This past weekend Marian Gaborik was crowned the MVP of the All-Star game after he recorded a hat trick and an assist as he led Team Chara to the win. For an All-Star weekend that lacked the two most well known faces of hockey in Alexander Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby, there was still plenty of excitement to go around.

The all-star fantasy draft format was back by popular demand and was even more fun than last year. It was funny to see players like Gaborik get picked to play against their teammates like Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist, who was the assistant captain of Team Alfredsson. An interesting twist to the fantasy draft is that the last man picked by the team captains wins a brand new car. Getting picked last probably doesn’t seem so bad to San Jose’s Logan Couture, who decided to give the car to his brother.

The Boston Bruins’ 6-foot-9 captain, Zdeno Chara, highlighted the skills competition when he broke his own and the NHL’s previous record for hardest slap shot with a whopping 108.8mph shot. It’s his fifth consecutive win in the Hardest Shot Competition. I feel for any defenseman who puts his body on the line to block one of those slap shots. I’m sure for next year, Chara will be aiming to break the world record of 114.1mph that was set at this years KHL Skills Competition even though that record was set at a closer distance to the goal.

The NHL’s All-Star weekend is more watchable and exciting than people think. This year’s breakaway challenge reminded me more of the NBA’s iconic dunk contest than any of the years past.  Some of the highlights of the breakaway challenge were goalie Carey Price making a save facing his own net, Patrick Kane putting on the superman cape, then proceeding to smash the gag puck into about six pieces and Corey Perry pulling a mini-stick from under his jersey and scoring with it. It really is the hockey version of the dunk contest.

Now that the All-Star game is over with, it’s time to start thinking about the playoffs. With less than half the season left, the New York Rangers still sit atop of the Eastern Conference with 67 points, one point ahead of the reigning Stanley Cup Champion Boston Bruins. The Rangers face a tough schedule ahead, playing seven potential playoff teams during the next 10 game stretch. Coach John Tortorella is still set on giving Lundqvist multiple scheduled days off to try and keep him fresh for the playoffs, so backup goaltender Martin Biron is going to need to play well when he starts.

If captain Ryan Callahan and Marian Gaborik can keep playing at a high level, the Rangers should be able to survive this gauntlet of tough games and stay at the top of the eastern conference. The Rangers are fast, talented, young and have one of the best goalies in the NHL. There always seems to be high expectations for the New York Rangers, but this year they look like they could meet those expectations.

Television producer Don Cornelius, who produced and hosted the television staple, “Soul Train,” is dead at 75 according to multiple reports of an apparent suicide from a gunshot wound.

Police tell celebrity website TMZ that Cornelius was found dead in his Los Angeles home early on Wednesday.

Cornelius created “Soul Train” and hosted the show in national syndication from 1971 to 1993. It was the first real venue on American television for soul music, and as the show’s writer and producer, as well as host, Cornelius played a vital role in bringing stars like James Brown, Aretha Franklin and Michael Jackson to a wider audience.

Some have described the show as “a black American Bandstand,” though Cornelius was not a fan of that comparison.  As the host, he was known for the catchphrase with which he closed each episode: “I’m Don Cornelius, and as always in parting, we wish you love, peace and soul!”

“Soul Train,” which ceased airing in 2006, also spun off the Soul Train Music Awards and the Soul Train Lady of Soul Awards.   Its most famous theme song, “TSOP (The Sound of Philadelphia),” by MFSB became a massive pop hit in 1974.

Albany County Executive Daniel P. McCoy, now a month into his first term as chief executive of the most populous county in the Capital Region, defended his choice for county attorney after a barrage of complaints from the progressive and LGBT communities.

In a statement first published by the Times Union this afternoon, McCoy said that Thomas Marcelle, a senior counsel with the Alliance Defense Fund (an organization labeled to watch for by the Southern Poverty Law Center), was “overqualified for the job of county attorney.”

Marcelle will go before a vote of the full county legislature next week. According to a number of sources, at least 16 legislators out of the 39 will oppose Marcelle’s nomination.

“I have every belief that he will follow the law. During his meeting with the County’s Personnel Committee, he unequivocally stated that he would uphold New York’s new same-sex marriage law should it come before him as a matter of county business. With his commitment to this specific law publicly stated, I don’t believe that we should have a political litmus test for county employment,” said McCoy in a statement.

Earlier on Tuesday, the Empire State Pride Agenda called Marcelle’s appointment an “insult” and would bring “grave danger” to the LGBT community.

