Nassau County's Safety Net Hospital is halting many services for pregnant women.

The reason for that move and the impact it's expected to have.

Social media's growing role in so-called street takeovers and other dangerous get-togethers and how police are struggling to deal with that.

The plan to restrict the construction of McMansions in Long Island's original suburban community.

And the warning about the health of our waterways where a look at the debate over the danger.

Island Insider starts now.

♪ You're watching Island Insider.

I'm Doug Geed.

We begin with the decision to halt services for many pregnant women at Nassau University Medical Center.

The decision comes after a review of the hospital's operations by state-appointed leadership.

The East Meadow Hospital is considered a safety net facility.

Women who want routine obstetric care and scheduled deliveries will be sent to other hospitals.

As Newsday's TV's Joye Brown explains, that's going to impact part of the Long Island community that can least afford it.

The big question here, what impact is this going to have on a community that needs it the most?

You got to remember, NUMC serves Medicaid poor patients, black and Hispanic women.

And as far as infant and maternal mortality rates are concerned, women of color have the highest rates.

A couple of questions remaining.

One, when exactly will it reopen?

Now the hospital is saying this closure is going to be temporary.

And the other thing to consider here is what is the reason for the cut in services?

The hospital is not saying that there was any single thing that was a catalyst for this closure.

What they're saying instead is in a press release, okay, we're looking at staffing, we're looking at equipment, the implication being that the equipment is older, and we're also taking a look at the way the place operates and the way they go about handling maternity care patients.

Our reporters are still looking into this to try to dig deeper and deeper, so stay with Newsday, because we're going to continue to work on this story.

A recent report on the safety of water quality around the island is causing concern.

Newsday TV's Macy Egeland explores the issue of pollution and its risks.

Environmentalists are sounding the alarm about the state of the island's waterways.

As Virginia Huey reports, some are concerned that flesh-eating bacteria and cesspool runoff are turning them into toxic tides.

There is no time to waste.

Call to action to deal with algal blooms and oxygen deprived dead zones affecting many of Long Island's bays and estuaries.

Dr.

Chris Gobler from Stony Brook University says his latest water quality study shows dozens of locations that are not meeting state and federal standards.

Both the marine and fresh water bodies.

These harmful algal blooms are making toxins that can sicken or even be lethal for animals and even humans.

Dr.

Gobler says flesh eating bacteria contracted from water bodies on Long Island killed three people in 2023.

He says the blue dots on the map show low oxygen or dead zones that are harming marine life, including shellfish.

Suffolk County is largely unsewered.

And therefore all these individual septic systems are contributing, you know, thousands of pounds of nitrogen that are fueling these algal blooms and fueling these low oxygen conditions.

Long Islanders, including Mary Rocco of Manitouk are not surprised.

It's disgusting.

Really, that's why I have a pool.

I don't swim in the bay very rare because when I do I itch a lot.

I'm originally from Arkansas I grew up down south where we we drank water right out of the faucet and it was good but we shouldn't be going through what we're going through.

Researchers say there are novel solutions being used to address the water quality problems.

One of the methods is called shellfish and seaweed aquaculture.

Shellfish and seaweed just by feeding are extracting that nitrogen out of the water and they're sequestering it in their tissues and when they're harvested by farmers we're actually taking that nitrogen out of the water.

Suffolk County is also replacing outdated septic systems.

The faster we get new technology in the ground the better off we're gonna be.

For Newsday TV I'm Virginia Huie.

Joining me now to talk about the effect this is having on our environment is our health reporter, Newsday environmental reporter Tracy Tullis, Sixto Portilla owner of Maris Stella Oyster Farm which operates in the Great South Bay and Adrienne Esposito, Executive Director of Citizens Campaign for the Environment.

Thanks all for being here.

We appreciate your time.

Tracy, we want to start with you out in the newsroom.

What are the biggest problems our waterways are facing?

Well, I think a lot of scientists would say that the biggest problem affecting waterways globally is global heating.

But that heating contributes to the topic that we're really more specifically talking about today, which is the excess growth of algae because warmer water makes better conditions for the algae to grow.

And when too much algae grows, when it dies, it depletes the oxygen in the water and in severe cases that can cause fish kills.

In less severe cases, it can just could creates an environment that's not the most healthy for marine life.

Adrienne, we've heard of fish kills.

We've heard of these algal blooms before.

Now we're seeing this flesh eating bacteria in the water.

A lot of people concerned about this when they heard this.

Tell us the seriousness.

Is this something we really need to be concerned about?

Well, the issue of toxic tides is not going away anytime soon.

It's the year 2026.

We have to treat our sewage.

You know, the flesh-eating bacteria is known to be usually in the Gulf Coast or in Florida.

We didn't think it would make it up to Long Island this quickly, but yet it has.

