(News Briefs October 25, 2007)

Storage Sheds?
The Olive Planning Board is about to begin consideration of a proposal to build additional storage sheds in the place of PetFare on Route 28 just west of Shokan’s business corridor.Neighbors received a notice last week of the intent by Rob and Russell Oaks to expand their storage shed business to frontage on the highway, which has simultaneously become the subject of renewed efforts on a county and state basis to make it a scenic byway, thus restricting such uses in the name of beautification and safety. According to the mailer, the proposal is to put up eight storage sheds ‘00 foot by 30 foot in dimensions to total a 23,400 square foot self-storage facility adjacent to their current sheds on Ridge Road.
The issue has been rendered as an incomplete application by the Ulster County Planning Board, which felt information about how the proposed and existing storage shed businesses would be conjoined, alongside other concerns including access onto the state roadway, landscaping, lighting levels, and stormwater drainage.
The issue is currently pegged for discussion on Tuesday night, October 30, at an Olive Planning Board meeting scheduled for the town meeting hall at 7 PM.

Budget Update The Olive Town Board workshopped its 2008 tentative spending plan into an official Preliminary Budget at a meeting in Shokan on October October 16. As expected, the budget reflects rising expenditures and dropping revenues that have been offset by a sizable unexpended balance, to keep the amount to be raised by taxes at a safe level, as with last year. Total General Fund expenses will be rising from figures of $1,583,002 in 2006 and 1,843,709 this year to 1,945,180 for 2008. Highway Department costs will go from $1,256,906 in 2006 and $1,493,196 in 2007 to $1,547,913 for the coming year. Revenues for the General Fund, meanwhile, are expected to move on from figures of $741,187 in 2006 and $471,698 in the current year to $533,074 for the coming year. Highway Department revenues will shift from $125,475 in 2006 and $97,853 this year to $107,853 for the coming year. The 2008 proposed budget rose from $1,902,315 as presented to the town board last week, in a Budget Officer’s Tentative Budget fomat, to $1,945,180 as an official Preliminary spending plan. Rises included at the October 16 meeting included another $20,000 for the town supervisor’s office, nearly $900 for town justices and their clerks, an additional $3,000 for the clerk’s office, an additional $9,000 for assessors, and $4,500 more for records management. Other hikes anticipated in the Tentative budget included sharp rises in the costs for town legal costs, data processing, elections, recycling, insurance, central printing and mailing, disability insurance, social services, recreation salaries, contingency, and house demolitions. Drops occurred in dog control and a few other areas. The board next meets to finalize the 2008 budget after the upcoming election, at the town meeting hall on Thursday, November 8.

New Principal...
The Onteora School Board has named a new principal for the High School to replace Barbara Ruben, who left last month for a new job at Ulster BOCES. At its board meeting Tuesday night, October 25, the board approved and welcomed the High School’s new Assistant Principal Lance Edelman, hired last summer, for the institution’s top spot. Edelman, who replaced Gabriel Buono at the Assistant Principal position after Buono took the helm as principal of Bennett Elementary School following Laurie Cassel’s resignation (she also went to BOCES), will start his new job in December. Currently, former interim superintendent Jack Jordan has been serving as the district’s interim high school principal. Edelman worked for the Beacon City School district for ten years as a psychologist and coordinator for the pupil personnel service. He has an undergraduate degree in psychology at SUNY New Paltz, Masters of psychology from Marist College and a certificate of advanced study in education at SUNY New Paltz. More on his plans in our next issue…

Store News…
The fitful saga involving the fate of West Shokan’s American General Store, a cafe and grocery on Route 28A located in a building constructed before the 1905 creation of the Ashokan Reservoir, inched in several directions these past two weeks as the couple that runs it, Phil and Barbara Mansfield, announced that they were planning imminent closure while simultaneously working with a number of entities to try and find a way of keeping the popular business – the only such entity, apart from tetta’s, on the west side of town, open for longer.
“The economy generated by the store is not matching the overhead. We’re closing December 1,” the Mansfields said last week. They added that they were considering talks with Small Business administrators, the Catskill Watershed Corporation and private individuals to find a way through several challemges, including the fact that they can’t match the buildin’s high rents, can’t afford to buy the building, and still need to change the set-up and possibly location of the entity’s kitchen.
Regarding the last issue, they noted that the county Board of Health has started “working with us” to find a solution. What remains, then, is either financial or legal in nature.
“The Health Department is bending over backwards to help us,” said Barbara. “It’s not anyone’s fault that we have to close; it’s just part of change.”
The final performance event at the American General Store will be a poetry reading by Luc Sante, Frank Boyer, and Jana Martin, at 7 p.m. on Friday, November 2. The store is located at 4075-79 Route 28A in West Shokan. To join the online group and help form a coop, go to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/olivecoop/

