Saturday, December 7, 2013

open 365 days of the year without


religious preference, unlike Nassau OTB. Andrew Cuomo and Joe Cairo 
 
see eg NY Const. Art 1, Sec. 3
NY files for bankruptcy because it does not believe in separation of church and state and freedom of religion
 
Nassau OTB must be open 365 days of the year before it goes bankrupt
see 
 
 
 
J.com
New Jersey
Set Weather
comments

Let foreign gambling companies do business in N.J., lawmaker proposes

lesniak.jpg
State Sen. Ray Lesniak want to let foreign gambling companies set up shop in the state. The payoff would be a 10 percent tax on their winnings, plus payments into a fund to raise $20 million a year for three years for New Jersey's struggling horse racing industry. (Star-Ledger file photo)
Ryan Hutchins/The Star-Ledger By Ryan Hutchins/The Star-Ledger
Email the author | Follow on Twitter
on November 21, 2013 at 11:05 AM, updated November 21, 2013 at 10:41 PM
ATLANTIC CITY — A state lawmaker today unveiled a measure that would let international online gambling companies base their operations in New Jersey and be licensed by its tough casino regulators.
State Sen. Raymond Lesniak (D-Union), the prime backer of the state’s online gambling law, says his legislation would attract companies based overseas to relocate to New Jersey. The companies would serve up games of chance — including sports betting — to foreign players.
“Why would companies want to set up operations in New Jersey?” Lesniak said at a news conference today inside the Atlantic City Convention Center. “Well, we’ve got a great reputation for oversight and regulation. These companies, now located in Gibraltar or Isle of Man or any other offshore places, don’t have the stability — the stamp of approval — that gives a lot of credibility to their product.”
Under the bill, which has not yet been introduced in the state Legislature, the companies would be subject to New Jersey’s 15 percent sales tax on internet gaming with one big caveat: They would be given credit for any taxes paid to other jurisdictions.
The news comes as state gaming regulators prepare to let online gaming companies take the first bets over the internet in the Garden State. A five-day test of the new digital casinos begins at 6 p.m. today. If all goes well, the websites will be opened up to everyone who can legally gamble in New Jersey.
Online gambling in the GardenState is expected to produce hundreds of millions — if not billions — of dollars in new annual revenue for Atlantic City’s struggling casino industry, now on track to make less than $3 billion from gambling this year for the first time since 1992.
Adam Ozimek, a senior economist for Econsult Solutions in Philadelphia, said Lesniak’s bill would likely result in $5 billion to $8 billion in annual revenue for New Jersey’s businesses. Ozimek, who joined Lesniak at the press conference and has been doing analysis for an internet gaming trade group, said he expects between 11,000 and 16,000 new jobs in the Garden State.
“We’re looking at New Jersey’s potential to become a global leader, an iGaming hub,” Ozimek said.
Lesniak and Ozimek said it’s unclear who much tax revenue could be produced because it would depend on the tax structures of numerous countries around the world.
The licenses the state would issue under Lesniak’s legislation would not allow companies to take any bets in the United States — all gamblers would have to be in other countries.
Companies that that have permits to participate in online gambling in New Jersey — some of the biggest firms in the world do — would not be allowed to pool players in this state with players abroad if they were issued an international license.
Lesniak said he believes the measure would not violate any federal laws. He said he’s heard though back channels that the U.S. Justice Department would not mount a legal challenge.
“Justice Department doesn’t have any problems with this,” Lesniak said. “The world trade organizations may because we’ll be able to take bets from people across the world but they won’t be able to take bets from us.”

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Nassau County Medical Center and


Department of Health announce that free BCG shots will be available at Nassau OTB with the purchase of any bet including a ten cent superfecta. Healthcare for all.

