Erie: Tires for Power

Here's another group project. In this one, the group took the focus/analysis approach to opinion writing (think Sunday paper/front of focus section).

Tell us ... what do you think of the writing, the reporting and the power project itself.

Here's the story:

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THE [TIRE] BURNING QUESTION

By: JOHN MACKOWIAK, ANNE LITHILUXA, PAM PANNONE,
RYAN GOODNOUGH, and RYAN DRONEY

School buses filled with screaming kids roll past the corner of East Lake Road and Downing Avenue seemingly nonstop. Several elementary school children navigate the sidewalk.

It's Monday afternoon, and the final school bell just rang.

Many of these little, tightly bundled up eastside Erie street trekkers are headed in the same direction. As they walk, some of them weave past the snow piles. Others walk right through the snow, wearing their hand-me-down boots.

The kids are on their way to the Boys and Girls Club.

They approach Downing Avenue and wait for the traffic to stop. The pack of youngsters quickly crosses the street and is now only about a block away from the Club.

One of the boys among the group runs his hand along a tall gray fence, knocking off snow with each step he takes.

On the other side of the fence is the proposed site for a $235 million tires-to-energy plant. Erie Renewable Energy, LLC—a company formed solely to build the tire-burning plant—has made it clear that they want Erie’s eastside to be the location of the multi-million dollar energy investment.

Every day, the facility will convert 900 tons—possibly as much as 1,000 tons—of scrap tires to energy, according to the Erie Times-News. That many tires will produce more than 90 megawatts of electricity.

90 megawatts is enough to keep the lights burning in 75,000 to 80,000 homes.
Throw in the 60 good-paying jobs that the plant will bring into the area, and it sounds like Erie is getting a pretty good deal.

A $235 million investment in one of Lake Erie’s rusty cities. 60 jobs that will pay Erie citizens some good money. And it’s an innovative energy solution.

Looks like good things are happening in Erie.

But if you dig a little deeper, the plans don’t seem so appealing.

It’s an overly used cliché, but, in all seriousness, what about the children?

“I see kids waiting on that corner to get picked up by the bus,” said Valerie Mackowiak, referring to the intersection of East Lake Road and Downing.

Valerie is a native of Erie’s eastside. She grew up on Hess Avenue, about three blocks from the proposed site.

“It’s a residential community. It’s the last place you’d think to put a factory,” she said.

Not long ago, that empty, fenced-in lot was the location of the Hammermill Paper Factory.

However, Valerie quickly clarified that when the paper factory was being built, East Erie was not a well-populated residential area.

“When the factory opened up that was probably the city limits. The houses came after Hammermill,” Mackowiak said.

The plant that ERE plans to build will “gasify” tires to make electricity. Though the developers have assured Erie residents that the gasification process won’t smell, Hammermill left a legacy of rotten odors in the city.

The smell is what most people remember about Hammermill’s long existence. As soon as you drove into the city, the stench hit you like a brick wall.

Valerie’s husband, John, said that, to him, the plant smelled like “vomit,” or “really sour milk.”

The air over Erie has cleared, now that Hammermill is gone. The smell, on the other hand, still lingers in the consciousness of many of the city’s dwellers.

“They remember the smell, and judging by the hype, the tires might be a bigger polluter. I’m sure people are afraid that a new smell will take over the eastside,” Mackowiak said.

The area hasn’t changed much since Valerie was growing up. The population has grown and become more diverse, but the eastside, especially in the area surrounding the plant site, is still inhabited by young, blue-collar families, trying to make ends meet.

And with the families come a slew of children. All of them, of course, need an education.

Within one mile of the proposed site, there are eight schools and a Boys and Girls Club. Inside the Boys and Girls club, there is a preschool.

Thousands of kids, ages 4 to 18, trying to learn—focusing on their reading, writing and arithmetic—within one mile of a facility that, each year, will release 1,450 tons of pollutants into the eastside kids’ air.

Young mothers and fathers raise their families on the eastside. They pray that their children won’t get asthma from breathing in all of the smog. With each cough and every wheeze, they fear that their child will be diagnosed with the respiratory ailment.

They would leave, but they have no place to go. Housing is cheap on the eastside. They can’t afford the moving costs or the rent in other areas.

The same is not true for people living in the wealthier neighborhoods, a little farther away from the plant. There a bunch of big, beautiful homes within walking distance from the East Lake and Downing site.

“As soon as they get started, you’ll see a lot of ‘For Sale’ signs,” Mackowiak said.

