Newsbriefs

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28 Fix-Up
According to DOT, a one to two week repair and resurfacing project along Rt 28 will begin Tuesday, September 6, effecting travel on sections of the highway between 9AM and 3:30 PM from the junction with Rt 28A in Boiceville to the bridge over the Esopus Creek in Mt. Tremper. The road will remain open at all times but alternate lane closures are to be expected.

Sewer News
A public hearing has been set for September 12th to hear comments on the proposed Phoenicia sewer use law. The law, needed to pave the way for the town to build an $11 million sewer system for the hamlet, outlines the rates that will be charged to users and exactly where the sewer district boundaries are. The hearing is slated for 6:30 at town hall in Allaben, just one half hour before the 7pm town board meeting. Copies of the law, as well as maps outlining where the sewer mains will be buried, are available for viewing at town hall.

Dream Stage
Emerson Place, formally known as Catskill Corners, is expected to expand by next summer. Shandaken planning board officials said this week that architects have been holding meetings with town officials to determine what the property can have in addition to what’s already there. No formal application has been submitted to the town, but preliminary plans call for the expansion of the 27 unit Catamount Lodge to a total number 51 units. Plans also call for a health spa/gym to be built on the property.
The expansion plan is due to the loss of the Emerson Inn by fire last April. The Inn was located across Rt. 28 from Emerson Place. Kenneth Blundell, chairman of the Ulster County Arson Task Force, said investigators determined the April 25 fire started in an exterior waste storage area. “It appears it’s accidental. There’s no reason for the owners to want to do that. The business was successful,” said Blundell. “We have some thoughts about other people around, and that’s where the police come in.”
Shandaken Police Chief James McGrath said there are no suspects in the case. Employees present at the time and witnesses driving by were interviewed, and the department has followed through on phone tips and leads, the last coming about a month ago. “We may never know what happened here,” he said.
Emerson developer Dean Gitter said in an interview last week that he believed the fire was caused by arson and the likely perpetrators were among those opposing his other development project for the area, the controversial Belleayre Resort currently under review for building in the Big Indian/Highmount area.
Once the old Inn is demolished, pending completion of the insurance company’s own investigation, plans call for a large wedding pavilion to be erected on the site.

Anti-Rural?
So far, 750 rural towns - and hundreds of more in-between “flag stops” in even smaller places - have lost their Greyhound connection this year. Hundreds more are expected to be dropped as the Dallas-based carrier and its subsidiaries roll out new routes across the country into 2006, part of a broad restructuring of the 91-year-old long-distance carrier, which is trying to regain traction after losing $22 million in the first quarter of this year. Greyhound’s new strategy: adopt faster and more direct urban routes.
The result, studies are showing, is a sense of dislocation and increasing distance from the country’s booming urban centers. Some communities could replace the lost service through rural transportation grants from the Federal Transit Administration. Yet in April, FTA chief Jennifer Dorn warned state transportation officials: “Rural service is no longer a certainty.”
Ridership is down to 40 million from a 1970 high of 130 million. Where once the Greyhound stopped in 17,000 communities, it today pulls into only 6,000.
Thank heavens for Pine Hill Trailways, serving at least a portion of the Route 28 corridor, as well as Ulster County Rural Transportation.
Ever wonder what the area would be like were we to have kept our trains?

Jail Income?
The County Legislator’s Majority Leader, Mike Stock, chairman of the controversial Law Enforcement Center Project Committee, is currently proposing that the county lease its soon-to-be vacated county jail in Kingston to Dutchess County, which is suffering from severe overcrowding and the loss of state variances. Stock has spoken to Ulster County Sheriff Bockelmann about the plan, who has yet to address anyone in Dutchess County about it yet. But to date, similar plans proposed by Dutchess Democrats have been soundly rejected by county Republicans, in opposition to similar patterns here in Ulster.
For 16 years, the state Commission of Correction issued variances to Dutchess County, allowing it to house 32 prisoners more than the county’s 286-bed facility can hold. But in April, the commission revoked those variances after the county failed to develop plans to expand their jail. Since then, the county has been forced to house inmates in other county jails, in some instances, more than 70 inmates a day.
Ulster County hopes to open its new 402-bed jail by the end of the year, abandoning its existing 156-bed facility on Golden Hill. Construction costs for the new Ulster County Law Enforcement Center have run way over budget.
Some have questioned the propriety of housing outside prisoners in a facility Ulster rejected as being inhumane. Similar arguments have been made against private leasing of the old jail, including questions about the ethics of making profits from crime.

