With Mayor as Companion, a Senate Run Was a No-Go by Michael Barbaro - City Room Blog - NYTimes.com

Is this woman just naive or ignorant...She wonders why Republican Senate leadership would want her to run for the senate with her non-Republican social views...Well, do you think her boyfriend's BILLIONS have anything to do with it...?? Duh...It's the same reason the NYS Republican senate campaign committee and the Independence Party never objected to Bloomberg's money...And, now she's endorsing former Wall Street hedge fund operator Reshma Saujani against Carolyn Maloney...This after these people nearly imploded our national and the world economy...Have these people ever met a rich person they didn't like..?

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Blame the mayor –- or at least the tricky nature of two-career couples.

Diana L. Taylor, the former New York state banking superintendent and the companion of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, acknowledged Monday for the first time that she “really wanted” to run for the United States Senate as a Republican this year, but decided against it because of her boyfriend’s day job.

“My significant other is the mayor of New York City, so that would be really complicated,” she told the audience at a fund-raiser for David Malpass, a Republican contender for the Senate seat she coveted.

“So I decided not to run,” Ms. Taylor said, adding that by sitting out the race, she would leave Mr. Bloomberg “running New York City without having to worry about this other thing.”

It was Ms. Taylor’s most detailed -– and her only public -– discussion of her Senate ambitions, which were heavily encouraged by state and national Republican leaders, who are seeking a big-name candidate to challenge the Democratic incumbent, Kirsten E. Gillibrand.

And it was a small but telling glimpse into the relationship between two of New York City’s most high-powered people: Mr. Bloomberg, the billionaire media mogul, and Ms. Taylor, a director at Citigroup, the giant bank, the chairwoman of Accion, a leading microfinance lender, and the chairwoman of the Hudson River Park Trust, which oversees the waterfront park on the West Side of Manhattan.

In her remarks, Ms. Taylor said she was surprised by the enthusiasm of national Republican leaders, like Senators Mitch McConnell and John Cornyn, who tried to recruit her to run earlier this year. She recalled warning them that “my social outlook is not particularly Republican,” because she “is totally for gun control” and supports abortion rights.

Even though Ms. Taylor and the mayor disagreed on the wisdom of her candidacy, they clearly share a deep skepticism of career politicians. She said she seriously weighed a Senate run because “I was so angry” at events unfolding in Washington, where, she said, lawmakers charged with reforming the nation’s financial system possessed “no understanding” of the markets and “were doing it for political reasons every step of the way.”

She quoted a friend’s description of elected officials in Washington — although it seemed like she was speaking for herself. “Every politician in office today is concerned about three things,” she said. “Number one: getting elected or re-elected. The second thing is making sure that their party is in control. The third thing is so far behind that it doesn’t really matter.”

Her endorsement of Mr. Malpass, a former Treasury official in the Reagan administration and economist at Bear Stearns, is the latest sign of her interest in the political sphere. She recently endorsed a Democratic Congressional candidate in New York, Reshma Saujani, who is challenging Representative Carolyn B. Maloney.

The fund-raiser took place within the wood-paneled confines of the Women’s National Republican Club on West 51st Street in Midtown, where portraits of Ronald Reagan compete for space with those of Barbara Bush. Ms. Taylor praised Mr. Malpass’s long record in government and the private sector as she introduced him.

“We need people like you in the U.S Senate who understand the economy, think about the issues and have done their homework,” she said before an audience of several dozen women, who donated at least $200 a person.

She added, “The thing that struck me about David was, I was hearing from him all the things I would want to do in the Senate.”

Mr. Malpass is promoting himself as a political outsider and fiscal conservative (not unlike Mr. Bloomberg, or, for that matter, Ms. Taylor). In his remarks, Mr. Malpass railed against what he said was excessive spending, unbridled deficits and unnecessary taxes imposed by lawmakers in Washington.

At times, the fund-raiser seemed like the Taylor-Malpass show. When Mr. Malpass was asked about his stance supporting abortion rights, and how it would play with national Republicans, Ms. Taylor politely interrupted with a brief summary of her own experience with the party’s leaders.

Ms. Taylor said she was “really surprised” at how welcoming they were to her liberal social views. The Republican officials with whom she met, she said, acknowledged that the party’s candidates in New York would hold different views from those in more conservative sections of the country.

At another point, Mr. Malpass asked Ms. Taylor to weigh in when he was asked how Hispanic voters were reacting to President Obama’s health care overhaul.

Ms. Taylor observed that Hispanic voters were more conservative than many political observers realized. “At this point,” she said, “they are leaving the Democratic Party in droves.”

Finding Life in Dead Horse Bay by Ava Chin - Urban Forager - City Room Blog - NYTimes.com

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Spreading a net in Dad Horse Bay, you never know what. Photographs by Ava Chin for The New York Times

“They don’t call it Dead Horse Bay for nothing,” said Jarad Astin, walking across the bottle-strewn beach in flip-flops with a seine net over his shoulder.

