TGIF 4/15/22

I'm doing only good-week reports today. There'll be plenty of time for the bad-week folks another day. 

Let's start with talking mushrooms. Yep - that's what at least some scientists are saying. It seems that electrical signals sent fungi to fungi via underground filaments are similar to language. Here's a bit from the article.

The split gill fungus formed the most complex “sentence structures,” and Professor Adamatzky suggested that the most likely purpose for this electrical dialogue is to keep integrity between the parts of the mycelium. Mycelia makes up more than 90% of the total biomass of fungi, and the filaments can stretch for hundreds of feet, connecting trees, other plants, and other fungi, so keeping the mycelia integrated, Adamatzky said, could be similar to the way wolves howl to keep all members of the pack integrated.

Other scientists are not so sure; it could be a case of 'seek, and ye shall find' exactly what you're seeking. 

Here's something that's never happened before: On Tuesday, Alyssa Nakken became the first female 0n-field coach in the history of major league baseball. She got her chance when the 1st base coach for the San Francisco Giants, Antoan Richardson, was ejected in the third. Here's how she looked at the historic moment.

Everybody can just see that there are a lot of opportunities in baseball. Sometimes I think we always limit ourselves to thinking what we could do. At least that’s my experience. I never thought that I could do something like this because I never saw it. So, I think, sure, it’s certainly important for people to be able to see that this is an opportunity and they can see somebody that kind of looks like them going out there and coaching in the big leagues.

Seek, and ye shall find opportunities you never thought existed.

Sticking with baseball for just a moment longer, today is Jackie Robinson Day in the majors, where every player on every team wears Robinson's number 42 in honor of his breaking the league's color barrier 75 years ago today.

This year’s celebration marks not just the 75th anniversary of Jackie’s debut but also the 25th anniversary of then-Commissioner Bud Selig’s announcement that Robinson’s No. 42 would be retired across MLB. Ten years after that landmark 1997 decision, Griffey requested and received permission to wear No. 42 on Jackie Robinson Day, and a few other players took part. And in 2009, the practice of every player, coach and manager wearing No. 42 on April 15 became a new tradition.

Seek, and ye shall find a way to change the game.

Moving on, we've got a nine-year-old fashion designer. Kaia Aragon, a third-grader, designs and sews her own clothes, after being taught to sew by her mom when she was five. You can see her designs via a link in the article; she shares them on her mom's TikTok page. 

Now, as a person who had to finish her junior high sewing project during the summer break, in order to avoid taking an incomplete, I can't even comprehend how Kaia does what she does. My project? A denim skirt, in case you were wondering. Which I'm pretty sure I never wore, but at least I finished the darn thing. In August. Ugh.

And speaking of better late than never, 101-year-old Merrill Pittman Cooper of West Virginia was given an honorary diploma recently.

As a high school student, Cooper attended Storer Normal School, taking several college prep courses. While he planned on attending college, life got in the way and he moved to Philadelphia and never graduated. Four years ago, he visited the campus and spoke of regretting not getting a degree. Family members worked with officials to make magic, and Cooper received his degree in March. 

Good for him, and for all involved in making this happen. 

Sticking with making good things happen, there's a new social media platform - and no, I'm not talking about Truth Social, I'm taking about Supernova. 

It is billed as an ethical alternative to Facebook and Instagram, which have been jointly dogged by accusations of ramping up misinformation and damaging mental health. O’Meara wants to test his belief that a growing slice of the population is craving a life- affirming, glass-half-full outlook instead.

What's different about this site? The company puts 60% of its ad revenue in an 'action fund,' and users get to determine how the money is divvied up among several different "causal areas." The target audience for Supernova? Millennials and Gen Z.

And in the end, the likes you give and get mean money for causes you like. Many things could be worse than that.

Speaking of giving and getting likes, I hope you like this one - a doggy tale, with a very happy ending. Duke, a homeless dog, made friends with US Army troops stations in Kosovo. The dog and the troops bonded, with the dog making them feel less homesick, and them making the dog feel loved. 

A sergeant at the base wanted to get Duke off the streets, and worked with Paws of War, charity that helps soldiers bring dogs home. And then, Duke stopped coming by. The soldiers eventually found him, and it was heartbreaking - he had been shot. After emergency surgery and six months of recovery, he's expected to get here this month.

This was a familiar story to me; a coworker went to Florida to pick up a dog that was shipped here from Afghanistan at the request of her future son-in-law, and a friend of mine adopted the mama dog, who also came over. The bonds these kids we send overseas make with these dogs is really something, and so is the love that brings them back together here. 

I'm not a religious person, but today is Good Friday, after all, and so I'll close with the story of the youngest Catholic bishop in the US: Bishop Joseph Espaillat, the 45-year-old 'rapping bishop' from New York City. And why does he rap? 

There was a talent show at this parish, Our Lady Queen of Martyrs, and a couple of the young boys wanted to rap, but you know these secular songs and they had a lot of bad words in them," he told Al. "And I said, 'I bet you money, I could come up with a rap song' ... and they were like, 'Oh no, Father, you can’t rap,' and I was like, 'Watch.' I was like, challenge is on, so I took the challenge."

He says he just uses his talents to speak to his community, the same way Jesus did. Which is probably good advice for many 'religious' people these days, and on  this day.

TGIF, everyone. 

