A Tree Grows in Downsville

Flickr: Northern Magnolia

I found this lovely photo of a star magnolia while perusing Flickr for photos tagged "Downsville".

Yes, it's Coach Mom's back yard.

Flickr

Global Warming Ignored By Corporate Media

Cedar Rapids

Excellent post pointing out what the corporate media ignores: our "weird" weather is actually a direct consequence of climate change.

Kirk James Murphy, M.D., firedoglake: Another Gift From Global Climate Change: That Ugly Weather

Tonight Coach Mom called to tell me that a wind shear event this afternoon dropped a huge old pine tree on her neighbor's house; another neighbor can't get into their house because a piece of roof blocks the door; and half the town is without power. This is in the same tiny community that had a $30 million storm wash out several major roads June 19th of last year. That was their fourth major flood in two years.

MSNBC is in their second day of non-stop coverage of the untimely death of Tim Russert. It is sad that a man that young who was a great friend to all of them died, but it is not earth-shaking news. Tens of thousands are now dying every year in global-warming fueled natural disasters. Hurricanes, typhoons, tsunamis, floods, tornadoes, and heat waves are covered as though this was just the weather, but it is actually earth-shattering news of climate change. Maybe if Tim Russert had drowned in a 500-year-flood, the media would cover global warming.

Catskills Flash Flood: The Aftermath

Utility workers work to restore power in Colchester, N.Y., Thursday, June 21, 2007. Searchers recovered the body of one person killed after flash floods surged through the edge of the Catskill Mountains and were looking Thursday for up to six people missing. Scores of troopers, rangers, National Guard members and firefighters combed for a second day through acres of washed-away homes, uprooted trees and mud-covered roads in rural Delaware County. (AP Photo/Mike Groll)
Middletown Times Herald-Record: Rescuers' tales of courage

Oneonta Daily Star: Emergency center established in Downsville for flood victims

News10Now: Flood devastated community in Catskills (with video)

ExpressTimes (PA): Flash floods in New York create water troubles here

NYSDOTNews: NYSDOT Helps Restore Roads in Flood-Ravaged Region
State Crews Focus on Holiday Brook and Berry Brook Roads in Delaware County

Catskills Flash Flood Update: Two Dead, Two Missing, Over $20 Million in Damage

A backhoe is used to remove debris from around a house in Colchester, N.Y., in the aftermath of the flooding Friday, June 22, 2007. Scores of searchers have been picking through the mounds of muddy rubble left in the flash flood's wake since Wednesday. (AP Photo/Don Minichino, Pool)

The recovery from last week's flash flood continues. The bodies of Fred and Marjorie Shutts were recovered and laid to rest, but two women, Gertrude Melvin and Barbara Clarke Cooper, remain missing and are presumed dead. The land search has been called off and now authorities are searching bodies of water.

If you wish to donate to the flood victims, a fund has been established.

Middletown Times Herald-Record: Damage estimates from flood approach $23 million

On Tuesday, SEMO pegged the damage to public property in the Delaware County town at about $5 million - far short of the number for the Federal Emergency Management Agency to step in. Now that number has climbed to "a little more than $20 million," Michalski said.

That estimate for public property only refers to roads and bridges, debris removal and the emergency response, Michalski said.

SEMO has not yet assessed the damage to 150 homes because several roads have been impassable.

The damage to personal property along the 4-mile stretch north of Roscoe also has been staggering. The latest count has 33 homes, mobile homes and other structures destroyed. Another 12 homes have had major damage, and six with minor damage.

Numerous cars and motorcycles were also flattened, or swept downstream.

About 99 percent of the damage is in Delaware County, along County Road 7 (Route 206 in Sullivan County) and town roads off Spring Brook, in an area known as Cat Hollow. A tiny amount is in the neighboring Sullivan County Town of Rockland.

Oneonta Daily Star: Area News Briefs June 27, 2007

COLCHESTER _ The towns of Colchester and Andes remain under states of emergency because of significant flooding June 19, according to a news release Tuesday from the Delaware County Department of Emergency Services.

County Route 7, also known as Cat Hollow Road and state Route 206, will be closed between Roscoe and Downsville for an undetermined amount of time. Many of the roads near county Route 7 have been devastated and are closed.

Middletown Times Herald=Record: Special Report: Full coverage of the flash flood

Catskills Flash Flood: More Video, Photos

From the Middletown Times-Herald Record, video taken driving down what's left of Route 206 towards Roscoe. The damage from the storm is almost entirely within the Town of Colchester. It's the town's fourth major flood in the past two years.