We were there for BioBlitz , a 24-hour survey of Jamaica Bay on June 11 and 12 by scientists, professors, amateur naturalists and families. The goal of the field study, sponsored by Brooklyn College and the National Park Service, was to collect and identify as many species of animal, plant and marine life as possible. Our group, one of many working throughout the area, was attempting an accurate assessment of marine creatures, but at the beach of Dead Horse Bay, near Gerritsen Inlet, all we saw were discarded wine, juice and syrup bottles, mugs, film reels and other assorted trash.

The three of us — Tumpa Mira and Beni Mfitidi, two Brooklyn College juniors, and me — marveled at the former landfill as we followed Mr. Astin, our leader and the live animal coordinator for the Brooklyn Children’s Museum.

Under Mr. Astin’s direction, Ms. Mira disappeared with a dragnet toward a patch of water-grown grasses, while Ms. Mfitidi helped him unroll the 25-foot-long seine net.

“It’s like standing on a mattress,” Mr. Astin said, making his way thigh-deep into the waters of Dead Horse Bay, holding one end of the net, while Ms. Mfitidi held the other.

“O.K., hold it nice and tight,” Mr. Astin instructed. “Ready? 1, 2, 3 — go, go, go!”

Good morning, little green crab. (Photo right)

They dragged the net toward the shore, and in a final scooping motion, lifted it out of the water. The first attempts brought up only seaweed, but on the third try, there were bits of comb jelly, a few mud snails and several tiny Atlantic silversides in the net.

I fished out a piece of sea lettuce (a k a Ulva lactuca) about the size of a square of origami paper, floating in the water like a piece of green cellophane. “Is this edible?” I asked.

“Most kelp and seaweed is edible,” Mr. Astin said. “But you wouldn’t want to consume any from around here.”

Jamaica Bay houses four wastewater treatment sites, and the Department of Environmental Protection is working to improve the ecology, according to agency officials, by initiating measures to cut nitrogen-discharge levels and increasing the number of water- sampling sites. Still, the combination of pollution, the proximity to Kennedy Airport and the fact that we were on former landfill made the eating prospects unattractive.

I headed down the beach to where Ms. Mira stood with a dragnet in a grassy estuary, knee-deep in water. Earlier, Mr. Astin had shown us how to bring up samples from the bay floor using arm motions like an Olympic curler’s, which I tried to mimic with my own net. Ms. Mira caught several slippery Mummichogs (minnows), but I was bringing up only sea lettuce and mud snails.

Suddenly, through the water, I saw the scrambling motion of a small crab near my waders and nabbed it with my net.

I was worried it was an Asian shore crab — the wildly successful invasive, of which we didn’t need a living specimen. But to my delight, back on shore, Mr. Astin confirmed it was a female European green crab, or Carcinus maenas (also nonnative and invasive), which he did want. She was about the size of a silver dollar and blowing bubbles in his hands.

A catch of tiny silversides. (Photo right)

Half an hour later we regrouped, marveling at a horseshoe crab Mr. Astin had found crawling around the water’s edge. “This one’s in pretty good condition,” he said, holding up Limulus polyphemus as it made slow crawling motions in the air. Ms. Mira and Ms. Mfitidi wanted to know if it could bite.

“It can’t hurt you,” Mr. Astin said, noting the knot of barnacles on its hard shell before turning it over. A handful of slipper limpets (Crepidula fornicata) lined the bottom. “These are hitchhikers,” he said, prying off the limpets with a knife, revealing their yellow eggs.

Before we started packing up, Mr. Astin made one last survey of the bay’s grassy area with his dragnet. “Whoa, look at this,” he said, suddenly pulling his net out of the water.

He held out a large blue crab, with a single pincher waving in the air . “He’s lucky I’m not crabbing,” Mr. Astin said, as we admired it. “He’s big enough to be a keeper.”

He showed us the crab’s dorsal side, and the rather phallic apron- flap, shaped like an upside-down T (a male), before tossing it into the water.

Suddenly, something jerked in the net, and Mr. Astin fished out another, much smaller, crab. Turning it over revealed the triangular-shaped apron of an immature female. “I think we broke up a couple — sorry, guys,” Mr. Astin said.

By the end of the morning expedition, we counted silversides, killifish , amphipods (the roly-polies of the sea), tiny Atlantic herring, fairy shrimp, mud snails, common periwinkles, a hermit crab, pipe fish (related to seahorses, but elongated like inchworms) and my European green crab, among others. Our total was 42 species.

Each BioBlitz helps the Park Service discover species of animals, plants, fungi and marine life, but while we found nothing unusual that day, it seemed enough to contribute an accurate assessment for the survey.

In our small tank filled with living specimens — including feathery barnacles waving come-hither like slow-moving showgirls, and fairy shrimp treading water — I watched my scrappy green crab trying to eat its neighbors. It seemed particularly keen on nabbing one of Ms. Mira’s minnows. If it survived the weekend and quarantine, it would become a part of the Children’s Museum.

When all the species are tallied, experts at Jamaica Bay expect to have counted nearly 600 from the BioBlitz.

