THE NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

"Call me a schmuck - I'm still not resigning - Embattled head of judicial panel defends his book"

BY RAOUL FELDER

Thursday, April 26th 2007, 4:00 AM

Be Our Guest

I am, at least as far as I know, still chairman of the New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct, having been elected unanimously.

There is no mention in the commission's recent lack-of-confidence statement of anything I have done, either as a member or chairman of the commission, being inappropriate, improper, wrong, biased, etc., and, in fact, the members have asked me to remain as a voting member.

My sin?

I co-authored a humor book - called "Schmucks!"

There is a cartoon on the cover.

Jackie Mason, my co-author, not known for his efforts as an archeologist, is drawn wearing a Captain Marvel suit; I wear a Superman outfit.

The points raised in the commission's press release - the one calling me unfit to serve as chairman - were three.

The first was that the book "repeatedly invokes racial, ethnic and religious invective."

This is a lie.

There is no racial invective in the book, and no person has been able to point to even one.

There are some "ethnic" pieces about people who are enemies of America - militant Muslims.

There is also a piece about Saudi Arabia.

The second claim: that I trivialized the word "allegedly" in a piece about Benon Sevan, the former UN Oil-for-Food official who is in Cypress avoiding extradition.

Unmentioned is the fact that the penultimate sentences of the short piece read:

"If bribery can be proved, ... then Mr. Sevan certainly should be in the Guinness Book of World Records."

"He achieved the outstanding trifecta, because he was able to screw the people of Iraq, the folks at the UN and the well-intentioned citizens of America all at the same time."

The third issue: The commission says that, since I am opposed to affirmative action, I "could not pass fair judgment on anyone he perceived to have benefited from affirmative action."

If the offending political sentiment involved opposition to "racial discrimination" or "legalized abortion," would anyone seriously suggest that I could not fairly judge a person who benefited from racial discrimination or legalized abortion?

The commission, at the end of its press release, assures us that this is not a question of free speech.

One can call a baboon a swan until the swan flies away, but the baboon is still a baboon, and a swan is still a swan.

The governor's role in this dispute is a difficult one.

He is an honorable and decent man whom I have supported, and still today support.

I believe he has been misled.

I am used to human folly, envy and ambition, hypocrisy and schadenfreude, all wrapped in the insulating cloak of pomposity and self-righteousness.

To allow these kinds of things to drive events is to permit the burglar who bellows at your front door to slip in the back door to steal your valuables.

I have been asked, "Why not simply resign?"

I do not, because the next person who is attacked may not have as big a mouth as I, nor perhaps the means to resist.

Freedom of speech is the price we pay in exchange for the tradeoff: obscene lyrics in rap music, unpopular political commentary and the degradation and vulgarization of daily discourse.

Therefore, when people ask me why I simply do not step away, my answer is, "I cannot."

Felder chairs the state's commission on judicial conduct.

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

NEWSDAY

"State/RegionSpitzer-appointed panel takes aim at gov waste"

BY JAMES T. MADORE

james.madore@newsday.com

April 23, 2007, 10:09 PM EDT

ALBANY -- Seeking to lower property taxes by eliminating some of the special districts that provide firefighting, garbage removal and other local services, Gov. Eliot Spitzer appointed a commission Monday to study ways of slimming down the nearly 7,000 districts statewide, including 340 on Long Island.

The 15-member commission, to be led by former Lt. Gov. Stan Lundine of upstate Jamestown, will focus on special districts and 4,200 taxing jurisdictions, such as school districts and town and village governments.

It will issue a report by April 15, 2008.

While acknowledging that money would be saved by encouraging districts and governments to form buying groups for supplies, employee health insurance and services, Spitzer emphasized the need to scrap some of the entities altogether.

"One of the critical reasons New York is uncompetitive is the tax burden."

"The local tax burden comes back to these special districts," Spitzer said at a news conference.

"We must slay this dragon, and this is a step toward doing that."

The commission's membership includes two lieutenant governors, Lundine and Alfred Del Bello, and several mayors and county officials.

Also serving are Nassau County Comptroller Howard Weitzman, who uncovered abuses by garbage districts, and State Sen. Craig Johnson (D-Port Washington), who tackled fiscal issues as a county lawmaker.

Citing the importance of Spitzer's backing, Weitzman said, "Perhaps now we can attack the problem of wasteful and duplicative special tax districts head-on without nibbling around the edges."

Johnson agreed, though he added it was important for commissioners to recognize that fire districts provide more critical services than others.

He also called for public hearings to give information to residents and gain input from them.

Johnson said residents who want to lower their tax bills by eliminating special districts would in return have less say in how the services are provided.

"Are you willing to reduce property taxes when it means losing the kind of representation that you have come to see every day?" he added.

Special districts date to the 1930s, with their number rising as rural areas became suburban and more populous.

Such districts were established to provide services and bill taxpayers within small geographic areas.

Over time, some have become political fiefdoms prone to cronyism and corruption.

Long Island generates half of all the revenue collected by special districts statewide, according to a report released last month by state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli.

He found that Nassau districts collected $400 million, or 31 percent, of the $1.3 billion total in 2004, the most recent available data.

In Suffolk County, districts collected $240 million, or 19 percent.

But while the Island's special districts are flush with cash, there are fewer of them than in the counties encompassing Buffalo, Rochester and Syracuse.

Nassau and Suffolk districts represented only five percent of the state total, according to the comptroller's report.

In addition to Weitzman, Nassau County Executive Thomas Suozzi has pushed for consolidation of taxing jurisdictions and Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy has urged school districts to share services such as bus transportation and snow plowing.

Levy Monday praised the new Commission on Local Government Efficiency and Competitiveness, saying, "It will be good for the state and Long Island, in particular."

Still, Levy stressed the importance of continuing local efforts such as the Long Island Regional Planning Board's examination of government consolidation.

He said, "We cannot expect the governor's overview to go into detail on Long Island and our needs."

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

NY TIMES

"Suspect in N.Y. Trooper’s Death Is Presumed Dead"

By LISA W. FODERARO and FERNANDA SANTOS

Published: April 26, 2007

MARGARETVILLE, N.Y., April 25 — One New York State trooper was killed and another was wounded near this tiny Catskill Mountains town on Wednesday morning as they tracked down a suspect who the authorities said had shot and wounded another trooper the day before.

The suspect, Travis D. Trim, 23, is now thought to be dead, the authorities say, after the farmhouse where he was hiding caught fire later on Wednesday as the police were besieging it.

About 90 minutes after the fire broke out, the authorities went into the house, when they felt it was safe to do so.

The acting superintendent of the New York State Police, Preston L. Felton, said:

“At 7:35 p.m., we located what appears to be a badly charred body in the residence."

"The body was slumped in the doorway holding a rifle."

"We will make attempts to ID the body in the coming days.”

He added, “There’s a possibility that our actions caused the fire,” noting that officers had fired several tear-gas canisters into the house.

The authorities identified the slain trooper as David C. Brinkerhoff, 29, a member of the agency’s mobile response team.

Trooper Brinkerhoff and another member of the assault team, Richard G. Mattson, went into the farmhouse, about 110 miles northwest of New York City, to help other troopers who were responding to a burglar alarm about 8 a.m. Wednesday.

They were looking for Mr. Trim, who was suspected of shooting another trooper, Matthew Gombosi, the previous day.

The authorities said Mr. Trim then shot Trooper Brinkerhoff in the head, and Trooper Mattson in the left arm.

They were both taken by helicopter to Albany Medical Center.

On learning of the slaying of the trooper, the second member of the mobile response team to be killed in a manhunt since September, Gov. Eliot Spitzer canceled a planned lunchtime speech in Manhattan, asking his wife, Silda Wall Spitzer, to fill in for him.

He returned to Albany and in a brief statement issued by his office, he said, “One of our best has fallen and another has been seriously wounded in the line of duty.”

In the Capitol, Republicans and Democrats were moving swiftly, but in different directions, in response both to the trooper shootings as well as the shootings at Virginia Tech last week.

The Senate majority leader, Joseph L. Bruno, called on the governor to pressure the Democratic-led Assembly to pass legislation that would bring back the death penalty for those who kill law enforcement officers, as well as terrorists.

The governor has supported both ideas in the past, but a similar bill was voted down in the Assembly on Tuesday, 96 to 47.

“I’m asking the governor to use his considerable influence with the Assembly,” Mr. Bruno said.

Senator John J. Bonacic, a Republican whose district includes Margaretville, said of the governor:

“I know you’re a law and order guy, I know you are, I know you care about the safety of our families."

"Get the Assembly to do what they must do.”

But Charles Carrier, a spokesman for Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, reiterated that Assembly Democrats oppose the death penalty.

Instead, the Assembly passed a number of antigun measures on Wednesday, including bills banning assault weapons and armor-piercing ammunition.

The events that led to the shooting of the three officers began last Friday, when Mr. Trim, of North Lawrence, near the Canadian border, was said to have stolen a van.

On Tuesday afternoon in Margaretville, 270 miles south of where the van was taken, Trooper Gombosi pulled Mr. Trim over because the van was missing a license plate, Mr. Felton, the acting superintendent, said.

When Mr. Trim failed to provide identification, Trooper Gombosi told him he was under arrest.

At that point, Mr. Trim pulled a handgun from his waistband and fired once at the trooper, Mr. Felton said.

The trooper was hit in the lower ribs, but the police said his body armor saved him from serious injury.

“He was disoriented and he could not produce any identification,” Mr. Felton said of Mr. Trim.

One investigator said that Mr. Trim was looking at a map when he was pulled over, as if he were lost.

The police later found the abandoned van a few miles from where the confrontation with Trooper Gombosi took place.

By Tuesday night, the authorities said troopers had converged on the rural area — stopping cars and trucks and using police dogs — in search of Mr. Trim.

On Wednesday morning, the burglar alarm drew them to the farmhouse, where they found a backpack, clothing and identification.

A short time later, the authorities said, the troopers exchanged gunfire with Mr. Trim, and Troopers Brinkerhoff and Matson were shot.

Before long, scores of heavily armed troopers surrounded the farmhouse where Mr. Trim was believed to be hiding.

Armored vehicles moved in, snipers took position behind stone walls, and other officers spread across the roads and hilltops overlooking the house.

At one point, troopers shot tear-gas canisters inside the home, eliciting no response.

Then, a robot with a camera rolled in, and scanned the house for the suspect.

Late in the afternoon, troopers began moving in and once again fired tear gas canisters.

The house erupted in flames, driving back the officers.

“It’s unbelievable,” said Anna Carli, a retired nurse who has lived in Margaretville for 40 years.

“This is a little town."

"This kind of thing doesn’t happen here.”

In the section of Coxsackie, just outside Albany, where Trooper Brinkerhoff — an eight-year veteran of the State Police — lived with his wife, Barbara, and their 7-month-old daughter, the police kept the press and the curious away.

The events on Wednesday reminded many of the five-month manhunt last year for Ralph J. Phillips, during which three troopers were shot, one fatally.

The hunt began after Mr. Phillips escaped from the Erie County jail on April 2, 2006.

On Wednesday, outside Albany Medical Center, where he had met with relatives of Trooper Mattson’s, the Rev. James LeFebvre, chaplain of the Albany Police Department, described his reaction when he heard the news of Trooper Brinkerhoff’s death:

“You say, ‘Give me the good news.’"

"And they say, ‘There isn’t any good news,’ and you say, ‘No, not again.’ ”

Lisa W. Foderaro reported from Margaretville and Fernanda Santos from White Plains. Reporting was contributed by Nick Confessore in Coxsackie, Laura Drake in North Lawrence, Danny Hakim in Albany and Jennifer Medina in New York City.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/26/nyregion...amp;oref=slogin

NY TIMES EMPIRE ZONE

April 26th, 2007 12:55 pm

While all of the political immensities and pomposities down there in Albany get up on their high horses and pedestals and stumps and bully pulpits to shout back and forth at each other about another slain State Troopers here in NYS, out here in the countryside, where people actually do live, and have relatives and yes, even loved ones, who are police, there is a much different dialogue going on, which centers around the essential question of “How in the Hell were two more Troopers shot, after that last fiasco?”

“What exactly can be going on here?” is the question on our minds, anyway!

Was one NYS Trooper shot in the face and killed, and another shot in the upper arm and wounded because of ineptness and just plain amateurishness on the part of the NYS Troopers?

My God, in this day and age of “political correctness”, can we countryfolks even think this way?

Or must we just moan, and wring our hands, and rend our garments, and such-like, while crying out, like the politicians down in Albany, Spitzer, Bruno, Tedisco, about “cruel fate”, and the need to restore the “death penalty”, as if that would make any difference at all to someone who just has it in their head to kill them a State Trooper before they themselves die?

In this day and age of “poltical correctness”, can we ask ourselves, when it comes to “special weapons and tactics”, is it true that the NYS Troopers have the special weapons alright, but the tactics of a bunch of bumbling amateurs, which alleged rinky-dink tactics puts the lives of people’s loved one and relatives at risk?

Did the NYS Troopers, while on the hunt for a suspect who had just shot another Trooper respond to a burgler alarm at this country farmhouse with just a partial emergency response team?

Upon arriving at the farmhouse, in response to a burgler alarm, did the NYS Troopers notice any signs of forced entry, that would lead them to believe that someone, anyone might actually still be in the structure?

Did the NYS Troopers believe that a man who had just shot one trooper would be intimidated by a bunch of them, so that he would not be waiting to shoot them through the door of the room that he was in, when they announced their presence by pushing in the door he was hiding behind, and walking in upright, so that all he had to do was to fire through the door at head height, which guaranteed him the kill that he got?

Did the other NYS Troopers then fire a number of rounds through the door and walls into the room, and then actually vacate the premises, thus losing any tactical advantage that they might have had from superior firepower?

Yes, in the minds of the countryfolks, these are the operative questions on our minds right now, as people ponder whose relatives and loved ones might be the next to fall, because of the possibility of sheer stupidity and tactical blunders on the part of the management of what is seen as nothing more than a political police force up here in the country, where people hope that their relatives and loved ones are not next.

And so ….

— Posted by Livyjr

http://empirezone.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/0...-life/#comments

"AP NewsBreak: Senate introduces pay raise bill"

By MARC HUMBERT, Associated Press

Last updated: 3:04 p.m., Thursday, April 26, 2007

ALBANY -- Legislation to immediately raise the pay of state judges and eventually hike the salaries of state legislators, the governor and other statewide elected officials has been introduced in the state Senate, where it is has unanimous support.

The measure was introduced without fanfare on Wednesday.

"We expect we will take it up as early as next week," said Mark Hansen, a spokesman for Joseph Bruno, the Senate's Republican majority leader.

The legislation would provide $48.2 million to cover judicial pay raises retroactive to Jan. 1 of this year.

The plan would raise the annual salaries of judges on the state Supreme Court, New York's major trial court, to $165,200 from $136,700.

Federal district court judges are paid $165,200 a year.

There would be similar raises for all the state's more than 1,200 judges, who haven't had raises since 1999.

More controversial are provisions that would provide regular cost of living increases for judges, lawmakers and statewide elected officials.

The bill would also create a 13-member commission to come up with other raises that should be given to lawmakers and statewide elected officials.

They have also not had raises since 1999.

New York's 62 senators and 150 Assembly members are each paid $79,500 a year, but many receive extra stipends ranging in value up to $30,000 a year for leadership positions or committee work.

The governor is paid $179,500 a year.

While legislative leaders and new Democratic Gov. Eliot Spitzer have all said they favor judicial pay raises, Spitzer has thus far refused to agree to any mechanism that would lead to legislative pay raises.

The governor has said he wants to see legislative action on such things as an overhaul of the state's campaign finance laws before he supports more pay for lawmakers.

Spitzer wants to reduce campaign contribution limits.

Spitzer came out with his own judicial pay raise proposal on Thursday, but it applied only to judges.

It would give state judges pay raises retroactive to April 1, 2005.

As with the Senate bill, the Spitzer plan would raise the pay of state Supreme Court justices to $165,200 a year.

The Spitzer proposal came as he unveiled promised state constitutional amendments that would provide for the appointment, by the governor, of most state judges rather than their election.

He also is seeking to merge and streamline parts of the state court system, a plan long advocated by Chief Judge Judith Kaye.

The proposed amendments are subject to approval by the state Legislature and voters statewide.

The merger plan, Spitzer said, would save the state court system about $59 million a year.

The Assembly approved legislation similar to the Senate pay raise proposal earlier this year when it was adopting a new state budget.

Judge Kaye has been demanding action on judicial pay and has threatened to sue the Legislature and Spitzer if they don't act soon.

Kaye spokesman Gary Spencer said the chief judge liked both the Senate bill and the governor's judges-only pay raise proposal.

"Company will beef up security on data, notify promptly"

Associated Press

Last updated: 3:13 p.m., Thursday, April 26, 2007

ALBANY -- A company that lost track of a computer containing the personal information of 540,000 New Yorkers but didn't tell the state about it for five weeks has agreed to promptly notify people if security is breached again, Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said Thursday.

CS Stars, an independent insurance brokerage, will also put new precautions in place to safeguard consumer information and pay the state $60,000 in costs for its investigation.

The computer went missing May 9, 2006 from one of the Chicago company's secured facilities.

Most of the workers whose information was contained on the computer are New Yorkers in two special funds of the workers' compensation system.

CS Stars was using the computer to move the data -- including names, addresses and Social Security numbers -- from the state to the company's computerized claim system.

It wasn't until June 29 that the company notified the state and called in the FBI.

The FBI asked that no consumers be notified immediately because it would impede their investigation, Cuomo said.

Consumers were notified starting July 18 and the computer was located July 25.

Investigators determined that the information had not been accessed.

The company offered the affected workers identity theft insurance, 12 months to get free credit reports and access to fraud resolution specialists.

