to pass moratoria on the construction of all data centers within their boundaries. Both towns passed their temporary bans unanimously for 18 months. While the question of Long Island as a potential home for data centers remains, Zeldin clarified the EPA’s positions on the new and controversial technology. Zeldin invoked his long-held ideology of “cooperative federalism,” wherein the federal government believes the states and municipalities are best to make decisions for themselves regarding their own communities without mandates or pressures from feds. “We [the EPA] have obligations under the Clean Water Act, and we fulfill our statutory obligations as it relates to that,” Zeldin told The Messenger. “But we don’t want to micromanage all of this where we are picking and choosing which projects get built and which ones don’t. Zeldin cited three primary concerns that he fields from across the country. The first is energy bills. He said that after touring all 50 states within his first 9 months at the EPA, he had a front-row seat to many of the data centers being built. “While there might be the most amount of focus on the most controversial example out there, it was very important to see examples of data centers in communities that will be getting a net benefit,” said Zeldin. “The local ratepayer is going to be paying less [for energy], not more.” Zeldin mentioned the facility in West Memphis, Arkansas, where ratepayers have received a $1 billion-plus net benefit. The second aspect is how the meter works for a data center that comes online. “They might be building a small modular reactor or otherwise generating their own energy capacity. ‘Is my local energy capacity going to be drained at all, will it be better or worse?’ There are a lot of new data centers that are coming online that are checking this box. They’re going behind the meter and they are net providers onto the grid as opposed to net takers.” The third point of interest for the EPA is water usage. Zeldin said that the EPA released their Water Reuse Action Plan 2.0 with data centers in mind. “The technology of data centers has advanced quite a bit. Many of them are now using closed loop systems; it’s 100% recyclable. There are data centers being built that aren’t even using anywhere near as much water as data centers just a few years back. So, it’s very important on this particular front that when these data centers are being constructed, they are not being constructed in a way where they’re constantly tapping into a water supply.”
Civics 101
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Published by Messenger Papers, Inc.
Thursday, September 3, 2026
The Necessary Standard for American Education Labor Day
This column will seek to address the long-forgotten concept of civics and how it relates to American government in general, from the federal level to the local level. This column will explore Constitutional rights, the inner workings of government, the electoral process, and the obligations and privileges of citizens.
By Matt Meduri Monday, September 7, is Labor Day. While not a “how-the-government-works” style column, it’s a classic piece of American heritage we find worthy of digging into this week.
Day. Cleveland signed it into law on June 28, 1894. How It’s Celebrated
History and Origin Labor Day has its roots within the zenith of the Industrial Revolution. Machinery was spreading, job markets were fundamentally changing, and workers’ rights and fair wages became one of the top political issues of the late-19th and early-20th centuries. As labor movements grew, certain trade unions would designate days to celebrate labor. The September holiday of Labor Day was first proposed in the early 1880s. Interestingly, The New York Times in a 2020 article covered the debate over who actually founded the holiday. One family points to a patriarch in Matthew Maguire (left photo) as the founder, while the other points to Peter J. McGuire (right photo) as the true “father of Labor Day.” That debate has ensued since 1894. Maguire was a machinist, while McGuire was a carpenter, but both were union leaders with Irish parents and both attended the first Labor Day parade in New York City in 1882. The U.S. Department of Labor officially credits McGuire with the founding of the holiday, as he founded the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and was the co-founder of the American Federation of Labor’s predecessor. Some evidence, however, suggests that the title belongs to Maguire, the secretary of the Central Labor Union (CLU) which organized the first Labor Day parade. His burial card includes a handwritten message, “This man founded Labor Day.” McGuire’s family were guests at President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s (R-KS) White House for a stamp dedication ceremony to McGuire and the labor movement. The Cincinnati Tribune found that one early anecdote about the holiday was that it originated with an assembly of the Knights of Labor in New York in September 1882. That’s where CLU Secretary Maguire is credited with calling for Labor Day to be recognized the first Monday of September. For McGuire, a trip to Toronto where he witnessed a parade celebrating labor is said to have given him the inspiration. He put forward that proposal in spring 1882. In a proposal to the CLU, he called for a “general holiday for the laboring classes,” recommending that each celebration start with a street parade as a demonstration of labor’s solidarity, followed by a picnic with tickets acting as a fundraiser. He, like Maguire, suggested the first Monday in September, owing to regularly cooperative weather and its midpoint between Independence Day and Thanksgiving. The popularity quickly spread. In 1887, Oregon became the first state to make Labor Day an official public holiday. That same year, New York became the fifth state to act. By 1894, thirty states were in recognition. But it would take one of the largest and most significant labor demonstrations in U.S. history to get it on Congress’ radar: the Pullman Strike of 1894.
