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Displaying 1 through 10 of 217 records found.
Politically naive?
Far be it from me to state that I understand politics. Even my friends tell me that I am very naive in interpreting the political headlines of the day. For instance, in today's New York Post, Rep. Tim Bishop said that he will give back the entire $15,000 he received from Rep. Charles Rangel. The article indicates that this was a "contribution." So one politician receives a contribution and then gives the contribution to another politician. Question: Is a "quid pro quo" the political interpretation of the contribution or merely purity of heart? And then Bishop gave the $15,000 to charity (it went to help build a veterans' monument in Smithtown). However, now that Rep. Rangel is being charged with a veritable grab bag of charges of violations of the law, Rep. Bishop is returning the $15,000 (naively I thought that it had already been spent). Is this a naive attempt to "wash his hands"? My naive interpretation? My request: Will someone less naive than I please educate me on the "knowledgeable" interpretation. Anxiously awaiting your response.
Bob Mandel
Setauket
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March 10, 2010
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Supports Bishop
I would like to share my pride and satisfaction with having an honest, thoughtful, capable and approachable congressman representing the 1st Congressional District. Tim Bishop's accomplishments while in office are many and ongoing:
He has helped many veterans to obtain benefits as individuals and voted for the largest increase in health benefits for veterans in our history;
He ensured that Suffolk County received the largest stimulus funds outside of NYC thus saving the jobs of many workers including teachers, policemen and employees at Brookhaven Labs;
He is actively working to fix the Alternative Minimum Tax which unfairly impacts over 90,000 residents of the 1st Congressional District;
He is a strong supporter of reforming our broken health care system to ensure that no one will be denied health care due to past medical history, employment status, or ability to pay;
He is working to fill the "doughnut hole" in Medicare Part D which continues to allow seniors to impoverish themselves in order to try to maintain their health.
Congressman Bishop is willing to talk to any of his constituents in a respectful and honest dialog. I am wholeheartedly supporting his re-election.
Jane Cash
Stony Brook
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March 10, 2010
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Puppy mill problem
As a resident of the Three Village area for the past 46 years I am ashamed to see that our community has allowed a puppy store to open. My concern is for the parents of these cute little puppies in the window. Sometimes I take for granted that everyone is knowledgeable about puppy mills. If you choose to do one thing today please Google the words "puppy mill." See for yourself where 99 percent of pet store puppies come from.
For the past several Saturdays animal lovers have been peacefully protesting the opening of a puppy store in Stony Brook. The protest will continue every Saturday from 10 am to 4 pm, please join us! We have had several discussions with employees of the store only to be told, "There is no such word as puppy mill." I guess Oprah did a story about something that does not exist!
My point is who can say no to puppy kisses? It's the rare person who does not melt when confronted with a darling puppy full of funny energy. But it is also the rare person who stops to think about the origin of that puppy. It would surprise most people to learn that there is a huge commercial kennel industry in the United States that mass produces puppies and ships them to pet stores. The numbers are truly staggering — there are hundreds of thousands of "breeder dogs" caged in kennels being bred over and over.
The conditions at these kennels are often horrific — with seriously ill dogs living in filth trapped in small wire cages being bred time after time until their little bodies wear out and they either die or they are killed because they fail to produce. Stories abound from people who have purchased dogs from a pet store only to discover that their new puppy is seriously ill.
The only way to be sure that the puppy you buy did not come from a commercial kennel with horrific conditions is by seeing the parents. Don't believe the pet store owner who says the puppies were raised in a "loving home in the Midwest." You need to see the parents and the conditions where they live.
Lynne Schoepfer
Stony Brook
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March 10, 2010
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A musical interlude
I enjoy reading the column D: None of the above by Daniel Dunaief. This was his best yet ("A musical interlude proves a portal to the past," Feb. 25). Music is timeless. My WMHS experiences were "Bye Bye Birdie" and school ski trips.
Wade Kuisel (WMHS '81)
Mount Pleasant, S.C.
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March 10, 2010
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Help heal nature
The mosaic of beautiful open spaces throughout the Three Village community has been ripped and injured. What appeared initially as one or two errant paths of vehicles veering off the road during the recent blanketing snows now seems to be a serial act of vandalism. Tire tracks are torn into numerous public commons and private lawns. Signs were destroyed. Vandals even tore up sensitive habitat along the newly restored West Meadow Beach peninsula. Fortunately, shorebird and turtle eggs have not yet been laid; let's hope the small mammals and owls were able to avoid the marauding vehicles.
