Newsbriefs

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Ambulance News
For over a month there has been a problem with how to supply the entire town with adequate ambulance coverage. The trouble began in November when Ambulance Chief Jerry Pearlman said that his squad could not handle the town and Belleayre Mountain Ski Center on weekends anymore and the squad was forced to make a choice: either cover Belleayre or cover the town. He and the squad’s other primary responder, paramedic Lisa Benjamin, made it clear that they have chosen to serve the town first and Belleayre second.
This created a tiff between the mountain and the town. Belleayre is part of the town, Belleayre Superintendent Tony Lanza said, and so it deserves the same emergency service as anyone else. Perhaps, responded Pearlman, but since the ski center doubles the town’s population on winter weekends maybe it should take care of itself or at least pay for the beefing up of the town’s squad.
The first “solution” was announced before Thanksgiving by Lanza. He said Belleayre had made a deal with Margaretville Hospital to take over the first response position that Shandaken had. The deal, however, never materialized.
The second solution came from town hall, where Supervisor Robert Cross Jr. announced the hiring of another full time ambulance squad member.
But the man hired to help solve the staffing problems of the Ambulance squad resigned less than 24 hours after being appointed, saying he quit because the details of his employment had been misrepresented to him by Cross.
Until Monday, December 4th, Craig Apolito of Big Indian was a part time member of the paid Shandaken ambulance squad. As part of a plan to solve coverage problems, Apolito was made full time by a unanimous vote of the town board, despite a public warning that evening from Pearlman that he did not recommend the move.
On Tuesday Apolito sent his letter of resignation to Cross. In it he said that he felt he had made his position clear last month as to what conditions he would accept in order to take the full time position.
“On or about November 16th you called me at home to offer the position of Chief Medical Officer of the Ambulance Squad, indicating that there were changes to be made,” Apolito wrote in the December 5th letter. “At that time time I told you I would be interested in the position should it become available…”
Cross had made the inquiry to Apolito following Pearlman’s highly publicized warning last month At the time, with no solution in sight, it appeared that Pearlman might resign from the post.
But according to Apolito, Cross again contacted him, after extending the offer, to see if Apolito would work under Pearlman should Pearlman keep his position. Apolito said he flatly refused.
Regardless, Cross put forward a resolution to hire Apolito anyway. Following the meeting, Cross asked reporters to give the town board credit for solving the Ambulance coverage problem by hiring Apolito.
All was well, until the next day when a surprised Apolito heard that he was hired.
“Last night…I was offered a position as a full time paramedic, working for Pearlman. I am declining this appointment. You understood at the time we spoke that I was interested in being the Chief Medical Officer, that I would not work for Mr. Pearlman,” Apolito wrote.
For several days it was unclear how his resignation would affect ambulance coverage. However, Cross then suddenly announced a third solution: that the deal with Margaretville Hospital was back on, for real this time, and they would be the first to be called if an ambulance was needed at Belleayre. Shandaken would serve as a back up unit, Cross said. Lanza confirmed this, saying that he had it from Cross in writing.
But once again it appears to not be the case. On Monday, December 18, Margaretville’s Ambulance Chief, Patricia Delameter, said that Cross did contact her to see if she would take the responsibility for Belleayre on and she agreed, as long as the proper written authorization was drafted by the town.
But, she said, all she got was a letter from Cross saying he wanted her to take the job over. When she informed Cross that the letter was not sufficient, he informed her that the deal was off. Once again, Shandaken would be the first response unit for any Belleayre Emergency, Cross told Delameter. It would simply go back to the way it was before anything was even mentioned.
On Tuesday, December 19, Pearlman said he had nothing to add, but was curious about the details of the agreement between Cross and Delameter and what it meant for his department.
“This is an ongoing, long saga that’s still developing,” Pearlman said.

