Loss for New York State as Democrats Choose Philadelphia as National Convention Center

Just days after the Republican Party announced Cleveland, Ohio, as their venue for the 2016 national convention, Democrats have announced that Philadelphia will be the site for its national convention. Selection judgments were made based on which state could raise larger amount of money, and their capability of housing and transporting the Democrat Party officials. Democrats chose financial and political competencies as the major factors in picking between New York, Philadelphia, and Cleveland. One major reason New York misses out, comes from the protest in January when police officers Rafael Ramos, and Wenjian Liu were killed, in an act of retaliation for the killing of two unarmed men. New York Police Union turned their back on Mayor Bill de Blasio, during a speech addressing the resent rift between the police and the public. 

[http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/06/opinion/at-a-police-funeral-backs-turned-on-the-mayor.html]

 

This issue still presents a risk in New York from Democrat Party observations, as NYPD, Mayor Bill de Blasio, and the public still attempt to amend the broken relationship. Transportation from the hotel rooms in Manhattan to the convention center in Brooklyn, and back again to the hotel rooms will be time consuming. Democratic Party delegates argue that transportation system, housing, and funds raised for the convention put together decided the selection process for the convention. In addition to the other three criteria’s as mention above, New York maintains a good amount of Democrats ratio when compared to Republicans. However, Democrats pictured Pennsylvania as the perfect spot for the convention since the swing from Republican to Democrat in the last midterm elections. In addition to the swing in Party leadership within the state of Pennsylvania, the state embodies reforms that the founding fathers enforce, which was another essential factor that New York missed out on.

Information retrieved from:  http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/13/us/politics/democrats-choose-philadelphia-for-2016-national-convention.html?ref=politics

Heroin Overdose Antidote

Recently, the heroin epidemic has hit a new high. 3.8 million Americans have tried heroin in their lifetime and nearly 338,000 people have used it in the past month.  Heroin overdoses have increased by more the fifty percent since 2010 and individual states and small suburbs have reported a substantial increase in heroin over doses. New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, stated that since the introduction of Naloxone, a drug to reverse a drug opioid, has saved many lives. Since the introduction of Naloxone to local, city, and state agencies, the drug has been administered more than 100 times resulting in many saved lives. The State Attorney General suggests that money seized from drug dealers be used as a resource to save lives. The money can be used as a beneficial resource to law enforcement organizations as well as emergency medical services (EMS). The Community Overdose Prevention program has provided grants to law enforcement agencies since April of 2014. Since the introduction of the heroin overdose antidote, many large law enforcement agencies like the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the New York City Police Department have announced they would equip their officers and properly train then in the use of Naloxone.

The age of heroin users has dropped from an average of 25.3 years of age to 20.1 years of age, which puts colleges in a position that they are not accustomed to. In August, the State University of New York at Purchase President announced that twelve SUNY College campuses would receive the Naloxone kits through the Community Overdose Prevention program. With the money from drug seizures being used for the purchase of the Naloxone kits, it appears that New York State has figured out a way to protect and help many different communities without making it a major cost. 110 lives have been saved from the use of the heroin overdose antidote, indicating the future potential for the antidote among the public service works.

Information retrieved from:   http://polhudson.lohudblogs.com/2015/02/11/schneiderman-heroin-overdose-antidote-used-100-times/

Picture retrieved from:  http://harmreduction.org/issues/overdose-prevention/tools-best-practices/od-kit-materials/

New York State Unemployment Strikeforce

New York State’s unemployment rate is 5.8% in comparison to the national average of 5.6%.  Governor Andrew Cuomo has proposed aid to decrease the slightly higher unemployment rate.  Although the private sector makes up majority of employment in New York State, it is imperative that the New York State Government supports local businesses.  The Governor released a statement to allow $5.4 million dollars to help businesses grow by training and hiring unemployed, unskilled workers. This money will be used to expand local workforces, On-the-Job, and apprenticeship training.   The Unemployment Strikeforce will be the overseer in funding up to $100,000 per businesses to support the aforementioned training programs. The program was created with two goals in mind. The first goal is to find a way to reduce the unemployment rates within counties with the highest twelve-month average unemployment. The second goal is to make sure that investing money would develop the workforce effectively. A real job must be waiting at the end of training for the employee or the state would make the initial investment.

Governor Cuomo implemented the program in the Bronx in May of 2014 and has made significant impacts in the community.  Since the initiation of the program, 7,000 people from the Bronx have been placed in jobs. The Bronx was originally selected because the unemployment rate was 6.5%, over half a percent higher than New York State’s average.  The Governor states that this is a program that can be implemented in many other counties within New York State with relatively high unemployment rates.  In Cuomo’s State of the State Address, he mentioned that the Unemployment Strikeforce would be expanded to Jefferson, Lewis, Kings, St. Lawrence, Oswego, Orleans, Montgomery, Franklin and Steuben counties throughout 2015. While the initial investment may be a lot of money, the long-term outcome has unlimited potential.

