Thanksgiving Day Football

The cities of Easton and Phillipsburg are connected by more than just two bridges that span the Delaware River.

A Thanksgiving day football game has brought the two towns together for the last 102 years.

ESPN has broadcasted the game twice, once in 1988 and the other in 2006 to celebrate the 100th year anniversary of the game.

Entering the game, the Easton Red Rovers lead the overall series 56-40-5.

The 2008 edition of the Battle for College Hill took place in Lafayette's Fisher Field with the winner receiving the Forks of the Delaware Trophy. Easton entered the game heavy underdogs since they missed the Pennsylvania State Playoffs and Phillipsburg is considered one of the top programs in the state of New Jersey.





After the game, Easton's Kyle Harbridge was named the MVP after rushing for 109 yards and two touchdowns.

Live From Cortland

Back in September, Pennslyvania enacted a statewide smoking ban that affected 14 of the state schools as well. The official ban started on September 11, 2008.

Student smokers from those schools were unhappy, especially since there were now no easily accessible places to smoke from inside the campuses.

For my final project, I wanted to practice going live on all of the pieces I had done in the class during the semester. The segment you will see below is the package I did about smoking in New York State back in September where I traveled to SUNY Cortland and interviewed students there about smoking on their campus. Also included is the live-shot I did on the package several months later.

Local High School Uses The Community For Class

From December 4th, 2008

My final project happened by accident. While heading downtown to cover a completely different story which never took shape, I passed Clinton Square. Not only did I see the huge Christmas Tree lit up on an overcast day, there were a group of about 40 teenagers skating on the ice rink that sits next to the tree.

When I went inside, I found out that while this group was leaving, another group of students would be coming later that day. I figured maybe it would be a local elementary school on a field trip, but when I came back at 2:15, I learned differently.

East Syracuse-Minoa High School brought a physical education class to the ice rink. The high school as two sections of the class that uses resources throughout the community for physical activity as an alternative to staying at the school. This quarter is ice skating, but throughout the course of the year, the school goes hiking, bowling, golfing, canoeing and hiking for their eighty-minute class period.

If you look below you'll see that the students enjoyed their time in downtown Syracuse.

Final project- Let's talk about recycling

I've always wondered what happens to the cans and bottles that I throw into those fancy looking recycle bins, so for my final story my partner Fei and I decided to take an inside look of a local recycling plant. The owner of the plant Mark Naef was a great guy and explained to us how recycling works and other issues regarding the environment, and then we visited the factories and watched how all the recycling machines and conveyer belts work. Finally, Fei and I went downtown and asked random people what they felt about the availability of recycle bins downtown. 

When I was putting my package together, I tried to put a "timeliness" element in it. Last time Jameson did it by pointing out that he has an allergy to animals with fur, and that was when the Obamas started searching for a pet for their family. This time I tried to achieve it by tying my story with this year's election. Unfortunately, it didn't go as well as I had hoped, but oh well c'est la vie. Here is the story:

Semester Snapshot

December 7, 2008 - After an entire semester developing my skills as a broadcast reporter, I still find my passion in producing newscasts and to that end I took the opportunity as a final project to take all of my packages from the past few months and created a mini newscast to give everyone a sense of what happened and what I hope to do in the future while also giving myself some more practice and experience in creating a quality product.

In the following you will see the majority of my stories profiled senior citizens and politics with one story, my trip to a corn maze, that broke the mold. In making my own beat this semester I found out for myself why the senior citizen vote and opinion is so strong first hand. I saw that at whatever event available, they came out and made sure their voices were heard. I witnessed how their issues become so important to policymakers and learned a thing or two about why I should care.

This semester was filled with challenges but I have come out of it with an even deeper passion for the news and find myself lucky to be involved with such an important field of work.

The effect of the poor U.S. economy on Black Friday and the holiday shopping season

Wednesday, December 3, 2008



The day after Thanksgiving, called Black Friday in the retail industry, signifies the start of the holiday shopping season, and is usually one of the busiest shopping days of the year. Steep discounts and door-buster deals mean consumers flock to stores to start their holiday shopping and spend, spend, spend.

Black Friday is named for retailer’s profits. It’s the day when, traditionally, retailer’s books go from red, meaning a deficit, to black, meaning profit.

Ra-Lin Discount owner Allan Poushter said this year, Black Friday didn’t put the store’s accounting books in the black, but he said it made them much closer to being profitable.

With the failing U.S. economy, predictions for Black Friday profits nationwide were grim. Financial analysts thought fewer consumers would shop and those who did would spend less money than in years previous. Nationwide, this year's Black Friday was not as profitable as it has been in the past.

Poushter said that wasn’t the case for Ra-Lin.

“This was our best Black Friday ever,” Poushter said. “Definitely better than last year.”

Poushter said this year’s sales were ten to 20 percent better than last year’s for Black Friday, and Ra-Lin employee Keith Mann said the advertisements for steeply discounted electronics drew a record number of shoppers for the day.

"They were lined up to get into the television department,” Mann said. “It's a pretty big department, and pretty ample space back there. But they were lined up around the jewelry counter, coming down the aisle, to get into the television department."

Black Friday’s success aside, the economic recession is expected to mean less profit for the rest of the shopping season.

But, Poushter remains optimistic, predicting this season’s profits to be the same if not better than last year’s. Poushter said the national economy does not affect his central New York business.

“I think most people in Upstate New York still have their jobs,” Poushter said. “Also, there was none of these funny mortgages going on up around here. The prices never went up that high for us to come back down, so we have a little more stable economy here.”

Poushter said the analysts who predicted poor Black Friday sales performances and even poorer holiday shopping season profits did so with states like California and Florida in mind—states he said are the reason for the bad U.S. economy statistics.

Poushter said with the economy in Syracuse which he said he believes to be stable remaining unaffected by the national statistics, holiday shopping at Ra-Lin should also remain stable.

However, with fewer shopping days this season because of the late date of Thanksgiving, Poushter admits each day’s sales count more for making this season profitable than in the past.
Mann said he notices the effect the economy is having on daily business.

