New legislation aims to help keep children and teenagers from being subjected to a barrage of unwanted and potentially harmful "addictive" social media videos and messages. Michael Gormley reports on Newsday.com that one bill introduced in the NYS Legislature yesterday would restrict the sending of unwanted content to youths that include negative messages about anxiety-provoking concerns and encourage self-harm and violence — acts sometimes called "doom scrolling," the proposal’s supporters say.

A second bill introduced in the State Legislature on Wednesday would prohibit online platforms from sharing or selling the personal data they collect for advertising purposes about users under 18 years old that can be used to send youths unsolicited content such as video links.

Both bills allow exceptions through verified parental consent. Youths would still be able to view content from friends and sites they follow or generally popular content.

The bills, which propose fining social media companies $5,000 for each offense, are a reaction to spikes in depression, self-poisoning and suicide among youths…messages that can make teens and younger children overly focused on their appearance.

“Our children are in crisis and it’s up to us to save them,” said Gov. Kathy Hochul.

Meta, which operates Instagram and the platform formerly called Facebook, said it will evaluate proposed legislation and work with policymakers “on developing simple, easy solutions for parents on these important industrywide issues.”

“Content that encourages suicide, self-injury, eating disorders, or things like bullying and harassment break our rules and we remove that content when we find it,” Meta stated. “We continue to improve the technology we use to detect and remove this type of content.”

***

Eyes red with tears, arms wrapped tightly around one another, a steady flow of hundreds filed into the Jewish Center of the Hamptons last evening for a "Rally in Solidarity with Israel" that comforted broken hearts with prayer and psalms.

Lisa Finn reports on Patch.com that at the rally, young and old alike, even infants in strollers, gathered as rabbis from across the East End joined together to send a message of hope even in the darkest of times. As they have for generations, facing the weight of oppression and the most violent of foes, they joined hands and hearts in prayer, song — and a steadfast faith that has long been a beacon of hope and strength.

Rabbi Josh Franklin of the Jewish Center of the Hamptons led the ceremony with an introduction, and Cantor Debra Stein, Rabbi of the Center, also led prayers.

Rabbi Dan Geffen of Temple Adas Israel of Sag Harbor - Long Island's oldest synagogue - spoke of hope.

He discussed the song "Lu Yehi," or "Let it Be," an anthem for soldiers in past years. "Hope isn't always what we think it is," he said. "It's not a blind wish, but rather, a seed planted in hearts that reminds us, we are not alone in our grief — or in our wishes for a different reality."

He urged those present to "sing with your heart — and let us shed tears of hope."

***

Addressing 21st century quality of life issues challenging development across the North Fork, the Greenport Village Board has now closed a series of public hearings on a broad series of zoning changes proposed for the village’s downtown after taking additional comment Tuesday evening. Beth Young of EAST END BEACON reports that the board also voted unanimously to approve a “negative declaration” under the State Environmental Quality Review Act, stating the proposed changes will not have a significant environmental impact. The Greenport Village Board is next scheduled to meet at a work session on Oct. 19, just as a six-month moratorium on development in those downtown zoning districts is expected to expire.

The Village of Greenport was established in 1838.

***

New York’s tax haul from sports betting is skyrocketing, far outstripping projections, according to a new report issued yesterday.

But there is fallout: While sports betting is growing, gambling-related calls to the state’s addiction hot line are way up and in-person sports betting at upstate casinos is way down.

Those are the top takeaways in a gambling report released by NYS Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli on Wednesday. Yancey Roy reports on Newsday.com that all told, the state collected about $4.8 billion in tax revenues for fiscal year 2022-23, which ended March 31, from all forms of gambling combined, the report found. The lottery, at roughly $2.7 billion, still accounts for more than half of the revenue, though its growth has been relatively flat for the last decade.

Video slot machines, installed at some horse racing tracks and venues such as Jake’s 58 casino in Islandia, account for the second-largest source of revenue, at just about $1 billion. But that source too has grown relatively little over the last decade.

