By Michael Kaufman

By the time anyone is finished trying to unravel the seemingly endless tangled web of deceit involved, it seems nearly certain that Orange County will soon be home to a lavish, world-class casino resort hotel.  The only question is where it will be built, and some of the options are frightening. Meanwhile, the folks in Sullivan County, who had high hopes that construction of one—or even two—casinos would revitalize that county’s flagging tourism business, are still scratching their heads like someone who’s been sucker punched and is just starting to wonder what the heck happened.

Ulster County officials, who support a proposal for a casino at the Nevele Hotel site in Ellenville, are still reeling from what they regard as a betrayal by Langdon Chapman, who was legislative attorney for the county in 2012 and 2013. In that role he helped draft at least one resolution adopted by the county legislature in support of the Nevele casino bid. Chapman has been singing a different tune, however, since January when he was appointed Orange County Attorney by County Executive Steve Neuhaus (who knows a thing or two about betrayal of the public trust). Chapman recently told the Woodstock Times there is “not a chance” the Nevele proposal will be successful:  “Look at it from a businessman’s point of view.” This led Ulster’s current legislative attorney, the interestingly named Cappy Weiner, to fire off a letter to Chapman saying his comments were “inappropriate and a violation of your duty to a former client.”  Weiner also insisted that “no further comments be made contrary to the interest of the Ulster County Legislature.”

Chances of the Nevele getting a casino have also been undercut in recent weeks by a sensational report in the May 1 edition of Rupert Murdoch’s New York Post that Michael Treanor, head of the Nevele investors’ group, had been accused in a lawsuit of sexually assaulting his sister. (The report would have been even more sensational if the alleged assault had not occurred in 2008 and the lawsuit had not been settled in 2009.) Treanor told the Woodstock Times he believes Chapman is responsible for leaking the sex abuse allegations to the Post because of Treanor’s longtime opposition to Orange County being considered as a potential site for casinos. Chapman denies he was the source. (Personally, I wouldn’t buy a used car from either Treanor or Chapman.)

Chapman has long had a close working relationship with the power-wielding (and constantly sending self-serving junk mail about himself) Republican State Senator John Bonacic, whose district includes all or parts of Delaware, Sullivan, Orange, and Ulster Counties. Bonacic had been an outspoken supporter of Sullivan County as a casino site but his more recent statements on the subject have been equivocal.

Chapman is also a partner in the Warwick-based law practice headed by Bonacic’s son Scott and Robert Krahulik, who was recently forced to resign from his post as chair of the Orange County Republican Committee because of some alleged Weiner-like (Anthony not Cappy) internet behavior.  And Chapman plays a major role in determining who gets to run for office on the Independence Party line in the Hudson Valley (another topic that warrants further discussion). He is also likely to have been involved in the stealth campaign that subverted Democrat Roxanne Donnery’s bid to obtain the Working Families Party line on the ballot in last year’s election for Orange County Executive, which Republican Neuhaus won handily with the endorsement of the Independence Party. (Bonacic, Krahulik and Associates, LLP, is no stranger to successful stealth campaigns, as former Warwick Village Justice Richard Farina can attest.)

Meanwhile, the potential casino developers are tripping over themselves to show how civic minded they are and how wonderful it will be if we are fortunate enough to have them build near us. Genting, the Malaysian-based gambling giant that hopes to befoul Sterling Forest, just made a “no-strings attached” donation of $340,000 to the Tuxedo public schools to prevent substantial cuts in programs that would have been necessary as a result of the outcome of the May 20 school budget vote. As reported by Gittel Evangelist in the Times Herald-Record, “District officials stressed their acceptance of the ‘gift toward education’ was not an approval of the proposed casino.” Does this sound too good to be true?

The Record also reports that both the Town and City of Newburgh have endorsed the Hudson Valley Casino Resort proposal made by Saratoga Casino and Raceway. The town hopes to receive an annual host community fee of $6.8 million, of which $1.02 million (15 percent) would  go to the city to use as it pleases. “I don’t think it’s enough,” said City Councilwoman Genie Abrams. “But we’ll take the $1 million per year.” Of course it is not enough. And it is they who are being taken. The proposed developer is the group that already operates a quasi-casino with slot machines at the Saratoga harness track. Voters in Saratoga County and the Village of Saratoga Springs voted overwhelmingly against having them put a Las Vegas-style casino in their midst. The news doesn’t seem to have reached Newburgh, however. That reminds me: Empire Resorts, which has already established an abysmal track record at Monticello Raceway, is one of the bidders for a casino to be built on the grounds of the old Concord Hotel. Theirs has to be considered one of the longest shots on the board, in a dead heat with Louis Cappelli, who has been promising to build on another piece of the Concord property for so long that few continue to take him seriously.

