The Post-Star from Glens Falls, New York • A2

A2 Sunday, July 16, 2017 The PosT-sTar 1 KAREN MATTHEWS Associated Press NEW YORK Ride-hail- ing apps such as Uber and Lyft have been so disrup- tive to New York taxi industry, they are causing lenders to fail. Three New York-based credit unions that spe- cialized in loaning money against taxi cab medallions, the hard-to-get licenses that allow the tradi- tional cab fleet to operate, have been placed into con- servatorship as the value of those medallions has plummeted. Just three years ago, cab owners and investors were paying as much as $1.3 mil- lion for a medallion. Now they are worth less than half that, and some me- dallion owners owe more on their loans than the medal- lions are worth. got borrowers who are under water.

This is just like the subprime loan said Keith Leggett, a credit union analyst and former senior economist at the American Bankers As- sociation. LOMTO Federal Credit Union, which was founded by taxi drivers in 1936 for mutual assistance, was placed into conservator- ship by the National Credit Union Administration on June 26 of unsafe and unsound New York City has the largest taxi indus- try, with more than 13,000 medallions. Marcelino Hervias bought his medallion in 1990 for about $120,000 and thought its value would hit $2 million by the time he was ready to retire. Instead, the 58-year-old said he owes $541,000 and is driving 12 to 16 hours a day to make ends meet. celebrate my birthdays over the phone.

Hervias said. While some medallions are held by large owners with fleets, owning a sin- gle medallion was long seen as a ticket to the mid- dle class for immigrants like Hervias, who is from Peru. Many of them now owe more on their medallion loans than they originally paid for the medallions because they used their equity in the medallion for a home, a education or other expenses. Hervias said he borrowed against his medallion to pay for medical care for his mother, a new car and a visit to his homeland. time we want to go on vacation or do some- thing, where do we go? To the equity of the medal- he said.

Trending now Blaze destroys Wilton home Rail bike company to start trips this weekend Irish drops Queensbury 3rd Ward councilman re-election bid Carl restaurant closing Sunday Woman faces jail for dWI with a child poststar.com/gallery CUSTOMER SERVICE 1-877-589-5944 FaX: 518-792-0407 CLASSIFIEDS 518-792-5844 FaX: 518-798-5738 RETAIL ADVERTISING 518-742-3304 FaX: 518-798-5679 BILLING INQUIRIES: advertising: 1-877-291-7153 Circulation: 1-877-589-5944 all other: 742-3355 FaX: 792-5902 NEWSROOM email: EDITOR Ken Tingley, 518-742-3225, Main daytime number: 518-792-3131 Newsroom Fax: 518-761-1255 General News: 518-742-3250 Births: 518-742-3260; obituaries: 518-742-3325 obituaries fax: 518-742-5325 The office and billing department are open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., closed on weekends. CIRCULATION subscription rates: seven-day Print Digital, $28.33 per month; Thursday-sunday Print Digital, $20.33 per month; saturday-sunday Print Digital, $16.33 per month. all print subscriptions include full access to poststar.com, mobile apps and e-edition. subscribers can access all digital content by going to poststar.com and logging in or registering under the menu.

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Postmaster: Send address changes to The Post-Star, P.O. Box 2157, Glens Falls, ny 12801 Est. 1904 PAGE 2 This week at poststar.com JONATHAN LEMIRE Associated Press NEW YORK As Air Force One flew home from Europe, news was set to break about a meeting that Donald eldest son had with a Kremlin-connected law- yer, promising yet another round of unwelcome headlines about the president and Russia. And that happened twice within a week. The day-after-day drip-drip- drip of revelations over the past week about Donald Trump contact with the Russian lawyer in 2016 underscores the White inability to shake off the Russia story and close the book on a narrative that casts a shadow over presidency.

No mat- ter how presidential Trump may have looked on his back-to-back trips to Europe in recent days, the persistent questions about con- nections between team and Russia prevent him from sa- voring a public relations victory and building momentum for his stalled legislative agenda. are as harmful as contradictions because it seems like hiding Ari Fleischer, former press secretary to President George W. Bush, said of the Trump strategy. a communications standpoint, Indeed, Trump account of his Trump Tower meeting has seemingly changed on an almost daily basis. At first, the meeting was said to be about a Russian adoption program.

Then, it was to hear information about cam- paign rival Hillary Clinton. Finally, Trump Jr. was forced to release emails mere moments before The New York Times planned to do so that revealed he had told an associate that he would help in obtaining nega- tive details about the Democratic nominee. Even the number of people who attended the meeting has changed. On Friday, a prominent Rus- sian-American lobbyist told The Associated Press that he, too, had been part of the discussion.

Each revelation, no matter how small, has been seized upon by Democrats and dissected in detail on cable news. The investigations have thrown the White House off balance, leav- ing some officials on edge about whether there are more disclosures to come. On Saturday, the White House announced that Trump had hired Washington attorney Ty Cobb to serve as his special counsel to han- dle the White response to the Russia probes. The move reflects the growing acceptance that the Russia probes will linger over his tenure for months or even years. Trump Jr.

and Jared Kushner the son-in-law and se- nior adviser also attended the June 2016 meeting have retained at- torneys separate from those hired by the president. The firestorm over Trump emails has been a frustrating dis- traction during a stretch in which some White House advisers be- lieved they were finding their footing. allies also were heartened by his trips to Europe, believing that his speech saluting national pride in Poland was a high point of his presidency and that he appeared statesman-like during a whirlwind visit to Paris. But behind the scenes, a group of Trump aides gathered in a cabin on the presidential aircraft flying home from Germany last weekend to begin preparing for the initial fallout from Trump 2016 meet- ing. And then just six days later, as Air Force One was returning from France, more news was breaking about Trump shifting account of the meeting, again launching a bad news cycle and straining the credibility of the de- fense team.

NYTimes asks court to toss suit NEW YORK The New York Times has asked a judge to toss out a defamation lawsuit former Alaska governor Sarah Palin filed against it, saying there was not actual malice in a recent editorial it quickly corrected after readers complained. The newspaper said in court papers late Friday that its prompt and full correction of an editorial that referenced political action committee nullifies her claims. Palin sued the Times in Manhattan federal court last month, saying the newspaper had accused her of inciting the mass shooting that severely wounded then-Arizona U.S. Rep. Gabby Giffords.

She sought unspecified dam- ages. The lawsuit referenced a June editorial in the Times on the recent shooting of Louisiana Congressman Steve Scalise. In the editorial, the Times wrote that before the shooting of Giffords, political action committee circulated a map of targeted electoral districts that put Giffords and 19 other Democrats under stylized cross hairs. The editorial was criticized by some readers who chal- lenged the notion that the map constituted or that there was any between it and the Arizona shootings, the Times lawyers said. They said the Times revised the online version of the editorial the following morning to remove those refer- ences and to make clear that the crosshair on the map appeared over district rather than over her name or image.

Students search farm NORTH ELBA Students at a New York college are searching John Adirondack farm for artifacts linked to the 19th-century abolitionist. The State University of New York at Potsdam has been conducting an archaeology field school at the John Brown Farm State Historic Site just outside the village of Lake Placid. The archaeology students hosted an open house at the historic site Saturday. Brown and his family lived at the farm in the 1850s, when he opposed slavery in the United States. In October 1859, he led the attack on the federal arsenal at Ferry in what is now West Virginia.

Brown and supporters were captured. He was executed the following December. His body was returned to the farm in North Elba a week later and buried there. Bone scare forces hot dog recall NEW YORK The maker of Sabrett hot dogs is re- calling more than 7 million pounds of hot dogs because they may contain bone fragments. The U.S.

Department of Food Safety and Inspection Service announced the recall of products made by New York City-based Marathon Enterprises Inc. on Saturday. The recall affects beef and pork hot dogs and sausages produced on various dates between March 17 and July 4. The food-safety agency said the products subject to recall are stamped inside the USDA mark of inspection. The agency said the recalled products have been blamed for one minor oral injury.

Consumers who purchased the hot dogs are urged to throw them away or return them to the store where they bought them. AROUND THE NORTHEAST ASSOCIATED PRESS FORT DRUM A New York state trooper killed in the line of duty was recalled at his funeral Saturday as a hero who protected his community by running to- ward gunfire. New York State Police Superintendent George Beach praised the charac- ter of Joel Davis at an Army base in northern New York where Gov. Andrew Cuomo and other dignitaries saw hundreds of state troop- ers move hats from heads to hearts as they passed the casket of their fallen brother. Beach said Davis was a who served honorably and with ran toward gunfire to protect the innocent and to prevent further Beach said.

performed his duties. That is a trooper. That is a hero. That is brav- The 36-year-old father of three was shot once in the torso July 9 after getting out of his trooper car, which he had parked about 75 feet from the driveway of a couple living on a property where there was a report of shots fired. Authorities say Staff St.

Justin Walters, a Fort Drum soldier who lived on the property with his wife Nichole, fired the shot. Po- lice said Walters had shot Nichole to death just before Davis arrived. Davis wore body armor but the round hit him in the side where there was no protection, police said. He died about an hour later at the hospital in nearby Wa- tertown, where his brother is a member of the police department. Other troopers arriving on the scene took Wal- ters into custody after he dropped the weapon he used to shoot Davis, po- lice said.

His 27-year-old wife was found dead in the driveway after being shot multiple times, authorities said. Justin Walters, originally from Zeeland, Michigan, served two combat tours in Afghanistan, Fort Drum officials said. He had served in the 10th Mountain Divi- sion since joining the Army in 2007. MLive.com, a Michigan news outlet, reported ear- lier this week that Walters plotted to shoot up his Michigan middle school while a teenager. The re- port said Walters and a classmate were accused of compiling a or dead and planning to shoot people before killing them- selves.

Another classmate tipped off police to the 1999 plot. Walters pleaded guilty in family court to conspir- acy to carry a dangerous weapon, according to re- porting at the time by the Grand Rapids Press. The Davis funeral was held in Fort sports complex to accommodate a crowd of thousands of law enforcement officers from the U.S. and Canada. Christopher Carrara, chaplain of the Jefferson County Office, said he watched Sunday night as a hospital hallway swelled with officers pouring in to support the family and be by side after the shooting.

that moment, from the scene, to this very mo- ment almost a week later, Joel has not been alone day and Carrara said. Slain trooper remembered Colleagues: Davis was a hero who ran toward danger Uber, Lyft take down lenders, too Apps threaten more than cabs HEATHER AINSWORTH, ASSOCIATED PRESS The casket of slain new york state trooper Joel davis is carried out of the Magrath Sports Complex at Fort drum by law enforcement personnel during funeral service Saturday. Trooper davis, 36, was fatally shot July 9 while responding to reports of gunfire on a property in the town of Theresa. Police say a Fort drum soldier, Staff Sgt. Justin Walters, fatally shot his 27-year-old wife before shooting davis.

ANALYSIS Slow leak of Russia news is flooding White House of the Sales Scan the QR code with your smartphone for the latest adirondack Theatre Festival piece in photos. are as harmful as contradictions because it seems like hiding Ari Fleischer, former press secretary to President George W. Bush.