It’s all elections all the time as we hit the one-week mark before voters head to the polls Nov. 3. In case you need to brush up on your candidates, here’s a quick run-down of where you can find the latest information about the races and candidates.

Visit our elections page as a jumping off point to find the races that are important to you and get basic information about who’s running, why and what they plan to bring to their community. There you will also find our candidate database where each candidate writes in their own words about the issues and their experience.

To see a replay of the endorsement interviews with The Journal News and LoHud.com’s Editorial Board, go to Editorial Spotlight, click “on demand” at the bottom of the video player and select a session from the list on the right.

While voters in the Lower Hudson Valley went about their lives on the glorious Sunday past, the Editorial Board  began rolling out its recommendations for the Nov.  3 elections.  Perhaps you were replacing storm windows or raking leaves and missed all the excitement. Not to worry, our endorsements continue through the week, and those published through Tuesday appear here.

The well-informed voter, the ones who know their neighbors and where all of the bodies are buried, will probably find less utility in our assessments than the voter who is more detached from it all. My colleagues on the Editorial Board don’t profess to know more about your community than you do. However, because we have been at this for some time, we do have some sense of who actually knows of what s/he speaks and who simply takes up ballot space. We simply recommend; mercifully, you decide.

In a good number of elections—we do this for school board, local, state and federal campaigns—our recommendations and voters’ choices align quite a bit; in a recent vote, our views and voters’ were in accord in roughly 85 percent of the races.  In another election, that figure dropped to just under 70 percent. Sometimes, as it turns out, we’ve picked too many Democrats; other times, it’s too many Republicans; still other times, we’ve gone with challengers when voters weren’t yet through with the incumbents. We check afterward because we’re curious, but we have no “dog” in these fights, as a famous politician from Chappaqua said once or 20 times. Our sole interest is in picking better candidates, not winners.

It used to be that the Editorial Board would spend weeks interviewing candidates behind closed doors, where we would be treated to a steady barrage of cliches about “giving back to the community” or “going line by line through the budget” or “thinking outside the box.” Days before the election, we would make our selections known, usually in short, unsatisfying bursts of “we think.” Then it would all be over.

That dynamic changed several elections back, when we started streaming candidate interviews live on the Internet and, using blogging technology, allowing voters to ask questions of their own. Doubtless the candidates  get more out of the new form, as they get to speak directly to voters; a few make plain that they could not care less what we actually think. We’re just happy that they’ve participated .

Frankly, if readers/viewers did nothing else, I’d rather that they watched at least snippets of the candidate interviews, which are available in short form here and in long form here. It is not scintillating “television,” by any stretch of the imagination; but it is democracy, and often the messy sort. We are grateful for it.

The results are in — dozens of motorists zip past stopped school buses loading

and unloading their young passengers. Here’s today’s report from our Albany Bureau on the result of a 40-day program that put cameras in school buses in Brewster, Bethlehem and Canandaigua. Each district had just one camera. That camera recorded 22 illegal passes in Canandaigua, 20 illegal passes in Bethlehem and four illegal passes in Brewster, according to today’s article.

When this program, called Operation Safe Stop, was unveiled in April, I looked into the issue for an editorial we published under the headline, “What’s the rush?” The statistics were pretty shocking.  Around New York, motorists pass stopped school buses at least 50,000 times each year, safety officials say. That’s 50,000 potential tragedies. Another way to slice it: Every day, an average 1.72 vehicles pass a school bus during its stops, according to data collected from drivers by Peter Mannella, executive director, New York Association for Pupil Transportation.

Jack Coxen, transportation supervisor for Brewster schools, explained that the motion sensitive cameras was to be installed on a bus that would take alternate routes. Four drivers snagged in Brewster may seem like a small number, but that’s just on one bus a day, in just 40 days.

He was quick with a lollipop to soothe the sting of a shot. He made house calls at all hours of the night to check in on his young patients. The families he served for decades are mourning the loss of Dr. Sidney William Berezin, who died Oct. 12. He was 89.

Dr. Berezin was the first pediatrician to open a practice in Rockland County, his family said. He retired just four years ago, at age 85.
Dr. Elliot Siegal, president of Clarkstown Pediatrics, said that he considered it a privilege to work with Berezin. “He was really an old-school doctor,” Dr. Siegal said today, between seeing patients. “He really loved what he did and did it very well.”

