| News That Matters Good Friday Morning, Should local zoning codes allow for residential sized wind turbines? That's today's poll question. As it stands right now, none of our towns have zoning in place to allow such a thing and height restrictions are generally between 28' and 35' in residential neighborhoods. These small wind turbines need to stand on towers of about 60'-80' to get them above the turbulence created by surrounding trees and are generally slender and self standing. With energy prices rising and people wanting to provide themselves some sort of independence, this is becoming - and will become - a question and a need in the near future. Please vote! Saudi Arabia, the darling of the US government, funder of terrorism the world over and home to the majority of 9/11 hijackers was granted immunity from prosecution for the 9/11 events. Sweet, huh? Even the US Court system is in on it. Scientists now believe that the increase of shell diseases in lobsters ranging from Long Island Sound to Maine, may be caused by the breakdown of alkyphenols, [plastics], in the environment. As you might guess, this is decimating the lobster population and seriously damaging the industry. Hans Laufer, a lead scientist on the project said, "It's a real problem. Plastics last a long time, but breakdown products last even longer. Perhaps shell disease is only the tip of the iceberg of a more basic problem of endocrine disrupting chemicals in marine environments." If you've noticed, milk is now approaching - or is over - $4 a gallon. Iceberg lettuce, usually a staple at $.99 a head, is now a buck and a half and more. In the first case, it's because we've shifted production of corn from cattle feed to ethanol, a national experiment in how to fail at energy policy, but a huge success for the farm lobby. The latter is due to a combination of high transportation costs and immigration raids on farm fields. I started looking at the labels of produce and realized, not for the first time, that we are eating food shipped from thousands of miles away, like nectarines from California, tomatoes from Florida and apples from South America(!), Wisconsin and Washington state. Apple products such as juices and sauces are produced in central Massachusetts from apples grown in the Hudson Valley.Georgia on My Mind The news is all abuzz about how the Big Bad Russian Bear has invaded and occupied poor, little, innocent Georgia, a western leaning state on her border. Once again, the US Media has fed us distortions and misinformation in the form of "facts". The truth is that the full blame for Russia's invasion rests squarely on the shoulders of Georgia's president, Mikheil Saakashvili, who decided against all common sense to use force to occupy a region of his country that did not want to be part of it, South Ossetia. (The situation with another breakaway province, Abkhazia, is rather similar.) There's been a bloody war going on for quite some time which has mostly resulted in a standoff but with thousands of people killed and the Georgian economy just barely surviving.Vic Tiship, Richie and I are off to Mohonk this morning to sit in on a presentation by state tax reform groups to hear them propose what they call an "omnibus bill" which will, according to them, reduce your property taxes, wash your windows and mow your lawn. If it turns out they're right, we'll be back with a short report tomorrow. If not, I'll see you at the Pow Wow. Just keep in mind if you're a renter, the circuit breaker bill Sandy Galef is pushing is going to hurt you and reward your landlord. Is that fair? She thinks so, and so too do the anti-tax groups. And now, the news:
Crowd control in CarmelThe few times I’ve spent in Carmel have been chasing a little white ball at Centennial Golf Course, a great, if pricey, place to play.As part of my ongoing efforts to become educated about all the communities in North County, including those not currently part of our coverage area of more than seven towns, I was eager to get to Carmel’s VFW headquarters on Route 52, opposite Lake Gleneida, on Tuesday night (August 13). The attraction for me, and more than 100 others present, was a debate between incumbent 99th District Assemblyman Greg Ball and his challenger, John Degnan, former Mayor of Brewster. They are both running in the September 9 Republican Primary for the privilege of holding that line in the November election. The two combatants — and those present would attest that is not as much hyperbole as it looks on paper — traded accusations, barbs, insults and denials of the other’s allegations of inaction or, worse, acting against the public’s interest. The agenda bullet points are familiar enough by now: unregistered immigrants, property taxes and the state of state government as practiced in Albany. Read More N.Y. touches up its open government lawsIt's a sunny summer for government in New York, where Gov. David Paterson has signed off on a bundle of updates to the state's open records and meetings laws.One new provision effective last week awards attorney's fees to people who successfully sue over certain violations of the open meetings law. Another says agencies can't deny public records requests just because they're short-staffed or the request is too big; if an outside worker can prepare the records, and the requester is willing to pay for it, the agency has to arrange for that. State officials are also now obliged to consider public access when they contract for building and storing records. They have to hand out public records in whatever form they're requested, and extract portions of existing data to create new records, as long as it's reasonable to do so. According to the state's Committee on Open Government, many of the updates build on long-standing case law. They came about thanks to a bipartisan Legislative effort, according to The (Lower Hudson Valley) Journal News, making records cheaper and more accessible in a computer-based society. An editorial this week in The Journal News hailed the change: "It will be needed more than ever as, in the months and years ahead, the public and press look ever more closely at public records," the editorial said, "and peek into what should be open public meetings to assess if what their government is doing truly is in the public's interests." And in other news out of New York, a state senator is backing a bill that would add bloggers to the group of reporters currently covered under the shield law, according to the (Albany) Times Union. Read Original Tax reform message is headed to AlbanyBy Christine PizzutiPoughkeepsie Journal WAPPINGERS FALLS - Local state representatives plan to forward