Free Republic

Rally Decries Crimes of Columbus; Stresses Importance of Native Cultures October 9, 2009 - 4:02am By Margo Cohen Ristorucci Propped against a podium in Ho Plaza, a poster of Christopher Columbus sat with the message “Hate, Lies, Torture, Slavery and Oppression” inscribed along his face. Anticipating the Oct. 12 holiday, Native American Students at Cornell organized a rally yesterday called "Indigenous Day Rally: Rethinking Columbus." Alia Jones ’10, co-chair of NASAC, explained that the event was aimed to both challenge Columbus Day and to raise awareness about present indigenous communities. “Question: why should the United States of America celebrate Columbus...

ITHACA, N.Y. -- President Obama has announced his intention to nominate a native Ithacan and Cornell graduate to a key post in his administration. Mary J. Miller is up for the position of Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Financial Markets. Miller grew up in Ithaca and received her bachelor's degree in government from Cornell. She is now the vice president of T. Rowe Price, a Baltimore-based investment firm. The post Miller is up for advises the treasury secretary on financial markets, government debt and credit and lending. Miller must first be confirmed by the Senate.

ITHACA — A group of upstate New York dog owners thinks it has a plan to profitably compost the tons of dog doo left behind by the roughly 50,000 canines that use the city’s pooch park each year. If their pilot project is successful, the Tompkins County Dog Owners Group and Cayuga Compost hope to market usable compost within the next two or three years. Dog and cat waste contain parasites and pathogens that make them unsuitable as compost for vegetable gardens and topsoil and can run off into local waterways and diminish water quality, said Cary Oshins, an assistant...

ITHACA, NY — Incoming students at Ithaca College will get together the day before the start of classes to discuss their summer reading assignment: Barack Obama’s “Dreams from My Father.” The 44th president’s autobiography was chosen as the 2009–10 First-Year Reading Initiative selection. “President Obama’s ruthlessly honest self-examination on issues of race and identity gives us an opportunity to lead students through what could be the most important conversation they will have during their freshman year,” says Ithaca College President Tom Rochon. The initiative was created in 2003 as a way to offer the incoming class a shared academic experience...

Are you someone who squirms when confronted with slime, shudders at stickiness or gets grossed out by gore? Do crawly insects make you cringe or dead bodies make you blanch? If so, chances are you're more conservative -- politically, and especially in your attitudes toward gays and lesbians -- than your less-squeamish counterparts, according to two Cornell studies. The results, said study leader David Pizarro, Cornell assistant professor of psychology, raise questions about the role of disgust -- an emotion that likely evolved in humans to keep them safe from potentially hazardous or disease-carrying environments -- in contemporary judgments of...

Anyone who rides a bike anywhere in the city would have to register it with the City of Ithaca or face a $10 fine, based on a law being considered tonight by Common Council. The law would apply not just to city residents, but to anyone who rides in the city, including visitors The purpose of the new law is to support and encourage bicycle riding, to assist in documenting bikes for planning purposes, to disseminate information to bike riders, and to facilitate the return of lost or stolen bikes, according to the Common Council's resolution.

The constant hum of the air conditioning units across the street could be heard clearly from Ralph Moss's home. At a word, they were shut off. Sounds of talking neighbors rose through the silence. "My front porch has become my haven, and my haven is threatened," Moss said, sitting on his porch on North Albany Street. "It's so much of a nuisance, I have to go inside and close my doors and windows to get some peace." Moss has lived in the neighborhood facing the east entrance of Beverly J. Martin Elementary School on and off since 1982. The newest...

A campus Christian group that receives funding from the student activity fee is coming under scrutiny after a student was asked by advisors to step down from its leadership team when he told them that he had openly accepted his homosexuality. This incident is also raising questions about the effectiveness of campus mechanisms for addressing instances of discrimination. Chris Donohoe ’09, who joined the Chi Alpha Christian Fellowship when he was a freshman, said he had been openly struggling to reconcile his sexuality with his faith in Chi Alpha before he was asked to step down from the leadership team...