Identity theft is considered one of the country's fastest growing white-collar crimes.

A survey in 2006 reported that there have been more than 28 million new identity theft victims since 2003, but experts say many incidents go undetected or unreported.

Under New York's Information Security Breach and Notification Law, any business that maintains personal information that it doesn't own must notify the data's owner of any security breach "immediately following discovery" and all affected consumers in the most "expedient time possible."

The attorney general's office, Consumer Protection Board, and state office of Cyber Security also must be notified.

CS Stars admitted no violation of any laws, agreed to the notification policy and said it would beef up security.

------

On the Net:

NYS Information Security Breach and Notification Act: http://www.oag.state.ny.us/consumer/tips/id--theft--law.html

"Suspected killer found in burned home, probe continues"

By MICHAEL VIRTANEN, Associated Press

Last updated: 4:32 p.m., Thursday, April 26, 2007

MARGARETVILLE, N.Y. -- The body of shooting suspect Travis Trim was pulled from the charred wreckage of a Catskill-area farmhouse where a trooper was slain as investigators looked into why a police assault on the house ended in a fierce blaze.

Forensic investigators used fingerprints Thursday to identify the badly burned body as that of Trim, a 23-year-old from northern New York suspected of shooting two troopers at the rural home Wednesday morning, state police Maj. Kevin Molinari said.

Police had been searching for Trim since the Tuesday afternoon shooting of another trooper, who escaped serious injury because the bullet struck his body armor.

Trim was apparently holed up in the farmhouse on the northwestern edge of the Catskills on Wednesday when he opened fire on approaching troopers, killing one and wounding another.

It was not clear whether Trim died in the shootout early Wednesday or during the blaze that unexpectedly broke out when police assaulted the house that evening.

His body was found slumped in a doorway, holding a rifle.

An autopsy was scheduled for Thursday at Albany Medical Center, though state police Lt. Glenn Miner said it could be several days before results are available.

The cause of the fire was still under investigation.

Preston Felton, acting superintendent of the state police, has ordered a "complete administrative investigation" into the matter, Molinari said.

The major said such investigations are routine.

"There's a lot of careful thought that goes into using any type force, and we feel that everything was done appropriately," Molinari said.

It was also unclear why Trim -- whose previous run-ins with the law consisted of petty crimes -- would fire at three troopers in two days.

Even Trim's father, Marvin Trim, said he doesn't know what happened to his son, who attended the state university at Canton last fall.

"I don't know what happened at college," Trim said.

"He got into trouble and I guess his friends told him he was going to go to jail for a long time."

"It wasn't true."

"He died for nothing."

"He let stupidity and ignorance get the best of him."

Killed in the Wednesday morning farmhouse shooting was Trooper David C. Brinkerhoff, a member of the force's elite mobile response team, or MRT.

Brinkerhoff, a 29-year-old father of a baby girl, was shot in the head.

Trooper Richard Mattson was wounded in the left arm.

Mattson was in serious but stable condition Thursday after surgery at Albany Medical Center.

State Troopers PBA President Daniel Federicis said Mattson was alert, eating and doing as well as can be expected.

Margaretville Mayor Bill Stanton said police told him that Trim fired at the troopers as they stood on the front porch, using a high-powered rifle he found inside the farmhouse.

The property is owned by a family whose members include a New Jersey law enforcement officer, neighbors said.

State police MRT members surrounded the house after the shootout, staking out positions behind trees and along a stone fence.

Troopers explored the house with a robotic vehicle and a camera attached to a pole and finally decided to move in Wednesday evening.

But the house caught fire after rounds of tear gas were fired inside.

The house, used as a weekend retreat, had weapons and ammunition inside, officials said.

Police officials still didn't know if the fire was sparked by a hot tear gas round or whether Trim was still alive at that point and could have started it himself.

A state police forensic investigative unit was going over the scene, a process Trooper Nelson Torres described as "very slow, meticulous."

Despite the destruction of the house, Molinari believed state police acted appropriately given their mission of taking Trim without injuries to anyone.

"We had a series of calculated steps weighed out yesterday and we initiated each one of those steps after careful thought and planning," he said.

Brinkerhoff is the third trooper to be shot and killed in the line of duty since March 2006 -- a tragic stretch of time for the state police in which two other on-duty troopers died in vehicle accidents and another was killed while on foot patrol in Iraq.

One of the shooting deaths came at the hands of Ralph "Bucky" Phillips, a western New York jail escapee who eluded police for five months before his capture in September.

Phillips shot three troopers, killing one.

Brinkerhoff was involved in the massive manhunt for Phillips.

The New York State Trooper Foundation said it was accepting donations for a trust fund at Trustco Bank for Brinkerhoff's infant daughter, Isabella Grace.

The troopers' PBA also was assisting the family and earmarking incoming donations to the Brinkerhoff and Mattson families.

Calling hours for Brinkerhoff are Monday and Tuesday in Coxsackie.

The funeral will be at Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Delmar on Wednesday followed by burial at St. Mary's Cemetery in Coxsackie.

Trim's father would not reveal if the family had any funeral plans.

Asked how he wanted people to remember his son, Trim replied: "I wish they wouldn't have to remember him at all."

----

Associated Press writers William Kates in Syracuse and Michael Hill in Albany contributed to this report.

"AMD strategy poses risk to chip fab plan - Firm wants to outsource manufacturing work and go 'asset-light'"

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

First published: Thursday, April 26, 2007

MALTA -- As part of its bold new cost-cutting strategy, Advanced Micro Devices Inc. is going to adopt a so-called "asset-light" approach in which the computer chip manufacturer may outsource more of its operations.

Whether that will impact the company's plans to build a $3.2 billion computer chip factory in Saratoga County remains to be seen.

During a conference call with analysts last week, AMD announced it will cut 2007 capital spending by $500 million after posting a $611 million loss for the first quarter.

The spending cuts will have an immediate impact on manufacturing operations in Dresden, Germany, where AMD's two computer chip factories, or "chip fabs," operate.

Much of the savings will come from slowing the rate by which the company converts its older factory there -- known as Fab 30 -- to newer technology.

That conversion was announced in May as part of a $2.5 billion project to quadruple manufacturing capacity in Dresden.

Andy Ng, an analyst with Morningstar Inc., a Chicago-based research firm, said that although AMD has not provided specifics, the company may be looking to outsource more of its manufacturing to "foundries," which are third-party companies that make computer chips for companies that design them.

AMD currently uses the foundry company Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing in Singapore when it needs additional capacity.

"If they were to proceed with this asset-light strategy, then the Albany plant could be at risk," Ng said.

Ng said he and other analysts hope to learn more about AMD's exact plans during the company's analyst conference in July.

AMD spokesman Travis Bullard said Wednesday that the new strategy does not mean that AMD will go "fab-less," a term used to describe when chip companies stop using their own factories.

"The term asset-light was used to describe our intention to reduce the amount of assets on our balance sheet," he said.

"It is still a work in progress."

ATI Technologies Inc., a Canadian graphics chip company that AMD acquired in October for $5.4 billion, didn't own its own manufacturing facilities.

"Through the acquisition of ATI, we now have a perspective into a very asset-light model that we are pretty excited about learning more and more about it," AMD CEO Hector Ruiz said during the conference call.

There is a lot at stake with AMD's decision.

The company owns about 26 percent of the computer chip market, with rival Intel Corp. owning the rest.

Intel has factories all around the world.

But computer chip factories cost billions of dollars to build.

They are a huge risk for those who build them because the computer chip market is so volatile and the technology transforms so rapidly.

That is why New York state had to promise AMD a $1.2 billion financial incentive package to build the factory, which would employ 1,200 people, at the Luther Forest Technology Campus in Malta.

AMD has until 2009 to decide whether to take the offer.

It is in the middle of a 12-week design process -- expected to conclude next month -- that will precede a possible vote by the board of directors on whether to move ahead.

"It is still too early to say when senior management will decide to go ahead or not," said spokesman Bullard.

"The decision to build a new fab is a long-term, strategic decision that takes time."

Ken Green, president of the Saratoga Economic Development Corp., the nonprofit that manages Luther Forest, declined comment but said AMD officials are scheduled to attend SEDC's annual dinner May 3 in Saratoga Springs.

Not everyone is thrilled with AMD's plans.

In a research report published Friday, CIBC World Markets analyst Rick Schafer said the capital spending reduction and the asset-light strategy are "a thinly veiled reference" to the use of more foundries.

"We believe such a move would place more pressure on the manufacturing front, essentially perpetuating the status of a generation lag behind (Intel)," he wrote.

"We view capitulation in this area as a win for (Intel)."

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

And while we are on the subject of the HACK-O-CRACY that we have here in NYS, and in America, as well, where political loyalty trumps competence in the workplace, we have ....

"Escaped inmate was left alone - Probe shows man who eluded immigration officer also used moxie"

By PAUL GRONDAHL, Staff writer, Albany, New York Times Union

First published: Friday, April 27, 2007

By the time Carlos A. Herrera escaped from federal immigration authorities in Latham on April 18 while being transported in a van, he had displayed plenty of moxie.

Herrera, an El Salvador native who faced deportation, managed to flee after being left alone and unshackled, according to an affidavit filed in an internal investigation into the escape.

Herrera then kicked his way through the van's metal reinforced window while a single officer transporting him was trying to help the prisoner cash a check, according to media reports.

An internal investigation is standard procedure after an escape, according to Michael Gilhooly, a spokesman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

"An escape is extremely rare," he said, declining to confirm or deny any details reported on regarding the affidavit.

"The investigation will determine whether all rules, policies and regulations were followed," Gilhooly said.

Herrera is still on the loose and being sought by law enforcement.

He was last seen April 18 on Central Avenue in Albany after the fugitive managed to talk a passing motorist into giving him a ride.

"We're doing everything we can to get him back into custody," Gilhooly said.

He said "multiple fugitive operations teams" were working with local police and other agencies to find and apprehend Herrera.

Anyone with information about his whereabouts is urged to contact their local police department or the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) 24-hour tip line at (866) 347-2423.

Herrera's streak of guile extended beyond his escape, as new details have surfaced about his activities before being taken into custody.

On April 17, Herrera was driving on Route 7 in Niskayuna on his way to purchase a used car from a town resident, according to a Niskayuna Police Department report.

Herrera, apparently lost, pulled off Route 7 into a driveway and tried to turn around.

His car got stuck on a rain-soaked lawn.

His spinning tires tore up the homeowner's grass and the homeowner called Niskayuna police to report a disabled vehicle stuck in the mud.

Herrera offered $1,000 in cash to the homeowner as compensation for the damage to the lawn and in a bid not to report it to police.

But he was too late and a Niskayuna police officer soon arrived and their criminal check revealed that Herrera was facing deportation after a felony drug conviction and jumping bond downstate.

On April 17, Niskayuna police turned Herrera over to officials at the Schenectady County Jail, where hundreds of dollars in cash were taken from him along with his other personal belongings at his booking.

"He was crying during his booking," said Schenectady County Sheriff Harry Buffardi.

A mug shot of Herrera shows him crying.

When Herrera was released to federal authorities on April 18, he was given a check for the cash as is standard procedure.

Herrera escaped while a single federal official transporting him reportedly was in the Bank of America branch on Loudon Road attempting to process the check.

"We never transport without two deputies, no matter what," Buffardi said.

"Two feds took him out of here in their van, so their procedure must have broken down after that."

The federal investigation affidavit also stated that Herrera was unshackled.

That also is against procedure for transporting Schenectady and Albany county inmates.

"Every inmate gets handcuffs and leg shackles," Buffardi said.

Two deputies, handcuffs and leg shackles is also standard procedure for transporting an Albany County prisoner, said Albany County Sheriff James Campbell.

"The way Herrera's escape apparently happened violates all our policies and procedures for transporting prisoners," Campbell said.

Herrera's escape differs from the way infamous convicted killer and career criminal Gary Evans escaped federal custody in 1998.

Evans was shackled and handcuffed when he kicked his way out of a prisoner's van and briefly eluded four armed deputy marshals before flinging himself off the Troy-Menands Bridge and plunging to his death 65 feet below.

"There's no comparison between Gary Evans and Herrera," said Jim Horton, a former State Police senior investigator who arrested Evans several times over the course of his career.

"The federal marshals followed protocol and did everything they were supposed to do."

He said if Herrera was left by himself while a lone federal official was inside the bank, "they couldn't have been following any kind of proper procedure," said Horton, who is now assistant director of the state Office of Homeland Security.

Buffardi said federal authorities who returned to the county jail after Herrera's escape seeking a mug shot of the fugitive offered gallows humor.

"One of them told our guys they could consider him a former employee of ICE," Buffardi said.

Grondahl can be reached at 454-5623 or by e-mail at pgrondahl@timesunion.com.

NO, what we should do, is to pay our inept and corrupt politicians yet more money, because, well, hey, you know, in that way, we will get BETTER POLITICIANS!

Yes, yes, that is the real solution here ...

MORE MONEY!

If only we could give them just a little more money, well, one day, they might actually get enough to start actually working for it ....

Instead of just being an ignorant, inept, incompetent pack of poseurs and downright bumblers and nincompoops ....

And so ....

"Raises rise to top of agenda - State senators back measure that would increase pay for judges, and for themselves"

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

First published: Friday, April 27, 2007

ALBANY -- The state Senate this week floated legislation that would set in motion pay hikes for judges, legislators and state officials.

The bid for raises comes as Gov. Eliot Spitzer is pushing an overhaul of the court system that includes judicial raises and election reform legislation that would change the way campaigns are financed and legislative districts are drawn.

In a show of bipartisanship, all 62 state senators signed on to a new bill sponsored by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman John DeFranciso, R-Syracuse, that would provide for pay raises for judges and elected officials, including legislators.

The bill is expected to be voted on next week, according to a spokesman for Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno, R-Brunswick.

The Senate plan, costing $48.2 million this year, would provide raises to 1,300 judges retroactive to January.

It also sets up a 13-member commission appointed by the governor, legislative leaders and chief judge to make binding recommendations on pay for lawmakers, who now get a base salary of $79,500, and statewide elected officials.

Officials could also see raises retroactive to January; lawmakers would have to wait until Jan. 1, 2009, after the next legislative election.

Spitzer's plan calls for retroactive pay raises for judges to April 2005.

He was silent on legislative and executive pay hikes and has been cool to the notion of such raises unless lawmakers join him on meaningful reforms.

The Senate pay raise plan surfaces as Spitzer is at war with GOP senators for rejecting his campaign finance reform plans, which include limiting contributions that candidates can take.

Salaries for the governor, legislators, judges and commissioners are set by law, and efforts to give raises typically get caught up in politics.

As a result, there hasn't been a pay raise for these officials since 1999.

Both plans would give judges a raise to levels demanded by Court of Appeals Chief Judge Judith Kaye, who has threatened to sue the state government if judges don't get raises.

The proposals call, for example, to pay Supreme Court justices $165,200 a year, similar to U.S. District Court judges.

They now receive $136,700 a year.

The bill also calls for another, similar commission to be set up every four years, starting in 2011, to review executive, legislative and judicial compensation for the following four years.

Gary Spencer, a spokesman for Kaye, said the chief judge is pleased.

"She supports the bill because it essentially mirrors her proposals," "She finds all of it very encouraging."

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver said he strongly favors pay raises for judges and lawmakers.

The Assembly called for the compensation commission in its legislation for a state budget.

Other aspects of Spitzer's judicial plan may be less welcome.

He proposes to consolidate the court system into a two-tiered structure of Supreme Courts and a statewide District Court system; eliminate the constitutional limit on the number of Supreme Court justices so the system can keep up with cases, and amend the state Constitution to allow merit selection for judges for Supreme Court, Appellate Division, Court of Claims, Family Court, Surrogate's Court and County Court.

Recommendations would be made by statewide and regional judicial nominating commissions, and the governor would make the ultimate selection.

Although voters now technically choose judges for certain courts, either directly or by electing delegates to judicial conventions, federal courts have concluded the convention system used for Supreme Court justices in particular is ruled by backroom politics and political bosses and violates the law.

But Assemblywoman Helene Weinstein, D-Brooklyn, the Judiciary Committee chairman, said modifying the convention system to make it more open may be a better solution.

Minority bar groups have voiced concern, she said, that both a merit system and an open primary process would put their members at a disadvantage.

Spitzer also put on the table Thursday an election reform plan that included a constitutional amendment to create an 11-member commission that would draw congressional and legislative lines in New York.

Now, redistricting is done by the Legislature, a move many critics say allows lawmakers to protect their jobs and keeps the majority parties in each chamber in power.

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

FROM THE ALBANY, NEW YORK CAPITAL CONFIDENTIAL BLOG:

With all due respect, the “redistricting” on NYS is spelled out, like everything else pertaining to OUR government here in NYS, by WE, THE PEOPLE, grateful for our freedom, in ART. III of our state Constitution, and with respect to Senate districts, it states in § 4 of ART.III as follows:

At the regular session in the year nineteen hundred thirty-two, and at the first regular session after the year nineteen hundred forty and after each tenth year therefrom the SENATE DISTRICTS shall be readjusted or altered, but if, in any decade, counting from and including that which begins with the year nineteen hundred thirty-one, such a readjustment or alteration is not made at the time above prescribed, it shall be made at a subsequent session occurring not later than the sixth year of such decade, meaning not later than nineteen hundred thirty-six, nineteen hundred forty-six, nineteen hundred fifty-six, and so on; provided, however, that if such districts shall have been readjusted or altered by law in either of the years nineteen hundred thirty or nineteen hundred thirty-one, they shall remain unaltered until the first regular session after the year nineteen hundred forty.

