City To Appeal Police Discrimination Decision

The City of Syracuse owes Katherine Lee 400,000 dollars. Lee is a Syracuse Police Officer who was sexually harassed and sued the department for it. The third verdict was made against the Syracuse police department over the sexual discrimination. The money will be taken from city funds.
Bill Ryan, Common Council Chairman of Public Safety, says the city will appeal this decision especially for the taxpayers. Ryan said Mayor Stephanie Miner will be taking the steps to make sure the police department is up to par with officer training with their behavior towards each other.
" We have to make sure that if there's some bad police officers here that need to be singled out and dealt with that we do that as well," Ryan said.
There will be a meeting next week with the Miner and the Syracuse Chief of Police to discuss the appeal further.

Gas Prices Up 8 Cents

With gas prices approaching 3 dollars a gallon, Public Affairs Manager of AAA for Western and Central New York, Diana Dibble said she doesn't expect people to change their mode of transportation.
"With spring breaks and holidays coming up, people have a lot of destinations and driving is still cheaper than other transportation" Dibble said.
Gas prices are up 8 cents in the past month due to the increase in the price of crude oil as well as the switch from winter to spring because of the temperature of the oil underground.
"Traditionally speaking we would normally see prices level off and then possibly a push up once we get into Memorial Day," Dibble said about what we can expect in the near future.

Team D Newscast

Overall, the newscast went smoothly. All the stories were timed out well but I knew we would have to cut that last story out, so I told Ivory in advance that it was in there just in case we were under. Aaron did a really good job with his story and getting it in and on time. I made sure to put more ACT's in this time because I had too many copy stories in my last produced show. I think this made the show sound more interesting and made the stories more interesting. I could have done a better job at some of the writing because Ivory tripped on the words a bit, but other than that, a good last job!

Click here to listen to newscast.

Volcano Stops SU Student in London From Traveling

Kevin Ware says he's use to traveling all over Europe. He's been to 15 countries this semester, and was planning on visiting another this past weekend.

But, the recent volcano eruption in Iceland forced him to change his plans.

"I was planning on going to Barcelona with a few friends," Ware (pictured left) said via Skype. "Now we're stuck in England."

Ware, studying broadcast and digital journalism, told NCC News a few students were trapped in different countries after the volcano stopped travel. But, he said they found different ways of getting back.

While airlines are still recovering from the "volcano blackout," Ware said he still plans to come home in early May.

"SU Abroad hasn't said anything to us," he said. "But, to be honest they're not really too helpful with anything."

SU gears up for Mayfest

With Mayfest only two days away, things were pretty busy this afternoon at Walnut Park. A group of about 10 people spent the majority of the day setting up traffic cones and assembling trash cans around the park in preparation for Friday’s festivities. The workers were also working on making an enclosed area within the park. About five trucks full of fencing were parked along Walnut Avenue to help complete the task.

The trucks and the fences are just a small part of this year’s Mayfest overhaul. Over the past few years Mayfest has primarily been a partying event held on Euclid Avenue. This year, the event has become a university sanctioned event. After last year’s Mayfest on Euclid, Southeast University Neighborhood Association (SEUNA) and others decided they had seen enough. “We were very instrumental in getting it changed because it was a destruction of property and because of the problems that could arise because of the history,” said Harry Lewis, the Treasurer and former President of SEUNA. “Every year when something takes place it usually gets larger and larger.”

Mayfest 2010 at Walnut should be much less chaotic, with DPS on hand to prevent things from getting out of hand. Beer will be available to students who are 21 and over. Everyone will have to show a valid ID and students who are drinking will only be allowed to do so in the fenced-in area that workers were setting up earlier today. The students will also be limited to four beers. Students who arrive after 3 pm will only be allowed two beers.

(Photo is taken from http://emc.syr.edu/tour/new/45.html)

Local resident says Mayfest is like any other weekend

The location of Mayfest at Syracuse University has been changed from Euclid Ave. to Walnut Park this year. According to Harry Lewis of SEUNA (Southeast University Neighborhood Association), who lives on Lancaster Ave., the community's biggest problem with Mayfest is the destruction of property and the safety of the students and community.

Alecea Standlee, who lives right next to SU's South Campus, said that even though there are a lot of students partying off-campus during Mayfest, the same thing happens on a regular weekend at SU.

"I don't think theres much we can do about it," Standlee said "We live in a culture where partying is a part of college."

Standlee also said one of her biggest fears is accidentally hitting someone with her car at night because they are running in the street drunk. She said she thinks the University should take advantage of free or cheap taxi services so students can get home safely on the weekends.

Mayfest is this Friday and according to Harry Lewis there will be cops patrolling Euclid Avenue to make sure there is no one breaking any laws. Lewis said cops will be arresting anyone who breaks the law during Mayfest.

(Photo taken Mayfest 2009 by Alyssa Norwin)

Northern New York Hit Hard by Snow

Although Syracuse saw little snow Tuesday, nothing compared to the more than two feet of snow (right, from AOL News) which fell on northern New York and northern New England Wednesday.

At the peak of the snowstorm Wednesday morning, about 30,000 people were without power across Vermont, New Hampshire, and northern New York including the Adirondacks because of downed power lines.

The snow started to turn to rain early Wednesday afternoon and the weather is expected to hit 50 degrees in the region Thursday.

Off-Track Betting could be coming to Onondaga County

Off-Track Betting is closer to becoming legal in Onondaga County. The Ways and Means Committee voted five to two in favor of putting it into place.

Legislator Mark A. Stanczyk is strongly against OTB, and he says it sets a bad example for people in the county. Stanczyk was one of two legislators who did not approve OTB.

Proponents of OTB think it will bring in extra revenue to Onondaga County. Stanczyk declined to comment on any positive effects OTB could bring to the county.

Team C Newscast 4:10 (April 28th)

I have to say things went pretty smoothly during our last newscast of the semester.

Click here to listen to newscast.


Starting off, Aylssa was my reporter and got her story approved early on Tuesday.