Still Swimming…
The state Department of Environmental Conservation’s Pine Hill Lake, closed off prematurely last August because not enough lifeguards had remained on staff to keep the lake safe, will be staying open through the upcoming Labor Day weekend, according to Belleayre Ski Center superintendent Tony Lanza. Operating hours at Belleayre Beach through Sept. 5 are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. weekdays and 10:a.m. to 7:30 p.m. weekends and holidays. The Belleayre Sky Ride will also be open through Sept. 5 and reopen for a final weekend Oct. 8 and 9 for Belleayre’s annual Fall Festival.

Singular Parties
A number of candidates seeking office on a town and county basis filed petitions last week for their own independent party lines come November balloting, to appear alongside the five major parties recognized in New York State - Republican, Democratic, Independence, Conservative and Working Families - provided there are no legal challenges. Seven independent party petitions have been submitted for town races, three for city races, and two for Ulster County Legislature.
The independent parties for town races are: Green Party in New Paltz; Rochester First Party in Rochester, running Democrat incumbent Pam Duke for supervisor, Roger Hellman for highway superintendent, Deborah Schneer for town justice, and Kim Van Aken Tompkins for town clerk; the Advocate Party in Shandaken, promoting Keith Johnson for highway superintendent; the Shandaken Party featuring the Republican slate of Bob Cross Jr. for supervisor, Gerald Setchko and Robert Stanley for Town Board, John Horn for assessor, Kenneth Berryann for highway superintendent, and Thomas Crucet and Theodore Byron for town justice; the Clean Sweep Party and We The People Party in Wawarsing; The Woodstock Party in Woodstock, featuring Jeremy Wilber for supervisor and Gordon Wemp and Terrie Rosenblum for Town Board; The Justice Party in the City of Kingston, running Republican candidate Christopher Burns for the County Legislature and. Elsewhere in Kingston, the Kingston Safest City Party, the Dr. Edwin Pell Alderman Party, and the Downtown Party.

County Shortfall
Ulster County Treasurer Lewis Kirschner recently warned that the “county is facing serious financial troubles ahead, albeit not as bad as a May $1.5 million income shortfall had indicated. A deficit of more than $20 million is currently expected for the coming year as budgeting gets under way for 2006, indicating either large 40 percent or more property tax increases or a downgrade in the county’s bond rating (about to issue $100 million to finance the new jail), should major cuts not be made. Steps that have helped ease the pain for the current year have included a hiring freeze and the making of all discretionary spending on a county level subject to county leadership approval.
For 2006, an additional $5.9 million in savings and new revenues have been proposed, including $5.5 million in new revenue from new mortgage and motor vehicle taxes and fees for services. The county is now awaiting a new budget parameters document expected in mid-September. One potential area for cuts already being looked at are the number of hours required in a work week for county departments as a means of cutting overtime, the possible elimination of the Sheriff’s Office road patrol, and closing of the county’s Golden Hill Health Care Center.
Meanwhile, sales tax receipts through early August are going strong in the Mid-Hudson Valley, although Ulster County continues to lag behind budget projections despite gaining some ground over the past few months. Ulster has taken in $41.5 million to date, about 3 percent more than during the same period in 2004. At the midpoint of the year, the county’s take is still about 1.4 percent shy of budget projections, a shortfall of about $575,000. Based on the county’s 2005 spending plan, it would take a property tax increase of about 1.2 percent to generate the income needed to offset the current sales tax shortfall. Ulster County has budgeted for $81.7 million in sales tax for the year. Part of the shortfall comes from adjustments made by the state to account for some overpayments by fuel dealers of the now-eliminated home heating tax, which was phased out over the past four years.

