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ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — The Plattsburgh Press-Republican on the politics of major issues confronting Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
Oct. 19
Gov. Andrew Cuomo is apparently taking heat for having failed — or having been unable, depending on how you look at it — to take definitive action on some difficult issues before Election Day.
According to a story by the Associated Press's David Klepper, which ran in Monday's Press-Republican, three important and much-anticipated decisions have been awaiting Cuomo's aye or no and will now almost certainly not be rendered before Election Day, Nov. 4.
Cuomo's critics call this stalling in the interests of politics. The governor himself calls it awaiting the results of all the inquiries necessary to make the best and most informed decision.
One of the issues is whether to permit hydraulic fracturing to release underground supplies of natural gas around New York state, particularly in the Southern Tier.
Environmentalists deplore the thought that "fracking" could be allowed after a moratorium for the past six years, pointing to potential environmental and health impacts. Companies and potential employees, on the other hand, yearn for the profits and salaries that they say the practice could unlock along with the gas.
The second issue is how much of a toll to impose on the new Tappan Zee Bridge north of New York City. Construction of the bridge has been going on for more than a year, and speculations have put the toll at $9 to $14.
Rockland County Executive Ed Day has been trying to press Cuomo for the final figure, but the governor has said he is awaiting final construction figures on the $3.9 million span.
And, perhaps the trickiest of the three decisions is where to permit the establishment of four new casinos around the state. Surely, the communities that want one but don't wind up getting it would be less than appreciative in the voting booth to the governor who snubbed them.
The governor reasons, publicly, that decisions on these three issues simply are not possible, as all the information is not in.
More cynical observers point to the obvious political liabilities attached to each one, particularly as Election Day draws near.
Reporter Klepper put it this way in his story on the matter: "Thanks to either serendipity or Cuomo's dexterity, each decision is off the table, pushed back until after the election."
Clearly, Cuomo has pursued re-election vigorously.
The TV ad campaign waged against opponent Rob Astorino has been especially derogatory, especially for an incumbent with a double-digit lead and little chance of losing.
We won't say outright that Cuomo has purposely evaded confrontation on these issues at a key time.
But we certainly would have applauded his courage if he had decided to decide.
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The Utica Observer Dispatch on the importance of federal authorities approving a waiver to allow medical marijuana use in New York.
Oct. 19
The good thing about the push to accelerate the implementation of a new state law authorizing marijuana as a treatment for certain medical conditions is that most politicians support it. The bad thing is that the request for a federal waiver to speed up the process for high-risk children and young people is tangled in government red tape.
That should infuriate every resident of this state. It should infuriate them enough to write to state and federal representatives in support of the effort to have the U.S. Department of Justice grant a waiver so New York can import medical marijuana for children and young adults like Mackenzie Kulawy of New York Mills, who suffers every day from a severe form of epilepsy called Doose syndrome. A young boy in Colorado — where voters approved the legal use of medical marijuana in 2000 — has the same condition and has not had a seizure since he started the medication two years ago. (see accompanying column)
State lawmakers voted earlier this year to make New York the 23rd state to authorize marijuana for patients with conditions including AIDS, cancer and epilepsy. The problem is that the program isn't likely to be up and running before 2016 as regulators work out the details. That may be too late for some.
State legislators and advocates of medical marijuana met in New York City last Sunday to discuss the issue. Many supporters want to kick-start the program for patients like Mackenzie because time isn't on their side. At least three children in the state have already died since the bill was signed.
Mackenzie developed the condition at age 4 and now, at age 11, suffers seizures every 10 or 15 minutes. In April, she had to drop out of school. In addition, she must stick to a special diet — she says she wants to eat doughnuts if she ever gets better — and she now wears a helmet to prevent serious head injuries that could occur during a seizure.
Mackenzie's grandmother, Patricia Reed, explains that the brain needs to repair itself between seizures, but as Mackenzie gets older, that process takes longer. Getting medical marijuana now could greatly help her chances of resuming a normal life.
The Cuomo administration has tried to speed the process for children like Mackenzie, and Assemblyman Anthony Brindisi, D-Utica, has called for a special session of the Legislature so it could pass legislation to expedite the process.
Meanwhile, a request for what would be an unprecedented federal waiver to allow New York state to import medical marijuana from out-of-state manufacturers before the formal state program begins was sent to the Justice Department in August by U.S. Sens. Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand. Schumer spokesman Angelo Roefaro said Wednesday that they have heard nothing to date regarding that request.
Schumer should be livid. He's got clout in the Senate, and he should be pounding on the Justice Department's door demanding that something be done about this.
