Going for Gold, Special Olympics come to Syracuse

By Callan Gray (NCC News)
November 10, 2010 7:15 p.m.

Athletes will arrive in Central New York this February to make their Olympic dreams come true, Special Olympics New York officials announced Wednesday. The 2011 Special Olympics Winter Games are expected to draw about 500 participants to the area. Toggenburg Mountain and the Syracuse OnCenter are just two sites hosting events; others include Thornden Park, The War Memorial and Highland Forest. Director of Competitions, Bryan Norris says Central New York was chosen to host the event for more than logistical reasons alone.

“We look for the community support and we definitely have gotten that and seen it first hand with the outpouring of volunteers and the financial contributions we've received,” said Norris

Norris said Onondaga County Executive Joanie Mahoney and Syracuse Mayor Stephanie Miner were also both instrumental in bringing Special Olympics to this area. He said Mahoney gathered community leaders together to form an organizing committee that Miner has jumped on board with.

Volunteers Needed

But there is still a call for volunteers to help support the athletes and aid with the six athletic events, according to Norris. Events include floor hockey, figure and speed skating, Nordic skiing, snowshoeing and alpine skiing.

Norris said in the past the community has come out in great number to cheer on the athletes as they compete.

“Last year we had a number of local sports teams, Syracuse Organ and LeMoyne dolphins and a number of other high schools and universities came to show their support,” said Norris.

Opening Ceremonies for the games will take place on Friday, February 4 at 7:00 p.m. at the OnCenter Conmplex. There will be a Parade of Athletes and the lighting of the Special Olympics Cauldron. Athletic competition starts on Saturday, February 5 at 8:30 a.m.

“The entire Syracuse community is welcome,” said Norris.

2011 will mark the second consecutive year the Winter Games have been held in Central New York. The games are one of three annual state games and one of more than 4,000 total competitions held each year in New York State.

Where to go:

• OnCenter- Floor Hockey
• War Memorial- Figure and Speed Skating
• Highland Forest- Nordic Skiing
• Thornden Park- Snowshoeing
• Toggenburg Mountain- Alpine Skiing

Suspended Principal Sues Jordan-Elbridge School District

by Maddie Dockery (NCC News)

Nov. 10, 2010, 5:32 p.m.

SYRACUSE, N.Y.- Suspended principal David Zehner has filed a lawsuit against the Jordan-Elbridge Central School District, claiming that the school board met illegally behind closed doors.

Zehner wants the state Supreme Court to disregard any decisions that were made by the school board during these closed-door meetings. Judge Donald A. Greenwood ruled in early October that under the Open Meetings Law, the school board cannot hold a private meeting without first giving a specific reason to the public.

The lawsuit

Zehner’s lawyer, Dominic D’Imperio of the Syracuse law firm O’Hara, O’Connell and Ciotoli, says that Zehner filed an Article 78 proceeding.

“In New York it’s a very specific type of lawsuit to challenge the actions of government or state or local municipal officials,” D’Imperio said.

With this legal action, Zehner is asking the court to order the school board to reveal to the public the topics of six specific executive sessions. These executive sessions were all held in private, after the court’s Oct. 1 ruling.

Throw out decisions from closed-door meetings

In addition to other decisions made by the school board during private meetings, Zehner wants the appointment of Interim Superintendent Lawrence Zacher to be thrown out.

D’Imperio says that the board announced Zacher’s appointment to the public on Nov. 3, after a two-hour-long, private executive session.

“If the board made that decision… and they just exited executive session, it’s not an extravagant leap of logic to assume that decision was made in executive session,” D’Imperio said.

The hearing for this case will be on Dec. 9, at which time everything is in the court’s hands. D’Imperio says it could take the court anywhere from one day to six months to make a decision.

Team 2 Rundown Rationale

A2- Jordan Elbridge Principal: We decided to lead with the story about the suspended principal of Jordan Elbridge High School filing a lawsuit against the JE school board. The principal, David Zehner, claimed that the school board met illegally behind closed doors. Zehner asked the court to throw out any changes the board made during these meetings, including the appointment of interim superintendent Lawrence Zacher. We led with this story because it was timely, as it happened Tuesday night, so many people had not heard of it by this morning. Also, it has proximity, because Jordan Elbridge is very close, so it has relevance to listeners. Furthermore, Zehner had been in the news previously when he was suspended, and the newly appointed superintendent Lawrence Zacher just began work two days ago. Maddie Dockery got great audio for an anchor actuality, with a soundbite from Zehner's lawyer.