She spoke with someone from SEUNA and a woman who lives on Euclid Ave. about MayFest. Alyssa finished her wrap pretty early in the afternoon and helped me finish writing today's stories.

David was my anchor today, and he got off to a shaky start - he didn't have a phoner to start the afternoon, but eventually he ended up with two and another newscast ended up using his sound.

Originally, David called the DA's office about the Bass case, and waited for a call back from one of the assistant district attorneys. But, he also contacted a county legislator about the OTB proposal and got some great sound which he used for his anc/act. One of the DA's ended up calling him back and we used his sound in another story.

David and Alyssa did a great job finishing their stories on time, and we packed a lot into the newscast. As for my rundown, I think it flowed pretty smoothly and the stories grouped well together.

The trickiest part of the day was finding a second reporter, but Jake volunteered to go live in studio with five playbacks, which certainly did not make Ryan happy.

Overall, the newscast turned out great. I think we are really getting it. Too bad it is the last week!

April 28 Newscast B 4:00 pm

Today's newscast went okay, but could have been much better.

Click here to listen to newscast.

The two reporters, Jesse and Allie, had well written stories. Allie did a live foner from LeMoyne's baseball field, told us about the weather and the team's practice schedule. Jesse's Mayfest story described the Walnut scene well, and the SOT from Henry Lewis worked well with the story.

Timing during the newscast itself was a little off. We managed to get through all the stories, but had to say "now this" instead of teasing because we were not sure we'd be able to read the kicker. Eric was able to shorten the kicker but keep enough so listeners know what was going on. We also had time to do a medium weather and a short goodbye.

Working during the day was pretty calm. We were able to get stories from classmates and from the wires. It took Eric a little while to get a contact and a foner, but he manged to get in touch with someone.

I got very stressed at 3:30, 30 minutes before our newscast. Eric started writing his anc act and realized he had very poor audio quality that could not be used. He only had 20 minutes before he had to be in the hallway, and was not able to call anyone else for a SOT and have time to write a story. We had to make his story into a copy story and try to redistribute time to the other reporter's wrap and foner and add more to other copy stories to make up for the possible dead air.

This stressed me out during those thirty minutes and carried over into the newscast. I was frazzled and when I tried to call Allie from the studio it didn't go through, and had to hurry to get her the phone number to call us before we started, therefore we couldn't get her a mic check. Some of my redistribution of time was off, which caused us to have to use the "now this."

Unfortunately this newscast did not run as smoothly as I had hoped it would as my second, and last time producing. But it did give me an opportunity to try and work in a stressful situation for the first time.

Karl Bass Sentenced

A Syracuse man heard his fate in Onondaga County Court this morning after admitting he robbed an elderly woman back in January. Judge William Walsh sentenced Karl Bass to seven years in prison, despite Assistant District Attorney Mike Kasmarek asking for the maximum of ten years.

"Mr. Bass expressed some remorse about what he had done," said Kasmarek. "He asked the judge not to give him the top end of what he had committed to".

Bass admitted to robbing a 77-year-old woman outside of a pharmacy earlier this year, and then forcing her into her car to drive to an ATM to withdraw more money. Bass pleaded guilty in March to first-degree robbery, which gave him a minimum sentence of five years.

Bass offered an apology in court in front of some of the victim's family. Kasmarek said that while Bass did acknowledge his wrongdoing, his sentence is just.

"Punishing him and holding him accountable for his actions also ensures for at least the next seven years he's not in a position to do this to anyone else".

Le Moyne College Baseball in Syracuse Weather

The Le Moyne College baseball team won against the University at Buffalo Bulls at Dick Rockwell Field in typical spring Syracuse weather.

Though it was sunny, the wind was cold and strong. A few times during the game the ball looked like a definite home run, but only got caught in the wind for an out instead.

During batting practice, Coach Steve Owens said Tuesday’s weather forced the team to practice elsewhere.

“It’s the first time since January we’ve been inside,” he said.

But Owens said he wasn’t worried about the weather for the double header Wednesday.

“I mean, this is not ideal, but it’s certainly playable.”

Playable, yes, but the slick grass caused a lot of players to slip on the field when going for the ball.

Though many were bundled up in their winter coats and scarves, there were around 200 fans at the first game, which is a lot considering the seating in the small bleachers on either side of the field. Fans sat on the hill just off the field to watch the game as well.

Bill Mahoney is the father of Le Moyne’s third baseman Ryan Mahoney and says he thinks he and his wife have attended every home game this season. When asked if they would have come to the game if it were snowing, he laughed.

“Yes. Reluctantly, but yeah, we’d be here.”

Owens says Le Moyne doesn’t even start to play home games until April and the cold weather is nothing new, especially in Upstate New York.

“Everybody in the Northeast travels for the first five or six weeks of the season anyway,” he said. “I mean, we know we’re going to be on the road during that time, so it’s just part of what you do playing college baseball in the Northeast when the season starts February 18^th.”

The second game started around 3:45 p.m. The Dolphins scored two runs in the third inning and the bulls scored one in the sixth. The final score was Le Moyne 2, UB 1.

With a 24-23 record, Le Moyne will travel to number 10 Florida State Thursday for a stretch of three games throughout the weekend. Coach Owens says it won’t be easy.

“That’ll be the best opponent that we’ve probably played in seven or eight years.”

'Cuse Awards

The fourth annual 'Cuse Awards will be held tomorrow night at 7 p.m. at the Landmark Theater in Downtown Syracuse. The awards recognize achievements of Syracuse University student athletes and coaches. This past year for SU Athletics was the most successful in the history of Syracuse University.

This year, the 'Cuse Awards will be televised live on Time Warner Cable Sports. This is the first time that the Awards will be televised live. In previous years, they were aired on a delay. Director of multi-media services and the producer of the ‘Cuse Awards, Roger Springfield, said he thinks that airing the show live adds something to the show.

"The good thing about it is that this is the most successful year in Syracuse University Athletics history collectively with all the teams, so I think it's important to let the public look in on that," said Springfield. "It's great for the teams that don't get a lot of exposure during the year like field hockey or cross country to get a little love at this show."

