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Genesee County residents can get their pets vaccinated against rabies for free today at the County Fairgrounds on Main Street in Batavia from 4:00 to 7:00pm, according to WBTA. The clinic is sponsored by the county Health Department. Out-of-county residents may also use the service, but they have to pay $5.

UPDATE: Ooops. My fault.  Show is at 9:40, twenty minutes later than the original headline indicated.

I will be on WBTA in the morning to discuss blogging -- not The Batavian so much as blogging in general.

My goal is to encourage more bloggers in Genesee County.  I don't care if you blog for The Batavian or your own Word Press or Blogger site, just blog.  It helps extend the conversation.

That will be my theme.

Lisa Neary from Attica will assume the position of deputy director of finance for the city of Batavia, according to WBTA's Dan Fischer. Neary fills a vacancy left by the unexplained departure of Shelly D'Alba earlier this summer. She will earn about $52,000 per year and starts September 5. Neary holds a degree in accounting from the Rochester Institute of Technology and had previously worked as the finance director for Wymong County Community Action.

Summer in the City kicks off tonight in Batavia. Check back in with us later today for a full list of events.

Congressional hopeful Jon Powers released his "education policy" at a discussion at Main Street Coffee Tuesday afternoon. The Democratic contender for the seat in the 26th District said that college is too expensive, loans are too high and national education standards stifle teachers, according to WBTA's Dan Fischer. Powers calls for reform of No Child Left Behind—though no specifics are given—and wants to lower the interest on federal loans for students from 6.8 percent to 3.4 percent by 2011.

In other news... Genesee County has qualified for state disaster aid as a result of the devastating hail storms that wracked the region earlier this summer. Fifteen other upstate counties qualified. Some farmers could receive "permanent disaster payments," says Fischer.

The Genesee County Legislature will meet tonight at 7:00pm in the Old County Courthouse. The Batavian has a request into the clerk to get a copy of the agenda, which we have not yet received. We will post that when it becomes available.

Tune into WBTA 1490 AM for these and other stories throughout the day.

Thousands of live chickens spilled from their crates onto the state Thruway yesterday when a truck carrying nearly 10,000 of them overturned at the Route 190 off-ramp in Erie County. WBTA's Dan Fischer spoke with state police who said they had never seen anything like it. Dozens Thousands of chickens were killed. Many others were taken to the Erie County Society for the Prevention of Animal Cruelty. The truck driver was ticketed with unsafe lane change.

UPDATE (9:18am): The Buffalo News ran a full story on this sad crash—the photographs and video are unsettling. It turns out that not dozens but thousands of chickens died, either at the scene or later by euthanization. From that article:

Gina Browning, the public relations director of the SPCA in the Town of Tonawanda, described a grim scene of blood and broken eggs inside the SPCA facility.

“In 18 years [working at the SPCA], I can tell you I’ve never seen anything of this magnitude,” Browning said.

The facility closed 2 hours early to make room for the birds. SPCA officials used the auditorium and the garage to fit all the crates.

“It’s mortifying,” employee Julie Ruppel said. “It’s unimaginable what we’re seeing.”

In other news, Batavia's Rotary Club will be holding auditions for its upcoming musical production of Singing in the Rain. Auditions for the November performance will be held on September 3, 4 and 5 in the Batavia High School from 7:00 to 10:00pm.

Check out WBTA for this and other stories:

• Five people were sent to the hopsital yesterday following the collision of a tractor trailer and a car at the intersection of Routes 20 and 36  in the town of York in Livingston County. The driver of the car is alleged to have run a red light and crashed into the truck. No one was critically injured.

Check out WBTA for this and other stories:

• A water main break on Walnut Street in Batavia this morning has kept residents there without water since around 3:00am. Repairs are underway.

LeRoy police have arrested two men in relation to the string of burglaries there early last week, according to WBTA's Wayne Fuller. Chad Bagg, 29, of LeRoy, was charged with five counts of burglary, three counts of petit larceny and two counts of attempted larceny. Bagg is accused of burglarizing four businesses in LeRoy — including the Eagle Hotel, which he allegedly robbed twice. Bragg has been sent to jail in lieu of $10,000 bail. Jonathan Blasdell, 18, of LeRoy, was charged with one count of burglary. Blasdell allegedly broke into the Mill Street Liquor Store. He was sent to jail in lieu of $1,000 bail.

Batavia's Charter Review Commission will meet tonight at 6:30pm at City Hall. That meeting is open to the public.

