Way back in the 1960s and '70s, the nine-spotted ladybug was the most common ladybug in the northeastern US. So beloved was this particular ladybug that it was designated as the official state insect of New York in the late '80s. But even as it received this honor, the bug had already begun to disappear, pushed out by the dastardly seven-spotted ladybug instead. By 1999, scientists believed the nine-spotter had sadly gone extinct. But dry your tears, insect-lovers! Because the nine-spotted ladybug has just been spotted—alive and well—on an Amagansett farm. more ›

An Amagansett family whose fishing provides clams for its roadside stand as well as its own dinner table is fighting the state over the right to fish. And the Lesters insist that a 1686 royal decree give them that right. more ›

At some point yesterday, a crustacean-obsessed bandit (or bandits!) pulled off the crime of the century, audaciously stealing a seven foot, 1000-lb lobster statute that's the mascot of a popular Hamptons restaurant. more ›

A week after a harrowing perfume launch at Macy's, Justin Bieber is back in the New York area. But it seems like the Biebs is not all work and no play, because he spent his Canada Day with girlfriend Selena Gomez shopping in the Hamptons. One observer told Page Six, "Everyone was turning their heads, doing double takes, staring at them as they walked down the street." more ›

Yesterday, Dealbreaker posted an image of an ATM receipt found at an East Hampton Capitol One bank, revealing a shocking $99,864, 731.94 savings account balance ($2.75 poorer after ATM fee). Speculation was that the fat cat was hedge fund manager David Tepper, but he told the Post that he "wasn't in the Hamptons in June at all," plus, "I would never do something as irresponsible as leaving $100 million in a savings account." Yeah, when you've got the coin to pay $43.5 million cash on a house (just to tear it down), you keep your money in a vault so you can swim in it. more ›

Could a three-day adult contemporary music festival soil the rarefied Hamptons with light-rock riff-raff? According to the NY Post, just such a festival has been proposed for this coming August in Amagansett... and it has locals "seething." According to organizers, the (estimated 10,000-person) event could potentially be a "performance opportunity" for Billy Joel and Paul McCartney, two local struggling musicians in desperate need of exposure. more ›

Seriously, what is with Vice President Joe Biden and transportation accidents? Biden has been vacationing in the Hamptons (and working on his tan—but, hey, it's not Spain!), but he left today. The AP reports, "Air Force Two with Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. aboard was involved in a minor accident with no injuries at a Long Island airport, the Air Force said. The jet wash from the vice president's Boeing 757 knocked over a small private plane Wednesday morning at Francis S. Gabreski Airport in Suffolk County... The unoccupied small plane was damaged." And apparently no one on board realized! Last week, after meeting with Mayor Bloomberg, his motorcade got into an accident. more ›

40-year-old self-made millionaire Cheryl Mercuris somehow landed in the headlines yesterday for simply taking a two-week family vacation in the Hamptons (well, the house she's renting is pretty epic). Today the NY Post follows up with the lovelorn lady, who is searching for suitors during her spare time in the beach town—unsurprisingly, she's been flooded with phone calls, emails and Facebook friend requests. more ›

There are probably plenty of pretty young things looking for filthy rich flings each summer in a certain Long Island beach town, but 40-year-old Cheryl Mercuris is lookin' for love in the Hamptons, and she's already a self-made millionaire on her own. The NY Post reports that she's spent $500,000 (or $1,488 an hour!) for a two-week summer rental in hopes of finding Mr. Right. more ›

The Shinnecock tribe, who have lived for centuries in a patch of land on the Hamptons shoreline, have been formally recognized by the federal government after a 32-year court battle. The Shinnecock had to prove they existed in order to apply for federal funding to build schools, health centers and set up their own police force, which left some members bitter: "Why do we need federal recognition to show we are who we are? It's a humiliating, degrading and insensitive process. Why do Indian people have to go through that? No other peoples are treated like that," said Shinnecock leader Lance Gumbs. more ›

The latest rich lady to join Bravo's Real Housewives of New York City (and really, the least insane person on that show) is already getting her share of tabloid space... but not all press is good press. 46-year-old Sonja Morgan (ex-wife of J.P. Morgan's great-grandson John Adams Morgan) was busted for DWI in Southampton Village early Monday morning. According to the Post she was pulled over at 2:16 a.m. after failing to stop at a stop sign. When she refused to take a Breathalyzer she was brought in to the local police headquarters, where they charged her. Will the court date be filmed for the show? Stay tuned... more ›