“My own personal commitment to equal rights is well documented publicly, as evidenced by my previous support for proposed civil rights and equal protection laws, and by the statement I made last June supporting the passage of marriage equality in New York State,” McCoy continued in the statement.

Before marriage equality was passed by New York in June, County Legislator Bryan Clenahan had proposed a pro-marriage equality declaration before the county legislature – a declaration in which McCoy never signed. McCoy at the time was county legislature chair.

Clenahan, along with fellow legislator Noelle Kinsch and others, made the opinion of Marcelle known as the RFK Democratic Club meeting last week.

The fight over Marcelle’s appointment reached a boiling point earlier this month when Libby Post published stoptommarcelle.com, a web site dedicated to opposing Marcelle’s appointment as county attorney. The county attorney is responsible for legal matters within county government and should not be confused with the duties and responsibilities of the district attorney, who is the county’s chief prosecutor.

“It is unfortunate those who oppose this appointment on personal and political grounds are doing so by seeking to frustrate the equal protection rights of an individual. Albany County is committed to providing and assuring equal opportunity is extended to all persons in employment matters without regard to their race, color, religion, age, national origin, marital status, sex or disability,” McCoy concluded.

It remains seen whether McCoy will consider other potential nominees in the event that Marcelle’s vote fails.

Update (2/2/2012, 2:49 p.m.): Bill Ritchie, President of the Albany County Central Federation of Labor (AFL-CIO), representing 30,000 union members and their families in Albany County, has announced the Federation’s opposition to the proposed appointment of Thomas Marcelle to the position of Albany County Attorney and is urging Albany County legislators to reject this candidacy. This position was adopted tonight by a vote of the delegates at the Federation’s monthly meeting.

“Tom Marcelle is by no means well-qualified for the County Attorney job,” said Ritchie.

“While his competence as a lawyer is not being debated, his lack of experience in matters pertaining to labor law and practice – collective bargaining, public employee contracts, arbitration and initiatives such as project labor agreements–is glaring.”

Apple has officially become the world’s top computer maker, according to research firm Canalys, beating longtime leader Hewlett-Packard.

Canalys included tablet PCs in their calculation, such as Apple’s iPad. The global PC market grew by 16 percent to a total of 120 million computers in the final quarter of 2011.

Cupertino, Calif.-based Apple sold 20.6 million units, compared to HP’s 15.3 million units in the last quarter. Lenovo placed third, selling 13.5 million. Dell and Acer rounded out the top five, with 11.9 million and 11.2 million sold respectively.

The calculation by Canalys could be used by other analyst firms such as Gartner to calculate the total amount of computers sold and used across the world. With more users switching from desktop/laptop-based platforms to a tablet, Apple could in fact be the mainstream maker it has long sought to become.

As the New Jersey Nets prepare to make their move to Brooklyn from New Jersey, using the slogan, “Jersey Strong, Brooklyn Ready,” another major league team is preparing to possibly make a move from “Strong” Island to the borough of Kings.

The New York Islanders announced they will play the first National Hockey League game at Barclays Center, the new multi-million arena in Downtown Brooklyn, on Tuesday, Oct. 2, 2012. Ironically, they will play the New Jersey Devils, who moved from the Izod Center in East Rutherford, N.J. to their own arena in Newark, the Prudential Center. The game will also mark the first ever hockey game played in Brooklyn.

“We’re extremely excited to play the first NHL game in the new, state-of-the-art Barclays Center,” Islanders General Manager Garth Snow said in a statement. “We already have some of the most passionate fans in the league supporting our young team, and we are looking forward to expanding our base into Brooklyn.”

Speculation arising over the Islanders relocation has been fierce since Long Island voters rejected a $400 million bond plan to finance a replacement to Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale. With Barclays Center being able to handle an NHL-regulation ice rink, a move to Brooklyn may be easier for the Islanders than building a new arena or rehabbing the coliseum.

The arena will officially open days earlier, as Jay-Z will play a series of concerts.

“We feel Brooklyn is an untapped hockey market that offers the Islanders with an exciting opportunity to grow its fan base,” Barclays Center CEO Brett Yormark said. “Barclays Center will also afford current Islander fans with great accessibility, as the Long Island Rail Road and nine subway lines will come directly to the arena at the Atlantic Terminal transit hub.”

The on sale date has yet to be announced.