Sullivan County has indeed been sucker punched. And we in Orange are being played for suckers, and not just by the would-be casino developers. As Neuhaus and his cronies continue to rush privatization of the Valley View Center for Nursing Care and Rehabilitation, news comes that Valley View is scheduled to receive more than $4 million in federal aid than it received last year….but only if it remains publicly owned. The argument for privatization gets weaker by the day. Citizens for Valley View will hold a rally on Sunday, June 8, at 2 p.m. at Goshen Green. For more information visit Facebook.com/CFVVC.  Be there if you can.

And isn’t it time for those of us who live in Tuxedo, Greenwood Lake, and Warwick, to  raise our voices to save Sterling Forest?

Michael can be reached at michael@zestoforange.com.

By Jeffrey Page

Indian Point

I had conveniently forgotten to think about Indian Point and its attendant horrors, but as always seems to happen when you’re in a state of denial, the truth taps you on the shoulder and howls in your ear.

Several days ago I was at breakfast with some friends, a regular Friday event. I don’t recall what led to talk about Indian Point, but all of sudden there it was, the silent monstrosity that sits on the banks of the Hudson seeming to bide its time. I think everyone at the table harbored a fear that one of these days, Indian Point will do the unimaginable.

It will explode, or it will leak, or it will send plumes of radioactive smoke into the sky and force millions of people to wait to see where it comes down. Or it will be visited by people who despise us and it will fail to stop them from making off with material to make dirty bombs.

There seems to be enough radioactive waste stored at Indian Point to make more than a few such bombs. In fact, Riverkeeper estimates that Indian Point now holds about 1,500 tons of waste material – with no place to dispose of it permanently.

I have to wonder about security at Indian Point. A couple of years ago, a photographer and I chugged up the Hudson to do a story on sailing the river and the Erie Barge Canal. We were in mid-river as we passed Indian Point. My friend attached a very long lens to one of his cameras and started shooting pictures of the plant. Then the two of us waved.

Response from the ever vigilant Indian Point?

There was no response. No federal agents, no armed guards in fast boats, no loud warning buzzers played over big amplifiers.

If all this is not enough for the feds to reject the application by Entergy – the Indian Point operator – for a 20-year extension on its operating license, there is the matter of the size of the population near Indian Point. There’s another problem: Entergy’s evacuation plan is utter nonsense.

On a map, draw a circle with a 50-mile radius around Indian Point, step back and understand that roughly 20 million people are in that circle. People in Goshen, Middletown, Newburgh, the mid-Hudson, North Jersey, etc. Let us not forget that there’s an important federal interest in taming Indian Point – its proximity to West Point, just five miles up the river.

And there’s the little matter of New York City. Indian Point is about 23 miles from Times Square.

The word “evacuation” should not be allowed when discussing Indian Point. Not when 20 million mostly panic-stricken people would be trying to leave the 78 square miles around the plant all at the same time.

You can’t evacuate an area when the evacuation routes are clogged. Ever notice what happens on Route 17 when two cars smack each other in Sloatsburg during the morning commute? The backup builds quickly and there’s no way out. And that’s just for a jam of a few hundred cars. Now picture that traffic knot with thousands upon thousands of cars trying to escape.

Indian Point needs to be taken more seriously by people like me – people who have managed not to think much about it lately. It needs to be always in the public consciousness. Remember, most of us never heard of Three Mile Island, Chernobyl and Fukushima until they blew.

And may I offer a piece of gratuitous advice for nuclear regulators: Before that license extension is considered, I suggest that the officers and directors of Entergy be required to move – with their spouses and their children – to Buchanan, N.Y., home of Indian Point.

I’m sure this has been suggested before. It’s time to suggest it again.