Dr. Berezin joined Clarkstown Pediatrics, one of the county’s largest practices, when he was in his mid 70s. That way, he could ease up on the night and weekend calls. In the guestbook for his obituary on LoHud, though, several remembered his house calls, and kindness (and lollipops).

One former patient wrote:

For many years as a child I was sick with asthma and had to make many trips to Dr. Berezin and every visit he made me feel better with just the way he used to make me laugh and his incredible way that he would calm my fears. … My mother and I both cried today learning of his passing.

Dr. Siegal said at his funeral last week, Dr. Berezin’s kid sister, now 85, recalled how he was always studying. He always had a sign on his bedroom door that read, ‘Be quiet, I’m studying.’ Generations of Rockland families owe a great deal to that studying.

Taxpayers in New Jersey and New York always seem to claim crying rights over who pays the highest taxes. Determining who actually is No. 1 isn’t as simple a proposition as it might seem. Are we talking state taxes or all taxes paid in a given state? Per capita or the average tax bill? Are we including local taxes or excluding them? How do sales taxes figure into the equation? Google “highest state taxes” and you’ll find that New Jersey and New York aren’t always No. 1 or No. 2 … or even in the top seven or eight.

Yet everybody knows that our tax bills are an outrage. I thought about this last night while watching the baseball playoffs. Every other commercial featured a politician blaming a politician for the sorry state of our financial affairs. How confusing this must be to voters: year in and year out,  their tax bills creep higher and higher, defying all the expensive campaign advertising. If only there were some correlation between the ads and reality.

There would be less room for false promises if the media (who else?) did a better job of fact-checking and providing voters the basic  information they need to separate the campaign bunk from the real dollars and cents. But in most places, even before the recession claims scores of newsroom jobs, that kind of watchdog campaign coverage was more the exception than the rule.

Hence, even casual baseball fans know A-Rod’s batting “record” in the playoffs or Ryan Howard’s RBI record in post-season play, but when it comes to truths about politics and governance, they mostly have to rely on those grainy advertisements sandwiched in between innings and men’s “bedroom” ads.  Sorry about that.

Here is today’s schedule of Editorial Board interviews with November candidates:

• 2 p.m. North Castle

•  3:15 p.m. Somers

• 4:30 p.m. Putnam County Sheriff

You can watch online at LoHud.com/editorialspotlight.

Early this morning, I sat down in front of the computer for a quick check of the early headlines, etc. The AOL screen came up with a headline that said something like “Surprise Nobel winner.”

I saw a big picture of President Obama to the left. I  thought, “oh, someone put in the wrong JPEG … I wonder who won the Nobel Peace Prize?”

And then, it clicked. Good thing that coffee wasn’t ready yet, so there was nothing to spew. It was a shocker. The more I read, the more I saw the how the committee determined that choice, and it is, after all, their award to give. (And it says a great deal about the importance of the American engagement in the world, which we in the U.S. may not always fully see.)

The Norwegian Nobel Committee cited Obama’s “efforts to strengthen international diplomacy,” and his “vision of and work for a world without nuclear weapons” and for inspiring hope and creating “a new climate in international politics.” I’ve proudly noticed how the Nobels this year in the sciences have had heavy U.S. representation — scientists whose work over decades hase begun to produce results. It’s worth noting that the Peace Prize is given by a different committee, with a different mission.

What I’ve found really interesting is the variety of responses, many not so different than mine (borderline bemusement).

The comment of Lech Walesa, who won the 1983 Nobel Peace Prize in The Wall Street Journal :

Who, Obama? So fast? Too fast—he hasn’t had the time to do anything yet.

Here’s that world perspective we sometimes miss, courtesy of former U.N. secretary general and 2001 Nobel recipient Kofi Annan:

In an increasingly challenging and volatile world, President Obama has given a sense of hope and optimism to millions around the world.

And that American-as-partisanship-pie perspective from Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele:

The real question Americans are asking is, ‘What has President Obama actually accomplished?

Here’s part of a comment sent to me by Pastor Johann Christoph Arnold, who first states “As much as I love and respect our president, this was a hasty decision that will not bring good consequences”:

Jesus says we will know a tree by its fruits. Even the best fruit takes time to ripen. How can our president – as good-willing as he might be – bear meaningful fruit after less than a year in office?  The Nobel Committee should do better than this. I hope that many other voices will join me in expressing their disappointment in this decision.

