The Phoenicia Times - NEWSBRIEFS

Newsbriefs

Onteora Openings
Seven local residents have stepped forward to declare their candidacies for filling an Onteora Board of Education seat vacated by former Trustee Thomas Rosato of Shandaken last month. Those include Michael Shultis of Hurley; Mark Goldfarb of Woodstock; Anne-Marie Johansson of West Shokan; Sara Morales of Woodstock; former district Trustee Greg Walters of Shandaken; Rita Vanacore of Shandaken; and Pia Davis of Shady. Rosato, who resigned last month to take care of his ailing parents, was six months into a second full three-year term as trustee. He previously lost in a 2000 effort to win a board seat after being appointed to fill a vacancy. A January 25 meeting at Phoenicia Elementary School has been set for interviewing of all candidates, with a decision to be made in the weeks following. A successful candidate would fill the vacancy through the May election, when there will be three three-year terms for trustees and the remainder of Rosato’s term on the ballot.

Anti Casino
Two dozen anti-casino activists from across New York blasted Gov. George Pataki and Attorney General Eliot Spitzer recently for pushing what critics call an immoral, illegal expansion of gambling. Pataki wants to allow five casinos in the Ulster-Sullivan counties region, instead of the three authorized under a 2001 law he shepherded through the
Legislature. The governor wants to use the casinos to help settle all Native American land claims against the state.
“This governor has made a policy choice that government services should be
paid for from human frailty and suffering,” said Assemblyman William Parment, D-Jamestown, a member of a coalition suing Pataki for allegedly violating the state constitution by allowing casinos in New York.
Richard G. Geldard, a resident of Kerhonkson in Ulster County, said state
leaders have “responded like sheep to a misguided governor’s callous attempts to raise money the easy way instead of confronting the state’s problems with imagination and fiscal discipline.”
Others, including representatives of the Coalition Against Gambling in New
York and the National Coalition Against Legalized Gambling, cited studies that show increased crime, bankruptcies, child and spousal abuse and gambling problems in areas where casinos arise. They also said the economy suffers in states where gambling is legalized and that gambling costs the government three times what it brings in.
Sen. John Bonacic said that elected county officials will determine if plans proceed.

The Tab...
Shandaken’s school taxes did take a dip last fall, as a result of Onteora’s adoption of the large parcel bill. But now that the town and county tax bills are out, it’s apparent we’ll all have to dig a bit deeper.
The county’s portion of the combined January tax bill is up 11% over 2004. And while Shandaken’s highway department held its rise over last year’s levels to 3.6%, the amount to be raised by taxes for the town’s General Fund, the part the supervisor budgets, is up 9.4% over last year. That translates to an actual increase of 8.31% over last year on the town’s General Fund payments, due from Shandaken’s taxpayers by the end of this month.
Opinions undoubtedly vary as to whether that’s a reasonable increase or not. But as a point of comparison, those same actual increases under former supervisor Wayne Gutmann’s budgets were 3.13% for 2001 and 4.2% for 2002. Under supervisor Pete DiModica, the numbers were 3.46% for 2003 and 3.54% for 2004.

Tourist Blow?
The New York State Thruway Authority has told Ulster County that it will not donate seven-tenths of an acre of Thruway property adjacent to the Kingston traffic circle for use as a tourism center, and will only part with the property via a negotiated sale. The reported price being asked for the land in question is $200,000, which county Planning Director Dennis Doyle said the county might be able to lease at 10 percent of the property’s total value per year, or more than $20,000 annually, for 20 to 30 years.
Doyle added, in a recent Tourism Committee meeting at which he announced the news, that the Thruway Authority’s decision could be fatal to the visitors’ center the county has been planning for because current budgets for the 5,000-square-foot building, with a price tag of $1.73 million coming from state and federal grants, does not have much wiggle room.
The original plan for the center, conceived in 2001, called for a 12,000-square-foot facility costing $4 million. But opposition from county democrats, among others, led to a lessening of such budget figures… and now suggests a possible jettisoning of the idea in favor of an enhanced web presence.
Stay tuned on this one…