A3- Buerkle Recount: Transitioning out of the story on the JE principal, we put an update on the race for the 25th congressional district next. The story was an update on the vote recount, which began the day before and was still ongoing. At the time of our newscast, they had discovered three more votes for Republican Candidate Anne Marie Buerkle, who was still leading Democrat Daniel Maffei.We decided to put this story in A3 because it was the most prominent and most followed story in politics over the last few days. Many people in the Syracuse area know the race is too close to call, and are familiar with the story. Also, it has timeliness, because the vote recount is still ongoing. We decided to put this in A3 and not to lead with the update because it was difficult to talk to anyone about the recount process, as both campaigns are still busy. The transition from A2 to A3 was because both stories were local, timely stories.

A4 Cancer Center: In the A4 spot, we went with a story about Upstate Medical University's plan to begin construction on the Upstate Cancer Center soon. Upstate announced that the $74 million project is set to begin in march. The plan will transform Upstate's Regional Oncology Center into a five-story building and connect to University Hospital's west wing. Kit Rodophele did a live wrap on the story, and interviewed the Assistant Director for the Cancer Center. This story was timely, because they just set the plans to begin construction in march. It is also significant because Upstate Medical University is close by, and affects many people in the area who may have been there for various medical reasons. Also, because Kit was able to talk to an official who is directly related to the project, the soundbites she got made the story more valuable and placed higher in the newscast. We stuck with the local theme from the two stories before to transition to the Cancer Center story.

A5 Car Accident in Manlius: Following the wrap, I put a short reader on a car accident that occurred in the morning of our newscast next. A woman who was driving on North Manlius Road flipped her SUV over, and was brought to Upstate Medical University where she was still being treated and in serious condition. Traffic near the accident was diverted to East Myers Road. This reader broke up having to put two wraps together or an anchor actuality after a wrap. The story was timely, because the accident happened in the morning before our newscast. I transitioned into this story because the woman in the accident was taken to Upstate Medical University, which was the story before this, so the two connected well.

A6 Bus Reduction: Next, we went with the story about the announcement saying Centro Bus Routes will be consolidated and reduced starting in January. The change is taking place because of lack of funding from the state. The CNY Regional Transportation Authority will hold two public hearings on November 23rd about the changes. For this story, we did a 20 second reader. The story was timely because the announcement happened Wednesday morning, and because it was significant. Many people living in the area use the Centro Bus system, so they would be interested to hear if their route was going to be consolidated, or if bus fares were going to increase. This story transitioned out of A5 because they were both about road transportation, and both local. Also, this story transitioned well into A7 because it was a policy change about cutting costs.

A7 Fire Proposal: Next, we went with the story about the Onondaga County Legislature's proposed cuts to local fire departments to cut costs. County Legislature Thomas Buckel proposed assigning a task force to examine response procedures and increase fire department efficiency. This story flowed out of A6 because it connects with cutting costs for local organizations. Gino Zarrillo did a live wrap on the story, and interviewed the fire chief of the Dewitt Fire Department, James Green. The story is timely, because the cuts were proposed Tuesday night, and it is significant to listeners because many surrounding towns have fire departments that would be effected by the cuts if they were to pass.

A8 Missile: After the fire department proposal story, we went with an anchor actuality from ABC newscall on the trail of smoke seen Monday night that some believe could have been a missile. Although the smoke was sighted Monday night, people are still buzzing about the story because the source of the smoke has not yet been identified. The story was prominent and timely, because people were still talking about it and care about the source of the smoke if it was actually a missile. The anchor actuality had audio from an expert who reasons why the smoke must be from a plane, and not a missile. Since it has still not been officially announced what caused the smoke, this story was not as important as the previous ones, and was placed at the bottom of the newscast. This story transitioned out of the previous story because it was about fires and fire departments, and this story was about smoke. This story was national, which did not connect to any of the other local stories in the newscast.