Ladybugs!
It sounds like a horror movie: 720,000 ladybugs on the attack in Manhattan. It could also prove a partial explanation for the increased presence of the critters in our parts of late, a lot sooner than most of us have grown used to expecting them.
As it turns out, the red-and-black bugs were unleashed on the 80-acre grounds of one of New York’s biggest apartment complexes with a mission: eat pests infesting the neatly landscaped property. The ladybugs from Bozeman, Montana arrived at the Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village complex on Manhattan’s East Side about two weeks ago, packed in boxes shipped by a natural gardening company. From mesh bags filled with wood shavings, groundskeepers scattered them in clusters of 72,000 per box. The ladybugs then quickly took to the skies of the 80-acre rental complex.
720,000 ladybugs are about the right number to clean up the New York complex. Each insect can take care of a piece of land measuring about 19-by-19-inches. A ladybug can eat up to 50 pests a day, plus insect eggs. The huge colony will consume billions of pests before moving on.
The question then begged is… to where? Hmmm…

Flood Studies…
Congressman Maurice Hinchey recently announced funding for a new study to be undertaken by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to look at ways to prevent flooding along the Esopus and Rondout creeks. Both waterways include reservoirs that are part of the New York City watershed system, and have seen major flood damage in downstream areas by and large beyond our own coverage area.
Hinchey, Gene Brickman, a planner for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Ulster Supervisor Nick Woerner and others officials from Ulster County addressed the issue at a private residence along the Esopus recently, while county pundits questioned the efficacy of bringing in the federal entity many have blamed for the flooding of New Orleans during the 2005 Katrina disaster.
Despite being turned down in a Senate appropriations bill, Hinchey noted that he was able to secure over $200,000 in funding for the study, which could take about three years. The study is expected to look at possible channel, watershed improvements and erosion control along the two creeks.
“It will eliminate the need for evacuations,” Woerner, said of the possible outcome of the studies. It was also added that the federal involvement could help solve stream-fixing logjams involving current jurisdiction battles between the state, city and local officials.

Route 2 Crash
A motorcyclist was killed Sunday morning when the bike he was riding drove into the path of a car that was leaving its driveway.
Killed in the crash on County Rt. 2 in the Town of Marbletown was Larry Eng, of New York City.
State Police at Wawarsing said that Margaret Gilliland was pulling out of her drive on CR 2 when Eng, who was traveling at a high rate of speed, was unable to avoid striking the car.
The woman was not injured and no charges were lodged against her.
Eng was pronounced dead at the scene by the Ulster County Medical Examiner.

Hotel Quandary
The cutoff date has passed for proof that the Phoenicia Hotel, severely damaged by fire on July 29, can be salvaged. Shandaken town officials are now expected to begin legal actions to force the owner to tear it down in the coming weeks.
At an informal Shandaken town board workshop in recent weeks, Shandaken Supervisor Robert Cross Jr. said he expected deadlines set by the board for action on the matter would pass without owner Richard Stokes providing a structural report to counter the town building officer’s opinion that the structure must be demolished. Stokes has offered his own opinion that the building could be saved, but not backed it up with any actual paperwork or action.
The deadline, Cross said, included requirements to secure the building and remove a large sign hanging off the structure over the Main Street sidewalk in Phoenicia. Cross said there was concern that the sign was no longer secured properly to the building and could crash onto the sidewalk, which remains closed to pedestrians in front of the hotel.
Jamey Umhey, a town resident who requires a wheelchair for mobility, complained to the board that too much time has passed with the sidewalk blocked. He said he is forced to drive his wheelchair out into traffic on Main Street, putting him at risk of injury.
Councilman Robert Stanley said Stokes will be issued a violation notice and be brought into court by the town to force him to carry out the demolition work. If he does not comply, the town will do the work and charge Stokes for the cost.
The legal process, however, may take a couple of months, Stanley added.
Nine fire companies converged on Main Street early Sunday morning, July 29, to battle a blaze of suspicious origin that ultimately destroyed the historic hotel, which was established in 1854 and was a haunt for the likes of Babe Ruth and bootlegging gangster Dutch Schultz. While firefighters fought to keep the blaze from spreading to neighboring buildings, the Key Bank building next to the hotel suffered water damage to the roof and its hung ceiling, as well as to carpeting and computer equipment.
The two-story, wood-frame hotel, which was a fixture on Main Street, had been vacant for months. Before that, it served as a hotel with rooms on the second floor and a restaurant and bar on the first. It also had three storefronts.

