Syracuse federal agent recalls 9/11 investigation in first-ever interview (Good Morning CNY for Sept. 7)

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DOUBLE DUTY: The Mavericks, the Grammy Award-winning band that’s hit it big in country, pop, Latin and Tex-Mex music, played two vastly different sets in six hours at our State Fair on Sunday. The band first took the stage at 2 p.m. and did the entire hourlong concert in Spanish, promoting its album “En Español” that it released last August. They returned at 7 p.m. sharp for a 60-minute set in English to a much larger crowd. See more photos and read a review. (Charlie Miller photo)

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Syracuse federal agent recalls 9/11 investigation, empty shoes, acts of kindness: Twenty years ago, Mary Kate Anton was like most Americans, watching in horror at an unimaginable tragedy as nearly 3,000 lives perished on Sept. 11, 2001. Anton, a Special Agent with the U.S. Department of Defense, was 26 years old at the time and had just recently graduated from the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center. She was deployed to NYC the next day to help look for evidence that would identify the victims and those who carried out the attack. “I could never have anticipated what my first few months as a federal agent would look like,” she said in her first-ever interview about the 9/11 investigation.

On 9/11, fighter pilots raced over Syracuse to take down the only private plane in the air in the US

Feds extend I-81 public comment period: Federal highway officials have extended a public comment period on the proposed $2 billion Interstate 81 project, according to the state Department of Transportation. The 30-day extension allows people more time to study the massive proposal and submit comments to the state and federal officials overseeing the plan.

More vaccinated people ending up in hospitals: The percentage of Covid-19 patients who had been fully vaccinated has climbed sharply in Syracuse hospitals this summer. Numbers just released by Onondaga County show that while fully vaccinated people are still far less likely than the unvaccinated to be hospitalized, the gap has gotten smaller.

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2021 New York State Fair

NYS Fair total attendance down 40% from 2019: The 2021 New York State Fair saw 798,095 total visitors over 18 days -- about 40% down from 2019 and the lowest overall since 1985, when the event only lasted 10 days. The average daily attendance this year was 44,339, the lowest since before World War II. It’s clear Covid concerns remain high, but a rep for the Fair said: “I think the biggest success this year is that we opened the doors, period.”

Sports

Syracuse running back Sean Tucker evades Ohio defenders during an Saturday’s college football game in Athens, Ohio. Tucker had a career-high 181 yards for SU.

Orange win season opener, give Syracuse football fans some hope: It’s OK to have hope again. The Syracuse football team will be better than last year. It proved that much on Saturday. Of course, it was going to be hard for the Orange to be any worse. The Orange matched last season’s win total in its opener, a 29-9 win over Ohio. It won on the road – and displayed on-field reasons for optimism – for the first time since 2019.

CNY coaching legend misses first game in 46 years: Baldwinsville head football coach Carl Sanfilippo kept a perfect record for more than four decades. In 37 seasons with the Bees and eight as an assistant coach with CBA, Sanfilippo said he had never missed a football game. He pushed through slush, snow, aches and pains to show up for around 400 contests in a row. That ironman streak ended Friday night and, as is often the case with these types of things, it was a casualty of a fluke.

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