Newsbriefs

7/2//2009

A Quiet Board?
Shandaken’s Town Board meets on Monday, July 6th at 7pm for what, at press time anyway, appears to be a quiet session.
Several outstanding matters, according to Supervisor Pete DiSclafani, will remain outstanding, such as the proposed produce stand law and the proposed dog law, both of which have been under review by the board and town attorney’s for a few months.
Another matter, that of the purchase of playground equipment for the Phoenicia Park, has been “taken out of town hands,” DiSclafani said while community members conduct private fundraising to purchase the equipment instead. DiSclafani also said there might be a presentation about a proposed dog park in town by other private residents, but he was not certain. We’ll see how long the quiet lasts.

That Shot Glass…
Ulster County District Attorney Holley Carnright calls it downright “thoughtless.” Onteora Superintendent of Schools Dr. Leslie Ford takes full responsibility for it on behalf of the district.
What they are talking about is the party favor given to all students who attended the recent senior prom – shot glasses for alcoholic beverages.
The legal drinking age in New York (and all other states) is 21. High school seniors are typically 17 or 18.
It seems the gifts were decided upon by a school committee, and that at least one board member has asked for an investigation.
Muting matters, it also appears that the situation Onteora’s facing is occurring elsewhere. The Assocoated Press ran a story about a Pennsylvania school district also giving away what it thought were “mini vases” to its seniors. There, the prom committee, which includes adults as well as students, ordered the shot glasses from a prom favor Web site.
Dr. Ford has said that she has revised school policies to prevent something like that from happening again.
“That isn’t the message we want to send to our children. We are very anxiously telling them to be very safe and drug free in many different ways in the district, so we want to make sure our actions line up behind that,” she said.
Expect this all to come up again at the next Onteora School Board meeting on July 7.

June’s Rains...
Nine people in trouble on the rain-swollen Esopus Creek in the Town of Marbletown were rescued June 21 when State Police at Kingston responded to a call regarding people in the creek after a group was kayaking in the fast moving water and a kayak and canoe overturned, dumping the people into the water. They were unable to reach land. Fire departments from Hurley, Marbletown, and Lomontville and rescue teams from Hurley, Marbletown and Mobile Life paramedics responded along with the Ulster Hose Dive Team and the Ulster County Sheriff’s Office Dive Team.All of the people were rescued and brought to shore by the Ulster Hose Dive Team. One person suffered a minor laceration to the leg, All were treated at the scene for minor hypothermia. They refused transport for further treatment. Sea Tow Mid-Hudson was used to retrieve the boats.
This past June, it turns out, is poised to become the wettest June in the 113-year weather record compiled at the Daniel Smiley Research Center at the Mohonk Preserve outside New Paltz, the area’s top weather-collecting center.
Director Paul Huth said that June was proving to be not only waterlogged but cold as well. “We’re consistently recording nighttime temperatures in the 50s and daytime temperatures in the 70s,” he said. “I imagine in a week or two, we’ll start to see it get very warm. Then we’ll all be complaining how hot and humid it is. The trend we’re seeing is that the weather is extreme,”. It’s significantly above or below the average whatever it’s doing. These extremes have an enormous impact to humans, infrastructure, farmers and wildlife.
The wettest June on record at Mohonk was back in 1903 when 12.4 inches soaked the region. The research center is somewhere around eleven inches, making it the second wettest month ever recorded, with another week to go.
The average is 3.9 inches for June, and according to Paul Huth, “We received 6.9 inches in one week!”

