The New York Civil Liberties Union has filed a suit against the New York City Police Department for refusing to disclose how they intend to use about 3000 surveillance cameras to be installed in lower Manhattan to track pedestrians and automobiles.  When the NYCLU first filed a freedom of information act to have the intent disclosed they recieved 91 pages of documents, which still doesn’t clearly state the intent or usage.

The executive director of the ACLU says a plan of this scope, cost and intrusiveness requires a public debate and oversight by legislators.

The NYCLU claims the plan poses a threat to the privacy of law-abiding New Yorkers. Police officials say the system, modeled after “ring of steel” measures in London’s financial district, is needed to guard against terrorist threats.

An NYPD spokesman said Monday that the department already has made public as much information as it could, short of “a road map terrorists could use for another attack.

Each of the candidates have pledged to stop running negatives campaign ads on 9/11 after the website MyGoodDeed.org asked them to impose a moratorium to mark the day. A NYC location for the event has yet to be determined. This will be their first joint appearance after the conventions.

The Democratic party on the other hand has collected what is thought to be a record breaking 10,000 signatures for their ballot acces.  Surely more than enough protection if anything is contested.  With the Democratic party showing such strong support, the scandal with current GOP congressmen Vito Fossella, and no official nominee yet, the GOP may just lose their seat come November.

It’s the first such ban by a major U.S. city, and most give credit for the idea to New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who has been on a health crusade during his tenure in office. He banned smoking in bars and restaurants during his first term…. New York restaurant chains were recently ordered to start listing calorie information on their menus. The first phase of the trans fat ban took effect last year, when restaurants were ordered to stop using them in cooking oils and spreads. Now, after a short grace period, any restaurant found using any trans fats will be fined up to $2,000.

The shift in New York City’s health policy is already reverberating throughout the country. The fast food giants McDonalds, Burger King, Dunkin’ Donuts, KFC, and Pizza Hut all say that they have eliminated trans-fats from their New York restaurants, and they are on track to do the same across the country…. Boston Market eliminated trans-fats from its fried chicken nationwide and is using New York as a test case for a new crust for its chicken pot pie.

However, the ban isn’t a silver bullet. To keep the flavor and texture of beloved food items the same, many chefs are simply switching to other saturated fats, including natural fats like butter or lard, palm oil, and a growing list of new oil blends…. Some research suggests those fats might be just as bad for you as trans fats.

In addition to potentially more harmful alternatives now being used as a result of the new regulation, the actual effectiveness of the regulation is being debated in the science community. Trans fat is essentially a more efficient way of packing fats and oils into food products. The way the molecular structure is arranged, it “stacks” very efficiently, it also makes it harder for your body to break down.

Regular Fat:


Trans Fat:

The Staten Island (13th District) seat is currently occupied by Vito Fossella since 1997; he is finishing out his 6th term.  Earlier this year, Fossella announced he would not seek re-election, but would finish out his term.  This announcement came after he was arrested for drunk driving in Alexandria, Virginia on May 1st, 2008, in addition a week later he confessed that 3 years earlier he had fathered a child out of wedlock.  This announcement left the race for the congressional seat wide open.

Frank Powers was seeking the GOP nomination; with Vito out of the picture it should have made things easy.  Though Frank Powers has never run for office, he is a retired wall street executive and has been closely involved with GOP fundraising for many years.  His wife Dianne currently serves as the GOP borough treasurer.  His fundraising power, along with his promise to use 500,000 of his own money on his campaign made Frank Powers an attractive candidate for the GOP.

To complicate the race a bit, Fran powers, son of Frank Powers announced he was seeking the Libertarian nomination.  There were fears that a father-son rivalry in the congressional race would distract from covering actual issues, making it easier for a democratic challenger to gain the seat.

In the “end”, Frank Powers received the GOP nomination.  His son Fran however, did not succeed in getting the Libertarian nomination.  Former ABC Radio employee Susan Overeem won the Libertarian nomination by a large margin, receiving almost three times the number of votes as Fran Powers. The story however is far from over.

Sunday, June 22^nd, 2008 Frank Powers age 67 passed away in his sleep. His sudden death would throw the congressional race into turmoil. Supposedly most if not all of the signatures for ballot access have already been collected. Most other potential GOP candidates have already decided against running.

After Frank Powers’ unexpected death, the two most widely discussed potential candidates announced that they would not seek the nomination. Matthew Mirones, a former Assemblyman who operates a prosthetics company, said that he has decided to sit out this race. And Lisa Giovinazzo, a lawyer and part-time journalist with the cable network NY1, also said she had decided against running. Deadlines are closing in, and the GOP still has no nominee. The Republican party may have to look to other parties for a nominee.

Carmine Morano, a businessman who is a member of the Independence Party is being eyed as the latest potential GOP nominee. Mr. Morano said that, although he is a collecting signatures to run on the Independence line, he is hoping to be selected by Republican leaders, too.

Others with a little hope are collecting signatures for the nomination. Jamshad Wyne, a cardiologist who is the finance chairman of the Staten Island Republican Party, is also a candidate for the seat. Dr. Wyne said that he has already collected 2,000 signatures and that he plans to continue getting more until the filing deadline.

But he has little support among the party’s leaders. They point to the fact that Dr. Wyne was fined $5,000 and placed on probation for three years in 2003 by the state Health Department’s Board for Professional Medical Conduct. The board said that he had practiced “with negligence on more than one occasion.”

