[caption id="" align="alignright" width="200" caption="State Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos has changed his tune on nonpartisan redistricting, and is now working to block a bill from Gov. Andrew Cuomo that would set up a commission to handle such matters."][/caption]New York State Senate Democrats are protesting the legislative body's Republican majority attempt to scuttle Gov. Andrew Cuomo's redistricting bill by using a new reading of the chamber's rules to prevent senators from co-sponsoring the legislation. The main issue here, according to a story by Casey Seiler of the Times-Union, has to do with the redrawing of state assembly and senate boundaries, as well as those for U.S. Congress districts, a process known as "gerrymandering" that occurs every ten years following a U.S. Census. For decades, NYS reform advocates have complained state districts, as now drawn, tend to protect entrenched political power -- a charge supported by the state's high rate of incumbency. Last summer, former NYC Mayor Ed Koch put together a pledge for candidates to sign on to the creation of a nonpartisan commission to handle the redistricting this year, something Cuomo supported when he announced his similar bill earlier this month. But the state Senate's Republican Majority Leader Dean Skelos, who had previously supported nonpartisan redistricting and signed Koch's pledge, has since switched sides on the issue. By setting up roadblocks to co-sponsorship of the governor's bill, and turning down Senate Dems' requests to co-sponsor Cuomo's bill, it seems he's pushing hard now to actually keep gerrymandering in GOP hands. Look for this issue to heat up and dovetail with budget cuts and other matters underway in the Capital.

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="198" caption="Crossroads Brewery, in Athens, will benefit if new Schumer-backed BEER act gets passed."][/caption]When he came to Greene County to meet with local business and community leaders on President's Day, February 21, New York's senior U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer listened as representatives of the new Crossroads Brewery in the old Opera House in Athens asked about getting tax help for their struggling business, which has been open since last autumn selling growlers and kegs of its well-received microbrews. Now it seems Schumer was listening, or already had something up his sleeve, because the next day, February 22, he made a special announcement while touring Brown’s Brewing Company in Troy, "nibbling on toasted barley and chatting with employees," as the Troy Record's Katie Nowak reported. “It’s the new economy, right here,” Schumer said, before then announcing his support for bipartisan legislation called the Brewers Excise and Economic Relief Act, or BEER Act, which would give small local breweries, like Brown’s and Crossroads, a tax cut, ultimately helping them reinvest in their operations and expand their workforce. Breweries across the country currently pay a $7 excise tax on the first 60,000 barrels they brew annually. The BEER Act would cut that tax in half for breweries which produce fewer than six million barrels per year, to $3.50 per barrel, and would take $2 off the tax on the remaining barrels up to two million, allowing more funds for business development for the ancient trade.

The Register-Star has a follow-up on the case of the assistant county D.A. who resigned his position after messing up a recent case in the Columbia County courts. Now, according to reporter Andrew Amelinckx, "another case that former Assistant District Attorney John Hillman brought to the grand jury has been withdrawn by the District Attorney’s Office. This case involves Christina Santiago, a Hudson woman who was accused of falsely obtaining public assistance in Columbia County because she allegedly didn’t reside here, but later court proceedings seemed to indicate that she did." Santiago was in court before Judge Paul Czajka, being arraigned on a grand jury indictment that she was living in New York City while receiving assistance sstance in Hudson, on the same day that Hillman's other case involving gun charges unraveled. It was the second time Czajka had seen the charges, having dismissed another indictment that was essentially the same in August of last year based on his finding that “there was not legally sufficient evidence to support any of the counts of the indictment” presented at the grand jury proceedings. The judge, calling the presentation “fatally” impaired, stated that “substantial testimony” presented to the grand jury “should have been ruled inadmissible” due to hearsay and testimony based on “insufficient foundation.” While acknowledging that grand jury proceedings were different from criminal trials and required less proof and less precision, he chided Hillman on February 9 for failing to define an “essential term,” that is, “fraudulent welfare act.” The indictment was withdrawn Feb. 16. Hillman resigned his position with the Columbia County District Attorney’s Office earlier this month after the dismissal of another case in relation to the shooting of 26-year-old Jayson Williams in March 2010.

