Twenty-three Long Island public high schools are among the nation's 1,000 best, including 16 in Nassau County, according to U.S. News & World Report's annual list, which is scheduled for release today. At the top of the list for Long Island again is Jericho High School, which climbed five spots up to 104. Jericho, with an enrollment of nearly 1,200 students, was Long Island's top finisher in 2022 and also is ranked the 13th best high school in New York State this year. Jericho high school students often take top honors in many national academic and science competitions. In June, Jericho had 15 co-valedictorians, each sharing the same unweighted GPA of 4.0. Robert Brodsky reports on Newsday.com that the 2023 “Best High Schools” edition evaluated nearly 18,000 public high schools at the national, state and local level.

Along with Jericho, 15 other Nassau high schools ranked in the top 1,000.

After Jericho, the next four in Nassau are: Garden City High School (199); Great Neck South High School (205); Manhasset Secondary School (251) and Herricks High School (257).

In Suffolk County, seven schools made the top 1,000 in the nation list.

The top five in Suffolk are: Cold Spring Harbor High School (268); Half Hollow Hills High School East in Dix Hills (367); Harborfields High School in Greenlawn (373); Half Hollow Hills High School West in Dix Hills (561) and Babylon High School (846).

The rankings are based on six factors: college readiness, reading and math proficiency, reading and math performance, underserved student performance, college curriculum breadth and graduation rates.

Just over 34% of the nearly 1,200 high schools in New York State were ranked in the top 25% nationally — the seventh most among states across the country, U.S. News found. Massachusetts ranked first with more than 47% of its high schools in the top 25% nationally.

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A historic East Patchogue homestead will be preserved after a joint purchase by Suffolk County and Brookhaven Town, officials for the municipalities said. Nicholas Spangler reports on Newsday.com that the 11.5-acre Avery Homestead, a vestige of vast holdings that once included most of what is now Patchogue and Blue Point, had belonged to the family for roughly 270 years, according to a monograph on the site by cultural heritage group Preservation Long Island, which put the property on its list of endangered historic places in 2019. The Averys ran a plant nursery there for most of the 20th century; Barbara Avery, the last lifelong resident, raised miniature horses at the site before her 2017 death.

“It has beautiful plants, trees, the old well, the fountain, the old barn – there are so many beautiful aspects to it, so much character,” said Suffolk Legis. Dominick Thorne (R-Patchogue), who worked with County Executive Steve Bellone and Brookhaven Town Supervisor Ed Romaine to close the sale.

According to a county release, the county and town partnered 70-30 on the $1.9 million purchase. The land and four historic structures – including the 1880s home where Avery and her ancestors lived and a large barn used for the nursery – will be dedicated to the Suffolk County Historic Trust.

Future uses of the site could include a museum, gift shop, or event space, uses that could generate money for upkeep, according to the release.

Avery Homestead in East Patchogue is a diamond-shaped property bordered by South Country Road and Robinson Boulevard on the south; Montauk Highway and a shopping center are to the north.

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Long Island environmentalists are asking for the public's help in eradicating invasive plants, including the “dirty dozen”: porcelain berry, bamboo, phragmites, Japanese knotweed, tree of heaven, Oriental bittersweet, Japanese barberry, multiflora roses, Chinese wisteria, mugwort, burning bush and English ivy. The plants are tough and can outcompete natives for water, nutrients and sunlight. Invasives also create ecological dead zones. Invasive plants support invasive insect species. The spotted lantern fly, which threatens local wineries and vegetable farms, loves the tree of heaven. Tracy Tullis reports on Newsday.com that according to the U.S. Forest Service, invasive plants have crept in to 133 million acres of federal, state, and privately-owned land nationwide — an area equivalent to California and New York together.

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State officials warned New York school districts yesterday that any policy they institute to block — or even make difficult — the enrollment of migrant kids could lead to lawsuits and fines. Craig McCarthy reports in THE NY POST that the threat of legal action from NYS Attorney General Letitia James and state Education Commissioner Betty Rosa was triggered by their discovery of discriminatory practices in some districts, such as requiring a voter ID from parents registering their kids, as schools across the state prepare for the new year and a flood of asylum-seeking children, they said.