There is also a chance that Libertarian nominee Susan Overeem, having already defeated Fran Powers, might seek the Republican nomination.

Regardless of who gets the nomination, a decision needs to be made soon. Deadlines are nearing, and the longer the GOP is at a standstill, the more time is given to the Democratic congressional campaign.

According to a new poll conducted by Quinnipiac University from June 3 – 8, Obama is polling ahead of McCain in New York State in almost all demographics.  Overall Barack leads John McCain 50 – 36.  When Clinton was still a factor the polls had Barack leading 47 – 39 when put head to head with McCain.  Historically New York has voted democratic in presidential elections, 2008 seems to be no exception.  The more comfortable lead is thanks to Clinton for backing her former opponent.

Not all the republican opponents are backing McCain however.  Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul has repeatedly refused to endorse John McCain, though now running a slimmed down campaign Ron Paul has not officially dropped out.  The Texas congressman has now announced his plans to hold his own convention in Minnesota simultaneous to that of the Republican National Convention this September.  In an election year where unifying the party is an important issue John McCain faces an uphill battle.

Analysis: Paterson says he’ll square off with unions

By MICHAEL GORMLEY |Associated Press Writer

May 17, 2008

 

ALBANY, N.Y. – New York Gov. David Paterson is taking on the fight of his political life.

He’s promising to stand up to public worker unions in Albany, where their hundreds of thousands of votes and millions of dollars donated to campaigns and spent on lobbyists have given them unmatched power.

The question now is not just whether Paterson is up to the challenge, but whether it’s too late.

“It can’t be business as usual,” Paterson said Thursday in casting doubt on unions’ effort to boost benefits through the Legislature. “This is not the time to sweeten the pot because we’re about to lose the whole pot.”

It was a reference to what Paterson calls “the terrible truth” of New York’s fiscal health. That includes locked-in benefits and other spending in state budgets over the last several years that prompt his projection of $21 billion in budget gaps over the next three years.

Even in a cynical place like Albany, where governors for years have made other dire predictions only to embrace bloated budgets as good compromises, Paterson is raising expectations.

On Thursday, Paterson appeared to side with fiscally tight New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg who is opposing a union lobbying effort to provide a second chance for employees to buy into a lucrative early retirement plan. Bloomberg says it would cost the city $200 million, an estimate disputed by lawmakers and union leaders.

Now, Paterson is facing his own tests.

The Democrat is starting to see the annual string of pro-labor measures to improve pension and other benefits for unionized public workers and retirees. Those efforts have passed with overwhelming or unanimous support in the Legislature, only to be vetoed by former governors George Pataki and Eliot Spitzer.

But Paterson, in office just three months after 20 years in the Senate’s Democratic minority where he benefited from the bales of campaign contributions spread about by unions, lacks the public mandate of those who were elected to the office. And he lacks Bloomberg’s billions that would help him fight off the kind of nasty union TV ad campaign that hurt Spitzer early in his brief time in office.

Paterson, who rose from lieutenant governor when Spitzer resigned March 17 over a prostitution investigation, has also sought to rebuild bridges between the executive and legislative branches. That, however, can be seen as a sign of weakness in the Capitol’s brand of power politics.

So far, his record is mixed.

Despite forecasting a falling sky in March, he eventually supported an even greater increase in the record amount of school aid. He also allowed the teachers’ unions to attach a measure that will make it easier to get tenure, although in a slightly weakened form. The measure prohibits school districts from using student performance on standardized tests as a measure of whether a teacher should get tenure, which provides almost lifelong job security.

But more recently, Paterson angered the United University Professions union, part of the powerful New York State United Teachers union, by giving the State University of New York about $140 million less of an increase than was sought.

University workers rallied outside the Capitol chanting, “Hey, hey, ho, ho, SUNY cuts have got to go.” They said the cut put SUNY on the road to being “dismantled.”

But as with most lobbyists and activists in Albany, the demonstrators had a better sense of outrage than math.

Paterson didn’t “cut” SUNY funding, which will still increase by $20 million to $4.53 billion. That doesn’t include the $3.75 billion more in capital funding and another $6 billion in capital cash committed for coming years. And Paterson plans more as he commits to fulfilling Spitzer’s promise to bring SUNY to the national fore in higher education.

The “cut” to which the unions referred was the 3.5 percent spending reduction Paterson is requiring of all agencies as revenues decline. He said the 2009-10 budget must result in a true cut of 5 percent to 10 percent.

Paterson has another test headed his way.

The Legislature will soon send to his desk a bill that would prohibit state and local governments from trying to change generous health benefits provided to retirees. That would take the costly item off the table in collective bargaining for at least a year while a panel considers the future of health care for retirees. That panel, created by the Legislature, is heavily represented by labor, whose members could eventually collect the benefit. There are no seats on the panel for representatives of local government.

So the accidental governor’s trial by fire will get hotter in June, because these measures are often slipped into the final, late hours of the legislative session when few are watching.

Paterson so far hasn’t let up on legislators, who would rather not be known as the people who have been raising your taxes, in one form or another, for years.

That’s the cycle Paterson said he must end, this “trying to cut the same the same piece out of the pie.

“They don’t understand,” he said, “that there is no pie.”