Dogs rule—especially in the burbs.

Today’s “High Noon” guest is Kathy Wiegand, one of the leaders in a campaign to overturn a New Rochelle restricting the hours dog owners can let their pets run free and unleased at Ward Acres Park, a pastoral retreat in the city’s affluent north end.

The dog ordinance has becom a hot political issue. So tune in at 12 noon to listen. That’s “High Noon” on WVOX, 1460 AM. The show also streams live at www.wvox.com.

UPDATE: Here’s today’s podcast:

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You know something is wrong with the cost of living around here when a guy from Mahopac in Putnam County says the taxes are getting too high.

Mahopac is supposed to be a safe haven for people looking to escape places that are a fiscal nightmare—places like, well, Yonkers. But the story is that Putnam County property taxes might go up 40 percent.

No, that’s not a typo. Forty percent!

This prompted Guido Boniello, a retired transit worker to say, “I don’t want to leave Mahopac. If this keeps up, I wont’ have a choice.”

So if a place like Mahopac is out of reach…where are people supposed to go?

It’s getting out of hand. And they’ll get you coming and going.

Because if you want to flee, you’re going to have pay more money to get out of town.
That’s right. Here’s another item in today’s news: Fare and toll increases are being proposed. That means higher charges on the MetroCard and increases on tolls for Interstate 95 at New Rochelle and the Tappan Zee Bridge.

Unbelievable. But wait. U.S. Rep. John Hall says help is on the way! He came up with a hot idea that supposedly helps the middle class. He’s proposing that people be allowed to use the short form to deduct property taxes on their income tax. Wow, what a guy! You can already do that on the long form. Well, maybe somebody out there would benefit from this, but I’m hardpressed to figure out how. I think most middle class people would prefer real tax relief.

Also in the news today—A White Plains man was arrested after he frightened a parking-enforcement officer who was writing up a ticket. The 41-year-old man, who was as tall as a power forward, allegedly screamed swear words at the officers and broke his hand-held computer.

The man was charged with third degree criminal mischief and he may regret that he freaked out over the ticket.

But here’s the point—White Plains isn’t merely the county seat, it’s also the parking ticket capital of Westchester. Higher tax, larger tolls, ever-rising utility bills—it’s insane. People are getting nickel and dimed to death.
And there’s the parking fines. Getting one of those White Plains parking tickets which are really nothing more than random tax levies, drives people over the edge.
It’s only a wonder more people aren’t freaking out. But scaring parking attendants isn’t the answer. Throwing the bums out of office is the answer.

That’s today’s new. As Will Rodgers once said, all I know is what I read in the paper.

They won’t let Iranian President Mahmoud Amadinejad tour Ground Zero, but the Holocaust-denying dictator is otherwise allowed to travel within a 25-mile raidus of New York City.

That means he can come to Westchester County. We can show him a good time.

First, we’ll take him to Syms and buy him a cheap necktie. Jeez, did he forget to pack?

He’s into nuclear power, so we’ll take him up to Indian Point and test the crummy siren system out on his ear drums. Maybe he’d like hands-on instruction on how to bury spent fuel rods.
Next stop—Playland where we’ll get the county to re-open the amusement park just for him. We’ll see if the can set the all-time ride record on the Dragon Coaster. Then we’ll throw him off the Playland Pier to see if he knows how to swim.

Oh, fun time!

Next, it’s lunch. Good old American fare—McDonald’s. Let’s see how many Big Macs he can handle. Then we’ll make him wash it all down with a quart of Orange Crush. Yeah, that’s right Mahmoud, you’re gonna get super-sized!

After a brief visit to the emergency room at the Westchester County Medical Center, it’s off to White Plains where we’ll make him sit in on a session of the county board of legislators.

Later, we’ll get him drunk at Sue’s Rendevouz, the strip joint in Mount Vernon that figures in the testimony of the New York Knickerbocker sex harassment case.

When he’s good and loaded, we’ll drive him to Getty Square in Yonkers at about 3 a.m. and leave him there.

From there, he can walk to Ground Zero or any other damn place he wants to go.

The only requirment: He must wear a foam-rubber Statue of liberty crown, just like any self-respecting tourist from Iowa.

This is how urban legends get started. I can’t substantiate this, but it’s a story I heard second hand.
A couple of postings ago, I mentioned this strange dude who was hanging out in front of the supermarket in Bronxville. When I saw him, he was wearing a red mask and holding a sign that said “Hungry.” He didn’t talk, and it wasn’t clear whether he was begging for money or hoping for a spare loaf of bread or something. I’d also seen him stretched out on the sidewalk, striking a leisurely pose without a shirt. He looked like a beached whale.
There was nothing that seemed illegal about his activity. However, his odd and slovenly presence in such an exclusive community evidently bothered more than a few.
And this what I heard. I heard that some rich chap couldn’t stand it any longer. He offered the masked man a one-way plane ticket to San Francisco—and the man accepted it! I have no idea if this story is true, but I can say that the guy hasn’t been seen lately. ( I wonder if he’s patrolling the Embacadero now.)
Anyway, it’s a great story. Talk about discretionary income.

