10/22/2009

Lowered Budget
With the looming election as an ideal backdrop for a turf war, the number crunchers are hunkered in their foxholes as budget figures fly back and forth overhead, fired from one political party toward the other.
"These are TENTATIVE numbers!" shout incumbents.
"But they could, tentatively, be THESE numbers," cry back the challengers.
Familiar battle cries.
The tentative numbers coming out of last week’s pair of budget workshops in the Town of Olive read $4,296,262 appropriations less $544,956 in estimated revenues and minus $475,000 unexpended balance, for a total amount to be raised by taxes of $3,276,306. But, of course, as we look at each line item in the budget, we have to remember that the figures in the right hand columns headed by 2010 are not solid numbers. This is a point that everyone on the battlefield agrees upon.
"This is a wish list based on reports from department heads of what they would like to have," Olive supervisor Berndt Leifeld explains, saying that these desires and needs are bundled together and brought to a public workshop to start working toward a Preliminary Budget. The "tentative" budget shows a rise of 9.5% over last year’s figures which Leifeld says he would like to whittle down to, at most, a 5 or 6 percent increase in the "preliminary" budget. This will be difficult, he notes, depending upon figures from the fire department, where a new three year contract is being negotiated with mention of a stiff hospitalization hike, but it is "feasible."
"There are a lot of revenues we don’t have any real way to project," notes town bookkeeper Janice Lanzarotta, shredding light on how the astrologers got into the foxhole. "For instance, we purchase our sand and salt on county bids which aren’t available until February, so (highway superintendent) Jimmy (Fugel) has to predict what the prices of salt and sand are going to be for next winter. We have no idea of what the mortgage tax or sales tax figures will be until they send us the checks. I called the Association of Towns to try to find out if they could tell us what was going to happen with the per capita income but nobody could tell me. Certain things we have no way of knowing until we get the state budget...and you know how that works..."
Republican challengers in the current election, meanwhile, are questioning the means by which the town uses unspent funds year to year, and how such amounts get so large.
Leifeld replied, in a letter, about how the town has built up capital reserves for rainy days.
"We’re guided only by what we received the year before," adds Lanzarotta. "We look at trends." By press time, Leifeld was calling with an “almost final” percentage amount for the expected hike, although it was unsure whether it would end up being for taxes or the overall budget. The number was 5.2 percent. The budget is set to get passed in the week following the upcoming election. More by then...

Gas Grilled
State Assembly members and others turned up the heat on NYS Department of Environmental Conservation Commissioner Pete Grannis at the Capital in Albany on October 15, following his testimony on the agency’s September 30 release of newly proposed gas drilling regulations for the Catskills and central New York State.
The first of 26 witnesses to appear before the Assembly’s ENCON Committee, Grannis spent hours fielding questions on those regs from both upstate & downstate legislators, most fairly critical of what they see as inadequate review and protections outlined for public health and safety and for the safety of water supplies and the environment.
“While DEC is fully committed to protecting the NYC watershed, it should be noted that approximately 70% of the land (there) is privately owned,” said Grannis. “While there have been many calls for an outright ban on drilling in the watershed, such a ban would limit the mineral rights of private property owners. Our conclusion, following comprehensive examination, is that if drilling takes place. There is no substantive basis to believe that water quality will be degraded. “
Assemblyman Daniel O’Donnell from Manhattan’s Upper West Side responded by saying, “Property owners have rights, but millions and millions of people who drink the water have an interest too,” and that DEC’s job is, “ balancing rights involved and interests involved. If you don’t think the risk is substantial, what’s substantial?”
DEC Committee chair Robert Sweeney from Suffolk County questioned Grannis on matters ranging from his understaffed agency’s ability to handle enforcement (“We have 17 people” said Grannis) to contradictions between the new regs and the City’s as-yet-unpublished consultant’s report.
Sweeney also questioned the lack of cumulative impact study both for water withdrawals approved up to 25 million gallons per day, and for the broader impact of large scale drilling.
Grannis answered by saying that drilling sites will be limited to one per square mile but added that, “We have no way of making a judgment at this point how many wells will actually be drilled. We have 54 applications so far.”
New York City’s acting DEP Commissioner Steven Lawitts reiterated his agency’s “grave concern.. at the prospect of natural gas drilling in the watershed.” He asked for an extension of the state’s 60-day public comment period now in progress, so that their consultants could complete their report on the potential for gas drilling to adversely impact the City’s water supply system.
In a separate statement, U.S. Senator Kirstin Gillibrand also called for a similar extension from DEC.
“If our study or the NYS Department of Health review should conclude that gas drilling currently proposed will create risks to our watershed, then the price tag will be at least $10 billion for the City and its water customers,” Lawitts added. “If the state decides to permit this activity, then it must include and account for (those costs) in any regulatory framework that would allow drilling in the watershed.”
According to Grannis, a final document on drilling regs will be ready next spring.
Meanwhile DEC has scheduled its single public hearing on gas drilling for this region at 6:00 PM on Wednesday, October 28, at Sullivan County Community College’s Seelig Theatre in Loch Sheldrake. NYC’s sole hearing will be held November 10 in Stuyvesant High School’s auditorium. The public comment period is, for now, set to expire November 30.
Comments may be emailed to dmnsgeis@gw.dec.state.ny.us or mailed to dSGEIS Comments, Bureau of Oil & Gas Regulation, NYSDEC Division of Mineral Resources, 625 Broadway, Third Floor, Albany, NY 12233-6500.

