FYI - NJ Congressman Pallone Introduces "Stopping Bad Robocalls Act"

Washington, D.C. – Today, Energy and Commerce Chairman Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ) reintroduced the Stopping Bad Robocalls Act (HR 946) in the House of Representatives to stop abusive robocall practices.

Pallone’s bill would direct the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to enact strong consumer protections for authorized calls and empower the FCC with strong enforcement tools to reign in robocallers.  The legislation would also ensure that consumers have the ability to stop calls they’d previously authorized and require incoming calls to have authentic caller identification information before they are delivered to customers.

“Americans are fed up with robocalls.  It is incredibly annoying to repeatedly get unwanted calls from people you don’t know and don’t want to talk to,” Pallone said.  “Despite previous efforts like the Do Not Call Registry, robocalls are still on the rise. The Stopping Bad Robocalls Act will equip consumer protection agencies with innovative, new tools designed to stop the abusive practices by robocallers and better restrict unauthorized robocalls.”

Last year, an estimated 26.3 billion unwanted calls were placed in the U.S., which represents a 46 percent increase in unwanted calls over the previous year.  The staggering number of unwanted calls are returning huge profit margins for robocallers, with every dollar spent by robocallers returning as much as $20 profit—a 2,000 percent profit margin.  Though some robocalls are initiated by legitimate companies, robocalls are also used by scammers to steal from consumers, with more than 22 million Americans losing a total of $9.5 billion in robocall scams in 2016 alone.

Pallone’s bill was also applauded by various consumer groups.

“The Stopping Bad Robocalls Act will apply essential and meaningful consumer protections from unwanted robocalls if the FCC should fail to rein in robocalls from telemarketers and debt collectors, student loan servicers and others,” said Margot Saunders, senior counsel at the National Consumer Law Center.

“The robocalls problem is out of control and, without action from Congress, will only get worse.  This legislation would tackle the growing problem of “spoofed” calls that trick consumers into answering, by ensuring phone companies implement technology to stop these unwanted calls before they reach the consumer, at no additional cost.  Consumer Reports applauds Congressman Pallone for his leadership in addressing this growing problem,” said Maureen Mahoney, policy analyst at Consumer Reports.

The Stopping Bad Robocalls Act would curb the rise of robocalls by:

• Amending the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) to ensure that the FCC has the authority and the tools to take strong, quick action when they track down robocallers;
• Allowing consumers to revoke consent they had previously given to receive calls at any time and in any reasonable manner;
• Codifying a reassigned number database to put robocallers on notice when a telephone number they may have previously been authorized to call has been given to a new customer who has not authorized their call;
• Limiting the number of robocalls exempted from the TCPA under the FCC’s rules;
• Requiring calls to have verified caller identification information associated with a call before the call can be put through; and
• Extending the statute of limitations from one year to four years for callers violating robocall prohibitions. 

Pallone’s bill is originally cosponsored by: Anna Eshoo (D-CA), Eliot Engel (D-NY), Diana DeGette (D-CO), Mike Doyle (D-PA), Doris Matsui (D-CA), Jerry McNerney (D-CA), Peter Welch (D-VT), Ben Ray Luján (D-NM), Yvette Clarke (D-NY), Dave Loebsack (D-IA), Marc Veasey (D-TX), A. Donald McEachin (D-VA), Darren Soto (D-FL), Tom O’Halleran (D-AZ), Gerry Connolly (D-VA), Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) and Charlie Crist (D-FL).

Section-by-Section available HERE.

Bill text available HERE.

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Issues: 

Communications and Technology

Subcommittees: 

Communications & Technology (116th Congress)

Legislators Say NO To Recreational Marijuana

Legislator Rob Trotta at podium with Steve Chassman LICADDLegislators Rob Trotta (13th LD) and Leslie Kennedy (12th LD) held a press conference Thursday morning for the purpose of stating their opposition and rational for opposing the sale of recreational marijuana in Suffolk County. The two legislators were surrounded by professionals in the field of substance abuse and two community advocates from Smithtown, Kim Revere from Kings Park in the kNow and Debbie Virga from the Commack Coalition of the Caring.

The participants were incredulous that this was even a topic of discussion in 2019. Why now they asked?

Legislator Trotta believes he knows the answer to the question and it’s all about tax receipts. “I don’t view the sale of marijuana as a viable source of revenue because the health and well-being, of our residents, are far more important than plugging the holes in our bloated budget.” He is vowing to do everything he can to raise awareness to the dangers young people will be exposed to. He pointed out that sixty-six districts in Colorado opted out of selling marijuana and that legalization leads to more crime and a booming black market. 