When an engagement doesn’t follow its due course, who gets custody of the ring? The question is central in a lawsuit filed by a man who says his onetime fiancée “rushed” him into marriage, all the while planning to drop him and keep the rock. Rena Hope Friedman and Roger Adler were introduced by their mothers at a Hamptons Labor Day Party. Friedman fell hard for the clinical ophthalmologist, or so he thought, and just six weeks later he spent $58,000 on a ring to mark their engagement. Twelve days after that the whirlwind romance spun to a stop, but Friedman held on to her diamond. Adler thinks he should it get it back; not only that, he accuses his former love of pulling the same scam on other would-be husbands. more ›

In MTV's drop everything email press release this weekend, which turned up in inboxes around 1:30 a.m., they announced that there would be a second season of Jersey Shore with all original cast members returning... unless you count the actual Jersey Shore as an unofficial cast member. This summer the guidos and guidettes will be taking over another town, and while the press release hinted that it would be outside of the Northeast, the NY Post says they're scouting locations in the Hamptons (which J-WOWW has been lobbying for) and... Delaware. Yep, Delaware. more ›

From your mouth to Viacom's ears, J-WOWW (that is, by the way, a ridiculous nickname that a grown woman goes by on MTV's Jersey Shore). She recently had an amazing idea, saying in an interview: "I would love to do a spin off of Jersey Shore in the Hamptons. It would be the New York version of Jersey Shore. I'm really not a Jersey girl. I'm from Long Island. I've always been a Hamptons girl. Next season I would like to represent Long Island and do behind the scenes in the Hamptons nightclubs. The fist pumpers in the Hamptons are more extreme. I feel like me and my friends could bring a more extreme version to MTV." more ›

We guess there is a sucker born every minute. The brokers handling the sale of Ponzi schemer Bernard Madoff's Montauk beach house say they've sold the property for over its $8.75 million asking price. The house is right on the beach (on 1.2 acres) with 4 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms, but it's not an over-the-top marble palace either. One commercial broker had told the Times a few weeks ago, "They're not going to get 7, not in this environment. If they get 5.5, they should take the money and run." more ›

In June the Port Authority announced a plan to kill 2,000 geese during their molting season to prevent accidents like the one that brought Flight 1549 down in the Hudson River. Mayor Bloomberg immediately voiced his support for gassing geese, telling radio listeners, "There is not a lot of cost involved in rounding up a couple thousand geese and letting them go to sleep with nice dreams." Well, it looks like the mayor's winged targets finally sent a message on Saturday, when one flew into a jet carrying the mayor and about six others from the Hamptons to Senator Kennedy's funeral. In what is surely just the opening salvo between the avian empire and the imperial Bloomberg, the bird failed to fell the French-made Dassault 900EX, though the pilot was concerned that the strike had damaged the landing equipment, and requested emergency ground crews in Boston. The mayor was discreetly informed during the flight, which landed safely, but according to the Post he didn't inform his "entourage." Sure, Bloomberg's not sweating it, but if the rumored alliance between the birds and groundhogs ever happens, he's in trouble. more ›

In an interview with the Associated Press, South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford was "teary-eyed" when he "admitted he met with his mistress in the Hamptons and New York City, describing...the details of encounters that he said stretch back to 2001." In fact, Sanford gets all The Bridges of Madison County about it, "I was frightened and I was scared, and I knew the consequences. This was a whole lot more than a simple affair. This was a love story. A forbidden one, a tragic one, but a love story at the end of the day." While he met mistress Maria Belen Chapur in Uruguay in 2001, they met again in 2004 at a NYC cafe—while he was in town for the 2004 Republican Convention—"It was like catching up with a great, old friend. I remember there was an older couple sitting to our right, and I remember them watching us, in the way that we interacted. They could see a spark." Sanford didn't speculate about his 20-year marriage but did say, "I will be able to die knowing that I had met my soul mate." more ›

While the eyes of the world were on the riots in Iran over the weekend, another shocking miscarriage of justice almost went unnoticed closer to home in East Hampton—but thankfully a reporter for Plum TV was on hand to bravely document Saturday night's panic at the shitshow. In the middle of a rainstorm, a crowd waiting for their cars and others clamoring to get inside were huddled under the awning outside Georgica, a "hotspot" run by promoter Matt Levine, whom you may recall from his work at Lower East Side tool magnet The Eldridge. more ›