That is fueled by climate change because our waters are warmer, but it's also fueled by the amount of nitrogen we are pouring into our bays and harbors and our lakes from untreated sewage and wastewater.

We've also got Sixto Portilla here, owner of Maristella Oyster Farm, so you're working with the water.

Do you agree with Dr.

Gobler's state of the water's report?

I don't dispute Dr.

Gobler's findings, that is his laboratory work that he does with samples from these tributaries and some of the areas where he's focusing.

Um so um so I I don't disagree on that front.

However, I I do uh I do take issue with the way it is being presented to the to the general public who uh who are not necessarily out there in the field or who don't have a background in science to really uh to discern what he's saying.

We did reach out to Doctor Gobler who sent us a statement which reason part we just want to get to this too quote there have been zero human biotoxin exposures on Long Island ever.

He went on to say quote while the current state of some of our bays is clearly dire the state of our shellfish industry and our future water prospects are clean and clear.

So Sixto back to you.

Are you seeing any effects to the oyster and shellfish population?

No, we've primarily don't take from the natural set.

So which was a big industry back in the 1800s and early 1900s.

We we bring our oysters in as little seed and we grow them out.

So as far as the natural set is concerned, they have been devastated over the centuries, decades and centuries.

But in our in our operations all across Long Island, no we don't really see we don't see any major issues with harmful algae or with any bacterial infection.

Adrienne, what if anything can be done about this?

You mentioned some possible solutions.

Well we actually have a great program that just has been implemented.

The eighth of a penny that people voted yes on in Suffolk County sales tax, which was implemented in March of 2025, generated already $52 million.

And what that money is gonna be used for over the next 30 years is 50% will go to upgrade existing sewage treatment plants for additional treatment and expand them where feasible.

But 50% of it also will be used to change out the old polluting septics and antiquated cesspools for these new system called IAs, Innovative Alternatives, where they actually will treat our sewage before it goes into the ground.

The key is to live in modern society and treat our sewage so that our drinking water and our surface waters and our beaches and our bays stay healthy and stay clean.

I just wanted to be known that the nitrogen that does make its way into these natural waters is not raw waste water.

It's all inorganic.

Inorganic in the form of... No, I'm sorry.

That is absolutely not true.

There are no studies, but actually if you let me finish, there are no studies that demonstrate that there are organic nitrogen getting into our bays except through rainwater runoff, which is separate.

I'm sorry.

This is misinformation.

There is the Suffolk County Wastewater Management Plan, which the study lasted about 10 years, and they found, and that's not a Goblet study, it's a different study, and they found that it was the draining of the aquifer over 30 years of having septics and cesspools is now leaching into all of Long Island.

Long Island Sound, Peconic Estuary, South Shore Estuary, and it is, in fact, from untreated wastewater.

True, but is it organic or is it the inorganic?

It's having the same effect.

It's causing bacteria and harmful algal blooms to flourish and to grow at an accelerated rate and to do the damage that they're doing.

Nitrogen is not a pollutant, it is a nutrient.

It is when you have it excessively.

You're right, you're absolutely right.

It's a natural ingredient, but I think everybody knows that nitrogen makes plants grow.

So when you have excessive nitrogen, then you have blue-green algae in the lakes, which is deadly to wildlife, and you have red algae blooms, red tide in North Port Harbor, for instance.

It has been a problem.

It is something that's natural, but in excess, it's a problem.

that there's organic nitrogen entering the bays.

If so, the New York State DEC would come out and close a beach.

They would close for harvest.

There's no organic nitrogen from cesspools or waste water getting into the bays.

It goes through the ground.

The ground microbes treat it.

They break it down.

If you feed something, like the bacteria we're talking about, if you feed it, it will break it down.

It will get energy from it.

So, the water that actually makes its way through the septic system cesspools into the bays is inorganic.

Are you saying it's clean?

Yeah.

What do you mean clean?

What do you mean?

Organic or inorganic.

You're splitting hairs here.

What we're saying is that the untreated waste water is causing an environmental and public health threat.

It is treated though.

The waste water is causing a public health and environmental health threat.

No one has argued that science, that's why we have to treat our sewage.

I'm arguing you right now.

So you can't say that no one.

Well, I would say that you are in the very, very, very tiny minority.

I think that's called mob rule then.

I think the mob or the majority is either uninformed.

When the preponderance of science leads to a certain conclusion, then you have to go with that.

You know, it's like the two scientists that were out there saying climate change is wrong.

Can you name a study that found organic nitrogen getting into the bay?

I think what you need to do is go back and look at the Suffolk County study.

I read it.

Okay, great.

It's full of holes.

Also last summer, Governor Hochul, we talked about this, signed a bill offering financial assistance for homeowners to upgrade their septic systems.

So $20 million of that was allocated just for Suffolk County as well.