During the Panic of 1893, at the time the country’s worst economic crisis until the Great Depression, the American Railway Union (ARU) struck against the Pullman Company’s Chicago factory in the spring of 1894. The Panic made railroad companies purchase less passenger cars, many made by Pullman, which led the manufacturers to lay off workers and reduce wages - around 25%. A large reason for the strike was that the town of Pullman, Illinois, was a “company town” - one where most of the stores and housing are owned by the same company that is also the main employer. Workers in company towns often had little to no democratic powers. For Pullman workers and residents, they struggled against excessive utility rates, no democracy in Pullman, and the company’s refusal to let the workers buy and own houses. The ARU would be founded in 1893 by Eugene V. Debs, who would become a five-time Socialist candidate for president (1900-1912, 1920) whose arrest in July 1894 intensified the strike. Since the Pullman workers hadn’t unionized, Debs signed them up. When that had no effect, Debs organized a massive boycott against all trains carrying Pullman cars. It would affect most rail lines west of Detroit. At its peak, it affected about 250,000 workers in 27 states, according to Encyclopedia Britannica. The strike is officially stated as having occurred from May 11 to July 20, 1894. The strike interrupted mail and interstate commerce dramatically. President Grover Cleveland (D-NY) and his administration found that the strike was illegal, as it hindered federal services and interstate commerce. When the strikers ignored the order to disband and derailed a locomotive attached to a mail car, Cleveland sent in the National Guard to restore order. It was the first time in U.S. history that the federal government used a court injunction to break a strike backed by military force. But that only made tensions worse. Strikers overturned more railcars and barricaded themselves against the military. About 6,000 people destroyed hundreds of railcars in the Chicago suburbs and burned buildings. Historical estimates vary, but National guardsmen fired upon and killed 12 to 30 people in Chicago, plus another estimated 40 in other states. Eugene Debs was sentenced to six months in prison, after failing to negotiate the rehiring of the workers. Railroad companies gradually resumed business, and some strikers were rehired - although they had to pledge to not join a union again. During the strikes, Congress passed a bill recognizing the first Monday in September as Labor
Most Americans take vacation around or on Labor Day weekend, as it’s considered the unofficial end of summer and the unofficial beginning of that year’s general election campaign. Some states have taken legislative initiatives with the holiday serving as an anchor. In Virginia, the amusement park industry lobbied the State Legislature to require most school districts to begin their school years after Labor Day, giving families another weekend to visit the parks. The “Kings Dominion” law, named after one such park, was later repealed in 2019. Michelle Zettergren of Labor Press documents some of the Labor Day traditions around the country. Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin have traditionally started their school years after Labor Day to support tourism. Michigan has a unique Labor Day tradition. Since 1958, the state has hosted the annual Mackinac Bridge Walk, where tens of thousands of people, usually led by the governor, walk the 5-mile bridge that connects the Upper Peninsula with the Lower Peninsula. It’s the only day of the year pedestrians are allowed on the bridge. In Park City, Utah, it’s common for ski resort towns to honor their silver mining heritage with Miners Day. Since 1896, the mucking and drilling competition has seen participants attempt to use antique mining machinery and equipment. In McCalla, Alabama, Tannehill Ironworks Historical State Park features a 19th-century ironmaking complex, where craftsmen can demonstrate their skills. In Pioche, Nevada, another former mining community, the town sees its population quadruple during the weekend. Tournaments, trap shooting, a cake walk, and lawnmower races are just some of the fare featured at that fair. How Suffolk Celebrates One of the long-standing, end-of-summer traditions in Suffolk is the Shinnecock Indian Powwow. The Shinnecock’s reservation in the Town of Southampton plays host to one of the largest powwows in the country, with traditional dance competitions, drum contests, and Native American art, jewelry, food, and ceremonies. Brentwood hosts its Feast of Mother Cabrini at their Suffolk Community College Campus. The multinight Italian festival ends on Labor Day. Fire Island, already known for its summer bashes, lets the summer season end with multi-night DJ events in places like Ocean Bay Park. In the heart of Suffolk, the Greater Ronkonkoma Chamber of Commerce puts on their annual Labor Day street fair. Sunday, September 6, from 11:00a.m. to 6:00p.m., Hawkins Avenue - between Portion Road and Church Street - will play host to thousands in search of local food, live music, and all the offerings of Lake Ronkonkoma. The Messenger will be one of many booths there this weekend.
Candidate Spotlight Published by Messenger Papers, Inc.
Thursday, September 3, 2026
15
Senator Dean Murray By Matt Meduri Candidate: Senator Dean Murray Residence: East Patchogue Office: New York State Senate, District Three Elected: 2022 Committees: Commerce, Economic Development, & Small Business (Ranking member); Libraries (Ranking Member); Social Services (Ranking Member); Codes; Crime Victims, Crime, & Correction, Higher Education, Joint Senate Task Force on Opioids, Addiction & Overdose Prevention. Previous Offices: State Assembly, District Three (2010-2013, 2015-2018) Party Lines: Republican, Conservative Notable Endorsements: Suffolk Law Enforcement Coalition, Suffolk AME, NYSUT, Nassau-Suffolk Builders, AFL-CIO, CSEA In 2010, Dean Murray made history as the first Tea Party-aligned candidate to win public office in the country. After serving in both chambers, he’s seeking a third term representing the southern half of Brookhaven in the State Senate. Senator Murray sat down with The Messenger for this candidate spotlight interview. Q: In your own words, how would you classify the state of the State? A: Troubled. Obviously, we have known there’s an affordability problem; we’ve seen this coming. And yet, from last year to this year, we increased spending by $23 billion $254B to $277B. Initially, this year’s budget was $268B, and somehow, $9B got added on. The frustration is when you see where those billions are going. They’re going to those here illegally. We’re going to pay for a hotel room, food, phones, clothes, and healthcare for them. Over the last few years, it easily tops $10B, most of it funnelled to New York City. Medicaid is $124B alone this year. It’s a federal program, but New York offers the “Cadillac” of Medicaid. You want a third eye on your forehead? Sure, Medicaid will cover it. Sex change operations? Sure, Medicaid will cover it. Why are we paying for elective surgeries? The more you hand out for free, the more votes you get. If the State is chasing away the taxpayers, who’s left? The people not contributing. Pretty soon, you run out of other people’s money. A couple years ago, we talked about trimming back the offerings in Medicaid and the Democrats went crazy. They said, “You’re going to kill everybody.” All I’m asking is that we offer what the feds require we offer - nothing more, nothing less, like Florida does. Last time I checked, there are more New Yorkers in Florida than any other state, and they’re not dying in the streets. They’re choosing to go there; yet, Florida doesn’t offer what we do. We spend nearly $5000 per person every year in Medicaid spending. The next closest state