County Budget...
Speculation surrounding the state of the 2008 county budget being prepared for release Tuesday by the Ulster County Legislature had been for a spending document incorporating a 7 percent increase in the property tax levy, about the same as in 2007. But County Administrator Michael Hein, the official closest to budget preparation, was saying prior to the document’s release that it waqs too early to make predictions, and suggesting that actual increases could end up being less than predicted.
Hein’s proposed budget was to be released to the public at 2 p.m. Oct. 23 in the legislative chambers at the County Office Building on Fair Street in Kingston.
The legislature’s Republican minority leader, Glenn Noonan, said that the county’s 2007 budget, at $315 million, was the first in recent history to show a slight $57,000 decrease in spending from the prior year, but it raised the tax levy by 7.25 percent.
It also was the first budget in nearly a quarter-century prepared under a Democratic majority in the Legislature. The 2006 budget, the last submitted by outgoing Republicans, raised the levy by almost 39 percent.
Complicating matters have been a series of unfounded mandates the legislature is seeking moneys for, pending union contract negotiations, and questions about new taxes on services that could offset spending, which is expected to rise in the 3 percent range. In addition, social services spending is expected to rise by between $700,000 and $1 million, based on changing state and federal funding patterns, including a 3.25 percent Medicaid cap instituted by the state.
Some have chastised the Democratic majority for submitting it’s budget nearly a month after its promised October 1 deadline, although Dems counter by noting that that’s earlier than old GOP patterns, which saw the budget released just before county belections.
After the document was actually released on Tuesday, just before we went to press, Hein laid out two objectives for the 2008 budget: stabilizing county finances to protect property taxpayers; and delivering on legislative reform themes of “efficiency, accountability and transparency.”
The bottom line is a budget that will increase the property tax levy by 3.65 percent, the lowest increase in three years.
Hien placed the blame in the usual place: unfunded mandates. On the plus side, there are significant savings in health care costs. And a big plus for county workers, this year, there are no layoffs built into the budget.
Ways and Means Chairman Alan Lomita is very exicited about the spending plan. He expects it will pass as is, with at most, a few minor adjustments. Republican Susan Cummings, the former Ways and Means chair, isn’t taking anything at face value. She said at the release that she wants to see what’s “hidden” in the budget.
Hein repeated his proclamation that the budget is “transparent”.
Final passage isn’t required until Dec. 20.

New Department
The Ulster County Legislature has finally created a new Department of the Environment, the state’s first. The department will begin operations in 2008 with a department coordinator, at a salary yet to be determined, to be appointed by the Legislature until the new county executive takes office in January 2009.
The department will coordinate Ulster County’s environmental initiatives such as storm water management, “green” building initiatives and minimizing the county’s “carbon footprint.”
“Ulster County has taken great steps in making environmental protection a top priority,” cLegislative Environmental Cmmittee co-chairman Brian Shapiro, D-Woodstock, said in a press release. “By establishing a fully independent Department of the Environment, we will continue to lead in this field, and set a great example for other counties in New York state to follow.”
If the department has a primary agenda, it would seem to be an effort to increase efficiency by coordinating environmental services. At present, seven different departments handle environmental issues. The Department of the Environment will coordinate efforts from the county offices for Information Services, Health, Public Works, Soil and Water, Planning, Cornell Cooperative Extension and the Environmental Management Council.
The department, which will consist of a coordinator, deputy coordinator and administrative aide, will report to the county administrator, who in turn reports to the Legislature. The current Environmental Management Council, under fire for alleged mismanagement this past year, will essentially act as a check of the department, periodically reviewing operations. The council will use the department’s annual list of goals and strategies, formulated at the beginning of every year, to make sure the department is achieving what it set out to do.
The annual list of goals will be planned in conjunction with other county departments and create a budget tied directly to that plan. The department’s goals are subject to change to accommodate input from entities such as the Global Warming Advisory Committee, the Recycling Oversight Committee, and others charged with environmental oversight responsibilities.