Such districts shall be so readjusted or altered that each senate district shall contain as nearly as may be an equal number of inhabitants, excluding aliens, and BE IN AS COMPACT FORM as practicable, and shall remain unaltered until the first year of the next decade as above defined, and SHALL AT ALL TIMES CONSIST OF CONTIGUOUS TERRITORY, AND NO COUNTY SHALL BE DIVIDED in the formation of a senate district except to make two or more senate districts wholly in such county.

No town, except a town having more than a full ratio of apportionment, and no block in a city inclosed by streets or public ways, shall be divided in the formation of senate districts; nor shall any district contain a greater excess in population over an adjoining district in the same county, than the population of a town or block therein adjoining such district.

Counties, towns or blocks which, from their location, may be included in either of two districts, shall be so placed as to make said districts most nearly equal in number of inhabitants, excluding aliens.

end quotes

As to Assembly districts, which are intentionally different from Senate districts, BECAUSE WE, THE PEOPLE WANTED IT THAT WAY, § 5 of ART. III provides:

The members of the assembly shall be chosen by single districts and shall be apportioned by the legislature at each regular session at which the senate districts are readjusted or altered, and by the same law, among the several counties of the state, as nearly as may be according to the number of their respective inhabitants, excluding aliens.

EVERY COUNTY heretofore established and separately organized, except the county of Hamilton, SHALL ALWAYS BE ENTITLED to one member of assembly, and no county shall hereafter be erected unless its population shall entitle it to a member.

The county of Hamilton shall elect with the county of Fulton, until the population of the county of Hamilton shall, according to the ratio, entitle it to a member.

But the legislature may abolish the said county of Hamilton and annex the territory thereof to some other county or counties.

The quotient obtained by dividing the whole number of inhabitants of the state, excluding aliens, by the number of members of assembly, SHALL BE THE RATIO FOR APPORTIONMENT, which SHALL BE MADE as follows:

One member of assembly shall be apportioned to every county, including Fulton and Hamilton as one county, containing less than the ratio and one-half over.

Two members shall be apportioned to every other county.

The remaining members of assembly shall be apportioned to the counties having more than two ratios according to the number of inhabitants, excluding aliens.

Members apportioned on remainders shall be apportioned to the counties having the highest remainders in the order thereof respectively.

No county shall have more members of assembly than a county having a greater number of inhabitants, excluding aliens.

The assembly districts, including the present ones, as existing immediately before the enactment of a law making an apportionment of members of assembly among the counties, shall continue to be the assembly districts of the state until the expiration of the terms of members then in office, except for the purpose of an election of members of assembly for full terms beginning at such expirations.

In any county entitled to more than one member, the board of supervisors, and in any city embracing an entire county and having no board of supervisors, the common council, or if there be none, the body exercising the powers of a common council, shall assemble at such times as the legislature making an apportionment shall prescribe, and divide such counties into assembly districts as nearly equal in number of inhabitants, excluding aliens, as may be, of convenient and contiguous territory in as compact form as practicable, each of which shall be wholly within a senate district formed under the same apportionment, equal to the number of members of assembly to which such county shall be entitled, and shall cause to be filed in the office of the secretary of state and of the clerk of such county, a description of such districts, specifying the number of each district and of the inhabitants thereof, excluding aliens, according to the census or enumeration used as the population basis for the formation of such districts; and such apportionment and districts shall remain unaltered until after the next reapportionment of members of assembly, except that the board of supervisors of any county containing a town having more than a ratio of apportionment and one-half over may alter the assembly districts in a senate district containing such town at any time on or before March first, nineteen hundred forty-six.

In counties having more than one senate district, the same number of assembly districts shall be put in each senate district, unless the assembly districts cannot be evenly divided among the senate districts of any county, in which case one more assembly district shall be put in the senate district in such county having the largest, or one less assembly district shall be put in the senate district in such county having the smallest number of inhabitants, excluding aliens, as the case may require.

No town, except a town having more than a ratio of apportionment and one-half over, and no block in a city inclosed by streets or public ways, shall be divided in the formation of assembly districts, nor shall any districts contain a greater excess in population over an adjoining district in the same senate district, than the population of a town or block therein adjoining such assembly district.

Towns or blocks which, from their location may be included in either of two districts, shall be so placed as to make said districts most nearly equal in number of inhabitants, excluding aliens.

Nothing in this section shall prevent the division, at any time, of counties and towns and the erection of new towns by the legislature.

end quotes

Now, while that is all more than a few sentences long, which will surely have people in here screaming at the top of their lungs, there is really nothing incomprehensible or hard to understand in any of that language, nothing that requires more than a minimal HS education, and “STEAMROLLER” Spitzer certainly has provided us with no clues at all as to what, if anything, in that language is lacking in substance!

SO!

Right now, lacking any evidence which demonstrates that there are any deficiencies in our present Constitution with respect to re-districting, there is absolutely no need at all for this “commission” scheme that this “STEAMROLLER” is now putting forth above here!

Which takes us right to the heart of this matter involving “STEAMROLLER” Spitzer’s concurrent plan to extend his TYRANNY here in NYS by having him, and only him, be in charge of who our judges shall be, and that is the final sentence of sect. 5 of ART. III, which states:

An apportionment by the legislature, or other body, shall be subject to review by the supreme court, at the suit of any citizen, under such reasonable regulations as the legislature may prescribe; and any court before which a cause may be pending involving an apportionment, shall give precedence thereto over all other causes and proceedings, and if said court be not in session it shall convene promptly for the disposition of the same.

That language was put into OUR state Constitution by us, the people of this state, and that language was intended to protect us from people like “STEAMROLLER” Spitzer, “IRON DUKE” Joe Bruno, and Sheldon Silver!

However, try to get to court as a common citizen, pursuant to this section of ART. III of our Constitution, and see what happens to you!

There is where OUR real problems lie with respect to redistricting in NYS, which is OUR present inability to get to court, before a judge who really is independent, and not just some political hack!

And giving the TYRANT “STEAMROLLER” Spitzer control of both our judges and our legislative and senate districts is not going to do us a lick of good, while at the same time, it will do our constitutional democracy here in NYS a great deal of harm …

And so …

Comment by John Galt — April 26, 2007 @ 5:04 pm

http://blogs.timesunion.com/capitol/?p=4514#comments

WNBC.COM

"Friendly Fire May Have Killed N.Y. State Trooper, Officials Say"

POSTED: 4:07 pm EDT April 27, 2007

UPDATED: 5:21 pm EDT April 27, 2007

ALBANY, N.Y. -- Friendly fire apparently killed a New York state trooper as he searched a farmhouse for a suspect in the shooting of a colleague, officials said Friday.

Trooper David C. Brinkerhoff, a member of the force's elite mobile response team, was shot in a gunfight Wednesday as he and other troopers went into a Catskill-area farmhouse where the armed suspect had holed up.

Although the suspect, Travis Trim, shot Brinkerhoff, "the fatal wound was made by a .223 (caliber) tactical round that was believed to have been fired by an MRT member," said acting State Police Superintendent Preston Felton.

Shot along with Brinkerhoff was Trooper Richard Mattson, who was wounded in the left arm and survived.

Felton said Friday an autopsy showed that Trim, 23, also was killed in the gunfight, shot once in the face and twice in the chest.

"It's our belief he was killed almost instantaneously," he said.

The Margaretville farmhouse was destroyed hours later in a fire that erupted as troopers, unaware that Trim was dead, closed in on the suspect.

His badly burned body was later found inside with a rifle.

Felton said Friday that investigators believe a police tear gas round started the fire.

Felton said Trim fired the round that hit Mattson, and shot Brinkerhoff in the chest with a small-caliber round that the trooper's body armor stopped.

Brinkerhoff, who was wearing a Kevlar helmet, was then shot in the back of the head, Felton said.

"In a firefight such as this, and our members are highly trained, what it appears happened here is that Trooper Brinkerhoff was struck in the chest and was knocked back," Felton said.

"Other members came to his aid and started to return fire at the shooter."

"At some point Trooper Brinkerhoff ended up getting hit by a round."

Other members of the MRT pulled Brinkerhoff and Mattson out of the house as other officers rushed to surround the vacant seasonal residence where Trim had taken refuge.

"This was a very volatile situation," Felton said.

The new details about the deadly encounter were based on "an autopsy and preliminary forensic review," Felton said, adding that the full analysis of the information is not yet complete.

Trim had been on the run since Tuesday, when he shot a trooper after he was stopped driving a stolen vehicle.

That trooper's body armor prevented him from being seriously hurt, police said.

Brinkerhoff is the third trooper to be shot and killed in the line of duty since March 2006 -- a tragic stretch of time for the state police in which two other on-duty troopers died in vehicle accidents and another was killed while on foot patrol in Iraq.

http://www.wnbc.com/news/13213015/detail.h..._03240304272007

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS DAILY POLITICS BLOG

"Does This Change Things? (Updated)"

The Senate Republicans have been beating the drum for reinstatement of the death penalty in New York, especially for cop killers, in the wake of the shooting death of a State Police trooper in upstate New York earlier this week.

Now Channel 4 is reporting that friendly fire from a fellow trooper - not the bullet of a cop-killing criminal - caused the death of the trooper, David C. Brinkerhoff.

UPDATE: Gov. Eliot Spitzer just put out the following statement:

"The situation in Margaretville on Wednesday was among the most difficult imaginable for law enforcement."

"Senior field commanders and a highly-trained MRT team responded and their bravery should be apparent to all."

"However, a tragedy occurred and State Police are now investigating the exact circumstances of Trooper Brinkerhoff’s death."

"We are committed to a thorough investigation and to full disclosure of the findings as soon as possible."

"In the meantime, nothing should detract from Trooper Brinkerhoff’s honor and dedication to duty, or that of his fellow MRT team members."

"When asked to confront a heavily-armed man intent on causing harm to others, they acted decisively to protect the rest of the community."

"We owe this fallen trooper and his colleagues a full appraisal of the facts as well as our continuing respect and gratitude."

Posted by Elizabeth Benjamin on April 27, 2007 4:40 PM | Permalink

Comments

This is indeed interesting news, if true!

Up here, in the country, many people have relatives and loved ones who are police officers, and as might be expected around Albany, some of these police officers were brought in as reinforcements, and so were on the scene as the drama unfolded down there in the Catskills!

And the story that had initially emerged was that the troopers had gone through and cleared the building, room by room, floor by floor, and that when they came to the final room, the two troopers who were shot allegedly pushed in on the door, and allegedly the shooter pushed back and then fired through the door, killing the one officer and wounding the other.

The other troopers then allegedly fired through the door and walls, and then allegedly vacated the premises, without stopping to consider that they had superior numbers and firepower, and had in all likelihood wounded or killed the shooter!

Don't look to see if you might have hit something, just didi-mau the scene, like rank amateurs ....

Needless to say, this really did not make a lot of sense to other police officers trained in SWAT tactics!

A cob job, to say the least!

Out here in the country, there are many combat veterans, one in particular who fought house to house in Germany against the entrenched SS, and there are many combat veterans who are also police officers, so that when someone like a NYS trooper gets shot, while in a group going after one lone man, well, let's just say that eye-brows get raised, and looks get exchanged, and heads get scratched, and you hear people clearing their throats, and the unspoken question is, "SO?"

"Ah, how do you think that happened then?"

And combat veterans know that when someone dies like that, that somehow, stupidity is usually around the place at the same time, whether the dead person's, or just as likely, the stupidity of someone else, especially in the Army in Viet Nam!

But that is another story, for another day ....

Then, in a story entitled "Suspected killer found in burned home, probe continues" by MICHAEL VIRTANEN, Associated Press, last updated: 4:32 p.m., Thursday, April 26, 2007, it was stated that:

"Margaretville Mayor Bill Stanton said police told him that Trim fired at the troopers as they stood on the front porch, using a high-powered rifle he found inside the farmhouse."

Now, that further raised some eye-brows, first, because it is a different story, and secondly, what in the hell were these troopers doing, standing there on the porch?

Now, to people, they looked even more inept than before, getting caught out in the open like they say they were, as if they were tourists, or something, come to buy a quilt, or a rag rug!

And now we are hearing what is a third version, and you can be sure that yours news item will be making its way around the community up here, for further comment and dissection ....

And so ...

Posted by: John Galt | April 27, 2007 5:23 PM

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

"Region sees spike in home foreclosures - Filings jump 93% for first 3 months of year; rising mortgages, taxes cited"

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

First published: Saturday, April 28, 2007

Home foreclosure filings in the Capital Region surged in the year's first three months even as the area's overall rate remained among the nation's lowest, according to newly released statistics.

The five-county region's first-quarter foreclosure filings climbed 93 percent when compared with the same period last year, according to RealtyTrac, a California company that monitors foreclosure filings.

Foreclosures in Albany County jumped 109 percent, while filings in Rensselaer County spiked a staggering 218 percent.

Rensselaer County, in fact, had more foreclosures filings in 2007's first three months (54) than it had all of last year (51).

Bankruptcy attorneys and credit counselors interviewed Friday said they have noticed a spike in homeowners needing assistance.

"We're getting more and more calls from people in a panic," said Bobbi Carter, director of the homeownership center at Troy-based TRIP Inc., a nonprofit that works to keep defaulting mortgage holders in their homes.

TRIP had 33 mortgage-default clients for all of 2006, Carter said, and has already had that many for the first three months of this year.

Attorneys and counselors blamed much of the foreclosure rise on adjustable-rate mortgages that offer low payments at first, then rise sharply and sometimes take homeowners by surprise.

Subprime loans, common among people with shaky credit or low incomes, typically carry even higher interest rates, making the likelihood of default even greater when the rates adjust upward.

They've been a source of significant concern nationally, with some lawmakers calling for a crackdown on the companies that offer the mortgages.

But those working with local homeowners facing foreclosure say they are seeing a large number of middle- or higher-income families in trouble.

Guy Criscione, an Albany bankruptcy attorney who said he's seen an "unbelievable" number of foreclosure clients in recent months, said many are couples with combined incomes of over $100,000 who still can't make mortgage payments.

RealtyTrac noticed the same trend nationally:

"It's not just the low-end homes that are going into foreclosure," James Saccacio, the company's CEO, said in a statement.

"We're seeing a rising percentage of foreclosures with an estimated market value of more than $750,000."

Sandra Demars, an attorney with The Law Office of Richard Croak in Albany, said some of the office's foreclosure clients are unable to cover rising tax payments, while others, facing spiking housing costs, borrowed at levels they can't afford.

The RealtyTrac information, Demars said, "is reflective of what we're seeing and what we were afraid was going to happen."

The Capital Region increase came as the overall number of foreclosure filings in the first three months in New York state saw a 3 percent drop.

And despite the recent rise, foreclosure rates in the Capital Region remain relatively low.

RealtyTrac says the region's rate is the 95th lowest among the nation's 100 largest metropolitan areas.

In the Capital Region, one out of every 2,245 households is facing foreclosure.

By contrast, Detroit has a rate of one foreclosure filing for every 51 households.

Still, observers found the sharp increase in the Capital Region troubling -- and worried it might be a warning of worse numbers to come.

"We are so not at the apex of this problem," said Kirsten Keefe, a lawyer with the nonprofit Empire Justice Center in Albany.

Counselors are urging homeowners who are having trouble with mortgage payments to seek help.

And sooner rather than later.

"People call too late," Carter said.

"By the time they get to us, there's really nothing we can do."

RealtyTrac said the number of foreclosures nationwide in the first three months of the year rose 35 percent compared to a year ago.

The spiking statistics are leading some lawmakers and nonprofit groups to call for a foreclosure moratorium or measures to financially help struggling homeowners.

U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., last month said the state needs to create a task force of private and nonprofit groups to help New Yorkers restructure loans and avoid foreclosure.

Some, meanwhile, are urging greater flexibility from mortgage companies.

"We'd like to see lenders open up payment options earlier in the process," said Susan Cotner, director of the nonprofit Affordable Housing Partnership in Albany.

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

"State courted solar jobs as DayStar asks cash - Even as Albany sought Massachusetts-based Evergreen, local company seeks funds for a plant"

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

First published: Friday, April 27, 2007

HALFMOON -- DayStar Technologies Inc. isn't the only solar manufacturer that New York has been trying to help expand.

State economic development officials confirmed this week they tried to entice Evergreen Solar Inc. of Marlboro, Mass., to build a large-scale manufacturing facility in New York.

The state didn't win the prize.

The $150 million factory will be built in suburban Boston, where Evergreen is based, with $44 million in grants and loans arranged by Massachusetts officials.

Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick said at a news conference on April 17 that New York was one of a number of states competing with the commonwealth for the factory, which will employ as many as 375 workers.

Officials from Empire State Economic Development Corp., New York's economic development arm, confirmed that the state was in the running.

The news comes as DayStar, which state officials lured to the Capital Region in 2004 with $11 million in incentives, is seeking $30 million to build its own large-scale manufacturing facility in Saratoga County.

DayStar, which receives assistance from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, has said in the past that it would be interested in state assistance to get its factory up and running.

The company, which had $20 million in losses last year and only minimal product revenue, recently secured $5 million from private investors as it looks for additional capital.

"DayStar is engaged in seeking additional funding and in doing so we are exploring all sources," spokeswoman Erica Dart said.

Chris Lawson, a spokesman for Evergreen, said he didn't know anything about Gov. Patrick's remarks.

But Evergreen CEO Richard Feldt did elaborate on the competition among states for the factory during an earnings conference call with analysts on the day the deal was announced.

The company reported $6 million in losses for the first quarter, down from $8 million the previous year.

Feldt said Massachusetts was a natural choice because Evergreen's operations are there.

"We actually started looking at states outside of Massachusetts believing that Massachusetts was not really prepared to offer the type of financial incentives that a number other U.S. states already have set up," Feldt said.

"Massachusetts came up with a very competitive financial package that was comparable with some that we looked at in other states."

New York officials would not say how much they offered Evergreen.