I drove to Coach Mom's house today and to avoid all the emergency vehicles going from Route 30 to Holiday Brook and Cat Hollow, I came down 88 instead. I watched horizontal lightning from the exits for Cooperstown until I got off at Oneonta to go to Brooks' BBQ (sorry guys). At Brooks' takeout window they had the Weather Channel on overhead, which had the orange bar at the bottom for a severe thunderstorm warning for Franklin (where I was headed) and a tornado warning for Ithaca. Luckily for me the storms were already passing and stayed ahead of me as I headed south. There are currently at least three people missing from the flash flood in Colchester, and one of them was reportedly swept away in a car. I thought about that all the way home.

recordonline.com - The Times Herald-Record, serving New York's Hudson Valley and the Catskills

Photos submitted by THR readers:

recordonline.com - Article Photo Zoom

THR: Flash Flood Day Two: recordonline.com - Article Photo Zoom

midhudsonnews.com: Search continues for missing as damage toll is in the millions

Delaware County 911 Coordinator and Deputy Emergency Services Director Steve Finch told MidHudsonNews.com today that early assessment of property damage just to Delaware County exceeds $5 million. That just pertains to county roads, bridges and other infrastructure that was damaged or destroyed. The raging floodwaters were so intense that they tore large slabs of pavement off roadways.

Route 206 is also County Route 7, and is the most traveled road in the county. Bizarrely, in the past few years the county has posted signs designating it as a seasonal road, meaning that it doesn't get priority plowing for snow and that you are at your own risk traveling.

Catskills Flash Flood: Video

The Daily Star has posted a 2 minute video that contains footage shot by Ed and Melissa Blass, who abandoned their Toyota Prius for higher ground. The car is gone but they survived. You can hear and see the hail hitting the windshield hard.

The Daily Star: Flooding in Delaware County

Update: Here's a story from Albany's NewsChannel 9:

My News 9 Cast

Catskills Flash Flood Update: Thursday, June 21, 2007

These photos, taken yesterday show damage to Route 206 in the Delaware County Town of Colchester left by the floods that hit Tuesday night.
Times Herald-Record/TOM BUSHEY

NYTimes: Up to 5 Are Missing in Flooded Catskill Town When this story originally was posted last night, the headline read "Up to 7...".

recordonline: Rains spark killer wave; 6 reported missing in Delaware flood

recordonline: Flood survivors tell tales of escape, express gratitude for saviors

recordonline: Series of storms caused floods in Colchester

Oneonta Daily Star: Cat Hollow Flooding 2007 Photo Gallery P.S., Daily Star, it's Cat Hollow, not Cat Hallow, no cat worshiping going on there.

Oneonta Daily Star: Four missing after flood

Oneonta Daily Star: Local woman escapes flood on Cat Hollow

Oneonta Daily Star: Oneontans stranded

Binghamton Press: Delaware County flooding wipes out roads, homes
4 missing as searches continue

Binghamton Press: Delaware County Flood Photo Gallery

7Online.com (WABC): Search continues for missing flood victims
6 people still missing, including the elderly

Two months worth of rain, up to eight inches pounded down late Tuesday in just two hours.

midhudsonnews.com: One confirmed dead in flood aftermath

GARY KLINDT photo/Binghamton Press
Aerial view of the damage along Delaware County Route 7 / State Route 206 in the Town of Colchester on Wednesday where a flash flood Tuesday evening caused Spring Brook to wash out roads, bridges and homes, leaving several people missing.

Flooding from the Beaverkill on Tuesday washed away sections of Route 206 in the Delaware County Town of Colchester and caused major damage to the town.
Times Herald-Record/TOM BUSHEY

Catskills Flash Flood Update: Town of Colchester

Oneonta Daily Star: Four missing after flooding in Colchester

DOWNSVILLE— Four people were missing and at least was one presumed dead after an 8-foot-high wall of water rushed through two valleys in the Delaware County town of Colchester, officials said Wednesday.

Downsville Fire Department First Assistant Chief Mark Mattson said searches had been going on since the storm hit Tuesday night. However, late Wednesday, The Associated Press reported that police were forced to temporarily call off a search, citing darkness and safety. The AP said two people initially unaccounted for were found, and searches were expected to resume in the morning.

In Colchester, Gertrude Melvin, who was visiting her daughter and son-in-law, Elaine and George Finkle, was presumed dead after she was swept away by the water as her son-in-law attempted to rescue her, according to a family friend.

Fred and Marjorie Shutts were also missing after their home was washed away. The Shuttses’ home was next to the Finkles’ home, officials said.