Proposed cuts to federal transportation grants are likely to end development of new public transit opportunities for low-income residents in Greene County, a report by Doron Tyler Antrim in the Daily Mail suggests. “Transportation in Greene and neighboring counties is a major obstacle for many who do not own their own vehicles,” Florence Ohle, executive director of Community Action of Greene County, is quoted saying. “Without personal, reliable transportation, it is impossible to find or maintain employment. For low-wage earners either just beginning a work history and who have not yet established credit … obtaining a car can be the difference between success and failure.” Before the recent rage for cutting government services state- and nation-wide, Greene County had been looking for ways to increase public transportation. No more. Two programs - community action offers people within 200 percent of the federal poverty level with children, or non-custodial parents paying child support, with transportation to their job, job training site or day care facility; and Wheels for Work provides auto loans to low-income parents or non-custodial parents paying child support - are both facing major cuts from sources ranging from the Greene County Legislature and the New York state Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance to the federal government program, Community Services Block Grant, that fund them, according to Ohle. She added that money from the federal stimulus swelled Greene County’s block-grant allocation to more than $500,000 last year, alongside $665,000 for home weatherization and the stocking of shelves at local food pantries. Now, Republicans and Tea Party supporters across the country are saying we can no longer afford such social service programs. But as midwestern battles over budget cuts and other matters heat up, it seems we are headed to a national standoff on the ways in which we look at our ideals of community over the coming generations. Stay tuned...

Local police delegation to honor hero cop
The Daily Mail, like all Hudson Valley newspapers today, has a story about local police agencies sending reps for the giant service being held in Dutchess County for Poughkeepsie police officer John Falzone, who was killed on duty January 18 after wrestling a three year old child from the hands of Catskill resident Lee Welch, who also killed his wife and then himself in the tragedy near the train station.

County space studies abound
In the wake of this week's county decision not to fund another space study for the proposed move of Social Service and other county services to the former Wal Mart facility in Greenport, Francesca Olsen of the Register-Star has a story about all the other space studies completed in recent years... and the time restraints county DSS has in its present home in Hudson.

FBI requests records from Kingston school district in Matthews probe
That case involving a Kingston city cop caught double-dipping for his private and public beats keeps stretching deeper into local governance, involving the local school district, but also possibly the way drug task force funding got spread among participating municipalities. We're waiting for this one to cross county lines before long...

Hundreds pepper DRBC with comments on drilling
The Watershed Post has some strong aggregate reporting on how those new hearings on gas drilling in the Delaware River basin are going, including video of the less-well-attended but still volatile and emotionally-wrenching events that are likely to shape state and federal regs concerning this controversial new energy industry.

RPI student on the inside for a 'first' in space
The Times Union has a piece up on a student at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute student, 21-year old Nathaniel Quillin, who is among a team of scientists that will soon put the first mechanical humanoid robot into space aboard space shuttle Discovery, which is scheduled to launch at 4:50 p.m. Feb. 24 after four months of mechanical and weather delays. The robot essentially looks like the top half of a person, or the video game character Metroid, and combines human dexterity with mechanical strength, and could eventually work outside the space station or on other risky jobs now performed by astronauts.

The National Weather Service says today will be partly cloudy this morning. A few snow showers developing during the afternoon. High 41F. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of snow 30 percent. Tonight will see snow changing to a wintry mix. Low 31F. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of precipitation 90 percent.

Town meetings tonight
CHATHAM Village Board meeting at 7:30 p.m. at Village Hall.
COPAKE Zoning Board of Appeals meeting at 7 p.m.
GERMANTOWN Planning Board meeting at 7 p.m.
STUYVESANT Greenway Committee meeting at 7 p.m.
COLUMBIA COUNTY Budget/Salary Committee at 10:00 a.m.
Public Works Committee at 6 p.m.

