Masked Bandit!
A suspect is still at large following an attempt to rob the Boiceville Garage on Wednesday, December 7th. According to the police, an armed, masked man entered the garage Wednesday evening demanding money. He was apparently told the money was locked in the safe and it could not be opened by the clerk on duty at the time. The suspect, described as a male, approximately 5 foot, 4 inches to 5 foot, six inches, wearing a gray sweatshirt, blue jeans and a ski cap. While police would not officially comment, some of the clothing apparently worn by the subject was discovered under a bridge nearby. Anyone with information should call state police at (845) 338-1702.

Reval Update
Even though tax bills are about to start appearing in people’s mailboxes, and there’s a townwide revaluation of tax assessments going on, which will also entail mail appearing in people’s boxes, the two are not related, according to town supervisor Berndt Leifeld. At least not for the current year.
“Letters have gone out documenting individual properties,” Leifeld said of a string of mail people will be getting checking the attributes of their properties to see if what the town’s consultants undertaking the reval have gotten things right… so far.
The supervisor added that the actual tabulation of assessment values starts to happen only after the current phase of documentation and verification.
According to contracts with the reval consultants, and mandated county and state assessment needs, the entire project must be completed in April.
The tax bills going out in early January will reflect the current year’s assessments, set into place last Spring.
“We still have time before the papers come in the mail with the amounts we’re worth and how much we’ll be owing,” Leifeld quipped. “I guess that’s when everyone commits suicide.”
He paused for effect.
“I know I’ll be going up…”


Big Easement...
Anyone who drives along Route 28 into the mountains has seen the property, rising up from Kenoza Lake in what amounts to that spot where the hills start to become actual mountains. Where the Catskills begin. Just as anyone who has an ear for some of the hippest music of recent years knows what’s been produced up there in recent years at the relatively new Allaire Studios in the old Pitcairn Estate building visible at the top of Tonshi Mountain.
It’s all part and parcel, it turns out, of a major 882 acre conservation easement, spanning across the towns of Hurley, Olive and Woodstock, that’s just been purchased by trhe New York City department of Environmental Protection, for an undisclosed price, as announced last week in a series of press releases.
“This conservation easement represents a major step forward in the City’s ongoing watershed protection program,” said DEP Commissioner Emily Lloyd in one of those releases. “The City has now protected over 55,000 acres of watershed land under its Land Acquisition Program, and has provided the funding to the Watershed Agricultural Council to protect another 12,000 acres.”
The conservation easement, from the Randall Wallace family trust, covers a “substantial part” of Tonshi and Little Tonshi mountains and abuts other properties purchased by NYC in recent years, including a 20 acre tract purchased in November. Altogether, the DEP currently owns or has conservation rights to 1,116 acres on Tonshi Mountain.
The DEP has said that protection of the area is crucial to continuing protection of the Ashokan Reservoir, the lynchpin of its Upstate reservoir system currently protected via point-source regulations in lieu of filtration.
The Wallace property, known as the Pitcairn estate because of former owners, abuts a large property on Little Tonshi owned by rock star David Bowie and his wife Iman.
According to City EP spokesperson Ian Michaels, the conservation easements include 357 acres in Woodstock, 295 acres in the Town of Olive, and 230 acres in Hurley.
“Things like this are typically in the works for quite a while,” said Michaels of the process that led up to the December 13 announcements.
Wallace, a renowned fashion and portrait photographer, purchased the estate put together in the 1920s by Raymond Pitcairn, a Pittsburgh-based industrialist who used the massive Tudor main building, named Glen Tonche, as his summer getaway, in 2001.

