Check out the site later tonight as I will have results from the Batavia High football game along with results from other area contests.

Holland Land Office Museum Director, Patrick Weissend, made a bet with Jamestown musuem director, Joni Blackman. Mrs. Blackman is the director of the Fenton History Center in Jamestown.

When the Muckdogs win, Blackman will have to give Weissend some korvburgers. Korvburgers are a late 1800s southern Swedish style sausage celebrated by descendants of Swedish immigrants in Jamestown.

If the Jammers win then Weissend haas to give her Oliver's Candies and Kutter'sCheese Curds.

Below is a picture of the two fighting over who is the better team.

We've been trying since the results of the Democratic primary for the 26th Congressional District were announced Tuesday to get some questions answered by the campaign for Jon Powers. We have not received a response from the campaign, and no one else involved could answer our questions.

So we thought to post those questions here on the site and maybe get a response that way. Powers garnered a lot of support in Genesee County, and we thought folks would be interested to know what their candidate would do now that he lost the endorsement in this race.

Initially (Wednesday), these questions were sent to the campaign:

1. Following last night's defeat in the primary, what are Jon Powers' plans for the rest of the election season? Does he have any plans to enter any other races in the next few years? Try again for Congress? Run on another party's endorsement for this same seat?

2. What happens with all of the funds raised by the Powers campaign? Will that money go to another campaign or to the Democrats in general? If not, where does it go?

UPDATE (By Howard):  What I want to know:

1. Will Powers still campaign as  Working Families candidate (even though WF has apparently endorsed Kryzan)?

2. Will Powers endorse Kryzan?

Work begun this morning on the Ellicott Street sidewalk renovation project in downtown Batavia. Proof of this was the brief blackout this morning when construction crews struck an unexpected power line.

The Batavian sat with Batavia Business Improvement Director Don Burkel this morning to find out some details about the project—we also got a photo of the plans: a section of the project at the intersection of Liberty and Ellicott streets (see below).

"We want to create a pedestrian area that is safe and attractive so that shoppers will want to come downtown to Ellicott Street," he said.

Making things attractive means breaking up the existing sidewalk, putting in new concrete pavers, adding some trees here and there, putting in some curbing and bumpouts, even a gazebo. Work stretches from the Evans and Court streets interesection east down Ellicott to the interesection with Swan Street.

Burkel said the project should be complete by the end of November and that there should be no interference with traffic in the meantime. Anyone interested in the project or any other downtown initiatives for that matter should visit the BID's Web site.

Funds for the project came mostly from a street enhancement grant from the Federal Highway Administration, said Burkel. They pitched in $500,000. The BID gave $150,000, and another $100,000 was supplied by the city.

Don't forget! Sleds of Stafford Snowmobile Club will be holding the second annual Vintage Snowmobile and Snow Show Saturday at BW's Restaurant in Pavilion, rain or shine—and it's looking more like it will be rain. You can find BW's at 11070 Perry Road.

Admission is $2 per adult, and kids 12 and under are free. All proceeds from the event will benefit Mercy Flight. Register between 8:00 and 11:00am. Judging starts at 11:00am.

Check out the Sleds of Stafford Web site for all the details.

A Wal-Mart store in the works for the village of Le Roy may be the company's first ever to be shrunken down from its original size, according to the Daily News. Of course, that doesn't mean it still won't be a "Supercenter"—retail's answer to the question: What if people could buy socks, tomato sauce, a new bike and a gardenia all at the same store? So yes, the store planned for West Main Street in Le Roy will still be a Supercenter, only getting reduced from 163,700 square feet to 138,000.

Claims made in the article that this will be a "more environmentally-friendly" Wal-Mart seem somewhat dubious. Check out this quote from Le Roy's Code Enforcement Officer Gene Sinclair:

"It's still going to be a Supercenter, just smaller," he said. "The parking lot is more environmentally friendly, with four islands and a natural filtration system of trees and shrubs."

"We're told it's a new design for their stores and the first in the United States like this."

It's wonderful that everybody has caught the going green bug—especially the marketing departments of massive corporations—but I think we have to draw the line at "environmentally-friendly parking lot." Hasn't anyone ever listened to Joni Mitchell? What did they pave to put up a parking lot? Yep, that's right: paradise.

Anyway, good for Le Roy. Now they've got a Wal-Mart to go with the new Walgreens. Speaking of the Walgreens... construction of that is on hold now owing to a "blizzard of asbestos" encountered during the demolition of the old Masonic temple and its neighbors. (Hmm. Is there any connection between this blizzard of asbestos and the blizzard of words Charlie Gibson attributed to Sarah Palin last night?)

