Former Ice Queen Pleads Guilty To Distributing Ice

Former US Figure Skating Champion Nicole Bobek has been quite busy since she left the competitive ice. For one thing, she got busy in drug distribution. The ice queen entered a guilty plea this week on distribution of crystal methamphetamine and could see up to five years in prison.

Former United States figure skating champion Nicole Bobek has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute crystal methamphetamine for her role in a major Hudson County drug ring, officials said today.

When sentenced Aug. 5, the onetime ice queen faces anywhere from probation to five years in prison.

Under the original charge, she could have faced up to 10 years in prison.

Prosecutors are expected to recommend to state Superior Court Judge Kevin Callahan, sitting in Jersey City, that Bobek spend 364 days in the Hudson County jail in Kearny.

"I think it's appropriate based on all the evidence we had in this case in terms of her part in it," Hudson County Assistant Prosecutor Lisa Ledoux said of the plea taken Wednesday by Bobek, who has a boutique in Juniper, Florida, where she lives.

Over numerous phone calls with the main figure in the probe -- 40-year-old Edward Cruz Jr. of Bellville -- Bobek arranged to distribute crystal meth to him and actually did sell him an eighth of an ounce of the destructive drug, Ledoux said.

New York Raises Tobacco Taxes In Bid To Close Multibillion Dollar Deficit

Gov. David Paterson has reached an apparent agreement with legislative leaders to include a $1.60 per pack of cigarette tax hike in the next emergency budget extender.

The move is hoped to bring another $440 million in revenues for a state that has a $9 billion deficit.

The proposal, which officials said Mr. Paterson would include in an emergency budget bill due for a vote on Monday, would also raise wholesale taxes on other tobacco products like chewing tobacco, bringing the tax on those products closer in line with those of cigarettes.

In New York City, which levies steep taxes of its own on tobacco products, a pack of cigarettes would come with a tax of $5.85, making it the nation’s first city to break $5, antismoking advocates said. That would bring the overall cost of a pack of premium cigarettes above $10 in many stores in the city.

The legislation will also include a plan to begin collecting taxes on cigarettes sold off the reservation by Indian tribes in New York, an issue that has provoked confrontations between State Police officers and protesting tribe members in years past.

The proposal would generate $440 million in revenue this year, helping close a state budget gap estimated at over $9 billion. But it is unclear whether there are enough votes to approve the plan in the State Senate, where Republicans have threatened to vote against any emergency budget bill that includes tax increases and some Democrats oppose efforts to collect taxes on cigarettes sold by the tribes.

Should the measure fail, the government would face an unprecedented shutdown. Should it pass, lawmakers must still meet to find ways to close the entire budget gap.

“Our anticipation is that the budget extender will pass, that people will not want to shut down government,” said Robert L. Megna, the state budget director, who briefed reporters on the plan at the Capitol on Friday evening.

Like so much of the state budget, it's based on hopes and wishful thinking that the revenues will appear and that the state will be able to count on revenues from cigarettes sold on Indian reservations - a situation that has resulted in violent conflicts with the Native American tribes in upstate New York.

Tax hikes will not solve the state's dire fiscal problems - only a concerted effort to reduce spending significantly can achieve that. The Governor has at least declared that he would not approve of debt refinancing in order to balance the budget, but unless spending is brought under control, some form of debt financing will be necessary because the state simply cannot count on federal funds to close the deficit.

Moreover, the increases in taxes may result in declining revenues as smokers and tobacco products users go outside New York to buy their cigarettes and tobacco products so as to avoid paying the higher taxes. That could result in significantly lower revenues and exacerbate the revenue problems.

In fact, New Yorkers could go into Pennsylvania where the cigarette tax is $1.60 per pack - or less than half the current rate in New York. Or, they could go into New Jersey where the rate is $2.70 or Vermont where the rate is $2.24. This move may drive some smokers to drive out of state to get their smokes, and it may drive some smokers to give up the habit entirely (which is a good thing for the individual's health - but real bad for the state's budget that counts on that revenue).



The budget is a mess, and with the proposed tax hikes and one-shots and other gimmicks, the state can close about half of the $9 billion deficit. That means that the state still has to figure out how to cut spending on $4.5 billion but don't hold your breath on that one.

Israel Releases New Flotilla Video Footage Showing "Peace Activists" Inciting To Violence

Here's some of the video that Israel has released showing just what the "peace activists" of the IHH behind the May 31 flotilla incident were saying to their fellow travelers before Israel intercepted the ships as they tried to run Israel's blockade of Gaza.



Also seen in these newly released videos:

Another speaker told those present in Arabic, "Don't be like the ones who turned back and don't turn back." Sheikh Raed Salah, head of the Islamic Movement's northern branch can be seen sitting among the crowd.

Salah is a piece of work and has ties to Hamas.

The "peace activists" also chanted we will throw them into the sea. For those who haven't followed Middle East history since 1947- that's the same line that the Arabs have chanted every time they call for Israel's destruction. Throw the Jews into the sea. Eliminate Israel.

That's what this is about. It isn't about humanitarian aid - it's about undermining Israel's right to exist.

Also, the person leading the chant "Martyrs marching into Gaza by the millions" was apparently an Egyptian parliamentarian. That's someone who is a part of the Egyptian government that signed a peace deal with Israel in 1979 and which specifically refused to take Gaza in the peace treaty along with Sinai.
Yeah, what a lovely bunch.

In other words, these were anything but peace activists in the true sense of the word peace, but were instigators and using the rhetoric of violence and incitement to again call for Israel's destruction.