County Budget!
The Ulster County legislature recently approved a 2006 budget that will raise the property tax levy by 38.95 percent. They reached the final figure, approved 18-14 along a largely party-line vote (and about ten percent less than what was originally anticipated) by making two last-minute additions to anticipated revenues and eliminating one job.
All 17 Republicans, who will be losing their long-held majority status next month, and retiring Democrat Joan Feldmann of Saugerties voted for the budget.
The last-minute amendments adopted by the legislature included an increase in the estimated sales tax revenue for next year of $800,000, an increase in appropriations from the county’s Medicaid reserve fund by $700,000, and the elimination of a vacant job in the Department of Highways and Bridges for a savings of about $100,000.
The Legislature’s Republican leadership withdrew a last-minute proposal to increase the county’s hotel/motel tax from 2 percent to 8 percent, a move that would have generated an additional $2.6 million in revenue and reduced the increase in the property tax levy by as much as 8 percentage points.
Democrats said that overestimating revenue in past budgets is part of what brought the county to its current financial troubles. Republicans countered that at least they were bringing proposals to the table - more, they said, than the Democrats have done to bring the tax levy down.
Also Wednesday, lawmakers unanimously adopted the county’s $260 million capital program for the next five years after eliminating about $31 million in new construction projects that had not been authorized by the Legislature.
County property taxes in Ulster County will vary widely next year, with some communities seeing rate increases as high as 46 percent and others seeing their tax rate cut by as much as 98 percent, the result of revaluations and changes in the state-dictated equalization rate.
Translating the budget increase to municipal tax rates is determined by the overall value of the municipality in relation to other municipalities, and also by the equalization rate, a state-determined multiplier that attempts to even out the disparities between municipal-level assessments for the purpose of levying taxes evenly across the county, school district or other multi-jurisdictional taxing bodies.
All six of the towns in Ulster County that did townwide revaluations in 2005 - Saugerties, Marlboro, Marbletown, Plattekill, Rosendale and the town of Kingston - will see their tax rates go down this year, although the decrease will be offset to varying degrees for those homeowners whose assessments increased as a result.
County taxes account for about 12 percent of the average property tax bill in Ulster County.

County Shifts…
The Ulster County Charter Commission has finalized its suggestion, minus any budgeting guesses, to shift county governance to an elected executive position from its current appointed administrator format. The premise, the commission has said, is that a county executive who is a sole, fully accountable leader, coupled with an elected comptroller, would find and enforce efficiencies in operations that would offset the additional cost of a larger government.
In more immediate matters, Kingston Mayor James Sottile declared that he was not interested in serving as the county administrator and would finish out the remaining two years in his second term as mayor.
The county administrator’s job comes with an $89,500 salary. Sottile currently grosses $60,000. Under next year’s Kingston City budget approved by the Common Council this week, the mayor will get a 25 percent raise in 2006, to $75,000. Political watchers are saying the administrator’s post could serve as a showcase for its next appointed incumbent to prove his or her worth as a viable county executive candidate when election to that office comes up, perhaps as soon as 2007.
Sottile’s decision leaves the field open for Democrats to appoint an administrator from inside or outside of Ulster County. The choices include current jobholder Art Smith, a Republican who is serving his first two-year stint in the post, but who served as deputy county administrator for some 20 years before that. His term does not expire until June of 2006.
But Sottile’s decision also concerns the current administrator’s post alone; it doesn’t rule out a run at county executive, if and when that elective post is created. The timing could serve the mayor well, for voters are expected to be asked if they want to approve a new executive form of government in November 2006, and then to be asked to actually choose an executive in either 2007 or 2008.
“Who knows what could happen two or three years from now?” said Sottile.
As incoming Legislature chairman, Democrat David Donaldson has vowed to uphold party promises made during the election and move diligently toward creating a county executive form of government. He has said he believes the office would be captured by a Democrat.
Topping the list of local officials cited as potential candidates for the county executive post is Democratic Assemblyman Kevin Cahill of the 101st Assembly District, which covers most of the county, including Kingston. Cahill is a native of Kingston and still lives here, and was a county legislator and minority leader before winning election to the Assembly.
Cahill laughed when asked if he was interested in running for the county’s future top job. “We don’t have a county executive form of government, last time I checked,” he said. But he acknowledged that rumors are rampant, including the fact he was introduced by Democratic County Treasurer Lew Kirschner at a recent party gathering as “the first county executive of Ulster County.”
If Cahill were to run for and be elected county executive, one rumor circulating already has it that Sottile might be appointed to Cahill’s Assembly seat.
Also in recent weeks, Glenn Noonan, Republican Minority Leader for the 2006 Legislative Session, announced
the following Minority Committee assignments: Administrative Services – Robert Aiello and Joan Every; Arts, Education and Community Relations – Frank Felicello and Wayne Harris; Criminal Justice and Safety - Robert Aiello and Joan Every; Economic Development – Elizabeth Alfonso and Joseph P. Roberti, Jr.; Efficiency, Reform and Intergovernmental Affairs - Charles Busick and Susan Cummings; Environmental - Dean Fabiano and William McAfee; Health – Charles Busick and Joseph P. Roberti, Jr.; Human Services - Dean Fabiano and Wayne Harris; Labor Relations and Negotiation – Richard A. Gerentine and Glenn
Noonan; Personnel – Elizabeth Alfonso and Wayne Harris; Public Works - Frank Felicello and William McAfee; and Ways and Means - Susan Cummings and Richard A. Gerentine.

