(News Briefs August 2, 2007)

Stay Closed
A well-known eatery near Roxbury may end up closed indefinitely because of New York City watershed regulations. Veronica’s Restaurant, active since the late 1800’s, closed for renovations over a year ago. As luck would have it, nobody took a close look at those regulations, except the City’s Department of Environmental Protection. DEP noted that due to being closed that long, Veronica’s needs a whole new state of the art septic system if they want to open again. The owners turned their nose up at the prospect of paying for the six digit system, but DEP said fine, stay closed.
The owners asked for help from the increasingly non-influential Coalition of Watershed Towns, who decided they could not help in any way. So, the options are to build the system or stay closed and hope that in a few years they can tie their business in to the Roxbury sewer system extension planned to run to nearby Hubbell Corners.
Woodstock Supervisor Jeremy Wilbur, one of two Ulster County delegates on the Coalition’s Executive Committee, made an unsuccessful appeal to DEP, telling the Agency’s Jeff Graff that there must be a way to help Veronica’s since all agree this is not a water quality issue but a regulatory one. Wilbur thinks DEP should not officially endorse the use of the existing septic system, but they shouldn’t take any serious action if against the business. This would allow staying open until that sewer extension comes through.
“Fine them, but don’t kill them,” Wilbur said.
Better Wells?
We’ve had help with our septics… now’s the time for new aid to better our wells.
Certain low- to moderate-income individuals or families may be eligible for money to construct, repair or improve household water well systems through 1 percent interest loans from the Foundation for Affordable Drinking Water. Qualified applicants can borrow up to $8,000 at 1 percent interest for a term not to exceed 20 years. To qualify, households must: Own the home and use it as the principal residence; Have as the primary drinking water source an individual household well system located on
the property of the home; Must meet income and other eligibility requirements; Be located in a city, town, or unincorporated area with a population of less than 50,000.
The program is available in Alabama, Colorado, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nebraska, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Washington, West Virginia, and Wisconsin. The foundation, established by the National Ground Water Association, will not underwrite a loan once a project is underway or has been completed. Most new home construction projects are not eligible.
Another important aspect of the loan program is to educate loan recipients on the importance of regular well maintenance and annual testing of their well system.
Complete information, including application forms and requirements and income eligibility limits, can to accessed by going to www.ngwa.org and clicking on the link for the Foundation for Affordable Drinking Water. Applications and additional information can also be obtained by contacting the foundation at (800) 551-7379, (614) 898-7791, ext. 544, or by emailing Peg Leach at pleach@ngwa.org. You also can learn more about the program by going to www.wellowner.org and clicking on “Financing.”

That DA Race…
Vincent Bradley Jr. vowed to stay in the race for Ulster County district attorney after the county Democratic Committee on July 21 overwhelmingly denied his request to run in a September primary against party nominee Jonathan Sennett by a near 2-1 vote..
As a result the stage has been set for a three-way DA’s race between Sennett, Republican Holley Carnright and Bradley, who will run on the Conservative and Independence Party lines.
Members of the county Democratic Committee were asked during a convention July 21 at Kingston City Hall whether Bradley, a non-enrolled voter who has filed the paperwork to become a Democrat after the November election, should be allowed to run in a Sept. 18 primary against Sennett, the party’s pick at its unofficial nominating convention in June. The answer was a resounding no, with Sennett’s candidacy getting the support of about 15,000 weighted votes (63.6 percent) and Bradley’s bid getting about 8,600 (36.4 percent). At the June 4 convention, Sennett took 55 percent of 24,039 weighted votes.
County Democratic Chairman John Parete, who called Saturday’s special convention, conceded prior to the vote that a three-way race for DA “would be very difficult for us. Very.”
Among Bradley’s supporters is Kingston Mayor James Sottile, a fact that may have led to the much-publicized scuffle between Sottile and Sennett’s wife, Mari Ann, on July 12 in a Downtown Kingston bar.
Sennett, Bradley and Carnright at vying to succeed Republican Donald A. Williams, who is stepping down as district attorney after two four-year terms.

