[Announce] Fred LeBrun's

[Daniel W. Van Riper]

To All:

Fred LeBrun has always been and always will be, a worthless silly  
ass.  Please bear in mind that the Times Union and the Hearst  
corporation have a history of trading "news" stories for various  
favors from powerful people. check out this quote from this Salon  
article:


Hearst's troubles at the trial began on Day 1, when Examiner  
publisher Timothy White admitted to "horse trading" with Mayor Brown  
over Hearst's Chronicle purchase, offering favorable editorial  
treatment by the Examiner if the mayor agreed to support Hearst's  
acquisition. It was the testimony heard 'round the world, as media  
everywhere broadcast the news of a publisher violating what Hearst  
CEO Frank Bennack called "Journalism 101" -- exchanging editorial  
support for business favors. Chronicle and Examiner staff howled at  
the breach of ethics, and Hearst immediately suspended White, who  
would later say he was "tired and confused" on the witness stand  
(though he'd made the same admission in a deposition five months  
earlier).

White's testimony got the big headlines, but Irish's was arguably the  
most damaging. Top Hearst Corp. management was trying to contain the  
damage by insisting they'd known nothing of the publisher's dealings  
with the mayor. But on the witness stand, Irish was confronted with  
embarrassing evidence to the contrary: a set of his own handwritten  
notes, recording conversations in which White -- who had been sent  
from Albany, N.Y., to preside over the Chronicle purchase -- briefed  
Irish on his meetings with the San Francisco mayor.

The entire story of the so-called horse trade was there in black and  
white, in the Hearst exec's own handwriting (cramped cursive, bad  
spelling and all), humiliatingly visible on a big overhead screen and  
a dozen computer monitors around the courtroom."

http://archive.salon.com/business/feature/2000/06/02/examiner/print.html


They call it "horse trading."  In the above, note what part of the  
Hearst empire Tim White used to manage.  He was "publisher" of the  
Times Union for many years.  Indeed, check out this article a fellow  
named Corey Stall sent me today from the Troy Record about Joe  
Bruno's recent tiff with the Hearst Times Union:


"Bruno said a Times Union ad representative called the press office  
Tuesday, said he was sympathetic to the senator's bad coverage and  
told Spokesman Mark Hansen that buying an ad would be an "effective  
way to let the public know about the good things the senator is doing  
and to get across his side of the story."
Times Union Publisher Mark Aldam, in a statement, acknowledged an ad  
representative did call Bruno's office but only "as an opportunity to  
respond to the recent online advertising campaign by the New York  
State Democratic Committee." He denied there was an offer to trade  
good coverage for advertising revenue and maintains the news  
department is a distinctly separate entity from the advertising  
department."

http://www.troyrecord.com/site/news.cfm? 
newsid=18550010&BRD=1170&PAG=461&dept_id=7021&rfi=6


So really folks, you have every right to accuse LeBrun and his  
employers of "horse trading."  And believe me, the Albany Hearst  
employees know exactly what that term means.  Just remember, evil  
Dick Cheney used New York Times stories on WMDs in Iraq to justify  
the invasion... stories that he planted himself.  Don't let the City  
use Lebrun's column to justify their extended permit.

Good luck tonight, everybody, and give 'em hell.

-Dan VR



On Jul 11, 2007, at 12:52 PM, James Travers wrote:

> Many of you probably read this article written by Fred LeBrun  
> entitled "Has Albany's landfill stench been stifled? The nose  
> knows" which was published in yesterday's Times Union newspaper.
>
> The title above is a link to the article and I have attached it to  
> this email.
>
> I don't subscribe to the paper edition. I only read the online copy.
>
> Without my having power yesterday, I first learned of this article  
> from some comments made by earlier posters to the "Announce" list- 
> serve, so I thank you for bringing it to my attention.
>
> I have nothing polite to say about this article, so I will not say  
> anything.
>
> You might say I'm fuming over it, but I promise you, I'm not  
> emitting any aerosolized toxins!
>
> Maybe Freddy boy would like to spend a week camping atop Mt.  
> Jennings in what used to be pristine pine barrens.
>
> Just don't light a fire Fred, you just might wind up in Rensselaer  
> if you do!
>
> I have also pasted the article below.
>
> Jim Travers
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 
> -------------------------
>
> Has Albany's landfill stench been stifled? The nose knows
>
> First published: Tuesday, July 10, 2007
>
> Now that we're into the high heat and humidity of a Capital Region  
> summer, it occurs to me there's something missing.
>
> Where are the complaints about the awful stink from the city of  
> Albany's Rapp Road landfill?
>
> About this time last year and the year before, the city was getting  
> 400 or more calls a month from deeply offended residents of the  
> village of Colonie, Guilderland and even Albany. They were bitterly  
> complaining about the persistent, stifling, gagging stench of  
> rotten eggs billowing out of the landfill.
>
> Could it be that after years of Albany promising to contain its  
> gas, the landfill that serves 12 communities in the region has  
> finally gone sweet on us? so. Even extreme critic and Colonie  
> village Mayor Frank Leak is impressed. He is not only the official  
> who's gotten the steadiest tattoo of complaints over the years, but  
> he also lives near the landfill. During the worst of it, he could  
> smell Rapp Road day and night, even in his dreams.
>
> "Oh, yes, it's gotten a whole lot better. The city gave us a hot  
> line number to call, which helped us chart complaints. In May, we  
> had 200 to 300 calls. In early June we got 140 calls, and for the  
> last three weeks we haven't gotten any."
>
> The sweet smell of success, by any measure.
>
> The secret, say Leak and Bill Bruce, Albany's general services  
> commissioner, is covering about 15 acres of the landfill with a  
> black plastic liner, to be followed by 24 inches of clay. That, and  
> finally getting the landfill's internal piping working as it should  
> for gas collection, and "flaring," or burning off more gas than  
> used to be done.
>
> Also, the landfill no longer accepts gypsum wallboard as refuse.
>
> When acted on by anaerobic bacteria, the wallboard produced  
> prodigious wafts of hydrogen sulfide. A former temporary cover  
> designed to help matters is now believed to have actually  
> contributed to the odor as well. the nose knows. And if the smell  
> of rotten eggs was heavy in the air, we'd be hearing about it.
>
> Although plenty of people out there remain deeply skeptical.
>
> Attorney Peter Henner, working with Save the Pine Bush, is one of  
> those. "We continue to investigate complaints. We're still not  
> convinced it's abated."
>
> The city, though, is heaving a cautious sigh of relief. The stink  
> was a delicate issue and becoming a serious hindrance.
>
> There was the not insignificant matter of a $50,000 fine from the  
> state Department of Environmental Conservation for fouling the air,  
> for one thing. The city will likely pay only about $7,500 of that  
> fine, if it can make the remediation stick.
>
> But more importantly, getting rid of that stench is critical to a  
> forthcoming application from the city to expand the Rapp Road  
> landfill by 10 or so acres, depending how you measure these things.
>
> The DEC would be hard pressed to give the city a permit for  
> temporary expansion right after heavily fining it, unless the smell  
> went away.
>
> Additionally, the city has hired a company called Applied  
> Ecological Services to do massive habitat restoration for about 250  
> acres of the Pine Bush, again to answer critics. The city, which  
> will spend $8 million to $10 million over a decade in these  
> efforts, is working closely with the Pine Bush Commission.
>
> Bruce says the city hopes to have a complete permit application for  
> a landfill extension to the DEC by the end of the summer.
>
> The expansion would be on top of the existing garbage pile, but  
> also out to some extent along the east side of the landfill. "That  
> would give us another six or seven years on top of the two to three  
> that we still have at Rapp Road," he said. Another decade. a year  
> ago, estimates for the current landfill were that it would be full  
> by 2008, so these re-estimates are a note of optimism in an  
> otherwise dismal symphony when it comes to the city and its  
> landfill woes.
>
> There are three semi-eternal truths about the city of Albany and  
> garbage.
>
> One, the city is addicted to the $13 million a year it collects  
> from the other 11 communities in the ANSWERS consortium. That  
> represents 10 percent of the city's budget revenues. Without that  
> garbage money, fragile city finances would be thrown into chaos.
>
> Two, Albany desperately needs more landfill space and soon, and  
> that space is most likely to come from around the existing  
> facility, which is smack dab in the middle of the environmentally  
> sensitive Pine Bush.
>
> And three, the permanent solution -- Albany's next Rapp Road -- is  
> as elusive a butterfly as the Pine Bush's Karner blue. For 13  
> years, city officials have tried everything to create such a  
> landfill in Coeymans, against plenty of local opposition. Now it  
> seems, Coeymans may not be the most desirable place, anyway, says  
> Bill Bruce.
>
> At any rate, about the time the city has to update its solid waste  
> management plan, a hard decision has to be made about what happens  
> to Albany's future garbage. Bruce says that decision has to be made  
> no later than next year, because a 10-year respite is not much,  
> given how difficult it is to permit any sort of new landfill anywhere.
>
> Bruce hinted that the solution may be in technology rather than  
> geography. But that's tomorrow's headache.
>
> For now, we'll just keep our fingers crossed the smell stays  
> undercover.
>
> Fred LeBrun can be reached at 454-5453 or by e-mail at  
> flebrun at timesunion.com.
>
> All Times Union materials copyright 1996-2007, Capital Newspapers  
> Division of The Hearst Corporation, Albany, N.Y.
>
>
> http://timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp? 
> storyID=604561&category=LEBRUN&BCCode=&newsdate=7/11/2007
>
> TV dinner still cooling?
> Check out "Tonight's Picks" on Yahoo! TV.
> <TU Article 7-8-07 Has Albany's landfill stench	been stifled - The  
> nose knows.wps>
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