At Onteora...
On December 6, the Onteora School community heard New York State Assemblyman Kevin Cahill speak about his bill titled A8069, that would change school funding from the real property tax method, to a State flat tax,
“We have an education funding crisis in New York State,” said Cahill, “this is about our constitutional obligation and our moral obligation to provide funding for quality of education for every single child in New York State.”
Cahill explained that the Hudson valley is unique because the “property wealth exceeds income wealth.” As property values raise the middle class and the diversity of people can no longer afford to live in the area and as houses are sold at a higher rate, “we can be pretty sure we can count on more school tax tomorrow, but what we cannot be sure is that these folks here will be able to afford to pay and we will have people consider this their vacation home or an opportunity as an investment to run up the prices and sell it to someone else, we loose young working families and the fabric of our communities.”
Bill A8069 would eliminate real property tax as funding to education and instead shift the tax burden to a state tax. The school budget would be created by the local school board and must comply with standards under the New York State education department.
The bill needs sponsorship from a Senator in order to reach the Senate floor for a vote, but Cahill is optimistic about it’s future. Local senator John Bonacic is currently pushing a similar, but not same bill…
The school administration has asked the district to keep all heating temperatures set at 68 degrees in every school and classroom. Winters recommended that teachers and students come equipped with an extra sweater and explained that because of the old heating system, some rooms may be colder than others. The heat was reduced beginning Monday December 5, hoping it will help offset the cost of rising fuel prices. They have also asked bus drivers not to keep busses standing idle while running using unnecessary fuel.

Disinvited
Kingston will seek an injunction against white supremacist radio host Hal Turner if he tries to hold another rally in Kingston, two city attorneys and the police chief said last week, noting that any court action would be based on Turner’s threat during a Nov. 19 rally to bring Kingston “to its economic knees” by holding future demonstrations if a black student accused of attacking a white classmate at Kingston High School wasn’t charged with a hate crime.
A recent indictment against the suspect included no hate crimes, but there has been no word from Turner, a New Jersey-based Internet radio host, on whether he plans to return to Kingston.
Police Chief Gerald Keller has said that Turner gave up his First Amendment right to demonstrate in Kingston the moment he turned the prospect of future rallies into a threat. He conceded, however, that courts usually protect First Amendment rights and could side with Turner.
The Nov. 19 rally - which attracted about 40 Turner supporters, 200 counterdemonstrators and 200 police officers - cost the city about $60,000. The event was verbally confrontational, but there were no violent incidents and no arrests.
The Laws and Rules Committee of the city is currently considering a proposal that would require demonstrators to obtain permits, but no action has been taken yet.

First Big Snow
The first major snow of the season December 9 ended up with Kingston hosting 11.5 inches of snow on the ground, Poughkeepsie had 11, Catskill 9.2, Shandaken 8 and Hudson had 6 inches, according to the National Weather Service.
Meteorologists described the storm as a classic Nor’Easter with two storm systems - one from the Ohio Valley and another coming up from the mid-Atlantic. The two storms merged near Long Island before moving northeast.
There were five accidents on the Thruway and more than a dozen vehicles had to be winched out of the shoulders and medians along the highway. There were also numerous traffic mishaps on more local roads.

