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

[Livyjr]

"Newspaper denies claims of extortion - Hearst lawyer tells district attorney Bruno accusations are untrue"

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

First published: Friday, July 6, 2007

ALBANY -- A Times Union attorney on Thursday told Albany County District Attorney David Soares that claims that an advertising salesman for the paper tried to extort money from Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno's office were "baseless" and untrue.

In a letter to Soares, Eve Burton, vice president and general counsel for the Hearst Corporation, the newspaper's parent company, said the salesman, who called the senator's office Tuesday, had nothing to do with the paper's news coverage and was just selling ads.

Charges that the sales call amounted to a financial shakedown represent "an entirely bizarre reaction to accurate but unflattering coverage of Bruno," Burton wrote.

Burton's letter follows accusations two days ago from Bruno spokesman John McArdle that a Times Union salesman was trying to extort the senator by pitching advertising at a time when Bruno was the subject of controversial stories about his use of state aircraft to fly to Manhattan fundraisers.

On Tuesday, McArdle wrote Soares and asked him to look into the matter.

But Burton noted that the salesman, Gary Labelle, when asked, said that he wasn't trying to get money to influence news coverage but was simply offering the senator an alternate method of reaching the public.

The state Democratic Committee has been running ads in the Times Union and on timesunion.com that attack Senate Republicans.

"The Albany Times Union has an advertising department that sells regular and advocacy advertising on our Web site and in our newspaper to people seeking access to our readers, precisely because you cannot 'buy' editorial coverage," Burton added.

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"Ex-Berlin postmaster admits theft"

By JORDAN CARLEO-EVANGELIST, Staff writer, Albany, New York Times Union

Last updated: 7:09 p.m., Thursday, July 5, 2007

ALBANY - A former Rensselaer County postmaster routinely played with sales records to hide her theft of nearly $70,000 from the U.S. Postal Service, court papers filed in federal court say.

Karen Dobert-Morine, 51, of Averill Park, the former Berlin postmaster, has admitted to dispatching thousands of dollars of money orders to herself - a fraud that was uncovered more than a year ago but not disclosed until her arrest and guilty plea Tuesday, the court documents said.

Dobert-Morine, who resigned soon after the thefts were revealed by a January 2006 audit, could face up to 10 years in prison for misappropriation of postal funds.

As far back as 2000, the same year postal officials say Dobert-Morine gained oversight of the rural post office on State Route 22, records show she would hide her thefts by under-reporting her daily sales of postage, including stamps to the Berlin Central School District, according to her plea agreement filed in U.S. District Court in Albany.

The theft unfolded little by little - sometimes in increments as small as $84.19 - and was facilitated, according to prosecutors, by a reporting system that would not reveal it until the books were scrutinized from the outside.

Post offices are required to report money received in a daily financial report, which can be manipulated by under-reporting daily postage sales, prosecutors said.

"While there would then be a shortage in the office, the shortage would not become evident until/unless an audit was conducted," according to the plea.

The January audit revealed a shortage of $69,914.66, records show.

Dobert-Morine's lawyer, Michael Rhodes-Deavey, declined comment on the case Thursday.

The plea agreement requires that she make full restitution.

Sentencing is Oct. 30 in federal court.

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"Good news is no good - Consumer confidence in Capital Region declines despite upbeat economic trends; other regions also down"

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

First published: Saturday, July 7, 2007

COLONIE -- Analysts admit the latest report on consumer confidence surprised them.

The quarterly survey of the state's cities by Siena Research Institute, released Friday, found sentiment down everywhere.

But the greatest decline occurred here in the Capital Region, where the economy has typically outperformed the rest of the state.

"We've had relatively good news," said Douglas Lonnstrom, the Siena College finance and statistics professor who directs the institute, citing such recent announcements as plans by International Sematech to expand here.

"Maybe we just came back to earth."

"We have the same negatives everybody else has."

Economists follow consumer confidence closely because they say it's a strong indicator of their willingness to spend.

And consumer spending typically makes up two-thirds of the nation's overall economic activity.

Could the slowing housing market be to blame?

Sales, after all, posted a 16 percent decline in May from a year earlier, the Greater Capital Association of Realtors reported last month.

But prices actually edged higher.

Slowing sales "may be part of it," said Rocco Ferraro, who heads the Capital District Regional Planning Commission.

"But (housing) is not going through the floor."

"The decline has been pretty much steady."

And Ferraro said the population in this area continues to expand, something that is not happening elsewhere upstate.

Unemployment rates here are lower, too.

The Capital Region's index of overall confidence tumbled 8.7 points from the first quarter to the second, falling to 82.1.

That was still ahead of every other community but New York City, where the index fell 4.7 points to 87.1.

The Siena survey is based on a similar one conducted by the University of Michigan, with higher numbers showing increasing confidence, and lower numbers indicating worry.

The baseline of both surveys is 100.

Buffalo was down a more modest 3.0 points to 76.6 in the Siena survey, while Syracuse ranked fourth, falling 6.0 points to 76.2.

The second greatest drop came in Binghamton, which fell 7.6 points to 76.0.

Rochester was down 4.3 points to 75.7.

For the first time, the Siena Research Institute also surveyed Utica, where it calculated an index of 76.9, and the mid-Hudson Valley, with an index of 80.3.

Lonnstrom said sales of appliances and other durable goods are starting to feel the impact of higher energy prices and a softer housing market.

But Rebecca Marion, director of public affairs at the Retail Council of New York State, isn't so sure.

"It's reasonably stable here from a retail perspective," she said.

"We'll see whether consumers follow through on what they're telling Siena."

"Although consumers have been concerned in the past, they've continued to shop," she added.

The Capital Region's index -- despite its tumble -- was actually 0.8 points ahead of where it was a year ago.

Only Binghamton saw a decline from the second quarter of 2006.

And the index has two components -- current confidence and future confidence -- which measure consumers' willingness to spend now and well into the future.

Of the roughly 30 indices calculated from the survey data, "only one is up," Lonnstrom observed.

"There's no question consumer confidence is just reacting to whatever happens," he added.

"The other thing that's interesting here is, inflation is holding steady, interest rates are pretty low, and the stock market is doing OK."

Tony Riccardi, an economist in private practice in Albany, said he, too, is puzzled by the results.

But "this is only one quarter's data," he added.

"A couple of consecutive quarters would give me more reason to be concerned."

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

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"Lawyers criticize workers' comp streamlining - State efforts to quicken hearing process leave too little time to prepare cases, attorneys say"

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

First published: Saturday, July 7, 2007

ALBANY -- Some lawyers who handle workers' compensation cases oppose a plan to speed up the often-lengthy process of paying for the medical care of injured workers.

Lawyers from both sides of the hearing room -- those who represent injured workers and those who represent employers or insurance companies -- say the new regulations could be detrimental to all parties.

They are worried they may not be able to prepare cases in the shorter time allotted and say they are concerned patients could be in a weaker legal position under the new rules.

The workers' comp system dates to 1914, when it was created under the Department of Labor.

The idea was to give injured factory workers an opportunity to get money from their employers without having to sue.

Today, all businesses in the state must carry a plan, either through self-insurance, a private insurance provider or the New York State Insurance Fund.

About 150,000 workers' comp cases were filed in 2006, of which 25,000 were disputed by employers.

The new rules for disputed cases, dubbed "Rocket Docket," are expected to reduce the average wait time for those cases from 240 days to less than 90.

The changes were endorsed by a group of state, union and business leaders.

They still need to be approved by the state Workers' Compensation Board.

But some lawyers said they have concerns that never were addressed.

"The rules are too draconian," said Peter Walsh, a lawyer with the firm Walsh & Hacker in Albany.

"They want you to be prepared the first day, to have all of your witnesses there, and all of your relevant medical evidence, and all of your relevant documents," he said.

"If it's not done, you lose the case automatically."

"It's absolutely impossible."

While everyone seems to agree the old process took too long, they now disagree on the effectiveness of Rocket Docket.

The state Insurance Department points out that lawyers can make a motion to extend the process if they need more time.