A9 Syracuse Special Olympics: For the last story in our newscast we did a reader on the announcement that New York's Special Olympic Winter Games will be held in central New York in 2011. Many of the games will take place at the Oncenter and the War Memorial. The story was connected locally and to the state, and the announcement happened that morning, so it was still recent enough to be included in the newscast. However, the story was not too important to all listeners, so we put it at the bottom of the newscast. This story was important to flow out of A8 because I wanted to end with a reader in case we had to cut anything, and not have to cut an anchor actuality. We ended up cutting this story during our newscast due to time restrictions.

B1 Syracuse Christmas: For our kicker story we did a 20 second reader on the change to Syracuse's Christmas tree lighting ceremony. Mayor Stephanie Miner announced Wednesday that she will hold a contest, where local children can write a letter about the theme "what the holidays mean to me", and three winners will be chosen to light the tree with Miner. The celebration will take place on November 26th at 6:30 p.m. in Clinton Square. This story was a good kicker because it is heartwarming for listeners, because many local listeners have children and is a feel good story. Also, it is timely because the change was just announced, and because the holiday season is just around the corner.


Weather+Close

Oswego County Residents Vote Whether to Dissolve Small Village

by: Lauren Fabrizi (NCC News)
Nov. 10, 2010, 5:08 p.m.

ALTMAR, OSWEGO CO. - Oswego County residents will vote today whether to dissolve a small historical village.

Two Altmar residents petitioned in August to dissolve Altmar Village into the the town of Albion, Margaret Bailey, the village clerk said. The two residents, unnamed, claim that merging the village with the town will save the village residents money.

"I don't agree with it," Bailey said. "We're not going to save money, and that was one of things they told people - that your tax dollars would go away and you'd save them - but you won't, because there's still things here that have to be paid for."

If the village of Altmar is dissolved, its residents will no longer have to pay village tax dollars, Bailey said. But they will have to pay Albion town taxes, which would be allocated to multiple districts including:

• Albion's streetlighting district
• sidewalk district
• fire district

"If you dissolve the village, then you're in the hands of of the Town Board," Bailey said. "The services that we're used to, like street lights and sidewalks, would be levied on our town taxes!"

The polls for the vote will be open until 9 p.m. tonight, Bailey said. Bailey and the Altmar board members hope enough village residents will vote to keep the village's 134 years of history alive.

"I don't see any reason to get rid of a historical village," Bailey said. "It's a nice little village, and we'd like to keep it that way."

Absentee ballots to decide 25th Congressional District election

by Chet Davis (NCC News)

November 10, 2010 4:10 p.m.

Over a week since the elections and a winner still hasn’t been declared in the 25^th Congressional District election. Incumbent Democrat Dan Maffei and Republican Ann Marie Buerkle must wait for the absentee ballots to be counted.

Currently, Buerkle leads Maffei by 687 votes, but that could easily change. The deciding factor will be the 5,978 absentee ballots that the Onondaga County Board of Elections has received. However, Buerkle’s spokeswoman, Liza Lowery said, “We’re very optimistic. We’re just making sure that every eligible vote is being counted and just being patient – have to be patient.”

Making sure every eligible vote was counted correctly came into play in Onodaga County. Election commissioners had to rescan 635 paper ballots from the DeWtitt Town Hall. The recount was issued because a poll worker on election night mistakenly mixed a pile of unscanned ballots with the rest of the scanned ballots. After the rescan, three new votes helped extend Buerkle’s lead.

While waiting for a winner to be announced, Buerkle has been preparing to be named the winner. “She’s also planning for her transition so that when she gets to Washington in January she can hit the ground running,” Lowery says. “So she can be ready to go so that people of the 25^th district are under no disadvantage.”

Election workers continue to work through the remaining absentee ballots.

