Election Site

Fighting For A Better Community

Fri, 01 Oct 2010 20:20:00 -0700

James Vacca
NYC Councilman 13th District
3040 East Tremont Ave, Bronx, NY 10461
718-931-1721
718-931-1605 (Fax)
james.vacca@council.nyc.gov

CELEBRATING ITALIAN CULTURE
Buongiorno miei amici! It was my honor to join the organizers of the Bronx Columbus Day Parade last Friday at their annual dinner dance, where we celebrated Italian culture and honored the many contributions of Italian Americans in our community. It was a special treat to be able to recognize this year's honorees: Grand Marshal Dom Castone, chairmar of Community Board 11; Honorary Marshal Charles Sperrazza, principal of P.S. 108; and Citizen,s Award recipient Ben Buccieri, who has been a longtime community leader. Please join me on Sunday, October 10th for the annual parade, which is always a big hit. Festivities kick off around Noon at White Plains Road and continue down Morris Park Avenue to Williamsbridge Road.

PEARLY GATES PARK
I was excided to gather with local leaders and residents at Pearly Gates Park on St. Peter's Avenue on Saturday to officially "cut the ribbon" after the completion of nearly $2 million in improvements. The park serves one of the most vibrant and growing communities in my district, and I was thrilled to secure $900,000 to fund this major renovation. The new Pearly Gates is more accessible, more attractive, safer and most importantly more fun as a result of this project. I can't wait to see how local children and families react to this great new public space.

DEFENSIVE DRIVING
My office is offering a Defensive Driving Course in conjunction with AARP on Saturday, October 9th from 9am to 5pm at the Morris Park Association at 1824 Bronxdale Avenue. You must call Jonathan at my office at 718-931-1721 in order to reserve your spot, and then drop off or mail a check or money order ($12 for AARP members, $14 for non members) made out to AARP to my office at 3040 East Tremont Avenue, room 104, Bronx, NY 10461. The course will fill up quickly, so call as soon as possible. Please note that the course is limited to residents of the 13th Council District.

WSPT WELLNESS EXPO
I am co-sponsoring Westchester Square Physical Therapy's 2nd Annual Wellness Expo on Friday, October 8th from 3pm to 6pm at 1250 Waters Place, Suite 501. The day will include demo fitness classes, complimentary massages, health screenings and education. In addition to free admission, group classes, and refreshments, attendees will all be entitled to a free Fitness Assessment by one of WSPT's world-class Personal Trainers. For more information, call 718-409-9444. It's never too late to get healthy!

LEARN PILATES WITH ME!
Join me for a great Pilates workout at Westchester Square Physical Therapy (1250 Waters Place) on Saturday, October 9th from 12:30pm to 1:30pm. To sign up, just call 718-409-9444. And, if this will be your first visit to WSPT, the class is free!

ESL CLASSES
Bronx Adult Learning Center offers Adult ESL classes Tuesdays, Wednesdays & Thursdays from 6:00pm to 9:00pm at the Bronx High School for Visual Arts, 2040 Antin Place, at Bronxdale Ave. For additional information please contact Ms. Stokes at 718-319-5160 ext. 1010.

Rush Limbaugh challenging notion of new politics

Mon, 16 Feb 2009 23:25:28 -0700

By DAVID BAUDER

NEW YORK (AP) - For all the talk of new politics and a new start with a new administration, the media person who has emerged as the chief voice of opposition during the first week of Barack Obama's presidency - Rush Limbaugh - has been doing this for 20 years.

The talk-radio titan said, days before Obama was sworn in, that he hoped Obama failed because he didn't believe in the incoming president's policies. It's kept him in the headlines ever since, to the point where MSNBC on Thursday asked: "Is Rush running the GOP?" The day before, every Republican House member voted against Obama's economic stimulus plan, a bill Limbaugh has ridiculed as the "porkulus" plan.

"Obama was trying to marginalize me," Limbaugh said. "His hope was that the House and Senate Republicans would join him in denouncing me. Didn't work."

