Today’s “High Noon” radio show will take a look at the last Democratic primaries coming up next week in the endless race for the presidential nomination between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. We’ll also discuss whether the Republican nominee, John McCain, has benefited from the Democratic squabble.

Our guest will be Jeffery Binder, of the Strategic Consulting Group. Binder is a frequent contributor to the show, which airs at 12 noon on WVOX, 1460 AM. You can also listen to the show by logging onto wvox.com,

As always, calls will be taken at 914-636-0110.

UPDATE: Here’s the podcast:

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Last week, the Democratic National Committee sent out a 16-question, “time sensitive” survey to party members and a plea for money to help defeat the Republicans in the 2008 presidential race.

No references are made with either Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton, only to a generic “Democratic presidential nominee.” The 15th question offers four lines of blank space to allow respondents to write in “one piece of advice” to that nominee. Mainly, the survey takes the temperature of the party faithful by measuring such things as volunteerism (making phone calls, going door-to-door, etc.) and the level of rank-in-file optimism that a Democrat will win the White House in November.

But to give you an idea how nasty the campaign is expected to be, here’s one of the multiple-choice questions: “How likely do you think it is that John McCain and his Republican allies will launch a ‘Swift Boat’ style smear campaign against our presidential nominee?”

The choices are: Very likely, Somewhat likely or Not Likely.

A cover letter from Howard Dean, DNC chairman also gives some insight as to what to expect.

“The bottom line is, we can’t leave our candidate for the White House twisting in the wind while the GOP slings mud and does a hatchet job on our Party,” Dean write. “We need to stay on the offensive, run an aggressive campaign and keep the Republicans on their heels every step of the way.”

Be afraid. Be very afraid.

Now that the Memorial Day weekend is upon us, expect a flurry of warnings about the hazards of outdoor living from the Fear Center, i.e. Westchester County government. Everything from tainted hamburger meat to killer mosquitoes will be  covered before you can say, “The Fourth of July.”

The first one has just arrived.

It’s about the dangers of inflatable wading pools.  The county recently passed a law that requires stores that sell these kinds of pools to put out signs warning that pools with depths greater than two feet pose a risk to children and that parents should not leave their children unsupervised.

There is no doubt that some children have drowned in outdoor pools, but it’s hard to see how a sign is going to prevent such tragedies. But the law is in effect, and stores will be fined if they don’t comply.

One of the most interesting political stories on the local fron this year was the pay-raise fiasco involving Bill “Boss” Ryan and the Westchester County Board of Legislators.

A major player in that controversy was William Mooney, the president of the Westchester County Association, who ably served as the chairman of a special compensation advisory panel that convened for several weeks to resolve the pay issue. In the end, Boss Ryan got far less than he wanted.

Mooney will be my WVOX radio guest on “High Noon” today at 12 noon. Tune in at 1460 AM or listen online at wvox.com. Calls will be taken at 914-636-0110.

UPDATE: Enjoy the podcast:

Download:

I’m in the process of trying to sell my mother’s house in the town of Mamaroneck, and have discovered a frustrating and expensive obstacle that many home sellers may be unaware of: the underground oil tank.

Let me take you down the nightmare trail. First, a good portion of the housing stock in Westchester is old. My mother’s house was built in the 1920s when people used coal furnaces for heat. Later they were converted to oil, and most of the time they put the oil storage tanks underground. And that was it. No one thought about the possibility that the tanks would corrode over time and leak.

Because a lot of these tanks are more than 25 years old, they do leak.

To get my mother’s house ready for sale, we were told we needed to have the outdoor tank inspected and given a clean bill of health. This is where the “fun” began.

The oil company doesn’t do the inspection we learned. You have to go to a company that exclusively does inspections. But as we found out, the inspection guys won’t do the inspection if the tank is outfitted with an old vent. The vent has to be removed and replaced with a modern vent, and only the oil company can do that.

But the oil company won’t do that unless the pipe connecting the vent to the tank is exposed. So I dug a four-foot long trench. The oil guy came and replaced the vent, which cost about $85.

Then the tank inspector came, and of course found a leak, but we won’t know how bad the leak is until we dig the thing out of the ground. Next, the state Department of Environmental Conservation was notified, and we were given 30 days to complete the tank removal.

