Check out the results for the SkinnyMan Triathlon in Skaneateles.

The SkinnyMan Triathlon attracted hundreds of competitors to Skaneateles on Saturday.

The race, part of the SkanRaces Labor Day Race Weekend, included a 13-mile bike and a 3-mile run. (The 800-yard swim portion of the race was cancelled today due to choppy water.)

There was also an untimed mini-skinny triathlon for kids held at the Skaneateles YMCA Community Center.

Top competitors
Male: Tom Eickelberg, Cortland: 49:46
Female: Kim Stepien, Madison, WI: 59:07

The weekend of races continues on Sunday:

• 8 a.m.: "Escape from the Judge, a mile-long swim from the Skaneateles Country Club to Clift Park. The first 100 people get the chance to start the race by jumping off the Mid-Lakes Navigation's Judge Ben Wiles.


• 4 p.m.: Skaneateles Road Race, a 5K run starting at the State Street at Austin Park in Skaneateles.

SkinnyMan Triathlon complete results
(Times are courtesy of SkanRaces.com and Score-This!!! )

New York's senior senator spends the day at the 2014 New York State Fair.

SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer planned to spend eight hours today at the 2014 New York State Fair, where he had a unique goal: The third-ranking senator in the nation planned to shake hands with 10,000 people.

By his own count, Schumer, D-N.Y., had introduced himself to about 4,000 people by 2 p.m. as he moved rapid-fire through the packed state fairgrounds in Geddes. Two staffers sandwiched in front and behind the senator held up big posters that read, "Meet Senator Chuck Schumer."

With a broad smile, Schumer worked the crowd. "Hi folks, Chuck Schumer, your senator," he said, extending his hand to anyone in front of him. "Nice to meet you."

Wearing a white dress shirt and khaki pants, Schumer moved through the thick crowd, shaking as many hands as possible. "Hello everybody," he said to a group standing shoulder-to-shoulder in a bottleneck in front of the Dairy Building. "Hi folks. Nice to meet you. Chuck Schumer, your senator."

The effort is part of an annual tradition for Schumer, the state's senior senator, who typically spends a full day meeting people at the fair and introducing an act at Chevy Court. This year, he began the day by eating sausage sandwiches with U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., and Rep. Dan Maffei, D-Syracuse.

Long after Gillibrand and Maffei were gone, Schumer introduced musical act Uncle Kracker at 2 p.m.

"Some people say Iowa has the greatest state fair," Schumer said as part of his introduction, prompting scattered boos from the crowd. Some people say Minnesota has the greatest state fair. But we know which state has has the greatest fair --- New York!"

In the process of meeting people, some people pulled Schumer aside to ask for his help on an issue, or offer him a few suggestions. Delores Bennett of Endwell asked him for help dealing with pedophiles and prison parolees released to her community. "I'll check it out," Schumer said. "Call our office. I'll help you."

One man from Fredonia identified himself as a supporter, even though the man is registered to vote as a Republican. He asked Schumer if he would consider running for president.

"I don't want to be president," Schumer said. "I'm happy being your senator."

Contact Mark Weiner anytime: Email | Twitter | Facebook | 571-970-3751

State Fair officials said about 6 p.m. Saturday that "not a single ticket remains" for the country singer's concert. The show is scheduled to begin at 7:30 p.m.

GEDDES, N.Y. -- Tickets for the Jason Aldean concert Saturday at the New York State Fair's Grandstand have officially sold out.

State Fair officials said about 6 p.m. Saturday that "not a single ticket remains" for the country singer's concert. The show is scheduled to begin at 7:30 p.m.

Florida Georgia Line and Tyler Farr will open for Aldean, who is appearing at the State Fair on the New York leg of his "Burn It Down Tour." Tickets went on sale in February and ranged in price from $57-77.

Aldean headlined the State Fair in 2012 along with Luke Bryan. The show sold out the 17,000-seat grandstand.

Florida Georgia Line played a free concert at Chevy Court during the State Fair last year. It was the State Fair's most-attended show with an estimated crowd of 31,000.

State Fair officials did not immediately know how many tickets had been sold to the Aldean concert Saturday.

The plane was registered to Ronald Hutchinson, of Brookfield, Wisconsin

CHINCOTEAGUE, Va. -- The pilot of a small airplane lost consciousness while flying and crashed into the Atlantic Ocean off the Virginia coast on Saturday, the Coast Guard said.

 

Littlejohn said the Coast Guard in Portsmouth was notified about 2:40 p.m. that the single-engine Cirrus failed to land in Manassas, Virginia, and continued into restricted air space in Washington, D.C.

