Then watch our Opinion pages and this Web site under “Opinion’’ in coming weeks for instructions on how to access a questionnaire about your candidacy and have it posted on our “Village Elections ‘09’’ Web site.

Whether you’re running for mayor, board trustee or village justice, we, and the voters, are going to want to hear from you. I’ll be your main contact for your posting. My e-mail address for questions is lnikolsk@lohud.com.

The election is March 18, a Wednesday, instead of the usual Tuesday, because this year the third Tuesday of the month is St. Patrick’s Day.

And here are some key dates:
For candidates:
Feb. 17: Last day to file a certificate to fill a vacancy caused by declination of an independent nomination

For voters:
March 6: Last day prior to Election Day for voters to register with county Board of Elections.
March 10: Last day to postmark an application to receive an absentee ballot by mail.
March 16: Last day to postmark a completed ballot. Also, last day for an applicant or agent to apply in person at a county board to receive an absentee ballot.
March 18: Last day to deliver a ballot in person to the Board of Elections.
March 25: Last day for a Board of Elections to receive a ballot by mail.

For more information, contact your village clerk’s office.

And keep an eye out for those instructions. Thank you!

Found this in the letters e-mail inbox today, sent by a “John Albert” that reads as follows:

Greeting, Am Interested to place an advert in your Newspapers It may also be in any of your radio or TV Station as well as magazine ,So let me know if this sound good and also the mode of payment will be in pre- payment Via credit card account details information Waiting to hear from you so that i can be able to email you the advert copy together with mailing address for the schedule of the advert shortly. Thanks Cheer!

Well, “John Albert” will have to wait indefinitely, because he’s not hearing from us. It should come as no surprise that scammers have been attempting to place ads in newspapers’ Classified sections in order to do their misdeeds. I started seeing a run of “advert” submissions (a giveaway that they’re not from the U.S., although the contact information usually tries to indicate otherwise) in our e-mailbox a couple of years ago,  similar or identical to this one:

Hello Publisher/Editor, I would like to place an Advert for my adorable Bulldog for about 4Weeks,So I will need you to get back to me with the Cost of the AD per Week so that I can figure out for the 4Weeks and my mode of Payment is by Credit Card account.. AD TEXT “AKC : Female Bull dog Puppy AKC registration Bulldog Puppy Jessy She has all the teddy bear features, button nose great facial _expression,erect ears, She is very playful and built solid as a rock, Her body type is just perfectly squared up and cobby. She is a great eater. Many of you Bulldog lovers have been waiting for this quality of Bulldog’s to come your way but have not found her yet.You can Contact me Via (e-mail, phone number and address deleted) Waiting to read from you as soon as possible today so that I can be able to forward you payment,so that you can be able to schedule my AD.

I knew better than to bother forwarding these to our Classified department and simply deleted them; unfortunately, they did make it into at least a few newspapers and magazines. As you might expect, the person answering the ad is expected to make a down payment and/or send a shipping fee in advance for dogs that are never delivered. This entry from museumofhoaxes.com explains the “Nigerian Bulldog Scam”:

The latest in the long series of what are known as ‘Nigerian Scams’ is one featuring bulldog puppies.
Three red flags went up when Mindy Gorman enquired after a $500 bulldog advertised on the Savannah Morning News website. When she emailed the sellers, they replied with an announcement that the puppies had been sold, but:
”… You’re lucky to have mailed at this time because the puppy has just been placed on adoption by one of my customers, who went on a veterinarian work transfer with the West African veterinarian commission Lagos Nigeria, West Africa. He is giving the pup up for adoption because he cant take good care of the pup due to his busy and tight state of work. All he wants is someone that’s homely and with a good christian home to adopt this young and lovely human best friend.”
Then there was the fact that the seller was in Nigeria. Thirdly, when she offered to pay to the transport of the puppy using Pay Pal, the seller, who identified himself as ‘Pastor Harry’, said that he would only accept a $500 payment sent to Lagos via Western Union.
Ms Gorman did not go through with the transaction, but another customer in the area lost $900 on the scam.

