THE "PORK" IN NEW YORK, Thoughts of an older American on Constitutional Government in the USA Options

[Livyjr]

"Fed report shows slow job growth upstate"

By MICHAEL HILL, Associated Press

Last updated: 1:33 p.m., Tuesday, December 18, 2007

ALBANY -- Upstate New York is gaining jobs in financial services, education and health care, though overall growth is slow due to losses in manufacturing and other sectors, according to a Federal Reserve study released Tuesday.

A study of private-sector employment trends since 2000 by the Buffalo Branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York found the upstate area rebounding since 2004 -- but at a more modest rate than the nation or downstate.

The report also provides fresh evidence that upstate New York is continuing its decades-long change from an area heavily dependent on factory jobs to one reliant on service industries.

About 40 percent of employment upstate is in financial services, business and professional services, education, health care, leisure and hospitality.

Those sectors fueled job growth despite losses in the manufacturing, information, trade, transportation and utilities sectors, according to the report.

"The upstate New York economy has been undergoing significant restructuring," the report said.

The report said that while the number of private-sector jobs began declining in 2000, following a national trend, upstate rebounded with a modest 1.2 percent growth rate from 2003 to 2006.

Slow growth was expected to continue this year and beyond.

The report defined upstate New York as the 49 counties north of Orange and Dutchess in the Hudson Valley and noted that job growth has been uneven over the broad area.

Albany, Glens Falls and Ithaca have added jobs throughout the decade, while employment growth in Binghamton, Buffalo, Rochester and Syracuse metropolitan areas were "weighed down" by manufacturing losses.

Still, even those areas saw a modest rebound this year.

----

On the Net:

http://www.newyorkfed.org/research/regiona...lance2--07.html

[Livyjr]

"Fiber-optic network files for Chapter 11 - ION provides high-speed Internet access to rural customers in Albany and Greene counties"

By LARRY RULISON, Business writer, Albany, New York Times Union

First published: Tuesday, December 18, 2007

ALBANY -- An Albany-based fiber-optic network owned by 15 rural telephone companies has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

The network, known as the Independent Optical Network, or ION, filed its bankruptcy petition on Friday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Albany.

The document shows that the company has $7.9 million in assets and $10.3 million in debts.

ION was formed in 2004 to allow rural telephone companies to offer their customers high-speed Internet and telecommunications services over a fiber-optic network that otherwise would have been too expensive for any of them to build on their own.

One of those companies is State Telephone Co. in Coxsackie, which uses ION to offer Internet services to its 9,000 customers in Albany and Greene counties.

Mark Evans, an assistant vice president with State Telephone, said Monday that ION's Chapter 11 filing will not have an immediate impact on his company's Internet offering since state regulators require a continuation of service.

However, depending on what happens to ION's infrastructure -- a sale might be one possibility -- he said State Telephone may have to find another carrier for the television and Internet phone service it had planned to run over the network.

"We're going to find an alternative to that," Evans said.

An affidavit filed as part of the case by James Becker, ION's chief executive officer, said Cavalier Telephone Co. of Richmond, Va., which leases the network to ION, was expected to terminate service to ION on Monday.

It did not say why.

The affidavit also said ION employs seven people.

Officials from ION could not be reached for comment.

Attorney Richard Weisz, who is handling the bankruptcy case, could not be reached either.

Cavalier officials did not return a call seeking comment.

The ION Web site says its network contains 2,200 miles of fiber from Buffalo to New York City and from Syracuse to the Canadian border.

The bankruptcy petition states that Rural Telephone Finance Cooperative, a nonprofit in Herndon, Va., is the largest secured creditor of ION, with a claim of nearly $8 million.

[Livyjr]

"Adult homes owner facing foreclosure - 3 facilities run by Woodcock Estates hurt by high energy costs"

By ALAN WECHSLER, Business writer, Albany, New York Times Union

First published: Wednesday, December 19, 2007

CAMBRIDGE -- After running adult guest homes for nearly half a century, the Woodcock family took a chance last year and added the former Mary McClellan Hospital nursing home to its portfolio.

That move was their undoing.

Woodcock Estates Inc., owner of Cambridge Guest Home for Adults and Schuyler Guest Home for Adults in Schuylerville, now faces foreclosure on all three properties brought on by high energy costs and other expenses for the new business.

In February 2006, the Woodcocks said they were acquiring the McClellan hospital and adjacent nursing home, which had been closed since 2003.

The plan was to turn the nursing home into an adult home, like the other two, and eventually turn the hospital into a 65-unit apartment complex for seniors.

But nearly two years later, all three operations are in jeopardy after expenses rose suddenly.

And last month owner Isabell Woodcock suffered an even bigger hit when her husband and business partner, Allyn Sr., died after an illness.

He was 77 years old.

"Yes, we've had a bad time," Isabell Woodcock, 74, said Tuesday.

"But it's all being straightened out."

"We're working at it."

Guest homes provide assistance to infirm adults, but not at the level of a nursing home or an assisted-living community.

Gerald Fitzgerald, a mortgage officer at Community Preservation Corp., said the Woodcocks borrowed about $2.5 million two years ago.

Due to missed payments, that sum is now up to $3.4 million, he said.

The group filed for default last summer, and Woodcock Estates now is 15 months behind, he said.

Preservation Corp. is a nonprofit organization that provides money to benefit entities that service people with "special needs."

Fitzgerald works out of the corporation's Albany office.

"We'd like very much to keep this alive," he said of the homes.

"These are economic engines for these two communities."

The three adult homes have 99 residents and 60 employees.

Woodcock said her company had been hit hard by rising heating oil and electricity prices, but was also suffering from state reimbursement rates that did not cover residents' costs.

Some residents' relatives also stopped paying their bills, she said, adding to the financial pain.

While Woodcock said she has no intention of closing the homes, she is ready to sell the business.

"I'm going to throw in the towel," she said.

Fitzgerald said the group had already been approached by interested buyers.

"Many people are very interested in seeing this continue," he said.

Alan Wechsler can be reached at 454-5469 or by e-mail at awechsler@timesunion.com.

[Livyjr]

"Bruno quits consulting job for company with union ties"

By MICHAEL GORMLEY, Associated Press

Last updated: 4:02 p.m., Friday, December 21, 2007

ALBANY -- New York Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno said he has resigned from his job with a consulting firm that led to criticism from good-government groups amid an FBI investigation into his private business dealings.

The Rensselaer County Republican said Friday he and Wright Investors' Service agreed to end their relationship Monday.

The Milford, Conn., company manages major financial funds for some of the state's politically powerful unions which often have proposals before the Legislature.

Bruno said he was ending the part-time job that had become a distraction.

"I have done so because the focus on my outside interests has taken attention away from more pressing issues such as our efforts to address the critical needs of our State going forward," Bruno said in a written statement released Friday.

"There has been a great deal of discussion regarding the ability of part-time legislators to pursue outside interests."

"I look forward to the continuing debate over that idea and whether it makes sense to have a full-time legislature or part-time legislators who are allowed to have outside income."

Bruno has refused to say what his role was, how much he was paid or which clients he dealt with.

His spokesman, John McArdle, continued to refuse to detail the private consulting role on Friday.

"Sen. Bruno has complied completely and fully with all state disclosure requirements regarding any non-legislative business he and other legislators are allowed to engage in, and that includes the work he did for Wright Investment Services," McArdle said.

In New York, lawmakers are considered part-time and allowed to hold other jobs.

Most of those jobs are with law firms, and lawmakers -- including Democratic Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver -- don't divulge their clients, saying it would violate attorney-client privilege.

There was no immediate comment from Silver or Spitzer.

A Wright Investors' spokesman wouldn't answer questions about Bruno's role with the company over the last 10 years.

"Given the current environment, in which such employment is often viewed in a negative light, it is likely that questions will continue to be raised about Mr. Bruno's employment," the company said in a prepared response.

"Accordingly, Wright Investors' Service and Mr. Bruno agreed that the best course of action for both parties was to end our relationship, effective December 17, 2007."

"We believe that Mr. Bruno's work for the firm has always been conducted according to established legal and ethical principles of our business," the written statement concluded.

Bruno's annual ethics reports disclosed the employment, though not what he does there.

The state ethics law allows officials to have outside employment, though they cannot engage in activities that create or appear to create a conflict with their public duties, and they are barred from obtaining unwarranted privileges for themselves or others.

Eugene Helm, president of Wright Investors, told The New York Times that the company's relationship with unions predated Bruno's employment, which he described as "business development".

He wouldn't disclose details.

Some of Bruno's outside business interests have been the subject of a federal investigation for more than a year, but Helm said earlier this month that his company has "never run afoul of the law or had a suit against us."

Officials from several unions that have pension or health funds managed by Wright said they didn't know Bruno worked there.

Government watchdog groups said that the situation highlights the weakness of ethics and disclosure laws in New York.

[Livyjr]

"Jobless rate climbs in Capital Region - Cuts in manufacturing, wholesale trade push level to 3.8 percent"

By ERIC ANDERSON, Deputy business editor, Albany, New York Times Union

First published: Friday, December 21, 2007

ALBANY -- Job losses in manufacturing and wholesale trade helped push unemployment in the Capital Region to 3.8 percent of the work force in November, from 3.5 percent a year earlier, the state Labor Department reported Thursday.

Manufacturing shed 1,100 jobs, while wholesale trade lost 1,000.

Although companies that cut jobs were not identified, two local manufacturers, Owens Corning and Albany International Corp., shed hundreds of jobs during the past year.

"Manufacturing losses have accelerated over the past couple of months," said state labor markets analyst James Ross.

But he said other companies, notably General Electric Co., have announced plans to hire workers.

GE Energy is expanding at its plant in Schenectady, while GE Healthcare is building a new plant at Rensselaer Technology Park in North Greenbush.

Ross expects additional job declines in December, due to the relatively mild weather last year that buoyed employment in construction and leisure/hospitality.

With this year's colder, snowier weather, employment likely will be depressed.

"I don't think it's a long-term situation," Ross said of the recent labor market weakness.

"We still hear businesses clamoring for workers."

"Labor supply issues are holding down employment in many industries."

Indeed, that was the finding of a separate survey by Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based Spherion Corp., a recruiting and staffing company, which reported that its New York Employee Confidence Index increased 0.8 points to 53.6 in November.

Any reading above 50 indicates a positive confidence level.

Spherion's national index, meanwhile, fell 3.5 points to 52.9 in November, its lowest point so far this year.

November's increase in Capital Region unemployment "is part of the seasonal effect we normally see this time of year," said Tim O'Brien, a Spherion managing director based in upstate New York.

"If people felt like there's uncertainty in the job market, the natural reaction would be to hunker down and wait for the bad times to pass."

But, he said, the state survey found an increase in the number of people who plan to look for new jobs next year, to 4 in 10 in the November, compared to just over 3 in 10 in October.

The number of respondents confident in their ability to find a new job, 55 percent, was down slightly from 57 percent in October.

O'Brien said his own permanent-placement business has surged, up 500 percent this month from a year ago.

Spherion focuses on filling positions in information technology, accounting and finance, and engineering.

In the Capital Region metropolitan area, unemployment was lowest in Saratoga County, at 3.5 percent, followed by Albany County, at 3.7 percent, and Rensselaer and Schenectady counties, at 3.9 percent.

Schoharie County's 4.6 percent was the highest in the region.

Anderson can be reached at 454-5323 or by e-mail at eanderson@timesunion.com.

[Livyjr]

THE NEW YORK DAILY NEWS DAILY POLITICS BLOG:

ELIOT SPITZER ON GOVERNMENT REFORM TO THE ROCKEFELLER INSTITUTE OF GOVERNMENT, November 21, 2005:

I'm proud of the fact that my office has achieved a great deal during the last seven years in reforming Wall Street and the financial sector.

THAT WAS POSSIBLE IN PART BECAUSE I KNEW WHOSE SIDE I WAS ON.

I DIDN'T WAIVER.

I didn't worry about the pushback that inevitably comes when you try to change the status quo.

I believe that what happened on Wall Street and in these various other areas can also happen on State Street here in Albany.

My starting point is this proposition: you can't achieve reform - you can't achieve meaningful, far-reaching reform - unless it is based on core values.

In the financial sector we argued core values that no one could dispute: honest, full, free and fair competition.

OUR GOAL WAS AND IS TO MAKE THE FRE ENTERPRISE SYSTEM WORK AS IT SHOULD - THROUGH TRUTHFUL, FULL DISCLOSURE AND THE CREATION OF A LEVEL PLAYING FIELD.

To be sure, there were those who asserted that our actions would harm the markets.

The people who did that were protectors of the status quo.

THEY DID NOT UNDERSTAND THAT THERE ARE MOMENTS WHEN GOVERNMENT MUST ACT TO HELP RESTORE THE INTEGRITY OF THE MARKETS.

They did not understand that enforcement of the rules is good for business, and that such action helps unleash the true power of the system - with capital flowing freely to the greatest opportunities for growth.

On Wall Street and throughout the financial sector, the status quo was a system based too frequently on cronyism.

It was a system in which a favored few special interests took advantage, BY FRAUD, of the rest of us.

It was a system where one senior participant, without any sense of irony, observed that what often was a conflict of interest was now a synergy.

The reality, though, was that they were robbing people of pensions and nest eggs.

And their actions distorted and harmed the markets.

We stepped forward and stopped the fraud we found, returned money to people, and restored competition.

THIS WAS GOOD FOR THE MARKETS AND GOOD FOR THE ECONOMY OVERALL.

IN FACT, CONTRARY TO THE PREDICTIONS OF THE NAYSAYERS, THE INDUSTRIES WE INVESTIGATED AND THEN REFORMED ARE STRONGER NOW THAN THEY WERE BEFORE.

That even goes for the individual companies that we investigated.

They may not have liked the process, but they were made stronger as a result.

IN THE END, WE ACHIEVED RESULTS WHERE OTHERS HAD FAILED AND GIVEN UP, AND WHERE NO ONE THOUGHT IT WAS POSSIBLE.

WE HAVE DONE IT TIME AND TIME AGAIN - INVESTMENT BANKS, MUTUAL FUNDS, PHARMACEUTICAL COMPANIES, INSURANCE COMPANIES AND ELSEWHERE.

In Albany - as it was on Wall Street - the status quo is a system that lacks ACCOUNTABILITY.

IT IS A SYSTEM THAT IS CONTROLLED BY SPECIAL INTERESTS.

IT IS A SYSTEM THAT IS NOT EFFICIENT, IS NOT OPEN AND TRANSPARENT.

Posted by John Galt on December 22, 2007 5:46 PM

http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dailypoli...4.html#comments

[Livyjr]

NEWSWEEK

News December 19, 2007, 11:15PM EST

"The Bear Flu: How It Spread - A novel financing scheme used by Bear Stearns' hedge funds became a template for subprime disaster"

by David Henry and Matthew Goldstein

When the subprime mortgage market began to unravel late in 2006, global bond markets barely flinched.

But when two Bear Stearns (BSC) hedge funds collapsed in June, the event sparked a global credit crisis that has yet to ease.

New evidence sheds light on how those hedge funds—and their managers—became star players in the subprime bust, the biggest financial disaster in decades.

The revelations also show how other players in the mortgage market adopted the Bear funds' tactics, collectively building a financing structure with many of the hallmarks of a pyramid scheme.

The legal consequences are still unfolding.

In recent weeks securities regulators and federal prosecutors have stepped up their investigations into the two funds, probing the fuzzy math used to value the underlying assets, the aggressive sales pitches that portrayed the funds as safe, and frequent trades with other Bear-managed portfolios.

On Dec. 19, Barclays (BCS), which lent one Bear fund hundreds of millions, filed a lawsuit alleging fraud over misleading statements about the portfolio's health.

Says a Bear spokesman:

"We believe that any such lawsuit is unjustified and without merit."

Investigators also are asking why Ralph R. Cioffi, the funds' top manager, moved $2 million of his own $6 million investment in the hedge funds into another fund in early 2007 while simultaneously raising cash for the funds, trying to sell them to Cerberus Capital Management, and telling investors they couldn't redeem their shares until the end of June.

People familiar with the situation at Bear stress that Cioffi, who left the firm the week of Dec. 10, was simply investing in a different Bear fund with which he was involved.

Cioffi's lawyers did not return e-mails or calls seeking comment.

A CDO Called Klio

It's too soon to tell whether authorities will find any wrongdoing.

But a BusinessWeek analysis of confidential hedge fund reports and interviews with lawyers, investors, and securities experts reveals just how pivotal a role Cioffi's funds played in the mortgage market's dramatic rise, dizzying peak, and disastrous fall.

The analysis shows Cioffi and his team developed a novel investment product to attract money-market funds—a new class of investor—to the mortgage market.

Their innovation, a particularly aggressive form of collateralized debt obligation, or CDO, became the building blocks of the industry's push to keep growing for longer than it otherwise would have.

After the market turned, it became clear the Cioffi money machine contributed to much of the $10 billion-plus in writedowns that Citigroup © and Bank of America (BAC) revealed in November.

Fresh evidence also suggests Cioffi's team may have engaged in self-dealing by using the new CDOs to buy assets from the funds, artificially boosting returns.

Citi and Bank of America declined to comment.

At the center of it all was the new breed of CDO pioneered by Cioffi and his team to tap into the $2 trillion universe of money-market accounts in which individuals and corporations stash their spare cash.

Cioffi's CDOs, initially branded "Klio Funding," were entities that sold commercial paper and other short-term debt to buy higher-yielding, longer-term securities.

The Klios were a win-win proposition for money-market funds.

They paid a higher interest rate than the usual short-term debt.

And investors didn't need to worry about the risky assets the Klios owned because Citigroup had agreed to refund their initial stake plus interest, through what's known as a "liquidity put," if the market soured.

Cioffi engineered three such deals in 2004 and 2005, raising $10 billion in all.

What did Citigroup get for guaranteeing the Klios?

For one thing, fees.

The Klios were also a ready buyer of Citi's own stash of mortgage-backed securities and other debt.

Citi probably never imagined it would have to make good on those guarantees because the underlying assets had the highest credit ratings.

Cioffi used the money from each deal to purchase billions in mortgage-backed securities and pieces of other CDOs for his three Klios.

He bought many of the assets directly from the two Bear hedge funds he managed.

The move also supplied the hedge funds with cash.

A Pyramid Structure

The Klios had another powerful feature: They allowed the Bear funds to lock in longer-term financing.

Typically, hedge funds borrow for short periods of time, usually just days or weeks.

Under the terms of the Klio deals, Cioffi could use the money for at least a year without having to worry that it would disappear overnight if the market got volatile.

He discussed that advantage in an Apr. 25 call with hedge fund investors, boasting that the funding wasn't subject to market fluctuations.

The Klio structure spread rapidly as other hedge funds, CDO managers, and banks, including Barclays, Bank of America, and Société Générale, followed Cioffi's lead.

From 2004 through 2007, Wall Street raised some $100 billion through these innovative CDOs, essentially creating a whole new way for the industry to finance risky subprime loans.

That success, in turn, inspired copycat products such as structured investment vehicles, which also sold short-term debt.

At their peak, in February, 2007, SIV assets hit $300 billion.

Barclays declined to comment, but the company announced on Nov. 15 losses from CDO investments that it had been forced to take on its books.

A Société Générale spokesman said it has transferred all of its risk to a large, global financial institution.

In hindsight, CDOs and SIVs served as a foundation for a pyramid-like structure that Yale University economist Robert J. Shiller says occasionally arises from bull markets.

As new investors arrive to the party, they bid up prices, boosting returns for those who got in earlier.

The big gains attract more investors, and the cycle continues—as long as the players don't try to take out their money en masse.

The mortgage-market system played out much the same way.

The new type of CDO lured a different tier of investors: money-market funds.

The flood of fresh money made it even cheaper and easier for buyers to get mortgages.

That, in turn, drove up home prices, holding off defaults and foreclosures.

The process enriched the people who bought earlier in the boom and triggered more speculation.

"An Incestuous Relationship"

The complexity of the Klios and their ilk only encouraged lax lending practices by putting too much distance between the borrowers and the ultimate holders of their debt.

Since the Klios offered a refund policy, money-market managers didn't have to worry about whether home buyers would pay back their loans.

Their investments were protected even if the owners eventually defaulted on their mortgages.

Indeed, as the bubble inflated, there was little incentive for the array of middlemen collecting fees—mortgage brokers, real estate appraisers, bankers, money managers, and others—to do the proper checks.

The lack of oversight likely contributed to the rampant fraud on some underlying loans, says S. Kenneth Leech, chief investment officer of bond-investing firm Western Asset Management.

"Nobody wanted to take the punch bowl away from the party," adds Charles Calomiris, a professor at Columbia Business School.

"They were all making fees."

Now investigators are trying to determine whether Cioffi and his team crossed legal lines.

The Klios provided the Bear hedge funds with a ready, in-house trading partner.

Their financial reports, which were reviewed by BusinessWeek, show many months in which the Cioffi-managed Klios traded only with the Cioffi-managed Bear funds.

For example, in April, 2006, one Klio CDO bought $114 million worth of securities from one of the Bear funds.

Such trades, says Steven B. Caruso, an attorney who represents several Bear hedge fund investors, may be "indicative of an incestuous, self-serving relationship that appears to have been designed to establish a false marketplace."

If that's why the trades were made, the maneuvers could have falsely boosted the hedge funds' returns—and the fees Cioffi and his team collected.

In an e-mail to Cioffi and co-manager Matthew Tannin cited in a legal filing, Raymond McGarrigal, another executive at the Bear funds, gushed about the Klio setup, writing that "one of the great things we've done is allow the Klio to buy assets from the hedge fund."

Lawyers for Tannin and McGarrigal declined to comment.

The End of an Era?

Amid the market turmoil earlier this spring, Cioffi hoped the Klios would work their magic once again.

In April, as losses at the funds began mounting, Cioffi set up another CDO, High Grade Structured Credit CDO 2007-1, which issued short-term paper and offered investors a money-back guarantee from Bank of America.

Cioffi had raised nearly $4 billion by late May, making it the biggest CDO of the year, according to Thomson Financial (TOC).

Just as before, Cioffi used the money to buy assets from the hedge funds, perhaps to prop up the portfolios, which by then were on the brink of collapse.

In an April conference call with the hedge funds' investors, Cioffi said the new CDO was part of his plan "to get the funds back on track to generate positive returns."

It didn't work.

Just weeks after the deal for the CDO closed, the Bear funds imploded, wiping out $1.6 billion of investors' money.

(The fund into which Cioffi moved $2 million, Bear Stearns Structured Risk Partners, was up 6.5% as of Nov. 30.)

By autumn the practice of using CDOs to raise cash was dead.

Money-market funds had stopped buying the short-term debt, and the credit markets were frozen.

That forced Citigroup and Bank of America to make good on their guarantees to investors in Cioffi's CDOs, triggering big losses at the two banks.

The global markets are dealing with the consequences: The tab from the mortgage mess could run up to $500 billion, and central bankers are struggling to stave off recession.

As investigators sort through the wreckage, the records of Bear Stearns' doomed hedge funds are turning out to be some of the most revealing in an era of financial folly.

Henry is a senior writer at BusinessWeek. Goldstein is an associate editor at BusinessWeek, covering hedge funds and finance.

[Livyjr]

THE NEW YORK DAILY NEWS DAILY POLITICS BLOG:

Posted by IronMike: Hey John.

Obviously, it's therapeutic for you to continue to tell the story about how in your view Eliot Spitzer personally engineered the persecution of Paul Plante.

JOHN GALT RESPONDS: Mike, dude, you are so totally missing the points that I am making in here ...

Eliot Spitzer did not personally "engineer the persecution" of the engineer, Paul R. Plante ...

He legitimized it as NYS Attorney General ...

And he protected it ....

Instead of enforcing the law ...

And yes, Mike, you are correct ...

Part of that sorry story has already been told in here ...

And I am avoiding going over it again and again and again, except as necessary as background ...

The issue right now, as you yourself brought up in here so long ago, is the HOUSING MARKET MELTDOWN that is going to have disastrous consequences for us older folks living, or trying to live, on fixed incomes on our own property in upstate NY where we also have to pay ever-increasing property taxes to grasping local governments, bloated school districts, and corrupt county governments ...

The Buckadelic dude has attributed that MELTDOWN to HEDGE FUNDS ...

I don't think it is that simple ...

I think the loss in value is in part related directly to the lack of intrinsic or underlying value in the physical properties themselves that were mortgaged for far more than they would ever be realistically worth ...

And BUT FOR bogus approvals by local planning boards, the county health departments in NYS and the state Health Department, and bogus certifications by local building inspectors ...

These properties wouldn't have been on the market to be mortgaged in the first place ...

And so ...

That is how Paul Plante fits in, Mike ...

The Paul Plante matter firmly ties Eliot Spitzer into the LAND SCAM SCHEME here in NYS that I believe underlies the HOUSING MELTDOWN to the extent that it is happening here in NYS ....

And so ...

THE ISSUE IS THE HOUSING MARKET MELTDOWN, dude ...

That is the page that we are on in here, now ....

I do hope you stick around ....

But since we are virtual in here, of course, I can't make you do that ....

Other than by making the subject matter interesting enough that you will follow it along ...

Especially as it does concern the Public Health Law and POLICE POWER of the "state" here in NYS ...

Which I believe is a matter of some interest to you professionally ...

And so ...

Posted by John Galt on December 22, 2007 2:37 PM

http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dailypoli...d-ends-154.html

[Livyjr]

THE NEW YORK DAILY NEWS DAILY POLITICS BLOG:

Posted by IronMike: Hey John.

Obviously, it's therapeutic for you to continue to tell the story about how in your view Eliot Spitzer personally engineered the persecution of Paul Plante.

It truly baffles me what possible interest he, a Democrat, would have in doing the bidding of the corrupt Republican machine in Rensselaer County.

Maybe there was a business connection.

JOHN GALT CONSIDERS THIS: Mike, dude, what would be really therapeutic for me as an older disabled person in upstate NY on a low fixed income would be to have a truthful, trustworthy person in there as NYS governor ...

A governor who was in there tending to the business of the State of New York, ACCORDING TO ITS WRITTEN LAWS AND CONSTITUTION ...

So that us older common folks out here in APPALACHIA could live our lives in some degree of comfort and safety ....

Neither of which we have presently here in NYS ...

And so ....

As to Spitzer's involvement in the Pul Plante affair, Mike, keep in mind that the alleged perp, William "BUCK" Shea, who is not Buckadelic, was an employee of the REPUBLICAN administration of George Pataki, not Rensselaer County ...

Shea was a NYS employee who was used as a conduit to get the fraudulent Mental Health incarceration order from the Samaritan Hospital in Troy to the NYSP, the VA Police at Stratton VA Hospital in Albany, and the office of the US Attorney for the Northern District of NY in Albany ...

And Shea also made false statements to the federal VA Police as a NYS employee ...

Shea was Spitzer's client ....

WHY, Mike?

And for that answer, I would go back to Spitzer's own words above in the Paumgarten article, where he states that young Andy Cuomo is his lawyer ...

Using that same logic presented to us through Nick Paumgarten by Spitzer himself ...

We can assume that Spitzer was Pataki's lawyer at the time that NYS employee William "BUCK" Shea was used in the Paul Plante affair in August of 2001 and thereafter ...

So Spitzer's involvement was at the state level, Mike ...

Spitzer wasn't doing the bidding of corrupt Rensselaer County officials ...

He was protecting them ...

And in the process of doing so, he was also protecting Northeast Health, which is a member of the NYS Business Council ...

And to do that, Spitzer was teamed up with "Donnie Bob" Ford of the powerful Albany law firm of Thuillez, Ford & Gold Johnson ...

Which powerful politically-connected law firm is also a member of the NYS Business Council ...

AND connected back to Eliot Spitzer through the TOBACCO LAWSUIT SETTLEMENTS ...

Where thanks to Eliot Spitzer as state AG ...

The GOLD JOHNSONS were awarded legal fees of something like $13,000 per hour ...

And so ...

Posted by John Galt on December 22, 2007 3:33 PM

http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dailypoli...d-ends-154.html

[Livyjr]

THE NEW YORK DAILY NEWS DAILY POLITICS BLOG:

Did you see Platoon, Mike?

That one scene in there where the one sargeant says something about "the way things are supposed to be, and the way that they are"?

That really is what the Buckadelic dude, and myself and yourself and topo and Dr. Cannon and everyone else in here is kind of talking about ....

THE WAY THINGS IN NYS GOVERNMENT ARE SUPPOSED TO BE ...

VERSUS THE WAY THINGS REALLY ARE ...

The STATUS QUO that Eliot Spitzer is very much a part of, despite his blather about "reform" ...

And to do that, Mike ....

To have this admittedly long-term discussion as citizens ...

We all need CONTEXT ...

That is why I periodically bring in the Paul Plante affair ...

For the context ...

Because there is no speculation there ....

That case is based on hundreds and hundreds of pages of OFFICIAL NYS records ...

Official records, such as that letter above here from Plante to the federal judge concerning tactical chicanery by Asst. AG Nelson Sheingold, who is now council to Spitzer's worthless IG, that firmly establish for us in here, not the way things are supposed to be ...

But the way that they really are ...

And they also firmly establish as factual evidence the roles that various players have played in this on-going drama that goes back in time, in actuality, to in or about 1978 ...

When some kind of political deal was allegedly done by the government of the State of NY and lawyers for powerful white collar criminals here in NYS ...

That would allow them to launder some $44 BILLION in illicit, ill-gotten gains back then to get that money back into circulation and to clean it up ....

Perhaps by laundering some of that money back through the State of NY itself as loans to clean it up ...

And so ...

Posted by John Galt on December 22, 2007 3:51 PM

http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dailypoli...d-ends-154.html

[Livyjr]

THE NEW YORK DAILY NEWS DAILY POLITICS BLOG:

Posted by IronMike: I'll stay here because I like you all better.

But if the discussion goes around in circles, I'll split.

Enjoy your weekend and your holiday, my friend.

JOHN GALT RESPONDS: Well, Mike ...

The discussion has in fact gone full circle in here, one more time again, with this last post of mine above here ...

Eliot Spitzer promising his cronies in the NYS Business Council in September of 2006 that if they made him governor of the State of New York ...

That he would in turn GUT for them the regulations governing development here in NYS ....

He would insure that the NYS Business Council was handed a set of GUTTED REGULATIONS that regulate exactly nothing at all with respect to development ...

So that the members of the NYS Business Council could in turn market their developments here in NYS, insuring those who were buying in, and the mortgaging agencies, that their developments did on fact comply with all regulations ....

WHEN THE REGULATIONS WERE IN FACT EMPTY!

WHICH IS THE ESSENCE OF FRAUD, Mike ...

THE ESSENCE OF THE FRAUD THAT UNDERLIES THE HOUSING MELTDOWN ...

Because GUTTING the regulations as Spitzer was CHAMPION of, results in the marketing of SHODDY PRODUCTS to the unwitting members of the public who depend upon sound regulations to protect them from being FLEECED ...

And these unwitting members of the public do not realize that they have been taken for a ride until they own the SHODDY-BUILTS that Spitzer's GUTTED REGULATIONS are intended to provide for, to maximize the profits of his cronies in the NYS Business Council ....

And the chickens then come home to roost ...

FOR THEM ...

And whomever holds the mortgage on their SHODDY-BUILT ...

Thanks to Eliot Spitzer and his "GUMMINT REFORM" here in NYS on behalf of the NYS Business Council ...

And so ....

Enjoy the weekend yourself, Mike ...

And I will as well ...

And I'll tell you something, Mike ...

I am past being sick of this @#$% ...

The same old NY @#$% again and again and again, without end, to our financial detriment here in NYS ...

These lies ...

These untruths ...

These evasions ....

The corruption ...

Sick of it, Mike ....

And so ...

Posted by John Galt on December 22, 2007 6:25 PM

http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dailypoli...d-ends-154.html

[Livyjr]

THE NEW YORK DAILY NEWS DAILY POLITICS BLOG:

John, thank you for the education.

You have made the connections quite clear for me and all other readers, and I honestly appreciate it.

My question assuming Eliot was a Democrat and not a DINO was rhetorical.

The whole affair was quite fishy, but you connected the dots perfectly.

You really should consider writing a long story describing all the facts and circumstances and connections in their intricacy and submit it to an alternative newspaper for publication.

I think it would have a good chance of getting published.

Posted by IronMike on December 23, 2007 9:24 AM

http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dailypoli...d-ends-154.html

[Livyjr]

"Critics take aim at mall owner - Investors question decisions at Feldman Mall Properties, which runs Colonie Center"

By ALAN WECHSLER, Business writer, Albany, New York Times Union

First published: Saturday, December 22, 2007

COLONIE -- It's the busiest shopping period of the year.

But for stockholders of Feldman Mall Properties Inc., this is not the season to be jolly.

Feldman Mall, the Long Island-based owner of Colonie Center, has seen its stock go from $12 last summer to a low of $2.41 in late November.

And on Friday afternoon, Chairman Larry Feldman paid for it, as investors and analysts hammered company officials with questions for nearly an hour during a conference call.

Questions ranged from concern about the company's use of a private jet earlier in the year to an internal audit estimating Feldman Mall's worth that the company declined to release.

(Feldman said it consisted of outdated 2006 numbers.)

Paul Rittmaster, an analyst at Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. in New York City, took the company to task for announcing a stock buyback program and then delaying it.

"You folks seem to be in disarray to me," he said.

Founded in 2004 to continue the business of an Arizona mall management company, FMP is a real estate investment trust based in Great Neck.

The company paid $84 million for Colonie Center in 2005, and since then has invested an additional $85 million there.

The mall recently unveiled new major retailers and restaurants.

It is also opening a multiplex theater, but the pushed-back start has been delayed again -- this time to spring of 2008.

Feldman, speaking after the conference call, said he wondered if some callers were looking to push down the value of the stock.

"Some of our stockholders are short-term holders, and this is a long-term development play," Feldman said.

"The people in Albany know that Colonie Center is at a turning point."

Feldman specializes in sprucing up underperforming malls and selling them once rents have risen.

During Friday's call, one investor criticized the company for renting a Lear jet to bring a half-dozen executives on a whirlwind tour of the company's seven malls, which are scattered around the country.

Feldman said the jet cost about $28,000 and was needed to ensure the group could visit the malls efficiently.

'I've traveled on private jets on occasion," said the investor, who identified himself as Robert Forte.

"But usually because I'm high-fiving a deal that made a lot of money, not during a period of lean times."

In response to the question about holding back on a stock repurchase plan, Feldman said it was upon a lawyer's recommendation to wait until the third-quarter earnings came out.

Also, for the second time in two quarters, Feldman was late in its quarterly earnings filing.

The company said it was outsourcing its "back office" to solve the problem.

"Our board views these delays as unacceptable," Feldman said.

"We are committed to getting timely filings back on track."

Feldman Mall Properties Inc. on Friday reported a bigger net loss for the third quarter ended Sept. 30 compared with a year ago: $3.1 million vs. $1.7 million.

For the nine months ended Sept. 30, the company recorded a net loss of $8.9 million, compared with net income of $21 million during the year-ago period.

The company blamed the quarterly loss on nonrecurring expenses and fees, some related to the exploration of ways to raise shareholder values.

The expenses are expected to impact the fourth quarter, too, Feldman said.

Wechsler can be reached at 454-5469 or by e-mail at awechsler@timesunion.com.

[Livyjr]

"Bank plans national job cuts - KeyCorp to shed 1,040 positions, but few losses expected in Capital Region"

By CHRIS CHURCHILL, Business writer, Albany, New York Times Union

First published: Friday, December 21, 2007

ALBANY -- KeyCorp said late Thursday it will eliminate 1,040 jobs nationwide, though few cuts are expected in the Capital Region.

Cleveland-based Key, with 40 branches in the area and almost a quarter of the region's deposits, has a regional headquarters in Albany.

Key spokeswoman Therese Myers said the announced cuts will have a "very minimal" impact on the bank's employment here.

"Most of the job cuts are in Cleveland and more are scattered among 28 states," she said.

The bank will not release a local job-cuts number, Myers said.

In a statement issued Thursday, the bank blamed the slumping housing market for the cuts, particularly in California and Florida.

Just last week, the bank said it intended to cut 415 jobs in 2008, about 2.2 percent of its 18,500 employees.

But Thursday's announcement dramatically increases the number of eliminated jobs.

Three hundred of the jobs are open positions, the bank said.

The Associated Press said Key expects to post a loss of up to 5 cents per share in the fourth quarter and to exit its home-improvement lending and payroll services businesses.

The bank exited the subprime-mortgage business more than a year ago, the AP said, quoting CEO Henry Meyer as saying the bank has "no meaningful" exposure to risky lending or investment vehicles related to the housing market.

In after-hours trading, KeyCorp shares slid 61 cents, or 2.8 percent, to $21.30, according to the AP.

The stock ended the regular session down 40 cents to $21.91.

[Livyjr]

"Spitzer to talk, but to what extent?"

Albany, New York Times Union

First published: Monday, December 17, 2007

]Gov. Eliot Spitzer will likely go before the state's Public Integrity Commission next month to talk about what he knows of the ongoing travel records scandal that has put his former aide Darren Dopp and other members of the governor's circle in the cross hairs of Albany County District Attorney David Soares, according to a person familiar with the investigation.

What's less clear, though, is precisely how much Spitzer will disclose about his meeting with the commission, the majority of whom are appointed by him.

There was some minor confusion last week amid news reports which did and then didn't indicate that the governor would release transcripts of his talks with the commission.

But it turns out that unless he is a target of an investigation by the commission, which he apparently is not, he can't get transcripts.

However, commission spokesman Walter Ayres explained that a witness before the commission can take notes and his or her lawyer can do the same, although no recording devices are allowed.

With that in mind, the overarching question for the governor might be whether he will fully discuss what he talks about before the commission -- transcript or not.

"I'm happy to have my comments released all the time, and answer every question."

"I always have," Spitzer said last week when asked by a reporter if he would discuss his talks with the commission.

Contributor: Capitol bureau reporter Rick Karlin. Got a tip? Call 454-5758 or e-mail rkarlin@timesunion.com.

[Livyjr]

"New life in Spitzer probe - District attorney again subpoenas governor's office seeking material in travel records scandal"

By RICK KARLIN and ROB GAVIN, Staff writers, Albany, New York Times Union

First published: Tuesday, December 18, 2007

ALBANY -- The travel records scandal that has enveloped Gov. Eliot Spitzer and some of his top staff members is far from over, as the governor on Monday confirmed that his office has received yet another subpoena from Albany County District Attorney David Soares.

This comes as Soares is hiring a chief for his Public Integrity Unit, which subpoenaed the governor; and as the state Public Integrity Commission is about to call Spitzer in to testify next month.

Spitzer briefly acknowledged the new subpoena during a news conference on Monday but wouldn't elaborate.

"Obviously, we are cooperating fully," he said.

However, the latest subpoena, first reported Monday in the New York Daily News, was said to be seeking phone records, messages on BlackBerry devices and e-mails among the governor's inner circle.

The Republican-controlled Senate Committee on Investigations and Government Operations also is seeking such material, although Spitzer as well as his former chief spokesman Darren Dopp are fighting that request in court.

Soares has been focusing on Dopp and whether there were contradictions between what Dopp told the district attorney in an unsworn interview and what he told the Public Integrity Commission and Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, who, like Soares, completed an inquiry on the affair earlier this year.

One of the questions centers on whether there are discrepancies between a notarized statement that Dopp gave the attorney general in which he admitted errors in judgment and what he told the Public Integrity Commission.

Whether those discrepancies amount to a criminal violation is ultimately up to a grand jury that will look at the matter, Soares said last week.

"We are in the infancy of our process, and the time will come and the day will come when all those questions are answered," Soares said.

He stressed that he has no set timetable for finishing his probe.

Statements like that could mean the travel records probe could be with the governor through the new year, even though he has repeatedly tried to move past it.

The scandal has dogged Spitzer since the summer, when Republican Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno charged the governor's aides with spying on him by having the State Police keep track of his travels when the Brunswick Republican went to New York City aboard a state helicopter.

Attorney General Andrew Cuomo in July concluded that no laws were broken but that Spitzer aides, including Dopp, improperly got police involved in a political affair by having them re-create from memory the senator's New York City itineraries.

In September, Soares issued his own report agreeing that the travel records affair included no illegalities, but concerns over inconsistencies prompted Soares to reopen the inquiry.

Heading the Public Integrity Unit is Bruce Lennard, who left the office this summer for a post at the Commission on Judicial Conduct, said Soares spokeswoman Heather Orth, who explained that he was rehired last week.

Orth said the hiring was not linked to the travel records affair, saying there was an open position to run the bureau for some time.

"We were just looking for the right person," she said.

Lennard will oversee a unit with three full-time staffers -- himself, Assistant District Attorney Linda Griggs and investigator Steve Stein -- and, at times, assistance from others in the office, Orth said.

Karlin can be reached at 454-5758 or by e-mail at rkarlin@timesunion.com.

[Livyjr]

"Dormitory Authority hunts missing ID tapes - Data on hundreds of current, former workers were lost in transit"

By RICK KARLIN, Capitol bureau, Albany, New York Times Union

First published: Thursday, December 20, 2007

ALBANY -- Data tapes containing Social Security numbers, phone numbers and addresses for up to 800 current and former employees of the state Dormitory Authority, many of whom live in the Capital Region, are missing.

Employees of the agency, which funds and oversees construction of college dorms and other capital projects, were informed of the missing tapes on Wednesday via an e-mail that also offered advice on how to learn about identity theft precautions.

"UPS is investigating it at their end."

"We are investigating it to the extent that we can on our end," said authority spokesman Marc Violette.

The agency, he explained, sends a package of the tapes, which are kept as backups, to the New York City office each evening.

They include time sheet information as well as records for some of the 3,000 vendors the agency deals with.

Employees at the authority's Penn Plaza office in Manhattan discovered the envelope was damaged and open and the tapes were not inside.

They started a trace, but by Wednesday they concluded the tapes were missing.

Violette said officials as of Wednesday had no reason to believe the tapes were stolen, and the envelope may have simply been damaged during what is typically one of the busiest shipping days of the year.

Violette said he didn't believe the tapes were encrypted, but stressed they are in cassettelike containers that require special equipment and software in order to be read.

"You can't really do anything with this on your laptop or home PC," Violette said.

The tapes contain records for people hired before Jan. 1, 2006.

Those hired after that date are tracked on a different system.

The Dormitory Authority employs about 370 people in Albany, 180 in New York City, 20 in Buffalo and 100 at other locations across the state, Violette said.

It wasn't immediately clear why the tapes also included data from retirees, or former employees, or where they reside.

Hiring and termination dates also are on the tapes.

This isn't the first time a set of state tapes with Social Security numbers has vanished.

In June 2006, tapes with similar data on 1,300 state workers from a variety of agencies disappeared as they were being transported between the state's Harriman campus in Albany to the comptroller's data center in Rensselaer.

Violette said officials from the Dormitory Authority alerted the attorney general and the Office of Cyber Security and Critical Infrastructure Coordination as well as the Consumer Protection Board.

Karlin can be reached at 454-5758 or by e-mail at rkarlin@timesunion.com.

[Livyjr]

"New chief named for NYRA panel - Spitzer puts Silver appointee in charge of oversight board; change comes amid daunting challenges"

By JAMES M. ODATO, Capitol bureau, Albany, New York Times Union

First published: Thursday, December 20, 2007

ALBANY -- Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver's newest appointee on the New York Racing Association oversight board has been tapped by Gov. Eliot Spitzer to take over as chairman.

The move is an abrupt change of leadership as the panel's toughest challenges lay ahead.

Spitzer on Wednesday named Steven Newman to the chairman's post now held by Carole E. Stone, who was appointed by Gov. George Pataki in August 2005.

Stone will continue serving her four-year term at Spitzer's request, said Paul Francis, the governor's budget director.

The panel could soon have to take on difficult duties, including making sure racing continues after NYRA's 52-year hold on the state racing franchise expires on Dec. 31.

NYRA's assets and liabilities are due to be turned over to the state, but NYRA claims it owns the Aqueduct, Belmont Park and Saratoga tracks and has threatened to sue.

It is unclear what Newman knows about horse racing.

He essentially ran the comptroller's office in New York City as the first deputy under then-city comptroller Alan Hevesi, and also was a top aide to Hevesi's predecessor, Jay Goldin.

Newman could not be reached for comment.

Silver spokesman Dan Weiller said Madelyn Wils, who was appointed by Silver to the oversight board this past year, had resigned, although he couldn't say why.

Wils, a community activist in Manhattan, was unavailable for comment.

Wils participated in the first oversight board meeting in months on Monday via teleconference call.

She was the only member of the five-person board not to attend the meeting in person.

Stone said Wednesday afternoon that she was unaware Wils had resigned.

She also said she had heard nothing about a leadership change on the board.

Stone, former Civil Service Commissioner George Sinnott and Timothy B. Thornton, of Delmar, a principal in the law firm McNamee Lochner Titus & Williams, were appointed to four-year terms on the board by Gov. George Pataki in August 2005.

"The governor decides upon which of those appointees is chair," Stone said.

"That is within the discretion of the governor."

Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno also has an appointee on the board, Joseph Torani, an Albany accountant.

Spitzer and the Legislature are negotiating a deal that may help NYRA get out of bankruptcy, turn over the tracks and keep the franchise.

Francis said the talks are progressing well and he expects by year end to have a four-way agreement, including NYRA's approval, and ratification of the deal by the Legislature in early January.

James M. Odato can be reached at 454-5083 or by e-mail at jodato@timesunion.com.

[Livyjr]

"New York finds allies to fight warming - State's presence at Bali negotiations helps bring Ontario in on regional initiative"

By BRIAN NEARING, Staff writer, Albany, New York Times Union

First published: Thursday, December 20, 2007

ALBANY -- New York's fight against global warming met a receptive international audience during this month's climate negotiations in Bali.

New York was among three states represented at the two-week conference, where U.S. officials -- who at one point faced booing -- agreed only to negotiate future unspecified cuts in carbon dioxide emissions.

Accumulating CO2, a known greenhouse gas emitted from the burning of oil, coal and natural gas, is driving human-caused global warming, according to international scientific consensus.

While the U.S. accounts for a quarter of global warming emissions, the Bush administration opposes mandatory reductions.

"The mood of the delegates was one of, 'We will tolerate the shenanigans of this current administration and wrangle whatever we can, because we know we can work with the states,' " said state Climate Change Director Peter Iwanowicz, who returned from Bali on Saturday.

While there, he found widespread interest in the 10-state Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a plan to reduce CO2 emissions from power plants beginning in 2009.

On Friday, Ontario Environment Minister John Garretsen, who met Iwanowicz during the negotiations, wrote to DEC Commissioner Pete Grannis, asking Ontario be added as an observer to RGGI, which is the first step toward joining.

"New York and Ontario share a lot in common -- the Great Lake, our climate, the air," Garretsen said.

"We have to pressure our federal counterparts to support state efforts to combat climate change."

Under RGGI, each state will auction allowances for annual CO2 emissions that individual plants must buy in order to cover CO2 emissions.

In New York, allowances will be limited to 64.3 million tons annually from 2009 to 2014, dropping by 10 percent from 2015 to 2019.

Other states in RGGI are Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland.

"There was a tremendous amount of interest across the globe on auctioning," said Iwanowicz, who held sessions with officials from Ireland, New Zealand, and Australia, where the new environmental minister is Peter Garrett, former lead singer of the 1980s rock band Midnight Oil.

Last month, the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which won the Nobel Peace Prize along with former Vice President Al Gore, warned greenhouse gas emissions must decline within 10 to 15 years.

With the U.S., Canada and Japan blocking agreement on specific reductions, the Bali agreement called for the start of two years of negotiations toward emissions targets to replace the expiring Kyoto Protocol.

During the Bali talks, protesters, including some in polar bear costumes, called for agreement on binding cuts.

"Everyone in Bali recognized what the Bush approach is on this," Iwanowicz said.

"They wanted to know where states are going, and what will happen post-Bush."

"The message was the next administration, regardless of what it is, is going to have a dramatically different position."

Iwanowicz said the Bali agreement, while unable to reach specific cuts, was still important.

"We all realize that we can haggle over words, or we can go back to the states and do the hard work to reduce emissions," he said.

"If we wait for two years, we waste two years, precious time we cannot afford to waste."

Nearing can be reached at 454-5094 or by e-mail at bnearing@timesunion.com.

[Livyjr]

"Aide to Senate minority punished - Liaison between Spitzer, Democrats suspended over allegations she overstepped authority"

By JAMES M. ODATO, Capitol bureau, Albany, New York Times Union

First published: Thursday, December 20, 2007

ALBANY -- The director of intergovernmental relations for Senate Democrats has been suspended without pay for about two weeks amid accusations that she improperly checked into a subordinate's background, people informed of the incident said.

Senate Minority Leader Malcolm Smith Wednesday confirmed Indira Faith Noel was suspended earlier this month from her $104,284-per-year post as a liaison between the Senate minority and the Spitzer administration.

He said she had overstepped her authority in supervising her sole subordinate.

Her suspension came at about the same time as the dismissal of the subordinate, Jean Pierre, an analyst hired by the Senate minority in June.

His salary was $38,103.

"She overstepped her boundaries; he falsified his application," Smith said.

Smith said Pierre was fired for putting down something wrong on his employment application.

Reached last week, Pierre said he would not make public comments about the matter on the advice of his lawyer, Paul Dwyer, who has not returned calls.

Noel said she could not discuss the matter.

She referred inquiries to Senate minority spokesman Curtis Taylor.

Taylor said the office doesn't comment on personnel matters.

He would not confirm that she has been accused of inappropriately seeking Pierre's transcripts.

People familiar with the accusation say Noel sought transcripts from the University of Buffalo, using Pierre's Social Security number and signature without his authorization.

Smith said he did not know what Pierre falsified or what misstep Noel made, and referred further questions to his chief of staff, Mortimer Lawrence, who could not be reached.

Noel has been a legislative aide since 1998, working for Democrats.

She served as a deputy policy director under former Minority Leader David Paterson and also worked for Assemblyman Jeffrion Aubry and Sen. Neil Breslin.

Smith said her performance has been good, and she won't be losing her post.

James M. Odato can be reached at 454-5083 or by e-mail at jodato@timesunion.com.