Morning News Brief
Written by Tom Tharp on February 23, 2023
Police said three teenagers were shot, including one fatally, at three different locations in the city just over an hour apart Thursday afternoon. Officers found a 17-year-old boy with gunshot wounds on St. James Street around 1:30. Police said he has non-life-threatening injuries. One male is in custody and police recovered a loaded handgun. Police responded to Alphonse Street around 2:30 and found a teenage male shot at least once. He died at the scene. Police are investigating what led to the shooting and working to identify the victim. The third shooting happened around 2:40 on Remington Street. Police said a teenage male was shot at least once and taken to Strong Memorial Hospital with life-threatening injuries. The shooting remains under investigation. Police said it’s unclear whether the three shootings are related.
Many western New Yorkers remain in the dark after snow and ice kept falling through the night. National Grid reports at least 6 hundred homes in Genesee County and almost 1300 in Wyoming County were without power. In Erie County NYSEG reports roughly 13,000 homes without power. National Grid put warmers and tarps on their power substations after the Christmas weekend blizzard. Both companies have crews pulled in from the rest of the state and other states to restore power to their customers. National Grid customers can report an outage at 1-800-867-5222.
Long Island Congressman George Santos is taking fire again and this time it isn’t for allegedly lying about his history. He has cosponsored a bill labeled HR 1095, or the AR 15 bill. This bill would name the AR 15 semiautomatic rifle, specifically with a .223 or 5.56x45mm round, as the official National Gun of the United States. It is co sponsored by fellow Republicans Andrew Clyde of Georgia and Lauren Boebert of Colorado. Governor Hochul called it “outrageous and appalling.” She called the AR 15 a “weapon of war” and said the US “should never “glorify the weapons that have been part of horrific tragedies.”
Niagara Falls will be joining 12 other New York landmarks that will be lit yellow and blue in recognition of the 1 year anniversary of the beginning of the war between Ukraine and Russia. An estimated 75,000 people have come to the U.S. from Ukraine since Russians launched their attack, including approximately 14,000 in New York through the federal government’s Uniting for Ukraine program. Approximately 28,000 New York residents, more than any other state, have volunteered to sponsor an individual. Gov. Kathy Hochul also directed the Ukrainian flag to be flown over the New York State Capitol building in solidarity with the people of Ukraine.
Assemblyman Steve Hawley is deeply disappointed by Department of Labor Commissioner Roberta Reardon’s decision to move forward with the previously-proposed reduction in the farm worker overtime threshold. The measure, which has been hotly debated for a number of years, was approved by the Department of Labor this Wednesday. Hawley is concerned about what this will mean for the future of New York farmers. He says that the burden of this mandate will cause many small family farms to fail.
Prime Minister of Canada Justin Trudeau is calling on Biden to get a handle on Illegal Immigration, from the US to Canada. The province of Quebec is seeing a massive increase in people from Central and South America who are making their way through the US and seeking asylum in the great white north. They are crossing mostly on Roxham Road north of Perry Mills of Highway 87 because it is not an official land port of entry into Canada. Quebec is by far the part of Canada seeing the highest number of immigrants with nearly 5000 people entering the province. The next closest is British Columbia with roughly 80.
