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 TAPPAN ZEE NEWS. By John F. Bailey. July 25, 2012:

In a lohud.com webcast that went down after the first twenty minutes due to unexplained technical difficulties, Larry Schwartz, Secretary to Governor Andrew Cuomo, and Thomas Madison , State Thruway Authority Executive Director, made clear that a Tappan Zee Bridge cross-Rockland, cross-Westchester Bus Rapid Transit system will not become reality for years.

The form the BRT lanes promised on the new Tappan Zee Bridge will take after they touch the Rockland and Westchester shores has also not been decided. That massive undertaking will only take shape after the state conducts meetings with community officials all along the route. Schwartz emphasized the state wanted to proceed forward working directly with the communities. This, coming after the New York State Thruway has been involving communities in presentations, drawing up plans and taking their comments the last ten years, as a cost of $280 Million.

The moderator,Nancy Cutler, Lohud Rockland County Opinion Editor, asked directly if there been any decision about whether to extend the promised BRT Lane piecemeal (across Westchester County and Rockland Counties) or across the counties, Schwartz said

 ” I think the commitment is to not make any predertermined decisions but to work with the Rockland County Executive, the Westchester County Executive, their staffs, as well as the local elected officials in the community, the business community, the transit advocates, and the civic associations to figure out what makes sense, what’s needed and what will be used (ridden). “

“We’re going to have as many meetings with the community and the different stakeholders here in the lower Hudson Valley region as needed. We’re targeting now between 50 to 100 (meetings), but if we need to do 150, whatever number we need to do, this is an on-going process. Governor Cuomo has made it clear  that he wants the process to be open and transparent now and throughout the construction  phase of the new Tappan Zee Bridge. That’s why we’re here in this ongoing effort to establish an open line of communication, to get input and feedback , to learn to listen, and also to be responsive to the concerns and questions that Westchester and Rockland residents have regarding our building a new Tappan Zee Bridge.”

Schwartz promised to do a better job “in terms of our openness, our transparency, and making sure we have a constructive dialogue.”

He said..”In addition to being transparent, we need to be honest, trustworthy, straightforward  and credible. That’s the governor’s task to me and to the project team here in not making commitments the state will not be able to keep.”

Madison said the build first with transit inclusion was the best solution:  “a brand-new structure that would not preclude any transit option for the future, and this was central to the governor’s vision for moving forward with the Tappan Zee Bridge project: let’s build a bridge now; build a bridge we can afford today, but make the necessary investments today that make a commitment today that in the future we will not preclude any transit option on the bridge.”

Schwartz noted on BRT feasibility:

 “even on an incremental (construction) basis, it’s going to be cost.y that  One of the proposals we presented today was a Suffern to Tarrytown BRT System that would cost $1.9 Billion, depending on how you construct it. SomeBODY has to pay for that. We have to find the money. Governor Cuomo has made it clear we have to move forward with the bridge, and we have to do this project in the most financially feasible and affordable way, that doesn’t have an impact on the taxpayers, and minimizes the impact on the toll-payers. The governor’s committed to transit; he’s certainly committed to transit on the bridge; he’s committed on working on transit solutions off the bridge…there’s a lot of ideas out there some of those ideas are going to have significant community impacts and I think we need to do a better job of  educating and informing the community, when you build a BRT what that really means in terms of not only costs, but community impact. In 1997, they talked about widening I-287 to include HOV (High Occupancy Vehicle) lanes…there was a lot of community outcry from Greenburgh, Elmsford, and White Plains and Governor George Pataki dropped the idea.”

An engineer on the panel Mark Roach, said the key to making BRT a success was reliability which could only come from dedicated bus lanes.

When the complete discussion is available, WPCNR will follow up with more coverage of the rest of the discussion. At the time when the feed went down on Internet Explorer from the lohud site, there were approximately 325 viewers

Tonight at 6 PM at the Performing Arts Center at Purchase College, 735 Anderson Hill Road there will be another forum with state officials to discuss Tappan Zee Bridge issues. Thursday there will be one in Rockland County at the Rockland Community College Cultural Arts Theatre, 145 College Road, Ramapo.

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WPCNR COMMUTERCATOR. From the MTA. July 24, 2012:

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority is set to extend the validity of one-way and round-trip tickets on the commuter railroads from two weeks to two months. The refund period for those tickets is being extended from one month to two months. Ten-trip tickets will remain valid for six months. The period during which a ten-trip ticket is refundable is being lengthened to match its validity.

A $10 refund processing fee will remain in effect to recoup some of the administrative expenses of issuing and mailing checks.

The MTA anticipates that this change in the validity period will mean an annual loss of about $6 million in revenue to Metro-North Railroad and the Long Island Rail Road.

In December 2010 the MTA abbreviated the validity periods to reduce revenue loss from uncollected tickets and imposed a refund fee of $10 to partially cover the actual cost of processing the refund.

These policies generated numerous complaints from customers and elected officials. In response, the MTA has agreed to increase the validity on one-way and round-trip tickets.

These changes were presented to committees of the MTA board at their July 23 meeting. They take effect September 4, 2012.

