By Mike White 🇺🇸 March 31, 2026

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☕ Good morning, Long Island!

👨🏼‍🍳 The dates are set for Spring Long Island Restaurant Week, so make those reservations. This February, for winter's installment, we went to The James in Babylon and had a blast.

✍🏼 Feel free to respond to this email with feedback!

Weather: Today will be mostly cloudy with a high near 62. Showers likely, mainly before 8 a.m. 🌧️ Source: NWS

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MEET OUR SPONSORS

GLI coverage is funded in part by The Core Station Yards, now leasing brand-new apartment homes in Ronkonkoma. Click here to book your tour!

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1. Sysco buys Restaurant Depot for $29.1B — a jolt for LI's indie restaurants

🌭 For Long Island restaurant owners — many of whom rely on Restaurant Depot as their primary supplier — the acquisition could reshape how and where they source everything from chicken cutlets to paper towels.

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2. This former American Idol finalist is now LI’s go-to Ms. Rachel impersonator

🍣 Erinn Furey has brought Ms. Rachel to Long Island — and she says her goal is to give every local child a chance to experience the online superstar in person. Furey, of Deer Park, actually got her start on national television.

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3. Lake Grove man who chased fugitives now helps shape ‘Yellowstone’ spin-off

📺 Lenny DePaul, a former U.S. Marshal and longtime law enforcement veteran, is serving as a technical advisor on the new spin-off series “Marshals,” bringing real-world expertise to the hit show.

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Cops & courts

🚔 A Bay Shore woman has been convicted of orchestrating a murder over a parking dispute, prosecutors say. She faces life without parole.

👮‍♀️ A former Suffolk County employee has pleaded guilty to taking bribes and falsifying license applications, officials said.

🚨 A Patchogue man is facing kidnapping charges after allegedly luring a 4-year-old from a Main Street laundromat.

📰 An East Northport teen is charged with fatally stabbing his grandmother’s fiancé inside a trailer at their shared home, police said.

More headlines to highlight

📡 Brookhaven is poised to break up Optimum’s monopoly, reaching a tentative deal to bring Verizon FiOS to thousands of homes.

🏒 Long Island’s hockey community has rallied to raise tens of thousands of dollars for a Merrick toddler battling a rare cancer.

🕊️ The former head of the Diocese of Rockville Centre, Bishop William Murphy, died last week at 85 after leading Long Island’s Catholic community for 15 years.

🍕 Two popular Huntington restaurants — Rust & Gold and 1653 Pizza Co. — have hit the market with a $1.2 million asking price.

🎤 Wu-Tang Clan is bringing its “Final Chamber” tour to Jones Beach in 2026, adding another major show to the summer lineup.

⛸️ Plans are moving forward to transform the former Dowling College campus into a new ice rink complex in Shirley.

🥍 St. Anthony’s girls lacrosse just rolled past upstate Victor in a statement win, extending the nation’s longest active streak to 50 straight games.

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Greater Babylon coverage is funded in part by The Argyle Theatre, where Broadway comes to Babylon Village. Click here for tickets to The Prince of Egypt, starting April 16 and running through June 7.