via State expands Cranberry Mountain Wildlife Management Area.

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

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.

Or, you could hit the Home Depot and come home with the supplies you need to build a pneumatic potato gun which could be much more fun that crayons.

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’.

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.

Even the opposition factions are split into two camps each finding it difficult to gain any traction though the MEO/Ball faction will probably come out on top in the end especially if either Odell or Smith should run for County Executive come next November.

What this means for Putnam County is not all that uncertain nor unclear. As there is no effective opposition and as all things Putnam are all things Republican, for the average resident nothing will change. The county will continue to be run by factions of the party in power for the sole purpose of their clan and for all their protestations otherwise we know this will the truth.

A reader suggested I spend more time on solutions than I do laying out the scene and they may correct about that. But in this case I see no solution, at least none that presents themselves as viable options. Perhaps the party will be racked by a few more scandals. Perhaps the Democrats will grow cajones. Perhaps Canadian terrorists will take over the Villa Barrone during the next Republican party event, forcing attendees to swear allegiance to the Queen. Honestly, I don’t know.

But come January 1, this coming Saturday, we’ll have a clearer picture of where things are headed. Keep in mind that one of the requirements for selection to the CE seat for the year is that the person selected can not run for public office next year. Yet, voters tend to have a very short memory so let’s see if we can remember at least that far.

• Rockefeller Christmas tree lumber to build Newburgh home
• My Week of Eating Nothing But Candy
• LaGrange to preserve 174 acres at Pierson farm
• Roofs that work for a living
• Gas Price Shooting To $3.75/gallon
• What the Tax Bill Means For You?
• Top Ten Ways the Right Will Wreck the Recovery
• Federal District Court Strikes Down Sign Regulation as Content-Based
• Obama “Has Been as Aggressive, if Not More Aggressive in Pursuing” Terrorists
• Portugal’s Drug Decriminalization Policy is a Resounding Success

Rockefeller Christmas tree lumber to build Newburgh home

Midhudsonnews.com

NEWBURGH – 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 Posch

Halloween 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 farm

By John Davis for the Poughkeepsie Journal

FREEDOM 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 living

Michael Appleton for The New York Times

The 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/gallon

Being 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.

Read More

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 Recovery

Conservatives 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 More

Federal District Court Strikes Down Sign Regulation as Content-Based

The 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” Terrorists

For 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 Success

By Rhonda Winter

Ten 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

Today is World AIDS Day.

Fifty-five years ago today, Ms. Rosa Parks decided she liked the seat she was sitting in.

Wow. Pretty much anyone in government and those who love them are upset over the leak of 250,000 “secret” diplomatic cables over the weekend. Calls of treason coming from right-wingers are getting silly already but I’ll bet they’d shut up pretty quick if Wikileaks released Obama’s birth certificate proving that he is, in fact, the Manchurian Candidate and the illegitimate son of Kenyan sheep farmers they claim he is.

All this talk from the Obama administration also rings hollow since most agree that the US looks pretty good after all was said and done. For instance, there isn’t a hint of us overthrowing a duly elected government we don’t like – quite a change from past US administrations – and Obama has had a great deal more success isolating Iran than did Bush. In fact, all the opposition noise about the President not being able to handle national security and foreign affairs is about to go the way of the whale-bone corset. After reading through scores of documents even I have to admit the guy has his shit together… at least when it comes to foreign policy.

We also learned that Iran was smuggling weapons to Hezbollah in Lebanon via ambulances with the assistance of the  Red Crescent and possibly even the International Red Cross.

However, the question of whether Hillary Clinton is actually Jesse Ventura in drag remains unanswered.

Tonight begins Hanukkah.

I went to the Shop Rite last night looking for Hanukkah candles and though everyone was very nice about it they don’t have any. They might have had some, they’re not sure, but no one I spoke with could even recognize what they were and a very nice girl brought me shabbas candles instead. I pointed to the HUGE GIANT Hanukkah poster they had in the window and said that the candles looked just like those, only smaller. But she just shrugged her shoulders. It’s all Troy’s fault and I told him I’d say so.

One we can celebrate is to answer this question:

How many Jews does it take to change a light bulb?

If you live in a home still using incandescent bulbs this is your chance to find out. For each night of Hanukkah, replace one of the old bulbs with a new, quality CFL.

Another way you can celebrate is with Eight Actions to Heal the Earth through the Green Menorah Movement. More information can be found at the Shalom Center. Among these are, calling NYSEG and switching your provider to one that deals with renewables. Another might be to complete an energy audit of your home or business, town or county.

