Free Republic

ITHACA -- Many areas in New York State are calling for a repeal of new gun control laws. With over thirty counties asking for this to be overturned, the city of Ithaca is standing alongside Governor Cuomo The Ithaca Common Council knows that this is a step in the right direction as they passed a resolution unanimously Wednesday night. Being a liberal leaning city, some people are not surprised where their city stands with the new laws. Judy Scarpella has been a taxpayer with Ithaca for many years and she is used to the way that her city does business....

Though the suspected bomb in a box turned out to be a book, an Ithaca man may wind up behind bars for creating a scare last fall on The Commons. Following his arrest in October, Matthew Whitney, 37, told Ithaca Police and FBI investigators that he placed a brown cardboard Nike box marked “Bomb” on The Commons to promote his “free energy cause,” according to court records. The package was found just before 3 p.m. Oct. 11 outside the Bank of America building on The Commons. Ithaca police evacuated The Commons, and several businesses in the downtown area were forced...

Hubby snapped photo of some anti-fracking grafitti in the People's Republic of Ithaca.

We regularly report on campus restrictions that undermine students’ First Amendment rights to free speech. Now, in the wake of several well-publicized mass killings by mentally ill individuals, several university presidents have signed document that may target students’ Second Amendment rights as well. The Cornell Insider has the details about the head of its institution. "In response to the Newtown shooting, Cornell University’s own President David Skorton has joined nine other university presidents in signing a document advocating for “strong, meaningful action needs to occur in three domains: gun control, care of the mentally ill, and the culture of our...

ITHACA — Robberies in the city increased 27 percent during the first half of 2012, ending a three-year decline, according to the latest figures released by the Ithaca Police Department.... In another unsettling statistic, the number of burglaries committed in the first half of 2012 are already 71 percent of the level committed in all of 2011....

After seeing two consecutive years of double-digit growth, Cornell’s endowment return took a nosedive in the 2011-12 fiscal year, just breaking even with a 0.14 percent gain, the University reported Wednesday.... In explaining its financial performance, the University has cited turbulence in the economy: slowing growth in China, financial crisis in Europe and an impending “fiscal cliff” in the U.S. “While traditional measures of volatility are at historically low levels, it would be an error in judgment to think that all is well and there is nowhere to go but up,” [Chief Investment Officer A.J. Edwards] said at the end...

As the contentious and divisive 2012 presidential campaign draws to a close, Cornell students and professors say that this year’s election has not generated nearly the same level of excitement on campus as the one in 2008. During the 2008 campaign, Cornell’s campus was “abuzz,” said Prof. Theodore Lowi, government. “There was a lot of talk, a lot of chatter, among both faculty and students, on the issues,” he said. But this year, Lowi said, he has seen far less enthusiasm about the upcoming presidential election. “Walking around campus, I’ve seen no excitement, nothing energizing. I see it as a...

A jury has awarded Ithaca police officer Chris Miller more than $2 million in a federal discrimination lawsuit. After nearly a month of testimony and two days of deliberation, it's a win for suspended Ithaca police officer Chris Miller. "He works day by day to recover his reputation and I think it's been tarnished and I think it's been very difficult for him and his family. And I think this is a step along the way of recovering that," said AJ Bosman, Miller’s attorney. Miller sued the City of Ithaca and five of his superiors in the police department. He...

ITHACA — Journalists covering dictatorial regimes overseas often have ‘minders’ assigned ensuring the state controls access. In a move more familiar to China than a college campus, Ithaca College officials announced Friday future press contact with administrators must be cleared by the college. The change in policy was quickly denounced by IC faculty as a “potential public relations disaster.” Starting Oct. 1, members of Ithaca College student newspapers, radio and television must first clear any administrative contact with the college’s media relations department. The new policy affects student media “who are reporting on topics of college policies and developments must...

