News That Matters - December 30, 2009 - Last Word of the Year Edition

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$10. $18. $20. $25. $35. $50. $100+ Pick one. It's your last chance to say Thanks! For a full year of News That Matters. And a very special thanks to the ~35 of you who have said so already! What's in the News today? And the Winners of the 2009 'Skeeter Bites Awards Are . . . Top 10 Urban Legends of 2009 The Top 10 Infrastructure Stories of the Decade 2009: The Photography is Not a Crime year in review Drilling Wastewater Disposal Options in N.Y. Report Have Problems of Their Own Car showrooms are reborn as places to play, learn How Strasbourg Gave Up the Car (and Why Midsized American Cities Can Too) Is aviation security mostly for show? Cellphone Searches There's a good bit in this Issue so grab your favorite beverage and read on... Good Wednesday Morning, It was 6.1 degrees this morning at the Asylum. Forecasters claimed it would only be 12. This is the last edition of News That Matters for 2009 and it's been one heck of an exciting year. With the recent local elections, taking on the Tilly Foster contract, the Mt. Gilead blasting and Peekskill Hollow Road and everything in between, we've been all over the place and to be honest, I'm exhausted. New Year's Day Hike: On New Year's Day (Friday) join with other NtM readers for a trip into the wilds of central Putnam County along the Sunken Mine Road through Fahnestock State Park. Sunken Mine, a Putnam Valley town road, is gated and closed to vehicular traffic from December 22nd until April so the solitude of the winter forest won't be broken by motor vehicles making this a perfect walk through the wilderness. Dogs. Kids. Joy. We leave at noon from the dirt parking area on Dennytown Road where the gated Sunken Mine road cuts in, about a half mile below Route 301. Call ( 8 4 5 ) 2 2 5 - 2 1 0 4 by 10:30 that morning if the weather looks iffy. Once in a blue moon. Tomorrow's full moon will be the second full moon within a single month, hence we call it a "blue" moon. The moon is always full when it rises at the same moment the sun sets. Though the Chuan Yen monastery on Route 301 in Kent will not be serving lunch on Sunday's until April, the Putnam Lake VFW is having their annual breakfast this Sunday - so if that's been your deal, you're in luck! It's from 9 AM until noon and only 10 bucks. 4 Fairfield, Putnam Lake. Over near Drewville Road in Carmel a resident discovered a bobcat caught in an illegal legtrap and two teens, one 17 and the other 13, were eventually arrested. Animal control officers released the cat and it took off into the woods. We do not know how injured it was. The Journal News article said, as usual, nothing much about the state of the animal but the Danbury paper had a tad more information. Bannerman's Castle, that relic of a bygone era built as a personal storehouse for surplus weaponry, sitting on Pollepel Island in the Hudson River near Dutchess Junction, has long been targeted for preservation even though it's been falling apart - and dangerous - for years upon years. At some time this past weekend a significant portion of the remaining facade collapsed as you can see from this image taken by Frank Carbone through a telescope. You used not to be able to see the back wall through the front The image shows the front section of the "castle" where the main stairs used to be. The NY Times wrote: "But then in the silence of last Saturday night, a large chunk of history suddenly disappeared when the castle’s stone, brick and cement sighed under a century’s weight of weather. Overnight, two-thirds of the eastern tower was gone, as well as one-third of the adjacent southern wall, leaving a gaping hole and concern over how to stop the crumbling." In the meantime, the building is not going anywhere and it's still a sight to see as anyone who has looked up - or down - the Hudson in that area will attest. There are some excellent photos of the site here, here and here. About 415,000 people have visited Walkway Over the Hudson since it opened on October 3rd. This number far exceeds expectations and has left State Park personnel scratching their heads. A friend was out on the bridge last weekend. He said the temps were in the low 30's and the wind was whipping strongly and he had to hold on to the railings, but the bridge was still crowded with people out enjoying the day. Thanksgiving and Christmas days were both especially popular with local families out for a walk and even with the weather the bridge has not been closed for a single day. According to officials, day-time closings have amounted to a total of 15 hours. Yesterday with the high winds, the bridge was closed in the morning to remove debris from the entryways but opened again later in the afternoon with a suggestion that you spend no longer than 30 minutes exposed to the 40mph winds blowing up the river. Once an LED lighting project is completed on the bridge, officials expect it to remain open for a while after dark as the bridge now closes at dusk. Have you been up to the bridge yet? What did you think? While we're talking about bridges, the Champlain Bridge, a link as vital as the Tappan Zee, was demolished this morning in a controlled explosion in order to make room for a new bridge. Back in October the state found that two of the supports on the bridge were no longer structurally sound and feared that it might collapse. At a public hearing residents cried FOUL! blaming the state for everything from bad breath to chilblains and demanded that the bridge stay open until it could either be repaired or replaced. Engineers agreed with the state: if the bridge stays open personal injury lawyers could get really rich. In response, the states of New York and Vermont have started a free ferry service and construction will begin on a $67 million replacement due to be completed by the summer of 2011 using Federal dollars. However, as expected, local communities are already moaning and groaning about the project, its disruption, location, design and cost. Years ago when I worked for the government of France I once asked a stagiaire, "You French, you complain about this, you complain about that. What would happen if everything was perfect?" He replied, "Then we'd complain that we have nothing to complain about!" I'm starting to feel the same way about Americans.  