Burglaries!
Four Pine Hill residents have been charged by Shandaken police in connection with a number of burglaries in the Pine Hill and Big Indian areas between late May and June 22. Arrested June 23 and 24 were Felix A. Cruz, Bradley V. Grant, Desirea Walley, and Anthony C. Kilter, police said. Cruz, 21, was charged with four counts of burglary and one count of criminal possession of a weapon, felonies; and four counts of criminal mischief and one count of criminal possession of stolen property, misdemeanors. Grant, 18, was charged with two counts of felony burglary. He was also charged with two counts of criminal mischief, and one count of criminal possession of stolen property, misdemeanors. Walley, 19, was charged with four counts of burglary and one count of grand larceny, felonies. She was also charged with one count of criminal possession of stolen property, and one count of petit larceny, misdemeanors. Kilter, 19, was charged with three counts of burglary, and one count of grand larceny, felonies. He was also charged with one count of criminal possession of stolen property, and one count of petit larceny, misdemeanors. All four were sent to the Ulster County Jail on $10,000 cash bail or $20,000 secured bond.
Assisting in the arrests were the Ulster County Sheriff’s Office and the New York City Department of Environmental Protection Police.
Comments
Meanwhile, law enforcement authorities recently arrested a Kingston man on eight counts of burglary in the third degree. Scott Hapeman, 37, of Pine Street, allegedly committed burglaries at the VFW and K&W Car Wash in the Town of Ulster, Hobo Deli, Steve’s Pizza and Bistro to Go, all in the Town of Kingston, the Frozen Rainbow in the Town of Esopus, PX Express in the Town of Rochester and Elks Lodge in the Town of Saugerties. The arrest was made following an investigation by State Police, the Ulster County’s Sheriff’s Office, Town Police from Ulster and Saugerties and the Ulster County District Attorney’s Office. All of the break-ins were committed in December 2008. Cash was taken in each instance and extensive damage was done to the premises. Hapeman was arraigned and remanded to the Ulster County Jail in lieu of $100,000 bail.

More At Jail?
Three corrections officers at the Ulster County Jail have filed a civil lawsuit in U.S. District Court, Northern District of New York against two of their superiors alleging they were retaliated against after one of the officers exercised his free speech rights. Kent Singer, Thomas Nollner and Jonathan Decker charge that they were retaliated against by two of their superiors after Singer created a parody of the Absolut vodka advertisement by replacing the word “vodka” with “corruption” last September. The parody was said to have been created out of frustration with practices that included alleged prearranged promotions without union input and the manipulation of schedules to favor officers with whom superiors were friendly. The lawsuit names Sgt. Christopher Ferro and Lt. Jon Becker as defendants.
The suit said Ferro reassigned Singer to prisoner transports, which is an assignment normally reserved for junior officers with less experience and a position Singer had previously handled out-of-title. The prisoner transport job was also particularly burdensome for Singer because it interfered with his efforts to care for his dying mother, the suit said.
Nollner and Decker claim Ferro threatened them with physical force after alleging they had backed Singer’s parody.
The suit, which will be heard by Judge David Hurd, seeks monetary compensation for the plaintiffs’ pain and suffering and for the violation of their constitutional rights.
Undersheriff Frank Faluotico said he had not seen the complaint but noted that he would review it and also look to see if those officers had filed a complaint with the Sheriff’s Office prior to filing the lawsuit. Faluotico said if a complaint had been made to the sheriff it would have been investigated by internal affairs. He said, though, that he did not believe such a complaint had been made.
There are three other outstanding lawsuits involving the Ulster County Jail and its employees. In one suit, a former female corrections officer said she was subjected to sexual harassment on the job and in another lawsuit, another former and three current female corrections officers made similar allegations. A former male corrections officer at the jail has also filed a suit, this one seeking reinstatement to his job, which he said he lost after he was falsely accused of sexual assault and harassment by a female co-worker.
Meanwhile, Ulster County Executive Mike Hein sent a letter to all county employees reiterating the County’s workplace harassment policy, highlighting his administration’s “Zero Tolererance” stance.
“I want to make it perfectly clear that my administration has zero tolerance for workplace harassment in any form whatsoever,” Hein wrote. “If it should occur, there is a clear path in place for reporting it, investigating it and taking swift and decisive action against those who are found to have violated the policy.”
The County Executive noted that previously, training of County employees took place every 3 years and that upon becoming County Executive, he directed that the training take place annually. He added that the County is currently completing this year’s annual training of all County employees in the areas of diversity, workplace harassment and workplace violence.
Along with the letter to each employee, the County Executive enclosed a copy of the County’s Workplace Harassment Policy.