That you have media outlets continuing to claim that these were peace activists is a clear distortion of reality as they were nothing of the sort.

Lakers Win NBA Championship and Riots Ensue

I never got the reason behind rioting after your team wins a championship. It's insane, and while the Los Angeles police claimed that they were prepared to deal with any rioting, it still broke out and damage was done.

Crowds hurled bottles and other objects at police, smashed marquees, jumped on vehicles, broke windows, and set rubbish dumpsters and vehicles on fire along Figueroa Street north of Staples Center and on Flower Street.

Police fired non-lethal rounds to disperse the crowd at Figueroa and Venice Boulevard after several small fires were set, as well as at 11th and Hope streets. At 7th and Flower, a car believed to be a taxicab was engulfed in flames.

At least one person was beaten unconscious as fights broke out on Flower Street near Olympic Boulevard. A bicyclist was injured when struck by a Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department vehicle near 11th and Flower streets, according to the LAPD.

In all, there were multiple injuries but no loss of life, officials said. One police officer suffered a broken nose. As night wore on, fire crews responded to many rubbish fires and some vehicle fires, according to the Los Angeles Fire Department.

The LAPD declared an unlawful assembly moments after the game ended.

BP Admits It Never Follows Federal Law On Blowout Preventers

BP has admitted that it doesn't follow federal law on certifying blowout preventers with the Minerals Management Service. Ever.

On the issue of the blowout preventer's capabilities, [Sen. Chuck] Grassley [R-Iowa] asked BP to show that it is in compliance with the Code of Federal Regulations Chapter 30, Section 250.416(e), which requires oil companies to provide the Minerals Management Service with proof that the massive safety devices they use to close off wells are "capable of shearing the drill pipe in the hole under maximum anticipated surface pressures."

The company responded that it applies for permits to drill oil wells "in accordance with the process prescribed by MMS officials," but goes on to say that it was not "MMS practice" to require anyone to comply with that particular section of the law.

"I find it very disturbing that BP asserts that the 'practice' in oil drilling is to avoid current laws designed to keep our beaches safe," Grassley responded in his letter. "And I am outraged that MMS is looking the other way."

Now, BP is trying to shift the blame for that on to the MMS, but the fault rests with BP. They are mandated to certify those preventers and have repeatedly failed to do so. Claiming that the MMS doesn't have a procedure for certification doesn't cut it.

It is the failure of the blowout preventer that has contributed heavily to this oil spill disaster. Had the blowout preventer worked as it should have, the oil flow would have likely been stopped - leaving the spill to be much smaller than the ongoing impact.

Also, if BP is shirking its certification requirements, are the other oil companies operating offshore doing the same? If not, why are they not doing so - what's the difference between the management styles and safety standards involved. These are questions that go to liability and culpability for the management that allowed drilling to occur under less than optimal conditions and with a disregard for safety and standard procedures in the oil industry.

There's also differing accounts on whether an oil services company, Schlumberger, withdrew their workers from the Deepwater Horizon rig because of unsafe conditions, or whether BP requested they leave after deciding not to do certain work on the casing that would have added $8-12 million to the well operations, but improved safety. One report claims BP sent them home:

The lawmakers also said BP also decided against a nine- to 12-hour procedure known as a "cement bond log" that would have tested the integrity of the cement. A team from Schlumberger, an oil services firm, was on board the rig, but BP sent the team home on a regularly scheduled helicopter flight the morning of April 20. Less than 12 hours later, the rig exploded.

BP also failed to fully circulate drilling mud, a 12-hour procedure that could have helped detect gas pockets that later shot up the well and exploded on the drilling rig.

However, other reports seems to indicate that Schlumberger (SLB) quit the rig and evacuated its employees because they considered the rig unsafe because the rig was not meeting its stringent safety standards.

SLB gets out to the Deepwater Horizon to run the CBL, and they find the well still kicking heavily, which it should not be that late in the operation. SLB orders the “company man” (BP’s man on the scene that runs the operation) to dump kill fluid down the well and shut-in the well. The company man refuses. SLB in the very next sentence asks for a helo to take all SLB personel back to shore. The company man says there are no more helo’s scheduled for the rest of the week (translation: you’re here to do a job, now do it). SLB gets on the horn to shore, calls SLB’s corporate HQ, and gets a helo flown out there at SLB’s expense and takes all SLB personel to shore.

The Congressional report seems to back the former account (that BP was done with SLB's services), and not the one that has SLB quitting the rig because of safety concerns.

Staten Island Pastor Withdraws Support of Convent Sale To MAS

This may very well put an end to the possible sale of a convent on Staten Island to the Muslim American Society, which has ties to various terrorist groups, including Hamas.

The embattled pastor of the Midland Beach church considering the sale of a former convent to the Muslim American Society has withdrawn his support, and asked Archbishop Timothy Dolan to stop the sale from going forward.

In a letter to Archbishop Dolan, St. Margaret Mary R.C. Church Pastor Rev. Keith Fennessy wrote "I have concluded that the contemplated sale would not serve the needs of the parish. As a result, as Pastor of St. Margaret Mary Parish, I wish to formally withdraw my support for the sale, and request that it not take place."

If the Church isn't going to sell the property, then this sorry chapter ends for the moment. The local community has been up in arms over the potential deal ever since it came to light. In particular, it was the shady background of the Muslim American Society that caught my attention unlike the proposed mosque near Ground Zero (Cordoba House).

Asnine Speech Analysis of the Day

CNN tries to figure out the disconnect between President Obama's most recent speech on the BP oil spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico and the public's reaction.