We’ve also received employment ads using the same style of broken English seen in the bulldog ad and the inquiry from “John Albert” above. Hopefully, publications are alert to these by now and you won’t spot any of these in print or online, but if you do, remember: if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

What do Lehigh Acres, Fla., and the counties of the Lower Hudson Valley have in common? Hopefully, not too much.

The Florida “exhurb’’ of Fort Myers in Florida, Lehigh Acres has two claims to fame this week: It was featured as the Sunday centerpiece on page one of The New York Times, and it was a main reason that President Barack Obama chose to visit Fort Myers for a town hall meeting Tuesday to stump for his economic stimulus plan.

Lehigh Acres is, in a word, a disaster. An enormous housing bubble that started in 2004 has popped, oozing foreclosures and abandonment of houses in its wake. Blame is put squarely on poor to nonexistent planning; greedy or at the very least impractical American dreamers; and failure for anyone to provide jobs beyond the initial housing construction. A map accompanying the Times article colorfully clarifies an astounding number of now-vacant homes in Lehigh Acres, where more houses were constructed in the last four years than had been built in the previous 50.

Well, that’s not the problem here, especially in Westchester County. For a host of reasons, topped by rampant resistance in local communities to anything called “affordable housing,’’ the Lower Hudson Valley has simply not had that kind of home construction growth. This perennial “bedroom community’’ to New York City, though, has had a boom in so-called “McMansions’’ and luxury high-rise apartments; their fate in this economy is yet to be revealed.

So by happenstance, and stubbornness, what is happening in Lehigh Acres is not happening here. Nevertheless, mortgage problems and the number of foreclosures are growing; and “affordable’’ housing remains elusive.

Watching all this, all these years, is an organization known as the Regional Plan Association. RPA has done a terrific, if unheralded, job tracking such trends in growth and planning for the metropolitan New York Region. And not just watching, but issuing important reports urging sound planning for housing, transportation and other key components of this region if it is to thrive. Too often, those reports were acknowledged by leaders and officials but ultimately ignored.

In August, 2006, for example, the Regional Plan Association and a group called the Citizens Housing and Planning Council released a report on the region’s housing crisis and proposed innovative regional solutions. Those ideas still hold up very well. The report, “Balanced Housing for a Smart Region,’’ is available at the RPA’s Web site —  www.rpa.org/publications.html. It is well worth revisiting by anyone in the Lower Hudson Valley who is remotely concerned about where they, and new workers to the region, could live in the rough years ahead.

The root of this region’s planning problems has always been about the housing — where to build it, how to afford it, how to keep others out once we got what we wanted. These day, the problem is more noticeable because housing troubles have spread to even those fortunate enough to have had a nice place to live for some time now.

In all the gloom about the economy and who will likely get hurt despite the efforts of government, the business sector and advocacy groups, it’s worth remembering that Westchester County is fortunate to have activists organizations that mean business about their missions. In fact, county residents have two “WCAs.’’

Take the Westchester County Association, which has not been shy about tackling troubling issues and lawmakers who aren’t pulling their weight. On Friday, March 13, from 8 to 10 a.m., the County Association will hold its state Legislators Breakfast Meeting at Abigail Kirsch at Tappan Hill, 81 Highland Ave., Tarrytown.

At the breakfast, WCA members and others can ask state Assembly and Senate members who represent Westchester in Albany about “issues impacting the business community,’’ the WCA notes in a flyer announcing the event. “This year’s forum is more important than ever given the dire condition of the State economy.’’ Interested? Visit www.westchester.org for required advance registration.

Then there is the “other” WCA, the Westchester Children’s Association, a terrific advocacy group that never lets us, lawmakers and officials forget our moral obligation to all children. The Association is having two important events: an advocacy breakfast at the Rye Town Hilton, Friday, March 27, from 8 to 10 a.m. Among the happenings, a special panel will review a program called Nurse-Family Partnership, a proven program to train and support first-time poor parents.