In other news, Tom Rivers paid a visit to the Rochester Public Market where a lot of Genesee County farms head every weekend to ply their wares before the big city crowds. It's another great article from a talented writer about a fun topic. So read it.

Attica resident Roddy Harris wrote a postapocalyptic novel about a brother and sister who try to rebuild their lives after 99 percent of the world is killed by terrorists who release "vast amoiunts of chemical and biological agents into the atmosphere." The article's headline is misleading: Attican pens 9/11 book. That's just not true. While the article begins by saying that Harris "turned his thoughts and feelings about the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, into a novel," the novel is not about 9/11 at all. The book is titled: After Terrorism: A Survival Story. It's available from Publish America.

Former Chairman of the United States Chamber of Commerce's Board of Directors Paul S. Speranza told an audience at Genesee Community College yesterday that if the state wants to fix its economy, communities need to join together.

Speranza said New Yorkers need to move beyond parochialism and regional feuding. Speaking with one voice and forming coalitions among groups with divergent views is the way to get the state's economy back on track and to improve its quality of life, he said.

Paul Mrozek does an excellent job covering the speech, so be sure to check out the article if you're interested.

We encourage you to get out and pick up a copy of the Daily News at your local newsstand. Or, better yet, subscribe at BataviaNews.com.

This past week, I had the privilege of spending Patriots Day in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, the site of the crash of Flight 93, to commemorate the lives lost there on September 11th.  I was there as a reporter for my student-run tv station here at school, and I consider myself so lucky to have had the chance to be there.  It was one of the most, if not the most, remarkable, amazing experiences of my life.  Thus, I would like to share with you all my first news package from the trip, so you all can share a little bit in the experience as well.  So here it is, filmed, reported, written, edited and produced by me; I hope you enjoy:

An article in the Democrat & Chronicle yesterday procalimed that a "shrinking pool" of blood donors in the New York and Pennsylvania region is "making it harder for the American Red Cross to collect blood year-round." Blood types were rationed on three occasions this past summer, according to the article. Of the 38 percent of Americans who are eligible to give blood, only about 5 percent actually get out and do so. Supplies for all blood types except B- and B+ are low and if not soon replenished could lead to a blood emergency. On and on the article goes, citing bleak figures and the need for more people to get out and give blood.

Joe Naples said that isn't necessarily the case in Genesee County.

"We didn't have to ration here," said Naples, the account manager for the Blood Services Division of the American Red Cross. "Batavia is a great town to do blood drives."

Batavia may not turn out the most bodies, he explained, but there is a very high per capita participation" and the donors are very loyal.

"We see the same people coming by each time," he said.

Nevertheless, more donors are always needed.

There are two ways to find out where drives are going on in your area, said Naples. (A list of upcoming drives in Genesee County is listed below.) You can visit Donate Blood Now online. Or you can call 1-800-GIVE-LIFE.

For some folks, finding out if they are eligible to give blood might be the first step. Judith Nagel is the executive director of the Genesee County Chapter of the American Red Cross. She says that folks can call that same 800 number to find out if they are eligible.

Most people are, she says. You have to be 17 years old and 105 pounds and generally healthy. Anyone who may have recently been tatooed would have to wait some months before they can give blood. But there are many people who think they may not be eligible when, in fact, they are. There are some medication restrictions, says Nagel, but people on high blood pressure meds, diabetics and recovered cancer patients are all eligible to donate.

So what keeps people from the needle? Well... that's just it: the needle.

"Fear," says Nagel. "But once you donate, the prick is so momentary."

Besides, she says, donors are pampered. Once they give up their pint they get cookies and juice and a sticker and a whole cast of folks waiting in line to give them kudos.

"I mean really, who can turn down cookies and juice," she says. "All the Lorna Doones you can eat. The feeling of giving the gift is so amazing that once you get over the fear of getting pricked by a needle, the reward is tremendous."

