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

[Livyjr]

"Spitzer won't pull any punches - Governor expected to continue battles over comptroller vote, control of state Senate"

By ELIZABETH BENJAMIN, Capitol bureau, Albany, New York Times Union

First published: Monday, February 12, 2007

ALBANY -- Gov. Eliot Spitzer will continue to wage a two-front war against the state Legislature this week, slamming Assembly members in their own districts for defying him in the comptroller vote and plotting to help his Democratic Senate allies wrest control of their chamber from Republican hands.

The Senate is the most immediate focus following the victory last week of a Spitzer-backed Democratic candidate in a Long Island special election that narrowed the Republican majority to just two seats.

The chamber is now split 33-29.

"There is an all-out effort to take the Senate," said a source close to Spitzer.

"In the next two weeks, all the pieces will be in place."

NEWSDAY

State/Region

"Spitzer: I don't need the legislature"

BY JAMES T. MADORE
james.madore@newsday.com

June 27, 2007

ALBANY - Frustrated by a legislative session that left many key issues hanging, Gov. Eliot Spitzer said yesterday that he could govern without lawmakers.

Downplaying the importance of passing laws, the freshman governor said he favored regulatory changes and executive orders to run the state - neither of which require prior approval by the legislature.

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/state/ny...enews-headlines

"Struggle for Senate starts early - Republicans face stiff challenges this year for control of upper house"

By IRENE JAY LIU, Capitol bureau, Albany, New York Times Union

First published: Tuesday, February 19, 2008

ALBANY -- If a race for one seat in the North Country is any indication, this year's battle for control of the state Senate will be a long, bitter fight across New York.

In next Tuesday's special election to succeed Watertown Republican James Wright, the two assemblymen vying for the seat have so far spent over $1.2 million mostly from contributions by the state Republican and Democratic parties.

In what is poised to be the second-most expensive state Senate contest ever -- the most expensive state Senate election in history cost over $5 million -- Democrat Darrel Aubertine of Cape Vincent is opposed by Republican Will Barclay of Pulaski.

Barclay's father, H. Douglas Barclay, represented the heavily GOP 48th District from 1965 to 1984.

By last count, Republicans outnumber Democrats 78,454 to 46,824 with 34,665 unaffiliated voters.

Barclay and Aubertine each lead in different internal campaign polls, officials of each party say.

The stakes are high: Republicans hold a one-seat majority in the Senate since Wright, 59, retired after 15 years.

By stepping down in January, he made sure that the special election would not take place on Super Tuesday when the presidential primary drew a huge Democratic turnout.

If the Democrats gain a majority in November, when every seat in the state Legislature is up for grabs, the party would control the Senate and the Assembly and the governor's, comptroller's and attorney general's offices, at least until 2010, when voters will once again decide on all those jobs.

Republicans have held the Senate majority for seven decades, except for an 11-month period in 1965.

In recent years, the Democrats' statewide enrollment edge over Republicans has increased to 5.4 million voters to 3 million.

"The tide is moving against Republican control of the Senate," said Douglas Muzzio, political science professor at Baruch College in Manhattan.

This year's presidential race will undoubtedly affect state and local campaigns.

To what extent is unclear.

On Super Tuesday, when Hillary Rodham Clinton defeated Barack Obama by a 57-40 percent margin, nearly 1.8 million Democrats voted, 32 percent of the party's enrollment.

For the GOP ballot, 20 percent voted.

"We saw record-breaking turnout across every demographic and geography," said state Democratic Party spokesman Jonathan Rosen.

The primary turnout bodes well for Democrats in November, he said.

While Rudolph Giuliani's departure from the race for president could lower GOP turnout in November, Republicans believe that having John McCain at the top of the ticket will help them maintain the state Senate majority, said GOP spokesman Matthew Walter.

Whatever coattails come with the presidential election, observers such as Muzzio said Senate races will be run, and won, on a local level.

"You've got septuagenarians and octogenarians running the Senate," Muzzio said.

"They are in districts that are majority (Democratic) or trending that way."

Senate contests fitting this profile are heating up the earliest: Queens Republican Sens. Serphin Maltese and Frank Padavan already have Democratic contenders lining up.

In both those districts, Democrats outnumber Republicans by more than 2-1, and have for decades, yet both senators have held on term after term.

Padavan easily won in 2006, but political newcomer Albert Baldeo came within 800 votes of beating Maltese.

A key part of the Republicans' strategy is to regain seats lost over the past two years.

In Westchester, Republicans are seeking to oust Sen. Andrea Stewart-Cousins, who won a razor-thin victory in 2006 over nine-term incumbent Nick Spano.

On Long Island, Republicans plan to run hard against Sen. Craig Johnson, who replaced Republican Michael Balboni when he became Gov. Eliot Spitzer's homeland security chief.

Last year, with his approval ratings high, the governor angered Senate Republicans by injecting himself into Johnson's race.

Now, with his poll numbers down and his efforts to work better with the Legislature, Spitzer hasn't been involved publicly in next week's special election.

Statewide, Republican campaigns will focus on their opponents' voting records, in some cases faulting them for voting for last year's budget, which the GOP contends hurt local hospitals and schools.

The party plans to focus on local needs, according to Walter.

That strategy can favor incumbents with seniority and track records as well as the clout to sprinkle state money around their districts.

Walter said Stewart-Cousins and Johnson, among other Democrats, are being targeted because they "take positions that are out of step with their constituents' needs" like advocating for driver's licenses for illegal immigrants and "asking for (legislative) pay raises by shouting 'show me the money.' "

Muzzio advises GOP candidates to "go to their favorite house of worship and light candles ... and make these elections as local as possible."

"Talk about the power of the incumbent."

Jay Liu can be reached at 454-5081 or by e-mail at iliu@timesunion.com.

CONTESTS TO WATCH

3rd Distict

Incumbent: Caesar Trunzo, R-Brentwood

Challenger: Jimmy Dahroug

By the numbers: Democrat Dahroug has run against Trunzo twice before.

Trunzo won in 2006 with 53 percent of the vote and Working Families Party support.

7th District

Incumbent: Craig Johnson, D-Port Washington

Challenger: None declared

By the numbers: Johnson won special election in February to replace Republican Michael Balboni, who become Gov. Eliot Spitzer's homeland security chief.

Republicans have targeted this as a seat to reclaim.

11th District:

Incumbent: Frank Padavan, R-Bellerose

Challenger: City Councilman James Gennaro, D-Fresh Meadows, a member is widely expected to run.

By the numbers: Padavan, an 18-term incumbent, won with 56 percent of the in 2006, despite Democratic 83,950 to 32,360 enrollment edge.

15th District:

Incumbent: Serphin Maltese, R-Middle Village

Challenger: City Councilman Joseph Addabbo, D-Howard Beach, or Albert Baldeo.

By the numbers: Democrat Baldeo came within 800 votes of defeating Maltese in 2006.

23rd District:

Incumbent: Diane Savino, D-Staten Island

Challenger: None declared.

By the numbers: Savino had no opponent in this overwhelming Democratic district, but Republicans say they are targeting it.

34rd District:

Incumbent: Jeffrey Klein, D-Bronx

Challenger: None declared.

By the numbers: Two-term incumbent Klein won with 61 percent of the vote in 2006.

Longtime GOP Sen. Guy Velella quit in 2004 after his bribery conviction.

35th District:

Incumbent: Andrea Stewart-Cousins, D-Yonkers

Challenger: Nicholas Spano is considering.

By the numbers: In 2006, Stewart-Cousins unseated Spano, 51-49 percent.

48th District:

Contenders: Democrat Darrel Aubertine and Republican Will Barclay running to replace James Wright, R-Watertown, in Feb. 26 special election

By the numbers: Win by Aubertine would erase the Republican's one-seat majority.

Each party has contributed more than $600,000 in the campaign.

49th District:

Incumbent: David Valesky, D-Oneida

Challenger: None declared.

By the numbers: Enrollment is almost even, with 61,831 Democrats to 61,561 Republicans.

Valesky beat Republican Jeff Brown in 2006, 59-41 percent.

56th District:

Incumbent: Joseph Robach, R-Greece

Challengers: Brighton Supervisor Sandra Frankel has entered the race.

Fellow Democrats Richard Dollinger and Willa Powell are mentioned as possible candidates.

By the numbers: Dollinger resigned as Brighton Town Justice for a possible run for the seat he held from 1993 to 2002.

Robach beat Powell 66-34 percent in 2006.

District enrollment is 76,225 Democrats and 45,123 Republicans.

[Livyjr]

"Regulators' subprime mortgage cases"

Associated Press

Last updated: 3:02 p.m., Monday, February 18, 2008

State regulators and cities that have filed cases or disclosed investigations targeting Wall Street firms' roles in the subprime mortgage market:

-- New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has accused a major real estate appraisal company of colluding with Washington Mutual Inc., the nation's largest savings and loan company, to inflate the values of homes nationwide, contributing to the subprime troubles.

Cuomo also has issued subpoenas to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, seeking information about potential conflicts involving loans the government-sponsored lenders bought from banks.

And Cuomo and Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal are investigating whether banks properly disclosed risks of mortgages that were bundled into securities sold to investors.

-- Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann has accused 10 mortgage lenders and appraisal companies of pressuring appraisers to inflate home values.

Dann also has sued Freddie Mac, accusing it of defrauding Ohio's public employee pension fund by investing in subprime home loans.

Dann also is considering a broader case against Wall Street banks, lawyers and bond-rating agencies.

-- Massachusetts' top securities regulator, Secretary of State William Galvin, has accused a unit of investment bank Bear Stearns Cos. of failing to disclose to investors a conflict of interest in its trading with two Bear Stearns-managed hedge funds.

The funds collapsed after making bad bets in subprime-linked investments.

And last month, Galvin subpoenaed municipal bond insurers MBIA Inc. and Ambac Financial Group Inc., seeking information on how much the firms disclosed to cities and towns about their exposure to mortgage-related investments.

On Feb. 1, Galvin accused Merrill Lynch & Co. of fraud and misrepresentation, a day after the firm agreed to reimburse the city of Springfield, Mass., $13.9 million in a dispute over a subprime-related investment that soured.

Galvin alleges Merrill Lynch made unsuitably risky investments on behalf of Springfield without permission.

-- Attorneys general in Illinois and Florida are investigating mortgage lender Countrywide Financial Corp.

-- The city of Cleveland in January sued 21 banks and claimed their subprime lending practices have left behind abandoned homes, creating a public nuisance that hurts property values and tax collections.

Two days earlier, Baltimore sued Wells Fargo, alleging the bank intentionally sold high-interest mortgages more to blacks than to whites in violation of federal law.