Byway Meeting
The Central Catskills Collaborative has drafted a vision for the future of the Route 28 Corridor, setting the context for a Scenic Byway nomination process. The next step is for each community to identify its assets, needs, and action strategies and incorporate these within the Corridor Management Plan.
“The Main Streets along the corridor are like pearls in a necklace” notes Peter Manning, the Catskill Center’s Regional Planner, “if we take special care to polish each one, the collective shine will increase our region’s attractiveness.”
In Pine Hill, a grassroots effort to reinvigorate Main Street is already underway and is being facilitated by the Pine Hill Community Center, the Ulster County Planning Board, and the Catskill Center. This effort will continue with a public workshop at the Pine Hill Community Center on Thursday, October 22 at 7PM. The workshop will also serve as the first in a series of inventory exercises to be held from Hurley to Andes during the inventory phase of the Scenic Byway Corridor Management Plan.
Pine Hill is one of the hamlets to receive technical assistance under Ulster County’s Main Street Toolbox Program.
“This program builds on local assets and develops a strategic mindset that positions a community to take action,” notes Jennifer Schwartz Berky, Deputy Director of the Ulster County Planning Board, noting how the Toolbox emphasizes the value of historic, compact development and takes a hamlet community through a series of exercises that include conducting market analyses, identifying niche business opportunities, and making connections with outdoor recreation and other corridor communities. Success is driven by the motivation of the community.
“What this effort is inspired by is a strong desire to pull this community together and to begin exploring the things that we can accomplish for our hamlet,” explains James Krueger, Director of the Pine Hill Community Center. “We are trying to foster motivation, cooperation, communication and foresight, and to initiate a formal process of proactive planning.”
Thursday’s workshop, featuring mapping exercises and group discussions, will demonstrate how each hamlet can play a key role in the Scenic Byway Corridor Management Plan.
“This is a pivotal meeting for the byway nomination process” explains Helen Chase, Chair of the Central Catskills Collaborative. “The inventory techniques presented in Pine Hill will serve all the corridor communities, who will each be undertaking asset-mapping exercises.”
Anyone interested in the future of the Route 28 Corridor is encouraged to participate. Refreshments will be provided. For more information about Catskill Regional Planning, please contact Peter Manning at (845) 586-2611or visit www.catskillcenter.org. For more information about the Central Catskill Collaborative, please visit www.centralcatskills.org/ccc.

