Sound Shore

NEW ROCHELLE — Officials are fighting legislation that they say would undermine New York’s gun safety laws.

Congresswoman Nita Lowey appeared at City Hall today in New Rochelle with Mayor Noam Bramson, Police Chief Patrick Carroll and others to denounce the National Right-to-Carry Reciprocity Act, which Congress passed last week.

The bill, which would have to make it through the Senate and be signed by the president before becoming law, would require states that issue permits to carry concealed weapons to recognize carry-permits issued by other states.

That means, in effect, the permit standards for one state would have to be accepted by all states.

“Our state has strong and appropriate laws preventing violent individuals from gaining permits to carry concealed firearms,” Lowey said in a statement. “This is critical for the safety of both law enforcement and the general public.”

She said the bill “threatens New Yorkers’ safety and usurps our state’s ability to make and enforce its own laws.”
Bramson called the legislation “misguided” and said, “It’s outrageous that the House majority would sweep away our rights as New Yorkers to enforce common sense gun safety standards.”
They are calling on senators not to take up the bill.

With most of the Middle East in turmoil and much of it in open revolt, Temple Israel of New Rochelle is turning its attention to its namesake country. On Sunday, March 6, at 6:30 p.m., the temple will host a panel discussion by three people with thorough understandings of the issues inflaming the region. Ari Fleischer, White House press secretary under George W. Bush, Rep. Nita Lowey and writer Daniel Levy will join moderator Gary Rosenblatt, editor and publisher of The Jewish Week, for a talk called “What it Means to Be Pro-Israel.” The program is free and open to the public. For more information, call the temple’s office at (914) 235-1800.

We’ve added an Editorial Spotlight to today’s calendar.

At 1 p.m. today, the Editorial Board will host an Editorial Spotlight interview U.S. Rep. Nita Lowey, D-Harrison, and Cortes DeRussy of Bronxville, the Westchester Republican Party-backed the write-in candidate 18th Congressional District seat.

The district covers most of Westchester County and part of Rockland County.

To watch the session, go to lohud.com/editorialspotlight. To join the conversation by asking a question or leaving a comment, engage the CoverItLive blogging feature on the right side of your screen.

Ossining community activist Don DeBerardinis, known locally as Don DeBar, has announced he’s waging a write-in campaign against U.S. Rep. Nita Lowey (D-Harrison).

The “anti-war activist”  said that “in wake of revelation of racist writing by Republican opponent” he’s throwing his hat in the ring and that the “new polling machines make write-in wins possible.” DeBar was referring to candidate Jim Russell’s 2001 essay in the “Occidental Quarterly” in which he warns against racial mixing and embraces anti-Jewish writings.

Read below for Don DeBar’s 9/22 release on his write-in campaign:

Anti-war activist Don DeBar, fresh from a meeting last night between US anti-war activists and Iranian President Ahmindinijad, announced today that he will wage a write-in campaign against Rep. Nita Lowey (D-18) on an anti-war platform.

DeBar attended the conference as a part of a delegation led by former Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-GA).

“Aside from murdering thousands of Iraqis, Afghanis and Pakistanis, the Obama Administration, like the Bush Administration before it, is squandering hundreds of billions of dollars that are desperately needed for jobs, schools, health care and housing and foreclosure assistance,” he said, adding “Lowey has been signing on to every military supplemental for these wars since they began.”

DeBar went to Lowey’s office on March 18, 2003, a day before the “Shock and Awe” attack on Baghdad, attempting to show her evidence that the Bush Administration had misrepresented the cause of the war – alleged weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Lowey refused to discuss the evidence, instead spending the time DeBar sat in her office posing for a photo in front of a giant US flag while granting a magazine interview laying out her support for the invasion.

“We have it on videotape – Lowey refused to hear us,” said DeBar, “and it turns out we were right, and now thousands of lives, and nearly a trillion dollars, have been lost.”

“If elected, I will refuse to fund the war machine any further, and will move to spend the money instead on the needs of the American people – actual development of actual jobs here in New York, single-payer health care, foreclosure prevention that actually prevents foreclosures, housing assistance that actually provides housing and aid to schools that actually educate our children,” he said.

Congresswoman Lowey declined to comment on DeBar’s statements.

Photo of DeBar taken in 2004 by The Journal News.

A 75th birthday will be observed Thursday among senior citizens at the Anthony Posillipo Community Center in Rye Brook. This one is for Social Security, enacted into law Aug. 14, 1935.

Rep. Nita Lowey is planning to visit and talk to the seniors at 1 p.m. Meanwhile there will be much discussion around the country this week about the program’s fiscal problems and its financial life span.

Congresswoman Nita Lowey stopped in Port Chester this week to talk up alternative energy, particularly the growth of businesses like Mercury Solar Systems.

The business, on Midland Avenue, started in 2006. Local projects include the solar energy project at Resurrection School in Rye. The company is about to embark on a big test of solar panels, according to Monday’s press release from Lowey’s office:

Mercury Solar Systems recently partnered with the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) to advance solar energy research.  NREL will extract data for its own long-term research from Mercury Solar System’s solar test-bed, the first solar photovoltaic testing facility in the Northeast.  The system is being constructed on the roof of Mercury Solar Systems’ corporate headquarters in Port Chester, and is expected to be operational by the end of the summer.  A grant from The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) will help finance the project.

The 106 kilowatt (kW) solar PV system will consist of several hundred panels from nine different manufacturers. It is expected to generate more than 90,000 kilowatt hours (kWh) each year or approximately 75% of the building’s annual electricity needs. The system will also incorporate a hybrid PV/solar hot water system.

Paul Wasserman, the GOP-backed challenger to U.S. Rep. Nita Lowey this fall, announced today he’s pulling out of the race for the 18th Congressional District, which covers most of Westchester County and parts of Rockland County.

Lowey, 72, is one of the U.S. House of Representative’s most powerful Democrats. She traditionally wins re-election bids each time she’s up by hefty margins.

According to records in the Federal Elections Comission, Wasserman had about $254,000 in his war chest compared to Nita Lowey’s $1.1. million. But Wasserman had only raised about $73,000 because $181,000 of his campaign money was from his own fortune.

Earlier this  year, Mark Rosen, a Republican widely seen to be a tough challenger to Lowey, pulled out too after getting deployed to Iraq.

UPDATE: Jim Russell, who ran unsuccessfully against Lowey in 2008, said the Westchester GOP called him today and will be officially backing him against Lowey.