Monroe Community College, in connection with the Rochecter Veterans Outreach Center, plans to establish its own Academy for Veterans Success.

From RNews:

MCC has one of the largest populations of student veterans in New York State. More than 500 veterans are enrolled here, most of whom are receiving educational benefits from the GI Bill.

The Academy for Veterans Success will provide veterans with the academic services they need to succeed in the classroom like tutoring and career counseling. It will also provide services for them to succeed in life with referrals to the appropriate agencies and services to help them and their families adjust to civilian life.

[snip]

“There can never be too many programs or too many people supporting veterans and active duty personnel. Our indebtedness and our obligation is that deep,” says MCC’s interim president, Larry Tyree.

This kind of substantial development at MCC is in keeping with Tyree’s strong track record as an interim president. And as an MCC alum, I can say that there are a large number of vets who attend the College and this would new Academy would go a long way in providing education to those who have served our country so well.

A reader with their ear to the ground alerted us to the fact that another leader in Greece government is stepping down:

I was recently having a conversation with someone in county government, and he told me that the Greece Commissioner of Public Works had abruptly resigned recently.  With the recent spate of corruption related scandals in Greece, this immediately seemed fishy to me.  

The D&C has the official story:

After a 33-year career with the Town of Greece, Commissioner of Public Works Gerald “Jerry” Santangelo has retired.

“Jerry worked his way up through the ranks from laborer to Deputy Commissioner and finally to Commissioner in 2005,” said Town Supervisor John Auberger in a written statement. “He was a detail-oriented manager and a dedicated employee. I wish Jerry all the best in his retirement. ”

Santangelo’s retirement will be effective May 30.

Santangelo began work with the town in 1976 as a seasonal employee. He was appointed deputy commissioner of the department in 1996.

Auberger said he will recommend the town board appoint Gregory Feeney acting commissioner to fill the remainder of Santangelo’s term.

After 33 years, retirement makes sense.  But spidey sense still tingles anytime something like this happens in Greece, what with other electeded stepping down and the town leadership-connected Greece police scandal.

(And here’s something weird– did you know there’s another Jerry Santangelo, who runs the highway department in the town of Ontario, Wayne County? What’s the coincidence that two people with the same name would run two similar town services, in towns that are a 15-minute drive apart?)

Anyone have any more info on what might be going on?

Welcome to this weeks edition of In Case You Missed It. Here is the week that was on  RochesterTurning….

HealthCare -

We wrote a lot about health care leading up to the huge forum we helped sponsor Saturday night. Let’s start with Bill Moyers and discussion of a Single Payer system.    We flash back to the red herring arguments about drug safety from imported drugs.  Discovered that Max Baucus may move on Health Care as he inches towards a “public option”.  I suppose there are two kinds of public options “viable” and “nonviable.”  We just aren’t sure which one we are inching towards.  Senator Chuck Schumer - he sits on the committee with Max “single payer is off the table”  Baucus weighed in as well.   There was an attempt to define public option vs single payer.

Meanwhile families are going bankrupt.

So where are we?  What are our options?

We can stay with the Private, employment-based options with the inevitable or retroactive rate increases that burden our economic system and allow people to fall through the cracks  or we introduce an alternative.   An alternative to private option is a “public option.”  Now, there are two kinds of public options I suppose - viable and non-viable. Examples of a good “public option would be a system where a single payer option is the foundation.  Oh - Medicare is a Single payer system.  A bad public option would be something with means testing or a subsidized system based insurance companies or restricting the doctors you can visit.  I’m sure there are other examples of “bad” public options.  No one wants bad options on the table.

So when someone like Obama says a single payer option is the best, or some one like like Howard Dean using his dog whistle to whistle a single payer tune.  Senator Gillibrand even hears the call, Medicare for all.  Is anyone listening?

In the end, as I’ve said before, I don’t care what you call it, but I want a single payer option.  We need a viable single payer option.

So, what is the problem?  </soapbox>

Albany decisions comes to Rochester

More stimulus dollars hit New York and a road near you.