Save Nassau OTB

HealthlineNews

Could a Tuberculosis Vaccine Delay the Onset of MS?
Written by | Published on December 4, 2013
TEXT SIZE: A A A
A vaccine to protect against TB may help keep at-risk patients from developing MS.
TB Vaccine for MS
Researchers in Italy may have found a way to ward off multiple sclerosis (MS) in those at high risk of developing the condition. According to a new study published today in the journal Neurology, a vaccine against tuberculosis (TB) could play a key role in keeping those who show early signs of the disease from progressing to MS.
“Sclerosis” is the Latin word for “scaring,” so multiple sclerosis means “many scars” or lesions on a person’s spinal cord and brain. According to the MacDonald Criteria used to diagnose MS, more than one episode—resulting in multiple lesions or scars—is required for a definite MS diagnosis.
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Patients who have only had MS-like symptoms once are classified as having clinical isolated syndrome (CIS). Only about half of those with CIS go on to develop MS within two years.
Learn the Early Warning Signs of MS »
Seventy-three volunteers with CIS took part in the study. About half of the participants received one shot of a live vaccine called Bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG), which is used to prevent tuberculosis in some countries.
The rest of the volunteers received a placebo. All of the participants were given MRI scans once a month for six months, and both groups were given the MS drug interferon beta-1a (Avonex) for a year.
After the first six months, those who had received the TB vaccine showed fewer MS-like lesions on MRI scans compared to the placebo group. By the end of the study period, 58 percent of the vaccinated volunteers had not developed MS, compared 30 percent of those who had been given the placebo.

It Works, But Doctors Don't Know Why

While encouraging news, why the vaccine works is unclear. “There seems to be complex multiple effects on brain inflammation,” said study author Giovanni Ristori, M.D., Ph.D., of Sapienza University of Rome, in an interview with Healthline. “Other recent studies on BCG in autoimmunity point to a neuroprotective effect produced by cytokines [which help regulate immune response] that is especially induced by BCG.”
Even used for its original purpose, this TB vaccine “is only effective in 50 to 60 percent of all cases,” said Ristori, but researchers were motivated to study it further when a pilot study in patients diagnosed with MS revealed that “BGC was safe and effective in reducing disease activity on MRI.”
“The idea that MS is not a single disease is common among researchers,” said Ristori, and could explain why this TB vaccine was not 100 percent effective at preventing patients with CIS from developing MS.
Discover Treatments for Acute MS Flare-Ups »
As with any medication or therapy, safety is as important as effectiveness. “BCG proved to be safe in virtually all patients who took it,” said Ristori.
And the fact that the virus is live is no cause for concern. He points out that even the live flu vaccine has been proven safe for MS patients. “[The flu vaccine] may be even advisable just to prevent those upper respiratory infections that may favor MS relapses,” Ristori said.
“We plan to design phase III studies in people with a first demyelinating episode and possibly in subjects ‘at risk’ of MS,” said Ristori. While further studies are needed, these preliminary results promise that a vaccine for MS could be within reach.
Read More: What Does the Future of MS Look Like? »

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Friday, December 6, 2013

Ivan Jurasinovc Esq. a lawyer for the

 Croations offers his services to Nassau OTB bettors, NY Const. Art. 1, Sec. 3, because Andrew Cuomo can't decide when Easter Sunday and Palm Sunday fall. We are not  all Italians nor are we all Greeks.