Green Sewer…
For anyone interested in green sewers, as some are calling the latest in wastewater treatment facilities that the hamlet of Phoencia may end up with in the coming years, set aside July 16 for a special unveiling of Rhinebeck-based Omega Institute’s ribbon cutting ceremony to celebrate the Grand Opening of a state-of-the art water reclamation facility and environmental education center that will bring together wastewater recycling, clean energy, green architecture, and other sustainability elements that can be replicated locally and globally.
The celebration will include keynote remarks from Omega’s leadership and notable speakers such as: Majora Carter, founder of Sustainable South Bronx and president of The Majora Carter Group; Dr. John Todd, founder of John Todd Ecological Design and designer of the Eco-Machine™, a central component of the OCSL; and Tara Sullivan, executive director of the Hudson-Fulton-Champlain Quadricentennial Commission. Those attending the event will also have an opportunity to tour the OCSL.
The OCSL supplies all of its own energy needs, and its operation is carbon neutral. The self-sustaining building is heated and cooled using geothermal systems, and utilizes photovoltaic power. It will serve as the heart of Omega’s ongoing environmental initiatives and includes a greenhouse, an Eco-Machine, constructed wetland, and a classroom which will be open year-round to the public.
The core of the center is a 4,500-square-foot greenhouse containing a water filtration system called the Eco-Machine. This living system uses plants, bacteria, algae, snails, and fungi to recycle Omega’s wastewater (approximately 5 million gallons per year) into clean water that is used to restore the aquifer.
For more information about the Omega Center for Sustainable Living, please visit eOmega.org/ocsl

Stimulus Funding
The federal government will make available to Mid-Hudson counties $62 million in federal economic recovery bond authorities to the counties of Dutchess, Orange, Ulster and Sullivan. The bonds, from the Recovery Zone Bond program, as part of the stimulus package, are designed to finance a range of qualified public development projects ranging from job training to building infrastructure including public schools or courthouses.
Dutchess County will have available to it $20.4 million; Orange County will have $25 million; Sullivan County will have $2 million and Ulster County will have $14.7 million.
This municipal bond will have 45 percent of the interest subsidized by the federal government.
“This funding will help stem the flow of job loss and ensure that local initiatives receive the funding they need to begin and continue,” said Congressman Maurice Hinchey. “State and local budgets are feeling the squeeze in upstate New York and this new federal support will help prevent cuts to critical programs, while also maintaining and creating local jobs.”
Many local small businesses may also be eligible for interest-free loans under a new program created by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). The newly launched “America’s Recovery Capital” (ARC) program allows small companies to take out loans of $35,000 to pay down existing business debts. Borrowers pay no interest on the ARC loans and repayment does not begin for one year.
To qualify for the ARC loans, small firms must demonstrate they are experiencing immediate financial hardship due to the economic downturn, but are otherwise deemed by the Small Business Administration (SBA) to be viable. The loans will be made by commercial lenders and can be used for payments of principal and interest for existing, qualifying small business debts like credit card obligations, mortgages, lines of credit, and balances due to suppliers, vendors, and utilities.
To apply for ARC loans, businesses should visit their local SBA-approved small business lenders. The loans will be available through Sept. 30, 2010, or until appropriated funding runs out. Additional information about the ARC loan program is available at www.sba.gov/recovery/arcloanprogram/index.html

Job Training!
The words “uneducated” and “unemployed” share more than a prefix. U.S. Labor Department statistics show that while the nation’s overall jobless rate rose last month to 9.4 percent (the highest since 1983), it was 15.5 percent among those who haven’t completed high school - and a mere 4.8 percent among those with four-year college degrees.
The recession-boosted peril of job loss for the uneducated is particularly severe among males. As The Wall Street Journal recently reported, due to the collapse of the U.S. housing market, “the male-dominated manufacturing and home-building industries are both suffering, and that has hurt less educated men far more than less educated women.”
Harvard University labor economist Lawrence Katz said that the last two recessions, in 1990-91 and 2001, were more “egalitarian” in their consequences.
But beyond concerns over uneven gender distribution of today’s unemployment pain lies the spreading realization that regardless of sex, racial, age and regional categories, more education generally equals more job security. Thanks to that enhanced, bottom-line awareness, many Americans are taking positive action to remedy their disadvantages on the schooling front.
Across the country, community colleges report record demand from students who want to quickly plug the gap in their resumés.
Meanwhile, it’s also turning out that the recession is hurting U.S. cities at “radically varying levels,” which will lead to an uneven economic recovery, according to a new study by the Brookings Institution.
“This is not one national recession. It’s felt barely at all in some parts of the country, and it’s felt deeply and significantly in others,” said the Brookings Institution’s Alan Berube, co-author of the report. “For the next several months we’ll have to pay attention to several places that look like they’re not poised to recover anytime soon.”
The survey of the nation’s 100 largest metropolitan areas ranks cities from strongest to weakest economic performance according to six “key indicators” — employment, unemployment rates, wages, gross metropolitan product, housing prices, and foreclosure rates. San Antonio, Tex. came out on top, and Detroit, Mich., with its 14 percent unemployment rate, is in last place. Our own region is in relatively good standing, all told.
The report finds two distinct Manufacturing Belts (Berube said Brookings went with “Manufacturing Belt” instead of “Rust Belt” because, “We have friends there who have been trying to shed the rust image for some time”). One belt spans Midwestern metro areas decimated by the auto industry and the other is in the Northeast, where manufacturing in aerospace and plastics hasn’t seen such a decline. And there are two “Sun Belts”: a bad one in housing-wrecked areas around Florida and Arizona, and a better belt stretching across states like New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Louisiana, where there have been modest home price increases.

