A new site replaces Left of the Hudson

by Cliff Weathers

I'll start with what might sound like bad news: Left of the Hudson, as you know it, will cease  publishing as of January 30, 2012. I started the site in 2007 as a personal journal and it grew from having just a handful of readers a week to more than 260,000 readers--most all of them in New York--in October 2011 (thanks to its Occupy Wall Street coverage).

So, why would I shutter a blog that has become successful and even used as a source by MSNBC, CNN, and The Journal News? Because it wasn't doing enough.

For those of you that have been familiar with Left of the Hudson over the past five years, it has grown to be a site focused on the Nyacks and Orangetown, to one focused on Rockland County. From there, I began to include areas of Orange, Westchester, Putnam, and Dutchess Counties that shared State Assembly, State Senate, and Congressional seats with Rockland County. And then it began to touch on neighboring districts. Eventually, the site included statewide content including Albany politics, marriage equality, government transparency, hydraulic fracturing, Indian Point, and Hudson River pollution. Eventually, I began to license relevant content from news sources such as ProPublica, Truthout, and Democracy Now! Others began to contribute their posts as well, which enhanced the site considerably.

So now I find that the content was no longer focuces on the left bank of the Hudson River, it's all over the place. The name "Left of the Hudson" doesn't fit anymore. Also, I'm stretched too thin. Somehow, I was expected to maintain an up-to-date perspective on all the above topics and more. That's a lot to ask of someone who has a full-time job, a family, and some semblance of a social life.

So, I've spent a lot of time over the past six months thinking how I can improve the quality and scope of the content, and yet still have it serve my local community. I think you will like the result: On January 30, I will officially launch a new alternative state and local news website called NYaltnews.  Left of the Hudson will continue to be one of many community columns (or blogs, if you will) on that site. Rockland County and the Lower Hudson Valley will continue to be served as they have before, but so will other communities across the state.

I like to refer to NYaltnews as "guerilla journalism." The site incorporates the best of citizen journalism, alternative culture, and activism on a statewide and local levels. Select citizens, activists, non-profit organizations, public servants, and some candidates for public office will be invited to contribute to the site, where I will serve mostly as an editor. Currently, we have a small handful of individuals contributing, and two New York-based advocacy organizations, Riverkeeper, and ACT NOW, will help provide content as well.

The new site will also publish the most relevant Creative Commons media from sources such as Gawker, BoingBoing, ProPublica, YES! Magazine, The Ground Report, The Sunlight Foundation, and Fairness & Accuracy in the Media. Beyond that, NYaltnews' media feed will pick news gems from across the state and include links to those sites with relevant community content.

I strongly feel that NYaltnews will become the place to visit for statewide news that goes beyond the mainstream, corporate media. NYaltnews is in beta right now and the content hasn't yet to be released to the search engines, yet it already followed by hundreds of readers a day. Once the word gets out, I'm confident that it will be a fruitful venture.

I encourage everyone who reads Left of the Hudson to subscribe to NYaltnews. Moreover, I encourage people to become part of the NYaltnews family. We are looking for contributors from all over the state to help make the site rich in people-driven content.

On February 1, Left of the Hudson will redirect to NYaltnews, completing the transition. In the meantime I encourage you to visit NYaltnews. I also would appreciate any feedback; you can let me know what you think at this email address. 

Nan Hayworth flunks midterms

by Kevin Winterfield, NY19CDC



While she was voted "Prom Queen" and "Most Likable" by her pals in Washington, our Congressperson Nan Hayworth didn't do so well on the NY19 U.S. House of Representatives Civil Discussion Center 1st Year Report Card (surprised?). But she did win another award!

Below are the Top 5 most important issues to folks in our district. For each issue we came up with a grade and then provided the reason for the grade. An overall grade was then assigned. As a special bonus, we decided that Nan deserved a special award which is detailed after the grading section. Enjoy! (And please feel free to add your own issues, grades and reasons in the comment section to this post - Thanks!)

Jobs/Economy 
Grade: F
Reason: Nan did little to help jobs or our economy and because of that our district, especially the northern portion of, is suffering worse than when she took office. She voted to hold the debt ceiling hostage and to raise taxes on the middle class and nix unemployment insurance if she didn't get her extreme demands. Both actions shook the economy and caused our country's financial system to be downgraded. Voted against the American Jobs Act. She failed to co-sponsor the STOCK Act which would prohibit insider trading by Congress members. Locally, she held one job fair very late in her first year after months of constituent demands for more help on this top priority.

