EDITORIAL: New York State Must Move Forward

nullThe voters of New York State elected NY State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer as our new Governor in November, 2006. There was a positive feeling flowing through New York State. The people felt Governor Spitzer would open new doors and windows to allow new life into our state government.

New York State has suffered for years because dried up politicians had and still have control of our state government in Albany on both sides of the aisle. New York State has leaders who never allow progress to interfere with the long drawn out methods they consistently use to get things done in Albany. The voters are beginning to realize how these rusty heavy weights wield the power they possess to control the politicians, thus legislation. These old clogs fear positive, progressive change because it would signal their demise

Change is what Governor Spitzer is trying to bring to our state. It is important to change the “old guard” from a “slow down” or “do nothing” government to one which will meet the needs of all of New York State now, not next year or next century.

Governor Spitzer is trying to convert the present leaders, who have lived in a Machiavellian world for a very long time, to leaders who will put the people’s needs above all else. In part this will mean they will have to give up a piece of their control to anyone who will make positive changes.

Yes, the political leaders in Albany need to be pushed off their thrones and replaced with people who haven’t been spoiled by the system, yet. WNY has taken a brutal beating from the present leaders in our Assembly and Senate. It is time we strike back and support Governor Spitzer’s effort to bring change to New York, especially in our WNY area. This is the area where change most needed.

Now the Governor’s time and efforts are being tied up defending his staff and himself from attacks from State Senator Joseph Bruno. What a waste of precious time. Senator Bruno isn’t a political angel. Yes, mistakes were made by some members of the Governor’s staff while they investigated him. Their mistakes stemmed from their vigor. These young “Kennedy type” staff members moved too fast and didn’t follow all the rules.

When investigating someone there are methods which should never be used to try to discredit them. In our political past these methods were abused by Republicans as well as Democrats which ruined the reputation of many good people.

If the rats of today’s politics aren’t found out now, history will surely dam their names forever.

CONSUMER PRESSURE FORCES BOTTLED WATER COMPANY TO TELL THE TRUTH

nullPepsiCo Inc, the maker of Aquafina, bottled water with the attractive label showing off snow-capped mountains, will print clearly on the label that Aquafina comes directly from tap water. There isn’t a drop of spring water in Aquafina. If there were you would be paying a higher price for the product.

PepsiCo’s main rival for the fifteen billion dollar bottled water market is the Coca-Cola Co. Coca-Cola Co has 1/5 of the entire U.S. bottle water market with its Dasani brand. Dasani bottled water comes from the taps of many cities including Marietta, Georgia. The Cola-Cola, Co. doesn’t keep this information from their water drinking public.

The bottled water drinking population should remember they are paying for water from city taps, which could include Buffalo. Now the bottled water you’re drinking might taste very familiar.

HOW IMPORTANT IS THE REPUBLICAN PRIMARY IN SEPTEMBER

republican1.gifThe Republican Primary in September is really important to the five Republican candidates running for a seat on the Amherst Town Board. The five include Bill Kindel, Barry A. Weinstein, Guy R. Marlette, Roy L Wixson and Mark Klyczek. The three endorsed Republican candidates are Weinstein, Marlette and Wixson.

The three who garner the most votes in the Primary will be the credible candidates to win a seat on the Amherst Town Board in November.

If Weinstein, Wixson or Klyczek win each would have a single line on the ballot in November, the Republican line.

If Marlette wins he will have two lines on the ballot in November; the Republican as well as the Conservative line.

Bill Kindel already has the Conservative and Working Family endorsements.
If he wins the Republican Primary he will have three lines on the ballot in the November election. On paper this would make him the strongest Republican candidate for the Amherst Town Board.

SWABS IN HAND, HOSPITAL CUTS DEADLY INFECTIONS

nullMy family went on a Disney cruise in May and the first thing that struck us was how persistent they were in having the passengers sanitize their hands at every opportunity possible. Before we could actually board we were stopped, handed a sanitizing sheet and asked to wipe our hands thoroughly before discarding the used wipe. There was also a foam hand sanitizing station available. Every time we went to eat - first wipe. You left the eating area - wipe. You went off the ship - wipe. You re boarded - wipe. It was comical at first but became second nature. Their purpose was to avoid cross contamination between passengers and avoid illness if at all possible. It worked.

“At a veterans’ hospital here, nurses swab the nasal passages of every arriving patient to test them for drug-resistant bacteria. Those found positive are housed in isolation rooms behind red painted lines that warn workers not to approach without wearing gowns and gloves.”