TV station WPTZ has a video up. Catch it right at 2:15 for a super slow motion view that is truly cool. Jack Dougherty and Claire Budzinski are two local youth who make up the band, The Farewell Season. On Saturday, January 9th at 7:30PM, they'll be holding a special concert to release their latest album at the Cultural Center on Lake Carmel. If you're a fan of local music or just want to support our youth, you should be here. What makes this event truly special is that The Farewell Season will be joined by three other local bands (Alphabet Soup, A Standard Protocol and Brad Schult's Kid Jerusalem) who are known for their hard-driving rock and roll but in this case each will be performing a full acoustic set. I'm running sound for the show so you won't be needing your earplugs but bring them anyway just in case. Tickets are on sale now at the Arts on the Lake website and are $6. Ten-year old Sara Greiner, a middle school student in Commack, LI was suspended from school for dealing. Oh, it's not what you think, but when you live in an hysterical nation people often do hysterical things. The young girl had brought organic peppermint oil to school and added a few drops of it to her bottle of water and to those of her friends who asked. The School board, in a press release said, "Peppermint oil is an unregulated over-the-counter drug,". Sheesh. We used to share all kinds of things in school back in the day. Politifact was keeping track of what people said during the Health Reform debate this year and this is what they came up with: True                 14.7 percent Mostly True      10.3 percent Half True          19.2 percent Barely True       16.0 percent False                 30.1 percent Pants on Fire      9.6 percent 44% bears to the truth, 55% goes to the lies. Read the full article here. A Walmart in Pennsylvania was sued for having a surveillance camera in a bathroom at the store. Walmart's Security and Privacy policy states that at "some stores and clubs [Walmart] may record your presence on security monitors for safety and security purposes,". Several employees brought suit against Walmart for the camera and three of those who did were terminated by the corporation. Walmart declined to comment on the firings. Shop Walmart! Low Prices! Even Lower Morals! (And we've even seen you naked!) The Risk of Dying: Your odds of dying from cancer are 1 in 5 The chance that you'll die of lung disease is 1 in 7 Your odds of dying in a car accident at some point in your life are 1 in 83.  Your chance of being killed in a pedestrian accident are 1 in 526 There's a 1 in 10,048 chance you'll die from alcohol poisoning. You have a 1 in 16,421 chance of being murdered over your lifetime. You have a 1 in 20,000 chance of dying from an asteroid strike. The chance of being killed by lightning was 1 in 79,746. You have a lifetime risk of 1 in 354,319 of dying in a non-terrorist related airplane crash.  Over a ten year period the chance of being aboard an airplane involved in a terror attack was 1 in 10,408,947 which, I admit, is three times more likely than being shredded by a mountain lion. Even if terrorists were to totally destroy one of our 40,000 shopping centers each week you'd only have a 1 in 1,000,000 chance of being at the right place at the wrong time. You have a 1 in 6,500,000,000 chance of dying from marijuana. We spend $44,000,000,000 (that's billion) a year making you take your shoes off at the airport (and now your pants, too!) and add billions more to lost productivity all to insure that 1 in 10,408,947 chance.  Now that you know the truth can we all just relax a bit? Please? For a more complete list of your odds in life look here. Image of the Year: 2009 will be remembered for a lot of things but mostly for the overt racism that exploded across the nation with the inauguration of the US's first Black president. Along with the racism came a resurgence in anti-intellectualism. "Tea Baggers" and "Birthers" don't seem to understand the difference between political philosophies and equate Communism and Socialism and Fascism, conflating them all into as single philosophy. This either reflects our national education system or... I don't know what. But when the likes of Glenn Beck, Bill O'Reilly, Rush Limbaugh and the Aile's and Gannett and Murdock empires are doing the educating the outcome has been, as we've seen, deleterious to the social, moral and political health of our nation. I don't know what the solution is but when we raise a generation of children as the one pictured below, we need to stop what we're doing and take a hard look at ourselves. Have we made the sacrifices necessary to maintain and protect the Constitution? Have we worked hard enough to counter the lies and misinformation that passes as news? Have we looked beyond political loyalties and placed our faith in our communities instead? When we can answer those questions