“Holiday Brook Road is basically nonexistent, and county Route 7 is almost as bad,” Mattson said Wednesday.

Catskills Flash Flood Update: Six Missing, Three Presumed Dead

Photographer:
THR/MICHELE HASKELL
About the Photo:
Sullivan County Deputy Fire Coordinator Bill Lothrop looks through debris by the foundation of a home that was swept away with an elderly couple inside The couple along with another neighbor who was also swept away with his home are still missing as well as several motorists who were traveling on Rt. 206 in Colchester when an 8-foot wall raged through them.

recordonline: Six missing, three believed dead in flash flood
Homes, bridges washed away

5:30 p.m. - Six people are missing and three are presumed dead after a flash flood washed away several homes and damaged bridges just north of the Sullivan County hamlet of Roscoe last night.

Flood waters swept homes and cars away, ripped up pavement and dumped tons of mud and rocks along an 8-mile stretch of Route 206 from a mile north of Roscoe to Route 30 near the Pepacton Reservoir in the Delaware County Town of Colchester.

An elderly woman is presumed dead after an 8-foot-high wall of water away two trailer homes in Colchester. Gertrude Melvin was visiting her daughter when the storm hit. She was unable to reach a rescue rope and was killed after water swept her away, according to her family.

Melvin’s daughter, Elaine Finkle, is a 19-year employee in Sullivan County’s Office of the Aging. Finkle’s husband, George Finkle, works for New York State Electric & Gas. A trailer belonging to George’s parents, who lived next door, was also washed away. According to one of Elaine Finkle’s co-workers, the family lost their automobiles, their home and everything in it.

Also presumed dead are Fred and Marjorie Shutts, whose home was ripped off its foundation in the same area.

Paul Piatk, the Shutts’ neighbor, saw the couple standing on the porch around 7 p.m. An 8-foot wave swept their home away. Piatk said he saw state Trooper Joe Decker dive into the water, but Decker was forced to swim back to the bank.

“It was just a big, huge wave that swept everything away,” Piatk said. “The wave came down within two minutes; the garage, the car, the motorcycle, the wave just took it.”

recordonline: Photo Gallery: Flooding: Search and Rescue

7online.com (WABC):
Several missing after flooding
At least one woman confirmed dead

Also, four homes were washed away by the floods. Residents of between 15 and 18 homes in Roscoe, at the Sullivan County border, were evacuated. Drivers along Route 7 had to be rescued from their cars.

A little good news:

midhudsonnews.com: Elderly couple rescued from flood waters

Roscoe -- When Lajos and Susanna Erdos left a friend’s house in Walton in Delaware County to travel to their home to the Village of Ellenville in Ulster County Tuesday night, they had no idea what they would encounter on a road they have taken many times before.

The elderly Hungarian couple was driving on State Route 206 around 7:30 p.m. when they were met with heavy rain, then hail, then rising waters, all within minutes.

Mrs. Erdos said she told her husband to drive on the left side of the road just because it was rising so much quicker on the right, but within a few minutes, they had to pull over due to the quickly rising rush of water coming down the road. That is where they stayed for over night until being rescued early this morning.

“We sat there for 11 hours with little food or water, and the water was up to our waists,” Mrs. Erdos told MidHudsonNews.com while having a bite to eat at a Red Cross Disaster Relief Center setup at the Roscoe Middle School. “It was so terrifying. We didn’t think we were going to come out alive. We both thought that that was it for the both us.”

The two, both in their 80s, were rescued Wednesday morning and taken to the disaster relief center, where they said they would stay until Mrs. Erdos’ daughter who lives locally would pick them up and take them home to Ellenville.

Mr. and Mrs. Erdos discuss their ordeal

One Dead, Five Missing In Catskills Flash Flood

Photographer:
THR/TOM BUSHEY
About the Photo:
This area in Colchester was damaged by flooding from the Beaverkill on June 19, 2007. Route 206 is at the top of the frame. Colchester is in Delaware County, just across the county line from Roscoe. June 20, 2007.


recordonline: Elderly woman killed in flash flood
Homes washed away, five residents still missing

recordonline: Aerial Photo Gallery

recordonline.com: Aerial Video, Roscoe flood damage

NYDailyNews (AP): Breaking News
Search continues for people missing in Catskills flash floods

Another Year of June Flash Floods in the Catskills

Photographer:
THR/MIKE RICE
About the Photo:
The Beaverkill River in Roscoe flooded on Wednesday, June 20, 2007, causing many locals to evacuate while some were missing within the flood zone. Search and rescue workers from around the county teamed up to search for the missing individuals.
Last summer while Coach Mom & I were in Germany, we were shocked to see video on CNN International of flooding in Hancock, New York.

