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 WASHINGTON WIRE. From the NATCA. January 20, 2018:

National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA) President Paul Rinaldi and Executive Vice President Trish Gilbert issued a statement this morning condemning the shutdown of the federal government now underway, calling it the clearest proof that the status quo is broken, and a stable, predictable funding stream for the National Airspace System is essential:

“A government shutdown harms the National Airspace System (NAS). Employees, such as air traffic controllers, who are required to work during the shutdown don’t know when they will receive their next paycheck. They cannot be paid until the government is again able to expend funds.

“Making matters worse, these employees won’t have the support for them and their team that is so important in making the system work well. While all NATCA members perform duties that are critical and essential to the NAS, more than 3,000 NATCA-represented employees have been furloughed.

These furloughed members work across our bargaining units at air traffic control and other FAA facilities. They are among the hundreds of thousands of federal employees negatively affected by the government shutdown. When these professionals are prohibited from working as a result of political brinksmanship, the flying public and the NAS suffer.

“Whether the shutdown lasts one hour, one day, one week, or more, it reinforces our strong belief that the status quo is broken. The NAS requires a stable, predictable funding stream in order to adequately support: air traffic control services, staffing, hiring and training, long-term modernization projects, preventative maintenance, ongoing modernization to the physical infrastructure, and the timely implementation of NextGen modernization projects.

The NAS continues to be challenged by the lack of a stable, predictable funding stream. The constant funding crises that arise from stop-and-go funding continue to wreak havoc on our system and perpetuate the current staffing crisis, which has resulted in a 29-year low of certified professional controllers.

“We will not rest until Congress ends the shutdown. In the long term, we will continue to advocate for the kind of change that will ensure the NAS has a stable, predictable funding stream for years to come.”

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WPCNR COUNTY CLARION-LEDGER. From Chairman of the Board of Legislators, Benjamin Boykin. January 18, 2018:

Newly-elected Board of Legislators (BOL) Chairman Benjamin Boykin (D) White Plains, Scarsdale and West Harrison and BOL Vice-Chair Alfreda Williams (D) Elmsford, Greenburgh, Sleepy Hollow, Tarrytown, have announced a redesigned committee structure for the 2018-19 legislative term.

The Westchester County Charter mandates that the BOL maintain two specific committees, the Budget and Appropriations Committee and the Legislation Committee. Additional committees and their membership are determined at the Chairman’s prerogative.

Following consultation with all Legislators, Chairman Boykin has assigned committee chairmanships that ensure each of the 17 Legislators will chair a committee or serve in a BOL leadership position.

The BOL Leadership positions for the 2018-2019 term are:

Board of Legislators Chair – Ben Boykin

Board of Legislators Vice-Chair – Alfreda Williams

Majority Leader – Catherine Parker

Minority Leader – John Testa

Majority Whip – MaryJane Shimsky

Minority Whip – Gordon Burrows

The BOL Committees, meeting times and Chairs for the 2018-2019 term are:

Budget & Appropriations, Mondays at 10:00AM – Catherine Borgia

Legislation, Mondays at 1:00PM – Virginia Perez

Rules, as needed – Comprised of  BOL leadership

Law & Major Contracts, as needed – Lyndon Williams

Appointments, Mondays at 4:30PM – Christopher Johnson

Public Works, Tuesdays at 11:00AM – MaryJane Shimsky

Labor & Housing, Mondays at 2:00PM – Damon Maher

Social Services, 1st, 2nd, 4th Tuesdays of each month at 10:00AM – Kitley Covill

Environment, Health & Energy, Tuesdays at 1:00PM – Nancy Barr

Seniors & Constituents, 3rd Tuesday each month at 10:00AM – David Tubiolo

Parks, Planning & Economic Development, Mondays at 9:00AM- Mike Kaplowitz

Public Safety, Mondays at 3PM – Margaret Cunzio

Intergovernmental Services, Mondays at 12:00PM – Jim Maisano

All BOL Committee meetings are open to the public and are streamed live on the BOL website. An archive of previous meetings can be viewed on the BOL website as well.

