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Archived stories from Saturday, February 7, 2009 through Monday, April 6, 2009

TIDBITS

3/19: LITTLE VALLEY TRUSTEE TIE-VOTE SHOCK: KEENAN 49, PASCHEN-POOLE 49 ALL ABSENTEE BALLOTS COUNTED WILL GO TO COIN TOSS... WHAT I KNOW SO FAR. The Paschen-Poole campaign is despondent right now... they were expecting this to be a slam-dunk. Both sides are expecting a coin toss to resolve this. According to word from Kevin Burleson, an election commissioner, in the event of a tie the village gets to declare the seat vacant and appoint whoever they want. That's not necessarily true; as I understand it, a coin toss is held in the event of a tie. Further causing problems is that the seat technically already is vacant and that Paschen-Poole is filling the seat on an interim basis already. I'm going to see what else I can find out about this as soon as I can... developing... 3/17: Decked the site out in St. Paddy's Day green and the colors of Ireland. 3/4: Well, let me put it this way: I am not at all surprised at the proposal put forth by Cattaraugus-Little Valley last night to reshuffle the elementary schools: shuffle the kindergarteners all to Cattaraugus and the grades 3-5 to Little Valley. Yeah, that's the ticket. More on this story this afternoon after I get back from work. 3/2: Report says Little Valley snowmobiler Dave Davis, 59, injured his chest and back after his vehicle hit an icy patch and overturned. Davis grooms the trails for Snowbounders, the local snowmobile club. 2/28: Milk prices are down 30-50 cents a gallon at Brooks Market, haven't looked at the other stores in a few months... gas prices remain steady.

UNBELIEVABLE: NY-20 special election (east of Albany) too close to call, with only 65 votes separating the two candidates out of 150,000 cast... will go to absentees... developing...

REPORTS: BUDGET DEAL REACHED... DETAILS: Grand total of $131.8 billion, up over $10 billion from Spitzer's budget last year and continuing an upward spiral several times the rate of inflation. Bottle bill passes, water bottles included, juice is not. Wine will NOT be allowed to be sold in stores. Income tax bracket tipping point shifts from $40,000 to $300,000, but taxes increased on the upper bracket from 6.85 to 8.97 percent. No sales tax increase. (Newsday) (Buffalo News)... 3/29

UPDATE: BACK ON THE GRID. TROJAN HAS BEEN REMOVED.
EDITOR'S NOTE: Due to a stubborn trojan infecting the Fullervision laptop, full-scale updates (now being done from the parents' desktop) will be delayed for a few days until I can find a way to disinfect it. Stuff to surf around for:
- State senate Republicans to filibuster tax increases
- Paterson to lay off ~9,000 after they refuse concessions, unions are P.O.'ed (about darn time)
- Time Warner's so-called "local" 24-hour news station is hiring no meteorologists and is getting its weather forecasts piped in from Syracuse. They bumped off the two stations from Erie in parts of Chautauqua County to make room from this channel. Gee, bumping a station that forecasts weather 30 miles away for a station that forecasts weather from nearly 200 miles away. That's Time Warner's idea of improving service. Yeah, right.

Seneca nation buys radio license in Little Valley: According to a report, the 105.9 frequency, which currently does not broacast but is licensed to the village, was owned by radio mogul Randy Michaels, and he sold that frequency to the Seneca nation for $250,000 (Scott Fybush)... 3/23
UPDATE 3/29: From what I've read about it... the Seneca nation plans on operating the station from the Allegany Reservation (probably Jimerson Town) to broadcast local and national programming (possibly Air America? Just my speculation...) to its reservations. The station will broadcast from atop a tower on Fourth Street, just south of the village of Little Valley, and will begin broadcasts on a limited schedule some time later this year with a full-service variety talk and music format. Now, as I understand it, radio stations are supposed to serve the towns to which they are licensed, something the Senecas do not appear to be doing. It appears to be a propaganda outlet in the making. I do not believe our town should be used for such a station. At the following link is a data sheet from the Federal Communications Commission regarding the station, including a map of its coverage area. (FCC data sheet on station)

REPORT: PATERSON PLANNING ONE-YEAR SALES AND INCOME TAX INCREASES... details: jacking up income taxes on persons above $500k, but most troubling, increasing sales taxes ½%, double the ¼% increase proposed by Sheldon Silver. Why does he like sales taxes so much?? (New York Post)... 3/23

Perfect storm: Maple syrup producers see good weather, high production, and good price supports as potential for a maple boom in the area (Utica Observer-Dispatch)... 3/20

REPORT: Barry Snyder quits Seneca Gaming board... developing... 3/20... oh, and happy spring.

If you live in a village in the state of New York, you probably have some sort of election this year. In Little Valley, the village has a special election to replace former trustee Annette Andrew, who left a few months into her term back in 2008. The candidates are interim trustee Ann Paschen-Poole and Andrew's former running mate, Kevin "Buffy" Keenan.

