There will be an opening on our Town Board when Debbie Bucki leaves our Town Board on December 31^st, 2008 to become our Town Clerk.  The Town Board must not choose someone who is a political stooge, hack, or has a political family name to fill in as her replacement.

It must be someone who has shown courage and stood up to the Town Board.  A man who has found several problems in our government which he help to correct; aman who never fears to name names and stand up to any special interest groups; a man who every Town Board member has praised for his honestly and integrity.  

His type of courage is not seen often in politics.

Tom,Tom,Kim,Jerry,Judy,Kate

On March 20th 2008, a young 12 year old child was abducted at knifepoint and sexually assaulted by Mitchell Brokob, who lived in the same neighborhood as the young girl.

He has been charged with abducting and sexually attacking her.  Our local FBI, working diligently, found a computer in his home which contained 40 images of child pornography, including images of adult males raping young girls.

He is now charged with felony possession of child pornography.  He could receive a federal prison term of 10 to 20 years.  If he is found guilty of the State crime, the federal charges carries a mandatory term of 10 years and a maximum of 20 years.

A big thank you to our local FBI.

There is no blame that can be placed on Len Lenihan’s leadership.  To begin with he couldn’t stop the political machine of Golisano and Pigeon and their picks.  They put out a great deal of money supporting Mesi, Konst and Powers.  Lenihan’s only option to stop this move was to say, “No” to Golisano‘s choices but he didn’t.

Then we also had Alice Kryzan running for Congress.  She took a great deal of money from sources that control downstate New York.  Her bid for Congress fell short.  Lenihan couldn’t stop her in the Primary yet her run did stop short of her goal in November.

Lenihan’s leadership could have been stronger but it wasn’t.  He did try to stop some of these candidates in the Primary but failed.  Thankfully four out of five met their demise in November.  The people’s wisdom was greater than the amount of money coming out of the “deep pockets.”

I understood that when if I broke a fluorescent bulb I had to take certain actions to clean up the area and myself to ensure no harm would occur.

Many of us are switching our old light bulbs to newer more energy efficient bulbs. But along with the change comes a risk. The new compact fluorescent bulbs contain mercury.

Jill Mayfield is an energy miser. That’s why she’s switched almost all the lights in her house to newer compact fluorescent light bulbs, or CFLS, that last 10 times longer and use about 75-percent less energy.

“The more I put in, the more I saw the impact on my utility bill, so it was really a no-brainer for me,” she said.

Then one day, her bright idea shattered on the hall floor.

“I pulled one out. I dropped it on the floor and I was like, ‘Oh, man’,” said Mayfield.

As a spokesperson for the Austin Solid Waste Department, which includes the Recycling Department, she knew immediately that toxic mercury sealed in the light was now on her floor.

“I essentially took a broom, swept it up with a dust mop, a dust pan, and put in a plastic bag,” said Mayfield.

She gathered everything that touched the mercury, and set it aside in her garage.

“It’s in a plastic bag inside of a plastic bag. I put them out here in my garage. When I get a few more bulbs, I’ll take them to the city’s household hazardous waste disposal facility,” said Mayfield.

And that’s exactly where used or broken CFL’s should end up.

“You should not throw these away. They have a mercury vapor in them and when you break them, you release the mercury vapor,” explained Dawn Whipple, a hazardous waste specialist.

So how much mercury do the new CFL’s contain? It’s actually a tiny amount, about 100 times less than a thermometer you use to put in your mouth.

CFL’s contain four to five milligrams of mercury. The Environmental Protection Agency says mercury in high levels can harm the brain, heart, kidneys, lungs and immune systems.

While the amount in any one CFL is small, throwing mercury out with the trash adds it to landfills, where it can seep into a community’s water supply.

