>> ALBANY WATCH...
Court unanimously rules to discard $80,000 lights
Albany -- Chandeliers used in $37M renovation didn't fit with building, officials say
By MICHELE MORGAN BOLTON, Staff writer
First published: Saturday, January 31, 2004
The end of a two-year, $37 million state Court of Appeals building renovation could have prompted a celebratory swing from any one of 35 new chandeliers -- if any had been left hanging.
The pendant bowl lamps described as "upside-down umbrellas" were slated to be installed prominently around the 157-year-old Eagle Street building's first and second floors -- until they arrived.
Then came a resounding thumbs-down from officials all the way up to Chief Judge Judith Kaye, who was concerned about preserving the historic integrity of the elegant Greek Revival building.
"It wasn't just Judge Kaye," attested her spokesman, Gary Spencer. "She didn't like them. Neither did I. Neither did the clerk of the court. Neither did anyone."
The milked-glass globes with brass rims were supposed to mirror existing fixtures installed during the courthouse's 1959 renovation, said Ronald P. Younkins, director of court facilities for the state Office of Court Administration.
But they didn't.
"A bunch of us went around and said, 'it's not quite right,' " Younkins said. "It was a feeling you couldn't duplicate, given the nature of a historic building."
"I think in 30 years they'll say we did the right thing," Younkins added.
Said Spencer: "It was like putting a baseball cap on Abe Lincoln."
So while pricey custom-made replacements will be made by posh Manhattan fixture manufacturer Rambusch, which specializes in historic preservation projects, the $80,000 castoffs will be passed to the new Albany County Justice and Family Court buildings.
But one person's trash is another's treasure.
"They're beautiful light fixtures, and we're delighted to have them," said County Court facilities director Jay Quackenbush. "In fact, we're thrilled to death it worked out. And so are they. We're not getting anybody's rejects. These are perfect for courtrooms."
And since the pendant lights have essentially no resale value, "if nothing else, we're getting them deeply discounted," he said, unsure of the final price.
The renovation project, coordinated by the state Dormitory Authority, has updated the historic court building's infrastructure -- including heating, air conditioning, plumbing and lighting -- while bringing it into compliance with Americans With Disabilities Act and safety codes.
It added about 25,000 square feet to the existing 67,000 square feet, including two new wings and a multiple-level parking garage.
Work has come in at about $1 million under budget, Younkins said.
The Court of Appeals project will be considered complete once a design for the new lights is approved by Kaye and others, said Dormitory Authority spokeswoman Claudia Sutton.
Until that time, the cost for the new lights is unknown, she said: "But there's room within the budget to get it done."
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State weighs doggie bags for unfinished wine
Lawmakers say restaurant patrons would drink less, and be safer drivers, if allowed to take a bottle home
By KIRSTAN CONLEY, Associated Press
First published: Saturday, January 31, 2004
ALBANY -- A nice bottle of merlot would go perfectly with the gourmet restaurant meal but there's a drive home to consider, so the diner orders a single glass.
Worse, the patron buys the bottle, finishes it and then gets behind the wheel.
Two legislators in New York are proposing a law allowing diners to take home the unfinished bottle -- corked, of course. They say their measure would pump up wine sales at the same time it cuts down on drunken driving.
"If they know they can take the opened bottle of wine home, then they probably will, instead of trying to finish it in the restaurant," said Assemblyman Bill Magee who, along with Sen. Stephen Saland, introduced the legislation.
If the bill passes, New York would be one of at least a half-dozen states that allow take-out wine. California, Oregon, Maine, Hawaii and Connecticut all have "doggie bag" laws. New York is the nation's second biggest wine producer, behind only California.
Rick Sampson, president of the New York State Restaurant Association, said his organization hasn't taken a position on the legislation.
"I can certainly understand it from a consumer standpoint," Sampson said. "If someone is going to spend $25, $50 or $75 on a bottle of wine, they're certainly going to want to finish it."
New York is home to more than 170 wineries -- from Long Island Sound to the Finger Lakes and Lake Erie -- that produce 100 million bottles a year and $85 million in local and state revenue, Magee said.
Magee, a Madison County Democrat who chairs the Assembly Agriculture Committee, said the bill also makes it more likely for diners to order more than one variety of wine, helping restaurant owners' bottom lines.
Spokesmen for the State Police and the New York Sheriff's Association did not return calls for comment.
Representatives from Mothers Against Drunk Driving said they just learned of the legislation and won't take a position until they determine if it would weaken New York's open container laws and increase drunken driving.
Sampson and Magee predicted some opposition from police and groups that try to reduce drinking and driving, but Magee said his bill addresses the open container issue by requiring a secure seal.