Then the Children’s Association will hold another meal, this time an advocacy dinner on Tuesday, April 28, from 6 p.m. to 9:30 p.m., also at at Abigail Kirsch at Tappan Hill, 81 Highland Ave., Tarrytown. There will be a silent auction, “delectable dining,’’ according to the WCA’s announcement, and a distinguished service award given to the African American Men of Westchester. For more information about either event, call 914-946-7676, ext. 300, or go online at www.wca4kids.org.

Worthwhile events all.

For those who complain about good high-tech jobs being moved overseas to developing countries where labor is plentiful and far cheaper, the latest news from IBM might be considered either reason to cheer, or reason to complain even louder. IBM employees who are facing layoffs and want a job will be offered the chance follow their job to the developing world.

But unlike times past, when employees would be transferred overseas but retain the salary and benefits they got here in the good old U.S.A., these employees would be offered work at the same rock-bottom wages that the local folks are making.  I wonder what the going wage is in Banaglore? or Bejing? or Brazil?   

As Journal News business writer Julie Moran Alterio noted in her story on IBM’s overseas employment program, called “Project Match,” Big Blue had 9,000 employees in India in 2003. By 2007, it had 53,000. In these tough, times it’s good to know that IBM has jobs somewhere. But it would be a terrible hardship to have to move across the globe to work at a fraction of your previous wages. 

AP Photo/Gautam Singh

We received the following letter today, printed below in its entirety, with the writer’s name and hometown removed:

I have lived in (town) all my life and I am very angry over what has happened to our community. I have lived in the same house in (town) for over 60 years. I never really cared much about any kind of politics, but what has happened recently in (town) is a disgrace to all of us. Bribe-taking and back-office deals happen someplace else. To even allege that something unethical is happening in (town) is a slap in the face to all the people who live here. To even imply that “this is just the way things are done” is not acceptable. Does this call into question all the other projects that have been approved over the last few years? Will the resignation of the entire Town Board wipe away this stain from our community? What is even more disturbing is that no one has said anything. It is a very sad commentary on all of us that we accept this kind of behavior from our “leaders.”

Well, this writer is certainly upset, but, er, about what, exactly? We haven’t run any recent articles involving charges of wrong-doing against officials in this writer’s hometown. We did have an article last month about a housing issue in the town; is that the “project” the writer refers to? We have no idea. It would have been enormously helpful had the writer bothered to let us know exactly what incident had prompted his ire.

.

The famous adage about the five “Ws” of reporting – who, what, where, when and why – applies to letters as well. I often get letters from people who spotted some out-of-the-way story, in our publication or somewhere else, and wrote their letter as if anyone reading it would know exactly what they are talking about. But if we can’t make heads or tails out of it, it’s not going to run. So, please, don’t assume we’re familiar with your topic – include enough basic information to let us know what you’re referring to (of course, if you’re accusing local officials of bribe-taking, we won’t run it anyway, but at least we can forward it to our News department in case they want to investigate). Don’t leave us guessing.

The news coverage of the peanut product salmonella outbreak just keeps getting more upsetting. Today’s Washington Post explains how the Peanut Corporation of America sold items to the federal government for free-lunch programs. Yes, the feds not only didn’t keep the food supply safe from the tainted peanut products, the government was one of the company’s customers.

We’ve already heard pretty bad stuff about a “system” that failed. The plant hadn’t undergone FDA inspection since 2001, and the feds didn’t even know that the company had expanded into making other products. The company’s own testing showed salmonella in some of its products, but sold the products anyway after it repeated tests and got negative results from a different laboratory. And, if you think that the original lab would alert regulators, even if the company didn’t, wrong! Test results, the Washington Post explains, are “confidential.”

The product has ended up in so many food items—from handy “junk food” snacks to organic “healthy” items—it seems that protecting oneself is near impossible. Just look at frequently updated “Peanut Butter and other Peanut Containing roducts Recall List” from the FDA.

