Suffolk County News

Tonight will be clear and cold — as may befit the last night of autumn. Tomorrow, the first day of winter, will be mostly sunny, and warmer.

New York State is set to receive 5 million at-home COVID-19 testing kits, with another 5 million on the way in January, officials said.

"Any way to assist, I do it," Lizbeth Carrillo, 34, said. "It just feels good." Carrillo, who moved to Patchogue at age 4 when her family emigrated from Ecuador, said her new role gives her another way to help people.

Residents at a Dec.14 public hearing mostly spoke against it and were also opposed to allowing onsite consumption sites, but Supervisor Scott Russell said he is open to not opting out permanently.

COVID-19 hospitalizations are increasing rapidly on Long Island amid a spike in cases that pushed the region's seven-day positivity rate to 9.32%, the state's highest, in test results reported on Saturday. Hospital officials fear that the highly contagious omicron variant could fuel a further rise in patients that may strain systems.

Several riders have complained about receiving what they say are harsh emails from the Long Island Rail Road because they didn't activate their tickets before boarding the train.

That's a dramatic shift from the beginning of the pandemic, when Black and Latino communities were impacted much more heavily, a Newsday analysis shows.

The workweek looks to feature sunny skies and seasonable temperatures before what is looking like a wet Christmas, according to the National Weather Service.

The selection of two dozen projects reflects Supervisor Edward Wehrheim's focus on the town's sprawling parks system and includes a $900,000 renovation of the Hoyt Farm Nature Preserve. 

Work has begun to connect parts of the school district to the Southwest Sewer District and end the use of failing cesspools that were once described by a school official as a "ticking time bomb."

The driver was on Martha Avenue when he suffered a medical emergency and lost control of his Jeep Patriot, which veered off the roadway into a wooded area and flipped, Suffolk police said. 

The National Weather Service said there is 30% chance of rain Sunday before 7 a.m. before skies gradually clear. The temperature is expected to fall to around 37 degrees by 5 p.m.

Scrap iron, steel and construction debris are the major items hauled off the Island, while flour, tomato paste and rice are among the top commodities coming in by rail.

State legislators expressed concern that some of the changes could have restricted public access to records.

The funding will go toward mobile food distribution, mental health counseling, and to help families struggling through the COVID-19 pandemic.

Police in Nassau and Suffolk have formed partnerships with advocates and are enforcing a New York law requiring police to make arrests after most domestic violence reports.

The idyllic vision of keeping a backyard homestead sometimes does not mirror the reality of densely populated Long Island life — especially when neighbors, or owners, begin squawking along with the roosters, who are often misidentified at birth as female chicks.

A West Babylon man was critically injured when he was ejected from his motorcycle in a crash Friday evening in North Lindenhurst, police said.

The first construction contract will be for dredging the Fire Island Inlet and placing sand near Gilgo Beach in Babylon Town and Robert Moses State Park on Fire Island, work that is to begin in late December and wrap up in the spring. 

The sole passenger in a car that crashed into a Flanders home occupied by four people not long before dawn Friday was ejected — and later pronounced dead at a hospital, Southampton police said.