WHITE PLAINS CITIZENETREPORTER SETS RECORD VISITS FOR YEAR 7,017,658 VISITS! 2,098,003 VISITORS MADE 6 VISITS A DAY EVERY DAY. 63,330 UNIQUE VISITORS MADE 133,730 VISITS IN DECEMBER. WPCNR AVERAGED 17,284 VISITORS A WEEK, VISITING 31,270 TIMES.

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WPCNR STAGE DOOR. From Fort Hill Players. September 24, 2006: The Fort Hill Players have announced their autumn production, the Tony Award-winning play, PROOF, beginning its run October 20, 21,27,28 at 8 and October 21 at 2 P.M. at Rochambeau School.  The Players have a history of bringing Broadway’s best plays to the Rochambeau Stage and presenting with panache, heart and professionalism.

(More)

Catherine has more than the typical problem. At 25, she’s not only a troubled young lady and daughter of a famous mathematician, but entrenched in years of being his caretaker. Then he dies.

“Proof,” directed by Melinda O’Brien, is presented by Fort Hill Players. Fridays and Saturdays, October 20, 21, 27, 28  at 8 pm.  October 21 at 2 pm.  Rochambeau School, 228 Fisher Ave., White Plains. $15, $12 Seniors/Students. To purchase tickets, call 914-309-7278, or order online:  FortHillPlayers.com

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WPCNR WHITE PLAINS LAW JOURNAL SCHOOL DAYS EDITION. By Don Hughes and John Bailey . September 23, 2006:  The school plans presently being presented to the public calling for $69.6 Million in Capital Project Improvements and the estimated costs could have been as detailed as the school district wanted them to be without violating state guidelines, WPCNR has learned.

Superintendent of Schools Explaining the $69.6 Million Capital Project to Mamaroneck Avenue School PTA this week. Photo, WPCNR News

The guidelines come from actual  governing School District Operations in the handbook,  School Law, 2002 Edition,  published by the New York State School Boards Association.  The New York State Education Department Media Relations Department informed WPCNR earlier this year that the SED encourages school districts to be as  accurate as possible in projecting costs for any new construction because the more accurate the estimate, because it is to the school district advantage to do so.

The City School District is presenting its case for spending $69.6 Million to build a new Post Road School, renovate Mamaroneck Avenue School, and build two new football stadiums at Highlands and Loucks Field, and $15 Million of infrastructure upgrades.  Parents and citizens are being greeted with full-page advertisements and the distribution of flyers at PTA meetings.  However,  the question of how detailed “preliminary plans” can be before going out for a referendum has come up at various meetings on the $69.6 Million school project over the summer.

The Proposed New Post Road School fronting on Sterling Avenue on the present Post Road School site. Photo, WPCNR News

Actual legislation and policy decisions (dating back to 1951) govern how school boards can work with architects before going out for a referendum for new construction. The documents were reviewed by Don Hughes for WPCNR.

Board of Education members and the Superintendent of Schools have said the estimate of costs of school plans for the new Post Road School and Mamaroneck Avenue School renovations were subject to change with some costs seeming too high  because the state does not allow detailed plans to be developed before construction is approved.

PTAs, Faculties, Administrations of Post Road, MAS Yet to Have Their Say.

It is also clear that the architect’s plans have not yet been developed in consort with all the stakeholders at each school being renovated because the architect is going to go in to Post Road School and Mamaroneck Avenue School and seek their input. These meetings  will take place with the faculty, administration and parents at each school should the referendum be approved at the Special Board of Education Referendum election October 17.

Preliminary First Floor Plan for Mamaroneck Avenue School presented to MAS parents Wednesday evening.  Blue area is the new 3-story addition with storage in ground floor, a new kinderarten wing on First Floor and a Music Room on Second Floor. There will also be renovations done to the cafeteria and expansion of the library and improvements to the auditorium. Photo, WPCNR News.