No one outside of SU Athletics will be permitted to attend the event. With about 600 student athletes, coaches and staff members expected to attend the event, Springfield says that not tickets will be sold to the public.

"We've talked about it before with a lot of the students and they really don't want the public there," said Springfield. "They don't want to see people asking for autographs. I think they just want to keep it internal, and the TV part of it is what lets the public in."

Drumlins busy despite the weather

The Sun was out and the birds were chirping at Drumlins golf course this afternoon, but it didn't feel like the end of April. With the wind whipping around the course, it actually felt more like a crisp autumn afternoon.

When I went in the pro shop, Drumlins assistant golf pro Cody Endress was there. He said there were about 20 people out on the course. He told me he was surprised by the large turnout on such a chilly day, but said that compared to yesterdays awful weather, it was pretty nice outside.

"Once they get into the swing of things start playing if they have to take one day off, they kind of panic and think that their swing," Endress said, "they're gonna lose their swing or something so they come right out the next day."

SU Senior Albert Tirado was on the driving range getting ready to head out on the course. He says since classes are winding down and he's about to graduate, he's taking every opportunity to go out and play golf with his friends.

"It's a little chilly, but that doesn't bother us. Just out here swinging, swinging the clubs." Tirado said.

Walking around, it didn't seem like the rain or snow affected the course at all. In fact, the course looked beautiful.

"Its as dry as a bone" Endress said.

Internships Easy to Come by this Summer...Jobs, not so much

It was pretty quiet today in the Newhouse Career Development Center. Administrative Assistant Jim Armstrong says that most students are already set for the summer. But he says a lot of graduating haven't found jobs.

"In 2008, most, I think it was 95% of students, graduating students had a job, and that figure went down to 76% last year," Armstrong said, "and I think the reason for that is that a lot of them took unpaid internships."

Armstrong says that its become the nature of the business to enter into the field unpaid. He says the economy is better, but companies have realized that they can have the same staff without paying as much.
He says this helps younger students looking for internship opportunities.

"Students who are obviously less skilled but also willing to work for less are more valuable."

4/14 Team A Newscast

Click here to listen to newscast.

Being a producer has never been so easy with the phenomenal group I had on my newsteam. We had our producer's meeting at 1245 PM, and by 11 AM, my two reporters, and my anchor all had stories. It was such a weight off my shoulders, and allowed for me to find sound for every story we did and to make sure that everything was as well written as I could make it. We were fine on time, the only problem I ran into was when I realized that during the Newscast I had forgotten to put in the sound into the shared files for the Obama story we were doing before the tease. So, I cut the Obama story, and we had to run a floater on Consumer Prices in our B block along with the kicker, weather, and close. It worked out Okay, I just wish we would have been able to use that Obama story. As for my team, I thought David's story and initiative to go get it and find the right people to talk to was fantastic. After joking with Merav earlier in the week that she was going to go to some event to raise awareness for a cause, she went to the Genocide Awareness event. The irony was not lost on either of us. She also did a good job. Alyssa was able to get a story about mailing in taxes on a relatively slow day, and did a good job with so many ACTS. Ovcerall, I was proud of the job I did, and how well my team performed.

Team A Newscast 4-28

As producer for the Team A newscast, I would like to report that work went very smoothly today. My life was made very easy by Natalie, Erika, and Hannah. Erika and Hannah both had ample time after their interviews to produce wraps. Both of the wraps turned out well and were timed nicely.

Natalie tried calling multiple places for phoners, but for some reason nobody could talk to her and did not call back either. However, she was extremely helpful in writing stories, getting sound from others, and helping me produce the newscast.

For the order of stories, I led with the Bass Trial since it happened today and was relevant to the area. I made sure that the Clean Tech story and the Green Sheraton story went next to eachother since they were both about green sustainability. The workers memorial day story fit in after the Sheraton, and the mountain goat race after that. The mayfest security story was not as important so I ended A block with it.

In studio, things went pretty well. We were a little bit heavy with content, so I cut the mayfest story to give us a healthy 47 seconds coming back from break. Natalie was very good in her pacing and delivery, and did well to end the newscast with a succesful weather report and goodbye. Overall, I am very happy with how things went.

Runners Prepare for Mountain Goat Run

Art of Massage - Marshall Square Mall, 720 University Avenue, Syracuse

Click here to listen to broadcast report.

The 32nd Annual Syracuse Mountain Goat Run is set to take place Sunday. Roughly 2,000 people will be participating, according to a Fleet Feet sales team member. Fleet Feet, a running store, is one of the race's sponsors.

Although the race is four days away, runners are getting ready now. The owner of Art of Massage in Marshall Square Mall says a lot of runners are coming in for pre-race massages.

"Athletes benefit from massage because it helps them reduce the possibility of injuries," said owner Ed Griffin-Nolan.

Bryan Young, 22, of Syracuse, says this year will be the third time he's run the Mountain Goat. He says he's not getting a massage but can see why some are since the course is so challenging.

"It's called the Mountain Goat because Syracuse is a really hilly area so you just go up and down and up again," he said.

Instead of preparing with a pre-race massage, Young says he has been running four times a week for 45 minutes.

"I don't really bother with all that fancy stuff," he said. "I'm pretty basic when it comes to my training."

Massage or not, runners are scheduled to take off at 10: 15 a.m. on Sunday.

Sheraton Hotel to get renovations

The Sheraton Hotel in Syracuse will soon be under renovation.

General Manager David Heymann says he isn't sure how many rooms the Sheraton will be renovating, but construction is expected to start this summer and finish sometime early next year.

Heymann says the renovations will begin with one model room. From there the hotel will be able to make more concrete plans about how long each room will take to renovate with new furniture and carpet.

Heymann says he hopes he will be able to raise room rates after the renovation is finished.

"You hope that if you are going to spend several million dollars that you are going to get the return. So maybe in a good economy, once it bounces back we will get more money," Heymann said.