As Cornell University faces greater need for donations in the current recession, it also faces having to get more funds with less money as a result of the economic crisis. In order to better focus its fundraising efforts to meet its needs and in response to the university cutting its budget by 5 percent, Cornell’s Department of Alumni Affairs and Development recently laid off 41 employees, around 10 percent of the department’s workforce. Richard Banks, associate vice president for alumni affairs and development at Cornell, said the positions were cut based on which positions were least crucial. He said Cornell...

ITHACA, NY--Nearly six months after the Presidential election, former Monty Python star John Cleese needs some new material.According to the Cornell Daily Sun, Cleese, in an appearance on campus, turned serious and launched into an attack on former President George W. Bush: Americans... are “much too respectful to the president,” said Cleese, who went on to say that George W. Bush would not be able to survive a single press conference in England. “It’s pathetic!” he exclaimed. “This is the most important country in the world ... It’s embarrassing because we want America to be great. There is emotion when...

ITHACA - The Ithaca Town Board supports raising taxes on New Yorkers who make more than $250,000 in order to stave off some cuts to education and healthcare and other "essential services." The Board unanimously passed a resolution Monday urging state leaders to pass the Fair Share Tax Reform Act of 2009, which would increase tax rates for the top 3.5 percent of New Yorkers, according to their resolution. Those with taxable income over $250,000 would see a 1.4 percent increase, to 8.25 percent of their total income. Those with income over $500,000 would see a 2.12 percent increase, to...

ITHACA, NY--Love — or, at least, lust — was in the air on Ho Plaza yesterday at 12:15 p.m. A group of roughly 20 students lined up to hold a colorful banner that read “QUEER KISSIN’ … in progress” and then proceeded have a queer kiss-in, which lasted about five minutes. Direct Action to Stop Heterosexism sponsored the event, according to kiss-in participant Ashley McGovern ’09. She explained that heterosexism is “kind of like homophobia except heterosexism has to do with all facets of society … so the normalization of heterosexuality in society.” Heteronormativity refers to the idea that heterosexuality...

ITHACA - A protester dressed in his 1950s-era military uniform threw his shoes at Mayor Carolyn Peterson and brought Common Council's Wednesday night meeting to an almost hour-long standstill, insisting that he wanted to be arrested in protest over the Council's position against the "immoral wars" in Iraq and Afghanistan. Long-time Ithacan and former Weather Underground member Robin Palmer began speaking at about 7:15 p.m., near the beginning of Council's privilege of the floor, during which any citizen may speak on any topic. Palmer handed out packets of information on the U.S.S. Indianapolis, a Navy vessel sunk during World War...

The body of the article is here. It cannot be reposted thanks to the cretins at Gannett News. However, the upshot of the editorial is that the only daily paper in Ithaca is cutting news pages AND advertising.All together now, cut the world's smallest violin:

From the beginning, Ithaca Hours was tied closely to the activities and the personality of Paul Glover. Glover's energetic championing of Hours included soliciting grants from a multitude of organizations, both local and national, ranging from Ben & Jerry's to the Whole Earth Quarterly. He fought to have Ithaca Money distributed more widely, such as taking on Center Ithaca when they balked at stocking the newsletter, and he spoke extensively and exhaustively to media ranging from local news outlets to international film crews. He networked with other local currency supporters and sold a mail-order "Hometown Money Starter Kit" for $20....

After fighting 15 months in Afghanistan, 22-year-old Trevor Loope of Texas went AWOL from the Army. Stationed at Fort Drum, he left his post one year ago to seek better health care for depression and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. He's hoping Ithaca's Common Council will hear his plea. Flanked with veterans at his side Wednesday night, Loope and his attorney approached city officials asking them to help him avoid criminal charges under Ithaca's new "Community of Sanctuary" law. The law, passed two months ago, is aimed at allowing veterans to exercise free speech and peaceful protests of war in the...

On October 1, 2008, the Ithaca, NY, Common Council declared Ithaca a "Community of Sanctuary" for protestors against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but denied sanctuary status to supporters of the wars. Proponents of the sanctuary resolution used a false narrative of "suppressed" anti-war protestors to justify having government protect only locally popular speech content. Similar tactics can be expected nationally, as Democrats use government power to protect only liberal speech under the guise of promoting "fairness." {Snip} Nonetheless, the sanctuary city proponents used this false narrative of "suppressed" protestors to support its petition drive. The resolution sought to...