Market Drop?
Home prices in Ulster and its surrounding counties are “extremely overvalued,” and at high risk for a fall, according to a new study by Richard DeKaser, chief economist of National City Corp., a Cleveland bank, who looked at 299 metro areas representing 80 percent of the U.S. housing market during the first quarter of this year. Both the Orange-Dutchess county area (37 percent overvalued) and Ulster County (32 percent overvalued) were among the 53 regions deemed “extremely overvalued” and therefore most vulnerable to a price decline. DeKaser defines an area as being “extremely overvalued” if prices are 30 percent higher than what he calculates as a fair value based on average household income, interest rates, housing density and historical prices.
DeKaser’s study suggests there’s a strong likelihood that the shift could turn into a full-fledged bear market, with home prices in the mid-Hudson going backward. Over the past 20 years, his study found 63 corrections, or instances where a market’s median price fell 10 percent or more over a period of at least eight quarters. The typical degree of overvaluation in those cases was 30 percent. From 1985 to 2005, the typical decline in a correction was 17 percent. The typical duration of the down cycle was 13 quarters, according to the study.
“How many went that high without a correction?” said DeKaser. “Zero.”
Of the top 20 overheated markets, 16 are in California, with two in Florida and one in Massachusetts and in Oregon. New York’s most overvalued market is Nassau-Suffolk (ranked 29th at 42 percent), followed by Orange-Dutchess (37th at 37 percent) and Ulster (45th at 32 percent). The New York City region, which includes the five boroughs plus six surrounding counties, ranked 68th, at 25 percent overvalued.Ulster County’s most recent bear market was an 18 percent decline between the fourth quarter of 1992 to the first quarter of 1995.
Compounding the bad news, Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said recently that the central bank is paying increasing attention to the rising prices of homes and stocks because they are having a growing impact on world economic activity. He warned also that the buying power fueled by higher prices for such assets could disappear if investors turn cautious. Greenspan said increased investor caution, by elevating the premiums investors demand to compensate for risk, could lead to a swift reversal in asset values if it forced the liquidation of debts that support them. The Fed chief, who has steered the world’s largest economy for 18 years, plans to step down in five months.

Flood Laws…
A law meant to offer victims of April’s devastating flood a break on their property taxes actually ends up costing them instead, according to a growing number of town officials. The law allows municipalities in 21 counties, including Ulster, Orange and Sullivan, to base the assessment on a damaged home’s condition as of April 15, instead of its condition on March 1, the taxable status date. The taxable status date is when a property’s assessment for the year is locked in. But some town officials in Sullivan County are saying that flood victims who can no longer live in their homes because of the flood damage will not be granted their normal tax exemptions. The problem has occurred when flood victims have been forced to move, making their homes no longer their primary residence.
State lawmakers who sponsored the bill argue that such a reading of the law is mistaken. The exemptions were never meant to be removed.
Kathy Keyser, chief of staff for Assemblyman Kevin Cahill, D-Kingston, said, “There’s nothing in this bill, according to the state Office of Real Property Services, that eliminates the exemptions. It was not meant to do that.”

Most Incorrect…
Striking a blow against a call for “politically correct” language in public documents, Gov. George Pataki vetoed a bill recently that would have switched the designation of “autistics” to “people with autism.” In doing so, the three-term Republican governor rejected an idea backed overwhelmingly by Democrats and his fellow Republicans. The bill passed unanimously in the Republican-led state Senate in June and passed by a 144-1 tally in the Democrat-led Assembly. Some political observers in and out of Albany wondered if Pataki would have wielded his veto pen this way if he were seeking a fourth term as governor rather than exploring the possibility of a bid for the Republican presidential nomination.