Last night there was another episode of flash flooding in the Catskills in June. 6 to 8 inches of rain fell in a two-hour period over a small area near Roscoe and homes were swept away by the Beaverkill. Baseball-sized hail was also reported. Coach Mom says that during the rain the air appeared white from the pounding rain.

From reading the articles, it sounds like the flooding is in the area around the old Hodges Furniture store, just on the Rockland/Colchester line. I think the bridge over the Beaverkill that you cross as you drive into Rockland from Colchester is one of those washed out.

As we learned from Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth, one of the consequences of global warming and climate change is that our weather is more extreme. Floods are an expected consequence of warmer temperatures, as warmer air holds more moisture, and when it finally dumps out, you get floods.

Middletown Times Herald-Record: Elderly woman killed in flash flood
Homes washed away, several residents still missing

Middletown Times-Herald Record: 8 inches of rain fell on flooded area last night

recordonline.com - Article Photo Zoom: "Flash flood washes away homes"

recordonline Video: Night activity near Roscoe flash flood scene

Binghamton Press: Colchester area hit hard by storm

Roads closed include Morton Hill, Jug Tavern, Campbell Mountain, Holiday Brook, Berry Brook and Beaver Hill roads, Route 7 from Downsville to Roscoe, and State Route 30 in the area.

Kirsten Gillibrand in NYTimes

Nathaniel Brooks for The New York Times

Potential rivals for Representative Kirsten Gillibrand's seat in Congress include a retired Army lieutenant colonel and a former candidate for governor.

Part 3 of the series:

NYTimes: The Freshman
Barely in Office, but G.O.P. Rivals Are Circling

Milford, New York, where the picture is taken, is also the home of the Cooperstown Brewing Co., where you can buy my favorite beer, Old Slugger, as well as other baseball-named beers. I wonder if John Sweeney has partaken of their wares? The New York Times outlines several Republicans who will run for Gillibrand's seat in 2008, but Sweeney is not mentioned.

Last Word on Arkville Standoff

New York State Police investigators survey damage to a farmhouse in Arkville, N.Y., Thursday, April 26, 2007. (AP Photo/Mike Groll)
Fred LeBrun, Albany Times-Union: Death penalty clamor is red herring for State Police mistakes

After last week's tragic shooting death of a state trooper, Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno asked the right question:

"What is more important than protecting the lives of law enforcement officers?"

Then he proceeded to hammer home the wrong answer. In a shameless bit of opportunism, he thundered about the need for a death penalty bill as a response.

[]

In light of what we know now, did our state troopers in harm's way get the protection they deserved from their own police agency? Who gave the command to storm a house where the subject of the manhunt was known to be hiding?

Could better State Police procedures have saved David Brinkerhoff's life?

These are the question the senator and others should be thundering about at the moment. Bruno should be holding hearings on the State Police, not advocating for the death penalty. This is the second time within a year that State Police procedures deserve to be questioned and examined in a very critical and public way. The "Bucky" Phillips debacle in western New York last summer also cost a trooper his life, and wounded another. What did the State Police learn from that in terms of protecting their own? Arguably, not enough.

Maj. Kevin G. Molinari, commander of Troop C in Sydney, told the Times Union Thursday that the operation that took the lives of Brinkerhoff and Travis Trim, the subject of the manhunt, "was well-planned, well-thought-out and well-executed."

I'll bet that's a smug statement Molinari wishes he had never uttered.

A State Police K-9 unit had determined there was a high probability Trim was hiding inside a house owned by a New Jersey cop, who used it as a hunting base. Trim was inside, they were outside. There was no surprise involved from either side.

Everybody present knew that Trim already had fired point blank at another trooper. Trim was probably well hidden, in a good defensive position watching it all, and well armed.

[]

What remained completely unanswered, however, after Felton's otherwise revealing press conference, was whether the house needed to be assaulted at all. Given the circumstances, the inclination, resources and positioning of the shooter, any police storming the house had a high probability of drawing fire. Was that necessary, considering that the house was surrounded, dozens if not hundreds of law enforcement were on the scene, and there was no deadline or hostages involved?

During the press conference, Felton emphasized how well trained the men were who stormed the house, and how they "followed established procedures."

What he didn't answer is whether those procedures were worth a damn and will be critically reviewed. Make no mistake, this is another black mark on the State Police, and they are adding up.