You can join Putnam County Chabad on the shores of Lake Gilead at 5:30PM for their annual menorah lighting ceremony. More information on that is here.

While we’re talking about December holidays, the next BIG holiday is my birthday on the 22nd and if I live that long I should hit 53, I think. Stores have been getting ready, some since September(!) what with trees and lights and festive music. The day before is the winter solstice. Three days after my birthday is Christmas and eight days after that is the Feast of the Circumcision, a most interesting name for a holiday. December is a busy month.

“We actually have some opportunities to develop a way out of this faster than in many other parts of the state.” So said Peter Bardunias, the guy who runs the Mahopac Chamber of Commerce. I’m guessing he’s just not seen the actual numbers about development and taxes (not the *promised* taxes but the actual intake vs what it costs to build infrastructure and support it kind of taxes). So if you live in Carmel or Mahopac get ready! If Peter has his way you won’t have to rake leaves anymore because if you want a tree you’ll have to buy one from the mall.

On average, 26 Americans die in a terrorist attack each year. Meanwhile, 400,000 will die from poor diet and physical inactivity, 200,000 will die from mistakes by doctors and/or hospitals including legal prescription drug interactions and 85,000 will die from alcohol consumption and related diseases. I’m willing to bet if we spent the resources on the health and welfare of the population that we do to prevent the loss of property from outsiders, those numbers might be very, very different. It’s like it’s okay to have our own establishments do the killing – even in mass numbers – but if anyone outside tries it we declare it a national emergency. Am I the only one who sees this?

The Pentagon released findings of their poll on whether or not the troops can handle the ending of Don’t Ask Don’t  Tell. I read the findings and they can be summed up like this:

The majority of troops think they’ve already worked with someone gay or lesbian and most thought, “Eh, so what?” There is a core of about 30% of respondents who are so unnerved by the prospect of competition gays serving openly they say it will cause them to leave the armed services after their time is up and 1.7% say they would suggest others not join because of the fear of having their tiny weewee’s noticed.

But over all, and all kidding aside, there is a steady majority of service members who don’t care, a small minority that does and a middling number that say they’re just not sure.

Considering the way the questions were asked, with a bias that FOXNews would love, the results, I am sure, are a surprise to the brass covered men who are just now getting used to having integrated barracks.

1. New York draws a line in the Shale
2. The Tea Party Targets… Sustainable Development?
3. Open Space And The Money We Do Not Spend
4. Army signs purchase agreement for Lee Farm in Danbury; will build reserve training facility on site
5. WikiLeaks: Demystifying “Diplomacy”
6. TARP expected to cost U.S. only $25 billion, CBO says
7. Wars’ cost leaves us in economic ruin

New York draws a line in the Shale

A NYJN Editorial

This week’s lame-duck session of the state Legislature, while as useless as a “Top Secret” stamp at the State Department, actually yielded one result that should cheer New Yorkers who care about the environment.

The Assembly gave final legislative approval for a moratorium on hydraulic fracturing, the controversial, little-understood method for extracting natural gas from deep underground. The Assembly measure, approved 93-43, would halt all drilling until May 15, allowing time for an important, long-overdue state inquiry into “fracking” to conclude. The federal government has launched its own review, albeit belatedly: A 2005 vote by Congress exempted fracking from regulation under the Safe Drinking Water Act — an act of willful ignorance too costly to abide.

Read More

The Tea Party Targets… Sustainable Development?

By Stephanie Mencimer for Mother Jones

First, they took on the political establishment in Congress. Now, tea partiers have trained their sights on a new and insidious target: local planning and zoning commissions, which activists believe are carrying out a global conspiracy to trample American liberties and force citizens into Orwellian “human habitation zones.”

At the root of this plot is the admittedly sinister-sounding Agenda 21, an 18-year-old UN plan to encourage countries to consider the environmental impacts of human development. Tea partiers see Agenda 21 behind everything from a septic tank inspection law in Florida to a plan in Maine to reduce traffic on Route 1. The issue even flared up briefly during the midterms, when Colorado Republican gubernatorial candidate Dan Maes accused his Democratic opponent of using a bike-sharing program to convert Denver into a “United Nations Community.”

In the tea partiers’ dystopian vision, the increased density favored by planners to allow for better mass transit becomes compulsory “human habitation zones.”

Agenda 21 paranoia has swept the tea party scene, driving activists around the country to delve into the minutiae of local governance. And now that the midterm elections are over, they’re descending on planning meetings and transit debates, wielding PowerPoints about Agenda 21, and generally freaking out low-level bureaucrats with accusations about their roles in a supposed international conspiracy.

