Monday, March 24, 2014

400 attorneys are too many?

Any Christian believer knows that NY State can't pick and chose one Easter Sunday/Palm Sunday over the other.
Anyone who is not a believer can simply go to hell.


For Immediate Release: March 24, 2014
Contact: Lee.Park@gaming.ny.gov
          
NEW YORK GAMING FACILITY LOCATION BOARD SELECTS TAFT, STETTINIUS & HOLLISTER LLP AS GAMING ADVISORY SERVICES CONSULTANT

The New York Gaming Facility Location Board has selected the firm of Taft, Stettinius & Hollister LLP to provide gaming advisory services in its review and ultimate selection of casino applicants for Upstate New York.

The selection of a consultant to provide the Gaming Facility Location Board members with analysis of the gaming industry and assist with the comprehensive review and evaluation of the applications is mandated by the Upstate New York Gaming and Economic Development Act.

The New York State Gaming Commission issued a Request for Proposals for the consultant in November 2013. The proposal put forth by Taft, Stettinius & Hollister LLP was selected over four other timely proposals received.

Taft, Stettinius & Hollister LLP has subcontracted with several entities to assist in the project, including financial advisory firm Christiansen Capital Advisors, investment bank Houlihan Lokey and gaming facility consultant Macomber International, Inc.

Taft, Stettinius & Hollister LLP (Taft) has approximately 400 attorneys and maintains core practice groups in the areas of gaming law, corporate finance, government contracts and real estate development. The firm has extensive experience in drafting Requests for Applications and protocols for casino development projects, including evaluating the legal, suitability, financial and local government and community impact aspects of the applications received and preparing analysis and conclusions on the siting process. The firm has worked with Colorado, Louisiana, Missouri, Chicago, Detroit and Springfield, Massachusetts on gaming matters.  As primary contractor, Taft will be the project contact and will be responsible for all services provided by subcontractors.

Christiansen Capital Advisors has advised governments, investors, casino companies, law firms and the media concerning the gaming industry since 1988. The company will provide the Gaming Facility Location Board with technical expertise and conduct revenue feasibility studies for the casino gaming market in each region, which will assist the Gaming Facility Location Board in setting gaming licensing fees. Christiansen Capital Advisors will work with Macomber to advise the Gaming Facility Location Board in setting the minimum capital investment required in each region and advise the Gaming Facility Location Board on the content of the RFA and the evaluation of applicants with respect to financial viability, market studies and revenue/cost projections.

Houlihan Lokey Capital, Inc. (Houlihan) is a global investment banking firm and leading advisor in gaming industry financial matters, including raising capital and structuring financings. The firm has more than 40 years of financial advisory experience and has advised both gaming companies and investors in connection with mergers and acquisitions, financial restructuring and other complex matters. Houlihan has advised the U.S. Treasury Department and Department of Energy. The firm has been retained to provide technical expertise and advise the Gaming Facility Location Board on the general prospects for financing casino development projects in each region. Houlihan will assist in the evaluation of applicants’ responses for financial capacity to develop and sustain proposed casino development projects, review the likelihood and firmness of any financing commitments provided by the applicants and evaluate the ability of the equity and debt financing markets to support the proposed projects.

Macomber International, Inc. (Macomber) is an international consulting company that provides custom development, finance/funding, operations, marketing and other services to publicly and privately owned companies and governments. Dean Macomber, the founder, president and sole employee, has expertise in the development, layout and operation of casino projects. He has been retained to advise the Gaming Facility Location Board on the projected size of the potential gaming markets in the regions. Additionally, together with Christiansen Capital Advisors, Macomber will provide assistance in setting the minimum capital investment required in each region. The company will advise the Gaming Facility Location Board in its evaluation of the size and layout of proposed casinos, including the number of table games and slot machines, poker and high-limit positions. Macomber will also assist in the evaluation of proposed food and beverage operations, hotel amenities and back-of-house operations, including internal controls and security.

The Gaming Facility Location Board will issue the Request for Applications for casino bidders this month.

