Newsbriefs

9/11/2008

Master Planned…
A plan guiding the future management of the state’s 292,000 acres in the Catskill Forest Preserve has been finalized after years of deliberations and fine tunings, New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) Commissioner Pete Grannis announced last week, noting that the update to the Catskill Park State Land Master Plan “strikes an appropriate balance of protecting the wilderness and expanding recreational enjoyment.”
Among various specifics, the plan adds a “Primitive Bicycle Corridor” for recreation and includes invasive species management to address emerging threats to resources.
The Catskill Forest Preserve is part of the Catskill Park, which consists of 705,500 acres of public and private lands. Since its creation in 1885, the Forest Preserve has grown from 34,000 acres to nearly 300,000 acres of public land within Delaware, Greene, Sullivan, and Ulster counties. Forest Preserve lands are protected under Article 14 of the state constitution as “forever wild” and cannot be logged, leased or sold, and must be managed to protect wilderness values. The state pays property taxes on DEC land.
The first Catskill Park State Land Master Plan was developed in 1985 and classifies state forest preserve lands within the Park based on their physical character and capacity to accommodate human use. This resulted in four land classifications: wilderness, wild forest, intensive use and administrative. The Plan also designates management units and directs DEC to develop individual unit management plans that guide management activities and public use of those geographically specific units.
The current plan got its first outing in 2003, when a proposed draft revision of the 2980s plan was released for public review and comment. That process resulted in the release of a second draft in April of this year, after which final comments and revision requests were weighed and incorporated.
Specific changes from the original plan include the creation of a new land classification – the Primitive Bicycle Corridor - to encompass approximately 156 acres along four 100 feet wide trail corridors, mostly in Greene County, along the entirety of the old Mink Hollow Road through the Indian Head Wilderness (3.2 miles); along 4.5 miles of the old Overlook Turnpike from the Overlook Mountain Wild Forest boundary to Platte Clove and Prediger Road; along Diamond Notch Road from outside Lanesville to Spruceton in the Hunter-Westkill Wilderness (3.2 miles); and along the old Colgate Lake - Dutcher Notch Trail. Bicycle use will also be extended to other trails throughout the region.
In addition, the size of the Colgate Wild Forest will be increased from 600 acres to 1,495 acres; invasive species will be treated wherever there is potential for significant degradation to the native ecosystem, and greater recreation tie-ins with New York City owned lands will be encouraged.
Neil Woodworth, Executive Director of the Adirondack Mountain Club, said: “This is a very balanced plan that expands responsible recreational opportunities while protecting the Catskills, one of New York’s greatest and most beloved natural resources. This plan will create new mountain biking opportunities while protecting hiking trails on steep slopes of the Catskill High Peaks and will expand the Catskill wilderness to protect the summit of Hunter Mountain and the Escarpment Range.”
The finalized plan can be found on the Department’s web site, http://www.dec.ny.gov/lands/43013.html.

Hamlet Expansion
New York City should not try and buy any more land in the town of Shandaken because most of the land is already owned by the State, the City, or is already deemed unbuildable due to existing constraints. In a nutshell that is the advice of the hamlet designation committee, a group that assembled recently to form new boundaries for the town hamlets. The idea was that the City would not be allowed to try to buy land inside the expanded hamlets, just as it is not allowed in the current hamlet borders. The town will pass this idea on to the Coalition Of Watershed Towns, which is negotiating the matter with the City.

Conferencing!
The 2008 Watershed Science and Technical Conference will be held at the Thayer Hotel in West Point on Tuesday and Wednesday, September 16th and 17th. Those interested in attending the conference may register online at the Department of State’s website at www.dos.state.ny.us or the New York Water Environment Association’s website at www.nywea.org.
“This important conference will bring scientists, engineers and technical experts together with watershed stakeholders and the public to present leading edge research findings and information regarding the protection the New York City Watershed, the nation’s largest unfiltered surface water supply,” said NYS Secretary of State Lorraine Cortés-Vázquez.
T “The conference will be valuable to elected officials, directors of public works, planning and highway departments, land use planners, consulting engineers, attorneys, educators, environmental groups and interested citizens, all of whom are our partners in protecting and enhancing the New York City Watershed”, said William C. Harding, Executive Director of the Watershed Protection and Partnership Council, adding, “Conference attendees will find themselves in a unique forum for collaboration among the many entities working within the field of watershed protection science here and across the nation.”
Special events at the conference include remarks by John Cronin, former Hudson Riverkeeper and currently the Director and CEO of The Beacon Institute for Rivers and Estuaries, and the Director of the Pace Academy for the Environment at Pace University.