reform suggestions made at a property tax forum at Wappinger town hall Wednesday night to their colleagues in Albany when lawmakers meet again Tuesday. It was the fourth forum of its kind. The Albany meeting scheduled for Tuesday started as a means for lawmakers to work on property tax reform, but then the governor called lawmakers back because the state is "bordering on bankruptcy," said Assemblyman Joel Miller, R-Poughkeepsie, who hosted the event with Assemblyman Marc Molinaro, R-Tivoli. Both Miller and Molinaro belong to the Assembly Republican Task Force on Real Property Tax Reform. Read More $1 Million Incentive for Airlines to Fly into Stewart AirportNEW YORK (AP) -- The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey is offering airlines $1 million in fee reductions if they keep on using Stewart International Airport this fall.The big discount in landing and gate charges is being implemented after a tough summer at the Hudson Valley airport, about 50 miles north of New York City. MORE: New York News AirTran Airways plans to stop service to Stewart in September. Skybus ceased flights in April. JetBlue is also trimming flights. Airlines have been cutting flights nationwide due to high fuel costs. Read More Green Collar Jobs Are Available NowHow One Small City Is Training a New Generation of Green WorkersWith all of the talk about going green and the global necessity of reducing and eliminating our dependence on fossil fuels (foreign and domestic) there has been only scant discourse on the need for a qualified workforce to put these far-reaching plans in place. There has also been a lot of discussion about the "new" green economy and how much this will impact our lives, but again, where will the jobs come from? Yes, there are many real estate and allied professionals that are getting LEED credentials, but this is really just a small piece of the puzzle that doesn't even begin to tap the unlimited potential of what can happen. CNY (Central New York) Works out of Syracuse, "is a local, not-for-profit corporation focusing on Central New York which receives federal funding through the Workforce Investment Act of 1998. It is our mission to connect job seekers, employers, and training services into a coherent network of resources." This organization is now connecting green industry employers with job seekers at all levels including manufacturing, where skilled workers are needed for jobs such as wind turbine building all the way through need assessments for businesses trying to go greener. They're also offering "Green Entrepreneurship" summer science camps aimed towards arming students entering the workforce for the first time with these new skills. Read More Greenwashing "The Most Destructive Project on Earth"Are Oil Sands "Sustainable"?Oil giant Shell has been slapped down for a momentous bit of greenwashing. In a British advertising blitz, Shell referred to its development of the Alberta oil sands and its construction of the largest U.S. oil refinery as "sustainable," statements that the U.K. Advertising Standards Authority, responding to a complaint by WWF, said were untruthful and unsubstantiated because they implied these projects were environmentally benign. The key question was: What is sustainable? Shell, in its arguments to the ad authority, defined the concept as providing cheap energy to meet social and economic needs of future generations, while the ad clearly implied that sustainability had everything to do with protecting the environment. Read More How One Small Town Prepared for the Energy CrisisA Minnesota Farming Town Invested Big in Wind ... And It's Paying OffWith all the talk the talk these days about wind power, I decided to check out a project developed a few years ago, back when gas was relatively cheap and everybody was buying SUVs. This particular project really appealed to me because it was being driven not by corporate America but by a group of local farmers. Here's an excerpt of the ABC News story Farmers on the Cutting Edge of Energy: Rain barrels help save money, environmentAugust 8, 2008 More valuable than oil, water is making a big splash in the conservation movement, with rain barrels enjoying a surge in popularity. Towns Across the U.S. See Streetcars in Their FutureBy BOB DRIEHAUS Reports are in of journalists being harassed, detained in ChinaWith the Olympics underway, reports are streaming in from China this week of foreign journalists being detained, having photos deleted from their cameras and in at least one case getting roughed up by police while they work.British TV journalist John Ray told news reporters he was "forcibly restrained" Wednesday by uniformed police officers who stomped on his hands as he and a cameraman tried to film a pro-Tibet protest near the Olympic complex. According to the Agence France-Presse, the officers pressed Ray for his views on Tibet. "I tried to explain to these people that I was a journalist," Ray, an Independent Television News correspondent, said, "but they dragged me out and slung me in in the back of a police van and held me there for another few minutes." He was eventually released after showing his Olympics credentials. The Foreign Correspondents Club of China, which demanded an apology and an investigation from Chinese authorities, tallies reports of official interference with journalism there. The group also provides information about press rights in China available on its Web site. Read More Court Moves to Rehear Case of Canadian Rendition Victim Maher ArarCourt Acted Sua Sponte, Deciding to Revisit June Decision Against Arar Before Being AskedCONTACT: press@ccrjustice.org August 14, 2008, New York – The Second Circuit Court of Appeals issued an extremely rare order that the case of Canadian rendition victim Maher Arar would be heard en banc by all of the active judges on the Second Circuit on December 9, 2008. For the court to issue the order sua sponte, that is, of its own accord without either party submitting papers requesting a rehearing, is even more rare. “We are very encouraged,” said CCR attorney Maria LaHood. “For the court to take such extraordinary action on its own indicates the importance the judges place on the case and means that Maher may finally see justice in this country. As the dissenting judge noted, the majority’s opinion gave federal officials the license to ‘violate constitutional rights with virtual impunity.’ Now the court has the opportunity to uphold the law and hold accountable the U.S. officials who sent Maher to be tortured.” Read More |
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Friday, August 15, 2008
News That Matters - August 15, 2008