Two Air Force F16 jets confirmed the pilot was unconscious and stayed with the plane until it eventually ran out of fuel and crashed.

National Transportation Safety Board spokesman Peter Knudson said the plane was heading from Waukesha, Wisconsin, to Manassas.

Littlejohn said no one else was aboard the plane.

A Coast Guard helicopter found no sign of the plane before heading back for refueling. A C130 airplane based out of Elizabeth City, North Carolina, and an 87-foot cutter from Virginia Beach also were responding, Littlejohn said.

The plane was registered to Ronald Hutchinson, of Brookfield, Wisconsin. Relatives reached at a phone listing for him didn't want to comment Saturday night.

Salina Town Supervisor Mark Nicotra said that had the town known that the house had no electricity, it almost certainly would have been declared uninhabitable.

SALINA, N.Y. -- Code enforcement officials were not aware power had been cut to the house where a girl died Friday and her brother was critically injured.

Salina Town Supervisor Mark Nicotra said Saturday that had the town known that the house at 106 Carlton Drive had no electricity, code enforcement officials would have investigated and almost certainly declared the house uninhabitable.

The Onondaga County Sheriff's Office said 37-year-old Glen Collins returned home Friday morning to find his children unresponsive. Emergency crews rushed 6-year-old Gabriella Collins and 14-year-old Jaden Collins to the hospital where Gabriella was pronounced dead. Jaden was listed in critical condition Saturday night.

Detectives are investigating the matter as a possible carbon monoxide poisoning. The Onondaga County District Attorney's Office is assisting in the investigation.

National Grid said Friday that electricity was disconnected from the home in mid-August. The utility said it had been working with the homeowner, who needed to have repairs and an inspection completed before power could be restored.

Nicotra said code enforcement officials had responded to the house in the past, but mostly for relatively minor nuisance complaints.

"Nothing even remotely close to what happened Friday," he said.

After the incident Friday, code enforcement officials responded and investigated. They reported a portable generator in the basement and "extremely high" high levels of carbon monoxide throughout the house, according to a notice taped to the door of the house. The notice said that until power was restored and inspections of the house were completed it would be posted as an "unsafe structure and unfit for occupancy."

District Attorney William Fitzpatrick said Saturday that the portable generator was initially placed outside the house. He said it had been moved inside after neighbors complained about the noise.

Fitzpatrick said his office was investigating and waiting for the results of an autopsy and toxicology tests before moving forward.

"We're looking at it," he said. "We're not treating it as a crime at all until we have all the facts."

Fitzpatrick said he could recall at least half a dozen cases of people dying from accidental carbon monoxide poisoning in Onondaga County over the years.

Related: 5 things to know about carbon monoxide poisoning

He said it might be several weeks before he is able to determine how his office will proceed.

Nicotra said town officials will likely be meeting with National Grid representatives in the future. He said he wasn't aware of any requirement for a utility to notify a municipality when power is cut to a home, but that if the town had known, the house probably would have been declared uninhabitable.

"We'd like some better communication with National Grid in situations like this where they turn the power off," Nicotra said.

Reporter Jacob Pucci contributed to this story.

Contact Ken Sturtz anytime: 315-766-7833 | Email | Twitter | Facebook | Google+

Aircraft from Australia, France and Britain joined the U.S. in delivering the aid to thousands of Shiite Turkmen in the farming community about 105 miles north of Baghdad.

WASHINGTON -- An international airdrop of food and water supported by U.S. airstrikes sought to bring relief to the beleaguered Iraqi town of Amirli, which has been under siege by Islamic State militants for nearly two months, the Pentagon said Saturday night.

Aircraft from Australia, France and Britain joined the U.S. in delivering the aid to thousands of Shiite Turkmen in the farming community about 105 miles north of Baghdad, Pentagon press secretary Rear Adm. John Kirby said in a statement. The aid came at the request of the Iraqi government, he said.

The U.S. military conducted the airstrikes against Islamic State militants to support the aid delivery, Kirby said. Operations will be limited in scope and duration as needed to address the humanitarian crisis in Amirli and protect the civilians trapped in the town, he said.

Instead of fleeing in the face of the Islamic State drive across northern Iraq, the Shiite Turkmens have stayed and fortified their town of 15,000 with trenches and armed positions.

While Amirli fought off the initial attack in June, it has been surrounded by the militants since mid-July. Some residents have said that the Iraqi military's efforts to fly in food, water and other aid have not been enough amid oppressive heat, lack of electrical power -- the town's power station was destroyed weeks ago -- and shelling from the militants.

