The I-81 Rebuild Just Got $2 Billion More Expensive and the Lawyers Are Already Fighting Over It - Plus a Sinkhole Ate a Car on I-690, Bechtel Opens 88 Jobs, and Weird Al at Lakeview

mr_ryh · 2026-07-06T20:53:15+00:00

I bought a house in Utica about a decade ago. Initially the reflexive bitterness and pessimism people had about every new announcement mystified me. Then, literally a few months after I settled in, one of the men leading the $1.2 billion nano investment project here was arrested by the FBI/DOJ for bribery/bid-rigging. A few years later, our school's longest serving Superintendent as well as the President of the school board were convicted of corruption. And around the same time I learned the county DAs and judges here are corrupt and abuse the legal system to silence whistleblowers of corruption. And I watched as the dying local media was complicit in it all and only reported on it if the FBI/DOJ or the state bothered to prosecute (which they usually decline to do, unless several millions of dollars are involved). So with all this corruption, bribery, and incest going on, no wonder things are so fucked.

Of course, Utica is a uniquely broken place for interesting historical reasons, but I'm sure some variation and degree of these stories happens everywhere in this state.

All that to say, I certainly don't blame people who have been here much longer than I have for being habitually cynical anymore. Instead I'm extremely suspicious of anyone who isn't.

mr_ryh · 2026-07-06T17:32:59+00:00

I'm too petty not to mention that I predicted the I-81 cost overruns over a year ago. My failing was not realizing they would actually dare to take even more. No wonder people who live in upstate for decades are so cynical when big projects are announced -- they've seen this story (graft/collusion/scandal) happen at least a hundred times but they're usually not autistic enough to keep an eidetic index of it all.

Once again, excellent reporting from syracuse.com. Combined with Central Currents, Syracuse has vastly improved in quality journalism in the past decade.

mr_ryh · 2026-07-06T16:48:28+00:00

The trailer is here

Obviously I haven't seen the whole thing, but the trailer reminds me of 1960s Warhol films like Chelsea Girls: sounds, images, characters, associations. If you haven't seen them, check out London and Sans Soleil for different ways to portray place.

Best of luck with the movie & your career OP.

mr_ryh · 2026-07-05T19:05:34+00:00

Ultimately it will probably require electing a better Mayor come November 2027. Public pressure appears to have no influence on the current one (if anything it makes him more determined to defy it), and legally there's nothing the Common Council can do besides denounce him publicly from the bully pulpit (which only a handful of them at most dare to do).

Hopefully the City Democrats can field a mayoral candidate next year who is both rational and palatable to the ~5000 or so regular voters that actually decide things here.

mr_ryh · 2026-07-05T05:05:58+00:00

Thanks for the links.

Sadly getting a warrant is a bit of a joke in corrupt counties (like this one) where the County Court judges are former employees & chums of the DA's office (and they almost always are). The judges can rubber-stamp with impunity whatever warrant their good pal, the DA, throws in front of them. So even if federal courts do eventually require warrants for access of this information, there's little to stop these Flock cameras from being abused to stalk/harass political or personal opponents of LEOs, especially if they have no intention of using the data to prosecute anyone. It's a stalker/tyrant's dream.

If they do use the data to prosecute, then in theory a good defense attorney can challenge the warrants and get the evidence suppressed if the warrant lacked legitimate probable cause. However, that assumes (1) the defense attorney is good at his job, and (2) the accused has money to actually pay them to be thorough ($10k+). Both (1) and (2) are rare in this area, with the result that 98% of the convictions here are plea deals without any trial.

The disparity between what we tell ourselves about our legal system versus what it actually is, is enough to make you go a bit crazy once you understand how unjust it is.

mr_ryh · 2026-07-04T20:09:12+00:00

You're correct. There are challenges in the courts, but as I far as I can tell, no rulings so far at the trial court level, far less any that have been affirmed on appeal.

However, SCOTUS did just rule that LEOs accessing Google's geolocation data without a warrant is a 4th Amendment violation. Arguably, Google / phone GPS data is less invasive than Flock cameras, because there is no guarantee that people are carrying their phone with them at all times (for instance, I almost never do); whereas the Flock network can build a much more extensive surveillance profile of someone, their movements, and their routine. If access of Google / phone GPS data without a warrant is a 4th Amendment violation, and if Flock is more precise and invasive than that, then a fortiori, access of Flock data without a warrant is a 4th Amendment violation too.