The Washington bureaucrats needs to step outside the D.C. Beltway into the real world and view the video that Mackenzie's mom has of her daughter having a seizure. Maybe if their own child or grandchild suffered such a fate they'd stop the foot-dragging.
"I would not want to live the life my granddaughter lives," Mackenzie's grandmother wrote in an Opinion page column last Monday. "Mackenzie had four seizures yesterday resulting in two black eyes and a very large bump on her head. The last seizure yesterday was a grand mal seizure lasting over eight minutes. . She doesn't remember any of it, but she feels the pain from it. Every muscle in her body hurts and she cries."
Wake up, Washington. Stop wasting precious time. Get this done. Now.
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The New York Times on Cuba's contributions to combatting the Ebola epidemic in West Africa.
Oct. 19
Cuba is an impoverished island that remains largely cut off from the world and lies about 4,500 miles from the West African nations where Ebola is spreading at an alarming rate. Yet, having pledged to deploy hundreds of medical professionals to the front lines of the pandemic, Cuba stands to play the most robust role among the nations seeking to contain the virus.
Cuba's contribution is doubtlessly meant at least in part to bolster its beleaguered international standing. Nonetheless, it should be lauded and emulated.
The global panic over Ebola has not brought forth an adequate response from the nations with the most to offer. While the United States and several other wealthy countries have been happy to pledge funds, only Cuba and a few non-governmental organizations are offering what is most needed: medical professionals in the field.
Fidel Castro may no longer be president, but his influence endures. His portrait was displayed at a march in Havana last month.
Doctors in West Africa desperately need support to establish isolation facilities and mechanisms to detect cases early. More than 400 medical personnel have been infected and about 4,500 patients have died. The virus has shown up in the United States and Europe, raising fears that the epidemic could soon become a global menace.
It is a shame that Washington, the chief donor in the fight against Ebola, is diplomatically estranged from Havana, the boldest contributor. In this case the schism has life-or-death consequences, because American and Cuban officials are not equipped to coordinate global efforts at a high level. This should serve as an urgent reminder to the Obama administration that the benefits of moving swiftly to restore diplomatic relations with Cuba far outweigh the drawbacks.
The Cuban health care workers will be among the most exposed foreigners, and some could very well contract the virus. The World Health Organization is directing the team of Cuban doctors, but it remains unclear how it would treat and evacuate Cubans who become sick. Transporting quarantined patients requires sophisticated teams and specially configured aircraft. Most insurance companies that provide medical evacuation services have said they will not be flying Ebola patients.
Secretary of State John Kerry on Friday praised "the courage of any health care worker who is undertaking this challenge," and made a brief acknowledgment of Cuba's response. As a matter of good sense and compassion, the American military, which now has about 550 troops in West Africa, should commit to giving any sick Cuban access to the treatment center the Pentagon built in Monrovia and to assisting with evacuation.
The work of these Cuban medics benefits the entire global effort and should be recognized for that. But Obama administration officials have callously declined to say what, if any, support they would give them.
The Cuban health sector is aware of the risks of taking on dangerous missions. Cuban doctors assumed the lead role in treating cholera patients in the aftermath of Haiti's earthquake in 2010. Some returned home sick, and then the island had its first outbreak of cholera in a century. An outbreak of Ebola on the island could pose a far more dangerous risk and increase the odds of a rapid spread in the Western Hemisphere.
Cuba has a long tradition of dispatching doctors and nurses to disaster areas abroad. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the Cuban government created a quick-reaction medical corps and offered to send doctors to New Orleans. The United States, unsurprisingly, didn't take Havana up on that offer. Yet officials in Washington seemed thrilled to learn in recent weeks that Cuba had activated the medical teams for missions in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea.
With technical support from the World Health Organization, the Cuban government trained 460 doctors and nurses on the stringent precautions that must be taken to treat people with the highly contagious virus. The first group of 165 professionals arrived in Sierra Leone in recent days. José Luis Di Fabio, the World Health Organization's representative in Havana, said Cuban medics were uniquely suited for the mission because many had already worked in Africa. "Cuba has very competent medical professionals," said Mr. Di Fabio, who is Uruguayan. Mr. Di Fabio said Cuba's efforts to aid in health emergencies abroad are stymied by the embargo the United States imposes on the island, which struggles to acquire modern equipment and keep medical shelves adequately stocked.
In a column published over the weekend in Cuba's state-run newspaper, Granma, Fidel Castro argued that the United States and Cuba must put aside their differences, if only temporarily, to combat a deadly scourge. He's absolutely right.
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The Times Union of Albany on providing information about the Ebola epidemic and avoiding fear-mongering.
