Step Up! Girls, funded by the New York State Department of Criminal Justice Services, began in February 2008.  Currently, twenty-two girls, ages 14-17, are registered with the program which meets twice weekly.  In April, 10 girls traveled with Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity on a five day college tour, visiting thirteen colleges.  Other activities include life skills development, academic assistance, employment assistance, among others.  Step Up! Girls is modeled from the White Plains Youth Bureau’s Step Up! Boys, a program which is being duplicated by many communities.

WPCNR SERGEANT JOE FRIDAY REPORTS. From Don Hughes October 9, 2008: A frequent contributor to WPCNR, Don Hughes advises that communications from banks received by e-mail may be covers to access personal information, and not from your bank at all:

The current financial crisis has provided a fertile new area for scam artists.  They are blasting out e-mails claiming that it necessary for you to provide account and other personal details to the firms new owners for verification purposes.  Some of the scams are quite well done, even including links to legitimate web pages.

Do NOT respond to these requests.  Financial institutions would ask for such information via regular mail, not e-mail.

Here is a link for an example claiming to be from Chase: http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-10057180-83.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1009_3-0-20s

WPCNR QUILL & EYESHADE. By John F. Bailey. October 2, 2008 UPDATED 4 PM EDT with Labor Statistics: The New York State Department of Labor  is not seeing the layoffs predicted for Wall Street appearing yet in significant numbers in the Department filings for unemployment, according to the Department’s Communications Office.

 “There is a little upswing, but we are not seeing numbers being predicted. Not yet.  Do not forget when some Wall Street personnel were laid off  they were greeted on the street with billboards saying we’ll hire you. They immediately got other jobs. If they do not apply for unemployment benefits, we do not count them,” stated Chris Perhan of the state Labor Department Communications.

WPCNR  ZONING ZEN. By John F. Bailey, October 1, 2008: The Zoning Board of Appeals tonight approved Renamba LLC’s application for a variance to build an Assisted Living facility of 115 units in the pristine wilds of Saxon Woods along side the Mamaroneck River.  The vote was 4 to 1  rejecting former Building Commissioner Mike Gismondi’s  interpretation of the zoning ordinance and the City of White Plains 8-year history of opposition to the project that has stood for almost a decade. The reason given was that the city stood to be violating Fair Housing law which prohibited restricting "reasonable use."

 A Buzz in the Rotunda: Renamba Group foreground, in cordial, confident triumph, while residents of Saxon Woods mill about  in the shadow of the Legal Department in background, in rotunda of City Hall in stunned disbelief at the zippy Zoning approval. Unofficial city records indicate it was the swiftest approval ever.

The 4-1 approval was executed  at the top of the agenda swiftly. Very swiftly. The meeting must have started at the second the big clock in the Council Chambers struck 7 PM and took 6 minutes. (Yours truly arrived at 7 on the nose by our ZULU TIME synchronized watch and it had started.)

Tonight’s decision clears the way for construction of the 115-unit 3 story apartment complex on Village of Scarsdale property, allowing access through a 25 foot variance paralleling  the Ethical Culture Society driveway entrance off Saxon Woods Road.

WPCNR QUILL & EYESHADE. From Westchester County Association. September 25, 2008 (Edited): Citing the current financial crisis as the worst since the Great Depression, The Westchester County Association (WCA)—the area’s preeminent business membership organization—today presented a Five-Point Plan.  The Plan is directed at controlling spending and avoiding potentially major property tax increases and an exodus of businesses from our area.

In a news release the WCA called for legislators throughout the county to budget no tax increases in their 2009 budgets, a 5% reduction in all expenses, demand state mandate reforms to reduce the county tax "burden," centralize government spending, and force government employees to adopt public sector health benefit employee pay ratios.

Bill Mooney, WCA President.

 WCA President William M. Mooney, Jr. (shown addressing the state Thomas Suozi Commission on Tax Relief in March 2008) said: “Given the meltdown on Wall Street and its potentially negative impact on the finances of the state, it’s time for our state lawmakers to hold a special session to deal with this financial crisis. We also look to our county officials to take a leadership role in articulating specific action steps. The residents of Westchester County, who once again have the dubious distinction of paying the highest property taxes in the nation, deserve no less than the full attention of its elected representatives.” 