My thanks again to Tracy Tullis out there in the newsroom, Sixto Portilla and Adrienne Esposito for their expertise on this topic, an important one for sure.

You can read more about the toxic tides reports on our website, Newsday.com.

Well for many, social media has become a huge part of daily life, but its influence is creating a new kind of problem for police.

Newsday TV's Ken Buffa explores that issue.

Authorities say a rise in social media meetups is creating challenges for law enforcement.

Huge teen gatherings across Long Island have ended when police show up.

And authorities say all these meetups have one thing in common.

And it was advertised through social media, through Snapchat and other social media avenues such as that.

It was a gathering of a blood gang group.

We have an invite that went out over social media.

We assign somebody to work the social media side of things.

That's how these individuals communicate.

You know, for them, it's not worth doing unless you put it out on social media.

Do both tires, do both tires.

Go, go, go, go.

(car engine revving) All right, we out!

We out!

That was a street racing meetup in Iceland that ended with multiple car crashes.

Earlier this year, almost a dozen teens were arrested at an attempted takeover at Green Acres Mall.

And at a barbecue in Eisenhower Park, which was promoted on social media, that ended when a 15-year-old got shot and killed.

I'm joined by John Jay, College of Criminal Justice professor and retired NYPD detective Michael Alcazar and Newsday reporter Robert Brodsky.

Now Michael, we'll start with you.

What kind of challenges does law enforcement encounter when it comes to these meetups?

So some of the challenges is if it's an agency that doesn't have a dedicated social media investigative unit like a computer crime squad, then you'll have to assign detectives to monitor these accounts.

And again, the challenge is because these these gangs, these kids, they get on multiple different accounts, Instagram, TikTok.

So you have to have a lot of the you have to have a detective that's basically tech savvy, that can monitor hashtags that can identify the language.

And if they're not solely dedicated to that type of investigation, it might be challenging if they're not tech savvy.

Now, Robert, as we saw, there's many different kinds of meetups.

So which recent social media meetup on Long Island stands out to you the most and what happened there?

Well, as we've seen, many of these meetups are gang related, but others are involved in more social media, TikTok style challenges.

Others are unruly high school and college students meeting post-graduation.

We've seen in addition to the Eisenhower event, we saw this Green Acres Mall, this takeover event that was promoted on TikTok as one of their TikTok challenges.

We've also seen large gatherings that ended up in major fights at Jones Beach State Park.

We saw in Long Beach, we saw several shootings that occurred during an event in which it was a senior cut day.

There was one individual who was shot and seriously injured.

Several people were arrested in that incident.

Now Michael, what goes into monitoring social media for these meetups?

What happens behind the scenes?

So investigators have to identify patterns.

They have to identify posts, which is ever-changing, right?

So they might post that they're going to have a meetup, and that could happen in minutes.

So they have to be Johnny on the spot.

You know, it's more reactive than proactive, and it takes a lot of investigative time to identify these individuals.

You have to follow them on their accounts.

You have to monitor any kind of beef that they have, any kind of challenges to rival gangs.

So they have to track all these patterns and hopefully they can track down and identify when they're going to have a meetup.

So what kind of action are we seeing here on Long Island by law enforcement to stop or try to stop these meetups?

Right, it's very difficult.

both Nassau and Suffolk Police Departments and their respective district attorneys offices told me that their Officials do monitor social media trying to stay one step ahead of many of these events Unfortunately, it's very difficult There's a large number of these social media outlets out there and trying to stay ahead of them trying to be proactive as opposed to being reactive to these events is difficult.

They say they monitor these social media posts, advertisements, parties, vehicle meetups, any of these kind of similar events, barbecues.

You combine these events often in the summer with alcohol, potentially with gang members.

It's very difficult to stay abreast of every event in every possible location on every social media site thank you to retired NYP detective Michael Alcazar and Newsday reporter Robert Brodsky thank you so much for joining us.

Well the town of Hempstead is considering a crackdown on so-called McMansions The town is hosting public hearings on a proposal to limit the size of homes that you can put on a lot.

Right now you can build a home that takes up to 30% of the property.

The proposal would cut that to 27.5%.

>> There are houses that are original Levittown and then in between the two, in between the mansion houses, which is absolutely ridiculous.

Those poor people have no sun.

They have no privacy.

- At least one builder asked town leaders that if they make any changes, make sure it affects future projects, not ones that are already in the works.

And Nassau County residents could be seeing new voting machines in November.

The system of marking ballots with a pen will remain in place.

However, new ballot reader machines are being rolled out.

They're expected to be in place for this year's elections at more than 350 sites across Nassau County.

In Suffolk, County Executive Ed Romaine wants to spend $897 million in his proposed capital budget.

Now capital budgets are multi-year spending plans for major projects.

Romaine said the money would be used to fund infrastructure projects that include sewer upgrades and construction of a new medical examiner's building.

