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Google Syndication Google is being boycotted until they reverse their stand on Net Neutrality. See : for More Information
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I was driving in Patterson yesterday afternoon and passed by two developments, Cornwall Meadows and the cluster zoning development on Route 292 just west of the village. Both these developments are on cul de sacs, meaning there is only one way in and one way out. At the turn-off for each, cars were parked filled with parents waiting for the school bus to arrive so that the kids coming off could be driven back to their homes. For reasons too numerous to write out here this disturbs me to no end – and should you, too. From third grade on I was walking almost a mile to and from school each day, crossing Union Turnpike on the way. So, someone please tell me: When are you going to allow your children to earn a sense of independence by doing something as simple as walking home alone a few hundred feet from the bus? [...]
Good Friday Morning,
It’s probably gonna snow. If the weather service report from this morning holds true, we’re looking at somewhere between 9 and 13 inches of snow by later tonight. This could cancel the Physical Services Committee meeting schedule for 1:30 this afternoon at Tilly Foster Farm. Check the County Leg Calendar for updates. If I get an email from the County saying the meeting is canceled I’ll post it right away otherwise I’ll see you there.
As of 8:30 this morning, Governor Paterson has not yet called to offer me the Senate seat being vacated by Hillary Clinton. He may not want to upset Ms. Kennedy or Mr. Cuomo right before Christmas and I can understand his sensitivity to the issue, or he may be running a background check to make sure I’m kosher before he calls. I’m patient, but I am packing and thinking about buying a suit. I suppose I should start looking for an apartment in Georgetown, too. Just a small one-bedroom in a quiet building where I can keep a garden would be nice.
Congress is getting a pay raise this year and a bill to kill that went nowhere. In fact, [...]
Good Friday Morning,
I, for one, am a tad disappointed that the temps weren’t 2 or 3 degrees cooler over the past 36 hours. Had they been, we’d be looking at almost 30″ of snow and man, that would have been great! But alas, a man’s dreams were dashed by the moderating forces of Mother Nature.
So far this month the NtM blogsite is averaging 85 reads a day. As I often say in this space, there’s a lot more there than appears here and you have the ability to comment, discuss and pontificate to your heart’s content. Head on over, sign up and post away!
As of this morning there are 12 shopping days until Christmas, 9 until Hanukkah and 10 until my 51st birthday. Hopefully you’ve been checking out the Holiday Shopping Guide for my, er, your gifts this year, keeping them to under $20 per person and buying nothing from China. Shopping for locally produced and crafted gifts gives not only to the recipient but also to your neighbors and helps make our region stronger financially. Shopping locally is the gift that keeps on giving and when the bills come in January, you [...]
“I am not the Grinch, but parchments from 1814 and Twinkies don’t mix,” – Putnam County [NY] Clerk Denis Sant
Good Monday Morning,
We had a tiny bit of snow yesterday and in response to that first visual blast of winter, highway crews across the county emptied the oceans of salt and left it in mounds at intersections all over the place.
Are the sides of your car white? Does a bear poop in the woods? Does a one legged duck swim in a circle? Of course.
Auto mechanics and body shop owners across the region will tell you that the amount of money you and I spend on auto maintenance from road salt has reached astronomical amounts. When it comes to salt, less is sometimes more, especially when it comes to the undercarriage of your car rotting out in five or six years and leading to other – dangerous – problems such as your brake lines rusting to the point of failure.
The biggest offender seemed to be the County so someones got to have a chat with Highway Superintendent Harold Gary about that, especially on roads near water courses, lakes and reservoirs. Road salt is one [...]
“I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it.” – Thomas Jefferson
Good Friday Morning:
I’d like to thank all of you who helped out during the recent fund drive. For those who forgot, please re-consider your forgotting.
For those who read each day and felt it unimportant to help keep this coming to your email boxes, (and I’m particularly talking to the politicians out there, but common folk too,) I will be enclosing a “Dose of Guilt“© within each day’s message. I have a Jewish mother and grew up in an Italian Catholic neighborhood so I’m primed, practiced and armed. Thanks to a trick of HTML coding you won’t see it, but it will be there... See? There it was! You can make it go away by clicking here and following through.
In yesterdays online edition of the NY Journal News there was this headline,
“Ball explodes at treatment plant; worker doused with white powder and possibly sewage”
Heh. Yeah, that’s what I thought at first, too. The JN has since ‘updated’ the headline.
Here’s a list [...]
Good Thursday Morning,
The new Yellow Book crop has grown out of the frozen ground again, the one plant that defies Nature’s winter sleep, isn’t there one day, but the next, is everywhere one looks.
You’ll see it scattered along every roadside and highway, its bright yellow petals enclosing a pistal of paler yellow stamens streaked with even lines of black marks. Most consider this wonder of winter a weed, while a few, an essential herb in their communications garden.
The petals are tough and can lay unopened throughout the worst winter can offer; snow, sleet, automobile tires and the steel teeth of the plow. Sometimes, when it is pierced, and when water enters its interior the stamens swell and explode, using icy winds to carry their pollinated anthers to places unknown where they take root and sprout again in the spring.
While there are some of us who value the beauty of the Yellow Book flower, most consider it useful only as a butt-lifter for the smaller members of our families come the Holidays and would do anything to stop it from spreading, especially along our roadsides. It is particularly fond of mailbox posts.
There’s an organization out [...]
PlanPutnam’s Annual Fund Drive: Day 4
Good Monday Morning!
There was a beautiful sunrise this morning. Air quality is supposed to be almost excellent, the sun will shine and this mid-fall day will be quite nice. If you can get outside at any time today, do so.
Those of you who missed the Bob Hauver/Mike Latini ACT III show at the Arts Center on Saturday night are, well, let’s just say you missed another great show.
Last week I received several reports of problems with new voting machines New York will introduce next year and they were all remarkably similar;
One reader who was working at the Southeast Town Hall reported that the machine wouldn’t accept the paper ballot for scanning. A repairman was called and he declared it repaired a few minutes later. Another reader at the Rec Center in Patterson reports that the new machine experienced three failures and two successes. Again, the problem seems to have been a paper jam. At Sacred Heart Church in Patterson, the manual machine broke and voters were moved to paper ballots while it was being repaired. The electronic machine there also had paper jamming problems.
In the meantime, over [...]
News That Matters Brought to you by PlanPutnam.Org
Good Thursday Morning,
First, a correction: This event,
Tomorrow evening at 7PM you can hear Democracy Now!’s Amy Goodman, journalism columnist Greg Palast and FAIR founder Jeff Cohen give a talk about campaign finance laws in Lecture Center 100 on the SUNY New Paltz campus at 7PM. The event is sponsored by the New Paltz Greens.
The event is not tonight, as indicated, it’s NEXT Thursday, October 30th. My apologies. Thanks to readers who pointed this out.
The President signed the Veterans Assistance bill into law which Congressman John Hall shepherded through the House. I’m wondering if Hall’s opponent, the man who has placed the words “Iraq Vet” on all his campaign signs, will take a moment to thank John for his work on his behalf?
Tomorrow (Friday) is our weekly, Things To Do Edition so if you have an event this weekend please get it to me before this evening so I can have it included. Then, come election night click here and Google Maps will run an up-to-the-minute summary of how the votes are tallying. Right now [...]
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