with honesty and altruism we may begin to repair the damage done our nation this past decade. But you have to act and you have to act now. A few last notes: Michelle Leblanc New Year's Eve at 8:30 PM ~ Join Michelle and jazz pianist Tom Kohl for a lovely New Year's Eve celebration in Cold Spring. Welcome in the new year in the comfort of the most beautiful Inn on the Hudson River. Come for dinner or extend your stay by reserving a room overlooking the River and Storm King mountain. New Year's eve dinner is $75. per person. See the menu, get directions and call for reservations here. Christmas Bird Count Through January 5th - Join the Waterman Bird Club for the 110th(!) annual Christmas Bird Count. The Christmas Bird Count (CBC) was inaugurated at the turn of the last century by Frank Chapman of the National Audubon Society. The fascinating history of this annual event is detailed on the History page of the National Audubon Society's CBC website. The purpose of this annual census, now enjoyed by over 50,000 participants throughout the western hemisphere each year, is to gather data that can be used to identify bird population trends from year to year, which in turn can help scientists understand environmental impacts of weather, habitat loss, industrialization, human expansion, and other factors. More information can be found here. As you begin to read reviews of the past year/decade and people's Ten Best lists, think about this: $10. $18. $20. $25. $35. $50. $100+ Pick one. It's your last chance to say Thanks! For a full year of News That Matters. And a very special thanks to the ~35 of you who have said so already! And now, The News: And the Winners of the 2009 'Skeeter Bites Awards Are . . . Top 10 Urban Legends of 2009 The Top 10 Infrastructure Stories of the Decade 2009: The Photography is Not a Crime year in review Drilling Wastewater Disposal Options in N.Y. Report Have Problems of Their Own Car showrooms are reborn as places to play, learn How Strasbourg Gave Up the Car (and Why Midsized American Cities Can Too) Is aviation security mostly for show? Cellphone Searches And the Winners of the 2009 'Skeeter Bites Awards Are . . . By Skeeter Sanders As the first decade of the 21st century draws to a close -- wow, has it really been ten years since we all rang in the new millennium? -- it's that time again to take a look back at some of what's transpired over the past 12 months, make resolutions for 2010 -- geez, we finally get to say "twenty-something" instead of "two-thousand-something" when referring to the year -- and, of course, cast an eye on the crystal ball and predict who'll win what in the upcoming awards season. >From time immemorial, it seems, we mark the early months of each new year by bestowing awards to honor the best among us, such as the Golden Globes, the Grammys, the Oscars, the Tonys and the Emmys -- and to dishonor the worst among us as well, such as Mr. Blackwell's annual "Worst-Dressed Women" list and the Razzie Awards for the worst movies of the year. In 2007, this writer chose to join in the awards-giving parade, but unlike the "Big Five" best-of entertainment awards and more in the tradition of Mr. Blackwell and the Razzies, I chose to join in the bestowment of "dishonors" to the most richly deserving crooks, liars, power-mad despots and just plain weirdos who've made life a lot more complicated for Americans and the world at large in the previous 12 months. It seems that choosing the "winners" for the 'Skeeter Bites Awards is getting more and more difficult, even though this is only the third year of the SBAs' existence. Almost like the Energizer bunny, the list of nominees richly deserving these dishonors just keeps growing and growing and growing. But, here goes . . . Read More Top 10 Urban Legends of 2009 by David Emery Here, in ascending order of popularity as gauged by reader interest and site traffic, are the Top 10 Urban Legends, Rumors, and Internet Hoaxes of 2009: 10. August ‘Mars Spectacular’ Circulating for the sixth year running, this email hoax describes a “once in a lifetime” celestial phenomenon — the closest encounter between Mars and Earth for the past 5,000 years — which already occurred in 2003. 9. Burundanga Drug Warning “In Katy, Texas a man came over and offered his services as a painter to a female putting gas in her car and left his card,” begins this overwrought message. “She said no, but accepted his card out of kindness and got in the car. Almost immediately, she started to feel dizzy and could not catch her breath. She tried to open the window and realized that the odor was on her hand; the same hand which accepted the card from the gentleman at the gas station.” Read more The Top 10 Infrastructure Stories of the Decade Posted on Monday December 28th by Melissa Lafsky The aughts have been called “The Decade From Hell,” and certainly there was more than enough bad news to justify the title. But the past decade has not lacked for major infrastructure stories, both in the U.S. and abroad. If it’s true that infrastructure is one of the most telling indicators of how a nation is faring, then there’s plenty to gain from examining the major trends around the world — and to see where the U.S. emerges in the greater scheme. Here are the top 10 largest infrastructure-related stories of the past decade. While the list does include international projects, the focus is on the U.S. Read More (Read Part 2) 2009: The Photography is Not a Crime year in review By Carlos Miller It was a year that firmly established Photography is Not a Crime as a national blog, going from an average of more than 700 page views a day in 