------

Source: Associated Press research

[Livyjr]

Partial text of Reply Brief sent to Second Circuit Court of Appeals in NYC by appellant Paul R. Plante, P.E. on 25 July 2005 in answer to BRIEF of Thomas O'Connor, on behalf of Rensselaer County Executive Kathleen Jimino et al, to include Timothy Holt, Carl Richard Aiken, NYSPE, and Kevin Joseph McGrath, the New York State licensed surveyor who was at the same time the "lead professional" for developer Jeffrey Pelletier, and the Chairman of the Poestenkill Town Planning Board, and the Brief of the Thuillez, Ford, Gold Johnson Law Firm on behalf of John Christian Braaten et al, to include nurse Carol Fiorino, and Northeast Health, Inc. and Samaritan Hospital, and the Brief of nurse Andrea Gallerie:

SUMMARY OF ARGUMENT

As can be readily discerned from a review of page 455 of the extensive Appendix ("RCA") Rensselaer County State Actors Kathleen Jimino, Joseph Cybulski, Timothy Holt, Denise Ayers, NYSRPN, Roy Champagne, Robert Reiter, Kevin Joseph McGrath, NYSLS, and Carl Richard Aiken, NYSPE, have submitted to this Court pursuant to Appellate Rule 30(b)(1) in support of the issues Rensselaer County State Actors are presenting this Court for review in this appeal, the facts before the Court in the appeal are few, they are simple, and they are conceded by appellees.

Nor are they challenged by Appellant.

According to those facts, on August 7, 2001, appellee Jeffrey Pelletier assaulted PLAINTIFF on Liberty Lane in the Town of Poestenkill, Rensselaer County, State of New York for the express purpose of denying PLAINTIFF rights, privileges and immunities guaranteed to PLAINTIFF by the United States Constitution, and 18 USC 1512(b) & 1513(b) of the laws of the United States.

18 USC 1512(b) of the laws of the United States, entitled "Tampering with a witness", states in relevant part to this appeal that "whoever knowingly uses intimidation or physical force, threatens, or corruptly persuades another person, or attempts to do so, or engages in misleading conduct toward another person, with intent to, (1) influence, delay, or prevent the testimony of any person in an official proceeding; (2) cause or induce any person to - (A) withhold testimony, or withhold a record, document, or other object, from an official proceeding; (B) alter, destroy, mutilate, or conceal an object with intent to impair the object's integrity or availability for use in an official proceeding ....... shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both."

No party to this appeal, either appellant, or appellees, disputes that this assault by Pelletier took place, for the express purposes stated in the record, which is to say, to intentionally harm and intimidate PLAINTIFF, both as a witness, and as a victim, so as to deter him by acts of overt physical violence from seeking redress of grievance against Pelletier, Aiken and McGrath with respect to the Rensselaer County sewage permit at issue in the courts of the State of New York where this matter was originally served and filed, prior to it being brought on in Federal District Court in June of 2001.

(For Constitutional Torts in the State of New York, see, Ricky Brown et al. v. State of New York, 89 NY2d 172, 192 [Ct. of Appeals 1996]).

Nor can they deny the assault, since the videotape of the Pelletier assault on PLAINTIFF is a part of the "evidence" in the possession of Northeast Health State Actor John Christian Braaten at the time he executed the New York State Mental Hygiene Law 9.45 order at issue herein, as well as a New York State Mental Hygiene Law 9.39 direct psychiatric admission for PLAINTIFF to both the Samaritan Hospital in Troy, New York, a co-appellee of Braaten, and the VA Hospital in Albany, New York despite never having seen PLAINTIFF in his life.

With these simple facts well-settled, and agreed to among the parties herein, this appeal presents this Court, then, with a simple question of law, that being the objective reasonableness of Braaten's actions on August 22, 2001, where Timothy Holt, the alleged "reliable source" Braaten relied upon in determining that PLAINTIFF was a alleged dangerous mental patient is the head of custodial and janitorial services for the Rensselaer County Office Building in Troy, New York.

There is not one scrap or shred of evidence in the voluminous Appendix Rensselaer County State Actors have placed before this Court in support of their issues in this appeal, which is the "objective reasonableness" of PLAINTIFF's "seizure" at the Albany VA Hospital on August 22, 2001, that Timothy Holt is anything other than the head of custodial services for the Rensselaer County Office Building, and despite that lack of any credentials whatsoever, other than "cleaning rest rooms", and "taking out trash" which apparently converted Holt into a "health officer" in the eyes of Braaten, on August 22, 2001, Braaten executed a NYSMHL 9.45 order for PLAINTIFF based on nothing more than Holt's say so that he, Holt, wanted it to be done that way!

That, say appellees, is what "objective reasonableness" looks like in Rensselaer County, in the State of New York, so, please, Justices of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, put your judicial imprimatur on this conduct so stated, by denying this appeal, and thereby immunizing appellees in the eyes of the law, forever!

It is a simple question, actually, a yes, or a no:

"Should the head of Janitorial Services for the Rensselaer County Office Building have the unimpeded "constitutional" authority, 24/7, to hinder a New York State licensed professional engineer in the performance of his duties, who at the time in question was investigating alleged professional misconduct in the County of Rensselaer by Rensselaer County State Actor Appellees Carl Richard Aiken, P.E., and Kevin Joseph McGrath, L.S. in connection with a Rensselaer County Department of Health sewage system construction permit issued to appellee Jeffrey Pelletier, by having the unrestrained right to have PLAINTIFF incarcerated at will in the secure mental hospital of Holt's choice, by the simple expedient of Holt calling Fiorino at Samaritan Hospital, and putting in a request for a 9.45 order to be faxed over to Holt at the Rensselaer County Office Building, so Holt can then have the New York State Police seize PLAINTIFF for transport to wherever Holt directs them to go?"

With respect to the question of "objective reasonableness" in this appeal, as it pertains to PLAINTIFF's "seizure" at the VA Hospital on August 22, 2001, in a comprehensive and scholarly opinion at 169-171 in Ruhlmann v. Ulster County Dept. of Social Services, 234 F.Supp.2d 140 (NDNY 2002), a case in which counsel for Braaten in this matter was also counsel of record for defendants in that matter, District Court (Hurd, J.) stated clearly at 169 that "The issue of probable cause may be decided as a matter of law if there is no dispute as to the relevant events and beliefs of those involved", and in this case, the unrebutted sworn statements of Albany, New York police officer (******) in the Rensselaer County State Actors' Appendix make it incandescently clear to all parties that there was no probable cause here, and of all people, appellee John Christian Braaten should have been the very first to become suspicious, when Fiorino told him to sign the 9.45 order she had in her hand, so she could get it back to the head of custodians in the Rensselaer County Office Building, to have PLAINTIFF, a New York State licensed professional engineer, incarcerated as a dangerous mental patient in Samaritan Hospital's secure mental health facility, where Braaten had already certified an emergency admission pursuant to New York State Mental Hygiene Law 9.39, despite never having seen PLAINTIFF in his life!

It is clear from Ruhlmann, supra, that had this happened in Ulster County in the State of New York, instead of Rensselaer County, PLAINTIFF would by this time in the proceedings have already been afforded discovery, and this matter would now be headed to a jury for speedy trial, in the interests of justice for PLAINTIFF, a permanently disabled Viet Nam combat veteran, with a damaged spine from the August 7, 2001 Jeffrey Pelletier assault documented in the video that Timothy Holt provided to Carol Fiorino as alleged proof that PLAINTIFF was "mentally ill", where appellee Jeffrey Pelletier can be seen and heard in the videotape calling PLAINTIFF a ""expletive deleted"ing retard", after having "cracked" PLAINTIFF's spine in a kind of wrestling throw where Pelletier grabbed PLAINTIFF's head and cracked PLAINTIFF's spine against Pelletier's hip, in a move intended to cripple PLAINTIFF, in wilful violation of 18 USC 1512(b) & 1513(b) of the laws of the United States.

As it is in Rensselaer County, however, instead of Ulster County, where the facts in this matter arise, counsel for Rensselaer County State Actors to include Jimino, Holt, Ayes, Champagne, Reiter, McGrath and Aiken, has combined with counsel for Northeast Health State Actors to include Northeast Health, Inc., Samaritan Hospital of Troy, N.Y., Adrian Anthony Morris, John Christian Braaten, Carol Fiorino, and Bernadette Rotter Hallam, and counsel for Andrea Gallerie to argue in this Court for a lower standard of "reasonableness" in the County of Rensselaer in the State of New York which makes it "constitutional" as a matter of law in the Northern District of New York, for the head of custodial services for the Rensselaer County Office Building to be placed, 24/7, in a position of such authority over the life and liberty of a New York State licensed professional engineer investigating alleged corruption in the Rensselaer County Department of Health and Town of Poestenkill Planning and Zoning Boards, that this head of custodial services can, at the literal drop of a hat, have this licensed professional engineer picked up by the New York State Police for transport to a secure mental hospital of Timothy Holt's choosing!

It is uncontrovertible in this case, based upon the Appendix Rensselaer County State Actors have placed in evidence in support of their issues that on August 22, 2001, Holt ordered PLAINTIFF's "arrest" on alleged psychiatric grounds immediately after PLAINTIFF had informed appellee Jimino in writing of PLAINTIFF's intent to commence legal action against the Rensselaer County Department of Health to seek redress of grievance in the matter of the Pelletier sewage permit which was the subject of the letters Holt gave to Fiorino as alleged proof that PLAINTIFF was allegedly mentally ill.

Presumably, at the time Braaten executed the 9.45 order on August 22, 2001, he had read these letters, as they were a vital part of the "evidence" against PLAINTIFF that allegedly "supported" the "objective reasonableness" of Braaten's actions on August 22, 2001 and he had witnessed the assault of PLAINTIFF by Pelletier in the videotape, and so, it was with intent to cause harm to PLAINTIFF that Braaten executed the 9.45 order, where he had no objective evidence before him other than that PLAINTIFF was exactly what he said he was, an honest competent licensed engineer in the State of New York performing his duty with respect to a Board of Regents requirement for ALL licensed engineers in the State of New York, pursuant to section 29.3 of the Rules of the Board of Regents governing professional practice of engineers in the State of New York, to police the profession, 24/7.

In this case, the only conclusion that the established facts allow for, is that on August 22, 2001, Fiorino and Braaten combined with Holt for the express purpose of preventing PLAINTIFF from going forward with his lawsuit against Rensselaer County in a timely manner, which is exactly what ended up happening, to PLAINTIFF's detriment.

That is a tactic that the County of Rensselaer employed to deny PLAINTIFF equal protection and due process of law pursuant to the Constitution of the State of New York, and in their briefs, appellees are praying this Court to place its imprimatur on this tactic by immunizing Timothy Holt, Carol Fiorino, John Christian Braaten, and Andrea Gallerie, finding that under the circumstances as they are presented by the facts in this specific matter, the actions of Holt, Fiorino, Braaten and Gallerie were objectively reasonable as a matter of law, pursuant to this Court in Glass v. Mayas, 984 F.2d. 55,58 (2nd. Cir. 1993).

