Free Republic

The town did some slicing and dicing last week, reducing the tax levy increase by half to 4.4 percent on an $11.2 million budget proposal, and offering more possible cuts that would get it under the two percent tax cap. Supervisor Kelly Myers put $394,000 in cuts on the table last week. Of those cuts, the board would need to select $225,000 to get the tax increase under two percent. Implementing all the cuts would bring the tax levy increase to around zero percent. The biggest cut on the table is closing the town’s transfer station, which has been losing...

The nation’s 44,000 newly unionized airport screeners have ratified their first-ever collective bargaining agreement, giving them more say in what they wear on the job, the shifts they work and the time off they take, whether they can change from part-time to full-time work or back, their union announced today. The American Federation of Government Employees union, which won the right to represent the screeners in an election last year, said its members voted 17,326 to 1,774 in favor of ratifying the first labor deal struck with the Transportation Security Administration since the agency was founded 10 years ago in...

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) says the premise that cutting taxes will result in greater economic growth is “a Rumpelstiltskin fairy tale”. At the Nov. 8th Christian Science Monitor Breakfast in Washington, Schumer praised House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) on the tone of his recent remarks about working with the president on debt reduction...

Some officials are calling for the U.S. military to take over the managerial structure of the Long Island Power Authority until power is restored on Long Island, where more than a quarter million homes and businesses are still in the dark after Sandy and a snowstorm. Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano and U.S. Rep. Peter King will ask the federal government for help, a spokesman for King tells NBC 4 New York. ... LIPA was warned as long ago as 2006 that it was not prepared to handle a major storm, that it badly needed to replace outdated technology and...

Staten Island resident William Boden interviewed by phone. Staten Island has been abandoned. No electricity, no gas, no heat. People without shelter, clothing, food, water. Staten Island is gone and will never come back. Obama and Bloomberg lied to us. Red Cross absent. Promised FEMA aid absent. No aid of any kind. People lost all personal possessions in flooded, wrecked houses.

For those in the New York area suffering not only from the devastating storms but also from gas lines that have lasted longer than a work shift, some relief is on the way Friday. Leaders announced gas rationing in parts of New York and New Jersey in an effort to address the gas shortage brought on by the one-two punch of Superstorm Sandy and this week's nor'easter. "Drivers are still facing long lines, frustrations are only growing and it now appears that there will be shortages for possibly another couple of weeks," New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg told reporters Thursday...

PLATTSBURGH — CVPH Medical Center has handed pink slips to 17 employees. The layoffs — nine in management and eight hourly staffers — are part of an effort to “help bolster the hospital’s financial position in 2013 and beyond,” the hospital said in a statement. “We received direction from our Board of Directors to move forward in an in-depth and thoughtful fashion” to determine which positions would be cut, CVPH President Stephens Mundy said in an interview. “We made sure that we looked throughout the organization in making our decision.” The management cuts included a top-level administrator, though Mundy would...

From the mayor who made owning an 18oz+ container of coke a summary offense, comes this: Effective 6 am 11/9: drivers in NYC whose license plates end in an even number or zero will be able to buy gas only on even-numbered days— Mike Bloomberg (@MikeBloomberg) November 8, 2012 Drivers in NYC whose license plates end with a letter will be classified as “odd” and may only buy gas on odd-numbered days— Mike Bloomberg (@MikeBloomberg) November 8, 2012  In case anyone gets any ideas, the NYPD will be there to enforce counting skills: NYPD officers will be deployed at...

Just as utility companies in the Northeast fixed power lines and some residents regained heat and electricity, another powerful storm rocked the New York area on Wednesday, sparking fears that the region could again plunge into darkness and freezing temperatures. Yahoo! News invited residents to share their short anecdotes and photos from the nor'easter. Here are some excerpts.

Damage in New York state from Superstorm Sandy could total $33 billion when all is said and done, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Thursday as the state began cleaning up from a nor'easter that dumped snow, brought down power lines and left hundreds of thousands of new customers in darkness. A damage forecasting firm had previously estimated that Sandy might have caused $30 billion to $50 billion in economic losses from the Carolinas to Maine, including property damage, lost business and extra living expenses. Cuomo's estimate will likely push the bill even higher. A damage estimate of even $50 billion total...

