Morning News Brief
Written by Michael Baldwin on July 14, 2021
Rochester Regional Health is expanding its partnership with Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine (LECOM), the nation’s largest medical school. Rochester Regional Health will become the medical school’s largest clinical campus. This partnership will enable Rochester Regional to dramatically increase clinical rotations and feature locations in addition to United Memorial Medical Center in Batavia where its program began. Now, as part of this 10-year agreement between Rochester Regional Health and Lake Erie, approximately 100 third- and fourth-year students will be on clinical rotation across the health system each month.
The Genesee County Youth Court is recruiting new members. Youth Court is a voluntary alternative for young people who face disciplinary action through school or law enforcement. Youth who are referred admit to the charge and appear before a court of their peers. Three youth judges listen to both sides of the issue and determine an appropriate disposition. The goal of youth court is to improve youth citizenship skills and decrease problematic behavior. Genesee County eighth to 11th graders who are interested can go online to download an application from the county website, where you will find a link on the Youth Bureau page. Applications are due by Aug. 2nd. Interviews of potential candidates will take place in August and September with the training to begin in October.
More disturbing news on the COVID front in New York; The statewide 7-Day positivity rate has increased again…it’s now at 0.93%. Hospitalizations and those admitted to the ICU have also increased as well. In the Finger Lakes Region, the positivity rate has wobbling between .79 and .80%.
After discovering a loaded gun in a chicken coop on Route 237 in Stafford, sheriff’s deputies arrested 29-year-old Clyde Hoskins of Buffalo. He was charged criminal possession of a loaded firearm, criminal possession of stolen property and tampering with physical evidence. He was arraigned in Stafford Town Court and released under supervision. He returns to court next month.
A New York State DEC Forest Ranger and expert wildland firefighter has been deployed to assist with efforts to contain the Bootleg Fire in Oregon. Nearly every year, New York State deploys its highly trained wildland firefighters to help battle fires in western states. This is DEC’s first wildland firefighting deployment after 2020’s busy fire season. In 1979, New York sent its first firefighting crew to assist western states with large wildfires. On average, one or two crews have been sent as needed to assist with wildfires every year since. In 2020, DEC Forest Rangers led four 10-person wildland firefighting crews to western states to aid in the national wildfire suppression effort. Each crew consisted of a Forest Ranger crew boss, four additional Forest Rangers, and five volunteer DEC employees with wildland firefighter training.
Gov. Cuomo announced that all New Yorkers enrolled in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program will receive the maximum allowable level of food benefits for July. The agency is also working with the federal government to ensure this aid, which has brought in more than $2.5 billion in food assistance to New Yorkers since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic last year, will continue beyond July. Nearly 1.6 million households in New York State will receive the supplemental benefits later this month, which will result in the state receiving roughly $200 million in federal assistance.
New Yorkers now have increased protections against spam text messages. Governor Andrew Cuomo signed legislation expanding the state’s definition of telemarketing to include marketing by text message. Previously, under state, telemarketing only included phone calls, so text messages were exempt from existing protections.
