Newspapers Still Matter

Why should any important and dynamic region assume that the future of its daily newspaper will be entirely dictated by the market forces of the World Wide Web?

Maybe I'm a journalistic dinosaur, one of the Jurassic few who -- after many years of careful consideration -- refuse to believe that newspapers can not and will not control their own destinies. How?

Content: It's key. And this is where newspapers can and should remain true to their mission and their mandate, which is to survey the landscape, ask the hard questions, dig into information and uphold their end of the democratic bargain. We aren't called the 40th Estate. We are the Fourth Estate -- a lofty position that the newspaper industry must fight to honor.

The mechanics of content delivery have indeed been radically changed by the proliferation of websites alleging to deliver top-notch content. But a careful examination of those popular sites would probably demonstrate that most of the "best" content online is
A) being authored by seasoned journalists who know how to ask the right questions, who know where to look and how to write
or
B) the work of these journalists and journalistic operations are being streamed or aggregated into "new" Web 2.0 creations.

I think newspapers are smart to utilize real-time technology to keep themselves vital in their communities. I am eager to help innovate the online aspects of newspaper content delivery so that a paper can maximize its greatest asset -- content -- and make it accessible and formatted for the growth potential of an online readership community.

Destination: Newsroom

Laura Vecsey

2911 W. Boston St.

Seattle, Washington 98199

Phone: (206) 213-0749

Email: lauravecsey@yahoo.com

OBJECTIVE: To rejoin a newspaper that is equally committed "old-school" journalism & new-world technology.

QUALIFICATIONS:

I am passionate about journalism and local news coverage. I am a self-starter and an analytically- astute and creative thinker. I began my career in Albany, where I served as copy editor, reporter and columnist before moving to larger market newspapers in Seattle and Baltimore. I would like to dedicate my reporting, thinking and writing services again to a newspaper committed to serving its community and to utilizing its technological resources in the brave new world of daily journalism.

EDUCATION

1979-1983 B.A. Sarah Lawrence College

2007-Present University of Washington (MFA candidate)

EMPLOYMENT

2008 -Present -- Local Content Director, Seattle

Examiner.com

Examiner.com is a new website that is building local knowledge networks in cities across the U.S. My main responsibilities include recruiting and managing local experts in Seattle to deliver timely posts in their key areas of expertise.

2005-Present Author, freelance writer, MFA candidate University of Washington

2002-2005 Sports columnist, The Baltimore Sun

Main columnist for major metro daily with circulation of 350,000 and 480,000 Sundays.

As the “voice” of the sports section, I chose topics according to breaking news, trends, personalities and game-day events for all major sports, including NFL, major league baseball, collegiate athletics, Olympics and NBA.

1994-2002 Sports columnist, Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Main sports columnist for 200,000 circulation daily newspaper.

1986-1994 Journalist, Albany (NY) Times Union

Copy editor, reporter and sports columnist for this 100,000 circulation daily. Edited news articles for all sections of the newspaper. Beat reporter and award-winning writer on several municipal beats.

Columns Can React to News, Tell Stories, Demonstrate Vision

There are pitchers who rely on one pitch as their out pitch. Power pitchers, usually, who go to the fastball or the sinker. They are a special commodity. And then there are those pitchers whose effectiveness depends on an array of offerings. They are change-up type hurlers. Curve, fastball, sinker, slider. They vary the speed and location of their pitches.

I'd like to think this is my strength as a columnist. I like to use different approaches, different styles and tones depending on the column du jour. Columns can break news, enhance coverage, or a column can lift the view and discussion to another level. I think changing pace keeps the column fresh, versatile, interesting -- hopefully.

Here are some links to some of my favored columns.

At the 2004 Summer Olympics in Greece, Baltimore Scores Big

Loyola (Md.) College lacrosse coach Diane Geppi fights 'til the end with brain cancer.

No one knows Mike Tyson like his former trainer, Teddy Atlas

Ravens are Super Bowl Champs You Love to Hate
(This column was written in Seattle. When I arrived in Ravens-crazy Baltimore to write a sports column for The Baltimore Sun, imagine how unhappy many people were about this.)