Follow the herd instinct and soon, well, you will become extinct. That’s the message behind the new book, “Mobs, Messiahs, and Markets: Surviving the Public Spectacle in Finance and Politics.”

Lila Rajiva, a journalist who co-authored the book, will be my radio interview guest on “High Noon” tomorrow on WVOX, 1460-AM. The show also streams like at www.wvox.com

Citing scientific studies, the book contends that humans have a difficult time overcoming the “powerful urges” to go along with the crowd, even when the crowd is heading for a cliff. This can lead to personal ruin, the authors say.

They challenge behavioral impulses we normally view as OK—such as believing that each individual’s vote matters in an election and that so-called “do-gooders” are actually dangerous.

They predict that too many people have followed the same pat financial advice, like buying homes they can’t really afford, and that widespread financial ruin is on the horizon.

Sounds like stomach-turning fun, doesn’t it? Well, Rajiva claims she can supply the right antidote. She tells you to go your own way, and will tell you how.

Tune in.

Update: Here’s the podcast of the show:

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A couple of weeks ago, I left readers hanging about the results of a laboratory lead testing of a rubber chicken I keep in my office. Because the yellow, orange and red chicken was manufactured in China, I naturally wondered if it might have been coated with lead-based paint.

You know, of course, that hundreds of thousands of toys made in China have been recalled in recent weeks because of a lead-paint scandal.

In a column, I mentioned all the crap in my office that was made in Chinese sweat shops. The items included an Uncle Sam bobble-head doll, a plastic Yonkers School District mug, a Jeanine Pirro election-campaign baseball cap and a Donald Trump talking action-figure. And then there was the chicken, which I keep because when squeezed it emits an obnoxious scream.

So, as I said, I brought the chicken to the Westchester County public laboratories at Grasslands where they put the bird through tests. And the result? The chicken is lead free!
That was the verdict given to me today by Alan Baisley, a senior environmental chemist.
Most amazing was that I got the chicken back in one piece. I thought they were going to have to cut its head off, or something.

Bronxville is a tiny village that epitomizes wealth and exclusivity. Maybe that’s why it is also a magnet for weirdness.
Not long ago, I was walking through town and saw a man standing outside the village’s lone supermarket with a sign that said, “Hungry.” That’s all it said.
The man wore a mask in the Long Ranger style, only it was red. He didn’t look particularly famished either. In fact, he looked a bit overfed. Fat, really.
It was unclear whether he was asking for money or food, or anything for that matter. People just walked right by him. No one said a word.
A week before that, while walking my dog I saw him lying shirtless on the sidewalk next to an apartment building near the Metro Norht train station. He was awake and wasn’t hurt. But he said nothing as I passed. He seemed to be fiddling with a pack of cigarettes.
This guy seems harmless, but you have to wonder what the story is.

…Or is he just messing with our minds? Who knows!

But here’s a letter the developer had his assistance write to me today after today’s column:

“You’re the best!!!

Your articles are factual and fictional at the same time and provide an incredible amount of lively discussion and pure entertainment for all. Some of my employees cringe when they read the articles because they think that you really mean it. I just keep telling them that you’re clowning around trying to make interesting reading. Keep up the good work — you’re making me famous!!

PS: I’m going to send a letter to the Common Council today based on the sincerity of your position on the Corner Nook. I’m going to ask the Council because of your article, if they would possibly delay one year my obligation to provide affordable housing on the Corner Nook site this way the Dimitrakaksis family can continue to stay in business. This way I won’t have to evict them for the affordable housing and we’ll all be better off, right?
Thank you.

Jeanette Luna on behalf of Louis Cappelli
Cappelli Enterprises, Inc.”

Today’s “High Noon” radio guest will be Assemblyman Richard Brodsky, D-Greenburgh, who will give his views on Con Edison’s record-high rate increase.

The electiric utility is aming to “zap” customers with $1.2 billion in total increases, starting in April, 2008. The Public Service Commission, which regulates state utilitiies, is recommending a rate hike at about half that amount—still an incredibly high boost.

Hearings will take place next month, but a final PSC decision is not expected until March.
Brodsky, who chairs a committee that oversees the PSC and other bodies, has been an outspoken critic of Con Ed…and has said that the system is “rigged.”

Listen to our conversation today at 12 noon. That’s “High Noon” on WVOX, 1460 AM. The show also stream live at www.wvox.com.

Download:

Today’s column was a different kind of 9/11 story. It was about Yonkers dock master Capt. Frank Kendrick who died heroically on Sept. 11, a year after the terrorists attacks on the World Trade Center.

Kendrick, who over the course of a half century had rescued at least 30 people after they’d fallen or jumped into the Hudson River, never considered himself to be a hero. On that fateful day five years ago, he died from a heart attack while rescuing a distraught 29-year-old woman who climbed over the railing at the Yonkers pier and jumped into the choppy water.

The photo here was e-mailed to me today by retired Yonkers police officer Mark Franks. It shows the police Marine Unit pulling the woman and Kendrick out of the water.

The woman was OK. Several officers tried to revive Kendrick with CPR.

“We made a dash for the shore and the awaiting Empress Ambulance and othr rescue workers,” Franks said. “It was very sad to learn that Frank had not survived the ordeal. He was a special breed of person who gave all he had for very little in return.”