“Look at it here today,” Mann said. “It’s slow here today.”

But Poushter said Ra-Lin’s customers are last minute shoppers, waiting for further slashing of prices in the days leading up to Christmas. Poushter said he is confident that sales on those days will make up for lost sales on slow days.

Poushter admits that the economy has had some negative affect on his business before the holiday shopping season, and will probably negatively influence profits in the coming year. But he said he is confident that this holiday shopping season will be one of the store’s best ever.

Keith Mann discusses his feelings about the Wal-Mart trampling this Black Friday as a retail industry employee:

About this package (sorry about the novel):
Throughout this semester, I have been working to improve my performance in live situations. I took this opportunity to do a look-live donut on this story to get more practice being live in the field. I did the look-live portion with the intention that it should look like I was doing a live donut for the 11:00 news because that is how my schedule worked out when putting the package together.

In some ways, the live donut worked for this story. One thing I really liked is that I said which neighborhood Ra-Lin is in. I know it is a very small detail, but I like it, in part because I am proud that I was actually able to figure it out, and in part because I think that small detail really drove home the point that this was a local perspective specific to my Syracuse audience. Also, I think my performance was smooth and professional, and I like my physical appearance. For the most part, I don’t look too rattled by my mistakes, which is a pretty big improvement over my past performances.

However, I think I adopted an inappropriate demeanor for this live shot--in class, Professor Nicholson pointed out that it looked like someone in my family had died--and I’m not sure the set-up worked as well, in retrospect, as I thought it did in the field. One key element of the story that is important to understand when looking at the donut is that a dozen cars were ticketed for illegal parking because the lot was full, and the owners of Ra-Lin were planning to pay for all the tickets.

I guess I thought an anchor intro could explain that part of the story, but, in retrospect, that’s not really what my story is about. The anchor intro should be what is new. In this case, the anchor intro should have been new figures about the failing economy and new predictions about bad sales figures for this holiday shopping season. The full parking lot anecdote and lead-in to my story did not really work.

I really needed customer reactions to make this a solid story. I intended the story to be about whether people were going to spend as much money as last year in this current recession. I ended up having a story about what a store owner thinks people will do based on what they did Black Friday. Without the customer reaction, the story is really one sided, and not entirely credible. I’m sure that Poushter does believe Ra-Lin will do well this holiday shopping season, but I have no way to verify his statements about sales figures that he used to back up his assertions. Customer reactions don’t need me to be quite as incredulous when using them in a story.

Unfortunately, the customers while I was at the store were very uncomfortable with my even being there. No one agreed to be interviewed. With the extended deadline, I planned to return the next day when different customers were there, get customer reactions, finish putting my story together, and do a live donut based on my finished story. However, because of the way my schedule worked out (it took me a lot longer than I had anticipated finishing an exam for one of my classes) I did not get back to the store the next day until after it had closed. I therefore had no customer reactions and had to go with the incomplete story I got the previous day.

After not being able to get any customer reactions at Ra-Lin, I had thought about going to any other business (maybe the parking lot at the mall) and getting reactions from any consumer about what the economy meant for their holiday shopping. At the time, I decided against doing that because the story I had was very specific to Ra-Lin. But, in retrospect, I should have done that and reworked my story, because any consumer reaction is better than no reaction at all.

Because of the extended deadline for this project, I was able to really pay attention to detail in putting together b-roll. For past stories, I have neglected sequencing in favor of getting a story done by deadline. With this story, I was able to choose and arrange clips in a way that made my story visually interesting, even without an audio track. I notice there are some jump cuts and some of the timing seems a little off for parts of the piece, but overall I like that I was able to get back to basics and put together meaningful video in addition to the audio aspect for this package.

For this story, I took the opportunity to try a longer format piece. I am often very frustrated by how time constraints really limit the amount and quality of information I put in a story. I know that with practice I will get good enough to figure out how to put together a quality story regardless of how short it is, but for now, I wanted to see what would happen with a longer story. Turns out, it’s pretty much the same. I still feel like there is more that I would like to have said.

I think Parkinson's Law applies to some extent—the amount of work to do will expand to fill the time in which it can be done. For this package, the story expanded to fill the longer space without any astronomical improvement in quality of information. Lesson learned. I’ll just have to suck it up and practice putting together quality short-format stories.

LeMoyne receives $50 million endowment

For my final project, I took the route of doing a traditional news story, albeit it was a bit outdated by the time I presented it in class on Friday, December 5. My story focused on what LeMoyne College is doing with the $50 million it received just before Thanksgiving in the form of an endowment. I stumbled upon this story just before leaving for Thanksgiving, but I was unable to set an interview up until after the break, but I covered it from the angle of what the school specifically wants to do with the money (or what it is limited to in the terms of the endowment), and what this means for the school going forward.

It is reportedly one of the largest monetary grants to a Jesuit college in history, and was donated by the late Robert and Catherine McDevitt of Binghamton, NY. Joe Della Posta, the communications director, provided me with all the information I needed to know about the gift and about what the school is doing about it. I talked to him and several students, only one of whom I used for the final cut, Colleen Pinckney. You can click below to view the story.

Crosstown Classic: CBA 50, Nottingham 44

December 4, 2008 - My final project took me to Nottingham High School for high school basketball.  Christian Brothers Academy made the long, four minute (without traffic) trip to the 'Ham for a non-conference boys basketball battle.  There's no atmosphere quite like high school basketball, especially when you have a 6-6 center (who happens to be an offensive lineman on the football team) on one side and athletic guards on the other.  The game itself was close for a while, but CBA too over in the second half with two solid post performances by that center, Michael Goodman and the new guy, Greg Thompson.  

Below is is the post game LIVE wrap from the school with highlights and an exclusive interview with 24th-year CBA Head Coach Buddy Wleklinski.  An interesting note about Coach Wleklinski (real name, John): in Jim Boeheim fashion, CBA dedicated its home court to the current basketball head coach and Athletic Director before the second home game of the year, last Friday.

