8/12/2010

Gas Drilling?
On the one hand, good news seems afoot regarding the touchy subject of hydrofracking, or drilling for natural gas under lands in what's called the Marcellus Shale, stretching from Pennsylvania into parts of the Catskills watershed area.
A midnight vote by the State Senate a couple of weeks ago passed a measure that would place a moratorium on hydrofracking for natural gas in the Marcellus Shale formation for 11 months. All that's needed now is a similar vote by the state Assembly, which is dominated by Democrats and downstaters, the latter kean on avoiding any possible damage to New York City drinking water. That vote was expected next month.
Then there were the frustrations involved in dealing with so many layers of bureaucracy, compounded by the growth of this issue as a key organizing tool over recent weeks. Especially in light of a final hearing's last minute move of nearly a hundred miles in central New York, days before it's to occur. Expected to draw thousands convinced that their voices were needed to assure the expected Assembly support they were after, many cried fowl at the last-minute shift.
The 48 yes votes on July 28 for a complete drilling moratorium pending completion of a new Environmental Protection Agency study on the procedure included 15 Republicans, among them Hudson Valley Senators John Bonacic of Mount Hope and Stephen Saland of Poughkeepsie.
Subsequently, a company that had planned on drilling in neighboring areas of Pennsylvania is pulling out. Cabot Oil & Gas reportedly is not willing to wait out a similar Delaware River Basin Commission moratorium on drilling until a study into the impact on the Delaware watershed is finished.
Meanwhile, Independent Oil and Gas Association of New York Executive Director Brad Gill went on the offensive, stating that, "Reason, science, logic and economic opportunity has lost out to a calculated campaign of misinformation and ignorance. On the very same night the Legislature passed a budget that included $1.6 billion in new taxes, fees and assessments, the Senate turned its back on an industry that would have safely explored for natural gas and provided a large part of the solution to New York's economic despair."
He asked that the industry be allowed to seek permits even while a state Department of Environmental Conservation review is done to revise drilling regulations.
As for the frustrations... A long-planned meeting scheduled for this Thursday, August 12 at SUNY Binghamton, expected to draw thousands of attendees from New York State and beyond to discuss the risks of hydraulic fracturing, was abruptly moved at least 70 miles away to the Crouse-Hinds Theater in the Oncenter complex in Syracuse via a press announcement earlier this week.
The hearing is to be the last of four held around the country, and the only one in New York State.
"I think the move to Syracuse reflects that too many people in the Southern Tier are engaged in the issue, and the EPA and BU did not feel they could safely accommodate a hearing there," said Sierra Club Atlantic Chapter Conservation Associate Roger Downs, who had been negotiating with BU about where to place a rally that was scheduled to be held by a number of environmental groups.
EPA, in the form of someone well known to the Catskills from her days in Albany, pointed an accusatory finger at Binghamton U:
"In July, Binghamton University agreed to host public meetings on EPA's study of hydraulic fracturing. As such, EPA relied on this negotiated agreement and announced that this important public discussion would take place at the Binghamton University campus," noted Judith Enck, EPA Regional Administrator, Region 2. "Since that agreement, the University has taken several actions to dissuade EPA from holding the meetings. First, they changed the meeting's location to a room that is not air conditioned - making the location a threat to public safety. When we pushed back on this change, they agreed to allow us to use an air-conditioned room, but at a cost to American taxpayers of more than 500 percent higher than the University's original estimate. We considered this unacceptable. EPA looked for alternative facilities in the city of Binghamton and was not able to find an appropriate space."
The original event was expected to draw as many as 8,000 people in addition to the 1,200 who registered to speak at the meeting, it's been reported. The Crouse-Hinds Theater in Syracuse holds 2,117.
Ash Borer...
The number of Ulster County sites infested by the emerald ash borer has risen to 20, as state and federal investigators continue to find signs of the ash-tree-killing beetle. The latest sites include trees in the Catskill Park's Forest Preserve, including one in Chichester, and one about a half-mile away from the Ashokan Reservoir.
Federal and state authorities are also pondering a quarantine to ban logging and the transporting of firewood around the part of Ulster County that's been infested.
