Morning News Brief

Evergreen Health and the Pride Center of Western NY have sent a letter to Kathy Hochul that they will refuse to participate in the Annual Buffalo Pride Festival and Parade.  This comes at the same time that Trillium Health and Rochester Regional Health held a rally Tuesday to protest the ending of 304b in the next New York State Budget.  If the COVID-era program is eliminated as part of the state budget, Trillium Health could lose $5 million in funding and Rochester Regional Health estimates a loss of more than $30 million.  This comes after Evergreen Health announced that they would file a lawsuit against the state in hopes that it would provide a temporary block on the new budget.  They say that the 304b part of the budget aids the LGBT and the most vulnerable people in New York State.

The night that Rochester Police reported 5 smash and grabs where thieves used cars to ram businesses and then rushed in and stole from them a woman saw her car on the news.  Brandy Jones said she saw her car, a blue Hyundai with a distinctive bumper sticker, backed into ROC 7.  Jones had just purchased the Hyundai in December for $10,000, to use for her job with DoorDash.  Her insurance would not cover the damage left behind by the thieves, including the smashed out windows and broken door handles.  As of March 28, there have been 888 reports of stolen vehicles in Rochester since the start of the year, according to data from the Rochester Police Department. That compares to a total of 1,135 cars stolen throughout all of 2022.

City Councilwoman Patti Pacino, second ward representative in Batavia, announced Monday night that she was stepping down from her position due to health related issues.  She has been on the City Council for 13 years.  Pacino explained that, in addition to her medical condition the last several months — a bilateral ear infection that resulted in a December brain surgery and difficulty with walking and hearing.  Her family has been helping to transport her to and from places, and she made the decision that it’s too much to continue.  Councilman Richard Richmond, chair of the City Republican Committee, said that the committee had already chosen David Twichell to run for the Second Ward seat when Pacino had indicated that she wasn’t going to run for re-election in November. So the plan is to temporarily fill her seat with Twichell until he runs for the next term.

Brandon Lewis, Owner of the Firing Pin in Bergen, says that they are going to rebuild after the fire that took down the range and most of the shop on Friday.  The fire was spotted just before 5 p.m. on Friday. A customer noticed some smoke coming from a backstop in the firing range and alerted an employee.  Some employees tried attacking the hot spot with fire extinguishers but quickly realized the effort was futile, so they dialed 9-1-1 and evacuated the building.  Once the rubber in the range got going, Lewis said, it was an extremely difficult fire to put out.  Firefighters battled until about 9 p.m.  Lewis already has a tentative meeting set up with the town’s planning board.  He’s also working on trucking a portable firing range up from North Carolina so he can provide range service for his customers during the rebuild.  He had been planning an expansion anyway, acquiring a couple of neighboring acres and including a possible indoor/outdoor firing range.  There’s also the annual freedom festival in June. That, he said, will go on as planned even if it means setting up 20 tents.

Interested in finding a new read?  Then come out to the Richmond Memorial library on Wednesdays in April to hear reviews of non fiction and a couple of fiction offerings at the 42nd annual Spring Series of Books Sandwiched In.  Books being reviewed include The Last Slave Ship, The True Story of How Clotilda Was Found, Her Descendants and an Extraordinary Reckoning by Ben Raines, “Louise Blanchard Bethune: Every Woman Her Own Architect” by Kelly Hayes McAlonie, and “The Librarian Spy” by Madeline Martin and many more.  

The Second Circuit Court decided Tuesday that social equity entrepreneurs are now allowed to open safe, regulated cannabis dispensaries in Western New York.  The decision also applies to other regions across the state, including Central New York, the mid-Hudson region, and Brooklyn.  Previously, these areas were barred from receiving any cannabis licenses.  Governor Hochul said that she was pleased with the court’s decision and that “now New Yorkers in every region of the state will have access to safe, high quality adult-use cannabis products.”