When Rep. Phil Gingrey, a Georgia Republican, tried to praise his House leadership this week by saying it's easy for talk-show hosts to stand back and throw bricks, the headline on the Politico Web site read: "House GOP member to Rush: Back off." Gingrey was so bothered by the phone calls of complaints that he visited four conservative talk-show hosts, including Limbaugh, the next day to apologize.

Limbaugh, he said, was a conservative giant and one of the "voices of the conservative movement's conscience."

Can it get any better for a personality whose business is built on buzz?

"Rush Limbaugh is first and foremost a radio performer," said Michael Harrison, publisher of the trade journal Talkers magazine, which notes that Limbaugh has been the most listened-to talk-show host since at least the mid-1990s. "He's not a political leader. He doesn't make more money by turning elections. He only exists to gather large audiences and raise more advertising revenue and he does it terrifically."

(Limbaugh is heard on some 600 radio stations across the country, and more than 14 million people listen to him at least once a week.)

Yet count columnist Michael Wolff, writing in a newser.com column picked up by the Huffington Post, as one who believes Limbaugh is "being played."

He could prove valuable to the president, who has sought bipartisan support for many of his plans and romanced Republicans in his first week in office. Being able to point to an opponent like Limbaugh could help him with the millions of Americans for whom the message of ending partisan bickering rang true on Election Day.

Obama even cited Limbaugh in seeking support for his economic plans.

"You can't just listen to Rush Limbaugh and get things done," he said. "There are big things that unify Republicans and Democrats. We shouldn't let partisan politics derail what are very important things that need to get done."

A liberal advocacy group, Americans United for Change, said Friday it was using Limbaugh's words in radio ads it was launching against three Republican senators: Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, George Voinovich of Ohio and John Ensign of Nevada. The ads, supporting Obama's economic plan, urges voters in those states to call their senator and "tell him he represents you, not Rush Limbaugh."

Wolff wrote that he believed the dinner Obama had with conservative columnists before his inauguration was a pointed snub to Limbaugh.

"He's tried to make it out to be a political point ever since," he wrote, "but mostly he sounds like a guy who's hurt he didn't get invited to the hot party."

Asked about Wolff's comments, Limbaugh said, "Who?"

Another conservative talk-show host, William Bennett, said on CNN that Limbaugh's statement wasn't a good idea.

"The locution - `I want him to fail' - is not what you say the first week the man's been inaugurated," he said.

He noted that former President Bill Clinton used to talk about Limbaugh all the time. "It never helped Bill Clinton," Bennett said. "It certainly helped Rush."

It seemed clear that Limbaugh knew exactly what kind of impact he would make when he first said he wanted Obama to fail.

"I would be honored if the drive-by media headlined me all day long: `Limbaugh: I Hope Obama Fails,'" he said on the air. "Somebody's gotta say it."

Limbaugh, who just marked his 20th year in syndication and signed a contract last year reportedly paying him $38 million a year through 2016, has outraced his competitors to be the voice of opposition.

It could be a valuable role, or it could misread the national mood. He had mixed results last year; launching "Operation Chaos" to urge listeners to vote for Hillary Rodham Clinton in Democratic primaries to hurt Obama. He virulently opposed John McCain in the Republican nomination race, forging an uneasy peace when GOP voters didn't listen.

Limbaugh said the "I hope he fails" statement came after an explanation of his opposition to liberal politics.

"I want the country to succeed and the stated policies of the administration will not achieve that objective," he said. "I support the president but I opposed his policies, just as the left claimed to support the troops but opposed their mission of victory. I thus am confident that all conservatives want the country to succeed."

On the Net:rushlimbaugh.com

Biological terror attack likely by 2013, panel says

Wed, 03 Dec 2008 20:51:10 -0700

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Terrorists are likely to use a weapon of mass destruction somewhere in the world in the next five years, a blue-ribbon panel assembled by Congress has concluded.

They are more likely to use a biological weapon than a nuclear one -- and the results could be devastating, the chairman of the commission told CNN.

"The consequences of a biological attack are almost beyond comprehension. It would be 9/11 times 10 or a hundred in terms of the number of people who would be killed," former Sen. Bob Graham said. He cited the flu virus that killed millions of people in 1918 as an example.

