Newsbriefs

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Going Batty...
At its September 12 meeting, the town board fielded complaints about alleged illegal activity taking place at the old bat factory off Fox Hollow Road in Shandaken.
The allegations were harsh: Possible chemical storage in a flood plain, unpermitted new construction in same floodplain, sawdust from wood processing flying through the air into neighbors’ yards and windows, and the possibility of a leukemia epidemic. There were even allegations that town code enforcement officer Glenn Miller threatened a neighbor with some violations if that neighbor didn’t watch his step and stop complaining.
Lisa Valentini-Dutcher begged the town board to intervene, saying that Miller has ignored her complaints and refused to investigate whatever it is that’s happening at the factory. She added that it looks like workers are actually sleeping in the factory, since she has seen them dragging beds inside.
The recent activity at the old bat factory in Shandaken, which allegedly occurs both day and night, had Valentini-Dutcher and others complaining that the town should exercise some control over what goes on at the location not just for their protection but for the town... including town hall, which sits just downstream.
“That whole area was underwater in the last flood,” she said. “That concrete is gonna get washed away next time and take out town hall.”
Supervisor Robert Cross Jr. promised to inspect the site with Miller the following day. After the inspection, Miller said the operation “was wonderful” and that he, Cross, and “neighborhood representative” Rick Rebock were all very happy with what they saw.
Miller maintains that no town permits are needed. He did say he suggested that the operator voluntarily come before the town planning board for a site plan review, but that it was not required. Regardless, Miller doesn’t expect they will do anything until a sticky right of way problem gets ironed out.
Valentini-Dutcher owns the property the operators must cross to get to the factory property.
There is also some disagreement about another right of way. The County of Ulster apparently has some rights, as old railroad tracks run along the property.
As for threatening anyone, Miller implied that he did, but only in a “people that live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones” type of way. He said he told Valentini-Dutcher’s husband that he could issue them a violation for using the county’s right of way if they continued to cause trouble.
Miller added that the right of way issue is being reviewed by attorneys

Primary Results
The primary for Independence Party candidates on a county and local level Tuesday night, September 13, yielded a tight local race between Democrats and Republicans seeking endorsements in Shandaken, and a much wider spread in favor of the Democratic candidate for Family Judge on a county level, albeit with a small turnout.
In the Shandaken race for Independence Party nod for supervisor, incumbent Republican Bob Cross, Jr. bested former supervisor Pete DiModica, a Democrat, by 16 votes to 14. For council seats, the two winners were Republican Rob Stanley, with 16 votes, and Democrat Peter DiSclafani, with 11 votes. Doris Bartlett, a Democrat, had 11 votes and Joanne Kalb, who had tried unsuccessfully for the Republican nod for a council seat this summer, had 4 votes.
On a county level, Democrat Tony McGinty won the Independence nod for Family Judge over Steve Nussbaum, a Republican with 171 votes to 96.

Plowing Away...
The Town Board plowed ahead with plans to sign a lease giving Masterpage Communications permission to build a cell tower on town land. On Monday they passed a resolution authorizing the Supervisor to execute said lease, but noted that such an agreement is subject to the right for a permissive referendum as provided by the Laws of the State of New York.
Masterpage wishes to lease a portion of the town gravel bank from Shandaken for the purposes of constructing a telecommunications tower.
Supervisor Robert Cross Jr., who personally negotiated the lease with Masterpage, said the proposed tower will help to provide needed emergency communications for police, fire and ambulance services and for the public.
The lease’s passage was expected, but many in the audience had questions about the details of the agreement and complained that no copies of the lease were available for public review before the vote. In one embarrassing moment for the Supervisor, his own running mate in this year’s election, Robert Stanley, asked for an explanation as to why no information was provided.
Looking at the table in front of him and then at Town Clerk Laurilyn Frasier, Cross said he thought there was such info availanle. But failing to find an excuse for why none was seen by anyone, he nervously held up his own copy and offered it to the large crowd to pass around.
Councilman Paul VanBlarcum said that although Cross claimed that many concerns about a previous draft had been rectified, the final draft still included at least six points of contention.
Cross clarified that they were not changed because he managed to convince town attorney Paul Kellar, who had called for the changes, that they were really okay.
Chuck Perez, a member of the committee that drafted the town’s cell tower ordinance, said that he felt uncomfortable with just Cross handling the negotiations. Cross answered that councilwoman Edna Hoyt went to a meeting with him once, so he had help.
Pine Hill resident Mary Herrmann faulted the Board for dealing exclusively with Masterpage. When she asked repeatedly if Masterpage was the only company to have a chance to make a presentation to the town board for the opportunity to build the tower, Cross evaded, saying that three other companies were talked to.
“Just answer the question,” she said.
As it turns out, Masterpage was the only one.
Details of the lease remain unclear. Phoenicia Times will try to obtain a copy for a report at a later date.

