The Politicalist: August 10

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 10, 2011

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Happy Aug. 10, y'all!

Here's what's up in and about the north country.

Wind power

Few answers for St. Lawrence County towns.

Be rational

Gov. Andrew Cuomo signs so-called rational tuition plan into law.

Strike!

Verizon says striking union workers may have sabotaged phone lines, causing outages in the north country.

Your tax dollars at work (in the Hudson Valley)

A state authority OK'ed a deal to send money from the Black River to the Hudson River parts of a state authority. My giant head/self appears at 0:14 in this story. Also, if you're interested in how geography affects journalism, check out Albany's angle.

Fuel efficiency

In the north country, which I believe is probably the pickup-truck capital of the world, this story will probably be important.

National Popular Vote

California did what state Sen. Joe Griffo was unable to do (because Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver didn't want to, I'm told): it approved a plan to send its electoral votes to whoever wins the popular vote nationwide.

Super committee

Harry Reid makes his picks. Sens. Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand didn't make the cut.

Israel

The State Department is critical of new settlements. Rep. Bill Owens is in Israel now.

WI recall

Republicans lost two seats, but not control of the state Senate there.

Gambling?

Mr. Cuomo is looking into the possibility of legalizing non-Indian casinos in the state, a move sure to anger the St. Regis Mohawk Tribe in St. Lawrence County.

Markets

The stock market had a late rally yesterday, but as this New York Post cover so deftly and tastefully explains, they were up and down all day. We'll see what happens today.

The rally came on the heels of an announcement from the Fed that interest rates would stay at historic lows until 2013.

Thanks, but no thanks

Kansas is returning a $31.5 million grant that was part of President Obama's health care overhaul.

Fracking

The gas industry is pushing back on Comptroller Tom DiNapoli's newest proposal.

Post offices

NNY post offices received their notifications of closure.