So Much For Openness: Gov. Christie Blocks Bill That Would Require Port Authority To Hold Hearings Before Toll Hikes

In the wake of an outcry from commuters around the New York City metro area about proposed toll hikes at Port Authority of New York and New Jersey bridges and tolls, both Governors Chris Christie and Andrew Cuomo acted swiftly to force the agency to pare back the increases.

Both also claimed that they would push for more accountability and fiscal responsibility from the bistate agency.

Well, it looks like the charade continues.

Governor Christie killed a bill that would have required the agency to hold hearings before implementing toll hikes.

The developments illustrated Christie’s tight control over the Port Authority and his administration’s insistence on reforming the agency from within, despite Democratic attempts to harness anger generated by recent toll hikes on the agency’s bridges and tunnels.

Christie’s veto of a proposed state law that would have forced the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to hold public hearings before future toll increases drew an immediate rebuke from the bill’s sponsors, who said Christie killed their effort to bring more transparency and accountability to the Port Authority. The bi-state transportation agency is jointly controlled by Christie and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

Democrats have called for more legislative oversight, audits and investigations. But Christie has said his administration is already fixing a “dysfunctional” agency that he inherited, and he has dismissed outside efforts as politically motivated.

Christie’s strategy has included stocking the agency with loyalists who will enact his agenda, and that trend continued on Thursday with the Port Authority’s announcement that failed Supreme Court nominee Phillip Kwon, a former Christie colleague in the U.S. attorney’s office, would take over as the agency’s deputy general counsel starting Monday.

“In effect, the governor announced that reform at the Port Authority will not happen under his watch,” said state Sen. Bob Gordon, D-Fair Lawn, a lead sponsor of the proposed bill, along with Assemblywoman Valerie Vainieri Huttle, D-Englewood.

Christie told state lawmakers that the bill should be altered to focus on hundreds of smaller independent authorities, boards and commissions — what he has called the state’s “shadow government.”

Sorry, but the Port Authority is a shadow government in its own right and the open hearings law should have applied to all agencies. The Port Authority is a bistate monstrosity that is accountable to the governors of New York and New Jersey alone. There's no oversight, and both states see the Port Authority coffers as a bank from which they can draw upon for infrastructure projects without having to directly raise taxes. Instead, the agency can and does issue more and more bonds using the tolls and fares to back them.

That isn't to say that toll and fare hikes aren't warranted. They are; the Port Authority has significant projects it has to carry out over the next few years and that costs tremendous sums of money. From the Bayonne Bridge span height increase to replacing hangers and cables on the George Washington Bridge to a replacement span for the Goethals Bridge and the PATH terminal at the World Trade Center, the agency has a huge capital load on its plate.

But the agency must do more without raising fares and tolls. There has to be more accountability and holding public hearings on which these issues can be made known would have been a good first step.

Christie doesn't want to lose the governors' tight grip on the agency, which includes selecting individuals for key positions.

Football Training Camps Open With Giants As Underdogs and Jets Again Overestimating Themselves

The last Super Bowl is already in the rear view mirror, and training camp is now open across the NFL. Despite having a stirring Super Bowl win over the New England Patriots, Las Vegas has a half dozen teams ranked ahead of the defending champion New York Giants including all the teams that the Giants beat in the playoffs to win it all.

You can be assured that will make for all the motivation that the defending champs need. Their regular season wasn't much to look at, but it was more than enough to get them into the playoffs where they showed their mettle. The Giants have already stated as much.

That’s why Eli Manning said in a radio interview on WFAN earlier this week that the Giants will begin camp with “a lot to prove” to everyone, even though their most recent championship isn't yet six months old. That’s a notion that has been echoed by some of his teammates who will arrive in Albany with chips on their shoulders the size of their Super Bowl rings.

“There’s always a lot to prove every year,” Osi Umenyiora said. “It’s not like the Olympics or the World Cup. Every year somebody’s got to win it again. Last year’s over with. Going into this year nobody’s picking us to win again, as usual. There’s always going to be a lot to prove every year we go out there.”

It’s still early, but in some places the Giants are already projected to finish third in the NFC East, and at least one Vegas oddsmaker has them the ninth choice to win Super Bowl XLVII behind four other NFC teams (including the Philadelphia Eagles). It’s been pointed out in many places too that before they were champions the Giants were a 9-7 team that barely qualified for the playoffs.