SEQRA Changes?
It could be a much-needed update, a simple streamlining, or the opening of Hell’s doors, depending on where one’s coming from when first hearing about the new working group put together to study possible changes to SEQRA, the 1970s-era State Environmental Quality Review Act law that requires a hard look at the environmental impact of proposed building projects.
According to Region 3 Director Willie Janeway of the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation, a “working group” will be created by Pattern for Progress and himself. The possibly controversial move was first publicly mentioned at a Pattern conference, “The SEQRA Solution: Striking the Right Balance,” held at SUNY New Paltz in Sepetember.
The working group will be “a sounding board for developers and environmentalists” and will be coordinated with Pattern’s help, DEC Commissioner Pete Grannis said then, also noting that the Hudson Valley had been picked as a test area for possible changes given that it has, “the highest development pressure, probably more than any place in the state.”
“There are also more projects here that are controversial,” added the Commissioner, who had been one of the original authors of the legislation.
A second initiative that also will launch in the region, headed by Janeway, is the design of a “checklist” tool intended to help all parties navigate the SEQRA channels. Separately and statewide, the department is working on a revised Environmental Assessment Form, the beginning document for all environmental reviews and the one most commonly encountered at local levels, usually planning boards.
A draft of all the revised forms will be available for people to look at by the end of the year, Grannis said, taking out redundancies and including matters such as climate change.
According to Janeway, the regional workgroup will be made up of DEC staff, real estate developers, conservationists and members of local planning and zoning boards.
Fuelling much of the rethinking process, it’s been noted, is the fact that the DEC is facing a 25 percent reduction in staff this year, cuts that could seriously compound its SEQRA backlog and stall much-needed economic development.
“We’re not going to rewrite the law. It’s one of the state’s most important environmental shields,” said Grannis, who was almost blocked from confirmation by state Republicans four years ago because of his environmental credentials. “But in these dire economic times we need a balance.”
“Commissioner Grannis has asked that the dialog focus on identifying recommendations that can be accomplished in the region within a short time frame without legislative or regulatory changes,” Janeway noted, adding that he was aiming towards a sense of consensus. “While the dialog may also include suggestions that will necessitate legislative or regulatory review, those are not the focus. DEC and the State have not endorsed any proposal to amend SEQR and DEC is only looking for ways to make the regulatory process work better. This should not be seen as an attempt to weaken the law.”
“Enacted in 1976, SEQR has not undergone serious review in more than a decade,” added Pattern for Progress President and CEO Jonathan Drapkin. “We want to start a dialog among officials, developers, attorneys and environmental advocates as to how SEQR could be revised or applied more efficiently, without hurting the environment while supporting the recovery of our regional economy.”
To get involved, and make suggestions for the proposals set to hit Grannis’ desk in January, call 845-565-4900 or visit www.pattern-for-progress.org. For direct comments, e-mail them to R3SEQRWorkgroup@gw.dec.state.ny.us.

That DEP Plan…
Ever so quietly, the New York City Department of Environmental Protection released its long-awaited 2012-2022 Long Term Land Acquisition Plan to the state Departments of Health and Environmental Conservation, as well as the federal Environmental Protection Agency, on September 30. Talk about a lengthy document. Since 1997, the City has operated a Land Acquisition Program (LAP) in the Catskill-Delaware System which seeks to acquire land and conservation easements for watershed protection. A key component of the City’s Watershed Protection Program, which seeks to increase watershed protection and avoid filtration of the world’s largest surface water supply the new plan was submitted in accordance with a 10year Filtraion Avoidance Determination from the EPA made in 2007 FAD and details the City’s proposed approach to land acquisition in the years to come.
Having already purchased or otherwise “protected” over 96,000 acres of land in the one million acre Catskill-Delaware System, increasing the percentage of protected lands from 24 percent to nearly 40 percent of total basin land area (via 1,172 transactions), the new plan seeks to “increase the percentage of protected lands in the Cat-Del System as a whole, with a particular emphasis on non-terminal reservoir basins with less than 30 percent protected lands,” as well as the interestingly-worded, “reservoir basins that are
expected to provide a large contribution to future water supply.”
On a gentler note, the plan addresses a newer wish to, “Build on our existing programs to promote City lands as a working landscape in partnership with local communities; and develop strategies to promote the wise use of acquisition resources over the long-term.”
Could we be talking of more boating and other recreational uses, in time?
It’s all available online at the DEP’s websites, in local town offices, at Catskill Watershed Corporation offices in Margaretville, as well as in many local libraries…