New For Septics
A program that pays half of the cost of inspecting and pumping out residential septic systems in the Catskill-Delaware Watershed has been expanded. The program, administered by the Catskill Watershed Corporation (CWC), now applies to all new or replacement residential systems installed since Jan. 21, 1997 that are at least three years old. Property owners who are eligible will soon receive a letter from the CWC explaining the program. Original program rules offered inspections and pumpouts only to homeowners whose systems had been replaced under the CWC’s Septic Rehabilitation and Replacement Program. The rule change extending this routine maintenance of
on-site septic systems to all homeowners who were issued septic construction approval from the New York City Department of Environmental Protection since Jan. 21, 1997 was adopted by the CWC Board of Directors November 29. To participate in the program, property owners may contract with any licensed septage hauler and arrange to have their tank pumped out. An inspection check list must be filled out and signed by the hauler. The homeowner pays the hauler, and returns the checklist to the CWC, along with
a reimbursement form, contractor’s invoice and proof of payment (contractor’s receipt or cancelled check). The CWC does not pay for enzyme treatments, system additives or sales tax. For more information and the required forms, contact Larry Kelly at the CWC, 845-586-1400, Ext. 15.

Shotgun Fight
A Hunter family blowout degraded into what State Police called a “Dodge City” shotgun battle between two Haines Falls brothers recently inside the home they shared. Wesley N. Hall, 19, and Watson A. Hall, 21, were both in the Greene County Jail in lieu of $10,000 cash bail December 11 after, authorities say, the two became incensed at each other sometime before 9 a.m., grabbed a shotgun each and opened fire. Despite exchanging blasts from 12- and 20-gauge shotguns, neither brother was seriously injured, authorities said. Both were cut by glass blown from a window and skylight destroyed in the gunplay.
“They got injured more from the glass that was in the house after their little escapades,” said one law enforcement official, who asked that his name not be used.
Troopers received a call for shots fired and responded to the home to find one brother, Watson, already outside. He was taken into custody while authorities made phone contact with Wesley, who was still inside. He also surrendered. Both were charged with felony first-degree reckless endangerment and misdemeanor menacing and criminal possession of a weapon.
Watson Hall also was charged with misdemeanor criminal possession of a controlled substance, though authorities declined to identify the substance pending test results.
At one point, Wesley appears to have had both shotguns, police said. But exactly what happened inside, and what they were fighting over, was not clear. It also wasn’t clear how many shots were fired inside what police called “a decent-size” house.
Asked if they were sharing the same cell, a jail official said: “They’re not even in the same tier.”

Police Grads!
On Friday, December 16, the third graduation under the collaboration of Ulster County Community College and the Ulster County Law Enforcement Training Group was held at Hillside Manor, Kingston.
Graduates included Trevor Bailey from Olive, Trevor Bailey and Travis Nissen for the Town of Shandaken. Congratulations, officers!

Air Pollution?
Government research project that assigns risk scores for industrial air pollution throughout the United States has rated Ulster, Dutchess, Greene and Columbia counties as above the median health risk among 3,141 counties nationwide. According to data obtained by the Associated Press and based on the 2000 Census, Ulster and Dutchess counties each have a health risk from industrial air pollution that is 3.6 times greater than the national median. In Greene County, the health risk is twice the national median, while Columbia is 1.6 times the national median. In Ulster County, the hamlet of Wallkill in the town of Shawangunk was ranked among the top 5 percent of national Census tracts with the highest health risk scores from industrial air pollution.
Ulster County Legislator Brian Shapiro, D-Woodstock, said it is hard to accept the data because the area is overwhelmingly rural.
“Along with most people, I think of Ulster County as having fresh mountain air and country air,” Shapiro said. “I wouldn’t think that we have a problem.”
Shapiro, designated chairman of the county Legislature’s newly formed Environmental Committee starting in January, said he would like to review the data further.
Peter Iwanowicz, the director of environmental health with the American Lung Association of New York, said he is not surprised by the findings. He said the American Lung Association has given Ulster and Dutchess counties failing grades on ozone tests in the past few years.
“Its been a trend over the past six or seven years,” Iwanowicz said, adding that poor air quality has been seen from New York City to the Adirondacks. Emissions from motor vehicles, factories and power plants are up, and contributing to the ozone problem, he said.
Ozone is a form of oxygen that results when byproducts of fuel combustion are “cooked” by sunlight. Exposure to high ozone levels can trigger asthma attacks and lead to difficulty breathing. Long-term exposure can permanently damage lung tissue.
“The Hudson Valley is becoming more and more developed, and that’s why you’re seeing the problems become more and more acute,” Iwanowicz said.
While emissions limits have been put in place for motor vehicles and smokestacks, they are not protective enough, Iwanowicz said. He said more needs to be done to reduce the number of cars on the road.

