The Town of Southold building emergency response team for food and heat

Most of the states’ inflation reduction checks have been sent to mailboxes, but the payout of up to $400 won't be going to every state resident. Tiffany Cusaac-Smith reports in NEWSDAY that the checks — aimed at compensating New Yorkers for overpaying sales tax during heightened inflation — might not go to certain Social Security recipients who opted not to file state taxes because doing so wasn’t required, state officials confirmed on Wednesday. The inflation refund check program has several requirements, including that residents file their 2023 state tax returns, officials said. There is also an income threshold and the person can't be named as a dependent on someone else's tax returns.

Because of that stipulation, inflation refund checks might not go out to some recipients of both Social Security and Supplemental Security Income (SSI), benefits that help people who are low-income, disabled, and 65 and older, according to officials.

Those beneficiaries who receive all their income from either program generally do not have to file state or federal taxes, experts say. Therefore, the nonfilers don’t meet the tax-filing requirement for the state inflation refund check, experts say.

Gov. Kathy Hochul’s administration instituted the $2 billion check program to repay taxpayers after the state saw a surge in sales tax revenue amid heightened inflation, tax officials said. In New York, 6.5 million of the roughly 8 million inflation reduction checks have been sent out as of Wednesday, state officials said. The state's population is almost 20 million.

The payout on the checks can be as high as $400 for a couple who files together or a qualifying surviving spouse who earns a maximum of $150,000, officials said. It can be as low as $150 for a person who files by themselves or as the head of a household and makes "more than $75,000, but not more than $150,000."

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Turning Point USA, a conservative organization founded by Charlie Kirk, has been thrust into the national spotlight since Kirk's assassination in September. New Turning Point USA chapters have been proposed at Stony Brook University and Farmingdale State College. At least two academic institutions on Long Island have affiliations with Turning Point's K-12 educational arm, known as Turning Point Education.

Lorena Mongelli reports in NEWSDAY that Turning Point — whose founder had been criticized for espousing viewpoints like opposing same-sex marriage and advocating for traditional gender roles — has seen a surge in interest in opening new chapters across the country.

As an example of Turning Point's influence, the U.S. Department of Education announced shortly after Kirk's death that it had partnered with the organization and several other conservative groups to help launch civics programming in schools ahead of the nation’s 250th anniversary next year.

Turning Point has also started making forays into elementary and middle schools, where it has sought to advance a "Christian, conservative values education."

But even while the organization gains new ground, experts said it is unclear whether it will have lasting power, particularly with young people.

"Whether or not a group like that can really shift a generation's politics, it remains to be seen," said Melissa Deckman, author of "The Politics of Generation Z: How the Youngest Voters Will Shape our Democracy."

Erasing the line between church and state is concerning, according to Michael O. Emerson, director of and chavanne fellow in religion and public policy at Rice University in Houston.

"The founders worked pretty hard at this idea of separation of church and state. Their ideal was we will not limit the practice of religion, nor will we as federal government, state governments, support any particular religion, because if we do, we limit the practice of other religions. So that is the concern," Emerson...