The EPA says a single broken bulb is not likely to cause major damage to the environment or humans, but says it poses enough danger that these steps should be taken if a bulb is broken:

• Open a window, turn off the air conditioning and leave the room for at least 15 minutes.
• Scoop up the glass fragments and powder using stiff paper or cardboard and place them in a glass jar with a metal lid or a sealed plastic bag.
• Use sticky tape to pick up any remaining fragments or powder.
• Wipe the area with damp paper towels and place them and anything else that touched the debris in the sealed jar or plastic bag.
• Wash your hands.“Don’t vacuum it, because when you vacuum, it just kind of spits the mercury vapor back into the air and kind of makes it airborne into your house,” said Whipple.The EPA says if a carpet has to be vacuumed after mercury is cleaned off it, the vacuum bag needs to be thrown out with the other hazardous waste.

  “I think people are right to be concerned about toxins in their environment,” said Bee Miller, who works on environmental issues for Texas Interfaith Power and Light. She says concern about mercury shouldn’t trump the good CFLs do for the environment. “There’s about five milligrams of mercury in a compact fluorescent light bulb. That’s about as much as would fit on the tip of a ballpoint pen.”

  Contrast that, she says, with the significantly higher amount of mercury released in the environment during the production of traditional bulbs in coal-burning plants.

  “Using the CFL’s, even with the little bit of mercury they have in them, ends up being a net reduction in mercury in our environment,” said Miller.

  And that’s just one reason Jill Mayfield says CFL’s will continue to get the green light from her.

Will the victory of Barack Obama have any impact on the middle east situation?  Apparantly it already has.  Both Iraqi and American officials said obstacles to a security agreement appeared to be fading.

“Iraqi Shiite politicians are indicating that they will move faster toward a new security agreement about American troops, and a Bush administration official said he believed that Iraqis could ratify the agreement as early as the middle of this month.”

“Before, the Iraqis were thinking that if they sign the pact, there will be no respect for the schedule of troop withdrawal by Dec. 31, 2011,” said Hadi al-Ameri, a powerful member of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, a major Shiite party. “If Republicans were still there, there would be no respect for this timetable. This is a positive step to have the same theory about the timetable as Mr. Obama.””
more…

One year after Muslim leaders wrote a letter to Pope Benedict XVI after he offended many Muslims with a sermon that contained an anti-Islam quote, leaders of both faiths are meeting to change negativity and suspicion between them. 

“Catholic and Muslim leaders worked on Thursday to deflate suspicion between their two faiths, pledging at a high-level seminar here to work together to condemn terrorism, protect religious freedom and fight poverty.”
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An important finding from a recent study of prejudice was that mutual trust between members of different races can catch on just as quickly, and spread just as fast, as suspicion.  WOW.  Whould’a thunk it?  Well, I say, it’s about time.

“This was supposed to be the election when hidden racism would rear its head. There was much talk of a “Bradley effect,” in which white voters would say one thing to pollsters and do another in the privacy of the booth; of a backlash in which the working-class whites whom Senator Barack Obama had labeled “bitter” would take their bitterness out on him.
moe…

Obama is a gun snatcher.  That’s what some are saying and they are rushing to purchase guns now before the Obama administration puts strict constraints on gun purchases. 

““He’s a gun-snatcher,” said Jim Pruett, owner of Jim Pruett’s Guns and Ammo in northwest Houston, which was packed with shoppers on Thursday.”

““He wants to take our guns from us and create a socialist society policed by his own police force,” added Mr. Pruett, a former radio personality, of President-elect Barack Obama.”
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In a sign of toll the economy has taken on our health care system, more and more hospitals are reporting seeing fewer patients with the ability to pay their bills and more people showing up at emergency rooms unable to pay their bills.

“Some patients with insurance seem to be deferring treatments like knee replacements, hernia repairs and weight-loss surgeries — the kind of procedures that are among the most lucrative to hospitals. Just as consumers are hesitant to make any sort of big financial decision right now, some patients may feel too financially insecure to take time off work or spend what could be thousands of dollars in out-of-pocket expenses for elective treatments.”
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