John McCluskey pleaded not guilty today to second-degree harassment charges for his Hamptons altercation with Rudy Giuliani this weekend, but did go ahead and sign an order of protection saying that he would leave Giuliani and wife Judith Nathan alone. McCluskey did not bring a lawyer to court today, telling reporters, "Why would I dignify this with a lawyer? I think it's so frivolous." Both sides accuse the other of elevating the spat into physical threats—police reports say that when McCluskey was being taken away as he said to cops, "I didn't know that scumbag still has so much power out here...I have the right to speak my mind and tell him how evil he is...You all will regret this." McCluskey might have to think about dignifying the incident with a lawyer pretty soon—he'll need one to show up in his place at the next court date in June. He told a judge that he won't be there since he's leaving the country to film a documentary. more ›

Four intoxicated revelers tried to stay out of harm's way by taking a taxi home from the Southampton nightclub Pink Elephant early Monday morning, but their cab's collision with a teenage drunk driver landed them all in the hospital anyway—two of them in critical condition. Police say the cab driver took an illegal left turn into a convenience store parking lot around 4:20 a.m., and was struck on the passenger side by 18-year-old Ryan Rozynski, who survived the crash with minor injuries and is being charged with DWI. Not so lucky is 33-year-old Brian Cano of Jersey City; the impact threw him from the taxi and he wound up with a 12-inch gash on his head. Phil Ward of Manhattan and another unidentified passenger are both still in critical condition at Stony Brook hospital. According to Newsday, one woman was thrown through the windshield. And the Post reports that it was quite a dangerous Memorial Day weekend out in the Hamptons, with two drug overdoses, 5-10 alcohol poisonings, and a fatal stabbing during a brawl at a Hampton Bays diner. more ›

Both sides of the Rudy Giuliani vs. Rudy Hater 5672834340 incident were quick to jump into the spin battle after Saturday's confrontation in the Hamptons where Jack of all trades John McCluskey was led away in handcuffs after allegedly threatening the former mayor while he was out in Bridgehampton with wife Judith Nathan. more ›

Rudy Giuliani and wife Judi Nathan were enjoying the holiday weekend in the Hamptons yesterday when a publishing executive got in the face of the former mayor and gave him a little more than a piece of his mind. After stepping out of a Presbyterian church where he was attending an art fair, 69-year-old John McCluskey confronted the Giulianis on a Bridgehampton street, poked his finger in Rudy's chest and uttered a sentiment more than a few New Yorkers share, "You're the worst person in the world and I'm going to punch you out!" more ›

Last October, Almond, the unpretentious French bistro that's become a Bridgehampton hotspot, boldly expanded to Manhattan with an outpost in the Flatiron district. But even before the city's economy drifted into its current deep funk, chef/co-owner Jason Weiner faced a daunting task: finding a way to fill the massive East 22nd Street space that's been the ruin of many a restaurateur, including Rocco DiSpirito’s Rocco's, Jeffrey Chodorow’s Caviar & Bananas, and Borough Food & Drink. more ›

Suffolk police say that a wealthy NJ man shot his wife before killing himself in their East Hampton estate yesterday morning. Lester Stockel, who Newsday describes as the "founder of a successful enterprise involving the processing of credit-card receipts for businesses," and his wife Georgiana were found his their bedroom by East Hampton Town police, who were responding to various 911 calls. Neighbors were shocked, saying they never heard the couple argue--Stockel, 64, was described as friendly while Georgiana Stockel, also 64, was more "reserved." more ›

Andrew Reister, a Long Island corrections officer who worked a second job as a Southampton Bouncer, died yesterday after he had been choked out by a customer earlier in the week. Reister was allegedly choked out for over a minute by Anthony Oddone (pictured) after the two got into a scuffle after Reister told him to stop dancing on a table. Oddone, a college golfer and country-club caddie, has been charged with first degree assault for the time being. "How ironic it's another golfer who took him out," the victim's wife Stacy Reister lamented. Oddone will appear in court on Tuesday. more ›

" (idiots from the city). Publishers Weekly says the dictionary's publisher paid Hampton Jitney for the book to be passed out with other free products to bus passengers, but now Hampton Jitney refunded the money. The book's publisher pointed out, "We sent them content in advance." more ›

All-American supermodel Christie Brinkley is playing tough when it comes to her forthcoming divorce from architect Peter Cook. Brinkley's lawyer says the press should be allowed to attend the proceedings, in spite of the recommendation of a court-appointed guardian for her children, who say it's not a good idea. more ›