In a news conference via telephone from Iraq today, U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said he’d been making the rounds with troops, military and other leaders, and David Petraeus, commanding general of the multinational force in Iraq. He would not answer any policy questions about the war, saying he was there to wish the troops a happy new year.

Schumer, who is on the first day of his trip to Iraq, said he also visited a local market, where he wore a bulletproof vest and helmet and was guarded by 30 armed soldiers. His office would not disclose how long the senator would be in Iraq, citing security reasons.
—From Dan Osburn, GNS Albany bureau

Fark.com, a social networking Web site whose users submit stories they believe are not  newsworthy, saw fit to post a Gannett News Service story this weekend on controlling the volume of movie theater trailers and commercials. Assemblywoman Sandra Galef, D-Ossining, Westchester County, has submitted legislation that would prevent theaters from playing ads and trailers at a louder volume than movies.

The following description is on the Web site:

“Having rid New York state of crime, corruption, high taxes, pollution, traffic, potholes, cockroaches, rats, silverfish, illegal immigrants and Hamptons (expletive deleted,) state assemblywoman declares war on loud movie theatres.�

The item was posted Saturday on http://www.fark.com/politics/.

Michael Carey, the father of an autistic boy who died while in a state residence this year, is asking Gov. Eliot Spitzer to give people more time to get records if they think their child or family member is being abused in the residential mental-hygiene system. A provision of Jonathan’s Law that allows families to obtain records retroactively to Jan. 1, 2003 expires today. (Documents from May 5, 2007 to the present remain available.) The law, passed this year, is named for Michael Carey’s late son.

Michael Carey, who held a news conference at the Capitol today, said the state has done a poor job of disseminating information on the law. The state Commission on Quality of Care and Advocacy for Persons with Disabilities was in charge of developing and distributing a pamphlet to guide families in the process. It took the agency until last month to do so, and the guide is available only on the Web. Carey accused state officials of trying to limit their potential legal liability.

“Those records are vital for families to properly be able to advocate for their children,� Carey said.

A spokesman for Spitzer said the governor does not oppose an extension, but it is up to the Legislature to decide. Read more of this entry »

The New York State Racing and Wagering Board is meeting tomorrow to consider approving a brief extension of the New York Racing Association’s contract so it could continue running the state’s three thoroughbred racing tracks temporarily. NYRA, whose contract expires Dec. 31, has applied for an extension until Jan. 23, a spokesman for the governor said today.

The Racing and Wagering Board will take over racing in the state on Jan. 1 because state officials have not agreed which company will be awarded a new contract to run the tracks at Aqueduct, Belmont and Saratoga. Negotiations  between Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s office and legislative leaders on that issue continued Friday, the spokesman said.

Assemblymen Joel Miller, R-Poughkeepsie, and Marc Molinaro, R-Tivoli, Dutchess County, announced this week that they sent a letter to Gov. Eliot Spitzer urging him to make property-tax reform his top priority for 2008.

There is a property tax “crisis” in New York, and taxes “continue to skyrocket at a rate more than twice that of inflation,” Miller said in a statement. “Instead of digging ourselves deeper and deeper into a hole from which we may never escape, we must act now.”

Molinaro said the Democrat-controlled Assembly has been ”blocking” property-tax reform measures approved by the GOP-led Senate. “The governor must work with the state Legislature in order to achieve meaningful, long-term property tax reform this year,” he said.

Spitzer did forge a compromise with the Legislature this year to approve a $1.3 billion property-tax rebate targeted to the middle class.

Unlike his predecessor, George Pataki, Gov. Eliot Spitzer did not issue clemency to anyone incarcerated under the Rockefeller-era drug laws this year, the Drug Policy Alliance said in a statement this week. The alliance has worked to scale back the laws, which it believes are “draconian” and overly severe for non-violent drug offenders. Reforms to the laws in recent years have not gone far enough, according to the group.

“There were many families praying this holiday season that Gov. Spitzer would show his compassion and allow people to return to their families and reenter society as productive citizens. They are devastated to learn that he is not granting any clemencies,” said Anthony Papa of the group, who was sentenced to 15 years to life under the drug laws and received clemency from Pataki in 1996.