No dead horses, but lots of other stuff.

Verrazano Peregrine Falcon Couple Adopts Two: - www.rockawave.com - Wave of Long Island

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Two peregrine falcon chicks found in an unsuitable nesting place in Queens were relocated to the top of the Brooklyn tower of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge where they were welcomed into the nest by a mother falcon already caring for three new chicks of her own.

“The mother took in the adopted chicks without question and has been feeding them and watching over them as if they were always part of her brood,” said Verrazano Narrows General Manager Daniel DeCrescenzo. “It’s truly nature at its best.”

Chris Nadareski, a wildlife biologist with the city Department of Environmental Protection, who coordinates the city peregrine falcon program in cooperation with the State Department of Environmental Conservation, said the relocation was necessary because the chicks would have had trouble safely leaving the nest area while learning how to fly.

The two adopted chicks were moved on May 28, and a few days later, the two male and three female chicks were one big happy family.

This means that MTA Bridges and Tunnels, in addition to the Verrazano’s two male and three female chicks, is home to a total of 11 new peregrine falcons this year.

Four females hatched at Marine Parkway-Gil Hodges Memorial Bridge in Queens and two more, a boy and a girl, hatched atop the Bronx tower at the Throgs Neck Bridge.

The Verrazano chicks have the most sweeping view of New York Bay from their perch 693 feet above the water at the Brooklyn tower.

The Throgs Neck birds are 360 feet up on the Bronx tower, and the new falcons at the Marine Parkway Bridge have the most unusual nest; inside an old World War II gun turret 215 feet above the water on the Rockaway side of the bridge.

Con Edison Blocks State-Supported Energy Saving Program By Jasmin K. Williams - Special to the AmNews

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Angry homeowners and community leaders gathered in front of the Con Edison building at 4 Irving Plaza in Manhattan for a press conference and to protest the utility company’s efforts to thwart the Green Jobs/Green NY program, a new initiative that will finance energy saving retrofits for low- and moderate-income homeowners. The program will also create 60,000 green jobs.The Green Jobs/Green NY bill was passed in 2009.

The gathering was organized by Sustainable South Bronx, Laborers Local 10, the Hunger Action Network, Envirolution and New York Communities for Change and the Center for Working Families.

Green Jobs/Green NY is a residential energy efficiency program that will allow homeowners access to retrofits that will decrease energy bills. This program allows a homeowner to pay back the cost of the retrofit with the funds that they save.

“Homeowners would get an audit, determining what type of work would be necessary to properly insulate the home. The cost of the work, covered upfront by the program, would then be paid back as part of the homeowner’s utility bill.

“The costs are calibrated so that there’s no increase in monthly utility payments as long as the energy usage behavior remains the same. Homeowners will see a decrease in their energy bill once the retrofit takes place and more so when the loan is paid off,” said Chloe Tribich from the Center for Working Families.

What makes this different from other such programs is that the funds come from private capital. The government has $112 million allotted for such green initiative programs. Private sources have also donated money to this program, which will also create green jobs. Lenders, who normally would not lend to small businesses or homeowners who don’t meet income requirements or who have shaky credit, invest
in a fund that pools many small loans. This makes funds available to those who would not normally qualify for them.

Con Edison’s push back is that accommodating the program would require them to update and recode their billing system to include the loan line item. They are additionally concerned that this might cause homeowners not to pay their bill on time, but the program is already calibrated in a way that no increased monthly cost is incurred. The bill will decrease once the retrofits are in place, protesters claim, adding that this type of “one-bill” financing is the safest financial option for homeowners who need these energy saving options but who can’t get a traditional loan to cover the cost.

Additional info: Legislation

• Green Jobs - Green NY Bill
• Amendment

Input Sought by NYC DOT on Woodhaven Blvd. by Bryan Yurcan - Queens Chronicle

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The city Department of Transportation is seeking the public’s comments on improving Woodhaven Boulevard.

The DOT conducted a public input session seeking ideas and concerns on a range of topics, including safety, traffic flow, mass transit, street layout, parking and walking conditions pertaining to Woodhaven Boulevard. The meeting was held at 6:30 p.m. at the Forest Park Cooperative, Section 1, located at 83-55 Woodhaven Blvd.

Residents, business owners, commuters and other local stakeholders attended.

Pedestrian crossing of the boulevard, a major thoroughfare in Rego Park, Middle Village, Glendale and Woodhaven, has long been a contentious issue.

Last month, state Sen. Joe Addabbo Jr. (D-Howard Beach) called for changing the timing of the lights at certain parts of the boulevard to allow pedestrians more time to cross, during a press conference with senior citizen groups.

Seniors and others have complained that there is not enough time allotted to cross Woodhaven Boulevard, which is as wide as 10 lanes in some areas.

The DOT has been studying the problem since 2008.

