Afternoon News Brief
Written by Tom Tharp on January 12, 2024
Breaking news: Fire crews responded to 46 Swan Street in the early afternoon for a fire at the old Backhoe Joes. Reports are that flames were showing through the windows. Batavia City Fire Department and Pavilion Fire Department responded with a second alarm called for. The building was being remodeled and had all new windows and other work done on it. Stay tuned for updates as the afternoon continues.
Genesee and Wyoming Counties are going to be under a Winter Weather Watch starting Saturday at 1pm and going through Monday at 7am. Heavy lake effect snow is expected with high winds and gusts of up to 65 miles per hour. Travel could be extremely difficult. Widespread blowing snow could significantly reduce visibility. Unsecured objects could blow into roadways and trees and branches could come down on power lines causing outages. The High Wind Warning continues tonight through Sunday at 4am with winds between 20 and 30 mph and gusts of up to 50mph tonight into Saturday morning.
The Justice Department will seek the death penalty for the New York Tops Supermarket mass shooter. The then-18-year-old killed ten people in the racially-motivated shooting in May 2022. In a court filing Friday, the DOJ said it believes a death sentence is justified in the event of a conviction. His lawyers have said he would plead guilty to the more than two dozen federal charges he faces if the death penalty was taken off the table. The shooter was previously sentenced to life in prison without parole after pleading guilty to more than a dozen state charges last year.
Authorities in Niagara County say they’re experiencing an uptick in illegal crossings on the Niagara River from Canada into the United States. CBP officers say they’ve seen an increase in small rafts and inflatables being used to come across the river illegally since late fall. While it isn’t the hundreds of thousands of people a month being encountered at the southern border, 9 people have been arrested in the last month crossing the Niagara River. The CBP says it is usually cases of human trafficking. They say it is a 30 year high in this area of the country.
Rochester Mayor Malik Evans and Police Chief David Smith called for an investigation after video came out of a man being kicked out of an ambulance. The video shows the man, who was having trouble breathing, being asked to leave one ambulance and wait on the street for another to arrive and take him to the hospital. In the video, an officer is heard explaining to the man that the EMTs wanted him out of the ambulance. After getting out of the ambulance, the man fell to the sidewalk and waited more than two minutes before medical personnel helped him. The man died shortly before Christmas. Police were also on scene saying they had been called there for an assault against an EMT. Mayor Evans and Chief Smith say they will get to the bottom of what happened and why the man wasn’t taken directly to the hospital.
Some borrowers who have student loans may see their loans paid off by the Federal SAVE Plan in the next few months. Starting in February, the Education Department will automatically wipe away balances for eligible borrowers enrolled in the SAVE plan. To be eligible for the relief, borrowers will have had to had an original balance of $12,000 or less, made at least 10 years of payments and be enrolled in the SAVE Plan. No action is needed other than being enrolled in SAVE and meeting the eligibility requirements for cancellation. Borrowers who took out more than $12,000 will still be eligible for cancellation, but over a longer timeframe. Every additional $1,000 borrowed adds another year of payments before cancellation takes effect.
Buffalo Bills fans can enjoy this Sunday’s playoff game with some extra warmth — Highmark Stadium is now allowing battery-heated clothing inside the stadium. The Buffalo Bills and the Pittsburgh Steelers have a frigid game ahead of them, with wind gusts 30 – 40 mph and an estimated wind chill of 0 degrees Fahrenheit. Heated vests, coats, gloves, blankets etc are now allowed in the stadium for the playoff game. How this will affect the people who paint their bodies in the team colors is unknown.
