Vehicles manufacturers would have until 2012 to meet this goal before it rises to 80 percent of U.S.-made cars in 2015.

Engel said in a news release issued today that these vehicles would typically cost about $100 more to make than a gas-only car.

Engel is a senior member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. This Open Fuel Standards Act  was also sponsored by U.S. Reps. Jack Kingston, R-GA, Steve Israel, D-NY, and Bob Inglis, R-SC.

A subsequent Associated Press article took note of the popularity of White House pets.  Like him or not, George W. Bush’s Scottish terriers are good looking dogs.

The reasoning behind the study, according to the article is that McCain owns several pets, from dogs to turtles, while Obama doesn’t have any—though he promised his daughters a dog after the election was over.

In the same poll, Obama was shown to have a lead over McCain among people who don’t have pets.

(AP Photo/Charles Dharapak, file)

When someone from the audience asked how the state could clean up politics in Albany, C. Scott Vanderhoef deadpanned “Well, if they elected another governor last time, I would have been helpful.”

Vanderhoef, who then broke into a smile, ran for lieutenant governor in 2006 alongside John Faso, the GOP’s gubernatorial candidate. They were crushed in the polls by the Democratic Spitzer/Paterson ticket.

He noted that, while campaigning, Spitzer had promised to do away with unfunded state mandates, but that the most recent state budget had more than ever.

Other county executives at this morning’s forum were Andrew Spano from Westchester, Edward Diana from Orange and Steve Levy from Suffolk.

Morahan led the effort for Timothy’s Law, now a state law that requires insurance companies to provide coverage for individuals with mental illness. The law, signed by former Gov. George Pataki in December 2006, is named after 12-year-old Timothy O’Clair who committed suicide in 2001.

County Legislature Vice Chairman William Darden, D-Hillcrest, announced today that he would not seek election to the 95th Assembly District against incumbent Ellen Jaffee, D-Suffern.

“I thought about it for a period of time. I had supporters over there and I truly treasure their support,” Darden said this afternoon.

Even though he knows it’s cliche, Darden said he honestly likes what he’s doing on the Legislature.

Still, he said, a run for the Assembly is “not out of the future.”

Jaffee had been facing as many as five challengers from within her own party.  Of them, only one, Ramapo Town Clerk Chris Sampson, has decided to run. The others were Darden, Suffern Mayor John Keegan and former Legislators David Fried and Patrick Withers.

The Republicans are expected to run a candidate against Jaffee, who is finishing out her first term. The district includes Orangetown and parts of Ramapo.

The measure was sponsored by State Sen. Thomas Morahan,  R-New City, and Assemblywoman Ellen Jaffee, D-Suffern, to honor the Supreme Court justice for his contributions to the civil rights movement.

Marshall visited Rockland in 1943 to call for desegregation of a Hillburn school.

Sampson was one of several area Democrats who said this winter they were interested in the seat. The others were County Legislature Vice Chairman William Darden, Suffern Mayor John Keegan, and former Legislators Patrick Withers and David Fried.

Jaffee and Rockland’s other state representatives are up for re-election in November. Jaffee is completing her first term.

The county’s Democratic convention is coming up in the next few weeks. We’ll be checking in with the four stragglers soon. Stay tuned.

When I tried to access a campaign committee’s financial disclosure I was taken to a search based on contributors. Oops. Then my Safari browser timed out. Ditto for Firefox. Oops again.

But I did talk to a board spokesman, the always helpful Lee Daghlian, and he assured me they knew about the bugs and were working to correct them.

On Saturday, the IRS will assist residents with the 1040A form that residents are filing solely to receive a stimulus payments. Most IRS offices across the country will be open from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., though some will have longer hours.

Residents can call the IRS hotline at 800-906-9887 for free assistance locations.Taxpayers with economic stimulus questions on March 29, they can call 1-866-234-2942 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. local time.

Residents who do not regularly file an income tax return can click here for more information.

“This is a very sad day, but it marks a new beginning for New York state,” he said. “The Spitzer tenure is now over, and the Paterson tenure now begins. We welcome David Paterson to his new position as the leader of the executive branch and we wish him well. I ask all county executives to join me in working in cooperation with the new governor toward a better New York state.”

