I am putting the message board back up and see if we can use it to help better the town.
http://www.mikeaforwoodbury.com/zmichaels/index.php
Saturday, December 31, 2005
Message board is live
I am putting the message board back up and see if we can use it to help better the town.
http://www.mikeaforwoodbury.com/zmichaels/index.php
Fornario in line for Orange County Legislature chairmanship
Fornario - coalition
candidate?
Republicans and Democrats on the Orange County Legislature are putting the finishing touches on an arrangement that would see Republican lawmaker Frank Fornario, Jr. become the chairman in the new year. Sources told MidHudsonNews.com Friday night that the other GOP chairman hopeful, Spencer McLaughlin, has dropped out of the race.
In return, the Democrats, who have one vote less than the majority Republicans, have agreed to back Fornario, the sources said. Democrat Minority Leader Anthony Marino last night would only say that he would have an announcement to make early in the new week.
Fornario is seen by Democrats as a coalition builder who would include the Democrats in leadership positions in the committee process.
Even if many of the 11 Republicans vote against Fornario, he will have the 10 Democrat member votes, his own, and that of his staunch GOP supporter Michael Amo.
The new legislature will vote on a chairman next Thursday.
Thursday, December 29, 2005
Cash pours in for student with $1 million Web idea
Cash pours in for student with $1 million Web idea By Peter Graff
Thu Dec 29, 1:05 PM ET
If you have an envious streak, you probably shouldn't read this.
Because chances are, Alex Tew, a 21-year-old student from a small town in England, is cleverer than you. And he is proving it by earning a cool million dollars in four months on the Internet.
Selling porn? Dealing prescription drugs? Nope. All he sells are pixels, the tiny dots on the screen that appear when you call up his home page.
He had the brainstorm for his million dollar home page, called, logically enough, www.milliondollarhomepage.com, while lying in bed thinking out how he would pay for university.
The idea: turn his home page into a billboard made up of a million dots, and sell them for a dollar a dot to anyone who wants to put up their logo. A 10 by 10 dot square, roughly the size of a letter of type, costs $100.
He sold a few to his brothers and some friends, and when he had made $1,000, he issued a press release.
That was picked up by the news media, spread around the Internet, and soon advertisers for everything from dating sites to casinos to real estate agents to The Times of London were putting up real cash for pixels, with links to their own sites.
So far they have bought up 911,800 pixels. Tew's home page now looks like an online Times Square, festooned with a multi-colored confetti of ads.
"All the money's kind of sitting in a bank account," Tew told Reuters from his home in Wiltshire, southwest England. "I've treated myself to a car. I've only just passed my driving test so I've bought myself a little black mini."
The site features testimonials from advertisers, some of whom bought spots as a lark, only to discover that they were receiving actual valuable Web hits for a fraction of the cost of traditional Internet advertising.
Meanwhile Tew has had to juggle running the site with his first term at university, where he is studying business.
"It's been quite a difficulty trying to balance going to lectures and doing the site," he said.
But he may not have to study for long. Job offers have been coming in from Internet companies impressed by a young man who managed to figure out an original way to make money online.
"I didn't expect it to happen like that," Tew said. "To have the job offers and approaches from investors -- the whole thing is kind of surreal. I'm still in a state of disbelief."
Thu Dec 29, 1:05 PM ET
If you have an envious streak, you probably shouldn't read this.
Because chances are, Alex Tew, a 21-year-old student from a small town in England, is cleverer than you. And he is proving it by earning a cool million dollars in four months on the Internet.
Selling porn? Dealing prescription drugs? Nope. All he sells are pixels, the tiny dots on the screen that appear when you call up his home page.
He had the brainstorm for his million dollar home page, called, logically enough, www.milliondollarhomepage.com, while lying in bed thinking out how he would pay for university.
The idea: turn his home page into a billboard made up of a million dots, and sell them for a dollar a dot to anyone who wants to put up their logo. A 10 by 10 dot square, roughly the size of a letter of type, costs $100.
He sold a few to his brothers and some friends, and when he had made $1,000, he issued a press release.
That was picked up by the news media, spread around the Internet, and soon advertisers for everything from dating sites to casinos to real estate agents to The Times of London were putting up real cash for pixels, with links to their own sites.
So far they have bought up 911,800 pixels. Tew's home page now looks like an online Times Square, festooned with a multi-colored confetti of ads.
"All the money's kind of sitting in a bank account," Tew told Reuters from his home in Wiltshire, southwest England. "I've treated myself to a car. I've only just passed my driving test so I've bought myself a little black mini."