Read previous postings: Senator Addabbo and Assemblyman Miller Team with AARP to Make Our Streets and Sidewalks Safer

Woodhaven Blvd Unsafe for Pedestrians by Lisa Fogarty - Queens Chronicle

Burning Tap Water and More: GASLAND Exposes the Natural Gas Industry by Michael Graham Richard - TreeHugger

Must see movie on HBO - GASLAND by Josh Fox...This must be not be allowed to happen in NY State...Watch the video below and check your local listings to see this important documentary...

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What the frack?

In 2008, Josh Fox received a letter from a natural gas company. They were interested in leasing land owned by his family to do natural gas drilling. The offer was for $100,000, but instead of taking the money, Josh decided to do some research on the natural gas industry and ended up making a documentary called GASLAND. It focuses on the impact that modern natural gas extraction, which primarly uses hydraulic fracturing (aka "fracking"), has on communities and the environment. Check out the trailer below, it's pretty good.

Fox then set out to see how communities are being affected in the west where a natural gas drilling boom has been underway for the last decade. He spent time with citizens in their homes and on their land as they relayed their stories of natural gas drilling in Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and Texas, among others. He spoke with residents who have experienced a variety of chronic health problems as well as contamination of their air, water wells or surface water. In some instances, gas companies are replacing the affected water supplies with bottled water. (source)


For more information about what fracking is, check out the film's website FAQ page.

Bracing for 35 Likely School Closings Next Year by Sharon Otterman - City Room Blog - NYTimes.com

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If you thought this year was a dramatic one for school closings — with 19 city schools shut in January over the objections of thousands of parents and teachers before being given a temporary reprieve by a court — wait until next year.

Not only does the city say it will try to close all 19 of those schools again, but it will also try to phase out 16 more, continuing its strategy of closing some of the city’s largest high schools and replacing them with small schools or charter schools.

On Friday, the city announced which of 34 schools on a state list of “persistently lowest achieving” schools it would keep open and try to improve — in a process known as transformation – and which it would most likely phase out beginning in the 2011-12 school year.

The 11 schools chosen for transformation can hire two new kinds of teachers — master teachers and turnaround teachers — who will earn up to 30 percent more than their regular salaries for training teachers in addition to their regular duties. Those premiums, and other school improvements, will be financed by $2 million a year in federal stimulus money over the next three years.

Principals at most transformation schools will be removed, according to federal rules that must be followed in order to receive the money, even though teachers will not be dismissed. That brought an angry response from the head of the principals’ union on Friday. (The city is lobbying to save principals who are making improvements.)

“Each school on this list has a different story,” said Ernest Logan, the head of the union, the Council of School Supervisors and Administrators. “Some have B’s on their school report cards; some have principals with strong principal performance reviews. At least one is on the list of Newsweek magazine’s best public schools of the year. All things considered, it makes no sense to suggest removing the principals of these schools while retaining all the teachers.”

The 11 schools selected for transformation are:

• Automotive High School
• Bread & Roses Integrated Arts High School
• Brooklyn School for Global Studies
• Chelsea Career and Technical Education High School
• Cobble Hill School of American Studies
• Flushing High School
• Franklin Delano Roosevelt High School
• Long Island City High School
• Queens Vocational and Technical High School
• Unity Center for Urban Technologies
• William E. Grady Career and Technical Education High School

The additional 23 schools on the state’s “persistently lowest achieving” list that will most likely be phased out and replaced with new schools are:

• August Martin High School
• Beach Channel High School
• Boys and Girls High School
• Christopher Columbus High School
• Fordham Leadership Academy for Business and Technology
• Grace Dodge Career and Technical Education High School
• Grover Cleveland High School
• High School of Graphic Communication Arts
• Jamaica High School
• Jane Addams High School for Academic Careers
• John Adams High School
• John Dewey High School
• John F. Kennedy High School
• Metropolitan Corporate Academy
• Monroe Academy for Business/Law
• Newtown High School
• Norman Thomas High School
• Paul Robeson High School
• Public School 065 Mother Hale Academy
• Richmond Hill High School
• Sheepshead Bay High School
• Washington Irving High School
• W.H. Maxwell CTE High School

Additional schools that the city says it will attempt to close again next year, after having been prevented from doing so because of a lawsuit from the N.A.A.C.P. and the teachers’ union this spring:

• Frederick Douglass Academy III (middle school)
• Global Enterprise High School
• Monroe Academy for Business and Law
• School for Community Research and Learning
• New Day Academy
• Academy of Collaborative Education
• Kappa II
• Academy of Environmental Science High School
• Middle School for Academic and Social Excellence
• Public School 332
• Business, Computer Applications and Entrepreneurship High School
• Choir Academy of Harlem High School

John F. Kennedy High School Staffers Swipe Nearly $90G, Even Kids' Bake Sale Money - NY Daily News

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See follow-up article...

Anthony Rotunno made a hasty exit from his job as principal of John F. Kennedy HS in the Bronx after state investigators began looking into an alleged ripoff of some $90,000.

Article written by: Kenneth Lovett, Meredith Kolodner and Rich Schapiro

Who stole the cookies from the cookie jar? The grownups at John F. Kennedy High School, that's who - a new state report says.