Six University Presidents are touring Iran to increase “collaboration in science and higher education” at the same time the nation’s religious government is moving closer to developing an atomic bomb and taking steps to censor more information from its citizens. According to CBS News: The presidents of six leading U.S. universities are touring Iran, the latest in a series of exchange visits involving senior academics and scientists. The American academics include the presidents of Cornell, Carnegie Mellon and Rice Universities. "We believe it is important to maintain and renew academic ties between our two countries as a means of laying...

ITHACA NY--A traveling evangelist claims in a lawsuit that police in Ithaca wouldn't let him preach in a public commons even after he showed them a federal court decision saying the local noise ordinance they cited was unconstitutional. "Christians shouldn't be penalized for expressing their beliefs, especially when a court has expressly upheld their right to do so, as is the case here," said Nate Kellum, an attorney for the Alliance Defense Fund, an Arizona-based legal group that seeks to protect and preserve religious liberty. The ADF filed a lawsuit Monday in U.S. District Court in Syracuse on behalf of...

When the New York State Electric Gas company decided two weeks ago not to fund the construction of a new basketball court in a downtown Ithaca park, it brought an apparent end to an ongoing struggle between neighbors of the park and city officials that had resulted in allegations of racism and stereotyping. The controversy began earlier this year as the Greater Ithaca Activities Center searched for an alternative site for its youth and adult basketball leagues because its current basketball facility was contaminated with coal tar and had to undergo a two-year-long clean up project. Since NYSEG was found...

the Cornell Coalition for Life clashed with the College of Engineering administration on Wednesday morning when Dawn Warren, administrative assistant, removed the organization’s “Elena Campaign” signs from the Engineering Quad. The CCFL is a non-partisan, pro-life advocacy group on campus. According to the CCFL, the Elena Campaign is composed of “a series of light-hearted educational signs with pictures and text detailing the biological development of an unborn child.” Tristen Cramer, former CCFL president, explained that the signs did not contain political statements, but rather “biological facts on fetal development,” including ultrasound images and text. According to Cramer, the group put...

Ithaca is Officially A “Community Of Sanctuary,” following a Unanimous Vote Wednesday Night by the Common Council. The Measure Guarantees The Rights Of Military Personnel And Veterans To Speak Out And Take Part in War Protests. Alderman Eric Rosario Proposed Council Add Language To The Resolution Stating That Other Opinions About The War Be Supported As Well, But That Motion Failed. Alderperson Maria Coles Says Supporting Other Views Of The War Would Have Watered Down The Resolution's Meaning. She Added That Declaring Ithaca A “Community Of Sanctuary” Isn’t About Supporting The First Amendment But About Protecting The Safety And Rights...

The Cornell Review controversy over printing an article about campus “ghettos,” “bitter minorities” and affirmative action became even more pronounced yesterday when students proposed a resolution to the Student Assembly to ban the use of the Cornell name by the biweekly journal’s title. The article, “What to Expect: The Angry Minority,” said students in program houses — only at Cornell because of affirmative action and scholarships — complain about brutal oppression from “whitey.” Students Nikhil Kumar ’11, minority representative-at-large, and Nicole Rivera ’09, president of the Minority Business Student Association, brought the resolution to the table. “As a student here...

ITHACA — A Common Council committee voted unanimously Tuesday night to declare Ithaca a “‘Community of Sanctuary' thus respecting the rights of its residents to support lawfully and proactively military personnel and veterans who are organizing to stop the wars in and occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan.” The sanctuary resolution was written and submitted by Peace Now Ithaca, which staged a march to Fort Drum in May with members of the Fort Drum chapter of Iraq Veterans Against the War. Veterans who participated in the march “lamented about the suppression and intimidation they experienced” in protesting the wars, said Alexis...

ROSENDALE, NY—Controversial upstate New York Congressman Maurice Hinchey has been ordered to town court to answer a charge that he struck a constituent during a July event. Democrat Hinchey, who represents Ithaca and much of the state’s Southern Tier, has been directed to appear in Rosendale Town Court on September 9 to answer a charge of Harassment Second Degree. According to the Kingston Daily Freeman the charge stems from an altercation between Hinchey and a local member of the National Rifle Association: Paul Lendvay, 46, of Rosendale, the chairman of the Catskill Regional Friends of the National Rifle Association, had...

