Manufacturing returns to Seneca Falls

Don't write off our economy just yet.  Whether or not fracking ever happens, it appears manufacturing is making a comeback in the Finger Lakes region.  Finger Lakes Daily News reports:

The Cayuga Indian Nation of New York plans to begin manufacturing it's own brand of cigarettes later this year at the former Klionsky Scrap Metal property at 61 Ovid Street in Seneca Falls.

No need to wait for Andy Cuomo's expensive regional economic development councils.  Not subject to onerous New York regulations, not subsidized, not taxed, and producing a potentially deadly product, but a factory nonetheless.

Especial Hotel California

Carretera Sin Fin (Road Without End) is a Spanish language blog from Madrid that appreciates classic American music.  Our amigos Jimmy and BolaOcho put together some insightful themed mixes.  

If you ever wished you lived in Laurel Canyon in the 70s, check out Especial Hotel California.  The mix is downloadable, but the process is not for the technically timid.  Ask your kid to assist.

Prominent figure predicted fracking benefits for Southern Tier

Wilkin's Store, Sullivanville, NY

 
Readers are invited to identify the high profile observer who made this statement:

"The economic potential from the Marcellus Shale could provide a badly needed boost to the economy of the Southern Tier, and even many environmentalists agree we want to produce more domestic natural gas that reduces the need for environmentally damaging fuel sources such as coal..."

No, it was not CNY's Unlikely Hospitalist.  Neither was it Syracuse's Lonely Conservative, or even our own analysts here at South of 5 and 20.  Investors' Business Daily reminds us that the speaker was then-candidate for governor Andy Cuomo, in a campaign statement released last year.

Photo credit:  Decrepitude of the Southern Tier

Cuomo attacks NYT over fracking report

In a shocking turn of events, New York governor and rumored second-term Obama vice president Andy Cuomo has come down hard on the New York Times over its biased coverage of hydrofracking.

The Cuomo administration is charging The New York Times with using its news pages to crusade against natural-gas drilling in the impoverished Southern Tier section upstate.

"To get the story so blatantly wrong by posting a misleading headline on the Times' home page is a disservice to your readers," Department of Environmental Conservation Commissioner Joseph Martens wrote to the paper Friday in reference to a Times "exclusive" that Cuomo had supposedly given a go-ahead to use the controversial hydrofracturing technique for gas drilling.

"The Times has a responsibility to present accurate and balanced coverage of such a controversial matter, and it failed miserably in this case," Martens, a Cuomo appointee, continued.

In Fred Dicker's New York Post piece, linked above, we note the sympathetic reference to "the impoverished Southern Tier section upstate."  Fred left out "but nonetheless oppressively taxed."

Have a great Fourth!

Last Army draftee to retire

When the draft notice arrived in the mail in 1972 at his home in Eugene, Ore., tens of thousands of troops had been killed. Anti-war protests were rampant. Draft notices were being set on fire and returning soldiers were treated as part of the problem. The military wasn't a popular job.

The return address on the letter was the White House. Just 19, he was impressed that President Richard Nixon would write to him.

"I opened it up and it said, 'Greetings from the president of the United States.' I said, 'Wow, how's he know me?'" Mellinger said, laughing. "It was a form letter that said my friends and neighbors had selected me to represent them in the Armed Forces and I was hereby ordered to report for induction."

Command Sgt. Maj. Jeffrey Mellinger will retire from the Army this summer.

Mellinger was drafted to fight the Vietnam War, and the Army believes he's the last draftee to retire, after 39 years. Most did their two years and left. But Mellinger had found home.

New York getting ready to frack?

Cuomo to take the plunge?

New York DEC Commisioner Joseph Martens, a standard issue liberal environmentalist, had this to say about hydrofracking today:

“I believe it can be done safely,” said Martens, a former open-space advocate who was appointed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo earlier this year. “With all of the precautions that we have built in to the process, I believe it can be done safely.”

Sounds like all the deals have been made.  As we've been predicting, money talks.  The professional opposition will have a fit, of course, but that's their job.  Now, where did we put that lease agreement.......?