RIP: ERIC PETERS, 19, DROPPED
DEAD ON FIRST STREET IN LITTLE VALLEY WEDNESDAY NIGHT... HEART ATTACK,
HIGH BODY TEMPERATURE FACTORS IN DEATH... THOUGH HE WAS TOTALLY BRAIN
DEAD, DOCTORS ATTEMPTED TO KEEP HIM ALIVE THROUGH AN INDUCED COMA
THROUGH TODAY IN HOPES OF A MIRACLE, BUT HE DIED UPON TRYING TO PULL
HIM OUT OF THE COMA... 6/3
Democrats apparently have a sacrificial lamb for the race
against Catharine Young: Michael McCormick, who we first saw as a
longshot candidate for the Democrats for the open NY-29 seat, is
getting ready to file to get on the ballot (
WLEA)...
6/6
(Considering how Young is
both liberal and popular among Republicans, McCormick stands no chance.
Now, if a conservative candidate stood up, (s)he could make it a race.)
David Larimer doesn't think your voice matters, ignores the state
guidelines on calling a special election, and inexplicably declares
David Paterson's November 2 "special election on the same day as the
regular election" valid. Even though the judge clearly acknowledged the
vacancy, he did not compel the governor to call the special election
within 30 to 40 days as required by state law (
Liz
Benjamin)... 6/2
In dog bites man news... from New
York City: partisans oppose nonpartisan elections (
NY
Observer)... 6/2
Coming June 12: Ellicottville C.S.
and West Valley C.S. alumni to square off in charity football game (
Olean
Times
Herald)... 6/1
Republican Party state convention begins
this week in Westchester County, and there appears to be a lot of drama
coming: First, there's the governor's race: Rick Lazio, Carl
Paladino, Myers Mermel, and registered Democrat Steve Levy are all
vying for the nomination... there's also two senate races: Joe
DioGuardi, David Malpass and Bruce Blakeman are vying to run against
Kirsten Gillibrand, while Jay
Townsend and Gary Berntsen will face a primary election for the rights
to challenge Chuck Schumer... AG race and comptroller race
both appear settled... we may see a no-confidence vote against the
state party chairman, because there are a lot of people in the party
extremely upset at how incompetent the Republicans have been especially
after how much the Democrats have run this state into the ground the
past two years... 6/1
Update from the NYSRC: Lazio
appears to have reached the nomination for governor... Levy appears
likely to fail to reach the threshold for a Wilson Pakula and appears
to be eliminated from contention... Paladino does slightly better than
expected but has not gained automatic ballot access, though he gave
quite the speech; he appears ready to push ahead with petition plans...
CATTARAUGUS COUNTY DECLINES TO VOTE, ONLY COUNTY TO DO SO... Chautauqua
goes Lazio, Allegany goes Levy. 6/2
REMEMBER THE FALLEN: HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY FROM
FULLERVISION. IN HONOR OF:
- JOHN CHASE FULLER
(1756-1835), AMERICAN REVOLUTIONARY WAR
- MYRLE FRANK FULLER
(1917-1977), WORLD WAR II
- EDWARD JOSEPH
FULLER (1946-1991), VIETNAM WAR
Umm...
wow: Driving down the road at four times the legal limit, with
kids on the hood of a moving car, in Cold Spring (
WIVB)...
5/30
And
the NY-29 potential primary gets even more complicated: Janice
Volk, of Cuba, enters the race for NY-29 (
Hornell
Evening
Tribune)... Volk would face off against frontrunner Tom
Reed and pizza shop owner Angelo Campini in the Republican primary
election. It would not affect the special election if it takes place in
the summer. 5/30
Someone
is
in deep doo-doo: I have so far avoided getting myself
publicly involved in my father's crusade against Cattaraugus-Little
Valley Central School-- but someone is in pretty deep trouble now. If
you recall, Kent Joesel, already on the board, received 59 write-in
votes on one ballot and David Shinners got 56. There was some crossover
between the two and CLV does not use pooling-- meaning you could vote
the same person in multiple slots, though if someone won multiple seats
they could only fill one. Here's where things get unusual: Shinners and
Joesel were also the second-place vote getters on each other's ballot.