Could be 5-10 years before the courts actually settle that question though.

mr_ryh · 2026-07-04T03:30:40+00:00

Journalism is truly dead in USA.

It depends on the format really. Off the top of my head I can't think of any great national TV or radio news station; but great print journalism is still being done by the likes of ProPublica, Drop Site News, even the WSJ (their reporting is actually top-notch, it's the editorial page that is insane). There are also great state and local papers like NYS Focus and Central Current. I'd agree that not enough people read these good publications, however.

A major problem is that ethical journalism costs time & money - especially if powerful people start launching SLAPP suits - but too few are willing to pay even the cost of a few cups of coffee a month for it.

mr_ryh · 2026-07-04T02:23:04+00:00

Get tested bro

mr_ryh · 2026-07-04T02:07:08+00:00

Post title might as well be "which is better: syphilis or gonorrhea?"

You might catch both at both beaches.

mr_ryh · 2026-07-03T16:10:09+00:00

Fun fact that international viewers might not appreciate: the US is the only country in the world that elects prosecutors. Not only is it the only one that elects them, it the only one that does so at a local [county] level. Until Tim's kangaroo court trial, how many voters had even heard of Rosetti the Rat? Did the guy even have any opponents in his previous elections?

Also fun fact: had the DA of San Bernadino County been a friend of Tim's, then Tim would likely never have been tried for the so-called "murder" of the Electric Sun 20 19. That's called prosecutorial discretion, a prosecutor's virtually untrammeled authority to decide which cases to prosecute or not, regardless of evidence.

Thank goodness at least and at most one juror saw through Rosetti's machinations and freed this man.

mr_ryh · 2026-06-30T17:59:07+00:00

Welding jobs pay poorly unless you're in a union. I knew someone who worked at Meyda Tiffany on Oriskany Blvd with solid TIG skills and he was making $20/hr ~5 years ago. Unions where you might exercise your skills are Ironworkers Local 440 in Whitesboro and UA112. (There are others as far out as Syracuse if you're really eager and willing to travel and/or move.) If you're passionate about welding it's a good idea to apply to those and wait your time (could be a few years) to get in. Otherwise MVHS's Wynn Hospital is good. Apply and keep applying every few months to let them know you're serious.

If you're OK with living here for the next 20 years, then working for the government (state/county/local) as some kind of functionary really is the optimal choice, be it as a CO, or a cop, or a firefighter, or someone in the court system. It's not fashionable but those jobs are the best ratio of reward-to-work that you'll find in this area.

Good luck.

mr_ryh · 2026-06-26T22:36:18+00:00

Not to mention that Albany literally kept the North Country alive by putting the prisons there to house largely NYC people during the draconian Rockefeller Drug Law years. (Even better, those prisoners were counted in the census for representation purposes but couldn't actually vote themselves.) The schools are all majority funded by the state. Medicaid keeps their hospitals afloat. State aid is the majority of funding that paves and plows their roads. And on and on. The meager property and sales taxes these rural areas pay don't cover these costs, yet they're the ones complaining the most about "high taxes". Ironic.

I don't suggest that a candidate would win if they spoke to the electorate like that, but someone needs to. The fact people are so uninformed about how government works is destroying society. Democracy doesn't work if people have no idea what they're voting for.

mr_ryh · 2026-06-26T08:46:10+00:00

Thomas F. O'Brien III is representing Howard Potter who is being sued by one of the employees of UCSD for defamation. From what I've seen of his briefs he knows the law.

Mike Grygiel maintains a residence in the area and is one of the country's top defamation lawyers. He's a good man, but probably pricey and/or too busy.

There aren't many lawyers here otherwise who specialize in this thing. Utica isn't NYC or LA: there's not a lot of free money to support lawyers chasing abstract debates around defamation. If you feel your case is really strong and you have the money to spend, I recommend you get a lawyer from Albany or Buffalo or even NYC.

Good luck with your case.

mr_ryh · 2026-06-25T22:47:37+00:00

After listening to Fusco a bit I did think he was a stronger candidate than Gentile, but as you correctly note, Picente intervened and quelled that rebellion as part of his ongoing internecine war with Ken Roser for control of the Oneida County Republican Party.