Petition Rulings
The state Supreme Court’s Appellate Division has reversed three lower court rulings on petitions filed by candidates for the Ulster County Legislature, with two favoring the GOP, and one favoring Democrats.
Democrats had appealed a ruling that removed Michael Berardi, D-town of Ulster, from the Sept. 13 primary for the Independence Party line in November. Berardi’s petition was ruled invalid by state Supreme Court Justice William McCarthy on the grounds that the home address listed for Berardi on the heading of the petition was that of his former residence. Berardi’s petition was challenged by Legislator James Maloney, R-town of Ulster. The Appellate Division reversed McCarthy’s ruling, saying an incorrect address on its own was not sufficient to invalidate the petition. The ruling means Berardi will be allowed to take part in the Independence Party primary.
In Legislature District 3, state Supreme Court Judge Vincent Bradley had ruled that legislators Richard Parete, D-Accord, Robert Parete, D-Boiceville, and Peter Kraft, D-Glenford, should be allowed to be write-in candidates on the Independence Party line in the September primary, despite not having sufficient signatures on designating petitions to qualify for a spot on the ballot. Their petitions had been challenged by Art Bowen, a Hurley Conservative running with the GOP. The Appellate Division said the flaws in 12 of the signatures, in which the signer’s town or city were incorrectly listed, are “a matter of substance, and not of form,” and as such the three candidates should not be permitted to be write-in candidates, an option reserved for those petitions that do not contain fatal flaws. Because of the ruling, the three Democrats will not be permitted to take part in a write-in primary for the Independence Party line.
The third ruling, which also favored the GOP, reversed the local ruling invalidating the Conservative Party petitions submitted for legislators Brian Hathaway, R-Bloomington, and Joan Every, R-Rosendale, and Republican candidate Gloria VanVliet of Port Ewen. State Supreme Court Judge Michael Kavanagh had ruled that the three candidates’ petitions should be invalidated because they did not list a sufficient number of signatures. The appellate court reversed the ruling, saying Ulster County Democratic Committee Chairman John Parete had no standing to bring the matter to the court. The ruling means the three Republicans will be able to run on the Conservative Party line.
“I was endorsed by the Ulster County Independence Party for my stance on several key issues, which are shared by voters who are not aligned with any side of the political aisle. This endorsement is something I’m very honored to receive,” said Rob parete of the ruling. “It’s important to understand that we collected the required number of Independent signatures. Unfortunately, Ulster County politics as usual occurred — and myself, Peter Kraft and my brother Rich Parete were removed due to a technical error made by people signing our petitions. Instead of writing Olive — residents signed Boiceville as their town. It was an honest mistake and a far cry from fraud and forgery. My hope is independent voters will support us on either the Democratic Party line or on the Working Families Party line.”

