(News Briefs May 25, 2006)
Suing DEP?
The Town of Olive has decided to sue New York City over its closure of the “Lemon Squeeze,” Monument Road, for security reasons four years ago, with supervisor Bert Leifeld saying he’s doing so even though he and other town board members think they won’t win such a suit because they were asked to do so by several members of Olive Matters, the ad hoc group Leifeld formed several years ago to fight for rescinding of the Large Parcel law. The attorneys who will actually pursue the case will likely be hired and paid for by the individuals seeking the suit. The major complaints local residents have had stem not only from the inconvenience of major detorus, but also the way in which DEP officials have repeatedly promised full explanations for the road’s closure and then not delivered them. More details will be discussed and decided on at the next town board meeting in early June.

Big Holiday
The Onteora School District, with unused snow days on its hands, will be taking an extra long Memorial Day weekend this year, with schools to be closed Friday through Tuesday, reopening on Wednesday, May 31.
A special school board meeting has been called for this Thursday, with rumors flying that there may be a change of direction involving the current interim superintendent.
Dr. Peter Ferrara, who came to Onteora from the Ellenville School District, where he retired unexpectedly two years ago, two years shy of his retirement, was known for having introduced gender-segregated classes in a number of grades and disciplines during his stewardship of the school district there.

Olive Matters
Olive Matters, which meets every Wednesday evening at the Olive Library, has been continuing to investigate legal and diplomatic means to resolve the Large Parcel issue once and for all, ensuring it doesn’t effect local taxes again by coming up on a county or school level basis, including continuing work to have its ties to reservoirs removed from its enabling legislation in Albany. They continue to write editorials to local publications, including this one, to keep up contacts with elected representatives and to attend and monitor public meetings, from the town to county and school district.
A number of the group’s members have reiterated that their support of recent write-in school board candidate George Haug was not politically-motivated, pointing out how Haug has been known for his wife Peggy’s involvement teaching Health at the Middle School and High School, as well as daughter Bridget’s involvement in DECA and school service clubs.
“George did not run to insure that the Large Parcel was not instituted by
the BOE. George ran to improve things for the District,” said one member.

Budget Changes?
The Ulster County legislature is mulling a new requirement that would force up to eight county departments to change their budget procedures for the coming year, focusing on specific programs and not just overall departmental requests. The idea, say legislators, is to stem overall tax hikes and a business-as-usual means of increasing spending on an overall basis year to year. Under the new procedures, department supervisors will have to file spending requests several weeks earlier than in past budget cycles, with explanations for major changes. The Legislature - run by Democrats for the first time in a quarter-century - is trying to cut spending in the wake of a $300 million budget prepared last fall that raised the property tax levy 38.95 percent, the highest among all counties in the state.
Immediate budget reductions were sought in January when officials learned a $1.31 million cash flow deficit was forecast.
$1.17 million in cuts were unanimously approved by the legislature in recent weeks to help offset such rising expenses as the county’s debt service, union contracts, and health insurance needs. Other significant expenses are expected for a potential “massive repair project” at the Golden Hill Health Care Facility, as well as an additional $20 million needed to complete the county’s crazy jail project. Legislators voted 21-11 against asking for state Legislature approval of a county mortgage tax of 25 cents per $100, which had been projected to bring in $1 million in new revenues.
The county is currently looking into shifting to a County Executive form of government, as recommended by its recently-disbanded Charter Commission, to provide better oversight in the future. Thirty-two people have applied for the interim job of Ulster County administrator to date, including current Administrator Arthur Smith, amid preparations for a referendum on a county executive form of government expected in the coming year. Legislature Chairman David Donaldson, D-Kingston, said he plans to meet with the Legislature’s majority and minority leaders as early as next week to go over the resumes. The position, which currently pays $94,713 per year, was advertised nationally.

