A grand slam home run in the 7th inning from Nick Longmire broke a 2-2 tie and powered the Batavia Muckdogs to a 6-3 victory over Mahoning Valley on Thursday.

It was Longmire's third HR of the season, giving him the league lead, and with 14 RBI over the first seven games, he's well ahead of any other player in that category as well.

The Muckdogs are in second place with a record of 4-3.

Jose Rada (1-1) threw three scoreless innings to pick up the win. Starter Kevin Siegrist went five innings and gave up two runs.

Left fielder Rainel Rosario had three hits.

Batavia faces off against Mahoning Valley again tonight, and then return home tomorrow to begin a five-game home stand. First up, State College. Game time Saturday is 7:05 p.m.

UPDATE: The name of the "spotter" in this story has been removed. Public records indicate there is no way the person mentioned was a spotter at the time of the described incidents.  Dan says the only thing he remembers for sure was that his name was "Petey." 

While the dignitaries introduced each other and made their speeches -- all very solemn and respectful -- I couldn't help myself, I wandered over to the Wall.

The Wall is a smaller replica of the Vietnam War Memorial Wall in Washington, D.C. It's on display at the Veterans Hospital in Batavia until Monday afternoon. Today, at 5 p.m., the dignitaries hosted opening ceremonies.

Dan Matthews was at the Wall, too. I took his picture, and moments later I gave him my business card and offered to send him a copy. That's when he told me his story.

Matthews, who splits time between Pembroke and Phoenix, was a sniper, an elite sniper. He served in the Marine Corps on a "recluse" mission.

A young man named XXX was assigned as his spotter.

On XXX third outing with Matthews, they were on a mission and XXX was working hard to do a good job. At one point, Matthews told him he needed to get his head down. He kept spotting. He didn't move fast enough.

"I inhaled bits of his brain," Matthews said.

He then added, "but I killed the other sniper."

Two days later, on another mission, he killed an enemy three-star general.

But to this day, Matthews said, he still struggles with the memories of his time in Southeast Asia.

When I showed him the picture I took of him touching Peter's name, he said, "I can never touch the real Wall."

I'm sorry, but I missed the speeches.

I met Dan Matthews and learned about XXXX instead. They are what the Wall is really about. With due respect to the dignitaries, it's not about speeches.

You should visit the Wall while it's here. I don't care if you're a hawk or a dove, pro-interventionist or anti-interventionist, or supported the Vietnam War or opposed it: You should visit the Wall. The Wall isn't about politics or American foreign policy. It's about young men and women who died doing either what they thought was their duty, or  they felt was the only choice they had. It isn't about the generals or the politicians. It's about our neighbors and our uncles and their friends and their family. It's about Ken Matthews and it's about XXXX

UPDATE: Click here for WBTA's coverage.

More pictures after the jump:

City Fire is being dispatched to Dunkin' Donuts where a child is unable to get out of a car because the seat belt is stuck.

On Tuesday, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand announced her reform agenda to clean up Washington, and make Congress more accountable and responsible.

Here is her news release:

The centerpiece of Senator Gillibrand’s agenda includes new, bipartisan legislation that would require complete transparency for all federal earmark requests. Senator Gillibrand’s plan will also end automatic pay raises for members of Congress, rein in corporate special interest influence on elections, and once and for all ban all senators from placing obstructive, anonymous holds on important Presidential nominations or legislation in the Senate.

“I haven’t been in Washington long, but it doesn’t take long to know exactly what’s wrong with it,” Senator Gillibrand said. “Everyday people are not being heard because too much business is happening behind closed doors. Too often the system only benefits the special interests that have way too much power. My agenda puts the interests of families before all else by making government more transparent and accountable.

My reform agenda ends automatic pay raises for members of Congress, reins in special interest influence on our elections, forbids Senators from anonymously obstructing legislation, and makes the federal funding request process fully transparent so citizens can judge for themselves how politicians are spending their money.”