Convoluted
It was an interesting exchange, somehow indicative of the political climate in the town, region and state.
On August 16 I got a phone call from Ian Michaels, spokesperson for the New York City Department of Environmental Protection. He wanted to pass on and inquire about an e-mail he had received from Blake Killen, editor of the Ulster County Townsman, noting, "Just between you and me, you were either foolish or tricked when you announced in Paul Smart's Woodstock Times article last week that DEP will never issue Dean Gitter the permits he needs to build the Belleayre Resort. You have opened yourselves up to one of the biggest lawsuits ever filed in the state of New York. How can you say you are not going to issue permits for something that is permitted by law? Change the law? Seize the land? If you try, you will have to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in compensation because the law reads that the property owner is entitled to compensation for the most intensive possible use of a property that is either seized or has its legal rights limited."
The article in question, about where things stand vis a vis the review process concerning Gitter's project, had quoted Michaels and an Albany attorney, with Gitter and his representatives refusing comment. The comments Killen were referring to, I pointed out to Michaels, ran as such: "Back when the Crossroads' DEIS was first accepted by the DEC as final, the city DEP countered by stating, in no uncertain terms, that it would not grant permits that would allow the building of Gitter's resort as planned. They have not changed that stance since. Nor has the federal Environmental Protection Agency, which backed the city's position in a formal memo last winter. Back and forth over the Belleayre Resort proposal has notched up the heat on Shandaken town board elections for the past six years, as most recently evidenced by Gitter's recent outburst at a town board meeting waving a private e-mail between his detractors, as well as his ongoing characterization of the loss of his Emerson Inn to fire as a consequence of "incendiary rhetoric." It has also fueled a return to widespread tension between New York City and the upstate communities that provide it with a majority of its drinking water, ever since Gitter and his attorneys, who have deep ties to the Coalition of Watershed Towns and Catskill Watershed Corporation, held a series of meetings outlining their fears should his proposal be blocked during the spring of 2004."
I pointed out to Michaels that the paragraphs were pulled from conversations with former DEP Commissioner Chris Ward, press releases, letters from the EPA, and letters to the editor from current commissioner Emily Lloyd.
End of matter? No.
"He's telling me that people at DEC are 'up in arms' over my comments about the EIS process and that Gitter 'is looking for scalps' over my comment on him not getting the permits," Michaels e-mailed later that same day. "I think you quoted me correctly and that I didn't say anything that DEP hasn't been saying for over a year now. "
When Michaels refuted Killen, by e-mail, he got an almost immediate call from Fred Winters, the New York City PR representative Gitter uses for his Belleayre Resort project. Winters wanted to know why Michaels was talking to me, and had heard from Killen, via Gitter, that my reporting was wrong. I shouldn't be talked to.
The next day, Michaels called with a new development. Killen had phoned to tell him about Shandaken Supervisor Bob Cross' allegations at a Coalition of Watershed Towns meeting that New York City had tried interfering in his town's comprehensive planning activities via a DEP employee named Carol Shanahan.
"I told him there was no one here by that name," Michaels said. Then, the next day, he realized that Cross and Killen had gotten the name wrong. He sent Killen a correction, by e-mail.
"It turns out that it was Marilyn Shanahan (who works for us) who spoke to Beth Waterman," Michaels wrote. "Marilyn asked what the Planning Board had done in terms of SEQRA as it relates to the Plan (a notice should have been published about it but was not). She was told that the Board had given the Plan a negative declaration under SEQRA. Marilyn spoke to Cross the next day and he confirmed that the SEQRA process is considered complete."
The end result, for now at least?
A front page Townsman story under the headline, "NYC-DEP Denies, Then Admits Contact Over Shandaken Plan" with Cross quoted saying "They can say what they want, I know what they were asking for" and Killen speaking of the incident in the inflammatory tones of "yet another example of NYC-DEP attempting to overstep its bounds as established by the Watershed Memorandum of Agreement."
Could any of this have been coming from whatever man was behind the curtain?
Stay tuned...
Paul Smart

Online Mapping!
The Catskill Watershed Corporation (CWC) Board of Directors on August 23 accepted a $53,758 grant from the New York State Archives to develop a map-based regional information system accessible over the Internet. This project, referred to as the Catskill Area Mapping Service (CAMS), will utilize an interactive Geographic Information System (GIS) map promoting the Catskill Region. A series of map layers will include both base map reference data (e.g., political boundaries, Catskill Park limits, major roads and water bodies) and data promoting various aspects of the Catskill Region (e.g., historic sites, demographics, recreational opportunities, etc.). Users will be able to turn layers on and off, navigate to an area of interest, find specific features, and profile key aspects of the region through the use of shaded maps. It is envisioned that links would be established from the web sites of Catskill counties and other regional organizations.
The idea for CAMS was generated by the Catskill Business Roundtable which was established in 2002 at a Regional Economic Development Summit. Business and government representatives expressed interest in an easily accessible network to attract new businesses to the region and to offer a central source of community maps, census data, infrastructure information and available commercial buildings. CAMS will funnel web visitors to local web sites where more information on economic development, planning services, incentives programs and community attractions can be obtained.
The system is being implemented by Applied GIS of Schenectady, which conducted a needs assessment and developed the conceptual plan for CAMS using a 2004 planning grant obtained by the CWC from the State Archives’ Local Government Records Management Improvement fund. The CWC Board at its August meeting also voted to apply $10,000 from the Catskill Fund for the Future toward the project, which is expected to be completed by summer of 2006.

