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| Good Friday Morning, A year that will live in infamy ends in a few hours and good riddance to it. 2010 was tough on everyone and about 364 days too long. Here's a Mark Fiore animated cartoon that sums up the year better than I ever could. 2010, The Year That Wasn't. Today is also your last chance of the year to say "Thanks!" for the 140 issues of News That Matters you read this year and I encourage you to do so. It only takes a couple of mouse clicks (like this one here) and a few strokes on the keyboard and you can put a little sheen on a dreadful year. Congratulations go out to Paul Eldridge the likely choice for County Executive. The Legislature has made it clear they don't want him to do anything but I'm willing to bet that once he gets settled in things will happen and he will do what the Legislature fears - he may actually move the county forward. As I wrote the other day, the other requirement is that he not run for public office but I'm also willing to bet that there will be a Draft Eldridge faction within the party which will only muck up Sheriff Smith and Maryellen Odell's already running campaigns for that office.We say good-bye to the CAPS-LOCK key on computer keyboards. You'll finally have no choice but to hold down the shift key to type upper-case letters. You know, like in the olden days. No longer will your friends be able to easily SEND YOU EMAILS THAT ARE IMPOSSIBLE TO READ AND THAT YOU SHOULD SEND TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW OTHERWISE A KITTEN WILL DIE. If they would only get rid of the LOL key we'd really be on to something. We say goodbye to a lieutenant colonel (who refuses to use his name) who said in a letter to World Net Daily that he is leaving the Army National Guard because of something else we're saying goodbye to, Don't Ask, Don't Tell. There's a lot more we're saying "good-bye" to as the calendar turns another page and as far as I'm concerned, good riddance to it all. Will 2011 be any better? Who knows? News Shorts: Energy Independence? HAHAHhahahah. Check this out. Bank of America told this couple that their house would go into foreclosure on Christmas Eve which came as something of an anti-Christmas Miracle to them considering they had never missed a single mortgage payment. Read More about that here. With 96 percent of the top 500 American corporations turning profits this year and stock prices soaring to the highest levels since the recession began, you'd think you'd start to see a dent in that near double-digit unemployment rate. But that's not so, partially because companies are boosting their bottom lines by moving toward outsourcing. Read More about that here. Years from now, Wall Street will look back on 2010 as a banner year, the year the industry fully turned the corner after the meltdown and the Street regained its old swagger. Just two years ago, the country's biggest banks stood on the brink of complete collapse; several storied institutions—Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, Bear Stearns—either disappeared or were taken over. But in the years that followed, the surviving big banks and investment houses emerged stronger, while the rest of the American economy sank into a recession from which it has yet to fully emerge. Read More The Worst Clichés of Politics From 'Tax-and-Spend' to 'Maverick': According to my rough calculations, our political tongue -- the language of campaigns, elections and, yes, governing -- is sustained by an army of maybe 10,000 professional babblers. They are the Quoted (White House officials, members of Congress and big-time candidates), the Quote Creators (speechwriters and press-release purveyors) and the Quote Users (reporters, columnists and TV correspondents). And taken as a group -- with some notable exceptions -- they display all the originality of second-graders telling knock-knock jokes. Think I am exaggerating? Read the article here. What's Going On?
Friday, December 31 - New Year's EveThe Folkadelics 3rd Annual NYE Party7PM at Kenny's Castaways. 157 Bleeker Street (Btw Sullivan and Thompson). Join Putnam Valley's Gavin Cummings. Come ring in the New Year with the Folkadelicks. For the third year in a row The Folkadelics will be hosting NYE in NYC! This years line up is especially fantastic featuring NEVERGREEN (Rochester, NY), the CHARLIE RIVER BAND (Boston, MA), and STEF LEAL performing music from her new EP!! Michelle LeBlancSpend New Year's Eve with Putnam Valley's Michelle LeBlanc at the Hudson House River Inn, 2 Main Street in Cold Spring. Call 845 265 9355 for more information. Saturday, January 1 - New Year's DayDay of Mindfulness9 AM - 4PM - at the Chuang Yen Monastery on Route 301 in the Free State of Western Kent. With hearts established in mindfulness, we are truly present. Be Truly Present at our Day of Mindfulness. Inter Faith Ceremony, sitting, walking meditation, chanting and much more… Suggested $15/a day to Chuang Yen Monastery includes a delicious and lovingly prepared vegetarian lunch. Featured Event - 2nd Annual New Year's Day Hike |
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Friday, December 31, 2010
News That Matters - December 31, 2010 - The 2010 Final Edition
Noon - 2PM at Fahnestock State Park. Join us for the second annual New Year's Day Hike into Fahnestock State Park. We'll take an easy stroll on the first day of the year, probably not more than 2 miles or so. Dog and child friendly. 