And who could blame those people for choosing to leave? Who wants a $235 million eyesore in their backyard?

ERE FILES AIR QUALITY PERMIT

The incinerator is still in the planning phases, but Erie Renewable Energy has submitted its application for an air quality permit. This permit application will be looked over by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.

The company must provide all necessary paperwork for the application review to begin. Once it has been determined that the paper work is in place, the DEP will begin a technical evaluation of the data contained in the application.

The evaluation process is long and tedious. Greg Tarbell of the DEP spoke to the Erie Times-News about how the agency handles the application.

“We take a look at the technology that is being proposed. Also emission control devices being proposed. It is a kind of a test of the information that is being presented to us."

This phase of the project can take up to 9 months, but, at the same time, it could be completed in as few as 30 to 60 days.

This evaluation stage provides those living around the proposed site with an opportunity to make their voices heard. Copies of ERE’s air quality permit are available for public viewing at the City of Erie Municipal Building, the Erie County Blasco Public Library, the Erie County Iroquois Branch Library and the DEP Northwest Regional Office Records Center in Meadville, Pa.

All of the data contained in the application is derived from sources that are under the control of the interests involved in constructing the facility.

DEP Regional Director Kelly Burch has assured Northwest Pennsylvanians that they will be heavily involved in the review process.

“As with any environmental permit application, we’ll work hard to ensure the community is involved in this review and is made aware of all of the facts,” Burch said to the Erie Times-News.

THE SCIENCE OF TIRE GASIFICATION

The process of tire burning is a very technical and complicated procedure that does not, by any means, lack environmental detriment.

Dr. Sherri Mason, an Associate Professor of chemistry at SUNY Fredonia explained that ERE’s facility aims to “gasify” tires by exposing them to high temperatures, which in turn, releases hydrocarbons—the basic composition of all fossil fuels.

Once these hydrocarbon vapors are released, the energy yielded would provide the fuel necessary to boil water. The boiling water produces steam. This steam provides the power to rotate electricity-producing turbines.

Mason said that electricity usage makes up 85 percent of world’s energy needs

This proposed tire burning facility in Erie would follow the procedure detailed above. However, the energy production comes with severe health and safety ramifications.

There is a laundry list of chemicals called hazardous air pollutants that would be emitted by the plant’s everyday operations.

Dioxins, mercury, arsenic and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons—just to name a few.

As indicated by the Energy Justice Network, most PAHs are known to cause cancer in animals and are suspected to cause cancer, birth defects and a wide variety of other health problems in humans.

An 8-year-old quickly sucking in breath after breath—filling his lungs with PAHs—after hitting a home run in a kickball game on the field behind the Boys and Girls Club.

According to the International Association of Great Lakes Researchers, the Great Lakes contain more than one-fifth of the fresh surface water on our planet. A tire burning plant of this description would not only contaminate the air as maintained earlier, but also the fresh water supply.

“This plant is not a step toward the future as its proponents would have you think, it is a step back toward that industrial past, that past in which we were famous for having such polluted waterways,” Mason said in an email correspondence.

The facility will produce high quantities of carcinogenic and mutagenic chemicals. Mason explained that these mutation-causing chemicals that will end up in Lake Erie bioaccumulate. That means that as you climb up the food chain, the concentrations of chemicals inside the bodies of each plant and animal increases exponentially.

Even if a only small amount of chemicals is released into the air and water, a sizable amount will be found in fish, turkey and other species at the tail end of the food chain—including humans.

As we all learned in elementary school, the fundamental laws of gravity say that what goes up must come down.

Everything that is emitted into the atmosphere will be deposited at one point or another onto the Earth’s surface, whether it is in the form of dirt or rain.

Sulfur Dioxide, a particulate matter, is formed when gasoline is extracted from the oils burned off by tires. This pollutant is the leading cause of acid rain, which affects all aspects of a region’s ecosystem.

Pollution of this kind will have several long term effects. The health of the ecosystem, and of the beings living in that ecosystem, will be affected by the planned facility.

Asthmatic kids. Old folks with quickly-failing tickers. It’s tough to find the beneficiaries in this equation.

“This facility is bound to have very significant and detrimental impacts upon both air and water resources on local, regional and global scales. Simply put, it is a really bad idea,” Mason said.

The tire burning plant would affect more than just the inhabitants of Erie, PA. Due to the air shifting away from Lake Erie, the communities along the lake—northeast of Erie—might see the effects of the facility’s pollution more so than Erie.