is Kentucky, which spends $4000 per person and they have a lot less people than we do. When it comes to investigating Medicaid fraud, waste, and abuse, we are dead last in the country. The A.G. only picks the headline-grabbing fraud cases, but she’s leaving hundreds of other cases out there. She’s too worried about going after Trump to worry about fraud right under her nose that is costing us billions. I’ve introduced legislation that would send some of these Medicaid cases to the local D.A.’s. A couple years ago, Comptroller DiNapoli estimated that there was at least $10B in fraud every year. I’d venture to say that number is probably closer to $20B now. New York also shifts 50% of its share of Medicaid onto the municipalities. We’re the only state that does that. Every year, the Democrats find a way to raise taxes or fees to meet our obligations, but the spending doesn’t go away. They tried to use congestion pricing as a creative fix, and a recent study just showed it has done absolutely nothing to fix the air quality in the area. It was just a cash grab. The State isn’t being smart about housing. The State is letting people come here undocumented and giving them shelter and paying for it. Then the State is putting restrictions on development, like the Electric Buildings Act. They rescinded the 100-Foot Rule, which would have impacted the number of people hooking up to natural gas, because they said we couldn’t meet the deadlines. We told them so. Then they say that our energy infrastructure is outdated. No kidding, because who would invest in the system when you told everyone you
wanted to get rid of it? The electric school bus mandate was also rescinded. I’d rather see it where it’s up to the school districts to change to electric buses. Q: Based on November turns out, what do you think the state of the State is going forward and how do you and your caucus respond? A: We have leaders in Albany who govern by which way the wind’s blowing. When things get really tough, people look for change, regardless of what it is. Now, we’ve got this radical, socialist DSA party, and the young kids are buying it. They don’t have experience to know it doesn’t work. They’ve been wanting to lower the voting age to 16 for years; I’m hearing rumblings of 14 after they get it down to 16. Mayor Mamdani is leading the way. My fear is other parts of the state will follow. But I think after November, Governor Hochul will be looking for a job in the Mamdani Administration, as Governor Blakeman will be in charge. If it does not go his way, I do think her win will embolden her to follow along with wherever the party’s going. That scares me, quite frankly. If that happens, I’ll be reaching out to every suburban Democrat to have a conversion with them. Why don’t we have a Suburban Caucus? Let’s give the people what they really want instead of forcing them to follow these crazy people’s lead. I’m more than happy to work with anybody who wants to do that. Q: Since your start with the Tea Party over 15 years ago, is the state of politics what you expected it to be? A: I’m surprised at how little it’s changed. The more things change, the more they stay the same. It’s just who’s wearing the hat. The original acronym was Taxed Enough Already. It wasn’t just a Republican thing; everyone was screaming to get back to basics. I think we made an impact, but it got co-opted a bit, and that’s when I stepped away from it because it wasn’t about being radical. It was about common sense. Now, the radical left is as anti-Tea Party as you can get. It’s not “taxed enough already;” it’s “more taxes, please. Can we have seconds, thirds?” It’s never enough. I certainly hope the pendulum swings back to the middle where most people are. I completely believe in safety net programs. I just believe in doing it right. A great example is the SNAP EBT cards with the magnetic strip on the back. We lost $40M from 2022 to 2025 because of SNAP benefits being stolen by card skimmers. Other states switched to chip technology; since they’ve switched, we’ve become more of a target. Last year alone, $17M in benefits were stolen. The State DOL had chips for their unemployment benefits cards. That’s literally the left hand not talking to the right hand. The State has allowed good, helpful programs to be abused, and then you add on all these extras at the taxpayers’ expense. Finally, last year, I and seven other lawmakers asked when the DOL was getting the EBT cards chipped. By the beginning of 2027, the DOL will be issuing 2 million EBT cards with chip technology. Hats off, but you can’t help but wonder why it took this long. They never let an opportunity go by to blame Donald Trump. The feds said they wouldn’t bail out the states for lost funds if they were lacking in their security. I was happy with that initiative, hoping it would be the impetus to fix the problem. Instead, they used it as an opportunity. Q: What are some wins you brought back to SD-03 the last two years? A: Roads and infrastructure. We’ve sent a letter to the
DOT about expanding Sunrise Highway. Eastbound, it drops from three lanes to two between NY-112 and Hospital Road. I want to extend three lanes out past William Floyd Parkway to Moriches; same for the westbound side. There’s a big project on NY-25 to fill potholes. It was originally supposed to be 2030, then 2028, but we got it bumped to spring 2027. We got $300,000 to do temporary patchwork from this past winter. The new Smith Point Bridge is in the works as well. For the South Country School District to not run out of money before the budget vote in May, we passed a special act to cover them $18M to finish the school year, but they got a 30-year advance on their lotto revenue shares. They had no money left by mid-May. It was not an ideal solution, but the alternative was them not being able to finish the school year. In that legislation, the district is now under quarterly reporting requirements for the next 30 years to the State government. Q: What have been your biggest statewide prerogatives the last two years? A: Crime and crime victims and Medicaid reform. Bail reform is ridiculous. It has made things worse; no one with a straight face can argue that point. Raise the Age has made it worse. Hit-and-runs have become an epidemic on Long Island, and I think it stems from the legalization of marijuana. We haven’t changed the laws to catch up. I’ve been trying to get colleagues on board to fix that with Nick’s Law, but the victims are so forgotten. The Democrats haven’t given me a reason for not bringing Nick’s Law up for a vote for the last four years. I’ve reached out directly to a Democratic Senator in the City, whose district saw multiple fatal hit-and-runs over the course of a couple weeks. I said he could carry the bill and get all the credit. They didn’t even return my call. I’ve also been working to help ease the burden on small businesses. If you use a credit card to pay your mechanic, the card company charges a processing fee, with the taxes included. You think it’s not much, but every month, you’re talking thousands of dollars going out of the pockets of small businesses, and to what? The big banks and credit card companies? Tennessee is working on legislation to eliminate the tax from the fee to save small businesses thousands of dollars a year. We’re trying to do the same thing here - crickets. Q: How does the Republican caucus in the Senate improve their strategy and initiatives? A: Follow Suffolk County and what we do here. We get people excited out here because we engage. Then, there are places in New York where you can’t find a Republican. They’re just not active. Jesse Garcia and our committee do a great job at getting the message out there. They and the voters make us accountable. We should be. It’s all about who we represent. Why do you think Lee Zeldin came so close for governor in 2022? He’s from Suffolk; he followed that