Sex Offenders…
A community information meeting on the housing of sex offenders, an issue that arose in rural Olive in the last year when a googling parent found evidence that a Texas sex offender had placed an Olive address for his residence – then moved to state land near Samsonville – was scheduled to take place at Kingston City Hall this past Wednesday, October 24, just before our printing. We will cover the event more comprehensively in our coming issue. Participants in the meeting were set to include Nancy Schmidt from the county Probation department, Chris Farrell from Mental Health, Commissioner Roberto Rodriguez from Social Services, and Detective Gerry Schatzel from Kingston Police.
In advance of the meeting, Alderwoman Jennifer Ringwood suggested that rather than addressing various neighborhood watch meetings, a city-wide forum be held to inform residents of the status of sex offenders in Kingston. Dart stated that although he and Legislator Jeanette Provenzano have staunchly opposed housing sex offenders in the old Ulster County Jail, he wanted the public to be informed on what Ulster County is presently doing, and what the future might hold.
Chris Farrell was set to speak about various myths associated with sex offenders, including county numbers pumped up by demographics for the prison population in the county. Nancy Schmidt was going to talk about how Ulster County is managing sex offenders in Ulster County. Commissioner Roberto Rodriguez was to speak about the problems he faces as the person responsible for finding housing for sex offenders. Detective Gerry Schatzel addressed specifics about how the City of Kingston registers sex offenders and how Kingston notifies area schools and keeps track of Kingston’s sex offenders.
The meeting was designed to inform county residents on what restrictions sex offenders may have as far as where they may live and work, and also advise people on what they can do to protect their children. A question and answer period was to follow the presentations.

Gas Hikes Again
Stable gasoline prices over the last two months have shielded U.S. consumers from the impact of galloping crude oil prices, but drivers will face more pain at the pump if the cost of crude remains high into next spring, according to industry watchdogs and economists pointing out how the cost of crude oil has surged about 14 percent over the past few months to a record over $85 a barrel. Analysts now expect gasoline prices could rise to a never-before-seen $3.50 or $4 a gallon if oil prices hold near current levels into next spring when drivers hit the roads in greater numbers. That could further strain consumers already facing a housing slowdown.
Crude prices, industry pundits say, have been driven higher by expectations of tighter supplies in the winter amid ongoing production restraint by OPEC. However gasoline futures have lagged crude oil, rising only 3.8 percent over the same period.
The potential surge in gasoline prices at the end of winter would come at a time when U.S. consumers are already facing a declining housing market in many parts of the country. The one hope for drivers could be a correction in the oil market, which some analysts believe is becoming overvalued. Speculative investors have been buying crude oil and other commodities as a hedge against inflation and the declining value of the U.S. dollar.
“A lot of this market is dependent on what happens this winter and where supplies are when we come out of it,” said Eric Wittenauer of A.G. Edwards in St Louis. “If the winter is warm as it has been forecast, we could see a correction.”
However any correction is likely to be limited by the rising cost of producing oil in non-OPEC countries and continued strong demand for crude oil.

Quilt Heaven
Frost Valley YMCA in Claryville will host its “11th annual Quilting Weekend” from Friday, Oct. 26-Sunday, Oct. 28. The longtime favorite activity at Frost Valley YMCA is geared toward quilters of all ages and experience levels. Guest instructors will be: Katharina Litchman, White Sulphur Springs, Kris Driessen Albany, Sherry Sega of upstate NY, Bonnie Turner of Clarksville, and Anne Foland of Claryville.
Participants have the option of attending for the entire weekend or during attending workshops on a daily basis. Registration is limited and there are openings left in only two of the classes. Reservations are accepted on a first-come, first-served basis.
To make reservations or get further info, please call (845) 985-2291, ext. 205 or visit www.frostvalley.org.

Off The Grid…
The state Public Service Commission has ordered Central Hudson Gas and Electric Corporation to raise the cap on how much electricity generated by homes with solar installations can be sold back to the grid in return for credits on their utility bill.
Assemblyman Kevin Cahill of Kingston, a co-sponsor of the measure, sought to have the cap raised. The PSC ordered it be raised from 1.8 Mw to 10 Mw, beyond the initial request of 3 Mw filed by Sustainable Hudson Valley and New Solar Energy Industries Association.
“Net metering is a critical incentive for people considering investing in solar energy systems for their homes,” said Cahill.
The PSC decision is an “encouraging development that will allow the Mid-Hudson Valley to move ahead in expanding its uptake of renewable power, benefiting not only residents but the region’s innovative economy,” he said.

