Wednesday News Brief

FROM THE WYOMING COUNTY SHERIFF: 33-year-old Donald Colli of Batavia has been charged with operating a vehicle with a suspended state driver’s license. Colli had hit a deer and after Wyoming County Sheriff’s investigated, he was issued an appearance ticket for aggravated unlicensed operation. Colli is scheduled to appear in Bennington Town Court at a later date. ALSO: 41-year-old Seth Sheehan of Warsaw has been arrested and charged with criminal mischief. This followed deputies’ response to a 9-1-1 hang-up call; an investigation revealed there had been a domestic incident during which Sheehan took a phone from another party to prevent them from calling to request help. He was arraigned in the Town of Warsaw Court and released on his own recognizance; Sheehan is scheduled to return to Court on May 1. ALSO: Wyoming County Sheriff deputies arrested Jaqulyn Dueppengiesser of Perry at her residence on a felony warrant, issued by the City of Batavia. She has been turned over to Batavia Police and will appear in court at a later date.

 

18-year-old Josia Culver of Batavia is charged with burglary, criminal mischief and petit larceny. An investigation into a burglary at a business located in the mall resulted in his arrest. It’s alleged that Culver forced entry, causing damage and stole money. He was arraigned in Batavia City Court and released under the supervision of Genesee Justice. Culver will reappear in court next month.

 

State Attorney General Letitia James has announced that for the first time ever, a statewide gun buyback will be taking place later this month. It is scheduled for April 29th and area residents can turn in their working and non-working firearms at St. John’s African Methodist Episcopal Church in Niagara Falls from 10:00am until 1:00pm. Folks will be paid in the form of gift cards that will range from $25 to $500, depending on the type of weapon they surrender. Since 2019, the AG’s office has helped remove thousands of weapons from New York’s communities.

 

The State University of New York (SUNY) has voted to eliminate the undergraduate admissions requirement for standardized testing. This removes the need for students applying to college to take the SAT or ACT and keeps a pandemic-era change in place; however, flexibility is available to campuses where students would still have the option to share their scores. According to SUNY, fewer state high school students are taking the SAT.

 

Police and the Rochester City School District are investigating an incident where students were nearly struck by an SUV. They say a vehicle ended up on the grounds of the Franklin Educational Campus yesterday during dismissal. Police tried to stop the vehicle but the driver sped away from the scene. Officials say no one was hurt and that what happened is concerning because it threatened the safety of students.

 

State Police have released the name of the person who was killed in a multi-vehicle crash on the New York State Thruway. Troopers say a 22-year-old man was traveling on the highway in Chili Monday when his vehicle struck a tractor-trailer driven by 75-year-old Robert Tincani of East Palestine, Ohio. Tincani was walking back to his tractor-trailer after he exchanged information with the other driver when that person’s vehicle was hit by another tractor-trailer that overturned and killed Tincani. No other injuries were reported.

 

Tops Market executives say their Jefferson Avenue store in Buffalo is going to be closed down on the one-year anniversary of a mass shooting that happened there. Last May 14th, Payton Gendron opened fire at the supermarket, killing 10 people and injuring three others in a racially motivated attack. The company says the store will be shut down to help support the community’s healing as the region remembers the victims and survivors. The store is scheduled to reopen on May 15th at 7:00am.

 

New York now has their next chief judge of the Court of Appeals. The state senate voted yesterday to confirm Rowan Wilson for the job. All Democrats voted in favor; all Republicans voted against. Wilson spent Monday answering questions about his past decisions. Some raised concerns about a rape conviction he overturned. This confirmation comes weeks after senate Democrats rejected Governor Hochul’s first pick for the job —Hector LaSalle — after they viewed his judicial record as too conservative.

 

April is National Donate Life Month, and both the state Department of Health and Department of Motor Vehicles are urging New Yorkers to register as organ donors. The agencies say any Empire State resident 16 and older can join the New York State Donate Life registry for eye, organ and tissue donation. Sign-up can be done by completing the donation section on a driver’s license renewal application or completing an online or paper form when registering to vote. Hundreds of New Yorkers died last year because the organ they needed wasn’t available in time.

ELSEWHERE…

 

A toddler is responsible for causing a bit of commotion at the White House Tuesday. The Secret Service told The Hill that a child was able to squeeze through a fence on the north side of the grounds. Officials said the child made his way toward the North Lawn as his parents were on Pennsylvania Avenue. The White House restricted access during the incident, as President Biden was present at the time. The parents were quickly reunited with their little trespasser and sent along their way after questioning.

 

Netflix is ending its DVD-by-mail service. On Tuesday the company announced customers would no longer be able to receive DVD rentals after September 29th, 2023. Netflix has mailed out over 5,000,000,000 (billion) DVDs since the programs inception in 1998. However revenue from DVD rentals has steadily declined over the years.

 

More than one-third of Americans live in places with unhealthy air pollution levels. The American Lung Association’s 24th State of the Air report is out today, and says 120-million Americans are living in areas where the air was rated unhealthy in 2022. Six of the ten worst places are in California, and Los Angeles tops the list. For more information, click here: https://www.lung.org/research/sota/key-findings

 

The New York Lottery today announced a jackpot winning ticket for the April 18 Mega Millions drawing was sold in East Syracuse. The ticket matched five numbers and the Mega Ball and is worth $20 million. The cash value of the jackpot after taxes for an upstate winner is $6.8 million. The winning numbers for the April 18 drawing are 7-9-15-19-25 and the Mega Ball is 4. The winning ticket was purchased at Church Wine and Liquor at 6430 Kirkvile Road in East Syracuse.  Meanwhile, nobody won the grand prize in Monday’s drawing, so the Powerball jackpot has grown up to $251,000,000 (million) for tonight’s drawing. That works out to a cash option of just under $134,000,000. Please play responsibly.

 

As tax-filing season comes to a close, Americans are seeing smaller refunds this year. The average refund check this year has been just under $2,900, a 9% drop from last year’s average of a little more than $3,300.