Cornell? nope

12/02/2013 2:02PM

Aqueduct shifts calendar to race Mondays in winter

By David Grening
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Monday will be the new Wednesday at Aqueduct.
Beginning Jan. 13 and lasting 11 weeks through the end of March, Aqueduct will conduct live racing on Mondays and be dark Wednesdays. In January and March, Aqueduct will maintain a five-day race week – Thursdays through Mondays – while in February it will race four days a week – Fridays through Mondays. It is expected that in April Aqueduct will resume its normal Wednesday through Sunday racing schedule – save for April 13 (Palm Sunday) and April 20 (Easter Sunday), when the track must be closed by law.
The 2014 racing schedule – as well as the stakes schedule for only the Aqueduct meet – is expected to be approved on Wednesday at the New York Racing Association Board of Trustees meeting, to be held in Manhattan.
“As we prepare for re-privatization we want to test certain things in 2014 so that in 2015 we can include those tests that worked and not include those that didn’t work,” Chris Kay, NYRA president and CEO, said. “Rather than say, ‘We think this will work,’ it’s better for us to test it and see if it works.”
With the exception of Saratoga, NYRA has not raced regularly on Mondays since the early 1990s, when it was still conducting racing six days week. NYRA frequently opens on holiday Mondays such as Martin Luther King Jr. Day in January and Presidents Day in February.
Kay said the idea to race Mondays was initiated by P.J. Campo – who recently resigned his post as NYRA director of racing/racing secretary to take a job at Gulfstream Park – in consultation with horsemen.
“Some of our horseman and P.J. both were saying, ‘Let’s give this a shot,’ ” Kay said. “There’s very little competition on Monday, it might work. Maybe it’ll work, or maybe there’s a reason why there is very little competition on Monday.”
Aqueduct’s primary competitor in the winter is Gulfstream Park which races Wednesday through Sunday, but, like most tracks, is open seven days a week for simulcasting. Tracks that race on Mondays in the winter include Parx, Beulah Park, and Turf Paradise.
Last year, NYRA cut six days of racing – four in February and two in March – due to a reduction in field size attributed in part to new medication rules that differed sharply from nearby states such as Delaware, Maryland, and Pennsylvania. Many of those states are close to implementing rules that align with New York, giving Kay hope field size will rebound.
Kay said that in presenting 2014 racing dates the same 40-day meet will be sought for Saratoga.
“There is no suggested change in the number of days we run at Saratoga,” Kay said.
Kay’s bonuses
Monday marked five months since Kay took over as NYRA CEO and president. When hired, it was announced that his base salary would be $300,000 and that he would be eligible for up to $250,000 in bonuses based on certain performance metrics.
David Skorton, the NYRA chairman, in response to repeated requests from Daily Racing Form , broadly identified some of those metrics.
“The incentive component was developed using a ‘balanced scorecard’ that is based on key financial and non-financial objectives of NYRA,” Skorton wrote in an email. “The CEO’s performance will be reviewed annually against the goals set by the NYRA Board.”
Skorton wrote that financial items to be considered include revenue, operating results versus prior year, management of capital expenditures, and new revenue initiatives.
Under what he termed “quality,” Skorton indicated issues to be reviewed include return on marketing initiatives, ontrack customer experience, development and implementation of new technologies, leadership (i.e. develop strong management team and relationships with external constituencies), and improvements in equine and jockey safety.


I-
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.


Just like Kevin McCaffrey President of Teamsters Local 707 which represents Nassau OTB employees

159 Comments

Bob Dylan Charged With ‘Inciting Hate’ Under French Law

By ALLAN KOZINN
Bob Dylan performing at the Capitol Theater in Port Chester, N.Y., in 2012.The New York Times Bob Dylan performing at the Capitol Theater in Port Chester, N.Y., in 2012.
To people who follow the pronouncements of Bob Dylan, his comment in a Rolling Stone interview in September 2012 suggesting that American blacks could sense whether whites had slave-master blood “just like Jews can sense Nazi blood and the Serbs can sense Croatian blood” may have seemed just the sort of vaporously impressionistic, emotionally pointed kind of thing that Mr. Dylan has been known to say for decades.
But to the Representative Council of the Croatian Community and Institutions in France, an organization that looks after the interests of France’s 30,000 Croatians, those were fighting words. Now they have led to Mr. Dylan, who built his early career singing songs that denounced racism, being charged under a French law prohibiting “public insult and inciting hate.”
On Tuesday, Agnes Thibault-Lecuivre, a spokeswoman for the prosecutor’s office in Paris, told The Associated Press that the French government had filed preliminary charges. Mr. Dylan’s last encounter with the French government was just over two weeks ago, when he was awarded the Legion of Honor, France’s highest prize.
The French government must have known that the charges were brewing when they gave Mr. Dylan the award: Vlatko Maric, the secretary general of the council, announced in November 2012 that his group had filed a complaint with the French government. That complaint led to the current charges.
“We have nothing against Rolling Stone magazine or Bob Dylan as a singer,” Mr. Maric told The Guardian. His objection, he explained, was that Mr. Dylan’s comment equated Croatian war criminals with all Croats.
What is the council seeking? Ivan Jurasinovic, a lawyer for the group, told The Associated Press that the organization was not seeking money or punishment, but hoped that Mr. Dylan, who he described as “a singer who is liked and respected in Croatia,” would apologize. A spokesman for Mr. Dylan said that the singer had no comment on the charges.


