BEES As if there weren’t enough stress in the world food system, the Buffalo News has a disturbing story today about the struggle in Niagara County and across NY state that farmers are having with the loss of bee populations. “Without bees, none of the crops would produce food,’ said Jessica Chittenden, spokeswoman for the state Dept. of Agriculture and Markets. Bees pollinate more than 90 percent of the fruit and vegetable crops grown in NY state. There are number of possible causes for the loss of bee population, from decimation of habitat by development, insecticides, parasites and other possibilities. No single factor has been pinned as the sole cause, but whatever the cause, it needs to be identified and addressed. Without bees there is little pollination, without pollination, no food.

Antoine Thompson is no doubt somewhat discouraged about a being a member of the minority party in the NY State Senate. Today’s Buffalo News story about pork barrel spending showed that republican Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno doled out not twice as much cash, not five times as much cash, not ten times as much cash, but more than 20 times the amount of cash that was given to Antoine to spread around his district. Bruno clocked in with over $4.2 million to dole out, while Antoine limped home to Buffalo from Albany with what must seem like pocket change, $190,000. Assemblyman Robin Schimminger of Kenmore controlled a hefty $2.2 million to give away…. but he gave three quarters of that to places far away from home, Manhattan, Brooklyn and Syracuse.

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SHEILA KEE DOUBLE DIPS: A former Erie County worker is collecting a big state pension, while drawing an even bigger state salary at the same time! All this with a huge state deficit looming.

Sheila Kee was appointed as Associate Commissioner of the New York State Health Department for the Western Region in 2007. But at the time, as a state retiree, she was collecting a pension of $99,000. Typically, if someone is going to enter back into the state public workforce, collection of their pension is suspended until they retire again. But in the case of Sheila Kee, she continues to collect her pension, while also being paid $143,013 as Associate Commissioner.

Nardin 8th Grader Michael Viola is headed to the National Spelling Bee in Washington D.C. at the end of the month to compete in the Scripps National Spelling Bee.

Viola won the 81st News Spelling Bee after correctly spelling “gelatigenous,” which means producing a gluey material. It was that correct answer that earned him the ticket to the national competition. (Artvoice feels obligated to promote anyone who can spell, there are so few out there.)

GOV. DAVID A. PATTERSON is strongly supporting the towering, cable stayed “signature bridge” designed by Chistian Menn and chosen by a 32-member selection committee two years ago. The PBA recently released a somewhat skewed press release stating that the Feds ruled that bridge was unacceptable because of Fish and Wildlife findings. “Concerned” would have been a better word than “unacceptable.” One of the things the Feds were concerned about was the shoddy study that was done on the impact to birds and fish. The bird issue was looked at for only 8 days, an insufficient length to determine what exactly the migratory patterns were. The Feds said that one cannot simply make predictions on what will happen. The PBA jumped on this as a rejection of the bridge design they’d fought against for years, anyway. The stubby little three arched bridge, the PBA claimed last week was our only alternative. Gov. Paterson, Sen. Schumer, Rep. Higgins, and several others disagree and will meet tomorrow to discuss it, a discussion the Feds are very open to.

BUFFALO FISCAL STABILITY AUTHORITY (THE CONTROL BOARD) is hosting a Public Forum on Monday, May 5th in the Common Council Chambers, 13th floor, City Hall from 5:30 p.m. - 8 p.m. Speakers will have 5 minutes to submit comments.

AVENUE Q Opens tonight 7 p.m at Shea’s and runs APRIL 29 - MAY 4, 2008. AVENUE Q is the story of Princeton, a bright-eyed college grad who comes to New York City with big dreams and a tiny bank account. He soon discovers that the only neighborhood in his price range is Avenue Q; still, the neighbors seem nice. I saw the show in NYC and it’s great fun. It’s remarkable how quickly the puppets absorb all your attention and the people carrying them simply seem to disappear. It may not be appropriate for young children because AVENUE Q addresses issues like sex, drinking, racism, and surfing the web for porn.

