A state Senate panel today voted to name a stretch of Orange County highway after the  American commanding general in Iraq, David Petraeus, but not before a debate about whether anything should be named after someone still alive and a charge that even questioning the honor was a “slap in the face’’ to a distinguished American.

“He’s taken on one of the toughest jobs in the world,’’ Sen. William Larkin, R-New Windsor, said,  in explaining why Route 218 should be named for Petraeus, 55, a native of the Orange County community of Cornwall and a 1970 graduate  of Cornwall Central High School. He also attended West Point and later served on the faculty there.

But Sen. John Sabini, D-Queens, said he would not support the idea, since “I’m not sure we sould be naming anything after people who are not dead.’’

Larkin called that comment “a slap in the face’’ to the general.

The measure was approved with Sabini and a fellow Democrat, Bill Perkins of Manhattan, abstaining.

The state Assembly and Senate went in opposite directions today, with the Democratic-controlled Assembly announcing measures to help tenants mainly in the New York City area deal with rents and the Senate seeking tougher laws on Internet violence.

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver supported a nine-bill package aimed at keeping rents affordable in the New York City area. The measures include keeping certain apartments under the rent control system by ending “high rent” vacancy decontrol, which allows landlords to remove apartments where rents exceed $2,000.

“Renters above so many people need to be protected,” said ACORN Executive Director Bertha Lewis.

Later in the day, Republican senators announced legislation to crack down on broadcasting purposeful acts of violence on the Internet, such as teens videotaping themselves beating up bums.

The measure would create a new crime of “unlawful violent recording when a person commits  an assault while knowingly capturing the crime with a recording device.”  It would be a fourth degree penalty, punishable up to four years in prison.

“These people in these videos, they make me sick,” said state Sen. John Flanagan, R-Suffolk County.

Both issues, though, are one-house bills at this point.

Gov. David Paterson just announced that he submitted a “safe toys” bill to the Legislature. The legislation would protect New York kids from unsafe toys and durable products like cribs, car seats and high chairs that may be available even after they have been recalled. 

The legislation would address that problem by barring manufacturers, distributors and retailers from continuing to sell children’s products that have been recalled.

Last summer, the state Consumer Protection Board and other state agencies did toy recall sweeps to investigate compliance. About 400 stores of the 2,800 or so visited and contacted had been selling one or more of the recalled items. Some said they had received some form of recall notice and had removed the products from their shelves, but others said they did not get any notification from the supplier or manufacturer about the recall.

Often recalled products are never returned, remaining in homes, attics and on the shelves of discount and secondhand stores. Read more of this entry »

Saying the state’s nursing shortage is reaching “crisis proportions,” Assembly Minority Leader James Tedisco, R-Schenectady, announced five proposals he and his Republican colleagues are advancing.

According to the Health Care Association of New York State,  four out of five hospitals in the state are facing a nursing shortage. 

“New York’s nurses serve on the ‘front lines’ in administering quality, compassionate medical care in our hospitals, nursing homes, schools and clinics.  They are a vital resource and an indispensable link in our health care system,” Tedisco said in a statement.  “However, New York is simply not doing enough to give nurses the tools and incentives they need – and rightfully deserve.”

Several of the proposals would:
—Establish a recruitment initiative and retention program to reimburse student loans if a person is a registered and licensed nurse. SUNY and CUNY would pay for a person’s education if a contract were signed to work in the state as an RN. Read more of this entry »

That’s the message from Sen. Eric Adams, D-Brooklyn, this week as he demonstrated a new device called the PistolCam – a 5-ounce camera he said would provide “a clearer picture of what officers encounter after they remove their guns from their holster.”

Adams, a former NYPD officer, wants officers to start using the guns in the wake of the Sean Bell shooting in New York City.

The camera would be used to clarify the sequence of events in a police-related shooting should the case go to court, Adams said.

Here’s Adams yesterday demonstrating the technology.

Remember when Spitzer 2010 sounded so imminent?

Well, according to the New York Observer, former Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s campaign will be returning money to donors who request a refund.

The email to donors from campaign spokeswoman Allyson Giard reads:

“As you are likely aware, we are currently disbanding Spitzer 2010. We intend to re-distribute the campaign’s remaining funds on a pro-rata basis to contributors who make an official request for a refund, either by email or letter.

“To expedite this process, we have set a deadline of June 15; in order to be honored, a refund request must be received by the campaign office by close of business on that date. After June 15, we will determine the rate at which we are able to issue contribution refunds and will begin issuing checks. (We willnot be able to honor any requests received after June 15.)…

This has obviously been a difficult period for everyone, particularlyfor those individuals who were supportive of the campaign, and I want to personally express my appreciation for your patience andunderstanding during this time. Please do not hesitate to contact me if there is anything I can do to be of assistance to you.”

