28 Fix-Up
According to DOT, a one to two week repair and resurfacing project along Rt 28 will begin Tuesday, September 6, effecting travel on sections of the highway between 9AM and 3:30 PM from the junction with Rt 28A in Boiceville to the bridge over the Esopus Creek in Mt. Tremper. The road will remain open at all times but alternate lane closures are to be expected.

No Pickle
The Democratic caucus in Olive has been roundly described as “quiet”,
”cordial” and “congenial” this year. You might also add “homespun” and a little “funky.”
With two council seats to contend and three contenders for the Party endorsement, the event proceeded without confrontation. Charles Bloomstein,
an active player in the Large Parcel drama in recent months, was testing the waters against incumbents Bruce LaMonda and Helen Chase. Each speaker,
including Supervisor Brendt Leifeld commended Bloomstein’s efforts on behalf of the town and complimented his dedication. But when the ballots were
counted Bloomstein could smile good-naturedly that he’d been “landslided.”
John Parete, who ran the caucus, had brought an empty, scrubbed out pickle
bucket with a lingering dill aroma from his restaurant, the Boiceville Inn, and some pink sheets of paper. Choices were hand-written on the sheets and dropped in the bucket. There were no programmed codes and no calls for a recount. The paper trail was there for all to see.
”You know you live in a small town,” observed Carol LaMonda, “when you only have to write first names “Charlie,” “Bruce” or “Helen” on a piece of paper and put it in a pickle bucket.”
Olive’s Conservative Party meets next for their own caucus, set to take place on Wednesday, September 7 at the American Legion hall starting at 7 p.m.

Anti-Casino
Opponents of a casino gambling operation in Saugerties will hold a benefit concert during the Labor Day weekend featuring folksinger Richie Havens. Havens is best known for his performance at the original Woodstock Music & Arts Festival in Bethel. The “No Saugerties Casino” benefit will be held Sept. 2 at the Bearsville Studio, Route 212 in Woodstock. Tickets are $30.

Anti-Rural?
So far, 750 rural towns - and hundreds of more in-between “flag stops” in even smaller places - have lost their Greyhound connection this year. Hundreds more are expected to be dropped as the Dallas-based carrier and its subsidiaries roll out new routes across the country into 2006, part of a broad restructuring of the 91-year-old long-distance carrier, which is trying to regain traction after losing $22 million in the first quarter of this year. Greyhound’s new strategy: adopt faster and more direct urban routes.
The result, studies are showing, is a sense of dislocation and increasing distance from the country’s booming urban centers. Some communities could replace the lost service through rural transportation grants from the Federal Transit Administration. Yet in April, FTA chief Jennifer Dorn warned state transportation officials: “Rural service is no longer a certainty.”
Ridership is down to 40 million from a 1970 high of 130 million. Where once the Greyhound stopped in 17,000 communities, it today pulls into only 6,000.
Thank heavens for Pine Hill Trailways, serving at least a portion of the Route 28 corridor, as well as Ulster County Rural Transportation.
Ever wonder what the area would be like were we to have kept our trains?

Dream Stage?
Emerson Place, formally known as Catskill Corners, is expected to expand by next summer. Shandaken planning board officials said this week that architects have been holding meetings with town officials to determine what the property can have in addition to what’s already there. No formal application has been submitted to the town, but preliminary plans call for the expansion of the 27 unit Catamount Lodge to a total number 51 units. Plans also call for a health spa/gym to be built on the property.
The expansion plan is due to the loss of the Emerson Inn by fire last April. The Inn was located across Rt. 28 from Emerson Place. Kenneth Blundell, chairman of the Ulster County Arson Task Force, said investigators determined the April 25 fire started in an exterior waste storage area. “It appears it’s accidental. There’s no reason for the owners to want to do that. The business was successful,” said Blundell. “We have some thoughts about other people around, and that’s where the police come in.”
Shandaken Police Chief James McGrath said there are no suspects in the case. Employees present at the time and witnesses driving by were interviewed, and the department has followed through on phone tips and leads, the last coming about a month ago. “We may never know what happened here,” he said.
Emerson developer Dean Gitter said in an interview last week that he believed the fire was caused by arson and the likely perpetrators were among those opposing his other development project for the area, the controversial Belleayre Resort currently under review for building in the Big Indian/Highmount area.
Once the old Inn is demolished, pending completion of the insurance company’s own investigation, plans call for a large wedding pavilion to be erected on the site.

