Death

The video I shot and produced of the candlelight vigil at Shenendehowa's football field, for the four popular students, was the most difficult assignment I've ever had. I had to force myself to intrude onto people's intimate moments after the vigil and ask to interview them in front of a camera.

Fortunately, Saratogian sports writer Stan Hudy graciously introduced me to some of the people he has grown close with over the 15 years he's been covering sports in the region.

But it was still hard. There are always going to be assignments like this, all you can do is hope they will be rare but press coverage is mandatory.

Before I left my house the night of the vigil, I had triple-checked my video equipment (which I almost never do,) and convinced myself I was ready and confident to "do my job." Of course, the second I stepped out of my car and joined the 6,000 people on the football field, that confidence slipped away.

It was humbling, to be privy to that kind of event, to talk to people and record their voices and tears and to be trusted with putting the pieces of their story together.

As a journalist, the most intriguing and important stories often come from, in my opinion, asking the most difficult questions.

What I had to remind myself on the night of the vigil, is that even though something is tough, it doesn't mean people don't want to talk about it.  People do want to share their stories, their memories, emotions and opinions. It's better to at least ask and get turned down than to walk away from a story without even attempting to talk the people involved in it.

Ethics

There is no disputing the fact that Dennis Drue killed two people and injured two more. Legal consequences aside, it will stain his life forever.

However I think it's important to remember that he hasn't been charged with anything yet and I think it's safe to assume after yesterday's announcement, that he was not drunk when he got into the accident.  

Today's Times Union article painted a picture of a monster, who has gone on for years as an abhorrent person. The backbone of the article were quotes from Drue's ex-landlord, who clearly had an axe to grind.

That's not to say there weren't some valid, relevant facts in the piece.

It's easier to see Drue as a monster rather than a person who got into an accident, because it distances us from him. It's easier to cope with the grief and release the anger when you have a monster to pin it on. But it's not our jobs as journalists to provide people with the monsters and gods they crave.

The dark side of being a journalist

Death and ethics are tricky areas in this line of work. When to step back and when to ask questions is something every journalist must grapple with and ultimately base those decisions on good instincts and critical thought. Stories like this one require even more than that. It requires compassion, for all the victims, even the ones we want so much to blame.

Rather than focusing on blame, I would hope we all take a deeper look at this. Two people lost their lives, let it not be in vain. Drive safer. Know that life is unpredictable and value it. Know that there are inexperienced drivers on the road, elderly people who can't see well at night or in the rain, and as shown in our police blotter every single day, people driving under the influence of drugs and alcohol.

Forgiveness and resolving to be a better person are so much more constructive than anger alone.

Last night I attended The Doobie Brothers and Chicago concert and wrote a review on it this morning. The guest-singer I mentioned in the review, Gene Gilbert, doesn't have any photographs of himself on-stage, he sent me a very nice letter about it:

Hello,

I am Gene Gilbert, I sang with Chicago as mentioned in your article. By chance do you have any photos that you could share with me. As a one in a life time opportunity I want to endeavor to obtain every aspect of the show as I can....In addition, my son's camera battery went dead as he used it way too much for back stage footage.

In closing, thank you for writing a nice review of me, as I personally thought I did not do well. You are way too kind.

Sincerely,

Gene Gilbert

If anyone has any pictures of him, please send them to me and I will pass them along. My email is: cmorris@saratogian.com

I spoke to Keith Manz earlier today, who is leaving his position as the Director of Planning and Engineering to take over the role of Saratoga County's Public Works Commissioner, and he had some interesting news.

Manz says he is giving a walk-through of the Saratoga County landfill tomorrow morning, to a prospective bidder. He said that while he was interviewing for the new job, one of the main queries was how he could streamline the county and make it run more efficiently. One of his ideas, a popular one at that, is to privatize the county landfill. Manz is getting a running start at his new job, I wish him good luck.

I am the new reporter at The Saratogian, taking over Michael Cignoli’s job as reporter for the county. I know Michael will be missed, but rest assured you will still find his words in our sports section.

A little bit about me: I recently graduated from Temple University in Philadelphia, where I earned a B.A. in Journalism. I specialized in photo journalism and had a photography internship at The Philadelphia Inquirer. After my internship I was driven to get a reporting job that would still let me play around with photography and videography on my down times. 

I grew up in Central Pennsylvania and I’m excited to be leaving the city life for Saratoga Springs, I couldn’t have imagined a better place to relocate. Everyone I run into and work with have been incredibly kind, from the people serving me coffee at Uncommon Grounds to the Town Supervisors I interview for articles. For that, I say thank you Saratoga Springs. It isn’t easy moving to a new place alone but the residents of Saratoga County have certainly eased the burden. 

