NYC health commissioner recommends parents not give children cell phones until age 14

Long Island Morning Edition

A Riverhead man who police say fired five shots into a Hampton Bays home in early July was arrested on August 22 after an extensive investigation by the Southampton Town Police, Riverhead Town Police and Suffolk County district attorney’s office.

The man, Lawrence Brown Jr., 26, was indicted this week on felony weapons charges, District Attorney Raymond Tierney’s office announced yesterday. He’s been ordered held on $250,000 bail.

According to investigators, Brown drove to the Hampton Bays home of a person with whom he’d had a dispute and fired five shots into the house. There were several people asleep inside the home at the time but none were injured and had not initially realized the gun shots had been aimed at the house, until they discovered the bullet holes the next morning.

Police were able to recover the spent 9mm bullet casings from the street outside the home.

Following an extensive investigation, Southampton Town Police detectives and officers from several local agencies raided the Riverhead home where Brown lives, where they recovered a 9mm handgun from within his bedroom.

Southampton Town Police Chief James Kiernan praised his officers’ detective work and the help of the district attorney’s office in what he described as a complicated investigation that ultimately led to a dangerous criminal being taken off the streets.

D.A. Tierney’s office on Monday also applauded the work of the local departments and regional agencies in tracking down the suspect.

“This arrest is an example of the work that can be achieved when law enforcement agencies work together,” he said in a statement released by his office. “I commend the joint investigation conducted by the Town of Southampton Police Department, Riverhead Town Police Department, with our East End Drug Task Force along with our Gang Task Force. We look forward to holding this defendant accountable in court.”

Brown is charged with four felonies: two counts of criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree, one count of reckless endangerment in the first degree and one count of criminal possession of a firearm. He faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted.

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Social media has become such a menace for kids that the NYC health commissioner is recommending parents don’t give their children cell phones till at least age 14. Carl Campanile reports in THE NY POST that pediatricians also should make talking to parents and children about social media part of check-ups, says NYC Health Commissioner Ashwin Vasan.

“Adolescents using social media have a greater risk of experiencing poor mental health, including symptoms of depression and anxiety,” wrote Vasan and NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene Chief Medical Officer Michelle Morse in a Sept. 5 letter to doctors and other medical professionals.

“Recommend parents and caregivers delay giving children a smartphone, or similar device that can access social media, until age 14, and then reassess based on current evidence of harms and the child’s strengths and needs,” the health commissioner stated. “When children begin to travel more independently in NYC, ask parents to start children with a phone that does not have the ability to access social media,” the department’s doctors added. Pediatricians also should discuss the perils of over exposure to smart phones and social media with parents and their children as part of a “family media plan” to curb or prohibit use, according to the letter.

Gov. Kathy Hochul is pushing for a ban on smart phones in schools and currently conducting a “listening tour” to see how it can be done.

She and the NYS legislature approved a law in June to give parents more control over social media usage on apps such as TikTok and Instagram.

Last year, Pierson High School in Sag Harbor instituted a new cellphone policy that requires students to put their phones away in locked bags, called Yondr pouches, at the beginning of the school day. The phones stay in the pouches until the security team unlocks them at the end of the day.

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The Southold Town 9/11 Memorial Committee will hold their Remembrance Ceremony on the Anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks tomorrow, Sept. 11 at 6 p.m. in Jean Cochran Park on Peconic Lane in Peconic. Beth Young in EAST END BEACON reports that Riverhead’s annual Sound Park Heights Association’s 9/11 Vigil is scheduled for tomorrow at 6 p.m., with a memorial procession starting at Marine Street in Reeves Park and concluding at the memorial at the intersection of Park Road and Sound Avenue. Tomorrow morning, the Town of Riverhead has arranged a 10 am prayer ceremony at its World Trade Center Memorial Park at the corner of Riley and Edwards Avenue in Calverton.

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State, county and local police will mount increased patrols this week to crack down on speeders in a twice-a-year campaign that Gov. Kathy Hochul said was responsible for more than 114,000 tickets last year.

This year’s second Speed Awareness Week began yesterday and will continue through Saturday. The first awareness week this year was in June. Michael Gormley reports in NEWSDAY that the number of individuals killed or injured in vehicle crashes in which speed was a contributing factor increased to 18,833 people in 2023, from 18,153 in 2022, according to the Institute for Traffic Safety Management and Research at the University at Albany’s Rockefeller College.

The number of accidents resulting in injury or death increased even as the overall number of crashes in which unsafe speed was a contributing factor dropped to 33,844 in 2023, compared with 34,658 in 2022, according to Rockefeller College.

"Safe driving is not just about following the rules — it’s about protecting the lives of every individual on our roads," Governor Hochul said Monday. "By increasing patrols and focusing on speeding, we are taking a proactive step to ensure that our streets are safer for everyone ... Every ticket issued is a reminder: Your speed matters, and your safety is our priority."