That fact will follow them this summer, and likely for most of the year.
“It’s understood,” Umenyiora said. “We’re used to it. It’s been like that since I’ve been here.

“My teammates understand we are the champions and we are the best team in football until someone knocks us off that mantle. To me there’s no question we’re a great football team and we’re going to play that way. But it’s just making everybody else on our football team understand that what we did last year wasn’t a fluke.

“What we did last year was real and we can do that again this year.”

They officially begin working toward that goal on Friday afternoon when they take the field for their first practice at the University at Albany, free from some of the distractions that have plagued previous camps. Umenyiora, for example, got his long-awaited raise and no longer has contract issues hovering over his head. And the Giants extended Tom Coughlin’s contract through the 2014 season, taking his usually perilous job security out of play.

The Giants do have some holes to address, including at tackle and tight end, but those are concerns that mirror the issues the team had last season as well.

By comparison, the Jets are already making newspaper fodder despite having not produced on the field. They also face the prospect of a QB controversy the moment starting quarterback Mark Sanchez hits a rough spot or a losing streak and fans begin chanting for Tim Tebow. It's a self-imposed mess that will only fester the longer the season goes. And the Jets don't seem to have the discipline to keep out of the headlines, which means that it's great for selling papers but not so good for sticking to football.

Traffic Jam On Long Island Leaves Many Wary

Last week, there was a major traffic jam on the East End of Long Island out near the Hamptons. Normally, that's wouldn't merit much of a news report, except that this one stretched out for 20 miles and led to a standstill on the two major roads leading out of the area (and back towards the mainland).

CBS 2’s Jennifer McLogan was one of the thousands that were trapped in the traffic nightmare as a portion of County Road 39 and Sunrise Highway were shut down, creating sheer agony, bedlam and confusion throughout Southampton.

“I think someone needs to make a plan so we can get out. I feel trapped,” one woman said.

“I have children that are hungry, thirsty; 95 degrees in the car, and we have no gas and nowhere to go,” motorist Ana Amato said.

As the hours passed, Village police referred McLogan to the state police, who told her it was town police that closed the highway to clean oil and clear debris from a two-vehicle collision. Motorists complained the authorities were passing the buck, keeping them uninformed.

“We’re in a lot of trouble,” one person said.

“If there’s an evacuation we should just camp out?” another said.

“This is Montauk Highway, right? And 27′s not moving either,” added another.

The backup surged through the Hamptons for 20 miles along the emergency coastal evacuation route.

“This is a good example of what we are really facing on the east end if there were to be any kind of evacuation necessary. The intersections are getting blocked. I’m afraid cars will be overheating soon. There’s nowhere to go,” motorist Maria Wilson said.

Finally at 9:49 p.m., nearly seven hours after the roads were closed, traffic began to ease. McLogan showed her exclusive video to some East End town and county leaders, who called the dangerous conditions unacceptable.

Had this occurred during a hurricane evacuation or severe storm evacuation, thousands of people would have been put in jeopardy.

Long Island's geography and geographical location means that those living on the East End are vulnerable to hurricanes and severe storms (Nor'easters) and evacuation routes need to be optimized to deal with getting people out in a timely manner. While the roads may appear to be sufficient to handle the traffic under normal conditions, traffic accidents can reduce or eliminate the margin of safety.

It also means that potential traffic accidents have to be addressed promptly to avoid major traffic jams that could delay evacuations. Law enforcement failed to handle the situation in as efficient a manner as possible, and this needs to be addressed as we head into the height of hurricane season.

The Olympics Are Barely Underway and Athletes Are Getting Banned

The Olympics are barely underway (soccer started today) and there's already a bunch of athletes disqualified for failing drug tests, but one athlete was booted because of racist twitter comments. A Greek triple-jumper was booted for the comments today.

With a 140 character message, triple jumper Voula Papachristou leaped her way out of the London Olympics and into an international spotlight she did not anticipate.

The Hellenic Olympic Committee expelled Papachristou from the team after the 23-year-old Greek mocked African immigrants on her Twitter account. The committee said that Papachristou was "placed outside the Olympic team for statements contrary to the values and ideas of the Olympic Movement."