Once infested, forests that fall to ash borer beetles become denuded of their valuable ash trees, which then become tinder for possible fires.
Altogether, it is currently estimated that approximately seven percent of Catskills forests are made up of ash trees.
Dog Hoarder
After being watched for almost a year and always avoiding arrest by a thin margin, a 52-year-old woman has been arrested and charged with failing to provide proper sustenance to a dog and faces further charges in connection with 40 dogs that were found in cages and without food or water, according to the Ulster County Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
Her number came up last week after moving the animals to a new location in Phoenicia, ironically a closed pet store, along route 28 just outside the hamlet.
Marie Castaldo of the Super 8 Motel in Kingston was arrested Thursday night by SPCA investigators, Shandaken police and the Ulster County Sheriff's Office, and charged with one count of failure to provide proper sustenance to animals.
According to Brian Shapiro, the SPCA's executive director, 39 additional counts are pending. He said the arrest followed a year-long investigation.
Shapiro said the dogs were discovered in the empty storefront of the former Phoenicia Feed Store at 1026 Old Route 28 in Phoenicia and were in varying states of poor medical condition. He said they had no food or water and were covered in their own wastes.
He called it a classic case of animal hoarding and said the animals had "no quality of life whatsoever."
The SPCA seized all of the dogs, some of which are now receiving emergency medical care at the shelter in Kingston. Others are tenants at the town of Shandaken Animal Shelter.
Shapiro said the investigation is continuing. After her arrest, a man that knew Castaldo came forward and surrendered another dog along with nine pups, saying that Castaldo had been keeping them in another location. Police are also looking into allegations that Castaldo sold dogs from her "collection" in the parking lot of a local supermarket.
Castaldo was arraigned and sent to Ulster County Jail in lieu of $10,000 bail.
So severe is the case, one local restaurant is working with the SPCA to host a fundraiser to pay for the care of the animals.
To send a donation go to the UCSPCA web site at www.ucspca.org or to the local town shelter which is S.A.V.E (Shandaken animal volunteer effort), call 845-688-7165 for more information.
Brown Bats...
Recent research made available by watershedpost.us is predicting that the little brown bat, our region's most common such mammal, could become extinct in the region within 16 years as the result of a fast-spreading fungus that attacks hibernating bats over the winter and causes them to emerge from hibernation early, causing massive fatalities. In a worst-case scenario, which assumes that 45% of the little brown bat population continues to die each winter, there is a 99% probability of regional extinction within 16 years. If mortality declines to 10%, some little brown bats would last for 80 years, but the population would be dramatically smaller.
Because brown bats eat a large amount of insects, including pests, a decline in their number could threaten farm fields and forests throughout our area, and lead to a possible increase in the presence of mosquitoes.
Transport Plans?
The Ulster County Transportation Council (UCTC) announced the availability of its Draft Long Range Transportation Plan Update 2035 (LRTP) and Draft 2011-2015 Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) for a short window of new public comment at a public information meeting on the LRTP and the TIP on August 3 at the Ulster County Office Building in Kingston. Written comments can now be taken through next Friday, August 20.
Emphasis of the Year 2035 LRTP Update includes improved integration of multimodal transportation systems, traffic safety, congestion management, and maintenance of both the highway and public transit systems. Furthermore, quality-of-life issues and non-motorized modes of transportation are again being given increased attention as a part of the update process, via studies and prioritized spending requests, which the plan has emphasized.
Federal requirements stipulate the LRTP must address a minimum 20-year planning horizon and be updated no less than once every five years. The most recent Ulster County Transportation Council LRTP update was adopted September of 2005. The process entails a comprehensive evaluation of transportation needs across most modes of travel and includes a public outreach process, of which the recent meeting and current public comment period are parts. The study effort involves an update to the current status of the transportation system in Ulster County, identifies future needs and strategies, and outlines financing options and incorporates the desires of the public.
Included in the new plan, set for adoption August 31, are such county highway and bridge needs as rehabilitation of the Kingston-Esopus Suspension Bridge, an extension of Frank Sottile Blvd. to Route 299 near the malls, and similar needs in the Saugerties, Ellenville, Kingston and New Paltz areas. Better rail corridors, including a rethinking of the Ulster & Delaware line's path up along the Route 28 corridor, and further development of its rail trail plans, are key, along with more bus routes and exploration of a possible Kingston-Rhinecliff ferry.
