A wedding celebration in St. James Monday night turned into a slugfest when an "uninvited guest" showed up, prompting a major police response and the arrest of two men, including a relative of the bride, according to Suffolk police and one of the men's attorney. Robert Brodsky reports on Newsday.com that police from Suffolk's Fourth Precinct were called to the Flowerfield Celebrations wedding and catering hall on Mill Pond Road in St. James at 7:45 p.m. to break up a fight. When they arrived, police found "multiple skirmishes" in progress among the roughly 130 wedding guests, police said.

At a news conference yesterday in Patchogue, Suffolk Chief of Patrol Gerard Hardy said the incident was sparked when an "uninvited guest" showed up at the wedding.

"That triggered a chain of events which … turned into a large fight," Hardy said, adding that Flowerfield staff made multiple 911 calls seeking assistance. "The fight occurred inside the hall and outside the hall."

Dozens of officers from the Second, Fifth and Sixth precincts, the police canine unit and Emergency Services officers were later called to the scene. Members of the Smithtown Park Rangers and Head of the Harbor police also responded to the melee, police said.

It took about 40 minutes for law enforcement to gain control of the situation, Hardy said.

In a statement to Newsday, Flowerfield said the melee was the first of its kind in the business's 35 years of operation.

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The committee originally tasked with creating Riverhead Town’s local law regulating the location of recreational marijuana dispensaries and lounges will reconvene today, after members of the business community said the zoning laws were too restrictive. Alek Lewis reports on Riverheadlocal.com that Riverhead Town officials will review the current zoning law in place with the committee and seek opinions on whether it should be changed to allow for marijuana businesses to be sited on more properties, Council Member Ken Rothwell said yesterday. The meeting is this evening at 6 p.m. in Riverhead Town Hall and is open to the public. Rothwell said the maps created recently by the town’s Geographic Information Systems {GIS} administrator — taking in all the town’s regulations — show only six properties can site marijuana businesses. In February, the Riverhead Business Advisory Committee sent a letter to the Town Board asking for the law to be revised, calling it “overly restrictive.” A map created by the town’s GIS administrator in April showed that marijuana businesses could be sited at just 36 parcels in the entire town. A subsequent RiverheadLOCAL analysis of that map showed many of those parcels are actually ineligible under the town zoning to site marijuana businesses, or are already fully developed, or already have tenants.

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Project Most, a year-round extracurricular enrichment program serving children and families on the South Fork, has announced the launch of a new Early Learning Program beginning this month. The new Early Learning Program has been added in response to a demand in the community for programming for children ages 3 and 4. As reported on 27east.com the play-based learning program, taught by certified, experienced teachers, will offer daily learning activities including inside and outside play and will have a weekly STEM class. The program will run Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to noon at the Community Learning Center at Most Holy Trinity School, 44 Meadow Way in East Hampton. The program is 37 weeks and starts Monday, September 18, and will run through June 21, 2024.

For more information and registration you may email jacqueline@projectmost.org, call the office 631-604-2777, or stop by the office at 44 Meadow Way, East Hampton.

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Marie Eiffel, owner of Marie Eiffel Market and Restaurant on Bridge Street, and a nearby boutique in Shelter Island Heights, is the subject of a federal human trafficking lawsuit brought by eight former employees. As reported by Julie Lane in The Shelter Island Reporter, the suit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, alleging sexual assault, discrimination and wage theft. According to the court filing, obtained by the Reporter, Ms. Eiffel is joined in the suit against her by InterExchange, Inc., a nonprofit with an address on Wall Street in Manhattan that sponsors foreign nationals to work in the United States. The eight plaintiffs were all hired under the government’s J1 program for foreigners intended to open opportunities for cultural and educational exchanges, while providing temporary staffing for United States businesses. Many area businesses have used the program to staff their operations during the summer months, and beyond. According to the filing in federal court, Ms. Eiffel presided over “egregious working conditions” and “routinely spanked Plaintiffs on the buttocks, groped female employees’ breasts, choked employees, and made sexually harassing, demeaning, and discriminatory comments about their race and looks. In addition, Defendants engaged in wage theft by illegally failing to pay portions of Plaintiffs’ hard-earned wages and withholding Plaintiffs’ tips in violation of the N.Y. Labor Law.” Those who brought the suit had worked for Ms. Eiffel in either 2021 or 2022 and were from Malaysia, Thailand, Columbia or Ecuador, according to the lawsuit. Denying all of the allegations, Ms. Eiffel told the Reporter last night that she had not been served the suit, but after learning of the legal action against her, hired an attorney.

Marie Eiffel told the Shelter Island Reporter last night that she believes the suit could be influenced by her interaction with a disgruntled employee, a troubled young man, she said, who she had tried to counsel, but discovered he had stolen objects from her house. This led her to confront him, which angered him and he accused her of using information he had told her in confidence to hurt him. The issue about money came up, she said, when aside from wages she said averaged $5,000 a month, those she hired were given a “bonus” of tips. But when the young man refused to finish his contract with her, she withheld his tips and split them among the remaining employees that summer. Later Tuesday night Eiffel sent the Shelter Island Reporter copies of emails from three of this summer’s workers, all expressing gratefulness to her for the experiences they had and praising her. The lawsuit cites violations under federal trafficking, state and New York City human rights and labor laws. The workers are seeking “tens of millions of dollars” in actual, statutory, compensatory, punitive and liquidated damages, according to the plaintiffs' attorneys.

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New York State Assembly Republicans called on Gov. Kathy Hochul yesterday to hold a special session to tackle the migrant crisis “before a bad situation gets even worse.”

“This is a crisis created and exacerbated by Democrats, and they have allowed it to spiral out of control,” said Assembly Minority Leader Will Barclay (R-Fulton).

Barclay ripped the Biden administration, saying it’s “turned its back on New York.”

“It’s time the State Legislature returns to Albany and puts guidelines in place before a bad situation gets even worse,” he added. Carl Campanile in THE NY POST reports that an estimated 107,000 migrants have been processed in total by the city since spring 2022 — and more than 59,000 migrants are currently in New York’s publicly funded care.

N.Y.C. Mayor Eric Adams and his top budget officials have estimated that the cost of the migrant crisis over three years could reach $12 billion.

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Suffolk County small businesses and nonprofits can now apply for up to $25 million in funding for projects that contribute to the success and vibrancy of local downtowns. The money for the JumpSMART Small Business Downtown Investment Program comes from the $286 million the county received in federal COVID-19 relief funding through the American Rescue Plan Act. Vera Chinese reports on Newsday.com that the application portal, which went live yesterday and will remain open until Sept. 29, is available at suffolkcountyny.gov/jumpsmart. Awards will be announced this fall, Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone said during a news conference in Hauppauge Tuesday.

"While we have witnessed substantial revitalization across the county over the last couple of years, as we emerge from the economic impacts of the pandemic, we fully understand that more work remains to be done,” Bellone said.

County officials are looking for large projects and said applicants must request a minimum of $100,000 in funding. Examples could include a capital project that supports a Main Street theater, they said.

The program will be open to small businesses and nonprofits, unlike the county’s similarly named Jumpstart program, which has provided downtown revitalization grants to local municipalities.

The applications will be reviewed by a panel that includes representatives from the county executive’s office, the legislature, the department of economic development and planning and small-business advocates, Bellone said.

Revitalizing downtowns with mixed-use buildings, public transit-oriented development and restaurant space is seen as key to keeping Long Island viable and attractive for young people.