| News That Matters Good Tuesday Morning, The Perseid's was a washout last night for those of us in this area as the sky was clouded over and never really broke. I was up at 3:30 AM to check. The dog thought I was starting the day and was sorely disappointed when he didn't get his breakfast bone and I went back to bed. Spaceweather has some images from clearer skies which will be updated during the day today. The 8th Annual Daniel Nimham Pow Wow is this coming weekend to the County Park here in Kent. Gates open at 10AM and events run though late afternoon.
The Brewster Theater Company presents "Time Warp" this weekend. From their release: Audiences should be prepared to fasten their seatbelts as The Brewster Theater Company takes them on a lively trip through the past 10 decades of Broadway musicals on August 14, 15, and 16 at 7:30 pm at The Brewster High School Performing Arts Center. I had my car in the repair shop, (the mechanic needed to make another mortgage payment), and I had a rather unsettling experience with Carmel Taxi yesterday afternoon.
While we're talking about Mr. Bondi, can someone please give him a call and tell him to buy the development rights for the Ryder farm in order to keep that piece of land in farming and preserved as open space? (Whatever happened to Southeast's Open Space fund? Was that fully squandered on that useless-as-open-space highway property?) And while we're talking about Paul Camarda, there's an article below about a developer suing a blogger over alleged name calling. It reminds me of when Mr. Lepler threatened to sue Lynn Eckardt over the spelling error, "Leper", (which is what the MS Word speel cheker comes up with when it encounters "lepler"), which was not the same as Ruth Mazzei's suit where she admitted in court to picking and choosing what went in the minutes she kept thus creating, by her own admission under oath, reality. How Lynn lost that case is only superseded by the question of how her attorney was not disbarred for malfeasance. Which is also not the same as the time Mr. Camarda had his attorney attend a Kent Town Board meeting waving a post of mine over his head and reading from it - out of context, of course - portions which he claimed were a direct physical threat to his family in an effort to seek sympathy from a board that disliked him even more than they disliked me. It didn't work. Now he wants to annex Kent. See what happens? Here's the FOXNews version of world and national news stories:
As always, there's more at PlanPutnam.org. Here's a wrap up of the news for the rest of us.
[Carmel] Town officials defend pricey cell-phone useBarbara Livingston NackmanThe Journal News CARMEL - More than a dozen town-funded cell phones, costing from $600 to $2,470 a month, have prompted scrutiny from town leaders and a former councilman. With serious financial constraints ahead and budget cuts requested from every department, Carmel officials have said they were taking a closer look at their own expenses. Norman Marino, a former town councilman-turned-board critic, said he considered the current policy of giving town employees a cell phone a "boondoggle." Although many staffers need a cell phone, which justifies issuing them to a range of personnel, he said, in some cases the cell phones are being used for personal business and are not essential. "That makes them a waste of taxpayers' money," Marino said yesterday. "I am concerned about the proliferation of cell phones by town employees. It has just exploded." Read More State cuts = higher property taxes?In light of Governor David Paterson’s latest round of proposed budget cuts, the New York State Association of Counties (NYSAC) today urged state leaders to draw the distinction between aid to localities and state funding for delivering state services. The difference could spell property tax increases for New York’s overburdened homeowners and businesses.Among the $1 billion dollars in cuts announced today was $250 million in cuts to local governments by “reducing local assistance general fund spending by six percent.” “Let’s be clear here. They are not cutting aid to counties, they are cutting the reimbursements for programs that we are required—by state statute—to deliver. We still have to spend taxpayer money to deliver the state’s programs we just have less of the state’s funding to pay for it,” said NYSAC Executive Director Stephen J. Acquario. “If we are going to make the hard choices than we need to be reducing state programs and services, not simply shifting more costs to property taxpayers.” Read More Site to track Hudson celebrationsQuadricentennial info, local tourist spots highlightedThe Poughkeepsie Journal has launched Hudson Happenings (www.hudsonhappenings. com), a Web site about what's going on as our region gets ready to celebrate the upcoming Hudson-Fulton-Champlain Quadricentennial and the planned opening of the Poughkeepsie Railroad Bridge walkway project. Hudson Happenings has resources for what to do, and where to go, eat, shop and stay in the Hudson Valley. But it is more than an events calendar or a tourism guide. It's a comprehensive source for breaking news and feature stories, photos, podcasts, interactive Web features and videos about the river valley and its inhabitants, its history and its environment. "This Web site is designed to provide 'one-stop shopping' for a wide range of helpful information," Executive Editor Stuart Shinske said. Read More Rushing to a halt?Petitions and moratoriums multiplying as means to check gas rushBy SANDY LONG UPPER DELAWARE REGION — As gas companies scramble to secure drilling leases throughout the Upper Delaware region, so, too, are community groups, townships and organizations speeding ahead with initiatives intended to slow, or even halt, the process. Three new petitions seeking moratoriums on gas drilling are being circulated in the Upper Delaware region, in addition to the request for a moratorium put forth by eight environmental groups seeking an Environmental Impact Study (EIS) and the establishment of a drilling moratorium in Sullivan County’s Town of Highland. The new petitions were generated by the locally-based non-profit organization, Damascus Citizens for Sustainability (DCS). The first, a “Regional Moratorium,” petitions the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) for “implementation of a moratorium on gas drilling in the Delaware Basin until the DRBC fulfills its mandate to protect the waters of the Basin including requiring an Environmental Impact