Coop Dinner!
Cornell Cooperative Extension of Ulster County and the Ulster County Farm Bureau will be putting on an evening of celebration with fine food and top notch entertainment for their annual dinner at The Hillside Manor on Route 32 in Kingston on Saturday, November 3, at 6:30pm.
Each year CCEUC recognizes individuals for their countless hours of volunteering and dedication to select programs. This year’s Friends of Extension honorees are the Davenport Farm Families of Ulster County, Lori Rotolo of Ulster County Healthy Start and Betty Burgher of Saugerties. Business and organization honorees for philanthropic support are New Paltz Agway and the Ulster County Agricultural Society.
To make reservations call CCEUC at 845-340-3990 before Friday October 26.

Kids & Colds
Very young children simply should not take some commonly used cold and cough medicines, federal health officials say in recommending that the “consult your physician” advice to parents on the labels be dropped. The preliminary recommendation, from Food and Drug Administration safety officials, would apply to decongestant use in children under 2, and antihistamines in those younger than 6. The more than 350 pages of documents are part of a broad and ongoing FDA examination of whether the roughly 800 medicines, many popular and widely used, are safe and effective in treating children’s colds and coughs. The review came in response to a recently filed petition by Baltimore city officials, who charged that many over-the-counter cough and cold remedies can harm toddlers and preschoolers. Those officials, joined by the American Academy of Pediatrics, cite evidence that suggests the drugs are not only risky but also don’t work in the very young.
An FDA review of side-effect records filed with the agency between 1969 and September 2006, found 54 reports of deaths in children associated with decongestant medicines made with pseudoephedrine, phenylephrine or ephedrine. It also found 69 reports of deaths associated with antihistamine medicines containing diphenhydramine, brompheniramine or chlorpheniramine. Most of the deaths were children younger than 2.

Wolves!
Anyone interested in learning more about wolves—and possibly their own dog’s behavior—should be intrigued by Mission: Wolf, a popular annual event in the Senate Gymnasium on the Stone Ridge campus of Ulster County Community College. The presentation, featuring Maggie, a female adult wolf, will be held on Friday, October 26. There will be shows at 5:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m., with doors open at 4:30 and 6:30 before each presentation.
Each show will begin with a short DVD about Mission: Wolf, a sanctuary and teaching facility in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. The sanctuary provides a refuge for more than 40 captive wolves and wolf-dog hybrids—animals that would be unable to survive in the wild. Experts from the sanctuary travel coast-to-coast with “ambassador wolves” like Maggie to explain the nature of wolf behavior and the need for habitat protection for the wolves’ survival. They will also debunk the “big, bad wolf” misconceptions that many people have about these animals.
Children must be accompanied by an adult. No flash photography is allowed.

Justice Shift
The Justice Department under the Bush administration has retreated from prosecutions of mobsters, white-collar criminals, environmental crimes and traditional civil rights infractions, new department data show. As part of a series of policy shifts that have greatly transformed the administration of federal justice, the department has strongly emphasized immigration and terrorism-related investigations. It has also devoted new attention to areas important to conservative activists, such as sex trafficking and obscenity, according to the department’s own performance and budget numbers.
From 2000 to 2006, for example, there were large drops in the number of defendants related to environmental offenses (down 12 percent), organized crime (38 percent), white-collar crime (10 percent), bank robbery (18 percent) and bankruptcy fraud (46 percent), according to Justice Department statistics provided this week to The Washington Post. Money-laundering prosecutions related to drugs were also down nearly 25 percent, while the number of drug cases overall was stagnant. There were simultaneous jumps in prosecutions related to immigration (up 36 percent), weapons cases (87 percent), official corruption (15 percent), and, most dramatically, terrorism and national security cases (876 percent). Indeed, Justice Department funds devoted to counterterrorism programs in Washington have tripled since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
Department officials say the surge in resources for national security and terrorism probes, in particular, reflects the intense administration efforts to prevent another attack. But the number of terrorism-related defendants has been relatively small: Prosecutions peaked at 818 in 2003 and fell to 635 by 2006, and most of these were not for terrorist acts or plans.
The result is a department far less focused on the mob bosses, drug kingpins and bank robbers who have dominated much of its history, even as new FBI studies show a substantial rise in murders and other violent crimes over the past two years. The change has been so marked that, in a speech to a police group this week, FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III signaled a desire to reinvigorate the department’s emphasis on traditional crime-fighting.
Most strikingly, the department’s statistics show that Justice is now in large part an immigration enforcement agency: More than 19,000 defendants were charged with immigration violations in federal district courts in 2006, surpassing every other category except drug crimes.
Gene R. Voegtlin, legislative counsel for the police chiefs’ organization, said the federal government’s retreat from local crime-fighting has greatly frustrated local law enforcement agencies. Federal assistance has fallen from $2.5 billion in 1997 during the Clinton administration to $1.1 billion in the Bush administration’s 2008 budget proposal, according to the police group.
The assistance has declined steadily, while violent crime rose 1.9 percent last year, following a 2.3 percent rise in 2005, FBI records show. Those two years saw the first steady increase in violent crime since 1993.