Funding Fight
The nation’s deepening culture wars arose during the Ulster County legislature’s annual organizational meeting Monday, January 10, as the body discussed whether county funds should go toward programs for raising pheasants, hares and trout to be released and hunted or a number of other programs dedicated to the arts and social welfare. In the end, legislators voted 27-4 to provide the Federated Sportsmen’s Clubs of Ulster County $7,000 in 2005, and voted 23-8 not to put restrictions on how the organization can spend the money.
During deliberations on the subject, a loose coalition of other agencies, citizens and animal rights groups objected to the use of their tax dollars for the so-called “raise and release” programs, which they characterized as “canned hunts,” and which they said left the animals unprepared for life in the wild if the hunters fail to take them down soon after their release. Brian Shapiro, the Democratic legislator for Woodstock and Shandaken, proposed a compromise resolution that would give the Federated Sportsmen’s Clubs the money with stipulations that the funding be used specifically for gun safety and various environmental programs. But when more than 200 hunters showed up in support of the original resolution, decrying a movement of “wackos” that would turn the nation into a “total vegetarian state,” with a ban on meat eating, the money was okayed without any strings.
Legislators, headed by Shapiro and Olive’s Robert Parete, are now calling for changes in how the county Legislature allocates money to so-called “contract agencies,” which will receive approximately $1.1 for 30 entities, including Cornell’s Cooperative Extension, in the coming year. Currently, there are no county-specific guidelines for how the money is doled out and no standard measure of public benefit that arises from the county’s contributions. And although Ulster County retains the right to audit the books of the agencies it funds, to date, none of the agencies has been audited by the county. Instead, each group is required to file, at the end of the year, an accounting of how the county’s money was spent. The county then can withhold the subsequent year’s funding if that accounting is not filed.
Among those upset about the recent decision to fund the Sportsmen’s program was the Woodstock Film Festival and Film Commission, which received a total donation of $500, without explanation.

County Debts
Ulster County is on the verge of borrowing over $400,000 to pay for 19 new vehicles to be used by the Department of Social Services, the Buildings and Grounds Department and the Sheriff’s Office. County Administrator Arthur Smith said it makes sense to amortize the cost over time. Of the 19 vehicles being considered for purchase, 14 are for the Department of Social Services, which would lease the vehicles from the Ulster County Purchasing Department for the first three years. The vehicles then would be redistributed among other county departments. Of the remaining five vehiclese, one is a cargo van for the Buildings and Grounds Department; two are sport utility vehicles used by the Sheriff’s Department for special units that need larger capacity for equipment or towing capability, including diving, navigation and police dog units; and two are replacement patrol cars. All 19 vehicles would be purchased from entities on the state-accepted bidders list.

Teen Arrests
The Shandaken Police Department reports the arrests of four area 16 year old youths on January 12 and 13 stemming from an incident that occurred at the Phoenicia Hotel located on Main Street Phoenicia the week of Christmas. Police state they received a complaint that people had broken into about 8 hotel rooms and were living in two of them for about a week. Police state that a couple of hundred dollars in damage was sustained to the rooms from broken mirrors, smoke detectors, locks and window screens, broken light bulbs, fire extinguishers and cigarette burns in the linen. In addition another man who resides in one of the rooms states that he had a gold ring stolen from his room which was broken into while he was away. Police state that they arrested two boys who were each charged with 2 counts of Felony Burglary, one count of Felony Criminal Mischief, one count of Petit Larceny and Criminal Possession of Stolen Property. Police state that both boys were remanded to the Ulster County Jail on $10,000 Cash bail or a $20,000 Secured Bond. In addition two fema1es were also arrested in this incident and both were charged with Criminal Trespass, a misdemeanor. The names of all four youths are being withheld due to their being eligible for youthful offender status. Police were assisted by the .State Police in Shokan and Deputies from the County Sheriffs Office in Kingston.

