Inside the News

Another chapter in the long DeJac saga

   The case against Lynn M. DeJac, accused child killer, was officially dismissed Thursday, ending a long, strange and sad saga.

   She has been exonerated and she is a free woman.

   But just as this chapter closes, a new one opens.

   Det. Dennis Delano of the Buffalo Cold Case Squad, who was instrumental in having DeJac's case reopened, was suspended from his job Thursday for leaking a videotape from the 1993 investigation into DeJac's daughter's death to the news media.

   Delano is not convinced that the 13-year-old girl's death on Valentine's Day 1993 wasn't a homicide and has not been hesitant about making his views public.

   But with the retrial canceled and the charges dropped against DeJac, paired with the fact that a man many suspect may have been involved in Crystallynn Girard's death has immunity in the case, there's no longer any reason for authorities to continue to investigate.

   But should they?

   -- Maki Becker

Candidates seek prescription for Ohio's ailing economy

   ZANESVILLE, Ohio … Hillary Clinton held an "economic summit" here Wednesday, bringing politicians, business leaders and average folks together to discuss how to fix a state that has lost a quarter of its manufacturing jobs in this decade.

   And just a few hours earlier, Barack Obama spoke before a huge crowd in Columbus, delivering the same stump speech he has delivered for months … but inserting a new passage laced with details on how to fix Ohio's economy, and the nation's.

   To residents of Western New York, it all would have brought back a sense of deja vu all over again.

   Chuck Schumer and Hillary Clinton and Eliot Spitzer all campaigned with the message of fixing the upstate economy and . . . well, you know what happened.

   Which raises the question: how much can a president do to fix regional economies that are being ground up in the gears of globalization?

   To hear Clinton and Obama tell it, a president can do quite a bit.

   What do you think? Are they right?

   -- Jerry Zremski

Putting an end to stop-and-start driving

   Drive down Niagara Street and you can spot the antennas on the poles carrying the traffic signals.

   They are part of a $4 million overhaul of Buffalo's traffic signal system, a system that, in some places, dated back 50 years and more.

   In the short run, drivers are probably still going to be frustrated by the stops and starts that so frequently characterize commutes on the city's main thoroughfares.

   Motorists like Chris Nasca have reason to be skeptical about the long run. Officials have talked about smoother traffic flow for years and not much seems to get done.

   -- John F. Bonfatti

Bitter charges fly over Garcia appointment

   He has been tapped to become Buffalo's top crusader against discrimination.

   But Andres Garcia is accused by some of showing a pattern of insensitivity toward gays, women and minorities.

   Numerous gay rights groups have demanded that the Commission on Citizens' Rights and Community Relations rescind its appointment and find someone else for the $66,934-a-year job.

   Garcia's supporters claim he has been the victim of shameful "character assassination." They insist his 30 years of community activism demonstrate his commitment to civil rights.

   Garcia appeared at a Common Council committee meeting Tuesday, along with about 100 others who expressed colliding views. Some lawmakers called the meeting one of the most biting sessions they've ever attended. Numerous claims were lodged against Garcia, some speakers reciting a litany of graphic slurs he allegedly used to describe various groups.

   Garcia's attorney described the acrimonious session as "McCarthyism at its worst."

   Should the human rights panel stick with Garcia's appointment? Or should the commission make an about-face and find someone else for the job?

   -- Brian Meyer

The case of the missing GPS systems

  Lots of people were given portable navigation devices last December.

   Now, plenty of thieves are getting their hands on them, too.

   Police officials in Buffalo Niagara and across the country are reporting a spike in car break-ins where GPS receivers and other electronic devices were stolen.

   With more and more of the GPS units popping up on the windshields of area vehicles, it's no surprise that they are popular with thieves.

   They can cost hundreds of dollars each, and thieves can easily reuse them or, more often, resell them for cash.

   Nothing's more frustrating to GPS owners than to come back out to their cars and find their windows smashed and the GPS unit gone.

   Even if owners take down the device and hide it in the car, thieves have learned to look inside the car for the GPS unit if the bracket is left in the windshield.

   So we'd like to hear about your experiences.

   Anyone out there have your car broken into? What was taken? Where and when did it happen?

   And what do you do to keep your GPS unit safe?

   
   -- Stephen T. Watson

The big finish?

   Studio Arena Theatre's descent into bankruptcy was no shock. Buffalo's theater community saw it coming a mile away.

   Handing Artistic Director Kathleen Gaffney the additional title of chief executive officer in early 2007, following the firing of Ken Neufeld, and the subsequent layoffs of 14 staff members, plainly indicated an organization in distress.

   Then came talk of a potential merger with Artpark or Shea's Performing Arts Center - sure signs that the Studio board was groping for a way out of the mess.

   Despite rampant rumors in recent weeks about the theater's likely demise, the board of directors remained silent up right to the end, apparently to protect the box office for "To Kill a Mockingbird." One employee said theater management "threatened us with immediate dismissal" if the new blackout was violated.

   Only Monday, the day after "Mockingbird" closed, did board President Daniel A. Dintino finally take the stage to explain just how deep a financial hole Studio Arena was in, that it planned a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing and that it hoped to reinvent itself with help from Shea's and Buff State.

   --- Tom Buckham

Gender gap hurting Hillary's chances

   CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas … In this historic race for the Democratic presidential nomination between a black man and a white woman, the black man is winning.

   And one reason can be found in the numbers. More men like Barack Obama.

   Exit polls show that Clinton has won the male vote in just five states, and that there's a big "gender gap" between her share of the male vote and her share of the female vote in state after state.

   The question is, why? What is it about Hillary, or Obama, that's making men vote the way they do?

   Is it sexism? Or is it something about Hillary, or something about Obama?