Loan Seizures
The Supreme Court ruled unanimously recently that the government can seize a person’s Social Security benefits to pay old student loans. Retiring Justice Sandra Day O’Connor wrote the decision that went against a disabled man, James Lockhart, who had sued claiming he needed all of his $874 monthly check to pay for food and medication after his government benefits had been cut by 15 percent to cover debts he incurred for college in the 1980s.
Congress recently eliminated a 10-year time limit on the government’s right to seek repayment on defaulted student loans by seizing payments, including Social Security, to individuals. The Bush administration has maintained that the case was important because outstanding student loans total about $33 billion, which includes about $7 billion in delinquent debt. Of the delinquent loans, about half are over 10 years old.
Justices were called on to clarify federal laws that sent conflicting messages about the collection of loans that are more than a decade old.
In a concurring opinion, Justice Antonin Scalia said that Congress “unambiguously authorized, without exception, the collection of 10-year-old student loan debt ... in doing so, it flatly contracted and thereby effectively repealed part of the Social Security Act.”
Groups like the AARP and the National Consumer Law Center had urged the court to safeguard Social Security benefits in the Lockhart case, arguing they “are critical in preserving a measure of financial independence for older and disabled workers.”

Medicare Failure
Under the normal rules of politics, Congressional Republicans ought to be doing victory laps these days because of the new Medicare drug benefit, accepting the gratitude of the nation’s retirees. Instead, at meetings around the country, they are trying to ease widespread confusion and apprehension about a program that strikes many retirees as dauntingly complex. Beyond altruistic concerns, Congressional Republicans have a keen political interest in ensuring an orderly, successful rollout of the program, which happens to begin in a highly competitive midterm election year. The drug benefits are available for the first time beginning Jan. 1, and the initial sign-up period, which began Nov. 15, lasts until May 15. Nobody knows how popular the drug benefit will ultimately be with the nation’s retirees, who are a critical voting bloc. But Congressional Republicans, who pushed through the Medicare drug law in 2003, have clear political ownership of it, and whatever credit or blame it brings, strategists say.
Republicans counter that, properly explained, the drug benefit is a huge advantage to the 42 million Americans on Medicare - the biggest expansion of the program since its creation 40 years ago.
Meanwhile, a growing number of Congressional members are already pushing legislation to extend the May deadline for signing up for the drug benefit without penalty. They argue that retirees need more time to decide what to do and more flexibility to change their minds. The penalty for a late sign-up is significant - an increase in premiums of 1 percent for every month past the deadline.
“Seniors are confused, bewildered and frightened,” said Senator Bill Nelson, Democrat of Florida, who is leading the push for a delay.
The administration is opposed to such delays, arguing they are unnecessary and would only compound the uncertainty about the program.
The Medicare drug plan was devised to reflect central Republican tenets: that private companies, and private market forces, are the best way to deliver drug benefits to the nation’s elderly; that the government’s role should be sharply limited, particularly when it comes to exerting price pressure on the drug companies; and that the nation’s retirees ought to have a full array of options for their drug coverage.