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Team 4 Rundown Rationale

By Ethan Kwassman (NCC News)

November 10, 2010, 7:30 pm

Our team consisted of Lauren as the anchor and me as the producer. Because we were the two-person team, Kit and Gino did their live reporter wraps in studio that they did for a previous newscast. The rundown and scripts were completed in a timely manner and the local and national stories flowed from one to another. We were well prepared for the newscast, but we had to drop one local story (Cuomo Transition) and one national story (Pentagon Missile) because the actual time of one of the live wraps and one of the anchor-actualities were longer than their estimated durations. However, we were able to go into the break before the tease with an national/international anchor-actuality story. We ended the show a little bit early, and we were very close to being exactly on time.

In terms of pacing, audio was used to break up readers. In between the readers in A1 and A4, a live wrap and an anchor-actuality was used. In between the readers in A5 and A7, another live was used. An anchor-actuality in A8 also was used to break up two readers.

Our rundown consisted of:

Headlines:

I felt that the most newsworthy story to tease in the headlines were a women seriously injured in Manlius accident, why Upstate Medical hopes to raise $15 million, and how absentee ballots are helping to decide the 25th congressional district race. Out of all the stories in the rundown, I felt that these were the "top" stories.

A2: Ballot Examinations

To start off local, we began with a story about election commissioners continuing to count the absentee ballots in the 25th congressional district race. This story served as a solid lead story because the election was just last week and the race is still too close to call. Many people in the area care about this story. Also, it's timely because Cayuga County is the first county in the district to have its ballots counted today.

A3: Cancer Center

The next story followed nicely because it was another hard news story related to the Onondaga County area. Kit did an excellent job covering this story. Construction on Upstate Medical University's $74 million Upstate Cancer Center project will soon be underway. Kit got good soundcuts from the Assistant Director for the Cancer Center. The story is timely because Upstate Medical has a $15 million fundraising campaign currently in place.

A4: Altmar Vote

To keep it local, we followed with Lauren's anchor-actuality about residents of Oswego County voting today on whether to dissolve the small town of Altmar. It was smooth transition from the medical story with economic implications to a town vote story. It is a timely story because the voting takes place today. It also would attract listeners since it involves controversy regarding whether the village should dissolve into the town of Albion as a way to decrease resident tax dollars. Lauren was able to get a good soundcut from the clerk of Altmar Village.

A5: North Manlius Accident (updated link after newscast)

Next, we followed with one of our headline stories. We did a reader on a 20-year-old woman severely injured in a car crash on North Manlius Road this morning. The woman was taken to Upstate University Hospital. The Minoa Fire and Police Departments had arrived on the scene at the time of the newscast. The locality of this story made it fit in the newscast.

A6: Fire Proposal

Keeping with local fire department related matters, we jumped to a story about a proposal to cut operating costs in the Onondaga County Fire Department being put on the back burner. Gino did a solid job on the live wrap about the Legislature being hopeful that the proposal will be in place by the end of the year. The story also has good proximity because it concerns the Onondaga County area. Gino also got great soundcuts from Fire Chief James Green of the Dewitt Fire Department. This story was newsworthy and timely because these proposals and procedures are taking place now, and it's another hard news story.

A7: Cuomo Transition

Next, we jumped to more of a state story, but it flowed nicely because it involved political issues like the previous transition. However, we had to cut this story as well as the Pentagon Missile story because we would have gone over before the break. We had less time to broadcast these stories because we ran out of a time due to a longer-than-estimated anchor actuality and live wrap early on. This story is timely because Andrew Cuomo became the Governor-elect in last week's election. It's also newsworthy because it's certainly interesting to all of New York State listeners.

A8: Obama Indonesia

We had to jump to a national/international story from a local story because we dropped the state story due to timing issues. However, in the rundown the Cuomo transition flowed nicely to Obama's visit to Indonesia. Lauren did an excellent anchor-actuality on Obama's speech to Jakarta, where he said that Indonesia's democracy and religious tolerance should be an example to the world, and where he also offered his condolences to all the families affected by the recent natural disasters. She got a good soundcut of President Obama from the speech. The story is timely because Obama just visited Indonesia and is still in Asia. It's also newsworthy because Indonesia has been a part of many newscasts within the past couple of weeks due to the impact of the natural disasters that occurred there.

