Westco Turns Back the Hands of Time to The Summer of Love.

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WPCNR STAGE DOOR. By KKIX’s Big Melvin Mead, the Big Apple’s 1440 Rockin Daddy with All the Hits You Need. September 22, 2008: A little truckin music, Ray, bring it up down under and up underneath, we’re going up country,with the music you loved in the Summer of love 40 years ago, drank espresso to and lit matches to. My pal,  White Plains Westco’s Suzi the K,(K is for Katz)  is turning back the hands of time.


 



JEFFERSON STARSHIP –CONQUERS THE UNIVERSE — ONE NIGHT ONLY — SATURDAY, THAT’S SATURDAY, September 27


 



 


All you Children of Love, peace and understanding out there listen up and down the coast from New Ro to Bedford, Tarrytown to Stamford, your rockin’ daddy is here to give you the word about  out of sight  WESTCO Productions.


 


White Plains own Suzi the K – Susan Katz, founder of good old Westco,  blasts off her 2008 Solid Gold Star Concert Revival Tour with two blockbustin’ foot-stompin’ blasts from the past, this Saturday September 27, the K-girl brings back  Jefferson Starship  at the fabulous Tarrytown Music Hall –that’s SATURDAY, dudes at “The Fillmore North,” Tarrytown Music Hall–  the balcony will be shaking to the pyschedelic, hold-those-BIC-lighters-to-the-sky sounds of Jefferson Starship and the music of The Grateful Dead and Quicksilver Messenger Service.


 



 


SUNDAY, THAT’S SUNDAY, OCTOBER 6 — Go Ramblin’, singing along, with the feel-good, foot-stompin’ hand-clappin, troupadours of the 60s


 


Then back to back,  Suzi the K lays a double play on you a little farther on down the road in Irvington, next week, Sunday, that’s  Suhnday, October 6, a little farther down Route 9 when the hipsterette brings back the  feel good 1970 Hootenanny experience with the singers you sung along to in the mid-60s,The New Christy Minstrels with original singers at Irvington Town Hall Theater.


 


Both concerts hosted on stage by my flower child buddy, White Plains own Suzy the K, entertaining Westchester with what Westchester wants for over 30 years, newest member-to-be of the White Plains High Hall of Fame and you tell be these blockbuster headliners. Grab a pencil and paper gang or go to www.westcoproductions.org or call 914-761-7463 for ticket information. Choice, secluded balcony seats in these great old halls — the “fillmores of Westchester” still available. Tell them Big Melvin Mead sent you! Here’s more on what’s happenin, baby…



 




 


 


JEFFERSON STARSHIP with Special Guest – Grateful Dead pianist Tom Constanten ONE NIGHT ONLY

Turn back the calendar to 1968 when Jefferson Airplane, The Grateful Dead, and Quicksilver Messenger Service recorded some of their most compelling music. In “The Great ’68 Airplane-Quick-Dead Show,” original members of all three bands appear in sets which pay tribute to each band’s music. You’ll see Jefferson Airplane/Starship founders Paul Kantner and Marty Balin, Quicksilver Messenger Service founder David Freiberg, along with Cathy Richardson, Donny Baldwin, Slick Aguilar, and Chris Smith. Special guest is Tom Constanten, original pianist from The Grateful Dead.  Suzi the K is bringing them right back!



ONE NIGHT ONLY! The Sounds of  The Grateful Dead and Quicksilver Messenger Service Rise Again!Sat., Sept. 27 – Tarrytown Music Hall – 8:00 pm. You get your money’s worth in the first 15 minutes, and the rest of the show is FREE!



———————-
Ramble  and sing along once more with THE NEW CHRISTY MINSTRELS ONE NIGHT ONLY SUNDAY, THAT’S SUNDAY OCTOBER 6 as Irvington Town Hall turns into “Hootenanny” — the night the New Christy Minstrels Come to Town Hall.


 



Led by original  Randy Sparks, creator of the Minstrels! Featuring original members Dolan Ellis, Art Podell, Jackie Miller  Davidson, and Clarence Treat — the very same Grammy Award-winning performers who starred on “The Andy Williams Show” beginning when the group made its debut in 1962. Among the fans was President John F. Kennedy! Also appearing, Becky Jo Benson and Buffalo Bill Boycott.


