In a year of unrelenting bad news, the region got an end-of-December gift in the form of language in a federal appropriations bill that would stop the looming sale of Plum Island to the highest bidder.

Covid-19 continued to surge this week, with 1,034 new Suffolk County cases confirmed on Monday. That represents 7.2 percent of the 14,282 test results that came in that day; the seven-day average positive test rate was 7.2 percent as well. 

How the Republican Party rebuilds after the president is out of office — or even if it can — has been the subject of a great deal of discussion as his term ends.

We could learn something about how to handle a pandemic from 17th-century England.

I would not be surprised to learn that there is a run on puppies this December, and a shortage, as there has been a run on and shortage of Christmas trees here on Long Island.

The drive-through Smith Point Light Show in Shirley is holiday entertainment, corona-style.

When East Hampton resident Philip Whitley Churchill-Down, age 63, died last month in a freak clam-shucking accident, America lost its foremost oenological bibliophile and I lost a dear friend.

They say that in ancient times conjunctions such as Saturn and Jupiter’s were considered ill omens — the gods, people thought, were conspiring.

The week's real estate transfers.

Our readers' comments.

Christmas was Kathy Surrey's favorite holiday. Each year, Ms. Surrey, a longtime night manager at the Montauk Manor, would begin preparing for the holiday around Thanksgiving, turning out a dozen or more glorious gingerbread houses to display in the Manor's lobby.

East Hampton Town Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc read a proclamation acknowledging the skills and contributions of Pat DeRosa, a Montauk musician, at the town board's meeting last Thursday. Mr. DeRosa recently celebrated his 99th birthday.

There will be no organized fund-raising New Year's Day plunges here this year, an unfortunate result of the coronavirus pandemic that hit our shores the better part of a year ago.

The club's platform tennis membership "has quadrupled," Scott Rubenstein, E.H.I.T.'s managing partner, said, which is to say there are about 60 now playing the outdoor winter sport there — paddle, as it is known, being one of the few sports, like golf and tennis, deemed reasonably safe to play during the coronavirus pandemic.

The developers of the South Fork Wind farm will conduct site assessments and soil borings as part of survey work having to do with the wind farm's onshore transmission cable installation starting as soon as Jan. 4.

A leaky roof over the junior high wing at the Springs School was an unforeseen addition to the construction projects ahead, brought to the attention of Michael Henery, the school business administrator, by recent weather, and discussed at Monday's school board work session.

As a substitute teacher shortage continues to plague school districts on Long Island, the Sag Harbor School District on Monday hired five more substitutes, and continues to seek more candidates.

Family art activities, children's museum hours, wildlife walks, and more options for kids this week.

Four out of five East Hampton Middle School students agree: Going to school during the Covid-19 pandemic is tougher than it was before. Also, a disclaimer: In no way is that a scientific statistic, as the sample size was pretty limited, but the point is still accurate, according to the students themselves.

"Living room" spread of Covid-19 now accounts for about 75 percent of the virus’s transmission, New York State Governor Andrew M. Cuomo said on Monday afternoon as he announced fine-tuned vaccination programs and precautions against the threat of a new Covid-19 strain spreading overseas. “Everything else is relatively de minimis” in terms of the risk of spreading the virus, he said, “and we’re in the heat of the holiday season.”