7:30-9:30PM - An 8-week class with Lora Lee Ecobelli. By using theatre games, improvisation, and scenes students will learn basic theatre skills in a supportive, creative and fun environment. In addition, there is development of the actor's voice and movement, concentration and working collaboratively. Scene study will be explored using classic works by playwrights such as Shakespeare, Miller, O'Neill, Chekov, Williams, Albee and others. Students will track a character's journey through a scene and learn to further articulate the essential elements of characterization. Rehearsal with a scene partner outside of class is required. Classes often culminate in a scene night open to the public.
Our opening weekend of music, January 8 & 9, features two concerts; the first on Saturday at 7:30, celebrates steel guitars played by area performers Backdoor Benny Harris and Steve Kirkman. Mr. Harris draws from a diverse repertoire of traditional acoustic blues, as well as his own original work as does Steve Kirkman, host of Towne Crier’s open mic Wednesday’s. Kirkman is a Hudson Valley transplant from NC via Nashville, Memphis and NYC. Tickets are $20. and reservations are advised.
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
News That Matters - Wednesday, December 29, 2010
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| Good Wednesday Morning, We had our first major snow of the season the other day. Here's the map from Monday morning showing snow-depth for our area. As you can see the Highlands got a good amount, between 12" - 24". Luckily it was light and dry and easy to shovel, plow and walk through. But the drifts were out of control and comparable to the February storm earlier this year when Lake Carmel got 5" and out here in the Free State we had 3.5' drifts of heavy, wet snow, so wet it was almost slushy.  Here's a nifty video from New Jersey which shows the blizzard using time-lapse photography, condensing 20 hours into 40 seconds.  The kids are home and they're bored. They won't go out and they're done playing with the Christmas and Hanukkah presents you bought them and if they don't get out of your hair you will kill one of them... then other - so (s)he can't tell the cops who did it. What to do, what to do? Well, you can engage them in a home project that might be fun like making soap crayons. Not from lye, though that would be exciting, but from left over pieces of soap that every household gathers. Click here to find out how. There. I just saved a few lives. Here's another home kiddie project to reuse crayon stubs that are too small for their little fingers. Did John Wilkes Booth get away? That's the theory some hold and it's been around for a long time. But now, according to an article in CNN, we're about to find out for certain. Read more here. We're Being Taxed To Death Well, actually no we're not. But before you slam your fist on the desk upsetting your cup of non fair-trade coffee splashing it into your Chinese made keyboard causing it to short circuit, take a deep breath... there ya go! The truth is US Federal and State taxes account for some 26.9% of our gross domestic product which places us in 28th place when compared to other nations around the world. Denmark comes in first place with 48.3%. And, for the record, the nations with higher taxes also have a higher literacy rate, a longer life-span, a lower heart and lung disease rate and a lower child death rate and higher productivity in their workforce. I'm just sayin'. Protest Sign of the week:  Putnam County: "As the stomach churns" The County Legislature has finally approved their version of a term limits bill. Voters, feeling unable to rise to the task of voting in their best interests, have turned to the legislature for redress and they were only too happy to put another nail in the coffin of our democracy. On Saturday the county legislature will select someone to fill the spot of County Executive. You can be sure whomever they select will do what they want him/her to do over the next year. What's going on this county right now is this: the county Republican organization, reeling from years of internecine battles and bloodless coups, is busy realigning itself under a new rubric where the power vacuum left as Unca Vinnie steps out of the picture needs to be filled. It doesn't, but that's another story. Past party chair Anthony Scannapieco and Sheriff Don Smith feel Maryellen Odell should be the next county executive for their own political benefit as those two have been on the outside looking in while the Senator was running things. Now that he's gone there's some leveling up they feel needs to be done. As well, other factions within the party are scrambling to hold on to the power they once had but are finding it difficult to do so. The year is rapidly coming to an end and if you've enjoyed reading News That Matters or you've learned something from it you owe it to yourself to help support the effort. You can do that by clicking here. It's fun, easy and satisfying! My heartfelt thanks go out to those readers who have helped out! And now, The News:
Rockefeller Christmas tree lumber to build Newburgh homeMidhudsonnews.comNEWBURGH – Lumber from the 88 foot spruce Christmas tree that stands at Rockefeller Center in Manhattan is going to be used by Newburgh Habitat for Humanity to frame a new house. Habitat for Humanity International each year arranges for the tree to be milled and used for home building at an affiliate near where the tree was grown in this case it was harvested from Mahopac. Newburgh Habitat was chosen as the recipient of the lumber for a specific reason, said International Senior Vice President Chris Clarke. Read More My Week of Eating Nothing But Candy By Robb PoschHalloween gets all the credit for being the holiday of candy, but Christmas is in it for the long haul. With Halloween, you have candy a couple days before, and a couple days after. With Christmas, you start eating candy on Black Friday, and don't stop until you go into insulin shock on New Year's Day. Which got me thinking: how far could I stretch my candy intake? (Side note: Dentists, stop reading now to avoid potential stress aneurysms.) While a month of eating nothing but candy seemed like an exciting feat, I assumed it would end in something less exciting: my death. So I thought a week of eating exclusively Christmas candy would be a great excuse to test my sugar endurance, and eat pounds and pounds of candy, which I love. Plus: probably no death. Bonus! Read More LaGrange to preserve 174 acres at Pierson farmBy John Davis for the Poughkeepsie JournalFREEDOM PLAINS —The Town of LaGrange is set to purchase the development rights on the 174-acre Pierson farm at the crossroads of Skidmore and Mountain roads. Town officials plan to both borrow the money — $692,300 — and close on the purchase this morning in making LaGrange's first investment to preserve open space. "Open space is priceless to preserve," said town Councilman Ed Jessup, a Republican. The purchase of the development rights on the scenic Pierson farm will be the culmination of several years of work by town officials in seeking to protect the farm from development. The Town Board adopted an open space plan in 2007, which recommends purchasing development rights on farms as one measure for preserving open space and water quality. The town's interest in making the Pierson farm its first open space investment was enhanced in 2006 by its qualification for a $100,000 grant from the New York state Department of Environmental Conservation Estuary Program. Read More Roofs that work for a livingMichael Appleton for The New York TimesThe green roof at One Irving Place sits atop a branch of Beth Israel Medical Center and is bookended by the four condo towers of the Zeckendorf complex THERE are green roofs, and then there are green roofs. So when residents of Zeckendorf Towers, the condominium complex at One Irving Place on the east side of Union Square, voted to replace an aging conventional roof with an environmentally friendly one, they decided that a basic installation at $10 square foot — essentially sod and unlandscaped greenery — would not do. Instead, they chose elaborate landscaping with small hills, a wide variety of vegetation, pathways with paving stones and dramatic lighting. The result is what the condo board believes is the city’s largest green roof, at 14,000 square feet. Installation of the seventh-floor rooftop, over a branch of Beth Israel Medical Center and bookended by four 29-story condo towers, began in April and was finished in October. Read More Gas Price Shooting To $3.75/gallonBeing a Twitter feed, no reason for the predicted jump in prices was given - just that we are headed there. "The national average retail price for regular unleaded held overnight at $2.98 a gallon, while the Houston average rose a fraction of a cent to $2.80 a gallon, according to AAA’s Daily Fuel Gauge Report. Pump prices nationwide for regular unleaded could hit an average of $3.25 to $3.75 a gallon early next year on higher crude oil prices and a seasonal rise in gasoline demand, Tom Kloza, senior oil analyst with the Oil Price Information Service predicts." From NPR via WGBH: Highest Gas Prices EVER Recorded for a December. "That is the highest price ever recorded in any December. It is much more common for gas to soar around the Fourth of July. NPR's Sonari Glinton looks at what current gas prices may mean for holiday shoppers." She interviews Mr. Toy Green of AAA. What the Tax Bill Means For You?With the clock winding down on 2010, one of the most biggest news stories about the lame duck session of Congress was whether we'd get a resolution to the issue of income taxes. With tax rates set to increase in 2011 after the sunset of the Bush era tax cuts, which the name given to the tax cuts in the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001 and the Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2003, Congress passed the Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010.There were two big changes that affected most Americans. First, there was a two year extension to the "Bush era tax cuts" signed into law in 2001 and 2003 that maintains the current tax brackets. They were set to revert back to higher rates but now they will remain the same for the next two years when they can become a proper election year topic. The other major change was a payroll tax holiday, which effectively gives everyone a 2% raise. If you have a job, take a look at your most recent paycheck. You'll see a contribution to Social Security and Medicare - sometimes it's rolled up into one line as FICA. For 2011, there will be a 2% reduction in the amount you pay towards Social Security which can result in up to $2,136. Read More Top Ten Ways the Right Will Wreck the RecoveryConservatives have a legislative agenda for 2011 that will hurt your ability to get or keep a job, your neighborhood's ability to recover from the recession and this country's ability to regain its footing in the global economy. To keep conservatives from enacting policies that will kill a nascent economic