Big Plans Ahead
Shandaken Supervisor Robert Cross Jr. has big plans for town. He says that little Shandaken has become too big for its britches, and he is taking steps to make more room for its burgeoning bureaucracy.
Cross has visions of a whole new Town Hall located near the Phoenicia Diner on property donated by developer Dean Gitter. He also said he is taking steps to buy land elsewhere in the Phoenicia hamlet to construct an ambulance building.
“We have outgrown our infrastructure,” he said last week. “The services the town offers are much more than they used to be.”
As Cross enters the final year of his second term, he appears to be focusing on this issue. Recent problems with the ambulance department have caused the department’s space issues to be discussed privately.
Cross said the squad needs not only its own headquarters and space to park ambulances and house equipment, but also residential space to give staff a place to stay while on duty. To accomplish this, he said, the town is trying to purchase land in Phoenicia to build an ambulance building on. While he said he has whittled the option down to one location, he refused to say specifically where it is.
It should be noted that there has never been any public discussion on the purchase of land for this purpose, nor is it clear how the purchase and construction of the building would be funded.
When asked, Cross said the building could be put up with grant funds.
“There’s plenty of money out there to build things,” he added.
In recent years, Shandaken has been unsuccessful at acquiring grants funds to pay for other infrastructure improvements like upgrades to the Pine Hill water system and to the Phoenicia water system. Both districts borrowed money this year for improvements. In explaining Phoenicia’s bonding of over $50,000 to pay for expenses left over from building a water filtration system this year, Cross said the district is no longer one that warrants grant funds for such projects in the eyes of the state and federal agencies that dole out such funding.
There are other issues as well. In the mid 1990’s the town, under the late Supervisor Neil Grant, built an emergency services building near Glenbrook Park in the hamlet of Shandaken. That building was said to be meant to house the ambulance department, but somehow the town’s police department inherited the structure. Even with the police and their equipment in the building there is still ample room left over for at least one ambulance, although both town ambulances remain housed in the Phoenicia Firehouse.
It remains unclear why the Glenbrook Facility is not used by the Ambulance department or is under consideration as a facility that could solve the department’s space isssues in the future.
Cross also wants to build a community center/town hall on land in Phoenicia donated by Dean Gitter. He has said that project would also be built with grant funds.
The town does have a capitol fund, known as the Good Neighbor Fund, that was supplied by the City of New York in 1997 as part of the historic watershed deal reached that year. When it was granted the fund contained $601,000 and was earmarked for only capitol improvements authorized by the City. Last year the town purchased a new police car and a new ambulance with the funds and purchased miscellaneous ambulance equipment as well.
The fund is now down to approximately $515,000.

County Budget…
Ulster County lawmakers approved a $315.64 million 2007 budget on December 6, raising the property tax levy by 7.52 percent, after much talk over the planned layoffs of 25 county employees. They voted down a last-minute attempt to save the jobs before ultimately approving the budget, 20 to 11.
The adopted budget cuts 54 positions through layoffs and elimination of vacant positions. The 25 layoffs are in the departments of Social Services, Buildings and Grounds, Public Health, Office for the Aging, Tourism, Personnel, Highways and Bridges, the Sheriff’s Office and the Golden Hill Health Care Center.
County Administrator Michael Hein said the budget was based on reform and streamlined operations for the taxpayer, after last year’s 38.6 percent property tax hike. Last year’s budget came in at $300.24 million, with a tax levy of $64.97 million. The tax levy for 2007 is set at $69.85 million. He noted that the layoffs were a part of “right-sizing” to evaluate the county’s needs rather than blindly increase personnel.
The final budget, which contains a significant increase from the County Administrator’s proposed spending plan of $300.19 million released in October, reflects a state-recommended change in recording $14.6 million worth of sales tax revenue that is distributed to the towns and city of Kingston.
The budget downsizes the Tourism Department, consolidates the Alternative Sentencing and Community Corrections departments under the Probation Department, and incorporates the Office for the Aging with the Department of Social Services.
The Ulster County Administrator’s Office will draw up projected positions, salary levels and other details for a restructuring of the county Buildings and Grounds, Highways and Bridges and Public Works Administration departments now that the Legislature’s Public Works Committee has approved a proposed outline for a centralized structure with a single commissioner. The streamlined structure will replace the current two-commissioner system, in place since 1995. The changes are expected to take effect by March or April 2007 and require approval of a local law.

