Morning New Briefs
Written by Tom Tharp on January 6, 2022
Most schools are closed all day Thursday due to the snow. Here is a list of the ones closed: Alexander central Schools, Attica Central School, Batavia City Schools closed with no remote instruction, Byron Bergen Central Schools, Elba Central Schools, GCC is remote only, Genesee Valley BOCES Batavia Campus, Leroy Central Schools, Notre Dame High, Oakfield Alabama Central Schools, Pembroke Central Schools, St Josephs School, St Paul Lutheran School was already off for the week. Also St James Thrift Shop is closed and so is the Richmond Memorial Library.
3000 dollars. That’s how much Governor Hochul says she is offering every healthcare worker in New York if they will remain in their positions for one year. She announced that there is 10 billion dollars set aside, 2 Billion for supporting healthcare wages, 2 billion for retention bonuses, 500 million for Cost of Living Adjustments, and 2 Billion healthcare capital infrastructure and lab improvements. The rest is investments in workforce and healthcare access. The money for staying at the job for a year will be prorated for workers who work less hours.
Orleans County is distributing free at home COVID 19 testing kits to residents. Each county office building and Town hall will have a limited supply to give out starting today during normal business hours. A maximum of 2 kits will be given per family till supplies run out.
Governor Hochul proposed that Alcohol to Go where restaurants and bars are able to sell alcoholic beverages in to go containers should become permanent in the State of the State address she gave Wednesday. The program ended in July of 2020 and both patrons and owners asked for it to be reinstated. Hochul said that “To-go drinks were a critical revenue stream for New York’s bars and restaurants during the pandemic, helping many small businesses across the state pay their rents or mortgages.”
It has long been a joke that the Buffalo Bills are the only New York football team since the Jets and Giants home field in New Jersey. But now there is a class action lawsuit against both teams in the Southern District Court of New York alleging that calling the teams “New York” teams while they play at Metlife Stadium harms New Yorkers by “siphoning off billions of dollars in interstate commerce that should rightfully be spent in New York State.” The lawsuit demands that the teams either change their names to reflect their East Rutherford play location or move to New York State by 2025. It also seeks monetary damages of 2 to 6 billion dollars.
A judge in Buffalo has lifted the stay on demolition of the Great Northern Grain elevator on the Buffalo waterfront. Allowing demolition to begin. The grain elevator was damaged during the wind storm on December 11th and Arthur Daniel Midland, which owns the elevator, asked for permission to demolish the 120 year old structure. Preservation groups sued to halt the demolition.
