If crash-in-the-Hudson flight 1549 is moved to the former GM site in Sleepy Hollow for its autopsy by the National Transportation Safety Board, as staff writer Ken Valenti reported in a news scoop today, the symbolism will be too rich to let pass without comment.  The 97-acre GM site that was slated to be a multi-use housing development has had several aborted liftoffs of its own over the years. The latest would-be developers, Roseland, which had spent a lot of time and money going through the approvals process to build a village-sized development on the property, walked away from the project last year.

Of course, the GM site isn’t the only mega-development on the Hudson to have crashed recently. Just yesterday Homes for America, which planned to build waterfront towers in Yonkers, announced that it would not be proceeding with its luxury condominiums. Of all the projects planned for the Alexander Street waterfront in Yonkers, Homes for America was the farthest along in the process.

I took a few days earlier this week to visit our state capital, to do two things:

1) Accept a “Public Education/Media Award’’ award for The Journal News from the New York Association of Psychiatric Rehabilitation Services for our editorial work on behalf of people with mental illness, both in the public policy and funding arenas. Thank you, NYAPRS, for the recognition, and for all your work, too.

2) Check in, and check up on, “legislative doings’’ — or lack thereof.

In fairness, the Legislature and staff have a lot on their plate, not the least of which is following the twists and turns of all kinds of shenanigans the last few weeks: Gov. David Paterson’s scheduled-then-canceled trip to an economic summit in Switzerland; the negative fallout from his handling of appointing a successor to former U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton; the Kirsten Gillibrand-Caroline Kennedy dance (Gillibrand got the Senate nod, Kennedy got the hoots); the indictment of former Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno on federal charges that he used his position to steer contracts and grants for $3.2 million in compensation for more than a decade; and accusations by the state inspector general that Dr. Antonia Novello, New York’s former health commissioner who was paid $256,000 a year, used state workers to chauffeur her on all kinds of shopping sprees.

In my other life, I write fiction, and I assure you, you cannot make this stuff up.

Anyway, the poor Legislature is trying to get its act together. Democrats took control of the state Senate for the first time in 43 years — they’ve always had a firm grasp on the Assembly — yet leaders squabbled among themselves, trying to get policy and posts in their favor, and wasted a lot of time and energy.

Meanwhile, that vaunted, smooth and informative transition from the Bush administration to the Obama one in Washington had no twin scenario in Albany. There was no seemless handing over of power that I could detect, or even handing over of information and paper. Lawmakers and staffers I talked to were still trying to digest the implications of the change (some Democrats, for example, were still open-mouthed at the Republican’s former Senate digs and resources that are now theirs).

Others were till trying to find offices in the labyrinths of the Capitol. Legislators were busy defending their record on passing bills in January — zero. Lawmakers on both sides of the political aisle insist that they are more committed to attacking the state’s $15 billion deficit and passing “two-house” bills that are meaningful than to worry about any criticism at this juncture.

It takes a lot to take on Albany. And to take it at all. Go up and visit this legislative session. Talk to your local representatives. Attend a hearing. Check out a rally by angry constituents on the freezing Capitol steps. Lawmakers and staffers technically work for you, for all of us New Yorkers. Let them know that you know that.

Photograph: New York Gov. George Pataki holds a news conference at the Capitol in Albany on  June 3, 1999, with former United States Surgeon General Dr. Antonia C. Novello, whom he nominated to be New York’s health commissioner. She got the job and, according to a just-issued state inspector general report, did a lot of shopping on state time. (AP Photo/Tim Roske)

Posters around the Lower Hudson Valley are not overly impressed with the economic aid Sen. Charles Schumer, D-NY, was telling New York it would receive. With billions slated to go toward education for special needs students and low-income districts, and Medicaid, people were wondering where the aid is for regular middle-class Americans who are losing their jobs and feel especially squeezed in this high-tax, high-expense region.

They are also cynical about what they see as pork-barrel padding of the stimulus package for pet projects and causes for Democratic lawmakers.