  

Recycling: the process and the problem

For my final story, first I thought I would only do a process story with great videos and natural sounds; only focusing on how does it really take to manage a recycling plant and what are the things that are involved in it. However, after talking to Mark Naef, owner of Naef Recycling, I wanted to add another angle to it, which is, why don’t people recycle. In order to prove and see if it was really true I went downtown and talked to local people about this problem.

December 5, 2008 - It’s a long but simple process to recycle at Naef Recycling. Mark Naef, the owner said that he has a dual stream recycling, which is where “paper goes into one bin and plastics, metals glass goes into another bin,” said Naef.

Every morning from 5 or 6, the haulers come to dump the waist in 4 different bays, where it goes up to the conveyors for people to sort them.

“We get about 160 tons of materials everyday,” said Naef.

Recycling is something that everyone should be doing but without enough recycling bins, it limits people’s opportunities to recycle.

Ron Quinn of Syracuse said that he is sometimes frustrated when throwing out bottles and cans.

“I don’t see recycling bins, I only see regular trash bins…There should be a green and brown one right?” said Quinn.

On the other hand, some part of Central New York is different. Jane Labrizzi of Liverpool said, “I live in Liverpool and we are lucky we have such good facilities. It makes it very easy [to recycle].”

But, downtown Syracuse is not doing so well.  “Maybe there’s something new [recycling bins] but for a long time there hasn’t been much downtown,” said Labrizzi.

If you want to hear more of what people had to say about recycling downtown, watch the following.

Twin Sisters honored for their blood donation- 40+ gallons world

For my final story, I covered the Red Cross' 10th annual Real Heroes Breakfast at the OnCenter in Syracuse. My story is about Mary and Margaret O'Brien, twin sisters from Syracuse, who were honored for giving enough blood to help everyone who attended the event Wednesday morning, December 3rd, 2008.

Lights on the Lake

12-5-08 I got the idea for my final project from Gino's last story/blog about the Christmas tree in Clinton Square. He mentioned this year energy efficient lights would be used to decorate, I immediately thought of another area attraction that uses a lot of lights, Lights on the Lake, and wondered if it would be making the switch. It turns out that they are. Professor Nicholson challenged me to challenge the concept that "green is good", so I went into the piece with the idea that I would challenge it by taking the angle that it is really expensive. I met with Onondaga Lake Park superintendent, Dale Grinolds, and after the initial "green is good" speech he told me exactly what I expected, LED bulbs (the more efficient bulbs) are about four times more expensive than older C-7 or C-9 bulbs (regular ones you'd have on your tree). But then he told me another reason they are switching that makes a lot of sense: they look better. So that is the angle I went with, green isn't just good for the environment, its easy on the eyes too.



There's another change on the way that visitors probably won't be as happy with ...

A Thrifty Holiday Season: One Way You Could Save Money and Go Green

(AP/Photo)

December 3, 2008- With the holidays around the corner I decided to do a timely story. With the recent trend to go thrifty this holiday season, why not be green? Due to economic conditions Christmas budgets may be tighter this season. According to a report by the American Christmas Tree Association, purchasing an artificial tree this holiday will be saving you money in the long term and helping the environment.

Based on a ten year analysis the association reports, "the purchase of a single, pre-lit artificial Christmas tree costs seventy percent less than the purchase of ten real Christmas trees during the same ten year period." That means that buying real Christmas trees will end up costing more than three times as much as one artificial tree.

While interviewing buyers at a local tree farm, I found some didn't believe they could be saving money by buying artificial. Others preferred buying real trees despite the savings because it was a long family tradition. Amanda Henkle, Syracuse resident, preferred artificial trees adding, "you can buy the evergreen room fresheners." Steve and Lucy Nami, also Syracuse residents, said they have had real trees twenty-nine years out of the thrifty-nine years they have been married. The Namis proclaimed, "it's hard to pass up the real smell of an evergreen."

The study also claims the best way to reduce your carbon footprint is to buy an artificial tree rather than drive around looking for the perfect real one. Dan Martini however, who has run his Christmas Tree Farm in Syracuse for about twelve years, says the plastic involved in manufacturing and the disposal of plastic trees is much worse for the environment.

While the debate continues the numbers are indisputable. If you want to save a tree this season by going green, while keeping more green in your pocket over the long run, then purchasing a pre-lit artificial is the way to go.

Savings for the Holiday

Syracuse Woman Stabbed to Death

Syracuse Police have identified the city's latest homcide victim. We go live to the crime scene to NCC News Reporter Chris McGrath who has the details.

HS Boys BBall: CBA at Nottingham

Recap/Highlights:



CBA Coach - Buddy Wleklinski




Final Thoughts on the Final Project:

The goal of my final project was design it specifically for the internet. It's a simple recap of a high school basketball game with a couple small twists.

I wanted the recap to be as quick and to the point as possible. As Chris Sheridan told us when he spoke in class, the videos that have the best "play to completion rate" are the very short ones and the very long ones. Based on that idea, I kept the recap brief - only about a minute.

I also didn't necessarily want the interview with Coach Wleklinski incorporated into my recap because I wanted the viewer to have the choice watch that separately if he wanted.

With that in mind, I planned the layout of the post ahead of time. I knew Coach Wleklinski's interview would go right below my recap. So, at the end of my recap, I mentioned the interview and pointed down to where the video would be.

These are relatively small things, but they are the difference between a video made for TV and a video made for the internet.

11th Annual 40 Under 40 Luncheon A Success

Talk about an entourage.

The forty people honored at this year's 40 Under 40 Luncheon put on by Syracuse Univeristy's Whitman School of Management at the OnCenter in Downtown Syracuse brought a healthy supporting cast.

Well over 500 people dined together before honoring a select group of Greater Syracuse businessmen and women for their contributions to the community both professionally and personally.

The youngest of the bunch was 25-year-old Monica Cutillo of Bristol-Myers Squibb.

"I think it's deserving because of the work I do with girl scouts and the Society of Woman Engineers and trying to empower other people to feel like they can make a difference," she said.