Their conclusion?

It's our fault that we didn't comprehend the speech.

President Obama's speech on the gulf oil disaster may have gone over the heads of many in his audience, according to an analysis of the 18-minute talk released Wednesday.

Tuesday night's speech from the Oval Office of the White House was written to a 9.8 grade level, said Paul J.J. Payack, president of Global Language Monitor. The Austin, Texas-based company analyzes and catalogues trends in word usage and word choice and their impact on culture.

Though the president used slightly less than four sentences per paragraph, his 19.8 words per sentence "added some difficulty for his target audience," Payack said.

He singled out this sentence from Obama as unfortunate: "That is why just after the rig sank, I assembled a team of our nation's best scientists and engineers to tackle this challenge -- a team led by Dr. Steven Chu, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist and our nation's secretary of energy."

Really?

That's why Chris Matthews, Keith Olbermann and a whole litany of media types panned the speech?



Matthews did post-graduate work in Economics. Olbermann graduated from Cornell. So the speech was over their heads?

Those are some of the Administration's biggest media supporters, and they panned the speech because it contained nothing really new and nothing we hadn't already heard in the last 57 days. I'm not a fan of either Olbermann or Matthews, but this speech was panned across the board by people of all kinds of educational backgrounds - including those who attended Ivy League universities.

Maybe it wasn't so much how he said it but what he said - or didn't say?

You know - maybe it was the content of the speech that upset so many people.

This isn't about the audience's inability to understand the President. It is that the President's speech was lacking on the specifics and general policies that will help get the oil spill under control and make sure that BP does everything within its power to stop the flow of oil into the Gulf.

The speech was ineffective because the President wasn't offering anything that we haven't already heard from the Administration through its multiple sources.

Nutter Rant of the Day

This conspiracy nonsense ranks up there with the inane rantings that President Bush conspired to kill the black folks on the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina or that he blew up the levees around New Orleans.

A GOP candidate for Congress in North Carolina claims that BP and the Obama Administration conspired to intentionally destroy the oil well and create the massive oil spill that now threatens much of the Gulf Coast. The idiot's name is William "Bill" Randall.

Randall, who has aligned himself with the Tea Party movement, readily admits that he has no evidence that what he says is true. But that is not stopping him from making the claim as he campaigns for in the June 22 GOP runoff to face incumbent Democratic Rep. Brad Miller on the November ballot.

"Now, I'm not necessarily a conspiracy person, but I don't think enough investigation has been done on this," Randall said at a media conference on Tuesday. "Someone needs to be digging into that situation. Personally, and this is purely speculative on my part and not based on any fact, but personally I feel there is a possibility that there was some sort of collusion. I don't know how or why, but in that situation, if you have someone from a company proposing to violate the safety process and the government signing off on it, excuse me, maybe they wanted it to leak.

"But then it got beyond what was anticipated, and we had an explosion and loss of life. And, oh man, now we have panic. Is there a cover up going on? I'm not saying there necessarily is. But I think there's enough facts on the table for people that (they) really need to do some investigative research and find out what went on with that and get a subpoena of records and everything else."

Here's the video:



Maybe they wanted it to leak? Are you frakking kidding me? They as in the Obama Administration and BP? Really? Drink the kool aid.

ARC Tunnel Insufficient; Amtrak Looking At Its Own New Hudson River Tunnel

New Jersey Transit is currently in the process of building a $7 billion new 2-track tunnel under the Hudson River connecting to a new terminal in the vicinity of Herald Square. That would have doubled the rail capacity under the Hudson River but really only increased the capacity for NJ Transit while Amtrak service would have seen only an incremental increase.

As that plan was originally conceived, the ARC tunnel would have doubled the capacity and linked into Penn Station. That was then. Now? We've got a separate plan and the cash-strapped Amtrak is looking for its own tunnel expansion project.

Amtrak is studying the need for another underground railway to complement an existing, century-old Hudson River crossing and an $8.7 billion tunnel that NJ Transit plans to build by 2017.

The national rail agency’s master plan for the Northeast Corridor — the span of track between Washington D.C. and Boston, Ma., notes that riders on the Northeast Corridor are expected to double by 2030 and “new tunnels” could handle the expanded capacity.

The plan says NJ Transit’s tunnel is expected to provide only “some” relief to a system critics say needs much more to handle connections from North Jersey and elsewhere.

Now, more than 1,000 trains each weekday land at New York’s Penn Station from NJ Transit, Amtrak and the Long Island Railroad.

“We have a planning effort underway to determine needs for the Northeast Corridor in the long-term, including expanding capacity for inter-city and commuter operations, with the potential for a new tunnel,” said Cliff Cole, an Amtrak spokesman.

That effort also includes evaluating the need for a new tunnel under the East River and a direct rail link to Kennedy International Airport.

This is crazy - the ARC project would have been more than sufficient to meet the needs of both NJ Transit and Amtrak for the foreseeable future had it gone into Penn Station, but the NJ Transit plan now calls for the separate track routing.

Moreover, it would have been a much more efficient use of money, and any additional costs of routing the NJ Transit trains into Penn Station would have been offset by the reduced costs of having to carve out a brand new terminal space in Herald Square and all the related links to existing mass transit.

Amtrak has no money and there is no money available to expand the project to include a direct link to Kennedy Airport (which has been a pipe dream for decades and comes closest in the form of the AirTrain). There's no reason for Amtrak to even be discussing East River crossings, when that would probably be service better reserved for the LIRR, which services Long Island and which terminates either at Penn Station or at Atlantic Yards in Brooklyn.

