US Navy to test private drinking water wells for PFAS in Calverton

Long Island Morning Edition

More than 50 patient transportation companies across New York, including five on Long Island, used fake billing schemes to steal from Medicaid and exploit vulnerable patients, the state attorney general said yesterday.

"We have uncovered a major source of fraud amongst the transportation companies," Attorney General Letitia James said at a news conference at her lower Manhattan office. "Companies are billing Medicaid for fake rides and tolls, costing New York taxpayers tens of millions of dollars every year, money that should be used to fund health care for the most vulnerable New Yorkers."

Nicholas Spangler reports in NEWSDAY that James said her office had sent cease-and-desist notices to 54 companies warning of financial penalties and prison time if they continue their alleged overcharging of Medicaid for fraudulent services. Her press office declined to name the companies or to say publicly why they were not releasing the company names.

Medicaid, which provides free health insurance for about 7.5 million New York children and adults from low-income families with $37 billion in state funding, also reimburses businesses for transporting patients to and from covered medical services.

Auditors and prosecutors focus on transportation because it is one of the fastest growing Medicaid service categories, New York's Medicaid Inspector General wrote in a 2022 report.

Not all cases of suspected fraud result in criminal prosecution, and James said her office had cut transportation fraud simply by investigating it. Between 2019 and 2023, according to a chart prepared by her office that was displayed at the news conference, payment by Medicaid for tolls in New York dropped abruptly from more than $20 million to just over $10 million.

***

A pedestrian was struck by two vehicles while crossing the street at the intersection of Main Street and Nugent Street in Southampton Village late Tuesday afternoon and is in critical condition but expected to survive, according to Southampton Village Police. As reported on 27east.com, the woman was crossing the street between CVS and the Golden Pear when a driver turning right didn’t see her because of the glare of the descending sun, police said. The driver’s vehicle hit her and knocked her down in the road, and then another car that was coming off Hampton Road headed west, also blinded by the glare, ran her over, police said.

The woman was transported to Stony Brook Southampton Hospital by a Southampton Village Volunteer Ambulance crew and then transferred to Stony Brook University Hospital. Both cars were impounded for safety checks, but no charges have been filed against either driver.

***

This coming Saturday, Jan. 11, the Heart of Riverhead Civic Association begins 2025 with two events at the Riverhead Free Library. At 10:30 a.m., they’ll hold their first civic meeting of the year, talking about what deserves the civic’s attention through the next 12 months. From 1 to 2:30 p.m., they’ll host their third Annual Volunteer Expo in advance of the Martin Luther King, Jr Day of Service, with info on volunteer programs involving gardening, helping at the animal shelter, at art and music events, or lending a needed hand in neighbors’ lives. All are welcome to both events this coming Saturday at Riverhead Free Library, 330 Court Street in Riverhead, New York.

***

Suffolk County taxpayers could be on the hook for $60 million in a migrant class-action lawsuit for holding on to illegal immigrants until the feds could show up and ship them out of the country, officials said yesterday. Carl Campanile and Jorge Fitz-Gibbon report in THE NY POST that a federal judge ruled that the county sheriff’s office in Suffolk acted on its own when it held undocumented immigrants for deportation proceedings — because New York State law doesn’t allow local cops to do so. Moreover, the judge says the federal government won’t have to chip in to pay off the hefty ruling — even though they’re the ones who wanted the migrants held in the first place.

“This is one of those things that makes me shake my head,” Suffolk County Executive Ed Romaine said at a press conference Wednesday. “We have a lot of ways to spend $60 million — but it’s not paying back illegal immigrants, many of whom are here on criminal charges for violating our laws. “Taxpayers are liable for honoring Immigration and Customs Enforcement — ICE — who asked us to detain prisoners who were here unlawfully in the United States,” Romaine said. “We honored the requests of ICE and Homeland Security to detain these prisoners so they can be processed and, I assume, be deported by ICE,” the county executive said. “We are now being sued for detaining them at the request of the federal government.” Filed in 2017 in the name of two migrants — but representing a class of hundreds — the suit sought damages because the plaintiffs were held by Suffolk County until federal immigration agents could show up and take them into custody for civil deportation proceedings. In his 36-page ruling, US District Judge William Kuntz said the county violated the constitutional rights of the migrants because state law didn’t authorize the sheriff to hold them. Kuntz added that the Suffolk County Sheriff’s Office “was acting without the federal statutory authority.” In a brief filed on behalf of the migrants in the lawsuit in April, state Attorney General Letitia James wrote that detaining an immigrant for deportation “is unauthorized by state law. In a statement yesterday, lawyers for the immigrants in the class-action suit said the feds should also be on the hook for the ruling in the case, and not just the county. “The federal defendants were earlier voluntarily dismissed without prejudice and that current decision has nothing whatsoever to do with whether their conduct is legal or not,” LatinoJustice wrote.

