SU Softball Sweeps St. John's

The Red Storm was in town, but everyone was more afraid of one that may or may not have been coming.

With isolated thunderstorms in the forecast, the Syracuse University Softball team's double-header against St. John's University was changed to start an hour earlier than the original 3 p.m. start time. The rain held off for the entirety of the match-up and the Orange swept the double-header, 3-2 and 6-2.

Stephanie Watts, who normally starts at second base for the Orange, was scratched from the line-up today due to sickness. Freshman center fielder Veronica Grant filled in at 2nd base, where she played in high school, though she said after the game it was weird to transition back to that position. Lisaira Daniels moved from right field to center field, and Meghan Boston played in right.

Syracuse trailed St. John's for most of the first game until the 6th inning, when Grant and Daniels powered the offense. Daniels tripled to drive in Grant, the eventual winning run.

Freshman Stacy Kuwik made her home pitching debut in the second game, tossing a complete game with five strikeouts and allowing only one earned run. Head Coach Leigh Ross said after the game she chose to go with Kuwik for this game because she tends to throw hard and inside and noticed in the first game that the St. John's hitters struggled against those kinds of pitches.

The Orange hosts Providence this weekend for a three-game series.

Consumer Confidence Poll Reveals Very Little Change

(Photo Credit: http://www.siena.edu/sri)

A poll released today shows US and specifically New York State consumer confidence has remained the same from February to March. The Siena College Research Institute found New York’s consumer confidence decrease .1% while the nation didn’t change at all.

Founding Director of the Research Institute Dr. Douglas Lonnstrom says he was surprised March figures were almost identical to February.

“That was a little disappointing because March had some good economic news,” he said.

“The main reason is the employment picture: people are still worried about their jobs, or they’re under employed or they’re unemployed. So until we start getting hiring again, I don’t think you’re going to see the employment picture or the consumer confidence picture move up much.”

The Research Institute surveys around 800 people a month. Recently, consumers are buying more home improvement items like furniture, while the amount of cars and computers bought is decreasing.

When asked what he expects for the April poll, Dr. Lonnstrom laughed.

“We’ve got gas prices getting up close to $3 a gallon again, and two years ago it was around $4 a gallon. And when gas was at $4 a gallon, 78 percent of New Yorkers felt that was hurting the family budget badly.”

Dr. Lonnstrom says consumer confidence won’t go up unless conditions change.

“If we can see some good news in employment and if we can see gas prices start to go back down a little bit, I think we’ll see a good spurt in April.”

Team C Newscast, 4:20 PM

I thought overall the newscast went pretty well. While there wasn't a lot of breaking news, we had some interesting stories and good sound. We only had one copy story in the A-Block, which is a good feat considering I had around three copy stories in the A-Block the first two times I produced.

Click here to listen to newscast.

Everything flowed pretty well since the stories on child advocacy and Vera House were related, then we had a story about the budget, and I was able to put the stories on the Syracuse Chiefs and SU Softball team back to back. We were around five to 10 seconds heavy on time until we had the live remote at the SU Softball Stadium with Emily Knox. Somehow we went until the break right on time.

I thought Merav's wrap was very interesting, and she did a good job cutting out information since she was over on time originally. Jake had a lot of trouble finding a phoner, but then he talked to Travis Proulx, the spokesman for the Democrats in the Senate. Emily did a good job keeping in touch with me about when she would be on the air. She called in when I asked her to, and she gave a very good report on the first game and led into game two of the doubleheader.

Onondaga Lake Park is not affected by budget cuts

(Photo credit: http://www.onondagacountyparks.com/olp)

With the Onondaga County budget still being settled, a lot of local parks are unsure about whether or not they will have to make changes to their programs and facilities. The Onondaga County Parks main office held a budget meeting this morning to decide how they would spend their funds.