Furthermore, at least one of the vote tallies is a lie. My father voted
for himself for both seats. I voted for him for both seats, plus as a
write-in against Cheryl Wilder (her daughters-- the Schreiner sisters--
and I had a falling-out several years ago). Because CLV does not pool
votes, this is entirely legal, and he should have had at least two
votes in each category. Todd Fuller was reported as getting only one
vote, according to the
official
CLV
news
release, which was listed under the Joesel seat. I've
stayed out of this because although we agree that the school is
corrupt, he wants to pursue one track of evidence and I, having lived
through some of the corruption myself as a student through the first
four years of the school's existence, have personally experienced
another. It's a matter of experiences. This, however, is an issue on
which we both agree.
I hope nobody plans on manufacturing any electronic equipment in New
York, because the state of New York is about to make it an even bigger
pain in the foot (
WIVB)...
5/29
More
proof,
in
case
you
needed any more, that Catharine Young is firmly
parked in the back pockets of the teachers' unions: Young,
despite not having a single charter school in her district, votes
against increasing the cap on them (
Liz
Benjamin)... 5/28 Update 5/29: Watch for Young's talking point
being that 114 of the charters would be reserved for New York City,
less than half of the total. The proliferation of charter schools in
rural areas has so far been an absolute failure.
Gubernatorial race update, or, things
just keep getting stranger: Mike Long gets stiffed, as he's
unable to block a placeholder ticket headed by Paladino backer Ralph
Lorigo, from forcing a primary ballot... Rick Lazio, Long's preferred
candidate, just barely gets enough support to earn the Wilson Pakula (
Jimmy
Vielkind)... 5/28
You figure this one out: the
state has passed a bill that spares state parks from closure, just in
time for Memorial Day weekend, meaning Long Point on Chautauqua Lake
will open (
AP).
According
to
the
Times
Herald, Allegany State Park's beaches WILL NOT be open until late
June, as opposed to previous years, when they opened them on weekends
beginning Memorial Day. Now, the interesting part: Catharine Young
campaigned to re-open the parks. Then she voted against the bill that
reopened them, for purely partisan reasons (
Liz
Benjamin). 5/28
Fancher fallout: Six juveniles,
ranging from 12 to 15, charged with felonies-- and yet no names are
being released (
Olean
Times
Herald)... 5/28
Some
things never change: According to a gossip piece in the
New
York
Post, there is yet more pondering of taxing high earners
again. (Never mind taxing expatriates or assets-- let's go after income
and keep beating the same dead horse.) 5/27
Eric Massa is messed up in the head (
WGRZ)...
5/25
A troubling sign: Andrew Cuomo's campaign finance reform proposal
appears to exempt labor unions (
New
York
Observer)... 5/25
Killer train,
apparently by coincidence, kills two people in one trip (
WGRZ)...
5/23
Something is just so
fitting
about this: Andrew Cuomo, son of former governor Mario Cuomo and
current attorney general, ends his months of hiding and comes out as a
gubernatorial candidate today-- just five months before the election--
in front of a courthouse named after the notoriously corrupt "Boss
Tweed" (
AP)
(
Liz
Benjamin)... 5/22
Numerous reports: Rick Lazio, current
frontrunner for the Republican nomination for governor, has selected
Greg Edwards, of neighboring Chautauqua County, as his running mate...
5/19
School board
election day... votes on budgets and school board members
forthcoming... C-LV has lack of willing candidates and for the second
year running has two more open spots than they do candidates; as such,
they have proposed cutting the board from 9 seats to 7.
Budget, as usual, passes (sadly), as have
all budgets in the county, apparently (update: WGRZ reports
Allegany-Limestone was rejected)... voters also approve the
board-cutting process... Kent Joesel, despite already having a seat on
the board that doesn't expire until 2014, gets 59 votes as the leading
write-in getter (thus assuring the board will have a vacant seat to
cut), and Little Valley town board member David Shinners was next with
56... Chautauqua County has a higher rate of failure, according
to the Post-Journal, including city of Jamestown's... 5/18
County justice at work: 17-year-old charged in a felony "sexting" crime
after sending around naked pictures of his girlfriend...
the girlfriend has not been charged...
