A Madrid store sold out in less than three hours.

View full sizeAngelo Carconi / APCustomers wait Friday for the Apple store to open for the launch of the new iPad tablet computer in Rome, Italy. Apple Inc. launched the iPad in nine countries on Friday: Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Japan, Switzerland and Britain, and shoppers lined up in the hopes of getting the device.
LONDON — Technophiles mobbed Apple Stores in Europe and Asia on Friday in a quest to snatch up the hottest gadget of the moment — the iPad.

Long lines snaked down streets in London, Paris, Frankfurt and Tokyo as eager buyers vied to wield their credit cards. Screams and cheers rose from the crowd in central London as students, professionals and self-proclaimed computer geeks clutched boxes containing the slim black device.

“If I was a music fan, it would be like the launch of a Lady Gaga album in the U.S.,” said comedian Stephen Fry, known in Britain as a champion Tweeter.

Apple Inc., based in Cupertino, California, said earlier this month that it had sold 1 million of the devices in the United States in just 28 days. The company started taking orders for the iPad abroad on May 10 after pushing back its international delivery target amid extreme demand at home.

The computer looks like a larger version of Apple’s iPhone and can be used to send e-mails, draw pictures and play games. It is also seen as a potential savior of the struggling newspaper industry, because it can be used as an electronic reader.

Publishers have seized upon the device as an opportunity to finally make large numbers of readers pay for online content.

In hopes of better times, Britain’s Financial Times newspaper launched its iPad version at a swank press event at a hotel overlooking Lake Geneva in Switzerland, claiming the app has already been downloaded over 100,000 times in the United States.

Rob Grimshaw, managing director of FT.com. said 20 percent of new digital subscriptions to the paper came from iPad users last week. “I think it’s going to be an extremely lucrative device for us,” he said.

In Britain, prices for versions of the iPad range from 429 pounds to 699 pounds ($624 to $1,017).

But the rollout has not been without its problems. A string of suicides at a Chinese factory that churns out iPads and other high-tech items has raised concerns about conditions for workers who face tremendous time pressures and harsh discipline for mistakes.

In response, Apple issued a statement expressing commitment to ensuring that conditions “throughout our supply chain are safe and workers are treated with respect and dignity.”

The bad publicity did not hurt launches in Europe and Asia. Besides Britain, the device was being unveiled Friday in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain and Switzerland.

At the Apple Store in Frankfurt, Germany, hundreds lined up — including a few who arrived as early as 3 a.m. Some said they’d arrived so early not because they wanted to own it first — but simply to get an iPad at all.

By 8 a.m., some 450 people squealed as Apple employees inside lowered a black curtain and began applauding. The glass doors swung open and people who had been given numbered tickets while waiting in line were let in by security to buy the device.

“I’m a bit embarrassed to be part of the masses, but the thing is, tonight it’s going to be sold out,” one man, who was not identified, told AP Television News.

In Tokyo, where the love of gadgetry reigns supreme and consumers have devices more sophisticated than those available in the U.S., about 1,200 people lined up in the Ginza shopping district. They chanted a countdown ahead of the Apple Store’s 8 a.m. opening and then gushed over the tablets, saying they couldn’t wait to start using them.

One Madrid store sold out its iPads in less than three hours but would not say how many had been delivered.

Araceli Sanchez in Madrid was attracted by the iPad’s clean, smart appearance and some of its applications, “particularly the one that lets you see the stars and constellations in the sky wherever you are.”

In Paris, at the Apple Store in the commercial gallery underneath the Louvre, Cara Garisch, 26, a software developer from South Africa, said she planned to use it to read newspapers and surf the Web. “It’s magic,” she said. “Even my mom can use it.”

At least one district, Syracuse, won't be able to repay a loan because of the delay.

Syracuse, NY -- School districts will get some, but not all, of the state aid they were expecting June 1.

The state budget office said districts will get 61.5 percent of the money they were promised by that date — and the rest by the end of the month. The state’s delay is part of its continuing effort to juggle ongoing budget problems.

The state could have made the payment early, in March, but opted not to, said a budget office spokesman.

While several school districts’ leaders said the delay won’t be a problem — as long as they receive the money by the end of the summer — finance officials for the Syracuse district said they’ve been left scrambling.

The district was expecting $22 million on June 1, but it will only get $13.54 million, with the remainder coming at month’s end. That could create a timing problem, officials said, because the district planned to use the money to repay a loan — due June 30 — that was granted through a “revenue anticipation note. “

The district is exploring extending the timeline for repaying the note, district Chief Financial Officer Suzanne Slack said.

Staff writer Elizabeth Doran contributed to this report. Contact Maureen Nolan 470-2185 or mnolan@syracuse.com.

NEW YORK — Republican gubernatorial candidate Rick Lazio has won the endorsement of New York’s Conservative Party. It’s a boost for Lazio, a former Long Island congressman seeking the GOP nomination for governor. Most successful statewide Republican candidates also run with the Conservative Party backing. At their meeting Friday, Conservatives didn’t nominate any of the other three candidates seeking the...

NEW YORK — Republican gubernatorial candidate Rick Lazio has won the endorsement of New York’s Conservative Party.

It’s a boost for Lazio, a former Long Island congressman seeking the GOP nomination for governor. Most successful statewide Republican candidates also run with the Conservative Party backing.

At their meeting Friday, Conservatives didn’t nominate any of the other three candidates seeking the Republican nomination. They are Buffalo businessman Carl Paladino, Manhattan real estate executive Myers Mermel and Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy.

Lazio had been endorsed by Mike Long, the influential Conservative Party leader. Conservatives also nominated Buffalo attorney Ralph Lorigo, who drew just 35 percent of the vote.

