Free Republic

ALBANY -- A 26-year state employee who spent 14 years as the Senate minority caucus photographer filed a $1 million-plus federal lawsuit Friday, claiming he was fired in 2003 because he is white and minority senators wanted to hire an African-American. Joseph Maioriello of Schenectady is also seeking compensatory damages for loss of pay, health and life insurance, as well as retirement credits, among other lost benefits. Maioriello claims in court papers that his immediate supervisor, Tracey Pierce-Smith and Deputy Chief of Staff Jack McPadden told him of the plan during a March 20, 2003, meeting, even as the official...

Local News for Wednesday 10/06/04 Kuhl charges 'political sabotage' - Steuben County to probe release of candidate's divorce records. By JEFF MURRAY Star-Gazette jmurray@stargazette.com BATH -- State Sen. John R. Kuhl Jr., locked in an election battle for the 29th Congressional District seat, is demanding answers over the apparent illegal release of his sealed divorce records last month. With his ex-wife Jennifer Kuhl-Peterson at his side, the Hammondsport Republican held a news conference Tuesday to tell the news media that someone visited the Steuben County Clerk's Office on Sept. 9 and requested -- and received -- divorce records that by...

Tobacco Magnate Dies At 92 Last Update: 5/1/2004 1:20:52 PM New York, NY (AP) 05/01/04 - Joseph F. Cullman III, the Philip Morris executive who became the cigarette industry's chief defender against the anti-tobacco movement for decades, died Friday at a hospital in Manhattan. He was 92. Cullman retired as chairman and chief executive in 1978, but remained as chairman emeritus, lobbying legislators and defending cigarettes at Congressional hearings. In 1971, when the government banned cigarette advertising on television, Cullman said in an interview, "I do not believe that cigarettes are hazardous to one's health." In response to a question...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A genetic study of whales suggests many more have been slaughtered than believed in the whaling frenzy that began in the 18th century, and shows populations have not recovered enough to allow hunting to resume, U.S. researchers said on Thursday. The International Whaling Commission (news - web sites) may be underestimating by tenfold the number of the giant mammals that lived in the seas before whaling began, the researchers said. "The genetics we've done of whales in the North Atlantic says that, before whaling, there were a total of 800,000 to 900,000 humpback, fin and minke whales...

SAN FRANCISCO - A federal judge has upheld the current definition of the "dolphin-safe" tuna label and barred the Bush administration from altering it, handing a victory for environmentalists. The ruling Thursday by U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson prevents the government from labeling tuna "dolphin safe" if fishermen encircled the dolphins to make the tuna catch. Henderson upheld the old definition, under which any tuna caught using dolphins as targets were automatically barred from bearing the consumer-friendly label on cans sold in the United States. On Dec. 31, the Commerce Department (news - web sites) said tuna that fishermen catch...

A Massachusetts company's proposal to erect what was to be New York's largest wind farm appears to be stalled. The company, Global Winds Harvest Inc., has not submitted a complete plan for the project in Cherry Valley, Otsego County. But that hasn't stopped the first lawsuit related to the proposal from being filed. The suit does not directly challenge the plan for 43 1.5-megawatt wind turbines that would generate electricity on two ridges. Instead, a new landowner, author and Riverkeeper founder Robert H. Boyle and his wife, Kathryn Belous-Boyle of Cooperstown, are suing the property's previous owner and the real...