The opening of the May 29  Public Hearing of the State Assembly Committee on Corporations, Authorities, and Commissions Tuesday at 10 A.M  on the subject of storm response by utilities. It was not streamed on the internet on either the State Assembly website which gave NO instructions on their website on how to see the live stream or streamed live the Westchester Government website. This morning the complete video of the hearing was posted on the Assembly website, 48 hours after it happened, with again NO INSTRUCTION on the Assembly Main Page where to see the video, not even a photo and headline.

WPCNR THE POWER STORY. By John F. Bailey. May 31, 2018 UPDATED 3:35 PM EDT:

The public hearing that lasted 7-1/2 hours Tuesday held to ascertain the extent of the failure of area power companies to restore power across Westchester, Rockland, Dutchess, and Putnam counties and points north for two weeks is now available for viewing on the New York State Assembly website.

Since this morning, WPCNR has learned  through an informed source who was watching it that the Assembly did stream it live, but there was no instruction Tuesday morning on the  NY Assembly Site Homepage, the source said. They also noted that less than 100 persons were viewing the stream at the time.

Westchester County Executive George Latimer addressing the Public Hearing Tuesday.

It me be of interest to Westchester residents and across the state, since this hearing was not streamed live by Westchester County government existing streaming technology, which they do for proceedings in that Michaelian Building Legislative chamber on virtually a daily basis.

To compound this inexplicable failure to communicate of how to see coverage  an important hearing on the Westchester.gov website, the hearing was not streamed live on the New York State Assembly website.

I know that because I looked for it at 10:30 AM on the Assembly website and it was not there. It was not there. If it was being streamed, there is no way you could discover how to find it. When I punched  the “Watch Live” button on the Assembly Home Page, I got a bunch of pictures with no promo of the current stream whatsoever. So either the assembly team had started it late. The Assembly Press Office has not responded to WPCNR for an explanation of this communications gaffe.

The hearing, also I am told by a responsible media person who was there was not covered by the local press or the New York metropolitan area outlets while it was live. No cameras were observed by the media expert contacted by WPCNR

There was also no coverage yesterday in the news outlets, paper or electronic. Where was the New York Times? The most crucial local story in the last month ignored by all the news fit to print.

Inquiries to Westchester County Board of Legislators Chair Benjamin Boykin, and the county press office as to whether the New York State Assembly denied Westchester County the live televising of the hearing have not been responded to.

The Assembly press officer contacted yesterday afternoon by WPCNR did not respond when asked when the Assembly would be finished posting the 7-1/2 hour hearing. I do note however it is up this morning. Good work, Assembly!  It only took 48 hours.

The media source WPCNR spoke with yesterday said the State Assembly had brought in their own streaming equipment and crew to record the meeting.

So to catch you up on this hearing, here is where you can find it on the New York Assembly website.

The link to the public hearing is not splashed on the front  Assembly Homepage, as if they almost don’t want you to look at it.

I mean if used taxpayer dollars to record something for 7 and a half hours I would think you would ballyhoo that. Splash it on the front page of the website. I would if I wanted you to see your state assembly at work.

The Assembly press office also did not respond to the WPCNR question asking if the assembly denied Westchester government the right to stream live from their own chamber.

Finding the video on the New York State Assembly is difficult. so here is how to find it, step-by-step:

1. Paste this in your browser:

http://nyassembly.gov/av/hearings/

2. In upper right hand corner of the website page, Click on

Video Camera Icon  with the words “Watch Live” near the Facebook icon in the upper right.

You will be presented with the “Assembly Proceedings” Page, and in the center you will see a pic entitled “Committee Hearings”.

Click on that Committee Hearings  photo and you will be taken to the video list, the hearing you want is this one entitled, and click on MP4 Video. It has all 7-1/2 hours of this marathon hearing.

In the first 20 Minutes you will hear Amy Paulin of the 88th Assembly District, Chair of the County Board of Legislators, Benjamin Boykin, David Buchwald, Assemblyman.

County Executive George Latimer repeats his demand that the Public Service Commission examine and evaluate the mutual disaster aid plan the utilities now use (sending for convoys of equipment and crews from out of state) and that has failed repeatedly to restore Westchester County in a timely manner in storm after storm the last 18 years.

Also of note is the  Public Service concerns in which their representative seems to be indicating according to a person who caught the testimony that their jurisdiction may not enable them to demand changes of the utility procedures that it is a matter of the state legislature to consider.

WPCNR SECURITY NEWS. From the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. May 31, 2018:

WPCNR ALBANY ROUNDS. From the Office of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo. May 30, 2018:

Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today announced that the State Board of Elections—in concert with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security—will host a first-of-its-kind series of tabletop exercises focused on protecting the integrity of New York’s electoral systems against cyber-attacks. Partnering with the Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services, State Police, and State Intelligence Center, the tabletop exercises will identify areas for improvement in cyber incident planning, preparedness, and response through simulation of realistic scenarios attempting to undermine voter confidence, interfere with voting operations, and affect the integrity of elections.