Read More

Open Space And The Money We Do Not Spend

The Newtown Bee
Tough times present everyone with tough choices, and unfortunately not every tough choice is a smart choice. When there is not enough money to go around, where does one make the extra sacrifice for the sake of a better future? We hear inspiring stories all the time about parents who took on second or third jobs so they could save for their children’s education. Or the spouse who sells the car and bikes to work to pay for a spouse’s essential medicine. The hope and realization in these cases is that some things are definitely worth the short-term sacrifice given the overriding value of the long-term benefits. In town budgets, however, there are so many things of importance to consider — education, social services, emergency services — sometimes we end up making tough choices that in the long run will harm the very things we are trying to accommodate. Such is Newtown’s choice on open space preservation.

In 2005, Newtown established a fund for the acquisition of open space, allocating $10 million over a five-year span as a means to balance residential and commercial development with the preservation of existing natural resources that have played such a large part in making the town so attractive to development in the first place. In addition, the town sought to improve its processes for identifying, reviewing, underwriting, and formally acquiring properties. In 2002, about 1,350 acres of open space had been preserved in Newtown. Today, open space holdings have increased to 1,850 acres.

Recent battles over expenditures and property taxes, however, have focused local budgetmakers on savings, and one easy target was open space funding. Consequently, the 2010 version of the capital improvement plan cut back open space funding by 20 percent, or $2 million, for the next five years — a decision that has the potential to cost the town many millions more.

Read More

Army signs purchase agreement for Lee Farm in Danbury; will build reserve training facility on site

DANBURY — Military officials are under contract to purchase a portion of the Lee Farm property and are moving forward with plans to build a U.S. Army Reserve training facility on the site, a spokesman confirmed Monday.

Ken Buyer, a spokesman with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, said the Wooster Heights Road property was selected as the location for the training facility earlier this month and a purchase agreement was signed with the landowner Thursday.

The total acreage involved in the deal and the final purchase price were not immediately available.

Federal officials said in the past that they were interested in about 25 acres of the property, which totals more than 300 acres.

The news sparked outrage among local officials and residents who objected to the center being located on the Lee Farm property — possibly the last large tract of undeveloped land in the city’s downtown.

Read More

WikiLeaks: Demystifying “Diplomacy”

By Norman Solomon for  CommonDreams.org

Compared to the kind of secret cables that WikiLeaks has just shared with the world, everyday public statements from government officials are exercises in make-believe.

In a democracy, people have a right to know what their government is actually doing. In a pseudo-democracy, a bunch of fairy tales from high places will do the trick.

Diplomatic facades routinely masquerade as realities. But sometimes the mask slips — for all the world to see — and that’s what just happened with the humongous leak of State Department cables.

“Every government is run by liars,” independent journalist I.F. Stone observed, “and nothing they say should be believed.” The extent and gravity of the lying varies from one government to another — but no pronouncements from world capitals should be taken on faith.

By its own account, the U.S. government has been at war for more than nine years now and there’s no end in sight. Like the Pentagon, the State Department is serving the overall priorities of the warfare state. The nation’s military and diplomacy are moving parts of the same vast war machinery.

Read More

TARP expected to cost U.S. only $25 billion, CBO says

The Troubled Assets Relief Program, which was widely reviled as a $700 billion bailout for Wall Street titans, is now expected to cost the federal government a mere $25 billion – the equivalent of less than six months of emergency jobless benefits.

A new report released Monday by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office found that the cost of TARP has plummeted since its passage in October 2008, when policymakers thought that the world stood on the brink of an economic meltdown.

“Clearly, it was not apparent when the TARP was created two years ago that the cost would turn out to be this low,” the CBO report says. “The transactions envisioned and ultimately undertaken through the TARP engendered substantial financial risk for the federal government.”

However, it says, “because the financial system stabilized and then improved, the amount of funds used by the TARP was well below the $700 billion initially authorized, and the outcomes of most transactions made through TARP were favorable for the federal government.”

Read More

Wars’ cost leaves us in economic ruin

By Nancy Tsou

The midterm elections were highly contentious. Clearly voters are deeply worried about the economy. After all, 15 million Americans are unemployed and 50 million Americans have lost their homes or are struggling to pay off mortgages. Mounting budget deficits have forced curtailment of many public services, including the closure of schools, libraries and even firehouses.

Many candidates, politicians and media have blamed the economic upheaval on out-of-control spending by the government. But few have mentioned the fatal cost of ongoing war.

The long wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have already drained our national treasury of $1.1 trillion. The share of the economic burden for each Westchester family is $22,000 so far; in Rockland County, the wars’ cost per family is $23,000.