Astronomical bodies
TIDES Hudson: High, 7:43 a.m./Low, 2:28 p.m.
SUNRISE/SUNSET 6:38 a.m./5:38 p.m.
MOONRISE/MOONSET 12:38 a.m./10:02 a.m.

Birthdays
FEBRUARY 24 Wilhelm Grimm, Winslow Homer, Joe Lieberman, Steve Jobs, and Michelle Shocked.

Tune in today
HOMELESSNESS MARATHON Joan Geitz anchors WGXC's coverage of the 14th Annual Homelessness Marathon live from Kansas City. Geitz will have updates on the hour throughout the marathon. 6-8 a.m.
DEMOCRACY NOW! International news. 8-9 a.m.
TELL IT LIKE IT IS Live in-studio and phone interviews with Paul Mossman, Commissioner of Social Services of Columbia County; and Mark Dunlea, Associate Director of Hunger Action Network of NYS; and Tina Sharp from Columbia Opportunities, and others.
CROSSROADS Alan Skerrett’s weekly jazz-and-more show, noon-2 p.m.

Officials in Copake, Diane Valden of The Columbia Paper reports, are wrestling with sharing services with neighboring towns... and coming up with unexpected challenges. During an update from Town Accountant Michael Torchia on town financial matters at the February 10 Town Board meeting, she writes, the issue of who has and has not paid the town for fuel and how and when bills are generated was brought up by Councilwoman Linda Gabaccia, who noted that numerous agencies besides the town's Highway Department use the town's fuel supply at the town highway garage to gas up their vehicles. Those include the Craryville and Copake fire departments, the Copake Police Department, the Community Rescue Squad and the Columbia County Resident Deputy for Copake, Ancram and Gallatin, creating problems because everyone reimburses the town after it makes initial payments. Town Highway Superintendent Bill Gregory shared with Town Board members his frustration when he attempted to figure out who has paid for the fuel pumped dating back to 2009, noting how he sent out an email containing amounts the town had billed each agency and the amounts he knows were received, but on some of the accounts he had no record of payment and didn't know how to find out whether payment was made. Talk about modern complications... and the sorts of hard communications work we all need to do now to make everything work a bit more efficiently.

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="200" caption="Instead of pulling back on education, health and other service cuts, Gov. Andrew Cuomo's first major budget changes were to lighten oversight plas for Wall Street and the banking industry."][/caption]So Gov. Andrew Cuomo has already started shifting his budget, even before formal negotiations have begun up in the state capitol's red room on his plan for major cuts designed to stem rising shortfalls. BUt where did he begin? Despite wide worries regarding education hits and cuts to other services, from health to reining in domestic violence, the governor's first change was to pull back on his designs for a new state agency regulating both banking and insurance. According to the Albany Business Journal, Cuomo revealed the changes Wednesday, February 23 in amendments made to his $132.9 billion budget proposal, stating that he wants to combine the state’s banking and insurance departments into a new Department of Financial Regulation. He contends one super-agency will be better-suited to regulate increasingly complex financial markets, rather than multiple agencies doing their own thing. And yet Cuomo has scaled back his plans in response to lobbying from the banking, insurance and securities industries. "These amendments represent a significant improvement," said Michael Smith, president and CEO of the New York Bankers Association. "We’re clearly moving in the right direction." He has until late next week to make any further changes, when a legislative hearing on the proposal is set for March 7, in Albany.

The Register-Star has a story up this week about a presentation on Climate Smart Communities by Mark Lowrey of the New York state Office of Climate Change last week that reminded listeners that, because the Hudson River is tidal all the way to Troy, our riverfront communities could very well be facing sea level rises of three feet or more by the end of the century, wreaking havoc on riverside facilities from train tracks and wastewater treatment plants to marinas, homes, and roadways. And that, reporter Bob Green writes, is "just one of several effects of greenhouse gases in our atmosphere which are now being measured and forecast with better accuracy than ever before." Lowrey’s message to officials and planners who turned out at Town Hall was that, as the science and data become more reliable, there is much to be done at the local level. Planners should “take the impacts into account” when designing long-lived infrastructure and also when making decisions which impact emissions of CO2 whether by vehicles, buildings, or utility usage, Lowrey said. “Local governments will play a critical role,” he said, urging all municipalities can take advantage of the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), which “provides technical assistance to towns that want to reduce energy use, which reduces greenhouse emissions,” and operating costs, he said.