While gearing up for her first Olympic games on Sunday, Papachristou commented on the reported influx of West Nile mosquitos in Athens. She tweeted in Greek, "With so many Africans in Greece, the West Nile mosquitoes will be getting home food!!!" Her tweet provoked a bevy of ill responses, and many Greeks called for her dismissal from the Olympic team.

Papachristou also retweeted messages from the extreme right Golden Dawn party, which has criticized Greek's prime minister and his stance on immigration.

Racist is racist. It's part and parcel of what the Golden Dawn thinks of immigration and immigrants. It's xenophobia at its most exposed.

West Nile is prevalent around much of the world, including the NYC metro area. We have regular spraying of insecticides throughout the region to limit the spread of mosquito populations in the area and doctors are better informed as to the symptoms to help identify those who have become infected. That's limited the mortality rate here, but it's got nothing to do with immigrants. It is prevalent among migratory birds, which are a spreading vector, which is why it's been found around much of the United States, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.

Rezoning: A Lasting Legacy of Mayor Bloomberg

While there's plenty to complain about when it comes to New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg (the inane and likely unconstitutional soda ban being one), one area that he's excelled at is the ability to get vast swaths of underutilized areas of the city rezoned for commercial and residential development.

That includes major developments like Hudson Yards, Atlantic Yards, DUMBO, and now a portion of the Bronx near the Sheridan Expressway.

A development firm co-founded by Gifford Miller, a former New York City Council speaker, though, is betting that the stretch, rezoned for residential use last October, can be transformed into what the Bronx borough president, Rubén Díaz Jr., calls “a small city.” The project, which is to include 1,325 units of housing and 46,000 square feet of retail space, took an important step forward this month, when it received $1.2 million in capital financing from Mr. Diaz’s office and another $1.3 million allocated by City Councilman Joel Rivera.

That money, combined with financing from the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development, will allow Mr. Miller’s company, Signature Urban Properties, to move forward on construction of the project’s first two buildings, he said. The initial plans call for a total of 237 residential units and 4,200 square feet of retail space in those structures, with low-income housing in one building and moderate-income housing in the other. Construction could begin as soon as early next year, Mr. Miller said, with the entire 10-building project taking seven to nine years to complete.

The Bronx development would benefit greatly from the elimination of the Sheridan Expressway and replace it with a grade level boulevard with park space. The Sheridan is functionally obsolete and the traffic isn't commensurate with the effort devoted to maintaining the roadway (to say nothing of the mess it makes of the Bruckner Expressway interchange.

Aleppo Bracing For Assad's Forces

Syria is in a state of civil war and has been for some time. Rebel forces have captured territories outside of the major cities and provinces of Hama and Homs as Assad's gaze has focused on retaking those areas. It's left outlying provinces to their own devices. They're running things without Assad's government goons in sight:

As the Syrian state recedes, the people in this village and villages around it are filling in the blanks with their own institutions and, for better or for worse, their own ideas about how a country should be run.

The rebels started taking control of these villages and towns a few months back, as the Syrian army focused on holding major cities.

The first thing the rebels do is take over the post office or the police station and set up shop as the local authority.

Each village or town has something different to offer the rebels. In Qurqanya, it's a school that during the summer break can be used as a kind of media center, with a few laptops and an Internet connection.

In the next town over, it's a hospital.

The head doctor says he might treat dozens of injured rebel fighters from all around this region in a single day. Places that treat rebels used to be totally underground — makeshift MASH units set up in people's houses.

In many parts of Syria, it's still like this. But more and more the rebels are coming out into the open and asserting their control.

While the fighting has receded from those areas, it's intensifying in and around Aleppo as Bashar al Assad's forces prepare to overwhelm the rebel forces in the sprawling city with artillery, airstrikes, and an armored assaults.

Civilians caught in the crossfire are attempting to get out of the way, but face hazards at every step of the way with gunfire erupting at every turn.

“We fear the government’s retaliation — may God help us,” said Ahmad, a resident of the southeastern Salaheddiin neighborhood, one of the first areas overrun with insurgents over the weekend. So many poured in from the countryside that they sometimes ended up fighting each other for control of individual streets, residents said.

People streamed out of the neighborhoods where the rebel soldiers claimed control, figuring they would be pounded by government forces, following the same pattern in one Syrian city after another during the course of the 17-month-old uprising. But some men stayed behind to protect their property from looters.

Tanks and troops normally deployed in nearby Idlib province began to lumber eastward toward Aleppo after suhur, the morning meal that comes before sunrise during the monthlong Ramadan holiday, fighters and activists said.