And the AFL-CIO, which had a role in creating the improvements, says the new rules help employees.

"The most important aspect of this whole process is to ensure that injured workers are treated fairly," said Mario Cilento, chief of staff at the AFL-CIO.

"And that includes quick medical access and speeding up the adjudication process."

"That was solved through Rocket Docket."

The Injured Workers' Bar Association, a trade group in Hempstead, Long Island, that represents nearly 250 workers' comp lawyers around the state, has written to the Workers' Compensation Board opposing some aspects of Rocket Docket.

Barbara Levine, president of the group, said the letter expressed concerns about the shortened length of time for hearings.

And she said lawyers were worried that the burden of proof of injury was being shifted from employers and insurance companies to employees.

Another concern is the plan to go to trial immediately after a mediation hearing fails.

That would seem difficult logistically, Levine said, since it would be impossible to say which cases would go to trial and how long each hearing might last.

"Our concern is that's actually going to slow the process down," she said.

Bruce Rubin, a workers' comp lawyer in Troy, said the new rules would make him reject some cases.

"If they did their homework first and then made the law, I'd have an easier time swallowing it," he said.

"But they've done it in the form of an edict."

"They don't stay up at night working with these things."

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

[Livyjr]

THE NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

"High-flyin' Joe"

Friday, July 6th 2007, 4:00 AM

Editorial

Clear away the smoke being blown by Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno over his blatant abuse of taxpayer-funded transportation, and it all boils down to this: He wants to act like a jerk, live like a king - and not be held accountable for any of it.

In Bruno World, legislative leaders are entitled to grab all the campaign cash they can from special interests.

They're entitled to fly on state helicopters and ride in state police cars to pick up campaign checks.

And when it becomes public, Bruno is entitled to scream "political espionage" at the press for uncovering it, and at Gov. Spitzer, who wants to stop it.

What a load of hooey.

This isn't about a vendetta; it's about money.

Bruno wants to keep open the unlimited spigot of campaign cash pouring into his pockets as he exploits every loophole in New York's Swiss cheese election laws.

That's why he refuses to agree with Spitzer to put reasonable caps on campaign contributions.

And why he wants someone, anyone, to investigate - get this - how government records of his taxpayer-subsidized jet-setting wound up printed in the newspapers.

By our lights, the officials who released that information - in response to a Freedom of Information Law request by the Albany Times Union - deserve a good government award, not a probe.

Taxpayers have every right to know how elected officials are using or abusing government resources.

Which in Bruno's case, includes employing state choppers to shuttle from Albany to Manhattan so he can collect more money, faster.

And having state troopers chauffeur him to and from $1,000-a-plate fund-raisers.

Bruno maintains there was no abuse, since he also met with interest groups and lobbyists after touching down in Manhattan on the days in question.

But why should New Yorkers have to shell out thousands of dollars so he can shmooze with well-heeled tycoons seeking favors from the Senate?

Let the tycoons buy a ticket to Albany.

Or maybe pick up the phone.

New York desperately needs limits on campaign donations - and full disclosure of who's giving what to whom - so Bruno and his fellow lawmakers will cater to the needs of the people rather than the biggest donors.

New York also needs rules governing the use of state aircraft and state police security details, to put an end to fund-raising jaunts on the public dime.

Air Bruno must be grounded.

http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/2007/0...hflyin_joe.html

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THE NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

"It has never been this bad - Bruno, Spitzer take off gloves - and pick up knives and swords"

BY ELIZABETH BENJAMIN

Friday, July 6th 2007, 4:00 AM

It's war!

Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno's simmering feud with Gov. Spitzer exploded into full-fledged battle mode yesterday after the Republican accused the state’s Democratic chief executive of "political espionage."

"There has never been anything like this," said Eric Lane, a Hofstra University law professor and former counsel to a former top Democratic state senator.

"This is beyond politics."

"This is war," added Douglas Muzzio, a Baruch College political science professor.

Bruno is demanding multiple investigations after alleging Spitzer ordered state police to monitor his every move.

The governor's office vigorously denied the allegation.

"If you believe Bruno, Spitzer is Nixonian," Muzzio said.

"The governor using the state police to spy on the leader of the opposition?"

"That begins to approach the danger zone."

That zone was red hot yesterday as Bruno's rhetoric hit levels experts say they’ve not seen in modern state political history.

"I am also requesting the attorney general and Albany County district attorney to convene grand juries to assess the criminal liability of the governor for his abuse of power of his office and the misuse of the state police for political espionage," Bruno said.

Bruno, an upstate Republican, has been fighting with the new governor since Spitzer was sworn in in January, and Spitzer has done his part to draw Bruno's vitriol.

Weeks after taking office, Spitzer described himself in a phone call with Assembly Minority Leader James Tedisco, a Schenectady Republican, as a "[expletive] steamroller" who would "roll over you and anybody else."

During budget negotiations in March, Spitzer and Bruno engaged in an expletive-laden screaming match during which the senator described Senate Minority Leader Malcolm Smith as "so far up [the governor's rear] he can't see."

In a post-session discussion, Bruno charged that the governor threatened him, saying he would knock him out, "knock you down so that you will never get up."

Spitzer spokesman Darren Dopp insisted this incident never took place.

"It is time for Gov. Spitzer to understand that the people of this state elected him to lead and to govern, not to spy, not to threaten and conduct political attacks," Bruno said yesterday.

Dopp rejected a claim that the administration asked state troopers to track Bruno's movements while they ferried him around Manhattan, calling their efforts "basic record keeping."

The administration nevertheless asked the state inspector general to look into Bruno's complaint.

"I never called up the state police and said, 'Spy on somebody,'" Dopp said.

"I know [Secretary to the Governor Richard] Baum never would have."

"The inspector general is going to figure that out."

"If it's so, you'll have some ramifications."

"Mr. Spitzer won’t protect me under those circumstances — or anybody else."

While Bruno and Spitzer continue to bicker, little is being done to the address the considerable pile of unfinished business the Legislature left behind when the session ended last month.

After 12 years of working with a governor who shared his political affiliation, George Pataki, Bruno faced a new paradigm when Spitzer took office.

Since then, the two officials have fought bitterly over the state budget in April, and at the end of the legislative session in June.

Each has blamed the other for the lack of progress.

Among the biggest victims of the stalemate could be Mayor Bloomberg's congestion pricing plan.

Other outstanding issues include expansion of the state DNA database and campaign finance reform.

Bruno has accused Spitzer of tying everything to a campaign finance reform effort the Senate won't pass, calling him a bully and a "spoiled rich kid throwing a statewide tantrum."

Spitzer, in turn, traveled New York with a Power Point presentation that accused Bruno and his GOP majority of leaving Albany without finishing their jobs.

The latest fight began with a report in the Albany Times Union last weekend that accused Bruno of misusing state helicopters on at least three occasions in May to attend GOP fund-raisers in Manhattan when he claimed to be on "legislative business."

The Spitzer administration called for the attorney general and the local district attorney to investigate.

Bruno insisted he hadn't improperly used the state helicopters, and several people — including Bloomberg — came forward to say they had met with Bruno to discuss state business on the days in question.

Bruno has since called for a criminal investigation of the Times Union.

He alleged the paper's advertising department tried to extort him by suggesting he purchase ads to counter the negative news coverage.

The Times Union’s publisher denied that charge.

As proof of his spying allegation, Bruno pointed to two one-page documents written by state troopers that detail where he was picked up and dropped off while in Manhattan.

Dopp said the documents were compiled in response to a Freedom of Information request from the Times Union using schedules Bruno’s office submitted to the state police when requesting transportation.

ebenjamin@nydailynews.com

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2007/07/06...n_this_bad.html

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THE NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

"Low-lyin' Shelly"

Friday, July 6th 2007, 4:00 AM

Editorial

No discussion of Albany's unfinished business would be complete without allocating a share of blame to Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver.

Wily politician that he is, Silver has managed to stay clear of the crossfire between Gov. Spitzer, his fellow Democrat, and Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno, a Republican.