The Greater Syracuse area also extended itself just an hour south to Ithaca.  Cornell University's Jennifer Weil took home the distinction as well.  She says going forward, it's important to look at Central New York as a whole, rather than just as the Syracuse area.  

This, she says, will help make the whole area a better place to live in the future.

Cuomo in Syracuse

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo held a community forum at the State Fairgrounds this morning.

It's part of a larger "tour" that Cuomo is on. Yesterday he was in Rochester, and a couple weeks ago he was on Long Island.

"The attorney general's position is very simple," said Cuomo. "We are your lawyer. We are the people's lawyer. Any issues, problems you have, we do those cases. And where do we got those cases? From forums like these."

Cuomo and his staff (okay, all right, you got me - his staff did most of the work and he popped his head in) held mini discussions in four areas: environmental, consumer fraud, civil and labor rights, and health care (which was by far the most attended).

Inevitably, these community forums become and avenue for people to tell their personal problems. There's a lot of, "I have..." "My..." "Me...", which can cause the audience to drift in and out after a while.

But Tim Clune, who's in charge of the health care section of the attorney general's office, says the individual stories are a good thing.

"The 'I' statements help us find the bigger trends. We keep track of every complaint that comes into our office so we can compare it to a case in Rochester or a case in Long Island."

40 Under 40 Honored at Luncheon

40 professionals under the age of 40 were honored for their business accomplishments and community leadership at the 10th annual 40 under 40 luncheon at the Convention Center at Oncenter. A crowd of about 500 people showed up. Food wasn’t cheap! A plate of chicken, beans, and mashed potatoes was $45. Though it was more expensive than the average lunch, the 40 winners also received plaques. Robyn Bombard. who is in charge of 40 under 40. says that "A committee of five judges reviewed about 100 applications for the honor. They looked for people who showed excellent leadership at their jobs and in the community. The only personal information on the applications was the age of the applicant, to ensure that the person was under the age of 40." Dean Melvin Stith from Syracuse University's Whitman School of Management was the keynote speaker of the event.

A list of the winners can be found here: http://bizeventz.com/4040syr.cfm

Forty Under Forty

Forty business people under the age of 40 in the Syracuse area were honored Wednesday, as the 11th annual "40 under 40" event was held at the OnCenter. The Whitman School of Management at Syracuse University sponsored the event. Melvin Stith, the school's dean, stressed the importance of involving the business school at the event because of the concern of losing young business people from the area. "It's such an effort to get young people to stay here," Stith said. "People tend to get their degrees and leave. We ought to be a part of [getting them to stay]." If it weren't for Stith, there may not have even been an event. Bernie Brigman of CNY Business Journal said the Whitman School was a last-ditch effort to get a sponsor. "It was sort of a hail mary pass on my part because it had been decided already that if we didn't have a sponsor, we wouldn't do the event this year," Brigman said. A committee of business firms in the region nominates and selects the 40. Some of the honorees talked about what it meant to receive their awards. "It's really a huge honor to be acknowledged by your community as contributing to the positive climate of Upstate New York," said Jennifer Weil, the director of education for the Nano-Bio Technology Center. "I think it's deserving because of the work I do with girl scouts and the society of woman engineers and trying to empower other people to feel like they can make a difference like I have," said Monica Cutillo, the assistant engineer for Bristol Myers Squibb.

Organic Turkey or Regular Turkey

November 19, 2008 - Thanksgiving is a holiday of festivities, full of abundant food, and year-by-year people are starting to buy organic turkeys. Ernie Talerico, meat manager at Price Chopper says there are more people asking about the organic turkeys nowadays.

"We just started a couple of years ago with the organic and…has been picking up because more and more people are feeling health conscious."

Cobblestone Valley Farm, an all-organic farm has been selling organic turkeys for several years and they are always sold out on preorders long before Thanksgiving.

We usually put people on the waiting list and “if they are lucky” they could get an extra turkey, said Casey Knapp who works with his dad on the farm.

Even though the organic turkeys are more expensive than the regular frozen turkeys, people say they taste better. Ruth Fox of Syracuse who has been buying organic turkeys for some years says she prefers it over the regular ones.

“I think they taste better because they don’t have any additives added to them,” said Fox. 

Other Syracuse residents like Leon Haar is just not interested in organic turkeys.

“For people who are interested in that, I’m sure it’s good. For us it doesn’t make that much a difference for a turkey,” said Haar.

When asked what are the majority people are concerned about, Talerico said, “people go for the price,” rather than the quality of the turkey.

If you want to learn about Paulina Mancheno, an Ecuador girl's daily work with the turkeys and her reasons of coming to the United States to learn about organic farming watch the following.

Citizens Connect with Cuomo

November 19, 2008 - New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo bypassed questions about his rumored replacement of Hillary Clinton if she assumes the post of Secretary of State and instead focused on the environment, civil and labor laws, consumer fraud, and health care during his community forum at the New York State Fairgrounds.

Hundreds of citizens attended the event with individual concerns about getting their issues heard.

"We have to keep coming and keep trying and eventually things will trickle down," Judeth Laurange of Canton Woods Senior Center said.

While others were just trying to pass the time.

"I got laid off on Friday and I really don't have anything better to do," Ted Kraolvic said.

At sessions headed by Cuomo's staff citizens raised concerns about a variety of issues from not getting their medication sent to the right pharmacy to tax payer dollars being used to provide care to people not from New York State. Most citizens were advised to call the Attorney General's office individually to start the process of fixing it. The question remains, "How long will that take?"

"We got a complaint in June 1997 and we got a resolution last August...that was a quick turn around," Cuomo Health Chief Tim Clune said.

Cuomo will be back in Syracuse on December 2 with a forum about labor issues.

Ever wonder what it would be liked to be tucked in by Attorney General Cuomo?

Talking Turkey

11/19/08-Thanksgiving. The holiday of mountains of mashed potato, rolls dripping with butter, pies of all varieties, and of course a golden turkey erupting with stuffing. Essentially the holiday of all things fattening, artery clogging, and just generally bad for your health. Yet it seems that the health conscious, eco-friendly fad has crashed this sacred of all feasting holidays, and Central New York as well, with what two people in the turkey business say is a product growing in popularity. Organic turkey.
Casey Knapp, who works on Cobblestone Valley Farm which is an organic farm in Preble owned by his parents, says organic turkeys are fed organic grain (which is grown without pesticides) as well as grass and not given antibiotics from the time they hatched. Knapp would know, this Thanksgiving Cobblestone Valley will process between 105 and 125 turkeys for customers he says are concerned with what they put into their bodies and are willing to pay for higher quality meat.
And they will pay more, about three times more. Enrie Talerico, meat manager of Price Chopper on Erie Boulevard, says while he has also seen a growing demand for organic turkey fresh organic turkey cost about three dollars a pound and frozen non-organic is about ninety nine cents. One shopper, Leon Haar, says he and his wife can't tell the difference between organic and regular turkey. He's taking the cheap one.

A Tree Goes Flying- November 12th, 2008

Workers from the City of Syracuse Department of Engineering, a division of the city's water department, brought the annual Clinton Square christmas tree downtown. The tree, a Norway Spruce, was donated by Craig and Karen Anders of Baldwinsville, according to syracuse.com.

The tree is 52 feet from the base to the top with an extra five feet in the ground. After a few hours of sawing and measuring, a huge crane came in to help the workers. At one point, it hoisted the tree some 20 feet over the square on the way to its usual spot. The tree has been a tradition in Syracuse for many many years ans part of the city's annual holiday celebration.

"If you look at some of the old postcards of Clinton Square, you'll always see the tree there" says Mike McCarthy of the City of Syracuse Department of Engineering.







The tree will be lit the day after Thanksgiving, and a manger scene will be put at the base to complete the atmosphere.

A large crowd turned out to see the tree put up.

It's the Holiday Season!

November 12, 2008

Downtown Syracuse just keeps getting better and better! Not only is it going to be easier to park there (and "freer!"), thanks to the new Park On Us program, now you can even take your friends or family down to Clinton Square for some early Christmas fun. That's right, with the gigantic Christmas tree in place, the annual Holiday Magic in the Square Christmas celebration has officially begun.

"It's nice to come down here with the family, you know. Get a hot chocolate. A lot of kids come on field trips," says Mike McCarthy, Carpenter Foreman of the Syracuse Engineering Department, as he points to the ice rink by the 57-foot Norway Spruce. "Sometimes on a holiday I have three hundred kids out there skating. "

That's all well and nice, but if an 18-foot artificial California Baby Redwood is on sale for $7,349 dollars, how much is his 57-foot giant cousin going to cost?

Nothing. The tree was completely free. That's because every year, somebody would donate a tree to the City of Syracuse, like a Christmas gift, and in return they'll get their names mentioned in the newspaper. This year's donor is Craig and Karen Anders of 2 Gale Place in Baldwinsville.

This year's tree was originally 71-foot tall, but in the end it had to be trimmed down to 57-foot for it to be properly placed by the ice rink. That's also the maximum height that electricians can reach with their equipment to place Christmas lights on the tree. Here's what the tree looked like last year.

(p.s- This tree may not be the world's tallest Christmas tree, but it is still incredibly large and uses a lot of lights. McCarthy said this year, Syracuse is going green and is switching to using energy saving light bulbs. )

CuseCar? Yes, CuseCan

NOVEMBER 12, 2008- Ever heard of the Zipcar?  The people at CuseCar sure have.  In a new partnership with SUNY ESF, the company is launching a program to help curb energy costs and use.  CuseCar will give Syracuse residents who don't have cars or regular access to them the chance to use one.  The program allows people to pay for a membership, which lets them have access to the CuseCar at an hourly rate.

"We want to provide an alternative to reducing the carbon footprint," CuseCar Co-Founder Vita DiMacchi said.  "Walking's always great, biking's always good.  But you can't always bring your groceries home on a bike or on foot."

The premise is similar to a rental car, but the goal is to reduce energy costs.  That's why ESF is involved.  Throughout the year, students have been encouraged to wear sweaters because the school has decreased the use of heating systems, Michael Kelleher, Director of Renewable Energy Systems at ESF said.

"The U.S. uses 25 percent of the world's energy uses and represents five percent of the population," he said.  "So we gotta do something to reduce our energy use."

A New Car Sharing Company Starts In Syracuse

November 12-It’s no mystery that many people are trying to be more ‘green’ or environmental friendly. Fine. Go buy a hybrid vehicle. Use renewable energy. But rent a car? Today marked the coming-out, so to speak, of the CuseCar, a Toyota Prius Hybrid vehicle that will be available for the public to use starting next week.

One of the three cars that were put out today will be kept at SUNY ESF. CuseCar is a non-profit organization trying to create a more sustainable community, which Michael, Kelleher, Director of Renewable Energy at ESF says fits into what the university is trying to do. “We’re doing things to conserve energy in our buildings. Use renewable resources for generation.” He adds, “This is one of the transportation things we want to do to reduce emissions and costs.”

Whether students will want to pay a membership fee and hourly charge is a different story. Julie Greenfield, a junior at SUNY ESF says, “If you stop, like, if you’re going shopping downtown and still paying twelve dollars an hour for a car, it just seems kind of ridiculous.”

But CuseCar is an initiative that is meant to benefit the entire city, not just the university. “CuseCar offers a sustainable transportation system for students or members of the community that don’t want to have a car, or don’t want to have two cars. Or just need to have a car occasionally,” says Vita DiMacchi, co-founder of CuseCar.

This system is similar to the Zip Car, which was brought to Syracuse recently. The main difference between the two companies is that Zip Car is a for-profit organization. But that’s not the only difference. Michael Kelleher says, “The other major difference is that we use a more sustainable vehicle. Hybrids or other types of vehicles that have a little better features for the environment.

The public can start applying for memberships Monday, and DiMacchi is expecting a good number because she says their website, CuseCar.com has had over fourteen-thousand page views in just a few weeks.

Ski Trip!