• Make federal earmark requests fully transparent

Senator Gillibrand has led by example, becoming the first Member of Congress to post all of her federal funding requests, official daily schedule and personal financial disclosure on her own website. Senate and House rules now require members to post federal funding requests. Senator Gillibrand’s federal funding requests, daily public schedule and personal financial disclosure are all available here <http://gillibrand.senate.gov/newsroom/schedule/>.

Now, she has joined Republican senators Tom Coburn (R-OK) and John McCain (R-AZ) to author bipartisan legislation that makes the federal earmark process fully transparent and easy for citizens to access. The Earmark Transparency Act creates an easily searchable database of all federal earmarks, both authorizing and appropriating.

The database will include the following information about each federal funding request: amount of initial request made by requestor; amount approved by the committee of jurisdiction; amount approved in final legislation (if approved); type of organization receiving the request (public, private non-profit, or private for-profit entity); project name, description and estimated completion date; justification explaining how congressionally directed spending item would benefit taxpayers; description, if applicable, of all non-federal sources of funding for the congressionally directed spending item; requests and supplemental documents submitted to a committee of Congress.

The database will include information on all bills that pass either chamber beginning the day the bill is signed into law. Gillibrand’s legislation is co-sponsored by 24 members of the Senate and 28 reform organizations, including The Sunlight Foundation, Center for Responsive Politics, the Liberty Coalition and the Project on Government Oversight.

Gillibrand is also introducing new legislation in the Senate that bans private or for-profit companies from receiving federal funding.

• Reduce corporate special interest influence on elections

With the corporate victory in the Citizens United U.S. Supreme Court case that allows corporations to spend limitless amounts of money on elections, the voice of corporate special interests will only grow and topple that of the average voter.

To help keep elections fair and honest, Senator Gillibrand is pushing the Democracy Is Strengthened by Casting Light on Spending in Elections (DISCLOSE) Act, legislation to reverse the decision of the U.S. Supreme Court that allows special interests—including even foreign-controlled corporations—to spend limitless amounts of money to influence elections. This legislation ensures that corporations stand by their political actions by disclosing the primary funders of political advertising.

• Require new disclaimers on all television advertisements funded by special interests.

If a corporation is running the ad, the CEO will have to appear to at the end to say that he or she approved the message, just like a candidate must do today. If an advocacy organization is running the ad, both the head of the organization running the ad, and the top outside funder of the ad, will have to appear on camera.

Additionally, a list of the top five funders to that organization will be displayed on the screen in an effort stop the funneling of big money through shadow groups to fund virtually anonymous political advertising – following money to its origin, and making its sourcing public for the first time ever.

• Mandate an unprecedented level of disclosure not only of an organization’s spending, but also its donors.

Organizations will have a choice in disclosing their donors: They can either disclose all of their donors that have given in excess $1,000, or they can disclose only those donors who contribute to the group’s Campaign-Related Activity Account, if they solely use that account for their spending.

All spending intended to influence an election—whether on television, radio, print, online, direct mail, telephone, and billboards—would flow through this account. Every donor who contributes more than $1,000 would have to be disclosed.

Organizations must disclose these donors to the FEC, the public on their websites, and to their shareholders and members through their annual and quarterly reports.

The legislation also: prevents foreign-controlled entities from spending unlimited sums in our elections through their U.S.-based subsidiaries; bans companies with government contracts in excess of $50,000 from making unlimited expenditures; ends expenditures by companies that receive government assistance, such as the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP); strengthens current law to grant lowest unit rate to candidates by giving those same rights to the parties – on a limited geographic basis.

• End automatic congressional pay raises

From 1991 to 2007, Congress voted to raise its own pay 11 times, for a total increase of $63,600 in their annual salary, according to CRS. A one-year elimination was ultimately included in the final appropriations bill and members did not receive a pay raise in 2011. Gillibrand voted twice in the House of Representatives to end the automatic pay raise.
 
Senator Gillibrand has opposed congressional pay raises, and is a proud cosponsor of legislation to permanently end the automatic pay raise for members of Congress.
 