"Today it is still in the laboratory, but if it should get out and into the hands of scientists who knew how to use it for a violent purpose, we could have multiple times the 40 million people who were killed 100 years ago," he said.

The U.S. government "needs to move more aggressively to limit" the spread of biological weapons, the commission said in its report.

Graham warned that such measures would be costly, but were necessary.

"The leadership of this country and the world will have to decide how much of a priority ... they place on avoiding the worst weapons in the world getting in the hands of the worst people in the world," he said.

"It is not going to be cheap. It is not going to be accomplished without some sacrifices. It won't be accomplished without putting this issue ahead of some other competing national and international goals. But I think our safety and security depend upon doing so," he added.

Graham said a biological attack was more likely than a nuclear one because it would be easier to carry out.

Biological weapons "are more available," he said. "Anthrax is a natural product of dead animals. Other serious pathogens are available in equally accessible forms."

"There are so many scientists who have the skills to convert a pathogen from benign, helpful purposes into an illicit, very harmful weapon," he added.

But the commission warned that there is also a threat of nuclear terrorism, both because more countries are developing nuclear weapons and because some existing nuclear powers are expanding their arsenals.

"Terrorist organizations are intent on acquiring nuclear weapons," said the report, which was published Tuesday on the Internet and will be officially released Wednesday.

CNN obtained a copy of the report Monday evening.

It cited testimony before the commission from former Sen. Sam Nunn, who said that the "risk of a nuclear weapon being used today is growing, not receding."

The report recommends a range of measures, including increased security and awareness at biological research labs and strengthening international treaties against the spread of biological and nuclear weapons.

"Many biological pathogens and nuclear materials around the world are poorly secured -- and thus vulnerable to theft by those who would put these materials to harmful use, or would sell them on the black market to potential terrorists," the report warned.

The commission expressed particular concern about the nuclear programs of Iran and North Korea, and about Pakistan, which it described as "the intersection of nuclear weapons and terrorism."

While observing that Pakistan is a U.S. ally, the report said, "the next terrorist attack against the United States is likely to originate from within the Federally Administered Tribal Areas" in Pakistan. The tribal areas lie in northwest Pakistan where the government exerts little control; the United States says it is a haven for militants from both Pakistan and neighboring Afghanistan.

Congress created the commission to investigate and report on WMD and terrorism in line with a recommendation from the 9/11 Commission, which compiled a report on the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States. Commissioners heard testimony from more than 250 experts from around the world over the course of their six-month investigation.

Article at: cnn.com

Papua plans electronic tags for AIDS patients

Mon, 24 Nov 2008 21:06:10 -0700

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) --

Lawmakers in Indonesia's remote province of Papua have thrown their support behind a controversial bill requiring some HIV/AIDS patients to be implanted with microchips -- part of extreme efforts to monitor the disease.

Health workers and rights activists sharply criticized the plan Monday. But legislator John Manangsang said by implanting small computer chips beneath the skin of "sexually aggressive" patients, authorities would be in a better position to identify, track and ultimately punish those who deliberately infect others with up to six months in jail or a $5,000 fine.

The technical and practical details still need to be hammered out, but the proposed legislation has received full backing from the provincial parliament and, if it gets a majority vote as expected, will be enacted next month, he and others said.

Indonesia is the world's fourth most populous country and has one of Asia's fastest growing HIV rates, with up to 290,000 infections out of 235 million people, fueled mainly by intravenous drug users and prostitution.

But Papua, the country's easternmost and poorest province, has been hardest hit. Its case rate of almost 61 per 100,000 is 15 times the national average, according to internationally funded research, which blames lack of knowledge about sexually transmitted diseases.

"The health situation is extraordinary, so we have to take extraordinary action," said another lawmaker, Weynand Watari, who envisions radio frequency identification tags like those used to track everything from cattle to luggage.

A committee would be created to determine who should be fitted with chips and to monitor patients' behavior, but it remains unclear who would be on it and how they would carry out their work, lawmakers said Monday.

Nancy Fee, the UNAIDS country coordinator, said the global body was not aware of any laws or initiatives elsewhere involving HIV/AIDS patients and microchips.

