A sick friend kept him away from the Mubai restaurant that fateful night

While much of his job at the United States Embassy in Mumbai, India has to do with diplomatic relations and filing reports to Washington, D.C., Mike Newbill also has learned where the good restaurants are in the bustling city of 17 million people.

That is why Newbill, 36, a 1997 graduate of St. Charles High School, was taking a visiting friend to Café Leopold in Mumbai the night of Nov. 26, 2008. But the friend became ill before dinner that night, and Newbill ended up taking him to a hospital. A short while later, terrorists opened fire in the restaurant, igniting a three-day siege at the city's top hotels, restaurant and train station.

Newbill, the son of retired Geneva High School athletic director Jim Newbill and his wife Marilyn, spent the rest of the night monitoring the terrorist activities in preparing himself for a long day at the office.

As the chief of the political and economic section of the U.S. Embassy, Newbill's job as part of the Foreign Service was to gather as much information as possible about what happened to Americans who were in the Taj Mahal hotel or the Café Leopold and file ongoing reports, some of which went to President George Bush or Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

"There was no one central point to get information, so it was very difficult to determine fatalities and locate people," said Newbill, who was at home in Geneva for the holidays, but returned to Mumbai last Friday. "After 9/11 in our country, (New York) Mayor Giuliani was giving reports to the press every day; but there was nothing like that in Mumbai.

"When something like this happens, our job is to quickly determine what happened and send that message back to Washington, and we do it by talking to a lot of people."

Newbill said he sat in on a conference call back to Washington, D.C. in which President Bush was on the line.

"He was very focused and asked all the right questions and it was really interesting to sit in on that," Newbill said.

How did a 1994 graduate of the University of Illinois, land a job with the Foreign Service and ultimately in Mumbai?

More on that in Wednesday's column.

Lincoln's new look:

In a past column, I mentioned that you could drive by the Lincoln Inn in Batavia and not even recognize the place. It has changed that much in the past two years since new owners took over.

So you can imagine how much it has changed inside after more than 12 months of renovation.

Owners George and John Bozonelos will officially unveil that new look from 4 to 7 p.m. tomorrow with a grand opening reception and open house.

The Lincoln Inn has been part of Batavia history since the mid 1930s and neighbors of the restaurant/banquet hall are probably pleased with the current state of affairs.

There was a significant hub-bub in the area in the late 1990s when plans for a hotel on the property were being discussed as a way to give the restaurant a shot-in-the arm. The hotel was going to butt up closely to nearby homes, so the community never quite embraced that idea.

Tough economy:

So far, I've been as optimistic as possible about the economy and the coming year. But this is a tough one to swallow. It appears the Quizno's sandwich shop on Randall Road in Geneva has closed. I am hoping it resurfaces in another location.

Though not as tough a blow for me, some ladies are likely to be disappointed that the Talbot's outlet store at Fargo and Randall will close in a couple of weeks.

Your favorite hoofers:

The word is getting out now in a big way. It's time to secure your tickets and/or place your votes for the Feb. 7 Dancing with the Geneva Stars fundraiser at Eagle Brook Country Club.

If you didn't get an invitation in the mail, you can get ticket information or place votes at genevarts.org at $1 each for your favorite dancers of the six couples competing.

Click on the Dancing with Geneva Stars icon, then choose your favorite couple and make your donation through votes.

It wouldn't be fair for me to make a pitch to vote for Dave and Pat Heun, now would it? Of course, it wouldn't. But is anything ever fair when it comes to voting?

Seriously, I hope that the community supports the event with plenty of votes for all of the couples.

By the way, if you are able to attend the event, you'll see some pretty good dancing. And you'll be able to join in, as the evening concludes with open dancing.

dheun@sbcglobal.net