| News That Matters Good Thursday Morning, Today is Count Basie's birthday.
Richie and I drove up to Rhinebeck for the 163rd Annual Dutchess County Fair yesterday and when it was time to leave so that I could make a meeting of the Fishkill Creek Watershed Committee (of which I am a founding member) in Hopewell last evening, I created quite the scene.
Admission is $12 but if you arrive between 10AM-11AM it's two bucks off. Either way, it's worth every penny. Expect to pay "Fair Prices" for food items (like $8 for a gyro) but there are so many options it's impossible to choose what you want to eat. Prices are lower at the 4-H cafeteria with that money going directly back to 4-H, and the big draw there, the one with the line 100 people long is for milkshakes, a fair staple which sold more than 24,000 last year.
Aside from the regular county fair staples of locally grown veggies, cows, flowers, horses, chickens, goats and pigs, food and exhibit vendors are set up throughout. There are free shows and exhibitions; Diving dogs, racing pigs, and Hilby, the Skinny German Juggle Boy - a show you will not want to miss, and many, many more. The event runs through Sunday. As announced yesterday in this column, there was a candidate's forum set for tomorrow (Friday) evening in Pawling for the 99th Assembly district race. However, there is one problem... as of press time this morning John Degnan had not been invited. Word has it that Ball staffer Courtney Claudet completed the facility use request and the Pawling Town Board approved the use for a "Greg Ball Debate". Can you, one reader wants to know, debate yourself? If the situation should change I will be sure to let you know. Reported in the NYJN this morning (see more below the fold), The Town of Kent is facing "millions and millions" of dollars in fines for allegedly holding up the Kent Manor project. It's developer has threatened fire and brimstone and eternal damnation for the town for protecting its interests. Sadly, the courts - and most astoundingly, DEP, have all agreed that this project of almost 300 condos should move forward. Supporting the Kent Town Board right now is paramount and I encourage you to write or call and let them know you're on their side. If you're out for fresh, local produce this weekend, there's a Farmer's Market running at the Grange Hall in Adams Corners on Wednesdays and at Tompkins Corners on Friday, both in Putnam Valley, from 3 until dusk. Betsey Ryder's Farm Stand is open every day at all hours on Starr Ridge Road in Southeast. On Saturdays you can visit the Cold Spring Farmer's Market from 8:30AM until 1:30PM, the Brewster Farmer's market from 9AM until 2PM and Cascade Farms in Patterson runs from 9AM until about noon. In other words, get the heck out of the supermarket and support local agriculture. If you're looking to do something useful for the community this weekend, the Appalachian Trail could use your help. Tim Messerich is organizing another one of his famous trail work days for this coming Sunday at the RPH Cabin on Hortontown Road which is a left off Miller Hill road just north of the Taconic State Parkway. Expect to get dirty and use muscles you forgot you had. Contact Tim at 845-297-9573 or at his website and tell him PlanPutnam sent you. The Town of Pleasant Valley in Dutchess County has declared a youth curfew which would apply to those under the age of 18. They would not be allowed to "congregate, loiter, wander or play in any public place or street - unaccompanied by an adult" - between 9 p.m. Oct 30 and 6 a.m. Oct 31 and 9 p.m. Oct. 31 and 6 a.m. Nov. 1. The legislation also requires trick-or-treaters to be fingerprinted, photographed and carry a vendors license. Ah, youth! Only one part of the previous note is fictional.I was wrong. Senator Obama did not select Hillary Clinton as his running mate yesterday. Instead, he's slipping in the polls and it's no surprise since he has no real platform and neither does John McCain. In fact, the two are so close together on so many issues that doctors are preparing to perform a surgical joining-at-the-hip of the two men this weekend at Walter Reed Army Hospital. And the Federal Elections Commission has decided to merge their names on the ballot in November as "Jorack Mcbama". A Justice Department plan would loosen restrictions on the Federal Bureau of Investigation to allow agents to open a national security or criminal investigation against someone without any clear basis for suspicion. And you just know Democrats in Congress will not only allow this but fall over each other offering their approval. I'm sure you're feeling right proud to live in a free and open democracy! Actually, you'd better... if you don't there'll be a file with your name on it. (see the article below) A few weeks ago I reported here that in order to stage a demonstration in China during the Olympic games, one had to book the event 5 days in advance and do so in person. In the unlikely case that the application was approved, the demonstration could not be about anything of controversy. Well, there's a story below that shows how magnanimous and open China has become. A woman applied and the response was hard labor in a re-education camp. Remember that next time you buy something "Made in China". She probably made it. "News That Matters" readership keeps growing and growing. This week, in addition to those of you subscribed directly through google groups, more than 300 additional people have read the column directly on various websites it's posted to and that readership seems to be coming back as the numbers steadily increase. The column is being picked up by news services and is showing up on blogs across the 'net. And now, the news:
Kent faces 'huge' damages claim from delayed townhome developerBy Michael RisinitThe Journal News • August 21, 2008 KENT - Town officials could find out by the end of the month how much money the developers of Kent Manor want in return for weathering the delays that prevented the project's hundreds of townhomes from being built. State Supreme Court Justice Andrew O'Rourke ordered the developers' lawyers last month to submit a summary of monetary damages to the town by the end of August. The damages, according to court papers, stem from Kent's not allowing the project to proceed - even after several court decisions over the years said otherwise. "What the court has done here is to reaffirm (those decisions) and is trying to map out a means to bring this to a complete end," said Charles Martabano, the attorney for developer RFB, LLC. Read More Editorial: Failing to extend solar tax credit will hurt nationSan Jose Mercury News EditorialArticle Launched: 08/21/2008 01:32:45 AM PDT Pacific Gas & Electric's announcement last week that two Bay Area companies hope to build the nation's largest photovoltaic solar electric plants near San Luis Obispo is evidence of the dynamic future of solar power - and of Congress' confounding failure to foster it. The projects' combined 800 megawatts - the size of a small nuclear plant - will produce enough power to light up 239,000 houses, about 2 percent of PG&E's power needs. They will help the utility meet the state law requiring that by 2010 it line up alternative energy sources to produce 20 percent of its power. They will establish solar photovoltaic energy as competitive with wind and other alternative energy sources, including solar-thermal power plants. But both solar power companies have made it clear they cannot move forward with their projects unless Congress extends the investment tax credit for solar energy. The 30 percent solar tax credit is set to expire Dec. 31. Eight times this year, Congress has failed to extend it. Opening up offshore to further oil drilling will not yield a drop of oil for more than a decade. Passing the tax credit would spur energy production now. But House and Senate Republicans continue to block the sun, holding the credit hostage to permanently enacting President Bush's deficit-exploding income tax cuts. Of the two major presidential candidates, Democrat Barack Obama voted for the tax credits. Republican John McCain, while lately expressing support, has missed all votes in the Senate extending them. Read More Don't flush your drugsNYJN EditorialRecent reports that pharmaceuticals can be detected in major water sources around the nation - from anti-anxiety medications in Southern California to a stew of 56 pharmaceuticals or byproducts in Philadelphia's water supply - are downright alarming. So far, New York communities have skipped the worst impact. But the threat of residual medications tainting our water supplies is real. Smart move, then, by the state Department of Environmental Conservation to launch a campaign - "Don't Flush Your Drugs" - to get people to stop flushing pills and start tossing them in the trash. In Westchester and Rockland, residents can also drop off many unused medications at local hazardous waste collections sites - an even smarter way to make sure medicine is disposed of in the most environmentally friendly way. Meanwhile, the Environmental Protection Agency must update and revise regulations for disposing of pharmaceuticals and update water standards. Most of the federal agency's water-quality criteria date back to the early 1980s. The EPA has started to expand ways to detect and measure pharmaceuticals in wastewater, but the federal agency needs to do much more. Now, testing for pharmaceuticals is not required, and there are no established safety limits for drugs in water. We have yet to figure out what's in the water, let alone whether to mandate difficult and expensive water-treatment processes to remove pharmaceutical compounds. So the DEC's "Don't Flush Your Drugs" campaign is a good place to start. Read More Millionaire's Tax at Heart Of Battle for State SenateBy GRACE RAUH, Staff Reporter of the Sun | August 21, 2008ALBANY — A plan to raise taxes on millionaires across the state could take center stage in the battle for control of the state Senate, with supporters of the tax hike promising to mount a campaign to pressure the Republican-led Senate into backing the scheme. The campaign would target regions of the state in which residents have been hit hard by soaring property tax bills, such as Long Island and upstate in Erie County, and reach New Yorkers through door hangings, mailers, the Internet, and possible radio and television advertisements. Daniel Cantor, the executive director of a labor-backed political organization, the Working Families Party, said his group is determined to make sure the public is aware that the Republican-led Senate, led by Majority Leader Dean Skelos, is blocking the proposal. Read More Errors abound in new Obama bookBy Angie Drobnic HolanPublished on Wednesday, August 20th, 2008 at 06:13 p.m. SUMMARY: We catalog the errors and distortions in the book The Obama Nation and conclude it is an unreliable document for factual information about Barack Obama. As the public begins paying more attention to the election, book publishers are