A little bit of original reporting here at DFE.net.  Hopefully not the last.

You may have seen Joe Robach’s advertisements on television recently and noticed that he’s standing in front of Gleason Works.  That’s not all he’s doing.  He’s also claiming as his accomplishment, “650 jobs for Gleason Works.”

If you’re scratching your head, wondering “didn’t they just lay some people off over there?”  You’re not alone.  Through a helpful tip from a friend of mine, I decided to do some investigation into the claim, along with a few other nuggets about the deal, which you can read about here:

» Robach Ad Touts Misleading Gleason Claim || DFE.Net News » DFE News Updates

New York State Senator Joe Robach’s recent campaign advertisment, touting his record of bringing “our fair share” to Rochester, has him standing in front of Gleason Works on University Avenue in Rochester. Below him, a caption reads “650 jobs for Gleason Works.” There’s just one problem with that caption: the 650 jobs Gleason Works currently provides Rochester is actually 300 jobs less than it was two years ago.

The Empire State Manufacturing Survey is in for the month of July, and the numbers continue to go in the shitter.  What is the ESMS?  It’s a survey(PDF) sent out to a variety of manufacturers across the state by the NY Federal Reserve, posing questions about current conditions in terms of employment, orders taken, and also the sense of what the next six months will bring.

If that all seems terribly subjective and indistinct, well, that’s probably because it is.  And if one person’s sense of the future tends to be a bit hazy, then the collective wizdom of several manufacturing business’ secretaries must be equally flawed.  However, what we do get is a sense of the general mood, along with at least some vague notion of how business is going in terms of orders received and filled.

This year’s numbers continue the trend since early 2004, down, down, down.  In fact, the only number going up is the price index, which should surprise no one.  This month’s report does represent a slight up-tick in current conditions compared to last month, as the RBJ’s sunny headline dutifully reports, but in the body of the article they point out that the sentiment in terms of the coming six months is as low as it’s ever been since September 2001.  That’s bad.

And what this all means is a consistent drag on manufacturing employment and wages for the forseeable future.  Until we elect someone with the political will to renegotiate our supposed “free” trade agreements internationally, this trend will doubtless continue - to a greater or lesser degree - locally.

While we all wring our hands and wonder why it is so many of our young people are leaving the state, perhaps it would be instructive to consider the latest report on wages in New York:

Report says ‘anemic’ wages affect 5.7 million New Yorkers | Democrat and Chronicle

The report from a labor-backed think tank said that 5.7 million New Yorkers are part of families that face a “hardship gap” in which at least one person has a job but the earnings aren’t enough to cover all basic expenses, including food, rent, utilities, health insurance, transportation and child care.

The proportion of New York families who don’t make enough to pay for these services, 30 percent, is well above the national median of 22 percent and is the highest of any Northeast state, according to the Fiscal Policy Institute report.

The report also goes on to state that a wage of $17 an hour is required in order to keep a family of four afloat. That’s a tall order in many professions, and especially in unskilled labors. Keep in mind also that the national average of 22 percent includes states like Louisiana, Arkansas and West Virginia where grinding poverty exists in ways most of us in this state don’t even fully understand as “America.” That we are so far behind in providing our state citizens - to say nothing of national citizens - a decent living wage is an embarrassment to our name.

When the buzzards start hovering, its little wonder that the man who made 911 his one and only campaign platform should be the buzzard in charge. In this case, however, Giuliani shows us that his careful, level-headed planning that served him so well in the Republican Primary could be at least as effective here in New York State:

GIULIANI WEIGHING ‘SPECIAL’ RUN FOR GOV - New York Post

In the latest twist in New York politics, Rudy Giuliani is eyeing a run for governor in a special election this fall should Gov. Paterson be forced to resign, sources say.

I have a friend who just lost his job and is in need of medical insurance because of existing conditions.  He was checking into Healthy New York and discovered something that should raise more than a few eyebrows out there: HealthyNY does not cover mental health.  At all.