Bill Hogan

By Michael Kaufman

What was disgraced former Sen. Alfonse D’Amato doing standing knee-deep in weeds Tuesday near Stewart Airport? Hint: It was probably akin to what Bugsy Siegel was doing in the mid 1940s when he stood in the desert sand of Las Vegas: envisaging the untold riches that could result from legalized casino gambling at a luxury resort hotel that could be built there.  

D’Amato’s lobbying and public relations firm has been hired to promote the efforts of Greenetrack, an Alabama-based casino emporium, one of more than 20 companies vying to be among the seven to be chosen following passage of a statewide ballot referendum last November.

The majority of Orange County residents cast votes in favor of the proposal. This may have been due in part to a change in wording of the question that appeared on the ballot. Originally written as a simple yes or no question, the language was changed by the State Legislature to link passage with creation of jobs, school funding, and lower taxes.  (They could just as well have included apple pie, motherhood, and support for the troops.)

Had the wording been comparably altered by opponents of the proposal it might have read something like: “Do you approve of allowing seven new casinos that will bring increased traffic, air pollution and other environmental hazards; attract compulsive gamblers, mobsters and grifters; put nearby local restaurants and stores out of business, and receive huge tax breaks courtesy of elected officials who they spent a lot of money lobbying?”

Aside from the rosy wording of the ballot question, Orange County residents were led to believe that any new casinos designated for construction in our region would be erected in Sullivan County, still reeling from the demise of the great Borscht Belt hotels of yore, or in neighboring Ulster. Voters in Sullivan voted overwhelmingly in favor of the resolution in hope of landing at least one of the new casinos there.

On the other hand, residents of Warwick, Greenwood Lake, Newburgh, Tuxedo, New Windsor, and Central Valley might well have been less inclined to vote in favor had they known that developers were already targeting sites in or adjacent to their communities. That is what happened in Saratoga County, including the village of Saratoga Springs, where voters overwhelmingly rejected the proposal. Perhaps this is why Orange County Executive Steve Neuhaus kept his mouth shut until after the election before he began shamelessly extolling the advantages of Orange over Sullivan and Ulster.  

And now we see full-page advertisements in the Times Herald-Record and our local weekly newspapers, seeking public support for Greenetrack’s bid. Not coincidentally the story of D’Amato’s appearance with the CEO of Greenetrack and two local officials from New Windsor was the lead story Wednesday on the Record’s page 3 (traditionally reserved for the most important news of the day) under the less-than-inspired headline, “Greenetrack makes a visit.” One of the other bidders, Saratoga Casino and Raceway, has proposed expanding its current facility at the harness track in Saratoga Springs—not likely to happen in light of strong and vocal local opposition. They have also proposed to build a casino resort across the street from Stewart Airport on 70 acres off Route 17K, but thus far they have been outspent in the lobbying and public relations department by Greenetrack.

It does make you wonder a little about Greenetrack that they turned to D’Amato for help. Here is what veteran crime reporter John Marzullo of the New York Daily News wrote about the man once affectionately known as “Senator Pothole”in an article published in March 2013: 

“A reputed Gambino capo on trial in the murders of two men proudly displayed a photo of then-U.S. Sen. Alfonse D’Amato, posing with gangsters, on the wall of his Queens social club. Ex-Bonanno associate Joseph (Giusseppe) Gambina testified Tuesday that the photo was taken at a fundraiser for “Senator Amato” in late 1991 at mobbed-up Giannini’s restaurant in Maspeth.” 

Here’s more:  “The former pol has been linked to organized crime figures in the past. He testified as a character witness at the trial of Luchese associate Philip Basile, who was charged with obtaining a no-show job for mob rat Henry Hill — who himself was immortalized in the film ‘Goodfellas.’” Marzulli went on to cite a report published in the Village Voice in the 1980s “that D’Amato had called then-Manhattan U.S. Attorney Rudy Giuliani about the sentencing of Genovese boss Vincent (Chin) Gigante’s brother Mario, a reputed capo and loan shark.”

Neuhaus, by the way, supports another site altogether. But if any site is chosen in Orange County, I’d like to ask Neuhaus how he can continue to justify the sale and privatization of Valley View if the casino brings in the millions of dollars to the county coffers he says it will. A teenie-weeinie tax on the casino profits could keep Valley View solvent for years to come.