The site features testimonials from advertisers, some of whom bought spots as a lark, only to discover that they were receiving actual valuable Web hits for a fraction of the cost of traditional Internet advertising.
Meanwhile Tew has had to juggle running the site with his first term at university, where he is studying business.
"It's been quite a difficulty trying to balance going to lectures and doing the site," he said.
But he may not have to study for long. Job offers have been coming in from Internet companies impressed by a young man who managed to figure out an original way to make money online.
"I didn't expect it to happen like that," Tew said. "To have the job offers and approaches from investors -- the whole thing is kind of surreal. I'm still in a state of disbelief."
Saturday, December 24, 2005
Track Santa's annual flight online
Track Santa's annual flight online
News partner NBC 6
December 23, 2005, 10:48 AM EST
When Christmas Eve comes, the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), will track Santa Claus during his annual flight.
NORAD is responsible for handling the air defense of the North America continent. But it has also been tracking Santa's movements on Christmas Eve for the past 50 years.
NORAD uses four high-tech systems to track Santa -- radar, satellites, Santa Cams and jet fighter aircraft.
The satellites have infrared sensors, meaning they can see heat. Rudolph's nose gives off an infrared signature similar to a missile launch. Thus, the satellites can detect Rudolph's bright red nose with practically no problem.
The tradition of tracking Santa began in 1955, when a local Sears, Roebuck and Co. store ran a newspaper ad urging children to make a phone call on Christmas Eve and talk to Santa Claus. As fate would have it, the phone number was misprinted and, instead of reaching Santa, youngsters found themselves talking with Air Force Col. Harry Shoup of the Continental Air Defense Command at Cheyenne Mountain in Colorado.
Rather than hanging up, Shoup and his troops answered every child's call that night with a report of Santa's location. CONAD personnel kept up the practice until 1958, when NORAD was formed and took over Santa-tracking duties.
"We think of it as a geography lesson, because the different places that Santa visits or sightings that we have, a lot of people haven't heard of," said Air Force Master Sgt. John Tomassi, co-director of Santa-tracking operations. "If we can get some children to go and look at a map to find out where Timbuktu is, or where India is, or Pakistan, or wherever, then we feel all the better for that."
Last Christmas Eve, volunteers at Cheyenne Mountain answered nearly 55,000 phone calls and 35,000 e-mails from children around the world. This year, about 500 volunteers -- most of them U.S. and Canadian military personnel and their families -- will report for telephone-answering duty on Christmas Eve. But already, youngsters are sending messages to Santa via the NORAD Tracks Santa Web site.
"E-mails are arriving from India and Ireland and all over the world already from children with their wish lists who want to talk to Santa," Tomassi said. "We receive, on average, 200 e-mails a day."
NORAD Tracks Santa volunteers will answer calls from 2 a. m. MST Dec. 24 to 2 a. m. MST Dec. 25 at 877-Hi-NORAD. You can send also Santa an e-mail at NorthPole@OfficialSantaMail.com
Copyright © 2005, South Florida Sun-Sentinel
News partner NBC 6
December 23, 2005, 10:48 AM EST
When Christmas Eve comes, the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), will track Santa Claus during his annual flight.
NORAD is responsible for handling the air defense of the North America continent. But it has also been tracking Santa's movements on Christmas Eve for the past 50 years.
NORAD uses four high-tech systems to track Santa -- radar, satellites, Santa Cams and jet fighter aircraft.
The satellites have infrared sensors, meaning they can see heat. Rudolph's nose gives off an infrared signature similar to a missile launch. Thus, the satellites can detect Rudolph's bright red nose with practically no problem.
The tradition of tracking Santa began in 1955, when a local Sears, Roebuck and Co. store ran a newspaper ad urging children to make a phone call on Christmas Eve and talk to Santa Claus. As fate would have it, the phone number was misprinted and, instead of reaching Santa, youngsters found themselves talking with Air Force Col. Harry Shoup of the Continental Air Defense Command at Cheyenne Mountain in Colorado.
Rather than hanging up, Shoup and his troops answered every child's call that night with a report of Santa's location. CONAD personnel kept up the practice until 1958, when NORAD was formed and took over Santa-tracking duties.
"We think of it as a geography lesson, because the different places that Santa visits or sightings that we have, a lot of people haven't heard of," said Air Force Master Sgt. John Tomassi, co-director of Santa-tracking operations. "If we can get some children to go and look at a map to find out where Timbuktu is, or where India is, or Pakistan, or wherever, then we feel all the better for that."
