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"We must believe in luck. For how
else can we explain the success of those we don't like?" - Jean
Cocteau
Good Wednesday Morning,
Local politics are certainly heating up! Over the past
few days large billboards have sprung up all over the Town of Kent
asking, no, telling voters to vote no on a ballot proposition
that
would extend the term of our Supervisor from two years to four years.
On the billboards is a website address that brings folks to what
amounts to a duplicate of the billboards with no other information
provided. The first one I saw was on Lloyd Shulman's property along
Route 52 but they're pretty pervasive now.
As has become sadly typical in these things, the web
domain has no name associated with it and hence I can give no credence
to whomever is behind the campaign. Come on folks, that's just
chickensh*t. If you're going to take a position on a political issue at
least have the nerve to put your name on it!
And one more thing, if you post to the blog please don't use ALL CAPS.
IT'S ANNOYING and believe it or not, articles titled in ALL CAPS are
LESS READ than those using proper capitalization. People just assume
you've little to say and are trying to draw attention. Thanks.
For those who might have missed it, there was a special edition of News
That Matters yesterday which reported on a Domestic Violence
event
hosted by the Westchester/Putnam Women's Center that took place on
Monday night in Carmel. A link to that is here.
 The Sheriff's candidates went at it again
last night at the Carmel/Kent Chamber's candidate's forum at
McCarthy's in Kent. They came late, well after the rest of us had given
our presentations and were getting ready to leave. In the end I think
the best way to go is to have them duel with blunderbusses at ten
paces. If they kill each other then *I* get to be Sheriff. Now,
wouldn't that be something?
Anyway, that's it for this morning. Yeah, short and sweet.
And now, The News:
- On The
Constitutionality of Campaign Sign Laws
- Farms to
receive federal solar energy systems installation
grants
- Regional solar
development effort gains more federal funding
- Paterson Raids
Clean Energy Funds to Fill Budget Gap
- PTSD diagnosis
reform pushed by Hall
- Northwestern 'Innocence Project'
students slapped with subpoena
- A particle God doesn’t want us to
discover
On The
Constitutionality of Campaign Sign Laws
15 October 2009
Town of Carmel Attorney
Gregory Folchetti,
60 McAlpin Avenue
Mahopac, N.Y.10541
Dear Mr. Folchetti,
We have learned that the Town of Carmel’s ordinance includes a
provision that imposes certain limitations on the posting of political
signs on residential property. This ordinance sets a time restriction
on allowing the posting of signs 15 days prior to an event and removal
6 days after. I refer to Chapter 156 of the Town Code of the Town of
Carmel, Section 156-41A (5)(c)[1]
The Town’s ordinance violates the First Amendment to the United States
Constitution and Article I, §11 of the New York State Constitution, the
New York State counterpart to the First Amendment. A political yard
sign is a classic example of the core political speech that is at the
heart of the First Amendment’s guarantee of the right to free
expression.
Read More
Farms to
receive federal solar energy systems installation
grants
MILTON – More than $371,000 in federal loans and grants will be
provided to 10 farms in the region to install solar energy systems and
make other renewable upgrades that will help them cut their energy
consumption.
The funds were announced by Congressman Maurice Hinchey while at a
media event at Sunshine Orchards in Milton on Monday.
“New York is clearly establishing itself as a leader when it comes to
solar energy research and development and this funding demonstrates how
those solar products are being put to practical use,” said Hinchey.
Read
More
Regional solar
development effort gains more federal funding
KINGSTON – An additional $2.25 million in federal money has been
secured to support The Solar Energy Consortium’s efforts in the Hudson
Valley.
Congressman Maurice Hinchey, who spearheaded the solar energy efforts
in the region, announced that at a Hudson Valley Solar Energy Summit
held in Kingston.
The new money now brings to close to $30 million, the amount he has
secured for The Solar Energy Consortium.
According to Hinchey the efforts of TSEC have already brought in around
200 jobs and there is a high likelihood that number will increase
significantly over the next few years.
“You need money to bring in corporations and you need money to
stimulate and develop new technology,” said Hinchey. “The money is
being used to generate new technology, new ideas, new economic
stimulation, and most importantly new jobs for the people here.”
