Inducted by Long Island’s own Billy Joel, Bill Medley and the Righteous Brothers joined the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as part of the Class of 2003. Now 82, Bill sat down to chat with WHLI’s Rob Rush before he plays a show in nearby New Jersey.
Photo by Matt Sayles/Invision for The Society of Singers/AP Images
NEW YORK (AP) — Yes, you’ll get a shot at an extra hour’s sleep. But even with that, it might be one of the most dreaded weekends on the American calendar: the end of daylight saving time.
Only 12% of U.S. adults favor the current system of daylight saving time, which has people in most states changing the clocks twice a year, according to a new AP-NORC poll, while 47% are opposed and 40% are neutral.
Around the country, the clocks will go back one hour at 2 a.m. Sunday (respective local times) to mark the return to standard time and more daylight in the mornings. The poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research shows that for many Americans, it’s an unwelcome change — and if forced to choose, most would prefer to keep that extra hour of daylight in the evening.
Pranava Jayanti is among those who strongly oppose the switch. The 31-year-old Los Angeles resident grew up in India, where the clocks don’t change. When he came to the United States for graduate school, some relatives made sure he knew about it.
He thought he was prepared, “but when it actually happened, it still took me by surprise,” Jayanti said, because of how quickly it got dark in the latter half of the day.
There have been calls for the U.S. to stop making the twice-yearly changes, including a piece of legislation that stalled after the Senate passed it in 2022. Among those urging that the country stick to one time for the entire year are the American Medical Association and American Academy of Sleep Medicine, as well as President Donald Trump, who issued a social media post about it earlier this year.
Permanent daylight saving (not daylight savings, as many people say colloquially) would be unpopular with a significant chunk of people, though, the poll found — particularly those who prefer mornings.
Changing the clocks is unpopular
The United States first started using the time shift over a century ago, during World War I, then again in World War II. Congress passed a law in 1966 that allowed states to decide if they would have it or not, but required their choices to be uniform across their territories. All states except Arizona and Hawaii make the time shifts; those two states remain on standard time year-round.
Time changes are also undertaken in some other parts of the world, like Canada and Europe, but not in others, like Asia. Europe and North America change the clocks a week apart, resulting in a short period where the time difference between the regions is an hour shorter than the rest of the year.
But although about half of U.S. adults are opposed to the switch — including 27% who are “strongly” opposed — many don’t care one way or another. That’s particularly true of adults under 30, with 51% saying they neither favor nor oppose the practice. Those over 30 are more likely to be opposed to it, with about half saying they dislike the twice-a-year switching of clocks.
If they had to choose one time for the country to use, more than half of adults — 56% – prefer making daylight saving time permanent, with less light in the morning and more light in the evening. About 4 in 10 prefer standard time, with more light in the morning and less in the evening.
Those who consider themselves “night people” are much more partial to permanent daylight saving time: 61% of them say this would be their choice.
“Morning people” were just about evenly split, with 49% of them preferring permanent daylight saving time, and 50% wanting permanent standard time.
Vicky Robson is one of those night people. If the 74-year-old retired nurse had to pick one time to go by, it would definitely be permanent daylight saving.
“I don’t get up early in the morning, so I don’t need the light in the mornings,” said Robson, of Albert Lea, Minnesota. “I need it more in the late afternoon, early evening. I like when it’s light later, because that’s when I do things. I’ve always worked the evening shift and now that I’m retired, I would go out and take a walk after supper if it was light.”
Why the clock change still happens
There’s no overwhelming evidence that daylight or standard time would be better for society, although there is advice for how to adjust sleep and habits to deal with it.
New research from Stanford University has found that at least when it comes to humans and our internal clocks — our circadian rhythm — having a single time would be better for health than switching. It also found that standard time had slightly better health benefits than daylight saving time.
“The more light you have earlier in the morning, the more robust your clock is,” said Jamie Zeitzer, one of the study authors and co-director of the Center for Sleep and Circadian Sciences at Stanford.
But that’s only one aspect, he added. There are a range of others, from economics to people’s personal preferences.
“This is something that people feel very passionate about, and their passion is usually driven by … themselves, what they would prefer,” he said. “There is no time policy that you can have that will make everyone happy.”
America did try once, in the mid-1970s, to switch to permanent daylight saving time. It was supposed to be a two-year experiment, but lasted less than a year because it was so unpopular.