Sorry you’re unemployed.  Here is your State unemployment benefit debit card and smile when you donate $1.50 to the banks.

There were Campaign Finance reform hearings in Rochester. RT was there because we like to get out from behind the keyboard.  We gave our impressions of the event and wrote about the speakers.

Gay Marriage - In light of the D&Cs recent editorial stance of Separate but Equal for Gay folks wanting to get married together.  Mayor Duffy - came out strongly in support of Gay Marriage in this beautify written piece.

Here were a few LTEs supporting gay marriage as well.    Of course, there were the counter ads like this one predicting the end of the world as we know it.

Will the bill enabling extending marriage benefits to gays make it through the State Senate?  Lots of folks are working to make that happen including Maya Angelou.

Local Development - The devil is in the details with regards to Port of Rochester development.  Nothnagle Reality goes on the public dole to move its headquarters a couple of miles.  The City provides a loan that can convert into a grant if a production company creates jobs.

We are not getting our monies worth (read - return on tax investment - on some Empire Zones and the State started to take action.  Check out the views from around the state on the shutting down failed empire zones.   Don’t forget to view the list of empire zones - it would surprise you.

Quick Clicks

Memorial day came and went - there were parades.  We are still at war, well, two of them.

more sensible urban transportation inevitable?  Hope so.

Wingnuts is back.

Go visit the ADKS

With all the scandals in Greece - this LTE proposed creating a metro police force for the suburbs.

Is Time Warner prepping to introduce Caps eventually?

Now this is how COMIDA should do it.  A new production company predicts they will create 100 new jobs downtown.  They’re getting help from the city:

Fifth Year has purchased four floors of the Granite Building on East Main Street, and plans to develop a full television production studio there. That means CGI and Fifth Year together own nine of the 12 floors.

Bartosiewicz wouldn’t specify how much money the partners are investing, except to say it’s “in the millions.”

Mayor Robert Duffy says they’re getting a two-point-one million dollar loan from the city that converts to a grant if the company meets its job creation targets.

Instead of COMIDA’s tax giveaways, this forces companies to comply with the agreement instead of falling short, backing out and leaving taxpayers holding the bag.

Republicans are back to their usual playbook of scaring New Yorkers and this time they’re doing it on the reform of the Rockefeller drug laws. The issue is centered around a provision which passed in the state budget that allows judges to have the discretion to seal the records of reformed criminals.

From the Buffalo News:

“Cocaine dealers or crack heads could end up teaching your child at school, caring for your toddler at day care or attending to your sick grandmother in the nursing home as a result of this shocking new law that hides the past of criminals,” said State Sen. Catharine M. Young, R-Olean.

[snip]

The political arm of Republicans in the Senate focused its attack on State Sen. William T. Stachowski, D-Lake View, who voted for the bill that repealed the Rockefeller drug laws. They cited news reports chronicling the criticism of various district attorneys across the state, saying Democrats have defended a provision “giving hoods and thugs a second chance.”

Scary words, but on the merits, these arguments hold no real weight. The only change that was instituted by this provision is that the sealing discretion is now in the hands of a judge rather than the prosecutor. The purpose of the provision was to give this power to a fair arbiter of the law. In no way are judges forced to seal these records, as some would have us believe. Merely, it allows judges the ability to seal their criminal records, something that prosecutors have been able to do for decades.

I guess I just have more faith in judges than do Republican senators as to their ability to judge whether someone with a criminal record is fit to return to society as a law-abiding citizen. Typically, Republicans attack particular judges as judicial activists. But in this case, they are attacking all judges as incapable of determining whether a former drug criminal has sufficiently paid off his or her debt to society. That’s all this is about.

Young’s specious claim that crackheads are going to end up teaching Bobby and Suzie at elementary school would only happen if these two conditions were met: 1. the school’s hiring process is so pathetically inept that they didn’t realize that they’re hiring a coke dealer, something which would be rather obivious, especially since a judge would not seal such a person’s criminal record or 2. the judges and parole officers are doing such a bad job that an unrepentant criminal would end up even applying for such a job. Never would either of those things happen.