And Saland, R-Poughkeepsie, said the bill would require people to buy a full meal when buying a bottle of wine, preventing them from buying bottles after wine shops and liquor stores are closed.
Copyright 2004 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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N.Y. Bill Would Classify Dogs As Weapons
By MICHAEL HILL
ASSOCIATED PRESS
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) - Shotgun. Switchblade. Blackjack. Dog?
A dangerous canine would be defined as a "deadly weapon" under a bill before the New York Legislature.
"Some of these dogs are killing machines," said Assemblyman Patrick Manning, whose proposal also would allow towns to ban certain breeds.
The bill is among a pack of legislative solutions being offered nationwide to address the problem of vicious dogs, which Manning said are becoming "the weapon of choice for drug dealers or gangbangers."
The legislation doesn't single out any particular breed, but frequent targets in other states are pit bulls and Rottweilers, which have been involved in highly publicized attacks on people.
Manning's bill is called "Elijah's Law," after a 3-year-old mauled by a Rottweiler last fall in New York City.
Animal advocates said the proposal to characterize dangerous dogs as deadly weapons is novel, although cities including Denver and Cincinnati already have passed bans on pit bulls. And an Ohio law requires owners of vicious dogs to carry at least $100,000 worth of liability insurance.
Stephanie Shain of The Humane Society of the United States said she was not aware of any statewide bans on breeds.
Some communities with pit bull bans have reported fewer attacks, but many animal advocates believe bans are overly simplistic, sweeping away good dogs along with the bad.
Prince George's County, Md., is considering repealing its pit bull ban because of the number of family pets being destroyed.
"There are perfectly wonderful, safe pit bulls living with families and there are Labrador retrievers that are dangerous," Shain said.
The society advocates looking at the problem dog by dog, rather than breed by breed. Shain said local animal control officers should be empowered to restrict free-roaming or menacing dogs before they cause serious injury.
Also before the New York Legislature is a bill that would allow the destruction of dogs that unjustifiably attack a cat or another dog. Another bill would bar convicted drug dealers and other felons from owning pit bulls, Rottweilers or any vicious dog over 10 pounds.
Manning said he wants to let communities create registries of dangerous dogs to help police and emergency workers.
"Every newspaper article about another attack only reinforces that we have to do something," he said.
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Once a Capitol golden boy, he's now a ghost in its halls
Albany-- Dan Barr, who was a top press aide to Gov. Nelson A. Rockefeller, depends on the kindness of statehouse old-timers
By PAUL GRONDAHL, Staff writer
First published: Sunday, February 1, 2004
"Every goddamned lobbyist in the state's here today," Dan Barr grumbled in a low, raspy voice.
He waited in the visitors' line at the Washington Avenue entrance of the Capitol. State troopers made him empty the pockets of his rumpled khakis and ran his old black parka through an X-ray machine before Barr was allowed to pass a metal detector.
It was two hours before Gov. George Pataki would deliver his State of the State Message in the Assembly chamber.
"They made me take off my shoes yesterday," Barr, 79, muttered as he shuffled down the marble corridor toward the cafeteria on creaky legs slowed by a stroke two years ago.
Meanwhile, legislative staffers with employee badges and VIPs such as former Gov. Hugh Carey and Albany Mayor Jerry Jennings waltzed through security with no more than a friendly wave.
What the troopers didn't know was that Barr -- who has the tattered look, glassy eyes and bloodshot face of a street person -- was once Mr. Somebody at the Capitol.
He was a press secretary to Gov. Nelson A. Rockefeller from 1962-71 and one of Rocky's golden boys. He was a frequent flier on the private plane to the sprawling Rockefeller ranch in Venezuela; to the family estate in Pocantico Hills; to the summer retreat in Seal Harbor, Maine. He grew close to the extended family and had the entree of a favored uncle.
At the top of the Capitol food chain, Barr possessed something as good as gold: the governor's ear.
That was four decades ago.
Now, here he was, back in his old haunt. Mr. Nobody.
The new generation of politicos and lobbyists with juice surging from the tips of their Gucci loafers to the ends of their $50 haircuts looked right through Barr as if he were a ghost. Ears glued to their cellphones, they had no clue that Barr was once like them: a man in full.
Those who shot Barr sideways glances reserved for winos and panhandlers knew nothing about the rising star who was dragged down by tragedy and demons and the drink, yet keeps coming back to the Capitol -- hobbling on a survivor's ragged nobility.
The life of Dan Barr is a cautionary tale of excess and a long fall after a brush with the flame of power. It also is a reminder that behind the cold, granite facade of the Capitol and the impersonal bureaucracy of state government, a warm heart still beats, and something that might be called a soul resides.