blueprint. The rest of the state needs to take notes. Q: What’s your favorite quote, motto, or work ethic? A: “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.” - Wayne Gretzky. Q: How do you like to connect with your community? A: I love my district. The South Shore is picturesque. I love showing pictures off to my colleagues in Albany and say, “this is where I get to live.” We have so many civic groups and community programs across this district: Lake Ronkonkoma’s Labor Day Street Fair, Farmingville does their own fair, Moriches has their fair, Medford has concerts in the park by the firehouse. Everyone has their own unique flavor, but they have so much pride. I love how proud the people are of where they live. It makes me proud to represent them. The Messenger thanks Senator Dean Murray for his time for this interview. About the Third Senate District SD-03 contains Bellport, Blue Point, Brookhaven hamlet, Center Moriches, East Moriches, East Patchogue, Farmingville, Gordon Heights, Lake Grove, Manorville, Mastic, Mastic Beach, Medford, Moriches, North Bellport, North Patchogue, Patchogue, Shirley, South Haven, Upton, and Yaphank, as well as parts of Calverton, Centereach, Coram, Eastport, Holbrook, Holtsville, Lake Ronkonkoma, Middle Island, Ridge, and Selden. Dean Murray won the open Third District seat in 2022 by 31 points. He was re-elected in 2024 by 23 points. His opponent, Antonio Vargas-Ayala (D-Brookhaven), is not actively campaigning.
Smithtown Messenger - Brookhaven Messenger - Islip Messenger - Thursday, September 3, 2026
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Technology News Published by Messenger Papers, Inc.
Thursday, September 3, 2026
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Taxing AI and Where the Costs Really Land By Mollie W. Barnett For a Long Island small business, AI is no longer a futuristic experiment. It may already be writing marketing copy, answering customer questions, reviewing invoices, analyzing sales or simply helping one employee do considerably more than one employee could do before. And that makes something happening in Albany worth watching. AI is rapidly becoming part of the basic infrastructure of doing business, but New York has not quite decided what it is. When a small business buys access to AI through remotely accessed software, the state can treat it like a taxable product. New York has long taxed remotely accessed prewritten software, which means many AI-powered tools can fall under the same rules. On Long Island, that can mean 8.625 % sales tax in Nassau County and 8.75 % in Suffolk. This is not a new “AI tax.” It is existing tax law being applied to newer technology, but there is something increasingly odd about it. Software used to be easier to think about as a product. You bought accounting software to do accounting. You bought design software to do design. AI is different. It is beginning to move through the entire business — accounting, marketing, research, customer service, analysis, operations and decision-making. For many small companies, it is becoming less like another piece of software and more like internet access: something you increasingly need to compete. So, we are beginning to treat AI as infrastructure in practice while continuing to tax access to it like a product. And once you look underneath the software, that contradiction gets even more interesting. AI may feel almost weightless when you type something into a prompt box. Physically, it is anything but. It requires data centers filled with servers, cooling systems and electrical equipment. It requires transmission capacity. It requires enormous amounts of power. New York knows this. In June, both houses of the State Legislature passed the Responsible Data Center Development Act, which would temporarily halt certain new hyperscale data centers while the state studies their effects on electricity, water, communities and utility rates. The bill has passed the Legislature but, as of this writing, has not been signed into law. Governor Kathy Hochul (D-Hamburg) has already acted separately, issuing an executive order in July, pausing certain new hyperscale data center permits while the state develops a broader framework. The Public Service Commission is also working through perhaps the most important question for the rest of us: when one of these enormous facilities requires major new electrical infrastructure, who pays for it? Long Islanders should recognize that question immediately. We know what happens when infrastructure costs become part of the economics of a utility system. They don’t necessarily arrive on your bill with a neat little line saying, “AI data center.” They become part of what it costs to deliver power. New York is specifically trying to prevent ordinary ratepayers from being saddled with infrastructure costs created by enormous new users. That is a good objective. We should watch carefully to see whether the eventual rules accomplish it. Meanwhile, Albany is considering going considerably further. The proposed Robot Tax Act would impose an additional corporate tax when companies displace workers through certain technologies, including AI. Another proposal, the New York Workforce Stabilization Act, includes surcharges tied to certain levels of AI-related worker displacement and a separate 2 percent surcharge involving what the bill defines as AI “data mining.” Neither is currently law. There is also proposed legislation that would repeal certain existing sales-and-use-tax exemptions for data-center equipment and related services. That has not become law either, although Hochul has separately said she intends to pursue eliminating sales-tax exemptions for massive data centers. Put all of this together and an interesting picture emerges. New York is taxing some access to AI as software. It is reconsidering tax advantages for the infrastructure underneath it. It is developing special rules for the extraordinary amount of electricity that infrastructure consumes. And lawmakers are considering additional taxes based on what companies do with AI once they have it. In other words, we are simultaneously trying to figure out how to tax AI, subsidize it, power it and regulate its effects. And somewhere in the middle of all of that is the small business. That matters because there is a difference between where a cost is imposed and where it ultimately ends. If a large technology company faces a new tax, it may absorb some of it. It may also change prices, contracts or discounts. If a data center has to pay more for power and infrastructure, those costs become part of the economics of providing computing capacity. Some of those costs can move further downstream. That does not mean every corporate tax automatically lands on the consumer. Economics is