The automatic annual adjustment for members of Congress is determined by a formula using a component of the Employment Cost Index, which measures rate of change in private sector pay.

The adjustment automatically takes effect unless (1) Congress statutorily prohibits the adjustment; (2) Congress statutorily revises the adjustment; or (3) the annual base pay adjustment of General Schedule (GS) federal employees is established at a rate less than the scheduled increase for members, in which case members are paid the lower rate. Members may not receive an annual pay adjustment greater than 5 percent. This adjustment formula was established by the Ethics Reform Act of 1989.
 
Now Senator Gillibrand is joining with a bipartisan group of 20 of her colleagues to send a letter to Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) to take up and pass S. 620, legislation that passed in the Senate last year to permanently end automatic pay raises. Passing this bill would save roughly $80 million over 10 years, and help demonstrate that Congress is willing to tighten its own belt as we work to reduce record deficits.

• Ban anonymous holds on legislation

Currently, there are 132 anonymous holds on President Obama’s federal court nominations, and countless more on other legislation before the Senate. These holds bring the legislative process to a halt with no way to hold the obstructionist accountable. Together with 67 of her colleagues, Senator Gillibrand has written to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), calling on the leaders to once and for all end the practice of senators putting anonymous holds on legislation.

Last year, city workers had to remove the weeds from around the seemingly rotting Latina's building, billing the property owner for the abatement.

LKLWL Properties out of Amherst may be in for another bill from the city if owner Tom Lewin doesn't deal with the growing weed problem soon.

BID Director Don Burkel said he spoke with Lewin the other day and he said Lewin was adamant that he's not going to do anything with the building, neither in regards to upkeep nor selling the property.

I called Lewin this morning and left a voice mail asking him to confirm whether that's his position. No call back yet.

Of course, most of us call the building the Latina's building because that's still the company name on the side of the structure. 

I called Latina's Food Services out of Tonawanda and asked if a company spokesman would comment on any potential public-relations problem in having a decrepit building in the middle of Batavia with its name on it. No official spokesman would come to the phone. The only response was through a receptionist who said he was told to say, "We don't own the building."

Previously:

• Property owner refuses to discuss sea gulls plaguing former Latina's location
• Gulls at Latina's market a nuisance again this year

Hundreds of motorcycle riders were in the procession this morning escorting the Vietnam Memorial Moving Wall from Le Roy to the Veterans' Home in Batavia.

As local law enforcement cleared the way, the procession moved swiftly through town.

The Moving Wall will be on display through the weekend, night and day, with opening ceremonies at 5 p.m., today.

Charles Thigpen Gus "Gusto" Williams, 31, of 4213 Cookson Road, Alexander, is charged with criminal possession of a controlled substance, 3rd, and two counts of criminal possession of a controlled substance, 7th. The Local Drug Task Force executed a search warrant at 4213 Cookson Road, Alexander, on Wednesday afternoon. Williams was allegedly found in possession of crack cocaine, powder cocaine, Hydrocodone, Suboxone and $770 in U.S. currency. Williams was jailed on $15,000 bail.

Dyllon E. Soccio, 20, of 134 Tracy Ave., Batavia, is charged with criminal possession of a controlled substance, 4th, criminal possession of marijuana, 2nd, and three counts of criminal possession of a controlled substance, 7th. The Local Drug Task Force executed a search warrant at 134 Tracy Ave., Batavia, on Wednesday afternoon. Soccio was allegedly found in possession of 3/4 of a pound of Psilocybin (mushrooms), about 2 1/2 pounds of marijuana, a quantity of powder cocaine, Hydrocodone, Valium and $2,096 in U.S. Currency.  Soccio was jailed without bail.  Additional charges may be pending.

A 17-year-old resident of Prospect Avenue, Batavia, is charged with petit larceny. The youth is accused of placing items in her purse while at Tops Market and attempting to leave without paying.

A skip loader being removed from a flatbed truck has reportedly rolled over in the area of 8669 North Road, Le Roy.