Jail Income?
The County Legislator’s Majority Leader, Mike Stock, chairman of the controversial Law Enforcement Center Project Committee, is currently proposing that the county lease its soon-to-be vacated county jail in Kingston to Dutchess County, which is suffering from severe overcrowding and the loss of state variances. Stock has spoken to Ulster County Sheriff Bockelmann about the plan, who has yet to address anyone in Dutchess County about it yet. But to date, similar plans proposed by Dutchess Democrats have been soundly rejected by county Republicans, in opposition to similar patterns here in Ulster.
For 16 years, the state Commission of Correction issued variances to Dutchess County, allowing it to house 32 prisoners more than the county’s 286-bed facility can hold. But in April, the commission revoked those variances after the county failed to develop plans to expand their jail. Since then, the county has been forced to house inmates in other county jails, in some instances, more than 70 inmates a day.
Ulster County hopes to open its new 402-bed jail by the end of the year, abandoning its existing 156-bed facility on Golden Hill. Construction costs for the new Ulster County Law Enforcement Center have run way over budget.
Some have questioned the propriety of housing outside prisoners in a facility Ulster rejected as being inhumane. Similar arguments have been made against private leasing of the old jail, including questions about the ethics of making profits from crime.

Singular Parties
A number of candidates seeking office on a town and county basis filed petitions last week for their own independent party lines come November balloting, to appear alongside the five major parties recognized in New York State - Republican, Democratic, Independence, Conservative and Working Families - provided there are no legal challenges. Seven independent party petitions have been submitted for town races, three for city races, and two for Ulster County Legislature.
The independent parties for town races are: Green Party in New Paltz; Rochester First Party in Rochester, running Democrat incumbent Pam Duke for supervisor, Roger Hellman for highway superintendent, Deborah Schneer for town justice, and Kim Van Aken Tompkins for town clerk; the Advocate Party in Shandaken, promoting Keith Johnson for highway superintendent; the Shandaken Party featuring the Republican slate of Bob Cross Jr. for supervisor, Gerald Setchko and Robert Stanley for Town Board, John Horn for assessor, Kenneth Berryann for highway superintendent, and Thomas Crucet and Theodore Byron for town justice; the Clean Sweep Party and We The People Party in Wawarsing; The Woodstock Party in Woodstock, featuring Jeremy Wilber for supervisor and Gordon Wemp and Terrie Rosenblum for Town Board; The Justice Party in the City of Kingston, running Republican candidate Christopher Burns for the County Legislature and. Elsewhere in Kingston, the Kingston Safest City Party, the Dr. Edwin Pell Alderman Party, and the Downtown Party.

County Shortfall
Ulster County Treasurer Lewis Kirschner recently warned that the “county is facing serious financial troubles ahead, albeit not as bad as a May $1.5 million income shortfall had indicated. A deficit of more than $20 million is currently expected for the coming year as budgeting gets under way for 2006, indicating either large 40 percent or more property tax increases or a downgrade in the county’s bond rating (about to issue $100 million to finance the new jail), should major cuts not be made. Steps that have helped ease the pain for the current year have included a hiring freeze and the making of all discretionary spending on a county level subject to county leadership approval.
For 2006, an additional $5.9 million in savings and new revenues have been proposed, including $5.5 million in new revenue from new mortgage and motor vehicle taxes and fees for services. The county is now awaiting a new budget parameters document expected in mid-September. One potential area for cuts already being looked at are the number of hours required in a work week for county departments as a means of cutting overtime, the possible elimination of the Sheriff’s Office road patrol, and closing of the county’s Golden Hill Health Care Center.
Meanwhile, sales tax receipts through early August are going strong in the Mid-Hudson Valley, although Ulster County continues to lag behind budget projections despite gaining some ground over the past few months. Ulster has taken in $41.5 million to date, about 3 percent more than during the same period in 2004. At the midpoint of the year, the county’s take is still about 1.4 percent shy of budget projections, a shortfall of about $575,000. Based on the county’s 2005 spending plan, it would take a property tax increase of about 1.2 percent to generate the income needed to offset the current sales tax shortfall. Ulster County has budgeted for $81.7 million in sales tax for the year. Part of the shortfall comes from adjustments made by the state to account for some overpayments by fuel dealers of the now-eliminated home heating tax, which was phased out over the past four years.

