Earlier today, Charles "Dewey" Walling was sentenced to six months in Saratoga County Jail for stealing $27,111 from the St. Clement's Horse Show, a fundraiser for the Catholic church's religious school. He's paid back the money he swindled via cooking the books at the show's souvenir stand and will still face five years of probation upon his release.

The Rev. Paul Borowski gave a victim impact statement prior to the sentencing. He said he would be willing to forgive Walling if he asked for forgiveness, but that wasn't the same thing as justice. He asked the judge to enforce the jail sentence that was part of the plea package.

The most interesting thing about Borowski's statement though, was this excerpt:

"While I and all those involved with the case were conscious of not speaking publicly about this case and trying to keep a low profile about the subsequent investigation, it seemed that Mr. Walling had shown no remorse at the time about his crime. A few days prior to his being arrested on these charges, he willingly put himself front and center of the opening scenes of the highly-publicized Saratoga Springs Chamber of Commerce (sic) promotional video, hurting many people who worked so hard to make that production a success."

 I had to think about that one for a second. Then it hit me.

Sure enough, there's Charles "Dewey" Walling (left) as Sam the Bugler in last summer's "Lip Dub" production, which has more than 57,000 views on YouTube at the time of this posting.

Let's take a look at the timeline:

The horse show was in May. An internal investigation into the souvenier stand's finances began shortly thereafter. When organizers learned Walling was creating false invoices, Borowski said he tried to schedule a meeting with Walling. When he refused, the results of the internal investigation were forwarded to the Saratoga Springs Police Department. He said Walling knew that would happen.

That was in mid-July. The Lip Dub was filmed at the beginning of September, so at this point he probably realizes knows that things aren't looking good for him. You wouldn't know it from watching the video, though. Walling was arraigned on the charges Sept. 13. The Lip Dub premiered Sept. 27.

I'm not sure what the Chamber of Commerce can do in that situation. It's not like they were going to digitally remaster the footage to remove Walling from the video and it would have been even more ridiculous to re-shoot the whole thing. Borowski has a point: it put the chamber in a tough spot.

One thing's for sure, though. Walling looks way happier in that video than he does in his mug shot.

Until next time,
MC

With the benefit of hindsight, I should have seen this coming.

Last month, I asked Saratoga County supervisors to fill out NCAA Tournament brackets.

I figured it'd be a fun way to foster some competition between the supervisors, who were vying for bragging rights. I used the bracket I'd done the day before as a barometer and gave an extra bracket to County Administrator Spencer Hellwig.

Wouldn't you know it? We, the only two entrants who weren't Saratoga County supervisors, finished 1-2. Actually, Hellwig beat me on the final day of the tournament because he selected Kentucky over Kansas in the National Championship. They just put the finishing touches on a 67-59 win.

I had KU over UK, which is just about as close as I could have gotten without actually winning.

The top finishers among supervisors were the three who picked Kentucky. They were Day's Mary Ann Johnson, Clifton Park's Anita Daly and Malta's Paul Sausville, who admitted he'd never filled out an NCAA bracket prior to last month. This calls for a celebratory anthem.



Here's the full order:

Scoring: 1st Round = 1 point; 2nd Round = 2 points; Sweet 16 = 4 points; Elite Eight = 8 points; Final Four = 16 points; National Championship = 32 points.

1. Spencer Hellwig, County Administrator
Score: 130 (First round 20, Second round 9, Sweet Sixteen 3, Elite Eight 2, Final Four 2, Championship 1)

2. Michael Cignoli, The Saratogian
Score: 122 (22, 10, 6, 3, 2, 0)

3. Mary Ann Johnson, Day
Score: 115 (19, 10, 5, 1, 1, 1)

4. Anita Daly, Clifton Park

Score: 106 (16, 9, 4, 2, 1, 1)

5. Paul Sausville, Malta

Score: 103 (17, 5, 3, 2, 1, 1)