Wonder where many of your local town officials have been lately? If you started looking Sunday, you should have tried the New York Hilton first, where the New York State Association of Town's annual Training School and Annual Meeting was drawing to a close with cocktail parties and adieus this evening, after three nights of speeches, vendor displays and intensive workshops for town planners, highway department heads, clerks, and even supervisors and board members for three full days. Among highlights this year was a webinar, and other live seminars, on the whole gas drilling issue. Other matters of interest included shared services, maintaining state and federal funding in light of current cost-cutting efforts, infrastructure needs including dam safety and local road repairs, and ways to keep up with culvert changes made necessary by climate change. According to reports we've heard from attendees this week, many grouped around televisions to watch Wisconsin events in between informational sessions. More as our local representatives return this week.

Congressman Chris Gibson's getting his first taste of home turf protests against his Republican majority lockstep votes to date in two separate incidents planned for Thursday, February 24 at his offices in Kinderhook and Saratoga, starting at 12 noon. Meanwhile, a local Tea Party group out of Kingston is drumming up folks from their ranks to come out to both events, claiming they've been organized by MoveOn and need "patriotic support" for Gibson and the current GOP agenda, which has come increasingly under fire around the nation in the past week. In an e-mail blast from the new organization, Columbia County Voice, the Kinderhook gathering, at 2 Hudson Street, is "to protest the cuts that the Republican House has voted for to programs that affect our community" and was originally conceived as a MoveOn event, but has since coalesced into "a broad based coalition of those groups and individuals affected or concerned about the GOP defunding a broad spectrum of programs." "Defunding should not be used as a club to shut down the Federal Government, an educator, parent, grandparent or a student who does not want government support for education to be reduced," the missive continues. According to The Saratogian, "local Planned Parenthood officials are speaking out after Rep. Chris Gibson, R-Kinderhook, voted Friday to block federal aid for the organization as part of the 2011 continuing budget resolution." Planned Parenthood provides services in hundreds of clinics around the country, including health care screenings and treatment. “Quite frankly, it’s difficult to comprehend why a politician would choose this,” the paper quoted Linda Scharf, director of communications at Planned Parenthood Mohawk Hudson, which operates 13 clinics in the Capital Region and Central New York, including the Saratoga Springs location. Scharf, calling the measures a 'smokescreen' for an extreme social agenda, listed several services that would be in jeopardy if the cuts become permanent. They include cervical and breast cancer screenings, annual exams, testing for high blood pressure and diabetes, birth control consultation and testing for sexually transmitted infections including HIV. 'That’s devastating, particularly in a rural setting when often we are the only health care provider a woman would see,' she said." As for the counter protests, the Kingston Tea Party, Patriots of the Hudson Valley and Queensbury-based Currie Associates, a Hazmat supply company, sent out an e-mail appeal later the afternoon of February 23 labed, "Urgent. We need your support - Pro Gibson Rallies to support the Congressman's recent votes in support of budget cuts at the federal level" in which they asked "our Gibson volunteers to counter MoveOn.org anti-Gibson rallies taking place in front of the Saratoga Springs and Kinderhook Congressional Offices, Thursday February 24. "Feel free to bring pro-Gibson signs that support the budget cuts being advocated by the Congressman, if possible. The more the merrier. Chris Gibson volunteers would like to thank Congressman Gibson for his dedication and commitment to ensuring a viable budget is approved as quickly as possible." We'll let you know how it turns out tomorrow afternoon, if someone wants to record the expected one hour melees.

by Gus Murphy

Andrea Macko reports in The Greenville Mountain View Pioneer (no website) about several new food possibilities in Greenville. A Subway restaurant opened Feb. 16 in the Bryant County Square, and Jim Stryker plans to open Greenville Pizza and Deli in April next to his Greenville Laundromat on Garland Lane. Steven King also reports in the same issue that hours are being cut at the Bryant's Grand Union, and that employees are worried about the store's sustainability. King writes: "One source said that the store has not earned enough to cover the payroll in more than two years, others said it was closer to four years." King does not attempt to contact Bryant's for comment.