Merger Update
The proposed consolidation of Kingston and Benedictine hospitals will provide the opportunity for enhanced services and new programs that will afford better health care for the community without experiencing any loss of services, particularly those involving such hot button issues as reproductive health, the CEOs of both institutions told a state Assembly Health Committee hearing in Kingston on December 11. The benefits of a collaboration will eliminate the duplication of services that currently exists, end a “competitive medical arms race” between the two institutions, reduce operating expenses, create a de facto single medical staff, lead to the establishment of new “centers of excellence” and a host of new specialties, and allow for greater access to capital to improve the infrastructures of both hospitals, said Michael Kaminski, president and chief executive officer (CEO) of Kingston Hospital, and Tom Dee, his counterpart at Benedictine Hospital. As a result, many of the Ulster County residents who now seek medical care elsewhere, including care for low-level surgery and maternity - an estimated outward migration of 30 percent - will feel comfortable receiving that care at home, they said.
The hearing in the Ulster County Legislative Chamber chaired by state Assemblyman Kevin Cahill (D-Kingston) and attended by state Assemblywoman Aileen Gunther (D-Sullivan County), both members of the Assembly Health Committee, was one of seven around the state. The hearings were intended to gauge citizen response to the recently released report by the so-called Berger Commission on the state’s health care system that recommends closure of one of Kingston’s two hospitals if they are unable to come up with a plan for consolidation by the end of 2007.
The report of the Commission on Health Care Facilities in the 21st Century, the independent panel that takes its shorter name from that of its chairman, Stephen Berger, the former New York Social Services commissioner, also called for Kingston Hospital to continue providing access to the reproductive services currently offered in hospital at a location “proximate” to the hospital. It also called for a reduction in licensed beds from a current total of 367 at the two hospitals to between 250 and 300. The report concluded there is too much duplication of services by the two hospitals and too high a vacancy rate at both.
What the two hospitals have arrived at so far, according to their CEOs, is a reorganization that would create a parent corporation over both hospitals with Kingston hospital retaining its secular mission and Benedictine its faith-based mission.
Kingston Hospital would continue to provide women’s health services, including elective first trimester abortions, at a site “next to the Kingston Hospital campus,” Kaminski told Cahill and Gunther. Both hospitals would continue providing all emergency reproductive care that is needed as is currently the case.
The two local hospitals have engaged in numerous failed attempts to merge over the past 50 years, the most recent of which was in 2004. Religious health strictures and reproductive health care, including abortion, tubal ligation immediately after childbirth, birth control, family planning and safe-sex counseling, and the distribution of condoms, have always been the stumbling point.
Several speakers and a sizeable number of the approximately 150 people attending the hearing are clearly still concerned about isolating reproductive health services in a separate location, even one adjacent or “proximate” to the Kingston Hospital building.
“A separate building or an easily segmented area invites a threat to safety and confidentiality,” testified Clare Coleman, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Mid-Hudson Valley.
“The report singles out and stigmatizes health care for women,” testified Andrea Park, executive director of the YWCA of Ulster County. Like several other speakers testifying, the Park added that she believes the commission’s recommendations are on a “fast track,” with the full report requiring either approval or disapproval in its entirely by the state legislature by December 31.
Benedictine’s Dee took issue with what he believes is an “anti-woman” view of the hospital in some quarters. Benedictine operates a highly acclaimed breast center and its breast and ovarian cancer care have “received national recognition as benchmark programs hospitals should be providing in their communities,” he said.

Kraft Charged
Ulster County Legislator Peter Kraft faces a charge of driving while intoxicated, after being stopped for a traffic infraction at 3:49 am Sunday morning, Dec. 17. The Ulster County Sheriff’s Office says Kraft was stopped on Route 28 in Shoken after deputies observed Kraft crossing pavement markings. Deputies found Kraft to be intoxicated. He faces a misdemeanor DWI charge for having a blood alcohol count of greater than .08 percent, the legal limit. He was released on tickets to appear in Olive Town Court.
Kraft, a Democrat, lives in Glenford and is one of three legislators representing District 3, which includes the Towns of Hurley, Marbletown and Olive. He acknowledged the charges Sunday and said he was at a friend’s house for a Christmas party and made a poor decision. Kraft was elected to the legislature in 2003.

Pop Warner!
The Kingston Area Football League has said yes to accepting teams from the Onteora District into their league. Locally, parents and players will be fielding two youth football teams to play at Dietz Stadium each August in a move that organizers feel will help build up local football prowess and interest to once again field an OCS varsity team in the coming years. Onteora dropped its varsity football last year citing a drop in local interest.
The two teams, each with 20 to 25 players, will include a Junior team of players aged 8 to 1o and a senior team for players age 11 to 13. Two head coaches have yet to be named who will help align the new efforts with existing Onteora modified and JV programs. In addition, funding will have to be raised for team uniforms
An introductory meeting for the new program will be announced in the coming months for play to start next August.

So Low Tech...
The town of Shandaken remains decidedly low tech. As 2007 draws near there is no progress yet on providing the town with cellular service, despite constant claims from Masterpage Inc. that they still plan to build a tower on town property near Glenbrook Park to provide a signal in that immediate area. Plus the town has taken a step backward in the march toward the digital age by abandoning its website. The site, said to provide all sorts of information about the town and its government, has not been updated since October. This problem should be remedied at the town board’s annual reorganization meeting on January 2, when it is expected that a new webmaster will be hired. The old one resigned when there was a dispute over how much the job was worth.

