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Six months after Manhattan’s congestion pricing tolls switched on, drivers are spending less time in traffic — both within the toll zone and in the surrounding area, according to multiple data sources. At the same time, recent polls show opposition has dropped significantly in suburban areas like Long Island, from 72% a year ago to 48% in May, though more residents oppose it than support it outside New York City.

Peter Gill reports in NEWSDAY that commute times through the Queens-Midtown Tunnel, including the last three miles of the Long Island Expressway are down 22%, according to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Another report, using data from the Waze driving app, found jams reduced not only in Manhattan, but also in the outer boroughs and parts of New Jersey during the first 16 weeks of the program. Commute times for Long Islanders who drive or take the bus into the tolling zone were down as much as 13 minutes during the first two months of the program, according to another analysis using MTA bus data.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority imposed congestion pricing earlier this year to bust stubborn traffic in Manhattan and to generate a new stream of money for public transportation projects, including for subways, buses and the Long Island Rail Road. The measure has endured a vow from President Donald Trump to kill the program and blistering criticism from some suburban drivers, who say it would hurt the city’s economy and further burden overtaxed New Yorkers. The first-in-the nation program, which charges $9 for most vehicles driving below 60th Street, began Jan. 5 and is on track to raise $500 million from drivers this year, including $61 million in May alone.

The toll is scheduled to stay at $9 until 2028, when it will increase to $12; then it will go up to $15 in 2031.

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Stephen J. Kotz reports on 27east.com that WLIW-FM of Southampton has joined in a suit challenging President Donald Trump’s recent executive order, “Ending Taxpayer Subsidization of Biased Media,” that the president signed in May.

Earlier this month, the local NPR station, which is owned by the WNET Group of New York City, filed a friend of the court brief supporting the effort by other NPR stations to overturn the president’s executive order.

But it may not matter if the suit is successful, as the Republican majority in Congress is already weighing two other options to cut off federal funding, and thus cripple public broadcasting in this country.

“It’s a distressing time — it’s really an inflection point,” said Bob Feinberg, the chief counsel for the WNET Group. “This is an existential threat to a very important, independent voice in our media landscape.”

Besides the president’s executive order, which is being challenged on grounds that the president does not have authority to eliminate funding that has been approved by Congress, as well as a free speech argument, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting faces a threat from a rescission bill, which, Feinberg said, is attempting “to claw back” $550 million in funding for each of 2026 and 2027.

That measure has already been approved by the House and is currently before the Senate, which has until July 18 to act.

Funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting has also been eliminated in the massive tax cut and spending bill, “the One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” for which a final vote is still needed to approve the legislation…although approval appears imminent.

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting is funded two years into the future as a means to prevent Congress from using its power to punish public media for airing programs it disagrees with.

“This is a clear example of the federal government using its power to direct or punish speech with which it disagrees,” Feinberg said on a recent edition of “Behind the Headlines,” a radio program co-sponsored by The Express News Group and WLIW.

Despite Republican charges that public media is biased against their views, both NPR and PBS are rated among the most trustworthy media in opinion polls.

The elimination of federal funding would be devastating for public media, Feinberg said. Every $1 in federal funding leads to $7 more in donations.

“This is not a situation where we can just make up the missing funding by reaching out to the Ford Foundation,” Feinberg said. “That won’t work.”

He said the $550 million that would be axed next year in the rescission bill amounts to about $1.38 per American.

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Four Starbucks stores in the Hamptons are the first of up to 1,000 stores nationwide to undergo a redesign in the next year aimed at a turnaround for the coffee chain seeking a return to its "community coffeehouse" roots. Tory N. Parrish reporting in NEWSDAY does not indicate which 4 on the south fork are being redesigned. Starbucks website locations shows stores in Westhampton Beach, Hampton Bays, Southampton, Bridgehampton and East Hampton.

Starbucks remains the world’s largest coffee chain, but the Seattle-based company has reported five straight quarters of declining sales at U.S. stores open at least a year, amid growing competition from independent and national coffee retailers, and as consumers cut back on discretionary spending.

Faster-growing regional chains, such as Dutch Bros Coffee, 7 Brew and Scooter's Coffee, have chipped away at Starbucks' market share, said David Palmer, senior managing director and restaurant analyst at Evercore, an investment banking firm in Manhattan. Hampton Coffee Company’s success on the east end could be included among the aforementioned Starbucks competitors.

Unveiled in June in the Hamptons and first reported by CNN, the updated store design is part of the company’s “Back to Starbucks” strategy — a plan focused on employee investment, streamlining the menu to the most-popular items and improving the in-store experience to lure back customers who once lingered in the coffee shops.

Starbucks Corp.'s relatively new CEO, Brian Niccol, who started in September, is behind the changes.

The changes mean a return to some of the features that gave Starbucks a reputation as a “third place,” a term for settings other than home (the first place) and work (the second place), like coffee shops, parks and other places where people linger to socialize.

Current management is increasing staffing and using artificial intelligence to prioritize in-café orders over mobile ones, Palmer said.

Starbucks will be adding one to three people per U.S. store, which could cost an estimated $1 billion, he said.

Starbucks’ built its brand on the in-store experience, which is what the chain is trying to return to.