A9: Pentagon Missile

This national story had to be cut as well because of aforementioned timing issues. However, in the rundown, if flowed nicely from the Obama Indonesia story because it's a Washington-related story. The story of the Pentagon being unable to explain what created a vapor trail off the Southern California coast is such a newsworthy story. It has an element of mystery to it because it was thought to be a missile. It's definitely an intriguing story for listeners. The story also has a great deal of timeliness because the Pentagon recently made this announcement, following their investigation.

A10: Tease B

Next, we teased the kicker and weather forecast.

B1 (Kicker): SU Win

Our kicker was a story on the Syracuse Orange burying the memory of last year's LeMoyne loss with a resounding 91-48 victory over the Dolphins at the Carrier Dome. It was soft news and the listeners, even the casual sports fan, are sure to perk up and tune in when it's about the Orange basketball team. It was also interesting because the Orange got upset last year to LeMoyne in exhibition play, and this was their way of getting some revenge, or making up for that loss. It was timely because the game was last night.

B2: Weather

Lauren read today and tonight's weather before getting to current weather. She didn't read much or any of the filler for the newscast and that's maybe why we finished the newscast a little early. She was certainly able to fit in the close, and it's better to be a little under, than over. Overall, the newscast was a success. Our team was well prepared and we got key contributions from Kit and Gino, who both did reporter wraps for an earlier newscast. Despite cutting a state story and a national story due to timing issues, we still got in one newsworthy national/international story (an anchor-actuality), and a good core of hard local news stories to round out the newscast. Our group was very satisfied with how the broadcast turned out.

END OF SHOW

Floaters

NY Gay Marriage Lawsuits

We had to cut two stories anyway to end almost exactly on time, but we used a New York gay marriage lawsuit story as a floater. It was pretty newsworthy considering that civil rights groups are trying to build momentum for a Supreme Court showdown by filing lawsuits to challenge the US Defense of Marriage Act. It was also timely because the lawsuits were filed recently. The New York element of the story makes the story have good proximity but it's also a national story as well since it involves the Supreme Court and federal law. As such, it was good to have this as an additional local/national story.

CNY Special Olympics

We used another short reader as a floater in the 2011 New York Special Olympics coming to Central New York. This story was timely and newsworthy for the Syracuse area. The plans were just recently announced at a press conference by Onondaga County Executive Joanie Mahoney and Syracuse Mayor Stephanie Miner. However, we pushed it to a floater story because we thought all the other local stories flowed better for the time-being. Also, we were planning to use it as an anchor-actuality at one point, but we were unable to get a hold of anyone for a soundcut, and alreay had all of the other stories mapped out. This story certainly could have been used if we needed time to fill, though.

Upstate Cancer Center in the Works

Construction on Upstate Medical University's $74 million dollar Upstate Cancer Center project will soon be underway.

by Kit Rodophele (NCC News)

November 10, 2010, 2:30 p.m.

What the new facility will entail:

The construction of the center, which is set to begin in march, is going to transform Upstate's Regional Oncology Center into a five-story building which will be connected to University Hospital's west wing. According to Jean-Marie Glasser, Assistant Director for the Cancer Center, ther best aspect of this project is that it will be consolidating the cancer program into one building. It is currently decentralized across campus.

"Now, the doctors have to run everywhere to go to these meetings and we want to put it in one convenient location for the patients and the faculty so they can do more efficient multi-disciplinary care," says Glasser.

Glasser said, that among other things, the facility will include:

• a family resource center
• financial and counseling services
• a meditation room for cancer patients
• more chemotherapy units
• a healing rooftop garden
• conference rooms for patient/faculty collaborative discussions
• a special boutique for cancer patients that caters to their needs: wigs, scarves, etc.
• library services to conduct research on different cancers

What patients can expect:

Glasser also said that the new facility will be a comfortable and attractive place that will allow cancer patients to feel right at home.

"I like to think of walking in the front door of the new cancer center as going down a scenic boulevard, like main street U.S.A...everybody has a main street in their town," said Glasser.

Often times, patients have to bring children to their chemotherapy sessions. The new facility is taking that into account by creating more available space for family members of patients so that the facility will have a more family-centered environment.

The Upstate Cancer Center, which is set to open in 2013, will be paid for by private bonding and through a fundraising campaign which will be held sometime this December.