U.S. airstrikes in Iraq, which began earlier this month, have targeted Islamic State militants attacking Yazidi Iraqis on Mount Sinjar and the militant forces operating in the vicinity of Ibril and Mosul Dam. The beleaguered Yazidis received several humanitarian drops of tons of food and water as well as military support aimed at protecting them.

Earlier Saturday, U.S. Central Command said five more airstrikes had taken place against Islamic State militants near Mosul Dam. Those attacks, carried out by fighter aircraft and unmanned drones, brought to 115 the total number of airstrikes across Iraq since Aug. 8.

Jaquine S. Ali-El, 23, of 329 Quaker Ave, Philadelphia, N.Y., was charged with second-degree assault and reckless endangerment. Both are felonies.

View full sizeJaquine S. Ali-El 

Jaquine S. Ali-El, 23, of 329 Quaker Ave, Philadelphia, N.Y., was charged with second-degree assault and reckless endangerment. Both are felonies.

State police said Ali-El hit his wife, 23-year-old Dante C. Ali-El with his car, injuring her. The incident occurred just after 3 a.m. in a parking lot at 8711 Noble St., in the village of Evans Mills. State police did not say what led up to the incident.

Ali-El was arraigned in Philadelphia Town Court and remanded to the Jefferson County jail in lieu of $10,000 bail. The case is pending grand jury action.

Ali-El is a solider in the Army currently stationed at Fort Drum, state police said.

The chase began around 11:30 p.m. Thursday on Route 31 in Madison County heading east toward Oneida County.

The chase began around 11:30 p.m. Thursday on Route 31 in Madison County heading east toward Oneida County.

A state trooper tried to pull a vehicle over, but the chase was called off "due to excessive speed," the sheriff's office said. The driver was later identified as 22-year-old Corey A. Carbery, of Bridgeport.

Soon after another trooper spotted the vehicle in the town of Verona, then in the city of Sherill heading westbound on Route 5 back into Madison County, so police started the pursuit again, the sheriff's office said. It ended just before midnight on Oxbox Road in Lenox, just outside the village of Canastota, the sheriff's office said. The chase included Sherill police, Oneida police, Canastota police and sheriff's deputies.

View full sizeCorey A. Carbery  

Police set up spike strips on Route 5, but the vehicle turned off the highway just before the strips.

After stopping, the driver got out of the vehicle without putting it in park, the sheriff's office said. It rolled into a deputy's marked patrol vehicle. Police caught the suspect shortly after he bailed out of his vehicle.

Deputies searched the vehicle and found "various drug items, several credit cards and a woman's purse," the sheriff's office said. The vehicle also had switched license plates that did not match the vehicle being driven.

Carbery was charged with third-degree unlawful fleeing of a police officer in a motor vehicle, unlawful possession of marijuana, seventh-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance, six counts of fourth-degree criminal possession of stolen property, first-degree aggravated unlicensed operation, driving while intoxicated, unlicensed operator, improper plates, operating an unregistered vehicle, consumption of alcohol in a motor vehicle. operating without insurance, and speeding.

The purse was traced to a theft in Jefferson County in May. The sheriff's office said it was working with the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office and that Carbery will face more charges there.

The sheriff's office said more charges against Carbery are pending from other agencies involved in the pursuit.

Carbery was arraigned in Lenox Town Court and ordered held on $10,000 bail or $20,000 bond.

The previous record of 120,516 was set in 1989.

GEDDES, N.Y. -- The New York State Fair set a new single-day attendance record Saturday, welcoming the largest crowd ever to the fairgrounds in its history.

Officials said 120,617 people passed through the State Fair's gates Saturday. That's 41,343 more people than last year and 101 more people than the previous all-time single-day attendance record.

The previous record, of 120,516 people, was set in 1989.

Officials attributed the soaring attendance Saturday to excellent weather, popular concerts and a year spent rejuvenating the State Fair.

"I want to congratulate every single member of the State Fair staff, as well as the staff at New York State Agriculture and Markets and the State Fair Advisory Board, who support us every step of the way," State Fair Acting Director Troy Waffner said.

"We've worked hard to put on the best possible fair, and today's numbers match up with many of the comments we've gotten from fairgoers about a clean Fairgrounds and strong programming."

The State Fair is now 64,089 people ahead of last year's attendance with two days left.

State Fair attendance

It will still be warm Sunday, with highs pushing into the low 80s. It will also be humid, but with a nice light breeze.

SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- After pleasant weather Saturday, Central New York will get a rainy day Sunday, with the possibility of a few passing thunderstorms.