Yet Silver cannot dodge responsibility for the Legislature's failure to do much of anything before it went home for the summer.

While Bruno was very publicly blocking Spitzer on campaign finance reform, Silver quietly stymied progress on congestion pricing for New York City, as well as other matters, such as collecting DNA from all convicted criminals.

Silver doesn't outwardly oppose these measures, to be sure.

What he does is raise endless questions, objections, doubts and caveats.

He refuses to bring anything to a vote until all nits are picked to his personal satisfaction - or until he can win something else in a trade.

Silver professes to be open to compromise.

Last week, his office accepted a challenge from this page to return to Albany for full public debate, with cameras running, on congestion pricing and other outstanding business.

But the speaker went right back to his old tricks in a TV interview last weekend.

Appearing on PBS' "New York Now," Silver pick-pick-picked at Mayor Bloomberg's traffic plan, said it required more tinkering than could possibly get done this month and - worst of all - questioned the very idea of returning to the Capitol for further debate.

"There's no point in doing a special session unless there's a foundation on which to build," spoke the speaker.

In other words, Silver wants to cut a deal with Spitzer and Bruno first, in secret, before summoning the Assembly for a rubber-stamping session.

That's exactly backwards.

The right way to break the logjam on the most urgent issues - congestion pricing, campaign finance, DNA, paid family leave, power plant construction - is for lawmakers to get their butts back to the Capitol, ASAP.

There they should sit down in front of the cameras and publicly negotiate each issue, one at a time, on the merits.

No secret deals.

No horse-trading.

It's called open, democratic government.

What part of that doesn't Silver understand?

http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/2007/0...yin_shelly.html

[Livyjr]

THE NEW YORK POST

"ALL THE GOVERNOR'S MEN"

July 6, 2007 -- A routine political attack by the Spitzer administration on state Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno took a sharp turn toward the Twilight Zone yesterday, with a top Spitzer aide denying everything - despite having all but coughed up the damning details just 48 hours earlier.

In writing.

The issue: Did the State Police keep tabs on Bruno's travel at the behest of the governor's office?

On Tuesday, gubernatorial spokesman Darren Dopp - in a rambling e-mail to Post State Editor Fredric U. Dicker - said, in effect, yes.

"There was an incident late last year in which [Conservative Party Chairman] Mike Long called to complain about Joe bringing armed troopers into his fundraising event," Dopp wrote in the e-mail message (which is reproduced in The Post today).

"Long thought it was highly inappropriate, and it probably was," Dopp added.

"Recalling that incident, the SP [State Police] made some changes, keeping their people in the background, going unmarked and, yes, keeping basic records, i.e. logs."

But Long says he never made any such complaint and, in fact, no such incident - involving "armed troopers" at a "fund-raising event" - ever occurred.

Dopp's explanation seems to have been made up out of whole cloth.

In a letter yesterday, Long asked the governor "to find out who fabricated the story."

"People in government are charged with many responsibilities, and being honest is certainly one of them," Long wrote.

"Someone who would fabricate such a bald-faced lie is not suited for government work."

Obviously.

Caught bald-faced, Dopp yesterday simply denied ever having made the statement to Dicker in the first place.

Instead, he claims that he mentioned Long's "complaints" merely as third-party information meant in a "cavalier" moment - as something for Dicker to check out.

Just one problem: Dicker - who has covered the state capital for 30 years, including 25 for The Post, as Albany bureau chief, investigative reporter and state editor - says Dopp never told him that.

Or anything like it.

The fact is, as Dopp has clearly acknowledged, the governor's office did intervene and that did lead to a change in State Police record-keeping policy.

Though by yesterday, Dopp was trashing The Post's story, insisting: "There has never been any surveillance of Majority Leader Bruno by the State Police."

So here's the story in a nutshell:

* Spitzer's office orders police officials to keep tabs when pols employ state resources in their travels.

* The police then compile records on Bruno - but not, apparently, on anyone else.

* Spitzer's folks then steer a compliant newspaper, The Albany Times-Union, to those records - citing Bruno's attendance at political events during trips involving a state helicopter and a state police detail.

* The state Ethics Commission says there's nothing wrong with shirt-tailing fund-raising onto official business trips - and, in fact, Bruno did conduct a series of business meetings on the relevant days.

* Nonetheless, the Albany paper runs a story on Sunday smearing the majority leader, suggesting he used state police solely to ferry him to political events.

* Citing the story, Spitzer calls for investigations of Bruno by state Attorney General Andew Cuomo and Albany County DA David Soares.

Keep in mind that the police began keeping tabs on Bruno in May - just when relations between Spitzer and Bruno were becoming severely strained.

An astounding coincidence?

More likely, it was just what it appears to be: an effort by the governor to tame a political foe by ordering police to gather intimidating - if not incriminating - evidence about him.

Bruno, understandably, was furious yesterday.

He denounced a "dangerous abuse of power" by Spitzer's office; announced a pending Senate investigation - and he, too, urged Cuomo and Soares to get involved.

Specifically, he wants them to investigate the administration for "the misuse of the State Police for political espionage."

Added Bruno: "When the governor abuses his power, it not only works against his political enemies, it undermines the entire fabric of democracy."

It's hard to argue that point.

Happily, Spitzer and Bruno do agree that AG Cuomo would be a competent authority to get to the bottom of all this.

Recall, too, that DA Soares' probe of State Comptroller Alan Hevesi led to the latter's resignation in disgrace.

Both men are more-than-capable law-enforcement officers.

We would urge them - jointly or severally - to accommodate both the governor and Bruno: A thorough investigation is in order; the sooner it is complete, the sooner Albany can return to its normal state of dysfunction.

Indeed, it is with some irony that we note that Spitzer's pledge to "change Albany" upon becoming governor seems to have been redeemed.

It's more bizarre than ever.

http://www.nypost.com/seven/07062007/posto...als_.htm?page=0

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THE NEW YORK POST

"GOON GOV'S BULLY TACTIC NO SURPRISE"

July 6, 2007 -- IT'S said that the Roman emperors had slaves who accompanied them during imperial processionals for the sole purpose of whispering these words in their ears: "Caesar, thou art mortal."

Eliot Spitzer, thou art mortal.

The emperors needed to hear this deflationary message at their moment of great triumph because it's precisely when everyone is singing your praises and cheering you on that you can lose your good senses.

Too bad for Spitzer nobody was whispering in his ear.

For most of the past decade, nobody has given Spitzer any reason to think he was anything but a political savior, a walker-on-water, the most potent cleanser since Mr. Clean.

Nobody, that is, until Joe Bruno, the most powerful Republican in the state and someone that Spitzer needs to have at least minimally civil relations with.

Instead of trying to cultivate Bruno, which is what an astute politician would have done, the novice governor apparently tried to use his own private police force to dig up dirt on the GOP honcho - first, perhaps, to blackmail him, as a senior state official suggested to The Post, and then, when that didn't work, to ruin him.

In response, Bruno is doing something positively sacrilegious.

He's taking Spitzer's halo, breaking it over his knee and saying, "How do you like that, rich boy?"

Bruno is calling the governor on his conduct.

He's accusing Spitzer of being no better than a Third World dictator, which really isn't fair.

But then, Spitzer is a past master when it comes to treating people unfairly.

Two years ago, Spitzer called an 80-year-old retired banker during a vacation in Mexico and threatened to destroy the banker simply because the banker had criticized Spitzer's prosecution of another tycoon.

"It's now a war between us," Spitzer told John Whitehead.

"I will be coming after you."

That has always been Spitzer's way.

He terrified Wall Street with threats and invective - and the threat of bringing a case that, good or lousy, would tie up a firm in knots for years unless the firm agreed preemptively to a "voluntary" series of measures ordered by Spitzer.

For this problematic behavior, Spitzer was garlanded like a Roman general back from Gaul.

He rode his noble reputation like the great steed Bucephalus into the public forum of the governor's race in 2006 and won the most lopsided gubernatorial victory in the history of this state.

Whereupon, he returned to his traditional role of acting not like a just ruler but instead like a goon.

