Imagine a world without wine. That’s the devastation that could be wrought by the spotted lanternfly, an invasive insect from Asia that’s reached Ronkonkoma and is headed east, posing a serious threat to vineyards.

Two fishermen chasing Spanish mackerel were in the right place at the right time for Bill Biebel, after a major mechanical failure blew a hole in the hull of the boat he was captaining.

As part of an effort to create more affordable housing, the director of East Hampton Town’s Planning Department issued a slew of recommendations to the town board on Tuesday aimed at expanding incentives for residents to offer affordable accessory apartments for rent.

The East Hampton Town Board finds it necessary “to raise wages significantly in order to try and stay competitive within the market," Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc said of the town's 2023 budget, which would grow by 5.6 percent over the current budget, to $90.36 million if adopted.

The Sag Harbor School Board on Monday night offered an update on the district’s plan to buy five residential lots along Marsden Street, using a combination of Southampton Town community preservation fund money and a portion of its facilities improvement capital reserve fund.

At the Long Island Power Authority’s quarterly board of trustees meeting last week, Friends of the Long Pond Greenbelt handed the board a petition with over 3,000 signatures in opposition to a plan to drill through the greenbelt to lay a transmission line between Sag Harbor and East Hampton. “In the process, they’d destroy something you can’t put a price on," said Dai Dayton, the group's president.

Build.In.Kind/East Hampton and the Wainscott Heritage Project will host a screening of “One Big Home,” a 2016 documentary by Thomas Bena, at LTV Studios in Wainscott on Saturday at 4 p.m.

The campaigns of Gov. Kathy Hochul and her challenger, Representative Lee Zeldin of New York’s First Congressional District, touted dueling polls last week. Both put the incumbent in the lead, but by widely differing margins. 

Informational forums on the Nov. 8 ballot proposition that will ask voters to approve a .5-percent real estate transfer tax that would go toward a community housing opportunity fund will be held in East Hampton Town Friday and on Oct. 15.

Advertising of the construction contract for long-planned improvements to the navigational channel in Montauk Harbor is expected to happen early in the summer of 2023 and the deepening is expected to be completed by the end of that year.

The new owners of the Springs General Store are eager to get to work converting a storage shed on the property into a tiny wine store, but questions about accessibility for the disabled and exactly what type of drinking would be allowed at the site have slowed the progress of their application before the East Hampton Town Planning Board.

The 14 East Hampton Town residents who were issued summonses for trespassing on the Napeague ocean beach popularly known as Truck Beach during a protest last October have a hearing date in Southampton Town Justice Court.

A parent-led environmental committee at the Ross School will host its first annual Climate Clapback Festival on Sunday from 2 to 5 p.m. at the school’s Goodfriend Drive campus in East Hampton. The event is free and open to the public.

Educators at the John M. Marshall Elementary School in East Hampton are revamping their English language arts curriculum, bringing in a fresh program with new workbooks, independent reading offerings, and more.

Once again, the East Hampton School District passed its annual audit with flying colors. During a school board meeting on Monday, Jeffrey Jones of the EFPR Group, said the district had earned an “unmodified opinion, which is the highest level of opinion we can offer.” As was the case last year, he said, “there were no material weaknesses or significant deficiencies.”

The return of pre-teen night at the Y.M.C.A., a celebration of LatinX culture at the Children's Museum of the East End, and Halloween-themed fun at the libraries, are just a few of the things on tap for kids and teens this week.

A neighbor called police just after midnight Sunday to complain about loud music coming from a house on Jones Road. Someone inside said they didn’t realize that music playing inside the house was also blasting from the outdoor speakers, and turned them off.

A Sept. 19 mattress fire at a house on Newtown Lane in East Hampton Village has led to two court summonses for its Florida homeowner, who is charged with failing to maintain proper fire-safety equipment.

After allegedly “stabbing a locked bedroom door with a large kitchen knife trying to make entry,” an East Hampton man was charged with criminal possession of a weapon with intent to use.

A youth riding a bicycle on Division Street in Sag Harbor was struck by a car last Thursday afternoon and fell off the bike. Police found him lying on the ground at the intersection of Union Street and called his mother, who brought him to Stony Brook Southampton Hospital to be treated for bruises on his back.