Hate telemarketers? Have your name on the federal “Do Not Call” list? Then you just might like U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer’s latest issue: the fact the first wave of phone users who signed up for the ban will soon see their numbers “expire” off the list.

The Do Not Call Registry, created in 2003, is a database of phone numbers of users who want telemarketers to be prohibited from calling their phone numbers. As the law was originally written, however, names on the list expire after 5 years. The FTC is not required to warn a user that they are about to lose their do-not-call protection.

Schumer has introduced legislation to keep the numbers from expiring.

Nationwide, over 55 million telephone numbers have been registered with the Do Not Call Registry, Schumer said. That includes 614,598 phone numbers in the 845 area code and 598,998 phone numbers in the 914 area code, he said.

State Sen. Suzi Oppenheimer’s community liaison dropped us a line to ask us to let people know about Oppenheimer’s monthly cable access show, “Report From The New York State Senate.” The October guest is Thomas Bergin, director of communications at the state Department of Taxation & Finance, talking about the middle income STAR rebate program “along with other topics of interest.” The episodes air once or twice a week on community public access stations; the schedule varies from town to town.

As Dwight Worley of our paper reported today, the state is trying to spread the word about its new middle-class STAR property tax rebate program. The catch with this is you have to apply for it.

Peace activists from Westchester, Rockland and Putnam counties plan to travel to a national rally in Washington, D.C. Saturday to call for the return of U.S. troops from Iraq and a de-escalation of tensions with Iran.

WESPAC, a White Plains-based peace and justice organization, expects to fill a 57-seat passenger coach for the trip to Washington.

The bus will leave Saturday at 6 a.m. from the Memorial United Methodist Church at 250 Bryant Ave. in White Plains and return the same day.

The New York Civil Liberties Union and the National Coalition Against Censorship say state Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver shouldn’t have threatened to punish Columbia University for hosting a talk by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

“Official threats to penalize Columbia for hosting the talk not only make a mockery of the open discussion and debate that distinguish the university setting, but also contravene constitutional imperatives,” spokesmen for the organization wrote in a joint letter to Silver, City Councilman David Weprin, City Councilman James Gennaro, Assemblyman Dov Hikind, U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner and John McArdle, a spokesman for state Senate Republicans. “The First Amendment is meaningless if it does not extend to unpopular and controversial speech.”

The organizations wrote in response to comments made by Silver to The New York Sun in which he suggested the state withhold capital funding and other financial aid from the university.

Yonkers Mayor Phil Amicone yesterday went to Albany and delivered a spirited defense of a tax break for redeveloping brownfields, Jay Gallagher reports. Gov. Eliot Spitzer wants to end the program.

They’re counting paper ballots this morning in the Mount Vernon mayor’s race, as well as in Harrison, where two votes separate a pair of town board candidates vying for the Indepdence line.

Over in Haverstraw, the fur is flying over a law to limit the number of dogs per household. Also, the race for Rockland County sheriff is getting feisty.

Rockland Democratic Committee Chairman Vincent Monte is holding a press conference tomorrow to announce the party’s new position—but we ain’t waiting.

Kenneth Ingenito, former County Legislature chairman and chief of staff to the late Assemblyman Kenneth P. Zebrowski, will now work for the party (in an unpaid position) as the executive director of strategy and policy.

Ingenito said today that he was approached by party leaders with the thought that the county party needed to have more unity within its ranks.

A lot of division has grown within the party, Ingenito said, evidenced by the many primaries held earlier this month.

Instead of working together, he said, “it’s just individuals who are seeking out some personal or private agendas.”

“It ends up creating a worse situation in your own party,” he said.

So Ingenito, who has been active with the party and in Democratic politics for decades, will act as a spokesman for the party on these issues. Monte was unavailable for comment this afternoon.

Posting under multiple identities—none of which appear to be actually your own—is a violation of our terms of service. A number of comments have been deleted; repeat violators risk being banned.

Thanks, and carry on.

Ray McGovern, a 27-year veteran CIA officer who served under seven presidents from John Kennedy through the first President Bush, will speak Oct. 8 about what he describes as the US Constitutional crisis.

McGovern, founder of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity, has appeared in several documentaries, including â€Å“Uncovered: The Whole Truth about the Iraq Warâ€? and â€Å“Break the Silence: Truth and Lies in the War on Terror.”

His Oct. 8 talk is titled “Why impeach (Bush-Cheney) now?”

Philipstown for Democracy and the Mid-Hudson Progressive Alliance are hosts of the 7 p.m. meeting at the Howland Cultural Center, 477 Main St. in Beacon.

Democratic presidential candidate Chris Dodd has issued a statement criticizing the Giuliani campaign for a fundraiser that is charging participants $9.11 each as a way of capitalizing on notoriety the former New York City mayor gained from his handling of the 2001 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center.

“Exploiting the September 11 attacks for fundraising purposes is absolutely unconscionable, shameless and sickening,’’ Dodd stated in a press release. “Mr. Giuliani was quick to express much vitriol for the independent ad created by MoveOn.org last week. We would hope he would express the same kind of outrage and indignation about this group that he is the beneficiary of.’’

Giuliani has criticized the Democratic presidential field for not renouncing the recent ad in The New York Times by MoveOne.org that asked if Gen. David Petraeus, the commander of U.S. troops in Iraq, is general “betray us.’’

The Giuliani fundraiser is being held Wednesday evening at a home in Palo Alto, Calif. in conjunction with other house parties for his campaign being held across the country.

“These are two volunteers who acted independently of and without the knowledge of the campaign,’’ Maria Comella, a spokeswoman for the Giuliani campaign, told the Associated Press. “Their decision to ask individuals for that amount was an unfortunate choice.”

Yonkers Republican Party chairman Zehy Jereis announced this morning that he won’t seek re-election as GOP leader at the party’s approaching organizational meeting.

Jereis, who was named in a federal investigation in March, said the chairman post he’s held since 2003 was a demanding one, and he wanted to spend more time with his family, which includes two young children.

Jereis, 35, made his announcement on radio station WVOX. Later in an interview with The Journal News he said that neither the federal conspiracy probe into Yonkers City Hall, nor the outcome last week’s primary played a role in his decision.
In that election Mayor Phil Amicone and Councilman John Murtagh, Republicans who previously had called for Jereis to step down from party leadership, won easy renomination victories.

Though several names have been put forward to replace him, Jereis said he believed that Westchester County Republican Deputy Elections Commissioner Steve Levy and ward leader Justin Tubiolo were the most serious candidates.
Jereis said he hoped the party organizational meeting would be held next week. By law, the meeting must be held within 20 days of the Sept. 18 primary election, he said.

An investigation by The Journal News earlier this year found that Jereis had received a $100,000 consulting contract with the city’s Chamber of Commerce as part of a state grant arranged by his political patron and former employer, then-state Sen. Nicholas Spano. That contract expired in March. Read more about this tomorrow in The Journal News.