Spitzer Involved in Prostitution Ring

03/10/08
Last Update: 8:27 pm

NEW YORK (AP) - The New York Times is reporting that Gov. Eliot Spitzer has told senior advisers that he had been involved in a prostitution ring.

Spitzer is scheduled to make an announcement this afternoon. Spitzer officials wouldn’t immediately comment on the story.

The 48-year-old Spitzer is married and has three daughters. Details about the prostitution ring were not immediately clear.

But last week, federal prosecutors in Manhattan filed conspiracy charges against four people accusing them of running a prostitution ring that charged wealthy clients in Europe and the U.S. thousands of dollars for prostitutes.

The Web site of the Emperors Club VIP displays photographs of the prostitutes’ bodies, with their faces hidden, along with hourly rates depending on whether the prostitutes were rated with one diamond, the lowest ranking, or seven diamonds, the highest.

Prosecutors say the most highly ranked prostitutes cost…

A presentation of lectures focusing on this year’s ‘March into History’ series is being offered at the Chemung Valley Historical Museum in conjunction with the museum’s exhibition “At Home and at War: Chemung County in World War II”.

The 7 PM lectures will be held at the Museum located on E. Water Street in Elmira and are free and are open to the public. These lectures are appropriate for adults and youths alike.

“Women’s Land Army: Agricultural Soldiers of World War II’ is scheduled for March 13. Molly Jessup of Syracuse University will discuss how women helped agriculture thrive during the war through the Women’s Land Army.

“Constructing Rosie the Riveter: World War II, Women and Propaganda” will be held on March20. Using period images, Vivian Bruce Conger, assistant professor of history at Ithaca College, will analyze the U.S. government’s campaign to entice women into the work…

Gov. rallies education troops on endowment plan

Gov. Eliot Spitzer led what was essentially a cheerleading session to get leaders of the State University of New York, City University of New York and other schools revved up about his plan to privatize the state Lottery and create a $4 billion education endowment. Legislative leaders have been wary and skeptical of the plan so far, saying they need more detailed information about how the endowment would work.

“We need your help,” Spitzer told educators during a conference call this afternoon. “This sort of transformational event doesn’t occur … unless there are enough voices being heard, articulating the need, demonstrating the support …”

The governor urged educators to work with alumni, write opinion pieces for newspapers, get faculty members involved in the campaign and reach out to their local business communities.

With an…

From Newsmax.com

The Real Barack Obama

Thursday, February 21, 2008 10:06 AM

By: Ronald Kessler

Michelle Obama’s comment that, for the first time in her adult life, she feels proud of America helps crystallize who Barack Obama is.

To be sure, the wife of a candidate is perfectly free to have views that are distinct from her husband’s. But on a matter that is so fundamental to one’s being as love of country, it is difficult to imagine that Michelle Obama would publicly twice make such a statement suggesting disdain for America unless she felt it comported with her husband’s views.

Equally important, her statement aligns perfectly with the hate-America views of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Barack Obama’s minister, friend, and sounding board for more than two decades. On the Sunday following 9/11, Wright characterized the terrorist attacks as a consequence of violent American policies. Four years later, Wright…

Included on the agenda of the February School Board Meeting ( 2/6/08, 7 PM @ EFA) will be the presentation of the final report of the committee charged with the investigation of the procedures regarding the much maligned and discussed 2007 School Board elections.

Originally scheduled for the January SB meeting, presentation of the report was postponed until the February meeting, possibly because of the questions and general discontent surrounding the appointment by City Manager John Burin of former School District Attorney John Ryan to Elmira Corporate Counsel (announced 2/4/08).

The draft of the report, given to SB President Dan Hurley in December, is presented below and makes for interesting (albeit tedious) reading given the facts that the local SB operates on a million + budget and that included in the report is a recommendation that Attorney John Ryan’s conduct in this matter be reported to the State Bar.

Of course, how the…

DiNapoli: Things could get worse

The potential state deficit may be worse that the $4.3 billion currently being projected by the Spitzer administration, the state’s chief fiscal officer said yesterday (1/15/08).

”$4.3 billion is a conservative estimate,’’ Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said in an interview on AM-1300 in Albany today. “The roller coaster of Wall Street is moving in the wrong direction.’’

GOv. Eliot Spitzer is due to present his budget plan for the fiscal year that starts April 1 to the Legislature a week from Today. His Budget Division placed the gap at $4.3 billion last fall, as tax revenues began to slip as Wall Street cooled. About 20 percent of state tax revenues are tied to the financial-services industry, by far the most volatile part of the state’s financial picture.

DiNapoli wouldn’t provide his own estimate, but said the state’s fiscal position could deteriorate.

Spitzer has pledged not to raise state taxes, but…

Darwin Awards Winners: “‘The 2007 Darwin Award Winners have been announced. Precarious sex, squashed thieves, animals eradicated with electricity, the obligatory macho competition involving a train, and one computer (which survived.) But think twice before you read them. Do you really want to know about The Enema Within?’”

Elmira, Main street McDonalds, with a Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) on their order confirmation thingy.

Running Apple OSX, I haven’t rebooted in a year, (well, there was that time when I upgraded from Tiger to Leopard), never crashes, just works. People pay for Windows to do that?

More than likely than not, included in tonight’s meeting on the Elmira City budget is the salary for new but yet to be announced City Attorney, John J.Ryan, Jr.

John J.Ryan, a good friend of City Manager John Burin, was Elmira’s City Attorney during at least some of the ill advised Iraci/Hughes era that landed Elmira in its current financial mess. Some of the legal problems Elmira is now paying for were John Ryan decisions on labor as well as costly handshake deals that were never put to paper.

Appointed to be City Attorney on Friday, January 4, former Elmira School District Attorney Ryan had just resigned without fanfare from his position with the school system on Wednesday, Jan 2 following a very stormy relationship which has created a number of problems for the local school district.

The school district is currently being sued over property that they just took title to…

CSEA members ratify contract

CSEA members overwhelmingly ratified a new contract for more than 70,000 state executive branch employees, the union announced yesterday. The vote was 29,755 to 1,839. The contract has to be approved by the Legislature and signed by Gov. Eliot Spitzer.

The agreement includes salary increases of 3 percent retroactive to April 2001 (when the previous contract ended,) 3 percent in April 2008, 3 percent in April 2009 and 4 percent in April 2010. Other parts of the contract include increases in longevity payments, improvement in downstate and mid-Hudson salary adjustments to reflect the higher cost of living there, and some increases in health insurance co-payments, balanced by a number of benefit enhancements.

The agreement is fair to employees and good for the people of New York, CSEA President Danny Donohue said in a statement. “The strength of the ratification demonstrates that our rank and file fully support the agreement,”…