Government

Howard Schultz, the former chairman and chief executive of the Starbucks chain and a part-time resident of East Hampton Village, has abandoned his independent campaign for president.

The efforts of Susan McGraw Keber of the East Hampton Town Trustees to persuade the Suffolk County Legislature to enact a ban on the intentional release of balloons paid off on Sept. 4, when that body voted unanimously to do so.

The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation has decided a proposal by an East Hampton mining company to expand a pit on Middle Highway will not have a significant negative impact on its surroundings, but the D.E.C. is still accepting public comments on the matter, through Sept. 27, before it formally decides on issuing a permit.

Legislator Kara Hahn, the majority leader of the Suffolk County Legislature, has endorsed Nancy Goroff in her bid for the Democratic Party’s nomination to challenge Representative Lee Zeldin in New York’s First Congressional District next year.

One may not need a sleek, luxurious lake runabout to attract attention to energy sustainability programs, but it certainly seemed to help on Saturday, when members of Southampton Town’s sustainability committee signed up residents for free home energy audits and solar evaluations at Sag Harbor’s annual Harborfest event.

Win With Wind, a group that formed in the spring to advocate for the proposed South Fork Wind Farm, and Montauk United, a group advocating for quality-of-life issues in that hamlet, have joined forces to support a Wainscott landing for the proposed South Fork Wind Farm’s export cable.

Perry Gershon, who seeks the Democratic Party’s nomination to challenge Representative Lee Zeldin in New York’s First Congressional District next year, has announced a series of events called the “Restore American Values Tour: 10 Town Halls in 10 Months.”

The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority will host an open house to discuss the state’s efforts to advance offshore wind on Wednesday from 7 to 9 p.m. at Southampton High School.

The first of two forums on community choice aggregation, a model that replaces the utility as the default supplier of electricity or natural gas and gives municipalities the opportunity to seek lower prices from alternative suppliers, was held on Tuesday evening at East Hampton Town Hall.

Decrying “this headache called politics,” Dell Cullum, an East Hampton Town Trustee who was elected in 2017 on the Democratic Party line but was not chosen by the party to be on its slate this year, said this week that he would not run for re-election.

East Hampton Town is moving toward modifications to its rebate program for septic system replacements in an effort to spur residents to replace aging or failing sanitary systems with new, low-nitrogen models and improve ecologically degraded waterways in the process.

East Hampton Town Hall will be the site of two upcoming forums on community choice aggregation, a model that replaces the utility as the default, monopolistic supplier of electricity or natural gas and gives municipalities the opportunity to seek lower prices from alternative suppliers.