The big jump has been in mobile sports betting — called mobile because it can be done online and not in-person at a casino.

The comptroller said the state collected $727 million in tax revenue related to mobile sports betting during the 2022-23 fiscal year, more than double the $361 million it collected in 2021-22. That is also more than double lawmakers’ estimates when they included gambling revenue in the state budget.

Part of the growth is attributable to New York’s tax rate on mobile sports betting gross revenue, which, at 51%, is tied with Rhode Island and New Hampshire for highest in the nation.

DiNapoli said growth is expected to level out in the current fiscal year, though it is still expected to rise 7% annually for the next four years.

***

The Town of East Hampton hopes to have a “roundabout” traffic circle constructed at the notoriously hazardous intersection of Stephen Hands Path and Long Lane by the start of next summer, engineers said this week. Michael Wright reports on 27east.com that the roundabout would slow down traffic traveling north and south on Stephen Hands Path and make it easier, safer and faster for cars trying to turn onto the road from Long Lane or Two Holes of Water Road without worrying about oncoming cars. The intersection now has poor sight lines that conceal speeding vehicles to some of those waiting to turn and often leaves cars waiting for long periods for a gap in traffic to make left turns off Long Lane and Two Holes of Water, leading to incidents of road rage and aggressive driving, town officials said. Engineers from L.K. McLean Associates presented their designs for an oval-shaped traffic circle with a vegetated center island and divided lanes feeding into it to the Town Board at Tuesday’s work session. The cost of the project has not yet been made public, but East Hampton Town officials have said that it could be paid for out of the Highway Department’s more than $6 million in surplus reserves.

***

Part of the former Links at Shirley golf club — which closed more than a decade ago amid financial struggles — has been opened to the public as a new Brookhaven Town park. Now called Patriots Preserve, the 99-acre park in Shirley opened Monday with a ribbon-cutting ceremony and promises by town officials that the park — which features a playground, hiking trails and an 8-acre lake — eventually could include ballfields and an outdoor amphitheater. Carl MacGowan reports on Newsday.com that Brookhaven spent $2 million to build the park's first phase and expects to pay up to $4 million for future phases, said Supervisor Edward P. Romaine, adding construction is expected to continue over the next 10 years. The park, on Colony Preserve Drive, about a mile east of William Floyd Parkway, had been part of the Links, a private 18-hole golf course that closed around 2010 following years of declining membership. Workers recently completed construction of the playground and a 200-foot floating bridge across the lake on the 205-acre site. The Town of Brookhaven hopes to open a kayak launch next spring, said town parks director Ed Morris.

***

The nonprofit environmental organizations Save the Sound, Group for the East End, and Peconic Baykeeper have given notice to the Suffolk County Legislature that they believe its “failure to take meaningful action to address nitrogen pollution resulting primarily from outdated and inadequate septic systems violates the Green Amendment of New York’s Constitution.” Beth Young in EAST END BEACON reports that the Republican majority in the Suffolk County Legislature refused this summer to put public referenda onto this November’s ballot to create an eighth of a penny sales tax to fund new wastewater systems and to consolidate the county’s 27 sewer districts on July 25…thus making the Aug. 4 deadline to get the referenda on this November’s ballot not workable.

The letter, prepared by PACE Environmental Litigation Clinic, was delivered via email to Presiding Officer Kevin McCaffrey on Tuesday and introduced during the public portion of a general meeting of the Legislature yesterday.

The Green Amendment was adopted by 70 percent of New York voters in a November 2021 referendum. It states that “each person shall have a right to clean air and water, and a healthful environment.”

The Green Amendment does not specify what actions should be taken to ensure that right, only that action must be taken to prevent the degradation, diminution, or depletion of public natural resources such as clean water.

Bob DeLuca, President of the Group for the East End, in an announcement of the notice given to the legislature, stated, “Unfortunately, the legislature’s ongoing failure to let voters authorize and fund this critical program is now standing in the way of widely supported environmental progress, and violating every county resident’s established right to clean water and a healthy environment.”