Read More

Good Wednesday Morning,

Putnam County Republicans are having a hard time staying organized this election season as several high-profile primary races, combined with an internal factional battle between Vinnie Leibell and Anthony Scannapieco, tear the party apart. According to an article in the NYJN last week, three town committee chairs have written party delegates condemning Scannapieco’s support for candidates not endorsed by the committee as a whole. They claim that his collecting signatures for Greg Ball, Steven Katz and Mary Ellen Odell “completely invalidate[s] the actions of the committee he is supposed to lead”.

Their statement requires that if any of the three win their individual primary races that they go into the general election with mainstream party backing is curious as all three are from the Tea Bagger faction that the Senator’s people have been fighting tooth and nail against.

Does this mean we’ll see Vinnie Leibell standing alongside and actively supporting Greg Ball if he should win his race against Mary Beth Murphy which seems likely at this point? Will the two stand arm in arm smiling for the press cameras and kiss and make up on the steps of the courthouse?

Or, since town chairs William Gouldman of Putnam Valley and Dorothy Pederson of Patterson were not consulted on the anti-Scannapieco letter, does this show a deeper rift? We’ll find out come later this month when Putnam’s Republicans meet to select new officers.

This past weekend saw the opening of the 5th annual Collaborative Concepts outdoor sculpture show at the Saunders Farm in Philipstown. A reception was held on Saturday at the top of the hill, windy conditions and all.

By the end of the afternoon hundreds and hundreds of people had wandered through the artwork, enjoyed live music and interacted with performance artists spread throughout the farm. You never knew if the person you were talking to was part of the art or a casual visitor.

A hearty congratulations goes out to the CC crew, Del and Eric Arctander and the 60 artists who participated in the event and we cannot forget the volunteers who greeted visitors, set up the music stage and manned the reception area.

The show stays up through October and is open – free – seven days a week from dawn until dusk. You can find the Saunders Farm on the Old Albany Post Road at the end of Highland Road. Just drive in through the gate – close it behind you so the cows don’t get out – park in the lot and find your way up the hill in front of you. Enjoy! Oh, and don’t be afraid of the cows.

Image: “Golgotha and the Three Vagabonds” by Michael Natiello

We can go through this until Sandy’s cows come home but it’s not going to change: First generation immigrants generally do not learn English very well if at all. It’s their children that do. How many of us grew up down-state in a neighborhood where Italian or Yiddish was the first language and English only grudgingly used by our elders? Why should today be any different? The Judge’s efforts are for no other reason than to bait and goad and beat that dead horse one more time and feed off the immigrant hysteria which hasn’t much changed since “No Irish Need Apply” signs were posted in storefront windows and “No Hebrews Allowed” were at the front desks of hotels, inns and resorts and written into land deeds.

There are sound economic reasons our borders are as open as they are and until the ‘baggers understand this nothing will change. If they ever win I’m just hoping they don’t mind dropping $3 for a head of lettuce and $3.29lb for apples – in season. Come on, how many ‘white’ kids do you know are going to pick tomatoes in Arizona or Florida? Cripes, you can’t even get one to work around your house or mow the lawn.

• OSI acquires land connecting Black Rock Forest and Schunnemunk State Park
• How to End the Great Recession
• New county strategy against sprawl: Help small growers stay on the land and supply urban farmers markets
• Croton-Harmon says no to police officer at high school
• The true cost of the Iraq war: $3 trillion and beyond
• American Psychosis
• We Dont Hate You

OSI acquires land connecting Black Rock Forest and Schunnemunk State Park

Midhudsonnews.com

CORNWALL – The Open Space Institute has acquired the 151 acre Houghton farm property, a step in OSI’s effort to preserve a conservation corridor between the Black Rock Forest and Schunnemunk Mountain State Park.

OSI President Joe Martens said their efforts to secure more land continue.

“There are still a lot of important parcels out there and even though OSI bought this 150 acre parcel, its intention is to re-convey it to a conservation buyer so it stays on the tax rolls,” he said. “There will be one farm dwelling allowed on the property and it is our hope that it is actually used for agricultural purposes in the future so it will continue to be economically productive as well as a protected open space.”

Read More

How to End the Great Recession

By Robert Reich

This promises to be the worst Labor Day in the memory of most Americans. Organized labor is down to about 7 percent of the private work force. Members of non-organized labor — most of the rest of us — are unemployed, underemployed or underwater. The Labor Department reported on Friday that just 67,000 new private-sector jobs were created in August, while at least 125,000 are needed to keep up with the growth of the potential work force.