The National Weather Service said a storm system moving through the Great Lakes will cause rain and thunderstorms across the region well into Sunday. But it won't completely ruin the day.

(View live radar map of New York state here.)

It will still be warm Sunday, with highs pushing into the low 80s. It will also be humid, but with a nice light breeze.

Though high pressure over Central New York means a bit of rain and a few thunderstorms are possible, Labor Day should be mostly free of rain, Time Warner Cable News said. It will be humid and warm with highs well into the 80s.

Temperatures will dip later in the week as a cold front passes through the region.

Your Forecast

• Sunday: Rain very likely. A couple thunderstorms possible. Heavy rain possible in the afternoon. Southwest winds up to 10 mph. Highs near 80. Lows in the mid 60s.
  
• Labor Day: Partly sunny with a chance for rain and thunderstorms during the day and evening. Southwest winds up to 5 mph. Highs in the mid 80s. Lows in the high 60s.
  
• Tuesday: Rain and thunderstorms likely during the day. Cloudy with a slight chance for rain and scattered thunderstorms later in the day. Highs in the mid 80s. Lows in the low 60s.
  
• Wednesday: Clear. Partly sunny and less humid. Highs in the high 70s. Lows in the high 50s.
  
• Thursday: Sunny and clear. Highs near 80. Lows in the low 60s.

You can also follow us on Facebook or visit http://www.syracuse.com/weather/ for more on the weather.

To send in weather info, or especially photos: Use the Twitter or Instagram hashtag: #cnyweather Also, please let us know where the images are located.

Legislators design rebate program to get checks into taxpayers' hands weeks before the election. The postage costs exceed $1 million.

SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- Millions of New Yorkers will be getting two rounds of rebate checks from the state this fall. But that easy money that shows up in their mailboxes isn't exactly free.

The postage for those roughly 4 million checks will cost the state $1.6 million. That's because the state Legislature created two programs that give people back their money using paper checks and snail mail.

Geoff Gloak, a spokesman for the state office of Taxation and Finance, said his department is paying 40.6 cents to mail each check. He couldn't provide data on how much it would cost to cut the more than 4 million checks. Gloak said his department isn't getting extra money to administer either rebate program.

"We're using our existing resources to get direct tax relief into the hands of millions of taxpayers," Gloak said. The tax department's budget last year was $468 million.

At the direction of state legislators, the checks are being sent out less than two months before Nov. 4, when all of the seats in the Senate and Assembly are up for reelection.

Legislators did the same thing with the STAR program in 2008, sending out checks to homeowners weeks before the election. That program still exists as a tax credit, but the checks were eliminated in 2009.

Gloak said the tax department sends out checks all the time. But it is doing so less and less. This year 82 percent - 5.4 million New Yorkers -- opted to get their tax refunds direct-deposited to their bank accounts instead of sent to them through the mail.

Spokesmen for the Republican-led Senate and Democratic-led Assembly were on the same page about the refunds: Neither was concerned about the cost of sending the checks.

"It's always a good thing to be able to provide tax relief to families, regardless of what form it takes, while at the same time meeting our budget priorities," said Mike Wyland, a spokesman for Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver.

Scott Reif, spokesman for the Senate majority, said the checks will restore some of the money people lost when the Legislature stopped sending out STAR checks in 2009.

Gloak said people are likely to miss the point of at least one of the tax relief programs if it simply showed up as part of their tax refund instead of as a check. The property tax freeze rewards property owners whose school district budgets stayed under the tax cap.

"We're trying to change behavior," Gloak said. "The best way to do that is put a check in people's hands."

Checks for that rebate program will begin rolling out in October. Homeowners whose districts stayed under the cap can expect a check equal to about 2 percent of their total school tax bill, Gloak said. The average total rebate over the three years that program will run is expected to be around $656, for a total program cost of $1.5 billion.

Homeowners in every school district in Central New York will be receiving checks except Brookfield, in Madison County.

The Family Tax Credit checks, which will be sent out the final week of September, will all be $350. The criteria to receive a check: having a child younger than 17 and an income between $40,000 and $300,000. Those checks are being sent out based on 2012 tax returns, so you won't receive a check if your only child was born after 2012. Gloak said 1.03 million families will receive those checks next month for a total payout of $360 million.

After this year, and November's election, that check turns into a credit on the state income tax form.

Contact Marnie Eisenstadt anytime: email | twitter | 315-470-2246.

September weather will make or break the peak fall color date this year.

Syracuse, N.Y. -- If you listened closely to that cool air flowing in your bedroom window this week, you might have heard it whisper, "Fall's coming."