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WPCNR’S NEWS & COMMENT. By John F. Bailey.. July 21, 2012

This column originally appeared on WPCNR on February 1, 2003, and celebrates the Dreamers, the Achievers, the High and the Mighty:

The Space Blazers:

 The Apollo 11 Crew: Nail Armstrong, Michael Collins,  Buzz Aldrin, Jr. Mr. Armstrong set foot on the moon 43 years ago on July 20 (Friday).(NASA Photo)

The two papers I receive at WPCNR White Plains News Headquarters, White Plains, New York, USA did not tell you Friday morning that it was the 43rd  anniversary of the day when Neil Armstrong walked on the moon. The exact hour  was  20:11 GMT (Greenwich Mean Time). That was the culmination of the last great American achievement — conquering space — when Apollo 11 with Armstrong in command, with astronauts Michael Collins and Edwin E. Aldrin, Jr. blasted off to the stars .

Their mission was a success. But there have been the tragedies associated with striving for the stars and being the best, achieving the best, working for the good. Those are the persons who keep the dreams alive by their deaths and personal sacrifice. I wrote the following after the explosion of the Columbia Space Shuttle upon reentry after 19 days in space in January 2003.

Saturday’s fatal Columbia Space Shuttle accident killing all 7 astronauts aboard when the historic spacecraft broke up over East Texas at daybreak Saturday morning begins a period of national mourning.

The expected media speculations have started, guessing at the cause of the reentry that went bizarrely, awfully wrong.

The truth is the civilized world takes absolute scientific miracles for granted. We do not appreciate the courage and skills of the men and women creating the future.

Those of us with cell phones, internet connections, high-speed trains, satellite communications and entertainment (all products made possible by the space program), do not realize the magnitude of daring achievements that you and I have come to accept to be executed like clockwork.

I first learned of Columbia’s fate late Saturday afternoon when my wife mentioned that instead of sports programming being videotaped on our television, there was coverage of a live NASA event on ABC.

(Incredibly, the radio station I had been listening to on the way from a sports clinic had not reported any hint of the accident. That station was Z-100, the most listened-to station in the New York metropolitan area. America Online also on their first up page did not mention the missing craft as of midday. That kind of communications misjudgment is sad.)

As I watched the close of Mr. Jennings’ coverage at about 3 PM, he signed off with no recap, no names of astronauts, and some parting words about what he thought was the cause of the disaster.

I’ll say what he should have said.

Columbia’s seven astronauts who died — we know their names: they were

Columbus, Magellan, Cook, Lewis, Clark, the Wrights, Lindbergh, De Laroche, Earhart, Markham, Gruber, Chaffee, Grissom, White, Gargarin, Komarov, the Challenger Crew, the crew of Soyuz 11. They are the hundreds of brave men and women who went into the unknown.

Apoll 11’s Crew turned the dreams of the 1950s visualized in television shows like Tom Corbett, Space Cadet (above, Astro, Roger and Tom) and Captain Video, “The Master of Science” below  into reality.

America’s Spacemem and the explorers before them are the people who trust in their ability and their vessel to expand the world’s horizons, to know the unknown, whose legacies build a better world. Whose deeds inspire and achievements are the catalyst for achievement to come.

From Cook’s fragile vessel which sailed the Pacific, to the marvel that was the Columbia, the captains courageous who sailed the Roaring 40s, blazed the Oregon Trail, discovered how to fly, and flew the oceans, journeyed to the stars, knew the risks they were taking. 

The media  trivializes their courage, their skills, and the difficulty of what they did and wanted to do, to concentrate on the causes of their failure, as if knowing the cause will make their loss acceptable.

The Magnificent Seven

I do not know Columbia’s Magnificent Seven. I just see their smiling faces in their photograph, and I regret the loss of every one. They had achievement on their faces, pride in their demeanor. Their eyes shown with the glow of being alive and striving to do the great things they set out to do.

Civilization has been created because of people like the crew of the Columbia’s Magnificent Seven, not the incompetence we see demonstrated daily today where technology is concerned.

The Columbia itself had flown 26 missions since launching in 1981. It was guided and outfitted with the best 2003 communications and equipment had to offer.

Not like Captain James Cook’s bark, Endeavour, a 100-foot ship powered by sail that conquered the “space” of his time, the Pacific Ocean. It was the Columbia’s Magnificent Seven’s Endeavour. They were tracked, they were backed up, but they perhaps more than anyone here on the ground knew the high dangers of the shuttle mission.

Liftoff, as their predecessors, The Challenger crew fell victim to, is fraught with risk. Reentry, which needs to be negotiated at precisely the right angle of attack, is equally risky. Soyuz 11’s spacecrew of Dobrovolskiy, Volkov, and Patsayev died in 1971 on reentry, when the Russian cosmonauts took too long to descend.

No guarantees in real life. Machines sometimes run out of miracles.

The magnificence of the explorers’ sacrifice and dedication, is that they accept the risk of “the endeavor.”