OK, so food inspection is costly, but large outbreaks from food pathogens are too. Of course, it’s more than a financial issue. Government has certain responsibilities—monitoring the food supply, and protecting the public health, are core to its functions.

The peanut butter outbreaks comes as we still remember the concern (and fear) stirred up by spinach contamination from nearby farm runoff, a “salsa” scandal caused by tainted jalepenos, and worries about the safety of items imported from China.

There are some who have long complained the FDA’s been weakened and lax, and that this peanut product mess will give government and the public the impetus to get the system back on track. We can only hope. Because, as we’ve seen before, there’s no way to know you’re at risk until it’s too late.

The news that Pleasantville Detective Sgt. Stephen Bonura is retiring in the midst of the disciplinary hearing into his conduct surrounding his outing of criminal informant Khalil Gonzalez got posters chattering. Not only are they dissecting the latest developments in the case, they are still divided over whether Bonura’s initial comments were protected free speech or not.

Posters have also had enough of the attorneys on both sides of the hearing, saying their comments are getting increasingly nasty and unseemly. And, of course, several are lamenting that regardless the outcome of the hearing, the taxpayers in Pleasantville are the ultimate losers given how much money is being spent on this and the pending lawsuit filed by Bonura against the village.

Read reporter Shawn Cohen’s latest update here. Then share your thoughts on the case.

Here’s what some others had to say:

Bonura is a disgrace to all the men and women who have taken the oath to protect and serve and his lawyer should be sanctioned.

I hope this guy cleans up with his lawsuit.

I know some good cops, some not-so-good cops and some cops who should never have become cops. Regardless of who was right here and who was wrong … this whole circus leaves a bad taste in my mouth. The obvious loser? The taxpayers of Pleasantville.

There is an up side to losing an election—the chance to go into the private sector and parlay the knowledge and connections gained through government service into a business opportunity. Nicholas Spano, former state Senator from Yonkers, was defeated by Andrea Stewart Cousins two years ago.

After leaving office, he quickly formed his own consulting firm, which allowed him to “sway the governor and develop strategies for clients seeking to influence policy,” Journal News staff writer Gerald McKinstry noted in a story today.  State law, however, prohibited him from directly seeking to influence policy himself by reaching out to his former legislative colleagues—an activity quaintly known as “lobbying”  —until he was out of office for two years. That seems a gossamer-thin distinction.

Well the two year mark has come and, guess what? Former Sen. Nick Spano, a Republican powerhouse in Westchester and Albany, is now officially lobbyist Spano. He is free to walk the halls of the Capitol building, take his former colleagues out to lunch and talk up his clients himself.

Not to point a finger at Nick Spano alone. (He is, after all, following the rules.) This happens at both the state and the federal level of government and in both political parties. Look no further than today’s stories about former Senate majority leader Tom Daschle and his health care connections to see how the wheels of government are greased. It is a slippery image.

Photo by Mark Vergari, The Journal News

Posters are diving into a brawl involving two brothers from Spring Valley and police from several departments around the county. According to police, Jose and Jason Batista, formerly of Haverstraw village, attacked and beat a Haverstraw officer, sending him to the hospital with 21 stitches, after he responded to a domestic violence call at Jose Batista’s girlfriend’s residence.

The brothers and their supporters are alleging that the police responded with brutality and went too far in trying to arrest the brothers, as well as beating them once in custody.

Here’s what people are saying about the incident:

The cops need to watch it when they go on domestic calls. Anything they say or do wrong will only make the situation worse. I’ll bet that’s what happened here.

Are you kidding me? These two (guys) are beating up on one cop and are calling their mommy! How far would these two have gone if this officer’s backup did not show up when it did?

To the officer, I hope you feel better and it doesn’t keep you from doing your job in the future. There are some people out there who appreciate the fact that you are trying to uphold the law.

These officers in this town of Haverstraw are not the most professional. They tend to do whatever they want. And they get away with it. Everybody in the legal system knows each other and they look out for each other even if they are not doing there job honestly and properly.

Read the latest update and post your own thoughts.