Though she has yet to see a copy of the bill, she said she had "grave concerns" about the effect it would have on human rights and public health.

"No one should be subject to unlawful or unnecessary interference of privacy," Fee said, adding that while other countries have been known to be oppressive in trying to tackle AIDS, such policies don't work.

They make people afraid and push the problem further underground, she said.

Local health workers and AIDS activists called the plan "abhorrent."

"People with AIDS aren't animals; we have to respect their rights," said Tahi Ganyang Butarbutar, a prominent Papuan activist.

He said the best way to tackle the epidemic was through increased spending on sexual education and condom use.

Article at: edition.cnn.com

President-elect Barack Obama and family

Wed, 05 Nov 2008 12:38:35 -0700

President-elect Barack Obama and family on Election Night in Chicago's Grant Park. (AFP/Getty Images)

GOV GUY: MY GREAT DEPRESSION LED TO TAX WOE

Sun, 19 Oct 2008 21:40:29 -0700

Albany - Gov. Paterson's top aide has paid more than $200,000 in back taxes after failing to file his income taxes for five years - claiming he was suffering from severe mental illness, The Post has learned.

Charles O'Byrne (above, with Paterson), the governor's $178,500-a-year chief of staff, says he recently settled a debt that soared to at least $206,000. The sum included $151,000 owed to the IRS and another $56,000 in state taxes, including various penalties and interest.

O'Byrne did not file state or federal returns in 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2005. During part of that period, he was employed by the state.

O'Byrne disclosed the tax debt and his failure to file returns after being questioned by The Post about an outstanding $11,500 tax warrant listed by the Department of State.

A former Jesuit priest who officiated at both the wedding and funeral of John F. Kennedy Jr., O'Byrne said it all stemmed from two severe bouts with depression.

"Certainly, I'm ashamed of the fact that this has occurred in my life," O'Byrne told The Post. "But I'm clinically aware of the fact that it is a consequence of an illness over which I had no control.

"As anyone who's been through a clinical depression understands, parts of life fall apart," he added.

"Keeping up with the mail, frankly, and keeping up with the personal affairs of my life was the primary casualty of the depression I've suffered and have been treated for."

O'Byrne says he is no longer suffering mental illness and is not undergoing treatment. All outstanding state and federal tax claims have been satisfied, he said.

O'Byrne, 49, serves as the senior in-house adviser to Paterson, whose administration is currently cracking down on corporations, small businesses and individuals trying to cheat the state on taxes.

For his own part, Paterson said he was generally aware of O'Byrne's tax debt before he hired him as a speechwriter in September 2004.

Paterson learned the full details in 2006, when O'Byrne underwent a background probe in preparation for Paterson's run for lieutenant governor.

"He had to find ways of paying off the debt and arrange them and go ahead and pay the debt off," Paterson told The Post. "I'm satisfied that he did that as promptly as he could."

O'Byrne had racked up at least $65,000 in credit-card debt and personal loans, according to a financial-disclosure statement he filed in June.

The powerful Kennedy clan has served as a benefactor to O'Byrne since he attended law school with President John Kennedy's nephew Stephen Smith Jr.

The tax bills began to pile up in 2002. That's when the openly gay Manhattan native left the Jesuits to pen "Going My Way," his still-unpublished memoir about sexual confusion and repression in the Catholic Church. P>During that period, O'Byrne, who had abandoned a promising career in corporate law for the priesthood, supported himself with legal work for nonprofits and a handful of personal investment funds and annuities.

brendan.scott@nypost.com

Article at: nypost.com

"Trickle-Up" Poverty: The New Economics of Barack Obama

Sun, 19 Oct 2008 20:54:18 -0700

The liberal media talking heads are already proclaiming that a Barack Obama victory will be revolutionary. Revolutionary is right. The last great revolution took place in Russia. Within a year of the Russian Revolution in 1917, the communist leader Lenin brought the Russians change they could believe in. He created an economic system in which:

All industry was nationalized and strict centralized management was introduced.

Obligatory labor duty was imposed onto "non-working classes" or people who had money. Food was rationed and centrally distributed.

