No Country For Sane Men: News That Matters

News That Matters

News That Matters
Brought to you (Almost Daily) by PlanPutnam.Org

Good Wednesday Morning,

A lot of work went into the two special reports which were released by PlanPutnam and News That Matters yesterday, information you weren't going to get from any other place. If you value this information and the work done, please consider donating to help out a bit especially if you have not done so before.

Click on the "Donate" link above or here. It's much appreciated.

Corporate Welfare, Putnam Style

Yesterday was a big email day around these here parts as news regarding the implosion of common sense and reason permeated our communities and people wrote wondering what the heck was going on. Well, it's Pumpkin County, as a dear friend calls it, trying once again to get over on the public and to do so without you knowing about it. But the cat is out of the bag and Paul Camarda's corporate welfare handout is about to bite the dust.

County Legislator Sam Oliverio wrote this morning;

Jeff, you said it all. This project is such pure pork for developers that the smell of bacon dominates our County’s air. I will be a definite “NO” vote on this fiasco and I hope at least 4 more Legislators vote the same way. Thanks Jeff for summing up the absurdity and ridiculousness of this project.

A friend wrote from Philipstown saying they had heard Vincent Tamagna would vote in favor of this deal and was hoping that he would as this would be the vote they could finally hang him on. Friends in Lake Carmel, feel that Mary Ellen O'Dell seems to have sided with Patterson Crossing in the past and believe she will vote with Tamagna. And yet other Kent residents are miffed as to why Richard Othmer appears to be in favor of this. We hear Southeast's Dan Birmingham and Tony Hay will both vote no as will Putnam Valley's Sam Oliverio.

Where does this leave us? Strictly from the rumor mill, (so don't get your panties all wadded up!) here's what the thought is out there:

Yes Votes:
O'Dell, Tamagna, Othmer

No Votes:
Oliverio, Birmingham, Hay, Fusco, LaBou.

This leaves Ms. Conklin as an undecided vote. But the Legislature is a fickle body and anything can happen - especially behind the scenes and especially when the proponent has deep enough pockets to have a wing of a hospital named after him. And who knows what else is going on back there in the higher, secret echelons of the county and party apparatus.

When you come to the meeting this evening you can expect a flood of speeches about economic development and environmental safety. If you're wearing street shoes or sneakers odds are your socks will be covered with bullshit as it gets deeper and deeper in the space. My advice? Wear boots. Really tall ones.

But do not forget that the developer has already agreed to the proposed traffic changes and road construction projects as part of his permitting process - and on his own dime.

Justice, Putnam Style

So many of you wrote yesterday asking for more information or thanking me for the reports. More than one wrote to recommend we take legal action against Francis O'Reilly, the legal aid attorney who was too busy, or something, to adequately represent Ms. Kemp and who quit before the judge on Monday evening. Others suggested that the length of the case (almost a year), the delays and the obvious dragging of feet should be reported to those who oversee municipal judges in New York state. While all of these suggestions are valid and important it's not my place as I'm not directly involved with the case. But I do suggest that for those who are, that they seek legal redress from higher authorities in order that this abuse of justice no longer continues.

I also have to say that I am quite disappointed with District Attorney Adam Levy. For all the work he's done with women and children over the years, work for which he has been quite properly lauded, it's a strange wonder that he would direct his office to continue the legal and political assault against a defenseless, helpless woman. For a man seeking higher office having the crucifixion of a besieged, single woman as his campaign motto does not seem to be the badge he should want to carry. The longer this charade goes on the more closely he will be tied to the abusive nature of the political establishment in this county and if that is what he wants on his resumé he will be more successful than he could ever have imagined.

In other news: (and yes, there is other news!)

If you want to make oatmeal cookies and/or chocolate covered brownies for the military there's a 26 page document of instructions and standards you need to adhere to. It's making it's rounds on the 'net so you shouldn't be left out. Read it here. (PDF) Really, it's worth it.
If you look at an unemployment map of the United States the trend is that in regions where representatives to Congress are socialists and Marxists the rate is rather low. But in regions where congressional representatives are stalwart god-fearing white Christian men, it's in the double-digits and showing no signs of decline.
If you're a Democrat looking for a progressive to run against the center-right Andrew Cuomo, you might just find Dutchess County Legislator Joel Tyner on the ballot come primary day.
Putnam County Republicans line up against Congressman John Hall in order to support health insurance company darling Nan Hayworth.
Stewart airport expects to handle 400,000 customers this year. So, if Detroit or Philadelphia are your vacation destinations you'll be in good company.
Author Joe McGuiness, who is writing about Sarah Palin, and not in glowing terms either, has moved next door to Ms. Palin. She, for her part, is bitching about it.... on her Facebook page.
While we're talking about Sarah Palin, Vaughn Ward, a candidate she heavily backed against Raul Labrador in Idaho's 1st Congressional District, lost.
Mexican officials have arrested the mayor of Cancun on drug, money laundering and other charges.
Contrary to reports circulating in the right-wing media, Rahm Emanuel did not stiff the Israeli government for a traif seafood dinner for himself and his family in Eilat. I didn't know Rahm Emanual was Jewish.
GE stock fell 4% the other day and the market reacted with panic. If you're in the market for some PCB tainted stocks, now's your time!
More than 70 per cent of bottled water samples from Canada contain bacterial rates that far exceed recommended limits in the U.S., suggests a study presented Tuesday at the general meeting of the American Society of Microbiology in San Diego. I've always said those Canadians hated our freedoms!