“The [Office of the Attorney General] and [state Education Department] have recently learned that some districts employ enrollment policies that make it difficult or impossible for noncitizens, undocumented students, and people who rent their homes without a formal lease to register for school,” the pair’s letter released Monday reads, adding that “several registration policies are of particular concern.”

The questionable practices — which also include requiring a student’s residency to be more than 30 days old or providing proof of where they live on a regular basis — may “violate constitutional and statutory protections, exposing school districts to lawsuits and liability,” the state officials said.

“The law is clear: Every New Yorker is entitled to a free public education, and anyone who lives in our state is a New Yorker,” said A.G. James in announcing the warning. Under state law, all kids between ages 5 and 21, including any migrant or undocumented students, are guaranteed a public education in New York.

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After a pandemic dip, lobbying in Albany has rebounded bigger than ever. The amount of money spent on lobbying New York state lawmakers hit an all-time high in 2022 — $331 million — according to a report released yesterday by the NYS ethics commission. That marks a 13% increase over 2021 and easily surpassed any pre-pandemic totals, the commission said. It wasn’t just total spending. Everything went up: the number of lobbyists; the number of clients paying lobbyists; advertising spending, and the number of lobbyist-related “social events.” The top issues included health care, the state budget, real estate and housing laws, economic development and education. The competition for three downstate casino licenses also spurred about $6 million in lobbying spending. Yancey Roy reports on Newsday.com that the top spenders were many of the same interest groups that spend the most on lobbying in New York year in, year out. 1199/SEIU, the giant health care union, led all spending with $5.7 million. A related entity, 1199/SEIU United Healthcare Workers East, separately spent $2.3 million and ranked fourth on the 2022 list. Rounding out the top five were the Greater New York Hospital Association ($3.5 million), gambling company Genting ($2.5 million) and AARP ($2.3 million). The total spent in 2022 surpassed the state record of $298 million, which was set in 2019, the year before the COVID-19 pandemic hit.

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Members of Shelter Island’s Water Advisory Committee and Comprehensive Plan Task Force will discuss “Water on Shelter Island: A Comprehensive View” this Thursday, Aug. 31 at 5 p.m. in the Shelter Island Library. All are welcome to attend.

Meet Meg Larsen and B.J. Ianfolla, liaisons to the Water Advisory Committee and members of the Comprehensive Task Force.

Hosted by: The Water Advisory Committee & Comprehensive Plan Task Force – Planning Our Island’s Future.

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New York City appears poised to allow Madison Square Garden to continue operating at its present location for another five years, following a key vote yesterday. Alfonso A. Castillo reports on Newsday.com that two City Council land use subcommittees voted Monday on the five-year extension, which fell short of the Garden’s hope for a permanent extension of its special permit allowing it to hold events with more than 2,500 people at its current location on Seventh Avenue between 31st and 33rd streets on Manhattan’s West Side.

But the extension was also a setback for New York City preservationists who have been pushing for the relocation of MSG, so that a grand Penn Station could be reconstructed in its place.

Ultimately, the council decided to further put off a long-term resolution to the dispute.

“At this time, the Council cannot determine the long-term viability of an arena at this location,” Councilman Erik Bottcher said during a Manhattan hearing. “Therefore, five years is an appropriate term for this special permit.”

The NYC Planning Commission had recommended a 10-year extension.

The full City Council could vote as early as Sept. 14 on the permit extension, which could be granted on the condition that MSG come up with a “transportation management plan” to address concerns about how the arena’s loading operation could conflict with the state’s planned redevelopment of Penn Station and with pedestrian traffic.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority has said MSG is not “compatible” with Penn, and has pushed city lawmakers to force the arena to comply with its planned redevelopment of the LIRR hub, including by moving a pedestrian bridge at the main entrance of the arena, and giving up a loading area between 31st and 33rd streets.