DATED: July 21, 2005

Respectfully submitted,
Appellant Pro Se

Well, in Rensselaer County, just to the east of Albany, New York, THE TRASHMAN COMETH, and if you are for law and order, and no corruption in government up here, then you better damn well be shaking in your boots is the word from Rensselaer County to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, according to Thomas J. O'Connor, brother to REPUBLICAN New York State Lt. Governor Mary O'Connor Donohue, and head lawyer for the County of Rensselaer in this appeal.

"THE TRASHMAN!"

That, of course, is REPUBLICAN Timmy Holt, who O'Connor has finally identified as the "man who pulled the plug" on the PLAINTIFF in this matter, by calling over to his "connection" at Samaritan Hospital in Troy, New York, a nurse there named Carol Fiorino, who had a doctor there who would sign a New York State Mental Hygiene Law 9.45 "psychiatric arrest order" for her, and so, history, or a warped and twisted Rensselaer County version of it, anyway, was made!

We wonder, of course, why Holt was "outed" now, at this time, by Tommy O'Connor, because up till now, Holt's name was a literal "state secret", that could not be known, in the words of Rensselaer County, and Samaritan Hospital and Northeast Health, and New York State Attorney General and GUBERNATORIAL HOPEFUL, Honorable Eliot "Big EL" Spitzer, anyway!

He simply was the "RELIABLE SOURCE", and up till now, we were unable to "pierce" that "shroud of secrecy" surrounding Holt's exact role in this matter, and now, at the very last minute, literally, we are handed Holt, and his "role", on a platter, which has all kinds of implications at this point, where the District Court Judge in the Northern District of New York never bothered to find out exactly who it was who had "denounced" PLAINTIFF in this matter, a New York State licensed professional engineer investigating alleged professional misconduct by Rensselaer County State Actors Carl Richard Aiken, an engineer, and Kevin Joseph McGrath, a surveyor, to Samaritan Hospital as being mentally ill, and in immediate need of incarceration in Samaritan Hospital's secure mental facility, or GULAG, as it is affectionately known up here, by those who must live in its fearsome "shadow", 24/7.

Speculation for why Holt was finally "outed" by Tommy O'Connor now runs rampant, of course, but I am of that school that says the only real reason they withheld Holt's name was to make it almost impossible for the PLAINTIFF to be able to file a federal complaint in the matter with the degree of "specificity" required in a civil rights complaint, because up until now, PLAINTIFF never really knew what exact roles were played by the various "players" in this matter, which point forms the basis for the brief submitted to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals by Attorney-at-Law David Rook of the politically-connected, powerful Albany, New York law firm of Thuillez, Ford, Gold Johnson & Butler, who are the legal counsel and attorneys of record for defendants Northeast Health, Inc., Samaritan Hospital of Troy, New York, Dr. Adrian Anthony Morris, Dr. John Christian Braaten, Carol Fiorino, and Bernadette Rotter Hallam in this appeal.

"He didn't say it the right way, throw out his appeal" is essentially what Rook is saying to the Appeals Court in his brief, which we received just last Monday, and on its face, it is a powerful and persuasive argument, if you can just look past the fact that the reason the PLAINTIFF was unable to state facts with a certain degree of specificity was because Northeast Health, and Rensselaer County made damn sure that those essential facts were withheld from PLAINTIFF, by having discovery for the PLAINTIFF denied by the District Court, and by failing to disclose this information themselves, despite provisions in the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure which require that disclosure.

"This is a very special case" said the GOLD JOHNSON man, Rook, and so it was to be.

Get control of what the first word can be, in this case, the contents of PLAINTIFF's federal complaint, by having the District Court limit him to just twenty pages, including all of the required "boiler-plate" language which must be included in every federal civil rights complaint, at the same time that you are withholding evidence, yourself, and then, retain the last word for yourself, in this case, the right to file the last brief with the words in it, "see, he didn't do it right, because we were so good at our jobs of withholding evidence from him", and you have a winning solution, every time!

And so it now might be!

But it is not quite yet over, so ....

Please!

Stay tuned for further details!

Thank you for your attention!

DATE: October 11, 1988

TO: John Buono, Rensselaer County Executive

FROM: Paul R. Plante. P.E., Associate Public Health Engineer, Rensselaer County Health District

SUBJECT: Integrity of Environmental Health Programs

As the Director of the Environmental Health Division, it is my responsibility to certify on behalf of Rensselaer County the integrity of the Code Enforcement Programs to the State of New York for the purpose of payment of our State operating funds.

I have reached a juncture where such certification by myself is no longer feasible.

My certification of our operations is as a licensed professional.

My conduct is governed in large part by Part 29 of the Codes of the Education Department which sets forth the actions deemed to constitute unprofessional conduct on the part of licensed individuals.

Section 29.1(b)(6) defines unprofessional conduct as "willfully making or filing a false report, or failing to file a report required by law or by the Education Department, or willfully impeding or obstructing such filing, or inducing another person to do so."

I can no longer vouch for the integrity of our programs and will not place my professional standing in jeopardy.

It is my professional opinion stated in writing to yourself that the programs I am responsible for have been very seriously undermined and compromised.

As my internal investigation proceeds, the probability of actions for damages against the Department increases, due to errors of omission and commission of former engineers and the Public Health Director.

As the Public Health Law requires me to conduct investigations into incidents involving public health nuisance or hazard, I find myself in the course of such investigation returning to our own files with consistent violation of code on the part of County staff.

"Wall Street faces fury over subprimes"

By MARK JEWELL, Associated Press

Last updated: 3:02 p.m., Monday, February 18, 2008

BOSTON -- Regulators are trying to punish Wall Street for mortgage finance practices that expanded home ownership and spread risk among a host of new players -- but also may have duped borrowers and investors who supplied cash to fuel a housing boom that's turned bust.

A handful of state securities regulators and a couple foreclosure-blighted cities have fired the opening shots with lawsuits trying to prove that investment banks and big lenders are guilty of more than just bad business decisions and failing to foresee looming mortgage troubles.

Some regulators say greed and fraud underlie much of the subprime mortgage mess that has spread across the broader housing market, triggering a spike in foreclosures.

Aside from the civil cases, the FBI is looking at possible criminal action, focusing on what Wall Street firms knew about the risks of mortgage securities backed by subprime loans, and whether they hid risks from investors.

Observers don't expect the financial penalties that regulators extract in the civil cases to be massive.

But the cases could turn up evidence that forces Wall Street to defend itself amid growing talk of government help to ease subprime-related financial strains on bond insurers.

Revelations of bad behavior turned up by the government also could spur private investors to file even more lawsuits than the hundreds they've already brought to recover losses.

"This could get a lot nastier, for many reasons," said John Akula, a business law lecturer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Sloan School of Management.

"Prolonged close scrutiny often turns up all kinds of dubious practices that in normal times are under the radar."

"If the government sponsors any kind of bailout with public funds, this may be coupled with an aggressive prosecutorial agenda in support of efforts to get private parties to kick in."

Although the foreclosure-blighted cities of Cleveland and Baltimore have sued seeking to recover damages from mortgage lenders, most of the cases filed so far are from regulators alleging violations of state securities laws.

Attorneys general in New York and Ohio are targeting alleged systematic inflation of home appraisals by major lenders and appraisal firms.

Litigation in Massachusetts and other states seeks to demonstrate that investment banks failed to disclose risks to investors who bought mortgage-related securities and weren't up front about conflicts of interest across their far-flung financial operations, including trading of subprime investments.

"Over the years, the relationship between lender and borrower and a particular piece of property has been severed," said Massachusetts Secretary of State William Galvin.

"It's clear that it's become a runaway train."

Gone are the days when most borrowers simply got loans from the neighborhood bank, which used to hold the bulk of mortgage risk.

Now that risk is spread further -- mortgages are bundled together and sold to investors.

Behind the scenes, credit-rating agencies offer advice on whether the investments are secure.

Until recently, cash from Wall Street banks and investors extended growing amounts of credit to low- and middle-income Americans enticed to enter a market when home prices appeared headed nowhere but up.

Lenders wrote $625 billion in subprime mortgages in 2005, nearly four times the total in 2001.

The boom brought in big fees to mortgage brokers, lenders, banks and ratings agencies.

But now that prices are dropping, those players are hurting.

Global banks have ousted executives and have written off nearly $150 billion since mortgage securities began collapsing last summer.

Given the losses, "It's doubtful some of these entities will repeat their performance," Galvin said.

"But I think there needs to be an understanding of how we got where we are, whether that is through regulatory action, or through Congress."

States have responded by tightening rules governing how lenders and brokers arrange mortgages and are compensated.

But lawsuits and administrative complaints are the main tools regulators use to seek fines against companies accused of wrongdoing, or to set examples to deter bad behavior.

"What they can't enforce through regulation, they will try to accomplish through suing," said David Bizar, a Hartford, Conn.-based attorney with the firm McCarter & English who defends against subprime mortgage lawsuits brought by consumers and regulators.

Already, the number of subprime-related cases filed in federal courts is outpacing the rate of litigation that emerged from the savings and loan meltdown in the late 1980s and early '90s, according to a study released Thursday.

The 278 subprime cases filed in federal courts in 2007 already equals half of the total 559 S&L cases handled over multiple years, according to the findings from Navigant Consulting Inc.

Criminal action also could be looming.

The FBI said last month it was investigating 14 companies for possible accounting fraud, insider trading or other violations that could result in criminal charges.

The FBI didn't identify companies but said the probe involves firms across the financial services industry.

The FBI is working with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which has civil enforcement powers.

The SEC said in January that it had about three dozen active investigations under way.

In the rush to sue big business, there's plenty of blame to go around in the subprime meltdown, said Bizar, the lawyer who has represented lenders in subprime cases.

Those include everyone from investors buying mortgage-related investments without understanding the risks, to credit-rating agencies that failed to alert investors to lenders' precarious positions as mortgage delinquencies spiked.

But the mess can be blamed more on unrealistic expectations than fraud, he said.

"You had a lot of people reaching to get into homes they couldn't afford, on the theory that it would go up in value," Bizar said.

[Livyjr]

FORBES

"Credit Crunch - What To Do About Wall Street"

Liz Moyer, 02.14.08, 3:05 PM ET

So who's to blame for the subprime mess?

Banks?

Investors?

Regulators?

Ratings agencies?

The epicenter of all this finger-pointing: Capitol Hill Thursday, as lawmakers, regulators, and executives gathered to debate how to deal with the crisis gripping the credit markets, particularly the perilous state of the mortgage bond industry.

New York Governor Eliot Spitzer, in testimony to the House of Representatives finance committee, laid the blame at the feet of federal regulators and ratings agencies, who failed to stop the growth of the subprime mortgage bubble before it got out of control.