Casinos?
Despite a stoppage of work at the site of the former Concord Hotel in Sullivan County, a new hotel-casino will ultimately be built there, the president of Empire Resorts said recently.
The Concord project is a joint venture of Westchester developer Louis Cappelli and Empire Resorts, which owns and operates Monticello Casino and Raceway in Monticello. Plans were to retain that facility and build another racetrack and video slot machine casino at the Concord project. But, with the economy the way it is, financing for the Concord has not materialized yet.
Cappelli has promised to have the hotel-resort-casino open in two years once the construction starts.
Meanwhile, US Senator Charles Schumer has called the new director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs and asked Larry EchoHawk to take a fresh look at the application to pursue all Native American casinos in Sullivan County. Former Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne rejected a request to place land in trust to build casinos, but the senator asked EchoHawk to take a new look in light of the economic development, jobs and tourism benefits a casino would bring to the Catskills region.
Schumer said EchoHawk said he would take a “top to bottom” review of the BIA’s gaming policy and pledged to take a hard look at the Kempthorne precedent.
The Stockbridge-Munsee plans a casino in the Town of Thompson and the St. Regis Mohawks wanted to build at Monticello Raceway, in addition to the Concord project.

Quad Artists…
The Town of Olive will join other mid-Hudson towns in celebrating the rebuilding of the Poughkeepsie Railroad Bridge that is part of the Quadracentennial celebration of the Hudson River. Artists Kate McLoughlin and Doris Goldberg will create an emblem to represent Olive as well as work with youth and adult groups to make 25 flags around the theme of their town’s past present and future. Jen Dragon is doing the same in Shandaken.
The inaugural ceremony of the rebuilt bridge will involve a huge procession that will include emblems and banners representing each of the towns in Ulster and Dutchess counties and is scheduled for October 3rd .Preparation and designing of the flags will begin in Olive in July with children in the Summer Recreation Group, Summer Reading Group and adults in the Merry Mountain Maids and the Art Club. For further information call Doris Goldberg at 679-3239 by July 4th. A meeting is planned for the first week in August to get the flag makers together and put the finishing touches on all of the flags.
More information on Shandaken activities will be forthcoming…
Congressman Maurice Hinchey recently announced that he’s obtained an additional $750,000 for the Hudson Quadricentennial. A portion of the funding, about $175,000, will be used to develop a web project with National Geographic about the river’s past and present. Another $60,000 will be used for conferences at regional historical sites and colleges and another $250,000 will be spent on celebrating Samuel de Champlain’s 1609 exploration of the state’s northeast corner.

Mapling Up!
New York maple syrup production for the most recent season this past Spring increased 10 percent from last year’s production. Syrup production is estimated at 362,000 gallons, up from the 328,000 gallons produced in 2008 according to Stephen Ropel, Director of USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service, New York Field Office. Vermont and Maine produced more syrup than New York. The number of taps, 1.51 million, increased 4 percent from last year. Syrup produced per tap averaged 0.240 gallons, up from 0.227 gallons in 2008. The final value of the 2008 crop is $13.9 million, 82 percent above the previous year’s value of production. The average price was $42.40 per gallon equivalent for all sales.

