Evening News Briefing
Written by Dan Fischer on March 13, 2018
One of Governor Cuomo’s former top aides is guilty of public corruption. Following eight days of deliberations, the jury delivered a partial verdict in the trial of Joseph Percoco. He was convicted on three counts of public corruption, but acquitted on conspiracy charges. Twice the jury had told the judge they were deadlocked, but today’s development comes after they were told a partial verdict was acceptable. Percoco faces a maximum of 20-years in prison on some of the counts, and a maximum of ten-years on others.
Property owners in the city of Batavia will see a three-percent decrease in their city property taxes.
Council last night unanimously approved next year’s city budget.
The decrease was due in large part to the sal.e of the county owned nursing home to a private company. That put the facility back onto the tax rolls.
The budget also contains a 3 and a half percent increase in water rates and a two percent pay raise for non-union city emplolyees.
Batavia High School students will join in tomorrow “walk-out” with the school administrations blessing.
The students will leave their classrooms at 10am for 17 minutes, one minute for each of the lives lost in the recent shooting in Parkland, Florida.
That shooting has touched off a wave of support for greater gun control across the country.
Batavia Police Chief Shawn Heubusch
Batavia Police Chief Shawn Heubusch says his department has been in talks with the school for a long time about providing a permanent resource officer:
The Chief said he doesn’t have an opinion on whether the walkout is right or wrong and his primary concern remains the safety of students and staff.
Maybe we will dodge this one. The National Weather Service has issued a Winter Storm Warning for areas to the south of us, including Wyoming County.
The warning takes effect at 6 this evening until Thursday Morning.
Total snow accumulations of 8 to 16 inches are expected with winds gusting as high as 45 mph.