There are so many troubling aspects to this casino story, all of which point to an attitude on the part of certain Orange County government officials that as long as something is not illegal or specifically prohibited by a code of ethics, they can do whatever they want and get away with it. So what if it is apparently sleazy and unethical.  There’s money to be had and the sheep aren’t complaining much.  Yet.

 (To be continued)

Michael can be reached at michael@zestoforange.com.

I

Bill Hogan

By Michael Kaufman

Would video replay show that Yogi was right, that Jackie Robinson was out?

Poor Howie Rose and Josh Lewin. The two radio announcers for the New York Mets have had their hands full, not to mention their mouths full of marbles, struggling their way through the copy for the new Wendy’s ad touting the fast-food chain’s new Tuscan chicken on ciabatta sandwich: “Go for the gusto with our lightly breaded chicken, rich garlic with roasted tomato aioli and sliced asiago cheese, on a toasted ciabatta bun. Available for a limited time only.” After stumbling on “aioli” and “asiago” the other night Lewin closed with, “Available for a limited time only at Wendy’s, home of hard-to-pronounce foods.” A couple of night later Rose, perhaps too focused on avoiding mispronouncing aioli and/or asiago, stumbled on “tomato.”

But I feel even sorrier for them—and for other baseball announcers who are in the same boat—each time they are forced to read endless inane copy that turns every available moment into advertising revenue.  A few days ago I heard an “injury report” informing listeners that no one on the team was injured at the time. That bit of silliness was sponsored by a law firm that specializes in injury suits.  How long will it be before they sell the advertising rights to the sunshine or the air we breathe?

And why, oh why, did the Mets agree to link the name of the ballclub to the likes of Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity? How many times must we be reminded that WOR is the “new home” of those two bags of poison gas “and the New York Mets.” Eventually it occurred to me that there must now be others taking their place on WABC so I tuned in for a moment, only to hear the toxic intonations of Michael Savage, who used to be on WOR. A moment was more than enough: “Dr. Savage” (as he enjoys being addressed by callers) sounded like he was foaming at the mouth.

But the worst thing about the Mets switching radio stations is that the WOR signal is much weaker than that of WFAN, their former longtime home. WOR doesn’t carry as well to Orange County. I tune in a game when I’m driving and I often have to listen through static and high-pitched whistling noises that other family members find unbearable. This usually ends with my grumpily acceding to a passionate request to turn off the radio. It also reminds me of what it was like when I was 10 years old and begged in vain to be allowed to stay up later to hear the end of a game.  How did I end up with a wife as merciless as my parents? How can they not care that it’s the top of the ninth or extra innings? I used to be able to pick up WFAN and listen to Mets games when we went to New Hampshire during the summer. Good luck with that now that they are ensconced in their new home alongside Hannity and Limbaugh.

The thing that annoys me most, however, about baseball this season is not the overbearing advertising or the Mets changing radio stations. Rather, it is the increasing use of video replays to determine if an umpire has made the correct call.  Now, for example, if a manager believes the umpire made the wrong call of safe or out on a close play at home plate, he can calmly signal to the umpires that he’d like to challenge said call. The umpires will then trudge from the field via one of the dugouts to watch the replay. This may take a minute or two (affording previously untapped advertising opportunities). Upon their return to the field the umpires will either uphold the original decision or reverse it.

This is supposed to be wonderful for the game.  I find it more likely to induce sleep or a change in channels.  I prefer the occasional bad call (umpires are human after all) and the ensuing rhubarbs involving managers such as Earl Weaver, Leo Durocher, and Billy Martin.  Imagine if this rule had been in effect, say, during the first game of the 1955 World Series when Jackie Robinson stole home. Maybe Yogi was right. Maybe it was the wrong call. But so what? It’s so much better this way.

Michael can be reached at michael@zestoforange.com.

By Jeffrey Page

Not all cases of child abuse involve physical violence inflicted by an angry adult on a kid who somehow violated the rules of the house. Sometimes, in fact, the abuse is more subtle and physically painless, and is meted out by the people and in the place where you least expect it. That would be administrators making life temporarily miserable for pupils in school.

If you’ve got a child in school and if you happen to be one of the growing numbers of moms and dads who are opting their kids out of the New York State grade 3-8 English language arts exams and state math testing, you have to read this story. And possibly, you might have to take action.