Annex Autism…
The Children’s Annex will host an evening of celebration as it dedicates a new Autism Support Center and thanks the many friends of The Annex who have contributed to their 30th Anniversary Capital Campaign on Monday, November 5th from 5:00 – 7:00 p.m. at the Kingston Children’s Annex.
Recent changes to be celebrated include the addition of a new wing, the Autism Support Center, extensive renovations to the center’s lobby and reception area, administrative and accounting offices and staff room. They will also unveil a Donor Wall, thanking by name their many generous friends, parents, staff, board members, and corporate and foundation donors.
This event will also provide an opportunity for The Children’s Annex to kick off Phase II of its current Capital Campaign to complete the vision for a facility including a Preschool Program Extension and Internal Physical Restructuring.
Founded in 1976, The Children’s Annex is a not-for-profit program designed for children with autism spectrum disorders. Its center-based schools in Kingston and Ellenville serve students between the ages of 3-12, and community based programs provide educational services for toddlers and preschoolers throughout the Hudson Valley.

Rumble Ready
Garage Rumble , the teen band battle dedicated to promoting and launching talented and musically diverse young bands from Upstate New York’s Hudson Valley Region, is in its third year! Eight emerging bands will get a chance to perform before our judge’s panel of music industry movers and shakers including:
Gold and Platinum singer, songwriter, Donna Lewis….. Chronogram Music Editor and Roll Magazine contributing writer, lead vocalist, guitarist, and songwriter of New York band the Chrome Cranks, Peter Aaron….. Publicist, Promoter and Empress of Chill Media Maven, Elissa J Mastel….. Artist Manager and Studio Manager of the beautiful Allaire Studios, Mark McKenna….. and Frankie McGinnis crispy, power pop balladeer, and guitarist of the fab duo Frankie and his Fingers– click here for more detailed info our 2007 Judges Panel
On Sunday, November 11th, 2007, from 3-8 PM, eight teen bands will raise the roof at the historic Bearsville Theater , built by legendary impresario Albert Grossman, as a part of his Bearsville Sound Studio complex. With full proscenium stage, lights, and a fantastic house sound system, The Bearsville Theater is the premier and prestigious music venue in the Hudson Valley region!
http://www.bearsvilletheater.com

Garage Rumble
100.1 WDST is now the official radio station of the Garage Rumble and is offering an Honorable Mention/second place prize of two days use of the legendary Utopia Studios Sound Stage in Woodstock. Bands will rumble to win the grand prizes of a session with veteran engineer, Chris Andersen, at the renowned Nevessa Production Recording Studio and an opportunity to perform live on the Hudson Valley’s exclusive music TV show, Poughkeepsie Live on Time Warner Cable 6.
More super prizes, band gift bags, and back line will provided by our very generous and growing list of national and local sponsors including Tech 21 USA, Vox, Marshall, ESP Guitars, Barcone’s Music, Audix Microphones, D’Addario Strings, Planet Waves, Evans Drumheads, SWR Bass Amplification, Woodstock Music Works and many more!
For details on how to submit your band or more info on Garage Rumble 2007, click on garagerumble.com. Submissions must be postmarked by October 27th, 2007.

Bad Fumes
Inhaling diesel exhaust fumes causes a threefold increase in stress on the heart by altering its electrical activity, say researchers from the University of Edinburgh. Working together with colleagues from Sweden, they reported in last month’s New England Journal of Medicine that in addition to triggering heart attacks, diesel fumes also increase the risk of blood clots. In the study, twenty men were made to inhale dilute diesel exhaust while riding an exercise bike in a laboratory.
Nicholas Mills who lead the study, said that diesel engines generated 10 to 100 times more pollutant particles than gas engines. The findings could increase pressure for diesel powered vehicles to be fitted with pollution filters. Another recent US study suggested that long term exposure to traffic fumes increases the risk of death from heart attack and stroke by 76%.