What we’re talking about here are lawabiding citizens and taxpayers who have been through treament, are now drug-free and under the stiff scrutiny of our law enforcement officers, and who are now looking for nothing more than a second chance at life. It is the height of irony and hypocrisy that so many within the Republican party are so heavily tied to Christianity and faith, and yet they mock those who are in support of the provision as wanting to give “hoods and thugs a second chance,” clearly relying on racial divisions to cause a political backlash. Well, I am willing to provide a second chance to those who have paid off their debt to society by the determination of a judge.

I am not without sin, but those of you who are — I’m talking about you, Senator Young –  you’re more than welcome to cast more stones.

Could be -Check it out

Via WROC

The change is in a 19 page document.  It’s the subscriber agreement that Time Warner customers across the U.S. get when you sign up.  That includes customers here in Rochester.

Time Warner said back in April that surfing the web at home uses about 5 gigabytes a month.  Under the old plan, you’d pay for a certain amount of gigabytes a month.  $50 = 5 gigabytes.  If you used any more, you’d be charged just like a cell phone plan with minutes.  That plan was scrapped but now there’s new language that suggests otherwise.

Basically, the new words say if a pay for usage plan is put in place, Time Warner could suspend your service, slow your downloading ability, bump up your plan or charge you extra fees.  Time Warner says it’s because it wants to give you the internet in the best way possible.  Right now, the company’s worried it can’t keep up with technology.

Our friends over at stopthecap have more details.

Wonder how Congressman Massa’s legislation regarding Internet Caps is coming along?

SBR’s post about the empire zones and the jobs they haven’t created got me thinking.  How was this reported in other newspapers around the state.  I mean there are Empire Zones all over New York State.   So let’s have a look at the on-line versions of some newspapers. I didn’t look at the print editions because I’m assuming that the on-line edition have more detail.  I just focused on the large upstate cities.   Open up each newspaper in a separate tab if your browser supports tabs - what you you think?

The question to ask is what to do want to see in a newspaper article?

Syracuse Post Standard - probably has the best coverage - a lengthy article, all sorts of additional links.  Their links were the most comprehensive I saw - have a look.

• Read the entire list of Empire Zone companies threatened with removal. (PDF)
• They received this letter.
• The list of companies who have been asked to give the state more information. (PDF)
• Those who needed to give more information received this letter.
• The companies told they remain in the program. (PDF)
• Those remaining companies received this letter.
• Search The Post-Standard’s easy-to-use database to find how much each Empire Zone business planned to claim in tax credit before recent changes in the law
• Read the Citizens Budget Commission’s recent report, which said the Empire Zone program is not worth the $600 million it costs taxpayers each year.

The Buffalo News - has a lengthy article and a side bar with 3 links that lists the companies keeping their benefits, still might lose them and have been notified that they may lose them.

The Albany Times Union - No additional links but a list at the end of the article (Empire Zone winners, losers)

• Bond, Schoeneck & King PLLC, law firm with Albany office
• Harmony Mills West LLC, apartment complex building in Cohoes
• Wal-Mart Stores East LP, distribution center in Gloversville
• Parker Inn LLP, hotel in Schenectady
• Architecture Plus, architecture firm in Troy

Rochester’s Democrat and Chronicle had two articles, one on  Thursday (State cracks down on tax breaks for companies) and the other on Friday (State cracking down on Empire Zone tax breaks) - both by Joe Spector (Albany bureau) and nary a mention of specific companies in the article but a list off in a side bar.  No external links.

Binghamton newspapers had Joe Spectors article (Albany bureau) with a Binghamton specific side bar

In response to stlo7’s question regarding Public Option,

What exactly is the “public option?”

This certainly is movement - but in the end the details will be very important.

Here is my take- While Single Payer indicates having only one form of health care coverage, which would be publicly funded, as in Medicare for all (HR676)  paid for by tax dollars, Public Option refers to a choice you would have.  You could choose a private, for profit health insurance where you can pick and choose your coverage according to your individual needs funded by you, personally. Or you could  choose the, “Public Option”, also (I would hope) paid for by tax dollars (as opposed to Schumer’s idear.)

