Niagara Falls Reporter
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SEP 23- SEP 30, 2014

Letters to the Editor

September 23, 2014

RATS ARE PEOPLE TOO

I read your article on how the people of LaSalle have a rat problem.

Have you stopped to consider that the rats have a people problem?

Rats think and feel. They communicate, though their "talk" can't be heard by humans, since they communicate using ultrasound.

They have relationships and families. They are nocturnal and live in dark confined areas. They work at midnight.

When they come out to get food and water they walk along walls and floorboards. They travel below your line of vision darting from area to area.

They will leave a trail of urine and each rat excretes 25,000 droppings a year, so don't lick the floor boards or eat the droppings.

Each female can birth eight "kittens" every four weeks. They breed all year round and their young produce litters from three months. If you had 1,000 rats and killed 800, in one month there will be 1,000 again.

While people attack rats, rats rarely attack humans, and only if they are cornered. They get familiar with people in a house and nibble on the skin on the feet and hands of sleeping people.

Rats love to be tickled, and make chirping noises that sound like laughter.

Rats love to be petted. They purr when you pet them. They will blow in your ear and lick away your tears.

They can recognize their names and respond when called.

They want what we want. Good food and safe water, and a place to raise their family. They don't need much either. Rats can thrive on an ounce of food and water daily.

But people poison them and snap trap them. They use glue traps and force them to gnaw off their own feet. Rats spend days in agony before dying after ingesting poison.

If you don't want rats, seal your house from holes, cracks, gaps around pipes and doors. Rats can slip into buildings through quarter-size holes, and mice into dime-size holes.

Eliminate access to food by keeping your counter surfaces, floors, and cabinets free of crumbs and store food in chew-proof containers. Seal trash, pick up your pets' food at night.

After rodent-proofing your home, then live-trap them and keep them in a cage until you have the whole family then release them as a group in order to keep the family together.

Live cage or box traps should be checked hourly. Rats can die from stress-induced disorders, exposure, or dehydration in a few hours.

Rats should be released in the evening, or early morning. The outside temperature should be no colder than 40°F. It should be neither raining nor snowing since they must burrow underground. Take them to a place that has a creek, river, sewer drain, etc. like a local park, forest, or wilderness preserve. Place them near a rock, a tree or shrub. Leave paper products, branches, cotton, and a few days supply of food.

If you ever moved, you know it takes a while to get adjusted.

Janet L. Janik

Tonawanda

 

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Local resident unsure about what exactly is a recyclable

Everyone knows that plastic bottles and aluminum cans used commonly in Niagara Falls to hold malt liquor and cheap beer must be recycled, though the bottles and cans rarely make it to Modern Disposal Corp's Lewiston facility since one of the growth industries here since Niagara Falls Mayor Paul Dyster took office has been the collection of these by people seeking to redeem them for the five-cent deposit.

No, you can't recycle this perv.

Many would tell you that the Niagara Falls Reporter is trash, but does it qualify as a recyclable under the new city program?

Spent brass bullet casings, broken crack pipes and tiny zip lock baggies people buy their drugs in may be garbage to some, but recycling gold to others.

Windshield glass broken out when some guy in a hoodie breaks into your car, recyclable or no?

Covanta, which has a garbage incinerator over in LaSalle, is known to accept dead baby fetuses for disposal but what about human garbage?

Dangerous and violent Level 2 and 3 sex criminals brought in since Dyster was first elected outnumber the recent college grads he's also trying to lure here by about 20-to-1.

Unlike viable fetuses who end up in Covanta's incinerators, predatory sexual deviants are technically alive and won't be covered under the Modern contract.

Kelly Wilson

Niagara Falls



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How Old Is That Picture?

 

It would be interesting to know how old the picture of the "Rainbow Bridge" is. Looking at the cars, the entrance on the Canadian side and the fact there are no high-rise hotels on the US side, I would guest over 50 years.

B. White

Welland, ON.

 

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Youngstown Landfill Expansion Ought to Worry Canadians Too

Apparently this is a problem of which there is little awareness.

Here are points made by David Israelson, a Toronto writer and consultant in the Toronto Star last week:

** New York officials are considering whether to permit Chemical Waste Management Inc. to expand its landfill in Youngstown, N.Y..

** The site is 3.1 miles from the Niagara River, already filled with so many chemicals that it's listed as an official area of concern by the International Joint Commission that oversees shared Canada-U.S. waters.

** At least once a year, under U.S. permit, the existing New York-side landfill is allowed to dilute the cancer-linked PCBs and other materials it collects and discharge into the Niagara River.

** The Youngstown dump now being considered for expansion has been taking in toxic and radioactive waste since 2001, when the Love Canal cleanup was in full swing.

** Clyde Burmaster, vice chair of the Niagara County legislature says that "There is a mega-threat to both the U.S. and Canada. We feel there is strong evidence the landfill materials (at the site where expansion is proposed) are leaking out beneath ground and beneath the depth that the on-site soil is monitored, and heading directly into the Niagara River."