One column of an estimated 23 armored vehicles carrying soldiers and ammunition out of Jebel az-Zawiya, a rebel stronghold in southern Idlib, was attacked by local fighters, according to a local activist in Turkey who said he was in touch with the insurgents. Roughly a third of the vehicles were destroyed but the rest moved on toward Aleppo, he said.

Assad's prospects may be slightly improved on the battlefield, but his diplomatic contacts are getting hammered hard.

Turkey has cut trade ties with Syria in closing its border. At the same time, two more Syrian diplomats have defected:

Turkey sealed its border with Syria to trucks on Wednesday, effectively cutting off a trade relationship once worth almost $3 billion with the embattled nation, as regime forces fought to evict rebels from the country's largest city.

Two more Syrian diplomats, the envoy to Cyprus and her husband, the former ambassador to the United Arab Emirates, have also defected, according to the opposition Syrian National Council, in the latest sign of fraying support for the regime among its own elites. The announcement follows the televised appearance Tuesday night of a defected regime general calling for a new Syria.

Turkish Economy Minister Zafer Caglayan said deteriorating security was behind the closure of a border through which Turkey once exported food and construction materials to the entire Middle East, though the volume of traffic had dropped 87 percent since the Syrian conflict began in March 2011.

Aleppo Under Siege As Assad's Forces Attack From Air and Golan Heights DMZ

Israel is contacting the United Nations over an incursion by more than 500 Syrian soldiers into the DMZ between Israel and Syria in the process of attacking rebel targets near the demarcation line.

Following the incident, in which 500 soldiers and 50 vehicles crossed into the demilitarized zone, Israel filed a formal complaint to the UN secretary general and to the president of the UN's Security Council, warning that the event may have serious ramifications.

Concern in Israel, in light of the situation in Syria, especially over Assad's chemical weapons stockpile and land-to-land missiles, is growing every day. In a meeting on Sunday afternoon, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu consulted the heads of Israel's security establishment, including Defense Minister Ehud Barak, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman and other senior cabinet members.

"We are monitoring the events in Syria closely and are prepared for any development to come," Netanyahu said in his opening statement.

At the same time, rebel forces are claiming that Bashar al-Assad's forces have dispersed chemical weapons to airports along Syria's borders as a threat against foreign countries from interfering in the brutal crackdown against the rebels. However, we need to keep in mind distances we're talking about here. The threat is that he's going to disperse and deploy them against foreign targets.

Damascus is 45 miles from the Golan Heights DMZ.

Tel Aviv and Jerusalem are only around 120 miles beyond that.

The distances are so small that the threat is the same regardless of where Assad is putting those weapons if he's going to use them against Israel via aircraft or long range missiles. Artillery delivering such weapons would have a shorter range, but that's something that the Israelis would see via their listening posts on Mt. Hermon. Israel would see something was afoot, though the reaction time would be less the closer to the border.

Dispersing the weapons means that the chances that they could fall into the wrong hands increases (terrorists or those who may have no idea what they're doing) increases. But since Assad is expanding its air campaign against the rebels, it's not beyond the possibility that despite his claims to the contrary, he could be preparing to use them against the rebel forces.

If Assad thought that trying to provoke Israel into engaging in a firefight would help his cause, he's seriously misguided since Syrians would see and respond that he's trying to bluff his way out of his predicament by blaming Israel (something he's done for far too long). And the last thing he wants to do is split his forces between going after the rebel forces and any kind of conflict with Israel and its technological superiority. He would unwittingly be playing right into the hands of rebel forces who lack the capability to neutralize the Syrian air force. If Assad brings Israel into the conflict, it would neutralize his air force, which is one of the few things holding the rebel forces at bay.

Recent reports indicate that Assad's now using fighter jets in addition to helicopter gunships. Until now, Assad's forces have used helicopters and artillery for long range attacks against the rebel forces.

Assad's forces have increasingly relied upon their air force to attack rebel forces, which is also about the only way Assad's loyalists can stay ahead of the rebels, who have managed to carry off spectacular advances in holding territory as well as attacks killing the highest echelon of Assad's security establishment.

