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News/Features Comments

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What!!!!!
06/29/2011 10:58:46 pm
These times have relented to way too many concessions that aren't morally or politically correct. No one is saying that homosexuals don't have a right to live or cohabitate, but allowing them to marry is and will always be morally incorrect.

Krusty Krab
06/29/2011 10:43:39 pm
Too much money.........I am totally on board with you and so are a lot of folks........not everyone makes salaries of over 50K, but yet they have to pay excessive real estate taxes and school taxes and if they're kids do go to private schools such as my nephew did the full 12 years...no break in school taxes.....Someone needs to hit a big reset button and do more than put a bandaid 2% cap on property tax, they need...

guest
06/29/2011 10:12:26 pm
Teachers do make way to much money, so do the bus drivers, the janitors, etc. Let them work for the wages the taxpayers get and see how that works for them. $ 7.50 per hour is a joke. The schools pee away countless millions of dollars on "extra curricular sports" expecting the taxpayers to pay for it. Let the parents of the students involved in the sports pay. Can't pay, don't play.

And how about the people...

guest
06/29/2011 10:12:06 pm
Teachers do make way to much money, so do the bus drivers, the janitors, etc. Let them work for the wages the taxpayers get and see how that works for them. $ 7.50 per hour is a joke. The schools pee away countless millions of dollars on "extra curricular sports" expecting the taxpayers to pay for it. Let the parents of the students involved in the sports pay. Can't pay, don't play.

And how about the people...

stillin@hotmail.com
06/29/2011 8:18:29 pm
50K is before anything is taken out, including taxes, vision/dental, union dues etc...I get the feeling you just hate teachers so much, yet you have never spent a day, I will bet IN the school system. Perhaps a subbing experience would assist you on what gets done in one day. That "ridiculous" salary CAN be yours too! All you need to do is go back to school for six years, student teach, and then find a job! Come on,...

Dushawn W.
06/29/2011 6:32:10 pm
Many Thanks....http://www.flickr.com/photos/williamsdigphoto/
Here is my site so you can see more of my work. Enjoy!

Dushawn W.
06/29/2011 6:27:48 pm
Pink a boo

John
06/29/2011 5:01:10 pm
This shouldn't be so hard. We all agree there is a lot of natural gas in the Marcellus Shale, and if we could tap it, it will help our transition to solar / wind / nuclear batteries and away from coal and oil.

Get a conference, in strict confidence, with a few drilling companies who have good records, and have them disclose their fracking fluid, and offer intellectual property protection. Then determine...

observer
06/29/2011 4:27:48 pm
The figure quoted in the article probably refers to what the cost to the district is - salary + benefits.

observer
06/29/2011 4:24:48 pm
50k is still way too much to pay for a teacherfor nine months of work and countless breaks. How much do you pay for health insurance? Not much I bet. Remember it is you that decided to become a teacher. You knew the price. An extra two years of education pays for itself on that ridiculous salary.

MrWakiki
06/29/2011 4:12:35 pm
Thought Dr. Cook's camera ran out of film.. great beach picture

Cindy
06/29/2011 3:49:25 pm
mm1palmer

Yes I do use a car, and unless I hit another one,in an accident I hurt only myself, not a whole nieghborhood, If I have trouble with my electricity I am far enough from a another building unless we have a heck of a wind again I hurt only myself...I have even ridden on a few planes, but the same thing, they crash they don't ruin the land for longer then you or I will live, or even the great childern...

Krusty Krab
06/29/2011 3:40:39 pm
Where did I get 75K salary from.......try reading this article that states it covers about 2 teaching positions for 150K.......not hard to divide by 2. As for collecting unemployment, its insurance that each employer pays should someone get laid off such as myself. Given this economy and never having been laid off for over 20+ years of working, I think that my employers have paid into that insurance to justify why...