New York City judge: smoke shops are not sovereign (AP)... 3/17

NEW YORK STATE DIVERTS ROUTE 219 MONEY TO OTHER PURPOSES, EFFECTIVELY KILLING THE 219 EXPANSION PROJECT (BUFFALO NEWS)... CONGRESSMAN MASSA HAS NO CLUE WHAT'S GOING ON AND SAYS HE'LL "KILL [HIM]SELF" TO GET THE THING BUILT... DEVELOPING... 3/16

Welcome to one party rule in New York: Transparency? We don't need no stinking transparency! (WLEA)... 3/16

Requests for most government-assistance programs actually down in Cattaraugus County, but the Times Herald buries the lede (Olean Times Herald)... 3/16

BARRY SNYDER OUSTED FROM SENECA GAMING CORPORATION ON ALLEGATIONS OF CORRUPTION (Buffalo News)... 3/14

A FEW MORE OF PATERSON'S PROPOSED TAXES BITE THE DUST: In addition to the soda tax, Paterson drops his pushes for sales tax on downloads, haircuts, clothing, cable TV, and entertainment such as skiing, bowling, and movies. He then credits the stimulus for being able to do this. (Press release) Just wait a couple years... it'll be back.

The teachers' union basically says there are no bad teachers, just bad students. Ha! (Jamestown Post-Journal)... 3/11

Does he really think the Senecas are going to budge? Either way, Paterson's going to meet with the Senecas again in an attempt (and, in my opinion, a futile one at that) to negotiate (Dunkirk Observer)... 3/5

Eric Massa opposes housing bill, mainly because there's not enough for his district, then claims he's breaking ranks. Gee, you can't tell this guy's trying to keep his seat in 2010 (Olean Times Herald)... 3/5

No, I haven't abandoned the site, it has just been a really slow news week this week, and I didn't want to shift the whole page around for a couple of relatively minor stories. I have been doing some long-overdue updating on our radio page.

I've added a new section to the site: "Tidbits," mostly reports without links and/or personal comments. It's located above the list of links.

Warren County not happy with plans to expand Route 219-- it comes at the expense of extending a highway from Warren County to I-86 (Warren Times-Observer)... 2/21

Judge rules there is no right for Indians to sell cigarettes in New York (AP)... 2/19

Paterson: I'm not releasing the questionnaire I used to choose Hillary's successor (AP)... 2/19 Something fishy here...

Paterson flip-flops on the "tax the rich" scheme from a solid "NO" to a "well, maybe, if it's a last resort" (and given his dire predictions, I wonder how quickly that last resort will arrive)... while union goons chant "Tax the Rich" in a mob-like display (New York Post)... 2/16

Verizon to small towns: we won't even consider providing our digital television service to small towns for at least five years-- even as the cities and suburbs are getting the service now (Springville Journal)... 2/13

Flood warning for Olean, near flood stage, though appears to be retreating just short of that (river level)... 2/13

It's not officially a campaign yet, but Republicans have already started advertising against Massa over the massive trillion-dollar stimulus (NY Daily News)... 2/13
...while our neighbor to the north, Chris Lee, comments against the stimulus (Arcade Herald)... 2/13

Crash and burn (and no, I don't mean anyone's political career)-- plane crashes outside Buffalo, 49 confirmed dead (WKBW)... 2/13

One down, 87 to 136 to go: Paterson says "fat tax" on non-diet sodas is dead (WCBS via Drudge)... 2/12

PATERSON LAYS THE SMACKDOWN ON SENECAS: NO CIGARETTE TAXES, NO MORE CASINOS! (WESB)... 2/12

Paterson d'oh: "2009 may be the worst downturn in the economy in the history of this country" (WBNG)... 2/12 Yeah, except for the 1890s and 1930s... wow.

Oh, joy: Sheldon Silver proposes, in addition to expanding the sales tax to almost everything, actually increasing the sales tax on top of that! (AP)... 2/12

A brief synopsis on the potential of what could happen if Route 219 is ever finished-- the business may actually flow north again instead of south (Business First)... 2/11

State senate "Republicans" still haven't learned their lessons-- counting stimulus money before it's even been approved (AP)... 2/10

Where's Eric??? Eric Massa, the man elected on dubious circumstances as our Congressional representative, has mostly been silent since getting elected. His Web site is still a cookie-cutter template with no news. He has made very few statements, held one teleconference and one union-backed "town hall meeting", and issued no press releases since becoming Congressman. Other than his committee assignments, today, I found buried in a Buffalo News article Massa's first policy-related comments. Regarding bailout trimmings, Eric Massa is doing one of the few things he's ever done as a politician-- blame Republicans (Buffalo News)... 2/10

I swear, Cathy Young is going unhinged and is becoming so partisan it's disturbing (Post-Journal)... 2/9

Rick Lazio says recent losses spark opportunity for a new identity for the GOP (NY Daily News)... 2/8

Senator Gillibrand's constituents not too happy with her leftward tilt (New York Times)... 2/9

So, how y'all liking winter so far? 173 inches in Little Valley (National Weather Service)... 2/8

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