Merger News
Benedictine and Kingston hospitals - under orders to affiliate by year’s end - are among 62 health-care facilities in New York to apply for state aid to help implement the mandates of the Commission on Health Care Facilities in the 21st Century. The 62 facilities have requested a total of $2.5 billion in assistance from the state Department of Health, which has only $550 million available.
“The task before us now is to analyze the applications and award the funding in keeping with the law,” said Dr. Richard F. Daines, the state health commissioner. “The best applications will fully comply with the commission’s mandates, have the fewest barriers to implementation and be considered financially feasible and cost-effective.”
The Department of Health expects to announce the financial awards in September. The state aid being sought by the 62 health-care facilities will reimburse facilities for costs incurred since Jan. 1 to comply with the commission’s mandates.

Blood Needed
The region is dangerously short on blood supply and if some catastrophic incident were to occur, there wouldn’t be enough to treat patients, according to the chief of the New York Blood Center.
Typically each summer, the blood supply at area hospitals is down and that is because blood donations decline. Summer vacations, holidays and hot weather all combine for a diminished supply as blood drives fall off.
Dr. Robert Jones, president and CEO of the New York Blood Center, said that is a concern, especially in the case of “O negative” blood where there is a one to two day supply.
“That level is quite scary because it takes us three days to get a unit of blood, once its drawn from a person, to be tested, processed and ready for distribution,” he said. “If something were to happen like an explosion or some kind of an event that required lots of blood for trauma victims, we just wouldn’t be prepared.”
Dr. Jones said it is a “community obligation” to insure the level of the blood supply.

SPCA Okay
While there is still no date for reopening the Ulster County SPCA’s spay and neuter clinic, board President Louise Cutler said she is confident it will be back in action soon. The Board of Directors will also look to hire a new executive director, preferably one with a background in fundraising, and a veterinarian technician for the clinic, which is separate from the SPCA facility, Cutler said.
The SPCA board was supposed to have its annual meeting July 31, but that has been canceled because of a paperwork snafu. Notices sent to SPCA members, including ballots to vote on board members, did not include postage-paid envelopes. That - unbeknownst to Cutler, she said - was against SPCA bylaws. With the notices having to be resent, Cutler said there was not enough time to provide adequate notice of the meeting. Under SPCA bylaws, four weeks notice is required.
In the meantime, Cutler said the board is considering legal action after an anonymous letter critical of the agency was sent to members on an agency mailing list without authorization. She said she has an idea who sent it.

Vets Billed?
Servicemen and women fighting in Iraq have started getting bills for equipment destroyed in the ongoing war. A 2006 government report found more than 1,000 soldiers being billed a total of $1.5 million. And while fighting overseas put their lives on the line, critics in Congress are saying, this battle on paper could cost them their future by ruining their credit.
Testimony before Congress detailed in the report found that “although unit commanders and finance offices are authorized to write off debts for lost and damaged equipment ... they have not always done so.”
“It happens too often and it’s just disgraceful,” Sen. Charles Schumer said. “Here are people who are risking their lives for us and they come home and they’re being treated as if they’re criminals instead of heroes.”

Rural Health!
A national shortage of doctors is hitting poor and rural places the hardest, and efforts to bring in foreign physicians to fill the gap are running into a knot of restrictions from the war on terror and the immigration debate. Doctors recruited from places such as India, the Philippines and sub-Saharan Africa to work in underserved areas like the Mississippi Delta and the lonesome West, as well as the long stretches of Appalachia that include parts of our Catskills, already face an arduous and expensive gauntlet of agencies, professional tests and background checks to secure work papers and permanent residency. Those restrictions have only tightened in the years since 9-11, and now many believe the process will become more difficult after the attempted terrorist bombings in Britain that have been linked to foreign doctors.
The government estimates that more than 35 million Americans live in underserved areas, and it would take 16,000 doctors to immediately fill that need, according to the American Medical Association. And the gap is expected to widen dramatically over the next several years, reaching 24,000 in 2020 by one government estimate. A 2005 study in the journal Health Affairs said it could hit an astonishing 200,000 by then, based on a rising population and an aging work force.
“And that will mostly be felt in rural America,” said Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D. He added: “We’re facing a real crisis.”
America’s rural and inner-city poor already are suffering the most. For example, there are 280 doctors for every 100,000 people in the U.S. But there are only 103 for every 100,000 in the 18-county area of the Mississippi Delta, according to the Mississippi State University Social Science Research Center. And the Delta has some of the nation’s highest rates of infant mortality, heart disease and other serious illnesses.
To help relieve the misery in the Delta, Appalachia and other parts of the country in dire need of physicians, the government lets foreign doctors into the country under J-1 visa waivers, dispensed through a variety of state and federal programs. J-1 visa waivers allow foreign doctors to work in underserved areas for three to five years, with a shot at eventually obtaining permanent residency.