DANIEL J. HIGGINS, father of congressman Brian Higgins passed away Sunday in Harris Hill Long Term Care Facility, Clarence, after a long illness. He was 77. The Buffalo News quoted Rep. Brian Higgins saying that his father, a former Buffalo South District Common Council member, was his mentor and “a consummate gentleman who led by the eloquence of example. He was just a wonderful father, a wonderful husband and a wonderful example for our family and the entire community,”

BRIAN HIGGINS was also in news asking that federal officials reconsider their axing of the cable stay bridge designed by Christian Menn. Higgins, who initially positioned himself as let’s-just-move-on, now believes the Menn design has been too hastily abandoned.

CITY HONORS PRINCIPAL William Kresse, who recently penned a document critical of unethical interference at his school, and was recently under attack by high-ranking Buffalo Public School officials he named, received a show of support from his teaching staff. The Buffalo News reported today that City Honors teachers released a lengthy statement of support for Kresse. “As teachers at City Honors School, we feel a response in support of our principal, Dr. William Kresse, is necessary,” the teachers said.

THREE TEENS CHARGED IN HAZING INCIDENT. Three varsity and junior varsity baseball players from Wilson High were arrested and charged for a hazing incident that took place on a bus two weeks ago. The teens, all over 16, are charged with aggravated sexual assault and endangering the welfare of a child. That sounds disturbing. There were multiple victims, all younger than 16. The team is suspended indefinitely.

BUFFALO BILLS DRAFT SELECTIONS - DAY 2
3RD (72) - Chris Ellis / DE / Virginia Tech
4TH (114) - Reggie Corner / CB / Akron
4TH (132) - Derek Fine / TE / Kansas
5TH (147) - Alvin Bowen / LB / Iowa State
6TH (179) - Xavier Omon / RB / N.W. Missouri State
7TH (219) - Demetrius Bell / OT / Northwestern State
7TH (224) - Steve Johnson / WR / Kentucky
7TH (251) - Kenard Cox / CB / Pittsburgh

DENNIS DONOHUE JURY should be in place today. So far 11 of the 12 jurors have now been selected in the Donohue trial. Donohue is charged in the 1993 strangulation of Joan Giambra. He is also the suspect/former boyfriend of Lynn Dejac, who was recently freed for the murder of her own daughter. Several alternate jurors must also be selected. Opening statements should begin tomorrow morning.

THE DOWNTOWN BUS TERMINAL is going to get a $19 million overhaul, according to NFTA officials. Apparently there have been two or three other plans to rehab the old terminal, but because there was always a question of whether the terminal would remain there those plans were shelved. Former Erie County Executive Joel Giambra wanted the terminal gone so he could expand Erie Community College’s city campus. Giambra’s pan failed to gain traction. For years, assemblyman Sam Hoyt had floated the idea of an inter-modal transportation site at the old Aud or somewhere downtown, that too failed to get any traction. NFTA head Lawrence Meckler told the Buffalo News, “Now we know we’re going to be here for the foreseeable future, and we can to take steps to make this a great building, an asset to downtown.”

A PEACE BRIDGE discussion and community meeting sponsored by Olmsted Parks Conservancy will be held at 6:30 p.m. in the West Side Community Services Center, 161 Vermont St. Dave Colligan, Olmsted chairman, and Olmsted CEO Tom Herrera-Mishler will lead the discussion. Program is open to the public.

HILARY CLINTON wants a straight up debate with Obama with no moderator. Their last debate in Pennsylvania was a disastrous display of just how stupid moderators can be––asking the most trivial and tabloid-style questions one could imagine. It was so bad it was insulting to the American voter. We’d love to see a Lincoln-Douglas style debate. Unfortunately, Obama doesn’t seem to have the stomach for it. Apparently, from his point of view he has nothing to gain and everything to lose.