If you're finally willing to take that plunge, here's a list of upcoming blood drives in Genesee County (note there are two drives today in Batavia and Oakfield):

September 12 (today):

• Oakfield United Methodist Church, 2 S. Main St., Oakfield: 1:30 to 6:30pm
• Batavia VA Medical Center, 222 Richmond Ave., 9:00am to 3:00pm

September 26:

• Pembroke Community Center, 116 Main Road, Corfu: 1:30 to 6:30pm

September 27:

• Stafford Fire Dept., Route 5, Stafford: 9:00am to 2:00pm

September 30:

• Chapin Manufacturing, 700 Ellicott St., Batavia: 9:00am to 2:00pm

October 6:

• Pavilion Fire Dept., Route 19, Pavilion: 2:00 to 7:00pm

October 7:

• Northgate Free Methodist Church, 350 Bank St., 2:00 to 7:00pm

In its final round of rating local schools this week, Business First newspaper has released its survey of area school districts. Topping the list for the fifth year in a row as the best school district is Williamsville, followed by Clarence. The newspaper also ranked Clarence as the most cost-effective district.
The top ranked school district in Genesee County was Pembroke at number 19.
Batavia came in at 38 out of the 97 districts rated.

Coming in at No. 15 in the Holland Land Office Museum countdown of The Twenty-Five Things That Made Genesee County Famous is the only court case to have orginated in Genesee County that was heard by the United States Supreme Court. This was in 1857.

It all started when a representative of the Ogden Land Company, Joseph Fellows, tried to take the land of the Tonawanda Indian Reservation. Tonawanda Seneca Sachem John Blacksmith wouldn't have it. (A sachem is a sort of Native American king, by the way.) Blacksmith sued the land company and his case was eventually heard by the supreme court.

If you want to know what happened next, check out the full article by Museum Director Pat Weissend. While you're at the the museum's Web site, you can isten to podcasts of some of the other big things that made the list of The Twenty-Five Things That Made Genesee County Famous.

Just something I saw today....when the traffic lights go out, due to what ever reason...do the people of Batavia not know that when the lights are out...the intersection becomes a FOUR WAY STOP.  The amount of cars speeding through the intersection of Main/Bank this morning was amazing.  I did see all the school buses stop...but the amount of cars just speeding by not stopping was amazing.

They're saying Sarah Palin stumbled, struggled, sidestepped, misstepped and was caught off guard in an interview with ABC's Charles Gibson that was aired in part last night. It should however be noted that none of the reports failed to note her confidence and poise on camera despite what her interviewer exasperatedly called her "blizzard of words."

From the New York Times:

Ms. Palin was clearly caught off guard when Mr. Gibson asked, “Do you agree with the Bush doctrine?” Seeking direction, and perhaps time to formulate an answer, Ms. Palin leaned back, smiled stiffly and said, “In what respect, Charlie?”

Initially unwilling to define the doctrine, Mr. Gibson said, “What do you interpret it to be?”

Ms. Palin asked, “His world view?”

Mr. Gibson said, “No, the Bush doctrine, enunciated September 2002, before the Iraq war.”

Ms. Palin responded: “I believe that what President Bush has attempted to do is rid this world of Islamic extremism, terrorists who are hell bent on destroying our nation.”

Mr. Gibson, finally defining the doctrine as “the right of anticipatory self-defense,” still struggled for a direct answer, asking twice more if she agreed with it before Ms. Palin answered: “Charlie, if there is a legitimate and enough intelligence that tells us that a strike is imminent against American people, we have every right to defend our country.”

From the Los Angeles Times:

By turns tense and combative, Palin, 44, used two interviews with ABC anchor Charles Gibson to display her grasp of issues central to the vice presidency.

She acknowledged that, other than a trip last year to see troops in Iraq, Kuwait and Germany, her only visits abroad were to Mexico and Canada. And she said that she had never met a head of state but that she did speak last week with President Mikheil Saakashvili of Georgia.

On the issues, Palin said that "we (as Americans) do not have to stand for" Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons, Georgia and the Ukraine should be welcomed into a NATO alliance and "man's activities certainly can be contributing to the issue of global warming."

What do you think? Was Palin a bumbling boob, a confident rock, a candidate to be proud of or one to be feared? Where do you think she will go from here?

UPDATE (by Howard): Here's the interview:

When I first met Joe Zinni, he was a tall, skinny basketball player for Batavia High School, that was obviously not a top scoring option.

He knew his role on the court and basically wound up being an assistant coach on the floor for BHS coach Buddy Brasky.

He's turned that attitude into a coaching career.

Zinni will be an assistant women's basketball coach at Saginaw Valley State University this winter and will be responsible for recruiting, tape exchange, scouting, academic progress, strength and will have responsibilities during practices and games.

"I'm very excited for this opportunity, especially at such a young age," Zinni told me Thursday night. "I've worked under great people who have helped me get to where I am. My goal of making it to the Division I level is now realistic, so I will be working harder than ever to try and get there shortly."