** To make matters worse, Burmaster says that the Chemical Waste Management site is on an earthquake fault line: "Should a quake happen and open the landfill . . . in just one hour those carcinogens and radioactive particles would become airborne and could be carried 60 miles away….all the way to the Toronto area."...

Our municipal leaders need to step up pressure on the provincial and federal governments -- the latter since the Niagara River is shared by Canada and the USA -- to pressure the US and NY governments to stop expansion of this dump, if not force its closure entirely.

Chemical Waste Management (CWM) is but 3.1 miles from the Niagara River and presents an enormous threat to Canadians

Jim Bannister

Preserve Our Parks

Niagara Falls, Ontario

 

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Dyster Showboating at Fire!

Happened to catch the village idiot (Mayor Paul Dyster ) on the news trying to do a impression of the mayor of New York City. Trying to give the impression HE had the fire at GreenPac personally under control.

It's a shame, in the last election, the only choice we had was a washed up old #@* John Accardo, a traitor to his party. And a known factor, the village idiot. What harm could he do!

Now I realize Dyster is a burned out drunk, with a major personality defect " NARCISISM. " And a well practiced liar in my opinion.

I ask you to not use my name because of political and personal repercussions. I request anonymity please.

Mr. X, a Democrat,

Niagara Falls

 

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Gary DiLaura facts are on The Wrong Side

I read with interest the article by Gary DiLaura regarding Carbon Dioxide releases and his claims.

As I read further, I found that Gary based his information and belief largely on the opinion of 'Dr. Art Robinson', who Gary states "was instrumental in forming the EPA in 1971, and the first EPA director, and who is one of the world's foremost recognized experts on environmental issues".

Unfortunately, Gary has been misled somewhere here as, factually, Art Robinson PhD is a Chemist who has never had anything to do with the EPA.

Robinson heads the Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine, which describes itself as "a small research institute" that studies "biochemistry, diagnostic medicine, nutrition, preventive medicine and the molecular biology of aging."

According to Source watch, Arthur B Robinson is an eccentric scientist who has a long history of controversial entanglements with figures on the fringe of accepted research. OISM also markets a home-schooling kit for "parents concerned about socialism in the public schools" and publishes books on how to survive nuclear war.

In 1998, the OISM circulated the Oregon Petition, a deceptive "scientists' petition" skeptical of global warming, in collaboration with Frederick Seitz.

That is the petition which Gary eludes to with the 31,000 signatures, but .... The institute is so lax about screening names, however, that virtually anyone can sign, including, for example, Al Caruba, a pesticide-industry PR man and conservative ideologue who runs his own website called the "National Anxiety Center".

Caruba has no scientific credentials whatsoever, but, in addition to signing the Oregon Petition, he editorialized on his website against the science of global warming, calling it the "biggest hoax of the decade," a "genocidal" campaign by environmentalists who believe that "humanity must be destroyed to 'Save the Earth.' . . . There is no global warming, but there is a global political agenda, comparable to the failed Soviet Union experiment with Communism, being orchestrated by the United Nations, supported by its many Green NGOs, to impose international treaties of every description that would turn the institution into a global government, superseding the sovereignty of every nation in the world."

When questioned in 1998, Robinson admitted that only 2,100 signers of the Oregon Petition had identified themselves as physicists, geophysicists, climatologists, or meteorologists.

This grouping of fields concealed the fact that only a few dozen, at most, of the signatories were drawn from the core disciplines of climate science - such as meteorology, oceanography, and glaciology - and almost none were climate specialists.

Outside of his Anti Climate Change Work, Robinson ran as the Republican candidate for the Oregon 4th Congressional District in 2010, 2012 and is expected to lose a third time in 2014.

Oh, and Gary, I know that it's a popular GOP talking point, but as a retired FBI agent you should be knowledgeable enough to know that Al Gore never actually said he invented the internet.

Joe Dunn

 

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Another Opposing View to DiLaura's Global Warming Argument

I try always to get and read the Niagara Falls Reporter. I think I will still try to read it despite the mixed feelings that it leaves in me.

Most of the times I like the numbers it presents in support of its constant accusations against the city officials, although I have to say that I would not be totally confident to stand in front of the mayor with the article "… casino cash tour". I would be afraid that the information it presents has not been confirmed (if it was, not only Dyster, but most council members would deserve to go to prison) or manipulated.

At least, it presents an alternative source of information to the Niagara Gazette which I find boring and extremely supportive of the created interests and the government in the region to say the least. I liked the reporting and position of the publication in relation with the Hamister development, as well as with the regrettable, and destructive establishment political plot against Fruscione.

However, as I said before, sometimes I read articles that I find incredible would appear in a publication that respects itself. This is the case with the article "The right side". I can't visualize even which the real purpose of this article is, and frankly I fear the threats that there will be more after this one.

Let's first say that I do not know the gentleman that signs the article and that I do not pretend to attack him personally in any way. This article is not written by an expert in the field, his background as a policeman is wrongly used to support and give authenticity and weight to the ideas presented, and, at the end, it only gets to affect the publication's prestige. If the purpose is the stated one, then I think the publication should publish an alternative eyes and ears opener because this is an issue that affects everyone in the society.