Tragic Accident
An 18-year-old former Onteora student, Ashley M. Fauci, was killed late Sunday night, September 4 when the car she was driving struck a tree off state Route 375 in West Hurley. Fauci was an honor student, accomplished viola player and halfback for the Onteora High School field hockey team. The oldest of four children, she planned to complete her high school diploma and move in with family on Staten Island to attend college in New York City. Fauci is survived by her father, Vincent, mother, Virginia Miller of Shandaken; and three brothers, Joseph, 15, Victor, 9, and Michael 8.
Onteora Superintendent of Schools Justine Winters said a note was sent to faculty about Fauci’s death and crisis counselors were available for students and teachers on the first day of the new school year September 6.
“It’s a very sad way to launch the school year,” said the superintendent.

County Windfall
Ulster County has learned that it will be getting a one-time cash infusion of $11.5 million to $15 million through its long-promised tobacco settlement funds’ final distribution, allowed by a recent change in law that makes it possible for the county to tap the remainder of the payments still due in one lump. That, the county’s bond counsel said last week, is largely due to the market having become more comfortable with purchasing tobacco bonds, based on their record of earnings in recent years.
The County is currently reviewing two bond proposals to access the revenue source: one from the New York State Association of Counties, the other from Merrill Lynch. Once a comparison is complete, a recommendation will be made to the county legislature as to which is a better deal.
Because the funds will be secured through bonds, there are strict limits in how the county will be able to use the money. Only capital projects and debt service - payments for past capital projects - can be paid with the funds. The revenue cannot be tapped to help close the county’s massive budget gap. In May, lawmakers were told that the county is looking at a cash shortfall of as much as $1.5 million by the end of 2005, and $23.5 million through the end of 2006.

Don’t Touch!
The Supervisor and Town Clerk of the town of Shandaken have refused to honor federal Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) requests from a local citizens group, claiming that the documents asked for are not subject to state “Sunshine Laws.”
Daniel H. Schneider, a Woodstock based attorney and the president of a non-profit organization called Citizens For a Responsible Cell Tower Ordinance, says that on August 18th he attempted to obtain a draft contract between Masterpage Communications Inc. and the town.
“I would like to report that the Town of Shandaken has denied me access to a copy of the proposed Masterpage Lease….” he said in a prepared statement. ”It is only fair that (the public) have some input into siting decisions, and that the contracts for the construction of towers be openly bid, to prevent local cronyism and abuse of process.”
In July, Supervisor Robert Cross Jr. was criticized for not waiting two weeks to hear from another telecommunications firm that wanted to discuss locating towers in Shandaken. Instead, the town board chose to pass a resolution allowing Cross to negotiate exclusively with Masterpage, whose owner assisted in the development of the town’s telecommunications law. The board the passed a resolution authorizing the preparation of a lease that would give Masterpage the right to build a 140 foot tall tower on town-owned land.
Cross,who regularly surrenders town documents requested by citizens, said that he respects the Freedom of Information Law but does not believe it pertains to documents “in the making.”
“When the lease is finalized and signed then people can see it,” he said.
If the public gets too involved in the process of preparing crucial documents, like the lease, then the process would go on forever and make it impossible for his town to get anything done, he added.
Schneider says the town’s goal should be getting things done right.
“The criteria which cell service providers and tower construction companies use in determining siting is not ‘the best interests of the locality,’ it is the best interests of those private companies (eg. completing their networks and making profits for their shareholders),” Schnieder wrote in a September 7tth letter.
Complicating the matter was input from town clerk Laurilyn Frasier. On August 31 Frasier issued a response to Schneider denying his request.
“These documents are still in negotiations and handing them out to anyone could damage or impair our ability to negotiate. This quote is from Robert Freeman from the Committee on Open Government, “ Frasier wrote.
But last week Freeman said that although negotiations would be impaired if the document was something that the town developed and had not revealed to Masterpage, since Masterpage had already seen it, and even helped prepare it, there was no confidentiality issue involved. The lease, he said, is therefore a public document.

