East Hampton signs on for large-scale Montauk Coastal Storm Risk Management Project

A lawsuit filed yesterday on behalf of four New Yorkers charges that the state’s congressional map unconstitutionally dilutes Black and Latino votes in a district that covers Staten Island and part of southern Brooklyn, according to a copy of the lawsuit obtained by The New York Times.

The case marked New York’s official entrance into the national gerrymandering arms race. Rewriting the state’s existing congressional districts represents one of Democrats’ best hopes of improving their chances in the 2026 midterm elections.

Filed in State Supreme Court in Manhattan, the lawsuit argues that the lines for the 11th Congressional District unfairly disenfranchise Black and Latino residents. The district is represented by Representative Nicole Malliotakis, the only Republican member of Congress in New York City.

The combined Black and Latino population on Staten Island has grown from 11 percent to 30 percent over the past 40 years, the suit notes, arguing that the current boundaries “confine Staten Island’s growing Black and Latino communities in a district where they are routinely and systematically unable to influence elections.”

Ms. Malliotakis decried the case, calling it “a frivolous lawsuit trying to upend our congressional district.”

This lawsuit was filed by Elias Law Group, a Washington, D.C.-based firm that has handled much of the party’s redistricting litigation.

Grace Ashford and Nick Corasaniti report in THE NY TIMES that filing a lawsuit is a far less certain path to redistricting than having a partisan legislature simply draw new maps and pass them into law, which is what Texas did earlier this year. But New York placed its redistricting process in the hands of an independent commission years ago, in hopes of insulating it from partisan politics.

Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York, the official head of the state Democratic Party, pledged to “fight fire with fire,” saying: “If they’re going to rig the system, I refuse to sit on the sidelines and let our democracy further erode any more than it already has under the Trump administration.”

But Democrats may face an uphill battle convincing a judge that the current lines are unacceptable: It was just last year that they drew and approved the map, which Representative Hakeem Jeffries, the House minority leader, himself blessed as a modest but meaningful improvement over the previous lines.

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National Grid is more than doubling the capacity of a compressed natural gas facility in Riverhead, with ongoing construction work preparing to make it capable of injecting up to 24 tanker trucks of gas into the system at a time. Mark Harrington reports in NEWSDAY that the project, approved by the Town of Riverhead and Suffolk County, is part of National Grid’s state-sanctioned plan to improve gas capacity across the region on the coldest, most heavily used days of the year, the company said.

The 5.3-acre site, which abuts a retail building-supply yard and sits across from the Riverhead Post Office and along a Long Island Rail Road line, is listed in Suffolk maps as zoned for a gas regulation station.

The facility, which since 2019 has had the capacity to inject compressed gas from 11 trucks into the system at the plant at 8 Mill Rd., will more than double that with capacity for up to 24 trailers, to help meet demand, the company said in response to Newsday questions.

The ongoing work involves the removal of two legacy buildings at the site and underground cesspools, National Grid said, explaining that the work "represents an expansion to enhance reliability for customers on the East End of Long Island." The work also includes construction of a new maintenance and control building, according to a company website about the work.

Compressed gas at the site is stored within the compressed natural gas trailers, which are "brought to the site as needed, typically during...