Commission staff is working on the Request for Application, incorporating the mandatory elements set forth in the Upstate New York Gaming and Economic Development Act. The Board and Commission will continue to develop the Request for Application, which the Board will issue. The Gaming Facility Location Board will also undertake, with the assistance of the gaming advisory services consultant, further duties as set forth in the Upstate New York Gaming and Economic Development Act, including:
·         Establishment of the license fee
·         Determination of the minimal capital investment
·         Establishment of a credit from previous development for existing video lottery gaming facilities that wish to submit an application
·         Determination on how local support will be illustrated

Based on previous professional relationships both Taft and its subcontractors have had with gaming entities, the Facility Location Board will require applicants, as part of the Request for Application, to complete Conflict of Interest disclosures and mitigate any potential or actual conflict of interest in order for the Board to accept an application.​

More information about the process of siting casinos in New York can be found at www.gaming.ny.gov. 


HI-
Thanks for the help. The item’s below. I’d be happy to mail you a copy, if you give me a mailing address.

Claude Solnik
(631) 913-4244
Long Island Business News
2150 Smithtown Ave.
Ronkonkoma, NY 11779-7348 

Home > LI Confidential > Stop scratching on holidays

Stop scratching on holidays
Published: June 1, 2012


Off Track Betting in New York State has been racing into a crisis called shrinking revenue. Some people have spitballed a solution: Don’t close on holidays.
New York State Racing Law bars racing on Christmas, Easter and Palm Sunday, and the state has ruled OTBs can’t handle action on those days, even though they could easily broadcast races from out of state.
“You should be able to bet whenever you want,” said Jackson Leeds, a Nassau OTB employee who makes an occasional bet. He added some irrefutable logic: “How is the business going to make money if you’re not open to take people’s bets?”
Elias Tsekerides, president of the Federation of Hellenic Societies of Greater New York, said OTB is open on Greek Orthodox Easter and Palm Sunday.
“I don’t want discrimination,” Tsekerides said. “They close for the Catholics, but open for the Greek Orthodox? It’s either open for all or not open.”
OTB officials have said they lose millions by closing on Palm Sunday alone, with tracks such as Gulfstream, Santa Anita, Turf Paradise and Hawthorne running.
One option: OTBs could just stay open and face the consequences. New York City OTB did just that back in 2003. The handle was about $1.5 million – and OTB was fined $5,000.
Easy money.

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NY Const. Art. 1, Sec. 3

Suffolk OTB workers accept pay lag

Sunday March 23, 2014 5:47 PM By Rick Brand
Suffolk Off-Track Betting Corp. workers voted to take a lag payroll to keep the agency afloat while officials try to extricate themsleves from bankruptcy and build an electronic slot machine casino.
Philip Nolan, OTB president, said unionized workers voted by a 2-1 margin which will save the agency $300,000 by skipping one two-week pay period. The 200 workers and managers affected will get their delayed salary when they leave or retire from OTB at whatever rate of pay they are making at that time.
The move comes as OTB officials are next scheduled to go to bankruptcy court April 9 where the agency will seek approval of the new contract with gaming firm Delaware North, to construct the 1,000 slot machine casino. Meanwhile, the Republican co-led State Senate has included in its one house budget another 1,000 more machines each for Nassau and Suffolk.
Joseph Cairo, Nassau OTB President, sees a better than 50-50 chance the extra machines will make the final budget. However, Vanessa Baird Streeter, a spokeswoman for County Executive Steve Bellone, said additional machines “may be a bit premature” until the already approved machines are in operation.




HI-
Thanks for the help. The item’s below. I’d be happy to mail you a copy, if you give me a mailing address.

Claude Solnik
(631) 913-4244
Long Island Business News
2150 Smithtown Ave.
Ronkonkoma, NY 11779-7348 