And now, The News:

DEC wraps up Hudson study
After Housing Bust, Builders Dust Off the Boom Machine
Tracking the Ancestry of Corn Back 9,000 Years
Falwell: Measurements of Success in Ministry Are Messed Up
Malawi gay couple get maximum sentence of 14 years

DEC wraps up Hudson study

HAVERSTRAW — Chris Bowser brought a cooler to the edge of the Minisceongo Creek on Monday, but he wasn't carrying beverages or food.

Instead, he opened up the red and white container to reveal a foot-long adult American eel, which he promptly poured into a see-through plastic box so volunteers could get a close-up look.

He spoke enthusiastically about the critter, explaining how its coloring, brownish green on top and stark white on bottom, helped provide camouflage and protection from predators, and how its nostrils were like two tubes providing an excellent sense of smell.

"Eyesight isn't so helpful in the muddy, turbid Hudson River," said Bowser. "A fine sense of smell goes a really, really long way."

He was joined by about a dozen volunteers on the last day of data collection for a project being conducted up and down the Hudson to learn more about the local presence of the American eel.

Bowser is an estuary specialist for the state Department of Environmental Conservation's Estuary Program and Research Reserve, which is conducting the project.

Read More

After Housing Bust, Builders Dust Off the Boom Machine

Laura Rauch for The New York Times

LAS VEGAS — In a plastic tent under a glorious desert sky, Richard Lee preached the gospel of the second chance.

The chance to make money on the next housing boom “is like it’s never been,” Mr. Lee, a real estate promoter, assured a crowd of agents, investors and bankers. “We’re going to come back like you’ve never seen us before.”

Home prices in Las Vegas are down by 60 percent from 2006 in one of the steepest descents in modern times. There are 9,517 spanking new houses sitting empty. An additional 5,600 homes were repossessed by lenders in the first three months of this year and could soon be for sale.

Yet builders here are putting up 1,100 homes, and they are frantically buying lots for even more.

Read More

Tracking the Ancestry of Corn Back 9,000 Years

It is now growing season across the Corn Belt of the United States. Seeds that have just been sown will, with the right mixture of sunshine and rain, be knee-high plants by the Fourth of July and tall stalks with ears ripe for picking by late August.

Corn is much more than great summer picnic food, however. Civilization owes much to this plant, and to the early people who first cultivated it.

For most of human history, our ancestors relied entirely on hunting animals and gathering seeds, fruits, nuts, tubers and other plant parts from the wild for food. It was only about 10,000 years ago that humans in many parts of the world began raising livestock and growing food through deliberate planting. These advances provided more reliable sources of food and allowed for larger, more permanent settlements. Native Americans alone domesticated nine of the most important food crops in the world, including corn, more properly called maize (Zea mays), which now provides about 21 percent of human nutrition across the globe.

But despite its abundance and importance, the biological origin of maize has been a long-running mystery. The bright yellow, mouth-watering treat we know so well does not grow in the wild anywhere on the planet, so its ancestry was not at all obvious. Recently, however, the combined detective work of botanists, geneticists and archeologists has been able to identify the wild ancestor of maize, to pinpoint where the plant originated, and to determine when early people were cultivating it and using it in their diets.

Read More

Falwell: Measurements of Success in Ministry Are Messed Up

Half of pastors would leave the ministry tomorrow if they could. Seventy percent are fighting depression and 90 percent can't cope with the challenge of ministry.

Those are the statistics Pastor Jonathan Falwell laid out to thousands of ministers who were in Lynchburg, Va., Tuesday for the "Refuel" conference.

The well-known pastor stated bluntly, "Something is wrong in ministry."

Citing surveys from such groups as Barna, LifeWay and Acts 29, Falwell lamented that 1,500 pastors walk away from ministry every month because of moral failure, burnout, conflict, discouragement or depression. He was also shocked to find that 80 percent of seminary and Bible school graduates will leave the ministry within their first five years.

Part of the problem, he indicated, is trying to make it to the big numbers and most influential lists or aiming for the most Twitter followers.

"I believe that we have self-imposed measurements of success that are skewed, that are wrong," said Falwell, pastor of Thomas Road Baptist Church – which is notably one of the largest churches in the country.

Read More

Malawi gay couple get maximum sentence of 14 years

A judge in Malawi has imposed a maximum sentence of 14 years in prison with hard labour on a gay couple convicted of gross indecency and unnatural acts.

The judge said he wanted to protect the public from "people like you".

Steven Monjeza, 26, and Tiwonge Chimbalanga, 20, have been in jail since they were arrested in December after holding an engagement ceremony.

The case has sparked international condemnation and a debate about homosexuality in the country.

The British government, Malawi's largest donor, expressed its "dismay" at the sentences, but has not withdrawn aid.
'Horrendous example'

The US state department, meanwhile, said the case was "a step backwards in the protection of human rights in Malawi".

Read More