Market Drop?
Home prices in Ulster and its surrounding counties are “extremely overvalued,” and at high risk for a fall, according to a new study by Richard DeKaser, chief economist of National City Corp., a Cleveland bank, who looked at 299 metro areas representing 80 percent of the U.S. housing market during the first quarter of this year. Both the Orange-Dutchess county area (37 percent overvalued) and Ulster County (32 percent overvalued) were among the 53 regions deemed “extremely overvalued” and therefore most vulnerable to a price decline. DeKaser defines an area as being “extremely overvalued” if prices are 30 percent higher than what he calculates as a fair value based on average household income, interest rates, housing density and historical prices.
DeKaser’s study suggests there’s a strong likelihood that the shift could turn into a full-fledged bear market, with home prices in the mid-Hudson going backward. Over the past 20 years, his study found 63 corrections, or instances where a market’s median price fell 10 percent or more over a period of at least eight quarters. The typical degree of overvaluation in those cases was 30 percent. From 1985 to 2005, the typical decline in a correction was 17 percent. The typical duration of the down cycle was 13 quarters, according to the study.
“How many went that high without a correction?” said DeKaser. “Zero.”
Of the top 20 overheated markets, 16 are in California, with two in Florida and one in Massachusetts and in Oregon. New York’s most overvalued market is Nassau-Suffolk (ranked 29th at 42 percent), followed by Orange-Dutchess (37th at 37 percent) and Ulster (45th at 32 percent). The New York City region, which includes the five boroughs plus six surrounding counties, ranked 68th, at 25 percent overvalued.Ulster County’s most recent bear market was an 18 percent decline between the fourth quarter of 1992 to the first quarter of 1995.
Compounding the bad news, Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said recently that the central bank is paying increasing attention to the rising prices of homes and stocks because they are having a growing impact on world economic activity. He warned also that the buying power fueled by higher prices for such assets could disappear if investors turn cautious. Greenspan said increased investor caution, by elevating the premiums investors demand to compensate for risk, could lead to a swift reversal in asset values if it forced the liquidation of debts that support them. The Fed chief, who has steered the world’s largest economy for 18 years, plans to step down in five months.

Flood Laws…
A law meant to offer victims of April’s devastating flood a break on their property taxes actually ends up costing them instead, according to a growing number of town officials. The law allows municipalities in 21 counties, including Ulster, Orange and Sullivan, to base the assessment on a damaged home’s condition as of April 15, instead of its condition on March 1, the taxable status date. The taxable status date is when a property’s assessment for the year is locked in. But some town officials in Sullivan County are saying that flood victims who can no longer live in their homes because of the flood damage will not be granted their normal tax exemptions. The problem has occurred when flood victims have been forced to move, making their homes no longer their primary residence.
State lawmakers who sponsored the bill argue that such a reading of the law is mistaken. The exemptions were never meant to be removed.
Kathy Keyser, chief of staff for Assemblyman Kevin Cahill, D-Kingston, said, “There’s nothing in this bill, according to the state Office of Real Property Services, that eliminates the exemptions. It was not meant to do that.”

Most Incorrect…
Striking a blow against a call for “politically correct” language in public documents, Gov. George Pataki vetoed a bill recently that would have switched the designation of “autistics” to “people with autism.” In doing so, the three-term Republican governor rejected an idea backed overwhelmingly by Democrats and his fellow Republicans. The bill passed unanimously in the Republican-led state Senate in June and passed by a 144-1 tally in the Democrat-led Assembly. Some political observers in and out of Albany wondered if Pataki would have wielded his veto pen this way if he were seeking a fourth term as governor rather than exploring the possibility of a bid for the Republican presidential nomination.