Government helicopter gunships attacked Aleppo, the Local Coordination Committees, a network of on-the-ground activists, told NBC News. The Associated Press reported that warplanes circled in the air around the city, while the British Broadcasting Corp., citing one of its reporters near the area, said that fighter jets had bombed eastern parts of Aleppo.
With sequential rebel attacks on the country's two largest cities and a bombing that wiped out some of his top security advisors, President Bashar Assad reshuffled his top security posts, dismissing one general and appointing a national security council chief to replace the one killed in the recent attack.

Syria's rebels, outmanned and outgunned by the regime's professional army, have mounted a surprising pair of offensives over the last 10 days against the country's two major cities — Damascus and Aleppo. Even as the government appears to have snuffed out most of the rebel pockets in the capital, the rebels appear to be fight fiercely in the commercial hub of Aleppo in the north.

The government has instituted tight restrictions on outside news outlets working in Syria, making it difficult to verify many reports from inside the country.

Fighting spreads in Aleppo
The battle in Aleppo has spread from neighborhoods in the northeast and southwest of the city to previously untouched areas like Firdous in the south and Arkoub closer to the center, local activists and the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

This is the fourth day of heavy fighting in Aleppo, which also includes a prison uprising that was brutally put down. There's also evidence that Assad's forces are using Iranian-made UAVs in spotting targets.

Soda Ban Proposal Gets Health Department Public Hearing Today

The New York City Department of Health will be holding a hearing today to allow comment on a proposal to ban certain kinds of sales of sugar-containing beverages.

A just released study by New York University found that the ban as proposed would cut caloric intake by 63 calories, but the results may be negligible as customers simply buy more of the beverages:

Mayor Bloomberg's proposed ban caps a maximum size of 16 ounces for sugary drinks - sold in cups or bottles - at food establishments under the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene's jurisdiction. That includes restaurants, fast food chains, delis, street carts and movie theaters. Drinks sold at grocery and convenience stores - including two-liter bottles and 7-11's "Big Gulp" fountain drinks - would be exempt from the ban.

New research led by Dr. Brian Elbel, an assistant professor of population health and health policy at NYU Langone School of Medicine in New York City, analyzed what impact Mayor Bloomberg's proposal would have on a typical consumer's calorie intake.

Elbel and fellow NYU researchers pooled data from two studies that included 1,624 sales receipts listing a non-milkshake beverage (dairy products are excluded from the proposed ban), which were collected from diners at three different fast-food restaurants in New York City, Newark, N.J., Philadelphia and Baltimore from 2008 to 2010. Their research is published in a correspondence to the editor in the July 23 online issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

Based on the receipts and corresponding survey information collected from the studies, the researchers determined that 62 percent of beverages bought at these restaurants would be over 16 ounces and subject to the mayor's new proposal. Elbel explained to HealthPop in an interview that if 100 percent of fast food consumers switched to a 16-ounce drink from their previous order, the average consumer would take in 63 fewer calories per trip to a fast-food restaurant.

However that's assuming nobody opts to purchase an additional 16-ounce beverage - people can buy as many as they like at these establishments under Bloomberg's proposal - which Elbel conceded may not be likely. His research found that if only 30 percent of consumers reduced their intake to a 16-ounce beverage, the decrease in calories would be negligible.

I've repeatedly stated my opposition to this ban on several grounds, including that it arbitrarily creates a class of banned beverages, even though there are other beverages that contain far more calories per ounce and that other lifestyle choices can have a far greater impact on public health (many a Starbucks beverage will often have more calories than a soda as would many of the iced beverages sold at McDonalds and other chains).

In other words, the class of beverages affected is arbitrary and will not have any appreciable effect on obesity, but it would pave the way for far more intrusive changes imposed by health departments around the country.

Sedentary lifestyles play a significant role in obesity and getting more exercise needs to be considered. Cutting soda portion size isn't a panacea, particularly when soda consumption has been down even as the number of obese people has increased. Something else is at play when soda consumption is down even as the percentage of obese people has increased. That something happens to include a sedentary lifestyle and oversized food portions.

Mayor Bloomberg's proposals are about what he thinks the Department of Health can get away with as far as limiting portion sizes, not based on actual science or greatest impact on public health.

It still comes down to personal choice, and a person will take in far more calories than they need, which is why so many people try and fail on diets to eat sensibly and within their caloric needs as determined by nutritionists or diet experts. The failure to exercise makes things all the worse.