Chairman Boykin said of the committee appointments, “Much of the important work of creating Legislation and performing oversight of County operations takes place around the committee table. I believe that in order for a legislative body to be robust and effective, all Legislators must be engaged and accountable. In determining the membership of each of these committees, my aim was to match the experience and skill sets of individual Legislators with the mission and objective of their committee assignments. The BOL will be taking on many critical pieces of Legislation quickly and I am confident that we have the right people and committees in place to fully and objectively review those proposals.”

Vice-Chair of the BOL Alfreda Williams said, “I congratulate my colleagues on their committee appointments and leadership positions. Over the next two years, every member of this Legislature has a tremendous opportunity to help restore the fiscal health of Westchester County and to help us return to social policies of inclusion and fairness for all of our residents.”

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WPCNR ALBANY ROUNDS. From the Office of Governor Andrew M.Cuomo. January 17, 2018:

Governor Andrew M. Cuomo  unveiled the FY 2019 Executive Budget Tuesday, which continues the state’s efforts to deliver on the promise of progressive government by protecting taxpayers against devastating federal action, strengthening the middle class, cutting taxes and making smart investments in New York’s future. For the eighth consecutive year, the Budget is balanced and holds spending growth below two percent.

The robust agenda includes a number of proposals – from fighting the federal tax assault to ending the opioid epidemic by holding pharmaceutical companies accountable to investing record amounts in education – that will continue to increase opportunity for New Yorkers and ensure the Empire State continues to serve as a beacon of equality, unity and fairness for the nation.

“For the past eight years, we have restored fiscal discipline while achieving historic progressive accomplishments and strengthening middle class New Yorkers. The FY 2019 Budget builds on our strong record and continues to move New York forward, by protecting taxpayers against the federal assault, investing in education to support and train the next generation, and implementing bold progressive policies to make New York a more just and fair state for all,” Governor Cuomo said. “Together, we will continue to deliver on the promise of progressive government -even while tackling unprecedented challenges head on. We will restore citizen confidence and ensure management competence. This bold agenda charts a path forward toward a better future for all New Yorkers.”

Highlights of the FY 2019 Executive Budget:

• State Operating Funds spending is $100.0B – an increase of 1.9 percent (State Operating Funds exclude Federal funds and capital)
• All Funds spending $168.2 billion for FY 2019
• Protects New Yorkers from federal tax assault
• Closes carried interest loophole
• Increases School Aid by $769 million – doubling the statutory School Aid growth cap and bringing total investment to $26.4 Billion
• Provides $7.5 billion in State support for higher education in New York- an increase of $1.4 billion or 24 percent since FY 2012
• Provides $118 Million to continue the successful Excelsior Scholarship and extend the income cap to $110,000
• Establishes a new opioid epidemic surcharge
• Imposes a Healthcare Insurance Windfall Profit Fee
• Defers Large Corporate Tax Credits
• Continues the phase-in of the Middle Class Tax Cut for six million New Yorkers – saving households $250 on average and $700 annually when fully effective.

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WPCNR THE BIG EXTRA. News & Comment by John F. Bailey. January 15, 2018:

You know what Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. would do if he were alive this morning?

You know what Dr. Martin Luther King would say, don’t you, in your heart, local leaders? You know what he’d do?

After the single worst thing any American President has ever said last week that has embarrassed every decent American, what do you think Dr. Martin Luther King would have done?

I can see him now, joining the women marching to Washington to protest harassment of the nation.

I see him now marching down to the White House, walking up Pennsylvania Avenue to the White Wolf’s Lair (The White House), slowly in that dignified gait, arms linked with women, men, of all colors and nationalities, with swelling crowds growing behind him. They are not taking selfies. They are serious. This is not about them it is about saving America, and  they are  shouting slogans:

“EQUALITY, LOVE, COMPASSION FOR ALL–NOW”

“EQUALITY, LOVE, COMPASSION FOR ALL–NOW”

“NO HATE.”

