The Daily Record News Briefs: August 6, 2008

Daily Record (Rochester, NY), Aug 6, 2008

State passes subprime reform

Gov. David A. Paterson on Tuesday signed into law legislation intended to address the effects of the subprime mortgage crisis in New York.

The bill was passed by the Legislature in June.

Among other features, it requires lenders to send a pre- foreclosure notices to borrowers at least 90 days before foreclosure proceedings begin and establishes mandatory settlement conferences for foreclosure proceedings involving homeowners with certain kinds of subprime loans.

The law enables some homeowners to be provided with an attorney and also strengthens banking laws affecting loans in a number of ways, including a provision requiring lenders to make good faith efforts to ensure a borrower can repay a loan.

Slaughter secures funds for port repairs

U.S. Rep. Louise M. Slaughter and officials from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers held a ribbon cutting ceremony Monday to celebrate repairs to Charlotte Pier.

Slaughter secured $1.46 million to dredge the Rochester Harbor Channel and repair the pier. Construction included minor and major resurfacing, a new railing cable and graffiti removal. The dredging work is ongoing and is expected to be finished later this month.

An active and open Port of Rochester is essential to economic and recreational development in Charlotte, Slaughter said. Slaughter also said she supports the idea of a private sector ferry service between Rochester and Toronto.

"I look forward to the day when Americans and Canadians can rely on a privately-operated boat service to travel between Rochester and Toronto," Slaughter said. "It makes little difference to me whether the City of Rochester chooses a ferry company or a hovercraft company to provide this service, as long as the company has the operational experience and financial backing to flourish."

DEC responds to cleanup reg complaints

Officials from the New York State Department of Environmental Protection late Monday responded to a recently released survey from the New York Public Interest Research Group and other environmental organizations suggesting the state's soil cleanup standards have fallen well behind those in a number of other states, as well as those of the federal Environmental Protection Agency for much of the country.

According to agency spokesperson Lori O'Connell, DEC officials met with representatives of the green organizations and DEC Commissioner Pete Grannis has pledged to look into and consider their concerns.

O'Connell said NYPIRG and others may have misconceptions about the nature of the EPA standards used in their survey. EPA standards are, in fact, not cleanup standards but rather are screening levels used to determine whether further investigation is warranted on a potentially contaminated site.

Rove, Edwards to face off at UB

A Sept. 26 debate between former U.S. senator and presidential candidate John Edwards and former deputy chief of staff and senior advisor to President Bush, Karl Rove, will kick off this year's lineup for SUNY Buffalo's Distinguished Speaker Series.

Now in its 22nd season, this year's lecture series also will feature "The Kite Runner" author Khaled Hosseini , Oct. 16; "The Daily Show" host and Peabody Award winner Jon Stewart, Nov. 15; Democratic political strategist Donna Brazile, Feb. 23; Pulitzer Prize winning writer and columnist Anna Quindlen, March 4; and scientist Bill Nye, of "Bill Nye The Science Guy," April 22.

All lectures will begin at 8 p.m.; Edwards/Rove, Hosseini, Stewart and Nye will appear in the Alumni Arena on the North (Amherst) Campus; Brazile and Quindlen will appear at the Center for the Arts, also on the North (Amherst) Campus. Tickets will go on sale Aug. 25. For more information visit www.specialevents.buffalo.edu.

Going green in the developing world

How can safe drinking water be maintained for flood victims in developing countries? How can citizens of the developing world grow crops without depleting the soil of nutrients? How might tariffs reduce the illegal trade of elephant tusks and rhino horns?

These and other questions are discussed in Rochester Institute of Technology economist Amit Batabyal's new book, "Dynamic and Stochastic Approaches to the Environment and Economic Development, " published by World Scientific Publishing Co. Inc.

The work explores the challeges of implementing environmental policies in poverty-stricken regions while keeping sustainable management of renewable resources and trade and economic demands in mind.

Much of the book is Batabyal's response to the 1987 Brundtland Report commissioned by the United Nations and led by former Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland. That report introduced the idea of sustainable development as a way to mitigate the impact of human activity globally while ensuring the availability of resources for the future, according to a release from RIT.

"Poverty is a big disincentive in managing resources in a sustainable manner," said Batabyal, the Arthur J. Gosnell Professor of Economics at RIT.

Batabyal's essays tackle controversial aspects of environmental and economic development, such as swidden agriculture ("slash-and- burn") and providing fresh drinking water to Southeast Asian flood victims. He also studies the impact of corruption in the implementation of environmental policies by developing countries.