"I've known Dan in his heyday and in his decline, and it can be tough seeing him now. What do you say?" asked Gerald McLaughlin, 67, who met Barr in 1965, when McLaughlin was a reporter at the Capitol, and later when he was Sen. John Marchi's press secretary.
"A lot of us see Dan and have that uncomfortable feeling, 'There but for the grace of God go I.' "
Daniel F. Barr was born in 1924 in Oshkosh, Wis., and grew up on a dairy farm. His father fought in the trenches during World War I, came home troubled and left his family for good when Dan was 4 or 5. His mother was shattered. An only child, Barr was raised by a grandmother. The Depression and tough times spurred his grandmother to move with him to New York state, where she had relatives.
"I was a half-orphan, I guess," Barr said. He hunched his shoulders and stared into a coffee cup.
He and his grandmother settled in Catskill, where Barr attended school. In 1942, at 18, he enlisted in the Army Air Forces.
Barr became a B-17 bombardier-gunner in the 8th Air Force. He flew more than 30 combat missions over Europe, up in the naked glass nose of the bomber. On a clear day, he had a perfect view of deadly incoming fire.
Re-living his World War II experience, Barr balled his hand into a tight fist and said that was the size of his stomach on a bombing run.
"Every time I flew I was scared," he said. "I'd see another plane hit, peel off and fall away and I'd say a prayer: 'Oh, God. Not me today.' "
Barr returned to Catskill physically unscathed. He attended the University of California at Berkeley on the GI Bill, transferred to St. Lawrence University and earned a bachelor's degree in biology. Faculty advisers wanted him to apply to medical school, but he returned to Catskill to be a newspaperman.
He rose up the masthead of the Catskill Daily Mail, from reporter to managing editor. In 1958, he was hired by the Times Union, where he covered politics and wrote a column, "Barr None." He won journalism awards and is widely credited with breaking the story of Rockefeller's plan to build the South Mall.
Barr's career scoop came at the governor's 1961 holiday reception for reporters in the Executive Mansion. There was a boozy camaraderie between the almost all-male press corps and their sources in those days.
Rockefeller was drinking his usual, red wine. Barr preferred Dewar's on the rocks. Drinks in hand, the governor invited Barr upstairs while other reporters mingled in the mansion's foyer.
"He liked me and I got along with him," Barr said of the governor.
Rockefeller drew the 37-year-old newspaperman to a window overlooking the city's Gut, a hardscrabble core rife with gin mills, prostitutes and derelict houses.
"I'm going to get rid of all that," Rockefeller said with a sweep of his hand.
Barr asked him how.
"You'll see," the governor replied mischievously, his trial balloon aloft.
Barr worked his sources and a few days later published the first public pronouncement on what would become the largest and most expensive state government complex ever. The Nelson A. Rockefeller Empire State Plaza remains a controversial monument to one man's legacy.
Rocky soon plucked Barr from the Times Union, nearly doubling his salary, to $17,176 -- big money in 1962. Rockefeller gave Barr an expense account. His salary climbed above $30,000. He lived with his wife and children in a nice Colonial on Euclid Avenue. Life was sweet.
"Dan was a very gifted press spokesman for Rockefeller," said Bill Stevens, 74, who worked as a Capitol reporter for the Associated Press in 1963. "He was a great source, even after he left the governor's staff. He knew a lot of people in government and they liked him. They told him things, and he told us."
Barr was at the center of a Capitol culture in the '60s that had the feel of a private men's club: arrogant, insular and hard-drinking, with a nightly poker game that typically ran into the wee hours of the morning.
To this day, the press room of the Legislative Correspondents Association on the third floor of the Capitol -- with its soaring stone arches, patina of cigar smoke and rakish charm -- is a throwback to "The Front Page" era of rewrite desks, green eyeshades and copy boys long before a button-down corporate culture took hold.
On a mezzanine level of the LCA press room known as "the shelf," a battered pool table shares space with an ancient upright piano where President Harry Truman once tickled the ivories. A small brass plate on a nearby card table bears Dan Barr's name, but its stained felt rarely sees action anymore.
There was a time when Barr held court there and was the heart of a long-running, after-hours party. "He was a likable guy who liked to joke and have a good time," said Bob Fusco, 81, a Capitol reporter for the Troy Record starting in the early '60s. He later worked as supervisor of the LCA press room for 18 years before retiring from state service in 1989.
Barr was flying high in the Rockefeller era, and it wasn't just from the copious quantities of booze at the card table and the bar at the Ambassador, an Elk Street watering hole for pols and the press.
"Dan was a very dapper dresser, had a biting wit, knew everybody in town and had a generous side," McLaughlin said. He recalled Barr loaning money to guys who needed a touch to tide them over to payday. He leaked scoops to reporters who'd hit a rough patch with an editor.