This is all about the most effective use of money - and Amtrak's proposal is a colossal waste of funds at a time when it could put it to better use - upgrading its power infrastructure so that trains are not constantly affected by outages and downed power lines. It could alternatively upgrade the tracks and create an additional right of way for high speed train service - an exclusive high speed track that can handle far higher speeds than currently possible. Given that any new tunnel into Penn Station would rival the $8.7 billion for the ARC tunnel project, that $8.7 billion could completely renovate the Northeast Corridor's power systems and carry out track upgrades that are long overdue.

Photo and Caption of the Day

The Los Angeles Times has a story up about President Obama's speech last night, and includes the following photo and caption that are top notch.

The caption reads: "Gov. Charlie Christ checks a Florida beach for signs of oil".

Really? That's what he's checking for right there? He's apparently checking for oil on the backside of the ladies as they saunter into the ocean in barely there bikinis.

For that, we've got the caption and photo of the day.

BP Sets Aside $20 Billion For Spill Compensation

British Petroleum is putting aside $20 billion for spill compensation. This is a down payment on the damage, and will in no way be sufficient to compensate all those damaged by the oil spill. A 3d party administrator will probably be along the lines of the victim compensation fund set up in the aftermath of 9/11 to handle claims by victims of the attacks and run by Kenneth Feinberg.

I'm not surprised that Feinberg's name is showing up here.

Not only did he handle the victim compensation fund for the 9/11 attack, but he was again called on to administer the sick workers fund (once that gets approved by the members of the class). He also got called on to handle executive compensation following the Wall Street meltdown and ensuing hot air from Congress over executive pay.

He's real good at what he does and is generally seen as reasonable and fair in determining awards.

But to put the $20 billion in perspective, $20 billion is the amount that was thrown around in the days after 9/11 to pay for the rebuilding efforts. That severely underestimated the costs there too.

In fact, the costs for Louisiana alone may top $100 billion although it is unlikely that they will ever recoup those losses. Florida, Alabama and Mississippi would similarly see serious losses - and if the spill reaches out into the Atlantic, other states could see massive losses.

And that doesn't touch on the international liabilities if the oil damages coastlines of other countries along the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean.

The Oil Spill Disaster Claims Another Victim?

Is President Obama the latest victim of the oil spill? After his speech last night, it appears that he's still not getting it.

We know that BP is going to be forced to compensate all those injured by the spill and that they're going to be held responsible for the cleanup and associated costs. We've known that since day 1 (when the question of who was involved and responsible was addressed - and that litigation between all potential parties would spell out liabilities after the spill was contained and cleaned up). We know that there are going to be lawsuits - there inevitably are when you have these situations.

What exactly did we learn that was new last night?

Not much.

The President didn't cause the blowout and leak. That's all on BP - as is the clean up costs and compensation to those who have been injured by the spill. Admonishing BP again isn't helpful as we already know he's annoyed with the company; we all are.

Where the President is failing is making sure that everything that can be done to expedite the cleanup and to minimize further damage is actually being done. He was short on specifics and media outlets around the nation seized on this in their overnight editorials.

Estimates for the size of the spill and the amount still gushing from the damaged well continues to increase.

When you hear that X,Y, and Z are available to provide mitigation, but aren't known or familiar to those in charge, or that equipment overseas can be used but for existing fed laws, or that there's manpower needs to clean beaches, yet the beaches remain damaged, that looks real bad for the President and the staff responsible for dealing with this environmental disaster.

The President had to give a speech to update everyone on what he's doing, but what he said is that even weeks after the spill, the government still isn't getting the job done (because of the aforementioned lack of bringing those resources to bear).

That's where and why the President is getting failing marks.

Individual governors (MS, LA, AL, FL) have repeatedly communicated their needs for assistance. In particular, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal has demanded construction of temporary barriers to prevent the influx of oil into sensitive wetlands, but has been repeatedly delayed by the red tape at the federal level.

The president should be demanding Congress pass waivers to enable those measures be taken. Expedite cleanup and mitigation - that's what the Gulf Coast wants and needs.

The nation doesn't want to hear how wind turbines will somehow prevent future occurrences down the road when the current mess is still ongoing. They certainly didn't want to hear about cap and trade - and President Obama wisely didn't explicitly bring that up last night for fear that Democrat reelection chances would be squashed in November.

The nation wants to know how the government will assist in the cleanup efforts and prevent the oil from damaging beaches up and down the Gulf Coast more than they already have.

Where is the how in last night's speech?

PSE&G Moving Ahead With Plan To Build New Nuclear Plant In Salem Cty, NJ

PSE&G is moving ahead with its plan to build New Jersey's fifth nuclear power plant in Salem County alongside one of the other nuclear power plants. It requires Nuclear Regulatory Commission approval, but it also requires approvals from other agencies, including the Army Corps of Engineers.

The Corps owns the site in question, and the utility needs to get approval to purchase the site that is currently used as a dredge disposal site.

To build the plant, it must secure 84 acres of wetlands from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The agency currently uses the land as a dredge-disposal site, the company's report states.

The company applied in May for an early site permit, which is designed to resolve safety and environmental questions about the proposed location. The company has not chosen a reactor design and has not decided whether it actually will invest in a new nuclear plant.

The NRC's application review is expected to take three years.

The NRC hosted a public meeting last month over the proposal even before PSEG filed its formal application. Testimony was divided between environmentalists who opposed expanding nuclear power in New Jersey and local residents and politicians who supported the jobs and tax revenue a new plant would generate.