Just one month into her first semester at Cornell, as she prepared to observe the Jewish holiday Rosh Hashanah, Nicole Barel ’16 was faced with her first-ever encounter with what she said was anti-semitism, in the form of an email she believed to have been sent by one of her professors. In an attempt to contact Prof. Bruce Monger, earth and atmospheric sciences, to request an excused absence from his Introduction to Oceanography lecture on Monday, Barel inadvertently added one extra digit to Monger’s netID — and found herself the subject of what she said was an offensive rant. “If...

One afternoon in Ithaca, N.Y., my kids were playing on the swing sets in the park when a little tike wearing a football jersey ran into my daughter’s path. I lunged for the swing — I jerked the chain so abruptly that I feared whiplash — and shared a “wow, that was close” exchange with the kid’s mom. “How old is he?” I asked. The lady looked at me as she placed her kid on the swing and said with no trace of irony, “His name is Jill, and she’s three.” As I tried to match the pronouns and antecedents,...

The FBI, the New York attorney general and the Tompkins County district attorney are investigating allegations that an Ithaca Police Department officer may have tipped off drug dealers about impending drug raids, according to Ithaca Mayor Svante Myrick.

About 50 of the estimated crowd of 400 people who 'occupied' Utica Thursday evening ended up spending the night. The diehard protesters say they will continue to 'Occupy Utica' 24 hours a day as long as the weather permits. One of the organizers, Ken Keplinger says he does not want to put anyone's health in jeopardy, so as soon as the temperatures drop overnight to a temperature the group believes is unsafe, the protest will then only take place during the day. Keplinger says they do plan to stay 24 hours a day, as long as they can. Keplinger, who...

Three Democratic organizers have joined together in Tompkins County to rally up voters for President Barack Obama’s re-election. Senior Veronica De Cesare, a member of Obama for America 2012 who is responsible for canvassing Ithaca College and its surrounding areas, held a meeting in her Circle Apartment last week to talk about re-election tactics and to celebrate the repeal of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, which prevented openly homosexual and bisexual individuals from serving in the military. De Cesare, Cornell University senior Brynn Leopold and Robert Chapman, an adjunct instructor at Tompkins Cortland Community College, met in mid-September during...

Expect even more flags at Republican campaign events. And if the Democrats were wise, they might well strip the stage of flags altogether, suggests a new Cornell study, the first to look at the political impact of the flag's image on Americans. The research finds that for up to eight months after glimpsing the stars and stripes, voters of all political persuasions shift toward conservative Republican attitudes and voting behavior. "Part of the reason we think this effect is so durable is because we primed people with the flag while they were thinking about their voting choices," said Melissa J....

Giuliani is scheduled to speak at Cornell’s convocation May 28 at Schoelkopf Stadium. His selection as the first Republican to speak at this Ivy League school follows a long list of Democrats since 1984. In 2010, the school selected then-Democratic U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. “It is encouraging to see that there’s a consideration of the other side, which I know a lot of us hadn’t thought was the case,” a member of the Cornell Republicans told the Cornell Daily Sun earlier this week.

While it's tempting for conservatives to cheer the termination of the liberal blowhard from MSNBC, I have a bad feeling that the Obama administration will try and use this to ram through some of their proposals for regulating broadcast content and the internet. Despite the fact that MSNBC will still feature liberals Matthews, Maddow, O'Donnell and Schultz as their big "stars," and despite the center-left bent to the big three networks and CNN, liberals are already using the Olbermann firing to advance the myth that there is nothing out there to balance against "Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, and the vast...

GREECE, NEW YORK--A Greece man loaded his car with a shotgun, hunting knives, a flare gun, baseball bat and handcuffs and set off en route to Washington, D.C., with plans to engage law enforcement and possibly kill former Vice President Dick Cheney, according to the Secret Service. The Secret Service detained the man, Ian Rotunno, on Oct. 7 and this week charged him with threats against a former president. Rotunno told Secret Service agents that, as well as planning to kill Cheney, he intended to go to the Texas ranch of former President George W. Bush and murder him also,...