The Albany Business Journal has a piece up about how a report to be released February 23 is expected to reveal that cash bonuses on Wall Street—a key economic engine for New York—dropped in 2010, making for some bad news for the state, which faces a $10 billion deficit and relies on the downstate securities industry for almost 15 percent of all tax collections. According to state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli's annual report on Wall Street year-end bonuses, bonuses hit a record $34 billion in 2006—then dropped by half within two years as the recession ravaged the stock market. Bonuses rebounded by 17 percent in 2009, to top $20 billion. The latest batch of bonuses should be smaller, DiNapoli said in a November 2010 forecast. “The securities industry has reported declines in revenues, profits, and compensation as 2010 has progressed, and compensation was down compared to one year ago. It appears that the cash bonus pool will be smaller than last year,” DiNapoli said. Taxes on Wall Street wages, bonuses, real estate deals and capital gains totaled $12.3 billion in the state’s 2008-09 fiscal year—triple what they were six years before. The total is equal to 20 percent of all taxes the state collected. But taxes from Wall Street dropped by 30 percent, or $3.6 billion, in the state’s last fiscal year, as capital gains activity suffered. Expectations of smaller year-end bonuses led DiNapoli to predict that Wall Street tax revenue would drop another $775 million this fiscal year, which ends March 31. Talk about mixing emotions regarding Wall Street, riches, and the distribution (and redistribution) of wealth we both love and hate in this country.

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="200" caption="Greene EMS is under fire as it negotiates a new contract both for rising costs and its way of sharing costs between county and town, with county legislators wanting the individual towns in Greene County to pay more. "][/caption]A decade ago, first responders and others in the public sphere were American heroes. Now, they've been cast as all but pariahs, sucking at the taxpayer's teats... and as Colin DeVries reports in the Daily Mail, we've now reached a point where contract talks between Greene County and their independently contracted paramedic service is now front page news, what with a growing number of elected legislators asking questions about "unequal cost sharing with towns." Greene County Emergency Medical System, Inc., DeVries reports, is now in the final year of its five-year contract with the county, with a contract extension proposed earlier this month, for a total contract proposal valued at $5,987,000 over five years from the county, with an additional $2,029,000 coming from towns served by the paramedic service. While everyone agreed that the service was good, and demand for EMS up, legislators expressed concern about rising costs. County legislators are complaining that their portion of costs are rising higher than towns and villages. Greene EMS in 2010 participated in 1,930 paramedic transports, responding to 48 cardiac arrests, 326 motor vehicle accidents, 589 breathing difficulties, 419 chest pains, and 31 air transports. Negotiations are expected to continue over the coming months until a new contract is needed this summer.