We're back! After an intensive three-day video training workshop in Fairport, Philip is back in Batavia, more capable than ever to get out there and record the news. In the meantime, here's what you'll find at WBTA this morning:

Batavia's Charter Review Commission will meet Monday at 6:30pm at City Hall.

Batavia families welcome some inner-city kids to the open country as part of the Fresh Air Fund experience.

Professional Turf Services breaks ground today on the company's 12,000-square-foot facility in Pembroke Commerce Park. The company based in Grand island and Lockport distributes fertilizer to golf courses.

Check out WBTA.com for more on these and other stories.

LeRoy has seen an increase in crime over the past week or so, especially over the weekend. LeRoy Police Detective John Condidorio told WBTA's Dan Fischer that the burglaries — one car was stolen, several others were broken into — may be related. Police do have one suspect, described as a white male, slender, between 5-foot-7 and 5-foot-9, wearing white shorts and a tee-shirt. Residents are advised to lock their homes and cars and report to the police any suspicious activity.

Note: The Batavian will not be posting a Daily News roundup this afternoon. We will be in video training all morning and afternoon. Please, if you see any news, report it. Get on the site, post a blog, put up video. We'll be back in full force soon.

WBTA's Dan Fischer reports this morning that Gov. David Paterson will "deliver an unprecedented special address" to announce that the state is in the worst fiscal crisis in three decades. The announcement is expected sometime this week, and the New York Post claims that Paterson will cite "plunging state revenues" as the reason for the crisis and the forthcoming cuts in state services and personnel.

He may also call a special session of the Legislature to propose reducing some of the record-high levels of spending that were approved as part of the state's new budget in April.

"The situation is worse than anyone realizes," said a source close to Paterson.

"The governor has said he's tired of the state going from deficit to deficit, spending like it has a credit card that never has to be paid, and that he's prepared to take action," the source said.

In the meantime, the New York Times reported earlier this year that state legislators were hankering after a 20 percent pay raise.

New York legislators are looking for a raise of as much as 22 percent, saying the $79,500 base salaries they earn are not enough.

But an examination of state records shows that most make considerably more than their base salary. With extra pay for chairmanships and other posts, they earn just over $90,000, on average, for what is widely considered a part-time job; the Legislature is in regular session for 63 days a year.

And more than a third earn more from outside employment, often as lawyers in their hometowns, but they are not required to disclose how much or from what clients.

Not long after, the New York Sun reported that state judges, now, were asking for a raise.

A state judge has ordered Governor Paterson and the Legislature to start paying him and his 1,180 fellow state jurists more money.

If each judge on the state bench received the $600,000 sought by the four plaintiffs, the state's taxpayers would be on the hook for more than $700 million. The order by Judge Edward Lehner of state Supreme Court in Manhattan appears to instruct the Senate and Assembly to pass a law upping judges' pay within 90 days, which could prove an impossibly fast time frame for slow-moving Albany.

What prompted the request?

Judges on the state's main trial court make $136,700 a year, plus benefits.

Even though salaries for New York state judges are close to the national average, the judges say that the cost of living in New York is higher, and they argue that federal judges and corporate lawyers are paid more.

New York's chief judge, Judith Kaye, filed a suit on behalf of the entire judiciary in April seeking a pay raise order of the type Judge Lehner issued yesterday. But yesterday's decision came in an earlier lawsuit filed jointly by four judges seeking more than $600,000 each. That money, the say, represents the cost-of-living increases that they haven't received over the years, plus interest.

As for your run-of-the-mill hourly worker, the median income in 2007 was about $25,000, and an employee who made no more than the minimum wage — $7.15 per hour — earned less than $15,000 and likely brought home barely more than $10,000.

The median wage paid to the 4.1 million hourly workers in the state was $12.03 last year, meaning that more than two million New Yorkers earned less than that, the report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed. That was about equal to the median national hourly wage of $11.95 — about $25,000 a year for a 40-hour work week.

See the article by Patrick McGeehan in the New York Times for the full story.

It's true. Woody the show steer that escaped from the Genesee County Fairgrounds early last week has been apprehended and settled into a stall back home. We swear. Dr. Cricket Johnson says so in her very own words on WBTA. She and her crack team of cow catchers picked him up last night. They say he has lost some weight and will need some fattening up before being sold for... slaughter.

It may not be easy, but all alcoholism and substance abuse facilities in the state will have to go smoke free. Executive Director of GCASA David Markham told Dan Fischer that between 80 and 90 percent of people in treatment are smokers.

Check out WBTA for this and other stories:

• Livingston County health officials confirmed that a hawk found in Avon has tested positive for West Nile virus, the first such case in a bird in that county this year. The virus has present in western New York for eight years, according to the county's public health director.