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ITHACA, NY--A Green Street mural approved by the Public Arts Commission is causing a minor uproar after Underground Railroad leader Harriet Tubman was described as “Comrade” Tubman. In an interview, the artist said his goal is developing a “socialist movement in the United States.” Earlier this month, the city’s planning director lavished praise on the 30×600-foot mural of Tubman and Frederick Douglas beneath the Aurora Street bridge. “I think it’s a great introduction to our city,” Ithaca Planning and Development Director JoAnn Cornish said. The mural, paid for through a state grant applied for by the city and the business-oriented...

A mural approved by the Public Arts Commission under the Green Street bridge is causing a minor uproar after Underground Railroad leader Harriet Tubman leader was described as “Comrade” Tubman. In an interview, the artist said his goal is developing a “socialist movement in the United States.”

ITHACA, NY--According to an upstate New York paper, "a candidate for state Senate announced that people should vote for her because she's a woman." Pamela Mackesey of Ithaca is a Tompkins County legislator and a Democratic candidate for the 53rd District Senate seat occupied by George H. Winner Jr., R-Elmira. Winner is not seeking re-election. During a stop at Elmira College, which was a women's school when it was founded in 1855, Mackesey pointed out that while women are active in the voting booth, they are less visible when it comes to running for office. "In 2010, 84 percent of...

Three Ithaca-area schools rank among the most gay-friendly colleges, according to a survey by a national nonprofit group focused on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) college students. Ithaca College scored five out of five stars in the Campus Pride Climate Index. Cornell University scored 4.5 out of five. Binghamton University scored well, too - ranking four out of five stars. The annual index has become a yardstick used in student and faculty research, campus organizing efforts and gauging LGBT student safety and inclusion. Ithaca College high score - only 19 of more than 230 schools ranked five out of...

Visitors to Ithaca come away with various impressions, focusing on the beautiful scenery, the liberal attitudes or our love of art. One theater reviewer from Washington, DC told readers Ithaca is a 'virtual Berkeley of the East.' Washington Times entertainment blogger Terry Ponick made that comment and many more while in town to see "Penelope of Ithaca" at the Hanger Theater. "It's like a trip back in time to the Woodstock Era here, with posters and adverts providing 'medical' marijuana even as the ubiquitous bikes seem at times to crowd out automobile and pedestrian traffic alike, writes Terry Ponick. Along...

ITHACA, NY–The administrators of a Facebook page set up to support Ithaca Police Officer Bryan Bangs are accusing Mayor Carolyn Peterson and other city officials of attempting to suppress the group’s free speech rights. Police officials are denying the accusation. Bangs was cleared by a Tompkins County Grand Jury in July of wrongdoing in the shooting death of Shawn Greenwood. The Grand Jury found that Bangs acted in self-defense while trying to arrest Greenwood, a convicted felon, under a warrant. Later that month, Bangs’ house was torched in an apparent arson. No one has yet been charged in that fire....

"WINE VENDING MACHINES of different kinds are spreading in different venues, which is great for consumers, wineries, and stores. A couple weeks ago I mentioned the Pennsylvania test market for buying bottled wine at kiosks (Wegman’s is one of the participating stores). "Corks & More, a wine store in Ithaca, is one of a handful of stores statewide that has wine-by-the-glass vending machines. You put your debit card in and get wine out by the taste, half-glass or glass. Ten vending machines dispense 40 wines, ranging from Opus One ($50 a glass) to Red Cat (75 cents a taste), with...

A Cornell sociologist is launching a new study to develop methods of identifying covert social networks, including terrorists who are preparing attacks, human traffickers and drug smugglers, among other groups. Matthew Brashears, assistant professor of sociology, has received a three-year, $797,000 grant from the Defense Threat Reduction Agency for the study that aims to help the U.S. government thwart terrorist attacks. "We're very excited to have a chance to do this kind of work," said Brashears, who wrote the grant proposal with sociology doctoral candidate Michael Genkin. "It's becoming very difficult in the modern age to interdict decentralized criminal activities....