Democrat Andrew Cuomo leads all polls in the race for governor.

ALBANY, N.Y. — New York’s Legislature and Gov. David Paterson on Friday agreed to expand the number of charter schools in an effort to qualify for more than $500 million in federal Race to the Top education funds. Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and his Democrat-led chamber worked overnight to negotiate and take the vote in time for Tuesday’s deadline to...

ALBANY, N.Y. — New York’s Legislature and Gov. David Paterson on Friday agreed to expand the number of charter schools in an effort to qualify for more than $500 million in federal Race to the Top education funds.

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and his Democrat-led chamber worked overnight to negotiate and take the vote in time for Tuesday’s deadline to submit the application. The measure will raise the number of charters available for the innovative public schools to 460 over four years, from the current 200.

The Democrat-led Senate acted Friday to pass the same bill.

Paterson said he’s confident the bill will “greatly increase our competitiveness in the second round of Race to the Top. Agreement on this measure signals recognition by all of our state’s leaders that for the sake of our children, our schools and our economy, we cannot afford to let these critical education dollars slip away.”

In January, the Assembly and Senate failed to agree to increase charters. Paterson has said the limit needed to be raised to at least 454 charters to have a shot at the competitive federal grants. New York lost in the first round.

The state’s powerful state teachers unions had opposed the efforts.

Among the theories to explain the lack of growth are lack of water, presence of toxins.

View full sizeDennis Nett / The Post-StandardTwo months ago, crews working on Honeywell International’s Onondaga Lake cleanup built a series of low mounds between Interstate 690 and the lake, and covered the mounds with soil and seed. So far nothing has grown on the mounds, not grass, not even weeds.
Camillus, NY -- Two months ago, crews working on Honeywell International’s Onondaga Lake cleanup built a series of low mounds between I-690 and the lake and covered them with soil and seed.

So far, next to nothing has happened.

Honeywell spokeswoman Victoria Streitfeld said grass will grow on the heaps, created mainly from the chalky calcium carbonate industrial waste that AlliedSignal Inc. and its predecessors dumped along the lakeshore for most of the 20th century. “The area is ready and able to grow grass right now, with additional seeding and a regular watering schedule,” she said.

In March, after the mounds were covered with gravel, soil and a seed and fertilizer mixture, she predicted the seeds would sprout into native grasses, flowers and shrubs. When contacted recently, she would not discuss why the seeds never grew.

The seeds were planted by Lawn-Tech of LaFayette. Owner Phil Ciarmella declined to discuss the project, referring all questions to Honeywell.

The owners of two other local companies that hydroseed said seeds need to be watered almost every day if there isn’t enough rain. They theorized the seeds on the mounds didn’t get enough water.

But Tom Gdula, who lives in Camillus’ Golden Meadow housing development, said he believes the calcium carbonate is contaminated. “It would have to be a miracle that those mounds are safe and contain only calcium carbonate,” he said.

Gdula and other Camillus residents are fighting Honeywell’s plan to dredge sediment from the bottom of Onondaga Lake, pump it to Allied’s old Waste Bed 13 off Airport Road and bury it. They said the sediment contains mercury, PCBs and other toxins and poses a threat to human life and the environment.

Honeywell took over AlliedSignal’s cleanup of the property and the lake when the companies merged in 1999. The calcium carbonate used to build the hills along I-690 came from Waste Bed B, one of a series of sites in Syracuse, Geddes and Camillus where waste from the “Solvay Process” of making soda ash was dumped.

The material from Wastebed B was removed to make way for the third portion of an underground wall that Honeywell is installing along the shoreline. The barrier is designed to separate contaminated groundwater on one side from Onondaga Lake water on the other.

Honeywell officials told the state Department of Environmental Conservation in a March 3 memo that it would test the mounds for mercury, metals, semi-volatile and volatile organic compounds and PCBs. The mounds were modeled after the glacier-created hills that dot the Central New York landscape, Honeywell said.

John Stith can be reached at jstith@syracuse.com or at 251-5718.

Syracuse, NY - It was shaping up to be an uneventful night for veteran Centro bus driver Mike Walsh when he took the wheel for the 7:15 p.m. run down South Salina Street April 13, 2009. “It was a nice night,” Walsh recalled. “I picked up the usual people, took them home.” Gunfire quickly turned that routine into a...

Dick Blume / The Post-Standard Veteran Centro bus driver Mike Walsh and his passengers witnessed a fatal shootout among two Syracuse detectives and an armed parolee April 13, 2009.Syracuse, NY - It was shaping up to be an uneventful night for veteran Centro bus driver Mike Walsh when he took the wheel for the 7:15 p.m. run down South Salina Street April 13, 2009.

“It was a nice night,” Walsh recalled. “I picked up the usual people, took them home.”

Gunfire quickly turned that routine into a harrowing ride for about 12 people on board. A security video taken from Walsh’s passing bus captured a shootout between Syracuse police and a parolee. Detectives Edward Falkowski and Richard Curran were injured; the parolee, James Tyson, was killed. Walsh was on vacation when the video was released last week after the officers were honored at City Hall. He agreed to an interview when he returned.

This is Walsh’s version of what happened:

He saw flashing police lights and a squad car when the bus reached Belle Street. In the next block, police had pulled over a car into the parking lot of Colonial Laundromat.

Within seconds, the cops were fighting with the driver. It reminded Walsh of the scuffles on the television show, “Cops.” He reached down to his radio to alert dispatch.

Suddenly, shots rang out. First, only a couple. Then a barrage.

“Shots fired!” Walsh told dispatch, giving his location.