Earlier this month, I was on the uptown campus of my alma mater – the University at Albany – meeting with two friends of mine who still attend the university. Now, this was during what is known as “intersession” – that time between the end of finals in mid December and the return of students on campus in mid January, so the campus was fairly dead.

It was snowing and I decided to park on Dutch lot – I figured I would do this to save the $5 from not parking in one of the newer Visitor’s lots, since I was only going to be on campus briefly.

After meeting with my two friends, I offered to drive one of them back to Empire Commons. We walk back to Dutch lot and find that the car’s gone. Instead of panicking, I knew the culprit immediately.

Parking and Mass Transit Services.

I called their office and asked whether my vehicle had been, in fact, towed by their department. The woman over the phone, in a snide manner, confirmed. I then proceeded to walk over to their trailer of an office. When I entered, I was greeted in a lovely manner by one of their associates (note the deep sarcasm). Their story was that during my time as Director of Programming for the Student Association (in which we brought President Clinton, Barbara Walters, and others to campus), that my account had been tacked on tickets for vehicles registered in the name of the department, not the Student Association.

When pleading with them to instead charge these tickets to Student Association, the woman went on the offense, saying “Well, I don’t know you from anyone.” Not the kindest words, nor even words to be uttered to anyone who went to this campus – considering we pay your salary.

$400 later, I got my car out of Dott’s Garage (who were very nice). The reason why I’m telling you this story is not to simply rant (which I wanted to anyway), but to plead with Albany County and other municipalities to strengthen the anti-towing laws currently in effect. According to the Times Union, a number of landlords and towing companies want to repeal the five-year old “predatory towing” law.

It all comes down to the money. UAlbany’s Parking and Mass Transit Services, in an e-mail sent to both staff and students, said they would start booting cars (yes, now you can get a boot while you educate yourself or go to work) after $100 in tickets incurred. This, of course, from a department that outpaces every other university center or college in the SUNY system in revenue collected.

I spoke to another friend of mine about parking. She once incurred $500 worth of tickets, therefore making education a second priority to of course, paying tickets. She pleaded, cried, and begged for them to negotiate. No answer.

She called her father, who then called their office. He called her back, saying he got them down to $150. So, pretty much, no regard for the student or staff member, but if “Mommy or Daddy” calls, then they bend over backwards. I see.

The problem is what gives an institution or a private company the right to impose this behavior on your own private property. I asked, after the 30 or so minutes debating with one woman and finally asked a reasonable associate at Parking and Mass Transit about their appeal board. She told me, “Well, I can’t tell you who is on the board.”

What?

When did we, I don’t know, completely just not care about open meetings? When I was at Hudson Valley, I served on the parking appeals board – you knew the members, they consisted of students, faculty, and staff members, and the decisions were explicitly stated – not some e-mail that says “your appeal has been denied.” Did you know that they also place a hold after 14 days, regardless of whether or not you have appealed or knew you had a ticket? Again, where is the accountability here.

I normally don’t ask folks to get behind anything, but this is a serious ethical issue that has long range ramifications on the way our institutions and governments earn revenue. If you could, please sign the petition - I appreciate it.

Really, sorry for the rant, but I’m mad and I’m not going to take it anymore.

It’s a crazy awards season, folks. This year, the list of films and actors that would be nominated for Oscars wasn’t as glaringly obvious as it’s been in years past. There are so many “very good” films, and not the usual stack of five or six great ones to choose from.  We believe the nominees are more exciting this year than ever, as many more films were in contention for the coveted nominee spots. In fact, several films that critics were sure would be included were almost completely left out (Young Adult, Drive), and there were films that no one thought would be included that were (Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close…this year’s The Blind Side. Our theory is that old white men in the Academy have a weird thing for Sandra Bullock). The Oscars, thanks to the recent, confusing addition of many smaller films and indie releases getting big, critical praise, as well as the decreasing relevance of the Golden-Globes-as-Oscar-predictor, are pretty up in the air, and as movie fans with a vested interest in watching Hollywood react to its own, incestuous, self-congratulatory traditions,  who could ask for anything more?

So with that, Knickerbocker Ledger’s two self-proclaimed resident People Who Like To Tell You Their Opinions About Movies, Cait Rooney and Robin Zlotnick, give you our Oscar Predictions…

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Last week at the State of the State address, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo announced his intention to get the ball rolling on a new convention center in Queens, which he said would be “the largest convention center in the nation.” Using examples such as McCormick Place in Chicago in comparison to the aging Javits Convention Center in Manhattan (ranked 12th in size in the country), the governor wants to restore New York’s reputation as building the biggest and most expansive buildings.