State Budget? Governor David Paterson has outlined a two-year, $5 billion deficit reduction plan without raising taxes, choosing instead to propose cutting millions in aid to school districts, Medicaid, health, mental health and social services programs, and the popular Aid and Incentives to Municipalities program. Republicans, including Senator John Bonacic of our district, have suggested the state stop buying open space, start selling some of the state’s buildings and artwork, consolidate agencies and cut state administrative positions, among other matters. Both sides have started calling each other partisan… and nincompoops. Stay tuned as this works its way out and we count down to a new 2010 budget come next Spring.
Lower Energy…
The chairs of the Assembly and Senate energy committees brought their series of hearings, on low cost economic development power programs to the Hudson Valley last week for a two-hour session attended by about 20 representatives of industry and local government.
“New York’s low cost power programs, while instrumental in helping to create and protect hundreds of thousands of jobs, have failed to keep pace with a rapidly evolving economic landscape, said Kevin Cahill (D-Kingston), who chairs the Assembly Energy Committee and presided at the two-hour session in Kingston.
Cahill added that focusing any new legislation on new technologies, which has been the thrust particularly in Ulster County, is something that must be done.
Ulster County Economic Development Corporation President Lance Matteson said he would hope to see, among other things in any new legislation, provisions for net metering, which would allow people with wind generators, or other small producers of electricity, to get paid for what they put back into the grid.
The session in Kingston is part of a series of forums held across the state, with more to come, including New York City and Albany.
Meanwhile, HealthAlliance of the Hudson Valley, the umbrella corporation for Benedictine Hospital, The Kingston Hospital and Margaretville Hospital, has received federal funding for energy conservation measures.
The $423,200 in Health and Human Services funding was secured by The Solar Energy Consortium. It will be used for new energy conservation and carbon emissions reduction projects involving renewable solar energy and efficiency measures.
Among the projects to be funded are a solar thermal system to generate hot water at the Benedictine campus and the purchase of two hybrid vehicles for transportation between hospitals, said HealthAlliance spokeswoman Sylvia Murphy.
Other projects to be funded include a high efficiency LED lighting for parking lots and outside areas at all three hospitals; and solar-powered lighting for outside identifying signs at Kingston and Benedictine hospitals.
Work on all of the projects will begin this month and is expected to be completed within a year.
Funding for the projects was secured by Congressman Maurice Hinchey.

Helping Hands
The Helping Hands Nutritional Assistance Program (rather than Food Pantry) visited the Phoenicia PTA recently, seeking additional volunteers and funding to buy more food, as well as more spreading of the word about local aid programs to those who are eligible.
Helping Hands has been established for the last year and are one of a growing number of food pantries in the Shandaken and Olive areas, (including Eve Smith’s at the Phoenicia Methodist Church; a program at the Olivebridge Methodist Church, a weekly food giveaway and dinner at the Pine Hill Community Center, Family of Woodstock, several Delaware County programs that reach into our area, and one run by the town. They have specifically distributed 190 tons of food and served 350 people since last year at this time and are affiliated with the Food Bank of the Hudson Valley in Cornwall, as well as the Regional Food Bank of Northeastern NY in Albany through whom they are able to buy food at a less expensive price.
Helping Hands’ pantry is open on the 2nd and 4th Monday of each month from 3-7 p.m. at the Phoenicia Firehouse. They provide a lot of food, and allow people to select what they want from vegetables, bread, baked goods and meats. People take enough for 3-4 days worth of three meals per day.
Hunger in the Hudson Valley, another local effort, grows, gleans, processes and transports food from local farms to local food pantries & soup kitchens and can be reached at 481-0331.
All of the local food pantries and similar programs have said they are expecting a 25-30% increase in demand in the coming winter months as people have to choose between buying food and paying for heat.
They all have simple application forms which delineate the income limits they adhere to. They don’t ask for social security numbers, but do require some proof of income.
For further information on Helping Hands, visit www.helpinghandsofny.com or call 688-9825.
Also contact UlsterCorps, in Stone Ridge, which seeks to grow the local corps of active community volunteers who can respond to urgent requests from local community agencies by calling 481-0331 or visiting www.ulstercorps.org.
It feels good to give. It’s what the coming season is all about…