"We wanted to get the issue out there," PSEG spokesman Joe Delmar said. "One of the reasons we picked the location we did was it was next to existing plants. Any new plant would have similar impacts as existing plants. From an emergency planning standpoint, the plants operate under the same guidelines."

According to the 136-page environmental report, PSEG also plans to build new 500-kilovolt transmission lines and a new causeway to the island, filling in 45 acres of wetlands and temporarily affecting 24 acres more.

The company rated the expected effects on the environment based on three categories: small, moderate and large.

The only large effect was deemed to the local tax base, since the plant presumably would contribute more in local tax revenue. The power plant pays for all municipal services in Lower Alloways Creek Township, which as a result does not have a local-purpose property-tax levy.

So, if the utility jumps through all the regulatory hoops, it would be at least three years before a shovel can get in the ground to start construction, and it would be years before the new reactor goes online.

The PSE&G application before the NRC can be found here.

Home Construction Starts Drop, Continuing Weakness In Real Estate Market

This isn't the kind of news you want to hear if you're in the real estate business or construction industry.

The Commerce Department said Wednesday that construction of new homes and apartments fell 10 percent from a month earlier to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 593,000. April's figure was revised downward to 659,000.

The results were driven by a 17 percent decline in the single-family market, which had benefited earlier in the year from federal tax credits of up to $8,000. It was the largest monthly drop in single-family construction since January 1991.

Applications for new building permits, a sign of future activity, also fell. They sank 5.9 percent to an annual rate of 574,000, the lowest level in a year.

The report missed Wall Street expectations by a wide margin. Economists surveyed by Thomson Reuters had predicted that housing construction would only fall to seasonally adjusted annual rate of 650,000 and had forecast that building permit applications would increase to an annual rate of 630,000.

The homeowner credits that expired earlier this year goosed sales temporarily but now that they're done, the market is reverting to the problematic levels before the credit was in place. In fact, it shows that the credit failed to do its job in luring new buyers into the market despite moderating home prices in some areas and the up to $8,000 credit on first time homeowner purchases.

The real issue is that the prices still need to come down further in many market areas, and that's despite many homeowners being underwater. There is a glut in some markets of existing homes, which drives down demand of new homes. That is why the demand for new permits has dropped off and it wont recover until people start to feel more comfortable with their personal economic situations and they feel that the local economy is improving.

The Obligatory Al Gore Adultery Posting

Last week, it was announced that Al and Tipper Gore were divorcing after being together for more than 30 years. At the time, they were sending out statements that the divorce was amicable, but now we hear that Al was apparently cheating on Tipper, with none other than Larry David's ex-wife.

Consider this a show about nothing.

Was this affair while he was in office, or after he left?

If it was after he left office, huge yawn. People cheat on their spouses all the time.

If it was in office, did it interfere with his official duties? If it didn't, then a big yawn. Politicians cheat on spouses all the time.

If it did interfere with his official duties, then I guess we'd have to know what was going on and all that.

As it turns out, Star Magazine claims it was well after he left office, which means that I just can't get worked up about this.Laurie David angrily denies the claims.

In any event, it isn't like I was using him as my role model. Besides, I'm far more green than he is.

The Rebuilding of Ground Zero, Part 103

Is NYU going to come to the rescue to help get the site of the former Deutsche Bank building developed? It seems that the university may do just that. The NYU master plan is looking to develop a skyscraper for housing, and the former Deutsche Bank building site would fit their needs perfectly. It would be far less controversial than the university's planned expansion in Greenwich Village around its existing campus and is far more likely to bring life and vitality to the Financial District and Lower Manhattan as a 24-7 destination than other options.

The demolition of the Deutsche Bank building is scheduled to be completed by the end of the year (better late than never).

Meanwhile, after a FoxNews story claimed that one of the developers seeking to operate 1WTC (Freedom Tower, the Related Companies, has ties to various Middle East groups, Steve Cuozzo (of the Post) writes about his conversation with Related Cos. boss Stephen Ross:

"I'm furious. They're trying to get the victims' families rather than the Port Authority to make the decision," fumed normally even-tempered Ross, who wouldn't say whom he meant by "they're."

"The partners they're talking about don't have an equity interest in our company," Ross said. "We have only two equity partners -- Goldman Sachs and Michael Dell's MSD Capital."

Related's Mideast partners, he said, "are just debtholders. They have a subordinated debt position with no rights.

"They have no seats on our board. There are no covenants that give them a say in anything."

The uproar erupted when Fox News Channel's Peter Johnson Jr. said on-air yesterday morning that Related is "substantially bankrolled by the most powerful Arab corporate interests in the world," and questioned whether it would be an appropriate partner at the site where nearly 3,000 were killed by terrorists on 9/11.

"For anyone who suffered loss, the news may be dizzying," Johnson said.

In fact, Related announced its debt agreements with Mideast funds Mubadala Development, Olayan Group and Kuwait Investment Authority in 2007, when the story was widely reported.

But Ross yesterday seethed over what he clearly regarded as an attempt to manipulate the PA into rejecting Related's bid at Ground Zero.

The PA wouldn't have been in this position at all if they simply got out of the way and let Larry Silverstein build the towers years ago, but chose instead to drag their feet, watched as the credit and real estate markets collapsed, and resulted in it becoming even more difficult in getting the site built out as per the master plan.

But since we're in this position, Related is definitely right to get pissed about this attempt to sway public opinion against the company in the right to operate 1WTC on little more than innuendo and a lack of facts.

