WEATHER SPORTS Cardinals’ ace throws Tigers a curve in 5-0 Series shutout/C1 ?

48° 32°
High Low

FO R THE

Today’s forecast
The snow’s not here yet,
so revel in the rain drops
and a few gray clouds.

Details/B2

50 CENTS d d d d d ALBANY, NEW YORK WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 25, 2006

Court: Lift shroud on pork

Times Union wins ruling
ordering state leaders to
reveal secret spending
By CAROL DeMARE
Staff writer
A state judge ordered Senate
Majorit y Leader Joseph Br uno
and Assembly Speaker Sheldon
Silver on Tuesday to turn over to
t he Times Union the names of
lawmakers who sponsored mem-
ber items — known as pork barrel
grants and projects.
The discretionar y cash comes
out of a $200
A3 ? Both million pool of
Spitzer, Faso
pub li c f u nds
pledge reforms. w ithin t he state
budget.
The newspaper took the state
Legislat ure’s t wo most powerful
leaders to cour t earlier t his year,
accusing them of violat ing the
state Freedom of Informat ion Law
by illegally concealing t he names
of law makers who distribute mil-
lions in taxpayer money on pet
projects.
State Supreme Court Just ice
Robert A. Sackett of Sullivan
County r uled Br uno and Silver
‘‘failed to articulate a rat ional
basis for redact ing the names’’ in
documents t urned over to the
newspaper.
In its Freedom of Informat ion
Please see PORK A6 ?
Previously: The Times
Union sued Senate Majority
Leader Joseph Bruno and
Assembly Speaker Sheldon
Silver in June seeking the
names of lawmakers who
distributed millions of dollars
in taxpayer money on pork
barrel projects.
The latest:
A state judge
ordered the
leaders to turn
BRUNO
over the information to the
newspaper under the state’s
Freedom of Information Law.
What’s next: Either the
information sought by the
newspaper is turned over,
or the legislative leaders
could get a court stay
while deciding
whether
to appeal
the ruling.
SILVER

PAUL BUCKOWSKI/TIMES UNION

EUNICE SMITH holds a photo of Rickey
Felder, her adopted son who battled HIV
infection during his short life.
RAMADAN ENDS

Short life
ends; love
endures
Eunice Smith rescued Rickey
Felder from crack-addicted
mother and did all she could to
comfort him in shadow of HIV
By PAUL GRONDAHL
Staff writer
Albany

W hen Rickey Felder was 5 years

old, he started to ask quest ions
about being infected with HIV.
His adopt ive mot her, Eunice Smith, used
to tell him a story to soothe his fears.
‘‘There’s a glor y train that’ll be coming
around the bend one day,’’ said Eunice, as she
held the little boy nick named ‘‘Scooter’’ on
her lap.
‘‘And there’s a conductor on the glory
t rain who’ll say, ‘A ll aboard,’ ’’ she told him.
‘‘And you just take the conductor’s hand,
get on that glory train and everyt hing will
be OK .’’ STEVE JACOBS/TIMES UNION
Last week, t he glory train arrived for
Rickey Felder.
He was 17 years old.
United in faith HUMERA BASHIR, left,
holds daughter Aminah,
He died from multiple health complica- 4, and keeps an eye on

A
month of fasting and spiritual
t ions related to AIDS. Safiyah, 1, during a
He will be buried today at Calvar y Ceme- reflection gave way to celebration prayer service at the
tery in Glenmont. Tuesday as Muslims in the region Islamic Center of the
Rickey struggled his entire life wit h ill- Capital Region in
and around the world marked Eid al-Fitr,
ness after being born to an HIV-infected, Albany.
crack-addicted mot her in New York City. the three-day holiday that follows
Eunice, t he only mother he ever k new, Ramadan. In Algeria and Morocco, some
took care of Rickey, a hospice patient, at her IRAQI SHIITES pray in
apartment in a Central Avenue high-rise. prisoners were pardoned; in Iraq, radical
Baghdad, amid new
Too sick to eat, near the end he was down Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr called for an urging of an end to
to about 60 pounds. That’s half of what he end to the country’s sectarian violence. interfaith violence.
weighed as a sophomore at Albany High HADI MIZBAN/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Please see RICKEY A12 ?