No reports on injuries, though a medic is on scene.

The loader reportedly rolled into the woods.

Le Roy Fire and law enforcement is en route.

The county highway department is also requested to the scene because the roadway is "tore up pretty good."

Dispatch describes it as an eight-inch gouge in the roadway.

UPDATE 9:06 a.m.: Clarification: A truck was hauling a trailer with equipment on it. It apparently went around a curve too fast and the trailer rolled over. When the truck stopped, the parking brake either wasn't on or malfunctioned and the truck rolled into the woods.

UPDATE 9:39 a.m.: A wrecker is on scene and the road will be closed so the truck can be moved.

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City Fire responded quickly this morning to a reported house fire at 4 Morton St., Batavia.

Lt. Jay Steinbrenner said when crews arrived, they could see smoke rising out of the chimney, which usually indicates a basement fire.

What firefighters found was a dehumidifier that malfunctioned, and quickly doused the small fire.

There was no structural damage.

Reader Chad Hilchey sent in this picture at 11:14 p.m. of a funnel cloud spotted in Oakfield. 

A dispatcher who worked overnight had heard nothing of a possible funnel cloud and said there wasn't a single report of storm damage over night. "Not even a tree limb down," he said.

There was a severe thunderstorm watch overnight, which was lifted at 6 a.m.

UPDATE: Chad clarifies that he took the picture around 6:30 p.m.

A car has crashed into a tree just south of the intersection of West Bergen and Selden roads in Le Roy and the fire department is responding.

This afternoon while waiting for a business in the Harvester Center to open, I killed time by walking along the south side of the building looking for objects to photograph.

If you've ever looked closely at the building, there are stars bolted into the walls between the first and second stories. These, I'm sure, are not decorative, but part of the building's support structure, bolting thick wires that run from wall to wall. That's just a guess, but I've seen this kind of construction before.

Below, a "weed" (I can't identify the flower) set against a red door, and three more pictures after the jump.

Kimberly Lynn Blue, 21, of 7 Wood St., Batavia, is charged with criminal possession of a controlled substance, 7th, and unlawful possession of marijuana. Blue was reportedly a passenger in a vehicle stopped for alleged traffic offenses 5:53 p.m., Tuesday. During the stop, she was allegedly found in possession of a quantity of marijuana and Ritalin. The stop was made by Deputy Brian Thompson.

General G. Sanders, 38, of Haxton Lane, Oakfield, is charged with unlawful possession of marijuana. Local law enforcement made contact with Sanders when a van was stopped in order to execute a bench warrant out of the Town of Batavia for a passenger in the van, Jeremy Lyons. The stop was made at 2:33 p.m., Tuesday, by Deputy Brian Thompson and a unit from the State Police. During the stop on Angling Road in Pembroke, Sanders was allegedly found in possession of marijuana.

Luke M. Tarnacki, 19, of Sandridge Road, Alden, is charged with driving while impaired by drugs, failure to keep right, unlawful use of an electronic device (texting) and aggravated unlicensed operation. Sheriff's deputies Ron Meides and Chris Parker were dispatched at 7:47 a.m., Wednesday, to the scene of an alleged accident on Route 33 near Read Road in the Town of Batavia. A vehicle had driven through a ditch and left the scene. Tarnacki was located later and reportedly admitted to texting while driving. Tarnacki reportedly crossed two lanes of traffic and drove off the roadway on the opposite shoulder. Upon further investigation, deputies determined that Tarnacki was allegedly driving while impaired by drugs. Tarnacki was jailed on $3,000 bail.

After his client entered a not guilty plea to an aggravated harassment charge, attorney Dan Killelea read the letter for the first time that Dawn Doll allegedly wrote a Sheriff's Office employee and shook his head.

After court, Killelea said, "I can't see a single threat in the entire letter."

He said he will need to research the case further before deciding on a defense, but he indicted he isn't sure there was even a crime committed when Doll, sister of convicted murderer Scott F. Doll, allegedly mailed the letter in a Father's Day card to one of the officers involved in the murder investigation.

