Spitzer Linked to Prostitution in Fed Tape. Apologizes- to Take Time With Family

WPCNR ALBANY ROUNDS. From Wire Reports. March 10, 2008: The New York Times reported today  Governor Eliot Spitzer of New York was heard on a Federal wire tap arranging to meet with a high priced prostitute in Washington D.C. last month The recording was made by federal investigators in the course of their investigation of  a high-priced call girl ring, identified as the Emperors Club VIP. The governor is reported to have told his closest aids of his being implicated in the wiretap, and this information was leaked to The New York Times which published the information ontheir website early this afternoon.


According to WCBS Radio correspondent Irene Cornell broadcast on NewsRadio 88, according to the court papers, Mr. Spitzer (identified as Client # 9 on the wiretap tape) spent two hours with a prostitute in Washington D.C., on Valentine’s Day, and paid her  $4,800 cash for her services. Cornell reported the Governor had been under investigation since last summer in regards to “a money trail,” involving Emperors Club. 



Governor Eliot Spitzer on Day One: His Inaugural Day.January 1, 2007


Today, (Day 435) he apologized to the State and his family.


 


In a news conference at 2:15 PM today, Governor Spitzer apologized for acting in a way that violated his obligations to the people of New York and his family.  He said he would be spending time with his family. The quote:


 


“In my eight years as attorney general and one as governor, I tried to uphold a vision of progressive politics that would rebuild New York and create opportunity for all.


“We sought to bring real change to New York and that will continue. Today, I want to briefly address a private matter. I have acted in a way that violates my obligations to my family and it violates my, or any sense of right and wrong. I apologize first, and most importantly to my family. I apologize to the public whom I promised better. I do not believe that politics in the long run is about individuals. It is about ideas, the public good, and doing what is best for the state of New York.  But I’ve dissappointed and failed to live up to the standard I expected of myself.


I must now dedicate some time to regain the trust of my family.  will not be taking questions. Thank you very much. I will report back to you in short order.”


 

Posted in Uncategorized

Not One More Tree.

WPCNR GLOBAL GAZETTE. News & Comment by Smokey The Bear as told to John Bailey.  March 10, 2008: As the Renaissance of White Plains stalls in its tracks because of developers approved for projects not being willing to proceed because of tight money or fear the projects will not fillup with buyers, only one development is undergoing the approval process – The Venue. The chi-chi mall proposal for Bloomingdale Road.



Smokey Says — Only You Can Prevent Global Warming in White Plains and The Venue Would Be a Good Place to Start.


As The Venue , connected with all the right players in development in White Plains, goes before the council, and receives the usual political once-over, an important event occurred in the last month that dramatically effects it:



The County Executive’s Conference on Global Warming and his lofty goal of reducing carbon dioxide emissions in the county by 20% by 2015 and 80% by 2050.


A tree breathes carbon dioxide through its leaves and turns it into oxygen through photosynthesis (thank you, eighth grade Biology!). So, for every tree development cuts down, the developer instantly ups the carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere increasing global warming.


In any consideration of developments in the future, if the county and each of its towns and cities is serious about cutting emissions, and the County Executive is not just whistling a public relations tune on global warming (which he, the District Attorney, and others have been known to do so in the past – remember the gang initiative?) .


Every tree cut down by a proposed development has to be replaced perhaps with two new trees, or three or 30 – somewhere, whatever the immature tree to the mature tree ratio of carbon dioxide reduction meets . Otherwise, the global warming initiative of the County Executive cannot hope to succeed.


 



Arborcide Assault Escalates Global Warming.


In another intriguing development plans were referred to departments for The Venue a 15 store plus restaurant shopping center at 120 Bloomingdale Road, across the way from Bloomingdale’s department store. It is described as a 46,000 square foot retail development to go on the parking lot of the former Nestle building (currently the offices of the New York State Department of Labor). The site is shown above, across from the entrance of Bloomingdale’s, looking West. The shopping center would be built on the parking lot.


So, in addition to its Environmental review, White Plains should apply a new standard – the global warming impact review  – to consider approval of The Venue.


Last August, the school district “accidently” cut down about a hundred trees at its high school on a whim. They are now replacing those trees.


The Venue development is going to take away a good 100 trees. That’s a lot of carbon dioxide. On this basis alone The Venue should be denied – if you’re serious about global warming carbon dioxide reduction.


The city should as part of any Special Permit granted charge The Venue developers a fee to replant trees around the city to replace the trees they destroy. However the fee should be proportionate – replacing the number of young trees needed to replace the mature tree carbon dioxide removal capacity.


Is this unreasonable?