Jail Jail…
Further investigations into the various expenditures that have pushed the new county jail millions over budget and years behind schedule have revealed that the county paid $13,000 to send sherriff’s deputies and former county majority leader Ward Todd to jail industry conferences at an oceanfront luxury resort in Hilton Head, S.C., in 2000, and to Las Vegas in 2001. Current Democrat Ulster County Legislature Chairman David Donaldson said the conferences apparently did not help the county meet its intended goal of opening the new jail and sheriff’s complex by the original target date of April 2004.
The Hilton Head Island conference in South Carolina took place Oct. 15-19, 2000, less than a week before international consulting firm Bovis Lend Lease was awarded the contract to be the Law Enforcement Center’s construction manager and included Todd in a junket of jail officials. The Las Vegas conference, at the Stratosphere Casino Hotel from May 20-24, 2001, took place at the same time that county officials in Kingston announced there would a delay in bidding for project’s construction jobs until 2002. The trip was authorized by Todd, who has justified both trips as providing officials with training to ease the transition to a new jail and helping them develop a rapport with “players” in the construction process.
Legislator Richard Parete, who now chairs the Legislature’s Law Enforcement Center Project Committee, said Todd should pay back money provided for the trip in 2000. Todd, who left the Legislature in June 2003 to become president of the Ulster County Chamber of Commerce, defended the conferences as a way to stay current with jail construction and corrections procedures but did not say whether he would repay the conference expenses, as he did the costs for a box of cigars uncovered in earlier investigations. He did say, however, that he has asked for detailed information about the conference expenses.
“In the scope of things, I think it’s a pretty minuscule expense that was clearly necessary at the time, and in retrospect,” Todd said recently of the expense.
On a national basis, prisons and jails added more than 1,000 inmates each week for a year, putting almost 2.2 million people, or one in every 136 U.S. residents, behind bars by last summer. Of particular note in the recent governmental report was the gain of 33,539 inmates in jails, the largest increase since 1997, researcher Allen J. Beck said. That was a 4.7 percent growth rate, compared with a 1.6 percent increase in people held in state and federal prisons. Prisons accounted for about two-thirds of all inmates, or 1.4 million, while the other third, nearly 750,000, were in local jails, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics.
The jail population, it has been pointed out, is increasingly unconvicted, the result of Judges proving reluctant to release people pretrial. The report by the Justice Department agency found that 62 percent of people in jails have not been convicted.
The states with the highest rates were Louisiana and Georgia, with more than 1 percent of their populations in prison or jail. Rounding out the top five were Texas, Mississippi and Oklahoma. The states with the lowest rates were Maine, Minnesota, Rhode Island, Vermont and New Hampshire. Men were 10 times to 11 times more likely than women to be in prison or jail, but the number of women behind bars was growing at a faster rate.
The racial makeup of inmates changed little in recent years. In the 25-29 age group, an estimated 11.9 percent of black men were in prison or jails, compared with 3.9 percent of Hispanic males and 1.7 percent of white males.

No Child. Well…
Falling short of requirements under President Bush’s education law, about 1,750 U.S. schools have been ordered into radical “restructuring,” subject to mass firings, closure, state takeover or other moves aimed at wiping their slates clean. Many are finding resolutions short of such drastic measures. But there is growing concern that the number of schools in serious trouble under the No Child Left Behind law is rising sharply - up 44 percent over the past year alone - and is expected to swell by thousands in the next few years.
Schools make the list by falling short in math or reading for at least five straight years. In perspective, the national total amounts to 3 percent of roughly 53,000 schools that get federal poverty aid and face penalties under the No Child Left Behind law. But that number is expected to grow exponentially as the government now cracks down on schools that, it turns out, that have not been including test scores from minority students… an incidence involving over a quarter of all in the nation. The Associated Press reported last month that schools were deliberately not counting the test scores of nearly 8 million students, mostly minorities, when they measure progress by racial groups. Those exclusions have made it easier for schools to meet their yearly goals.
Seven states - California, Georgia, Illinois, Michigan, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania - account for almost 70 percent of all schools ordered to restructure. Eight other states and the District of Columbia list no schools in critical trouble. In many cases, their school systems do not have five straight years of test data, the amount needed to determine whether an overhaul is required.
It has also been revealed of late that not a single state will have a highly qualified teacher in every core class this school year as promised by President Bush’s education law leading the Education Department to order every state to explain how it will have 100 percent of its core teachers qualified - belatedly - in the 2006-07 school year. In the meantime, Alaska, Delaware, Idaho, Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, North Carolina and Washington, plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico now face the loss of federal aid because they didn’t make enough effort to comply on time, officials said.
Department officials would not say how much aid could be withheld from states to force compliance.
The 4-year-old No Child Left Behind law says teachers must have a bachelor’s degree, a state license and proven competency in every subject they teach by this year. The first federal order of its kind, it applies to teachers of math, history and any other core class.
Colorado, Connecticut, Indiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Missouri, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Virginia, West Virginia and Wisconsin have yet to be rated.
Meanwhile, while Congress has said they are now willing to make the No Child Left Behind law more flexible, the Bush Administration has told them not to expect a lot of extra federal money to help pay for any training or other means of adding flexibility.
Democrats have long complained that the law has not been fully funded, while Republicans argue that federal spending on education has increased enough since the law was passed. The House narrowly passed a 2007 budget recently that calls for cutting federal spending on education by more than $5 billion, about 7 percent.

