|
Good Thursday Morning,
It's going to be another glorious summer day with
a 50% chance of thunderstorms later this afternoon. Expect a sunny high
of 79 or so with good air quality.
Keep in mind that as you harvest your gardens, toss
the refuse into your compost pile. If you don't have a compost
pile, jeff@planputnam.org?Subject=Compost%20Pile">send
me a note and I'll help you get one set up. There's no reason not
to have one and many good reasons you should.
Here's a professional painter's tip for homeowners:
if you live in a wood-sided home, it probably needs to be
painted and I happen to know the right
guy for the job. Besides, a decent paint job will caulk holes and
cracks sealing your home against the coming winter thus lowering your
heating bills - and you know where they're going to be this winter...
The
annual Perseid
meteor shower peaks on Tuesday, August 12th. The best time to
look is during the dark hours before dawn on Tuesday morning when
forecasters expect 50 to 100 meteors per hour. Jupiter and the
gibbous Moon converge on August 11th and 12th for a close encounter in
the constellation Sagittarius. It's a grand sight. For a while the Moon
will interfere with the Perseids, lunar glare wiping out all but the
brightest meteors. The situation reverses itself at 2 am on Tuesday
morning, August 12th, when the Moon sets and leaves behind a dark
sky for the Perseids. The shower will surge into the darkness,
peppering the sky with dozens and perhaps hundreds of meteors until
dawn.
You'll remember a couple years back when I got really
sick and sought out a doctor in this county - any doctor - that
would see me on a sliding scale and found none. Then I
searched for a walk-in clinic only to find that Putnam County does not
have one. A call to the county social services office seeking advice
came up with the response that I should try Danbury or Poughkeepsie and
use a fake name. I eventually ended up in the emergency room at
Putnam County hospital and left with a multi-thousand dollar bill that
left me financially devastated. I wrote about that in this column on
several occasions and it seems the county legislature is finally
taking up the issue. There's a Journal News editorial below with
more about the story.
The Journal News reports this morning that the Town
of Carmel was unable to sell the old Grange Hall on McAlpin Avenue.
They were hoping to earn for $100,000 for the two story building within
walking distance of their town center and historical society. The
problem is that they went about it all wrong! What they should have
done is offered to it an out of state developer along with $25 million
in tax breaks. At least they have a lot for the new police station
they're going to have to build. It's too bad they tore down the old
firehouse, a building which could have been remodeled for that purpose.
But progress marches on and that site is now a parking lot sitting next
to an architectural oddity.
Kieran Lalor (yes, we're back to him this morning),
is bitching and moaning about Congress taking a vacation this
August. Somehow, this yearly vacation has slipped his mind over the
years and he's realizing it now - apparently for the first time. With
all his kvetching he hasn't noticed that this past congress has worked
5 day weeks since the session began which is a far cry from the Sue
Kelly, Republican majority days, when they worked - on average - 2.5
days each week. I have no idea what this man wants but he's getting
more annoying by the day.
But Congressman Hall is not basking in the sun at St.
Tropez. Since the vacation began he's been working here in the district
visiting with veteran's organizations (a fact Mr. Lalor, a veteran
himself, pointedly ignores), and meeting with local oil companies
seeking a way to bring home heating oil prices down. I really do wish
Mr. Lalor would spend as much time opening his eyes as he does opening
his mouth.
It seems Bruce Ivins is not the first person the FBI
has pushed to the edge. The Seattle
Post-Intelligencer reports that Robert Christie, 72, was fingered
as a suspect in an FBI probe of a casino bank robber. And, even though
he was innocent with rock-solid alibi's, the FBI didn't care, insisting
he "fit the profile" developed from casual
observations by a casino worker and blurry bank surveillance photos.
They monitored his every move and then, when they couldn't stand it any
more, arrested him out of his car in the middle of heavy highway
traffic. Christie spent 10 days in jail and two months under house
arrest before the charges were dropped late in December 2007 with the
conviction of, um, the real bank robber.
Since the Government has determined that waterboarding
does not qualify as torture, you can try it out yourself. Head on down
to Coney Island where Steve Powers' Waterboard
Thrill Ride awaits. The theme? 'It Don't Gitmo Better'.
In case you've forgotten, we're at war with
Afghanistan. Oh yeah? Well, the 500th US soldier has died there
and no one noticed.
It looks like the price of cardio-vascular disease is
going up. McDonald's has hinted at additional price hikes of about
4%.