rolling out their political books for the fall campaign. One new book has vaulted to the top of the bestseller lists as we write this. The Obama Nation: Leftist Politics and the Cult of Personality, by Jerome R. Corsi, makes a case against Barack Obama, calling Obama a political extremist who associates with radicals and has disturbing connections to Islam. The book was published by a division of Simon & Schuster for conservative books. The imprint is overseen by Mary Matalin, a former advisor to vice president Dick Cheney. Obama Nation debuted at No. 1 on the New York Times bestseller list about three weeks after it was published. Corsi writes for WorldNetDaily.com, a conservative-leaning news Web site. The site's headlines range from political stories to more tabloid fare such as "Astonishing photo claims: Dead Bigfoot stored on ice." Corsi also attacked John Kerry during the 2004 election with a book he co-authored, Unfit for Command: Swift Boat Veterans Speak Out Against John Kerry. Read More New Guidelines Would Give F.B.I. Broader PowersBy ERIC LICHTBLAUWASHINGTON — A Justice Department plan would loosen restrictions on the Federal Bureau of Investigation to allow agents to open a national security or criminal investigation against someone without any clear basis for suspicion, Democratic lawmakers briefed on the details said Wednesday. The plan, which could be made public next month, has already generated intense interest and speculation. Little is known about its precise language, but civil liberties advocates say they fear it could give the government even broader license to open terrorism investigations. Congressional staff members got a glimpse of some of the details in closed briefings this month, and four Democratic senators told Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey in a letter on Wednesday that they were troubled by what they heard. The senators said the new guidelines would allow the F.B.I. to open an investigation of an American, conduct surveillance, pry into private records and take other investigative steps “without any basis for suspicion.” The plan “might permit an innocent American to be subjected to such intrusive surveillance based in part on race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, or on protected First Amendment activities,” the letter said. It was signed by Russ Feingold of Wisconsin, Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island Read More - because we're watching. Court: Passengers can challenge no-fly listBob Egelko, Chronicle Staff WriterTuesday, August 19, 2008 Critics of the government's secret no-fly list scored a potentially important victory Monday when a federal appeals court ruled that would-be passengers can ask a judge and jury to decide whether their inclusion on the list violates their rights. In a 2-1 ruling, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco reinstated a suit by a former Stanford University student who was detained and handcuffed in 2005 as she was about to board a plane to her native Malaysia. The ruling is apparently the first to allow a challenge to the no-fly list to proceed in a federal trial court, said the plaintiff's lawyer, Marwa Elzankaly. The decision would allow individuals to demand information from the government, present evidence on why they should not have been on the list, and take the case to a jury, Elzankaly said. The ruling means that "someone who finds it's likely that their name has been placed on a government watch list will get their day in court," Elzankaly said. Read More White House Signing Statements “Unsubstantiated,” Report SaysThe Bush Administration’s use of presidential signing statements to indicate disapproval of enacted legislation has generated confusion and has undermined congressional oversight of national defense policy, the House Armed Services Committee said in a report this week (pdf).One problem is that the Bush White House often fails to articulate the basis of its objections or their specific application in practice, the report said, terming White House objections “broad and unsubstantiated.” “The functionality of a signing statement is greatly reduced if it is too vague to identify the concerns of the President and the interpretation of the law that the President is trying to convey to the executive branch,” the Committee report said. Read More Protest Application Brings Labor-Camp Threat, Woman SaysBy Ariana Eunjung ChaWashington Post Foreign Service Thursday, August 21, 2008; A10 BEIJING, Aug. 20 -- Two elderly women could face a year of "reeducation through labor" because they applied for permits to demonstrate during the Olympics, according to one of the would-be protesters. Wu Dianyuan, 79, and Wang Xiuying, 77, went to Chinese police five times between Aug. 5 and 18 to seek approval to protest against officials who evicted them from their homes in 2001. The Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau did not approve or deny their applications during the first three visits. On the fourth visit, the women were told that they had been ordered to serve time for "disturbing the public order" until July 29, 2009. According to a written order they received, they would not have to immediately go to a reeducation labor camp, but their movements would be restricted. If they violated various provisions or regulations, however, they could be sent to a labor camp. Read More |
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Thursday, August 21, 2008
News That Matters - August 21, 2008