Home > LI Confidential > Stop scratching on holidays

Stop scratching on holidays
Published: June 1, 2012


Off Track Betting in New York State has been racing into a crisis called shrinking revenue. Some people have spitballed a solution: Don’t close on holidays.
New York State Racing Law bars racing on Christmas, Easter and Palm Sunday, and the state has ruled OTBs can’t handle action on those days, even though they could easily broadcast races from out of state.
“You should be able to bet whenever you want,” said Jackson Leeds, a Nassau OTB employee who makes an occasional bet. He added some irrefutable logic: “How is the business going to make money if you’re not open to take people’s bets?”
Elias Tsekerides, president of the Federation of Hellenic Societies of Greater New York, said OTB is open on Greek Orthodox Easter and Palm Sunday.
“I don’t want discrimination,” Tsekerides said. “They close for the Catholics, but open for the Greek Orthodox? It’s either open for all or not open.”
OTB officials have said they lose millions by closing on Palm Sunday alone, with tracks such as Gulfstream, Santa Anita, Turf Paradise and Hawthorne running.
One option: OTBs could just stay open and face the consequences. New York City OTB did just that back in 2003. The handle was about $1.5 million – and OTB was fined $5,000.
Easy money.

OTB Presidents should have to work as cashiers in the Green Acres Branch of Nassau OTB to get a feel for the real world?

 

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PETA

People for the ethical treatment of Greeks, Nassau OTB workers, gamblers and taxpayers

NY State Const Art. 1, Sec 3 is a performance enhancer for people that want to bet and /or work.
Where the hell is PETA to see that the above are ethically treated?





Sports

PETA Accuses Two Trainers of Cruelty to Horses

By
The trainer Steve Asmussen ranks second in career victories, with more than 6,700. Danny Johnston/Associated Press
Over a 26-year career, the trainer Steve Asmussen has built one of horse racing’s largest and most successful operations. He ranks second in career victories, with more than 6,700; has earned more than $214 million in purses, the fifth most in thoroughbred racing; and was recently included on the National Museum of Racing’s Hall of Fame ballot.
But People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, after conducting an undercover investigation, has accused Asmussen and his top assistant trainer, Scott Blasi, of subjecting their horses to cruel and injurious treatments, administering drugs to them for nontherapeutic purposes, and having one of their jockeys use an electrical device to shock horses into running faster. As a result of its findings, PETA filed complaints with federal and state agencies in Kentucky and New York on Tuesday, saying Asmussen “forced injured and/or suffering horses to race and train.”
The undercover inquiry was conducted by a PETA investigator who worked for Asmussen for four months in the spring and summer of 2013 at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky., and Saratoga Race Course in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.
Nehro, center, the 2011 Derby runner-up, died last year. PETA recorded discussions of his foot problems. Rob Carr/Getty Images
The investigator used a hidden camera to record more than seven hours of video that showed mistreatment of the horses to be widespread and cavalier. In addition, PETA produced a 285-page report about Asmussen’s operations that consisted of the investigator’s notes, medical documents and reports from veterinarians who reviewed the videotape.
“It is certainly a surprise to Mr. Asmussen and Mr. Blasi that anyone would deceptively get a job and keep surveillance and their notes on their conduct for the agenda of others,” Clark Brewster, a lawyer for the two men, said Wednesday. “They will reserve comment with regard to any accusations until they have had the opportunity to fully review them. Then they will respond factually.”
The New York Times reviewed the video and documents, along with the legal complaints, and interviewed the investigator and others involved in the operation, but played no role in the investigation. PETA shared the material on the condition that The Times not publish the investigator’s name.
Video clips and the report depicted the Asmussen barn and the backsides of two of the United States’ most storied racetracks as places where horses were treated as commodities and given numerous joint injections as well as tranquilizers, painkillers and supplements.
Over the past 30 years, PETA has aggressively assailed corporations for the way they treat animals and has run undercover investigations. But the Asmussen investigation was PETA’s first significant step into advocacy in the horse racing world. The organization said the treatment of racehorses would become a priority for the group.
“We wanted to know exactly what happens to thoroughbreds in a top racing stable,” Kathy Guillermo, the senior vice president for PETA, said. “It was devastating to see sore, exhausted, drugged horses every single day. Some were in so much pain it hurt them even to stand, yet they were trained and run anyway.”
PETA has also accused Asmussen of employing undocumented workers, requiring them to use false names on Internal Revenue Service forms, and conspiring with Blasi to produce false identification documents, according to the complaints filed with state and federal agencies. Asmussen also paid the PETA investigator $5.95 an hour — less than minimum wage — and did not pay proper overtime wages, according to complaints filed with the labor departments of Kentucky and New York.
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Blasi was recorded discussing injured horses, as well as how one of his jockeys, Ricardo Santana Jr., 21, used a buzzer to shock horses, a practice that is banned in racing.
Santana’s agent, Ruben Muñoz, said the rider had never used an electrical device. “He’s a good, hardworking kid,” Muñoz said of Santana. “I’d put my neck out that he has no part of this.”
The allegations come as horse racing continues to wrestle publicly with a drug culture that its officials concede has badly damaged the sport. A New York Times investigation in 2012 showed how a pervasive drug culture, encouraged by trainers and aided by veterinarians, put horses and riders at risk. The Times found that 24 horses a week died at American tracks, a rate greater than in countries where drug use was severely restricted.
Congress has held multiple hearings and proposed legislation that would create stricter rules and give the United States Anti-Doping Agency authority to enforce them.
Asmussen, who has a current Kentucky Derby contender in Tapiture, has run afoul of regulators before. In 2006, he served a six-month suspension after a filly he trained tested 750 times over the legal limit in Louisiana for the local anesthetic mepivacaine, which can deaden pain in a horse’s legs. Instead of losing his livelihood, Asmussen turned his horses over to Blasi, who won another 198 races as the stable finished the year with more than $14 million in earnings.
On the tapes, Blasi was a profane narrator to the murky goings-on at American racetracks and was often heard bemoaning the lame horses in his barn. At Churchill Downs, in the days before the Debutante Stakes last June, Blasi was frustrated that the 2-year-old filly Teardrop appeared to be injured.
“There’s always something wrong with ‘em,” he said at the end of a profanity-laced lament.
Four days later, however, Teardrop ran in the $100,000 Debutante, finishing seventh as the second favorite at odds of 8 to 5.
Blasi also discussed in detail the chronic foot problems of Nehro, the 2011 Kentucky Derby runner-up, shedding light on why the son of Mineshaft never lived up to the potential he flashed at Churchill Downs that day. Nehro had hole-ridden hooves that were held together with filler and even strong glue, according to the investigation.
On April 17, 2013, only four days after Nehro finished fifth in an Arkansas race, Blasi and his blacksmith, along with other members of the Asmussen staff, discussed the horse’s tender feet and their efforts to keep them on the racetrack. In the video, the blacksmith pointed to Nehro’s right leg and said that it did not have a pulse and that one barely registered in his left.
Play Video
Video|0:50