“I have researched the School District’s contention that they may not prepare detailed plans for the proposed Post Road school until they have received voter approval of the bond issue.  I was referred to “School Law” published by the New York State School Boards Association.  Specifically article 16:15 which reads:

May a school district contract with an architect for the preparation of preliminary plans and specifications for a school building construction project before submitting the building project to the voters?

Yes.  The school board may so contract with an architect, whose fee may legitimately be paid by the district.  However, before an architect prepares final plans, voter approval must be obtained at a school district meeting, except in large city school districts (Formal Opn., of Counsel No. 1, 1 Educ. Dep’t Rep. 701 (1951)).

This appears on page 543 of the 2002 edition.  The cited opinion reads:

 Formal Opinions of Counsel

I have your letter of July 12, 1951, in which you ask my opinion whether a board of education of a central school district has the legal right to employ an architect to prepare plans and specifications without the necessity of presenting the matter to a school meeting and obtaining approval from such body.



In order that a school building proposition may be presented to the voters it is essential that the board have a definite proposition to present.  The voters, before they are able to determine intelligently whether or not a building should be erected, must know something about the proposed building – its probable cost etc.  For that reason the Department has consistently held that a board of education has full power to employ an architect for the preparation of preliminary plans.  If, however, the architect is to prepare final plans it is necessary that authorization be obtained from the school meeting in order that he may do so.

Dated July 17, 1951

H. B. Ostrander

Thanks to Dave Epstein for access to the 1951 Reports.

To me, this opinion seems quite reasonable – the district may spend money to provide the voters with an accurate proposal; they may not spend money for construction plans until the project has been approved.  The opinion does not preclude the district from preparing accurate detailed plans, only from preparing the final construction plans.

So, some of the costs will initially be estimates, which will change as plans are finalized and contracts are put out to bid, but this is not any different from any other large construction project.”

9 Months from approval to Construction Start.

The decision not to seek input from the schools involved about the design of the new Post Road School and the renovation of Mamaroneck Avenue School prior to the referendum, may, but not necessarily,  put the School District in a time bind because they envision a tight runup to construction once the referendum is approved.

Superintendent of Schools Timothy Connors said Wednesday evening addressing the Mamaroneck Avenue School PTA meeting that should the district’s voters approve the referendum to authorize $69.6 Million in spending on upgrading district buildings, work would begin on final plans for the Mamaroneck Avenue School and the new Post Road School. That would include, Connors said, the architect, Kaeyer Garment & Davidson meeting with parents, administration and faculty seeking their input on the “preliminary” design for both the new school and Mamaroneck Avenue School renovations. Photo, WPCNR News

Included in that time frame of 9 Months to prepare the final plans, Connors said to the MAS parents, would be  consultation with the two sets of school stakeholders, preparation of the final plans (which could, Connors said include cost cuts eliminating certain features), and then submission the final plans to the State Education Department for approval and then go out for bids. Construction, Connors predicted would begin October, 2007, with construction of the new school and the MAS renovation completed by fall, 2009, with an outside target of fall 2010.

16 Weeks for State Education Department to Review.

Tom Dunn of the Media Relations Office of the New York State Education Department told WPCNR that the Education Department is now averaging 16 weeks to approve final plans on new school construction projects. That 16 week window is four months if the 9-month post-approval, run-up to start of construction, Mr. Connors envisions.

Earlier this month, Mr. Dunn stateed the State Education Department philosophy on estimates for new construction projects submitted for referendum and SED approval. He issued this statement:

“It does not benefit districts to just make up numbers to get approval because they will invariably be wrong and the district would not be able to do the work that was promised.

Generally the work is identified in consultation with architects and engineers, properly estimated using several acceptable methods and then a contingency factor is usually applied to cover unexpected problems and the escalation costs between the time estimates are developed, and actual construction starts.

This duration can easily be over a year, sometimes two, so the estimate needs to be projected forward (time value of money) as best as possible to ask voters for the correct amount for when it will actually need to be spent. “

The Stadiums, Parker and Loucks would be constructed beginning this coming spring, with the School District expecting both Loucks and Parker to be ready for football, soccer, lacrosse, and girls field hockey by next September.

