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 Sept. 7, 2025.
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Lenny Schmidt, vice president at Nutrition Bar Confectioners in Cato, sits in the cafeteria at his plant where dozens of workers were detained by ICE. Many were sent to Guatemala. Schmidt and his family knew many of the workers and their families well. (N. Scott Trimble | strimble@syracuse.com)N. Scott Trimble | strimble@syracuse.com
Syracuse.com spoke with at least 25 people to piece together the details of an immigration raid in Cato and its aftermath. The interviews depict a raid that was aimed at swiftly moving people out of the country in big numbers, ultimately raising questions that the workers were denied due process and constitutional protections. Several aspects of the raid and the treatment of the detainees appear to be in violation of the law, lawyers said.
Elite high school basketball recruit Ryan Moesch of Chittenango enters the final stretch of picking a college. Photographed at Sullivan Park in Chittenango, Thursday, Sept. 4, 2025. (Scott Schild | sschild@syracuse.com)Scott Schild | sschild@syracuse.com
If Ryan Moesch is any kind of litmus test, good high school basketball players these days are walking a taut tightrope to determine their athletic futures. Moesch, a Chittenango native slotted at No. 204 in On3.com’s Class of 2026 composite evaluation, is the highest-ranked high school basketball prospect in Central New York these days. The 247sports staff considers him a four-star player and ranks him 137th in his class. But with the way the college basketball landscape has shifted in recent years, Moesch has been uncertain about how to process and proceed.
Sam and Theo Adams stood on the playground turf, watching as kids chased each other and squealed. Rykelan used to go down the twisty orange slide over and over again. Sam Adams laughs at the memory, holding a miniature blue ceramic urn in the palm of her hand. The 4-year-old’s ashes are inside. Sam and Theo think he still would be alive today if it had not been for the mistakes of the Cortland County caseworkers charged with keeping the child safe. They are taking steps to sue Cortland County for failing to protect Rykelan.
As quarterback Steve Angeli returned to the Syracuse sideline following the touchdown drive that gave the Orange its first lead in a game on Sept. 6, teammate after teammate pounded him on his helmet. He walked his way up the sideline, absorbing excited thumps on his head, until he found himself wrapped in an enormous bear hug. The hugger might have come as a surprise. It was Rickie Collins, the player Angeli beat out for the starting job just weeks earlier, the quarterback who some SU fans had been chanting for less than one quarter earlier. Collins reacted to Angeli’s success with natural joy for his teammate instead of thinking about what the moment might have meant for his own dreams.
Thousands of home care workers statewide have an Oct. 1 deadline to be recertified, but many are scrambling to complete a required physical exam in time, families and advocates say. That threatens to upend care for as many as 200,000 New Yorkers, who rely on the home aides for meals, bathing and other everyday life needs.
A bank where Madison County landlord Burt Marshall did business was hit Wednesday with a second lawsuit accusing it of aiding a Ponzi scheme he allegedly operated that bilked investors of $100 million. Attorneys representing hundreds of Marshall’s victims alleged in the lawsuit that Berkshire Bank knew of the Ponzi scheme but continued its banking relationship with Marshall anyway.
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