   -- Jerry Zremski

Couch surfing offers a new take on traveling cheap

     The idea of trekking across the country, or halfway around the globe, to stay with someone you've never met before sounds pretty incredible at first.

That's the notion behind couch surfing, which has nothing to do with taking a piece of living-room furniture out on the waves off Waikiki Beach.

Couch surfers register with a Web site -- www.couchsurfing.com or www.hospitalityclub.org are the biggest -- that connects them with an international community of like-minded travelers.

They can then contact people in any city they want to visit and ask if someone there would be willing to put them up when they get into town.

Dedicated surfers insist surfing is the best way to travel because you get intimate local knowledge from your hosts -- what to see, where to eat and the best non-touristy aspects of the city.

And by registering with the site you agree to host, or at least meet with, visiting couch surfers and help them have a good experience when they're passing through your town.

Surfers, even women who have traveled alone, say this is all very safe thanks to the security measures built into the Couch Surfing Web site.

I wonder how many readers would be willing to give this a try.

What do you think of this idea of traveling with an assist from a network of perfect strangers?

And do you have any interesting stories to share of trying to travel cross-country or internationally on the cheap?
-- Steve Watson

Vets denied health care over document errors

Add another cost to the price of war, an increased number of veterans who are finding out there are errors in their discharge papers.

Read my story here.

Veterans' advocates say the problem is particularly troublesome because it can cause delays in vets later receiving medical treatment and disability pensions that they earned when they went to war to protect the nation.

In addition to a backup of nearly  2,000 Army veterans seeking corrections, there are hundreds more vets from the other branches of the military pouring into the bureaucratic pipeline to have their discharge papers repaired.

On top of all this, Ronal R. Bassham, a Town of Niagara veterans advocate for United Auto Workers, says it can take years before a vet realizes he or she has a medical condition related to their military service and then, when they seek help, discovers mistakes in the documents.

He says the mental stress he suffered from multiple tours in the Vietnam War wasn't diagnosed until years later. Bassham is among several advocates who have joined ranks to draw attention to the paperwork errors. They recently met in Niagara Falls and are scheduled to meet again in April. Stay tuned for further information on the April meeting.

--  Lou Michel

How does the Falls get moving?

   The confusion can be seen on the faces of Niagara Falls tourists.

   Visitors try the locked doors on a nearly vacant downtown mall. They pay to park outside a
building that is closed for the winter. They take refuge from the cold in a narrow walkway
marked by graffiti and littered with broken glass .

   The frustration can be heard in the voices of Niagara Falls residents.

   They wonder why those who own key downtown properties do not invest more. They question why
the streets surrounding one of the world's natural wonders are not more successful.

   "Why do people shun this area? I think it's the city not living up to the potential like it
should," said small business owner Arthur A. Garabedian. "With developers, I think they're
sitting on the properties hoping that someone bigger will come in and buy them out."

   Meanwhile, you have to wonder: If local, regional and state leaders can't get tourism right
in an international tourist destination … visited by an estimated 5 million people a year …
how can Western New York fully capitalize on cultural tourism in Buffalo and other parts of
the region?

   Five property owners control key properties in the tourist district in the Falls outside
the Seneca Niagara Casino & Hotel campus. What do you think they should do with their
properties? Should the city do more to compel them to make improvements? Should the state?

- Denise Jewell Gee

Clinton, Obama campaigns spend time examining who said what first

  AUSTIN, Texas -- The debate within the debate was all about plagiarism.

  As Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama squared off on health care and who has the experience and judgment to be president, their respective press shops did battle over who stole what.

  Truth be told, so did the candidates, but briefly. The onstage argument over Obama's use of some lines from Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick -- a co-chair of his campaign -- petered out quickly after Clinton had the following exchange with the audience.

  Clinton: "That's not change you can believe in; that's change you can Xerox."

  The audience: Groan. Boo.

  That didn't stop the Clinton campaign from emailing reporters a comparison between Obama's debate comments on workers who have "seen equipment unbolted from the floors of factories and shipped to China," and Sen. John Kerry's oddly similar comments from 2004.

  And it didn't stop the Obama campaign from comparing Clinton's much lauded closing comments with some sorta-similar ones from former Sen. John Edwards.

  "You know, whatever happens, we're going to be fine," she said. "You know, we have strong support from our families and our friends. I just hope that we'll be able to say the same thing about the American people. And that's what this election should be about."

  "What's not at stake are any of us," Edwards said. "All of us are going to be just fine no matter what happens in this election. But what's at stake is whether America is going to be fine."

  So what do you think: is any of the above plagiarism? Or is it just ... well, you pick the noun.

--Jerry Zremski
    

An inconvenient day to be Irish

   Buffalo's St. Patrick's Day Parade is going to be held on Palm Sunday this year.

   The bishop says that doesn't pose a problem and will be riding in a float himself.

   But across the country, other bishops have asked their parishes to reschedule St. Patrick's Day events to before or after Holy Week.

   Most people interviewed for the story in today's News said they'd go on celebrating St. Paddy's just as they always would. They see their faith separately from their pride in their Irish Catholic heritage.

   How about you?

   Will you go to the parade? Will you down a Guinness or two? Is there a conflict for Irish-American Catholics?

   -- Maki Becker

Voters finally get a choice for DA

   It is always nice for voters to have a choice.

   I think it is especially nice in the case of the upcoming Democratic primary for district attorney. Theatrical incumbent Frank Clark, whose red-faced, arm-waving pronouncements are familiar fare on the TV news, has in recent years made numerous questionable moves. Clark is 65, ran unopposed for his past two terms and grows more controversial with time.

   The timely opposition comes from Ken Case … 45, bright, progressive and with 14 years experience in the DA's office.