Two People Detained Trying To Access MacDill AFB With Weapons Stash

Who are they and why were they trying to get on MacDill Air Force Base, which is also home to US Central Command?

A man and a woman are in custody after officials say they tried to enter the base's Bayshore Boulevard gate about 5 p.m. Monday in a sport utility vehicle carrying weapons and military gear, MacDill officials said.

Base officials haven't heard that it was a planned attack and authorities did not find any explosives.

A News Channel 8 reporter on scene at the base Monday night saw at least 13 loaded rifle magazines and two pistol magazines in a bag.

Authorities also found military clothing and other military-style equipment in the grayish blue Honda CRV driven by the suspects.

The suspects, who haven't been identified, didn't have proper identification cards to get on the base as a civilian or as a member of the military, officials said. Authorities haven't said if they tried to use fake IDs.

The pair remains in custody at MacDill as the investigation continued.

The video says two men, but it appears that it was incorrect - other reports indicate that a man and woman are in custody.

It will be interesting to see how this story develops.

UPDATE:
One of the men was AWOL from an unnamed branch of the US military and was attempting to get on base?

A man who tried to enter MacDill Air Force Base with a cache of military gear and weapons Monday evening is an active duty member of the military listed absent without leave, a base official said Tuesday.

The official, speaking at a news conference, did not identify the man and woman who he said tried entering the base at the Bayshore Boulevard gate in a sport utility vehicle with three rifles, three handguns and ammunition.

Their motive for accessing the base remains under investigation, said Col. Dave Cohen, 6th Air Mobility Wing vice commander.

"At this point there is no indication that it is a terrorist act," Cohen said.

Smearing With Oil

Even as the Deepwater Horizon oil slick continues washing ashore all along the Gulf Coast and there's no end in sight to the oil gushing from the damaged riser, politicians are doing what they do best - smearing each other and engaging in all manner of hyperbole.

Here's what we know.

The oil rig disaster and oil slick are not equivalent to 9/11.

It's not even close President Obama.

It's a different kind of disaster, but when you start tallying the toll - in the billions of dollars and the environmental damage to the Gulf Coast, it still isn't even close. Not when you compare it to the terrorist attack that killed nearly 3,000 people, caused tens of billions of dollars in damage, resulted in a massive government reorganization of national security and created new bureaucracies and sent the US into a war in Afghanistan along with setting the stage for the war in Iraq, there really is no comparison.

It was a bad analogy, and it shows that he is out of touch. Heck, even comparing the oil spill to Hurricane Katrina or Rita would be a poor one because of the loss of life involved.

This disaster also isn't the President's "Iran hostage crisis".

This is a disaster in its own right, and the blame falls squarely on BP and the operators of the rig. They cut corners and there were all kinds of problems before the explosion tore the rig apart and the resulting firefighting efforts resulted in the rig sinking and tearing apart the lines to the surface allowing massive amounts of oil to spill.

The President, in addition to making multiple visits to the region where he can look serious and ponder the situation thoughtfully in photo opportunities before jetting back to the comfort of the White House, must make it absolutely clear that he will make sure that the oil companies not only prepare for oil spill disasters, but that oversight will be improved.

Moreover, the President could improve matters by pushing for a temporary (or permanent) cessation of the Jones Act so that foreign flagged ships could be used to help clean up the spill. There are ships specially designed to deal with spills in Europe that can't be brought in to assist here because of that Act; a temporary freeze would help with the spill control and recovery.

Cleanup efforts continue to be haphazard and not taking into account the resources that are available around the country that could be brought to bear. That's a problem that the Administration must respond to.

President Obama also has to address how the 6-month moratorium on oil drilling wont affect the livelihood of tens of thousands of oil workers along the Gulf Coast who rely on the oil rigs for their living (and which produces significant revenues for those states as well).

The President is scheduled to make a public speech on television tonight where he'll outline the ongoing plans to deal with the oil spill.

The spill is now washing ashore in four states along the Gulf Coast - Louisiana, Alabama, Florida, and Mississippi.

Demanding new federal legislation to require an oil spill compensation fund that can be used for spill control and mitigation would be a good idea - and that a portion of the spill fund requirements go to research and development of new anti-spill technologies, better blow out preventer systems, and improved stockpiling of equipment. Clearly the lessons learned by the Exxon Valdez disaster didn't go far enough - and the liability caps need to be increased to reflect inflation since it was enacted.

Shutdown Avoided For Now

The state legislature punted the state's fiscal situation down the road for another week.

They passed a budget extender, avoiding the shutdown of government operations.

New York's Senate voted to avert an unprecedented shutdown of state government Monday night, ending the latest scare in a two-year-old fiscal crisis and with a state budget now more than 10 weeks overdue.

The Democrat-led Assembly was expected to pass the emergency spending bill easily.

But the Democrat-led Senate required help from the Republican minority that had been voting as a bloc against the bill.

Republican Sens. Hugh Farley of Schenectady County, Roy McDonald of Saratoga County and Charles Fuschillo Jr. of Long Island voted for the bills. Democratic Sen. Ruben Diaz of the Bronx voted against the bill.

This was the 11th time that they've gone through this charade.

The annual budget remains undone, and Comptroller DiNapoli is finally putting his foot down over the nonsensical approach that the legislature was hoping to pass muster - using a pension fund loan to cover pension fund obligations that were to come due to the tune of $6 billion. He'd come under political fire from folks like Andrew Cuomo who's looking to become governor in November.

One of the reasons that New York is in such bad shape is that they engaged in rampant use of one-off's and all manner of gimmicks. The pension self-dealing loan would have been just the latest, and it would have combined the two common awful practices - debt financing to balance the budget and one-off gimmicks.