Surveys, while sparse, found that 88 percent believed more money should be spent on bettering local transportation, and 57 percent supported the development of more bicycle and hiking paths.
Current projects considered as already funded, at least in promised monies, include $82.4 million in bridge projects, $35.3 million in intersection/traffic signals; $31.8 million in paving projects, $26.2 million in transit; $20.9 million in trail and sidewalk projects; $5.1 million in railroad Xing improvements, half a million in studies, and another $11.0 million in sundry projects for a total of $213.2 million being spent or pegged for spending in upgrades, through stimulus and other funds, already.
For projects geared towards expected population hikes and transportation needs for the next quarter century, the plan calls for $139.2 million in new bridge projects; $127.8 million for new paving/Road Recon. Projects; $34.5 million more for trail and sidewalk projects; $31.6 million for new transit work; $30.2 million for intersection/traffic signals; $18.3 million for railroad Xing improvements and another half million for studies, for a total of $382.1 million.
Anticipated revenues during this period leave a shortfall, at present, of significant proportions.
Copies of the Draft LRTP and TIP can be found on the UCTC Website at http://www.co.ulster.ny.us/planning/tran.html. Copies of the Draft LRTP and TIP may also be viewed at the Ulster County Planning Department located at 244 Fair Street, PO Box 1800, Kingston, NY 12402-1800
Written comments should be postmarked no later than Friday August 20, 2010 and should be addressed to Dennis Doyle, Director, Ulster County Transportation Council, 244 Fair Street, PO Box 1800, Kingston, NY 12402-1800. Email comments may be submitted to ddoy@co.ulster.ny.us.
Better to plan dryly, is with some fright and worry now, than to let things go for the future...
Net Neutrality...
Just days after the FCC announced it was abandoning efforts to reach a compromise on net neutrality, the concept that neither business nor government can constrain basic information access on the Internet (barring paid-for sites and services), Google CEO Eric Schmidt and Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg laid out a "joint policy proposal" this past week that would provide their own guidelines for how information and Internet traffic should be handled over wireless and wireline networks.
Google published the terms of the Google-Verizon agreement in a blog post titled "A Joint Policy for an Open Internet" that many are saying would force a new favoring of certain Internet providers and content. A new legal system, with momentary fines, would be set up fo FCC regulation, based largely on whistleblower activity that could end up weighted towards larger companies such as the two who came up with the agreement.
More troubling to those who like the Web as it is point to a provision that would "allow broadband providers to offer additional, differentiated online services, in addition to the Internet access and video services offered today" including "health care monitoring, the smart grid, advanced educational services, or new entertainment and gaming options."
The proposal distinguishes between wireline and wireless networks, and notes that "most", but not all, of the wireline principles would be applicable to wireless networks: "In recognition of the still-nascent nature of the wireless broadband marketplace, under this proposal we would not now apply most of the wireline principles to wireless, except for the transparency requirement."
The proposal seeks the creation of a provider-paid-for Federal Universal Service Fund to aid with the deployment of broadband in areas where it is not now available.
"There is no prioritization of traffic that would come from Google over the Internet, period," Verizon's CEO said. "There would be no paid prioritization of traffic over the Internet. If someone else wants to bundle capabilities in a new service that has different features, and those were transparent to everybody and measurable, that would be permissible."
Both CEOs also emphasized that there was no business arrangement between the two companies.
The proposal represents the two firms' "joint efforts to offer suggestions to the public policy arena to see how we can move our industry forward," explained Seidenberg, adding that the FCC will review the proposal and comment on it soon.
"So Google and Verizon went public today with their 'policy framework' - better known as the pact to end the Internet as we know it," read the news item on the announcement on Huffington Post this week. "News of this deal broke this week, sparking a public outcry that's seen hundreds of thousands of Internet users calling on Google to live up to its 'Don't Be Evil' pledge. The proposal is one massive loophole that sets the stage for the corporate takeover of the Internet.