63 years ago today the sun rose over the city of
Hiroshima, Japan, which was a smoking ruin
from the August 6th bombing that left 140,000 citizens dead and
destroying or seriously damaging
90% of the city. This scene would be repeated two days later on
August 9th in Nagasaki
killing an additional 75,000. This follows the February
13-15th bombing of the open city of Dresden,
Germany, in which 40,000 citizens were killed. Since then, we've
managed to stop killing so many in one day but our wars and quasi-wars
kill many more... it just takes more time, is all.
You can read News That Matters online either
from PlanPutnam or directly here at Blogspot.
And now, the News:
- Get ready for invasion of
Kent (JN Letter)
- Paying now . . . or later
(Health Care in Putnam County)
- $40,000 to help Tivoli buy
land for park
- The Future of Shopping
Malls: An Image Essay
- New zoning plan on the
horizon (Rhinebeck)
- So Make a Fuel-Efficient
Luxury Car
- No Tax for Open Space
(Albuquerque, New Mexico)
- A Potion to Beat Back
‘Frankenfish’ (Orange County, NY)
Get ready
for invasion of Kent
Sit back, relax, close your eyes and willingly suspend your disbelief.
The time is October 1492, Columbus has landed and laid claim to
America. The natives didn't have a clue.
More than 500 years later, instead of Queen Isabella's cannon backing
up an adventurer's claim, it's a battery of $300-an-hour lawyers with
pens razor-sharp, set to enforce another illegal land seizure.
Seventeen acres in the town of Kent will soon become part of Patterson,
in order that the destruction of New York City watershed in eastern
Putnam proceed unfettered.
Make no doubt about it. Those 17 acres in Kent that control the
entranceway to the all-but-done deal Patterson Crossing are history. We
know too well what happened to the original Americans when they
resisted the white man's claim to Manifest Destiny. Now those words
have seamlessly morphed into "eminent domain," and threatening lawsuits
hover over Kent Town Hall like giant alien bed bugs.
Read
More
Paying
now . . . or later
Putnam Legislature
takes note of the high
cost of doing nothing
Here's what Putnam residents who don't have medical insurance, or the
wherewithal to pay a private doctor, can do when they need medical care
in the county: They can wait -that is, wait until the problem goes
away. How about preventative care? That's out of the question for the
uninsured and underinsured. They tough it out through early symptoms of
illness. Of course, when those options fail and the pain or
complications become too severe to ignore, there's always the most
expensive option, a trip to the emergency room at Putnam Hospital
Center.
None of these is a good choices for residents, or for the health-care
system. The bottom line should be familiar to everyone by now: Everyone
picks up the tab for the uninsured, too often that emergency room bill,
often higher still because inattention have worsened conditions.
Red
the full editorial here
$40,000
to help Tivoli buy land for park
Scenic Hudson grant will cover fees for CSX deal
By Rasheed Oluwa
Poughkeepsie Journal
TIVOLI - A $40,000 grant from Scenic Hudson will help the village
complete the purchase of property for a riverfront park.
Last month, Scenic Hudson announced it was giving the village a $40,000
grant to help its purchase of nearly 3 acres of riverfront property.
This year, village officials announced a plan to obtain the property
from the railroad company CSX. In essence, CSX is giving the property
to the village, according to state Assemblyman Marc Molinaro, R-Tivoli.
"The $40,000 covers legal and engineering fees associated with the
transaction," said Molinaro, who worked on the project when he served
as Tivoli's mayor.
Read
More
The
Future of Shopping Malls: An Image Essay
WorldChanging Team
August 6, 2008 1:00 PM
By Morgan Greenseth
Mall culture in the United States -- at least as we know it -- is
coming to an end. Last month, the fall of Steve & Barry's became
the next addition to a series of recent retailer bankruptcies we've
been witnessing across the nation. This trend is likely to continue, as
the U.S. economic downturn causes people to reduce their trips to
stores and to shop less, forcing more shops to close and leaving malls
deserted.
According to an article that ran in The Economist at the end of 2007:
In the past half century ... [malls] have transformed
shopping habits, urban economies and teenage speech. America now has
some 1,100 enclosed shopping malls, according to the International
Council of Shopping Centres. Clones have appeared from Chennai to
Martinique. Yet the mall's story is far from triumphal. Invented by a
European socialist who hated cars and came to deride his own creation,
it has a murky future. While malls continue to multiply outside
America, they are gradually dying in the country that pioneered them.