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Monday, December 2, 2013

The Cardinal is on a roll as he continues to

tell the faithful that he will see that Nassau OTB is closed when they should be in church and that he cares not that the faithful of the Eastern  Orthodox Church do not observe Easter Sunday and Palm Sunday on the same day as he does.  All others are no moment or concern whether they be gay, straight or martian.

NY Const.Art 1, Sec 3 of no moment.

U.S

Timothy Cardinal Dolan says he's ready for gay marriage battles

In an interview with ‘Meet the Press,’ the cardinal said the Catholic Church had been ‘caricatured as being anti-gay.’ He also said the church was not going to give up fighting to stop the ‘stampede’ to legalize same-sex marriage.

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Cardinal Timothy Dolan on Meet the Press, Sunday Dec. 1, 2013.

NBC News

Cardinal Timothy Dolan appeared Sunday on 'Meet the Press,' addressing his position — and Catholic Church's — on gay marriage.

Timothy Cardinal Dolan brushed off criticism of his gay marriage stance Sunday — saying he’s ready for a long culture war just like the abortion battle.
“We get backlash from those who think we are too gracious, and compassionate, and loving, and accepting of gays,” Dolan said after celebrating Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral.
RELATED: TIMOTHY CARDINAL DOLAN: CHURCH 'OUT-MARKETED' OVER SAME-SEX MARRIAGE
“And then we get backlash from gay people who feel that we are not tolerant enough of them.”
Cardinal Timothy Dolan presides over Mass on Sunday at New York's St. Patrick's Cathedral.

Alec Tabak for New York Daily News

Cardinal Timothy Dolan presides over Mass on Sunday at New York's St. Patrick's Cathedral.

In an interview with “Meet the Press” that aired Sunday, Dolan said the Catholic Church had been “caricatured as being anti-gay.”
RELATED: SCHUMER, DOLAN CALL FOR VISA EXTENSIONS FOR FILIPINOS AFTER TYPHOON
He also said the church was not going to give up fighting to stop the “stampede” to legalize same-sex marriage.
“When Roe v. Wade came through in 1973, everybody said, ‘This is settled, no use in fighting it anymore, it’s over with, the government has decided.’ And we say, ‘Oh, no, no. This isn’t going to go away,’” he said. “Of course, now the abortion debate is more vigorous than ever.”

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/cardinal-dolan-set-gay-marriage-fight-article-1.1534538#ixzz2mNVNIz3u


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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Nassau OTB in Green Acres Mall until....????

http://www.bizjournals.com/prnewswire/press_releases/2012/10/22/LA97014





Commenting on the transaction, Arthur Coppola, chairman and chief executive officer of Macerich, stated:  "These transactions are consistent with our investment strategy of acquiring assets in the major markets where we have our best assets and selling non-core assets and recycling capital.  This allows us to build on our New York portfolio and will be an excellent complement to Queens Center. At Kings Plaza and Green Acres there are substantial opportunities to replace lower sales producing tenants with higher productivity tenants, in a manner similar to what we accomplished after we acquired Queens Center."

