Newsbriefs

1/15/2008

Reorganized
Setting the tone for the year ahead, the Shandaken town board has named new leaders of two critical elements of local government.
At the town’s reorganization meeting on January 5th longtime zoning board of Appeals chairman Keith Johnson was replaced by Rolf Reiss, a local builder and Woodland Valley resident who has been a rank and file member of the zoning board for several years. The town board also dethroned planning board chair Gerry Setchko in favor of former planning board chair and the boards senior member, Beth Waterman. Setchko was not only removed from the chair. He was not reappointed to the board at all.
The reorg session was ill attended and downright civil compared to those of previous years. Past sessions saw endless input from the public as people tried to sway the board one way or another on resolutions coming up for vote. But this time literally no one chose to speak when the public input portion of the meeting was announced.
But during the resolution process of the meeting councilman Robert Stanley, the board’s sole Republican, stirred things up. Stanley noted that the planning board had recommended that Setchko be reappointed, and Stanley wondered why the town board’s Democratic majority was even considering going against such a recommendation.
“The Supervisor thinks that change on the planning board wouldn’t be a bad thing,” was the response from Supervisor Peter DiSclafani.
Councilman Vincent Bernstein urged the town board to follow the planning board’s recommendation.
Chichester resident Judy Wyman noted that it is not unusual in Shandaken for the town board to ignore such recommendations and in fact, when the Republicans took control of the board a few years ago they removed Waterman from the Chair even though the planners unanimously recommended that she remain. Ultimately Waterman was appointed by a unanimous town board vote.
While Stanley supported Setchko to be on the planning board, he added that, in his opinion, it didn’t really matter who the chair was because all they do is run meetings.
Meanwhile, Setchko’s empty seat remains unfilled. The board tabled a resolution to appoint Barbara Redfield, a resident of the Winisook Club in Oliverea and member of the Catskill Center for Conservation and Development’s Board of Directors, because Bernstein and other board members said they were not familiar with her.
In related news, Stanley said after the meeting that the planning board has decided to conduct it’s own search for a suitable candidate to join their ranks. Setchko said he remains under consideration. Local Attorney Paul Friery is said to have expressed interest as well.
Last month, when word had reached Setchko that he was going to be replaced, he said it was ironic that DiSclafani was removing a senior member of the planning board while simultaneously saying he was concerned that the planning board lacked the experience to review the upcoming Supplemental Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the proposed Belleayre Resort at Catskill Park.
The town board also replaced zoning board member Steve Stettine with Joseph Micheals, an engineer who lives in Broadstreet Hollow.

Poncic Again
In a stunning reversal from last month, the Shandaken Zoning Board of Appeals has decided to hold a public hearing on it’s plan to interpret a murky portion of town law- an interpretation that could either pave the way for an unpopular water harvest project or stop it in it’s tracks.
At their December meeting, the zoners were quick to note that their interpretation will be about the law in general terms and not related to the decade long effort of Andrew Poncic to build a water harvest ystem in Phoenicia.
However, it is apparent that the issue is only before the zoners because of that project. Poncic got an approval from the planning board to do the project last year but that decision was thrown out in court, with a judge saying that the zoners, not the planners, are only entity with the authority to decide whether water harvesting is similar to a clause in the law that allows water bottling.
Poncic himself sent a letter to board chairman Keith Johnson requesting that board member Rolf Reiss, who has publicly opposed the Poncic project, recuse himself from the interpretation process. Reiss has refused, saying that he would only need to recuse himself if he had some financial benefit from the decision.
Johnson, who last month voted to avoid a public hearing, changed his tune, he said, after he spoke with at least two attorneys about the matter. Because the matter was in a gray area of the law it was best to err on the side of caution. Board member Steve Stettine, who also voted against holding a hearing last month, agreed.
The decision to hold the hearing was unanimous. The hearing is set for January 21st.

