The White Plains NewsBoys .

Tonight WHITE PLAINS WEEK, the city news roundup show, with WPCNR Executive Editor John Bailey, left; former international anchor and White House Correspondent Peter Katz,(center) and the Dean of White Plains School of Journalism, Jim Benerofe, of www.suburbanstreet.com  talk about the approval of the City Dump Clean-up by the State DEC, the Tappan Zee Bridge Rush Job, the Mayor's Vision for the City of White Plains, the destruction of the Robin Myth, and White Plains Money Today.

Catch your neighbors who know all the truth and tell nothing but the truth, so help our ratings.

See them at 7:30 on Channel 76 or Channel 45 and later on the internet at www.whiteplainsweek.com

WPCNR BLACK COFFEE. News & Comment Special to WPCNR from Westchester County Roving Corrrespondent Nancy King. January 12, 2012: 

Citing an impending shoulder replacement scheduled for sometime during the 2012 legislative session, Senator Suzi Oppenheimer (D) from the 37^th legislative district, declared today that she will not be seeking re-election in 2013. 

Suzi Oppenheimer. 2007

Oppenheimer’s district includes the municipalities of Mamaroneck, Rye, New Rochelle, White Plains, Scarsdale, New Castle, North Castle and Harrison. Senator Oppenheimer disclosed today that she will be undergoing major shoulder surgery in the near future.  She has stated that the extensive rehabilitation that will follow this surgery would preclude her from running.  Although it is unclear when this surgery is to take place, it is believed that it will be occurring sometime soon.

Senator  Oppenheimer was elected to the state senate in 1984 after serving four terms as the Mayor of Mamaroneck.  Her arrival in Albany came at a time when there were few women in office.  During her tenure, we have seen more women who have not only run for elected office but who have been elected and serve.   In those 28 years that Oppenheimer served, she sponsored more bills than any other Democratic Senator and worked on implementing 300 laws that are currently on the books.

In 2009, Senator Oppenheimer became the first woman to chair the Senate Standing Committee after serving on that committee for 24 years. While Senator Oppenheimer was always a voice for  issues that concerned women, children and families, her passion was in the delivery of services that enhanced the educational experience of the students in the communities she served.   Last year she was responsible for bringing 700 million dollars to state schools in Federal funding under President Obama’s Race to the Top educational initiative.

Scarsdale businessman and Republican Bob Cohen, who ran against Oppenheimer last year, and who came within 700 votes of defeating her announced today that he will be running for the seat again.  His Democratic challenger will be Assemblyman George Latimer.  Latimer has served in the  Assembly since 2004 and currently resides in Rye City.

WPCNR BLACK COFFEE from WPCNR Westchester County Roving Correspondent Nancy King. January 3, 2011:

2011 was one of those active years where political drama and the usual spin was seen in from  the County Offices, to the larger cities in the county and right down to tiny villages like the Tarrytowns.  Of course there were stories of the never ending economic downturn that were juxtaposed with the increased sales tax revenues from both White Plains and the county.  There was also a fair amount of political musical chairs played throughout the county this year.

WPCNR NEWS & COMMENT. By Westchester County Roving Correspondent Nancy King. December 28, 2011:

Nancy King

Crikey, I hadn’t heard that one since my own child was in the first grade, but, in the past week or so we’ve watched the defriending of Nicole Katz, wife of Assemblyman Steve Katz by State Senator Greg Ball wind its way from social media to mainstreammedia .The crux of the story revoloves around Senator Ball defriending Nicole Katz on Facebook for a critical comment that Mrs. Katz posted to the Senator’s wall. 

WPCNR MR. AND MRS. AND MS. WHITE PLAINS POLL. December 27, 2011:

The new White Plains adminstration that took office in April, now has to leading the city. WPCNR looked around, and isolated some key issues listed at the right that the city government might want to consider as priorities in the year to come.

In his coming State of the City address, Mayor Thomas Roach should take into account some of these ongoing problems and let us know what he will do to address them.

He has the opportunity to end the labor war started by the Bradley administration with the unions, which the city has continued to pursue,

However, pursuing arbitration is not going to result in a great police and fire contract for the city because inflation is running 3.5% in the metropolitan area according to the Department of Labor. The CSEA contract nimbly negotiated to hold salaries at 0% is a looming time bomb down the road. You're going to have to make up the damage. 

The administration needs to dump the adverserial attitude and stop going to court, making lawyers rich and treat city workers like human beings instead of taking away. I do not have an exact figure but I believe (if FASNY legal and  consulting work is included), the city has committed close to a million dollars in legal and consulting fees to outsiders  to fight policies long in place.  A million dollars is a 3% tax increase.