tTeacher Need
A number of the region’s school superintendents and hiring specialists have started noticing growing shortages of teachers with special education credentials, according to recent reports, although the problem hasn’t been acute at Onteora yet. According to New York State United Teachers, a federation representing more than 900 local unions, the supply of specialty teachers is growing statewide, though less so in rural and inner-city areas.
NYSUT has said the best way to attract teachers is to make salaries more competitive with those offered in other fields. They further noted that new accountability standards, such as those in the federal No Child Left Behind Act, coupled with the usual demands of being the head of an entire school, may scare off applicants.
Compounding the problem, education experts agree, is the coming shift in employment when baby boomer teachers begin to retire in the coming years.

Flu Shots…
Disease Control and Prevention say there probably will be at least enough vaccine to cover those most at risk, especially with the recent approval of a new flu shot. But a year removed from an unexpected shortage that forced rationing of doses, local health officials are being cautious, with some delaying the announcement of local flu clinic schedules until they can be certain of their supply.
Officials in Ulster and Greene counties said they will release clinic information this month.
Last year’s shortage was created by a British government shutdown of Chiron Corp.’s manufacturing facility in the United Kingdom. The California-based company was to supply half of the United States’ influenza vaccine.
Production from three companies this year, Sanofi Pasteur of France, Medlmmune of Maryland, and GlaxoSmithKline PLC of Britain, is expected to reach 69 million doses of flu vaccine, enough to meet the historical demand among high-risk groups and healthcare workers, according to the Centers for Disease Control.
The CDC predicts companies could produce up to 100 million doses for the United States this year, compared to 61 million in 2004.
Persons age 65 or older, with chronic hearth or lung conditions, diabetes or a weakened immune systems, are urged to get a flu shot because it is generally more difficult for their bodies to fight off the flu and because the virus may complicate their existing conditions.
For younger and healthier persons, 3 million doses of a nasal-spray vaccine will be available nationwide, the CDC said. The spray, which health officials say is just as effective as a shot, is intended for healthy persons ages 5-49 who are not pregnant.
The flu season can run as late as May, but flu activity in the United States generally peaks between late December and early March, according to the CDC. The best time to get vaccinated is from October through November.

OCS-TV?
Onteora school officials are in the process of scheduling a meeting to determine education provisions of cable franchise agreements being negotiated in Woodstock and Shandaken, who are hammering out final contracts with Time Warner cable contracts, and start talking about setting up a new public access channel for sole broadcasting of Onteora business, including sports, plays and concerts, and board meetings over the coming years. Olive and Hurley already have contracts in place that preclude inclusion.
Among expected advantages from such a channel would be an additional source for notification when schools are closed due to weather.
The main purpose of the meeting is to discuss policy matters for such a channel.

Supervisorial!
A newly formed coalition of supervisors and mayors in Ulster, Dutchess and Orange counties is hoping to draw on their broad base of knowledge and experience to solve problems, tackle long-range planning, and better govern their constituencies. Called the Hudson Valley Alliance of Supervisors and Mayors, the group was formed through a collaboration with Mid-Hudson Pattern for Progress, a Newburgh-based planning and research organization and grew out of meetings and conversations with supervisors associations in the three counties over the past few months.
The Alliance’s first collaboration, in conjunction with Pattern for Progress and the state Comptroller’s Office, is hosting a program on multiyear financial planning for municipalities on Sept. 23. The program will include a presentation by state Comptroller Alan Hevesi. For more information, call Pattern for Progress at (845) 565-4900.

Library News...
When a few people admired the sewing that library director Regina Johnson had done on a project, she decided to offer beginning sewing classes at the library, for anyone ages 11 and up. Participants will be able to make a pillow in the classes, which will occur on Saturday, September 17th and 24th, at 3 pm right after normal library hours. Space is limited, so please sign up at the library beforehand. Sewing machines will be provided, along with fabric, stuffing and trim.
The Library will present "Wordz, Poetry in the Mountains", on September 29 and October 27, from 7 to 8:30. The events will be hosted by Melissa Thongs and will feature known poets and an open mic for community members, in a coffee-house atmosphere. A $5.00 admission includes refreshments.
Now that summer is over, the regular times for story hour resume, every Tuesday and Saturday at 11 a.m. Bring your pre-schooler in to enjoy some good stories, and then pick out some books to read to your child at home. Studies have shown that children who are read to are more likely to become good readers themselves.