Behind him, passengers were “freaking out.”

“Oh my God! Oh my God!” one passenger yelled.

He didn’t dare take his eyes off the road.

The bus reached a red light where Ballantyine and Walrath roads meet at South Salina Street.

More shots. All told, the police fired 19 times; Tyson returned fire from his .357 Magnum handgun, a grand jury determined later.

At the time, Walsh’s only mission was to get his passengers out of harm’s way.

He stopped the bus momentarily, then stepped on the gas. The Centro bus drove through the red light and swerved around a stopped car.

“I was just trying to get out of Dodge,” Walsh said. “I probably shouldn’t have run the red light, but it seemed like the best thing to do.”

No one on the bus was injured. But Walsh, who is the brother of Onondaga County Sheriff Kevin Walsh, said it was one of his closest scrapes in 34 years with Centro.

Walsh, 61, of Baldwinsville, said he’s had folks shoot BB guns at buses. He remembers one passenger who dove out an emergency exit after claiming another passenger was wielding a handgun. None was seen. Then there was the guy in the late 1970s who pulled out a butcher knife when asked to pay his fare.

“He got off without paying,” Walsh recalled.

But Walsh vouched for most of his passengers, saying most are “pretty good.”

Walsh, an Air Force veteran who served in Vietnam, said April 13, 2009 was the closest he’s ever been to getting shot at. He recalls a rocket that exploded near his encampment in Vietnam in 1969, but said he never faced gunfire as such close range.

“I guess it just didn’t really register,” Walsh said about the danger last year. “I was more interested in keeping my passengers safe, getting them out of there.”

Read previous coverage of this story.

Refugees who came to Syracuse found new lives with his help.

Syracuse, NY -- For more than 30 years, Bob Huss helped Syracuse’s newest residents learn English, find housing, get jobs, bring their families here and, when the time came, navigate the funeral system.

To the people Huss served, the Syracuse school district’s Refugee Assistance Center on Park Street is simply “Bob school.” It’s still Bob school, even though Huss retired in 2008.

Loni Truong thinks that’s how it will stay. “Everybody go to Bob school and learn English as a second language,” said Truong, whose family did just that. Huss helped her family get here from Vietnam. Truong came first, at age 15, and met Huss five years later. She said he was like a father to her. Others say the same.

Huss, 65, died this week from leukemia. It seems impossible to the refugee community that this big, strong, ever-present man could be gone, said Sereivath “Jeff” Tep.

He met Huss in 1981 when he arrived from Cambodia. After Tep graduated from Syracuse University, he took a job at the center and was amazed by Huss’ ability to learn everyone’s name and remember it 10 years later, no matter what the ethnicity. “All the refugees think of him as a father or an uncle,” Tep said.

Huss was the first person Vinh Dang met when he came here 15 years ago from Vietnam. Huss helped his whole family learn English, and he helped Dang, who was a captain in the South Vietnamese Army, organize an ex-political prisoners group. Over the years Dang turned to Huss for advice, and Huss was always there. “Everything we need, we came to him, and always we received with open arms,” Dang said.

When word of Huss’ death spread, the Vietnamese community — the women’s association, the seniors association, the ex-political prisoners group — began to plan to pay their respects. Terry Loftus, who worked with Huss for nearly 30 years, expects a line around the block for the calling hours.

Huss never said no and never turned anyone away, even if the person came through the door at 5 p.m. with a knotty problem, Loftus said. One time years ago, a young refugee visiting Canada got stopped at the border trying to get back to Syracuse using his brother’s identification, Loftus said. Huss somehow managed to extricate him.

Amela Begovic met Huss just after she arrived from Bosnia with her husband and 4-year-old son. She, too, went on to work at the center, where she is a health program facilitator. Begovic often wonders how Huss managed to accomplish all that he did, from immigration work to routine tasks.

“He would drive new kids to school to register them, and many of them would call him, like, Uncle Bob,” she said.

Like Truong, Begovic thought of Huss as a father. Because her parents and sister stayed in Bosnia, she turned to Huss for advice, even career advice about taking a new job. But she never did. To Begovic the center is home, in large measure because of Huss.

Tara Davis, one of Huss’ actual daughters, followed in his footsteps and teaches English as a Second Language at H.W. Smith School. She remembers being a child and listening as he explained what his job was. But it took becoming a teacher and working with “his people” for her to realize “what an impact he made on so many people.”

Her twin sister, Erica Haahr, teaches special education students in Solvay.

Other survivors include Huss’ wife, Jeanne Huss, and two grandchildren.

Calling hours will be 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday at the Buranich Funeral Home, 5431 W. Genesee St., Camillus. The funeral will be at 9 a.m. Tuesday at St. Lucy’s Church, 432 Gifford St. Contributions in Huss’ name may be made to the SCSD Refugee Assistance Program, Attn: Stephanie Horton, 501 Park St., Syracuse NY 13203.

Contact Maureen Nolan 470-2185 or mnolan@syracuse.com.

Heading into her junior year at Auburn High School, Kayleen Wilkinson’s personal world was cascading into aToday's commencement What: Wells College graduation ceremony When: 10 a.m. Where: Aurora Inn lakeside lawn, Main Street, Aurora free-fall. She struck rock bottom by the end of that summer. Wilkinson was diagnosed with clinical depression and post-traumatic stress syndrome. She also suffered from...

Dennis NettKayleen Wilkinson, who graduates today from Wells College, had to overcome a variety of obstacles in high school, before working on a successful career at Wells. Among her achievements is a scholarship to the Newhouse School at Syracuse University, where she will study to become a screenwriter. Heading into her junior year at Auburn High School, Kayleen Wilkinson’s personal world was cascading into aToday's commencement
What: Wells College graduation ceremony
When: 10 a.m.
Where: Aurora Inn lakeside lawn, Main Street, Aurora

free-fall. She struck rock bottom by the end of that summer.