If you are interested in seeing any samples of my photojournalism, take a look at: caitlinmphotography.com/portfolio/

A remarkable streak could come to an end during Tuesday afternoon’s meeting of the Saratoga County Board of Supervisors.

The 23-member board is expected to vote on whether to charge for-profit emergency medical service providers, like Empire Ambulance, to tap into the county’s 911 dispatch system.

The Board of Supervisors, on a bad year, will review more than 200 resolutions. Virtually all of them are approved unanimously because the county’s lower committees work out the kinks ahead of time.

But supervisors have publicly spoken out on both sides of the fee proposal, so it’s extremely unlikely that a vote on the subject would be unanimous. That would be a rarity in itself, but there could also be enough support to actually vote down the proposal. That is practically like witnessing the Transit of Venus.

The last time the board actually voted down a resolution was Feb. 26, 2008, when supervisors nixed a plan to support an Assembly bill that would have given towns the authority to create a new tax in order to support open space preservation efforts.

Since that date, county lawmakers have not defeated any of the past 1,014 resolutions to come before the full Board of Supervisors. That includes a handful they have tabled and never brought back for a vote, but most of those 1,014 were resolutions were approved.

The county administrator’s office verified the Board hasn’t defeated a resolution since Feb. 2008, but wanted to point out that supervisors have defeated some motions during that time frame. I’ll have more on that in a moment, but I wanted to be fair and say supervisors aren’t rubber stamping things through.

Much of the review and vetting takes place at the committee level so that supervisors have had most of their concerns addressed by the time things get to the boardroom.

They have also had pretty significant discussions at the full board level since that time, including whether to award $570,000 in open space grants (November 2011), increase the population threshold for a second supervisor and accordingly change the size of the board (August 2011), change pay rates for some county employees (March 2011), approve bonds for the Water Authority (August 2008), and authorize the expansion of the Sewer District’s treatment plant (March 2008).

I came aboard in May 2011, but I think that just about covers all of the biggest votes at the county level since 2008. If there was a big discussion to be had, the supervisors had it. Ultimately, though, all those associated resolutions passed.

I couldn’t seem to find a story about one that didn’t pass in our archives – and the supervisors I spoke to couldn’t seem to remember the vote – so the following account is based off the meeting minutes:

The legislation the county was seeking to endorse would have enabled towns to impose a real estate transfer tax, which would have been imposed on a surcharge over the median value of a home. It was proposed to generate funds to conserve open space, particularly in towns like Malta that saw developers buying, selling and subdividing land.

But objectors pointed out if a town were to acquire the property to preserve open space, it would have been removed from the tax rolls. The burden would have then been shifted to other landowners in the county because the county’s tax base would have been unchanged. So basically, if Malta enacted the law, people in Edinburg could have been making up the difference in property taxes.

It was defeated 115,680 to 73,448.

Now, my review looked at resolutions, but the county administrator’s office pointed out the Board of Supervisors has defeated “a number of” motions at Board meetings since 2008. Those include a motion to waive the reading of all resolutions in April, when they had like 30, as well as reconsider open space grant funds in December 2011. 

But those motions had nothing to do with the established committee process. They were things that were presented that day. It's very weird for supervisors to spend a month reviewing something and tweaking it only to vote against it.

“We’re pretty complete in our discussions before it ever gets to the full board,” Saratoga Springs Supervisor Joanne Yepsen said. “If it doesn’t make it through Law and Finance, it’s not going to make it to the full board.”

But this time, though, the Law and Finance Committee chose not to nip the proposal in the bud. Officials said it didn't seem right for a seven-member committee to make a decision that could affect the entire county, so any of the debate that would have ordinarily happened at the committee level is now going to happen before the full Board of Supervisors. 


"It's such an issue that they really wanted the supervisors to go home and research it themselves," Stillwater Supervisor Ed Kinowski said. He is one of three supervisors (John Collyer, Dan Lewza) who has never seen the Board of Supervisors vote down a resolution. They all came on after February 2008.

Yepsen, for the record, is voting against the current draft of the proposal. She said it puts too much pressure and risk on the public safety program, noting Empire provides back-up service to the city of Saratoga Springs. Matthew Veitch is away on business and won’t be voting, but his absence is excused, so he won’t be counted as an affirmative. Either way, he’d be voting against it.

One more stat before I go:

1,575 – Days between Feb. 26, 2008, the date of the last defeated resolution, and the Board of Supervisors’ scheduled meeting on June 19, 2012.

Until next time,

MC
 

By my best estimate, President Barack Obama spoke to a standing-room only crowd of about 750 people at Albany's College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering on Tuesday afternoon.

That's about how many words I had to tell the story that you'll read in Wednesday's print edition of The Saratogian. I lobbied for about twice that number.

Regardless, there are a lot of pieces of information that wound up not making it into my story, mainly quotes from some of the lucky people who got into the invitation-only event.

