Afternoon News Brief
Written by Tom Tharp on December 14, 2020
Batavia and the surrounding are of Genesee county has been designated a yellow zone starting today according to Governor Cuomo. The finger lakes region has the highest positivity rate in the state with 8.09 percent. This means that schools that are still in person must test 20 percent of students, staff and faculty every week for covid. Worship services are capped at 50 percent occupancy and mass gatherings are limited to 10 people or less either in or out of doors. Restaurants can still operate but tables may only have 4 people at them.
The first person to be vaccinated in New York against Covid 19 is a nurse working the Covid ICU ward at Long Island Jewish Medical Center in Queens. Sandra Lindsay, a frontline fighter against the virus, was given the first dose this morning. More than half a million doss are in the state with more to come. It will take several months before there are enough doses made to inoculate all 19.5 million New Yorkers. Governor Cuomo anticipates that by Summer up to 80 percent of the state will be vaccinated.
The Batavia Police stakeholder group has indicated that there isn’t much to alter n the way that the Batavia PD do things but there can still be a stronger connection police to community. There was a unanimous agreement that police brutality isn’t a problem for Batavia police. But the stakeholders expressed a desire for police to form more personal connections to black community members. One of the stakeholders said that the black community in Batavia feels like the police see them as a sentence ready to be judged and sent to jail, and the police have to work on being understood and understanding how black people feel about that.
Gas prices continue to stay the same at 2.22 in Batavia. Nationally they are at 2.16 on average and in New York state they rose 1 cent to 2.26. Last year the average price for a gallon was 2.68 so we are still a long way south of where we were last year.
Western NY has a 58 percent chance each year of having a white Christmas. This year the odds are a little longer. According to the national weather service this year we are looking at above average temperatures for the 25th of December. Last year it was 50 degrees breaking a 3 year streak of snow on the ground for the holidays.
The Buffalo Bills beat the Steelers yesterday 26-15 which brings the bills up to 10 and 3 for the first time in 29 years. The Bills are first place in the AFC East with the rival Miami Dolphins two games behind with a record of 8-5. They are set to play against the broncos in Denver on Saturday. Denver is 5 and 8 this season and the contest will take place at 4:30pm. In Monday night football tonight if Cleveland wins against Baltimore then the Bills are in the playoffs.
