To the GreeneLand Station

UPDATE on Suspected Swindler story: Christine Owad blames the Russian Mafia not only for the lawsuit against her (for allegedly running a Green Card scam), and for the related court order (Don’t sell property that eventually could be used to compensate your victims), but also for the death, at her Prattsville farm, of a horse.

RESIGNING, effective October 1^st, after less than a full term, as Catskill Village Justice: Veronica Kosich. Contrary to local babble, she’s not leaving on account of conflicts of interest (dealing with cases involving erstwhile law clients). She has just started an advanced legal training program (LLM degree) in trusts, estates and elder law. Meanwhile, she retains a private law practice. Something had to go. (In case you wondered, being a practicing lawyer and a judge, at the lowest judicial level, is eminently legal. Most Village and Town Justices are not lawyers. The three GreeneLand exceptions are entitled to continue their private practices).

IMMINENT. Saturday (9/8). -- Dress parade of volunteer fire companies from four counties, plus police & dignitaries & (we anticipate) candidates, from 2 p.m. starting on Sunset Boulevard at Stacy Avenue, up Stacy Avenue to Hose 3 headquarters on Bailey Street in Coxsackie. --‘Second Saturday Stroll’ on Catskill’s Main Street, from 5 p.m. Many galleries, specialty shops, antiques emporia, restaurants and cafes will be open, and the Dixieland-playing Saints of Swing will again cruise the boulevard. And late in the balmy evening, a rowdy, raucous party will rage at Wilder Gallery. --“By the Light of the Silvery Moon” event, from 7:30 p.m., at the Bronck Museum near Coxsackie. “The Pleasures and Perils of Night Life in Times Past” recalled by means of a story teller, live music and period refreshments. Adults,$6; members, $3; kids, $2. Queries: (518)731-6490. Tuesday (9/12). --State-wide primary elections, for U.S. Senator and Governor on down to county legislator.

NEWS BIZ NEWS. Daily Mail veteran Raymond Pignone has been demoted, titularly, from Editor to Managing Editor of that newspaper. Theresa Hyland now is billed as Editor; she previously was mastheaded as Executive Editor of the several Hudson Valley Newspapers operations. Terez Limer, who for a time held the title of Assistant Editor of The D M, left there (position abolished) for a new Ravena weekly, but now is out of the news game. Also gone from The D M is Debora Gilbert, who had been hired to replace Antonio D’Arcangelis as north county reporter; he left for press agentry in Albany, but still writes a weekly D M column about his golf (vs. golf events in GreeneLand). Ms Gilbert’s stay was remarkably short, given the fact that when hired she was treated to a special write-up (Wellesley grad). After weeks of advertising for a replacement, publisher Roger Coleman hired Donna Rich from within. Meanwhile, Christopher Smith and Deborah Travers, who had been the D M’s reportorial core before quitting together in disgust over upper-level shenanigans, and who then joined Vincent Seeley’s company while doing assignments for The Greenville Press, now are listed as Reporters (vs. Contributing Writers) for that paper. They do some assignments that formerly went to sterling scribes William DeVoe and Sean Springer, who recently moved on to an Albany Spotlight weekly and to Plattsburgh for a final year of college. Also reporting for the Press are two multi-taskers: M.A. Tarpinian, erstwhile manager of the Cairo Chamber of Commerce, thespian, and producer of the successful Renaissance Faire; and Jonathan Ment (google Ment Media), who is a Kingston Daily Freeman alumnus. (A Seeing Greene flunky worked briefly as GreeneLand correspondent for that paper until its managing editor, Sam Daleo, tried to cheat him out of his paltry earnings).

EXPIRED, after a short unhappy life, of inanition: the Greenville Chamber of Commerce. Its small core of founders did not grow. Indeed, shrinkage occurred after some early adherents quit after others took an “official” position on a local controversy (teachers’ contract) without putting it first to the members

POSTPONED, to October 2d: GreeneLand ex-prizefighter Kevin Rooney’s decision about whether to go to trial on felony charges, or to enter into a plea bargain. At a conference today, defense attorney Denis Schlenker was furnished by District Attorney Terry Wilhelm’s staff with discovery materials that will shape the eventual decision. Mr Rooney, arrested last April by Coxsackie police, was charged with felony drunk driving and with aggravated unlicensed driving (that is, driving after his license had already been revoked because of drunk driving). This one-time Golden Gloves champion (1975) and trainer (of Mike Tyson, among others) served jail time in 2004 for public nuisance (urinating on Catskill’s Main Street); at that time he also was on probation after a drunk driving conviction in Albany County. His former home on West Bridge Street was sold last year at a foreclosure auction. His case will be tried in Columbia County; GreeneLand’s judges, all too well acquainted with Mr Rooney, have recused themselves.