Here is the first column I wrote for The Baltimore Sun:

Leave it to Babe to start new home run
[FINAL Edition]
The Sun - Baltimore, Md.
Author:	LAURA VECSEY
Date:	Sep 4, 2002
Section:	SPORTS
Text Word Count:	935
Document Text
TALL SHIPS in the Inner Harbor and water taxis puttering toward Fells Point told me I was in the right place. Baltimore. So did the Maryland Terrapins basketball fan whose chest bore a "Fear the Turtle" T-shirt and the Harborplace maintenance worker wearing a cap emblazoned with the Colts logo. Not the Ravens. Colts. But fresh off a plane from Seattle - another harbor city that had the sense to follow Baltimore's lead and also set a gorgeous baseball theater downtown by the water - I was in search of a starting point. Where do I begin? For the past eight years, I wrote a sports column in Seattle. Seahawks fans, by the way, are still infatuated with Trent Dilfer and thank the Ravens and Brian Billick for casting off their Super Bowl QB. Oddly, Dilfer's speedy and complete recovery from a knee injury may be crucial to Mike Holmgren's job security. As for the Mariners, it's not as if a late-season swoon is unheard of. In 1997, Mike Mussina and the O's demoralized Randy Johnson and the M's not once, but twice, to win that American League Division Series, 3-1. Come to think of it, weren't the O's supposed to win the World Series that season? Whatever happened to all those guys anyway? Alomar? Anderson? Cal? Anyone? Before Seattle, I wrote sports columns and news stories in Albany, N.Y. (and Baltimore likes to think of itself as a gritty, blue-collar kind of town). But this is something new: Writing a sports column in a city where March 28, 1984, is one of the most important dates in world history; where Frank Robinson, Brooks Robinson and Boog Powell once went 1-2-3 in the AL MVP voting; where fear and loathing lurk any time there is mention of major-league baseball making the Expos the Beltway's newest attraction. Where is the best place to commence this awesome enterprise for which I have been chosen? And then it hit me. It must begin right under the statue of George Herman "Babe" Ruth, the one that stands sentry outside Oriole Park at Camden Yards. It seemed the only natural place to start this new incarnation in this great American city. So I walked to Eutaw Street, stood stone still and looked straight up into the blue skies, where the Babe's barrel-chested figure loomed. The sun was shining down on him, like the universe's biggest spotlight could not resist highlighting him to this very day, even after Roger Maris, Hank Aaron, Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa and Barry Bonds had eclipsed him in the record books. But no one can diminish the Babe's place or legend as god among baseball's immortals, which might explain why the sun's glare almost looked like a halo around his bronzed head. And so I prayed. OK, I did not actually pray, but that's only because a cute couple on their honeymoon asked me to snap their photo with the Babe. Otherwise I definitely would have prayed. You see, for the past month, ever since I accepted this job, I've had this recurring dream. OK, it's more like a nightmare, but in this dream/nightmare, I am Elyse. You know Elyse, of Eddie and Elyse from the classic Baltimore movie Diner by Barry Levinson. Elyse has to pass the Colts football quiz Eddie will administer under LSAT conditions, otherwise the marriage is off. You see, in this business, you don't worry so much about getting fired or making editors unhappy - all bad things, of course. But the worst thing you can do is disappoint the readers. Making readers mad or happy is one thing; making them believe you're a knucklehead is unspeakably bad. Which is why I don't want to fail the test, like Elyse, who did not know that George Shaw was not a first-round draft pick (he was a bonus pick) but did know that Alan Ameche had the longest run from scrimmage of any Colts rookie (79-yard run, Opening Day, 1955) in his first game. Now you can understand the decision to pray to St. Babe. You may also understand my decision to follow the painted baseballs on the sidewalk that led me to the Babe Ruth Birthplace and Museum. It was the best place to begin this job, this journey, this high- wire act. The time line of Baltimore's sports history is rich. It's so rich, it's a little daunting - particularly for someone who might be experiencing a touch of the "Elyse" syndrome. But this is going to pass. From broadcaster Ernie Harwell, the one-time voice of the Orioles, to the late John Steadman, the esteemed historian and sports columnist, the story of Baltimore sports is well-chronicled. My job, my vision, is to be a witness and a voice for the next leg of this race. I know I don't come from this place. Nowhere on my birth certificate does it say "Baltimore" or "Maryland." But it's tough not to feel at home here. People call you "Hon." They try to lure you to live in their particular neighborhood, be it Mount Washington or Catonsville, city or county. And underneath it all, aren't we all connected in some big way? You don't think a native New Yorker like me didn't grow up fascinated with B. Robinson? Or feel as if big Boog was like one of my cut-up uncles? Broadway Joe might have predicted that Super Bowl win, but Johnny Unitas was always the first, the greatest. It says so at the museum at Babe's old Baltimore house, the place where it all started, first for him, now perfect for me. Seahawks fans, by the way, are still infatuated with Trent Dilfer and thank the Ravens and Brian Billick for casting off their Super Bowl QB. Oddly, Dilfer's speedy and complete recovery from a knee injury may be crucial to Mike Holmgren's job security. You know Elyse, of Eddie and Elyse from the classic Baltimore movie Diner by Barry Levinson. Which is why I don't want to fail the test, like Elyse, who did not know that George Shaw was not