BiPolar…
Patients suffering from bipolar disorder who underwent therapy to help them maintain a regular daily routine and cope with stress were able to avoid relapses over a two-year period, a study has found. Using what researchers dubbed interpersonal and social rhythm therapy, patients were taught how to keep to normal sleeping, eating and other daily routines. They also were shown how to anticipate and cope with stress just as a diabetic who would be taught, for example, how to cook and eat differently.
“This is really a disorder characterized by massive disturbances in the body’s clock and in all the things the body’s clock controls,” said Dr. Ellen Frank, lead author of the study. “Their clocks need to be very carefully protected and we need to do everything we can to shore up and protect that fragile clock.”
Bipolar disorder, also commonly referred to as manic depression, is a brain disorder in which sufferers experience cycles of mania, depression or mixed states. Treatment for the disorder varies by patient, but often involves some type of medication combined with therapy.
Dr. Gail Edelsohn, an associate professor of psychiatry at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia, said sleep, especially, has a huge effect on those with mood disorders.
Dr. Suzanne Vogel-Scibilia, president of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, said it’s most important that bipolar sufferers have access to care, something that doesn’t always happen because of the high costs of health care.

Health Costs…
As Americans face growing health care expenses, Congress and state lawmakers say they’re working to close the gap between prices and pocketbooks. Despite the activity, skeptics say government’s impact will be limited.
Unlike the efforts of the 1970s and 1990s that included broad government mandates, most of today’s prescriptions are intended to influence the private health marketplace by encouraging quality and giving consumers more choices.
“The health system in the country is fundamentally broken,” says former U.S. senator John Breaux, a moderate Democrat who has organized “Ceasefire on Health Care” forums that bring Republicans and Democrats together to work on solutions. For now, he says, only incremental steps are possible: “I don’t think the Congress or the country is ready for wholesale change.”
Recent polling shows that 28% of Americans had trouble paying a medical bill in the past year. Of those, 62% had insurance. More than one in three of those polled said the top reason for rising health care costs is the profits of insurers and drug companies. Nearly one in five cited medical malpractice awards, and 15% blamed greed and waste in the health care system.
The Bush administration favors a series of incremental changes that include tax credits as well as “pay-for- performance” and disease-management incentives.
Historically, lawmakers have been reluctant to embrace large-scale changes. Presidents from Nixon to Clinton have tried to create some kind of national health care program, but all efforts have fallen victim to lobbying by labor groups, doctors or insurers.
“National health insurance is no longer the best solution, it’s the only solution: All other alternatives have been proven disastrous failures,” says Quentin Young, national coordinator at Physicians for a National Health Program, a Chicago-based non-profit.
Health insurers answer that educating Americans to be better consumers of health care will help control costs. Such efforts focus largely on allowing tax-free health savings accounts to be coupled with high-deductible policies. By paying more, the theory goes, workers will use health care more judiciously. Such plans come with at least a $1,000 annual deductible for individuals and $2,000 for families, meaning patients must themselves pay for care until reaching those limits.

Kids Copy
Preschoolers pretending to shop for a Barbie doll’s social evening were more likely to choose cigarettes if their parents smoked, and wine or beer if their parents drank, a study found. Researchers observing the children’s play found that the ones who watched PG-13 or R-rated movies also were more likely to choose alcohol for Barbie.
The study suggests that prevention efforts should target younger children, and found that the children whose parents smoked were almost four times more likely to buy cigarettes for their dolls while the children whose parents drank at least monthly were three times more likely to buy alcohol. Also, children who watched adult-content movies were five times more likely to buy alcohol, but the researchers did not find a statistically significant link between movie-watching and choosing cigarettes.
The study suggests that parents should be careful about the movies their children watch, said Craig Anderson, who studies media violence at Iowa State University. “Kids are basically little learning machines. Whatever the content is in front of them, they’re going to pick it up,” Anderson said.