The Sheriff's Office employee wrote in an affidavit that he felt threatened by the letter.

"The content of the letter was disturbing to me," he wrote. "The fact that a Father's Day card was sent along with the letter and receiving the envelop on Father's Day was very threatening to me and my family members."

Scott Doll was convicted by a jury last month of killing Joseph Benaquist outside Benaquist's Pembroke home.

Dawn Doll appeared in City Court at 1 p.m. accompanied by friends and family to answer to the Class A misdemeanor charge.

In a statement Doll reportedly made to a State trooper at the time of her arrest Saturday, Doll said she had come to understand writing the letter was the wrong thing to do.

"I should never have done it," Doll reportedly said. "If I could take it back, I would."

Judge Michael DelPlato issued an order barring Doll from having contact of any kind through any means with the Sheriff's Office member she allegedly wrote the letter to.

Killelea assisted Paul Cambria in the defense of Scott Doll.

A fight in progress, with injuries, at the Village Park in Bergen has been reported. Sheriff's deputies are responding and an ambulance was called to the fire department to standby.

The dispatcher says the caller claims a woman was lured to the park by two females and then assaulted. She needs an ambulance and has a head laceration.

The two assailants are still on location. One is in custody. The scene is secured.

A 5.5 earthquake 33 miles north of Ottawa, Ontario was felt at least as far south as Attica in Genesee County.

The quake was reported at 1:41 p.m.

Reports of the temblor flowed in from just about all parts of Genesee County, but many people also did not feel it.

Here are the messages we received from readers:

Please check out the tremor that was just felt in batavia.  3 of us here at work felt it and people at a doctors office felt it too.

Around 145pm we felt our house shake on the Maltby Road in Oakfield.  Questioning if there was a earthquake.  It was also felt in amherst.

I just felt an earthquake on genesee st in attica and my husband felt in in  Batavia as did my co-workers at Cooperative Extension

I'm pretty sure we just had an earthquake! Our office building was shaking!

Has anyone reported an earthquake in Batavia?  We felt a slight movement at  our job (GCC) and was wondering if you heard anything.

about 5 minutes ago our building here in oakfield was shaking and my girl friend who lives 2 miles away emailed me to ask if i felt the shaking

Can u confirm if we had an earthquake in Alexander today? It happened about  10 min ago and seemed to last about 5 - 7 seconds or more! It was bigger than  the quake last year.

Did you feel your building shake in the past 5 minutes? I work in Oakfield &  our building shook. Someone said it was an earthquake.

We just felt our whole building shake in the city of Batavia

just felt a earthquake by many on north pembroke rd.  wow.  shook the whole  house and rattled stuff on the walls.

Small earthquake felt at Attica High School

When 17-year-old Sarah Scott was in the sixth grade, she envisioned one day making a dress out of duct tape. That's the kind of kid she was. Artsy and a little out there. Fast forward to May 15, and she lived her dream, with her dress, at the Pavilion Central School's prom.

The best thing is "what it's worth in memories," Sarah said. "It was a lot of fun."

James Kutter, her date, wore a tuxedo make out of duct tape, too, of course. This silliness took a great deal of work but had a solid purpose -- competing for scholarship money.

So it was thrilling when they learned last week that they are among 10 finalists in the annual "Stuck at the Prom" scholarship contest sponsored by Duck Tape brand, a manufacturer of duct tape. There were 240 entries nationwide, including some from Canada.

The weird but wildly creative competition is 10 years old this year.

Sarah says she didn't know about the contest but had joked about making a prom dress out of duct tape with her friends. She had long forgotten about her sixth-grade ambition and the Victorian design she drew and put away some place.

Then a student at school mentioned the contest. She Googled it and decided to take part. But she admits procrastinating on the project. Nothing like a little self-induced stress to get the creativity flowing.

She went to the thrift shop and bought the clothes she would alter and blanket with duct tape. She miraculously came across the old design she drew in elementary school and plunged in.