Power Crunch
From Maine to Florida, from Virginia to Missouri, as much as half the United States confronts the possibility that harshly cold weather will lead to restrictions of natural-gas supplies. In some places - areas heavily dependent on natural gas to produce electricity (such as the Catskills and Hudson Valley) - the prospect of “rolling blackouts,” or controlled power outages, is much higher than in previous winters.
Any natural-gas cutoffs would primarily affect electric-power plants and factories fueled by gas, not homes, and be most likely in the Northeast. If cold deepens for prolonged periods, the likelihood of interrupted natural-gas supplies rises to 30 percent in the Northeast and to 10 percent as far south as Florida and as far west as Missouri, according to a recent report by the Interstate Natural Gas Association of America (INGAA), a trade association representing gas pipeline companies. In a “worst-case” scenario, chances of interrupted gas rise to 40 percent for the Northeast and 25 percent across the eastern seaboard.
Even so, gas cutoffs would not automatically mean power outages to residential and commercial consumers. Residential customers who heat homes with natural gas are unlikely to have their supply interrupted, because gas utilities typically have “firm contracts” with distributors.
Still, hurricane damage continues to block about 6 percent of the nation’s gas supply flowing through pipelines north from the Gulf of Mexico. The government reported last week that 32 percent of the Gulf supply remains “shut in” - a loss of 3.2 billion cubic feet per day. That’s at the high end of the range the INGAA predicts will be “missing” this winter.
Potential problems exist in New York, where half of the electricity-generating capacity is fueled by natural gas, and Florida, where it is 35 percent. New York’s advantage is that two-thirds of its gas-fired generators are “dual-fuel” facilities that can switch to burn oil.

Immigration?
More than 8,000 people have been mistakenly tagged for immigration violations as a result of the Bush administration’s strategy of entering the names of thousands of immigrants in a national crime database meant to help apprehend terrorism suspects, according to a new study conducted by the Migration Policy Institute, a research group in Washington, which relied on statistics released by the Department of Homeland Security that covered 2002 to 2004. The study found that the national crime database was wrong in 42 percent of the cases in which it identified immigrants stopped by the local police as being wanted by domestic security officials.
Many immigration violations, like overstaying a visa, are civil infractions, not criminal offenses typically handled by the police. But since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, domestic security officials have worked to encourage states and localities to help enforce immigration laws by adding the names of thousands of violators - like immigrants evading deportation orders - to the F.B.I. crime database.
The statistics seem likely to fuel the debate over the program, which has been hailed by some as an important tool in the war on terror and criticized by immigration advocates who fear that it will focus attention on ordinary immigrants suspected of violating civil immigration laws, not terrorists.
Locally, a large number of Pakistani and other Islamic immigrants to the area were deported following the 9/11 attacks, and sparked a local investigation into the Ulster County Department of Motor Vehicles.
Conservatives are meanwhile pegging illegal immigration as the next powerful political issue to shape coming elections. GOP strategists have said they are looking to opposition to illegal immigration as a way to edge out Democrats in 2006, and not just in border states.

World War III?
Israel’s armed forces have been ordered by Ariel Sharon, the prime minister, to be ready by the end of March for possible strikes on secret uranium enrichment sites in Iran, military sources have revealed. The order came after Israeli intelligence warned the government that Iran was operating enrichment facilities, believed to be small and concealed in civilian locations.
A senior White House source said the threat of a nuclear Iran was moving to the top of the international agenda and the issue now was: “What next?” That question would have to be answered in the next few months, he said.
Defense sources in Israel believe the end of March to be the “point of no return” after which Iran will have the technical expertise to enrich uranium in sufficient quantities to build a nuclear warhead in two to four years.
“Israel — and not only Israel — cannot accept a nuclear Iran,” Sharon warned recently. “We have the ability to deal with this and we’re making all the necessary preparations to be ready for such a situation.”
If a military operation is approved, Israel will use air and ground forces against several nuclear targets in the hope of stalling Tehran’s nuclear program for years, according to Israeli military sources. It is believed Israel would call on its top special forces brigade, Unit 262 — the equivalent of the SAS — and the F-15I strategic 69 Squadron, which can strike Iran and return to Israel without refueling
“If we opt for the military strike,” said a source, “it must be not less than 100% successful. It will resemble the destruction of the Egyptian air force in three hours in June 1967.”
Russia recently signed an estimated $1 billion contract — its largest since 2000 — to sell Iran advanced Tor-M1 systems capable of destroying guided missiles and laser-guided bombs from aircraft.
Watch out!