Inauguration!
A midnight swearing in, a 6 a.m. jog, an outdoor inaugural ceremony and a free James Taylor concert will mark Eliot Spitzer’s first day as New York governor.
Spitzer, who campaigned on a promise of “Change Begins on Day One,” will start his new job on Jan. 1 with a predawn run in downtown Albany and will stage his ceremonial inaugural at noon on the lawn behind the state Capitol, an area known as West Capitol Park.The open-air event will be “the first test of people’s heartiness and willingness to participate in the rigors of government as we envision it in New York,” Spitzer said with a grin, while joking that the Old Farmer’s Almanac predicts temperatures of 15 below zero that day.
There will be no black-tie gala, a notable difference from Gov. George Pataki’s 1994 inauguration. In another departure from Pataki, Spitzer will pay for the event from the $5.5 million remaining in his campaign account. Pataki set up special fundraising committee for his inaugural, with some of the money coming from people who wanted to do business with the state, and did not release the names of donors until Democrats successfully sued him.
Spitzer, who is still currently the state’s attorney general, will be joined at the ceremony by fellow Democrats Lt.-Gov.-elect David Paterson and Attorney General-elect Andrew Cuomo. Missing: embattled Comptroller Alan Hevesi, also a Democrat, who won re-election in November despite investigations about his using a state employee to chauffeur his wife. The state Ethics Commission concluded he knowingly and willfully violated the law. A local district attorney has launched an inquiry and Spitzer - who has said Hevesi has compromised his credibility to function as the state’s top auditor - has had his office calculate how much Hevesi should reimburse the state.
Taylor, who is married to an Albany native, and Natalie Merchant, who grew up in western New York, will headline a free concert at 5 p.m. at an arena just four blocks from the Capitol. Also, Spitzer and his wife, Silda, will host a reception for the public at the Capitol from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. Those who want to attend are encouraged to sign up through www.inaugurationny.org.

Tragic Fire...
Longtime Pine Hill residents Wendy and Carl Cappello were awakened around 2AM last Thursday, December 14, by a fire that within minutes engulfed their home on Upper Birch Creek Road. Although they both escaped without injury, the house was completely destroyed and all their possessions lost, along with two of their three dogs. Investigators believe a possible propane leak may have caused the blaze. Firefighters from Pine Hill and Big Indian responded, although not in time, according to Chief Lowell Smith, to have saved the home. The couple is temporarily relocating in Hunter.
A benefit to assist the couple is being planned for January. While their insurance is expected to cover many of their losses, a bank account, Friends of Wendy and Carl, has been set up to help them reestablish themselves. Contributions can be dropped off at Ulster Savings Bank in Phoenicia, or mailed to the account at USB, PO Box 217, Phoenicia NY 12464, att: Friends.

UCDC Changes
The Ulster County Development Corporation (UCDC) Board of Directors has announced that Irene MacPherson, UCDC Director of Business Attraction and Marketing since 1998, has been named as the Interim President of the Corporation effective December 22, replacing Chester J. Straub, Jr., 46, who recently announced his resignation to accept a position with The Technology Research Development Authority in Titusville, FL. Robert Ryan, the new incoming Board Chair for 2007, emphasized that “Ms. MacPherson has been the initial contact for new private sector commercial and industrial start-up, expansion and relocation projects for the organization. With her cultivated regional and national network of brokers, site consultants, business contacts, her extensive knowledge base, as well as her activism in many business, cultural and civic organizations, Irene will provide continuity and solid direction as UCDC moves forward”.
A Search Committee for a permanent replacement has been appointed. Future announcements and details will be forthcoming regarding the position.
UCDC is a private, non-profit organization that acts as “a catalyst for creating wealth, improving the quality of life and fostering economic opportunity for Ulster County and its citizens.” The agency had come under fire in the last year for having pushed a number of major tourist-based businesses, including the locally-controversial projects of developer Dean Gitter, without county oversight.
Hector Rodriguez, chairman of the county Legislature’s Economic Development, Housing, Planning and Transit Committee, said Straub offered to resign a year ago, but the development corporation’s board asked him to stay on while transitions were made and a plan for the county’s economic future was created.
County Legislator Robert Aiello, a longtime critic of Straub and how the UCDC operates, has said Straub is not the kind of out-of-the-box thinker that Ulster County needs. Aiello, R-Saugerties, hopes the development corporation board will hire a successor who has more of a marketing background.
March Gallagher, chairwoman of the Ulster County Industrial Development Agency, a subsidiary of the development corporation, said although she has enjoyed working with Straub, she thinks his time on the job has run its course. The new economic development strategy for the county will serve as a guide for the new president, she said.
“It’s sort of a perfect time to get someone new involved,” she said.