Staffers at the Bronx school swiped more than $90,000 students raised at bake sales and other fund-raisers, state Controller Thomas DiNapoli found.

Principal Anthony Rotunno resigned after probers uncovered the sugary swindle - the latest black eye for a school facing possible closure.

In a particularly egregious abuse, Kennedy staffers blew more than $7,000 on four retirement parties at suburban eateries, the audit found.

"This was the students' money," DiNapoli said. "They raised it selling cupcakes and asking for donations. The students worked hard to raise this money. Whoever is responsible should be punished."

The audit, covering the period July 2007 to June 2009, found that Kennedy staffers misused or stole $91,216.

That money was pooled in what's known as a general school fund, an account used to pay for student activities such as trips and proms. The cash comes from student bake sales, candy sales, other fund-raisers and proceeds from the school store.

The teachers used a chunk of the money to party at Live @ the Falcon, a popular concert hall in Marlboro, N.Y., in September 2007, sources said.

In June 2008, they celebrated at Yonkers eateries Dunwoodie Pizzeria & Restaurant and Tombolino Ristorante. And they dined at Pasta Amore, an Italian restaurant in Piermont, with sweeping views of the Hudson River.

"Kennedy officials told us that they reimbursed the account for $7,114 [for the teacher parties]; however, they were unable to provide any evidence to indicate that this had occurred," DiNapoli's report says.

The Education Department is investigating how the rest of the money disappeared.

Among the audit's other alarming findings:

• The Kingsbridge school owes $60,559 to a vendor for yearbooks, caps, gowns and championship rings purchased from 2004 to 2007.
• Kennedy is also on the hook for $22,790 to a vending machine company for supplies bought for the school store.
• The school spent $713 of the students' cash on teachers' keys.
• The school's treasurer bounced 15 checks worth a total of $28,825 because she didn't even know the accounts were depleted.

The report pins blame squarely on Rotunno's shoulders.

"The Kennedy principal did not establish basic accountability for student funds," the report says.

Rotunno stepped down in May, officials said.

"When we confronted Mr. Rotunno with the draft audit report a month ago, he resigned and will never work in the Department of Education again," said Education Department spokesman Danny Kanner.

Reached on his cell phone, Rotunno said only, "That's something that would have to be handled by the Department of Education."

A department supervisor has taken control of the finances of the troubled school, which is one of 34 facing possible closure by the state.

More on Anthony Rotunno and the Culture of "Empowerment" at DOE - NYC Public School Parents

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See the comment below our previous posting, from a student at Pleasantville high school in Westchester; where Anthony Rotunno was recently hired to be principal.

As reported yesterday in the Daily News, Rotunno was the subject of a scathing new audit from the NY State Comptroller's office, accusing him of allowing his staff to raid thousands of dollars of funds from student bake sales and more when he was principal of JFK HS in the Bronx. More on this in today's Daily News:

“Pleasantville School District officials said it wasn't until they saw the Daily News' front-page story Friday that they learned Rotunno was in charge of a school where staffers ran a giant swindle. "Reference checks were extremely positive and no wrongdoings of any nature were reported," the statement says….

But Kennedy PTA President Robert Bosolet Sr., said he long suspected staffers were plundering the students' account. "Each year, there were always kids complaining that they did fund-raising, and they never saw a dime from it," fumed Bosolet, whose triplet sons graduated this year.

"Every time an event happened, and we asked where did that money go, we were never provided with that information."Bosolet said he e-mailed his concerns to the Department of Education, but he couldn't provide evidence.

A DOE spokesman said it "hadn't received a credible accusation of financial mismanagement at the school" prior to the audit.

Yet see our previous posting about years of allegations of cheating on Regents scoring and fake credits at Kennedy that occurred under his watch, and/or the even more devastating account by Lynne Winderbaum, former UFT Bronx HS representative, about Rotunno’s egregious misconduct reported to DOE and going back as far as 2003, with the Chancellor looking the other way each time. Instead, it was the whistleblowers who lost their jobs as a result.

I guess Klein and the educrats at Tweed didn't think that any of the numerous reports of misconduct, nor the findings of this devastating audit that finally prompted Rotunno's dismissal in May, meant that they had the obligation to offer any warning to Pleasantville -- no less refrain from offering positive referrals.

As the Comptroller said yesterday, in rightly laying blame on Rotunno for the financial corruption at the school, "The Kennedy principal did not establish basic accountability for student funds."

Question: if Rotunno was rightly found to be responsible by the Comptroller for the misappropriation of funds that occurred repeatedly under his watch, shouldn't Klein be held to at least the same standard, by having allowed this sort of corruption to go on, year after year, and failing to take any attempt to prevent it?

NYS Dems Filing Board Of Elections Complaint V. Rick Lazio: (Updated) by Celeste Katz - The Daily Politics - NY Daily News

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The state Democratic Party is going after GOP gubernatorial nominee Rick Lazio's relationship with JPMorgan Chase, saying even though the Republican is currently on unpaid leave from his job there, he may still have access to perks -- like the use of corporate jets -- that could count as in-kind contributions.

