Ithaca statue dedication, fake sheriff scams, ballot issues, Wegmans dethroned

Good morning ☀️

It’s Wednesday and we’re halfway through the week. Keep up the good work (or relaxation) and give yourself a pat on the back. We’ll make it through this one together.

I’d like to apologize for yesterday’s newsletter displaying an outdated version of the top story. Come back and take a look at the article now if you’re curious.

If you have any Finger Lakes moments you’d like to share, send me your best photos and a short passage to JMack@gannett.com so I can share the love with other readers this Friday.

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Without further ado, here’s an update on some shining faces returning to Ithaca, in one way or another.

Ithaca icons immortalized: 2 statues to memorialize historic women

Chair of the Tompkins County Legislature Dan Klein will see a familiar face in a statue that will soon be on display in the city of Ithaca thanks to an established sculptor.

At 10 a.m. on Saturday, Aug 17, the Ithaca Historic Statues Steering Committee is inviting Ithacans to the unveiling of a statue honoring two Ithaca icons - Lucy Brown and Frances Perkins - hand-made by renowned sculptor Meredith Bergmann.

“I had the privilege of working with Lucy Brown a little bit on some beautification projects,” he said Monday. “One thing I admired about her was that she would talk with lots of people who walked by where we were tending to the flowers.”

Learn more about the statues and the women behind them here.

Here’s some more of what you need to know today

• America’s new favorite supermarket: According to Newsweek, it just outpaced Wegmans in the ranking. Have you heard of Great Wall? And no, it’s not Walmart.
• Scammers always seem to go lower…: Sheriff Derek Osborne recently confirmed to 14850 Today that people have been reporting calls from scammers posing as deputies , who claim that whoever picked up the phone had failed to respond to a Jury Duty summons, and that they could make it all go away with an electronic payment.
• State officials can’t address abortion?: Well, they wouldn’t add it to a ballot question. Learn what’s going on with the ballot here.

Gas is expensive: Stage a staycation

I know, I know, it’s a cringeworthy term, but Trevor Hughes recent article on traveling with national sky-high gas and food prices reminded me that sometimes, home is happiness. He also reminded me that those rising prices are hitting lower-income families the hardest, with about 19% of households earning $50,000 or less planning to travel this summer, down from 31% last year .

Here are a few things you can try wherever you are, whether you’re cooped up inside from sickness, taking a break from the heat, or can’t afford a flight but want a nice change of pace.

Tune in to tune out: Music can be therapy, but listening to an entire album is an experience slowly being lost to time with modern streaming platforms shuffling things up. Find a song you like and dedicate some time to listening to the album in full. You might find a hidden gem of a tune to keep your feet tapping.

Learn something new: Learning a new skill always seems to take forever, perfect for passing the time at home, while enriching yourself. I know it sounds basic but check out some manuals or YouTube and put the time in to studying something, even if you think you’ll fail, you may just pick up a few things. And as my friends Red and Harold Green know , if they can’t find you handsome, they should at least find you handy.

This last one’s a bit more out of the box: Try making a to-do list of only fun things. It might sound childish, but finally polishing off that book or TV series and painting a landscape in one day would at least make me feel like a superhero, as I - like many of you reading this probably do - often neglect to set aside much time for doing the things that make life worth living.

Thanks NerdWallet for helping me with this list.

That’s about all I’ve got for you today, but check your inbox tomorrow for more updates and feel free to reach out to me at jmack@gannett.com regarding this newsletter.

This article originally appeared on Ithaca Journal: Ithaca statue dedication, fake sheriff scams, ballot issues, Wegmans dethroned