2008 to more than 4,000 in 2009. A year in which PINAC was mentioned in both The New York Times and Playboy Magazine as well as several other respectable publications throughout the country. A year that resulted in me getting arrested again for photographing police against their wishes. But the most significant highlight for me this year was winning my appeal pro se on my first arrest; a legal victory that nobody will ever take away from me. It was also a year of nonstop police abuses against photographers, videographers and journalists. A year where a multitude of videos continued to pop up on the internet revealing blatant police abuses against civilians as well as numerous incidents where police were too quick to use their Taser. So let’s take a look at what went down in 2009. Read More Drilling Wastewater Disposal Options in N.Y. Report Have Problems of Their Own by Joaquin Sapien and Sabrina Shankman, ProPublica - December 29, 2009 12:01 am EST The site of one of Canada-based Gastem USA's wells in Otsego County, N.Y. The well produced far less wastewater than most Marcellus Shale wells will, but it still took the drillers more than a year to get permission to drill it, because they couldn't find a place to dispose of the water. (Joaquin Sapien/ProPublica) The site of one of Canada-based Gastem USA's wells in Otsego County, N.Y. The well produced far less wastewater than most Marcellus Shale wells will, but it still took the drillers more than a year to get permission to drill it, because they couldn't find a place to dispose of the water. (Joaquin Sapien/ProPublica) Environmentalists, state regulators and even energy companies agree that the problem most likely to slow natural gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale in New York is safely disposing of the billions of gallons of contaminated wastewater the industry will produce. Between 1,500 and 2,500 wells per year could eventually be drilled into the huge natural gas reserve, state regulators say [4], although other estimates are far higher [5] (PDF). Each well will produce about 1.2 million gallons of wastewater that can contain chemicals introduced during the drilling process and dredged up from deep within the earth. Using the state’s higher estimate, that means the industry will have to find a way to dispose of as much as 3 billion gallons a year, enough to fill 5,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools. Read More Car showrooms are reborn as places to play, learn By JULIE CARR SMYTH Font Size: Default font size Larger font size With hard times in the auto industry and car dealerships closing around the country, the gleaming showrooms that once featured next year's models are becoming this year's new store, restaurant, school, day care center or yoga studio. In Lane County, Ore., Joe Softich from Catholic Community Services helps erect shelves and unload boxes for a new food bank warehouse inside a former auto showroom. In Tulsa, Okla., teenagers at Northside Christian Church skateboard in what was once a showroom's auto service center. Students on the campus of the Columbus College of Art & Design in Ohio can learn in a space where evidence of automaking's proud past is still visible in the exposed concrete pillars, sturdy tile floors and ascending spiral vehicle ramp. Architects and historians say the shock that American automakers could go bankrupt has combined with depressed real estate values and enthusiasm for green energy to bring a unique level of interest to reusing showrooms. Read More The French Revolution How Strasbourg Gave Up the Car (and Why Midsized American Cities Can Too) By Ben Adler Strasbourg, France, where the European parliament meets, is a thoroughly modern regional capital of Western Europe. Its downtown is filled with department stores, teenagers of any ethnicity sporting a European style that takes a lot of inspiration from their American counterparts of five years ago, and shwarma shops competing with McDonald’s for their attention. But walk around Strasbourg’s charming medieval city center and you will see that one thing is virtually unchanged from its medieval origins: the absence of automobiles. This is not, however, an uninterrupted history. In fact, it is the direct result of actions recently taken by Strasbourg’s government — ones that should inspire comparably sized older American cities, from Buffalo to St. Louis. Just like most American cities, the car’s midcentury domination had largely forced public transportation out of Strasbourg. The once-extensive tram lines fell into disrepair, and the last one was taken out of service in 1960. But by 1989 traffic and parking had become major headaches for residents and for businesses in the dense warren of downtown streets. Rather than see retail flee to suburban malls, as it did in America, the city decided to take action. This being France, where the entire political spectrum is to America’s left, the conservatives running for city council in 1989 actually favored building a subway. But the socialists, led by Catherine Trautmann and Roland Ries, wanted to build a new tram. Conservatives and local business owners objected, arguing that a tram would take precious lanes away from cars. But that was exactly the point: to transform streets from hectic, unpleasant gasoline alleys into vibrant, multi-use communal spaces. “The tram means that you change the city,” explains Jonathan Naas, transportation policy coordinator for Roland Ries, who is now mayor. By creating a buffer from the cars, he says, “You create places to walk, outdoor cafes to sit outside.” Read More Is aviation security mostly