Hevesi’s poll stroll MORE NEWS

suddenly is a race
Democrats join critics
of comptroller following
rebuke by ethics panel
By RICK KARLIN
Capitol bureau
A LBA N Y — Suddenly, the bat-
tle for state compt roller has turned
into a horse race, or at least
something more strenuous t han a
walk in the park for incumbent
A lan Hevesi.
Even though Hevesi has been
enveloped by the ‘‘Chauffeurgate’’
scandal for more than a mont h, he
has remained so far ahead in
opinion polls and f undraising t hat
Republican challenger Chris Cal-
laghan was seen as little more t han
a dist raction.
That all changed on Monday,
when the state Ethics Commission
condemned Hevesi, concluding he
probably abused his office when he
used a state employee as a private
driver for his wife, and had no
apparent intent ion to pay until he
got caught.
Tuesday, Senate Majorit y Lead-
er Joseph Bruno, R-Brunswick,
Please see HEVESI A9 ?
> ENCORE: Sabrina
Bryan of the Cheetah
Girls visited Arbor Hill
Elementary School
Tuesday. Later,
tweens screamed as
the group played the
Pepsi./B10
STEVE JACOBS/TIMES UNION
/ NATION: After school a ? CAPITAL REGION:
dangerous time for teens Humane Society wants a
behind the wheel, probe of auction at
a AAA study Catskill Game
finds. Farm.
/A8 /B1
Talk of cutting troops
unlikely to turn voters
Pollsters believe events
in Iraq will be biggest
influence on electorate
By RON HUTCHESON
and MARGARET TALEV
McClatchy
WASHINGTON — Judging
from the initial react ions, Tues-
day’s announcement by the top
U.S. commander and top U.S.
diplomat in Iraq of benchmarks for
progress and a loose timetable for
drawing down American troops
appears unlikely to inf luence the
Nov. 7 congressional elections.
Republicans generally ignored
t he latest midcourse correct ion in
Iraq, and Democrats denounced it
as more of the
A7 ? Petition same. Even the
seeks Iraq
W hit e House
withdrawal.
seemed to down-
play t he signifi-
cance of the news conference by
U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalil-
zad and Gen. George Casey.
Casey said he expected Iraqi
securit y forces to take the lead role
from American troops over the
Please see IRAQ A7 ?