Going Green…
The Hudson Valley Regional Council, an intergovernmental forum for the seven Mid-Hudson counties, is encouraging member counties and local governments to “go green”. By adopting green building guidelines, the governments as well as businesses and institutions would save money on energy costs, reduce water usage, lower waste generation and garner improved productivity of staff resources, said Executive Director John Crews.
“I think it’s one of the most hot button issues in industry today, from the building industry to sustainable energy,” he said.
The HVRC is also encouraging adoption of specific building code requirements to lessen the impact that development has on open space, water and sewer infrastructure, and stormwater impacts.

PowerPointed?
White House aides have conducted at least half a dozen political briefings for the Bush administration’s top diplomats, including a PowerPoint presentation for ambassadors with senior adviser Karl Rove that named Democratic incumbents targeted for defeat in 2008 and a “general political briefing” at the Peace Corps headquarters after the 2002 midterm elections.
The briefings, mostly run by Rove’s deputies at the White House political affairs office, began in early 2001 and included detailed analyses for senior officials of the political landscape surrounding critical congressional and gubernatorial races, according to documents obtained by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
The documents show how the White House sought to ensure that even its appointees involved in foreign policy were kept attuned to the administration’s election goals. Such briefings occurred semi-regularly over the past six years for staffers dealing with domestic policy, White House officials have previously acknowledged.
In one instance, State Department aides attended a White House meeting at which political officials examined the 55 most critical House races for 2002 and the media markets most critical to battleground states for President Bush’s reelection fight in 2004, according to documents the department provided to the Senate committee.
On Jan. 4, just after the 2006 elections tossed the Republicans out of congressional power, Rove met at the White House with six U.S. ambassadors to key European missions and the consul general to Bermuda while the diplomats were in Washington for a State Department conference. According to a department letter to the Senate panel, Rove explained the White House views on the electoral disaster while Sara M. Taylor, then the director of White House political affairs, showed a PowerPoint presentation that pinned most of the electoral blame on “corrupt” GOP lawmakers and “complacent incumbents.” One chart in Taylor’s presentation highlighted the GOP’s top 36 targets among House Democrats for the 2008 election.
The news dovetails with ongoing revelations that the current Department of Justice controversy surrounding federal attorney firings was similarly politically motivated, and likely tied into a larger GOP/Bush Administration effort to suppress minority and other possible Democratic Party voting in key battleground districts throughout the last two, and possibly the next election.

Infertility…
Dozens of common household cleaning products contain hidden toxic chemicals linked to fertility disorders in lab animals, according to data gathered by a women’s research group. A type of glycol ether is frequently found in popular cleaning products such as Windex Aerosol, Formula 409, Lemon Fresh Pine-Sol and Simple Green All Purpose Cleaner, says the report released by Women’s Voices for the Earth, a Montana-based nonprofit working to eliminate or reduce toxic chemicals in the home.
The chemical, called ethylene glycol butyl ether or EGBE, is on California’s list of toxic air contaminants. Some animal studies indicate that it produces reproductive problems, such as testicular damage, reduced fertility, death of embryos and birth defects. People exposed to high levels of EGBE for several hours have reported nose and eye irritation, headaches, vomiting and a metallic taste in their mouths, studies show.
It’s difficult for consumers to know whether their favorite cleaner contains the chemical because manufacturers aren’t required to list it on the label. Neither the state nor the federal government regulates indoor air pollution, for instance how the cleaners might degrade air inside a home. Scientists say most people spend about 90 percent of their time indoors. Babies, elderly people and sick people spend almost all of their time inside.
The federal government removed EGBE from its list of hazardous air pollutants a few years ago. Andrew Jacques, a spokesman for the American Chemistry Council, which represents the manufacturers of the chemical, said EGBE is a key ingredient in many cleaners and helps cut the amount of volatile organic compounds in a cleaning product. Such organic compounds can cause other types of air pollution, including smog.
But a growing number of academicians and government scientists believe that there should be a reduction in toxic chemicals used in the home.
Stay tuned…