Healthier Ulster…
Dr. La Mar Hasbrouck is the unanimous choice of the county legislature to become the Public Health Director for Ulster County. The legislature approved his appointment, and several others, made by County Executive Michael Hein, without debate, last week.
“I met with Dr. Hasbrouck and discussed the many challenges that are waiting for him in Ulster County,” said Legislator Robert Parete after the meeting. “I believe he is exactly what the Ulster County Legislature had in mind when we created the Charter a few years ago.”
When he starts in November, Dr. Hasbrouck will bring a wealth of experience and knowledge including an extensive background in international health issues. He has been employed by the United States Center for Disease Control (CDC) for several years, and has spent the last two years as the Director for the CDC’s AIDS Prevention Program in Guyana (South America).
Hasbrouck possesses a medical degree and Masters degree in Public Health Administration. Ulster County is the only county in New York State that has required a MPH as part of their criteria for their Public Health Director.
Dr. Hasbrouck, 44, has held high level positions with the Centers for Disease Control and is currently stationed in Georgetown, Guyana where he is completing his assignment as the director of the CDC’s national office in that country. Born in San Diego, he received his medical degrees from UCLA and the UC Berkeley School of Medicine where he was a Dean’s Scholar.
Hasbrouck replaces Dean Palen, dismissed by Hein in June. Following Palen’s removal, several unprocessed health permits, along with uncashed checks, were found in his office. Palen was not a medical doctor.
The new County Charter requires that the health director be a medical doctor.
The salary range for the position was the object of contentious debate, by the county legislature, in July, before an apparent vote to set the range at between $125,000 to $150,000.

Flu Shots, Again!
Ulster County is going to receive federal funds for H1N1 flu vaccinations after having had to cancel its flu clinics due to a lack of supply. Altogether, the county will be getting $600,000-plus from the federal government, of which $200,000 will be spent in 2009 and the rest in 2010, for advertising, promoting and administering the shots, as well as the cost of the medicine itself.
H1N1 vaccine is just now starting to be distributed across the country while seasonal flu vaccine is already available. Stay tuned for new clinic dates in the coming weeks.
The Hudson Valley Educational Consortium (HVEC), a collaborative effort among SUNY Orange, Ulster, Rockland and Sullivan Community Colleges, is offering a seminar on ‘Pandemic Flu Emergency Planning for Senior Managers’ presented by Marc K. Siegel, MD. at four geographic locations on Friday, November 6 from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. and is designed to provide senior managers with an understanding of how to effectively plan and implement pandemic flu emergency planning measures into their respective organizations. Dr. Siegel is a practicing internist, an associate professor of medicine at NYU Langone Medical Center, and the Medical Director of Doctor Radio with NYU Langone and Sirius/XM Satellite Radio. Dr. Siegel is an expert in examining contagions, as well as the fear that accompanies them.
The Hudson Valley Educational Consortium is also developing an Emergency Planning and Operations Center course that will be offered over the winter semester.
For more information and to register for these and other upcoming HVEC courses, call the colleges’ respective continuing education departments: SUNY Orange (845) 341-4890, Rockland (845) 574-4151, Sullivan (845) 434-5750 x4398, Ulster (845) 339-2025.

Quilting Beyond!
Frost Valley YMCA has lined up six veteran quilting instructors for their 13th annual Quilting Weekend from Friday-Sunday, Oct. 30-Nov. 1. Katrina Litchman will be the lead instructor for the weekend. Her class is titled “Art Quilting” and will take participants away from triangles, squares and patterns into the world of free-form composition with surprising results as class members will learn the art of spontaneous quilting. Other seminars focus on the “St. James Star,” Quilted Jackets, “Crazy Quilts,” and “Scrap Basket Quilts.” The weekend retreat package includes lodging, meals and one weekend workshop. The workshops will be filled in order of paid signups.
Check-in for the 13th annual Frost Valley Quilting Weekend begins at 3:30 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 30, followed by an evening program. This weekend is designed for quilters of all ages and abilities. Quilting vendors will have their booths open throughout the event, including goods from Woodstock Quilt Supply and Quilt Bug Quilt Shop.
Frost Valley YMCA is located at 2000 Frost Valley Road, Claryville, NY 12725. For information or reservations, please call 845 985-2291, ext. 205 or visit www.frostvalley.org.