He told a Republican assemblyman, "Listen, I'm a f- - -ing steamroller, and I'll roll over you and anybody else."

And according to The Post's Fred Dicker, Spitzer set the New York State Police on Bruno in an extraordinarily questionable manner.

His spokesman said he did it because Mike Long, the head of the state's Conservative Party requested an investigation into questionable practices by Bruno.

"A bald-faced lie," says Long.

Uh-oh.

If Long is telling the truth, it looks like Spitzer sicced the state cops on Bruno so he could find something to blackmail the Republican State Senate's majority leader with.

What did he find?

Bruno rode on a state-owned aircraft to three fund-raisers - but despite efforts to suggest Bruno made improper use of the helicopters in traveling to New York City, it now appears Bruno was also traveling on business relating to his role as the majority leader of the state Senate.

Bruno's out of trouble.

Spitzer's trouble is just beginning.

Aside from raising questions about his unseemly attempt at digging up dirt on a political rival, he has also made it clear to friends and opponents alike that he will say and do anything in pursuit of his goals.

Eliot Spitzer, thou art mortal.

Thou art also a bungler.

jpodhoretz@gmail.com

http://www.nypost.com/seven/07062007/news/...retz.htm?page=0

[Livyjr]

THE NEW YORK TIMES

"The Feuding by Bruno and Spitzer Turns Bitter"

BY DANNY HAKIM and NICHOLAS CONFESSORE

Published: July 6, 2007

ALBANY, July 5 — After three months of what has seemed like constant fighting, Gov. Eliot Spitzer on Thursday called his antagonist, Senator Joseph L. Bruno, and asked for a meeting.

Like everything else between the two men, the meeting invitation is now the subject of a disagreement.

(Mr. Bruno’s staff says the governor invited him to his farmhouse in Columbia County; Mr. Spitzer’s aides said he offered to meet Mr. Bruno anywhere he wanted.)

The meeting never happened, and the two men are continuing to feud after Mr. Spitzer’s staff suggested Mr. Bruno may have improperly used State Police escorts and helicopters and Mr. Bruno then suggested that Mr. Spitzer was spying on him.

The state inspector general said she would investigate Mr. Bruno’s allegations that the Spitzer administration used the State Police to “conduct surveillance” of his whereabouts.

The governor’s staff vigorously disputed the allegations but agreed to allow the inspector general, Kristine Hamann, an appointee of the governor, to review the matter.

Mr. Bruno, the Senate majority leader, has also called for the attorney general and the Albany County district attorney to convene grand juries to investigate potential criminal wrongdoing.

The investigations may not stop there.

Joseph N. Mondello, the state Republican Party chairman, called Thursday for the appointment of a special prosecutor, and Mr. Bruno said he would consider having a Senate committee conduct hearings as well.

The most recent dispute between the men began after The Times Union of Albany reported last weekend that the senator had used state helicopters and State Police escorts during trips to New York City, pointing out that they coincided with Republican fund-raisers.

Mr. Bruno has been adamant in saying that he also conducted state business during those trips and has expressed outrage that the administration turned over State Police logs of his trips to the newspaper, records he was not aware were being kept.

The logs were the subject of a report Thursday in The New York Post, which said similar logs were not maintained for the governor or other state officials.

Darren Dopp, the governor’s communications director, called the Post report “grossly inaccurate.”

He said state officials generally gave State Police detailed itineraries when they were using state transportation.

The troopers did not retain all the itineraries Mr. Bruno’s office supplied, he said, so they the troopers reconstructed some of them after The Times Union filed a Freedom of Information Act request to the Spitzer administration for the records.

The State Police have been reluctant in the past to disclose information relating to the security of public officials.

Lt. Glenn Miner, a spokesman for the State Police, an agency within the executive branch, said the police provided the reconstructed itineraries because the governor’s office asked them to.

“We did it as a request from the governor’s office,” Lieutenant Miner said.

He said the agency did not maintain special travel records about any state officials.

The agency, he added, generally relies on schedules provided by the officials themselves to plan transportation, including flights on state aircraft, which must be approved by the governor, and ground escorts by state troopers.

Those schedules are not considered agency records, Lieutenant Miner said, and there is no internal rule governing how long they are retained.

The State Police provided both a travel itinerary supplied by Mr. Bruno’s office and synopses of Mr. Bruno’s travel on days for which the agency no longer had those schedules, based on the recollections of the troopers who had accompanied him.

The two pages of itineraries consist of details of each stop made on the senator’s trips.

At 7 p.m. on May 3, for example, Mr. Bruno is said to have stopped for dinner “at Italian restaurant on East Side (unknown name, located between First Avenue and Second Avenue in the upper 40s).”

At 11 p.m., he was “transported back to Sheraton Hotel.”

Lawyers in Mr. Bruno’s office said they believed that the Spitzer administration’s orders to keep logs of Mr. Bruno’s travel might have been an act of official misconduct, a misdemeanor that is an impeachable offense.

They also said they thought the administration might have violated the Civil Service Law related to using public employees for political activity and the Public Officers Law relating to securing unwarranted privileges.

Mr. Spitzer’s aides said the idea that any laws were broken was ridiculous.

They said the governor’s itineraries have also been made public.

As a result there was no need for the State Police to reconstruct a record of the governor’s whereabouts, they said.

“No special records are kept beyond a simple accounting of a State Police vehicle’s use,” Mr. Dopp said.

On Thursday, government watchdog groups called on lawmakers to approve new rules requiring reimbursements when officials use “state resources” to “facilitate partisan activity.”

The battle has brought the relations of the state’s top Democrat and top Republican to an impasse and threatens to derail a host of issues being negotiated.

The Albany County district attorney, P. David Soares, has been called on to conduct three investigations related to the dispute, although he has only two people in his public integrity office.

At a press conference Thursday, Mr. Bruno called the governor’s aides “hoodlums” and “thugs.”

He said he would only meet with the governor publicly to avoid having his comments mischaracterized.

He said the governor’s “dangerous abuse of power is despicable, possibly illegal and undermines our democratic form of government.”

The Spitzer administration fired back, saying that there had been nothing like surveillance of Mr. Bruno.

“We are confident that proper procedures were followed at all times,” Mr. Dopp said.

“However, since a concern has been raised, we are asking the state inspector general to review the matter.”

The State Ethics Commission has said that officials are allowed to conduct political business while on official trips without reimbursing the state for the political portion of the travel.

Participants in some of Mr. Bruno’s trips said there were discussions of nonpolitical activities.

“We did meet with Bruno on energy issues in general and the Broadwater project specifically,” said Bruce Gyory, a lobbyist who helped arrange a May 17 meeting in New York City between Mr. Bruno and executives of his client, TransCanada, and Shell.

The two companies are partners in Broadwater, a project to build a natural gas facility in Long Island Sound.

That evening, Mr. Bruno attended a fund-raiser for the Republican State Committee, but Mr. Gyory described the earlier meeting as substantive, not political.

“It was a substantive meeting,” Mr. Gyory said.

“It has nothing to do with fund-raising."

"Nobody from our group was participating, nobody raised money, nobody went to the fund-raiser.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/06/nyregion...mp;ref=nyregion

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THE NEW YORK SUN

"Spitzer-Bruno Relations Reach New Low"

By JACOB GERSHMAN

Staff Reporter of the Sun

July 6, 2007

The state Senate majority leader, Joseph Bruno, yesterday accused Governor Spitzer of committing "political espionage," alleging that Mr. Spitzer directed state police to monitor his movements during his recent trips to New York City.

The allegations, which were denied by Mr. Spitzer and the New York State Police, plunged relations between the state's top Republican and the Democratic governor to a new low in an ongoing feud fueled by a power struggle over control of the Senate.

Mr. Bruno said police logs detailing Mr. Bruno's schedule during trips to New York City that were provided to the Spitzer administration and passed on to reporters show that the governor took extraordinary measures to keep track of his whereabouts in an effort to catch him improperly using state-financed transportation.