Vanderhoef ran for lieutenant governor in 2006 on the GOP’s ticket.

Casey Knowles, now 17, is the little girl in Hillary Clinton’s television ad that depicts sleeping children as viewers are left to question who they’d want in the White House if there were a national emergency at 3 a.m.

Knowles was interviewed by Matt Lauer on “The Today Show” this morning and spoke about how the footage was taken years ago for a different commercial. The image was then sold and Knowles said she realized she was the little girl after seeing the ad on “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.”

Knowles said she is a “fervent Obama supporter” and that she was a precinct captain for the Illinois senator during the caucuses in Washington state.

“I don’t think that this ad was the most classy move on her part,” Knowles told Lauer today, calling the ad a “fear-mongering message.”

Lowey, who was in Congers to call for an end to the freeze of medical benefits on Priority Group 8 veterans, attributed her fall at a Clinton rally to a combination of being on her feet for several hours straight after eating bad airport food and not drinking enough.

“I feel great,” she said. “I’m rip-roaring and I’m going back to Washington on Monday.”

Lowey was also planning a stop this afternoon in West Haverstraw to meet with senior citizens and check the progress of federally-funded sidewalk project on Eakman Drive.

For more information on Lowey’s press conference check out At Ease!, LoHud.com’s new blog on veterans and veterans issues.
(Photo by Vincent DiSalvio/The Journal News)

One day after Rockland for Obama opened its Rockland headquarters in Spring Valley, elected officials and community members are planning a gathering to show their support for U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton’s presidential run.

The group will meet at 4 p.m. tomorrow (Thursday)  on the steps of the Allison-Parris County Office Building at 11 New Hempstead Road in New City.

New York voters pick their presidential candidates in the Super Tuesday primary next week.

The official opening of the Rockland for Obama will be held at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday at 250 Route 59 in the village.

In a news release issued today, Rockland for Obama  director Howard Megdal said that supporters of the Illinois senator would be using the office for phone banking in the next week.

Riverspace is located at 119 Main Street in Nyack. This is the final debate before the state’s Feb. 5 primary.

For more information visit the “Hillary for President Web site.”:https://contribute.hillaryclinton.com/events/rockland0131.html

When he arrived (45 minutes late) he was ushered into the superintendent’s conference room, where he requested Sweet’N Low for his coffee. OK. So the senator watches his sugar intake.

But then he launched into a story about the history of Sweet’N Low and how the company, based in Brooklyn, had to fight off claims that it caused bladder cancer in lab mice.

With the superintendent, Lt. Gen. Franklin Hagenbeck, sitting nearby, Schumer continued, going into details about how the lab mice were fed large quantities of the substance and that when the crystalized saccharine rubbed against the lining of their bladders it caused cancer.

Engel was in Cote D’Ivoire, Ghana and Morocco as part of an initiatve he has worked on for the last several years to get children out of the fields and into classrooms.

On July 1, per an agreement signed seven years ago with major players in the U.S. chocolate industries, 50 percent of the cocoa-growing region must have surveys in place that detail the work of children.

The issue isn’t just one of exploitation, Engel said today, but of tradition.

“We went to the most remote areas of the region,” he said, describing one village in Cote D’Ivoire that had no running water or electricity.

As animals such as goats and pigs roamed freely, the villagers tried to tie clothes on Engel and the others so they looked like them.

“They know that we are trying to help them,” he said.
Engel traveled with Sens. Tom Harkin (Iowa)  and  Bernie Sanders (Vermont.)

There are two hearings scheduled on the toll hikes at 5 p.m. on Dec. 18 in Manhattan and Teaneck, N.J. For more information on those meetings, visit the “Port Authority Web site.”:http://www.panynj.gov.

Barker said Rockland County Executive C. Scott Vanderhoef, who has been tapped by Giuliani’s campaign to build support among New York’s county executives, is helping organize the event.

While Barker did not disclose the time or location of the fundraiser, saying they were generally private, Rockland Republican Committee Chairman Vincent Reda, who has been named the Hudson Valley leader of Giuliani’s campaign, said the fundraiser would be a luncheon held at the Rockland Country Club in Sparkill.