Wondering on Wednesday (v157)

I'm thinking maybe we'll do something different tonight, and not talk about anything having anything to do with anyone who's anyone, and instead wonder about completely different things, how does that sound?

I wonder how many people believe in the spirit of all of the holidays people celebrate at this time of year?  I'm not talking about religious beliefs, I'm talking about people who believe in the true spirit of opening hearts and homes (and yes, wallets too) to help others, to entertain them, to encourage and support them?

For example, there's the man in West Virginia who paid off a woman's mortgage so she and he sons wouldn't lose the only house she had ever owned. The anonymous donor is now five years into this tradition of helping someone else out of the goodness of his heart.

It looks like I came and gave a great gift to someone, but in fact the gift is to me because if you never felt the spirit of giving, there's nothing like it. It's the best feeling that you can have. This is the best Christmas present that I will receive this Christmas.

I wonder how much longer he'll be able to keep this up, and I hope that there's another Santa waiting in the wings to take his place when the time comes.

This type of charity is similar to what we've seen around the country in recent years, when people walk into a Walmart and pay off the entire layaway balances - $40,000 or even $50,000 at a time.  It's both an anonymous thing, and a famous person thing now. Tyler Perry and Kid Rock are among the celebrity types who have done this.  I don't know about you, but I think it's pretty cool when no one knows who did it, vs. it being a household name.

Need another example? There's a website run by fans of Syracuse University sports - nunesmagician.com  - which combines a love for the Orange with an irreverent streak with a charitable streak. The last time SU went bowling, the guys at Nunes Magician ran a campaign to get folks who weren't going to the game to put up money for tickets so kids in the bowl town could go tho the game.

They're at it again this year, seeking to raise $14,444 (44 being an important number in these parts) to hopefully send at least 130 underprivileged Orlando-area kids to the Camping World Bowl.  The kids get to sit in the SU section, get SU merch, food while they're at the game, and get to be part of something they'd otherwise have no way to experience. So far, more than half the needed funds have been raised via a gofundme page and a hashtag - #cusetixforkids.  I wonder if folks would be willing to share the hashtag and the fundraising page?  That would help.

Need more examples?

• There was the woman who set out food for a dog that was waiting for its owners to return home after the Camp Fire in California; she also located the homeowner's other dog almost 90 miles away.
• Or the man who gave up his first class airline seat to a mom and her sick child. 
• Or the Cabela's Santa who got down on the floor with a blind, autistic child and allowed the child to feel his clothes, his beard and his 'twinkling eyes'

This type of stuff happens all the time, in my neck of the woods and yours. Just as, we know, all that other stuff we're NOT wondering about tonight does: the palace intrigue, the inside baseball stuff, the sausage making that is politics and government in this day and age. 

Enjoy the interlude - we'll be back to the regular wondering next week, if not sooner. 

What's a Charitable Heart to Do?

I have found that, among its other benefits, 

giving liberates the soul of the giver. 

~Maya Angelou

Lots of folks give generously of their time or money throughout the year, but this is the particular 'season of giving' that inspires many folks to jump in and give, or give even more than usual, to help others.

Truth be told, it's almost impossible not to hear opportunity knocking, whether it's something you get in the mail, a personal appeal such as the Salvation Army bell ringers, or an 'add this coupon' solicitation at the grocery store checkout. And don't forget television commercials, and newspaper ads (yes, I still read the newspaper).  The hardest to avoid? The multitude of opportunities that bombard us on social media. 

You know the ones: fundraising for national events such as hurricanes and wildfires, which are sadly all too frequent lately; or medical charities like St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, dozens of cancer-related organizations, Planned Parenthood, and the like; animal rescue groups; and of course, many groups that devote their time and resources to active duty military and veterans. There is literally a charity for every cause imaginable, and for some that are unimaginable. 

And what could be wrong with these? A couple of things come to mind, first and foremost being the possibility that what we're seeing may be a scam. We've seen the headlines, right? Below are two from my neck of the woods:

• Police: Parents faked son's cancer to get donations
• Former charity CEO sentenced to prison
  

Some people will do anything to help themselves; other people will do anything to help others, including accidentally sharing fake or outdated information on social media, with the best of intentions. One share becomes five, becomes twenty, becomes fifty - and that's just the start of it. The outcome can be that people possessing a charitable heart end up doing something that won't fulfill their intentions - and that stinks.

How do you know if your desire to do good will result in good being done? Here are some quick options that might cost a bit of time, but will save in the end:

• Fact-check the information. Snopes.com and similar sites are not perfect, but if you enter a few keywords, you're apt to get a sense as to whether something is on the up and up, or if it's outdated information, which is more often the case.
• Look up the sponsoring charity on Facebook; often they'll have information about fundraising or other campaigns they are doing, as well as explanations for why they're not doing something you might see on social media. Check their other social media sites as well.
• Use one of the charity rating sites (CharityWatch, Charity Navigator, and similar) to learn more about the charity; be sure to check for any donor alerts or articles about the charity.

It's hard to escape Black Friday and Cyber Monday, with all of the fanfare, news stories, projections, and all of that. And of course, there's Small Business Saturday, too, designed to get people into the web and bricks-and-mortar doors of small companies.

Maybe a little less popular is Giving Tuesday, but it's a great opportunity to make a difference. On the website, you can search for local or national charities, pick a favorite, and make your donation. In some cases, donations might be matched, so keep your eyes peeled.