6. Art Johnson, Wilton
Score: 93 (21, 10, 4, 1, 1, 0)

7. Jack Lawler, Waterford
Score: 85 (17, 10, 4, 1, 1, 0)

8. Thomas N. Wood III, Saratoga
Score: 62 (20, 13, 4, 0, 0, 0)

9. Alan Grattidge, Charlton
Score: 51 (21, 9, 3, 0, 0, 0)

10. Phil Barrett, Clifton Park
Score: 44 (20, 8, 2, 0, 0, 0)

11. Matthew Veitch, Saratoga Springs
Score: 39 (19, 6, 2, 0, 0, 0)

12. Jean Raymond, Edinburg
Score: 35 (19, 6, 1, 0, 0, 0)

I share a life philosophy with fictional race car driver Ricky Bobby – if you ain't first, you're last – so I'm a little disappointed with my late collapse. No worries, though. At least I beat the supervisors.

How'd you guys do? Let me know.

Until next time,
MC

The Kansas Jayhawks became the fourth – and final – team to punch their ticket to New Orleans on Sunday afternoon, turning on the afterburners to pull away from North Carolina in the game's waning moments. They'll join Kentucky, Ohio State and Louisville in Saturday's National Semifinals.

That being said, it's time to update the inaugural Saratoga County Supervisors Bracket Challenge. There's been some shuffling, so here's where we started a week and a half ago and here's the update from earlier this week before the Sweet Sixteen.

Five supervisors – Thomas N. Wood III, Alan Grattidge, Phil Barrett, Matthew Veitch and Jean Raymond – have no teams left in the fight, so they're not moving up. Grattidge, Barrett, Veitch and Raymond are locked in spots nine through 12, respectively, and Wood may get bumped down from No. 6 depending on how things shape up.

I broke the rest of it down so you can see how things might change in the next round. Here we go:

Scoring: 1st Round = 1 point; 2nd Round = 2 points; Sweet 16 = 4 points; Elite Eight = 8 points; Final Four = 16 points; National Championship = 32 points; Red = Previously eliminated.

1. Michael Cignoli, The Saratogian
Score: 90 (First round 22, Second round 10, Sweet Sixteen 6, Elite Eight 3)
Maximum Possible Score: 154
Picks remaining: Kentucky over Marquette, Kansas over Ohio State, Kansas 

2. Art Johnson, Wilton
Score: 77 (21, 10, 4, 1)
Maximum Possible Score: 93
Picks remaining: Kentucky over Marquette, North Carolina over Ohio State, North Carolina.

3. Jack Lawler, Waterford
Score: 69 (17, 10, 4, 1)
Maximum Possible Score: 85
Picks remaining: UCONN over Louisville,  Kansas over Wisconsin, UCONN

4. Mary Ann Johnson, Day
Score: 67 (19, 10, 5, 1)
Maximum Possible Score: 115
Picks remaining: Kentucky over Missouri, Syracuse over North Carolina, Kentucky

5. Spencer Hellwig, County Administrator
Score: 66 (20, 9, 3, 2)
Maximum Possible Score: 130 
Picks remaining: Kentucky over Missouri, Kansas over Florida State, Kentucky

6. Thomas N. Wood III, Saratoga
Score: 62 (20, 13, 4, 0)
Maximum Possible Score: 62 
Picks remaining: Duke over No selection*, Syracuse over Ohio, Syracuse

7. Anita Daly, Clifton Park
Score: 58 (16, 9, 4, 2)
Maximum Possible Score: 106
Picks remaining: Kentucky over Missouri, Syracuse over Kansas, Kentucky

8. Paul Sausville, Malta
Score: 55 (17, 5, 3, 2)
Maximum Possible Score: 103 
Picks remaining: Kentucky over Missouri, Syracuse over North Carolina, Kentucky

9. Alan Grattidge, Charlton
Score: 51 (21, 9, 3, 0)
Maximum Possible Score: 51 
Picks remaining: Duke and Missouri, North Carolina over Syracuse, Syracuse**