The national economy isn’t escaping the gravitational pull of the Great Recession. None of the standard booster rockets are working: near-zero short-term interest rates from the Fed, almost record-low borrowing costs in the bond market, a giant stimulus package and tax credits for small businesses that hire the long-term unemployed have all failed to do enough.

That’s because the real problem has to do with the structure of the economy, not the business cycle. No booster rocket can work unless consumers are able, at some point, to keep the economy moving on their own. But consumers no longer have the purchasing power to buy the goods and services they produce as workers; for some time now, their means haven’t kept up with what the growing economy could and should have been able to provide them.

Read More

New county strategy against sprawl: Help small growers stay on the land and supply urban farmers markets

By Keith Ervin
Seattle Times staff reporter

John Huschle has moved from one rented property to another five times since he became a farmer in the Snoqualmie Valley in the mid-1990s.

Renting has meant uncertainty about the future, agonizing over whether to invest thousands of dollars to bring in electricity, whether to build another greenhouse or plant berries. Once Huschle had to move sheds, greenhouses and other equipment at spring planting time.

He’s lived with the fear that a landlord might give him permission to raise pigs but then change his mind if an animal escaped or the smell of manure wafted off-site.

Now those fears and uncertainties are gone.

With financial help from King County, Huschle and his wife, Anna Davidson, have bought the 23-acre property they’ve farmed for the past six years beside the Snoqualmie River.

Their farm, known as Nature’s Last Stand, is the first to be protected under a new initiative intended to help dozens of small farmers stay on their land and continue selling fresh food at farmers markets in nearby cities.

Read More

Croton-Harmon says no to police officer at high school

CROTON-ON-HUDSON — School district officials are saying thanks, but no thanks, to a proposal that would have put an armed police officer at Croton-Harmon High School.

“They thought having an officer would be a good preventative against drugs and alcohol,” Croton-Harmon school board President Karen Zevin said. The concept arose during continued discussions with village leaders and police over the question of drug and alcohol use among local teenagers.

Zevin said the board fully researched the idea of hiring a school resource officer, also known as an SRO, before giving it a unanimous no vote.

The board eventually decided that the cost would be hard to justify during a period of layoffs, and that the school’s law enforcement needs were being met with current staffing. The perception of an armed police officer on school grounds also came up as part of the discussions.

“Looking at all the different mechanisms we have, we didn’t feel we needed an SRO,” Zevin concluded. Zevin noted the school has two unarmed personnel who handle security in the building, and police officers are regularly in the high school doing classroom teaching and drug and alcohol education.

Read More

The true cost of the Iraq war: $3 trillion and beyond

The Washington Post

Writing in these pages in early 2008, we put the total cost to the United States of the Iraq war at $3 trillion. This price tag dwarfed previous estimates, including the Bush administration’s 2003 projections of a $50 billion to $60 billion war.

But today, as the United States ends combat in Iraq, it appears that our $3 trillion estimate (which accounted for both government expenses and the war’s broader impact on the U.S. economy) was, if anything, too low. For example, the cost of diagnosing, treating and compensating disabled veterans has proved higher than we expected.

Moreover, two years on, it has become clear to us that our estimate did not capture what may have been the conflict’s most sobering expenses: those in the category of “might have beens,” or what economists call opportunity costs. For instance, many have wondered aloud whether, absent the Iraq invasion, we would still be stuck in Afghanistan. And this is not the only “what if” worth contemplating. We might also ask: If not for the war in Iraq, would oil prices have risen so rapidly? Would the federal debt be so high? Would the economic crisis have been so severe?

The answer to all four of these questions is probably no. The central lesson of economics is that resources — including both money and attention — are scarce. What was devoted to one theater, Iraq, was not available elsewhere.

Read More

American Psychosis

By Chris Hedges

The United States, locked in the kind of twilight disconnect that grips dying empires, is a country entranced by illusions. It spends its emotional and intellectual energy on the trivial and the absurd. It is captivated by the hollow stagecraft of celebrity culture as the walls crumble. This celebrity culture giddily licenses a dark voyeurism into other people’s humiliation, pain, weakness and betrayal. Day after day, one lurid saga after another, whether it is Michael Jackson, Britney Spears or John Edwards, enthralls the country … despite bank collapses, wars, mounting poverty or the criminality of its financial class.