And he said a swift resolution to the severe capital pressures the bond insurers are facing is necessary to stop a "tsunami" of problems in the financial markets.

Gov. Spitzer said he hoped a private effort by Wall Street banks to inject capital into some of the hardest-hit bond insurers could get done in the next three to five business days.

If not, regulators would have to resort to the "good bank, bad bank" split of the bond insurers, as proposed Tuesday by Berkshire Hathaway's Warren Buffett.

"The clock is ticking," Gov. Spitzer said.

"We will be forced to act."

The crisis in the credit markets has raised all sorts of questions about who was minding the store while the mortgage bubble grew out of control.

Ratings agencies, investment banks, mortgage lenders, and yield-starved hedge funds have taken some of the blame for creating the speculative bubble, and federal regulators are also taking the heat for failing to stop them.

At a separate hearing Thursday morning in the Senate, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, and Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox testified on the effects of the crisis on the economy and the efforts to fix the problems.

Senator Jack Reed, D-R.I., directly asked Bernanke if the Fed is conducting a review of the regulatory lapses that allowed the current economic situation to develop.

Bernanke punted, saying that the central bank will issue a "principles-based" report in April to make sure any problems identified don't occur again.

Rep. Michael Capuano of Massachusetts said in the House committee hearing Thursday, "the word regulation has become a swear word here in Washington."

"Good bank, bad bank" is a throwback to the Depression era--and to the savings-and-loan crisis of the late 1980s.

In each of those scenarios, the government rode in and split a company into two separate entities, taking on the bad assets to preserve the good business.

Buffett proposed the opposite: He would re-insure $800 million worth of municipal bonds backed by the three biggest bond insurers, but not take on any of the firms' exposure to credit derivatives, which have plummeted in value.

Forcing bond insurers to hold exposure to credit derivatives while ceding good liabilities like municipal bond insurance would swamp their already over-leveraged capital bases, but save municipal bond investors, taxpayers and local governments from further losses, Spitzer said.

"Municipal investors cannot be allowed to suffer from problems caused by another sector of the market," he said.

There is more than $2.6 trillion in municipal debt outstanding, about half of it backed by insurance from the companies that are now under great stress, including Ambac Financial Group (nyse: ABK) and MBIA (nyse: MBE), whose executives are to speak at an afternoon panel before the committee later Thursday.

For the fourth quarter of 2007, MBIA announced losses of $814 million, $200 million of which is not yet associated with specific transactions, as well as $3.4 billion in “market-to-market” losses.

The company says it has learned several valuable lessons from the recent bond insurance fiasco.

For one thing, start-ups and historically solid loan originators are equally susceptible to market pressures that may alter their business practices.

Second, that time-honored adage: Don’t put all your risk in one basket.

Ambac Chairman and CEO Michael Callen is looking for a cue from the feds as the industry recovers.

“During times of declining confidence in capital markets, its is critical for regulators, government agencies and those in positions of power to project confidence,” he said in his prepared testimony.

Washington and Wall Street have bristled at the thought of a bail-out for the bond insurers, though they have also been wary of leaving the municipal bond market exposed to the capital-constrained bond insurers, who face losing their triple-A credit ratings--those who haven't lost them already, that is.

Without a triple-A rating to secure the insurance, municipalities would have a harder time raising money and would have to pay more to do so.

And investors are fleeing the sector in droves.

Auctions for some bonds are failing, jacking up the prices for many issuers.

As one example, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey is now paying more than 20% after the failure of its auction this week.

Before that, it was paying 4%.

New York insurance regulator Eric Dinallo is set to testify this afternoon about his efforts to coordinate a Wall Street solution to the crisis in the bond insurers, including the good bank, bad bank idea, which most admit is the least palatable of the available options.

"There are billions of dollars at stake," Dinallo says in his written testimony.

"There is no agreement on--and indeed, no way to know with certainty--just how big the losses from the subprime market will be."

http://www.forbes.com/2008/02/14/washingto...artner=yahootix

[Livyjr]

"Saratoga Springs mayor posts bail in builder's case"

By DENNIS YUSKO, Albany, New York Times Union

Last updated: 1:46 p.m., Tuesday, February 19, 2008

SARATOGA SPRINGS - A high-end Saratoga County builder accused of bilking two property owners, including horse trainer H. James Bond, was recently bailed out of county jail by Mayor Scott Johnson, court officials confirmed today.

Johnson, a retired attorney who took office in January, posted $15,000 on Friday to free James McLagan, a 55-year-old home builder accused of four counts of felony grand larceny in two cases in Saratoga Springs and Stillwater, a town court clerk said.

The $15,000 was set by Stillwater Town Judge Ralph Peluso for McLagan's case in Stillwater, where the Mechanicville man is charged with two counts of grand larceny for allegedly taking a $158,000 down payment to build Bond's horse farm on County Route 75, but not doing most of the work, court officials said.

Separately, Saratoga Springs police arrested McLagan last month and accused him of two counts of felony grand larceny.

McLagan accepted a $58,000 deposit from Richard Jones and Deborah Otto-Jones to build their home at lot 41 Washington Crossings, but only a foundation was laid, according to court records.

McLagan, who is represented by Troy attorney E. Stewart Jones, has pleaded not guilty.

Johnson also reportedly paid the $1,000 cash bail in the city case, though city court records did not contain that information today, and the mayor did not return phone calls.

Johnson recently told Channel 13 News that he was acting as a private citizen when he put up the $16,000, and questioned whether his involvement in the case was newsworthy.

[Livyjr]

"Ugly, expensive special election for Senate seat seen as pivotal"

By WILLIAM KATES, Associated Press

Last updated: 12:53 p.m., Tuesday, February 19, 2008

SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- A nasty and expensive campaign to win a rural upstate Senate seat traditionally held by Republicans could signal whether the GOP will keep its four decade-long grip on the Senate.

The race for New York's 48th Senate District between Democrat Darrel Aubertine and Republican Will Barclay has been marked by stinging personal attacks and negative ads, a lawsuit over who gets the Independence Party line, and big money.

Each candidate has raised close to $1 million ahead of Tuesday's special election to represent the district that runs along eastern Lake Ontario and includes Oswego and Jefferson counties, and parts of St. Lawrence County.

"It may be a bellwether for what's to come in traditional Republican territories in upstate New York for the fall election," said Robert Spitzer, a political science professor at the State University of New York at Cortland.

"There's a lot on the line."

"(Senate Majority Leader) Joe Bruno knows he is going to face an uphill battle to keep control of the Senate this year."

Aubertine is a dairy farmer from Cape Vincent, first elected to the Assembly in 2002.

Barclay, too, was elected in 2002 from the adjacent Assembly district.

His father, H. Douglas Barclay, served in the New York Senate from 1965 to 1984.

Former Sen. Jim Wright retired in January after 15 years to take a consulting job.

His departure leaves the Republicans with a 32-29 edge in the Senate, where they have held power since the mid-1960s.

Democrats control the Assembly and the governor's mansion and have chipped away at Republicans in the Senate over the past decade.

The GOP lost a seat in a special election on Long Island last year when Craig Johnson was elected as the first Democrat from the 7th Senate District in a century.

Besides losing another seat, an Aubertine win could prompt more GOP senators to retire.

"Every senate election is a tightrope walk now," said Maurice Carroll, director of Quinnipiac University's Polling Institute.

"They only have to lose two and they're gone -- and when they go, they may never get back."

Enrollment favors Barclay: As of Nov. 1, there were 78,454 registered Republicans in the district, compared to 46,824 Democrats.

The region also has a long history as a GOP stronghold, so it was assumed the seat was safe, said Jeff Stonecash, who teaches political science at Syracuse University's Maxwell School.

Aubertine, with the backing of the state party and some of its heavyweights, including U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, has made the race a toss-up.

Campaign records showed Aubertine had raised $953,742 through mid-February, including about $855,000 from the state Democratic Committee.

Barclay reported raising $879,180 over that time, including about $800,000 from the Senate Republican Campaign Committee, controlled by Bruno.

Issues -- the region's loss of jobs, education, taxes -- became secondary almost immediately as the two candidates traded charges and countercharges.

In one recent attack, Barclay accused Aubertine of paying $70 to $100 a day to get people to work on his campaign on behalf of the Working Families Party, which had endorsed Aubertine.

In response, Aubertine supporters noted the state Correctional Officers & Police Benevolent Association paid workers $150 and reimbursed them for mileage to attend a Barclay rally in Watertown in January.

The union endorsed Barclay.

The campaign reached an ugly point when Aubertine ran a television spot in which a fishing guide criticized the Barclay family's decision to control fishing rights on a one-mile stretch of the popular Salmon River.

After the ad, the guide publicly apologized to Barclay's family and said he had never fished the river with his grandfather, explaining he had read from a script.

Aubertine awkwardly admitted the narrative was intended to represent a "compilation" of local fishermen's complaints.

But his campaign then claimed that Barclay operatives pressured the fishing guide, who was subsequently arrested for drunk driving after having drinks with a Republican county lawmaker.

Early in the campaign, Barclay worked to tie Aubertine to Eliot Spitzer, especially the governor's ill-fated proposal to allow illegal immigrants to obtain driver's licenses.

Barclay portrayed his opponent as beholden to downstate interests.

Aubertine tried to link Barclay with the outsourcing of many of the region's manufacturing jobs -- a sore point in a region that regularly suffers some of the state's highest unemployment rates.

The two candidates took each other to court over who would get the Independence Party line.

A judge ruled the line would be left blank.

Even without the extra line, though, the Democrats have an opportunity, said Stonecash.

"Conditions are not good for the Republican Party in this state right now," he said.

"Iraq is unpopular."

"George Bush is unpopular."

"The national Republican Party has moved more conservative ... and it doesn't sell well upstate."

A wild card in Tuesday's election might be the district's nearly 35,000 independents -- about one in every five voters.

"The question is whether they will show up and vote," Stonecash said.

"Historically, independents don't vote as often as partisans do."

"If one side or the other can get those voters out, then it might be a factor."

[Livyjr]

THE NEW YORK POST

"THERE HE BLOWS AGAIN: SPITZ RANTS AT QUINN"

By FRANKIE EDOZIEN

February 19, 2008 -- Gov. Spitzer and his top aides unleashed a verbal assault on Council Speaker Christine Quinn and her staff over a disagreement about the Javits Center, The Post has learned.

Sources said Quinn's aides reached out to Spitzer's office to report that she would oppose his sale of portions of land adjacent to the Javits Center during her State of the City speech last week - and were berated as "f- - -ing idiots" by Spitzer's aides.

Spitzer himself then called Quinn.

"He was angry and screaming," one source said of Spitzer's conduct during a phone call to Quinn.

In her State of the City speech later, Quinn (D-Manhattan) told a roomful of city powerbrokers that "until we, as a city, decide to officially give up on the Javits expansion, I will fight any shortsighted effort to sell those two adjacent properties."