Facing Clinton
The season of turmoil for New York’s Republican Party continued recently as county leaders said Jeanine Pirro should abandon her struggling campaign to challenge Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton next year and instead run for state attorney general. Pirro issued a terse response claiming that she remains a candidate for U.S. Senate, no matter the troubles her campaign has faced to date.
The state’s county chairmen also voted in their private meeting in favor of having former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld run for governor in his native New York, state GOP Chairman Stephen Minarik said. The ballot in favor of Weld was not unanimous and many of the county chairmen did not vote.
In the Senate race, Minarik said no vote was taken but the recommendation represented a consensus of the county leaders. Rockland County Chairman Vincent Reda said the support among his colleagues for a Pirro switch was “overwhelming.”
Two weeks ago, the state Legislature’s highest ranking Republican, Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, went public with his advice that Pirro switch to the state attorney general’s race. If Pirro bows out, former Yonkers Mayor John Spencer and a tax attorney from Sullivan County, William Brenner, are still actively seeking the nomination.
Independent polls have shown Clinton and state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, the only announced Democratic candidate for governor, far ahead of their potential Republican challengers.
The state Conservative Party has been highly critical of Pirro and Weld because of their support for abortion and gay rights. Some GOP leaders believe that if the party backs a more conservative candidate for Senate, such as Spencer or Cox, there is a chance the Conservative Party might be more open to a Weld candidacy.
No Republican has won a statewide race in New York without Conservative Party support since 1974.

New Ocean?
Ethiopian, American and European researchers have observed a fissure in a desert in the remote northeast that could be the “birth of a new ocean basin.” They have been observing the 37-mile long fissure since it split open in September in the Afar desert and estimate it will take a million years to fully form into an ocean, said Dereje Ayalew, who leads the team of 18 scientists studying the phenomenon. The fissure, now 13 feet wide, formed in just three weeks after a Sept. 14 earthquake in a barren region called Boina, some 621 miles north east of the capital, Addis Ababa.
“We believe we have seen the birth of a new ocean basin,” said Dereje of Addis Ababa University. “This is unprecedented in scientific history because we usually see the split after it has happened. But here we are watching the phenomenon.”
Dereje said that the split is the beginning of a long process, which will eventually lead to Ethiopia’s eastern part tearing off from the rest of Africa, a sea forming in the gap.
The Afar desert is being torn off the continent by about 0.8 inches each year.
The scientists plan to set up an observatory to watch the split and see how it develops.

China In Africa
Across Africa, China’s economic and diplomatic presence is expanding in an accelerating push that is raising both hopes and hackles far beyond African shores. Chinese diplomats feature at African summits, flying the flag of Third World friendship and offers to cancel some $1.3 billion in bilateral debt. Chinese businessmen snap up commodities, while Chinese doctors treat Africa’s sick under assistance programs that win friends among people often forgotten by the rest of the world.
“China’s move into Africa is displacing traditional Anglo-French and U.S. interests on the continent,” said Martyn Davies, director of the Centre for Chinese Studies at South Africa’s Stellenbosch University. “The United States, and the British, are particularly concerned about increased Chinese movements.”
Reminders of China’s ties to Africa stand in many African capitals where Chinese-built stadiums echo an era from the 1950s and 1960s when Chairman Mao’s engineers forged anti-Imperialist solidarity with Africa’s independence leaders. But the current Sino-African business boom is unprecedented, driven by China’s increasing hunger for raw materials to power a market-driven economy growing at over 9 percent per year.
In 2004, China’s total exports to Africa hit $13.82 billion, up 36 percent over the previous year while imports — largely raw materials — surged 81 percent to $15.65 billion, according to Chinese statistics.
Chinese diplomats, while recognizing African concerns over competition that has all but destroyed some low-tech industries such as textiles, say the two are ideal partners.
“China now finds herself in a position to offer what African countries need, namely, sophisticated technology appropriate to African conditions at relative low cost,” Liang Guixuan, an economic expert at China’s embassy in South Africa, said at a recent trade meeting.