DiLaura writes: "As a federal agent, I spent a career putting thieves, cheats, and con men in jail. Retired, now I can't keep quiet any more with what I see going on. I have to try and get my countrymen to open their eyes and ears to the cons around them".

Thank you for your interest, but it is preferable that you stay out of this issue of which "you know nothing".

This is not a sympathy partisan contest. This issue should transcend the party lines to get to be a scientific one. Let the people think by themselves, and let the scientists handle it. It would be better if you "open your eyes and ears" to the international community of scientists and support their sincere efforts in making the current Earth a better and more lasting world, not for retirees hungry of the spotlight, but for the children of tomorrow.

Yes, the theory of Global Warming is not a proven fact, there are some mechanisms that are still not known or proven, but as the NASA said "even given the considerable uncertainties in our knowledge of the relevant phenomena, greenhouse warming poses a potential threat sufficient to merit prompt responses. Investment in mitigation measures acts as insurance protection against the great uncertainties and the possibility of dramatic surprises." That was at the end of the last century, and today more and more of the most relevant scientists worldwide stand behind this view. Most in the opposition are "scientists" financially backed up by the big industry

DiLaura writes: "First, there is currently .045% CO2 in the atmosphere over the earth right now."

Really?!? Do you know that a percentage is not a unit that measures "amount of substance" but (in this case) amount of substance in relation to other substances? And because the amount you present is "an instant" measure, it says absolutely nothing about long lasting influences in the amount of this pollutant. The important thing is how its amount (that is calculated generally in parts per million –ppm-) has changed over a long period of time. This following graph provides the measures over Hawaii, one of the most complete measurements worldwide and it speaks for itself.

Mauna Loa CO2

Observe that during each year, the values go up and down, but the lasting effect is an increase whose rate of increase is at the same time increasing as is shown by the slope of the curve.

DiLaura writes: "According to Dr. Art Robinson, who was instrumental in forming the EPA in 1971, and the first EPA director, and who is one of the world's foremost recognized experts on environmental issues, there is no evidence that CO2 releases by human sources causes global warming."

Well, those "facts" do not appear in his biography – according to Wikipedia. What appears there, though, is that he was graduated in biochemistry, that he was fired from the Linus Pauling Institute after an ugly dispute with Richard Hicks and Linus Pauling (Chemistry Nobel prize), for which he sued the Institute for $25 million but later settled for $525,000. Robinson is known for founding the private institution "Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine" and for making the "Oregon Petition" where he attacks the theory of global warming. Additionally, he attacks the Darwinist theory of evolution, presents and stimulates home schooling, and is a very active Republican Party political activist who had run for the US House of Representatives and lost the two elections since 2010 to his democratic opponent, hence being a well known biased person.

In relation to the named "Oregon petition" and the alleged 31,000 scientists, let's only say that it was presented first before the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in 1998 by Jeff Jacoby, a columnist for the Boston Globe; that George Woodwell and John Holdren, two members of the National Academy of Sciences, described it as a farce, mainly because of the major weakness of the list: there is no way to check the authenticity of the names. Furthermore, "Approved names on the list included fictional characters from the television show M*A*S*H, the movie Star Wars, Spice Girls group member Geri Halliwell, English naturalist Charles Darwin (d. 1882) and prank names such as I. C. Ewe." The National Academy of Science NASA published the following in 1998 "The NAS Council would like to make it clear that this petition has nothing to do with the National Academy of Sciences and that the manuscript was not published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences or in any other peer-reviewed journal." It also said "The petition does not reflect the conclusions of expert reports of the Academy."

DiLaura writes further "Dr. Robinson, who is responsible for the Big 8 Environmental laws like clean air and clean water, also now believes that the EPA, that he created and directed, should be eliminated! It is causing more damage to the economy of the United States than it is good for the environment! "

Yes, and that is all we need to dismiss the whole article, anything it takes to support the friends of the big money created interests and the power establishment. Have you notice that the EPA is a governmental agency, not precisely a scientist center?

And it is really pathetic that this publication publishes this article. It really harms hard the credibility of the Niagara Falls Reporter.

By the way, I am not a policeman; I am only a Physics, Math and Science teacher.

Frank Cofer

 

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Rats Are the Problem

Maybe you will be able to help us ?

I want to thank you first off for running the story and I do live in Lassalle 67th street – I have seen them and they are huge.. they have dug a hole under my shed.

I called the mayor's office every day at the beginning of this summer and they did nothing. I know that the other side of the expressway had Orkin man come in and I was told by some who live over on that side that this had nothing to do with the city. They said it was the owner of Covanta on Buffalo Ave -Who paid for it not the city.

Also I did speak to councilman Robert Anderson and he said that there was a phone # listed to call ( hotline ),

I bought my house 5 years ago and I never ever saw a rat until last year when the road work started on Buff Ave

DeeAnn Borys

Niagara Falls

 

 

 

 

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