“NO HATE.”

“NO HATE”

“NO COLORS

“NO TAXATION WITHOUT EQUALIZATION”

“BOYCOTT THE BARONS”

”DON’T KILL THE SICK. KILL THE CUTS.”

“”LIBERTY AND JUSTICE FOR ALL.”

I can hear  the crowds roaring behind him now.

When the guards stop him at the White House Gate. Washington is at a standstill.

He would give the greatest speech of his life. The crowds would continue to gather marching from sea to shining sea to flood Washington with a human flood of decency, goodness and honor and respect…and gather until the President would agree to see Reverend King. The east coast would be jammed with traffic to Washington.

And if the President had the courage to meet Dr. King in the Oval Office. Mr. King would shake the President’s hand

Then Dr. King would raise his right hand in his trademark style and point to President Trump and say to his face:

“Mr. President, with all due respect, I am here on behalf of the American people in the name of God and out of your respect for America to withdraw your remark and apologize for your terrible remark which insulted every immigrant in this country, every Latino, every Muslim, every Irishman, Jew, German, every son and daughter of slaves.

By those words you shattered America, you broke my heart and those of millions of not only Americans, but those around the world. America was the place people could hope would welcome them and give them shelter from the storms tyranny and genocide.

Your apology will not undo the damage that terrible remark made but I call on you to make it as a start. I and thousands of Americans and even those who think that remark was justified (but know it was not justified or true in their consciences), know you must apologize, or the America we once knew will be lost for decades.

You must immediately Mr. President undo the damage your hurtful words have done with visits the countries your words have hurt and shamed with that remark.

I call on what is decent in you to forget the forces that shaped you into a person who would feel this way to make that remark. It is not too late to reach into your heart and find the love in it that for some reason was denied you long ago that has compelled you to say this thing and adopt so many attitudes and policies that appear to hurt millions in this country and around the world.

We the American People have been embarrassed by your words. Millions respect you as a leader, but I assure you a leader does not gain respect by the hurtful disrespect you showed last week.

I respectfully, Mr. President, ask you to apologize now and I will convey it to the American People and the World and accompany you on a crusade to heal this rift and restore the hope America once held to the world.

May I have your apology, Mr. President?”

The great Martin Luther King, Jr. is not alive today to make that powerful argument to the President in person.

He was killed in 1968 because he was that persuasive, dangerous to the establishment of the time (and he would have written a much better speech to confront Mr. Trump than I imagined above).

I can only shake my head in deep sorrow about an America I thought was gone  that has returned  viciously in the last year with all the excuses and reasons: segregation, redlining, slums were allowed to exist for a hundred years after the Civil War.

Another Civil War grew this last year: The New Robber Barons in $5,000 suits and the white shirts have returned from the grave to say what is good for them is good for America. That immigrants fleeing tyranny and death in their homelands are no longer welcome here. That children born as U.S. citizens of immigrants arriving here illegally can no longer stay.

We have evil men and women running Washington now, and no congressmen especially Republicans have any moral conscience or decency.

We have neo-Nazi-Fascists running the country, who are following Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kamp  strategies: Stack the courts, suspend constitutional rights, curtail the right to vote, but at least they haven’t started pulling persons that disagree with them out of their shops and places of business ( remember Kristallnacht? 1938, 80 Years ago–Nazi Germany).

The Congresses have passed a tax bill which will steal from the poor and give to the rich. They want to cut social security and medicaid this year. They have crusaded against a free press. They have repealed environmental laws. Network neutrality laws What’s next? Food standards??

Like it was good for us in the days of rotten meat, snake oil medicine,  unsafe railroads, segregated lunch counters, segregated schools, toney private schools. Unequal funding of schools. Cultivation of college for the elite.

But  now Jim Crow America is back, joined by Jose Crow, and Mohammed Crow.