Lost Eminence?
The U.S. Supreme Court, given a chance to revisit its heavily criticized ruling on eminent domain issues made earlier this summer, refused recently to reconsider its decision giving local governments more power to seize people’s homes for economic development. So contentious was the court’s 5-4 ruling in the so-called eminent domain case earlier this year that some critics launched a campaign to seize Justice David Souter’s farmhouse in New Hampshire to build a luxury hotel while others singled out Justice Stephen Breyer’s vacation home in the same state for use as a park. In addition, legislators in some 25 states are considering changing their eminent domain laws to soften the impact.
Justices did not comment in refusing to reconsider the case, which had been expected because requests for a reconsideration of rulings are rarely granted.
Justice John Paul Stevens wrote the majority opinion and defended it last week in a speech in Las Vegas. The ruling was legally correct, he said, because the high court has “always allowed local policy-makers wide latitude in determining how best to achieve legitimate public goals.”
But Stevens added that he had concerns about the results.
“My own view is that the allocation of economic resources that result from the free play of market forces is more likely to produce acceptable results in the long run than the best-intentioned plans of public officials,” Stevens said.

Freedom Fries?
Very young children who eat French fries frequently have a much higher risk of breast cancer as adults, U.S. researchers reported recently. A study of American nurses found that one additional serving of fries per week at ages three to five increased breast cancer risk by 27 percent.
“Researchers are finding more evidence that diet early in life could play a role in the development of diseases in women later in life,” said Dr. Karin Michels, of Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston and Harvard Medical School, who led the study. “This study provides additional evidence that breast cancer may originate during the early phases of a woman’s life and that eating habits during that phase may be particularly important to reduce future risk of breast cancer.”
For their study, Michels and colleagues used an ongoing survey of female registered nurses. They studied 582 women with breast cancer and 1,569 women free of breast cancer in 1993. One risk factor for breast cancer stood out: women whose mothers who said their daughters ate French fries had a higher risk of breast cancer. This increased 27 percent for each weekly serving reportedly eaten.
A high-fat diet has been linked with breast cancer, which affects more than 200,000 U.S. women a year and is expected to kill 40,000 this year.

UN Troubles
John Bolton,. America’s controversial new ambassador to the United Nations, is seeking to shred an agreement on strengthening the world body and fighting poverty intended to be the highlight of a 60th anniversary summit next month. In the extraordinary intervention, John Bolton has sought to roll back proposed UN commitments on aid to developing countries, combating global warming and nuclear disarmament by demanding no fewer than 750 amendments to the blueprint restating the ideals of the international body, which was originally drafted by the UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, all spelt out in a 32-page US version littered with deletions and exclusions including the elimination of all specific reference to the so-called Millennium Development Goals, accepted by all countries at the last major UN summit in 2000, including the United States. Bolton is also seeking virtually to remove all references to the Kyoto treaty and the battle against global warming. They are striking out mention of the disputed International Criminal Court and drawing a red line through any suggestion that the nuclear powers should dismantle their arsenals. Instead, the US is seeking to add emphasis to passages on fighting terrorism and spreading democracy.
Bolton was appointed by President Bush to the UN position earlier this summer after the U.S. Senate failed to do so repeatedly. The current moves have thrown preparations for the summit into turmoil, prompting some to question whether there will be anything for the leaders to put their pens to in New York. The president of the General Assembly, Jean Ping of Gambia, must now try to save the summit, set to take place in New York from September14 to 16, from disaster. He will bring together a core group of 20 to 30 countries in the days ahead, with Britain and the US included, to see what, if anything, can be found to overcome so many American objections.
“The purpose of the summit,” said Shashi Tharoor, a senior aide to Mr Annan, “is to rekindle the idealism with which the UN was created 60 years ago and to use the birthday to renew the organization for the purposes of the 21st century.”
Three years ago the Bush administration began prodding countries to shield Americans from the fledgling International Criminal Court in The Hague, which was intended to be the first permanent tribunal for prosecuting crimes like genocide. The United States has since cut aid to some two dozen nations that refused to sign immunity agreements that American officials say are intended to protect American soldiers and policy makers from politically motivated prosecutions. As a result, Latin America and Caribbean nations, of which 12 have been penalized, are seeing the cuts generate strong resentment at what many see as heavy-handed diplomacy. More than that, some American diplomats, military leaders and congressmen are also beginning to question the policy, as political and military leaders in the region complain that the aid cuts are squandering good will and hurting their ability to cooperate in other important areas, like the campaigns against drugs and terrorism.
Meanwhile, the U.S. government’s emphasis on abstinence-only programs to prevent AIDS is hobbling Africa’s battle against the pandemic by playing down the role of condoms, a senior U.N. official said recently, noting that our nation’s Christian ideology was driving Washington’s AIDS assistance program, known as PEPFAR, with disastrous results such as a shortage of condoms in Uganda. Washington rejected the criticism.