 


Millions of records sold! Their songs are classics: “Green, Green,” “This Land is Your Land,” “Saturday Night,” “Today,” “Denver,” “Mighty Mississippi,” “Drinking Gourd,” and many others!!


 


The New Christy Minstrels popularized folk music throughout the 60s along with the other legends of folk music – Peter Paul and Mary, The Kingston Trio.


 


Get that hootenanny happy, toe-tapping, hand-clappin, feeling you got watching Hootenanny on ABC, when you sang along and snapped your fingers to the New Christy Minstrels – the troupadours of the 60s.



Sun., Oct. 6 – Irvington Town Hall Theater – 7:30 pm Tickets, information, contact Westco 914-761-7463


 

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Superintendent Profiling for School District Continues 2Nite at WPHS 7:30

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WPCNR SCHOOL DAYS. By John F. Bailey. September 22, 2008: The City School District and Deborah Raizes of Hazard, Young  and Attia, will hold the third of community input sessions tonight designed to determine an ideal profile of the kind of executive White Plains parents and citizens want in considering whom to select for the 2009-2010 Superintendent of Schools. (Present Superintendent Timothy Connors is retiring in June 2009, after seven years.) The community session will be held at White Plains High School at 7:30 P.M. in building B-1.



Superintendent Profiling Taking Place at Bethel Baptist Church last week. Session three is at the High School this evening. All welcome.



The first two sessions so far were held at St. Bernard’s Church (after church), and at Bethel Baptist Church, conducted by Deborah Raizes, above, shown Monday evening at Bethel Baptist, who spearheaded the last search in 2002 which brought Mr. Connors to the district. In the first session, the St. Bernard’s crown indicated they wanted more advanced classes for Hispanics and minorities, which was echoed by the 35 African-American attendents at the Bethel Baptist meeting.


The Bethel Baptist meeting held last Monday, was more critical of the White Plains teachers’ collective abilities to get the most out of minority students, Hispanic and African-American, saying preconceived notions existed, though  the group agreed the district teachers were on the whole very good – though help was not as easy to get if students were minorities. Hispanic parents were happy with the district, and insisted their children wanted to learn English and thought that was important, Ms. Raizes told WPCNR


So far the commentary from both meetings, though praising Mr. Connors’ ability to reach out to the communities, called for a new Superintendent who had experienced with minorities-dominated district like White Plains, with a track record of closing the achievement gap. A majority of African-American parents said a new Suprintendent had to concentrate on doing more at closing the performance gap of their youth.


Individuals painted cases, naming Ridgeway School, in particular as a place where if you were an underperforming minority you were “labeled” and did not receive the attention needed to upgrade performance, while if you were performing well as a minority student, you were encouraged. More  ability to single out and make more of an effort , a handful of speakers said, has to be made with underperforming minority youths in the elementary schools.


Only one parent brought up the need for a new Superintendent to be more sensitive to the growth of the school budget.


The session begins this evening at 7:30 P.M in B-1 at White Plains High School


 

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CAMELOT with The Great Cuccioli Launches WPPAC 2008-2009 Season.

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WPCNR STAGE DOOR. From White Plains Performing Arts Center. September 22, 2008: The Tony Award winning musical, Camelot, will have a White Plains revival this week, launching the 2008-2009 season at White Plains Performing Arts Center. Robert Cuccioli, who played a magnificent Don Quixote in last December;s WPPAC Man of La Mancha, takes on the giant musical role of King Arthur. Curtains goes up at 8 Friday evening at White Plains Performing Arts Center. Tickets are available for the two-week run of show from September 26 through October 5 only.



 




Robert Cuccioli, triumphant and spectacular in Man of La Mancha stars as King Arthur in Camelot. Juli Robbins is Guenevere and Gregg Goodbrod as Lancelot. Photo Courtesy, White Plains Performing Arts Center by John Vecchiola


 


The artistic team of Director Sidney J. Burgoyne and Musical Director James Bassi who produced  WPPAC’s entertaining production of RAGTIME last season, provide an exciting new look at Lerner and Loewe’s timeless masterpiece about King Arthur’s enchanted kingdom, Camelot, where honor and chivalry reign.