A few years back, I made the decision to support local charities instead of national organizations; keeping my charitable dollars local just makes more sense to me, especially when the national charities have so much already, have celebrity support, telethons, infomercials, etc. Meanwhile, local nonprofits sometimes struggle to keep critical programs alive - not just now, but throughout the year. 

If you want to optimize your giving to your desired charity, whether it's local or national, here are some additional things you might consider:

• If you're a PayPal user, consider the PayPal Giving Fund, which allows you to donate from your PayPal account directly to your favorite charity's PayPal account, without any fees. This is available year-round. 
• Reach out to charities in your own backyard to find out what they need, if they're running any campaigns, and so on. If you're not familiar with local organizations, try your United Way website, or go to Great Nonprofits to find some; you can filter by location, issue/cause, and rating. 
• Consider adding 3% to donations you make online to charities (some will ask you if you want to do this), which allows you to pay the fees and your charity to get the full value of your donation.
• If your charity offers a thank-you gift in return for your donation, look for the option to refuse it. This may seem like a small thing, but if everyone did that, the charity might be able to reduce its fundraising costs and use more of your money for the programs you want to support.

So, back to our central question - what's a charitable heart to do? 

Liberate your soul. Give freely to organizations and causes that matter to you, using trusted donation mechanisms. Don't be afraid to trust, but verify, even if it makes you feel 'judgy.'

While monetary donations are always welcomed, and sometimes preferred, 'giving freely' includes giving your time, offering your skills, or parting with your no-longer-needed, gently used clothing, furniture, or home goods. It's giving blood - or even your old car. Here's some info on car donations from the NY AG's office; check with similar agencies where you are.

Do as much good as you can, because all donations matter. Large or small, recurring or one-time, local or national - they all matter. 

TGIF 8/24/18

Raise your hand if you're happy you're not an employee of the Trump Organization, or a friend of the president, or a Trump lawyer, or a former lawyer or campaign official - unless of course, you are one of those, and you got your own immunity deal from the Mueller investigation team or any other prosecutors. You're having a pretty good week, either way.

Raise your hand if you live in Randolph County Georgia and you're happy that the elections board made the right decision today, to keep all of the county's polling places open for the general election this fall. Raise two hands if you're happy it took them less than 60 seconds to do the right thing. You had a pretty good week, too.

Raise your hand if you're a parent and have sent one or more kids off to college in the past few days, or even if you're sending one off in the next few days - kudos to you! I can only imagine the emotions you must be feeling, and I wish you and your kids all the best.  You've had a good week, too!

If you're the person at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation who decided that this past Wednesday the Foundation should bump up all non-matched donations made to classrooms around the country through the Donors Choose program, raise your hand. As a result of the Foundation's generosity and the encouragement it provided, over $4M was given in one day; over 20,000 teachers in 13,000 schools had projects receive funding from over 40,000 donors. Teachers, students and yes, the folks at the Foundation, had a great week!

We'll end sort of where we started, with one of Trump's former lawyers, Michael Cohen. He's in the news, of course, because of his guilty plea to eight counts, on the same day that Paul Manafort was convicted of eight counts himself. A GoFundMe page has been established to help support Cohen:

On July 2, 2018, Michael Cohen declared his independence from Donald Trump and (his) commitment to tell the truth.

On August 21, Michael Cohen made the decision to take legal responsibility and to continue his commitment to tell the truth.

Michael decided to put his family and his country first. Now Michael needs your financial help - to pay his legal fees.

The Michael Cohen Truth Fund is a transparent trust account, with all donations going to help Michael Cohen and his family as he goes forward on his journey to tell the truth about Donald Trump. 

In two days, the fund has raised nearly $156K of the $500K goal.

TGIF, everyone.

TGIF 2/2/18

Hey everyone -- desperately seeking advice today, while celebrating that it's Friday.

Like many folks who got paid today, I got my Republican tax cut 'raise' and boy, I'm struggling trying to figure out what I'm supposed to do with it.

Seriously!

Am I supposed to be a 'good' American and immediately spend it? If I'm supposed to spend it, what are the rules for that?

Can I spend it online, or do I have to spend in a bricks-and-mortar establishment? And, would it be OK to spend it in a store that the president doesn't like?  Can I actually spend it at Macy's, or Nordstrom?

Do have I to spend it on something actually made in America, or is it good enough to buy from an American company, even if the product is made someplace else?

If I decide to purchase something that is made in America, do I have to get something that was made by an American company, or is it OK to purchase something from a foreign company as long as they employ American workers?  You know, like solar panels for the roof or something.

Does it have to be made by a union member? By someone earning at least $15 an hour? How am I supposed to know if either of those are true?

And what if I wanted to get a car? Some of those are made with parts from other countries, but they're assembled here in America - would that count as a Made in America purchase?

Can I purchase fruit or veggies for the Super Bowl party?

I'd be OK with that, as long as I can tell whether my purchase was picked by an American, or by a legal immigrant, because I certainly don't want to get anything that was handled by an illegal one that's stealing a job from an American.

I'd want to get something from a small family farm, if I could, not a factory farm. But then, sometimes the small family farms are in co-ops and so their stuff may look like it came from a factory farm. How am I supposed to tell?

Is the Wegmans Organic Farm a family farm? And if I start buying only organics, isn't that going to put Americans who make pesticides out of work, and drive down our economy?

Gosh, it all seems so very confusing trying to spend the money the right way -- maybe I should save the money for a rainy day, or for my retirement?