Turns out having the President show up is a pretty big deal and basically everybody you talk to will have something exceptionally profound or worthwhile to say.

Lucian McCarty spoke to a lot of people and got their reactions, which he compiled into a story here. I didn't have the opportunity to sneak my quotes into his story, so I'll just share them with you here. We'll use subheads to break things down. Look for your favorite name.

Chris Gibson

So Obama pretty much threw Republicans under the bus during his speech, attempting to portray them as stymieing his previous economic initiatives and said that the two sides need to work together. They have worked together to pass some bills, he said, but they need to do more.

Gibson, a Republican Congressman, said that a lot of the initiatives Obama discussed were discussed in a bipartisan budget proposal called Cooper-LaTourette that he entirely supports. This is the best link I could find on the subject. You can read up on it there.

"Many of the major issues we have to tackle are addressed in that bipartisan budget," the Congressman said, though acknowledging that more needs to be done. He did say that he was "so proud" that Obama selected Albany for his speech, the public-private partnership showcasing what he believes is "the future of our economy."

Todd Shimkus

I read a really interesting Associated Press story not too long ago about something called the Obama effect. You can read it here. Essentially, presidential visits drive up publicity for local restaurants.

One of the first questions I asked Shimkus was whether the same principle applied to nanotechnology. After all, you can't just walk into GlobalFoundries and order a computer chip in the same sense that you can walk into a restaurant and order a hamburger. That would be absurd.

Shimkus agreed, but said it never hurts to have Obama show up.

"He's so incredibly popular," Shimkus said. "He's a virtual rock star. He's a trendsetter."

Perhaps someone didn't know the Capital Region was building one of the world's most advanced computer chip manufacturing research centers. Maybe they do now. Shimkus said the one thing he was hoping was Obama to say the words "Saratoga County" or "GlobalFoundries."

"I guarantee that'd be cut out and edited into our promotional materials," Shimkus said.

For the record, Obama did name-drop GlobalFoundries. He didn't mention Saratoga County.

The other question I had for Shimkus was about a poll result that I saw last night. I can't seem to find the link now, but I know it said Obama had a 4 percent lead over GOP Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney among voters who said the economy was the most important issue in the upcoming election.

So an aptly timed speech on the economy would be apropos, right? Absolutely, Shimkus said, but it would be more effective for Obama to that speech in a battleground state like Ohio. New York hasn't gone Republican since the years of Ronald Regan.

Shimkus says that means Obama really believes the Capital Region is doing it right.

"He doesn't need to give these speeches in New York," Shimkus said. "The fact that he is doing it here is pretty significant."

Pete Bardunias

The president of the Chamber of Southern Saratoga County and I chatted briefly on his bus ride into the fab. You could tell he was pretty excited.

"The president's visit showcases what Tech Valley means to our nation's economic future," he said. "Locally educated people are getting local jobs and combining with talent from all over the world to make our region a true center of technological excellence."

Which begs the follow up -- we're in a pretty unique spot here, having CNSE and GlobalFoundries so close to each other. Is that kind of public-private partnership the kind of thing that can be implemented elsewhere in the country?

"Yes," he said. "The work being done in the labs of Albany and the clean rooms of Malta is an example for the rest of the country. Businesses large and small working with educational institutions, government and community leaders have given our region a bright economic future. People of our area can get a good education and high-paying job within an hour's drive of their childhood homes. That will allow future generations to stay here and help our region thrive."

Ron Canestrari

I asked the Assembly majority leader the same question I asked Pete. Do you think this can be replicated?

 "I do," he said. "I think (Obama's) being here is recognition of what we've done and it can be replicated in a lot of the other parts of the country as well."

But we want to stay competitive, right? So if it can be replicated, then don't we need to keep investing into our region so that we stay in the upper echelon? That's rhetorical.

"I think it's very important," he said. "Success builds upon success. We've done well here in Malta and Watervliet. It didn't happen by accident. ... More can be done with some federal and state incentives. This could be the next area of job growth that we desperately need."

Ed Kinowski

Stillwater Supervisor Ed Kinowski is a guy that I feel gets lost in the shuffle sometime. A portion of the Luther Forest Technology Campus -- and the GlobalFoundries property -- sits in his town, but it is most commonly associated with the Town of Malta, which has the majority of the land.

"There's national interest in what we're doing here," he said. 

National interest brings international interest, Kinowski said. If people didn't know the Capital Region was among the world leaders in the high-tech sector, they know now. But he said that it's exceptionally important to keep investing in high-tech growth or else they won't be able to stay competitive in the global economy.

He called it an "understandable challenge, but it's a necessary thing to do."

One other point he mentioned that the national unemployment rate is still above 8 percent, but the Capital Region is doing pretty well. This actually got into my story, but his quote didn't. 

"Where else can you say it's as strong as this?" he asked, rhetorically.