Trooper Binkerhoff Killed By Fellow Officer(s)

The state police's attempt to bring in Travis Trim did go horribly wrong; four troopers went into the home where Trim was hiding out, but only two walked out. Trim shot Trooper Brinkerhoff once, with a shot that was intercepted by his bulletproof vest. However, when Brinkerhoff went down to his knees, the fusillage released by his fellow troopers struck him in the back of the head, probably killing him instantly. I don't use the phrase "friendly fire" because I feel it trivializes the act of shooting, just as using the phrase "domestic violence" makes the violence seem less violent.

The state police then tried to wait Trim out. In retrospect, it would have been better to wait Trim out originally once he was located in the home, especially since he had already shot a trooper once with little provocation.

It's still a tragedy all around, and Trim is as responsible for the trooper's death under the felony murder rule as though he had pulled the trigger. None of this would have happened if he had not shot the trooper the day before. However, one hopes the New York State Police will look carefully at their procedures in such situations. Hostage negotiating should be the first option, not the last.

Kingston Daily Freeman: Remembering David Brinkerhoff: 'He was a real special individual'

Albany Times-Union: Killed in the crossfire
State Police fired nearly 70 times in shootout with fugitive, and one of those rounds hit trooper

NYTimes: Comrade’s Shot Killed New York State Trooper

NYTimes: A Fatal Wound From a Colleague’s Weapon Is Rare, but Always a Risk

Newsday (AP): Officials: NY trooper probably killed by friendly fire

Delaware County, New York Hits CNN

State Police acting Superintendent Preston L. Felton said the cause of the fire isn’t known. It’s possible suspect Travis D. Trim set the fire, Felton said, or a tear gas round could have ignited something.
“We are looking closer at the type of round that was fired into the residence, the type of tear gas round,” he said.
MIKE GROLL The Associated Press
Today I made my usual morning check on the Oneonta Daily Star and saw a story at the top of the local news about a state trooper being shot in Margaretville, New York. The trooper was wearing a bulletproof vest and was not seriously injured. The shooting took place right down the road from Margaretville Central School. I lived in the next town over and drive through Margaretville every time I go home to Coach Mom's house.

I googled the name of the shooting suspect, Travis Trim, and found that the situation had gotten much, much worse. The state police tactical team brought in to look for the kid entered a vacation house in Arkville (the next hamlet over) this morning where burglar alarms had been triggered. Trim was in the house, and two state troopers were shot. Trooper David C. Brinkerhoff died shortly thereafter, and the other trooper, Richard Mattson, was airlifted to Albany Medical Center for treatment. He is in serious but stable condition.

The police surrounded the house and kept it under surveillance all day until about 6:00 p.m. when tear gas canisters were fired into the house. Minutes later the house went up in flames (I watched tape of the fire starting, and you can hear the voices of people on the hill watching it happen: "Who started the fire?" "Could be him, or could be a tear gas canister, they get real hot when they go off.") The house went up quickly; reportedly, the absentee homeowner had informed the police that there was a large gun collection in the house. You could hear things exploding as the fire burned; the firefighters who tried to hose down the flames had to back away when there was a crack, which could have been a shot or just ammunition in the house exploding from the flames. A body [presumably the 23-year-old suspect] was found slumped in the doorway of one of the second story rooms, clutching a rifle.

Horrible all around. The poor family of that state trooper. The people that owned the house. The grandmother of the shooter was quoted as saying: "He was a smart kid. I don't know what happened to him," Ruth Trim said. "I don't think there's any way for this to turn out good now. Not after shooting a trooper. His goose is cooked." Prophetic, unfortunately.

CNN: Body found in burned house after hunt for trooper's killer

MSNBC: Body found in burned house after standoff
Trooper slain during manhunt for suspect in shooting of two other officers

Rochester Democrat & Chronicle: Photo Gallery

NYTimes: 2 N.Y. State Troopers Shot; 1 Dies of Injuries

Capital (Albany, NY) 9 News: Police: Travis Trim believed dead

Albany Times-Union: Body found in charred home at shooting site
North Country resident Travis Trim, 23, suspect in trooper's death

AP Video

Update: The body has been identified as Travis Trim.

A trust fund has been set up for Trooper Brinkerhoff's daughter [see sidebar].

What Do the Himalayas and the Catskills Have in Common?