not that simple, but neither should we assume that a cost aimed at a large corporation stays neatly contained inside that corporation. Costs move through systems, and increasingly, the business at the end of that system is not buying AI because it is fun or futuristic. It is buying it because competitors are using it, customers are beginning to expect the speed it provides, and employees can accomplish more with it. That is the tension Albany needs to understand. AI is becoming business infrastructure. Yet the small business accessing it can still be taxed as though it were simply buying another product, while potentially encountering additional costs as the state determines how the enormous physical system underneath that product will be financed. So, what should a small business do? Start by treating AI like infrastructure yourself. Know which tools have become essential to the business, and which are simply subscriptions you accumulated while experimenting. Measure what they save and produce. If a tool costs $200 a month but saves thousands of dollars in labor or creates meaningful new capacity, the economics may work even if its price rises. If three tools are doing essentially the same thing, they probably don’t all belong on the balance sheet. And be careful about dependency. If an AI platform becomes critical to how your business operates, understand what happens if its price doubles, its terms change or a feature disappears. Keep control of your data and important business knowledge. Know where you have alternatives. Small businesses should also have a voice in what happens next in Albany. If AI is becoming a basic input into productivity and competitiveness, policy should recognize the difference between an optional technology purchase and a tool businesses increasingly need to operate. That does not mean AI should be tax-free, subsidy-free or regulation-free. Data centers consume real resources. Automation can create real labor disruption. Someone needs to pay for the infrastructure. The question is not who but how we distribute those costs without making the smallest businesses pay disproportionately for a technological transition most businesses did not create and increasingly cannot opt out of. There are important distinctions in everything happening now. The software tax already exists. The data-center bill has passed the Legislature but is not yet law. The governor’s permitting action and the Public Service Commission process are underway. The robot taxes and changes to datacenter tax exemptions remain proposals. We should not confuse them, but we should connect them, because AI is moving faster than the categories we use to govern it. Watch the legislation. Watch the utility rules. Watch what happens to the data-center incentives. And start looking at AI on your own balance sheet as infrastructure rather than another shiny software subscription. Then, whenever someone says a new tax or infrastructure charge is aimed only at the big technology companies, ask one more question: Where does the cost end?
By Mollie W. Barnett - is the Founder of State and Signal, Decision Architect TM and Founder of AI Systems. Mollie helps businesses find clarity and recalibrate their operational stance for the new frontier.
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Messenger Perspectives Thursday, September 3, 2026
Published by Messenger Papers, Inc.
Our Back to School Blessing By PJ Balzer
As the clock strikes 12:00, summer is now a memory and September is finally here. Children, adolescents, and teenagers from Montauk all the way to Baldwin are heading back to school. Some of Long Island’s students are just beginning preschool while others are preparing for their senior year in high school. I wanted to take a few minutes as the seasons shift and classrooms will soon be busy again to pray for all our many students going back to school this week. Lord, We begin, Jesus, by praying for the safety of all our many students. We ask that you would protect them as they are returning to school. That you would protect each one of our districts from any violence from the inside or the outside. Protect each child, each student, and each classroom. Protect all school grounds, thwart, and expose any plans that evil-intended individuals may have against our students and staff. Please keep our students safe as they set out to grow, learn, flourish, and succeed. Protect them at their bus stops, on the bus, and in all their in between travels from home to school. We also pray for our school staff, administration, and teachers. As a brand-new school year can come with many decisions, challenges, and circumstances. We ask You, Lord, to give our school employees wisdom and
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understanding that could only come from You. Especially when sudden situations arise and split-second decisions need to be made. Please download the right answers and wise decisions into our teachers’ minds and hearts. Let their hearts always be filled with Your mercy, grace, and care for each individual student. Help us and cover us this year, God. We pray for our many bus drivers’ who transport our kids from home to school and also clubs or sporting events. We pray that You would also give them wisdom and grace towards each student, especially the one that may be difficult on the bus. Help our drivers to see each child with your heart and eyes, God. Fill our bus drivers with peace, joy, and purpose. Help them to understand what a great privilege and blessing it is to be the first school employee to encounter our children each day. Help us, God, to let that interaction be pleasant and encouraging, setting a precedent for the rest of the day. We pray for our security guards and janitors as they care for the outside and inside of the school. We ask You, God, that you would also fill them with strength, purpose, and know-how to tackle each day and task. Whether the tool is a walkie-talkie, a mop, or broom, help our guards and janitors’ hearts to understand that every task is divine, important, and can be a blessing for our kids. Help them also to do their everyday tasks with wisdom, understanding, and grace, as no task or day is insignificant in your sight, Lord. We pray for our many coaches and assistant coaches of every sport. As these men and women spend much time with our children and teenagers, may they not only pour into each athlete a knowledge of the sport and game setting, but also instruct our students in rightful discipline, life lessons, and knowledge that they will carry with them into life. Help our coaches also to be role models for our children both on and off the field. We pray for our teachers, teachers’ assistants, and paraprofessionals who are with our students all day. Help them each day to lift our kids up and not cast them down. Even in correction and discipline, let there be love and mercy at the core. Help our teachers to navigate a brand-new journey of a school year filled with new faces and new challenges. Help each teacher to wisely instruct our children, especially those who struggle or hate to learn. Let this new school year be fruitful and memorable for our students. We ask a special blessing of extra strength for our teachers and staff inside the more challenging classrooms. We pray against all forms of bullying, prejudices, and other students or staff picking on peers who are weaker and defenseless. We ask, Lord, that You would expose and quench all these tactics set out to harm the kids who are an easy target. We ask that You would place the desire into other students’ hearts to befriend those individuals who don’t have any friends; to be a source of life and help, not destruction and hurt; to speak up for the students that are too timid to speak up for themselves; to say something if we see or know something is off, wrong, or could potentially lead to our student to harm themselves or others. Lord, overall, we ask you for peace and a cordial spirit amongst our staff, students and administration. Last, certainly not least and near to my heart always, I’m asking you Lord to help our students coming into school from homeless shelters, tough circumstances at home and experiencing desperate childhood poverty. We ask that you would surround these kids with your presence of comfort, love, and peace. Encourage their little hearts and minds to learn, work hard, and strive to break those generational hardships that they’ve been handed. Lord, please raise up teachers, staff, and school employees to especially care for the kids who are without strong support systems, normalcy, and stability at home. Bless these children, Lord, in the ways that only you know they need. If they don’t have good and wise parenting at home, may you raise up school parents who truly love them. In Jesus’, name we pray. Have a safe, productive and blessed school year, students! Enjoy each moment and each monumental event at school because the years fly by. May this year be a memorable one for you.