10. Phil Barrett, Clifton Park
Score: 44 (20, 8, 2, 0)
Maximum Possible Score: 44
Picks remaining: Duke over Michigan State, North Carolina over Florida State, Duke

11. Matthew Veitch, Saratoga Springs
Score: 39 (19, 6, 2, 0)
Maximum Possible Score: 39
Picks remaining: UCONN over Marquette, Syracuse over Purdue, Syracuse

12. Jean Raymond, Edinburg
Score: 35 (19, 6, 1, 0)
Maximum Possible Score: 35
Picks remaining: Duke and Florida, Alabama over Texas, Texas***

* Wood, inexplicably, left one of his Final Four selections blank. He had the correct match – Louisville vs. Florida – but he left one of the picks blank. He'd be doing better if he picked Louisville.
** Grattidge picked a National Championship match-up that couldn't actually happen. Those two teams would have met in the Final Four. As fate would have it, they both lost in the Elite Eight.
*** Raymond did the same thing as Grattidge, except her teams lost in the Round of 64. That really hurt.

How are your brackets shaping up? Leave a comment and let me know.

Until next time,
MC

Scroll down, or click here, if you missed my last post about asking Saratoga County supervisors to fill out a bracket for the NCAA basketball tournament. With the Sweet Sixteen set to tip off March 22, it's time for an update.

I thought it'd be a fun way to foster some friendly competition, but this undertaking is proving to be significantly more difficult than I anticipated.

Keeping track of a dozen brackets is challenging in itself, but it's even more challenging when the brackets just aren't filled out properly. I'll give you some examples.

One supervisor said the winner of the Round of 64 UNLV/Colorado game would be Baylor, which played South Darkota in the first round. That same supervisor picked South Dakota over Baylor, but then marked Baylor as beating South Dakota to advance into the Round of 32.

Another supervisor left some of his first round choices blank. One's Final Four contains three teams. Two picked National Championship match-ups that were impossible, as the teams that they picked for the championship game were on the same side of the bracket.

The most egregious error was a supervisor circling the names of the teams in the first round, then filling out the bracket one round in advance. I basically had to guess what that supervisor was trying to do.

Malta Supervisor Paul Sausville admitted that he'd never filled out a bracket prior to last week, but I'm slowly beginning to think that he's not the only one.

Those errors aside, some of the supervisors are actually doing quite well. After the jump, the complete list of standings, plus some highlights from each of bracket.


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UPDATE, 6:30 p.m. – I received five more submissions. I've included them in the list.

***

I've asked Malta Supervisor Paul Sausville a lot of tough questions over the past few months, so I figured asking him to fill out a NCAA tournament bracket would be comparatively easy.

Turns out, it may have been the toughest question I'll ever ask him.

Let me preface this a little bit. Remember when I asked the Saratoga Springs City Council members to give me their Super Bowl predictions? That wound up being a pretty popular post. Supervisors had some time to kill between their agenda meeting and the community forum, so I figured I'd hand them each a blank bracket and see what happened.

When I asked Sausville if he'd do one, he legitimately had no idea what I was talking about. I asked him if he had ever done a bracket before. He honestly said he hadn't. I find that unbelievable.

I have no idea how old Sausville is — he left it out of the candidate questionnaire we sent him when he ran for re-election last November and when I called and asked him about it, he said it was irrelevant — but in all his years he'd never filled out one bracket? Not even for curiosity's sake?

Props to him for being a good sport about it, though, and filling one out on the spot. Five other supervisors did the same, others said they'd fax theirs in Thursday morning.

I'm going to go ahead and post the ones that I have here and let you guys analyze them. I'll update them as I receive them. Keep in mind, there's no cash involved here. It's simply for bragging rights.

The supervisors will get one point for a correct pick in the first round and those values with double through the championship, which is worth 24 points.

Click the supervisor's name to see his or her full bracket.