Unfortunately, this type of stimulus is not going to produce the results that a capital-intensive program would provide. After WWI, the allies infused money into defeated Germany. The Germans built schools, sports stadiums, hospitals and other laudable, but non-income producing entities and the rest was history – monumental inflation. Here, due to politics as usual, the liberals want the mass of sheep to think this spending will work – it will not and we will be further down the road to ruin.

Two years of help. Great. Then what? Rockland will need many years of help with our growing Medicaid problem that has nothing to do with the state of the economy.

This is not a stimulus. Stimulus dollars given back to the taxpayers would be more effective. Wouldn’t it be more effective if the taxpayer like me had more money in my pocket to make purchases? The school system and Medicaid are clearly not properly managed. They already get my money through my taxes, which are raised every year. Why does everyone seem to feel that throwing more money into these institutions will generate revenue and stimulate the economy?

Read the story and leave your own comments here.

Parents around the LoHud region woke up to the quiet falling snow and the sound of happy children, rejoicing in yet another snow day. Except for those who live in the Pelham school district. That district did just fine with a two-hour delay, thankyouverymuch, the district’s superintendent told TJN/LoHud staff writer Theresa Juva in this news report. He apparently faced some criticism for not shutting down the schools (NYC schools didn’t close either.)

Well, one person who would have supported the Pelham decision appears to be President Obama, who joked about his daughters’ school closing in D.C., something about “flinty Chicago toughness.” USA Today wrote about it here. His comments drew criticism of their own, like: this storm has killed about 23 people nationwide, and 1 million are without power, some in subzero temperatures. So at this point, it isn’t funny to joke about the weather. Other commenters said that maybe he should have sent his kids to public school if he wanted “flinty toughness?” (I have a feeling that there were serious concerns about the security/logistics of the first kids in public school. Too bad. It would be great is a president’s kids attended public school.) And of course, where did he get this “flinty toughness” from? When he was growing up in sunny Hawaii?

Yes, weather jokes don’t weather too well. But the Pelham story had even better comments, with people recounting their own “flintiness” in the face of snowstorms when they were schoolkids. It prompted one poster to reply:

omg, all the “in my day” stories. Give it a rest, in your day you also didn’t have your computer and the internet connection, yet here you are on these boards. Times change, no one cares if you manned up and went to school in the snow.

Today’s news report on the agreement for Pfizer Inc. to purchase Wyeth Pharmaceuticals Inc. for $68 billion has caused considerable interest — and some concern — in Rockland. Wyeth’s Pearl River facility (referred to often as a “campus,” which fits its size) employs 3,100. It’s Rockland County’s largest employer.

The Pearl River facility has a storied past; it’s been the site of several medical breakthroughs in its more than 100 years of existence. The site was first home Lederle Antitoxin Laboratories, and in 1923 was where the first diptheria vaccine was developed. (Big roles in the research and development of polio vaccinations and is still the site where Prevnar, a vaccine to prevent pneumococcal disease, is made.)

The facility hasn’t been a “local” company, technically, since it was bought in the 1930s by American Cyanamid Co. It then was named Lederle Laboratories. In 1994, American Cyanamid merged with American Home Products Corp., and in 2002 American Home Products changed its name to Wyeth.

Many point to positives about the Pearl River site that could help protect workers there when it comes to the 19,000 expected layoffs (15 percent of the combined Pfizer/Wyeth work force). The manufacture of Prevnar here helps Pearl River employees. Also, that site hosts bio pharmaceutical research, which was one of the attractions Pfizer had to Wyeth, notes Rockland Business Association Executive Director Al Samuels. As well, Pearl River’s campus manufactures the popular Centrum vitamins, a big seller.

But, with any massive merger, only time (and likely longer than predicted time) will tell.

Samuels pointed out the extensive nonprofit support and charity work that emanates from the local Wyeth campus. In fact, Wyeth was the winner of the RBA’s Pinnacle Award for Corporate Citizenship.