Unions Fight!
At a meeting in Chicago late in August, representatives from 900 unions worldwide coalesced around a common idea: Turn up the pressure on Wal-Mart globally to boost pay and benefits. The move, by the federation known as Union Network International, encapsulates an anxiety shared by millions of workers, especially in advanced and middle-income nations. As corporations mine an expanding global labor market for the maximum efficiencies, will many workers be left behind?
Questions were raised about a growing inequality between the nation’s developed and undeveloped nations, exacerbated by growing globalization.
“Unquestionably the average Chinese is incomparably better off,” says economist James Galbraith at the University of Texas. “India is also vastly different. But in other major parts of the world, particularly Africa, the situation is extremely bleak and has been getting worse.”
A recent UN study finds much of the world trapped in deepening inequality and will convene next week to focus on ways to radically reduce poverty. Also in September, in its world development report for 2006, the World Bank will focus on “equity and development.”
On average, per capita incomes have been rising globally over the past couple of decades, according to UN statistics. Yet about half the world’s population is still living on less than $2 a day, defined by many as a key poverty line, according to the Population Reference Bureau.
Making the situation worse is that new markets tend to increase the gaps between per capita incomes of rich and poor nations, which are today on the order of 15 or 20 to 1.

Among recommendations, for rich nations and poor alike, is a sharp focus on training and education, which would allow people to climb the skill ladder and avoid the race to the bottom.

ADHD Growth
Just under 8 percent of U.S. children aged 4 to 17 had ever been diagnosed with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder in 2003, and more than half of them are being treated with drugs, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has reported.
Boys are more than twice as likely to be diagnosed with ADHD than girls, especially boys from poorer families, the CDC added.
In 2003, approximately 7.8 percent (4.4 million) of U.S. children aged 4 to 17 years had ADHD diagnosed. Estimates had ranged from anywhere between 2 percent and 18 percent.
ADHD diagnosis was reported approximately 2.5 times more frequently among males than females. Prevalence of reported ADHD increased with age and was significantly lower among children aged 4 to 8 years compared with children aged more than 9 years.
The highest rates of medication treatment for ADHD by sex and age were reported among males aged 12 years (9.3 percent) and among females aged 11 years (3.7 percent).
To be diagnosed with ADHD a child must have six or more symptoms for six months including frequent failure to pay attention in schoolwork or play, frequent mistakes due to inattention to schoolwork, frequent failure to listen when spoken to directly, failure to follow up on chores and forgetfulness.

Tri County Trade
E-Marketing, networking, financing and grant writing will be just some of the topics covered in workshops offered free to all attendees at the Tri-County Trade show when it gets underway on Friday, September 23 at Belleayre Mt. Ski Center. Hosted by the M-ARK Project as a new economic development initiative in the area, the trade show will feature 40 vendors and 6 workshop sessions between 11 am and 6 pm.
“Taking Catskill Business To New Peaks” is the theme of the trade show, which is expected to attract exhibitors and attendees from Ulster, Greene and Delaware counties. More than 40 exhibitors are expected to participate in the event, which will also feature door prizes for both exhibitors and attendees. A 24-page trade show journal listing all exhibitors and sponsors and filled with ads from local businesses will be available at the show and
8,000 copies will also be distributed prior to the event.
The show has been designed to enable business people who aren’t on a Main Street, or aren’t even in town at all, to meet other business owners and managers from the tri-county area.
Detailed information on all aspects of the Tri-County Trade Show is available with a call to the M-ARK Project office at 845-586-3500 or email mproject@catskill.net.

Kids & Guns…
About 1.7 million U.S. children live in homes with loaded, unlocked firearms, according to the largest survey ever done on home weapons storage. One-third of adults have handguns, rifles or shotguns at home, says the CDC report. But states vary greatly in the percentage of adults who keep weapons, and in how many with children at home store their guns loaded and unlocked. The states with the highest percentage of adults who have children at home and leave guns unlocked and loaded are Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Idaho, Montana and Wyoming. Eighteen states have laws dealing with proper storage of guns to limit access by children, but the laws vary in strictness - 7 states make it a felony under some circumstances to give minors access to weapons - and they vary in the ages of kids covered. Two studies show accidental gun deaths and teen suicides decline in states with these laws.
The report says that of 1,400 children and teens shot to death in 2002, about 90% were home when it happened.
The gun storage survey may underestimate kids with access to firearms, says the CDC, because women tend to underreport the presence of weapons at home, past studies show. About 60% of survey participants were women.
Andrew Arulanandam, spokesman for the National Rifle Association of America, declined to comment on specific laws but says, “The sad reality is, you cannot legislate responsibility.”