Legalize It!
Nearly three-fourths of older Americans support legalizing marijuana for medical use, according to a poll done for the nation’s largest advocacy group for seniors. More than half of those questioned said they believe marijuana has medical benefits, while a larger majority agreed the drug is addictive. AARP, with 35 million members, says it has no political position on medical marijuana and that its local branches have not chosen sides in the scores of state ballot initiatives on the issue in recent elections. But with medical marijuana at the center of a Supreme Court case to be decided next year, and nearly a dozen states with medical marijuana laws on their books, AARP decided to study the issue. Among the 1,706 adults polled in AARP’s random telephone survey in November, opinions varied along regional and generational lines and among the 30 percent of respondents who said they have smoked pot. AARP members represented 37 percent of respondents. Overall, 72 percent of respondents agreed “adults should be allowed to legally use marijuana for medical purposes if a physician recommends it.” Those in the Northeast (79 percent) and West (82 percent) were more receptive to the idea than in the Midwest (67 percent) and Southwest (65 percent). In Southern states, 70 percent agreed with the statement. Generational lines also divided those who have smoked pot: Just 8 percent of those 70 and older admitted having lit up, compared with 58 percent of the 45-49 group, 37 percent of those between 50 and 59 and 15 percent of the 60-69 set.

Bad Cells…
Parents should not give cell phones to children aged eight or under, the chairman of an official study into the safety of the phones has said, citing a growing amount of research that showed using cell phones has health implications and it was therefore wise to adopt a “precautionary approach,” particularly with children. A British company that recently launched a phone aimed at 4- to 8-year-olds said it was suspending sales until it has studied the new report, which shows that “emissions from mobile phone masts are a small percentage of the emissions that one gets from a mobile phone,” and suggests that such masts - blamed by some parents for making their families ill - should not be sited near schools.
The new British report said studies showing the use of cell phones could affect health “have yet to be replicated and are of varying quality but we can’t dismiss them out of hand” but advised users to be cautious and use text messaging as much as possible. As a result, Communic8 said it was suspending sales of its MyMo phones, which were designed for children and store up to five numbers that can be easily dialed in an emergency.
“We launched the product specifically because we thought it could address security concerns of parents,” said marketing director Adam Stephenson. “We absolutely do not want to damage children’s health.”

Quandary?
With a bumper poppy harvest expected in Afghanistan in the new year, a debate has erupted within the Bush administration on whether the United States should push for the crop’s destruction despite the objections of the Afghan government. According to Pakistani newspapers citing their country’s administration, and sources in the US Embassy there, new Afghani president Harmid Karzai has rejected major eradication program by crop spraying and has instead proposed offering amnesty to wealthy drug traffickers, and inviting them to invest their wealth in the Afghan economy. This could get hot…

National IDs
Privacy advocates warn that new federal standards for driver’s licenses will effectively create a national ID card, centralizing information so the government can track people’s whereabouts while government officials behind the changes are saying they’re just making the cards more secure, and that growing worries are overblown and besides, won’t take effect for another year-and-a-half. States can opt out — refuse to make changes to their driver’s licenses that will be required under the federal law — but then the licenses would be useless for any federal purpose, from getting benefits to boarding an airplane guarded by federal screeners.
The intelligence law aims to standardize the documents drivers present to get a license, the ways DMV workers verify that those documents are authentic, the information included on a license and the steps authorities take to ensure licenses can’t be forged. The law also requires that licenses can be read by machines.
Many of the law’s specifics have yet to be decided such as: Will licenses include biometric information like fingerprints or retinal scans? Will “machine-readable” mean bar codes or radio frequency identification systems — in which a tiny computer chip transmits data and can theoretically be used to track location?
Civil libertarians warn that the push to make the driver’s license the “gold standard” for ID will only make it easier to steal someone’s identity — and will increase the value of counterfeit licenses, undermining the hopes that these steps will provide better security.

NEU Constitution
The European Parliament has sent an important signal of unity by overwhelmingly endorsing the EU’s proposed new constitution. Now, it is up to the bloc’s 25 member states to ratify the historic treaty. The January 5 poll, which resulted in a tally of 500 votes in favor to 137 against, with 40 abstentions, drew a standing ovation in the European Parliament in Strasbourg.
“In the name of the 25 heads of state of the European Union who signed the constitution in October, I would like to express my great joy,” retorted Luxembourg’s prime minister and current EU president, Jean-Claude Juncker, following the vote.
The new constitution will boost the assembly’s powers, create a long-term resident of the European Council of EU leaders and an EU foreign minister, as well as streamline decision-making. But the far left reject it as a global capitalist charter without adequate social protection, while the far right and nationalists have attacked it as a blueprint for a European “superstate” that would give too much power to Brussels.
But the constitution still faces a long and bumpy ride. Two countries, Lithuania and Hungary, have ratified the charter by parliamentary vote so far. But its fate will be sealed in referendums in countries including France, the Netherlands, Denmark, the Czech Republic, Poland and above all Britain, where approval is far from certain. A rejection in just one of the countries would be a major blow as it would send the constitution back to the drawing board and start an entire new round of negotiations.