The state has got to get the spending under control, and the extenders do nothing to fix things. It only punts them down the road and increases the debt load for the state.

A full fiscal year budget must be passed, and the sooner the better, because these delays continue costing New York taxpayers money with each passing day.

Appeals Court Affirms Gov. Christie's Education Spending Plan

Gov. Chris Christie had called on localities to spend down their surplus education funds as part of his plan to close a massive state deficit. That move prompted a lawsuit by some school districts, and the resulting appeal has found in favor of Gov. Christie.

In February, the Republican governor ordered the freeze of $475 million in school aid payments in 2010 by requiring districts to use their excess surplus instead of state aid. The cuts were made at the time to help plug a deficit in this year's budget. Christie has had to cut more than $2 billion from this year's budget to keep it balanced.

In addition to the $475 million in cuts this year, Christie slashed education money for the next budget year, which starts on July 1, by nearly $1 billion -- $820 million for K-12 schools and $175 million for higher education.

A large part of this year's cuts involved withholding money from schools that have budget surpluses. All but 17 of the state's 581 districts have surplus money.

According to an Associated Press analysis, on average, schools lost 13 percent of their total 2010 annual state aid. More than 100 districts lost all state aid for the remainder of the year, and more than 100, mostly suburban, lost 30 percent or more of their state aid.

The Perth Amboy school district, which lost $15 million in state aid, or 12 percent of the $126 million in state aid that it received in 2010, filed the lawsuit. Only one other district, Union City in Hudson County, lost more in state dollars: $29 million.

Perth Amboy superintendent John M. Rodecker said he was still reviewing the decision but was disappointed with the court's finding.

The surplus money was going to be used for the 2010-2011 school year, he said. As a result of the surplus cuts and the additional cuts in next year's budget, he said the district has cut $8 million from next year's school budget and put a freeze on all spending.

Items such as computer equipment that the district planned to purchase will be put on hold, he said, and 85 positions -- 30 of them teachers, the rest support staff -- have been cut from the district's 11 schools for the coming school year, he said.

Districts were informed to either use the surplus money or find other sources so as to close the state and local budgets for the current year, which was in serious financial trouble. Next year's budget isn't any better, but the problem isn't the lack of taxes, but a continued problem with spending.

Discussing the number of positions cut doesn't mean much without knowing a few other facts such as teacher-student ratios, the number of administrative staff, and whether you can discern whether a given district is overly laden with administrative costs that detract from the amount of money that actually goes into the classrooms for education.

In Perth Amboy's case, they not only cut teacher positions and support staff, but raised taxes on average $155 per household. That's in a budget of $184.9 million for the 2010-2011 school year.

The budget is here. With 9,602 students expected in the school system, the budget indicates that $14,768 is expected to be spent on per student. That's about $800 less than the amount spent for 2009-2010, but it's $600 more than two years and $1,000 more than three years ago. The key is on page 3 of the pdf. The percentage going to benefits keeps rising as well.

From the looks of it, the district has a lot more room to cut, and that they could have held the line on spending in the past two years. However, there has been an influx of students into the district, but that could have been absorbed without the major increases seen.

Iran Sending Ships To Run Israel's Blockade

You can bet dollars to donuts that Iran is hoping to cause yet another major international incident when its ships attempt to run Israel's lawful blockade of Gaza.

A senior Iranian official said earlier Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards were ready to provide a military escort to aid ships heading to Gaza if Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei so commands. [ID:nLDE65509B]

But the Guards' deputy head, Hossein Salami, said there were no plans to do so. "Such a thing is not on our agenda," he was quoted as saying by the official IRNA news agency on Monday.

Any such military mobilisation would risk a major confrontation with Israel, which fears Iran's nuclear enrichment programme is aimed at developing atomic bombs.

The Jewish state regards Iran's nuclear ambitions as a mortal threat. Iran says its nuclear programme is meant solely to yield electricity or isotopes for medicine and agriculture.

Iran backs Hamas as its proxy army against Israel's existence, and they are hoping to undermine Israel's lawful blockade that prevents the terror group from obtaining weapons and equipment vital to Hamas' war against Israel.

Expect the Iranian ships to put up resistance at any Israeli attempts to board the ships to force the ship to put in to Israel's ports so that the cargo and crew can be properly and thoroughly searched for contraband.

If the cargo does get put in to Israel's ports, it will get transferred to Gaza after the search, just as other shipments that have not been blocked by Hamas. Hamas had blocked some such shipments including from the offloaded cargo from the May 31 flotilla because the terror group uses these situations to claim a crisis (when it is actually creating the circumstances of the humanitarian crisis by its actual existence).

Iran and pro-Hamas groups are not about providing humanitarian aid for Gaza, but to bust the blockade to restore their shipping lanes for the ongoing jihad against Israel.

Meanwhile, the EU is demanding an end to the blockade, even as it ignores that the blockade has reduced Hamas' ability to carry out attacks against Israel. Humanitarian aid is unaffected by the blockade and such aid can get in through Israel or Egypt.

Another NJ Politiican Sentenced In Massive Corruption Probe

Last year's massive corruption probe sweep that netted more than 40 politicians, public officials, and community major domos has another conviction under its collective belt. Former deputy mayor of Jersey City, Leonia Beldini, was sentenced to three years after being found guilty on two of six charges relating to the extortion and bribing of Solomon Dwek, who was a government informant. She was also campaign treasurer for Mayor Jeremiah Healy, a fellow Democrat:

Beldini, a 75-year-old Democrat and one-time confidante of Healy, was found guilty in February on two of six counts in a scheme to extort bribes from Solomon Dwek, the FBI informant in the state’s largest federal corruption sting.