At this point, the time shift and the resulting change in daylight hours in different seasons have become part of our culture, said Chad Orzel, professor of physics and astronomy at Union College and author of “A Brief History of Timekeeping.”
“People really like having the long evenings in the summer,” he said. But “we drop back in the fall so that we don’t have the thing that everybody hates, which is it being dark until after you get to work. … We have earlyish sunrises in the winter and late sunsets in the summer. We like both of those things. The price we pay for that is we have to change the clocks twice a year.”
New York Governor Kathy Hochul has declared a state of emergency as nearly 1.8 million New Yorkers brace for cuts to federal SNAP food benefits starting Saturday.
Hochul announced $65 million in new state funding to support local food programs, promising no new taxes and no Albany recall as her administration scrambles to fill the gap.
The crisis stems from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s refusal to release federally approved contingency funds during the ongoing government shutdown — a move critics call a political ploy by the Trump Administration.
A growing legal battle now challenges the USDA’s decision, arguing the agency has access to over $6 billion Congress set aside to keep food assistance running during funding lapses, but has “unlawfully refused” to use it.
Nassau County legislators on Thursday approved a $4.4 billion operating budget for 2026, with Republicans using their majority to back County Executive Bruce Blakeman’s proposal without any amendments.
The entire Democratic caucus opposed the plan, arguing it lacked needed changes and fisca
Democratic U.S. Rep. Tom Suozzi has endorsed former Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the New York City mayoral race, rejecting his party’s nominee, Assembly Member Zohran Mamdani.
Suozzi said he agrees with Mamdani’s concerns about affordability but “fundamentally disagrees” with his proposed solutions. The move puts Suozzi at odds with top Democrats — including Gov. Kathy Hochul and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries — who have thrown their support behind Mamdani’s campaign.
A state judge has dismissed Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman’s counterclaim that two Democratic legislators tried to silence him over his controversial plan to deputize armed citizens.
State Supreme Court Justice Gary M. Carlton ruled there was no legal basis for Blakeman’s argument that the lawsuit was a “strategic lawsuit against public participation,” or SLAPP. Carlton said New York’s anti-SLAPP law protects citizens from retaliation for exercising free speech — not public officials defending government actions.
Legislators Debra Mule and Scott Davis sued earlier this year, arguing Blakeman’s proposal to deputize licensed gun owners as emergency “special deputies” was unlawful.
Governor Kathy Hochul warned that three million New Yorkers could lose food assistance this Saturday as the Trump Administration withholds emergency funds during the ongoing federal government shutdown.
Calling the situation a “public health crisis,” Hochul said New York will join 24 other states in suing the administration to release the funds. She blamed Republicans in Washington for “letting Americans suffer the consequences” of the shutdown.
To help ease the impact, Hochul announced $30 million in emergency food assistance to provide more than 16 million meals statewide. She emphasized that while no state can replace federal SNAP funding, her administration will “do everything in its power” to ensure New Yorkers don’t go hungry.
SANTIAGO DE CUBA, Cuba (AP) — Hurricane Melissa made landfall in eastern Cuba near the city of Chivirico early Wednesday as a Category 3 storm after pummeling Jamaica as one of the strongest Atlantic hurricanes on record, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.
Hundreds of thousands of people had been evacuated to shelters in Cuba. A hurricane warning was in effect for the provinces of Granma, Santiago de Cuba, Guantanamo, Holguin and Las Tunas.
Early Wednesday, Melissa had top sustained winds of 120 mph (193 kph) and was moving northeast at 10 mph (16 kph) according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami. The hurricane was centered 20 miles (32 kilometers) east of Chivirico and about 60 miles (97 kilometers) west-southwest of Guantánamo, Cuba.
Melissa was forecast to cross the island through the morning and move into the Bahamas later Wednesday. The continuing intense rain could cause life-threatening flooding with numerous landslides, U.S. forecasters said. A hurricane watch was in effect for Bermuda.
Melissa struck Jamaica on Tuesday with top sustained winds of 185 mph (295 kph).
The storm was expected to generate a storm surge of up to 12 feet (3.6 meters) in the region and drop up to 20 inches (51 centimeters) of rain in parts of eastern Cuba.
“Numerous landslides are likely in those areas,” said Michael Brennan, director of the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami.
The hurricane could worsen Cuba’s severe economic crisis, which already has led to prolonged power blackouts, fuel shortages and food shortages.