The Evergreen deal was "very exciting" for Christine Donovan, executive director of the New York Solar Energy Industries Association.

"Wouldn't it be marvelous if that happens in New York the next three to five years?" she said.

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

"Death penalty clamor is red herring for State Police mistakes"

Albany, New York Times Union

First published: Sunday, April 29, 2007

After last week's tragic shooting death of a state trooper, Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno asked the right question:

"What is more important than protecting the lives of law enforcement officers?"

Then he proceeded to hammer home the wrong answer.

In a shameless bit of opportunism, he thundered about the need for a death penalty bill as a response.

As Bruno well knows, but is conveniently ignoring, passing a death penalty bill would have no effect on protecting the lives of cops, or anyone else.

Every study ever done on the subject has shown that the death penalty as a deterrent doesn't work.

There's simply no connection, except maybe emotionally, playing to our darker side for revenge.

I would add that what New York already has, life sentence with no parole, should satisfy a cooler rendering of that urge quite nicely, without taking us a step back into the Old Testament.

But let's take another look at Bruno's excellent question, in light of the shocking revelation Friday that Trooper David Brinkerhoff was actually killed by a fellow trooper, by friendly fire.

This cockamamie focus on the death penalty because of the events down in Margaretville, Delaware County, has taken our communal eye off the ball.

Protecting our officers is indeed paramount.

There's no arguing that.

In light of what we know now, did our state troopers in harm's way get the protection they deserved from their own police agency?

Who gave the command to storm a house where the subject of the manhunt was known to be hiding?

Could better State Police procedures have saved David Brinkerhoff's life?

These are the questions the senator and others should be thundering about at the moment.

Bruno should be holding hearings on the State Police, not advocating for the death penalty.

This is the second time within a year that State Police procedures deserve to be questioned and examined in a very critical and public way.

The "Bucky" Phillips debacle in western New York last summer also cost a trooper his life, and wounded another.

What did the State Police learn from that in terms of protecting their own?

Arguably, not enough.

Maj. Kevin G. Molinari, commander of Troop C in Sydney, told the Times Union Thursday that the operation that took the lives of Brinkerhoff and Travis Trim, the subject of the manhunt, "was well-planned, well-thought-out and well-executed."

I'll bet that's a smug statement Molinari wishes he had never uttered.

A State Police K-9 unit had determined there was a high probability Trim was hiding inside a house owned by a New Jersey cop, who used it as a hunting base.

Trim was inside, they were outside.

There was no surprise involved from either side.

Everybody present knew that Trim already had fired point blank at another trooper.

Trim was probably well hidden, in a good defensive position watching it all, and well armed.

One phone call to the owner of the house would have confirmed that the hunters who used it seasonally stored firearms and ammunition there.

Many in Margaretville seemed to know that as well, so it shouldn't have been a mystery to the troopers.

Acting State Police Superintendent Preston Felton acknowledged in a press conference Friday that the slumped body of Travis Trim was found with a classic Catskills hunting rifle in his arms, probably a Winchester or Marlin .30-30.

Trim was probably killed instantly during a fire fight with seven members of the assault team that included Brinkerhoff and Richard Mattson, who was wounded.

What remained completely unanswered, however, after Felton's otherwise revealing press conference, was whether the house needed to be assaulted at all.

Given the circumstances, the inclination, resources and positioning of the shooter, any police storming the house had a high probability of drawing fire.

Was that necessary, considering that the house was surrounded, dozens if not hundreds of law enforcement were on the scene, and there was no deadline or hostages involved?

During the press conference, Felton emphasized how well trained the men were who stormed the house, and how they "followed established procedures."

What he didn't answer is whether those procedures were worth a damn and will be critically reviewed.

Make no mistake, this is another black mark on the State Police, and they are adding up.

Fred LeBrun can be reached at 454-5453 or by e-mail at flebrun@timesunion.com.

NY TIMES EMPIRE ZONE

April 27, 2007, 4:36 pm

"Trooper’s Death Was ‘Friendly Fire’"

By Danny Hakim

Preston L. Felton, the acting New York State Police Superintendent, said during a news conference this afternoon that Trooper David C. Brinkerhoff was apparently killed by friendly fire during a gunfight on Wednesday between state troopers and a suspect holed up in an unoccupied farmhouse.

“We do not know whether this was the result of a ricochet or direct line of fire incident."

"We are reconstructing the situation and will report after the analysis of what actually happened,” he said.

While the round that killed Trooper Brinkerhoff came from a fellow trooper’s weapon, a small caliber round fired by the suspect, Travis D. Trim, was stopped by Trooper Brinkerhoff’s “protective gear,” Mr. Felton said.

“In a firefight such as this, and our members are highly trained, what it appears happened here, Trooper Brinkerhoff was struck in the chest and was knocked back,” Mr. Felton said.

“Other members came to his aid, located the shooter and started to return fire at the shooter,” he added.

“At some point, Trooper Brinkerhoff ended up getting hit with a round somewhere across the line of fire.”

Mr. Felton also said that the fire in the farmhouse in the Catskills appears to have been started when a tear gas canister fired by troopers landed on a bed.

Comments so far...

April 28th, 2007 6:55 am

And the bottom line is that the trooper was killed by one of his own!

Shot in the back of his head by one of his own in what sounds like one great big cluster-**** by a bunch of keystone cops with real guns, just out there blazing away, at whatever, and obviously in the course of doing that, killing one of their own, by shooting him in the back of his head, which means that his killer was behind him, with that slain trooper in his field of fire!

Talk about “fire discipline”, alright!

It was totally lacking here, folks!

And out in the countryside, where people have loved ones and relatives who are police officers, that speaks of incompetence!

It speaks of bad management!

It speaks of ineptness!

It speaks of a lack of direction!

It speaks of untrustworthiness!

It is time to dismantle the incompetent management structure of the NYSP, and to rebuild that organization from the ground up!

But in a state where political loyalty trumps competence in the workplace, which has given us the HACK-O-CRACY that we have in NYS government, across the board, that won’t happen, so that out here in the countryside, where people do have loved ones and relatives as police officers, people are wondering who next will die as a result of incompetent leadership and management here in NYS, starting from the office of governor ….

And working on down from there …

And so …

— Posted by Livyjr

http://empirezone.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/0...-fire/#comments

NY TIMES EMPIRE ZONE

April 28th, 2007 5:28 pm

It is not reported on down here in NYC, but on the day that the trooper died, and the state police did whatever they did, a call went out for reinforcements, and those reinforcements were not all troopers!

And as a result of those reinforcements being called out, hasty phone calls were made to parents and loved ones: “got called out, have to go to Catskill, might be gone three hours, might be gone three days, don’t know!”

And that was that!

And then, the waiting began, and for those so inclined, the praying!

And for some of us, the wondering ….

And suppers were eaten in silence, no words being spoken, lest the devil’s attention be drawn to your own loved one ….

And then, about 8:00 P.M. or so, the quick call: “We’re on our way back, I’m safe, just wanted to let you know!, talk later!”

And you can tell right from the sound of the voice that things had gone real bad down there ….

And then, later, the “decompression”, the “down-load” ….

“So, what really did happen down there?”

“Were you there for the fire?”

And the story emerges ….

And a trooper is dead because of “tactical blunders”!

And there a lot of people up this way who are real upset right now, to be truthful, that any of this happened at all, and especially the call-out of these other police to go down to Catskill, and the emotional distress that that wrought in our community, for nothing, since the perp was already dead!

But the state police apparently did not know that, which is both incredible and impossible to believe!

Do these guys shoot with their eyes closed, or what?

Up here, people are saying, “My God, that sounds like an Iraqi Army operation”, which has provoked a real fierce debate up here as to whether the Iraqi Army might actually have done a better job of it!

And people up here who were emotionally impacted by this call for reinforcements are disappointed that at that Felton news conference, no one asked him to repeat himself when he said the troopers had fired 70 shots!

“At exactly what?”

And if we were to have our own news conference with this Mr. Felton, what we would ask him is this:

“Mr. Felton, if you had a gun, or in the case of a rifle, a weapon in your hands, and you fired it once, or twice, or five or ten or fifty times, would you have any idea at all where any of those rounds had gone?”

And we would give him plenty of time to answer us, certainly more than 60 seconds, anyway ….

And we would be very interested in what his answer might be ….

Very interested indeed ….

Since one or more of his troopers shot a lone man in the face and twice in the chest, and yet no one down there, including the senior command staff, had any idea at all that they had just killed the heavily armed man that all these other police had been called out for!

Emotional distress, and for nothing!

Incredible!

And so …

— Posted by Livyjr

http://empirezone.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/0...-fire/#comments

NY DAILY NEWS DAILY POLITICS BLOG

Well, after reading that news item from WNBC, the word out here in the countryside is that the "STEAMROLLER" is on a "spew", and all he is doing is making himself look stupid, by talking to us as if it were we, instead, who were the stupid ones!

In his spew above, the "STEAMROLLER" says:

"When asked to confront a heavily-armed man intent on causing harm to others, they acted decisively to protect the rest of the community."

However, in the WNBC.COM article "Friendly Fire May Have Killed N.Y. State Trooper, Officials Say" POSTED: 4:07 pm EDT April 27, 2007, UPDATED: 5:21 pm EDT April 27, 2007, the head of the State Police himself refutes that very statement:

"Felton said Trim fired the round that hit Mattson, and shot Brinkerhoff in the chest with a small-caliber round that the trooper's body armor stopped."

A small-caliber round!

Not a heavily-armed man as the "STEAMROLLER" is telling us!

And in the light of all the crap that has come out in connection with the cover-up of the Pat Tillman shooting by his fellow Army Rangers, people are understandably a bit touchy about the appearance of lies and another cover-up coming from the mouth of "STEAMROLLER" Spitzer in connection with the shooting of this state trooper in the back of the head by another state trooper ....

And so ....

So suffice to say, Eliot Spitzer has a lot of questions that people out here in the country are going to expect to hear some detailed answers to, especially those who have relatives and loved ones who are police officers, whose lives are further endangered, IF their chain of command is incompetent ....

Which is Eliot Spitzer's responsibility ...

And so ...

Posted by: John Galt | April 27, 2007 6:22 PM

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

NY DAILY NEWS DAILY POLITICS BLOG

And Smith, and anon, while you are sitting there so smug, indulging in your fantasy about actually being a "MASTER OF THE UNIVERSE AND BEYOND", as if the universe would heed your beck-and-call and come crawling on its belly to you, to lick your hand, or boots, like some kind of cowardly dog, consider that in this latest fiasco, where the state police got THEIR man, they are said to have fired SEVENTY ROUNDS, or better!

70 rounds!

Seventy rounds just to kill another trooper!

So, Smith, and anon, according to the tally, 3 of the 70 hit the "perp", and 1 killed the trooper, which is a total of four, if the math overwhelms you!

Where, pray tell, did the other 64 rounds go to?

Can you picture that scene, either of you?

This cluster of NYS troopers blazing away in all directions, expending 70 rounds, killing trees, and cows and grass and maybe fence posts, and perhaps a telecommunications satellite or two, according to the wags up here, along with one of their own?

No, I didn't think so!

But we countryfolks who are combat veterans sure can!

And when it takes more than one round to hit and kill a perp who is right in front of you, well, hey, you boys or girls are the real experts here, so you tell us "up-country folks" about that this scene really should mean to us, who have survived combat in places that you can't even begin to imagine, so that we can be "P.C." as these times we are now in, thanks to people like you, demand of us, to be "GOOD" Americans ....

And so ...

Posted by: John Galt | April 28, 2007 8:50 AM

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

"Bruno blasts Spitzer appeal - Senate majority leader criticizes offers of access to governor for big contributors"

By MARC HUMBERT, Associated Press

First published: Saturday, April 28, 2007

ALBANY -- The state Senate's veteran Republican leader is blasting Democratic Gov. Eliot Spitzer's fundraising as "hypocritical" and "just plain wrong."

"You talk about the Lincoln bedroom?" Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno said Friday, recalling the fundraising scandals of the Clinton administration.

"That was mild compared to this invitation."

Bruno was referring to an appeal from Spitzer for major donors to become big-time "bundlers" by pledging to raise various amounts of up to $1 million before the next governor's race in 2010.

The memo promised meetings with Spitzer for those raising a minimum of $25,000.

For those raising $500,000, there was to be a barbecue with Spitzer and his wife at their retreat in Columbia County.

"I would like to have a public debate with the governor on this issue, on how he justifies creating access for $1 million, a little less access for a half million dollars, a little bit less for a quarter million dollars, a little bit less for 100,000, a little less for 50 (thousand)," Bruno said.

"I don't know what you get for 25 (thousand)."

"And, for the poor peons who can only come up with 10 (thousand), what do they do?"

"Get to wave," Bruno added.

The Bruno criticism came just days after Spitzer took him and his Senate GOP colleagues to task for refusing to go along with the governor's plans to overhaul the state's campaign finance laws by, among other things, dramatically reducing how much can be given to candidates.

Currently, individual contributors can give up to $55,900 to candidates for governor in New York, the highest limit in the nation.

Spitzer's plan would reduce that to $15,000.

Spitzer and Bruno have been sniping at each other since Monday, when the governor said he would visit Senate districts represented by Republicans to criticize them on the finance issue.

On Thursday, the New York Post first reported on the Spitzer appeal to big donors.

"His comments are off the mark and misleading," Spitzer spokeswoman Christine Anderson said Friday when asked about Bruno's comments.

"The fundraising events are not at the governor's mansion, the state Capitol or state offices; they do not provide access to state resources."

"The governor believes campaign finance reform is important to cleaning up Albany and urges Mr. Bruno to sign on to that effort," she added.

"We must first clean up the culture of Albany if we are to accomplish a broader agenda."

Seen on a T-shirt out in the countryside:

“I gave ‘STEAMROLLER’ Spitzer $10 GRAND for a chance to visit him on his farm, and all I got in return was some hog **** on my new pair of shoes!”

Comment by John Galt — April 26, 2007 @ 5:47 pm

http://blogs.timesunion.com/capitol/?p=4511#comments

"Bids fall short for office campus - Lack of interest prompts Harriman officials to revamp request for proposals"

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

First published: Sunday, April 29, 2007

ALBANY -- State officials have withdrawn their request for proposals to develop the Harriman State Office Campus into a university research and technology park due to a lack of interest.

Michael Phillips, the new president of the Harriman Research and Technology Development Corp., said the group only received three bids for the initial phase of the project, which calls for the redevelopment of 35 to 45 acres at the 330-acre campus.

The proposal called for office and research space, academic buildings, shops and housing, and hotel and conference facilities.

"It's a global marketplace, and we want to take advantage of that," Phillips said Friday.

He said a new request for proposals would be issued "sometime in the near future," although he wouldn't say what types of changes would be made to the proposal or what steps would be taken to ensure a better response.

"We're working on that now," he said.

The Harriman project was created in 2002 under then-Gov. George Pataki.

Phillips' organization is a subsidiary of the Empire State Development Corp., the state's economic development arm.

Phillips is new to the role, having been appointed to the post last month.

A former General Electric Co. executive and native of Schenectady, Phillips succeeded F. Michael Tucker, who left the position to become CEO of the Center for Economic Growth, an Albany-based economic development group.

The original RFP was issued last May, and proposals were due in August.

Of the three proposals -- all of which were put together by teams of companies -- two were from local companies, the Columbia Development Cos. and the Howard Group LLC.

The third proposal was made by a suburban Philadelphia company called Preferred Real Estate Investments Inc.

Howard Carr, president of the Howard Group, said it is difficult to say whether he will bid again on the project if a new RFP is issued because the real estate market can change quickly.

"We were certainly disappointed," he said.

"We assembled a world-class team."

"We really wanted to get moving."

"I think we were very good."

John Egan, chairman of Harriman Research and Technology Development Corp., said he was disappointed in the lack of "more creative responses" to the RFP, but he doesn't expect wholesale changes to the Harriman project going forward.

"But we do require some refinement," he said.

"It's a general wire-brushing."

Egan would like to see a new RFP issued within 90 days.

"We want to make sure that we have a widespread body of competition," he said.

Although some developers may have been scared off from submitting proposals because a change in administration was imminent at the time, Spitzer has embraced the project and allocated it $7.5 million in the 2007-08 budget.

"The administration is very excited," Egan said.

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

"District attorney candidate picked - Rensselaer County GOP nominates Gregory Cholakis to run"

By BOB GARDINIER, Staff writer, Albany, New York Times Union

First published: Saturday, April 28, 2007

TROY -- The county GOP on Friday night picked First Assistant Public Defender Gregory Cholakis as its choice to succeed Republican Patricia DeAngelis, who will not seek re-election.

The move comes one day after Republican City Council member Henry Bauer stood on the corner of Bond and River streets to announce his candidacy for the $119,600 a year post.

But he was not among the picks being considered by the GOP.

Instead, the party's executive committee met to choose between Deputy District Attorney Dan Hanlon, a successful no-nonsense county prosecutor, or Cholakis.

The vote for Cholakis was unanimous, according to GOP County Chairman Jack Casey.

"We're very gratified for his interest in this position."

"He's a great person with great skills in the legal field."

"We look forward to an energized campaign and victory in November," said Casey.

Cholakis, 41, works as a public defender in the county courthouse named for his late father, federal judge Con. G. Cholakis.

The Troy resident has been with the office for 14 years and has been practicing law for 15 years.

His sister, Kiki Cholakis, is a Family Court judge.

Hanlon, 36, has been with the district attorney's office for 10 years in various roles.

He lives in Averill Park.

The GOP committee also endorsed incumbent Jack Mahar for county sheriff.

Mahar was unopposed, Casey said.

Bauer, a former city judge and current City Council president, had hoped for a nod from the county GOP executive committee, but it never came.

