Faith leaders fear ICE raids in houses of worship

Long Island Morning Edition

More schools in New York State enrolled last year in a federal program that provides free meals to students than any other state in the country, according to a recent report by a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit. In its report, the Food Research & Action Center found 1,149 schools in New York began participating in the program, known as the Community Eligibility Provision, during the 2023-24 school year. That marked a 37.7% increase from the year prior, from 3,051 to 4,200 schools. Nationally, the number of schools adopting the program increased by 18.7%, the report stated.

Darwin Yanes reports in NEWSDAY that the jump can be attributed, in part, to a rule change by the U.S. Department of Agriculture in the fall of 2023 that lowered the eligibility threshold in the program for schools. Previously, schools could enroll if they had at least 40% “identified students” — children eligible for free breakfast and lunch due to participation in programs like Medicaid. Under the rule change, any school with at least 25% such students can participate.

Currently, 99.1% of all eligible schools in New York are participating in the program, according to the report. Funding comes from the state and federal government.

The report did not provide a breakdown of the number of schools on Long Island that enrolled in the program in the 2023-24 school year. The Food Research & Action Center report cites research suggesting that free school meals not only improve a student’s health and learning but also shows “modest reductions” in obesity and school suspensions, and contributes to better attendance.

On Friday, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced a proposal to make free school meals available to all New York students, regardless of need.

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Some faith leaders on Long Island are worried President-elect Donald Trump's mass deportation plan will include federal immigration agents raiding houses of worship to arrest immigrants lacking permanent legal status. Bart Jones reports in NEWSDAY that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) policy has prohibited raids in churches, schools and hospitals, but it is not a law and could be easily changed, legal and immigration experts said.

Some churches and synagogues are making plans for how to respond if incoming President Donald Trump changes the policy.

The Diocese of Rockville Centre, the largest religious institution on Long Island, with 1.3 million baptized Roman Catholics and 134 parishes, said it would oppose such a move.

"The diocese hopes that the sanctity of churches as places where all peoples feel safe to come and be fed in their spiritual and physical needs will continue to be respected," diocesan spokesman the Rev. Eric Fasano said in a statement. "In addition to offering worship and sacraments, our parishes often provide food to anyone who is poor, regardless of their religion or any other circumstances."

The issue is of particular importance to the Catholic Church nationwide and on Long Island because a growing number of its congregants are Latinos, who make up by far the largest proportion of immigrants in the country illegally, according to immigration experts and government officials. Mexico accounts for 4.8 million of the nearly 11 million immigrants illegally in the country, the Department of Homeland Security estimates. It is followed by Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras.

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The “new” Rogers Memorial Library in Southampton…built 25 years ago…is now closed for 2-3 weeks, while “we do some messy, noisy, behind-the-scenes work as our revitalization begins! We will re-open as soon as work is complete and the building is safe to enter. So, check our website {myrml.org} frequently during the closure for updates.” Come February, the Rogers Memorial Library in Southampton is expected to return to business as usual, and then in mid-March, the next phase of the revitalization begins. So, stay tuned!

Meanwhile, all online services will still be available: Libby, Overdrive, Online Reference Resources, our Chat service, and more. RML thanks you in advance for your patience to accomplish this project in a timely and cost-effective manner.

For more info click here.

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The proposal to build a 109-room luxury hotel-apartment complex in Patchogue will come up for a vote tonight by the village board, Mayor Paul Pontieri said.

The board will vote on whether to grant a zoning change that would allow developer West Avenue Partners to build a Hilton Tempo hotel at the site of a shuttered bowling alley. It would be the South Shore village's only hotel, officials have said.

Supporters say the hotel, at the corner of West Avenue and Division Street in Patchogue would put a capstone on decades-long efforts to revitalize the formerly moribund village.

Carl MacGowan reports in NEWSDAY that the $40 million, five-story hotel would have 96 hotel rooms and 13 rental apartments, the developer's lawyers and architects have said. West Avenue Partners is asking the village to rezone the site from industrial to a special category for hotels.

