Two baymen find coin from 1736 in Shinnecock inlet

Long Island Morning Edition

The number of new court cases involving immigrants lacking permanent legal status has plummeted on Long Island and around the country since President Joe Biden's June order restricting entry into the country for most asylum-seekers, according to a new federal data analysis. Robert Brodsky reports in NEWSDAY that Biden's presidential proclamation, issued amid a record increase of illegal border crossings, stated that migrants who cross the border without authorization — absent exceptional circumstances — wouldn't be eligible for asylum and would be subject to expedited deportation. It didn't affect immigrants who previously filed legal claims for asylum.

In New York State, new case numbers dropped 74% from December to July, while cases fell by 68% nationwide and nearly 61% on Long Island during that same time frame, according to the analysis from Syracuse University-based Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse or TRAC.

The policy is a change from the previous practice of letting most people who sought asylum after crossing the border illegally be freed from custody and live in the U.S. while awaiting court proceedings.

Under Biden’s order, migrants can be returned into Mexico or their country of origin when the 7-day average of daily border crossings exceeds 2,500 people. The restrictions remain in place until 14 days after the 7-day average drops below 1,500 people.

The rule allows unaccompanied children, victims of a severe form of trafficking and other noncitizens with a valid visa or other lawful permission to legally enter the U.S. People deemed ineligible for asylum still can apply for protection under terms of an anti-torture international human rights treaty.

The restrictions also don't apply to immigrants who present themselves at official border crossings with an appointment provided through a U.S. Customs and Border Protection mobile app known as CBP One.

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East Hampton Town has issued a public alert stating that pieces of a 300-foot, fiberglass and foam turbine blade from the Vineyard Wind 1 offshore wind farm, situated 15 miles south of Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard, may wash up on the shores of Montauk.

“The debris has been described as ‘non-toxic fiberglass fragments’ and is deemed ‘not hazardous to people or the environment,’” according to a statement the town disseminated via social media on Wednesday. Nonetheless, the statement continues, Vineyard Wind is asking that “only their recovery team handle this material.” A team is being deployed to “clean up the affected areas.”

The public is asked to not handle any found debris, rather to contact Marine Patrol at 631-537-7575. Christopher Walsh reports on 27east.com that Councilman David Lys, the East Hampton Town Board’s liaison to the Recreation Department, which oversees beaches and lifeguards, said yesterday that to his knowledge there have been no sightings or recovery of any such debris on town beaches or waterways.

A blade of an 853-foot-tall turbine at the 62-turbine wind farm, which delivers electricity to Massachusetts, collapsed on July 13. According to Engineering News-Record, the chief executive officer of Massachusetts-based GE Vernova, which designed the wind farm’s turbines, said that the collapse was due to a “manufacturing deviation” and not engineering or design.

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Two baymen pulled a coin minted in 1736 — a duit, or one-cent piece, stamped with the crest of the Dutch East India Company, the currency of record in the years before the British colonies began minting their own money — out of the mud of Shinnecock Bay last week. Michael Wright reports on 27east.com that Westhampton bayman John Gillin and his cousin E.J. were digging clams together in eastern Shinnecock on August 13 when they dug up the coin, worn down at its edges but still clearly displaying an etching on one side and three words on the other and the stamped date 1736. It is a Zeeland duit coin made of copper and minted in the Netherlands. The stamp on one side read ZEE-LAN-DIA on three lines with 1736 below it. The other side is stamped with the coat of arms of Zeeland, a province in the Netherlands, and that of the Dutch East India Company, one of the first international trading companies, which was based in Zeeland. Coins like it had been the currency in the Dutch colonies and continued to be used on Long Island into the 18th century.