At the peak of his power, Barr's three sons died. They succumbed -- each at about age 3, one after another in a five-year span in the late 1960s -- from infantile muscular dystrophy.
"They were healthy, happy boys. All of a sudden, their heads went wobbly and started flopping over," Barr said. "They lost all muscle control."
With Rockefeller's intervention, the three boys were seen by top specialists at Johns Hopkins University, Massachusetts General Hospital and elsewhere. His oldest child, a daughter,did not contract the disease.
Brian, Quentin and Terry Barr are buried at Our Lady of Angels Cemetery in Colonie.
After his wife left him, Barr turned to drink and fell into a long slide.
He was let go from the governor's staff and returned briefly to newspaper work, followed by another short stint in state service -- long enough to give him a small state pension. He lost his later low-wage jobs.
Barr lives alone in a one-bedroom apartment off Western Avenue. It's just a couple of blocks from the big house on Euclid Avenue he owned when his family and life were intact.
Kay Shatraw, office manager for The New York Times bureau in the LCA press room for the past 35 years, is a longtime friend of Barr's and acts as his guardian. She buys him bus passes, arranges his haircuts, helps him get on his feet after hospitalizations.
"Dan's like part of my family," said Shatraw, whose late husband, children and grandchildren befriended Barr. "I don't know why I've always liked him. He's funny and makes me laugh."
Shatraw and other old-timers at the Capitol who help Barr are proof the place isn't heartless. A worker slides some bills into Barr's hand in the cafeteria for lunch. Senate nurses tend to his aches and pains. Legislators and aides give him rides.
"The people who remember Dan when he worked here and still watch out for him are the ones who give the Capitol its soul," said Assemblyman Jack McEneny, who occasionally drives Barr to the Capitol. "Dan's a fixture around here, like a piece of the furniture."
For others, Barr wore out his welcome. He is persona non grata in the LCA press room, prohibited after he had taken to sleeping there.
"He's earned the ignoble position of being banned by his conduct," said Fred Dicker, Capitol correspondent for the New York Post, who's known Barr since 1977 and was once friendly with him.
"I see him as a pathetic figure who had difficulties in his life and became a troubled person who blew a lot of opportunities," Dicker said. "I consider him a phantom of the Capitol."
Barr has planted himself in the first-floor public cafeteria.
He comes almost daily at about 11 a.m. and takes his spot at a corner table in the back, settling in with several papers and a cup of coffee. Most of the customers ignore him. A trickle of veteran Capitol employees stop and chat.
Shatraw comes down at noon and they play a few hands of rummy for fun. It's a faded echo of those years of all-night poker games when Barr raked in $40 pots as the smoke and the booze and the power washed over him.
Rocky's golden boy is tarnished by bitter experience. He's the rust that never sleeps. He'll keep coming around as long as he draws breath.
"It's his life," Stevens said. "The Capitol is where he belongs. It's home."
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Translator needed for this speech
First published: Monday, January 26, 2004
Republicans in the state Senate majority rarely pay attention to their counterparts in the Democratic minority, but the whole chamber took note last week when Sen. Eric Schneiderman, D-Manhattan, started speaking Chinese.
Schneiderman's comments came Wednesday while the Senate was considering a resolution in honor of the Chinese New Year the next day. Schneiderman rose to speak in favor of the resolution, and surprised his colleagues by delivering his remarks in Mandarin, which he studied as an undergraduate at Amherst College and also during a year as a student at a university outside Hong Kong.
The performance impressed Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno, not typically considered a big fan of Schneiderman, given his penchant for outspokenness and agitation.
Several senators said Bruno told Schneiderman, "That's very good," to which Schneiderman said he replied: "If you had redistricted me into Chinatown, Joe, I would have been fine."
Bruno laughed, and, according to Schneiderman, shot back: "Just wait a few years."
In the last redistricting, the Senate majority rejiggered Schneiderman's Upper West Side district to include much of the Hispanic-dominated Washington Heights in what was widely considered an attempt to get rid of the trouble-making Democrat. He dedicated himself to learning both Spanish and his new district and easily won re-election.
One individual not so taken with Schneiderman's linguistic gymnastics was the Senate stenographer, who later asked for a written version of his remarks.
Happy to oblige, Schneiderman started writing down Chinese characters. The stenographer told him: "Oh, forget it."
New York Racing Association Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Barry K. Schwartz last week took a possibly ill-timed slap at Gov. George Pataki, who has been loyal to Schwartz throughout what the administration has gently described as NYRA's "legal entanglements."