Check out WBTA for these and other stories:

• Everybody's favorite steer on the lam has been brought into custoday — or so we thought. It was reported earlier today that "Woody" the 1,200-pound show steer that escaped from the Genesee County Fairgrounds early last week was picked up nearby the Batavia-Stafford Townline Road after being subdued with tranquilizers last night. In fact, the tranquilizers wore off and the steer escaped yet again. Dr. Cricket Johnson said they are "weary" of the chase and the solution now might just be to shoot to kill.
• A Walgreen's store that will go up in LeRoy was granted $62,000 in tax incentives by the Genesee County Economic Development Center. The store will go up at the corner of Main and Lake streets and employ 18 people full- and part-time.
• Investigators still have not determined the origin of the fire that caused more than $250,000 in damage and destroyed the kitchen and a dining area at Cristina's Restaurant. Batavia's Acting Deputy Fire Chief Jeff Day that they will have to wait until laboratory tests come back.
• Ange Bell of LeRoy passed away Friday. He was 97 years old and well known for his portrayals of Santa Claus in LeRoy for more than 50 years. Dan Fischer has assembled a few audio clips from interviews with Bell, including one in which he talks about how he was tricked into attending Santa school but soon fell in love with it.

Check out WBTA for these and other stories:

• Batavia's city School Board will hold its meeting at 7:00pm tonight in the administration building on Washington Avenue.
• Parent company of the Bank of Castile, Tompkins Financial, was recognized by a "national rating company" for "consistent performance."

Check out WBTA for these and other stories:

• LeRoy village police have determined that the death of 41-year-old Glen Kanaley, whose body was found in Oatka Creek earlier this week, was accidental. They say that he likely fell from a railroad trestle. The autopsy performed in Monroe County showed that Kanaley died of massive internal injuries.
• It's true — the 1,200-pound "show steer" that escaped from the Genesee County Fairgrounds Monday is still on the lam. Dan Fischer relates the latest run-in with the elusive bovine: Last night, Dr. Cricket Johnson and about 50 others located the steer in some fields, popped it with a tranquilizer, but then lost it in some "thick growth." When it "resurfaced" later in the night, the tranquilizer had worn off. Fire crews even brought out heat-seeking search devices. But to no avail. We're told that it was last spotted hanging in an old railroad bed east of the fairgrounds. (I don't know about anybody else, but I find this the most interesting story I've tracked in the past two months. Many kudos to Dan Fischer for making it so much fun.)
• No cause has yet been determined in the fire that destroyed part of Cristina's Restaurant almost a week ago.

Check out WBTA for these and other stories:

• Reports have come in that the 1,200-pound show steer that escaped from the Genesee County Fair Monday was spotted last night along Batavia-Stafford Townline Road. The steer's owner cautions people not to approach the steer. He doesn't want anyone to get hurt. If you've seen the steer in that area today, call Dr. Johnson at (585) 704-1839.
• City Manager Jason Molino told Dan Fsicher that the lawsuit filed by Sally Kuzon, assistant city manager, with the village of Williamsville, was "a private matter." Kuzon, who was phoned yesterday morning by The Batavian, has yet to return our call and declined to comment with WBTA.

Check out WBTA for this and other stories:

• Investigations by the FAA into the skydiving death of 61-year-old Joseph Schickler at the Batavia Boogie on July 3 have revealed that the parachute Schickler wore during the jump was fully functional. That does not explain why the chute failed to open.

Big breaking news on WBTA this morning! Dan Fischer is calling it a Bovine Bulletin. Yes, it's true. There's a 1,200-pound steer on the loose in Batavia, escaped from the Genesee County Fairgrounds yesterday. The "show steer" was last seen on Cedar Street around 9:00pm last night. If you see it — white with a tan face and a number 37 tattooed on its right hip — call the police.

Check out WBTA for these and other stories:

• The cause of a fire at Cristina's Restaurant early Saturday morning is still being investigated. The kitchen and restaurant portions of the building suffered a total loss, and the banquet rooms sustained smoke and water damage. Business owner Charles Brumstead is asking anyone who has upcoming reservations at Cristina's to call (585) 343-1029.
• Temperatures will again climb towards 90 degrees during the second half of this week, and high humidity won't make it any more tolerable. Yay.
• Sen. Charles Schumer says that families will pay an average of $720 more to heat their homes this winter. In the meantime, he's putting together a proposal that would provide federal aid to help families cover the cost of the increase. We should check out his Web site from time to time to see where it goes.