They gave two men a standing ovation. One was Sgt. Eddie Ryan, the 23-year-old Ulster County Marine who was shot twice in the head during friendly fire in Ramadi in April 2005. More than two years later, Christopher and Angela Ryan continue to fight with the Department of Veterans Affairs to get Eddie the therapy he needs to continue his recovery. Dressed in camouflage and wheeled in by a police sergeant from his hometown of Ellenville, Eddie Ryan told the congressmen that “I’d do it again.”

His parents told Hall and the others of the infected bed sore their son suffered at the VA hospital in Virginia, a result of laying in his own feces. They successfully lobbied to get Eddie moved to the Helen Hayes Hospital in West Haverstraw, where he spent nearly a year before being discharged last year. Now they are fighting to have his therapy sessions restored after they were nearly cut in half this summer.

“We are always on the opposite side of the VA,” Christopher Ryan said. “Our question is, ‘Why?’”

The three congressmen were from the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs subcommittee on Disability Assistance and Memorial Affairs. The focus of the testimony today was the claims backlog, which Hall said totaled around 600,000.

They also heard from Alex Lazos a former Marine who suffered for years with debilitating post traumatic stress disorder. He started getting benefits in August, more than three years after he first filed a claim. It was Lazos who got the other standing ovation.

Eddie Senior, a West Harrison veteran from Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm told the subcommittee how he’s still filing appeals 12 years after he left the service.

And though Ted Wolf, a Vietnam War veteran fro m Pomona, was too ill to attend, he submitted written testimony that detailed his fight against cancer and how the VA cut his benefits after deciding his cancer was in remission, which it was not.

Hall thanked the veterans for testifying and said he hoped their stories would lead to improvement in the system so others wouldn’t have to suffer in the same way.

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.

She’s handing out scrubs. Yup- as in the medical kind. But I guess it’s only natural given her career as a nurse midwife.

(Photo by Peter Carr/The Journal News)

The cranberry-colored scrubs, which she showed me at a recent candidates’ forum, say “Midwife Legislator Connie Delivers” on the front and “Rx: Vote for Legislator Coker” on the back.

Coker said she got the idea from the California Nurses Association who designed similar scrubs to promote filmmaker Michael Moore’s most recent movie, “Sicko.”

Coker, D-South Nyack, is being challenged by Republican businessman Paul Valentine.
Coker supporters can buy the scrubs for $15. Call 845-348-1525 for more information.

The 2004 film, “A Dream Day,” was shot in black and white and is set in Nyack. Mele stars as a cop who gets with the wrong girl. The film can be found on the “Kondor Films Web site.”:http://www.kondorfilms.com

“To me that was a fun thing,” Mele said today.

Mele has been a longtime friend of “A Dream Day” director Patrick Klein. The two met while on business in Africa, he said. Klein is now out in California producing an animated film that will feature the likenesses of real people, including celebrities and Mele.

“I’ll be a bodyguard in that one,” he said.

Though not a member of the Screen Actors Guild, Mele has had roles in movies and television including the Howard Stern flick “Private Parts” and the TV show “Law and Order.”

Mele said he got into acting when he was working on sets to make sure the weapons used in filming were safe and secure.

Mele is looking to unseat Democratic Ramapo Town Supervisor Christopher St. Lawrence.

From the red and white checkered tablecloths on the outdoor dining tables to the waitresses serving multi-colored mojitos and fruit kabobs, patrons of the Karbens’ backyard barbecue all seemed to be enjoying themselves.

And that was before the caterers busted out the burgers and hot dogs on a grills just slightly smaller than the average twin-sized bed.

And those patrons just kept coming. By night fall, Karben’s street and surrounding neighborhood were packed with cars. Hopefully, the neighbors were too busy enjoying the party to notice.

Though Karben has been hinting at a return to politics via a run for Ramapo Town Board, there were no announcements tonight. Instead he addressed the crowd from his back deck, thanking his former Assembly colleagues Adam Bradley and Amy Paulin for coming and paying tribute to late Assemblyman Kenneth P. Zebrowski.

As expected the party had a mix of long-time politicians and up-and-comers looking to hobnob with those long-time politicians. Though unsurprisingly Democrat heavy, there were some partygoers from the other side of the ballot, including Republican Sheriff James Kralik.