Here in Test-Happy New York, parents have the authority to exempt their children from the endless rounds of testing – testing that, in the minds of some officials, apparently passes for education. Thus, a question: How does a school district care for the needs of students who are not taking the tests during the periods when testing is being administered?

In its May-June issue, NYSUT United, the bimonthly publication of New York State United Teachers union, reports that the policy in 72 districts holds that kids not taking the test remain in the same room with those who are. The policy is called “sit and stare” because that’s all that the opted-out kids are allowed to do.

Read a book? No. Write an essay or compose a poem? No. Invent a game with a pencil and a piece of paper? No. Walk over to the window and follow the antics of a squirrel? No.  This is the kind of torture that some school administrators are inflicting on children.

In fact, the kids not being tested are not allowed to do anything other than the words dictate: sit and stare – and possibly be bored out of their minds. Which seems like a doubly moronic policy since it would appear to annoy and distract test takers knowing that the lucky kids – the decliners – are seated just a couple of rows away.

What the “sit and stare” policy means for a third-grade test decliner seated in a room where testing is being conducted is that she must gaze at the wall for the 70 minutes a day (for three days) allowed for the English Language Arts test. You really have to wonder when was the last time any official of the State Education Department sat still and quiet for that long.   

NYSUT also reported that the policy in 93 other districts allows the students not taking the test to read quietly, a slight improvement. But still, those being tested and those who are not are lumped together in the same room.

Another 157 school districts do the only sensible thing by finding space in for non-test takers in rooms where testing is not being conducted so that they can participate in alternative educational activities.

It goes without saying that if you’re not allowing your daughter or son to be tested it is essential that you contact the school and find out what your kid will be doing during testing. If he or she is going to be ordered to gaze at a blank wall, you might want to make your voice heard at the next meeting of the school board. Clearly, an administrator who makes a kid sit motionless and speechless doesn’t know a thing about children and ought to be doing something else for a living.

Incidentally, if you decide that your kid will not be tested, you may be happy to know you’re in growing company. NYSUT United reports that 34,000 children have been exempted from testing by their parents. For a wealth of information about testing and opting out, check the New York State Allies for Public Education website.

Fossil fuels are polluting the planet.

By Patrick Gallagher

Recently, lots of energy has gone into trying to convince universities to withdraw support from the fossil fuel industry. Polluting for profitability is slowly becoming as attractive an investment as apartheid or a slave-based business model.

Student and activist efforts have begun to sway the investor culture we live in while farsighted analysts are beginning to perceive murky futures for securities that rely on profits from smokestacks, pipelines, industrial runoff, groundwater degradation, air pollution and mountaintop removal.

In Silicon Valley, at the heart of 21st century emerging industries, Stanford University has joined 11 other colleges and universities nationwide in removing coal from its investment portfolio.

Foundations, cities and states are recognizing they are made up of people who want to breathe clean air. Seattle, San Francisco and Portland are climbing on board the divestment train, having decided to join the smarter money by divesting of coal and investing elsewhere.

During Hurricane Sandy, many buildings around Wall Street in lower Manhattan could be accessed by pontoon boats via second-floor windows. This winter, the UK experienced otherworldly flooding attributed to carbon-driven climate change.

Worldwide banking customers are persuading their banks to not lend to fossil-fuel producers.

Major financial player Blackrock has teamed with the Natural Resources Defense Council NRDC to create a fossil free stock index. Blackrock is not chartered or known as a green or particularly socially responsible index group, but it is the world’s largest asset manager with $4 trillion (with a T) in assets.

The London Financial Times calls this move a sure signal that the global campaign against fossil fuels is entering the financial mainstream. Strictly business. In fact, options for alternate investments are now easily available with all the data to support wise decisions at hand for review. The fossil-free indices exclude companies that extract or explore for fossil fuels.

It’s an absolute truth that for the moment we all share the sun and that alternatives energies of all stripes are rapidly achieving parity with fossil fuels.  At this point, the first steps towards clean and sustainable energy independence are going to have to come from a sea change in how we subsidize the choices we make.

Divestment is right in front of us. Clean, renewable choices are at our fingertips.

