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Economist William G. Cheney stopped in Batavia yesterday to tell folks to calm down about the incessant, emphatic, sky-is-falling bad news about the national economy, according to the Daily News. Reporter Scott DeSmit does a great job with this article, drawing out some of the seeming contradictions between the advice (everything is just fine) and the market performance that is signalling real and serious decline. Here's the lede:

One of the nation's leading economists was in Batavia ... attempting to allay fears about financial markets just as Wall Street took another beating, dropping more than 4 percent and sending world markets into further turmoil.

Hmm. How about this:

"I still haven't given up," Cheney [said]. "It still doesn't feel like an honest-to-goodness recession. Outside of the housing market, the economy is generating growth."

Still, he said, the financial events of the last month are like nothing he's ever seen.

Come again? Does anyone sense a mixed message here? DeSmit qualifies Cheney as the chief economist for John Hancock Financial Services in Boston—for more than 20 years—and an Oxford-educated economist.

Check out the article by DeSmit. It's a good read.

In other news... Lorie Longhany was elected as the new chairperson of the Genesee County Democratic Committee by a vote of 31-7, according to the Daily News. Longhany, of Le Roy, was previously the the vice-chair of the group. The term is two years. She is an art teacher.

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