The host himself was busy entertaining his guests, casually decked out in an untucked buttoned-down shirt and man sandals (a recent purchase, he noted.)
The Ramapo Town Board seat in question has been empty since the death last month of longtime Board Member Harry Reiss.
He’s one of four Democrats that have shown interest in the seat. The Ramapo Democratic Committee is expected to hold a convention next month to choose a candidate for the November ballot.

Several media organizations—starting with The Journal News, thank you very much—got a chuckle last week out of a doctored Legislature portrait that had new Legislator Jay Hood Jr.’s head put on former Legislator Roman Rodrigue’z body.

You can compare the pictures and read more about that on this Inside Rockland blog.
I think the new picture looks nice. It was taken before this week’s Legislature meeting in the new chambers. Everyone’s smiling and most everyone is color coordinated (Ilan Schoenberger and Teddy Dusanenko didn’t get the memo about dark suits!)

• Ed Day, R-New City, is the youngest of the three. He’s 56.

• VJ Pradhan, D-Nanuet, the “middle” child so to speak, is the big 6-0.

• Gerold Bierker, C-Bardonia, turns  68 today. No worries—you don’t look a day older than 67!! Ha!

Their birthdays aren’t all they share. Bierker and Day were quick to point out this week that they both graduated from Brooklyn Tech.

August is a popular month for Rockland County Legislature birthdays.

We’ve also got:

• Bruce Levine, D-Montebello: 8/1

• Phil Soskin, D-Monsey 8/10

• Connie Coker, D-South Nyack: 8/13

Such was the case with the vacancy on the Ramapo Town Board, created by Saturday’s death of Board Member Harry Reiss.

But while the former assemblyman fully denied any interest in challenging Legislator Phil Soskin for his seat (another rumor), he’s not taking the same stance with the Ramapo opening.

“The answer isn’t yes and it isn’t no,” he said today. “It was not something I had planned for at all,” he said. “I think we all hoped Harry would make a recovery.”

Reiss suffered a stroke in March 2006 and hadn’t attended a Ramapo Town Board meeting since.

Looks like the Free Political Forum found the blog I originally posted on the Inside Rockland blog and added its own information.
Click here to read their take and some info on Karben’s fundraising.

The Daily News also reported Ryan’s considerations in this blog item.

When asked about the seat, Karben sent an e-mail with this statement to the Daily News.

“I’m thankful for the support of my neighbors and political leaders who have encouraged me to return to elected office. But my law practice is doing very well and I’m enjoying a lot more time with my family, so I need to make a judgment as to whether this opportunity makes sense right now. There is plenty of time to decide.”

I figure Ryan’s got another month or so to be coy (never his strong suit, by the way.) He’s having a barbecue in August—seems likely he could be doing more there than tending to the grill.

I just got my invitation in the mail today. They better be serving up cheeseburgers!

UPDATE:

Ryan just e-mailed me to let me know that cheeseburgers aren’t kosher. Bummer.

The seat is now held by Thomas Morahan, R-New City, an amazingly popular senator who has gotten a lot of Democratic support from voters and politicians.

But Smith also took time to address the feud between Gov. Eliot Spitzer and Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, calling their sniping “productive friction.”

“When you come to make change, someone is going to resist,” Smith said.

But what exactly has been so productive about this?

Smith said the two now have a better working relationship and that the spat has been a lot less intense than what the media has reported.

Still, it doesn’t seem like the two are heading to any Yankees games together any time soon.

So for this Fourth of July, I dare you guys to take a sample INS quiz —and post your scores. I scored an 85 percent, getting three wrong answers out of 20.

The quiz was found on MSNBC.com.

Jay Hood Jr. may be jumping the gun a bit. He sent out an invitation today for his swearing in as the District 3 Rockland County legislator.

But to be sworn in, you need to have been voted in.

In all fairness, the Democrats do hold the majority on the Legislature and are likely to vote in the Democratic Haverstraw Town Board member, who would fill the vacancy created by Roman Rodriguez, D-Haverstraw. Rodriguez resigned today.

But I wouldn’t completely count on a clean sweep of the minority-party legislators.

We try very hard to stay away from cliches here at The Journal News (at least the really obvious ones) but maybe Hood shouldn’t count his chickens before they hatch?