Schwartz told the New York Daily News Pataki's budget plan for 2004-2005 is "ridiculous" in trying to balance the budget with revenues from video lottery terminals. With NYRA looking to open VLT parlors at racetracks, Schwartz isn't keen on the potential competition from outfits including Off-Track Betting corporations.
"Why stop at just the OTBs?" Schwartz said. "Why don't they put them in the bus stop shelters, too. They can probably fit three or four in each one." (Critics of VLT gambling contend poor schools will be funded with lottery dollars that come from poor people who ride the buses.)
Pataki has gone to bat for NYRA numerous times, including sending a former top aide to talk up NYRA's importance to the New York economy to federal investigators while they were considering a criminal indictment of the association on tax fraud conspiracy.
NYRA soon may need state legislation to help it pay a $3 million criminal fine and gain an extension on its exclusive state franchise to operate the Aqueduct, Belmont and Saratoga thoroughbred tracks. Without the extension, the association might not be able to secure the financing to finish its racino.
Contributors: Capitol bureau reporters Elizabeth Benjamin and James M. Odato. Got a tip? Call 454-5424 or e-mail jjochnowitz@timesunion.com.
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Fiscal plan balances on a bet
Gambling tops initiatives for added revenue
By JAMES M. ODATO, Capitol bureau
First published: Wednesday, January 21, 2004
Gov. George Pataki on Tuesday promised to steer New York on the path of long-term fiscal stability as he delivered a nearly $100 billion state budget that raises spending $1.5 billion.
Lawmakers, however, immediately saw problems with the plan. Pataki relied heavily on speculative gambling revenues from American Indian casinos and a dramatic expansion of video lottery gambling projects. All have proven hard to get off the ground.
His budget also includes $600 million in new borrowing atop the state's $40 billion debt load to pay for two new economic development initiatives, including one Pataki said would help Albany's Harriman Campus redevelopment and a proposed Albany convention center.
The plan fails to answer how Pataki will fill multibillion-dollar budget gaps in the years ahead, and could have trouble getting through the Legislature without an increase in spending this year.
"The goal is to strike a balance," Pataki said as he discussed a budget that raises spending by 1.5 percent above the 2003-04 plan he called a "fiscal train wreck" last year when the Legislature overrode his vetoes. The plan is 3.5 percent bigger if adjustments are made for one-time spending this year.
Senate and Assembly leaders were unwilling to embrace Pataki's addition of just $147 million to raise education spending to $14.6 billion, indicating more will be needed just so schools can maintain current programs.
But many remarked that the governor's relatively nonconfrontational tone and his decision to avoid deep cuts to programs could lead to the first on-time budget since 1984.
"It bodes well," said Assembly Insurance Committee Chairman Alexander B. Grannis, D-Manhattan, who added that Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver's criticisms of Pataki's plan lacked the sharp attacks of past years.
Indeed, the governor said more can be achieved through cooperation. In that vein, he called for postponing for a year the Legislature's controversial requirement that sales and excise taxes be collected in March from Indian retailers to avoid a fight with tribes.
Instead, he asked for a chance to work out deals that would result in tribal stores charging the same level of taxes as off-reservation merchants.
Pataki's budget puts off any firm commitment to additional education spending, despite a Court of Appeals decision that calls for fixing the state aid formula to assure New York City students gain a sound, basic education. Instead, Pataki wants to set up a special fund for education, fueled with dollars from VLT parlors that open at horse tracks or at any of eight new locations that would be granted to winning bidders.
Assembly leaders called such a plan risky.
"That's a very bad bet," said Assembly Education Committee Chairman Steve Sanders. "You cannot establish a long-term, reliable, stable education plan based on gambling habits of individuals."
Pataki said he expects at least three track racinos to open by March in Saratoga Springs, Buffalo and the Finger Lakes Race Track, which would pump $325 million into the education fund that could be used to honor the Campaign for Fiscal Equity court order. Five more track VLT facilities and up to eight more allowed through competitive bidding could help boost the account with more than $2 billion, and probably $2.5 billion a year, the governor said.
Those sums, however, would be well short of the billions needed, Sanders said.
"The governor presented a really strong beginning to the whole budget process," said Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, R-Brunswick. He added that he isn't sure Pataki's proposals would meet school needs because of "built in" growth in costs.
Suggesting that Senate Republicans are uncomfortable with some of Pataki's plans, he said his conference will search for revenue-raising "alternatives."
Pataki would close what he says is a $5.1 billion budget gap this year partly by ending a permanent sales tax exemption on clothing and shoe purchases that was supposed to return in June. Instead, he would allow only four tax-free shopping weeks. The plan would add $400 million this year.
The sales tax plan was among the first to be rejected by Silver, who said many consumers would be driven out-of-state. He also faulted Pataki for not setting up the money needed to fund future education obligations in New York City.