ITHACA, NY--The City of Ithaca, Police Chief Ed Vallely, Deputy Chief John Barber, Deputy Chief Pete Tyler and the Tompkins County District Attorney's office discriminated against Ithaca Police Officer Chris Miller and other white male officers, Miller is alleging in a $17 million lawsuit filed in federal court May 20. The lawsuit alleges they increased their discrimination against Miller after he filed human-rights complaints and retaliated with baseless accusations, threats of indictment and termination, harassment, greater scrutiny, and unjustified and unlawful discipline, including a bogus investigation of him in 2009. The suit also names the Ithaca Police Benevolent Association and...

Prof. Michael Lynn, marketing and tourism, surveyed 374 waitresses about their perceived “sexiness,” breast size and other physical characteristics and correlated these results with the amount of tips the waitresses received. His results indicate that evolutionary instinct trumps the ideals many patrons profess. Though most customers say they reward service, Lynn reports that quality of service has less than a 2-percent effect on the actual tip. Instead, he found that waitresses with larger bra sizes received higher tips — as did women with blonde hair and slender bodies..... Lynn explained that his study could be useful to a potential waitress...

Last week, Janis Kelly announced the revival of monthly meetings for the City of Ithaca Republican Committee. Republicans have been absent from city politics for years, as local government has been dominated by Democrats and third party members. As committee chair, Kelly said the city’s current Democratic administration is setting Ithaca “on a path of unsustainable job-killing policies, regulatory overkill and financial foolishness,” and asked fellow Republicans to help restore bipartisan politics in Ithaca. Michael Sigler, chair of the Tompkins County GOP, said the primary goal of the monthly meetings is to get attendees more involved in political dialogue. Irene...

ITHACA, NY-Two months after an Africana professor allegedly called two black graduate students “black bitches,” members and allies of the Africana community — undergraduate and graduate students, faculty and alumni alike — have begun to speak out more fervently about the issue. Earlier this year, Prof. Grant Farred, English and Africana studies, invited two of his advisees — both female graduate students who wish to remain anonymous — to attend a Feb. 5 and 6 conference at the University of Rochester entitled “Theorizing Black Studies: Thinking Black Intellectuals.” The two students arrived late to a conference panel, after which Farred...

A teacher at Genesee Elementary School in Auburn has been arrested for stealing lunch money. Police say 37-year-old Alan Robinson of Ithaca, a third-grade teacher at Genesee, used children's subsidized school lunch cards to buy himself lunch, and then never repaid the students. Robinson would have kids bring their own lunch to school, and then use their personal ID numbers to buy himself lunch. According to a state database, Robinson's salary is $50,000 a year. The investigation began after a parent saw suspicious charges on her bill. Robinson has been charged with three counts of petit larceny and three counts...

So far this year, three Cornell students have leaped to their deaths in the famed gorges of Ithaca. This comes a year after a graduate from a decade ago was found dead at the bottom of one of them after having inexplicably returned to campus.

The City of Ithaca Common Council this month addressed the nationally contentious issue of immigration by unanimously passing a resolution on March 3 that calls on Congress to replace the enforcement-only policy, cease raids and provide a pathway for legal citizenship. Alderpersons Eric Rosario (I-2nd Ward) and Maria Coles (D-1st Ward) introduced the bill after working for months in conjunction with the Tompkins County Immigrant Rights Coalition, Catholic Charities Immigrant Center and Tompkins County Workers Center. The resolution condemns the current laws, stating that “our nation’s immigration system continues to be broken, with the federal government pursuing an ineffective enforcement-only...

