Weekend News Brief
Written by Tom Tharp on January 27, 2024
New York State has agreed to implement several reforms as part of a settlement with the US Department of Justice over Andrew Cuomo’s sexual harassment of women while he was in office as Governor. The Justice Department investigation found a pattern of sexual misconduct by Cuomo and said he subjected at least 13 state employees to a sexually hostile work environment. It said Cuomo’s staffers failed to adequately report allegations and retaliated against four women who raised complaints. In a statement, Kathy Hochul said she looks forward to continuing to reform the state’s procedures for addressing and preventing sexual harassment and retaliation. Cuomo’s attorneys deny any harassment and say the investigation is purely political. Cuomo is currently suing Attorney General Letitia James for her records of the interviews she did during the investigation.
Stinky situation in Rochester. Roughly 120,000 gallons of sewage was dumped into the Genesee River Friday, according to the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation. The discharge reportedly happened along East River Road in Henrietta. A “New York Sewage Pollution Right to Know” alert says the sewer system reached its capacity due to rainfall following heavy snow melt. The DEC said the sewage was “partially treated” with a lime disinfectant.
On Friday, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand announced new legislation that would encourage grocery stores to build in underserved communities. The Healthy Food Financing Initiative Reauthorization Act bill would provide $50 million in federal funding to grocery stores to build in areas like the East Side of Buffalo. Organizations like Community Action say that the struggle with food insecurity is real. The organization has been giving away food all week to neighbors in need — food they would not receive otherwise. On Friday, they ran out of food within 27 minutes of opening.
The community came together to help one food pantry here in Batavia. The Salvation Army food pantry ran out of shelf stable foods on Wednesday. Knowing that more people needed food they decided to post pictures of their empty shelves on Facebook and challenge people to give 10 dollars each, hoping for 500 dollars to buy more food. They raised 2,300. The Salvation Army was able to fill 10 shopping carts with food and a good Samaritan offered to let them use his truck to transport and unload at the pantry. Before the Pandemic, they were seeing 15-25 families a month. Now they are seeing 25-35 families every day that need food.