New At School
There are no less than six new faces up by the blackboards at Phoenicia school this year. According to Principal Linda Sella there’s also a new lunch lady at the school.
“We have four new Teachers. Mr. Hallock-3rd grade, Mr. Grady-Phys. Ed., Ms. Scherry-4th grade and Ms. Sobewleski-2nd grade. Please feel free to introduce yourself,” she said. “
Two of those teachers are familiar faces at Phoenicia. In fact one of them even went to school there.
Jaclyn Sobolewski was born and raised in the Phoenicia area and was educated in the Onteora school district before going on to receive a bachelors degree in Psychology and a masters degree in Elementary education. She is also familiar to students and parents, as she has been working as a substitute teacher as Phoenicia.
Cindy Scherry is another new teacher well known in the area after years of work as a substitute. Scherry, who was also educated in the Onteora School District, hails from nearby Olivebridge in the town of Olive. She holds a Bachelors degree in Elementary Education.
Robert Hallock comes to Phoenicia from the Southern Ulster County town of New Paltz. Like Scherry he holds a Bachelors degree in Elementary Education.
Jason Grady, who lives in Rhinebeck, comes to teach gym in Phoenicia holding a Master’s Degree from Hofstra University.
Sella noted that there are more new staffers at Phoenicia for the 2008-2009 school year.
“Two more new faces in the classroom are Ms. Tenke and Ms. Stropoli. Both are teaching assistants and we welcome them. You will have another opportunity to meet the new teachers at open house…Wednesday, September 17 at 7pm.”
While the new teachers and assistants will be doling out knowledge, Ms. Diane Sorbellini will be doling out breakfast, lunch and snacks in the cafeteria.
“Ms Sorbellini will join us as a permanent member of our food services staff,” Sella said. “Because the numbers of students buying meals has increased over the past year and looks much the same this year we needed the extra help.”

Sale Completed
The New York City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), the Open Space Institute (OSI), and the Ashokan Foundation announced September 2 that they have completed a three-way transaction on the 374–acre property formerly known as the Ashokan Field Campus. The entire property was acquired earlier this year by OSI’s land acquisition affiliate the Open Space Conservancy (OSC) from Campus Auxiliary Services (an arm of the State University of New York at New Paltz). Under the agreement, DEP has taken title to 219 acres in Olive and 14 acres in Marbletown, and 141 acres in Olive have been acquired by the Ashokan Foundation.
The Ashokan Foundation’s principals, Jay Ungar and Molly Mason, are musicians who have run cultural programs at Ashokan for 30 years. Jay Ungar said, “We feel privileged to be partners with OSC and DEP as stewards of Ashokan’s 374 acres of streams, forests and fields. We will strive to further develop Ashokan’s mission as a learning environment where schools, organizations, families and individuals can re-connect with nature and build community through shared experiences in outdoor education, living history, art, music and dance.”
Molly Mason added, “While many of our old buildings will have to make way for new structures on higher ground, the new buildings will be designed to reduce our carbon footprint. This, plus our increased use of local sources of food and materials, will help the new Ashokan become a model of green, sustainable living.”
By owning a portion of the property, DEP now has more flexibility in operating the Ashokan Reservoir and managing turbidity. DEP has the ability to release water from the reservoir to the lower Esopus Creek. Releasing water can allow DEP to create a void in the Ashokan Reservoir to capture runoff from intense storms. Capturing runoff can have benefits for water quality and enhance the attenuation effect the reservoir already provides in relation to downstream flooding.
Such releases require – and natural flooding has also caused – some inundation of areas along the Creek, where several buildings had been constructed over the years by the prior owner, Campus Auxiliary Services (CAS). The design of the subdivision puts the central feature of the 233-acre property, a 1.7-mile stretch of the Esopus Creek, under DEP’s ownership so that it can safely control releases of water. Much of the remaining uplands will be owned by the Ashokan Foundation to allow continued operation of its educational and cultural programs.
Although the entire property had been off the tax rolls since being owned by CAS, DEP will now pay property taxes on its portion as assessed. DEP plans to manage the applicable part of the property consistent with a conservation easement held by the Rondout-Esopus Land Conservancy, which ensures that the eastern half of the property cannot be developed.
Under an agreement earlier this year, OSC acquired the entire property on May 12 from CAS and sought subdivision approval from the Town of Olive in order to convey parcels to both DEP and the Ashokan Foundation. Approval was granted by the Town on June 10. On August 14, DEP purchased title to 233 acres from OSC. OSC will hold the remaining 141-acre tract and plans to convey it to the Ashokan Foundation later this month.
Over the next several years, DEP plans to remove several structures that lie within the inundation zone and will assist the new owners with reconstruction outside this zone. Reciprocal deeded rights have been established in order to allow the two new neighbors – DEP and the Ashokan Foundation – to use each other’s property for access and activities relating to their missions. The Ashokan Center, the programmatic arm of the Foundation, will continue the programs that have been offered on the site for four decades.