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WPCNR COMMON COUNCIL CHRONICLE-EXAMINER. By John F. Bailey, September 22, 2006: Paul Wood, City Executive Officer and Susan Habel, Commissioner of Planning presented a speculative subdivsion plan clearing the way for New York Presbyterian Hospital to build if they wished, over 100 homes on the Bryant Avenue side of the New York Presbyterian Hospital property, pending Planning Board approval of such a project.  The city duo said this subdivsion plan was a city-inspired subdivision plan to acquire 5.5 acres of parkland from New York Presbyterian Hospital in return for accepting a 60 acre 125-unit single family home subdivision plan for their property fronting Bryant Avenue.

The Phantom Subdivision Presented by the City last night to the Common Council. Area on diagram shows Bloomingdale’s in the upper left corner. Bryant Avenue at base. Parkland to be acquired by the city is at lower left. It was not made clear what the advantage is to New York Presbyterian Hospital in accepting the city proposal, which would according to Mr. Wood, would render the Proton Accelerator/biotech proposal “moot,” and unbuildable on its formerly approved site.Photo by WPCNR News.

The Pinnacle Team: William Null, left requested a six month extension of time until Pinnacle submits their guarantee to build affordable housing for Louis Cappelli on The Pinnacle site. Null said they needed the time to acquire grants and tax credits to build the $17 Million project. Null disclosed construction costs had gone up 30 to 40%. Photo, WPCNR News.

In other action, William Null, representing the Pinnacle project, requested a six month extension to the time when they have to post a guarantee and secured financing to build the affordable housing part of their Pinnacle project. The guaranttee is critical for the Ginsburg group to post because it allows Louis Cappelli to open his Ritz-Carlton Hotel one year from now, without being tied to the affordable housing being built at the Pinnacle by that time. The Common Council was reluctantly supportive of the idea, with only Benjamin Boykin, exasperated,  acidly observing “All of us are running out of time. I’m running out of patience.”

The Pinnacle attorney, Mr. Null, told the WPCNR, when asked if The Pinnacle was going to start demolition of the existing buildings where The Pinnacle is to rise on Main Street this month, as promised the Council one month ago, said “We’re moving forward as best as we can.” Asked if this meant the city could expect demolition to begin within this month, Null, repeated, “We’re moving forward as best we can.”

.

The City Team: Paul Wood, Executive Officer, and Susan Habel, Commissioner of Planning. Photo, WPCNR News.

Wood and Habel said the Board of Directors of the New York Presbyterian Hospital had yet to approve the plan. In return for granting White Plains the park, the hospital receives a ready-to-go subdivision plan that has been designed by the City of White Plains should they ever wish sometime in the future to build possibly housing on this portion of their property. Ms. Habel told the Common Council the hospital has agreed to put their proton accelerator-biotech division project on hold for approximately nine months, while the city submitted the “phantom” subdivision plan for Common Council approval.

Habel said that the subdivsion plan would remove the special permit status for the portion of the property covered by the subdivision plan, which included the approved site for the proton accelerato-biotech center.  Should the council approve the memorandum of understanding, the hospital would not be able to build the proton accelerator on its present approved site because it is within the “phantom subdivision” the city has prepared.  The subdivision is simply an option for the hospital, Wood and Habel made clear, offering the hospital the opportunity to build 131 homes on 60 acres if the hospital wished to do so at some future date in return for the 5.5 acres.  Habel said the acreage covered was not an “environmentally sensitive site.”

Martin Cohen, Vice President for Real Estate for New York Presbyterian Hospital,  walking ahead of reporters Keith Eddings, Alex Phillipidis and yours truly down the City Hall steps, answered questions on his departure. 

Cohen said when I asked him if the hosptial was actively considering building housing on the city-inspired subdivsion land, said offering the opportunity for building housing “was definitely an interesting option.”

When asked why the New York Presbyterian Hospital would agree to this proposal which was initiated by the city according to Wood and Habel, Cohen declined to offer an explanation.