PETA Investigation: Nehro's Feet

The trainer Scott Blasi discussed the poor state of the race horse Nehro’s feet. Despite the horse’s condition, it continued to train.
The horse was clearly uncomfortable as they poked at what they described as “a hole right through that sore right there.”
“His foot is a little bitty nub,” said the blacksmith, who was identified as “Dave” in the investigation.
On the recording, Blasi acknowledged how much Nehro hurt. Still, the horse continued to train. On the morning of last year’s Kentucky Derby, Nehro got sick on the backside of Churchill Downs. Asmussen later said that the horse died from colic in a van on the way to the hospital.
In a separate conversation, recorded on Aug. 13, Blasi described Santana as a good “machine rider,” referring to an electrical device to shock horses into running faster.
Blasi recounted a conversation he said he had with Santana. “You got the máquina?” Blasi said he asked, referring to the Spanish word for machine. “Boss, I got the máquina,” was Santana’s reply, according to Blasi.
The video and the report show how multiple drugs are given daily to racehorses — whether they need them or not — by grooms and employees so they can pass veterinarians’ visual inspections, make it to the racetrack or perform at a higher level.
At another point in the video, Dr. James Hunt Jr., a prominent New York veterinarian, was shown giving a horse furosemide, a diuretic sold as Lasix that helps prevent exercise-induced pulmonary bleeding. The drug’s long-term effects have been a matter of public debate. It is prohibited in most countries but is legal in the United States despite widespread efforts to ban it.
Hunt acknowledged to the investigator that many horses who received furosemide did not need it. He did not respond to several messages seeking comment.
“It’s a performance-enhancer,” he said in a conversation recorded on camera. “It makes them lighter.”


HI-
Thanks for the help. The item’s below. I’d be happy to mail you a copy, if you give me a mailing address.