[A]s a public service, the Surrounded by Reality Welcome Team has put together a very brief supplement to last week's Newcomers Guide. No guarantees that you'll be able to pass as a bona fide Ithacan, but it might spare you some small measure of embarrassment: **** Politics - When I voted downtown in February for the primary, the line for the Democratic booth snaked out of the building and it took over an hour to vote. During that time, a single Republican skulked in, looking like he'd just punched out the home team mascot. The concern in Ithaca is that...

Ithaca, N.Y. — The Best Of Everything? By REBECCA JAMES   The Commons is a popular gathering place in downtown Ithaca, N.Y. (Photo by Gloria Wright)     ITHACA, N.Y. — When your town has made more than 25 lists that call it one of the best cities in America, you might be surprised that one magazine would call it one of the "Twelve Great Places You've Never Heard Of."But along with that 2006 designation from Mother Earth News, Ithaca seems to make the grade no matter what's being ranked. It's one of the "lesbian friendliest cities," has the "best...

Climate change and its effects on ecosystems is the No. 1 crisis facing the world, according to Cornell faculty -- but it is a phenomenon not easily reversed. The most important problem that is more easily solved? Insufficient education in science, critical thinking and environmental issues.That is according to a new study that surveyed Cornell's academic staff on the world's leading crises. The new study is published online in Frontiers e-View and will be published in the journal Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment. How Cornell faculty rate the world's most important and the most solvable problemsOn a 5-point scale,...

Last Tuesday, a group of local activists held a friendly demonstration of gratitude outside of Congressman Maurice Hinchey's (D-NY, 22) office at Cayuga and Green Streets, thanking Hinchey for being the seventh representative to sign on to and co-sponsor Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich's impeachment bill. "Our main focus was to thank Hinchey," said resident John Hamilton. It's very clear it was the right thing to do. We're delighted. Politically, it's a big step. Democratic leadership is trying to brush all the crimes of this administration under the table. This is a courageous step for Hinchey to take, and we want...

ITHACA — Legislation further restricting smoking in the City of Ithaca should reduce exposure to secondhand smoke while not creating unintended consequences, according to members of the Smoke-free Zone Legislation Subcommittee. The smoking ban legislation Common Council is exploring includes ... a huge variety of outdoor, public spaces, including parks, natural areas, outdoor concerts and festivals, trails and walkways, parking garages and lots, transit shelters, Newman Golf Course, and city cemeteries. This would include outdoor dining areas at all times, and entire parks or the entire Commons during festivals like Ithaca Festival or the Chili Cook-Off.... It could also include...

Can you be an obscure, self-indulged, theory-laden, post-modern scholar and manage to be an effective university president?  University of Wisconsin at Madison is hoping “yes.� It has picked Biddy Martin, Cornell provost and women’s studies professor, as its new chancellor. Her best-known work is a little something called Femininity Played Straight, which features chapters entitled “Sexualities without Gender and Other Queer Utopias� and “Teaching Feminism.� The one review that Amazon.com has picked up on the book is truncated to a single sentence, though it pretty much sums up the obtuseness of Ms Martin’s field: “Martin's eccentric use of the body...

Welcome To The Life Of A Superdelegate By MIKE McANDREW   Irene Stein, chairwoman of the Tompkins County (N.Y.) Democratic Party, is an uncommitted superdelegate, one of only three uncommitted delegates from New York state. (Photo by Gloria Wright)     ITHACA, N.Y. — Irene Stein once let Hillary Rodham Clinton sleep in her daughter's bed.She served the first lady breakfast at her kitchen table.She's never met Barack Obama.But Stein, an uncommitted superdelegate from Ithaca, said that doesn't mean she's going to try to help the senator from New York capture the Democratic presidential nomination.One of three uncommitted superdelegates representing...

Ah, Memorial Day in Ithaca, NY, a town that looks upon Berkeley, CA as suspiciously conservative. OK, perhaps not quite, but Ithaca is so liberal than in her 2006 Senate primary [bet you didn't know there even was one], Hillary lost the City of Ithaca to a [very] little-known far-lefty named Jonathan Tasini. So liberal that a certain NewsBuster lost a 1990s mayoral bid to the then incumbent, a proud member of the Democratic Socialists of America. So how does our hometown newspaper celebrate Memorial Day? What does it choose as its biggest headline on the front page? "Military Faces...

