This Morning’s Bulletin — 1.6.14

Good morning!

• A True’s Beaked Whale, one of the rarest species of whale in the ocean, washed up on the ocean beach in Southampton Village yesterday. A runner on the beach called in to the Riverhead Foundation for Marine Preservation and Research to say  a large dolphin was thrashing in the surf and being pushed back out to sea by a person on the beach just before 9 a.m., about a quarter mile west of Flying Point Beach. The Riverhead Foundation said the same runner reported the whale again washed up on the shore .6 miles east of Gin Lane at about 11:30 a.m. The whale was dead when rescue workers arrived. The Riverhead Foundation is planning a necropsy today and is urging all East End residents to always report sightings of sick or injured marine mammals and sea turtles to the Riverhead Foundation’s 24-hour hotline at 631.369.9829.

• New York Senator Charles Schumer created a stir yesterday on ABC’s “This Week” when he took a hard line against NSA leaker Edward Snowden. In a segment with Senator Rand Paul on Sunday, Mr. Paul, who is pushing a class-action lawsuit against the NSA based on Mr. Snowden’s revelations, said he would support a plea bargain for Mr. Snowden, while Mr. Schumer said standing trial is part of the “grand tradition of civil disobedience” in this country.

“Part of that tradition is you pay the consequences. If you break the law because your conscience says you have to, you stand trial,” he said. “Running away, being helped by Russia and China, is not in the tradition of a true civil-disobedience practitioner.”

• The National Weather Service has put out a whole slew of weird advisories today. A dense fog advisory is in effect this morning, and they’ve issued a wind advisory from 9 p.m. tonight through 6 p.m. Tuesday. They’re expecting sustained winds of 20-30 miles per hour, with gusts to 50 miles per hour. Eastern Long Island has not been included in the NWS wind chill advisory in place for the rest of the region, even though we are expected to face heavy winds and a temperature of 14 degrees Fahrenheit tonight. They are telling us not to go outside without a hat or gloves.

• Two interesting new literary series on the South Fork begin this Thursday. Canio’s Books in Sag Harbor kicks off a four-week workshop on the literature of climate change, and the Amagansett Library is starting a four-week discussion on Vladimir Nabokov’s “Pale Fire” with Nabokov stalker Kara Westerman.