The Patchogue Village board was cleared to take action last Wednesday when the Suffolk County Planning Commission voted 12-0, with one abstention, not to block the project. The commission ruled the hotel would not have a negative effect on nearby roads, buildings and waterways owned or managed by the county such as Main Street and the Sixth District Court building. The hotel would be across the street from Patchogue's Long Island Rail Road station and adjacent to the Watch Hill ferry terminal.

Mayor Pontieri said if the village board approves the rezoning, the project will need approvals from the village planning and zoning boards before construction can begin.

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The biggest question around education in New York this year: What is going to happen to Foundation Aid?

The formula New York uses to distribute the bulk of state school funding has been in use since 2007, and just about everyone agrees that it’s very out of date.

As part of last year’s state budget, Governor Kathy Hochul and the legislature allocated $2 million for a study to figure out how to improve the formula. A resulting 314-page report in early December included a litany of recommendations — each with the potential to impact how much money schools get.

At the governor’s State of the State address tomorrow, Bianca Fortis of New York Focus reports that she’ll be watching to see which of those suggestions Hochul will try to implement.

The governor is also expected to push for a state-funded universal school meal program. The State of New York already provides free meals to low-income districts, and a handful of cities have their own universal meal programs. But with President-elect Donald Trump vowing to cut federal funding for school meals, a state program could protect districts at risk of losing that money. On January 14 at 1:00 PM, Governor Kathy Hochul will deliver her 2025 State of the State address in the Hart Theater at The Egg, Empire State Plaza in Albany, N.Y. 12220

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A chilly crowd of around a hundred or so showed up in the snow in Greenport’s Mitchell Park this past Saturday to stand up for women’s rights, and for issues of empathy, community and collective problem-solving that matter to women. Beth Young reports in EAST END BEACON that in an afternoon filled with song and shivers, speakers from the North Fork, mostly women, shared personal stories of issues important to them — from health care to their military service, student debt, the immigrant experience and their past work with community organizing and fighting locally for social justice issues.

Saturday’s rally also spawned the Southold Community Action Center, which will continue to meet on the fourth Friday of every month at 4 p.m. at Unitarian Universalists of the North Fork’s newly rebuilt meeting house on the bend in Southold (51900 Main Road).

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The U.S. wind energy industry, still reeling after a year of costly retrenchment, is facing severe new headwinds from Washington as a second Trump administration prepares for office, with potential ramifications for New York State and Long Island. Mark Harrington reports in NEWSDAY that whether the anti-wind power rhetoric from President-elect Donald Trump is enough to stall projects already underway, or nix ones teed up for federal approval, remains to be seen. New York and other states are already building projects and new ones could be announced as soon as this week. New York proposes getting all of its power from wind and other non-emission sources by 2040. Trump, in an hourlong briefing from Mar-a-Lago in Florida last week, derided wind-energy turbines as little more than "garbage in a field," while vowing to undo recently enacted oil and gas offshore drilling bans. Trump called wind power the "most expensive energy ever…"We’re going to try to have a policy where no windmills are being built," he said, calling them an environmental "disaster" that are "driving the whales crazy."

Offshore wind proponents say such projects are urgently needed to counteract worsening climate impacts, arguing high development costs are offset by health and climate benefits. Opponents point to visual impacts, loss of commercial fishing grounds and potential effects on electric rates and sea mammals.

At a speech on Long Island Friday, Gov. Kathy Hochul noted New York has the largest federally sited offshore wind facility in the United States, with the 12-turbine, LIPA-contracted South Fork Wind farm, and said, "We're just getting started."

Asked in an interview how Trump's opposition to wind could set back the state's vision for 9,000-megwatts of wind by 2035, Hochul said she was "happy to have a conversation with the Trump administration, especially with the [future] head of the EPA being from Long Island," in former Rep. Lee Zeldin. Hochul said Zeldin, of Shirley, "should be a great champion because he knows there's tens of thousands of jobs that would be at risk" were offshore wind to be stalled or stopped.