Fines include $45 to $150 for speeding up to 10 mph over the speed limit, $90 to $300 for speeding 10 mph to 30 mph over the limit and $180 to $600 for speeding more than 30 mph over the speed limit, according to the Governor’s Traffic Safety Committee website.

A driver’s license is revoked after three convictions in 18 months.

The committee warns that a driver can be ticketed for speeding even if the driver is traveling at the same over-the-speed-limit rate as traffic.

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A congressional report released yesterday criticized former Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s handling of the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic, particularly his administration’s efforts to conceal the true number of New Yorkers who died in nursing homes and shift blame for the deaths. Benjamin Oreskes reports in THE NY TIMES that the 48-page report, by the U.S. House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, zeros in on March 2020 guidance from the New York State Department of Health that directed nursing homes to readmit patients who had tested positive for the coronavirus.

That guidance, the report says, had “predictable but disastrous consequences.” State health officials told the subcommittee that the Health Department had developed the guidance and that Governor Cuomo’s top aides had signed off on it.

The report also details how top advisers to Mr. Cuomo, a Democrat, influenced the conclusions of a report from the Health Department months later in an effort to deflect blame for deaths in nursing homes.

Mr. Cuomo resigned in August 2021 amid sexual harassment allegations, which he denies. He is scheduled to testify before the subcommittee for the second time today.

In a statement on Monday, Richard Azzopardi, a spokesman for the former governor, called the report sloppy. He added that the investigation, which was conducted by a Republican-led panel, was “all smoke and mirrors designed to continue to distract from Trump’s failed pandemic leadership.”

To produce the report, the subcommittee interviewed Mr. Cuomo and about 10 aides and reviewed close to 550,000 pages of documents. Its findings echo reporting by The New York Times and other news outlets about efforts by Mr. Cuomo and his administration to hide the true scale of nursing home deaths.

Between March 2020 and February 2021, more than 13,000 nursing home residents died from the virus in New York, according to the state Health Department.

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For National Voter Registration Day next Tuesday, September 17, the League of Women Voters of the Hamptons, Shelter Island and North Fork will spread out across the East End with voter information tables in communities from Westhampton to Montauk on the South Fork and on Shelter Island. Representatives will also be at HarborFest in Sag Harbor on September 14 and 15 and at Southampton Town’s Anti-Bias Task Force Picnic on September 15.

Early voting in Suffolk County this year is Saturday, October 26, through Sunday, November 3.

The Suffolk County Board of Elections mail-in deadline for receipt of voter registration forms is October 26. The mail-in or online deadline for the Board of Elections to receive an absentee ballot application or early mail-in voting application is also October 26, while the postmark deadline for the return of the absentee ballot to the poll site or by mail to the Board of Elections is Election Day, November 5.

Note that those voters who are issued an absentee ballot or early mail ballot may no longer vote in person on a voting machine during early voting or on Election Day and may only vote by affidavit ballot at a poll site.

Voter registration forms are available online by going to the New York State Board of Elections website at elections.ny.gov.

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This past summer, a turtle was released after making a miraculous recovery fighting a near year-long rehabilitation. Solaria had been hit and completely crushed by a car on Old West Lake Drive in Montauk, suffering numerous fractures, and was rescued and named by the Turtle Rescue of the Hamptons. Willow DuBrovin reports on Danspapers.com that the Turtle Rescue of the Hamptons is a turtle rehabilitation center located on the North Fork of Long Island, equipped to handle 200 turtles annually. Solaria was admitted into their care with a double bridge fracture after the car’s tire went over her and crushed her down. Karen Testa, executive director of the organization further explains, “a double bridge fracture means that the piece of bone for the shell that holds the top and bottom shell together was broken.” When broken, that connecting piece causes terrible pain and can be extremely deadly.

“It’s really important to take care of these guys because they take care of our ecosystems,” Testa added. “Turtles are both an indicator and a keystone species.”

Being an indicator species means that turtles are affected by the chemicals we spray on the ground, such as pesticides, while being labeled as a keystone species means that the ecosystem around such species is dependent on it. Turtles disperse seeds, fertilize the ground, clean the water of bacteria, and maintain health around their ecosystem. Yet despite this, on Long Island, turtles are in constant danger.

“Turtles can live for 40-60 years, but like Solaria, are constantly hit by cars…so…many of their lives are cut short,” Testa said.

Turtles are only out from April to October, and when they are not out during the year they hibernate and live underground. A common misconception is that New York turtles are to be released in the ocean, however we don’t have any ocean turtles in New York, only migrating Florida turtles. While native turtles enjoy water, such as lakes, ponds, and the rain - to feed on slugs - no rescued turtles should ever be released into New York oceans.

The Turtle Rescue of the Hamptons center is located at 111 Manor Lane in Jamesport. It can be reached at 631-779-3737, and is open 7 a.m.–5 p.m. seven days weekly, with a 24-hour hotline. Visit turtlerescueofthehamptons.org for more info.