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Good Thursday Morning,
Yesterday was a beautiful, beautiful day but today brings an Air Action Alert due to expected moderate ozone pollution in the area. Luckily we're not down on the LI Sound coast under NYC's ozone plume... There the warnings are more serious. There's also the possibility of severe thunderstorms this evening.
Though we cannot take credit (as much as I'd like to), Yesterday the Feds changed their minds about not allowing new solar energy projects on Bureau of Land Management (BLM) properties out west. Apparently BLM got their you-know-what's handed to them thanks to overwhelming incredulity from sensible American people. There's a story below.
 The button pictured to the right was on sale at the Texas Republican Convention last week. In the 1840's we allowed Texas into the union after requiring they fight a civil war to secede from Mexico. Maybe we should let them go again? Do you think Mexico would have them back?
Too often we allow the moniker "Hero" to be used for anyone even remotely connected to an event which cheapens the word and confuses and befuddles. But once in a while genuine heroes emerge as was the case on Lake Carmel the other day. A young girl, choking on some food had her life saved by two local boys, Alberto Mercado and Daniel Adelman came to her rescue. See the story below.
Lastly this morning, if tomorrow you attend an event where the Declaration of Independence is read and you believe the words might be applicable to Washington, DC today, please turn yourselves in to Homeland Security and save us the effort of turning you in on our own. You objective free-thinkers pose a threat to our national political insanity.
And now, the news:
- Lifeguards Save Choking Toddler At Putnam Beach (Real, genuine heroes)
- High bacteria levels close 4 Putnam Valley beaches (Stormwater strikes again!)
- Hispanic liaison resigns, blames police (Brewster)
- YouTube videos blamed in attack (It's all about Oniontown)
- Leaf-blower bans aid air quality (LTE)
- Pesticides Persist In Ground Water
- U.S. Lifts Moratorium on New Solar Projects
- Kennedy Leads Renewed Effort on Universal Health Care
- Could you pass the latest citizenship test? (It's a challenge... take it!)
- Vanity Fair's Christopher Hitchens Undergoes Waterboarding (With video)
Lifeguards Save Choking Toddler At Putnam Beach LAKE CARMEL, N.Y. -- Two college students working as lifeguards at a Putnam County beach were being hailed as heroes for saving an 18-month-old girl who was choking on a piece of food.
Deanna Tharas was at the Lake Carmel beach with her mom, her grandmother and brothers and sisters Tuesday afternoon when the mother -- Nicole Tharas -- noticed her daughter was choking while eating a piece of melon.
Nicole Tharas said she turned the girl over and noticed she had stopped breathing and was turning blue. The mother screamed for help and lifeguards Albert Mercado and Daniel Adelman came to the rescue.
Mercado applied several blows to the toddler's back and Adelman reached inside the girl's mouth and managed to dislodge the blockage.
Adelman said when little Deanna started to breathe, "It was like Christmas all over again."
The 21-year-old Adelman will enter his senior year at SUNY-Albany this fall. Mercado will be a 19-year-old sophomore at SUNY-Cortland. Both graduated from Carmel High School.
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High bacteria levels close 4 Putnam Valley beaches Barbara Livingston Nackman
The Journal News
PUTNAM VALLEY - In this Putnam town known for its many lakes, four of its most popular water spots were shut down Monday for health concerns - and could remain so through the Fourth of July weekend because of high bacteria counts, officials said yesterday.
Two beaches at Lake Peekskill, North and Singers, along with two at Lake Oscawana, Wildwood Knolls and Northview, banned swimmers Monday when elevated bacteria levels, known as fecal chloroform, were discovered during routine tests conducted by the Putnam County Department of Health.
One lakeside beach in neighboring Continental Village was also closed, but allowed to reopen yesterday after receiving a passing grade, officials said.
Additional test results received yesterday showed the bacteria remained above normal in Putnam Valley's lakes, the county's director of environmental health, Robert Morris, said in the afternoon.