Petition Rulings
The state Supreme Court’s Appellate Division has reversed three lower court rulings on petitions filed by candidates for the Ulster County Legislature, with two favoring the GOP, and one favoring Democrats.
Democrats had appealed a ruling that removed Michael Berardi, D-town of Ulster, from the Sept. 13 primary for the Independence Party line in November. Berardi’s petition was ruled invalid by state Supreme Court Justice William McCarthy on the grounds that the home address listed for Berardi on the heading of the petition was that of his former residence. Berardi’s petition was challenged by Legislator James Maloney, R-town of Ulster. The Appellate Division reversed McCarthy’s ruling, saying an incorrect address on its own was not sufficient to invalidate the petition. The ruling means Berardi will be allowed to take part in the Independence Party primary.
In Legislature District 3, state Supreme Court Judge Vincent Bradley had ruled that legislators Richard Parete, D-Accord, Robert Parete, D-Boiceville, and Peter Kraft, D-Glenford, should be allowed to be write-in candidates on the Independence Party line in the September primary, despite not having sufficient signatures on designating petitions to qualify for a spot on the ballot. Their petitions had been challenged by Art Bowen, a Hurley Conservative running with the GOP. The Appellate Division said the flaws in 12 of the signatures, in which the signer’s town or city were incorrectly listed, are “a matter of substance, and not of form,” and as such the three candidates should not be permitted to be write-in candidates, an option reserved for those petitions that do not contain fatal flaws. Because of the ruling, the three Democrats will not be permitted to take part in a write-in primary for the Independence Party line.
The third ruling, which also favored the GOP, reversed the local ruling invalidating the Conservative Party petitions submitted for legislators Brian Hathaway, R-Bloomington, and Joan Every, R-Rosendale, and Republican candidate Gloria VanVliet of Port Ewen. State Supreme Court Judge Michael Kavanagh had ruled that the three candidates’ petitions should be invalidated because they did not list a sufficient number of signatures. The appellate court reversed the ruling, saying Ulster County Democratic Committee Chairman John Parete had no standing to bring the matter to the court. The ruling means the three Republicans will be able to run on the Conservative Party line.
“I was endorsed by the Ulster County Independence Party for my stance on several key issues, which are shared by voters who are not aligned with any side of the political aisle. This endorsement is something I’m very honored to receive,” said Rob parete of the ruling. “It’s important to understand that we collected the required number of Independent signatures. Unfortunately, Ulster County politics as usual occurred — and myself, Peter Kraft and my brother Rich Parete were removed due to a technical error made by people signing our petitions. Instead of writing Olive — residents signed Boiceville as their town. It was an honest mistake and a far cry from fraud and forgery. My hope is independent voters will support us on either the Democratic Party line or on the Working Families Party line.”

Resort Fire
Smoke from a fire filled much of the Hudson Valley Resort and Spa on the afternoon of August 17, forcing the evacuation of 50 guests and employees and the relocation of more than 200 guests who had planned to check in. The fire, reported at 1:52 p.m., “seems to have started in the roof of the kitchen,” said Paul Rider, chief of Accord Hose Co. No. 3. “There are some very big air-conditioning units there, and the fire was electrical in origin.” More than 100 firefighters, from more than a dozen area departments, responded to the scene. Some, upon exiting the eight-story hotel tower, were in distress from the heat inside, but none required hospitalization. Investigators from the Ulster County Cause and Origin Unit had left the scene by about 8 p.m., but had not completed their inspection. There was some structural damage in the building. Jay Davis, director of operations at the resort, said hotel guests were sent to the nearby Pine Grove resort, the Nevele in Ellenville and the Holiday Inn in Kingston. Two catering events planned for the weekend - a wedding and a Rondout Valley High School reunion - were moved to the Williams Lake Hotel in Rosendale. Fire companies called out in response to the fire, in addition to Accord, included Ellenville, Kripplebush, Lomontville, Napanoch, Modena, Bloomington, Stone Ridge, Cragsmoor, Hurley, High Falls, Kerhonkson, Olive, Ulster Hose, Gardiner and Accord.

Online Mapping!
The Catskill Watershed Corporation (CWC) Board of Directors on August 23 accepted a $53,758 grant from the New York State Archives to develop a map-based regional information system accessible over the Internet. This project, referred to as the Catskill Area Mapping Service (CAMS), will utilize an interactive Geographic Information System (GIS) map promoting the Catskill Region. A series of map layers will include both base map reference data (e.g., political boundaries, Catskill Park limits, major roads and water bodies) and data promoting various aspects of the Catskill Region (e.g., historic sites, demographics, recreational opportunities, etc.). Users will be able to turn layers on and off, navigate to an area of interest, find specific features, and profile key aspects of the region through the use of shaded maps. It is envisioned that links would be established from the web sites of Catskill counties and other regional organizations.
The idea for CAMS was generated by the Catskill Business Roundtable which was established in 2002 at a Regional Economic Development Summit. Business and government representatives expressed interest in an easily accessible network to attract new businesses to the region and to offer a central source of community maps, census data, infrastructure information and available commercial buildings. CAMS will funnel web visitors to local web sites where more information on economic development, planning services, incentives programs and community attractions can be obtained.
The system is being implemented by Applied GIS of Schenectady, which conducted a needs assessment and developed the conceptual plan for CAMS using a 2004 planning grant obtained by the CWC from the State Archives’ Local Government Records Management Improvement fund. The CWC Board at its August meeting also voted to apply $10,000 from the Catskill Fund for the Future toward the project, which is expected to be completed by summer of 2006.