Flooding, Sullivan County, New York, June 2006
Guardian (uk) (via RawStory):
Nepal's farmers on the front line of global climate change
Himalayan communities face catastrophic floods as weather patterns alter

Khetbari expects a small flood every decade or so, but what shocked the village was that the two largest have taken place in the last three years. According to Mr Tamang, a pattern is emerging. "The floods are coming more severely more frequently. Not only is the rainfall far heavier these days than anyone has ever experienced, it is also coming at different times of the year."

NYTimes, Nov. 28, 2005: Dam at a Catskill Reservoir Needs Emergency Repair, City Says (TimesSelect Wall)

The Schoharie Valley was hit with 100-year-floods in 1955, 1987 and again in 1996, when the Schoharie Reservoir reached its all-time high water level, more than six and a half feet over the top of the dam. A flood in April nearly matched that, and the area was hit with record rainfall in October.

''Seems like we've got 100-year floods coming every nine years now,'' said Fred Risse, a local farmer whose land lies in the flood plain of the Schoharie Creek. ''What happens when we get another?''

TimesHerald Record, June 30, 2006: Dealing with the aftermath

Along the Susquehanna in Binghamton and Wilkes-Barre, Pa., the deluge was severe. And here in northern Sullivan County the it was the worst anyone could recall. In fact, one early assessment suggested the Upper Delaware Valley had witnessed the kind of flooding thought to occur only two or three times a millennium.

"This was definitely a record flood," said Ward Freeman, assist director of the U.S. Geological Survey's Weather Science Center in Troy. "In the Delaware, the levels were the highest we've seen since we've been keeping track."

The agency has had gauges along the Delaware for 56 years.

At least one flood gauge posted at the mouth of the Callicoon Creek reported the Delaware had reached its 500-year flood stage.

Flooded with Disinformation

Richard Perry/The New York Times

In June, a road was washed out in Roscoe, by the Beaverkill River in the Catskill region.

NYTimes: Our Towns
TimesSelect After 3 Floods, Trying to Brace for No. 4 (TimesSelect wall)

Here’s what’s at stake: The Delaware River is the longest nondammed river east of the Mississippi, extending 330 miles from the Catskills to the mouth of the Delaware Bay. Nearly 15 million people — about 5 percent of the nation’s population — rely on it and 216 tributaries for drinking water and industrial uses. New York City gets half of its water from three reservoirs on the Delaware, and countless towns from here to the Atlantic exist because the river does.

From 1955 to 1996, there were no major floods. Now, it seems, there’s one every year. The Delaware River Basin Commission, which manages the river system, has begun a flood mitigation study, but on Thursday you could hear the frustration in the voice of every resident who spoke.

“I hear the word rain, and I hear a four-letter word,” said Joan Homovich, a retired teacher, who estimates her basement has flooded 10 times since 2003 and now obsessively goes online studying water releases from the reservoirs on the river. “When I thought about this rain I couldn’t eat.”

Part of the difficulty is a blizzard of conflicting agendas.

New York City, which controls the reservoirs, wants to be assured of drinking water for more than eight million people. Upstate residents want the city to also use the reservoirs to manage river flows and minimize flooding. Fishermen and environmentalists want to protect fisheries and limit man-made disruptions on the river. Towns want to be able to dredge and clean out streams to improve water flows that would prevent flooding.

[]

Residents want the agency to release water and lower the reservoir levels, creating a void that could trap rainfall that could otherwise cause flooding. The agency says its options are limited because the reservoirs are not built for flood control. But for the first time it has said it would make efforts in that direction.

Residents say the city is already failing to deliver. (The agency says reservoirs are now at 100.5 percent of capacity. Normal is 70 percent.)

[]

This year in the Catskills is among the wettest on record, but who knows what to read into a few years of wet weather. Freak of nature? Global warming? Thirty-year rainfall cycle? Act of God?

No one knows, and there are acts of nature that are beyond the machinations of man.

But despite the weaselly words with which the NYTimes ends its piece on the floods in the Catskills, these types of floods are predicted by the science of climate change. I heard Al Gore describe this type of weather scenario in An Inconvenient Truth.

Al Gore, transcript (unofficial), An Inconvenient Truth

What is often unnoticed the fact that global warming causes more precipitation but more of it coming in one time big storm events because the evaporation off the ocean puts all the moisture up there when storm conditions trigger the downpour before it falls down.

[]

The places where people live were chosen because of the climate pattern that had been pretty much the same on Earth since the end of the last ice age. Here on [my] farm, patterns are changing. It seems gradual in the course of a human lifetime but in the course of time as defined by this river, it's happening very, very quickly.

My Hometown Hits The Front Page of the New York Times

James Estrin/The New York Times
In the Town of Colchester, in the Catskills, court is in the garage.

