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WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2009 75 CENTS NEWSSTANDDemocratandChronicle.com

WASHINGTON — President Ba-rack Obama promised a nationshuddering in economic crisisTuesday night that he would lead itfrom a dire “day of reckoning” to abrighter future, summoning politi-cians and public alike to shoulderresponsibility for hard choices andshared sacrifice.

“The time to take charge of ourfuture is here,” Obama declared,delivering his first address to ajoint session of Congress.

Offering words of reassurance toan anxious nation, he declared,“Tonight I want every American toknow this: We will rebuild, we willrecover, and the United States ofAmerica will emerge stronger thanbefore.”

“We are a nation that has seenpromise and peril,” he said. “Nowwe must be that nation again.”

Cheered robustly as he enteredthe House chamber, Obamagrinned, shook hands and kissedlawmakers and stopped for a leng-thy embrace with Supreme Court

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, backon the bench only this week aftersurgery for pancreatic cancer.

To deal with the current crisis,deepening each day, the presidentsaid more money would be neededto rescue troubled banks beyondthe $700 billion already committedlast year. He said he knows thatbailout billions for banks are un-popular — “I promise you, I get it,”he said — but he also insisted thatwas the only way to get credit

“We will rebuild, we will recover, and the UnitedStates of America will emerge stronger than before.”

Obama pledgesto revive U.S.

GOP RESPONSEOBAMA’S STIMULUS PLAN

‘IRRESPONSIBLE’ IN ITS COSTPAGE 4A

LOCAL REACTIONA VARIETY OF PEOPLE REACTTO THE PRESIDENT’S WORDS

PAGE 4A

FACT CHECKOBAMA AND GOP GLOSSED

OVER COMPLEXITIESPAGE 8A

President Barack Obama addresses a joint session of Congress in Washington Tuesday night. Vice PresidentJoe Biden and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., are behind the president.

PABLO MARTINEZ MONSIVAIS The Associated Press

Says nation will overcome economic calamityJENNIFER LOVENTHE ASSOCIATED PRESS

SPEECH, PAGE 4A

YOUR HEALTH | INSIDE OUR TOWNS

Keep yourheart healthy

In January 2004, onlyweeks into her first year onthe bench, Monroe CountyFamily Court Judge Dan-drea Ruhlmann found her-self with an ill daughterand no alternate child carearrangements.

So she had confidentialsecretary Kimberly Keskinwatch the child, take thegirl to the doctor and go tothe pharmacy for theyoungster’s prescription.

“Ms. Keskin spent aboutfour hours, intermittently,including the lunch hour,assisting (Ruhlmann) withher daughter,” the stateCommission on JudicialConduct said in a rulingTuesday in which it pub-licly censured Ruhlmannfor using an employee forpersonal chores.

That incident was one ofa number of occasionswhen Ruhlmann “repeat-edly used her secretary,Kimberly Keskin, to pro-vide child care servicesduring court hours,” thecommission stated. “It isclear from the record thatsuch services were not lim-ited to situations whenthere were exigent or com-pelling reasons.”

Ruhlmann admitted tothe commission that shedid ask Keskin to do per-sonal work, but maintainedshe did so because she mis-takenly thought a secre-tary’s duties “included pro-viding the judge with as-sistance on personal mat-ters,” according to thecommission ruling.

“Such a ‘mistaken’ viewis neither mitigating nor

excusable, since judgesshould know that such con-duct is wrong,” the com-mission stated.

The commission saidRuhlmann also had Keskinaccess confidential FamilyCourt information pertain-ing to a case the judge’shusband, then-assistantdistrict attorney RaymondRuhlmann III, was prose-cuting.

As a prosecutor, Ray-mond Ruhlmann couldhave properly accessed theinformation through otherroutes, but it was improperfor the judge to provide theinformation, the commis-sion determined.

“By short-circuiting thisprocess to assist her hus-band, (Ruhlmann) againmisused court resourcesfor personal purposes,” theruling says.

In 2004, Raymond Ruhl-mann left the MonroeCounty District Attorney’sOffice for another job.

In a statement releasedTuesday by her attorney,Lawrence Andolina, Ruhl-mann said she “regrets anyhonest mistakes she madeduring her first months as anew judge in 2004.”

“At no time was theadministration of justicein her court ever delayedor compromised,” the

Statecensurescountyjudge■ Family court jurist cited forusing secretary for personal help.GARY CRAIGSTAFF WRITER

DandreaRuhlmannJudgeaskedsecretaryto helpcare forchild.

JUDGE, PAGE 8A

Rochester’s real estatemarket never scaled thepeaks. So in one of thecountry’s worst real estatedownturns, it is escapingthe valleys.

The region’s stable mar-ket earned it a spot onForbes magazine’s recentlist of America’s 25 strong-est markets. Rochesterranked 15th.

Many of the metropoli-

tan areas near the top ofthe list are in Texas or up-state New York, withMcAllen, Texas, rankingfirst and Syracuse, Buffaloand Albany joining Roch-ester in the top 25.

None of the hundreds ofmarkets that were exam-ined is expected to see ris-ing prices this year, accord-ing to the Forbes study pre-pared by nationally knowneconomist Mark Zandi ofMoody’s Economy.com.

The Rochester area’smedian selling price re-mained flat at $117,000 in2008, and was forecast byZandi to drop slightly thisyear, bottoming out around$114,000 before starting torise in early 2010. Thatwould be a better perform-ance than the vast majorityof U.S. markets.

In fact, new figures Tues-day from the S&P/Case-Shiller index of prices in 20of the largest U.S. citiesshowed the steepest one-year drop on record — themedian price was down18.5 percent in December

compared with December2007.

Hardest hit among thebig cities were Phoenix,Las Vegas and San Fran-cisco. All 20 cities showed

Home prices fallAn index of housing prices in20 large U.S. cities — Roch-ester isn't included — fell arecord 18.5 percent last year.Rochester prices are stable.

SOURCE: Standard & Poor’s

The Associated Press

2007 2008

D J F M A M J J A S O N D

S&P/Case-Shiller index

150

160

170

180

190

200

Dec. 2008: 150.66

Jan. 2000=100

Dec. 2007: 184.97

‘Forbes’ says area real estate strong■ Magazine ranks region 15th inU.S.; index predicts rise in 2010.MARY CHAOSTAFF WRITER

What’s at stakeThe value of many peo-

ple’s biggest investment.According to a new studyin Forbes magazine, Roch-ester-area housing pricesare expected to dip slightlythis year before risingagain in 2010.

HOUSING, PAGE 8A

More details are emerg-ing about how a Canandai-gua family was terrorizedbefore the mother andfather were slain execu-tion-style on Valentine’sDay.

An Ontario Countygrand jury met Tuesday toconsider the case and isexpected to release itsfindings on Friday.

Frank Garcia, 35, ofHamlin, is the main sus-pect in the killings. ❑

STORY: 1B

What happenedin Canandaiguahome Feb. 14?

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8A WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2009 M DemocratandChronicle.com ■ DEMOCRAT AND CHRONICLE

statement continued, saying thejudge is proud of her record of“compassion, fairness and integ-rity” in her handling of morethan 6,200 cases that have gonethrough her court.

Ruhlmann cooperated com-pletely with the investigation,Andolina said.

Keskin and Ruhlmann hadbeen friends since childhood;Ruhlmann hired her as confi-dential secretary in 2004. In anumber of the incidents high-lighted by the commission,Ruhlmann found herself withoutchild care and asked Keskin forassistance.

But Keskin sued Ruhlmann inlate 2004, maintaining that shewas fired by Ruhlmann afterbalking at requests to performchild care and other chores notrelated to her job.

That suit was settled in 2007with a $35,000 payment from thestate, which also covered legalfees. Keskin was also allowed tochoose from among three jobswithin the state court system.

The commission waited untilthe resolution of the lawsuit be-fore continuing its investigation,said commission administratorRobert Tembeckjian.

A censure is the second-mostsevere punishment doled out bythe commission. The most se-vere is removal from the bench.

“We believe that a public cen-sure reflects the seriousnesswith which we view such mis-conduct, and we will not hesi-tate to consider the sanction ofremoval in the future if suchconduct is repeated,” the com-mission stated in its ruling.

Before 1978, Tembeckjian said,the commission could also sus-pend judges. But the lawschanged that year, and censurebecame the second-most severepunishment short of removal.The commission has unsuccess-fully urged the Legislature toagain allow suspension forjudges, he said. ❑

GCRAIG@DemocratandChronicle.com

JudgeFROM PAGE 1A

DEMOCRATANDCHRONICLE.COMcomment

What do you think of theruling? Click on this story tocomment.

a decline.“The broad downturn in the

residential real estate marketcontinues,” David Blitzer, chair-man of the index committee atStandard & Poor’s Corp., said ina statement. “There are veryfew, if any, pockets of turn-around that one can see in thedata.”

But Zandi’s study found thatprices should at least remainstable in upstate’s major citiesbecause they were never driven

skyward by frenzied buying orspeculation, or by an explosionin subprime mortgage loansmade to home buyers with dubi-ous credit records.

Zandi sees similar stability inTexas, but for a different reason:The economy there is “the bestlarge-state economy in thecountry right now,” he toldForbes, with employment stillgrowing slowly. In addition toMcAllen, real estate is holdingup well in El Paso, Houston, Dal-las-Fort Worth and Austin.

The findings reported inForbes are consistent with whatRochester-area real estate bro-kers have been saying through-

out the national downturn.“We’re in a lot better shape

than other areas,” MichaelHaymes, president of ReMaxRealty Group in Pittsford, saidTuesday. That’s because Roches-ter was never a speculative mar-ket with investors looking to fliphomes for quick cash, he said.

Rochester remains a cau-tiously optimistic market, evenin uncertain times, said ChuckHilbert, president of the GreaterRochester Association of Real-tors. He pointed out that Roch-ester doesn’t have anywherenear the volume of foreclosuresoccurring in troubled markets inFlorida, Arizona, Nevada, Cali-

fornia, Michigan or Ohio.Zandi’s study forecast that the

steepest price declines this yearwould be in Las Vegas and Mi-ami, both down more than 40percent.

In Rochester, the early springselling season is picking upsteam after a slow end to 2008,said Armand D’Alfonso, presi-dent of Nothnagle Realtors.Traffic is brisk at open houses,he said.

“There’s a pent-up demand,”D’Alfonso said, adding that heexpects the market to return tofully normal conditions by thelatter part of this year. ❑

MCHAO@DemocratandChronicle.com

HousingFROM PAGE 1A

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WASHINGTON — PresidentBarack Obama’s assurance Tues-day that his mortgage-relief planwill only benefit deservinghomeowners appears to be astretch.

Even officials in his adminis-tration, many supporters of theplan in Congress and the FederalReserve chairman expect someof that money will go to peoplewho should have known betterthan to buy that huge house.

The president glossed over anumber of complex realities indelivering his speech to Con-gress and a nation hungry foreconomic salvation.

A look at some assertions:Obama: “We have launched a

housing plan that will help re-sponsible families facing thethreat of foreclosure lower theirmonthly payments and refi-nance their mortgages. It’s aplan that won’t help speculatorsor that neighbor down the street

who bought a house he couldnever hope to afford, but it willhelp millions of Americans whoare struggling with declininghome values.”

The facts: If the administra-tion has come up with a way toensure money does not go tohome buyers who used badjudgment, it hasn’t announcedit. Defending the program Tues-day at a Senate hearing, FederalReserve Chairman Ben Ber-nanke said it’s important to savesome of those people for thegreater good. He likened it tocalling the fire department toput out a blaze caused by some-one smoking in bed.

Similarly, the head of the Fed-eral Deposit Insurance Corp.suggested this month it’s notlikely aid will be denied to allhomeowners who overstatedtheir income or assets to get amortgage they couldn’t afford.

“I think it’s just simply im-practical to try to do a forensicanalysis of each and every one ofthese delinquent loans,” Sheila

Bair told National Public Radio.Obama: “We have already

identified $2 trillion in savingsover the next decade.”

The facts: Although 10-yearprojections are common in gov-ernment, they don’t mean much.Obama only has a real say onspending during the four yearsof his term. He may not be presi-dent after that and he certainlywon’t be 10 years from now.

Obama: “Regulations weregutted for the sake of a quickprofit at the expense of a healthymarket. People bought homesthey knew they couldn’t affordfrom banks and lenders whopushed those bad loans anyway.And all the while, critical de-bates and difficult decisionswere put off for some other timeon some other day.”

The facts: This may be so, butit isn’t only Republicans whopushed for deregulation of thefinancial industries. The Clintonadministration championed aneasing of banking regulations,including legislation that endedthe barrier between regularbanks and Wall Street banks.That led to a deregulation thatkept regular banks under tight

federal regulation but extendedlax regulation of Wall Streetbanks. Clinton Treasury Secre-tary Robert Rubin, later an eco-nomic adviser to candidate Oba-ma, was in the forefront in push-ing for this deregulation.

Obama: “In this budget, wewill end education programsthat don’t work and end directpayments to large agribusiness-es that don’t need them. We’lleliminate the no-bid contractsthat have wasted billions in Iraq,and reform our defense budgetso that we’re not paying for ColdWar-era weapons systems wedon’t use. We will root out thewaste, fraud and abuse in ourMedicare program that doesn’tmake our seniors any healthier,and we will restore a sense offairness and balance to our taxcode by finally ending the taxbreaks for corporations that shipour jobs overseas.”

The facts: First, his budgetdoes not accomplish any of that.It only proposes those steps.That’s all a president can do, be-cause control over spendingrests with Congress. Obama’sproposals here are a wish listand some items, including cor-

porate tax increases and cuts inagricultural aid, will be a toughsale in Congress.

Second, waste, fraud andabuse are routinely targeted bypresidents who later find thatthe savings realized seldomamount to significant sums. Pro-grams that a president mightconsider wasteful have staunchdefenders in Congress who havefought off similar efforts before.

Obama: “In the last eightyears, (health insurance) pre-miums have grown four timesfaster than wages. And in eachof these years, 1 million moreAmericans have lost their healthinsurance”

The facts: The number of un-insured grew by 7 million from2000 to 2007, the latest year forwhich census figures are avail-able, meaning Obama’s claimwould be true if had been talk-ing about averages. But it’s nottrue that the number rose eachyear by 1 million. In 2007, theranks of the uninsured droppedby 1.3 million from the year be-fore, to 45.7 million.

Obama: “Thanks to our re-covery plan, we will double thisnation’s supply of renewable en-ergy in the next three years.”

The facts: While the presi-dent’s stimulus package in-cludes billions in aids for renew-able energy and conservation,his goal is unlikely to beachieved through the recoveryplan alone.

Obama: “Over the next twoyears, this plan will save or cre-ate 3.5 million jobs.”

The facts: This is a recurrentObama formulation. But job

creation projections are uncer-tain even in stable times, andsome of the economists reliedon by Obama in making his fore-cast acknowledge a great deal ofuncertainty in their numbers.

Obama: “And I believe the na-tion that invented the automo-bile cannot walk away from it.”

The facts: According to theLibrary of Congress, the inven-tor of the first true automobilewas probably Germany’s KarlBenz, who created the first autopowered by an internal combus-tion gasoline, in 1885 or 1886.Nobody disputes that HenryFord created the first assemblyline that made cars affordable.

The GOP responseLouisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal,

giving the Republican responseto Obama’s speech, ran off thetracks with one claim about thestimulus plan.

Jindal: The plan is “lardedwith wasteful spending,” includ-ing “$8 billion for high-speedrail projects, such as a magneticlevitation line from Las Vegas toDisneyland.”

The facts: Jindal was echoingan often-used Republican com-plaint that is an oversimplifica-tion. GOP budget hawks havedubbed the train “the Sin Ex-press,” and say it will soak upmuch of the rail money. Butthat’s not a done deal. Competi-tion for the mass transit moneyis just starting, and backers ofother projects across the nation— including one through Oba-ma’s home state of Illinois —think they have at least an equal-ly good chance. ❑

A closer look at key assertions in the speech■ Obama glosses over some complexissues as he stresses economic revival.CALVIN WOODWARDAND JIM KUHNHENNTHE ASSOCIATED PRESS

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