After all, someone who eats a 16 ounce porterhouse or other similar steak will take in far more calories than someone drinking a 16 ounce soda, but there's no limiting the restaurant from serving even bigger portions of steak, even though a serving size is a fraction of that amount.

This is just a misguided effort by a nanny stater to impose a ban that will have a negligible effect on public health.

On Government Spending, Cost Inefficiencies, and Jobs

I was reading through a bunch of articles on the economy and what might happen if the automatic deficit cuts are applied (that was agreed upon by Congress if they couldn't reach a deal on how to make specified cuts). The focus was on defense spending where a 10% automatic across-the-board cut would be applied. So, for a submarine construction program, they'd have to cut 10% funding. That has the GOP trying to pin the lost construction jobs on the President.

I find the hypocrisy of that unsurprising, but revealing. It is an admission that the government can and does create jobs - the GOP is questioning where those jobs are coming from. It's apparently okay that defense contractors get government contracts to build stuff (using union labor in many instances), but if the President proposes infrastructure programs to spur jobs, he's derided as a socialist or worse.

I don't have a problem with the military spending on building new submarines and other technologies that can allow the military to do more with fewer personnel (the newest aircraft carrier will have a significant reduction in personnel aboard because of automation of numerous functions). Lower personnel costs have a cumulative effect. It reduces exposing our soldiers, sailors and marines to harms' way.

But at the same time, we need to address serious and widespread deficiencies in infrastructure. That would be a tremendous jobs opportunity but the GOP points at the stimulus package as a failure. What they want people to ignore is that the stimulus was as much a bailout of states that were in major deficit situations that couldn't raise taxes into the teeth of a major recession (at least half the stimulus was transfer payments to cover existing obligations, not to spend on new infrastructure that would encourage jobs development and a lasting improvement to infrastructure).

Still, there's plenty of fat on infrastructure projects. Amtrak went ahead and announced a $151 billion program that would upgrade the Northeast Corridor to true high speed rail. It's a staggering figure considering that it would run about $330+ million per mile or more than 10 times what it would cost for a mile of high speed rail in the rest of the world. There's no reason it should cost that much, and it would sap spending elsewhere on infrastructure. Construction costs are significantly higher on such projects in the US than they are elsewhere. That cost inefficiency has to be addressed at the same time that such projects are done.

FBI Investigation of Trenton Mayor Mack Continues

Last week, I noted that the FBI was carrying out searches of Trenton Mayor Tony Mack, a Democrat. Those searches included stops at his home, office, and his brother. At the time, the FBI wasn't saying what they were looking for.

Today, they've announced that they're looking into bribery, fraud, extortion and money laundering charges.

Federal authorities also are investigating vendor contracts with the city, during a time frame that stretches nearly to the day Mack took office, the documents show.

The FBI investigation became public last week when agents conducted raids on Mack’s home and City Hall, among others.

Agents last week also searched the Ewing home of Joseph “JoJo” Giorgianni, who donated nearly $5,000 to Mack’s campaign during the run-up to the 2010 election.

Giorgianni is named in the documents as well, with federal authorities searching for records of any correspondence between him and city officials.

Nearly 30 agents searched City Hall on Thursday and left carrying boxes, milk crates, computers and documents. Officials have not said what the authorities found.

The FBI could not be reached for comment last night, and a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office declined to comment.

Mack is out of town on a vacation and is due back Monday, and a message left on his cell phone last night was not immediately returned. The mayor has not been charged with a crime, and it’s unknown if Mack has hired a lawyer.

City business administrator Sam Hutchinson, who has stepped in as acting mayor in Mack’s absence, could not be reached for comment on the FBI probe last night. “We’re just steering the ship while the captain’s away,” Hutchinson had said earlier yesterday.

The scope of the FBI’s search for evidence is in line with what opponents such as George Dougherty, an attorney representing a former city employee in a whistle-blower lawsuit against Mack, have been alleging since Mack took office.

Mack is currently on vacation for a couple of weeks (he's scheduled to return July 30), and has left the business administrator Sam Hutchinson in charge. Among the issues that critics have had with Mack is that he's replaced a bunch of those business administrators and put his cronies in charge of city operations at a time when the city can ill afford it (as if any city can really afford cronyism).