“I know first-hand how meaningful a holiday clemency can be,” Papa said. “For the last 10 years, I’ve been a productive member of society instead of being locked in a cage for a first-time non-violent offense, costing taxpayers nearly half a million dollars. The governor, with one stroke of his pen, can allow others to have the same opportunity that I had.”

The group said that 28 of the 32 clemencies granted by Pataki were for people serving sentences under the Rockefeller-era drug laws.

I met Benazir Bhutto in Oxford, England, in June of 1976. My wife and I were on an extended bicycle tour, and pulled into Oxford one warm evening. We saw a notice about a debate scheduled that night at the Oxford Union about whether the United Kingdom should retain its “special relationship’’ with the United States.
    We showed up but were told that we couldn’t get in because we weren’t members.  A pretty young woman standing behind us in line asked what the problem was. We told her that we wanted to see the debate and were from the U.S.  “Where are you from?’’ she asked.

  When we replied Boston, she said she had just finished studies at Harvard, and of course we could watch the debate. Benazir Bhutto, it turned out, was president of the Oxford Union then.

  She took us to a party afterwards, where she introduced us to a friend whose father was a member of Parliament. He told us to look up his father when we got to London so we could view “Question Time,’‘  the weekly ritual (now familiar to many Americans thanks to C-SPAN) where the prime minister has to withstand often withering questioning from opposition members of Parliament. We saw then-PM James Callaghan take it on the chin from Tory Leader Margaret Thatcher. I’ve often thought since that I wish the colonies had adopted that particular Old World custom.

  We paid attention to Bhutto’s political career ever since, and were amazed when she became the first woman ever to run the government of an Islamic country, and saddened when her father was hanged. Hearing recordings of her voice yesterday after her assassination brought back memories of the kind woman who helped out a couple of strangers 31 years ago.

Here’s the order in which Democratic and Republican presidential candidates will appear on the Feb. 5 primary ballot in New York, according to the state Board of Elections. The board plans to certify the ballots on Dec. 31. Geez, is that Monday already?

Hillary Rodham Clinton gets some home cooking and pulled the top spot for Democrats. Ron Paul gets the top spot for Republicans. (The picks are made randomly by the board.)

Democrats:

Hillary Clinton

Bill Richardson

Joe Biden

John Edwards

Barack Obama

Dennis Kucinich

Republicans:

Ron Paul

Alan Keyes

Duncan Hunter

Tom Tancredo

Rudy Giuliani

Mitt Romney

Mike Huckabee

John McCain

Fred Thompson

The governor just send out a New Year’s letter in an email to supporters today through his re-election campaign.
Not much about the scandals that have rocked his administration, but a lot of well wishing and hope for the future.
“For me, this time of year is a time for reflection,” he writes. “As I think about the year that has passed, I can’t help but remember that moment nearly a year ago when I woke up on a cold New Year’s morning and joined hundreds of friends and supporters on a jog through the crisp Albany air.”
“They say that invention is 90% perspiration and 10% inspiration. That pre-dawn jog and the year that followed had more than its share of both. Along the way, we’ve learned hard lessons and made real strides to renew the promise of New York for families in every corner of this state who want a better life.”
He also talks about what he views are his successes:
“Together, we’ve been able to expand access to health insurance and lower class size for children across New York State. We’ve begun to tackle out-of-control property taxes and bring jobs and economic vitality back to cities across upstate. We’ve made investments in stem cell research that may someday yield new cures for diseases like Alzheimer’s, diabetes and Lou Gehrig’s disease. ”
You can read the full letter here: New%20Year.doc

The state Racing and Wagering Board today approved dates in 2008 for the New York Racing Association to run racing temporarily at Aqueduct, Belmont and Saratoga.

But the 30-day approval is contigent on NYRA working out a deal with the state’s racing oversight board, which will take over racing on Jan. 1 when NYRA’s current contract expires.

State leaders have yet to reach an agreement on who will run the three tracks permanently and NYRA has not agreed yet to operate the tracks under the oversight board’s control.

The Racing and Wagering Board said it would give NYRA a temporary deal to run the races so racing can continue until a permanent solution is found.