Medicare
Grade: F-
Reason: Voted for the Ryan Plan to dismantle Medicare as we know it and turn it into a voucher system. 'Nuff said. In fact, we are still a bit concerned that Nan being married to the CEO of the Mount Kisco Medical Group might in some way be a conflict of interest and wonder how she separates her votes from her husband's bottom line... still a mystery to us.

Irene/Storm Relief
Grade: F-
Reason: Voted twice to only provide relief for our storm victims, black dirt farmers, etc. if funds were tied to (or offset) by cuts to other programs. Showed a cold and delayed response to the real needs of our neighbors and those suffering. And to this day relief is still lacking. This is atrocious and another example of how detached Nan is from us regular folks.

Infrastructure
Grade: F
Reason: No action. This is particularly disappointing because Nan claims to support infrastructure improvements yet has done nothing in this area. Funding infrastructure projects is a definite job creating move that will pay off both in the short run and long run. Big fail here.

Education
Grade: F
Reason: No action to improve it. Her action (or should we say inaction) has, however, led to the laying off of teachers. Again, 'nuff said. Another big fail.

Overall Grade: F

Special NY19CDC Award:
Hayworth wins the first annual "Most Detached" Award - because of 1) her continued and well-documented suppression of constituents, 2) her complete disappearance after her Ryan vote, the Hurricane damage, and the Debt Ceiling vote, 3) the banning of constituents from her Facebook page, and 4) her staff's video recorded 'lock out' of several constituents who were trying to deliver an invitation to a Town Hall (because she had not had a Town Hall in months) we present Nan with the "Most Detached" Award. Congrats Nan!

Ex-Salt Lake Mayor Rocky Anderson, former Democrat, launches third party Presidential bid against Obama, GOP

Justice Party candidate Anderson

via DemocracyNow.org

A new political party has entered the fray as an alternative to Democrats and Republicans ahead of the 2012 elections.

On Monday, former Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson announced he will run for president with the newly formed Justice Party. Although hailing from a solidly red state, Anderson has been known as one of the most progressive mayors of any major U.S. city in recent years. During his two mayoral terms from 2000 to 2008, Anderson was an outspoken champion of LGBT rights, environmental sustainability, and the antiwar movement in opposition to the Iraq War.

Vowing to fight the influence of money over politics, Anderson kicked off his campaign on Monday with a pledge to limit individual donations to $100 a person. Anderson and the Justice Party say they hope to build a grassroots movement heading into the November 2012 elections. "We launched the Justice Party because the entire system is so corrupt," Anderson says. "It’s so diseased. We know that the public interest is not being served by anyone in the system right now, particularly the two dominant parties who have sustained this corrupt system and who are sustained by it.

This work is republished from Democracy Now! and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License. 

Cowardly poll attempts to smear David Carlucci, but fails miserably

NYS Sen. Carlucci

by Cliff Weathers

A telephone "push poll" unfairly slamming the legislative record and progressive stance of State Senator David Carlucci is making its rounds in Rockland and Orange Counties. The so-called poll comes from an anonymous source, and the pollsters flippantly misidentify themselves when pressed by residents they reach.

Eleven concerned Rockland County residents, all Democratic Commitee members, contacted Left of the Hudson today to complain about the poll, and several others have responded to an email query sent out by us this afternoon. Several recipients that asked the pollsters who they worked for were told the survey came from either National Research or "Central Research." The former is a popular political polling service, the latter name is believed by some to be a front for WPA Opinion Research.

What's your Rep talking about?

Rep. Engel

An interesting Website, created by Sunlight Foundation, tracks the words most used by our members of Congress. The revamped site lets users search for the terms favored by politicians, and reveals the topics that lawmakers are the most vocal (or the quietest) about.

The site, Capitol Words, enables users to search terms by state, date and politician, and graphing features help chart term frequency.

Will the Orangetown Board sneak through a patronage appointment?

Whalen

The Orangetown Town Board is set to vote Tuesday night on the creation of a new position, the Deputy Commissioner of the Sewage Department and then vote to immediately appoint recent County Legislature candidate Guy DiVincenzo to the position without posting the position for public competition among qualified candidates. 

The Deputy Commissioner position,  a new position requested by outgoing Supervisor Paul Whalen, reportedly pays $90,000 a year. No civil service exam is required for the job. DiVincenzo, currently a Clerk for the Public Works is the only person the town is considering, according to councilwoman Nancy Low-Hogan. DiVincenzo currently makes $75,000 in his current position, which requires periodic examinations.