Bauer, who was removed from the bench by the Court of Appeals in 2004, will now face off in a primary against Cholakis.

Democrats interested include attorney Timothy Nugent and county conflict defender Richard J. McNally Jr.

DeAngelis, who has had a number of reversals of cases she prosecuted and was chastised by the higher courts for prosecutorial errors and misconduct, announced in March she would not run for re-election.

"Questions rise from ashes - Gunfire leaves grief, and chilling mystery"

By CAROL DeMARE and JORDAN CARLEO-EVANGELIST, Staff writers

First published: Friday, April 27, 2007

MARGARETVILLE-- When he broke into an empty vacation getaway to hole up, Travis Trim set off a burglar alarm.

That triggered a series of events Wednesday morning that left one trooper dead, another seriously injured and Trim's remains lying among the charred ruins of the Delaware County farmhouse.

One day later, investigators still could not fathom what led the 23-year-old Trim -- whose history included a handful of petty offenses -- to run amok on a two-day shooting spree.

"We really don't know -- it's inexplicable at this point," Major Kevin G. Molinari, commander of Troop C in Sidney, said Thursday.

"He shot three troopers in 18 hours ... if he'll murder a police officer, what chance does the public have?"

The fugitive's downfall began when a trooper and police dog, responding to the alarm he tripped, spotted items at the vacation home "that indicated the suspect was there, like a backpack," said Trooper Nelson Torres, the Troop C spokesman.

In a barn on the property, a red flannel shirt was found similar to one Trim was wearing when he shot Trooper Matthew J. Gombosi on Tuesday during a traffic stop, Molinari said.

Gombosi wore body armor and was slightly injured.

When the trooper and dog left, a four-member team of the elite State Police Mobile Response Unit went in, including troopers David C. Brinkerhoff and Richard Mattson.

While searching the hideout, the team "encountered fire and they returned fire, and two members of the team were hit," Torres said.

While searching the home room-by-room, Brinkerhoff, 29, was shot in the face in a second-floor hallway.

The eight-year veteran, assigned to the Coxsackie substation, died shortly thereafter at Margaretville Memorial Hospital.

Mattson, 39, of the Stormville substation in Dutchess County, was shot in the upper left arm, a wound that required six hours of surgery at Albany Medical Center Hospital.

He remains in serious but stable condition.

As troopers carried out Brinkerhoff and Mattson, they were "simultaneously firing and exiting the premises," Torres said.

It is unclear if Trim slept overnight in the barn.

Already armed with a handgun, Trim found other guns, including rifles, once he went inside.

Neighbors said hunters often stayed at the home, owned by a New Jersey police officer's family.

Police on Thursday identified the charred body found in the wreckage as that of Trim, who was from St. Lawrence County.

An Albany Med autopsy will determine the cause of death.

Marvin Trim, the gunman's father, told the Associated Press he could not explain what became of his son, who attended the State University at Canton last fall.

"I don't know what happened at college," Trim said.

"He got into trouble and I guess his friends told him he was going to go to jail for a long time."

"It wasn't true."

"He died for nothing."

"He let stupidity and ignorance get the best of him."

Trim's father would not reveal if the family had any funeral plans.

Asked how he wanted people to remember his son, Trim replied: "I wish they wouldn't have to remember him at all."

As of Thursday afternoon, it was still unclear what sparked the blaze at the house at about 6 p.m. Wednesday.

Police searching the fire ruins hadn't recovered the handgun used to shoot Gombosi.

Before the blaze, troopers lobbed canisters of teargas into the building.

State Police investigators from around eastern New York were busy running down leads authorities hoped would reveal why Trim traveled south in a stolen vehicle and what prompted him to shoot Gombosi.

"It's the murder of a police officer," Molinari said.

"It's certainly the highest priority investigation we can handle."

Describing the work investigators were doing at the scene, "As you can only imagine, that scene is going to be a slow, methodical process," the major said.

Molinari wouldn't allow a comparison to be drawn between Trim and fugitive Ralph "Bucky" Phillips, who was on the run last year.

Phillips killed one trooper and injured two others.

"Frankly, I don't see any relationship between the two events," Molinari said.

"The only thing I can tell you is that our operation yesterday was well planned, well thought out and well executed."

On Thursday, folks in and around Margaretville said the area was trying to build a reputation as a vacation and retreat spot and market itself to wealthy downstaters.

Ric King, a 23-year-old Atlanta man who grew up in the area of the shootings, said,"You're not going to get anybody who is going to be sympathetic to him."

Keith Gavette, 22, of Arkville, said: "The only good thing is that it wasn't a local that did it."

Gavette's father is an assistant fire chief and helped fight the fire.

His mother is a nurse at the Margaretville hospital.

Meanwhile, at the four-trooper satellite in Coxsackie on Plank Road -- which is attached to the Catskill barracks and where Brinkerhoff served -- two troopers were putting up a memorial wreath.

"We wanted something at the door to remind us of his sacrifice, because, you never know," Trooper Jason Borgen said.

DeMare can be reached at 454-5431 or by e-mail at cdemare@timesunion.com.

Massive response

Delaware County Sheriff Thomas Mills sent numerous deputies to assist state troopers in the hunt for Travis Trim.

On Tuesday, he had 15 or 16 deputies involved, and on Wednesday about seven or eight assisted.

Other police agencies on hand:

FBI from Kingston

Albany SWAT team

New York City Department of Environmental Protection Police, who patrol the watershed for the city

State Environmental Conservation officers

State forest rangers

Delhi Police Department

Walton Police Department

Roxbury Constable

On Tuesday, the first day of the manhunt, sheriff's departments in Delaware, Schoharie, Otsego, Greene, Ulster and Sullivan counties set up roadblocks.

A number of fire companies also responded to the fire at the house on Cemetery Road.

They include: Margaretville Fire Department Arkville Fire Department Halcottsville Fire Department Arena Fire Department Fleishmanns Fire Department

While these companies were at the scene, Roxbury, Grand Gorge and Andes fire departments covered their stations.

NY TIMES EMPIRE ZONE

April 29th, 2007 11:15 am

Tactically speaking, I am disturbed by Livyjr’s assertion that many law enforcement departments were called onto the scene, and that too many cooks may well have spoiled the soup.

— Posted by BB

April 29th, 2007 1:57 pm

BB, you totally misunderstand me here - what I am saying is that by the time the other police units were called out, tactically speaking, the soup was long since spoiled!

Whether the state police panicked, or what is unknown, but they had retreated back from the farm house, where the shooter was already dead, and they had formed some type of defensive perimeter, which means that to get back in the house, in the event that the shooter was still alive, something the state police did not know allegedly, at the time these reinforcements arrived, someone was going to have to traverse the killing ground, all over again, because of tactical blunders by the NYSP!

Which put the lives of those extra police in danger, because the NYSP had no idea what was going on down there!

It was a cluster-****, plain and simple, and we countryfolks up here who were the recipients of those phone calls from these police reinforcements are finding everthing that has been said so far by this Felton dude and the “STEAMROLLER” to be totally inadequate, incredible, and just plain unbelievable!

It’s not a case of too many cooks in charge!

All of these police units were subordinated to the command of the NYSP, and they were the only cooks, and they had already ruined the soup, all by themselves, before these other police units got there, to what was a scene in disarray!

Having been an infantryman in Viet Nam, I can tell you that there is no glory in someone getting killed because of incompetent leadership, and it is from that thought that my comments in here are made, quite frankly, I don’t wish to be attending the funeral of one of my loved ones or relatives in police work who was killed for no good reason, simply because of incompetence and ineptness in the political management of the NYSP!

Whether or not the state police ever even had tactical control of anything remains at issue, but one thing that is certain, from what we have heard, is that after the shooting, the state police somehow retreated, whether in orderly fashion or disarray is unknown, and they thus relinquished all control of the tactical situation that they might have had!

THEN the reinforcements were called in!

Plain and simple, it was a cob job, which put the lives of our loved ones who were called out as reinforcements in potential danger, which caused a lot of people up here a fair amount of emotional distress, not knowing what to expect!

And in the meantime, the shooter was already dead!

And I’ll tell you that out here in the country, where people growing up had one shell to put food on the table with, or starve, people are downright embarassed and ashamed of the NYS Police!

And there is one huge vote of absolutely no confidence at all in either “STEAMROLLER” Spitzer or this Felton dude to confront this matter head-on, as it needs to be, starting with the initial question of whether the state police should be disarmed and confined to barracks until some outside experts in firearms determine they are competent and qualified to carry them in public, let alone use them with apparent wild abandon in a tactical situation as they did, spraying almost seventy rounds God alone knows where, outside of three in the shooter and one in the head of a fellow trooper ….

And so ….

— Posted by Livyjr

http://empirezone.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/0...-fire/#comments

"Killed in the crossfire - State Police fired nearly 70 times in shootout with fugitive, and one of those rounds hit trooper"

By BRENDAN J. LYONS and CAROL DeMARE, Staff writers, Albany, New York Times Union

First published: Saturday, April 28, 2007

ALBANY -- State Police announced Friday that the trooper who died in a shootout with a fugitive this week was killed by another trooper's bullet.

The fatal shot came during an "extremely intense firefight" after the suspect opened fire as four troopers entered an upstairs room in a country house, acting State Police Superintendent Preston L. Felton said.

The troopers fired nearly 70 shots, he said.

Trooper David C. Brinkerhoff, 29, was caught in a crossfire between the fugitive Travis Trim and members of his own Mobile Response Team.

He was hit in the back of the head.

"As you can imagine, this new information is a source of great consternation and sadness within the MRT team and throughout the entire New York State Police family," Felton told a late-afternoon news conference.

Brinkerhoff and Trooper Richard Mattson had entered the room where Trim, armed with a handgun and a rifle, was hiding.

Trim fired first, Felton said, striking Brinkerhoff in the chest.

The trooper fell back on one knee as his body armor stopped the round.

All four troopers opened fire, killing Trim, Felton said.

"At some point, Trooper Brinkerhoff ended up getting hit with a round somewhere across the line of fire, a .223 tactical round."

"This round is believed to have been fired by an MRT team member."

The SWAT rifle's high velocity bullet was recovered during an autopsy.

Felton said it has yet to be determined whether a direct hit or a ricochet killed Brinkerhoff.

"He was wounded in the back of the head, and he was wearing his ballistic Kevlar helmet," Felton said.

Police officials will try to determine which trooper fired the fatal shot through ballistics tests and a reconstruction of the scene, he said.

The house went up in flames sometime after police lobbed tear gas canisters into it.

In these types of shootouts, the officers home in on their target.

"Our members, recognizing that they are being assaulted ... start to return fire," Felton said.

"They get what is known as tunnel vision."

"You don't see stuff on the side."

"That's just an unfortunate thing of being in highly tense situations."

Mattson, 39, was wounded in the gunfight, hit in the upper left arm by a slug believed to be from a .30-30 rifle fired by Trim.

Mattson underwent six hours of surgery at Albany Medical Center Hospital and remained in serious, but stable, condition.

"He's going to make it," Felton said.

The round that hit Mattson, who lives in Dutchess County and is assigned to the Stormville barracks, "tumbled around in his arm and caused extensive damage," State Police spokesman Lt. Glenn Miner said.

The Mobile Response unit, which numbers about 40, is specially trained in crisis situations such as barricaded suspects, narcotics raids and serving warrants where high-risk criminals and weapons are believed to be present, the State Police Web site says.

Brinkerhoff, who was assigned to the Coxsackie barracks in the town where he lived, was pronounced dead at Margaretville Memorial Hospital.

Officials said paramedics were unable to stabilize him for a helicopter flight to Albany Med.

He leaves behind a wife and 7-month-old daughter.

Three other troopers, also members of the unit, were downstairs at the vacation house in Arkville, Delaware County, but did not fire a shot.

"While it's clear that something went wrong, nothing can detract from the bravery and dedication of the men who entered that house," Felton said.

"They are a highly trained and dedicated group who understood the dangers of what they were doing, and they accepted the risks."

When Trim's body was found, he was still clutching the rifle, which was cocked and ready to fire, the superintendent said.

The 23-year-old from St. Lawrence County was shot once in the face and twice in the chest and died almost instantly, State Police believe.

They are awaiting final autopsy results to confirm at what point he died and who fired the shots that struck him.

The manhunt was sparked when Trim shot Trooper Matthew J. Gombosi during a traffic stop on Tuesday in Margaretville, Delaware County.

Gombosi, whose body armor protected him, was slightly injured.

Trim, who had been driving a stolen van, took refuge in the farmhouse after the first shooting, and it's believed he rested that first night in one of the barns on the property.

He tripped an alarm in the home and a trooper and police dog who investigated found Trim's backpack and a red flannel shirt he was wearing when Gombosi was shot.

That trooper called for backup, and within minutes, seven members of the Mobile Response unit started sweeping the house.

Hours after the gunfight, tear gas lobbed into the house set a fire that damaged half the structure before firefighters brought it under control.

Trim's body was found in the farmhouse later that night and removed from the scene early Thursday morning.

State Police leaders and members of the troopers' PBA said the circumstances do not diminish the heroic actions of the troopers who entered the house.

"They were facing a desperate, barricaded gunman who had shown through his actions the previous day and that morning that he had no respect for law enforcement, and was obviously determined not to give up without a fight," PBA President Daniel De Federicis said.

Gov. Eliot Spitzer responded to the news Friday, saying, "A tragedy occurred, and State Police are now investigating the exact circumstances of Trooper Brinkerhoff's death."

"We are committed to a thorough investigation and to full disclosure of the findings as soon as possible."

"... We owe this fallen trooper and his colleagues a full appraisal of the facts as well as our continuing respect and gratitude."

DeMare can be reached at 454-5431 or by e-mail at cdemare@timesunion.com.

"From first shot to fiery end"

Albany, New York Times Union

First published: Friday, April 27, 2007

Travis Trim, 23, of St. Lawrence County is believed to have shot three state troopers over 18 hours this week in Margaretville, Delaware County.

He died sometime Wednesday while holed up in a farmhouse where he was hiding.

TUESDAY

2:45 p.m.: State Trooper Matthew J. Gombosi stops Trim, driving a stolen Dodge Caravan.

Trim pulls out a gun and shoots Gombosi in the chest. Gombosi's body armor prevents serious injury.

5:30 p.m.: Police find the Caravan abandoned on Cemetery Road.

Overnight: Police block roads and search cars around Margaretville.

WEDNESDAY

Sometime before 8:45 a.m.: A burglar alarm alerts police to an intruder at 1245 Cemetery Road.

A State Police K9 unit investigates the property and finds items belonging to Trim.

8:45 a.m. Four troopers enter the house; two are shot.

Trooper David C. Brinkerhoff dies of a head wound.

Trooper Richard Mattson is flown to Albany Medical Center Hospital.

He is in serious condition with a wound to the arm.

11 a.m.-noon. Police outside exchange gunfire with Trim.

Noon to 5 p.m. More police, including sharpshooters, emergency vehicles and an armored SUV converge on the farmhouse.

State police send in a robot with an electronic eye to search.

5:15 p.m.: SWAT teams move into position.

5:50 p.m.: Police lob tear gas into the house.

No movement is seen inside.

6 p.m.: White smoke, followed by black smoke and flames, rise from the building.

6:05 p.m. Water from the firetrucks begin putting out the fire.

8 p.m.: Police locate a charred body gripping a rifle on the second floor.

THURSDAY

1 a.m. The as-yet-unidentified body is removed from the house.

12:30 p.m. State police positively identify the remains as Travis Trim.

-- Danielle Furfaro

http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story...sdate=4/27/2007

THE NEW YORK POST

"'ACCE$$IBLE' ELIOT FLOORS REFORMERS"

By KENNETH LOVETT Post Correspondent

April 27, 2007 -- ALBANY - Government-reform leaders who stood with Gov. Spitzer in support of his campaign-finance overhaul proposals were stunned yesterday to learn he's offering access to those who can raise bundles of cash for his 2010 campaign.

The Post reported yesterday that Spitzer is asking prospective donors to join his re-election finance committee to raise up to $1 million each by Election Day 2010.

Those who raise big bucks are granted varying degrees of access to Spitzer - depending on how much they commit to raise - ranging from quarterly finance-committee meetings with Spitzer to lunches, private barbecues and holiday parties with the governor and his wife.

"Promising access for dollars never looks good," said Rachel Leon, of Common Cause/New York, which stood with Spitzer earlier this week when he ripped Senate Republicans for blocking a campaign-finance reform deal.

Leon said she credits Spitzer for voluntarily adhering to self-imposed stricter donation limits while pushing the Legislature to act on campaign-finance reform.

But she said asking individuals to raise $1 million from friends and colleagues for the campaign - a practice known as bundling - is troubling.

At the very least, Spitzer should agree to publicly reveal who is helping raise the money, otherwise "how are we going to know who those 'special people' are?" she said.

Spitzer spokeswoman Christine Anderson defended the practice.

"If you want to convince friends to raise money, how is that any different than getting people to go door to door or attend a rally?"

"That's how you fund-raise."

"You get people involved," Anderson said.

"The governor has imposed [donation] limits," she added.

"To somehow suggest that fund-raising or bundling is off-limits is off the mark."

Russell Haven, of the New York Public Interest Research Group, said that while "the governor deserves credit for voluntarily setting lower limits for himself, the escalating access based on how much his supporters raise sends the wrong message."

Barbara Bartoletti, who heads the state chapter of the League of Women Voters, said encouraging bundling by providing special access "is almost like an end run around" the voluntary donation limits the governor agreed to adhere to.

"It's bundling and does allow people access that the ordinary citizens would not have," Bartoletti said.

"I don't see how you cannot expect people are going to criticize it."

"Average citizens do not give $10,000 to any candidate certainly with an eye toward raising $1 million," she added.

"You'd need 100 friends to give $10,000 just so you can get to a barbecue."