Net Neutrality is subsequently being reiteratedto mean that "Internet service providers can't discriminate between different kinds of online content and applications. It guarantees a level playing field for all Web sites and Internet technologies."
Critics, including Bloomberg News, are also charging agreement between Verizon and Google could also upend the efforts of the Federal Communications Commission to assert its authority over broadband service, which was severely restricted by a federal appeals court decision last spring. Since then, the F.C.C. has been trying to find a way to regulate broadband delivery, and that effort has been the subject of a series of private meetings at the agency's headquarters in recent weeks. At the meetings, officials from the nation's biggest Internet services and content providers, including Google and Verizon, have tried to reach a consensus on how broadband Internet service should be regulated.
The court decision said the F.C.C. lacked the authority to require that an Internet service provider refrain from blocking or slowing down some content or applications, or giving favor to others. The F.C.C. has since sought another way to enforce the concept of net neutrality. But its proposals have been greeted with much objection amongst Republicans in Congress and among major Internet service providers, cable companies and some Internet content producers.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Agriculture is awarding roughly $1.2 billion for 126 projects across the country to connect homes, businesses, and critical community institutions like hospitals and police stations, that don't currently have adequate access. Lists of who gets what will be rolled out in the coming weeks...
Stay tuned...
Dumbing Down?
"Digital natives" is the new term for those whose worlds - half in cyberspace, half on terra firma - are breeding what might be called a new species of thinkers. The early 21st century may be a watershed moment in how humans learn and communicate, a change perhaps not equaled since the invention of the printing press nearly six centuries ago.
Today's technology may be determining not just how we spend our time: It actually may be "rewiring" the way we think, how we experience the world around us. Some fret over what's happening to our attention spans, our ability to think and read deeply, to enjoy time with our own thoughts or a good book. Others scoff that those concerns are nothing new: Socrates, it's pointed out, thought that writing itself would harm a person's ability to internalize learning, the printed word acting as a substitute for true understanding. Technologies such as printing, and in recent decades television and the pocket calculator, have all served time as villains only to become innocuous, commonplace parts of modern life.
Those caught in the middle are aware that something significant is happening, but wary about whether they or others are grasping the big picture. Is technology making us dumb and distracted or turning us into expert information finders and magnificent multitaskers? Is being connected online 24/7 good or bad? Is there even a good way to tell?
"The brain of a child who is immersed in six to seven hours of digitally dominated media daily and reads only a little off-line will have differences from a child immersed only in books and who learns to attend, concentrate, and think about what he or she reads," writes Maryanne Wolf, who directs the Center for Reading and Language Research at Tufts University. "The problem with much of our digital media is that they engage attention quickly and then engage again and again. Children are constantly moving to the next piece of information... My worry is that children are becoming wonderfully engaged with the superficial levels of information but unaware of the need to probe and think for themselves."
Nora Volkow, a brain researcher and director of the National Institute of Drug Abuse, agrees: "The technology is rewiring our brains."
A two-class society may develop, with a mostly younger generation who are "the people of the screen" and a mostly older generation who are "the people of the book" - with two quite different ways of understanding the world, theorizes British neuroscientist Susan Greenfield.
"At the beginning of the 21st Century, we may be standing on the brink of a mind-makeover more cataclysmic than anything in our history," she wrote in 2006. "The science and technology that is already becoming central to our lives will soon come to transform not just the way we spend each day, but the way we think and feel."
Some polls and studies seem to back up the "Internet is rewiring brains" argument. Nearly 30 percent of Americans under the age of 45 say using devices like smart phones and PCs increases their feelings of stress and makes it more difficult to concentrate, a poll found last month. Other polls point to the pervasive allure of being "connected" online, with one finding that a third of women ages 18 to 34 check their Facebook accounts as soon as they wake up in the morning, even before they visit the bathroom or brush their teeth. And while some 54 percent of teens send text messages by phone to their friends daily, just 33 percent actually talk face to face with them, a poll from the Pew Internet & American Life Project found.
