Passing Lane Week Of 4-21-08

This week's Passing Lane

It was quite a week locally with traditional news of events and atypical news of a pursuit. The week began in similar fashion as any other typical week in Northern New York and ended with a political BANG!

LOCAL
It was a week that continued to highlight the DEC's decision to close roads, trails or whatever they are to the ATV riders. Although, this week added a twist, while Senator Aubertine has been silent on this issue, the public got a first glance at a possible reason why; one of his hires was the DEC Regional Director's husband.

The week quickly changed to one which unexpectedly focused on this blog and the identity of the author. The Watertown Daily Times put the blog in the spotlight for the week placing it on the top fold of their local section, picture and all, and of course, the blog is grateful for the attention. Three postings on the blog made it to Newzjunky.com, that always results in a huge boost of readership.

STATE
The state continued their play at the Monopoly game table, with the swiping of funds from special user accounts to fund their spending habits, this included a raid on the local snowmobile club's money.

The Governor continues to make impressive moves such as requiring all state agencies to reduce their spending by 3.35%. Although the state is not too serious yet, the pork spending by the Governor and Legislature remains in tact at $200 million in pure pork and $700 million in capital pork. The Governor wants the legislative leaders to reconvene with him and find ways to cut the budget, it has finally hit home that they spent too much in this budget.

Senate Republican's want a "gas tax holiday" from Memorial Day to Labor Day, but it will end up costing taxpayer's something, that is the only way the horse trading with the Assembly Speaker Silver (no longer the Assembly Democrats, the house is only run by a single member, Silver) will allow the gas tax relief to pass.

National
Clinton swept Obama off his feet in the Pennsylvania primary by a 10 point margin. The bruising primary continues onto North Carolina and the "tie breaking" state of Indiana.

THE BIG NEWS
This blog broke news from an Albany source late Friday that Former Senator James Wright was reconsidering his departure from the Senate and in discussion with people locally and at the state level about a possible run this fall.