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Overview - AMAC The Association of Mature American Citizens
Time to Defeat the Legal Jihad Against 9/11 Families
AMAC plays a vital role in helping build the services that will enrich the lives of America’s seniors. AMAC Action, a 501 (C)(4) advocates for issues important to AMAC’s membership on Capitol Hill and locally through grassroots activism. To Learn more, visit amac.us
By Betsy McCaughey | AMAC Contributor As the 25th anniversary of 9/11 nears, the biggest disgrace is that the attack’s evil mastermind, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, has not been tried and sentenced to death. Blame the American Civil Liberties Union, in large part, for this injustice. The ACLU intervened at the start, insisting that the two military lawyers assigned to defend Mohammed and his codefendants “might not have death penalty experience” and were insufficient to battle “the full force of the U.S. government.” What a pity. The ACLU sent in its own team of expert capital defense lawyers, at a cost of millions of dollars. This team has been waging legal jihad year after year and getting away with it. The terrorists’ lawyers have strung out the military court proceedings at Guantanamo Bay, objecting that the defendants were not read their rights, and that waterboarding and other torture they endured at the hands of CIA agents prior to being incarcerated at Guantanamo invalidate even confessions they made years afterward. The real torture victims are the 9/11 families who have waited too long for justice and closure. From the start, the ACLU insisted that foreign terrorists deserve the same due process rights and presumption of innocence as any American. Wrong. These animals deserve nothing like that. Nor do they deserve the rights of legitimate soldiers protected by the Geneva Conventions. Mohammed and his conspirators rejected the rules of war to massacre civilians without warning. But their lawyers, including Gary Sowards, who represented Ted Kaczynski, aka the Unabomber, have run circles around the military prosecutors year after year with pretrial motions and attempts to negotiate a plea deal that would take a death sentence off the table. Twenty-five years after the attack, justice is further out of reach than ever before. The latest blow came last Friday, when Lt. Col. Michael Schrama, the fifth military judge to preside in the case, issued a lopsided ruling that gives the terrorists’ lawyers everything they want. Two days after setting a June 2028 trial date, obviously feeling no urgency to provide justice, Schrama ruled that the terrorists’ confessions and other evidence acquired during interrogations at Guantanamo will not be allowed in court. He said interrogators at Guantanamo failed to explicitly tell Mohammed that he had a right to be silent and to consult a lawyer, and that what he told them could be used against him at trial. More outrageous, Schrama ruled that the torture and isolation the terrorists endured at the hands of CIA agents before incarceration at Guantanamo conditioned them to tell interrogators at Guantanamo anything they wanted to hear. Sowards said Schrama’s ruling “serves as a civics lesson for why the government shouldn’t engage in such shameful conduct.” Nonsense. Waterboarding and other forms of torture were used soon after Mohammed’s arrest in 2003 in a desperate effort to learn whether other attacks on the U.S. were planned. As part of an unsuccessful plea deal, Mohammed signed a written statement in 2024 confessing that he planned and executed the 9/11 attacks “from A-to-Z.” Prosecutors also have a hard drive, seized during Mohammed’s arrest, that contains photographs of the 19 hijackers, as well as three letters from Osama bin Laden. Even so, Schrama essentially is excluding any confessions, making getting a conviction difficult. Prosecutors have not announced yet whether they will appeal the ruling. They should, all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. In 2008, in Boumediene v. Bush, the justices ruled 5-4 that terrorists being tried in military
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The Association of Mature American Citizens represents Americans 50 plus. AMAC is centered on American values, freedom of the individual, free speech, and exercise of religion, equality of opportunity, sanctity of life, rule of law, and love of family, with benefits at all levels.
Thursday, September 3, 2026
panels are entitled to the same due process protections as other defendants. That was a mistake. Justice Antonin Scalia, writing in dissent, cautioned that the ruling imposes on military courts “an impossible task” at a time when “America is at war with radical Islamists.” The long, unproductive litigation against Mohammed and his codefendants proves Scalia was correct. Today the high court majority would likely see the foolishness of applying due process standards to foreign terrorists These four terrorists are guilty. They claimed credit for their deeds even before capture. They deserve to die. Yet last week, their attorneys made a bid to revive a
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tabled 2024 plea deal that would spare them from the death penalty. That would be a terrible injustice. Many people oppose the death penalty, and with good reason. But the 9/11 attacks amounted to a special kind of evil outside the normal moral order. As columnist Douglas Murray explains, though Israel has outlawed the death penalty, it will put to death any of the terrorists who slaughtered unarmed women and children during the Oct. 7 raid. The 9/11 attacks are comparable. We who value freedom and decency must demand justice for the victims of the worst crime ever committed against American civilians. We cannot accept less. That means the conviction and execution of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and his codefendants.