"We know who the ones are that will be able to do that - lobbyists and special interests."

kenneth.lovett@nypost.com

http://www.nypost.com/seven/04272007/news/...rrespondent.htm

"Marble falls off Albany building; three hurt - Washington Avenue closed after a 'sizable piece' fell from Twin Towers"

By DANIELLE FURFARO, Staff writer

Last updated: 6:08 p.m., Monday, April 30, 2007

ALBANY -- A large piece of marble fell off a prominent downtown building and injured three people this afternoon, sending one to the hospital and closing down a section of Washington Avenue during heavy wind gusts.

None of the three people were seriously injured after a "sizable piece of the facade became dislodged" from the southwestern corner of 99 Washington Ave. about 1:30 p.m., said Albany Fire Capt. Raymond Kalendek.

One person was struck in the arm and taken to St. Peter's Hospital, while the two others declined medical aid, police said.

The building, also known as 1 Commerce Plaza or the Twin Towers, holds numerous offices.

Kalendek said the situation could have been much worse.

"Anytime something like this happens, public safety is a consideration," he said.

"Safety is our number one priority."

Officials gave no cause for the falling stone, but noted 35 to 45 mph heavy winds were believed to be a factor.

Since the gusting winds were not expected to abate until at least after midnight, the city was keeping the section of Washington Avenue closed indefinitely.

"Until the wind subsides, we are going to keep personnel on the scene and not let anyone get close to the building," Kalendek said.

The building has been under construction.

Scaffolding was attached to the top of the structure Monday afternoon.

"They have been working on this building on and off for years," said Mario Tedesco, a Department of Health employee who went to the building for a meeting Monday afternoon.

"It concerns me because there are always people walking by and cars driving by."

Police say Washington Avenue will be shut down indefinitely.

Both eastbound and westbound lanes are closed to traffic from South Swan Street to Lark Street.

Only local traffic is being allowed from Lark Street to Dove Street in both lanes.

In addition, westbound traffic on Washington is being diverted over South Swan Street and up Elk Street.

Eastbound traffic is being diverted over Lark Street to State Street.

As emergency crews directed traffic off of Washington Avenue Monday afternoon, scores of downtown workers stood in the wind, watching the action.

Smashed pieces of marble littered the sidewalk.

"I was out here when it happened."

"I heard it fall," said Janet Young, who works for the state Education Building across from the Twin Towers.

"They should get someone to inspect this building."

"Four shot in Albany within 24 hours - Police probing two unrelated shootings in city on Sunday"

By DANIELLE FURFARO, Staff writer, Albany, New York Times Union

Last updated: 11:07 a.m., Monday, April 30, 2007

ALBANY -- Four people were wounded in the city Sunday in two unrelated shootings.

Police say three males were standing on a sidewalk at 100 Clinton St. when a dark colored vehicle pulled up and stopped near the victims about 2:30 a.m.

A man got out and fired several shots, striking all three, said Detective James Miller, a police spokesman.

Michael White, 32, was struck in the left thigh and left forearm.

Eliot Lopez, 41, was wounded in the right thigh and Jerry Lee King was hit in the right thigh.

The three men drove themselves to Albany Medical Center Hospital for treatment, Miller said.

He said Lopez and King were treated at the hospital and released.

White's condition was unavailable from police.

Meanwhile, Lamar Herring, 16, was walking near 305 First Street about 9:30 p.m. Sunday night when two males followed him and fired three shots in his direction, police said.

Herring was hit in the left calf and was taken to Albany Medical Center Hospital for treatment.

The assailants ran westbound on First Street.

"Legislature pay raise support derailed"

By MICHAEL GORMLEY, Associated Press

Last updated: 5:43 p.m., Monday, April 30, 2007

ALBANY -- A quiet effort by the Senate and Assembly majorities to give themselves pay raises was scuttled Monday by the Senate's Democratic minority when it withdrew its support -- and the ability to override Gov. Eliot Spitzer's likely veto.

State Senate Minority Leader Malcolm Smith, a Queens Democrat, withdrew his support Monday for the Senate Republican's bill, derailing the effort for now.

The bill tied the pay raises for lawmakers as determined by a commission to the first pay raises in eight years for state judges.

But Smith dropped his support for the Senate Republicans' measure he and his members co-sponsored last week because the slim GOP majority hasn't agreed to campaign finance reform.

"As a result, the members of the minority conference will remove their names as sponsors of Sen. Bruno's pay raise bill," Smith said in a prepared statement.

"Moreover, we will oppose this bill absent an agreement by the majority to embrace meaningful campaign finance reform."

Republican Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno had counted on the sponsorship of all 62 senators on the bill.

Without Smith's members, the Senate's 33 Republicans cannot muster the two-third's vote needed to override a veto.

The bill was passed 34-24, mostly party lines in the chamber, but not in numbers that could override a veto.

Bruno said he won't allow the pay-raise proposal back "in any form" for judges or lawmakers anytime in this two-year session and he won't negotiate privately with Spitzer on campaign finance reform.

Republicans described the measure not as a pay raise, but reform of a process to take politics out of pay raises.

They also criticized Spitzer for "linking" the bill from Chief Judge Judith Kaye to Spitzer's unrelated campaign finance bill.

Bruno said Smith was "steamrolled" by the Democratic governor after all legislative leaders appeared to have a deal late week.

"Your word should mean something," Bruno said of Smith.

"I don't need leaderless leaders who abdicate their responsibility."

Spitzer said he spoke to Smith about the pay raise proposal over the weekend.

"I'm glad he's done what's he's done," Spitzer.

The Senate majority and the Assembly's Democratic majority had introduced identical bills that could lead to pay raises for lawmakers and judges, as well as executive branch workers.

Judicial pay raise proposals -- which are widely supported -- are usually tied to legislative pay raises -- which have often been widely opposed outside the Legislature.

But Spitzer has said he won't let judicial raises be "held hostage" to legislative raises.

Spitzer, closely allied with Smith, has sought drastic reductions in the limits to campaign contributions and other measures to address special-interest influence.

"There's a bill that I proposed that I think captures the essence of what we need to fundamentally change the contours of campaign finance and I'd like to see the Legislature move on that," Spitzer said Monday.

"Hopefully, they'll do so."

The issue dominated the state's annual Law Day, with Kaye, the state's chief judge, chastising Albany for failing to act on judges' pay raises.

She called it a crisis and abandoned the previously planned topic -- engaging youth in the law -- to lobby for the pay raises.

"Appropriate judicial compensation is at the very core of judicial independence," Kaye said.

She said the judiciary finds itself "once again, snared in the jaws of Albany politics."

"No raises for the judges, no retroactivity (payment) not even cost-of-living increases, for no reason that is related to us."

The Assembly on Friday introduced its bill to raise the base salary from $79,500 to an amount that would be determined by a special commission.

The commission could also decide against a raise.

The Senate's bill on the politically dicey topic was introduced without fanfare last week.

Lawmakers have gone for eight years without a raise.

Under law, the Legislature can't immediately raise its own pay.

But they can approve raises for the next elected Legislature -- in January 2009 -- and there is a more than a 90 percent win rate for incumbents.

In a lengthy floor debate, Republican Sen. Stephen Saland of Poughkeepsie said he thought a monarchy was eliminated in America in 1776, but it appears Spitzer is now making all the decisions and "then decided we would all march forward in lockstep much as we would were we mindless, willy-nilly little puppets on a string of a marionette master."

Democratic Sen. Thomas Duane of New York City said he simply changed his mind.

"If Gov. Spitzer thinks that he can put real campaign finance reform on the table and get it accomplished at the same time, you know what?"

"I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt," Duane said.

The turn of events wasn't lost on Sen. Martin Connor, a Brooklyn Democrat, who feigned confusion at voting against a bill on which he was a co-sponsor days before.

"I can't quite explain it," Connor said.

"I think maybe my boyhood dream has come true."

"When I was 10 I wanted to run away and join the circus."

The legislation would provide $48.2 million to cover judicial pay raises retroactive to Jan. 1 to give raises for all state judges, most of whom hadn't had a raise since 1999.

The assembly didn't plan to take up the proposal Monday.

"Few employees, but big tax breaks - Many companies benefiting from Empire Zones aren't creating jobs as expected, analysis finds"

Associated Press

First published: Monday, April 30, 2007

SYRACUSE -- New York's job-creating Empire Zone program gives $102 million a year in tax breaks to companies with three or fewer workers, according to a newspaper analysis.

That represents more than one-fifth of Empire Zone incentives.

On average, those employers receive more than $47,000 a year in tax breaks for each employee while paying many of those employees less than half that amount, according to the Syracuse Post-Standard.

Many companies that benefit are commercial landlords.

For example:

An Illinois real estate group expected $1.3 million a year in zone tax breaks for five Syracuse office buildings.

It had 3.75 employees there, records show.

The owner of AXA Towers (formerly MONY), another out-of-state landlord, expects more than $1 million per year in breaks.

Employees: two $10-an-hour maintenance workers.

Former Gov. George Pataki, the top Empire Zone booster, found the situation objectionable and in 2004 and 2005 proposed cutting the zone property tax credit for landlords with few workers.

During state budget negotiations the Pataki plan was abandoned.

Instead, in 2005, the state Legislature passed changes that do not apply to the 9,000 businesses already in the program.

In 1999, companies run by Norton Herrick of Boca Raton, Fla., bought the twin MONY Towers for $61 million.

The 18-story towers had enough space and the kind of visual presence a big New York City company would like, Western thought, so the county put the MONY Tower 2 in its Empire Zone.

The Bank of New York leased space there for a year, then left for an office park in an Empire Zone in DeWitt.

But Tower 2 remained in the zone, so the credits continue.

Creating a single job qualified Herrick's companies for full reimbursement for 10 years of the $1.1 million per year it gives Syracuse in payments in lieu of property taxes on the buildings, now named AXA Towers.

NY TIMES EMPIRE ZONE

May 1st, 2007 8:13 am

The City of Albany Police Dept., to the north of here, can be said to have as much or more of a problem with both guns and gun-slingers as the NYSP do, and the City of Albany has a SWAT team, and while you never hear much about them, in fact, they are fairly active, and the reason that you never hear about them is because they do nothing spectacular as they calmly and methodically go about their business of apprehending perps with guns!

And there is no rocket science in involved in any of this, nor do the team members have to be rocket scientists, although if you cannot shoot straight and hit what you aim at, you are re-directed over to SCUBA, maybe, or traffic tickets, where you won’t be a danger to your fellow team members with a gun or weapon in your hands!

Which is to say that there is a rigorous process by which SWAT team members are picked in the first place, and you can know the Mayor, and then God, in that order, and if you cannot shoot straight and pass the other requirements, which are in place to protect the public and the team members, then you just are not going to be a member of that team, plain and simple!

And the Albany SWAT team is continually training and honing their skills, which really are based on the use of applied psychology, as opposed to macho!

Arrogance gets people killed!

And arrogance is instilled into members of the NYSP from the first moment that they enter the training academy!

And arrogance may indeed have played a factor in the death of that trooper the other day, although that yet remains to be determined!

And with respect to things that are “yet to be determined”, along with the question of the role that arrogance may have played in this fiasco, in the upstate Albany TU article “Killed in the crossfire - State Police fired nearly 70 times in shootout with fugitive, and one of those rounds hit trooper” by BRENDAN J. LYONS and CAROL DeMARE, Staff writers, first published: Saturday, April 28, 2007, it is stated:

“Three other troopers, also members of the unit, were downstairs at the vacation house in Arkville, Delaware County, but did not fire a shot.”

And I can assure you that up here, that statement has really caught the attention of people who have loved ones or relatives on other SWAT teams who had to be called out to go down to the Catskills that fateful day!

What exactly were these other three doing downstairs?

Making sandwiches?

Checking out the pool table and the wide-screen TV?

Or what?

And how was it that they did not fire a single shot in what the state police themselves have called a “melee”?

And these thoughts must be cast against the backdrop of the fact that when the other police SWAT units arrived down there as reinforcements, ALL state police were out of that structure and had essentially surrendered tactical control of the situation to the perp by vacating the premises, and pulling back from the structure themselves!

SO?

When the shooting erupted upstairs, where it now looks like the trooper who was killed had himself killed the perp before he himself was killed by his fellow troopers, what did these three downstairs who never fired their weapons do?

Panic?

Run like Hell for the exits, which presumed maneuver by these three has the wags up here calling that a “tactical Felton”?

“Uh-oh, he has a gun, we better Felton the hell out of here, and fast!”

Or did one of those three who stayed downstairs and never fired his weapon tell the other four who did go upstairs to go up and take a look around, but that it was unlikely that Trim would still be in the building, with that many state troopers around?

A cardinal rule of SWAT work, as I understand it, is never separate your team, and yet that is one of the first things the NYSP apparently did upon entering the structure!

Yes, for the protection of the lives of the public, and the members of other police departments who must be called in to pull the fat of the NYSP out of the fire when they botch the job themselves, a sweeping top-to-bottom review of the management structure of the NYSP is required, and it is required now, not next week, not next month and not next year, but now!

And so …

— Posted by Livyjr

http://empirezone.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/0...-fire/#comments

THE NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

"Garson's wife may face rap on ethics"

BY NANCIE L. KATZ

DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Monday, April 30th 2007, 4:00 AM

The wife of disgraced Brooklyn judge Gerald Garson, who was convicted this month of accepting bribes for fixing divorce cases, could be soon facing her own legal problems, the Daily News has learned.

The state Commission on Judicial Conduct may begin investigating possible judicial ethical lapses by Robin Garson, a Civil Court judge, involving campaign funds and failing to report criminal behavior, a legal source said.

Her husband, 75, a former Supreme Court justice, was convicted on April 19 and faces up to 15 years behind bars at his sentencing on June 5.

"They decided to let the trial get over with, to let out what would be aired," said a well-informed source.

At Robin Garson's husband's trial, corrupt lawyer Paul Siminovsky testified that Gerald Garson asked him to solicit campaign contributions and provide free legal help for her 2002 judicial campaign.

In 2004, Robin Garson testified at a grand jury investigation of her husband's cousin, retired Supreme Court Justice Michael Garson, who was suspected of stealing thousands of dollars from his elderly aunt.

She said Michael Garson confessed to improperly taking $100,000 from his aunt Sarah Gershenoff.

She also testified that a power of attorney the nephews used to pilfer Gershenoff's nearly $1 million fortune was forged, according to sources.

Robin Garson was Gershenoff's guardian at the time.

Ethical rules require judges to report criminal acts.

The commission is also reviewing a letter sent by the National Organization for Women about Robin Garson's behavior on the day of her husband's conviction.

The letter accused her of "exploiting her official status to obtain special privileges" at the trial, passing notes to defense attorneys and entering the courtroom through special doors reserved for officials.

Garson's lawyer, Richard Godovsky, dismissed the charges in the NOW letter.

"There is nothing against her," he said.

"That's going to be clear."

The administrator of the judicial commission, Robert Tembeckjian, declined to comment, but confirmed the panel had received the NOW letter.

"We will deal with it as we deal with all complaints," he said.

nkatz@nydailynews.com

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime_file..._on_ethics.html

THE NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

"Gov, keep it simple - Drops the ball by juggling too much, too soon"

By BILL HAMMOND

Tuesday, May 1st 2007, 4:00 AM

Gov. Spitzer had better slow down or he's liable to drive his steamroller off a cliff.

Spitzer's headlong rush to change everything by yesterday has succeeded mostly in alienating the Legislature and confusing the public.

The governor's stature in Albany has fallen to the point that even the Senate's minority Democrats, once his closest allies, were ready to defy him on the issue of pay raises for legislators.

Although Spitzer managed to suppress that mutiny at the eleventh hour, he should learn a lesson from his near-death experience: Slow and steady wins the race.

Instead of flitting from one issue to another every five minutes, he should pick two or three big things he wants to accomplish and see them through to the end.

So far, however, Spitzer has shown all the focus of a hummingbird hopped up on Starbucks.

He started out last Monday demanding campaign finance reform, blasting Republican senators who opposed his plan.

It was a fitting choice for his No. 1 goal, since every big decision in Albany is distorted by the influence of special-interest money.

By the end of the week, however, Spitzer had gone completely off-message.

He proposed to legalize gay marriage.

He promised to strengthen laws guaranteeing abortion rights.

He introduced no less than two major constitutional amendments - to reorganize the entire court system and change how legislative districts are drawn.

He also found time to talk about his "children's agenda," including bills to restrict kids' access to violent video games and bar sugary and fatty foods from school cafeterias.

Also on Spitzer's mushrooming to-do list are proposals to crack down on human trafficking, eliminate excess layers of local government and improve the state university system.

A lot of this stuff probably should happen - someday.

But making a 10-year-old get his parents' permission before he rents "Grand Theft Auto" won't improve the upstate economy, fix the public schools or make health-care more affordable - which is what 70% of New Yorkers elected Spitzer to do.

Spitzer's hyperactive style hurts him in a couple of ways.

For one thing, he tends not to follow through on threats.

He vowed to travel the state criticizing GOP senators on the campaign finance issue, but stopped after two or three visits.

Lawmakers are learning his bark is worse than his bite.

Secondly, he doesn't take the time to rally the public to his cause.

Instead, he pushes for quick deals in closed-door negotiations with Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver.

They're the last ones Spitzer should be counting on to help him change the status quo.

Spitzer got so caught up in his agenda-setting frenzy last week that he almost missed a mortal threat to his governorship.

Spitzer was trying to use the promise of a pay raise for the Legislature as leverage to push campaign finance reform.

But Bruno got every single Democrat to co-sponsor a pay-raise bill - signaling that he had the votes not just to pass the bill, but override a veto if necessary.

Spitzer would have been seriously weakened just four months into his term.

