Brookhaven National Laboratory would lose critical funding under President Donald Trump’s proposed budget, endangering nearly 3,000 jobs at the Upton lab, Sen. Chuck Schumer said Friday.

Standing inside one of BNL’s research centers, the National Synchrotron Light Source II, the senator decried a proposed $3 billion in cuts to the federal Department of Energy, saying critical research would be undermined and the local economy harmed.

BNL received more than $537 million last year from the department offices that have been targeted for reduced funding, Schumer and lab executives said.

“It’s a cut to knowledge, it’s a cut to research, and it’s a cut to good-paying jobs here on Long Island,” said Schumer, the Senate’s top Democrat. “It’s a cut to...| read more ››

The Islip Town Board has awarded a contract to a Bay Shore firm to complete backfill work at Roberto Clemente Park, marking a “milestone” in efforts to reopen the Brentwood facility shuttered in 2014 due to illegal dumping.

Nine companies submitted bids that were opened on Dec. 22 for the work, ranging from Watral Brothers Inc., at $523,244, to Giaquinto Masonry Inc., at nearly $1.2 million, according to documents provided by the town.

At the Islip Town Board meeting on Tuesday, town council members unanimously voted to approve a resolution awarding the contract to Bay Shore-based Watral Brothers. The company will provide about 20,000 to 30,000 tons of “clean, certified fill,” which will be required to have state Department of...| read more ››

Southampton Town Supervisor Jay Schneiderman is seeking re-election, he announced Friday.

Schneiderman, who was elected to a two-year term in 2015, is the town’s first announced candidate for November’s election.

“I know it sounds like a typical response, but there’s more work to do,” Schneiderman said Sunday about his decision to run. “I’m not done.”

Schneiderman, 55, announced his re-election bid at a fundraiser for his campaign committee at Union Cantina in Southampton.

As a member of the Independence Party, Schneiderman was endorsed by the Democratic Party in 2015. Gordon Herr, chairman of the Southampton Town Democratic Committee, said he has “no doubt that he will be re-endorsed” by Democrats after going through a screening process.

An official with the...| read more ››

Jonathan “Jack” Harrington is a former adjunct professor at SBU’s MBA program and is currently an attorney. He is also a fellow at the Truman National Security Project and the former editor-in-chief of the Yale Journal of International Law.

On Friday, Jan. 27, President Trump signed an executive order barring Syrian refugees indefinitely and blocking entry into the United States for citizens of Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen. This ill-conceived and rashly executed directive stands in stark opposition to the values of pluralism, equality and opportunity etched in the American experience. The devastating consequences reverberated immediately within the United States and around the globe.

Within hours, protests erupted at airports nationwide — JFK, Dulles, LAX and O’Hare...| read more ››

Democratic Huntington Town board member Susan Berland will run this fall for the 16th district seat now held by term-limited Legis. Steve Stern (D-Dix Hills).

Democrats Tom Donnelly, a Babylon Town Board member, and legislative aide Josh Slaughter also are seeking to replace two other term-limited lawmakers, Louis D’Amaro (D-Deer Park) and Kate Browning (WF-Shirley.

Berland, who has $24,966 in her coffers, will not have to give up her seat to make the run because she has another year on her term. If she wins, the town board could appoint a successor or wait for the November election.

Toni Tepe, Huntington GOP chair, said she will begin screening candidates Feb. 16. “Susan will do nicely as a candidate in the...| read more ››

Suffolk authorities are pushing to survey county parkland in search of illegal dumping while they establish a network of residents to watch for suspicious activity in their parks.

The announcement came in Hauppauge Tuesday after the state Department of Environmental Conservation and Brookhaven Town confirmed Monday an investigation into who dumped vinyl siding, crushed concrete, pulverized glass, a monster truck tire, household furniture and other items in several spots at Tanglewood Park in Coram, which is owned by Brookhaven Town.

The site was discovered after a resident called Legis. Kara Hahn (D-Setauket), prompting her to go to the park late last year and notify the town, state and Suffolk County district attorney about the debris she found. The DA investigated...| read more ››

Democrats will fight President Donald Trump’s “unconstitutional” refugee ban, pledged a teary-eyed Sen. Charles Schumer on Sunday.

Surround by refugees from Iraq and Syria, the Senate minority leader said he and his colleagues would draft legislation to overturn the president’s executive order, signed on Friday. He demanded the president reverse course.

“I, as your senator from New York, will claw, scrap and fight with every fiber of my being until these orders are overturned,” said Schumer, who almost broke down as he quoted the poet Emma Lazarus: “ Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”

Trump’s executive order suspended the entry of all refugees to the United States for 120 days while barring Syrian...| read more ››

About 100 North Fork residents boarded a pair of buses out of Southold before sunrise Saturday to attend the Women’s March on Washington.

The group, made up mostly of women, departed at 4:30 a.m. to join an estimated 500,000 protestors in the nation’s capital on the morning after Donald Trump’s inauguration as president. The buses returned to Southold shortly before midnight.

“It was an absolutely amazing experience,” said Debbie O’Kane of Orient, co-president of the Southold Town Democratic Club, which organized the bus trip. “There were wonderful signs. Lots of different issues people were bringing to the forefront. I was very proud.”

Among the issues raised by the group of Southold and Riverhead town residents on the bus trip...| read more ››