Zinni was a forward at BHS, but will be working primarily with the guards at Saginaw Valley.

He landed this coaching job primarily because of his work with Genesee Community College last season.

The Cougars went 24-6 and wound up finishing as one of the top eight schools in the NJCAA Division II Nationals.

After graduation from Batavia, he spent 2002-2007 as an assistant coach at both the junior and varsity levels at his home school, working with the forwards.

Zinni assisted the 2005 Section 5 Class A championship winning team that made the state tournament for the first time ever.

He has worked as an AAU and RAP coach and was an assistant coach for the Western Regional boys basketball team at the Empire State Games the past two years.

Zinni is a 2006 graduate of Buffalo State College and also has an A.S. degree from GCC.

Here at the Batavian, we wish him the best of luck and know he is going to represent Batavia well as a big-time women's basketball coach.

Here we go folks. We've got candy. Vats of chocolate. Enrobing machines. Conveyor belts. Artisan chocolatiers. Batavia's very own Oliver's Candies. 'Nuff said. Let's just watch:

We'll be back at Oliver's in November when they prepare ribbon candy. Watch for that!

State police are investigating a scheme to defraud customers of Direct TV and Dish Network. This alert was issued today:

From August 2005 through November 2007 numerous names and social security numbers were illegally obtained and utilized to submit orders for customers who did not request any services from these companies. At this time it is believed that a subcontractor used by both of these companies submitted the fictitious orders for a financial gain. Both companies are aware of the situation and are no longer doing business with the subcontractor. The victims whose name or social security numbers were used then received notices from collection agencies or bills from Direct TV or Dish Network for services they never requested or received. In some cases victims are receiving bills to their address under someone else’s name.

So far, we have accounted for many victims throughout Western New York including Jamestown, Niagara Falls and Rochester. However, due to the investigation we believe that there are numerous other victims unaccounted for at this time. We are asking anyone who believes they may be a victim of this crime to contact Investigator Christopher Puckett at SP Niagara (716) 297-8730.

Le Roy has two weeks to act on the promise of a state grant for $350,000 to use in the restoration of Oatka Creek, according to the Daily News. One member of the Oatka Creek Ad Hoc Committee (Jack Bradbury) told the Village Board last night:

"Nothing has been done for over two years. New York State Parks has not heard from us in two years and the crisis now is that they said they were considering immediate cancellation of the grant."

Whoa! Two years? That sounds like a bit of a blunder, and that the homeowners in the village are angry with the board for not getting moving on the project only renforces that status. It turns out that the village last worked on the creek in 2004, but there is still much work to be done to "stablize" it.

This grant that may now get nixed was approved in 2006 as a match grant, which means the village would have to put up $350,000 of its own funds. Engineering proposals were approved at the meeting last night, a move "that may stave off the state's threat to cancel the grant."

Congratulations to Scott DeSmit for getting this story together and packaging it well, getting the facts out concisely and without ambiguity.

Genesee County's Economic Development Corporation recently closed on a pair of real estate deals: 200 acres of land in the town of Batavia ($800,000) planned for the Genesee Valley Agri-Business Park; and another 59 acres of farmland in the town of Alabama ($212,000) to be incorporated into the 1,200-acre Western New York Science & Technology Advanced Manufacturing Park.

An increase in recording fees for the Genesee County Clerk's Office was approved by the Legislature last night. Also passed at that meeting was the $1.8 million budget for the county's workers compensation program, which marks an 8 percent increase in that budget over last year.

Batavia Downs will be hosting the top dogs of harness racing every Wednesday for the next couple months in an effort to raise money for the Breast Cancer Coalition of Rochester. Racers such as Howard "Pacing" Parker, who was strapped up and circled the track in eight races yesterday, will donate their driving commissions to the coalition. Silent auctions each week for racing memorabilia such as bobbleheads of the drivers will also help benefit the cause.

We encourage you to get out and pick up a copy of the Daily News at your local newsstand. Or, better yet, subscribe at BataviaNews.com.

Yesterday was crazy and I never got a chance to formally say hello.

I started my day at 9 a.m. in Fairport, which for me was a heck of an accomplishment, came home and took a short nap and then was out at the Muckdogs game. Throw in the photography and writing and it was insane.

Now that I've got a moment to actually sit down and think, I would like to tell you all a little about what I'm going to be doing here at The Batavian.

I love high school sports and want to take the coverage I gave readers at The Daily News for eight years and take it to a new level here. Print newspapers are fading fast (ask Jay Mariotti) and the Internet gives me the opportunity to do so many new and exciting things.

