In an era of White House government secrecy not seen since the paranoia of Richard Nixon swept across our great nation, it is particularly disturbing to see one of our local officials denying his constituency insight on his positions -- from stem cell research to rocketing property taxes.

NY State Senator Stephen Saland is the official at issue -- a seeming opaque and obsessively defensive legislator from the 41st district.

In an extensive search for information regarding Senator Saland's positions, I accidentally found more information about Dick Cheney's secret energy task force than I did about Senator Saland's posi