OCS Tax Rates
The Onteora Board of Education has released information on tax rates. The school board last month adopted a yearly tax warrant resolution calling for $35,220,498 to be raised by taxes for the 2008-09 school year. The property tax levy is unchanged from the 2007-08 school year.
The school district’s $48,215,077 budget, which was approved by voters in May, increases total appropriations 3.07 percent over the previous school year’s budget. According to the tax rate information sheet provided by the district business office, the total assessed property value in the district is $3,040,971,152.
The district will collect $5,768,830 from taxpayers in Hurley; $220,615 from Marbletown; $11,545,542 from Olive; $6,481,136.27 from Shandaken; $10,825,379 from Woodstock; and $378,996 from Lexington. Rates per $1,000 of assessed property value are as follows: Hurley: $9.81, down from $10.63 last year, a 7.71 percent decrease; Marbletown: $9.87, down from $10.29 last year, a 4.1 percent decrease; Olive: $9.12, up from $7.80 last year, a 16.92 percent increase; Shandaken: $41.46, down from $43.49 last year, a 4.67 percent decrease; Woodstock: $10.99, down from $12.11 last year, a 9.2 percent decrease; Lexington: $16.07, up from $15.43 last year, a 4.15 percent increase.

Ethics Talk…
As the Ulster County Legislature prepared to vote Wednesday on a new county ethics law, all discussion of allowing Democratic County Elections Commissioner John Parete to retain both his county job and his chairmanship of the county Democratic Committee has been halted. The Laws and Rules Committee Monday ruled against such double dipping at a September 8 meeting, as well as the making of any exceptions for Parete, who owns the Boiceville Inn in Olive.
Lawmakers in committee also discussed a possible change to the county’s administrative code and agreed to allow the county executive to appoint a former member of the legislature after that person is out of office. There had been discussion of requiring a one year waiting period.

Green Pizza!
A Green Pizza Fundraiser for the Olive-originated Family Farm Festival will be held Saturday, September 13th, from 4 to 7pm at the Epworth Center on County Route 1 just south of High Falls. The event will raise funds for the 2009 Family Farm Festival. Festival organizers will serve up all-you-can-eat artisanal pizzas made from locally grown ingredients cooked in a hand-made wood-fired oven. Music, an heirloom tomato tasting, and tours of gardens and a strawbale house are also on offer.
The Family Farm Festival has been held at the Epworth Center in High Falls for the past six years as a convergence of dozens of local organic farmers and thousands of good-food lovers. The Festival was started by organizers Dina Falconi and Jen Prosser, a former columnist for this paper.. With Prosser’s recent move to New Mexico, Falconi has handed off the festival to a group of local organizers. The first step in the re-organization process is fundraising, and the group’s inaugural effort - this artisanal pizza and music fete - promises to fill the coffers of the fledgling group.
“Because of financial and organizational difficulties, we’re postponing the debut of the newly organized festival until September, 2009,” says the new organization’s President, Thea Harvey. “We’re hoping the Green Pizza Fundraiser will bring in people who’ve enjoyed the Family Farm Festival in past years. We’re looking to build a broad base of community support.”
The group will host additional fundraisers over the coming year; check out its website for details on this or other events at www.familyfarmfestival.com.