Wilkinson was diagnosed with clinical depression and post-traumatic stress syndrome. She also suffered from an eating disorder much like anorexia, in which she lost 30 pounds over the summer. Basically, she had stopped eating and was down to 80 pounds by the start of school.

“When you have a child who refuses to eat it’s very scary because you can’t make them eat. She was down to skin and bones. There was nothing to her,” her mother Jackie Scanlon recalled this week.

Her family intervened. They nudged Wilkinson into counseling that fall and guided her onto a path of recovery. Today, five years later, Wilkinson, 21, will graduate from Wells College with a bundle of academic and athletic awards she’s won over the last four years. She is heading to graduate school at Syracuse University to become a movie and television screenwriter.

Wilkinson said she wants to draw from her experiences to write about the pains of personal losses laced with an underlying message of hope.

Her message?

“You don’t have to let your losses define you. You can get stronger from them ... . You need to find a middle ground and learn from them,” said Wilkinson, who collects dictionaries and has enjoyed writing for as long as she can remember.

Wells English professor Bruce Bennett said Wilkinson shined in his writing classes and has a bright future as a writer or whatever profession she chooses because she is so focused and disciplined.

“She just really enjoys telling a good story with lots of details and dialogue. One of her real strengths is capturing the reality of a situation ... but a reality with a sense of humor,” Bennett said.

In her sophomore year at Wells, Wilkinson wrote about her eating and personal problems in an essay titled, “Disappearing Act,” which was published in SUNY Upstate University Hospital’s literary magazine “The Healing Muse.”

“When summer began I was already too skinny. I don’t remember the process. I just remember it like a slide show: In this frame, we see the healthy, happy girl. And in the next slide, we see the sickly, gaunt girl,” she wrote in the beginning of her essay.

Wilkinson said most of her problems centered on her failing relationship with her biological father, from whom her mother was divorced when Wilkinson was 2. Her world spiraled downward, she said, as she struggled with making her eventual decision to sever that relationship and become legally adopted by her stepfather. She finally did so in her senior year of high school.

At the same time, she said, her world as a nationally ranked gymnast was collapsing. Wilkinson won fifth place in the overall event at the 2003 Junior Olympic national championship. But she was getting sick of competing because her coaches fought all the time between themselves and her teammates were ruthless and bickered relentlessly, she said.

Her mother and stepfather enrolled her in therapy in the fall of her high school junior year. It took months of counseling, but Wilkinson started eating again. Today, the 5-feet, 4-inch graduating senior weighs 125 pounds and said she learned to take charge of her life and deal with her problems.

She legally declared her emancipation from her biological father and quit competing as a gymnast the day before her high school senior year started in September 2005.

“I learned to rely on myself. I figured out who I was and to make my own decisions and to develop my own personality,” said Wilkinson, who chose to keep her biological father’s last name.

At Wells, she competed on the cross-country team all four years. She captained the team two of those years and made second team all-conference her senior year. She is graduating as a dean’s list student and won a dean’s scholarship to start graduate studies at Syracuse University’s Newhouse School.

Her mother couldn’t be prouder. Jackie Scanlon said teachers at Wells took her daughter under their collective wings and gave her more self-confidence and encouraged her to write.

“She’s overcome so much. It really doesn’t matter how you start in life, it’s how you finish,” Scanlon said.

Contact Scott Rapp at srapp@syracuse.com or 289-4839.

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- Inexperienced operators of a U.S. drone aircraft ignored or downplayed signs that Afghan civilians were in a convoy blasted in a deadly American missile attack earlier this year, a military report released Saturday said. At least 23 people were killed in the Feb. 21 attack in Uruzgan province. It was the deadliest missile strike for...

AP Photo/Rahmat GulLocal Afghan residents come out to watch a burning oil tanker carrying fuel supplies for NATO forces after it was allegedly attacked by Taliban on Jalalabad highway, east of Kabul, Afghanistan, Friday.KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- Inexperienced operators of a U.S. drone aircraft ignored or downplayed signs that Afghan civilians were in a convoy blasted in a deadly American missile attack earlier this year, a military report released Saturday said.

At least 23 people were killed in the Feb. 21 attack in Uruzgan province. It was the deadliest missile strike for Afghan civilians in six months and occurred as NATO forces were redoubling efforts to avoid killing innocents.

The attack prompted a strong rebuke from Afghan President Hamid Karzai and a quick apology from the commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, who is struggling to gain the broad support among Afghans that is crucial to winning the almost 9-year-old war against the Taliban.

The insurgents claimed a victory Saturday when they captured a government outpost in a remote mountainous region near the Pakistan border.

Jamaludin Badar, governor of eastern Nuristan province, said government forces withdrew from the district headquarters in Bargi Matal early Saturday after a major assault by Taliban militants and a battle lasting several days.

Fighting was still going on and Afghan forces hoped to recapture the district center with the help of NATO airstrikes, Badar said. He could not provide casualties.

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid claimed in a phone message sent to reporters that insurgents had taken complete control of the district, captured three police vehicles and forced security forces to flee road checkpoints.

North of the capital, a senior Taliban leader in Baghlan province was killed in a NATO airstrike late Friday, the international force said in a statement. It said the man, who was not named, was the Taliban's "shadow governor" of the region and was responsible for organizing and directing attacks on coalition forces.

