This afternoon New York Gov. Kathy Hochul is expected to announce plans to boost math instruction in her State of the State policy speech through guidance for school districts and increased professional learning opportunities for teachers. Keshia Clukey reports in NEWSDAY that the Democrat’s 2026 legislative agenda also is expected to address literacy, with a proposal to provide targeted resources to the state’s highest-need districts to help improve reading efficiency and allow teachers to access microcredentials in the science of reading at state and city universities at no cost, according to the agenda provided exclusively to Newsday ahead of the speech.

"My dream is for New York students to be the absolute best in the country academically — that’s why we’re making record investments in evidence-based learning models to get our kids up to speed in math and literacy," Hochul said in an emailed statement to NEWSDAY. The Governor’s speech today will lay out her legislative agenda for the year and is expected to focus largely on affordability — a rallying cry for both Democrats and Republicans heading into an election year. All 213 seats in the New York State Legislature are up for election. Hochul, who also is facing reelection, already has released plans to make child care more affordable, increase access to universal pre-kindergarten, lower auto insurance rates and eliminate the state tax on tips up to $25,000 a year.

She also has called for increasing social media and artificial intelligence protections for children, investing in peer-to-peer mental health training for teens, and preventing the building of homemade "3D guns."

Details on how Hochul plans to pay for her agenda and address a $4.2 billion budget gap for fiscal 2027, which begins April 1, will be released in her budget proposal next week.

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A Suffolk County judge has upheld the termination of Gadi Capela, the former longtime rabbi of Congregation Tifereth Israel, the historic Greenport synagogue. Joshua Needelman reports in NEWSDAY that the congregation voted to remove Capela, the rabbi since 2013, in September, following three days of voting. That came more than a month after Capela was removed "for cause," which was later changed to a suspension.

Capela filed a lawsuit in October, alleging he was illegally terminated and suffered "severe" reputational damage because of the firing, attorneys for him and several of his supporters said.

The lawsuit called for Capela to be reinstated as the congregation's "lawful rabbi."

Suffolk state Supreme Court Justice Christopher Modelewski wrote in his decision Friday that it would not be proper for the court to consider Capela's claims. He wrote that "American Courts are precluded from adjudicating disputes involving ecclesiastical governance."

"Even if this Court was possessed of sufficient knowledge and understanding of Judaism in order to discern whether Rabbi Capela violated any tenets of faith, the aforestated Constitutional prohibitions forbid this Court from uttering any such determinations," Modelewski wrote.

Modelewski did not rule on Capela's claim of defamation, and set a court date of Feb. 20 to discuss that claim.

Eighty-two congregants "in good standing" participated in the vote to determine Capela's employment, with 52.4% voting for his termination according to Sara Bloom, president of the temple's board, who calls Tifereth Israel, founded in 1892, the "synagogue of record on the North Fork."

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Peeko Oysters Founder Pete Stein will discuss “How Oysters Shape Our Shores” in a talk at the Cutchogue Civic Association’s monthly meeting this coming Thursday, Jan. 15 at 6 p.m. in the Cutchogue-New Suffolk Library 27550 Main Road in Cutchogue. He’ll discuss how oysters are grown in the Peconic Bay, why shellfish farming helps local waters, what daily life on an oyster farm looks...