Deadmalls, a site dedicated to these failing malls, tracks closings and
developments, and even allows you to locate malls that are dying in
your own town.
Read
More
New zoning
plan on the horizon
By: Jan Larraine Cox, Staff Reporter08/07/2008
Email to a friendPost a CommentPrinter-friendly
Expert Land Planner Randall Arendt addressed highly concerned citizens
of Rhinebeck and the Hamlet of Rhinecliff last Friday night and
Saturday morning regarding the Rhinebeck Comprehensive Plan and Draft
Zoning Code now being worked on by Sally Mazarella, Chair of the
Comprehensive Plan Committee for the Town of Rhinebeck. Two weeks ago,
Mazarella and committee released a Draft Comprehensive/Zoning Plan,
which calls for a maximum of one structure on 20 acres. It can be read
on the Town of Rhinebeck Web site at www.rhinebeck-ny.gov.
The plan has enraged large landowners as they feel it favors the large
estate developer and devalues the property value of their land. They
are calling for a 1:10 acre ratio, and in the case of working farms, a
1:5 acre ratio, in order to maintain the integrity of the neighborhood
of Rhinebeck and the already tenuous financial soundness of the working
farms, specifically in the National Historic Landmark District.
Read
More
So Make a
Fuel-Efficient Luxury Car
The Fight Over the Nation's Fuel Economy Standards
Photo: With 34 mpg in the city and 30 mpg on the highway, the Ford
Escape hybrid was one of several SUVs to rank among the most efficient
vehicles -- of any kind -- manufactured in 2008.
There's a fight going on in Washington that will ultimately affect how
much you pay for gas.
Congress has demanded that the Bush Administration increase the fuel
efficiency of the American automobile fleet, by requiring automakers to
make more efficient cars and trucks.
Now that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is writing
new rules into law, automakers are complaining that the 2011 model year
requirements are too strict, while many car salesmen and environmental
advocates are arguing just the opposite. They argue: Americans want to
buy fuel-efficient cars, so carmakers will make money by selling them.
(See this San Francisco Chronicle story for an overview of the
fuel-efficiency fight.)
Read
More
No Tax
for Open Space
By Dan Mckay
Journal Staff Writer
A property tax to fund the purchase of more open space won't make it on
the ballot this year after all.
Bernalillo County accidentally left the tax off the ballot two years
ago but said it would put the measure before voters this year. That's
no longer the plan.
County Manager Thaddeus Lucero said commissioners have renewed the tax
at a reduced rate, and with a healthy cash balance already available,
there's no need to ask voters for the full amount.
The county will focus mostly on maintenance, not acquisition, of
open-space lands for now.
"I didn't think it was prudent to go to the voters and ask them for
more money when we have ($12 million) in the bank," Lucero said in an
interview.
Open-space supporters, especially in the South Valley, are bitterly
disappointed. They say development is consuming more and more
agricultural land.
"Acre by acre, we're losing it," said Susan White, an open-space
volunteer and former member of the county's now-defunct open-space
committee. "If we don't make an effort right now, in 30 years ... the
whole valley is going to be paved over."
Read
More
A Potion
to Beat Back ‘Frankenfish’
By PETER APPLEBOME
WAWAYANDA, N.Y.
No doubt someone would have identified the northern snakeheads around
Ridgebury Lake and Catlin Creek sooner or later, even if Bill Thompson
had not scooted his golf cart to the edge of the pond behind his house
and shot two of them with a .22 in May.
But in this case sooner was definitely better than later. Mr. Thompson
notified State Department of Environmental Conservation officials,
suspecting that he had shot the weird fish he had heard about on the
Discovery Channel. They rushed to his pond. And Tuesday he sat in the
same golf cart watching a swarm of workers, technicians and agents dump
a fast-acting fish poison into the murky green waters and wade around
with nets, scooping out whatever they found alive.
“I don’t like the way it looks or the way it smells, and if you don’t
stop them now, it’s going to be all you have,” he said. “There are
already thousands of them in there.”
Summer is monster season. Maybe it’s the amazing annual discovery that
sharks sometimes bite people. If we’re lucky, sometimes we get a gift
like the Montauk Monster, the weird carcass — raccoon? Devil spawn from
hell? Hoax? — whose photograph became a worldwide Internet sensation
last week. And here in Orange County this summer, as it was in Queens
in 2005, it’s the northern snakehead, which is something of a fantasy
monster and a real one at the same time.
Read
More
|
|