Independent Institute Research Analyst Anthony Gregory, in response to some conservative pundits who expressed concern the Nobel committee was making it harder for Obama to keep U.S. troops, and ramp up military presence, in Afghanistan:

The real problem with Obama’s Nobel is not that it might neuter him, but rather that it may embolden him. In the name of peace, he and previous presidents have kept America in a virtual state of perpetual war for three generations. The Nobel is a signal to Obama that he can keep talking like a man of peace even as he acts like a master of war. Those who favored Obama, thinking he’d be less belligerent against Iran than McCain, now have more reason to worry.

There’s an interesting — albeit predictable — discussion about gun rights, gun safety and home defense, in the forum attached to a Rockland story about the shooting of two men accused of breaking into a home in Haverstraw. Here’s the link.

Many readers are applauding the actions of the rifle-wielding homeowner, who struck one of the alleged assailants in the arm and the other in the rear end. They also opened up a wider discussion about gun rights.

Here’s a sampling of the comment, creative spellings included:

“the owner need more range time, arm and butt shot not that good, but what if he didnt have his rifle, what could have been the outcome, maybe a homicide in havastraw?”

“Shoot first ask questions later? Of course i dont comply with this method of thought, however i do believe that these two criminals got their just deserts. I’m not promoting that everyone should go out and buy themselves a gun for protection, but i do think this event taking place is good in the sense that it sends out a message to other criminals like these two clowns that they better second think their actions.”

“They’ll have to pry my cold, dead hands off my gun before I give it up. Look at where the politicians, who want to take away the honest citizen’s gun rights, live – estates and gated communities with armed guards. If that’s what it takes, then consider me an armed guard – guarding my family and what is rightfully mine. Let some lazy, ignorant, non-english speaking punk just try and take that away and I promise you they will die of lead poisoning. I know where center-of-mass is and I’m trained NOT to miss.”

“2ND AMMENDMENT “THE RIGHTS TO KEEP AND BEAR ARMS” NEXT TIME YOU HEAR A POLITICIAN TALKING ABOUT “GUN CONTROL” IT ALWAYS MEANS TAKING THE GUNS AWAY FROM THE LAW ABIDING CITIZENS.
WE ALREADY HAVE GUN LAWS THAT ARE NOT ENFORCED AND THE CRIMINALS CAN GET BETTER, FASTER AND CHEAPER GUNS THAN WE CAN.”

The shooting comes as gun sales have been skyrocketing nationwide. Here’s a link to a story published Monday on the trend in New York, as reported by our Albany Bureau.

Our view is reflected in an editorial today, “Bigger threats to home safety.” It offers some food for thought to those who think the biggest threats to home security are home invaders, the Supreme Court and the Obama administration.

As for gauging the effectiveness of the calorie labeling laws in chain restaurants, the first results are in and they are not encouraging.  As reported online today in the journal  Health Affairs: the Policy Journal of the Health Sphere, researchers from New York University and Yale University checked the receipts of low-income and multi-ethnic consumers before the calorie labeling law went into effect in New York City in July 2008 and again four weeks later, after the law went into effect. The researchers did the same in Newark, New Jersey, a city without a calorie labeling law. They targeted four fast-food places where calories were listed prominently on menu boards, McDonald’s, Burger King, Wendy’s and KFC. 

 While about half the diners in New York City said they noticed the calorie counts and about a quarter said they were influenced by them, but the research showed that the calorie consumption actually went up after the calories were posted. The average meal consisted of 825 calories before the law went into effect and 846 calories after the law went into effect.  In Newark, the calorie-consumption stayed about the same over the same period of time—823 calories to 826.

So what gives? The researchers said their study showed that more education needed to accompany the calorie postings, given that it is so difficult to get people to change their eating habits.

I have a less scientific analysis. People who eat at fast food restaurants are influenced by the cost of food. Maybe the higher calorie food was less expensive. Or , perhaps in anticipation of losing customers to the calorie posting law, the chain dropped the prices of their higher calorie offerings to make them more appealing.

 These research results, which were based on a sample of 1,156 adults, are just the first course. Expect more news when the New York City health department releases its far larger study, which is due soon.

Published reports say that Larry Schwartz, the former Westchester Deputy County Executive and now top  adviser to Gov. David Paterson, is in open conflict with the state’s new Lt. Governor,  Richard Ravitch. At issue, is how the governor should proceed with budget cuts, the New York Post’s Fred Dicker reports.