The Sheraton currently has 236 rooms and out of the ones being renovated, Heymann says about six of them will be green-certified.

Click here to listen to broadcast report.

Syracuse Women's Lacrosse Edges Cornell 7-6

The Syracuse University women's lacrosse team defeated Cornell 7 to 6 Wednesday night at Schoellkopf Field in Ithaca. Orange goalkeeper Liz Hogan (above right, from suathletics.com) made one of her nine saves on the day at the buzzer to keep the Big Red from sending the game into overtime.

The SU offense struggled to get shots on cage all game, with only 16 of its 26 shots reaching Big Red goalie Kyla Dambach.

However, after Tegan Brown's second goal of the game gave the Orange a one goal lead with 7:22 to play, it was the Syracuse defense which helped out Hogan and kept Cornell scoreless to secure the victory.

"They played help defense and tried to get pressure on every shot, and I think they did, and they forced them to miss the goal many times, but really limit their shots too," SU Head Coach Gary Gait said. "They didn't get a ton of opportunities."

After three losses by one goal already this season, Gait said the No. 10 Orange's one goal win over unranked Cornell was crucial heading into a two game Big East road trip to Cincinnati and Louisville this weekend.

Syracuse comes back to beat Cornell

The ninth ranked Orange escapes Cornell with a 7-6 victory over the Big Red at Schoellkopf Field. Liz Hogan made a save at the buzzer to clinch the win. Syracuse wins the first game of its three game road trip and improves to 10-4 on the season.

SU allowed three straight goals and went down 6-5 with about 10 minutes left in the game. Christina Dove stopped Cornell's scoring run with her 2nd goal of the game about two minutes later. Then freshman Tegan Brown scored the game winning goal with 7:22 left.

This was Syracuse's first win by a goal this season. The Orange has already lost three games by one goal, but it was finally able to break through with a victory at Cornell.

"We just proved to ourselves that we can handle the pressure of that one goal game," said freshman attack Michelle Tumolo.

Jackie DePetris and Tumolo both had three points each for the Orange. DePetris scored the first goal of the game off a Tumolo assist. Then DePetris returned the favor by feeding Tumolo in front of the cage to give SU a 2-0 lead.

SU travels to Cincinnati to take on the Bearcats Friday evening, and then it wraps up its three game road trip with a game at Louisville Sunday afternoon.

SU Abroad Students Feel the Crunch

SU Abroad - 106 Walnut Place, Syracuse

Sophomore Priyanka Vohra makes breakfast before Wednesday morning classes.

About 800 Syracuse University students are studying abroad next Fall, according to SU Abroad Admissions Counselor Gail Rich. Although most won't be leaving for four months, they're getting ready to go now.

With finals ahead, some students are feeling the stress of finishing school while filling out post-acceptance forms. Sophomore Priyanka Vohra says there is a lot to do to prepare.

"The visas, the emergency contact information, I need to get it in one time, " she said. "But finals are really important too, so I'm trying to balance my time."

Rich says it's important students complete their post-acceptance forms before they leave campus for summer.

Sophomore David DeGuzman is going to London. He's never been to Europe and says the whole process is overwhelming.

"There's just so many forms to fill out," he said. "I just wish there was more support for kids who are still confused."

But sophomore Brian Sakakeeny says SU Abroad has been helpful and organized.

"There's a pre-orientation meeting tonight, " said Sakakeeny. "It's always nice to get everyone together and have someone answer questions."

Despite feeling stressed now, Vohra says she is more excited than anything.

"I can't wait. I just want this summer to fly by so I can jet off," she said. "I would fill out 800 more forms if I had to because I know it's going to be worth it."

Team D Newscast (4:20)

Click here to listen to newscast.


Today's newscast was tough for a few reasons. The first time I produced I had the AP wire to rely on for stories. Sadly there is no Syracuse University wire on ENPS so I knew that there weren't going to be a lot of stories (especially given that it's a Wednesday). I knew we'd have to do a lot of borrowing from other news-teams this week to make this work so I emailed all of the producers last night so we could get on the same page. So I knew what everyone was doing before I got to the producers meeting today. Also, I didn't get much sleep the night before (Sport Management research paper) and I had to go to the stadium before class to do some things for my internship with the Chiefs so I was pretty tired, which made things a little harder. Anticipating that there wouldn't be many stories to choose from this week and not wanting our rundown to be light, on my way to class I remembered that my friend Sam has been working with The Fly on a new CD. I knew Sam had class at Newhouse at the same time as me so I got out my voice recorder and grabbed him for a quick interview before class.
Hannah was really helpful and organized which helped me out a lot. At the beginning of class she actually gave me a sheet of paper telling me where she would be at different times before the newscast. Also, during the time between her interviews (I was pretty impressed that she got two interviews) she offered several times to help me with writing stories and I ended up taking her up on her offer and she did a story about internships (I think it was originally Jake's story).
Things were going pretty smoothly early on. Because I already knew what all the other groups were doing ahead of time I was able to come up with a rundown really quickly. But as the day rolled on, it got kind of hectic in the newsroom because of all the story borrowing going on. Because we were relying on other groups so much this week (we were waiting on Jess for an architecture phoner), there was also a lot of waiting going on.
Simon got his phoner about sustainability at SUNY Oswego done pretty quickly and did a nice job of helping me edit and write the stories as we went along. Hannah got back too late from her last interview to be able to put together a wrap but it wasn't really a problem and she ended up just doing her piece live in the studio. As 4:20 neared, I really thought that we were going to be light so at one point I moved a floater about Zipped Magazine (which I believe was originally Flavia's story) up into the A block. At the last minute I decided to drop it back down to a floater, thinking that Hannah's story on Otto tryouts might run a little long. This ended up being a good decision because we weren't nearly as light as I thought we'd be, as we had only about 30 seconds left after the break. I give Simon a lot of credit for improvising a little bit on the SU softball kicker so that we didn't go over.
Overall I have mixed feelings about how things turned out today. I liked what I was able to do with my story about The Fly and I think I wrote more stories than I did the last time I was a producer, which is good. Simon stumbled over a few words as the anchor and I blame myself for that because if my writing had been sharper I'm sure Simon would have sounded smoother and probably wouldn't have slipped up as much. Also, as soon as the newscast ended I knew I made a huge mistake by leading with the dead body on South Campus story. I just know I'm going to get ripped apart for that when I get my grade on Sunday. For some reason I thought that because a death was involved that it would be good to lead with but in retrospect I guess it wasn't really relevant since it happened last Friday. So that's pretty frustrating for me. Still, we weren't light like I thought we'd be and our timing ended up being almost perfect. So there were positives.