At Onteora...
The Onteora School Board tabled plans to discuss the district’s bond process and the three grade configurations, middle school proposals and the possibility of closing another elementary school at its December 12 meeting. No date was set for future discussions, but during public be heard, a few people weighed in on the subject.
In other news….
It was announced that James Walker, the interim assistant director of pupil personnel services, was hired near the end of October as a consultant for thirty days, as needed at a per-diem rate of $500 a day. Connie Hayes announced her resignation at an October 10 school board meeting. Deborah Fox, the district’s assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction said the position of assistant director to pupil personnel is not being filled and the administration is “looking at different leadership models.”
The facilities committee discussed ways on how best to use a $662,000 grant earmarked for improvements on the district’s infrastructure. The two major suggestions still under debate are wiring for computer technology or fixing up the high school auditorium. D’Orazio said that the money will be coming from the State, but it will still need to be voter approved. This is part of an EXCEL state grant (Expanding our Children’s Education and Learning). This money is guaranteed until June 2007.
The school board approved a resolution to draft a letter to the town of Olive asking them to send a letter to the department of transportation requesting a traffic light in front of the High school on route 28. The board agreed to also draft their own letter to the department of transportation, requesting a traffic light for safety reasons.
Board member Cindy O’Connor said, “I have one concern: I just want to make sure the traffic light is used for dismissal basically for the busses because I have concern that the traffic light is going to be used for children crossing the street and that concerns me because the traffic is moving so fast and the people are not going to be used to that light and people will go through it.”
She reminded the board that the district policy is a closed campus. Trustee Rita Vanacore said the district would request control over the light, giving way to yellow flashing lights when there is not a school event or dismissal time.
Lastly, Middle School principal Gayle Kavanagh announced her retirement this year effective June 30, 2007. She has been principal at the middle school for nearly eight years.

The Judge Snag
The recent death of state Supreme Court Justice Vincent G. Bradley and the appointment of fellow Justice Michael Kavanagh to the court’s Appellate Division — both justices in New York’s Third Judicial District, which includes Ulster, Greene, Columbia, Albany, Rensselaer, Schoharie and Sullivan counties, who kept chambers in Kingston and primarily heard cases in Ulster County — has created a caseload burden in a judicial district that gets about 9,000 new cases per year.
With Bradley’s death and Kavanagh’s promotion, there now are only six justices for the district’s seven counties. It has been estimated that Bradley’s death and Kavanagh’s promotion left 1,100 to 1,200 cases to be picked up by others. Ulster County has the second-highest caseload in the district, behind Albany.
State Supreme Court Justices John C. Egan and Michael C. Lynch already have taken some of the caseload in Ulster County, and Surrogate Court Judge Mary Work and Ulster County Judge J. Michael Bruhn have been authorized to pitch in, as well. Rebecca Millouras-Lettre, president of the Ulster County Bar Association, said more relief is needed. She said Lynch and Egan are only in the county a couple of days each month and Bruhn and Work have their hands full with cases in their own courts.
The Third Judicial District will receive some relief when the governor appoints a successor to Bradley. There will be no appointment to for Kavanagh’s post because he still is considered a Third Judicial District justice.

Partner Benefits...
Ulster County lawmakers are reconsidering whether heterosexuals in long-standing, financially interdependent relationships with county employees should be included in a resolution extending benefits to employees’ domestic partners. The original action was brought forth as the result of a pending lawsuit against the county initiated by the Civil Service Employees Association and three county employees from the Mental Health Department in September which claimed that homosexual county employees do not enjoy the same health-care benefits as their heterosexual colleagues. The suit is based on the state’s Sexual Orientation Non-Discrimination Act and calls for an extension of benefits as well as payment of damages since 2003 - the year the state law took effect.
The lawsuit has been on hold pending the Legislature’s action on the proposed resolution that extends benefits to county employees in gay, lesbian and heterosexual relationships that are financially interdependent.
Members of the county’s Health Committee sitting on a Domestic Partnership Assessment Subcommittee have developed a set of criteria to go along with the proposed domestic partner coverage that specifies individuals must be single but not married or separated; have lived with their domestic partner for at least a year; and must show two forms of financial interdependence, such as utility bills or a mortgage.
But County Attorney Joshua Koplovitz said the resolution will most likely be modified to apply only to homosexual county employees. Legislature Majority Leader Jeanette Provenzano said including heterosexual partners may be considered down the road, but argues that the county should only address concerns in the lawsuit for now.
“Heterosexual couples have the option to get married, and therein lies the difference,” said Legislator Brian Shapiro, D-Woodstock.
Health Committee Chairman Robert Parete believes the domestic partner benefits provision should include heterosexual county employees. Minority Leader Glenn Noonan opposes the idea of domestic partner benefits altogether, warning that the county will “open up the floodgates” if it extends the benefits.
The full Legislature plans to vote on the extended benefits next month.