“There will be a lot of work to do. We know there will be a lot of damage,” Díaz-Canel said in a televised address, in which he assured that “no one is left behind and no resources are spared to protect the lives of the population.”
At the same time, he urged the population not to underestimate the power of Melissa, “the strongest ever to hit national territory.”
Provinces from Guantánamo — in the far east — to Camagüey, almost in the center of elongated Cuba, had already suspended classes on Monday.
As Cuba prepared for the storm, officials in Jamaica prepared to fan out Wednesday to assess the damage.
Extensive damage was reported in parts of Clarendon in southern Jamaica and in the southwestern parish of St. Elizabeth, which was “under water,” said Desmond McKenzie, deputy chairman of Jamaica’s Disaster Risk Management Council.
The storm also damaged four hospitals and left one without power, forcing officials to evacuate 75 patients, McKenzie said.
More than half a million customers were without power as of late Tuesday as officials reported that most of the island experienced downed trees, power lines and extensive flooding.
The government said it hopes to reopen all of Jamaica’s airports as early as Thursday to ensure the quick distribution of emergency relief supplies.
The storm already was blamed for seven deaths in the Caribbean, including three in Jamaica, three in Haiti and one in the Dominican Republic, where another person remains missing.
NEW YORK (AP) — President Donald Trump’s lawyers have asked a New York state appeals court to toss out his hush money criminal conviction, saying federal law preempts state law and there was no intent to commit a crime.
The lawyers filed their written arguments with the state’s mid-level appeals court just before midnight Monday.
In June, the lawyers asked a federal appeals court to move the case to federal court, where the Republican president can challenge the conviction on presidential immunity grounds. The appeals court has not yet ruled.
Trump was convicted in May 2024 of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to conceal a hush money payment to adult film actor Stormy Daniels, whose affair allegations threatened to upend his 2016 presidential campaign. Trump denies her claim and said he did nothing wrong. It was the only one of the four criminal cases against him to go to trial.
Trump was sentenced in January to what’s known as an unconditional discharge, leaving his conviction on the books but sparing him jail, probation, a fine or other punishment.
Appearing by video at his sentencing, Trump called the case a “political witch hunt,” “a weaponization of government” and “an embarrassment to New York.”
The Manhattan district attorney’s office, which prosecuted the case, will have a chance to respond to the appeals arguments in court papers. A message seeking comment was left with the office on Tuesday.
At trial, prosecutors said Trump mislabeled payments to his then-lawyer Michael Cohen as legal fees to conceal that he was actually reimbursing the $130,000 that Cohen paid Daniels to keep her quiet in the final weeks of Trump’s successful 2016 presidential run.
At the time, Daniels was considering going public with a claim that she and the married Trump had a 2006 sexual encounter that Trump has consistently denied.
In their arguments to the New York state appeals court, Trump’s lawyers wrote that the prosecution of Trump was “the most politically charged prosecution in our Nation’s history.”
They said Trump was the victim of a Democrat district attorney in Manhattan who “concocted a purported felony by stacking time-barred misdemeanors under a convoluted legal theory” during a contentious presidential election in which Trump was the leading Republican candidate.
They wrote that federal law preempts the “misdemeanor-turned-felony charges” because the charges rely on an alleged violation of federal campaign regulations that states cannot and have never enforced.
They said the trial was also spoiled when prosecutors introduced official presidential acts that the Supreme Court has made clear cannot be used as evidence against a U.S. president.
“Beyond these fatal flaws, the evidence was clearly insufficient to convict,” the lawyers wrote.
The lawyers also attacked the conviction on the grounds that “pure, evidence-free speculation” was behind the effort by prosecutors to persuade jurors that Trump was thinking about the 2020 election when he allegedly decided to reimburse Cohen.
Real estate giant Tishman Speyer announced Monday that this year’s Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree will come from East Greenbush, New York.
The 75-foot, 11-ton Norway Spruce, donated by the Russ family, is about 75 years old and 45 feet wide. It’s set to arrive in Manhattan next month ahead of the annual tree lighting ceremony.
The Rockefeller Center tree lighting has long been a cherished holiday tradition, drawing crowds from around the world to kick off the season in New York City.
By JONATHAN MATTISE Associated Press
Federal funds could begin running dry Saturday that help tens of millions of Americans to buy food for their families and send their toddlers to preschool if Congress doesn’t reach a deal by then to end the U.S. government shutdown.
Funding for another program that helps mothers care for their newborns could run out the following week.