Ithaca, NY — Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, will speak at Cornell University's senior convocation May 29. Pelosi, the first woman to be speaker of the House, represents San Francisco in Congress. The senior convocation, part of graduation weekend at Cornell, is open to the public.

ITHACA, NY--Somewhere, the late great Charles Schulz is rolling over in his grave. Schulz, the creator of the much-loved Peanuts comic strip (and a devout Christian), probably never envisioned a day when his characters would be appropriated for a “satirical story” about teenaged homosexuals. But that’s exactly what happens in the new play, “Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead," which the Ithaca Journal describes as “a satirical story that ... features characters from the ‘Peanuts’ comic strip gang in their volatile teenage years” It all begins with CB, Charlie Brown, who contemplates the death of his loyal dog,...

ITHACA -- A Tompkins County legislator is facing a misdemeanor charge related to an outstanding traffic violation. Martha Robertson, who also is the chairwoman of the legislature's public safety committee, said her arrest last week was the result of a paperwork mix-up and that the Ithaca Police shouldn't have taken her into custody, "They could've issued me a ticket right there," she said, adding that police refused her request to go to her house and see the paperwork. At the station, Sgt. Andy Navarro told her they were waiving her bail based on her community connections, and Patrick Kimmich --...

Rally Decries Crimes of Columbus; Stresses Importance of Native Cultures October 9, 2009 - 4:02am By Margo Cohen Ristorucci Propped against a podium in Ho Plaza, a poster of Christopher Columbus sat with the message “Hate, Lies, Torture, Slavery and Oppression” inscribed along his face. Anticipating the Oct. 12 holiday, Native American Students at Cornell organized a rally yesterday called "Indigenous Day Rally: Rethinking Columbus." Alia Jones ’10, co-chair of NASAC, explained that the event was aimed to both challenge Columbus Day and to raise awareness about present indigenous communities. “Question: why should the United States of America celebrate Columbus...

ITHACA, N.Y. -- President Obama has announced his intention to nominate a native Ithacan and Cornell graduate to a key post in his administration. Mary J. Miller is up for the position of Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Financial Markets. Miller grew up in Ithaca and received her bachelor's degree in government from Cornell. She is now the vice president of T. Rowe Price, a Baltimore-based investment firm. The post Miller is up for advises the treasury secretary on financial markets, government debt and credit and lending. Miller must first be confirmed by the Senate.

ITHACA — A group of upstate New York dog owners thinks it has a plan to profitably compost the tons of dog doo left behind by the roughly 50,000 canines that use the city’s pooch park each year. If their pilot project is successful, the Tompkins County Dog Owners Group and Cayuga Compost hope to market usable compost within the next two or three years. Dog and cat waste contain parasites and pathogens that make them unsuitable as compost for vegetable gardens and topsoil and can run off into local waterways and diminish water quality, said Cary Oshins, an assistant...

ITHACA, NY — Incoming students at Ithaca College will get together the day before the start of classes to discuss their summer reading assignment: Barack Obama’s “Dreams from My Father.” The 44th president’s autobiography was chosen as the 2009–10 First-Year Reading Initiative selection. “President Obama’s ruthlessly honest self-examination on issues of race and identity gives us an opportunity to lead students through what could be the most important conversation they will have during their freshman year,” says Ithaca College President Tom Rochon. The initiative was created in 2003 as a way to offer the incoming class a shared academic experience...

Are you someone who squirms when confronted with slime, shudders at stickiness or gets grossed out by gore? Do crawly insects make you cringe or dead bodies make you blanch? If so, chances are you're more conservative -- politically, and especially in your attitudes toward gays and lesbians -- than your less-squeamish counterparts, according to two Cornell studies. The results, said study leader David Pizarro, Cornell assistant professor of psychology, raise questions about the role of disgust -- an emotion that likely evolved in humans to keep them safe from potentially hazardous or disease-carrying environments -- in contemporary judgments of...