Here is Howard Dean’s explanation:

Single Payer=that’s all she wrote, everybody gets the same coverage.

Public Option=offered as a choice with private health insurance still available.

That’s my take.  Anybody with other information, please comment away…..

According to some PNHP activists who ran into him yesterday.  Among the highlights:

• Schumer agreed to get the CBO to do an up-to-date comparison of single payer vs. private insurance.
• He will ask Congressman Rangel to hold single-payer hearings & try to co-chair in some way.

Other highlights:

He alleged to already fully support 4 and 5 above and, in principal, everything to assure “level playing field”.

[Note-- here's 4 and 5:

1. Regulators of private insurance must have no connection to private insurance companies or their investments.

1. Private plans must be required to accept all comers.]

Let’s hold Schumer to those promises.
Call Schumer (and remind Megan too): 202-224-0420

My informant adds that Schumer requested that pressure in particular be brought to bear on the Democratic members of the Finance Committee to support public option.

Keep up the calls and the pressure people– it’s working!  First Senators Baucus and Nelson started coming around, now Schumer.

I think we’ll still need to be vigilant– the devil’s in the details, and the big money players like Big Insurance and Pharma aren’t going to quietly roll on this.  But we’re making progress.  Put your shoulder to the wheel and come to the Single-Payer event with Congressmen Massa and Conyers tonight!

As we reported, the state Senate held a hearing in Rochester Thursday to listen to what people had to say about the concept of taking big donor money out of campaigns, like Maine, Arizona, Connecticut, and many towns and cities across the country have.

We took pictures and captured the highlights of some of the testimonials people gave.  If you were there and feel we’re missing something, chime in down in the comments, and we can update this.  

Stu Berger (Metro Justice)

• Thanked Sen. Addabbo for the CMCE bills– many good parts (preamble, administration, and enforcement).  Wanted senate to add removal from office to enforcement options for serious violations.
• Concerned that there’s not enough funds set aside to handle competitive, expensive races like SD-56.  Need creative ways to increase funding.

Blair Horner (NYPIRG Legislative Director)

• Need for NYS Campaign Finance reform has been long known (documented in the 80s).  
• Still need more public financing
• Need to lower statewide contribution limit (currently $55k - wow!)
• CMCE must be aggressively enforced - BOE cannot be enforcer

A very blurry view of Stu Berger and Blair Horner.

Sam Fedele (Metro Justice)

• corporations invest in politics, and expect a return on that investment
• Thomas Jefferson: the best electoral process should allow the “pure selection of the ‘natural aristocrat’”, e.g. “best and brightest”; not the best fundraiser

Nathan Jackson (CBGNY - Citizens for Better Government in NY)

• NY state senators are not corrupt, but the system is, and the current system of funding puts senators in a bad situation

Sam Fedele and Nathan Jackson.

Tom Ferrasse (Dem Chair of Monroe County BOE, Chair of State BOE Commission)

• Likes everything, but concerned that these bills sets up a new bureaucracy that’s not bi-partisan
• Appointed positions are partisan by nature
• Can do CMCE administration and enforcement by modifying and enhancing existing state and county Boards of Elections

Sandy Frankel (not available)

Tom Ferrasse

More pics and highlights below the fold…

Read the rest of this entry »

Hope springs eternal. When I saw that Nothnagle plans spending $4 Million to move its corporate office downtown, I thought to myself, “Do you think Nothnagle is paying for this from their own pocket?” After all, this is not the week for  COMIDA’s regular announcement of handouts. And yesterday, we learned that New York is pulling the plug on several Empire Zones. However, Nothnagle is getting public money, federal stimulus money:

The city will provide $1.1 million to assist with the move, and use nearly $500,000 in federal stimulus money, officials said. The rest of the project funding will come from bank financing and owner equity.

The City of Rochester is footing almost one quarter of Nothnagle’s tab, and half of the free money is coming from the Feds. Don’t private companies ever pay their own way any more?