Barring a resolution to the shutdown, the U.S. will have a gaping hole in its safety net, particularly for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which helps about one in eight Americans buy groceries. Benefits under the program known as SNAP run dry starting Saturday.
Funding for a group of Head Start preschool programs and Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, known as WIC, also could run out soon.
Here’s a look at what would happen to each program.
SNAP benefits could leave millions without money for food
Lower-income families who qualify for SNAP receive debit cards loaded each month by the federal government used only for buying groceries at participating stores and farmers markets. The debit cards are recharged in slightly different ways in each state. Not everyone receives their benefits on the first day of the month, though many beneficiaries get them early in the month.
The average monthly benefit is $187 per person. Most beneficiaries have incomes at or below the poverty level.
There’s also uncertainty about whether benefits left on cards on Nov. 1 can be used. Arkansas officials suggest people who have balances on their cards should use the funds this month on shelf-stable foods. Missouri and Pennsylvania officials expect previous benefits will remain accessible and are telling beneficiaries to save for November if they can.
President Donald Trump’s administration has rejected the idea of using some $5 billion in contingency money to keep providing the federal cash for food, saying that reserve is limited to expenses such as help after disasters.
That decision contrasts with a report late last month by the U.S. Department of Agriculture that said a contingency fund could cover SNAP benefits if government funding lapsed.
Democratic lawmakers and advocacy groups have urged the Trump administration to tap into that fund to provide partial benefits into November.
Some states seeking to fill void of SNAP benefit cuts
Officials in Louisiana, Vermont and Virginia have pledged to backfill food aid for recipients even while the shutdown stalls the federal program, though state-level details haven’t been announced.
In Republican-led Louisiana, the House has voted unanimously for a resolution urging the state’s health department to use $150 million in its budget to avoid an interruption in SNAP benefits to nearly 800,000 residents. The measure awaits Senate action, and Republican Gov. Jeff Landry has said it’s a top priority.
More funding for food banks and pantries is planned in states including New Hampshire, Minnesota, California, New Mexico, Connecticut and New York, where Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul said on Monday that she is “fast tracking” $30 million in emergency food assistance funds to help keep food pantries stocked.
Officials from some other states have said they looked into backfilling SNAP benefits with state funds but found they couldn’t because states have no way to load funds onto recipients’ cards.
Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom of California deployed the National Guard to help his state’s food banks, though some have declined to use the troops. He is also quickly making $80 million available for food banks.
The USDA advised Friday that states won’t be reimbursed for funding the benefits.
The Trump administration is blaming Democrats, who say they will not agree to reopen the government until Republicans negotiate with them on extending expiring subsidies under the Affordable Care Act. Republicans say Democrats must first agree to reopen the government before negotiation.
Early childhood education
More than 130 Head Start preschool programs won’t receive their annual federal grants on Nov. 1 if the government remains shut down, according to the National Head Start Association.
Centers are scrambling to assess how long they can stay open, since nearly all their funding comes from federal taxpayers. Head Start provides education and child care for the nation’s neediest preschoolers. When a center is closed, families may have to miss work or school.
With new grants on hold, a half-dozen Head Start programs have already missed federal disbursements they were expecting Oct. 1 but have stayed open with fast-dwindling reserves or with help from local governments. All told, more than 65,000 seats at Head Start programs across the country could be affected.
Food aid for mothers and young children
Another food aid program supporting millions of low-income mothers and young children already received an infusion to keep the program open through the end of October, but even that money is set to run out early next month.
The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children helps more than 6 million low-income mothers, young children and expectant parents purchase nutritious staples such as fruits and vegetables, low-fat milk and infant formula.
The program, known as WIC, was at risk of running out of money in October because of the government shutdown, which occurred right before it was scheduled to receive its annual appropriation. The Trump administration reassigned $300 million in unspent tariff proceeds from the Department of Agriculture to keep the program afloat. But it was only enough money for a few weeks.
Now, states say they could run out of WIC money as early as Nov. 8.
Mattise reported from Nashville, Tennessee. AP contributors include Moriah Balingit in Portland, Oregon; Geoff Mulvihill in Haddonfield, New Jersey; David Collins in Hartford, Connecticut; Steve Karnowski in Minneapolis; Anthony Izaguirre in Albany, New York; Susan Montoya Bryan in Albuquerque, New Mexico; Sara Cline in Baton Rouge, Louisiana; and Sophie Austin in Sacramento, California.