Sources said that night, Spitzer called Quinn again and lambasted her.

"It was a very tense conversation but she stood her ground," one Quinn aide said.

Spitzer and Quinn met last Friday and the problems were smoothed over.

Spitzer's communications director, Christine Anderson, yesterday called the allegations against the governor "inaccurate and irresponsible."

Quinn's chief spokesman Jamie McShane said, "We don't divulge private conversations in the press," but he added that the two "had a very productive meeting on Friday."

Frederic U. Dicker contributed to this report.

frankie.edozien@nypost.com

http://www.nypost.com/seven/02192008/news/...t_qui_98260.htm

[Livyjr]

"Saratoga County will alter water line plans - At odds with YMCA over easement in Saratoga Springs, authority opts not to go to court"

By LEIGH HORNBECK, Staff writer, Albany, New York Times Union

First published: Tuesday, February 19, 2008

BALLSTON SPA -- The Saratoga County Water Authority will choose a different course for its water line rather than go to court with the YMCA, Chairman Jack Lawler said Monday.

The water authority has spent $507,000 to buy all but 24 of 174 temporary and permanent easements it needs to build the water line from Moreau to Malta.

The cost includes the price of wetlands the authority bought as part of its agreement with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Eight of the remaining easements are on land owned by commercial property owners, including the YMCA and CP Rail.

If the authority cannot reach agreements with the land owners, it has said it will take the land by eminent domain and a court will determine the value of the property.

Lawler said talks with CP Rail are going well, but negotiations with the YMCA over the easement for land on West Avenue in Saratoga Springs are at a standstill.

"The offers are far apart," Lawler said, adding that engineers on the project are at work on an alternate path for the water line, rather than go through YMCA property.

Lawler said he doesn't yet know where the new easement could be.

Neither Lawler nor Michael Toohey, chairman of the YMCA board of trustees, would say what the offers were, but Toohey said the authority's offer was a fifth of the actual value of the land in question.

"We're a nonprofit, and we have an obligation to do what's right for the charity," Toohey said.

"What they offered was ludicrously low, and I told them that."

Toohey also said the YMCA boards do not expect to be paid top dollar for the easement and are willing to negotiate if an offer was "ballpark close."

He said he based his offer on the sale prices of three nearby properties on West Avenue.

"Why would we pick a fight with the water authority?" Toohey said.

Lawler said he is more optimistic about negotiations with CP Rail.

At its last meeting, the water authority hired an independent appraiser to look at the parcels the water line would pass through.

CP Rail did not respond to a request for comment.

"We used the same formula for everyone, and the majority of owners have accepted our offer," Lawler said.

Hornbeck can be reached at 454-5352 or by e-mail at lhornbeck@timesunion.com.

[Livyjr]

"Pact eases banking rules - New York joins New Jersey, Pennsylvania to cut oversight on state-chartered banks"

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

First published: Tuesday, February 19, 2008

The New York banking department has negotiated a unique pact with two neighboring states in an attempt to ease the regulatory burden on state-chartered banks that expand across borders.

The agreement with Pennsylvania and New Jersey means a bank operating in more than one of the three states will face oversight only from its home state.

The deal is expected to be finalized and announced later this month, said Jackie McCormack, spokeswoman for the banking department.

State-chartered banks operating in multiple states have long complained that they face a greater regulatory burden than federally chartered banks, which answer only to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.

Reporting to regulators in several states requires a major investment of time and resources, bankers say.

And that investment has played a role in leading some larger banks, including HSBC and JPMorgan Chase & Co., to abandon their New York charters, leading to fears about the viability of the state-chartered banking system.

Michael Smith, president of the New York Bankers Association, which has long pushed for the pact, says the move is an attempt to respond to the trend away from the state system.

Smith estimated the agreement would affect only about 10 banks, mostly in central New York and the New York City metropolitan area.

But it could increase the number of New York banks that expand across state lines, he said.

The agreement with New Jersey and Pennsylvania could be a precursor of other pacts, as McCormick said the banking department intends to explore similar moves with other neighboring states.

[Livyjr]

"Mayor defends bailing out builder - Saratoga Springs' Johnson posted bond for family friend accused of bilking property owners"

By DENNIS YUSKO, Staff writer, Albany, New York Times Union

First published: Wednesday, February 20, 2008

SARATOGA SPRINGS -- Mayor Scott Johnson on Tuesday defended his decision to post $16,000 bail for a Saratoga County builder accused of bilking property owners.

But thoroughbred horse trainer H. James Bond, an alleged victim in one of the felony grand larceny cases, said Johnson's bailout of James McLagan, a 55-year-old home builder from Mechanicville, could prove embarrassing to the first-term Republican when all the facts come out.

"I think he'll have egg on his face," said Bond, who races horses at Saratoga Race Course and across the country.

Bond hired McLagan in 2006 to build a home on the Bond family's horse farm on County Route 75 in Stillwater.

But McLagan took a $158,000 down payment and provided only minimal work, Bond said in an interview.

Follow-up efforts to have the job done were ignored until State Police were contacted, Bond said.

He said he provided documentation of the alleged fraud to State Police.

McLagan was charged with two counts of grand larceny in the Stillwater case, a Town Court clerk said.

Separately, Saratoga Springs police charged McLagan last month with two counts of grand larceny stemming from a transaction in which McLagan allegedly accepted a $57,650 deposit from Richard Jones and Deborah Otto-Jones to build their home at lot 41 Washington Crossings but only laid a foundation, city court records say.

McLagan, represented by attorney E. Stewart Jones, has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

Johnson, a retired attorney who took office last month, freed McLagan on Friday by paying $15,000 bail in the Stillwater case and $1,000 bail in the city case.

He said Tuesday that he came to the rescue of the home builder to help the McLagan family through a difficult time, and he doesn't regret it.

"It made no sense to not unite the McLagan family at this time," Johnson said.

"My son and the McLagan boys are very good friends."

The case, he said, will ultimately "be decided in a court of law and not the court of public opinion."

Johnson could not say why McLagan could not afford his own bail.

McLagan's city-based company, J. McLagan Builders, has worked in the region for nearly 20 years, and designs and constructs one-of-a-kind custom homes, its Web site states.

Jones, McLagan's attorney, called the charges against his client baseless and premature.

"There never was any intent not to complete these jobs" or pay back the money, Jones said.

McLagan is due back in City Court on Thursday and in Stillwater court on March 12, Jones said.

Bond finished building his home at Song Hill Farm with the help of subcontractors.

He has no idea what happened to the $158,000 he says he paid McLagan.

Acting city Democratic Chairman Lou Schneider declined to comment.

But city GOP Chairman John Herrick said Johnson wasn't judging McLagan's guilt or innocence when the mayor reached into his private bank account.

"I think you have to admire Scott for what he did," Herrick said.

Dennis Yusko can be reached at 454-5353 or by e-mail at dyusko@timesunion.com.

[Livyjr]

"State panel urges removal of Fulton County judge"

First published: Wednesday, February 20, 2008

ALBANY -- A "mean-spirited" judge from Fulton County should be removed from the bench for repeatedly depriving litigants of basic legal rights, a state commission said Tuesday.

David F. Jung, a Family Court judge in the county since 1990, repeatedly imposed jail sentences on litigants who could not make it to court because they were incarcerated, in custody or otherwise unable to appear, the state Commission on Judicial Conduct found.

Jung also decided child custody decisions in the absence of litigants -- never taking action to see if they had waived their right to appear or be heard, the commission found.

In a ruling citing several examples during 2005 and 2006, the commission called Jung a "mean-spirited, insensitive jurist ... more concerned with fiscal matters than with protecting the basic rights of every litigant."

The commission's findings stated that Jung changed his procedures only after "sharp criticism" by the Appellate Division of state Supreme Court.

Still, the commission said, his conduct "suggests an insensitivity to the importance of ensuring that every litigant is accorded all the protections provided by law."

Jung has 30 days to appeal the decision to the state Court of Appeals.

-- Robert Gavin

[Livyjr]

"IDA jobs boom or bust? - Employment figures clash in reports provided by two interest groups"

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

First published: Wednesday, February 20, 2008

How many jobs do tax breaks for developers create?

Depends on whom you ask.

Last May, New York Jobs with Justice, a permanent coalition of community, labor, religious and student organizations, released research showing that developers receiving tax breaks from industrial development agencies failed to meet their job-creation estimates.

The developers promised their projects would create 217,000 jobs statewide in 2005 -- but actually created just 79,000.

But a study released Tuesday tells a contrasting tale.

The New York State Economic Development Council-sponsored research says the tax-aided projects in 2005 created a whopping 309,504 jobs.

One report, then, paints the industrial development agencies as a failure.

The other says they are a smashing success.

The discrepancy leaves a key question: Whom to believe?

And the debate seems to show just how hard it is to determine the agencies' effectiveness.

The release of Tuesday's report comes as debate over industrial development agencies and public authorities is alive in the Legislature, especially as a law allowing IDAs to aid nonprofit groups and public construction projects expired at the start of the month.

The Assembly has already passed a bill that would dramatically remake the way the agencies operate.

But State Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno has promised that the Senate will not pass the law in its current form.

New York has a complex network of about 700 public authorities and development agencies.

Some, such as the Thruway authority, are widely known and operate statewide.

Most, though, are local and operate in relative obscurity.

Critics say the agencies are unaccountable to the public, eager to give tax breaks to undeserving projects and overly free from oversight.

But others, including many in the business community, insist the agencies often known as IDAs are a key economic development tool.

IDA proponents say the tax breaks they offer are essential as New York seeks to lure and keep companies that could easily move elsewhere.

Brian McMahon, president of the development council, concedes that IDAs -- and the laws that created them -- are far from perfect.

"But that's the system we have," he said.

"And by and large, it works."

McMahon said his group commissioned Tuesday's report, compiled by the Rochester-based Center for Governmental Research, in response to the measly job creation numbers found in the report from New York Jobs with Justice.

He said his report is based on a much more thorough and comprehensive analysis.

Yet Carrie Brunk, director of New York Jobs with Justice, said the development council's report seems to be based on data that aren't publicly available, making it difficult to assess its accuracy or determine why its numbers are so different than from what her group found.

She said the council, which she described as a pro-IDA lobbying group, went directly to the agencies for its data.

"I would be very surprised if their analysis is accurate," she said.

The IDA bill passed by the Assembly is sponsored by Assemblyman Sam Hoyt, D-Buffalo.

His bill requires developers to pay union-scale wages to construction workers -- a proposal business groups heatedly oppose.

Hoyt said leaders in the Assembly and the Senate, along with the administration of Gov. Eliot Spitzer, are making progress as they attempt to craft a compromise IDA law.

"Are we close to resolving the matter?"

"No," Hoyt said.

"But we're closer that we were a week ago or two weeks ago."