In the civilian deaths case, attack helicopters fired missiles and rockets into the convoy on a main road near Khod village, where U.S. Special Forces and Afghan troops were battling militants at the time, a summary of the investigation said. Commanders judged that the convoy contained fighters heading toward the village to reinforce the militants.

But the order to attack was based on inaccurate information from the crew at an Air Force base in Nevada that was remotely controlling a Predator drone monitoring the convoy and on flawed analysis of the situation by NATO commanders, Army Maj. Gen. Timothy McHale, who led the investigation, wrote in the report.

Poorly functioning command posts "failed to provide the ground force commander with the evidence and analysis that the vehicles were not a hostile threat and the inaccurate and unprofessional reporting of the Predator crew ... deprived the ground force commander of vital information," the report said.

"Information that the convoy was anything other than an attacking force was ignored or downplayed by the Predator crew," it said.

In a memo released Saturday accompanying the report, McChrystal said he had issued letters reprimanding four senior and two junior officers in Afghanistan over the attack. He also called on the Air Force to investigate the actions of the Predator crew.

The report said the convoy drew early suspicion because men in it appeared to be providing security as it was tracked for more than three hours. Its movements matched radio intercepts of militants calling on others to join the battle near Khod, about seven miles (12 kilometers) from the site of the attack.

No women were seen in the vehicles, but two children were spotted near them at one point. This was inaccurately reported by the drone crew, the report said.

After the initial salvo, the helicopter crews stopped firing because they spotted brightly colored clothing amid the convoy - a strong clue that women were present. Then, video shot from the drone showed women and children present.

McHale criticized the operation's commanders for failing to report the "ample evidence" of civilian casualties for nearly 12 hours after the attack, while they tried for confirmation.

U.S. forces spokesman Navy Rear Admiral Gregory Smith said the only people in the convoy that the drone crew could see was a handful of people traveling in the back of a pickup truck. Others were in closed cars. Smith said the Predator crew should have reported the possibility of civilians in those cars.

"They did not report the ambiguity of what they were seeing," Smith said. "They weren't clearly seeing a heavily armed threat."

Airstrikes accounted for about 60 percent of the nearly 600 civilians killed by NATO and Afghan forces in 2009, according to the United Nations. That percentage is significantly lower than the previous year, the U.N. said, attributing the drop to NATO directives to only conduct airstrikes as a last resort or if they are certain there are no civilians present.

"Our most important mission here is to protect the Afghan people," McChrystal said in a statement Saturday. "Inadvertently killing or injuring civilians is heartbreaking and undermines their trust and confidence in our mission. We will do all we can to regain that trust."

Human rights activists welcomed the report as a sign that NATO was being more open about admitting mistakes.

"But transparency and public accountability for the conduct of troops are still the exception rather than the rule," said Erica Gaston, a lawyer who works on civilian casualties issues for the New York-based Open Society Institute.

Unmanned aircraft are widely used in Afghanistan although they do not attract the attention here that they do across the border in Pakistan, where they have been used to attack extremist sanctuaries in the uncontrolled tribal areas. Those attacks have created huge outrage in Pakistan because of reports of large numbers of civilian deaths, as well as among insurgent leaders.

Meanwhile, militants ambushed an Afghan police convoy Friday in Paktia province in eastern Afghanistan, killing five officers with a roadside bomb and opening fire before fleeing when NATO aircraft started a bombardment, local official Ghulam Dastagir said.

About 100 workers in Oakland, California's medical marijuana industry voted to join the Retail, Statewide Agriculture, Food Processing and Community Patient Care Union. It's believed to be the first case of cannabis workers unionizing in the country.

About 100 workers in Oakland, California's medical marijuana industry voted to join the Retail, Statewide Agriculture, Food Processing and Community Patient Care Union. It's believed to be the first case of cannabis workers unionizing in the country.

ROBERT, La. (AP) -- As the nation remained transfixed by a busted oil well spewing millions of gallons of crude into the Gulf of Mexico, BP offered few details on its latest bid to plug the worst oil spill in U.S. history and scientists suggested any progress was incremental at best. BP PLC engineers may not know until at...

View full sizeAP Photo/BP PLCThis image made from video released by British Petroleum (BP PLC) early Saturday morning shows drilling mud escaping from the broken pipe on the gushing oil well in the Gulf of Mexico. BP started pumping heavy mud into the leaking Gulf of Mexico well Wednesday and said everything was going as planned in the company's boldest attempt yet to plug the gusher that has spewed millions of gallons of oil over the last five weeks.

ROBERT, La. (AP) -- As the nation remained transfixed by a busted oil well spewing millions of gallons of crude into the Gulf of Mexico, BP offered few details on its latest bid to plug the worst oil spill in U.S. history and scientists suggested any progress was incremental at best.

BP PLC engineers may not know until at least Sunday if the "top kill" fix was a success, and progress was difficult to measure from BP's "spillcam" of mud, gas and oil billowing from the seafloor. Americans have been hypnotized as they watched for any sign of success, which experts said didn't appear to be overwhelming.

» Watch streaming video from BP of the attempt to stop the underwater oil leak.

Scientists say the images may offer clues to whether BP is getting the upper hand in its struggle to contain the oil, said Tony Wood, director of the National Spill Control School at Texas A&M University in Corpus Christi. If the stuff coming out of the pipe is jet black, it is mostly oil and BP is losing. If it is whitish, it is mostly gas and BP is also losing.

If it is muddy brown, as it was much of Friday, that may be a sign that BP is starting to win, he said. That "may in fact mean that there's mud coming up and mud coming down as well," which is better than oil coming out, Wood said.

The company, however, has cautioned that it's difficult to gauge progress from the choppy video 5,000 feet undersea.