Spitzer saved his skin by twisting the arm of Senate Democratic Leader Malcolm Smith, who backed out of the deal.

Let's hope the governor calms down enough to dodge the next bullet, too.

whammond@nydailynews.com

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

"Deadly shootout took troopers by surprise - Search team believed suspect in earlier shooting had fled to nearby woods"

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

First published: Wednesday, May 2, 2007

The team of elite troopers that entered a Delaware County farm house last week searching for Travis Trim, trained for almost any situation, did not expect a deadly gun battle, police said Tuesday.

In fact, authorities believed that Trim, 23, the prime suspect in the shooting of a trooper a day earlier, had fled into nearby woods skirting the Catskill Park.

State Police on Tuesday released a timeline, the most detailed account to date, of the events that preceded the shooting death of Trooper David C. Brinkerhoff, of Coxsackie, in the house a week ago today in the hamlet of Arkville.

Compiled from interviews with those involved and a reconstruction of the scene that was largely destroyed by the massive fire that ended the manhunt, the timeline was meant, in part, to clarify how, why and when troopers entered the house, authorities said.

The account mirrored statements by acting State Police Superintendent Preston L. Felton, who on Monday stressed that his troopers did not rush ill-prepared into the situation.

"This was not a situation where we knew (Trim) was in the building or even thought he was in the building," Felton told the Times Union.

The chain of events began about 18 hours into the manhunt with a burglar alarm that sounded just after 7:30 last Wednesday morning.

The alarm focused police attention on the property, a vacation hunting retreat, one of several in the area not far from where Trim ditched his getaway vehicle the afternoon before.

Police searched the outbuildings first and found Trim's wallet, bag and a handgun in a nearby barn where they believe he spent the night.

State Police say Trim used a handgun to shoot and slightly wound Trooper Matthew Gombosi in the village of Margaretville the day before, prompting the hunt that led police to the white farm house near Cemetery Road the next morning.

But the house, authorities said, showed no signs of a break-in and the alarm company detected no movement inside.

Officials say they faced conflicting signs and realized that Trim could be anywhere.

Late the night before, troopers had descended on a spot 13 miles away near Grand Gorge, believing Trim could have made it that far on foot.

As a precaution, a team of troopers trained in close-quarter searches assembled to check the house before looking elsewhere.

The team was ordered to "search, clear, and secure the house," according to the timeline.

It was not immediately clear Tuesday who issued the order that sent seven members of the Mobile Response Team, including Brinkerhoff, into the farm house.

But the search was called a "preventative security measure" rather than a tactical assault.

Less than an hour after the alarm was first triggered, around 8:30 a.m., "consistent with procedures" and not knowing if anyone was inside, the troopers entered the house and systematically searched the first floor room-by-room.

During "a methodical ascent to the second floor," law enforcement authorities said, Trim opened fire on the team, triggering the firefight in which one trooper, Richard Mattson, was seriously wounded and the 29-year-old Brinkerhoff was killed by a bullet from another trooper's gun.

Trim, too, was fatally wounded in the gun battle, in which troopers fired nearly 70 shots as they dragged Brinkerhoff and Mattson away, though authorities would not know that until much later.

After surrounding the house, police moved in that evening.

Shortly after lobbing gas into the house before an assault, flames erupted.

Trim's body was recovered from the charred wreckage hours later.

State Police say the investigation continues.

Carleo-Evangelist can be reached at 454-5445 or by e-mail at jcarleo-evangelist@ timesunion.com.

"3 bedrooms, 2 baths, price reduced (again) - Region's home sales fell 15% in March as market swings in buyers' favor"

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

First published: Tuesday, May 1, 2007

It's getting harder to sell a house in the Capital Region.

Proof of that is provided by March statistics released Monday showing that the number of homes sold in Saratoga, Albany, Schenectady and Rensselaer counties decreased by 15 percent from a year ago.

The average sale price in most counties, however, is stable.

Only Albany County saw a decline in March, to $190,000 from $194,000 a year ago.

The numbers from the Greater Capital Association of Realtors are the latest evidence the housing market is cooling from the record sales numbers seen in recent years.

The inventory of available houses is growing.

And buyers are getting choosy, demanding that sellers drop their asking prices.

"It has certainly turned from being a sellers' market, as it was for years, to what you'd have to classify as a buyers' market," said James Ader, CEO of the Realtors' association.

To be sure, the Capital Region housing market is far from a free fall.

Prices remain steady, and while many real estate agents interviewed by the Times Union said they have experienced a slowdown, some claimed they are as busy as ever.

Likewise, some homeowners remain convinced they will sell their homes quickly.

"I know real estate nationally is slowing down, but Albany seems fairly solid," said Brian Pier, who just put a three-bedroom house on Sycamore Street in Albany on the market and has already had nibbles.

"I'm confident we'll sell it for no problem."

Still, there are signs the region's housing market is entering a sustained slowdown.

Home sales completed in March, down 15 percent from last year, reflect purchases that were agreed to months earlier.

But sales pending in March also fell 10 percent in the four counties, meaning the decline continued for several months.

Realtors suggest a wide variety of reasons for the sales sag.

Some note that the market in recent years has been unusually active and said a cooldown was inevitable.

Some blame the harsh weather of recent months.

A few blame the media.

"They keep telling you nationally that the market is bad," said David Heer, a real estate agent in Troy.

"And if they keep telling you that, you believe it."

Many Realtors, meanwhile, believe the number of sales is being affected by sellers with unrealistic expectations, folks who think their homes should sell for what the neighbor got a year ago.

"The price of the house has to come down to sell," said Geraldine Abrams of Geraldine and Associates in Saratoga Springs.

"What people thought they could get is not in line with what's real."

The real estate market in the Capital Region varies greatly by location.

Schenectady County has seen the steepest drop during the first three months of the year, with completed sales down 20 percent.

Closed sales for those months are down 8 percent in Rensselaer County and 9 percent in Saratoga County.

But in Albany County, sales increased by 6 percent.

Taken together, home sales in the Capital Region's four core counties are down 7 percent for the year's first three months, when compared with the same period one year ago.

Only Saratoga County saw a median sale price decline for the year's first three months, from $258,000 in 2006 to $255,000 in 2007.

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

"Loan firm lays off workers - 35 more are out of work at Guardian as mortgage market slows, competition grows"

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

First published: Tuesday, May 1, 2007

CLIFTON PARK -- The slowing mortgage market cost another 35 people their jobs Monday at Guardian Loan Co., Chief Executive Stuart Schultz said.

The company is down to about 75 employees as it cuts back in the wake of a slowing real estate market, Schultz said.

Subprime loans, which once made up 100 percent of its business, are down to 11 percent, he said.

The subprime market has stalled as banks tighten loan standards and reject mortgage applications from consumers with weak credit.

But as Guardian shifted to targeting those with better credit, it faced increasing competition from other mortgage brokers.

"Banks that don't do subprime are making the prime lending tighter," Schultz said.

"We've scaled back."

In July 2005, Guardian had about 240 employees and three satellite offices.

Those have closed and the company is now "under one roof," Schultz said.

Guardian, which is in an office park off Northway Exit 9, began in Brooklyn more 75 years ago, founded by Schultz's grandfather in 1932.

The company moved to Clifton Park in 2000.

Schultz said the company has started a real estate brokerage that represents buyers only, and that it hopes to handle their mortgage business as well.

But that hasn't been enough to avoid the need for job cuts.

One former employee said he was told commissions wouldn't be paid for April.

But Schultz said employees would be paid "every penny that anyone's owed."

He said cutting staff was difficult.

"I hope that some day in the future I can hire back the people that were laid off," he said.

"They may not like me anymore, but they're good people."

"Strevell admits to fraud at nonprofit - Former CEO of the SUNY-affiliated Institute for Entrepreneurship faces up to 5 years in prison, fine"

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

First published: Tuesday, May 1, 2007

ALBANY -- The former head of a publicly-funded program meant to help jump-start businesses admitted Monday to finagling a fraudulent $95,000 pay raise, using his corporate credit card for a trip to Disney World and insisting his father be included on two business junkets to China.

J. Felix Strevell, 45, of Schodack, the former chief executive and executive director of the Institute for Entrepreneurship, could face up to five years in prison and a fine of $250,000 for those and other instances of fraud he admitted in federal court.

Strevell, who quit the not-for-profit in 2001, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Gary L. Sharpe to one count of mail fraud, ending years of speculation about the organization's murky finances.

He is scheduled to be sentenced on Aug. 30.

As part of the 20-page plea agreement, the former deputy secretary of state agreed to pay $111,000 in restitution.

In a 2005 civil settlement brokered by then-Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, Strevell and his brother, Chauncey Strevell, the Institute's former chief operating officer, dodged personal liability -- though the state hoped to recover $170,000 from the Institute and its insurance company.

In the course of the federal criminal case, Strevell's lawyer, William Fanciullo, argued that his client's actions, including putting relatives on the state payroll, were normal government practices.

"Any 'dishonesty,' any state law violation, connected to employment, coupled with mailing or wire, becomes a federal felony," he said, arguing earlier for dismissal.

The Institute for Entrepreneurship was founded in 1998 under the State University of New York and affiliated with Empire State College.

The Institute solicited millions of dollars in public grants and private donations.

Strevell joined the institute in 1999 and quit abruptly in July 2001, with his brother, as the first state investigations into his tenure there, the organization's finances and its claims of accomplishments gathered steam.

While at the institute, Strevell hired friends, relatives of powerful Republicans, his daughter and his daughter's boyfriend.

He also used institute funds to purchase clothing and trips for himself and family members.

The institute's activities, revealed by the Times Union, became an embarrassment for Republican leaders who had supported it, including Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno, R-Brunswick, Gov. George Pataki and his administration, and former U.S. Rep. John Sweeney, R-Clifton Park.

Jordan Carleo-Evangelist can be reached at 454-5445 or by e-mail at jcarleo-evangelist@ timesunion.com.

"Court backs counties on trash-disposal rules"

By MARK SHERMAN, Associated Press

First published: Tuesday, May 1, 2007

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court ruled Monday that local governments can compel private trash haulers to use municipal facilities, even if it would cost more to keep garbage at home than to dispose of it elsewhere.

The ruling upholding local ordinances in upstate New York protects a stream of money that allows the counties, like other governments that have built recycling centers and landfills, to help pay off millions of dollars in debt they incurred to establish such facilities.

The trash companies had argued that Oneida and Herkimer counties violated constitutional protections for interstate commerce.

The companies said they would pay much less to send the garbage to out-of-state transfer stations where it is sorted and baled before being shipped off for disposal.

But the court, in a 6-3 decision, said the Oneida-Herkimer Solid Waste Management Authority treats "in-state private business interests exactly the same as out-of-state ones," avoiding any constitutional problems.

"It bears mentioning that the most palpable harm imposed by the ordinances -- more expensive trash removal -- is likely to fall upon the very people who voted for the law," Chief Justice John Roberts wrote.

The authority charges $72.15 a ton for solid waste.

The trash haulers say they could dispose of the garbage they collect in the two counties for $37 to $55 a ton.

"Fifth shot in Albany since Sunday - Victim, 18, wounded while riding his bike on Sheridan Avenue"

By TIM O'BRIEN, Staff writer, Albany, New York Times Union

Last updated: 4:45 p.m., Wednesday, May 2, 2007

ALBANY -- An 18-year-old bicyclist was shot in the arm Tuesday as he rode near a group of men on a street corner -- the city's fifth shooting victim in less than a week.

Ikiem Davis, 18, of Albany was wounded on Sheridan Avenue about 8:30 p.m. and taken to Albany Medical Center Hospital, where he was treated and released, said Detective James Miller, a spokesman for the city Department of Public Safety.

"He came across a group of four or five men," Miller said.

"When he approached them, they started to chase him."

"It appears someone from that group took a shot at him."

Miller said police have yet to determine a motive for the shooting.

He could not say whether Davis knew any of the men.

While the police have said gun arrests are declining in the city, Davis is the fifth person shot in Albany since Sunday.

Miller said the latest incident does not appear to be related.

Three men were wounded on Clinton Street in the South End around 2:30 a.m. when a dark-colored vehicle pulled up and a man stepped out and opened fire.

The victims were identified as Michael White, 32; Eliot Lopez, 41; and Jerry Lee King, 33.

Lopez and King, both struck in the thigh, were treated at Albany Medical Center Hospital and released, police said.

White was hit in the thigh and forearm.

Lamar Herring, 16, was shot around 9:30 p.m. while walking in the 300 block of First Street in West Hill.

Police said two males followed him and fired three times, wounding the youth in the left calf.

Police have made no arrests in any of the shootings, Miller said.

"New York seeks new ethics commission chief"

By MICHAEL GORMLEY, Associated Press

Last updated: 6:13 p.m., Wednesday, May 2, 2007

ALBANY -- The state began searching Wednesday for a new ethics commission executive director who may also run a planned Commission on Public Integrity, but the effort immediately raised concern from a likely candidate and a good-government advocate.

An advertisement in Wednesday's New York Law Journal stated a candidate will be chosen "with the likelihood of becoming executive director of the Commission on Public Integrity."

The ethics commission, which will soon merge with the state lobbying commission into the Commission on Public Integrity, has been without an executive director since Karl Sleight resigned in March to join a law firm.

The current executive director of the lobbying commission, David Grandeau, says he won't apply for the job.

But he said he still wants to be considered for the Commission on Public Integrity position when it's created.

What happens to Grandeau is not just of interest to political insiders.

Grandeau's continued rule as a regulator is important to good-government groups that have been lukewarm about the new commission, which came out of a reform agreement announced earlier this year by Gov. Eliot Spitzer and legislative leaders.

The advocates said the commission is lacking because it won't regulate the ethics of lawmakers and left Grandeau's role uncertain.

"Grandeau has been a tough cop on the beat," said Rachel Leon of Common Cause-New York.

"He certainly deserves to be considered and the work of the lobby commission must remain as a strong component of the new commission."

"The public deserves and needs a strong, independent watchdog to head up the Public Integrity Commission."

Common Cause, the New York Public Interest Research Group and other good-government advocates have long said Grandeau and the lobbying commission are more aggressive than the ethics commission.

But Grandeau said the ad puts him in a bind, because he won't leave the lobbying commission in its closing months.

"When it comes to integrity, you have to do what's right," he said.

"I don't think it's right to leave a commission I basically built up ... in a very difficult time."

"I would hope that wouldn't disqualify me from applying for the executive director's job at the government integrity commission once the commissioners whose legal responsibility it is to make that decision are appointed," Grandeau said.

Grandeau was referring to Spitzer's responses in recent months when asked if Grandeau will get the job at the new integrity commission.

Spitzer, who as attorney general had some conflicts with Grandeau, said the commission will do the hiring.

Walter Ayres, spokesman for the ethics commission, said Spitzer's new ethics chairman, John Feerick, will only recommend his choice to the government integrity commission.

Ayres also said Grandeau could apply for the current opening and the lobbying commission could operate as many agencies do with an acting executive director.

"It's a likelihood that the person will get it, but there's no guarantee because not all the commissioners have been named," Ayres said.

"We want this to be an open process."

"Anybody can apply, nobody is excluded."

Leon said the search, which the ad said ends May 11, should be open and extensive.

"The question is: Are they getting ahead of themselves by selecting a possible successor before they appoint the new commission?" she said.

In January, Spitzer and legislative leaders agreed on the new commission as part of ethics reforms aimed at ending practices that have painted state government in Albany as beholden to special interests.

Lobbying Commission member Patrick Bulgaro said he wasn't consulted on the decision to hire someone who would likely lead the government integrity commission.

"I think we have something to add to the direction of the commission and in the selection of an executive director," said Bulgaro, an appointee of Democratic Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver.

"New York postpones launch of racing Web site"

By PAT EATON-ROBB, Associated Press

Last updated: 7:22 p.m., Wednesday, May 2, 2007

HARTFORD, Conn. -- New York horse racing officials have backed off a plan to allow Connecticut residents to bet on races over the Internet after Connecticut's attorney general threatened Wednesday to sue them.

The New York State Racing and Wagering Board last week approved plans by the New York Racing Association to take bets on horse races over the Internet from gamblers in Connecticut and New York.

In order to bet on the races, users of the association's site would have to register, set up an account and place a deposit in that account.

Internet gambling is illegal in Connecticut.

After being contacted by Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, New York racing officials said Wednesday they would bar Connecticut residents from registering for the online gambling service.

"I am absolutely delighted that New York has demonstrated respect for our law," Blumenthal said.

"It's great news and a great victory for the public interest."

The launch of the Web site, originally scheduled for Wednesday's opening of New York's Belmont Park, was pushed back to Thursday, said John Ryan, chief administrative officer with New York Racing Association.

Ryan said his agency looked at Connecticut law in advance of starting the Web site and plans to discuss it with Connecticut for a clarification to "find out where we missed this."

"Our intention is to abide by the law," Ryan said.

--------

On the Web: http://www.nyra.com

THE NEW YORK POST

"FELLOW DEMS RIP GOV'S 'HYPOCRI$Y'"

By KENNETH LOVETT Post Correspondent

May 3, 2007 -- ALBANY - A number of Gov. Spitzer's fellow Democrats yesterday slammed his controversial fund-raising efforts at a time he's pushing lawmakers to reform the campaign-finance system.

"The reforms he has suggested are well-intended and an improvement on the current system, but he's opened himself up to criticism by participating in fund-raising that doesn't seem to comport to the spirit of his suggested changes," Assemblyman William Parment (D-Chautauqua) told The Post.

"In simple terms, you can't have it both ways," Parment added, as Democrats, for the first time, publicly took issue with Spitzer's fund-raising.

The Post reported last week that Spitzer is asking potential donors to bundle donations by raising $25,000 to $1 million for him in exchange for varying degrees of special access.