Local band goes on national tour

A local student-run band, The Fly, is scheduled to go on tour this summer. Their first show will be at Sullivan Hall in New York City, followed by performances across the country.

The band consists of two Syracuse students in the school of Visual and Performing Arts at Syracuse University, Keith Smith and Farasha Baylock. Smith is a self-trained musician in five instruments and Baylock specializes in poetry and classical acting. The two combine to produce a combination of R & B, pop rock, and rap.

"We stand for freedom and expression and rebellion," says Smith. "We think that we're free and we hope that our music encompasses that in what you hear and what you experience at our shows."

Sam Wilson, the band manager, says The Fly will release a demo album next week.

Image:http://c1.acimages.myspacecdn.com/images02/117/l_ed365f6281844233bd01f708c4790e94.jpg

Team A Newscast 3:50

This was the first week we had 5 newscasts, meaning the first one started at 3:50 instead of 4:00. Lucky me, I was assigned as producer to the 3:50 newscast. On top of that, we also changed from NCC News to NCC News On-Campus, meaning we could only do on-campus stories, which turned out to be a lot harder than most, if not all, of us thought it would be.

Click here to listen to the newscast.

The anchor of the newscast was Jess. She did not have a foner planned before class, but she was very helpful with helping Allie with a story idea. In the end, Jess used this back-up idea she gave to Allie as her foner. She interviewed architecture students about their final projects that are due tomorrow and what the students had to do for these final projects that they have been pulling all-nighters this past week for. Jess was not able to get in contact with someone until about 3:00, so that ended up being a bit stressful because she was rushing to write her story while I was printing out the rundowns. However, I think Jess did a great job under the time pressure and came out with a good story. She was also very helpful with writing stories and helping me figure out the order of the rundown.

Allie was one of the reporters. As of Tuesday night, Allie was going to do her story on the withdrawl deadline (this past Monday), but when the person at the registrar's office was not there to give her an interview, she made a last minute switch to doing a story on Junior Day at SU. Allie did a great job remaining calm and never giving up on finding a story...she went right out into the field and reported on what was right in front of her and I thought it was a great recovery.

Eric was my second reporter. Since Eric was going to the women's lacrosse game in Cornell today, he was planning on finishing his wrap on the trip to Cornell and then e-mailing it to me. He had his interview done this morning, but while I was in the production meeting I got a frantic phone call from Eric saying none of his sound recorded. It worked out okay, though, because Eric did a live hit from the women's lacrosse game. We were in contact all day working out the details and the communication there was great.

The actual newscast went okay. Jess sounded really good and comfortable on air for only reading through the script one time beforehand. At some point we must have went over on time a lot because I had to have Jess cut Eric off in the middle of doing his live story. This was definitely my fault because I told Eric he had 50 seconds, the time allotted, and I probably should have given him a lesser time in case he went over. Eric DID go 50 seconds, but we were heavy going into it, so I had to have Jess cut him off with "NOW THIS". However, because Jess and I were communicating so well before the newscast went on air, we had already planned everything out in case this happened, so it went smoothly considering the circumstances.

We came back from the break with 23 seconds left. I told Jess to read the kicker and then judge what weather and close to do based on how much time there was left. When she still had a full sentence to go in the kicker and we only had 8 seconds left, I motioned for her to cut the last line and go to the weather. Luckily, she noticed this and closed with a short weather and a short close with 2 seconds to spare.

The only thing that got messed up at the end was that Jess didn't say "NCC News On-campus." This script error annoyed all of us, I think, because just 10 minutes before we went on-air I reminded Jess to introduce herself in the music and headlines (something I forgot to do last week) and she remembered to add "On-Campus" to the music and headlines, but we just forgot to add it in to the close.

All in all, being the first 3:50 newscast and first week doing on-campus stories, I think we did a good job. There was definitely a ton of stress and a lot of last minute story changes, but we all dealt with it well. Also, I think the news team as a whole worked well together because everyone was using each other's stories and everyone was very open to giving each other sound from their interviews or other information about their stories.

Junior Day at Syracuse

Orange was seen more than usual around the Syracuse University campus today. It seemed like half of the people walking around the quad or Hall of Languages were carrying an orange, recyclable bag.

Today was Junior Day at SU, where high school juniors and their families had the opportunity to visit the campus. Throughout the day, there were many groups of families following SU students on tours.

The weather made campus look all the more beautiful, and it seemed to affect the prospective students.

"I like how there are a lot of green areas, you could just hang out. I saw a lot of people hanging out in the grass, like just chillin' doing homework and stuff," said David Compito visiting from Skillsman, New Jersey. Compito says he will definitely apply to Syracuse after his visit today.

Michelle Beauchemin from Portland, Maine said her visit was a good one.

"I came for the school of engineering, and I loved it," she said. "I love this school. I'm really excited to apply."

Junior Day only happens once a year, but students can visit the campus anytime during the year. Tour leaders are part of the University 100 program at SU, which works with admissions to promote events like Junior Day. Though leading tours can be fun, Marissa Tarallo says each walk around campus adds up.

"I've done two. I think I'm going on three or four eventually, but right now it's an exhausting day."

Lisa Gapinske also led tours and estimates there were over a thousand visitors today. She wasn't far off. According to the Office of Admissions, there were 971 students and guests. That number increased since last year's 866 people.

And how many of those orange bags were made for Junior Day?

The Office of Admissions says 500.