I can put it in the bank, I guess - but can I use the ATM, or do I have to actually deal with a teller? I wouldn't want to put a person out of work, but the ATM is so easy. Does anyone know if any of those are made in the USA? Programmed in the US, at least?

I could use the money to make an extra payment on my credit card, I guess. But then that won't stimulate the economy at all -- it'll actually take money out of the economy twice: first when I don't spend the money directly, and second when the credit card company doesn't get any interest. I wouldn't want that.

Maybe I'll pay for a subscription to the Washington Post, or the NY Times. Oh, crap -- that's Bezos and fake news and more fake news.  I better not do that.

Damn. I really am struggling with this. Hopefully I'll get it all figured out before I have to go back to work on Monday.

TGIF.

Taxing Benefits (Again)

Another hit for the education community is nestled in the House tax plan. In Saturday' post, I talked about the plan to tax tuition benefits for dependents of college employees and a couple other changes. Today, it's collegiate athletics that stands to lose - and lose bigly.

According to this report on ESPN, the House plan would eliminate the charitable deduction on the premium that donors pay for the privilege of paying for tickets to college athletic events.

In the proposed measure, Section 1306 would cut deductions associated with charitable contributions for tickets. Not allowing fans to deduct for donations that give them the right to buy tickets would immediately cost college programs hundreds of millions of dollars, according to athletic directors who spoke with ESPN.

The article goes on to note that

For years, college athletic programs have relied on donations associated with season tickets to fuel their budgets. While the price of the season tickets themselves are not tax deductible, fans have been able to write off up to 80 percent of the donation that was required to buy those tickets, a fact that has been heavily marketed by the programs themselves. If the provision winds up in the final tax bill that passes, the ability to write off anything related to the donation would disappear.  

Another YOWSER! from the House Republicans that, at least so far, is not included in the version of the tax plan the Senate is drafting. This is a big darn deal for big-time college athletics.  Here are a few examples cited in the article.

• a 50-yard line seat at LSU cost $425, with a $1, 025 donation.
• $4,000 would get you the rights to purchase a single season ticket to Duke basketball games; the ticket itself is $3,000.
• $4,000 would also give you the opportunity to buy one of the best seats for Alabama football.

Those examples pale in comparison to what it costs for the best seats for an NC State basketball game: $25,000 per seat for the best center-court seats -- for life -- along with $7,200 per year in additional donations, not counting the price of the tickets.  I'm not sure on this one whether it's better to live fast and take chances, so you don't have to spend so much to enjoy Wolfpack hoops, or be like the people in those Glucerna commercials where 'steady' is the goal and you'll live forever, writing the checks year after year after year after year...

Now, as I was with the free tuition benefit that's also at risk in the GOP plan, I'm not sure how aggravated I'm going to get about this one.

I've been called foolish by my husband for never deducting my charitable contributions from my taxes before we got married. I've always donated, but not because of the tax break. Frankly, I'm one of those crazy people who thinks that, if we're going to have an income tax, it should be based on our income and not our outgo - meaning, I should not be rewarded for how I spend my money. If I want to give to charity, bully for me. If I want to gamble it away, bully for me -- but don't reward me for either of those behaviors, because it has nothing to do with my income. (And yes, we do deduct all of our charitable contributions now -- that's one of those compromises married couples make.)

Here's House Ways and Means Committee Chair Kevin Brady, the author of the tax plan, on the reasoning for the proposed change:

I don't believe the deduction was ever intended to apply to donations related to season tickets.

I have to say I agree with him. Charitable donations aren't supposed to give the donor special benefits and access that personally enrich the donor - they're supposed to enrich others, right?

Brady said that the majority of season -ticket holders in college athletics don't have to pay for the rights to their seats; they just pay the cost of the ticket. Since deductions technically cost the taxpayer at large, Brady reasons that the average fan is actually disadvantaged by the deduction at the hands of the wealthy, who deduct the price of their large donations for the right to sit in the best seats. 

I agree with that too, except for one thing. Many of the people who do make these donations, and do take advantage of the tax deductions? They're middle class folks like you and me.

My brother-in-law was not a rich man when he was working, and he's certainly not a rich man now that he's retired. He's just a middle-class guy who managed to get in the mix for season tickets for Syracuse University football and basketball years ago, and he's held onto them ever since he got his foot in the door. So no Chairman Brady, it's not always wealthy people who do this - it's lots and lots of ordinary folks who enjoy supporting their alma mater or their home-town team (or their state's team, in the case of SU...).

I'm all for closing loopholes in the tax code -- I think that's much more important than cutting taxes, particularly when the Republicans find it in their hearts to raise the deficit to do that; if we collect all of the taxes we owe, we will have a better chance at understanding the mess we're in, and be able to focus on a couple of things: cutting spending, paying down our debt, and being able to reduce taxes for everyone, when everyone pays their fare share.

But what will this do to colleges and universities, many of whom stand to lose in the tens of millions of dollars annually for this change, on top of the proposed change to start taxing their endowments? Will this mean cuts in scholarships? Higher costs (when many are already charging more than the country's median salary for a single year of tuition alone)? Fewer people going to college?

What does this do to all of the claims that we need an educated workforce to fill the jobs of the future, which will begin streaming in the second the ink is dry on this tax plan?

And finally, how does this help sell the plan as being a tax cut for the middle class? 