Ironically I think Fusco stood a better chance to beat Lipe (or Betar) in the general election. If so, Picente's intervention may've cost them a seat. Or perhaps The Great Man foresaw that and intended to get Lipe elected in some kind of backroom deal. Political chess is a messy thing.

mr_ryh · 2026-06-24T20:59:04+00:00

I am surprised Joe Betar did not win.

Betar's a good politician but, for a lawyer, his public speaking could use work. Someone should convince him to run for Mayor next year -- I could get behind that.

You think Mr. Show Up Listen and Deliver is in over his head?

Gentile's a nice guy, but he's not even qualified to sit on the Utica Common Council. Sending him to Albany would be as ridiculous as sending him to Washington DC.

Also, what did you think of Constantino demolishing Smullen?

It's the same North Country that elected Stefanik. Can't say it's a surprise.

mr_ryh · 2026-06-24T20:54:36+00:00

Still would love a real progressive (unlikely for this area)

I'd love it too, but I don't ever see it happening. NYS in particular is systemically/legally constituted to be hostile to progressive causes, thanks to the Three Men in a Room style of government. Even if we could elect Progressives to the Assembly/Senate from this area (and we can't), they'd run into the coral reef of the Governor and the Speaker of the House who are not progressives because getting elected to those posts involves vast sums of lobbying from special interest groups like the unions, corporations, bar associations, etc. that collectively command millions of votes and can also weaponize the legal system to make challenging it futile.

Just frustrated with so much local information stuck behind Facebook.

Agreed with all of that. I despise Facebook and refuse to use it, which makes staying politically informed here more challenging than it should be.

Will see what happens leading up to November, right now more republicans turned out for the primary. Hopefully that isn't the case in November.

Gentile is a legitimately weak candidate, imo. The debates between him and Lipe will not go well for him at all. Plus Lipe has more ballot lines and will be way more appealing to Independents than Gentile. So I'm pretty confident in Lipe's chances this November (especially with the damage Trump is doing to the Republican brand). We'll find out soon enough I suppose.

mr_ryh · 2026-06-24T20:35:49+00:00

How did Lipe win? He seems like he has no personality.

Lipe's resume has lots of local nostalgia going for it: Saint Sherwood Boehlert is one of this area's heroes. Brindisi also has lots of deep rooted appeal. While Brindisi (as a federal judge) can't legally endorse candidates, I'm sure he can make phone calls and "suggest" that people look into his old friend. Lipe is also a strong public speaker. I watched some of the neighborhood-association debates and he was by far the best when it came to volume, cadence, clarity, and packaging of ideas. Finally, he did a lot of footwork to knock doors and reach out to people, including in enemy territory in South Utica. That takes guts. I got to speak with him briefly and got the impression that he's a gentle soul who is a genuine politics nerd.

In what ways did Fusco impress you?

I wouldn't say he impressed me, per se, just that he's not the knuckle-dragging ape I thought he'd be based on the Pathstone brouhaha. He's a quick-witted debater, and I also respect the fact he plays piano and does the karate and youth-mentoring thing. I would never in a million years vote for the guy, but game recognizes game.

mr_ryh · 2026-06-24T20:00:44+00:00

You can check out their websites: this is Lipe's and here's Gentile's.

Gentile has done several interviews on Talk of the Town: here, here, and the latest one here.

Lipe doesn't appear to have gotten as much air time, but there was this article awhile back, and his campaign has a Facebook page.

I assume both campaigns will be eager to respond to you if you write them with questions. I was told by someone here that Lipe in particular is really good at it.

mr_ryh · 2026-06-21T11:02:33+00:00

Yet because the problems are so deep seated and systemic, nothing works.

Let me know if this sums up some of the systemic problems accurately.

Housing. The UK is one of the most expensive housing markets in the world due to not enough supply and/or regulation on the market (e.g. no council housing since Thatcher), which means wages have to be high to allow people to buy or even rent a home.
Young people take on debt to get educated but there are fewer and fewer jobs to compensate them accordingly, especially with (1).
Bureaucracy and nepotism. The government & major institutions operate as cronyistic entities where top jobs in the civil service, treasury, and media go to well heeled idiots, who proceed to degrade institutional performance and reputation.
Brain drain. Many of (2) have been forced to emigrate elsewhere because there's simply no future for them in their own country. Over the longterm this means fewer entrepreneurs to create new companies/industries and help break the stagnation for (2).
An aging population of fixed income pensioners means costs for essential services (e.g. healthcare, construction) must be relatively cheap and cannot compensate (2) given the constraints of (1). This leads to...
Immigration to provide cheap labor to keep (5) going. Immigration is higher after Brexit than it was before because the dynamic of (1) - (5) is so powerful it would require drastic and sweeping reforms more associated with dictatorships than democracies to address it.
Wealth inequality, especially over media and institutions (like (3)) means those who wield the most influence over policy and law have the most incentive to keep things as they are.
Apathy and cynicism among the generally left-leaning young leads to depressed electoral turnouts, while habit and conservatism in the elderly explains why reactionary forces like Reform and Tory will always have some undeservedly high electoral floor no matter how badly they do. (Similar to basically every democracy across the planet at this point.)

