In light of recent court rulings and pending lawsuits in favor of sex offenders, Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone (D) is urging the New York State Legislature to follow in the county’s footsteps and get tough on sex criminals by passing legislation that gives the county authorization to uphold its strict laws against them.

On Feb. 11, Bellone and Legislator Sarah Anker (D-Mount Sinai) spoke with parents and residents in Miller Place about supporting and protecting the rules within the Suffolk County Community Protection Act — a private-public partnership law developed by Bellone, victims’ rights advocates like Parents for Megan’s Law and law enforcement agencies. It ensures sex offender registration and compliance, and protects residents and their children against sexual...| 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 ››

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 ››