The proposed spending plan needs to be approved by the county legislature before any of the money is spent.

At a first in Newsday, transgender bathroom policies at two Long Island school districts have been struck down.

The state education commissioner ruled that Massapequa and Locust Valley, those districts must let students use the bathroom and locker rooms that most closely align with their gender identity.

This was in response to a legal challenge from the New York Civil Liberties Union.

Neither district could be reached for comment.

AI is everywhere these days.

In schools, it can help students with things like innovation and reading.

For teachers, it saves time on lesson planning and grading.

But do the risks of artificial intelligence outweigh the benefits?

A new report says yes.

Joining me now to talk more about this is Newsday Education Reporter Darwin Yanes, Roberto Joseph, Professor and Acting Chair of the Teaching, Learning and Technology Department at Hofstra University, and Kings Park Superintendent Timothy Egan.

Thank you all for joining us.

We really appreciate it.

Darwin, we want to start with you.

You reported on this.

We just highlighted some of the benefits of AI amongst some other benefits as well.

But this new report by the Brookings Institute found that AI is also risky.

How so?

Tell us about that.

- At this point, the authors of the study say that it could hurt the foundational development of a child.

It could create a dependency and an over-reliance on this that could hurt a child's creativity.

It could undermine trust with educators, and it could just impact other, you know, ability of a child to learn.

It makes sense because, you know, I feel like a lot of the time, if you have the easy option, you're going to take it.

And that's not just children, right?

I'm sure that's adults as well.

Like we're all pulling out our calculators when we're figuring out the tip at a restaurant and things like that.

So it is interesting to think about.

But Roberto, AI, as we know, isn't always 100% accurate, right?

It depends kind of what you're looking into.

You say that users could run into some trouble with that.

Tell us about that concern.

- Well, AI unchecked could be detrimental.

So for example, if a kid is writing a paper and they prompt AI for the answer, the paper, and you might have the AI system, ChatGPT, spit out the paper with unchecked resources.

So then they hand in the paper, and it's not checked for proper resources.

So that's an example of AI used without checks and balances.

- They need to be careful, for sure.

Timothy, let's get over to you.

We know this is being used in schools.

How are you guys teaching your students about AI over in Kings Park?

- So, number one, making sure that our graduates can transition into the workforce is super important.

So, in my mind, teaching kids to use AI safely and appropriately is not a maybe, it's really a must.

We schools are governed by what's called New York State Ed Law 2D.

So what that means is we need to be really careful and protect students' data.

So we are introducing our students, K-12, to various AI tools and devices, but making sure that they're doing so in a safe manner and making sure that their student data is protected.

Important to find that balance for sure because you write, you don't want to set them up to fail in that they don't know how to use AI responsibly, but also, you know, want to be careful.

So Darwin, the report does have a number of recommendations for the use of AI because this is just our new reality, right?

This is the life we are living.

It's there.

They're going to use it.

What are some of those recommendations and how to responsibly use this?

Sure.

So one of the recommendations they give in the study is when creating these educational tools to incorporate or to get input from educators, students and other community members to make sure this is a good tool for students.

Also to better prepare teachers so they can responsibly teach or use AI in a way that doesn't take away from that authentic learning experience.

And also when school systems go out to purchase or to acquire this technology, that they find things that have built-in privacy and security measures.

Timothy, let's get back over to you.

Do you think schools should be embracing AI, kind of all things considered?

Absolutely.

You know, the primary goal of schools is to prepare the future workforce.

And if our students are going to be successful in competing for jobs when they leave high school, you know, they need to be able to use AI.

You know, we used to say AI isn't going to replace people.

It'll replace people who aren't using AI.

But we're also finding that that's no longer true.

There are certain jobs that, and entry level positions that no longer exist that AI has taken over.

It's absolutely important that schools prepare students for post high school work and future study.

And AI is just embedded in everything that we do these days.

It's really important.

- Roberto, you mentioned some concerns about some of the information through AI not being correct.

Do you think AI is something that should be regulated?

Yeah, I think in some ways we should regulate AI.

We shouldn't allow the technology just to come into the schools.

So in other words, people like myself, like Timothy, we need to be at the table when AI is being developed and to give our ideas to the technology.

So I think we should be first and foremost consulted on these kinds of technologies.

It's like a group discussion because this is new.

This is new.

We're all kind of learning at the same time.

So definitely an important discussion considering the future of our children, the future of all of us with AI.

So thank you all for being here, part of this discussion.

And again, my thanks to Darwin Yanes, Roberto Joseph, and Timothy Egan for being part of this discussion.

And from all of us at Newsday, thank you for joining us for Island Insider, as we explore the issues that affect Long Islanders.

For all the stories we've just shown you, and much more, head to Newsday.com.

I'm Doug Geed.