The governor also proposed delaying $440 million in pension fund payments under a "reform" plan that would further save local governments $800 million this year. However, Comptroller Alan Hevesi called the proposal unconstitutional.
Pataki promised to avoid layoffs of government workers but pledged to continue a hiring freeze and to take measures that reduce agency costs.
Calling it a "sick tax," Silver said he could not tolerate Pataki's proposed assessments on hospitals, nursing homes and home care providers that the governor expects would raise $323 million. He also said Pataki's education plan would deny schools $240 million that would normally be provided under current formulas.
The governor said he intends to pump $84 million into the state rainy day fund, bringing the reserve to $794 million. The money is available thanks to about $1 billion in additional, one-time federal dollars that helped balance this year's $98.2 billion budget and provided a small surplus, Pataki said.
General fund spending, which relies on taxes, would fall 0.4 percent under the 2004-05 budget plan to $41.88 billion.
The governor called for controlling Medicaid costs to save $425 million. He also proposed the state assume the local share of Medicaid-provided long-term care in a phased-in approach that would save counties and New York City $220 million this year.
He promised to stick by a schedule that will shave $500 million in taxes over time, and added a new, potential tax-cut called "STAR Plus." The initiative would allow homeowners to receive their entire school taxes back if their school districts cap spending.
Public unions and independent analysts said the budget proposal seemed like a fair starting point for the negotiations. Diana Fortuna, director of the Citizen's Budget Commission, however, noted that the governor relies on $1.5 billion in one-time revenues -- "one-shots" -- to balance the budget, and worried about the $2.8 billion gap predicted by Pataki for 2005-06 and $4.34 billion gap for 2006-07. E.J. McMahon, an analyst with the conservative Manhattan Institute, faulted Pataki for doing nothing to ease the income tax and spending increases passed by the Legislature.
The executive budget, however, sets the stage for speedy legislative approval, he said.
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>> INDIAN COUNTRY WATCH...DEMOCRACY?
Tribe Seeks to Oust Members in Money Fight
ASSOCIATED PRESS
TEMECULA, Calif. (AP) - Members of a Southern California tribe are fighting an attempt to remove them from the tribe's ranks in a dispute over who is entitled to a share of millions of dollars in casino revenue.
Leaders of the Pechanga Band of Luiseno Mission Indians argue that the key ancestor of the group they want to evict - 10 percent of the current membership - cut her ties with the reservation 80 years ago.
If ousted, the 130 people affected could lose their $10,000 a month, plus their reservation homes, health care and senior benefits, tribal jobs and education money.
The members are seeking a federal court order barring the tribe's enrollment committee from dumping them. Tribal leaders maintain that neither state nor federal courts have the right to intervene.
A call to tribal chairman Mark Macarro's office was not answered Saturday, and tribal councilman Russell "Butch" Murphy did not immediately return a call seeking comment.
Around the nation, the Pechanga tribe isn't the only one struggling to define its membership as profits accrue from tribal casinos. The federal government gives tribes wide discretion in defining their members. Some require one-fourth, one-eighth or 1/32nd blood; others have less precise descendancy standards.
Individual tribes are not compelled to disclose how much money their casinos produce, but the total revenue generated by California's 53 casino-owning tribes is estimated at about $5 billion a year.
In the Pechanga tribe, the people whose membership is in dispute claim descent from Manuela Miranda, granddaughter of Pablo Apish, who received a 2,223-acre land grant in 1845.
Attorney Jon Velie, who represents the group facing ouster from the tribe, said the enrollment committee claims his clients don't have sufficient documentation to prove their descent and that their enrollment should never have been approved.
He said the enrollment committee also maintains that Manuela Miranda moved off the reservation and cut her ties to the tribe.
On the Net:
Pechanga: http://www.pechanga.com/
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>> NYC WATCH...WHAT TOOK YOU SO LONG?
Mapping Software Jolts City Governments
By BRIAN BERGSTEIN
ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW YORK (AP) - The bureaucratic, pothole-plagued world of big-city government is making creative use of sleek, innovative technology.
Specialized mapping software helped New York plot the addresses of people who had called to complain about having lost their heat during a recent cold snap. That helped determine precisely where the city should set up "heating centers" for New Yorkers to huddle in.
In fact, officials can make a few mouse clicks to see any number of trends swirling in the city of 8 million people: which neighborhoods are low on fire trucks, where the West Nile virus has appeared, or which streets were recently paved and should be off limits to digging.
Other cities too are increasingly using the technology to infuse efficiency and clarity into what would otherwise be simple civic drudgery.
The system, known as the Citywide Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Utility, combines aerial photography, census figures, crime statistics and other information submitted by city agencies and local utilities. Any or all of it can be overlaid on an interactive map that is so detailed it shows curb lines, trees, wires, traffic rules and vehicle height restrictions.