Water Rates...
The Shandaken Town Board has delayed the adoption of new by-laws for the Phoenicia Water District following a year end public hearing that ran well into overtime.
The hearing on the Phoenicia district changes, slated to be only 15 minutes, went for an hour and half as a handful of residents complained that the new by-laws include revised usage rates that raise property taxes for those in the district while lowering the expense water for a handful of businesses.
If adopted as planned, the new rates would represent a reversal of a decision made two years ago that business owners complained about. At that time the town board, under former supervisor Robert cross Jr., eliminated the old flat rate policy and adopted rates that put the cost of the water on those that use it.
“It’s only fair that people pay for the water they use,” Cross said at the time.
That decision came about after there was a huge increase in property tax in the water district due to capitol improvements made to system. By changing the rates and charging larger users for using more, property taxes went down.
Supervisor Peter DiSclafani agreed this new proposal, prepared by a volunteer committee, may cause property taxes to go up again. If adopted, he said, it could be altered by the town board at any time.
“ We’ll keep an eye on it,” he said, noting that the next time the revenues will be added up would be in April 2009. At that time the town will have an idea of how much of a revenue shortfall, if any, may occur.
There are other variable to consider. Repairs to leaks in the system have saved up to 75,000 gallons per day.
Proposed rates are as follows:
0- 20,000 gallons would cost $100 per year
A fee of $5 for every 1000 gallons used above 20,000 gallons
A fee of $4.50 for every 1000 gallons used above 100,000 gallons
A fee of $4.00 for every 1000 gallons used above 200,000 gallons
A fee of $3.50 for every 1000 gallons used above 400,000 gallons
Under the new laws property owners would be charged “a minimum biannual fee” of $150 if their water meter were malfunctioning. It is the responsibility of the owner to contact the water district to schedule repairs, and the owner will be responsible for the cost of the repairs.
It remains unclear when the town board will decide whether to adopt the proposed by-laws, DiSclafani said, in light of the concerns raised at the hearing.

Kirschner Quits
Lew Kirschner, Ulster County’s treasurer of over 30 years, has announced that he will retire from public office on February 20, saying he wants to spend more time with his wife, Amy, their two sons and their grandchildren, and bettering his golf game. Kirschner is being treated for prostate cancer and said the time is right for him to retire, though he will serve as a consultant for a private company called Fiscal Advisors.
Kirschner, a 73-year-old town of Ulster resident, became the county’s first commissioner of finance on January 1, the day the county’s new charter took effect, and was to have remained in the $102,000-per-year job through at least the end of this year.
Ulster County Executive Michael Hein, on the job for less than two weeks, said on Saturday that he plans to appoint Paul Hewitt, who currently serves as director of finance in Kirschner’s office, to the commissioner of finance position, pending the county legislature’s approval.
Hein served as a deputy treasurer under Kirschner from 2003-06 and called his former boss and “amazing public servant.”
Kirschner served as an Ulster County legislator from 1969-76, was elected to his first term as treasurer in November 1976 and was successful in eight consecutive re-election tries, including five in which he had no opponent despite being a Democrat in what long was a heavily Republican county.
The treasurer’s term was changed from three years to four years during Kirschner’s time in office, and he last was elected in 2005. Because the term that started in January 2006 was to run through December 2009, the county charter that voters approved in November 2006 included a provision that said whoever held the office when the charter took effect in January 2009 would stay on for one year as finance commissioner. After that, according to the charter, it falls to the county executive to appoint a finance commissioner and the Legislature to confirm the appointee.
Some of the former duties of the county treasurer now are held by the elected county comptroller, another position created by the charter. Democrat Elliott Auerbach of Ellenville won the first comptroller’s race two months ago and took office with Hen on New Year’s Day.