Hatred of the different is back. So back. It is sickening.

Disdain for the downtrodden, the  unlucky and the underpaid is back. Disrespect for women is back. Violence against women is encouraged by the sick men who make our films, filmed in grisly detail.

If you want to see reality where America is headed: Watch the Nazi death camp films. The piles of bodies. The children’s shoes. The piles of bones. That’s who is running the government these days. Small-minded, greedy little rich boys and debutantes who have never loved anyone but themselves. They have the values of the Nazis, the Mongols, The Huns, The Romans. The Czars of Russia. The KGB.

I wonder on his birthday what Dr. Martin Luther King, the greatest equalizer of them all, would have said or done in reaction to what America’s Worst President Ever has done in 359 days.

There are no champions like Dr. Martin Luther King today — anywhere across this land. Some speak but they do not act.

Where is the boycott–the nonviolent Dr. Martin Luther King strategy that starved the bigoted South out by not buying local retail products in segregated towns–and forced them to desegregate the schools.

How about boycotting Exxon, Mobil, and taking mass transit.

Boycotting the drug companies and the doctors writing prescriptions for death with opioids just for the money of it. How about boycotting the hospital profiteers who condone running up Medicaid bills, and the doctors who make hundreds just for sticking their heads in a hospital room. I know this happens.

How about withholding your taxes and demanding being paid as independent contractors when you take a job? I’m just throwing out ideas here to give pain to Hurt, Incorporated — the crimes against humanity syndicate, the real life SPECTRE-of our time that is running America now and ripping it apart.

Look what they are doing, people: Refusal to help the afflicted because they are not “our” responsibility is back. If one of those stuffed shirts born with money from the brokerages and the corporations of shame ever had to trek miles, live in refugee camps in tents, they wouldn’t be able to take it for a day. They are weak. But in a concentration camp, your money will not help you.

The powerful are weak and insecure. When they fail they are the first to ask for help, declare bankruptcy, and get their loans reduced.

The weak and insecure always strike out at those weaker than they are. You know why? It makes them feel good.

Disrepect for women is back. It was demonstrated disgracefully  every day in the media  in 201  by “candidates for President” who said they want to make ” America Great Again.” And when Mr. Make America Great Again became President,  he escalated the war on women, here is how he is doing it:

How is disrespect for women, not wanting equal pay for an equal job going to make America great? It’s not. Women have to work in America today because the corporations do not pay the men enough to pay the cost of living set by the very corporations, banks, and services, and taxes laid on them by the governments themselves.

And where are the men and women of the cloth today, (as Dr. Martin Luther King did to his everlasting courage and credit),  to refute and fight this horrible message accepted by the media and congressmen and senators as “positions,” “policies,”.

Now a lot of columnists and editors are fighting it and thank goodness they are having some effect.

For the ministers, rabbis, preachers, and society leaders today to be not speaking out against the Republican message of Fascist hate is a disgrace. Many Christian ministers are supporting such thinly disguised hate by not speaking out.

The Pope has spoken out and perhaps is the only one I can think of that has. Evangelists and ministers supporting some of the extravagant anti-women, anti-immigrant policies, and tax oppression policies should get a refresher course in Christianity.

Turn in your collars, gentlemen and ladies of the cloth. You are not worthy if you’re not marching.

The last 9 years have seen a revival of the Republican Party that resembles a revival of the Ku Klux Klan more than the Party of Lincoln.

They were lead by the sixteen  low standard bearers who are educated enough to know better, kowtowing to the frightened, the fearful and the superior and the insecure– making popular once again hatred of the black man, the Jew, the Muslim, the Haitian, the Latino,  the person who speaks Spanish, the immigrant, the refugee all those “threats” to America who work like dogs to survive because they believe in the American Dream.

The white establishment today like their version of the dream, which survives on Capitalism of exploiting the populace to make money by eliminating competition. Making deals. Creating investments without value. Using other people’s money. Using Russian help.