"This type of dangerous abuse of power is despicable, possibly illegal and undermines our democratic form of government," Mr. Bruno said in a statement.

He said he asked Attorney General Andrew Cuomo and the Albany County district attorney, David Soares, to "convene grand juries to assess the criminal liability of the governor for his abuse of the power of his office and the misuse of the state police for political espionage."

Mr. Bruno's allegations were reported by the New York Post yesterday.

Spitzer administration officials denied there was any surveillance of Mr. Bruno, saying they asked for the logs in response to a request made by the Times Union of Albany for the itineraries of Messrs. Spitzer, Bruno, and other state leaders on days the officials traveled on aircraft provided by the state.

Because Mr. Bruno's office refuses to disclose the senator's schedule, the Spitzer administration requested the itineraries from the police, a spokesman for the governor, Darren Dopp, said.

State police officials said they responded to the request by assembling a "synopsis" of Mr. Bruno's transportation assignments and forwarded them to the administration.

The logs, covering five days of travel in May, detailed the times as well as the starting points and destinations of Mr. Bruno's trips.

The logs did not disclose with whom Mr. Bruno met.

On May 24, according to the logs, Mr. Bruno was transported to Russo's Steak and Pasta restaurant on Seventh Avenue from the Sheraton Hotel in Midtown Manhattan and then taken to the heliport on West 30th Street.

"There was no surveillance by the state police of Senator Bruno," a spokesman for the state police, Lieutenant Glenn Miner, said.

He said state police do not normally retain such logs of public officials but began preserving Mr. Bruno's schedule after the Spitzer administration submitted its request.

A spokesman for Mr. Bruno, John McArdle, said the logs contained private schedule information and should not have been released.

The documents, which also included flight manifests, showed that Mr. Bruno flew on state-financed helicopters to New York from Albany and took rides in trooper vehicles on days when Mr. Bruno attended Republican fund raisers.

Mr. Spitzer has asked state investigators to look into whether the Senate leader's trips violated state law, which requires that taxpayer-financed transportation be used for official state business.

Mr. Bruno denied any wrongdoing, claiming that he conducted state business during the trips and that he rode in police vehicles because he was the target of security threats.

http://www.nysun.com/article/57915?page_no=1

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NEWSDAY

"Spitzer, Bruno well past settling differences"

DAN JANISON

dan.janison@newsday.com

July 6, 2007

This is what an all-out war looks like at the state Capitol.

Democratic Gov. Eliot Spitzer's continued offensive against Republican Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno has intensified past the point where a truce or a handshake could restore the usual ways of doing business.

Spitzer's aides say they were asked by state police about a request from Bruno to use a state helicopter for trips to New York City - and that they replied that the troopers should do so, but log their travels.

Such records are not generated for other state officials - such as, say, the governor.

From what we can tell so far, Bruno used the resources to attend a couple of big GOP fundraisers in the city, and mixed the trips with what was arguably legislative business.

Then came the fireworks.

After the contents of the records were published by the Times Union in Albany, the governor's office sent documents to the attorney general and the local district attorney to investigate Bruno's use of these resources.

This raised the ghost of last year's take-down of Comptroller Alan Hevesi, who was prosecuted and forced to resign for misusing state cars and staff.

Now Spitzer's antagonists are arming and firing back.

The governor took the aircraft on a trip to Monroe County, where he addressed a Democratic fundraiser, they said, and his lieutenant governor, David Paterson, was taken to Washington, where he met with party chief Howard Dean.

In the GOP counter-narrative, Spitzer performed dirty tricks against a partisan foe.

"I was stunned to learn that Governor Spitzer is using the fine men and women of the New York State Police to conduct surveillance on me," Bruno declared.

"This type of dangerous abuse of power is despicable, possibly illegal and undermines our democratic form of government."

Spitzer spokesman Darren Dopp disputes the claim of "surveillance" - insisting that state troopers merely logged where they went and when.

But from the start of his tenure, Spitzer, 48, has given every impression of seeking to take down the 78-year-old Bruno - with a kind of pugnaciousness that Albany veterans say they have never seen before.

The governor's actions carry a risk, too: that voters will decide the Senate should stay Republican, if only to check his powerful ambitions.

Stridency has long been a Spitzer trademark.

As state attorney general, he caused shock waves only a few years back by charging with wrongdoing such powerful, wealthy men as Maurice "Hank" Greenberg, legendary chief of the insurance firm American International Group Inc., and Richard Grasso, head of the New York Stock Exchange.

Shortly after becoming governor, Spitzer tweaked the accepted turf divisions by campaigning for Craig Johnson (D-Port Washington) in what had been a Republican Senate seat, reducing Bruno's thin majority.

He slammed Bruno's (ultimately successful) effort to restore billions in state health funding in the state budget as a reckless bid to serve special interests.

Spitzer condemned GOP senators for defying his campaign finance proposals.

On one of his trips to New York, Bruno met with business leaders at the firm C.V. Starr & Co. - which Greenberg has run since being forced to retire from AIG in 2005.

Neither man's spokesman would say yesterday whether Greenberg and Bruno met - or whether their common pursuer, Spitzer, was discussed.

But one can guess.

http://www.newsday.com/search/ny-lijani065...0,4563128.story

[Livyjr]

NEWSDAY

"Bruno: Investigate Spitzer for abuse of power"

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

July 6, 2007

ALBANY - The feud between Senate Republican leader Joseph Bruno and Democratic Gov. Eliot Spitzer escalated yesterday, with Bruno calling for Spitzer to be investigated for abusing the powers of his office.

Spitzer aide Darren Dopp said what Bruno called "political espionage" is simply "basic recordkeeping" by state police.

Bruno and Dopp both called for an investigation by the state inspector general.

The latest round of accusations came as Bruno defended himself against what he sees as attacks orchestrated by Spitzer.

The pair have been feuding for much of the past six months.

Yesterday, Bruno said Spitzer used a state police detail, which Bruno had requested for security, to spy on the senator's travels in Manhattan for legislative business and political fundraisers.

As proof, Bruno pointed to descriptions by troopers of where he was picked up and dropped off on three trips in May.

Two were written by troopers, and one was a schedule from Bruno's office used by state police.

Bruno said that shows troopers kept a log of his whereabouts for political reasons.

He said they didn't compile travel logs for the governor or anyone else.

"I am also requesting the attorney general and Albany County district attorney to convene grand juries to assess the criminal liability of the governor for his abuse of power of his office and the misuse of the state police for political espionage," Bruno said.

Bruno said the state Senate Investigations Committee, headed by Republicans, could subpoena Spitzer as part of its own review.

"I shudder to think ... how do I know?"

"If the governor is capable of this, what else is he capable of?" Bruno said.

Dopp denied any spying, saying, "There has never been any surveillance of Majority Leader Bruno by the state police."

Dopp said Bruno's office supplied the travel records and state police simply used that as the basis for their reports on driving Bruno around Manhattan.

Dopp said the same process is used for Spitzer and others, but agrees Spitzer's reports look different from Bruno's because Spitzer's schedule is more detailed and rarely requires additional notations or redrafting by state police drivers.

But he acknowledged there are no state police-compiled logs or reports on Spitzer's travels as there are for some of Bruno's trips.

WAR OF WORDS

ON THE GOVERNOR'S POWERS

Spitzer: "I'm a -- steam- roller, and I'll roll over you and anybody else."

- To Assembly Minority Leader James Tedisco during a January conversation about negotiations with the legislature

Bruno: "Nobody said when they did the constitution ... that you are going to have an executive who dictates, who runs everything and who steamrolls over everybody."

- Addressing the International Union of Operating Engineers, May 23

ON THE BUDGET

Spitzer: "I in no way will regret having a late budget if it is the only way we contain the rabid spending that has been the story behind here up in Albany." - March 19

Bruno: "The [school aid] distribution formulas are totally disruptive ..."

"We want to get it done right and we want to get it done on time ..."

"You don't get things done in this business by dictating." - The same day

ON THE GENERAL STATE OF THINGS

Spitzer: "This is a session that had enormous potential but is ending with significant disappointment."