Owning Minds?
Big business is gearing up to fight the use of green technology by developing countries seeking to reduce carbon emissions.
The battle over intellectual property rights is likely to be one of the most important of this century. It has enormous economic, social and political implications in a wide range of areas, from medicine to the arts and culture - anything where the public interest in the widespread dissemination of knowledge runs up against those whose income derives from monopolising it.
According to Inside US Trade, the US Chamber of Commerce is gearing up for a fight to limit the access of developing countries to environmentally sound technologies (ESTs). They fear that international climate change negotiations, taking place under the auspices of the United Nations, will erode the position of corporations holding patents on existing and future technologies.
Developing countries such as Brazil, India and China have indicated that if - as expected in the next few years - they are going to have to make sacrifices to reduce carbon emissions, they should be able to license some of the most efficient available technologies for doing so.
Big business, and the Chamber, is worried about this, because they prefer that patent rights have absolute supremacy. They want to make sure that climate change talks don't erode the power that they have gained through the World Trade Organisation.
Our legal system has long taken into account that protection for patent and copyright monopolies must reflect an important tradeoff between rewarding innovation and creativity, on the one hand, and allowing for the dissemination of knowledge and the development of new technologies. But the WTO rules, driven by the protectionist interests of powerful corporations, have gone far to advance the fundamentalist view of intellectual property, at the expense of the world's economy and public health. Now our corporations fear that negotiators at the United Nations, under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, might not share these fundamentalist views, especially when the future of the planet is at stake.
Stay tuned...

Senior Dining…
The Ulster County Office for the Aging has received American Reinvestment and Recovery (ARRA) funding to expand its senior dining program and will now offer senior citizens age 60 and older the opportunity to participate in the “Healthy PortionsDining Program” at eight restaurants in Ulster County.
Healthy Choices promotes making wise choices and eating proper portions to facilitate more active and vibrant life styles. The County will also provide extra meals, with fresh fruit, to homebound senior citizens through ARRA funds. The idea is to increase senior participation in the nutrition program by asking seniors to dine out. While doing this, seniors will be able to increase their awareness of good nutrition through portion control and healthier eating. Up to twelve menu selections are available at participating restaurants. This new economic stimulus program offers extra revenue to participating restaurants and provides the opportunity for seniors to meet and eat in local restaurants.
Participating restaurants include Brio’s in Phoenicia, Fred’ Place in Lake Katrine, the Nibble Nook, Stone Ridge, the Phoenicia Diner, and Rainbow Diner in Kerhonkson.
Interested seniors (age 60 and older) may pick up coupons at the Ulster County Office for the Aging, 1003 Development Court in Kingston on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays from 10 – 11:30am and 2 – 3:30 pm. Seniors must present coupons to wait staff prior to ordering and remember that the coupon does not include a gratuity. All must be used prior to December 31, 2009.
For further info, call 1-877-914-3456 or 845-340-3456.

Watch The Sugar
You've heard that diabetes hurts your heart, your eyes, your kidneys. New research indicates a more ominous link: That diabetes increases the risk of getting Alzheimer's disease and may speed dementia once it strikes.
Doctors long suspected diabetes damaged blood vessels that supply the brain. It now seems even more insidious, that the damage may start before someone is diagnosed with full-blown diabetes, back when the body is gradually losing its ability to regulate blood sugar.
In fact, the lines are blurring between what specialists call "vascular dementia" and scarier classic Alzheimer's disease. Whatever it's labeled, there's reason enough to safeguard your brain by fighting diabetes and heart-related risks.
"Right now we can't do much about the Alzheimer's disease pathology," those sticky plaques that clog patients' brains, says Dr. Yaakov Stern, an Alzheimer's specialist at Columbia University Medical Center. But, "if you could control these vascular conditions, you might slow the course of the disease."
The link has staggering societal implications: More than 5 million Americans have Alzheimer's, and cases already are projected to skyrocket in the next two decades as the population ages. The question is how much the simultaneous obesity-fueled epidemic of Type 2 diabetes may worsen that toll.
There are about 18 million Type 2 diabetics who are considered to have at least two to three times a non-diabetic's risk of developing Alzheimer's. Still, Type 2 diabetes often leads to heart disease and other conditions that kill before Alzheimer's typically strikes, in the 70s.
Don't panic if you're diabetic, stresses Dr. Ralph Nixon of New York University, vice chairman of the Alzheimer's Association's scientific advisory council. Genetics still are the prime risk factor for dementia.
"It by no means means that you're going to develop Alzheimer's disease, and certainly many people with Alzheimer's don't have diabetes," he cautions.
But the latest research strengthens the link, and has scientists asking if diabetes and its related "metabolic syndrome" increase risk solely by spurring brain changes that underlie Alzheimer's — or if they add an extra layer of injury to an already struggling brain, what Nixon calls "essentially a two-hit situation."
While scientists sort out exactly what's going on, the research does point to some common-sense protections: If you have diabetes, closely follow your doctor's advice for controlling it. Try to lower high cholesterol and blood pressure that can harm the brain's blood supply and exacerbate memory problems.
And if you're still healthy, Nixon advises "hedging your bets against Alzheimer's" with the same steps that help prevent both diabetes and heart disease — a good diet and plenty of exercise.