Last Christmas Eve, volunteers at Cheyenne Mountain answered nearly 55,000 phone calls and 35,000 e-mails from children around the world. This year, about 500 volunteers -- most of them U.S. and Canadian military personnel and their families -- will report for telephone-answering duty on Christmas Eve. But already, youngsters are sending messages to Santa via the NORAD Tracks Santa Web site.
"E-mails are arriving from India and Ireland and all over the world already from children with their wish lists who want to talk to Santa," Tomassi said. "We receive, on average, 200 e-mails a day."
NORAD Tracks Santa volunteers will answer calls from 2 a. m. MST Dec. 24 to 2 a. m. MST Dec. 25 at 877-Hi-NORAD. You can send also Santa an e-mail at NorthPole@OfficialSantaMail.com
Copyright © 2005, South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Tuesday, December 13, 2005
Suit aims to stop developer
Suit aims to stop developer Woodbury board jumped gun on 451-home OK, opponents say By Chris McKennaTimes Herald-Recordcmckenna@th-record.com
Woodbury - Opponents have sued to stop Bill Brodsky's proposed 451-home development, using as ammunition a dispute between the Town Board and Orange County planners over the project's merits.
The lawsuit seeks to overturn five laws the board adopted giving the Rockland County developer the zoning accommodations he needed to move forward with his development, which is now being reviewed by the town Planning Board.
The litigation rekindles a bitter fight that dominated town politics for a year and culminated with the Nov. 3 Town Board decision and the election - five days later - of John Burke, a leading critic of the housing proposal.
Burke unseated Supervisor Sheila Conroy, a supporter who argued the proposal offered the town abundant benefits.
A subplot within the saga is a clash between the Town Board and the Orange County Planning Department over whether those benefits justified zoning changes that tripled the number of homes Brodsky could otherwise build at the 400-acre site.
County planners raised sharp doubts while reviewing the project this year and finally disapproved it on Nov. 17 - after the Woodbury board had already made its decision.
In his letter to town officials, Planning Commissioner David Church said they'd voted prematurely because they didn't give his office the 30 days required by state law to review all project documents, including ones submitted to the county after Oct. 21.
Opponents have made that a main argument for overturning the Nov. 3 votes. They also claim the proposal had a flawed environmental review and would violate the town master plan.
Woodbury officials dispute Church's interpretation of the law. In a nine-page reply, Conroy argues the 30-day clock started not on Oct. 21 but on June 28, when Woodbury sent copies of the proposed zoning laws to the county Planning Department for review.
Conroy's letter goes on to describe how the town complied with some of the county's recommendations and explains why it rejected others. Two concessions were requiring Brodsky to plan a second entrance to the development and build a gravel parking lot for a park at the site.
"We were disappointed that the county did not see the benefits to the community," Conroy said in an interview. "Obviously, somebody did not read this document."
Church replied yesterday that two planners worked on the review, including a senior staff member who spent 20 to 30 hours looking at Woodbury's materials.
"We did not lightweight this," he said. "In fact, I had the opposite conclusion - I thought we were spending too much time."
Woodbury - Opponents have sued to stop Bill Brodsky's proposed 451-home development, using as ammunition a dispute between the Town Board and Orange County planners over the project's merits.
The lawsuit seeks to overturn five laws the board adopted giving the Rockland County developer the zoning accommodations he needed to move forward with his development, which is now being reviewed by the town Planning Board.
The litigation rekindles a bitter fight that dominated town politics for a year and culminated with the Nov. 3 Town Board decision and the election - five days later - of John Burke, a leading critic of the housing proposal.
Burke unseated Supervisor Sheila Conroy, a supporter who argued the proposal offered the town abundant benefits.
A subplot within the saga is a clash between the Town Board and the Orange County Planning Department over whether those benefits justified zoning changes that tripled the number of homes Brodsky could otherwise build at the 400-acre site.
County planners raised sharp doubts while reviewing the project this year and finally disapproved it on Nov. 17 - after the Woodbury board had already made its decision.
In his letter to town officials, Planning Commissioner David Church said they'd voted prematurely because they didn't give his office the 30 days required by state law to review all project documents, including ones submitted to the county after Oct. 21.
Opponents have made that a main argument for overturning the Nov. 3 votes. They also claim the proposal had a flawed environmental review and would violate the town master plan.
Woodbury officials dispute Church's interpretation of the law. In a nine-page reply, Conroy argues the 30-day clock started not on Oct. 21 but on June 28, when Woodbury sent copies of the proposed zoning laws to the county Planning Department for review.
