Sponsors resolution supporting tougher laws against offenders  

(Amherst, New York) - Erie County Legislator, 15^th District, Edward A. Rath, III, sponsored a resolution calling on the New York State Legislature and the Governor to make it more difficult for child predators to reach children on the Internet and to impose harsher sentences against those that do.  The resolution was unanimously approved by the legislature at its session on February 21, 2008.  Currently, there are bills in the New York State Senate to fight the exploitation of children via the Internet.  “One in four girls and at least one in ten boys are sexually abused in some way by the age of 18.  Forty percent of people found with child pornography on a computer also directly victimized children. Child pornography on the Internet is a disgrace and is growing at an alarming rate.  The New York State Legislature needs to act quickly on these bills,” stated Legislator Rath. 

When acted upon by the New York State Legislature and Governor, certain convicted sex offenders will be prohibited from using the Internet to access pornographic material, access commercial social networking websites and communicate with individuals under the age of eighteen for the purpose of promoting sexual relations.  Additional enforcement measure will also be imposed.  Legislator Rath commented, “We cannot wait to pass this legislation.  The safety of our children is at stake.” 

Legislator Rath thanked his colleagues at the Erie County Legislature for passing this resolution unanimously.  “This is not a political issue.  This is about protecting future generations.  I congratulate my colleagues for recognizing this and sending a strong message to Albany that we support these laws and want these changes as soon as possible.”

In Painful Past, Hushed Worry About ObamaSome voters are invoking the memories of the killings of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Senator Robert F. Kennedy in 1968.  There is an underlying sense of worry on the minds of many supporters of Senator Barack Obama, echoing in conversations from state to state, rally to rally: Will he be safe?

““I’ve got the best protection in the world,” Mr. Obama, of Illinois, said in an interview, reprising a line he tells supporters who raise the issue with him. “So stop worrying.””

“Yet worry they do.”
[read whole story]

John McCain’s central role in the so-called Gang of 14 (when they fashioned an unusual pact that averted a Senate vote on banning filibusters against judicial nominees) is one reason for lingering distrust of him among many conservatives.

“The power to appoint federal judges is seen as one of the most crucial presidential roles by many on the right, and some continue to believe the agreement undermined the Republican leadership at the precise moment the party was about to eliminate the ability to use procedural tactics to block judges.”
[read whole story]

WOW!  If s child today really wants to go to college there isn’t a reason they can’t IF they do well in high school.  Money is no longer a deterrent at some colleges and universities.

“Brown University is eliminating tuition for students whose parents earn less than $60,000, after decisions by fellow Ivy League universities to bolster financial aid as their endowments grow.”

“The university, in Providence, R.I., said on Saturday that it also planned to substitute grants for student loans in the financial aid packages of students whose families earned less than $100,000 a year. The new program cuts reliance on loans for all students regardless of family income, the university said in a statement posted on its Web site.”
[read whole story]

When I was in high school it seemed like a right of passage.  The day we turned 16 most of my friends went to apply for their Learner’s Permit to drive.  It was the thing they did.  It meant freedom.  That is no longer the case.

“In the last decade, the proportion of 16-year-olds nationwide who hold driver’s licenses has dropped from nearly half to less than one-third, according to statistics from the Federal Highway Administration.”
[read whole story]

  Day-Lewis wins best actor 

By DAVID GERMAIN, AP Movie Writer

Hollywood’s mainstream on Sunday, their crime saga “No Country for Old Men” winning four Academy Awards, including best picture, in a ceremony that also featured a strong international flavor.

Javier Bardem won for supporting actor in “No Country,” which earned Joel and Ethan Coen best director, best adapted screenplay and the best-picture honor as producers.

Accepting the directing honor alongside his brother, Joel Coen recalled how they were making films since childhood, including one at the Minneapolis airport called “Henry Kissinger: Man on the Go.”

“What we do now doesn’t feel that much different from what we were doing then,” Joel Coen said. “We’re very thankful to all of you out there for continuing to let us play in our corner of the sandbox.”