Informed by WPCNR that the proton accelerator/biotech project should the Hospital accept the subdivision would effectively prevent the proton accelerator/biotech project being built without another approval process for another area of the site, Cohen said, “It does? I wasn’t aware of that.”

Cohen said the hospital was not actively shopping the subdivided property and had not explored it. Cohen refused to talk about the status of the proton accelerator/biotech project and what priority it occupies in the New York Presbyterian Hospital’s future plans. 

The removal of the special permit of the hospital, only applies to the subdivision area, and does not apply to the 114 acres on the north end of the property. Previously, during the approval process of the proton accelerator/biotech research center had ruled out areas on the North end of the property as being too small to accommodate the requirements of the complex.

Ms. Habel said a Memorandum of Understanding would be forthcoming to the Council outlining the proposal in more detail.

In other news...

At the public hearings on the procedure of the City applying to the Empire State Development Corporation, for $1.4 Million in grants to Cappelli Enterprises for demolition and asbestos removal at 189 Main Street and $1 Million for the Pinnacle, no one appeared to comment, and the Council passed the resolutions unanimously.

The council adjourned to executive session to discuss what reporters speculated was discussion of pending litigation against the County of Westchester to protest the city not being given right of first refusal on the disposal of the Grand Avenue Post Office property, which the county agreed to lease to HANAC and Bluestone to build a $60 Million plus affordable housing project last week.

The city fathers were very positive about accepting a hydrogen filling station on the Department of Public Works site to fuel hydrogen vehicles the city announced it was acquiring in a news conference Thursday morning.

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WPCNR East Side Story. By John F. Bailey. September 21, 2006 UPDATED 2:00 P.M. E.D.T. INTERVIEWS WITH PAUL WOOD, TIM CONNORS: As first reported in January, 2005 by WPCNR, the New York Presbyterian Hospital Proton Accelerator/Biotech Research laboratory will not be built. At least not for a long time, according to Paul Wood, City Executive Officer. Reports appearing in the media of 131 homes to be built on the property, he said, were inaccurate.

PAUL WOOD. The Mayor’s Executive Officer. Mr. Wood is shown last night at City Hall. Photo, WPCNR News

The New York Presbyterian Hospital was reported in another publication, to be considering building housing instead consisting of over 100 homes, with more to come, according to Paul Wood of the Mayor’s office yesterday. However, at 12:15 today, Mr. Wood said this information, provided to other media but not to WPCNR,  was “inaccurate.” 

Timothy Connors, Superintendent of Schools, said he could not comment on the effect of any possible massive home development until he knew what it was, townhouses, condos, two-family homes. Commenting on how a new burst of housing could affect the district $69.6 Million Capital Improvemehnt project,  “It shows,” Connors said, “The School District is on the right track, preparing for the future.” 

Wood told WPCNR the city is applying to subdivide the hospital property to create a 5.5 acre park, where one soccer field and one baseball diamond could be built. Wood said he has no idea of what the New York Presbyterian Hospital would use the remainder of the property for, including the Northern side of the property.

 He said the balance of the hospital property would revert back to its original zoning which would consist of 2 houses per acre. In order to “carve out” a small park for the city, the city had to apply for a subdivision, which in exchange, the hospital was willing to allow the balance of the property to revert back to its original zoning which is residential.  Wood said he did not know whether the hospital was thinking of selling the land, developing it, or what they planned to do with it.

Pardes Felt the City Should Have a Park.

Subdivision virtually Delays Proton Accelerator Indefinitely

Asked why the hospital was doing this, Wood told WPCNR the Mayor and Herbert Pardes, CEO of the New York Presbyterian Hospital, have a special relationship, and Mr. Pardes told the Mayor he (Pardes) felt badly the city was not going to get a park out of the proton accelerator project, and for “over a year,” Wood said, he and the Mayor worked out the vest-pocket playing fields park announced to media yesterday.