Oh Battlefield, My Battlefield

Stephen Crowley/NY Times photo

As you may have heard, president Trump has just donated his first three months' salary to the National Parks Service (NPS).

The picture in the article linked above shows two hands holding a check, but no faces. One hand is in what is clearly an NPS uniform.

In the interest of advancing the journalistic profession, here's the part of the picture that shows the face of Tyrone Brandyburg, who at the time the picture was taken, was the Superintendent at West Virginia's Harpers Ferry National Historical Park. Brandyburg looks about as excited as I would have been to be at this particularly galling photo op.

On the campaign trail, Trump had promised to donate his salary to charity. I'm not immediately sure whether that's what he thought he just did, but I am certain he has dashed the hopes of the press, who were advised by White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer that they would be the ones to choose the charity, and I'm sure they would have relished the chance to do good with $78,333.32.

Why characterize this as a particularly galling photo op? Well for starters, Trump has proposed cutting the NPS budget by nearly 12% this fiscal year in his America First: A Budget Blueprint to Make America Great Again.

That's about $1.5B, in case you were wondering, so his piddly donation, which he wants to be used to help maintain and improve our historic battlefields, seems to be an insult of $1,421,666.68 proportions. Not only did he choose a governmental agency whose funding he plans on decimating, he opted to support the battlefields, which are already some $229M behind in maintenance.

Nonetheless, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke seemed suitably impressed.

As a veteran myself, I want to say I am thrilled at the president's decision to donate the check he did today. We're excited about that opportunity.  Want some Kool-Aid?

OK, he didn't really ask if anyone wanted some Kool-Aid.

He'll need it for himself, as he will have to figure out how to allocate the bulk of his limited budget dollars to rerouting traffic patterns and reconfiguring tourist amenities to accommodate all of the planned Diverse American Mining Needs (DAMN) and Collaborative Resource Acquisition Parcels (CRAP) that will soon populate our national parks and historic sites.

It's not known at this time whether the battlefields the president newly holds dear will come out on the other side of these upcoming NPS changes in any way resembling their current state. We do know, though, that 'history' is just another word for Stuff We Interpret Loosely, Lady (SWILL), so there's at least some possibility that Superintendent Brandyburg may not even recognize Harpers Ferry when all is said and done - assuming he's still employed, that is. After that picture gets widely circulated, his long-term employment may not be guaranteed.

That said, new signs have already been ordered to place around all of the historical battlefields, to commemorate the donation and to help advance the tourist experience and the mission of the Park Service.

The National Park Service (NPS) preserves unimpaired the natural and cultural resources and values of the national park system for the enjoyment, education, and inspiration of this and future generations. The National Park Service cooperates with partners to extend the benefits of natural and cultural resource conservation and outdoor recreation throughout this country and the world.

I'm sure everything will become clear once the signed are all installed. I can't reveal my sources, but I managed to get my hands on the template that was sent to the manufacturer.

They're going to look just great, wouldn't you agree? With a lighted flagpole?  Can't wait.

Just Say No to Cuomo's Education Plan

Have you seen the commercials urging support for Governor Cuomo's new education plan? You know, the plan to give people tax credits for sending their kids to parochial, private, charter or 'some other' pubic school?

The commercials tout the $500 tax credit for parents, and the $200 tax break for teachers who purchase their own school supplies, and a tax credit for people who donate money to a school, even a public school, to support programs that end up on the chopping block because schools can't afford to pay for them any more. Lt Governor Kathy Hochul explained it this way in an op-ed piece published recently:

The truth is that all schools - pubic, charter, parochial, private - deserve our support. That's why the governor has proposed the Parental Choice in Education Act, to ensure that every student and their family are supported in some way by the state, no matter where they go to school.

This Act will offer tax credits to individuals who donate to programs like after-school programs at public schools, often cut first; to the selfless public school teachers who go above and beyond in purchasing supplies for their classrooms out of their own pockets; and to low-income families who send their children to nonpublic schools so they can get the best education possible.

And to hep ensure that no child is condemned to a failing school, it will provide scholarships to low- and middle-income students who attend nonpublic schools or public schools that are outside of the district in which their family lives.  

That tax credit for people who donate to schools? Well, that's set as 75% of the total donated, with a cap of $1,000,000. And it applies to corporations as well as people, of course. You know, law firms, real estate brokers, and development companies, frequently set up as limited liability companies, or LLCs. (You may recall, of course, that LLCs and other corporations are huge donors to the Sonofa Gov's campaign, and the 'LLC loophole' is one of the big issues that won't get touched under any campaign finance reform package as long as the people in office accept money from them.)

Once again, we have the Governor and his minions working hard to develop a set of gimmicks and special benefits, which then get slickly packaged and 'messaged' in an almost comically ironic way. For example, those "selfless teachers" purchasing supplies with their own money. Aren't they the same teachers this the administration has vilified for the past year or more, and blamed for the failures of the schools in which they teach?  Nice way to try and win back the unions, Gov. Or are we to believe that only those teachers who you consider 'effective' would be seeking this credit?

Similarly, lamenting cuts in school programs while championing a property tax cap that limits how much money schools get to fund these programs? And, ignoring court orders dating back a decade or more, the state refuses to fund public schools appropriately (particularly urban ones) so that students can receive a sound basic education?

This is what the New York State Constitution has to say about the government's role in education:

Article XI. Education

Section 1. The legislature shall provide for the maintenance and support of a system of free common schools wherein all children of this state may be educated. 