THE MEXICO-US FENCE doesn’t look like it’s going to be finished before W leaves office; they’re only halfway along in the 700 miles of planned border fence with only eight months before Bush is history. Like so many other Bush administration names, like the polluting legislation of the “Clear Skies Initiatives”, this a Orwellian joke. The “fence”, made of concrete and steel, is really more like the Berlin “wall.” this not poet Robert Frost’s “good fences make good neighbors” type of fencing. It’s unlikely the next president, no matter who that is, will be so stupid as to try and finish the project. The wall is likely to be pretty ineffective anyway. Didn’t anyone in the Bush administration hear about the network of tunnels going into Palestine carrying truckloads of guns, ammo and cash? Tunnel passages across an international border into the United States are already a real problem. Over 40 such tunnels crossing into the U.S. southern border have been discovered since 9/11. Large-scale smuggling of drugs, weapons, and immigrants takes place today through these tunnels. One sophisticated tunnel running from San Diego to Tijuana was a half mile long. It went 60 to 80 feet deep, 8 feet tall. It had a concrete floor. It was wired for electricity. It had drainage. At one end, 300 pounds of marijuana were found, and at the other end, 300 pounds of marijuana. The California entry into the tunnel was a modern warehouse, a huge warehouse compartmented but empty and kept empty for a year. In one office there was a hatch in the floor. It looked much like the hatch which Saddam had secreted himself in. But lifting that hatch disclosed a very sophisticated tunnel. It went under other buildings all the way across the double fence into Mexico and up in Mexico in a building as well. A wall is also not a solution to the probably 15 -20 million illegal immigrants already here. As long as the average annual paycheck in Mexico is $4,000 a year, Mexicans are going to want to get here so they can try for $30,000 a year.

A week or so ago, 14 members of Congress announced that they will file an Amicus Curiae brief in support of the constitutional challenge to the Real ID Act filed by the Sierra Club and Defenders of Wildlife. Section 102 of the Real ID Act gives Secretary Chertoff and Secretary Chertoff alone the power to waive any local, state, or federal law that he decides will slow construction of the border wall. The Real ID Act failed when it was introduced as a stand alone bill, and only passed when it was attached as a rider on a bill funding the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, along with tsunami relief. The power given to the Secretary of Homeland Security to sweep away laws passed by Congress and signed by the President for the express purpose of avoiding judicial review is clearly a violation of the separation of powers provided for in the US Constitution. Chertoff has used this authority to waive environmental laws, regulatory laws, ignore ranchers, townships, private property and anything else that gets in his way.

BUFFALO TEACHERS FEDERATION won a decision Friday in state appellate court requiring the Buffalo Public Schools to reinstate four health insurance options for its teachers.

ZIMBABWE RULING PARTY FAILS IN RECOUNT. A recount of parliamentary election results from 23 constituencies in Zimbabwe appears to have confirmed the opposition’s victory over the ruling Zanu-PF party of Robert Mugabe, the president. The presidential results are still being recounted, but for the first time since Zimbabwe’s independence in 1980, Mugabe’s Zanu-PF Party will not be in control of parliament.

CENTRAL TERMINAL champion Russell Pawlak is resigning as president of the Central Terminal Restoration Corp. Pawlak, who grew up near the terminal, has been steering the restoration for at least the past ten years. “We proved a band of creative, dedicated people could make a difference,” Pawlik told Mark Sommer of the Buffalo News. Anyone who has been to any of the several events hosted at the Terminal in recent years can testify to the great work Pawlak has done. We certainly hope someone with the same drive, vision and energy steps up to try and take his place.
3 NYC DETECTIVES on trail for the shooting of Sean Bell had all charges dismissed this morning. Bell, who was unarmed and died in a hail of 50 bullets, was killed only hours before he was to be married. The trouble began at a bar where he was having his stag party.