Alan Grattidge, Charlton
Final Four: Duke, Missouri, Syracuse, North Carolina
National Champion: Syracuse def. North Carolina*

Phil Barrett, Clifton Park
Final Four: Duke, Michigan State, Florida State, North Carolina
National Champion: Duke def. North Carolina

Anita Daly, Clifton Park
Final Four: Kentucky Michigan State, Syracuse, North Carolina
National Champion: Kentucky def. Syracuse

Mary Ann Johnson, Day
Final Four: Kentucky, Missouri, Syracuse, North Carolina
National Champion: Kentucky def. Syracuse

Jean Raymond, Edinburg
Final Four: Duke, Florida, Texas, Alabama
National Champion: Texas def. Alabama**

Paul Sausville, Malta
Final Four: Kentucky, Missouri, Syracuse, Kansas
National Champion: Kentucky def. Syracuse

Tom Wood, Saratoga
Final Four: Duke, ???, Syracuse, Ohio***
National Champion: Duke def. Syracuse

Matthew Veitch, Saratoga Springs
Final Four: Connecticut, Marquette, Syracuse, Purdue
National Champion: Syracuse def. Connecticut

Jack Lawler, Waterford
Final Four: Connecticut, Louisville, Wisconsin, Kansas
National Champion: Connecticut def. Kansas****

Art Johnson, Wilton
Final Four: Kentucky, Marquette, Ohio State, North Carolina
National Champion: North Carolina def. Kentucky

Spencer Hellwig, County Administrator
Final Four: Kentucky, Missouri, Florida State, Kansas
National Champion: Kentucky def. Kansas

And, as a benchmark, my selections:
Final Four: Kentucky, Marquette, Ohio State, Kansas
National Champion: Kansas def. Kentucky

My immediate supervisor, Betsy DeMars, is a Kansas State grad, so she's probably not going to like that too much. Oh, well. Rock chalk Jayhawk.

*Grattidge's championship match-up is actually impossible, since those two teams would meet in the Final Four. Now, watch him win the whole thing.
** Same deal.
*** Wood, inexplicably, had Louisville and Florida in an Elite Eight match-up, but didn't pick the winner of the game.
**** As a Connecticut native, I admire Lawler's choice, but I think it's a terrible selection. Lawler, though thinks the Huskies have a legitimate chance now that Syracuse's Fab Melo is out. I don't see them getting past the second round.

Until next time,
MC

A couple posts back I mentioned Reilley and Eddy Barringer, who were raising money locally for Pennsylvania State University's efforts to conquer childhood cancer.

The final step in their year-long effort was this weekend, as thousands of Penn State students packed the school's basketball arena for a 46-hour dance marathon. I wanted to pass along a quick update.

Collectively, The Daily Collegian reports, Penn State students helped raise $10,686,924.83 for childhood cancer treatment and research. That's a record high.

Kathleen Barringer, Reilley and Eddy's mom, told me the kids raised just shy of $5,000 by holding a coin drop and Italian dinner earlier this month.

"This was enough to put their organization's total higher than last year's and they held on to fourth place among the hundreds of Penn State organizations raising money for THON," she wrote in an e-mail.

Add a few hundred canning drives like that around the country and it's not too difficult to see how they got to that number.

Another Penn State student newspaper, Onward State, did a neat video where they slapped a helmet cam on one of the dancers. It starts just shy of the final reveal and gives you a pretty good idea of just how excited the kids were – and what you contributed to if you donated.


Kathleen and her husband drove down to State College to be a part of THON weekend. Her e-mail popped into my inbox early this afternoon, as she and her husband were driving back.

"We are wiped out," Kathleen wrote, "but the weekend was beyond inspiring."

Until next time,

MC

Lucian McCarty will examine what it'd actually take to change closing time in Saratoga Springs in Sunday's issue of The Saratogian.

Believe it or not, this issue would actually come before the Board of Supervisors. They'd have to make the request to the State Liquor Authority, who makes the final decision.

Be sure to pick up a copy to read Lucian's full report, but I wanted to share some comments from Saratoga County Supervisors on the subject.

I asked them if they'd support closing time in Saratoga Springs if that's what changing the City Council wants to do, if the time would affect their vote, and what if closing time had to be changed county-wide.