 Section 3.  Neither the state nor any subdivision thereof, shall us its property or credit or any public money, or authorize or permit either to be used, directly or indirectly, in aid or maintenance, other than for the examination or inspection of any school or institution of learning wholly or in part under the control or direction of any religious denomination or in which any denominational tenet or doctrine is taught, but the legislature may provide for the transportation of children to and from any school or institution of learning.

(Section 2 established the SUNY system, therefore not included above).

I freely admit to occasional bouts of over-simplification or over-complication; perhaps one of those is happening here. But if the Constitution says that the government must maintain and support free common schools, which means public schools, I'm confused as to why Governor Cuomo is proposing using tax money to support private and religious schools?

And if the Constitution states that no jurisdiction can use any public money directly or indirectly, for any aid or maintenance of a religious school, other than transporting students to and from, how does Governor Cuomo justify doing exactly that, through his scholarships for kids to leave public school and attend private school?

There are lots of issues with education in New York, particularly in urban and rural schools, that need to be addressed, including what gets taught, how to rate teacher (and administrator) effectiveness, how we fund education, and a whole host of other factors.

Paying people to leave the public school system, or funding education via some sort of school-by-school ice bucket challenge, are not viable ways to address these issues.

Five Years of veritable pastiche

Five years ago today, I published my first post on this blog.

I still remember the trepidation I felt as I pushed the button on that offering, a mere two paragraphs in which I expressed hopes that I would give people something to think about every once in a while.

Since then, I've published over 400 entries, started probably another 100 that I never did anything with, and jotted down ideas for dozens more, some of which never made it past a link or article that piqued my interest. Just the other day, for example, I found an email that had been in my inbox since April 2013, something I had sent to myself that just said 'research this' and a topic. I'm still working on that research, and hoping to post sometime before April of this year when that idea has a birthday.

I've had ups and downs; things started really slowly, and I've gone through stretches where I thought I couldn't even buy a reader. But slowly, things have gotten better. I've changed the format a few times, and have grown to like where it is today. And I think I'm a better writer now than I was then.  There's still lots of room for improvement, no question about that, but I can look at some posts now and not want to rewrite them, something that, in the beginning, was almost impossible.

Here are the posts that attracted the most interest since the dawn of the blog:

• In this post from 2009, I described trying to renew my ID without having the right ID, a marvelous catch-22.
• A post I did in 2010 talked about public displays of  patriotism (via flying the Gadsden flag) and what happened when one man decided to push the issue with his homeowner's association.
• I did a couple of posts on taxes in 2011 -- one about how people pay them but corporations often don't; the other, related to some folks thinking that Jesus was anti-tax, was fun to put together, given I'm not a religious person. On this I was way outside my comfort zone. 
• And there was the Alexandra Wallace-Jimmy Wong pas-de-deux; she complained about noisy Asians on their phones in the library, and he responded beautifully, in song, to her remarks. This post was also from 2011. 
• Several related posts in 2012 - a homeless man, police doing good deeds, and some introspection - focused on generosity. Others that year, like many I've done, were about politics, or politicians, or money in politics. 
• One of my favorites, lamenting the end of daily newspaper delivery in Syracuse, was really as much about my late father as it was about the paper. 
• One post in 2012, and a related post from 2013, questioned what would happen if we could have a 'parade of homes' in the heart of the city, instead of in the suburbs. I hope to convince someone, somehow, that this would be a worthwhile effort.
• In a popular 2013 post, I wondered what would happen if states color-coded driver's licenses or IDs for things other than immigrant status, which was under consideration for a while (ostensibly for safety reasons) in North Carolina.
• A post on how medical debt impacts credit scores was another popular read; I think I have to follow up on that one. And speaking of medical debt, here in Syracuse and CNY that's a huge issue. 
• Barack Obama promised to have the most transparent administration we'd ever seen. Sadly, that has not occurred; the City of Syracuse is more transparent, as I noted in my post on a neighbor's effort to get a zoning change for an interesting home business. 
• And finally, Syracuse was honored by a visit from President Obama last year, a trip where he was focused on education. I posted on that, and the importance of teachers in a child's life. 

So where do we go from here?  More Syracuse, Albany, Anywhere - Genuine. Honest. Commentary. I hope it will inspire some thought, engagement, or action.

Thanks for your support. Let's have some fun in 2014!

Sidebar: Feeding the Hungry

Just a few thoughts to add, relative to my post earlier this week on the situation at the Assumption Food Pantry on Syracuse's North Side.

First, a note about the car dealer:  Billy Fucillo Sr, a larger than life local guy known for using the word 'huge' as his mantra -- huge financing, huge sales, huge leases, huge contests, huge inflatable gorillas, huge everything -- has dealerships not only across New York but also in Florida. It seems this is not his first time with this type of donation; according to reports, he matched Salvation Army Red Kettle donations in Cape Coral, and he also made a $50,000 donation to a food bank there.  I get that it fits in with the whole 'huge' thing - make some noise, make a splash - but it also makes a huge difference in people's lives in a way that winning a car in a contest doesn't.  Kudos to Fucillo and his son Billy Jr. for their generosity.

I mentioned Food Bank of CNY, the critical gatekeeper for food donation and hunger relief programs throughout an 11-county area.  Local individuals, businesses and organizations regularly help FBCNY; here are some examples.