NCAA Imposes $60 Million "Fine" And Other Penalties on Penn State

The NCAA has imposed a $60 million penalty and vacated all of the school's wins from 1998 to 2011. The $60 million is going to found a fund to compensate victims; the $60 million isn't in addition to whatever settlements come against the school or its officials.

Let that sink in a moment.

Penn State's fine is equal to one year's revenues from the football program.

The schools wins are vacated from 1998 to 2011.

The punishment also included the loss of some scholarships over four years and the vacating of all of the team’s victories from 1998 to 2011, but stopped short of forcing the university to shut down the football team for a season or more, the so-called death penalty. Still, the penalties are serious enough that it is expected to take Penn State’s football program, one of the most successful in the country, years before it will be able to return to the sport’s top echelon.

The postseason ban and the scholarship restrictions essentially prevent the program from fielding a team that can be competitive in the Big Ten. The N.C.A.A. will also allow Penn State players to transfer to another university, where they can play immediately, inviting the possibility of a mass exodus. Penn State will lose 10 initial scholarships and 20 total scholarships each year for a four-year period.

In announcing the penalties, Mark Emmert, the N.C.A.A. president, called the case the most painful “chapter in the history of intercollegiate athletics,” and said it could be argued that the punishment was “greater than any other seen in N.C.A.A. history.” He said Penn State accepted the penalties when they were presented to the university.

The N.C.A.A.'s penalty is the latest action to stem from the scandal involving Sandusky, who was convicted last month of being a serial pedophile. The release of a grand jury report detailing Sandusky’s actions last November led to the firing of the head coach, Joe Paterno; the removal of the university’s president, Graham B. Spanier; and charges against two other top university officials.

Emmert said that no punishment the N.C.A.A. could impose would change the damage done by Sandusky’s acts, but “the culture, actions and inactions that allowed them to be victimized will not be tolerated in collegiate athletics.”

Ed Ray, the president of Oregon State and chairman of the N.C.A.A.'s executive committee, said the case, and the sanctions imposed, represented a declaration by university presidents and chancellors that “this has to stop.” By that he meant a win at all costs mentality with respect to intercollegiate sports.

And all of this is because Penn State officials thought that protecting the football program and the university's reputation was more important than protecting innocent kids.

Now, the program is hit with the stigma of condoning the abuse. And it still is insufficient.

Sorry, but they deserved to have the football program canned altogether. The school's officials actively engaged in a coverup of sexual abuse and it was institutionalized by those in the athletic department and from top school officials. $60 million is a huge sum, but one that isn't going to miss a beat with a school's endowment the size of Penn State ($1.8 billion systemwide). Losing scholarships, bowl appearances, etc., will hurt, but it's not going to rectify the way that the school completely abrogated its responsibilities to the community.

People need to learn that there are serious consequences for condoning sexual abuse. A fine isn't going to cut it in my book.

As for the students in the football program, they should be allowed to transfer to other schools with no penalization; they were bystanders to the failures and had no way to know that they were going to a program that was as debased as Penn State was. Let them transfer to other programs with no loss of scholarships or eligibility. This isn't on them.

Oh, and I still see that the Paterno family questions the Freeh report's conclusions about Joe P. Sorry, but I have no sympathy for them or Paterno's legacy. He knew, or had reason to know of the abuse, and did nothing - and worse, let Sandusky continue to play a role in the sports program and work with kids.

The school finally took down the statue honoring Paterno over the weekend. That's little more than a symbolic gesture and cold consolation to those who were abused.

UPDATE:
The NCAA decision also allows football players to transfer at no loss of eligibility or loss of scholarship. That's good for the students, but the university should have seen even greater penalties. The football program should have been disbanded. The university institutionalized the failings that allowed Sandusky to commit his abuse and didn't do enough to protect innocents.

The scandal will eventually fade and the program will eventually return in full form.

Heck, a 1950s point shaving scandal at a bunch of NYC area colleges had longer lasting results:

While Kentucky was forced to cancel one season of play (1952-53), it was the only program that was not permanently hobbled by the scandal. To date, Bradley is the only other affected school to have appeared in a final major media poll. However, none of the programs would suffer more than CCNY and LIU. Following the discovery of several other irregularities, CCNY deemphasized its athletic program and dropped down to what is now Division III. LIU shut down its entire athletic program from 1951 to 1957, and didn't return to Division I until the 1980s.

Penn State should have at least done the same as LIU, or the NCAA should have imposed a similar fate.