Free Republic

NY WILL TAKE $1B HIT: GOV By SALLY GOLDENBERG in NY and FREDRIC U. DICKER in Albany Click to learn more... September 16, 2008 -- Gov. Paterson warned yesterday that the crisis on Wall Street could cost the state $1 billion in revenue over the next six months and wipe out as many as 30,000 jobs, while Mayor Bloomberg insisted the city would weather the storm. "While the full impact of these events may not be known for months or even years, the fact that financial-services firms that were able to survive the Great Depression, world wars and the Sept....

The Coming Re-Becoming Everywhere you turn in this nation, you see a society primed for implosion. We seem unaware how extraordinary the American experience has been, especially in the last hundred years. By this, I don't mean that we are a better people than any other society -- these days, ordinary people in the USA make an effort to appear thuggish and act surly, as though we were a nation of convicts -- but for decade-upon-decade, we were very fortunate. Even the Great Depression of the 1930s may seem like a relatively peaceful and gentle "time out" from a frantic...

Four New RFAs Issued Governor Paterson on May 8, 2008 announced the availability of $109 million in funding for stem cell research initiatives, with the issuance of four new Requests for Applications. excerpt http://stemcell.ny.gov/about_NYSTEM_staff.html

NEW YORK (CBS) ― New York Internet shoppers, take note: in five weeks, sales tax-free shopping will end on many Web sites thanks to rewritten state rules that are trying to force Internet retailers to collect. At Chrono Tech Watches in White Plains, Jerry Nally is glad the clock is ticking on many Internet retailers that don't charge New York sales tax. Nally says those so-called "e-tailers" steal his customers. "They'll come in our store, look at our product, touch it, play with it, look at the warranties, then go back to the web and buy it tax free," says...

March 31, 2008 Group Tied to Pakistani Terrorist to Parade in Binghamton, NY Instead of those plastic toy swords sold at normal parades, they will be selling replicas of the one used by Mohammed to behead infidels.... The city of Binghamton, New York granted a group with ties to Islamic terrorist Sheikh Mubarek Ali Gilani a permit to publicly celebrate Milad-un-Nabi, or Muhammed’s birthday, in the streets of Binghamton this Saturday. The Muslims of the Americas (MOA), the name used by Jamaat ul Fuqra, or “Community of the Impoverished,” was issued a permit for a public celebration that includes a...

MEDINA NY: Doctor’s office searched Hassan Medical targeted by State Attorney General’s office By NICOLE COLEMAN Investigators with the New York State Attorney General’s Office raided a Gwinn Street family physician’s office during patient visiting hours Friday. Wearing official jackets and golden badges, they arrived in multiple SUV trucks at Hassan Medical Group PLLC, 1038 Gwinn St., Medina sometime Friday morning. At least five State Attorney General officials remained at the office throughout the day probing the employees with questions and apparently looking through records. None were able to confirm the reason for their presence or whether they were sent...

The thing is, Eliot Spitzer is a crook. I’m not referring to the current prostitution scandal. I’m not referring to the scandal last year involving his senior aides and the leaking of confidential police information to the Albany Times Union. I’m not referring to the threatening phone call he made to the august John Whitehead, retired head of Goldman Sachs, who had the temerity to question a case Spitzer was building against an old friend of Whitehead’s. I’m referring to his conduct dating back to 1994, when he designed a complex scheme involving loans and real estate and collateralized apartments to evade...

BY DAN OSBURN Albany Bureau ALBANY-- After a fallout last year over Gov. Eliot Spitzer's failed plan to allow illegal immigrants to obtain drivers' licenses, more than 1,000 immigrants rallied on the steps of the Capitol on Monday to demand a new initiative from Spitzer: a $100 million citizenship program to fund education and legal services to help immigrants assimilate more easily. The crowd was made up of a diverse mix of immigrants - from Russia, Mexico, Africa, Korea, Haiti and other countries - that now call the state home. The $100 million citizenship initiative would fund English-learning classes for...

Situated within a dense forest at the foothills of the Catskill Mountains on the outskirts of Hancock, New York, Islamberg is not an ideal place for a summer vacation unless, of course, you are an exponent of the Jihad or a fan of Osama bin Laden

In a major shift, Gov. Eliot Spitzer is backing off his plan to allow illegal immigrants to obtain the same kind of driver’s licenses as other New Yorkers, after weeks of furor over the proposal. Instead, the governor said on Saturday, illegal immigrants in the state would be able to obtain a license that would permit them to drive but would not be accepted as identification to board planes or cross borders. Other New Yorkers who can prove that they are legal residents of the United States would be eligible for federally recognized ID cards. These would serve as driver’s...