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Press Releases

Macerich Announces Plans To Acquire Kings Plaza And Green Acres Mall

PR Newswire
SANTA MONICA, Calif., Oct. 22, 2012
SANTA MONICA, Calif., Oct. 22, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- The Macerich Company (NYSE Symbol: MAC) today announced the planned acquisition of Kings Plaza and Green Acres Mall.  Kings Plaza is a 1.2 million square foot super regional mall.  Kings Plaza is anchored by Macy's, Lowe's and Sears and is the only enclosed super regional mall in Brooklyn, New York.   Green Acres Mall is a 1.8 million square foot super regional mall located in Valley Stream, New York.  Green Acres is anchored by Macy's, Macy's Men's, Sears, Kohl's, jcpenney, BJ's Wholesale Club and Walmart.
Kings Plaza is considered one of the most productive malls in the region and a great addition to Macerich's portfolio.  The mall tenant's annual sales per square foot are $650.  The center is currently 95% occupied and has a tenant line-up that includes Aeropostale, American Eagle, Armani Exchange, Forever 21, H&M, MAC, Pink, Swarovski and Victoria's Secret.
Kings Plaza is being acquired from a subsidiary of Alexander's, Inc.  The purchase price is $751 million and the transaction is planned to close in late 2012.  The Company expects to place secured debt on the property at the closing of the transaction.  The balance of the purchase price will be funded from cash on hand, or from the Company's line of credit.
Green Acres Mall is located on the border of New York City and Nassau County and serves an expansive and diverse trade area which includes southeast Queens and southwest Nassau County.  The mall is 94% occupied and the mall tenant's annual sales per foot exceed $520.  Green Acres was renovated and expanded in 2007 and has approximately 408,000 square feet of in-line mall tenant space that includes Aeropostale, American Eagle, Forever 21, H&M and Modell's sporting goods.
Green Acres is being acquired from a subsidiary of Vornado Realty Trust.  The purchase price is $500 million and the transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2013.  The Company expects to place secured debt on the property at the closing of the transaction.  The balance of the purchase price will be funded from cash on hand, or from the Company's line of credit.
Commenting on the transaction, Arthur Coppola, chairman and chief executive officer of Macerich, stated:  "These transactions are consistent with our investment strategy of acquiring assets in the major markets where we have our best assets and selling non-core assets and recycling capital.  This allows us to build on our New York portfolio and will be an excellent complement to Queens Center. At Kings Plaza and Green Acres there are substantial opportunities to replace lower sales producing tenants with higher productivity tenants, in a manner similar to what we accomplished after we acquired Queens Center."
Macerich is a fully integrated self-managed and self-administered real estate investment trust, which focuses on the acquisition, leasing, management, development and redevelopment of regional malls throughout the United States. Macerich now owns approximately 64 million square feet of gross leaseable area consisting primarily of interests in 62 regional shopping centers. Additional information about Macerich can be obtained from the Company's website at www.macerich.com.
Note:  This release contains statements that constitute forward-looking statements which can be identified by the use of words, such as  "expects," "anticipates," "assumes," "projects," "estimated" and "scheduled" and similar expressions that do not relate to historical matters. Stockholders are cautioned that any such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to vary materially from those anticipated, expected or projected.  Such factors include, among others, general industry, as well as national, regional and local economic and business conditions, which will, among other things, affect demand for retail space or retail goods, availability and creditworthiness of current and prospective tenants, anchor or tenant bankruptcies, closures, mergers or consolidations, lease rates, terms and payments, interest rate fluctuations, availability, terms and cost of financing and operating expenses; adverse changes in the real estate markets including, among other things, competition from other companies, retail formats and technology, risks of real estate development and redevelopment, acquisitions and dispositions; the liquidity of real estate investments, governmental actions and initiatives (including legislative and regulatory changes); environmental and safety requirements; and terrorist activities which could adversely affect all of the above factors.  The reader is directed to the Company's various filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2011, for a discussion of such risks and uncertainties, which discussion is incorporated herein by reference. The Company does not intend, and undertakes no obligation, to update any forward-looking information to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this release or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events unless required by law to do so.
SOURCE Macerich Company
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If Martinez wants to see unconstitutional

 

all she need do is look at Suffolk OTB closing on Roman Catholic Palm Sunday in preference to Greek Orthodox Easter Sunday and Palm Sunday.  There are no Greeks in Suffolk and she can't read NY Const. Art. 1,Sec 3.