A convention center? Let’s review.

Cuomo gave his hour-long speech inside the Empire State Plaza Convention Center in Albany, a space that is large enough for a regional ski and snowboard expo, but with some of the worst sight lines imaginable. Granted – the recent new lighting and some of the A/V upgrades bring the facility into the 21st century.

Let’s also not forget that Albany, which has been trying to fund and build a convention center for nearly a decade. In a letter sent by Capital Region legislators to Cuomo, they argue that “Albany is the only Capital of a major state without a Convention Center facility. We therefore invite your favorable consideration of this vital project.”

Gavin Donohue, the chair of the Albany Convention Center, said to the Business Review’s Adam Sichko, “The reality is, the arguments the governor made for a convention center in the city are the same ones, on a smaller scale, why one is needed in Albany,” Donohue said. “But these two facilities are apples and oranges. I don’t think the two have anything to do with each other.”

Convention centers are weird animals in their own right. They bring people into urban cores for a defined period of time, greatly assisting nearly lodging establishments and retailers. However, most centers remain empty for most of their use due to their design. In Boston, the Hynes Convention Center is a large edifice in the middle of Copley Square. The best thing that happened to it was the development of the Prudential Tower’s shopping complex.

A friend of mine who ran for Albany Common Council at a debate in 2009 said of convention centers, in particularly in respect to Albany, need effective transportation networks to be worthwhile for a region. Without such networks or planning, the reach and possibility of what a center could do for a region isn’t fiscally responsible or reasonable.

A Queens convention center on the surface sounds like a good idea… for someone who’s never lived or been in Queens. The location of the proposed center, the Aqueduct racetrack, is nearly as far from Manhattan as one can get without leaving New York City. By car from Manhattan, one would need to take the Long Island Expressway (good luck) to the Van Wyck Expressway – both already under the stress of daily Long Island and airport traffic. Adding a convention center would only further stress these roadways. By subway? The A train’s going to be a lovely, long train ride.

The governor brought up redeveloping the West Side rail yards, which were to be the site of West Side Stadium in the early 2000s before plans fell apart due to resistance from Assembly Speaker Shelly Silver. Instead of contesting Silver on the West Side rail yards, Cuomo essentially gave in – allowing a redevelopment plan to begin and to instead allow the center to be built in Queens in conjunction with racing giant Genting, the operator of the racino there.

New York City’s failed Olympic bid also plays a role in the convention center plan. In preparation for redevelopment, the city authorized rezoning changes in order to redevelop various waterfronts, upgrade transit, and fast-track infrastructure projects. With the plan dead, private developers have since come in and have built condominiums in the place of proposed public property. When the West Side Stadium plan was not to be, Olympic organizers felt that Flushing Meadows Park would be a prime space to build a new Olympic Stadium. This site is now home to Citi Field.

At the end of the day, this idea isn’t new nor does it have a clear conclusion. Coming off a year where Cuomo accomplished much of what had been considered impossible in New York state politics, building the convention center may be his midterm “Waterloo.”

On March 19th, 2003, the United States and its allies invaded the sovereign nation of Iraq with near 75% support of the American people.  Within three weeks a despotic, homicidal autocrat and his government were overthrown.

Then:  May 1st, 2003 – President Bush announces “Mission Accomplished!”.  Six months following that, the capture of aforementioned dictator, who is found and dragged out of the hole he was hiding in on a farm in the rural Iraqi countryside.  This, followed by his public execution for all to see.

After that, well, things got a little more complicated.  And people stopped paying attention.

A new Pew Research study shows that at the height of the War nearly 65% of Americans said they followed the “news about the situation in Iraq” very closely.  As of December 2010, that number was down to 19%.

These numbers naturally correlate with the media spending less and less time covering Iraq.  The Pew study finds that there has been a 96% drop in media coverage of the Iraq War from 2007 to 2011 (see below).

For 2011, news from Iraq  filled 0.6% of  the newshole (a basic news coverage index).  The report shows that all the news out of Iraq adds up to less than the attention given to the trial of Casey Anthony or the Mexican Drug War.

It would be unsurprising, then, if most people had no idea whether this war was actually still going on or not.  But as of last month, the war in Iraq is over.  As in, our troops were told they had to leave.

Maybe it’s because we haven’t been paying attention, or maybe it’s just too complicated, but the average person doesn’t seem to know why–or even if–our occupation of Iraq has ended.