Wood Heat…
Two local schools will take part in a feasibility study to evaluate heating their middle and senior high school facilities with wood chips.
The middle and senior high school facilities in the Onteora was among five regional facilities in three counties selected to be part of the feasibility study through the Watershed Agricultural Council. In addition to our school and Cairo-Durham in Greene County, Catskill Craftsmen, O’Connor Hospital and South Kortright Central School, all in Delaware County, will be included in the study.
Each study will analyze the current energy demands for each facility, according to a press release from the Watershed Agricultural Council. The analysis will include a detailed assessment of the economic, environmental and technical feasibility of retrofitting or replacing an existing boiler system to accommodate wood as a renewable fuel option. The study, site visits and reports will provide facilities with information to make decisions regarding their energy needs.
Each facility for the study was selected from a pool of 11 candidates. Application prerequisites included having a minimum facility size of 50,000 square feet.
The total project costs for the studies at each facility will be $23,000, according to the release. The Watershed Agricultural Council’s Forestry Program would contract with Jeff Forward of Vermont-based Richmond Energy Associates to perform the studies. That contract would be paid for in part by a matching grant from the U.S. Forest Service’s Economic Action program.
“Making the switch to wood can be a cost-effective solution for many larger facilities with tight operating budgets,” said Colin Miller, a wood utilization specialist with the Watershed Agricultural Council. “The forest products industry and other energy consumers adopted the technology when energy prices first spiked over 25 years ago.”
He added that aside from cost savings, the benefits of woody biomass energy include reduced carbon emissions, improved utilization of wood waste, healthier forests and energy dollars remaining local.
To view a list of frequently asked questions about woody biomass energy or to learn more about the feasibility study project, visit the Forestry Market Development page at www.nycwatershed.org or call Miller at (607) 865-7790 ext. 112.

Empty Shelves
Holiday shoppers found shelves at the Margaretville A & P virtually empty over the recent holidays as the grocery store prepares to close, making way for a new Freshtown scheduled to open in late January. Shoppers were clearly frustrated by the lack of goods in the store, but Noah Katz – who will lead efforts on the new store — was optimistic that the inconvenience would be short and the MARK Group announced plans for a Buddy System to help anyone who lives without convenient transportation options.
Katz indicated that by February 1, immediate changes in stock, cash registers and electrical service delivery will be finished and people will be able to get everything they need at the Bridge Street location that has housed a supermarket for more than 40 years.
With its Buddy System, MARK will organize a network of community members willing to include a less mobile individual on out-of-town shopping trips or “supermarket excursions.” Anyone willing to pick up a less mobile individual and take them shopping can register with MARK. Any person in need of transportation, should also contact MARK to get on the “buddy” list. Additionally, shoppers who are willing to just do the shopping for another individual may also sign up and be paired with someone who has no other way to get what they need.
For further information contact MARK at 845.586.3500 or via e-mail at peg@markproject.org.

Shot In Foot
A 20-year-old Mount Tremper man was taken to Benedictine Hospital last week after he accidentally shot himself in the foot.
On January 2nd Jacob Lefferts of 5468 State Route 212 fired a 12-gauge shotgun into his right foot while attempting to unload the firearm, Ulster County sheriff’s deputies said. Deputies said Lefferts was treated at the scene by members of the town of Shandaken Ambulance Squad and taken to the emergency room at Benedictine Hospital.
An unidentified man that answered the phone Monday at the Lefferts household would not explain the circumstances surrounding the accident or explain what Lefferts was doing with the loaded gun.
The man did, however, describe Lefferts’ current condition.
“He is now fine and I have no further comment,” the man said before hanging up.
Deputies said the incident occurred at approximately 2:57 p.m. and they were summoned to the residence following a 911 call.
Captain Michael Freer of the Sheriff’s Department said that Lefferts was in the house when the gun went off.
“He was using it for (small game) hunting,” Freer said. “But it was a gun that he was unfamiliar with.”
As for the report that Lefferts is now fine, Freer said he doubted his big toe was.
In addition to members of the ambulance squad, deputies were assisted by the Shandaken police department.