(
Buffalo
News) 5/18
I have just received word that Steve Taylor, pastor of the Little
Valley United Methodist Church, has been reassigned to the UMC in
Panama (in Chautauqua County, not Central America) and will be leaving
his post here. I wish him the best of luck in his endeavor.
It took this long? After 16
years, Cattaraugus County finally gets around to arresting the wife of
a man who was murdered in 1994 for the murder (
Buffalo
News)... 5/18

FIRE BREAKS OUT OUTSIDE
SALAMANCA AREA BEVERAGE IN LITTLE VALLEY... BARN IMMEDIATELY BEHIND THE
PLANT IS A TOTAL LOSS... IT APPEARS THE MAIN BUILDING IS NOT
THREATENED...
5/15
THE LATIN CAUCUS STRIKES
AGAIN-- AND THIS TIME IT MAY CAUSE A TOTAL SHUTDOWN! Ruben Diaz,
one of the "Three Amigos" (along with Pedro Espada and the now-expelled
Hiram Monserrate) that has been a thorn in the Democrats' side, is
hospitalized with "crippling stomach pain" and may miss the next vote
for a budget extender, according to
Liz
Benjamin. Without Diaz, the Democrats lack a quorum, by
technicality: the group needs a majority vote and would only have
exactly half the seats in the chamber. Assuming the Republicans vote
no, that would leave 30 nays and 31 yeses without Diaz. Though it would
be a plurality, it would not be a majority. Because Richard Ravitch's
casting vote only gets invoked in the event of a tie, a 31-30 vote
means he is ineligible to use it and automatically defaults to not
passing. Furthermore, if the Democrats let one other member abstain to
qualify for Ravitch's casting vote, the casting vote again brings them
only to 31-- one vote short. Without an extender, the government
automatically goes into shutdown. 5/15 UPDATE 5/16: Diaz is temporarily
out of the hospital, for now, but solely to avoid the perception he is
filibustering. He'll swing back into session to vote on the extender,
then head home again. There is still no diagnosis on his condition,
though Diaz claims an inflamed pancreas might be to blame.
THIS IS CLEARLY NOT LEGAL:
Despite the US Constitutional requirement of issuing a writ of election
for a vacancy, and state law indicating he has to hold it within 40
days, Paterson clearly ignores it and sets the special election for the
same day as the general election, which basically means no special
election and no representation in November (
Liz
Benjamin)... George Winner says (and I quote): "Is he kidding?!" (
Corning
Leader)... 5/12 Update 5/14: As I suspected-- according to state
law, he cannot wait past July 1 to call a special election in any
circumstance (
Jimmy
Vielkind)...
I've had
enough. It's time to impeach. UPDATE 5/15:
WLEA
reports that the judge hearing the case has denied a motion from the
Paterson administration to dismiss the pending litigation against him,
and the case will go forward.
Richard
Brodsky, an ally of Sheldon Silver, proposes eliminating the State
Senate (
Gannett)...
5/12
Richard
Ravitch is crazy: He proposes, in order to provoke budget
passage, that he shut down the entire Department of Motor Vehicles-- in
other words, if you don't have a license or ID card now, under the
Ravitch plan, you won't be allowed to get one at all. The whole thing
is intended to provoke unrest and pressure on the state to pass a
budget. Never mind that the DMV is one of the places that MAKES money
for the state. (
YNN)...
5/11
DAYS
OF RECKONING: Tonight (5/10), 7:00, at the town offices on Third
Street, the Little Valley town board hears the findings of a panel
responsible for figuring out what caused the budget
whoops back in February... then, tomorrow (5/11) at 7:00, the
Cattaraugus-Little Valley board meets in Little Valley to explain how
they were able to magically jack up their budget 14% and yet still have
no change in the tax levy...
The
end of an era: Verizon asks the state of New York to stop
having to send free phone books to all of its customers (
AP)...