“This is not just a concern for the people of Erie; it is more likely to affect Fredonia, NY than Erie, PA, simply because the air moves away from Erie, but into other areas. The health impacts of this plant are not just local, but regional, and due to the long-lived nature of these emissions, even global,” Mason said in her email.

Another health hazard to consider is the storage and cleansing of the tires. If the plant plans to burn 900 tons of tires a day, it will have to maintain a stock pile of them. A heap of dirty tires simply breeds unhealthiness.

“The tires that have been sitting in landfills for god knows how long will have accumulated so much gunk and grime including oil from cars, molds, and we all know that tires are vectors for mosquitoes and vermin, such as rats. The cleansing will all end up back in the lake and will remain indefinitely,” said WNY Area K.E.E.P. Organizer, Suzanne Graham.

Soot and smog would be the most visible consequences of burning tires. Both cause lung irritation, aggravated asthma, chronic bronchitis and even heart problems. And for those with pre-existing heart or lung disease, premature death is a real possibility.

Just one more thing to cause heart disease in Western New York. We’ve already got Buffalo wings and the Buffalo Bills.

RECYCLE, REDUCE, REUSE.

There are other alternatives to burning tires. Some of the other methods are more energy efficient. They can actually be truthfully referred to as recycling.

“For the record [the plant is] not renewable, nor green, in any way, shape or form, despite what the proponents advertise,” Mason said.

A lot of alternatives have been proposed. Many of these suggestions are now being practiced.

A portion of the towering heaps of tires, that have been dumped into landfills, have been handled in ways that are more efficient than burning. Old tires have been turned into running tracks, roofing shakes, safety mats, tennis courts and even new tires.

It is possible to reuse a tire through a process called “tire re-treading.” It is an effective method because 60 percent of the rubber tire material is in the casing.

Tire bald? Take it off your car, get it re-treaded and throw it right back on.

A standard car tire can be re-treaded about three times, but larger vehicle tires can be done up to as many as 12 times.

One of the premier methods for recycling tires is converting the tires into Rubberized Asphalt Concrete. RAC is made by grinding tires into crumbs and mixing it with asphalt. The results are impressive—the roads are longer lasting (up to seven years without cracking), better riding, and they reduce road noise by 50 percent to 80 percent. Per lane mile of RAC laid, 2,000 tires are recycled.

One mile of new road, 2,000 fewer tires.

Currently, California, Arizona, Florida, and Canada are using the recycled substance. If every road and highway was derived from recycled tires, landfills would begin empty and tire incinerators would start to shut down.

The Canadian province of Nova Scotia has a strong tire recycling program. It has had a strict ban on land filling and incineration since 1996.

Nova Scotia gets rid of its old tires through a process, in which a tire’s fibers and metals are removed through cryogenic freezing. The recycled the rubber is then turned into various products.

Another solution is devulcanization, a process by which rubber is broken down and recycled. It cannot be compared to incinerating because in devulcanization, the tires are combined with other ingredients, melted and hardened.

The rubber becomes a certain texture that can be made into products like boots, raincoat and, in many cases, tires.

Importing rubber to the United States is a multi-billion dollar industry. It’s clear that we have a high demand for rubber. Devulcanization might be the answer that would keep America’s supply of rubber high, while keeping the rubber industry’s jobs in the states.

OTHER TIRE BURNING EXPERIMENTS

We only know of one active dedicated-tire incinerator in the United States. It’s called Exeter Energy, located in Sterling, Connecticut. This facility burns 10 to 11 million tires a year. Just to put it into perspective—Erie plans to burn 30 million tires each year.

Exeter Energy has recieved a litany of complaints. Violations on their track record date back to 1991.

In 1991, black soot fell on homes. 1992, seven notices of violation including, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, failure to meet combustion efficiency limits and failure to submit emission exceedance reports. In 1995, two of Exeter’s incinerators exceeded their carbon monoxide limit. In 1995 alone, that happened 69 times. 2005 brought a tire fire in the rear tire pit of the facility.

Of the other three dedicated-tire incinerators that we know once existed in the United States, all have failed.

The Preston, Minn. incinerator was planned to be the world’s largest. However, due to the hard work and dedication of the Southeastern Minnesotans for Environmental Protection group, the plant was shut down in 2005.

Another tire burning plant was built in Ford Heights, Ill. The plan was to burn 3 million tires a year. It was in operation for a mere 10 days, before it went bankrupt. The facility was never reopened.

The third plant, which was erected in Modesto, Calif., was shut down after it endured an uncontrolled tire fire.