Accidents!
Two motorists were injured — one seriously — in a crash on state Route 28 December 30, state police at Ulster have said, noting that an unidentified man was treated at Benedictine Hospital in Kingston and released, but there was no update available on the condition of the other driver, a woman, who was seriously injured.
West Hurley Fire Chief David Gutierrez said the crash occurred around 10 a.m. when one vehicle turned from Van Dale Road onto Route 28 and collided with the other head-on. He said a state police reconstruction team was on the scene to piece the details of the collision together.
The names of the two drivers were withheld pending notification of family members. There were no passengers in either vehicle.
Gutierrez said two helicopters circled over the site of the accident to airlift the injured drivers, but they were unable to land because of windy conditions. Both victims were taken to the Benedictine Hospital, but the woman was later airlifted to Westchester Medical Center in Valhalla, where she was listed in critical condition.
Emergency personnel closed down Route 28 from Zena Road to state Route 375 for about an hour and a half following the crash.
Gutierrez described the crash as “one of the worst we’ve seen on that stretch in the last three years, as far as impact.”
The state Department of Environmental Protection police, Olive and Woodstock town police, the Woodstock Fire Department, Mobile Life Support, Stat Flight Helicopter, and Division Aviation assisted at the scene.
There was also a single car accident in Phoenicia Saturday during the most recent snow storm. No one was seriously injured.
Drive carefully…

Sex Offenders…
A proposed local law that would prohibit sex offenders from residing, having employment or otherwise entering or remaining within one thousand feet of areas and facilities that would provide them easy access to potential victims, including schools, daycare centers, playgrounds and public pools, among other places was tabled following a boisterous legislative meeting last week when Ulster County Legislature Criminal Justice and Safety Committee Chairman Frank Dart cautioned against acting in haste.
“Would you rather have a sex offender that you know is living next door to you, or, have a sex offender and drive him under ground, and you don’t know if he is living behind a plaza, in the woods, and you don’t know where he is,” Dart asked, noting that the measure should go back to committee so they can bring in the appropriate ‘experts’ to explain the ramifications.
“This could endanger the public, if we act too fast,” added District 2 Democrat Brian Shapiro.
Republican Minority Leader Glenn Noonan replied that as far as he was concerned, no action was as good as siding with sex offenders.
Stay tuned…

Abuse Up
The ripple effect of the economic crisis is hitting statistics for domestic abuse, according to new reports. Domestic violence programs across the state and nation report that victims are experiencing an increase in abuse in part because out-of-work abusers have more opportunity to batter. Rhode Island, for example, has recently seen a 25 percent increase in felony-level domestic violence crimes. Victims end up with fewer opportunities to contact programs for help, attend support groups, or get away from the batterer.
Compounding the problem, domestic violence programs face a trio of economic factors - cuts in federal funding, increased demand for services, and decreased private donations as people lose their jobs or see a downturn in their personal finances. These budget constraints make it more difficult for local programs to meet the needs of their communities.
In 2007, the National Network to End Domestic Violence conducted its second annual 24-hour census of domestic violence shelters and programs across the nation. The census report found that in one day, more than 53,000 women, men, and children across the country received services from domestic violence programs. Over 25,000 of those individuals - more than half were children - found refuge in emergency domestic violence shelters or transitional housing.
Yet traon that same day, more than 7,700 victims who sought services from their local domestic violence programs were not served because the programs didn’t have enough funding and resources. Programs in Massachusetts reported 309 unmet requests for services due to a critical shortage of funds and staff.
An equally alarming statistic is the three-fold increase in domestic violence related homicides between 2005 and 2007 in Massachusetts. Researcher Jaclyn Campbell has identified two key risk factors in relation to domestic violence homicides: limited access to services for victims and unemployment for batterers.
And this situation existed before the current economic crisis.
Be good to one another…