I do not think so – if the Democrat Common Council is serious about following through on their idol Andrew Spano’s refreshing global warming initiative.


Let’s do it, Common Council.


Let’s make The Venue developers our poster child for responsible development in the new era of the County Executive’s Global Warming initiative. Development that develops without contributing to the end of our planet.


 

Posted in Uncategorized

The Run, Part 2: White Plains Run to their 4th Gold Ball in 4 Years

Posted on by

WPCNR COURTSIDE. By “Rims” Sheehan. March 9, 2008 Part 2 of 2 Parts: Mount Vernon (MV) had a 21-1 record, had beaten WP twice in the regular season, was ranked the #2 girls team in the State, had averaged 75 points a game in the playoffs and had three star players – guard Taylor Palmer, forward Kwinyatta Mercer and center Nadia Duncan – all of whom could easily score in double figures.  WP had already over achieved by getting to the County Center and getting to the finals.  Should they just be happy to take their picture at center court and try not to look bad against the top ranked Lady Knights?


Here’s the story of that game.



Another Photograph for the Wall


Photos by Tim Sheehan



But coming this far emboldened the Tigers, who knew that they had three good defenders (Tharkur, Hayward and Aguirre) to try and stop the MV big three scoring machine, while the other starters (Rexhepi and Fields) could also keep the MV 4th and 5th scorers in check as well.  Then WP brought out its good luck charm, former WP star and present Penn basketball player, Kim Adams (below), who traveled from Quaker land to the County Center to cheer her team on.



Once A Tiger, always a Tiger: Kim Adams, now playing for Penn, leader of last year’s Champions lent her support.


                MV came out hard and gave WP a taste of its own medicine, with a tough man to man defense and a trap press that reminded me of the choking defense that Nottingham used in the first half of the State championship 3 years ago. But WP defense did make MV work for its shots at the other end, and Angelei Aguirre slashed her way to the hole enough to get WP back into the game.  Then WP took the lead at half 19 -16 and the County center was abuzz with the smell of upset, particularly because basketball aficionados knew that a low scoring game favored underdog White Plains.


WP’s Aguirre, Tharkur and Heywood did a great job of limiting the MV big 3 to just one quarter of good offense (Duncan had 7 in 2d Q, Mercer had 7 in 3d Q and Palmer had 5 in 2d) each, which prevented an offensive explosion that all in the house knew MV was capable of. Significantly, MV’s Mercer and Palmer hit their 3’s on open looks but those were limited and they did not shoot well with a WP hand in their face the rest of the time, all of which led to the lowest scoring output (40) for the MV season.


WP scoring was kept alive by Aguirre’s all world performance during the first three quarters but she was finally outscored by her team in the 4th Quarter, with Rexhepi scoring her only 5 points at crucial times, including a dagger 3 pointer with 1:33 left to give WP some breathing room.  MV’s press started to fall apart as Valde Hayward began to dribble up the sideline and Angelei Aguirre could not be stopped, as she scored 33 points.


All in all, a great upset win and an unprecedented 4th consecutive gold ball for a Cinderella WP team, which leads to a team celebration at midcourt and a television interview for Angelei Aguirre (see below)



The Gold Ball Back in the Tiger Den


 



Ms Aguirre Interviewing with News12 Sports Anchor Walt Fowler


 


REGIONAL SEMIFINALS 


March 4, 2008 at New Paltz vs. Kingston


Section 9 champion Kingston, who beat WP in the regional finals last year, lost star Lindsey Timbrouk but kept point guards Rachel Coffey and Amanda Horvers, one a lightening quick point guard and the other a deadly 3 point shooter.  After shutting down the high powered MV offensive stars, did the WP lady Tigers have enough gas in the tank on one day’s rest to deal with the Kingston backcourt duo? 


The game started off sluggishly for WP, who trailed 12-4 after the first quarter (Shelby Fields had the four points for WP) and 27-16 at half, though Angelei Aguirre scored all 12 points for WP and it seemed that they might shake off the cobwebs for the second half. 


In the second half, WP’s lackluster play continued at both ends of the court.  Coffey was slicing her way through the WP defense and Horvers was left open too often for her trademark 3 pointer.   On offense, WP could not respond when Kingston packed the zone against Angelei Aguirre and dared the other WP players to shoot the ball. 


 Unfortunately, WP’s best outside shooter, Danika Rexhepi was stone cold and didn’t score until the 4th quarter.  With no outside threat to stretch the Kingston defense, the Kingston packed-in zone prevented Angelei from penetrating and forced her to take off balance shots from farther out.