recovery, progressives will have to organize against these top 10 economy killers. Read MoreFederal District Court Strikes Down Sign Regulation as Content-BasedThe plaintiff and city engaged in an extended dispute after the city widened a street adjacent to his home. The plaintiff contended the road project devalued his property and caused flooding problems. The city made a number of improvements to address drainage issues, but refused the plaintiff’s demand that his lot be purchased for 130 percent of its tax value. In response the plaintiff had “Screwed by the Town of Cary” painted in large letters across the front of his home. The city cited him for a violation of its sign ordinance, primarily on the grounds that the “sign” was approximately 48 sq. ft., well in excess of the maximum five sq. ft. allowed in this residential zoning district.The court held the sign regulation violated the First Amendment and enjoined the town from its enforcement. The regulation exempted several types of signs from its coverage or this size limit. The exemptions included holiday decorations (the court noting that a sign of the same size reading “Merry Christmas to the Town of Cary” would be exempt), public art, and temporary signs advertising town-recognized events. The court held this made the ordinance content-based rather than content-neutral. The court noted that even though there was no intent on the part of the town to suppress content and the town’s objectives (aesthetics and traffic safety) were content neutral, the ordinance required a “searching inquiry” to determine if it was regulated. The ordinance distinguished its regulatory coverage based on that inquiry, thus making it content based. The court therefore applied strict scrutiny and invalided the regulation as not supporting compelling governmental interests and not being narrowly drawn (noting as an example, that a giant flashing Christmas sign that would be more distracting to motorists would be exempt). Read More Obama "Has Been as Aggressive, if Not More Aggressive in Pursuing" TerroristsFor the past two years, conservatives have repeatedly attacked President Obama for supposedly endangering American lives by not being aggressive enough in going after terrorists. But a year after the failed bombing attempt on Christmas Day for which Obama received immense criticism from the right, a key Bush intelligence official refuted these right-wing attacks today on CNN’s State of the Union with Candy Crowley. Retired Vice Admiral Mike McConnell, who served as the Director of National Intelligence under President Bush, said the Obama “administration has been as aggressive, if not more aggressive in pursuing” terror threats:Read More Portugal's Drug Decriminalization Policy is a Resounding SuccessBy Rhonda WinterTen years ago Portugal decriminalized the use of all drugs in the country. The laws were changed so that addicts were sent to drug treatment, therapy and counseling, instead of prison. The progressive shift in ideology treats drug use as a public health problem, not something to be channeled through the courts and criminal justice system. Last year Glenn Greenwald explained in the weekly magazine Time that, judging by every metric, the country’s policy change was a resounding success: “It has enabled the Portuguese government to manage and control the drug problem far better than virtually every other Western country does.” Compared to the European Union and the U.S., Portugal’s drug use numbers are impressive. Following decriminalization, Portugal had the lowest rate of lifetime marijuana use in people over 15 in the E.U.: 10%. The most comparable figure in America is in people over 12: 39.8%. Proportionally, more Americans have used cocaine than Portuguese have used marijuana. A decade after the changes have been made in Portugal, the numbers do seem to indicate that the progressive drug decriminalization policy is working. Addiction rates, teenage drug use and HIV infections are down, and requests for treatment have increased. The Raw Story reported details on what has happened in the country between 2000 and 2008: Read More |
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Sunday, December 26, 2010
News That Matters - Monday, December 27, 2010 - The Day Early Edition
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| Good Monday Morning, Just in case there is no Monday (read: if the electricity goes out here in the Free State and we're the last to get turned on again which is the way it works out here,) I'm putting Monday's Edition out this evening. I hope you all enjoyed whatever holiday it was you were celebrating this weekend. Thanks to PB, SCH, BV, PN, MS and others mine was pretty sweet. There were two dinners on Xmas day, one planned and the second a surprise! At the second however, I was compelled to accompany, on a borrowed guitar, a cellist and a singer in order to get the gelato/caramel pie for dessert. Thanks also go out to a *new* supporter here at News That Matters and remember, if you've got that spirit and you're reading... Please Click Here. We're enduring our first big storm of the season and all the standard rules apply:
Collected from the 'net: "I've eaten pretty much every cookie anyone else has ever made for me, and I'm still here." "No, the trees spill their seeds upon the ground. It's sort of a coniferous Onanism." "Wikipedia seems to agree with me. Maybe I should be worried about that." "I was visited by three ghosts this Christmas. They were all family members, and technically they were all still alive. I just find it comforting to imagine that they are already deceased." - Sedated Ape What to do on a snowy day? The national Film Preservation Board of the library of Congress has a collection of websites around the world where historically important films are maintained, most free for the viewing. Look, it's beats the TV. Go here. Google has released a new dataset where you can compare up to 5 words from literature, one against the other, to see how often they were used over time. That link is here. For example, when comparing "aren't" and "ain't" we find that for some reason the latter spiked in use in the early 1940's. Why? You'll have to figure that one out for yourself.  Consolidating the vast amount of 'Strange Stuff' out there into 1 easy to use place. Haunted buildings, places, Urban legends, cemeteries, weird places, cool places, ghost towns, and anything else that is worth your time to visit. Visit Strangeusa.com It's fun, try it out!Discover how far you can travel on land from a fixed point. Specify the start point, then input either how far you can go or your mode of transport with time available. This tool will then show you the range of locations that you can reach in that time. Visit How Far Can I Travel to find out. While you're looking out the window at the snow, consider mind-traveling to St. Petersburg... Russia. Peter Sobolev says, "I am a great fan of digital photography. I have been taking pictures of St.Petersburg since 1997. Now this site contains about 500 albums with thousands of pictures of St.Petersburg [sic] historic center, its vicinities, suburbs etc. Much more than a typical tourist would be able to see. I kindly invite you to explore my collection of photos." See those here and really, it's quite amazing.  If you've got that spirit and you're reading this without supporting it... Please Click Here. And now, The News:
State audit finds fault with Peekskill Business Improvement DistrictBy Brian J. Howard for the NY Journal News PEEKSKILL — State officials say the city's downtown Business Improvement District does not properly safeguard cash, has no written agreement with the city, receives inadequate oversight and has no procedures for administering grants. Delaware River Basin Commission Proposes Rules to Protect River from Impacts of Marcellus Shale Gas Drilling | |||
| "When she finally got into the house, it was empty. All of her possessions were gone: furniture, her son’s ski medals, winter clothes and family photos. Also missing was a wooden box, its top inscribed with the words “Together Forever,” that contained the ashes of her late husband, Robert." |
The culprit, Ms. Ash soon learned, was not a burglar but her bank. According to a federal lawsuit filed in October by Ms. Ash, Bank of America had wrongfully foreclosed on her house and thrown out her belongings, without alerting Ms. Ash beforehand.
In an era when millions of homes have received foreclosure notices nationwide, lawsuits detailing bank break-ins like the one at Ms. Ash’s house keep surfacing. And in the wake of the scandal involving shoddy, sometimes illegal paperwork that has buffeted the nation’s biggest banks in recent months, critics say these situations reinforce their claims that the foreclosure process is fundamentally flawed.
“Every day, smaller wrongs happen to people trying to save their homes: being charged the wrong amount of money, being wrongly denied a loan modification, being asked to hand over documents four or five times,” said Ira Rheingold, executive director of the National Association of Consumer Advocates.
Identifying the number of homeowners who were locked out illegally is difficult. But banks and their representatives insist that situations like Ms. Ash’s represent just a tiny percentage of foreclosures.
Monitoring America
Washingtonpost.com
Nine years after the terrorist attacks of 2001, the United States is assembling a vast domestic intelligence apparatus to collect information about Americans, using the FBI, local police, state homeland security offices and military criminal investigators.
The system, by far the largest and most technologically sophisticated in the nation's history, collects, stores and analyzes information about thousands of U.S. citizens and residents, many of whom have not been accused of any wrongdoing.
The government's goal is to have every state and local law enforcement agency in the country feed information to Washington to buttress the work of the FBI, which is in charge of terrorism investigations in the United States.
Other democracies - Britain and Israel, to name two - are well acquainted with such domestic security measures. But for the United States, the sum of these new activities represents a new level of governmental scrutiny.
This localized intelligence apparatus is part of a larger Top Secret America created since the attacks. In July, The Washington Post described an alternative geography of the United States, one that has grown so large, unwieldy and secretive that no one knows how much money it costs, how many people it employs or how many programs exist within it.
Today's story, along with related material on The Post's Web site, examines how Top Secret America plays out at the local level. It describes a web of 4,058 federal, state and local organizations, each with its own counterterrorism responsibilities and jurisdictions. At least 935 of these organizations have been created since the 2001 attacks or became involved in counterterrorism for the first time after 9/11.
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