Condom Ratings
The nonprofit Consumers Union says in a new guide to contraception that the seven top U.S. types of condom they studied did not burst despite vigorous testing, and all models met international standards. But results showed that the top brand, able to take the most punishment, was the Durex Extra Sensitive Lubricated Latex, according to the report. Other top-performers include the Durex Performax Lubricated, Lifestyles Classic Collection Ultra Sensitive Lubricated and TheyFit Lubricated. A melon-colored model distributed by Planned Parenthood performed the worst, bursting during a test in which the latex condoms were filled with air.
The group says its review of contraceptives was not politically motivated, although there is an intense debate among health professionals and advocacy groups about the focus on abstinence-only education by the Bush administration.
Consumers Union uses standardized tests to rate the products it examines, which for latex condoms involves filling them with air. There is no accepted method to test silicon or non-latex condoms.
“You end up with a balloon 3 feet (a metre) tall and a foot (30 cm) wide. They can really stretch an amazing amount,” Metcalf said in a telephone interview.
The New York-based organization, which publishes the Consumer Reports magazine, also tests cars, foods, and other consumer products.
A U.S. government report published last month shows 98 percent of all U.S. women who have had sex have used birth control.

Babylon Gone
The damage wrought by the construction of an American military base in the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon — where the Hanging Gardens, one of the seven wonders of the world, once stood — is currently being ranked as one of the most reckless acts of cultural vandalism in recent memory. In a new report by the British Museum makes clear, a military base ostensibly set up to stop looting of antiquities was later expanded by an estimated 1 million square feet of flattening and gravel cover to allow for helicopter landing places and parking lots. The result is a loss of most archeological value for the site, one of civilization’s oldest. The work, it was added in the report, was done under the auspices and command of Kellog, Brown and Root, a subsidiary of Haliburton, the company formerly run by US vice president Dick Cheney.
Babylon is situated in an area that has been called the cradle of civilization, to which the origins of so many activities from poetry to engineering to mankind’s first laws can be attributed.

Older Army
The Army, stretched thin by the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, is dipping into one of its last resources for wartime duty: retirees on a military pension. The Army is expanding a little-known program to bring back retired officers and enlisted soldiers who expressed a willingness to join again, particularly after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Ages range from mid-40s to late 60s and possibly older.
“It doesn’t mean that we’re scraping the bottom of the barrel,” said Lt. Col. Bryan Hilferty, a spokesman for the Army personnel department. “It means that we’re doing a prudent thing with American resources.”
After 9/11, about 15,000 retired soldiers contacted the Army to offer their services. From that group, the Army last year assembled a list of 4,500 who completed the application process.
In a separate program, Hilferty says, the Army compiled a list of 3,000 retired soldiers and began asking whether they would volunteer to be recruiters or civil affairs officers. The Army has found 616 retirees willing to fill 442 jobs as civil affairs officers in and around Iraq. They would help rebuild schools, hospitals and roads.
The Marines has a similar program and has rehired 66.
Activating retired soldiers is the latest step by the Army to bolster troop levels. Other efforts include extending overseas tours from 12 to 15 months, tripling bonuses for new enlistees and National Guard members who re-enlist, and mobilizing about 4,000 soldiers from the Individual Ready Reserve. The IRR is an infrequently used pool of former troops who still have contractual obligations to the military.
Meanwhile, it was recently revealed that a forthcoming request for additional funds to continue waging war in Iraq will not begin to address the “hidden cost” of the conflict, according to Pentagon officials and other government authorities who say that tens of billions of dollars more will eventually be needed to repair or replace heavily used equipment and to compensate for the wear and tear on members of the armed services.
The Pentagon next month plans to ask Congress for up to $100 billion in supplemental funds to pay for the ongoing combat in Iraq and Afghanistan, bringing the total budgeted so far to well over $200 billion. But if the war were to end today, according to a preliminary estimate by the Congressional Budget Office, the Army would still need at least $20 billion more than budgeted over the next three years just to be at the same level of preparedness as before the war.