Cities and insurance companies have long produced minutely detailed maps of their realms. And in recent decades, individual agencies in many cities fired up mapping software to track their specific regulatory matters.
But until recently, city agencies and contractors have shared their information in any number of time-consuming ways, including just calling each other by phone.
Newer mapping systems, in contrast, use improvements in computer processing power to blend many different kinds of information from disparate agencies, vastly aiding urban planning.
In New York, for example, fire engine dispatchers generally heard about street closures in an ad hoc fashion - from firefighters who noticed roadblocks while on a grocery run or even while rushing to blazes. Now dispatchers can see street closures directly, by checking what transportation officials have added to the map database on their end.
GIS also has become a powerful homeland security tool.
New York's system, which has cost about $20 million to develop over the past decade, helped coordinate emergency responders on Sept. 11, 2001. And in the aftermath, the underlying map was combined with thermal data detected by low-flying planes to show where fires and dangerously hot steam lurked in the World Trade Center rubble.
Now, the GIS system is aiding security plans for this summer's Republican National Convention at Madison Square Garden.
Previously, such plans relied heavily on "paper maps that showed no more than a thin line representing a street," said Lawrence Knafo, deputy commissioner of the city's information-technology department.
While that helped determine which streets should be closed, or where to position police officers, the new system lets authorities do much more.
For example, GIS can measure streets and sidewalks to determine how many people will fit in a given space. Or building floor plans can be overlaid on the map, giving emergency agencies a wider perspective on how to plan for problems - and react to them if necessary.
"By assessing the location of something and then combining it with what's around it, you're able to make a decision you were never able to make before," said Erich Seamon, GIS manager for San Francisco, where City Hall uses mapping software to monitor resources and police tap it to track crimes by location.
In fact, GIS is so good at changing how things get done that some resistance is inevitable.
In a test on Staten Island, New York City officials used the system's knowledge of building sizes at each address to estimate the amount of garbage that certain streets ought to produce. The data helped plot the most efficient routes for trash pickup.
But officials in the technology department said they feared that expanding the mapping function to garbage pickup elsewhere in the city could rankle the sanitation workers' union.
Harry Nespoli, president of the union, said he was unaware of the GIS test, but expressed doubt that trash service could be improved by software.
"We are not computers, you know. We are human beings," he said. "Does a computer get lunch time? Does a computer sprain his ankle? Does a computer die like one of my members did the other day? We have very, very efficient managers on this job. They came up through the ranks. They know the best way to pick up the garbage."
Overall, however, not much about these systems is controversial. Their most sensitive data are walled off from the public on secure servers.
However, some morsels are plugged into public Web sites in New York and San Francisco, for example, that combine aerial images, zoning records and information about local schools, government representatives or cultural attractions.
New Zealand uses spatial software to make sure tectonic shifts are reflected in property records. In California's vineyard-rich Sonoma County, agricultural commissioners rely on GIS to decide whether to grant pesticide-spraying permits, because they can check within minutes what schools, homes and medical facilities lie near the fields in question.
"It's still an emerging technology, but it's come a long way in the last couple of years," said Paul Buzanski, Sonoma County's GIS manager. "It's almost endless what we can do with it."
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>> DISEASE WATCH...
Mystery Affliction in Sudan Baffles Experts
By EMMA ROSS
ASSOCIATED PRESS
KACNGUAN, Sudan (AP) - Martha Halim, stricken with mysterious seizures, lives in fear. She is terrified of the moon's phases, afraid of eating and fearful of fires, rivers and ponds.
Her parents have tried everything. She's been to a hospital, she's seen a Western doctor and she's taken anti-epileptic drugs.
The 13-year-old has even been to witch doctors. She followed the advice of one, crawling through a termite mound while her parents slit the throat of a goat.
She gives a grim description of what it's like when her disease overpowers her.
"When it comes, it looks like a black cloud but in the shape of a human," said Martha. "That's all I know. At the end, I find myself on the floor."
Martha suffers from a strange affliction called "nodding syndrome," apparently unique to southern Sudan. Its young victims tend to nod vigorously at the sight of food. The condition often progresses to severe seizures, mental retardation and death.
Martha fell into a fire last year when she had a seizure while cooking. Her right leg is disfigured by a severe burn from knee to foot; she protected it with a soiled beige rag.
Her father, Neen Majak, says he has nearly given up hope. Anti-epileptic drugs haven't helped and neither have the remedies of witch doctors.
The affliction, which has been found in about 300 children so far, baffles experts. The World Health Organization began investigating it about two years ago, around a year after Martha's symptom first appeared.