a first-round draft pick (he was a bonus pick) but did know that Alan Ameche had the longest run from scrimmage of any Colts rookie (79-yard run, Opening Day, 1955) in his first game. ***************************************************************************** COLUMN ON STEROIDS: What will a congressional hearing accomplish when players see no evil in steroid use? [FINAL Edition] The Sun - Baltimore, Md. Author: LAURA VECSEY Date: Mar 8, 2005 Section: SPORTS Text Word Count: 741 Document Text IT GIVES ME great pleasure to announce this will be the last column I write about steroids and baseball. Unless, of course, the grandstanding congressmen who want to squeeze every last drop of scandal out of the downsized Jason Giambi, among others, succeed in holding their scheduled "hearing" March 17 on Capitol Hill. Then this will be the second-to-last column I write about steroids and baseball. Maybe Rep. Tom Davis is getting a kickback from Jose Canseco's publisher. Nothing like a tell-all book from a disgraced slugger to drive the agenda of our nation's leaders. No one except Canseco (with a book to sell) wants a congressional hearing, especially Sammy Sosa, Rafael Palmeiro, Mark McGwire, Frank Thomas, commissioner Bud Selig, Padres general manager Kevin Towers and former Athletics general manager Sandy Alderson. They've mostly said they'll respectfully decline. Yet Rep. Davis told CBS that the House Government Reform Committee is prepared to subpoena players and officials. Earth to Washington: Can't we move on? What, exactly, is the point of this hearing? If, under oath, players other than the ones who admitted steroid use before the BALCO grand jury (Barry Bonds, Giambi, Gary Sheffield) are forced to say they, too, juiced up, where does it stop? The guess here is that the only thing left to establish would be a list of every player who ever took steroids. If the point is to demonstrate steroid use was as widespread as has been reported, if the point is to demonstrate that owners and officials were complicit in players' steroid use, why would those who were "invited" to testify stop at merely indicting themselves? This is not a necessary exercise. Not now, anyway. In these confessional days of the Post-Steroid Era, I'll admit there were times in the past that I took slightly sadistic pleasure in watching and/or reading about baseball officials being grilled by grandstanding members of Congress. Squirming dogs under the bright lights of C-SPAN: what a beautiful comeuppance. This includes a relentlessly pointed attack last year by Sen. John McCain on the players association's Donald Fehr. The union boss was called to Washington and told, basically, to come up with a drug- testing policy that included "real teeth." Otherwise, Congress would take care of the problem. These dog and pony hearings weren't scripted for Comedy Central by Dave Chapelle, but don't think it didn't cross my mind. But baseball is different this year from ever before. Even taking into consideration how late and how lax the drug-testing policy is that owners and players have now implemented, it's still better than the lawless, insidious, clandestine, cheatin' Steroid Era that just preceded us. So, is there really a need to waste one more breath, let alone taxpayer dollars, on the sordid little details of needles and creams? Not when the specter of steroid use by major league baseball players is apparently already being curtailed. More than 5 percent of the players tested positive in 2003, a threshold that triggered mandatory testing in 2004. Last week, Selig said the percentage of players who tested positive in 2004 was down to 1 to 2 percent. That's an improvement from the moment in January 2004 when President Bush used the State of the Union address to embarrass baseball and other pro athletes. If players weren't afraid of public reaction to steroid use, or at least concerned about how admitting use would affect guaranteed contracts or endorsement deals, then why have so many players lied about using steroids? That was then, before baseball finally stopped the bleeding. If Bonds can suddenly shift from a strategy of deny, deny, deny into a posture that, curiously, attempts to rationalize players' history of steroid use, that means he's trying to come clean, so to speak. "You're talking about something that wasn't even illegal at the time," Bonds told The Oakland Tribune and ESPN. "All this stuff about supplements, protein shakes, whatever. Man, it's not like this is the Olympics. ... We're entertainers. If I can't go out there and somebody pays $60 for a ticket, and I'm not in the lineup, who's getting cheated? Not me. So we all make mistakes. ... We need to forget about the past and let us play the game. We're entertainers. Let us entertain." Bonds wasn't invited to Washington, but he made his point. It smacked of a jailhouse confession. This is as much testimony from a star witness as this baseball fan needs. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction or distribution is prohibited without permission. Abstract (Document Summary) What, exactly, is the point of this hearing? If, under oath, players other than the ones who admitted steroid use before the BALCO grand jury (Barry Bonds, [Jason Giambi], Gary Sheffield) are forced to say they, too, juiced up, where does it stop? The guess here is that the only thing left to establish would be a list of every player who ever took steroids. If the point is to demonstrate steroid use was as widespread as has been reported, if the point is to demonstrate that owners and officials were complicit in players' steroid use, why would those who were "invited" to testify stop at merely indicting themselves? If Bonds can suddenly shift from a strategy of deny, deny, deny into a posture that, curiously, attempts to rationalize players' history of steroid use, that means he's trying to come clean, so to speak.