 


Camelot is more relevant than ever this election year as we weary of war, yearn for a return to a more-perfect time and re-discover the grandeur of one of history’s greatest love stories – the romance between Lancelot and Guenevere, featuring such classics as If Ever I Would Leave You and How to Handle a Woman.


     


      Camelot is directed by Sidney J. Burgoyne, with Musical Direction by James Bassi, Scenic Design by Michael Hotopp, Costume Design by T. Michael Hall, Lighting Design by Thom Weaver and Sound Design by Wallace Flores.  B.J. Forman is Production Stage Manager.  The show is produced by Jack W. Batman for the White Plains Performing Arts Center.


Robert Cuccioli is Broadway-acclaimed. He earned a Tony Award nomination for Best Actor in a Musical for his work on Broadway in Jekyll & Hyde. He won the Drama Desk and the Outer Critics Circle awards for that performance as well. Cuccioli also appeared in the Broadway production of Les Misérables and has been seen on screen in “Sliders,” “Baywatch,” “Celebrity,” “The Stranger” and “Operation Delta Force 3: Clear Target.” He recently starred as Salieri in Amadeus at the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey and in the Off-Broadway production of Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris.  His other recent theatrical credits include Guys and Dolls, Temporary Help, Lorenzaccio, The Sound of Music and the Actors’ Fund benefit concert of On the Twentieth Century.


Camelot, winner of four 1961 Tony Awards, has Book and Lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and Music by Frederick Loewe and is based on “The Once and Future King” by T. H. White.


 


Tickets are $50.00/$42.50. Season subscriptions and gift certificates also available. The subscription season begins with Oliver! (November 20 – December 14, 2008), followed by A Little Night Music (March 5 – 22, 2009) and finishing with Hello, Dolly! (April 30 – May 17, 2009).


 


White Plains Performing Arts Center is located on the third level of City Center at the corner of Main and Mamaroneck in downtown White Plains, NY, just 30 minutes from midtown Manhattan, and there is plenty of convenient parking. For tickets please call 914.328.1600 or buy them online at www.wppac.com.




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Senator Clinton Statement on the Paulson Plan to Bailout Wall Street

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WPCNR CAMPAIGN 2008. From The Office of New York Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton. September 22, 2008:  Senator Hillary Clinton made the following statement on the administration’s proposal to restore stability to U.S. financial markets.


“When the American people, facing a foreclosure crisis and struggling economy, turned to this administration for help, the answer was no. Now, the administration is turning to the American people for help, to rescue the credit markets and take on hundreds of billions in debt and financial obligations as a consequence of that same foreclosure crisis. The truth is, Main Street came to Washington and got little. Now Washington is coming to Main Street and asking for a lot. The American people deserve to know that this isn’t a blank check. While the need to address the current crisis is clear, I will only support steps that will prevent a widening crisis, tackle the worst kinds of abuse tolerated for too long by the Bush Administration, and address the root problems at work.


 


 




The proposed intervention outlined Thursday by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson would be a watershed moment for our economy. I believe that such an intervention demands that we fundamentally alter the priorities and policies of our nation under the Bush Administration that allowed this crisis to take place and escalate. Corporations that will benefit must be held accountable not only to large shareholders but also to the American people. And American taxpayers deserve to know that their money will not allow for a continuation of the status quo: short term profit at the expense of long term viability; obscene bonuses and golden parachutes regardless of performance; reckless risk taking that have placed the markets in so much jeopardy; rewards for those who foreclose on middle class families and sell mortgages designed to fail to turn a profit; and outsourcing of good jobs to serve short term stock prices instead of America’s long term economic health.  The prevailing dynamic of corporate America, where the sole priority was the dividend, the inflated bonus and the quarterly earnings report, must give way to a new respect for the long term prosperity of the American worker and the well being of the middle class. 