If she wants to see conflict of interest she can go down the hall and talk to Kevin McCaffrey who represents citizens of Suffolk at the  same time he purports to represent Nassau County wokers at OTB as he is President of Teamsters Local 707 which collects money from Nassau workers simply because it can. Politicians, lawyers, real estate salesman. Better to look for pure used motor oil?

Bellone to end move to change double-dipping law

Originally published: December 1, 2013 5:07 PM
Updated: December 2, 2013 10:41 AM
By PAUL LAROCCO  paul.larocco@newsday.com
Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone talks about his
Photo credit: Newsday / J. Conrad Williams Jr. | Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone talks about his just-released county budget at his office in the Dennision Buiding in Hauppauge. (Sept. 20, 2013)
An incoming Suffolk lawmaker does not believe she needs a change to the county's double-dipping ban to hold two public posts.
Legis.-elect Monica Martinez (D-Brentwood), who stands to earn a potential combined salary of $215,000 next year, said Friday that she has asked Democratic County Executive Steve Bellone to pull his bid to tweak the law that, as written, appears to restrict Suffolk elected officials from holding any other taxpayer-funded job but teacher.
Deputy County Executive Jon Schneider said Friday that the administration will honor Martinez's request to withdraw its bill seeking to address the county's ban on dual public pay.
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"Legislator-elect Martinez has requested an opinion from the Board of Ethics and she'll abide by that opinion," Schneider said. "I think it's clear now that she's not asking for any special treatment."
The controversial bill -- tailored to let Martinez keep her job as an assistant principal at a middle school after taking county office in January -- was set for a public hearing at Tuesday's legislature meeting.
"I never asked for a resolution to clarify this law, and I am requesting the resolution be withdrawn because it has created the appearance that the law is being changed," Martinez said. "This could not be further from the truth."
Martinez said she has sought a formal opinion from Suffolk's ethics board, but she believes that the 2011 county law in question exempts any school, library or fire district employee, and not just teachers or professors.
She pointed to the definition of "teacher" in state education code, which includes "all full-time members of the teaching and supervisory staff of each school district," including "principals," and noted previous comments from the county's legislative counsel, George Nolan, who stated that the double-dipping law isn't meant to apply to schools.
As an administrator at East Middle School in Brentwood, Martinez earns $117,000 a year. She will earn $98,260 annually as a legislator. Regardless of how the ethics board rules, Martinez said she plans on taking a leave of absence from her school job as of June 30, meaning she would earn less than the potential total of $215,000.
But if the ethics board rules that Martinez is in violation of county law, she said she will take an immediate leave of absence and also sue to challenge the county law as "unconstitutional and improperly written."
Legis. John M. Kennedy Jr. (R-Nesconset), who has criticized Martinez's claims that she can provide sufficient attention to both full-time public roles, said that "people should be enraged" over her stance. "It's extremely disappointing that this is the level one individual would [take to] enter the position of legislator," he said.
With Bellone's support, Martinez was elected last month to represent the 9th Legislative District in Islip. The sister of a close Bellone ally, she ousted longtime Legis. Rick Montano, a Democrat often critical of the Bellone administration.