***

The U.S. Navy has agreed to test private drinking water wells near the former Grumman facility in Calverton for PFAS. Denise Civiletti reports on Riverheadlocal.com that Navy representatives will conduct an open house at The Residence Inn in Riverhead at 8pm on Wednesday, Jan. 22 to discuss the sampling and schedule appointments with property owners. PFAS, known as “forever chemicals” are harmful substances linked to deadly cancers, impacts to the liver and heart, and immune and developmental damage to infants and children, according to the EPA. PFAS are synthetic chemicals used for a variety of purposes in many different industrial processes and consumer products. They are also found in firefighting foam used to extinguish certain types of fires, including those involving fuels. The chemical compounds are among the most persistent in existence – meaning they don’t break down and they can accumulate over time. Contamination of soil and water at the former Grumman site in Calverton, a Naval Weapons Reserve Plant operated by the Navy contractor from the mid-1950s until 1996, was discovered in the mid-1980s. The contamination, including PFAS, has migrated off-site and is suspected to have contaminated private residential drinking water wells and surface waters.

The open house will take place at the Residence Inn at 2012 Old Country Road, Riverhead from 6 to 8 p.m. on Jan. 22.

***

The Choral Society of the Hamptons will hold auditions this coming Monday, January 13, for all singing parts (soprano, alto, tenor, bass) for singers interested in joining the group prior to the Choral Society’s next concert on Sunday, March 30, at the First Presbyterian Church of East Hampton. The Choral Society rehearses at the same church and the auditions will take place there as well. Rehearsals begin the following Monday, January 20. Singers accepted into the chorus are welcome to attend this first rehearsal before committing to the chorus. Generally, there are weekly rehearsals on Monday evenings and occasional weekend commitments leading up to each concert. Interested singers are invited to call the Choral Society’s Executive Director Maria Fumai Dietrich at 631-204-9402 or email [e-mail] for an appointment to audition. Per www.choralsocietyofthehamptons.org: "The Choral Society of the Hamptons is celebrating 75 years of bringing people together through the joy of singing and choral music. It is because of founder Charlotte Rogers Smith, past and present board members, donors, volunteers, singers, and audiences alike that we are enabled to continue this great tradition of building community through music."

***

Much of the national and political discussion on immigration has focused on the more than 2 million encounters along the U.S.-Mexico border but encounters at the U.S.-Canadian border are on the rise. Encounters mean different types of events where a noncitizen is in contact with U.S. officials, including the apprehension and expulsion of those who entered without legal permission. Keshia Clukey reports in NEWSDAY that encounters at the northern land border have increased by nearly 82% percent from fiscal 2022 to fiscal 2024, going from more than 109,000 to nearly 199,000, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data. Each encounter is not unique, so individuals may be counted more than once if they try to reenter.

In New York State, border encounters increased by more than 41% from 81,000 in fiscal 2022 to nearly 115,000 in fiscal 2024.

"All the attention generally is about the southern border, but there is important consequential stuff happening at the northern border too," said Muzaffar Chishti, an attorney and director of the Migration Policy Institute’s office at New York University School of Law. "It’s a trickle compared to the southern border, but in terms of the rate of change, it is hugely significant and, as any demographer will tell you, rate of change is more important than the scale of change."

Residents who live along New York’s 445-mile border with Canada, known as the North Country, tell NEWSDAY that it's not uncommon to have immigrants who entered the country illegally walking through their cornfields, sleeping in their barns and campers, sitting on their porches, washing their hands in their pools, and even flagging down school buses for a ride.

Some seeking asylum sit on the side of the road and wait for law enforcement, but most just pass through on their way to larger cities such as New York City, said local officials and residents.

While some state and federal lawmakers have called for tightened border security and more border agents, others say the state and federal government needs to increase aid for those coming over.