The city is now stagnant. There is no development going on except the Main Steet retail/hotel complex starting to go up. By my recollection, there are four site plans approved that have not been started, and another plan that construction is proceeding at a snail's pace. The city has to saber-rattle to get these projects started or threaten revocation of the site plans. Otherwise the city cannot grow. The city has to sell itself and attract small businesses as well as big ones. That has not been done since Joseph Delfino departed the Mayor's office.

The sales tax is on the upswing creating a nice pot of gold. Should it be used to help the school district which is looking at a property tax disaster this year if they want to keep the district at the same level. Should the sales tax be increased to pay for keep city government the size it is? Lots of questions the city has to question itself about. Or should it be used to make a tax cut for both city and school district. That'll be the day.

The French American School of New York purchase of the Ridgeway property is an insoluble dilemma, as long as the Common Council and the administration continue to listen to a minority and fight this thing, the more money will be burned. Should the city attempt to buy back the land? I think that should be explored. What do you think?

Tax certioraris -- big ones -- from the businesses that got them three years ago are heading our way again. Should the city make all businesses in the city replenish these losses with a tax certiorari surcharge on all? It is the only way out, since the city seems unable and unwilling to do forensic audits of the books of businesses applying for certioraris.

Anyway it makes no difference what I think. What does Mr, and Mrs. White Plains think? It is your money. Give us your thoughts in the poll at the right.

WPCNR QUILL & EYESHADE. News & Comment by John F. Bailey. December 12,2011 UPDATED December 16, 2011:

Bah, humbug!

Have any of the financial wizards in the business press, and those economist pundits got their calculators out and analyzed Albany new  tax rates and noted the “Bonus Money” the New York legislature and Governor have just sent to those struggling “Middle Class Taxpayers” making from  $300,000 to $2 million a year?

Has anyone dared to point that the legislature and the state’s leaders have a hell of a nerve to say this is a "middle class" tax cut?

No.

All we hear is praise for the Governor and the legislature for making New York more attractive to business, giving tax relief to the struggling middle class taxpayer.

Struggling middle class? Surely the Albany Santa must be kidding.

You do not need an accountant to smell this pre-election year ploy.

How can you cut revenue when your revenues are down?

WPCNR MR. AND MRS. AND MS. WHITE PLAINS POLL. December 9,2011:

In four days this week Governor Cuomo presented the New York State legislature with a sweeping overhaul of New York State Tax rates, creating tax cuts for all income levels.

If you earn net income from $40,000 to $150,000, your tax rate declines from 6.85% to 6.45%

If you earn $150,000 to $300,000, tax rate declines from 6.85% to 6.65%.

If you earn $300,000 to $2 Million ($1 Million if a single taxpayer), your tax rate declines from 7.85% to 8.97% down to 6.85% ( a full 1 %)

If you earn over $2 Million your current tax rate of 8.97% declines to 8.82%.

So the question is how are you going to use this windfall, Mr. and Mrs. White Plains. I thought of a few possibilities the windfall can be used for at the right.

WPCNR NEWS COMMENT. By John F. Bailey. November 22, 2011 (Originally published in 2001):

Forty-eight years ago at about midday today eastern standard time, President John F. Kennedy was shot.

When I heard the news, I was heading up the steps of  Gray Chapel at Ohio Wesleyan University in Delaware, Ohio. It was sobering news. Then within the hour it was reported that the President was dead, and the search was on for potential suspects.

It was the first time in my life a national event had ever affected me.

Persons in their late 50s can probably remember exactly what they were doing when they heard that electrifying news.

Disbelief. Concern. Sadness.

Who would shoot the President?  How could they?

President Kennedy's popularity was ebbing at that time. The public was initially inspired by the vision of Camelot and the likable, energetic young president. However, by the time he was assassinated, President Kennedy was coming under harsh criticism for his foreign policy and his inability to move an agenda through congress. He was ridiculed by impressionists and pushed around by congressional heavyweights.

But, when he was shot, the American public, even those who disagreed with his politics and considered him in over his head in the presidency, were stunned by grief and horror.

Nothing had happened like that in America since 1901 when President William McKinley was assassinated.

 An entire nation reflected in guilt for a week as the three television networks showed 24 hours a day assassination and funeral coverage.

Until the Trade Center Horror in 2001, this nation had not experienced anything on that national scale of reaction to an event.

Were we a more sensitive nation then? More sensitive to what killing actually is? I wonder. In the fast-moving sensationalism of news today, would the same sensitivity be there today?

Or, have we been hardened to violence, and do we now see violence as more of an acceptable solution to problems than to be avoided at all costs?

I remember how Americans sat mesmerized in front of their televisions as the Kennedy goodbye played out. I remember, too how Kennedy's death swiftly paved the way for the landmark Civil Rights act of 1965, legislated by Kennedy's successor, Lyndon B. Johnson. That legislation, without Kennedy's assassination would probably never have been passed. I believe it passed because of collective guilt over Kennedy's demise.