Bike Benefit
The fifth annual “Bike for Cancer Care” will be held on Sunday, September 21, 2008 to benefit the Rosemary D. Gruner Memorial Cancer Fund at Benedictine Hospital. This year’s ride will again offer three routes (5-mile Family Ride, 25- and 50-mile rides) and all will travel throughout Ulster County. All rides will start and finish at Ulster Savings Bank’s 180 Schwenk Drive headquarters in Kingston. Registration for the event begins at 7:45am and rides will start as follows: 50-mile ride – 8:30am, 25-mile ride – 10:00am, 5-mile ride – 11:00am. The post-ride barbecue and awards ceremony will begin at 12:00pm.
In partnership with the Cancer Center and Health Foundation at Benedictine Hospital, the Fund, created in 2004 by the Gruner family, provides financial assistance for cancer patients and their families who are receiving treatment in Ulster County. To date, over 300 patients and their families have been assisted by the Gruner Fund in all areas of Ulster County, including Kingston, Saugerties, Kerhonkson, Ellenville, Accord, Woodstock, High Falls, New Paltz, Margaretville and Shandaken.
Applications and fundraising guidelines for the “Bike for Cancer Care” are available at www.bikeforcancer.org. For additional information, please call Dan Gruner at (845) 417-1865.

Been Flooded?
Do you own, and live in, a one or two family home that has been flooded one or more times since April 1, 2004? Is your home valued less than $250,000? Is your combined family income less than 150% of HUD median income? Would like to sell your home? If so, you may be eligible to participate in the Greater Catskill Flood Remediation Program. The Ulster County Emergency Management Office has been working with local municipalities over the last several months to identify residents who meet these criteria. This is a last call for anyone who has not been contacted by your municipality to apply for the program. For further information, please contact Art Snyder, Director, Ulster County Emergency Management at (845) 331-7000 – by September 15 for an application.

Network Meeting
The Shandaken Women’s Network will hold its next meeting on Wednesday, September 17th from 6 to 9 p.m at the Boiceville to hear speaker Judith Biannucci from United First Financial present a program on how to pay down debt faster. The topic is about the “Money Merge Account”. Please RSVP Diana Mae Munch by Sunday Sept 14th, so Barbara at the Boiceville Inn knows how much food to purchase and prepare. Contact Diana at (845) 688-7057 or dianamaemunch@yahoo.com
For more information about the event contact Shandaken Women’s Network President Melody Newcombe at 845-688-5472.

Senior BBQ…
On September 26th the Onteora Senior Class is having a District Wide Welcome Back Chicken BBQ with the help of Hickory Pit Smokehouse from 5 to 8 PM Tickets are for sale in the offices of each elementary school, via Fran Hollander at the Middle School and Liz Sopata in the High School, along with many senior class parents. The goal is to sell 500 dinners. Tickets will be available at the door also .The event will help kick off the annual Onteora Homecoming Weekend.

