Canisteo-Greenwood Is Working On Capital Project
March 17, 2014
CANISTEO/GREENWOOD, NY – Canisteo-Greenwood’ is working on their capital project. Brian Domke, a spokesman for Labella Associates, an engineering and architecture firm out of Rochester, now believes that Canisteo-Greenwood needs to replace the high school roof.
Domke also says they have 6.8 million to spend, and that they’re now looking at spending just over 5 million.
Livingston County Man Dies In Snowboarding Accident
March 17 2014
ESSEX COUNTY, NY – State Police are reporting that a Livingston County man died after a snowboarding accident in the Adirondacks.
Troopers say Austin White, 22, of Hemlock was pronounced dead at Adirondack Medical Center yesterday afternoon.
March 17, 2014
HORNELL, NY – Hornell 9th Ward Alderman John Buckley has just announced that he is having a Town Hall on Saturday, March 29th, from 10am-Noon at the Hornell VFW on Canisteo Street.
The main topics of the meeting will be Common Core and the NYS Safe Act.
Assemblyman Bill Nojay will be Buckley’s guest for the Town Hall.
Astorino Talks Safe Act At Gun Show in Saratoga Springs
March 16, 2014
NYSNYS News
By Kyle Hughes
SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY – Republican governor candidate Rob Astorino received a warm welcome at a gun show here Sunday, accusing Gov. Andrew Cuomo of attacking constitutional rights and vowing to repeal the SAFE Act if elected. “There’s one way that we can get rid of Andrew Cuomo,” said Astorino in brief remarks to a crowd that filled the city’s convention center. “He took away your rights, why don’t you take away his job. Register to vote and make sure you vote.”
“The SAFE Act did nothing to make us safer,” Astorino told reporters when arrived earlier. “All it did was get a headline for the governor and demonize law abiding citizens who own guns.”
“What we did in Westchester is far more important,” he said. “We went after the real issues and the root causes, which is mental health and the breakdown of it to allow an Adam Lanza to go through a school system where the red flags are there and people didn’t do anything about it.”
He said Westchester officials reached out to nonprofits and mental health groups and made schools safer. He said more must be done to help mentally ill young people before they get involved with violence, drugs or drop out of school.
Astorino drew applause and handshakes, in sync with a crowd that included many wearing buttons with a red slash drawn through the name Cuomo. The Westchester County executive said afterwards he has shot guns before, but does not own a weapon.
The long running Saratoga gun show became a flashpoint in 2013 following Cuomo’s pushing through the SAFE Act on the first day of the legislative session. Thousands of gun owners stood in line to enter the show as counter-protesters displayed effigies of the children killed in the Sandy Hook school massacre.
The atmophere this year was much less tense, though Second Amendment supporters scheduled a protest to burn SAFE Act gun registration paperwork.
Astorino said he would be ramping up his campaign, with more traveling around the state. “This is going to be a fun race,” he said. “I think Gov. Cuomo knows he’s not going to walk through real easy. We’re going to bring up all the issues people care about and we’re going to put the state back in the winning column.”
He said New York is losing residents, jobs and rights “as you can see why the SAFE Act is so unpopular with law abiding citizens. So there’s a real difference between the governor and I.”
“What really matters are taxes and jobs because people can’t live here anymore,” Astorino said.
He said Cuomo’s economic development efforts like offering no taxes to certain businesses are gimmicks. “Who am I to pick what type of business should come into New York and where it should be located? That’s what Gov. Cuomo is doing and he’s getting no bites … but if we lower taxes, lower regulations, they will come.”
He said Donald Trump’s withdrawal Friday from a race he had not yet entered will have no impact, and said he is seeking Trump’s endorsement.
Palmesano: To Say I’m Disappointed is an Understatement
March 16, 2014
ALBANY, NY – Assemblyman Phil Palmesano (R, Corning) spoke regarding his disappointment about
the Assembly Democrats re-electing the state board of Regents.
Donald Trump Is Not Running For Governor Of New York State
March 14, 2014
Donald Trump just tweeted the following:
Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump
While I won’t be running for Governor of New York State, a race I would have won, I have much bigger plans in mind- stay tuned, will happen!
Alfred Town Board Working On Law To Ban on Fracking and Related Drilling
March 14, 2014
ALFRED, NY – While the Town of Alfred is in a moratorium on drilling, the Alfred Town Board is working with Ithaca attorney David Slottje, in order to come up with laws that will create a complete banning on drilling. “We’re continuing to work to amend our zoning law to reflect that prohibition, and we’re hopeful of getting that to a public hearing in the next couple of months,” Alfred Town Supervisor Dan Acton told WLEA News.