For 48 years, politicians, when their charisma is measured, have always been compared to Mr. Kennedy.

However, charisma does not get things done. Does not make for change by itself. It is nice but it achieves nothing unless you have some solid ideas, management skills, and are willing to work hard for it. Even, then, as a recent Kennedyesque President found out, it may not happen.

However, the political rancor and hysterical hatred of our current President expressed in the Republican debates, on talk radio and by candidates who should know better has created an atmosphere of disrespect for the President that exceeds even that aimed at George W. Bush.

The lack of respect for the Presidency today has created an atmosphere that is far more dangerous for the President than we can ever tell.

Ideas and rhetoric are one thing, but to vilify the President on the scale of what we hear today is irresponsible.

WPCNR MR. AND MRS.WHITE PLAINS POLL. NOVEMBER 10, 2011:

Tonight the League of Women Voters will sponsor a debate between a representative of the French American School of New York, Michael Zarin, and a major opponent of the project, Robert Stackpole, in an effort to focus on the issues involving the school plan to build a 1,200-student campus on the failed Ridgeway Country Club property in the heart of White Plains upscale southend of town.

Steven Silverberg, the City of White Plains consulting attorney on the city effort to craft an ordinance restricting what any school organization could do on the property will outline the process of the environmental review now underway. After the debate, the two protagonists will take written questions from the floor. The debate is at 7 PM at the Ridgeway Country Club.

The debate takes place a day after a candidate with strong opposition to the FASNY project and development in neighborhoods generally, Terence Guerriere, a resident of the Gedney Farms neighborhood where FASNY is planning to develop its campus, was defeated for Common Council by 500 votes (at this time).

It raises a question of whether the vast majority of the city 30,000 registered voters and 57,000 residents really is that passionately concerned that the city not allow the FASNY project, or whether the Common Council is paying too much attention to a small minority of citizerns who have their ear by earmarking about a half a million dollars of city money to studying,crafting and devising an ordinance and study that would hinder development of golf courses in general.

So WPCNR  has devised the accompanying poll at the rightto sample the community's passion index on the FASNY project.

WPCNR CAMPAIGN 2011. News & Comment by John F. Bailey. October 24, 2011:

 The League of Women Voters sponsored its traditional Candidates Forum Monday evening at the library. The forum did go according to form and did not raise the substantial questions of Common Council Candidates that should have been asked.

The first Forum held at the Women’s Club produced the usual decorum among candidates, their professed love for White Plains, its “diversity,” the need for affordable housing, (which is odd, since White Plains already has plenty of affordable housing, it’s just illegal, just ask civic leaders living in Battle Hill, Fisher Hill, Eastview and DeKalb neighborhoods); the need to protect neighborhoods (code words for denying French American School of New York from building its campus on the former Ridgeway Country Club); the need for fiscal vigilance, the need for more economic development, (without recognizing that half the west side of town is locked in as an urban renewal project with the city having to take the lead).

 There were no attacks on the incumbent councilpersons for letting city finances get into the present crisis. There were no attacks on the incumbents’ voting for site plan renewal after site plan renewal that now has the effect of stalling any development until the landowners take their sweet time funding their projects.

There was a noticeable lack of preparation on the part of Republican council challengers, one of whom totally misstated the sales tax trend. With the exception of Terrence Gueriere, they exhibited no preparation for the forum, no knowledge of how things got this way in the city today,let alone the condition the city is in today, and no stomach for even suggesting that the present councilpersons were perhaps just a wee inattentive the last four years, and perhaps made questionable decisions?

It appears that the always cooperative Republican City Committee is handing the electon to the Democratic Foursome by not spending much on a campaign, not attacking Democrats’ past performance, and not coming up with even a platform other than “Stop FASNY."

WPCNR prepared a list of issues and questions that if asked at the final debate sponsored by Concerned Citizens for Open Space coming up might be revealing. The questions (only questions 18 and 21 were asked by citizenry):

WPCNR MR. AND MRS. WHITE PLAINS POLL. AUGUST 18, 2011:

It's Bumber Cars every morning and afternoon!

One of the great things of being a media mogul with a strangle hold on local journalism is getting aggravated at things that annoy you.

Your crusading "award-winning-recognized-statewide-by-the-New York-Assembly-for-my-expertise-and-public service"correspondent is now dropping off and picking up a commuter to New York City every morning and afternoon.

The Chaos Hour  (6 to 7 PM) at the Little Station of Horrors--August, 2007-- when WPCNR first pointed it out. It is far worse now.