But the war is over, and interestingly, it has something to do with President Bush getting a shoe thrown at him. Because although most of us didn’t have much of an idea of what was being announced when the President got the shoe thrown at him, what went on during that press conference was actually signaling the end of the War.

What  brought President Bush and Iraqi PM Nouri Maliki together in the first place was to sign the “US-Iraq Status of Forces Agreement”.  This document calls for all U.S forces to “withdraw from Iraqi territory, water, and airspace no later than the 31st of December 2011″.

While this may seem pretty straightforward, it was assumed, by the U.S government atleast, that the terms would be renegotiated at a later date.  We would stay longer.

In fact, that same month, December of 2008,  Defense Secretary Robert Gates told the press that after military operations end, in accordance with the agreement, troops would remain.  He told Charlie Rose on PBS, “my guess is that you’re looking at perhaps several tens of thousands of American troops.”  The New York Times reported that Army planners acknowledged privately that the number of American Troops in Iraq after the deadline could hover between 30,000 and 50,000 —some even said 70,000 —But that was all contingent on a negotiation of the terms of the Status of Forces Agreement.

But in the year following, popular sentiment in Iraq was for us to leave, not stay.  The terms would not be renogiatied. But what were the terms we wanted to renegotiate anyway?

First, Iraq would have to want American forces to stay enough to give our troops legal immunity.   Which of course they didn’t.   The agreement states that U.S troops would be subject to Iraqi law. Article 12 of the agreement spells out that, “Iraq has the primary right to exercise jurisdiction over members of the U.S Forces regarding major and premeditated crimes.”  U.S Commanders wanted no part of their troops being at risk of finding themselves in an Iraqi courtroom over what may or may not have happened in a still hostile environment.

The second main objection is that the U.S. military would have to ask for approval before carrying out any missions.  The agreement states, “all military operations are to be conducted with the approval of the government of Iraq”.  This, along with the possibility of coming under criminal persecution, were the two main reasons we no longer have troops in Iraq.

So while this war may have begun with language like “shock and awe”, it ended on more banal, unnoticed terms.  It ended, in short, because of the unfavorable legalese found deep within the US-Iraq Status of Forces Agreement.

The war as we know it ended with over 4,200 of our troops killed in action.  Given less attention is the over 31,000 seriously wounded in combat. Of course there is the $1,000,000,000,000 monetary price tag, too.  As Ted Koppel pointed out recently, that trillion dollar figure works out to be a million dollars a day for the next 3,000 years. Whether or not is was worth it is a question for another day.

It just might be that Iraq will prosper, no longer under the oppressive weight of a homicidal dictator.  And if time is kind, future generations will understand the context of our world immediately following 9/11.  They will understand our collective fear and confusion coming out of that incomprehensible tragedy.  They will relate, as well, to our Wilsonian hope that the United States is an exceptional nation fit to spread the ideals of freedom and democracy around the world. Our actions will be vindicated.

Or, it will just be viewed as a total disaster.  We’ve been through those types of wars before.

Truthfully, we simply don’t know how future generations will view this war.  But we do know that it is of declining interest.  We are tired of hearing about the Iraq war.  Which works out, since it’s over.  Whether we know it or not.

Time heals a public career, or so goes the thought of former U.S. Representative John E. Sweeney, who is reportedly looking at making a return to electoral politics in 2014 and has Rep. Paul D. Tonko in his bull’s eye, according to a GOP source close to Sweeney.

“Enough time will have passed by 2014,” said the source.

Sweeney, 56, served four terms in the House from 1999 to 2007 in the 20th congressional district. During the 2000 presidential election, Sweeney led the “Brooks Brothers” riot in Florida – earning him the nickname “Congressman Kick-Ass” from President George W. Bush. In 2006, Sweeney lost re-election against now-Senator Kirsten Gillibrand in race that went “safe-Republican” to “toss-up.”

Since leaving Congress, Sweeney has been working with community groups before joining Tully Rinckey, an Albany-based law firm, last year.

A match-up between Tonko, 61, and Sweeney would bring a heightened awareness of the 21st congressional district, which has been Democratic-controlled for decades. Tonko won the seat in 2008 after facing Republican Jim Buhrmaster. In 2010, Tonko won re-election against businessman Ted Danz, a Republican who is currently looking at replacing Don Clarey as Albany County GOP chair.

Tonko defeated both Republicans with margins of at least 35,000 votes each and raised nearly one million dollars in the last election cycle.