“We have witnessed firsthand the devastating consequences a compromised election has had on our nation and New York will not stand idle and allow our democracy to be infiltrated once again,” Governor Cuomo said. ”The people of New York deserve an open, transparent election process they can trust, and these exercises are an integral part of restoring voter confidence and the integrity of our election infrastructure.

State and local officials, led by the State Board of Elections and new DHSES Cyber Incident Response Team, will utilize information gleaned from six regional tabletop exercises with state, local, and federal stakeholders to identify risks and develop necessary steps to safeguard the election process against a cyber-attack. Exercise dates and locations are below:

• May 31: Albany County – Times Union Center
• June 6: Monroe County – Board of Elections
• June 7: Onondaga County – Syracuse University, Dineen Hall
• June 11: Nassau County - Morrelly Homeland Security Center
• June 12: Orange County – County Department of Emergency Services
• June 18: Broome County - Floyd L. Maines Veterans Memorial Arena

The regional tabletop exercises will cover all of New York’s county election jurisdictions. The exercises will be substantively similar, with several scenarios contoured for each region. The scenarios will be based on a combination of real world events and potential risks facing our election infrastructure. This includes possible social media manipulation, disruption of voter registration information systems and processes, voting machines, and the exploitation of board of elections business networks.

These tabletop exercises are part of the Board’s cybersecurity plan that was approved on May 3, 2018, to further strengthen cyber protections for New York’s elections infrastructure through the Board’s Secure Elections Center. The plan, dubbed ARMOR has four elements:

• Assess the risk to State and County Elections Systems;
• Remediate the vulnerabilities;
• Monitor ongoing Operations; and
• Respond to incidents.

WPCNR COMPUTER INTELLIGENCE. By Aaron Woodin, PC Ventures. May 30, 2018:

Aaron Woodin, (center), in an appearance on People to Be Heard on White Plains Television with John Bailey and Jim Benerofe.  Mr. Woodin is founder of PC Ventures of White Plains, has begun a private service for his clients in which he alerts clients like the CitizeNetReporter on disturbing trends he encounters in his current business. The following is reprinted with permission of PC Ventures on current issues he finds affecting his clients:

This week, he addresses three situations he has been seeing a lot of:

1. Phone scams - Many clients of mine are receiving calls from people claiming to be from iCloud, Apple or “The Windows Department” (Microsoft).  Any inbound call you receive from these companies is fraudulent, and you should hang up without any hesitation.

Their objective is to take over your computer and pretend to fix an array of nonexistent problems.  Next, they ask for payment via credit card for this phony service, and aggressively sell a worthless “support” plan.

If you haven’t hung up yet, certainly DO NOT give these strangers any sort of payment information.  If you have encountered this situation and feel like your computer may have been compromised, call me so I can check to make sure no “back doors” have been left on the computer to allow the scammers future access.

2. Windows 10 updates.  A Windows update early last week (Around May 20) rendered two otherwise fine computers useless and in need of replacement.  I’ve seen this happen to other clients’ computers.  Microsoft is clearly  (apparently) NOT vetting their updates properly before release, so I’m recommending that if you are prompted for an update, say no.

If you are repeatedly prompted, or want to completely quash updates, I can either talk you through it over the phone, or stop by for a quick tech visit, although this is an option best done if other tech issues need to be dealt with.

3. Backups.  Computers are relatively cheap.  Your data – documents, digital pictures, music, etc are precious and essentially irreplaceable.

I highly recommend buying an inexpensive external hard drive, like the Western Digital Passport (around $60-$75), at the very least.

For additional peace of mind, I recommend an online backup service called Carbonite, currently $72.00 a year.

I prefer my clients go for both of these solutions, but if you choose one, choose Carbonite, because it works automatically in the background.

I’ve seen unfortunate situations in which a computer dies, and it turns out that the backup hard drive was detached, broken, or full.  This shouldn’t happen with Carbonite.

WHITE PLAINS WEEK ALL OVER THE WORLD

JOHN BAILEY

JIM BENEROFE

PETER KATZ

ON

THE CON ED-NYSEG POWER RESPONSE REPORT

THE COUNTY AIRPORT–SHOULD WE GROW IT?

THE INCREDIBLE DECLINE IN WHITE PLAINS SALES TAX RECEIPTS THAT’S KILLING THE CITY

LEGISLATION WITHOUT PENALTIES IS NO LEGISLATION AT ALL: EARNED SICK LEAVE HAS NO TEETH.

THE BARK PARK CRISIS JULY 1 YOU’LL HAVE TO PAY TO PLAY

TRUMP DAY BY DAY–NEVER A DULL MOMENT

MEMORIAL DAY PARADOX