UPCOMING INDEX Crosswords D7,E10 Opinion A10 communities Storied history

Horoscope D6 Scoreboard C6 Albany Elks Lodge celebrates
Where to find the Business E Lottery A2 State A3
scariest Halloween Calendar B2 120th anniversary with eye to
Movies D5 Stocks E2
haunted houses. Classified E6 Nation/World A4 Television D4 future. Plus: Bethlehem, New
Thursday Comics D6 Obituaries B8 Weather B2 Scotland recognized for property revaluations./B3
A6 Wednesday, October 25, 2006 *****
PORK: Times Union wins bid for infor mation
/ CONTINUED FROM A1
request, the Times Union asked
for records on how the money
was allocated and who spon-
sored member item projects for
fiscal years 2003-04 and
2004-05.
The Republican-controlled
Senate and Democratic-ruled
Assembly divvy up $170 million
— $85 million each — in taxpay-
er revenue each year and sign a
confidential deal with the gover-
nor, who gets another $30 mil-
lion to spend. Legislative leaders
make the money available to
lawmakers from what is called
the Community Projects Fund.
‘‘It’s a great day for New
Yorkers,’’ said Eve Burton, gen-
eral counsel for the Hearst
Corp., which owns the Times
Union.
‘‘The decision brings us back
to the fundamental principles of
democracy,’’ said Burton, who
argued the case two months ago.
‘‘Voters are entitled to know
how their representatives are
choosing to use taxpayer dol-
lars.’’
Times Union Editor Rex
Smith said, ‘‘We undertook this
lawsuit as a last resort: It was the
only way we could fulfill our
watchdog responsibility on this
story. It’s a shame this is what it
takes to open up state govern-
ment for our readers.’’
Spokesmen for Bruno, Silver
and the attorney general’s office,
which represented the leaders,
would not say whether there
would be an appeal.
‘‘We’re going to be reviewing
the decision at this point before
determining how to proceed,’’
Bruno spokesman John McArdle
said.
‘‘We are reviewing the deci-
sion,’’ said Charles ‘‘Skip’’ Car-
rier, Silver’s spokesman.
Darren Dopp, spokesman for
Attorney General Eliot Spitzer,
said as the Democratic candidate
for governor, Spitzer has made
his personal views on the need
for transparency on member
items clear. But Dopp could not
comment on the lawsuit due to
‘‘attorney-client privilege.’’
Gunmen
free AP
lensman
in Gaza
Photographer, a
Spaniard, says he is tired
but unharmed
By JOSEF FEDERMAN
Associated Press
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — An
Associated Press photographer was
released late Tuesday after a day in
t he hands of Palestinian g unmen.
The photographer, Emilio Mor-
enatti, was abducted at gunpoint in
front of an A P apart ment in Gaza
City on Tuesday morning. An AP
repor ter in Gaza saw Morenatti
after he was freed.
Morenatti, a 37-year-old Span-
iard, was taken by Fatah off icials to
t he office of Palestinian President
Mahmoud Abbas in Gaza City.
The photographer said he was tired
but unharmed.
There was no claim of responsi-
bility for t he abduction — the
latest in a string of k idnappings of
foreigners in Gaza.
Morenatti was seized as he head-
ed out of his Gaza City apartment
for an AP car, where Majed Ham-
dan, an AP driver and t ranslator,
was wait ing. Hamdan said four
g unmen grabbed his keys and
cellphone and told him to turn
away, put a gun to his head and
t hreatened to harm him if he
moved.
They took Morenatti, shoving
him into a white Volkswagen Golf
and driving off, Hamdan said.
In the past t wo years, militants
have frequently kidnapped for-
eigners as bargaining chips to get
relatives released from Palestinian
prisons, secure government jobs or
settle personal scores. In most
cases, t he k idnappings were brief
and t he hostages unharmed.
Some k idnappers have changed
tactics. Two Fox News journalists
k idnapped in Aug ust were held for
t wo weeks and abused in capt ivity.
“ The premise of FOIL is that the public is
vested with an inherent right to know and
that official secrecy is anathematic to our
form of government.
JUDGE’S RULING
‘‘We had a role to fulfill, and
we continue to have a role to
fulfill,’’ he said.
Asked how Spitzer would ad-
vise the state on the question of
appealing, Dopp declined to
comment, saying the attorney
general will ‘‘consult with the
client as to what the next step
will be.’’
Burton said, ‘‘We hope in
light of the upcoming elections,
there will be no further delay in
providing voters with this im-
portant information.’’
Gov. George Pataki, a Repub-
lican, complied with the newspa-
per’s FOIL pertaining to his
disbursement of $30 million, as
did Senate Democratic Minority
Leader David Paterson and As-
sembly Republican Minority
Leader James Tedisco.
In certain cases, state agencies
keep tabulations of projects or
programs under their jurisdic-
tion that receive member item
money, and that information
was made available.
But the stumbling block was
with Bruno and Silver. Their
offices provided information
such as the funding amount, the
project or grant, a description of
the program, but not the name
of the legislator sponsoring the
item.
The leaders argued they were
shielded from disclosure by the
speech and debate clause of the
state constitution.
That provision protects legis-
lators from civil or criminal suits
aimed at curbing lawful legisla-
tive activities, the judge noted in
his five-page decision.
The clause also historically
preserves the ‘‘integrity of the
Legislature by preventing other
branches of government from
interfering with legislators in
F R O M T H E
” and state records. He pleaded
the performance of their du-
ties,’’ the judge said, citing case
law.
