Santos is running, but the GOP is shunning

Daily Point

Santos case making its way through court, House panel

Rep. George Santos is expected to get his holiday weekend started with a stop in the federal courthouse in Central Islip at noon Friday but it remains to be seen whether fireworks are expected in the pretrial status conference concerning his 13-count indictment.

However, that doesn’t mean chatter about a likely plea deal isn’t increasingly being heard in Washington and New York corridors focused on whether the Justice Department will demand prison time as well as his resignation from Congress, according to two political sources in D.C.

Santos maintains on social media that he is running again in 2024, rebuffing a statement from Speaker Kevin McCarthy earlier this week that he would not support Santos should he run in 2024. McCarthy, during a Monday interview on Fox and Friends, said, “He shouldn't run. We will keep that seat with another Republican.”

McCarthy had been in New York last weekend to attend GOP fundraisers, including three events on Long Island.

But McCarthy’s laughing and dismissive demeanor regarding Santos can’t be separated from a highly unusual move by the House Ethics Committee which released an unprecedented statement about the status of its investigation. It came after U.S. District Judge Joanna Seybert granted media requests last week to unseal court records which revealed it was Santos’ father and aunt who guaranteed his bail.

The House Ethics Committee statement about the status of its investigation came from both the GOP and Democratic chairs and noted that it is not waiting for the Justice Department to conclude its criminal case, the usual process. Instead, the committee said it “was actively working” to resolve this matter in an expeditious time frame and has issued over 30 subpoenas and 40 voluntary requests for information.

The chairs added that the committee is “aware of the risks” of proceeding while the Justice Department has an open case but stated that the committee has an “obligation to safeguard the integrity of the House.”

Shorthand to Santos: We are busy working to expel you, so if a resignation has value to you in your criminal case, play that card before you lose it. Of course, the House and McCarthy would much rather the Justice Department resolve the issue for them than have to take a vote.

— Rita Ciolli rita.ciolli@newsday.com

Pencil Point

No kidding

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Reference Point

Submerged in the pollution debate

As July Fourth approaches and with it the sultry weather that marks summer, Long Islanders flock to the beaches that serve as their respite. Another annual rite of this time, at least in days of yore, was Newsday’s editorial board writing about the quality of the water at those beaches.

And on June 29, 1949, the board found the state of the water … well … confusing.

In a piece titled “How Foul is ‘Fair’?”, the board decried various standards of cleanliness used by various agencies and organizations to measure whether water is unfit for swimming. It eased into the topic by noting a New York World-Telegram reporter who wrote that a swimmer swallowing 100 cubic centimeters of water — almost 7 tablespoons — is “likely to swallow intestinal bacteria which can, in uncertain numbers or if his resistance is weak, make him deathly ill.”

The question, the board wrote, is how much bacteria is safe to swallow.

The World-Telegram’s “hired analysts” said a beach is unfit if the bacteria count exceeds 23 per 100 cc’s. The American Public Health Association put the threshold at 50. A state park commission worker told the board warning bells begin at 100. And the Nassau County health commissioner at the time, Dr. Earle Brown, said there was no need to worry unless the count passed 240.

Nowadays, the World Health Organization says safe for drinking requires a zero count of E. coli, with gradations of danger as the number rises; anything over 100 is judged to be “high risk.”

To punctuate its concern, the opinion page that day in 1949 included a cartoon titled “The Beaches of Yesteryear?” It featured a skeleton labeled “POLLUTION” placing a sign that reads “L.I. BEACHES CLOSED A.D. 1955” on top of what appears to be a map of Long Island.

While noting that typically it has been “viewing with alarm the tendency of Long Island’s bathing waters to grow more polluted,” the board also found reason for hope for the future quality of the water. New York City was beginning a $94 million sewage treatment disposal program and Nassau County was building its first sewage treatment plant in Bay Park; Nassau later would construct the Cedar Creek plant and other smaller facilities would rise. And Newsday’s board gave a “special pat-on-the-back” to North Hempstead Town, which tightened some laws against sewage from boats in basins, docks and mooring areas.

“Stricter laws, stricter enforcement, and more memorable penalties will help,” the board wrote.

Seventy-four years later, it’s safe to say that progress toward clean water has not been a straight upward path. Unsafe levels of bacteria are still found in some of the region’s waters, especially after storms deposit their runoff, necessitating the temporary closure of some beaches.

It’s also clear that 74 years ago there was a word no one was thinking about: nitrogen.

— Michael Dobie michael.dobie@newsday.com, Amanda Fiscina-Wells amanda.fiscina-wells@newsday.com

Programming Point

The Point will be back Wednesday, July 5. Happy July Fourth!