Afternoon News Brief

The law that makes seatbelt use mandatory for all passengers 16 and up in New York State goes into effect on Sunday November 1^st.  Currently, passengers 16 and older are only legally required to wear seat belts in the front passenger seat of a vehicle.  “We’ve known for decades that seat belts save lives and with this measure we are further strengthening our laws and helping to prevent needless tragedies,” Gov. Andrew Cuomo said.  All children under the age of 16 must wear seat belts and children younger than 8 years old must use a proper child system.

Governor Cuomo has handed the power to enact and enforce mask mandates in schools to the towns and counties.  Local governments will now be responsible for whether the school districts will have to wear masks and what rules they must follow.  No word on how this will effect private schools.

There has been a much larger early voter turnout than normal in western New York and across the country.  As of yesterday at 4pm about 1 tenth of registered voters in Genesee county have voted already.  Just over 49 hundred absentee ballots were sent out and about 33 hundred have been returned.  So far 61 million people have voted early in the US mostly in Texas, Florida and California.

COVID Update:  Genesee county has 4 new cases and 13 new people are on travel quarantine.  Orleans county has 6 new cases and 16 new people are on travel quarantine.  2 people have recovered.  There are 18 active cases in Genesee county and 38 in Orleans.  Elba’s pre kindergarten program will be going to 100 percent distance learning until November 9^th after 1 student at Elba elementary tested positive for COVID 19.  1 student in Albion Middle school tested positive, the health department says that the student was not on campus after October 22^nd and contact tracing has been completed.

Sheriff Sheron has received an endorsement from the Genesee county Sheriffs office Administrative staff.  In a press release Sheron say “I am sincerely humbled by the endorsement of the Genesee County Sheriff’s Office Administrative staff.  I thank them for their support of re-election to Sheriff of Genesee County and for their complete dedication to the citizens of Genesee County.”

Wendy’s is giving out free chicken sandwiches from now till November 8^th.  You can get 1 a week by downloading the Wendy’s mobile app and ordering anything off the drive thru menu or using their app to order then showing the qr code at the restaurant.

The Buffalo Sabres have signed Victor Olofsson to a 2 year 3.05 million dollar a year contract.  The 25-year-old had 42 points in 54 games in 2019-20 before the regular season was cut short. His goals per game ranked seventh in franchise history while his points per game ranked 10^th.  Despite missing 15 games because of an injury, Olofsson earned a spot on the league’s all-rookie team. Before his injury, he led all NHL rookies with 16 goals and 35 points.