Star Scams!
Police have learned of a scam pertaining to the STAR tax rebate program. Several residents reported that they received an e-mail stating they were an official at the STAR rebate program and to receive the rebate the resident contacted must provide their date of birth, Social Security number, and a credit card number so that their rebate can be processed and sent.
In actuality, the official STAR rebate form is mailed to the resident asking very few questions, and when completed it is to be mailed back to the address on the form, police said.
Police said if anyone receives an unsolicited e-mail asking for the extra information, it is most likely an identity theft scam to obtain the personal information, police said.
Any questions should be addressed to local police departments.

Press Freedoms
The House of Representatives has strongly backed the right of reporters to protect the confidentiality of sources in most federal court cases, saying that right was crucial to a free and effective press. The White House threatened a veto, saying the bill would encourage leaks of classified information.
Under legislation that passed by 398 to 21, reporters could still be compelled to disclose information on sources if that information was needed to prevent acts of terrorism or harm to national security. But that was not enough for the White House, which said the privileges given to reporters “could severely frustrate - and in some cases completely eviscerate - the ability to investigate acts of terrorism or threats to national security.”
Press freedom advocates have pushed the issue this year after several prominent cases involving journalists who were asked to identify sources, including subpoenas issued for reporters to testify in an inquiry into the leak of the identity of a Central Intelligence Agency operative. Supporters of the bill, including more than 50 news organizations, pointed to news reports on Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, clandestine C.I.A. prisons and shoddy conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center as examples where source confidentiality was crucial.
Representative Mike Pence, Republican of Indiana, a conservative who sponsored the bill with Representative Rick Boucher, Democrat of Virginia, said he promoted it because “I believe the only check on government power in real time is a free and independent press.” The bill, Mr. Pence said, “is not about protecting reporters; it’s about protecting the public’s right to know.”
A similar bill, sponsored by Senator Arlen Specter, Republican of Pennsylvania, cleared the Senate Judiciary Committee this month, but it is uncertain if the full Senate will take it up in the final legislative weeks of this year.

Adoption Heart!
A special exhibit will greet visitors to the Kingston City Hall on November 8, during “National Adoption Awareness Month” in Ulster County. The Heart Gallery exhibit is being brought to Kingston for three days in recognition of the county’s efforts to find adoptive families for children in its foster care and adoption program and also to recruit potential foster parents.
The exhibit will be on display in the main lobby from November 8th – 10th , with an opening reception to be held on November 8 at 4:30 pm. The Heart Gallery features 25 beautiful, professionally photographed portraits of some of the children in foster care throughout the Mid-Hudson region who are waiting to be adopted. There are many children in New York State who are freed for adoption and in need of an adoptive resource.
This exhibit will debut in Westchester County from October 18 – 20 at the Westchester County Center and will then travel to Putnam County at the Putnam County Office Building from October 22-26. Dutchess County will host the exhibit at the Poughkeepsie Galleria from November 2 – 4. The exhibit will then appear in Ulster County at Kingston City Hall from November 8 – 10, followed by Orange County from November 15 – 17 at the Galleria at Crystal Run. The Heart Gallery will conclude in Rockland County from November 30 – December 2 at the Palisades Mall in West Nyack.
To learn more about this exhibit or how to become a foster/adoptive parent, call 334-5400 at the Ulster County Department of Social Services.

No Heat Help?
About 30 million low-income American households who will need help paying heating bills this winter from a U.S. government program will be left in the cold because of a lack of funding for the program. The government’s Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, known as LIHEAP and long a major program in these parts, only has enough funding to cover 16 percent of the 38 million poor households eligible for the program. The current $2.16 billion LIHEAP budget in only $300 million more than what the program had when it was created by Congress in 1981. Despite higher energy costs, the Bush administration has proposed cutting the program’s budget.
The Energy Department forecasts that household expenses for all heating fuels will rise this winter from last year, with costs for heating oil up 22 percent, propane up 16 percent, natural gas up 10 percent and residential electric bills up 4 percent.
About two-thirds of the households that receive LIHEAP assistance have annual incomes of less than $20,000. Because more people asked for help, the average grant under the program fell from $451 last year to $314 this year.
LIHEAP has an interim annual budget of $2.16 billion, but the White House wants to cut the program to $1.78 billion for the 2008 spending year that began on October 1. The House of Representatives has passed legislation to boost the program to $2.66 billion, while a Senate committee has cleared a bill keeping LIHEAP at its current $2.16 billion budget.
Vetoes loom…

