As the House Judiciary Committee takes over the process of impeachment looming over the Trump presidency, one central figure with strong East End ties will almost surely not appear at any hearing, though his actions are close to the core of the allegations. This is a person whom many on the South Fork social scene have sat next to at a benefit or lifted a glass with at an informal dinner. Unlike Paul Manafort, who has family here and had owned a Water Mill house that helped him launder millions in illegal foreign payments, Rudolph Giuliani, a part-time Bridgehampton resident, could be considered a regular on the circuit. How he went from an apparently mild-mannered former New York City mayor and Hamptons summer hobnobber to someone making a mockery of both the legal profession and democracy itself is a matter of speculation.
Editorials
Sympathy for a Cooper Lane couple whose house may soon be over-loomed by an extra-tall utility pole should lead to action by PSEG-Long Island to find another location.
An extraordinary lineup of women running things gathered earlier this month to share the message with high school girls that they, too, can make a difference.
Food grown on the East End of Long Island will fill many tables here this week. Traditional Thanksgiving dinners include many of the staples long grown here, and increasingly, a dazzling variety of meat, vegetables, and beer and wine from these parts will be served as well. Though it may be less than a passing thought as we tuck into the first courses, there is a remarkable struggle behind each of the local foodstuffs.
Now that Election Day has passed, perhaps East Hampton Town can return to the question of a new, centralized shellfish hatchery on a site off Gann Road at Three Mile Harbor in a less politicized atmosphere.
Members of the East Hampton Village Zoning Board of Appeals had had enough. Late last month, they vetoed a request from the owner of a Georgica Pond-front house to legalize a number of changes that had taken place without the board’s okay.
In the House of Representatives impeachment hearings so far, a valuable lesson has stood out: the dignity of the members of the United States Foreign Service who have appeared as witnesses. Starting with George Kent, the senior State Department member in charge of Ukrainian relations, and William Taylor, the acting ambassador to Ukraine, American television viewers, as well as those listening on radio or live stream, were reminded of the professionalism and dedication that is the hallmark of public service at its best.
In March, the swallows come back to the cliffs of Capistrano, and in November the scallops come back to the dredges in the Peconic Bays and the suppers of the salivating. Until they don’t.
For the most part, the now-mandated low-nitrogen septic systems being installed on eastern Long Island work as promised. The big if is whether they will deliver on the environmental improvements.
Far be it for a newspaper to encourage its readers often to turn on the television, but this is an extraordinary time in the history of the United States.
What town government really may need are views from the left — a more liberal, more pro-environment and anti-growth point of view.
Affordable housing, a recurrent campaign theme in East Hampton elections, is a bitter paradox. As the total number of vacation houses climbs upward, there are fewer and fewer places for year-round residents and the seasonal work force to live.