Thursday News Brief

A former Brighton High School physics teacher is going to be spending time behind bars for having child pornography. A judge has sentenced 45-year-old Louis Carusone to serve three-and-a-half years in prison. Carusone pleaded guilty this past November to sharing disturbing images and videos that ended up being downloaded by an undercover police officer. Carusone has been ordered to undergo mental health treatment and will be on probation for seven years once he’s released.

 

 

Registration for Batavia Youth Baseball for the 2024 season is underway. Any youth ages 4 – 12 interested in playing baseball can register and scholarships are available. You have until March 2nd; go to nybataviayouthbaseball.com to find out more information.

 

 

A new tool is now protecting low-income New Yorkers from losing access to their government assistance funds. An Electronic Benefits Transfer lock and unlock tool is available on the ConnectEBT app. It’ll allow people to prevent unwanted access to their EBT cards by scammers who may want to drain funds from their account. People can also take steps to protect their cards such as changing the PIN number frequently and checking often for unauthorized charges.

 

 

Members of the Rochester City Council have requested that a recall be issued for Kia and Hyundai vehicles. The council is calling on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to take action and help fix a design flaw that makes it easy for criminals to steal those vehicle models. Several of those vehicles have been taken throughout our region in the last few months. The NHTSA put out a statement saying it will continue to monitor this issue and work to strengthen motor vehicle safety.

 

A lawsuit filed in Erie County Supreme Court could force the New York State Department of Transportation to conduct an environmental impact statement (EIS) for their $1B Kensington Expressway project; The suit was filed by Humboldt Parkway residents and claims the Department of Transportation is bypassing an environmental impact study so it can quickly move forward with their plan to build a 4,100-foot tunnel between Best and Sydney Streets. The lawsuit asks a judge to step in and rule before the NYSDOT announces their final plan for the project, which the lawsuit claims will happen by mid-December.

 

 

Officials at Niagara County Community College have announced the school is now going to be known by a different name. It has been officially re-branded as SUNY Niagara as part of an initiative that began in 2022. The school president says this change is not just about a new name and logo, it’s also about renewing a commitment to people in Niagara County and surrounding areas. A re-branding campaign will be launched and feature updated signage and new television ads.

 

 

Three teenagers are now in some trouble with the law after a stolen vehicle slammed into a building in Greece. Authorities say the crash happened Tuesday night on Glenora Drive. A 14-year-old boy, 14-year-old girl, and 15-year-old girl were all taken into custody and charged with grand larceny and criminal mischief. The building did suffer some damage but no one was hurt.

 

The Buffalo Sabres picked up a much-needed victory after earning a win on the road. Jeff Skinner, Alex Tuch, and Zemgus Girgensons provided the offense for the Sabres as their team beat the Montreal Canadiens 3-2 at Bell Centre last night. Buffalo’s goaltender Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen was outstanding in net and stopped 29 of the 31 shots he faced. The next game for the Sabres is tomorrow evening in Columbus against the Blue Jackets. Face-off is at 7:00.

 

ELSEWHERE…

Tiger Woods’ fifteen year-old son is looking to compete on the PGA Tour. Charlie Woods will play in Thursday’s pre-qualifier for the Cognizant Classic at the Lost Lake Golf Club in Hobe Sound, Florida. Around 25 players will advance to the event’s Monday qualifier, where four players will earn spots in the Cognizant Classic next weekend. The tournament will be played from February 29th to March 3rd at PGA National’s Champion Course In Palm Beach Gardens. The younger Woods has competed alongside his dad in previous years and Tiger has even caddied for him in the past.

 

The Biden administration is canceling $1.2 billion in student loan debt for more than 150,000 borrowers. While delivering remarks in California on Wednesday, the president said student loan payments have become too burdensome for millions of Americans. The move is the administration’s latest effort at student debt relief after the Supreme Court blocked Biden’s broader forgiveness plan last year. The White House has since used smaller programs to forgive debt for specific groups. The most recent relief will go to borrowers who have been in repayment for a decade or longer and originally took out $12,000 or less.

 

Phone users across the U.S. are reporting problems with AT&T. Downdetector.com is showing a spike in AT&T cellular service outages in the past hour, with nearly 33,000 customers reporting no service. The cities experiencing the most outages include Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston and Honolulu. There’s been no comment on the outages from AT&T.