Legionnaired
The 2.7 million membered American Legion’s national commander called for an end to all “public protests” and “media events” against the Iraq War recently,even though they are protected by the Bill of Rights.
“The American Legion will stand against anyone and any group that would
demoralize our troops, or worse, endanger their lives by encouraging terrorists to continue their cowardly attacks against freedom-loving peoples,” Thomas Cadmus told delegates at the group’s national convention in Honolulu.
The delegates voted to use whatever means necessary to “ensure the united backing of the American people to support our troops and the global war on terrorism.” Without mentioning any current protestor, such as Cindy Sheehan, by name, Cadmus recalled: “For many of us, the visions of Jane Fonda glibly spouting anti-American messages with the North Vietnamese and protestors denouncing our own forces four decades ago is forever etched in our memories. We must never let that happen again…. We had hoped that the lessons learned from the Vietnam War would be clear to our fellow citizens. Public protests against the war here at home while our young men and women are in harm’s way on the other side of the globe only provide aid and comfort to our enemies.”
Resolution 3, which was passed unanimously by 4,000 delegates to the annual event, states: “The American Legion fully supports the president of the United States, the United States Congress and the men, women and leadership of our armed forces as they are engaged in the global war on terrorism and the troops who are engaged in protecting our values and way of life.”

Benefit Sale!
The Committee to Save Lexington House, a non-profit group, will hold a benefit fundraising "yard" sale on Monday, Sept. 5th, 10 AM-4 PM in Lexington, Greene County, just off Route 23A, traveling east or west; just off Rt. 42, traveling
north or south). Part of the proceeds will be donated to the Lexington Fire Department; the remaining funds raised by the sale will be used to improve the exterior of the historic Lexington Hotel. This building, located across the Schoharie Creek from the historic Lexington House, is one of two landmark buildings that have defined the Town of Lexington's Main Street for over a century. Anyone wishing to rent
a table for $10 may do so. The additional funds raised through rental will also be used to improve the hotel's exterior; renters must bring their own tables and chair(s). Please call Brian at 965-2916 if you wish to participate.

Suing No Child
Connecticut became the first state to file suit against the federal government over the No Child Left Behind Act, claiming the Bush administration has not provided enough money to pay for new testing and programs. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Hartford against federal Education Secretary Margaret Spellings, asks a judge to declare that state and local funds cannot be used to meet the goals of the law.
“We in Connecticut do a lot of testing already, far more than most other states. Our taxpayers are sagging under the crushing costs of local education,” said Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell. “What we don’t need is a new laundry list of things to do with no new money to do them.”
The suit’s chief claim focuses on a clause in the 2001 law that says states and districts will not have to spend their own money to meet its requirements. Connecticut also has a state statute that prohibits using state resources to implement the law. The federal government is providing Connecticut with $5.8 million this fiscal year to pay for the testing, Connecticut Education Commissioner Betty Sternberg said. However, she estimates federal funds will fall $41.6 million short of paying for staffing, program development, standardized tests and other costs associated with implementing the law through 2008.
“If there’s a bully on the playground, it often takes one brave soul to step forward and stand up to the bully,” said state Rep. Andrew Fleischmann, a Democrat and co-chairman of the Legislature’s Education Committee.

In Iran…
Traces of bomb-grade uranium found two years ago in Iran came from contaminated Pakistani equipment and are not evidence of a clandestine nuclear weapons program, a group of U.S. government experts and other international scientists has determined. “The biggest smoking gun that everyone was waving is now eliminated with these conclusions,” said a senior official who discussed the still-confidential findings on the condition of anonymity. Scientists from the United States, France, Japan, Britain and Russia met in secret during the past nine months to pore over data collected by inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency, according to U.S. and foreign officials. Recently, the group, whose existence had not been previously reported, definitively matched samples of the highly enriched uranium — a key ingredient for a nuclear weapon — with centrifuge equipment turned over by the government of Pakistan.