SPYGLASS
Your Daily Spyglass for March 8
ESL bank robber surrenders to police
Vincent Vaccarelli, 23, surrendered to Monroe County Sheriff’s deputies on Sunday. On Saturday he allegedly passed a robbery note to a bank teller at the ESL Federal Credit Union in Sweden NY and fled on foot with stolen money. He is now being held in the Monroe County Jail on charges of robbery.
Burling calls for equity in education cuts
State Assemblyman Dan Burling is calling for a more equitable distribution of the pain of the Governor’s proposed education budget cuts. The current plan from Albany calls for a reduction of 7.3% which averages out to just over $1000 less per student. Burling contends that the cuts are not spread evenly across the state. At an agricultural dinner in North Java on Saturday he pointed out that the plan will cut aid to Wyoming County students by over $1900. Then he cast the disparity as a conflict between upstate and downstate interests: “I’m mad, I’m angry. New York City thinks their kids are better than ours. Our kids are just as important.”
Schumer’s TSA worries
Last weeks bust of a Transportation Security Administration agent has Sen. Chuck Schumer very worried. The agent, who was aiding a suspected drug dealer in clearing security at the Buffalo International Airport, had no prior criminal record.
The Senator is asking hard questions about hiring practices at the TSA and laid some of the questions out in a letter to upper level management. “How did it happen? How often is it happening in other places? What is the screening for TSA agents? These are questions that leap out,” Schumer said. The TSA responded by saying that prospective agents are subjected to extensive background checks.
Corwin is Conservative pick
Jane Corwin received an informal endorsement from the chairman of the Conservative Party on Monday. Although the formal endorsement will not come until next week when the executive committee will make an announcement, the nod from the chairman gives Corwin extra steam in a possible fight against independents David Bellavia and Jack Davis.
New Hampshire state House Speaker thinks that college kids shouldn’t vote locally
New Hampshire Speaker William O’Brien is leading the way in pushing for new legislation that would effectively prevent college students from voting in their college towns, unless they or their parents were legal residents there. State House Republicans hold that college students are emotional and unreliable voters who drown out the voices of permanent residents. Rep. Gregory Sorg, the sponsor of a measure which would outlaw election day voter registration, characterized college students as “a huge, largely monolithic demographic group . . . composed of people with a dearth of experience and a plethora of the easy self-confidence that only ignorance and inexperience can produce.”
Student action groups are strenuously objecting to the legislation.
Partly sunny with a high of 40. Tonight will see cloudy skies with a low of 19.
