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| Good Wednesday Morning, We're back to our regular format following Monday's special report which went far and wide across the blogsphere and had 104 individual views at the website making it the most viewed article there this week so far. For some reason, so far the only place I've read about the TEA Party rally on Saturday was right here in News That Matters but I'm sure the FOX Courier will cover it in their edition this week. Friday's edition is going to be very short. Oh, I have time to make it longer but you haven't sent in your events for this weekend. Get them in by tomorrow, early afternoon! Tea Bagger's, egged on by Sarah Palin, are increasingly pressuring the "Liberal" media. WHAT LIBERAL MEDIA IS SHE REFERRING TO? News That Matters? Because, folks, I'm it. She says there's a 'sickness and darkness' about me but we've never even met and I know she's not a subscriber. Based on what's out there and where we get our information the only liberal media exists right here on your computer screen and you're looking at it now.Philipstown's Margaret Yonco-Haines sent me note saying that her town has a new informational website called Philipstown.info She writes, "Check it out daily - Liz Schevtchuk Armstrong is the chief news reporter, Michael Mell is Editor and School reporter, Joe Dizney covers entertainment and other doings around town, Alison Rooney covers People (that's us), and Andrew Veltz produces the videos. Mike Turton is Editor at Large and Gordon Stewart - who had the vision and energy to take an idea and make it a reality - is the Publisher. This paper is the real deal – there are many more plans to expand and improve coverage, and well as take advantage of the flexibility and creativity the web offers. And it is put together by our amazingly talented neighbors here in Philipstown!"The Putnam County Stormwater committee has decided that efforts mandated by the EPA to clean up our water pollution act should be paid for by someone else because, as they say, NYC drinks *our* water. I hate to be the bearer of good news but every dime that's spent on cleaning up stormwater issues brings each of us closer to a future of clean drinking water. Our esteemed legislators don't really get the whole cycle thing... you know, it rains, water flows down creeks and streams, infiltrates our aquifers from which our wells pull the water we drink. They really should worry less about NYC (the largest taxpayer in the county who provides thousands of acres of recreational open space - free, by the way) and more about their constituents' futures.If you can get down to Yorktown by 11AM this morning you can catch Greg Ball at a news conference where he decries fellow Republican Mary Beth Murphy's "liberal tax and spend" record. Greg also has a new commercial out and though I tried to subscribe to Matt Neuringer's you-tube channel to show it to you but I've been blocked from doing so. If Yorktown is too far, you can get to the Putnam County courthouse by 1PM this afternoon to catch Mary Ellen Odell's own press conference where she 'will announce that her opponent Senator Vincent Leibell failed in his attempt to subvert the democratic process and steal the election by knocking her off the Republican Primary Ballot.' She might as well host a press conference announcing that the sky is blue. Wikileaks released tens of thousands of documents related to the war in Afghanistan. While the talking-heads on the FOX network and their allied media sites talked about a breach in national security, the White House took a more prosaic approach to the whole thing: Yeah, we're killing a lot of innocent people and yeah, the war ain't workin' so let's spend more money on it. Hey, 30 billion here, 40 billion there, it's just money. And watch who votes for continued funding.... those tax-and-spend Republicans! Sadly, Congressman John Hall has indicated that he will vote for additional war funding moving him even further to the Right and making it increasingly difficult for his former followers to pull the lever for him come November. A 52 year-old mother in Missouri cleaned her bathroom with her son's toothbrush. He filed charges. A 17 year-old girl in New Hampshire put lysol in her mothe'rs Kool-Aid. She filed charges. Ya gotta love it. And now, The News:
Youth-run urban farm opens in NewburghMidhudsonnews.comNEWBURGH – It’s called la Vida Garden, a youth-run urban farm at 59 Chambers Street in Newburgh. The once garbage strewn lot has been transformed into an organic farm and cultural center by inner city youth. It now is filled with seven organically grown beds of tomatoes, eggplants, arugula, basil, mescaline mix, hot and sweet peppers, peaches and cherries, raspberries, grapes, flowers and herbs. La Vida Garden will also serve as a cultural venue with open mic nights and a Sunday movie night as well as workshops. Read More Local officials 'miffed' Putnam stormwater fixes won't come from NYC fundsNY Journal NewsCARMEL — Putnam County legislators recently refused to set aside some of the county's watershed money to pay for expensive