Krusty Krab
06/29/2011 2:57:22 pm
machineguns
" ...75K" Starting salaries for teachers in SL County are around $34 K . Of course they start out $50K and up in debt after five years of College. Now, if you last 35 or more years, yes, in some schools you can make $75K. Be a little more honest in your comments. At least try.
But tell us, why should you get unemployment money since you are not working at all. That is not right. ...

stillin@hotmail.com
06/29/2011 2:51:12 pm
I have taught for 16 years and I still am under 50,000 a year so I don't know where you got our 75K number from. As far as the old belly aching of " teacher only work 9 months a year, have holidays and spring break and yadayadayada...listen up. Take this direction. Go to your local university, take out about 20,000 in loans for each year you will need to become a teacher, in NYS it's 6 due to your masters, required....

SUZANNE ST LOUIS
06/29/2011 2:41:00 pm
I think this is good that the preist came get married cathlic preist were the only one that could not get married

Jim McCulley
06/29/2011 2:38:41 pm
Education is a business right now it is business based on the communist model of no competition. While you may be right New York education is envied by other states, we pay for that envy and since the other states are in the same system, it means little. Compare NY against the world and you find a very different story and guess what every country that is leading the US in education has school choice.

Dan Hausner
06/29/2011 1:25:21 pm
Chris Strebendt of Potsdam pratices fire jugling in Ives Park in Potsdam. Chris says he's been stick jugling for quite a while, but this was only his second week with fire.

Photo by Dan Hausner of Lake Clear

machineguns
06/29/2011 12:59:01 pm
You can't live on a teachers salary of 75K?

I am unemployed and they say I can live on 165 dollars a week after my child support.........you do the math. Why can't salaries for everyone state related be brought to a reasonable level.

75K for a teacher that works about 9 months a year and every holiday, spring break, christmas break too.

This state of NY is worried about education...

Don
06/29/2011 12:28:17 pm
I have spent most of my childhood enjoying this national treasure, when a child we played a game of who could dive down and bring up the largest rock, now thanks to zebra muscles you need water shoes not to be cut to pieces, and yet economic interest still claim that international sea captains, working for foreign economic interests, have the integrity to protect our waters from ballast water with only an ocean...

In Box Comments

(Click link above comment to read the original In Box post; make new comments at the original post location)
06/29/2011 9:37:02 pm
The U.S. energy information agency estimates that 511 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity were used for lighting by the residential and commercial sectors in this country. Let's try to use some of that vaunted common sense that conservatives are always talking about. If you replace several million 60 or 100 watt (or higher) light bulbs with light bulbs that give the same amount of light and use 7-15 watts...

06/29/2011 9:15:52 pm
I see my comment is awaiting moderation so I'll answer Joh Warren's question about taxpayers deserving respect. The taxpayers in North Creek and the taxpayers in Wilmington each deserve the same amount of respect. But what about the taxpayers in every other city and town in New York state? How many millions of dollars have the taxpayers spent on ORDA? And some of those taxpayers actually run or have run competing...

06/29/2011 8:22:19 pm
PNElba, I'm glad you recognize the power play. The Climate Change Industry is no more immune from corruption and greed than the miserable lying deniers. I believe taking a skeptical view of the more incredible suggestions and findings is a wise move. I agree that raising the CAFE standards would be a good start, but there are costs and regulations that go with that that make it a hard sell to the consumer and a...

06/29/2011 8:10:44 pm
Paul, Did you know that Scientific American is right now running a three-part series on the exact question you pose (I think): Can contemporary extreme weather events be tied to human-caused global warming? Check it out: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=extreme-weather-caused-by-climate-change

06/29/2011 6:33:16 pm
One last thing... As soon as the two things are shown to be linked by some data I won't deny it you can count on that. Scientists are predicting that we are heading into an extremely low period in solar activity over the next few decades. If the atmosphere is protective (and It may not be as much as it used to be) we could see the next "small ice age" colder than the last one we had in the 1400's. I hope that...

06/29/2011 6:25:19 pm
knuck, I see the "painting" I just don't see the link. The link between carbon emissions and global climate changes are clear that is all we need. If unusual weather events convince some people that we need to do something about carbon emissions maybe that is good. But recognize that the two are yet to be shown to be related.

06/29/2011 6:03:14 pm
KHL, I love the Seurat painting analogy! If I could like the comment twice, I would!

