Morning News Brief
Written by Tom Tharp on August 24, 2022
The primary results are in and the battle over who will run for New York’s contested new 24th district has been decided. Republican Claudia Tenney will be running against Democrat Steve Holden in November. Tenney beat out Fratto by roughly 3000 votes and Philips by 13000 votes. Democrat Brian Higgins won the primary for the 26th district in Erie County and will go up against Republican Steve Sams in November. Ed Rath won in the 61st Senate district.
November is going to be a referendum on New York’s controversial bail reform legislation in the contest between Governor Kathy Hochul and hopeful Lee Zeldin. In Niagara Falls the murder of a 16 year old girl has brought the reform legislation back into the spotlight. One of the suspects in her murder was granted bail of 50,000 dollars and that isn’t sitting well with Emily Keiper’s family. District Attorney John Flynn says bail reform is a big problem and lawmakers who support it aren’t looking at the full picture. He explains, “all they care about is whether or not the individuals who get out on bail….whether or not they are committing more crimes and they are totally hanging their hat on those numbers.” Buffalo Police commissioner Joseph Gramaglia says there needs to be changes to bail reform. He says criminals are “benefiting off of what bail reform was designed to fix without the thought of people that are going to continue to commit crimes.” Hochul continues to support the bail laws but says she is open to revisions. Zeldin says the law should be repealed immediately and Judges should be allowed to make the decision.
A vehicle was found partially submerged in Lake Ontario early Tuesday morning, according to the Carlton Fire Company. The car had driven over an embankment from the Lakeside Beach Park and landed upside down in Lake Ontario. A single occupant was found inside the vehicle by responding units. The occupant was quickly extricated from the car and transported to the hospital with only minor injuries.
The site of the old Batavia Iron and Metal building next to Dwyer Stadium has sat idle for over a decade and was declared a NY Superfund site due to over 50,000 tons of PCB impacted soil. The DEC has been trying to get companies to come clean it up and has received 4 bids and anticipates work to start in the spring. It will cost between 15 and 20 million dollars for the site to be cleaned of contaminated soil, debris and materials. The contamination comes from open dumpsters that were used to burn off insulation from wiring, electrical transformers, smelting furnaces, and other waste and runoff from the recycling and metal reclamation work for over 50 years.
With the start of a new school year right around the corner, Catholic Charities is hosting a Socks and Undergarment Drive to benefit school age kids and teenagers in grades Pre-K through 12th in need throughout Genesee, Orleans and Wyoming counties. Donations of new, unopened packages of socks and underwear are being accepted now through Sept. 11 in Genesee County at: Ascension Church, Immaculate Conception in East Bethany; Maurice’s on Lewiston Rd in Batavia, Old Navy in Batavia; and Resurrection Church on Main St in Batavia.
In case you didn’t know it was there, St James Episcopal Church wants you to be blessed by their thrift shop. Opened in 2000 the small store has several rooms full of donated goods for sale for low prices. The shop is run by volunteers and is open from 11am to 2pm on Thursdays. They accept non electronic donations and profits are used for ministries like the blessing box on Main street that provides food and care items to people. There will be some special sales in September. On Thursday, September 1st all items in the Christmas room are half price, then on Thursday, September 15th everything in the shop will be half price.