Otto the Orange tryouts

Tryouts are being held for Syracuse University's mascot, Otto the Orange. Otto's coach Julie Walas says she is looking for as many as three new Ottos to replace one graduating Otto and one Otto going abroad.

The audition process starts off with an informational meeting for anyone thinking of trying out.

"So much of what Otto is, is a secret and a lot of students have a lot of questions and a lot of misunderstandings about what it means to be Otto," Walas said.

Walas says all the current Ottos attend the auditions. Before she was the coach, Walas was an Otto herself while she attended Syracuse University and she says the opinions of the other Ottos play a big role in choosing new members for the team.

If students want to try out, Walas says they should be between five foot eight and five foot ten so they all look similar when wearing the suit. Besides height restrictions, Walas says there are two other important Otto qualifications.

"They should be able to do a forward roll, or at least a teachable forward roll and they should be really comfortable being silly," Walas said.

The informational meeting was held at Manley Field House at 7 pm tonight and the tryouts will be at the same location and same time on Friday.

Team E Newscast: 4:30

I think that this was the hardest day to produce yet. Not just for me personally, but for all producers involved. Having to do all the stories on-campus made things extremely difficult. I had a tough time with finding stories that seemed interesting enough to put on the air, as did everyone else I think. This probably has a lot to do with why just about everyone had similar newscasts. Also, the lack of the AP Wire made finding copy stories far harder to find.

Click here to listen to newscast.

That being said, I think that the newscast went pretty well overall. I was extremely pleased with the wrap that Erika turned in. I liked how many soundbites she got, and thought the montage of people she got talking about how stressed they were was very clever. I thought Flavia's phoner turned out pretty well as well, especially considering that she had issues getting in touch with the person she was going to do the original phoner with.

I was pleased with the timing of the newscast, but also slightly surprised that we had so much extra time after the break. Going into the last couple stories, we were literally right on where the rundown said we should be for time, then somehow, went into break with 45 seconds to go. I was happy that we had a decent floater to pull, and thought Flavia did a good job of adding it in there. However, even with the floater and the kicker, we still used the long weather and long goodbye, and came up 5 seconds light.

SUNY Oswego Hosts Sustainability Fair

SUNY Oswego will host its first sustainability fair this evening to promote green products and services. The fair is free of charge and will house 50 vendors that will promote their green initiatives. Thad Mantaro was one of the organizers of the fair, and is happy with how the fair came to fruition.

"It started as an idea to get the green word out to the community," said Mantaro, "It has organically grown into something more."

The fair features innovative green technologies for anyone interested. Visitors can also test-drive alternative fuel vehicles such as the electrically powered fuel-cell Equinox by Chevrolet. Mantaro said that he hopes that the fair will turn into an annual event.

Team C 4:10 Newscast

The first week of on campus news was a little challenging. I was worried about getting sound for all the stories to make them legitimate, but everyone was really great about sharing sound and story ideas to help me with the rundown.

Click here to listen to the newscast.

Greg was my anchor and Ivory was my only reporter. Greg and I worked together last time I produced so I wasn't worried about working together because it went so well last time. Greg did a great job skyping with Kevin Ware, an SU student in London, to talk about how the volcano eruption was affecting students. The sound wasn't the best quality, but I'm glad we tried something new for a newscast. Greg had some trouble typing because he has a cast on one hand so the stories weren't written as quickly as before. But, we did work super well together and everything on our end got done well before we were supposed to go on.

Ivory came to me yesterday with her approved story idea, and came back to class early with a lot of sound. Audacity gave her some problems and she only got her story done about 5 minutes before our newscast.

Greg had a little trouble reading scripts, but he recovered really well every time and sounded very professional. Ivory labeled her sound bites incorrectly, and so the wrong sot played at the wrong time. Ivory stopped reading and had Ryan replay the correct sot and then played the second sot again at the right time. Ivory and I talked after that if she would have kept reading, and just had the wrong sots playing it would have sounded ten times better than what actually happened. I think it was a good lesson to learn that things aren't always going to go right but you need to keep going no matter what so it sounds somewhat professional.

We came out of Ivory's wrap (the first story) 30 seconds over. I had to figure out what to cut or we would have gone to commercial with no time to come back. I eventually cut our last copy story and tease so to keep all the stories with sound. Allie re-read her wrap live in studio which was such a help because we only had one reporter. She did a fantastic job and her wrap was really interesting.

Greg read the kicker, short weather, and quick goodbye and we came out with one second to spare. The newscast in general was not flawless with Ivory's mistake, Greg's voicing, and my confusion of what to do to make it sound decent. But, we came out better for it, made some (or a lot) of mistakes, and learned some good lessons.

It was my last time producing for the semester, and I've come to find that I really, really like it and hope to do more of it in the future.

Slocum Hall On Edge

For most Syracuse University students, finals start the second week of May but for architecture students, they have spent sleepless nights this week preparing for their studio final tomorrow afternoon. Different groups of students were assigned a real site and they visited that site to come up with an idea for the final project. Although they've been working gradually on their idea for a month now, it still comes down to the last week.
Second year student Weston Halkyard's building is an art school for downtown Syracuse. "We all know what we have to do and have been doing it but this is when everyone tries to make it look good."
Floor plans, 3-D images and diagrams are all due tomorrow.
"It's been extremely stressful but unfortunately sleep is just put on the back burner for now. It is definitely worth it in the end," said second year student Liz Mikula, who is building a new City Hall for New York City.
After this studio class is over they still have their other classes to focus on for the next couple of weeks until school ends. The students get reviewed by their professor one at a time tomorrow starting at 1 pm.

Body found behind Skytop

Onondaga County Sheriff's department says the body found behind SU's South Campus on Friday is a suicide. Sergeant John D'Eredita says the subject was a 25 year-old male, but would not release his name, cause of death, or any other information.

At around 1 pm on Friday the sheriff's department received a report about a body found in a wooded area behind campus apartments. Syracuse University's Department of Public Safety says DPS assisted the Sheriff's department on the Scene. Deputy Chief of DPS, Drew Buske says there was no evidence of any foul play on the scene.