The plant proposed for Erie is three times the size of the next largest facility. Exeter in Connecticut is the largest, but if Erie Renewable Energy follows through with its plans, the factory on the corner of East Lake Road and Downing Avenue, next to the Boys and Girls Club of Erie, will dwarf the Exeter plant.

When it comes down to it, all we know for sure is that the future of Erie is uncertain.

The rest is just educated guess work and forecasting

Let’s say that Erie Renewable Energy is granted its air quality permit and they build the plant. We cannot know for sure what will happen.

Maybe it will be a huge success for Erie. The developers might see a huge profit. The company might sponsor local events. New businesses, accompanied by high-paying jobs, might migrate to the city.

It could be a good thing for Erie.

Or it might be a tragic thing for Erie and the surrounding communities. It will pollute our lake and air. Our beaches might be closed for eternity. The lakefront property on Erie’s eastside will be devalued. Children might develop severe cases of asthma. The high population of elderly people in Erie might have their lives cut short by premature death caused by the chemicals churning above the city. A tire fire might force the evacuation of the entire eastside.

It could be a very bad thing for Erie.

However, we will not know with certainty for some time to come. Not until they build the tires-to-energy plant—or until the DEP says that ERE cannot build at all.

Erie County Councilman Kyle Foust, a Democratic candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives, adequately expressed this group’s feelings in a recent letter to the Erie Times-News.

“If nothing harmful will be emitted from the process of burning tires—as ERE indicates to the public—then the information stating such should be provided immediately. The public, especially the neighbors in the surrounding residential area and the children who attend school nearby, should not have to wait until after the application has been filed. The people who will have to live with the environmental consequences of the facility deserve that information now.”

We have a right to know the truth. The fact that ERE has not been open with us is troubling.

Even with its 60 jobs and the $235 million investment, it is likely that the tire-burning plant will do harm to the City of Erie and the surrounding commmunities.

ERE has proposed to build what will be a serious threat to the quality of life on Erie’s eastside and all along Lake Erie.

The potential costs to the community—the health and safety risks—outweigh the possible profits of a few businessmen and the uncertain benefits to a rusty city.

Michael Moore: How credible is he?

What happens when a group of students takes on assessing Michael Moore and his work for a Sunday paper-style opinion/analysis piece? This is what you get.

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By Peter Viglietta, Justine Januszkiewicz, Derek Degraad,
Amanda Armocida, Ann Marie Trietley and Gerret Swearingen

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It’s a clever touch, the lone lowercase "i" in the title of Moore’s movie SiCKO. Is it a subliminal allusion to Moore’s potent first-person journalistic style, or a latently rude doffing-of-the-hat to those who criticize him for marinating his video footage in the subtle truculence of his opinion juices?

Probably the former. The truth is, Moore has never doffed his hat to anyone, not even at the Oscars in 2002 when he took the Best Documentary category for Bowling for Columbine.

Moore seemed to have little to say in his defense at the University of Buffalo when a student asked him a question concerning the significant number of viewers who said his work was one-sided and called him a propagandist. His response was that the opinion that plasters work is meant to counterbalance the one-sidedness of outlets such as CNN, who he said are the real propagandists.

SiCKO, Moore’s most recent visual blog, brings up long-pondered philosophical questions; if you’re not telling the whole story, but only part of it, are you lying? What if you’re deliberately leaving pertinent information out? Moore would most likely argue that the importance of saving the world fully outweighs the importance of answering that question.

One can see why so many people are upset with Moore, and why a campaign arose in ‘03 to revoke his 2002 Oscar. His critics (by which we do mean Internet enemies) began finding specific examples to question the extent to which Bowling for Columbine was actually a “documentary.”

A quick Google search will bring up pages upon pages of independent Moore debunkers who post articles pointing out instances of Moore’s glaring lapses in credibility. GunOwners.org, for example, takes issue with specific segments in Bowling for Columbine.

The non-profit site reports that, in a segment that exposes a bank that gives guns as gifts to new account holders, Moore arranged the scene so that he would receive the gun on-site, when in fact the guns had to be picked up at a different location.

In the movie, Moore asked the woman, “don’t you think it’s dangerous to be handing out guns in a bank?”

Then they cite an interview in which Jan Jacobson, the woman who worked at the bank and appeared in the movie giving Moore the gun. Jacobson reportedly said (after seeing the movie) that Moore tricked her into doing the interview by saying he was an NRA member from Michigan. Jacobson went on to say that Moore’s editing team chose to leave out the hour-long process that went into distributing the guns, portraying her as “some backwoods idiot, mindlessly handing out guns.”