Volunteers and disaster victims have taken rescue, recovery and security into their own hands on New York's storm-ravaged borough of Staten Island, where they say FEMA has forgotten them. Already without power for more than a week in the wake of superstorm Sandy, hard-hit residents of the borough's South Shore braved a nor'easter Wednesday night, many -- perhaps hundreds -- huddling in condemned homes and ignoring orders to evacuate out of fear looters would take what little Mother Nature has left them. "FEMA packed up everything yesterday and left the area," said MaryLou Wong, whose home in the Midland Beach...

Nassau and Suffolk counties announced Thursday that they are imposing "odd-even" gasoline rationing to ease congestion and frustration at filling stations. The counties will join with New York City to impose the new system beginning at 5 a.m. Friday, in the wake of a shortage that began after superstorm Sandy hit the region. Under the system, drivers with license plates ending in an even number will be able to purchase fuel only on even-numbered days and drivers with license plate numbers that end in an odd number will be able to purchase fuel only on odd-numbered days. License plates such...

A winter storm battered the Northeast coast Thursday after cutting power to at least 115,000 homes and dumping record snowfalls in the New York City area. The National Weather Service warned of wind gusts as high as 60 mph along the coast, “minor to moderate” flooding from storm surges, and more snow, particularly in New England, early Thursday. More than 600,000 people were without electricity as a result of superstorm Sandy and the new storm. NBCNewYork.com reported that more than 198,000 Long Island Power Authority customers, 55,000 Con Edison customers in New York City and Westchester County, 197,560 Jersey Central...

Can’t make this stuff up. People in the New York and New Jersey area devastated by Hurricane Sandy are without homes, or have homes but no electricity while sleet and snow is pounding the area. FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) disaster “recovery” centers are closed in some areas of New York City and New Jersey. New Jersey FEMA says they will reopen tomorrow (Thursday). Staten Island says buses serving as warming centers have disappeared.

Two upstate appellate judges and a Long Island justice who sits on the appellate court in Manhattan were defeated on Nov. 6 in their reelection bids for Supreme Court, according to unofficial returns. Justices Bernard Malone Jr.  and E. Michael Kavanagh, both Republicans who sit in the Appellate Division, Third Department in Albany, were beaten by Democrats Richard Mott and Stephan Schick. And Justice James Catterson of Suffolk County came in eighth among 12 candidates vying for six seats in the Tenth Judicial District. Catterson sits on the First Department bench.... Throughout the state, judicial election voting appeared to be heavily influenced...

A nor'easter blustered into New York and Jersey on Wednesday, threatening to swamp homes all over again, plunge neighborhoods back into darkness and inflict more misery on tens of thousands of people still reeling from Superstorm Sandy. Under ordinary circumstances, a storm of this sort wouldn't be a big deal, but large swaths of the landscape were still an open wound, with many of Sandy's victims still mucking out their homes and cars. Thousands of people in low-lying neighborhoods staggered by the superstorm just over a week ago were warned to clear out, with authorities saying rain, wet snow and...

A FEMA disaster recovery center in a Hurricane Sandy-ravaged corner of Staten Island that was supposed to provide shelter, food and assistance to hurricane victims Wednesday morning went MIA, posting a sign saying that they were closed due to the approaching nor’easter. A printed paper sign taped to the front door of on the center at 6581 Hylan Blvd. at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday read “FEMA Center Closed Due to Weather.” The front doors of the disaster recovery center, which is housed inside the Mount Lorretto Catholic Youth Organization, were unlocked, but there was no staff anywhere in sight for at...

Rep. Kathy Hochul (N.Y.), a Democrat swept into office last year largely because of her support for Medicare, was defeated in her push for a full term on Tuesday. Chris Collins, a former Erie County executive, was leading Hochul 51 percent to 49 percent, CNN reported, with 97 percent of precincts reporting.

(AP) - Government leaders are turning their attention to the next crisis unfolding in the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy: finding housing for potentially tens of thousands of people left homeless. The Federal Emergency Management Agency said it has already dispensed close to $200 million in emergency housing assistance and has put 34,000 people in the New York and New Jersey metropolitan area up in hotels and motels. But local, state and federal officials have yet to lay out a specific, comprehensive plan for finding them long-term places to live, even as cold weather sets in. And given the scarcity and...

When New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg refused Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz's urgent plea to bring in the National Guard to help relief efforts and prevent looting following Hurricane Sandy, the mayor told reporters: "We don't need it. The NYPD is the only people we want on the street with guns." Bloomberg's reaction was irrational, given that thousands of National Guard troops had already rescued more than 3,000 people and 200 pets from floodwaters in neighboring New Jersey. But his was an all too typical knee-jerk reaction. The same anti-gun mentality was on display at the 4th Circuit Court of...