Big Crash?
On a quest for the frozen remains of the solar system’s formation, NASA is preparing to launch its Deep Impact probe that will smash a hole in a comet 82 million miles from Earth. NASA plans to stage the collision of Comet Tempel 1 and the Deep Impact probe on July 4, and in order to put the projectile in the right place for the encounter, Deep Impact must be launched by Jan. 28.
Scientists don’t know exactly what will happen when the comet barrels into Deep Impact’s 820-pound copper-tipped projectile at about 23,000 mph. The speeding comet is expected to be 82 million miles from Earth when the collision occurs. They expect, however, a giant explosion — equivalent to the energy released by 4 1/2 tons of dynamite — and a gouge into the comet’s surface that could be as big as a football field and as deep as a 14-story building.
Noted lead scientist and University of Maryland astronomer Michael A’Hearn, “There is an outside chance that we could break the comet. We don’t think that will happen.”
While the collision is expected to obliterate the impactor, two telescopes aboard Deep Impact’s mother ship will monitor the crash, then fly by the comet for close inspections. By probing below the comet’s surface, scientists hope to learn about the conditions that existed more than 4 billion year ago when the solar system was formed.
Comets are believed to contain frozen remains from the solar system’s early years.

Sleeping Thin
A recent study has found that people who sleep less tend to be fat, and experts said it’s time find if more sleep will fight obesity.
“We’ve put so much emphasis on diet and exercise that we’ve failed to recognize the value of good sleep,” said Fred Turek, a physician at Northwestern University. “In fact society emphasizes just the opposite, in work places where billed hours are crucial and long work days are common.”.
The new study has found that total sleep time decreased as body mass index — a measure of weight based on height — increased. Men slept an average of 27 minutes less than women and overweight and obese patients slept less than patients with normal weights, it said. In general the fatter subjects slept about 1.8 hours a week less than those with normal weights.
“We caution that this study does not establish a cause-and-effect relationship between restricted sleep and obesity (but) investigations demonstrating success in weight loss via extensions of sleep would help greatly to establish such a relationship, the study concludes.” Turek said some studies have shown sleep deprivation causes declines in an appetite suppressing protein hormone called leptin, and increases in another hormone that causes a craving for food. In addition neuropeptides in the brain governing sleep and obesity appear to overlap, he said.
Obesity has been rising dramatically in developed countries and reached epidemic levels in the United States, leading to a variety of health problems.

Spy Suits
The Supreme Court is considering whether a couple may sue the CIA for allegedly breaking a promise of lifetime income. At issue is whether a 130-year-old Supreme Court ruling automatically bars federal courts from hearing lawsuits over alleged spy contracts, which the CIA says are secret deals that may never be acknowledged. The Bush administration argues that since the CIA was created in 1947, courts have dismissed spy lawsuits outright on the grounds that any disclosure could threaten security and undermine CIA recruitment efforts. The couple, who are identified in filings by the aliases John and Jane Doe, counter that the executive branch should not have the power to renege on spy contracts without some judicial review. Sensitive information could be kept secret by sealing records or other methods, they say.
“The agency pressured the Does into undertaking espionage that would virtually guarantee that their activities would become known” to their home country, “putting them at lifelong risk of retaliation, including assassination,” their filings state. The San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed, ruling the couple had a right to obtain documents and other information from the CIA to build its trial case. It said recent rulings have allowed litigation to proceed in cases involving questions of national security if the government doesn’t show a clear risk.
The case involves a former high-ranking diplomat and his wife who wanted to defect from their Eastern bloc country but were pressured by U.S. authorities to instead spy for the United States, according to the lawsuit. In exchange, the CIA promised to help them later defect as well as provide lifetime security. When their spying was over in 1987, the CIA helped them resettle in Seattle with new identities, benefits and a bank job for the husband, the suit says. They initially received a $27,000 yearly stipend and became U.S. citizens.
The current argument is the first since last term’s enemy combatant cases that asks the high court to weigh an individual’s constitutional rights to due process against the government’s interest in national security. Last spring, the court held a U.S. citizen had a right to challenge his detention as an alleged “enemy combatant” in federal court.
“The executive claims that courts are institutionally incapable of dealing with cases that touch upon matters of national security. History demonstrates the contrary,” the Does wrote in their filing.

