Evening News Brief
Written by Tom Tharp on June 25, 2021
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced the signing of the Gender Recognition Act into law Thursday. The legislation allows New Yorkers to use “X” as a non-binary sex designation on New York State driver’s licenses. Officials say the legislation ensures New Yorkers will be able to have their gender identity on official documents and allows name and sex designation changes to be sealed more easily. The legislation also allows New Yorkers to amend birth certificates and use a designation of mother, father or parent.
If you’ve driven in Rochester lately you have likely seen packs of people riding dirt bikes, 4 wheelers and tiny motorcycles around the city. These vehicles are illegal to drive on the city streets and new legislation from Monroe County Executive Adam Bello allows police to impound the vehicles and charge drivers 500 to 2000 dollars to get the vehicles out of impound. The new law takes effect in July.
Starting in July families that have children under 17 will start getting child tax credit payouts. 250 dollars for each child 6-17 and 300 for each child under 6 years old. In order to receive this benefit, which basically splits the child tax credit that US citizens normally receive at tax time in half and gives half up front as monthly payments and the other half redeemable at income tax time, a family must have filed income taxes in 2019 or 2020. If you didn’t file then you can register by following the link on wbtai.com. This is part of the American Rescue Plan Act.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/child-tax-credit/sign-up/
A Long Island man is running for a cause! To raise money and awareness for the Thomas Hartman Center for Parkinson’s Research at Stony Brook University Wai Law is running the entire 555 mile long Empire Trail. The trail starts in Buffalo and roughly follows the Erie Canal across the state before turning south at Albany and going down to Battery Park in New York City. The run is expected to take 10 days if he can run about 55 miles a day.
The roadwork scheduled for Monday June 28th in Batavia on north spruce Street, Fisher Park, and Chase Park has been reschedule to Tuesday June 29th. This work is weather dependent and if the work is delayed due to rain it will be scheduled for the next workday. These 3 streets will be closed to all through traffic. Residents living within the work area will have limited access to their driveway and may experience delays while the paving operations are ongoing and there will be no roadside parking.
