Working Families Breakfast Reading – News from around NY
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QUOTE OF THE DAY – September 29, 2009
“The uncomfortable truth is that tens of millions of Americans live the kind of lives where the availability of help from groups like ACORN is the difference between having food on the table or not, having a roof over their heads or not, seeing a doctor or not, and having a voice in the political process or not.”
- Assemblyman Rory Lancman, in an op-ed in today’s Daily News
STATE NEWS
Paterson
AP (Michael Gormley): Paterson rally gets dismal reviews
As Gov. David Paterson tries to make a huge comeback, political observers say his latest, best shot at a new beginning didn’t exactly propel him forward. Paterson’s appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press” Sunday is being viewed by commentators and independent pollsters as too little, too late to counter the Democrat’s low popularity and job approval numbers as he seeks election to a full term next year. But Paterson is, against odds and opposition, planning a legislative agenda that could result in the legalization of same-sex marriage. He also is planning more on what is becoming his signature issue, saving the state’s fiscal life. He and the Legislature have so far closed a two-year, $20.1 billion budget gap during the recession.
Politics, Etc
NY Times (Danny Hakim): For Nixon In-Law, G.O.P. Post and a Giuliani Clash
He appeared on American television screens nearly four decades ago, a blond-haired Princeton man in cutaway and striped trousers who married Tricia Nixon in a Rose Garden ceremony. Edward F. Cox became an adored son-in-law to President Richard M. Nixon, appearing at the president’s side during some of the nation’s most pivotal moments, including Nixon’s teary farewell address in 1974. Now, Mr. Cox, 62, is re-entering public life, taking on a task that many see as impossible: reviving the demoralized and shrunken Republican Party in New York State.
Labor, Workforce
Albany Times Union (Rick Karlin): Data at risk from scam?
Personal data for more than 300,000 state and local public employees could be at risk from an extortion scheme aimed at a company that used to administer the state’s health insurance drug benefits, officials said Monday. St. Louis-based Express Scripts is offering a $1 million reward for anyone with information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or group of people who hacked into its database and then demanded money to keep the information secret. The company says it won’t pay the extortion demand.
Journal News (Hannan Adely): New York lags in jobless payouts
“It’s so bad that I’m basically going to become homeless,” said Rocco, who has scanned the Internet for jobs, filled out applications and returned to college to boost his chances of finding work. Rocco is among the roughly 874,300 laid-off workers in New York state who, like many others, is struggling to make ends meet with the unemployment check he gets each week. The state pays an average of $314 per week to out-of-work residents. That amount is close to the national average, but in the Lower Hudson Valley where the cost of living is sky high, some jobless residents say it does not go far.
NYC NEWS
Politics, Etc.
NY Times (editorial): Tuesday’s Forgotten Election
There should be a rule that New Yorkers may not grouse about city government if they fail to vote when it counts – like in Tuesday’s runoff elections. Democratic voters have a chance to pick the party’s nominee for comptroller… For public advocate, we endorse Councilman Bill de Blasio of Brooklyn, who is running against Mark Green, a former public advocate. In his recent time in the Council and even during this race, Mr. de Blasio has shown that he has the kind of temperament and intelligence to help those needier New Yorkers who deserve his voice in City Hall.
See also:
NY Times (Clyde Haberman Column): Apathy, Again, Is Expected at the Polls
NY Post (Sally Goldenberg): Runoff frenzy
NY Times (Bosman and Fahim): Green and Yassky, but Not Opponents, Halt Campaign on Yom Kippur
City Councilman John C. Liu had a few harsh words on Monday for his opponent in Tuesday’s comptroller race, Councilman David Yassky. Mr. Liu, surrounded by cheering supporters, criticized Mr. Yassky for an advertisement that began running last week, and added that Mr. Yassky had run a “highly negative campaign.” Mr. Yassky could not immediately respond, and for good reason: he was observing Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement.
See also:
Daily News (Lombardi and Saltonstall): Runoff campaigning is curbed by Yom Kippur holiday
AP: Bloomberg challenger short on cash
Raising money to campaign against a mayor who is the richest person in New York City might seem like a cruel joke, and billionaire Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s Democratic challenger is struggling badly. William Thompson Jr. began raising money for his mayoral run in 2006, and showed early promise as one of the most successful fundraisers among the Democrats who were planning campaigns for 2009. But his fundraising has been sluggish instead of picking up as Election Day nears.
Daily News (Bob Kappstatter): This brawl ain’t over for Dems
That was some brawl between Dem Party Boss Carl Heastie and Parkchester Assemblyman Peter Rivera at Thursday night’s judicial nominating convention at Villa Barone. With supporters holding each back, Peter was jabbing his finger at Carl and screaming, “You’re a liar! You’re a liar!” To borrow a phrase, we’d call it a failure to communicate.
