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Lawyers for Nassau's longtime concessionaire Butch Yamali yesterday filed papers in State Supreme Court, asking Justice Vito DeStefano to issue a temporary restraining order to prevent the county from booting Yamali's business, Dover Gourmet Corp. out of Nassau parks. It's kind of late. Yamali's lawyer said in his court papers that "hundreds of Dover vending machines" will be treated as abandoned property and "will be forcibly removed by the county beginning Feb. 1, 2020."  That's tomorrow. A Saturday. By the time DeStefano rules on the motion, the machines-- and Yamali--are likely to have been evicted. Yamali, who has been Nassau's exclusive provider of food service and vending machines in county parks for two decades, has been in court fighting Nassau's efforts to terminate his last contract, awarded in 2010, on Dec. 31. Yamali argued that former Deputy County Executive Rob Walker had extended his contract through 2021...

Criminal justice law changes adopted last year by the new Democratic progressive majority in Albany were not just confined to bail reform. Besides eliminating bail for most crimes, the new laws also require prosecutors to turn over their evidence against a suspect no later than 15 days after arraignment--which is when the accused is brought before a judge, advised of the charges and asked to plead guilty or not guilty. And that new deadline will raise taxes, Freeport Mayor Robert Kennedy is warning. He is asking  residents to sign an online petition to stop the new discovery rules. The required "discovery" material includes the names and contact information for any person with knowledge about the case, the names of all police and law enforcement personnel involved, witness statements, 911-recordings, search warrants, an inventory of seized property, any evidence that is favorable to the suspect and any other evidence associated with the reported incident. The new...

  After falling for a  $710,000 phishing scam, County Comptroller Jack Schnirman is warning Nassau legislators against posting "sensitive" information on their website -- an issue the county and the state's open government director addressed four years ago. Schnirman, who recovered the $710,000 after a police investigation, wrote a letter to the leaders of the county legislature Wednesday. He said that while reviewing "potential vulnerabilities" in the county, "it has come to light that sensitive pieces of vendor information (such as the Federal Tax Identification Number--TIN) have been publicly available" on the legislature's website. Schnirman, who has consistently advocated for transparency in fundraising emails,  said,  "We must balance transparency with the need to protect sensitive information." He encouraged lawmakers "to review the publicly available information for redaction of sensitive information." But P...

The lead plaintiff in a lawsuit challenging the legality of Nassau's property tax reassessment said he believes the judge wants a final decision on the case by March 31 -- the day before the new values become final. Sands Point homeowner Eric Berliner said State Supreme Court Justice Stephen Bucaria, at a hearing today in Mineola, directed that Berliner's lawyer Scott Mollen submit by next Wednesday a list of expert witnesses and the names of all county officials they want to testify under oath. Berliner has said that he wants to call County Executive Laura Curran to testify about the reassessment. Bucaria also ordered the county to provide in 20 days all the models, formulas and algorithms used to develop the new residential reassessments that were issued last year. "Hopefully the final decision will give all taxpayers in Nassau County the proper relief for the benefit of the residents and for the county itself," Berliner said. "The reality is if we ...