Broken Bench
In Tiny Courts of New York, Abuses of Law and Power

Some of the courtrooms are not even courtrooms: tiny offices or basement rooms without a judge’s bench or jury box. Sometimes the public is not admitted, witnesses are not sworn to tell the truth, and there is no word-for-word record of the proceedings.

A yearlong investigation by The New York Times of the life and history of New York State’s town and village courts found a long trail of judicial abuses and errors — and of governmental failure to curb them.

Nearly three-quarters of the judges are not lawyers, and many — truck drivers, sewer workers or laborers — have scant grasp of the most basic legal principles. Some never got through high school, and at least one went no further than grade school.

But serious things happen in these little rooms all over New York State. People have been sent to jail without a guilty plea or a trial, or tossed from their homes without a proper proceeding. In violation of the law, defendants have been refused lawyers, or sentenced to weeks in jail because they cannot pay a fine. Frightened women have been denied protection from abuse.

These are New York’s town and village courts, or justice courts, as the 1,250 of them are widely known. In the public imagination, they are quaint holdovers from a bygone era, handling nothing weightier than traffic tickets and small claims. They get a roll of the eyes from lawyers who amuse one another with tales of incompetent small-town justices.

In the 8-page article itself, there is no mention of the Town of Colchester. The audio slide show in the left column repeats this photo, but again no detail about Colchester. I wonder if we will be featured in Parts II or III of the series? Stay tuned.

UPDATE: I am informed by a reliable source (thanks Coach Mom) that the court pictured is in Cooks Falls, one of the hamlets located within the Town of Colchester. That tiny court hears traffic tickets. There is another, larger court facility where Town Justice Theodore Fonda, a former New York City police officer, hears cases.

My Political Dollars at Work

As a resident of the People's Republic of, I mean the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, sometimes it seems like a waste of money to give to my preferred political candidates. Teddy Kennedy is going to get reelected. The Rethugs could run the Pope here and Teddy would kick Joey Ratz's ass.

So I want to use my political donations to gain a Democratic majority in Congress this year. I'm going to be giving to Senator Holey Joe Loserman's opponent in Connecticut, a real Democrat, Ned Lamont. Holey Joe can go on to an undistinguished career lobbying for insurance companies and addressing right wing rubber chicken banquets.

Even closer to home, I'm going to give money to whichever Democrat (former state attorney general Sheldon Whitehouse or Secretary of State Matt Brown) wins the right to oppose Lincoln Chafee in Rhode Island. Chafee voted for cloture (which would have been defeated with 41 votes), which put Alito on the Supreme Court. The fact that he cast a meaningless vote against him when the anti-Alito forces needed 60 votes to win just pisses me off. (I must be part of the Angry Left. Cue Howard Beal from Network! I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it any more!)

Yesterday I found this site, Paint New York Blue, on Bob Fertik's blog at Democrats.com. (I bookmarked Bob's blog during the Alito fight, when he ran myriad lists of telephone and fax numbers for contacting Senators.) Paint New York Blue's aim is to help re-take the House by focusing on the State of New York, where Democrats have a good chance of taking back some of the 15 seats we need.

Currently Paint New York Blue is targeting three races: (1) District 19, where the current Republican Congresswoman Sue Kelly voted with Tom Delay over 90% of the time; (2) District 20, where former Republican state party chairman John Sweeney is getting a serious challenge from Attorney Kristen Gillibrand, a partner of Gore election attorney David Boies; and (3) District 29, where Fighting Dem Eric Massa, a retired Navy commander, is challenging one of the true scumbags of the House, Republican Randy Kuhl, whose divorce papers reveal him to be an abusive drunk. Oh, and then there was that little incident where he threatened his wife with a shotgun. Nice.

I'm going to give my money to Gillibrand, who is running to represent my old district. Actually, I don't think my hometown is in her district anymore, because the Republican redistricters chopped up my rural county, but it's close enough. Go look at the map of Distict 20; it's crazy, running from Essex County north of Albany on the Vermont border, to Dutchess County on the Connecticut border; to rural Delaware County, almost at the Pennsylvania border.

Here's what Paint My Blue has to say about her race:

Running along the Eastern edge of New York State, District 20 has been represented since 1998 by John Sweeney, the former executive director of the New York State Republican Party who has a consistent anti-abortion record and an ‘A’ rating from the NRA. Anyone looking for a sighting of that rare bird, the moderate New York Republican, will have to look elsewhere: Sweeney has the markings of a traditional Bush-era conservative, voting with disgraced former House Leader Tom DeLay over 90% of the time in his latest term in office. Sweeney’s defining moment may have been in the aftermath of the 2000 Bush-Gore election, where he spearheaded the shutdown ofthe recount in Florida – a move that earned him the nickname “Congressman Kickass” from beneficiary George W. Bush.