Slipping Recruits
Fast on the U.S. Marines formal request that it shift operations from Iraq to Afghanistan, the U.S. Army announced that it has met its recruiting goals for the last year… but enlisted thousands of new soldiers with criminal records and fewer who have earned high school diplomas. The spike of new enlistees given “character” waivers for fiscal 2007 continues a steady upward trend in the number of recruits with past arrests and convictions allowed into the Army since the start of the war in Iraq.
More than 11 percent of the Army recruits needed waivers for problems with the law - up from 7.9 percent the previous year and more than double the percentage in 2003, the year the U.S. invaded Iraq. Maj. Gen. Thomas Bostick, commander of the U.S. Army Recruiting Command, stressed that a vast majority, about 87 percent, of those allowed in with waivers had misdemeanors for such offenses as joy riding or violating curfew. Most faced little punishment beyond community service for their actions, Bostick said.
But at the same time, the number of enlistees with felony convictions and arrests in their pasts has increased. In 2003, the Army allowed 459 enlistees with felony arrests and convictions into the service compared to 1,620 this past year.
The Army met the annual recruiting goal after missing its May and June targets. About 18.5 percent of the recruits needed some kind of waiver, including those for medical problems and drug and alcohol issues. More than half of the new recruits brought in between July and Sept. 30 were paid $20,000 “quick-ship” bonuses. The bonuses require recruits to report to boot camp within 30 days of recruitment.

Lowered Benefits
The cost of living adjustment means that the monthly benefit for the typical retired worker in 2008 will go from $1,055 currently to $1,079 next year. The adjustment, announced by the Social Security Administration, will go to more than 54 million Americans. Nearly 50 million receive Social Security benefits and the rest get Supplemental Security Income payments aimed at helping the poor.
The 2.3 percent increase is the smallest since a 2.1 percent rise in 2004. It compares to an increase of 3.3 percent last year and a jump of 4.1 percent in 2006, which had been the biggest advance in 15 years.
“Social Security recipients are going to feel like they are getting squeezed,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Economy.com. “For most households out buying gasoline and a loaf of bread, it feels like inflation is high.”
Part of the Social Security increase will be eaten up by a rise in the cost of Medicare, the giant health care program that covers the elderly and disabled. The government announced earlier this month that Medicare premiums will rise 3.1 percent next year or $2.50 to $96.40 per month. That is the lowest Medicare premium increase in six years.
The average retired couple, both receiving Social Security benefits, will see their monthly check go from $1,722 to $1,761, an increase of $39. The standard SSI payment for an individual will go from $623 per month to $637. The average monthly check for a disabled worker will go from $981 to $1,004.

Sustainable?
With sustainable building the new guiding principle for communities and institutions, advisors are needed to guide employers and clients in strategies and tools for implementing current and future standards. SUNY Ulster, in conjunction with the National Sustainable Building Advisors Program, will offer a training course beginning in January for working professionals who wish to become certified sustainable building advisors.
A free information session will be held on Friday, October 26, at 4:30 p.m. at the Business Resource Center on Ulster Avenue in the Town of Ulster. The Sustainable Building Advisor Certificate Program will run from January through June, 2008, at three week intervals, from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Fridays and 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. on Saturdays. Instructors are architect Janus Welton, AIA, BBEC, IFSG, and e j George of Ithaca Building Alliance, Natural Builders Northeast and the Upstate New York chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council.
Professionals who would benefit from this course include facilities and capital project managers, developers and contractors, and those who work for design and engineering firms or research, educational and sustainability institutions, public utilities, or government agencies, resource conservation organizations and consultants.
The curriculum was developed by the leading sustainable building training program in the United States. Building professionals will study key building practices and learn to apply relevant criteria and guidelines, including LEED™ and BUILT GREEN™, analyze costs and benefits, establish goals and take advantage of financial incentives and technical assistance offered by governments and organizations. Hands-on team projects, instruction by respected experts and field trips are enhancements to the effectiveness of the training course.
For more on the free information session and the training course, contact Ann Songayllo at (845) 687-5012 or songayla@sunyulster.edu.