November 12- Even though it hasn't been snowing this week, the crew at Toggenberg Mountain has been hard at work.

They're getting the ski trails and snow making guns ready for when the skiers show up. Today, they were taking four wheelers up to the mountain's summit, and fixing the mountain's snow-making hoses. The crew are using the sunny days to get work done

"When it's raining out, it's hard to get the sleds up, but when if there's rain, it's really hard to get them up".

Two weeks ago, when it did snow, the mountain held "Rail Jam". They built a terrain park on the mountain, and according to their website over two hundred skiers and snowboarders alike showed up, and showed off their moves on rails and new boxes.

But, right now, the grounds crew is taking care of business today, getting the sleds for the snow making guns ready. This involves welding, hammering, and dragging the sleds up the mountain behind a four wheeler.

The crew expects to have the mountain ski ready in a few weeks.

Holy Cow! There's a lot involved in taking care of cows.

November 12, 2008
Elmer Richards and Sons Dairy Farm in Skaneateles is lucky. As a dairy farm, it isn't as negatively affected by the poor economy as many of the nation's other industries.

Rose Burtless, head milker at Elmer Richards and Sons, explains that jobs cannot be cut in dairy farming. There will always be a demand for milk, and there will always be jobs that need done to care for dairy cows.

Burtless even said that the people who have lost jobs in the current recession should be looking for jobs on dairy farms--that is, if they can handle the work load.

Burtless describes herself as a jack-of-all trades because she does a little bit of everything on the farm. She's involved in many aspects of caring for both the calfs and cows, including vaccinating, ear tagging, and, of course, milking.

Burtless says she works less hours than anyone else on the farm, though. She says her day is done when she has finished all the work she has set out to do for the day.

Today, she was marking cows in heat so the breeder would have an easier time finding them tomorrow morning. This system of marking involves using different color paint markers--green for cows that need bred this afternoon, and orange for cows that can wait until tomorrow morning.

Burtless says the gestation period for a cow is nine months, and each cow spends at least 55 days with their calf. She said when it comes to breeding and milking, it's at least a 305 day cycle from one conception to the next.

To see an alternate version of the story above and a more light-hearted look at our adventures at the dairy farm, see the videos below:

Demand For Milk Keeps Dairy Workers Employed But Not Secure

(Photo/Innocenti)

November 12, 2008- According to Forbes Magazine, the unemployment rate has reached six point five percent. Many American businesses have been forced into a hiring freeze or layoffs. Employees in ailing industries are facing cuts in pay or benefits. Many of the people feeling the crunch of a bad economy are worried, and may face the reality of having to find a new job. As the economy shrinks, so do the options for a more stable career. So, what type of job is still out there?
Rose Burless, employee at Elmer Richards and Sons farm in Skaneateles, has been in the dairy business for twenty eight years and is convinced there is still a future in the American dairy industry. “I’m assuming all those people out there don’t want to do this type of work. This is a lot of work.” She adds, “I’ve been stepped on, I’ve been kicked, I’ve been attacked twice by heifers, luckily nothing serious.” But, if you like working with animals and finding a reliable job is your priority, Rose claims, “Dairy is a big place people should be looking.”
While the demand for milk keeps Rose and other dairy workers employed, they still face some tough economic challenges. She does not have health care coverage and she is not immune to a falling stock market. “The only thing the economy has impacted,” she explained, “is my retirement, just like everybody else. Every three months, it’s like, I’m taking a big hit.”




Bonus Clips and Out-Takes

Salt City Slopes Get Ready for Ski Season

November 12th- An early season October snowfall brought skiers out to the Syracuse slopes. Now that the snow is gone, one Salt City ski mountain is using the nice weather to get its trails ready for an early December opening.

Toggenburg Ski Resort in Fabius opened briefly in October to accommodate the skiers who wanted to get back on the slopes before Halloween. The snow quickly melted, leaving the mountain bare and without the equipment needed to make the white stuff.

Just over two weeks later, Toggenburg employee Erich Sparks says it has been a tremendous amount of work to get the mountain ready.

"The past couple weeks here we've done more than I've ever worked before," says Sparks, "It's a lot work."

The Toggenburg maintenance crew has needed to take full advantage of the nice weather in order to install the snow making system.

"It's not too warm, it's not cool," says Sparks, "If there's snow on the hill, it's hard to get the sleds up. If it's raining, it's really hard to get them up."

The sleds Sparks is referring to are used to hold together the snow making system that will drop over a foot of snow on the trails. Employees have to attach each sled to an ATV and pull it up to the highest point on the slopes where it will be put into place.

The snow making system is the last portion of the slopes that needs to be put into place for the ski mountain to be functioning. Sparks says the mountain should be ready to go within a week after Thanksgiving.

As stated in the video, I rode in the bed of a pickup truck to get up and down the mountain. I continued shooting the majority of the time. Below is my attempt to shoot another stand-up on the way down the mountain.

This second extra video is fairly raw footage of the ride up the mountain from the bed of a pickup truck.

Warm November Brings Out the Duffers

Probably the last thing on people's minds on Election Day was wondering if they could get a good tee time the next day. But sure enough, with a 65 degree, sunny day in the Syracuse area, area golf courses alomst looked like they were in midseason on Wednesday.

At Drumlins Golf Club, assistant professional David Midgely said there were at least 50 players on the course at any one time. "Usually this time of year, you might 2 or 3 diehards to come out just before you get a large amount of snowfall," Midgely said. "We might get 300 people in this week, which is outstanding."

One golfer at Drumlins remarked he drove by Liverpool Golf and Country Club, and it looked even more packed there. And sure enough, just as many people were enjoying the warm weather there.

"This is as busy as you can get," said Phil Annese, a pro shop attendant at Liverpool. "When you're out of carts by noon, that means you've been going strong since seven, eight o'clock."

Annese has been working at Liverpool for years, so he's used to the one or two days in the late fall or winter, when the weather shapes up and the golfers flock to his course. "When you get that one day in the middle of the winter, or cooler weather, they come like crazy. It's just the nature of the beast."

Another Loss for the Republicans

November 5, 2008 - Central New Yorkers have leaned to the left side when it came down to New York’s 25^th Congressional District race.

Dale Sweetland has lost his opportunity for the seat to Dan Maffei.

“I was surprised. I thought it’s going to be closer,” said Sweetland.

Tuesday night has been a tough night. Matt Wells, Committee Chairman of DeWitt said, “If you are a Republican and looking at the results, yeah, it is a disappointing night.”

But one of the major reasons, Sweetland has lost the race is due to financial problems.

“He had a huge financial disadvantage. The opposition had millions of dollars … so he couldn’t get his message out,” said Congressman Jim Walsh.

Sweetland has also expressed his frustration. “You guys [the media] know it, TV is costly, radio is costly and mailing is not cheap.”

During his short speech, Sweetland did acknowledge that Maffei will be capable of bringing  in changes.

“We need Washington to do good things and I know Dan has it in his heart to do that,” said Sweetland.

When asked if he will run again, Sweetland said, “I have learned never say never.”

If you want to learn about what really disappointment Sweetland on the election watch this.

Election 2008: The Day After in Syracuse

The buzz around Syracuse Wednesday -- the Election.

Not to anyone's surprise, people walking downtown during their lunch hour talked politics, a day after Barrack Obama won the 2008 Presidential Election over John McCain.

"I've been a wreck for weeks and months about this," said Marty Sorensen of Manlius, "So my immediate reaction was all of that emotion and anxiety went away."

For others, like Bill Gooley of Syracuse, it brought back memories.

"I can remember John F. Kennedy and I think there was that sense of excitement in the country about this; that great things were going to happen," Gooley said.

Meanwhile, to the victor goes the spoils -- and then the clean-up.

A few Syracuse For Obama Members celebrated the victory while clearing out rented space at 537 James Street in Downtown Syracuse; home to the local campaign headquarters for nearly two years.

"It was amazing to see," said Melissa Frakes about the election, "this is a team effort by everybody -- volunteers, grassroots made this happen."

A sense of excitement was seen at the James Street headquarters, where a handful of jubilant Obama supporters trickled in to get their hands on left-over signs and stickers.

Still, volunteer John John Williams, III says this is just the start.

"We got a president--a good president; and we're going to have to help him because he cannot do it by himself."

Williams says now is the time to rest, because the push for re-election in 2012 will come sooner than you think.

November Golf

"This is as busy as it gets," said Phil Annese.

Annese isn't talking about a polling place yesterday.

He's not talking about Dinosaur BBQ on Saturday night.

Not talking about the Carrier Dome, either (well...for men's basketball, anyway).

Actually, Annese is talking about a golf course. The Liverpool Golf and Country Club to be specific.

But it's November. How is it even possible for a golf course to be busy?












Oh. That's how...it was in the 60s today.

"If we're sold out of golf carts by noon, it means we've been going strong since 7, 8 o'clock this morning," said Annese, who works in the Pro Shop.

The Liverpool pro shop wasn't the only busy pro shop.

"I'd say there are probably 45 or 50 people on the course today," said Dave Midgley, the assistant Golf Pro at Drumlins Country Club in Syracuse.

"Usually (in November) we only have 2 or 3 die-hards that are trying to get one last round in before the snow falls."

Several golfers we talked to said they couldn't remember the last time they had hit the links in November.

Others said it was odd to see so many people playing because normally they have the course to themselves at this point in the year.

But overall, Annese said every customer he saw was, "just happy to be out there."

True Life: I am an Election Inspector

November 5, 2008 – Meet Mattie Voorheis. 21-years-old, first-time voter, Syracuse resident…and Onondaga County Election Inspector. So what does an election inspector actually do?

“Sit…and try not to irritate people,” Voorheis said.

In fact, Onondaga County pays election inspectors $150 on Election Day in November for a 16-hour shift from 5:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. Election inspectors must be available to work the entire shift and be registered to vote. At each polling place the county requires an equal number of inspectors from each party to ensure bipartisanship.

“I don’t know if it’s super effective just because there aren’t really a lot of Republicans, like I’m registered as an independent but I am serving as a republican because we couldn’t get any other republicans to come work,” Voorheis said.

But Voorheis said that was not the only problem.

“This is important and I don’t wanna knock the system but I feel like it’s disorganized,” Voorheis said.

Although she went through a nearly three hour training session, Voorheis said she still didn’t feel prepared for her role in the election, but she is excited to be a part of the process.

“If there ever was a year to do it this would be it.”

Still want more of Voorheis, watch this...

Dale Sweetland loses to Dan Maffei in 25th District

Republican Dale Sweetland's hopes of representing the 25th District in Congress were erased early Tuesday evening. By 10:30pm, it was clear that Sweetland was not going to beat Democrat Dan Maffei. The final, unofficial vote tally was 54% for Maffei and 40% for Sweetland. Green Populist candidate Howie Hawkins took home 4% of the vote. Sweetland's campaign manager Bill Rapp said, "We had hoped more people who voted for Obama would pull the lever for us, but that obviously did not happen." Rapp is referring to Democrat Barack Obama who won the Presidential election. Meanwhile, Sweetland called Maffei on his cell phone after the results came in and wished him luck in office. The next election for 25th District Congress will be in 2010. Sweetland said he would not rule out running again.

A recap of election night from Republican headquarters:

Some more reactions from Sweetland after the election:

Late Night at the Spaghetti Supper

11/4/08-When you think the Election Day Spaghetti Supper at Our Lady of Pompei School, you think pasta and politics. For the last 59 years they have been serving up spaghetti with all the fixings to voters and community members of all ages. The supper runs from eleven in the morning to seven at night, but most of the action happens around noon. That's when the majority of the candidates are there as well as the major news stations in the area.

So who is there in the later hours? A lot of people. Chairperson Lucy Paris says mostly families and people who had to spend the day in work come at night. When I asked some people why they still came down, the most popular answer was the most obvious one: the great food. One diner described it as "Just like a home cooked meal". It is this excellence that has kept generations coming back every first Tuesday after the first Monday in November year after year, making tradition the second most popular reason for coming.