WPCNR MR. AND MRS. AND MS. WHITE PLAINS POLL. September 19, 2008: In WPCNR reports this week, The CitizeNetReporter has found that neither the New York Independent System Operator nor the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, charged with monitoring electric commerce to protect consumers, just has not been doing the job. Over a dozen organizations, power utilities, and industrial groups are howling for an investigation of the hidden profiteering in electricity routing, and the extent of profits, number of energy traders involved and cost to all consumers is being covered up. The New York Municipal Power Agency, representing 36 small municipalities in New York charges NYISO with being unforthcoming with information and piling on charges. Costs could have been a Billion dollars or more direct to New York users, but we do not know.

But, here's the twist: no media has picked up on this story and dug into it. Even Senator Charles Schumer is accepting the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission refusal to quantify the extent of the costs to New York customers. Even Westchester County government, a consistently carping critic of Con Edison (which WPCNR has found exposed this energy ripoff by lobby NYISO), has not expressed strong interest in how Westchester customers have been bled by NYISO and FERC failure to watch the electric traffic. How can this indifference be?

What do you think, Mr. and Mrs. and Ms. White Plains, should this be investigated? Maybe a billion dollars or more in overcharges is nothing to sweat about, as our press release-happy representatives seem content with. 

 Say what you think at the right. And who should do it? The Wall Street money is now long gone, but these and similar scams may still be happening every time you are using electricity elsewhere in the state and in the country on different electric schemes every day. How do we know it is not? Send the "watchdogs" who have not been watching a message!

WPCNR THE POWER NEWS. By John F. Bailey. September 18, 2008 UPDATED 1 P.M. EDT: The Executive Director of the New York Municipal Power Agency representing 36 small-to-medium munipalities in the state told WPCNR Thursday that his Agency calculation of $100 Million (estimated by NYISO as $400 Million to power suppliers statewide, passed on directly to residential and commercial users) represented only one month’s overcharges directly related to the long-way—around Lake Erie electrical contracts. He said the NYISO figure of $400 Million was also only one month's overcharges generated, in part, by the Lake Erie "roundabout" contracts.

The revelation raises the possibility, as yet uncommented upon by NYISO and FERC, that consumers paid $800 Million our untold millions more, pending on the loads of electricity and kilowatt hour charges they paid over the 8 Months plus  the Lake Erie option was available.  

WPCNR THE POWER NEWS. By John F. Bailey September 17, 2008 Exclusive Interview with Con Edison: Consolidated Edison told WPCNR Tuesday afternoon they cannot calculate the amount of overcharges Westchester and White Plains electricity customers paid as a result of the Lake Erie electricity routing contracts.

Consolidated Edison, the utility which put  the pressure on the New York Independent Systems Operator to investigate and discover the Lake Erie Bypass Caper by which millions,(perhaps billions) of dollars in passalong costs were laid onto the bills of electric consumers resident and corporate in the first seven months of this year  told WPCNR Tuesday it could not calculate the approximate dollars added to the bills of Westchester consumers

Meanwhile in the eight weeks since NYISO stopped the procedure, Con Edison reports significant drops in overcharges of Westchester electricity users.

WPCNR THE POWER NEWS. By John F. Bailey.  September 16, 2008: The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission refused Monday to reveal to WPCNR the number of brokers who  engaged in selling contracts to their profit advantage, costing millions of New York electric customers overcharges that were charged back to them.

The brokers sold contracts routing electricity around Lake Erie at a  $20 MGH discount, when the electricity would automatically route directly into the New York Power Grid, resulting in Uplifts and production charges charged back to New York electric customers.  

The FERC spokesperson also declined comment on the scope of the practice. She would not say how many times each broker executed such discounted routings, the full dollar impact of the reroutings, the possible profits, and the estimated total cost to consumers, citing a non-public investigation ongoing. 

The New York Independent System Operator which oversees the New York electric spot market refused to reveal the information, either, nor how it was discovered. The reason, according to their press spokesperson Ken Klapp,   “it is in the hands of FERC.”

Senator Charles Schumer of New York perhaps will learn more when he meets with FERC Chair Joseph Kelliher Wednesday. The Senator's office has scheduled a news conference Wednesday to discuss the issue.

WPCNR THE POWER NEWS.  Special to WPCNR September 14, 2008(EDITED) : WPCNR has obtained a detailed statement distributed privately by  Senator Charles Schumer’s office Friday in which the Senator charges energy traders with artificially inflating the costs of New York electricity, costing consumers tens of millions of dollars, contributing in part, to the 67% increase in electric rates alone experienced here in White Plains and Westchester County.

The Senator asks that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission provide the New York Independent System Operator bidding and scheduling information, which NYISO “market monitors” have not  received previously. NYISO has indicated to WPCNR previously "confidentiality" is needed to maintain competitive markets. Schumer's statement implies NYISO has not had access to this information for years,  hampering the NYISO's ability to spot spot alleged profiteering. Schumer’s statement strongly implies  NYISO might have prevented a circuitous electricity routing practice and other possible cost-sensitive circumstances if NYISO had this information.