A fully packed house (we counted close to 100 people at peak attendance), no shortage of speakers, and an open-minded Senate Elections Committee chairman, really gave one the feeling that we’re close to enacting real public financing of elections in NY state.

Maine, Arizona, Connecticut, and a host of towns and municipalities across the country already have this in place, but our dysfunctional state government has been taking its time.  Fortunately, for the first time, we have the Assembly, State Senate, and Governor all in favor of publicly financed elections, which advocates have been calling “Clean Money, Clean Elections” for years. (And we’ve been championing since the get-go here at RT.)

ladkiddo and btp were at the hearing yesterday, and here’s our combined report. There was a solid turnout, as we mentioned above.

The testimonials were nicely varied and came from a diverse group of speakers.  Every person who testified was in favor of campaign finance reform aka clean money/clean elections.

The consensus was that public financing of elections would take our government out of the proverbial bed of special interests.  It is the most  important bill to be enacted because every other issue hinges on it.  For example: How can we move forward with substantial health care reform when our candidates take huge campaign contributions from Merck and Excellus (among others)?

The only way that government can fulfill it’s duty to the public, is to allow the public to finance the campaigns of their candidates and elect their own representatives without the influence of special interests who expect special favors.

Then we will truly have a government of the people and by the people.

I’m back for the summer and just in time for the fight over New York’s same-sex marriage bill, which passed the Assembly and now awaits consideration in the State Senate. The bill has been gaining some high-profile supporters including the legendary poet Maya Angelou, who has reportedly been making calls to state senators and lobbying in support of the bill.

From the New York Times:

State Senator Shirley L. Huntley, a brassy, big-haired Democrat from Queens who opposes same-sex marriage, received a call on Wednesday that left her momentarily stunned.

Maya Angelou was on the line, and she wanted to know if the senator might reconsider her position. Ms. Huntley, hardly the type to be played for a fool, at first thought her staff might be pulling a fast one.

“I said, ‘What?’ ” Ms. Huntley recalled on Thursday, adding that she was not convinced that it was Ms. Angelou until she heard her deep timbre. “I heard the voice, and I said: ‘My God. It is her.’ And that was that.”

Angelou wasn’t able to change Huntley’s position, but other celebrities have been making the rounds in Albany as well. Cynthia Nixon, the lesbian actress from “Sex and the City,” and former NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue, who has a gay son, have also been pushing senators to support the bill. The Empire State Pride Agenda has been facilitating these efforts, but I’ve always been somewhat skeptical about the influence of celebrities in the political process. Perhaps their personal stories will have an impact on undecided senators — I certainly hope so.

The D&C had this heart-wrenching tale on the front page yesterday, as it should be:

Rochester family battles insurers, cancer

Ten years ago, this wasn’t their life.

They weren’t some poster family for America’s broken health care system. They didn’t have bankruptcy hearings, insurance battles, $100,000 in unpaid bills. They weren’t tracking their smashed credit while counting every day that Ian, Evan, Jacqueline and Madeline had with their dad.

They were, back then, just the Funchesses from Rochester, young, educated, finances in order.

Then the dad got recurring forms of cancer, and their supposedly “solid” insurance passed on much of the cost of treatment to the family.

Melanie went back to work full time in 2003 as a nutrition instructor, and later switched to an advocacy job with the Mental Health Association. After applying twice for Social Security disability, they secured Medicare coverage, figured out what that didn’t cover, and purchased a Medigap plan to make up the difference.

But in 2005, with unpaid bills totaling nearly $100,000, they filed for bankruptcy. Melanie sat through court, listening to a stream of stories about how people had lost all their money.

“I’m sitting there thinking about all these people having all this stuff, and I was like, where did my American dream go? We worked hard, we made good choices. … I felt really, really hurt. No matter how much we tried, it didn’t work for us.”

Does it freak out anyone reading this that you are one layoff or big health problem away from bankruptcy?  No matter how good your choices?

We can fix this, but your voice needs to be heard. Come to the Health Care Forum with John Conyers and Eric Massa on Saturday evening.

Pretty funny stuff: