The MTA, which seems to manufacture a new budget shortfall every time a train runs late, now has reported ridership dipped in 2009 for only the third time on record.

This just in. Massive numbers of commuters have lost their jobs.

This just in. Massive numbers of people are skipping shopping and theater trips, opting to eat and pay the mortgage instead.

Ergo, there are fewer fannies in seats on the railroad.

Gee, you could almost see it coming.

What you can see coming in a couple of weeks — we could start a pool on when the announcement will come — we’ll hear from the MTA that the lower ridership means yet another shortfall and yet another budget crisis.

It’s kinda like economists and unemployment. When unemployment is too low for their liking, that’s a bad thing. It’s inflationary. So, from an economic standpoint, unemployment — to a point — can be a good thing, spurring positive action on the stock market. Of course, we’re way beyond that point now, so, yes, indeed, unemployment is in fact a bad thing.

I’m getting to think that the MTA would make a case that increased ridership isn’t a good thing, either — forcing added trains, more energy costs, more staff. And presto, a budget shortfall.

The simple truth is, there’s no way out for riders or taxpayers. The MTS will want more money no matter what we — or they — do.

The doors will open at 6:30 p.m. at the Venture’s Colman-Gromack Auditorium, 230 Route 340, Sparkill.

Featured bands are The Park Project, Rustico Acoustico and The Electric Friends.

The suggested donation is $20 per person and light refreshments will be on sale. Cash and checks will be accepted, with checks made payable to the Venture Foundation/Aid to Haiti.

Proceeds from the concert, presented by Camp Venture’s Committee to Aid Haiti, will be donated to Doctors Without Borders. Donations of clothing and/or personal hygiene items will be shipped in April.

In a pretty unremarkable press release, the Comptroller’s Office reports that unemployment of African American workers is at 14.8 percent while that of Hispanic workers is at 13 percent. The report covers the period December 2007 to December 2009.

Those are pretty remarkable numbers, even if the conclusion isn’t — that those numbers are close to double the unemployment rate among other workers, or about 7 percent.

The unemployment rate for those without a high school diploma is 15.5 percent, the press release reports, while for those with college degrees the rate is about 6 percent.

Imagine that: the recession is hitting persons of color and those with little education way harder than white employees and those with college educations.

Didn’t we know that already or — at the very least — suspect that would be the case?

Sure, the DiNapoli report puts numbers — scary ones, at that — to those beliefs, and I guess in that respect it makes sense and news.

What is somewhat surprising is a finding that there’s also a worsening gender gap in recession unemployment.

In December 2007, unemployment rate for men and women were close to the same — 4.9 percent and 4.4 percent, respectively.

But by last December, the rate of unemployment among men had doubled to 9.8 percent while the rate for women jumped, but only to 7.7 percent.

That worsening toll on men might be tied to higher salaries, but whatever the cause, women seem to be getting pink slips at a much lower rate than men.

According to the story from our partner, The Poughkeepsie Journal, as much as 30 to 40 percent of the burned-out structure’s front wall collapsed and perhaps half of the east wall toppled as well. Officials of the Bannerman Castle Trust believe the collapse took place Saturday or early Sunday morning.

What makes the story stand out to me — other than my historical interest in the structure — is that it was featured over the weekend in a repeat episode of NBC Universal’s lifestyles program, LX.TV 1stLook. I’m thinking I saw it early Saturday evening, but it’s available here.

In the episode, Enjoying the Last Days of Summer, co-host George Oliphant kayaked to the island from Cold Spring, meeting up with Thom Johnson of the Bannerman Trust to climb a trail through the island’s greenery to reach both the Bannerman Tower and the small Bannerman family residence and take in the expansive views of the Hudson River.

Both were built by Frank Bannerman VI after he bought the island in 1900. A fire in 1969 burned out most of the tower’s internal structure, leaving the walls standing.

Members of the Bannerman Castle Trust, which oversees the property bought by the state in the 1960s, have yet to visit the island to assess the damage, but plan an emergency meeting of the group for Monday.

But hearing about President Barack Obama’s intent to give his $1.4 million in Nobel Prize money to charity, she wants to make a suggestion.

Problem was, she thinks she has no voice. At the very least, her voice as a private citizen would be too soft to carry.
And taking the old, tried and true methods of writing a letter to the president — or even a letter to the editor — would mean her voice might be heard too late to matter since she has no computer.

So here’s Marcia Isaacson’s suggestion, Mr. President.

“The money should go to help the women and children of those lost in our two wars and to the homeless veterans of other wars. Something is owed to the families of the very young soldiers who are leaving wives and children behind.”

She and her ex-husband spent time at Fort Hood, in Texas, the scene of another recent American tragedy, she says. That was in the Korean War era, when her ex was stations there.

She says she realizes that Iraq and Afghanistan are wars Obama inherited, but, she says, he can still do some good by helping those who have suffered greatly in them.

She asked that I pass her thoughts on to someone who might listen.

The latest wire service reports from Oslo say only that the money that attaches to the Nobel Prize will be donated to charity, but that there’s been no decision by the White House as to where it will go.

Perhaps the president will hear a single, simple suggestion above the crowd.

First off, Westchester, too, is trying to tighten its collective belt, reducing expenses and trying to keep taxes under control.

There, as here,  County Executive Andrew Spano submitted a budget proposal calling for a tax increase, in Westchester’s case, a 4.9 percent bump. Like here, the County Board is now trying to trim that down. Rockland’s County Legislature managed to slice the county’s proposed tax increase in half, working with Vanderhoef and his staff.