A Harris Interactive poll last winter found American adults surf the Net on average 13 hours per week, not counting e-mails. The number was just seven hours per week in 2002. And while only 23 percent of adults think they personally spend too much time on their Internet-linked gadgets, according to a Rasmussen Reports survey earlier this year, 75 percent think young children spent too much time online and playing video games.
But plenty of high-powered intellects remain skeptical that hours spent online is "rewiring our brains" or making us dumber.
"It's indisputable that the Internet has made us smarter.... The range of things you can explore in a day is just fantastic compared to 20 years ago," says David Weinberger, senior researcher at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass. "There's no question that we feel the Internet has made us better researchers, better thinkers, better writers."
Steven Pinker, a professor of psychology at Harvard, points out that one kind of deep thinking - scientific research - is flourishing today as the Internet allows unprecedented levels of collaboration and cooperation. "Discoveries are multiplying like fruit flies, and progress is dizzying," he wrote.
Paul Saffo, a longtime Silicon Valley technology forecaster, says the engineering students he teaches at Stanford University in California show outstanding skills in what he calls "associative memory" - how to know what to look for.
Talk about new things to e-mail - and maybe even talk face to face about.
Generational!
Two of the biggest demographic trends reshaping the nation in the 21st century increasingly appear to be on a collision course that could rattle American politics for decades. From one direction, racial diversity in the United States is growing, particularly among the young. Minorities now make up more than two-fifths of all children under 18, and they will represent a majority of all American children by as soon as 2023, demographer William Frey of the Brookings Institution predicts.
At the same time, the country is also aging, as the massive Baby Boom Generation moves into retirement. But in contrast to the young, fully four-fifths of this rapidly expanding senior population is white. That proportion will decline only slowly over the coming decades, Frey says, with whites still representing nearly two-thirds of seniors by 2040.
These twin developments are creating what could be called a generational mismatch, or a "cultural generation gap" as Frey labels it. A contrast in needs, attitudes, and priorities is arising between a heavily (and soon majority) nonwhite population of young people and an overwhelmingly white cohort of older people. Like tectonic plates, these slow-moving but irreversible forces may generate enormous turbulence as they grind against each other in the years ahead.
Over time, the major focus in this struggle is likely to be the tension between an aging white population that appears increasingly resistant to taxes and dubious of public spending, and a minority population that overwhelmingly views government education, health, and social-welfare programs as the best ladder of opportunity for its children.
"Anything to do with children in the public arena is going to generate a stark competition for resources," Frey says.
"The future of America is in this question: Will the Baby Boomers recognize that they have a responsibility and a personal stake in ensuring that this next generation of largely Latino and African-American kids are prepared to succeed?" contends Stephen Klineberg, a sociologist at Rice University in Houston. "This ethnic transformation could be the greatest asset this county will have, with a young multilingual, well-educated workforce. Or it could tear us apart and become a major liability."
At the root of the generational mismatch are federal policies that severely reduced immigration from the 1920s until Congress loosened the restrictions in 1965. With immigration constrained, whites remained an overwhelming majority of American society through the mid-20th century, including the years of the post-World War II Baby Boom. (Demographers date the Baby Boom from 1946 to 1964, the year before the restrictions on immigration were eased.) The result was a heavily white generation of young people. Since 1965, however, expanded immigration and higher fertility rates among minorities have literally changed the face of America. As recently as 1980, minorities made up about one-fifth of the total population and one-fourth of children under 18. Today, the Census Bureau reports, racial minorities represent about 35 percent of the total population and 44 percent of children under 18. Whites make up 56 percent of young people and 80 percent of seniors
Across a charged cultural battlefield, one side sees a program of preservation, the other an agenda of exclusion. The distance between these perspectives isn't likely to narrow any time soon.
Typically, Republican legislators and governors, most of whom rely primarily on the votes of whites, prefer to close the gaps principally (if not exclusively) by cutting spending, rather than raising taxes. Democrats, who rely more heavily on the votes of minorities, and include more minority legislators in their caucuses, typically prefer to buffer spending cuts by pairing them with tax increases.
