Kathy Hochul, who won a special election last week to become the congresswoman representing the NY-26, was sworn today.

In Washington, D.C., for the ceremony were the chairs of the Democratic committees of the GLOW region (Genesee, Livingston, Orleans and Wyoming counties).

Genesee County's Lorie Longhany (second from right) supplied this picture from the capitol.

Above, Lorie Longhany with Dr. Maidul Kahn and the opening tonight of the "Young at Art" show at the Senior Center. Kahn is one of Longhany's newer students. He's holding one of his paintings. It's of Centennial Park in the fall.

Other artists on display are Marie Washburn, Kathy Roblee, Carol La Valley, Longhany, the late David Rice, Sue Morgan, Farrel Ann Burdick, Joan Scherff, Rosemary Christian, Pat Fletcher and Elisa Di Pietro.

Below, Christian talks with visitor's about another artist's work. 

Kevin Robertson, principal at Holy Family School, Le Roy, submitted this item about Lorie Longhany's art classes at the school.

Since returning from Christmas break, there has been a lot of bustling activity in Mrs. Longhany's Art Room at Holy Family School.

Kindergarten has been learning about texture and tone, and have created portraits of cookie monster.

Others are exploring units on penguins with warm/cool projects -- with crayons for first grade, collages in second grade -- where glaciers and icebergs are incorporated in South Pole landscapes. Third-graders are currently working on papier-mache penguins from recycled juice bottles, a favorite of Holy Family students!

Fourth-graders are creating Native American symbols and shields, fifth-graders are designing a 3-D meal from salt clay. Meanwhile, sixth-graders are venturing back to Ancient Egypt and creating scareb amulets and gold scratch-art portraits of King Tut using hieroglyphics.

Seventh-graders are working on tempera painting in pop-art style using tinting techniques. Eighth-graders are exploring the gold-guilded work of Austrian artist Gustav Klimt with portrait scratch-art.

Visual Arts are an important experience at HFS where an emphasis is put on cross-curriculum as well as art fundamentals, which also include faith-based projects centered around the yearly Catholic calendar. Pictured above with art teacher Longhany are Holy Family's Artists of the Week.

Joe Cassidy, with more than 30 years on the committee, was selected for a second term as vice chair. Donna Ferry won for treasure and Carrie Henning, who filled a vacancy four months ago as secretary, wins a two-year term outright.

Sixteen new committee members were seated.

In a press release from the County Democrats, Longhany says, "Party building from the grassroots is my biggest priority with choice at the ballot box being the end result. It's exciting, we are adding many energized people to our ranks, including many young people."

As an example of energized people getting involved, the party can point to: Town Board candidate, Michael Plitt from Darien, Sarah Burk-Balbi, Phil Ricci, Julie Wallace running for Batavia city council at large, Jennifer Keys running for LeRoy Town Council, and Christopher Charvella running for the 8th District county legislature seat.

"I am proud of all the Genesee County candidates, elected officials and committee people but it is especially satisfying to see so many young people with fresh ideas willing to step up and serve their communities and their Party," Longhany said.

Download: Full Press Release (pdf)

Caroline Kennedy was the keynote speaker and quoted her father, President John Kennedy, who said, "I look forward to an America which will not be afraid of grace and beauty, which commands respect, not only for its strength, but for its civilization, as well."

Attendees also enjoyed performances by the Tony Award winning the Garth Fagan dance troupe and jazz pianist Gap Mangione.

Pictured above, Teresa Martillotta, former Orleans County chair and 53-year state
committee member, current Orleans County chair Jeanne Crane, Slaughter and Longhany.

As part of an e-mail exchange today with Genesee County Democratic Chair Lorie Longhany, I asked Lorie for her statement on the budget.  Below is her statement, but she also said her teaching duties have been pretty full the past week or so.

Here's her statement:

While the budget has been controversial and has been the subject of much criticism, what needs to be considered is the unprecedented fiscal crisis that New York is facing. 

The budget closes the largest spending gap in state history -- 17.7 billion, 12 billion including the stimulus.  It includes 6.5 billion in spending cuts, nearly twice the amount of cuts as any governor from either party has ever proposed.

From the budget itself on the STAR rebate: The Enacted Budget eliminates the STAR rebate program as well as the corresponding enhanced NYC STAR tax credit, producing savings of $1.5 billion in 2009-10. Even after this action, the STAR exemption program and NYC STAR credit will continue to provide $3.3 billion in property tax relief.

Additionally, the Executive Budget proposal to decrease the “floor” reduction – the maximum reduction in STAR benefits that can occur as a result of changes in assessed value or market value –from 18 percent to 11 percent is not included in the Enacted Budget.

Cuts to health care waste and inefficiency, reforming the Rockefeller Drug Laws, the bottle bill and a temporary increase in personal income tax that progressively targets those making over $300,000 + help to reduce the gap.  The increase in spending is the result of stimulus money that will be redistributed throughout the state for infrastructure and job creation.

The budget is painful and not perfect, with some targeted cuts that I personally didn't agree with, but the situation that led us to this place culminated long before Governor Paterson and the newly elected Senate Democrats took over.  Tough times call for shared sacrifice and shared solutions. 

Now is the time for New Yorkers to come together and find viable solutions, not waste time with talk of division and secession.  Bringing high speed rail to fruition and creating a linkage between our upstate agri-businesses and downstate markets can bridge the divide and help both areas of the state to connect and flourish.

Lorie Longhany of LeRoy submitted this photo along with the following information:

Left to right: Genesee County chair Lorie Longhany; Wyoming County chair Hank Bush; Livingston County chair Phil Jones; Governor David Paterson; Orleans County chair Jeanne Crane.

Wednesday night after his town hall meeting in Rochester, Governor Paterson had dinner with the four GLOW Democratic chairs, as well as the chairperson from Yates County. The Governor spent two hours discussing local issues over dinner, along with posing for some pictures.