Schwartz, an always-astute reader of the political scene, is said to want Paterson to push the difficult budget cutting decisions onto the Legislature—so that he can, perhaps, regain the support of voters. Ravitch, who is often credited with shepherding New York City out of bankruptcy in the 1970s, is said to be more interested in the actual governing part of serving in government, has been urging Gov. Paterson to go ahead and make the hard cuts himself. It will be interesting to keep an eye on these behind-the-scenes machinations.

Here’s the latest interview schedule updated to reflect the Putnam and Rockland sessions.

Candidates in most contested elections for mayor, supervisor, council members and trustees in Westchester, Rockland and Putnam counties are invited to discuss the issues and their campaigns in endorsement interviews with Editorial Board. As in the past, these discussions will form the basis of news articles and serve as fodder for the Editorial Board’s recommendations. Because of the vast number of races — and the impossibility of crafting a schedule that meets everyone’s family, work and campaign needs — we appreciate efforts by candidates to make their scheduled interview hour. Look here for additional interview times and updates for Lower Hudson Valley races.
Contact us: If you are running for office on the November ballot, we want to hear from you. Please send your full name, home address, contact phone numbers and an active e-mail address to Brenda Ross, editorial assistant, at bross@lohud.com, with a copy to letters@lohud.com. In both the subject line and body of the e-mail, be sure to indicate what office you are vying for. The information will be used by our news and editorial staff to contact and correspond with candidates. Additionally, the e-mail address will be used to send candidates a questionnaire that will form the basis of an online guide for voters.
Watch online: Voters can watch our endorsement interviews LIVE online by going to Editorial Spotlight; use the live blogging feature to submit questions to the candidates. If you miss a session, watch it On Demand later; go to EditorialSpotlight, click “On Demand” and select the video from the list at the right.

The following interviews will be held at our White Plains office, 1 Gannett Drive; directions are online under Election Alert. Please advise Interactivity Editor Tracey Princiotta, at tprinciot@lohud.com, if you will attend a Westchester or Putnam session.

Wednesday, Oct. 7
1 p.m. — Westchester County Board of Legislators (Districts 1, 4 & 9)
2:30 p.m. — Westchester County Board of Legislators (Districts 5, 8, 13 & 17)

Thursday, Oct. 8
2 p.m. — Ossining Town & Village
3:15 p.m. — Mamaroneck Village
4:30 p.m. — Pound Ridge

Monday, Oct. 12
2 p.m. — Eastchester

Tuesday, Oct. 13
2 p.m. — Cortlandt
3:15 p.m. — North Salem
4:30 p.m. — Bedford

Thursday, Oct. 15
3:15 p.m. — Harrison
4:30 p.m. — White Plains

Monday, Oct. 19
2 p.m. — North Castle
3:15 p.m. — Somers
4:30 p.m. — Putnam County Sheriff

Tuesday, Oct. 20
2 p.m. — Yonkers
3:15 p.m. — Yorktown
4:30 p.m. — Carmel

Wednesday, Oct. 21
2 p.m. — Rye City
3:15 p.m. — Putnam Valley

Thursday, Oct. 22
2 p.m. — Peekskill
3:15 p.m. — Lewisboro

The following interviews will be held at our Rockland office, 1 Crosfield Ave. (off Route 59), West Nyack; directions are online under Election Alert. Please advise Rockland Opinion Editor Nancy Cutler, at ncutler@lohud.com, if you will attend.
Tuesday, Oct. 6
1 p.m. — Rockland County Legislature District 14
2:30 p.m. — Clarkstown Town Board
3:30 p.m. — Nyack Village mayor
4:30 p.m. — Nyack Village Trustees

Thursday, Oct. 8
11 a.m. — Spring Valley mayor
12 p.m. — Spring Valley trustees

Monday, Oct. 12
11 a.m. — Suffern mayor
12 p.m. — Suffern trustees

Wednesday, Oct. 14
1 p.m. — Orangetown Supervisor
2:30 p.m. — Orangetown Town Board
3:30 p.m. — Ramapo Supervisor
4:30 pm — Ramapo Town Board

Thursday, Oct. 15
11 a.m. — Stony Point Supervisor
12 p.m. — Stony Point Town Board

Wednesday, Oct. 21
11 a.m. — Rockland County Executive