ITHACA — Interviews with candidates for the empty seat on the Ithaca Town Board remained public Monday evening, in spite of Supervisor Herb Engman's assertion that interviews with candidates to fill the seat should be held in closed executive session. The New York State Committee on Open Government said such a process could be illegal and was not in the best interest of the public. New York State's Open Meetings law allows for government bodies to enter closed executive session to discuss eight topics, including the “medical, financial, credit, or employment history of a particular person.” But the exception does...

Annmarie Zwack has been named the Ithaca Festival's Artist of the Year. Few Finger Lakes artists can claim to have impacted the American social conscious like Zwack can. Her most recent work, "American Prophets," portrays famed author of The Color Purple, Alice Walker, filmmaker Michael Moore, and Julia Hill, a young woman who managed to save an old growth Redwood tree by living in it for more than two years. Zwack comments on the series, "With the current political situation, both at home and abroad, I have been feeling that it is important to have some positive examples of people...

ITHACA, N.Y. -- Cornell University will create a new nanotechnology research center with the help of a $25 million grant from a Saudi Arabian educational partnership. Cornell says the money from King Abdullah University of Science and Technology's Global Research Partnership will be spread over five years. Cornell was among four universities out of 41 that applied to receive one of the grants. Oxford, Stanford and Texas A&M were also selected. The center will study nanomaterials for the use in oil recovery, carbon dioxide capture and sequestration, water desalination, and photovoltaics and solid state lighting.

ITHACA--As international attention on the situation between Tibet and China has increased over the past few weeks while China prepares for the Olympics, a Cornell anthropology professor was the subject of personal attacks posted to two University listservs last week in response to a film screening and discussion she organized on “the prospects for peace in Tibet.” After Prof. Kathryn March, anthropology, began publicizing the event several weeks ago, it immediately provoked a wave of impassioned e-mail responses, most of which criticized the event. A handful of the responses on the listservs were personally directed at March. “I … was...

Drinking Liberally, a nationwide group of progressives who began meeting in New York City in May 2003, started when "it felt as though the politicians, press and public were giving conservative cons a free pass," according to its website. What started as a one-part support group and strategy session for Democrats became a nationwide network of affiliated groups - filled with both liberals and conservatives alike - that get together in cities all over the country, and here in Ithaca, to talk politics and headlines. "We laugh, we cry, we talk about politics," said Ithaca member David Bittle, as he...

The Town of Ithaca is the second municipality in the county to establish a domestic partnership registry for same- and opposite-sex unmarried partners. Town Clerk Karen Billings [said] the registry has been available for less than a month and though no couples have registered yet, Billings said that in the two days after an announcement of the registry ran in the town newsletter, the town clerk's office fielded “at least four calls.” “It was done as a way to give recognition to couples that couldn't legally be married,” Holcomb said. “We were somewhat limited in how we could provide that...

ITHACA--The Chaplain at Cornell University has announced his support for the racist and anti-American sermons of controversial pastor Rev. Jeremiah Wright.Speaking on Thursday (March 27) Rev. Kenneth Clarke defended those sermons by Wright, called them “a different style of patriotism.” According to the Ithaca Journal: Clarke challenged the audience to go beyond the sound bites and listen to Wright's entire sermon from Sept. 16, 2001 where he criticizes America. Clarke compared Wright's criticism of America to commentary found in speeches by Fredrick Douglas and Martin Luther King Jr.The critiques are not unpatriotic, Clarke said.The statements “reflect a different style of...

Ithaca, N.Y. -In 1924, in Binghamton, a baby was born who would go on to graduate from high school, serve in the army as a paratrooper and demolition specialist, write television screenplays, have a house on Cayuga Lake and work as a professor at Ithaca College. He died in 1975, but at the end of this month, his voice will again be heard in the hallways of Ithaca College. Welcome to the Twilight Zone. That voice being honored is that of Rod Serling. “The Twilight Zone” always began with Serling staring sternly into the camera, telling a serious tale. As...

