EAST HAMPTON

Former CBS Newsman Killed in Crash

Police have confirmed Richard Threlkeld, a 74-year-old American television news correspondent who worked for CBS News for 25 years, was killed Friday when the Mini Cooper he was driving collided with a propane truck in Amagansett on Long Island.

East Hampton Town Police Chief Ed Ecker, who was on scene while detectives started investigating the two-vehicle crash, which happened at 8:18 a.m., said the accident occurred in the intersection where Montauk Highway meets Abraham's Path and Cross Highway, near Brent's General Store.

SOUTHAMPTON

Man Pleads Guilty to Murdering Child

Pedro Jones, 22, who was arrested in August 2010 after beating his girlfriend's son to death, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder Wednesday. He will serve 16 years to life in prison, under the plea deal, according to Robert Clifford, the spokesman for Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas Spota. Sentencing is scheduled for Feb. 14 before Judge James Hudson.
New York State police said Jones, 20 years old at the time, was babysitting the boy. According to court documents, Jones told state troopers, "I was trying to make him act like a boy instead of a little girl," and admitted to hitting him in the past too.

RIVERHEAD

Downtown Microbrewery in the Works, Though Opening Delayed

While plans to open a microbrewery on West Main Street in Riverhead were moving "at a glacial pace" in October, with a February 2012 opening date forecast, Steve Wirth said this week that it's going to take a bit longer at this point.

The owner of downtown restaurant Digger O'Dells, after a busy holiday season, now forecasts an opening no sooner than the beginning of this upcoming summer as he looks forward to working with brewmaster and fellow small business owner Duffy Griffiths, owner of Duffy's Deli.

NORTH FORK

Vintners: Mild Winter OK, But Sudden Freeze a Worry

With recent temperatures in the 50s in the middle of January, grapevines, like the rest of us, think it feels like spring.

That means the sap in the vines, instead of spending most of its time underground, is still flowing through the upper portion of the vine, which could mean an early bud break, according to local vintners like Ann Marie Borghese of Castello di Borghese in Cutchogue.

Borghese said that in her 13 years of winemaking on the North Fork, she’s never experienced a January as warm as this.

But with the warmth comes with a major danger: If sudden deep freeze hits, the sap will expand and the vines might break.

“If they freeze and crack, that would be a problem,” she said. “That happened at a vineyard up the island a few years ago when they got colder weather than we did — their vines simply cracked off. But we can only hope for the best — you can’t fight mother nature.”

WESTHAMPTON-HAMPTON BAYS

Civic To Ask Residents To Pay for Cell Tower

In an effort to compromise with the East Quogue Fire District, the East Quogue Civic Association plans to request a referendum that asks residents to pay for a 1-00 foot cell tower be placed on the roof of the East Quogue Fire Department.

The East Quogue Fire District, however, is asking for a towner with a T-mobile antena that will result in $2,000 in monthly rent to the fire district.