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State police Public Information Officer Lynnea Crane told Ë®¹ûÅÉAV it was determined Taylor took "in excess of $1,000 from multiple clients to book travel insurance for an upcoming trip that was canceled due to (COVID-19)." Crane added that the offense involved a single trip. Taylor was given an appearance ticket. 

State police declined to disclose what travel agency Taylor worked for at the time, but according to Ë®¹ûÅÉAV archives she was the owner of the now-closed Auburn Travel Bureau at 144 Genesee St.

Mark Braun, of Doug’s, was named Upstate District Rural Owned Small Business Person of the Year for the region that covers 34 counties in upstate and central New York.

To be nominated, the SBA said in a news release, candidates must own and operate, or bear principal responsibility of the small business for at least three years and have participated in at least one type of SBA assistance, such as access to capital, business counseling or disaster assistance. Candidates are then scored on staying power, employee growth, increase in profit the past three years, response to adversity and contributions to community-oriented projects.

“Our 2024 National Small Business Week award winners exemplify excellence, innovation and commitment, and the SBA is proud to showcase their incredible achievements and impact on their communities and our economy," SBA Administrator Isabella Guzman said in a statement.

Lorraine Emmi, of Emmi's Realty in Auburn, is the winner of the Phyllis Goldman Award. The award recognizes a woman who owns a business and has demonstrated a "noteworthy entrepreneurial pursuit," the chamber said in a news release. It is named after Goldman, a local businesswoman who inspired other women to follow their hearts and dreams in pursuing careers.

Matthew Ferguson, of A&M Graphics in Auburn, is the winner of the Terri Bridenbecker Young Professional Award. The award recognizes an individual younger than 40 pursuing excellence in their career.

The Small Business of the Year Award goes to Mentz restaurant Potter's Farm to Fork in the category of businesses less than 5 years old. The award for businesses older than 5 years old goes to Weedsport beauty salon Stacey's Permanent Solutions. The awards recognize entrepreneurship and the ability to overcome adversity in the changing business environment, respectively.

Empower Federal Credit Union is the winner of the Business Leader Award, which recognizes businesses that continually invest in the county and take an active role in the community.

The Finger Lakes SPCA of CNY in Auburn is the winner of the Non-Profit of the Year Award. The award recognizes nonprofits that enhance the community's quality of life or contribute to its economic base.

The Community Leadership Award, which recognizes a Leadership Cayuga alum for their participation in civic organizations and leadership in the community, goes to Julisa J. Stone, class of 2018.

The winners will be recognized at the annual Chamber Awards Luncheon, which will be held at 11:30 a.m. Thursday, May 9, at the Springside Inn in Fleming.

For more information, or to order tickets for the luncheon, visit .

DeVito, who was executive director of the district since 2015, told Ë®¹ûÅÉAV she resigned to pursue new opportunities "that are more aligned with my career for the future."

The president of the district's board of directors, Dawn Schulz, told Ë®¹ûÅÉAV it is working to find a new executive director. Assistant Director Jesse Kline is leading the organization in the meantime.

The resignation comes as Ë®¹ûÅÉAV investigates a report it received last fall that a discrimination complaint was filed against DeVito.

This week, Ë®¹ûÅÉAV filed a lawsuit against the Business Improvement District in Cayuga County Supreme Court seeking access to the complaint and related records. Two Freedom of Information Law requests seeking those records were denied in December by the district, which said it is not subject to the law because it is not a government agency.

The lawsuit asks that the denials be overturned and the records be provided, arguing that the district is a government agency because it  a tax from 110 downtown Auburn property owners of $3 for every $1,000 in assessed value. The state Committee on Open Government has also business improvement districts as government agencies. 

Asked for comment on the reported complaint, DeVito provided the following statement to Ë®¹ûÅÉAV: "There have never been any implications of discrimination against me, as I've always supported all diverse populations. This is the last time I will address this issue because there is no merit and my record and reputation speaks for itself."

The eclipse cake, by the numbers: 

10

The cake was actually 10 sheet cakes combined into one. 

77

Wegmans bakers used 77 pounds of butter creme frosting to decorate the eclipse cake. 

15Ìý

The number of hours it took for two cake decorators to complete their work. 

8-10

According to Wegmans, eight to 10 employees were needed to carry the cake. 

375+

The total weight of the cake, with the cake board and cover, is approximately 375 to 400 pounds. 

55

The number of minutes it took to cut the cake and distribute slices to attendees. There were lines of people waiting for the free pieces of cake until it was gone. 

What's not known is how many slices were served, but there were more than 1,500 people who attended the party at Falcon Park. 

The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children received a CyberTipline report on the offenses in late April 2023, state police said, leading to an investigation that lasted several months. 

One of the northernmost parts of the county, Fair Haven Beach State Park, attracted about 1,000 people for the longest local period of totality — three minutes and 25 seconds. Beforehand, the crowd browsed souvenirs and passed the time by picnicking, grilling hot dogs, flying kites, playing catch and more.

"It's a pretty remarkable experience to be here with all these people," said Lael Costa, who came to Fair Haven from State College, Pennsylvania.

"Even knowing what to expect ... it's a very profound, visceral experience," he said after totality ended. "You feel it in your chest. Something very special has happened." 

Traffic entering the small village was negligible throughout the day. Leaving late Monday afternoon, Ë®¹ûÅÉAV staff reported being briefly backed up on Route 38 in the town of Victory.