Claude Solnik
(631) 913-4244
Long Island Business News
2150 Smithtown Ave.
Ronkonkoma, NY 11779-7348 

Home > LI Confidential > Stop scratching on holidays

Stop scratching on holidays
Published: June 1, 2012


Off Track Betting in New York State has been racing into a crisis called shrinking revenue. Some people have spitballed a solution: Don’t close on holidays.
New York State Racing Law bars racing on Christmas, Easter and Palm Sunday, and the state has ruled OTBs can’t handle action on those days, even though they could easily broadcast races from out of state.
“You should be able to bet whenever you want,” said Jackson Leeds, a Nassau OTB employee who makes an occasional bet. He added some irrefutable logic: “How is the business going to make money if you’re not open to take people’s bets?”
Elias Tsekerides, president of the Federation of Hellenic Societies of Greater New York, said OTB is open on Greek Orthodox Easter and Palm Sunday.
“I don’t want discrimination,” Tsekerides said. “They close for the Catholics, but open for the Greek Orthodox? It’s either open for all or not open.”
OTB officials have said they lose millions by closing on Palm Sunday alone, with tracks such as Gulfstream, Santa Anita, Turf Paradise and Hawthorne running.
One option: OTBs could just stay open and face the consequences. New York City OTB did just that back in 2003. The handle was about $1.5 million – and OTB was fined $5,000.
Easy money.


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Wednesday, March 19, 2014

Suffolk County Legislator Kevin McCaffrey

Camps out and takes Nassau OTB public employees' money in return for doing nothing?
What are unions for?  Note Teamsters Local 707, President is a Suffolk County Legislator, who takes his money from Nassau County Public employees of Nassau OTB. Makes the Taliban look straight?