Ed Grants Now
The Catskill Watershed Corporation Education Committee has announced that applications are available for the next round of Watershed Education Grants. Pre-school through 12th grade students are the target audience for Round 10 of the Grant Program, designed to increase awareness and understanding of the New York City Water System and the West-of-Hudson Watershed which supplies 90 percent of the water supply for nine million people.Guidelines and applications that can be downloaded and filled out on-screen are available on the Public Education page of the corporation’s web site, http://www.cwconline.org/. Applicants may also call Education Coordinator Diane Galusha at 845-586-1400, ext. 29 (toll-free 877-WAT-SHED) to obtain hard copies of the forms and guidelines. The deadline for submitting applications is February 2, 2007. Awards will be announced in the spring. Round 10 projects should take place during the 2007-2008 school year.

Pesticide Law…
Members of the Ulster County Legislature’s Environmental Committee are reaching out to other counties enrolled in the state’s mandatory 48-hour pesticide notification law as the county prepares to educate the public about the measure, which takes effect Jan. 1.
The state law requires commercial applicators to send 48-hour written notification to the owners of adjoining properties for most pesticide spray applications. It also requires retail businesses to post warning signs and homeowners to mark off treated areas larger than 100 square feet. The county Health Department will enforce the regulations, and consequences include fines and criminal sanctions.

Local Meth Lab?
Two Woodstock residents have been arrested following a narcotics investigation. An investigation initiated by the Narcotics Unit of the Ulster County Sheriff’s Office received intelligence about possible methamphetamine production in Woodstock.
Michael Baron and Ashley Roefs, both 19, were arrested at the scene and charged with a number of drug-related offenses.
A State Police Mobile Response Team outfitted with hazardous material protective gear executed a search warrant and after police searched the residence for evidence, they confiscated cocaine, marijuana, a “recipe” for methamphetamine production and instructions, several items, chemicals and apparatus used to manufacture the drug, a scale, “bongs,” drug packaging material and drug records.
Meth abuse continues to fuel an increase in crimes like robbery and assault, straining the workload of local police forces despite a drop in the number of meth lab seizures, according to a survey Tuesday.
About half the counties in the nation have reported that one in five inmates are jailed because of meth-related crimes like robberies and burglaries. County law enforcement officials consider methamphetamine their primary drug problem, more than cocaine, marijuana and heroin combined, the survey of the National Association of Counties found.
Last month, the White House drug-policy office set a goal to cut meth use by 15 percent over the next three years and increase seizures of meth labs by 25 percent.

Cheney’s Secrets?
The Bush administration asked an appeals court recently to overrule a federal judge and allow the White House to keep secret any records of visitors to Vice President Cheney’s residence and office. To make the visitor records public would be an “unprecedented intrusion into the daily operations of the vice presidency,” the Justice Department argued in a 57-page brief to the U.S. Court of Appeals in the District of Columbia.
The government was responding to an October order, by U.S. District Judge Ricardo M. Urbina, to release two years of White House visitor logs to The Washington Post. The newspaper, researching the access lobbyists and others had on the White House, sought Secret Service records for anyone visiting Cheney, his legal counsel, chief spokesman and other top aides and advisers.
In his ruling, Urbina questioned the government’s primary argument against releasing the records - that the logs are protected by Cheney’s right to executive privilege. The government’s response was twofold, focusing largely on the ownership of the records. Attorneys for the Justice Department called Urbina’s decision “flatly inconsistent” with his ruling’s acknowledgment that the Secret Service had only limited and temporary control over the visitor logs. Since the records are ultimately controlled by the vice president’s office, the Secret Service is not authorized to release them, the government said. Moreover, Congress has excluded presidential and vice presidential records from the public’s reach - making the visitor logs untouchable, the government said.
A lawsuit over similar records revealed in September that Republican activists Grover Norquist and Ralph Reed - key figures in the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal - landed more than 100 meetings inside the Bush White House.
In similar territory, Middle East analyst Flynt Leverett, who served under President Bush on the National Security Council and is now a fellow at the New America Foundation, revealed recently that the White House has been blocking the publication of an op-ed he wrote for the New York Times. The column is critical of the administration’s refusal to engage Iran.
Leverett’s op-ed has already been cleared by the CIA, where he was a senior analyst. Leverett explained, “I’ve been doing this for three and a half years since leaving government, and I’ve never had to go to the White House to get clearance for something that I was publishing as long as the CIA said, ‘Yeah, you’re not putting classified information.’”
According to Leverett the op-ed was “all based on stuff that Secretary Powell, Secretary Rice, Deputy Secretary Armitage have talked about publicly. It’s been extensively reported in the media.” Leverett says the incident shows “just how low people like Elliot Abrams at the NSC [National Security Council] will stoop to try and limit the dissemination of arguments critical of the administration’s policy.”