Study.” Read More Environmentalists urge mining law overhaulWASHINGTON, Aug. 11 (UPI) -- Environmentalists say the refusal of the U.S. Senate to rewrite the nation's mining regulations is putting the Colorado River at risk of pollution.Revisions of the mining laws addressing the pollution risk to rivers passed the U.S. House this year but has languished in the Senate, and that has worried those who fear a jump in new mining claims for uranium, gold and other metals will mean more run-off, the Arizona Republic reported Monday. "The Colorado River is the lifeblood of the West," Dusty Horwitt, an analyst for the Environmental Working Group, told the newspaper. "The Senate's failure to pass the mining law (would leave) citizens virtually powerless to protect drinking water." Read More Changes in Environmental Reviews Are SoughtBy THE ASSOCIATED PRESSWASHINGTON (AP) — The Bush administration is proposing to let federal agencies decide for themselves whether highways, dams, mines and other construction projects might harm endangered animals and plants, according to a draft of planned rule changes obtained by The Associated Press. The proposed regulations, which do not require the approval of Congress, would reduce the mandatory, independent reviews that government scientists have been performing for 35 years. Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne said late Monday that the changes were needed to ensure that the Endangered Species Act not be used as a “back door” to regulate the heat-trapping gases linked to global warming. The draft rules would bar federal agencies from assessing the emissions from projects that contribute to global warming and its effect on species and habitats. Read More US accused of 'sneak attack' on wildlife protectionElana Schor in Washington The Guardian, Tuesday August 12 2008The Bush administration yesterday announced plans to relax the law protecting endangered species to allow federal agencies to decide for themselves whether construction projects such as highways, dams or mines might harm endangered animals and plants. Under the altered rules, the government would no longer have to consult with independent scientists about the effect of new projects on wildlife. Thousands of consultations take place every year. The US interior secretary, Dirk Kempthorne, said the proposal would help the US use the species law "more efficiently and avoid misusing it to regulate global climate change". He added: "It is not possible to draw a link between greenhouse gas emissions and distant observations of impact affecting species." Read More Costa Rica Bids to Go Carbon NeutralMonday 11 August 2008by: Claire Marshall, BBC News In February 2008, Norway, New Zealand, Iceland and Costa Rica made a commitment to go carbon neutral. The tiny Central American country is the only developing country to have made the tough pledge to turn its economy green. It has also set itself the hardest target, with the government saying it will go carbon neutral by 2021. "If any country can do it, it's Costa Rica," said Sergio Musmanni, who is helping to lead the government's new national climate change strategy. "We have been at the forefront of the climate change issue for years. A large percentage of our electricity ... already comes from renewable energy sources. And we are in the tropics. We don't have problems heating up our homes and buildings during the winter." Read More 'Anti-noise' Silences Wind TurbinesScienceDaily (Aug. 11, 2008) — If wind turbines clatter and whistle too loudly, they are only permitted to operate under partial load to protect the local residents – but this also means a lower electricity output. An active damping system cancels out the noise by producing counter-vibrations.If wind energy converters are located anywhere near a residential area, they must never become too noisy even in high winds. Most such power units try to go easy on their neighbors’ ears, but even the most careful design cannot prevent noise from arising at times: One source is the motion of the rotor blades, another is the cogwheels that produce vibrations in the gearbox. These are relayed to the tower of the wind turbine, where they are emitted across a wide area – and what the residents hear is a humming noise Read More Are stun guns too deadly? Louisiana case adds to debate.A grand jury will decide whether to bring murder charges against a police officer.By Patrik Jonsson | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor from the August 12, 2008 edition ATLANTA - A grand jury in rural Louisiana considers Tuesday whether to bring murder charges against a Taser-wielding police officer in what may become a seminal case in the hotly debated history of stun guns. No US jury has ever convicted a police officer in connection with a death related to use of an electroshock weapon. But the number of deaths in which the guns have played a role has been growing, along with their use in law enforcement agencies. Now, the coroner in Winnfield, La., has found the death of one Baron "Scooter" Pikes to be homicide by Taser, intensifying a simmering controversy over the devices and exposing the tense tug of war between police and young black men in rural Louisiana. Read More California developer sues for libel over blog commentsA California real estate developer is suing a blogger and a host of unknown critics who commented on a Web news article for, among other things, saying he is "dishonest" and a "slum lord." Those particularly disparaging remarks were tacked below a March 2006 story on blogdowntown.com about developer Barry Shy. According to the blog, the only two named defendants in Shy's suit are residents of his SB Grand lofts, one of whom hosts a separate blog which she says aims to "inspire positive change" in the building by targeting issues of concern for management. But Shy alleges in his lawsuit that SB Grand homeowner Jessica Jordan actually used her blog, truedowntown.com, to publish false statements in hopes of "discouraging prospective tenants and purchasers from moving into the building," according to blogdowntown. Shy also claims that comments like "Barry Shy is a horrible business man with no principals" on the 2006 blogdowntown story ammounted to libel and slander. He says in the suit he will identify the remaining defendants -- those who were behind those comments, presumably -- when he figures out who they are.
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Tuesday, August 12, 2008
News That Matters - August 12, 2008
