Lots of clouds, not much rain, that's the word for today from the National Weather

Service. Mild temperatures -- mid- to upper 50s near Lake Erie, even warmer inland -- will

continue as the system that brought us sunshine slowly moves on to New England. Overnight lows

should stay in the mid-40s.

The chance of rain rachets up on Friday, when it is expected to be almost as warm as today,

and increases some more Friday night. Then comes the really wet day on Saturday, when

forecasters are predicting up to an inch of rain. Add the melting snow to that and get ready

for flooding in all the usual places, along with ice jam overflows on many streams and creeks.

The rain is supposed to start winding down on Sunday, with a diminishing chance of showers

and cooler temperatures Sunday night and Monday. We should finally get to dry out from all of

this by the middle of next week.

Olympic Gold Medal bobsled champion Steve Mesler ought to get another gold medal for

the open and exuberant way he's celebrating his victory. Fresh from getting a key to the city

from Mayor Byron W. Brown and dropping the puck to start off the Sabres game Wednesday, he's

back downtown with his medal tonight to meet and greet one and all at a party from 6:30 to

9:30 in the Pearl Street Grill & Brewery, 76 Pearl St. There's free admission, a cash bar and

live music from the Stone Country Band on the second floor. "It's just a good ol' Buffalo

party -- good music, some beers and hanging out," Mesler says. "I want to share this with as

many people as possible."

Now you can use a work of art from the Albright-Knox Art Gallery to mail your

letters. The new sheets of 44-cent stamps commemorating Abstract Expressionism are being

unveiled this morning in the gallery auditorium and four of them are works that hang in the

museum -- Arshile Gorky's "The Liver Is the Cock's Comb," Jackson Pollock's "Convergence,"

Robert Motherwell's "Elegy to the Spanish Republic No. 34" and Mark Rothko's "Orange and

Yellow." Among those on hand will be officials from Ashton Potter USA Ltd. in Amherst, which

printed the stamps.

The University at Buffalo continues to be a busy place during spring break. Earlier

this week, high school students converged there for a Model United Nations and a Science Day.

Today it's adults who deal with school safety issues -- administrators, counselors,

psychologists, school resource officers, school board members and police officers.

The topic of the seventh annual Safe Schools Initiative seminar in the Center for the Arts

on the North Campus in Amherst is how badly behaved cliques develop and turn into gangs.

Featured speaker is a guy straight out of "CSI" -- Dale Yeager, a criminal analyst who has

extensive training in criminal psychology, forensic psychology, sex crimes investigation,

crime scene forensic procedure and domestic terrorism analysis.

Runway? No way, says the citizens group Safe Aviation Coalition of Lancaster. So far

the coalition has managed to stall federally supported plans to extend Buffalo-Lancaster

Airport's 3,200-foot runway to 5,500 feet. Now they've gone to the Lancaster Zoning Board of

Appeals, which will consider their request for a review of the airport's zoning status at 8

p.m. in Town Hall, 21 Central Ave.

"There's nothing in the Town of Lancaster zoning code that permits an airport anywhere,"

says Arthur Giacalone, the lawyer working on behalf of the citizens group. Giacalone argues

that if the airport was developed under a "nonconforming use" clause, it can't expand more

than 25 percent and it's already gone beyond that.

Tom Geles, son of one of the two founders of the airport off Walden Avenue between Stony

Road and Ransom Road, says the town has been consulted about airport improvements every step

of the way. He adds that it serves a vital function by taking care of small planes that

otherwise would jam up Buffalo Niagara International Airport.

"We're the best alternative airport," he says.

Did you know that 170,000 Western New Yorkers have chronic kidney disease? Diabetes

and high blood pressure are the culprits, local National Kidney Foundation officials say, and

they are highlighting that statistic today during their World Kidney Day activities.

They'll also introduce Bridgett Reid, whose kidney disease, caused by undetected high blood

pressure, was not discovered until her kidneys began to fail when she was just 15. Now, as a

single mother and a college student, she's awaiting a kidney transplant.

"Once I was diagnosed with hypertension, I wish I would have known more about better

nutrition than what I was told," she says. "Maybe I could have postponed or even prevented

going on dialysis."

Other activities include free testing and prevention info from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the

Tosh Collins Community Center at 35 Cazenovia St. in South Buffalo and kidney-friendly cooking

classes from 6 to 8 p.m. at Tops Markets at 3980 Maple Road in Amherst and at 355 Orchard Park

Road in West Seneca.

Memo to the stork -- take the former Newfane Inter-Community Hospital off your

delivery list. Effective today, Eastern Niagara Hospital is consolidating all its maternity

services into the former Lockport Memorial Hospital. Last year about 400 babies were born in

the Lockport hospital, which has nine rooms for new mothers, while just under 100 arrived in

Newfane, which had a four-room maternity unit. "With the state budget cuts, it made sense to

consolidate at one site," a hospital spokeswoman says.

Meanwhile, Niagara County is about to see another consolidation. The Eastern Niagara

United Way, started in 1938 and based in Lockport, holds its last annual meeting today and

within two months will merge with the United Way of Niagara, formed in 1924 and based in

Niagara Falls. The new organization -- the United Way of Greater Niagara -- will make its

headquarters in the Military Road office of United Way of Niagara, but will maintain an office

in Lockport.

"This is business today," says Robert Hagen, chairman of Eastern Niagara United Way. "This

is what has got to happen in order to be successful."

Back in the good old days, there used to be offices and apartments upstairs over

those shops on Main Streets all over America. Now urban planners want to bring them back.

That's the theme of "Enhancing Main Street: Making Upper Floors Work Again," a workshop

sponsored by the Preservation League of New York State from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. in the Niagara

Falls Public Library, 1425 Main St.

"Our workshop will feature some very interesting case studies on how upper floors have been

successfully reused," says Henry McCartney, executive director of Preservation Buffalo

Niagara.

The Canisius College Contemporary Writers Series hosts Irish author and historian

Roy Foster for its seventh annual Hassett Reading at 7 p.m. in the Montante Cultural Center,

2001 Main St. Foster, the Carroll Professor of Irish History at Hertford College, Oxford, in

the U.K., will read from his works, followed by a question period, book signing and reception.

It's free and open to the public. For info, visit www.canisius.edu/writers.

One of the public radio "history guys" from the University of Virginia also speaks

at Canisius College at 7 p.m. in Regis Room North in the Student Center. He's Dr. Peter Onuf,

Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation professor at the U of V and author of "Rethinking the

History of American Democracy." It's free and open to the public.

It's do or die for the UB Bulls men's basketball team in the quarterfinals of the

MAAC Tournament at 9 p.m. in Cleveland. They beat their opponent, Miami of Ohio, 73-55, in

Buffalo on Jan. 9 but Miami got even, 77-67, in their second matchup in Ohio. If the Bulls

win, they get to play the winner of the game between top-seeded Kent State and No. 8 Ohio.

Listen on WECK 1230 AM.

Spring Restaurant Week continues through Sunday at more than 170 locally owned and

operated restaurants all over Erie and Niagara counties and beyond. Each of them is cooking up

special offerings for the fixed price of $20.10. For a full list of restaurants and specials,

visit www.localrestaurantweek.com.

Only two more "keep the winter blues away" soirees in Delaware Park's Marcy Casino,

sponsored by the Buffalo Olmsted Parks Conservancy and Dent Neurologic Institute. Tonight's

featured group is Fools Like Us from 5:30 to 8:30. Tickets are $5 at the door and include a

complimentary beverage. Proceeds benefit the conservancy.