I have some blogging experience but am still pretty raw, so bear with me as I work on that writing style. 

I will be trying to get out to as many games as possible to shoot video, take photographs and blog, giving the great local athletes the best coverage possible.Video intrigues me a ton because I've done very limited work with that and think I can do some excellent work with that. Expect to see video highlights and interviews with local athletes in the very near future.

I am a huge football fan and you can expect to get the best coverage of area teams here in the coming weeks. My quick previews that I wrote at 3 a.m. is just the beginning of what you will see every Wednesday or Thursday.

I'll be covering games Friday night and Saturday afternoon, then doing some in-depth stuff during the week to preview games. Come sectional time, you will get to know everything about the squads making runs here at The Batavian.

I did a basic roundup of local scores last night, but I would like to get local coaches involved with posting blogs to give great coverage of their own teams. I will start making calls next week and asking soccer, volleyball and cross country coaches to directly post their results on the sports page.

Rather than having to wait for tomorrow's Daily for a couple paragraphs on each game, you will be able to come here and read exactly what the coaches saw just after the game ends.  Imagine how well you will get to know, for example, about the Alexander girls soccer team if coach Chad Flint posts after every game. Please let your coaches know about this opportunity if they have not seen The Batavian yet.

Those coaches that do post regularly will stand a much better chance of seeing me out at a practice with my video camera, doing special features on players and the team. 

High School athletes, parents and fans can also register and post comments on any blog. 

Please feel free to contact me at any time if you have story ideas or just want to talk high school sports. My AIM screen name is hillabush12, my cell phone number is 585-993-4662 (expect to hear anything from rap music to Jimmy Buffett when you call) and my e-mail is brian at thebatavian dot com. And don't be shy if you see me at a game, come say hi.

I'm looking forward to meeting many new people and giving my home community the best sports coverage in the coming years.

Work has begun on the Ellicott Street improvement project -- or should I say, measurement has begun.

I stopped into the Pok-A-Dot for breakfast this morning. Staff and clientele alike told me crews have been outside the restaurant for four days measuring.

I watched the same line, the same spot get measured six times while I was there.

Since I've never worked construction, maybe this is normal (I don't know), but it seems to take the maxim "measure twice, cut once" a bit far.

As seen from Main Street (north side) between Center and Jackson streets.

Those who knew her and those who didn't have been hearing more and more about Alice Kryzan, the unexpected victor in the Democratic primary race for the 26th Congressional District. Jack Davis had the name recognition and the spending spree. Jon Powers had the adulation of party bigwigs and union bosses. But in the end, it was the semi-unknown who won over the hearts and minds... or at least she got the most lever pulls in the voting booths.

Since that victory, dubbed a "shocking upset" by more than one news affiliate, everyone has been racing to the press, the keyboard and the tube to get in their theories of how and why it happened, what it means for Kryzan and what it means for Powers and Davis. We ran a story earlier this morning that claimed not that Kryzan won because of this or that, but that Powers lost because of this or that.

A story that ran today in the Buffalo News pins the upset victory on the effect produced by a single television ad. Here's that ad:

What do you think? Is that enough to tip the scales?

Buffalo News reporter Robert J. McCarthy conjectures that "Alice who?" was "languishing" only a few weeks prior to the primary. Then magic happened...

That’s when the candidate — also known as Alice J. Kryzan— rolled out a television spot that just about everyone credits with capturing the Democratic nomination for the Amherst environmental attorney in the 26th Congressional District.

“It did the trick of bringing attention to the campaign,” said Kryzan campaign manager Anne Robinson Wadsworth.

Rarely has one political spot — produced by Adelstein & Liston of Chicago — made such an impression on local voters. But the scene of a boyish fellow resembling the 30-year-old Powers wrestling in the park with an old man who looks like the 75-year-old Davis seems to have resonated.

It all allowed Kryzan, 60, to appear on-screen and contend that “fighting will not create jobs, fix health care or change our energy policy.” That’s when she looks back at the scuffle actually filmed in a Chicago park and adds in a now-famous aside: “Boys, take it somewhere else.”

According to several observers, Kryzan’s campaign began to pick up after voters identified her as an alternative to her better- known opponents. Former Erie County Republican Chairman Robert E. Davis, who is now a political media consultant, said it ranks among the best he has ever seen because it offered “the ‘same old/same old’ or me.”

How much of a role can a single television ad play in an election? Were you convinced by it? Do you think most folks had already made up their mind by that point?