Peter Spencer, an American neurotoxicologist who has investigated the condition for WHO, encountered another 13-year-old girl with a bizarre variation of the illness.
"I was able to demonstrate with her that she was a regular nodder with local food and by contrast she did not nod when eating a variety of American food - candy bars or whatever. It was absolutely staggering," he said.
As she sits on a sisal mat with her parents under the shade of a tree beside their mud huts, Martha says no treatment has helped her.
One traditional healer claimed that Martha's aunt, who was killed by lightning a few years ago, had bewitched the girl. Following his advice, the family held a ceremony attended by the entire village and sacrificed a sheep.
Recently, another traditional healer told the family to take the girl into the forest to wash the bad spirit away.
"He told us to bring a black goat and a red hen and make a tunnel in a termite hill," Majak said. "She crawled through the hole back and forth three times. Then we had to kill the goat and the hen in sacrifice."
"You can consider her a dead person, because she is not going to marry and she is going to die of this disease," her father says. "If this treatment doesn't work, then all I can do is wait to let the child die."
Experts say a few children recover. Doctors with WHO think the disease may be related to a disorder seen in Uganda called Nakalanga syndrome, which also has symptoms of convulsions, stunted growth and sometimes nodding.
Spencer's investigation has found no obvious environmental causes. He wouldn't rule out a food connection, but said it is unlikely.
"What was striking is that the majority of the population that is affected by this disease in southern Sudan has a different lifestyle from the itinerant Dinka people, who are sort of herders. They are not affected by this disease," he said.
Spencer said one theory that cannot be ruled out, although it is not a leading suspicion, is the disease could have come from eating monkeys. Ebola can be spread to humans by chimpanzees. AIDS also made its way from primates to humans.
Spencer and other investigators believe nodding syndrome could be connected to river blindness, a disease transmitted by the blackfly, which is particularly widespread in southern Sudan. Martha and several other members of her family are afflicted.
Unraveling the mystery of nodding syndrome is a question of money and time, Spencer said.
"If we're smart, we will unravel it. We won't let it burn on like we did HIV," he said. "You just cannot imagine a greater disaster for a community than their children being hit in this way."
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GAO Calls for CDC Management Revision
By JEFFREY McMURRAY
ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON (AP) - The federal agency that steered the country through anthrax and SARS should consider changes in its management structure so programs don't suffer when public health emergencies arise, congressional investigators said Friday.
While it praised improvements the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has made to its response capabilities, the report by the General Accounting Office depicted an agency where assignments are sometimes duplicated and the chain of command is often unclear.
CDC officials acknowledged the concerns but said the review was launched prior to Julie Gerberding's confirmation as director. Gerberding has begun a top-to-bottom examination of the agency, its structure and mission.
"It's not that anything is broken, but this initiative is really an opportunity to examine priorities, systems and practices right now to ensure we have success down the road," said Tom Skinner, CDC's spokesman.
The GAO, the investigative arm of Congress, noted that Gerberding has direct authority over the 11 centers across the country that perform the bulk of CDC's public health work. When an emergency occurs, such as anthrax or SARS, her attention - and that of other top CDC officials - is often diverted, "leaving little time for focusing on non-emergency public health work and agency operations," the GAO said.
The agency recommended that those centers report to someone other than the director, perhaps in a newly created position.
Skinner said Gerberding has begun meeting regularly with the directors of all the centers, enabling them to get information from one another.
The agency also recently established a chief operating officer, who is responsible for financial management and information technology. The GAO praised the addition.
Still, problems remain, it found. For example, the deputy director for Science and Public Health has duties that often duplicate those of the deputy director for Public Health Service. The former is listed as being in charge of agency reports, guidelines and outbreak investigations, while the latter focuses on specific issues such as HIV policies, violence prevention and occupational safety.
The congressional investigators cited an internal CDC document from October 2001 that concluded the agency was running four separate emergency operation centers, presenting an "uncoordinated command and control environment."
A top official in Gerberding's office told GAO investigators that during the anthrax incidents, there weren't formal leadership protocols in place for crisis management decisions.
Gerberding has often said that anthrax helped direct the focus of the agency and improve its response time. CDC created a media center to get the latest information out fast - even if the information had to be altered or expanded later.
SARS, the deadly respiratory disease first detected in China, gave the agency its first real test of a new state-of-the-art emergency operations center.
Skinner said CDC now knows better how to communicate with the general public about emergencies - an improvement he expects will spill into non-emergency work.
"We are closely examining the many lessons learned in our response to those imminent threats," he said. "We'll take the best practices from those experiences and institute those into our other public health domain."
On the Net:
CDC: http://www.cdc.gov/
GAO: http://www.gao.gov/
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