A Wired Ulster?
The Ulster County Legislature’s Administrative Services Committee has announced that they have sent requests for information to Wireless Internet Service providers to create a County-wide wireless internet access system. Committee Chairman Brian Cahill and committee member Robert Parete have proposed this idea as a key aspect of the recently enacted e-Ulster initiative.
Wireless internet access communities are emerging throughout the nation, particularly in rural areas like Ulster where high speed internet access is extremely limited. Cahill said, “Developing a high speed, affordable, wireless, internet access infrastructure has proven to be a key economic development tool. Many companies can not relocate or build in an area that does not provide what has become a necessary tool for business.”
Parete states, “As a resident of the Town of Olive, I can personally express the frustration many residents feel as a result of not having adequate high speed internet connection available. In addition, this initiative will facilitate greater capability and access to create the conditions that allow businesses to be more competitive. At the same time, this plan will encourage and expand commerce of all scopes to compete in the global market.”
The Administrative Services Committee will compile information and solicit opinions and ideas from local governments and industry experts to determine the most effective means of implementing this initiative.
While Ulster County mulls the idea, Andrew Halpern of Tivoli, president of the company American WiFi, has already launched an effort to bring wireless Internet service to individual communities, including his hometown, where a contract has been sealed. Halpern has also pitched his plan to the Kingston Mayor James Sottile and the Common Council to bring free limited wireless Internet service to the city, along with a paid service, free of advertising or time limits, at $19.95 per month. He said he would be willing to present his plan to the Ulster County Legislature. But he said he is prepared to seek approval from rural municipalities, like Marbletown, to provide the same service.
Halpern said that if all goes as planned, he could provide the service to all Ulster County towns within two years. Unlike major corporations, he said, he does not need to make millions, so he’s able to provide the service for free or at a reasonable cost. He just needs permission from local governments to place antennas on some public buildings, but he said his plan does not require the use of taxpayer money.
Cahill said that he hopes Halpern is successful in his endeavor, but said he wants to hear from other companies that could provide the service. “The purpose of this is to make sure that we can get everybody access,” he said.
Parete said there is a possibility that the county could place antennas in rural areas on structures it owns, or somehow interconnect them with the 911 system.
Republicans in county government are pooh-poohing the idea, saying the internet is not that important as to use public tax fnds.

Medicare?
Republican are joining the congressional drive to eliminate the financial penalty for people who missed the recent deadline for enrolling in the Medicare drug benefit, the latest sign of a growing rebellion against President Bush on the issue. Rep. Nancy Johnson has said she has talked to enough colleagues to believe such a proposal would pass, probably in the fall, and plans to introduce legislation to waive the penalty.
“The bottom line is this is a democracy, and the Congress responds to the people and shapes the program so it’s good for them,” said Johnson, who heads the House Ways and Means’ subcommittee on health. “I think it’s fair and reasonable to eliminate the penalty” for 2006, the Connecticut Republican told The Associated Press in an interview.
With the endorsement by one of the program’s leading supporters, Johnson joins the handful of GOP lawmakers in the House and Senate who have split publicly with the Bush’s administration’s position that the enrollment deadline and late penalty should remain.
The administration has made an exception for people who qualify for extra help because of their low income.
Under current law, people who wait until December to enroll would have $2.31 per month added to their monthly premium. That amount would rise annually to reflect the national average premium for that particular year.
Johnson said the drive to waive the penalty does not reflect concerns about a program criticized by Democrats as more beneficial to drug companies and insurers than to older people and the disabled.
Democrats pledge to keep pressing to extend the deadline and waive the penalty for people who sign up over the rest of the year.
The administration’s latest estimate indicates that about 6 million beneficiaries remain without prescription drug coverage. Democrats contend the number is probably closer to 9 million.