Biodiversity!
Two upcoming events stress the new emphasis on biodiversity and sustainability for the coming decades.
On September 19 and 20, Sustainable Hudson Valley will hold its third annual conference, Cool Communities/ Living Economies: Ten Years to a Green Economy. The program is published, and online registration is now available at www.sustainhv.org. The regional gathering will take place at the Seven21 Media Center, 721 Broadway, Kingston, NY.
The conference brings together entrepreneurs, industry and civic leaders, funders, educators and engaged citizens for a practical exploration of the ways communities can work together to accelerate the region’s transition to a green economy.
A week later, the Watershed Agricultural Council is sponsoring a site visit and talk about biodiversity at Arkville’s Lazy Crazy Acres on Thursday, September 25. At 1 p.m., Dr. Darrell Emmick, State Grazing Land Management Specialist with the USDA-NRCS, will lead a two-hour pasture walk through the Fairbairns’ fields. For over 25 years, Emmick has promoted grazing-based dairy production systems in the Northeast United States. Emmick’s work includes developing practical grazing guidelines and providing on-farm technical assistance. Emmick will discuss the importance of grass species biodiversity as it relates to a rotational grazing system. Topics include: How to increase biodiversity in pastures, how plants and animals benefit each other, how rotational grazing on biodiverse land affects animal behavior and how rotational grazing helps the environment
Lazy Crazy Acres, managed by Jake and Karen Fairbairn, is a small grass-based dairy farm with 35 cows and 30 youngstock. Their goal is to maintain a healthy herd that will produce a high-quality product. The Fairbairns milk twice a day in a swing parlor. In the winter months when the cows are not on pasture, the animals are housed in a bedded-pack barn.
There is no fee for the pasture walk, however pre-registration by September 22 is encouraged. To register, call Kim Holden at (607) 865-7090 or email kmh19@cornell.edu. For more info, visit www.nycwatershed.org.
Conventional?
More than 800 arrests were reported during a week of sometimes peaceful, sometimes violent dissent at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul. The last of the actions, following arrests of numerous non-Mainstream members of the press corps, occurred on Thursday, September 4 when anti-war protesters rallied at the state Capitol and then planned to march to Xcel Energy Center, where Sen. John McCain was due to accept the GOP presidential nomination. But their permit had expired the previous hour, and police — in riot gear and using horses, snow plows and dump trucks — blocked their way. For hours, police let the protesters amble from one blocked intersection to another. And then the arrests began… with protesters blockaded onto a bridge police said they were forbidden to block.
The crowd varied from a high of about 1,000 down to a hundred and back to around 500. Officers then set off smoke bombs and fired seven percussion grenades, causing protesters to scatter.
Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher said the St. Paul police department and its police chief decided that members of the media and protesters should be charged for unlawful assembly.
“The tactic of blocking people on the bridge could very well have prevented a lot of activity later tonight,” Fletcher said. “ Clearly there were a number of people with no intention of being law-abiding here.”

Labor, Again!
The National Labor Relations board has set Thursday, September 18 as the date for a union-representation election for registered nurses at Benedictine Hospital in Kingston. The nurses are seeking to join the New York State Nurses Association for a unified voiced to address workplace issues including nurse staffing, non-competitive salaries, and lack of incentives to retain experienced nurses.
Last month, the NLRB rejected hospital management’s effort to prevent the election.
Congressman Maurice Hinchey sent a letter of support for the nurses’ organization efforts.
“The call for unionization should not be viewed by the administration at Benedictine as something counterproductive to hospital goals” he wrote to hospital CEO Thomas Dee. “In fact, unionization of the nursing staff will help to improve policy on an array of issues ranging from working conditions and nurse-to-patient ratios, to the role of nurses will play in determining standards of care.”

Regional Grant
The Center for Research, Regional Education and Outreach (CRREO) at the State University of New York at New Paltz has been awarded a $286,899 grant by the U.S. Department of Education. Directed by Gerald Benjamin, associate vice president for regional engagement, the Center serves as the principal locus of the college’s efforts to raise its level of engagement within communities, government and businesses across the Hudson Valley.Benjamin said that the Congressionally-directed grant, secured by Senator’s Charles Schumer and Hillary Rodham Clinton, will be used to develop measures of Hudson Valley and Catskills communities’ social, economic and environmental character that are broadly accepted and allow the tracking of change over time.
Teaching materials will also be developed on the environmental/developmental nexus for use in college courses, and other materials will be prepared for distribution to local government decision makers – county executives, county legislators, mayors, city councils, town and village board members. Publication of these measures by the Center will continue as a regular project of the center, Benjamin added.
For more information about the Center, visit www.newpaltz.edu/crreo.