Anyone who rides a bike anywhere in the city would have to register it with the City of Ithaca or face a $10 fine, based on a law being considered tonight by Common Council. The law would apply not just to city residents, but to anyone who rides in the city, including visitors The purpose of the new law is to support and encourage bicycle riding, to assist in documenting bikes for planning purposes, to disseminate information to bike riders, and to facilitate the return of lost or stolen bikes, according to the Common Council's resolution.

The constant hum of the air conditioning units across the street could be heard clearly from Ralph Moss's home. At a word, they were shut off. Sounds of talking neighbors rose through the silence. "My front porch has become my haven, and my haven is threatened," Moss said, sitting on his porch on North Albany Street. "It's so much of a nuisance, I have to go inside and close my doors and windows to get some peace." Moss has lived in the neighborhood facing the east entrance of Beverly J. Martin Elementary School on and off since 1982. The newest...

A campus Christian group that receives funding from the student activity fee is coming under scrutiny after a student was asked by advisors to step down from its leadership team when he told them that he had openly accepted his homosexuality. This incident is also raising questions about the effectiveness of campus mechanisms for addressing instances of discrimination. Chris Donohoe ’09, who joined the Chi Alpha Christian Fellowship when he was a freshman, said he had been openly struggling to reconcile his sexuality with his faith in Chi Alpha before he was asked to step down from the leadership team...

As Cornell University faces greater need for donations in the current recession, it also faces having to get more funds with less money as a result of the economic crisis. In order to better focus its fundraising efforts to meet its needs and in response to the university cutting its budget by 5 percent, Cornell’s Department of Alumni Affairs and Development recently laid off 41 employees, around 10 percent of the department’s workforce. Richard Banks, associate vice president for alumni affairs and development at Cornell, said the positions were cut based on which positions were least crucial. He said Cornell...

ITHACA, NY--Nearly six months after the Presidential election, former Monty Python star John Cleese needs some new material.According to the Cornell Daily Sun, Cleese, in an appearance on campus, turned serious and launched into an attack on former President George W. Bush: Americans... are “much too respectful to the president,” said Cleese, who went on to say that George W. Bush would not be able to survive a single press conference in England. “It’s pathetic!” he exclaimed. “This is the most important country in the world ... It’s embarrassing because we want America to be great. There is emotion when...

ITHACA - The Ithaca Town Board supports raising taxes on New Yorkers who make more than $250,000 in order to stave off some cuts to education and healthcare and other "essential services." The Board unanimously passed a resolution Monday urging state leaders to pass the Fair Share Tax Reform Act of 2009, which would increase tax rates for the top 3.5 percent of New Yorkers, according to their resolution. Those with taxable income over $250,000 would see a 1.4 percent increase, to 8.25 percent of their total income. Those with income over $500,000 would see a 2.12 percent increase, to...

ITHACA, NY--Love — or, at least, lust — was in the air on Ho Plaza yesterday at 12:15 p.m. A group of roughly 20 students lined up to hold a colorful banner that read “QUEER KISSIN’ … in progress” and then proceeded have a queer kiss-in, which lasted about five minutes. Direct Action to Stop Heterosexism sponsored the event, according to kiss-in participant Ashley McGovern ’09. She explained that heterosexism is “kind of like homophobia except heterosexism has to do with all facets of society … so the normalization of heterosexuality in society.” Heteronormativity refers to the idea that heterosexuality...

ITHACA - A protester dressed in his 1950s-era military uniform threw his shoes at Mayor Carolyn Peterson and brought Common Council's Wednesday night meeting to an almost hour-long standstill, insisting that he wanted to be arrested in protest over the Council's position against the "immoral wars" in Iraq and Afghanistan. Long-time Ithacan and former Weather Underground member Robin Palmer began speaking at about 7:15 p.m., near the beginning of Council's privilege of the floor, during which any citizen may speak on any topic. Palmer handed out packets of information on the U.S.S. Indianapolis, a Navy vessel sunk during World War...