Go, Hinchey!
The government abruptly ended an inquiry into the warrantless eavesdropping program because the National Security Agency refused to grant Justice Department lawyers the necessary security clearance to probe the matter. The way things turned out, the Justice Department’s Office of Professional Responsibility, or OPR, sent a fax to Rep. Maurice Hinchey saying they were closing their inquiry because without clearance their lawyers cannot examine Justice lawyers’ role in the program.
“We have been unable to make any meaningful progress in our investigation because OPR has been denied security clearances for access to information about the NSA program,” OPR counsel H. Marshall Jarrett wrote to Hinchey. Hinchey’s office shared the letter with The Associated Press.
Jarrett wrote that beginning in January, his office has made a series of requests for the necessary clearances. Those requests were denied.
“Without these clearances, we cannot investigate this matter and therefore have closed our investigation,” wrote Jarrett.
Justice Department spokesman Brian Roehrkasse said the terrorist surveillance program “has been subject to extensive oversight both in the executive branch and in Congress from the time of its inception.” He further noted the OPR’s mission is not to investigate possible wrongdoing in other agencies, but to determine if Justice Department lawyers violated any ethical rules. He declined to comment when asked if the end of the inquiry meant the agency believed its lawyers had handled the wiretapping matter ethically.
Hinchey is one of many House Democrats who have been highly critical of the domestic eavesdropping program first revealed in December. He said lawmakers would push to find out who at the NSA denied the Justice Department lawyers security clearance.
“This administration thinks they can just violate any law they want, and they’ve created a culture of fear to try to get away with that. It’s up to us to stand up to them,” said Hinchey.
And all this on the same day it was revealed that the NSA had been collecting data on huge numbers of domestic phone calls in recent year.
Meanwhile, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Arlen Spector, has accused the White House of a ‘’very blatant encroachment” on congressional authority, and said he will hold an oversight hearing into President Bush’s assertion that he has the power to bypass more than 750 laws enacted over the past five years.
‘’There is some need for some oversight by Congress to assert its authority here,” Arlen Specter, Republican of Pennsylvania, said in an interview. ‘’What’s the point of having a statute if . . . the president can cherry-pick what he likes and what he doesn’t like?”
Specter said he plans to hold the hearing in June. He said he intends to call administration officials to explain and defend the president’s claims of authority, as well to invite constitutional scholars to testify on whether Bush has overstepped the boundaries of his power.
The senator emphasized that his goal is ‘’to bring some light on the subject.” Legal scholars say that, when confronted by a president encroaching on their power, Congress’s options are limited. Lawmakers can call for hearings or cut the funds of a targeted program to apply political pressure, or take the more politically charged steps of censure or impeachment.
Specter’s announcement followed a report that Bush has quietly challenged provisions in about 1 in 10 of the bills that he has signed, asserting the authority to ignore more than 750 statutes. Over the past five years, Bush has stated that he can defy any statute that conflicts with his interpretation of the Constitution. In many instances, Bush cited his role as head of the executive branch or as commander in chief to justify the exemption.
The statutes that Bush has asserted the right to override include numerous rules and regulations for the military, job protections for whistle-blowers who tell Congress about possible government wrongdoing, affirmative action requirements, and safeguards against political interference in federally funded research.
Bush made the claims in ‘’signing statements,” official documents in which a president lays out his interpretation of a bill for the executive branch, creating guidelines to follow when it implements the law. The statements are filed without fanfare in the federal record, often following ceremonies in which the president made no mention of the objections he was about to raise in the bill, even as he signed it into law.
Dana Perino, a White House spokeswoman, said via e-mail that if Specter calls a hearing, ‘’by all means we will ensure he has the information he needs.” She pointed out that other presidents dating to the 19th century have ‘’on occasion” issued statements that raise constitutional concerns about provisions in new laws. But while previous presidents did occasionally challenge provisions in laws while signing them, legal scholars say, the frequency and breadth of Bush’s use of that power are unprecedented.
Stay tuned…