for show? By Bruce Schneier, Special to CNN STORY HIGHLIGHTS     * Incident on Detroit-bound plane led to tightening of airport security     * Bruce Schneier says politicians react to incidents by imposing "security theater"     * Trying to predict what terrorists will do next is futile, Schneier says     * He says it's better to put resources into investigations Editor's note: Bruce Schneier is an author and technologist who specializes in security. His books include "Applied Cryptography," "Beyond Fear" and "Schneier on Security" and his other writing can be seen at http://www.schneier.com/ (CNN) -- Last week's attempted terror attack on an airplane heading from Amsterdam to Detroit has given rise to a bunch of familiar questions. How did the explosives get past security screening? What steps could be taken to avert similar attacks? Why wasn't there an air marshal on the flight? And, predictably, government officials have rushed to institute new safety measures to close holes in the system exposed by the incident. Reviewing what happened is important, but a lot of the discussion is off-base, a reflection of the fundamentally wrong conception most people have of terrorism and how to combat it. Terrorism is rare, far rarer than many people think. It's rare because very few people want to commit acts of terrorism, and executing a terrorist plot is much harder than television makes it appear. Read More Cellphone Searches The Ohio Supreme Court has struck an important blow for privacy rights, ruling that the police need a warrant to search a cellphone. The court rightly recognized that cellphones today are a lot more than just telephones, that they hold a wealth of personal information and that the privacy interest in them is considerable. This was the first such ruling from a state supreme court. It is a model for other courts to follow. Searches generally require warrants, but courts have carved out limited categories in which they are not needed. One of these is that police officers are allowed, when they arrest people, to search them and the area immediately surrounding them, as well as some kinds of containers in their possession. When the police arrested Antwaun Smith on drug charges they seized his cellphone and searched it, examining his call records. The police did not have a warrant or the consent of Mr. Smith. Read More $10. $18. $20. $25. $35. $50. $100+ Pick one. It's your last chance to say Thanks! For a full year of News That Matters. And a very special thanks to the ~35 of you who have said so already!	Sign up to have News That Matters Delivered to your email inbox! Email: News That Matters on Facebook Support Our Sponsors TaconicArts.com Interior/Exterior House Painting by someone you can trust. 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News That Matters - December 28, 2009

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What's in the News Today: The top 10 stories not brought to you by mainstream news media in 2009 Hall secures federal funds for Carmel police cameras Steep environmental costs to tapping Marcellus shale for gas Smarter Money Would Be On Main Street Trump buys Branton Woods golf course in East Fishkill Compulsory Private Health Insurance: Just Another Bailout for the Financial Sector? The World's District Attorney Onetime Nevada Brothel Could Become Conservationists’ Oasis 2009 Fund Drive Have you helped keep this newsletter coming? If not, please click here today. Your Support Is What Keeps Us Growing! "Unless we put medical freedom into the Constitution, the time will come when medicine will organize into an underground dictatorship. . . . The Constitution of this republic should make special privilege for medical freedom as well as religious freedom." Dr. Benjamin Rush - Signer, Declaration of Independence. Good Monday Morning, I hope everyone has recovered nicely from the holidays. "They can keep suing me because I'm just not going to let this state run out of money on my watch," Governor Paterson said the other day about withholding state aid for schools. And I support his notion. If school districts don't like the way the state funds them then they need to either cut programs or ask residents to pay more so that money from the state has less of an impact on programs. (Let's not get into the "unfunded mandate" discussion since you'll be on shaky ground there.) Look, State monies are your monies and every Tom, Dick and Harry elected official wants stuff but wants someone else to pay for it because they're afraid that you won't re-elect them if they don't deliver the services they've promised you on the cheap. That is undeniable. But that money still comes from your pocket. The game is to make it look like it's not and they've got it down pat. Services cost money, there's no question about it. And unless you're willing to forgo some, to wait a little longer at the DMV or for your street to be plowed, to let your kid walk a couple hundred feet, quit your bitching, suing and complaining and either deal with it or reach into your pocket to pay for it. As far as I can tell, there is no other way. Congratulations to the Kent Fire Department's officers for 2010: Paul Kane - Chief, Norman Hill III - Captain, Justin Byrne - Captain, Sal Paci - Lieutenant, Joe Grieco - Lieutenant, Diane Kane - EMS Lieutenant, Dan Greaves - Fire Police and Werner Reinhardt - Sergeant at Arms. My friend Lee in Arizona, has made some new year's pre-apologies. This is one of them: "To the legislature of the State of AZ -- I was wrong to characterize your actions in the last legislative session as "A carnival of narrow-minded, blue-nosed, sanctimonious, bigoted, skin-flint