Squirrels are hiding nuts, apples are getting ripe and leaves are starting to turn colors. In fact, some trees are already hitting their peaks, like the maples in the swampy areas along I-81 between Tully and Preble.

After the long, cold winter that delayed blooming, breeding and other natural phenomena by a couple of weeks, our just about average summer has allowed nature to catch up. Temperatures in June, July and August were just 0.5 degrees above the long-term average. That's about as normal as you can get.

That means the pace of fall colors will depend on what happens in the next month, said Don Leopold, a forestry biology professor at SUNY College of Environmental Science & Forestry.

"If September is cooler than average that will indeed influence fall color," said Leopold, who has written the "Guide to Fall Colors in Upstate New York."

The national Climate Prediction Center says we have a 50/50 chance for a normal September.

The colors in leaves don't suddenly appear in fall -- the reds and golds are in the leaves all year but are hidden beneath the deep green chlorophyll. Chlorophyll is the stuff plants when the sun shines.

Fall colors emerge when the chlorophyll breaks down. That breakdown is influenced by two major factors, Leopold said:

Shorter days. No matter the weather, the retreat of daylight is the same every year. As of today, we just dropped below 800 minutes a day of sunlight.

Temperature. "If we run cooler, the chlorophyll in the leaves that masks a lot of color will degrade more rapidly," Leopold said. "Temperatures are really critical in whether that chlorophyll in the leaves now maintains or breaks down."

Colors reach their peak in Central New York about Oct. 22, give or take about three days, Leopold said. In his 30 years in the area, Leopold said, he's only seen one year where the peak fell outside that period.

Contact Glenn Coin: Email | Twitter | Google + | (315) 470-3251

The TwinX is a Twinkie stuffed with Twix, wrapped in bacon, battered and drizzled with chocolate.

The 2014 New York State Fair's hot new deep-fried treat is getting national attention -- but is staying in Syracuse.

The Fried Specialties stand officially launched the TwinX at this year's NYS Fair. It's a Twix candy bar stuffed inside a Twinkie, wrapped in four slices of bacon, battered, fried, drizzled with chocolate and finished off with powdered sugar.

Owner and deep-fried master James Hasbrouck told The Wall Street Journal he created the $7 gooey gut-buster after experimenting with it last year. An employee accidentally called deep-fried Twinkies and Twix bars "TwinX" at the 2013 fair, and he decided to try combining the two -- and adding bacon, making the crazy concoction close to 1,000 calories.

"Calories don't matter at fairs," Hasbrouck told the publication.

K-Rock radio host Josh Grosvent shared this photo on Twitter of the Fried Specialties stand at the New York State Fair, highlighting the new TwinX: A deep-fried Twinkie stuffed with Twix wrapped in bacon.Josh Grosvent | @krockjosh 

Syracuse.com | The Post-Standard reporter Katrina Tulloch was a guinea pig for the TwinX last year and now everyone's pigging out on it. According to the WSJ, Hasbrouck's staff fries as many as 150 TwinXes per hour during busy periods at the fair, which saw a record 120,617 visitors on Saturday.

And people aren't eating it just out of curiosity (or bragging rights on social media) -- the heart attack in a handful is tasty, too.

"The oleaginous masculinity of the pork, underscored by authentically decadent dough and delicious candy, left us quivering for more," food critic Jane Marmaduke wrote on syracuse.com while searching for a perfectly fried delight.

Hasbrouck told The Associated Press it's a hit because of the combination of "cream from the Twinkie with the caramel from the Twix, and... the salty bacon," but fairgoers also just love trying the "weirdest" new food things.

Fried Specialties' menu also includes deep-fried Pop-Tarts, deep-fried Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, deep-fried peanut butter and jelly, deep-fried Snickers (wrapped in bacon), deep-fried pickles, deep-fried jelly beans, deep-fried chicken wing dip, deep-fried pumpkin pie, deep-fried strawberry tacos and an all-new "Reeseo" -- a peanut butter cup stuffed between two Double Stuf Oreos, fried, battered and topped with chocolate. Customers are also invited to bring their own foods to try deep-fried: "You bring it, we fry it!"

» 2014 New York State Fair: Reviews of every food stand at the NYS Fair

But it's the TwinX that's getting national attention, making mouths water in Wisconsin, Iowa, Florida and elsewhere.

Hasbrouck told The Wall Street Journal he was asked to share his recipe with Twinkie-maker Hostess Brands for a cookbook about the snack cake. However, the Marion, N.Y. resident refused, calling his batter a "trade secret" that's staying at the fair.