5/8
Say goodbye to Quality Markets and say hello to Tops! (
Jamestown
Post-Journal)... 5/8
FORMER
PHILADELPHIA
FURNITURE/FANCHER
FACTORY
IN
SALAMANCA
CATCHES
FIRE
AND
BURNS
TO
THE
GROUND...

APPEARS
TO
BE
TOTAL
LOSS...
BUILDING
HAD
BEEN
CLOSED/ABANDONED
FOR
ABOUT
A
YEAR
AND
WAS
SET
TO
GO
UP
FOR
AUCTION...
CAUSED
CLOUD
OF
SMOKE
VISIBLE
AND
CAN
BE
SMELLED
FROM
LITTLE
VALLEY...
REPORTS:
POWER
DOWN
IN
PARTS
OF
THE
CITY,
SPREADING
TO
TREES
AND
CAUSING
NUMEROUS
BRUSH
FIRES...
UPDATE
8
P.M.
BUILDING
HAS
COLLAPSED...
REPORTS
OF
LUMINITE
AND
SALAMANCA LUMBER ALSO BEING AFFECTED BY THE FIRE... THE BLOCK
SURROUNDING THE FACTORY HAS BEEN EVACUATED AND CLOSED OFF... AS OF 10
P.M., THE CLOSED-OFF AREA HAS SHRUNK AND THE FIRE APPEARS TO HAVE BEEN
MOSTLY CONTAINED... INTERSTATE 86 IS JAMMED WITH TRAFFIC... RADAR LOOP
SHOWS HEAVY RAIN TO COME SHORTLY, BUT THE WIND SHIFT COULD PUT OTHER
BUILDINGS IN PERIL... WGRZ, WIVB, WKBW, WESB AND SPECIAL E-FECTS ALL
HAVE EXTENSIVE PICTURES AND VIDEO OF THE INCIDENT... BUFFALO NEWS
REPORTER SAYS THAT THE SENECA NATION CLAIMS THAT THE PROPERTY IS
THEIRS?! I KNOW FOR CERTAIN THAT THAT PIECE OF LAND WAS ON THE COUNTY
ROLLS, NOT THE SENECAS'. IT WAS SUPPOSED TO GO UP TO THE NEXT BIDDER AT
THE NEXT AUCTION. THE ONLY WAY THE SENECAS WOULD OWN IT WOULD BE
THROUGH TEMPORARY GUARDIANSHIP. ARSON IS SUSPECTED AND THE PERPETRATORS
ARE REPORTEDLY IN CUSTODY... as of Sunday evening, it appears five
juveniles will be charged in association with the crime; their names
have not been released... fire is under control as of Saturday
morning though portions of the block remain closed to traffic. The
final tally shows Luminite offices and Fancher building totally
destroyed, but all surrounding buildings, including Salamanca Lumber,
appear to have been spared, and power has been restored to most of
those affected. Luminite has other operations in other buildings and
it's not clear what impact losing the offices will have on the company.
A similarly sized fire had taken place on a nearby site in 1976 at the
former Ethan Allen plant.
DEVELOPING...
MORE:
WGRZ
-
WIVB
-
WKBW -
Special
E-Fects -
Olean
Times
Herald -
Buffalo
News -
Jamestown
Post-Journal
JOE BRUNO SKATES: TWO YEARS IN
PRISON...
BUT ONLY AFTER SCOTUS RULES ON THE HONEST SERVICES STATUTE (AND THERE'S
NO TIMETABLE ON THAT), SO HE'S A FREE MAN INDEFINITELY UNTIL THEN (BN)...
CATHARINE
YOUNG
REFUSES
TO
COMMENT (
Buffalo
News)... 5/7
So when Joe DioGuardi picks up virtually every Conservative Party
county endorsement to date, but Bruce "Oleana" Blakeman picks up the
support of the brother of Michael Long (the state party leader)... Mike
Long can't admit his capricious endorsement of Blakeman, so he says
it's wide open (?!) (
City
Hall
News)... 5/7 (Any more evidence that Mike Long is corrupt?)