To me it’s very simple.  I will not invest in handing a cup of dirty water to any of the kids in my neighborhood. I don’t wanna and I’m not gunna. If there are two canisters filled with oxygen and one is polluted I want the clean one. If the earth’s atmosphere is the only canister available I want it to be cleaned up.

I’d also like to share it with my neighbors.

If I can eat real food that is not densely laden with hydrocarbons and grown in mercury-rich soil brought to me by coal emissions from neighboring states, I’d just rather have the local healthier stuff, thank you very much.

I ‘m not interested in a dirty atmosphere in my home so I need to act accordingly by withdrawing my implicit financial permission in the form of investments from extractive and pollutive industries.

In taking this approach, we can launch a truly new era of investment and job creation that broadens the opportunities for the generations that will be forced to clean up this mess.

Ask the 300,000 folks in Charleston, West Virginia, if they wanted to divest themselves of the entire cities supply of contaminated drinking water last February and then maybe ask yourself, “What’s in my wallet?”

Patrick Gallagher lives in Warwick.

Bill Hogan

By Gretchen Gibbs

A brutal civil war is being fought in Ukraine.

The Ukraine people look haunted in the newspaper photos. Some want to stay with their country, some want to separate and join Russia. We tend to think of them as non-overlapping groups. My experience this past weekend on a trip to Washington, D.C., led me to think about the matter differently.

Our own Civil War divided our country in ways hard to fathom. I know little about the Civil War beyond the Ken Burns series and what I gleaned in high school and college. I have heard that books about Lincoln sell better than anything else, and given that, I am hesitant to put forward any views at all to readers who may be much more knowledgeable than I. But there must be some who don’t know all the things I learned this weekend.

First, I went to hear a concert at the Church of the Epiphany in downtown Washington. An attractive church with great stained glass and excellent acoustics, it is pre-Civil War and housed wounded Union soldiers during the fighting. According to the historical poster outside, Washington as a whole was essentially a southern, secessionist city, and that was especially true for the area of the city around the church. Most of the members were for secession. Jefferson Davis was a member with his own pew until conflict with the minister, who was strongly pro-Union, led to his departure. The poster mentioned that Mary Todd Lincoln had a brother and three half-brothers who fought for the Confederacy. Two of them were killed and one was wounded.

The next day we (I, my brother and sister-in-law) went to Arlington National Cemetery. I’d been before, but the lines after lines of white gravestones, stretching off in all directions, still made me gasp. These dead are from all our wars, of course, not just the Civil War, but there were three quarters of a million deaths in that war, the most costly of our history.

We climbed a steep hill to the former home of Robert E. Lee. Arlington Cemetery was built on his property just over the line in Virginia. It was  confiscated by the Union early in the war as a sort of statement: “See what you’ve done.” When you look out from the front porch, you see a bridge crossing the Potomac and right at the end of the bridge, the Lincoln Memorial. The two men seem enmeshed, or at least their differences bridged. I knew from Ken Burns that Lincoln had asked Lee to head the Union Army, and with great difficulty Lee had refused.

I didn’t know that Lee had released all his own slaves five years before the Emancipation Proclamation. I didn’t know that his wife returned to the house after the war ended and died five days later, apparently of a heart attack brought on by the level of destruction. Few of the articles in the house today are original, except for furniture or dishes or pictures that have been returned by some descendant of a Union soldier who stole them. Now the site is a National Monument, and rightly so, for Lee was a remarkable man. After the war, he became president of Washington and Lee College, and tried to help heal the divisions in the country.

Another thing I learned, not this weekend but when doing research on the 1692 witch trials for The Book of Maggie Bradstreet, was that my ancestors in Massachusetts had slaves. They were called servants, but they were slaves. Tituba, who set off the whole Salem witch hysteria, was a slave from the West Indies. Northerners didn’t need slave labor the way the plantations needed it, but that didn’t prevent them from using it when they could.

It’s a kind of cliché, “brother against brother,” but the ways the Union and Confederacy were linked and divided were so complicated, they can’t possibly be reduced to “good vs. bad” or “right vs. wrong,” the way we learn in high school to think about it.

When we see the division in Ukraine, or in Syria, or earlier, in North and South Korea, and North and South Vietnam, we could reflect more on our own experience. People suffer, for such a long time and in such complicated ways, from a Civil War.