Anti Dissent…
The Executive Order entitled “Blocking Property of Certain Persons Who
Threaten Stabilization Efforts in Iraq,” issued on July 17, provides the President with
the authority to confiscate the assets of whoever opposes the US led war.
“I have issued an Executive Order blocking property of persons determined to have committed, or to pose a significant risk of committing, an act or acts of violence that have the purpose or effect of threatening the peace or stability of Iraq or the Government of Iraq or undermining efforts to promote economic reconstruction and political reform in Iraq or to provide humanitarian assistance to the Iraqi people,” read the President’s preamble to his new law.
In substance, opponents of the new law say, opposing the war becomes an illegal act under this executive order. The Executive Order criminalizes the antiwar movement. It is intended to “blocking property” of US citizens and organizations actively involved in the peace movement. It allows the Department of Defense to interfere in financial affairs and instruct the Treasury to “block the property” and/or confiscate/ freeze the assets of “Certain Persons” involved in antiwar activities. It targets those “Certain Persons” in America, including civil society organizatioins, who oppose the Bush
Administration’s “peace and stability” program in Iraq.
Watch as this one hoins in with other issues currently under siege from Congress…

Aged Smell
Difficulty identifying common smells such as lemon, banana and cinnamon may be the first sign of Alzheimer’s disease, according to a study that could lead to scratch-and-sniff tests to determine a person’s risk for the progressive brain disorder. Such tests could be important if scientists find ways to slow or stop Alzheimer’s and the severe memory loss associated with it. For now, there’s no cure for the more than 5 million Americans with the disease.
Researchers have long known that microscopic lesions considered the hallmarks of Alzheimer’s first appear in a brain region important to the sense of smell. Other studies have linked loss of smell to Alzheimer’s, Franks said, but this is the first to measure healthy people’s olfactory powers and follow them for five years, testing along the way for signs of mental decline.
In the study, 600 people between the ages of 54 and 100 were asked to identify a dozen familiar smells: onion, lemon, cinnamon, black pepper, chocolate, rose, banana, pineapple, soap, paint thinner, gasoline and smoke. For each mystery scent, they heard and saw a choice of four answers. For cinnamon, they were asked aloud: “Fruit? Cinnamon? Woody? Or coconut?” while also seeing the choices in text. A quarter of the people correctly identified all the odors or missed only one. Half of them knew at least nine of the 12. The lowest-scoring quarter of the people correctly identified eight or fewer of the odors.
The subjects took 21 cognitive tests annually over the next five years. About one-third of the people developed at least mild trouble with memory and thinking. The people who made at least four errors on the odor test were 50 percent more likely to develop problems than people who made no more than one error. Difficulty identifying odors also was associated with a higher risk of progressing from mild cognitive impairment to Alzheimer’s.
The researchers took into account age, gender, education and a history of strokes or smoking, and still found lower scores predicted higher risk of cognitive decline.
The study was funded by the National Institute on Aging and the Illinois Department of Public Health.

Kids Charged…
Five children who attend Mount Marion Elementary School in Saugerties pleaded guilty in recent weeks to hatching a plot to slit a classmate’s throat. The students, two boys and three girls who were in sixth grade during the 2006-07 school year, pleaded guilty in Ulster County Family Court to misdemeanor weapons and conspiracy charges.
The students, whose names have not been made public because they are only 12 and 13 years old, were charged in May in a plot to cut the throat of classmate Ethan Travis, 13, on the school playground. Three of the defendants faced misdemeanor counts of possession of a dangerous weapon by a person under 16, and two were charged with felony conspiracy.
The guilty pleas were entered as the children’s trial was about to begin in the courtroom of Judge Marianne Mizel.
Ethan has said the attack against him was planned after he asked out a girl to the dismay of her ex-boyfriend. He said the plot called for four of the five suspects to surround him on the school playground and distract him and for the fifth, one of the boys, to jump him and cut his throat with a razor blade. He said he learned about the plot from other children in the school and told his mother about it.
School authorities were alerted to the plot on May 9 and found weapons in the children’s backpacks, but they were small blades from disassembled hand-held pencil sharpeners that had been attached to pipe cleaners, not razor blades, according Saugerties school district Superintendent Richard Rhau.
The school suspended the students, and law-enforcement authorities filed charges.
Besides being charged criminally, the five defendants were placed under a court order to stay away from Ethan.