Earlier this winter, for the New York Times Magazine, Daniel B. Smith wrote a neat article about how our psyches are linked with nature's condition. Thoughts of icebergs and polar bears came to mind initially. The ecology-psychology link became quite real and local after witnessing these four-wheeled scars throughout the community and hearing neighbors' collective dismay. Police were notified, but enforcement alone won't heal wounds to the environs or to us.
Let's flip this insult into a community opportunity. Earth Day this year is actually a week, starting April 17. Grab a rake and a friend. Let's help the roughed up, yet resilient, mosses and grasses. Maybe even plant a few native species (www.plantnative.org) in your own open space. Please note that West Meadow, and some other parks, are protected and actively maintained, thus residents should focus on their own or community spaces. Blossoms will appear soon.
Tom Gulbransen
Setauket
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March 10, 2010
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Vines in FMM Park
A letter appearing in this paper a short time ago ("Slow death," Jan. 7) expressed concern about vines being allowed to grow on trees in the Frank Melville Park. The Park Board thanks the author for taking the time to write. We appreciate his interest and comment and point out that we are in the fifth year of an aggressive campaign to control vines on the trees and the results are very visible. As I recall, specifically mentioned was the towering ivy-covered tree west of the post office at the entrance to the park.
We take our trees seriously here and this particular one, a Northern catalpa supporting English ivy, is a frequent topic and it was again at our recent trustees meeting. The catalpa is a fast-growing, showy and very messy North American native. The ivy is a non-native invasive. Invasive plants are a huge problem in the park, but in this case the judgement to leave the tree's ivy covering is based on its iconic evergreen presence and professional opinions to not remove the vines in this case. The truth is many like it the way it looks. The tree has been pronounced healthy in the past and will be inspected again in the near future, especially as it might threaten the post office building. Eventually it will come down, but a nearby catalpa seedling is already of mature size and will take its place.
The Park has recently replaced two American beech trees with the generous help of Usher Tree Specialists. Corrective pruning is regularly done throughout the park and we try our best to control the invasives. The Park Board is committed to constant improvement of the buildings, grounds and plantings even as we work to restore the ponds. We welcome the input the writer and also thank him for all his good work on the Setauket-Port Jefferson Station Greenway Trail.
Robert Reuter
Trustee, Frank Melville Memorial Park
Setauket
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March 03, 2010
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Our credit card debt
With federal dollars being referenced in billions and trillions even knowledgeable taxpayers could be forgiven for "losing count" of their personal share of some abstract multizero, number. Try this: Every time someone says one trillion dollars think of it as $3,000 for every man, woman, and child living in America.
Keeping that in mind it's interesting to review a letter from Congressman Tim Bishop telling us of a federal law protecting consumers from credit card companies ("Leveling the playing field," Feb. 18). The Credit Card Bill of Rights is designed to keep cardholders informed of any changes that could negatively impact their ability to make proper payments. Special protection is given to those under the age of 21. The idea of shielding people, especially young people, from unwittingly accumulating too much debt is an admirable one. It is, however, a noble principle Mr. Bishop has failed to apply in any meaningful way on behalf of his constituents.
Two weeks before the appearance of his letter Bishop voted to raise the national debt ceiling from $12.39 to $14.29 trillion. He said "yea" to dropping America 1.9 trillion bucks deeper into the fiscal abyss and hiking your individual share of the red ink some $6,000. Multiply 14 times 3 and you're looking at over $42,000 of personal indebtedness for each person in the country, including newborns. They enter the world buried in debt, but, as teenagers, will, mercifully be kept safe from credit card scams.
There is no provision in the law prohibiting employees of unscrupulous credit card companies from charging thousands of dollars to an account without your specific knowledge or consent because that's clearly, already, unlawful. Is that really so different from politicians, ignoring the people's will, and charging massive amounts of money to our shared, national credit card?
Unmentioned by Congressman Bishop is a stipulation in the law requiring consumers to receive a statement that, assuming current interest rates and payment amounts, projects how long it will take to fully satisfy the loan. Why shouldn't taxpayers be treated to the same kind of transparency from the federal government? Because if we all saw, in black and white, personalized projections of unsustainable deficits for ourselves and families there would be hundreds of fiscally irresponsible politicians looking for new careers … in the real world.