The finished products were Victorian in style, with a floor-length skirt -- cut away in front to reveal a ruffled under-skirt -- a ruffled bustle in back, and a bodice featuring a large cameo design on the back.

The basis of the ruffled under-skirt was a denim skirt that was two sizes too big. Turns out that was not an issue.

"That's the thing about duct tape, it's easy to work with. It sticks to itself. It's perfect."

She also had little lace-up ankle boots, a purse, chocker and a fancy eye-mask on a hand-held wand, in keeping with the prom night's theme "Masquerade." All duct taped. James, also 17, did his part by covering his suit in black duct tape, leaving it to Sarah to embellish and finish. His outfit also included a ruffled shirt front, walking stick and black shoes.

"He was uncertain about the whole thing at first, but trusting. He said 'It's your prom, you can do what you want to.'"

The design features large, colorful vines, leaves, rosettes and the giant, rimmed cameo featuring a butterfly and purple flower. (Think Porter Waggoner and Patsy Montana in the late 19th Century.)

All of this took Sarah about $150, 86 solid hours of "spare" time and 26 rolls of duct tape, purchased one or two at a time so as not to waste anything.

Duct tape has come a long way. Sure, there's black, gray, white and clear. Had no idea about the crazy color palette available nowadays. Sarah also used chrome-colored duct tape, silver, purple, blue, red and lime green.

She did her own hair and makeup. And on the big night, she and James were met with responses "across the spectrum."

"Pavilion is a small school and it's quite strange for someone to do this," she explained matter-of-factly.

Turns out that duct tape, which purportedly can cure warts and do other wondrous things (it's holding up my Scion's back bumper), is practical for a whole lot of things, except wearing. It's heavy. The dress alone weighs at least 20 pounds. Duct tape doesn't breathe, thus it's hot. Besides being a tacky prom dress, it gets tacky. Sarah tried to dance in it, but gave it up almost instantly.

"I'm going to change my clothes," Sarah told her peers.

"But what about the group picture? Aren't you going to wear the dress for the group picture?" someone asked.

"When's that?" Sarah responded.

"At the end of the night," said the peer.

No way. So Cinderella doffed her gown and donned something she could dance in and the evening at Batavia Country Club went swimmingly.

As for the scholarship money, up until July 26, people can go online and vote for the entry they want to win. They can vote once per day. Sarah and James are hoping people in Genesee County and elsewhere will take the time to log on and vote for them every day.

Go to <www.stuckatprom.com>.

First Place gets $3,000 per person ($6,000 per couple), plus $3,000 for the school. Second Place gets $2,000 per person ($4,000 per couple), plus $2,000 for the school. Third Place gets $1,000 per person ($2,000 per couple), plus $1,000 for the school.

The remaining seven winning couples get $500 per couple.

Sarah, who is graduating a year early, will be attending Michigan State University this fall and plans to major in zoology and minor in arts. She would like to work with Indian elephants in field studies.

In the senior yearbook, she was voted "Most Artistic," and plans to spend the summer wielding and working with rocks. She also enjoys pottery, drawing and painting.

"I guess you could say I'm a fashion designer, too," she said.

Top prom photo supplied by Sarah Scott.

Local law enforcement is looking for individuals who allegedly used stolen credit cards to make purchases at a retail store in Batavia.

The credit cards were allegedly stolen from a vehicle parked on Gateway Drive on June 14.

Credit cards were also stolen from a car on Park Road on June 4.

Batavia PD is investigating the Gateway Drive theft and the Sheriff's Office is investigating the Park Road incident.

The individuals in the picture above are wanted for questioning in the case. They may be driving the car in the picture below.

Police are asking persons who may have information on the identity of the suspects to contact the Batavia Police Department’s Detective Bureau at (585) 345-6444 or the Genesee County Sheriff’s Department at (585) 345-3000 x-3570. Persons can also leave information on the Batavia Police Department’s Confidential Tip Line at (585) 345-6370.