Griffey, A-Rod, Piniella, The Big Unit

In 1995, not many people in Seattle believed that the hapless ol' Mariners were actually capable of making history. The franchise had toiled in futility for 18 seasons ... until August of '95. The M's ate away at the AL West lead held by the Angels and, in a one-game playoff, beat the Angels to earn the Mariners' first playoff berth ever.

I was proud to be around that team almost every day ... and to write about their incredible achievement. It only further solidified my lifelong love of baseball and its daily theater. Some of my columns from that amazing '95 season were collected in a book: A Magic Season.

Sports Columnist in a Sports Town

As the sports columnist for The Baltimore Sun from 2002-2005, I learned first-hand what it's like to write about and for a city whose passion for its sports is (nearly) unchallenged ... except by Philadelphia.

Though this list is incomplete, I am honored that The Baltimore Sun continues to carry some of my archived columns on its website.

I covered the Orioles, Ravens, the University of Maryland. I went to the World Series, the Super Bowl and the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece, where Baltimore native and gold-medal swimmer Michael Phelps was The Star of the summer ...

Talk about a hometown hero.

Cohoes: Young Reporter's Dream Beat

Nothing tops the old Albany city Democratic machine for dirty politics and intrigue. William Kennedy has won a Pulitzer using Albany's colorful history as his literary backdrop. But for a young reporter like I was in 1990, the mini-machine of Cohoes Democratic party proved it was out to earn the silver medal to Albany's gold.

In 1990, I uncovered a series of baffling purchases by the Cohoes public safety division. The old ruling regime, led by former Mayor Ron Canestrari, was being challenged by new-comer/mayor Bobby Signoracci, whose minions were eager to help me uncover old, serious auditing flaws.

I wrote about how Cohoes city funds were used to buy a "Ghostbusters" video ... and much, much more!

Here is the story that prompted a month-long investigation:

Section: MAIN
Page: A1
Date: FRIDAY, February 16, 1990

COHOES PULLS PLUG AFTER GEAR VANISHES

By Laura Vecsey Staff writer

How could buying "Ghostbusters" software for personal computers and a "Voyage to the Planets" videotape help the Cohoes Civil Defense Department in its disaster-relief duties? The city administration will try to figure out the answer to that question and several more following a lengthy audit of the department's purchase of more than $100,000 in electronic equipment over the past five years. A lot of that equipment cannot be accounted for.

Missing are about 140 police scanners and antennas, as well as several cellular telephones. Also gone are two personal computers, which were supposed to be used to keep track of inventory.

Civil Defense Director Ned Guyer said whatever is not accounted for has been lost. "They (civil defense volunteers) would go to a fire or a drowning, they would lose things," he said.

While awaiting answers on the missing equipment, Mayor Robert Signoracci has shut off telephone service at the Civil Defense Department's Central Avenue office, taken back a city-owned car used by various volunteers and stripped the unit of its $30,000 budget.

Comptroller Edward Fennell, who conducted the civil defense audit as part of Signoracci's request to inventory everything the city owns, said the $30,000 appropriation was no longer justifiable "because it would appear as a result of the audit that they have more than enough inventory."

The Civil Defense Department, a volunteer group charged of late with crowd control at fires and directing traffic during church bazaars, has been a hindrance to the city's firefighters and police officers, according to union representatives from both of those departments.

