Syracuse’s $1 million gun violence fix struggles (Our top stories for the week of Oct. 20)

Each week, syracuse.com will look back at some of our most important and valuable journalism from the previous week. Here are six stories for the week of Oct. 20, 2024.
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Syracuse’s new, $1 million solution to its entrenched gun violence problem has struggled during its first year to attract participants and has lost one of its key service providers. The Safer Streets program, a pilot, was billed as an innovative way to get 55 of the city’s potentially most dangerous young men to put down their guns and get jobs. But the start has been an uphill battle.
When Rep. Brandon Williams won his seat in Congress by a whisker two years ago, Democrats took a hard look at their voter turnout efforts in New York and promised big changes. They are now trying to turn the tables on Republicans by ramping up a voter turnout campaign for state Sen. John Mannion, D-Geddes, on a scale that has never been seen in Central New York.
Nottingham boys soccer coach Claude Tuyishimire has come a long way from the 10-year-old boy who came to America from Tanzania. Tuyishimire‘s family is originally from Burundi but fled by foot to Tanzania when the Hutu and Tutsi went to war. The family made it to a refugee camp where Tuyishimire was born and spent the first 10 years of his life. While at the camp, Tuyishimire used soccer as an escape. His older brother played on one of the camp teams, but he was too young. That didn’t stop him from growing a love for the sport.
Just over two years ago, Micron Technology announced it would build, with substantial help from taxpayers, the nation’s largest chipmaking complex in the northern suburbs of Syracuse. Construction was scheduled to start in June 2024. That was pushed back to early 2025. And now, groundbreaking won’t start until at least November 2025, nearly a year and half behind the original schedule.
Inside schools and classrooms, the devices can disrupt lessons and distract students in a way that’s hard for educators to overcome, several teachers in Central New York told syracuse.com. New York, like many other states, is charging toward phone restrictions in schools. Gov. Kathy Hochul has made it clear she plans to push state lawmakers to act on the issue next year. For now, that leaves a patchwork of policies across the state’s more than 700 school districts.
A judge’s decision to sentence a 19-year-old driver who hit and killed a man while street racing in downtown Syracuse to no time in prison shocked the victim’s family. Joshua Shultes was sentenced to five years probation after he accepted Judge Ted Limpert’s deal to plead guilty. Prosecutors objected to the sentence, instead calling for the man to get at least three to nine years in prison.