AP: Ex-Rep. Fossella fuels comeback talk at NY forum
Former U.S. Rep. Vito Fossella spoke at a weekend health care forum, fueling speculation that he could return to politics. It was one of Fossella’s first political appearances since he left office last year. He left after being arrested on drunken driving charges and a subsequent revelation that he had fathered a child in an extramarital affair.
Labor, Workforce
Daily News (Mike Jaccarino): Stella D’Oro protesters lean on Goldman Sachs
They’re not going quietly. Workers at the Stella D’Oro cookie plant in Kingsbridge picketed the Goldman Sachs building and then marched on City Hall Friday in a desperate attempt to save their jobs. Goldman Sachs is an investor in Lance Inc., the company that bought the longtime Bronx cookie maker for an undisclosed amount from Brynwood Partners, a Connecticut-based private equity fund. The workers want Lance to abandon its purchase or keep production in the Bronx instead of moving it to its Ashland, Ohio, bakery.
Daily News (Pete Donohue): TWU to take ‘hell’ to MTA wage tiff
Vowing to “Give them a taste of hell,” the union whose strike crippled the transit system in December 2005 is calling bus and subway workers to the barricades Tuesday night in its wage fight with the MTA. The Transport Workers Union is planning a protest outside the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s midtown headquarters. Leaders also plan a systemwide “day of outrage” for Oct. 14 – a call to arms on TWU Local 100’s Web site. “Give them a taste of hell,” the site proclaims.
Housing, Development
Daily News (Bill Egbert): Armory plans under fire: Supermarket chain fights developer, warns of traffic headache
Details, details…The Draft Environmental Impact Statement by the developer for the Kingsbridge Armory is coming under scrutiny – and under fire from opponents of the project. It is the key document upon which the City Planning Commission will weigh its decision before the issue moves to the City Council for a final vote. The owners of the Bronx-based Morton Williams supermarket chain hired consultants to pick apart the DEIS produced by the developer, The Related Companies, which has plans for a 60,000-square-foot supermarket that Morton Williams says will drive its flagship store across the street out of business.
Etc.
NY Times (Sam Roberts): N.Y. Poverty Data Paint Mixed Picture
In a departure from the national picture, family income rose slightly in New York City in 2008 from 2007, and the proportion of poor people was virtually unchanged, according to census figures released Tuesday. Still, the city and surrounding region had its share of grim news: The Bronx remained the country’s poorest urban county; the income gap in Manhattan was still higher than in any other county; and the poverty rate in Connecticut rose faster than in any other state. And the relatively positive part of the local economic picture was tempered by the fact that the latest census figures from the rolling American Community Survey captured only the start of the recession.
WESTCHESTER/ROCKLAND/HUDSON VALLEY NEWS
Journal News (Marcela Rojas): Rights fumes over defeat of no-congregating bill
Southeast town Supervisor Michael Rights called three Town Board members “obstructionists” Monday for voting against a measure that sought to prohibit people from congregating around town property in the village. Rights, along with Councilman Dwight Yee, had introduced a “no congregating” resolution at Thursday night’s meeting that was defeated by Councilmen Roger Gross, Richard Honeck and Paul Johnson. The plan included erecting signs at 1 Main St. that “cautioned against trespass.” The Southeast-owned building once served as Town Hall, and in recent years, Hispanic day laborers have assembled in that vicinity looking for work.
LONG ISLAND NEWS
Newsday (Sandra Peddie): Nassau grand jury report details pension abuses
A lack of time sheets, failed oversight, and “deception and manipulation” have enabled numerous private professionals working as consultants for special districts to improperly obtain public pension benefits at the expense of taxpayers, according to a blistering grand jury report issued by Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice. Often, public employers were complicit in that deception, according to the report, which was the culmination of 18 months of investigation and grand jury testimony following Newsday stories on pension abuses last year. “It shocks the conscience that this sort of stuff goes on,” Rice said in an interview.
CENTRAL NY/FINGERLAKES/SOUTHERN TIER NEWS
Post-Standard (Meghan Rubado): Syracuse Council president Bea Gonzalez won’t get on the Stephanie Miner bandwagon
Syracuse, NY – Most of the prominent Democrats who backed Joe Nicoletti’s losing run in Syracuse’s mayoral primary have thrown their support to Stephanie Miner, but Common Council President Bea Gonzalez said she won’t. “I’ve seen how she behaves in public and in private, and I’m concerned,” Gonzalez said Monday. “Am I going to actively support someone I have limited confidence in? No.” When she endorsed Nicoletti in May, Gonzalez said that Miner does not always treat people with dignity and respect. Endorsing her now would be hypocritical, she said.