Economy

Republican’s Tax Plan Awkwardly Aims at Rich

A bill by the House Ways and Means chairman Dave Camp, a Republican, would eliminate some breaks for wealthy taxpayers. Stephen Crowley/The New York Times
High & Low Finance
By
Tax the rich.
What do you think a Republican congressman would say about a tax proposal that contained numerous provisions to take away benefits from some taxpayers simply because they made too much money?
The proposal in question would force some high-income taxpayers to pay taxes on municipal bonds that have so far been tax-free. They would lose the tax break available to others when they sell their homes. They would have to pay taxes on the value of their employer-provided health insurance and would lose the deduction for contributions to 401(k) retirement plans.
Furthermore, everyone who has taken advantage of the “carried interest” tax dodge that lets private equity partners treat their pay as capital gains would lose it. That provision allowed Mitt Romney to pay an effective tax rate of less than 15 percent on millions of dollars.
This particular proposal would also hit high-income taxpayers by phasing out some deductions and other tax provisions for couples making more than $450,000. Other benefits would vanish for those making more than $517,500.
The interplay of all these complicated provisions would — for a few taxpayers — lead to marginal tax rates as high as 67 percent.
If this were President Obama’s tax proposal, you can be assured that there would be cries about “class warfare.”
But it’s not.
Instead, it describes some of the proposals in the Tax Reform Act of 2014 proposed last week by the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, Representative Dave Camp, a Michigan Republican.
The Camp proposal seems unlikely to go anywhere, in no small part because the House Republican leadership has gone out of its way to distance itself from the proposal, praising Mr. Camp for his diligence and calling it worthy of consideration but not getting close to an endorsement.
The proposal is fascinating, as much for what it does and does not contain as for its inability to accomplish either of Mr. Camp’s two stated goals. He promised a greatly simplified tax code but instead clutters it up with detailed ways to only partly confront assorted tax advantages that were handed out to various groups over the years. The summary of the bill takes up 194 pages.
He wanted to reduce the top tax rate to 25 percent but could not do that without taking away many more tax goodies than he does. So he has a special 35 percent bracket that applies to couples with incomes of more than $450,000 but picks and chooses what income above that level is taxable. Municipal bond interest can be taxed at a 10 percent rate, but there is no extra tax on manufacturing income.
There is also a special tax on big banks. That is something you might expect from a liberal Democrat, and there are reports that some Wall Street organizations are so angry they are threatening to withhold donations to Republican candidates this year.
There was a time when any proposal by the Ways and Means Committee chairman would be viewed as a blueprint for legislation that would most likely become law. In those days, chairmen sometimes seemed to serve forever, and they knew how to work across the aisle to get deals done.
Wilbur Mills, an Arkansas Democrat, was committee chairman from 1958 to 1974, during five presidential administrations. In the press, it often sounded as if his title were truly “Powerful Chairman.” He had the power to grant, or withhold, tax provisions that individual members sought for favored constituents. A legislator who offended him might face problems for years.
Only scandal could bring him down, and it did. There were two episodes involving alcohol and a stripper who went by the name of Fanne Foxe, and he was forced to give up his chairmanship.
Mr. Camp, on the other hand, is a lame duck. Next year, under the rules of the House Republican Caucus, he will have to step down after four years as chairman. I had hoped that his eagerness to accomplish something would overcome inertia, but it appears it will not. The last thing the House Republican leadership wants is votes that will call attention to splits within the party.
Seniority no longer calls the shots when new chairmen are named, and the campaigning to replace Mr. Camp is already underway. One man who wants the job is said to be Paul Ryan, the Wisconsin Republican who was Mr. Romney’s running mate.
In the talk about tax reform, there has been a general agreement that top rates should be reduced and loopholes closed, something Mr. Ryan has loudly endorsed. But there has been a great reluctance to get specific. This proposal does get specific, and in doing so it makes clear that much more needs to be done to reduce tax preferences and loopholes if we want both to finance the government and to lower tax rates.
Within the community of tax policy wonks, the Camp proposal has garnered admiring reviews just by providing something to analyze. “In a world where policy makers actually wanted to make policy, it would be a good starting point for discussion,” said Len Burman, the director of the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center and a professor at Syracuse University.
Even with the efforts to soak the rich, Mr. Camp comes up well short of making the proposals revenue-neutral, although some artful dodges enable him to claim that is true over the next 10 years.
To make the limited progress he does, Mr. Camp has to attack many tax preferences. Some are easy (did you know that for some reason the National Football League is tax-exempt?), but many are not. Americans who work overseas lose a tax break. The tax credit for buying electric cars goes away. So does the credit for adopting a child. A lot of tax provisions to provide aid for higher education costs are consolidated.
The dodge of avoiding taxes through a “like-kind” exchange would end. Clever ways that some self-employed people have found to avoid paying payroll taxes on their income would be barred.
He would change the way we save for retirement, something that prompted outrage from the retirement industry. He would do that by limiting the amount of pretax money that can be saved. Traditional individual retirement accounts would vanish (for new contributions, that is.) The amount of pretax money that could go into 401(k) accounts would be reduced.
Instead, Roth I.R.A.s would be encouraged and made available to high-income taxpayers who cannot use them now. The money you put into a Roth I.R.A. is money on which you have paid taxes. But it then accumulates tax-free and you don’t pay taxes on the money you withdraw after you retire. Normal I.R.A.s, like 401(k) accounts, produce taxable income when it is withdrawn after retirement.
Similarly, the bill would put an end to so-called deferred compensation at many companies, where the money is put into a savings plan but not paid out until years later, when the employee may be in a lower tax bracket. The effect would be to raise tax revenue now and reduce it in the later years when the deferred compensation would have been paid.
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There is no logical reason employees should be taxed on the money they are paid but not on the value of the fringe benefits the employer provides. Mr. Camp touches that on the margin, with the provision on extremely wealthy people, but not for the rest of us. He reduces the mortgage interest deduction, but only for those with the most expensive homes.
The bill also would force companies to take depreciation expenses over a longer period. That makes sense economically, but it would also push corporate taxes up in the next few years, though not over the long term. All of those things combine to make the estimate that the bill is revenue-neutral suspect. It may be neutral over the 10-year period they count, but not over a longer period.
It is good to see some specifics. It is too bad that nothing is likely to come from it.
“Tax reform is never going to happen without bipartisan cooperation,” said Mr. Burman, who worked on the Tax Reform Act of 1986 as an economist in the Treasury Department’s Office of Tax Analysis and later served as a senior Treasury Department official under President Bill Clinton. “A significant number of people in both parties will have to believe getting things done is more important than scoring points.”


