Friday News Brief

A contractor from Wyoming County is accused of defrauding customers. According to the Orleans County Sheriff’s Office, David Fladie of Varysburg accepted payments totaling $63,700 from three victims for work that was incomplete or not started. Fladie turned himself on January 25th and was charged with three counts of grand larceny and three counts of scheming to defraud. He also faces charges in Monroe County and turned himself in there later the same day. Fladie was released and is scheduled to appear at later dates in Murray, Clarendon and Clarkson town courts.

 

 

31-year-old Michael Smith, Jr. of Batavia has been arrested and charged with petit larceny. It’s alleged that Smith stole an electric scooter from inside the Batavia WalMart. He was issued an appearance ticket for Batavia Town Court on February 13th. ALSO: 40-year-old Omar Cabrera of Rochester has been arrested and faces multiple felony charges, including burglary and criminal mischief. He was caught by Genesee County Sheriff’s while attempting to break into an Elba residence and once inside, unlawfully remained there while causing damage in excess of $250. It’s alleged Cabrera stole a quantity of copper fittings. He was arraigned in CAP Court and remanded to the Genesee County Jail.

 

New York Attorney General Letitia James is leading a coalition that is securing several hundred million dollars in a massive multi-state opioid settlement. She led a group of all AGs nationwide and announced the $350 million settlement from the marketing firm Publicis Health for its role in the opioid crisis. The NYC-headquartered Publicis is Purdue Pharma’s former advertising company and per the suit developed predatory and deceptive marketing strategies for Purdue to increase prescriptions and sales of opioids like OxyContin. New York will receive $19 million as a result, which will be used to fund opioid abatement, treatment and prevention. To date, Attorney General James has recovered over $2.7 billion from manufacturers, distributors and marketers that now goes toward treatment and recovery.

 

The rollout of legal weed in NY has been slow and complicated by legal challenges; and many applicants who want to open stores or cultivate are still waiting for approval. Part of the issue was a lawsuit that that stopped part of the state from opening up to cannabis. Another was the social equity plan, which prioritized people who had a criminal record involving pot. This long process has urged members from a variety of cannabis industry groups to launch the ‘Cannabis Conference.’ The group is coming together to work with officials to find solutions to the ongoing challenges facing the cannabis market. They’re laying out 12 priorities to fix what they say is a “delayed” and “flawed” rollout of the retail cannabis market.

 

Folks who are looking for work may want to consider a career with the United States Postal Service. The agency is hosting job fairs in the throughout our region this month, starting next Wednesday, February 7th at the Fairport Post Office. That’ll be followed by another hiring event February 15th at the Seneca Falls Post Office. A long list of the available jobs have been posted at usps.com/careers.

 

A statewide campaign has been launched to make New Yorkers aware of the dangers posed by lithium ion batteries. Those batteries are used to power things like e-scooters, laptops, toys, hoverboards and smart phones, but they’ve also been responsible for causing fires. The Buy Safe, Charge Safe campaign will teach residents how to properly buy, use, and maintain devices that run on lithium ion batteries. Important safety tips can be found by going to ny.gov/chargesafe.

 

Organizers of the Erie County Fair have announced some new competitions that’ll be taking place during this year’s event. They include a baking competition, adult Lego building competition, chalk art competition, and also a community garden competition. Folks who want to sign up to take part in these contests must do so by July 12th and can fill out a form posted at ecfair.org. This year’s fair is set to run from August 7th through the 18th.

 

ELSEWHERE…

The sequel for the hit movie “Beetlejuice” finally has a title. The film will be titled “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice 2024 A.D.” Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder and Catherine O’Hara will all be reprising their roles from the first film. Meanwhile, new additions to the cast include Jenna Ortega, Willem Dafoe and Justin Theroux. “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice 2024 A.D.” will hit theaters on September 6th.

 

The Mega Millions and Powerball jackpots just keep rising and have combined to cross the half-billion dollar mark. The lucky winner of Mega Millions tonight will get a top prize of $333 million. And, whoever matches all six Powerball numbers for tomorrow night’s drawing is in line to receive $206 million. Both drawings will be streamed live online. Please play responsibly.

 

Hulu is going to start banning password sharing. The streaming service notified customers on Wednesday that it will ban people sharing accounts outside of a household starting in March. Netflix started doing the same thing last year and despite fears of losing subscribers, the service has actually seen subscriber growth.

 

A new World Health Organization study predicts there will be more than 35-million new cancer cases by 2050. That would be an increase of just over 75% from 2022 levels. The majority of diagnoses are expected to be in low-income countries with mortality seen as doubling. The President of the International Cancer Foundation, Professor Solange Peters told The Guardian, “It is alarming that a mere 5% of global cancer spending reaches countries with 80% of the cancer burden.”

 

February 2 in history…

…In 1876, baseball’s National League was formed. The original eight teams were based in Boston, Chicago, Cincinnati, New York, Philadelphia, St. Louis, Louisville and Hartford.

 

 

 

 

 

 

…In 1947, Farrah Fawcett was born (happy 77th!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

…In 1948, Ina Garten was born (happy 76th!)