   Case's candidacy was prompted largely by questionable moves from Clark. Notable was Clark's reluctance to revisit the wrongful imprisonment of Anthony Capozzi until newfound DNA evidence left him no choice, and his continued pursuit of Lynn DeJac even after DNA evidence pointed the finger of guilt in her daughter's death at a former boyfriend.

   Beyond that, sources largely blame an exodus of talent from Clark's office on his heavy-handed style. There are a multitude of other reasons to reconsider Clark … and Case gives voters that option.

  … Donn Esmonde

They're paying close attention to their first election

   The interest from young voters has been one of the intriguing story lines of this year's presidential primaries and caucuses.

   Inside the Buffalo State College student union on Wednesday, young voters were more than happy to offer their thoughts.

   Of the eight students The News randomly approached for their views on the election, only two declined to talk. All the others were conversant on the candidates.

   At least six of the eight were registered to vote.

   Three said they voted in the primary … two for Hillary Clinton, one for Barack Obama.

   No one turned out to be a Republican.

   Health care, the economy, the environment, the war in Iraq and Social Security were among the issues they raised.

   And they, too, have noticed the interest in this historic election among other young voters.

   "When I went to my polling station, I saw three of my friends there," said T.J. Marfoglia "I thought that was surprising."

   -- Jay Rey

Board not likely to resolve questions about McKinley

    I do not have much faith in the School Board to get to the bottom of the McKinley High School mess.

    If it wanted to get to the bottom of it, it would look into how and why Michelle Stiles, the girls volunteer basketball coach and mentor, was fired. It won't.

    If it wanted to get to the bottom of it, it would find out how the team captain and honors student ended up with a seven-week (later cut to five) suspension, and who was really behind it.

    Beyond that, the board should look into the conduct of teacher and boys basketball coach James Daye, who purportedly spread false rumors about Stiles' sexual orientation. And the board would come clean about whether Superintendent James Williams smeared Stiles' reputation in a private board meeting.

    But those roads might lead to wrongdoing by powerful people … the superintendent, a school principal, a successful boys basketball coach. Each of them has a base of power or union protection.

    Instead of uncovering the truth about an unjust dismissal and a vindictive suspension, it is easier to cover it up.

  … Donn Esmonde   

How to avoid becoming a wrong-way driver

   Eat more carrots. Visit your ophthalmologist more frequently. Or take your time and be a bit more careful when entering the inbound Kensington Expressway from Genesee Street.

   Those seem the key ways to stop this epidemic of wrong-way driving on the inbound Kensington in Cheektowaga.

   Monday night's pair of collisions caused by a wrong-way driver show that there remains a huge problem at the expressway entrance.

   But this isn't some problem caused by inattention from local officials.

   The Cheektowaga police have compiled statistics about the reported wrong-way driving incidents and contacted the state Department of Transportation, which already has ordered larger and more signs for the troubled intersection.

   What more can they do?

   Perhaps treat this like the immigration issue, and erect a huge wall between the inbound and outbound lanes from Genesee Street.

   -- Gene Warner

Board in the spotlight over Jayvonna suspension

    Public anger over the lengthy suspension of McKinley High School senior Jayvonna Kincannon has, until recently, focused largely on school administrators. Now, the Board of Education is feeling the heat.

    Critics … including former board members and other community leaders … say the board is taking too long defining its investigation and getting it off the ground.

   Who will conduct the investigation? How long will it take? Will it look at the dismissal of assistant volunteer basketball coach Michelle Stiles? What questions will be addressed?

    Three weeks after Jayvonna's suspension came to light, those questions remain unanswered.

    Is the board taking too long putting the probe together? Is public confidence taking another hit in the meantime? Is the board capable of successfully tackling this issue?

    Or is it unfair to ask a badly divided board to move more quickly on such a highly controversial issue? Is the pace of the the board's deliberation due to wise and thoughtful deliberation, or is the board spinning its wheels?

    -- Peter Simon

Closing psychiatric unit leaves a void

   Niagara Falls Memorial Medical Center plans to close its 12-bed children's psychiatric unit March 1, and soon after, begin the process of closing its 54-bed adult unit.

   With 13 percent of the psychiatric patients coming from outside Niagara County, the closings will reverberate through a regional mental health system already stretched past its limit.

  Thousands of children and adolescents in Western New York are diagnosed every year with mental illness. The suicide rate is as high as 15 percent.

   Yet, many are being turned away from the two hospitals in Buffalo … Erie County Medical Center and BryLin Hospital … that treat children and adolescents with mental illness because of a shortage of beds.

   Now, patients who would go to Niagara Falls Memorial will have to be moved as far away as Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester.

   The closings are an attempt to reduce the $2 million a year Memorial loses treating indigent patients who may be eligible for Medicaid, but who are denied coverage by Niagara County Social Services because they don't have the photo identification and birth certificates required by the state.

   Hospital officials say money is the bottom line, but Lynne Shuster, coordinator of the Buffalo-Erie County office of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, suggests there must be other ways to cut hospital costs.

   What should be done to help these troubled youngsters?

  -- Bill Michelmore

Unanswered questions about Crystallynn Girard

  Something terrible happened in the bedroom of Crystallynn Girard 15 years ago, and we may never know what that terrible thing was.

   The 13-year-old girl was found dead on Valentine's Day 1993 at 2 p.m. She was naked except for a pair of socks.

   A medical examiner at the time said she had been strangled. A jury said it was at the hands of her mother, Lynn DeJac.

   But in November last year, the conviction was set aside and a retrial was ordered after DNA found at the scene indicated that DeJac's former boyfriend, Dennis Donohue, had been intimate with Crystallynn and in her bed.

   But when two pathologists re-examined the autopsy results, they came to the conclusion that Crystallynn wasn't murdered and that she had died of a cocaine overdose.

