Commission on Health Care Facilities in the 21st Century

The Commission on Health Care Facilities in the 21st Century released its report on Tuesday on its “recommendations on rightsizing New York State’s hospitals and nursing homes…(which includes) consolidation, closure, conversion, and restructuring of institutions, and reallocation of local and statewide resources”. Here is a link to the complete report.

Three hospitals in our area, identified as the “Southeast Cluster” in Western New York, (TLC Lakeshore Hospital in Irving, TLC Tri-County Hospital in Gowanda, and Bertrand Chaffee Hospital in Springville) are subjected to recommendations in this report.

Weekly News Roundup 11/26/06

In case you may have missed any of these articles. Covering mainly Allegany and Cattaraugus Counties, but WNY regional, state, and national topics of interest are also added.

LOCAL

County approves $188M budget for 2007
… The budget includes a tax levy increase of 3.31 percent over 2006. It will require a tax levy of $41.2 million. The legislature adopted the budget to include amendments recommended by the Finance Committee last week: deferring of tourism grant program allocations to five chambers of commerce/business groups, including the Salamanca Area Chamber of Commerce; an increase in the interest earned from county investments from $700,000 to $900,000; an increase in funding for the Olean Municipal Airport from $22,000 to $27,500; and an increase in funding for bonded capital improvements at The Pines Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center in Olean from $866,650 to $870,000.

City moves closer to reassessing
OLEAN — Members of Common Council’s City Operations Committee agreed to move a plan to reassess all property in the city out of committee Tuesday.

Another Reason for Health Care Insurance Reform

From the Buffalo News:

Number of uninsured children in state up 17%

ALBANY – The number of children in New York State without health insurance grew by 17 percent last year, marking the first time that it has gone up in nearly a decade, according to a report released Tuesday.

The spike marks a turnaround after years of steady progress in reducing the ranks of uninsured children in the state. Between 1998 and 2004, the number of uninsured children in New York was cut nearly in half, according to the Children’s Defense Fund of New York, which produced the report.

Weekly News Roundup – 11/19/06

In case you may have missed any of these articles. Covering mainly Allegany and Cattaraugus Counties, but WNY regional, state, and national topics of interest are also added.

LOCAL

John, new SNI officials take office
IRVING – New Seneca Nation President Maurice John Sr. was administered the oath of office by new Clerk Jackie Bowen, but not without a little controversy before the ceremony.

Finance Committee to consider $188M county budget
LITTLE VALLEY – Review of the 2007 tentative Cattaraugus County budget of $188 million has moved on to the County Finance Committee.

Hungry? No, You are Just Experiencing “Low Food Security”

Only in America – where we switch words so that things don’t seem to be as bad as they really are.

The U.S. government has vowed that Americans will never be hungry again. But they may experience “very low food security.”
(snip)
Mark Nord, the lead author of the report, said “hungry” is “not a scientifically accurate term for the specific phenomenon being measured in the food security survey.” Nord, a USDA sociologist, said, “We don’t have a measure of that condition.”

Medicare Part D News Items

Many Democratic campaign platforms included the promise to pass legislation that allows negotiation of Medicare Part D drug prices with pharmaceutical companies. Apparently, the Bush Administration still does not think that this is a good idea:

Eric Massa’s Concession

[NOTE: Taken from Eric Massa’s campaign website]

A Brighter Future

Now that the vast majority of the votes have been re-canvassed, and the counting of the absentee ballots is well underway, it is clear that the initial results of the election will not change. The owners of this democracy have spoken and I would like to wish Congressman Kuhl and his team the best of luck with the important work that still lies ahead.

Two years ago, when we started this journey, no one believed we would come this far. Regardless of the outcome, I still feel that this election has been a victory for all of us who believe in a brighter future for the 29th District and for the United States of America.

Laidlaw Energy Group’s Recent Biomass Mailing

Residents of Ellicottville recently received the mailing, “Clearing the Air; The Facts About Woody Biomass Renewable Energy in Ellicottville”, from Laidlaw Energy Group, Inc. The mailing attempts to address five points of concern relating to the proposed biomass plant.

Perhaps my “suspicion factor” is still at a high level from the past few weeks of debunking negative political advertisements, but I find this mailing to be simplistic in its approach, and it leaves me with more questions than answers. I’ll be the first to admit, however, that I don’t have the access or background to completely break down this mailing’s points, but lets give it a try.

One Sentence

From the Olean Times Herald, November 12, 2006:

Kuhl says he’s ready to work with new Congress

On Election Day eve, U.S. Rep. John R. “Randy” Kuhl Jr., R-Hammondsport, indicated he’d try to work with Democrats, even though they did little but stall legislation over the last two years.

Three things here. 1) Election Day eve??? Am I reading this correctly – wouldn’t that have been MONDAY, November 6? Looks to me that he was very confident that last week’s election was already in the bag before one lever was touched,

Democratic House Reps from NY State Will Have Key Roles

When the Democrats take control of the House of Representatives this January, several representatives from New York State will be the Chairman or members of significant Congressional Committees. They include Rep. Louise Slaughter, (Chairwoman – Rules Committee), Rep. Charles B. Rangel (Chairman – Ways and Means, which controls bills on trade, taxes and Social Security), and Rep. Brian Higgins, (Member – Appropriations and/or Transportation Committee). Additionally, there are already three New York Democratic House Reps. who are members of the Appropriations Committee and five New York Democratic members of the Financial Services Committee. Rep. “Nadia Velasquez of Brooklyn probably will take over the Small Business Committee.”