The New York State Fair runs through Monday, which features $1 admission and $1 rides for the Labor Day holiday. Fried Specialties has two locations for the first time since Hasbrouck brought his food truck to the 2009 NYS Fair; one is by the Toyota Coliseum between Gates 3 and 4, and another is near the Midway.

Jose Rebollo's fiance said they were planning to marry next summer.

SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- The man killed in a daytime shooting earlier this month was a father of a baby girl and was planning to move to Ohio for a fresh start with family, his fiance said.

At about 6:15 p.m. on Aug., 3 Jose Rebollo and a 33-year-old man were shot multiple times in the 100 block of Holden Street. Both men were rushed to the hospital where Rebollo later died. The 33-year-old underwent surgery and was in critical condition.

"I just know my fiance was an innocent bystander," Malinda Carvajal, Rebollo's fiance, said.

She first met him about four years ago at a toll booth in Orlando. She had rear-ended a car. He pulled up alongside her to ask if she was OK. They connected and eventually began dating.

"It was just love at first sight," Carvajal said.

The couple had a child, Serenity, together while living in Florida. She turned 2 years old on Aug. 19.

Rebollo moved to Florida from Puerto Rico about five years ago. Though he could only speak Spanish, Rebollo slowly picked up a bit of English from Carvajal. Her parents are from Puerto Rico, so she spoke some Spanish. Rebollo worked full time at McDonald's for several years. The 34-year-old was also a barber and tattoo artist on the side, Carvajal said.

Carvajal said her fiance was a kind, caring father who shied away from trouble.

Above all else, she said, he cared about his child. He always made it a point to help Carvajal tuck Serenity in to bed each night.

View full sizeJose Rebollo shares a moment with his daughter Serenity in this undated photo. Rebollo was shot to death on Holden Street in early August.Provided Photo 

According to Carvajal, the couple were planning on marrying on Aug. 19, 2015: Serenity's third birthday.

But Rebollo's mother, who lived in Syracuse, died earlier this year. That got Rebollo thinking about relocating to Syracuse to be closer to family, Carvajal said. The couple visited Syracuse for about six weeks earlier this year.

While they stayed with Rebollo's brother in Syracuse, Carvajal said she noticed some strange things happening. Rebollo's brother got threatening phone calls. Strangers were coming and going from his house at all hours.

"I kept on warning him, it was a feeling I had," Carvajal said.

She decided to return to her parents in Ohio to wait for her fiance. Rebollo stayed behind in Syracuse.

Two days before he was killed, Carvajal said she talked to her fiance on the telephone. He agreed to come to Ohio with Carvajal and their child for a fresh start, she said.

During the week before Rebollo was killed he was living mostly on the street after getting into an argument with his family, Carvajal said. Though he occasionally worked at a barber shop, Rebollo knew no one else in Syracuse besides his brother, Carvajal said.

Since he was killed, Rebollo's daughter Serenity asks for her father each day.

"I've been telling her daddy loves her," Carvajal said. "I don't know what else to tell her."

Syracuse police charged Eddie Carrasquillo, along with Abdiel Vazquez in the drive-by shooting of Rebollo. Police said they are pursuing other suspects.

Check out times for the SkanRaces 5K, the Escape from the Judge and the SkinnyMan Triathlon.

SkanRaces Labor Day Race Weekend concluded this afternoon with the annual Skaneateles 5K race.

We have results for the 5K and another race held this morning, a mile swim from the Skaneateles Country Club to Clift Park called the Escape from the Judge. (The first 100 people got to start the race by jumping off the Mid-Lakes Navigation's Judge Ben Wiles.)

Yesterday, hundreds competed in the SkinnyMan Triathlon (minus the swim due to choppy water). Here are the results and photos for the SkinnyMan Triathlon. We also have included the triathlon results below.

Complete results for the 5K and 1-mile swim
(Times are courtesy of SkanRaces.com and Score-This!!! )

Karl Karlsen faces the death penalty in California on charges he murdered his first wife.

Waterloo, N.Y. -- Karl Karlsen, the Seneca County man who told a judge last year he knocked a pickup truck onto his son's chest and walked away to let his son die, now wants to appeal his guilty plea.

Karlsen pleaded guilty last November to second-degree murder in the death of his son, Levi, in 2008. In the hastily called hearing with no media present, Karlsen admitted that the truck he had set up on a wobbly jack fell onto Levi's chest, and Karlsen walked away leaving his son to die. He has filed court papers to appeal that plea, and the 4th Appellate Division in Rochester has appointed a new lawyer for him.

