The East Hampton Library will offer kids a chance to learn about turtles and tortoises today, and starting Saturday, Bay Street Theater will host online storytelling sessions with a diverse lineup of children's authors, each at 10:30 a.m., for eight weeks.

In the pandemic, dance competitions, school theater programs, and other creative opportunities were unceremoniously interrupted, as if a Band-Aid had suddenly been ripped off. But with the gradual improvement in Covid-19 statistics — a lower seven-day average positivity rate, for example — has come the return of performing arts programs. High school musical theater productions have resumed, albeit with many modifications in place, and groups like Our Fabulous Variety Show and the Neo-Political Cowgirls are also planning programs.

Police said Noe Guaman-Nieves intentionally ran his 2012 Mitsubishi into a 2008 Hyundai parked in a driveway in Springs. Then, they said, he "aggressively" backed out, striking two mailboxes — all with his 2-year-old in the backseat.

On Saturday morning, on the back patio of a Lily Pond Lane house, three large garbage bags full of sawdust and polyurethane paint cans spontaneously combusted. The flames were extinguished by the homeowners before firefighters arrived.

The Montauk Library, which is currently undergoing a $4 million renovation of its facilities, was the scene last Thursday morning of an ongoing dispute between the general contractor, a Bohemia construction company called the Patriot Organization, and two local subcontractors.

All local governments in New York State were ordered a year ago to adopt a police reform plan by April 1, 2021, a deadline that has now arrived.

A recent cluster of Covid-19 cases in an East Hampton Town government department "really brings home the point that this is not the time to relax," Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc said last Thursday, after Councilman Jeff Bragman asked for a discussion of the cluster at the conclusion of a town board meeting.

The Amagansett School Board on Tuesday voted to add two separate propositions to the May 18 budget ballot, one for renovating outdoor basketball courts, the other for technology and energy upgrades.

Stuart's Seafood Market, an Amagansett institution since 1955, is under new ownership, as Rashid Sulehri, the owner of Villa Italian Specialties in East Hampton, purchased the business earlier this month along with "all the business secrets including the recipes, and how they're successful and why they're successful." 

As St. Michael's Lutheran Church in Amagansett prepared to celebrate the 50th anniversary of its building this week, longtime members spoke about the "small congregation with a big heart," a tight-knit group that has weathered the Covid-19 pandemic through virtual worship while continuing a mission to help the less fortunate and welcome all.

He was a driving force in the evolution of Gosman's Dock from a tiny chowder shack on Montauk Harbor to a sprawling complex of restaurants, shops, and wholesale and retail fish markets that has become synonymous with the hamlet. Mr. Gosman died on Saturday at Stony Brook Southampton Hospital of cardiopulmonary arrest resulting from Covid-19 pneumonia.

On Friday, almost a year and a half after Lisa Rooney of Montauk was charged with drunken driving in a crash that killed a Montauk bicyclist, 28-year-old John James Usma-Quintero, she pleaded guilty to vehicular homicide in Suffolk Supreme Court, Riverhead.

At the age of 45, after her sons left home, Andree Dean returned to Columbia University to earn a B.A. in art History. She then embarked on a career as an art appraiser and buyer for individuals, corporations, and museums. One of her major accomplishments was the acquisition of J.M.W. Turner's "Wreckers off the Coast of Northumberland" for the Yale Museum of British Art in the 1970s.

Charles R. Limonius of East Hampton, who with his wife had owned Buckley's Flower Shop and Garden Center for more than 60 years, died at home on Saturday evening, surrounded by his family, who said he'd hurt his back at work a few years ago and had increasing difficulty walking. His son Dennis said that he was all there mentally until almost the end

Conor Kinney, who grew up in Montauk, was one of the original skateboarders who frequented the hamlet's skate park, winning numerous competitions and earning the admiration of many.

Richard Neil Bristel, an East Hampton mail carrier for 27 years, "was a reliable worker who rarely took a sick day," his family wrote. He "sought out a quiet, modest life, void of pretension," his children said, but he also had a keen sense of adventure, traveling independently and often spontaneously throughout his life.

George Washington Gowen, a lawyer and the former chairman of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, died of heart failure on March 14 at home in New York City. The longtime East Hampton summer resident was 91.

For the second time in less than a week a man with a gun engaged in a mass shooting. Flags lowered in memory of eight victims in Atlanta had not yet been raised when news broke of the newest outrage, 10 dead in Colorado. Tragedies like this have become so frequent that they cause scarcely a pause as America goes about its day. “Did you hear there was another shooting?” someone asks.

Climate change is a fact. Science tells us that atmospheric conditions known as greenhouse gases from human activity are the cause. Electricity production generates about a quarter of emissions, trailing only transportation. This is why last week’s Public Service Commission approval of a key component of the planned South Fork Wind farm is so important.

As the availability of Covid-19 vaccines improves, we should take a moment to acknowledge the volunteers who have so generously helped get shots into so many arms. This comes at a risky time because the dual effects of pandemic fatigue and a sense, rightly or wrongly, that its end is in sight have led to many people letting down their guard.