Oil Crunch!
The world faces an oil supply crunch with prices poised to soar to new all-time highs over the next five years, a report from the International Energy Agency warned recently. In its Medium-Term Oil Market report the Paris-based organization predicted that demand would rise by 2.2 percent a year between 2007 and 2012 - up from a previous forecast of 2 pe cent - as the world’s economy expands at about 4.5 per cent a year. That means demand is set to grow by 1.9m barrels a day to 95.8m barrels a day by 2012.
The demand will be driven by the fast-growing economies of Asia and the Middle East, where the thirst for black gold will grow more than three times faster than the 30 industrialized members of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. That is because several countries in those regions are set to break the $3,000 per capita income level, when consumers can afford to buy energy-consuming products such as cars and white goods. Industrial nations are also expected to have to place an increasing reliance on Opec companies to meet the demand, thanks to continuing geopolitical tensions in alternative producers.
The report assumes no net expansion of capacity from Iran, Iraq and Venezuela and that 500,000 barrels a day of Nigerian oil - shut for a year - will not reopen in the next five.
IEA’s head of oil industry and markets division Lawrence Eagles warned: “The results of our analysis are quite strong. Something needs to happen. Either we need to have more supplies coming on stream, or we need to have lower demand growth.”

Creepy Vines
Creeping vines are increasingly invading Southern forests, choking out
trees and altering forest makeups. Scientists say increased levels of carbon dioxide might be to blame.
The invasion involves more than kudzu, the woody vine of Japanese origin
that can cost hundreds of millions of dollars in the southeastern United States annually in lost cropland and control measures. A survey of two forests in South Carolina over the past two decades has revealed that vines such as grapevines, trumpet vine, poison ivy and
Virginia creeper have been infiltrating the areas at increasingly higher rates, especially in newer woodlands.
Researchers evaluated the difference in vine density in an old-growth forest in South Carolina’s Congaree National Park and a newer forest along the Savannah River and found that the number of vines in the older forest had doubled within 12 years, while there was a 10-fold increase in vines in the newer forest.
As the number of vines increases, the growth of trees may be jeopardized. The leaves of the vines fill the canopy and block sunlight that would otherwise reach the forest floor, so competing plants die because they can’t get enough light.
Just why the vines are taking over is uncertain, but scientists speculate that increasing carbon dioxide concentrations that are fueling global warming could be benefiting vine growth more than tree growth.

Civic Crisis
The American Civil Liberties Union has said it is “do or die time” to save the U.S. Constitution. In a recent statement the venerable institution, which the Bush Administration tried to label as unpatriotic at one point, urged the U.S. Congress to “vote to hold White House officials in contempt for refusing to cooperate with legitimate congressional subpoenas.”
The ACLU statement said the issue had become “a constitutional crisis that threatens to destroy the separation of powers.”
“Presidents have tried in the past to overreach in claiming executive privilege,” said Caroline Fredrickson, director of the ACLU Washington Legislative Office. “However, Congress has long served as a check to such abuses of power, slapping the president’s hand when needed and pursuing contempt or enforcement actions that eventually resulted in the release of crucial information. Today’s Congress must do the same if it wishes to remain a meaningful and independent branch of government.”
The ACLU said it “rejected claims that Congress’ responsibility to conduct oversight or investigate executive misconduct was somehow less important than its legislative function and therefore not worthy of compulsory enforcement.”
“It’s do-or-die time for the separation of powers,” Fredrickson said. “Congress is facing a historic moment when it can fight for its rightful place in our Constitution or accept the president’s continued and sweeping claims of supremacy.”
The ACLU noted that U.S. courts “have long supported Congress’ authority not only to pass laws, but also to investigate their application. The courts have asserted that claims of executive privilege are a potentially dangerous proposition that should only be applied, and can only be upheld, under narrow circumstances.”
The confrontation between the Democratic-controlled 110th Congress and the Bush administration on warrantless surveillance and the politicization of our federal justice system has been escalating in recent weeks, with both sides hardening their positions.