Read
More
Paterson Raids
Clean Energy Funds to Fill Budget Gap
As part of Governor Paterson’s $5 billion deficit reduction plan, the
Governor proposes sweeping $90 million from the pool of auction
proceeds generated by New York’s role in the Regional Greenhouse Gas
Initiative (RGGI) and cutting the Environmental Protection Fund by $10
million. While we’ve come to expect cuts to the State’s environmental
fund, the RGGI raid was a surprise. As far as we’re concerned, using
RGGI monies for anything other than energy efficiency or clean energy
development is a big mistake.
Environmental and energy groups called on the Governor to back off his
misguided plan to send RGGI monies into the black hole that is the
State’s general fund. Click here to read the groups’ statement. Doing
so sets a dangerous precedent for the nation’s first-ever plan to
reduce global warming.
While this one-time contribution may help balance New York State’s
budget in the short run, it pales in comparison to the long-term job
creation and investment benefits, as well as reductions in
climate-altering greenhouse gas emissions, the monies would have
achieved.
Years of research related to the development of the RGGI showed that
the program’s success hinges on the wise use of revenue generated by
allowance auctions. The Governor’s proposal jeopardizes the success of
this critical program and serves as a bad example to other
cash-strapped states.
Read More
PTSD diagnosis
reform pushed by Hall
WAPPINGERS FALLS – There is no arguing that cutting through red tape to
gain approval for a diagnosis for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is a
top priority.
Congressman John Hall hosted a series of roundtable discussions with
Hudson Valley veterans on Monday, one in Wappingers Falls, to hear
opinions about a rule change proposed by the Department of Veterans
Affairs that would make it easier for veterans suffering from PTSD to
receive their benefits.
Hall will then take the input of Hudson Valley veterans to the VA while
comments are still being considered pending the release of a final
regulation.
It was Hall’s COMBAT Act H.R. 952 that first called for reform to the
current rules and ultimately inspired the VA to draft a proposal of new
regulations.
If a serviceman or woman comes back from Iraq or Afghanistan and is
diagnosed with PTSD, currently, the law requires that they prove a
connection to a specific battle or an attack or a medal or some
incident,” said Hall.
“If you served in the uniform in a war zone and you come back and have
that diagnosed from a psychiatrist or psychologist, you have nothing
more to prove,” he said.
Read
More
Northwestern
'Innocence Project' students slapped with subpoena
County prosecutors in Illinois have subpoenaed the grades, notes,
recordings, and electronic correspondence of journalism students who
have been gathering evidence that could exonerate a convicted criminal
defendant, the Chicago Tribune reported.
A judge will consider the evidence uncovered by students at
Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism during an
upcoming hearing to decide whether Anthony McKinney, who has been
incarcerated for 31 years after being convicted of murder, should
receive a new trial.
The university turned over the recordings of witness interviews, but is
fighting the request for materials relating to the class itself.
Professors involved with the project and press advocates told the
Tribune the subpoena was an attempt to discredit the project, which has
helped free 11 wrongfully convicted defendants since its inception in
1999.
The prosecutors in the case have asserted that the Medill students and
their professor are not journalists and that their work is therefore
not protected by an Illinois law that protects journalists from
subpoenas.
Read
More
A particle God
doesn’t want us to discover
Could the Large Hadron Collider be sabotaging itself from the future,
as some physicists say
By Jonathan Leake
Explosions, scientists arrested for alleged terrorism, mysterious
breakdowns — recently Cern’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC) has begun to
look like the world’s most ill-fated experiment.
Is it really nothing more than bad luck or is there something weirder
at work? Such speculation generally belongs to the lunatic fringe, but
serious scientists have begun to suggest that the frequency of Cern’s
accidents and problems is far more than a coincidence.
The LHC, they suggest, may be sabotaging itself from the future —
twisting time to generate a series of scientific setbacks that will
prevent the machine fulfilling its destiny.
At first sight, this theory fits comfortably into the crackpot
tradition linking the start-up of the LHC with terrible disasters. The
best known is that the £3 billion particle accelerator might trigger a
black hole capable of swallowing the Earth when it gets going.
Scientists enjoy laughing at this one.
This time, however, their ridicule has been rather muted — because the
time travel idea has come from two distinguished physicists who have
backed it with rigorous mathematics.
Read
More
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