In the current painful climate for nonprofits (from corporations cutting matching grants, to family foundations slammed by the Madoff scandal curbing gifts to companies cutting their charitable giving) a major change at a longtime corporation that’s been good to the nonprofit community is concerning. But, the corporate style of giving at Pfizer is unknown in these parts, Samuels said, and he’s not ready to be concerned about that kind of change.

 

With the markets in the doldrums and consumers holding tightly onto the money in their wallets, it seems all we need to get the economy flowing again, is to bring back the former state health commissioner, Antonia Novello. Novello, according to a just-released report from the state inspector general’s office, was not only the health commissioner during the Pataki administration and the U.S. Surgeon General under Pres. George H. W. Bush, she may as well have held the title state “Commissioner of Shopping.”

 

As Inspector general Joseph Fisch noted in the report, which he forwarded to the Albany County District Attorney, Novello spent much of her time in office shopping, ordering underlings to go shopping for her during work hours, or thinking about shopping. 

“Novello’s fondness for shopping was so well known that employees in the office would give her sales fliers or coupons to encourage her to leave the office so that they would not have to work late,” the report said. 

According to the report, Novello went beyond the rudimentary abuse of employees’ time, sending them to shop for groceries and pick up dry cleaning and such. When Novello traveled from Albany to Manhattan, she’d routinely make her driver stop and wait at the Woodbury Commons outlet center while she perused the bargains. She even had a medicaid fraud investigator in her department drive her to Macy’s and Saks—(Hello? He’s a FRAUD investigator.)  

The report says that Novello had state employees work more than 2,500 hours in overtime in order to perform personal services for her (not all were shopping related, she had them drive for her and her family, too.) Those overtime hours cost the state $48,000.

It is unclear why the information in the report is coming to light now, two years after Novella left office. But If the information in the inspector general’s report is confirmed in a courtroom, perhaps we should bring Novello back to Albany from Florida, where she works at the Disney Children’s Hospital in Orlando, and let her spend (on her own time, of course). That would give the New York economy the stimulus it needs.

Photo of Former state health commission Antonia Novello, by Adam Houston/Journal News

Two decades after David Berkowitz terrorized New Yorkers with his murder spree as the “Son of Sam,” residents are completely unsympathetic to his claims of repentence, as recounted to former classmate and interviewer Dan Lefkowitz of Yorktown. Lefkowitz interviewed Berkowitz for 2 30-minute cable shows on the Cablevision system. The first was broadcast last night, the second will be aired Feb. 2. Several posters expressed wishes that New York had the death penalty because if anyone deserved it, Berkowitz did. Others faulted the paper for publishing the story saying Berkowitz shouldn’t get any more publicity for his heinous crimes. Several people talked about what it was like to live with the fear during those two summers of terror.

Read reporter Brian Howard’s interview with Lefkowitz here, then add your comments.

Here’s what others had to say:

We are all God’s children. Do not be scornful toward your brother.

The only interview Berkowitz should be having is with the devil himself. In a just society Berkowitz would have gotten the electric chair more than 20 years ago. But this is New York where crime victims and their grieving families take a back seat to criminal rights.

Yeah, I remember this well. Young women were cutting their hair and changing their hair color. We were all afraid to go out at night. Our parents were frantic. This guy terrorized the whole area here. I remember going to Untermeyer Park in the daytime to see the occult signs on rocks and trees where he supposedly hung out.

I lived just a few blocks from where David Berkowitz killed his first victim, Donna Lauria. He then went on to terrorize people for over a year. To give him any kind of publicity is horrible. Think about those family members who lost their loved ones because of this maniac. I refused to see that movie Spike Lee made and I will not watch this TV show. How could anyone look for sympathy for this monster. Let your sympathies lie with the people he maimed and the families who lost their cherished family members.