mental midgets climbing over each other to be the first to prostrate himself before the Altar of Libertarian Mammon." My comment was offensive to carnies, midgets and Mammon." As usual, Europe is light-years ahead of the United States in so many things: urban planning, architecture, energy use and conservation, mass transit... just to name a few things this column is about. One thing they've done that applies to real estate sales, is to phase in the running of energy audits on homes and prepare a chart showing where the home sits on a scale of efficiency. This will give you an idea about what it actually costs to heat and cool the home. The chart shows two columns, one that gives the current efficiency rating of the home and one that shows what its efficiency potential is.The chart looks like this: Seeing that we're having such a hard time getting planning boards to require efficiency in new construction, I like the idea of providing this information to prospective home-buyers and think it's something we should use here in the United States as well. We do it for air conditioners and refrigerators, why not homes? 2009 Fund Drive Have you helped keep this newsletter coming? If not, please click here today. Your Support Is What Keeps Us Growing! Dr. Kaivalya Desai's 29 year career was stellar in every way until a 20something woman charged him with sexual assault for putting his arm around her, something he'd been doing with patients for his entire career. Dr. Desai has always believed the depressed, grieving and scared patients respond well to a personal touch and his career proves that. The woman in question admitted in court that Dr. Desai had frequently held her hand in his office during stressful times and that his touch made her feel better. It took only 30 minutes for the court to toss the charges against the doctor out the window. Good for them. Collected from the 'net: Starlets make nuisances of themselves in urban areas by flocking together and pooping all over the sidewalks. Oh no, wait. That's starlings. Nevermind. Some poor sap gets food poisoning on a Delta flight over the weekend and is unable to leave the bathroom to accommodate our latest hysteria and the plane is evacuated at a remote location at the airport police stream to the scene and NORAD is set on high alert. Ivana Trump has a hissy fit over some unruly kids on her flight and is removed from the plane by police. I swear, there's a connection there somewhere. By the way, if you're flying somewhere soon you'll not allowed to have anything in your lap for the last hour of the flight. No pillows, no books or magazines nor iPod or other music players. And you'll no longer be able to leave your seats to use the bathroom or stretch your legs. While we're being typically hysterical, I can see a future where you'll be stripped naked, anally and orally probed and gassed to sleep until the plane lands. Financier Bernie Madoff was released from hospital the other day after being treated for facial contusions and broken ribs, injuries one would expect from a serious physical assault. North Carolina prison officials claim no assault had taken place and could not say why Mr. Madoff was transferred to the hospital in the first place. A recent survey by the Pew Charitable Trust says that Mississippi is the most religious state. Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine ranked last. I don't know where Illinois ranked but state comptroller candidate William J. Kelly wants Illinois to rank well. So well, in fact, that he climbed over a nativity scene, a menorah and a Festivus(!) pole at the State Capitol building to remove a sign legally placed by the Freedom From Religion Foundation which read: "At the time of the winter solstice, let reason prevail. There are no gods, no devils, no angels, no heaven or hell. There is only our natural world. Religion is just myth and superstition that hardens hearts and enslaves minds." State police were there to greet - and arrest him - for his display of religious intolerance. But it wasn't just what the sign read, Mr. Kelly was fuming about its placement - near a Christmas Tree (also on the State Capitol grounds). He said, "The fact that sign was immediately in front of the tree, I found that to be disturbing because any family and any child would run up to that tree with a smile on their face, and they would immediately see that sign," Apparently we need to protect children from thinking for themselves. By the way, the same sign has appeared on the lawns of other government buildings (along with the nativity scenes and Christmas trees,) and in each case it's been vandalized - often by government officials for whom their oath, often sworn to their God, to protect and defend the Constitution was apparently a lie. I do not understand what moves people like Mr. Kelly. As far as I'm concerned, religious displays and symbols simply do not belong on public (government) property at all. Not a menorah, not a Christmas tree, not a nativity scene... nothing. And especially not in our courtrooms nor on our currency. In a multi-cultural society religion belongs only in your heart, home and church and we'd all be a lot better off if it stayed there. Preach by example, not by coercion. And if we don't want to go where you do then respect our right not to. 2009 Fund Drive Have you helped keep this newsletter coming? If not, please click here today. Your Support Is What Keeps Us Growing! And now, The News: The top 10 stories not brought to you by mainstream news media in 2009 Hall secures federal funds for Carmel police cameras Steep environmental costs to tapping Marcellus shale for gas Smarter Money Would Be On Main Street Trump buys Branton Woods golf course in East Fishkill Compulsory Private Health Insurance: Just Another Bailout for the Financial Sector? The World's District Attorney Onetime Nevada Brothel Could Become Conservationists’ Oasis The top 10 stories not brought to you by mainstream news media in 2009 What did you miss this year? Here's a look 23 DEC 2009  •  by Rebecca Bowe Peter Phillips, director of Project Censored for 13 years, says he's finished with reform. It's impossible, he said in a recent interview, to try to get major news media outlets to deliver relevant news stories that serve to strengthen democracy. "I really think we're beyond reforming corporate media," said Phillips, a professor of sociology at Sonoma State University. "We're not going to break up these huge conglomerates. We're just going to make them irrelevant." Every year since 1976, Project Censored has spotlighted the 25 most significant news stories that were largely ignored or misrepresented by the mainstream press. Now the group is expanding its mission—to promote alternative news sources. But it continues to report the biggest national and international stories that the major media ignored. The term "censored" doesn't mean some government agent stood over newsrooms with a rubber stamp and forbade the publication of the news, or even that the information was completely out of the public eye. The stories Project Censored highlights may have run in one or two news outlets but didn't get the type of attention they deserved. Read More Hall secures federal funds for Carmel police cameras By Terence Corcoran • tcorcora@lohud.com CARMEL — Federal dollars will be used to equip town police cruisers with cameras that will provide streaming video feeds to police headquarters, allowing a dispatcher to assess incidents from the department's communications center and determine if an officer needs assistance. Rep. John Hall, D-Dover Plains, announced that $145,000 in federal funds will be coming to Carmel to purchase the cameras. "This funding is vital to protecting the officers of the Carmel police while they work to protect us," Hall said. "Those who put their lives on the line in our defense deserve every protection that we can provide." Chief Michael Johnson and town Supervisor Kenneth Schmitt, a retired town officer, were on hand with Hall when he announced the funding last week at Town Hall. Johnson said the video system would serve three important police functions. Read More Steep environmental costs to tapping Marcellus shale for gas By Fay Muir • December 28, 2009 Gov. David Paterson maintains that clean-burning, abundant natural gas found in the Marcellus Shale formation deep underground in much of New York state is the key to ending the economic crisis. Close scrutiny of the process that taps this fuel source reveals the makings of an economic disaster in the long term, as well as immediate dire consequences. The extraction of this fuel is done with hydraulic fracturing, called "fracking." The byproducts of this process include hundreds of toxic chemical additives; radioactive wastes; groundwater drawdown; water, air and noise pollution; carbon and methane emissions from pipelines; plus forest fragmentation. Much of the area targeted for fracking is thickly forested and the process could bring the decimation of New York state's forests. Forests are the crucial first barrier to protection of drinking water. Forests provide breeding, nesting, feeding and cover for many forms of wildlife, including many bird species. Forests also provide recreation, including hiking, bird watching, photography, camping and other uses; pollution removal of carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide; erosion control by anchoring soil; education and scientific research by providing readily accessible outdoor bio-physical laboratories; sources of nutrients that nourish regrowth; nursery grounds and sanctuaries for endangered, threatened and rare flora and fauna. Trees give shade for cooling streams, rivers and wetlands, which provide commercial and recreational fishing as well as cooling cityscapes. Read More Smarter Money Would Be On Main Street By JOHN NORQUIST After the federal bailouts were faulted for enriching Wall Street and for proving rather anemic in creating jobs, the president and congressional Democrats sent a message in choosing a name for the jobs bill they introduced this month. "It is with great enthusiasm that we present our 'Jobs for Main Street' legislation," Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced last week just before the bill passed. It's progress this time that the funds will be flowing away from, not toward, Wall Street. And the legislation will keep some people working, especially in local and state government. But will funds from this bill really reach Main Street, as its name implies? Well, not so much. When it comes to the largest spending item in the bill — $27.5 billion in highway spending — Main Street is missing. The $27.5 billion isn't targeted to rebuild streets at the heart of older cities and towns, the cherished settings for Memorial Day parades and holiday light displays. No, the money will primarily go to projects that government knows best —the expansion of wide, motor-vehicle-only highways that go hand-in-hand with energy-wasting sprawl. This follows the earlier stimulus bill that favored massive highway projects, including a batch of expensive "highways to nowhere" that an examination by the Infrastructurist website concluded "make no sense." The new bill does