While Paterson fiddles... NY-29
loses its spot on the house agriculture committee-- the spot previously
held by Randy Kuhl and Eric Massa has since been handed to NY-23
Democrat Bill Owens (
Watertown
Daily
Times, via Liz Benjamin)... 5/6
RINO: George Winner opposes
furloughing government employees (
WLEA)...
5/6
Sheldon Silver: Joe
Bruno? We never worked together-- ever (
YNN)...
5/4
(Apparently he has amnesia over 12 years of the two of them
being three men in a room with Governor Pataki.)
SENATE PRESIDENT MALCOLM
SMITH'S GOAL: REDISTRICT AND GERRYMANDER THEIR WAY INTO PERMANENT POWER
(
City
Hall
News, via Celeste Katz)... 5/3
Update
5/4: Smith is backtracking... now lets slip the other part of
the master plan: shift the demographics and drive Republicans out of
the state (
Liz
Benjamin)...
Learning more about Matthew Zeller:
It appears the "fiscal conservative" label that Zeller was floating
around is a bunch of hooey. He supports the stimulus bill, won't
make a stance on the unpopular individual mandate of the health care
bill, and has taken many of the Democrats' partisan talking points (
Corning
Leader)... 5/3
...and on a related note: Republican committees have dropped out of the
lawsuit over the special election, but three voters (two Republican,
one Democrat) will continue the suit as plaintiffs (
Sean
Carroll)... one, Carl Edwards, is from the moribund village of
Limestone.
On the campaign trail: Carl
Paladino, Republican candidate for governor, spotted in Olean (
Olean
Times
Herald)... 4/30
This isn't directly related to this district, but it does affect the
one to our northeast: Dale Volker, a longtime ally of Joe Bruno and
widely considered to be part of the entrenched Senate elite, is calling
it quits at the end of this term. 4/30
THE GIG IS UP: PATERSON TO FURLOUGH STATE
EMPLOYEES (
Liz
Benjamin)... union head's reaction was
one
ambiguous
word (read my comment at the bottom)... 4/27
The village of Little Valley has begun curbside cleanup of lawn debris
for the spring season... the posters say Mondays but the schedule
appears to be more often than that (they seem to be going by request,
so call the village to request cleanup). 4/27
Transportation heads-up: It is
official, the green Center Street bridge spanning the Allegheny River
in West Salamanca that has been in use since 1939 has officially been
condemned, and will no longer
allow traffic across it effective today. The process to demolish the
bridge and replace it with a more modern one is underway and is not
expected to finish until next year. However, unlike the last time the
bridge closed, an outlet bridge across the Little Valley Creek on West
State Street has been opened so that people in West Salamanca do not
have to go two extra miles out of their way to access either the Main
Street or the Route 219 bridges in the center of the city. 4/26
Update 4/29: I have received word
that the closure has been delayed to May 10; until that time the bridge
remains open to traffic...
Cattaraugus County Republican Party
endorses Democrat Steve Levy for governor (
Albany
Times
Union)... 4/26
Seneca businesses caught illegally
trafficking cigarettes to a notorious Long Island tribe... and the
Senecas take credit for busting everyone but themselves (
Buffalo
News)... 4/25
Here we go: NY-29 Republican Party
to file lawsuit aiming to force a special election that so far,
Governor Paterson has refused to call (
Hornell
Evening
Tribune)... 4/23
Bill that would've proposed sweeping changes to farm labor laws killed
in state senate committee (
WLEA)...
4/23
Catharine
Young oversteps her bounds and interferes in the criminal justice
system (
WLEA)...
4/23
Is this really
necessary: proposed law in Olean would ban minors from playing bingo (
Olean
Times
Herald)... (what makes this extra weird is that the bingo
halls, who have every right to refuse service as they see fit, are the
ones who wanted this!) 4/22
Update
4/29: Saner heads have prevailed; at least one bingo hall has
come out and said we don't need this, and so the proposal was dropped (
TH)...
What we knew
all along: upstate property taxes, fueled by overpriced education, are
among highest in America and are driving residents out of the state--
particularly upstate (
Gannett)...