"Disappointment because the State Senate is reflecting once again the desires of the status quo and special interests, failing to embrace the opportunity that was presented to them." - June 23

Bruno: "It is time for Gov. Spitzer to understand that the people of this state elected him to lead and to govern, not to spy, not to threaten, not to conduct political attacks."

- Yesterday after a report, denied by Spitzer, that state police were tracking Bruno's movements

Compiled by Melissa Mansfield of Newsday's Albany Bureau

http://www.newsday.com/search/ny-stbrun065...,0,800008.story

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FOX NEWS

"Don’t Get on the Wrong Side of New York Governor Spitzer"

Thursday, July 05, 2007

By Brit Hume

Now some fresh pickings from the Political Grapevine:

Police Surveillance

New York Democratic Governor Eliot Spitzer reportedly has targeted his chief political rival for unprecedented surveillance by the state police.

The New York Post reports Spitzer insists he authorized detailed record-keeping on Republican State Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno’s use of state troopers for travel and protection — after a complaint from the head of the state's conservative party.

But conservative party leader Michael Long denies ever making any complaint — and calls the Spitzer contention — "a bald-faced lie."

A senior state official familiar with the surveillance told the Post he believed the governor was trying to "set up" Bruno.

The monitoring by state police did lead to allegations that Bruno improperly flew to political events on a state-owned helicopter.

Bruno says all his trips on the helicopter were for state business.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,288275,00.html

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"Power for Jobs program extended for another year"

Associated Press

Last updated: 3:12 p.m., Sunday, July 8, 2007

ALBANY -- Gov. Eliot Spitzer announced Sunday that he has signed legislation extending New York's Power for Jobs program for another year while lawmakers craft an improved, multi-year version of the program.

The 10-year-old Power for Jobs program was intended to provide millions of dollars in subsidies for energy costs to select companies in exchange for creating or retaining jobs.

At the end of the legislative session last month, lawmakers agreed to extend the program for 12 months while they work out a more comprehensive low-cost energy program that includes reforms holding companies accountable for their jobs promises.

Spitzer also signed a second initiative extending the Energy Cost Saving Benefits program.

Both energy programs are administered by the New York Power Authority.

Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno said in a prepared statement that the Power for Jobs program has been an important part of efforts to create and maintain jobs, but it's clear that there needs to be an improved approach that will provide greater certainty to businesses through predictable, multi-year energy contracts.

The program supports about 270,000 jobs at about 525 businesses and not-for-profit organizations throughout the state, according to Spitzer's office.

Participants receive benefits either through a cash rebate from NYPA to offset electricity costs or a 1.7-cent-per-kilowatt-hour discount on utility rates.

Utilities are reimbursed for lost revenue through state tax credits.

The Energy Cost Saving Benefits program supports three other power programs, which are linked to 105,000 jobs, Spitzer's office said.

[Livyjr]

THE SYRACUSE POST-STANDARD

"Addressing Gundersen abode, Upstate revival"

Friday, July 06, 2007

SEAN KIRST POST-STANDARD COLUMNIST

Dan Gundersen, Gov. Eliot Spitzer's choice to tackle Upstate's economic problems, sat down with me this week for a cup of coffee.

Gundersen wanted a chance to respond to a blog entry in which I wondered why he is living near Albany.

I wanted a chance to make a point about hockey.

You tell me if it's all somehow related.

A few weeks ago, Gundersen took some hits during state Senate hearings on his nomination as the Upstate chairman of the state Economic Development Corp.

Gundersen was hired this year to map out an Upstate renaissance, which caused Senate Commerce Committee Chairman James Alesi to take a shot at him for living in Saratoga Springs instead of struggling Buffalo where Spitzer is basing his Upstate economic offices.

Last month, responding to that flap on that blog, I wrote you need to live in a place like Buffalo or Syracuse to fully appreciate the fabric of those cities.

In a region accustomed to abandonment, I wrote, Gundersen's choice of Saratoga Springs "says everything."

Over coffee, Gundersen said it was hardly that simple.

His wife, Tamera, he said, grew up in Weedsport.

When she was a teenager, just before her senior year of high school, her father took a job in another region and the family had to move.

Gundersen said his wife remembers that as one of the most difficult transitions of her life.

The Gundersens now have their own daughter, Jenna.

She is about to be a senior in high school.

When Gundersen decided to leave Pennsylvania for the job with Spitzer in New York, he and Tamera asked Jenna what she wanted to do.

She told her parents she wanted to graduate with her class.

So Gundersen, who said he averages hundreds of miles in travel around Upstate every week, said he decided to temporarily rent an apartment month-to-month in Saratoga Springs until Jenna finishes school.

He said that puts him close to the governor, and to more than 200 economic development employees in Albany who report to Gundersen.

Within a year, he said, the economic development office in Buffalo will have expanded to at least 40 employees, and his daughter will be going off to college.

At that point, he said, it will almost certainly make sense for him to settle Upstate - although he said that could be in Buffalo, or in Syracuse, or in some other community.

"What is difficult in this situation," Gundersen said, "is that political gamemanship is playing to Upstate's doubts and fears."

Gundersen said he appreciates the emotional reaction to the economic wounds across this region, where many cities have suffered such dramatic bleeding of vitality and population.

He sees his job as healing the wounds, while understanding the emotion.

The best way to do that, he said, is "focusing on economic development strategy."

For too long, he said, many Upstate communities banked on what he called "smokestack chasing," the idea of seeking big-hit counterparts to the massive industries that bailed out over the past 50 years.

That was failed thinking.

The state's role, Gundersen said, ought to be an "integrated approach" that involves establishing agile and creative economic development teams that react to the needs of distinct communities across Upstate.

"I'm incredibly optimistic," Gundersen said.

"You can see the opportunity right in front of you, but we haven't applied the economic muscle to make it happen."

Gundersen was certainly correct in the notion that the success of his Upstate strategy - and, by extension, that of Spitzer - will not be measured by emotion or, for that matter, by his address.

It will be measured by the simple reality of whether Gundersen and Spitzer reverse the regional decline that rolled on under five previous governors of New York.

But I thought he might appreciate the tale I offered about hockey.

I told Gundersen how the Buffalo Sabres have been one of Upstate's happiest sports stories for the past few seasons.

Not long ago, that National Hockey League franchise seemed to be in crisis.

But it was purchased by Rochester tycoon Tom Golisano, who breathed new life into the team.

This year, the Sabres had the best record in hockey, before they suffered a disappointing loss in the Stanley Cup playoffs.

A more profound loss, however, happened last week.

The Sabres were raided by big-market teams.

Among those leaving was popular co-captain Chris Drury, symbol of the team's revival, who signed a $35 million contract to go Downstate and play for the New York Rangers.

To many of us, that story isn't really about sports - because sports becomes an Upstate microcosm for larger frustrations.

It felt much more personal.

Drury's departure was about commitment, and belief, and what always seems to happen in this region.

It was about daring to hope, and then having those hopes smashed.

It was about hockey, but it was also about the way things go Upstate.

Gundersen is right in the idea that where he lives means far less than his results.

Yet for a region all too used to abandonment, the simple act of staying here becomes the ultimate act of confidence.

Once that happens - and Gundersen says it will - it can only help him to do his job.

Sean Kirst is a columnist with The Post-Standard. His columns appear Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Call him at 470-6015.

http://www.syracuse.com/articles/kirst/ind...&thispage=1

[Livyjr]

"As housing prices soar, debate over tax break that helped rich"

By DAVID B. CARUSO, Associated Press

Last updated: 8:23 p.m., Saturday, July 7, 2007

NEW YORK -- A 1970s housing program that has helped rich New Yorkers avoid millions of dollars in property taxes could be getting its first major overhaul in decades.

State and city officials are in a final round of talks over rewriting a tax break that was intended to spur construction in distressed neighborhoods, but has turned into a cushy perk for developers building luxury housing.

"It has become a way to maximize profit," said state Assemblyman Vito Lopez, who has watched the program fuel pricey new construction in his Brooklyn district.