Got A Passport?
New travelers’ requirements being imposed by the U.S. Department Homeland Security are set to take effect at the end of January, later than originally planned but still a shock to many used to quick jaunts to Canada or Mexico, which previously did not need passports for re-entry into the U.S. New adult passports cost $97 apiece, while passports for individuals under the age of 16 cost $82. Generally, it takes about six weeks to receive a passport in the mail. However, if applicants need to speed up the process, they can pay an additional $60 fee and provide an overnight return envelope to get their passport in about two weeks.
Beginning January 23, anyone, including U.S. citizens, traveling by air between the United States and Canada, Mexico, Central America, South America, the Caribbean and Bermuda will be required to present a valid passport, Air NEXUS card or U.S. Coast Guard Merchant Mariner document, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
And as early as Jan. 1, 2008, a valid passport or other document determined by Homeland Security will be required for all such travel by land, sea or air.
According to the U.S. Department of State’s Web site, the goal of the new rule -called the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative - is to strengthen border security and facilitate entry into the United States for citizens and legitimate foreign visitors by providing “standardized, secure and reliable documentation.” That documentation will allow the Department of Homeland Security to quickly, reliably and accurately identify a traveler, according to the Web site.
Individuals applying for a passport for the first time must do so in person. During that process, they must provide valid identification, usually a driver’s license, in addition to proof of citizenship. In the case of a minor applying for a passport, parents must provide identification. A child under the age of 14 needs both parents to sign for their passport. She said in the case where one parent is deceased, a death certificate needs to be provided. In cases where a couple is separated or divorced, proof has to be provided that the parent signing for the passport has sole custody
Meanwhile, a new report from the travel industry charges that the U.S. government isn’t doing enough to prevent the nation from losing ground as a top international tourism destination, travel industry leaders. Potential foreign visitors are turned off by “what is widely perceived as a complicated and confused visa” process, triggered by post-9/11 security rules.
Acknowledging its poor image among foreigners, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff announced last January a joint initiative that, among other things, sought to reduce visa hassles. But the initiative hasn’t produced adequate results, says the new report from the World Travel & Tourism Council.
“Everyone celebrated that two secretaries were coming together to solve the problem,” says Vince Wolfington, an American who chairs the London-based WTTC.
“The follow-up, for all practical purposes, has really been non-existent,” he says.
Alluding to the departments’ so-called Open Doors initiative, Wolfington said, “We have half-open doors.”
The State Department said it could not immediately comment, and a call to Homeland Security was not returned.
In the past five years, global international travel has increased by 17%. Over the period, the United States saw a 4% decline in visits from international travelers.
Foreigners who come here tend to spend twice as much money as domestic tourists, and they tend to return to their countries with a more favorable image of the USA.
“Right now, we live in an environment where members of Congress are not convinced they want more travelers in this country,” says Geoff Freeman, the group’s executive director.
Detailed information about passports and applying for them can be found online at http://travel.state.gov. The application for passports also can be downloaded from that site.