However, Onondaga Lake Park's Director of Recreational Services, Eric Sopchak, says this park is not negatively effected by the budget. In fact, Sopchak, said they are probably going to be busier than ever this spring and summer.

"With the economy obviously in a rut like it is right now, parks and green spaces become even busier," Sopchak said.

He said tens of thousands of people visited the park last weekend alone and that the park has more events planned this summer than ever. Sopchak said the county budget will not cause the park to cut hours or staff members.

"We are gearing up for, I hope, our busiest summer yet."

Onondaga Lake Park is planning on continuing to run normally and not have to make any changes.

DeWitt continues to deal with RV petitions

Photo courtesy of creativecommons.org

The town of DeWitt is continuing on in the process of possibly exempting people in the Franklin Park neighborhood from a law which took effect in January. The law states RVs, boats and other large recreational vehicles cannot be parked in front of house for more than ten days a year.

Town planning board commissioner Dick Robb said he thinks the town planning board will make a recommendation to the town board this month about whether or not the town should hold a public hearing about the petitions.

Robb also said most people from DeWitt who attended the informational meeting about the petitions last week were angry about the law and wanted to be exempt.

Author and advocate Marian Wright Edelman Speaks about child abuse

The Executive Director of McMahon/Ryan Children's Advocacy Site, Julie Cecile says child abuse in Onondaga County is increasing. She says from January to March 25th the medical team treated 77 children, 44 of which were under six years old, and 32 were reported sexual abuse cases. Cecile says most of the people who report child abuse cases are made by mandated reporter such as teachers, doctors and nurses. She says the community needs to "stand up for these children, have the courage to make a phone call if there is suspected child abuse."



The McMahon/Ryan Child Advocacy Site and the YWCA co-sponsored a breakfast where Marian Wright Edelman, found of the Children's Defense Fund, spoke about child abuse on the national level this morning. About 170 people attended.













Edelman said the bottom line is people need to do more work. She said people are "not going to fix the world, they are going to fight to fix the world," and there is a still a long way to go. Edelman thanked the audience for helping to pass the health care bill, and said it was a major step for child advocacy. She said passing the bill is not enought, adults now need to help children get access to health care.



Edelman urged members of the audience to email or call their governors and legislatures and tell them to leave the preventive services budget as is. She also encouraged people to become teachers, and help children receive a proper education.







Picture courtesy of the Children's Defense Fund www.childrensdefensefund.org

Chiefs Preparing for Opening Day

The Syracuse Chiefs are scheduled to open their season tomorrow against the Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs at two o'clock. With Opening Day so close, members of the Chiefs organization are busy preparing. The grounds crew was out today getting the field into good playing condition. The grass field, which replaced the turf field three years ago, was being mowed, raked and watered today. Park Superintendent, Brian Elwell, said the crew is happy with the quality of the field.

"We're mowing the infield, we're raking the dirt areas," said Elwell. "We feel that it's in as good a shape as it's ever been, so for Opening Day, we were able to accomplish just about everything we wanted."

For Opening Day tomorrow, the weather forecast is saying that thunderstorms are a possibility at the time the game is taking place. If this happens, the game will likely be delayed or postponed. However, even with the rain, Elwell is hopeful the game will be played in its entirety.

"This field drains water as good as any field in any league that I've found," said Elwell. "We've got a great drainage system."

The grounds crew will have to do their best to keep the rain from ruining the field. If there are thunderstorms during the game, Chiefs' Groundskeeper, John Stewart says the crew will bring out the tarp and do what they can do keep the field playable.

"The crew is not real excited about the tarp. The tarp gets old quick," said Stewart. "We're not even into the season and we're already sick of the tarp."

With tomorrow's game being the season opener, Stewart said that he and the rest of the grounds crew face extra pressure to make sure the game does get played, regardless of the rain.

"You have your public officials in, you'll have one of the biggest crowds of the season, and we want the field looking good," said Stewart. "We want the best reflection of our crew out there on the field."