   The finding raises many troubling questions.

   How did Crystallynn get cocaine?

   Did she take it voluntarily?

  Did it really kill her?

   Or was she strangled, or is there yet another explanation for her death?

   How did Donohue's DNA get into her bed?

   What did he do to her?

   But with the charges being dropped against DeJac, it doesn't appear that any of these questions will ever be answered.

    — Maki Becker

McKinley under the Barton regime

   She is among Buffalo's most respected — and feared — principals.

   She also is the McKinley High School administrator who first suspended Jayvonna Kincannon, the 17-year-old teen who received a seven-week suspension for using a cell phone on campus, leaving school early without permission and being insubordinate to a vice principal.

   Jayvonna says she was simply trying to stick up for her volunteer basketball coach.

   At the core of this controversy — and it's not her first — is Principal Crystal B. Barton, a 20-year veteran of McKinley and an administrator known for her law-and-order approach to student discipline and school order.

   She runs a high school that is among the biggest and most popular in the city, and part of the school's appeal is its reputation as a safe environment for kids.

   But she also is a principal with a reputation among teachers, past and present, for ethical lapses and a management style built on intimidation, humiliation and retribution.

   Did Barton cross the line, as some teachers suggest? Or is she simply doing what she has to to maintain order in one of Buffalo's biggest schools?

    — Phil Fairbanks and Mark Sommer

   

The Zedniks and Buffalo: Friends for life

I caught up with Richard Zednik and his wife Friday morning, a couple hours before they boarded a charter for Florida. They couldn't say enough good things about their stay in Buffalo – and the people who make it such a great place – while he recovered from a severed artery that threw a good scare into everyone.

Zednik and his wife had the same fears that everybody else did, that the Panthers winger was going to die after having his throat slashed. He didn’t realize until later that he was in very capable hands and surrounded by very good people. It was obvious that he received the Buffalo-style warmth that seems to take outsiders by surprise.

Hey, it’s just standard operating procedure around here.

Zednik was feeling much better, by the way, and very thankful. He wasn’t quite ready for television cameras and a news conference. Jessica Zednik, who speaks five languages, had no problem getting their message across. She wasn’t sure what to expect, but she felt very safe and comfortable from the minute she stepped off the plane.

It was evident during an interview at the Mansion on Delaware.

The people over at Kaleida Health did a terrific job of getting the couple what they needed while maintaining their privacy. The Zedniks had a difficult few days and needed time to sort out how lucky they were that Richard survived. At one point, they were preparing for death. In the end, they left town with friends for life.

--- Bucky Gleason

When online forums turn nasty

      Online comment sections can be raucous places where free-wheeling conversations pull out a wide range of opinions on the news and issues of the day.

   The comment sections are intended to build stronger connections between new organizations and their readers and they let people give feedback on any topic imaginable.

   But, far too often, these discussions can deteriorate into mean-spirited name-calling … or worse.

   Web administrators for The Buffalo News, Channel 2 and SpeakUp Western New York all have had to take down offensive, sexist or racist comments from their sites.

   It's a national problem for news organizations, chat rooms and message boards.

   Experts say the Internet doesn't create this nastiness and racism, but the Web does provide a forum for people who hold these views to spread them anonymously.

   Web hosts are wrestling with the best way to offer a venue for feedback without leaving their sites open to the most offensive commentary.

   So it's only fitting to open this up to public discussion.

   Why do you think the Web attracts so many venomous comments?

   Should people be required to give their full name with an online comment? Should Web sites require people to register with a verifiable e-mail address before viewing a comment or leaving a reply?

   Or, should people be able to say whatever they want online, anonymously, and let those who are offended respond in kind?

  … Stephen Watson

Ken-Ton board is ambivalent on name game

  "Not to decide is to decide," said Harvey Cox, a Harvard University professor.

   Is that what the Kenmore-Town of Tonawanda School Board is doing in response to proposals to rename Crosby Field, home of the Kenmore West Blue Devils football team?

   Alumni and veterans have reached a compromise that would retain Crosby Field, named after Lt. Harry E. Crosby, who died in combat during World War I, while naming the football stadium after Jules
Yakapovich, the school's legendary coach.

   Yet the School Board hasn't made its decision by voting on a resolution.

   Or has it?

-- Janice L. Habuda

Hepatitis clinics provide painful lessons

    
   Erie County this week stretched resources to inject 10,153 people over five days in a hepatitis A scare that offered a real-world test of the community's readiness for a far more serious disaster.

   By most accounts, the county coped well with the challenge.

   Hundreds of county and state workers, backed up by volunteers, pitched in at the mass vaccination clinics at Erie Community College North. Their training and preparations paid off. As a result of lessons learned, officials already see potential improvements to avoid problems that did arise.

   But the event also left an uncomfortable reminder of the nightmarish scenario confronting even the best-run health department if pandemic flu strikes, and many scientists believe it is only a matter of time before that happens.

   The county pandemic flu plan calls for vaccinating 950,000 people in less than a week if a new, deadly strain of influenza spreads around the globe. The goal is overwhelming, and raises the question of what price residents here and elsewhere across the nation are willing to pay for greater disaster preparedness.

   -- Henry L. Davis

There are no winners in Crystallynn Girard case

   It's an incredible story, and when it ended, no one had emerged as a hero.

   Crystallynn Girard, sadly, came across as someone who had used cocaine and died because of it.

   Her mother, Lynn M. DeJac, won't have to face a trial or any more criminal charges. But she was left to mourn the stain on her daughter's reputation, and authorities still are questioning her moral guilt in her daughter's death.

   Defense attorney Andrew C. LoTempio had to wonder whether he could have done more to pursue the possible cocaine overdose and thus keep his client from being convicted of murder in
1994.