“Every room and corridor is equipped with dispensers of foamy hand sanitizer. Blood pressure cuffs are discarded after use, and each room is assigned its own stethoscope to prevent the transfer of microorganisms. Using these and other relatively inexpensive measures, the hospital has significantly reduced the number of patients who develop deadly drug-resistant infections, long an unaddressed problem in American hospitals.”
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MAKING A HARD-LIFE STORY OPEN A DOOR TO COLLEGE

nullSeptember is weeks away and school will begin again. For thousands of high school seniors they will begin the mind boggling adventure of applying to college. For thousands more, they won’t, not because they don’t want to but because they feel defeated before they begin. Low income children often give up as they give in to what they think is preordained defeat.

“Antoine Tate, 16, was sitting in a courtyard at Howard University in the heat of a July morning. He was holding a pen, and staring at the blank page on the step beneath him.”

“Antoine, who is African-American, will begin his senior year in September at his large, predominantly black and low-income high school just outside Washington. He had come to Howard for an intense four-day workshop in the complex process he will have to master if he is to fulfill his aspirations of upward mobility: applying to college.”
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WITH TOOLS ON WEB, AMATEURS RESHAPE MAPMAKING

nullDo you remember being asked, “And what do you want to be when you grow up?” I’d bet not too many of you said you wanted to be a cartographer yet many of you have been already or will be in the future.

“With the help of simple tools introduced by Internet companies recently, millions of people are trying their hand at cartography, drawing on digital maps and annotating them with text, images, sound and videos.”

“In the process, they are reshaping the world of mapmaking and collectively creating a new kind of atlas that is likely to be both richer and messier than any other.”

“They are also turning the Web into a medium where maps will play a more central role in how information is organized and found.”
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OSCAR THE CAT PREDICTS PATIENTS’ DEATHS

nullCan anyone predict when another is going to die? Is it possible to be accurate to within a two hour window? Could it be done with 100% accuracy? A cat in Rhode Island is doing just that.

“He doesn’t make too many mistakes. He seems to understand when patients are about to die,” said Dr. David Dosa in an interview. He describes the phenomenon in a poignant essay in Thursday’s issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

“Many family members take some solace from it. They appreciate the companionship that the cat provides for their dying loved one,” said Dosa, a geriatrician and assistant professor of medicine at Brown University.

The 2-year-old feline was adopted as a kitten and grew up in a third-floor dementia unit at the Steere House Nursing and Rehabilitation Center. The facility treats people with Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s disease and other illnesses.
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POLITICAL UPDATES

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Guy Marlette has decided not to accept the Independence Party endorsement for the Amherst Town Board. He already has the Republican and Conservative Party endorsements.

There is a strong sense Supervisor Mohan will be sending a letter to the Republicans to support his choices for the Town Board. Mohan is concerned Mr. Marlette is too independent to simply go along with whatever Dr. Mohan decides to do in Amherst.

Ed Rath the III will have a Republican primary. He will be facing Williamsville School Board Member, Fran Cartonia Spoth.

Bob Anderson will be having a Republican Primary for Amherst Highway Supervisor. He will be facing Dr. Mohan‘s candidate, Richard Stoll.

FIND YOURSELF PACKING IT ON? BLAME FRIENDS

nullSo, you’ve packed on a few pounds; your middle is larger than it used to be. Who can you blame but yourself, right? WRONG!!! Now you can blame your friends. Go ahead, start looking at them more closely. Probably they are overweight too.

Obesity can spread from person to person, much like a virus, researchers are reporting today. When one person gains weight, close friends tend to gain weight, too.

Their study, published in The New England Journal of Medicine, involved a detailed analysis of a large social network of 12,067 people who had been closely followed for 32 years, from 1971 to 2003.

The investigators knew who was friends with whom as well as who was a spouse or sibling or neighbor, and they knew how much each person weighed at various times over three decades. That let them reconstruct what happened over the years as individuals became obese. Did their friends also become obese? Did family members? Or neighbors?

The answer, the researchers report, was that people were most likely to become obese when a friend became obese. That increased a person’s chances of becoming obese by 57 percent. There was no effect when a neighbor gained or lost weight, however, and family members had less influence than friends.
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DANCING ELMO SMACKDOWN

nullIf you are one of the many who are reading labels and avoiding “Made in China” tags like the plague, you may find some of the toys your children have around are toting that label! Mattel has been doing business in China for many, many years.

Inside Mattel’s sprawling test lab here, scores of technicians are doing their worst: setting Chicken Dance Elmo dolls on fire, wrecking Hot Wheels cars and yanking at the limbs of Dora the Explorer. The lab workers are paid to break toys, pick apart their innards, and analyze the raw materials that go into them.

The recent wave of recalls and warnings from China has ignited worldwide concern about the safety of Chinese products, potentially mucking up a global system built, in large part, on outsourced manufacturing. As a result, companies are trying urgently to figure out how to do business here, without risking their reputation, consumer trust, or customers’ lives.
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