But in this instance, the news-
paper’s FOIL application ‘‘is not
a civil or criminal suit against
one or more legislators,’’ the
court noted. And the newspaper
did not allege that the informa-
tion was intended as evidence in
pending litigation, nor did it
allege that ‘‘disclosure would re-
sult in any impairment or threat-
ened impairment in the ability of
the legislators to represent their
constituencies,’’ nor would ‘‘re-
lease of the names of the spon-
sors ... be an unwarranted inva-
sion of personal privacy,’’ the
decision said.
‘‘The speech and debate
clause is inapplicable to this pro-
ceeding,’’ Sackett said.
Since March, a Times Union
investigation has unearthed a
number of member-item pro-
jects that raise questions but the
newspaper was hampered in its
quest to learn the identities of
the sponsors.
In one case, millions of dol-
lars, almost all from Assembly
Democrats, went to the Metro-
politan New York Coordinating
Council on Jewish Poverty. Its
executive director is married to
Silver’s chief of staff.
In another case, Bruno al-
lowed hundreds of thousands of
dollars in Senate money to con-
tinue flowing to former Bronx
state Sen. Guy Velella’s pet pro-
ject even after the Republican
was convicted of taking bribes
and went to jail.
And last week, indicted As-
semblyman Brian M. McLaugh-
lin, a Queens Democrat, steered
tens of thousands of dollars in
member items to a nonprofit
group that was supposed to buy
C O V E R
sports equipment for a Little
League team, according to court
not guilty in U.S. District Court
in Manhattan to misappropriat-
ing $95,000 from the organiza-
tion, Electchester Athletic Asso-
ciation Inc., after diverting state
grants to it over the years.
The lawsuit, meanwhile, also
named Secretary of the Senate
Steven Boggess and Assembly
Records Officer Sharon Walsh.
Government watchdog
groups joined the newspaper,
including Common Cause New
York, the League of Women
Voters, the New York Public
Interest Research Group, the
Brennan Center for Justice at
New York University School of
Law, the Citizens Budget Com-
mission and the Citizens Union
of the City of New York.
In further citing state law, the
judge said, ‘‘The premise of
FOIL is that the public is vested
with an inherent right to know
and that official secrecy is ana-
thematic to our form of govern-
ment.’’
The Court of Appeals, the
state’s top court, has consistently
interpreted the FOIL statute
liberally to implement its broad
purposes of achieving public ac-
countability of state and local
government, the decision said.
‘‘The names of the sponsoring
legislators of approved projects
is not protected as a ‘part of the
deliberative and communicative
processes by which members
participate in proceedings,’ ’’
the judge wrote. ‘‘As approved
expenditures of public funds, the
public has a right to know the
names of legislators associated
with the funding of member
item projects.’’
Sackett also awarded the
Times Union’s attorney fees,
something which Burton said
sends ‘‘an important message. It
shows the importance of the
issue.’’
? Carol DeMare can be reached
at 454-5431 or by e-mail at
cdemare@timesunion.com.
Elizabeth Benjamin contributed
to this article.
Albany, New York TIMES UNION
FUNDS: Reforms
/ CONTINUED FROM A3 an annual pool of $200 million.
although not included in the
budget itself.
Regarding the disclosure of
lawmakers’ names in connection
The newspaper won its suit
Tuesday.
Dopp said the attorney general
defended the state because it was
with member items, Spitzer his job to do so. At times, Spit-
zer’s opponents have criticized
spokesman Darren Dopp said:
‘‘Whatever Eliot does has to be him for not recusing himself
consistent with the spirit of: You from lawsuits with which he does
not agree. But in this case, Faso
have know who it was, and where
declined to slam his opponent.
it was going, and what the ratio-
nale was for it.’’ ‘‘The attorney general is re-
As state attorney general, Spit- sponsible as the lawyer of the
state to defend the state when it is
zer defended Bruno and Silver
against a Times Union lawsuit sued,’’ Faso said.
that sought the names of law-
makers who sponsored so-called ? Elizabeth Benjamin can be
‘‘member items,’’ also known as reached at 454-5081 or by e-mail
pork barrel spending, paid out of at ebenjamin@timesunion.com.
“Look & Feel Younger & Shapelier”
For the Face & Body you’ll love, Call us now!
Personalized Care - Natural, Beautiful Results
Breast Augmentation & Lift
Tummy Tuck • Liposuction
$
100 Off Face, Nose & Body
Your Initial Consult Fee
With This Ad (Good until 12/15/06) Cosmetic Surgery
Enjoy “All procedures done at our JCAHO Accredited Office Surgery Facility”
Your
©SY2006
7 Wells Street, Saratoga Springs, NY • Saratoga Springs Plastic Surgery, PC • 100% Financing Available!
Life
Choose Board Certified Plastic Surgeon Steven Yarinsky, MD, FACS
More!
Cosmetic Surgery Expert – over 17 years of Skill, Experience & Excellence
visit www.yarinsky.com • Call us at (518) 583-4019 Today!
Capital Region Progressive
Medicine & Longevity Practice
Stuart I. Erner, M.D.
1873 Western Ave., Albany
• Complementary/Alternative Medicine
nutritional/herbal therapies
Intravenous Micronutrient
Therapy for:
Chronic fatigue syndrome
Fibromyalgia, chronic respiratory
infections
•Medical Aesthetics
affordable IPL hair removal
Facial rejuvenation
• Bioidentical Hormone
Replacement
• Weight Management
adults and adolescents
comprehensive, medically supervised
weight loss programs MESOTHERAPY
for spot fat reduction and cellulite
Call (518) 452-4910
for information or an appointment