New Directors
Roberto Rodriguez will take over as Ulster County commissioner of social services on Jan. 8. In the position he will succeed Barbara Sorkin, acting commissioner since the spring, and oversee a $100 million annual budget and 325 employees, will earn an $89,614 annual salary. The Ulster County Department of Social Services (DSS) is the county’s most costly department.
The vote to appoint Rodriguez was 22-9. Some of those who opposed his selection said they were concerned because Rodriguez lives in Cornwall, Orange County. He said he will move to Ulster County before assuming his post.
Where he lives is important because the commissioner of social services is legally responsible for foster children, for whom DSS serves as legal guardians. The commissioner needs to be available 24 hours a day to sign documents related to their care. There are about 185 children in foster care under custody of DSS.
For the last two years, Rodriguez, 59, was managing partner for a real estate and e-commerce start-up company. Prior to that, from 2002-2004, he was president and chief executive officer of New York United Hospital Medical Center in Port Chester, a facility with 600 employees and a $60 million annual operating budget. From 1998 to 2001, Rodriguez was executive director and CEO of the Los Angeles County/University of Southern California (LAC+USC) Healthcare Network. LAC+USC had a $740 million annual operations budget and more than 7,000 employees. While there, the network won the Foster-McGraw American Hospital Association prize for excellence in community services. Rodriguez also served for four years as the executive director and CEO of the Lincoln Medical and Mental Health Center in the Bronx and as the vice president for budget and finance and chief financial officer for SUNY-Old Westbury.
A Vietnam War veteran, Rodriguez served in the U.S. Army and was a recipient of the Bronze Star. He is married with two children.
Meanwhile, registered nurse Anne L. Cardinale of Kingston has been appointed as Ulster County’s Office for the Aging Director, replacing outgoing Office for the Aging Director Kathryn M. Puglisi on January 8, 2007. Cardinale, 59, has been a Senior Care Specialist for Benedictine Hospital since July, 2001. In that position, she was responsible for the coordination of senior care services, inclusive of acute care, long-term care and community outreach programs. She founded the popular BeneCare Program while at Benedictine, which provides wellness courses for seniors throughout Ulster County. Cardinale’s other positions at Benedictine Hospital were as the Care Coordinator for the Care Coordination Department and a staff nurse for the Emergency Department. She began at Benedictine in February, 1996. Cardinale worked as a nurse manager from 1986-1996 at the Ulster County Residential Health Care Facility, a 40-bed skilled nursing unit in Kingston. She was responsible for the supervision of a professional and auxiliary staff of 30 registered nurses, LPNs and nurses aides. Cardinale is currently president of the New York State Nurses Association - District 11. She is also active in United Way, is a member of the Ulster County Program Advisory Council – Alzheimer’s Association and is a member of the Ulster County Memory Walk planning committee for Alzheimer’s.
Cardinale’s annual salary is $64,228. She resides in Kingston with her husband Frank, who is well known in the community as the longtime manager for the Kingston Legion baseball team.

Blind Money…
The Bush administration has also asked an appeals court to overturn a ruling that would require a redesign of the nation’s currency to help the blind. The appeal seeks to overturn a ruling last month by U.S. District Judge James Robertson who ordered Treasury to come up with ways for the blind to tell the difference between different denominations of paper currency.
Robertson had ruled in a lawsuit brought by the American Council of the Blind. The Council proposed several options for changes - from printing different size bills to changing the texture by adding embossed dots or foil. In his ruling, the judge said that of 180 countries issuing paper currency, only the United States prints bills that are identical in size and color in all their denominations. He said the current practice violates the Rehabilitation Act, a law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability in government programs.
In the government’s appeal, Justice Department lawyers argued that visually impaired people are not denied “meaningful access” to money by the way the nation’s currency is designed. They noted the existence of portable reading devices that the blind can use to determine the denomination of paper money. The government said the blind can also make use of credit cards rather than currency.

No More Leaks
Federal prosecutors are trying to force the American Civil Liberties Union to turn over copies of a classified document it received from a source, using what legal experts called a new extension of the Bush administration’s efforts to protect national-security secrets. The novelty in the government’s approach is in its broad use of a grand jury subpoena, which is typically a way to gather evidence, rather than to confiscate all traces of it. But the subpoena issued to the ACLU seeks “any and all copies” of a document e-mailed to it unsolicited in October, indicating that the government also wants to prevent further dissemination of the information in the document.
The subpoena was revealed in court papers unsealed in federal court in Manhattan recent;y. The subject of the grand jury’s investigation is not known, but the ACLU said that it had been told it was not a target of the investigation.
The subpoena, however, raised the possibility that the government had found a new tool to stop the dissemination of secrets, one that could avoid the all but absolute constitutional prohibition on prior restraints on publication.
The disputed document, according to the ACLU, is three-and-a-half pages long and unremarkable, and its disclosure would be only mildly embarrassing to the government. It added that the document “has nothing to do with national defense.”
The ACLU said the subpoena was an effort to chill speech about the Bush administration. “The government is involved in a very conscious effort to suppress its critics,” said Anthony D. Romero, the ACLU’s executive director.
Lauren McDonough, a spokeswoman for Michael J. Garcia, the United States attorney in Manhattan, declined to comment beyond acknowledging the ACLU’s filing.
In the past, the government has fired and prosecuted government officials who provided classified information to people not authorized to have it. It has also tried to force reporters and others to identify the government officials who leaked to them.
The judge will rule on the motion to quash shortly. The Espionage Act makes it a crime for people who have unauthorized possession of some kinds of national security information to receive, retain, disseminate or refuse to turn it over to the government when asked. But ACLU lawyers say the document does not meet the statute’s definition and that, in any event, a subpoena is an improper way to enforce the law.
In its filing, the ACLU also argues that the government is misusing the grand jury that issued the subpoena.