How’s It Going?
Another 15,500 jobs were lost year over year in September in the Hudson Valley, bringing to 740,400 jobs lost during that time frame, said Labor Department analyst Johny Nelson this month.
“The regional economy continues to weaken as evidenced by the ongoing deterioration in the job market,” said Nelson. “Private sector employment declined by 2.1 percent as the area shed close to 16,000. The region’s private sector employment continued its downward spiral, but this month’s numbers showed a slight improvement. Albeit small, it is still welcoming news, considering how bleak the job market has been in recent months.”
Sullivan County has the highest unemployment rate in the region, at 8.6 percent in September. That compares to 6.4 percent one year earlier. Putnam County has the lowest rate, at 7.0 percent, up from 4.8 percent one year earlier. Ulster County seems to have leveled off recently at 8.1 percent, compared to 5.8 percent a year ago, while neighboring Greene County has leaped from 5.8 percent a year ago to 8.4 percent currently.
Compounding problems, food prices rose by a couple of percent, on average, throughout Ulster County in the past month. The average weekly cost of feeding a local family of four in Ulster County is presently $198.60.
Guess there’s incentive for dieting.

Women Winning?
Men and women are accepting - and even embracing - the increasing role of women in the workplace, but many are still struggling with the repercussions on family life. Those are some of the findings of a nationwide survey released in recent weeks in conjunction with a major report on the status of women by Maria Shriver and the Center for American Progress.
"The Shriver Report: A Woman's Nation Changes Everything" takes an in-depth look at what has happened, and what still needs to happen, now that women make up virtually half the work force, up from about one-third of the work force 40 years ago.
The survey found that around three-quarters of men and women believe that the growing presence of women in the workplace has been very or somewhat positive for American society and the economy. And both men and women generally said they believe women can be equal partners in work, regardless of family responsibilities. For example, nearly 45 percent of men and 56 percent of women surveyed strongly disagreed with the notion that mothers cannot be as productive at work as people without children.
On a personal level, men and women are dealing with the increase in dual-earning households by negotiating family schedules, duties and responsibilities - in fact, 40 percent of those surveyed said they coordinate such tasks daily.
But such negotiations do not necessarily appear to be breeding acrimony. Both genders overwhelmingly said they do not feel the increase of women in the work force means men have "lost the battle of the sexes."
Only 10 percent of men surveyed strongly agreed with the statement that men have "lost the battle of the sexes," while nearly 31 percent strongly disagreed with that statement. More than 50 percent of men and women strongly agreed that businesses should be required to pay for family and medical leave, and nearly half strongly agreed that businesses should provide more childcare benefits. More than half of people surveyed also strongly agreed that businesses that fail to adapt to the needs of modern families risk losing good workers.
Both men and women surveyed also overwhelmingly said they are comfortable with women in the household earning more than men. And more than 70 percent said they did not think that the shift has left men and women confused about how they are supposed to interact.


On The Docket
There’s a heavy schedule ahead for Federal Judge Gary Sharpe of the US District Court for the Northern District of New York in Albany. First there’s the trial of former State Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno, set to start shortly and run 4-6 weeks, on charges he ran a private consulting business out of his house, working for companies that had business before the state. But after that, locals Bonnie Benjamin and Carol Martineu-Lopez will finally get their day in Judge Sharpe’s court in a civil suit alleging sexual harassment against the ownership of Spotted Dog Ventures, Catskill Corners, and Emerson Place and William T. Wright and Margaret Inge. Delayed for 2009 due to heath issues with corporate owner and managing partner Dean Gitter, the trial is now set to begin January 11.