A town-hall meeting is scheduled in Brewster tonight in relation to the June 8 drunk-driving tragedy, and some constituents are enraged at what they see as exploitation for political purposes.

Southeast Supervisor Michael Rights and Councilman Dwight Yee are convening a discussion on “the impact of illegal hiring and illegal housing in Southeast and Brewster.” This comes right after a mailing from them about immigration crackdown efforts. Marcela Rojas writes about the reaction in today’s Journal News and also has a story about a new incident involving the town supervisor. A 20-year-old woman says the town supervisor crossed a dividing line in his car, made her swerve off the road, and left the scene shortly afterward. Rights denies causing the accident.

I’m told that tonight’s meeting, at 7 p.m. in the Sheet Metal Workers’ Union Hall on
Starr Ridge Road, will be shown live on out web site at http://lohud.com/lohudlive1.

Assemblyman Greg Ball, an ally of Rights and Yee, is criticizing tonight’s meeting, saying the two should develop a “consensus for action, on both DWI and illegal immigration.” He has scheduled his own town hall meeting at the same location on July 23.

And he mentions in his press release that “For more than three years, I have tried to move our community forward to embrace a crack down on illegal housing and illegal hiring.”