Hey all. Just (1:00 pm EDT) heard on the radio that "several dozen war protestors are blocking traffic on Vestal pkwy on their way to protest at a military recruitment center" mostly students from Binghamton U. I belive there is an Army recruiter be at the old Ames plaza. Naturally the Vestal PD is not arresting any one. I am off to work but if any one is available to get down there it would be good at least to get pictures or video.

March 20 is the fifth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, and in conjunction with the five-year mark is a boost of political activity in Ithaca throughout the spring. To kick it off a rally will be held on The Commons on March 15, as well as sit-ins, art exhibits, films and speakers on the Cornell campus and a 10-day walk to Fort Drum, N.Y., in May. There are dozens of local and student groups active in working locally to end the war. Some remain more active, some less so. It has been a trying five years. Now, some local...

FOLLOWING THE FLOCK of other retirees to warmer climes may seem like the best way to spend one's golden years. But it may not be the smartest — especially during economic downturns. "A retiree always needs to be careful about where he or she chooses to spend retirement, but with economic conditions changing so quickly it's even more important to make a good choice," says Warren R. Bland, author of "Retire in Style: 60 Outstanding Places Across the USA and Canada." Not all places are created equal when it comes to weathering economic woes like the current real estate slump,...

Perhaps it is no coincidence that after years of debate among Ithaca officials and residents, the new Martin Luther King Jr. Walkway Implementation Committee has finally begun its effort to honor King with a memorial during the 32nd annual Black History Month. At the first meeting on Jan. 31, however, it appeared that the committee still has a lot of work to do. There is no concrete timetable chronicling the completion of the walkway and after the first meeting, led by Mayor Carolyn Peterson, it was clear that the group's differing opinions and ideals may prove to hinder the path...

ITHACA — Common Council voted Wednesday to support a federal carbon tax. Council passed a resolution urging state and federal officials to pursue a federal carbon tax rather than emissions trading to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The resolution passed 9-0, with Alderwoman Nancy Schuler, D-4th, abstaining. Schuler said some clauses of the resolution were “really just too emphatic because we really don't know.” “I certainly support the concept but I had trouble with the 25 ‘whereases' as a statement,” she said. Sylvester Johnson, who is a member of the Climate Change Action Group of Central New York and largely wrote...

ITHACA—Based on contributions and public support by local elected officials, Ithaca leans strongly for Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama. Aggregate contributions of $200 or more given during the 2008 presidential election cycle — available through the Web site opensecrets.org — show that Obama has raised $11,204 in Ithaca, almost twice as much as Hillary Rodham Clinton, who raised $6,350. Former candidate John Edwards raised $3,730, Bill Richardson raised $3,000, and Dennis Kucinich raised $2,250. Among Republicans, a Zip code search of 14850 shows only one contribution for Rudy Giuliani, worth $250, but $2,850 for Ron Paul. Contributions to federal candidates,...

The Ithaca Common Council continues to investigate how to prohibit smoking on some city-owned land. Council's Environment and Neighborhood Quality committee will work with the City Attorney's office to “develop a list of areas that could be designated smoke free,” according to Robin Korherr, D-5th, chair of the committee. “Smoking is a habit and we develop our habits from our environment,” Korherr said. “We're trying to target youth and let them know that it's okay not to smoke and it doesn't need to be allowed everywhere. If they don't see it happening around them, they may not choose to smoke...

In the face of shouting dissenters and shrouded protesters, former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft stood firmly behind his conviction Thursday that the 2001 USA Patriot Act strengthened America's freedom and continues to protect the country from terrorist attacks. Ashcroft spoke about the need for the change in national security thinking after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 to a crowd of more than 700 at Cornell University's Statler Hall. The former attorney general described his experience on 9/11 and how the increased ease with which a terrorist could cause harm to civilians changed the way the government needed to...

ITHACA, N.Y.--Ben Nichols, a professor emeritus at Cornell University and a member of the Democratic Socialists of America who served three terms as mayor of Ithaca, has died. Nichols, a professor of electrical engineering at Cornell for 40 years, died Saturday of natural causes after being admitted to Cayuga Medical Center. Nichols was rooted in the American left and spent much of his life in politics. He was born on Staten Island in 1920 to parents who were Communist Party members. He helped his parents organize a union, supported the Spanish Loyalists during the Spanish Civil War in the 1930s,...