Oct. 17
It would be a mistake to underestimate the threat of the Ebola virus. At the same time, it would surely be dangerous to exaggerate it. And just as bad, if not worse, to draw a veil of secrecy around it.
There is no question Ebola is a serious threat. It is spreading in West Africa, and there is growing expert and international agreement that more concerted response is needed to deal it and prevent a pandemic. And it can be deadly, having claimed more than 4,500 lives, including one in the United States.
In this country, where the early cases have exposed weaknesses in hospital and public health protocols, the focus needs to be on clear and appropriate measures to detect and respond to cases, and on making sure that health care personnel and other people involved in response are up to date on their training — no matter whether they've had this training in the past or not.
And those protocols — as well as the so-far measured precautions on international air traffic — need to be revised, disseminated, and drilled again as circumstances change. New York state's announcement last week that it would provide protective gear to hospitals and require training on how to use it is that kind of urgent response.
But just as it would be a mistake to minimize the threat of Ebola, it would be a mistake to inflate it, a path that we are in danger of going down, especially in the charged climate of a political campaign season. Blowing this out of proportion for political purposes has the potential to do as much harm as ignoring the virus, sending those dealing with the crisis into a defensive mode that will likely lead them to downplay threats, defend errors instead of fixing them, or shut down the flow of information that is vital to preventing the kinds of misinformation, speculation and panic that flourishes in a vacuum.
An example of how not to do this right presented itself Thursday, when a Times Union reporter obtained a Schenectady police document about a possible case of Ebola involving a woman who informed clinic workers that she had been in West Africa in September and was feeling ill.
It turned out the woman had visited Ghana, which has not been affected by the outbreak. But getting that simple information was anything but simple.
The state Health Department refused to discuss the matter other than to issue a statement that there were no suspected Ebola cases in the state. Details had to be pieced together from a confidential source who spoke only on the condition the paper not identify even what public entity he worked for. Finally, a spokesman for Schenectady County confirmed the details.
Withholding information, blithely declaring all is well, and leaving an anxious public to weigh whether an anonymous source is credible or not is no way to handle a tense public health situation. The goal should be containing the virus, not the facts.
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The Daily Gazette of Schenectady on holding scholastic and professional athletes accountable for wrongdoing.
Oct. 19
Despite his refusal to divulge any details of the rule violations that caused him to suspend three of his team's top veteran players before the start of the season, we'll at least give Union College hockey coach Rick Bennett credit for doing something that doesn't happen often enough on the field, in the locker rooms or elsewhere in sports at higher levels — blowing the whistle on players (and coaches) who misbehave or break laws.
There have been entirely too many examples, in college as well as professional sports, of star athletes and coaches who — perhaps because they are worshipped as heroes, perhaps because they work so single-mindedly in their pursuit and thus are shielded from reality, or perhaps because they are integral to a team's success and, thus, someone's bottom line — think they can ignore the laws and social mores that apply to everyone else.
And more often than not, it seems they are right.
Behavior akin to what took place in the locker room of the Miami Dolphins a year ago, or at Penn State a few years before that, is considered intolerable — socially and legally. And it shouldn't be tolerated in a locker room or on a playing field any more than it should be tolerated in a fraternity house or military barracks — two places where it festered in the past but does to a lesser extent today.
One of the more disturbing aspects about incidents of this sort, when they do occur, is the impact they have on impressionable youth.
For example, it was hard to read last week's stories about alleged locker room hazing incidents in Sayresville, N.J. — where police have charged seven varsity high school football players with sexually abusing freshmen in the showers — without recalling the Penn State sex abuse case and numerous college fraternity hazing stories.
It was somewhat of a relief when, after being alerted by the county attorney to "pervasive, wide-scale and generally accepted" harassment, intimidation and bullying by members of the team, the Sayresville school superintendent canceled not only that week's game, but the rest of the team's season.
Obviously, leveling the death penalty on an entire team was an extreme call, and it must have been a tough one for the superintendent, given the team's perennial championship status and presumed popularity in the community. (And he's even gotten some heat for it.)
But given the severity of the situation, it was the right move, due process or not.
To even consider looking the other way when incidents of this sort occur almost seems absurd. But there's often a lot at stake, namely a person or school's reputation and, ultimately, money.
Even at the amateur level, it pays to have a winner. (Union College's success in hockey has already been cited as a reason why applications have risen at the institution, and it hasn't hurt the school's fundraising efforts, either.)
But while it may pay to have a winning team, any school also has an obligation to its athletes, the overwhelming majority of whom won't go on to high-paid professional athletic careers, so that they don't start thinking so highly of themselves that they become bad citizens.
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