stormwater controls mandated by the state and federal governments, confusing local officials working on those measures. Legislators agreed to guarantee $8.2 million to fund the stormwater program for five years — just not with money the county received from New York City for water-quality improvements. "That kind of miffed most of us," Patterson Supervisor Michael Griffin said Tuesday. "Why would you use money raised by taxes when you have money that's been earmarked for such a use?" Griffin serves on Putnam's stormwater committee with supervisors from Putnam Valley, Kent, Southeast and Carmel; county representatives; and consultants. The committee must tell the state by Friday how it will reduce pollution from stormwater and how it plans to pay for the costly undertaking, which is the finalization of a years-long effort to keep contaminants out of lakes, rivers and New York City's reservoirs. Read More Palisades Center seeks 65.6% cut in assessmentNY Journal NewsNEW CITY — Clarkstown's largest property taxpayer, the Palisades Center mall, has filed a tax certiorari proceeding seeking a nearly two-thirds reduction in assessment for 2009-10, the town said. The mall's current assessment is $253 million. If the lower assessment — $87 million — is granted, it could have a significant impact on the budgets of the town and the school district. The mall pays $23,477,500 in property taxes annually, of which $15,165,00 goes to Clarkstown schools, $1,332,500 to the county, $5,635,000 to the town and $1,345,000 for special fire, ambulance and sewer districts. To fight the tax grievance, the town and the school district have jointly hired the New York City firm Kaye Scholer LLP to deal with the "massive undertaking," said Amy Mele, Clarkstown town attorney. The town and the school district will share the legal costs. In documents filed by the Palisades Center, the mall says it has been assessed at a higher rate than other commercial properties in the area. It has also claimed it has had to renegotiate leases with renters in the poor economic climate, Mele said. It's an argument the town isn't buying. Read More Rowan, Rutgers study says N.J. is running out of open space, renews urban sprawl debateNJ.comFor the first time, New Jersey’s landscape is covered more by housing and shopping malls rather than forests, the real consequence of the "two most sprawling decades" ever, a report being released today concludes. The study, a collaboration between Rowan and Rutgers universities, analyzed land use data between 1986 and 2007 and estimates the state could run out of open space around 2050 if the pace of development that took place in the sprawl years continued. "There’s less than a million acres left," said John Hasse, a professor at Rowan University and a co-author of the report. "We have our last 20 percent. Read More Exploring Algae as FuelNYTimes.comSAN DIEGO — In a laboratory where almost all the test tubes look green, the tools of modern biotechnology are being applied to lowly pond scum. Foreign genes are being spliced into algae and native genes are being tweaked. Different strains of algae are pitted against one another in survival-of-the-fittest contests in an effort to accelerate the evolution of fast-growing, hardy strains. The goal is nothing less than to create superalgae, highly efficient at converting sunlight and carbon dioxide into lipids and oils that can be sent to a refinery and made into diesel or jet fuel. “We’ve probably engineered over 4,000 strains,” said Mike Mendez, a co-founder and vice president for technology at Sapphire Energy, the owner of the laboratory. “My whole goal here at Sapphire is to domesticate algae, to make it a crop.” Dozens of companies, as well as many academic laboratories, are pursuing the same goal — to produce algae as a source of, literally, green energy. And many of them are using genetic engineering or other biological techniques, like chemically induced mutations, to improve how algae functions. “There are probably well over 100 academic efforts to use genetic engineering to optimize biofuel production from algae,” said Matthew C. Posewitz, an assistant professor of chemistry at the Colorado School of Mines, who has written a review of the field. “There’s just intense interest globally.” Read More Solartech begins productionMidhidsonnews.comKINGSTON – The sky was clear and blue Monday, and plenty of sun found its way through the region’s green, leafy overhang. But inside Solartech Renewables, on the Tech City campus in Kingston, workers were building the receptacles, photovoltaic panels, to catch those rays before they hit the ground. Solartech started manufacturing the panels in late June and expects to produce 55,000- a-year with a single assembly line. And another line is in the works. “We’re targeting that for late this year,” said Todd Roberts, Solartech’s chairman and CEO, of the second line,” but it’s likely that will happen early next year. That will take us up to 110,000 panels a year.” Read More |
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Wednesday, July 28, 2010
News That Matters - Wednesday, July 28, 2010