Wood said by subdividing the property for the park, the original approval for the proton-accelerator “becomes moot,” and in order for the proton accelerator to be built, the New York Presbyterian Hospital would have to resubmit an entire new application process.

Wood stressed the Common Council has to approve the subdivision, but did acknowledge the Council had been briefed on the park project and, asked if they were behind it, Wood said he did not know.

Potential for Housing Always There.

School District Should Have Known that: Wood.

 The potential for  housing that could be built on the property, had always existed Wood told us, and therefore the school district should have been aware of that potential. (Although previous approval of the proton accelerator-biotech project may have, in all fairness, dimmed the interest in building homes adjacent to the proton accelerator complex.)

Should the subdivision be approved, the potential for a total of 131 houses on a proton-acclerator-less property, could add as few as 131 children and as many as 500 children to the school district enrollments in the next seven years, by rough estimate.

11 Home Tradeoff?

Wood said the city had to articulate the subdivison allowing the New York Presbyterian Hospital the ability to build 11 homes in addition to the on the rest of their property, to make up for the homes lost on the 5.5 acres — a very building friendly site on the Southwest portion of the property. At roughly two homes per 60 acres, this would give a 120 home potential plus 11 from the park site to make a total of 131.

Wood did not say why the hospital needed an 11-home trade to do the subdivision rather than a straight $6 Million city payment for the park (based on a sales price of $1.2 Million per acre set by the NorthStreet Community purchase of the St.Agnes property), if they were not considering building homes on the property. Other media reported the housing project would include the 11 homes to the 120 homes (2 per acre). Wood calls this inforamtion innaccurate and has no knowledge housing is in the Hospital plans for the future. 

As Reported Previously by WPCNR

The city did not advise the School District that this previously reported park/housing project on behalf of the city, was in the planning stages for the last year, according to Superintendent of Schools Timothy Connors. Wood said he saw no reason to tell the School District about it because they should have been aware of the housing potential on the Hospital property, anyway. 

Common Council President Rita Malmud said the Council and she were aware of “certain elements of the plan” in its development that had been explained to her by the Mayor and city staff. WPCNR asked Ms. Malmud if the council (which has often commented the city should work more closely with the school system), had shared the proposal with the school district, said the council, to her knowledge, had not.

Superintendent of Schools Timothy Connors told WPCNR this morning the city administration had not let him know that this housing project as originally reported by other media, was being planned, and the project impact on school enrollments was not taken into account in District enrollment projections used to formulate District infrastructure and school expansion as part of the $69.6 Million Capital Project. Mr. Connors is seen promoting passage of the Capital Project Referendum at Post Road School last week. Photo, WPCNR News

 The clarification issued by Mr. Wood to WPCNR of his remarks to media yesterday which were not furnished to WPCNR, does not indicate there would be massive housing on Bryant Avenue.

If the hospital should go for a housing project which now arguably becomes more attractive if the proton accelerator is off the table, it shatters City School District enrollment projections, on which the district $69.6 Million expansion and renovation plan (up for referendum vote on October 17). The number of children any NYPH housing plans geared to families may bring in calls into question whether their $69 Million Capital Project is ambitious enough to expand elementary school capacity to handle future enrollment should the Presbyterian Hospital proceed with this project.

Park Vanishes. According to reports of Mr. Wood’s remarks released yesterday to the media, and denied this afternoon as inaccurate by Mr. Wood, it was indicated 131 homes would be built on the green portion of the the hospital property at the lower right location, and on the area of property showing the two proton-accelerator-biotech center buildings — the turquoise rectangles in lower center portion of this diagram. Steep slopes and streams in the lower left of the property would not be built on, according to Wood. Athletic fields covering 5-1/2 acres, consisting of a soccer field and baseball diamond (instead of the original 60 acres that would have been acquired in 2000, when Mr. Wood said, “the conservationists blew it”). As Marc Pollitzer, the North Street Assocation President, has often noted the hospital can build the housing as of right on the property.

Photo, WPCNR News Archive.