Diet Changes
The government has told Americans to slash their calorie intake and exercise 30 to 90 minutes a day, updating guidelines that advised people to lose weight but gave few specifics on how to do it. Issued by the Agriculture and Health and Human Services departments, the guidelines strengthened the government’s advice on whole grains, telling people to choose whole grains such as whole wheat bread instead of refined ones like white bread or bagels. People should also eat a lot more vegetables and fruit, the guidelines said.
The government recommended three one-ounce servings of whole grains each day, such as certain unsweetened breakfast cereals, to reduce the risk of heart disease and help maintain weight. The new guidelines also encourage people to eat whole fruits and vegetables rather than fruit and vegetable juices.
The advice is not really new, but the government sees the guidelines as an opportunity to change people’s ways.
The guidelines were based on recommendations of a 13-member panel of scientists and doctors who spent nearly a year reviewing Americans’ diet and health. The committee said people lead sedentary lifestyles and choose their food poorly, leading many to exceed the calories they need even as they fail to get enough nutrition.
Controlling calories — not limiting carbohydrates, as some popular diets recommend — is key to controlling weight, the panel said. Also key is daily exercise. The panel recommended a minimum of at least 30 minutes of moderate exercise — brisk walking or gardening — on most days. But it added that many adults need to exercise for 60 minutes or more to prevent weight gain, and people who have lost weight may need to exercise for 60 to 90 minutes to keep it off.
The panel also said people need to reduce the amount of salt they eat to about one level teaspoon each day — salt is linked to high blood pressure — and those who drink alcohol should drink in moderation, about one drink each day for women and two for men.

News Flash!
The hunt for biological, chemical and nuclear weapons in Iraq has come to an end nearly two years after President Bush ordered U.S. troops to disarm Saddam Hussein. The top CIA weapons hunter is home, and analysts are back at Langley. Four months after Charles A. Duelfer, who led the weapons hunt in 2004, submitted an interim report to Congress that contradicted nearly every prewar assertion about Iraq made by top Bush administration officials, a senior intelligence official said the findings will stand as the ISG’s final conclusions and will be published this spring.
Concurrently, an in-house CIA think tank has said in a new report that the war in Iraq is creating a training and recruitment ground for a new generation of “professionalized” Islamic terrorists, and the risk of a terrorist attack involving a germ weapon is steadily growing.
The “dispersion of the experienced survivors of the conflict in Iraq” to other countries will create a new threat in the coming 15 years, especially as the Al Qaeda network mutates into a volatile brew of independent extremist groups, cells and individuals, according to the report by the National Intelligence Council.
Following release of both news items, President Bush said on January 13 that he learned a lesson about “the unintended consequences of my words,” recalling two famous expressions: “bring ‘em on” and getting Osama bin Laden “dead or alive.” But then two days later, on January 15, he said there would be no need for further questioning of the nation’s Iraq policy… such matters, he suggested, were answered and dealt with by his “mandated win” of a second term in November.
Go figure.

Ridge Conflicts
The day after President Bush named him homeland security secretary, Tom Ridge visited the Arizona home of a friend whose lobbying firm represented companies that were later awarded contracts by Ridge’s department. The trip was the first of two Ridge made in late 2002 and early 2003 to spend time off at the Scottsdale, Ariz., home of prominent Bush-Cheney fund-raiser David Girard-diCarlo. Six days before Ridge’s visit, Girard-diCarlo had taken out a $3 million loan on the newly built home. After the first visit, two of Ridge’s aides were hired as homeland security lobbyists by Girard-diCarlo, whose political fund-raising in Pennsylvania in the 1990s was instrumental in Ridge’s election as the state’s governor. At the time of Ridge’s trips to Arizona, Girard-diCarlo’s firm represented Raytheon, one of a team of companies that Homeland Security recently awarded border protection work worth up to $10 billion over the next decade.
Homeland security officials have said they believe Ridge acted ethically because he paid his own way on the trips and never discussed business with Girard-diCarlo.