Facing Spitzer
Former state Assemblyman John Faso of
Columbia County is talking about capping all school budget increases to 4 percent a year, no matter the circumstances, as part of his bid for governor: taxes and jobs, in which he first faces former Massachusetts governor (and new Delaware County resident) William Weld before taking on Democratic candidate Eliot Spitzer in November. He also proposes revising state rules mandating the number of contractors that must be hired in school construction projects. He said that if his proposals were implemented, he would also call for a better exemption package under the state’s School Tax Relief program, commonly known as STAR.
Faso, who lost a 2002 bid to become the state comptroller, said he is in the race to give voters a choice. In the 2002 race, he lost by 3 percentage points to the Democratic victor, Alan Hevesi.

Bug Season…
They’re back—and they’re hungry! Gypsy moths and tent caterpillars, two of the most voracious forest pests in the Northeast, are poised to once again cause serious defoliation of region’s shade, fruit and ornamental trees. Both species feed on the leaves of trees commonly found in our forests and backyards such as oak, elm, ash, cherry, crab apple and dogwoods. Any trees, particularly conifers, that suffer from two successive years of defoliation usually don’t survive so it’s important to be on the look out for these brutal bugs. Early detection can be the key to preventing lasting damage.
Eastern and forest tent caterpillar populations are expected to be heavy again this year. These insects spin white “tents” that appear in a branch crotch or tree stem in late April or early May. Their eggs hatch and the larvae begin feeding in early spring shortly after leaves begin to appear, causing defoliation very early in the growing season. Feeding is usually completed by late June.
Controlling these pests involves pruning off or removing egg masses prior to hatch or manually knocking the web nests from the trees. Heavily defoliated trees will often be stimulated to produce more leaves; however, another disturbance, such as a drought, may stress trees causing a dieback.
For Fact Sheets about Tent Caterpillars or Gypsy Moths, please visit: http://counties.cce.cornell.edu/ulster or call the Master Gardener Hotline, 845-340-3478.

Disaster Prone
The government won’t be ready for another major disaster such as Hurricane Katrina unless the Pentagon takes a more aggressive role in the federal response, congressional investigators said in a recent report which also noted that poor planning and confusion about the military’s role contributed to problems after the storm struck on Aug. 29, 2005. It urged the Defense Department to establish procedures to speed aircraft, troops and reconnaissance gear to hurricane -stricken areas when local and state officials are overwhelmed as well as beef up communications support to Homeland Security officials, who have the lead role in a disaster.
“The devastation of Katrina and the issues it revealed serve as a warning that actions are needed,” said the report by Congress’ investigative arm. “Without urgent and detailed attention to improve planning, the military and federal government risk being unprepared.”
In recent weeks, defense officials have stocked up on cellular and satellite phone vans, begun updating their emergency response plans and have placed specially trained military personnel into the Federal Emergency Management Agency regional offices, the Pentagon has replied.
The report comes as the Bush administration contemplates the proper domestic role of the military as it faces long-term obligations in Iraq. Previous White House and congressional investigations into the Katrina response have said the military should take on a greater role. President Bush also has said he plans to shore up the Mexican border with National Guard troops paid for by the federal government.