Economic Factors
Sales of existing single-family houses in the Hudson Valley and Catskills remained sluggish in July; however, they rose considerably in two counties, according to the New York State Association of Realtors.
Sales rose year over year in July by 155 percent in Sullivan County and by 46 percent in Delaware County, according to the trade organization. The county with the least decline in sales was Dutchess with just under five percent loss while the largest decline was in Rockland County at 27 percent.
Statewide, sales of existing single-family homes fell by over 14 percent.
Median prices of existing homes also declined in most counties in the region in July. Ulster county homes dropped 14 percent year to year.
In other regional economic news, State Department of Labor officials “put companies on notice” recently with the introduction of a new law requiring more advance notice for layoffs, and stiff penalties for lack of compliance.
The Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification, or WARN, Act unveiled at the Poughkeepsie branch of the New York State Department of Labor by Labor Commissioner Patricia Smith is based on the 1988 federal WARN Act which forced companies with more than 100 employees to give a 60-day notice of layoffs, downsizing, or closing. The new state law calls for a 90 day notice, and lowers the minimum number of employees in companies forced to comply to 50. It also gives the commissioner the power to ask for relief, including back wages and unpaid medical benefits, for employees who didn’t receive the proper notice, and penalizes any company who doesn’t comply with the law $500 per day they didn’t give notice accordingly.
Smith said the federal law was “inefficient and has virtually no enforcement mechanism.” This, she said forced the state to take the reins in this issue.
In 2004, Imperial Schrade, in Ellenville, showed up one day and the plant was closed, with hundreds of employees effected.
Assemblyman Kevin Cahill of Kingston said the new bill addresses a bigger issue than just layoffs.

Open The Files!
Months before the Bush administration ends, historians and open-government advocates are concerned that Vice President Cheney, who has long bristled at requirements to disclose his records, will destroy or withhold key documents that illustrate his role in forming U.S. policy for the past 7 1/2 years.
In a preemptive move, several of them have agreed to join the advocacy group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington in asking a federal judge to declare that Cheney’s records are covered by the Presidential Records Act of 1978 and cannot be destroyed, taken or withheld without proper review. The goal, proponents say, is to protect a treasure trove of information about national security, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, domestic wiretapping, energy policy, and other major issues that could be hidden from the public if Cheney adheres to his view that he is not part of the executive branch and is not required to make his papers public after leaving office. Access to the documents is crucial because he is widely considered to be the most influential vice president in U.S. history, they note.
Cheney has not disclosed his plans for his papers, nor has he argued publicly that any are exempt from the 1978 law. Congress passed the law after the Watergate scandal to ensure that the country’s highest elected officials preserve their papers for public review.
“The Office of the Vice President currently follows the Presidential Records Act and will continue to follow the requirements of the law, which includes turning over vice presidential records to the National Archives at the end of the term,” Cheney spokesman Jamie Hennigan said in an e-mail.
But many, including the American Historical Association and the Society of American Archivists, are not reassured. Their lawsuit contends that President Bush sought to improperly narrow the scope of the records law in a 2001 executive order that declares, in part, that the statute “applies to the executive records of the Vice President.”
Scholars describe “executive records” as a term that is not found in the original act, and that seemingly opens the door to withholding some documents on the grounds that they are “non-executive” records - legislative records, for instance. It raised red flags because Cheney has frequently argued that his office is not part of the executive branch but rather is “attached” to the legislative branch by virtue of the vice president’s role as president of the Senate.
The group wants the Archives to abandon its interpretation that legislative records of vice presidents are personal property and not covered by the presidential records law.
Gary M. Stern, general counsel for the Archives, said he has shared the group’s concerns with the White House.
For years, Cheney has resisted revealing any aspect of the inner workings of his office; he has shielded information such as the names of industry executives who advised his energy task force, his travel costs and details, and Secret Service logs of visitors to his office and residence. Since 2003, his office has refused to comply with an executive order requiring entities in the executive branch to file annual reports on their possession of classified data, at one point blocking an inspection by officials from the National Archives.
The Presidential Records Act, inspired by Nixon’s attempt to withhold from Congress and perhaps destroy some of his records and tapes after Watergate, first applied to the Reagan administration. For the first time, it provided for the preservation of vice presidential records.

Bad Drugs…
Until now, the Food and Drug Administration’s attention to the suicide risks of medications has focused on psychiatric drugs, such as antidepressants prescribed to youngsters. But this year, officials unexpectedly broadened their concerns to include a medication for asthma, drugs for controlling seizures and even one for quitting smoking. Those are medical conditions not usually associated with psychiatric disorders.
Several independent experts say the safety alarms point to a gap in the FDA’s knowledge of how drugs affect the brain. Even if medications are intended for physical conditions, some drugs can have unforeseen consequences if they are able to enter the brain. A group at Columbia University has developed a method for assessing the suicide risks of drugs, possibly helping identify risks before a medication goes on the market. But the FDA only requires use of such assessments on a case-by-case basis.
Drug companies say no cause-and-effect link has been established that would tie the medications under scrutiny to suicides. Also, some doctors worry that the talk of suicide may scare patients with serious illnesses away from drugs that could help. For example, depression -a major risk factor for suicide - is associated with physical illness, they note.
This summer, the FDA convened a panel of scientific advisers to evaluate the suicide risks of 11 anti-seizure drugs, including Neurontin. Crunching data from 210 clinical trials, the agency found a small increased risk: two of 1,000 patients taking the medications experienced suicidal thoughts or behavior. When millions of people are taking a drug, even such slim odds can have significant consequences.
The advisory panel accepted the FDA’s findings, but voted against imposing the government’s strongest warning on the drugs, saying that could do more harm than good. The FDA is considering how to communicate the risks to patients.