They accept the challenge, bear it alone, seizing challenge with an indomitable spirit and confidence, facing death when it comes with the satisfaction that they made the effort, and I suspect analyzing, coping, trying to fix it until the end, the very end. Then never give up.

Columbia’s Magnificent Seven, after 16 days in space, are gone now. My sorrow is with their families who will miss these Magnificent Seven, and who know in their hearts that they died trying to reach the pinnacle of their aspirations.

They are only human.

They tried their best, achieved their best, and experienced what they longed to experience. They dared to live the great adventure.

Not all of us have the courage to follow our longed-for adventures and make them real. You can watch movies that attempt to give that experience by transference. That’s why, I believe, you and I take it so personally when we lose heroic personalities of our time. We wonder what they are like. We glorify them, rightly so.

Follow Me! They Say.

I wonder how those Magnificent Seven felt, how satisfying it must have been, to be at your best, doing what you love, coping with the risks.I envy them that.

The Columbia Crew is the Miracle.

In reality it is not machines that conquer, it is the intrepid personalities, each unique, each contributing, who perform the miracles with God’s help. That they fall short is an example to us, not to take ourselves, our fates, or our existences for granted.

This is true of the everyday people we take for granted: the firefighter, the policeman, the train engineer, the airline pilot, the construction worker, and yes, the crusading annoying reporter. All are highly trained disciplined workers, executing precise tasks for which the non-expert has no feel or understanding . What makes for the desire to achieve? What is out there or up there that leads them on?

The Feel of the Unknown

I took Anne Morrow Lindbergh’s biographical adventure diary, Listen! The Wind down from the bookshelf.

She was the young bride of the aviator-pioneer, Charles Lindbergh. She navigated for him in his aircraft, and ran his radio communications on his many exploratory flights around the world.

In a passage she describes a night flight over the ocean, in which she was operating the radio for her husband Charles, who was at the controls. Mrs. Lindbergh is describing the feelings she had as she tries to tune in the South American coast at sea in the dark of night in 1933, 79 years ago.

The feeling, the courage of the adventurer, the explorer has not changed. This is great:

“Night was the hardest. It would be all right once it was day. I kept saying…We began to hit clouds. I could tell without looking up, for the plane bumped slightly from time to time, first one wing down and then the other. And the moon blackened out for short periods.

Then for longer periods. I could not see to write my messages. I stiffened, dimly sensing fear – the old fear of bad weather – and looked out. We were flying under clouds. I could still find a kind of horizon, a difference in shading where the water met the clouds. That was all. But it seemed to be getting darker.

Storms? Were those clouds or was it the sky? We had lost the water. We were flying blind. I turned off the light quickly (to give my husband a little more vision), and sat waiting, tense, peering through the night. Now we were out again. There were holes through which one could see the dark sky. It was all right, I felt, as long as there were holes.

More blind flying. This is it, I thought is what people forget. This is what it means to fly across the ocean, blind and at night. But day is coming. It ought to be day before long… Daybreak! What a miracle. I didn’t see any sign of day and yet it must be lighter. The clouds were distinguishing themselves more and more from water and sea.

Daybreak—thank God—as if we had been living in eternal night—as if this were the first sun that ever rose out of the sea.

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WPCNR WHITE PLAINS LAW JOURNAL. From  the White Plains Department of Public Safety. July 21, 2012:

The city’s Department of Public Safety in a news release distributed to media Friday announced 

“Departmental Disciplinary Charges were preferred against Police Officer Steven Hart, based on misconduct allegedly committed by Police Officer Hart outside of 135 South Lexington Avenue on November 19, 2011.”

The dispatch continues:

“The charges were served on Police Officer Hart earlier today (Friday). He has until July 30,2012 to file an answer to these charges.”

“If found guilty of the charges, Public Safety Commissioner David Chong, in his capacity as the appointing authority for police officers (under Section 220 of the City Charter), could impose a penalty on Police Officer Hart ranging from a reprimand to dismissal from the Police Bureau.

“Officer Hart has been suspended without pay. He is entitled to a hearing.  Given the pending nature of the charges, no further comments specific to this matter will be made.”

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***

In addition to the probation and forfeiture, Judge Chin ordered Kumar, 53, of Saratoga, California, to pay a $25,000 fine and a $200 special assessment fee.

Mr. Bharara praised the investigative work of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. He also thanked the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

This case was brought in coordination with President Barack Obama’s Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force, on which Mr. Bharara serves as a co-chair of the Securities and Commodities Fraud Working Group. President Obama established the interagency Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force to wage an aggressive, coordinated, and proactive effort to investigate and prosecute financial crimes.

The task force includes representatives from a broad range of federal agencies, regulatory authorities, inspectors general, and state and local law enforcement who, working together, bring to bear a powerful array of criminal and civil enforcement resources. The task force is working to improve efforts across the federal executive branch and, with state and local partners, to investigate and prosecute significant financial crimes, ensure just and effective punishment for those who perpetrate financial crimes, combat discrimination in the lending and financial markets, and recover proceeds for victims of financial crimes.

The case is being handled by the Office’s Securities and Commodities Task Force. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Reed Brodsky and Richard Tarlowe are in charge of the prosecution.