Another 1,500 people gathered at Falcon Park in Auburn, where the city and the Doubledays hosted Falcon Park Eclipse Fest. The event featured a large cake by Wegmans, family activities and more.

"At least you got to see it get dark," attendee Paul Gagliano Sr. told Ë®¹ûÅÉAV.

"But Mother Nature — this morning we had those gaps and I was praying to God that we didn't come up against this situation."

A smaller gathering took place on the roof of the Phoenix Building downtown, where the Cayuga Museum of History & Art hosted a viewing event for about 25 people.

"It's the only event in my lifetime," attendee Karen Pollard, of Marcellus, told Ë®¹ûÅÉAV. "My father was born in 1922, so he was 3 years old when this happened before. It's just amazing."

For Pollard, the cloudy eclipse wasn't so disappointing because being on top of the historic downtown building was its own draw.

"I'd have done this whether there was an eclipse or not," she said. "To be able to be up high and see what you don't normally see of Auburn."

Along with affecting major cities like Akron, Ohio, and Rome, New York, the totality path change affects a thin swath of Cayuga County between Auburn and Moravia. The affected towns are Ledyard, Scipio, Fleming and Owasco. Landmarks within the swath include MacKenzie-Childs headquarters in Ledyard and Dutch Hollow Country Club in Owasco. 

Those within that swath will still see the eclipse but not totality, which is when the moon's shadow completely covers the sun. The farther north in Cayuga County, the longer totality will last.

When will the total solar eclipse begin in Cayuga County?

The eclipse will begin locally at about 2:08 p.m. and totality will start at about 3:21 p.m., both depending on the location.

About how long will totality last in Auburn? Fair Haven? Skaneateles?

• Fair Haven: 3 minutes, 25 seconds
• Weedsport: 2:26
• Cayuga: 2:04
• Auburn: 1:48
• Skaneateles: 1:27
• Union Springs: 1:25

But in a decision issued Feb. 22, Judge Paul Engelmayer of U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, awarded the firm $53,050.13 — less than half of its request. 

The judge based his decision on the firm's use of ChatGPT to "cross-check" other sources for its fee request that Engelmayer called "problematic." 

"The Cuddy Law Firm's invocation of ChatGPT as support for its aggressive fee bid is utterly and unusually unpersuasive," he said. "As the firm should have appreciated, treating ChatGPT's conclusions as a useful gauge of the reasonable billing rate for the work of a lawyer with a particular background carrying out a bespoke assignment for a client in a niche practice area was misbegotten at the jump."

Referencing cases where attorneys used fake citations generated by ChatGPT, Engelmayer said the Cuddy Law Firm did not identify the inputs it used with the artificial intelligence software.

"It does not reveal whether ChatGPT anywhere considered a very real and relevant data point: the uniform bloc of precedent, canvassed below, in which courts in this District and Circuit have rejected as excessive the billing rates the Cuddy Law Firm urges for its timekeepers," he said. "The Court therefore rejects out of hand ChatGPT's conclusions as to the appropriate billing rates here."

The judge then advised the firm to avoid using ChatGPT when requesting legal fees in the future unless there is a "paradigm shift in the reliability of this tool."

His opinion was in February by Bloomberg News, which said it came as "the legal industry struggles to figure out how to integrate artificial intelligence into its work."

However, the firm's founder and managing attorney, Andrew Cuddy, told Ë®¹ûÅÉAV this week that he believes the judge's opinion was based on bad information and bias.

Cuddy accused the court, where his firm has litigated "hundreds of these cases," of ignoring what he called "proof" that its fees are reasonable, including bar association surveys and affidavits from other attorneys that the firm has sent the court. He also said that he doesn't believe Engelmayer fully understood how the firm used ChatGPT, and that it sent an affidavit with the inputs the firm used. 

"The court is at war against the law firm because we assist families who have no money," Cuddy said. "In his lack of concern for children with disabilities, he mishandled the case and that was the result." 

Measuring 21.5 feet and weighing 350 pounds, the metal glasses are on display at the corner of Genesee and Court streets in the village. 

"It's been really fun to see people take photos with them," Busch told Ë®¹ûÅÉAV. "The total eclipse was a celestial party, and what's a party without some oversized accessories?"

Busch, who loves welding in her spare time, said she made the glasses "just for fun." The process took her about two weeks.

She started by researching the Guinness World Record for the largest glasses, which is a pair at American Paper Optics, of Memphis, measuring 32 feet long by 3 feet high. Instead of chasing that record, Busch decided to make glasses larger than the oversized ones commonly used by museums and municipalities to give large groups a shared viewing experience. Those measure about 8 feet long.

Though she was confident she could make frames bigger than that, Busch also needed to make big enough lenses from the ISO 12312-2 material necessary to view solar eclipses safely. She credited her former welding teacher, Cal Manning of Haun Welding Supply in Syracuse, with helping her conceive the lenses. She credited Finger Lakes Recycling in Geneva for helping with the project as well.

Busch ended up buying four rolls of ISO 12312-2 and holding them in place with window tint material at the seams. The lenses measure 102 inches and the sides each 78 for a total of 258, or 21.5 feet. 

With the eclipse over, Busch said the glasses will likely provide metal for future welding projects unless someone wants them — perhaps someone in the path of totality of the next total solar eclipse.