From Twitter:
@NKFF NKFF on hiatus until 2011... With a new baby on the way, we've decided to hold off on NKFF 2010 and give the grant money back. Let's rest :)
Alas! We were looking forward to NKFF. Here's hoping the crew won't be too busy with diapers to host in 2011.
The New Kingston Film Festival got a $2,000 grant from the Roxbury Arts Group for NKFF 2010. Here's a February item from the Daily Star on that.
Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's office isn't the most press-friendly shop in town, even for New York state government. When the Watershed Post was reporting on their recent actions against hospitals in the NYC watershed, I wasn't able to get a comment from them, despite multiple emails and phone calls. (Their press releases often don't even have contact information listed.)
Well, here's an interesting tidbit: The New York Daily News had to file a FOIL request to get a hold of a report written three months ago by Philip Bein, the state's watershed inspector general, that recommends the state consider banning drilling in the New York City watershed.
Cuomo's conclusions are contained in a 128-page report filed three months ago by a little-known official in his office, who refused to provide it until the Daily News requested it under the Freedom of Information Law.
After subtracting 100 votes from its total election tally yesterday, Walton was forced to rename its election's winners and losers:
Morley's total was originally announced as 165 votes, winning him one of the two available seats, but the actual number should have been 65, placing him last among the four candidates
At a budget meeting Wednesday, Morley resigned, and Snow announced that he would appoint Andrew Rutherford to the position.
Rutherford received 149 votes in the March 16 election, which placed him third. After the correction in the results, he finished in second place, winning the second seat.
Morley said resigning his position was "the right thing to do. It's just one of those things, but it's bittersweet. I guess in the long run, all's well that ends well, but we had a rocky road getting to that point.''
Coxsackie village residents should boil their tap water for the next three days. A water main broke last night and has been repaired, the Daily Mail reports.
An investigation by Wine Spectator's Ben O'Donnell into the legislative fight over whether to allow wine in supermarkets reveals that lobbyists and politicians are making out like bandits:
In an in-depth investigation, Wine Spectator has discovered that the biggest winners may be the legislators themselves, who have collected campaign contributions from the various parties, and the lobbyists paid to woo those legislators. While contribution figures are not yet available for 2010, a look at the donations during last year's debate is revealing. Campaign finance records show that in 2009, the leading opponents of the Paterson proposal, liquor stores and their trade interest groups, donated almost $415,000 to state politicians, political action committees (PACs) and party committees. Large spirits conglomerates and wine companies also made generous contributions.
A commenter on the story thinks that the trade publication's findings overlook the supermarkets themselves, however:
The accuracy of results in a four-way race for two Walton village trustee slots are being questioned, says the Daily Star.
When Walton Village Clerk Jody Brown tallied the votes, she announced that Patrick Meredith won election with 209 votes, and incumbent Richard Morley retained his office with 165 votes.
Also running were Andrew Rutherford, who garnered 149 votes, and incumbent George Ostrowski, who received 105 votes.
When the votes for all the candidates are totaled, the result is 628 votes, 70 votes too many.
Alas for Rutherford and Ostrowski, the Delaware County board of elections says it's too late to challenge the results. Neither town or county officials noticed that the figures didn't add up; the mistake was apparently spotted by a sharp-eyed village resident.
Democratic Ulster County legislator Mike Madsen has some nice words for Republican state senator John Bonacic, for his efforts to get the DEP to do a better job of flood management around NYC's Ashokan reservoir upstate.
Our State Senator, John Bonacic was quoted asking that more authority be exerted over the New York City DEP's policy so that flooding along the creek could be prevented. John is spot on. I agree that the managers of the Ashokan Reservoir could have been pre-emptive in their efforts to curtail what could have been much worse. I did read that the DEP was releasing extra water into the Esopus a few weeks prior, but it wasn't enough. How many of us remember the horrors of years past when homes were washed away with only modest warning?
SUNY New Paltz students rallied last week against $152 million worth of proposed state cuts to higher education, a bill with the unfortunate acronym of PHEEIA.
The crowd of students and SUNY professors chanted slogans like “One, two, three, four, we can’t stand these cuts no more.” Musicians playing pro-union songs preformed before the key note speakers.
The rally was organized by United University Professions (UUP) (a SUNY teachers union), the New Paltz chapter of New York Public Interest Research Group (NYPIRG) and SUNY students.
Gov. Paterson just announced that $2.1 billion worth of state aid to school districts across New York state won't be paid on schedule tomorrow. The NY Daily News has the press release.
In the Albany Times-Union: A list of how the delay breaks down by district.
A few of the local biggest losers:
Catskill: $1,897,132.10
Fallsburg: $1,780,854.36
Liberty: $2,038.875.02
Monticello: $3,276,870.58
New Paltz: $2,328,631.78
Onteora: $1,299,693.83
Saugerties: $2,587,811.15
Sullivan West: $1,499,657.11
And the whopper:
Kingston $6,631,667.28