RAGING: local battle for a seat in the U.S. Congress. Some notes: Standings. According to fairly recent Siena College interviews, Rep. John Sweeney (R-Clifton Park) holds or held a 19 percentage-point lead over Democratic challenger Kirsten Gillibrand, in the contest to represent our district (New York’s 20^th) in the House of Representatives. Many voters evidently feel they don’t know Ms Gillibrand, and for that reason, among others, are disposed to re-elect Mr Sweeney. Such is the normal plight of the challenger, especially when (s)he does not have a history of holding local public offices. Ms Gillibrand’s campaign countered today by citing a fresh “internal" poll showing just an 8-point gap between her and Mr Sweeney (39% to 47%, vs. 31-49 in May), along with gains in her familiarity and favorability ratings and in his unfavorability rating. Mystery Poll. Some local voters are being telephoned by a robot who purports to be conducting a “non-partisan poll” which consists of three questions: Does respondent think the country is going in the right direction, or wrong? Does respondent intend to vote for Sweeney, or for Gillibrand? Is respondent male or female? No sponsorship of this bit of sampling is mentioned. That is peculiar. So is the focus only on the House race. So is the query about sex, and about nothing else in the way of face-sheet data. Attack “Poll.” Another opinion survey (so to speak) that evidently has been conducted in the 20^th district begins just like the aforementioned one; but it proceeds in a radically different way. It unfolds what is known in some quarters as a “push poll” and can as readily be characterized as a vicious attack masquerading as an opinion poll. As reported in the Capital Confidential section of The TimesUnion (Albany), its robot asks respondents about their Congressional voting intentions and then, to those who voice a preference for Ms Gillibrand, poses a special question: Would you change your mind if you "knew" that she does not live in the district, that her law firm represented an Enron crook, and/or that she has used the death of American soldiers in Iraq for political gain? Insinuated by this compound question, but not directly affirmed, are (i) that the foregoing assertions about Ms Gillibrand are true, (ii) that they are crucial in evaluating a candidate, and that (iii) they ought to be regarded as conclusive reasons for disavowing Ms Gillibrand. And yet the robot interrogator can deny responsibility for those claims. The source of that pseudo-poll was traced by reporter Elizabeth Benjamin to a firm called the Tarrance Group, which works for the National Republican Congressional Campaign Committee. “The Sweeney campaign,” says The TimesUnion, “has denied all involvement.” Attack Ads. Mr Sweeney has been the target of attacks of another kind, namely, televised spots sponsored by the independent pro-Democratic organization MoveOn.org. Two “caught red-handed”ads were aired recently on local channels, although W-TEN (American Broadcasting Co.) responded to protests from the Sweeney camp (“false,” “inaccurate,” “misleading,” “defamatory”) to the extent of not airing one of them. One of the ads imputes to Mr Sweeney a share of responsibility for huge amounts of money that have been “dumped” in Iraq, as well as for willingness to dump more billions there. The other “caught red-handed” ad says Mr Sweeney “accepted three thousand dollars from defense contractor PACs” (political action committees) and then “missed votes to penalize contractors like Halliburton who over-charged the military in Iraq.” (Insinuated: he did wrong because he’d sold out to Halliburton or other contractors). Those “caught red-handed” ads have evoked censure from impartial analysts, namely, folks at the Annenberg School of Journalism’s FactCheck.org site. Regarding the “Dumping Billions” ad, FactCheck makes the point that (contrary to what is insinuated) Mr Sweeney’s actions were much the same as those of most Republicans and Democrats. As for the “Red-Handed Defense” ad, FactCheck makes the points that Mr Sweeney received paltry donations from military contractors, that he missed votes on measures that would have increased (vs. imposed) penalties, and that in any event the proposed measures were flawed technically. FactCheck does great rhetorical analysis. Its people earn credibility not only for the immediate terms of their critiques in this case, but also for their incisive critiques of many Republican ads. (For texts of the “caught red-handed” ads and for a rationale--claiming essentially that Mr Sweeney bears responsibility for President Bush’s Iraq “fiasco”--go to MoveOn’s web site. The subject is not discussed on Mr Sweeney’s campaign site). Counterattack Ad. The Sweeney camp has put out a TV ad stigmatizing Ms Gillibrand as a “war profiteer” (owning shares in a military contractor) who is “backed by Washington groups bashing America.” Forthcoming. Between now and November 7^th, Ms Gillibrand will strive to make herself better known, to intensify ethical questions, and to tie her opponent hard and fast to the Botch Administration. Mr Sweeney, while conducting an arms-length personal attack on Ms Gillibrand, will concentrate on reminding us of his successes in bringing tangible benefits to constituents.