Karlsen was also charged last week in California with the arson death of his first wife, Christina, in 1991. Karlsen faces the death penalty if convicted there. Prosecutors said they would begin extradition proceedings to bring Karlsen to Calaveras County.

Karlsen collected $200,000 in life insurance after Christina's death, and more than $700,000 from his son's death.

Karlsen is serving his sentence in the Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora.

Seneca County District Attorney Barry Porsch, who prosecuted the murder case in Seneca County, said in a statement that a person who pleads guilty cannot later challenge the "underlying conviction" and can only argue limited issues on appeal.

"The main issue will likely be the court's denial of (Karlsen's) motion to suppress his statements to his wife and the police," Porsch said. "I look forward to arguing this case at the Appellate Division Court and the Court of Appeals."

Karlsen's nearly 10-hour interview with police and a secretly recorded conversation with his second wife, Cindy Karlsen, were played at hearings in Seneca County. Karlsen pleaded guilty Nov. 6, the day his trial was scheduled to begin.

Karlsen's lawyer in the Seneca County murder case also hinted that day that California authorities would drop their case if Karlsen pleaded guilty in New York.

"We are aware that California is recognizing this plea and is not likely to proceed," attorney Lawrence Kasperek told Seneca County Court Judge Dennis Bender.

After Kasperek's statements were reported by syracuse.com, however, Calaveras County District Attorney Barbara Yook said she had made no such promise to Kasperek.

"I can tell you that it is absolutely not true," Yook said then.

App Div Assignment Order (Karlsen)

Contact Glenn Coin: Email | Twitter | Google + | (315) 470-3251

New York's casino expansion was sold on the idea that it would draw tourists and their money Upstate. Yet the developers now acknowledge that they need local gamblers to succeed.

ALBANY, N.Y. -- Racino revenue is down. Casinos are closing in Atlantic City, while new ones are opening in Maryland and Massachusetts. Yet New York is just now getting into the game, with more than a dozen groups lining up to open Upstate casinos.

The state's late arrival at the betting table is forcing developers to think smaller. Rather than behemoths like Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun in Connecticut or the gambling palaces in Las Vegas or Atlantic City, the contenders for the four available licenses are pushing more modest facilities designed to appeal to a local customer base within a few hours' drive.

They liken it to a Goldilocks zone: The facility must be grand enough to lure customers, with the glitz of amenities and the feel of a resort but not something so big and expensive that it doesn't break even in a competitive market.

"You might figure: Build a bigger casino, you might have a better chance of winning," said Mitchell Grossinger Etess, CEO of the Mohegan Tribal Gaming Authority, which is proposing a $550 million casino in Sullivan County. "But you have to look at the market size. You need the right-sized building that can operate efficiently. There will never be another Mohegan Sun. That's the way the market has shifted."

Gamblers are increasingly choosing smaller casinos closer to home over gargantuan resorts. Once, Atlantic City, Las Vegas and a scattering of tribal casinos dominated the market. Now, Atlantic City is losing four of its 12 casinos this year, and most Americans are within a few hours' drive of casinos in cities like Baltimore, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Kansas City, Detroit and Cleveland.

New York's casino expansion was sold on the idea that it would draw tourists and their money upstate. Yet the developers now acknowledge that they need local gamblers to succeed.

"Times have changed," said Bill Walsh, the developer behind the $212 million Traditions Casino and Resort proposal in the state's Southern Tier. "People are looking for convenience. They don't want to drive five hours to get to a casino now. You need a primary market."

When voters approved a plan to license up to four casinos in Upstate New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said casinos held the promise of jobs, tourism and economic revitalization for struggling communities. More recently he's expressed trust in the developers, noting they're the ones investing money in the proposals.

"The private market ... will make a determination as to what scale and scope the market can support," he said in July. "And they will then build the buildings and employ people and run the business because they think it's a good business to run. I'm sure they will propose what they believe will be successful."

Gary Greenberg is a minority owner of the Vernon Downs racino and hotel near Syracuse. He said that with racino revenue continuing to slump he doesn't believe the state can support the addition of four casinos.

"They'll be new the first year and people will go, but what about the next year?" he said. "I don't see the casinos doing as well as they're saying. There's a saturation right now."

A state board is now reviewing the 16 casino proposals. Up to four licenses are to be awarded this fall in three regions: the Southern Tier-Finger Lakes, the Albany-Saratoga region and the mid-Hudson River-Catskills area. The last region, with its proximity to New York City, has attracted more than half the applications.

Jan Jones Blackhurst, vice president at Caesars Entertainment, said they have "tremendous faith in the market" and have not scaled back plans to build a $880 million casino resort about 50 miles north of New York City in Orange County.