S T A G E
SEP 10– OCT 25 U P
N E X T
By William Goldman Based on the Novel by Stephen King
JAN 14–FEB 28 M
NOV 12–DEC 27 C H I L D R E N’S
SEP 26–OCT 25
T H E A T E R
Frosty NOV 21–DEC 27
Bits & Pieces
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WORD OF THE
Week
Etymology: mid-14c., “unintelligible talk, gibberish; chattering, jabbering,” from Old French jargon “a chattering” (of birds). From 1640s as “mixed speech, pidgin;” 1650s as “phraseology peculiar to a sect or profession.”
Published by Messenger Papers, Inc.
Thursday, September 3, 2026
SUDOKU
JARGON noun Pronounced: /jar·gun Definition:
the technical terminology or characteristic idiom of a special activity or group.
Example:
“The short-order cook had his own jargon for each menu item.”
Synonyms: shoptalk, terminology, lingo Antonyms: standard language Sources: Merriam-Webster, Etymonline.com.
See bottom left for the answers (please don’t cheat!)
This Week in History September 8, 1986:
September 3, 1967: Sweden begins driving on the righthand side of the road (Dagen H).
WORD WHEEL
September 5, 1976:
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See how many words you can create. Must have center letter in word and can use letters more than once. 4 letter word minimum.
“The Oprah Winfrey Show” is first broadcast nationally.
September 6, 1522:
S L
Ferdinand Magellan’s Spanish expedition, now led by Juan Sebastián Elcano (pictured), returns to Seville without its captain after a three-year epic voyage, becoming the first to circumnavigate the globe.
Jim Henson’s “The Muppet Show” premieres on television with Mia Farrow as the guest star.
September 7, 1813 “Uncle Sam” is first used to refer to the U.S. by Troy Post of New York.
September 9, 1776: Congress officially renames the country as the United States of America (from the United Colonies).
September 4, 1781:
Los Angeles is founded by 44 Spanish-speaking mestizos in the Bahía de las Fumas (Bay of Smokes).
Source: Onthisday.com.
Bits & Pieces Published by Messenger Papers, Inc.
Thursday, September 3, 2026
NATIONAL A Nevada developer is asking the Trump Administration for onequarter acre for an access road through Yosemite National Park in California. King Harald V of Norway died on Friday. He was 89 and reigned for 35 years. The FAA is moving to fire two air traffic controllers who left LaGuardia short-staffed before a jet collided with a fire truck in March. Governor Ron DeSantis’ (R-FL) administration is accused of diverting $10 million in taxpayer money to a charity tied to his wife. Ratko Mladic, the “Butcher of Bosnia” during the Balkan wars in the 1990s, died on Thursday. He was 83. Meta is set to pay $17.1B in landmark settlement over social media addiction claims. Both parties, in a 370-48 vote, averted a federal shutdown until December 11, with a ban on hemp products and a halt in funding to CBP and ICE included.
STATE The New York State Fair in Syracuse temporarily closed to flooding. ICE’s Operation “Rotten Apple” produced 2,100 arrests across the state. State Police are investigating an Auburn crash involving bicyclists and three vehicles. NYS Archives awarded $4.1M to improve public records management. Rabbi and seven others were caught in a child-rape sting by State Police. New York City is banning AI in elementary and middle schools.
LOCAL Two Suffolk men are accused of taking a Flock camera in Syosset. An $89M affordable housing development in East Northport saw its completion on Wednesday. Four beaches in Suffolk are closed due to high bacteria levels: Short Beach in Nissequogue, Huntington Beach Community Assn. in Centerport, Valley Grove Beach in Eaton’s Neck, and Tanner Park Beach in Copiague. The Suffolk County Sheriff’s Office is showcasing photos by inmates in a photography class. A Kings Park man pleaded guilty to robbing two Flagstar banks. He is expected to face 5.5 to 11 years in prison.
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In Contract/Central Islip
Sold / Miller Place $605,000
110WALT WALTWHITMAN WHITMANRD, RD,HUNTINGTON HUNTINGTONSTA ST 110
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110WALT WALT WHITMAN RD, HUNTINGTON STATION, NEW YORK 11746. 631.549.74 110 110 WALT WHITMAN RD,RD, HUNTINGTON STATION, NEW YORK 11746. 631.549.7401 WHITMAN HUNTINGTON STATION, NEW YORK 11746. 631.549.740
Sold / Hampton Bays $830,000
Sold / Bayport $1,525,000
Sold / Selden $500,000
Smithtown’s
23
Battle of the Bulls
Takes the Court Outdoors By Ashley Pavlakis Summer is over, school is back in session, and fall sports are starting up again! Smithtown East and West girls’ and boys’ varsity volleyball teams are doing something no team on Long Island has done before, bring the game outdoors. Smithtown East and West are both members of the New York State Public High School Athletic Association and compete in Division I and II on the boys’ side, respectively. East is led by head coaches Raymond Preston and Kelly Aiello. West is led by head coach Andrew Sanchez. Smithtown West captured Long Island titles in 2016 and 2021 and won a Suffolk title in 2020. The Lady Bulls compete in League III (East) and League IV (West). The East girls are led by head coach George Alamia. East won the Suffolk County title in 2025. The West girls are led by head coach Deron Brown, who is joined courtside by assistant coach Ashley Marchese. Smithtown West are nine-time League champions, won the Suffolk title in ‘21 & ‘22, and won its first-ever NY State title in 2022. The Bulls, red or blue, are cold-blooded crosstown rivals. It’s been that way forever, and we wouldn’t change it for anything. Competing to see who’s the top dog to represent Smithtown is always fun to watch, and the level of competitiveness is through the roof. Smithtown decided to mix things up this season, moving the game outdoors for the first time ever. The Bulls built a court on East’s football turf that hosted
two games between the schools. The boys took the court at 4:00p.m., and the girls finished the night off at 6:00p.m. The district borrowed the court from a school in Albany, the Frontier Falcons, a member of Section VI. Uniquely, this isn’t the first time a school-sanctioned volleyball game has been played outdoors. August 30, 2023, the Nebraska Cornhuskers played an outdoor match at Memorial Stadium in Lincoln versus Nebraska Omaha, where they swept the match 3-0. 92,003 fans packed the stands, making it the largest crowd ever for a women’s sports event. East side pride won the match, winning all three sets for the boys. After they wrapped up their festivities, the girls took the court and put on another great outing. Smithtown East completed the outdoor sweep, emerging victorious over Smithtown West to cap off the night under the lights. “It’s overwhelming; I just sat back and took it in. I got a little emotional. A lot of people had to buy in, the administration, the community, everybody’s just been unbelievable,” said East girls head coach George Alamia in an interview posted by the Smithtown Central School District. The turnout for the outdoor games was fantastic, and the school put on a big production to match the level of excitement. The official 2026 season starts this week for girls’ and boys’ varsity volleyball. The Smithtown Bulls are coming off solid 2025 seasons. With a historic outdoor game under their belts, they’ll look to keep the momentum going into official league play.