Paris says she thinks they served about 3,000 people this year which equates to 7,000 meatballs, 300 gallons of sauce, and 700 hundred pounds of pasta. With such a large crowd when is the best time to come if you want to eat your pasta in peace? Paris says things slow down between two and four, and you can always get a meal to go.

Extra 1: While filming at the supper I noticed that the minute you filmed adults eating they stopped and acted awkward, while kids loved to ham it up. I didn't want to let their performances go to waste. They may not have been old enough to vote, but you can enjoy spaghetti at any age.

Horsin' Around Syracuse

It started 125 years ago. Now, the National Horse Show has made its way to the Syracuse Invitational Sporthorse Tournament. The event that started Tuesday will run through the weekend, with over fifty different class competitions, with first prize winners taking home anywhere from five hundred to one hundred thousand dollars. And that’s per event. But Deborah Sandore of Baldwinsville says just having the opportunity to compete, she is a great accomplishment. “These riders today, you have to have so many points to be in the show. And the other ones, you'd still have to qualify. You have to be, really well ridden.” Wednesday afternoon brought the hunter classes to the War Memorial. Whether it was an event in which the riders and horses had to jump obstacles, or just walking events that consisted of walking, trotting and cantering, the hunter class events are more about the animal. “It's about the form of the horse, and not so much the rider. And the evenness of going over the course” says Linda Peeters. She came from Oneonta to see her daughter, who has loved and ridden horses for over thirty years. She finished eighth and ninth in two events. And while it might be cold and snowy in Syracuse, competitors in this years show are descending upon the Oncenter with their horse trailers in tow from as far as California.

Exotic Pets- Hot or Not?

Oct 29 2008 Halloween fun is right around the corner, but not everyone needs a costume to look scary on this special day.

A bit scary, huh? But do they really deserve this notorious fame?

“People always assume they’re going to have salmonella. They’re dirty,” said Carl Ackerbauer, owner of Ack’s Exotic Pets store in Cicero. “I think it’s just hearsay. They get that misconception in their mind and they just don’t know the truth behind it. So they get scared and get nervous, but they really should not be worried at all.”

And more and more people are in fact learning about the “truth” behind exotic animals. Ackerbauer said his store is the only one in Central New York that sells hedgehogs and many other exotic animals, and hedgehog sales have doubled over the past two years. Right now he sells an average of six to ten hedgehogs, four birds and three boas every month. He says the Internet definitely plays a major role in people's rising interest

But Ackerbauer also said information on the Internet may not always be accurate, and there have been a few cases where his customers bought exotic pets home, only to find out a couple days later that these animals were not what they had expected. But he said there are several ways to avoid surprises like these.

“Do research. Come in and talk to us or talk to people who’ve had them!” said Ackerbauer.

But owning an exotic pet comes with a price. Although you will save some cash and a couple trips from going to the vet, since most exotic animals do not require shots or annual checkups that cats and dogs do, they are still generally more expensive. For example, a guinea pig is about six to ten dollars, but a hedgehog of about the same size can cost up to 125 dollars, before tax.

So once again, if you’re thinking about joining the trend, and buy a pet that’s not going to bark in the middle of the night or repetitively scratch your living room carpet- talk to people, do you homework, and then decide if an exotic animal is right for you.

Ever heard of a coatimundi? These raccoon looking animals are affectionate and intelligent, but are much less common than birds or snakes. You won't probably see them at typical, corporate pet stores, such as PetSmart or Petco.

Prayer March

OCTOBER 29 - This morning at around 11, a group of about 100 Catholics walked from the Roman Catholic church in downtown Syracuse to Planned Parenthood on East Genesee St, to pray the rosary.

The pilgrimage was in honor of "respect life" month. The whole thing was led by Bishop James Moynihan, and the group consisted of older people, students from two Catholic high schools, and even some smaller children in strollers.


They walked about a mile in the snow.

Bishop Moynihan gave a small speech after the rosary finished. He said he has been leading this group for 13 years, and although this year they had walked in the snow, he had walked in colder weather. Moynihan also said in his speech that it is important to get the anti-abortion sentiment out there, and that by coming out and praying today, the effect is positive.

"As a result of our prayer and testimony, others come to believe"


However, even though the group does walk to Planned Parenthood every year, they never march this close to election day. So the question of whether or not the timing of this march was politically motivated, was a question left hanging in the air.

Betty DeFazio of Planned Parenthood in Syracuse gave us this statistic,

"...according to polling, 79% of Catholics in the United States believe that Catholics can make up their own mind on moral issues like abortion and birth control."

So, although people participating in the march claimed there was no motivation, there perhaps could have been some underlying factors.

Exotic Pets Gaining Popularity

October 29-Dogs, cats, and the goldfish that has a lifespan of what seems like two weeks are yesterday's news. According to the National Pet Ownership Survey, the percentage of households that own dogs, cats, and freshwater fish is down.

Snakes, parrots, and hedgehogs are among the most popular exotic animals people are increasingly turning to for companionship.

The appeal of exotic pets comes simply from how different they are from the normal pet.

"It’s actually nice when people own snakes because it takes people out of their element and it almost makes them interested," says corn snake owner Nikki Carlson.

Carl Ackerbauer, owner of Ack's Exotic Pets, says the popularity of snakes is increasing, but they aren't the most popular exotic animal.

" Birds are number one, birds are our number one seller," says Ackerbauer, "They don't need shots, they don’t need a yearly checkup, I do recommend it though just as a precaution."

Ackerbauer says across the board his business has been booming because people want different pets and he's got all kinds of animals from big to small, well known to unknown.

Ackerbauer says Central New Yorkers have requested from gigantic pythons to ferrets and cockatoos to kinkajous and coatimundis. But before you look into buying an exotic pet, Ackerbauer says do you research, "Look up animals on the internet or talk to someone who handles an exotic pet before buying."

Ackerbauer says this helps prevent the purchase of unwanted pets since many will be released to the wild when the owner no longer wants the pet.