Military-like control of railroads was introduced.

Private enterprise became illegal.

After Stalin took over the Soviet Union, he:

Imposed a state-run system of socialized medicine

Formed a strict, centralized cultural administration and ideological control system � in other words, reeducation.

There is every reason to believe that some kind of socialist revolution will occur under B.O. Bush has already imposed socialism on the banks, and Obama promises to do more of the same. The Soviets put people with money to work in factories.

Under Obama, the business owners in this country who drive the economy will be put to work by being forced to pay crushing taxes that will fund gold-plated healthcare for illegal aliens and welfare cases. Private enterprise may not actually be made illegal, but so many businesses will die under an Obama administration that the same goal will be accomplished. Instead of trickle-down economics, we�ll have trickle-up poverty.

We already know Obama will impose socialized medicine � that is a given. And reeducation will come in the form of the Fairness Doctrine, which Nancy Pelosi will push through the Congress by stressing the need to foster unity and avoid destabilizing the markets with hurtful and unbalanced commentary.This is what the future holds under B.O.

Article at: michaelsavage.wnd.com

Wild blueberries take antioxidant crown

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 22:27:00 -0700

By Shane Starling

10-Oct-2008 - Wild blueberries have greater antioxidant content than common fruits such as apples, bananas, red grapes and strawberries according to Cornell University researchers. Pomegranates, blackberries, raspberries and cranberries also performed well in the tests that measured cellular antioxidant activity (CAA) in 25 fruits. But superfruits such as noni, acai and goji did not come under the scientists� antioxidant microscope.

In addition to CAA, the researchers also measured total phenolic content, and oxygen radical absorbance capacity (ORAC) values. These are more typical �in-the-fruit� readings but the researchers wanted to test the levels of antioxidants in fruits in a more biologically representative manner, hence their application of the CAA method which measures antioxidant activity �in-the-cell�.

The research, published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, found wild blueberries notched the highest antioxidant levels under these measures also.

Melons and bananas had the lowest antioxidant activity and cultivated blueberries demonstrated less antioxidant activity than their wild cousins.

Because of the volume at which they are consumed, apples contributed most fruit phenolics to the American diet, with apples and strawberries the biggest suppliers of antioxidant activity.

Free radicals react with and attack lipids, proteins, carbohydrates, and DNA and have been linked to a number of oxidative stress conditions including some cancers.

Cellular antioxidant activity

CAA, first developed at Cornell last year, seeks to �move beyond the test tube� to determine how antioxidant compounds perform in cells � in this case human liver cells.

�The CAA assay is a more biologically relevant method than the chemistry antioxidant activity assays as it accounts for uptake, metabolism, distribution and activity of antioxidant compounds within cells versus solely looking at antioxidant value,� said lead scientist Rui Hai Liu, PhD.

Both foods and food supplements were tested.

Antioxidant activity of selected compounds is typically measured using a range of lab-based assays, including the ferric reducing ability of plasma (FRAP) assay, the oxygen radical absorbance capacity (ORAC) and Trolox equivalent antioxidant capacity (TEAC).

CAA centres on dichlorofluorescin, a probe molecule trapped within cells that can be easily oxidised to produce fluorescence. The test uses 2,2'-azobis(2-amidinopropane) dihydrochloride (ABAP)-generated peroxyl radicals to oxidise dichlorofluorescin, and the ability of antioxidant compounds to inhibit this process.

Fruits like berries are naturally high in antioxidants because of their anthocyanin content, which not only give many fruits their colour, but are high in antioxidants.

�While further testing is needed to confirm how dietary antioxidants are absorbed by and go to work in the human body to prevent cancer and other chronic diseases, we�re encouraged by the response in this initial screening measure,� Dr Liu concluded.

Source: Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry

Volume 56, Number 18, Pages 8418�8426

Drug-resistant TB on the rise

Thu, 28 Feb 2008 00:51:38 -0700

It accounts for at least 5% of all new cases and far more in some places, WHO says

Thomas H. Maugh II, Los Angeles Times

A dangerous form of drug-resistant tuberculosis has reached its highest levels ever, accounting for at least 5 percent of all new TB cases worldwide, and 15 to 22 percent of new cases in parts of the former Soviet Union and China, the World Health Organization said Tuesday.