So then we went back to the oil company and they said they’d install a 250-gallon tank in the basement and arrange for the old one to be dug out of the ground. That operation, will of course, mean destroying that new vent that was put in at a cost of $350.

The cost of the new tank and removal of the leaking tank plus permits will cost $5,000 and change. And by the way, the old tank is 1,000 gallons and still has 750 gallons of unused oil in it. There will be no credit for the oil, which will be disposed of.

OK, ready to go. Right?

Nope. Now I’ve found that I need to get yet another permit for “street entry” from the town for $100. Also, I have to secure a $1,200 bond in case of damage to the street.

What next? I’ll soon found out and will follow up on this blog. In the meantime, take this as a cautionary tale.

Jim Maisano, New Rochelle’s Republican county legislator will be the featured guest on my “High Noon” radio program today at 12 noon.

Listen in at 1460 AM, or log onto wvox.com.

We’ll be talking about Westchester County government and what can be done, or not, to restore citizen faith in it. Maisano will be calling in to chat…and you can too. The numbe is 914-636-0110.

UPDATE: Here’s the podcast:

Download:

We heard correctly on this. They’re beginning to head for the exits on the eighth floor of the Westchester County Office (the Tower of Babble) where Boss Ryan reigns supreme.

Alicia Maxy-Green, who joined the regime only a few months ago as Ryan’s communication specialist, has resigned. This was confirmed by Gary Kriss, the boss’s chief factotum.

Who’s next?

It’s simple.

The reason why is because they’re guaranteed the taxes from the local municipalities  that are charged with doing the tax collecting. There’s no lateness with money. No excuses. The towns have to fork it over, no matter what.

In other words, the towns have to do the county’s dirty work. County government can’t lose.

The other day I talked to David Dwinell, Greenburgh’s receiver of taxes, and he told me that the town collected 89 percent of its town and county tax receipts by the April 30 deadline, not a bad record. In fact, he said, that’s better than last year.

Nevertheless, more and more taxpayers have been asking if they could pay half  their burdensome tax bills and defer paying the rest at a later date. Paul Feiner, the town supervisor, has proposed this idea as a way to take some of the financial pressure off people.

The county, of course, does not allow this. Taxpayers must all or nothing, and if they pay nothing then they’re assessed a two percent penalty for the being late. The penalties increase over time.

“I’ve just noticed that in the 20 years I’ve been here,” Dwinell said, “there seems to be  that paying the taxes are more of a struggle this time than in the past, due to the economic times, due to the cost of gas…due to the cost of everything.”

Gee, all I did was ask a simple question about the latest cog added to the Boss Ryan machine over there at the Board of Legislators (see previous posting) and a commotion breaks out. Hey-oh! They’re circling the wagons on the eighth floor.

I’m hearing that tempers flew over exactly what newly-minted  legislative aide Chris Stewart’s role will be and how it will be presented to the public.

I originally put the question yesterday to Betsy DeSoye, Boss Ryan’s communications director, but didn’t get a response. At the end of the day,  I queried DeSoye again, and then got a confirmation about Stewart’s hiring from Gary Kriss, Ryan’s chief adviser.

Thinking there’s more here than meets the eye, I e-mailed more questions to Kriss today, but I haven’t heard back from him yet.

Meanwhile, Boss Ryan is on another out-of-town conference. That’s right. That makes three for the year so far.

He’s in Minneapolis for a two-day meeting of the National Association of Counties’ 13 member Hospital Task.  He will be back tomorrow night.

Bill “Boss” Ryan is hiring again over at the county Board of Legislators where they can’t seem to get enough help to run Westchester Nation.

This time, it’s a part-time legislative aide, a chap by the name of Chris Stewart. This was confirmed today by Gary Kriss, Ryan’s all -purpose adviser and factoum.

Said Kriss in an e-mail: “Each Legislator has $50,000 to hire personal legislative staff.  Under his allocation, Bill Ryan gave Chris Stewart a three month contract for a total of $10,000 to work on special constituent services and legislative research as his Personal Legislative Aide.

“Such contractual arrangements for Personal Legislative Aides have been approved and used by both sides of the aisle as a hiring option.  Because he was hired by contract, Mr.. Stewart receives no benefits.”