Careful observers may have noticed the removal of 1,600 square feet of phragmites along Hook Pond in East Hampton Village, only feet from the Main Beach parking lot, as well as 300 feet of hedgerow that ran along Ocean Avenue and blocked the view of the pond. Here's what's happening.

Thanks to a wide base of community support that its leaders say has allowed it to grow into a strong local nonprofit, Organizacion Latino-Americana of Eastern Long Island is marking its 20th anniversary this year.

This letter, written on July 7, 1803, by John Lyon Gardiner (1770-1816), proprietor of Gardiner’s Island, was sent to his younger brother, David Gardiner (1772-1815), a lawyer and farmer in Flushing, Queens.