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="200" caption="Former Columbia County Board of Supervisors Chairman Art Baer, R-Hillsdale, was one of the committee members who voted to squash plans to study the fe2sibility of moving county offices to the former Wal Mart facility in Greenport. Image from ccscoop."][/caption]In a surprise move at the Columbia County Planning/Economic Development/Tourism/Agriculture committee meeting on Tuesday evening, February 22, town supervisors voted to table a motion that would fund the county Capital Resource Corporation’s space efficiency study, tied to a possible move of county offices to the old Wal Mart building in Greenport. The Register-Star's Francesca Olsen reports that County Commissioner of Planning and Economic Development Ken Flood asked for $78,600 to fund a third-party study that would identify county office space needs and present several options for county department consolidation, with cost estimates for each. "The request opened the floodgates of BOS self-introspection, with supervisors wondering why such a study was necessary since similar ones had already been completed in-house, why they still hadn’t made a decision on where to put the Department of Social Services when its lease runs out in June, and why they should even embark on an all-encompassing consolidation project when a long list of other capital projects aren’t done and with impending budget cuts from the state coming their way," Olsen writes. "The CRC has put down a $50,000 refundable deposit on the former Walmart property on Fairview Avenue in Greenport; this will keep the property off the market for 120 days (the clock started Feb. 8) while the board decides if they’d like to close on the parcel." The stalled sudy was originally commissioned by the year-old CRC because of the time limit on Walmart — the reasoning being that if Walmart’s 125,000 square foot building was the best option for consolidating, it would be best to make the decision before the clock ran out. The CRC’s plan was to lease the building to the county. Last week, the CRC chose New York City-based Urbahn Associates to complete the assessment, but until it’s approved by the BOS, no study will take place. The firm would have been given a May 1 deadline to complete it. “It’s almost like hiring an interior decorator to lay out this house you’re not quite sure you can afford to buy,” said former BOS Chairman Art Baer, R-Hillsdale, of his reasons for voting against the funding. “I think it’s a great idea but given where we are today we need to do some estimating as to what the tax levy impact is going to be on some of these scenarios.”

Siblings die in police shootouts 4 years apart
The Lee Welch murder/suicide story that involved the murder of a Poughkeepsie city police officer is given an eerie shadow in the Daily Mail and Register-Star via an Andrew Amelinckx story about how a brother of Welch's, Aaron Brevoort, was killed during a similar shooting standoff with police in Springfield, MA on March 13, 2007, when he was wanted for violating parole in Columbia County for a 2006 third-degree burglary conviction for which he served 10 months in prison. Both were 28 at the time of their deaths.

Reassessment notices in the mail
The Town of Claverack is moving ahead smoothly with its reval, an issue that frightens many local towns, with the Register-Star announcing that disclosure notices have been mailed to all property owners in the town with a reminder that property owners should check their full home value and start putting evidence together if thinking of filing a complaint, for which informal reviews will be held March 3 through 19. Appointments will be required.

Green light on fed stimulus funds
The Times Union notes that the organization Environmental Advocates approved of the $5 billion left for stimulus projects in the state, with much of it going to public transportation. Not mentioned is what Congress will now allow... or cut from promised monies.

Killings in Poughkeepsie spur call for tougher domestic violence laws
Advocate calls for increased outreach efforts to assist victims of crimes involving domestic violence, as well as funding for a Special Victims Unit that handles the prosecution of all domestic violence-related crimes, continue to rise in the face of the Lee Welch murder/suicide last Friday, according to the Mid Hudson News Network. Maybe even the promised cuts to such services may now be reversed.

A new attack against a looming green menace?
The Watershed Post and Berkshire Eagle have stories up about the insatiable emerald ash borer, an invasive insect that is death to ash trees that has already been spotted in the Catskills, noting that a new methodology of treatment called "trunk injection" is moving folks away from calls to eradicate all ash trees in the state as a means of "protecting" them.

The National Weather Service says today will have abundant sunshine. High 38F. Winds NNW at 5 to 10 mph. Tonight will have mainly clear skies. Low 16F. Winds light and variable.

Town meetings tonight
ATHENS Village Meeting at Community Center, 2 First St., Athens
HUDSON Department of Public Works Committee meeting starts at 6:00 p.m.; Legal Committee meeting starts at 6:45 p.m.
KINDERHOOK Historical Committee at 7:00 p.m., Town Hall
COLUMBIA COUNTY County Government Committee at 6:00 p.m.

Astronomical bodies
TIDES Hudson: Low, 1:23 p.m./High, 7:11 p.m.
SUNRISE/SUNSET 6:40 a.m./5:37 p.m.
MOONSET/MOONRISE 9:17 a.m./12:38 a.m. Thursday

Birthdays
FEBRUARY 23 George Friedrich Handel, W.E.B. Du Bois, Dakota Fanning, and Johnny Winter.