• They partnered with the new Gordon Biersch Brewery Restaurant  at Destiny USA; the restaurant donated about 95 cents of every dollar taken in during their grand opening events.
• The Perishable Partnership Program, where businesses such as Walmart and Sam's Clubs donate thousands of pounds of fresh food that would otherwise have been discarded. 
• Rome's Wagner Farms recently donated almost 28,000 pounds of fresh winter produce, which can be scarce for families served by local pantries.  We reach for cans and jars, but fresh foods are at least as important.

An article in yesterday's Post-Standard mentioned the consolidation of some of the North Side food pantries.  Back in October, three pantries (St John's, Holy Trinity, and Wesminster Presbyterian) merged into one, becoming the All Faiths food pantry. The folks involved point out that consolidation is not for everyone -- and we see that all the time when agencies from neighboring towns or villages attempt to consolidate services.  Sometimes the deals are appoved, by many times they're not.  In this case, the combined pantry seems to be working for the organizations, the volunteers, and the clients they serve.

Finally, yesterday I received the winter edition of Hunger & Hope, FBCNY's newsletter, which you can view on their website. Executive Director Thomas Slater's message regarding whether goals were met is both sobering and uplifting.

This year, with the help of our new facility and the distribution of 12,273,003 pounds of food, the answer is a resounding YES!  The average of one million pounds of nutritious foods distributed monthy ensures families are fed.  The fact is, despite new families coming into the emergency food network for the first time, we saw a significant number of familes leaving the network and finding jobs and indepdendence.

Food for thought for all of us.

Feeding the Hungry

Those of you reading in the Syracuse area are probably aware of the current challenging situation being faced by one of the food pantries in our area.  The Assumption Food Pantry, which regularly serves around 400 families on the north side of the city, is facing a very difficult financial situation, and without $108,000, might have to close at the end of the year.

In a remarkable display of charity, a 'huge' car dealer has offered a $50,000 matching pledge, to encourage others to jump in and help out. One of the local media companies is flooding the airways with publicity, and dozens of other local businesses are helping out.  Just today, a local grocer delivered $12,000 worth of food, paid for with money raised from his customers and family.

I'm constantly impressed by the generosity of folks here.  Benefits for people facing overwhelming medical conditions regularly pull in thousands of dollars; golf events can raise in the six figures; and major local charities are incredibly fortunate to have signature events that bring in a half million dollars or more.  Rarely does a request for help fall on deaf ears.

But did you know that there are at least 70 food pantries in Onondaga County? That's how many pantries the Inter-religious Food Consortium (IFC) works with.  The IFC was formed in the early 1980's and serves as a network for the local pantries, as well as offering other services. 

In addition to the IFC, Food Bank of CNY is a critical player in the local fight against hunger. With a service area stretching from the St Lawrence to Chenango County, FBCNY supplies local food pantries, soup kitchens and shelters, partnering with over 270 emergency food programs.  I encourage you to read more about their services, and the issue of hunger in Central New York.

It looks like the chances are very good that the Assumption pantry will stay open.  And I hope that, in the process of saving Assumption's pantry, we don't end up putting extra financial strain on the other programs who are fighting every day donations. 

Would the $50K matching grant serve everyone better if it had been spread out over 5 or 10 or 20 pantries, instead of  being dedicated to just one? Will we be able to sustain this level of support throughout the year, not just during the holidays?  After all, the need will still be there after the cameras have been turned off, after our hearts have been tugged in a different direction.  And more importantly, will we ever turn the corner on hunger in CNY? 

Only time will tell.  For now, though, let's be grateful for what we have, and for what we can do to help others.

Homeless man not wearing his new boots

Now, about a month after one of New York's Finest gave a homeless man a pair of boots and socks, there is more to the story.

To recap:  Larry DePrimo, a NYPD officer, saw a homeless man on a frigid November night, and went into a nearby shoe store and spent his own money buying insulated boots and warm socks which he then helped put on the homeless man.  A tourist from Arizona captured a picture of the officer's kindness and the rest, as they say, is history.

I wrote about this heartwarming story, not from the point of view of the officer who helped, or the tourist who got the picture, but more from a 'what would I have done' perspective (and admit that I might not have been as charitable as Officer DePrimo.).  I also found a number of other stories of police officers doing good deed, because I really think this happens more often than we realize.

Today, scrolling through one of my news services, I saw this headline:

Man given boots by NYPD officer: Street life ‘my choice’

Seems that, according to the one of the Yahoo blogs, the 'homeless' man who got the assist from DePrimo is not homeless after all. Jeffrey Hillman, 54 and a veteran, actually has an apartment where he sleeps sometimes, and he's not wearing the $75 boots but instead has them hidden so they won't get stolen.

The Yahoo story linked to one in the New York Times, which told of the again-barefoot Hillman, his military service (five years and an honorable discharge), and that a woman had previously bought him a pair of shoes.

Another story, in the NY Daily News, tells of the Bronx apartment, which is paid for by a combination of safety net programs and Hillman's veteran's benefits. It also includes more background information, including comments from an old high-school friend who has set up a fund to help get Hillman off the street.

As this saga continues to unfold, it's clear that there are no easy solutions to solving the homeless problem that cities large and small face.  For many of us, it's hard to imagine wandering the streets barefoot in the northeast in November, when you have a pair of insulated boots you could be wearing. And we don't understand why folks 'choose' the homeless life when there are options, including loving families and friends, and a variety of shelters, places for a hot meal and a warm bed, and yes, even the kindness and generosity of strangers. Why would anyone pass up these opportunities these options, and instead stay on the street? 