After eight years of failed policies – and two years of an absentee administration – our only option left may be an unprecedented government intervention into the private markets. The markets must be stabilized to stave off wider turmoil. Nevertheless, the urgency of this crisis does not mean that we should offer a blank check to financial institutions or the privileged few.  Nor can we simply allow the administration to use the taxpayers like a ‘reset button.’ We cannot allow Wall Street to act without oversight by a vigilant SEC and administration – and without regard for the American people, who will now have paid twice: in falling prey to a widening credit crisis, and in paying the bill to hopefully bring it to an end.   


I will be examining the administration’s proposal very closely to ensure that we do not approve a policy that may stabilize the markets in the short term without addressing the root problems facing middle class families or the kinds of reckless gambling that was permitted for far too long by the administration. The Bush Administration may have changed its tune once the crisis facing Main Street hit Wall Street. But we need to be sure that the American taxpayers – asked to shoulder yet more risk and responsibility – have a voice.”


 On Thursday, Senator Clinton outlined her plan to halt the market crisis in a speech on the floor of the Senate, calling for a series of specific proposals, including creating a new version of the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC) to remove bad mortgage debt from the market and restore confidence, curbing the most damaging and manipulative trading practices, providing immediate relief to homeowners facing foreclosure through modifying troubled mortgages, and reasserting competent federal oversight. Senator Clinton also explained her plan in a letter to more than 15,000 New Yorkers who had expressed concern about housing and the economy.

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So Long, Big Ball Park

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WPCNR VIEW FROM THE UPPER DECK. By Bull Allen. September 22, 2008: Today, I say goodbye to The Stadium. I will not be going to the game. But, Baseball Johnny has written an ode to the Stadium nobody wants anymore. I will always remember her:



So long Big Ball Park


By Baseball Johnny


 


The  Big Ball Park the Old Redhead called her,


The Sultan of Swat did build, closes gates forever.


The Elysian Fields where boys turned into greats, will be torn asunder


The towering grandstand no longer will inspire worthy endeavor.


 


Baseball Joes and Stadium Lounge on 161st Street long gone to Salsa Lounge and garage


Her sisters in New York ball, Polo Grounds and Ebbets apartments now


Her original grandeur modernized under George’s regime, endured 70s dressage


Architects’ tweaks, defrocking her of majestied façade


 



World Series 2003


They took out elegant aqua wood seats for blue hard plastic gracelessness.


Removed the Flying A sign and auxiliary scoreboards in left and right, arbiters of anxiety


Still she survived, her cathedral-majesty between innings shattered by  subway races.


The ugly scoreboard above great bleachers no longer showing scores in other cities.


 


Rivera’s Last Walk-in. September 22, 2008. Photo by Candyce Corcoran


 


They closed the bullpens where Page, Grim, Duren, Lyle, Goose and Rivera walked in slow stride.


They added monuments and plaques and took the majestic monuments out of play.


The alleys of 357, 402, 457 and 461 no longer inspired Dimaggio’s glide


Now  we will shall never see  again her famous leftfield sun in autumn, she’s seen her last day.


 


The Big Ball Park, 1956 The WPCNR Collection.


 


She is baseball’s Westminster Abbey, turned into modern church bland


Decreed to be torn down as the Vatican tore down Rome, though those coliseums still stand.


 



Yankee Stadium, September 22, 2008. Photo by Candyce Corcoran.


What is there that makes us tear down that would inspire with no thought to preserve


 What happens to hallowed ground where achievement was measured, tested, exulted for nerve?


 


The Great Green Stage September 22, 2008 Photo by Candyce Corcoran


No historical landmark status is given America’s Stadium


Where foe of feared Bronx Bombers yearned to play in the sun


 



Up Close and Personal Photo, Candyce Corcoran


 


The Yankees will sell her piece by piece like booty from battle


Instead of preserving the tarted-up dowager as a New York museum.


 



Old Yankees Never Die, They Live in Memory. Photo, Candyce Corcoran


 


The great field is doused in darkness, ghosts take the field


From the dugouts,  patroling  the outfield in moonlight.



The Last Save. Mariano Rivera, September 22, 2008. Photo, Candyce Corcoran


 


Hoyt, Reynolds, Ford, Larsen, Guidry,  Rivera stalk the mound and stylishly wheel


 Ruth and Gehrig, Mantle and Maris and No. 5 “cracks” split the night.