Long Island Business News
Suffolk, Nassau OTB probe ethics conflict
by David Winzelberg
Published: November 24th, 2013

At least one employee of Nassau County Off-Track Betting is questioning whether the head of his employee union, a member-elect of the Suffolk County Legislature, should have a say in Suffolk OTB business.
Teamsters Local 707 President Kevin McCaffery, whose union represents about 200 Nassau OTB workers, was elected earlier this month to serve as a Suffolk legislator representing the 14th District. In a letter last week, Nassau OTB cashier Jackson Leeds alerted the Suffolk County Ethics Board to McCaffery’s possible conflict of interest.
“As a Suffolk County legislator, his duties are to the people of Suffolk County,” Leeds wrote. “He cannot simultaneously represent the interests of employees of Nassau OTB, a Nassau County public benefit corporation.”
McCaffery told LIBN he doesn’t think the two counties’ OTBs are in competition with each other and he doesn’t see his role as union leader for Nassau OTB workers as a conflict with issues surrounding Suffolk OTB.
“If anything, I have the background of dealing with Nassau OTB, which gives me more insight on the subject than any other legislator out there,” McCaffery said.
When asked if the legislator-elect’s union job appeared to be a conflict of interest, Nassau OTB chief Joseph Cairo said, “If you really want to stretch it. But I don’t see anything that’s apparent to me.”
Cairo added that he’ll instruct the Nassau agency’s counsel to review the situation.
Leeds, a 10-year veteran of Nassau OTB, complained that both union officials and county OTB management have been too focused on the 1,000 video lottery terminals planned for each county’s OTB and they’re not paying enough attention to current operations.
“They never worked behind a window,” Leeds told LIBN. “They’re out of touch with the bettors of Nassau County.”
Internet wagering and dwindling handles – the overall money being wagered – have prompted a consolidation in Nassau OTB’s operations in recent years; there were 15 betting offices in Nassau in 2003, and now there are eight. Suffolk OTB, which has seven branch offices, filed for bankruptcy last year.
These days, according to some analysts, OTB offices exist largely for political patronage – another reason, according to Leeds, that the Nassau union chief shouldn’t mix one business with the other.
“Union leaders should not be politicians,” he said. “OTBs are run by politicians. Being political and doing public good aren’t always incompatible, but they often are.”
This isn’t the first time a Long Island legislator’s OTB ties have become an issue.
In May 2000, Gregory Peterson, then-president of the Nassau OTB, sued to prevent Nassau County Leg. Roger Corbin from voting on appointments to the Nassau OTB’s board of directors. Because Corbin was employed as a branch manager for New York City OTB and a member of Teamsters Local 858, which then represented all employees of Nassau OTB, Peterson alleged Corbin’s legislative role posed a conflict of interest.
A New York Supreme Court judge issued an injunction preventing Corbin from voting on OTB appointments, but Corbin appealed and the lower court’s decision was reversed. The Nassau County Board of Ethics also chimed in, determining by a 3-2 vote that voting on OTB appointments didn’t create a conflict because Corbin didn’t influence policy or engage in labor negotiations.
With McCaffery, some observers say it’s best to proceed with caution.
Anthony Figliola, vice president of Uniondale-based government relations firm Empire Government Strategies, said the legislator-elect may want to recuse himself from any votes concerning Suffolk OTB until the Suffolk County Ethics Board offers an opinion.
“OTB is a political football,” Figliola said. “It’s better to stay out of it, especially if you want to get things done in the Legislature.”


David Winzelberg
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Kevin McCaffrey hires train to look for


Nassau OTB SENIORITY LIST
Is Teamsters Local 707 the only union that you know of that does not provide its members (at Nassau OTB) a Seniority List?

As Nassau OTB Branches close a Seniority List would seem to be desirable for members to have?
You don't have to crash a train to make the Seniority List?
 