Birdseye View!
Dan Davis of the New York City Department of Environmental Protection will present and discuss video footage of the upper Esopus Creek (above the Ashokan Reservoir) on Thursday, January 29, at the St. Francis de Sales Catholic Church in Phoencia from 7:00pm 8:00pm. The presentation, sponsored by Cornell Cooperative Extension of Ulster County, is free and open to the public.
The video footage, taken from helicopter in April, 2008, is an excellent way to see the current condition of Esopus Creek and to highlight areas of management concern. The annual flyover video is an assessment tool taken by DEP for comparing the stream changes year by year and provides valuable information such as identifying damage after major floods and other changes over time.
Please RSVP by calling Jenny Burkins at 845-340-3990 or email: jlb64@cornell.edu

On The Eve…
A retired state trooper assigned to the Thruway shot and killed his estranged wife early the morning of New Year’s Eve and then took his own life, State Police said.
William Cotto, 53, had entered his wife’s residence at 3657 Main Street in Marbletown around 4 a.m. and shot and killed his wife, Isol Cotto, 49, with a single shotgun blast. Cotto them went to a parking lot at a nearby gas station and shot himself to death, police said.
No one else at the residence was injured.
Cotto had been arrested on misdemeanor charges for unlawful imprisonment in the second degree, menacing in the second degree and harassment in the second degree on December 30. At the time of his arrest, State Police secured all weapons known to be in Cotto’s possession. They included a shotgun and ammunition, as well as knives and billy clubs. He was arraigned and committed to the Ulster County Jail.
He posted $5,000 bail and was released. The crime happened less than two hours later.
At the time of the murder/suicide incident, Cotto was in violation of an order of protection as a result of the earlier charges.

Witness Down
When a private plane crashed in a fireball outside Akron, Ohio December 23 killing its pilot, it was big local news for the evening. What wasn’t widely reported was that the pilot, Michael Connell, had been Karl Rove’s and the Bush and McCain campaigns’ chief IT consultant, and was set to testify about his actions as a key witness in a suit alleging massive election vote tampering by Ohio Republicans in the 2004 general election.
In that election. in which George Bush narrowly won the state, it turns out that all votes cast were electronically shunted from Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell’s website to a separate computer operation in a Chattanooga, TN basement, run by Connell. The process reportedly slowed down the data stream, allowing Blackwell to analyze and determine how many votes the Bush-Cheney ticket would require on a precinct by precinct basis, to win the state.
Connell had recently told a news organization he was afraid that George Bush and Dick Cheney would “throw (him) under the bus,” and attorneys for the case involving the voter fraud had alerted US Attorney General Michael Mukasey about alleged threats to Connell from Karl Rove if he “refused to take the fall” for the ’04 Ohio vote tampering.
Connell, a devout Catholic, has admitted that in his zeal to “save the unborn” he may have helped others who have compromised elections.

Starved Brains?
A slow starvation of the brain over time is one of the major triggers of the biochemistry that causes some forms of Alzheimer’s, according to a new study that is helping to crack the mystery of the disease’s origins.
An estimated 10 million baby boomers will develop Alzheimer’s in their lifetime, according to the Alzheimer’s Association. The disease usually begins after age 60, and risk rises with age. The direct and indirect cost of Alzheimer’s and other dementias is about $148 billion a year.
Robert Vassar of Northwestern University, the study’s lead author, found that when the brain doesn’t get enough of the simple sugar called glucose — as might occur when cardiovascular disease restricts blood flow in arteries to the brain — a process is launched that ultimately produces the sticky clumps of protein that appear to be a cause of Alzheimer’s.
Working with human and mice brains, Vassar discovered that a key brain protein is altered when the brain’s supply of energy drops. The altered protein, called eIF2alpha, increases the production of an enzyme that, in turn, flips a switch to produce the sticky protein clumps.
“This finding is significant because it suggests that improving blood flow to the brain might be an effective therapeutic approach to prevent or treat Alzheimer’s,” Vassar said.
The best ways to improve blood flow to the brain and thereby reduce the chances of getting Alzheimer’s is to reduce cholesterol intake, manage high blood pressure and exercise, especially entering mid-life.
“If people start early enough, maybe they can dodge the bullet,” Vassar said. For people who already have symptoms, vasodilators, which increase blood flow, may help the delivery of oxygen and glucose to the brain, he added.