Cyberspace Wars
Igniting a provocative new debate, senior military officials are pushing the Pentagon to go on the offensive in cyberspace by developing the ability to attack other nations’ computer systems, rather than concentrating on defending America’s electronic security. Under the most sweeping proposals, military experts would acquire the know-how to commandeer the unmanned aerial drones of adversaries, disable enemy warplanes in mid-flight and cut off electricity at precise moments to strategic locations, such as military installations, while sparing humanitarian facilities, such as hospitals.
An expansion of offensive capabilities in cyberspace would represent an important change for the military. For years, U.S. officials have been reluctant to militarize what is widely seen as a medium for commerce and communication - much like space. But a new National Military Strategy for Cyberspace Operations, declassified earlier this year, fueled the Pentagon debate and gave the military a green light to push for expanded capabilities.
The monthslong debate took on added urgency after the electronic attacks that coincided with the Russian military’s early August push into Georgia and reflects a newfound uncertainty over the state of global cyber-warfare capabilities. Military officials have not concluded whether the electronic network attacks in Georgia were coordinated by Moscow or were the work of freelance hackers or paramilitary groups. Still, the use of cyberspace by Russia and other countries is drawing intense scrutiny by the Pentagon.
“As we go forward in time, cyber is going to be a very important part of our war-fighting tactics, techniques and procedures,” said Michael W. Wynne, a former Air Force secretary.
A senior Pentagon official said that “exploiting” computer networks to gather intelligence is currently the most important use of cyber-power. “Clearly, the exploitation activities have been preeminent,” the official said. But citing Russia’s use of cyberspace, some current and former officials believe that the U.S. military services, if allowed, could move beyond intelligence gathering and develop a broad array of offensive capabilities that would fit well with conventional combat.
If the military is allowed to develop more advanced cyber-warfare methods, the United States would be able to routinely launch an airstrike at a target and simultaneously use an electronic attack to disable defenses or spread disinformation, said Wynne, the former Air Force secretary.

Registering…
The widespread practice of students’ registering to vote at their college address has set off a fracas in Virginia, a battleground state in the presidential election.
Late last month, as a voter-registration drive by supporters of Senator Barack Obama was signing up thousands of students at Virginia Tech, the local registrar of elections issued two releases incorrectly suggesting a range of dire possibilities for students who registered to vote at their college.
The releases warned that such students could no longer be claimed as dependents on their parents’ tax returns, a statement the Internal Revenue Service says is incorrect, and could lose scholarships or coverage under their parents’ car and health insurance.
After some inquiries from students and parents, and more pointed questions from civil rights lawyers, the state board of elections said that it was “modifying and clarifying” the state guidelines on which the county registrar had based his releases.
Student-registration controversies have been a recurring problem since 1971, when the 26th Amendment lowered the voting age to 18 from 21, and despite a 1979 ruling by the United States Supreme Court that students have the right to register at their college address.
In New York State, all voter registration must be completed by October 10.