Steve Chassman who is the executive director at Long Island Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence (LICADD), a not-for-profit agency that has a long (61 years) history of working with substance abusers on Long Island, made a compelling case for rejecting recreational marijuana asking, “Will the legalization of marijuana adversely or positively impact public health?

Chassman went on to say that legalization and having dispensaries in Suffolk County may adversely impact the pubic health which has not fully emerged from the recent 12-year health crisis. He warned, “In states where legalization occurred, packaging is geared to young adults, if not adolescents and we know that marijuana has adverse effects on memory retention and learning in the undeveloped brain (25 years of age). Do we want marijuana to have this adverse effect on Public health? “

L-R Kim Revere Kings Park in the kNOw, Debbie Virga Commack Coalition of the Caring, Kim Laube Hugs, Steve Chessman LICADD, Legislator Rob Trotta, Anthony Rizzuto, Seafield, Legislator Leslie Kennedy  

Legislator Kennedy has a background in nursing, she decryed the push to legalize recreational pledging to continue speaking out in opposition “so that no one will be on the roads with a high THC level. ” Legislator Kennedy stated  that THC (Tetrahydrocannabinol)  (one of at least 113  cannaboids identified in cannibas and is identified as the compound in cannabis that is psychoactive and gives you the feeling of being high.) remains in a person’s system for as much as 30 days and noted that there are currently no tests to adequately identify THC levels when pulled over for traffic violations.

According to the Mayo Clinic marijuana use can cause cognitive impairment and should be used with caution. Marijuana can cause: headache, dry mouth, dry eyes, lightheadedness, dizziness, drowsiness, fatigue, nausea, paranoid thinking, disconnected state (dissociation), increased appetite and cough.

While “What are they thinking” was the general sentiment, most speakers emphasized that available data supports their perspective that recreational marijuana leads to increased traffic accidents, crime and suppresses the development of young brains and should not be sold for recreational use.

Public Hearing on Legalization of Recreational Marijuana - February 25, 2019 | 6:30 p.m. - 8:30 p.m. Suffolk County Legislature William H. Rogers Legislature Building 725 Veterans Memorial Highway Smithtown, NY 11787 For more information, call 631-853-4088

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP - Honesty In Sewering

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP

By Karl Grossman

There was a partial win for major sewer construction in Suffolk County last week—two projects promoted by Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone were approved, one in Mastic and Shirley and the other in Babylon Town. Voters in Great River, however, rejected what was to be a third project.

The Mastic-Shirley and Babylon Town projects would be the first major sewer undertakings in Suffolk since the corruption-riddled $1.1 billion Southwest Sewer District project 50 years ago.

The Mastic-Shirley project is being made possible by $191.3 million in federal and state grants which in the referenda last week voters in those communities accepted. They will have to pay an annual sewer tax estimated at $430. The project in Babylon Town is made possible by $140.2 million in grants that voters in the communities of West Babylon, North Babylon and Wyandanch voted to accepted. They’d pay an annual sewer tax estimated at $532.

The Great River project would have been enabled by $26.4 million in federal and state grants which voters there rejected They would have been charged an estimated $755 yearly sewer tax.

The grants are being given by the state and federal governments based on the claim by Suffolk County post-Superstorm Sandy that sewers are necessary to provide “resiliency” to the county’s shoreline. They would, it’s claimed, assist in the growth of wetlands that would serve to counter storm surges. 

If the costs for the sewer construction are higher than anticipated, “the projects would go in front of the Suffolk Legislature,” according to an account in Newsday. 

In 1969 voters in the southwestern portion of Suffolk voted for the Southwest Sewer District. The project spiraled in price and was mired in corruption becoming one of the biggest scandals ever in Suffolk. The scandal brought down the administration of County Executive John V. N. Klein of Smithown.

With the scandal central to his campaign, then Islip Town Supervisor Peter F. Cohalan challenged Mr. Klein in a Republican primary for re-nomination for county executive and won and then won in the general election. Mr. Cohalan’s campaign slogan called on GOP voters to “Flush Klein.” (Mr. Cohalan is now Suffolk County historian.)

There was an array of investigations and indictments. Then Suffolk DA Patrick Henry, in taking action, spoke of how “we must prevent the cost of corruption, graft, kickbacks and payoffs from breaking the financial backs of our citizenry.”

Importantly, “the Southwest Sewer District was envisioned as the first phase of a sewer network that would extend north through Melville and east through Brookhaven [Town] to the Hamptons,” noted Long Island Business News in 2006 in an article about how, “The memory of the Southwest Sewer District is so potent that candidates who mention sewers still go down in defeat.”