“Given how fed up people are with Wall Street, Rick Lazio’s decision not to make a clean break from JPMorgan Chase makes no sense unless there’s some substantial financial upside for him,” said NYS Dems ED Charlie King. “There is certainly no political upside for him.”

“We already know Lazio’s decision to maintain an ongoing relationship with JPMorgan Chase doesn’t look good. The real question for the Board of Elections is whether any laws were broken,” added King. “Today, we’re asking the Board of Elections to determine what kind of financial arrangement Lazio has with JPMorgan Chase and whether it runs afoul of campaign finance rules.”

Responded Team Lazio's Barney Keller:

"Charlie King sounds like he's auditioning for a part on the X-Files, because everyday his conspiracy theories are getting more bizarre and out of control. On the other hand, it is a fact that Andrew Cuomo has taken over $7 million from the special interests to protect Albany's special-interest government. That's something he'll have to address with the voters in November."

Update: The Board of Elections declined comment on the complaint.

By the way, I have uploaded as many CPI disclosure forms as I can currently get right here on Scribd for anyone who's interested..

Closed for Business: What Park Closures Mean for our Cities, Neighborhoods, and Children by Darell Hammond - The Huffington Post

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Our parks are in crisis. As cities and states across the country face record-breaking budget deficits, Parks and Recreation Departments are being forced to reduce hours, lay off staff, trim back maintenance efforts, and close some parks altogether.

The situation is so severe that "America's State Parks" are number one on The National Trust for Historic Preservation's "11 Most Endangered Historic Places" list. According to a recent survey, as many as 400 state parks are in danger of closure. Here are some other depressing numbers:

• 150 parks in California have seen reduced services and part-time closures.
• New Jersey's state park budget has been slashed from 11.6 million to 3.4 million.
• Over 120 state park jobs have been eliminated in Missouri and the state's backlog of deferred maintenance totals 200 million.
• New York plans to close 41 state parks and 14 historic sites.

On the city level, the outlook is equally grim:

• Sacramento, Calif. is proposing to slash about 8.3 million and 145 positions from its Department of Parks and Recreation.
• Further south, Los Angeles recently eliminated 125 jobs in its Department of Recreation and Parks.
• Dallas, Texas is looking at a budget reduction from 75 million to 45 million between this year and next.

It may even be worse for smaller towns, many of which have frozen their capital budgets. Montvale, N.J., which has a population of about 7,500, is cutting its Parks and Recreation budget by 53 percent, the largest of all its budget cuts.

Like any living thing, parks need care and attention to thrive. Back in January, The Denver Post outlined the heartbreaking situation in Colorado Springs:

The parks department removed trash cans last week, replacing them with signs urging users to pack out their own litter. ...Neighbors are encouraged to bring their own lawn mowers to local green spaces, because parks workers will mow them only once every two weeks. If that. ...Water cutbacks mean most parks will be dead, brown turf by July...

A closed or ill-maintained park becomes vulnerable to vandalism and crime. A playground covered in graffiti invites more graffiti; a field scattered with trash invites more trash. A single park closure can launch a vicious cycle that changes the entire character of a neighborhood. It can also lower property values and deter tourists.

In fact, as parks writer Anne Schwartz points out in Gotham Gazette, "...when parks are well-maintained, attractive and accessible, the economic boost they provide - in increased real estate values, tourism dollars, jobs and tax revenues -- far outweighs the cost of upkeep."

As a case in point, Arizona's state park system costs $32-34 million to properly operate. When open, the parks attract 2.3 million visitors a year, directly and indirectly generating about $266 million. New York City's Central Park--which has been dubbed the "world's greatest real estate engine"-- sees over 35 million visitors a year, more than Mount Rushmore, the Grand Canyon, Yosemite, and Yellowstone National Parks combined.

Money talks. Why aren't the axe-wielders listening? Why slash park budgets when they have the potential to bring in more money than they cost to run?

It's tough to close a deficit. I appreciate the challenges that city and state officials are up against, but the money saved in the short-term isn't worth the long-term damage. Parks, wrongly considered a "luxury," are the first to be cut and the last to recover. Even when the economy eventually turns around, the costs involved in re-opening parks and stepping up maintenance efforts are going to be staggering. By forcing closures and deferring maintenance, we're not only failing to invest in our communities and children, but we're also failing to make a sound economic investment.

How can we take matters into our own hands? Perhaps we can turn to private-public partnerships, which, by avoiding the webs of government bureaucracy, leave more room for agility and innovation. As one of many examples, Central Park's zone management system, headed by the privately funded Central Park Conservancy, holds gardeners fully accountable for one of 49 designated zones. The system has vastly improved park maintenance efforts, and by also involving volunteers, has strengthened community stewardship.

Private-public partnerships present some interim solutions, but in the long-term, charging down this road is fraught with perils. If we want a park system that truly serves the public good, we can't let private interests dictate which parks receive money and which do not. Ultimately, government must step up to the plate. Perhaps this means intervention on a federal level to ensure that our local parks not only survive, but thrive.