Jeter Walks, beneath the cliff of the towering grandstand. September 22, 2008. Photo, Candyce Corcoran


The Stadium remains in memory in her grandeur: The  grandstand façade


Showcases pennants on its roof snapping sharply in  delight.


Vendors shout, “beah, heah,” “Hot dog, heah,” “peanuts, peanuts,”


Mel says, “Hello again, everybody,” on WINS 1010 and she lives always in


in memory’s ephemeral light..


 



The New field awaits. Not as tall not as grand. A different place. A new management. An uncertain future. Photo of the new stadium by Candyce Corcoran

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Should Independent Public Investigation Go After Extent of Lectric Larceny

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WPCNR MR. AND MRS. AND MS. WHITE PLAINS POLL. September 19, 2008: In WPCNR reports this week, The CitizeNetReporter has found that neither the New York Independent System Operator nor the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, charged with monitoring electric commerce to protect consumers, just has not been doing the job. Over a dozen organizations, power utilities, and industrial groups are howling for an investigation of the hidden profiteering in electricity routing, and the extent of profits, number of energy traders involved and cost to all consumers is being covered up. The New York Municipal Power Agency, representing 36 small municipalities in New York charges NYISO with being unforthcoming with information and piling on charges. Costs could have been a Billion dollars or more direct to New York users, but we do not know.


But, here’s the twist: no media has picked up on this story and dug into it. Even Senator Charles Schumer is accepting the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission refusal to quantify the extent of the costs to New York customers. Even Westchester County government, a consistently carping critic of Con Edison (which WPCNR has found exposed this energy ripoff by lobby NYISO), has not expressed strong interest in how Westchester customers have been bled by NYISO and FERC failure to watch the electric traffic. How can this indifference be?


What do you think, Mr. and Mrs. and Ms. White Plains, should this be investigated? Maybe a billion dollars or more in overcharges is nothing to sweat about, as our press release-happy representatives seem content with. 


 Say what you think at the right. And who should do it? The Wall Street money is now long gone, but these and similar scams may still be happening every time you are using electricity elsewhere in the state and in the country on different electric schemes every day. How do we know it is not? Send the “watchdogs” who have not been watching a message!

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Hollywood/Vine? No! It’s Super Developer’s “V.Q!” at Main & Ritz Carlton Drive

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WPCNR Main & Ritz-Carlton Drive. By Johnny Paparazzi. September 18, 2008: For two hours Thursday evening,  Wall Street wailing, the agony of the economy,  and the money tag team of the Paulson and Barnanke show, the sideshow of Obama-McCain were forgotten on the jumping corner of Main Street and “Ritz Carlton Drive.” Mayor Joseph Delfino dubbed the boulevard that Via Quadronno overlooks at  the Grand Opening of the White Plains V.Q. Thursday night.  Everyone else may be in trouble but you got the impression that Louis Cappelli and White Plains were still moving forward.



The Via Quadronno jumping Thursday night at Main and “Ritz-Carlton Drive,” as the Mayor calls it at the V.Q.’s Grand Opening.


Louis Cappelli, The Super Developer,  returned to White Plains Thursday evening  to throw an understated trendy party  featuring  the feel of “Rio” with a live salsa band to entertain a friendly and impressed, milling, mingling, schmoozing crowd from bankers to arts enthusiasts, realtors to bankrollers, White Plains luminaries, media types, business associates, and an extraordinary number of beautiful tall women and, as Mr.Cappelli’s parties always do, it  created an air of confidence, optimism and achievement.


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Limo conveys a contingent of models to grace the evening.



The Mayor of White Plains, Joseph Delfino (right) was there, with Louis Cappelli’s partner in the “V.Q.”, Louis Ceruzzi  (Center) was there with his sister who manages the upscale casual breakfast, lunch and dinner café niche and together with a gathering of easily 125 persons schmoozing and cruising and looking beautiful and upbeat they celebrated the vampy little venue on White Plains hot corner.



Mingling at the V.Q



Mr. Cappelli in addressing the crowd promised he would be opening the second tower of the Ritz-Carlton Condominiums in two weeks, and told the CitizeNetReporter privately he would be holding an opening celebration for his Catskills hotel and gambling resort in about a month after his financing is finalized.