Alfred-Almond Getting Less Funding Than Similiar Size Schools
March 14, 2014
Alfred-Almond Central School Superintendent Rich Calkins says that Alfred-Almond and Arkport Central both showed up in a report as getting less funding than similar sized schools. “It’s according to a new report that was recently commissioned and released by the Rural School’s Association, where it showed very clearly that for the past five years, Alfred-Almond among other area schools including Arkport, is one of the schools that has been funded disproportionately low in comparison to other schools of our size,” Calkins told WLEA News.
We asked Calkins about Alfred-Almond’s ranking: Calkins replied that Alfred-Almond Central is 31st in upstate schools, and has been praised by both Time and Newsweek articles as one of the top thousand public schools in the country, for AP exams and SAT scores
Shelly Stevens Running for Alfred-Almond BOE
March 13, 2014
Shelly Stevens has announced that she is running for Alfred-Almond School Board.
Stevens, who is well known for her stance locally on Common Core, made the announcement on Facebook yesterday.
Palmesano, Young, Giglio React To Board of Regents Vote
March 12, 2014
ALBANY, NY – Upstate Republican lawmakers were not pleased with yesterday’s vote for the New York State Board of Regents members.
Assemblyman Phil Palmesano:
“I voted against the re-election of three incumbent members of the Board of Regents. To say I am disappointed would be an understatement. We had the opportunity to show the parents, students and teachers of New York State we have listened to them over the past nine months and support them by voting against the status quo and voting against the three incumbent members of the Board of Regents. Unfortunately, although the Assembly majority has said time and again they have listened, their actions and votes today for these three incumbents shows us otherwise. Their vote was not for reform, but for the status quo, and unfortunately it is our children’s education that will see the impact of this vote. Today’s actions certainly reinforce the need to reform how our Regents Board is selected because this process is clearly not working.
Senator Cathy Young:
“The rollout of the Common Core has been profoundly flawed, and the state education department and the Board of Regents are responsible for this mess. My ‘no’ vote sends a loud and clear message that our kids deserve better and that this bureaucratic mess needs to be fixed.
Assemblyman Joe Giglio:
“It was pretty much business as usual in the assembly, they have overwhelming numbers, the rules are in their favor, and they pushed through exactly whom they wanted to push through. One of the people that they pushed through was a person who just interviewed for the position on Monday, and that was a violation of their own rules, which they admitted to, but I guess that doesn’t make a difference.
Village of Alfred Extends Moratorium on Fracking
March 12, 2014
ALFRED, NY – The Alfred Village Board has extended their moratorium.
There was a public hearing on Tuesday night at Alfred Village Hall.
Board Of Regents Held Vote Today
Insert text here.
By Kyle Hughes
NYSNYS News
ALBANY, N.Y. (March 11) – Legislators held rare contested elections Tuesday for members of the Board of Regents, reflecting the public outcry over the Education Department rollout of the Common Core school standards program.
But in the end, neither a public outcry nor contested votes mattered and the status quo prevailed thanks to a majority vote by Democrats. The only surprise was the last minute decision of one incumbent to not seek reappointment.
Voting for more than two hours along party lines in a joint Senate-Assembly session, legislators re-elected “at-large” members Wade Norwood of Rochester and James Cottrell of Brooklyn, and Staten Island’s Christine Cea. In a concession to Common Core critics, Democrats pulled the nomination of James Jackson of Albany, replacing him with Josephine Victoria Finn, a Monticello lawyer and inspirational and weight-loss speaker.
The vote, whose outcome as always was decided by Democratic votes since they comprise an overall majority of the Legislature, was notable for the participation of Senate Republicans who usually skip the session. The Senate GOP and several Assembly Republicans cast blanket no votes for candidates, citing Common Core and the Democratic control of the process.
“Until there are fundamental changes, this is one of the few lightning rod opportunities to exercise our judgment,” Senate Education Committee Chair John Flanagan (R-Suffolk County) said.
“A majority of members in the New York State Assembly have voted to accept the status quo and keep those responsible for this disastrous rollout in power,” Senator Joseph Griffo (R-Oneida County) said after the vote. “This decision underscores why it’s important to permanently change the way Regents are selected. I have advocated for voters to pick Regents during school budget referendums. I want those most affected by these policy changes to have a say in who is deciding how our children should learn.”
It’s not clear when the last contested Regents votes occurred, but there was speculation that has not happened since the 1970s, when a Buffalo community leader named Pasquale Rubino was nominated as an alternative and lost.
The Regents set educational policy in the state through the state Education Department and oversee museums, professional licensing and a plethora of other government actions. Regent candidates must apply, be screened, then nominated and voted on in the joint session.
The losing candidates were:
The vote totals are unofficial until Wednesday and the Assembly did not immediately provide a roll call. The anti-Common Core group Allies for Public Education promised to post its own roll call online at this address:
http://www.nysape.org/scorecard-for-board-of-regents-vote-and-action-alert.html