But more interesting is the fact that community groups that review the Westchester budget each year are raising questions about sales tax revenue projections.

They have been an issue in most Rockland budgets this decade and are again going into 2010. This year’s projection for budget purposes turned out to be high, as might be expected in a time when consumers are holding tight to what they might have though to be their disposable income.

Westchester’s advisory groups also are concerned that the county won’t raise $16 million in revenue through Playland Amusement Park, which didn’t meet its revenue projection this year.

Rockland doesn’t own an amusement park — and good thing, given the tragedies that have played out there in recent summers— but questions about revenue projections in Rockland extend beyond sales taxes to mortgage taxes, which have also fallen short f revenue projections because of the real estate downturn.

So, we’re not alone in our concerns as we enter a new fiscal year, hoping for better times and better results.

The articles looked behind the names of towns, streets, churches and other geographic or historic points of interest and explained the origin.

We learned that Haverstraw was derived from Haverstroo, the Dutch for oat straw, which grew in the river area.

We learned that High Tor mountain takes its name from the Old English, torr, or rocky peak. High Tor, we learned was a place where Revolutionary War troops set fires to alert those below that the British, indeed, were coming.

Gerald F. Neary Elementary School, we found, was named for a former principal who died too young.

We learned that deNoyelles Circle in Garnerville was named for historian Dan deNoyelles, who was a good friend of the source for many of the What’s in a Name pieces, Thomas F.X. Casey, who died Saturday.

Neary, too, had been a friend of Casey.

But most anyone who knew him, who had the chance to listen to him speak about the Revolution, the brick industry, James A. Farley  or the Tappan Zee Bridge, wanted to go back, to hear more.

The newspaper turned to him often, not just for the hundred or so What’s in a Name features by staff and freelancers, but any time we needed a cup of history.

He’ll be missed by other historians around the county and by all of us who do daily history in the newspaper.

Oral arguments will be heard at the same federal courthouse in Manhattan where the government plans eventually to try five terror attack conspirators now held at Guantanamo Bay.

The federal lawsuit was brought by 17 families on the grounds that they were denied the right to give their loved ones a proper burial in accordance with their individual religious beliefs.

U.S. District Court Judge Alvin Hellerstein, who had earlier tried unsuccessfully to get the parents and New York City officials to negotiate a settlement, ruled against the families in July 2008.

In his decision, Hellerstein wrote, “Plaintiffs have no right in an undifferentiated, unidentifiable mass of dirt that may or may not contain the remain of plaintiffs’ loved ones.”

But the families say they were initially told ashes from the Trade Center, once sifted for body parts and evidence, would be segregated from trash at the Fresh Kills landfill. They are certain the material, called “fines,” contains the ashes of their loved ones.

The issue has been so emotional that it resulted in the formation of World Trade Center Families for Proper Burial, which has gathered more than 23,000 signatures on a petition supporting their cause. Six Rockland women who all lost adult children in the terror attacks formed a local chapter and made trips to New York City and Albany and campaigned actively to be heard.

One, Mary Novotny of New City, carries a wad of her son’s identification and credit cards that were found during the sifting process at Fresh Kills. If those items were found there, she’s certain his ashes are among those that were plowed into mounds of household waste at the dump.

World Trade Center Families for Proper Burial has alerted its network of families and supporters that the Court of Appeals will hear oral arguments on their appeal Dec. 18 at the courthouse at 500 Pearl Street, just blocks from Ground Zero.

“Leaving our dead in the Fresh Kills garbage dump is an atrocity and a national disgrace,” the e-mail from Families for Proper Burial reads. “We need as many as possible to be present in court to show that this is an issue of utmost and universal importance.”

I’m also finding it hard to believe that travel soccer — and other sports, too, I’m sure — are having to resort to formal legal contracts to try to keep things in line.

Our kids, no matter how skilled and no matter how driven, are kids — first and foremost.

We want to offer them the best coaching, best competition, the best environment in which to grow their talents.

But they aren’t pros and at 12 years old, I’m thinking the emphasis should be on keeping them safe, learning the game and its nuances and having fun.

It wasn’t always fun for my son and that was partly my fault.

But when I signed him over to a travel baseball program — one of which played about 80 games the summer he was with them — his baseball development was in their hands.

I gave the coaches space and expected my son, who was a little older, to deal with them if he had any issues with them regarding position, playing time or anything else. There were times when either he or I saw things differently than the coaches, but I kept my distance. He had to face the issues and work them out.

In my eyes, it was part of the maturation process, both as an athlete and an individual.

There were times when Sean’s coaches changed and we both wanted the old one back. But we hoped the overall experience would work out well and usually it did.

I knew from the beginning that if it didn’t — if he got hurt, wasn’t getting playing time, got disaffected  or lost interest — we were going to be out the money, which sometimes was double what is at issue in the Mighty Midgets situation.

Perhaps the need for contracts is an indicator that we’re all taking this a little too seriously for the players’ good, especially at 12 years old.

I know, if I had it to do over, I’d do lots of things differently and if I”m lucky enough to have grandchildren, I’ll try to guide their development  in light of what I learned.

But ya know. I don’t think I’d try the marketing approach that’s got a CBS News producer in hot water.

But you gotta give his attorney credit for thinking up an imaginative defense.

But will a jury ever buy that something like, “Leave $2million in small bills — no, wait, make that a check made out to me — under the third rock from the Southern Boulevard entrance to the Bronx Zoo. Get it there by midnight or you’ll never see your (fill in the blank) again”  is just a really cool marketing ploy?

Believe that’s just offering someone the right of first refusal and I’ve got the old Yankee Stadium I’d like to sell ya.