Sometimes none of these alternatives are viable for the homeless. For whatever reason, people make the same choice as Hillman every day, and sometimes, it ends badly.

Back in September, here in Syracuse, a homeless woman named Michelle Noce was found unconscious under a bridge, and later died; she likely had been involved in a fight over territory, a prime panhandling location. A memorial service was held; friends who knew her back in high school in a small town east of here remembered her as a completely different person than the one she had become, as did Jeffrey Hillman's high school friend.

In Syracuse, according to reports, there are an average of 423 homeless people receiving services from local organizations each night.  In New York City, the numbers are mind-boggling: over 46,000 each night in the municipal shelter system, another 5,000 in private shelters.  And there are countless others who can't or won't get into shelters.

Those that try and make a difference, whether officially (social service agencies or NGOs) or unofficially (like Larry DePrimo) have to face the possibility that their efforts will be rebuffed by the likes of Hillman and Noce.  But it doesn't mean that we should stop trying.

Sidebar: Police Doing Good Deeds

The story of Larry DePrimo, the NYPD officer who purchased socks and insulated boots for a homeless person in Manhattan touched a lot of hearts.  But there are countless stories of police officers making a difference, particularly at this time of the year.  Here are just a few:

In Cicero NY, kids were asked to submit an essay telling what Christmas means to them.  Five of the kids were selected to 'Shop with a Cop' at a local Target; each child was given $100 to spend.

In Winnipeg, kids and cops head out to the mall for the sixth annual Cop Shop; the kids who participate were chosen based on academics and volunteer efforts.

Another Target, another group of cops and kids, this time in Las Vegas. 

And it not only during the late-year holiday season that police officers lend a hand. 

This past September, a bicycle thief in Phoenix AZ got caught red-handed with one bike, but not the second one that was missing.  Local police officers opened their wallets and purchased a replacement for the second bike.   

And here's a story from Turlock, CA, where apparently it's a fairly common occurrence for local officers to help homeless or transient folks using their own money.  This article has a couple examples (and also some interesting comments at the end from the Deputy Chief).

How about this one, a police officer in Norwood OH who responded to a call at a school where the class field trip money had been stolen.  The officer went to the ATM, took out enough to cover the trip, and had it delivered anonymously to the school.  

The point? Officer DePrimo is but one of many men and women in uniform who have made a difference, who have done the unexpected and dug deep into their own pockets to make things better for people they've encountered on the job.

Kudos to them, and to all of the folks out of uniform who do the same. 

What Would Sue Do?



Jennifer Foster/AP

Most folks by now have heard the story of the police officer who purchased a pair of socks and boots for a homeless man in Manhattan.  To illustrate how far the story's spread, here's the article in the Seattle Times.

According to reports, NYPD officer Larry DePrimo, was on patrol in Times Square earlier this month, wearing two pairs of socks himself, when he came upon a homeless man with bare feet.  DePrimo went to a nearby shoe store, got a pair of insulated boots and some socks, and helped the homeless man put them on.  The moment was captured by Jennifer Foster, a tourist from Arizona; it ended up on Facebook (I got it from one of my friends here in Syracuse yesterday), and the rest is history.  DePrimo has received gold cuff links from the NYPD, made the national news last night, and is making the morning show rounds.

So, what do you think is the most noteworthy part of this story? The dollar value of the kindness?  The fact that it happened in New York City?  The fact that it was a police officer who was the giver of the kindness? That it went viral?

I mean, I doubt that, had a tourist from New York City been visiting Jennifer Foster's town in Arizona and seen the same thing happen, a photo would have been taken, that the officer would be visiting the Today Show this morning, or that this would be a news story thousands of miles away.

The fact that it went viral is a no-brainer -- heck, a pretty picture of a snowflake can 'go viral' on the right day.  And I am impressed by the officer's level of kindness - $75 is a lot of money to many folks, especially at the holidays. And the fact that it was one of New York's finest makes it more interesting than if it had been just a regular Joe, but I'm sure there are others who have done a similar good deed, and not been caught on camera.

See, the thing that really got me about this story, the thing that's noteworthy to me, is not how it made me think about DePrimo, but how it made me feel about me.  Not in a 'thank my lucky stars that I'm not homeless' kind of way, but in a WWSD (that's What Would Sue Do?) kind of way.

Years ago, one cold winter day, I was waiting for the bus, which I could see a couple blocks away, and there was what I assumed to be a homeless woman nearby, bare hands, several coats, and as my bus approached I took off my warm gloves and held them out to the woman, offering them to her.  She refused, mumbling something under her breath, then turned away and stomped off down the street. I tried, I thought to myself, and at the time it seemed like enough.

And sure, I've given change to panhandlers, hundreds of times, and when I smoked I'd sometimes give cigarettes to 'street people', as we called them back in the day. But as many times as I've said yes, I've probably said no a thousand-fold. And truth be told, when I see the people standing with their signs at the off-ramps or busy intersections, I look away, rather than help.

WWSD?  I would like to think that, faced with the same circumstances as Officer DePrimo, I would have done something, something more than take a picture of someone else doing what I could have done, what I should have done.

I have some work to do, apparently. I'd like to think that, in the future, faced with a similar situation, I will do something.

I think I'll keep Foster's photo around for a while, to remind me of how much work I have to do.