Even more frightening than the fact that Moore doesn’t seem to realize that documentaries should be theater-free expositions of reality is the fact that Moore, who was named one of the world’s most influential people by TIME magazine in 2005, is guilty of one of the five requisite elements of libel- a lack of thorough reporting.

In SiCKO, which dropped in late 2007, Moore moseys through countries that have government-run health care systems, dryly but incredulously asking medical employees “so, I don’t have to pay any money for this?”

The common criticism of SiCKO is that Moore either neglected or was careless in giving light to the many problems that these other countries currently face with their public health care systems.

The first and perhaps most relevant comparison he makes to America’s private health system is that of Canada. Moore is right on when he describes the greed and corruption that has become a part of America’s under-regulated, profit-driven HMOs. The people and stories in the film are real and in many cases heartbreaking, and any humane person would agree after viewing that something is wrong here.

However, another Google search will deliver serious talking points regarding the question of the financial sustainability of Canada’s health program. In February of 2006, The New York Times published an article entitled “As Canada's Slow-Motion Public Health System Falters, Private Medical Care Is Surging.”

The article exposed the growing popularity of private health insurance companies and clinics across Canada as the public health service was becoming increasingly overburdened. They cited a study that showed that average waiting period between a referral by a family doctor and an appointment with a specialist had increased to 8.3 weeks in 2005 from 3.7 weeks in 1993.

Not to mention the fact that it doesn’t take a whole lot of research to realize that the happy Canadians interviewed in the hospitals are mostly emergency room patients, and not those who require major surgeries for chronic illness.

If SiCKO came out in late 2007, and the article was published in early 2006, Moore should have to feel the wrath of the blogosphere for putting his name on an obviously one-sided (albeit extremely entertaining), dismally uninformed report.

It’s also worth noting that Moore’s work has undoubtedly teetered on the brink of conspiracy theorem. In Fahrenheit 911, Moore accused President Bush of protecting immediate members of the Bin Laden family by quietly expediting them out of the country after the attack on Sept. 11. The probably that this is only a rumor is pretty low considering the fact that it was dispelled shortly after by Richard Clarke, one of Bush’s former White House aides who wrote a book criticizing Bush and his policies.

Caught in the tragic throes of both Internet and Hollywood fame, Moore seems to be dodging the question of whether or not he considers himself a “journalist,” and even avoiding situations where the question might be posed to him in front of a recording device.

But just as it would be wrong to ignore the fact that Moore does not attempt to disguise his work as unbiased or opinion-free, it would be foolish to sit down in a movie theater and expect what you see to be embellishment free.

And whoever argues that journalism Hollywood film making are mutually exclusive industries should also argue that this is something that had ought to change. It is a sad fact that Moore’s films have probably prompted more conversation among the YouTube generation about government policy than any New York Times article has in the past two decades.

One Google search that will yield vague, scattered results is the phrase “does Michael Moore consider himself a journalist.” In an NPR interview, journalist Bob Edwards interviewed a number of other journalists including MSNBC’s Bill Press (who, with a name like that, had damn well better be a journalist). Press said no, Moore is not a journalist. But what Press really meant by this is that Moore is not a reporter.

MiKE, you can call yourself a journalist in interviews if you really want to- just so long as you throw the words “activist” and “polemicist” in there too. What if Cspan began splicing their coverage with clips from hokey fifties movies, or dubbing audio tracks of smug criticisms over footage of Congressional hearings?

They would lose some of their journalistic credibility and never get it back, just as Moore has.

In the advent of what some call post-2000 journalism, there should be a considerable effort made by everyone not to underestimate the power and value of the blog. But while many fear the downfall of newsprint journalism, they might sometimes forget that the blogs cannot (and should not) exist without the newspapers.

Whatever you want to call Michael Moore, there is one thing you gotta give him as a man with a camera. The guy gets some good footage.

appropos for election day ...

This one was written after primary day ... How many people do you think will be voting today?

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FIERY PRIMARY BATTLE BETWEEN HEENAN AND SZOT GOES LARGELY UNNOTICED (Column written about the Democratic Primary for Chautauqua County Legislative District 2)

During the 2004 Election cycle, Hip Hop Mogul Sean “P. Diddy” Combs spoke bluntly to America. From New York to Los Angeles, he spread the message of civic engagement with just three words.

“Vote or DIE!”

Diddy’s posse might be on its way to Dunkirk.

According to the Observer—Dunkirk’s daily newspaper, only 25% of the total number of registered Democrats in Dunkirk participated in the primary elections.