The WHO report, the first new survey of TB incidence in four years, estimates there are nearly 500,000 new cases of multidrug-resistant TB, commonly known as MDR-TB - about 5 percent of the 9 million total cases of TB each year. The highest rate was recorded in Baku, Azerbaijan, where 22.3 percent of all new cases were MDR. Rates of 14.8 percent or higher were also found in Moldova, the Donetsk province of Ukraine, the Tomsk province of the Russian Federation and in Tashkent in Uzbekistan.

MDR-TB also was found in a high proportion of cases in China's inner Mongolia and Heilongjiang regions.

In contrast, the highest rate reported in the 2004 survey was 14.2 percent in Kazakhstan.

Experts attributed the high incidence in those regions to poverty, congestion, alcoholism and stress form the dismantling of the Soviet Union.

Surprisingly low rates of drug-resistant strains were found throughout most of southern Africa, which has the highest rates of TB in the world - although many countries were unable to report data because of the lack of sophisticated laboratories to test for the variants.

Dr. Mario Raviglione, director of the WHO's Stop TB department, attributed the low incidence to the overall lack of treatment in the region. If the majority of people are not getting antibiotics, he said, the TB bacteria will not develop resistance to them.

"But with the more widespread use of rifampicin and other drugs (in recent years), the situation is going to go more quickly out of control because of the presence of HIV," which leaves victims much more susceptible to TB, he said.

Tuberculosis is an infection of the lungs characterized by fever, weight loss, night sweats and coughing up blood.

The disease is spread primarily through microscopic droplets released when an infected person coughs, sneezes or speaks.

The MDR variety of the disease is resistant to two first-line antibiotics, isoniazid and rifampicin. Treatment can take as long as two years, compared to six months for conventional TB. The drugs used are more toxic and 100 times more expensive.

An even more serious form, known as extensively drug-resistant TB, commonly called XDR-TB, is resistant to both of those antibiotics and to fluoroquinolones and any of the injectable antibiotics, such as kanamycin or capreomycin. Treatment may require surgical removal of part of the lungs, and some strains are virtually untreatable.

The WHO survey found that XDR-TB has now been detected in 45 countries.

Drug-resistant strains of TB develop when patients do not complete their course of treatment, allowing mutated versions of the bacterium to emerge. These new strains can then be passed from person to person, just like the older ones.

There were 111 cases of MDR-TB and three cases of XDR-TB in the United States in 2006, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Only a few years ago, scientists dismissed drug-resistant TB as a major threat. Most thought it could occur only in HIV-positive patients whose immune systems were suppressed, and they also believed that the development of resistance lowered the pathogenicity of the bacterium and impaired its ability to spread.

Now, Raviglione said, both of those ideas have been shown to be wrong.

The major problem in improving control is money. The WHO estimates that $4.8 billion a year is needed for overall control of TB in low- and middle-income countries, with about $1 billion of that directed toward drug-resistant strains.

But only half that amount is available, according to the report.

"The threat created by TB drug resistance demands that we fill these gaps," said Dr. Marcos Espinal, executive secretary of the Stop TB Partnership, a network of more than 500 international organizations dedicated to eliminating TB.

Article at: sfgate.com

Edwards Bows Out, Passes Charge of Ending Poverty to His Rivals

Wed, 30 Jan 2008 22:04:56 -0700

Sounding a call to restore the �great promise of this country,� John Edwards bowed out of the presidential race Wednesday afternoon in New Orleans, ending a spirited underdog bid that was watered down by his distant third finish in the South Carolina primary on Saturday.

In his closing remarks, Edwards underscored his central campaign themes of lifting up the working class, expanding health care, ending the Iraq war and striving �to make the two Americas one.�

�It�s time for me to step aside so that history can blaze its path,� Edwards said. �We do not know who will take the final steps to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, but what we do know is that our Democratic Party will make history.�

Article at: youdecide08.foxnews.com