One thing is clear--hundreds of parks have already closed, and hundreds more will soon meet the same fate. Park declines mean parallel declines in our health, our neighborhoods, and our local economies. Wringing our hands won't do any good--how can we put our heads together and act now?

Photo by Orin Zebest (cc).

Pensacola Beach Covered In Oil - YouTube

YouTube video by - pcolagregg

The beach is covered in oil tonight. I walked for two hours from near Peg Legs west about one mile past the Fort Pickens gate and saw nothing but oil everywhere

Woodhaven's Neir's Tavern Grand Reopening - Oldest Bar in NYC...YouTube by Bobby G Savorett

The Grand Reopening of historical Neir's Tavern (87-48 78th Street, Woodhaven, NY) was held on Thursday June 24th...

Here are a few photos from the reopening:

Owners Andy Bigans, David Eng, Alex Ewan and Loycent Gordon (l-r)

Andy Bigans, Mario Thomson & Lisa (Greater Woodhaven Development Corp), Democratic District Leader Eleanor Errante and David Eng

YouTube by Bobby G Savoretti...

The bar was prominently displayed in two scenes in the 1990 Martin Scorsese film "Goodfellas", about local mobsters Henry Hill (Ray Liotta), Tommy Devito (Joe Pesci), and James "Jimmy" Conway (Robert Deniro)...

This historical marker appears outside the establishment:

See previous post: Article from the NY Daily News by Lisa L. Colangelo

Brooklyn College and National Park Service Score Big with BioBlitz - Brooklyn College

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For 24 consecutive hours, volunteer students and residents, led by wildlife experts, hiked around the wetlands surrounding Floyd Bennett Field in this year's BioBlitz, counting and identifying hundreds of animal and plant species that call the New York City area home.

The June 11-12 wildlife census was organized by Brooklyn College and the National Park Service. The NPS oversees the entire 26,000-acre Gateway National Recreational Area, which stretches from the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge in Queens along the Brooklyn and Staten Island shorelines to Sandy Hook, N.J.

Professor of Geology John Marra, who helped organize the event, said that the partnership between the College and the NPS made perfect sense. "The Park Service has the facilities, and the College has the scientific interest and the labor.

"While we are helping the NPS monitor what they have," he added, "we are also providing good research education for our students."

"For us, the BioBlitz has two objectives," said Barry Sullivan, NPS's superintendent for the Gateway region. "The first is to sample the biodiversity that we have here within the boundaries of New York City. The second is to get citizens out and involved in counting and recording plants, animals and other creatures."

Sullivan added, "If Teddy Roosevelt were still alive, he would be here with us today." Roosevelt was a noted conservationist who established five national parks during his terms as U.S. president (1901-09).

President Karen Gould kicked off the event on Friday afternoon. She said she was "very proud" of the College's partnership with the National Park Service. "It is a way of engaging the real world in learning," she noted.

The final species counts for this year's event should be completed within a few weeks, according to Assistant Professor of Geology Rebecca Boger, who also helped organize the event. "We're very pleased with the results," she said. "Our initial species count was over 500, and we expect the final tally to pass 600."

Previous tallies from the 2009 and 2007 BioBlitzes have shown that the Gateway area shelters more than 330 species of birds. That figure is more than all the kinds of birds found in Grand Canyon, Yellowstone and Yosemite national parks combined and is nearly half of all the 700 bird species that inhabit North America.

A number of other institutions, including the Brooklyn Children's Museum, New York City Audubon Society, Hofstra University, College of Staten Island, American Museum of Natural History, New York Aquarium, Fordham University, Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Environmental Protection Agency and New York City Mycological Society, supported this year's event.

Bloomberg's Million-Dollar Ripoff by Tom Robbins - villagevoice.com

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The Mayor's 'Crime'

Michael Bloomberg never once complained about the million-plus dollars that District Attorney Cy Vance says was plucked from the mayor's pocket during last year's election. He gets outright nasty when asked about it: "I'm sorry that my English isn't good enough for you," barked the mayor when reporters pressed him last week about how this crime occurred.

Previously, the only robbery victims known to clam up and get all defensive like this were drug dealers and mobsters, who understandably don't gripe about the loss of ill-gotten gains. We now add to this category mega-millionaire politicians whose campaigns are cloaked in secrecy and who would rather take a seven-figure hit than suffer the spotlight of a criminal inquiry.

Right now, the man accused of conning the mayor out of $1.1 million is also keeping mum. The only public comment so far from John Haggerty Jr., a second-generation Republican political power, was at his arraignment on grand larceny charges. "Not guilty," he said.

If he could safely do so, Haggerty would have a great many interesting things to say. It may be true, as Vance's indictment alleges, that he misled Bloomberg's campaign into believing that he would field an army of poll watchers. It may also be true that his goal in this scheme, as also alleged, was to get the money he needed to buy out his siblings' interest in the graceful brick home in Forest Hills that belonged to their late father, Jack Haggerty, the former leader of the Queens Republican party.