A new plan would make the tax breaks available in many areas only to developers who include affordable housing in their projects.

The tax program is one that dates from the city's bad old days, back when the Bronx was burning and hookers ruled Times Square.

Desperate to spark revitalization, city officials offered an extraordinary incentive: Anyone willing to build new multifamily housing would qualify for a huge tax break -- one that would last 10 to 25 years, and, in some cases, allow owners of big apartment buildings to pay as little as someone who owned an empty lot.

At the time, the program made sense, said Brad Lander, director of the Pratt Center for Community Development.

"It's hard to remember how in the doldrums the city was," he said.

"People were abandoning their buildings on the way out of town."

But in the decades since then, the well-intentioned incentive has seemed increasingly inappropriate.

These days in New York, luxury apartment buildings are sprouting everywhere, including hard-luck neighborhoods once known for high crime and entrenched poverty.

The average price of a two bedroom apartment in Manhattan topped $1.6 million this spring.

Yet, the city has continued to offer the tax break, except in the very wealthiest parts of Manhattan.

Last year, the program cost the city $400 million in lost tax revenue.

Beneficiaries included the owners of new buildings like 497 Greenwich Street, a downtown condominium tower that opened a few years ago just outside Tribeca.

When it opened to rave architectural reviews, the building had everything its millionaire residents could want: magnificent glass lofts, balconies with Hudson River vistas, and a tax break that will save the owners $2.8 million over 10 years.

The days of the biggest giveaways, however, now appear to be numbered.

State lawmakers late last month passed a bill that would eliminate automatic tax breaks in almost all of Manhattan, a good chunk of Brooklyn, and small sections of the Bronx, Queens and Staten Island.

Developers in those zones would only qualify for the discount if they set aside 20 percent of their new buildings for poor or middle class families.

Similar rules have existed for midtown Manhattan and the Upper East and West Sides since the 1980s.

The proposal, however, appears to have hit a series of last-minute snags.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who had initially lobbied for the change, asked Gov. Eliot Spitzer to veto it, saying the final draft of the bill had included too many emerging communities that still need incentives for development.

"They have included some neighborhoods where the economics don't make sense," said Neill Coleman, a spokesman for the city's Department of Housing Preservation and Development.

"It will stop development of housing in a number of neighborhoods," said Kathryn S. Wylde, president of the Partnership for New York City, a civic group.

The city also opposed a requirement that the affordable units created by the plan go predominantly toward the working poor.

City officials wanted looser rules that would also create middle class housing.

Other critics objected to an exemption in the plan that would preserve a multimillion dollar tax benefit for the developers of Atlantic Yards, a massive project in Brooklyn that will include thousands of new apartments and a new basketball arena for the NBA's Nets.

Legislative leaders delayed sending the measure to Spitzer's desk, and talks are now ongoing about possible adjustments.

"We'll see what happens," said Lopez, one of the architects of the state's version of the proposal.

Lopez said he doesn't believe that housing construction will slow if the city limits the tax breaks, but said it wouldn't bother him if expensive new towers stopped sprouting in gentrifying Brooklyn sections like Williamsburg and Bushwick.

"Its driving working class people and poor people out of these neighborhoods," he said.

[Livyjr]

"Economic worry rising in New York - Poll finds 43 percent say state finances worsened over the past year; one-third find cause for optimism"

By WILLIAM KATES, Associated Press

First published: Monday, July 9, 2007

SYRACUSE -- A growing number of New Yorkers describe the state economy as worsening and only one out of three are optimistic about the state's financial well-being in the year ahead, according to an annual poll.

The number of New Yorkers who described the state economy as worsening over the past year increased from 36 percent in 2006 to 43 percent in 2007, according to the Empire State Poll, a yearly telephone survey conducted by Cornell University's Survey Research Institute.

The results mirror a quarterly survey of the state's cities by the Siena Research Institute, released Friday, which found declines in consumer confidence.

Past Empire polls had shown New Yorkers expressing growing faith in the state economy since 2003, when confidence was at its lowest with nearly 80 percent of respondents saying conditions were worsening.

Half of upstate residents believed the state economy worsened over the past year, while only 9 percent thought it had improved.

Downstate, 27 percent of residents thought the economy had improved, while only 39 percent said it was worse.

Meanwhile, 34 percent of New Yorkers expected the state economy to improve during the next year, up from about 23 percent in 2006 and the most optimistic outlook uncovered by the poll during its five years.

The poll was conducted with 800 New Yorkers between Jan. 25 and March 28, and released to The Associated Press.

The margin of error was 3.5 percent for statewide results and 4.9 percent for upstate-downstate comparisons.

[Livyjr]

"Assembly session not likely"

Albany, New York Times Union

First published: Monday, July 9, 2007

Albany's atmosphere is so toxic that the Assembly probably won't return next week.

"I don't think it will happen," said Democratic Majority Leader Ronald Canestrari, D-Cohoes.

"Realistically, we could come back in the fall, and that might be better."

Added Albany Democrat Jack McEneny: "I don't see how we could be productive in this poisoned atmosphere."

McEneny, Canestrari and others cited the bitter fight between Democratic Gov. Eliot Spitzer and Republican Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno, which escalated last week amid questions about Bruno's use of state aircraft and Bruno's allegation that Spitzer used State Police to spy on him.

If the Assembly fails to return, New York City will likely lose its shot at a chunk of $1.1 billion in federal transportation funds for anti-congestion projects.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has asked lawmakers to approve a "congestion-pricing" plan that would charge motorists extra to drive in busier parts of Manhattan.

Even if the Assembly were inclined to approve the plan, which is far from certain, the complex issue would still need to be negotiated.

Silver, said one insider, speaks daily with Spitzer and Bruno, but the feuding "really makes it harder, or really impossible, to get any deals."

"... The sense is, no progress will be made until things calm down."

Nonprofits wait on bill

Nonprofit agencies are watching this week to see if Spitzer signs off on a law that would make the state obey its own law.

A bill that went to Spitzer on Friday would add some teeth to an existing law requiring the state to process contracts within specific periods -- 150 days for agencies, and 15 days each for the attorney general and comptroller.

The state often blows the deadlines.

A 2003 comptroller's study looked at 103 contracts; at least 96 were late, and the state hadn't paid interest as required.

Another study of 2005-06 contracts found that more than 4,000 contracts -- 62 percent of the total -- failed to meet the time frames.

The state can get a waiver of the interest from the nonprofits, which typically agree because they don't want to jeopardize future contracts, said Susan Hager, president of the United Way of New York and a key advocate of a stricter prompt-contracting law.

Nonprofits end up borrowing money to tide them over, costing them interest on the loans.

The state also has to tell nonprofits a contract won't be renewed within 90 days of the renewal date, but missed that deadline, too, Hager said.

Several years ago, she noted, after-school programs got one day's notice that their new contracts weren't coming, leaving parents in the lurch.

Lawmakers, she said, stepped in with discretionary funds.

The proposed law, which had bipartisan sponsorship, requires interest to be paid when due, allows waivers for only unusual cases and calls for an annual report on the state's performance.

But a sticking point that could lead to a veto, Hager acknowledged, is a new requirement that contracts continue until the state meets its 90-day cancellation requirement -- even if that means extending the contract.

Got a tip? Call 454-5424 or e-mail jjochnowitz@ timesunion.com.

[Livyjr]

"A plant shakes up a forest - Environmentalists worry that the drawbacks of development are being ignored in favor of the financial rewards of an AMD chip factory"

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

First published: Sunday, July 8, 2007

MALTA -- The forest where Advanced Micro Devices Inc. is planning to build a $3.2 billion computer chip factory is teeming with life.

The site includes hundreds of acres of hardwoods such as oak, beech and maple, and softwoods such as pine, hemlock and larch, along with several ravines.

The property, 1,350 acres that straddles the towns of Malta and Stillwater, is home to a variety of birds, including red-tail hawks, sparrows, doves, wild turkey and woodpeckers, and mammals such as deer, raccoons, skunks and red foxes.