Buske says the subject registered for a class at Syracuse University but did not take the course.

**Picture found on Google Images and taken from SU's Department of Public Safety

Retail Sales Rise With Temperatures

According to the New York Times, retail sales were up 1.6 percent in March. Seventy percent of America's economy is driven by consumer spending and retail sales, so this is a glimpse of hope.
Retail Management professor Amanda Nicholson, at the Whitman School of Management, said the rise in apparel sales shows that people are now making luxury purchases and not only buying things they only need. "The reason for this is mainly the early spring, summer weather in the northeast," Nicholson says. "Do we have specific numbers for Syracuse, no, but they are fairly optimistic down in Armory Square that things are turning around."
Just like spring cleaning, this is the time of year people look in their closets and decide they need new...everything, just because the weather is above 40 degrees. Living in Central New York will do that to you.
"There is an increase in retail sales, but we are going against last years numbers which is hard. Any up is good though," Nicholson said.

Syracuse Post Office will close at 9pm on Income Tax Day

Syracuse's Main Post Office will close at 9pm instead of midnight on income tax day. The public affairs director of Postal Services, Maureen Marion, said that the Post Office does not need to take taxpayer's money to remain open for the few people that will show up after 9:00.

"2 out of 3 people will file their taxes electronically this year," Marion said. She said that because of this, people will not need to use the Post Office services anymore.

Marion said the reason the Post Office is even staying open until 9:00 is for the few people who don't know how to do their tax returns on the computer, or that they can just leave their forms in their mailboxes to be collected. The closest Post Office that will be open until midnight is in Utica.

"If you aren't done by 9:00 and you can still bracket in 45 minutes worth of travel," Marion said, "you can make downtown Utica with time to spare."

PICTURE CREDIT:

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/

life.com

Local 'Tea Partiers' Prepare for Tax Day Protest

"The time has come in this country where we're losing our rights on a daily basis," said Joanne Wilder, organizer for the CNY Patriots, as she stopped briefly to talk during her busy day Wednesday preparing Thursday's protest.

When Tea Party organizations began to spring up across the country last year, Wilder decided it was important to start one in Central New York as well. The results of her work showed at Monday's Tea Party Express Rally in downtown Syracuse. Hundreds of people gathered in Clinton Square to protest President Obama's health care reform bill, but one protest in a week isn't enough for her. She says she's hoping just as many people show up to Thursday's 4 p.m. protest against taxes at the Federal Building.

"I've sent emails out all day long to those people to tell them that we started this fire burning in Syracuse; we have to continue," Wilder said. "I'm just hoping they all show up again tomorrow."

But Wilder isn't all on her own as she plans the second annual Tax Day Tea Party Protest, which she says will include music, speakers addressing the topics of health care and amnesty, and a time for the public to address their concerns with the way government is going. Randy Potter has helped a lot, she says. Potter first got involved when he attended Wilder's Tax Day Tea Party Protest last year, and he says he hasn't missed a Tea Party event since then.

"The movement, it seems to me, is gaining strength as we go along," Potter says. "With each passing day we get more members, and since the health care legislation, there's so many people who are so upset about this health care legislation. So we're gaining momentum all the time."

Those who disagree with the Tea Party movement aren't exactly standing by and watching. Monday's rally against health care also brought Obama supporters from the local chapter of Organizing for America. They stood at the opposite side of the block from the Tea Party protestors, holding "Yes We Can" signs and other signs in support of the health care bill.

When I asked John Desantis, leader of Organizing for America in Syracuse, whether his organization would be counter-protesting again at Thursday's event, he declined to comment. He did put me in touch with the man he called his press person -- Michael Czin.

Czin is the Northeast Regional Press Secretary for the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and spoke on behalf of the DNC. He said it's understandable that many Americans are upset about high taxes as the economy is suffering and government spending increased in recent years with the wars oversees. But contrary to what Tea Partiers assert, he says Obama's new health care legislation is cutting taxes for middle class Americans.

"There's a lot of frustration with that government spending, but that's getting reigned in now, and that's the President's feeling," Czin said.

Low Increase in Cost of Living Shows Signs of Jobs, Economic Recovery

Consumer prices went up only a tenth of a percentage point in March, with the cost of living rising over the past 12 months at its slowest rate in six years.

The economy seems to be slowly coming out of a recession, and the only slight increase in the cost of living accelerates a recovery, said Syracuse University Economics Professor Donald Dutkowsky (above right, from Maxwell School website).

"The significance is the inflation is not a problem, and that's good, because it leaves the federal reserve the freedom to focus on expanding the economy," Dutkowsky said.

The federal government can now focus on creating jobs, Dutkowsky said.

"Doing things that they can to stimulate job economy. Job creation and job addition and unemployment rate going down is usually the last thing to happen in a recovering economy."

The United States's 9.7 unemployment rate is still more than four percent higher than it should be, so there is a long road ahead to full economic recovery, Dutkowsky said.

Syracuse Police Crack Down on People using Phones while Driving

Syracuse Police have handed out 924 tickets since they started their crackdown against people using phones while driving on April 8th. Captain Shannon Trice, the Syracuse commanding officer of the traffic division, says most of the tickets have been given to drivers in downtown Syracuse.

Driving and using a phone has been a major problem all over the United States. It has become so dangerous that it's been compared to driving under the influence.

"Some studies have even likened talking or texting on the cell phone to the equivalent of being .08 blood alcohol level, which is a DUI," said Trice.

Trice says texting and driving is involved in 20 percent of all accidents. He says it would translate to around 1,000 accidents a year in Syracuse.

Trice says he knows people are not going to change their habits right away.

"It's going to take a while to change the culture," says Trice. "The culture right now is hey we know there's a law against driving with a cellphone or texting. However, we do it anyways because no one is going to enforce the law, which has been basically true."

The crackdown runs until Saturday, April 17th. Trice says the next crackdown will be sometime in July.