I have to tell you, no matter what hour you pick up or drop off your commuterrette or commuter by car between 6:30 A.M. and 9:30 A.M. and 4:30 P.M. to 7 P.M.,  you are in for a bizzarre, unsupervised traffic pattern with drivers trying to pick up commuters, squeezing by an endless line of taxis (perhaps we sold a little too many medallions folks?), trying to queue up for a train discharge among the parking places, and then dodging the quadruple merge of vehicles from the garage, the drop-off lane, the taxi lane and the pickup-ees lanes dodging cutoffs and getting like jammed up.

Does anyone agree with me that the traffic commission and the police and the parking department have to look at this situation before the fall begins? Get rid of the parking meters in that plaza. Get the taxi pick-up father away from the closest curb nearer the station, that makes no sense. Put the cabs on the other side of the station -- just a few examples of how to make it better.

CitizeNetReporter needs your input. If you think the present flow between 6:30 and 9:30 A.M. is o.k. the way it is now...vote NO in the poll at the right. If you think it needs police presence to ease flow of traffic or complete redesign, vote "Yes."

What do you think Mr. and Mrs. and Ms. White Plains?

I run this survey now, before the vacationers come back in September. Because the aggressive, disorganized pattern that now exists is highly aggravating in my opinion.

Of course had the council let Mr. Cappelli analyze the plaza four years ago, you might have a solution to this by now, but no. They did not.

Now we are stuck with the Metro North plaza mess. But for once, maybe the traffic commission could look at a real issue traffic issue.

WPCNR NEWS & COMMENT. By John F. Bailey. July 31, 2011 UPDATED 11:20 P.M. E.DT.:

This morning Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky had the audacity to tell Bob Schieffer on CBS  that the U.S. Congress would come together for the good of the American people.

They could have done that three months ago and spent some energy paying attention to the Missouri River flood.

Just as predicted by White Plains Week on this week’s program, instead of voting down the house program last night,now McConnell says they’re coming together for the American people.

Where have we heard this one before?

How did we know this compromise  was going to happen?

I bet the bill is already written and ready to go.  In fact, it is McConnell as I file this scathing commentary just announced the details.

Perhaps Sheldon Silver drafted it for them.

And, now, get this, they have to pass it real fast -- taking a leaf from the Joe Delfino playbook!

The media has been mesmerized with this debt ceiling story for a month .It was a mass distraction. You always knew they would raise the debt ceiling.

 WPCNR News and Comment by John F Bailey. March 30, 2011:

Welcome back, Lara Logan.

Ms. Logan, the CBS news chief foreign correspondent, was the victim of  a brutal sexual assault in Cairo, February 11 appeared in public two weeks ago,  and spoke for an hour as a keynote speaker at the American University Intercultural Management Institute meeting March 10.

Logan keynoted  with Akbar Ahmed at the American University, Mary Graydon Center in Washington DC. It marks the first appearance of Ms. Logan,WPCNR believes since she was attacked in Cairo Tahrir Square late evening of February 11.

An article appearing in the American Today website by Michael Ungar described her as expressing strong opinions on aspects of US foreign policy in Afghanistan during her remarks.

 Logan said "the shadow government of the Taliban is operating from Pakistan, all the Al Qaeda leadership is in Pakistan, what would Afghanistan look like if the US would've dealt with Pakistan to begin with? Many Afghan and US allies would've been spared," Logan said. "Growing up in South Africa, you understand the intercultural isn't just between two countries. It was always astonishing to me that Americans work on the rack and say, these people are more concerned about clan than country I grew up in a country where we were ashamed to be South Africa."

The thousands of reporters who have supported Ms. Logan during her recovery from the attack have to be cheered by the progress Ms. Logan has made, appearing in public and taking up where she left off.

We salute her. Hopefully she'll be back on 60 Minutes soon.

The report on Ms. Logan's appearance can be read at http://www.american.edu/americantoday/campusnews/20110316lara-logan-ahmed.cfm

WPCNR News and Comment by John F Bailey. February 16, 2011:

Stop reading right now. I would not want to spoil your day.

For I propose to tell you about the horror of Lara Logan.

You  couldn’t read about her in your local Gannett paper this morning.

You won't read about the Horror of Lara Logan  until page 12 of. The New York Times this morning.

WPCNR's The Daily Bailey. By John F. Bailey. February 12, 2011 Retrieved from the WPCNR ANNALS OF ANALYIS VAULT. 

Today marks the birthday of Abraham Lincoln, whose Presidential performance during the Civil War (1861-1865) was perhaps the most admirable of any American President. He had to create things as he went, dealing with a complex political issue: slavery, while deciding to fight a war to preserve a divided nation.

How did Abraham Lincoln handle pressure and political opportunists? He did not have press agents and spinmasters and talk show hosts and superior punditry critiquing his every move and loading him up with advice. 

Though he did have the "crusading editors" and "editorial boards" of his day.  Let's take a look at the Big Guy  from Illinois