Challenger Kirsten Gillibrand is a partner at the law firm of Boies, Schiller & Flexner (yes, that would be Boies as in David Boies, who represented Al Gore in Florida). At 39, Gillibrand is well established as a lawyer and as a civic activist. Called “a rising star” by NY State Attorney General Elliot Spitzer, Gillibrand has exceeded expectations in establishing herself as a viable candidate. Despite her blue chip resume and political credibility (including ties to the Clinton administration, where she served as legal counsel to the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development), skeptics initially described Gillibrand as a great candidate in a long shot race. However, she has won them over with a combination of personal charisma, hard work and organizational success. As of the first of January 2006, Gillibrand had raised over $370,000, drawing the attention of national groups like Emily’s List and the DCCC. Now, Roll Call political writer Stuart Rothenberg calls Gillibrand “the best Democratic opportunity” in New York to unseat a Republican Congressional incumbent in 2006.

Perhaps no one has helped Gillibrand more than Congressman Sweeney himself, who appears to be unsettled by his first real electoral challenge. Republicans arranged for a small group to protest Gillibrand’s campaign kick-off in Saratoga, but apparently forgot to tell them what it was they were protesting – a bungling performance that merely served to increase media coverage of the event. Sweeney’s attempt to distance himself from Jack Abramoff (and the $7,000 in campaign cash from Abramoff that had been directed his way) also backfired when a reporter realized that Sweeney had actually delivered his call for reform from the Park City, Utah vacation home of pharmaceutical lobbyist Jeff Kimble. But the Congressman wasn’t playing favorites – any lobbyist willing to pony up $2,000 had been invited to spend the weekend skiing with “House Appropriations Committee Member” John Sweeney.

It remains to be seen how the local electorate will react to Sweeney’s escapade in Utah, which drew the attention of the national press. Sweeney has other baggage to deal with as well; in November 2005 his teenage son was sentenced to 45 days in jail after pleading guilty to assault, the charges stemming from an incident that sent another boy to the hospital with a broken eye socket. Luckily for John Sweeney junior, a second judge reviewed the guilty plea and eliminated the jail time – an unusual step that has been loudly protested by the victim of the attack.

Despite Sweeney’s personal problems, there is no question that Gillibrand has a fight on her hands in a district where 53% voted for George Bush in 2004. Still, her team is encouraged by signs of change – increased numbers of registered Democrats, defeat of Republican mayors and other local incumbents in the 2005 elections, and a new energy animating the Democratic and independent opposition. The Gillibrand campaign has momentum, and the tangible evidence of that momentum is money: with a banner last quarter of 2005, Gillibrand has surpassed in dollars raised all of Sweeney’s four previous challengers combined.

Downsville Girls Soccer Team: New York Class D State Champs

Downsville beat New Lebanon at Union-Endicott's Ty Cobb stadium on Saturday, ending their season as state champions, and the only undefeated girls' soccer team in the state! This is the first state championship in the history of the tiny school, boys or girls.


A PERFECT ENDING: Downsville girls win state title, finish 24-0

Some factors to consider when reflecting on Downsville’s 24-0 season:

• Not only did the Eagles go undefeated, they never even trailed this season — that’s one day and eight hours worth of soccer.

• They won the first state championship of any kind in the school’s history.

• They outlasted a talented Tigers team that had won 10 consecutive Section Two Class D titles and won state titles in 1992 and 1994.

• They outscored the opposition this season, 140-12.

Girls Soccer: Hoyt's goals help top Eagles' perfect season
Downsville wins first state Class D title


It must be noted that some of the great Downsville girls soccer teams of the past never had the opportunity to compete for a state title. For example, Downsville girls went 50-0 in 1978, going undefeated in soccer, basketball and volleyball. But there were no state tournaments for the girls then. Many of the players on the field for Downsville this weekend were the daughters of those players who never got the recognition they deserved. They made sure this team got feted. The firemen met the team bus at the town line and paraded them through, sirens blaring. People were standing in their driveways to cheer. The bridge over the creek in the center of town was festooned with purple and white balloons. Fans lined the sidewalks of Main Street, waving Downsville flags and blowing horns.

On to basketball season, where Downsville girls were state runners-up last year and plan to win it all this year.

Congratulations, and good luck!