The virtues that sustain a nation-state and build community, from honesty to self-sacrifice to transparency to sharing, are ridiculed each night on television as rubes stupid enough to cling to this antiquated behavior are voted off reality shows. Fellow competitors for prize money and a chance for fleeting fame, cheered on by millions of viewers, elect to “disappear” the unwanted. In the final credits of the reality show America’s Next Top Model, a picture of the woman expelled during the episode vanishes from the group portrait on the screen. Those cast aside become, at least to the television audience, nonpersons. Celebrities that can no longer generate publicity, good or bad, vanish. Life, these shows persistently teach, is a brutal world of unadulterated competition and a constant quest for notoriety and attention.

Our culture of flagrant self-exaltation, hardwired in the American character, permits the humiliation of all those who oppose us. We believe, after all, that because we have the capacity to wage war we have a right to wage war. Those who lose deserve to be erased. Those who fail, those who are deemed ugly, ignorant or poor, should be belittled and mocked. Human beings are used and discarded like Styrofoam boxes that held junk food. And the numbers of superfluous human beings are swelling the unemployment offices, the prisons and the soup kitchens.

Read More

We Dont Hate You

Dear America… We don’t hate you, and we don’t hate your way of life.

This is quick note to clear up some confusion. It seems like lately one cannot watch the news, or read a newspaper without reading about the threat of “the Islamist agenda”.

I am a Muslim, and the big agenda on my mind today was if i should get my wife an iPhone or an iPad for her birthday.

It may be hard to believe when you follow the news, but consider this:

* Today, hundreds of thousands more Muslim teenagers woke up worried about their teenage acne, than those who woke up pondering terrorism;
* Today, hundreds of thousands more men woke up pondering if if Liverpool would ever win the Premiership again, than did woke up pondering “the downfall of the west”;
* Today, hundreds of thousands more muslims woke up and wanted the new iPhone 4, than did woke up wanting some sort of WMD.

We really are regular folk. We like walks on the beach, and pretty sunsets. We enjoy reading good books, drinking good coffee and the company of good friends. We hope that our kids graduate well, are well mannered and we sometimes don’t call our moms back as soon as we should. Our moms feel proud when we do well, and they have hopes and dreams for us too. Our dads spend hours on the sports page and our kid sisters hit us up for money whenever they can.

Read More

Good Wednesday Morning,

It’s cold out, eh? Don’t forget that we had a frost in the middle of May last year. But I really wish the weather would settle out as the garden is having a hard time getting itself going.

Last year was a washout for gardeners. It rained until the beginning of July and then never got really warm. And then, at least here at the Asylum, we had a terrific localized hailstorm that destroyed everything else. The picture to the right shows what was left of my potatoes after that storm. Wait! It gets better… then the tomato blight swept through killing off my Roma’s and slicing tomatoes and the next thing you know the trees were turning and winter kicked in. The only thing that did well was the broccoli. Even the weeds wouldn’t grow.

I suppose the best we can do is to keep our fingers crossed and hope for more seasonable weather. The 10 day forecast says that we’ll have temps in the 80′s come Saturday and the 70′s next week so maybe we can finally put winter behind us?

The New York/New Jersey Trail Conference (NY/NJTC) is looking for volunteer monitors for local sections of the Appalachian Trail as it crosses New York from Dover through Harriman and out into New Jersey. Their press release says that the only skills and qualifications be that you are, a member of the New York-New Jersey Trail Conference, be physically able to bushwhack through woods, have some acumen at map reading (surveyor and segment), have basic understanding of orienteering skills and the ability to read a compass or use a GPS device. You can read the full release here or here.

We have another letter into District Attorney Adam Levy’s Office concerning Lori Kemp. This one from Peach Lake resident and activist Suzannah Glidden in which she writes;

“The Town of Carmel has allowed blasting to continue for more than three years without all the requisite permits in place even though town code requires them. Yet, town officials seem quite oblivious to these activities even though many have tried to bring it to their attention.”

General Motors has been running TV ads claiming that they’ve paid off their TARP debt 4 years ahead of schedule which sounds rather impressive. But here too we have a little creative accounting going on. What GM did was dip into one TARP fund to pay the other. My question is, why does it have to be the independent media that reports this and not the corporate media? Oh, I guess I answered my own question…

In 2006, after knocking on at least 10000 doors, Ball delivered a surprising and historic upset against 12 year incumbent Willis Stephens Jr., the scion of a political family who held the seat almost continuously for eighty years, with a resounding 71% of the vote. After spending a first term marked by legislative achievements including a landmark bill that provided free college tuition to New Yorks [sic] veterans, closing loopholes in the human trafficking law and enacting across-the-board spending cuts to the boated [sic] state budget while restoring vital funding to healthcare and education, Ball trounced challenger John Degnan with 75% of the vote, and record turnout.