Christine Todd Whitman, the Bush administration’s former EPA chief, cannot be held liable for telling residents and workers that the air was safe to breathe after the attacks on the World Trade Center in 2001. A lawsuit by residents was dismissed by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The court found the EPA’s actions were “flawed” but ruled that legal remedies “are not always available for every instance of arguably deficient governmental performance.” Many residents and workers in New York City are suffering severe and chronic breathing ailments. With the Bush administration, “deficient governmental performance” seems to be a way of life, from Katrina to Iraq to the World Trade Center. I guess the official response could be summed up this way: “tough shit.”

Hillary Clinton, pundits said, had to win Pennsylvania by 10% to stay in the race. She won the Pennsylvania primary by 10%, beating Obama 55% to 45%.

McKinley High teacher is cleared by the state of an allegation she prepped students beforehand on an essay question for their Regents exam. Other McKinley High allegations made by an anonymous source are still under investigation, including video and computer equipment disappearing; athletes put in special ed classes so they could pass and remain on the basketball team; and friends and relatives of principal Crystal Barton being given jobs that amounted to running errands and hanging around the office.

Proposed Suspension Bridge designed by Christian Menn that was the choice of a 32-member design jury in 2005 (after years of fighting the PBA’s “twin span” concept) has been ruled out by state and federal environmental agencies because of a possible threat to some bird and fish species.

• OSHA fined six WNY contractors for safety violations on the job site of the Walden Galleria Mall’s recent renovations. The contractors, OSHA said, failed to provide their workers against falling dangers. The contractors cited were CBO Glass of Buffalo ($16,000), Guard Contracting Corp. of Youngstown ($12,000), Alpha Masonry Construction Co. Inc. of Orchard Park ($7,500), E.B. Atlas Steel Corp. of Buffalo ($5,400), S. Federowicz Construction Inc. of West Seneca ($2,500), and Gordon & Zoerb Electrical Contractors Inc. of Buffalo ($1,500). Falling is the leading cause of death in the construction trades, a fact that was highlighted only 13 months ago when 24-year-old construction worker Jonathan Fundalinski fell to his death while renovating Rocco Termini’s Webb Building in downtown Buffalo.
• The family of local soldier Jonathon Cote was again unnecessarily notified by the military that a body has been found in Iraq that could be his. The body remains unidentified at this point, and it seems like a pointless—not to mention stressful—exercise to alert the Cotes of every Caucasian male body that is discovered in Iraq before it has been identified. Cote, 25, of Amherst, was one of a handful of private security contractors kidnapped and held hostage by militants in November of 2006.

• AFSCME Local 264 plans to protest outside of Mayor Byron Brown’s fundraiser today at Kleinhans at 4pm. Check it out.
•  News continues to be generated by the October 2006 storm. In Snyder, lawyer Jim Duggan got a court order from State Supreme Court Judge Makowski calling for a halt in the removal of storm-damaged trees on three streets there. The Town of Amherst had ok’d the removal of 44 80-year-old silver maples on Burroughs Drive, Duggan’s street of residence, at the beginning of the week. Contractors began cutting them down on Tuesday, escorted by Erie County Sheriff’s deputies “for the crews’ safety.” Now the two parties will have to work out in court…
• Additionally, the folks at Carvings for a Cause are now offering smaller pieces of art for sale. Items made by local woodworkers from the trees felled after the storm,  including bowls, vases, and cutting boards, will now be for sale.
• The Brookings Institution released a supplemental report yesterday showing that Buffalo could receive between $600 million and $1.1 billion in economic benefits if the Federal government were to fully adopt the Great Lakes Regional Collaboration (GLRC) Restoration Strategy. Read the report (it’s only three pages long, for Christ’s sake!) here:
  

  Brookings’s Great Lakes supplemental report

• The Feds raided a Cheektowaga Mexican restaurant—El Caporal—yesterday, which is owned, they say, by an undocumented Mexican alien. Simon Banda allegedly paid for workers to be smuggled acorss the border to work here and in six other restaurants he owns regionally.