So, after all those television commercials featuring our former governor Pataki, where does one go to get mental health issues covered if they’re out of work?  Even better, our supposed lifeline for health insurance in this country also goes on in its website to state the following:

Pre-Existing Condition Limitation

Coverage under the Healthy NY program is subject to a pre-existing condition waiting period. This means that if the applicant has a medical condition that they have been either diagnosed with or treated for in the last six months, services for the treatment of that condition may be excluded from coverage for up to a year.

Republicans and Conservatives can say what they want about the government not getting involved in people’s lives.  But I think a big question we all have to ask ourselves is: if they’re going to get involved, what are we going to get for our tax dollars?

More coverage to come. . .

Down there at the bottom of a discussion of Patterson’s prospects of becoming governor, there is a fairly obvious hint that this is precisely what’s about to happen:

If Spitzer steps down, Paterson would move up - 13WHAM.com

Tuesday morning, Assemblyman Republican leader James Tedisco said he got a call from Paterson. Tedisco had been at odds with the Democratic Spitzer, but, Tedisco said Paterson asked if he would consider a fresh start.

It’s pretty obvious that Spitzer needs to step down, but to this moment, it has been less obvious that he would.  This phone call makes it seem like this may already be happening.  Indeed, speculation has been that Spitzer intended to use his stepping down as a part of a plea bargaining deal that would eliminate the need for him to be indicted.

NYSUT is fighting to keep the state’s share of special education funding for elementary school kids the same, whereas Spitzer’s new plan aims to reduce state funding.  This is in addition to the slipping promise of additional funding by the state.  The NYSUT blog picks up the story:

“Union: Pre-K cost shift another unfunded mandate.” March 07, 2008. NYSUT: A Union of Professionals. www.nysut.org

Under current law, the state reimburses counties for 59.5 percent of approved costs for preschool special education administration costs. The governor’s proposal would require districts where each special ed child resides to reimburse the child’s resident county — adding a $46 million cost burden onto districts already set to receive less state aid than promised last year.

The celebration is all over Democratic New York: Assemblyman Aubertine won his bid to fill the 48th district State Senate position, edging out Will Barclay. That narrows the majority in the Senate to a single vote for the Republicans:

Dems’ win in NY Senate race shrinks GOP edge — Newsday.com

Republicans’ longtime control of the Senate weakened Tuesday night as their majority shrank to a single seat with the upset victory of Democrat Darrel Aubertine in a special election in northern New York. With all precincts reporting, Aubertine had 52 percent, compared with 48 percent for Republican Will Barclay.

Those of us who’ve been advocating for CMCE for the last few years know that the Conservative Party will not allow such a thing, but with the majority greatly weaked, things begin to look possible.

Well, I’m certainly glad Sarah and I got in early! We were married by Reverend Jenn of First Unitarian a few years back, and there may not be another marriage by that church for a while.

Channel 13 is reporting that the First Unitarian Church of Rochester has decided not to sign marriage licenses for straight couples in protest against New York’s ban on gay marriage. My first reaction to this is that it’s throwing the baby out with the bath water: if you stand on the side of love, how can you refuse to honor it where you can? But their explanation makes a whole lot of sense, at least to me:

More Work to Legalize Same-Sex Marriage - 13WHAM.com

Unitarian Co-Minister Scott Taylor compares it to the discrimination seen during the Civil Rights era.

“As ministers we were basically agreeing to serve the white-only counter for the state,” he said.

So, as hard as it is to think that this great church cannot do it’s work - what I think is the most important work a church can do, fostering love - the truth is that the law in this state makes that work impossible to do completely either way.  And as the article points out, there’s very little chance that the law will change any time soon.  The Republican Senate will not pass any law legalizing gay marriage, and while its not explicitly said in the article, I have my doubts as to whether the Democrats in Albany would be willing to risk the political exposure if ever they got the majority in the Senate.  Perhaps I’m just cynical, but based on what I’ve seen, I don’t think so.

btp at RochesterTurning.com has the skinny on Barack Obama’s performance in the New York State primary, including specifics on Monroe County.  Looks like Monroe went for Barack in a big way, though not enough to outweigh the Hillary vote.  Thanks, BTPeeps!