State Assembly Republican Leader James Tedisco has put online his petition to have Assembly Democrats pass a state gas-tax suspension from Memorial Day to Labor Day.

Meamwhile, Senate Republicans, who passed a gas-tax suspension last week, said more than 20,000 New Yorkers have signed petitions set up by its members.

Tedisco’s petition can be found here.

That was part of Gov. David Paterson’s response to questions about why he wants to remove an upstate chairman of the Empire State Development Corp. and replace it with one statewide chair.

He said he doesn’t want to take away representation of upstate businesses, but feels it’s important to have one person at the helm of the agency. Former Gov. Eliot Spitzer split the agency into an upstate and downstate branch, which has been hailed by upstate business leaders.

Business leaders in upstate are criticizing the governor’s plans to go back to the old policy, in which a New York City chairperson oversees the state’s entire economic development program.

Right now, Dan Gundersen serves as the upstate chair, based out of Buffalo.

“No one has said that we are taking Mr. Gundersen away from upstate,” Paterson told reporters after a town-hall meeting in Batavia on farm issues with Sen. Charles Schumer. (There is Paterson and Schumer, on right, before the event today.)

“And I certainly understand that the economy is reeling, the anxiety is overflowing in upstate New York.”

Paterson went on to say that “I wanted to have an ability of the agency to have a centralized organization” yet he doesn’t plan to diminish any services to upstate.

“If we don’t change something, we’re not going to have improvement around here,” Paterson said.

“And I would invite some of those who said they were irked, to please call me because I let them know since the time I was in office two months ago that if they ever had a problem, they should call me and not one of them have called me in the past few days.”

 Here’s another report from GNS reporter Dan Osburn, who has been covering events at the Capitol today:

   Broome County resident and disability advocate Frank Pennisi received the “Dr. Henry Viscardi, Jr. Advocacy Award” for state lawmakers his work to make polling sites in his county and other locations more handicapped accessible.
   “It’s nice to know they actually listened,” Pennisi, who is the chair of the American Demanding Access Committee, said.
   Between 1984 and 1990, Pennisi achieved 100 percent accessibility for handicapped voters in Broome County, then turned to other counties to advocate accessibility, he said.
   “It took six years of my life,” he said. He was constantly visiting polling sites, writing letters on how to improve access and revisiting sites, he said.
   The award was part of the larger state Assembly Legislative Disabilities Awareness Day. Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver said he is supporting a package of bills aimed at improving life for the disabled. The bills range in purpose from improving ATM machines for the visually impaired to improving gas pumps. Silver said he would work to get the Assembly to pass each of the 17 proposed bills before the end of the week.
   “When we allow the rights of this community or that community to be ignored, the rights of all New Yorkers are at risk,” Silver said. “Gov. (David) Paterson has demonstrated that a person with a disability is not a person without ability,” he said, referring to the legally blind governor.  

Hoping to drum up support and money for Rep. Randy Kuhl’s re-election bid, the National Republican Congressional Committee released a poll today that it conducted in January that shows Kuhl with a 20 percentage-point lead over Democrat Eric Massa.

Kuhl represents the 29th Congressional District, which runs from the Southern Tier to the Rochester suburbs.

Politicial parties will release internal polls to help show the viability of their candidate and spur campaign contributions and support. So it’s interesting that a two-term incumbent would have to release a poll that shows he’s in the lead against Massa, whom Kuhl narrowly beat two years ago.

But Kuhl has been outraised by Massa this year, and Kuhl remains one of the most vulnerable Republican House members upstate, especially after his Republican colleagues, Reps. Thomas Reynolds and James Walsh, have chosen to retire than seek re-election in November.

The poll was a small sample of only 300 voters in the district, which is the most heavily Republican seat in the state.

“As the numbers in this polling memo illustrate, Randy Kuhl is well-positioned to win in November. Eric Massa is a re-run candidate that now will carry the weight of a Democrat Congress that has voted for new taxes and increased spending at every turn on his shoulders,” NRCC spokeswoman Julie Shutley said.

There was no immediate reaction from Massa’s campaign.

Updated: Here’s the response from Massa campaign manager Dave Marion:

“Eric Massa is focused on creating good jobs with benefits in Western New York, not cooking up last winter’s left-over poll numbers. When this poll was taken last winter, the majority of people thought that the Patriots were going to win the Super Bowl, but we know how that turned out.”