Largely because of Medicare and Social Security, Washington now spends $7 per senior citizen for each $1 it spends per child, according to a 2009 report by Julia Isaacs, a fellow at the Brookings Institution. Even including spending by state and local governments, which fund most education costs, government at all levels still spends more than twice as much per capita on seniors (about $22,000) than on children (about $9,000). To compound the inequity, she says, young people are not only slighted for investment now, they are also likely to face a "tax burden ... much higher than current tax rates" to fund the retirement benefits promised to seniors.
Sustainable?
The Senate Banking Committee passed the Livable Communities Act recently, moving the bill one step closer to final passage. The bill creates $4 billion in neighborhood planning grants for "sustainable" living projects and a new federal office to oversee them.
Similar legislation in the House was criticized by Republicans who charge that "the program's aim is to impose a Washington-based, central planning model on localities across the country."
In the Senate version, the Livable Communities Act would designate $4 billion to aid local governments in planning high-density, walkable neighborhoods. Premised on helping local governments to combat suburban sprawl and traffic congestion, the bill sets up two separate grant programs. One, known as Comprehensive Planning Grants, would go to cities and counties to assist them in carrying out such plans as the coordination of land use, housing, transportation, and infrastructure planning processes, the updating of housing, infrastructure, transportation, energy, and environmental assessments to determine regional needs and promote sustainable development; and the implementation of local zoning and other code changes necessary to implement a comprehensive regional plan and promote sustainable development.
The second grant type - Sustainability Challenge Grants - funds local efforts to promote integrated transportation, housing, energy, and economic development activities carried out across policy and governmental jurisdictions; promote sustainable and location-efficient development; and implement projects identified in a comprehensive regional plan.
To administer and regulate these new grants, the bill creates the Office of Sustainable Housing and Communities (OSHC) within the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
The legislation is designed to prod local communities toward high-density, public transit-oriented neighborhoods that concentrate large numbers of people into small geographic areas connected by train and bus networks. These high-density neighborhoods would be combined with high-density commercial districts that - in theory - would reduce the need for daily driving and commuting.
Senior Scams
Ulster County Sheriff Paul VanBlarcum and District Attorney Holley Carnright warned residents of a telephone scam that appears to be targeting senior citizens.
The scam takes the form of a caller purporting to be the answerer's grandchild and claims to be in jail, asking for bail money to be wired from Wal-mart via Western Union.
There have been five recent complaints of this type of scam this year in Ulster County. VanBlarcum said the phone numbers were from Ontario, Canada. Callbacks to the numbers produced an "out of service" recording. In two of the reported cases, the loss amounted to $8,000. Those calls are believed to have originated from the United Kingdom.
If you receive such a call, VanBlarcum said you should report it to the county's consumer Fraud Bureau and the police. The fraud bureau number is 845-340-3260.
Fatal Accident
An Arkville woman faces misdemeanor charges after she was involved in an Olive car crash Tuesday, August 10, that left a 19-year-old passenger dead. The driver, 31-year-old Erica M. Miller, was arrested on charges of driving while ability impaired by drugs and endangering the welfare of a child following the one-car crash on state Route 28, just east of De Silva Road.
Ulster County Sheriff's deputies said Miller was westbound on Route 28 and approaching an area where traffic was slowing when she swerved to avoid a collision with the vehicle in front of her, lost control of her vehicle and struck a guardrail, causing the vehicle to overturn onto its roof. A passenger in the rear seat, Jordan Soderback, 19, of Arkville, was thrown from the vehicle and pinned underneath when it overturned. Soderback was pronounced dead at the scene.
Also in the vehicle were Miller's brother, Shawn Scudder, 24, of Arkville; a friend, Diane Fairbairn, 18, of Arkville; and Miller's 5-year-old daughter. Miller, her daughter, Scudder and Fairbairn were taken to Kingston Hospital, treated and released.
Miller, who deputies said was under the influence of prescription medications, was additionally charged with the traffic violations of being an unlicensed driver, following too closely and having unsafe tires. She was arraigned in Hurley Town Court and sent to the Ulster County Jail in lieu of $7,500 cash bail pending a court appearance.
Assisting at the scene were the Olive Police Department, state police, the New York City Department of Environmental Protection, Olive Fire Department and Olive Emergency Medical Service.