A Sharp Curve and a Train’s Speed

Robert Stolarik for The New York Times
It was unclear how fast a Metro-North train was going when it derailed Sunday morning near the Spuyten Duyvil station. Officials said the crash’s cause might not be known definitively for days. More Photos »
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Published: December 1, 2013
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To any engineer on the Metro-North Railroad’s Hudson line, the stretch where a train derailed on Sunday was well known: It includes one of the sharpest curves in the system, with tracks swinging east along the Harlem River, splitting from an Amtrak corridor that remains on a relative straightaway beside the Hudson River.
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The maximum allowable speed, according to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, falls to 30 miles per hour, from 70 m.p.h., for trains going along the curve. Rates are often even slower for local trains stopping at the nearby Spuyten Duyvil station (the train that derailed was not scheduled to stop there).
It is unclear how fast the train was going on Sunday morning, but an M.T.A. official said the train’s operator reported that when he realized it was heading into the curve too quickly, he “dumped the brakes,” an emergency maneuver, and though the train slowed somewhat, it then derailed. It was too early to tell whether the investigation would corroborate that account, and if so, whether the operator or another factor was responsible for the speed.
Officials said the crash’s cause might not be known definitively for days, if not longer. But the derailment raised a series of questions about what might have contributed to the only accident resulting in passenger deaths in Metro-North’s history.
Dumping brakes is a last-resort move typically reserved for averting collisions with other trains or cars stuck at crossings, said Grady C. Cothen, a retired federal railroad regulator. He said it involved slamming the emergency brakes on the wheels on all cars at once. To achieve that, the operator quickly releases, or “dumps,” all air from the train’s brake lines, he said. “If he did that, then it would have been an act of considerable alarm,” Mr. Cothen said.
Officials identified the operator as William Rockefeller, who was injured. According to a seniority list posted by his union, his service dates back to 1999. There was no answer at his home in Germantown, N.Y., on Sunday night; a neighbor of his parents said Mr. Rockefeller worked in his father’s construction business in Rhinebeck, N.Y., before joining Metro-North.
An engineer who has worked for 26 years on the Hudson line, who requested anonymity because he did not want to be seen as involving himself in the case of a colleague, said that despite the sharpness of the curve, the stretch was “not an especially dangerous area.”
“It’s like driving your car,” he said. “When you’re coming up to a curve, you slow down.”
The train, which was heading south to Grand Central Terminal, was operated under a so-called push-pull model: For northbound trips, it is pulled from the front by a locomotive; for southbound trips, it is pushed from the rear.
The setup has been adopted widely because of its practicality: Trains do not need to turn around if the locomotive can remain in the same position at the end of a line. The arrangement is used often on the Metro-North Railroad, said Aaron Donovan, a spokesman for the transportation authority.
But rail safety experts have at times questioned the performance of push-pull systems in the event of derailments, wondering whether accidents were exacerbated by the force from the rear.
The concerns were particularly pronounced after a fatal commuter rail derailment in California in 2005, which led officials to prohibit passengers from sitting in the first 11 seats of the front car when a train was being pushed.
In a 2006 report, the Federal Railroad Administration found that accident records suggested “a higher fatality rate for occupants of cab car-led trains,” compared with passengers in “conventional locomotive-led trains.” But the report said there was no statistically significant difference among the derailment histories of the different operating models.
Marjorie Anders, a spokeswoman for the authority, called the push-pull trains “a stalwart of our fleet,” adding that if the National Transportation Safety Board had reservations, “they wouldn’t let us use them.”
The authority also intends to install a system known as positive train control, which can slow trains before they go around bends like the one at Spuyten Duyvil. It is already used by other agencies.
It had already been a difficult year for Metro-North, which has had a reputation as one of the country’s most reliable railroads.
In September, a power failure in Mount Vernon, N.Y., upended service on the New Haven line, leading the authority to take the rare step of offering credits to affected riders.
On May 17, two trains on the New Haven line collided during the Friday evening rush after one derailed near Fairfield, Conn. At least 70 people were injured.
Less than two weeks later, a track foreman was struck and killed in West Haven, Conn. The safety board said in an “urgent safety recommendation” that a trainee rail traffic controller had opened a section of track without proper clearance.
The recent episodes have occurred during a spate of departures that have left several positions either vacant or filled by less-experienced employees.
Retirements of high-level employees have been common, officials said, because retirees can receive maximum pension payments after 30 years of service.
“It’s been a bad year,” said William Henderson, the executive director of the Permanent Citizens Advisory Committee to the transportation authority. “You can’t get away from that.”
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