Ashes Down…
A new Emerald Ash Borer infestation (EAB) has been discovered in western New York state, and is being tagged for possible infiltration eastwards into the Catskills. The EAB is a small but destructive beetle that infests and kills North American ash tree species, including green, white, black and blue ash. This is the first time it has been detected in New York.
New York has more than 900 million ash trees, representing about seven percent of all trees in the state, and all are at risk should this invasive, exotic pest become established. This is just the latest in a series of terrestrial and aquatic invasive species detections across New York State, including the Asian Longhorned Beetle, Sirex woodwasp, didymo, zebra mussels, and Eurasian water milfoil. This has prompted the state to strengthen regulations, increase educational outreach, and encourage ways of limiting the unintentional spread of these potentially devastating pests throughout the state.
“This is yet another wake-up call for all New Yorkers that invasive species pose a grave threat to the health of our natural resources and ecosystems, and ultimately, our economy,” said state Department of Environmental Conservation Commissioner Pete Grannis in a press release about the new discovery. “Tough but practical measures, such as quarantines, firewood regulations, public education and other regulatory actions will continue to be needed if we are to limit the damage from EAB and other invasives.”
In 2008, New York adopted regulations that ban untreated firewood from entering the state and restricts intrastate movement of untreated firewood to no more than a 50-mile radius from its source (http://www.dec.ny.gov/animals/28722.html). This was done as a precaution against the introduction and spread of EAB and other invasive species because of the documented risk of transmission by moving firewood.
The infestation was initially reported to the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets on June 15, 2009, by Rick Hoebeke, an entomolologist at Cornell University, after two U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Agricultural Research Service employees recognized damage to some local ash trees just off Exit 16 of State Route 17/I-86. After receiving the report and conducting an initial inspection, an adult beetle from the infested area was submitted with the identification confirmed by the USDA’s Systematic Entomology Laboratory at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. Photographs depicting the infestation will be posted to ftp://ftp.dec.state.ny.us/dpae/press/ Approximately 30 trees are infested or highly suspected of being infested to date.
Since its discovery in southeastern Michigan in 2002, the EAB is responsible for the destruction of over 70 million ash trees in the U.S. The beetle has been moving steadily outward from its first discovered infestation in Detroit, Michigan, and has now been found in 13 states and two neighboring Canadian provinces. The primary way this insect spreads is when firewood and wood products are moved from one place to another. l

Appraisal Shifts?
The National Association of Realtors is asking Attorney General Andrew Cuomo to delay the implementation of new appraisal rules, because it believes the changes are having a detrimental effect on the housing market. In a letter sent to Cuomo yesterday, the Washington, D.C.-based association is asking that implementation of the rules, which seek to put a wall between appraisers and mortgage lenders, be delayed for 18 months.
The rules, which took effect May 1, result from a settlement among Cuomo, the Federal Housing Finance Agency and mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Cuomo had said that collusion between mortgage brokers and appraisers led to inflated home values and contributed to the foreclosure crisis.
Cuomo also said he was considering legal action — leading to the new rules with national ramifications.
The Realtors association, in its letter to Cuomo, says it supports keeping appraisers independent. But it said there is significant evidence that the rules, which require that appraisers be hired by a third-party source, and not a lender, are “hampering the housing market’s recovery.”
Appraisers are usually called in to determine a home’s value after a buyer and seller have agreed on a price. If the appraiser determines that the value is lower than that price, that can hamper the buyer’s ability to get a mortgage.

Flood Mapping
The Government Accountability Office is going to begin a study into FEMA’s methodology and policies for upgrading their flood maps and designating new flood zones.
After reported discrepancies about flood maps, Senators Charles Schumer and Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico wrote to the agency urging it to initiative an investigation to save homeowners from costly, mandatory and unnecessary flood insurance fees.
“New York homeowners and businesses have been saddled with mandatory, onerous flood insurance fees as a result of these often-severely flawed flood maps,” said Schumer. “With GOA’s commitment to examine FEMA’s methodologies and policies, we are one step closer to creating safer, more accurate flood zones and putting an end to these faulty maps that force residents and businesses across New York State and the country to pay costly, unnecessary insurance fees.”