Philip W. Johnson, an engineering professor at the University of Alabama, said the camera appeared to show mostly drilling mud leaking from the well Friday morning, and two of the leaks appeared a little smaller than in the past, suggesting the top kill "may have had a slight but not dramatic effect."

But Bob Bea, a professor of engineering at University of California at Berkeley who has studied offshore drilling for 55 years, said late Friday that what he saw didn't look promising.

He likened the effort to pushing food into a reluctant baby's mouth - it only works if the force of the stuff going down is more than the force of what's coming up.

"It's obvious that the baby's spitting the baby food back" because the pressure pushing up from the well is stronger, Bea said.

Meanwhile, President Barack Obama visited the coast Friday to see the damage as he tried to emphasize that his administration was in control of the crisis, which began April 20 when the Deepwater Horizon drilling platform blew up and killed 11 workers.

"I'm here to tell you that you are not alone, you will not be abandoned, you will not be left behind," he told people in Grand Isle, where the beach has been closed by gobs of oil and the frustration and anger are palpable. "The media may get tired of the story, but we will not. We will be on your side and we will see this through."

He also urged the public to volunteer to join the cleanup and for tourists to help by visiting the majority of the region's coastline that is untouched.

Hundreds of workers hit the beaches ahead of Obama's visit, cleaning debris from the shoreline before they hopped on buses and left soon after the president arrived.

"This is the cleanest I've ever seen the beach," Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal said. "We saw a surge of activity the last couple of days. Let's hope it continues now that he's gone."

The top kill operation began Wednesday, with BP pumping heavy drilling mud into the blown-out well in an effort to choke off the source of the spill which has released far more than the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster did off the Alaska coast. Even in the best-case scenario under by the government's estimate, at least 18 million gallons has leaked so far. The worst case could exceed 40 million gallons of oil.

Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen said the denser-than-water mud had pushed down the oil and gas that's forcing its way up from underground, but the mud had not overwhelmed the gusher.

BP has brought in about 2.5 million gallons of drilling mud for the top kill. BP chief operating officer Doug Suttles said Friday the procedure was going basically as planned, though the pumping has stopped several times.

"The fact that it's stopped and started is not unusual," Suttles said. "We're going to stay at this as long as we need to."

He said the company has also shot in assorted junk, including metal pieces and rubber balls, which seemed to be helping to counter pressure from the well. The first infusion of junk was Thursday evening.

A top kill has never been attempted 5,000 feet underwater, and public fascination is high.

BP, under pressure from Congress, made available a live video feed of what is going on underwater, and about 3,000 websites were showing a version of it that the PBS "Newshour" offered for free. On Thursday alone, show spokeswoman Anne Bell said, more than a million people watched it. Many found it hypnotic.

"It made me wonder how I use energy and if this situation could teach us how much energy we use ourselves," said Jeb Banner, 38, a web design and marketing company owner in Indianapolis who has been looking at the feed every hour or so since before the top kill started. "It felt like a historic moment."

BP says the best way to stop the oil for good is a relief well, but it won't be complete until August. The company had been drilling a second relief well as a backup - Obama said Thursday his administration pushed for it in case the first one did not stop the oil - but work on that has stopped while the rig that had been drilling it works on another option for stopping the oil.

"We actually started that well before this job started, so you shouldn't read that as any indication of anything about the top kill job," BP's Suttles said Friday.

Billy Ward, a developer who was building a gated fishing community that is now on hold because of the spill, said that Obama's visit was for show and that there was really nothing the president could do.

"It's the unknown that's killing us," said Ward, who comes to Grand Isle with his family every weekend to stay in their beach house. "We don't know if it's going to be six months or six years before we get back to normal, if ever. All we can do is pray."

WASHINGTON (AP) -- More than just barbecues and family time, Memorial Day is the chance to honor members of the military who made the ultimate sacrifice on behalf of their country, President Barack Obama says. Obama, who has sent thousands of troops into war in Afghanistan, used his weekly radio and Internet address Saturday to reflect on what the...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- More than just barbecues and family time, Memorial Day is the chance to honor members of the military who made the ultimate sacrifice on behalf of their country, President Barack Obama says.

Obama, who has sent thousands of troops into war in Afghanistan, used his weekly radio and Internet address Saturday to reflect on what the nation owes those men and women who died in uniform.

Honor them with words and deeds, the commander in chief said. That means ensuring that combat troops have the support they need in the field and that veterans get the help they need when they return home.

"In short, by serving all those who have ever worn the uniform of this country - and their families - as well as they have served us," the president said.

Obama said the U.S. owes its position as the most prosperous and powerful nation on earth to a commitment from the earliest years of the country "to serve, to fight and if necessary to die to preserve America and advance the ideals we cherish."

Obama has been criticized by some veterans groups for planning to attend a holiday service Monday at Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery outside Chicago, instead of going to Arlington National Cemetery as presidents often do on Memorial Day and as he did last year. Vice President Joe Biden will be at Arlington this year.

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (AP) — A 20-year-old Rochester man drowned in Lake Ontario Friday after leaping off a pier with some friends. Authorities say Edward McMillon was pulled from the water in Ontario Beach State Park around 8:30 p.m., about 47 minutes after he disappeared beneath the surface. Witness Daniela Vargas says McMillon and two other men jumped into the water...

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (AP) — A 20-year-old Rochester man drowned in Lake Ontario Friday after leaping off a pier with some friends.

Authorities say Edward McMillon was pulled from the water in Ontario Beach State Park around 8:30 p.m., about 47 minutes after he disappeared beneath the surface.