Democrat and Chronicle (Brian Sharp): City Councilman Lightfoot avoids jail, restarts campaign
City Councilman John Lightfoot is not going to jail, and instead announced he was restarting his re-election bid after a judge restored the latest terms of his probation Monday on a third drunken driving conviction. Lightfoot, 38, pleaded guilty in March to violating his probation. Back in court for sentencing, Lightfoot was given the option of six months in jail or serving out the remainder of his three-year probationary term. He chose the latter – with a promise of 100 percent compliance – and afterward said he would make “one last stand” in his bid to remain on City Council.
Post-Standard (John Mariani): Pulitzer Prize winner to address Peace Action dinner
The faithkeeper of the Onondaga Nation will be honored for a lifetime of action for peace and a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist will be the keynote speaker at Peace Action of CNY’s annual dinner, 4 p.m. Oct. 25 at the Empire Room of the New York State Fair. Faithkeeper Oren Lyons will receive the second annual Lifetime Peace Activist Award at the event. Citing the principles of the Peacemaker, the prophet who guided the Six Nations centuries ago, Lyons has been an outspoken critic of environmental destruction and other abuses committed in the name of progress.
CAPITOL REGION/NORTH COUNTRY NEWS
Albany Times Union (Brendan Lyons): Ballot problems trigger lockdown in Troy
City housing authority officials have sealed off the office of a longtime worker who allegedly helped obtain absentee applications from voters who said their information had been forged on election ballots filed in the Sept. 15 primary. William B. Meissner, executive secretary of the Troy Housing Authority, said he locked down the riverfront office of housing authority clerk Anthony Defiglio on Saturday morning after learning about the scandal first exposed in Saturday’s Times Union. Defiglio has worked for the authority for several years. He allegedly was involved in obtaining absentee ballot applications from several public housing residents who said someone had forged their signatures or listed false information in the election documents without their knowledge.
Albany Times Union (Kenneth Crowe): Census: 84,000 living in poverty
The estimated number of Capital Region residents living in poverty grew in 2008 to 10.6 percent from 10 percent in 2007, according to data released Tuesday by the U.S. Census Bureau. An estimated 84,224 of the 791,096 people in Albany, Rensselaer, Saratoga and Schenectady counties are below the poverty line, the Census Bureau’s 2008 American Community Survey estimates. “The poverty line is really low to begin with. What this number reflects is the poorest of the poor,” said Michelle Napierski-Prancl, associate professor of sociology at Russell Sage College in Troy.
WESTERN NY NEWS
Buffalo News (Tom Precious): Power deal revives proposal for steel plant
A scuttled deal for a new steel manufacturing facility in Western New York is back on again, promising to bring $200 million in private investment and 200 permanent factory jobs. Steel Development Co., which last spring backed off plans to build a facility in the Orleans County Town of Shelby following a dispute with the state over the availability of low-cost power, will proceed with the plant in either its originally proposed location or some other spot in Western New York, a senior aide to Gov. David A. Paterson told The Buffalo News on Monday. A precise location for the new plant is uncertain, a state source said, though it must be within 30 miles of the Niagara Power Project for the company to receive a low-cost power allotment.
NATIONAL NEWS
CNNMoney (Neil daMause): Swine flu — and no paid sick leave
As the H1N1 swine flu virus starts its second major sweep through the U.S., business owners are bracing for the impact of a worse-than-usual flu season on their workforces. That’s reviving debate on a contentious issue: What kind of sick leave should companies offer employees — and should it be mandated by law? “On the one hand, you have all of our top officials saying, ‘Do the responsible thing. If you’re sick, stay home,’” says Debra Ness, president of the National Partnership for Women and Families, a Washington, D.C.-based advocacy group that is pushing for paid sick leave laws. “… And at the same time, we have a country where almost half the workforce doesn’t have a single paid sick day.”
NY Times (Monica Davey): In Some States, a Push to Ban Mandate on Insurance
In more than a dozen statehouses across the country, a small but growing group of lawmakers is pressing for state constitutional amendments that would outlaw a crucial element of the health care plans under discussion in Washington: the requirement that nearly everyone buy insurance or pay a penalty. Approval of the measures, the lawmakers suggest, would set off a legal battle over the rights of states versus the reach of federal power – an issue that is, for some, central to the current health care debate but also one that has tentacles stretching into many other matters, including education and drug policy.
NY Times (Baker and Macur): In Pitch for Games, a Gamble for Obama
Less than two weeks ago, President Obama lamented that he was too busy to go to Denmark to lobby for Chicago’s bid to host the Olympics. “I would make the case in Copenhagen personally,” he said, “if I weren’t so firmly committed to making real the promise of quality, affordable health care for every American.” Evidently, his commitment to health care is no longer quite so time consuming. Mr. Obama announced Monday that he would fly to Copenhagen this week after all to lobby the International Olympic Committee for the 2016 Summer Games.