But with Mr. Bellone, there was a dramatic change. Since his election seven years ago he has emphatically pushed sewering in Suffolk. He has declared: “Nitrogen pollution is public enemy number one for our bays, waterways, drinking supply, and the critical wetlands and marshes that protect us from natural disasters like Superstorm Sandy…More than 300,000 homes in Suffolk County are not sewered and are contributing nearly 70 percent of the pollution.”

But there has been controversy over his stand. Kevin McAllister, founding president of the Sag Harbor-based organization Defend H20, has pointed to advanced denitirication systems that can be added to cesspools as a substitute in most areas of Suffolk for sewers. He has repeatedly charged that Mr. Bellone’s sewer push is for economic development—with Mr. Bellone seeking sewers because reliance on cesspools limits development while with sewers there could be substantially increased development. Also, he says the basis for how the county has gotten state and federal funds for the new projects, claiming they’re for “resiliency,” is a “thin argument.” Says Mr. McAllister: “I am for honesty in sewering.”

Another serious issue involving sewering in Suffolk, which is dependent on its underground water table as its sole source of potable water, is it having many of its sewer plants sending tens of millions of gallons a day of wastewater out into bays and the ocean rather than having it fully treated and recharged back into the ground so the underground water table isn’t depleted. 

The largest amount of wastewater is discharged from the Bergen Point Wastewater Treatment plant in West Babylon designed to process 30 million gallons a day sending it out into the Atlantic through an outfall pipe that traverses the Great South Bay.

But plants in Suffolk also doing “outfall” include the Village of Northport Wastewater Treatment Plant which discharges into the Long Island Sound; the Patchogue Sewage Treatment Plant which sends wastewater into the Patchogue River; and the Port Jefferson Sewage Treatment Plant which discharges into the Sound. On the other hand, the new sewer system to serve Westhampton Beach will utilize recharge making use of a sewage treatment plant that services the county’s Francis Gabreski Airport in Westhampton.

Depletion of the underground water table is what has happened in neighboring Nassau County where all its sewer plants do “outfall” and thus lakes and streams in Nassau have dried up or lowered. 

The Mastic-Shirley project is based on recharge. But the Babylon Town project would have wastewater sent to the Southwest Sewer District’s Bergen Point plant and out through its outfall pipe into the Atlantic. Other big sewer projects Mr. Bellone is boosting, in Ronkonkoma and Brentwood, would also send wastewater out of Bergen Point into the Atlantic, impacting on Suffolk’s underground water supply.

Karl Grossman is a veteran investigative reporter and columnist, the winner of numerous awards for his work and a member of the L.I. Journalism Hall of Fame. He is a professor of journalism at SUNY/College at Old Westbury and the author of six books. 

Hospitali~TEA at the Smithtown Historical Society

Smithtown by the Sound

By Nancy Vallarella 

Hospitali~TEA at the Smithtown Historical Society

Miss Penelope Proper of the Mad Harlot Tea SocietyOverseeing 22 acres of grounds, 4 historical buildings, and over 100 programs offered throughout the year, Executive Director, Priya Kapoor and supporting staff open SHS’s doors for a new event. 

On Sunday, April 14, 2019, from 1:30 pm to 3:30 pm ** history repeats itself as the Smithtown Historical Society’s Frank Brush Barn is transformed into a Royal Victorian Tea Experience.

In the 1920s, women entrepreneurs converted old barns and deserted mills into tea rooms throughout Long Island.  The Orchard Tea Room in Yaphank was one of Eleanor Roosevelt’s favorites.  The Roslyn Grist Mill was converted into the Grist Mill Tea House by Alice Titus. It attracted celebrities from around the world long before the Hamptons.

From western Nassau County to the tip of the island’s tines in Suffolk County, women operated tea rooms in Great Neck– Blue Moon Tea House, Garden City –Black Swan Tea Shop,  Westhampton-Blackbird Tea Shop. 

In the heart of Smithtown, relive this tradition and go even further back in time as Long Island’s Mistress of Tea Time, Miss Penelope Proper of the Mad Harlot Tea Society hosts the afternoon filled with jaunty fun, whimsy, and culture. Victorian garb is encouraged (Prizes will be awarded for the fanciest hat and most historic costume).

Temptations of scrumptious delights to tickle the palate will be prepared by Smithtown’s own Culinary Goddess, Myra Naseem of Elegant Eating Catering. Proper Victorian afternoon tea time fare (scones, clotted cream, tea sandwiches, an assortment of sweets, a selection of teas, and sparkling cider) will be served with customary accoutrements.  

Tickets are available from the Smithtown Historical Society. Call 631-265-6788.

 $50/pp* - Minimal seating available.  

*Proceeds will fund the Smithtown Historical Society.  