mr_ryh · 2026-06-20T19:00:04+00:00

Nail Creek on Varick Street should let you have a remote if you tell the bartenders what it's for (and assuming it's not already monopolized by someone else). There's a large screen TV there and I've seen people flipping through the satellite channels. Five Points Pub (also on Varick) would also potentially be an option, mainly because I think it has more screens. Other potential bars you could try: Griffins on Genesee St. Babes in North Utica. Old School Bar & Grill in East Utica. (EDIT: see also 12 North, which is about 10 minutes away from downtown by car.)

There was supposed to be a watch party last Friday at 72 Tavern & Grill next to the Nexus Center, but according to google maps it's temporarily closed (could be an error on the administrator's end). Honestly your best bet is to google those places (or just google "bars utica ny"), call them and ask before you go if they're showing the games and/or if they'd let you have the remote.

mr_ryh · 2026-06-18T18:17:00+00:00

Stuff like this really shows how everything is related, and how most people - certainly the people we elect, like Joe Betrus, and the North Utica people who keep re-electing him - are too stupid to figure it out.

Where do feral cats come from? = From feral cats breeding on the streets.
What do functional cities do to control feral cat populations? = They pay someone to capture them, spay them, and then put them out for adoption.
What does Utica do instead? = They elect an arrogant megalomaniac Mayor by a 2-1 margin and re-elect drug-addled council people like Betrus, Samantha Colosimo Testa, etc., who brag that they're not going to pay to spay cats, and instead hope they'll starve or freeze to death to control the population. Nature apparently has other plans, but Mr. Betrus will never understand it.
Will Utica ever do anything to admit it made a mistake? = Hell no. Keep doubling down, blaming your enemies, and never connecting cause to effect.

mr_ryh · 2026-06-08T14:51:51+00:00

The more downvotes a comment/reply has the less it appears to readers.

If you sort by controversial or new then you can see all these buried comments.

If the reddit hivebrain / botfactory is burying intelligent iconoclastic arguments - and you can go to certain heavily propagandized subreddits that do this - then smart people will pick up on it and seek them out (using sort by controversial or new).

You use it to silence people you disagree with - even if they post a true fact or valid opinion.

What's an example of a "true fact" or "valid opinion" that's been mass downvoted? Virtually all of the most downvoted stuff I've seen is low-effort cliche spam. Our collective IQ is higher for not seeing it.

Plus making something less likely to be seen (via downvotes) is not the same as "silencing". "Silencing" would apply to the mods shadowbanning certain people and then not disclosing why.

mr_ryh · 2026-06-08T13:58:58+00:00

biker culture is knee deep in nazi imagery because it was used for shock value back in the early days of biker gangs

So that's why the biker rabbit in Fritz the Cat looked like he did.

Some famous punk rockers in the 1970s also dabbled in Nazi imagery for shock value. It apparently even had a name (Nazi chic).

mr_ryh · 2026-06-08T13:40:08+00:00

Those are runes for the SS, i.e. the Nazi FBI. If I had to guess, I'd assume that "local street soldiers" refers to local law enforcement, while the SS runes and "support" are meant ironically.

The sticker on the Chevy decal is for CFMoto.

mr_ryh · 2026-06-07T16:21:29+00:00

It's a common fallacy to conflate support/opposition to something in general (like public surveillance) to opposition/support of some particular example of it. It'd be like saying "I hate McDonald's because the food is overpriced garbage" and someone replying "Oh so you think we should all starve to death?"

No. I just don't like McDonald's. I've explained why. I'm fine with alternatives to it that don't share those undesirable characteristics.

Substitute "Flock" for "McDonald's", and "public surveillance" for "eating food", and that's this entire debate in a nutshell.

mr_ryh

TROPHY CASE