Construction Workers Still Tearing Down Building by I-81

Construction workers are still tearing down the fallen building along Interstate 81, two months after debris from the building fell onto the highway.

The Department of Transportation reopened the northbound section of the highway last month, but large pieces of cement from the building still need to be removed by construction workers.

At lunchtime on Wednesday, construction workers used an excavator to break up cement blocks and remove them from the work site on N. State St. The supervisor says the project should be finished within the next few days.

The fallen building is fenced off, with drivers from the northbound and southbound lanes being detoured to N. Salina St.

Alexander Gadson, who lives only a block away from the work site on N. State St., says the project is taking too long to finish.

"It's a big inconvenience for everyone living near the building," he said. "They're spending all this money, and it's taking forever."

Another construction crew is working on replacing the Butternut Street bridge, only a few blocks away from the fallen building. With the two construction projects going on at the same time, Gadson says it's impossible to drive down N. State St.

"I can't cross any of the bridges," he said. "And it's difficult to access the on-ramp to I-81."

Cuts, Layoffs, Highlight North Syracuse's New Budget

The North Syracuse School District finally put the budget issue to rest earlier tonight at its Board of Education meeting. The finalized budget for the 2010-11 school year includes some major cuts.

“Not everybody is happy but it’s the best we can do. It’s been a very difficult experience,” said Superintendent Dr. Jerome Melvin about this year’s budget.

Beginning next year, there will be no general music classes for 1^st through 4^th graders. Previously, 1^st through 4^th graders in North Syracuse had two periods a week devoted to music classes. These music periods are going to be replaced by classes that will help students gain computer skills. All the high school’s freshman athletics teams except for the football team and the girl’s volleyball team will be gone next school year as well.

Earlier proposals were supposed to have even more cuts but the district’s director of security and resource officer positions have recently been restored to the budget. While the cuts to the athletics and music departments may be what people are talking about the most, Superintendent Melvin says he doesn’t want people to forget that teachers are getting laid off too. “[Sports and music cuts] gets a lot of attention but we’ve lost teachers. Fifty-two teachers are going to be laid off. That’s important,” he said in a phone interview earlier today.

Dr. Melvin acknowledged that figuring out next year’s budget should be even more challenging than this year’s and could include some drastic cuts. “2011-2012 is going to be crisis. Things aren’t good right now,” the superintendent said.

Consumers See Gas Prices Rise

People buying gas in Solvay, Camillus, and Syracuse all have one thing in common. They are all seeing gas prices rise. According to AAA, gas prices are up six cents in the last month from $2.79 to $2.85. The New York State average, however, is a whopping $2.99. Drives in Syracuse are seeing a lot of that lately, but the prices aren't stopping them from driving.

"I mean, it is the way it is," said Jim Battista, buying gas at the Lakeland Minimart near the State Fairgrounds. "I have no choice so I just pay it".

Drivers say they are not thrilled with the gas prices going up, but there is little they can do about it. They still need to get around.

"They say it's not about supply and demand," said Kevin O'Donnell filling up his tank at Sunoco on East Genesee. "They say we're just driving more".

Most drivers say they won't change their driving habits, and are just hoping gas prices will eventually peak and begin to go down.

Team B 4:10 Newscast

I was very pleased with the way our newscast turned out today. Although I woke up this morning feeling extremely stressed because no one had story ideas, we ended up producing a very worthwhile six minutes of news in my opinion.

Click here to listen to newscast.

Producing the second time was much easier. I felt more on top of things as I better understood the ENPS layout, how to use ABC Newscall and how to properly print scripts.

My reporters were Natalie McGurn and Eric Silverman. They did a great job of letting me know what they were doing throughout the day. Both turned around two interesting stories. Natalie produced a wrap and Eric reported live in studio.

My anchor was Emily Knox. As a first time anchor, I think she did a great job. Getting a foner was somewhat difficult at first, but as soon as she got someone on the phone, the ball really got rolling. I have found we work really well together.

My favorite part about today's newscast was how organized the stories were. Everything was connected and I had fun choosing where the stories should go. Content wise, I wouldn't say the stories were riveting, but they were all important. We incorporated lots of SOTS within the newscast to keep things lively.

I was also proud of how the timing turned out. Although I was nervous about finishing on time and told Emily to skip the tease, I decided during the commercial we had enough time for the kicker. She did a wonderful job of fitting everything in without getting flustered. We ended with one second to spare.

Dibinga talks to Fowler HS students

Omekongo Dibinga introduced himself to about 400 Fowler High School students by rapping about what his life could have been and what it is. He mentioned how he could have been a stone cold killer, could have bragged about the number of women he's been with, could have been drenched in diamonds from head to toe, could have told them "school was whack" and they should drop out and rap. He then tells them he never did any of those things. Instead, he never smoked weed, never raped a woman, never hit his wife, and is studying for his PhD.

Dibinga is a motivational speaker, a poet and a rapper. He spoke to students about how he came from a poor family in Boston, Mass., failed the seventh grade and stayed back. But he was able to turn his life around; by the end of high school he was in the National Honors Society.

Dibinga's message to the students was clear: he did it and so can they. He told them to succeed they need to G.R.O.W: give, release, overcome and win.

He spoke to them about the genocide in Congo. He said students in the U.S. might think they have problems, but at least they have a choice in their future. He asked, "when you think about what you're dealing with right now, are you dealing with that? Do you wake up every day with those types of worries? Do you wake up every day right now thinking that someone might make you a child soldier? That someone might come kill your entire family?"

Dibinga told students if they have electronic equipment they might be helping the cause. People in the Congo are being killed because of resources to make electronics. He said people need to know they are connected to the genocide. "It's one thing to say it's just those Africans over there fighting, that's what they do," he said. "But it's still different when you're talking about many of these issues are still happening so we can have electronic equipment."

Dibinga also spoke on a Genocice Awareness panel at Syracuse University today at 5 pm, will speak at Take Back the Night at 7 pm and will be interviewed tonight on a local radio station. His music can be found on itunes or on his website.

**Picture taken from Omekongi Dibinga's website.