Gas Prices…
With supplies of crude oil at a 20-year high and demand for gasoline at a 10-year low, one would think gas prices would be dropping instead of rising 60 cents per gallon as they have in the past 8 weeks. What’s up may have nothing to do with the big oil companies, though, and may instead reflect the investment of trillions of dollars by Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and other Wall Street traders who’ve been buying oil derivatives… unregulated securities that are basically bets that oil prices will rise to a certain price by a certain date. Some analysts believe as CNBC’s chief energy correspondent Sharon Epperson said last month, that “It’s this money flow rather than fundamental supply-demand data that’s driving oil prices higher.”
Unlike investors who actually purchase contracts for future oil deliveries, there’s no limit on how much such speculators can invest, and no reporting requirements or other regulations for commodity-based derivatives, courtesy of the “Commodity Futures Modernization Act” passed by congress with bipartisan support in 2000. While much of the money appears to be coming from offshore hedge funds and sovereign wealth funds, those that are actually doing the investing are the same bankers we’re presently bailing out with TARP funds and other tax dollars. The firms involved aren’t saying much, as when asked about the phenomenon by a McClatchy newspaper reporter who was told, simply, “Goldman Sachs declines to comment for your story.”

Prioritization
Ulster County has been awarded a $49,000 grant, from Hudson River Valley Greenway for local municipalities to identify and develop land use tools and investments to ensure that future growth occurs in a compact, sustainable and environmentally sensitive pattern. The goal is to utilize information on existing infrastructure, zoning and comprehensive plans and policies in each community to identify “Priority Growth Areas” and their appropriate land uses.
The idea is to create more inter-municipal cooperation in planning items that stress green, sustainable solutions to development pressures.
For more information visit www.hudsongreenway.state.ny.us.

Local Pot Use
Registered voters in Sen. John J. Bonacic’s (R) district (Delaware, Sullivan and parts of Ulster and Orange counties) overwhelmingly support legislation that would protect seriously ill patients who use medical marijuana with their doctor’s recommendation from arrest, according to a recent Mason-Dixon poll. Local patients and medical professionals responded to the results by urging the state Senate to swiftly enact the legislation, which has the support of organizations representing state nurses, medical schools and physicians.
According to the poll conducted June 8 to 10, 75 percent of the 500 randomly selected voters in Bonacic’s district interviewed by phone said they support patients’ right to grow and use limited amounts of marijuana if their doctor recommends it, including 65 percent of Republicans and 83 percent of Democrats. Asked if they would be more or less likely to vote for Bonacic if he supported medical marijuana legislation, 47 percent said they would be more likely, and only 14 percent said they would be less likely. Twenty-five percent of respondents said they knew somebody who had used medical marijuana.
Commissioned by the Marijuana Policy Project, the poll has a plus-or-minus 4.5 percent margin of error. The entire poll results can be viewed online at www.mpp.org/nypolls2009. Click on “State Senate District 42” to see polling data for Bonacic’s district.

Big Kick Off!
The renowned West Point Band1s Jazz Knights kick off the 2009 Belleayre Music Festival season on Saturday, July 4 at 8 p.m. with an exhilarating evening of patriotic themed tunes to salute the Independence weekend. Free reserved tent seating is available in advance by phone 254-5600, ext. 1344 .. Unlimited general admission lawn seating will be available when the reserved tent seats are gone - so bring the entire family to picnic and celebrate our country's birthday. Preconcert entertainment will start at 6:15 p.m. with the Efthimiou Trio and light dinners and bar service will be available in the Bluestone Cafe. Fireworks will follow the concert.
The rest of the schedule includes: Michael Feinstein on Saturday, July 11 at 8 p.m., John Covelli and Justin Kolb on Saturday, July 18 at 8 p.m.; a Festival Opera performance of Die Fledermaus on Saturday, July 25 at 8 p.m; a performance of Humpty Dumpty, a children’s opera, on Sunday, July 26 at 1 p.m.; Ladysmith Black Mambazo on Saturday, Aug. 1 at 8 p.m; The Pablo Zierger Trio for Nuevo Tango on Friday, Aug. 7 at 8 p.m.; Leny Andrade on Saturday, Aug. 8 at 8 p.m.; Kevin Mahogany on Friday, Aug. 14 at 8 p.m; Saturday, Aug. 15 at 8 p.m.; Jay Leno1s band leader Kevin Eubanks on Saturday, Aug. 22 - 8 p.m., Bob Marley1s band The Original Wailers; Sunday, Aug. 23 at 1 p.m., KIDSTOCK featuring Uncle Rock and the Playthings with special guests Paul Green1s School of Rock (free admission); Saturday, Aug. 29 at 8 p.m., Mary Wilson of the Supremes; Saturday, Sept. 5 at 8 p.m.... ABBA, The Tour.
For additional information, please call 800 942-6904, ext. 1344 or visit: www.belleayremusic.org.