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Hispanic liaison resigns, blames police Marcela Rojas
The Journal News
Victor Padilla, Brewster's longtime Hispanic liaison, has resigned from his volunteer position, citing an ineffective village Police Department as the reason for his departure.
Padilla issued his letter of resignation this week to the mayor and village trustees following what he considered to be inconsiderate actions taken by the Brewster Police Department.
On June 23, Padilla received a $25 parking ticket for an expired meter. Padilla, who is disabled, said it was his understanding that he was exempt from feeding the meter because he had a laminated card issued by the village that identified him as a Brewster village official on the dashboard of his pickup truck.
"Lately, I feel that the village police is only worrying about issuing tickets," said Padilla, 57. "All I see is that they are helping themselves. It was understood that they were supposed to improve quality of life, but that's not happening."
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YouTube videos blamed in attack Police: Non-residents, stay out of hamlet
By Greg Marano
Poughkeepsie Journal
DOVER - A series of negative videos knocking a Town of Dover hamlet has led to attacks on strangers, the latest of which resulted in a criminal charge.
Now, police and town officials are suggesting people stay out of Oniontown, unless they live there.
A 17-year-old boy was arrested and charged with felony criminal mischief after he allegedly took part in a group that threw rocks at a car and injured two people in it.
State police at Dover said two teenagers from Mahopac drove into Oniontown Monday and were attacked by a group of youths throwing stones. A female passenger suffered injuries to her head and face, and the male driver also was injured.
Both were treated for their injuries at a local hospital and released.
The 17-year-old's name has not been released, but police said more charges may be filed and the investigation is ongoing.
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Ed note: See the videos here. (Not office nor child friendly)
Leaf-blower bans aid air quality Across the lower Hudson Valley, 14 towns and villages have passed local ordinances limiting the use of leaf blowers. As the summer days turn warmer and we experience more days of unhealthy air, enforcement of these measures will be crucial for the public health benefits to be realized.
Equipment that has zero emissions, such as rakes and brooms and electrically powered tools, is the healthy way to go, and there are many public-health reasons why no-emissions technologies are best.
Air quality in the Lower Hudson Valley is rather unhealthy. In our annual State of the Air 2008 report, Westchester County failed our clean-air test for having air that does not meet federal health standards for air pollution.
Small sources of emissions, such as leaf blowers and lawn mowers, can add up to be large polluters. A lawn mower running for one hour emits the same amount of smog forming emissions as a car driven for eight hours. Multiply this statistic by the number of engines blowing leaves in the Lower Hudson Valley and you have a better idea of the contribution these small engines can make on the air we breathe.
The American Lung Association of New York State commends the towns and villages across the Lower Hudson Valley that took a positive step to protect lung health by passing leaf-blower ordinances. Now we must make certain the laws are enforced so that we can all breathe a little easier.
Michael Seilback
Albany
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Pesticides Persist In Ground Water ScienceDaily (July 2, 2008) — Numerous studies over the past four decades have established that pesticides, which are typically applied at the land surface, can move downward through the unsaturated zone to reach the water table at detectable concentrations.
The downward movement of pesticide degradation products, formed in situ, can also contribute to the contamination of ground water. Once in ground water, pesticides and their degradation products can persist for years, depending upon the chemical structure of the compounds and the environmental conditions.
Scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) investigated the occurrence of selected pesticides and their degradation products in ground water during a study funded by the USGS National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) Program.
Specifically, the authors examined several of the factors that can influence the likelihood with which pesticides and their degradation products are detected in shallow ground water—including oxidation-reduction (redox) conditions and ground-water residence times—at four study sites across the United States.
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U.S. Lifts Moratorium on New Solar Projects By DAN FROSCH
DENVER — Under increasing public pressure over its decision to temporarily halt all new solar development on public land, the Bureau of Land Management said Wednesday that it was lifting the freeze, barely a month after it was put into effect.
The bureau had announced on May 29 that it was no longer processing new applications to build solar power plants on land it oversees in six Western states after federal officials said they needed first to study the environmental effects of solar energy, a process that would take two years.