Information retrieved from:  http://www.nysenate.gov/press-release/54-million-available-help-businesses-train-hire-formerly-unemployed-individuals

Information on applying for funding:  http://labor.ny.gov/strikeforce/strikeforce.shtm

Picture retrieved from: http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2015/01/who_has_the_worst_unemployment_in_new_york_state.html

NY has an Extra $5 Billion to Spend

New York State has come across almost five billion dollars, which now raises the question of where to spend our extra cash? Now, where did this mystery billion come from? Over the past year, New York has obtained high fines paid by many large corporations, banks, financial institutions and insurance groups; all fined for various transgressions such as avoiding taxes, illegal business with other countries and much more. This scary amount of extra money has scared New Yorkers because many people know how corrupt our government can be, when it comes to spending money. Unfortunately, people believe that politicians will spend this extra cash on personal projects that they have been working on, but have not had the money to do so. Luckily, Governor Cuomo has a good incentive on what to do this all this extra cash flow. He believes that the money should be spent on ways that will help create jobs for people in New York. Investing in infrastructure throughout the state has been his major push for this extra $5 billion to be spent. Investing in infrastructure throughout New York will help create jobs; lower repair cost for motorists and will also help in the long run. Having good infrastructure throughout New York brings in large corporations and helps with economic development statewide. Similar to the buffalo billion, the Rochester area could use some extra spending money as well. With poor road and building conditions the city has lost its prestigious look over the past 10 years. With their major corporation “Kodak” leaving the city, it has gone down hill.

                                            

http://www.democratandchronicle.com/story/local/communities/blogs/rochester/2014/11/17/nys-piggy-bank-has-5-billion-extra/19159289/ever since.

There are many other places this $5 Billion could be spent other than Rochester. Schools may come first to many people; yes they do need help, but who doesn’t. Over the next 20 years New York plans to upgrade their water usage facilities which has a price tag of over $30 Billion, setting some money aside for this project could help in the wrong run. Spending this type of money is hard enough to keep all of New York happy. There are many places that could use extra help but saving the money could benefit the whole state on a later day. Lets hope Gov. Cuomo can rally his troops and make some smart decisions on where to spend our extra $5 Billion.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/15/opinion/how-to-spend-new-yorks-spare-dollar5-billion.html?ref=topics

New York City prison lauches overdose prevention program

Last week New York City's Queensboro correctional Facility began a program to give soon to be released prisoners training in overdose recognition and response. This includes access to a potentially life saving drug, naloxone which cam counteract opiates in the body. Recently released prisoners are exceptionally vulnerable to opiate overdoses as after long periods of abstinence doses that were previously just pleasurable become potentially fatal. On February 5th the first training session was held, with inmates sharing stories about the risks of overdose including those of the friends and family they have lost.

This new program backed by the Harm Reduction Coalition and organization that promotes what it say are "common sense" means to reduce the harm from drug use. Similar initiatives have exited in San Francisco and Rhode Island as part of their DOPE (Drug Overdose Prevention and Education Project). Currently they are partnered with New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene The program while a "pilot" it is less to determine if such a program should be done but rather to find out how such a program can be most effective.

 A press release by Dr. Carl Koenigsmann, Deputy Commissioner and Chief Medical Officer at the Division of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS) states that "{the}DOCCS is committed to maintaining the health and safety of those in our custody and helping those leaving our custody help themselves and others. This project, in conjunction with New York State Department of Health and the Harm Reduction Coalition, will enable us to reach people who desperately need help."

Possible Historical Sites in Potsdam

Commuting to go to school in Potsdam, I drive pass the Public Museum and Civic Center a lot. I never have been inside the buildings, but from the outside, they are very pretty to look at.

There was article on North County Now website titled “Potsdam interested in designating Civic Center, Museum as historic sites”. The article is about looks at benefits would come from if the civic center and museum were to become historical site. The biggest benefit would be the maintenance of the building. But at first glance of the article, I thought that Potsdam is going to apply to have the building named historical sites. The people that were interviewed never came out and said that Potsdam is going to apply. i found this interesting because the other day in class we were discussing when local government gets funds or funding from the federal  and or state level governments and some of the strings that would be attached to the funding. So I started wondering what is would do to Potsdam's budget.

The articled talked a little bit about the process for becoming a historical site and I never gave it much thought about what the process would be. The process falls under the U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Services. So I next looked at criteria just to see how Potsdam would do. But after looking at the criteria, I realized that I would need to know more about the building to say if they if they had a good chance at becoming historical sites. For example one of the criteria points is “That embody the distinctive characteristics of a type, period, or method of construction, or that represent the work of a master, or that possess high artistic values, or that represent a significant and distinguishable entity whose components may lack individual distinction” (National Register Criteria for Evaluation).

It will be interesting to see if Potsdam officials actually apply for the civic center and museum to become historical sites.

Link to article: http://www.twcnews.com/nys/watertown/news/2015/02/5/potsdam-village-officials-may-apply-for-national-register-of-historic-places.html ).

National Register Criteria for Evaluation. U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service. http://www.nps.gov/nr/publications/bulletins/nrb15/nrb15_2.htm