Senior Failures
While the bankruptcy filing rate for those under 55 has fallen, it has soared for older Americans, according to a new analysis from the Consumer Bankruptcy Project, which examined a sampling of noncommercial bankruptcies filed between 1991 and 2007.
The older the age group, the worse it got - people 65 and up became more than twice as likely to file during that period, and the filing rate for those 75 and older more than quadrupled.
“Older Americans are hit by a one-two punch of jobs and medical problems and the two are often intertwined,” said Elizabeth Warren, a Harvard Law School professor who was one of the authors of the study. “They discover that they must work to keep some form of economic balance and when they can’t, they’re lost.”
. In 1991, the 55-plus age group accounted for about 8 percent of bankruptcy filers, according to the study, which looked at more than 6,000 cases filed in 1991, 2001 or 2007. By last year, filers 55 and over accounted for 22 percent.
Each age group under 55 saw double-digit percentage drops in their bankruptcy filing rates over the survey period, older Americans saw remarkable increases. The filing rate per thousand people ages 55-64 was up 40 percent; among 65- to 74-year-olds it increased 125 percent; and among the 75-to-84-year-old set, it was up 433 percent.
A number of factors are contributing to the increase. Higher prices for ordinary consumer goods have hit seniors on fixed budgets. For older Americans living below the poverty level, or not far above, a safety net likely doesn’t exist for economic setbacks such as medical problems. And some fall prey to scams that cripple their finances.
Warren noted increasing numbers of Americans are entering their retirement years with significant debt and are still paying off mortgages. She said it was wrong to assume that lives of luxury are bankrupting seniors; rather, they’re incurring debts to meet needs such as medical treatment.
“There’s no evidence that the problem is consumerism,” the professor said.
Nor is there a significant aging trend to blame. While the country is set to experience a notable age shift in the coming years, no major one took place between 1991, when the average age was 33, and 2007, when it was 36.

Gas Drilling
On September 10, Riverkeeper attorney Jay Simpson was set to testify before the New York City Council Environmental Protection Committee’s emergency public hearing on natural gas drilling within the NYC Watershed. Riverkeeper applauds New York State’s decision to conduct a supplemental review of gas drilling’s environmental impacts throughout New York State; however the NYC Watershed, as the source of drinking water for half the state’s population, is the state’s greatest natural resource and warrants special protection.
Robert Goldstein, Riverkeeper’s General Counsel, stated, “This hearing is critical so that the public can learn about the potential impacts of natural gas drilling on the NYC Watershed. We still have much to learn about the gas drilling process called hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking”— the jury is still out on it. But we know for certain that the disruptive surface activity that would accompany any drilling process in the watershed would irreparably damage our precious unfiltered drinking water supply.”

Diseases...
As the world's population ages, gets richer, smokes more, eats more and drives more, noncommunicable diseases will become bigger killers than infectious ones over the next 20 years, the World Health Organization is reporting.
The report, World Health Statistics 2008, shows that diseases like diarrhea, AIDS, tuberculosis, neonatal tetanus and malaria will become less important causes of death as heart disease, cancer, stroke, diabetes and traffic accidents claim greater percentages of victims. There will still be wide disparities, the report says. Infectious diseases will remain major killers in Africa but should decrease in Asia.
Dr. Ties Boerma, director of health statistics for the agency, said he had seen more obese people and more smokers in capitals around the developing world.
"We tend to associate developing countries with infectious diseases," he said, but heart disease and stroke are becoming "the chief causes of death in more and more countries."
Annual deaths from AIDS are expected to fall to 1.8 percent of all deaths in 2030 from more than 3 percent now, the report said.
Tobacco companies are aggressively marketing to young people in poor countries. Almost a quarter of smokers started before age 10, the W.H.O. said, and one of its surveys of teenagers found that 20 percent owned clothing with cigarette brand logos. Citing freedom of choice, the companies work to break down traditions preventing women from smoking.
Worldwide, 100 million people each year are impoverished by paying for health care, the report said. And 40 percent of pregnant women and infants do not get basic health care or immunizations.

Air Fresheners?
A clean, fresh-smelling home may actually be bad for your health, depending on what type of cleaning and air freshening products you use. Recent research suggests that exposure to cleaning products or air fresheners that contain a certain volatile organic compound (VOC) called 1,4 dicholorobenzene (1,4 DCB), can reduce lung function by 4 percent. Another study found that the use of spray household cleaners could increase the risk of developing asthma by nearly 50 percent. Yet a third study, reported by University of Washington researchers found that the fumes from air fresheners and fragrances contain hazardous toxins, none of which are listed on product labels since companies are not required by the federal government to disclose the ingredients in these products.
The study on VOCs "suggests that other people should probably avoid them, especially considering the way we live in our homes today, tightly wrapped inside, so that if there are any chemicals present, we're constantly breathing them in."