reserve $8.4 billion for transit and $800 million for Amtrak. But just when U.S. real estate markets are turning to Main Street and traditional neighborhood design, Congress throws $27.5 billion at the infrastructure — road widening — that supports sprawl. Read More Trump buys Branton Woods golf course in East Fishkill Mike Benischek HOPEWELL JUNCTION — Branton Woods Golf Club has a new owner and a new name. Late Wednesday night, Donald Trump purchased two golf courses in the Northeast, one of which was Hopewell Junction's Branton Woods, which the business mogul promptly renamed Trump National Golf Club Hudson Valley, N.Y. Hopewell Junction resident Dan Scavino, executive vice president and general manager of Trump National Golf Club Westchester, told the Journal Trump finalized the deal to purchase the course on Stormville Road, along with Pine Hill Golf Club in New Jersey, Trump's 10th and 11th golf properties. "Donald has had his eyes on Branton Woods for many years," Scavino said via e-mail. "He is very in-tuned to the golf industry worldwide, and both the topography, golf course and surrounding area has always impressed him. He has a tremendous passion for the game of golf, and is building up an unbelievable collection and portfolio of the world's finest golf clubs." Both courses were previously owned by Empire Golf Management. The course formerly known as Branton Woods has been for sale with a listed price tag of $8 million. Read More The 2009 Fund Drive Is Coming To A Close Have you helped keep this newsletter coming? If not, please click here today. Your Support Is What Keeps Us Growing! Compulsory Private Health Insurance: Just Another Bailout for the Financial Sector? Thursday 24 December 2009 by: Ellen Hodgson Brown J.D., t r u t h o u t | Op-Ed Dr. Benjamin Rush, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, is quoted as warning two centuries ago: "Unless we put medical freedom into the Constitution, the time will come when medicine will organize into an underground dictatorship. . . . The Constitution of this republic should make special privilege for medical freedom as well as religious freedom." That time seems to have come, but the dictatorship we are facing is not the sort that Dr. Rush was apparently envisioning. It is not a dictatorship by medical doctors, many of whom are as distressed by the proposed legislation as the squeezed middle class is. The new dictatorship is not by doctors but by Wall Street - the FIRE (finance, insurance and real estate) sector that now claims 40 percent of corporate profits. Read More The World's District Attorney Legendary prosecutor Robert Morgenthau on his famous cases, his brawl with Mike Bloomberg, and why he's sounding alarm about Iran. By JAMES FREEMAN In the criminal justice system, the people of Manhattan have been represented for 35 years by New York County District Attorney Robert Morgenthau. This is his story. Mr. Morgenthau, who inspired the original D.A. character on the television program "Law and Order," will retire on Thursday at age 90. Much of the barely fictitious drama is set in his office in Manhattan's Criminal Courts Building. This week, amid half-filled boxes and scattered personal mementos, he sat down to discuss his life's work. Even though he knows I'm wearing a wire—actually an audio recorder placed on the table between us—America's D.A. speaks candidly, including about his public blowups with New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Mr. Morgenthau says this is the first mayor he hasn't gotten along with, and that the relationship went south when his office started investigating the city's role in the death of two of New York's bravest in an August, 2007 fire. Among other mistakes, city inspectors had failed to note that the water had been turned off at the old Deutsche Bank building opposite Ground Zero. The blaze resulted in 33 "mayday" calls from firefighters, and the D.A. is amazed that only two lost their lives. Read More Onetime Nevada Brothel Could Become Conservationists’ Oasis By LESLIE KAUFMAN SPARKS, Nev. — Watching bulldozers pour crushed rocks to force the Truckee River into a more natural serpentine pattern, Mickey Hazelwood, project director for the Nature Conservancy, mused that like many acts of salvation, this one has its roots deep in sin. For decades, this high-desert site eight miles east of Reno was best known as the home of the Mustang Ranch, the first licensed brothel in the United States. From thin to plump, dwarflike to Amazonian, women hired to suit a range of tastes would line up for inspection by clients in pink stucco buildings tucked into a cottonwood grove 300 yards from the river’s bank. The brothel reopened a few miles downriver in 2006, after the land was confiscated by the Internal Revenue Service and the name and buildings were sold to the highest bidder. Working 12-hour shifts at their new complex, part of which was airlifted from the old site, the women still greet customers in knee socks, push-up bras and other intimate wear. The old property, meanwhile, is undergoing a transformation. Workers are restoring it to floodplain, undoing the damage wrought when federal engineers straightened the Truckee River a half century ago. Read More Don't Let This Be The End! Have you helped keep this newsletter coming? If not, please click here today. Your Support Is What Keeps Us Growing!	Sign up to have News That Matters Delivered to your email inbox! Email: News That Matters on Facebook Support Our Sponsors TaconicArts.com Interior/Exterior House Painting by someone you can trust. 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