And although the Army once conducted secret missile testing here, which turned hundreds of acres of the forest into a hazardous waste site, local environmentalists and open-space advocates warn that the community is turning a blind eye to the impact AMD could have on the land and public health.

The towns of Malta and Stillwater are home to about 20,000 residents, and Luther Forest sits just south of Saratoga Lake, a major recreation draw.

They say their concerns are being ignored because of the promise of thousands of new jobs and billions of dollars in potential economic development for the region and state.

AMD's factory, which would employ 1,200 people, would be the largest industrial project in state history.

And New York has promised the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company $1.2 billion in financial incentives.

In fact, computer chip factories like the one AMD plans to build in Luther Forest use some of the most toxic chemicals known to man.

Much of that toxic waste has to be taken off-site after the computer chips are created from silicon wafers.

Well-known hazards include sulfuric acid, lead and copper waste, and debris that has been contaminated with arsenic.

"This being so close to a residential area, I think it's cause for concern," said Barbara Trypaluk, chairwoman of the Saratoga County Green Party.

"I don't like the whole idea that it's being done in Luther Forest."

"It should be done in a brownfield."

"This county is never going to be the same."

AMD has had to clean up two Superfund sites where it once operated chip fabs in Silicon Valley.

Today, AMD only operates two fabs, both of them in Dresden, Germany, where environmental regulations are extremely strict.

In an interview with the Times Union, Steve Groseclose, AMD's director of global environmental health and safety, said the company considers environmental and public health protection a top priority, with the most sophisticated technologies put in place to prevent spills and contamination.

He said the two Superfund sites became polluted in the 1970s when AMD and others in the electronics industry stored chemicals underground, a practice that has since been discontinued.

"That's not going to happen here in New York or anywhere else where we're going to do business," Groseclose said.

"We simply don't do it."

Groseclose said that areas within the chip fab where hazardous materials are delivered or handled are self-contained to prevent contamination, and workers aren't exposed to these chemicals.

"The product stays within these sealed tools, and the chemicals are in these sealed tools," he said.

Groseclose said the water the chip fab uses is cleaned before it is sent back to the municipal water-treatment facility, and AMD will seek industrial buyers for the sludge and solid waste that it produces.

Some of its waste, for instance, can be used to make cement.

"We try to find a home for it," he said.

"We certainly prefer to recycle the material."

The Green Party's Trypaluk said she is afraid of possible chemical spills if AMD ships its waste from Luther Forest to unknown locations.

She said she met with Groseclose in February and came away from the meeting largely unsatisfied.

"He was very evasive about what they were going to do with the toxic waste," Trypaluk said.

"They want to truck it out of state."

"It's very nasty stuff."

"It's a very dirty, toxic process."

Before that meeting with Groseclose, Trypaluk said she wishes she had read "Challenging the Chip," a book published last year that explores the environmental history of the semiconductor industry.

Trypaluk had the Saratoga Springs Public Library order the book for its collection to help educate the public.

If people are wondering what types of environmental safeguards will be put in place by AMD at Luther Forest, they might want to look at the University at Albany's nanotech complex, which is home to the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering.

Like AMD's proposed site, Albany NanoTech sits near an environmentally sensitive area -- the Pine Bush Preserve -- and next to a residential area.

The college operates a 35,000-square-foot clean room designed to allow scientists and computer chip companies to test new manufacturing methods.

Once it is fully operational, the facility may be able to produce up to 750 research chip wafers per month.

That's just a fraction of the 25,000 commercial-grade wafers that a typical chip fab could produce each month.

Even with its small manufacturing operation, the college has an onsite environmental health and safety team of 50 trained people who help to monitor the facility around the clock, said NanoCollege spokesman Steve Janack.

The college also has a state-of-the-art wastewater pretreatment system, and all chemicals are disposed of according to state and federal guidelines.

Janack said used chemicals are collected in bulk storage with secondary containment that is retrieved and disposed of by specialized firms licensed by both the state and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Janack said the college has a "spotless and incident-free" environmental and health safety record.

"Emissions to air are controlled using semiconductor industry standards, even though (the college) is not required by New York state regulations to do so," he said, adding that the complex is "virtually a zero-emission site."

LaMar Hill, a former Albany NanoTech executive who now is president of the Albany-based International Alliance of Nanotechnology Regions, said the semiconductor industry has been able to build chip fabs in areas like Portland, Ore., Dresden and Austin, Texas -- which all have strong environmental communities -- because of their focus on the environment.

Besides the fact that the semiconductor industry came about during the 1960s when the environmental movement began, Hill said the chip industry doesn't want to allow any spills or public health hazard that would stop production.

"They really don't want to take any chances on their factories being shut down," he said.

"They all look at this issue as a very critical issue."

The chemicals used in computer chip factories aren't the only concern for health and safety.

Scientists at Cornell University in Ithaca are researching just what impact smaller and smaller computer chip components will mean for the environment.

Current chips use components that are 65 nanometers wide, but if AMD's plant were to become operational in 2012 or 2014 as has been discussed, the industry may be making chips with 32-nanometer or even 22-nanometer components.

A human hair is 50,000 nanometers across.

Michael Skvarla, user program manager at the Cornell NanoScale Science and Technology Facility, said scientists at Cornell and in the industry are researching what impact those small components will have on the human body.

Skvarla said that while chemical exposure in the semiconductor industry has always loomed large, there is also concern about the carbon nanoparticles getting into human lungs.

Researchers are working on developing so-called carbon nanotubes about 1 nanometer in width that could one day be used as transistors in computer chips.

"There's a great deal of concern," Skvarla said.

"It's starting with worker safety, but it's going to extend to consumer safety and product safety."

"It's gratifying to know the industry is looking closely at it."

Besides the AMD factory, the environmental community is worried about the impact that related infrastructure projects will have on open space in Saratoga County.

Trypaluk and others believe that projects such as the proposed Saratoga County water system and the Round Lake Bypass are being undertaken just to satisfy AMD's industrial needs.

The two projects alone will dramatically change the character and environment of Saratoga County, they say.

The Round Lake Bypass is a $29 million state project designed to divert traffic away from the village of Round Lake along a 1.6-mile, two-lane road linking Northway Exit 11 to Route 9 and Luther Forest.

The roadway, which is expected to be completed by next year, will be built through wetlands and span Ballston Creek.

The $67 million water project would pump water from the Hudson River in Moreau and send it down a 27-mile pipeline to Luther Forest.

AMD would need the water because chip fabs use up to 2 million gallons of water a day.

Stillwater resident Radliff, a former town planning board member, said the combination of AMD's plant and infrastructure projects such as the Round Lake Bypass are going to contribute to Saratoga County's growing problem of sprawl and bring with them possible environmental damage.

"This project in general contradicts smart growth," Radliff said.

"There cannot be a more detrimental scenario."

Susan Lawrence, chairwoman of The Hudson-Mohawk Group, a local affiliate of the Sierra Club, said building the chip fab "will wreck the ecology of the forest" and also contribute to sprawl in the county.

But she is also worried that Saratoga County and the state are moving ahead with such projects without looking at the bigger picture of how they will contribute to the development of open space -- especially if AMD ultimately decides it doesn't want to build in the county.

AMD has until July 2009 to commit to construction at Luther Forest to be eligible for a $650 million cash grant that is part of its state incentive package.

The company's board of directors has yet to make that decision, but questions have been raised about whether that will ever happen.

AMD lost $650 million during the first quarter, and the company is moving ahead with its "asset-light" business model some analysts say could include going "fabless" and using contractors to do its manufacturing.

AMD spokesman Travis Bullard has said there is the possibility AMD may end up partnering with another company to own or operate the Luther Forest fab, although nothing has been decided.

The uncertainty bothers the Hudson-Mohawk Group's Lawrence, who would rather not have major infrastructure projects built if AMD hasn't committed.

"There's a whole bunch of ifs," she said.

"They're building stuff on speculation."

Larry Rulison can be reached at 454-5504 or by e-mail at lrulison@timesunion.com.