   District Attorney Frank J. Clark had to answer questions about a wrongful conviction and imprisonment, even if it was from a prior administration.

   And the forensic pathologists had to try to explain how the cause of Crystallynn's death now has moved from a manual strangulation to a cocaine overdose.

   A woman was freed from any further prosecution, but there wasn't a happy face in this joyless story.

   Can anyone out there find a winner in this story?

   -- Gene Warner

McCain's Obama allusion: illusion?

   WASHINGTON  -- Well, it sounds as if John McCain is starting to get some notion of who he will  be running against.

   At a victory party after the "Potomac Primaries" in Alexandria, Va., on Tuesday, McCain stole a Barack Obama slogan, telling the crowd he "fired up and ready to go." He also mocked Obama as a good speech-maker who had little to talk about but worn-out Democratic ideas.

   "To encourage a crowd with only rhetoric ... is not a promise of hope," McCain said. "It's a platitude."

   Of course, "hope" is the mantra of the Obama campaign, much as "experience" is Hillary Clinton's calling card.

   McCain made passing reference to the fact that there are still two candidates in the Democratic presidential race, saying: "We know where either of their candidates will lead this country, and we dare not let them."

   But then he went on and on, without mentioning names, about Obama.

   So what do you think? Is McCain jumping the gun?

-- Jerry Zremski

Buffalo's medical care again in national spotlight

   National attention has focused on a sports injury in Buffalo twice in six months, and the stories share remarkable coincidences and happy endings.

   In both cases, quick response from medical personnel, good care and a bit of luck prevented frightening moments from turning into disasters … first with Buffalo Bills tight end Kevin Everett and, now, with Florida Panthers forward Richard Zednik.

   A teammate's skate blade slashed Zednik's carotid artery in a game Sunday against the Buffalo Sabres. Everett suffered a spinal cord injury in a game in September.

   Both athletes faced injuries with potentially devastating or fatal consequences. But both appear to be moving along well in their recovery.

   -- Henry L. Davis   

Is it do or die time for Clinton?

   WASHINGTON - The terms "Clinton" and "losing streak" have rarely been seen together in the same sentence, but there they are.

   Hillary Rodham Clinton lost four primaries or caucuses over the weekend to Barack Obama, and if the polls and pundits are to be believed (I know, that phrase might be worthy of a separate post), she will lose three more today. The "Potomac Primary," consisting of Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia, is likely to swing Obama's way.

   But with it, will the momentum swing as well?

   

   The momentum has been like mercury in this campaign, with Obama's Iowa win meaning nothing in New Hampshire and his huge run-up in the polls before Super Tuesday largely disappearing when the voters started entering the voting booths.

   

   But there's something about losing four contests in a row, or seven, or nine, that may be a little different.

   

   Given that Obama is also favored in the Feb. 19 states of Wisconsin and Hawaii, Clinton could arrive at her "fire wall" states of Ohio and Texas having lost nine in a row.

   

   Will it make any difference to voters in Ohio and Texas? What do you think?

 

   --- Jerry Zremski

The coach's winning ways

   James Daye has brought a lot of good to McKinley High School, coaching the basketball team to its first sectional title in 26 years last year, and as assistant coach of the football team, retiring the Harvard Cup after McKinley won the city championship three years in a row.

   But Daye is also at the center of the recent flap at McKinley after the volunteer girls' coach, Michelle Stiles, saw him coming out of one of her player's house and questioned girls on her team about it.

   He said he was there to visit the girl's adult cousin. He complained about Stiles, and the result is that Stiles got dismissed, Jayvonna Kincannon, the team captain who defended her, was suspended for five weeks, and the Buffalo Board of Education has launched an investigation.

   Daye, a reserve guard when he was at the University of North Carolina, brings a checkered record to McKinley, achieving great success at some schools, getting fired by others.

   Should the board investigation also include Daye's role?

--- Michael Beebe

Can community ownership save the Bills?

   Congressman Brian Higgins no doubt struck a nerve with Bills fans everywhere when he asked the National Football League on Friday to allow some type of community ownership for the Bills.

   Whether he made any points with the NFL and its owners is another question.

   The problem is that community ownership, whether it's partial or total, presumably would block owner Ralph C. Wilson Jr.'s family from getting the highest possible price for the Bills after he passes from the scene. And that, apparently, would impact the value of other league franchises.

   Can Higgins, U.S. Sen. Charles E. Schumer and their congressional colleagues put enough pressure on the NFL to convince the league and its owners to reward Western New York for its loyal support of the Bills?

   That's the relevant question now.

   -- Gene Warner
   

Time to put a stop into golden spigots

   If you live in Erie County Water Authority territory, your water rates are less than the national average, even though they do go up year after year.

   Your water is clean and safe, and you get reasonably good service, right? (Except during a crippling power failure.)

   So should you care that the authority's top staff are granted golden parachutes, worth tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars?

   Former Deputy Director Edward J. Kasprzak retired last year with a payout of $230,000 for unused vacation and sick time, plus a year's severance, according to water authority records.

   Kasprzak will continue to collect health insurance, too.

   County Executive Chris Collins and other local officials are appalled, and see it as another example of public authorities looking out for themselves.

   Just how angry are you, and if so, who are you mad at?

   The top employees who collect the payments? The commissioners who allow them? Or the county legislators who appoint the commissioners as told by the party bosses?

  -- Matthew Spina

   

Soldiers keep a high-tech connection to the home front

   Anyone who's watched the Ken Burns documentaries on PBS about the Civil War or World War II knows that military personnel stationed overseas for years communicated largely by letter.

   Americans in World War II alone sent six billion letters to soldiers, sailors and Marines in the European and Pacific theaters, a figure that doesn't count the letters sent home, said Brenda L. Moore, a University at Buffalo sociologist who studies the military.

   Today, those old-fashioned missives have been overwhelmed in an electronic flood of e-mails, text and Instant messages and Web video link-ups.

   Modern communication technology is making it even easier for military personnel to keep in close contact with their loved ones back home.

   Service men and women have regular access to the Internet and they are shopping, chatting and sending and receiving photos online.

   Moore and other experts say it's bringing the battlefield to the home front, and vice versa, with implications for both that are still being sorted out.

   I'd like to hear your stories. If you're a member of the military stationed overseas, let us know how you keep in touch with friends and family here in Western New York.

   If you have a loved one serving in Iraq or Afghanistan, tell us how you keep in contact with your soldier, Marine or pilot.

   And what do you tell them, or not tell them, about how things are going in the war or at
home?

  -- Stephen T. Watson

Special investigator to probe McKinley controversy

   In an effort to clear up a super-charged controversy, the Buffalo Board of Education has decided to hire a special investigator to delve into the suspension of McKinley High School student Jayvonna Kincannon and the dismissal of Michelle Stiles, Jayvonna's former volunteer assistant basketball coach.

   Board members also plan to ask the investigator … who has not yet been selected … to look at the board's policies and procedures on student suspensions.

   Lots of questions remain. Who will the investigator be? What specific questions will the investigator be expected to answer? What is the timetable for the report, and what will ultimately become of it?

   The board will address those questions at a special meeting on Monday, but … already … the issue has taken a dramatic new turn.

   Did the board act wisely? Is an independent investigation needed, or could it have been handled internally? Will the probe clear up the issue to the public's satisfaction? Does this show a lack of trust in Superintendent James A. Williams, or is it an effort by the board to help him clean up a questionable system of student suspensions?

   -- Peter Simon

Ralph Wilson gives Bills fans reason to worry

      Ralph Wilson did everything but take the Buffalo out of the Buffalo Bills in his apparently off-the-cuff remarks at Wednesday's press conference in Toronto.

   Any Western New Yorkers looking for reassurances about the long-term consequences of the Bills eight-game package of games in Toronto over the next five years would have walked away from the press conference greatly disappointed.

   Wilson started out on a lighter note, in his nine-minute talk near the top of the press conference. He kidded about Canadian Club and the difference between the three downs in the Canadian Football League and the four in the National Football League. He talked about the Bills previous preseason visits to Toronto and cited the Bills careers of Cookie Gilchrist, Doug Flutie and Steve Christie.

   No harm there.

   But when the format turned to questions and answers, Wilson painted a portrait of Buffalo as a dying town in a dying market. He contrasted Buffalo's economy with all the construction going on in Toronto and Dallas. He talked about Buffalo dwindling in population and jobs. And he mentioned that the Bills had run out of rocks to overturn in marketing the team in Western New York.

   When asked point-blank what he'd say to Buffalo fans about the eight games in Toronto, Wilson just said he couldn't speculate about the future.

   "Don't worry," he said. "Don't worry, right now."

   Those last two words are what had to scare all Bills fans.

   -- Gene Warner

Hillary bets $5 million on herself

   NEW YORK … Imagine it. The wife of the former president, part of a couple with unparalleled political connections, lent $5 million of her own money to her campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination in January.

   With that, one more preconceived notion about this amazing race was shattered. Donors are flooding to Barack Obama, not Hillary Clinton, in the race for the presidency. He raised more than twice as much money as she did in January.

   That's just one of the troubles that Clinton faces as she tries to weather an upcoming string of primaries in states that are believed to favor Obama. Many analysts believe Clinton's strategy now involves doing her best in the next few weeks while hoping for a big comeback on March 4, when Texas and Ohio vote.

   Texas, with its big base of Hispanic voters, and Ohio, with its huge contingent of working-class Democrats like those that have favored Clinton so far, loom large for Clinton now.

   So does an ironic question.

   How much does money matter in this amazing race?

   -- Jerry Zremski

Obama comfortable on Hillary's turf

   Just like it was advertised, the New York State Democratic primary for president proved a barn burner.

   While Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton had no trouble winning the New York popular vote by a 57 to 40 percent tally, Sen. Barack Obama snagged a substantial number of delegates from her -- right on her home turf.

   Talk about the "Audacity of Hope" (the title of Obama's latest book), some might call it just plain audacity.

   Still, delegates are what this Democratic contest is all about. And even the most optimistic Clinton supporters knew that Obama's strength -- especially in urban districts like the local one represented by Rep. Louise M. Slaughter -- would end up providing at least some delegates to the Obama cause.

   Indeed, Obama won 56 delegates compared to Clinton's 89, according to state Democratic officials -- about the best the Illinois senator could count on from the Empire State.

   The result is that New York -- Hillary Clinton's adopted state -- now finds itself almost as divided as the rest of the nation's Democrats when it comes to this year's presidential contest.

   The results show that Clinton maintained a strong organization that prevailed in most areas of the state. But they also show that Obama, with nowhere near as strong a statewide or local team, more than held his own in the middle of "enemy territory."

   And oh yes, those staid Republicans produced a nice and orderly win for Sen. John McCain, just one week after Rudy Giuliani ended his presidential effort and brought the New York GOP with him to McCain.

   It all shows why this presidential contest has a long way to go before it is anywhere near settled, and another reason why this election seems to have captivated all of us like no other in generations.

     -- Robert J. McCarthy

Battle lines drawn amid shock waves of Super Tuesday

   NEW YORK -- Tuesday was the night the fight was supposed to end, but it's only just begun.

   Early indications are that both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama had decent nights on Super Tuesday, with Clinton rolling up more big-state victories and Obama taking more states overall in the battle for the Democratic presidential nomination.

