By Eric Wolf Schoen
A lot of little goodies coming out of the County Legislature and County Executive lately. Now they are working on the George Santos legislation. If you don’t know who Mr. santos is, he is the Congressman from Long Island and Queens whose resume is so filled with misinformation, better word is lies that got elected to Congress in November of 2022.
The powers in White Plains want to require background checks on individuals running for office before they are on the ballot. These background checks would be done by an impartial County Board of Ethics or some panel of non partisan people and if the candidate didn’t pass the mustard test they would be off the ballot.
Now wait a minute. Isn’t the role of the political parties to vet the candidates they are nominating by petition to run for office? Let’s be clear here. In the Santos case he was nominated by nominators in Long Island and Queens. Let’s just say there are some politically smart people there. This is not Omaha or Utah though I think the electors in those two places would have done a better job of vetting the candidates they were putting on the ballot.
Why should taxpayer resources (lawyers, office space, staff to do background checks, etc.) be used to check a candidates background. By doing it this way you are politicizing an already political process. The role of the political leadership is to vet the political candidates. If they are incapable of doing so they should resign and bring in other political leaders to to the job. In Queens and Long island there are people savvy enough to do a background check without the resources of the cash strapped county. What do you think? Let me know.,
Saving Electricity via Efficient Light Bulbs
I visited a friend recently who complained his electric bill was $800 a month and and except for short visits by his kids and grandkids he was the only one in the house. I checked to see if he was using energy efficient light bulbs and he was not. So I did a little research for him. Mind you I have been using the energy efficient light build since before my mother passed over 30 years ago.
When mom was alive the energy efficient bulbs were bulky things, did not fit into all light fixtures and they gave off a weird light not perfect for reading. They for the most part gave off 60 watts and could not be used in a fixture that was rated for a light bulb above 60 watts.
These many years later the bulbs use 14Watts of energy and the most powerful of the bulbs gives off 100 watts, high enough for most lamps and sockets. What this means is that if your appliance is rated at a maximum 60 watts bulb these bulbs can be used in fixture as long as it is lower than 60 watts which is 99% of lamps and light sockets.
And the light coming off of the bulb is much brighter and clearer, avoiding the problems mom use to have 30 years ago. Next question is where do you get these energy efficient bulbs. I went on the Con Edison website and they recommended the Dollar Tree store, yes the store where with inflation everything is now $1.25. Not only do these bulbs use that much electricity but they also last a long times so no need to pull out the bulbs and replace them with a new bulb quite as often. Quite often on your bill Con Edison runs specials on the bulbs making them cheaper.
Now you don’t have to worry about safety as the bulbs are as safe as regular light bulbs. Let’s say your replace 10 bulbs in your house with energy saving bulbs. If you save $30 a month which is realistic you have.made your $12.50 investment back in a month and then some.
Con Edison has many different types of bulbs to fit everything from your regular lamps to spotlights. The list on the website will tell you various places to go to get the bulbs that you need. This is a no brainer ,you have nothing to lose and your Savings are clear as a whistle on your electricity bill as long as you don’t have a major power increase.
We haven’t got the numbers from Sustainable Westchester yet as to how much savings each household. Is receiving using their services. I would like to see that number and I would like to see the organization sell lightbulbs and do a 6 month comparison to see how much the energy bill goes down. That would be a suitable comparison for me as to how well we and they are doing.
Spring is Here
If spring is here and it means due to climate change we won’t have snow, sleet and freezing rain I don’t know about you but I am all for it. I don’t think lousy weather is a result of climate change. The world goes through periods and this year we hit the jackpot.
5 Kids Killed on the Hutch
16 year old driver with no driver’s license. 5 kids killed. Again I wonder, where were the parents?
Briefs: Let’s make sure that if we are going to indict the President we have legitimate grounds to do so. Why embarrass the country for no reason! Do you trust your Bank to hold onto your money with banks going in and out? Is the $250,000 of government insurance truly enough. These ‘Concierge’ banks like Signature bank. Are they really watching our money? Must we have baseball players playing in international leagues 2 weeks prior to the start of the baseball season in the United States getting hurt and out for the season. Want to get a free 5 pound box of matzah. The minimum is $4o, no $25 as in the past at Stop and Shop. Free Easter Ham? $400 in grocery receipts at ShopRite. Talk about inflation!
Listen to Eric Schoen on the Westchester Rising Radio Show Thursday’s from 10-11 a.m. On WVOX 1460 AM, go to WVOX.com and click the arrow to listen to the live stream or download the WVOX app from the App Store free of charge. Reach him at thistooisyonkers@aol.com.