Joanne Yepsen

I was talking to Gibson when Yepsen was on her way out. The Saratoga Springs supervisor was kind enough to e-mail me this statement.

"I was honored to be in attendance today to support President Obama, his policies, and the region's future," she said. "Education at reasonable costs, clean energy, giving incentives for businesses to move back to the United States to promote 'Made In America,' and creating jobs in high tech and manufacturing are all extremely important to Saratoga County. What a feather in our region's cap to have this be the third Presidential visit in four years. The support of the President and our Governor will allow us to forge into the future by continuing to focus on a winning partnership between private industry, government leaders and education."

Sheldon Silver

I figured this would be my only chance to ask the Assembly Speaker how the state can continue to provide incentives so that projects like GlobalFoundries will come to New York State. That $1.3 billion incentive package the state gave GlobalFoundries came before the economy went south. Things aren't like they used to be. The Empire Zone program is gone.

He really never directly answered my question. He kept talking about how important the college is because it's developing the next generation of computer chip technology and it got $4.4 billion in private investment to do that.

I agree to some extent. It's great if they can develop the technology, but the last thing I would imagine anyone wants to see want to do is develop the technology here and see it used in Singapore. Silver, though, said the college is an incentive enough. It gives companies the opportunity to co-locate their research and development programs. That's what GlobalFoundries is doing.

"The research is here," he said of the college. "The facilities are here ... this is the place."

Travis Bullard


One of the things that Obama talked about was creating a new job corps that would help returning veterans find work. I thought this was relevant because GlobalFoundries discussed a new "Field-to-Fab" initiative a couple of weeks ago when they hosted a top Navy official.

The company likes to say that 10 percent of its current workforce is veterans. They also say they employ about 100 veterans and have 1,300 total employees. I barely passed calculus, but I know one of those claims has to be wrong. Regardless, they're looking to hire more. That's important.

I'm going to throw this under here because I don't think it needs its own subhead. GlobalFoundries' CEO Ajit Manocha called President Obama a "champion of American innovation." That was interesting because Obama never really took much of the credit for anything that was happening in Albany.

The President basically said the Capital Region was doing it right and everyone else should take note. So we have that going for us.

Andrew Cuomo

Cuomo, who introduced Obama, joked the rest of the state is going get jealous that Obama keeps coming to the Capital Region. It's the president's third visit since 2009.

Other than that, he praised Obama's leadership skills dropped references to political taglines like "Building a New New York" and "New York is Open for Business." He was only up there for, like, three minutes. He really didn't have anything really compelling to say.

Barack Obama

One of the little known aspects of computer chip plants is just how clean the clean rooms are. They are about 10,000 times cleaner than a hospital emergency room. At CNSE, students are taught how to work on atom-sized particles in these ultra-clean environments. Obama found this amusing.

"Clean is not usually a word associated with college students," he joked, drawing a laugh from the audience.

Earlier, while touring the college, he and Cuomo met with some of the students who were showing off manufacturing tools. "This looks like a pretty fancy piece of equipment," Obama said.

One other thing about President Obama. He entered to "Hail to the Chief," which I should have expected but forgot would actually happen. So for the first 30 or so seconds of his speech all I could think of was this classic scene from "My Fellow Americans."

===================

Before I go, a personal story.

The Saratogian media contingent carpooled down to Albany today. Media check-in was like hours before Obama arrived and there was no food there. We were probably inside the building from about 10:30 to 2:30. Some of us were really hungry by the end of it, so we decided to stop for food on the drive back to the office. We settled on Burger King in Clifton Park.

The problem was that some of us -- read: me -- forgot to take off our White House press credential before walking into the restaurant. I got some odd looks. But, at the risk of sounding unprofessional, the whole day was pretty awesome.

President Barack Obama's third Capital Region visit has been shifted to Albany due to "logistical reasons." The official word from the White House is below. Our story is here.

Anyone disappointed he won't be coming to Saratoga County? I bet Paul Sausville is. He was going to give Obama a key to the town.

President Obama to Travel to Albany, NY 

WASHINGTON, DC – On Tuesday, May 8, the President will travel to the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering’s (CNSE) Albany NanoTech Complex at the State University of New York in Albany, New York for an event on the economy.

CNSE’s Albany NanoTech Complex is a fully-integrated research, development, prototyping, and educational facility that provides strategic support through outreach, technology acceleration, business incubation, pilot prototyping, and test-based integration support for onsite corporate partners, including IBM, Intel, GlobalFoundries, Applied Materials, as well as other next generation nanotechnology research activities.

Due to logistical reasons, the President’s event will no longer be held at GlobalFoundries in Malta, New York but representatives from GlobalFoundries will join the President at CNSE. Governor Cuomo will also join the President at Tuesday’s event.

Until next time,
MC