Chinese Ulster…
The Kingston Holiday Inn will host a two-hour event at 4 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 21, to explore Ulster County business capabilities to sell goods and services in the Chinese market. The event is free, but space is limited to businesses who can send representatives to China in May. To make a reservation, call the Ulster County Chamber of Commerce at (845) 338-5100 or visit ulsterchamber.org.
To help the region cope with hard times, county economic organizations are forming the “Ulster County Business and Trade Mission to China” in hopes of connecting local businesses to the potentially largest foreign market in the world.
Mid-Hudson Region Small Business Development Center Director Arnaldo Sehwerert said the primary goal of the initiative is to create opportunities for small manufacturers in the county to export their products to a new market and thus create more local jobs. Another goal of the initiative is to attract Chinese capital to Ulster County, whether through investment in local business or through Chinese firms setting up shop here.
Showcasing Hudson Valley products in China could also benefit other area businesses by promoting tourism.
Stacey Bowers, executive vice president for Woodstock Chimes, based in Olive, said he believes increased interconnectedness between Ulster County and China would be “a huge opportunity going in both directions,” and he noted that even though that there is not much of a market for his company’s wares in mainland China, exports to other Asian countries have become “an important segment of our business.”

To Spank?
New research by a University of New Hampshire domestic abuse expert says spanking children affects their sex lives as adults. Professor Murray Straus concludes that children who are spanked are more likely as adults to coerce partners to have sex, to have unprotected sex and to have masochistic sex.
Other studies have shown the link between spanking and physical violence, but Straus said his research is the first to show a link between corporal punishment and sexual behavior.
“My underlying motive was to bring this to the attention of parents and of more people,” Straus said, “in the hope it will help continue the decrease in the use of corporal punishment.”
Straus, co-director of UNH’s Family Research Laboratory, conducted a study in the mid-1990s in which he asked 207 students at three colleges whether they’d ever been aroused by masochistic sex. He also asked them if they’d been spanked as children. He found that students who were spanked were nearly twice as likely to like masochistic sex.
He has bundled that study with three new ones that explore the connections between corporal punishment, coerced sex and risky sex. He presented all four studies at the American Psychological Association’s Summit on Violence and Abuse in Relationships in Bethesda, Md.
Straus said his study found adults who were spanked as children are more likely to coerce their partners to have sex.
Straus asked 14,000 college students in 32 different countries whether they strongly disagreed, disagreed, agreed or strongly agreed with this statement: “I was spanked or hit a lot before age 12.” He also asked whether they had ever verbally or physically coerced an uninterested partner to have sex.
He found a big difference between students who said they’d been hit a lot before age 12 and those who said they hadn’t. For every increased step on Straus’s four-step scale of agreement, men were 10 percent more likely to have verbally coerced sex from a partner by insisting on sex or threatening to end the relationship if the partner refused. Women were 12 percent more likely to have done that.
Previous studies have shown that 90 percent of parents strike their toddlers, a statistic that’s held steady throughout the 30 years Straus has researched corporal punishment. Meanwhile, the number of parents who hit older children has drastically decreased. Straus said it’s unclear why, though he has some theories. One is that 2- and 3-year-olds are less likely to respond to repeated verbal warnings.
Straus said he would like more pediatricians and child-rearing experts to warn against spanking. He’d also like lawmakers to take a stand by dedicating state money to teaching parents about the dangers of corporal punishment.
“The best-kept secret in child psychology is that children who were never spanked are among the best behaved,” Straus said.