Then on Tuesday, while the Legislature was in session, Spitzer was in California holding private fund-raising meetings.

Spitzer spokeswoman Christine Anderson defended the governor's fund-raising practices as "beyond what is aboveboard and proper," noting how he voluntarily agreed to adhere to lower campaign-donation limits than required by law.

She also argued there is nothing unusual about offering those who raise big dollars access to special barbecues, dinners and other events with the governor and his wife - a practice criticized by Republicans, government-reform groups and now Spitzer's fellow Democrats.

"I think there's an inconsistency; leadership means leading by example," said Assemblyman John J. McEneny (D-Albany).

Asked if he agrees with Republicans who have labeled Spitzer a hypocrite, McEneny said, "I used the word 'inconsistency' and your readers will understand what a synonym is."

Assemblyman Michael Benjamin (D-Bronx) said Spitzer and reform groups would be the first to blast lawmakers if they left the state on a fund-raising trip on a session day to tap into "a network of wealthy donors."

"It sends the wrong message," Benjamin said.

"As a leader in reform, it should be a similar standard for all."

"He's taking less money but widening his net - a net not available to us."

Until now, many Democrats have privately grumbled about Spitzer's recent fund-raising practices, but didn't go public for fear of retribution from the governor.

They have left the heavy criticism to Republicans, particularly Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, who has repeatedly ripped Spitzer over the past week.

A usual Spitzer supporter, Sen. Liz Krueger, a Manhattan Democrat who has long pushed for campaign-finance reform, acknowledged that the governor "has a p.r. problem on this."

"This was a mistake, but hopefully he'll get by this and we can pass a strong campaign-finance reform bill," Krueger said.

She said that Senate Democrats are having private discussions with the governor to improve on his bill, including ways to regulate the practice of bundling through better disclosure and possible caps.

kenneth.lovett@nypost.com

http://www.nypost.com/seven/05032007/news/...rrespondent.htm

"Assemblyman censured over intern fraternization"

Associated Press

Last updated: 5:32 p.m., Thursday, May 3, 2007

ALBANY -- A Republican state assemblyman from the Buffalo area has been censured and stripped of his leadership position on an Assembly committee after spending a night sleeping on the floor of an intern's apartment, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver said Thursday.

Assemblyman Michael Cole, the married father of two children, had previously apologized for the incident that had already led to the firing of the 21-year-old female intern from the program.

In losing his position as the ranking minority member on the Assembly's Committee on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse, Cole also loses the $9,000 annual stipend that comes with that.

His base salary as a member of the state Legislature is $79,500 a year.

Silver also stripped Cole, 35, of the seniority he has amassed since winning a special election in May of last year to capture the seat and barred him from participating in the Assembly intern program.

Cole had said he walked the intern home from an Albany sports bar April 16 after watching a Stanley Cup playoff hockey game between the Buffalo Sabres and the New York Islanders.

He had said nothing inappropriate occurred and that he spent the night on the apartment floor after he felt he was too drunk to drive.

In a May 2 letter to Cole announcing the censure and admonition, Silver said the chamber's ethics committee had determined the assemblyman had spent the night in the intern's bedroom.

"I declare your conduct with respect to this matter to be inconsistent with the public trust and with the standards of conduct to which a member of the Assembly should be held," Silver wrote in his letter to Cole.

A telephone message left for Cole on Thursday seeking comment was not immediately returned.

The Assembly's anti-fraternization policy was adopted in 2004 after several high-profile cases involving sexual relations and Assembly staffers.

In one of those cases, Silver's former top counsel, Michael Boxley, had pleaded guilty to a sexual misconduct charge and been sentenced to six years probation and fined $1,000.

ALBANY, NEW YORK TIMES UNION CAPITAL CONFIDENTIAL BLOG:

"Business Groups Unite to Lobby"

May 2, 2007 at 3:59 pm by James M. Odato

Five trade groups, now calling themselves the Retail and Service Employers of New York, will be lobbying on issues of common interest, such as workers’ compensation reform.

The groups united as the Business Council of New York State is evolving under a new leader, Ken Adams.

Representatives of the new group said the council hasn’t represented some of the concerns.

The new coalition includes The Retail Council of New York State, the Food Industry Alliance of New York, the New York Association of Convenience Stores, the New York State Restaurant Association and the Empire State Restaurant and Tavern Association.

The individual members of the new group felt left out when the Business Council and the Spitzer administration met with union officials to come up with a workers’ compensation law without consulting them.

The issues they plan to focus on include unemployment insurance, workers’ compensation, health care, energy costs, business taxes and general economic development

Comments

Comment by John Galt — May 2, 2007 @ 7:35 pm:

Interesting!

Just like a continuation of a conversation that downstate maven and I were having on this exact subject of who had been excluded or shut out of the “negotiations” when “STEAMROLLER” Spitzer made his now-famous compromise of his office with Ken Adams of the NYS Business Council on the issue of Worker’s Comp. in NYS ….

And so …..

Comment by WayUpstate — May 3, 2007 @ 8:44 am:

Didn’t workers comp reform already happen this year?

Comment by John Galt — May 3, 2007 @ 6:06 pm:

Well!

There’s the question, isn’t it?

Certainly, there were press conferences ….

And there was a union guy involved ….

Although what he really did, nobody knows, except that he apparently agreed to cut the Iron Workers out of permanent lifetime partial disability compensation benefits, and it is a question as to whether the members of that union ever had a voice in the process, or indeed, even knew that it was going on …

Nor did anyone, really ….

Outside of the union guy, and Ken Adams of the NYS Business Council and “STEAMROLLER” Spitzer …

As if those three had some kind of authority to speak for everyone in NYS, unilaterally …..

Which they don’t ….

But acted as if they did, anyway ….

In this matter of Worker’s Comp. ….

And so ….

Comment by John Galt — May 3, 2007 @ 6:59 pm:

In a response to another post, downstate maven, who has a view of this Spitzer W.C. compromise from the perspective of someone who is in the insurance industry, stated that what is called “reform” of W.C. in NYS really meant “cap the benefits and lower the premiums” ….

http://blogs.timesunion.com/capitol/?p=4462#comments

Which is a scenario in which the workers are the ones who have to get screwed …

Since the insurance industry is not going to give anything back, in terms of executive salaries and bonuses and such like ….

So they worked out a deal that allows the insurance companies to “maintain their end” while reducing employer’s premiums by cutting down on what the companies will have to pay out on …

Like permanent partial disability for an ironworker …

Or for a public employee who has been forced from their employment by the creation of a hostile workplace because the public employee was going to blow the whistle on corruption …

And so …

http://blogs.timesunion.com/capitol/?p=4558#comments

THE NEW YORK SUN

"Pirro Accused of Withholding Evidence in Murder Case"

By JOSEPH GOLDSTEIN

Staff Reporter of the Sun

May 3, 2007 updated 11:47 am EDT

The saga of Jeanine Pirro is about to take a dramatic new turn, with the disclosure that while serving as district attorney of Westchester, Ms. Pirro was in the habit of secretly recording work-related telephone conversations, and a federal grand jury wants to hear them.

That fact was disclosed in a filing in federal court in Manhattan in the course of an investigation the purpose of which is not yet fully in the public record.

But the disclosures so far indicate that when Ms. Pirro left office in 2005 to run for state attorney general, she asked an investigator to destroy a box containing at least some of the tapes, an assistant district attorney in Westchester, Richard Hecht, wrote in a letter to the 2nd United States Circuit Court of Appeals.

The investigator, who is not identified in the letter, did not follow through, Mr. Hecht wrote.

One of the reasons this is of interest is that that Ms. Pirro's successor now is in possession of a tape suggesting Ms. Pirro failed to disclose evidence that could have helped a man whom Ms. Pirro subsequently charged with murder.

But the existence of any tapes immediately raises the question of whom Ms. Pirro was talking to over her years in office and what conversations, whether of a political or legal nature, might be recorded in the surviving tapes.

"The fact that the then District Attorney secretly recorded certain conversations in her office and on her telephone came to light during a still continuing federal grand jury investigation conducted jointly by the United States Attorney and this Office," Mr. Hecht wrote.

A lawyer for Ms. Pirro, William Aronwald, said that Ms. Pirro "did not regularly tape all of her conversations," but declined to comment further.

He said any allegations that Ms. Pirro had ordered the destruction of any tapes was "wrong."

"In so far as any claim that she ordered destruction of tapes at any time, that is categorically false," Mr. Aronwald said.

This description of Ms. Pirro's alleged conduct is emerging in court filings before the 2nd Circuit.

The appellate court is hearing the case of Anthony DiSimone, who was prosecuted for murder by Ms. Pirro's office in the gang-related murder of Louis Balancio, which occurred outside a bar in Yonkers in 1994.

Mr. DiSimone was convicted in 2000, after turning himself in unexpectedly in 1999.

A federal judge overturned Mr. DiSimone's conviction earlier this year, after he served seven years in prison.

The district judge, Charles Brieant of United States District Court in Manhattan, said Ms. Pirro's office had withheld evidence that should have been turned over in the case.

Mr. Hecht's letter suggests that the tapes of Ms. Pirro's conversations contain additional leads which were never entered into the case file, much less passed on to the defense.

The two taped conversations, both from December 18, 1997, are of telephone calls between Ms. Pirro and the chief of criminal cases for the U.S. attorney's office in Manhattan, Mark Pomerantz.

They discuss whom Ms. Pirro ought to charge with the high-profile murder.

According to a transcript of the conversation, Mr. Pomerantz told Ms. Pirro that an FBI informant had heard a different man, whom was also charged in connection to the murder, confess to holding down the victim while yet another man stabbed him.

"This tape was never maintained in any of the files relative to the Balancio homicide or for that matter in any file regularly maintained by the District Attorney's Office," Mr. Hecht wrote to the court.

"Additionally, no written record of the taped conversations or the substance of either conversation was found in any of our Office files."

A lawyer for Mr. DiSimone is arguing that the new evidence should bar their client from being retried, according to a letter filed with the court.

"This admission was never turned over to the defense," a lawyer for Mr. DiSimone, John Bartels Jr., wrote in a letter to the 2nd Circuit.

"The state now admits that Ms. Pirro attempted to destroy this evidence."

The tape appears to have come to light during a federal grand jury investigation in Manhattan.

"The tape was among numerous other tape recordings discovered during the course of the federal probe," Mr. Hecht wrote.

"The tapes were apparently maintained over the years by criminal investigators on Mrs. Pirro's security detail."

It is not illegal under New York law for one person to record a telephone conversation without telling another.

But it is a requirement that a prosecutor turn over to a defense matters that might prove exculpatory or helpful in court.

Mr. Pomerantz, now in private practice, could not be reached for comment.

According to the transcripts, Ms. Pirro responds to Mr. Pomerantz's new information by asking how she should handle the press conference she planned to hold in connection to the case the following day.

The tape ends with Ms. Pirro saying, "I really don't mean to be pushy here, but I gotta know how I'm gonna handle this in the morning," according to the transcript.

Then the tape ends, with Ms. Pirro giving no indication of what she intends to do.

Ms. Pirro did not return a call for comment this morning.

http://www.nysun.com/article/53782?page_no=1

"Change of plans is bad news for local company - Massachusetts firm that bought East Greenbush manufacturer to close plant despite earlier pledge"

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

First published: Friday, May 4, 2007

EAST GREENBUSH -- When Waltham, Mass.-based Thermo Electron Corp. acquired East Greenbush-based Rupprecht & Patashnick two years ago, it assured workers and founder Harvey Patashnick the plant was there to stay and grow.

This week, however, the parent firm apparently had a change of heart.

It notified workers, Patashnick and the state Department of Labor that the plant, which makes high-tech air monitoring devices, will close by October.

Of the 79 workers there, just 18 have been offered jobs when the company, now called Thermo Fisher Scientific, consolidates operations at another plant in Franklin, Mass.

Thermo paid $32.5 million for the April 2005 acquisition of R&P.

"We have no intention of leaving the region or reducing the footprint here," Marijn Dekkers, the CEO of Thermo Electron, told local employees during a visit in July 2005.

The following May, Thermo Electron acquired Fisher Scientific for $10.6 billion.

"All I can say is it's inconsistent with statements made before and during" the purchase, Patashnick said Thursday morning.

Had he known Thermo would close the plant, "it would have painted a whole different picture," Patashnick added.

A spokeswoman for Thermo said the consolidation was done to "maximize synergies in the business."

Thermo likely will hire 50 to 60 people in Franklin once the operation is up and running, said company spokeswoman Karen Kirkwood.

She said there were no state incentives offered at either location.

The consolidation was a business decision.

A spokeswoman for the Empire State Development Corp. said the decision to close was "out of the blue.

"We were actually completely surprised by this news," said spokeswoman Anna Marie Mannino.

The department, she added, had talked with Thermo in the past about contracts and future business opportunities with state agencies.

"We would love to talk to them about staying," she added.

Thermo Fisher Scientific late last month reported sharply higher earnings following the Fisher acquisition, with revenue more than tripling in the first quarter to $2.34 billion from $684.3 million, and income before one-time charges reaching 59 cents a share, beating analysts' estimates of 53 cents.

Earnings for the combined companies totaled $138.9 million after the charge, compared to $46.9 million for Thermo Electron a year earlier.

Dekkers, the CEO, began his career in the Capital Region in 1985 as a polymers researcher at GE Global Research in Niskayuna.

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

"AMD gives Malta a surprise - Company shows interest in opening more factories during briefing on $3.2B chip fab proposal"

By LARRY RULISON, Business writer

First published: Friday, May 4, 2007

SARATOGA SPRINGS -- Company executives for Advanced Micro Devices Inc. meeting in the Spa City to discuss the $3.2 billion computer chip factory planned for Malta announced Thursday that the company may be interested in opening a second, or perhaps third, factory in the Luther Forest Technology Campus.

The announcement came as other company executives attended the annual meeting in San Jose, Calif.

The news was a shocker unveiled at the Saratoga Economic Development Corp.'s annual dinner at the Saratoga City Center.

SEDC, after all, is the nonprofit group that is developing the Luther Forest Technology Campus, just a few exits south on the Northway.

So while AMD chief executive Hector Ruiz was on the West Coast fielding questions from shareholders upset with the chip manufacturer's recent poor performance, other AMD executives were here assuring locals that the company's "chip fab" plan is still alive and well.

Before the big news at the Thursday dinner, AMD executives had exhibited some of their plans to a select few on Wednesday.

"We believe AMD has a need for this facility," Terry Caudell, AMD's director of wafer manufacturing strategies, said as he pointed to a large rendering of the proposed facility that AMD unveiled Wednesday.

"The question is the timing."

Caudell spoke to a small group of journalists before the dinner, and provided some insight into what Capital Region residents should expect from AMD in the coming months.

But he left the possibility of the second and third factories as a dinner-time surprise.

Few details were released, although a conceptual design of another two factories was part of a slide show.

A design review process that began in February is expected to be completed at the end of this month, and during the second half of the year, AMD management will decide on a probable timeline for the project, which is expected to create 1,200 manufacturing jobs and spin off thousands of additional construction and supplier jobs.

AMD's board of directors would then have to give the final go-ahead to the project to break ground.

However, even under the best-case scenario, the first shovel wouldn't hit the ground -- at the very earliest -- until spring 2008.

That is because even after it gets board approval, the project would require a six-month regulatory process, and a harsh Saratoga County winter would prevent any construction until next spring.

Caudell gave no indication of whether the company was leaning toward starting the project next year or in 2009, when $650 million in cash incentives from New York state expire.

Including tax breaks and infrastructure improvements, the state's package for AMD totals $1.2 billion.

Caudell said market conditions and the company's new cost-saving strategy will play a big part in determining the timeline.

AMD reported a $611 million loss for the first quarter last week and will cut capital spending -- on projects like factories -- by $500 million this year.

The new strategy, which Ruiz calls "asset light," is still being developed by the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company.

Caudell is part of the management team that is working on asset light, and the company has said it will give Wall Street analysts a better idea about how that strategy will work in July.

Some analysts are saying that asset light is code word for the company moving toward more of a "fabless" model of doing business in which computer chip companies outsource their manufacturing to factories called foundries, many of which are located in Asia.

AMD already uses foundries, but it also has two of its own factories in Dresden, Germany.

Under the asset light model, AMD will slow its conversion of one of those factories to more advanced technology.

But Caudell said that asset light will in no way preclude an investment in the Luther Forest factory, which would be 1.2 million square feet.

"This business is a very volatile business, you have ups and downs," Caudell said.

"We regret last quarter was such a bad quarter for us."

"(But) the plans for Luther Forest are long-term."

In fact, Luther Forest could hold the key to AMD's fierce battle with rival Intel Corp., which owns about 80 percent of the market for so-called x86 chips that are used in most personal computers and servers.

Ruiz said at the annual meeting Thursday that he believes the future of the business is in "visualization" technologies that are being driven by consumer's thirst for video and multi-media.

AMD recently acquired a Canadian graphics chips company called ATI Technologies, and is expected to soon develop so-called "fusion products" that combine graphics and microprocessing.

Caudell said those types of cutting-edge chips could be made at Luther Forest.

AMD could also benefit from recent advancements that IBM Corp. has made in manufacturing computer chips -- work that has been perfected at the University at Albany's College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering.

IBM announced Thursday a new breakthrough process called "self-assembly" in which trillions of insulating holes are made in chip wafers to improve performance.

AMD and IBM collaborate on R&D, and although AMD officials did not know if that particular new technique would be used in AMD's chips, Caudell said AMD and IBM "do share" intellectual property.

That could bode well for Luther Forest and UAlbany because New York's package includes $150 million in R&D money for AMD to be used at IBM's East Fishkill facility and at Albany NanoTech, UAlbany's $3.5 billion semiconductor manufacturing research facility on Fuller Road in Albany.

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