06/29/2011 5:49:04 pm
Paul, the climate change thing is like looking at a Seurat painting. This wet spring is just a dot that by itself does not have meaning. You can look at very closely and say "it's just a green dot." But if you stand back and look at all the other dots that in and of themselves don't necessarily mean anything a larger picture begins to take form. Meanwhile, I ask some straightforward and pertinent questions about...

06/29/2011 5:47:51 pm
Gore can't compete with Lake George in summer? Huh? Why not say Whiteface can't compete with Lake Placid? Paul, Gore Mountain is making about the same money and has many more visitors than Whiteface due to its closeness to suburban areas - the complaint is that the money they are making is going to Wilmington. Taxpayers in North Creek deserve the same respect from ORDA as taxpayers in Wilmington - don't they?

06/29/2011 5:07:35 pm
Will, I am by no means a "denier" see my comments above I understand that climate change is real and that there is a man-made component that we need to do something about quickly. With that said I do not think that the science is telling us that there is anything that we can do to affect the weather changes that we see locally or that there is a direct link between these changes and the man made components of...

06/29/2011 4:38:10 pm
Brian is right. The climate change/global warming deniers have no desire to know what is happening. For some reason, probably because they like the attention that being obstinate brings them, they embrace denial of a truth that is all around them. They are becoming increasingly irrelevant, however, and will soon be a footnote, because global warming is affecting our daily lives in real, practical ways, as Brian...

06/29/2011 2:01:01 pm
If you look at the budget from a revenue perspective Gore is pretty much on par with Whiteface. So Gore is making almost as much money as WF and doing it with mostly winter activity. What's the problem again?

06/29/2011 1:49:38 pm
Gore can't compete with Lake George in summer. Whiteface does not have that problem. Hunter Mountain in the Catskills is very successful all summer long with ethnic related festivals but Hunter has no Lake George type competition. Belleayre is too close to Hunter to ever be viable as a summer destination. As far as summer commerce goes Lake George is to Gore as Hunter is to Belleayre.

06/29/2011 11:51:02 am
Thanks, Chris.....Almost as much as the Governor to run ORDA? Pretty good gig. I wonder if the ORDA employees are eligible to be members of the state retirement system?

06/29/2011 11:38:35 am
Bret - If you are saying that there are climate scientists massaging their data or outright lying to support "climate change", (committing fraud), you are probably mistaken. There are well-intentioned critics that believe that though. I have said this before, but again, if you check with the national academy of science, they periodically analyze all the climate change studies (pro and con) and put them in...

06/29/2011 11:10:37 am
* you can FIND salaries for most employees, sorry.

06/29/2011 11:09:57 am
In response to the above inquiry -- ORDA's chairman is appointed by the governor. In turn, the chairman appoints the president/CEO (Ted Blazer). There's some information available at http://www.orda.org/corporate/ I little research at seethroughny.org reveals Blazer's salary to be about $175,000. You can salaries for most employees there. Hope this helps.

06/29/2011 10:49:35 am
Bret - trust me - I am well aware that kids get beaten up for their religious beliefs. My father says that when he was a kid in Austria, Christmas was a time of year when you hid or else you got beaten up by the Christian kids. I firmly believe that If people of any faith are being bullied for their religious beliefs at school, the school and the community should stop it forcefully.

06/29/2011 9:46:26 am
I for one see the immense "power up for grabs here". It's the same "power" the tobacco industry wanted when it started sowing doubt about smoking causing cancer. The tobacco industry simply wants to make more money and doesn't care who it hurts in doing so. Now maybe we shouldn't care whether our neighbor gets cancer from smoking because that is their choice. But, we do end up subsidizing that cancer patients...

06/29/2011 9:32:10 am
"There is immense power up for grabs here. Does no one on the "man made change" side of this issue see this?" Of course they do. If there is a market for "clean energy" than there is a market for clean energy, so what? There is a much larger market for carbon based energy and I don't see that changing very soon. Given the demand and the rise in demand (especially in the developing world) we can use all the...