CANDIDATE SIGHTINGS.(CAPITAL REGION)

Clinton: Met with the League of Conservation in Manhattan, visted Autumnwood Senior Center in Buffalo, spoke to the Long Beach Democratic Club in Atlantic Beach and attended Congressman Meeks' Annual Recognition Awards Dinner in Queens Village. She is scheduled today to talk to senior citizens in Rochester, attend a ``Rock-A-Thon for Breast Cancer'' in Cicero and a health screening fair in Syracuse.

Lazio: Visited Charles W. Baker High School in Baldwinsville and attended the Sons of Italy Antonio Meucci Lodge 86th Annual Columbus Dinner Dance New Rochelle and the Westchester Hispanic GOP Committee Annual Hispanic Fiesta in White Plains. He is scheduled today to attend …

Snapshot can help in early detection.

Byline: Cheryl Powell

There's an easy way to focus on the health of your skin and spot potentially deadly cancer at its earliest stages.

If you've got a camera, you've got everything you need to get started.

Simple snapshots by even the most novice photographer of his or her moles, lesions or other types of skin marks can serve as an important piece of the medical record, said Dr. Eliot Mostow, chief of dermatology at Akron (Ohio) General Medical Center.

Mostow is heading up an effort with Akron General and the Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine to encourage health-care consumers to take photos of their skin.

"Take something, file the date and save it," Mostow said. "Any picture is better than no picture."

The program, which started in September, is known as "Pictures In …

AIG Global Real Estate to sell fund management biz

AIG Global Real Estate, a real estate investment management unit for insurer American International Group Inc., said Monday it will sell its fund management business.

The fund management business operates 15 existing fund programs with more than $12.4 billion in assets under management and an additional $5.2 billion in equity capital commitments as of Sept. 30.

The business is a global asset adviser based in New York with regional operations in Europe, Japan, Latin America and Asia.

AIG is in the midst of selling many operating units as it looks to streamline its operations and help repay a $150 billion rescue package it received in November from …

WE'RE COOKING

ON THE FIRST NIGHT OF HANUKKAH, which this year falls on Sunday, December 21, we light a candle on the menorah - and potato latkes will likely be on the dinner table. Some latkes will be homemade, some store-bought, but all adhere to the ancient custom of serving foods cooked in oil.

Oil emphasizes the mira- cle of the cruse of oil found in the Temple, which burned for eight days although there was only enough for one day.Dairy foods recall the heroism of Judith.

Back in Eastern European shtetls, the crisp, golden potato fried in goose fat were the essential Hanukkah dish. Times were hard, but potatoes and onions were cheap and plentiful and geese slaughtered in Fall …

LEDs get cheaper, become an auto fashion statement.

Byline: David Sedgwick

LED lights are emerging as auto industry bling.

Once limited to the luxury segment, LEDs, or light-emitting diodes, now are cheap enough for mass-market models. The 2012 Kia Soul, for example, has LED daytime running lights and taillights.

Designers love them because the compact, bright lights give them freedom to convert plain-vanilla headlights and taillights into fashion statements.

By the 2016 model year, 29 percent of all vehicles produced in North America will have LED taillights, up from 19 percent in the 2011 model year, predicts L.E.K. Consulting of London.

The switch to LED headlights will be slower. Only 1 percent of North American-built vehicles will have LED …

Polish-Slavic group flourishes in Brooklyn. (Polish and Slavic Federal Credit Union, Brooklyn, New York)

BROOKLYN, N.Y - Polish and Slavic Federal Credit Union has profited by serving a group, many banks consider untouchable - Eastern European immigrants.

The credit union was a single teller station when it was organized in 1977 by a handful of Polish immigrants. Now, with $360 million in assets, three branches, and 37,000 members, it's the largest Polish-American financial institution in the country.

"We serve people who have problems with regular financial institutions because they don't speak English or they don't speak it fluently enough," said Marcin Sar, the institution's general manager since 1987. "Most of the time, new immigrants don't have a credit history. Someone has to make that first step to trust them."

Up to 90% of the credit union's members are immigrants, officials said.

Almost since its founding, Polish and Slavic's primary line of business has been putting members in homes. This was crucial in the beginning because many institutions avoided lending to the Brooklyn's Greenpoint neighborhood, where the institution and most of its members are located, Mr. Sar said.

"Analysts thought this area would go under," he said. They predicted "it would become a very, very bad area. Lending to this neighborhood was considered an unnecessary risk."

The credit union saw things differently.

"People knew each other. It's a …

GABRIEL, GLOBE-TROTTING ARTISTS MAGNIFICENT IN WOMAD FEST.(ENTERTAINMENT)

Byline: GREG HAYMES - Staff writer

After dancing through the crowd on the sun-soaked lawn distributing fruit and flowers to the fans, vocalist Caroline -- one half of the Indian group, Shankar N Caroline -- proclaimed, "One world! One voice! One color!"

It was the debut North American tour of the WOMAD Festival (World Of Music, Arts and Dance), and Monday's nine-hour performance at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center was the first stop on the tour.

While unity was certainly a central theme of the music by the 15 acts that gathered from all around the world, the globe-trotting musicians also underscored the importance of celebrating our cultural …