Lindenhurst’s Jeremy Ruckert Enters Fifth NFL Season By Ashley Pavlakis Credit - NFL
I don’t know about you, but this season of NFL football feels like it’s shaping up to be a fun one. For any New York Jets or Giants fan, we could use some of that considering the way the last few years have gone. Initial 53-man rosters were officially announced on Monday, and Long Island is on the roster once again in the form of Jeremy Ruckert. Jeremy Ruckert grew up in Lindenhurst and played varsity football for the Lions. During his high school career, he racked up 222 receptions for 3,133 yards and 37 touchdowns. He helped lead Lindenhurst to their first-ever Class I Long Island title. As a senior, he was named New York Gatorade Player of the Year. Ruckert also played in the U.S. Army All-American Bowl. He was ranked a 4-star recruit headed into college. Division I college football is the ultimate steppingstone to the NFL, especially if you get to play for a championship-winning school. Ruckert’s path led him to the Big Ten - Ohio State University, where he spent four seasons playing tight end for the Buckeyes. In 47 games wearing scarlet, Ruckert amassed 54 RECS, 615 Yards, and 12 touchdowns. Ruckert was a three-time OSU scholar athlete, three-time Academic All Big Ten, and NFF/College Football Hall of Fame Scholar-Athlete nominee. Ruckert entered his name in the 2022 NFL draft and got the call every young man dreams of. He was selected in the third round, 101st overall, by his hometown New York Jets. Ruckert’s path to the NFL meant he just had to hop on Interstate 95 to
get to MetLife Stadium in New Jersey. As a rookie in the NFL, Ruckert contributed 1 REC for 8 yards, a quiet first season for the Long Island native, but that’s okay. Ruckert improved over the next three seasons, logging 57 RECS, 435 yards, and 1 touchdown. Jeremy Ruckert’s first NFL touchdown came on September 14, 2025, versus the Buffalo Bills. Ruckert caught a five-yard pass from QB Tyrod Taylor. On December 17, 2025, Ruckert’s hard work paid off as he signed a two-year $10 million contract extension with the Jets. Ruckert may not show up majorly on the scoresheet, but the work he does in quieter ways makes all the difference. The Jets have struggled in recent years, sporting a losing record in each of their last 11 seasons. They haven’t made the playoffs since 2010 - nothing particularly great for the players or the fans to be happy about. Headed into the 2026-27 NFL season, Ruckert was positive in a recent preseason postgame press conference. “I think the same mission every year, same goal is just to show this coaching staff that they can trust me to do whatever to lead the room and do any part of the position,” said Ruckert. “I think that our room is so wellrounded. We obviously have people with special skills in our room that can do certain things in a really good way. But this part of the season is about gaining the confidence to be on the field all three downs for all of us, be able to do anything that they ask of us, and also be the group that the quarterbacks, the coaching staff, the rest of the team can lean on when things get tough and just be that competitive unit.”
Published by Messenger Papers, Inc.
Messenger Spotlight
Thursday, September 3, 2026
Bayport-Blue Point Students Get Ready for Next Chapter with Orientations
The start of a new school year means new classrooms, new routines and, for some students, a brand-new school. To help make that transition a little easier, the Bayport-Blue Point School District welcomed incoming middle and high school students for orientation events on August 26 and 27. At James Wilson Young Middle School, incoming sixth graders got a first look at their new school during Locker Day on August 26. Later in the day, seventh and eighth graders located their new lockers as well. Principal Patricia Westerlund welcomed students and gave them an introduction to what life in middle school will look like. Students then explored the building, found their classrooms and took on one of the most important first day tasks: figuring out their lockers. Upper-grade student mentors were also there to lend a hand, answer questions and share some helpful advice about making the most of middle school. The Class of 2030 got a head start on their high school experience on August 27 during
Bayport-Blue Point High School’s annual freshman orientation. Principal Jamal Walcott welcomed the incoming ninth graders and introduced them to some of the academic and extracurricular opportunities awaiting them at the high school. The day also featured a keynote presentation from motivational speaker and wrestler Rohan Murphy. Murphy shared his personal story of overcoming physical challenges and pursuing his goals, encouraging students to approach challenges with perseverance and determination. After the presentation, freshmen teamed up with upperclassman BBP Connect peer mentors and headed out for guided tours of the high school. They visited classrooms, got a feel for the building and had the chance to ask questions about what to expect as they begin the year. With their lockers opened, classrooms located and questions answered, Bayport-Blue Point’s newest middle and high school students are ready to take on the year ahead.