Daniel Day-Lewis won his second best-actor Academy Award for the oil-boom epic “There Will Be Blood,” while “La Vie En Rose” star Marion Cotillard was a surprise winner for best actress, riding the spirit of Edith Piaf to Oscar triumph over Julie Christie, who had been expected to win for “Away From Her.”

All four acting prizes went to Europeans: Frenchwoman Cotillard, Spaniard Bardem, and Brits Day-Lewis and Tilda Swinton, the supporting-actress winner for “Michael Clayton.”

The Town Board Will Be Asked For More Money To Keep Our Waste Water Plant Working

A great deal of money will be needed to bring our Waste Water Treatment Plant into the 21st century.  Many pieces of equipment need to be replaced now.  We need to hire and train workers to do the work which must be done at the plant.  Those workers must learn how to maintain  equipment so it will last longer and perform as it should. 

Mr. Tom Ketchum will be asking the Town Board for the money necessary to do the required work which has to be done now in the plant to keep it working.

John Thompson Says:
February 23rd, 2008 at 8:35 am I personally experienced lead shot raining down on me when I was playing the 8th hole, which runs along the end of the shooting range beyond the berm. I attempted to alert town and state officials but was met with mostly indifference, even though the former Amherst police chief, John Moslow, acknowledged in an October 2005 e-mail that he had “heard some time ago that it [lead shot “rain” on the golf course] happens.” Given the fact of how long the shooting club and golf course have adjoined each other, one would suspect that even occasional lead shot overshot would build up the level of contamination of the golf course over the years. Has the 8th fairway and right rough been analyzed for possible lead contamination? If not, why not? The final EIS document summarily discounts any problem - “There is no known instance where lead pellets were carried by environmental or climatological forces to any other location off-site. Due to the nature of the lead pellets, it is believed exceptionally unlikely for such an event to occur or to have occurred” (p. 69). I guess whoever prepared the report did not talk with any golfers.

Unless this potential problem is addressed, the Town of Amherst leaves itself (and the taxpayers) open to potential future cleanup costs and lawsuits. Wouldn’t it make more sense to adequately and fully investigate the possible lead contamination of the golf course now rather than later?

2/24/08 

There hasn’t been such unity among the different neighborhoods of Amherst since the Center Pointe battle. The Benderson Company’s decision to build a large strip mall in the middle of Maple Road has .galvanized  the community of Amherst to break the power of developers over the Republican controlled Town Board. 

If the 4 Republicans can’t see this development as the beginning of the end of what was once a beautiful town to settle down in, then the wrong people were elected.

The shame these 4 Republicans on our Town Board will carry with them, will be with them their entire political career.  The shame of destroying a neighborhood for the sake of their party, ignoring the pleas of the people who live in these neighborhoods which will soon become dead communities, will be a rally cry against this type of politician.   

Enough is Enough

Since Benderson purchased the Maple Road Shooting Club property, Amherst has heard from a large segment of citizens who realize how this development is destroying a nice neighborhood for the simple reason called  ~ money. 

The Amherst Town Board has set the vote for March 3^rd for whether or not the Benderson Development Corporation will be given the change of zoning they requested so they can begin their project.  The citizens have several activities planned before the vote is taken. 

One Town Board member, Shelly Schratz, has publicly stated the Town Board already has the 4 votes needed to give Benderson their change of zoning.  This statement has energized the people to let the Town Board know the citizens are the power, not the 7 members on the Town Board who were elected to serve them.  

This rezoning is one of the most important rezoning issues in the history of Amherst.  If the Town Board gives Benderson the power to rezone the Shooting Club property it is the beginning of turning an established residential neighborhood into another commercial Niagara Falls Boulevard area.  Then other developers, working with certain Town Board members, will start chopping away at other neighborhoods until were you live begins to look and sound like a Boulevard of Broken Dreams, made of little grey concrete buildings.

This Monday night the people of Amherst must come and speak out against the destruction of a neighborhood for the sake of the almighty BUCK.  Speaking out is your right as a citizen of Amherst

We, as the residents of Amherst, must never forget we have the power to:

• say yes to what’s good for our town, 
• say yes to what real changes our Towns needs,
• say yes to the end of the power mongrels who want to destroy the remaining beauty of Amherst.