But amid concerns from the solar power industry, members of Congress and the general public that the freeze would stymie solar development during a particularly critical time for energy policy, the bureau abruptly reconsidered.
“We heard the concerns expressed during the scoping period about waiting to consider new applications, and we are taking action,” the bureau’s director, James Caswell, said in a statement. “By continuing to accept and process new applications for solar energy projects, we will aggressively help meet growing interest in renewable energy sources, while ensuring environmental protections.”
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Kennedy Leads Renewed Effort on Universal Health Care Wednesday 02 July 2008
by: Lisa Wangsness, The Boston Globe
After undergoing brain surgery, Senator Ted Kennedy renews efforts to move toward a system of universal health care. (Photo: Paul J. Richards / AFP)
Kennedy presses for bipartisan support before new president takes office.
Senator Edward M. Kennedy's office has begun convening a series of meetings involving a wide array of healthcare specialists to begin laying the groundwork for a new attempt to provide universal healthcare, according to participants.
The discussions signal that Kennedy, who instructed aides to begin holding the meetings while he is in Massachusetts undergoing treatment for brain cancer, intends to work vigorously to build bipartisan support for a major healthcare initiative when he returns to Washington in the fall.
Those involved in the discussions said Kennedy believes it is extremely important to move as quickly as possible on overhauling the healthcare system after the next president takes office in January in order to capitalize on the momentum behind a new administration.
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Could you pass the latest citizenship test? In October 2008 a new version of the U.S. citizenship test will be taken by all applicants. Could you pass it? The questions are usually selected from a list of 100 samples that prospective citizens can look at ahead of the interview. Some are easy, some are not. We have picked some of the more difficult ones.
NOTES: Candidates are not given multiple choices in the naturalization interview. The following questions have been adapted from the immigration service’s sample questions.
Go here to take the test and report back with your scores. Anyone who scores under 80% has to leave the country since that's the mark the INS requires for new immigrants. (I scored 100% by the way)
Vanity Fair's Christopher Hitchens Undergoes Waterboarding July 2, 2008 11:30 AM
Just in case the news that American torturers have been revealed to have taken their cues from that model of moral clarity that was the Chinese Communist regime hasn't fully convinced you that the practice is unquestionably, incontrovertibly evil, Christopher Hitchens' column in the August 2008 Vanity Fair, "Believe Me, It's Torture," ought to drive it home. That is, if the accompanying video, available online at Vanity Fair's website, doesn't do it first.
In the video, Christopher Hitchens is brought, hooded and bound, into an austere looking storage room, and placed on a board, slightly elevated at it's foot. He is instructed by the similarly masked interrogators on how to call a halt to the procedure, either through a safe word - "red" - or by releasing the "dead man's handle" - a metal object placed in each hand. A towel is placed over his face and one of the interrogators begins pouring water on Hitchens' face from an ordinary-looking milk carton. The interrogators demonstrate no more aggression that one might when watering a houseplant. In fact, the process looks so unremarkable that you begin to wonder if they aren't simply "warming Hitchens up" for something worse.
Seventeen seconds pass, and then Hitchens drops the dead man's handle. When the hood is removed, it is jarring to see how panic-stricken Hitchens looks.
In the video, Hitchens describes the experience:
They told me that when I activated the 'dead man's handle' - which is a simple process, you simply release something, let it go - I didn't do that. I practically, even though my hands were bound, I...as near as I could...I threw the thing out of my hand. I mean, I really wanted it to stop.
I could swear I shouted the code word, but I hadn't.
Everything completely goes on you when you're breathing water. You can't think about anything else.
It would be bad enough if you did have something. Suppose if they wanted to know where a relative of yours was...or a lover. You feel, "Well, I'm going to betray them now. Because this has to come to an end. I can't take this anymore." But what if you didn't have anything? What if you'd got the wrong guy? Then you would be in danger of losing your mind very quickly.
See the video here.
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