But maybe the other 75% had too much going on at work and then had to deal with the kids after school.

Maybe the other 75% was busy researching a presidential primary candidate—watching Law & Order re-runs.

Or maybe the other 75% just doesn’t care.

Six votes—1.34% of the total vote—separated the winner from the loser in the Democratic primary for the District 2 seat in the Chautauqua County Legislature. 431 District 2 voters closed the curtains and pulled a tab for one of the candidates. 17 others sent their votes through the mail.

After election officials finished counting the absentee ballots, incumbent Ron Szot narrowly defeated challenger Shaun Heenan. Prior to the absentee ballot count, Heenan had a five-vote lead over Szot, 218 to 213.

Heenan vs. Szot was no ordinary small county legislative primary. The heated battle for the nomination was inundated with controversy and tension. Mud was slung. Felony fraud accusations were filed. Blackmail may have been conducted.

It was the type of juicy politics that can really consume a voter.

The Observer asked the obvious question: if all of this stormy hullabaloo can’t bring out the vote, “what does it take to get people out to vote?”

According to his voter registration card, Heenan is a Democrat. The Republican Party ignored his listed affiliation and gave him their endorsement. The Conservative and Independence Parties endorsed the Heenan candidacy, as well. The Democratic Party (and the Citizens First Party) endorsed the incumbent, but Heenan had his eyes set on that Democratic nomination.

Heenan went forth and acquired the necessary signatures for his primary petition. He submitted his petition, and his name was put on the primary ballot.

It’s safe to say that Szot and the Democratic Committee members who chose to endorse Szot were not happy to see Heenan’s name on the ballot.

Can you blame them? Heenan already had three lines locked up for the general election. Why should he try to hijack the Democratic nomination from Szot?

Shortly after challenger Heenan turned in his primary petition, Dennis Gawronski—brother of Dunkirk Democratic Committee member Frank Gawronski—accused Heenan of committing election fraud. Reports said that Gawronski claimed that Heenan did not witness his signature.

Felony fraud charges can be brought against a candidate who knowingly submits a primary petition that has signatures that he did not witness.

County District Attorney David Foley conducted the investigation into Heenan’s primary petition practices.

After his investigation, Foley concluded that the evidence did not support the accusation. Heenan did not participate in any sort of criminal behavior.

While at Dunkirk's Moniuszko Club, one of Heenan’s friends was introducing the candidate to other club-goers. Though in some instances, the friend handed the petition and pen to potential signers, Heenan witnessed all of the signatures obtained at the club, including Gawronski’s, Foley ruled.

A few days after the case was closed, Heenan submitted a letter to the editor of the Observer. Heenan used the letter to fire back at his opponent Ron Szot and other Democratic Party officials.

“The public may be under the impression that the charges against me were made solely by one gentleman, Dennis Gawronski,” Heenan wrote, “They were not. In fact, I hold no ill will for Dennis, who I believe was misled and used.

“I have credible information that these false charges were orchestrated by my opponent, Ron Szot, and a small group of Democratic Party insiders who were trying to force me from the race and damage me in the eyes of the voting public.”

If those words were spit in an MC battle, people would be jumping around, shouting, “Ooooohhhh,” while waving towels over their heads.

Apparently, Democratic Election Commissioner Norman Green spoke to Heenan's Attorney, John Gullo, prior to the fraud charges being filed. Heenan alleges that Green informed Gullo that if Heenan were to drop out of the primary, the charges would not be filed.

Blackmail in Chautauqua County politics? You better believe it.

Green's response: “As far as John Gullo, he’s a long-time personal friend. I called John to tip him off... It was nothing more than a conversation about what Shaun Heenan’s options were.... it’s my job as the loyal opposition to release information that may not always be flattering.”

So you've got the fraud accusations, verbally violent letters to the editor, the Moniuszko Club and alleged blackmail? What more could a voter ask for?

How about a campaign promise to give an entire term's salary to the community?
You got it.

Heenan said that if voted into office, he would donate his salary to a slew of local charities. The following groups' pockets will get a little fatter: the Dunkirk Little League, Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton CYO, the Dunkirk Humane Society, the Chautauqua County Rural Ministry and the Dunkirk Fireworks Show.

Dunkirk voters had all of this enticing political beef to attract them to visit their polling places, but most of them said, “No, thank you.”

Lost in the midst of all of the succulent tenderloin was debate over the issues.

To the Observer's credit, they did publish one article about the candidates’ views on certain issues. It came just as the polls were opening. Thus, the article might have been too little, too late. Most people planning on voting had their minds made up while the fraud and blackmail charges were swirling.