Schumer’s office  release states --  a July 21^st filing with FERC  (Federal Energy Regulatory Commisson) by the New York State Independent System Operator (NYISO), states beginning in at least January of this year, one or more market participants began to schedule circuitous and inefficient routes for transmission of electricity between states.

WPCNR THE POWER NEWS. By John F. Bailey. September 13, 2008 UPDATED 1:40 P.M. EDT With Easy-to-Read, Comprehensive Charting:  As exclusively reported by WPCNR News and White Plains Week the last six months, Con Edison bills for White Plains consumers escalated  67% since November, and 39% of that increase coming over the 2008 June July and August period.

Con Edison,  told WPCNR exclusively on Thursday,  Westchester  residential consumers could expect their kilowatt hour charge to decline 25%in September, and be reflected in lower bills in October.  During the same three month period the cost of crude oil has declined 45%, but a price lag, presumably might be expected.

The cost per kwh has risen 67%  in White Plains since last November (2007)from 15.5 cents a kwh to 25 cents.  Con Edison explains this as being directly related to a passing on of direct fuel costs charged them by their electric suppliers.  Source: Con Edison and WPCNR

In a perhaps not-unrelated development, New York Senator Charles Schumer is calling on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to investigate possible price fixing and escalation of supply costs by energy suppliers furnishing Con Edison and other power companies with power through the state power grid, contributing substantially, Schumer alleges, to the Con Edison rates, and the rates other power companies are being forced to charge consumers. (Con Edison, it should be clear, is not the object of Mr. Schumer's investigation.)

Schumer announced Friday he would meet with FERC next Wednesday to begin his probe of this year’s all-time high electric prices, and NYISO and FERC roles in regulating the delivery of power through the NYISO grid.

WPCNR MAIN STREET JOURNAL. September 11, 2006 Retrospective on a Requiem: This evening at Liberty Park at 6:30 P.M., White Plains will hold its remembrance of this horrible day when the World Trade Center was ruthlessly diabolically, destroyed, taking the lives of  over 3,000 people, with the toll still climbing daily as its spawn. 

 Seven  years ago this Tuesday is the anniversary of the White Plains Candlelight Walk -- an event organized to help the public of White Plains do something about the Trade Center genocide. The Candlelight Walk was a public outpouring of emotion that put into perspective how the events that took place seven years ago ripped us apart and brought all Americans of every race, religion, creed and origin together for a short time, a very short period of time -- judging by the Presidential campaign of prejudice, class warfare and labeling now in full swing.  WPCNR reprints our impressions of that Candlelight Walk of Sunday, September 16, 2001.

WPCNR THE POWER NEWS. By John F. Bailey. September 5, 2008:  Con Edision has raised the price of electrictiy 65% in eight months. The Consolidated Edison charge per kilowatt hour has hit an all time high in August, rising 21% to 25.4 cents per kilowatt hour for Supply and Delivery charges combined on the typical Westchester bill.

The 25.4 cents is rapidly approaching the 28 cents predicted by the Con Edison media relations department to WPCNR, back in June. August cost  of 25.4 cents  is up from 21 cents a kilowatt hour in July and 19.45 cents in June.

Con Edison told WPCNR last month they had been able to keep the price down in July due to the efforts of their energy buyers, but apparently the runup in oil this summer has taken its toll, Con Edision includes this explanation in the current electric bill for August:

"You've heard about rising energy costs. Sharp increases in the cost of oil, natural gas, and other fossil fuels have driven up the cost of producing the electricity that Con Edison buys for you and delivers to your home." Con Edison's flyer predicts summer 2008 (June-September) bills to be approximately 22% higher than summer 2007.

However, in 8 months, the Con Edison has raised the cost of electricity to Westchester consumers from 15.4 cents per kilowatt hour to 25.4 cents -- a 65% increase -- substantially higher than the cost runup of oil the last eight weeks.

In

• Property Tax Relief News (http://www.cptr.state.ny.us/news/nysCPTR_articles.html) is updated each business day and provides links to relevant articles from newspapers across the state.

• Property Tax Relief Editorials (http://www.cptr.state.ny.us/news/nysCPTR_editorials.html) provides links to related editorials from the past few weeks.

Both the editorials and news webpages include broad perspectives on a variety of property tax relief issues.  Links to both of the webpages are available from the "News" link on the Commission's homepage: http://www.cptr.state.ny.us/index.html