Morning News Briefing

The man who attacked and threatened to kill the Wyoming County sheriff in 2018 has pleaded guilty to attempted murder.

Lynn Michael Hall of Castile faces a sentence of 20 to 25 years in prison, in addition to 2 1/2 to 5 years of post-release supervision.

Back in December 2018, Wyoming County Sheriff Greg Rudolph was driving to work when he says a vehicle driven by Hall started tailgating him and flashing its lights. When the sheriff pulled over, he said the vehicle blocked him in.

Hall got out of the vehicle and got into an altercation with the sheriff where he tried to take the sheriff’s gun, ended up on top of the sheriff and threatened to kill him while holding a knife.

Off-duty State Police troopers and nearby Good Samaritans intervened and helped take Hall into custody.

The Town of Stafford will no longer allow residents to drop off yard waste, such as tree branches, brush, and grass clippings, at the town dump.

Highway Superintendent Steven Boldt said that with the loss of sales tax revenue, the town is looking at a very tight budget so the change will reduce costs and workload.

Bolt says residents should create their own compost pile, and that the town will revisit the issue when financial times become better for the town.

After being in the national spotlight for months, Gov. Andrew Cuomo is going to be taking a step back. He says the final day of his daily coronavirus briefings will take place tomorrow. They began back in March when the first cases of COVID-19 were discovered in New York. But now that the spread of the virus is slowing, the governor believes it’s time to start focusing on other things. Briefings will still be held as needed.

Yesterday, Cuomo signed an executive order declaring Juneteenth will be a holiday for all state employees. The holiday takes place every June 19 and commemorates the end of slavery in the United States. The governor says he’ll work to make Juneteenth an official state holiday in 2021.

The Holland Land Office Museum will be changing its admission policy for visitors in the coming weeks. The museum’s board and executive director say the new admission policy is necessary to continue serving visitors. Members will still get in for free, children’s admission will be $1, students, veterans, and seniors will be $3, adult admission will be $5, and admission for a family of two adults and two children will be $10.

While summer vacation is underway for a lot of kids in New York, there’s no word yet if they’ll be returning to school this fall. Officials say whether that happens will depend on if there’s a spike in coronavirus cases. Students were pulled from their classrooms back in March to try to limit the spread of the disease. Summer school sessions will be taking place remotely.

Some hospitals in the Buffalo area are making changes to visitation policies after Governor Andrew Cuomo announced that visitations were allowed. Both Erie County Medical Center and Catholic Health have announced revised visitation policies. ECMC is planning to resume visits Friday with several guidelines in place including a minimum age requirement, visitor screening and a requirement visitors wear masks. Catholic Health will start welcoming visitors back on Saturday with many of the same regulations in effect.

Rochester Regional Health and Strong Memorial Hospital say they’re working on a policy, so until then, visitor restrictions remain in place.