Blackhurst said their resort would hold true to Cuomo's vision of creating destination resorts, with the Caesars casino taking advantage of its proximity to the city and the neighboring Woodbury Common Premium Outlets, which draws 13 million visitors annually.

"We firmly believe that our project is more of a destination project, that you're really bringing new people into New York," she said.

Casino opponents, however, point to Atlantic City's crumbling gambling market, plans for new casinos in Massachusetts and struggles at New York's nine racinos as evidence that the market is saturated and that additional casinos aren't going to be the boon some believed. The state estimates the casinos will generate hundreds of millions of dollars annually for local governments and public schools.

"The politicians seem to buy it, but I think people intuitively know this is baloney," said Dwight Jenkins, a resident of East Greenbush who is fighting a proposal to open a casino near his home, across the Hudson River from Albany. "Four casinos are closing this summer in Atlantic City. Yet New York for some reason is thinking we're somehow going to be different."

Complete times for 78 who did it all at the SkanRaces - triathlon, swim, 5K .

It was a big weekend for running and swimming in Skaneateles this weekend.

Almost 1,000 competed in the annual SkanRaces, but only 78 completed the three main events: the SkinnyMan Triathon, the Escape from the Judge swim and the 5K Road Race run. Organizers call it the I'm All That event.

Complete results for I'm All That
(Times are courtesy of SkanRaces.com and Score-This!!! We also published the complete results for each individual competition)

Several hundred people in the area where the stabbing occurred could not provide information about the suspect.

Ithaca, N.Y. -- A 20-year-old man was stabbed in the abdomen Sunday near Ithaca College's off-campus housing.

The victim, who was not a student, told police he did not know who stabbed him. The victim was transported to a regional trauma center. Police did not release his name or information about his condition.

The incident occurred about 12:46 a.m. in the 300 block of Hillview Place. Several hundred people were in the area at the time of the stabbing, but many of them could not provide any information or describe the suspect, according to police.

Ithaca police want to locate a Chrysler 300 sedan, either gray or light blue, that was seen leaving the area during the incident. Officer Jamie Williamson said police want to speak with the driver and occupants of that car to see if they were involved.

Anyone with information can call the Ithaca Police at 607-697-0333.

The town board voted in April to conduct an investigation of Supervisor Jessica Zambrano's relationship with a member of the town's engineering firm.

Cicero, NY -- The Cicero Town Board is looking to hire a new town engineer in the midst of an ethics investigation into Supervisor Jessica Zambrano's relationship with a member of the town's current engineering firm.

The board, which held a three hour meeting this past week, also voted to hire a private attorney to look into the allegations against Zambrano and her relationship with Douglas Wickman, a senior principal at C&S Companies.

Zambrano acknowledges she is involved in a romantic relationship and shares a residence with Wickman, but said she has nothing to hide and welcomes the investigation.

C&S Companies were hired by the town in January 2010 under former Supervisor Judy Boyke. O'Brien & Gere represented the town for nearly three decades before the switch.

Deputy Supervisor Tim Burtis said the town can terminate its contract with C&S Companies if they give the firm a 30-day notice. Burtis said when the town board selects a new firm, the board will move to terminate its contract with C&S as soon as possible.

The town board voted on April 23 to solicit proposals for an independent attorney and certified public accountant to conduct the investigation, but did not receive any written proposals.

Burtis and town board members Mark Venesky and Vernon Conway sent a letter to the state Comptroller's Office in May asking for the state to investigate the situation. Town Board Member Mike Becallo also sent a separate letter to the state in June.

The board is still waiting for a response from the state, Burtis said.

Robert George, a Cicero resident, sparked the investigation by calling for Zambrano's resignation on April 9. George alleged that Zambrano voted to select C&S companies as the town engineer after she took the position of supervisor and that she has personally signed the contract designating the company as the the town's engineer firm. Zambrano should have abstained from the vote due to a conflict of interest, George said.

George filed an ethics complaint against Zambrano with the town and the state.

Burtis said once a private attorney is hired, the attorney will ask to meet with George to speak to him about his complaint.

The town is also in the process of reviving its ethics board, which would typically handle these investigations. The town board has received 16 applications and will begin interviewing candidates later this month, Burtis said.

The next town board meeting will be held at 6:30 p.m. Sept. 10 at Cicero Town Hall. Town hall is located at 8236 Brewerton Road in Cicero.

Sarah Moses covers the northern suburbs of Onondaga County and Oswego County. Contact Sarah at smoses@syracuse.com or 470-2298. Follow @SarahMoses315