(CBS) NEW YORK They were celebrating outside the governor's office Friday as Eliot Spitzer handed a landmark victory to a half-million illegal immigrants. The state will no longer require proof of citizenship for driver's licenses. "We're changing our policy with respect to getting more people out of shadows and into the system so people don't hide they're here," Spitzer said. He said the current restrictions on non-citizens have filled the roads with unlicensed drivers five times more likely to get into accidents. But the also called it a matter of justice. "As long as I'm governor we won't pretend they...

(07-19) 16:37 PDT Syracuse, N.Y. (AP) -- A 20-year-old Syracuse woman who left children in her care to go pose for nude photos is facing several charges of endangering the welfare of a child. Police say Michelle Rendino was supposed to be watching four young girls yesterday when she left them alone and went into the woods near Syracuse's Inner Harbor to have a man take nude photos of her. A man fishing saw the children crying and called police. When police arrived, the oldest girl — a six-year-old — told police that "Aunt Michelle" went into the woods to...

Snapping, snarling, growling, jumping, sulking or just plain sad and scared -- if this describes your dog's behavior, it may be time to send Rover on a religious retreat. The Monks of New Skete, an Eastern Orthodox community in Cambridge, N.Y., rehabilitate dogs with issues. Their training techniques are based on getting a dog calm, centered and balanced, as well as encouraging the deep emotional and spiritual connection possible between humans and dogs. You can watch them in action on Animal Planet's "Divine Canine" series. The monks support themselves by raising and training dogs, but their furry friends are far...

The Queens GOP opts to reward failure.

(03-06) 14:12 PST CROSS RIVER, New York (AP) -- A public high school has suspended three students who disobeyed officials by saying the word "vagina" during a reading from a well-known feminist play. The honor students, Megan Reback, Elan Stahl and Hannah Levinson, included the word during their reading of "The Vagina Monologues" because, "It wasn't crude and it wasn't inappropriate and it was very real and very pure," Reback said. Their defiant stand is being applauded by the play's author, who said Tuesday that the school should be celebrating, rather than punishing, the three juniors. "Don't we want our...

Residents of the nearby town of Mexico see 5- to 6-foot snowfalls every two or three years, but this time even hardened locals are amazed. The only signs of parked SUVs are their radio antennas or roof racks sticking up above the snow. Front doors are buried and footprints lead to second-story windows. Sidewalks that have been dug out look like miniature canyons. The state transportation department said 125 workers from elsewhere in the state had been sent in with snow equipment to help. The region is located along the Tug Hill Plateau, the snowiest region this side of the...

Alan Hevesi, the current State Controller, has been exposed as the crook that we knew he was, what with his using state funds to pay for his wife's limo driver/keeper. Carol Hevesi may be ill, but surely Alan could have come up with the funds from his own pocket. Now that he is being investigated by an Ethics Panel in Albany and by the local district attorney, there is talk of having him "replaced" if he wins election over little known Republican candidate Christopher Callaghan. John Faso, who is running against Eliot Spitzer, has not been able to raise the...

Paul Tokasz, the second most powerful man in New York State's Assembly, is leaving the state legislature at the end of his term. Tokasz, 60, will have served 18 years in the state assembly and 6 years as majority leader under Sheldon Silver of Manhattan, arguably the most notorious name in New York politics today. The above paragraph is an abstract. Read the full story in the Buffalo News article.

Most cities in New York State have lost population in the last five years, with especially large declines in major Upstate cities, the U.S. Census Bureau reported. Buffalo, Rochester and Syracuse lost population, around 4 percent in each city, during the year ending July 1, 2005. All three cities have lost population each year since the last nationwide census in 2000, according to the bureau. The new data appear in the Census Bureau's Annual Estimates of the Population for Incorporated Places. Among 61 cities in New York, 42 lost population from 2000 to 2005. Twenty-six counties in New York have...

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — State worker unions could get "significant leverage" in contract negotiations with Albany under a bill passed by the Legislature with little notice, a government watchdog group said Wednesday. The bill was one of many agreed to in the waning days of the legislative session that is scheduled to end Thursday. The labor bill passed last week says that if the state is proven to stall or otherwise fail to bargain "in good faith," the state — and its taxpayers — must automatically award a 1-percent raise to union members. If the state continues to stall, an...