4/19
WHY DIDN'T MICHAEL CAPUTO DO MORE TO
DISPEL
THE QUESTIONABLE ACCURACY OF THE PALADINO E-MAILS? READ THE FULLERVISION
EXCLUSIVE
ARTICLE ON WHY
SOME OF WHAT YOU READ MAY NOT BE TRUE... 4/18
Not that we didn't know this already, but it pays to be well-connected
in New York State (
Kenneth
Lovett)... 4/18
Yeah, this is
REALLY going to save costs: pushing employed workers into retirement--
so instead of getting paid for a service, they're getting paid for
NOTHING! Brilliant "cost saving" measure, guys! (
James
Odato)... 4/14
The
Washington
Post is not letting up on Eric Massa, are they? (via Drudge) 4/13
Paterson in no
rush to pass the
budget, is willing to wait until the money runs out in June (
New
York
Post)... 4/12
Off the record: County legislators Carmen Vecchiarella (R-Salamanca)
and Norm Marsh (R-Little Valley) were spotted chatting at the Sixt
Lumber shop in Little Valley... when I walked in, the two scattered...
was unable to catch what the conversation was about. 4/12
Democrat-turned-Republican gubernatorial candidate Steve Levy spotted
in Olean trying to woo the Republican committee... and did he steal
that "Prince Andrew" line from Carl Paladino? (
Olean
Times
Herald)... 4/11
Must read:
Michael
Gormley's primer on the New York gubernatorial candidates... 4/11
Brazen: In the midst of a dispute over abuse of unpaid internships, our
appointed senator Gillibrand announces... unpaid internships that look
awfully easy to be abused (
Azi
Paybarah)... 4/9
There is currently a loophole in New York State law that allows parents
to serve their children alcoholic beverages even if those children are
under 21. Cattaraugus County wants to ban that, even in private
residences... the Republicans support the proposal but Democrats are
opposed (
Olean
Times
Herald)... 4/9
Tri-County Hospital in Gowanda condemned as uninhabitable... it seems
like we've gone without it for the past eight months or so without any
problems... but now they want to rebuild it at a cost of $10,000,000,
even after the state had told them to cut back their capacities because
it was costing too much (which, of course, led to Catharine Young
screaming like a stuck pig and the proposals getting nowhere)...
is this building really necessary? (
WGRZ)...
4/8
I never thought he would actually have
the guts to do this: Governor Paterson defunds the scheduled
employee raises (
Albany
Times-Union)... 4/8 (You can bet
the unions will sue over this-- and it might be the much-needed
showdown this state needs.)
UPDATE
4/13: Apparently it's only a partial freeze-- those that fall
under "step increases" are not frozen (
TU)...
very
disappointing.
More on Matthew Zeller, the man the Democrats have picked to run for
NY-29 if and when Paterson ever calls the special election: he's a
libertarian who appears to have more in common with Ron Paul than he
does with Obama... described as a fiscal conservative and a former
Republican who only switched to the Democrats because of the Bush
administration (he supported McCain in 2000 and was a supporter of the
Reagan administration)...
Democrats
allegedly
were
gauging
his
interest
before
Massa
even
announced
he
was
retiring (
Gannett)...
4/8
(I'd
like
to
hear
this
guy's
stand
on
the
stimulus
and
health
care.
If
he
supported
them,
then
all
this
is
just
politicking
and
B.S.
If
this
information
is
legitmate,
than
he
would
probably
have
opposed
those
things.
He
strikes
me
as
a
high
risk
to
change
back
to
the
GOP,
now
that
the
Bush
administration
is
gone.)
Something you don't see every day: public unions willing to consider
concessions, despite the demands of their union bosses (
Plattsburgh
Press-Republican via Newzjunky)... 4/8
From outside the region: in Westchester County, just as soon as a
member of the army reserve begins to make a serious challenge to an
entrenched Democrat, he gets conveniently called back to service (
Gannett)...
would
it
be
wrong
to
suggest
that
this
looks
like
funny
business
from
the
commander
in
chief?
4/8