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The Town of Riverhead has sued the Southampton Town Board in an attempt to block the construction of a planned sewage treatment plant in the hamlet of Riverside. Alek Lewis reports on Riverheadlocal.com that the lawsuit, filed in Suffolk County Supreme Court Wednesday, accuses Southampton Town of violating state environmental laws, including the NYS Environmental Quality and Review Act, also known as SEQRA, and the Green Amendment of the New York State Constitution, which guarantees the “right to clean air and water, and a healthful environment.” If successful, the lawsuit could derail Southampton Town’s plans to redevelop the blighted hamlet on the south side of the Peconic River with mixed-use development and affordable housing. A development plan for the area, the 2015 Riverside Revitalization Action Plan, is reliant on the creation of a sewage treatment plant. The Southampton Town Board voted unanimously on May 28 to establish the Riverside Sewer District and set its boundaries. The boundaries of the Riverside Sewer District do not include the county facilities located in Riverside — the Suffolk County Center, the Arthur M. Cromarty Criminal Court Complex and the Riverhead Correctional Facility. Those facilities are currently serviced by Riverhead Town’s sewage treatment facility and, Riverhead argues, should be hooked up to the Riverside plant, which will be located much closer to the county facilities. Riverhead Town wants to reclaim the 200,000 gallons it must set aside for the county facilities to be able to extend sewer lines to as many as 1,300 homes with antiquated septic systems which release harmful pollutants into the Peconic River estuary, and to redevelop the West Main Street corridor, as Riverhead Town continues its own downtown revitalization efforts.

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MTA boss Janno Lieber and Manhattan lawmakers are “thrilled” that New York Gov. Kathy Hochul will propose a plan by year’s end to fund the MTA’s massive capital program that could include a lower “congestion” toll to enter Midtown. Carl Campanile reports in THE NY POST that the governor shelved the controversial $15 fee in June, but The Post earlier this week reported she’s floating a plan — for after the pivotal November election — that would include a lower toll to enter Manhattan south of 59th Street with exemptions for some city employees who commute into the zone. “It’s good news that the governor continues to focus on this issue,” Lieber, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s chairman and CEO said during a press event yesterday. “I’m also thrilled she’s talking about the [2025] legislative session” to address MTA financing, Lieber said, adding, “Private conversations are underway.” Lieber said in June that he was blindsided when Hochul surprisingly reversed course — just weeks before the $15 toll would be implemented — by calling for a “pause” in the program, claiming it was too costly for motorists still struggling with inflation post-pandemic. Hochul denied reports that she postponed congestion pricing because it would hurt New York Democrats running for House seats in swing suburban districts.

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When MTV premiered in August 1981, its first video was “Video Killed the Radio Star” by The Buggles. Forty-three years later, MTV no longer plays music videos but radio is still a star.

Peter King writes in NEWSDAY that a new report from Nielsen found that radio remains by far the most popular ad-supported audio platform. For all consumers who listen to ad-supported audio offerings, 67% tuned in to radio in the second quarter. Podcasts, at 16%, were a distant second. Radio’s appeal spans all generations, with Nielsen noting it “consistently reaches all corners of the population.”

And even as local news icon WCBS-AM pulls the plug on its all-news platform this week, Nielsen found news/talk is the most popular radio format, followed by adult/contemporary music stations.

And of course, local, listener supported public radio is our favorite form of information gathering and audio entertainment.

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The Riverhead Town Board unanimously voted Wednesday evening to postpone a vote to adopt its Comprehensive Plan Update to its Wednesday, Sept. 4 meeting. Beth Young in EAST END BEACON reports that Riverhead Town Supervisor Tim Hubbard announced at the start of the special meeting, which was called solely to adopt the plan, that “within the past 45 minutes we realized an issue with what was posted online. It was not correct. We need to amend it to make it correct and put the adoption off for two weeks. We also got a lot of complaints from people that they didn’t have time to digest this, so it actually is a blessing in disguise. It will give people a lot more time to go through it. It’s thick. There’s a lot of reading in it,” said Supervisor Hubbard.

The Comprehensive Plan Update has been in the works for more than four years. Public hearings on the plan and its Environmental Impact Statement were held in May of this year, and the Town of Riverhead adopted the Final Generic Environmental Impact Statement (FGEIS) on the document Aug. 6. Economic Development Administrator Dawn Thomas said the document that was attached to the resolution prior to Wednesday night’s special meeting has since been removed from the resolution packet posted on the town’s website. Only the proposed findings statement remains posted there. Thomas said the town will post the “correct final version… the right final version, and then the public will have another couple of weeks to review it.” Under state law, the town has 30 days from the date of adoption of the FGEIS to adopt a findings statement for the comprehensive plan, according to Riverhead Town Attorney Erik Howard.