Cattaraugus County Race Results

If you missed any results from town/village races in the county, here is a pretty good article from the Salamanca Press detailing winners of all races from Cattaraugus County.

Weekly News Roundup – 11/12/06

In case you may have missed any of these articles. Covering mainly Allegany and Cattaraugus Counties, but WNY regional, state, and national topics of interest are also added.

LOCAL

John, Seneca Party sweep SNI elections
SALAMANCA – The Seneca Party will retain control of the Seneca Nation of Indians’ government Tuesday, Nov. 14, with Maurice A. John, Sr. as president. The party won a straight ticket, taking a little more than 61 percent of the total votes cast in Tuesday’s election.

Couture to continue as Dist. 5 legislator
LITTLE VALLEY – Charles Couture of West Valley, Republican, Independence and Conservative parties candidate for District 5 county legislator will continue serving in that post thanks to Tuesday night’s election victory.

Digesting the 2006 Election Cycle

I admit it. I’m still digesting and decompressing from the events of the past week. Some results were expected, such as the Democratic take-over of the House of Representatives. Some were not, such as the additional Democratic take-over of the Senate. Locally, I am not surprised that the Republican candidates in our area, (Kuhl, Giglio, Burling, and Young – who had no Democratic opponent), were re-elected to their respective positions.

The Albany Project

We have added the new blog, The Albany Project, to our New York State blogroll. The Albany Project brings an additional voice in covering the NY State political arena.

Welcome to the blogosphere community. The Rural Patriot wishes you success and looks forward to your contributions.

Cattaraugus County – Tentative 2007 Budget

Lawmakers get first look at tentative budget

LITTLE VALLEY — Cattaraugus County lawmakers got their first look Wednesday at the tentative $188 million county budget for 2007 — and it wasn’t too bad.

The tax levy — or amount to be raised by property taxes — is up 4.1 percent. Also, the full-value tax rate drops for a second consecutive year, County Administrator Jack Searles said in his budget review.

Seneca Nation Unofficial Results

Unofficial results from November 7, 2006 Seneca Nation Elections:

President, Maurice A. “Moe” John, 1,541; clerk, Jacqueline Bowen, 1,533; treasurer, Kevin Seneca, 1,522; Tribal Council, Cattaraugus, Linda Doxtator, 1,537, Travis Jimerson, 1,530; Richard E. Nephew, 1,522 and Michael C. Williams, 1,529; Allegany, Tina Abrams, 1,365, Richard Frank, 1,377, Al George, 1,546 and Rodney Pierce, 1,529.

New York Election Numbers (Unofficial)

State Election Results- New York (This link also provides results for all House of Representatives district races in New York State.)

NY Senate:
Hillary CLINTON 2,811,981 – 67%
John SPENCER 1,320,571 – 31%
Roger CALERO 7,444 – 0%
Howie HAWKINS 52,010 – 1%
Jeffrey RUSSELL 20,022 – 1%
William VAN AUKEN 7,741 – 0%

Kuhl/Massa Vote by County and Other Election Stuff

Related articles:

Massa won’t acknowledge Kuhl win
Kuhl keeps congressional seat
Kuhl declares victory, Massa is not conceding

Notes

First – to the jerk who sent me the spam/virus “Best Buy Order Confirmation” for a SONY VAIO email, I wish a very special kind of karma for you. You put me through a hell that I just didn’t need to experience this morning.

I immediately thought that I was a victim of credit card/identity theft. That really sucked, especially since I’m running on about 3 1/2 hours sleep. You wasted over 1 1/2 hours of my time dealing with this between phone calls and virus scans already this morning.

If any of you receive this email, Best Buy Customer Service says: don’t open the email, delete it. If you did open it, do not click on the link/attachment. That will start the virus. I didn’t click the link/attachment, and that saved me. But I did run a few different scans to be on the safe side.

Now, to business. I understand that the Kuhl/Massa race has been called for Kuhl (51%-49%); however, Massa has not conceded.

NY State 147th District – Burling
NY State 149th District – Giglio
NY State Senator – Clinton
NY State Gov/LT – Spitzer/Patterson
NY State AG – Cuomo
NY State Comptroller – Hevesi
Cattaraugus Co. Dist. 5 – Couture
Allegany Co. Sheriff – Tompkins
Seneca Nation – Seneca Party takes every major office

I will post later today with additional county and Seneca Nation results and the available numbers.

Seneca Nation Election Results

Seneca Nation elects new president

SALAMANCA — Maurice A. John Sr. looked at the reporters surrounding him, smiled and said “I love Niagara Falls.”

John, the current treasurer of the Seneca Nation of Indians, had just led the Seneca Party to a sweep of every major office up for grabs in the Nation’s general election on Tuesday. In balloting on the Senecas’ Alleghany and Cattaraugus reservations, John defeated former Nation President Rickey L. Armstrong Sr. by a margin of 1,541 to 1,114.

Businessman Kevin Seneca was elected the Nation’s treasurer and will replace John in that post.

I hope to have additional results for all Seneca Nation races sometime during Wednesday.