Tune in today
WGXC MORNING SHOW Hosted by Casson Kennedy and Board Operator Mark Lacoy. 6-8 a.m.
DEMOCRACY NOW! International news. 8-9 a.m.
WGXC AFTERNOON SHOW Hosted by Richard Roth and Ann Forbes Cooper, with Board Operator Tom Roe. 4-7 p.m.
14th HOMELESSNESS MARATHON Joan Geitz anchors WGXC's coverage of the 14th Annual Homelessness Marathon live from Kansas City. Geitz will have updates on the hour throughout the marathon.

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="200" caption="Kripalu, in the Massachusetts Berkshires, is looking to expand its influence nationally."][/caption]Following a top-level management shakeup, the 150-acre Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health in the nearby Berkshires, is reinventing itself with an eye to grow its regional and national impact beyond the 32,000 visitors a year it currently draws to its new-age retreat in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. According to a story in the Berkshire Eagle, David Surrenda, 64, an entrepreneur and specialist on holistic practices in the workplace, was named the organization's new CEO in October 2010 and is now conducting a top-to-bottom review of operations that has already forced 60 layoffs and will include marketing, fundraising, curriculum and staff deployment. Salaries, frozen for several years, are also being reviewed by a compensation specialist for potential upgrades. Surrenda, the Eagle notes, is a New York City native who attended camp in Columbia County, earned his doctorate in clinical psychology at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst in 1969, and then moved from work at VA hospitals in Massachusetts and California, where he treated Vietnam War veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, to leading a number of holistic-oriented academic programs in CA universities. Kripalu bills itself as the largest holistic and yoga center in North America, training and graduating at least 500 yoga teachers a year, and with 30 affiliated yoga studios and 6,000 certified yoga alumni worldwide. "Some Kripalu devotees call it the Mother Ship, while the busy programming office is referred to as Mission Control," the story by reporter Clarence Fanto reads. "Kripalu's ambitious goals include partnerships with other institutions in the area, including Berkshire Health Systems and individual health professionals. Nursing homes, schools, community centers, and even Weight Watchers International are on the list for exploratory discussions." Surrenda said he sees Kripalu as becoming a leader in changing the nation's healthcare in light of congressional stalemate on the issue. "Kripalu, which originated as an ashram led by yogi Amrit Desai in 1972 at two remote locations in Pennsylvania, relocated to Stockbridge in 1983 on the site of the former Shadowbrook Jesuit novitiate, which was closed in 1970," Fanto writes. "The guru, married with three children, was forced to resign in October 1994 after admitting to inappropriate sexual liaisons with three female acolytes, violating his oath of celibacy. Many of the 350 residents left after the scandal, and Kripalu morphed into a retreat and educational facility.

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="200" caption="U.S. Representative Chris Gibson defended his call for more nuclear power in the state in a Times Union editorial this past Sunday."][/caption]Freshman Congressman Chris Gibson has an editorial in this past Sunday's Times Union, "More energy means more nuclear power," in which he countered his arguments for "all of the above" energy development by noting that, "my intent will never be to force a nuclear plant on a community that doesn't want one.” In his piece, Gibson announced that he is forming a bipartisan energy advisory panel to help promote "the comprehensive implementation of wind, solar, hydropower and other renewable energy sources, responsible natural gas and oil exploration, and the significant expansion of nuclear power." The chief reason? To end reliance on foreign oil. "As our economy begins to grow again, we will need a significant amount of new energy. Increased supply also means a lower price -- adding to the bottom-line for consumers and businesses," Gibson continues. "Nuclear energy provides about 20 percent of electricity generation in the United States, the federal agency reports, with 104 operating reactors around the country. In New York, six reactors provide more than 30 percent of our electricity. Our state has the potential to be at the forefront of nuclear power expansion." Gibson lambastes coal as being too dirty and talks up cleaner means of creating nuclear plants these days. Read the full piece here...