That War’s Cost…
A trio of recent reports - none by the Bush Administration - suggests that sometime early in the Obama presidency, spending on the wars started since 9/11 will pass the trillion-dollar mark. Even after adjusting for inflation, that’s four times more than America spent fighting World War I, and more than 10 times the cost of 1991’s Persian Gulf War (90 percent of which was paid for by U.S. allies). The war on terror looks set to surpass the cost the Korean and Vietnam wars combined, to be topped only by World War II’s price tag of $3.5 trillion.
The cost of sending a single soldier to fight for a year in Afghanistan or Iraq is about $775,000 - three times more than in other recent wars, says a new report from the private but authoritative Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. A large chunk of the increase is a result of the Administration cramming new military hardware into the emergency budget bills it has been using to pay for the wars.
And the CSBA report, and similar assessments from the Government Accounting Office and Congressional Research Service, make clear that the nearly $1 trillion already spent is only a down payment on the war’s long-term costs. The trillion-dollar figure does not, for example, include long-term health care for veterans, thousands of whom have suffered crippling wounds, or the interest payments on the money borrowed by the Federal government to fund the war. The bottom lines of the three assessments vary: The CSBA study says $904 billion has been spent so far, while the GAO says the Pentagon alone has spent $808 billion through last September. The CRS study says the wars have cost $864 billion, but it didn’t factor inflation into its calculations.
Sifting through Pentagon data, the CSBA study breaks down the total cost for the war on terror as $687 billion for Iraq, $184 billion for Afghanistan, and $33 billion for homeland security. By 2018, depending on how many U.S. troops remain in Afghanistan and Iraq, the total cost is projected likely to be between $1.3 trillion and $1.7 trillion. On the safe assumption that the wars are being waged with borrowed money, interest payments raise the cost by an additional $600 billion through 2018.
Shortly before the Iraq war began, White House economic adviser Larry Lindsey earned a rebuke from within the Administration when he said the war could cost as much as $200 billion. “It’s not knowable what a war or conflict like that would cost,” Defense Secretary Don Rumsfeld said. “You don’t know if it’s going to last two days or two weeks or two months. It certainly isn’t going to last two years.”
According to the CSBA study, the Administration has fudged the war’s true costs in two ways: Borrowing money to fund the wars is one way of conducting it on the cheap, at least in the short term. But just as pernicious has been the Administration’s novel way of budgeting for them. Previous wars were funded through the annual appropriations process, with emergency spending - which gets far less congressional scrutiny - only used for the initial stages of a conflict. But the Bush Administration relied on such supplemental appropriations to fund the wars until 2008, seven years after invading Afghanistan and five years after storming Iraq.