Esoteric Quest
The Esoteric Quest conference is a five-day event taking place at The Menla Mountain Retreat & Conference Center in Phoenicia, New York August 24-28. The symposium will feature speakers and participants from all over the world who will be exploring and celebrating the life-enhancing spiritual impulses that have powerfully emerged in America including; the spirituality of the Iroquois Nation, early American Alchemists, the Masonic circles associated with some of the Founding Fathers, the insights of the Transcendentalists and deep esoteric insights of numerous influential artists and writers in American history including Saul Bellow.
For more info about the conference please see www.EsotericQuest.org or call 212-219-2527 x 101.

Get This...
Major U.S., Canadian and British life and health insurance companies have billions of dollars invested in tobacco companies, says a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Wesley Boyd, the study's lead author, found that at least $4.4 billion US in insurance company funds are invested in companies whose affiliates produce cigarettes, cigars and chewing tobacco.
"Despite calls upon the insurance industry to get out of the tobacco business by physicians and others, insurers continue to put their profits above people's health," said Boyd, a faculty member of Harvard Medical School. "It's clear their top priority is making money, not safeguarding people's well-being," he wrote.
According to the study, U.S. insurer Prudential Financial Inc. has $264.3 million invested among three U.S. tobacco companies, including Reynolds America and Philip Morris.

Porta Potties...
Because of the state’s ongoing budget crisis, the state Department of Environmental Conservation is taking its time reviewing expenditures. And because of that, trailheads around the state – including 13 in the Hudson Valley and Catskills regions – are without porta-potties because no money has been approved for them.
Even if approvals come soon to spend the money, regional DEC acting director of operations Gary Van Laer said it may be too late to get them for the summer months.
“It’s kind of a lengthy contract, especially if it goes over $15,000 this year,” he said. “By the time I get the invitation to bid out to all suppliers, I get those back and we go through the contract process, it takes a while.”
Ulster County Legislature Environmental Committee Chairman Brian Shapiro is concerned. “People are relieving themselves in the streams. People are going up to houses and saying, ‘Can I use your bathroom,’ and also, driving miles away to Grahamsville, which is in another county.”
Shapiro has drafted a local resolution urging the state to restore the potty at Peekamoose Valley Camping Area in the Town of Denning.
All trailheads in this region don’t have the potties right now – including Giant Ledge, Slide Mountain, Alder Lake, and the Allaben Access Site.
Art Request
The Hudson Valley Seed Library is looking for new artwork for the covers of its seed packs. Last year, eleven artists were commissioned to create original pieces for the Seed Library’s Art Packs. Each artist brought his or her unique style to the image he or she designed. Mediums included drawing, painting, collage, cut paper, ceramics, and photography. Last year’s artists received local and national exposure: on their website, in blogs, magazines, galleries, and in the homes of thousands of gardeners across the region and the country.
This year, HVSL co-founder Ken Greene will be looking for artwork that helps reflect the diversity of the heirloom seeds offered in the catalog. The Seed Library will be selecting up to 16 new artists for its 2010 seed packs. Please feel free to pass along the following guidelines, which describe eligibility and submission requirements and gives details of our selection process. To learn more about HVSL and see last year’s artwork, visit www.seedlibrary.org.
Artists must be part of the greater Hudson Valley region and all media is ok except photography. Submissions due July 9, with 32 Round 1 finalists contacted by July 10, Round 2 sketches due by July 17, 16 Round 2 finalists contacted by July 19, and final artwork due by August 10.
Up to 16 artists may be selected to create artwork for seed packs. Artists whose work is accepted will be paid $100 and given credit on the printed packs as well as a bio and link on seedlibrary.org.