Conroy's letter goes on to describe how the town complied with some of the county's recommendations and explains why it rejected others. Two concessions were requiring Brodsky to plan a second entrance to the development and build a gravel parking lot for a park at the site.
"We were disappointed that the county did not see the benefits to the community," Conroy said in an interview. "Obviously, somebody did not read this document."
Church replied yesterday that two planners worked on the review, including a senior staff member who spent 20 to 30 hours looking at Woodbury's materials.
"We did not lightweight this," he said. "In fact, I had the opposite conclusion - I thought we were spending too much time."
Friday, December 02, 2005
Parade of champions this Saturday at 3
Parade of champions this Saturday at 3
Monroe - The Village of Monroe will play host to a parade for the state champion Monroe-Woodbury football team, starting at 3 p.m. Saturday at Airplane Park.
The parade will come down Lake Street and turn onto Spring Street where it will end in Smith Clove Park.
The football team, the Monroe-Woodbury High School band, local police, fire and ambulances corps members and local politicians are expected to participate.
“We are encouraging people to come out and cheer them on,” said Monroe Police Chief Dominic Giudice. “We also want to advise residents and local businesses that there will be the periodic closing of streets to accommodate the parade as well as some temporary traffic delays.”
Blog to monitor antisemitism
Blog to monitor antisemitism
Woodbury —The Southern Orange County Antisemitism Watch (SOCAwatch) started up at http://socawatch.blogspot.com on Tuesday. The Woodbury-based blogger has been posting messages “to increase public awareness of antisemitic rhetoric from politicians, media, and ‘grassroots’ organizations in southern Orange County.”
According to its Web site: “Some of the words on this site are hateful. Some perpetuate stereotypes. Some demonstrate great prejudice. I post them here for your review, your commentary, your analysis.
“To me, what is scary is that these words are not necessarily being mumbled by one private citizen to another, but they are being shouted by our political leaders. Our media is dedicating an excessive amount of negative coverage to a minority community. This blog is not meant to inflame a hateful situation. It is meant to lift up the carpet and expose it to the light.”
Several of the first postings reprinted a letter from Spencer McLaughlin, an Orange County legislator, about water supply problems at Kiryas Joel in Monroe.
Another was merely fun. Congratulating the Monroe-Woodbury football team, SOCAwatch wrote: “Good luck in Syracuse! For the first time in history, Jews root for the Crusaders.”
To which “Anonymous” replied: “Can you show proof that this is the ‘first time in history’?”
Woodbury —The Southern Orange County Antisemitism Watch (SOCAwatch) started up at http://socawatch.blogspot.com on Tuesday. The Woodbury-based blogger has been posting messages “to increase public awareness of antisemitic rhetoric from politicians, media, and ‘grassroots’ organizations in southern Orange County.”
According to its Web site: “Some of the words on this site are hateful. Some perpetuate stereotypes. Some demonstrate great prejudice. I post them here for your review, your commentary, your analysis.
“To me, what is scary is that these words are not necessarily being mumbled by one private citizen to another, but they are being shouted by our political leaders. Our media is dedicating an excessive amount of negative coverage to a minority community. This blog is not meant to inflame a hateful situation. It is meant to lift up the carpet and expose it to the light.”
Several of the first postings reprinted a letter from Spencer McLaughlin, an Orange County legislator, about water supply problems at Kiryas Joel in Monroe.
Another was merely fun. Congratulating the Monroe-Woodbury football team, SOCAwatch wrote: “Good luck in Syracuse! For the first time in history, Jews root for the Crusaders.”
To which “Anonymous” replied: “Can you show proof that this is the ‘first time in history’?”
about $1 million a year
ChesterC&S revives plans for new warehouse C&S Wholesale Grocers is renewing plans to build a 90-foot-tall warehouse in the Chester Industrial Park just over a month after it pulled out of the venture, former Chester Mayor Joseph Battiato said. He said he negotiated a deal to bring the wholesaler back on track to build the 373,547-square-foot refrigerated warehouse next to C&S's existing warehouse. C&S pulled out of the planning process in October. Critics feared the building would block their mountain views, use too much water and create traffic. Battiato said the Town of Chester's concerns were addressed by C&S officials, but the village would not budge on traffic and road maintenance issues. The building would straddle the village-town line, requiring approval from both municipalities. Battiato said he stepped in to protect the potential tax revenue to be generated from the new building – estimated at about $1 million a year. Battiato said he mediated a deal in which village officials agreed to speed up their review of C&S's plans in return for the company's commitment of more than $100,000 to village water and risk management funds
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