The V.Q. has been gathering a reputation for itself since its soft opening in June, having its biggest crowd just last Saturday night, when 216 persons packed the place, and over 140 persons according to Ms. Ceruzzi, the manager, were walk-ins.



 


V.Q Patio dining is the most sophisticated in White Plains. It’s diagonal interior  with exciting lighting is made up of banquette wall seating, with the elegant  “Shell Bar” as I have dubbed it,  tastefully centering the  white and swank interior making even breakfast elegant. The menus are “high end” according to Ms. Ceruzzi, and feature tasty light Italian fare.



The Dessert Bar.


Too cool for a bar, too good food to be called just a restaurant, the desserts richer than a Starbuck’s, the expresso stronger, V.Q. can start the day off right, power up the day at lunch, and create a great impression at night.



Mayor Delfino, in the brief ceremony celebrating another culmination of a Louis Cappelli concept  that transforms a dreary corner into a crossroads of sophistication, called the White Plains “V.Q.” atmosphere one of “real hospitality.” He praised the restaurant staff for the special atmosphere they create.


Louis Cappelli gave full credit to his partner in the V.Q., Louis Ceruzzi, saying he has replaced a foot doctor, a Subway and wireless store which occupied the former ground floor of the Bar Building where V.Q. resides,  with the V.Q. Mr. Cappelli thanked Mayor Delfino for standing behind the project from the start (“The Mayor has been behind us all the way.”)  He praised Mr. Ceruzzi for his support whom he said kept telling Mr. Cappelli, “Trust me, Lou, we’ll make it work.”


The White Plains Via Quadronno joins the family of V.Q.’s  of New York City (renowned on New York’s demanding  Upper East Side), Miami, Tokyo and Hong Kong.


V.Q. is open Tuesday through Sunday for breakfast at 8 A.M., Lunch and dinner. It closes at 10:30 P.M Sundays through Thursday and is open until 11:30 P.M. Friday and Saturday. V.Q. features cappuccino, wine and V.Q. lasagna showcasing veal, beef, mozzarella cheese and special ingredients created by Chef Elio Tome. He is also an expert in creating risotto recipes at V.Q. according to the Thompson & Bender news release.



Nanny Assis with tambourine, and the Vinicius Cantauria band had the well-wishers swaying to Brazilian rhythms that got your hips moving and your fingers snapping and your merengue going. For one night, it was “Rio” at The  Ritz on “Ritz-Carlton Drive.”


 


 

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Nothing from FERC Head on Schumer Conversation. FERC Can Investigate In Secret

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WPCNR THE POWER NEWS. By John F. Bailey. September 18, 2008: Chair of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, John Kelleher would only confirm, according to a FERC spokesperson, that he met with Senator Charles Schumer on the Lake Erie “scam” contracts (Schumer’s description of the Lake Erie circuitous routing that cost an undocumented millions in overcharges being paid by all New York residents, commercial and municipal concerns the first half of 2008. The spokesperson explained FERC has an enforcement division that investigates matters secretly in markets across the country, and does not disclose such probes.


According to FERC Press Spokesperson for electricity, Barbara Connors, speaking to WPCNR, “Mr. Kelliher was asked yesterday by members of the commission if he had met Senator Schumer, and he confirmed that he met with him but would not comment further on the meeting, so we have no additional comment. He just confirmed he met with Senator Schumer at his request.”


 


Asked if Kelliher gave Mr. Schumer any dates as to when more information might be coming out on the (Lake Erie) investigation, Ms. Connors had no information on that: “I don’t know what he told Senator Schumer. He did not say what their conversation was other than we know  what the general topic was. We have not announced any date for the completion of the on-going investigation.”


WPCNR asked if the investigation would be speeded up. Connors said she could not say. She said she would check on the duration of the meeting Schumer and Kelliher had.


Asked if the FERC investigation was looking at the possibility of similar Lake Erie  loop practices exist in other areas of the country and are being executed, Connors said: “We (FERC) have an office of enforcement as part of the agency and they are looking at all the markets all the time. This is what they do.  They can initiate a non-public investigation, not announce it at the time that they start it and therefore they may be looking at other markets that we’re not aware of at this time.”