But it's also true that, right up to that fateful election day, John Haggerty Jr. had worked his heart out for the Bloomberg cause with no apparent payment by the most generous political candidate in municipal history. Other top officials of Team Bloomberg scored the biggest paydays of their lives. Haggerty worked for free—at least as far as filings show. Yet his tasks were just as crucial, if not more so. He played the leading role in persuading five cranky Republican county leaders to get over their hurt feelings and give Bloomberg their nomination, even though the mayor had jilted them two years earlier by quitting their party. Take a look at those photos of Bloomberg's pre-nomination meetings in which he pleaded with GOP officials to let bygones be bygones. There's John Haggerty, quietly at his side.

Without the GOP nod, Bloomberg would've been forced to slog it out as a third-party candidate against an African-American Democrat on his left and a Republican spoiler on his right. We know how that would have turned out: Even with the GOP in line, Bloomberg managed only a 4 percent win, despite spending more than $108 million. We'd be talking today about Mayor William C. Thompson. That seems like reason enough to want to throw Haggerty a million bucks worth of thank-yous.

"John was responsible for the mayor's election," says Tom Ognibene, the former Queens Republican Councilmember. "Without the Republican line, he was not getting re-elected."

Ognibene is now running for lieutenant governor with millionaire Carl Paladino, for whom Haggerty is handling a Republican petition drive. But the men were once antagonists. Back in 2005, Ognibene angrily denounced Bloomberg's Republican bona fides, and tried to mount a primary challenge against the mayor. Haggerty was one of those who helped Bloomberg knock him off the ballot. "He was in the Board of Elections, day in and day out, scrutinizing my filings," says Ognibene.

Again, there were no disclosed payments from Bloomberg's campaign to Haggerty. But Ognibene says he was told at the time by Robert Muir, one of Bloomberg's election lawyers, that he was paying Haggerty out of his own contract with the campaign.

Muir died in 2006, but this makes a lot of sense. For one thing, as the Daily News' Adam Lisberg has noted, Muir cashed in big from Bloomberg's 2005 re-election effort, taking in a total of $1.9 million for petition work and voter canvassing. Plus, Haggerty and Muir went way back together: Haggerty's first job out of college was working as a paralegal for Muir's Brooklyn law firm. The two worked side by side in the campaign of Ron Lauder, the millionaire who set the pre-Bloomberg record for mayoral campaign spending when he ran in 1989. In the 2005 campaign, Bloomberg was so appreciative of Muir's efforts that he kept paying his widow for several months after he died.

Ognibene says that after he filed suit to remain on the ballot, Muir encouraged him. "Bob said, 'You are doing me a favor. Keep going into federal court.' He said, 'I'm taking care of Haggerty.' He was candid about it."

That past history persuades Ognibene that the reason Bloomberg never cried thief last year is because there was no harm and no foul. "John got this money funneled to him," he says. "That's why there was no complaint filed. He never took a penny. He could've been making hundreds of thousands of dollars. This was John's bonus."

Then there's Bloomberg's own curious performance in all this. Vance says that he's had complete cooperation from the mayor and his campaign, and that neither are targets. For that, Bloomberg can thank the state's election laws, which are murkier than a Louisiana oil slick.

For one thing, there's the fact that when the mayor launched his re-election committee, he had to sign a sworn candidate's form agreeing to do all his campaign spending via his designated committee, Bloomberg for Mayor 2009. And he did. Except where it suited him not to. When it came time to wire $1.2 million to the Independence Party so it could hire Haggerty to handle Bloomberg's election-day poll-watching chores, the mayor dipped into his personal account. Exactly why he did this remains a mystery. It was one of the questions that sent the mayor into his royal snit last week with reporters.

The most obvious explanation is secrecy. If the mayor did it through his campaign, the big-bucks contract would have been an instant news story since it would've been publicly disclosed just before voters hit the polls. It's easy to envision the headline, something along the lines of "Mayor Mike's Million Dollar Thank-You for Indy Party Endorsement."

By routing it through his own checking account, the mayor guaranteed that it would stay secret until mid-January, the party's next required public filing. That much of the scheme Haggerty was clearly involved in. In a note to Bloomberg's campaign staff cited in Vance's legal papers, Haggerty wrote that the payment for the operation should be funded with "a Housekeeping contribution that will not be reported until January 15, 2010."

Not that Mayor Mike needed help figuring that out. He did the exact same thing the year before, when he ran another million-plus dollars through his compliant friends at the Independence Party so that they could pay a secret Bloomberg campaign squad to work for Republican state senatorial candidates. Those payments didn't become public until weeks later. By then, only the Voice thought they were a big deal.

Right now, it's the Independence Party that's on the hot seat. Last week, the D.A. took the rare step of putting the party's lawyer in front of a grand jury to ask where the records are from this debacle. Party officials said they've already given what little they have. If so, it puts the spotlight back on City Hall. That's one more thing the billionaire media mogul who still nurtures White House dreams would rather not talk about.