Darwinian…
Humans are responsible for the worst spate of extinctions since the dinosaurs and must make unprecedented extra efforts to reach a goal of slowing losses by 2010, a U.N. report has said. Habitats ranging from coral reefs to tropical rainforests face mounting threats, the Secretariat of the U.N. Convention on Biological Diversity said in the report, issued at the start of a March 20-31 U.N. meeting in Curitiba, Brazil.
“In effect, we are currently responsible for the sixth major extinction event in the history of earth, and the greatest since the dinosaurs disappeared, 65 million years ago,” said the 92-page Global Biodiversity Outlook 2 report. Apart from the disappearance of the dinosaurs, the other “Big Five” extinctions were about 205, 250, 375 and 440 million years ago. Scientists suspect that asteroid strikes, volcanic eruptions or sudden climate shifts may explain the five.
A rising human population of 6.5 billion was undermining the environment for animals and plants via pollution, expanding cities, deforestation, introduction of “alien species” and global warming, it said, estimating that the current pace of extinctions was 1,000 times faster than historical rates, jeopardizing a global goal set at a 2002 U.N. summit in Johannesburg “to achieve, by 2010, a significant reduction in the current rate of biodiversity loss.”
“Unprecedented additional efforts’ will be needed to achieve the 2010 biodiversity target at national, regional and global levels,” it said. The report was bleaker than a first U.N. review of the diversity of life issued in 2001.
About 190 nations met in Germany in recent weeks to try to bridge vast policy gaps between the United States and its main allies over how to combat climate change amid growing evidence that the world is warming. The May 15-16 “dialogue” involved around 40 rich nations which are capping emissions of heat-trapping gases under the U.N.’s Kyoto Protocol, as well as outsiders such as the United States and developing nations.
“Scientific evidence of the dramatic effects of human-induced climate change is becoming stronger,” said Richard Kinley, acting head of the U.N. Climate Change Secretariat. “Governments need to agree on how the world is to reduce emissions within two to three years.”
President George W. Bush denounces Kyoto as an economic straitjacket that unfairly excludes developing nations from a first round to 2012 even though almost all his industrial allies back the scheme. Rather than binding caps on emissions, Bush favors big investments in technology such as hydrogen or solar power. Many developing nations say that rich states should take the lead in cuts before asking them to restrain emissions.
“The dialogue will take the form of an open, non-binding exchange of views, information and ideas,” the United States said in a note to the Bonn talks of senior officials, reminding them of a limited mandate agreed in Montreal last year.

Us Vs Them
Middle-aged, white Americans are much sicker than their counterparts in England, startling new research shows, despite U.S. health care spending per person that is more than double what Britain spends. A higher rate of Americans tested positive for diabetes and heart disease than the British. Americans also self-reported more diabetes, heart attacks, strokes, lung disease and cancer. The gap between countries holds true for educated and uneducated, rich and poor.
“At every point in the social hierarchy there is more illness in the United States than in England and the differences are really dramatic,” said study co-author Dr. Michael Marmot, an epidemiologist at University College London in England.
The United States spends about $5,200 per person on health care while England spends about half that in adjusted dollars.
“Everybody should be discussing it: Why isn’t the richest country in the world the healthiest country in the world?” Marmot said.
Smoking rates are about the same on both sides of the pond. Britons have a higher rate of heavy drinking, but a higher percentage of Americans are obese.
The researchers crunched numbers to create a hypothetical statistical world in which the English had Americans’ lifestyle risk factors. In that model, in which the English were as fat as the Americans, the researchers found Americans still would be sicker.
Only non-Hispanic whites were included in the study to eliminate the influence of racial disparities. The researchers looked only at people ages 55 through 64, and the average age of the samples was the same.
Americans reported twice as much diabetes as the English: 12.5 percent vs. 6 percent. High blood pressure was reported by 42 percent of Americans and 34 percent of English. Cancer showed up in 9.5 percent of Americans and 5.5 percent of the English. The upper crust in both countries were healthier than middle-class and low-income people in the same country. But richer Americans’ health status resembled the health of the low-income English.
Health experts have known the United States population is less healthy than that of other industrialized nations, according to several important measurements. For example, U.S. life expectancy ranks behind that of about two dozen other countries, according to World Health Organization statistics.
Some believe the U.S. has lagged because it has a more ethnically diverse population than some of the higher-ranking countries, like Iceland and Sweden, said Richard Suzman of the U.S. National Institutes of Health. But the new study showed that when minorities are removed from the equation, and adjustments are made to control for education and income, white people in England are still healthier than white people in the United States.
One possible explanation may be the United States has been going through an obesity epidemic that only just recently has begun impacting the United Kingdom. Because the most recent data in the study is at least three years old, the disparity in the two nations’ obesity problems may seem especially pronounced, he said. Marmot offered an explanation for the gap: Americans’ financial insecurity. Improvements in household income have eluded all but the top 20 percent of Americans since the mid-1970s. Meanwhile, the British saw their incomes improve, he said.
Robert Blendon, professor of health policy at the Harvard School of Public Health, said the stress of striving for the American dream may account for Americans’ lousy health. He was not involved in the study. “The opportunity to go both up and down the socioeconomic scale in America may create stress,” Blendon said. Americans have more chances to both succeed and fail. They do not have a reliable government safety net like the English enjoy, Blendon said.