I thought the numbers posted here were a little off the mark and so I did my homework. In 2006, the Ballster pulled 55% of the vote, not 71% as the PSD poster claims. And for the 2008 race against John Degnan he scored 61% of the vote not 75% as was quoted. I would have left a comment on the blog correcting the poster but, as you could guess, the comments section was closed and there’s no contact information available. Now, isn’t that just like him and his peeps?

The Congressional race has just gotten a little racier. The Tea Party in northern Westchester, the group that helped organize Greg Ball’s State Senate campaign rally in Carmel on April 15th, have officially endorsed Kristia Cavere. TPonW’s chairman, Bill Bongiorno, calls her a “fantastic” candidate. Do we forget who Ms. Cavere is? She’s the one who said,

“The Republicans were the ones who defeated slavery,” she said. “Republicans were the ones in favor of women’s suffrage. The Republicans are the ones who liberated Europe in World War II and the Republicans are the ones who brought freedom to millions of people in the Middle East now.”

and

“My health care plan is one page,” she said. “I am an environmentalist. Think of all the trees I’m saving.”

I think we’re going to have some fun come the Republican primary…

Bill O’Reilly is making news again this time for lying. No, misrepresenting the facts. Well, not exactly, maybe a combination of both. Thanks to the excellent investigative journalism of the St. Petersburg Times’ Politifact, a fact checking department, we have the story. It seems Mr. O’Reilly said,

“We researched to find out if anybody on Fox News had ever said you’re going to jail if you don’t buy health insurance. Nobody’s ever said it.”

As it turns out – and is not unexpected – is that Politifact labled the claim as “pants on fire”. Read the story here.

1. A gyre situation for our oceans
2. Texaco buildings to be demolished
3. NYSERDA’s Renewable Fuels Roadmap
4. Seismic testing stirs waves of concerns
5. They’re walking 700 miles for end to nukes
6. Battle Royale for ‘The 40th’
7. Habitat Dedicates Five Homes

A gyre situation for our oceans

By Peter Grannis

That plastic bag you saw blowing down the street the other day may headed for Hawaii.

The fact is, when we litter, a lot of that trash gets washed or blown out to sea, where it becomes concentrated by ocean currents into massive floating islands. Nearly 90% of this marine debris is plastic, the majority of which comes from – you got it – our communities. Not only does it affect our coasts and beaches, it has terrible consequences for wildlife. Untold numbers of seabirds, turtles, fish and whales have been hurt or died from eating or getting caught in the trash. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) – these plastics are responsible for as many as 100,000 marine mammal deaths every year.

While these debris fields are far away and invisible to you and me, actions to address them are not out of our reach. Beach and shoreline clean-ups, while absolutely worthwhile, fail to stop the problem at its root. We need to shift from addressing the symptoms to preventing them. We need to find ways to eliminate, reduce, and recycle so much more of our single-use packaging. Last year’s expansion of the Bottle Bill was a positive step. As a result of the new law, millions more water bottles – a major contributor to plastic ocean debris – will be recycled each year.

Read More

Texaco buildings to be demolished

poughkeepsiejournal.com

FISHKILL — Work will soon begin at the former Texaco Beacon Research Center to demolish buildings so contamination at the site can be assessed and removed.

Mark Hendrickson, project manager for Chevron Environmental Management Co., said 43 of the site’s 64 buildings will be taken down to their foundations after asbestos remediation is completed.

“The site is inactive, and we would like to put it back to productive use,” he said.

The former research center is in the Fishkill hamlet of Glenham.

A textile mill was built on the site in 1811. It closed in 1875 due to financial hardship, but reopened under new owners. That business closed its doors in 1929.

Texaco purchased the property in 1931, renovating the former mill to become a crude oil refining research facility.

Expansion, including above-ground storage tanks, took place until 1980. Texaco and Chevron merged in 2001.

At its peak, the center employed about 1,200 people.

Read More

NYSERDA’s Renewable Fuels Roadmap

Pace Law School’s Energy and Climate Center has produced the Renewable Fuels Roadmap and Sustainable Biomass Feedstock Supply for New York State (Roadmap) for the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC), and the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets.

Intended to help guide state policy on renewable fuels, the Roadmap was a recommendation from Governor David A Paterson’s Renewable Energy Task Force report issued in February 2008. The Roadmap evaluates the future of liquid biofuel production and feedstock supplies for transportation purposes in New York State in order to address increasing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions as well as independence from petroleum usage.