In a plea for mercy, Beldini told the judge that she survived abuse by an alcoholic mother and abandonment by her husband with a six-week-old baby by being strong and self-reliant. But now in failing health, she said, she is facing “one of the most terrifying moments of my entire life. I’m afraid that I will not survive.”

That plea fell on deaf ears, and she's getting the three years. Frankly, the three years was below the federal guidelines in such cases - 41 to 51 months. Beldini plans to appeal.

Geologists Estimate $1 Trillion In Mineral Riches Await In Afghanistan

Afghanistan's economy has never exactly been stellar. Even in good years, it struggled to make ends meet and relied heavily on the opium trade and emeralds. That's despite knowing that there were significant deposits of copper, emeralds, and other precious natural resources.

Now, a team of US geologists in conjunction with the US military have figured that Afghanistan is sitting on top of $1 trillion in mineral riches that could be a major source of income for decades to come.

An internal Pentagon memo, for example, states that Afghanistan could become the “Saudi Arabia of lithium,” a key raw material in the manufacture of batteries for laptops and BlackBerrys.

The vast scale of Afghanistan’s mineral wealth was discovered by a small team of Pentagon officials and American geologists. The Afghan government and President Hamid Karzai were recently briefed, American officials said.

While it could take many years to develop a mining industry, the potential is so great that officials and executives in the industry believe it could attract heavy investment even before mines are profitable, providing the possibility of jobs that could distract from generations of war.

“There is stunning potential here,” Gen. David H. Petraeus, commander of the United States Central Command, said in an interview on Saturday. “There are a lot of ifs, of course, but I think potentially it is hugely significant.”

The value of the newly discovered mineral deposits dwarfs the size of Afghanistan’s existing war-bedraggled economy, which is based largely on opium production and narcotics trafficking as well as aid from the United States and other industrialized countries. Afghanistan’s gross domestic product is only about $12 billion.

“This will become the backbone of the Afghan economy,” said Jalil Jumriany, an adviser to the Afghan minister of mines.

American and Afghan officials agreed to discuss the mineral discoveries at a difficult moment in the war in Afghanistan. The American-led offensive in Marja in southern Afghanistan has achieved only limited gains. Meanwhile, charges of corruption and favoritism continue to plague the Karzai government, and Mr. Karzai seems increasingly embittered toward the White House.

corruption is a huge problem in Afghanistan and mining for these materials could result in mass corruption and reduce the flow of wealth to the rest of the country. It also sets the stage for warlords to continue functioning and seeking to claim territories known to be rich in certain resources so as to exploit their presence.

If Afghanistan, after bringing the Taliban to an end, can somehow figure out how to protect property rights and reduce the amount of graft and corruption it would be a major boost to the nation.

Still, even those nations who rely heavily on natural resources like oil or other mineral wealth cannot solely base their economies on such things because all good things come to an end and it also fosters a complacency.

What A Boob Job

The media is busy asking the real tough questions these days.

Has Sarah Palin gotten breast implants? The questions began surfacing following her appearance at the Belmont Stakes in New York and appeared to show a curvier than usual Palin.

Really? That's what people want to know or care about?

The former Alaska Governor is busy pursuing her own agenda and is seen as a major voice of the GOP, but the media focusing on whether she's had implants gives the media a booby prize for stupidity.

There are far more important and pressing questions that they should be asking of the former governor - including how Alaska dealt with the oil companies and the situation in the Gulf, her position on various science-related subjects, or the effect of her endorsements (real or imagined) on primary races around the country.

And for the record, Palin says that they're real - and they're fabulous.

President Hopes For Another Fiscal Assistance Package For States

President Obama can't help but see the fiscal disaster at the state and local level. Every day there's a new headline about the dire fiscal situation, threats of shutdowns, and state spending that has to be slashed because taxpayers are in a foul mood and aren't going to stand for still higher taxes.

So, what's he preparing to do? He's trying to rally support for another federal aid program to the states - $50 billion that the federal government doesn't have to help states that are fiscally irresponsible and got themselves into a ticking fiscal time bomb of epic proportions.

Of course, the president is trying to use the old saw - the plan is necessary to prevent the layoffs of teachers, policemen and firemen.

The states could have avoided this mess by not ramping up spending at several times the rate of inflation over the past decade and imposing taxes at ever higher levels and then watching it all come crashing down with the recession. Some states responded to the changing financial circumstances by taking prudent measures to limit spending and revenue adjustments that didn't include broad based tax hikes like Colorado and Utah. Those states are in better shape than those that kept on spending - like New York and California.

As I've repeatedly argued - the federal government's repeated bailout of states over the past two years has meant that the states in the worst fiscal shape could avoid having to make long-delayed and necessary decisions to bring them onto a sound financial footing.

The infusion of billions of dollars in New York means that the state can avoid asking why it needs the size state workforce it has, why it can't adjust benefits packages to make them on par with private-sector jobs, why the state shouldn't switch from defined benefit to defined contribution plans, and why hundreds of agencies and departments exist when their jobs could be consolidated and/or eliminated. Moreover, it means everyone can ignore the soaring medical costs that are one of the drivers of the huge New York budget.

Repeat that scenario around the country and you simply extend the misery because the states simply will not reduce their spending to match revenues and instead seek to raise taxes or plead for a federal bailout to help them along.