"They are overequipped," said Cohoes Police Benevolent Association President Bill Heslin. "And in the opinion of the police officers, they served no legitimate purpose."

Cohoes Firefighters Union President Dave Kehn said the civil defense volunteers have been a financial liability to city taxpayers and a safety liability to firefighters.

"There was a drowning; they have a boat; they didn't show up," Kehn said. "There was a fire at a church and we needed them, they never came. They're unreliable, undependable. It's on the record. There's no secret about it."

"They had a lot of equipment," Kehn said. "But it has disappeared over the years and whoever is in charge I hope they can account for it. I'd be interested in seeing all that equipment."

Guyer, who noted his role was administrative, said he allowed his assistant, Ken Coliss, to take charge of all purchasing. Guyer said Coliss assured him that equipment was accounted for. "Ken and the fire chief did an inventory and found everything in order, at least that's what he told me" he said. Coliss was reported to be in the hospital and unavailable for comment.

According to the Civil Defense Department audit, the city can lay its hands on only about 60 of the 202 scanners and antennas purchased between 1985 and 1989. The scanners cost an average of $350.

In addition, an examination by The Times Union of claims paid by the city for civil defense purchases in 1989 revealed the department bought a personal computer and printers, subscriptions to computer magazines, a stereo tuner and a videocassette player.

City Treasurer Steve Niedbalec, the former city comptroller, said he did not recall the department's purchase of a personal computer. Guyer said Coliss bought two computers "to keep track of inventory." However, Coliss did not include the computers on the list of inventory he submitted to Fennell.

Niedbalec said he was told by Coliss that the VCR was needed to watch disaster-preparedness training films. Last June, the city paid $24.95 for a videotape entitled "Voyage to the Planets."

In addition, computer software programs called "Ghostbusters," "TV Gameshows" and "World of Golf" were ordered, along with a joystick, and were delivered to Coliss last fall. He apparently mailed back these items shortly before Fennell asked for the inventory list. Niedbalec said he never conducted an inventory of the equipment and signed off on payments because the money had been appropriated.

Signoracci said he will meet Saturday with Guyer to discuss the inventory and plan the department's reorganization.

"We can't point fingers unless we have an explanation first," Signoracci said. "I'd like to meet with the director. We'll take every step to get this stuff back."

A Murderer's Confession & A Bishop's Work

After working as a copy editor for the Times Union from 1986-1988, I became a reporter. My beats included the suburban development of Saratoga County and the gritty, urban cities of Cohoes and Watervliet.

I wrote about Bishop Hubbard's tour of local Catholic parishes.

I also trailed a Cohoes man who murdered his wife and who then covered it up for two weeks, with the police hot on his trail. My jail-house confession from Michael Craver earned me a subpoena, which eventually did land me on the witness stand during Craver's murder trial.

Follows is the jail-house confession:

Section: MAIN
Page: A1
Date: FRIDAY, September 8, 1989

REMORSEFUL CRAVER SAYS HE ACCIDENTALLY KILLED HIS WIFE

By Laura Vecsey Staff writer

Michael S. Craver, the Cohoes supermarket clerk accused of strangling his wife and burying her corpse in an abandoned garage, admitted in an interview that he took her life but said Thursday that he doesn't want people to think he's a "cold-hearted killer."

Craver spoke by telephone from the Albany County Jail in Colonie where he awaits trial on two counts of second-degree murder. In a series of interviews requested by the Times Union, he said he accidentally killed 26- year-old Mary Ann Craver during an argument in which she claimed he was not the father of their son.

"It was purely accidental, not intentional ... She came at me in the bedroom, slapped me a couple times," Craver said, when asked if he had killed his wife.

After weeks of marital tension, Craver said he snapped when his wife said he wasn't the father of their 9-year-old son, Jason, and she called Justin, Craver's 4-year-old child by another woman, his "bastard son."

"She was laughing, saying that Jason wasn't my son, and that remark about Justin, my son by another woman. I grabbed hold (of her). I don't remember the rest."

Mary Ann Craver's body was found July 13 by Cohoes and State Police investigators in a garage several hundred yards from the Cravers' apartment on Lincoln Avenue in Cohoes. She had been strangled.

Craver had reported his wife's disappearance to Cohoes police April 17. He told them he had last seen her the night before, wearing a nightgown and reading a book in the living room.

In the interviews, the 33-year-old Craver said he was trying to hold his marriage together, but that his wife had "badgered" him with stories about her relationships with other men.