UPDATE ON CARRIED INTERESTS

www.mccarter.com/.../NYLawjournalIpdatedCarried...‎
McCarter & English
Mar 12, 2014 - result of the First Circuit Court of Appeals decision in Sun Capital Partners III v. New Eng. Teamsters & Trucking Indus. Pension Fund, 724 ... On February 26 Representative David Camp, Chairman of the House Ways and Means ... update the carried interest proposal is referred to as the “Camp proposal.”).

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Andrew Cuomo is a faith based provider

whose God given mission is to keep Greeks out of Nassau OTB so that they cannot bet while he is in church praying or dreaming of Washington....


NY Const. Art 1, Sec. 3 might as well be toilet paper for the ACLU


N.Y. / Region

Salvation Army Settles Lawsuit on Religious Discrimination

By
The Salvation Army on Tuesday settled a decade-old lawsuit that charged it with engaging in religious discrimination by requiring its government-funded social service employees to reveal their beliefs and to agree to act in accordance with the Christian gospel.
As part of the settlement, approved by a federal judge in Manhattan, the Salvation Army will distribute to its New York employees who work in programs that receive government financing a document stating that they need not adhere to the group’s religious principles while doing their jobs, nor may they be asked about their religious beliefs.
The Salvation Army, which is both an evangelical church and a charitable organization, will also pay $450,000 to settle claims by two former employees, Anne Lown and Margaret Geissman, that they were pushed out of their jobs in retaliation for their objections to the group’s policies.
The group, which administers millions of dollars in government contracts to run homeless shelters, soup kitchens, after-school programs and day care centers in the New York area, did not admit wrongdoing as part of the settlement.
The church said in a statement that it welcomed the settlement, and that the document it is now required to distribute was merely “confirmation in writing of policies long followed by its Greater New York Division,” rather than an assertion of anything new.
Ms. Lown, who is Jewish, recalled on Tuesday that she had been overseeing the Salvation Army’s children’s services division in New York in 2003 when she was asked to have her employees fill out a form asking about their church attendance and their ministers’ names. The move coincided with a reorganization at the Salvation Army to more closely align the missions of its religious and social services wings.
“I felt it wasn’t right,” she said. “We were publicly funded, we were providing services on contract with New York City and State, and they were really imposing a religious test.”
The lawsuit, filed in 2004 on behalf of 18 former and current employees, also charged that the Salvation Army was proselytizing while delivering services to vulnerable populations, like foster children. Much of the case was dismissed in 2005, and in 2010, another part of the case was settled when several state and city agencies agreed to audit the Salvation Army for two years to make sure it did not cross the church-state line in its delivery of services.
The auditing protocol established by the case is now in use with other faith-based providers, to make sure that they are not proselytizing during their work with the poor and needy, said Donna Lieberman, the executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union.



HI-
Thanks for the help. The item’s below. I’d be happy to mail you a copy, if you give me a mailing address.

Claude Solnik
(631) 913-4244
Long Island Business News
2150 Smithtown Ave.
Ronkonkoma, NY 11779-7348 

Home > LI Confidential > Stop scratching on holidays

Stop scratching on holidays
Published: June 1, 2012


Off Track Betting in New York State has been racing into a crisis called shrinking revenue. Some people have spitballed a solution: Don’t close on holidays.
New York State Racing Law bars racing on Christmas, Easter and Palm Sunday, and the state has ruled OTBs can’t handle action on those days, even though they could easily broadcast races from out of state.
“You should be able to bet whenever you want,” said Jackson Leeds, a Nassau OTB employee who makes an occasional bet. He added some irrefutable logic: “How is the business going to make money if you’re not open to take people’s bets?”
Elias Tsekerides, president of the Federation of Hellenic Societies of Greater New York, said OTB is open on Greek Orthodox Easter and Palm Sunday.
“I don’t want discrimination,” Tsekerides said. “They close for the Catholics, but open for the Greek Orthodox? It’s either open for all or not open.”
OTB officials have said they lose millions by closing on Palm Sunday alone, with tracks such as Gulfstream, Santa Anita, Turf Paradise and Hawthorne running.
One option: OTBs could just stay open and face the consequences. New York City OTB did just that back in 2003. The handle was about $1.5 million – and OTB was fined $5,000.
Easy money.

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