Coach Adams Center Encourages one More Tiger Rally


However, WP dug down and came back, closing the gap to 7 points with just over 4 minutes left.  Angelei launched a 3 pointer that just missed and Danika threw up 2 more that went “in and out” – any of which could have cut the gap.  The bottom line was that WP players just ran out of gas and could not sustain another grueling man to man defensive effort on such short rest.


One silver lining to playing the game was the fact that Angelei Aguirre scored her 1000th High School point in the game and had a chance to pose with her family after the game.



Ultimately, the regional loss did nothing to tarnish WP’s improbable playoff run which resulted in an unexpected and unprecedented 4th Gold Ball.  Congratulations to the players and Coaches Adams, Flooks and Owen for a job well done.


 


 


 



Mark Aguirre with his daughter Angelei and Family — Ms. Angelei’s 33 point performance against Mount Vernon — when she was being triple teamed and MV could not stop her — was Jordaneaque! It was one of the great individual performances you will ever see and those who saw it unfold will never forget it.


  


Next year, coming back, the Tigers will have junior Shelby Fields (who improved greatly despite only playing basketball for a few months — she shut down Ursuline’s Sferra and North Rockland’s Mary Abram with great defense, and junior Bree Bradley (who did not play in the playoffs due to illness), plus sophomore Mishara Aguirre (she’s at far left in photo above ) as a nucleus. They also have some potentially good freshman guards coming in and, just like this year, might do much better than expected.


 The win over MV this year was as big an upset as the Jets over the Colts in Super bowl 3!  

Posted in Uncategorized

Condo Heads Oppose 18 Cell Antenna Deal at 30 Lake. Seek Forum to Stop Deal.

Posted on by

 


WPCNR WHITE PLAINS WIRED. By John F. Bailey March 8, 2008: A meeting called by owners of condominiums at 30 Lake Street enlisting the aid of other Condominium building Presidents in the city, has raised indignant opposition to a contract where Verizon would install 18 cell phone antennas on the roof of 30 Lake Street. The residents of 30 Lake Street and the representatives of two other condominium apartments in the area were seeking a public forum to vent the safety issues of cellphone antenna concentration in the downtown and in close proximity to Eastview School, the middle school.



No “Cell-Out” Just Yet. Residents of 30 Lake Street and two Condominium Presidents of neighboring buildings discuss the 18-cell antennas proposed for the Lake Street building. (Adjacent to Clayton Park, in the immediate vicinity of Eastview School.



At the meeting Saturday morning, two condominium Presidents chided the 30 Lake Street Condominium Board for not presenting both sides of the cellphone radiation health effects to the Lake Street residents. The two Presidents also resented that the Lake Street building had not informed them of the plan to increase (by 18 antennas) the amount of cell transmissions beaming across the city at their buildings. It was made clear at the meeting that federal communications law did not allow towns and cities to deny cell antenna locations for health reasons.


At the meeting, Drago asked the Lake Street board if they would put the matter of whether to go ahead with the installation to a vote of the entire ownership. A member of the board said the board would not comment until they spoke to the Board’s lawyers.  At this point the matter of a condominium owner wide referendum on the cell phone arrangement appeared moot.


The President of the Board said they had used a city consultant to evaluate whether the antennas were safe, and they had been assured it was. He said the board had referred residents to websites for further information. This did not go over well with two condominium presidents of other buildings in the city. One termed this information gather “absolutely ludicrous.”


Robert Marshall, a resident of 30 Lake Street, speaking with WPCNR noted that his concern was with risk assessment to future condo value, possible future health risks that might be discovered. He said that the matter was in the process of applying for a permit to build the antennas.


 Steve Drago, a 30 Lake Street resident, who has lead the opposition to the plan where the Lake Street building would receive $40,000 a year for 25 years in return for the antenna installation, called the meeting, and invited Councilman Glen Hockley to observe.  Drago noted that though the 25 year deal was irrevokable and the contract signed by the Board, he felt that if enough community opposition surfaced, Verizon may back off the deal.


Bill Palmer, President of the 30 Lake Street Condominium Board denied his board had not conducted appropriate due diligence, noting that the deal had been planned for a decade, and only now that the organization had gone ahead with the project, had opposition surfaced.


 



Coucilman Hockley will lobby for a forum if Mayor does not.`


 


Councilman Glen Hockley  addressing the meeting said that if the Mayor of the city, Joseph Delfino was not inclined to pursue a public forum on the perceived threat to health of the cell antennas,  he would attempt to join with another member of the Common Council to place such a hearing on the council agenda. Hockley said he would only intervene if the Mayor was not inclined to pursue the matter. Hockley said there was conflicting information on the safety or non-safety of cell antennas from what he had discovered.

Posted in Uncategorized