   And while the most important number -- the count of delegates each candidate won -- won't be precisely known until sometime Wednesday, it's likely to be close in the end. And that means the battle for the nomination will continue for weeks or months more.

   So much for Hillary's "inevitability."

   She was the candidate with all the advantages: unmatchable name recognition, deep political roots all across the country, and the ability to raise the tens of millions of dollars it takes to run for president.

   And now, more than halfway through the primary campaign season, a 46-year-old man with three years experience in the Senate has, apparently, fought her to a draw.

   Which raises a question.

   How on earth did this happen?

  -- Jerry Zremski

Volunteering and defenseless, Buffalo Schools style

  School officials in Buffalo ought to be thankful for Michelle Stiles, and everybody like her. Instead, Stiles was a disposable annoyance.

   The way the volunteer girls basketball coach at McKinley High was treated reveals the priorities of the Buffalo school bureaucracy. It is not about doing what is best for the kids. It is, first and foremost, about protecting and catering to those in power -- even when it comes at the expense of students and those who are helping them.

   Some of these kids need all the help that they can get. Instead, mentors are scarce, athletic budgets are thin and volunteers are few. Somebody like Stiles, who played college ball and worked with AAU coaching legend Boo Williams, is a rare gift.

   The players valued her enough to protest when Stiles was unjustly dismissed by principal Crystal Barton. Stiles's "crime" was looking out for her kids. She saw McKinley teacher and boys' coach James Daye leaving the house of one of her players. Concerned, she checked into it and found nothing wrong. But Stiles's actions angered Daye, a favorite of the authoritarian Barton. Within days, Stiles was gone and unfounded rumors -- vehemently denied by Stiles -- were spread about her improper relations with players.

   Barton lined up behind Daye, who has the backing of the muscular teachers union. Superintendent James Williams defended Barton, head of the powerful principals' union. As a volunteer, Stiles was like a woman without a country -- no union or district official backed her. She was more vulnerable than the kids who came to her defense --  one of whom, team captain Jayvonna Kincannon, was slammed with a lengthy suspension.

   The episode hurts the kids who Stiles helped. And it should send a chill through anyone thinking about volunteering in a Buffalo school.

-- Donn Esmonde

What is the School Board's role in McKinley controversy?

    Jayvonna Kincannon's suspension from McKinley High School has drawn widespread and heated reaction from the public over the last several weeks. But in many ways, the opinions of the nine Buffalo Board of Education members are those that matter the most.

   They will decide if and how the situation is investigated, at least at the school district level.  Should it be a general review of the school system's suspension policies and practices? Should it be a full-blown look at the incident at hand by an independent investigator?

   And what is the board's role here? Is it a policy-making body that leaves day-to-day details … like Jayvonna's suspension … up to Superintendent James A. Williams and his staff? Or does it take a more inquisitive and activist role when specific incidents raise serious questions about retribution and unfair punishment?

   Even before the McKinley controversy, a split board had a rocky relationship with the superintendent. Now, with Williams' yearly evaluation coming up, how should the board view his job performance?

  To read previous comments on this topic, go to the Inside the News blog post Lesson plan goes awry at McKinley High School.

  -- Peter Simon

Say goodbye to old-fashioned parking meters

    You know the feeling. Your heart races as you glance nervously at your watch and scurry toward your parked car.

   While you can't see the windshield yet, you know your time is up at the meter.

   As technology changes, many experts think the time is also set to expire for old-style meters. No more pocketfuls of quarters. No more meters lining the curbs at every spot.

   A growing number of cities are turning to  high-tech pay-and-display machines. Buffalo has been experimenting with the devices for several years. This spring, the city plans to remove up to 1,300 old-style meters and replace them with centrally located solar-powered machines that accept cash and credit cards.

   Pay-and-display machines will soon start popping up along the Elmwood Strip, the Hertel Business District, in Allentown and other parts of the city. When the project is completed, the number of old meters will be reduced by almost two-thirds.

   Buffalo officials insist the new system has many benefits. Repairing and collecting money from more than 2,300 meters is costly and time-consuming, they argue. The new computerized machines also alert City Hall the instant there's a malfunction.

   But the machines also require motorists to walk a short distance to retrieve time-dated receipts that then are placed on dashboards. In some instances, the round-trip jaunts can be a couple hundred feet.

   What do you think about Buffalo's conversion to pay-and-display parking machines?

  -- Brian Meyer

Another emotional moment for Hillary

   NEW HAVEN, Conn. … It happened again.

   Just like the day before the New Hampshire primary, Hillary Clinton heard kind, touching words … and the most famous woman in the world got sort of teary-eyed.

   It happened at a roundtable discussion with women voters on Monday at Yale University, in the building where Clinton volunteered as a children's advocate while in law school.

   Clinton heard her mentor there, Penn Rhodeen, offer a heartfelt tribute to the candidate's work on behalf of children, calling her "our magnificent Hillary."

   In response, the New York senator appeared touched, and she wiped her eyes.

   "I said I would not tear up. Already we're not on that path," she said, whatever that means.

   Speaking of meaning, what should we make of all this?

   As Clinton herself said when she announced for president a year ago, let the conversation begin.

   -- Jerry Zremski

Watching history unfold from afar

   LOS ANGELES -- In arenas usually frequented by basketball teams and rock stars, overflow crowds of thousands of Democrats are gathering to hear Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.

   Over the last two days alone, Clinton drew 6,500 to an event in San Diego and nearly 10,000 to a convention center in San Jose, not to mention the 5,000 or so who showed up this morning at Cal State Los Angeles.

   And those are exactly the kinds of crowds Obama has drawn for months.

   There's a lot of excitement out here on the campaign trail. Seeing a black man and a white woman going head to head for the Democratic nomination, voters freely say they feel they are witnessing history and want to be a part of it.