Paul Wood, the Mayor’s Executive Officer announced yesterday to media (not the CitizeNetReporter)  that Mayor Joseph Delfino encouraged and worked with the hospital  to develop an alternative development consisting of housing with 5.5 acres turned over to the city for recreation playing fields. The administration last year at this time in the early fall was denying knowledge of any change  the hospital plans for the proton accelerator had changed.

Portion of now-potential Housing Location along Bryant Avenue. Photo, WPCNR News Archive.

Wood originally was reported to have said the hospital proposes building 131 homes  on this north side of Bryant Avenue, as well  as development on the northside of the NYPH property.  He did not indicate what development of the northside would be. Now, Wood is saying the report of 131 homes being considered by the hospital is inaccurate.

WPCNR calls to New York Presbyterian Hospital spokesperson, Geoff Thompson, have placed questions as to what the nature of possible development of the Northside of the property would be like, whether the hospital plans to sell the property to a developer, or retain title, and whether the proton accelerator-biotech facility would be built elsewhere by the New York Presbyterian Hosptial. More detail is expected at this evening’s Common Council meeting.

Hospital Plan Change Originally Denied by City.

The first indication the hospital was changing its plans was reported by WPCNR January 28, 2005, when Vito Cappello Director of Development for North America of  Hitachi USA(which builds proton accelerators), told WPCNR the hospital was delaying the project and was not pursuing starting construction on the accelerator in the near future.

WPCNR reported after Mr. Cappello’s revelation,  that the New York Presbyterian Hospital was thinking of selling its land due to the increased value of their property indicated by the sale of the St. Agnes property to the North Street Community.  This WPCNR report was rigorously denied by the city.

Yesterday’s announcement shows the Mayor was negotiating with the hospital to put together  at least the subdivision for a park plan while his administration was denying the hospital was rethinking its plans.  The park subdivision (with most likely no mention of housing), is expected to be explained this evening at a Common Council work session.

 Last fall the report that the hospital was cooling on the proton acclerator-biotech center it had promoted as a state-of-the-art and had been earmarked to receive $100 Million plus in state aid to build it as a Center for Excellence by Governor George Pataki,would not comment on the reasons for the accelerator delay to WPCNR.

It has also been widely speculated that high rise development on the north side of the property in addition to the housing plan, is a logical extension of the residential high rise luxury housing being built by high profile developers in the White Plains downtown. High rise development on the north side of the hospital property would certainly be seen in some circles as complimenting  the toney Nordstrom’s, Bloomingdale’s, Nieman-Marcus, Fortunoff corridor on Bloomingdale Road.

School District Capacity Prognostications Go Out the Window

If a housing project is built it would be a massive subdivision consisting of what Wood was originally reported as describing as single family homes and townhouses.   however it shatters the anticipated enrollment projections the City School District is relying on to plan its $69.6 Million elementary school expansion and renovation now being considered. The building of the homes and further residential development on the north side of the hosptial property by Westchester Avenue could mean an influx of from 200 to 400 children or more into the City School System in addition to the present projected number of 280 elementary school children entering the at capacity school district facilities by 2010. This puts City School District enrollment projections into question, and raises the greater question of whether the $69.6 Million Capital Project on the October 17 Referendum is inadequate for the enrollment.

Previously, the City School District has reported that their enrollment figures for the school year 2010 are based on birth rate figures as of 2005, and do not take into account any future large scale family housing development.

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WPCNR ACROSS THE ANCHOR DESK. By John F. Bailey. September 20, 2006: The CBS Evening News with Katie Couric debuted two weeks ago nationally and about the only thing going for it is there’s a superbly turned out slightly older blonde on it.

If you’re looking for hard news, the CBS Evening News no longer has it. If you’re looking for reported news, there’s a lot less of it. If you want dirty laundry cleaned up,  sugar-coated by “the bubble-headed bleached blonde with a gleam in her eye,” you now have it.

The content has been boiled down to 11 minutes of hard news about three to 4 stories, 7 at the most, a field report  from a correspondent, a Free Speech segment featuring a celebrity commentator. There was casualty count in Iraq given on either day. (Remember Walter Cronkite’s Vietnam war dead crawl?).  There is a Snapshots Segment of fluff. The CBS Evening News with Katie Couric, is to this repawta, a “feel good about bad news” show.

I love Katie Couric’s legs, which are the highlights of the show. Entertainment Tonight was launched by the legs of its beautiful commentator Mary Hart, and the handlers at CBS have managed to give her a wardrobe that lifts her out of the vacuous cheerleader persona who captivated traveling executives in  the Radissons, Hiltons, and Sheratons of America,  waiting for meetings to begin on the Today Show for the past fifteen years.

Ms. Couric’s softball interviews for fifteen years were built up as better than they are, and her lack of a followup question is legend. This was clearly evident the first two nights. Katie Couric after all these years cannot bring herself to throw a brushback question.

Unfortunately that is not the job of the news. The news is to put reality in your face, or it used to be. That’s what I take from two weeks of Katie.

After the opening 11 minutes of hard news, such as it is. An event or two or three are tied together, given a common theme and analyzed by a correspondent, as if that proved anything.  Then you get 11 minutes of Today Show fluff that is not news at all but feel good pieces. Human interest. Celebrity bits.

There was no in-depth mention of business trends,  (in a week of inflation news up and down) except for one major business story each day – the Shell oil platforms in the Gulf Tuesday, and the General Motors story Wednesday. 

The show – and that’s what it is, not a newscast — intends to use Ms. Couric’s “strength:” interviews. She interviewed a Times reporter on national security her opening night and President George W. Bush Wednesday evening, using only three questions on the CIA prison transfer and request for congress to approve military tribunals. On another show discussing pre-cervical cancer drugs, a doctor let slip statistics on how sexually active fifteen year old girls are. Now that is a statement that Ms. Couric needed to delve deeper into. Did she? No.

On the homeland security interview on opening night, there was no mention of homeland security and border crossings, no questioning of homeland security inspection of cargo, and no question about homeland security surveillance of foreign students – all very valid concerns. Asking “Are we safer now?” of Thomas Friedman as Ms. Couric did is a box canyon question. People think it is tough but the really tough questions are specific ones. Actually Ms. Couric is not alone in asking easy to wrangle questions – the print press does this all the time in news conferences. 

A little news judgment please.

According to the CBS News Media Relations, the show is edited by Ms. Couric as Managing Editor, with Rome Hartman, Executive Producer a 15 year producer at 60 Minutes. Judging the first two editions of CBS EVENING NEWS WITH KATIE COURIC, we have a 30-minute Today”Show.

It is a show concentrating on style and feelings, and how we perch on a desk, while wasting incredible time in segues and graphic intros. 

You have only 22 minutes to tell people what is going on.  Katie and Rome are killinh 11 minutes with stories on the muppets, a blind teenager, pictures of the Cruise-Homes baby, a painting class in a South American country, plus editorial commentary from personalities. This is not news. It’s fluff. It is a margaritaville cocktail hour, not scotch on the rocks news.

If Ms. Couric and Mr. Hartman are going for the ratings with a newscast that makes you feel that things aren’t so bad out there and the human race is wonderful, and America’s o.k. they may be making a business decision that will work, but they are not doing a news show in any sense of the word in their first two weeks and the ratings are flattening.

I question their news objectivity because they stop short of the hard out there question.  How do they get the ultimate “get,” the President, on the day he announces a major policy change on prisoners of war? Of course you take the interview. But does Katie ask the question, (after the President tells her, we have to have victory in Iraq, and mentions dire consequences if the Iraqi government fails) “Mr. President, how do you define victory in Iraq?” She does not. Because she knows he has no idea.

Maybe, she did ask that question – but on the outtakes that wound up on her 10 o’clock special later that evening. And, another thing on the Bush interview.

 Bush mentions that the prisoner interrogations in the CIA secret prisons lead to the foiling of an anthrax plot and a plot to fly airplanes into buildings somewhere on the West Coast. Could Ms. Couric have asked what prisoners supplied that information, and if any arrests were made.  This is the first time those factoids were made public. She should have gotten his answers down to that off camera and reported it in copy if they did not have time for running the interview answer.

Katie Couric may not think she should ask those kinds of question out of respect for the President. But, Ms. Couric, you are the network anchor, you got to ask it. You got to think. Or maybe it is why she’s a network anchor today, because she knows better not to think – too much.

The show is not being edited to bring you meaty news content.

 In contrast, I recommend the nightly BBC 30-minute newscast that literally takes you around the world and is just packed with news you never see on Fox, CNN or MSNBC, CBS, NBC or ABC, that blows you away. It is better than any 30 minute slice of newscast you can watch on Fox News or CNN or ABC or NBC.  I believe the BBC packs in about a story a minute,  which gives you 22 news stories to about 4 to 7 for the CBS Evening News. The BBC stories are tightly written, delivered by a no-nonsense woman anchorette without the massive set, the “swoosh slides” and the anchor talks fast. The BBC is an adrenalin rush from the content alone.

Ms. Couric adopts the steadied pace as if she is trying to stretch to time – to give that “gravitas” of anchorman pace. However, she delivers too slowly as if she is conducting a class of third graders. In week two she resorted to a rundown of headlines then in-depth rundowns of the same headlines. I suggest this is a waste of time. Why say one thing, then say the same thing in more detail? It wastes time.

Nevertheless there’s her presence, excellent diction. Dividing up the program, teasing the next stories in a set format slows it down. I like her delivery, now if only I was getting more news. Remember, Katie and Rome, it’s the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric  not the CBS Evening Tonight Show with Katie Couric

The Today show was put together as a series of news, stories of the day, and features to provide an update beginning of the day with people you trust and make you feel good. Today started the banter between personalities long before Eyewitness News ever thought of it. News personalities were bantered with and the interviews were slowpitch city.

They are now doing the Today show in 30 minutes every evening.

Ms. Couric and Mr. Hartman are getting paid huge bucks to get the CBS Evening News up in the ratings. They did a lot of preparation in putting together this show to give what they found out apparently people want. They are betting America wants to feel good. They have moved the Today Show to the evening. They are smarter than I am.

Judging from my experience in Westchester County, and the lack of response to local news coverage, and lack of concern of the citizens about how their governments are run and local trends, if “sophisticated” Westchester likes to feel good about the lies their leaders tell them, then Hartman and Couric may be very right and be very successful with this bubble-headed bleached blonde format. She is better to look at than Brian Williams  and the Gibson guy.

 Now – she should do very well with fraternity houses on the nation’s campuses. Whether there’s enough news here to hold the news traditionalists who watch these programs is debatable. I don’t think there is. Can she tear away the women to watch her during the dinner hour?

However, Bob Schieffer, the last great CBS newsman reported on  the first week of the program, and stated when Ms. Couric asked in typical cliché fashion what do you think this CIA prison transfer means, Schieffer gave a classic analysis: “It gives congress something to do.” He also said busying congress with the proposal to give The President the right to conduct military tribunals would tie up congress and prevent them from working on things they should be working on like the deficit. This may be Schieffer’s last appearance on the program as a correspondent. It was a hilarious moment said in all earnesty.

That’s the trouble with the show in a nutshell – there is no time on a 30-minute show for commentary. You have 22 minutes of real airtime. Commentary means nothing unless it uses facts to demonstrate what is happening. Commentary limits the number of stories you can do. Besides commentary means nothing. It’s what has and is happening that counts.

When you watch the CBS Evening News With Katie Couric  in its present editing policy, you learn a miniscule amount of what is happening in the world and why it is happening.

Give me my old fedora and a Lucky Strike in my nicotine stained finger tips holding the copy, the time zone clocks on the set and an old news ticker,  rather than this cupcake in designer clothes with the legs up to here perched on an immaculate desk, looking like she just came back from lunch at Gotham Grill.

The news as we know has died.