ALBANY -- The state's small Libertarian Party, abandoned by first choice Bill Weld, has backed a U.S. Navy submarine veteran for governor. The party chose John Clifton for its governor candidate and Donald Silberger, a professor, for lieutenant governor, said party spokesman Richard Cooper. Weld, a Republican candidate for governor, dropped the Libertarian line after he ended his Republican campaign earlier this month. Weld had lost a nominating vote at the state Republican convention to John Faso, now the party's designee for governor. Clifton is a Navy veteran and the party bills him as "a social worker against the welfare...

New York legislators, not satisfied with having the second highest tax burden in the nation, are pondering what some call "the biggest tax increase in the history" of the state, in order to force businesses to provide employee health care.The Syracuse Post-Standard reports that legislators are considering the potential $ 8.4 billion tax increase as part of the "Fair Share for Health Care" bill: The bill would levy an additional tax on companies with more than 100 employees if they fail to spend at least $3 per hour on health insurance for each worker. According to the article, the measure...

May 29, 2006 -- TOP backers of former Massachusetts Gov. William Weld's bid for the Republican nomination for governor are increasingly pessimistic about his chances of defeating John Faso, The Post has learned. One prominent Weld backer conceded yesterday that the once-front-running candidate has yet to line up the 51 percent of the vote he'll need to emerge from this week's GOP convention as the party's official choice for governor.

Senate Minority Leader David Paterson, D-Harlem, channeled David Letterman tonight and offered a Top 10 list of reasons why he’s running for lieutenant governor as AG Eliot Spitzer’s No. 2. (I did not make this up. Paterson read them out loud while standing on a stage in front of a room full of people in Buffalo at a party held in his honor). #10 Because I want to boss around Republicans. #9 There will be fewer bad hair days than with Mary Donohue. #8 Because State Troopers drive you around, I won’t have to drive anymore. #7 Because a free...

If you're Irish, you're familiar with the following words: shamrocks, claddagh and trinity designs, merino wool, Dresden and Belleek porcelain, Celtic music and crosses, bogwood, the Book of Cels, connemara marble, new grange spirals, “Erin Go Braugh” (Ireland forever) and “Cead Mile Failte” (one hundred thousand welcomes). As it is March and we Irish from the town of Victory are a proud lot, we would like to honor and remember one Irish family - the Martin/Wood/Houghtaling family. John Martin (future Revolutionary War veteran) left county Sligo, in the northern part Ireland in the 1700s and sailed to America to New...

A state appeals court Thursday overturned a ruling that would have allowed gay couples to marry in New York City. The state Supreme Court's Appellate Division ruled 4-1 that Justice Doris Ling-Cohan erred in February when she held that the state's domestic relations law is unconstitutional since it does not permit marriage between people of the same sex. "We find it even more troubling that the court, upon determining the statute to be unconstitutional, proceeded to rewrite it and purportedly create a new constitutional right," the appeals court said. The Supreme Court is New York's main trial-level court.

While the Republicans celebrate their victory in the New York City mayoral race, the state Republican Party is beset by ideological divisions, personal rivalries and individual agendas that are undermining any semblance of party unity as the 2006 elections approach, many party officials say. Leading Republicans across the state are alarmed and say the problems stem largely from the power vacuum resulting from Gov. George E. Pataki's decision not to seek re-election in 2006 after three terms in office. One consequence is that Republicans are deeply at odds about their political lineup for the coming year.

COLONIE -- There's a new drinking policy at Siena College. No drinking. Of anything. Even water. Or iced tea. Or coffee, Red Bull or lemonade. Or vodka or beer, for that matter, in case anybody gets any bright ideas. According to a policy dated Sept. 17, students are "no longer allowed to consume alcohol or any other beverage in any type of container outside of their townhouse or in any public area on campus." College officials maintain the rule is meant to increase security after a spate of off-campus party crashers showed up early this semester, and police responded to...

BILL Weld, the former Massachusetts governor who now wants to succeed Gov. George Pataki in Albany, enjoys both chess and pool. Both - obviously - are tactical games. Chess calls for seeing the board several moves ahead and pinning down an opponent. Pool requires execution and a vision of where to leave the cue ball to set up the next several shots. Such maneuvering has long served Mr. Weld well in another game he enjoys - politics. Though he might appear to be a long shot in New York, his latest move is exactly the sort of attention-grabbing challenge he...

August 25, 2005--New York's Attorney General Eliot Spitzer has a huge lead over two potential Republican challengers in the race to become Governor of the Empire State.Spitzer leads William Weld 55% to 20%. Weld, a former Governor of Massachusetts, moved back to New York five years ago and recently announced his intention to enter the race.Spitzer leads Tom Golisano by nearly as big a margin, 52% to 23%. Golisano is a billionaire who has previously run as an Independent candidate. He is  considering a bid for the GOP nomination.Spitzer is viewed favorably by 69% of New York voters and unfavorably...

Attorney General Eliot Spitzer called on state lawmakers yesterday to return to Albany to pass two bills that he said were urgently needed to help prosecute fraud in the state's Medicaid system. Skip to next paragraph Related As Medicaid Balloons, Watchdog Force Shrinks (July 19, 2005) New York Medicaid Fraud May Reach Into Billions (July 18, 2005) In a letter to Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, Mr. Spitzer said the state needed a false claims act, which would increase civil penalties for fraud and encourage whistle-blowers, along with another law that would create a...

New York's Medicaid program pays more than a million claims a day, feeding a $44.5 billion river of checks to radiologists and ambulance drivers, brain surgeons and orderlies, medical centers and corner pharmacies. Many who get those checks pocket more money than they deserve, and millions of taxpayer dollars are believed to be lost every day to theft and waste. Skip to next paragraph Andrea Mohin/The New York Times Falling Behind: Boxes of cases in the attorney general's Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, where the size of the staff has failed to keep up with the program's growth. PROGRAM DISORDER High...

Attention New York State pro-life citizens: Please call Gov. Pataki at 518-474-8390 and tell him to VETO A.116/S.3661 which is the bill to make abortifacient pills legal. Even though Governor Pataki is pro-"choice," Senator Bruno has said that the governor has not made his decision yet. If you call during nonbusiness hours, you can leave your message with your name, phone # and town where you live, on the answering machine.

A radical left-wing professor will now exert even more influence upon students at Brooklyn College in New York. According to the Christian news outfit, Agape Press, Dr. Timothy Shortell was recently elected by his colleagues to chair Brooklyn College’s Sociology Department. Why should his promotion concern you? Professor Shortell, a raging social-Marxist, refers to religious people as “an ugly, violent lot,” “moral retards,” and compares faith to “a child-like rationality.” These statements were written by the professor and appeared on a website called Anti-Naturals.org. On Dr. Shortell’s own website he says, “I am proud to be among a group of...

A state senator from Queens jolted state Republican Party leaders this week by trying to block gay Republicans from obtaining greater power within the state party organization. The move occurred as the party was preparing political strategies for the 2006 election. The move against the gay Republicans was rebuffed by other party members, led by the state chairman, Stephen J. Minarik, and the Manhattan chairman, James Ortenzio, who both argued that the party should have a "big tent" image heading into 2006. Excluding gay Republicans could also have embarrassed party leaders who support gay rights, like Gov. George E. Pataki...

I received this e-mail from NYSCatholicConference.org: Stop Cloning and Embryo Research Contact Your Assembly Representative Now On Tuesday, May 3, 2005 the New York State Assembly Health Committee voted in favor of releasing dangerous legislation (A.6300)that would promote human cloning for the purpose of conducting medical experiments on living human embryos. This means that the full Assembly can vote on this issue in the very near future. Please urge your Assembly representative to oppose this bill. Embryonic stem cell research depends on human cloning and is a radical assault on human life! Take action now.

THE PATAKI PROBLEM It took 14 weeks of recounts and litigation before Nicholas A. Spano finally won re-election to the New York State Senate this month. By carrying his district in the Westchester suburbs of New York City - by all of 18 votes - Mr. Spano, now known as Landslide Nick, helped maintain the embattled Republican majority in the State Senate. But he also achieved a more curious distinction: He broke a nationwide dead heat in state legislative seats. Counting Mr. Spano, the 2004 election made the count 3,657 Republicans and 3,656 Democrats; before last November, Republicans led by...

  Remarks by Speaker Sheldon Silver Press Conference: The Unintended Pregnancy Prevention Act State Capitol, Speaker's Conference Room Monday, January 31, 2005 Audio Excerpt 1 (20 seconds)Audio Excerpt 2 (21-seconds) View Transcript Here we are, five years and 32 days into the 21st Century - the so-called New Millennium - and women in this State still cannot obtain emergency contraception without a prescription from their physician or clinic. Twenty-seven nations and six states give women access to emergency contraception without a prescription - but not the Empire State. In our ongoing effort to remedy this outdated and discriminatory practice,...

New York state's plan to meet federal teaching standards by the end of next school year has received an "F" from a teacher advocacy group. A new report by the National Council on Teacher Quality found the state is failing in its effort to place a "highly qualified teacher" in every classroom by 2005-06.

AP - Fred Hale Sr, an American documented as the world’s oldest man, has died in New York State. He was 113 years old and had lived up to name. At age 95 Hale even gave boogie-boarding a try, while flying home from Japan where he had visited a grandson who was in the Navy. At 103, Hale was still living on his own and shovelling the snow off his rooftop. Hale died in his sleep at The Nottingham in suburban Syracuse, while trying to recover from a bout of pneumonia, said his grandson, Fred Hale III. He was 12...

O'Grady Announces Conservative Party Bid for U.S. Senate Against Schumer Date: Wednesday, April 21 @ 15:13:18 EDT Topic: Views & Opinions State Senatorial Candidate Dr. Marilyn O'Grady ~~~ "A Senate Seat is A Terrible Thing to Waste" - O'Grady ~~~ The Choice for Conservative Ideas and Traditional Values GARDEN CITY, NY -- April 21, 2004 -- Declaring "a Senate seat is a terrible thing to waste," Dr. Marilyn O'Grady of Garden City, Long Island today formally announced her Conservative Party campaign for U. S. Senate against Democrat Chuck Schumer. "Schumer's rated one of Washington's most taxing liberals," Dr. O'Grady said,...

I heard about this on the radio WBEN 930-AM yesterday. NYS is now adding a line on tax forms IT-200 and IT-201 tax forms for the reporting and payment of tax for items purchased on the Internet. From the link above: "Use tax A new line will be included on the personal income tax return for taxpayers to report unpaid sales and compensating use taxes imposed pursuant to Articles 28 and 29 of the Tax Law. These taxes apply in situations where New York State or locak sales tax is not collected at the time a purchase of taxable property...

<p>ALBANY -- Despite having a business-friendly governor and a humming economy, New York lost more residents to other parts of the country than any other state in the last half of the 1990s, new figures from the U.S. Census Bureau show.</p>

<p>This is a profile of New York State Assemblyman Daniel Hooker who you read about last week regarding his tough stance against infusing the homosexual agenda in New York grade schools. We are very proud to have Dan as our Representative in Albany and of his duty to our Country as a US Marine.</p>

Raising taxes. Laying off employees. Merging city and county services. There's nothing magical about how a state control board would bring stability to Buffalo's finances. The board, in fact, would use many of the same tools local officials use while balancing their budgets. So what's the difference? "Everyone's at the table," State Comptroller Alan G. Hevesi said during a visit to Buffalo on Wednesday. "These things work because everyone's in the room." By everyone, Hevesi means every state, city and county official with the power and pocketbook to play a role in Buffalo's fiscal recovery. The goal is to remove...

WASHINGTON - Sometimes a recognizable name helps in New York, and sometimes not. Kennedy was one that helped, obviously. Robert Francis Kennedy, the attorney general and brother of a slain president, used the family name to force his way to the top of the political heap, shoved a well-loved incumbent Republican Kenneth B. Keating out of the way, and took his Senate job in 1964. Two years later, Kennedy, playing king of the hill, helped force the son of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, FDR Jr., off the Democratic ticket for governor. Two big Democratic names in New York were one too...

RIDGEWAY, Ont. - Gov. Mario Cuomo liked the word "ineluctable," meaning inescapable. On every station break we are being hammered with ineluctable ads - via the rabbit ears TV in this vacation camp - offered by the four gentlemen who are running for governor of New York. They're serving up bland post-industrial magic. It's about jobs, friends! Just by saying they're for job creation, the four caballeros hope to convince New Yorkers that they will create some. Independent Tom Golisano hopes that by cursing the jobs lost in New York, he will give the impression that he can do it...

<p>Pataki and the legislative leaders held true to their promise not to increase major levies such as income and business taxes.</p> <p>The spending plan would raise money less noticeably, through myriad surcharges and fees.</p> <p>Pataki noted, however, that the budget goes ahead with $1 billion in tax cuts scheduled to take effect over the next three years.</p>