In the issues article, however, both candidates said basically the same things. Szot—the former City of Dunkirk attorney—was more long-winded, but the arguments were essentially the same. Two registered Democrats residing in an economically depressed area will have similar feelings about the consolidation of services, property and sales taxes and the size of the county legislature.

So what would you rather read about? Taxes… or Blackmail.

The primary vote ended the way I hoped it would. Szot wins and gains the Democratic nomination.

Am I a Szot backer?

No, and I’m not really a Heenan supporter, either.

I’m just excited to have another month of Szot and Heenan bashing heads.

The general election is November 6. Until then, I’m sure the two campaigns will continue their shady and aggressive political tactics.

Maybe more scandal will bring out that other 75%.

also check ...

http://www.fredonia.edu/leader/articles/opinion/8_assault.html when you get a chance.

Burgers + Fries = Worse Than Satan?

You see their towering golden emblem while driving down practically every street. The slogan, “Over one billion served,” hangs in the air, along with the aroma of oil and trans fats. With ubiquitous billboards and commercials on TV propelling McDonalds, Burger King, and Coca-Cola into the mouths of American kids, it’s no wonder we really are the biggest fatsos out there.

Hopscotch and jump ropes are so last year, anyway. Let’s face it; kids today would rather have their video games. And just try and seize that Playstation or Snickers bar from a caffeinated nine-year-old.

With kids blaming parents, parents blaming teachers and teachers blaming government officials, this feud is ballooning bigger than Louie Anderson’s waistline.

Now, fast-food chains like Burger King and Subway are offering healthier choices for kid’s meals. Burger King’s “Fresh Apple Fries” are only 35 calories, compared to regular fries which boast 13 grams of fat and 230 calories. Burger King is working on a new Kids Meal to be comprised of apple sauce, chicken tenders and low-fat milk. The Subway Kids Pak includes a turkey sandwich, Fruit Roll-Up, and juice.

But why are fast-food chains so desperate to preach nutrition? Didn’t apples exist before there ever was a Double Whopper?

Ever since Jared, the delightfully down-sized Subway champion, began to proclaim the merits of subs on television, a market has formed for meals that are both quick and cheap, but also won’t lead to cardiac arrest. Then McDonalds became swamped with lawsuits, and started to offer salads and free pedometers.

That’s a big diversion from their Chicken McNuggets. The classic American treat contains thirty-eight ingredients, thirteen of which are derived from corn, for whatever reason.

“The real problem is how this food is so heavily marketed to children 9 and under," said Eric Schlosser, author of the best-seller Fast-Food Nation, in a Seattle Post interview. "It started innocently enough, giving a toy with the meal, playgrounds (installed for indoor/outdoor use at the restaurant). There are good things about it. But these are very, very crucial years. If you look at the ingredients of the fast-food meals that are being heavily marketed to children, they're extremely high in fat, and high in sugar and high in salt."

When our country’s girth becomes too much to bear, do fast-food corporations need to intervene? In all likelihood, when you go to Burger King you are in the mood for a burger, and have no desire to wash down your bacon-broiled sandwich with a tall glass of milk.

But think of the children!

"If you look at the rise of the obesity rate in the United States," said Schlosser, "it's grown pretty much in step with the rise of fast-food consumption."

If parents are concerned with their child’s poor eating habits, it’s probably not the wisest idea to continue to take them to Burger King on a regular basis. In order for children to eat healthfully, they need more than a few healthy options on the menu (and some of these things, like Fruit Roll-Ups, aren’t even that healthy). It comes down to portion-control, eating a variety of foods, and avoiding processed foods teeming with preservatives.

New options at McDonalds and Subway can’t make everyone commit to a healthy lifestyle. If anything, it’s just another trend-driven business venture. Today, it’s crucial to be educated about nutrition, especially kids’, and everyone is capable of making smart, healthy decisions. Businesses shouldn’t have to make decisions for the general public.

So the next time you pull up to the drive-thru and that grainy speaker voice calls out, Can I help you?, don’t sweat. Be a renegade- order a burger and fries.

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By Ann Marie Trietley

Nancy Grace, and the lack thereof

Ever since the beginning of her career as a prosecutor and broadcaster, Nancy Grace has plagued our country with her intellectual insight. From her interview with Elizabeth Smart to her high-profile missing children’s cases, Grace has proclaimed herself an advocate for victims.

But now it seems as though she is the very predator she claims to hunt. Nancy Grace, a prosecutable murderer?