WPCNR asked if there was any chance we could confirm that?


Connors demurred: “No, there’s nothing we could find out about that.”


Why not? WPCNR asked.  She replied, “because they’re non-public. They don’t announce them, so  they wouldn’t say oh yes we’re doing this, and no we’re not doing that or give you any information on it.”


WPCNR asked if  this is basically an undercover thing, is that what you’re saying?


Connors said:   “What I’m saying this is a non-public investigation, which under the statutes we operate under, we can go ahead and do that.”


WPCNR: “To your knowledge, we do not know if FERC is doing that (looking for similar Lake Erie loopholes nationally).”


Connors said ” There’s none announced.”


 

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FERC Stonewalls Schumer. No New Info After FERC Talks. Demands Redress

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WPCNR THE POWER NEWS. By John F. Bailey. September 18, 2008: In a 6-page news release dated yesterday, but not released until sometime midday today, New York Senator Charles Schumer offered little new details of the Lake Erie “Roundabout” “scam,” as the Senator phrases it,  from his meeting with Joseph Kelliher, Chair of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Wednesday on the dimensions of the Lake Erie “Roundabout” electricity routing the first seven months of 2008.


Schumer  after an meeting of undisclosed duration with Mr. Kelliher, gave  no estimate of the full cost to the New York consumer of the practice of energy brokers contracting for  Lake Erie routing electricity through Ontario, Michigan Ohio and Pennyslvania, but actually the juice being routed direct through New York State resulting in untold overcharges to all New York consumers, residential, municipal and commercial.


The Senator, called for an effort “to seek full redress for New York consumers,” repeated his proposal that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commision investigation now being conducted “non-public,” be “thorough and public”. The release gave no indication of what Mr. Kelliher’s reaction to that request by the Senator was.



The Senator asked Kelliher, the release states, “permanently close potential market loopholes,” and “increase market monitoring.” Schumer said he would follow up with legislation, if necessary.  The complete text of the Senator’s release may be read at http://schumer.senate.gov/SchumerWebsite/pressroom/record.cfm?id=303187


WPCNR called the Senator’s Press Office for what answers Mr. Schumer had on these matters left in the air, not covered in today’s “release:”


1.       When would Mr. Kelliher and FERC make public the extent of the overcharges, what firms engaged in the practice, how much profit they made, how many times they executed such “trades,”


2.       Was the practice of advantageous contract routings a national practice?


3.       When did Mr. Kelliher promise more information, if he did?


4.       How long will Senator give FERC to come up with answers?


5.       What Mr. Kelliher told Mr. Schumer. (Kelliher is not quoted in the release.)


6.       Will Senator Schumer initiate a Congressional Investigation into national electricity energy contracts where firms, FERC and NYISO representatives would testify under oath.


;


 


As of 3 P.M. WPCNR awaits the press office response to these questions. Asked if WPCNR could e-mail the questions to the Senator’s press office, WPCNR was told by the press office “We (the press spokespeople) are not allowed to give out e-mail addresses.” Asked why, since the vast majority of press offices WPCNR deals with often request questions in e-mail form, the press spokesperson manning the phones in the Senator’s Washington office said, “That’s the protocol the Senator has in place.”

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Tolchin: County Budget To Be Released November 14– Cuts Considered.

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WPCNR COUNTY CLARION-LEDGER. From the Westchester County Department of Communications. September 18, 2008: WPCNR contacted Susan Tolchin Chief Advisor to Westchester County Executive Andrew Spano Thursday, asking the latest trends in County Mortgage Tax Collections (down 33% in July), and Sales Tax Collections (off about 3% about a month ago), and how they might affect the $1.8 Billion county budget.


Ms. Tolchin has issued this statement to WPCNR Thursday:


Budget revenues are brought to the Board of Legislators every quarter. The third quarter forecast will not be ready until we get September figures. I can answer your questions on revenues when the forecast is completed.


Concerning the budget cuts, we are well aware of these tough economic times and all budgets have been and are still being reviewed for cuts and money saving intiatives. Every aspect of the county budget is being looked at. It is a process that has been going on for some time, not just because of the latest Wall Street news. The budget will be released on November 14th.

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