**Edited to correct time. The event begins at 1:30 pm NOT 10:30 pm as originally posted.

NYS DEC And Peconic Land Trust Team Up To Protect Aquifer

The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) and the Peconic Land Trust today announced the preservation of a parcel in the Central Pine Barrens Core. The acquisition of this property will help protect Long Island’s groundwater. The town of Brookhaven, Suffolk County, parcel is the first in the state to be approved and purchased with funding from DEC’s Water Quality Improvement Project (WQIP) grants that specifically target the protection of source waters.  Funding for the project comes from a $2.3 million DEC grant awarded in December 2017 to the Peconic Land Trust for implementation of a Regional Aquifer Protection Land Acquisition Program (RAPLAP). The Trust paid $135,000 for the one-acre parcel on Cornfield Road. The property was identified by the Town of Brookhaven as a priority for conservation because of its location in the Central Pine Barrens Core, adjacent to other protected Suffolk County and Pine Barrens conservation easement lands, and its proximity to land owned by the Suffolk County Water Authority (SCWA). The Trust proposes to maintain the property for passive recreational uses such as hiking and birdwatching. There will be no interior parking. Potential improvements would be limited to a foot trail, placement of trail markers, and a trailhead kiosk.  New York’s Water Quality Improvement Program (WQIP)  WQIP is supported by the landmark $2.5 billion Clean Water Infrastructure Act and the Environmental Protection Fund. It is a competitive reimbursement grant program to fund projects that improve water quality, reduce the potential for harmful algal blooms, and protect drinking water across the state. Grants are awarded for municipal wastewater treatment; nonagricultural nonpoint source abatement and control; salt storage; aquatic habitat restoration; municipal separate storm sewer systems; and land acquisition projects for source water protection. Last month, DEC announced more than $103 million for 124 projectsbeing awarded through the WQIP grant program.  Two rounds of WQIP grants specifically for land acquisition have already been made, with more than $28 million awarded to more than 25 projects statewide. Protecting drinking water is a high priority for New Yorkers and additional land acquisition grants will be made available over the next three years, with a new round of applications for projects to be solicited this spring. For more information about the WQIP grant program, please visit DEC’s website. In addition to the WQIP program, DEC and the New York State Department of Health have launched a Drinking Water Source Protection Program to provide municipalities with resources and tools to proactively protect their drinking water sources. As part of the program’s first phase, DEC is currently soliciting applications from municipalities interested in receiving free assistance in preparing drinking water source protection plans. Applications are being accepted until Feb. 15, 2019, and more informationcan be found at DEC’s website. To continue supporting these and other initiatives, Governor Cuomo’s 2019-20 Executive Budget proposal includes a total of $5 billion for drinking water and wastewater infrastructure - building upon the $2.5 billion Act and effectively doubling the state’s investment in clean water over the next five years. The Regional Aquifer Protection Land Acquisition Program On Long Island, where 100 percent of the drinking water for 2.8 million residents comes from underground aquifers, protecting the land through which water filters is critically important. It costs up to 10 times more to produce clean drinking water from wells where surrounding lands is heavily developed than from wells in the Pine Barrens where the land is protected. Peconic Land Trust’s RAPLAP is a multi-year program using WQIP funding to acquire land or development rights for surface water quality, groundwater recharge areas, and drinking water protection. The Trust received $2.3 million from DEC to work with the Town of Brookhaven to identify and acquire properties to further protect drinking water sources. Funding for this project allows properties to be protected in and near the Special Groundwater Protection Areas within the Peconic Estuary and Forge River Watersheds and the South Shore Estuary Reserve.  The Peconic Land Trust is partnering with Peconic Estuary Program to pool resources and expertise to identify and acquire land or development rights on parcels that meet source water protection criteria. The $2.3 million from DEC will provide 75 percent of acquisition costs and the remaining 25 percent is matched with other public and/or private funds. The Trust was awarded an additional $3 million by DEC in December 2018 for Phase II to assist the Towns of Shelter Island, Southold and Riverhead. For more information, visit the Trust’s website. People interested in the DEC’s WQIP grant program and other New York water-related issues are encouraged to sign up for the weekly e-newsletter “Making Waves.” “I would be hard-pressed to recommend a more significant one-acre property in Brookhaven Town than this parcel,” said John Turner, a land management specialist with the Town of Brookhaven and a longtime Pine Barrens Protection advocate. “Not only will the purchase protect the trees and wildlife on site and help safeguard the ecological integrity of a complex of properties previously preserved adjacent to the parcel, acquisition will also prevent a new house with fertilized lawns and a septic system from being installed a few dozen feet from the Peconic River. Congratulations to the Peconic Land Trust on completing this important project.”