He said he was high on cocaine and marijuana April 16, the night of the killing.

"I was drinking kind of heavy," Craver said. "I didn't want to do it, but I was doing drugs - coke, marijuana. I don't really remember it all. But it was constant, her cutting me down, talking about the ... guys she had been with."

Craver said he was horrified at how quickly her death happened. "There was no loud noise," he said. "To realize she was actually dead was horrifying. I tried to wake her. I couldn't believe it ... happened."

Asked why he didn't call police immediately, Craver said he was concerned about his children.

"You have to put yourself in my position," he said. "I was in shock. I was trying to protect my kids."

Craver said he kept his wife's body in the apartment until the next day. "I had her with me there ... she was on the bed. I got her dressed," he said.

Asked why he removed her nightgown and dressed her in street clothes, Craver said it was because "she was cold."

Craver said he decided to bury the body in the garage after his dog, Lucky, got loose. "My dog was chasing the neighbor's dog over there," he said. "I guess that's where I got the idea. I didn't have a shovel. I just used my hands."

Craver said he put her body in the garage "to keep her close by."

Mary Ann Craver was 14 when she met Craver. She became pregnant by him when she was 16, and the two were married when Jason was 4 years old. While Craver worked in a supermarket, his wife worked in a Cohoes mill.

Between 1973 and 1983, Craver was arrested nine times in Watervliet on charges ranging from harassment to misdemeanor assault to violations of Family Court orders. Many of the charges involved his wife, but she withdrew most of them, ending prosecution.

The couple had been separated until about a year ago, Craver said, but his wife had wanted to get back together. For several months, things had been going well between them, he said. However, Craver said his wife wanted to break up with him after she renewed her relationship with Scott Heeter, a Mount McGregor Correctional Facility inmate she had met during her separation from Craver.

Craver, who found Heeter's letters, said he nagged his wife about that relationship. He said his wife "betrayed" him by seeing other men, by "writing to that guy."

He said he knew his wife wanted him to move out of their apartment, but, despite the quarreling, he couldn't leave.

"I knew the situation was getting bad, but I thought there was something I could do," he said.

"I really loved her and I was trying to fix things up," Craver said, "but she was doing things behind my back. I guess she didn't understand that (I still loved her.) She didn't care about me or Justin. She was just playing the game. But as far as I knew, we were husband and wife. We were a family."

Craver said he went back to the garage "once, a day or two after" burying her body. "I don't really know why, possibly just to see her."

He said he tried several times to turn himself in to Cohoes police. What stopped him, he said, were his children.

"I tried many times to turn myself in," he said. "I walked down to the post office, and the police station is right there across the street. I tried to turn myself in but I'd look down at my little kid and I couldn't do it. I was worried about what would happen (to him.)"

Craver never did turn himself in. Instead, he was arrested July 13, hours after he was questioned by police and, according to authorities, drew a map leading them to his wife's body. Craver said he is remorseful.

"I love my wife right now," he said, adding, "I have to live this hell."

He said he would prefer a plea-bargain agreement to a trial. Albany County Chief Assistant District Attorney Daniel Dwyer said Wednesday that he expects pretrial motions in Craver's case to be heard in the next four weeks.

"I'd like to avoid trial for one reason - to let her (Mary Ann Craver's) family avoid a trial and not bring it back, all the pain and suffering," Craver said.

Craver said he doesn't know how he'll explain to his sons what happened that April night. "The biggest thing on my mind is getting home to the children," he said. "I've got a lot of explaining to do to them. How would I even begin, I don't know. I guess I'll have to wait and find out what they know. As time goes on, I'm sure they'll learn more."

Seven different family members have petitioned Family Court for custody of the boys. A hearing was held Wednesday, but a decision on placement was delayed because several of the parties didn't have attorneys.

Mary Ann Craver's mother, Florence Tambolleo of Watervliet, wants the boys to stay together. So does Craver.

"They can't be split up," he said. "That's all they have left out there." Craver said he wants the children to live with his sister, Sharon Craver of Cohoes. He also said he has written to his wife's parents, "expressing my feelings to them," and hopes they won't turn his children against him.

Tambolleo said Wednesday that she did not believe her daughter would taunt Craver about Jason. She also said Craver should have nothing to say about where the boys live, "not when he took my daughter's life."

Craver said he also suffers a sense of loss with his wife's death. "I lost the woman I love the most," he said. "I stand to lose a lot more."