Chris Churchill can be reached at 454-5442 or by e-mail at cchurchill@timesunion.com.

[Livyjr]

"Bruno chases cold cash in warm weather - Senate GOP leader hosts fundraiser at Donald Trump's home in Florida"

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

First published: Thursday, February 21, 2008

ALBANY -- As Senate staffers and political operatives work the wintry counties of the contested 48th Senate District, Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno and a top aide collected campaign cash and planned some golf in Palm Beach, Fla., Wednesday.

For the third year running, Bruno raised funds at Mar-A-Lago, Donald Trump's seaside estate.

Bruno's trip, which normally includes several rounds of golf, comes as Trump proposes to join with developer Louis Cappelli on a $700 million project to transform the Concord Hotel near Monticello into a major destination.

Cappelli has said the project he proposes with Empire Resorts, owner of Monticello Raceway, will seek state financial resources and regulatory approvals from the Division of Lottery and the Racing and Wagering Board.

The project includes moving more than 1,500 video lottery terminals and the Monticello harness track to the renovated Concord site a few miles away.

Trump and Cappelli and lobbyists for Empire Resorts, including James Crane of Albany, all of whom are generous donors to both parties, were expected to attend Bruno's fundraising event if their schedules permitted.

Bruno and aide John McArdle planned to host attendees who pay $2,000 per person and $3,000 per couple to the Senate Republican Campaign Committee, the Senate Republican political organization said.

The GOP committee needs cash as it spends hundreds of thousands of dollars attempting to get Assemblyman Will Barclay, R-Pulaski, elected next week to the 48th District seat vacated by Sen. James Wright, R-Watertown.

Barclay opposes Democratic Assemblyman Darrel Aubertine of Cape Vincent for the two-year seat.

Already, a combined $1.3 million has been spent by both parties on the race to represent a district that includes all or parts of Jefferson, St. Lawrence and Oswego counties.

The GOP also will be tapping its resources for races across the state in November as it attempts to hold onto or increase its slim advantage over Democrats to keep control of the Senate.

Tens of millions of dollars may be necessary for what could become the most expensive Senate elections ever this November.

"It's huge, for two reasons," said pollster John Zogby about the GOP fundraising.

"The first reason is everything is more expensive; the second reason is they're fighting for their majority life."

"They can't afford to have news articles suggesting they don't have as much money as the Democrats or that fundraising is down."

Zogby International conducted a poll for the Watertown Daily News last week that found Aubertine leading Barclay 40.3 percent to 37.6 percent, with a 4.5 percent margin of error in Tuesday's special election.

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

[Livyjr]

THE NEW YORK SUN

"Police Lawyers, Spitzer Aides Met Before Troopergate Report"

By JACOB GERSHMAN, Staff Reporter of the Sun

February 22, 2008

Days before Attorney General Cuomo released a report alleging that the Spitzer administration and the state police coordinated a political hit on the Republican Senate majority leader, Joseph Bruno, two top state police lawyers met for three hours with two senior aides to the governor, according to records.

On July 18, the state police's chief counsel, Glen Valle, and deputy counsel, Darren O'Connor, met at the executive chamber with Peter Pope and Sean Maloney, two Spitzer aides who were deputized as special counsels during Mr. Cuomo's investigation.

Executive chamber records show that Messrs. Valle and O'Connor signed in at 2:12 p.m. and departed at 5:06 p.m.

Sources say Mr. Cuomo's report was nearly complete by then and that the governor's office, police officials, and the attorney general's office were engaged in a series of tense negotiations about what charges the report would contain and what disciplinary measures the administration would accept.

On July 23, Mr. Cuomo's office published the report, which claimed that two aides to the governor, the communications director, Darren Dopp, and the governor's liaison to the state police, William Howard, sought to discredit Mr. Bruno by gathering and publicizing records from the police about his use of the state air fleet and police vehicles during fund-raising trips to New York City.

The governor apologized and suspended Mr. Dopp, who left the administration to take a job in the private sector.

Mr. Spitzer has since insisted that his administration did nothing improper.

The attorney general's office concluded that the Spitzer administration did not commit a criminal offense, but allegations by Senate Republicans that the governor's office had stonewalled investigators sparked further inquiries by the Commission on Public Integrity, the Albany County district attorney, and a Senate investigative committee.

Sources say the commission and the district attorney, David Soares, are examining whether Messrs. Pope and Maloney and the governor's counsel, David Nocenti, pressured Mr. Dopp not to talk to Mr. Cuomo's investigators but instead to sign a two-paragraph statement denying criminal wrongdoing and acknowledging misjudgments.

In discussions with investigators for Mr. Soares and the integrity commission, Mr. Dopp has claimed that Messrs. Pope and Maloney warned him that Mr. Cuomo could not be trusted and that the attorney general aimed to charge several administration officials with criminal misconduct unless he cooperated, a source said.

Spokesmen for the state police and the governor's office declined to comment about the meeting.

http://www.nysun.com/article/71677

[Livyjr]

"Spitzer: No state income tax on federal rebate payments"

Associated Press

Last updated: 1:13 p.m., Thursday, February 21, 2008

ALBANY -- New Yorkers won't have to pay state income taxes on the upcoming rebate payments from the federal economic stimulus package.

The IRS will begin sending the rebate payments to qualifying taxpayers in early May after the current tax season ends.

Gov. Eliot Spitzer says New Yorker residents will keep the full amount of the rebates and won't be taxed on that income on their 2008 state tax returns.

To get the rebate payments, taxpayers must file a 2007 federal tax return, even if they don't owe federal income taxes.

New Yorkers won't be required to file a 2007 state tax return if they filed a federal tax return solely to get the rebate, according to Spitzer's announcement Thursday.

[Livyjr]

"Town official answers charges - Stephentown highway superintendent pleads not guilty in gravel case"

By DAVID FILKINS, Staff writer, Albany, New York Times Union

First published: Friday, February 22, 2008

TROY -- Stephentown Highway Superintendent Neil Gardner pleaded not guilty Thursday to 44 felony charges alleging he bought gravel from an illegal mine and tried to cover it up.

Gardner, 52, said state prosecutors offered to let him off with a misdemeanor, but he refused because he would have lost his job if he pleaded guilty.

"They told me it would have been minor, like stealing a pack of bubble gum," Gardner said before his arraignment by Rensselaer County Court Judge Robert Jacon.

"The problem is, I didn't do anything like steal a pack of bubble gum."

Steve Cohen, a spokesman from the attorney general's office, declined to confirm whether Gardner was offered a plea deal, but said, "We stand by the case we indicted."

"We believe it is inappropriate to discuss what is or is not offered prior to indictment."

"The case has now been indicted and Gardner faces charges of very serious felony offenses."

A grand jury indicted Gardner last week on charges of first-degree offering a false instrument for filing, first-degree falsifying business records and second-degree criminal possession of a forged instrument.

He is also charged with one count of operating a mine without a permit, a misdemeanor.

The indictment, the result of a state Department of Environmental Conservation investigation, accuses Gardner of falsifying documents filed with the town to conceal that thousands of cubic yards of sand and gravel were being removed from a mine without a permit on property on Route 22 owned by Anthony Cormier.

Gardner's attorney, Tom Spargo, would not outline their defense strategy, but said, "No crimes were committed, which is why we're going to proceed before the judge and a jury if necessary."

Gardner's former lawyer, Stephen Pechenick, had previously said the mine was not illegal, that town officials were well aware of where the gravel came from and that Gardner was being criticized by state officials for not making the vouchers more specific.

In October 2006, state investigators took records from the offices of the town clerk, Gardner and Russ Freeman of Russ Freeman Excavating Inc. in Nassau, which regularly performed work for the Stephentown Highway Department.

The problem first became apparent in 2005 when Cormier came to a series of Town Board meetings complaining he had not been paid for gravel mined from a pit on his land.

The state later told the town that the mine had no permit, prompting the state investigation.

Gardner is accused of manipulating town records in November 2005 to make it look like the gravel came from a legally operated mine run by Troy Sand and Gravel of West Sand Lake.

Freeman pleaded guilty in Town Court in October to second-degree offering a false instrument for filing and was fined $1,000.

He died of cancer in December.

Gardner, a Republican and the town highway chief for more than 20 years, won another term in November with 55 percent of the vote a day after he was first charged in the case.

He said the indictment will not affect his job status.

"I was at a board meeting the other day and I received a standing ovation," Gardner said.

"I'm going to continue doing my job."

David Filkins can be reached at 454-5456 or by e-mail at dfilkins@timesunion.com.

[Livyjr]

BINGHAMTON PRESS & SUN-BULLETIN

NEWS

Posted Thursday February 21, 2008

"Spitzer's favorability rating keeps dropping, poll shows"

By Joseph Spector, Albany Bureau

ALBANY -- Gov. Eliot Spitzer's favorability rating among New Yorkers continued to sag in a new poll Wednesday, with only 41 percent of voters having a favorable opinion of the first-term governor.

The Siena College Research Institute poll found that the Democratic governor's favorability rating dipped from 44 percent just a month ago.

Still, the rating is statistically the same as January because Wednesday's poll had a margin of error of 3.9 percentage points.

Thirty-three percent of voters gave Spitzer a positive job-approval rating, compared to 65 percent who rate his performance as negative.

It is virtually unchanged from January's 32 percent job rating.

Twenty-five percent of voters would re-elect Spitzer in 2010, while 50 percent would prefer "someone else."

The poor numbers for the governor were consistent in both upstate and in the New York City-area, the poll found, while the fallout has been greatest with Democrats, African Americans and Hispanics, said Siena poll spokesman Steven Greenberg.

Fifty-eight percent of voters said the state is no better since Spitzer took office in January 2007.

Twenty-two percent said things have gotten worse.

"For New Yorkers, the (Spitzer campaign) slogan 'Everything Changes on Day One' is a long-forgotten memory," Greenberg said.

On the state budget, 32 percent of voters said they would prefer raising taxes rather than cutting health care or education spending.

Yet nearly 30 percent were undecided.

"The governor has never governed by polls and continues to believe that a tax increase on New Yorkers would be entirely inappropriate in this current economic climate," said Spitzer spokesman Errol Cockfield.

The state faces a roughly $4.6 billion budget gap in the 2008-09 fiscal year, which starts April 1.

Spitzer has proposed a series of new fees and cuts to health care to close the deficit.

But Spitzer's troubles began well before this budget cycle.

After winning election with a convincing 69 percent of the vote and a pledge to fix a dysfunctional state government, Spitzer has been mired in political squabbles and scandals.

He battled with legislators over his policies and remains embroiled in a flap over whether aides were compiling travel documents to damage the governor's Republican foe, Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno.

Spitzer's popularity dropped further after he sought in September to give drivers' licenses to illegal immigrants, a plan he later abandoned.

Yet Spitzer has hoped to start his second year with better results and has tried to strike a conciliatory tone with the Legislature.