Witness Daniela Vargas says McMillon and two other men jumped into the water together. The two friends emerged safely.

Syracuse, NY -- A Syracuse man was arraigned this morning on charges accusing him of shooting at a car a week ago, setting off a chain of events that ended with the death of his girlfriend. This morning Shikim Weston, 26, of 223 Warner Ave., repeatedly told Syracuse City Court Judge Vanessa E. Bogan he had no idea why he...

Syracuse, NY -- A Syracuse man was arraigned this morning on charges accusing him of shooting at a car a week ago, setting off a chain of events that ended with the death of his girlfriend.

This morning Shikim Weston, 26, of 223 Warner Ave., repeatedly told Syracuse City Court Judge Vanessa E. Bogan he had no idea why he was being charged with criminal possession of a weapon, a felony.

“I don’t understand nothing that’s going on,” Weston told the judge during his arraignment proceedings.

I’ll slow it down for you,” Bogan replied.

Weston’s was the last case handled in Bogan’s court. No spectators were in the courtroom when deputies lead Weston, manacled and dressed in a jail-issued orange jump suit, into the courtroom.

Weston is on parole. He pleaded guilty in 2002 to a count of manslaughter in the death of Lakia Jones, 18. He admitted stabbing the woman in the chest and received a six-year sentence. Records show he was released on parole on Dec. 24 and is to be under parole supervision through June 2013.

According to the charges read in court, he is accused of firing a .40-caliber handgun at a car driven by Antwan Aiken, 26, of Syracuse, causing Aiken to crash his car on South Avenue and West Castle Street, and run away. See previous coverage.

The judge set Weston’s bail at $200,000 and assigned Lisa Gilels as his lawyer.

After a discussion between a defense lawyer and district attorney, Bogan denied The Post-Standard's request to take pictures of Weston in court.

During the arraignment proceedings, Weston continually tried to explain what happened.

“You talk at your own risk,” Bogan warned, reminding him that he had the right to remain silent and that anything he said could be used against him in court.

“Whatever,” Weston replied.

“If you want to talk we will all listen,” the judge said, leaning forward in her chair.

“I’m down here and you’re talking about armed robbery and gun charges. I don’t know nothing about what’s going on,” Weston said.

He was about to continue, but when a deputy in the courtroom snickered in derision, Weston stopped, shaking his head.

Weston was in a minivan when the shooting occurred. Police said his girlfriend ,Morgan McMahon, 25, of Fairfield Avenue, was seated in the front passenger seat. Deon Farley, 23, of 245 W. Castle St., and Regina Crenshaw, 22, of Syracuse, were seated behind them.

After Weston allegedly fired on the car, Aiken crashed the vehicle and ran away. Farley went to the vehicle and removed a .22-caliber handgun from under the seat, according to court papers. The minivan then sped away south on Midland Avenue.

When the vehicle approached the intersection at West Colvin Street, Weston cut through a parking lot behind a corner store to avoid the light, police said.

The minivan hit a bump. The gun in Farley’s hand discharged and the bullet struck McMahon in the head. She died a day later at Upstate University Hospital.

Farley was arraigned Friday on charges of criminally negligent homicide and criminal possession of a weapon.

Scenes from Saturday's parade. » Did you take photos of the parade? Add them to syracuse.com here. It's free and easy to do. » Did you take video of the parade? Add your clip here to syracuse.com. » See our listing of holiday events

Scenes from Saturday's parade.

» Did you take photos of the parade? Add them to syracuse.com here. It's free and easy to do.

» Did you take video of the parade? Add your clip here to syracuse.com.

» See our listing of holiday events

NEW YORK MILLS, N.Y. (AP) — A man who shot a clerk Thursday at an AT&T store in central New York had been to the shop so many times to rant and rave that the company banned him, cut off his service and lodged a complaint that led to his handgun permit being revoked. Police say Abraham Dickan apparently became...

NEW YORK MILLS, N.Y. (AP) — A man who shot a clerk Thursday at an AT&T store in central New York had been to the shop so many times to rant and rave that the company banned him, cut off his service and lodged a complaint that led to his handgun permit being revoked.

Police say Abraham Dickan apparently became enraged about the loss of his gun license.

Two days after the revocation became permanent, he returned to the store in New York Mills with a hit list in his pocket and wounded an employee.

An off-duty police officer then shot and killed Dickan.

AT&T had sent a letter to Dickan in March saying he was banned.

The letter said he had been visiting the store multiple times per week to intimidate the staff and make racial slurs, and had displayed a gun at least once before.

Previous coverage and links

The top kill began Wednesday, and "to date it hasn't yet stopped the flow."

AP Photo/BP PLCThis image made from video released by British Petroleum (BP PLC) early Saturday morning shows drilling mud escaping from the broken pipe on the gushing oil well in the Gulf of Mexico. BP started pumping heavy mud into the leaking Gulf of Mexico well Wednesday and said everything was going as planned in the company's boldest attempt yet to plug the gusher that has spewed millions of gallons of oil over the last five weeks. COVINGTON, La. (AP) -- A risky procedure to stop the oil spewing into the Gulf of Mexico has yet to show much success, and BP is considering scrapping it in favor of a different method to contain the worst oil spill in U.S. history, an executive said Saturday.

The comments from BP PLC chief operating officer Doug Suttles came amid increasing skepticism that the "top kill" operation - which involves pumping heavy drilling mud into a crippled well 5,000 feet underwater - would halt the leak.

The top kill began Wednesday, and "to date it hasn't yet stopped the flow," Suttles told reporters at Port Fourchon. "What I don't know is whether it ultimately will or not."