The real threat to America are the “leaders” the Sessions, the Grassleys, the Ryans, the Grahams who pour out this message to appeal to ignorance as Hitler poured it out to Germans in the 1920s and 1930s coming to power, blaming inferiors for Germany’s problems.

That fills me with a great melancholy. I wish there was ONE Martin Luther King today. ONE. Raise your hand stand up! Shout out! Before Trump makes it a crime to oppose government policy. Hitler did that.

Where is one Democratic elected official who would stand up for their President. Where are Democrats who will stop feeling sorry for themselves and articulate “A New Deal,” “A New Frontier,” “A new War on Poverty,”  “Not a War for Poverty.”

ONE religious leader, white, or black, Hispanic, or Muslim who would stand up as that Muslim woman stood up in a Trump rally and the big, brave man Trump threw her out of the rally. Trump is not brave he is a coward. It is so easy to hurt people. It takes no courage to be mean, all it takes is a mean spirit. It’s so easy with A gun and a club in your hand.

And how smart are all the business leaders who have been manipulated by Mr. Trump for decades. What geniuses, and now they are listening to him. Smart, not by a long shot.

Personally I hope they do shut the government down. Because for every day the government is closed,that is one day less the government will have to hurt you big time, hurt the environment, hurt the weak, punish those only wanting to live a peaceful, safe life.

“The Administration from Munich” efforts will be extolled by many as reforms long needed. What its supporters will not say, is why, because any progress in uplifting the poor and disenfranchised is greeted by the Republican with roadblocks and opposition.

I guarantee you Dr. Martin Luther King would have been in the faces of Mr. Trump’s Hate Chorus a long time ago IF he were alive today. That’s essentially why Dr. King was assassinated.

Donald Trump. Ted Cruz, every member of the Cabinet without hearts and compassion and, yes, our own Senators and representatives are cold people. The Supreme Court is hiding behind the semantics of what the constitution says and not ruling with their intelligence or hearts or conscience.

Today,  the man, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is being remembered.

George Washington stands for honesty.

Abraham Lincoln for freedom

Columbus for discovery,

Dr. King’s name stands for Opportunity.

Let me add to that  DR. KING stands for fairness. Compassion. A willingness to help and recognize wrong. To stop by the wayside, like Jesus did and mingle with the Lepers. There is no one running Washington today who would stop and mingle with the Lepers. Certainly not our President.

We would not have the civil rights laws Mr. Trump wants to overturn if not for Dr. King.

What would Dr. King say if he addressed the group honoring him today at the Crown Plaza?

What would he say about “leaders” who would be leaders of this country standing for the death penalty; standing for no health care for the uninsured; standing for less regulation of the greediest, most corrupt businesses on earth?

The greed just piles up like a malignancy. Greed is cancer. Greed is not ambition. Greed destroys a nation as cancer destroys the body organ by organ.

You know what Dr. Martin Luther King would say, don’t you, in your heart, local leaders? You know what he’d do?

In about a week thousands of women are going to protest in Washington about sexual harassment.

Join that march. Speak truth to the weak, insecure, little men (very little men) who run America today. Join stand up march on down. I have it easy I just write this column and feel smug, that I am doing something to stop the march to First American Reich.

But I cannot see Dr. King heading  the march I described at the start of this column, because someone shot him  down in 1968.

Since then no African-American or Latino-American or white man or woman has stepped forward to fill his voice with the same reason, the unswerving ability to tell it like it is. To shame us into doing what is right.

When I think of Dr. King, I think of the Selma march, I think of Birmingham, I think of Little Rock, Arkansas, where he lead the African-American community in demonstrations asking for the right of equal opportunity in America: a seat on a bus wherever they chose; a restaurant or hotel of their choice; the right to apply for a job without being turned down because you were black.

Blatant in-your-face-discrimination was publicized by Dr. King and America was shown it was not right. 

It took fearlessness to do that.