Lost Eminence?
The U.S. Supreme Court, given a chance to revisit its heavily criticized ruling on eminent domain issues made earlier this summer, refused recently to reconsider its decision giving local governments more power to seize people’s homes for economic development. So contentious was the court’s 5-4 ruling in the so-called eminent domain case earlier this year that some critics launched a campaign to seize Justice David Souter’s farmhouse in New Hampshire to build a luxury hotel while others singled out Justice Stephen Breyer’s vacation home in the same state for use as a park. In addition, legislators in some 25 states are considering changing their eminent domain laws to soften the impact.
Justices did not comment in refusing to reconsider the case, which had been expected because requests for a reconsideration of rulings are rarely granted.
Justice John Paul Stevens wrote the majority opinion and defended it last week in a speech in Las Vegas. The ruling was legally correct, he said, because the high court has “always allowed local policy-makers wide latitude in determining how best to achieve legitimate public goals.”
But Stevens added that he had concerns about the results.
“My own view is that the allocation of economic resources that result from the free play of market forces is more likely to produce acceptable results in the long run than the best-intentioned plans of public officials,” Stevens said.

Freedom Fries?
Very young children who eat French fries frequently have a much higher risk of breast cancer as adults, U.S. researchers reported recently. A study of American nurses found that one additional serving of fries per week at ages three to five increased breast cancer risk by 27 percent.
“Researchers are finding more evidence that diet early in life could play a role in the development of diseases in women later in life,” said Dr. Karin Michels, of Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston and Harvard Medical School, who led the study. “This study provides additional evidence that breast cancer may originate during the early phases of a woman’s life and that eating habits during that phase may be particularly important to reduce future risk of breast cancer.”
For their study, Michels and colleagues used an ongoing survey of female registered nurses. They studied 582 women with breast cancer and 1,569 women free of breast cancer in 1993. One risk factor for breast cancer stood out: women whose mothers who said their daughters ate French fries had a higher risk of breast cancer. This increased 27 percent for each weekly serving reportedly eaten.
A high-fat diet has been linked with breast cancer, which affects more than 200,000 U.S. women a year and is expected to kill 40,000 this year.

UN Troubles
John Bolton,. America’s controversial new ambassador to the United Nations, is seeking to shred an agreement on strengthening the world body and fighting poverty intended to be the highlight of a 60th anniversary summit next month. In the extraordinary intervention, John Bolton has sought to roll back proposed UN commitments on aid to developing countries, combating global warming and nuclear disarmament by demanding no fewer than 750 amendments to the blueprint restating the ideals of the international body, which was originally drafted by the UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, all spelt out in a 32-page US version littered with deletions and exclusions including the elimination of all specific reference to the so-called Millennium Development Goals, accepted by all countries at the last major UN summit in 2000, including the United States. Bolton is also seeking virtually to remove all references to the Kyoto treaty and the battle against global warming. They are striking out mention of the disputed International Criminal Court and drawing a red line through any suggestion that the nuclear powers should dismantle their arsenals. Instead, the US is seeking to add emphasis to passages on fighting terrorism and spreading democracy.
Bolton was appointed by President Bush to the UN position earlier this summer after the U.S. Senate failed to do so repeatedly. The current moves have thrown preparations for the summit into turmoil, prompting some to question whether there will be anything for the leaders to put their pens to in New York. The president of the General Assembly, Jean Ping of Gambia, must now try to save the summit, set to take place in New York from September14 to 16, from disaster. He will bring together a core group of 20 to 30 countries in the days ahead, with Britain and the US included, to see what, if anything, can be found to overcome so many American objections.
“The purpose of the summit,” said Shashi Tharoor, a senior aide to Mr Annan, “is to rekindle the idealism with which the UN was created 60 years ago and to use the birthday to renew the organization for the purposes of the 21st century.”
Three years ago the Bush administration began prodding countries to shield Americans from the fledgling International Criminal Court in The Hague, which was intended to be the first permanent tribunal for prosecuting crimes like genocide. The United States has since cut aid to some two dozen nations that refused to sign immunity agreements that American officials say are intended to protect American soldiers and policy makers from politically motivated prosecutions. As a result, Latin America and Caribbean nations, of which 12 have been penalized, are seeing the cuts generate strong resentment at what many see as heavy-handed diplomacy. More than that, some American diplomats, military leaders and congressmen are also beginning to question the policy, as political and military leaders in the region complain that the aid cuts are squandering good will and hurting their ability to cooperate in other important areas, like the campaigns against drugs and terrorism.
Meanwhile, the U.S. government’s emphasis on abstinence-only programs to prevent AIDS is hobbling Africa’s battle against the pandemic by playing down the role of condoms, a senior U.N. official said recently, noting that our nation’s Christian ideology was driving Washington’s AIDS assistance program, known as PEPFAR, with disastrous results such as a shortage of condoms in Uganda. Washington rejected the criticism.

