Morning News Brief
Written by Tom Tharp on December 21, 2022
The weather won’t stop Santa, but it might stop you. A winter Storm Watch has been issued for Genesee, Orleans and Wyoming counties from Friday at 7am to Monday at 7am. The national weather service is saying that a rapid switch from rain to snow with sharply falling temperatures into the teens and single digits will result in a flash freeze on Friday. From Friday afternoon through most of the weekend, very strong winds, heavy lake effect snow and significant blowing and drifting snow will be possible. Winds could gust as high as 65 mph Friday into Friday night. Localized blizzard conditions are possible. Winds this strong could cause tree damage and power outages. Cold wind chills as low as 10 to 20 below zero this weekend could cause frostbite on exposed skin in as little as 30 minutes. Travel could be difficult to impossible.
With a need for children’s pain-relief medicine in such high demand, pharmacies like CVS and Walgreens are now limiting drug purchases. “High demand is causing pharmacies to add restrictions to children’s pain-relief sales,” said Dr. Rachel Kaufman, Pediatrician & Partner at Buffalo Pediatric Associates. CVS has restricted both in-person and online shopping to two products per check out. Walgreens has no in-person limitations but will only allow up to six over-the-counter fever reducers for every online transaction.
Buffalo, New York, is suing all major gun manufacturers, distributors and some gun shops. Mayor Byron Brown announced on Tuesday what he called a “first of its kind” lawsuit. The filing names manufacturers, distributors and local gun shops for what the city says is “their conduct in fueling the gun violence crisis in the City of Buffalo.” Not to be outdone, The City of Rochester launched their own lawsuit on Tuesday. Defendants in the case include Beretta, Smith & Wesson, Glock, Remington and Bushmaster, along with ghost gun companies including Polymer 80 and Arm or Ally. The suit aims to hold them responsible for “the illegal and unreasonable sale, manufacture, distribution, importing, and marketing of firearms.” Both cities cited the lawsuits against Opioid manufacturers as reasons they hope for success in this lawsuit.
A fire in Pavilion had Bethany, LeRoy, Stafford and Batavia’s FAST Team come to the scene. The structure fire, at 915 Perry Rd, took little time for the 4 fire departments to knock down. The Pavilion chief canceled the second alarm at around 6:15 and told dispatchers that all units could stand down.
Nearly 140-thousand Chevrolet Bolt electric cars are being recalled in the U.S. and Canada. General Motors says the 2017 to 2023 model years Chevy Bolt hatchbacks have a seat belt issue that can cause a fire. GM says in rare cases, the fire can be started by exhaust gasses that can come in contact with carpet fibers.
Does your daughter want to play football? At Monday’s School Board Meeting Batavia’s director of Health, Physical Education and athletics Mike Bromley stood with 6 girls who want to play flag football for Batavia City Schools. He said there were at least 10 who had asked if they could add it to the school sports offering. Bromley also stated that adding the girls sport would make an equal number of boys and girls teams available and that 22 other districts were considering adding girls flag football to their lineup. The matter will be up for a vote in January.
On Dec. 13, eight Byron-Bergen staff “elves” loaded shopping carts with one goal: Help ease the holiday stress for members of the Byron-Bergen community. These holiday helpers filled over 40 shopping carts with merchandise to assist more than 100 kids from 42 local families in need. This year’s Holiday Community Service Project collected over $8,500 in donations from faculty, staff, and individual community members. The holiday items were each wrapped and labeled by Byron-Bergen staff volunteers. On Saturday, December 17th, staff members delivered black contractor bags filled with brightly wrapped presents to individual cars in the High School bus loop. In addition to the gift items, the High School Student Council collected funds and non-perishable foods so that each family will also receive a holiday meal.