The Liquor Authority has never had a request where it's only one municipality. That's not to say it can't happen, but it's something to consider.

Comments after the jump.

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Reilley and Eddy Barringer are two of some 15,000 Penn State students involved with THON, which holds a two-day dance marathon on the school's main campus each February to raise funds and awareness for pediatric cancer treatment and research.

I wrote about the Ballston Spa brother and sister's involvement with the world's largest student-run philanthropy – and how their own family's lives have been touched by cancer – not too long ago. You can read that story here.

They were in downtown Saratoga Springs last weekend, holding coin drops in front of local businesses during Chowderfest. This Saturday, they're hosting an Italian Dinner at the Knights of Columbus Hall in Saratoga Springs. Proceeds from the event will benefit THON, which has raised more than $78 million over the past four decades.

Here's a video that showcases what THON is all about:

The dinner will be held from 6 to 8:30 p.m. Tickets are $10, children 10 and under are free. You can purchase tickets at the Knights of Columbus Hall, 50 Pine Road, either in advance or at the door. You can also secure seats by calling 796-4021, or by e-mailing davebarringerny@yahoo.com. Online donations can be made here.

I ran into Eddy Barringer during Chowderfest and asked him what it was like being down in State College when legendary football coach Joe Paterno passed away last month. He told me that he was one of the thousands of students who lined the streets for Paterno's funeral procession.

He couldn't believe how quiet the students got when they saw the procession -- particularly Joe Paterno's wife occupying her late husband's seat on the football team bus. I found a YouTube that conveys the moment better than I can.

It was surreal, he said.

I'd argue the work the THON volunteers do is just as unbelievable.

Until next time,

MC

Salutations, all.

In tomorrow's paper, I've got a story about Mayor Scott Johnson's State of the City address, which he delivered this afternoon at the City Center.

I focused in on his call for a new public-private partnership that would pay for a study to analyze the impact of building up Route 9 between the Northway and Lincoln Avenue, so I'll touch on some other topics here.

• The city is happy with the VLT money it's receiving, but it's still not at the level it used to be. That needs to be addressed, Johnson said.
• Any move that legalizes casino gambling should guarantee that it won't adversely affect the race track, Johnson said. I'm not sure how you accomplish that. What if they say it won't, but then handle drops 5 percent? Are you going to outlaw casino gambling again? Not easy.
• The ongoing Charter Change saga continues, with appellate argument scheduled for Tuesday. Final decision on appeal is expected within the next two months.

Full text after the jump, courtesy of the mayor's executive assistant, Therese Connolly:
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We're about an hour away from kick-off, so I'm going to make this quick.

I had the opportunity to talk to some City Council members before Mayor Scott Johnson's State of the City address (more on that in my next post) and asked them probably the easiest question I'll ask them all year: Who do they like in the Super Bowl? Answers below.

Mayor Scott Johnson: The Giants, of course. I'm going to say 27-17. I've always been a Giants fan. To me, the choice is easy. Four years ago I gave my first State of the City address and I had to give it on the morning of the Super Bowl. That was in 2008, when the Giants beat the Patriots the last time they met in the Super Bowl. That's an omen, I guess.

Accounts Commissioner John Franck: I'm a season ticket holder for the Giants and I've been a fan since I was a little kid. We barely made the playoffs, but we're getting hot at the right time. Giants, 27-23. Ed. note: Franck wore a New York Giants hat to the address. Took it off during the speech, but put it back on immediately following his television interviews.

Public Works Commissioner Skip Scirocco: I'm going to be the hometown guy and root for the Giants. I think it's probably going to be a three-point spread one way or the other. I'm hoping it's as exciting as the other playoff games.

Public Safety Commissioner Christian Mathiesen: I like the Giants and the Patriots, but I'm probably more of a Patriots fan than a Giants fan. Patriots, 30-27.

Finance Commissioner Michele Madigan didn't attend the speech for family reasons and was therefore unavailable for comment. Either way, Giants take the majority.

More elected officials after the jump.

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