Legionnaired
The 2.7 million membered American Legion’s national commander called for an end to all “public protests” and “media events” against the Iraq War recently,even though they are protected by the Bill of Rights.
“The American Legion will stand against anyone and any group that would
demoralize our troops, or worse, endanger their lives by encouraging terrorists to continue their cowardly attacks against freedom-loving peoples,” Thomas Cadmus told delegates at the group’s national convention in Honolulu.
The delegates voted to use whatever means necessary to “ensure the united backing of the American people to support our troops and the global war on terrorism.” Without mentioning any current protestor, such as Cindy Sheehan, by name, Cadmus recalled: “For many of us, the visions of Jane Fonda glibly spouting anti-American messages with the North Vietnamese and protestors denouncing our own forces four decades ago is forever etched in our memories. We must never let that happen again…. We had hoped that the lessons learned from the Vietnam War would be clear to our fellow citizens. Public protests against the war here at home while our young men and women are in harm’s way on the other side of the globe only provide aid and comfort to our enemies.”
Resolution 3, which was passed unanimously by 4,000 delegates to the annual event, states: “The American Legion fully supports the president of the United States, the United States Congress and the men, women and leadership of our armed forces as they are engaged in the global war on terrorism and the troops who are engaged in protecting our values and way of life.”

Suing No Child
Connecticut became the first state to file suit against the federal government over the No Child Left Behind Act, claiming the Bush administration has not provided enough money to pay for new testing and programs. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Hartford against federal Education Secretary Margaret Spellings, asks a judge to declare that state and local funds cannot be used to meet the goals of the law.
“We in Connecticut do a lot of testing already, far more than most other states. Our taxpayers are sagging under the crushing costs of local education,” said Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell. “What we don’t need is a new laundry list of things to do with no new money to do them.”
The suit’s chief claim focuses on a clause in the 2001 law that says states and districts will not have to spend their own money to meet its requirements. Connecticut also has a state statute that prohibits using state resources to implement the law. The federal government is providing Connecticut with $5.8 million this fiscal year to pay for the testing, Connecticut Education Commissioner Betty Sternberg said. However, she estimates federal funds will fall $41.6 million short of paying for staffing, program development, standardized tests and other costs associated with implementing the law through 2008.
“If there’s a bully on the playground, it often takes one brave soul to step forward and stand up to the bully,” said state Rep. Andrew Fleischmann, a Democrat and co-chairman of the Legislature’s Education Committee.

In Iran…
Traces of bomb-grade uranium found two years ago in Iran came from contaminated Pakistani equipment and are not evidence of a clandestine nuclear weapons program, a group of U.S. government experts and other international scientists has determined. “The biggest smoking gun that everyone was waving is now eliminated with these conclusions,” said a senior official who discussed the still-confidential findings on the condition of anonymity. Scientists from the United States, France, Japan, Britain and Russia met in secret during the past nine months to pore over data collected by inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency, according to U.S. and foreign officials. Recently, the group, whose existence had not been previously reported, definitively matched samples of the highly enriched uranium — a key ingredient for a nuclear weapon — with centrifuge equipment turned over by the government of Pakistan.