Bye Bye!
President George W. Bush could be forcing President-elect Barack Obama to act almost immediately to curb global warming, after years of the Bush administration fighting attempts to crack down on greenhouse gas emissions.
Or, depending on which interpretation prevails, Bush could be giving his successor much-needed breathing room on a volatile issue.
In its final weeks, the Bush administration has moved to close what it calls “back doors” to regulating carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. It barred the Environmental Protection Agency from considering the effects of global warming on protected species. And it excluded carbon dioxide from a list of pollutants the EPA regulates under the Clean Air Act.
Environmentalists call the moves a last-minute attempt to block speedy, executive action by the president’s successor on climate change, an issue that Obama calls a top concern. But they say it could backfire, by prompting lawsuits and fueling fights over coal-fired power plants that the new administration would need to resolve quickly.
Obama “now has to clean up a mess,” said David Bookbinder, chief climate counsel for the Sierra Club, which has challenged the EPA over the Clean Air Act decision and plans to sue to block it. “They’re forcing him to act sooner than he otherwise might have.”
Underlying the debate is the issue of how the federal government should reduce America’s emissions of the gases scientists blame for global warming, including carbon dioxide. Congress has long debated, but never approved, a so-called cap-and-trade system to limit carbon emissions.
Similar last-minute problems are emerging at the federal Justice Department, decimated of experienced attorneys by the Bush administration’s hiring of political appointees over the past eight years and a host of last-minute appointments it could take months, if not years, to unravel.
“For me, the structural issue is the independence of the office of legal counsel,” says Michael Ratner, president of the Center for Constitutional Rights, professor at Columbia Law School, and an Olive resident. “The most important change Obama can make at Justice is to eliminate ideology from decision-making and return the department to its tradition of fairly enforcing the law.”
President-elect Obama’s transition team has also, to date, informed 90 Bush appointees at the Pentagon that their services will not be needed after Inauguration Day.
Stay-over Defense Secretary Robert Gates is supposedly okay with the move.
As for climate change… The United States faces the possibility of much more rapid climate change by the end of the century than previous studies have suggested, according to a new report led by the U.S. Geological Survey. The survey - which was commissioned by the U.S. Climate Change Science Program and issued last month - expands on the 2007 findings of the United Nations Intergovernment Panel on Climate Change. Looking at factors such as rapid sea ice loss in the Arctic and prolonged drought in the Southwest, the new assessment suggests that earlier projections may have underestimated the climatic shifts that could take place by 2100.
However, the assessment also suggests that some other feared effects of global warming are not likely to occur by the end of the century, such as an abrupt release of methane from the seabed and permafrost or a shutdown of the Atlantic Ocean circulation system that brings warm water north and colder water south. But the report projects an amount of potential sea level rise during that period that may be greater than what other researchers have anticipated, as well as a shift to a more arid climate pattern in the Southwest by mid-century.
Thirty-two scientists from federal and non-federal institutions contributed to the report, which took nearly two years to complete. The Climate Change Science Program, which was established in 1990, coordinates the climate research of 13 different federal agencies.
Also, over 1,000 scientists from around the world gathered in Quebec City for the International Arctic Change conference similarly concluded that something had to be done sooner than later.
“Climate change and its impacts are accelerating at unexpected rates with global consequences,” delegates warned in a statement.
Presenting data from hundreds of studies and research projects detailing the Arctic region’s rapid meltdown and cascading ecological impacts, participants urged governments to take “immediate measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions”.
By coincidence, 190 governments were meeting at the same time in Poznan, Poland to do just that: reach an agreement on how much to reduce emissions from the burning of fossil fuels. Except that they decided to do nothing. They couldn’t even agree to help poorer nations survive the ever-worsening climate crisis by providing funds to strengthen infrastructure, build flood defences and improve agriculture.
In chance hallway encounters in Quebec City, scientists - strictly off the record for fear of losing funding - said climate change is happening far faster and is having much larger impacts than they ever imagined.
“Climate change will be an overwhelming global tragedy without major reductions now,” said one Canadian expert.
In Poznan, politicians declared the meeting a success and pledged to agree to cut emissions at next year’s meeting in Copenhagen.

Heating Help
For people who are not eligible for HEAP regular benefits, there are emergency benefits available if you are facing “a heat or heat related emergency emergency” and do not have available money to meet your need. You may be eligible if (1) your electricity is necessary for your heating system to work and is scheduled to be shut off or is shut off; or (2) if you are in danger of running out of fuel (including oil, kerosene, propane, wood, coal or pellets) or (3) if your heating system (which you own) will not operate.
To receive this benefit, the heating and/or electric bill must be in your name in your name, your resources must be less than the emergency benefit amount, and your gross income must be below the current income guidelines (see table below).
For a household of one, your gross monthly income cannot exceed $2,454. For three, the amount is $3,964. For five the figure is $5,475.
For more information contact the Ulster County Department of Social Services or the NYS HEAP Hotline at 1-800-342-3009. If you are age 60 or older, you may contact the Ulster County Office for the Aging, 340-3006.