It has been one year since Grace’s media empire suffered a major blast, much like the one that came from the shotgun that ended Melinda Duckett’s life. And now her legal skills will be put to the test when she faces Duckett’s family in federal court.

It’s ironic that a woman who has always relished the limelight is now being held accountable for her forceful interviewing techniques.

On Sept. 7, 2006, Duckett went on the CNN Headline News show “Nancy Grace” to raise awareness about her missing 2-year-old son, Trenton. Her prime focus was his disappearance, but the show turned into a battle between the host and guest.

Grace began harassing the 21-year-old mother about why she would not answer certain questions. Duckett stated that her lawyer advised her not to, but Grace continued to badger her.

“Ms. Duckett, you are not telling us for a reason,” Grace said on her show. “What is the reason? You refuse to give even the simplest facts of where you were with your son before he went missing. It is day 12.”

The next day, Duckett killed herself with a shotgun in her grandparents’ home. Grace’s interview caused the broadcaster's opponents to take advantage of the tragic event, calling her a murderer. Then Duckett’s family filed a lawsuit against Grace, accusing her of the wrongful death of Duckett.

Grace is notorious for disregarding the emotions of her guests.

All of America was captivated by the return of Elizabeth Smart, the Salt Lake City teen who was snatched from her bedroom. Three years after her return, Smart decided to go on “Nancy Grace” to promote the Sexual Predator Legislation, which requires all sex offenders to register within the state they reside.

But Grace’s interest in the bill immediately floundered. She attempted to rehash Smart’s memories about her captivity, but Smart tactfully refused. Much like Duckett’s situation, Grace did not yield.

“I really am here to support the bill and not to go into what happened to me and what is in my past because I’m not here to give an interview on that. I’m here to push this bill through,” said Smart during the CNN show. “I really, to be frankly honest, I really don’t appreciate you bringing all this up.”

No surprise that she had more class than the host.

It is not just the show’s viewers who make note of Grace’s indiscretions. The Supreme Court of Georgia remarked on her courtroom behavior when she was a lawyer not once, but twice.

Her behavior was delicately described as “inappropriate and illegal conduct in the course of the trial.” Maybe this critique will help her with her latest courtroom drama.

As villainous as she may be, Grace does do America one small favor. She educates viewers on the latest cases, whether it is murder, rape or missing children.

Grace brings a gentle touch to the family members of victims, at least those she believes are innocent. She lost her fiancé to murder when she was 19, which fueled her desire to become a lawyer and punish those who harm others.

But she must have skipped the class about innocent until proven guilty.

In 2004, a jury found Scott Peterson guilty for murdering his pregnant wife, Laci. Grace was way ahead of everyone, though. Her killer prosecutor instincts told her so before the trial even began.

No parent wants to admit that their child is a killer and Peterson’s father was no different. He advocated for his son’s innocence the moment allegations began.

Grace immediately condemned Peterson on “Larry King Live,” and she went so far as to criticize his father for coming to his defense. In her mind, Peterson was guilty the minute Laci went missing.

Maybe Grace will understand once she becomes a parent. She might even reconsider her actions toward Duckett when she shares the bond of motherhood in January.

Just as Grace thought Peterson was guilty before any evidence emerged, she assumed the same about Duckett. She demanded to know where Duckett was and what she was doing at the time of her son’s disappearance, taking on the role of the interrogating cop trying to break a witness.

Duckett was not named a suspect until after her death. Grace must be the new Miss Cleo, the psychic who knows it all. Too bad the psychic turned out to be a sham.

She is certainly quick to defend herself, though. “I do not feel our show is to blame for what happened to Melinda Duckett. Melinda committed suicide before that interview ever aired,” Grace is reported saying.

Before it was aired? Yes. Before it was taped? No.

Duckett killed herself on a Friday afternoon. Her interview did not air until that night, but it was taped the day before.

All that was done to notify viewers of this tragic event was a small message running at the bottom of the screen. They did not even have the decency to run a segment on what happened to Duckett. Really graceful, Grace.

One bad interview will not kill a person, but it can bring them to their breaking point.

Grace needs to be taught class and learn limitations. If she practiced control, then maybe she would not be facing a lawsuit.

Maybe Duckett would not be dead.

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by Amanda Armocida and Justine Januszkiewicz

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Welcome to Culture Mosh

As you can see from the info at the top of the page, this is a project involving opinion and journalism. Everybody has an opinion (on something) and journalism covers everything in the world, so that means this blog is about EVERYTHING.

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