Warming Trends
The rate of ice melting in the Arctic is increasing and a panel of researchers says it sees no natural process that is likely to change that trend. Within a century the melting could lead to summertime ice-free ocean conditions not seen in the area in a million years, the group said recently. Melting of land-based glaciers could take much longer but could raise the sea levels, potentially affecting coastal regions worldwide. And changes to the permafrost could undermine buildings, drain water into bogs and release additional carbon into the atmosphere.
The report comes just days after environmental ministers and officials from 23 countries met in Greenland to call on governments to stop arguing over global warming and start acting. That session was held in the town of Ilulissat, near the edge of the Sermeq Kujalleq glacier that has retreated nearly seven miles since 1960 and has become a symbol of fears that the planet is approaching a dangerous warming.
After studying how various parts of the climate system interact, the researchers said there are two major feedback systems influencing the region - ocean circulation in the North Atlantic and the amount of precipitation and evaporation that takes place. Feedback can accelerate changes in the system, they said. For example, the white sea ice reflects solar radiation back into space, but as the ice melts the dark water will absorb some of the light, warming and melting more ice.
Anyone doubting the effects of human activity on global climate change should talk to the people it affects in Alaska and the Yukon, U.S. Sen. John McCain said the week after the report was released, fresh from a trip to Barrow, America’s northernmost city.
“We are convinced that the overwhelming scientific evidence indicated that climate change is taking place and human activities play a very large role,” McCain said.
McCain, accompanied by Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., spoke to villagers in Canada whose spruce trees are being attacked by the northward spread of spruce beetles. On Alaska’s northern coast, they met Native Alaskans dealing with melting permafrost and coastal erosion.
Opponents who ignore evidence of humans contributing to climate change, Clinton said, are participating in a trend of turning Washington, D.C. into what she calls an “evidence-free zone.”
“You just keep saying something no matter how untrue and unfactual it might be, over and over and over again, and try to drive the politics to meet your ideological or commercial agenda,” she said. “That is a grave disservice to our country.”
The United States will come under pressure to use energy more efficiently at international financial meetings in Washington this month, what with Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker having told reporters at a meeting of finance ministers i that the United States had to improve its energy efficiency.
Asked whether European ministers had agreed on a document on oil efficiency for the G7 meetings in Washington, he said: “We will use our G7 meetings in Washington in two weeks to have a frank word with our American colleagues on the issue.”
Juncker had chaired a meeting of eurozone finance ministers which had focused on the impact of high oil prices on the global economy. A broader meeting of all 25 European Union finance ministers is expected to issue a paper on oil, which will include a call on the U.S. reduce oil consumption.
Finance ministers from the Group of Seven, the U.S., Japan, Germany, France, Italy, Britain and Canada, meet in Washington in late September.

Suing The Feds
California, New Mexico and Oregon sued the Bush administration recently over the government’s decision to allow road building, logging and other commercial ventures on more than 90,000 square miles of untouched forests. In the lawsuit, attorneys general for the three states challenged the U.S. Forest Service’s repeal of the Clinton administration’s “roadless rule” that banned development on 58.5 million acres of national forest, mostly in western states.
The administration’s move puts at risk “some of the last, most pristine portions of America’s national forests,” California Attorney General Bill Lockyer said. “Road building simply paves the way for logging, mining and other kinds of resource extraction.”
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in San Francisco, alleges that the Bush administration’s repeal of the roadless rule violated federal law because the government did not conduct a complete analysis of the new regulation’s environmental impact.
Mark Rey, the Agriculture Department’s undersecretary for natural resources and environment, called the lawsuit “unfortunate and unnecessary.”

Alone, Alone
Manhattan has the highest percentage of single-person households of any county in the nation, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Solos accounted for 48 percent of all households on the island, putting Manhattan ahead of other singles magnets like Washington D.C., St. Louis, Denver and San Francisco. Overall, the report said, the number of Americans living alone has exceeded the number of households comprised of the classic nuclear family: a married couple and their natural children.
By the Numbers, 9.3 percent of U.S. households consisted of one person in 1950 versus 26 percent in 2000, for a total of 27.2 million people. 22 percent U.S. households made up of married couples and natural children in 2000. About 21 percent were married couples living alone. Eight percent were single parents living with at least one child. Other combinations - including multigenerational households, unmarried partners, people living with their extended families, grandparents raising grandchildren, and 24,722 other recorded types of arrangement - were less common
The analysis found that the number of single-person households in the U.S. grew 21 percent in the 1990s, eclipsing the growth rates for all other types of living arrangement.