   In Buffalo, however, you will likely have to read about it, or watch it all on television.

   Such is the disadvantage of having a home-state senator in the race. With Clinton enjoying a big lead in Western New York, it's unlikely that either candidate will stop here before the New York primary on Tuesday.

   So you have to judge it from afar. How historic is this race, really?

-- Jerry Zremski

Was Hillary playing to her Hispanic base?

  SAN DIEGO -- You notice certain things about a Hillary Clinton crowd. First and foremost, there are a lot of women, especially women of a certain age, who will tell you: if not her, who? And if not now, when?

   But there's one other thing that's notable about the Clinton crowds other than the vast numbers of women who want a woman president. Particularly in states like California, you will notice a disproportionate number of Hispanics.

   Clinton won the Latino vote in Nevada by a margin of 64 percent to 26 percent over Barack Obama. And judging from the way things look, the same thing could happen here, in the biggest state in the union, on Super Tuesday.

   I say this having spent the last two days in California, talking to Latino voting experts and Latino voters at Clinton and Obama campaign events.

   Not one of those voters brought up the issue that threw Clinton off her stride last fall: driver's licenses for illegal immigrants.

   But just about every one of the Hispanic Clinton supporters brought up the good times of the 1990s and Hillary Clinton's long-standing relationship with the Latino community nationwide.

   That's surely good news to Clinton, but it does also raise a question: might those voters have been on her mind during that debate last fall when she stumbled all over that question on driver's licenses?

-- Jerry Zremski

Lesson plan goes awry at McKinley High School

   It's a familiar story -- students rallying to the cause of a popular teacher they believe is fired unfairly.

   At  McKinley High School, it wasn't a teacher or even an employee getting the ax -- but a volunteer girls basketball coach.

   Principal Crystal Barton did not give a reason in November when she dismissed Michelle Stiles, who had been with the team for three years and become a mentor to the girls.

   The girls, believing Stiles had been unfairly treated, attempted to speak to Buffalo School District administrators about the coach's dilemma -- triggering  a chain of events that resulted in Jayvonna Kincannon, team captain, being suspended for seven weeks in her senior year. That was five weeks longer than she was told she would get during her suspension hearing.

   What are your thoughts about these events at McKinley?

   -- Mark Sommer

Hillary's war vote -- the issue that won't die

  LOS ANGELES -- At first glance, it looked like one of those rare Kumbaya debates, with hardly a harsh word exchanged between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.

   But then, late in the event, before an audience that included Stevie Wonder and Rob Reiner and America Ferrera of "Ugly Betty," the issue that was supposed to drag down Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign came back with a vengeance.

   Again Hillary Clinton was forced to defend her vote for the resolution that led to the Iraq War -- and five days before Super Tuesday, no less.

   Clinton repeated the argument that she's always made, that she made the best judgment she could have on the vote based on what she knew at the time. And again she refused to apologize for a vote the many Democrats regard as a mistake.

   And in response, Obama made the point he made before the race focused so heavily on the economy, as it has in recent weeks.

   "We need better judgment when we decide to send our young men and women into war," he said.

   So what do you think? Obama is still obviously holding Clinton's war vote against her. Are you?

-- Jerry Zremski

Is Higgins losing sight of the big picture?

  No politician is perfect, and indeed the definition of perfection depends on the views of the person doing the defining. It seemed to me that, for years, Brian Higgins was as close to perfect as any politician around here. He is almost single-handedly responsible for recent traction on the south-of-downtown waterfront. He figured out the problem -- lack of road and bridge access to the land -- and set about correcting it, first by taking on the transportation authority that let the land sit idle for a half-century.

   Higgins' willingness, unique among local politicians, to wrestle the gorillas of state agencies and unaccountable authorities -- from the NFTA to the state power Authority -- earned him massive credibility. His successes on the waterfront and in prying an extra $175 million for the region from the power authority relicensing padded his popularity. Yet in the past year, the shine is off of the brass. He angered many folks by backing a wrongheaded plan, since abandoned, to stuff a big-box Bass Pro onto the historic Central Wharf. He backs the expansion of a Peace Bridge plaza that would decimate a West Side neighborhood. He favors a state plan that retains the upraised wall of Route 5, which experts say inhibits the future
waterfront development Higgins has fought for.

   In each case, he seems to favor expedience over longer-term success, which seems inconsistent with the stands he previously took. Higgins says he has not changed. Personally, I prefer the older model to the recent version.

-- Donn Esmonde

New rules in force crossing the border

   
   No traffic jams were reported Thursday, the first day of a new Homeland Security documentation requirement to prove citizenship and identity.

    That was, of course, no surprise to U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials who implemented the change. It's in the warm weather that cross-border traffic is heavy, not in the middle of the winter.

    So it will take some time to measure whether U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff's decision requiring birth certificates and photo identification will impede the flow of traffic into the United States and the accompanying cross-border commerce.

    Supervisory Officer Kevin A. Corsaro says the government will continue an intense public awareness campaign to alert U.S. citizens who would not normally use the bridges in the winter that they will need the documents when they pass through the Port of Buffalo in the warmer weather.

    This effort includes national advertising, according to Homeland Security officials.

    By the way, photocopies of birth certificates are acceptable and so are expired passports for the time being when returning to the United States.

    Some readers have pointed out that the last names on birth certificates of married women do not match the last names on their driver's license, if they use their husband's last name.

    Customs and Border Protection officials say not to worry. During the interview process at the bridge inspection booths, officers will be able to tell, despite the discrepancy, if the
individual has accurate documents.

    A birth certificate has the individual's date of birth and so does a driver's license. So
that's a start in determining identity.

  -- Lou Michel