Jim Soviero
East Setauket
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February 24, 2010
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A ‘greener’ hotel site
I liked the suggestion of building this hotel near the train station. This makes sense. The argument that it should be "near the hospital" is specious at best. Anyone staying at the hotel would not want to "walk to the hospital"! They would get in their cars and drive to convenient parking on the other side of Nicolls Road, of course! There's already plenty of parking near the train station to accommodate hotel guests, and that location would be convenient to rail passengers arriving for a conference from the city or airports. Shuttle service provided by the hotel to the campus buildings or the hospital would provide convenience to hotel guests regardless of the purpose of their stay.
We should spare our coveted greenbelt and keep the appearance of the main entrance to the campus free of the "commercial blight" that a hotel would give the area. However elegant they design and build this hotel, it is still a hotel, with all the signage and lighting that entails. How grim that would be when you think of that elegant line of dawn redwoods, situated along the main entrance drive, overshadowed by neon and sodium lights!
Let's rethink this plan: by making it "green," environmentally sensible and by preserving the greenbelt and the main entrance to our campus.
Alice Dawes
Setauket
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February 24, 2010
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‘Eyes on West Meadow’
by Paula Timpson
Set your heart
on the sea...
Find rich, lasting treasures each moment,
your open-heart leads you there
Sun-light lives Forever where
darkness fades
Touch moon and stars grace,
leading you,
'Home...'
Believe in
tomorrow
with pure passion
of gulls songs
Listen
in-to
angelic birds,
returning each evening
to bring messages
of hope
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February 18, 2010
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TVCSD-SBU partnership
Board of Education President Micklos has proposed our District pursue a partnership with Stony Brook University to enroll high school students in advanced placement courses at SBU. Given the number of advanced placement courses offered at Ward Melville, the plan has the potential for dramatic savings for District residents.
SBU offers an array of programs for high schoolers. The Young Scholars Program, Independent High School Research Programs, MARIACHI, (an experimental science program), the Long Island Junior Science & Humanities Symposium, and the Stony Brook High School Scholars Program (at Southampton) are examples of current SBU offerings.
SBU's undergraduate student cost is less than half the District's expenditure. The SBHSSP permits juniors and seniors, who demonstrate a readiness for college work, to enroll in 10-15 course hours per week. The cost is $200 per course. My quick calculations: Assuming the top 25 percent of our senior and junior classes enrolled at SBU (320 students), and each took 18 course hours per academic year, the cost to the District would be $1,200 per student, or $384,000 per academic year.
Under current contract provisions, I calculate 20 teachers, working 5 classroom hours a day, are required to educate 320 students 5 days a week. Having our students attend two days of classes at SBU, reduces that number 40 percent, down to 12 teachers. Following the 2009-2010 salary schedule, a teacher with 15 years experience (MA plus 30 credits) earns (in round numbers) $98, 000. A reasonable estimate is benefits adds $32,000, for an average teacher cost of $130,000. Hypothetical savings for this one SBU program are $1,040,000 - $384, 000 = $656,000 and would increase yearly as individuals climb the 30 increment pay scale, and the cost of pensions and benefits escalates.
Students would benefit by attendance at a world class university for which college credits are awarded. Parents would benefit by corresponding savings on freshman college tuition. Transportation costs would likely be a wash. The District contracts for transportation by the bus. It makes little difference if it delivers the students to SBU or to Ward Melville.
Mr. Micklos's proposal is a winner for students, parents and taxpayers. His proposed collaboration with SBU is brave, laudable and worthy of our support. I hope his luck is better than mine, when as a Trustee, I made a similar proposal. Trustees Peritore, Kornreich, McIntosh, and Leister, elected with union support, cannot harbor any reasonable objections. Our community urgently needs school tax relief. Mr. Micklos, the children and community deserve the Trustees unqualified support uncolored by union objections to job losses.
Jacqueline Rudman
Setauket
The writer is a former Three Village School Board member.
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February 18, 2010
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| 1854: Emil von Behring, first recipient of the Nobel Prize for medicine in 1901. |
| 1916: Harry James, American band leader and trumpet player. |
| 1933: Ruth Bader Ginsberg, U.S. Supreme Court Justice. |
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