Recalls…
Ford Motor Co. recently recalled 3.8 million pickup trucks and sport utility vehicles for a cruise control switch suspected of causing engine fires, saying the recall of 1994-2002 model-year vehicles includes the company’s hot-selling F-150 pickup truck, Ford Expedition, Lincoln Navigator and Ford Bronco. The company said it would start sending out recall notices to vehicle owners immediately. Toyota Motor Co., meanwhile, recalled 978,000 sport utility vehicles and pickup trucks amid concerns over the power steering system. The affected vehicles include the 1990-1995 4Runner SUV, 1989-1995 truck 4WD and 1993-1998 T-100 pickup. The company said a rod linking the steering wheel and the wheels may fracture under conditions where the steering wheel is turned while the vehicle is stopped. Owners will be notified beginning in mid-September, the company said.

Prison Terror?
FBI agents nationwide have been ordered to conduct “threat assessments” of inmates who may have become radicalized in prison and could commit extremist violence upon their release. The agency has been concerned since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks that groups with extremist ideologies may be targeting felons as prime candidates for conversion during their time in prison. The agency has worked with prison officials to identify potentially disruptive groups for “some time,” according to a recent letter outlining the new program. Spokeswomen for the FBI’s Los Angeles office and for the FBI in Washington, D.C., declined to comment.
“The FBI will be going into each institution and assessing each population,” said Todd Slosek, spokesman for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
He expects the FBI to examine the department’s information on all “disruptive groups,” including prison gangs and Islamic organizations.
Salam Al-Marayati, executive director of the Muslim Public Affairs Council in Los Angeles, said he worries that some inmates are forming radical groups and “putting a veneer on it and calling it Islam.”

Fetal Pain?
A review of medical evidence has found that fetuses likely don’t feel pain until the final months of pregnancy, a powerful challenge to abortion opponents who hope that discussions about fetal pain will make women think twice about ending pregnancies.
Critics angrily disputed the findings and claimed the report is biased.
The review by researchers at the University of California, San Francisco comes as advocates are pushing for fetal pain laws aimed at curtailing abortion. Proposed federal legislation would require doctors to provide fetal pain information to women seeking abortions when fetuses are at least 20 weeks old, and to offer women fetal anesthesia at that stage of the pregnancy. A handful of states have enacted similar measures.
But the report, appearing in last month’s Journal of the American Medical Association, says that offering fetal pain relief during abortions in the fifth or sixth months of pregnancy is misguided and might result in unacceptable health risks to women. The researchers reviewed dozens of studies and medical reports and said the data indicate that fetuses likely are incapable of feeling pain until around the seventh month of pregnancy, when they are about 28 weeks old.
While brain structures involved in feeling pain begin forming much earlier, research indicates they likely do not function until the pregnancy’s final stages, said the report’s senior author, UCSF obstetric anesthesiologist Dr. Mark Rosen.

Gluten Free!
Persons with celiac disease - an incur able affliction that makes the body unable to take anything containing gluten, a protein found in wheat, barley and rye – are being reached out to by a growing number of major U.S. restaurant chains in what many are saying is the first sign of a growing epidemic awareness. Outback Steakhouse, P.F. Chang’s and other restaurant companies offer menus of gluten-free dishes, and more are joining them.
Until recently, celiac disease was mistakenly thought to be a rare affliction and had been severely underdiagnosed. Symptoms, including gastric pain and diarrhea, are similar to other ailments including irritable bowel syndrome and Crohn’s disease. But awareness of the disease has been growing rapidly in recent years. In 2003, a major study found that one in 133 people in the United States may have the disease, far more than had been previously believed.
For people with the disease, dining out can become a source of anxiety because of the risk of unintentionally eating something that contains gluten.
Many consult pocket-sized Clan Thompson food guides published by a Maine family which has six members living with the disease.

Meanwhile…
The catastrophe inflicted by hurricane Katrina unfortunately obscured some bombshell news about Iraq last week. The US Air Force’s senior officer, Gen. John Jumper, stated US warplanes would remain in Iraq to fight resistance forces and protect the
American-installed regime “more or less indefinitely.” Mobile US ground intervention forces will remain at the four major ‘Ft. Apache’ bases guarding Iraq’s major oil fields. These bases will be ‘ceded’ to the US by a compliant Iraqi regime.