We published a letter Saturday regarding a Don Wright editorial cartoon that appeared earlier last week, that stated, in part: “Your offensive, Catholic-bashing cartoon . . . depicts a map of the United States of America in which our nation has been renamed ‘ROME’ with a caricature of President Bush saying, ‘Let history be my judge!’ Was it ridiculing and condemning President Bush for defending the sanctity of all human life, traditional marriage and religious freedom of conscience protection for all Americans, including medical professionals?” She later demands we make “a public apology, especially to your Catholic readers” for having run the cartoon. We also received a couple of phone calls about the cartoon – apparently some people chose to read “Rome” as the Vatican. We thought it was pretty clear that Wright was referring to the fall of the Roman Empire, and so did a reader who followed up on Saturday’s letter with this:

Editor.
What criteria were used by the decision maker to publish the letter . . . “Criticizing Bush was anti-Catholic?”
Is this woman just stupid or so “fundamentalist” that any reference to Rome means it has something to do with Catholicism.
I’m going on the basis that Don Wright who did the cartoon was following Doonesbury who has consistently used the Roman Centurion helmet as a symbol for Bush and Bush’s “take” that he was the “Emperor.” There was no recent references to any types of news that could possibly be related to the use of Rome in this context.
Get some people in these positions who have some idea of relevance and not publish garbage just because it might be controversial.

As stated above, we received a couple of phone calls about the cartoon as well as the letter. So not everyone “got it.” (Our own cartoonist, Matt Davies, opined that Wright could have made his meaning clearer by, say, drawing Bush in a toga and fiddling.)  Cartoons are more subject to interpretation than a written statement of opinion,  and this one apparently had just enough ambiguity to allow some readers to take offense.  We certainly don’t agree with the interpretation of the cartoon as “anti-Catholic,” but those who feel that way are entitled to their own view.

For many readers, a Catholic education is a tradition that they grew up with and may be trying to give their own children. Others don’t look back on their Catholic school years so fondly and think that the religious education system should be allowed to fail. So the news that the Archdiocese of New York was going to be setting up 10 Catholic high schools to be run, mostly, independently by boards of directors was greeted with interest and speculation.

Some people think that the ultimate success or failure of the schools will depend on the boards that will be running the schools and how much the archdiocese removes itself from the process. A few people think this could be a real boost for the schools, citing the success of private Catholic schools like Iona and Ursuline. Others say this is just another example of the Church cutting its losses and trying to shirk its responsibility to bargain with the lay teachers union.

Read reporter Gary Stern’s story here and then tell us what you think.

Here are a few comments from the forums:

It’s a better choice than closing the schools, like the archdiocese has done with a number of elementary schools. Many parents want an alternative to just sending their children to a public school.

This could be good news or bad news. I’m going with bad for the moment. It depends on how much financial support the archdiocese is giving the schools right now. It depends on if our government will continue to burden us with more taxes and less and less relief.

Catholic education has always been overrated.The real purpose is tribal – promote fear, obedience and non-thinking. … The hitting is now gone but the tribalism still exists. It is still as damaging and will continue to shrink the church – deservedly so!

Posters were happy when they found out that Caroline Kennedy was out of the running for the U.S. Senate seated vacated by Hillary Clinton. They were even happier when Gov. David Paterson announced today he had selected upstate Congresswoman Kirsten Gillibrand to fill the seat. A moderate Democrat, her views on gun control, among others, found favor with posters, some of whom said this would likely influence them to vote for Paterson if/when he runs for governor. On the other hand, a few were upset that she isn’t as liberal as they would have liked.

Great pick! Here is someone who is more middle than left or right, which is what we need in the Senate. Plus it doesn’t look like she will be running for president so she will be focused on our state and not her own personal gains.

Awesome pick there, Gov. A pro-gun/pro-hunting senator from New York? Pinch me! I’m dreaming! … Now we have some balance in the state and upstaters have a voice.

Apparently our governor is not particularly bright. A Blue Dog Democrat and the poster child for the NRA as a New York senator? I don’t think so. No. 1: she will never get re-elected and more importantly, Patterson just sealed his political future and not in a good way. I guess he figures that rural upstate NY is going to re-elect him. Clearly that isn’t the case. … I will vote for almost anyone other than Patterson. He has shown terrible judgment, and we can’t have that in our governor.