But some critics said they are still waiting for a new climate in Albany.

"It's sad," said Assemblyman Bill Reilich, R-Greece, Monroe County.

"We need so much change, and we hear a lot of people make promises that they are going to change and there's going to be a 'Day One' and I don't see anything has changed."

http://www.pressconnects.com/apps/pbcs.dll.../802210342/1006

[Livyjr]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

January 18, 2008

"GOVERNOR SPITZER LEADS FIRST MEETING OF COMMISSION TO MODERNIZE REGULATION OF FINANCIAL SERVICES - Commission Discusses Regulatory Reform to Help Maintain New York’s Status as World Financial Capital and Ensure the Highest Standards of Consumer Protection for New Yorkers"

Governor Eliot Spitzer today hosted the first formal meeting of the Commission to Modernize the Regulation of Financial Services, which includes heads of major financial services organizations, consumer advocates, the business community, legislators and regulators.

The commission discussed an innovative proposal to institute principles-guided regulation in New York along with other potential reforms.

The United Kingdom and other international markets are moving to principle-based regulation, which focuses on broad guidelines.

“Modernizing regulation of financial services is first and foremost about keeping New York the financial capital of the world,” said Governor Spitzer.

“The fact of the matter is that New York’s current regulations are out of date."

"We have brought together many of the best minds in the State to accomplish this task.”

After the meeting, Governor Spitzer was joined by Herbert M. Allison, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer, TIAA-CREF, Laurence D. Fink, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, BlackRock, John J. Mack, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Morgan Stanley and Martin J. Sullivan, President and Chief Executive Officer, AIG at a press conference to discuss the work of the commission and how principles-guided regulation will lead to a focus on outcomes rather than process.

The commission will consider:

Developing “principles-guided” regulation as a unique alternative to the principles-based approach being instituted in the United Kingdom.

The principles guide the regulator to focus on outcomes, rather than the rules in and of themselves.

http://www.ny.gov/governor/press/0118081.html

"New York commission urges regulation of financial services to follow 'principles'"

By DAN SEYMOUR, Associated Press

Last updated: 5:53 p.m., Friday, January 18, 2008

NEW YORK -- A commission helping redraft the regulatory framework for New York's finance industry is considering placing greater emphasis on "principles" than on strictly defined rules, Gov. Eliot Spitzer said Friday.

Regulations based on broad guidelines -- such as "observe proper standards of market conduct," and "maintain adequate financial resources" -- could inject some flexibility into the arcane and Byzantine rules governing the industry now, Spitzer said.

"There is also a premium to restoring the credibility to a regulatory framework that I think a lot of people look at and say, 'You have failed,'" he said.

A principle-based regulatory framework would more closely resemble that used in London.

Spitzer said such a system would serve as a foundation for interpreting existing laws, and urge regulators to concentrate on outcomes instead of the process.

The commission's members include the chief executives of investments banks Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch; insurers MetLife and AIG; and the New York Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq.

"UK govt outlines Northern Rock plans"

By JANE WARDELL, Associated Press

Last updated: 3:02 p.m., Monday, February 18, 2008

LONDON -- Prime Minister Gordon Brown's government faced accusations of mismanagement Monday as it began nationalizing stricken mortgage lender Northern Rock PLC -- the first time in 20 years that a private company has been taken into public ownership.

The opposition Conservative Party said Britain's reputation as a major financial services center had been dealt a serious blow.

"The nationalization of Northern Rock is a disaster for the British taxpayer, a disaster for this government and a disaster for our country," said Conservative Party leader David Cameron.

On the defensive Monday, Brown and his successor in the treasury office, Alistair Darling, disputed that Britain's international reputation has been tarnished.

"What we don't accept is that London or Britain has been uniquely affected by world events," Brown said, referring to the credit troubles that swept global markets in the late summer and led Northern Rock to seek emergency funding from the Bank of England, triggering Britain's first bank run in 150 years.

London would remain the world's "pre-eminent financial center," Darling added.

Senator Hugh T. Farley, Chair of the Banking Committee said:

“New York remains the center of the global financial universe."

"In order to maintain our leadership, we must balance the need to encourage innovation and competition with our responsibility to ensure safety, soundness, and consumer protections."

"This commission provides the opportunity for our finest thinkers to help guide financial regulation in the new millennium.”

http://www.ny.gov/governor/press/0118081.html

THE DAILY MAIL

"Government extends Northern Rock savings guarantee as FSA admits 'lessons must be learned'"

Last updated at 15:34pm on 9th October 2007

Meanwhile the Financial Services Authority (FSA) admitted that "lessons had to be learned" to improve its monitoring following the crisis.

The City regulator told MPs on the Treasury Select Committee that Northern Rock had not been due a full risk assessment until three years after its last one, conducted between December 2005 and February 2006.

While specific issues were addressed with the bank on a more regular basis, chief executive Hector Sants said the FSA was reviewing its procedures in response to the fiasco.

"There are lessons to be learned here, with regard to our supervisory capacity, and I do think we need to look back over our engagement with this particular company," he told the committee.

Mr Sants went on to say that the FSA had predicted Northern Rock - before it ran into credit problems requiring financial support from the Bank of England - to have a "low" probability of getting into trouble.

"In terms of its probability of getting into difficulty, we had it as a low probability, and there's no question of course - the way that events transpired - that that probability analysis was proved to be inaccurate," he said.

"So we have some serious lessons to be learned."

Northern Rock suffered the first run on a UK bank in 150 years last month, as the company struggled with soaring borrowing costs in the money markets where the firm raises most of its cash for mortgage lending.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/arti...in_page_id=1770

"FSA says Investors relied too much on credit ratings"

Tue Dec 11, 2007 5:10pm

LONDON (Reuters) - The financial watchdog told legislators that banks were not "reckless" in the run-up to the credit crisis, but warned some investors had relied too heavily on ratings agencies.

Credit ratings agencies have come under fire in recent months, accused of being too slow in warning about problems in the U.S. subprime mortgage sector and possible repercussions.

However, in a wide-ranging evidence session before parliament's Treasury Committee on Tuesday, the Financial Services Authority's (FSA) top executives said some institutional investors simply failed to do enough of their own research.

"One element of the problem is institutional investors using rating agencies as a shorthand way of measuring liquidity as well as credit (risk)," FSA Chief Executive Hector Sants said, in the watchdog's second appearance before legislators in two months.

"It is vitally important that people understand the limitations of the service that a credit agency delivers."

The instruments, he said, were transparent enough for those who had the "time and expertise" to unpick them.

"People have relied too heavily on the rating agencies rather than doing their own (research)," Callum McCarthy, the FSA's chairman, told the committee.

In a separate hearing last week, leading investment banks acknowledged that some investors in complex structured products were not sophisticated enough to understand what they bought.

The FSA has come under fire over its role in the Northern Rock crisis, putting the watchdog through its toughest test since it was set up seven years ago.

McCarthy and Sants confirmed a key discussion paper on the regulation of liquidity was expected this month, with the results of a "forensic" look at its role in the Northern Rock debacle due by next spring.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/companyOutlo...lBrandChannel=0

FORBES

"Credit Crunch - What To Do About Wall Street"

Liz Moyer, 02.14.08, 3:05 PM ET

So who's to blame for the subprime mess?

Banks?

Investors?

Regulators?

Ratings agencies?

The epicenter of all this finger-pointing: Capitol Hill Thursday, as lawmakers, regulators, and executives gathered to debate how to deal with the crisis gripping the credit markets, particularly the perilous state of the mortgage bond industry.

At a separate hearing Thursday morning in the Senate, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, and Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox testified on the effects of the crisis on the economy and the efforts to fix the problems.

Senator Jack Reed, D-R.I., directly asked Bernanke if the Fed is conducting a review of the regulatory lapses that allowed the current economic situation to develop.

Bernanke punted, saying that the central bank will issue a "principles-based" report in April to make sure any problems identified don't occur again.

http://www.forbes.com/2008/02/14/washingto...artner=yahootix

WASHINGTON POST

"Wall Street Bank Run"

By David Ignatius

Thursday, February 21, 2008; Page A15

It doesn't look like an old-fashioned bank run because it involves the biggest financial institutions trading paper assets so complicated that even top executives don't fully understand the transactions.

But that's what it is -- a spreading fear among financial institutions that their brethren can't be trusted to honor their obligations.

Frightened financiers are pulling back from credit markets -- going on strike, if you will -- to escape the unraveling daisy chain of securitized assets and promissory notes that binds the global financial system.

As each financier tries to protect against the next one's mistakes, the whole system begins to sag.

That's what we're seeing now, as credit market troubles spread from bundles of subprime residential mortgages to bundles of other kinds of debt -- from student loans to retailers' receivables to municipal bonds.

Investors are nervous because they aren't sure how to value these bundles of securitized assets.

So buyers stay away, prices fall further, and the damage spreads.

The public, fortunately, doesn't understand how bad the situation is.

If it did, we might have a real panic on our hands.

And there would be more pressure for bad policies -- ones that try to freeze the damage, rather than letting prices fall to levels where buyers will return and the markets will clear.

Hillary Clinton's proposed moratorium on home foreclosures, in that respect, is one of the truly bad ideas of our time.

It would make the situation worse by increasing even more the illiquidity and inflexibility of the housing market.

The answer to Wall Street's bank run may be a version of what saved Main Street banks during the Great Depression.

President Franklin Roosevelt created the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation in 1933 to reassure the public that there was an insurer of last resort for the banks -- and that people's money was safe even if they couldn't see it or touch it or put it under a mattress.

Rep. Barney Frank and other congressional experts are weighing different approaches to this problem of how to backstop the markets without Clinton's misguided moratorium.

These markets are now so complicated that most of us can't begin to understand the details.

So I asked the chief financial officer of a leading concern to walk me through what has been happening.

The problem, he said, is that financial institutions are required to "mark to market" their tradable assets (which is a fancy term for setting a value) even when there isn't a functioning market.

In many cases dealers can do little more than guess at the value -- and other investors down the line know it.

To explain how this happened, the CFO took a simple example of residential mortgages.

As financial engineering improved in the 1990s, these individual loans were gathered into bundles -- 10,000 home loans of $100,000 each, let's say -- and turned into a $1 billion security that could be traded in ways the individual mortgages never could.

But that wasn't enough.

The financiers realized they could boost their profits by carving the $1 billion package into different slices, with different risk levels.

In that way, a pool of B-rated mortgage assets could generate a slice that was rated AAA, because it was judged the slice most likely to be repaid.

But what happened when the real estate market confounded recent history and began to turn down?

People holding the paper could no longer be sure if or when their particular slice would be repaid.

The traditional accounting approach -- of estimating the projected cash flow and then discounting for the risk -- didn't work.

With 10,000 disparate mortgages underlying the paper, both the rate of cash payments and the risk of default were impossible to predict.