If the top kill fails, BP would cut off the damaged riser from which the oil is leaking and cap it with a containment valve that's already resting on the seafloor. BP is already preparing for that operation, Suttles said.

Since the top kill began Wednesday, BP has pumped huge amounts mud into the well at a rate of up to 2,700 gallons per minute, but it's unclear how much is staying there. A robotic camera on the seafloor appeared to show mud escaping at various times during the operation. On Saturday, the substance spewing from the well appeared to be oil, experts said.

BP has also tried several times to shoot assorted junk into the well's crippled blowout preventer to clog it up and force the mud down the well bore. That, too, has met with limited success.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, addressing reporters after he spoke at a high school graduation ceremony in Denver, echoed what Suttles said and said officials were evaluating the next step. He said the relief well was the ultimate solution, but said something was needed to stop the spill until then.

"We're doing everything with the best minds in the world to make sure that happens," he said.

The oil spill began after the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded in April, killing 11 people. It's the worst spill in U.S. history - exceeding even the Exxon Valdez disaster in 1989 off the Alaska coast - dumping between 18 million and 40 million gallons into the Gulf, according to government estimates.

Experts and other observers were growing increasingly skeptical that BP would be able to plug the well. Eric Smith, associate director of the Tulane Energy Institute, said Saturday that the top kill appeared headed for failure.

"They warned us not to draw too many conclusions from the effluent, but ... it doesn't look like it's working," he said.

BP had pegged the top kill's chances of success at 60 to 70 percent. The company says the best way to stop the flow of oil is by drilling relief wells, but those won't be completed until August.

Chris Roberts, a councilman in Louisiana's Jefferson Parish, said he was frustrated by BP's failures and perceived lack of transparency.

"We're wondering whether or not they're attempting to give everybody false hope in order to drag out the time until the ultimate resolution to it" - the completion of the relief wells, Roberts said.

Meanwhile, Coast Guard and Minerals Management Service officials heard a sixth day of testimony during hearings into the disaster in Kenner.

David Sims, BP's drilling operations manager for exploration and appraisal in the Gulf of Mexico, testified he was aware of well problems experienced by the Deepwater Horizon's drilling crew in the weeks and months leading up to the explosion. He said there were no serious problems the day the rig exploded.

ALBANY -- A federal judge in Albany has been asked to release an inmate convicted of asbestos-removal fraud — including cases in Central New York — long enough for him to donate a kidney to his 9-year-old son. Asbestos contractor Alexander Salvagno is serving a 25-year sentence for environmental crimes. Both he and his father are behind bars at the...

ALBANY -- A federal judge in Albany has been asked to release an inmate convicted of asbestos-removal fraud — including cases in Central New York — long enough for him to donate a kidney to his 9-year-old son.

Asbestos contractor Alexander Salvagno is serving a 25-year sentence for environmental crimes. Both he and his father are behind bars at the federal prison in Fort Dix, N.J.

The Associated Press reports Salvagno’s son, Alexander Jr., is suffering from kidney failure and needs a transplant by July.

Salvagno and his father were convicted of racketeering conspiracy in 2004 for falsifying lab reports and cutting corners on more than 1,500 asbestos-removal projects across New York. AAR Contractor Inc. of Latham, was accused of running a racketeering conspiracy for more than a decade, putting workers and the public at risk by exposing them to asbestos.

AAR’s larger clients locally included the Milton J. Rubenstein Museum of Science & Technology in Syracuse, the James A. FitzPatrick nuclear plant in Scriba and the Anheuser-Busch brewery in Lysander.

Update, 8:10 p.m. --- A man riding a motorcycle on county Route 89 in the town of Oswego was injured when he ran his vehicle into a ditch, Oswego County sheriff's deputies said. The man, who is not being identified, suffered a leg injury in the crash, deputies said. He was taken from the scene by ambulance, deputies said. Deputies...

Update, 8:10 p.m. --- A man riding a motorcycle on county Route 89 in the town of Oswego was injured when he ran his vehicle into a ditch, Oswego County sheriff's deputies said.

The man, who is not being identified, suffered a leg injury in the crash, deputies said. He was taken from the scene by ambulance, deputies said.

Deputies said there would be no more information on this crash released tonight.

Oswego, NY -- A motorcyclist was injured after his bike struck a pole on County Route 89 Saturday evening, the Oswego County 911 Center reported.

The Oswego County Sheriff's Office responded to the 6:45 p.m. crash west of the SUNY Oswego campus. A medivac helicopter was requested, the 911 center said.

The crash occurred near Bev's Dairy Treat stand, according to 911.

More details will be posted here when they become available.

JOHNSON CITY, N.Y. (AP) — After neighbors turned her in, a woman in this village outside Binghamton nearly had to pay $79,000 for her hobby of picking through curbside trash and piling the items in her yard. Karen Herzog calls herself a trash “recycler.” She recovers everything from typewriters to porcelain figurines to discarded bricks. She’s donated much of it...

JOHNSON CITY, N.Y. (AP) — After neighbors turned her in, a woman in this village outside Binghamton nearly had to pay $79,000 for her hobby of picking through curbside trash and piling the items in her yard.

Karen Herzog calls herself a trash “recycler.” She recovers everything from typewriters to porcelain figurines to discarded bricks. She’s donated much of it to the Salvation Army or found ways to use the objects at home.

But neighbors in Johnson City didn’t appreciate the heap of clutter in her yard and reported her for code violations.

This week in village court, Herzog was given a choice: either get rid of everything except a broken wicker chair and a flower pot or pay $79,000 in fines.

It’s not hard to guess which she chose. The garbage is gone.

But Herzog says she’s now considering reporting her neighbors for code violations.