Who today has that fearlessness that Dr. King and his followers showed all of America?

Where are the black and Latino and white, yes white leaders and journalists of today  (Paul Krugman, Nicolas Kristof, Charles Blow, Gail Collins are)who will stand up and point these outrages out?

Dr. King would. That cost him his life.

Losing Dr. King has come home to roost. There are no Dr. Kings today.

When I write those sentences I just wrote, it seems incomprehensible to me that someone would deny another person the right to liberty, justice and the pursuit of happiness.

When you think about it, it is an awful situation to think about. In the 50 years since Dr. King was murdered, the nation has come a long way in breaking down the visible barriers of racism based on creed and the color of one’s skin.

In one year, the Nazis in the White House have ripped that apart.

We’re going backwards now.

Today, though, the language one speaks and where you are from are the prejudices practiced today.

Somehow the sons and daughters of immigrants whose ancestors were immigrants have forgotten their roots.

Dr. King would point his finger at every person in that ballroom Monday and say they should be ashamed for sacrificing the futures of those who have no futures unless we help them have one– and that is not giving them free internships then not supplying jobs — that, I am sorry is slavery.

And you know what? That’s what they do.

There are too many in Washington D.C. who want to throw them out of the country.

Today the barriers to Equal Opportunity are not subtle any more.

What would Dr. Martin Luther King say about that education disgrace if he were speaking to us Monday morning?

Plenty.

They are children, you simply cannot throw  them away because they do not speak English.

This discrimination Dr. Martin Luther King would find hard to take. Ears would be ringing Monday morning.

He would bristle at lowering standards for minorities, because he would see right through that argument, saying:

“When are you going to raise the standards for my people? Because you don’t have to work any harder at educating them, if you do not raise your expectations for them.”

I think Dr. King would look around today and appreciate how Blacks and Whites, Hispanics and Jews, Catholics and Protestants, Muslims and other races mingle together in today’s America. Mingling nicely is not enough

But, if he was alive today he would never let the Republican candidates and the Democratic leadership in Washington get away with the prejudiced stereotyping of the hungry, the poor, America’s illegal residents that I have heard the last year

I think he’d observe we are all becoming more appreciative and respectful of each other– again with concern about the confrontation rhetoric

But, I do not think he would like today’s buzz word :”diversity” and our smugness about our diversity.

He would say that’s nice, but let’s keep our eye on the prize, to borrow the wonderful motto of the White Plains Department of Public Safety, let us treat all with integrity, professionalism, respect, and to that add opportunity.

He’d shame the banks now refusing to give mortgages to many. He’d point out the hypocrisy of holding students to pay off hundreds of thousands of dollars in student loans, while giving away money to Wall Street, the banks, and oil companies

He’d save particular scorn for the bloated banks paying dividends to shareholders while foreclosing on persons who have lost their jobs. Where is the outcry of leaders of any stripe today on THAT outrage? There has not been such an outcry, because it’s still going on.

Would Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. approve?

He’d remind us that Jesus Christ chose to minister to the “hardcore” of his time. He went into their midst. He healed them and made them fishers of men.

Today there are no fishers of men. Today we throw men, women, children back into the sea to drown. We ignore Puerto Rico because it is a Latino nation–and right now it is creating a health crisis for the rest of the country because electricity is not all on yet and pharmaceutical a plants are shut down..

The way to honor Dr. King Monday is to honor the afflicted, help the troubled with dignity, not humiliate them, not shun them, not “throw  them out.” 

The way Dr. King would view our world today?

He’d observe that “we need a lot of work.”

He’d point that out with his long finger pointing right at us.

He’d say, “I still have a dream. But  you are tearing it apart.”

He’d be pointing his finger at the double-standard of justice for the minority youth and the wealthy institutions that exists today.

He’d be calling upon all to keep our eyes on the prize and not on the power, the prestige, and the people who would steer us away from what needs to be done.

We need to make the comfortable uncomfortable, and comfort the afflicted.