So the pyramid began to wobble.

The hubris in this system was Wall Street's confidence that it could value paper securities that had been sliced and diced so many times that they no longer had solid connections to their underlying assets.

The nation's leading financier, Warren Buffett, had warned years before that "derivatives," whose value was balanced loosely on the real assets underneath, were the equivalent of "financial weapons of mass destruction."

But in the rush for profits, nobody listened.

I've saved the worst for last.

Do you want to know who is bailing out America's biggest banks and financial institutions from the consequences of their folly -- by acting as the lender of last resort and controller of the system?

Why, it's the sovereign wealth funds, owned by such nations as China and the Persian Gulf oil producers.

The new titans are coming to the rescue, if that's the right word for their mortgage on America's future.

The writer is co-host ofPostGlobal, an online discussion of international issues. His e-mail address isdavidignatius@washpost.com.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...8022002270.html

[Livyjr]

"Analysis: Clinton's troubles appear in rear view mirror in NY"

By MICHAEL GORMLEY, Associated Press

Last updated: 10:32 a.m., Saturday, February 23, 2008

ALBANY -- In the classic political novel "The Last Hurrah," veteran politician Frank Skeffington watched the early returns in a neighborhood he had carried comfortably for decades and saw his undoing.

It was "so small as to be almost negligible -- yet it stopped him ... it might -- just possibly -- be dangerous," the 1956 novel put it.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton is facing such moments now in her campaign for president.

And those that might just possibly be dangerous for her can be traced back to New York, her adopted state that always figured to be a sure thing.

In October, during a televised debate, the front-running Clinton stumbled when asked if she supported Gov. Eliot Spitzer's hotly contested plan to make it easier for illegal immigrants to get driver's licenses.

Her non-answer -- the first campaign misstep by the seemingly inevitable Democratic nominee -- was the hit of talk radio and blogs for days.

Her Democratic opponents pounced at the opportunity to question her candor, integrity and electability.

Back then, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama said Clinton "really exposed this fault line ... Sen. Clinton left us wondering where she stood on every single hard question from Iran to Social Security to driver's licenses for undocumented workers."

"That clearly created an opening for her opponents," said Steven Greenberg of the Siena Research Institute poll.

"It enabled them to talk about her not being willing to take hard-and-fast positions on difficult issues and it gave her opponents a specific example people could understand."

Earlier this month, as Obama caught -- then passed -- Clinton, two Hispanic legislators from New York barely contained their suspicion and anger when Clinton's campaign manager, a Hispanic woman, stepped down from the flagging campaign.

It was a threat to Clinton's base, which was already losing the black vote to Obama, that had long been a sure thing.

"It will be very troubling to many if somehow we later find that she left her post under pressure because of the recent primary losses" and was "the one to take the blame and resign from her post instead of others involved with your campaign, including former President Clinton, who have caused serious problems and embarrassing situations," state Democratic Sen. Ruben Diaz Jr. of the Bronx wrote in a Feb. 11 letter to Clinton.

And this week, numbers inside the Siena Research Institute poll beyond the horse race headlines show more reasons for concern.

While Clinton is viewed more favorably on most issues over Obama and Republican Sen. John McCain by New Yorkers who elected her twice to the U.S. Senate, she loses big for "honesty."

New Yorkers prefer Obama over Clinton 59 percent to 22 percent in the honesty category and favor McCain 53 percent to 31 percent.

"That's something that should scare her and her team," Greenberg said.

And after eight years of the Republican Bush administration, a war-weary country facing a possible recession sees far less inspiration in Clinton than in Obama.

Siena found 62 percent of New Yorkers were more inspired by Obama compared with 26 percent for Clinton.

Thursday's New York Post front page carried a smiling photo of Obama looking down at a close-up of a graying Clinton, pensive and a bit wrinkled, under the headline: "Last Roll of the Dice."

But Clinton has been down before, from early political obituaries written before her Super Tuesday wins, from the Monica Lewinsky scandal in the White House days, and her husband's loss of the Arkansas governor's mansion.

Her next critical comeback would begin with the Texas and Ohio primaries March 4.

These primary seasons, for both parties, are controlled more by their extreme factions than in general elections in November.

And Democrats like to see their party as a big tent.

They just tend to kick each other around inside it until they get down to the business of trying to beat a Republican.

And that's the race for which the more centrist Clinton may be best suited.

"There's nothing in the poll that points me in this direction, but I think anybody who ignores or underrates the political skills of Hillary and Bill Clinton and their team does so at their own peril," Greenberg said.

"They have proven for the last two decades to be incredibly adept and I think, while it's clear that Obama has momentum and the lead, I think it's far from over."

------

Michael Gormley is the Albany, N.Y., capitol editor for The Associated Press. He can be reached by e-mail at mgormley(at)ap.org.

[Livyjr]

"Aid overhaul would boost villages - Comptroller calls state revenue formula outdated, proposes increased funding for smaller municipalities"

By KENNETH C. CROWE II, Staff writer, Albany, New York Times Union

First published: Sunday, February 24, 2008

Finances are always a talking point during village elections in communities where there's often little room to expand the tax base and costly infrastructure needs to satisfy.

That's why some village officials fully support a recent report by state Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli calling for an overhaul of state aid to local governments.

"The terms city, town and village have more to do with history than present day governmental functions," DiNapoli said in announcing the report.

"The current formula for state aid ignores the reality that many villages and towns have surpassed cities in size and provide similar services."

During the state's fiscal crisis in the early 1990s, revenue sharing -- aid the state sends to municipalities -- was deeply cut, while any increases were targeted mostly to cities, DiNapoli said.

The decades-old revenue-sharing formula needs to change to get villages and towns more money, though not at the expense of cities, DiNapoli said.

Waterford Mayor J. Bert Mahoney said he couldn't agree more with DiNapoli's findings.

"Villages have all the same infrastructure challenges and problems that cities do."

"We're a mini-city," said Mahoney.

The comptroller's report cited Waterford (population 2,200) as an urban village that could see its aid jump by 62 percent from $70,191 to $113,616 under a proposed formula change.

That's an extra $43,425 a year.

Mahoney said his village could use that to expand its infrastructure improvements, especially in the village's north end.

"We could do quite a bit more with that money; much more infrastructure," Mahoney said.

Mahoney is running for a sixth term in next month's elections.

He said his ability to find funding sources to undertake projects in the village has helped his entire slate to run unopposed.

About 7 percent of the people in the four-county Capital Region live in the 23 villages.

Residents will go to the polls in 14 of the villages Tuesday, March 18, to elect mayors, trustees or justices.

The other nine aren't voting this March.

Only Hoosick Falls, Ravena, Round Lake and Schaghticoke have contested races.

The other 10 have uncontested elections.

"We've got a lot of good things going on in our village."

"They can see results."

"They can see changes," Mahoney said about why he doesn't have an opponent.

Kenneth C. Crowe II can be reached at 454-5084 or by e-mail at kcrowe@timesunion.com.

Village elections at a glance

Here's how the March 18 village elections shape up:

ALBANY COUNTY

Altamont: No elections next month.

Colonie: Mayor Frank Leak is unopposed as he seeks four-year term.

Trustees Michael J. Aidala and John L. Murphy are unopposed for four-year terms.

All are independents.

Green Island: Elections in November.

Menands: No elections next month.

Ravena: Four people seek the two four-year trustee seats: Independence Party candidates William Bailey, incumbent, and Bruce Roberts; Republican-People's Choice candidates Richard Filkins and Anthony Robbins. Harold Warner III, Republican- Independence-People's Choice candidate, is unopposed for the 4-year justice seat.

Voorheesville: No elections next month.

SARATOGA COUNTY

Ballston Spa: No elections next month.

In 2009, two trustees and the justice will be up for election.

Corinth: Mayor Brad Winslow is running unopposed for re-election; trustees Leigh Lescault and Pauline Densmore are also unopposed.

All are 4-year terms.

Galway: Republican Trustee Ann Best is unopposed for a third two-year term.

Round Lake: Incumbent Mayor Dixie Lee Sacks is challenged by Lawrence Ruggles for the two-year job.

Incumbents Thomas Bergin and Christopher Nellissen and challenger Caroline Woerner seek the pair of two-year trustee terms.

Schuylerville: One trustee seat was vacated by a resignation.

Green Party candidate Roger Sherman, who is not related to Mayor John Sherman, is running to fill the three-year unexpired term.

South Glens Falls: One seat was vacated by a resignation.

Frank Jones was appointed June 1 and seeks a one-year term.

Stillwater: No village elections next month.

Victory: No village elections until 2009 when the mayor and one trustee seat will be up for re-election.

Waterford: Mayor J. Bert Mahoney unopposed.

Four Republican trustee incumbents Russ VanDervoort, Raymond Rocque, Ben Kelts and Edward Pascucci are unopposed.

SCHENECTADY COUNTY

Delanson: No elections next month.

Scotia: Two trustee seats up in November.

RENSSELAER COUNTY

Castleton-on-Hudson: Marianne Carner unopposed for two-year mayor's seat.

Trustees Karen Fagen and Joseph McInerney unopposed for two-year terms.

Trustee Cheryl Mannion for one-year term.

East Nassau: Trustee Mitchell Levinn running unopposed for re-election.

Gloria Boudreau running unopposed for seat held by Michael Perman.

Both are two-year terms.

Hoosick Falls: Five candidates seek three two-year seats: Trustee Benjamin Patten III, Trustee Ann Marie Bornt, Michael Hickey, Trustee Robert Downing and Larry LeBarron.

Two candidates for a single one-year term: Matt Monahan and Jonathan Laubacker.

Nassau: Trustee Charles Collins running unopposed for four-year term.

Schaghticoke: Four candidates seek two four-year trustee seats: Trustee Sidney Jones, Citizen Party; Trustee Jennifer Fennelly, United Party; David J. Smith, Freedom Party; Charles E. Waldron, a former mayor, Independent party.

Valley Falls: Incumbent trustees Brian Backstrom and Gilles Vautrin unopposed for two-year terms.

Report on revenue

A state comptroller's office report issued this month says if certain villages had been treated like smaller urban cities in 2007-08, they would have gotten a total of $10 million more than what they actually got that year.

The agency looked at average yearly increases in state revenue sharing from 1995-96 to 2005-06 for certain cities and what comparable increases would have been for villages in smaller urban centers.

Here's how much extra some local villages would have gotten; the increases range from 58 to 62 percent more:

Scotia: $44,700

Waterford: $43,400

Ballston Spa: $26,800

Green Island: $23,900

South Glens Falls: $20,500

Hoosick Falls: $19,600

Corinth: $14,500

Castleton-on-Hudson: $9,000

Schuylerville: $6,800

Nassau: $6,400

Source: 21st Century State Aid Formulas: Revenue Sharing, NYS Comptroller's Office