To conduct the study, the Pace Energy and Climate Center assembled a team of the leading authorities on biofuels throughout the Northeast, including researchers from Cornell University and the State University of New York (SUNY) College of Environmental Science and Forestry, and from consulting firms on energy and environmental issues such as Energetics, Energy and Environmental Research Associates, and Antares Group. The Northeast States for Coordinated Air Use Management as well as Cornell Cooperative Extension branches throughout New York State are also members of the Pace-led team.

The Roadmap presents a snapshot of New York’s current biomass production, including agricultural products and forest products. It addresses: biomass feedstock inventory; land uses; transportation and distribution infrastructure; competing uses for biomass; and biofuel conversion technologies.

Read More

Seismic testing stirs waves of concerns

By SANDY LONG

WAYNE COUNTY, PA — The trigger was the appearance of small flags along Wayne County roadways, followed by the presence of crews and trucks on Saturday, April 17. Seismic data collection took place next, as specialized vehicles from Dawson Geophysical Company lumbered along rural roads. Each new stage of the process has sent ripples through a community already on alert to the advance of natural gas exploration activities in the region.

In response, some flags have been removed along River Road in Damascus Township and disturbing rumors of threats have begun circulating.

A group of alarmed citizens met on April 17 to discuss the evolving situation and to share information, according to Beverly Sterner, a resident of Milanville. Sterner, whose home rests only a few yards from the roadway, is concerned about the potential impacts of seismic vibrations on the foundation of her home, its stone structures and a vigorous stream that courses next to the house. Many of those in attendance shared Sterner’s concerns.

Read More

They’re walking 700 miles for end to nukes

Statewide protest passes through on way to UN
By Terra Thompson
For the Times Herald-Record

HIGHLAND FALLS — Peace walkers are leaving their footprints across the state to raise nuclear awareness.

The 700-mile journey started on March 7 at a nuclear waste site in Steamburg, near Buffalo, and will end at the United Nations in New York on Sunday to correspond with the Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference. The contingent has been following Route 9W through the Hudson Valley. Monday, walkers were in the area of Highland Falls.

The journey, organized by the Nipponzan Myohoji Buddhist order, is more an interfaith pursuit against nuclear power and nuclear weapons than a pious one.

“It’s more an educational journey about the nuclear issue,” said Jules Orkin, a walker and New Jersey native. “It’s a learning and teaching experience that happens as we interact with the people.”

Read More

Battle Royale for ‘The 40th’

Last week both Democratic Westchester County Legislator Michael Kaplowitz and Republican New York State Assemblyman Greg Ball threw their hats in the ring for the 40th District New York State Senate seat held since the Clinton presidency was still young by Republican Vincent “Uncle Vinny” Leibell.

Very much starting with the latter, all three gentleman are formidable in their own right (or left, or center, as the case may be).

The iconic Senator Leibell’s longevity and efficacy also must be credited to his extremely effective, prototypical chief of staff Ray McGuire, a virtual magician whose sleight-of-hand style favors sangfroid to spare and never calling one iota of attention to himself.

The erstwhile legislator’s high-profile propensity for dispensing member items liberally throughout his district has its fans and its foes (Full disclosure: The Harrison Apar Field of Dreams Foundation community not-for-profit charity my family runs in memory of our son received a $7500 N.Y. State grant in 2004 sponsored by Senator Leibell on a recommendation from the Yorktown PBA and Yorktown Councilman Nick Bianco). The Senator — whose populist appeal also can be traced to his  earthy ease connecting with folks whether one-to-one or one-to-many –likes to say about his aide’s funds-finding acumen that if there’s a stray penny by an Albany curb, Ray will locate it.

Read More

Habitat Dedicates Five Homes

Pedro Cruz equated it with family. Annie Luna spoke of her infinite gratitude. Meanwhile, Stephanie Faucher was unable to even conjure up words to describe it.

Each person was referring to how they felt about their Habitat for Humanity journey. Sunday, the Cruz, Luna, Faucher families, along with Rose and Rosales clans, took part in a “Quintuple Dedication,” celebrating their two year experiences both building and purchasing their homes. The five house dedication ceremony marked the biggest Habitat for Humanity dedication ever to take place in the City of Newburgh over an eleven year period. It further made the grand tally of houses worked on by Habitat for Humanity of Greater Newburgh to stand at an impressive 43. The feats resulted in much to celebrate.

“The five houses we are dedicating today represented 12% of all the houses built by Habitat for Greater Newburgh since we first started in 1999, which will be adding almost one million dollars to assessed property value in the City of Newburgh in a single day,” pointed out Marci Gurton, Director of Development for Habitat for Humanity of Greater Newburgh. “We never could have dreamed of this; it was all made possible because of local volunteers and vendors.”

Read More